Chapter 1053: Eat everything

Amitabha sat beneath Bodh Gaya.

Any Dao Orthodoxy system is an extremely vast theoretical system with various schools of thought, and within Buddhism, their internal schools are particularly numerous.

This is mainly because of the Sangha system established by the World Honored One Tathagata from the very beginning.

Buddhism has no leader.

Unlike Shaman Dao, which has clear Shaman Gods, the Human Dao Orthodoxy with its Human Emperors, or the deities with their Heavenly Emperor, Buddhism does not have a strict hierarchy; the entire organization of Buddhism is more like an academic forum.

At the beginning, Buddhism had no specific leadership mechanism, nor were there rules or shackles. Everyone could freely express their views under the tutelage of the World Honored One Tathagata, within this broad framework, and communicate or persuade others through debate.

This was known as 'Sutra Debating.'

Before the compilation of the Great Three Storehouses and the Great Righteous Storehouse, the content of these sutra debates had no original text; they were discarded after the debate. The World Honored One supported everyone using their own different understandings to elaborate and explain the scriptures, based on varying interpretations and expansions of the texts.

Therefore, so many sects emerged within Buddhism.

These sects included the Buddha's own thoughts as well as the works of others, containing both archaic elements and universal philosophies.

This was because the World Honored One Tathagata was very inclusive, which was also a manifestation of 'Compassion' and, simultaneously, a pursuit of 'Wisdom.'

From beginning to end, Buddhism speaks of 'Wisdom' and 'Enlightenment.'

All of this was for the great vow of the World Honored One Tathagata, which is 'Awakening the World.'

To let all living beings in the world achieve enlightenment.

Buddha means 'Enlightened One'; what the World Honored One hoped for was that all sentient beings would become Buddhas.

Therefore, Buddhism does not have a concept of a single dominant power; what you say and what you gain is the retribution of what you do. Even the Buddha himself cannot change any arising or ceasing of conditions.

This is called 'Formation, Dwelling, Decay, and Emptiness,' and 'Karmic Retribution.'

But at some unknown point, Great Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and even these Buddhas themselves, without exception, transformed into solemn Dharmakaya with halos behind their heads and compassionate visages.

These things were no longer the Mortals who had achieved wisdom and enlightenment.

Even the Buddha could not avoid being fashioned into various giant and solemn Buddha statues.

Buddha became another title for a god.

Buddha no longer meant 'Enlightened One,' but became a respectful title for those with great Divine Abilities.

And the ultimate existence of great Divine Ability, Amitabha, was exactly like this.

Amitabha had compassion in his heart; seeing the many sufferings of the world, he created the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss to propagate the Buddha-Dharma within it, eliminate the suffering of all beings, and save the people of the world with great Divine Abilities.

Thus, reciting the Buddha's name became the most popular method. Countless beings believed this method was easy to start and highly successful, requiring little effort for quick results.

After all... as long as one single-mindedly focused on reciting Amitabha's name, they could be reborn in the Pure Land and escape the suffering of Reincarnation without having to practice arduously themselves.

Namo Amituofo is definitely the most famous Buddha's name in all of space-time. Many people, whether they believe in the Buddha-Dharma or not, and regardless of whether anything is happening, would recite it.

Thus, when sentient beings recited the Buddha's name, they were not reciting their own enlightenment, but the name of the great Divine Ability wielder called 'Buddha.'

When the Heavenly Demon pointed this out to Amitabha, he had nothing to refute.

His reliance on the power of Bodh Gaya was the same because, in Amitabha's heart, the Buddha was right.

So, this was the reason why he had to stand forward.

The Heavenly Demon followed Amitabha's demonic thoughts into the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Within the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, Demonic Overlords proliferated!

The demon army was vast and infinite, and the demon fire blazed brightly, seemingly wanting to scorch the essence of the Pure Land's children to death, leaving them withered and desolate. Yet, countless Demonic Overlords were seen exhaling in unison, completely incinerating the temples, monks, various Spirit Souls, and the original celestial beings of the Pure Land.

All entanglements, greed, feverish distress, various hardships, oppression, slander, and chaotic turbidity were completely burned away by the equal and righteous Dharma praised by the Buddha.

In but a moment, countless hundreds of billions of Nayuta of great Demonic Overlords reached the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, each bringing immeasurable hundreds of billions of Nayuta of celestial maidens—all skilled in the five desires and the convenience of good deeds, upright and beautiful to delude the human heart, holding various precious toys, intending to confuse the Dao Orthodoxy-intent of sentient beings.

