Chapter 2679 - Fate Comes to Naught, It all Ends in the Present

The blood-red line descending down the bridge of the Dipankara Buddha’s nose was a sword wound.

Su Yi’s simple slash cleaved open the fated sea of stars, shattering its countless grains of sand before landing on the Dipankara Buddha.

Even now, the Dipankara Buddha remained as calm as ever. He even asked why Su Yi hadn’t used the power of reincarnation.

Su Yi didn’t answer, but the Dipankara Buddha could guess.

As if entirely unaware of the gash descending down his body, the Dipankara Buddha looked at Su Yi and said, “They just want to pluck your Dao Fruit, but I’m different. This slash is what I’ve been after this entire time.”

Su Yi’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

The Dipankara Buddha’s gaze was inscrutable, and he let out an uncharacteristic sigh. “To me, dying by your hand means the severing of old grudges, and a chance to sever the confines of fate.”

As he spoke, the bloody line reached his chest, cutting open his monk’s robes.

“Is this really your true body?” asked Su Yi.

“It is,” said the Dipankara Buddha. “Killing me ends an old grudge for you, too. However...”

He paused, a relieved look on his face, as if he’d found release. “But we’ll meet again one day. It’s just that then, my Dao will no longer be my Dao, and I will no longer be me.”

With that, his body silently split in two.

But he didn’t topple to the ground. He remained standing, palms clasped together, and chanted, “All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like dew or a flash of lightning. Thus we shall perceive them.

“The past is severed, and fate comes to naught. Only solitude is real. It all culminates in the present!”

As his voice rang out, his body ignited with Buddhist flames, but even as he burned away, he gazed at Su Yi calmly, with a natural, carefree smile on his face.

Something suddenly occurred to Su Yi. “Next time I see you, will you be...”

But before the words “the Buddha of the Present” could leave his lips, the Dipankara Buddha withered away completely. Not even ashes remained.

All that remained was his last word, still echoing through the air: “Good!”

Su Yi stood there, expression shifting and uncertain.

He’d just recalled something.

Back in the Boundless Battlefield, he slew Old Man Heart Demon and the other Celestial Demon Progenitors. Later, he learned that they were the incarnations of the negative karma of the Buddhas of the past, present, and future, and that the three Buddhas were originally from the River of Destiny. It seemed they hailed from the Eternal Heavens Domain’s Spirit Mountain Buddhist Court.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

It was also then that he learned that the three Buddhas fell from Eternity due to a Karmic Tribulation.

In killing the Demon Progenitors, he effectively rid them of their negative karma.

It was also then that Su Yi first suspected that the three Buddhas were originally the same person!

After all, the three old-timers had simultaneously suffered Karmic Tribulations, and all three of their incarnations of negative karma had appeared in the Boundless Battlefield. How could that possibly have been a coincidence?

Now, when he watched the Dipankara Buddha die and recalled what he’d said, Su Yi realized that his initial guess was likely right on the mark.

The three Buddhas really were originally the same person!

He’d slain the Dipankara Buddha, effectively severing that person’s past, and by extension, his fate!

Su Yi didn’t know what changes would result, but he dared say with certainty that the Buddha of the Present would benefit considerably!

Why the Buddha of the Present, not the Buddha of the Future? Su Yi didn’t actually know which it would be; he was going by pure intuition.

During the Dark Days of Legend, the past and present completely overlapped with the future.

The three Buddhas had grasped the Daos of the Past, Present, and Future. In the present day, the Buddha of the Present was surely supreme among them!

But there might well have been more to this. At the very least, Su Yi was certain that although the Dipankara Buddha was dead, his Dao Imprint lived on with the Buddha of the Present.

Su Yi couldn’t help but rub his forehead at the thought of it. He had indeed slain the Dipankara Buddha, but it seemed obvious that he’d been used by him, too.

Because his old enemy knew that his power could sever fate, and that was exactly what he wanted!

No, something isn’t right here.

Su Yi suddenly recalled something and gazed beyond the battlefield.

