Chapter Ninety-Five: Enlightenment Between Heaven and Earth

Chapter Ninety-Five

At this moment, Wu Hong had entered a state of enlightened contemplation, a condition countless martial artists longed for with all their hearts. It was not the ordinary state of cultivation. In such a state one loses all sensation; indeed, this was Wu Hong’s first time entering it. It resonated with heaven and earth, a state rarely seen in this world.

Zhao Luo, however, thought Wu Hong was cultivating some profound martial art and had fallen into deep meditation at a critical moment.

Zhao Luo’s attack was brutally direct. His great blade, wrapped in true energy, came straight down at Wu Hong’s head. In ordinary meditation, one still remained aware of the world outside, but in this enlightened state one entered a condition of forgetting both self and surroundings, resonating with heaven and earth.

The one thing this state feared most was disturbance. If the interruption was light, one might go mad from qi deviation; if severe, one could explode to death. It was a hundred times more dangerous than ordinary meditation.

Yet this state often came with a protective energy surrounding the body; if the attacker lacked sufficient power, the blow would instead rebound upon him.

Seeing the blade about to strike Wu Hong’s head, Zhao Luo’s face lit with delight. In his heart he thought, What luck I have, heh heh!

But just as the fierce blade was three inches from Wu Hong’s head, golden light suddenly burst forth from Wu Hong’s body. Zhao Luo’s expression changed, and by the time he tried to retreat, it was already too late.

With a gush of blood, Zhao Luo spat out a mouthful of it. His body arced through the air as the blade shattered into more than a dozen pieces and flew backward.

The crowd watching cried out in terror. Among them were also men who bore grudges against Wu Hong, yet none had dared to attack, fearing exactly this kind of outcome.

Ordinary meditation could be awakened from at any time. Though it would damage one’s cultivation, no one was willing to take the risk.

These people did not know that Wu Hong had entered a state of enlightenment, a state rare even across the centuries.

Zhao Luo had made his name in the martial world entirely by relying on the Heaven-Snaring Net, but that Heaven-Snaring Net had already been taken from him by Wu Hong at Blackwood Cliff. That was why, upon seeing Wu Hong openly cultivating here, he attacked without a word.

“Look, everyone! What is that?”

At that moment, every eye was fixed on Wu Hong’s body. As for Zhao Luo, thrown far away and lying on the ground, no one cared whether he lived or died.

Many thought to themselves: Zhao Luo, Zhao Luo, for all your long reputation as a veteran of the martial world, how can you not understand such a simple truth?

Since Wu Hong dared to meditate on the main road, he must be utterly unconcerned, showing that he did not regard the heroes of the world at all.

What good could come of your attack? You brought this upon yourself.

Of course, such thoughts could only be kept in their hearts. No matter how useless Zhao Luo might seem now, he was still a top master at the peak of the acquired realm.

“My heavens, what am I seeing? Is this real?” many muttered to themselves, unable to believe the scene before their eyes.

Wu Hong’s entire body slowly rose into the air, suspended without support, while golden true energy wound around him and grew ever denser.

Gradually, centered on Wu Hong, true energy took shape as a thousand-armed Buddha. This energy form was enormous, fully thirty feet high, enveloping Wu Hong completely within its embrace.

Radiant bands of sacred light scattered in every direction like golden ribbons. At first, some cautious people kept dodging, but the sacred glow spread like a deluge from the heavens. In the end, some with lower cultivation could not avoid it and were wrapped within the light.

Those who were first enveloped by the sacred glow were at first frightened, then overjoyed, and sat down cross-legged on the ground.

Some experts, not understanding what was happening, said, “What’s wrong with them? Have they fallen under a spell?”

No wonder these experts were so careful; the situation was simply too bizarre.

Wu Songran and Li Ruolan, both worried for Wu Hong’s safety, moved a little closer to where he sat. Naturally, strands of sacred light also coiled around their bodies.

Wu Songran’s face brightened, and she felt a peace descend through her body. The only thought left in her mind was to sit cross-legged and cultivate.

Li Ruolan had no martial cultivation to speak of, but when Wu Hong had once stayed at the desert inn, he taught her the Great Sun Tathagata Scripture. Though she had never practiced it, she remembered the method perfectly. Now, warmth spread through her entire body as though she were basking in sunlight on a sandy beach. Her heart grew utterly tranquil, and she too sat down cross-legged.

