The World Was Sick

Zhang Fusheng stared blankly at his Eldest Senior Brother, who had been so arrogant just a moment ago, ready to unleash his full power and wreak havoc, now lying paralyzed on the ground, on the verge of death.

What kind of power is this?

The Eldest Senior Brother said, "Buddha's disciple, is he just a Martial Arts Master?"

He felt no horror or fear; instead, a deep longing arose in his heart!

Can Martial Arts Master achieve this level?

Could Martial Arts Master make even Old Shi wary?

You almost killed him!

The gaunt woman lying behind the handsome young man said softly:

"If they're killed, it'll be troublesome. The Western Sect's deities are descending, and the Investigation Bureau is using this city as Kou City, laying down Flesh and Blood Mycelial Blanket."

"We still need this Living Buddha's Divine Ability to leave Jiangzhou!"

The handsome young man scratched his head:

"I didn't expect him to be so weak. He's supposed to be Living Buddha, after all."

He kicked the half-dead Niu Dali, then looked at the wary golden giant and said in a friendly manner:

"This is the reincarnation of the Buddhist Sect Great Belly Buddha Ancestor of the Vulture Peak lineage. Brother, please remember to stay away from the Vulture Peak lineage and be on good terms with my Mandala lineage."

After a pause, the handsome young man pointed at the half-dead Niu Dali and said seriously:

"Look at him, the Buddha Ancestor with a big belly. Just hearing his name makes him sound like a grotesque and Evil God. Do you know the Great Belly Buddha Ancestor? He's just a fake Buddha with a big belly, yet he claims to be the Future Buddha."

"No wonder he's called the Great Belly Buddha Ancestor, he's a glutton. I think he should be called the Gluttonous Buddha Ancestor."

Zhang Fusheng's eyelids twitched as he listened.

I didn't quite understand when I heard the name "Great Belly Buddha Ancestor," but it refers to the Future Buddha.

Maitreya Buddha Ancestor?

He was suddenly startled, remembering a serious question.

If he truly is a reincarnation of Maitreya, what is his connection to the Taotie?

He really didn't see a trace of Maitreya in Niu Dali, he was all Taotie!

"Be careful," came the handsome young man's voice.

Zhang Fusheng subconsciously looked up:

"What?"

The handsome young man said earnestly:

"After all, he is a Living Buddha of Buddha Ancestor- like stature. I cannot kill him before leaving Jiangzhou, so I must make him Human Treasure."

While rambling on, he opened the cloth bag hanging at his waist and pulled out a large urn, about half the size of a person, from the small bag!

The Buddhist disciple huffed and puffed as he stuffed half of the Niu Dali into the urn, sprinkled on some medicinal powder, Niu Dali quickly healed, and in a short while, the half-person grew back into a whole person.

Immediately afterwards, under Zhang Fusheng's astonished gaze,

With a flick of his finger, the Buddhist disciple peeled open his Eldest Senior Brother's scalp, then took mercury from his bag and poured it in.

"Roar!!!"

The Eldest Senior Brother, who had been unconscious, awoke in agony, letting out a hysterical scream. He glared hatefully at the Buddhist disciple, drool dripping from his mouth.

"How... how did I end up here?"

"Who are you? Who are you?!"

He was furious and resentful; he was destined to Devour God! He was the one who had obtained the mysterious Order of High Heaven!

How could I have fallen here!

The Eldest Senior Brother struggled desperately, but the special mercury that seeped into his body through his peeled scalp seemed to have an infinite weight, like the most severe shackles in the world.

Suppress him completely!

Tears of blood streamed down the Eldest Senior Brother's face.

"It will hurt a little."

The handsome young man spoke to Zhang Fusheng again, rambling on and on:

"To avoid any accidents, I need to pin down his Essence, Qi, and Spirit. You just absorbed a lot of his life force, which might hurt you, but it shouldn't be a big problem."

