Traveling throughout the four major continents, Tathagata Buddha did not develop a place where a large number of Buddhist traditions still existed.
It is as if only a hundred years have passed before Buddhism disappeared from the three realms.
This once made Tathagata Buddha suspect that the Ming Dynasty had secretly suppressed or even killed Buddhist believers in the past hundred years.
But after many days of exploration in the three realms and four major continents, Tathagata Buddha discovered that it was not the case at all.
Although Buddhism seems to have disappeared in the four major continents, it actually still exists in some remote mountains and fields.
Some places even still continue the tradition of Buddhist belief a hundred years ago.
He even discovered in a small mountain village a golden statue of the Buddha of Joy, which was very popular more than a thousand years ago.
You must know that the Happy Buddha died a thousand years ago.
These discoveries gave Tathagata Buddha some relief, but to be honest, it was only a little bit.
And if you look carefully and go deep into these small mountain villages that believe in Buddhism, you will find that even in these small mountain villages that traditionally believe in Buddhism, their Buddhist beliefs are still dying out little by little.
This is an irreversible process, and even Tathagata Buddha cannot change this process.
Of course, he can also rely on his powerful magic power and ultimate understanding of Buddhism to stay in one place for decades or hundreds of years.
In this way, Buddhism and Taoism in one place can naturally be developed.
But in the final analysis, he is just a person. Even if he has magical powers, clever methods, and tries his best to do it, he can't actually affect many people.
Given the current environment in the Three Realms, it is almost impossible to build a system similar to the one used by Buddhism.
First of all, the environment no longer allows it.
The Tathagata Buddha has already explored the entire Three Realms. Except for the Underworld and Beiju Luzhou, the remaining three major states and the four seas have been assimilated by the Ming Empire.
This kind of assimilation is similar to the previous assimilation of Buddhism. In the area where Buddhism was previously spread, no other method could get involved because Buddhism is innately exclusive.
If other types of sects enter the territory of Buddhism, even if no strong Buddhists take action, the believers will organize themselves to deal with the outsiders.
Unless you can kill all these Buddhist believers, or use the most extreme violent means to suppress them, it will be impossible to change the minds of the people in this area.
Tathagata Buddha, who has studied Buddhism intensively all his life, knows deeply that changing people's minds is the most difficult thing.
This is how the Tathagata Buddha feels about the current Three Realms.
Although the ideas spread from the Ming Empire were not sects, their doctrines were more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people than sects.
Because this time, those who came from the Ming Empire taught those people to think and taught those people knowledge.
He had deeply studied various books obtained by the Ming Empire, and among them he was most impressed by a sentence, which is called knowledge is power.
This is a force that is invisible and intangible, but it is real.
Once people's knowledge increases, their wisdom will naturally increase, and as their wisdom increases, they will understand more and more truths. This has nothing to do with whether the person is an immortal or not.
The so-called immortals just have stronger memories, and most of this memory is used in cultivating immortals. Those immortals do not know any more about various principles than the mortals in the Ming Empire today.
This is a phenomenon that even Tathagata Buddha feels afraid, as if mortals have begun to possess things from gods and gods, and they really don’t know what the three realms will look like in the future.
But he was 100% sure of one thing: no matter what the Three Realms would look like in the future, there would definitely be no place for Buddhism.
Because as a little guy who was debating with him said in Sun City before, the so-called power of faith is actually a kind of business without capital. He intercepts part of the power of faith generated by believers and uses the remaining part.
given to believers.
It is this characteristic of the power of faith, the method of obtaining rich revenge without any effort, that makes immortals throughout the three realms flock to it.
Of course, this kind of flocking has happened before. Now the power of faith in the three realms has been studied extremely thoroughly. It is equivalent to stripping off the gorgeous outer coat and exposing the innermost dirty side nakedly to everyone.
in front of people.
Naturally, it is impossible for anyone who has this knowledge to believe in Buddhism.
