520: Buddha and demon are one! This is the true scheme of the Tathagata Buddha!

The black sword began to vibrate violently, the distorted Buddhist scriptures flowing on the blade flickering.

"You're talking nonsense... I want to overthrow all of this... I want to..."

"You want to save her."

Tathagata interrupted softly: "But she is already dead; she cannot be saved."

"So you can only overthrow the entire world, as if by doing so, you could turn back time."

A crack appeared in No Heaven's expression, and a faint white light drifted from his body.

That indestructible demonic heart was precisely chiseled with a crack by a single sentence from Tathagata.

That spark of kindness was slowly breaking free!

"So you see,"

Tathagata's voice grew softer, yet the golden light grew more intense:

"You and I are no different."

"When White Lotus died in my arms, I also thought... if only I were stronger, if only I had realized sooner, if... but she is already dead, and she cannot be saved."

"So I could only continue being my Buddha, continuing to deliver all living beings, as if by doing so, I could make up for that powerlessness."

The golden light suddenly detached from Tathagata's body and flowed upstream along the black blade!

"Tathagata, what are you doing?"

No Heaven tried to pull the sword away, but found the blade firmly locked by the golden light, unable to be withdrawn at all!

"Don't you want to prove that the old Buddhist laws are hypocritical?"

Tathagata smiled:

"Then I shall give everything to you!"

" swastika—"

An incredibly pure golden " swastika" character slowly emerged from between Tathagata's eyebrows, detached from his body, and flowed along the sword toward No Heaven.

No, it wasn't flowing toward No Heaven.

It was flowing behind No Heaven. Within that Void Realm, a faint white figure slowly emerged.

Clad in snow-white robes, with eyes of compassion and hands pressed together in prayer.

It was Bodhisattva Kinnara.

No Heaven's own Incarnation of kindness.

"Are you mad?" No Heaven shouted in shock, "Your Divine Soul will be completely extinguished!"

"I was going to die anyway." Tathagata smiled calmly, "Rather than letting you pin me to Mount Sumeru, I might as well... give you a gift."

"Your malevolence has slain me, and my cultivation... shall be passed to your kindness."

"Now, Bodhisattva Kinnara possesses all of my cultivation."

"Buddha Wutian, the battle between Buddha and Demon in the Thirty-Three Heavens has not ended."

Tathagata's final voice echoed softly in the Void Realm:

"It's just that your opponent is no longer Tathagata Buddha."

"But... yourself."

The voice faded.

Tathagata's body disintegrated inch by inch, turning into billions of golden specks of light, like a galaxy reversing, all surging into Bodhisattva Kinnara's body.

The white-clad Bodhisattva suddenly opened his eyes.

Immeasurable Buddha light illuminated the entire world!

His cultivation was as vast as the sea, yet as pure as one.

That was the complete cultivation of a Buddha.

No Heaven stared blankly at the empty black sword in his hand—Tathagata was no longer on the sword, only a wisp of golden light that had not yet dissipated.

He slowly turned around and looked at the figure clad in snow-white robes who possessed his own face.

"Kinnara..."

The white-clad Bodhisattva pressed his palms together and bowed: "No Heaven."

"You seek to stop me?" No Heaven's voice was hoarse.

"Not to stop you." Kinnara looked up: "But to ask you a question."

"Speak."

"If Ashu were resurrected and stood before you, would she wish for you to... become what you are today?"

No Heaven felt as if struck by lightning and staggered back a step. One can deceive others, but not oneself!

"If she were resurrected..." he murmured, repeating.

"If she were resurrected, would she want you to continue subverting the Three Realms and staining Spirit Mountain with blood?

"Or would she want you to... let go of hatred, so that in this world, there would be fewer innocent people who died wrongly like her?"

Above the Nine Heavens.

Lu Jiuyuan gently set down his teacup, a meaningful curve touching the corner of his mouth.

"Wonderful."

Monkey King sighed: "That old fellow Tathagata is still so devious. He lost, but not completely!

It is difficult for two hearts to cultivate true nirvana; No Heaven is in big trouble!"

"Revered Master knew this battle was bound to be lost. His target was not No Heaven, but Your Majesty!" Tripitaka suddenly spoke.

"That Bodhisattva Kinnara is No Heaven's own kindness, his last trace of reluctance before becoming a demon, the deepest point of goodness buried beneath ten thousand years of hatred."

