Chapter 2634 - 2632: Western Direction’s Recruitment

Chapter 2634: Chapter 2632: Western Direction’s Recruitment

Jiufeng left, and Xingtian led a million Demon Soldiers away from the battlefield, completely withdrawing from the struggle over Northern Jambu Continent.

The Twelve Witch Ancestors all manifested their divinity.

At this point it was no longer possible for them to carry out slaughter here, so after discussion they decided to head south to Southern Observation Continent.

Eastern Victory Divine Continent is the Daoist Domain, Western Cow Hee Continent is the Buddhist Domain; only in Southern Observation Continent are all sorts of powers gathered right now.

There in Southern Observation Continent, they could also find a place to settle down.

When the time was ripe, they would once again carry out the plan to strike at Heaven.

Once they left, the Divine Temple of the Twelve Ancestral Witches saw its incense offerings grow even more prosperous for a time.

All living beings of Northern Jambu Continent, whether from the Witch Tribe, Human Race, or Demon Clan, all went up to offer incense, worship, and chant in praise of the Twelve Witch Ancestors.

The Witch Ancestor Divine Temple of Mystic Darkness Country, which had just been smashed into ruins by Xingtian, was also repaired at the first opportunity.

The merits of the Twelve Witch Ancestors continuously converged onto Long Fei; the Power of Faith condensed by all the beings of the entire continent turned into rays of merit light that wound around him, making his Dharma Laksana look even more solemn, as if Patriarch Buddha himself had descended.

When Xingtian and Mystic Darkness fought, Lin Yingying and Long Fei did not reveal themselves in midair.

On their way back, she asked him in puzzlement, "Is this Mystic Darkness actually your avatar, or your incarnation?"

Long Fei glanced at her and chuckled, "Why are you asking this?"

Lin Yingying, full of jealousy, said, "You pretended to be his big brother and were rubbing your hands all over Jiufeng’s face. Of course I have to get this straight!"

Long Fei broke out in a sweat and explained to her, "Mystic Darkness is neither my avatar nor my incarnation. The karmic ties between us have already been severed—he is me yet also not me. I am his present-life body, he is my past-life body."

"What a bunch of mystical gibberish!"

Lin Yingying rolled her eyes at him, feeling a headache coming on from listening.

Long Fei likewise reached out and patted her head, saying, "Once you cleave your corpse, everything will be clear."

Lin Yingying warned him, "From now on you’re not allowed to touch any other woman’s head. Even if you become a Saint, it still won’t do, understand?"

"Following the lady’s command!"

Long Fei laughed dotingly, and together they rode the Chaos Beast back to Liangshan Island in short order.

On the island, a guest had already been waiting for Long Fei for quite some time.

Little Kirin was so anxious he kept contacting Long Fei, wanting him to hurry back.

If Long Fei still didn’t return, the Demon Clan on the island would probably all be driven mad.

This guest was precisely Tang Sanzang, who had just finished presiding over the Ullambana Festival dharma assembly, steadying the Buddha hearts of the Buddhist Law devotees of Great Songg.

He had brought his three disciples over, specifically to thank Long Fei.

But having such an undying Great Demon stay on the island was simply too hard for the Demon Clan to bear.

These days, Demon Kings of all paths had been running to the guest courtyard far more diligently, every single one of them drooling, looking as if they’d all caught some contagious disease.

After Long Fei and Lin Yingying returned, Little Kirin first paid his respects to the two of them, then immediately invited Tang Sanzang and his apprentices up the mountain to pay their respects.

Long Fei gave a Storage Ring to Little Kirin, telling him to hand it over to Liangshan Island’s planning and construction department below, and to make use of all the materials in the ring.

He had finally managed to pry these off Northern Dark Island, it would be a shame not to use them.

The floor tiles, wall bricks, and all sorts of rocks, beams, were all first-class treasures.

Even a single paving brick was refined from Essence of Earth Mother.

After Little Kirin withdrew, Tang Sanzang brought his three disciples over; upon seeing Long Fei he immediately performed a Buddhist salute, bowing respectfully as he said, "Tang Sanzang, Sandalwood Merit Buddha of Western Heaven, pays respects to the Eastern Emperor!"

Zhu Bajie stood behind him, ears flapping as he chuckled foolishly, "We’re all acquaintances here, Master, why be so polite?"