This is why he saw that villages that had believed in Buddhism for hundreds or even thousands of years were now beginning to decline one after another.
In fact, more and more knowledge about Buddhism is known, and it gradually begins to spread to these remote mountain villages. Naturally, the piety of the ordinary people in the village, whether they are cultivators or immortals, towards Buddhism has been shaken.
In addition, in the past hundred years, the Buddha has indeed stopped responding to any believers, so naturally they have lost their faith.
Tathagata Buddha did not blame them for this.
Seeing this, he had completely given up on the four major continents.
Of course, he is not completely without backup options.
He actually had a backup plan before going into seclusion. It can even be said that he already had a backup plan when he planned the journey to the west. However, because the journey to the west was not put into action before, naturally the backup plan was not used.
.
But now, it is finally possible to use this backhand.
Taking one last look at the four major continents in front of him, Tathagata Buddha finally lost any nostalgia and turned around and turned into a ray of light and disappeared into the vast East China Sea.
"Where is he going?" Sun Wukong, who had been paying attention to Tathagata Buddha in the sky, couldn't help but asked in confusion.
"Looking in his direction, it should be the underworld."
"There's only one place he can go." Zhu Yuanzhang next to him said with a glint in his eyes.
Now I dare not talk about the entire Three Realms, but almost all the existing human races in the Three Realms have been affected by the Ming Empire. This influence is subtle. Zhu Yuanzhang provided a large number of books and founded a large number of schools, allowing almost everyone to understand the truth.
, especially the true thoughts about Buddhism and the power of faith, naturally no one will believe in Buddhism anymore.
This is inevitable. As long as Tathagata Buddha does not want to provoke another war in the Three Realms, he can only give in, and the only place to go is the underworld.
"Speaking of the underworld, I'm really curious about what it looks like now?" Sun Wukong said with a smile.
"To be honest, I also want to know." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.
Since the Zhoutian Star Formation was destroyed, the underworld has become the territory of Empress Pingxin. Other people and spies from other forces have been completely wiped out. Now the underworld has become a huge unknown.
place.
Over the years, the Ming Empire has dispatched countless spies, but without exception, all spies will completely lose contact after entering the underworld. Obviously, these people are probably in danger.
Since the 20th year, Zhu Yuanzhang has completely given up the opportunity to enter the underworld.
After all, this is an impossible task.
"The reason why the underworld is so difficult to enter is probably because of the mythical beast called Diting."
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment and said: "With this magical beast here, no matter how many people we send in, we can't escape his eyes and ears."
Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang mention listening, Sun Wukong next to him couldn't help but feel moved in his heart.
He seems to have heard of this guy, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's mount. In the original trajectory, this guy was an accomplice of Buddhism, or it can be said that he himself is a fully domesticated sacred beast of Buddhism.
Thinking of this, Sun Wukong suddenly felt ready to move.
"Your Majesty, how about I take a trip to the underworld?"
"There is a secret law among the laws I have understood, which can prevent me from being calculated. With this law protecting my body, I should be able to avoid this guy's eyes and ears. As long as I can avoid this guy's eyes and ears, naturally,
I will be able to detect the true thoughts of the underworld."
"And even if it is really impossible to do, if I want to leave, even if Queen Pingxin wants to stop me, she may not be able to do it." Sun Wukong said with a smile.
Although this guy has no formal appearance, Zhu Yuanzhang knows how terrifying this Monkey King is. It can be said that he should be the physical ceiling of the current Three Realms.
Such a physical ceiling naturally gives me the confidence to say these things.
"Okay, since Wukong wants to go, then just go."
"But be careful in everything, and don't be careless and be detained." Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly.
After all, Empress Pingxin has never taken action in the past hundred thousand years, and he doesn't know how powerful the empress is now, so it's better to be careful in everything.
"Okay!" Sun Wukong bared his teeth and smiled.
