The giant hand began furiously pounding at the ground, surrounded by the increasingly resonant chanting of Buddha’s hymn.
On the cracked ground around him, dust swirled up, condensing into walls,
uncountable walls formed into one Buddha temple after another.
Zhou Xuan cast his gaze far ahead, only to see hundreds of Buddha temples suspended in the sky,
radiating brilliant light. The ethereal sound of scripture recitation echoed from different temples, cascading down like vast tides of seawater,
ready to use the might of hundreds of Buddha temples for a final battle against the Nuo God.
With the colossal figure of Zhou Xuan, he began to stride forward, heading toward the Great Heavenly King.
Though it was considered running,
the frequency of Zhou Xuan’s strides wasn’t particularly fast. Each step he took was light yet explosive, wild in its ferocity, while his giant form stayed remarkably agile.
The distance between him and the Great Heavenly King shortened rapidly, and what greeted him was an overwhelming array of Buddha temples.
As Buddha’s hymn reached his ears, Zhou Xuan’s mind was enchanted, and he felt as if he were inside a Buddha Country. Countless Great Buddhas, seated atop lotus flowers with palms joined, transformed Buddha Power into countless golden ropes.
One end of each rope was affixed with anchor nails, while the other was firmly held in the hands of the Great Buddhas.
Numerous anchor nails pierced Zhou Xuan’s body, tightening the golden ropes.
Countless ropes were intent on completely subduing and toppling the giant Zhou Xuan.
Gripped by the anchor nails, Zhou Xuan’s body was wracked with pain, and even his colossal form struggled to maintain balance, slowly bending forward.
Though his body was restrained, Zhou Xuan’s War Intent remained unaffected; instead, it grew even stronger, fueled by boundless rage.
Zhou Xuan recalled the vengeful feeling from the time he crushed the Nuomian.
Once again, he relived that hatred,
his hatred amplifying his War Intent.
Such intense hatred transformed Zhou Xuan into a radiant Fierce Sun, his entire form emitting blistering light that burned the golden ropes of the Great Buddhas to pieces.
The flames continued unabated, scorching the Buddha temples and turning the hundreds of suspended temples created by the Great Heavenly King into charred ruins.
With no floating Buddha temples left to restrain him, Zhou Xuan was freed, and he traversed unimpeded to the Great Heavenly King’s presence.
Forming his right hand into a sword-like gesture, the mountains, rivers, and all living things near Peng Town surrendered their Life Force, channeling it into his sword-fingers,
which thrust toward the giant hand of the Great Heavenly King.
On the giant hand, there rested a square-meter-wide Buddha’s Seal, inscribed with nine words: "Prajnaparamita Buddha Country, Xunbo Great King."
Zhou Xuan’s sword-like right fingers, imbued with the force of tens of thousands of pounds, pierced through the Buddha’s Seal like a red-hot blade through wax, slicing through effortlessly...
The Great Heavenly King’s giant hand shattered like a chiselled block of ice, breaking into countless fragments. Carried by the wind, the debris howled as it fell into the prison world formed by the Ginkgo Ancestor Tree.
The Great Heavenly King perished, and the Buddhist runes that had once covered the Heavenly Dome lost their control, transforming into clusters of meteors trailing scorching flames and plummeting to the earth.
Prajnaparamita Buddha Country’s Xunbo Great King fell in a single strike during his battle against the Nuo God.
Zhou Xuan, still in his giant form, did not feel exhilaration from defeating such a formidable foe. Instead, he sensed an overwhelming threat bearing down on him,
his Life Force rapidly dissipating, death already upon him.
This was the aftermath of the Heavenly God’s intervention, which overwhelmed his body and caused it to collapse,
but that wasn’t the true source of the threat he felt.
In the domain of time reversal, he existed neither alive nor dead, and it was this very state that allowed the Nuo God to freely manifest within his body.
"Such an immense threat—more chilling than death itself."
This nebulous and immense danger felt like a venomous serpent coiled on his back, hissing venomously.
"Prajnaparamita Buddha Country, Xunbo Great King manifested... Zhou Xuan, the future of Jing Country depends on you."
The will of the descending Nuo body began to dissipate, and Zhou Xuan’s form rapidly shrank. Yet the venomous serpent’s hissing threat persisted, growing ever more dire.
This feeling of impending doom was mysterious to Zhou Xuan, but soon after,
he heard a distant and melodious voice, as though it were coming from beyond the horizon, yet each word was strikingly clear to him.
"The past is unchangeable, regarded as destiny; the future remains mutable, regarded as impermanence."
The content of the voice was extremely familiar to Zhou Xuan—it was the final phrase of the "Blood Well Enlightenment Scripture,"
"Past events cannot be altered; this is destiny.
Future events can still be changed; this is impermanence."
Zhou Xuan found himself transported three hundred years into the past, collaborating with the Nuo God, Blood Well, and Ginkgo Ancestor Tree to kill the Great Heavenly King from the Prajnaparamita Buddha Country, thereby altering Jing Country’s history—an act in direct violation of the words in the "Enlightenment Scripture." Thus...
Zhou Xuan saw an enormous horsetail whisk descend from the heavens like a colossal broom, sweeping Peng Town utterly clean.
It swept away the Great Heavenly King’s corpse, swept away the Ancestor Trees, swept away the battlefield of the recent great war.
The whisk brushed across Zhou Xuan’s body.
He watched his physical form slowly dissolve.
"Did altering Jing Country’s history lead to my erasure by the horsetail whisk?"
Zhou Xuan’s dwindling consciousness floated in the skies above Peng Town, becoming blurry and indistinct,
while the heavens and earth became as silent as birds returning to the woods, leaving nothing but a vast white expanse, barren and clean.
Zhou Xuan awoke abruptly, clutching his aching head as he curled up in pain.
Once the pain subsided somewhat,
Zhou Xuan rose to his feet and scanned his surroundings, discovering that he had not been obliterated. He now stood beside the Peach Blossom Ancestor Tree in the Totem Hall.
"I haven’t been erased? Then has Jing Country’s history been changed or not?"
Zhou Xuan no longer dwelled on the matter but checked over his body thoroughly. Yes, it was intact—no parts were missing.