Dragon Canon

The cauldron in Wei Yuan’s hands shone with a brilliant golden light, but it wasn’t the only one. His whole body was bathed in golden radiance as well. It wasn’t Wei Yuan’s cauldron that had blocked Yue Sheng’s strike, but the Dharma master’s golden light.

Yue Sheng was not surprised by this. Pointing at the monk, he burst into loud laughter and said, “Your Pure World and Immaculate Dharma Body are as formidable as ever, but the thing is, there cannot be a truly immaculate Pure Land in this world as long as sentient beings exist, can there? Your Pure Land is no longer a Pure Land with these people in it. Watch as I shatter your golden body!”

Yue Sheng pointed his long saber at the villagers, yet they stared at him indifferently. None of them looked afraid, and some even spat in his direction.

Yue Sheng did not grow angry. With a smile, he said, “Year after year, you offer your finest food to the temple. But do you know which Buddha is enshrined there?”

The villagers looked at one another, as if they had never considered this before. Wei Yuan also had his own memories. In his recollection, they had to perform morning prayers every day, but they always took place in the courtyard. The monk would bring out the ritual implements but never allowed anyone inside the temple. The temple was always dark as well. Even when someone was passing by the entrance, they couldn’t make out what was inside at all.

Every day, the monk was busy with something—sometimes copying sutras, sometimes explaining Buddhist teachings to the villagers. But in truth, none of them really listened to what he said. The sutras were too long and convoluted. Just pondering them was enough to give the villagers headaches. It was much simpler to make daily offerings and ask the monk for his blessings. Many villagers didn’t mind doing heavy labor from morning till night, but could not bear to listen to his sutra chants for just a short while.

Before this, no one wondered what was inside the temple. Wasn’t it obvious? The temple housed the Buddha.

But now that Yue Sheng had mentioned it, Wei Yuan immediately noticed something was off. Why had he never burned incense before the Buddha?

Yue Sheng continued, “You’ve offered so much incense and offerings—don’t you want to see who you’re actually offering them to?”

A villager muttered under his breath, “What’s the big deal? Worst case, Dharma Master ate them. So what?”

Immediately, several others chimed in. “Dharma Master has been protecting us for so long; it’s only fair he eats some of the offerings.”

“Dharma Master hasn’t become a Buddha yet. He’s still flesh and blood. Of course he needs to eat!”

Amid the commotion, Wei Yuan quietly pulled the girl closer and whispered, “If something goes wrong, you must run with me, understand?”

The girl shot him a withering look and replied, “Has anything ever gone wrong all these years? You just want to lure me to a secluded spot to do that thing.”

Wei Yuan rolled his eyes at her. “Trust me, I’m not interested. You’re quite ugly.”

A terrifying glint suddenly flashed in the girl’s eyes, and her voice changed. “You dare call me ugly?”

For some reason, Wei Yuan actually shuddered upon hearing the authoritative, aloof, and icy retort. Just then, a saber light appeared in Yue Sheng’s hand and struck the temple, shattering the odd sensation.

Like the villagers, golden light appeared from the small temple and blocked the blow. Yue Sheng then addressed the villagers, “As you can see, I can’t go in right now. But you can! Don’t you claim to worship the Buddha? Why not go inside and see the Buddha for yourselves?”

A woman hesitated and asked, “There really isn’t anything in there, is there?”

The village chief immediately snapped, “Don’t talk nonsense! There must be a reason Dharma Master doesn’t let us look, not to mention this wolf demon obviously has evil intentions! No one is allowed to go inside!”

Yue Sheng was very patient. He said, “If he’s not hiding ghosts, he wouldn’t be afraid to show it to others, would he? Or perhaps someone thinks you’re so stupid that they would rather hide the truth from you?

“Whatever the case, everyone has the right to know the truth. Your fate should be in your own hands, not decided for you by a monk or the village chief.”

San Kui suddenly spoke up, “The village chief has been inside the temple. What’s inside there? Why won’t you let us go in?”

“You dare disobey me?” The village chief glared at San Kui and brought his staff down hard on the hunter’s head. San Kui reeled back, touching the flowing blood on his head with a disbelieving look on his face.

Suddenly, San Kui’s wife rushed forward and tackled the village chief to the ground. She was strong and sturdy, while the village chief was old. He was unable to get up right away after such a heavy fall. While pinning down the village chief, she shouted at San Kui, “Hurry up and go into the temple already! Once you’re inside, you’ll be the village chief!”

San Kui gritted his teeth and charged into the small temple. The next moment, his cry of shock echoed out of the entrance, “How could this be?”

The village chief panicked. While cursing incoherently, he struck the woman hard across the face again and again. Suddenly, the woman turned vicious, grabbed the village chief’s head, and slammed it hard against the ground!

