Chapter 959: Demons emerge, Buddha dies

The Heavens of the Formless Realm collapsed—

The Universe should have been a void, with nothing in it.

But at this moment, all matter became turbulent.

The Demonic Lord's mad laughter silently surged through all the Qi.

This time, it was no longer the Demonic Lord who had secretly slipped out before, no longer the Demonic Lord who could only exert a tiny fraction of his power.

It was the true, complete Demonic Lord.

All sentient beings… that is, all living beings, every life form with 'emotions' and 'higher intelligence,' including strong AI life, inorganic life, collective intelligence, and gestalt civilizations, all life forms with the ability to think, from deities to Mortals—

Every single one of them felt at this moment that their emotions had become much 'richer'.

Originally, everything in the Universe was so magnificent and grand.

However, many life forms could not feel joy or the grandeur of the sights because they had seen too much and had become numb.

We grew tired of the spectacular sights of the Universe happening over and over again, to the point that we were no longer curious about any wonders.

In fact, these cultivators were exhausted and no longer held any illusions.

Over billions of years, countless cultivators had, either voluntarily or by force, observed the destinies of many worlds, and at the same time experienced their own destinies, becoming objects of observation for others.

You watch me, I watch you, and in the end, no one found anything new.

So many joys and sorrows might be novel for young people, but for these long-lived beings, these had been repeated countless times.

Therefore, many long-lived beings, after experiencing a prolonged life, even lost interest in pursuing the Dao; they were too lazy to listen to the Universe's ramblings and simply let their attention drift freely in the Void Realm.

The flow of time was unusually fast in such a boring life.

However, at this moment, everything changed.

These long-lived beings, who had long lost their motivation, suddenly had 'desire' at this moment.

Their world suddenly gained color.

They rekindled their interest in this world, wanting to taste delicious food, read stories, and experience emotions; the dried-up lake of their hearts now gushed forth with sweet springs.

They rose, looking around at the dull, unfamiliar, desolate scenery, listening to the faint, sharp wind, the slowly passing time, and the faintly aching thoughts, making them increasingly flustered.

The time they had grown accustomed to now became… so painful.

They ignited desires, desires like appetite, lust, curiosity, and the desire for conquest. These desires gave them motivation, compelling them to act.

It's like when you're hungry, you'll desperately look for food.

These desires are, in themselves, the driving force of life and the color of the Universe.

Without desire, one loses motivation and will lie still, doing nothing. If it were an ordinary life form, it would die as a result, or even be too lazy to move after death, because it would have lost even the desire to survive.

And if they were long-lived beings, they wouldn't even die; they would just lie still, waiting for time to pass.

But they were somewhat tired of it.

What does that matter?

Before that, they didn't even care if they could complete this journey of pursuing the Dao; what did a mere external scenery matter?

However, now, everyone's heart was filled with intense vitality; they all stood up one by one, and a passion returned to them.

And for those cultivators who had not lost their desires and were still working hard, their desires became even more intense!

Life forms of all species radiated passion at this moment.

Worlds, Observable Universes, began to expand with vitality.

This was a good thing.

Technology developed rapidly, and technological explosions began to appear. Everyone began to show their desires, everyone was full of motivation, and art, technology, and even all sorts of things burst forth.

Desire is motivation! And motivation will prompt life to create more and more miracles.

Plants became more prosperous, the competition between animals and plants became more intense, and even savage beasts were filled with power.

Worlds began to ignite curiosity about the Universe, beginning to cross the vast oceans of the Universe.

Their families also shouted to those expedition ships:

“We send our happy wishes to you who cross the stars!”

But it was not all good news.

Because the explosive growth of desires gave birth to many Universal Empires; they were mad, ruthless, and spread everywhere, and wars between giants, wars unrelated to the Dao, began to roar.

Huge planets flew through space at an astonishing speed, slaughtering each other.

Moreover, it wasn't just civilizations themselves; if one were to dive into the water or soil of certain planets, one could even see a few glowing microorganisms twitching.

Even microorganisms began this expansion of desire.

War began.

The war of all against all, a war that would never cease, driven by desire.

Amidst the roar of war cannons and the clang of colliding swords, there seemed to be the Demonic Lord's sneer.

But this was all that Mortals saw.

In the eyes of existences with substantiality, things were even more terrifying.

