Chapter 2570: Embracing the Flames

Ying Jianghong's speculation is very dark—

That year, the talented and promising Kuchan's death, and the collapsed Chanxin Youbu in Dongzhen's Kushi, are all because they were lost in the power struggle of the same bitter fate.

Even Kushi's death is also the arrangement of Xuankong Temple's Kuming. The Tiandu blood battle is the story promoted by Xuankong Temple to save Zhizang!

Thinking carefully, in the entire "Zhongyue Chanliu" incident, Xuankong Temple indeed counts as the winner.

Sealed in the central prison, regarded by many as the World-Honored One's Zhizang, he escaped after all.

His death in the Tianhai is to clear the name of the World-Honored One.

The greatness of the World-Honored One is beyond doubt, and the name of the World-Honored One is no longer shaken.

And the true Dizang now walking in the netherworld has fulfilled the original wish of the World-Honored One and completed the compassion of the World-Honored One.

Xuankong Temple, which reveres the World-Honored One, can preserve the reverence. Countless Buddhist disciples have eternal faith, originally without flaw and without regret.

So who is the loser?

The dead Chu Jiang King, the lonely Yin Guan, the demon-entered Lou Yue... all the regrets that cannot be looked back upon!

Now Jiang Wang needs to face this problem.

Facing Ying Jianghong's laid-out suspicions towards Xuankong Temple, facing Ying Jianghong's informing, informing him that Kushi's initial efforts may not have been pure.

In fact, he faced this problem long ago, as early as the time of the Tiandu blood battle. That was Bansha's hateful voice—

"Is there causeless love and hate in the world? Why is Kushi so good to you? Is he really good to you?"

He of course still remembers Bansha Zhenren's last tragic cry—

"Kushi is always using you! He has other plans!"

Many things in this life, even if you want to forget them, you can't.

He has already walked to the contemporary absolute peak, yet he will still frequently look back and stop in his memories. Because many people, many beautiful moments, are all forever stopped in the past!

He is no longer a fool, and he is no longer the naive person from Fenglin City. How can he not know that love and hate in the world have causes?

How can he not remember that Kushi initially wanted to take him as a disciple, but in the end, there was no convincing reason.

But he remembers even more what Kushi said—

"This road is not passable!"

He remembers that only weak and powerless but lifted hand—

"Don't let him... see!"

So he had the answer that year.

Time can change many things, but some things cannot be changed by time.

Now his hand is on the sword hilt, and he only says: "My master died for me, and I will forever miss him."

He of course understands that although he possesses heretical divine power and can alert others to the manipulation of fate, sometimes manipulating fate does not require divine power. Just like sometimes he only uses swordsmanship, he can also force others to make wrong choices in battle.

Indeed, there is a possibility that Kushi was misled by others.

But no matter what, Zhuang Gao'er's collusion with Yujing Mountain to falsely accuse him of communicating with demons is a fact, Zhuang Gao'er's borrowing of Yizhen Dao members in the demon realm to attack him is a fact, his life-and-death battle with Zhuang Gao'er that day is a fact, the Jingtian Six Friends' desire to save Zhuang Gao'er is a fact, Kushi's bloody obstruction of the Six True on the Long River for him is a fact—

Kushi died for him!

He drew his sword for Kushi.

Their past is like this. Other things are unrelated to him.

Just like at this moment his hand only has a sword, nothing else, he also only remembers Kushi's kindness and Kushi's love.

Leaving Fenglin City that day, he thought he would never again believe in the identity of "teacher." But Kushi, with repeated selfless efforts, regardless of gains and losses, without wanting face, even discarding his life, made him say the words "my master" once again.

This is what Kushi, in his life, with coercion, enticement, muddling through, even punching and kicking, failed to hear!

Only those who are familiar with Kushi can understand how long Kushi waited for this sentence.

Emaciated Ku Bing raised his head, looking blankly at the empty sky. Kushi always shamelessly said "my disciple," "my precious disciple at home." He always scolded Kushi for being hot-faced and cold-shouldered, although Kushi never suffered a loss with his mouth, he knew this was the only sentence where he could gain the upper hand.

But after that, this only upper hand is also gone...

But that person he couldn't argue with is also no longer here.

