In the deep chasm of the Himalayas, the earth cracked, collapsed, and shattered into countless huge fragments that fell one after another. A golden-red light rose from the center of the earth, enveloping a dilapidated prehistoric giant bird’s skeleton as it slowly ascended, its magnificent light illuminating the sky.
The skeleton suddenly stretched, and countless charred bones rained down like a storm. Then, it flapped its wings and, wrapped in the raging phoenix’s true fire, soared up into the sky!
Farther away, on the snowy plateau of Tibet stretching for thousands of miles, countless believers witnessed this miraculous scene and prostrated themselves in worship under the bath of the vast golden-red brilliance, like a tidal wave.
·
The Formless Heaven.
The tremors in the entire Buddhist hall grew stronger with each wave, like a small boat tossing in giant waves. Zhou Hui could no longer stand. He gritted his teeth and hugged the nearest cloud-mother stone pillar, but then the towering, giant pillar collapsed into countless stone blocks, almost burying him alive.
“Phoenix!”
Zhou Hui was at the height of his fury. His upper garment was already torn, revealing his strong and scarred upper body. He suddenly exerted his strength and lifted several huge, pure white broken pillars. “Phoenix!—Don’t do this, come back to me!”
Suddenly, a swift wind brushed past his ear. At the critical moment, Zhou Hui dodged, and saw Sakyamuni, who was missing an arm, rushing towards him with the dagger transformed from the divinity, its blade grazing past his ear.
That was a close call. Zhou Hui’s breathing hitched. He took advantage of the momentum to grab Sakyamuni’s arm and push it forward, at the same time reaching for the dagger. However, Sakyamuni was surprisingly fast in the midst of the explosion. The two exchanged blows like lightning for a moment. A bloody gash was left on Zhou Hui’s side profile by the blade, and at the same time, he sent a kick flying, which kicked Sakyamuni in the chest and sent him flying backwards!
With a loud clang, the dagger fell to the ground. Zhou Hui flew forward like lightning and grabbed it.
“Give it back!” Sakyamuni swayed to his feet amidst the earthquake, his roar echoing endlessly, like the vajra bell of the nine heavens’ gods and Buddhas. “You lowly demon, you dare to touch a divinity?! Give it back—!”
As the last echo reverberated, Zhou Hui felt the divinity suddenly lurch forward, as if about to slip from his grasp. He immediately gripped it tightly and thrust forward, and in the chaos, he stabbed Sakyamuni in the palm.
The golden Buddha’s blood immediately sprayed wildly. Sakyamuni’s hand turned into a giant palm and struck down heavily on Zhou Hui’s head!
If that blow had landed squarely, it could have flattened Zhou Hui into a pool of bloody mud on the spot. However, at the critical moment, the roof of the Formless Heaven, like a string pulled to its limit, completely collapsed. The golden-red true fire, wrapped around the phoenix’s skeleton, roared upwards amidst a deafening roar and suddenly spread its huge, unparalleled wings!
Zhou Hui had already made up his mind to die, even if it meant taking the fatal blow head-on, he would drag Sakyamuni down with him. However, in that instant, the entire world collapsed. The ground beneath his feet turned into a deep chasm, and his entire person suddenly fell backwards uncontrollably.
The next moment, a golden-red phantom descended from the sky, and Chu He reached out and grabbed him.
Their two hands clasped in the fall. Against the backdrop of the disintegrating world, they gazed into each other’s eyes.
“Goodbye,” Chu He said softly.
He took the dagger, which was filled with fine lightning, from Zhou Hui’s hand. The moment it was in his hand, it turned into a gray-black divinity, its halo flaring brightly, and then it turned into nothingness.
At the same time, the burning phoenix phantom around him exploded with a roar. The skeleton with its wings spread surrounded him until his entire body was engulfed in raging flames!
That was the fire of nirvana.
Fueled by the divinity of the Great Asura King, it was the indestructible fire of the phoenix’s nirvana, capable of burning again in the nine heavens and ten earths.
Zhou Hui murmured “Phoenix,” his voice desperate and hoarse, but in the earth-shattering roar, no one could hear him, including himself.
At the same time, behind them, Sakyamuni’s pupils constricted violently. He turned to retreat, but it was already too late.
The phoenix turned and let out a clear cry, spread its wings and held him tightly. Sakyamuni, missing an arm, was completely unable to struggle and immediately let out a pained roar!
“You want me to die too, Phoenix? You want me to die this much?! Have you forgotten who took care of you and raised you?!”
In the firelight, Sakyamuni grabbed the phoenix’s collar, but the latter just shook his head and said hoarsely and calmly, “Yes, I have… forgotten everything.”
Sakyamuni was stunned. He heard a loud tremor from under his feet. The last ethereal barrier of the Buddhist hall finally turned to dust in the fire of nirvana, and the entire Formless Heaven fell completely into hell!
·
That moment was unprecedented. The nine heavens and ten earths had never seen such a spectacular scene. The Formless Heaven, which was beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, completely fell into the vastness of hell, igniting a spectacular sea of fire on the summit of Mount Buzhou, like a second creation of the world by all the gods and Buddhas.
In the sea of fire, Chu He raised the Buddha’s bone knife. The scorching hot, golden-white blade reflected Sakyamuni’s astonished face.
“The true… true Buddha’s soul…” Sakyamuni was incredulous. “The true Buddha’s soul refined by the phoenix’s true fire?!”
“This is the bone you drew for me,” Chu He’s chapped lips were bleeding, but he showed a tired smile. “When you gave it to me back then, you said, so this is the taste of having a bone drawn… But you don’t know that besides that, I have experienced more pain, fear, and confusion. If you don’t die, none of this will end. The chaos from the Heavenly Dao to the Four Evil Paths will continue…”
A look of fear finally appeared in Sakyamuni’s eyes, but the next second, the tip of the Buddha’s bone knife was at his neck.