The village chief’s expression froze instantly. Blood slowly began to seep from the back of his head.

Some of the villagers looked frightened, while others stood watching. However, most rushed into the small temple to find out what it was that had shocked San Kui so. Wei Yuan was quite curious himself, so he followed the crowd inside.

In the center of the temple stood a Buddha statue, head bowed and eyes cast downward. For some reason, its once golden body was tarnished black, and it had an exceptionally young face. It was none other than the monk himself, sitting in meditation!

The one enshrined in the temple was the monk himself?

Suddenly, Wei Yuan was struck by an indescribable sense of uncanny. The offerings on the altar showed signs of having been eaten, yet the platform where the Buddha statue stood was covered in dust. There was a spiderweb in the corner of the room, but the spider was nowhere to be seen[1].

Just then, there was a sudden crack. A fissure appeared on the top of the Buddha statue’s head, and blood began to seep out slowly!

Wei Yuan sensed something was wrong and rushed out of the small temple. The woman had already stood up, staring blankly at the motionless village chief on the ground and repeating over and over, “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to....”

Someone in the village had died....

At the same time, a part of Wei Yuan’s mind found the village chief’s death to be unbelievable—how could someone had died in the village? Especially the village chief, whom everyone feared and who could beat whoever he pleased. Yet another part of him felt that the sky had fallen, and he needed to seek cover or fortifications immediately. He started looking around.

Most of the villagers were still focused on the Buddha statue in the temple, showing little concern for the village chief’s death. They pointed at the Buddha statue and asked the monk, “Is that you?!”

The young monk let out a sigh and answered, “It is.”

“Did you eat all our offerings?”

The monk nodded.

The villagers were instantly enraged and shouted, “You ate all our offerings! What about the Dharma wisdom and Pure Land you promised us? Hurry up and open the gate—we want to go to Sukhavati and enjoy bliss now!”

The crowd jostled the young monk, demanding that he open the gate in the sky. Several of them were even slapping his shaved head with such force that it made a loud smacking sound.

The monk kept his eyes half-closed, offering neither resistance nor defense. He simply allowed them to push and strike him at will.

Wei Yuan suddenly grabbed the girl and ran toward the village, heading for the tallest, largest, and most fortified house of them all: the village chief’s house.

Meanwhile, Yue Sheng was crouching beside the village chief and watching him take his final breath. Suddenly, he burst into laughter, though it eventually turned into a sob. “Lian Xin, your Immaculate Dharma Body has finally been broken!”

He pushed the villagers aside, pulled the monk close, and, right before his eyes, plucked a tuff of silver wolf hair from his body and scattered it on the ground. Instantly, it transformed into hundreds of silver half-human, half-wolf monsters.

“Your Dharma body is broken, and cracks have appeared in your Pure Land and Buddha-realm.These children are mere mortals with no power, so they can kill these villagers! Once everyone is... Hmm?”

Only then did Yue Sheng realize that the two young lovers had started running away early on and were about to dash into the village chief’s house. This infuriated Yue Sheng, so he pointed at the pair and caused over a dozen wolf demons to charge into the village and pounce toward the village chief’s house.

Yue Sheng continued, “... Once everyone in the village is dead, you’ll have to begin your next reincarnation. Sooner or later—”

Just then, a loud boom interrupted his words. A long jet of flame suddenly shot out from the village chief’s door, and the few wolf demons that had already charged inside were all flung back out, their bones shattered and muscles torn, severely injured.

Yue Sheng’s eyes twitched slightly. He pointed again, and dozens more wolf demons charged into the village. Only then did he continue to speak to the monk, “... Sooner or later, I will bring down your Pure Land of Lapis Lazuli and make it my own!”

The monk looked at him with pity and sorrow and asked slowly, “Are those really your own words?”

His words caught Yue Sheng off guard. He retorted, “If those words weren’t mine, then who else could it belong to? You?”

Meanwhile, in the village chief’s room, the girl watched in a daze as Wei Yuan put away an empty cylindrical tube, then pulled out a thicker one. One end of the tube was perforated with honeycomb-like holes, each revealing the tip of a flying sword. The tips of the flying swords had a whitish sheen—they were none other than the latest version of White Drizzle.

Wei Yuan said apologetically to the girl, “Excuse me, the old model was a bit rough, wasn’t it? This is the latest model though.”

Flat, square cauldrons kept appearing in Wei Yuan’s hands. He planted them into the floor and quickly erected a makeshift shelter. He then mounted the cylindrical tube on top of the shelter and aimed the end with over a dozen flying swords poking out of it directly at the room’s entrance.

1. Remember this line? No? Refer to chapter 186 and so on. ☜