Speaking of which, this is the first time he has been out of the mountains since he achieved great mastery of the magical method. I hope this time will be a pleasant trip.
Sun Wukong was very efficient. Now that he had made up his mind, there was nothing to hesitate about. Soon he said goodbye to Zhu Yuanzhang, and his figure turned into an afterimage and chased the footsteps of Tathagata Buddha.
He now has a lot of power of law. Whether it is the law of wind or the law of space, his speed has reached a higher level than before. Even now, he does not even need to use somersault clouds, he can do it ten times in an instant.
Eighteen thousand miles.
Coupled with the law of concealment in him and the divine channel method of converging and breathing, even if he followed closely behind Tathagata Buddha, he was still not noticed at all.
Soon the two of them arrived at the current entrance of the underworld one after the other.
The junction of Luzhou in Beiju and Hezhou in Xiniu is known as Guimen Pass, the largest pass in the world.
From this pass, to the north is Beiju Luzhou, to the west is Xiniu Hezhou, and below is the legendary underworld.
In the past, before the Zhoutian Star Formation was broken, it was actually very simple to go to the underworld. You just had to go underground, and then keep diving, and keep diving, and you would naturally enter the underworld.
But now that the great formation of stars in the sky has broken down, these usual experiences are no longer useful. If you want to go to the underworld, there is only this ghost gate exposed in the mortal world.
This pass is half guarded by two powerful ghost generals, two golden immortal level ghost generals guarding the pass. This shows how much the underworld attaches importance to this pass.
It also reflects how originally the underworld was separated from the four continents.
It can be said that after the Zhoutian Star Formation is gone, the entire Three Realms are not only missing those golden immortals who have lost their immortality, but also those who have long been accustomed to it before, or have been subtly taken for granted.
matter.
Just like the underworld now, you could find it by diving underground, but now if you keep diving, all you can find is endless pressure and hot magma.
"Who is coming?" At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded in Tathagata Buddha's ears.
Naturally, Sun Wukong who was following him also heard it.
The person who spoke was naturally the powerful person who was guarding the Golden Immortal level when the gate of hell was closed.
"I am Tathagata Buddha. I came here specifically to meet Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva." Tathagata Buddha said with a calm face.
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was originally arranged by Tathagata Buddha. Originally, he wanted to let Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva erode the authority of the underworld bit by bit and kick out the power of Taoism from the underworld bit by bit.
But it is obviously no longer needed.
His enemy has long since changed from the Dao Sect to the current Ming Empire.
But now if Tathagata Buddha wants to enter the underworld, he still has to rely on Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's face.
Soon, the two golden immortals received the news and allowed Tathagata to enter the underworld.
And at the moment when the two people were released, Sun Wukong's figure turned into a stream of light and passed through the gap of this golden immortal level formation in an instant.
Although the two Golden Immortals guarding the gate had sensed something, they soon stopped caring about it after checking that the formation was still intact.
Tathagata Buddha did have some awareness, but he soon felt relieved.
After all, this is the underworld, not his Buddhism. It also has its own set of meteorite laws. If you don't abide by this set of laws, the consequences will be obvious, and you may be kicked out of the underworld immediately.
Tathagata Buddha knew this very well.
So before he figured out what the rules of this place were, it was impossible for him to do these unnecessary things.
"Wow, cities are being built one after another here!" When he saw the situation behind the gate of hell, Sun Wukong almost jumped up.
What he likes most are the big cities with highly civilized urban development like the Ming Empire.
Because there, you can get anything you want.,
And there are more delicious and fun things waiting for you that you have never even heard of.
He thought there was such a city in the underworld, but he was soon disappointed.
Because these cities are just superficial, there are still only walking corpses inside, and there is no vitality of life at all.
But he soon discovered something different. The people inside were not ghosts to be exact, but they actually seemed to have been programmed by someone, and lived like machines every day.
And every one of them is producing the power of faith on their foreheads all the time.