Chapter 392: Debt Collection

Yuhua City was now the largest city in Yuhua Province and the only city.

The city was not big. It was two to three miles in circumference and had a population of several thousand people.

Entering from the city gate was a narrow and long corridor.

On both sides of the corridor, there were huge claw marks.

The claw marks left here by a great demon.

It proved that the city was under his protection.

Mei Qing felt the terrifying pressure from the paw print on the wall.

She lowered her head and hurried through the tunnel.

The owner of the paw print had never been a good-tempered person.

That was a great sage!

And it was the infamous Yellow-browed Great Sage!

Hundreds of years ago, the four master and disciples who had traveled west had fallen at the hands of this great sage.

His reputation was known far and wide!

Therefore, Mei Qing did not even dare to look. At the end of the tunnel, she took out a handful of jade coins and threw them into the mouth of a copper lion.

The lion swallowed the jade coins and opened his eyes to look at Mei Qing. He burped, “Go in!”

A stone door was lifted and the inner city of Yuhua City entered Mei Qing’s sight.

This was the current situation in Xi Niu He Continent.

Ever since the four of them returned east, everyone in the five great tribes knew about the evil scripture.

The blood and tears of the Gods and Buddhas fell from the sky.

The land of the human world became a playground for the demons.

Lion Camel Ridge was a hell of the human world.

The eastern land was even more chaotic because of the demons.

The great demon An Lushan became a disciple of Monk Tang. He cultivated evil spells and led beasts to eat humans.

The mountains and rivers were already a hell of the human world.

The rest of the lands could only protect themselves.

For example, the Yuhua Province was lucky. The king married his daughter to the Yellow-browed Grand Sage of the Little Thunderclap Temple’s henchman, Lord Qinghe, as a concubine.

With this relationship, he finally managed to beg the Yellow-browed Grand Sage for mercy.

He left his claws and footprints in Yuhua City.

With the Yellow-browed Grand Sage’s reputation, the small fry did not dare to offend him. Only then did they obtain peace in the city.

Of course, there was a price to pay.

Yuhua City needed to offer sacrifices to the Yellow-browed Grand Sage at all times.

They also needed to pay a fixed fee.

Every time someone entered or left, they had to pay 50 jade coins as taxes.

This was already a very good result!

In many places, many people could not get such protection!

Even if they could get the protection of a great demon, that great demon’s nature was brutal.

He would ask people to provide him with food and blood.

Boys and girls could not rest during the four seasons!

If they disobeyed him, he would withdraw his protection.

Then, the demons would wreak havoc and the country would fall!

A great sage like the Yellow-browed Grand Sage, who could eliminate disasters with just money, was truly a Bodhisattva that could not be sought after in this era!

After entering the inner city, Mei Qing went straight to her home that she had lived in for more than ten years.

It was a small Taoist temple in the south of Yuhua City.

When she reached the entrance of the Taoist temple, Mei Qing was stunned.

This was because the leaves on the old locust tree at the entrance of the Taoist temple had already fallen off.

This was unprecedented.

In her memories, Mei Qing remembered that the locust tree at the entrance was lush and leafy regardless of the seasons.

But now, not only did the leaves fall off, even the branches were withered and yellow.

She felt uneasy and hurriedly pushed open the door.

“Master!” She shouted.

There was no answer.

The uneasiness in her heart grew stronger and she immediately rushed into the Taoist temple.

The Taoist temple was very small, with only three rooms.

The largest one was the main hall that worshipped the three pure ones, followed by the side hall that worshipped the patriarch, and finally, it was a small house that Mei Qing and her master relied on for their lives.

Mei Qing looked at the simple house made of rammed earth and straw.

The wooden door of the house was directly open.

She went over and saw a withered old Daoist nun sitting cross-legged on a futon on the floor of the house.

The Daoist nun looked at Mei Qing. Finally, a smile appeared on her thin face, “Qing’er!”

Mei Qing looked at her, and the tears in her eyes could no longer be stopped.

“Master!” She fell to her knees with a thump.

“Good girl!” The old Taoist nun said, “Don’t cry!”

“It’s a happy occasion for me to return to the real world today…”

The old Taoist nun’s body was surrounded by the aura of death, and the black fog was heavy.

Obviously, she was at the end of her life and there was nothing she could do.

Mei Qing took out the gourd and the crucian carp wrapped in red cloth from her body and said, “Master, quickly drink some water and eat these fish…”

“You will definitely get better!”

The old Taoist nun looked at the gourd that Mei Qing handed to her.

The clear water in the gourd rippled and had a lingering spirit. It was obviously the clear water condensed from the top-grade immortal dew.

She looked at the crucian carp again.

They were lively and full of immortal spirit energy, which was a rare top-grade!

