219: One word shattered the Buddha's golden body, and the Buddha retreated in fright.

That sword strike was shapeless, massless, and completely silent.

It was neither energy nor a physical entity, but a pure principle.

An absolute principle that severs illusion and penetrates the Origin.

It ignored the distance of space and Law, directly descending upon the Divine Soul Origin of the Joyful Glazed Buddha, drawing a light line.

Inside the ten-thousand-zhang Golden Buddha, the grand and majestic Buddhist chant was abruptly choked off, as if an invisible hand had clamped down on its throat.

What followed was a crisp cracking sound, originating from the core of the Divine Soul.

It was as if the most perfect glaze had been struck, revealing the first crack.

The ocean of faith surging from the sky, composed of billions of golden " swastika" Buddhist Seals, suddenly solidified in mid-air.

The Intent of Salvation and Ultimate Bliss contained within every Buddhist Seal was instantly extracted and purified.

They first dimmed, changing from brilliant gold to dead, gray white.

Then, they silently melted away, like snowflakes exposed to harsh sunlight.

All the Buddhist Seals, as if they had never existed, completely disintegrated and vanished in an instant!

The Forced Salvation failed.

It failed completely and utterly.

The Sword Intent that extinguished illusion didn't stop there; following the trajectory of the Divine Thought, it surged violently upstream, launching a merciless counterattack!

"Pfft."

An extremely faint sound of cracking, yet it clearly echoed throughout the entire dead city.

In the center of the city, at the heart of the ten-thousand-zhang Golden Buddha's glazed body, a barely perceptible spatial rift opened out of thin air.

A drop of golden Divine Blood slowly seeped out from it.

The moment that drop of blood appeared, the surrounding Void Realm groaned under the unbearable pressure, as if carrying the weight of the entire world.

But in just an instant, the Divine Blood was completely evaporated by the invisible Sword Intent, leaving not a single trace behind.

The Lord of the Buddhist Kingdom, the Joyful Glazed Buddha, was injured.

His vast, star-sea-like Divine Thought had a corner of its Origin forcibly severed by Shen Yuanmo's sword strike!

That was no ordinary injury; his Divine Soul was already wounded!

For the first time, human emotions—shock and incomprehension—appeared in the Golden Buddha's indifferent golden eyes.

How is this possible?!

His Great Bliss Sanskrit Chant was a supreme Divine Soul Secret Technique, activated using his own Mid-stage Soul Transformation cultivation base, fused with the Power Of Will accumulated from billions of believers over thousands of years.

It represented the highest Law of this Buddhist Kingdom!

Forget a mere Half-step Nascent Soul, even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator of the same Realm, if they suddenly encountered it, would suffer Divine Soul shock and lose control of their Dao Heart; it would be absolutely impossible to emerge unscathed!

Yet, the person before him had an aura as weak as an ant's.

He hadn't even used any Spiritual Power!

This was the ruthless suppression of higher-level Dao against inferior Laws!

The Dao Rhyme contained in that sword strike was profound, deep, and supreme, making the Joyful Glazed Buddha feel that his proud Faith Buddhist Dharma was nothing but a joke in front of it.

"Who... who exactly is this person? He's clearly only a Half-step Nascent Soul, yet he can injure my Divine Soul so easily!"

Alarm bells screamed in the Joyful Glazed Buddha's heart. Gone was the slightest hint of condescending disdain, replaced only by furious rage and boiling murderous intent, stemming from his core being touched.

Such a variable must absolutely not be allowed to remain!

The original site of the restaurant.

Shen Yuanmo slowly raised his head. His calm gaze pierced through layers of the Void Realm and the Golden Buddha's indestructible Glazed Dharma Body, accurately landing on the most core hidden space.

There, a large, obese monk, dressed in a magnificent Kasaya, his body as massive as a mountain and his earlobes thick enough to reach his shoulders, sat cross-legged, filled with shock and fury.

His face was deathly pale. A trickle of brilliant golden blood slowly slid from the corner of his mouth. In those eyes, which should have been filled with compassion, there was now only offended shock, rage, and hysterical brutality.

It was none other than the sole Dominator of this place, the Joyful Glazed Buddha.

A genuine Mid-stage Soul Transformation Buddha Lord!

"Heretic! How dare you injure my Dharma Body!"

Sensing Shen Yuanmo's all-penetrating gaze, the Joyful Glazed Buddha felt his dignity utterly trampled upon, and he completely ignited the power of the entire Buddhist Kingdom!

"Great Compassion, Salvation of All Living Beings!"

"Suppress!"

With an angry roar, the light of the entire Lesser Western Paradise Buddhist Kingdom brightened to the extreme, as if a golden sun had exploded there!

Above the sky, the golden sea of clouds, formed by the convergence of faith and Power Of Will, violently churned and roared.

It finally condensed into a massive golden palm that covered the sky, its lines seeming to hold countless believers crying and praying, and slammed down toward Shen Yuanmo's location!

At the same time, the chanting sounds of countless believers in the city suddenly amplified a thousandfold, becoming tangible!

"Namo Joyful Glazed Buddha!"

"Buddha Ancestor is merciful, suppress the Evil Demon!"

The grand, piercing chanting sounds transformed into countless golden Rune Chains, which emerged from the Void Realm and spread across the ground.

They swept in from all directions, weaving into a massive net that sealed the heavens and earth and Prohibited All Spells, aiming to confine and suppress Shen Yuanmo until he was refined into the purest nourishment!

