Black Myth: Starting from the Destined One
Chapter 108 - 104: Having Seen the Future, Why Not Kneel?

Chapter 108: Chapter 104: Having Seen the Future, Why Not Kneel?

"This is wicked!"

Li Ping’an knew a master had retained him there, yet he had no way to deal with it. He steadied his steps, looked around, and then realized that all the fake monks had fainted.

"What on earth is going on?"

Li Ping’an felt an inexplicable chill, not knowing which master was toying with him. When he turned around again, he finally looked up at the statue of the Future Buddha, Maitreya Buddha.

"Hmm? This..."

Li Ping’an felt his heart turn over, just like the first time he entered the desolate ancient temple in the world of "Black Myth: The Fated One," where the Buddha head of Bodhisattva Lingji in that temple was a sable head. The Buddha statue before him was supposed to have a round smiling Buddha head, but it turned out to be a fierce-looking bald old monk with yellow eyebrows, who threatened Li Ping’an:

"Having seen the future, why do you not kneel?"

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The most terrifying thing was that this bizarre Buddha statue actually came to life, stood up slowly, and began sizing up Li Ping’an, scaring him into retreating repeatedly.

"Monkey, since you have fallen into reincarnation, do not dream of nirvana, hahahaha!"

The horrifying laughter echoed inside the temple as the bizarre Buddha immediately stretched out a huge palm to suppress Li Ping’an.

"Secluded Cave, Send God, Carrying Mountains, Soul Collecting, Five-colored Lotus Seal..."

Li Ping’an used all the Divine Skills and spells he knew against the palm of the bizarre Buddha that was coming to suppress him, but to no avail. Instead, he was about to be crushed by the massive Buddha’s palm!

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Such a sense of despair penetrated his bones, more desperate than facing the Human-Headed Dog Demon, the Six Demons of Five Finger Mountain, or the State Preceptor, so desperate that he just wanted to wait for death!

"Is this the strength of deities and Buddhas?"

Li Ping’an calmly closed his eyes and resigned himself to death.

"Stop!"

At the critical moment, the Great Sage Life-Protecting Talisman on Li Ping’an’s body immediately revealed its power, even more spectacular than the first time it was used against the Six Demons of Five Finger Mountain in terms of presence and impact.

With Li Ping’an as the center, a Great Sage manifestation, larger than the bizarre Buddha statue, appeared. In the moment of the Buddha statue’s astonishment, it raised its golden cudgel and struck directly at the Buddha.

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With a thunderous roar that resembled an earthquake, both the bizarre Buddha statue and the Future Buddha Hall were smashed into pieces, such was its might that the surrounding buildings also didn’t escape damage. Master Yongxin, who was engaging in Joyful Zen with a female devotee, perished bewilderedly without knowing what happened, becoming an unjustly killed spirit.

The destroyed buildings raised a massive cloud of dust, looking like a sandstorm, blinding everyone nearby, including Li Ping’an.

Once the dust had settled, Li Ping’an realized that he had already been moved by the Great Sage Equalling Heaven, Sun Wukong, onto an empty street outside the Buddha Bone Temple.

"That was close! Thank goodness for Great Sage Lord’s protection, or I would have certainly died at the hands of that bizarre Buddha..."

Everything that had just happened felt like a dream, and Li Ping’an couldn’t stop touching his chest to steady his complex emotions after barely escaping with his life.

"Idiots! In order to save you, I, Old Sun, have already exposed my whereabouts, and I didn’t expect to bring so much trouble upon myself today! Remember, in the future, you must not enter Tathagata Buddha Hall or Future Buddha Hall, only the Ancient Lamp Buddha Hall is permissible... Alas, from now on, if you come across temples with incense and worship, you should not enter lightly, for I, Old Sun, have saved you once again!"

The voice of the Great Sage Equalling Heaven, Sun Wukong, came ethereally, and vanished just as mysteriously, the Great Sage Life-Protecting Talisman automatically floated back into his sleeve as the voice disappeared.

