Great Thunderclap Temple

All the ancient beings who witnessed this scene were shaken to their core!

The power that had once annihilated the Glazed Sacred Land had reappeared, shocking everyone once more.

“The Buddhist sects of the Western Region control an entire domain and possess unfathomable reserves of power. They were once able to protect themselves even when faced with Supreme Beings from the forbidden zones. And yet they’ve been defeated just like this?”

“How powerful is this man?”

Endless fear, doubt, and shock spread wildly through the hearts of countless powerful figures.

Yet the strength displayed by the Black-Robed Man before them had genuinely overturned their understanding of the world.

Even the Supreme Beings sleeping within the forbidden zones could not help but cast probing gazes toward this battlefield.

High in the sky, Little Black’s black-robed form remained standing motionless, as though he had merely done something insignificant.

His gaze swept across the collapsing Buddhist kingdom below and the five Ancient Buddhas whose faces were ashen, their eyes filled with nothing but boundless fear and despair.

He slowly raised his hand. In his palm, an aura of destruction began to gather, preparing to deliver the final judgment upon this hypocritical Buddhist kingdom.

“No—!”

Watching the enormous palm of annihilation slowly descend, carrying the power to bring an end to all things, the Vajra Demon-Subduing Ancient Buddha let out a heart-wrenching roar.

All traces of wisdom had long since vanished from the face of the Wisdom Ancient Buddha, leaving behind only boundless terror. He frantically performed deductions, but all he obtained was a chaotic vision filled with omens of destruction.

“The sect faces annihilation! This is a true disaster that could destroy the entire sect! Senior Brother Longevity!”

The Longevity Ancient Buddha coughed up several mouthfuls of golden blood mixed with fragments of his organs. A look of grim resolve appeared on his pale face.

“We cannot simply wait for death!”

A crazed glint flashed through the Longevity Ancient Buddha’s eyes. He turned toward the depths of the sacred mountain and roared, “I offer the Buddhist sect’s incense accumulated over ten thousand years as a sacrifice! I use the essence blood, souls, and spirits of the five of us as a guide! I respectfully summon the imprints of the Buddhas of past generations! Protect our Buddhist lineage from extinction!”

Following his roar, the five Ancient Buddhas simultaneously tore open their chests and sprayed out essence blood containing their origins. The blood splattered across the three most ancient stupa towers deep within the sacred mountain, which were perpetually shrouded in Buddhist light.

At the same time, they frenziedly burned the little lifespan and spiritual essence they had left, chanting the oldest and most forbidden summoning scripture.

“Om… Om… Om…”

The three stupa towers began to tremble violently. Dense, ancient Buddhist markings surfaced across their bodies, and an aura even more vast and primordial—an aura that seemed to have crossed through the river of time since the ancient past—slowly began to awaken.

Three incomparably indistinct phantoms, whose presence caused even the laws of the world to resonate, seemed ready to emerge from within the towers.

They were battle imprints left behind by the true Buddhas who had attained the Great Emperor’s fruition throughout the history of the Buddhist sect. They were the Buddhist sect’s final, and most powerful, trump card!

At the same time, the Longevity Ancient Buddha summoned the last of his strength and crushed an ancient jade talisman that had never been used before. The talisman transformed into a faint golden light carrying a unique fluctuation.

In an instant, it pierced through the void and shot toward an unknowable place in another part of the Western Region—the Great Thunderclap Temple.

It was the highest-level distress signal left behind when the two temples had once shared the same origins. Its meaning was clear: the Buddhist lineage faced the danger of total collapse!

After accomplishing all this, the five Ancient Buddhas’ auras weakened to the extreme, and they were on the verge of falling from the Quasi-Emperor Realm. Yet a faint glimmer of hope had ignited in their eyes.

In another part of the Western Region, within a secluded range of mountains untouched by worldly affairs and enveloped in peaceful, tranquil Buddhist light, stood the Great Thunderclap Temple.

At that moment, several gray-robed old monks sat deep within the temple. Their auras were just as ancient, but the Buddhist light around them was far more restrained and serene, while their faces bore an even more compassionate and sorrowful appearance.

Through an ancient mirror formed from the waters of a merit pool, they were watching in horror as everything unfolded above the Sumeru Ancient Temple.

The scenes of world-destroying devastation reflected in the water mirror left even these old monks, whose hearts had long been as still as dead wells, deeply shaken.

“With a single palm strike, he shattered Sumeru’s Demon-Extermination Formation, severely wounded the five Ancient Buddhas, and made an imperial weapon wail…”

The leader was a withered old monk whose white brows hung all the way to his chest. His dry voice was filled with disbelief.

“Such power is beyond what any Quasi-Emperor can wield. Sumeru is in grave danger.”

He was the current abbot of the Great Thunderclap Temple, Ancient Buddha Huixin, and had likewise been a Quasi-Emperor for many years.

Just then, the golden light carrying the distress signal tore through the void and landed in Ancient Buddha Huixin’s hand, transforming into a hurried mental message:

“We share the same lineage. The Buddhist tradition is on the verge of collapse. Come to our aid at once!”

Sensing the desperate plea of the Longevity Ancient Buddha contained within the message, an extremely complicated expression appeared on Ancient Buddha Huixin’s withered face. There was compassion, struggle, and deep helplessness.

