The invisible Mandala

An intense Ghost Resonance emanated from Monk Yongqing.

Not all ghosts were alike. Those yellow-robed monks had neither worshipped a Yidam nor recited mantras, so even if they became Malevolent Ghosts, they would only be of the lowest rank: Malevolent Ghosts of the Sixth-Stage Order or below.

These were also the Malevolent Ghosts most commonly found roaming the wilderness. They were powerless against the closed gates of Tusi Official Fortresses and Dzongben cities. Even some settlements in the pastoral regions had Spirit Shamans who could combat these Malevolent Ghosts.

But Monk Yongqing was different. He had cultivated the "Immovable Mind," received empowerment from a senior monk, and become a monk with a Yidam for his practice.

He had become a Malevolent Ghost not merely because he had died, but also because his "Buddhist heart had shattered," which could also be called the "shattering of his Buddha-nature."

The skeleton fell to the ground.

An even stronger Ghost Resonance steamed out of Monk Yongqing's body.

Flesh and blood actually began growing back on Monk Yongqing's skeleton. The Ghost Resonance changed from a pallid white into an even more terrifying resonance. He began growing a thousand different hands, each bearing a different colored ribbon.

He began growing a thousand different eyes, and those eyes revealed a terrifying magical power.

He began...

His appearance bore no relation whatsoever to the Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Guanyin of Buddhist teachings.

Instead, he bore some resemblance to Zhuogedunzhu.

It was as though something was coming back to life within his body.

The yellow-robed monks who witnessed this screamed and tried to flee, but an enormous invisible hand seized them outright, drawing them to Monk Yongqing's side, where the Discipline Lama who arrived afterward saw them.

"Monk Yongqing was lured away by the Protector Lama using blood nectar. Hah! Yongzhen, now it is time to question you."

Inside a watchtower in the Discipline Hall, Elder Mingzhi personally occupied the seat of honor, with Elder Mingli seated to his left. Attendant monks stood behind each of them, and it was Elder Mingli who questioned Lu Feng.

By then, enough time had passed to brew two batches of butter tea.

Lu Feng had already drunk several bowls of butter tea, but he still looked listless and utterly exhausted.

These were the lingering effects of his forcibly using the Great Compassion Resonance and a hand seal to form a wisdom sword and sever the impurity.

Both Mingli and Mingzhi took note of this.

An attendant monk sat to one side, brewing precious medicine. He was a physician monk from Mingli's "official residence." Various precious medicinal ingredients simmered in the medicine pot, and waves of herbal fragrance wafted through the watchtower.

Mingzhi saw this and said nothing, but he already understood that Yongzhen was someone Mingli thought very highly of. Otherwise, he would not have nurtured this monk so.

"Well, regarding today's incident, Mingli, since you are Yongzhen's Yidam Lama, you should conduct this questioning."

Originally, this matter implicated neither Mingzhi nor Mingli.

But by coming here like this, the monk Mingli had cut off any possibility of Mingfa and the others demanding accountability or making trouble.

Faced with his own Yidam Lama's questions.

Lu Feng answered truthfully, then took out the Thangka the black sheep had dug up and presented it with both hands.

"That black sheep dug this object up outside the main hall and pushed it before this disciple."

Lu Feng held both hands out before him just like that.

No one spoke.

Elder Mingzhi said nothing, and neither did Elder Mingli.

His eyes fixed on Lu Feng's outstretched hands.

His brows furrowed slightly.

It was not that he disbelieved his disciple.

Quite the contrary, he trusted Lu Feng very much.

Precisely because of that, he knew this matter was somewhat troublesome.

Because he could not see it.

Lu Feng's hands were clean and empty, with nothing in them.

But judging by the process of his taking the object out, his clothes had shifted through contact with something.

Therefore, his disciple must have taken something out.

Nor would his disciple deceive him about something like this.

Moreover, there was something suspicious about Monk Yongqing's Buddha-nature shattering and his becoming a Malevolent Ghost today.

Both Monk Yongqing's Yidam Lama and Monk Yongqing bestowed blessings and offerings upon the "Immaculate Endless Holy Fire Dharani," which could be translated as the long mantra of the immaculate endless holy fire. Even if his Buddha-nature shattered and he became a Malevolent Ghost, he should not have taken the form he had today.

The Malevolent Ghost Monk Yongqing had become already exceeded the level of a Sixth-Stage Order Malevolent Ghost and was extremely dangerous.

In the end, a senior red-robed monk had used a Mandala and blood nectar, sweet human blood and the blood of crushed frogs and roosters, while playing music he liked on a shinbone trumpet, to lure him elsewhere.

Thus, Elder Mingli believed what Lu Feng had said.

"Could it be because my cultivation is not sufficiently perfected?"

So spoke Elder Mingli. His gaze fixed on Lu Feng's hands as he formed the Six-Syllable Manjushri Sword Seal and recited a Secret Mantra.

"Om

Vajra dhana mah."

A slight but distinct change came over their surroundings. Lu Feng saw a pale golden, sublime radiance emanate from between Elder Mingli's hands, and something like an eye flashed past.

Yet in an instant, Lu Feng felt as though something had abruptly appeared between his own hands.

Before he could see it clearly, Elder Mingli flew into a towering rage.

He let out a furious roar, assuming a wrathful aspect.

"What Outer Dao dares act so brazenly? Before this seat, you still refuse to submit?"

Elder Mingli slammed his Iron Staff hard against the ground, producing a strange duang!

The sound spread outward!

Lu Feng truly felt that an incomparably terrifying great wrathful deity had appeared here.

Appeared right before his eyes!

Amid the boundless strangeness, even the surrounding wind ceased moving.

Outside, waves of darkness enveloped the entire watchtower,

Only Elder Mingli remained here. Lu Feng did not see what King Mingzhu actually looked like, because he could not raise his head at all.

Just like when he had seen Master Zhuogedunzhu's White Vajra, King Mingzhu, as a Mountain God and Malevolent Deity, still required offerings despite having been subdued through Buddhist teachings by the great monk who founded the Endless White Pagoda Temple. He had several feet, and Lu Feng could barely make out what seemed to be a female corpse beneath one of them.

But whether this represented his having subdued death or something else, Lu Feng did not know. He did, however, notice the change in himself.

Even with the Ancient Scroll's protection, previously he had only been able to remain lucid. Now, however, his thoughts could wander slightly. Immediately afterward, he felt countless mantra seals turn into tadpoles and crawl toward his hands!

The Thangka seemed to have transformed into mantra seals.

This is bad!

Lu Feng immediately sensed that something was wrong and shut his eyes at once.

Never seen, never thought of; abiding freely in emptiness, with no inherent nature.

Nothing existed. It was "emptiness," it was a thought born of attachment; only he himself was "real."

In an instant, Lu Feng thought of the "Great Sun Tathagata" he had seen in the Ancient Hall. Strangely, however, although he clearly remembered that what he had seen was indeed the Great Sun Tathagata, as he recalled it now, the image of the Great Sun Tathagata in that scene kept slowly shrinking in the void, shrinking, as though becoming a Bindu.

Finally, it settled into the lotus seat of Lu Feng's Umbilical Meridian Chakra.