Chapter 797: Chapter 521: I Am the Ancestor of the Great Dream
The demon mist dissipated.
The golden light poured down like a flowing stream, painting the snow-white cliffs in a brilliant golden hue, sacred and solemn.
Above the clouds, Buddha’s light clustered thickly around the Faceless Monk.
The radiance was blinding, impossible to look at directly.
Heaven and earth were silent.
All the monks of Sajia Temple seemed lost in a dream.
After a while, someone awoke in astonishment.
"Spiritual Circular Light—this is a True Buddha."
"I never thought the Mortal World could hide a True Buddha."
"We should have known: if not a True Buddha, how could he have wandered the world for thirty years, slaying millions of demons and monsters?"
"Immeasurable merit."
"With a True Buddha descending to the mortal dust, salvation has come to us."
The middle-aged monk in white robes pressed his palms together.
"Amitabha Buddha. I have eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai. Fellow Daoist, you are unexpectedly an inheritor of the Blue Mountain Buddha. I wonder, how many years did you cultivate in the Blue Mountain Buddha Country, and under which True Buddha did you study?"
The Sajia Patriarch transmitted his voice.
Lu Chenzhou was slightly taken aback.
But in the next moment, he understood.
He replied in return:
"Did the Heart Sect of this realm originate from the Ancient Emperor Lanshan?"
The Sajia Patriarch pondered, then nodded slightly.
"Fellow Daoist, may I have a word in private?"
"There is still a Demon Emperor in the Divine Weapon Pavilion, yes?"
"Indeed."
"Let me go to the Divine Weapon Pavilion first."
"I will go with you, fellow Daoist."
Two figures pierced through the void and left.
The monks were left wistful.
"With one palm he destroyed the Demon Emperor; the strength of the Faceless Monk seems to surpass even our Sajia Patriarch."
Xuan Kong was smug in his heart.
More than just surpass—he is far beyond.
...
Divine Weapon Pavilion.
The furnace blazed, metals melted.
Clang! A burly man dressed in Mystic Armor and holding a bronze hammer was forging iron. All of a sudden, he stopped his movements.
"The Sajia Patriarch has reached the Sixth Realm?"
"But who is this other person?"
His expression grew grave, his mind raced in thought.
"Pavilion Master Li, come out for a word."
The Sajia Patriarch’s voice rang out.
...
Teahouse.
Pavilion Master Li slapped the table, his face darkening.
"What? You want me to release the Hundred-Eyed Emperor? The Hundred-Eyed Emperor is not the Blood Teeth Emperor. Its innate skill, [Hundred-Eyed Illusion Realm], once dragged everyone in a small world into dream illusions. Even if you’re both Sixth Realm, if something goes wrong..."
The Sajia Patriarch smiled, "Faceless Daoist is the inheritor of a Great Power. His cultivation is incomparable to ordinary Sixth Realms. Even the Blood Teeth Emperor could not withstand a single move in his hands."
Pavilion Master Li fell into contemplation.
He hesitated.
"Alright. But if you two fail, you will have to cooperate with our Divine Weapon Pavilion to reseal this demon."
He brought the two of them to the back mountain of the Divine Weapon Pavilion.
Here stood a pitch-black Ancient Sword, embedded in the ground.
After years of disturbance, sinister demon energy lingered around it.
He muttered a secret spell and drew forth the Ancient Sword.
A colossal monster, ball-shaped, pitted and rugged, with over a hundred pupils on its body and measuring a thousand meters in size, sprang from the earth.
"Jieh jieh jieh..."
The monstrous being grinned hideously, breathing in the air of the mortal world.
"Sink into an illusion!"
Strange lights shot forth from its hundred eyes.
In the next instant, a giant hand descended.
The Hundred-Eyed Emperor’s expression changed; he cried out in fear.
"Prisoner Demon Hand?"
Lu Chenzhou’s heart stirred. Looks like this move of the Ancient Emperor Lanshan is quite famous among the demons and monsters. But indeed, its power is impressive: for a Demon Emperor in the same Realm, a single palm spells doom.
The Hundred-Eyed Emperor died.
[Great Wilderness Prison Demon Curse: Proficient (1%) → Proficient (2%)]
[Great Void Unlimited Spell: Beginner (2%) → Beginner (3%)]
"Even at Proficient level, the Prisoner Demon Curse has this kind of power. After a Small Success, killing a Demon Venerable with a slap will be no problem. Now that I’m Sixth Realm, I can begin cultivating the Great Void Unlimited Spell as well."
