The Sage Who Transcended Samsara
chapter-552

White mists filled one's vision, and one could only see figures walking back and forth.

Suddenly, Duan Rui felt as if he was back in River East where such mists flooded Changchuan as well. Refreshing breaths and rippling water created a special feeling.

A figure walked towards him amidst the mist. Dressed in a crimson dress and a dark robe, she was pretty and elegant, filled with the gentle air of Jiangdong. It was as if she had just landed from a boat or after that she had just come home from collecting lotus. It was an inexhaustible beauty.

"Sister Yuanjing!" Duan Rui was delighted and surprised.

He had a date by the lake with Feng Yuanjing today, but he was worried that she might not come due to the heavy mist and was relieved that she did not break her promise.

He stepped forward to meet her when, suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulder.

Duan Rui turned back angrily, with a murderous gaze in his pitch black pupils. He then saw the handsome face of Wang Siyuan, who pointed around with a solemn look. "Look at them, " he said.

At this moment, Duan Rui realized that he didn't know where he was, and looked around subconsciously. He saw male and flame figures all around. Some were monks while others were Taoists, all with blank gazes in their eyes, and all who walked around as if they were daydreaming. Their exposed skins were rotten till bones could be seen, and their breaths seemed aged and ancient as if they would always walk like this until they were reduced to nothing but ashes.

Such a frightening scene woke Duan Ru immediately. He was not in Changchuan of River East, he was in Devil Soil!

Looking forward once more to where the mist solidified, Feng Yuanjing was nowhere to be seen!

The tortoise script spinning above Wang Siyuan's head showed black and white dots, calculating and transforming into the Ebbing Flash.

An invisible and colorless light fell and encompassed Wang Siyuan; the white-haired and pupilless elder; and the middle-aged man with the oversized robe, moving along with them.

Duan Rui didn't lose his sense this time and realized that it was an illusion. They walked forward and finally went out of the mist, where they saw a string of prayer beads floating at the depth of the mists. They were red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, colorful without any sense of purity.

"Buddha treasure!" Duan Rui's pupils shone with greed,

Duan Rui suddenly coughed loudly, as if unable to withstand the mist. He then said, "We used power from the book of Luo to deceive the array. Don't move anything from the array, or changes that can endanger us will occur."

One must always leave room for escape!

Duan Rui sighed as he followed behind them with a little regret.

…

After climbing the first layer of the mountain, Meng Qi took a short rest and prepared himself for returning midway, before continuing to the second layer via the path.

Red mist should have shrouded the area, but it had mostly dissipated, leaving only traces behind at unventilated places surrounded by rocks.

Wearing boots which matched the Qingyuan Taoist Robes, Meng Qi walked ahead steadily.

He seemed to have seen a rock with the words "so that's why" carved into it, which made him immediately realize and cultivate Fruits of Karma. After coming back to his world, he killed Thunder God with one palm and obtained the Primary Instruction of The Buddha's Palm with aid from Immortal Yunhe and the Immortals. After cultivating for years, he finally understood the palm technique that no one had realized since medieval times.

One palm covers the heavens and the earth. He became the strongest of them all!

As the feeling of happiness and delight filled his heart, Meng Qi frowned instead as he realized that this was extremely similar to the illusions he felt during Mortal Dust Fall. Could there be Little Zi wooing him and Xiaosang flattering him later?

The guesses afterward all didn't appear, which made Meng Qi feel distant from the illusions, unable to immerse himself in them. These illusions were even weaker than those he had experienced last time, and would definitely be unable to deal with his exterior form, which had already completed the Immortal Primogenitor Form.

Unknowingly, Meng Qi had finished climbing the second layer and had noticed a broken glass lamp.

"An object at the array eye is broken again?" Meng Qi was slightly shocked.

However, this mysterious place had existed for many years, and a broken object didn't seem to be abnormal.

He stopped to recall his experiences on the first two layers, and thought secretly, "The second layer used Mortal Dust Fall, could the first layer be Peace Quietude Split?"

"My biggest obsession is that Ananda is still involved together with many ancient powers. To fight poison with poison..."

His thoughts stopped here as he subconsciously stared at the fifth layer, where darkness reigned and only stars passed by from time to time.

"Would that be where the array is an effect by the Fruits of Karma? Would that be my chance?"

He looked forward once more and calmed himself, reminding himself to not be ambitious and to focus on layer three instead.

Black gas filled the third layer, while a firey red lotus blossomed on the fourth layer.

"Array of Attracting External Devil? Array of Accumulating Karma?" Meng Qi frowned slightly and suddenly realized that if he was unable to conquer his inner demons and had allowed them to grow, the arrays in layer one and two would have provided nutrients for growth.

Then, the external devil created by the array would be his real self, and the battle would be a hard one as the devil would be of equivalent power to him, making victory difficult. The more he battled, the more divided he would be, and the more "dead" he will become!

Perhaps that's why step four "Attracting External Devil" is placed in front of step 3 "Accumulating Karma".

After adjusting his breathing and making himself comfortable, Meng Qi stepped into the black gas with both swords in his hands.

…

Duan Rui looked at the lamp ablaze with blue flames that shone as bright as a thousand lamps and turned his head firmly, suppressing the burning rage in his heart.

