Chapter 2552: The Path to Atonement, All Within the Painting

He doesn't understand what love is.

His love can only be confirmed through curses.

It's truly pathetic to say it –

If he hadn't taken action to save Chu Jiang Wang, with Chu Jiang Wang's own strength, even though he couldn't withstand Ab She Di Sheng's methods, he could have at least lived a few more breaths.

If he hadn't already become Chu Jiang Wang, afflicted by the Yuan Tu disease, the one he held dearest in his heart, the one he most wanted to kill... Chu Jiang Wang wouldn't have instantly exhausted his full strength and completely lost control when the disease struck.

And choosing to hold back further, if Chu Jiang Wang had chosen to join the Netherworld, wouldn't she have died?

It was because Yin Guan chose to resist that she then chose to resist.

She herself didn't care about becoming a god or belonging to which force.

Yin Guan isn't someone who makes excuses for himself; from the beginning, he only tormented others, not himself.

But for the first time in his life, he couldn't help but think, and he indeed thought this way — did I make the wrong choice?

On the tip of a knife, where is there a road back?

And when was there ever a choice?

The Buddha, high above, filled with compassion, sighs that the masses are unwilling to turn back.

But Buddha, ah, are the masses unwilling to turn back?

Or unable?

First at the gates of Lower City, later at the cliff of Broken Soul Gorge, and then later within this Netherworld... At every moment of life, he never saw the possibility of turning back.

Buddha, ah!

"I curse you."

You should suffer the same bitterness as me, only then can you tell me that turning back has a shore.

You should harbor the same hate as me, only then can you say that all of this can be forgiven!

At this moment, Yin Guan's body floats high, decay essence weaving through his body, tending towards the ethereal, like an empty, dangling black robe with no one inside.

In the entire history of the present world, curse technique has never been a path from the beginning.

Initial curses were prayers for ghosts and gods to bring disaster upon the hated person — their power fundamentally lay in praying to gods.

But as long as it was a proper god, it was impossible to respond to this kind of prayer born of resentment. Mostly some minor gods would bluff in this way, dabble in evil techniques, and greedily consume human hearts.

So-called curses were the mediocre choices of incompetent people who did evil to the extreme with no results.

After the era of the god path perished, curses were almost only equivalent to scolding.

It was merely the powerless stamping of feet, a few insults that neither hurt nor itched.

But everything was different with Yin Guan.

He stripped curses from gods, focusing on the curse itself — because at that time, he could only choose curse technique, and yet no minor god dared to respond to him!

Where was there a choice?

If enduring wasn't considered a choice, then there was no road to take.

Right or wrong, he could only do this.

He just walked on this one-way path, until he achieved divine descent and himself became the one who responded to prayers born of resentment. Until he penetrated the truth of the world, established the truth of curse technique, straight until today... practicing curse technique as part of the world's truth!

When curse technique, this narrow road, for the first time expanded to the horizon.

Proving to all people that this is a feasible road.

This world will forever engrave Yin Guan's name, the history of cultivation will forever have his monument!

Today, curse the Buddha!

Yin Guan's ascent to the top is similar to Wang Xiao's act of opening the heavens.

Of course, curse technique is still within the "Dao" system, not like martial cultivation which is another completely new heaven.

But it is also sufficient to influence the way of heaven.

What a sudden and furious wind and rain last night, what a day today with a gap opened in the heavens!

Yin Guan indeed never got close to the way of heaven, let alone mastered it, but at least at this moment, the entire heaven-sea is his echo.

Formerly, Wang Xiao opened the way, merit was added to his body, helping him transcend, but he bombarded it away with a single fist, gifting it to the world's martial practitioners and consolidating the foundation of the martial way. This is why several great martial masters subsequently achieved their goals easily, and all martial practitioners in the world walked a smooth path.

Today, Yin Guan opened the way, and auspicious clouds of merit were also born. Although it cannot push him to transcend, it is enough to call it a big step forward on the road to the absolute peak —

But this auspicious cloud instantly turned a dismal green.

For a moment, it seemed to self-destruct, dripping down dismal green flowing flames of decay and death, sprinkling throughout the sky, drifting across the desolate sea, instead like continuous spring!

