A Cheng asked, "So, the Great Tribulation of the Era has actually already begun?"
Father frowned, "Don't ask me about such things. I don't know."
"How exactly did Mother die?"
"She…" Father, for some reason, suddenly became speechless, as if a stopper had popped out of his lungs and was lodged in his throat. He coughed a few times, as if reopening his airway, "She committed suicide."
A Cheng closed his eyes; he should have guessed it long ago.
We are all the abandoned ones who have broken free from the trajectory of fate.
…
Thousands of miles away, the battle on the sea continued. Orthodox and Heretical Factions, bodies fell into the ocean, floating with the waves.
Master Xin Ji, having suffered ten palm strikes, used her last strength to kill three Heretical Faction Sect Masters before perishing.
Sect Master Wang Daxuan and the Jie Qing Sect Master of the Heretical Faction died together. Hundreds of thousands of orthodox and Heretical Faction Jie Qing Sect disciples roared back and forth, their sword qi crisscrossing like cold stars, clashing in mid-air, like fireworks of farewell.
The Orthodox Faction was filled with lamentation.
Several giant ships towed a wooden raft, thousands of feet long and wide, on which tens of thousands of corpses were piled, forming a massive Jingguan.
How did the Evil Taoist come to Virtuous Path Star?
First, with Bi Li's power, Fushan Luo and a dozen top experts were sent to Virtuous Path Star. These more than ten Sect Master-level experts launched a surprise attack on the Vajra Sect, then massacred the Western Regions, piled up the Jingguan, and performed a heretical ritual to summon a projection of Duanye Evil Buddha, opening a passage between the two stars, bringing more and more experts from Evil Path Star.
Fushan Luo stood on the sea, gently kissing Bi Li's forehead.
"I remember when we first met, I was a child, and you were a child too," Xiao Luo said softly.
Bi Li slowly nodded, her eyes gazing at the boundless sky. The blue sky was like water, the colorful clouds like sand, and the long wind ruffled the ripples in her eyes. The expression on her face was still calm, even though she already sensed a cold aura seeping into all the pores of her body, following the warmth remaining on her forehead.
"I said a lot of things that now seem ridiculous. But I've never forgotten you," Xiao Luo knew Bi Li wasn't looking at him, and he wasn't looking at Bi Li either.
He was just staring at the huge wooden raft in front of him, not at the Jingguan, but focusing on the large blank space at the edge of the raft, vaguely seeing the ambitious young man holding a flat stone and skipping it across the water.
…
Bi Li stood on the grayish-yellow beach.
A Cheng sat on the high cliff edge, looking at her from afar.
She faced the setting sun in the west. At this moment, she was golden, no longer that cool, moonlight-like presence. Her love for a human was inherently wrong.
A Cheng had never understood Bi Li, because he knew that as a non-human, she had no emotions. When her core consciousness was different from humans, yet she displayed human-like behaviors and gestures, with an internal and external disconnect, it showed a chasm between her body and soul.
A Cheng could not see through this chasm.
A Cheng stood up and called out loudly, "Bi Li, it's getting dark, come back!"
Bi Li turned her head. She was so far away, yet seemed so close.
"A Cheng, you should have made a decision sooner."
"What decision?"
"Fate."
"I don't want to."
Father's face suddenly appeared, "What are you thinking about?"
A Cheng came back to his senses, turning his head to the east, where large dark clouds were truly sweeping in.
"Father, if you could save Mother, would you go?"
"Of course I would."
"What if you would die?"
"Of course I would."
"What if you could never see her again?"
"Of course I would."
"Is it worth it?"
"Is it not worth it?"
"I understand."
A Cheng took out the stone tablet and gently crushed it.
…
Fushan Luo gently asked, "Bi Li, you will forgive me, won't you?"
"Yes."
"You don't hate me for killing that man?"
"You didn't kill him."
Xiao Luo's smile slowly faded.
"What do you mean?"
"He will come looking for me." The longing on Bi Li's face was not fake.
The reason for a non-human to act like a human is simple.
Bi Li loved A Cheng. With love, she was no longer that transcendent mountain ghost.
Xiao Luo murmured, "It was I who didn't cherish it; a miss is a miss." He stared at the unconscious curve of Bi Li's lips, feeling a touch of pain.
Then he threw her onto the Jingguan.
Thrown high.
The mountain ghost was like a cloud.
The Jingguan was also a mountain, a mountain of corpses.
The mountain ghost fell into the mountain of corpses, like a spark falling into a pan of oil. In an instant, the surface of the Jingguan ignited in red and yellow flames, and the intense stench of corpses condensed into a poisonous miasma, shooting straight into the sky like wolf smoke.