Lu Chenzhou thought to himself.
On the other side.
The Sajia Patriarch glanced at the dumbfounded Pavilion Master.
"There are heavens beyond heavens. We glimpsed a fraction of it during the previous Water Mansion trial." The Pavilion Master’s face was full of emotion.
"It’s just that we’ve gotten too used to the status quo, only wanting to guard our bit of land, reluctant to explore."
The Sajia Patriarch sighed.
While the two conversed,
The Faceless Monk was cloaked in a layer of radiant light, the aura around his body visibly climbing ever higher.
"Wha—what is happening?"
The Sajia Patriarch’s eyes shone with amazement.
The Divine Weapon Pavilion Master also looked on in confusion.
The Faceless Monk—he’s gotten stronger again?
Is it enlightenment?
Is it enlightenment unto Buddhahood?
Is it due to the accumulation of merit?
They did not understand, and were greatly shaken.
Lu Chenzhou gazed into his mind.
[Three Worlds and Ten Directions Venerable Sutra:
Sixteenth Layer (1%)]
His spiritual power soared once more, reaching 140,000 Prajna, once again slightly surpassing his qi-blood cultivation.
His spiritual cultivation was now approaching the Middle Realm.
He murmured to himself, "Power gained through my own cultivation, after all, need not be worried about imbalance...
However, this time during the Heart Sutra tribulation, no calamity occurred—probably due to my Immaculate Heart Scripture. With an Immaculate Heart, inner demons have never had a chance to intrude, and the Seven Emotions and Six Desires are all under my control, so naturally there are no Heart Refining Tribulation hardships."
This breakthrough gave him many insights.
"The true nature of the Heart Sutra is to use mighty spiritual power to condense a ’self-other’ embodiment, to undergo tribulations in the myriad realms. In the end, self and other unite into one—unity in multiplicity.
The self-other embodiment can absorb the spiritual essence from the bodies of demons and monsters, feeding it back to the true self. Whatever martial arts secret techniques the self-other embodiment cultivates can also be entirely fed back to the true self. The sole limitation is in the cultivation of the physical body, since the self-other embodiment is a spiritual body—a projection condensed from my own will, the carrier of my intention."
Gradually, Lu Chenzhou seemed to comprehend something.
Heart to Wisdom.
He began to apply his own ideas to transform the [Tribulation Heart Scripture] he inherited from the Divine Monk Kongwen. Now as a Sixth Realm cultivator, his vision was vastly different; he had this capability.
"Back then, even Hui Kong Abbot of Shaolin Temple at the Absolute Peak did not cultivate the Heart Sutra. Standing at the Absolute Peak, one must have the spirit to open up one’s own path, not be confined by ancient methods. The cultivators of the Kun Gu Realm and Hanhai Realm lack creativity; sooner or later, they will be swept away by the new era."
He sat cross-legged in the void.
The Sajia Patriarch and Divine Weapon Pavilion Master exchanged glances in wonder.
Especially Sajia. He had once chanced upon an Ancient Cultivation Cave Mansion and inherited a line of Heart Cultivation from the True Buddha [Great Light King of the Snow Mountain] under the Blue Mountain Buddha. Having seen much, he understood: Lu Chenzhou had attained great realization.
Time flowed by.
Gradually,
Golden Buddha light emerged from all around Lu Chenzhou, illuminating the Ten Directions in every direction. Vaguely, a great Buddha, reclining serenely between green mountains and clear waters, could be seen, head resting in slumber, faintly snoring. Around him, myriad wondrous visions of the Three Thousand Worlds were manifest:
A Sword Knight swallowing and breathing Sword Qi, controlling swords across the universe.
A monk sitting in meditation in an Ancient Temple, chanting Buddha Sutras.
An Emperor riding in full regalia, campaigning across the Central Plains.
With a single thought, the Buddha incarnated into the Three Thousand Realms.
Enduring countless tribulations, he attained the World Venerable Method.
The Sajia Patriarch’s eyes filled with even greater shock.
"This... This is self-creation of a Supreme Technique."
The Divine Weapon Pavilion Master felt awed without knowing why, only that it was astonishing.
He, too, had created a Fifth Realm technique before, giving rise to many phenomena, but compared to this, he was like an ant gazing up at the sky.
"Who, truly, is this divine being?"
