The Five Buddhist Realms

Chapter 139: The Five Buddhist Realms

“The Double Joy God?” It was the first time Li Huowang had heard that term.

“Single joy and double joy… is there a connection between them?”

“How should I put it? If you had to compare, the Joy God is nothing more than the Double Joy God’s fingernail.”

“Sss—” Li Huowang’s mind conjured up the terrifying image of the Joy God from before. It was hard to imagine that an existence like that was merely the equivalent of a fingernail clippings in the presence of some other being.

“Wait, Venerable, hold on. My head’s a mess right now.”

The sudden information caught him off guard. “So the Joy God isn’t just a larger version of a corrupted spirit?”

“How could that be? The Joy God is nothing like a corrupted spirit, not the same thing at all.”

Li Huowang took a deep breath and pressed on. “Then, Venerable, whether it’s the Joy God or the Double Joy God… what exactly are they?”

“What else could they be? They’re gods.”

“Uh… gods of where?”

The abbess’s fat face was filled with surprise. “You don’t even know that? Then how have you survived this long? I thought you already knew.”

Li Huowang continued his helpless explanation. “As I told you, I’m not from this world. I really did cross over, even if I don’t remember how I got here.”

“Sigh… here we go again.” Abbess Jingxin looked at Li Huowang with a pitying expression.

“I really did cross over, Venerable!” Seeing that she didn’t believe him, his voice rose unintentionally, a touch of anxiety creeping into his tone.

“Alright, alright, I believe you. Let’s move on then. You’ve heard of the Five Buddhist Realms, right?”

“The Five Buddhist Realms?” Li Huowang recalled the temple at Zhengde Temple that housed five giant Buddha statues.

“I’ve heard a little. The abbot of Zhengde Temple once mentioned it, saying there are five different kinds of Buddhas in five different worlds.”

“The Adamantine World in the center, the Fragrant World in the east, the Joyful World in the south, the Utmost Bliss World in the west, and the Lotus World in the north.” Abbess Jingxin recited the words that old monk had spoken.

“The Joy God and the Double Joy God are wandering spirits of that Joyful World in the south. Of course, they’re not the only ones there. There are more Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats.”

Li Huowang’s mind was a jumble. These were all concepts he was hearing for the first time.

He knew that strange things existed in this world, but he really hadn’t expected this.

That above this world, there were actually five other worlds.

And that within those five worlds existed things even more terrifying.

“So, the Celestial Realm you mentioned before… is it these five worlds?” he asked Danyangzi’s hallucination on the wall without thinking.

“Hmph!! What bullshit Five Buddhist Realms! What do a bunch of superstitious, shaven-headed muttonheads know?!”

Danyangzi’s six eyes were filled with contempt. It was the first time his hallucination had reacted.

“These people don’t understand anything! They just believe whatever is written in the books! They’ve never even seen the Southern Heavenly Gate, so what the hell do they know?!”

Li Huowang ignored Danyangzi’s curses and continued questioning the abbess. “Can you tell me, where are these so-called Five Buddhist Realms?”

“If I knew, I’d be a Buddha myself, and I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

The abbess idly picked her nose, pulled out a long string of snot, and wiped it on her own rolls of fat.

“Become a Buddha? Venerable, is that the kind of Buddha you want to become?”

“I can’t be bothered. My son is crazy, but he’s still alive. What would happen to him if I actually became a Buddha?”

Having learned all this, Li Huowang felt as if everything he had experienced before was clicking into place. In some mysterious way, he felt he was starting to understand something.

“Which world does that Ba She belong to?”

He remembered that strange place in the background when Ba She had manifested before.

“I don’t know. I’m not a member of the Ao-Jing Sect.”

“Shua—!” Danyangzi’s three terrifying heads suddenly burst straight through the abbess’s belly.

“She’s lying to you! She doesn’t know anything at all!! Only when you truly see the Celestial Realm will you understand how utterly wonderful it is!”

“Just one glimpse of the Celestial Realm, and you’ll see that the mortal world is nothing!”

Li Huowang stared at him, the corner of his mouth twitching. He turned back to Abbess Jingxin. “Venerable, do other sects have different names for these so-called Five Buddhist Realms?”

“Of course they do. Some cultivators say there are no five realms at all, that it’s just one single place, and they call it Penglai. Others say there’s no such place at all, that it’s all made up.”

“Anyway, no one can convince anyone else, and I can’t be bothered to argue with them.”

As she spoke, Abbess Jingxin couldn’t help but pull a piece of mung bean cake out of her fat, only to force herself to stop just before putting it in her mouth and tuck it back away.

“Alright, alright. This isn’t stuff from the mortal realm. I’m just telling you for your ears only. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really concern you right now anyway.”

“If you don’t have anything else, get going. It’s already the hour of the sheep. You’ve made me miss my nap.”

“Remember, stay far away from the Zuowangdao. If you do run into them and want to break their tricks, you have to figure out their train of thought, and then do the opposite.”

Having delivered these final words of advice, Abbess Jingxin threw her head back and began to snore with an ear-splitting roar.

With a complex expression on his face, Li Huowang performed another Qingfeng Temple Daoist salute towards the abbess, picked up his sword, and turned to leave.

This trip had yielded far too much. He needed some time to sort it all out.

————————————————

Yang Xiaohai sat crouched on a rock, watching Chun Xiaoman practice her swordplay in the yard with envy.

With a clear clang, the blue sword in Chun Xiaoman’s hand was drawn a few inches from its scabbard.

The blade reflected a cold, icy light. An intangible pressure, like a wispy mist, forced him to edge back a little further.

The sword moved like a swimming dragon, flashes of silver light flickering continuously, her sleeves billowing in the wind.

Yang Xiaohai couldn’t understand the intricacies of the technique, but he could tell that Senior Sister Xiaoman was incredibly skilled.

Naturally, this was the case. Whenever she had a spare moment these past days, she was practicing. In the morning, she practiced. In the evening, she practiced. Even while eating, she held onto that sword manual.

“If I were this strong, no one would dare bully me anymore, would they?” Yang Xiaohai said, a look of longing in his eyes.

“Hah, this is nothing. Practicing this stuff is useless. If you really want to get strong, you have to learn from Brother Li.”

Yang Xiaohai turned his head and saw Gouwa standing against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

His mind conjured up Brother Li’s gruesome appearance. A chill ran down the back of his neck, and his head started shaking like a rattle-drum.

“No, no. I don’t want to learn that kind of divine power. It hurts too much.”

Just then, Yang Xiaohai saw Xiaoman stop her sword practice and start walking out.

“Senior Sister Xiaoman, where are you going?” He quickly followed.

“I’m going to check out the escort agency in town. I’ve been practicing in a vacuum for so long; I want to find someone to test my skills on.”

“Xiaoman, if you want a sparring partner, why go looking for outsiders? You can spar with me. I’ve trained a bit too.” Gouwa patted the sword hanging at his waist, making it clatter.

“You call that training? Just learning one single horizontal slash and calling it training?”