Turning the joy of the way of heaven into the disgust of the way of heaven.

"I curse you, Di Zang."

"May you be like me."

Yin Guan's voice is truly calm; his choice is intense.

The merit of opening the way, used to fill hate!

Wang Xiao scattered merit to benefit the world, Yin Guan scattered merit to repay gratitude and settle grudges. The same choice, yet completely different reasons.

While Di Zang was suppressing Dan Tai Wen Shu, He forcibly converged the lines of cause and effect, wishing to give Jiang Shu a strangulation by the deep sea of the way of heaven. The first curse from the ancestor of the curse way landed precisely on His body.

This is the first time in this world that a curse of the absolute peak level has appeared!

Even with the blessing of the merit of opening the way, it has already infinitely approached transcendence —

Anyone at the absolute peak level who suffers this curse cannot escape.

Only strong individuals at the level of various saints have a possibility of survival.

Of course, infinitely approaching transcendence is after all not transcendence; it has not taken that great step. For someone who has transcended like Di Zang, this degree of power is still not enough to cause any fundamental shake-up.

It merely smears a layer of shadow on His connection with the way of heaven. Making Him, in a situation already isolated from heaven's favor, still receive a wisp of heaven's disgust.

It is merely dust waiting to be swept away.

He only felt pity.

He, only as a Buddha, truly heard Yin Guan's hate. That is His pity for the masses.

Between the vast heaven-sea, upon the halberd peak altar, the Buddha turns back, overlooking the human world: "Pitiful! When I attained Bodhi, I did not let the human world have hate."

"If not for Seven Hates' layout to transcend, and Ab She Di Sheng's desire to seek eternity in the underworld, it would not have led to this mistake, the death of Chu Jiang."

"Chu Jiang is pitiful! Qin Guang is pitiful! However, Seven Hates is also a pitiful person, Wheel is also a pitiful person. Those who died in Qin Guang and Chu Jiang are also pitiful!"

"The fundamental reason that created all this tragedy is that this world has never been truly fair."

"In the vast sea of suffering, are myriad masses. Each person is struggling for self-preservation, swallowing bitter water."

"I will open the six paths of reincarnation, make ten thousand realms orderly, and the masses equal —"

As He said this, He intended to wipe away that speck of shadow.

How does the Buddha hate the people of the world? Curse me, hate me, resent me, spit on me; it's nothing but spit on the face that dries by itself.

However, in the next moment, the gap opened by the curse way in the heaven actually split open, and a pair of hands emerged.

It was a pair of slender, well-proportioned hands, like carved jade, crystal clear and warm.

It was simply a miracle of creation, so perfect that it fundamentally shouldn't exist in the world.

This pair of hands grabbed the gap in the heaven, and the dome of the heaven-sea was torn open by it as if it were a painting scroll —

After tearing open, it was not another heaven, but a painting scroll that just fell down like this, floating and hanging in the heaven-sea!

All along, there had actually been a painting pasted on the dome of the heaven-sea, becoming a corner of the dome, a part of the way of heaven!!

Because it was fundamentally a part of the way of heaven, there was nothing abnormal or like a loophole. Only Yin Guan's curse way opening this gap in the heaven became its responsive scissors, cutting open a gap, allowing it to be torn down.

On the painting is the magnificent heaven-sea, and in the center of the heaven-sea, a woman who is difficult to simply describe with words.

This painting hangs there quietly, yet is also everywhere. Just like the woman in this painting, she is already deeply imprinted in the eyes of the viewer.

Everyone must see it, because it is a kind of expression related to the way of heaven!

The way of heaven is actually expressed as a painting.

And it is a painting of a celestial woman with the heaven-sea as the background!

Seeing this painting allows one to also see the principles of the way of heaven.

Jiang Wang's half-foot was already about to be sent out of the heaven-sea, but hearing Yin Guan's curse and seeing the painting scroll of the celestial woman, he actually pushed his hearing and vision to the extreme!

