Chapter 768: Friend or Foe

At the highest levels of cultivation with the Amoghasiddhi Mantra, one would attain the Nirvana of Industry, turning jealousy and vexation while cleansing oneself of the skandha of perception.

By turning jealousy, one would understand the perfecting wisdom of Buddha, which represented the perfect actualization of Buddhahood.

As the Nirvana of Industry appeared and illuminated the void of Space, Monk Da Kong pondered its concepts of strength. He could not feel more satisfied than he did.

Studying the Nirvana of Industry of Zen Master Zhi Guang allowed him to understand the true meaning of the Amoghasiddhi Mantra completely.

Monk Da Kong was incredibly talented: While he started his cultivation last among his peers at the Great Thunderclap Temple, he was that gifted disciple who improved the fastest.

Before the fall of the Great Thunderclap Temple, Monk Da Kong had already attained the second level of the Golden Form Stage. He had cultivated in seclusion all these years in the hopes of making his way past the final obstacle- attaining the realm of Nirvana- to advance to the third level of the Golden Form Stage.

Now, Monk Da Kong could sense that he had broken through that final barrier. He just needed to retreat for cultivation for a while after leaving the spatial illusion to safely advance to the third level of the Golden Form Stage and attaining his own Nirvana of Industry.

Nevertheless, as he faced the golden bridge of Zhu Yi's Essay of the Sages, Monk Da Kong felt from the bottom of his heart that he had to deal with the desperate situation at hand first before thinking about anything else!

The majestic golden bridge seemingly traversed the endless abyss of worldly suffering, forming a path that led straight into the lands of nirvana, ferrying everyone to the realm of transcendence.

The golden bridge extended into Monk Da Kong's Nirvana of Industry, piercing this pure land that encompassed the true meaning of the accomplishment of everything.

Even this wholesome and joyous Buddhist nirvana could not stop the continued momentum of this path of man in its tracks or cause it to lose itself in the nirvana. The will of all living beings, carried by the golden bridge, remained incredibly high and spirited. Onward, onward. Onward!

The once-glittering Nirvana of Industry now hangs in the balance. Its Buddhist aura faded as if the Vipralopa Age has begun.

At this moment, a vast stream of the Unholy Blood River appeared in the void, its great murky waves gave out a nauseating putrid smell. Zhu Yi and Monk Da Kong's starlight soul body became harder to control by merely sniffing this vile scent; their starlight soul body became less radiant as well.

In the far distance, a dark red clump of starlight controlled vast amounts of Blood River Primordial Water, channeling it in their direction.

The starlight's target was obvious. It left all other starlights, including Zhu Yi, alone, heading straight towards Monk Da Kong's starlight soul body.

Monk Da Kong dared not to remain at his spot. He re-summoned his Nirvana of Industry to stop his opponent's Unholy Blood River from closing in while he retreated, controlling his starlight soul body to leave the place.

However, Zhu Yi would not give him the chance to do so. Within his starlight, the millions of little people converged to reform Zhu Yi's soul. New words started to appear after the existing three paragraphs of the Essay of the Sages!

"Indeed, I can only complete the Chapter after reaching the Immortal Soul Stage. Now with the help of Great Sun Holy Man's remnant souls, I was able to figure out a little more about it." Zhu Yi mustered the flow of inspiration in him and quickly constructed the Chapter.

The aura of the Essay of the Sages's golden bridge grew increasingly grander, and with a deafening roar, it lashed out at Monk Da Kong.

Monk Da Kong's soul, which was busily defending against the Unholy Blood River in an attempt to escape, muttered a Buddhist chant. In the void, the infinite stretches of golden paths reappeared. The various Abhijnas and spells launched by other starlights landed on these golden paths once again and channeled themselves towards Zhu Yi's golden bridge.

Unfortunately, the golden bridge of the Essay of the Sages had become stronger than before and continued towards its target.

Mount Shu cultivator of Immortal Stage Level one's Grand Moon Sword, Ancient Sacred Sect cultivator of Immortal Soul Stage Level two's Avici God-Slaying Sword,Suanni Grand Sage of level one Demon Soul Stage's natural-born Abhijna Purple Smoke Thunder of Heaven and Earth...

The golden bridge broke through all of these Abhijnas, none of which could stop the golden bridge from reaching its target!

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the golden bridge traversed a vast distance in the void, smashing Monk Da Kong's starlight soul body into pieces!

In the depths of Zhu Yi's soul, he seemed to have heard Monk Da Kong whimpered in pain.

Monk Da Kong's golden starlight soul body broke up into several pieces, only a small ray of light escaped into the far distance. The golden Buddhist aura on the other fragments of starlight faded and gradually disintegrated in the void.

"While you had formed the body with the starlight of Zen Master Zhi Guang's remnant soul and the damage taken had not affected your own Buddhist Spell Body or your nirvana, this blow would nevertheless hurt your fundamentals which you would need a long time to recover from. Don't even think about advancing into the third level of the Golden Form Stage now."

Zhu Yi was well aware of the state of Monk Da Kong's soul. However, he did not give chase. There was one more person at the side whom he did not know was friend or foe. The person had attained the starlight soul body formed from the remnant soul belonging to a powerful cultivator from the Blood River Sect, once a sacred demon ground, which was not a force to be reckoned with.

Due to the golden bridge of the Essay of the Sages, Zhu Yi's identity had been revealed, while the identity of this person remained a secret. While he had attacked Monk Da Kong moments ago, there was no telling whether he will attack Zhu Yi next without knowing his identity.

Hence, Zhu Yi remained on-guard. At the same time, summoning the Essay of the Sages just now had brought severe side effects.