Perhaps because of Zhu Xiaoming, or perhaps because of his enmity with the Living Buddha, he was exceptionally friendly to Zhang Fusheng.

Zhang Fusheng was shocked. "What the heck?"

To follow the flow of life and end up hurting yourself?

He was dumbfounded and was about to ask a question when he saw the Buddhist monk chanting incantations over the urn, causing the half-person-high urn to shrink dramatically.

The Eldest Senior Brother inside the urn was also violently compressed, letting out a mournful cry!

The urn, which was half a person's height and contained the Eldest Senior Brother, shrank to the size of a palm.

The Eldest Senior Brother's body was also compressed to the size of a palm—only his head was sticking out.

A head as big as a jar.

Zhang Fusheng felt a chill run down his spine when he witnessed this bizarre scene.

The Calm Wrath Buddha Son reached into the cloth bag, rummaged around, and finally pulled out a pestle.

The pestle has two ends. One end is in the shape of a standard Vajra Pestle, and the other end is a three-sided pestle. In the middle are three Buddha faces, each showing a smiling, angry, and scolding expression.

"I'm going to start." The handsome young man gripped the Divine Scepter and gestured towards the head of the Eldest Senior Brother at the urn mouth.

Zhang Fusheng was startled:

"Wait a minute—what does 'the world is sick' mean?"

The Buddhist disciple paused, thought for a moment, and then patiently explained:

"He's sick."

"Ever since the discovery of the Mysterious Factor and the Different Dimension, the entire world has been sick—not because of problems with the system, nor because of human desires, but literally, the world is sick."

He sighed with sorrow:

"The higher one's cultivation level, the greater their influence in the world, and the more they are affected."

"Because the world and the All Gods first encountered problems, every cultivator, every city, and then the provinces and Federation, all subsequently encountered problems."

Zhang Fusheng listened attentively, involuntarily recalling his increasingly irritable and violent personality over this period of time.

A month ago, I was still very kind and innocent. The worst thing I ever did in my life was to lie to children.

And now.

Zhang Fusheng thought of his Second Senior Sister, whom he had smashed, and of all the heads he had crushed without a second thought.

He asked:

"You just said that the Investigation Bureau is using this city as Kou City and is laying down Flesh and Blood Mycelial Blanket, is that it?"

"This, Kou City, is City of Raising Bandits. It is also one of the cities in my Mandala lineage."

The handsome young man was about to give a long and detailed answer,

The Withered Woman covered his mouth and spoke gently:

You talk too much.

"All right."

The Buddhist disciple was sullen; he seemed to be a chatterbox, talking about everything without any taboos.

Shake your head.

The Buddhist disciple's voice turned solemn as he spoke:

"Brother, get ready, I'm about to begin."

He raised the Divine Scepter and chanted softly.

Mahakala

The handsome young man's voice was very soft.

But to Zhang Fusheng's ears, it was like a morning bell and an evening drum, deafening and awakening!

He saw that the Divine Scepter was reflecting strange images, including that of a wrathful bodhisattva.

He has six arms, a crown of five skulls on his head, a furrowed brow, three wide-open eyes, an open mouth revealing interlocking fangs, a tongue curling upwards, and red hair that flies backwards like a torch!

Six-Armed Mahakala.

A word flashed through Zhang Fusheng's mind, if he remembered correctly...

The Six-Armed Mahakala is the wrathful manifestation of the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva!

"Thump!!"

The Buddhist disciple exhaled a contradictory sound, both deep and crisp, like striking Wooden Fish fishbone bowl.

The Divine Scepter entered the Eldest Senior Brother's head without any resistance.

"Roar!!"

The Eldest Senior Brother roared in agony.

In the same instant.

Zhang Fusheng suddenly bent over, feeling as if his soul had been pierced!

No, it's not the soul!

It was as if the vast vitality he had absorbed from Niu Dali was being held captive by something!

