Chapter 193
The first level of the five-tiered pagoda.
Now, a full eight Chen have passed since Li Qi arrived here.
Li Qi was observing the 108 demons with a mesmerizing expression, completely absorbed and unable to extricate himself.
He has now even forgotten that he is in danger.
It's so... so wonderful.
The 108 demons each possess different techniques, methods, and paths; their Divine Ability, forms, and focuses differ.
It's as if by thoroughly studying these 108 demons, one can find a path to Heavenly Dao!
Li Qi's curiosity and his desire for enlightenment were thoroughly ignited by these demons.
He felt like he was back in school, where he didn't need to worry about backstabbing or office politics. He could simply focus all his attention on the problem at hand and get the greatest sense of accomplishment and everyone's praise.
Li Qi has already studied up to the fifty-second demon.
With eyes fixed on ever-deepening mysteries, he seemed to have already grasped the meaning of life and death in the six realms.
He made great strides forward, working diligently and rationally. With each secret and mystery solved, his heart became more enlightened, and he gained more peace and joy. But at the same time, his curiosity also grew stronger.
I really hope I can continue to study this.
Keep going.
If one continues to study, one can truly understand the conceptualized characteristics of all phenomena arising from dependent origination, and thus truly understand all phenomena without characteristics.
If one continues to study and truly understands the dependent origination, one will be able to truly understand all defiled phenomena.
If one continues to study and truly understands the perfect reality, one will be able to truly understand all pure and tranquil phenomena.
If one continues to study, and truly understands the formless Dharma within the realm of dependent origination, one can sever the defiled aspects of Dharma. Thus, one can attain the pure aspects of Dharma.
Such is the essence of virtue.
Because one truly understands all phenomena without form, phenomena with defilement, and phenomena with purity; because one truly understands phenomena without form, one extinguishes all phenomena with defilement; because one extinguishes all phenomena with defilement, one attains all phenomena with purity...
A sudden realization dawned on Li Qi.
Then he attained Fruit Position and was named the Bodhisattva Skillful in All Dharmas.
As long as we continue to unravel the mysteries before us, as long as we continue to expose the true faces of these demons, and understand their techniques, methods, and principles, then the great position is within our grasp.
Just keep going.
Just keep going.
Time passed second by second, and Li Qi had even forgotten that time was passing; he didn't even know how much time had gone by.
Seventy-five heads.
Eighty-two heads.
One hundred and three heads.
Until the very end, the 108th head.
Li Qi walked up to the last demon.
As long as I analyze this last one, I can...
Then we can defeat the first demon.
Li Qi walked up with clear eyes, his previously suppressed consciousness unfolding, True Knowledge Dao Charm was now displaying its power.
Runes flickered all around, and Li Qi placed one hand on the demon statue.
But then the statue came to life!
It was a hideous demon, reeking of decay. Its emaciated body was covered in leathery black skin, and behind its protruding ears, a huge curved horn rose from the back of its skull. A mouth with jagged teeth occupied half of this hideous face.
Its hands and feet were long and slender. Where its sharp fingers pointed, a strange energy spread out. All of Li Qi's previous curiosity and desire to pursue the Dao suddenly erupted at this moment!
The inner demons, which have accumulated 107 demon heads, are now incredibly powerful!
Some energy was forcibly extracted from Li Qi's mouth and nose.
Li Qi's pupils instantly turned a deathly white, like those of someone with cataracts.
His 'curiosity,' 'pursuit of the Dao heart, ' and 'memories' were forcibly extracted at this moment!
The energy flowed into a sphere in the demon's hand, which it then swallowed whole.
Then--
The demon began to bleed from his nose, the blood flowing uncontrollably. His body trembled, and he let out a painful howl.
The pain, which even the demon could hardly suppress, surged into his heart and enveloped his body!
Its skin cracked open, and intense pain surged forth, as if boiling water was being poured into its belly, scalding its internal organs! Then, molten iron was poured into the wound, melting its muscles and internal organs! It felt as if it were truly in a sea of lava!
"Ah—!" it couldn't help but howl in pain, kneeling on the ground and tearing at its skin!
But in an instant.
The pain suddenly disappeared.
Because the demon's head exploded like a watermelon.
Li Qi, on the other hand, took a deep breath and returned to normal.
He opened his eyes, a bitter smile on his face, "This is just a demon? I had to rely on his audacity to actively devour my Dao essence, which choked him to death."
Yes, he spent an entire day analyzing one of the 108 demons.
