As the sun set slowly over the horizon, the thousand man contingent of forbidden guards steeled themselves for what might be a mission of no return. Under the cover of darkness, they circled around Gu Lan city,giving the city a wide berth as they marched towards the Man dynasty.
Standing at the forefront of the army camp, Qing Ning couldn’t help but feel a weight bear down on her heart as she watched the army’s silhouette disappear into the night.
She knew she couldn’t follow them even though she wanted to do so. As of right now, the head abbot was still in the conquered Gu Lan City and being the only one who could stand up to him, she had to remain behind.
Thus, the mission of destroying the Buddhist Nation was one that Ning Chen had to complete by himself. As for what dangers he would face in the process, no one, not even Ning Chen himself, could predict what they would be.
As for those accompanying him, the strongest was a Late Ninth-grade expert, one of the heads of the forbidden guard. The other remained behind in the camp to aid Qing Ning in defending their last line of defense.
On the eve of his departure however, he was suddenly faced with the hardest question thus far: what was to be done with little Ming Yue? Having her accompany him would be too dangerous for the little girl but leaving her behind wasn’t appropriate either.
Yet in the midst of his deliberations, Ming Yue vehemently made her opposition to staying behind known. She only trusted Ning Chen and no one else would do as her guardian.
Thinking on that for a long while, he finally decided to bring the girl along then. Since she herself wasn’t afraid, what’s the point of him dilly dallying around for?
Thus, a column of soldiers marched off the moment the night arrived. First, they headed east and then they rushed off towards the south in the direction of the Man Dynasty.
Because the buddhist nation directly bordered the Man Dynasty, seeking passage through them was the quickest way.
Naturally, there were other means of reaching the buddhist nation. However, with the majority of their forces staying behind to defend, roughly 30 li away from Nan Li River, any time he could save for Grand Xia was absolutely critical.
Just before leaving however, he made sure to leave them detailed instructions which both Qing Ning and the remaining head accepted with a nod, ears perked and eyes focused with an intense gaze. During such a critical moment, missing out on even the slightest detail could lead to failure.
Under the cover of night, the eastward bound contingent marched at blistering speeds without any breaks whatsoever. Their plan, to reach the territory of the Man by dawn.
A few hours after midnight, Ning Chen and his army did just that. With the Man King’s token, their entry proceeded smoothly without any hindrances.
Clearly, the Man King had left them instructions regarding their arrival and that saved him a lot of trouble.
In light of that, Ning Chen went the extra mile of sending a letter of thanks to the Man King in which he apologized for his early impudence and asked that the king not begrudge a junior like him for that.
Regarding this letter, the Man King naturally didn’t believe a single word he spouted and thus didn’t bother sending a reply either.
Yet, in spite of all that, a messenger hawk was seen flying out of the Man palace an hour later. At the same time, a noticeably irate king could be seen sitting atop his throne.
In the midst of his reading, Ah Man happened on that letter as she came to greet him. Thus, whether or not a reply was sent was no longer in the hands of the king.
By the time this reply letter was received, half a day had passed. Clearly not expecting this, Ning Chen couldn’t help but feel a little confused. After reading its contents however, the cloud of confusion over him was instantly lifted.
There were only six words written on it: “What grade are you at now?”
The words were neat and elegant and definitely not written by a brute like the Man King. Because Ah Man wasn’t a martial practitioner, her words had no trace aura within them. Furthermore, because she didn’t write much to begin with, Ning Chen wasn’t actually able to recognize who them with a glance.
Even so, he wasn’t a fool. It didn’t take much to realize that within the entire Man palace, the only person who could wrestle the right to speak up from the Man King was Ah Man.
Seeing the letter written by her personally, he pondered over them for a long while and yet after all that, he couldn’t discern the meaning behind them. Still, this didn’t surprise, in fact, he was already used to it; not like this was the first time this had happened anyway.
Naturally, his reply couldn’t be as short as Ah Man’s. At the very least, it had to be clear. Using this reply of his, he fully intended to teach her that, when one wrote a letter, one had to ensure it could be understood by its receiver.
A day later, he received another letter that destroyed this unrealistic dream of his.
Its content was even simpler than before, “I’m rooting for you.”
These were the words he personally taught her a while ago and now it seemed that they had come back to slap him in the face.
However, the time for fooling around had passed. It was at that moment that the contingent crossed the borders between the buddhist nation and the Man Dynasty.
With that, whatever levity he still had gradually faded away. From this moment, the fight for their lives had truly begun.
