Chapter 634 — The Heavenly Lord's World-Transmitting King Sutra
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
They came to the temple of the Indra Heaven Realm, which was the palace of King Buddha Sakra. The Indra Heaven Realm also held no small number of Buddha-realms that revered and made offerings to this Buddha Patriarch, and many monks and nuns walked within the temple; seeing them arrive, they came forward to pay their respects. King Buddha Sakra waved his hand and dismissed them, then fixed his piercing eyes on Shen Mu, awaiting his reply.
He was plainly a lone man, having taken no disciples; the monks and nuns who resided here were likely the crown princes or princesses of those Buddha-realms, come to study the Buddhist dharma.
Though King Buddha Sakra did impart the dharma to them, it was often only when the whim took him that he would begin to lecture. Yet although these princes and princesses were not his disciples, their cultivation and strength were by no means weak, no weaker than those Buddha-sons who had died at Shen Mu's hands; this was likely because King Buddha Sakra's attainments were simply too high — even what he taught on a passing whim was an exceedingly sublime dharma-gate.
Shen Mu pondered for a moment, then said, "I can open the Gate of Heaven-Bearing and send you into Youdu.
With the King Buddha's strength, you should be able to pass through the Gate of Heaven-Bearing in the flesh without having your primal spirit taken from you. However. .
. " He hesitated, then continued, "However, I previously killed many Buddha-sons, and afterward my other self was unsealed.
I think it may be that my other self is lurking behind the gate, preparing to devour people. Can the King Buddha defeat my other self?
" King Buddha Sakra blinked, recalling the Great Brahma Heaven Realm defiled into utter foulness, and after pondering carefully for a moment, clapped his hands and laughed. "I understand now. When Tubo sealed your other self, he cut away a piece of Youdu and trapped him within it. And your other self also possesses great dharma-power; he tampered with your divine ability so that what the Gate of Heaven-Bearing connects to is not Youdu, but the place where Tubo suppressed him. In this way, the primal spirits of those divine-ability wielders you killed would be intercepted and devoured by him. If I were to enter Youdu through the Gate of Heaven-Bearing, I would inevitably appear in that patch of land where he is suppressed, not in Youdu.
" Deep within Shen Mu's third eye floated a continent — one refined by Tubo from a piece of land cut from his own nine-bend horn. If one looked down upon this continent from on high, one could see that it was shaped like a jade pendant, and moreover that the lay of its mountains and ridges formed precisely the character "Shen. " A gigantic infant was trapped at the center of the character "Shen," unable to escape, while above it a great Buddha loomed faintly, suppressing it there.
The giant infant sat on the ground, its arms and legs stubby, and faintly hearing King Buddha Sakra's words, it could not help but fly into a rage, babbling, "Bad man, great big bad man, I'll tear off your head and eat you, you great big bad man—" "So that's how it is!
" Shen Mu saw the light in a flash, blurting out, "No wonder every time I killed a Buddha-son, I felt my vital essence and cultivation deepen by a measure — it was my other self seizing the chance to devour the Buddha-sons' primal spirits and break the seal! The vital essence I gained must be the vital essence he leaked out!
" When he had slain several hundred Buddha-sons of the Buddha Realm with his sword, he had already sensed something amiss; at that time his vital essence had been at its peak at every moment, not only unconsumed but even considerably augmented.