History's Strongest Senior Brother
chapter-830

HSSB830: The thriving Buddhism

Yan Zhaoge would indeed not let himself go hungry.

To be precise, the medicinal pills he was going to consume numbered more than those of the other three of them combined.

Due to his higher cultivation base, he would be able to better refine the medicinal potency of these pills after having consumed them.

While organising these pills, Yan Zhaoge reached out and pressed down on the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace.

True essence surged within his body, resembling chaos.

His foundation of the Peerless Heavenly Scripture exerted its use at this moment.

The Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace which had been silent in the first place seemed even quieter and more tranquil now.

While it currently looked no different at all on the outside, Yan Zhaoge could indistinctly see threads seemingly connected to the furnace amidst space.

There was now an indistinct clump of clouds around the furnace. While those threads had not been broken and snapped off, the furnace had been effectively concealed.

If someone wanted to find the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace through the Pill Hall, they would be in for some real disappointment.

Yan Zhaoge had not completely broken off the connection between the furnace and the Pill Hall such that he would a clue for locating it in the future.

Retracting his palm, Yan Zhaoge exited the Myriad Dragon Palace, landing atop the head of Pan-Pan.

Pan-Pan carried the Myriad Dragon Palace, flying through the air.

This world was not a desolate one. They had already passed quite a few villages amidst their travels.

Still, in order to better understand the entirety of this world, Yan Zhaoge had decided to look for a bigger human dwelling instead.

Soon, a massive city appeared over the horizon.

Yet, after observing it carefully for a moment, Yan Zhaoge stopped Pan-Pan and did not approach.

Looking at that city, he frowned, not speaking for a long time.

That city was densely populated and bustling, not being some sort of ghost town.

Yet, Yan Zhaoge had to face it with even greater solemnity.

The area above the city was actually enveloped by a faint layer of Buddha light!

A tranquil, natural concept of impermanence naturally emanated from within. Yan Zhaoge could even hear the chanting of Buddhist scriptures which resounded endlessly far away in the distance.

It was not that many people in the city were currently chanting Buddhist scriptures. Instead, this was the manifestation of faith from the believers of Buddha in the city which turned from illusory to real, interfering with the actual world.

“This…” Yan Zhaoge was truly rather astonished, never having thought that the world he had arrived in by chance would actually be a world in which Buddhism flourished.

Before this, Yan Zhaoge had still felt it rather strange why he had never seen the legacies and shrines of Buddhism before.

After all, Buddhism had been flourishing more greatly than Daoism before the Great Calamity came.

Following the Great Calamity, Daoism had fallen greatly while Buddhism had actually disappeared completely without a trace, without even a trace of their scriptures left behind. This was unusual however one looked at it.

Whether it was lower worlds like the Eight Extremities World, the Vast Ocean World and the Floating Gate World or the World beyond Worlds, they all contained many relic sites from pre-Great Calamity times.

A considerable portion of the martial legacies now had been resumed upon the basis of unearthed legacies from the past.

It did not make sense that some from Daoism had survived the Great Calamity whereas Buddhism had been completely wiped out, not a single trace of it being left behind.

Unless the Great Calamity had been targeted against Buddhism in the first place, meant entirely to wipe it out for good.

However, from Yan Zhaoge’s impressions of the Great Calamity, the tribulation had first descended upon the Heavenly Court’s Divine Palace.

That massive hand that descended from the heavens in Yan Zhaoge’s final memories vaguely felt to him to be the work of some major bigwig of Buddhism as well.

He had even once suspected that it was Buddhism who had first attacked, Daoism counterattacking afterwards with both sides suffering catastrophic losses, Daoism falling greatly and Buddhism wiped out for good.

Yet, after having seen this world now, Yan Zhaoge knew that such was definitely not the case.

“It is the art of the Future Buddha…” Yan Zhaoge thought to himself as he gazed at the distant city.

The flourishing Buddha light was a manifestation of the power of faith and offerings of the believers.

The Future Buddha had spread Buddhism throughout the entire world, not focusing on proving the authenticity and carefreeness of one’s original nature as it instead felt like ‘those who believe in me shall attain nirvana; those who believe in me shall enter the blessed lands; those who believe in me shall achieve eternal life’.