Strictly speaking, this buddhist nation wasn’t actually a kingdom per say. Rather, it was more of a theocracy formed of countless buddhists with the Western Doya Temple as its center.
In light of that, the thousand soldiers marched westward. Their aim, the center of this theocracy, the Western Doya Temple.
As they did so, they left the lands in their path scorched by the flames of war. Under their murderous blades, whatever feeble attempts at resistance they met were swiftly dealt with.
Because the buddhist nation wasn’t really a tightly run country to begin with, the resistance efforts were scattered and basically non-existent, especially given that the majority of their experts had marched northwards. With such conditions, how could they stand up to the most elite force in Grand Xia.
Three days later, under the shadow of a majestic mountain, the silhouette of an army could be seen approaching slowly from the distance.
Perched atop the mountain was an equally majestic buddhist temple surrounded by countless smaller temples that seemed to guard it, lending the main temple an even greater air of holiness.
Mt. Mi Jie, the sacred grounds of all buddhists. Today, they finally stepped foot on it.
At the same time, back at Gu Lan City, a gigantic city gate opened with a thunderous creak. From it, spewed forth over ten thousand buddhist disciples in a veritable human tsunami.
“Retreat!”
Two hundred li away, the head of the forbidden guards immediately ordered for a retreat after which the four thousand soldiers swiftly broke camp and retreated over the Nan Li River.
Mere moments later, the army retreated across the bridge. At the same time, Qing Ning led a smaller contingent of 500 elites from the forbidden guards to the river dam. Focusing her cultivation into a fearsome technique, she sent a silvery phantom of a spear crashing down onto the largest dam along the Nan Li, tearing it apart with a terrifying explosion.
Seconds later, a towering wall of water careened down the otherwise serene river as if the heavens themselves sent down a flood to wash away the man-made obstacles in its path. Even from a distance away, all one could see was a colossus tsunami that seemed to blot out the heaven and earth.
In the face of such a calamity, the invading Buddhist disciples first reacted with shock and then fear as they immediately turned tail and ran. However, it was too late. With less than a hundred li between them, it didn’t take long before the deafening rush of water caught up to them. Just like that, ten thousand disciples along with over ten thousand li of arable farmlands were drowned in white waters.
All around, the skies echoed with the screams of the beleaguered disciples, their cries made even more piercing by that last struggle before death’s door. Of the ten thousand disciples, not all of them had the same level of cultivation. Those who lagged behind by even a smidge were helpless before this calamity. For such weaklings, all they could do was cower before death’s might.
Floating high above on the opposite bank, Qing Ning watched the destructive scene unfold, body upright and face cold. On her beautiful face, one could neither find pity nor sadness.
Ning Chen once said that these bunch of fake buddhists were the most hypocritical people in this world. Such scum were long overdue for their pruning and shouldn’t be allowed to exist for much longer.
Now that they’ve left their nation to invade Grand Xia, their time had come. Since these monks did not wish to practise their religion in the mortal realm, then they should just practise it in hell instead.
White waters roaring, the giant wall of water continued its reaping path southward, swallowing everything in its way and even those around it.
“Such is Heaven’s will.”
Sighed the head abbot of the Western Doya Temple. As he took in the tragic scene before him, a look of sadness and compassion graced his unearthly contenance. Immediately, he clasped his hands together in the typical posture of prayer, sending forth boundless waves of Buddhist energies rushing at the approaching disaster. With just one man’s strength, this Xiantian monk wished to defy the power of Mother Nature.
Yet it was at that very moment that another silvery spear came whistling through air and with a thunderous boom, crashed into the Buddhist energies.
Qing Ning had come, silvery spear in hand, floating in the air with that same imposing figure as before. Behind her, her waist long hair danced serene with wind as if she was some kind of war goddess who had descended upon the mortal realm.
Seeing that, all traces of compassion disappeared from the head abbot’s face, replaced instead by an icy glare.
“Fiendish demoness. Such wanton slaughter cannot be tolerated!”
As he said that, the sacred Buddhist light around him exploded forth in a blinding burst. Immediately, the surroundings were filled with the monotonous sounds of sanskrit chanting as the countless golden rays of light converged together into a sacred figure of Buddha superimposed onto the horizon. This buddhist simulacrum had only one mission and that was to purify this demoness.
Kicking off with an elegant tap of her feet, Qing Ning rushed forward instead. In her hands, the spear’s tip seemed to grow ever brighter as her True Qi started converging into the point. Just as it seemed like it couldn’t get any more blinding, she thrust it right at the eye of the sacred figure.
