Chapter 2667 - I’d Like to Claim a Few Heads

The Dipankara Buddha stood atop the Five Elements Altar, quiet and unmoving.

The other five Unfettered Realm Eternals’ bodies surged with utterly terrifying power.

One manifested an illusory coiled crimson dragon and a rain of fiery light.

One formed hand seals and manifested a boundless, coursing river, enormous without end.

One pressed his fingers into a makeshift saber, purple thunderclouds surging overhead.

One tightened his fist, thunder booming and winds howling with every breath he took. His blood and qi practically boiled.

The four Unfettered Realm experts displayed four distinct powers of the Grand Dao. All of them revealed the power of their Eternal Laws.

Stronger Eternals could have discerned the limits of their cultivation bases after a single glance at their auras. Su Yi, however, could only compare them to each other to guess their relative strengths. He’d yet to become an Eternal, and he hadn’t yet grasped the mysterious truths of Eternity. He couldn’t discern the mysteries of the Unfettered Realm.

Still, the judgment honed through years of combat experience was enough to pick up a few hits.

At the same time, he started comparing his own strength to that of these Eternals.

Boom!

A grand battle broke out, and without any prior discussion, the four Eternals launched themselves at the Dipankara Buddha.

Wondrous! They’re quite perceptive,

someone sighed and applauded to themselves.

The older and more experienced Eternals understood the situation best of all. They knew that the Dipankara Buddha, who showed no overt signs of power, was the easiest to underestimate, especially in the first round.

But this monk of mysterious origins was also the most dangerous.

His four opponents hailed from different camps, but they were obviously extraordinarily perceptive and experienced too. As soon as the battle began, they tacitly agreed to join forces against the Dipankara Buddha, the greatest threat.

The Dipankara Buddha stood in place as if rooted to the ground. He didn’t move a muscle.

Even when four Unfettered Realm Eternals attacked at once, his expression never wavered.

It was only when their divine abilities were just about to reach him that he suddenly pressed his palms together and chanted, “May you find redemption in death.”

It was just one sentence, but every word echoed through the air, like ethereal Sanskrit chanting.

The red dragon wailed and shattered, the river dried up, the clouds of electric saber intent faded, and the boiling blood and qi instantly coolled...

With a single sentence, just a few words, he’d destroyed four unparalleled divine abilities imbued with the truths of Eternity.

The four Unfettered Realm Eternals’ joint onslaught collapsed. All of them looked stricken.

But before they could react, the Dipankara Buddha’s solemn, compassionate voice rang out once more. “The past comes to naught.”

Boom!

The four Unfettered Realm Eternals atop the thirty-thousand-foot Five Elements Altar were instantly enveloped in endless Buddhist light.

Strangely, they showed no sign of terror, despair, or bitterness. They didn’t even struggle as they were instantly reduced to ash.

All that remained of them were four dazzling bundles of Eternal radiance, the four dead Unfettered Realm Eternals’ Eternal Sources!

A deathly silence descended over the crowd. Even the birds fell silent.

The crowd’s expressions shifted. Some were somber, others astonished, bewildered, or overcome with disbelief.

Just one sentence, a mere handful of words, and he’d killed four opponents in the blink of an eye. He hadn’t even moved!

This came as far too great a shock. None of them had anticipated that this mysterious monk would be so terrifying in battle.

He hadn’t left anyone alive. No, he’d destroyed all of his enemies in a single attack!

“‘Redemption in death, the past comes to naught, if you want to become a true Buddha, hell must first be empty...’ So, it’s you, you old monk,” Di E said suddenly, his eyes shining with inscrutable light. It seemed he’d figured out who the Dipankara Buddha really was.

“The Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court’s Hell Suppression Sutra of the Past really does live up to its reputation,” sighed an older-generation cultivator. He, too, recognized the power the Dipankara Buddha had just used.

The crowd stirred. Who on the River of Destiny didn’t know of the Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court, the greatest Buddhist faction in the Eternal Heavens Domain?

To Buddhists, the Buddhas were like Heavenly Sovereigns, their Chan Buddhist hearts like the heavens themselves, watching over them for generation after generation!

The old bald donkey really has changed,

thought Su Yi.

In the past, the Dipankara Buddha’s status was inferior to Di E. Everyone took him for just another peak Nine-Tribulation Master God.

But who’d dare to think of him that way now that he’d casually slain four Unfettered Realm Eternals?

“A petty trick, that’s all. It’s unworthy of such praise.” The Dipankara Buddha snapped his fingers, and the four Eternal Source energies landed in front of Di E. “Fellow Daoist, if you’re interested, you’re welcome to consume them.”

Earlier, when Di E slew that yellow-haired Eternal in purple robes, he devoured the man’s Eternal Source.

Now, the Dipankara Buddha was playing the part of the benevolent Buddha, delivering the dead Eternals’ source energies to the “needy” Di E.

“Even dying of thirst, the honorable warrior does not drink of stolen water. Similarly, I disdain to eat sustenance offered in charity.” Di E waved his sleeve through the air, and the four Eternal Sources shattered and vanished.

