Dragon Canon

The Vajra Guardian slowly raised his massive foot and brought it down with a thunderous thud. A ring of golden Buddhist light instantly spread out, engulfing the entire world like a raging storm.

Yet, the summit of the back mountain remained serene. The monk’s corpse glowed faintly, and though the light was dim—barely enough to shield the entire peak—it was still Buddhist light. The two Buddhist lights collided, and to everyone’s surprise, they annihilated one another. Not only that, a pale fire was ignited during the clash, the mere sight of it making Wei Yuan tremble. He dared not touch it even slightly.

The fire seemed to be hellfire, capable of burning away all karma. If one’s karma was consumed by it, it was as if one had been completely erased from the world, leaving no trace behind. Not even reincarnation would be possible.

The Vajra Guardian’s Buddhist light had swept across the entire world, yet it could do nothing against the tiny realm atop the peak. Wei Yuan had always believed all Buddhist lights were the same, until reality told him otherwise. Not only that, he had no idea that different Buddhist lights could annihilate one another. This was different from what the Exquisite Blossom Pure Land had advertised!

Meanwhile, the Vajra Guardian had spotted the mountaintop. It was at this moment his movements suddenly became excruciatingly slow. It was because layer upon layer of spiderwebs had adhered to his entire body without him knowing, and they were impossible to shake off.

He roared in fury, glaring with fierce eyes as the World-purifying Lapis Lazuli Fire burned around him, causing the spiderwebs to crackle and sizzle. However, the spiderwebs proved to be remarkably fire-resistant, taking a long time before a small patch was melted.

The Vajra Guardian let out a grunt and slowly crouched down, placing his palms on the ground. A Pure Land Buddha-realm suddenly materialized in the palm of his hands, and it filled with countless strongmen. Just then, they all opened their eyes at the same time and surged out like a tidal wave. There were demon-subjugating strongmen, Dharma-propagating strongmen, impurity-purifying strongmen, so on and so forth. At a glance, Wei Yuan could make out more than a dozen types of strongmen, most of whom he didn’t even recognize.

Wei Yuan immediately recalled all his Dao Foundation flying swords and grabbed the girl’s hand, saying, “We need to run!”

“Run? Why? Aren’t they from the Pure Land? That’s where we want to go, right? Aren’t they here to pick us up?” The girl asked with a bewildered expression.

Wei Yuan replied, “Even if they are from the Pure Land, we are not the subjects of their deliverance, but wicked beasts to be exterminated. Best case scenario, we’ll end up as their mounts!”

Wei Yuan pulled the girl to the edge of the cliff. Glancing back, he saw countless strongmen swarming up the mountains. The only silver lining for them was that none of them could fly.

No sooner had Wei Yuan thought this than he saw several strongmen attempting to take flight. However, they had just gotten a few chi off the ground when golden flames suddenly engulfed their bodies. They let out a scream and crashed back to the ground.

Wei Yuan pointed across the cliff and said, “We have to escape to that side.”

The girl cried, “That’s impossible! Dharma Master said that a Spell-breaking Xun Wind is blowing over this cliff. No flying spell will work, and anyone who tries will fall. There are also countless venomous snakes and scorpions at the bottom of the cliff. If we fall, not even our bones will remain!”

“Just because we can’t fly doesn’t mean we can’t cross it.” Wei Yuan picked up a stone and hurled it with strength. The stone flew dozens of zhang into the distance and landed on the other side of the cliff, intact.

Beside the cliff stood two massive trees with their trunks thinned to a slender line. Both were now bent with one end anchored to the ground. Wei Yuan grabbed the ropes hanging from the trees and tied them securely around his and the girl’s waists.

“Hold on tight!”

“W-what are you do—AHH!!”

The girl screamed like a pig about to be slaughtered as the trees snapped back to full height. The long rope swung Wei Yuan and the girl high into the air, flipping them forward as they reached the peak of their arc. The two soared toward the opposite side of the cliff as if they were riding on clouds[1].

The moment they cleared the cliff’s edge, clouds swirled beneath Wei Yuan’s feet and slowed down their descent dramatically so they didn’t crash hard onto the ground. However, their momentum was still too great. The girl, still clinging to him, sent them both tumbling across the earth like a pair of rolling gourds.

She really is a dead weight... Wei Yuan thought internally. He scrambled to his feet and untied the rope. He then glanced back at Yue Sheng and the young monk while a vague, indescribable feeling welled inside him.

Countless strongmen had gathered at the cliff’s edge, their numbers growing by the second. Yet, aside from chanting the Buddha’s name or reciting the Vajra Demon-subjugating Mantra, they had no way of crossing the chasm. Several annoyed strongmen voiced a Buddhist chant and leaped toward the opposite side, but after traversing just a few zhang, they had plummeted straight to the bottom of the cliff.

Wei Yuan grabbed the girl and ran deep into the mountains.

“Where are we going?”

