Chapter 172: Let's Go Home

Boom.

The Buddhist seal shattered like brittle paper, accompanied by the distinct sound of fracturing bones. Immediately afterward, he collapsed limply onto the ground like a pool of mud, letting out wretched, agonizing cries.

"Let me go! Do you even know who I am? I am the Buddha Son of the Buddhist Sect! Just dare to lay a finger on me and try! The Buddhist Sect will never let you off; you are dead meat!"

Chu Feng could not help but roll his eyes, a look of profound contempt crossing his face as he asked, "I seriously wonder how someone like you managed to become a Buddha Son in the first place."

"Yan'er, are all the Buddha Sons of the Buddhist Sect this brain-dead?"

Jiang Yan shook heropedic head and replied, "Surely not. Fayin must simply be an exception."

Chu Feng nodded. "Though I can pretty much guess the reason. This little bald donkey Fayin actually has decent innate talent—he possesses the rare Myriad Buddha Sacred Body, a physique that only appears once every ten thousand years in the Buddhist Sect. Everything about him is fine, except that he has been far too excessively sheltered."

What Chu Feng did not know was that his guess was entirely accurate.

Fayin, whose original name was Shi Luo, was a prince of the Stone Buddha Kingdom—one of the thirty-six Buddhist nations under the command of the Western Desert Buddhist Sect. Born with the Myriad Buddha Sacred Body, he was discovered by the Buddhist Sect and brought directly before the Buddha Tathagata himself. On the spot, he was accepted into the seven major branches of Buddhism and elevated to the rank of Buddha Son.

Unfortunately, out of all the branches, he ignored the other six entirely and took a fancy solely to the Joyful Branch, thus becoming the Buddha Son of that faction.

Ever since entering the Buddhist Sect,
he was naturally subjected to intensive cultivation. Whether as a prince or as a Buddha Son, he had always been revered by thousands, standing high above the rest, surrounded solely by flatterers and sycophants.

This upbringing cultivated his arrogance, hubris, and utter disdain for everyone around him.

In the Western Desert, no matter what terrible deeds he committed, someone would always step forward to clean up the mess for him. He never even needed to show his face; others would proactively handle everything to perfection.

To him,
everything in the world belonged to him.

Precisely because of this,
high-ranking Buddhist masters recognized the flaws in Fayin's character and ordered him to leave the Western Desert to travel extensively, hoping that the harsh realities and beatings of the wider world would beat the arrogant and insufferable attitude out of him.

The intention was good.
However, he never behaved peacefully for even a single moment along the way.
He stirred up trouble everywhere he went.

Originally, the guardian assigned to him was not the elderly monk Xuruo.
Xuruo was merely a servant monk, akin to a domestic servant, tasked exclusively with managing his daily living arrangements. His true guardian was someone else entirely—a mighty Buddhist expert at the Tribulation-Crossing Heavenly Monarch realm.

Not long ago, while running amok and causing trouble, Fayin had offended a formidable powerhouse he had no business provoking.
That guardian had been temporarily delayed and entangled, leaving Xuruo to temporarily act as his protector instead.

They had traveled all the way to the Grand Void Sacred City and encountered Chen Wanwan.

This encounter caused his true nature to flare up once more. He had attempted to abduct Chen Wanwan, planning to convert her so she would become his personal female bodhisattva.

What goes around comes around.
This time, he had kicked a truly solid iron plate.
Suppressed on the spot by Chu Feng, he still refused to repent even after being subdued. He kept crawling forward on the path to his own doom, foolishly daring to issue warnings to Chu Feng and showing zero regard for him.

If this wasn't courting death, what was?

Faced with the imminent threat of death, Fayin continued to scream belligerently, "Let me go! If you dare to harm me by even a fraction, I will ensure you suffer a miserable death and leave no corpse behind!"

"I am the Holy Son of the Buddhist Sect! My master is the Joyful Buddha of the Joyful Branch! How dare you lay a hand on me!"

"Shut your mouth."

Chu Feng let out a cold snort. "Harm you? You are thinking far too much. Anyone who dares to covet my, Chu Feng's, woman has only one destination: death."

"You wouldn't dare!"

