Free Web NovelChapter 532: Chapter 1: Daluo_2
Lu Xuan lowered his eyelids slightly and asked coolly,
"Oh? And for what reason did the Buddha Mother summon this Buddha to Spirit Mountain?"
"I wished to discuss something with you, World Honored One."
The Maitreya Buddha Mother shot an indifferent glance at the bow-headed Lamp Buddha, then continued,
"Chaos has already appeared in the Human World. The fate of the Han Dynasty is nearing its end. I cannot bear to see the suffering in the Human World, so I wish to establish a sect there to save the people from their misery."
"What sect?" Lu Xuan narrowed his eyes. ’Is she making her move? Or is it...?’
The Maitreya Buddha Mother said with a smile,
"Its name will be the White Lotus Sect. I shall be its supreme master, with the Immortal Mother and the Innocent Ancient Buddha as secondary masters. We will save the people from their misery, delivering the world and ourselves."
"Good."
Lu Xuan’s heart sank slightly, but his compassionate expression remained unchanged. He asked impassively,
"Does the Buddha Mother intend to enter the Human World personally?"
"Indeed."
"Saving the people from their misery, delivering the world and oneself. The Buddha Mother is truly compassionate."
"Not as compassionate as the World Honored One."
The two Great Buddhas conversed without any hint of hostility. They were currently in a ’cooperative’ relationship and still in what could be considered a ’honeymoon phase’.
This was why the Buddha Mother had informed Lu Xuan about the White Lotus Sect.
For no other reason than to show him some respect.
After all, Shakyamuni was still the patriarch of Spirit Mountain at this moment.
Raising his eyelids, Lu Xuan stared at the Innocent Ancient Buddha who was struggling to his feet below. He pondered for a good while before finally smiling.
"Go, then. Go."
He put his palms together, recited a Buddha’s name with a sigh, and said lightly,
"I only hope the world’s suffering can be fully delivered and saved. How compassionate, how compassionate!"
"Amitabha Buddha!" The Maitreya Buddha Mother stood up, gave a slight nod to Lu Xuan, then patted her enormous belly and cheerfully walked down from her Lotus Platform.
She and the six-armed Innocent Ancient Buddha then walked out of the Great Leiyin Temple together.
With every step they took, ten thousand lotuses bloomed in a continuous carpet.
After watching the two Buddhas depart,
the brilliant golden Great Buddha seated on the main throne calmly turned his head and asked,
"Lamp Buddha, what are your thoughts on this matter?"
Lamp raised his head indifferently and sneered.
"Since you, Shakyamuni Buddha, are already in league with the Buddha Mother, why bother asking me? I am merely a Past Buddha, an old relic left behind by the times!"
Lu Xuan was left speechless but didn’t reveal his true identity to Lamp. He simply asked in a level voice,
"Lamp Buddha, you gave away the artifact you held, causing your own fall to the Eternal Proof stage. The most urgent matter now is to reforge a Dao Artifact as soon as possible."
It was only after stepping into the Daluo Realm that he learned of the different stages within it.
The first step is Eternal Proof, the second is Artifact Holder, and the third is Supreme.
An Artifact Holder Daluo uses an artifact to carry the Dao. Their very being is comparable to a multiverse, and a single punch or kick is enough to tear apart the Celestial Myriad Realms. If not restrained by a stronger existence, they even possess the ability to, in a sense, reboot the Great Heaven and Earth.
The so-called "artifact" of an Artifact Holder Daluo is something like Lamp Buddha’s Spirit Coffin Lamp, Emperor Gouchen’s West Pole Celestial Court,
or even the Immortal Mother’s Peach Grove...
It is called an "artifact," but that doesn’t just mean Daoist Soldiers or Magical Treasures. The scope is quite broad.
An "artifact" can allow a Daluo to advance further and gain the might of a multiverse. But by the same token, if the "artifact" is shattered, or even just lost,
and if they have not yet reached the Supreme level, an Artifact Holder Daluo will also fall, regressing to an ordinary Eternal Daluo.
In truth, there are really only two steps to Daluo. The first is the Eternal Daluo, who can freely transfer their consciousness among their past imprints with a single thought.
The second is the Supreme Daluo, who exists in every single instant of the River of Time and has consolidated their entire past into a single "timeline."
The "artifact" of a Daluo is more like the icing on the cake, rather than a necessary, mandatory step.
"Whether I reforge a Dao Artifact is no concern of yours, Shakyamuni Buddha. If you find my Cultivation too low, then simply replace me with another Past Buddha!"
Lamp snorted, then slowly strode out of the Great Leiyin Temple, leaving Lu Xuan alone in the vast hall.
He sat upon the Pure Lotus Platform for a long time, then let out a low laugh. He put his palms together and sighed a Buddha’s name.
He then closed his eyes, and his consciousness silently drifted out, descending upon the Human World and transforming into a serene old Daoist.
"A great age is about to begin..."
The old Daoist waved his hand, erecting a Daoist Temple. He turned his back to it and gazed out at the great Human Dao world, sighing softly as he watched the Han Dynasty’s fate flicker like a candle in the wind.
Lu Xuan walked into the Daoist Temple and sat down cross-legged. After becoming Shakyamuni and attaining the Daluo Realm during the Spring and Autumn Years,
he had directly transferred his consciousness here, to the Late Han Dynasty.