“Senior Brother Abbot, is that a distress signal from the Sumeru Ancient Temple?”

Beside him, another Ancient Buddha with a relatively forthright bearing—Ancient Buddha Huihai—asked with a frown. He had also witnessed the scene in the water mirror, and the shock had yet to leave his face.

“It is.” Ancient Buddha Huixin nodded bitterly.

“Hmph!” A flash of anger and disdain crossed Ancient Buddha Huihai’s eyes.

“They actually have the nerve to ask us for help? Usually, they act so high and mighty, monopolizing the incense offerings of the Western Region and engaging in hypocritical, greedy practices, turning the Buddhist holy land into a complete mess!

“Now that they’ve finally run into someone they cannot afford to offend and are facing the danger of annihilation, they remember that we share the same lineage?”

His words voiced the thoughts of many monks in the Great Thunderclap Temple.

In the past, the Buddhist sect had been a single entity. Later, however, the two branches had gradually drifted apart because of their conflicting principles.

The Sumeru Ancient Temple advocated subduing others through force, gathering vast amounts of incense offerings, and displaying divine power before the people. It had gradually grown into an enormous faction, and its conduct had become increasingly domineering.

There had even been no shortage of secretly seizing and coercively converting others under the guise of salvation. They had long since strayed from the Buddhist principles of compassion for all living beings and seeing one’s true nature.

The Great Thunderclap Temple, on the other hand, insisted on cultivating the mind and focused on inner enlightenment rather than seeking anything from the outside world. It remained aloof from worldly affairs and had consequently declined over the years, eventually being pushed to the fringes of the Western Region.

Although the two temples shared the same origins, they had long since become strangers to one another, and conflicts between them were common.

Another Ancient Buddha, Ancient Buddha Huinan, whose face was even more sorrowful, sighed.

“What Junior Brother Huihai says may be blunt, but it is reasonable.

“The people of Sumeru have long since twisted the Buddhist scriptures. They borrow the name of Buddhism to carry out extortion, amass power, and pursue wealth. They are utterly hypocritical.

“What fills their hearts now is likely no longer the suffering of sentient beings, but merely boundless incense offerings and worldly authority. With conduct such as theirs, they are truly unworthy of being called Buddhists.”

“Besides, what could we possibly use to save them?”

Ancient Buddha Huihai raised his voice and pointed toward the Black-Robed Man in the water mirror, who resembled a demon god.

“This person’s strength is unfathomable! The five Quasi-Emperors of the Sumeru Ancient Temple formed a formation, wielded an imperial weapon, and gathered the power of faith, yet they were still unable to withstand a single blow!

“Our Great Thunderclap Temple is already inferior to them in terms of foundations. We have fewer Quasi-Emperor-level experts, and we possess neither an imperial weapon of such overwhelming power nor their accumulated faith. What could we possibly use to stop him?”

Ancient Buddha Huixin fell silent.

How could he not know that his two junior brothers were right?

The Great Thunderclap Temple was already weaker than the Sumeru Ancient Temple. What could it possibly use to oppose that terrifying existence who was seemingly an emperor?

To step forward by force would be nothing more than an ant trying to stop a chariot—a futile act that would only lead to their own destruction.

For a time, this pure and tranquil land sank into deathly silence.

Ancient Buddha Huixin watched the apocalyptic scene in the water mirror, which was on the verge of erupting completely. The last trace of hesitation in his eyes finally transformed into resolve.

“Amitabha.”

He slowly rose to his feet, and the serene aura surrounding him suddenly became solemn and heavy.

“Senior Brother!”

Ancient Buddha Huihai and Ancient Buddha Huinan’s hearts sank at the same time, and an ominous premonition arose within them.

“Junior Brothers Huihai and Huinan,” Ancient Buddha Huixin said calmly, his gaze sweeping over the two men.

“My mind is made up. From this moment on, seal every passage in and out of the Great Leiyin Temple and activate the Immovable Wisdom King Pure Land Grand Formation.

Until I return, no one is to leave the temple, nor pry any further into the affairs of Sumeru.”

“Senior Brother! You mean to go there yourself?!” Ancient Buddha Huihai cried out.

“We come from the same lineage. If I stand by and watch them die, I cannot find peace in my heart.”

Ancient Buddha Huixin’s voice was calm.

“But the inheritance of the Great Leiyin Temple was not easily preserved. We cannot place the entire temple and all its disciples in danger because of the reckless notion of one man.”

He turned toward the image in the water mirror. His gaze seemed to pierce through the void and fall upon the living beings struggling on the brink of destruction.

“I am not going to defeat that enemy, nor am I going to save them. I merely seek to keep my conscience clear—to seek a sliver of karmic possibility for the Buddhist sect, and for those disciples who may be innocent.

“If that being still possesses even the slightest mercy, I am willing to offer myself as a hostage in exchange for a chance at survival.”

“And if there is truly nothing that can be done…”

He paused. A faint, almost liberated smile appeared on his withered face.

“Then it shall be the karma I must repay, the worldly ties I must bring to an end. At the very least, the Great Leiyin Temple will not have stood by with folded arms.”

“I alone will suffice.”

Before his voice had even faded, Ancient Buddha Huixin’s figure dissolved like a breeze, leaving behind only a faint trace of Buddhist light that shot toward the center of destruction without the slightest hesitation.