The Flesh-Buddha's Sutra

Chapter 623 The Buddha

“This isn’t right. None of this is right! I’m supposed to be discharged soon. How did this happen now?”

In the empty hallway, Li Huowang paced anxiously, phone pressed to his ear.

“Don’t talk to me about thought disorder. I’m not autistic, and my thoughts are not disordered! I’m not having hallucinations either. I’ve been cured!”

Hearing the voice on the other end, Li Huowang let out a long sigh, his tone suddenly turning much calmer. “Yes, I want to be discharged. I don’t want to spend my whole life in a mental institution. But…”

A flicker of struggle and pain crossed his face. “But everything on that boat… it felt too real. Like I actually lived through it! I definitely held that bronze coin sword! I definitely had an arm bitten off by someone’s bull terrier! But now it’s all gone!”

At the end of the hallway, a few people from Li Huowang’s therapy group poked their heads out, sizing him up.

“See? He still claims he’s not sick. I’ve seen a lot of this in the ward. Classic schizophrenia,” Wei Shili, the crew-cut young man with mild mania, muttered his guess.

“Doesn’t seem like it. Look how articulate he is. Schizophrenics off their meds don’t have that clear of a head. I think it’s more like a personality disorder. My last roommate had that.”

Everyone was intensely curious about what exactly was wrong with this newcomer. They even secretly bet snacks on it, a small way to relieve the boredom of the mind-numbing psychiatric hospital.

“Dr. Yi, I’m really afraid all the progress I made before will be wasted. I… my head is so jumbled right now. I don’t even know what’s real. I am hesitating.”

“Alright. Come by when you have a chance. Thank you.” Li Huowang hung up, frowning deeply as he paced the corridor.

He had thought everything was getting back on track. But that inexplicable experience at sea had thrown his mind into chaos again.

If it was all fake—hallucinations from a thought disorder—then what kind of mental illness did he actually have? Was it even treatable?

But if it was real…

He hesitated again. He felt like he was in a huge mess, and he had to handle it carefully. Make the wrong choice, and he’d likely fall into an even bigger disaster.

What filled him with despair was that, faced with this situation, he had no idea what to do.

Da-da-da. An odd sound came from the window beside him. He walked over and looked up.

He saw the vast army of Great Liang.

The dense thunder of hooves and the congealing aura of slaughter rising from the officers and men made every muscle in his body lock tight with tension.

Only by seeing it in person could one understand what it meant to say the army stretched to the horizon, countless and beyond the horizon—especially when it was the imperial army.

“Where are they going?” Li Huowang asked in a low voice.

“Nowhere,” Liu Zongyuan replied. “As long as these troops are here to deter them, the Fa Sect wouldn’t dare lead their people in revolt.”

“Heh, even if they did revolt, there’s nothing to fear. The moment these Flying Leopards move, they’d wipe out all those cultists.” A hint of pride crept into Liu Zongyuan’s voice. “Relax. It seems the higher-ups are taking the Great Qi rebellion seriously. With them here, plus the Sitian Jian’s spies and pawns, we should be safe this time.”

Hearing Liu Zongyuan’s words, Li Huowang finally understood why so many troops had been deployed here. He now had a clearer picture of Gao Zhijian’s influence. The Emperor of Great Liang was not a title to be taken lightly.

Sensing Li Huowang’s group’s unconcealed gaze, a general looked over. Spotting the tokens at their waists, he immediately averted his eyes.

Once the last of the Liang soldiers had marched past, Li Huowang turned to Chan Du. “Forget about them. Let’s get this big mess sorted out quickly.”

The trouble with the Great Qi Fa Sect—he had to handle this properly. If he failed, the entire Great Liang might sink into a far worse disaster.

With that, everyone mounted their horses and galloped toward Yincheng, hoping to contribute to the resistance against the Great Qi Fa Sect.

On the short journey over the past few days, no one had changed more than the three monks from Zhengde Temple. When Li Huowang first met them, Abbot Chan Du had been so thin he looked like a skeleton.

But now, after just a few vegetarian meals, his flesh had completely recovered. This gave Li Huowang a new appreciation for the Zhengde Temple’s abilities.

“Abbot, that divine power the Buddha granted you—the one that turns you into a Flesh Buddha—can it do anything else? If we do run into the Fa Sect, it’d be good to know how to coordinate.”

Hearing this, Chan Du, the abbot of Zhengde Temple, released his grip on the reins and pressed his palms together while still on horseback. “Amitabha. This humble monk has practiced Chan for sixty years and has already crossed into the Paranirmita-Vashavartin Heaven.”

This left Li Huowang completely baffled. What the hell was the “Paranirmita-Vashavartin Heaven”? He might as well have said nothing.

“Abbot, can you say that in simpler terms? I’m having trouble…”

Before he could finish, a black vulture descended from the sky. As their eyes met, Li Huowang saw a black-robed lama in the vulture’s gaze.

Then, the lama raised his right hand, covered in age spots, and pointed a vajra at Li Huowang’s brow.

“The Venerable One has touched the Fundamental Reality!”

In the next instant, Li Huowang felt a chill in his heart, a hollow emptiness, as if something had been taken from him.

He braced for something to happen to his body—but felt no anomaly.

Shing! The purple-tasseled sword in his hand cut through the air, cleaving the vulture in two. “Watch out! Enemy attack!”

The moment his shout rang out, a sky-darkening flock of vultures dove down, swarming the other nine.

Beside him, the abbot from Zhengde Temple swiftly pressed his palms together. His body shot forward through his saddle, merging into his horse.

But that was not the end. The three monks, each fused with their own mount, began to merge their own flesh and blood.

The final result was a creature of flesh that resembled the “Buddha” Li Huowang had once seen at Zhengde Temple.

The Buddha bore seven or eight pairs of arms, each making a different mudra—the Vajra Seal, the Lotus Seal, the Lion’s Seal. A dozen mouths opened wide, chanting sutras in unison.

“Dwelling in the Tusita Heaven, proclaiming the Right Dharma, forsaking that celestial palace, descending into a mother’s womb, issuing from her right side, walking with the Buddha’s gait, unfolding the Dharma’s gate. Cleansing all filth…”

The sutras poured from different mouths, at different pitches, layering over each other, making the recitation overwhelmingly sacred and solemn.

As the chant spread, the vultures’ wings began to fuse to their bodies, their eyes to their eyelids, until they fell from the sky like stones, tumbling en masse.

Looking up at the merciful face of the abbot within this Buddha, Li Huowang finally understood what the “Paranirmita-Vashavartin Heaven” meant.