Chapter 161: The Trial

I killed everyone around me who tried to persuade me, and cast all my beloved confidantes into the cold palace.
Ultimately, I was willing to pay the price of destroying the world to achieve my deepest desire, but at the most critical moment, Ling Xinyue thrust her sword straight into my heart.
"Why..." I roared in desperate defiance as I died.
"Because... you have become a demon," Ling Xinyue whispered softly.
I woke up with a start, my entire body drenched in cold sweat.
I didn't know when, but I had already walked through the tunnel. Looking back, I realized it was only a little over a hundred paces away from the entrance.
Violent emotions surged within my heart; I stood frozen, acting like a fool.
After a long while, I snapped out of my daze, the expression on my face shifting from terror and hatred to utter relief.
"I will only ever be myself. I know very well what kind of person I want to be." I muttered to myself, slowly raising my head.
This passage was quite interesting; it was filled with a powerful mental force that induced self-doubt, leading to a psychological breakdown and the eventual disintegration of one's soul.
"I only believe in one thing: rather than asking the heavens, ask the ghosts and gods; my fate is determined by me, not by the heavens." I said loudly, and strode into the stone archway at the far end.
Upon entering the stone archway, I found myself in a Buddhist hall carved entirely out of stone, with a serene and smiling Maitreya Buddha sitting right in the center.
I was somewhat astonished. This was supposed to be a malevolent imperial tomb, so why on earth was there a Buddhist hall?
It would have made sense for Ling Xinyue to encounter a Buddhist hall since she went to the so-called Nirvana Cave of the Eminent Monk Cangyang, but for a Buddhist hall to appear inside the tomb of the Evil Emperor felt far too bizarre.
I looked around and approached the Maitreya Buddha statue.
At that exact moment, the Maitreya Buddha statue suddenly trembled, and a golden beam of Buddhist light illuminated the space.
Whether one was a Buddhist believer or not, witnessing a Buddha manifest would likely make anyone kneel in absolute reverence.
However, I stood calmly in place, watching the Buddhist light and phantom with the detached amusement of a spectator watching a play.
Right then, an illusory figure of the Maitreya Buddha detached itself from the statue.
A glimmer of light flashed in my eyes as I looked over.
Upon closer inspection, I immediately spotted the problem. This Buddha phantom was no true Buddha at all; it was clearly a genuine ghost.
"The Evil Emperor revered Buddhism. To gain an audience with the Evil Emperor, you must first pass a test to see if you possess any Buddha nature," the phantom said.
"What kind of test?" I asked indifferently.
At that instant, a ray of golden light enveloped me.
In a flash, I found myself transformed into a Buddhist monk, standing on a narrow single-plank bridge.
Behind me, a horde of ferocious monsters was giving chase, while ahead, a group of women and children blocked my path across the bridge.
"You have three choices. First, turn back and fight the monsters to the death, though you will ultimately be defeated and impaled. Second, kill the women and children ahead of you and escape with your life. Third, sit cross-legged right where you are and use your own life force to summon the power of the Buddha to destroy the monsters and save the innocent people," a voice echoed from the void.
Right then, the scene instantly came to life.
I glanced back and could clearly see the crimson eyes of the monsters, and even smell the foul stench reeking from their jaws.
The ghost phantom had mentioned beforehand that this test evaluated one's Buddha nature.
What is Buddha nature? Measuring others by oneself?
Without a doubt, almost everyone would instinctively choose the third option.
However, I refused!
Buddha nature is human nature, and this multiple-choice question was entirely illusory to begin with.
I moved, gliding like a ghost right over the heads of the women and children on the single-plank bridge. I lacked the ability to save them, but I was entirely capable of bypassing them; why must I kill them? As for whether they would be torn to shreds by the monsters behind, that was the monsters' business.
Indeed, the very next second, those women and children were torn apart by the pursuing monsters, while I escaped unscathed.
"You... you chose to kill them?" the voice from the void demanded in fury.
"I didn't kill them," I replied coolly.
"But they died because of you!" the voice raged.
"They died because of the monsters. The bottom line in my heart prevents me from striking them down, but that doesn't mean I am obligated to save them. After all, I am a human, not a Buddha. Shouldn't that sort of thing be left to the Buddhas?" I said coldly.
The next second, I reappeared within the Buddhist hall.
"You possess not a shred of Buddha nature at all; you are a demon!" the ghost phantom roared repeatedly.
"So what if I am a demon?" I laughed heartily.
"You failed, and failure means death!" The ghost phantom lunged at me.
Yet at that exact moment, the Buddhist light enveloping the ghost phantom dissipated, revealing its true form.
"Test passed," an authoritative voice echoed from the void, and a passage appeared at the far end of the Buddhist hall.