This strike was the Joyful Glazed Buddha acting in anger, mobilizing the core faith Origin accumulated by the Buddhist Kingdom over thousands of years.

Its might was enough to completely erase a secular great nation, along with the Earth Veins beneath it, from this world!

In the center of the raging golden energy torrent, Shen Yuanmo's figure floated calmly.

He still stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

In the center of the destructive storm capable of tearing apart the heavens and earth, not even the corner of his robe fluttered.

He did not look at the giant palm pressing down from above, nor did he pay attention to the scripture chains locking down the Void Realm.

He simply lowered his gaze, looking downwards.

His gaze fell upon the believers whose faces held twisted, fanatical smiles, who were frantically contributing their power to kill him.

Then, Shen Yuanmo spoke.

His voice was very soft, yet it clearly resonated in the deepest part of every living being's Soul, in a way that transcended Law.

"Stealing the wishes of all living beings to fatten one's own self-interest."

"This is Greed."

"Severing the Reincarnation of others to forge false ultimate bliss."

"This is Delusion."

These four simple sentences felt like iron Laws established when heaven and earth were first created.

Every word transformed into an invisible Heavenly Blade, carrying the supreme principle, ruthlessly hacking at the Foundation of the Buddhist Kingdom's existence! Hacking at the faith connection between all the believers and that False Buddha!

Shen Yuanmo's voice paused.

He finally turned his gaze toward the ten-thousand-zhang Golden Buddha in the city center, his tone carrying a contempt that originated from his very bones and penetrated the Divine Soul.

"Which Buddha do you worship?"

"Which school of Dao do you cultivate?"

His voice suddenly turned cold, like Profound Ice that had remained unmelted for ten thousand years.

"You are not a Buddha."

"You are called a Thief Who Steals The Dao!"

BOOM—!!!

The last five words exploded in everyone's Divine Soul like a Creation Divine Thunder judging all things!

Below, the bodies of countless believers suddenly stiffened.

For the first time, a trace of clarity belonging to their "self" struggled forth from their hollow, numb eyes.

Immediately afterward, that trace of clarity was replaced by endless pain and nothingness.

The intense pain of having their Divine Soul long been exploited burst forth a hundredfold, a thousandfold, like a breaching flood!

"Ah—! My head! My Spirit is burning!"

"Who am I? I... I remember now, my wife, my children... where are they?"

"My Cultivation! My hundred years of arduous Cultivation! My memories! My life! It's all gone..."

Countless people clutched their heads, rolling and wailing in agony on the ground, letting out cries of sorrow from the depths of their Souls.

The happy smiles faded from their faces, replaced by terror and confusion.

In the end, all that remained was the boundless despair of finding their true selves only to realize they had been raised and drained of everything like livestock!

Crack! Crackle crackle!

Faith, at this moment, completely and utterly collapsed!

The billions of threads of faith connecting the believers to the Golden Buddha snapped and dissipated in swathes, like spiderwebs scorched by fire!

High above the sky, deep, bottomless black cracks appeared without warning on the glazed surface of the magnificent, arrogant giant Buddha, whose golden light shone ten thousand zhang high!

The massive golden palm that covered the sky violently disintegrated less than three feet above Shen Yuanmo's head, dissolving into ownerless Power Of Will that scattered across the heavens!

The Net of Heaven and Earth formed by the chanting sounds also let out a mournful cry, breaking inch by inch and turning into a sky full of fragmented light rain, dispersing in the wind!

"Pfft—!"

Inside the Golden Buddha, the Joyful Glazed Buddha could no longer withstand this destructive backlash originating from his Foundation. He spat out a large mouthful of golden Buddhist Blood containing his Origin!

His aura instantly became extremely weak, and his stable Mid-stage Soul Transformation Realm began to shake violently, showing signs of dropping!

"No! This is impossible!"

The Joyful Glazed Buddha stared at Shen Yuanmo in horror, his obese face completely overcome for the first time by an emotion called fear.

"You... who exactly are you?!"

"How could you destroy my Dao Heart and ruin my Buddhist Kingdom with a single word!"

The Joyful Glazed Buddha couldn't understand! Why would the Faith Divine Kingdom he painstakingly built over thousands of years, sacrificing billions of living beings, be utterly destroyed by just a few words from his opponent!

This method had already exceeded the scope of Divine Abilities and Spells!

This was a confrontation between the Dao of the two individuals!

And his own Dao, in front of the opponent, was as fragile as paper, utterly incapable of withstanding a single blow!

Shen Yuanmo did not look at him again.

It was as if the collapsing Golden Buddha, along with the fearful, wailing False Buddha inside, were merely insignificant pebbles by the roadside.

He turned, took a step, and his figure slowly faded into the Void Realm, about to leave this disintegrating false Pure Land.

He only left behind a cold and indifferent final judgment, slowly echoing between heaven and earth.

That sentence became the final straw that broke the Joyful Glazed Buddha's Dao Heart.

"I have finished observing your Dao."

"The Buddhist Dao is a very good path, but you took the wrong turn, entered the Evil Path, and are completely vulnerable before me."

Inside the ten-thousand-zhang Golden Buddha, the venom, anger, and unwillingness churning in the Joyful Glazed Buddha's eyes, as he watched the distant figure in the Green Robe, ultimately transformed entirely into bone-deep, uncontrollable fear.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He dared not strike again.

He had an incredibly clear instinct, originating from the core of his life.

If he attacked again, today would be the day of his Nirvana!