Especially those of the First Grade and above, they saw even more clearly.

As is well known, life does not only exist in one world, but is spread across millions, billions of worlds.

Each world has its historical evolution, its values, that is, its 'Dao', and these 'Dao' will explore the possibility of ultimately pursuing happiness in their unique living environments.

This Universe will have countless kinds of happiness, countless kinds of benefits, countless kinds of different cognitions.

Moreover, these countless worlds will also produce countless branches, which are 'world lines'.

The number of world lines is infinite.

The number of possibilities for the secondary branch paths of each world line is also infinite.

Therefore, the number of world lines observed and altered by the First Grade is infinite.

At the same time, the number of world lines that are not observed and interfered with by the First Grade is also infinite.

The number of world lines that were partially interfered with by the First Grade and then abandoned is still infinite.

Within this infinite of infinites, there naturally exist infinite beings.

This is a super-large number that even the Gödel arrow cannot reach; it is true infinity.

However, all these 'infinites' were filled at this moment.

All infinites followed the infinite Demonic Lord.

All possibilities, all world lines, and all beings within them, at this instant, possessed a 'Demonic Lord' of their own.

Sometimes they would 'talk to themselves'.

Of course, they thought they were talking to themselves, but in reality… they were conversing with the Demonic Lord in their hearts.

They questioned themselves, probed their inner selves.

But the most terrifying thing was this: they probed their inner selves, and then their 'inner selves' responded, and they thought it was their own answer…

In fact, even the thoughts themselves were spoken by the Demonic Lord; even cultivators couldn't tell if they were their own thoughts.

Everyone could be the Demonic Lord's Puppet, although they were all unaware of it; they all thought they were normal.

Now, the concept of the entire Universe, a fully Awakened spiritual world, its realization seemed to be at this moment, as the Demonic Lord completely enveloped the spiritual world.

In the past, in the purely spiritual world, giant beasts roamed, and Li Qi was one of them, while Demonic Lords and Demonic Kings searched for prey unscrupulously within it.

Those primitive Mortals would use 'dreams,' 'drugs,' 'meditation,' and other means to delve their spirits into that world of pure thought, while the Demonic Dao and Spirit Dao were like giant beasts lurking within pure thought, some gentle, some violent.

Mortals sometimes received revelations, and sometimes they attracted nightmares.

No one knew what the consequences of delving into The Way of Dreams would be; this spiritual pollution could even descend upon a civilization, completely destroying the entire civilization, making the pollution from the spiritual world incredibly terrifying.

But it could also bring about the rebirth of civilization, acquiring forbidden knowledge that would normally be impossible to obtain from some friendly dream entities.

And now, a true overlord beast has descended upon this world that belongs only to concepts.

Is there a perfect spiritual world that can understand and savor this farce?

The answer is unknown.

But it is likely that delving into the spiritual world will be much riskier in the future.

The moment the Demonic Lord cast aside all Seals and reappeared, Li Qi also felt something.

The Desire Realm within him was stirring.

And he also felt a summons—!

Then, Shamansan's power spread over.

The power from the Yellow Dragon also appeared.

The power of the Human Dao's First Grade also watched Li Qi.

The Demon of the Five Aggregates also seemed to pay a little attention.

The Hao Tian General on Li Qi's body, which is Yao Ji, suddenly projected the power from Hao Tian as a coordinate.

It seemed everyone was waiting for something.

Li Qi couldn't help but sigh, was it himself again, as expected?

Was all this caused by the Desire Realm on his body?

He felt powerless and could only pause his deductions, turning to focus on the powerful figures projecting their power towards him.

However, at this moment, at the Heavens of the Formless Realm…

At this moment, a voice spread throughout the heavens: “Excellent! Excellent! Good man, I have now attained all-knowing wisdom. What is unheard that can be heard? It is the profound and subtle treasure, that all sentient beings possess Buddha-nature, and that Buddha, Buddha-Dharma, and the Sangha are without distinction.”

At that time, all the Devas and human beings were greatly terrified, and their hair stood on end.

All the Great Bodhisattvas, their hair stood on end, their throats and tongues dried up, they were terrified and trembling, each wanting to scatter, seeing their bodies without light, all their majesty and virtue utterly extinguished.