Within the Buddha-Dharma, they either attached themselves to human bodies or manifested their own forms, all claiming to have achieved perfect and universal enlightenment, praising desire, breaking the Buddha's precepts, with the former evil demon masters and demon Disciples passing down licentiousness to one another.

Countless Demonic Overlords did not just break the precepts; they violated the Bodhisattva vows, defiled the Buddha's Nirvana, and committed various other miscellaneous Karmas, burning through eons. Because the six chaotic delusions formed their karmic nature, the twelve divisions rotated from this.

Even the Heavenly Demon itself manifested the appearance of the World Honored One Tathagata, donned his clothes, traded on the name of the Tathagata, created various Karmas, and spoke the Buddha-Dharma. Yet they were not ordained monks who kept the precepts, thereby misleading and confusing immeasurable sentient beings.

Such evil spirits charmed their hearts and minds; the sentient beings of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss fell one after another, for as few as nine lifetimes or as many as over a hundred million eons, causing true practitioners to become demon followers and demon citizens, losing their perfect and universal knowledge, falling into the Avici Hell, becoming demons of love and views, and losing the seed of the Tathagata.

The Heavenly Demon had already reversed the situation.

If this continued, Amitabha's defeat was inevitable.

Li Qi's plan had failed.

Once Amitabha was defeated, even if Li Qi's devouring plan was completed, he would surely die without a place for burial.

Then, at this moment, beneath Bodh Gaya, beside the countless microscopic worlds around the Bodhi Tree, Amitabha pressed his palms together and recited a Buddha's name.

He recited: "Namo Amituofo."

Subsequently, the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss withered and died.

The Heavenly Demon's eyes suddenly widened, and all its power was abruptly withdrawn, attempting to pull away and retreat!

But it was already too late.

Amitabha entered Parinirvana!

Shamansan and Huang Long appeared beside the Demonic Prince in an instant; Shamansan seemed to want to ask something.

But the Demonic Prince stared with wide eyes, looking at everything in shock.

This was not what was agreed upon!

In the plan, it was never said that Amitabha would die!

"What was your plan?" Shamansan asked at this moment.

Huang Long also said, "Could Li Qi have persuaded Amitabha to enter Nirvana? Or were you also kept in the dark?"

"I'm not sure." The Demonic Prince leaned on his cane with one hand, his face full of disbelief: "In the plan, I was to suppress the Desire Realm with the Heavens of the Formless Realm, Amitabha was to block the Heavenly Demon, and Li Qi was to use the suppressed Desire Realm and the Heavenly Demon's eyes as a springboard to erode the Heavenly Demon's husk, hoping to find a path to the First Grade this way."

"But Amitabha never said he would die."

As the Demonic Prince said this, he noticed his fingers were trembling slightly.

The situation had spiraled out of control.

Without a First Grade to assist, how could they succeed? Dying was a small matter; the Demonic Prince's concern was that there would never be another chance to affect the Heavenly Demon again.

"Oh." Shamansan looked toward the battlefield.

Huang Long had already vanished silently.

In the center of the battlefield, Li Qi was completely unaware.

This was natural; Li Qi wasn't some super-powerful man. In a matter like devouring the Heavenly Demon, if he could still be distracted, he would truly be invincible.

So he just trustingly left everything outside to the others and focused solely on what he had to do.

Other than that, Li Qi didn't care about or pay attention to anything.

He was completely immersed in the power of the Heavenly Demon, preparing to take it for his own use.

Just like how the Myriad Heavens devoured the Desire Realm.

The Myriad Heavens had already used its own possibilities to swallow the Desire Realm and was slowly digesting it; Li Qi was also rapidly analyzing the information within the Desire Realm.

As long as the analysis was sufficient, he could find an opportunity when truly facing the Heavenly Demon.

In any case, with Amitabha helping him hold off the Heavenly Demon, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits. Although the snipe was invited by Li Qi and the clam was lured by Li Qi using himself as bait.

Strictly speaking, he wasn't the fisherman, but the fish the snipe and clam were fighting over.

But what did that matter? As long as both sides were at a stalemate, that was enough. Who said a fish couldn't eat meat?

Only... Li Qi suddenly felt a slight sense of something being wrong.

There was a problem.

Was the Heavenly Demon's husk this easy to chew?

It was too smooth. He devoured the power of the Heavenly Demon, drawing unbelievable knowledge and information from it—the deconstruction of the world's basic elements, various secrets and understandings, all poured freely into Li Qi's body from the husk he was chewing.

This was too successful. Li Qi had been prepared for his teeth to be shattered; he could have understood being directly overwhelmed to death, but the Heavenly Demon was practically tender, juicy, and delicious.

