As Ye Changqing walked through the Primordial World, he felt the thick calamity aura between heaven and earth. He seemed to have guessed the answer.
He sighed quietly. In the end, he still hadn't managed to avoid it.
This time, he had come to the Netherworld Blood Sea and met Ancestor Minghe.
When enemies met, there was no animosity. Ancestor Minghe, on the contrary, rather admired him.
If the path to Becoming a Saint weren't paved with corpses, why would they have to fight?
At a gathering place of the Asura Clan, the two watched the beautiful Asura women dance below, both feeling quite at ease.
Ye Changqing didn't have much time left, and Ancestor Minghe no longer regarded him as a rival.
The two chatted and laughed together, discussing the many secrets of the Primordial World.
At the banquet, a black-faced bull-headed man gulped down wine, his lascivious eyes fixed on the beauties, unwilling to look away for even a moment.
"You lecherous bull!"
"Big lecherous bull!"
Suddenly, a little girl's childish voice scolded him.
Kui Niu flew into a rage, his temper flaring in an instant.
But when he saw the delicate little girl before him, his anger vanished.
How could a grown man like him, a dignified Grand Unity Golden Immortal, pick a fight with a little girl?
"Where did this brat come from? Don't ruin your Grandpa Bull's fun!"
"Shoo, shoo. Go on, get out of here..."
Kui Niu urged her to leave.
Seated above them, Ye Changqing suddenly wore a mysterious smile. Could this be the fated connection written in the stars?
Wonderful!
The little girl was named Rakshasa Woman, and she was the princess of the Rakshasa Kingdom.
She had never suffered such a slight before.
Rakshasa Woman opened her little mouth and spat out a miniature Banana Leaf Fan. She recited an incantation, and it grew with the wind.
"Blow away!"
Rakshasa Woman gave him a gentle wave of the fan, and Kui Niu vanished in an instant.
"Damn... I underestimated her..."
Only his regretful tears remained where he had stood.
"Hahaha!"
Ye Changqing and Ancestor Minghe burst out laughing.
After eating and drinking their fill, the two went to Ancestor Minghe's lair in the Blood Sea and talked late into the night.
Only after three days and three nights did Ye Changqing emerge, looking exhausted.
No one knew whether the two had reached some kind of agreement or struck a deal.
Ancestor Minghe, however, looked quite pleased. He personally escorted Ye Changqing and the others out of the Netherworld Blood Sea.
In the Eighteen Levels of Hell in the Netherworld Underworld,
countless evil spirits endured all manner of torture to atone for the sins they had committed in life.
They said the heavenly way always came full circle, and that no one could escape Heaven's judgment. But did this approach really work?
Sooner or later, these beings would enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation again. After drinking Meng Po's Soup, they would forget all about their past lives.
Whether human nature was good or evil was determined by the heavenly way. No one could escape the path it had set.
If good and evil were determined by the heavenly way, then what was the point of punishing them?
Riding Diting, the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva shone with Buddhist light. As it fell upon the tortured evil spirits, their faces gradually grew peaceful.
The hell that had been filled with wails and howls fell silent in an instant.
"Until hell is empty, I shall not become a Buddha!"
Those words sounded noble, but he was merely helping the Western World steal merit on a massive scale.
Whether the Western Sect or the Human Sect, both were thieves of fortune.
"As long as the Saints live, the great thieves will never cease!"
"Someone's coming!"
"Him?"
As the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was delivering the evil spirits, Diting, beneath him, cried out in alarm.
Diting was a child of the Qilin, born auspicious, with a divine talent that allowed him to hear everything across the Three Realms.
But how did his ears compare to the Six-Eared Macaque's?
A powerful aura shook the Netherworld Underworld. The evil spirits, who had just grown calm, were once again filled with terror. Their heart-rending cries made one's scalp crawl.
"Fellow Daoist, what do you mean by this?" the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva asked with a sigh.
Ye Changqing glanced at him, then said to Diting, "Your dad blew up!"
Diting: ???
