Dragon-Marked War God

As the ashes and dust were annihilated, the tremors throughout the entire Western-pole Divine Land were terrifying in the extreme. After the shaking, the Western-pole Divine Land returned to calm once more. The Great Thunderclap Temple, once riddled with holes and ravaged beyond recognition, appeared once again on the land of the Western-pole Divine Land.

The illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple had disappeared, and those who had entered it had also vanished along with it like smoke. Very few people had truly walked out of the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple.

Goddess Luo and Luo Binwang could be considered quite lucky. Together with Lan Luo, they had all escaped from the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple, fleeing before it was destroyed.

Venerable Jianan and Venerable Anan had also escaped. They would never forget the tragedy and terror inside that world. Jiang Chen had suppressed everyone with his own strength alone. That scene was just too terrifying. A Late Hierarch guy had actually been able to become that strong. It was simply outrageous.

The dust had settled, and they knew that those who had not escaped had vanished forever along with the destruction of the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple. Goddess Luo and Lan Luo looked at each other. There was a hint of desolation in both their eyes. In the end, Jiang Chen had still not managed to escape alive.

Goddess Luo’s feelings in particular were extremely complicated. Big Yellow was still in the God Luo Clan waiting for news of Jiang Chen, but how was she supposed to explain this to Big Yellow? Although Jiang Chen had fought against all the heroes and broken through everyone’s attacks, in the end he could not escape death. Perhaps this was fate. No one could change it, and no one could understand the terror and bitterness within it.

Lan Luo murmured as she looked at the Great Thunderclap Temple in front of her, which had returned to its ruined state. Her heart was filled with grief. If it were not for her, perhaps Jiang Chen would not have died. She blamed Jiang Chen’s death, all of it, on herself. Her heart felt as if ten thousand swords had pierced it. No one could understand her pain and bitterness.

“Jiang Chen, I’m sorry…”

Lan Luo knew that she could never repay the debt she owed Jiang Chen in this lifetime. But when a man dies, it is like a lamp going out. The Great Thunderclap Temple had disappeared, the illusion had been destroyed, and everyone had vanished along with it. This was a fact that no one could change.

The appearance of Luo Binwang and the others made Yunlan the Enlightened and Jie Yan the Enlightened hurry over at once, their eyes full of gravity. What worried them was how things had finally turned out.

“Where are the others?”

Yunlan the Enlightened asked in a deep voice, his face turning somewhat unsightly. Although he did not want to think that way, the facts in front of him made it hard to accept. His guess might very well be the truth.

“Everyone… they all died in there, and vanished along with the destruction of the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple.”

Luo Binwang sighed. That the few of them had escaped alive was already very hard-won, a chance given to them by the heavens. But all the rest had remained forever in the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple.

“All dead?”

Yunlan the Enlightened’s breath caught, and he was stunned, his face turning somewhat pale. This result was still beyond their expectations after all. No one could have imagined that this would be an epic disaster beyond anything before. Every one of the dead had been the best of their temples, every one of them a top-tier expert they had gathered from all directions, yet in the end it had all ended in failure.

“What exactly happened?”

Jie Yan asked in a deep voice, looking at Luo Binwang and the others. Had all those people really died in there? That was too terrifying.

“Apart from the few of us, it seems no one walked out alive. It was just too tragic. All the genius disciples became nothing special in that moment. Experts gathered there, but the ones who laughed last were not us. The Reincarnated Living Buddha has also completely vanished.”

Luo Binwang said.

“Amitabha. Good, good.”

Jie Yan’s face was gloomy. He said in a low voice with his palms pressed together, his face pale. Although the result was far from satisfactory, it also made him understand one principle, and that was that nothing should be forced. This time, they had gathered a great many people to enter the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple, hoping to obtain the Reincarnated Living Buddha and the God Suppressing Monument. But they never expected to end up losing both the bride and the soldiers. It was truly heartbreaking.

“Amitabha. Jie Yan the Enlightened, in your opinion, is this a calamity for our Buddhist Realm?”

Yunlan the Enlightened looked at Jie Yan meaningfully and murmured in a low voice.

“It’s hard to say. At least for now, it seems we’ve suffered a heavy blow to our vitality. No one understands how much bitterness and hardship is in it. The world rises and falls, and it’s time we reflected on ourselves properly. The Buddhist faith collapsed more than hundreds of millions of years ago, yet we only cared about fighting for fame and profit for ourselves. How many of us know that over these hundreds of millions of years, the spiritual leaders of the Buddhist Realm had long since passed into nirvana? In other words, everyone wants to become the true leader, to become the symbol of the Buddhist faith, and that is why great wars arise.”

Jie Yan said earnestly. His expression was full of emotion, full of regret, full of sighs.

“No matter what the result is, we are all on the losing side in the end. The dead will never come back, yet we still keep coming one after another in pursuit. No one knows whether the Reincarnated Living Buddha is real or fake, but the God Suppressing Monument has truly appeared on the land of the Western-pole Divine Land. Many people understand this, but no one has stopped chasing it. Greed, desire, domineering and resentment have made us lose our true nature, lose our respect and devotion to the Buddha. Our hearts are no longer before the Buddha, but before profit. And we have taken the seven emotions and six desires into them as well.”

“Joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire should never have been there; form, sound, smell, taste, touch and dharma should exist even less. This is our infatuated heart, and also the Buddha heart we should have comprehended long ago. This failure may not be a bad thing for us. It may be a release, even a kind of invisible enlightenment.”

Every word of Jie Yan the Enlightened rang in their ears. Even Goddess Luo’s expression became clear as she listened, her eyes filled with piety and reverence.

“Amitabha. What you say is very true. It seems that after we return this time, we must reflect properly. Since the matter is settled, it seems we all have to close our doors and reflect on our mistakes. Wasn’t this disaster also a warning from the heavens? Who knows in what year and what month the great unification of the Buddhist Realm will ever be achieved. Sigh.”

Yunlan the Enlightened shook his head and took his leave of Jie Yan the Enlightened and the others. His expression was full of desolation. This time, it could be said that his entire force had been wiped out, and they had not obtained the slightest bit of news either. It was the same for both the Reincarnated Living Buddha and the God Suppressing Monument.

“Perhaps we were wrong from the very beginning.”

Jie Yan the Enlightened murmured, and he too prepared to set off on the journey home.

At this point, the illusion of the Great Thunderclap Temple had come to a complete end. No one knew where the Reincarnated Living Buddha had died, and no one knew where the God Suppressing Monument had gone, but their missions had all been completed.

“A game, a dream; life and death are empty in the blink of an eye! Seemingly real and seemingly illusory, without end, in the end it too leaves no trace…”

Goddess Luo looked at the vast, endless land ahead of her. The old site of the Great Thunderclap Temple had long since crumbled into dust, its former glory long gone. The illusion was lost, and they, in a world that seemed both real and illusory, did not know where to go.