"The sacrificial method? Interesting-"
Everyone seemed to have gained some insight. Whenever something was gained, something else was lost. The sacrificial method was a transaction, and also a path of balance.
One could offer sacrifices to gods, or to this entire great universe.
If one offered oneself as the sacrifice, blazing with the most brilliant radiance amid divine flames, one could burn away everything of the past, break free of one's shackles, and attain transcendence.
"This path is extraordinarily dangerous."
Black Emperor shuddered violently, his voice trembling. "If you push too hard, fail to control the heat, or misjudge the balance between giving and gaining, you could easily burn yourself into bone ash. With your flesh gone, you probably wouldn't even have a chance to form a Reincarnation Seal."
"Blazing sacred flames, burn this broken body of mine. What joy is there in life? What suffering is there in death?" Lin Xian pressed his palms together. A halo of Buddhist light appeared behind his head, and sacred chanting rose through the void. His bearing was as solemn and majestic as the World-Honored One's as he said gravely, "The mortal world is a sea of bitterness. Unless you see through all appearances as no appearances,
"how can you behold the true nature of the Tathagata? How can you reach the other shore?"
"Amitabha was an unsurpassed Great Emperor, standing above three thousand Buddhas and commanding countless monastics. Revered throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, he was the supreme figure of the mortal world, occupying the highest station. What glory! Yet even the World-Honored One could not find liberation. He remained trapped by birth, aging, sickness, and death."
"Only by burning into bone ash, burning forth sarira, and attaining ultimate nirvana could he leap beyond the three realms and escape the