A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 1397 - 945: Lei Yin Temple’s Path Wears Away Everything, Duanmu Huai Transforms into the Sixth Heaven

Chapter 1397: Chapter 945: Lei Yin Temple’s Path Wears Away Everything, Duanmu Huai Transforms into the Sixth Heaven

"Amitabha Buddha, you, a deviant disciple, are lost in delusion and have fallen into the demon’s path. Even so, it is only by suppressing you that we can reflect upon your actions!"

Facing Duanmu Huai, Tathagata stretched out his hand and swung a palm forward. In that moment of the palm strike, heaven and earth, everything was reduced to primal chaos.

"Do you take me for Sun Wukong? So easily fooled?"

Facing the divine palm of Tathagata, Duanmu Huai clenched his right fist and threw a punch forward. The might of that punch changed the colors of heaven and earth, shattering the universe.

The palm and the punch collided, instantly causing mountains to collapse and seas to dry up. But the realm of Tathagata’s palm transformed into a great myriad world, anticipating the submission of this demon. While the might of Duanmu Huai’s punch was unstoppable, smiting everything in its path, breaking the heavens and fracturing the earth, leaving nothing but decay for all eternity. Only heaven above and below, I alone am supreme!

"What a way to die!"

As Duanmu Huai threw his punch, he saw the Bodhisattvas of Spirit Mountain, the immortal beasts, and wild birds, all vanishing into illusions. Even their physical forms were reduced to dry bones, and their Seven Souls Six Spirits were burned to ashes. Even Tathagata, faced with this punch, could neither block nor avoid it, for — I reckon, you cannot withstand this punch!

"Bang!!!"

Duanmu Huai’s right fist moved forward, striking Tathagata’s divine palm, immediately causing the palm to explode, and the entire arm burst instantly. The punch, like an unstoppable force, continued forward, smashing directly into Tathagata’s fat-filled face! Tathagata’s head instantly burst open, scattering into pieces, and his divine form gradually dissipated in the sky.

"Sigh........ "

Duanmu Huai retracted his fist, looking forward, at this moment Spirit Mountain had lost its former beauty, as far as the eye could see, the entire mountain was a barren black, filled with piles of bones, corpses everywhere, blood flowing into rivers.

However, Duanmu Huai knew, this was not yet the end.

"Amitabha Buddha."

Sure enough, just then, another chanting sound of ’Buddha’ echoed, Duanmu Huai looked up and saw at the zenith of the sky, Tathagata’s hideous face reappeared. Now the form of Tathagata was immense, even larger than the entire Earth. His hands joined in prayer, eyes slightly open, gazing down at the tiny Duanmu Huai on the ground, like an ant.

"He transforms the Free Heaven, obstructs my Buddhist work, destroys my Buddhist fruit. How difficult this is, these are my eighty-one hardships in West Cowherd State, culminating here, waiting for me to undergo these hardships and pass away, to finally achieve the consummation of merit and virtue as a Buddha!"

"You think you’re the only one who can transform?!"

At this moment, Duanmu Huai also shook and transformed, his form once again looming large, reaching from heaven to earth. Even larger than Tathagata, with even that Earth before Duanmu Huai’s divine form appearing no larger than an apple.

But the Buddha, undaunted by the crisis, twirled a lotus in his hand, chanting the six-syllable mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum", and saw the mantra emerge, turning into a lotus palm, striking again towards Duanmu Huai. Facing this mantra palm, Duanmu Huai showed no fear, and was seen tightly clenching his fists, gritting his teeth.

"Ora Ora Ora Ora Ora Ora Ora!!!"

With each punch thrown out, he altered the heavens and split the earth. Across the universe, stars exploded, and under the Milky Way, stars burst. The six-syllable mantra palm, unable to withstand, was smashed into oblivion. Then Duanmu Huai stepped forward into the void, reached out his hand, and grabbed Tathagata’s head, slamming it forcefully against his own forehead. Tathagata’s skull crashed hard against his forehead, causing Tathagata to stagger, and in a moment too late, Duanmu Huai’s fists whirled up, smashing into Tathagata’s temples, instantly making Tathagata’s head break and bleed.

As Tathagata’s divine form shattered, yet his Vajra body remained unextinguished, all were pierced through by Duanmu Huai’s punch. Under this punch, the thirty-two physical embodiments and countless incarnations all disappeared into dust, the remains of Tathagata burst into a dazzling light and exploded, golden spheres of light flew out from it, just like when Duanmu Huai destroyed the Greek Gods, entering Duanmu Huai’s body.

At the same time, a system prompt finally appeared before Duanmu Huai.

[Destruction Magic Enhancement Task Completed]

[Mission Evaluation: A]

[Obtained the new Divine Position — [The Sixth Heavenly Demon King]]

[The Demon King of the Sixth Heaven: LV1]

[Weak Divine Power]

[Brahma Cloud Demon, this cloud disrupts and destroys obstacles, disturbs mental peace, and destroys good practices, thus it is named Demon. It achieves evil practices with malicious intent. As it masters freedom, it is called the Sixth Heavenly Demon King.]

[Obtained Special Ability: Specified God Immunity to Divine Magic +1]

[Believer Rewards: Divine Arts Resistance +50%]

"Awesome!"

Duanmu Huai excitedly jumped off the bed, swinging his fist in excitement.

I never expected that by completing such a task, I would gain such a strong divine position and abilities!

