Chapter 1171: The Great Saber of Extirpation

“Stubborn fool!” A rare hint of anger entered Devi Ruyi’s voice. “Cardinal, Your Majesty[1], please assist me!”

In the sky, the two giant hands met each other in a clap. The next moment, their skin color turned black, and the Black Flame of Nirvana wreathed them. At the same time, a Buddha sporting a square-shaped head with four faces, and a body with eight arms slowly manifested into view.

Four faces were enough to observe all ten directions of heaven and earth, and eight arms were enough to master nirvana and samsara.

There was only one Buddha that possessed this appearance. He was none other than the Ten Directions Grand Venerable One of Nirvana.

As the sky-scorching dragon approached, the Ten Directions Grand Venerable One of Nirvana lifted his eight arms and performed eight mudras. They were the Mara Mudra, the Living Mudra, the Tiger Mudra, the Animitta Mudra, the Calming Mudra, the Deliverance Mudra, the Kalasa Mudra, and the Samsara Mudra.

The mudras eventually merged into one final mudra: the Nirvana Mudra.

Dazzling light burst out of the Buddhist mudra and clashed against the sky-scorching dragon and demonic saber. Both dragon and saber instantly dissolved into nothingness, though the Ten Directions Grand Venerable One of Nirvana’s image also became much more transparent and blurry as a result.

The two giant hands in the sky were looking much dimmer as well.

The next moment, the clenched hands pushed forward, filling the entire area with terrifying fist intent.

Buzz!

The fist intent was vigorous, tyrannical, and crushing. It was a declaration of the one true supreme of all who ruled for eternity; that “only I reign supreme above heaven and underground”.

“Buddha Emperor Fist”

Even before the fist descended, a terrifying fist imprint had already appeared on the Mara Buddha Sovereign’s chest. When the two hands descended, the fist imprint grew bigger, and cracks began appearing all over Mara Buddha Sovereign’s body.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Mara Buddha Sovereign roared like a madman. He tried to launch a counterattack, but Devi Ruyi raised her right hand and pushed forward.

Her fingers abruptly exploded into pieces, spilling an entire cloud of blood as a result, and the Mayadevi Sarira released its pure, holy light once more. The light then transformed into many formless chains that wrapped tightly around Mara Buddha Sovereign, pinning him in place.

“Break!”

Mara Buddha Sovereign screamed at the top of his lungs as he struggled. He was able to break the formless chains, but it was too late.

The pair of hands and that oppressive, terrifying fist intent was already right in front of him.

“I surrender!”

There were few things scarier than the threat of death, and Mara Buddha Sovereign wasn’t done living yet. He shouted, “Don’t kill me! I’ll serve you! I’ll serve you all!”

The pair of hands stopped just inches away from Mara Buddha Sovereign’s chest. Despite this, the fist intent was so oppressive that the earth-eroding serpent and demonic saber it carried was scattered into bits of fire. It was a beautiful death if nothing else.

When the hands stopped in their tracks, Mara Buddha Sovereign heaved out a sigh of relief before pleading in a hurry, “I submit! I will serve the Mara Sect as its humble servant! I will serve you for eternity, so please!”

He might be a broken artifact spirit, but whoever said that an artifact spirit wasn’t afraid of death? On the contrary, he was terribly afraid to die.

Sure, submitting to his foe meant losing his freedom, surrendering his life to them, and being used for all eternity. But even a life of servitude was still better than no life at all, right?

Besides, a good artifact spirit could bend as well as they could stand. So long as he remained alive, who could say what the future holds?

Long story short, Mara Buddha Sovereign caved.

“Good!”

A small smile appeared on Devi Ruyi’s face. It was as if she couldn’t feel the loss of her fingers at all.

The reason they didn’t kill the fake Mara Buddha Sovereign was very simple. Although he wasn’t the real Mara Buddha Sovereign, he was the latest artifact spirit of the Buddha Emperor Mountain. The Buddha Emperor Mountain was severely damaged and incomplete to begin with, and killing the artifact spirit would surely deal an even greater blow to it. For obvious reasons, no one wanted a useless Buddha Emperor Mountain.

Besides, nurturing and birthing a new artifact spirit took a very long time. There was simply no need to go through all that trouble unless absolutely necessary.