“Shut up!” Wei Yuan snapped impatiently. He could barely catch his breath considering the desperate situation they were in; how could he possibly spare the energy to talk? Besides, the girl’s question was utterly pointless; how was he supposed to know where they were going?

The two ran like headless flies until Wei Yuan suddenly stopped before a deep ravine. The ravine was over ten zhang deep, its walls entirely composed of sheer rock.

“This is the spot.” Wei Yuan scooped up the girl and leaped down into the ravine with her. A moment later, an immortal sword appeared in his hand, and he sliced a circular slab of rock from the cliff face.

This rock seems fairly solid and intact... Wei Yuan assessed it using the knowledge he had gained during the centralized learning curriculum, then dug with all his might, quickly carving out a small hole. At the same time, he tossed the excavated rock into his Dao Foundation.

Just then, the Vajra Guardian began walking toward them. Though his movements were slow, he was thousands of zhang tall. His one stride could cover a thousand zhang. He reached the village in the blink of an eye and hurled his demon-subjagating vajra scepter toward the back mountain. It landed precisely between the two cliffs and formed a bridge.

Countless strongmen began squeezing their way across the bridge, but the scepter was round-shaped. As a result, some of those standing at the edge lost their footing and fell down the cliff.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan had already finished digging the hole. He first pushed the girl inside, then crawled in himself, before placing the rock slab he had cut off earlier back in its original spot to seal the entrance.

Once done, Wei Yuan materialized several strange-looking components in his hands and carefully sealed another layer behind the rock. The components were so precise that, once assembled, didn’t leave a single gap.

However, this made the already small cave even smaller. Plus, since Wei Yuan had dug it so low, it was easy to bump one’s head even while sitting. The cave was also circular, so they couldn’t sit on opposite sides. The girl naturally slid down along the curve until she was pressed tightly against Wei Yuan.

“What was that layer you just built?” The girl really did ask a lot of questions.

“It’s for insulation and soundproofing. It doesn’t involve any mystic energy, so they shouldn’t notice anything wrong... I hope.”

“What do we do next?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just get through this first and see.” Wei Yuan shook his head, but as he did, the tip of his nose and his lips brushed against the girl’s face. His lips especially felt as though they’d touched something exceptionally soft and supple.

“Mm....” The girl let out a kitten-like sound.

The cave was pitch-black; perfect for masking his embarrassment. Wei Yuan shifted back slightly, but the girl responded by moving closer to him, causing them to touch again.

Wei Yuan had no choice but to reach out and steady her, but her posture seemed a little odd. As a result, he missed his intended target completely and grabbed something that defied gravity instead. He fumbled around a little while longer until he finally found her shoulder and held her steady.

At that moment, a terrible feeling of dread swept over both of them. The surroundings shook slightly, and faint, intermittent, angry, demon-subjugating[2] roars could be heard. The fact that these roars could penetrate so many layers of rocks and the isolation layer Wei Yuan had set up was a testament to their immense power.

The girl was terrified. Her body began to tremble as she asked, “Are we going to die?”

Wei Yuan didn’t know the answer to that question either. At the moment, he had absolutely no idea how to escape this world. This place was different from the Coldbelow. Although both were worlds that could only be traversed via the primordial spirit, the Coldbelow was open—one could enter and exit at will—while this place was cut off from the outside world. Wei Yuan could neither sense the Homeworld nor the location of his physical body.

He believed that the Xiang Marquis hadn’t intended to harm him; otherwise, his master and Big Senior Sister would teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget. If he had to guess, some sort of unknown twist had occurred within this world, which led them to their current predicament. Another possibility was that the time to leave hadn’t yet come—after all, Wei Yuan still hadn’t seen what the Arhat’s true blood looked like.

But now wasn’t the time to speculate; his immediate concern was how to survive. If his primordial spirit was destroyed, then his physical body would become an empty shell—which was essentially the same as being dead.

Wei Yuan had absolutely no desire to fall into the hands of the Vajra Guardian. If he did, the best case scenario for him would be to serve as a strongman in the Buddha-realm within his palm—he wouldn’t even be given the chance to become a Bodhisattva’s mount.

Why couldn’t he become the Vajra Guardian’s mount? Because the bastard’s Ariya-phala wasn’t good enough to warrant one.

After some thought, Wei Yuan replied, “There’s a chance we might die.”

From the conversation between Yue Sheng and the monk, Wei Yuan had gathered that the existence of this Pure Land depended on the survival of all the villagers—he and the girl counted as villagers too.

Therefore, as long as the two of them lived, the Pure Land would not perish.

The girl was terrified and moved a little closer to Wei Yuan. Then, as if recalling how good Wei Yuan had tasted just now, she couldn’t resist taking another bite.

Wei Yuan hadn’t anticipated this move and was caught off guard.

After tasting him, she found that she hadn’t been hallucinating and prepared to take another bite[3].

1. If you don’t get it, imagine a sling. ☜

2. I think this was meant to be a joke of sorts LOL. ☜

3. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