A violent wave of dizziness and numbness swept over his entire body, and he slowly shrunk back to his normal size, curled up naked on the ground.

As my consciousness faded, I saw the Buddhist disciple carrying the person in the urn away.

The Buddha's gentle voice came from over:

"This will also benefit you. The Living Buddha's vitality is unique. After I nail him into Human Treasure, although you will feel pain, that vitality will completely belong to you."

"Your name is Zhang Fusheng, right?"

"I hope we can meet again. You're amazing."

As the Buddhist monk's figure receded into the distance, one could still faintly hear him bickering with the withered Mingfei clinging to his back.

Visibility gradually dimmed.

'Boom!'

Just then.

The river water, which had been pushed far away, surged back and flowed in again.

The backflowing river water is flowing faster and faster.

Galloping! Galloping! Galloping!

The river water surged in from all directions, crashing together with the spot where the boy had fainted and where the fierce battle had just taken place!

A huge wave carried the battered Zhang Fusheng upwards, upwards.

Under the terrifying pressure, the underground river briefly rose, overflowing the collapsed road surface, and the unconscious boy floated to the surface with the river water.

'Splash!'

The river washed him onto the broken street surface, and then slowly receded.

That is...

Inside the partially collapsed supermarket, Yu Chengzong and Li Qiuhua were astonished as the underground river swelled and overflowed the road.

Then they saw the boy lying on the ground, washed away by the river.

"Little Fusheng??"

The two men stared wide-eyed. The injured Old Yu tried to get up, but a tearing pain shot through his wound.

Li Qiuhua leaped up, carefully looked around, and quickly carried the unconscious, frail boy back to the supermarket.

"Fusheng? Fusheng?" She gently patted the boy's cheek to make sure he was still alive before letting out a sigh of relief.

The two immediately looked at each other in bewilderment.

"How did Little Fusheng end up underground?"

"They fell in during the landslide?"

They looked at each other in silence.

After a long while, Old Yu struggled to sit up, gritting his teeth:

"This is Old Zhang's son; he could have gone to a good university."

"Find a way to get him out of Jiangzhou!"

Li Qiuhua paused for a moment:

"How do we deliver them? The action team is sweeping through the Upper-Level District and Mid-Level District; several squads are hunting us down."

Yu Chengzong looked dejected and gently stroked the boy's burning forehead.

"We promised Lao Zhang that we would take good care of him."

He said softly:

"Investigation Bureau, what's going on? Why are they targeting ordinary people? Why?!"

Li Qiuhua pursed her lips and stubbed out the cigarette with her thumb and forefinger.

"The Federation is sick," she murmured, resting the unconscious boy's head on her lap.

The two held their breath as much as they could, fearing they would attract the attention of the hunting team.

They are not afraid of death; they were prepared to die when they chose to infiltrate the Western Sect. Now that their beliefs have collapsed, they disregard life and death even more.

But Little Fusheng is different.

He's just an ordinary person, still young, with a bright future ahead of him.

He is still Old Zhang's child.

Those who willingly succumb to the mire and can gaze at the light in the darkness have always valued the lives of others more than their own.

"The Federation is sick," Yu Chengzong repeated blankly.

A divine realm.

After losing consciousness, Zhang Fusheng's consciousness appeared in the divine realm, which was his own spiritual world.

He could clearly sense his physical condition—the immense vitality he had plundered from his Eldest Senior Brother.

It is gradually and completely merging with itself.

Meanwhile, the Spleen's Great Secret seemed to be slowly being unearthed—at that time, what he reached out and grasped first was the vitality in his Eldest Senior Brother's spleen.

In a sense, it can be considered as taking artificial Five Elements Great Medicine.

It's a pity that the Eldest Senior Brother wasn't Martial Arts Master back then, and the Artificial Great Medicine was still an 'immature' version, otherwise...

He exhaled a breath of stale air, his thoughts in utter turmoil.

Is the world sick?

Flesh and Blood Mycelial Blanket?