This also allowed him to master some Buddhist sorcery.
Moreover, it was mastered through True Knowledge Dao Charm.
"The Desire Fiend is not only evil thoughts, but it can also devour my memories and stimulate the deepest desires in my heart. If I hadn't True Knowledge Dao Charm, I would probably have been doomed here."
Li Qi shook his head and sighed.
To achieve balance, you first need to understand the specific circumstances.
Just now, using the True Knowledge Dao Charm that had just returned to its original state for some unknown reason, Li Qi discovered that he could analyze the weaknesses, strengths, and the powers they represented.
Yes, it represents the power behind it.
These demons seem to be nothing more than... tentacles.
Li Qi wasn't sure if this description was appropriate, but from the perspective of someone True Knowledge Dao Charm, these demons were merely the tentacles emanating from a great being.
There are countless such tentacles; they are all branches of that great being.
Analyzing these demons is to analyze that great being himself.
Therefore, it is extremely difficult and extremely dangerous.
In analyzing his Desire Fiend, Li Qi risked his life, gradually incorporating these demonic thoughts into his mind, and then turning the tables at the last moment.
Before this, he was truly misled, truly indulging in a false sense of satisfaction, and basking in the sense of accomplishment that came from having his thirst for knowledge fulfilled.
Even Li Qi's mental fortitude couldn't withstand it; only by relying on Dao Yun's backup plan could he win.
There were a total of one hundred and eight such demons.
No wonder the Chanzhi Zenzhi went mad.
You should know that these demons had already been killed and eaten by Chanzhi long ago.
He devoured 1,808 demons using the method of eating hearts.
The demons who remain here now are merely the demonic thoughts that have taken root in his heart.
Li Qi may seem to have won one, but in reality, there are still 108 demon statues here.
The demonic thought is deeply rooted in the Buddha's heart of Chanzhi. As long as Chanzhi is alive, the demon will live on forever.
If the demon lord dies, Chanzhi will probably not survive either.
This is difficult.
No wonder he even traveled all the way from the Western Heaven Buddhist Kingdom to Baiyue, just to seek the way of natural balance through Shaman.
It seems that Chanzhi Zhizhi had no other choice.
"This is really too difficult." Li Qi rubbed his temples.
His original plan was to analyze these demons in order to understand Chanzhi Zhi himself.
Because these demonic thoughts have become one with Chanzhi, if one can understand these demonic thoughts, one can not only accumulate a lot of knowledge and experience, but also understand the weaknesses of Chanzhi.
Then it will be time for us to take the lead.
However, Li Qi underestimated the difficulty of doing these things.
Chanzhi was able to entrust Li Qi with this task with peace of mind, probably because he had already anticipated this.
Li Qi simply doesn't have the ability to do this in a short period of time.
"Let me see, eight Chen have passed... Let's rest first." Li Qi shook his head, sat down, took out some cured meat and dried food from his Mustard Seed Bag, condensed water droplets with water vapor, then controlled the fire to boil it, making a pot of cured meat porridge, which he ate as a makeshift meal.
After eating, he went to sleep.
Anyway, there's plenty of time. We've already considered all the options. All that's left is to protect ourselves and wait for rescue.
Before that, see what you can do.
Li Qi started to sleep.
Time passed, and although there were hourglasses for telling time in this tower, the sun and moon were not visible, so it didn't matter when I slept.
However, while he was sound asleep, Li Qi suddenly felt that something was wrong.
The Shaman's sixth sense is in turmoil!
A series of sudden urges kept reminding him, wake up quickly, wake up quickly!
Li Qi followed his instincts without hesitation and immediately opened his eyes.
However, when he woke up, he found that the scenery around him had changed.
The ground beneath my feet felt so unsteady, no longer solid, but rather...
The intestines of some creature?
The entire passage was the intestines of some kind of creature, filled with some yellowish-green viscous substances, I don't know if it was gastric juice or something else, and it was filled with a nauseating stench.
The surrounding scenery had completely changed. The large intestine-like passage was writhing rapidly, emitting a yellowish-green gas that caused Li Qi to feel a series of stinging pains.
I am being digested!
"Damn it!" Li Qi shouted, and with a wave of his hands, two golden energies shot out.
This time, however, there's no fancy gold thread.
The afterimage of the golden thread was caused by a lack of control. Now that he has Primordial Spirit, Li Qi's control over himself has reached its limit. So the golden thread disappeared, but the speed increased by a full 30%!