Unfortunately…

She shook her head and sighed, “I was injured by the spider demon two months ago. Now, the poison has invaded my soul and there is no cure!”

Mei Qing naturally knew this.

But how could she be willing?

She thought about how her master had painstakingly raised her all these years.

And then she thought about the kindness her master had shown her all these years.

She immediately cried, “No! There must be a way…”

Now, the three realms had fallen, the Gods and Buddhas had all died, and the underworld had long since become a mess. The six paths of reincarnation no longer existed.

Thus, in the past, after the death of a person, one could still count on the afterlife.

But now, after the death of a person, they were destined to fall into the jaws of a tiger!

Those evil ghosts and malicious spirits were in the underworld, waiting for their souls to fall.

Once a living soul fell in, it would immediately be snatched away by those ghost kings.

It would either be devoured by them, or sold as a commodity by these ghost kings.

They would become slaves.

They were even used as cultivation consumables to refine spiritual artifacts and pills.

Therefore, all living beings in the world were unwilling to fall into the Netherworld after death.

When they were alive, they cultivated the mausoleum of life and prepared all kinds of arrays and talismans.

Before they died, they entered the mausoleum.

They formed their own Netherworld underground and ruled over a region!

Therefore, Mei Qing was unwilling to let her master return to the real world and fall into the hands of the ghost kings and Asura.

“Child…” the old Taoist nun smiled, “You don’t have to worry…”

“I’m a disciple of the three pure ones. The people of the underworld should at least give me some face!”

Now, the Gods and Buddhas had perished. Legend had it that even the Heaven Court had been defeated by the great saints.

But what was interesting was that regardless of whether it was the demons or the ghost kings of the Netherworld, they would still give the Taoists some face.

No one knew why this was the case?

Even the Tuoshu Heaven had been smashed by the monkey and the old lord’s eight trigrams furnace had been kicked over.

But the influence of the Taoists was still omnipresent.

The Taoists were still able to draw talismans and invite the gods.

However…

How could Mei Qing place her hopes on her master’s good luck to meet a ghost king who was kind to Daoism and let her reincarnate?

She remembered something.

She grabbed her master’s hand and said, “Master…”

“I have an idea!”

She took out the booklet that the owner of the bookstore in the fog had given her.

“Skyless Buddha…” she looked toward the west and kowtowed, “Disciple Mei Qing, I implore Buddha to protect my master…”

“If Buddha is kind enough to promise…” she remembered that the legendary Buddha had tampered with the Buddhist scriptures that were passed down to the monk and his disciples. She swore, “I am willing to drive Buddha in this life…”

According to the legend, Skyless Buddha worshipped equal exchange. He once said, “A tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, the truth of Heaven and earth, and nature!”

However, she had nothing but this body and life.

She could only use herself to exchange for her master’s protection in the Yin world!

The old Taoist nun looked at Mei Qing and shook her head.

From her point of view, there was nothing in Mei Qing’s hand.

Therefore, she shook her head and sighed, “Silly child… how can there be a Skyless Buddha? It’s just a legend…”

However…

As soon as she finished speaking, black lotuses bloomed in the entire courtyard.

Evil chanting sounded.

Thud thud thud!

The sound of wooden fish.

A black lotus flower landed on the old Daoist nun’s forehead and quickly fused with her soul.

Seeing this, Mei Qing was so happy that she cried. She kowtowed repeatedly and said, “I thank Buddha for his great kindness, I thank Buddha for his great kindness!”

…

In the thirty-third heaven.

In the dilapidated Tuoshu Heaven.

Suddenly…

Spiritual light burst out of the shattered Tuoshu Heaven, and the joy of immortals and spirits was ceaseless.

A Taiji diagram appeared in the clouds.

“Eh?” The Old Lord, who was sitting on the futon, opened his eyes.

“Fellow Daoist, you haven’t given up on this world?” He asked.

“Interesting!” The Old Lord sent his spiritual sense to the lower realm.

This world was just a world created by the two saints of the Western religion.

It was a whirling world used to deduce their Buddhist teachings.

After it was created, the two saints naturally came to seek help.

The Old Lord gave up one of his thoughts and fell into this world, becoming the Lord of Tuoshu Heaven.

Such thing was very common.

The Old Lord would often invite the Saints to give up their thoughts and even their incarnations to accompany him and verify it.

They would either verify his thoughts, or help his disciples to solve the knot in their hearts and break the mystery.

But…

Unexpectedly, there were some new and strange changes.

A new fellow Daoist also overflowed a bit of his thoughts and fell into this world.

That fellow Daoist was unfathomable.

A thought entering the world would cause the world to turn upside down but the Old Lord was delighted to see this.

Unfortunately, that fellow Daoist only came to this world once, and then there was no trace of him.

It seemed that he was only here to play.