"Now this goodness has obtained the Buddha's cultivation! Combined with Buddha Wutian's original cultivation, a single thought can make one a Buddha, and a single thought can make one a demon!

The opponent the Buddha set is not No Heaven at all, but Your Majesty!"

Lu Jiuyuan gave Tripitaka an appreciative look: "Golden Cicada sees clearly."

He looked down at the Void Realm below, where No Heaven and Kinnara stood in silent confrontation, one black and one white, originally two sides of the same person split apart.

"Whether this Major Thousand World continues to be controlled by Tathagata or by No Heaven, he doesn't care, because the controller has Buddha in his heart!

He did all this to make No Heaven's Buddha and Demon sides one, possessing the power to oppose me."

Monkey King's Fiery Eyes of Truth scanned back and forth between No Heaven and Kinnara: "Old man, did Tathagata... play you right before he died?"

Lu Jiuyuan chuckled, and instead of being angry, a look of appreciation appeared in his eyes: "Not bad, quite the Tathagata. This is truly Tathagata Buddha!

From our first meeting, he already knew my opinion of him and my disdain for 'Destiny'.

Therefore, the way he chose to break the deadlock was not to defeat No Heaven, but..."

"To create an existence qualified to discuss the Dao with me."

In the Void Realm below, the confrontation between No Heaven and Kinnara had reached its most critical moment.

The black lotus swayed, demonic flames rising; the white robes fluttered, Buddha light shining.

One person, two sides, gazing at their common source.

"If she were resurrected..."

What did he see?

It was not the overturning of Spirit Mountain, nor the collapse of the Heavenly Dao, nor himself sitting on the lotus pedestal receiving the worship of all living beings.

But many years ago, that woman named Ashu, showing him a smile under the moonlight—clean, pure, and without reservation.

If she were resurrected, what would she say?

"Kinnara..." She would gently call him by his monk name as she did before.

"I don't want you to subvert the Three Realms for me, nor do I want you to stain Spirit Mountain with blood for me."

"I only want you to... live well."

Memories broke through the floodgates like a tide.

No Heaven shook violently, and the giant black sword in his hand that had pierced Tathagata began to crack inch by inch.

It was not broken by an external force, but disintegrated from within.

"I..." His voice trembled, "It's not the Buddhist laws I hate, it's myself..."

Kinnara watched him quietly, his white robes fluttering in the Buddha light: "You and I were originally one. Your hatred is my pain; your obsession is my infatuation."

"I carry your final kindness, and you bear all of my evil karma."

"Now," Kinnara slowly reached out a hand: "Tathagata has passed, and your obsession is broken. It's time to come back."

That palm was as white as jade.

No Heaven stared fixedly at that hand, his black robes snapping in the wind.

Ten thousand years.

He had wallowed in hatred for ten thousand years, using the name of a demon to tear everything apart, all just to prove one thing: that the Kinnara of back then was not wrong, and Ashu should not have died.

But to prove it to whom?

Ashu was gone, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of Spirit Mountain saw him as a demon, and the beings of the Three Realms feared him like a tiger.

He had proven everything, yet lost it all.

"Kinnara..." No Heaven spoke slowly: "You are right."

"I subverted the Three Realms just to... prove to a dead person that she was worth saving."

As he spoke, the towering demonic flames on No Heaven's body suddenly retracted.

Not extinguished, but pulled inward.

All the hatred, all the resentment, and all the obsessions, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, surged into the black lotus mark on his chest.

He finally took a step forward and grasped Kinnara's outstretched hand.

The moment their hands touched—

"Om—"

Heaven and earth resonated!

Immeasurable golden light and immeasurable black light erupted simultaneously, but they did not cancel each other out. Instead, they blended perfectly, transforming into a mysterious radiance of Chaos—neither Buddha nor demon, yet both Buddha and demon!

The black robes faded, turning into plain white.

The black hair turned gray, like snow covering his head.

A golden lotus appeared between his eyebrows, overlapping and blending with the black lotus mark, transforming into a strange half-gold, half-black lotus.

Buddha and Demon as one.

It was as if this world itself was rejoicing at the birth of this union of Buddha and Demon.

"It succeeded," Tripitaka murmured. "Buddha and Demon have merged; good and evil share the same source. He... no, they, what are they now?"