A dual cultivation of Buddhism and demonic power! Using Buddhist teachings to force the old demon to speak!
He glanced back over his shoulder.
Two peerless beauties lay collapsed on the ground, their bodies trembling uncontrollably, shaking like withered leaves in an autumn wind.
The look in their eyes was complex; beyond extreme fear, there was a dependence and a moistness they themselves couldn't understand.
Zhou Ran shook his head inwardly.
Flowers raised in a greenhouse were ultimately a burden.
In the end, this was all the work of their 'good master,' who had raised them entirely as 'vessels' to enhance his own cultivation.
If only he had instilled in them some real combat experience, they wouldn't have been so utterly useless.
Zhou Ran clenched his back teeth. The intense pain and blood loss from his severed arm instead made his mind increasingly clear, forcing him to search for a way to break the deadlock in this desperate situation.
Physical attacks would be directly erased.
Magical energy would be completely devoured.
His devouring divine ability, which he relied on to rampage, had his entire arm erased from the level of 'existence' the moment it touched that thing.
This monster didn't take any damage.
But why could that old monk called Great Master suppress it for so long with his broken golden body and depleted mana?
What did the old monk have?
His golden body was broken, his mana exhausted.
What remained was only the Buddhist 'power of vows,'
A manifestation of will.
'Yi' was a loophole in the rules, it was 'Nothingness.'
While Buddhist Dharma cultivated 'Emptiness.'
Using 'Emptiness' against 'Nothingness'...
A ruthless glint lit up in Zhou Ran's eyes, the determination of a gambler staking everything.
Bet it all.
He abandoned all thoughts of attack and instead sat down cross-legged right where he was!
This action made everyone present pause, completely baffled.
The blood gushing from his severed arm stained the earth beneath him, yet he paid it no heed.
The gray, devouring chaos had opened its formless maw, and he ignored that too.
Zhou Ran's remaining right hand rose before his chest, forming a standard Buddhist hand seal.
He closed his eyes.
This man, wreathed in demonic energy, who killed and fought at will, who had just had an arm severed by someone, actually began to emanate an incredible solemnity.
The scene was absurd to the extreme.
'Namo hē là dá nà duō...'
A low, hoarse chant spilled from Zhou Ran's lips, each word carrying a strange penetrating power.
Great Sun Tathagata World-Purifying Incantation.
Back at the Soul Suppressing Temple, Great Master had taught it to him to suppress the growing remnant soul of Ye Futian within his body.
Now, it had become his only wager.
The moment the scripture sounded, the surging demonic energy within Zhou Ran's body was forcibly reversed by a force of utmost yang and utmost firmness!
A layer of golden halo rose from his blood-stained body!
And at that very moment, the 'Yi's' maw descended, ready to uproot the crying and screaming Mushroom Spirit!
*Hum—*
A ripple, visible to the naked eye, spread through the air.
The unstoppable mass of gray chaos suddenly slowed its downward plunge.
It was as if it had crashed into an invisible wall, or like a high-speed machine having a steel rod jammed into it.
Every Sanskrit syllable condensed into a golden character in the air, imprinting themselves one after another onto that mass of gray mist.
It was working!
Su Qingwu forgot to cry, her small mouth forming a perfect 'O.'
This demon who wanted to drain them dry as batteries...
Was chanting scriptures?
And this Buddhist light was even more orthodox than that of the abbess of the Water Moon Nunnery she had seen?!
As the Sanskrit sounds entered her ears, the surging, feverish tidal force within her and her sister's bodies actually began to calm down.
The Mushroom Spirit in the soil was also dumbstruck.
Its two mycelial threads forgot to cover its face. It looked at Zhou Ran, then at the monster above whose movements had slowed, its little eyes blinking repeatedly.
'Holy shit...'
'Dude, you're way too eclectic, aren't you?
Cultivating both demon and Buddha?
That's a wild path!'
But the one suffering the most at the scene wasn't the obstructed 'Yi.'
It was a certain existence within Zhou Ran's mind.
'Aaaaaah—!'
Deep within his sea of consciousness, Ye Futian let out a shrill, distorted scream.
This Great Sun Tathagata World-Purifying Incantation only hindered the 'Yi.'
But for his remnant soul, it was like ten thousand needles piercing his heart, boiling oil scalding his spirit!
'Stop!
Stop now!'
'You little bastard!
You're not subduing it, you're performing last rites for me!'
Ye Futian's remnant soul thrashed violently within Zhou Ran's sea of consciousness.
Wisps of black smoke steamed from his illusory body, his soul visibly thinning at a rapid pace.
Buddha and Demon were irreconcilable.
Using his own body as the battlefield, forcefully activating Buddhist heart techniques, the first one sacrificed was the Old Devil residing within him.
'This pain is killing me!
Shut up!
Stop chanting!'
Zhou Ran paid no heed, instead speeding up his chanting, his voice growing louder.
'...pó lú jié dì shuò bō là yē...'
'Zhou Ran!
Are you insane!
Do you want to perish together with me?!'
Ye Futian was finally afraid, his voice tinged with pleading.
'I'll teach you!
I'll teach you right now how to kill it!
Just shut up already!'
The corner of Zhou Ran's mouth lifted into a cold arc.
Just as expected.
Soft methods didn't work, but when you get tough, you fall in line.
This old thing just needed a good thrashing.
Looking back a hundred thousand years, he admitted this old geezer was formidable.
But this was Zhou Ran's sea of consciousness.
This old geezer still needed more training.
Zhou Ran didn't stop immediately, chanting a couple more lines.
Only after tormenting Ye Futian to the brink of death did he open his eyes.
His single arm remained raised before his chest, but his gaze was filled with icy calculation.
'Master, are you alright?
I really had no choice!
It truly hurts me to hurt you!'
Zhou Ran transmitted his thoughts inwardly, beating his chest and stamping his feet (figuratively).
'You...'
Ye Futian's soul convulsed uncontrollably. The lingering resonance of the Buddhist dharma bored into his bones, making him dare not utter half a word of threat.
Bearing the humiliation, he stared intently through Zhou Ran's eyes at the mass of gray mist, his voice heavy.
'Fool, what do you think you're trying to cut?
A ghost?
A spirit?
You're swinging your blade at the 'Dao' itself!
This thing is neither alive nor dead, neither existent nor non-existent. It's a 'scar' left when the laws of this heaven and earth first intertwined at their inception.
It has no physical form because it is itself part of the 'rules.'
A rule named 'Erase'!'
Ye Futian caught his breath and continued, ''Yi' is the simplified form of the Great Dao!'
At this point, Ye Futian's voice suddenly choked. A tremor he himself hadn't anticipated surged from the deepest part of his remnant soul.
He seemed to have fallen into some ancient and terrifying memory, his voice even becoming hoarse.
'A hundred thousand years...
I almost forgot...
It's her!'
'Moon Emperor!'
Ye Futian's roar echoed within Zhou Ran's sea of consciousness.
This time, there was no anger, only a mix of boundless hatred and profound shuddering.
'Who?'
Zhou Ran's thoughts stirred.
'The strongest opponent of my life!
A madwoman who entered the Dao through 'Annihilation'!'
Ye Futian explained through gritted teeth,
'The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, myriad realms stand side by side; immortals, demons, humans, monsters, nether beings, beasts—all are within them.
But only she walked a path no living being had ever conceived. She forcibly opened up a seventh realm—the Void Realm!'
'Void Realm?'