Suddenly, he found that the rotation of the tortoise script had stopped and that the colorless invisible light had disappeared.

"What happened?" Duan Rui asked. Regardless of the original Duan Rui, or the evil Duan Rui, they all bore a young and immature feeling that laid in contrast with that of the elder and the middle-aged man who all remained silent.

Wang Siyuan's right thumb kept pinching on the knuckles of his middle three fingers as explained calmly, "You can't disguise against the evil spirit ahead."

"Evil spirit? Evil spirits really do exist here?" Duan Rui was full of shock.

Wang Siyuan smiled faintly and continued, "Dharma Bodhisattva Fruit was the first to touch the future Buddha fruit after medieval times, but a powerful demon appeared when he was old and tainted the pure land in the fight with him, and long before the devil was finally destroyed. Where do you think this devil came from?"

Duan Rui suddenly couldn't say a word and could only feel the immense danger from the swirling black gas ahead.

…

With the black gas surrounding his body, Meng Qi felt that he was in the Nine Serenities.

He had just stepped out for seven steps when a man stepped out of the darkness: he was wearing a gray patchwork coat with his palms together. He had a solemn look and had neither hair nor facial hair on his face.

This monk was not rotting, but still had a twisted expression and a pair of dark eyes. Seeing Meng Qi, he struck immediately with his palm.

The palm was slow, but it was accompanied by explosive sounds like mountains tumbling and a river flowing backward. Even the void seemed to twist slightly, engulfing Meng Qi.

There was nothing unique other than the strength and the dark gold color of this method.

"Vajra's Powerful Palm!" Meng Qi was surprised yet dubious.

If it was the real Vajra's Powerful Palm, there should be Buddha Aura and the form of Vajra behind this exterior monk!

Meng Qi did not dare to be careless and simply sliced straight at the opponent, with purple lightning condensed at the front of his blade.

Boom!

Thunder struck the ground and lightning exploded in the sky, illuminating it. It interacted with the power of the long saber and sliced through the black mist, causing ultimate destruction.

Accompanied by the sound of thunder, the purple lightning saber hit the golden palm.

Clang!

Shockwaves visible to the naked eye spewed in all directions and swept all in its path.

Meng Qi's right hand trembled slightly, while the external devil monk retreated a step and emitted a dark golden light from its body.

Taking advantage of his situation, Meng Qi to strike mercilessly. The ground shook with Infernal Thunder at times and was lit by the Great Sun at others. Their exchanges seemed never-ending and the speed and power of their techniques increased as they fight, creating loud explosions all around.

Within the radius, purple thunderbolts spread all over the sky, baring their teeth and claws like a real dragon. Up in the sky, the bright sun was almost completely in form, spreading thousands of golden rays in all directions.

However, although the external devil monk had the dark golden light surrounding him and all his aperture acupuncture points open, allowing him to create cracking noises with every single palm strike, it was unable to create external changes and had the light around him diminished after he received each blow.

At the height of the battle, the devil monk had already been forced to the end of a cliff. Meng Qi shouted a warcry and sliced through the air eight times, forming a purple dragon and connecting them with his last strike.

Violent Thunder Shocking the Sky!

Boom!

Amid the noise, the purple lightning shone brightly, stunning the devil monk.

Then, it split in half with purple lightning emitting from its wounds. It quickly degenerated into black gas and mixed into the surrounding air.

….....

Black gas emptied and condensed into clouds which swirled above the monk, who stood under the core of the black clouds.

The monk had the face of someone from Southern Wilderness and wore a string of dark prayer beads. He was dressed in a grey robe and had a pair of stiletto shoes. His eyes were tightly closed and his face was extremely twisted and sinister.

Seeing that Wang Siyuan, Wang Dezhong, and Wang Bingning were nervous about the battle, Duan Rui was immediately interested in this devil monk that came from the black gas.

He looked at it carefully and suddenly found the monk's appearance to be familiar, much like the Luohan that his family used to pray to.

"Dharma!" he blurted out.

Looking at the sinister expression of the monk, he changed his tone.

"Evil Dharma!"

The grey-robed monk smiled with malice and gently brushed out the flower he was holding in his right hand.

…

Meng Qi, after destroying the illusion, wanted to leave immediately. If not for the fact that flying was forbidden, he would have directly flown to the fifth layer.

At this moment, he stopped in his path and focused ahead. He saw another figure!

It was an elegant middle-aged man with pure black hair and an especially charming and handsome face.

He was dressed in an oversized robe, with his hair tied to a wooden hairpin and his hands behind his back. His posture was natural, elegant, and full of calmness. He stared into the sky as if thinking about the meaning of life or the root of Tao.

What surprised Meng Qi wasn't the figure - as all kinds of evil spirit could appear here - but that the charming man was stepping on a glass lamp with his right foot. He used a little strength and the lamp broke open.

The lamp then became how the treasure of the second array eye was like!

"Did he solve the arrays of the first two layers before getting this scene and his breath recorded by this array and becoming an external devil?"

"But since someone entered, why didn't the Gist of Trueness outside the entrance disappear?"

Meng Qi grasped tightly on the helm of the sword and suppressed his inner thoughts. He dared not treat this figure lightly!