What none of the crowd could see was that above Wu Hong’s head there floated a Great Sun Tathagata Scripture, blazing with countless millions of rays of golden light, invisible to all.

In the blink of an eye, the scripture above Wu Hong’s head continued to expand, until it became a giant book several hundred meters across. Without wind, it turned open to a page bearing four great characters that seemed not to belong to any earthly script, not to any known writing. Even if Wu Hong tried to copy them, he could not have produced such characters.

One could only comprehend their meaning.

The sacred radiance raged wildly. Some experts were struck as well, and like everyone else, they sat down in calm composure on the ground.

A few especially cautious masters, startled beyond measure, leaped away to a great distance.

Zhao Luo, lying heavily wounded on the ground, suddenly sat up, his face devoid of joy or sorrow, and crossed his legs to sit in meditation.

The experts hiding at a distance looked at one another, none of them knowing what they should do.

At that same time, within the imperial palace of Great Qian, a young man of regal bearing sat in the chief seat before the Demon-Suppressing King. He was dressed in imperial robes, handsome of face, yet naturally authoritative and awe-inspiring. He was none other than the new emperor, Yang Wei.

“Old Master Ma, you say the earthshaking disturbance in the Great Western Lake was the result of Wu Hong fighting your demonic banner, and not the ascension of someone to the innate realm?”

Though Yang Wei was emperor, he did not dare treat the current Demon-Suppressing King as an ordinary servant. The reason was simple: strength meant everything.

Moreover, the Demon-Suppressing King was one of the leaders of the two great assassin organizations on the entire Tianxing Continent! He was the chief of the Earthly Fiends, the Earth Fiend Organization.

If Yang Wei was the emperor, ruling over the countless citizens and millions upon millions of troops of Great Qian, then although the Demon-Suppressing King belonged to the martial world, he was still one of the underground emperors of the entire Tianxing Continent.

The Great Qian Dynasty was one of the foremost dynasties on the Tianxing Continent, but the continent itself stretched across billions of miles, with more than a thousand nations of all sizes.

“Yes, indeed. Alas, I have roamed the martial world for over ten years, and I never imagined the rising stars of the martial world would be so formidable!”

Thinking back on his battle with Wu Hong, the Demon-Suppressing King could not help but feel depressed. He had always been a martial master who feared neither heaven nor earth.

When he had been invited to Blackwood Cliff to join the campaign against Wu Hong, he had come at the request of Little Eastern. The two had engaged in a great battle, and Little Eastern had only narrowly prevailed.

It was precisely because he had heard the rumors of Wu Hong’s extraordinary power that he had joined the Blackwood Cliff campaign.

Who would have thought that after leaving the martial world, he would suffer setbacks everywhere? If judged strictly, without relying on that demonic banner, he could not last even ten rounds in Wu Hong’s hands before defeat.

“Then why is there light in the sky?” Emperor Yang Wei cared only about Wu Hong’s life and death, and paid no mind to the Demon-Suppressing King’s lament. To him, Wu Hong remained a grave hidden danger; he would not rest until he was removed.

Had anyone else spoken to him in such a tone, he would likely have exploded in anger at once. But the young man before him represented the emperor of Great Qian on the Tianxing Continent, ruler of billions of subjects, lofty beyond reach.

The Demon-Suppressing King frowned and said, “My Ten Thousand Devils Ghost Banner carried too much baleful energy and offended the harmony of heaven and earth. Even I could not fully control it. As for that heavenly tribulation, I suspect it was perhaps a punitive calamity.”

“You mean the invincible punishment of calamity that descends when something greatly injurious to virtue appears in the world, and heaven naturally sends divine thunder to reduce such a thing to ashes?”

Yang Wei looked shocked. Heavenly treasures often possessed spiritual nature, but if they had shed too much blood and slaughter, they could provoke a heavenly tribulation?

Normally, in such circumstances, even a treasure soaked in killing intent would be reduced to ashes. It was not the kind of lightning tribulation one would expect from an innate breakthrough by Wu Hong.

But in truth, the punitive calamity and the innate lightning tribulation were one and the same thing. Both were a form of punishment and cleansing for those whose murderous and vicious energies had grown too heavy, a trial that purified them once they reached a certain level. Those who passed would be guided away by special beings to an unknown world.

And after a magical treasure passed through the punitive calamity, it would fly on its own into a special world.