However, both the Old Lord and the two saints who opened this world continued to maintain this world.

Instead of re-refining the Earth, water, wind and fire, re-creating the universe, and restarting yin and yang, there was a reason for this.

First, although the fellow Daoist came in a hurry and left in a hurry but his face must not fall.

Since he left his orthodoxy here, he could not be easily damaged.

Otherwise, if his face was shamed, it would not be easy to meet him in the future.

Second…

The things left by that fellow Daoist were really too interesting.

Extreme distortion, extreme chaos.

However, being dignified and upright was the right way to the main road!

Whether it was the Old Lord or the two western saints, they had all deduced it.

They knew that this great path could even point to the other side and break the cycle of reincarnation.

This was interesting.

Even saints had to continue climbing.

Therefore, no one was willing to let this world collapse like this.

On the contrary, many people were secretly protecting it.

They were trying to prevent this world from collapsing and losing a place of comparison.

“Fellow Daoist, since you’re still reluctant to leave this world…” the Old Lord waved his horsetail whisk and a spiritual light fell into the lower realm, “Then I’ll naturally have a backup plan!”

The spiritual light directly descended into the lower realm and fell into the Golden Hood Mountain.

A huge green bull was resting in the mountain.

As the spiritual light fell, the green bull immediately turned its body and kowtowed like a human, “Master!”

“Please keep an eye on fellow Daoist Wutian for me…”

“If you meet a disciple of a fellow Daoist, remember to leave some good karma!”

“Yes!” The green bull spoke in human language, “I understand!”

…

In the Underworld River, inside the underworld.

A huge, twisted creature stepped on the golden body of the Bodhisattva that had fallen into the underworld river.

The golden body of the Bodhisattva looked solemn, but it was also somewhat sinister and twisted. Countless leeches and worms were moving around the golden body on the surface of its body.

Suddenly!

The Bodhisattva, who was immersed in the turbid and twisted styx, sat up straight.

Those worms and leeches that were like worms entered the golden body on the surface of his body and finally made him regain his consciousness.

“Amitabha!” The Bodhisattva put his palms together and praised, “So, Skyless Buddha is still thinking about this world!”

He smiled with incomparable compassion.

He casually rolled up the ghost kings who were fighting for the living souls by the styx and stuffed them all into the big mouth full of sharp teeth and fangs.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva once swore that he would not become a Buddha if hell was not empty!

This was his foundation.

It was also the shackle that bound him.

If he did not break this shackle, he would never be able to prove that he was the only one. If he reached the other shore, he would only end up in ashes.

And Skyless Buddha suddenly came and passed by in a hurry.

But he gave him a blow on the head.

Since hell was not empty, he would not become a Buddha.

Why not devour hell and become a free Bodhisattva?

Then he would sacrifice himself to become the evil Buddha of Ksitigarbha!

Unfortunately, Skyless Buddha left in a hurry, leaving behind a holy footprint that was difficult to trace back.

He had waited for hundreds of years.

Today, he finally saw Buddha’s traces again.

Bodhisattva swallowed countless spirit kings.

He chewed with his big mouth.

One finger of Buddha turned into a ferocious tentacle and lightly flicked the mount that had swelled up and was rotten all over like a corpse.

“Listen to the entire three realms for me…”

“If you meet the disciples of Skyless Buddha… leave some good karma behind!”

“Yes!” Countless ears crawled out from the rotten body of diting. These ears listened quietly to the various affairs of the mortal world.

…

Mei Qing knelt in front of her master’s body.

A black lotus appeared on her master’s body.

Specks of lotus fire lit up and her master’s body burned in the lotus fire.

The black lotus then carried her master’s soul and floated towards a tunnel.

That was the tunnel that led to Hell.

“Thank you, Skyless Buddha!” Seeing this scene, Mei Qing bowed a hundred times.

The sound of chanting entered her ears from the book in her hand.

Mei Qing understood that Buddha had already fulfilled his promise.

Now, it was time for her to repay Buddha.

An equal exchange, this was very fair!

“May I ask Buddha, what should I do?” Mei Qing asked the book.

Amidst the sound of the wooden fish, the eastern land appeared in Mei Qing’s eyes.

Buddha ordered her to go to the eastern land to collect the debt because the monk had not paid!

This could not be done!

Back then, Tathagata had taken three bushels of three liters of rice gold from others and recited scriptures for them. Yet, he still felt that he had suffered a loss and was filled with regret.

Skyless Buddha had gone to great lengths to bestow the true scriptures to the four of them.

Yet, they did not give him any money?

This greatly went against Skyless Buddha’s original intention.

Therefore, Mei Qing was going to collect the debt!

If the four of them did not return, then they would have to follow the agreement and serve as Buddha’s slaves for five thousand years!

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