On this trip to Red Pine Mountain, the Dipankara Buddha had traveled with a young monk in gray. That young monk climbed all the way to Five Elements Peak, too.

But the young monk was lacking in strength, so he was eliminated in the first round of matches.

Now that the Dipankara Buddha was dead, Su Yi suspected a problem with that young monk.

He scanned the crowd, but saw no sign of the young monk in gray. He couldn’t help but frown.

There really is a problem with that guy!

As Su Yi’s thoughts raced, the Dipankara Buddha’s death caused a huge commotion. Everyone was bewildered and uncertain. They had no idea why the Dipankara Buddha had sought death, nor did they understand the deeper meaning hidden in his last few words.

They just got the vague sense that the Dipankara Buddha had been waiting for Su Yi to kill him, as if that were the only way he could find release.

It seemed unbelievable. The crowd couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on.

Still, no matter what, this round was over.

Su Yi had emerged as its final victor!

How terrifying were Lu Shi, Di E, and the Dipankara Buddha? Yet they’d all perished beneath Su Yi’s sword in the end.

In the course of this battle, the unusual way in which Su Yi proved his Dao, combined with his display of strength, left the crowd utterly astonished.

Now, when they watched Su Yi leave the Five Elements Altar alone, the way they looked at him had changed completely.

Their eyes were full of dread, astonishment, confusion, and bewilderment.

Everyone reacted differently, but no matter their background or strength, there was one thing everyone in the crowd had in common: their perception of cultivation had been turned on its head twice over!

The first time, Su Yi overcame a long insurmountable wall, killing the Eternal while still Undying.

The second time, Su Yi managed to break through, despite no opportunity to prove his Dao and despite inviting no tribulation.

Each was enough to shake the River of Destiny, and each was unique and unprecedented.

It was precisely because neither had ever happened before that they overturned the crowd’s perception of reality like this!

Now, no matter how much they hated him, when they looked at Su Yi, their hearts were full of astonishment and bewilderment.

This was someone they really couldn’t predict, nor could they judge him by the confines of common sense. He was... an anomaly!

What proud chosen of heaven? What heaven-defying geniuses? Compared to Su Yi, none were even worth looking at!

All was deathly silent. No one said a word.

Su Yi didn’t linger. He just turned and descended the Five Elements Altar.

By the time he rejoined the crowd, his transformation was over. His presence was calm and withdrawn once more, and he no longer showed any sign of injury, nor could anyone else the fluctuations of his vital energy.

If not for the bloodstains on his tattered blue robes, there’d have been no proof that he’d been injured at all prior to his breakthrough!

“Where did that young monk go?” Su Yi looked at the yellow finch and asked out of nowhere.

The young monk?

The crowd was already stunned, and they hadn’t expected this question at all. A moment passed before they realized who Su Yi was talking about.

When they looked around, they saw that the young monk who’d accompanied the Dipankara Buddha here was indeed nowhere to be found.

They couldn’t help but find this surprising. Not even the tiniest, most insignificant of ants could have left without them noticing, yet now, the young monk had vanished, and none of them had noticed. Of course they were surprised!

But before the yellow finch could respond, Xiao Jian said, “He returned along the path down the mountain while you were fighting in the second round.”

He paused, then said thoughtfully, “Is there a problem with him?”

Su Yi shook his head. It would be too difficult to explain.

But then, the yellow finch said suddenly, “The monk you speak of was manifested from a drop of water. After leaving Five Elements Peak, the droplet vanished. It’s no longer on Red Pine Mountain.”

A drop of water?

The crowd was flabbergasted.

They vividly recalled that the young monk had climbed all the way to the peak and participated in the first round of the Battle for Order. Who could have imagined that he was actually just a drop of water?

Most unbelievable of all, he’d someone deceived their senses!

Su Yi was stunned, too. He hadn’t anticipated this answer.

“You two are fighting next,” the yellow finch reminded them.

The crowd’s hearts shook. This would be the final match. Whoever won would earn the recognition of the Five Elements Altar and master the Laws of Red Pine Mountain.

In other words, this battle would determine the outcome of the Battle for Order. When a victor emerged, all of this would come to an end!