—A heavy fist slammed down.
Countless cracks split the ground. Light burst from them in thousands of rays, accompanied by Buddhist chants from a boundless Buddha realm. Every infected thing within hundreds of meters caught fire and burned to ash in the roaring flames.
The chief monk panted and raised his eyes to look around.
—As he sensed it, the earth accounted for one part of the enemy, and everything else for nine.
Even the plants, which should have had no thoughts at all, had begun to twist into indescribable shapes—
The phantom of the Rosy Clouds Temple was barely holding on. On the other side, the Six Desires Demon Lord had already shifted most of his essence here and begun forcibly manifesting the Heaven of Freely Enjoying Others' Emanations in this remote wilderness!
Heavenly palaces stretched as far as the eye could see.
Yet the chief monk could not describe them. No mortal words could capture that sight. It held every beautiful thing in the human world and the fulfillment of every wish. Nothing was needed there, yet anything could be manifested at will—
The chief monk drew a deep breath. A Buddhist scripture appeared in his hand, and he covered his right eye with it.
—He saw boundless suffering. People, or things that had once been people, drifted through that sea of desire, steeped in the seven emotions and swept up in the five aggregates, all to give the supreme Demon Lord even a sliver of amusement.
The chief monk forced down the boundless joy and terror in his heart and silently recited a line.
"All that has form is illusory." After a few seconds of silence, he added another.
"All conditioned things are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like dew and lightning. Thus should they be