He recalled the thirty years since the Faceless Monk’s emergence.
But realized it was all veiled in mystery.
No insight could penetrate it!
In the distance, Xuan Kong was also somewhat startled.
He also found it odd: all who cultivated the Heart Sutra retained their facial features, but from beginning to end, Lu Chenzhou always appeared as the Faceless form.
The visions faded away.
The Reclining Buddha rose, merged as one with the Faceless Monk, and in an instant, the aura around the Faceless Monk began to climb once more.
Until it surpassed the Sixth Realm Middle Stage.
His vast spiritual power surged like a tidal wave.
Lu Chenzhou emerged from his meditative state.
"My spiritual cultivation has reached the Sixth Realm Middle Stage... Could it be that, compared to Martial Arts, Heart Cultivation is truly my talent’s domain?"
Even he was a little shocked at himself.
It had only been a little over two years since he entered the Spirit King.
Spiritual World.
The World Tree had also transformed.
Looking out, each leaf bore a floating bubble, some colored in rainbow hues, some shrouded in black mist; within each bubble, mountains and rivers and suns and moons could be seen.
Moreover,
When he reached out and touched a blue-hued bubble with his fingertip, a stream of information flooded his mind.
[Minor Cang Realm (Lower-class World)...]
"So that’s how it is. By taking the World Dao as a medium, newly created Cultivation Techniques now allow the self-other embodiment to freely descend into the Three Thousand Worlds, disregarding time and space!"
The prior Heart Sutra was completely random.
He searched the Po Suo green leaves with his gaze.
Soon, he found a deep blue world—quite unusual. Within, an endless cosmos could be seen, speckled with stars and a brilliant galaxy, with a massive planet set among the fixed stars.
"Can my self-other embodiment descend upon the Xia Realm? Doesn’t that mean I could transport resources from other worlds to the Xia Realm? No—my self-other embodiment is a spiritual manifestation; it can’t bring material objects from one reality to another, unless one can transform illusion into reality. Such an ability could only be achieved by a Great Power, and surely would consume massive energy. Nothing can be born from nothing; all things are constant transformation.
Just like the Phoenix Projection and Divine Projection descends, it requires consuming huge energy resources as tribute."
Lu Chenzhou sighed.
"But even so, this new cultivation technique is still highly useful. I can have my self-other embodiment hide useful resources in a new world, then my true self can go retrieve them when I have time."
Anyway, with the Aurora Palace, as long as he’s not being hunted by Demon Saints, Lu Chenzhou can travel across the Three Thousand Worlds at will.
He continued looking.
[Gale Realm (Great World)]
[Red Feather World (Great World)]
...
[Kun Gu Realm (High Class World)]
[Hanhai Realm (Lower-class World)]
World levels are unrelated to their spatial vastness, and depend only upon the highest level of power ever born within them.
Leaving the Spiritual Starry Sky.
The Martial Arts Tree had already soared to 360,000 zhang in height.
"This transformation of the World Tree is not only due to my new cultivation method, but the help of the Martial Arts Tree as well."
Lu Chenzhou understood clearly in his heart.
[Please name the new cultivation technique.]
"Lantuo Heart Sutra."
[Lantuo Heart Sutra: Sixteenth Layer (1%)]
"Because of my current cultivation stage and martial arts attainment, the Lantuo Heart Sutra is still a Supreme Divine Skill.
But it already has the potential to evolve into a Supreme, even Great Power Skill. It is the most suitable heart cultivation method for me."
[Your Illusion Realm Dao has evolved into Great Dream Dao]
[Great Dream Dao: Fourth Rank]
[Dao-finder: Heart Emperor (Fallen)]
"Great Dream... So this is the Dao of the Heart Emperor? I didn’t expect to grasp it by accident.
I remember the Sword Spirit once said—the Heart Emperor created the supreme heart cultivation method known as the ’Great Dream Heart Sutra.’"
Great Dream Dao, the upper Dao of Illusion Realm Dao.
Lu Chenzhou opened his eyes, divine light breaking through void, terrifying telekinesis radiated outward like countless points of light, tearing ripples through the void for hundreds of miles, shaking the entire realm.
...
End of Heaven, Sea Corner.
At the edge of the Hanhai World, where the world meets the Void, mirage-like shadows flickered in and out of view.
Atop a sky-piercing Giant Sword,
A middle-aged Swordsman with grizzled hair and beard opened his eyes.