The ghost phantom wore a look of sheer disbelief, screaming in anguish, "Why? Why does someone who let innocent people die pass the test, while my choice to sacrifice my own life to summon the Buddha's power ended in failure? I refuse to accept this!"
I burst into laughter. So this fellow was merely a failed challenger who had gone before me.
I headed toward the passage, and right then, the ghost was pierced by a beam of Buddhist light, dissolving amidst its shrill, agonizing screams.
Reaching the end of the tunnel, I stepped across the threshold.
Immediately, I found myself inside an even more massive Buddhist hall.
The surrounding walls of this hall were densely packed with countless Buddha statues, and at the far end, two identical statues of accomplished ancient monks stood guard on the left and right, flanking a gigantic crystal coffin.
For some inexplicable reason, a chill crept up my spine, and my intuition told me this place was extremely dangerous.
Wielding the Blood-Slaying Saber in my hand, I slowly approached the coffin.
As I drew closer, I was startled to discover that the occupant of the coffin was a giant standing at least three meters tall.
The giant's corpse showed no signs of decay whatsoever. He was clad in blood-red armor with deep, chiseled facial features—he looked precisely like the bas-relief carved into the outer cliff face.
Could this giant actually be the Evil Emperor himself?
My gaze shifted, and I spotted a blood-red spear resting upon two golden racks behind the coffin.
Suddenly, a series of shrill, piercing laughs echoed from the statues of the eminent monks standing beside the coffin.
A cold glint flashed in my eyes; my body soared into the air, and I slashed downward at the Buddha statue with my blade.
A flash of blood-red light vanished as quickly as it appeared, and the Buddha statue was sliced diagonally in half from shoulder to waist.
From the cut, streams of black blood gushed outward, exuding a foul, putrid stench.
*Clang.*
The top half tumbled to the ground, and my pupils constricted when I saw that the interior of the Buddha statue was entirely packed with human skeletons.
At that very instant, an illusory figure darted out from the ruined statue, transforming into a white-bearded monk enveloped in a halo of Buddhist light.
Pointing directly at me, the monk shouted sternly, "Audacious wretch! How dare you refuse to kneel upon seeing this Holy Monk!"
The Blood-Slaying Saber in my hand vibrated as I raised an eyebrow and asked, "Eminent Monk Cangyang?"
"None other than this Holy Monk!" the monk proclaimed.
My heart skipped a beat. What on earth was going on? This was the tomb of the Evil Emperor, so why did the Eminent Monk Cangyang—whom Ling Xinyue had mentioned—appear here?
Since these two tombs were located so close to one another, could it be that the Evil Emperor revered Buddhism so deeply that upon his death, he had even brought the Eminent Monk Cangyang here to stand guard?
That actually seemed plausible!
However, the so-called Holy Monk before me was nothing more than a malevolent ghost.
"Greetings, Holy Monk," I said aloud, while the Blood-Slaying Saber in my grip instantly transformed into a burst of violent crimson light, slashing toward the monk's phantom.
The phantom of the Eminent Monk Cangyang flickered and vanished right back into another Buddha statue.
*Boom!*
A spell talisman in my hand detonated, blowing that Buddha statue to pieces. Black blood oozed from it as well, exposing the skeletal remains crammed inside.
And so it went: the phantom of the Eminent Monk Cangyang kept slipping into one Buddha statue after another, while I shattered them one by one.
Finally, all the Buddha statues were destroyed, and the entire Buddhist hall was soaked in black blood.
"Ghostly entity, let's see where else you can hide," I sneered.
"Heh heh heh, why should this poor monk hide? I want to see how you die," the phantom of the Eminent Monk Cangyang cackled triumphantly.
Just then, the pool of black blood on the ground suddenly congealed into human figures that rose to their feet—numbering fully several hundred.
These black-blooded figures took the shape of monks and lunged at me, bringing with them a wave of foul stench and moving at terrifying speed.
My gaze hardened as the Blood-Slaying Saber swept out in sweeping arcs of blade Qi, instantly blasting all the black-blooded figures to pieces.
Yet in a mere fraction of a second, they re-coagulated and lunged forward once more.
*Boom!*
Those black-blooded figures were blasted apart yet again.
After repeating this a few times, I furrowed my brow.
Right then, a faint ghostly light emanated from my eyes.
In an instant, a colossal dark shadow began to coalesce above me, forming the terrifying image of a Nether Dragon.
"Nether Dragon Manifestation!" I roared. The Nether Dragon also reared its head and let out a furious roar, charging forward in tandem with my attack.
Immediately, wisps of black smoke billowed from the bodies of those black-blooded figures as they were swallowed whole by the Nether Dragon projection. Their bodies began to twist and deform before completely collapsing.
At that sight, the phantom of the Eminent Monk Cangyang roared in fearful anger, flashed abruptly, and plunged straight into the crystal coffin.