Black Heaven

Upon hearing this, the Chanzhi nodded, and then asked, "So you are a worthy disciple of Wushen Mountain. No wonder you are so outstanding. Which lineage of Wushen Mountain are you, benefactor?"

"Shaman, of the Earthly Deity lineage," Li Qi replied.

Clearly, Chanzhi is testing Li Qi.

Although he didn't become so naive as to be captivated by the name "Wushen Mountain" like other unsophisticated people, it was clear that he remained cautious about it, refraining from speaking disrespectfully or accusing Li Qi of lying.

Even when faced with a power comparable to the Western Heaven Buddhist Kingdom, Chanzhi still needs to maintain respect.

After hearing Li Qi's reply to Shaman Earthly Deity, Chanzhi nodded. "I see. This humble monk and you have similar origins. This humble monk comes from the seat of Mahakala Black Heaven, and Earthly Deity lineage comes from Dakini Heaven. Our status is roughly equal."

Li Qi, on the other hand, broke out in a cold sweat after hearing these words.

Damn it, no wonder this evil monk is ruthless and even willing to perform Blood Sacrifice without hesitation!

Even he had heard of the Black Heaven!

A notorious demon, he wears human bones, and even his Buddha Statue hold Kapala Bowl made of skulls, filled with human blood, and wear skulls around their necks. He is bloodthirsty and terrifying, and enjoys subduing the strong.

Moreover, this backer is no weaker than one's own.

Seemingly noticing Li Qi's face paled and he broke out in a cold sweat, Chanzhi smiled gently.

Then, with this kind smile, he said to Li Qi, "It seems that you have heard of him, but people have a misunderstanding about Black Heaven, thinking that he is cruel and inhumane, but that is not the case."

"These statements all come from the Mahamayuri Sutra. The sutra says that Black Heaven lives in the 'charnel ground,' but in reality he lives in Samashana. The charnel ground is a derogatory term. The Mahamayuri Sutra says that Black Heaven likes human flesh and often travels at night with countless ghosts and spirits to steal human blood and flesh, but this is just a facade."

Li Qi felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing this.

Master Chanzhi, you only said it was an appearance, but you didn't say it was false...

In fact, as Shaman, Li Qi possessed all the sacrificial methods of various top gods.

That's why he broke out in a cold sweat after hearing the name of the Black Heaven.

According to the book "Zhu", the main offering for the sacrifice to Black Heaven is a cake made of black flour and human blood. It must contain a mixture of five kinds of meat, including human flesh. A skull of a child born from incest is also offered, filled with blood and mustard seeds. A piece of a little boy's skin is also taken, and human blood and brain are placed in a bowl. Human oil lamps are lit around the bowl, with wicks made of hair. Finally, the offering is finished with dough made of human gallbladder, brain, blood and internal organs.

These great evil gods were merely subdued by Vairocana Buddha, also Great Sun Tathagata as Mahavairocana Buddha, and became Guardian Spirit of Buddhism...

But this thing is never a friendly fry.

But Chanzhi Zhi seemed oblivious to Li Qi's pale face, and continued explaining, "Black Heaven is the guardian deity of battle. If he is not fierce, how can he deter evil spirits?"

Damn it, you're the biggest demon! Great Sun Tathagata himself to subdue this demon, and you dare say you're intimidating others?!

Regardless of Li Qi's inner grumbling, Chanzhi still said, "The bowl of blood in his hand is the blood of the four evil spirits: the Five Aggregates, Afflictions, Death, and Heavenly Demon. The skull on his body represents wisdom. The head is the place where wisdom resides. He has a total of five skulls, which are the 'Five Wisdoms'."

"His ferocity and cruelty were to subdue and save sentient beings who were gradually deteriorating in the Dharma-ending Age. Sentient beings are evil, so naturally they need Guardian Spirit to save them."

"Does the benefactor know that besides Black Heaven and Dakini Heaven, there is also the Venerable Lakshmi, whose saddle is also made of human skin, the skin of her own son. Because Lakshmi's son refused to subdue the monks and lamas and was about to fall into evil realms, the goddess Lakshmi sacrificed her own son for righteousness, skinning him to make a seat, to show her Buddhist heart. Black Heaven is just similar."

"It's just that Black Heaven's protection is more extensive. Evil beings need to be punished, but good men and women who believe in him will be protected by Black Heaven as long as they serve him and recite his mantra. Evil spirits, evil ghosts, mountain demons, and invisible beings cannot harm them. Evil beings in the Dharma-ending Age can be forgiven if they can awaken to their mistakes soon and will not have to be punished by Black Heaven."

Li Qi's eye twitched after hearing this.

Damn it, are you collecting protection money?!

However, Li Qi immediately put his hands together and said, "So that's how it is Black Heaven is actually out of compassion for all living beings. I was narrow-minded before. But Dakini Heaven?"