“Why destroy them?” The Dipankara Buddha sighed.

“Your intentions were impure. I’m being more than compassionate enough simply by not killing you,” Di E said icily.

That wasn’t “giving a gift.” That was “offering alms to the poor!”

Moreover, he’d offered them unprompted in front of a crowd. What was that, if not a blatant attempt to humiliate him?

But Di E knew that the Dipankara Buddha had done this as punishment for publicly revealing his origins. The old monk was giving him a tooth for a tooth.

The Dipankara Buddha shook his head and said no more. He just walked off the Five Elements Altar.

Perhaps deliberately, perhaps inadvertently, he didn’t return to his original position. Instead, he stopped just one hundred feet away from Su Yi.

Meanwhile, the second group of combatants appeared on the Five Elements Altar and began their battle. Su Yi only recognized one of them: Huang Yanleng!

The battle reached peak intensity as soon as it began.

No one could use external powers or treasures, so the five of them relied purely on their own strength, unleashing their supreme legacies and Eternal Laws.

The fierce combat was nothing like the first match. It was a chaotic mess, everyone fighting alone against four enemies at once. That was what made it so dangerous, and the outcome so unpredictable.

The crowd watched from beyond the altar, occasionally commenting, but all of them were calmed. None of them lost their cool or exclaimed over the battle.

If they had, it’d have made them seem ignorant.

Many of those gathered here had cultivation bases far beyond the Unfettered Realm. It was only due to the restrictions of Red Pine Mountain’s Laws that they’d sent Unfettered Realm clones here in their stead.

Thus, in their eyes, battles between Unfettered Realm cultivators were commonplace.

Unless someone ended the battle with a single sentence like the Dipankara Buddha had, no matter how fierce the combat was, it wouldn’t be enough to startle them.

It was different for Su Yi. He’d slain numerous False Eternals and numerous true Eternals’ avatars and clones, but he’d never killed a true Unfettered Realm Eternal, and he’d practically never seen anyone of that level fight before.

Thus, in his eyes, Huang Yanleng and the others’ chaotic battle was a rare opportunity to see Eternals in action. It was far more useful than watching the Dipankara Buddha annihilate four opponents in a flash.

By watching this battle, Su Yi got to see the power of Unfettered Realm Eternals firsthand. This helped him grasp the extent, and the nature ,of their power.

He could even apply this information to his own cultivation.

“What did you think of this humble monk’s duel, Fellow Daoist Su?” the Dipankara Buddha asked out of nowhere.

The battle was so fierce, and so noisy, that few paid any attention to him.

“It was impressive. I couldn’t see through it,” Su Yi said forthrightly. “I couldn’t tell how much of your cultivation base you used to kill the four of them. I have to say, you really have changed.”

The Dipankara Buddha was stunned. It seemed he hadn’t expected such an honest response.

A moment later, he sighed. “In the past, you wouldn’t have responded like that.”

In the past, although Yi Daoxuan, Li Fuyou, and Su Yi had different personalities, they were all unyieldingly proud and self-confident. Their bearing was as sharp and imposing as their swords.

Yet now, Su Yi was like a sword hidden in its case, his pride buried deep in his heart. There was no outward sign of his confidence, and he spoke modestly, with no obvious edge.

This change startled the Dipankara Buddha, but it also put him on guard.

Hidden sharpness was the most terrifying of all. Sometimes, the sea looked calm, but who knew what terrifying currents lay in wait beneath the surface?

“The Grand Dao changes, so people ought to change, too. It’s enough so long as my heart remains determined in its pursuit of the Dao,” Su Yi said casually. He was still watching the battle, not wanting to miss even the slightest detail.

“Everything else might change, but your Dao Heart is constant. Well said,” whispered the Diparanka Buddha. “As your enemy of hundreds of thousands of years, I just hope that you die by my hand, not by someone else’s.”

He looked calm, but utterly serious and completely sincere.

Su Yi was stunned. Only then did he shift his gaze to look at the Dipankara Buddha. “I heard that Buddhists attach great importance to karma. Back then, I helped you sever your negative karma, but look at you. Every time you open your mouth, you talk about wanting to kill me. It just isn’t right, is it?”

The Dipankara Buddha broke into an uncharacteristic smile. “In killing you, I’ll sever our karma and end our enmity. I’m so insistent on doing it myself precisely because I want to repay you for severing my negative karma.”

He gazed intently at Su Yi. “In my eyes, no one else here is worthy of killing you, no matter how lofty their cultivation base.”

Off in the distance, someone laughed derisively.

It was Xiao Jian. He didn’t say anything, but he looked over, and it was obvious that he’d heard what the Dipankara Buddha had said.

His eyes shone with mockery.

The Dipankara Buddha disregarded this. He just stood there quietly, as steady as a mountain.

Su Yi took a sip of wine. For some reason, it seemed extraordinarily delicious, and extraordinarily potent today.

Heroic spirit surged within him, his heart filling with emotion. He suddenly longed to claim his enemies’ heads during the Battle for Order!