Of course, this was only if Mara Buddha Sovereign chose to submit to them. Otherwise, they would have gladly delivered him to nirvana.

“Yes, yes! I will form a Mara Buddha Oath with you right now!” Mara Buddha Sovereign said.

“There’s no hurry.”

Surprisingly, Devi Ruyi rejected his offer. Instead, she looked at a certain point not far away from her and said, “Let me take out the mouse first.”

As soon as she finished, the bloody fog in the sky came together to form a bloody lotus. The bloody lotus then rotated into the air and summoned many formless wisps of saber intent. It wasn’t long before they filled the entire sky.

Bang bang bang bang—

There was a series of formless eruptions, and a person appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

No, he had been standing there from the very beginning. It was just that no one noticed him until just now.

The second the person appeared, a bloody Buddhist saber appeared behind his back and swung down.

The bloody Buddhist saber possessed a brutal form, but it neither exuded killing intent nor violent impulse. There was only a sense of relief that came after death; a form of release that one experienced only after they had taken the tonsure and converted into Buddhism.

It was as if this saber could convince anyone to let go of their worries, let go of their fear, forget about their life, and accept death wholeheartedly. It was as if it could convert anyone to extirpation.

Hence, the saber was named the “Great Saber of Extirpation”.

The person did not react because of the saber’s power. Relief entered his eyes as acceptance flooded his expression.

The next moment, the bloody saber struck the person in the neck. But instead of beheading the person, the saber itself shattered into pieces instead. All it managed to inflict was a tiny scratch.

Blood began pouring out of the person’s orifices, but at the same time, the unusual look of relief in his expression disappeared without a trace.

“Phew... that is quite the saber art!”

The person remarked smilingly and wiped away the blood on his mouth after awakening. “But it’s not very polite to greet someone with a beheading, is it?”

The person was Ye Qing, of course.

“You are extraordinary, householder,” Devi Ruyi replied with a hint of surprise.

The Great Saber of Extirpation wasn’t a martial art belonging to the Mara Sect. It was a White Horse Temple martial art. Three thousand years ago, the Mara Sect fought a great war against the forces of the Central Plains led by the Lanke Temple and White Horse Temple. Although Lanke Temple and White Horse Temple ultimately emerged victorious, the Mara Sect hadn’t walked away completely empty-handed. They had successfully killed many enlightened senior monks of Lanke Temple and White Horse Temple as well. The Great Saber of Extirpation was a martial art they had relieved from one of their kills.

The Great Saber of Extirpation was a saber art about preaching Buddhism via the saber. It could eliminate one’s worries, greed, anger, caution, and fear. It could also remove all desires such as the desire to live, love, hatred, joy, sorrow and more and make it so that the victim would willingly accept their death and extirpate themselves. Hence the name.

The Great Saber of Extirpation was a saber art that was shrouded in mysteries and boasted unlimited potential. Naturally, it was equally difficult to practice. Only those who possessed a pure heart untainted by sorrow, joy, greed, anger, shock, and anger could even begin to practice it.

Not only that, one’s attainment in the Great Saber of Extirpation did not lie in one’s cultivation level or skill, but one’s Buddhism and Buddhist heart. The greater one’s study of Buddhism, and the more perfect their heart was, the stronger the Great Saber of Extirpation would become.

Devi Ruyi had practiced the Great Saber of Extirpation since she was a child, and her main cultivation art was the “Ruyi Sacred Heart Art”. A cultivation art focused on cultivating the heart, her Great Saber of Extirpation naturally boasted incredible power. Without exaggeration, no one below a Half Sage could survive the attack. Even a Half Sage would choose to dodge the attack than take it head on.

But today, that myth had been broken by Ye Qing. Although her Ruyi Heavenly Eyes told her that there was no way a Great Grandmaster, a warrior who focused on honing the body, could possibly survive her Great Saber of Extirpation, the fact was that Ye Qing was alive and well after enduring the attack head on. As if that wasn’t enough, he didn’t even look particularly injured.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

1. This is referring to Mayadevi, meaning Buddha queen/queen Buddha. It doesn’t really make sense for her to say Buddha queen in speech so I’m making a note here. ☜