Since cultivating the technique of seeing and hearing immortals, it is the first time he has simultaneously had such abundant feelings: hearing the opening of the way through sound, and experiencing enlightenment through sight and hearing. It is a pity that immortal dragons are already extinct, otherwise perhaps one could not see the possibility of the absolute peak so clearly.

He has never seen such a painting, where every stroke and every line is clearly an explanation of the way of heaven, but in the end, it outlines the appearance of a nearly perfect celestial woman.

It makes him think of Bai Ge Xiao, the dean of Qing Ya Academy, and his painting "One Stream Initially Enters a Thousand Flowers Bright," where each flower is a technique, depicting the fullness of spring and also depicting the secret methods of Qing Ya.

Looking carefully at this scroll, it is not just a celestial woman, but seems like heaven, seems like immortal, seems like demon.

He observed it respectively with the perspective of the heaven state, the immortal state, and the demon state. Finally, in the constantly changing light and shadow, he saw the full view of this painting scroll —

It is a female nun wearing a white monk's robe.

Her temperament is both righteous and evil, her eyes suddenly bright and dim.

She has no hair, yet possesses worldly charm!

This painting is too wonderful, painting out an absolutely unique demeanor.

Jiang Wang has seen the world's most beautiful women, but what this painting displays is the limited beauty that only a paintbrush can outline.

Beautiful to the point of being unreal, making you feel that she wouldn't exist in the world.

Jiang Wang's gaze slightly turned, and there was an instant solidification, because he saw the inscription on this painting, dragon-like script, phoenix-like dances, the words saying —

Wu Jiu.

Simply two words, yet how many waves are contained within.

It is a legend, a history, an immortal experience.

"Records of Thousand Beauties of Various Countries" says: "The Martial Emperor himself composed music, strummed the jade zither, monopolized the spring palace, elegantly playing by himself in the spring chamber..."

To put it bluntly, the Qi Martial Emperor liked to close the door with his beauties, paint spring palace pictures for entertainment, and also compose music and strum the zither to enhance the mood.

The book contains many vivid descriptions of this segment, and Jiang Wang glanced over them briefly, instead gaining a deeper impression of the Qi Martial Emperor's painting skills. As described in the book, it was "captivating."

A painter who knows how to paint figures doesn't necessarily paint spring palace.

But someone who is good at painting spring palace is necessarily a master of figure painting!

Although no one has ever seen the Qi Martial Emperor's spring palace pictures, since the Thousand Beauties Record all writes this way...

Even if it is fabricated, it must be because the Qi Martial Emperor's painting skills were indeed superb that it would be fabricated like this.

Then this figure painting interpreting the way of heaven, is it indeed the work of Qi Martial Emperor, Jiang Wu Jiu?

Then this female nun in the painting...

Is she actually a heavenly consort?

"Records of Thousand Beauties of Various Countries" is a wild history, wild to the extreme.

It is fundamentally pieced together from one segment after another of rumored, exaggerated, and flirtatious stories, only remarkable for its literary talent, the extremely legendary protagonist, and the extremely characteristic female roles, thus holding an unshakable status in idle books.

But the more experience one has, the more one understands, the more it feels like a record?

Instead, it is much more detailed than the official history of Qi Country!

On that painting, a voice rang out, at first old, rapidly becoming young during the speaking process.

As if already passed time is rapidly folding back!

That voice said —

"Indeed, the masses are pitiful. My former husband had the ambition to save the world, alas, heroes are envied by heaven, regretting not borrowing years. My Buddha is compassionate, can you or not give life as a gift? This would also complete the Buddha's wish!"

Then it chanted softly: "This poor nun is Yuan Kong. The karmic connection has been broken for a thousand years. Then the first trade shall be one thousand years."

Jiang Wang couldn't stand steady for a moment, almost overturned by the waves.

Xi Yue An's Master Yuan Kong, the ancestor of Yu Zhen, Yue Tian Nu and others, that mysterious and unpredictable painter, is actually the heavenly consort from the Qi Martial Emperor's period?!

The painting that carried the top strong individual of Xi Yue An, that painting, is actually hand-drawn by the Qi Martial Emperor!

If he were to recount this segment to Zhong Xuan, Zhong Xuan would definitely shout absurdity.

This history is too wild!