The golden energy tore open the internal organs, Li Qi flew out of the other party's stomach.
He didn't know when, but he was eaten by someone.
However, as soon as he came out, he saw a horrifying scene.
Indescribable, numerous, and bizarre monsters.
The low growls and howls from all directions, along with the grating sound of sharp claws and scales scraping the ground, were particularly jarring.
With blood and flesh splattered everywhere, even this pagoda became tiresome.
Limbs were scattered everywhere, and there was a blood-like fluid and slime all over the place, like a baby who had just learned to crawl playing and splashing the ground with the monster's bodily fluids as paint.
The 108 demons are alive!
The 108 Arhat statues, their golden bodies now dull and shrouded in an aura of corruption, had lost their power and were instead suppressed by demons!
At this moment, Li Qi was in the midst of the activated demon.
He had just torn open the belly of a demon and sprang out from inside.
As soon as he landed on the ground, he saw a total of 107 demons around him, glancing sideways at Li Qi.
The two sides stared at each other, looking at each other with wide eyes.
Li Qi's face immediately fell.
Golden light shimmered!
But then countless tentacles lunged at him. Li Qi reacted quickly, dodging and rolling as he scrambled past dozens of tentacles in an instant.
At the same time, two golden energies began to rotate around, severing more than ten tentacles.
The monsters' howls echoed all around!
The demons chased after Li Qi!
Li Qi's face was bitter. At this moment, the first-level pagoda was covered with a lot of slime and emitted a deathly stench.
Even a fool could see that this is poisonous and that he shouldn't stay here any longer.
One demon after another was slain by Li Qi, their wounds oozing green blood resembling wasabi.
Li Qi could see countless mounds of flesh all around him, huge and swollen, no longer human-shaped, just balls of flesh covered with human faces.
Li Qi's attack seemed to sting them, causing the faces on the pile of flesh to scream, which looked particularly horrifying.
The monster howled incessantly, and Li Qi fled among them, utterly disheveled.
The second floor! The target is only the second floor!
Only the second floor can save you!
Although these demons were all subdued by Chanzhi during his ninth-rank period, and their strength was all at the ninth rank, if it were just one or two demons, they could still fight and put up a fight.
One hundred and eight of them, I'll beat you up.
Just wait to die!
The only way to survive is from the second floor!
The second floor represents the Bodhisattva heart of Chanzhi, which was cultivated after suppressing these 108 demons.
That's the only safe place!
Fortunately, although the pagoda is large, it still has its limits, only a couple hundred meters in length and width.
Li Qi was already considered a master among the ninth-rank cultivators. Protected by the golden energy, he quickly broke through the demons' encirclement and rushed to the second level.
The entire escape took only a few seconds, but Li Qi was already in grave danger.
More than a hundred demons used their Divine Ability and almost pinned Li Qi to the spot.
"Damn it... thank goodness my martial arts cultivation wasn't ruined, otherwise I would have really been doomed here." Li Qi, having survived the ordeal, looked down at the scene below with relief.
Downstairs, it was still that terrifying scene of a hundred ghosts roaming at night.
The second floor, however, was radiant with precious light and exuded a peaceful atmosphere.
"This pagoda is a manifestation of the Chanzhi's cultivation... Judging from this, Chanzhi's condition is really serious," Li Qi muttered to himself.
At night, a hundred ghosts would appear on this pagoda and suppress the Arhats!
So, will the next step be for the hundred ghosts to turn against the Bodhisattva Hall?
Just as Li Qi had this thought, he saw the Buddha's Buddha's light on the second floor flicker.
Then, the Bodhisattva statue shed tears of blood.
The white Bodhisattva statue has been transformed into a red and white one.
The surrounding Buddha's light began to flicker wildly, like a broken light bulb.
Li Qi couldn't help but shudder! Cold sweat poured down his back.
He quickly sped up, climbing four floors before returning to the fifth.
The area below is probably not safe!
However, we had only just reached the fifth floor.
Chanzhi Zhi has disappeared.
Instead, there was a demon god sitting cross-legged.
His greasy, terrifying body gasped for breath in the air, his lower body replaced by countless tentacles covered in hooked suckers.
On each of these maggot-like, writhing tentacles is a human face, a face filled with brutal distortion, yet surprisingly possessing a trace of clarity.
The demon god now looked at Li Qi, who was catching up, with malice.
Li Qi stood frozen in place, his hair standing on end, and his heart skipped a beat.
This is bad.
It's the last day of March, so please give me any expiring monthly passes you have.