Kou City?

He didn't understand what the Buddhist disciple meant, but he could guess a little, especially the phrase 'the world is sick'.

"Using Living Souls for cultivation, and people as fuel, an increasingly intense and uncontrollable violence has arisen."

"The 'Land Gods' group,' requiring Blood Shrine, Great Emperor Wenguang unleashed Flesh and Blood Plague."

Zhang Fusheng muttered to himself:

The world is sick.

That kind of Malevolent Energy wasn't just growing within him; because of the unknown source of violence, he realized that his behavior patterns were being distorted little by little.

He's sliding towards becoming a 'madman'.

He thought of some mythological novels he had read in his previous life.

The novel tells the story of the Great Tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods, in which Calamity Qi spread everywhere, causing those affected to lose their minds and have their spiritual senses clouded, ultimately leading to their deaths.

It seems to share a similar essence with this world.

It's not just oneself who is distorted; others are affected as well. The Calm Wrath Buddha Son said that the higher one's cultivation level, the more severe the impact.

Zhang Fusheng suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. The Federation's high-ranking officials were naturally powerful figures, perhaps even more powerful than Grandmasters and Great Masters.

What about them?

Zhang Fusheng raised his head and looked at his Second Senior Sister.

To be precise, it was the soul of the Second Senior Sister.

Unaware of Zhang Fusheng's intentions, the Second Senior Sister, who had already been taken as Subordinate Soul, stood there blankly, ready to be transformed into Ghastly Skeleton at the Twelve Refinements at any moment.

But he didn't do that.

"Eccentric."

Zhang Fusheng carefully examined his Second Senior Sister's soul.

Unlike the others she killed, whose souls were all 'remnants', Chen Yuque's soul was intact.

The others only had one soul and two spirits collected, Second Senior Sister's three souls and seven spirits were all here.

In other words

"Could I even restore her consciousness?"

Zhang Fusheng muttered to himself, since his soul was intact, his consciousness had not been erased like other remnant souls.

But why is it intact?

No, the correct question is, why did the other souls become incomplete?

He thought back carefully and realized that each person he killed originally had a complete soul, but after death, they immediately lost two souls and five spirits.

It was as if something had absorbed it.

"If the world is sick, then those who rule the Federation are also sick."

Without the interference of Malevolent Energy, Zhang Fusheng became incredibly clear-headed, his mind sharp, and a terrifying thought flashed through his mind.

Buddhist Kingdom.

Just like the Dragon Boat Buddhist Kingdom controlled by Old Shi, after a person dies, their remnant soul automatically goes to Old Shi's divine realm.

Could this planet also be covered with some kind of thing?

The dead are automatically stripped of their two souls and five spirits, to be used as Subordinate Soul or some other kind of fuel.

If the guess is true.

That entire Federation was a 'Soul Pasture'.

Including myself, I am also livestock on the ranch. The stronger I become and the more advanced my cultivation, the fatter and stronger I become.

Zhang Fusheng's hand trembled.

"I must find and learn the methods that Buddhist monks use to bring me to my senses."

He took a deep look at his Second Senior Sister's soul.

Instead of waking her up immediately, he climbed up to the Five Villages Temple on Longevity Mountain Hill, entered the main hall, and, as usual, looked at the Daoist scripture in front of the Heaven and Earth Tablet.

The Daoist scripture was turned to the last page once again.

There were two lines of crooked writing on it.

Why hasn't Blood Shrine?

Are you in Jiangzhou?

Zhang Fusheng snorted coldly and turned to enter the [Eight Sceneries Palace].

He sat upright on the futon, his status suddenly elevated!

From this vantage point, all the mountains appear small.

"What on earth is happening in Jiangzhou?" he muttered to himself.

The Celestial Venerable extended an invitation to all those who held the command.

A series of blurry figures appeared outside the Dao Palace, coming to pay their respects.

This time.

There were five figures.

There's one more.