"Because of missing him, you can't call his death unclear." Ying Jianghong naturally has considerable understanding of Jiang Wang, so from the beginning, he didn't say anything about Kushi's wrongs, but pointed his sword at Kuming, saying that Kushi was just a pitiful person who was manipulated without knowing it.

The Southern Heavenly Master sighed: "You believe his heart of love for you is sincere, but a sincere heart is often manipulated by treachery!"

Jiang Wang only said: "He died very clearly, didn't he?"

Even if Kushi accurately locked onto the actions of the Jingtian Six Friends and went to stop them in time, there are still many places in the entire process, including the source of intelligence, that need to be questioned. This process was very likely influenced... but what is true and certain is that he died at the hands of the Jingtian Six Friends.

Then there is nothing unclear.

The enmity of killing one's master, as a disciple, cannot be repaid without blood.

"Namo Shakyamuni!"

Kuming chanted the Buddha's name softly, his face full of sorrow, wrinkled into deep ravines.

"If Kuchan were here, indeed this old monk would not need to bear this position, nor would I harm the Brahma transmission with my foolishness."

"If Kushi were here, he would not keep silent, he would have jumped up and down long ago, pointing at the sky and cursing the ground, throwing tantrums and rolling, even rolling himself into the mud to protect this bit of my face."

"Alas... neither of them is here."

Kuming paused and paused, a sentence almost incomplete.

Kushi in private also had no proper demeanor, even pointing at his nose and cursing him when he was angry, but outside he always firmly maintained him, the Abbot Senior Brother, and maintained Xuankong Temple.

Kuchan was the most outstanding among his generation, but...

But everything has passed.

"I cultivate fate and know fate cannot be violated, I save bitterness yet cannot save those close to me."

"But this old monk stands here, bearing the past on my shoulders, to carry their share and support this several tens of thousands of years of Zen cause."

"My ascending to the Xuankong Treasure Temple is my bitter fate, yet in the eyes of the Southern Heavenly Master, it is my luck. Even... it is my malice."

"Suspicion between people to this extent, one cannot blame anyone. It is that I usually forge few good karmas and weave few good causes."

Kuming sighed deeply, looked at Jiang Wang, and put his palms together in salute: "Zhenjiang True Monarch cherishes old feelings, bears benevolence and righteousness. Coming to the Zen realm like this, the journey has been long and difficult!"

"But the matters of Xuankong Temple are borne by Xuankong Temple itself. Whatever happens next, please Zhenjiang True Monarch do not need to intervene. One person's life and death has its own fate, one temple's rise and fall has its own causes. Xuankong Temple is already prepared to accept its own fate."

He turned his gaze back, spread open his pair of devout palms, and opened the wide middle door, directly facing Ying Jianghong: "Southern Heavenly Master, the death of Kushi in the past, I cannot question. Because he would rather detach from the sect to fulfill his compassionate disciple's heart; because Jingguo is powerful, and Xuankong Temple is declining. There is no great sect in the world that does not rely on the central qi; because of the countless Zen practitioners and believers in Xuankong Temple, this old monk cannot but consider them!"

"But Kushi is my junior brother who grew up with me since childhood. Although I cultivate Buddha, I do not cultivate a stone heart. Although I cultivate fate, I only get the character '苦' (bitterness). Seeing him surrounded and killed on the Long River, like a skin raft being dragged away, how could I be without resentment!"

The monk whose four great elements are all empty frankly confessed this character "resentment," revealing this hateful heart.

"But Buddhist actions are not done with treachery. The World-Honored One's Nirvana taught me compassion!"

"Xuankong Temple upholds the original wish of the World-Honored One and transmits it, with the mind of saving the bitter world."

"Although I resent, I do not repay with private grudges. Even less do I harm the same sect and eat my own bitter fruit."

"Please do not involve the innocent with past events, drag others in, hate and hurt the heart, do not let General Jiang enter this disaster door!"

"You now suspect me, then just come at me. I will prove to you—"

Saying so, Kuming grabbed his own kasaya and pulled it down and forward!

That not magnificent great kasaya instantly covered the sky and the sun, changing into a new sky.

The Xuankong Treasure Temple floating in the sky was no longer visible, and the vast temple forests and dense monks were all gone.

Only a surging great river was seen flowing in the air. Every drop of water in the river was strange and fantastic, refracting a certain person's life.

This is also the long river of fate.