He rushed forward, plopped himself down on a bamboo chair, and shouted to Long Fei, "Emperor, do you have any meat dishes? These last few days on the island it’s all vegetarian food; my stomach has gone bland enough to sprout birds."

From behind, Tang Sanzang said helplessly, "Bajie, how can you be so rude in front of the Emperor? Hurry and get up!"

Long Fei smiled and waved, "Holy Monk, don’t stand on ceremony. I am indeed well acquainted with your disciples. Now that you’re here, there’s no need to be constrained!"

He invited Tang Sanzang and his disciples to come sit together, and apologized to them, "Island affairs are busy, and I’ve been away, leaving the four of you waiting on the island for so long!"

Tang Sanzang said awkwardly, "Emperor, what are you saying? It was you who risked yourself in Yangzhou City to protect this poor Monk, allowing me to safely finish preaching the dharma assembly. The one who should apologize is this poor Monk. Please allow the Emperor to receive another bow from me!"

He pressed his palms together and bent at the waist, once again performing a salute toward Long Fei.

Long Fei laughed aloud, "I think we’d best stop being so polite, or we’ll truly start treating each other like outsiders."

Tang Sanzang and his three disciples all laughed, their formerly stiff demeanor finally relaxing a little.

He was, after all, a Monk who lived by the book, and truly couldn’t learn the four words ’follow your heart’s desire.’

Long Fei personally stepped in and brewed a good pot of tea with them.

He called Lin Yingying up and had her stew a pot of Jin Ao meat soup for everyone to satisfy their cravings.

Zhu Bajie, hearing this, got excited and, rubbing his belly, asked, "Is this Jin Ao that disciple of the Kunpeng Ancestor?"

"Yes."

Long Fei nodded.

Zhu Bajie said, "Then if we eat their meat, won’t that old Kunpeng get upset?"

Monk Tang scolded, "Those who have left home do not eat meat or fish. Bajie, you’re breaking the meat precept."

Zhu Bajie retorted, "Master, so it’s fine for that Demon to eat us, but if we eat the Demon we’re breaking precepts—how does that make any sense?"

"Precisely because Demons do not understand Buddhist principles, they eat people. If we eat Demons, how are we any different from them?"

Monk Tang was about to launch into another long-winded lecture, frightening Bajie so much that his ears flattened against his head. He hastily called out to Long Fei, "Emperor, let’s just drink tea, tea is enough."

Long Fei chuckled softly, took a sip of tea, and said to Tang Sanzang, "Though I’ve never met the Divine Monk in person, we’ve been kindred spirits from afar. Back in the Human Realm, I once meditated on the True Scripture he brought back inside a Buddha Pagoda. At that time I had quite a few insights and even severed one Buddha body."

The three of Zhu Bajie were all astonished and said, "No wonder there’s a flash of Buddha light on you, Emperor—it turns out you really did cultivate the Buddhist Law?"

Tang Sanzang was not surprised; he merely pressed his palms together and smiled lightly. "All things in this world are governed by cause and effect. My Buddha is compassionate and can ferry the living beings of the Three Realms. The Emperor’s mind is clear and insightful, his Buddha affinity profound. If you enter our Buddhist Sect, you will surely attain the position of Buddha Fruit."

Long Fei shook his head with a smile. "No longer possible. That Buddha body was later shattered by your Eight Heavenly Dragons’ lord, Emperor Shi Tian. From then on, all cause and effect between me and the Buddhist Sect was cut off. Now even if I wished to enter, the Buddhist Sect would not accept me."

Tang Sanzang said, "I’ve heard of this matter. If the Emperor truly has the intention of entering our Empty Gate, this little Monk is willing to accompany the Emperor to Western Heaven to seek the Buddha of the East and resolve this cause and effect."

Little White Dragon and Sha Seng were both excited. "If the Emperor becomes a Buddha, that would absolutely be a grand event for the Three Realms."

"Indeed, Emperor, if you join our Buddhist Sect, you will from then on no longer enter Reincarnation, your lifespan equal to Heaven and Earth, no longer needing to fear calamities and tribulations. When encountering difficulties, you need only recite our Buddhist Sect’s True Scripture, and you can easily turn misfortune into blessing. Emperor, you may as well consider it carefully. With the protection of the Buddhist Sect, the Disciples of this Liangshan Island of yours will also have an extra layer of safeguard."

