Chapter 393 - 360: I Am the Fruit Position

His words came in ragged bursts, each one draining all his strength.

"Heh..."

A faint chuckle seemed to come from the luminous figure, its tone betraying neither pleasure nor anger.

"Your Highness is wise to the greater good. I... am most gratified."

The moment the voice faded, the Crown Prince of Nanyin suddenly felt an incorporeal, formless hand—one that seemed to encompass all of creation—descend from the supreme heights of that Infinite Light and gently sweep across the crown of his head.

"TSS..."

A sound, faint and almost imperceptible, like a single thread being drawn away, registered in the depths of his consciousness.

’Was that... a thread of karma?’

Before he could make sense of it, the vast, luminous world began to rapidly fade and collapse.

The Infinite Light receded like a tide. The scene of the Broken Spirit Mountain, the chill of twilight, the acrid, scorched air... all flooded back into his senses.

THUD!

He was still kneeling, his knees pressed hard against the cold, rubble-strewn ground.

Only a single voice remained, drifting over slowly.

"You and I seem to have hit it off, Your Highness. I imagine... we will certainly meet again."

The voice paused for a moment. Though the tone remained level, it carried a chilling undercurrent of warning:

"Fellow Daoist Qingyuan can’t watch over you... every second of every day, can he?"

"..."

Twilight closed in, and silence fell upon the ruins.

The Crown Prince of Nanyin knelt upon the Broken Buddha Land. For a long, long time, he remained motionless. Then, ever so slowly, he pressed his trembling fingers against the cold ground and began to push himself up.

Slowly, with immense force, he clenched his fists.

He looked up toward the southern sky, in the direction Qi Yun had departed. There was nothing there.

Only the last sliver of the setting sun remained, a streak of blood smeared across the distant horizon, watching everything with cold indifference.

The wind sighed through the ruins, a mournful, weeping sound.

...

「West Sea Coast.」

As he stepped into the Microcosmic Cave Heaven, a realm of light born from a speck of dust, the connection to the mortal world behind him fell away like a silken veil.

VMMMM...

The moment he entered this pocket of Heaven and Earth—a world derived entirely from his own Dao—the majestic aura surrounding the Great Sun Purple Extreme True Monarch faltered. An instant before, it had been as imposing as the blazing sun on its celestial patrol, impossible to gaze upon directly. Now, it suddenly stagnated, then collapsed like a breached dam, rapidly dwindling away.

Without warning, countless fine cracks appeared on the surface of his Immortal Body, which had been as flawless as jade and shimmered with a faint, purple-gold luster. Like the crazing on a shattered piece of porcelain, the fissures spread from the center of his brow, the corners of his eyes, and his fingertips. A dim radiance seeped out from the fissures.

The brilliant Great Sun behind his head, which should have been a flawless orb of Perfection illuminating the Cave Heaven, was now in disarray. At its edges, great flakes of incandescent white light peeled away like weathered plaster, flaking off and dissolving into motes of light that scattered and merged with the ever-present luminescence of the Cave Heaven. It was a clear sign of exhaustion, of a damaged origin.

[A clash of Fruit Positions]. Although he had ultimately plundered a wisp of Golden Nature from the Vidyārāja Bodhisattva and appeared to have the upper hand...

But how could one brazenly collide with the stable Fruit Position of a long-established Bodhisattva and expect to pay no price?

Now, having returned to his own private Heaven and Earth, the moment his Heart and Spirit relaxed, his injuries surged back with the force of a tidal wave.

He sat cross-legged in the center of the Cave Heaven. Beneath him, a Golden Flame Lotus Platform, condensed purely from the Great Sun True Flame, materialized.

The Great Sun Purple Extreme True Monarch’s eyes were half-closed, his expression devoid of sorrow or joy as he silently began to circulate his Profound Skill.

Instantly, the Microcosmic Cave Heaven resonated with him. An endless, supremely pure tide of Light Primordial Qi surged in from all directions, coalescing into a visible, milky-white Lingxi that coiled around his body.

The Dao Source within him began to turn. With each rotation, it pulsed with a scorching, domineering radiance, which manifested as countless fine yet resilient threads of light. These threads weaved through every fissure in his Immortal Body, mending and smoothing them. They delved deeper, into his very origin, repairing the subtle, hidden damage to his formless Dao Fruit.

Wherever the light flowed, the cracks vanished at a visible rate.

The escaping radiance was drawn back in, and the crumbling edges of the Great Sun behind his head began to slowly but surely re-form.

Time had no meaning in the Cave Heaven; only the flow of light marked its passage.

After an unknown amount of time, the cracks on his Immortal Body had vanished completely. His aura had returned to its abyssal depths, though compared to his peak state, an almost imperceptible hint of instability remained.

The Great Sun Purple Extreme True Monarch slowly opened his eyes. They reflected the eternal light of the Cave Heaven, and within that light, the reflection of the life-or-death battle that had shaken the Profound Yellow world.

"Vidyārāja..." he murmured, his voice sending ripples through the tranquil world of light.

’Eight hundred years since he attained the Dao, yet his wrath has not faded. His Divine Court appears magnificent, yet he lacks an Auxiliary Position to provide support. Though his Fruit Position hangs high, his flawed Dao Heart means its roots are not deep...’

As he recalled how violently the Cyan Flame Buddha Country had shaken from the impact, how its core Golden Nature had wavered, a flash of cold, belated understanding crossed his eyes.

’If I had faced a long-established Bodhisattva like Dragon Elephant Wisdom—one with deep roots, a Divine Court as stable as Mount Sumeru, and a Fruit Position deeply intertwined with the River of Heaven and Earth Years...’

’...had I clashed with him head-on, I fear I would have been the one whose Dao Fruit shattered and True Spirit disintegrated.’

This gamble had only worked because he had seized upon a flaw in the Vidyārāja Bodhisattva’s Dao Foundation. It was a calculated, desperate strike against an opponent who was not fully prepared, allowing him to luckily succeed, snatching away the Bodhisattva’s Golden Nature and damaging his Status.

Recalling the danger now still sent a tremor of fear through him.

The Great Sun Purple Extreme True Monarch’s thoughts drifted far, tracing the river of time back to that single, fateful moment.

...the moment he stood atop Spirit Mountain. Under the watchful eyes of all the True Monarchs, Bodhisattvas, and even the unseen will of Heaven, he had summoned the River of Heaven and Earth Years, intending to follow the path of Seeking Gold and Proving the Dao.

The memory flooded back, crystal clear.

The turbid, gray water of the River, imbued with the immense power of endless time, descended like a colossal waterfall connecting Heaven and Earth. It ignored all the radiant light of his Divine Techniques, crashing down upon his manifested Great Brightness Shizhi Dharma Body with a deafening roar.

The Pure Land, sustained by his Bright Buddha Power, dissolved in an instant. The White Lotuses withered, and his Golden Body was sullied with dust.