Having just attained Daluo and not yet forged his own "artifact," Lu Xuan could only shift his consciousness between his imprinted bodies.
He couldn’t be everywhere in the stream of Years, still a long way off from that.
Because of this, he hadn’t yet had a chance to properly contemplate the Profound Mysteries of the Daluo Level.
He sat quietly in the Daoist Temple, and in a flash, forty-nine days passed.
’I’ve entered the Daluo Realm and consolidated all my past imprints, but I ultimately took a shortcut. By borrowing the body of Shakyamuni, the ’Lu Xuan’ identity itself has no footprints, no imprints of existence before the Spring and Autumn Period.’
As he mused to himself, Lu Xuan silently comprehended the temporal mysteries of the Daluo Level. It was an extremely wondrous feeling.
Although he couldn’t yet exist in every single instant of Time simultaneously,
with a turn of his thoughts, one instant he was sitting in the Daoist Temple, and the next, he was in the Guardian Storage Room during the Spring and Autumn Period, talking with Senior Brother Zhang and paying respects to his teacher.
Three instants later,
he appeared sequentially at the moment he was Preaching to the world, the moment he attacked the Four Directions Celestial Court, and the moment he paid respects at Zhang Liang’s great tomb.
In another instant, Lu Xuan’s consciousness shifted again, returning to the Current World.
To be precise, it was thirteen years ago in the Current World.
He was at East Sea High School. Birds chirped incessantly outside the window, Lu Xiuyuan droned on at the lectern, and in the front row, Ji Boduan was making faces.
Beside him, Xiaoyan peeled a large chestnut, quietly passed it over, and whispered,
"Here, Xiaolu, have some!"
Lu Xuan took the chestnut, turned his head, and met Xiaoyan’s gaze for two seconds.
The girl’s face flushed red, all the way to the tips of her ears. She abruptly lowered her head and said softly,
"Xiaolu, what are you doing..."
Some students nearby started jeering, and all eyes in the classroom turned toward them. Lu Xuan, as if oblivious, reached out, placed his hand on Xiaoyan’s head, and ruffled her hair affectionately.
Xiaoyan trembled slightly but didn’t resist. Her face just grew redder. The entire classroom fell silent for a moment, sinking into an extremely delicate atmosphere, before erupting into a clamor!
Seated amidst the countless catcalls, Lu Xuan’s still-youthful face showed no ripples of emotion.
He turned to look at the lectern, met the gaze of the good-natured, huffing-and-puffing Old Lu, and broke into a grin.
’This is nice.’
The sun was bright, the world was not yet in chaos, and all was at peace.
His thoughts moved again. This time, he was in a library. The girl sitting across from him had a cold expression, stern and unsmiling, quietly reading a book like an iceberg.
This was when they first met.
"Yan Jiangxue."
Lu Xuan suddenly spoke.
The girl was startled. She frowned slightly and shot him a cool glance.
"Is there something you need?"
"No. The sound of you eating your potato chips is bothering me."
The girl abruptly lowered her head and replied in an icy voice,
"Sorry."
With that, she buried her head behind her book. Lu Xuan burst out laughing, startling the exasperated librarian, who rushed over.
He paid her no mind, simply rising in silence and walking to the window. He gazed out at the vast sky, taking the entire cosmos into his eyes.
’What is Time?’
he asked himself softly. He reached out and caught a withered leaf drifting down from outside the window, then gave it a light flick.
The withered leaf silently vanished into the void, suddenly reappearing in the Land of the Far North, inside the Death Tower.
"Who’s there?!"
Ming Xiangjun, seated within the Death Tower, was horrified. She used every trick she had to intercept the withered leaf, her Immortal might surging forth and alarming the world!
In the Life Tower, the Upper Palace, the Earth Palace, and even on Dragon Tiger Mountain, Immortals looked up in shock and suspicion toward the far northern land.
In the next moment, the withered leaf fell, the Immortal died, and the Death Tower collapsed!
All the Immortals’ faces changed. In the Life Tower, one who was suffused with Dao Rhyme attempted a Divination but only saw a towering figure standing in the River of Time. He screamed, blood streaming from his eyes!
History was altered. Ming Xiangjun no longer existed, but Teacher Lu still died in battle at the Great Wall.
Lu Xuan frowned.
’What is history?’
After pondering for a long time,
Lu Xuan silently withdrew his consciousness from that period of Years and returned to his own body, still sitting in the Daoist Temple on a barren mountain in the Late Han Dynasty.
After another long, quiet moment, he murmured to himself,
"It seems I wasn’t born in Qianlong City. The first moment I opened my eyes, a mysterious being was holding me, and it placed me at my parents’ door."
’Who was he?’
Lu Xuan didn’t hurry to go to that point in time. He simply turned his head slightly, a smile on his face.
A visitor had arrived.
A commotion arose outside the Daoist Temple, and three shabby-looking Daoists walked in, each carrying an otherworldly air.
"I am the humble Daoist Zhang Jiao. We are passing through this area. Might we trouble you, Fellow Daoist, for a night’s lodging?"
Lu Xuan looked up, gazing at the middle-aged Daoist. He saw through Cause and Effect, understood the truth of the matter, and sighed in his heart, ’So that’s how it is.’ He then gestured for them to enter.
"Of course, you may."
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist!"
