Chapter 2811 - 77: Today Is an Auspicious Day, Today’s Fate Ends in Happy Fate (2)

This is truly a masterpiece among zithers.

What a pity, this shattering!

But look at that beautiful woman, the resolve with which she smashes the zither, the firmness in her brows and eyes.

What pity can there be?

When the world knows no true listener, smash the zither strings.

With this mournful sound, awaken Zhi Wen!

The phantom of the Knowledge and Hearing Bell wrapped within the heart of the fist seemed to ring once more. Yet it was still firmly suppressed.

The Knowledge and Hearing Bell was originally the supreme treasure of Mount Sumeru; though it had been enshrined on Ancient Nan Mountain for tens of millions of years, the monastics of Mount Sumeru were far too familiar with this bell, and possessed far too many ways to respond.

That enormous golden fist was not halted for even a single breath by the bell’s sound.

Majestic as a mountain covering the heavens.

Crack!

The illusory head of Zhu Yi seemed to be pressed down a full inch as if it were real.

The headless corpse of Zhu Zheng had already revealed clear, blood-gushing cracks.

Yet at that very inch, it stopped.

Beneath the golden fist, above Zhu Yi’s cloudlike coiffure, a thin water bubble quietly formed. Within the bubble was one fifth water, still as a calm surface.

The fist pressed it down, pressed it down, yet could not break it no matter what.

What rose to cover the bell’s sound was the gurgling of water.

The sound of a spring’s eye bubbling!

No matter how Zhu Lanruo might conceal her cultivation, no matter how extraordinary her talent, she was still only at the Demon King level of cultivation, and by no means could participate in a struggle of this tier.

But the Eternal Youth Spring could!

Just as Master Xingnian used the wreckage of the Flying Light Treasure Ship as a layout, borrowing the situation to succeed, so Zhu Yi’s arrangement also borrowed power—but what she borrowed was the already death-stilled Eternal Youth Spring.

The Eternal Youth Spring, having already lost its Spiritual nature, possessed a certain power of divine decay, reaching from the extremity of life to the extremity of death.

Within this grand Shenxiao contest, six competing teams, twelve youthful monsters.

Zhu Lanruo was the first to find the Eternal Youth Spring, the first to come here.

She had long since completed the relevant arrangements.

At this moment, she merely activated the hidden move ahead of time...

So-called smashing the zither strings, using this mournful sound to call Zhi Wen.

What she summoned was not the Knowledge and Hearing Bell, but the Zhi Wen of the Eternal Youth Spring!

Within the flow of time, an aged, decayed voice lamented thus.

"Even the Eternal Youth Spring has died—who in this world still speaks of longevity?"

"You lot, how many years have you lived since birth?"

"And how much lifespan have you truly gained?"

"For joy, how much?"

"For suffering... cough, cough, cough! Suffering indeed!"

This voice did not exist in the present, but was a fragment within history. It seemed to be the sigh of some witness when the Eternal Youth Spring ran dry.

Following this final, shattering resonance of the smashed zither strings.

History’s sigh, sighed for the ears of those who came later.

The Eternal Youth Spring, whose waters had been still and without ripples, now spread layer upon layer of ripples.

From the central point of those dense ripples there emanated endless power of divine decay.

"Master, behold!" Zhu Yi lifted her gaze and said, "Fate is set by Heaven—why force it?"

The power of divine decay from the Eternal Youth Spring was being ceaselessly drawn by her. In the bubble of water hanging above her head, countless phantoms seemed to be reflected within: people and demons and beasts, flowers, birds, insects, Fish, beyond counting... and yet all were annihilated.

At the same time, the golden giant fist pressing down upon that bubble was actually dripping golden liquid, undergoing rapid dissolution!

Master Xingnian sought to blast apart her true lifespan, while she, using the power of the Eternal Youth Spring, would first dissolve Master Xingnian’s remaining years!

In the depths of Mingming, Master Xingnian’s voice rose again—

"Is this the method you prepared, Zhu Yi?"

"Old yet not old, born yet unborn, Lan Yin’s drifting fruit, all prior causes are but dreams... truly a wonderful method!"

"Sadly... I had already seen a step ahead!"

The "Buddha’s Fifty-Eight Chapters" gripped in the hand of headless Zhu Zheng suddenly began to turn pages. Though half the volume was tightly clutched, the other half nevertheless kept flipping upward.

Every page was in upheaval.

That violent Power was like countless giant dragons overturning the heavens within his palm, seeking to crash through Qian and Kun.

Zhu Yi had to exert herself to the utmost just to hold it down.

But the other two copies of "Buddha’s Fifty-Eight Chapters" hanging High in Xuankong also began slowly to turn their pages.

The Sanskrit characters in the books leapt out one by one.

Like warriors charging, striving to be first, they swiftly converged behind that golden giant fist.

Accumulating earth becomes a mountain, accumulating water becomes a river... accumulating characters builds a Golden Body!

All these years, Master Xingnian had already divided himself, transforming into the minute, and hiding within these many characters.

At this moment, those golden Sanskrit characters sculpted golden arms, a golden torso, golden legs, a golden skull... down to the brows and eyes, down to the nose and lips, down to the mouth and ears.

Vivid and lively, imbued with Buddha Nature’s compassion.

Master Xingnian of Mount Sumeru’s True countenance now appeared before the gathered demons for the first time, in the form of this Golden Body image.

His looks were actually handsome, nose rearing like a mountain, Buddha eyes deep as an abyss. His bald head was especially gleaming, which made Jiang Wang of the Mirror World feel a particular kinship; he almost wanted to emerge on the spot to strike up an acquaintance... but refrained, fearing it might affect Senior Master Xingnian’s battle.

The Golden Body statue of Master Xingnian hung suspended High above; and the process of the golden giant fist’s dissolution halted then and there!

The golden liquid that had already dripped down had paved the ground entirely in gold.

Gold bricks paving the earth, Buddha preaching the sutra!

Then that fist clenched even tighter.

More real, more profound.

The joints clearer, the lines more distinct!

Boom, boom, boom!

The sound of the knuckles moving was like mountains in motion.

Master Xingnian hung High in midair above the Divine Mountain, pressing his fist down.

The fist had five peaks!

Upon all five peaks characters appeared.

Dense as a carpet, engraved in gold and cut in jade, together forming a massive passage of scripture.

No need to read in detail, the characters had already leapt into the eyes.

They read: "Those who cultivate Good Fortune shall attain it. Those who commit Evil Fate shall invite calamity. Those who understand principle are limpidly clear, yet those who truly believe and awaken are few. Together we are born into this Five Muddied Evil World. The Five Skandhas’ vexations and the three poisons burn fierce. The revolving of birth and death has no end. In former days when the Buddha walked the world, people numbered like the sands of the Ganges..."

This was the "Sutra of the Names of the Thousand Buddhas of the Future Star Constellation Kalpa"!

Its vast voice proclaimed: "Eternal Youth Spring, Eternal Youth Spring!"

"A treasure of the present world—how many years now has it been shifted into the Monster Realm?"