Li Qi simply couldn't stop.

He realized he couldn't stop.

If he stopped devouring the Heavenly Demon, he would feel an intense emptiness.

This emptiness was the worst feeling in the world, enough to drive Li Qi mad to the point of babbling incoherently.

But when he began to devour, however bad it was before, it was now that wonderful.

The feeling was hard to describe, but to use a metaphor, it was like crawling hundreds of kilometers in the middle of a parched desert, severely dehydrated, with the blood in one's body as thick as syrup, and then encountering an oasis.

Pure, sweet, delicious, and crystalline water flowed into Li Qi's body.

That wasn't water; it was life turned into liquid, the most delicious nectar in the world.

After a long drink, he reached up to touch his forehead; the previously dry brow was now damp with fresh, clean, and refreshing beads of sweat.

The tongue that had long since withered had saliva again. Most importantly, the blood that had been as thick as syrup became clear again, flowing smoothly. His brain became clear and bright, his thinking sped up, and nutrients from the outside began to constantly expand Li Qi's original power, making him strong, smart, and swift.

It was just that comfortable.

But this was definitely not normal. The Heavenly Demon could never allow Li Qi to devour it so easily, and this feeling of comfort also caused Li Qi to feel intense shock and fear.

This could not be allowed to continue developing like this.

A decision had to be made; this had to be resisted.

Li Qi used all his willpower to do so.

However, even if he cut off his senses, mechanized his mind, and severed all his thoughts, he could not control the behavior of continuing to devour the Heavenly Demon's body.

Li Qi had to shatter his Inner World, break his own limbs, and block his throat, forcibly stopping, using physical means to prevent himself from continuing to devour.

Fortunately, he succeeded.

After breaking his limbs and binding his throat, he finally stopped feeding.

Only then did he finally have the leeway to look up and see what was happening around him.

But when he looked directly, he was suddenly stunned.

The Heavenly Demon's husk was suppressed.

The gradually spreading death of a First Grade entwined him, causing his husk to be suppressed and his power to be entangled, to the point where he could not move.

How should I put it... it was just like what Li Qi had experienced before.

All forces are essentially a resultant force composed of countless component forces.

As long as the state of 'zero resultant force' is maintained, then it can be said that the force does not exist.

Now, all of the Heavenly Demon's 'forces' were in a non-existent state. In other words, at this moment, the Heavenly Demon was completely defenseless, without any resistance whatsoever.

Why would this situation occur? Even if four or five First Grades acted together, they might not be able to achieve this, right? On what basis?

But when Li Qi continued to observe deeply, he knew why.

Because he saw Amitabha.

With only the last trace of power remaining and set to vanish completely in a few minutes, Amitabha appeared before Li Qi in the form of a Dharmakaya.

"Li Qi," Amitabha smiled like that.

"My Buddha, this is not what was agreed upon," Li Qi sighed, looking at the floating microscopic worlds around him, which were part of the 'Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.'

Now, the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss was empty.

Originally, Li Qi and Amitabha had agreed that Amitabha would use the power of Bodh Gaya and the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss to delay the Heavenly Demon, allowing Li Qi to bite off a large piece of meat.

Then, with the piece of meat he bit off, Li Qi would forcibly raise his cultivation level. As said before, if it worked, it worked; if not, he would strive to leave alive after raising his cultivation.

With part of the Heavenly Demon's husk, Li Qi would no longer be completely in the dark. He could use it to increase his power while also conducting targeted research on the Heavenly Demon.

When the World Honored One Tathagata was present, because he directly suppressed the Heavenly Demon within the Heavens of the Formless Realm, making interference impossible, it had never been specifically cut up for research. This was just filling that gap.

However, what Li Qi didn't expect was that Amitabha didn't use the power of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss; in fact... he disbanded the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and drove away all the sentient beings within it.

The current Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss was nothing more than an empty shell.

That's why Amitabha was still at a disadvantage even with Bodh Gaya, and was even invaded internally by the Heavenly Demon.

He proactively abandoned the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and released the 'sentient beings' within it.

Li Qi could understand what he was doing, but didn't know why he chose to do it now.

Doing it now, wasn't he burying Li Qi in the ground?

After Amitabha's death, the Heavenly Demon would surely break free quickly. At that time, even several Li Qis would be helpless; they would die a miserable death.

Li Qi never expected he would be backstabbed by Amitabha at this moment.

After planning for so long, working so hard behind the scenes, all the calculations and schemes, even risking his life, only to be sold out by Amitabha... But Amitabha just smiled and said to Li Qi, "Me, and the Heavenly Demon—you must eat both."