They saw that Long Fei was easygoing and that they already knew one another.

If Long Fei joined the Buddhist Sect, it would also be an excellent ally for them.

At this moment, Lin Yingying brought her maidservants and carried out the pot of Jin Ao meat soup that had finished cooking.

This soup was refined using Lin Yingying’s Phoenix True Flame, with all kinds of highly nourishing herbs added inside.

Long Fei lifted the lid of the ceramic pot, and immediately a wave of meat fragrance wafted out, making Zhu Bajie’s saliva gush forth at once.

Long Fei served each person a bowl and, smiling, told them, "All my life I’ve only loved eating meat; I simply can’t eat vegetarian fare. The four of you should try it while it’s hot—once it cools it won’t be as fragrant!"

Zhu Bajie, ignoring Monk Tang’s expression, picked up the soup bowl and, not caring whether it was hot or not, poured the whole thing into his big mouth in one go.

Little White Dragon and Sha Seng sat properly in their seats. They knew this was something wonderful, but since Tang Sanzang hadn’t spoken, they didn’t dare eat it.

Tang Sanzang chanted a few lines of the Sutra of Deliverance with his eyes closed, then rose and bid farewell to Long Fei. "We have disturbed the Emperor today. If there is fate, I shall come another day to discuss the Dharma with the Emperor."

Sha Seng tugged at Zhu Bajie from behind. Zhu Bajie, helping himself, ladled another bowl from the ceramic pot and ate it, then stood up, grumbling discontentedly, "Master, they’ve invited us to eat, you haven’t even said a couple of sentences and you already want to leave!"

"Bajie!"

Tang Sanzang’s face darkened. After taking his leave of Long Fei, he led the way out.

Zhu Bajie, helpless, obediently followed him in bidding farewell to Long Fei, his eyes reluctant as they clung to the ceramic pot. In the end he couldn’t help asking, "Emperor, could you give this pot of soup to your old Pig?"

Long Fei laughed heartily. "Of course you can!"

"The Emperor is generous!"

Zhu Bajie, overjoyed, picked up the ceramic pot in one go and also took along the soup and meat in the bowls belonging to Monk Tang, Little White Dragon, and Sha Seng.

Lin Yingying came out with people to clear the table and asked Long Fei curiously, "What kind of fit did that Monk throw? How come he left without saying much?"

Long Fei smiled faintly. "With a kindred spirit, a thousand cups of wine are too few; with one who is not, half a sentence is too much. He’s a vegetarian Monk; I’m a meat-eating Demon Chief. Naturally, we can’t see eye to eye."

Lin Yingying complained, "Then why did you still make me work so hard to stew this pot of meat soup? A waste of effort and feelings, all of it ended up cheapening that Pig Demon!"

Long Fei smiled and took her hand, comforting her a bit, then instructed her, "Go stew another pot of meat soup, call Little Ya, Shanshan, and Kylin. We’ll eat it ourselves as a family."

"That’s more like it."

Lin Yingying curled her lips, had the maidservants tidy up the table, then went elsewhere to call Wang Xiaoya and Lin Shanshan over, and went into the kitchen with them to cook.

Long Fei drank his tea and, by himself, pinched his fingers to deduce the Heavenly Secrets.

He had twelve threads of cause and effect with the Witch Tribe and needed to sever the bodies of the Twelve Witch Ancestors in order to achieve the Great Dao of the Fleshly Body.

Right now he had only severed one body; he still had to seek opportunities to sever the other eleven evil bodies.

His eyes seemed to pierce through the long river of time, finally fixing their gaze on the Western Regions of the Southern Observation Continent.

This opportunity lay in the Western Regions.

At this moment, that place was undergoing a pitched battle.

King Li Yuanhao of Western Xia had rebelled; for the sake of his daughter, he openly rebelled against the Great Songg.

The Imperial Court was furious and had already dispatched an eighty-thousand-strong Imperial Army General, leading a great army to suppress the rebellion.

At present, the two armies were clashing, corpses paved the ground.

Ordinary commoners suffered along with them; war flames blazed on all sides, refugees filled the land, and the first signs of a killing calamity had already appeared.