“Farewell, Sakyamuni.”
With a flick of his wrist, Chu He plunged the tip of the knife into his throat.
—In that instant of drawing blood, the Buddha’s bone knife slowly melted. A faint human figure emerged from the blade. It was, shockingly, Zhang Shun!
He didn’t really look like Zhang Shun anymore. Although his face was as familiar as ever, his expression was like a different person, full of peace, tranquility, and an indescribable sense of suppression. As soon as Sakyamuni saw him, he let out a terrified scream and immediately tried to escape, but was held tightly by the phoenix’s skeleton, his body making a terrifying, sizzling sound in the fire of nirvana.
The true Buddha stood up and walked towards him from the void, like a shadow enveloped in Buddha’s light, easily squeezing into his charred body bit by bit.
With this movement, the parts of the Buddha’s body that had been scorched and melted by the fire of nirvana actually began to gradually repair and regenerate, while a pitch-black thing filled with electrical currents was also slowly “squeezed” out from behind the Buddha’s body, letting out a sharp hiss.
—That was the real Sakyamuni, the heart-demon born from the true Buddha’s heart in the demon’s eye of hell tens of thousands of years ago.
“Why! Why are you back!” the heart-demon roared at the true Buddha, trying to reoccupy the golden body, but was repeatedly pushed back by the fire of nirvana.
“Why didn’t you die in the Formless Heaven! Why didn’t you completely disappear!”
“Why can you still come back—!”
The true Buddha finally completely entered the golden body, radiating infinite light in the sea of fire, like a celestial god descending to earth. He turned and looked at his heart-demon with pity, his eyes filled with complex and indescribable emotions.
He did not answer, but after a long moment, only shook his head gently.
The heart-demon erupted with dazzling electrical arcs in the flames and let out a piercing roar as it pounced on the true Buddha, but the next moment, its body was grabbed by something, and then everything went black.
In the last second before his consciousness disappeared, he did his best to turn his head, but only saw a bird as beautiful and radiant as a jewel, opening its giant beak towards him.
—It was the peacock.
The peacock crossed the mountain peak, crossed the sea of fire, and pounced on its mother phoenix, who was disappearing in the fire of nirvana. In the sea of fire, it encountered the heart-demon blocking its path, so without a second thought, it swallowed it in one gulp.
In the unseen world, karma circulates, and retribution is certain. The heart-demon Sakyamuni, born from the true Buddha’s eighth consciousness, finally met his end in the mouth of the Peacock Wisdom King.
·
The true Buddha looked at the peacock, then turned to look at the phoenix, who was becoming more and more transparent in the fire of nirvana. Then, following the cracked earth of hell and the continuous Iron Wheel Mountains, he looked towards the direction of the human world in the distance, a look of nostalgia flashing in his eyes.
He finally stood up. Not far away, in the high sky, Zhou Hui was coming against the current of the sky-full sea of fire.
“…”
The true Buddha seemed to murmur something, but no one could hear him. A moment later, he sighed with regret. His figure suddenly rose towards the collapsing Formless Heaven, and in the void, he waved his hand at the sea of fire for the first time.
With that movement, the roaring sea of fire turned into nothingness, and the dust and smoke rolled away, dissipating at the horizon. The true Buddha waved his hand for the second time, and Zhou Hui was pushed forward by an invisible force, passing through the heavy smoke and clouds, and stopping at the center of the phoenix’s nirvana.
Zhou Hui turned his head in astonishment and saw the Buddha in the cloud light, waving his hand at them for the third time.
—However, it was just a farewell.
Then the golden Buddha turned and rushed towards the Formless Heaven. The Buddha’s light shone everywhere, and celestial music played in unison. The Buddha, who had not been in his rightful place for tens of thousands of years, finally, on the summit of hell’s Mount Buzhou, returned to his lotus throne.
·
The flames gradually died out, leaving only a sky full of thick smoke.
Zhou Hui, his head and face covered in blood, panted and knelt in mid-air. Then he fiercely pushed aside the approaching Peacock Wisdom King and plunged headfirst into the black clouds.
—“If I turn into an egg, will you pick me up?”
I will.
“If I leave, will you wait for me to come back?”
I will.
“If you don’t want me… where else can I go?”
You have nowhere to go, so you must come back to my side.
Zhou Hui frantically searched for his target in the thick black clouds produced by the burning. He shuttled through the choking thick smoke, looking wretched, but he didn’t care at all. Finally, after countless searches, he finally saw a glowing dot in the depths of the sea of clouds. Although it was faint and fleeting, the next second, he shot out like an arrow from a bowstring, and in an instant, he had the target in his palm.
Then he fell rapidly, falling to the ground in the swirling airflow, and knelt with a thud on the edge of a cliff above the waves of the sea of blood.
At that moment, he didn’t dare to open his hand to even glance at the thing in his palm. His heart was beating so fast, thump after thump, almost about to jump out of his throat with a throbbing pain.
“Hoo…”
After a long while, Zhou Hui finally let out a long, thorough breath, as if he could barely suppress his trembling body with this action. Then he opened his fingers.
In his palm was an egg.
An egg that could barely be held in one hand, as white as snow and suffused with a radiant glow, as if carved from jade.
—That was the phoenix’s jade embryo after nirvana.
Zhou Hui’s fingers dug deep into the hard rock, so hard that he was on the verge of convulsing. After a long moment, he finally let out a hoarse, distorted wail.