As for the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, Duanmu Huai is well aware of this deity, the lord of the Desire Realm, who specifically enjoys obstructing Buddhists in their cultivation, being a major enemy and destroyer for Buddhism. After all, Buddhist cultivation emphasizes cutting off all attachments and desires. In Buddhism, the Desire Realm refers to the materialist cravings for sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

And coincidentally, Duanmu Huai’s journey westward has been filled with indulgence in eating, drinking, playing, and singing now and then... although how well he sings is another matter altogether.

Adding to that, his final battle with Tathagata, where he broke Tathagata’s golden body and conquered Buddha with demon powers, leading to Tathagata’s failure in cultivation and treating Duanmu Huai as the Sixth Heavenly Demon King.

Of course, what makes Duanmu Huai most happy is that [Specified Divine Immunity to Divine Magic] special ability.

Now Duanmu Huai holds three divine positions, [God of Destruction] against [Brutal Wrath], [God of Joy] against [Obsessive Sin], [Ancient Will] against [Corrupted Foil], leaving only [Cunning Deception] as a tough nut to crack. After all, this guy is really smart, and he has a lot of magic at his disposal. Honestly, Duanmu Huai himself doesn’t really like using magic, so if he were to face [Cunning Deception], he might need to call on Yog Sothoth for help.

And considering this guy is also full of tricks, who knows if I summon Yog Sothoth, both might come at me together instead.

But now, with this power, Duanmu Huai isn’t scared at all!

[The Sixth Heavenly Demon King] divine position is clearly meant for obstructing and destroying others’ religions and, fittingly, these Chaos Evil Gods, each fond of creating cults, causing chaos everywhere. These cultists aim through their cultivation to eventually become something like Great Demon believers...

Ah, and [The Sixth Heavenly Demon King] just loves to hinder your cultivation.

Hmm... does that mean, I just need to take down a few cults to quickly boost the experience of this divine position?

Now, looking back at that [Specified God Immunity to Divine Magic] ability, Evil Gods are gods too; in the system, their spells are naturally considered as Divine Magic. Especially someone like [Cunning Deception] who deals with magic, who knows how many magic trick cards he holds, with this ability, at least Duanmu Huai can withstand the opponent’s spells and then directly rush in for a hammer slam, right?

After all, compared to magic battles, a close and physical combat suits him better.

Not to mention, creating cult organizations and causing big troubles is indeed a tradition of [Cunning Deception]’s followers — well, it seems this [The Sixth Heavenly Demon King] divine position is indeed tailor-made for [Cunning Deception]!

You like to create cult organizations, I’ll just smash all your organizations into pieces, hey, no hard feelings, just playing! Just to stop your cultivation, just to intentionally make you fail, to infuriate you, hehehe, the more I think about it, the more fun it gets, right?

Well, now that I think about it, it’s even more interesting!

Duanmu Huai stretched lazily, then stood up. Although he had been on the mission for several years, it was really just a dream, and it did not affect the flow of time in the real world. Unfortunately, those fairy feasts he had in the dream... he couldn’t remember them anymore.

Ah... somewhat regrettable indeed.

Also, not having exorcised a few female ghosts, that’s really very regrettable.

You say they are female ghosts, how can they still care about looks?

Looks-obsessed people are really not good at all!

Duanmu Huai yawned and then walked out of the room, just in time to see Ogis approaching.

"Master."

"Hey, Ogis, reading a book?"

"Yeah."

Ogis nodded, then seemed to remember something.

"Right, master, Mia just received a communication from the Star Union, it seems it was for you."

"For me?"

Just as Duanmu Huai was puzzled, his personal terminal suddenly rang, and then Mia’s usual lazy voice appeared in Duanmu Huai’s ear.

"Good morning, master, I just received a communication from Star Union Commander Shepard, do you need me to connect you?"

"Shepard? Sister or brother? What do they want with me?"

Duanmu Huai muttered, then opened the communication.

"Connect and let’s see."

"Okay.........."

Soon, Sister Shepard’s face appeared, her expression serious as she stared at Duanmu Huai.

"Hello, Sir Judge."

"Hello, what’s up?"

"I wanted to ask, has the Tribunal lost a warship?"

"Lost a warship???"

Duanmu Huai looked baffled.

"I don’t think so, but let me check..."

While talking, Duanmu Huai opened a communication with Aikute, whose face appeared on the screen after a few flashes.

"Ah————Uncle! Uncle.....!"

Seeing Duanmu Huai, Aikute, still in her pajamas, quickly ducked her head.

"Sorry sorry sorry, I’ll change right away....."

"No, that’s alright, I wanted to ask, have we lost any warship in our fleet?"

"Lost a warship? Please hold on, let me check....."

Upon hearing this, Aikute quickly snapped back to her senses, opened her personal terminal, and began searching at high speed.

"No, all ships are in place, thirty-six are currently under repairs, ah, but previously in the battles with Reapers and Cosmic Monsters, we lost quite a few warships......"

"Hmm, okay, thanks, I got it."

Duanmu Huai nodded, then switched back to the communication.

"It seems we haven’t lost any, why do you ask?"

"Well, recently the Star Union fortified the second Normandy, and my silly brother was in charge of commanding it for patrol and verification. Along the way, he mentioned receiving a distress signal from an unidentified warship....."

"What does that have to do with our Tribunal?"

"Because not long after that, my silly brother lost contact, and before losing contact, this was the only photo he sent."

While speaking, Sister Shepard pasted a photo in front of Duanmu Huai. It was a warship—well, massive hull, the macro cannon arrays clearly visible on both sides, plus the gold-top Gothic-style church building on it......

"..........and then?"

"We went to their last known location, but we found no trace of this warship or the Normandy....."

".............."

".....Do you have any issue?"

"Is it too soon to say ’sorry for your loss’?"