Tathagata Orders War to Sweep the Land

"Yes, yes, we all have faith in the Heavenly King! May the Heavenly King succeed at once and win the first battle!"

Some had even clasped their hands together and begun murmuring under their breaths. Listening closely, one found that they were saying—

"...Namo Amitabha, may Buddha be merciful and deliver... uh, bless Heavenly King Li with a safe journey..."

Their schadenfreude, their eagerness for him to hurry off and die, was utterly undisguised!

Li Jing stood alone and helpless in the center of the great hall. He felt the gazes coming from every direction—mocking, pitying, or simply eager to watch the spectacle. Then he looked at the cold, imposing eyes of Buddha Tathagata beside the Lotus Throne, and his heart turned icy.

Although he was Ancient Buddha Ran Deng's sole remaining disciple and held a special status, his usual conduct and intellect had been downright painful to witness. He had long become something of a "joke" and an "outsider" among Spirit Mountain's upper ranks. Now that everyone had collectively ostracized him, not a single person spoke on his behalf!

He opened his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing as cold sweat instantly soaked the back of his robes. Go to the Heavenly Court? Now? Make that sort of demand? How was that any different from knocking on Yama Hall's gates and saying he wanted to die?

"Li Jing," Buddha Tathagata's voice sounded again, now carrying obvious impatience and pressure.

"Do you have any objections?"

The eyes of the Thirty Thousand Buddhas pierced Li Jing like countless invisible needles.

His face went deathly pale, and his lips trembled for a long while. Under Tathagata's increasingly frigid gaze, he finally bent at the waist with excruciating slowness, as though every ounce of strength had been drained from him, and forced out several