Chanzhi immediately replied, "Under Black Heaven are the Seven Mother Heavenly Maiden, and also Dakini Heaven."

"Dakini Heaven, also known as the Wisdom Dakini, has hundreds of thousands of faces. She is the manifestation of the Buddhist Principle, encompassing all aspects of good and evil, right and wrong, good and bad, greed, ignorance and anger."

"Dakini Heaven was originally Yaksa demon who loved to eat human hearts. Later, he was subdued by Black Heaven using the method of subduing the three worlds, and all of them were made to submit to the Buddha. He is Dakini Heaven, originally the Akasagarbha Bodhisattva, who manifested as a Heavenly Maiden to Salvation of all beings by perfecting the Buddha's merits."

"She enjoys eating people's hearts and is good at it, so she can observe the good and bad of people's hearts."

"All sentient beings have countless appearances, including beauty and ugliness, good and evil, intelligence and foolishness, righteousness and wickedness, and even all kinds of wrong views and inverted minds. This mind manifests as Celestial Person, hell, and the six realms of reincarnation, but it is also the most difficult to grasp. After Dakini Heaven returned to Buddhism, he was filled with compassion and used this method to help sentient beings observe their inner afflictions, beauty and ugliness, good and bad, reality and illusion. Facing the countless appearances of sentient beings with oneself is like Great Bright Mirror, helping sentient beings to see their true self and see the Tathagata within their hearts."

"This is the origin of the poor monk's predicament."

Chanzhi said all this, Li Qi immediately realized that the other party was starting to get down to business.

So he wiped away his cold sweat, sat up straight, and listened carefully to Chanzhi's words.

Because Li Qi had already realized that his previous guesses might be somewhat wrong.

He had previously thought that Chanzhi had fallen into demonic ways because his Cultivation Method had gone wrong.

Now it's clear that this demonic monk is a pure member of the demonic path, only his demonic thoughts are out of balance!

If things go wrong, I'll end up as the Kapala Bowl in his hands.

"My method of cultivation is the Dakini Heaven, which allows me to observe the hearts of sentient beings. However, to observe the heart, one must first cultivate the heart. So I subdued 108 demons, ate their hearts, and incorporated their demonic thoughts into the Buddha's heart. Only then can you see the first level of the five-tiered pagoda, the statue of the Arhat subduing a hundred demons."

Li Qi shrank back.

Oh no, judging from what he said, this person also has the ability to read minds...

Did they hear what I just said?

However, Chanzhi seemed to ignore Li Qi's inner grumbling and continued to explain his predicament, "The Dakini Heaven can devour people's hearts, thereby obtaining all their wisdom and memories."

Oh, thank goodness, he can't read minds, he can only... wait, after eating people's hearts, he gains all their intelligence and memories?!

Li Qi almost fell, but he immediately took a deep breath and managed to sit up.

If the other party has such Divine Ability, then what's the point of me being here?!

Why not just dig out your own heart and eat it? Wouldn't that be a win-win situation? You wouldn't even need to ask any questions; you'd immediately receive the authentic lineage of Shaman Path.

"No, "Li Qi frowned.

If that's really the case, then this evil monk shouldn't have wasted so much time talking to me.

Let's hear what he has to say for now.

Li Qi continued listening.

Chanzhi Zhi seemed oblivious to Li Qi's startled state of mind and continued gently, "Dakini Heaven was originally a Yaksa who enjoyed eating human hearts, and Venerable Dakini Heaven himself is the manifestation of this great evil."

The commentary on the Mahavairocana Sutra, Volume 10, records. "Dakini is a follower of Mahakala, one of the Yaksa; she possesses Divine Ability powers and can foresee a person's death six months in advance. She then preemptively eats the person's heart and replaces it with something else, until the person is about to die, at which point she is destroyed; those who practice this method can attain Divine Ability and great achievements; Vairocana Buddha, in order to eliminate these beings, used the method of subduing the three worlds, transforming into Mahakala to subdue them, causing them all to take refuge in the Buddha."

"With this background, one must first become a demon and then a Buddha in order to practice the Dakini Heaven method, just as Dakini Heaven was once Yaksa demon god and was then subdued by Black Heaven."

"This humble monk has subdued 108 demon heads and even devoured their hearts. Now, demonic thoughts have taken root in my mind, but this is the foundation of my Cultivation Method, so I cannot abandon it. I can only suppress it."

"Originally, I told you the same thing: I used the Heart Hunting Supernatural Ability from the Dakini Heaven Method to hunt down the hearts of Guangyang Situ and Guangyang Sima, then ate their hearts, and filled them with other things to make them my puppets. Through this method, I could comprehend the natural law of Shaman Path. By harmonizing Buddhism and demons in this way, I could break through the demonic thoughts."

Li Qi listened to the Chanzhi's story, he also pondered his own affairs.

