Iron Law

After completing all this, Little Black’s cold gaze fell once more upon Ancient Buddha Huixin below, whose body had stiffened slightly, his face filled with utter shock and conflicting emotions.

He slowly spoke. His voice remained cold, but the absolute killing intent it had carried before had lessened somewhat.

“Hand it over.”

Ancient Buddha Huixin abruptly came to his senses. Almost instinctively, he felt a surge of disbelief, excitement, and relief.

With hands trembling slightly, he used Buddhist power to lift the three radiant “Three-Lifetime Bodhi Seeds” and respectfully offer them to Little Black.

Little Black did not even spare the three Buddhist treasures—enough to make an Emperor’s heart flutter—a glance. With a mere thought, he stored them away.

Then he stared at Huixin and spoke each word clearly, issuing a solemn warning. Every word struck Huixin’s heart, as well as the minds of all those watching in secret, like a heavy hammer.

“I will spare the people.”

“The mastermind has been slain, and the karmic debt has been settled.”

“The rest are entrusted to you.”

He paused. The coldness in his eyes was almost enough to freeze the void.

“Guide them toward goodness. Cleanse this corruption.”

“If evil arises again, or if the laws I have set are violated…”

Little Black did not finish the sentence, but the icy killing intent he released made the consequences clear to Ancient Buddha Huixin and every other being who had heard his words.

“I hope you will do as you say.”

With that, Little Black did not linger.

The enormous palm that had pressed down upon heaven and earth silently faded away.

His figure gradually grew faint as well, finally disappearing completely, as though he had merged into the void.

It was as if he had never appeared at all.

Only that absolute void at the center, the scorched earth stretching for ten thousand miles, countless surviving yet bewildered living beings, and…

The abbot of the Great Thunderclap Temple, Ancient Buddha Huixin, who now bore the heavy responsibility of rebuilding the Buddhist sect—and felt a mountain of pressure beneath Little Black’s final warning.

The world fell into deathly silence.

The wind swept across the scorched earth, stirring clouds of dust.

The battle that had destroyed an entire sect had finally drawn to a close in a manner that surpassed everyone’s expectations.

Little Black had shown mercy.

Was it because Huixin had appeared? Because of the three Bodhi Seeds?

Or because he had intended only to slay the chief culprits and settle the karmic debt from the beginning?

No one knew.

The countless monks and believers who had survived remained sprawled on the ground, their eyes vacant, as if they had yet to recover from the earth-shaking upheaval.

The emptiness left by the collapse of their faith mingled with the daze of having survived a calamity, twisting together in their hearts.

At the center of the ruins, Ancient Buddha Huixin stood quietly, his withered figure motionless.

He gazed at the patch of void where Little Black had disappeared. Then he slowly swept his eyes across the scorched earth stretching for ten thousand miles, the countless bewildered faces below, and that absolute void—the symbol of Buddhism’s complete end.

He turned to face the east. Perhaps it was the direction in which Little Black had departed. Perhaps it was the direction of all living beings.

Slowly and solemnly, he bowed and performed the most formal Buddhist salute.

“Amitabha.”

The Buddhist invocation rang out. It no longer carried grief or despair. Instead, it possessed a calmness and strength born of surviving a great calamity and having all worldly impurities washed away. The sound slowly spread across the silent land.

“I am Huixin. I respectfully obey Fellow Daoist’s decree, and I also thank Fellow Daoist for leaving us a thread of life.”

He straightened and swept his gaze over the people below, among whom faint sobs and restless murmurs had begun to rise. His voice was calm yet resolute, carrying clearly into the ears of every survivor.

“Today’s calamity was not a natural disaster, but a man-made one. The Sumeru lineage of Western Buddhism had strayed from the true meaning of the Buddha’s teachings. Blinded by greed, it violated the laws of Heaven and brought destruction upon itself.”