On both banks of the river, there were full of other shore flowers.

Flowers bloom and flowers fall, causes go and causes are empty.

Eternal Monk, Jiang Mengxiong, Jiang Wang, Ying Jianghong, Ji Xuanzhen, Zhi'e Zen Master...

Everyone was out of the Xuankong Zen realm, falling into the pure land of fate!

Precisely speaking, they fell into the river of fate within the pure land of fate, scattered on a small boat like a leaf.

This boat is as minuscule as a leaf compared to the great river of fate, but it can carry so many contemporary strong ones without seeming crowded, instead as if there is still vast space.

The fat great abbot of Xuankong Temple punted the pole alone, standing at the bow of the boat.

This person was only wearing a white inner robe, quite round and naive, but his face was full of sorrow, making people look at him with sadness.

Although he looked with sadness, it was reflected in the sky waves, spreading across ears and eyes. His body and his shadow infinitely expanded, making the heavy darkness behind him, the waves like iron... as if paving the entire long river of fate!

Then, in this infinitely elevated great momentum, he opened his mouth: "I am the ferryman of the bitter sea, Fate Bodhisattva!"

He alone, ferrying the fate of all people!

And just like this, he simultaneously gazed at Ying Jianghong and Ji Xuanzhen: "You say that my Xuankong Temple did shady things for Zhizang, then I ask you—"

Such a Kuming, only wrinkling those sorrowful brows, angrily opening his sorrowful eyes: "If I, with this body, assist Zhizang, holding my Wen Bell in my hand, can I help Him three points of winning chance!?"

Although at this moment on the fate ferry boat, everyone has the ability to escape fate.

But being able to carry the fate of these several people simultaneously already proves strength.

Kuming is profoundly immeasurable, and Kuming's divine power is vast!

Everyone was greatly surprised!

Especially Ying Jianghong, a figure who uses troops like a god. How could he not understand Kuming when he came to Xuankong Temple?

He always knew that Kuming, who mainly cultivates fate, was very strong, but he was still certain that he could draw his sword and defeat him.

Because Kuming had always lacked a momentum.

It was this kind of great momentum that "the time has come, everything is irreversible"!

He didn't know when, but Kuming had already supplemented this point, and thus stood outside of transcendence.

At the absolute peak of Yan Dao, it is actually very difficult to distinguish between strong and weak, because everyone who has walked to this step stands at the limit of the present world. They are the highest mountains in the present world, only differing in thickness and breadth, not in height.

Everyone's fighting strength is influenced by many factors.

Not to mention cultivation, Dao quality is the first watershed, whether one touches transcendence is the second watershed.

As for the first watershed. Every Yan Dao cultivator has mastered truly complete Dao principles and tempered their Dao quality through complete Dao principles, just like refining the highest mountain under their feet into an incomparably condensed particle of dust. This process is constantly repeated until the Dao quality is filled to a certain degree, accumulating dust into soil and piling soil into mountains, thereby truly supporting oneself and leaping beyond the limit of the present world.

As for the second watershed. Touching transcendence, also stepping one foot out of the limit of the present world, is often not viewed as an absolute peak. In the Middle Ancient Era, they were the power of "saints"!

What exactly did Kuming rely on to walk to this step?

Ying Jianghong had some guesses in his heart, but he only said: "Zhizang's winning chance is zero. How dare you stake Xuankong Temple with three more points? Kuming, this doesn't explain anything!"

His words were so, but he had already admitted Kuming's power!

What Kuming wanted by displaying this was just this admission.

As a ferryman, driving the fate ferry boat, and carrying the six venerables across together, his display was truly the power to dialogue, not just to be examined and judged!

Like Xuankong Temple and Sumeru Mountain, they have been called for ten thousand years, numbered among the two holy lands of the East and West, as representatives of eminent learning. Besides their own foundation and inheritance, merely at the shallow level of power... they themselves have saint-level power performance at any time.

Washing Moon Nunnery also produced a Yuan Kong Shiniang, only then having the prospect of the third holy land of Buddhism.

Kuming's performance at this moment is to discard the accumulation of Xuankong Temple itself, his alone and unique saint-level power.

That is to say, Xuankong Temple can now simultaneously push two saint-level fighting strengths. At that time, if this sect fully supported Zhizang, plus a full-out I Wen Bell, these three points of winning chance were not empty words.