Formerly on the demon clan battlefield, the painter sent a letter, asking Jiang Meng Xiong to look after the disciples of Xi Yue An a little. Jiang Meng Xiong, a figure who even Yu Zhao Luan wanted to try his hand against, actually looked after them without a single wasted word. If Jiang Wang knew about this matter, perhaps he wouldn't be surprised.

But life's unexpectedness is just like these mad waves in the heaven-sea, seemingly unstoppable.

That painting scroll lightly swayed, and the female nun, who called herself "Yuan Kong," walked down from the painting scroll. The painting scroll itself, which interpreted the understanding of the way of heaven, actually became a wisp of cloudy gauze, draped over her body.

It is also strange to say, she was originally an unreal beauty within the painting. After this yarn clothing fell, she actually appeared as a true being in the present world! No longer half unreal feeling. Instead, she is full of flesh, a lively person.

Monk's robe outside, set with yarn clothes, the Martial Emperor is also someone who doesn't quite understand dress — Jiang Wang just thought so in his heart, then saw the heaven-sea howl, and another peak rose.

This mountain has joints, like bamboo and green, joint by joint rising high, as if a ladder to heaven.

It also has a frosty color outside the mountain, as if washed by moonlight.

This peak is absolutely high, standing in the sea, piercing the clouds, with the intention of supporting the heavens!

The bamboo forest outside Xi Yue An was originally opened in the heaven-sea.

Di Zang's covering palm, originally like a tilting plain of heaven, almost a crushing posture, wanting to end the battle within the heaven-sea.

But this time, Wen Mountain rose high, Dan Tai Wen Shu pulled himself up from the Gold Mountain peak, lightly stamped his foot, and the Gold Mountain under his foot cracked —

Someone is sharing the immense pressure of the way of heaven for Him!

This person is of course not Jiang Wang.

Jiang Wang stared in surprise at Master Yuan Kong — or rather, the heavenly consort.

The heavenly consort was originally a celestial being!

This mysterious cultivator from the withered glory courtyard, the proof of the era when the Qi Country royal family and the withered glory courtyard were once like honey and oil — is actually also an honored celestial being!

Not a general celestial being.

Just by power comparison, in the era of various saints, she could also be named a "Saint".

And now she has broken the karmic connection for a thousand years, only for further advancement. At this moment, she is in the process of further advancement —

Today, asking Di Zang for years and months.

Di Zang's years and months are of course infinite.

But if He truly gives out these one thousand years, He will also go from infinite to finite, from eternal to having a period.

And if He gets these one thousand years... Qi Country will itself have proof of eternal transcendence.

So why didn't Jiang Shu agree to Di Zang's condition, choose to protect the Netherworld, be both the Yang Son of Heaven and the Yin Son of Heaven, get the crowns of the two principles, and take this immediate benefit?

Because he sees further, seeks bigger. He wants to personally hold the heavenly seal of the Son of Heaven of the six directions!

Because compared to a short cooperation with someone who is the same transcender, the Qi Country, with its shallowest foundation, needs a truly transcendent long-term support.

Compared to an alliance with Di Zang, he needs even more the proof of Qi Country's eternal transcendence!

Although it is said that transcenders do not inquire about mundane affairs, this is only a tacit understanding, not a rule.

No matter how huge an empire, once it faces a threat at the level of transcendence, it is very likely to crumble, exhausting the power of the hegemon.

Just like the nameless one within the fallen immortal forest, who caused Chu Country continuous blood loss for many years, until the generation of Xiong Ji finally resolved it.

Just like today, he and Ji Feng Zhou hunted Di Zang together, no matter to what extent, Ji Feng Zhou has the choice of the crying temple, and he can only bear it himself! He is the highest leader of this country, and also the last pillar of this country, there is no one behind him.

A transcender belonging to Qi Country is truly completing the last short board of Qi Country. Making his path as the Great Qi Emperor, the Son of Heaven of the six directions, no longer have worries about the back.

He will not have a day when his troops approach the capital of a certain hegemonic country, and the opposite party cries to the temple, causing his troop's edge to stop, and retreat just like that year in Gui Yi!