Chapter 96: Amitabha, Blessings Upon Blessings

“Amitabha, how virtuous, how virtuous.”

Lu Wei furrowed his brows. With every two steps, that monk would inevitably let out a sigh like this.

Back when he was alive, cultivators of the Buddhist path were rare—so few that he could count them on one hand. Encounters with them were even rarer, and none would have dared be so noisy in his presence.

Yet now, this monk who traveled beside him was nothing short of a torment.

To the point he felt himself on the verge of falling to demonic corruption again: he wanted to slaughter every last Buddhist cultivator in this world.

“Monk, can’t you speak a little less?”

“If a humble monk speaks less, is he still a monk?”

Lu Wei: …

He logged off in a huff, letting Qiao Yu take over. “Grandmaster, when, when will we finally meet our master? We seem to have walked for so long already.”

“Amitabha, how virtuous, how virtuous. By my estimation, we have walked an entire day.”

Qiao Yu/Lu Wei: …

Seeing both fall silent, the monk known as the Buddha of Sorrow and Joy patted his bald head, muttering gloomily, “Could it be I miscalculated?”

They were surrounded by forest, dimly lit, and peering through the vegetation revealed only deeper darkness. This forest felt more like an endless barrier.

Strange birds often cried out, but when they sought the source, they found nothing.

“How odd, how odd,” the monk chanted, “why is there no path again?”

“Do you even know the way? You’re worse than Wen Jinge when it comes to directions!” That, of course, was Lu Wei’s voice. “We’ve been walking all day and still found no road! Monk, are you doing this on purpose or is there a reason?”

“On purpose, or with intent.” The Buddha of Sorrow and Joy mused, counting on his fingers. “To do something on purpose means to act deliberately; to act with intent is to have a motive. In this case, the meaning is similar. This… fellow cultivator, I can’t untangle it, I—”

“Shut up!”

“The forest is so quiet; if I shut my mouth, it would be utter silence. Since this is a path untraveled, I fear it might affect our state of mind. Speaking of which—”

“Grandmaster says he’s going to sleep.” Qiao Yu covered his ears, tempted to knock himself unconscious. “I’m not afraid—please, just stop talking.”

“Very well.” The monk assented. “Is there any water? I am thirsty.”

“No!”

“Fellow cultivator, didn’t you say you were going to sleep? Why are you here again? Could it be that you can’t bear to part from me?”

“Please, just stop provoking my Grandmaster. Always, always it’s only my master who bullies…” Qiao Yu’s voice faltered, but realizing his master couldn’t come out to trouble him, he went on, “bullies the Grandmaster.”

“So that’s how it is. How virtuous.” The Buddha of Sorrow and Joy smiled knowingly.

No one could say what he thought he’d understood.

“Master, are you certain the last trace of the Demon Saint’s son really vanished here? We’ve walked a whole day and seen not a soul. Did you perhaps miscalculate? Even if he is a demon, he would need to live where there is life! Since entering, apart from hearing the mocking laughter of strange birds, we’ve seen nothing alive.”

“This place is called the Black Forest.”

Qiao Yu sighed in relief.

At last, the monk had returned to the topic at hand.

“There is no life in the Black Forest.”

“No life? Then what about us?”

“Your Grandmaster can manifest here.”

“I can’t get out!” Lu Wei, who had been eavesdropping, grumbled in frustration. “You don’t have to tell me only soul forms can enter; I know that already. But I simply can’t leave—why do you think I’m so angry?”

The Buddha of Sorrow and Joy chuckled awkwardly, trying to smooth things over. “Indeed, I was mistaken.”

“Glad you know!” Lu Wei snapped. “Go on, the boy doesn’t know this.”

Truthfully, he didn’t know either, but he’d never admit it.

“This Black Forest was once a forbidden zone. Legend has it that before the war between gods and demons ten thousand years ago, a great calamity struck the mortal world.”

Lu Wei narrowed his eyes. This, he did not know.

“The gods of that era were the Primal Gods. What are Primal Gods? As the name suggests, they possessed terrifying power without arduous cultivation, unlike us.”

“That war brought devastating disaster, nearly wiping out humanity. It is said the root cause was the betrayal of one Primal God, who singlehandedly destroyed all the others—even the sky was dark for an unknown number of days.”

“No one knows how much time passed, but from the resentment and miasma left by that battle, new races were born by chance: the Demons, the Yokai, and the Souls emerged then.”

“Later gods were mostly mortals who, having no other way out, stumbled upon the legacy of the Primal Gods and were purified. At that time, the Soul Clan was strongest, and most unbridled, bringing disaster to the world. They were the first to be suppressed. The Yokai, being cautious, fared the worst, while the Demons were nearly wiped out because of a certain Demon Lord.”

“That Demon Lord, having somehow learned of the Primal Gods, sought to resurrect the traitor among them. Thus, he became an enemy of the gods. As the Demon Clan grew in power, the gods foresaw they would become a second Soul Clan, so they launched a purge ten thousand years ago.”

“The Demon Lord was powerful, and the last god of that era used his remaining strength to seal him, but it was only temporary. As for the Black Forest, you should now know what this place is.”

“I don’t know,” Qiao Yu admitted honestly.

He’d thought the monk was telling a story, never expecting it might be true. His mind was still trying to catch up.

“The name ‘Black Forest’ didn’t exist before,” Lu Wei said, unlike Qiao Yu. He believed the monk had no reason to deceive him with stories, but if both the tale and this place truly existed, how could he not have known ten thousand years ago?

“Long ago, this was not an endless dark forest.”

“What do you mean?” asked Qiao Yu.

“It became as it is now only fifty years ago. The tale was told to my… former master by Immortal Wen over fifty years back. A few years later, my master was expelled from the Buddhist order as a heretic. I still remember how, though he seemed like a lost dog, he declared with high spirits: ‘To vanquish demons, begin with the Secret Treasury Sect!’”

“Again, fifty years ago?” Lu Wei muttered.

No matter what Immortal Wen was like fifty years ago, it must have been completely different from now.

Otherwise, why would someone betray the Secret Treasury Sect over a story about the Black Forest, spouting such topsy-turvy words?

He would never believe there wasn’t something hidden.

“You just tell all this, aren’t you afraid your master’s plan to eradicate demons will fail?”

“It already failed. My master has passed away.” The Buddha of Sorrow and Joy sounded dispirited.

“My condolences, then.”

“Fellow cultivator, do you know that sometimes failure is success itself?”

“Why?”

“I do not understand either.”

“…”

“That was something my senior brother once said.”