"If my Xuankong Temple, as you say, considered Zhizang as the World-Honored One, then in the Tianhai struggle, it would be impossible for us not to intervene. Not to mention having the power to intervene, even if our bodies were without dependence, like moths flying into a fire, you would have seen us cover the sky and the sun!" Kuming, standing on the fate ferry boat, was completely unlike his previous posture of enduring silently everywhere and swallowing the bitter fruit of himself every time. Instead, he was imposing and intense: "Did Jingguo underestimate Xuankong Temple's piety towards the World-Honored One, or did they not think Xuankong Temple had the courage to burn their bodies and worship the Buddha?"

Ying Jianghong calmly looked at him: "Abbot's words are indeed intense! Abbot's divine power is amazing! However, my doubts in my heart still cannot be dispelled."

"You said that I Wen Bell was not strongly guarded by Guan Shiyuan previously because it was once stolen by Kushi, right?"

"Does a true person like Kushi really have such means? Or is it that Ku Di Prime Seat was intentionally negligent?"

"Ku Di Prime Seat was intentionally negligent in the past, letting Kushi carry the bell and leave. Now Bei Hui Prime Seat is intentionally negligent, causing I Wen Bell to shake. Isn't this Xuankong Temple's usual behavior?"

Just on this fate ferry boat, the Southern Heavenly Master pushed his sword with his finger, and the sword came out half an inch—

The surging great waves behind him divided in the middle, half to the left, half to the right.

The fate river actually divided its flow!

And he continued to ask: "Kushi, a contemporary true person, was banned by our dynasty's Kuang Ming Yuan Shuai with the Zixu Dingshen Talisman and personally sent back to Xuankong Temple to avoid war and make him secluded. But not long after, he actually escaped and left the sect, blocking our dynasty's six true on the Long River, and eventually died. Doesn't this process make people suspicious?"

Kuming grasped the long pole, stood at the bow of the boat, and faced him: "Your suspicion is not without reason, but you just didn't think—Kushi is who he is. You don't know how far Kushi can go, how intense he is."

"Kuang Ming Yuan Shuai did send him back to the temple, and I certainly sealed and banned him. But to be able to escape and save his disciple, he did not hesitate to break with Xuankong Temple with a single knife, scolding everyone in the temple, even going so far as to slander the Buddha!"

"He did not hesitate to break with Xuankong Temple because Xuankong Temple could not tolerate his path. Besides killing him, I could not stop him."

"But how could I kill him?"

Kuming stopped his sad expression: "The story is over, and the comer can pursue. Southern Heavenly Master, let's discuss it now."

"From ancient times to the present, only iron evidence kills people, there is no reason to force people to prove themselves. I will prove myself only this one time. This is Xuankong Temple giving the central empire the highest respect."

"You said so much about Master Zhi'e's suspicions, all of which are coincidences and debatable assumptions. There is only one thread that can be seen and touched—you said that Divine Xia went to Tiandu City at that time, carrying the ancient heavenly contract appointing the World-Honored One, and used this to shake Feng Zhan Well in the moon."

"The World-Honored One's heavenly contract cannot be appointed again. Using one sheet means one less sheet, and it is a rare treasure. My Xuankong Temple was established in the Middle Ancient Era and is the orthodox transmission of the World-Honored One. After the great calamity of Buddhism extermination, we still worship three hundred and sixty-five sheets of the World-Honored One's heavenly contract. Among them, every sheet has detailed records, historical records, and scriptures, verified by multiple parties, with no loss of cause and effect, no departure from reason."

"Xuankong Temple has used them generation after generation until now. Since the time of the previous master Bei Huai, only seventeen sheets remain."

He raised his head: "Now in the temple, there are still seventeen sheets!"

He reached out and invited Zhong Xuan, fishing this true person into the fate ferry boat: "With Historian True Person here, why not verify the classics and history of Xuankong Temple and check the whereabouts of these heavenly contracts? Perhaps one sheet was used in Tiandu."

Then, the fat big palm flipped again, and there was a stack of contracts in his palm. He bowed his head and saluted Jiang Wang: "The seventeen sheets of the World-Honored One's heavenly contracts left by the previous master are all here. Among those who know the heavenly way in the world, none are more knowledgeable than Zhenjiang! Please try to verify them!"