—The primordial Phoenix, in its most malevolent aspect.
Zhou Hui pulled everyone behind him and said in a low voice, “When there’s an opening, get out. Don’t look back. Take that weasel with you.”
The nine-tailed fox asked softly, “Isn’t it said that the Phoenix has no wrathful form?”
“The Phoenix Wisdom King doesn’t, but the ancient mythical beast does. His power is too weak right now, so this evil form won’t last long, but it’s still very terrifying when it erupts. Don’t get caught in the mess.”
The nine-tailed fox looked towards the distance, seemingly a little sympathetic as a fellow beast. “That fat weasel…”
Zhou Hui said, “Don’t ask for now. Hurry up and go!”
Chu He turned and walked towards Maha, who was pinned to the wall.
His face no longer looked like his usual self. The phoenix tattoo pierced through half of his body, its feathers landing on the side of his face, glowing with a strange golden-red light that contrasted with his cold, pale skin, making him look particularly bizarre. His eyes were pitch-black and cold, like something inorganic, staring at Maha without any emotion.
Maha’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
He closed his eyes tightly. The next second, the pure azure arrow that had pierced his abdomen was pulled out, the arrowhead bringing a trail of flesh and blood that splattered on the ground. Then, his throat was grabbed, and he was thrown out heavily!
Maha’s body shot out like a cannonball through the rugged tunnels and rocks, and with a boom, it smashed into the ninety million Sanskrit curse net. At the same time, Chu He’s figure disappeared from where he stood. Just as Maha was bounced back by the inertia, he reappeared right in front of him, and with the speed of lightning, grabbed him again and threw him back into the stone grotto!
—Bang! A deafening sound, and the surrounding tunnels, with the grotto as the center, were all shaken, causing large swathes of earth and rubble to fall.
Maha fell into a pile of huge cracked rocks taller than a person, panting intermittently. Through his blood-blurred vision, he saw Chu He walking towards him step by step, his body surrounded by huge, azure flames in the void. The violence of the flames was so intense that even the walls and floor of the grotto were crackling.
He knew things were bad when that weasel demon died. Taking a life under Chu He’s watch and casually eating a few snacks sent down by his father were two completely different things.
He knew his mother. Chu He was a person who hid too many things in his heart. He had lived for too long, tens of thousands of years, which had allowed him to form his own set of principles. His judgment of light and darkness, nobility and baseness, was different from that of ordinary people. For example, he never thought that Zhou Hui’s origin as a demonic creature from the Sea of Blood was in any way lowly, nor did he ever think that there was anything wrong with Zhou Hui refusing to take refuge in the Buddhist path. And back then, when he himself had committed a grave sin that brought heavenly punishment, he had only been shocked and saddened before immediately protecting him with all his might, but he did not show too much anger or lack of understanding.
But some things were different.
Some things, in his eyes, had a different meaning.
Maha struggled to get up and retreated, gritting his teeth. The moment his foot touched the ground, his whole body trembled. He felt the ground was surprisingly hot. The huge stones had become very brittle due to the excessive heat, and they actually cracked when he stepped on them.
He had lost both of his swords. If Chu He came over, he wouldn’t even have anything to block with. But at this moment, it didn’t matter whether he blocked or not. Chu He stared straight at him, the overwhelming pressure in his gaze simply unimaginable for a person. Maha only took a few steps back, and when his back touched the wall, he subconsciously stopped moving.
“Mother…” he said hoarsely.
Chu He walked up to him, didn’t say a word, and raised his hand to slap him.
—That slap was no different from the Buddha’s palm pressing down from the nine heavens. Maha thought he had been sent flying. His mind was buzzing, and a large amount of warm liquid gushed out from his ears, nasal cavity, and even his eye sockets, followed by a coldness—the bone-chilling cold of excessive blood loss.
He felt as if a whole century had passed before he regained consciousness, but in reality, it had only been a few seconds.
He hadn’t been sent flying, but his entire body was completely and utterly embedded in the stone wall. His eyes were blurred by blood, so he didn’t know how spectacular the scene in the hall was at this moment.
—The stone walls, the stone pillars, the ground, everything visible in the grotto, had all cracked. Deep cracks, centered on him, had crawled all over the stone walls with a terrifying creaking sound, even passing through the entrance of the cave and extending into the tunnels outside.
Fortunately, he couldn’t see clearly, otherwise he wouldn’t even have the courage to struggle at this moment.