The blazing sun in the sky was extinguished in an instant.
Half of the sky revealed a majestic mountain peak, it was Mount Sumeru, the Pillar of Heaven.
The other half was starry night.
In the dim light, two stars were constantly expanding, one pitch black and gloomy, the other brilliantly golden.
The Great Tribulation of the Era begins, three stars fall upon Mount Sumeru!
A black tide surged from Evil Path Star, crossing the star river and descending upon Virtuous Path.
In an instant, the sky was completely dark.
Duanye Evil Buddha sat high on the clouds, surrounded by eighteen thousand evil Arhats, thirty-six evil Bodhisattvas, and hundreds of millions of vengeful ghosts, blowing conch shells made of human bones and beating drums made of human skin. The fierce flames burned the sky, and the demonic power was intense.
The Heretics all shouted in unison.
"Duanye Buddha Ancestor! Boundless power! Rule the world! Suppress Lu Yuan!"
"Duanye Buddha Ancestor! Boundless power! Rule the world! Suppress Lu Yuan!"
The lords of the Orthodox Faction laughed loudly at these words.
Do not say the heroes are helpless, sing a song and laugh at the Bodhisattvas.
Ten thousand years of human vicissitudes, dare to challenge the Nine Netherworld and slay Yama!
Just as despair set in, a sudden change occurred.
A golden light shot from the west, piercing through the dark clouds, like a rainbow after rain, then rapidly spread out, completely shattering the illusion of the ghostly realm of demons and monsters. Auspicious clouds filled the sky, and golden lotuses bloomed on the sea, as if a spiritual mountain had manifested.
A young monk with an expressionless face stepped out of the void. First, he was a black speck on the horizon, then instantly he was before their eyes. The closer he came, the larger he grew, until finally he was a divine being ten thousand zhang tall.
The Divine Being manifested.
The Superior Reverends of Vast Wisdom and Bright Light, who universally saves in times of crisis.
His Dharma name was Ben You!
"Today, I shall reopen the Three Paths on behalf of the Bodhisattva."
Ben You gently pointed at the Jingguan on the sea. This mountain of corpses, burning with poisonous fire, crumbled and disintegrated. A faint, ethereal moonlight quietly rose, ascending into the sky and falling into Mount Sumeru.
The mountain ghost had died and must return to its origin to be reborn.
"Those who sacrifice their lives for righteousness may enter the Sacred Path!" Superior Reverends issued a decree.
The heroic spirits of Virtuous Path Star from ten thousand years, and the warriors and common people who are now desperately resisting in various places, their souls rose high, entered Shengdao Star, and sank into its core. Their reward bodies entered indra's net floating in the superior affinity, and they will be able to pass on their will to the next epoch.
"Those who commit evil through hypocrisy shall fall into the Evil Taoist!" The souls of those Virtuous Path Star people who succumbed to external paths also flew up, swallowed whole by the menacing Duanye Evil Buddha.
"Those with righteous hearts shall be reborn into the Virtuous Path!" Duanye Evil Buddha let out a muffled laugh, twirling the human bone prayer beads in his hand a few times, seemingly choosing something. And many unknown common people and warriors in Evil Path Star, who felt their connection with the Demon Ancestor in the netherworld suddenly break, were overjoyed and cheered ecstatically.
Ben You slightly closed his eyes, "The tribulation ends, the next era begins!"
The universe shook violently, and the stars separated.
Duanye Evil Buddha grinned ferociously, "Good lads, time to go home!" He waved his large hand, and countless individuals judged as Heretics flew up like meteors, engulfed by the black tide, heading towards Evil Path Star, which was constantly retreating into the outer world of darkness.
Many good people from Evil Path Star also continuously descended from the sky, landing on Virtuous Path Star.
They watched the sun in the sky slowly regain its light, cheering enthusiastically.
Fushan Luo was swept along in the black tide. He was furious, roaring silently.
"It's all fake! It's a scam! What transcendence, what impartial Heavenly Dao! In the end, it still favors the Virtuous Path! I am unwilling! Unwilling!"
Superior Reverends's body gradually dissipated, and his soul also flew into Shengdao Star, returning to indra's net.
…
Bi Li stood on Mount Sumeru, gazing into the distance.
Beside the sun was a blue planet.
A Cheng.
You will come to pick me up, but I never imagined it would be such a parting of life.
…
A Cheng found that island. Every evening, he would still sit on the cliff; he was the one who watched the sea.
May moonlight always be with you, Bi Li.
…
Father lay among the epiphyllum flowers, looking at the dark purple starry sky.
Beside him was a small tombstone.
Father seemed to have fallen asleep. He was curled up, clutching the tombstone tightly.
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