"This peculiar Buddha nearly took my life with a single move, but thinking back on it, who was that old monk impersonating Maitreya Buddha? Forget it, from now on, I’d better listen to the Great Sage Lord obediently and dare not blaspheme in the Buddhist community again!"

Li Ping’an left resentfully, quickly leaving the place that had almost claimed his life.

Not long after Li Ping’an’s departure, the surviving monks in the temple immediately began rescuing others, only to find that someone had destroyed the Future Buddha Hall, and the presiding abbot, Master Yongxin, had been beaten to death. The monks stood in a disheveled state before Master Yongxin’s corpse, utterly panic-stricken.

"Elder brother, our Buddha Bone Temple is a royal temple. Now that the Buddha Hall has been destroyed and the abbot has died, what should we do?"

"Younger brother, today is the day of unveiling the Buddha’s Relics, with the Emperor himself in attendance. Should the Emperor come to know of this, we will surely be punished!"

"Uncle Master..."

The monks who had survived the disaster began to talk amongst themselves, their voices a cacophony. Then, one monk, in a desperate bid to save his own skin, had a wicked idea that could harm others and benefit himself:

"Brothers, the Buddha Hall has been inexplicably destroyed today, and our master has been killed by someone unknown, coinciding with the day when the Buddha’s Relics are to be presented. If the Emperor learns of this, he will be furious, and the Imperial Court will surely investigate. Since we have no knowledge of how any of this happened, why not shift all the blame onto that Taoist? After all, his body isn’t here, so he must be the one who committed these evils!"

"Yes, yes, yes! It must have been that man who did these evils!"

The monks immediately came to a consensus, aligning their stories to pin all the blame on Li Ping’an. They then went to the Pagoda of Buddha’s Bones, took out what was claimed to be the Buddha’s Bone and Teeth, which were actually Shariputra left by Tang Sanzang when he passed away five hundred years after returning from his pilgrimage, and waited anxiously for the Emperor’s decree.

...

In Little Western Heaven, within Thunderclap Temple, seated upon the dais that should belong to the future Maitreya Buddha, an Old Buddha Huang Mei was meditating, identical to the strange Buddha image Li Ping’an had just seen.

His eyes slowly opened, and he stood up gradually, raising his hands above his head and unfolding them, excitedly and emphatically shouted toward the heavens:

"My children, inform the Three Realms, the Demon Monkey has appeared in Chang’an of the Great Tang in the Southern Continent!"

"We will obey the holy decree of the World Honored One!"

All the Buddhas around him bowed their heads to accept the order.

...

As Li Ping’an wandered about in a daze, he unwittingly arrived at Zhengyang Gate, where many commoners were clamoring to see the Imperial Proclamation. When Li Ping’an passed by, he casually glanced at it and saw that it announced that on this day, the eighteenth day of the eighth month, the Emperor had specially dispatched civil and military officials leading a group of monks to welcome the viewing of the Buddha’s Bone and Teeth at Zhengyang Gate.

"So it turns out that this Emperor who practices Daoism also believes in Buddhism, leading the people in deception!"

Li Ping’an sighed after just a glance, his heart shocked by what he saw at Buddha Bone Temple. As he continued his walk, he encountered several temples with the same scene.

The devout men and women present were coaxed by the sham monks into donating money and handing over rice and flour. Especially those poor believers, completely disregarding their hungry and cold parents, and their freezing wives, all believed that by giving wealth today, they would receive blessings tomorrow.

Little did they know that their acts of kindness were nothing but deceit, filling the false monks’ pockets and falling for the scam artists’ tricks, leaving their families broken and destitute, with no true merits to speak of.

Through his observations, Li Ping’an came to realize that all the temples in Chang’an were like this. Those sham monks relied on the Emperor’s faith in Buddhism to flaunt Buddhist spell, swindle money from the people, burn incense, consume oil, make false claims of severing limbs, and spin lies about slicing their flesh. The deceptions were endless and varied, burdened with deep sin.