“Are you going to kill me… Mother,” Maha panted, blood flowing down his face in countless crisscrossing streams. His voice was intermittent and strangely distorted. “Then come… come on, come and kill me. Isn’t it the way of heaven… to execute those who refuse to be taught? The vajra’s angry glare, striking down in the wild…”
Chu He grabbed his throat with one hand, pulled him out of the stone wall, and countless small stone chips fell down.
“I shouldn’t have sent you to the Heavenly Dao,” Chu He looked at him and said. “It’s my fault you’ve become like this.”
He raised his hand and brought it down, another slap. This time, it directly sent Maha’s head flying back, and the back of his head slammed hard against the wall. A large part of the grotto instantly turned to dust with a terrifying sound of collapse!
Maha’s head was bleeding profusely. He felt that he was already dead.
The feeling of death was probably just like this. His soul floated high up, almost indifferently looking at his own incomplete body below, slowly drifting towards the vast abyss beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens.
Countless fragments of memory, as if sparkling, floated from the long river of time, like thousands of scattered, swirling butterflies, gently lowering their wings.
He had grown up in the Heavenly Dao.
Since he was young, he had studied before the Buddha, in a white kasaya and an endless sea of lotuses, day after day, from morning bells to evening drums, chanting sutras for three thousand years. He didn’t understand why he had been sent to the Thirty-Three Heavens until one day he asked the Buddha, and only then did he learn that his father was still in the eight-thousand-zhang Sea of Blood. The King of Phoenix had extended his hand to save thousands of demonic souls, and he was the only demon that could not be saved.
Then what about my mother? Maha asked.
The Buddha did not answer. After a long while, he finally said, “The Phoenix cannot teach you—”
“—He no longer believes in the Heavenly Dao.”
He no longer believes in the Heavenly Dao.
Maha opened his eyes. His eyeballs were almost melted by the blood, and every inch of his bones was broken. In an instant, he didn’t know why he wasn’t dead yet.
—Since you yourself have doubts, why did you force me to believe?
Maha really wanted to ask, but bloody foam kept gushing from his mouth, and his voice was as muffled as if it were under deep water. He knew he must look very wretched, but at this moment, for some reason, he didn’t care at all. For a moment, he even thought, Let it be like this. Just like this, with all the unanswered questions and doubts, let me die in my mother’s arms.
He remembered many years ago, when he had so piously made a wish in the Phoenix’s ear, saying, “I want to become a person like you.”
I want to become a person like you. I want to believe in the things you believe in.
What was the Phoenix’s reaction at that time?
—He didn’t smile as he usually did, pinch his cheek, and place a small kiss on his forehead. Instead, he stared at him motionlessly, his gaze carrying something deep and complex. If one looked closely, there seemed to be a hint of sadness.
“Don’t be like this, Maha.”
“You will become a monster, be struck by lightning, and be shattered to pieces…”
Struck by lightning, and shattered to pieces.
The moment he truly committed a grave sin and suffered heavenly punishment was actually when the Phoenix was struck by lightning. The Phoenix had withstood the endless sea of lightning and transformed into his true form that blotted out the sky. His feathers and tail feathers fell like a rainstorm, his wings and flesh were burned away, and even his bones crackled in the heavenly fire. The Phoenix had burned his own true form to protect him, saving his last shred of life.
A sense of absurdity and ridiculousness swept over Maha’s heart. He suddenly really wanted to ask Chu He, Are you regretting it now?
You placed the faith you couldn’t uphold on your descendant. Are you regretting it now? The child you sacrificed everything to barely save has now become an evil existence that even you fear. Do you regret it now?
In the more distant past, you gave up the chance to become a Buddha and descended from the Thirty-Three Heavens to be with a demonic creature from the Sea of Blood. Do you finally regret it now?
Maha panted, raised a blood-stained hand, and seemed to want to reach for Chu He.
However, Chu He raised his hand for the third time, aimed at his face, and brought it down.
—Smack!
Chu He’s hand was caught in mid-air.
He looked up. The golden-red phoenix tattoo on his face and body had disappeared, and he had returned to his usual impassive and very cold appearance. The face of the newcomer was reflected in his pupils. “…Fan Luo,” he said hoarsely, word by word.
The Demon Lord Fan Luo leaned down from mid-air, grabbed his hand, and smiled. “Since it’s just an ordinary slap now, it doesn’t matter whether you hit him or not, right?”