To Yan Zhaoge, first not speaking of the extent of those capabilities, this set-up seemed…just a little bit low level?

Still, it was rumoured that devout believers of Buddhism would be bolstered by the power of the Future Buddha, not needing to spend much effort on cultivating to attain incomparable power.

There were even some who were able to attain a Buddhist seat and enjoy the blessed lands of infinite happiness, all their troubles being wiped away as a result.

The Future Buddha did indeed do what he said as if he was really going to save all mankind.

It was not for no reason that there had been far more believers of Buddhism than Daoism amongst normal people before the time of the Great Calamity.

Yan Zhaoge always felt that there was something wrong with this, however. Still, he could not come to any actual conclusions due to his limited understanding of the Buddhist arts.

It was just that since he already had these doubts, Yan Zhaoge was much more cautious when faced with Buddhism once more.

This was especially so with a world where Buddhism flourished having suddenly appeared before him when he had never yet seen any signs of Buddhism at all in post-Great Calamity times. This place that somewhat resembled a blessed land caused Yan Zhaoge to really wonder about it.

After pondering for a moment, Yan Zhaoge did not ask Pan-Pan to enter the city, instead expanding his search radius and scouting the surrounding area.

This was because there was a guess that had suddenly arisen within his mind.

This time, Yan Zhaoge did not pick a place based on its number of people as he selected a place completely at random.

Buddha light was similarly present in this smaller city. While it was much weaker than that in the previous city, it was not because the people here were not devout but simply because there were fewer of them.

Yan Zhaoge got Pan-Pan to shrink and return to the Myriad Dragon Palace which promptly shrunk as well, disappearing in an instant.

After keeping the Myriad Dragon Palace, Yan Zhaoge walked into the city alone.

After observing for a bit, Yan Zhaoge discovered that most of the people here were mere mortals who did not cultivate in martial arts.

However, Buddha light was seemingly concealed within every single one of their bodies.

To ordinary people, everyone looked the same, just perfectly normal.

However, with Yan Zhaoge’s vision, he could see that the interior of their bodies were like Vajra as radiance vaguely emanated from within.

Some were strong and some were weak.

Still, as they did not cultivate in martial arts, the Buddha light was just concealed within their bodies, not containing any power as they merely gave one better physiques with fewer aches and pains at most.

However, if they cultivated in martial arts, Yan Zhaoge estimated that this Buddha light could very quickly be converted into the foundation of Buddhist martial arts.

With this foundation, it would be very easy for them to cultivate in the martial arts of Buddhism.

Prior to the Great Calamity, it had commonly been said that Buddhist cultivators did not need to painstakingly cultivate as no bottlenecks existed for them. They just needed a firm, resilient heart and a heart that was devout towards the Buddha.

“Old man, sorry to disturb you,” Yan Zhaoge smilingly found an ordinary family and went up to greet an old man who just happened to be leaving his house.

Following an earlier attempt, Yan Zhaoge had been rather surprised to find that the spoken language common in this world was virtually exactly the same as that of pre-Great Calamity times.

There were some minute differences here due to the long time that had elapsed since then.

The cultural legacies here seemed never to have been broken due to the Great Calamity.

Still, there seemed to be signs of some things having been manipulated and changed.

For example…

“Old man, I am a passer-by. Just having arrived at this land, I am not familiar with this place. I wonder where the temple in this city is? I would like to pay my respects to the Buddha first.”

Hearing Yan Zhaoge say this, the old man instantly smiled amicably, “You are truly a devout person, young man. Our place here is small. Just walk towards the south of the city and you will soon see it along where the main road is.”

Yan Zhaoge nodded, exchanging a few pleasantries with the old man before inquiring with feigned nonchalance, “Right, old man. Why is it that I saw someone worshipping the Three Purities outside the city?”

“Three Purities?” The old man asked blankly, “What are the Three Purities? You must have seen wrongly, young man. We only worship the Buddha here, not that whatever Three Purities thing? Could they be some sort of strange, sinister force?”

Yan Zhaoge thought, “It is indeed so…”

Just like there were no traces of Buddhism in the World beyond Worlds and the Eight Extremities World, there seemed to be no traces of Daoism at all in this world!