Zhu Yi could feel his starlight soul body quivering non-stop as if it would disintegrate at any moment. The connection between his soul and the starlight body grew incredibly weak as well.

"This is the consequence of me forcing the use of my own Abhijna." Zhu Yi figured: "I broke the basic rule of this spatial illusion. Hence the spatial illusion would naturally start repulsing me."

"I'm afraid that I would not be able to use the Essay of the Sages from now on. Otherwise, I don't need an enemy to attack me for my starlight soul body to disintegrate by itself. That way, even if my soul did not take any damage but merely got sent out of the spatial illusion to start all over again, it would be hard to make up for the lost time."

As he thought about his Essay of the Sages, Zhu Yi shook his head. He was mere sentences away from finishing the chapter, but he nonetheless failed to complete it.

The cultivation level of level two Immortal Soul Stage, in the end, belonged to the Great Sun Holy Man, and not to him.

Even so, after what had happened, Zhu Yi could feel that he's now much closer to the Immortal Soul Stage. It seemed as if the door to the advancement of his cultivation is somewhere in front of him now.

He had just entered advanced Nascent Soul Stage.

Zhu Yi gazed at the dark red starlight opposite him surrounded by Blood River Primordial Water and tried to communicate with it, but as soon as he had the intention of declaring his own identity, his starlight soul body started to tremble violently, repulsing his soul even further.

"By declaring my own identity, I am essentially reinforcing my existence, which goes against the union of the starlight body with the remnant soul of Great Sun Holy Man."

Zhu Yi saw the dark red starlight opposite him trembled as well, which showed that he obviously shared his intention as well, but had to give up doing so after realizing that doing so would lead to the separation of his soul from his starlight body.

"I wonder if Big Senior and the rest entered this spatial illusion as well."

While they could not communicate with each other, the two decided to team up for now. Of course, neither of them would let their guards down completely. While they temporarily moved together, they retained some caution in their hearts about each other.

Nevertheless, joining forces had substantially increased their efficiency and progress. When they encountered another starlight, the other person will surround it with Blood River Primordial Water to contaminate its power while Zhu Yi launched strong attacks with the Celestial Fist of Twenty-Eight Mansions.

During this process, Zhu Yi, after careful observation, noted that when these chaotic bodies of starlight had been destroyed, the bulk of the starlight would slowly disintegrate in space while a ray of crimson light would fly away into the distance.

The way that these rays of light travel were unlike Monk Da Kong's escape; it was more like dreary birds returning to their roost, all of the rays of light converging in a single direction.

After making the discovery, Zhu Yi and his temporary teammate adjusted their path and explored together in that direction the rays of lights converged.

The massive space seemed to cause people to lose their concept of the distance they have traversed. After a long time, the duo gradually slowed down. In the distant region that they could see, there was a giant vortex of clouds of stars that gently rotated.

The cloud of stars was of a deep fire-red and gave people observing it an odd sense of distortion: it was as if it was immensely large, almost indescribably so, but at the same time it seemed incredibly small, like a grain of sand.

All of the crimson rays of light from destroyed starlights before converged here.

The center of this vortex-like cloud of stars rotated continuously. One can barely make out a doorway at its center that was going to open.

Without any hesitation, Zhu Yi and the dark red starlight beside him charged towards the center of the cloud of stars!

The fights between different starlights occurred intensely here as well. As they approached the center, Zhu Yi immediately noticed that there were other starlights here other than the two of them that had been possessed by the souls of those who entered the spatial illusion. These starlight bodies moved logically with a clear sense of purpose.

All of them were headed towards the doorway at the center of the cloud of stars.

Zhu Yi controlled his starlight soul body in a beeline towards the center of the cloud. Those people around him who had the same target as him immediately noticed him as well.

With the target now close to them, some of these people decisively launched attacks at Zhu Yi, even though they could not identify Zhu Yi. Zhu Yi did not hesitate and retaliated with moves from the Celestial Fist of Twenty-Eight Mansions straightaway.

The azure flame that an emerald dragon breathed out got blown into pieces by Zhu Yi's Horn Wood Serpent form of the Celestial Fist of Twenty-Eight Mansions.

Immediately following that, faced with the huge dragon starlight body, Zhu Yi transformed his starlight soul body into a giant in the void. He crossed his arms and extended both of his hands, one of which was in the shape of a claw and the other in the shape of a sword.

The claw grabbed the seventh inch and the sword pierced at the eye of the dragon. This single move encompassed the essence of three forms of the Celestial Fist of Twenty-Eight Mansions, "Ghost Gold Goat," "Willow Earth Roe" and "Star Sun Horse"!

These three mansions all belonged to the vermillion bird region of the South, and the hands of the starlight giant had the shape of the beak and claw of a bird respectively. Birds are natural enemies of snake-like creatures, and Zhu Yi, like a radiant vermillion bird, grabbed the emerald dragon king and punctured its eye, blinding it!

Almost at the same time, another cluster of starlight summoned the exclusive Abhijna of the recently fallen Heaven Lake Sect and attacked, only to be repelled by Zhu Yi.

With the target near in sight and being in such a dire situation where one could not tell friend from foe, Zhu Yi collected his mind. Knowing that hopes lie in his own hands now, he treated the other starlight equally, repelling all attacks on him one by one while he sprinted towards the center of the cloud of stars.

However, as he repelled his next opponent, Zhu Yi suddenly had a strong premonition of danger. Instead of continuing sprinting, he stopped.

At the next moment, a shadowy figure appeared suddenly from below and attacked Zhu Yi!