Fayin roared in fury. "If you kill me, you will be branded with my Manji Buddhist seal! By then, every single member of the Buddhist Sect will know you killed me. Murdering a Buddhist Holy Son means you will face the collective wrath of the entire sect! Do you really think you can stand against our entire Buddhist power?"

"The might of the Buddhist Sect is beyond anything you can possibly imagine."

Chu Feng shook his head. "Don't you think you talk far too much nonsense?"

With those words, Chu Feng directly pressed down with a single palm.
His physical body was utterly destroyed, and his soul was annihilated into nothingness. He was thoroughly and unequivocally dead.

The very instant Fayin was slain, a Manji Buddhist seal genuinely burst forth from his body.

This Buddhist seal differed from the one left behind after killing the old monk Xuruo. Armed with the experience from last time, Chu Feng was rather curious to see what this Buddhist seal was all about.

Just as the Buddhist seal was about to enter his body,
a surge of karmic merit instantly erupted from within him, charging directly toward the incoming Manji Buddhist seal.

The moment it collided with the seal,
the Buddhist emblem instantly shattered and dissolved.

"It worked."

Chu Feng smiled faintly.

"Just as I surmised. This Manji Buddhist seal is merely a manifestation of karmic retribution and cause-and-effect. Yet it happened to cross paths with my power of merit; no matter how profound the karma, it cannot withstand the cleansing power of merit."

"Husband, the Buddhist seal on your body has vanished."

The moment the power of merit manifested,
the previous Buddhist seal acquired from slaying the old monk Xuruo also dissipated entirely.

Chu Feng nodded. "Just a minor trick. This so-called Buddhist seal is merely the force of karmic consequence. Eradicating it is not difficult."

"However, after killing this little bald donkey Fayin, I have a lingering sensation that matters may not be quite so simple. A generational Buddha Son, yet his sole guardian was merely at the Fusion realm."

Jiang Yan nodded in agreement. "My husband is right. The Buddhist Sect is immensely powerful; they would never leave their own Buddha Son completely unguarded, especially since Fayin possesses the legendary Myriad Buddha Sacred Body of the Buddhist texts."

"It is a pity his temperament was somewhat lacking. Their purpose in sending him out must have been to have him travel widely and temper his state of mind. Too bad he was nothing more than mud that couldn't be plastered onto a wall, and ended up perishing at my husband's hands."

"There are bound to be other guardians accompanying him, though I know not why they failed to appear in time. The people of the Buddhist Sect are notoriously vindictive and will resort to any means necessary. Once they discover that their Holy Son died at your hands, husband, they will never let the matter rest."

Chu Feng furrowed his brow.
He realized that the Buddhist Sect was indeed quite troublesome.
However, now that the Buddhist seal had been neutralized, they presumably did not yet know that the little bald donkey had died by his hand.

Besides, he was about to leave the Grand Void Sacred City anyway.
Having made this trip and accomplished his goals, it was finally time to return.

No matter how magnificent a golden or silver nest might be, how could it ever compare to one's own humble home?
Having spent a thousand years in the Grand Xuan Dao Sect in his past life, he had long since regarded the sect as his true home in the depths of his heart.

Time to go home.
The mere thought of it
instantly ignited a warm fervor within Chu Feng's chest.

"Let us go. We are going home."
"Back to the Grand Xuan Dao Sect."

...

Grand Void Mountain Headquarters.

Chu Feng's departure naturally could not be concealed from the Holy Master of the Ji family.
After all, Chu Feng had brazenly carried away their Holy Maiden.

Upon learning of Chu Feng's departure, the Ji family Holy Master let out a long breath of relief, murmuring to himself, "That god of slaughter has finally left."

Ji Tiansheng stepped forward and reported, "Family Head, I have just received intelligence. Fayin, the Buddha Son of the Buddhist Sect's Joyful Branch, provoked Chu Feng and was very likely slain by him. Should we inform the Buddhist Sect of this news?"

"Inform them? Why wouldn't we?"

The Ji family Holy Master sneered coldly. "Do they really take my Ji family for a group of pushovers? Doesn't that Buddha Son Fayin have a powerful Buddhist expert at the Tribulation-Crossing Heavenly Monarch realm? That guardian was previously held back by a Tribulation-Crossing Heavenly Monarch from the Yuxu Sacred Land because Fayin offended their Holy Maiden, but he has already broken free. Go and inform him of the Holy Son Fayin's death."