The Heart Hunting Supernatural Ability should be the same as the Freedom Divine Ability Power that the other party just mentioned.

The book on Technique Method given by Teacher Zhu contained corresponding explanations, and he searched through it and found the corresponding descriptions.

The Heart Hunting Supernatural Ability Divine Ability Power is the ability to foresee the death of others and replace their hearts with substitutes for prey.

The Dakini Heaven eats human hearts. After consuming a human heart, she puts in something corrupt and replaces the heartbeat. The recipient usually does not notice anything unusual and can even live a normal life.

In reality, the moment Dakini Heaven swallows the heart, the person is already practically dead. At most, the person will die within six months, or at the slightest thought of Dakini Heaven.

Later, this Divine Ability spawned other versions, such as the version used by the Chanzhi Zenzhi today, which is basically just a change in the filling material, allowing him to create his own puppet.

Chanzhi Zhi used this trick to bring Guangyang City into his clutches.

The real Guangyang Situ and Guangyang Sima were already dead; their hearts, wisdom, and memories had been eaten by the Chanzhi.

What is walking in this world now is merely a physical body.

Looking at it this way, most of my guesses were correct, except that I guessed wrong about the extent of Chanzhi Zhi's madness.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of Chanzhi Zhi was to rid himself of the influence of demonic thoughts.

I must do this myself in order to get out of here.

While Li Qi was pondering, the Chanzhi continued to explain, describing the foundation of his Cultivation Method and what issues he needed to resolve.

Clearly, he was really going to ask Li Qi for this favor.

Although Li Qi didn't know why the other party didn't just choose to eat him directly, but instead went through all that trouble, it didn't matter.

It's a good thing he doesn't eat himself. Why worry so much? You'll never get anywhere by thinking about it all the time. It's better to accept the outcome and then make a decision based on that.

Perhaps it's because of the background of Wushen Mountain.

Half an hour passed, and Chanzhi Zhi finally explained the fundamentals of his Cultivation Method completely, leaving nothing out.

At first, he only talked about some very ordinary things, such as his origins.

Even now, Li Qi can still remain calm.

Fifteen minutes later, he began to discuss specific cultivation methods, even including details such as what kind of energy to use and how to improve.

Upon arriving here, Li Qi began to feel restless.

In a quarter of an hour, he had explained his cultivation method completely, so frankly that Li Qi felt he could find a seventh-rank expert to cooperate with and immediately devise a plan to kill him here.

At this point, Li Qi felt a chill run down his spine.

This wicked monk...

He explained his background so clearly.

Won't they discard me after I've served my purpose?

"These are the specific details. Now, benefactor, tell me how you intend to resolve this humble monk's predicament? You made that promise to me on the battlefield earlier." Chanzhi Zhi smiled as he looked at Li Qi.

Li Qi immediately replied, "Master, please don't be impatient. I only said this because I am certain of my abilities. Please listen to what I have to say."

He spoke very quickly, as if he was afraid that if he replied too slowly, the Chanzhi Zenzhi would take his head and turn it into Kapala Bowl.

"This pagoda is a manifestation of the Daoist aura and cultivation of Master Chanzhi, and it was personally bestowed by Venerable Dakini Heaven, right?" Li Qi asked.

Chanzhi nodded and replied, "That's right. Master once said that when the pagoda reaches the seventh level, that will be the time when I enter the sixth rank. To this day, four levels have been built. I used the popularity and karma of ten thousand families to build the framework of the fifth level, intending to balance the Buddha and the demon here. However, this fifth level is still 70% empty."

"I want to go to the first floor first to see the Hundred Demons' Thoughts. Will that interfere with you, Master?" Li Qi asked again.

"No, please do as you wish, but you haven't yet said how you intend to proceed," Chanzhi kindly reminded him.

"To harmonize all things, one must understand all things. If I want to resolve demonic thoughts, I must first see what demonic thoughts look like," Li Qi said.

"Then please, I will wait here for you." Chanzhi nodded, put his hands together, closed his eyes, and let Li Qi leave, seemingly not worried at all that he would run away.

Of course, Li Qi certainly wouldn't run away.

The opponent is a seventh-rank expert. Li Qi would be out of his mind to run away. Where could he run to? He couldn't escape to the ends of the earth.

He hurried downstairs and arrived at the first level of the five-story pagoda.

There was no one there, only 108 Arhat statues. Next to each Arhat was a small, serpentine demon, which was suppressed by the Arhat statue.

Li Qi took a deep breath and activated his own Daoist energy.

The Daoist principle of 'true knowledge' has the ability to analyze all things.

This demonic thought is a part of Chanzhi Zhi's inner world.

Therefore, it is equivalent to touching the most vulnerable part of Chanzhi right now.

Li Qi was never one to sit idly by and wait for death, not even when facing a seventh-rank official who was like a living god or Buddha.