Qilin Cliff had been formed from the remains of the First Qilin. It had been tossed onto Shouyang Mountain and reduced to rubble.
Ye Changqing truly didn't know why Diting had willingly become the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's mount.
He had come this time to persuade the Western World's spy planted in the Netherworld to withdraw.
"When will hell be empty?"
He smiled at the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, secretly setting a trap for him.
"How about we make a bet?"
"If I deliver all the evil spirits in these Eighteen Levels of Hell, you'll return to your Western World and become a Buddha there, like a good little monk!"
The Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva furrowed his brow, sensing that something was very wrong.
But if someone asked him exactly what was wrong, he couldn't say.
Still, Ye Changqing's claim that he would deliver every evil spirit was pure fantasy.
As long as living beings continued to commit evil, evil spirits would keep appearing without end.
"Fine!"
After thinking it over, he accepted Ye Changqing's wager.
Ye Changqing slowly closed his eyes and used the power of the Chaos Bead to lock onto all Eighteen Levels of Hell in an instant.
Anyone who ended up here was either a crook or a scoundrel. None of them were decent.
An invisible aura surged from his body, sweeping across the entire Netherworld and binding every evil spirit.
A lotus platform suddenly appeared beneath his feet, releasing boundless karmic fire.
"The Twelve-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus?"
The Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's eyes widened. He had fought Ancestor Minghe countless times, so he recognized it immediately.
He looked as if he had seen a ghost, utterly unable to believe his eyes.
Ancestor Minghe had clearly tried to stop Ye Changqing when he was achieving Dao. Shouldn't the two of them have been sworn enemies?
Could it be...
Ye Changqing had already dealt with Ancestor Minghe?
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
In a mere instant, the Red Lotus Karma Fire engulfed every evil spirit.
They carried immense Karmic Force, so naturally they could not escape the judgment of the karma fire.
One after another, they burst into ashes like fireworks.
"Fellow Daoist, do it!"
At the command, Ancestor Minghe's hearty laughter shook the Netherworld. Wielding the murderous Innate Spiritual Treasures Yuantu and Abi Swords, he slaughtered everything in sight.
His twin swords killed without accruing cause and effect, and the Twelve-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus absorbed his Karmic Force for him.
This was practically an absurd exploit. If no one put a stop to him, it would be ridiculous.
The path of slaughter was also the foundation of Ancestor Minghe's attempt to achieve Hunyuan.
He was destined not to slaughter the human race of the Primordial World. Otherwise, he would end up like Eastern Emperor Taiyi and Di Jun.
But these evil spirits were different. They were all sinners who had committed grave crimes.
Ancestor Minghe even felt he was doing good deeds.
In the blink of an eye, every evil spirit in the Eighteen Levels of Hell had been slaughtered.
"You..."
"You two..."
The Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was furious. This was downright cheating.
They had agreed to deliver the spirits. How could they kill them all instead?
But then he sneered. Ye Changqing and Ancestor Minghe had killed more evil spirits than he could count. Could they really bear such immense karmic consequences?
Their actions had altered the course of the heavenly way. A mass of tribulation clouds, stretching hundreds of millions of miles across the Primordial World, appeared above the Netherworld Underworld.
Ye Changqing laughed dismissively and forcefully burned through his lifespan, releasing the Great Dao Will from his sea of consciousness.
The tribulation clouds, which had been swirling overhead, dispersed in an instant, and heaven and earth returned to their former clarity.
"I win!"
"Safe travels. I won't see you out!"
Ye Changqing said with a laugh, spitting blood as he spoke.
Ancestor Minghe held two Innate Spiritual Treasures in his hands and stood atop the Twelve-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus. He too gazed at Ye Changqing with a beaming smile, looking very much as if he were about to send him to his death.
"Fine!"
"Diting, we're leaving!"
The Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva gritted his teeth and left the Netherworld Underworld with Diting.
The Ten Palace Yama Kings, who had hurried over after hearing the news, watched the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's retreating figure and fell into deep thought.
Would they be next?
Before you continue