All Buddha's disciples, Sariputra, Maudgalyāyana, and others, all raised their hands and beat their chests, weeping and wailing, their limbs trembling uncontrollably, blood flowing from their pores and sprinkling on the ground, their entire bodies stained with blood like the palasa flowers, tears filling their eyes and causing great suffering.

Just one sentence.

It made the First Grade of the entire Universe look sideways. At this moment, when they had gathered before Li Qi, something extraordinary seemed to have happened in Buddhism.

All Buddhas sighed in unison: “Alas! Alas! The world is empty! The World Honored One Tathagata will soon enter Nirvana!”

The World Honored One Tathagata was about to fall.

After this instant, the First Grade who had been focusing on Li Qi disappeared.

As Li Qi shook his head, he also felt a sense of relief.

However, the moment he relaxed, he immediately sat up again, a cold sweat breaking out on his back!

Only then did Li Qi belatedly realize something!

Everyone, including the First Grade and Li Qi, thought that the Demonic Lord and the Desire Realm were after something on Li Qi.

But they were all wrong.

From what happened at this moment, one could guess…

The Demonic Lord had tricked all the First Grade!

———————————

The World Honored One Tathagata.

The strongest and most important 'Buddha', the source of all Buddha-Dharma, revered as the 'Buddha Ancestor'.

At the Second Grade, he achieved Dao despite the Demonic Lord's interference.

At the First Grade, he suppressed the Four Demons simultaneously and then Sealed the Demonic Lord.

Such was his existence.

As the Heavens of the Formless Realm declared its demise, he also announced his 'Nirvana'.

All the First Grade, Second Grade, and even Third Grade, were plunged into extreme shock.

All the First Grade poured in.

At this instant, the space-time where the Formless Realm was located was the busiest place in the entire Universe.

Even the busiest Third Grade, or those facing life-and-death crises, chose to stop; whether it was enemies or wars, they abandoned their affairs to personally witness the most terrifying scene in this Universe.

A First Grade falling.

This was the most terrifying event since the Dao struggle began.

The World Honored One Tathagata, this First Grade whom no one had ever expected to be in danger, now… had actually entered Nirvana.

Everyone gathered here.

The World Honored One Tathagata sat cross-legged on a Lotus, emitting various lights from his face, their brilliance a mixture of blue, yellow, red, white, crystal, and agate light, illuminating this three-thousand great thousand Buddha-world.

Sariputra sat before the Buddha, weeping and sobbing.

The World Honored One gently stroked Sariputra's head and smiled, saying: “You should be joyful, and not harbor fear.”

“World Honored One, why do you enter Nirvana?” Sariputra composed himself and looked at the Buddha Ancestor before him, his Master.

“Of course, it's because of me.” The Demonic Lord appeared between the Master and disciple.

The Buddha Ancestor gently waved his hand, and the Demonic Lord was repelled, but he was not annoyed, only laughing incessantly.

No one interrupted the Demonic Lord's laughter.

After he finished laughing, the World Honored One finally spoke, saying: “The evil demon transforms into the form of a monk, enters the monastic community, and spreads various邪说 (evil doctrines), causing many sentient beings to fall into wrong views and preaching evil Dharma.”

“That is why the World Honored One wants to spread Buddha-Dharma and Awaken sentient beings,” Sariputra immediately said.

“That is why I must enter Nirvana,” the Buddha Ancestor interrupted Sariputra.

The World Honored One put his palms together and recited a gatha:

“All beings in all worlds, those born must die.

Though life may be boundless, it must eventually end.

The Three Realms are impermanent, and there is no joy in existence.

The Dao's inherent nature is that all is empty and void.

I now enter Nirvana, like a Great Fire extinguishing.

Such is the Buddha-Dharma, you should not weep again.”

After he spoke… the power of the Four Demons began to grow explosively.

With the Buddha Ancestor's Nirvana, the power of the Demon of Death surged unprecedentedly!

The Demon of Affliction and the Demon of the Five Aggregates, due to this gatha, also had all their Buddha-Dharma suppression completely dissipated.

And the Demonic Lord was even more joyful, even starting to dance!

The Demonic Lord's chaotic dance caused the surrounding cultivators to become dizzy and mesmerized.

Sariputra, however, was unaffected and put his palms together: “I wish to enter Nirvana before the World Honored One.”