“Haah”
With a light shout, the head abbot raised his hands and called forth a swastika 卐 within his palms, that deflected the incoming long spear.
Faced with a body tempered to diamond hardness by countless years of Buddhist cultivation, even a Xiantian like Qing Ning, despite all her strength, was helpless.Thus, she immediately withdrew her spear and retreated upon seeing her strike fail to leave even a scratch on the head abbot.
At the same time, the sacred figure opened its mouth and immediately six sanskrit words fell from the heavens amidst another burst of golden light.
“Om Ma ni Pad me Hum”
The words of the sacred figure contained within them the most sacred energies of Buddhism and embodied the mantra of the Western Doya. Just standing before them, it felt like the weight of the world was arrayed against you.
Dashing backwards leap after leap, Qing Ning frantically tried to widen the distance between her and the sanskrit words. Yet no matter how quick she was, the words were even quicker.
As the impending danger closed in on, it was only then did she understand how terrifying an opponent he was, this Third-Calamity head abbot. Seeing the sanskrit words locked onto her relentlessly, she finally came to a decision. Since there was no point running, she might as well attack. Thus, she turned around and charged at the Mortal Buddha instead.
In an instant, the two figures collided with each other, both boosted by lightning quick speed of a Xiantian. A moment later, the sanskrit words caught up as well and with a deafening boom, crashed into the two of them.
*Pu!*
The surroundings quaked and a second later, Qing Ning’s silhouette flew out into clear view, body battered severely and dripping with blood.
The sanskrit words were immensely powerful. So powerful in fact, even the head abbot wasn’t able to bear them himself. Legs buckling, the Xiantian master retreated half a step himself.
Even so, victory had been decided and only with one single blow. Such might, truly the Mortal Buddha was a frightening man, to the point where it inspired despair in his foes.
*Spurt*
Hands clasped around her mouth, Qing Ning did her best to stem the unending tide of fresh blood from her mouth but it had little effect. That promise she made of ten blows seemed ever so laughable now.
By now, the floodwaters had already reached the level of the Mortal Buddha’s waist. It was only then that Qing Ning realised how tall the abbot actually was.
Behind them, the cries for help began to quieten down, drowned out by the rush of the floodwaters. Realising this as well, Qing Ning immediately made the call to retreat. With her goal accomplished, there was no need for her to stay behind any longer.
Just like that, in a short exchange of blows, the disciples of the Buddhist nation ended up drowning amongst the white waters of Na Li River. Weighed down by their vaunted Diamond Body, they disappeared amongst the rushing waters, never to be seen again.
The four dharmapalas and the surviving seventh-grade and above disciples, in a last bid effort at saving whoever they could, gathered together to blast open a path for the survivors to take.
With Qing Ning gone however, the head abbot of the Western Doya Temple was now free to act. Gathering his True Qi within his finger, he summoned forth the lotus of the Buddha and bathed the entire river section in Buddhist light, banishing the rushing floodwaters in an instant.
Of those disciples who survived, each one had faces as white as a sheet, having been frightened out of their wits by the calamity they just endured. It was then that they realised how tiny the religion which they practised for their entire lives, actually was. In front of Mother Nature, it was no better than an ant.
Half a day later, under the protection of the head abbot and the other experts of the Buddhist Nation, the remaining 7000 Buddhist disciples staggered back to Gu Lan City. As for the other 3000, they were buried forever within the soil of Na Li River.
From the relative safety of the river banks slightly downstream of that man made purgatory, the four thousand forbidden guards all bore witness to the calamity that just struck the Buddhist disciples. Having seen the destruction the river wrought, a chill couldn’t help but run down each of their spines. Each of them were all seasoned veterans who had killed before, but never like this.
In a strange twist of fate, what had always been a disaster for Grand Xia ended up doing them a giant favor this time around. While the Buddhist Nation still had the majority of their forces intact, the flooding ensured that they wouldn’t be able to sortie for a long while. After all, such a onslaught needed time to disperse.
Returning to her tent, Qing Ning immediately closed her eyes and meditated. She knew that Ning Chen would send her news soon enough so she had to be ready for it.
Just from this confrontation alone, she gained a greater understanding of how powerful the Mortal Buddha was. Given her current level, there was no hope at all of resisting.
And yet, resist she must. This war of theirs had just started. How they were to deal with the Mortal Buddha would undoubtedly be the hardest problem placed before them.