“Yet the Buddha is compassionate and has granted us a chance to repent. Heaven cherishes all living things. We survived today not because the Buddha manifested his divine power, but because that mighty existence showed mercy in a single thought.”

“From this day onward, the Buddhist sects of the Western Regions must cast aside false authority, abandon their habits of greed, and return to cultivating the heart. We must embrace compassion and guide others through kindness.”

“With these battered bodies of ours, we shall cleanse the sins of the past and lead lost beings back onto the right path. Only then will we be worthy of this hard-won chance at life.”

His words were like the evening drum and morning bell, striking the hearts of the surviving monks and driving away some of their confusion, bringing them a faint yet genuine sense of direction.

The road ahead would be long, and the ruins still awaited reconstruction, but at least a weak lamp had been lit within the darkness.

Before long, news of what had happened to Western Buddhism spread like wildfire across the entire Great Xuanhuang World, carried along with the embers of its destruction.

“Western Buddhism’s Sumeru Ancient Temple has been completely annihilated!”

“A powerhouse at the Great Emperor level is suspected of having struck. With a single palm, he shattered Buddhism’s ultimate foundation—the imprints of three Buddha Ancestors!”

“Five Quasi-Emperor Ancient Buddhas have fallen! The Imperial Armament, the Sun-Demon-Suppressing Pestle, has suffered severe damage to its spirit, while the other two Imperial Armaments have retreated and do not dare show themselves!”

“The one responsible is suspected to be the guardian behind the Eastern Region’s Battle Asura. He declared that the Buddhist sect was being punished for violating the Hundred-Year Pact!”

One earth-shattering report after another exploded across the skies of the Great Xuanhuang World like billions of thunderclaps.

The ancient land was utterly shaken into silence, only to erupt afterward into unprecedented turmoil and terror.

The entire world was shocked. The heavens trembled.

“A Great Emperor?! There is actually a Great Emperor alive in this era?! How is that possible?! The Imperial Road has clearly been severed!”

That was the first—and strongest—thought to flash through the minds of everyone who learned of the news.

Although the Supreme Beings of the restricted zones had denied with absolute authority that a new Great Emperor could be born, the label of “suspected Great Emperor,” possessing battle prowess at the Emperor level, had already been firmly attached to that black-robed figure.

The deterrence he inspired was already no different from that of an ancient Great Emperor!

“With a single palm—just one palm! That was the Buddhist sect of the Western Regions!

“It had been passed down for countless ages. It had produced more than one true Buddha Ancestor, possessed more than one Imperial Armament, housed several slumbering Quasi-Emperor Ancient Buddhas, and accumulated an immense sea of faith. It was a colossal force beyond imagination!

“And yet it was simply gone?”

Countless cultivators felt as though their understanding of the world had been completely overturned, their entire worldview shattered.

The sacred lands and ancient sects they had once regarded as lofty and untouchable, entities that demanded their utmost reverence, were as weak as chickens and dogs before an existence of that level.

“Those over a hundred years of age are forbidden from acting against prodigies of the younger generation who are under a hundred.”

When the Glazed Sacred Land had first been destroyed, this rule might have been nothing more than a warning from a mysterious powerhouse—a regulation worthy of caution.

But now, with the destruction of Western Buddhism—a colossal force far more powerful and deeply rooted than the Glazed Sacred Land—after it violated that very rule and was erased from the world, the nature of the rule had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation.

It was no longer merely a rule, nor was it simply a warning.

Through the complete destruction of two sacred lands, the blood and souls of countless powerhouses, and that eternal void, it had announced its existence to the entire Great Xuanhuang World—especially to those old monsters accustomed to bullying the weak with their power and using their age and status to oppress the young.

It was an iron law forged from the supreme will and sect-destroying might of an Emperor-level powerhouse.

A line between life and death that could never be crossed!

“Send out the order! Immediately recall every elder and guest cultivator over a hundred years old who is currently adventuring outside!

“Without special authorization, they are forbidden from interfering in conflicts among the younger generation!”