The dragon's head was a skull, its eyes were skulls, its mouth was a skull, and even its fangs and whiskers were all individual skulls. Looking upon it, that colossal evil dragon was composed entirely of skulls from head to tail.
It was utterly horrifying, utterly terrifying.
Roar!— This skull-dragon, as if from the depths of hell, let out draconic roars, howling and bellowing as it met the boundless Buddha palm of the Tathagata. It spiraled around the five fingers of the Buddha palm and in the blink of an eye, coiled itself around the entire Tathagata Buddha Palm.
Blood fire blazed, thick smoke billowed.
The blood fire burned the Tathagata Buddha Palm, the thick smoke enveloped it.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosive sounds rang out. What was shocking and almost unbelievable was that the legendary supreme Buddhist divine ability, the Tathagata Buddha Palm, simply disintegrated and vanished under the coiling of the skull-dragon, the burning of the blood fire, and the shrouding of the thick smoke.
"Heavens!"
Within a distant ancient ruin, the woman watching this scene was utterly stunned, murmuring, "The Tathagata Buddha Palm just disintegrated and vanished? What in the world is this skull-dragon summoned by the Heavenly Dragon True Emperor? It's too powerful!"
"The Tathagata Buddha Palm summoned by Miao Tathagata, while possessing only the Tathagata's form and intent without its divine soul, absolutely should not have dispersed so easily," said the Seventh Elder. Following him, the Old Matron added, "The Heavenly Dragon True Emperor fused his own Heavenly Dragon Absolute Body with the Four-Skull Hell Guest, calling it something like 'Dragon Coiling Hell.' It looks ferocious, but it absolutely shouldn't be able to obliterate Miao Tathagata's Tathagata Buddha Palm in an instant. There must be trickery here."
Indeed.
Just as they finished speaking, before their words had fully faded, a colossal Buddha Statue descended, directly pressing down upon the first skull of the Hell Guest on the dragon's body.
This Buddha Statue had one face and eight arms, with three eyes above. Its face bore an expression of furious wrath, it wore a jeweled crown, and its entire body was surrounded by blazing flames.
Its three right hands respectively held a five-pronged vajra arrow, its three left hands each held a five-pronged vajra hook, while its two central hands formed a seal over its heart.
This was the Wrath Incarnation of the Conqueror of Three Worlds Wisdom King!
Immediately after, with a *boom*, another Buddha Statue descended, pressing down upon the second skull of the Hell Guest on the dragon's body.
This Buddha Statue had four faces and four arms: one face compassionate, one wrathful, one benevolent, one furious. Its right hand held a vajra pestle, its left hand formed the wish-fulfilling mudra, its other two hands formed the karma mudra. Adorned with majestic flames and radiant light, it resided within a moon disc, seated upon a bluish-green jasper stone throne.
This was the Wrath Incarnation of the Kundali Wisdom King!
*Boom!*
A third Buddha Statue descended, pressing down upon the third skull of the Hell Guest on the dragon's body.
This Buddha Statue had six faces, six arms, and six legs, wielding a subjugation sword, sitting in full lotus position, its feet treading upon a six-petaled lotus.
This was the Wrath Incarnation of the Great Might Wisdom King!
*Boom!*
A fourth Buddha Statue descended, pressing down upon the fourth skull of the Hell Guest on the dragon's body.
This Buddha Statue had three faces and six arms. Its main face displayed five eyes, while its left and right faces each had three eyes. It held a five-pronged vajra pestle, a demon-subduing sword, and a vajra bell, standing upon a double-lotus throne.
This was the Wrath Incarnation of the Vajra Night Demon Wisdom King!
These four skulls of the Hell Guest were precisely the four skulls formed when the original Four-Skull Hell Guest split into four, and they were the skulls that ran through the entire length of the dragon's body, constituting the Hell Guest dragon.
Roar!
The four Buddha Statues descended, suppressing the four skulls of the Hell Guest that ran through the dragon's body. They pressed down so hard that the skull-dragon roared madly, struggling to break free, but to no avail. The four Buddha Statues remained unmoving, steadfast as rock-solid Buddha (rock-solid Buddhas).
Roar!— The roar exploded as the Heavenly Dragon True Emperor, transformed into the skull-dragon, struggled violently.
Right at that moment.
*Boom!*
A fifth Buddha Statue descended, directly pressing down upon the dragon's head.
This Buddha Statue wore a crown of five petals, resembling five Buddhas, five Bodhisattvas, and also five skulls. Its entire body blazed with raging flames, as if in the utmost fury.
Its three eyes were wide open: one gazing upward, as if binding the gods and immortals of the heavens; one gazing downward, as if destroying endless demons and fiends; one gazing levelly, as if intimidating all manner of ghosts and monsters. It seemed like the Incarnation of the Great Sun, the Incarnation of Light, the Incarnation of Divinity.
This was the Wrath Incarnation of the Motionless Wisdom King, also known in legend as the Wrath Incarnation of the Great Sun Tathagata!
The five Buddha Statues were like mountains, like peaks, each as sacred and radiant as the Great Sun. Their forms were varied, all fierce and terrifying, suppressing the Heavenly Dragon True Emperor, transformed into the skull-dragon along with the Four-Skull Hell Guest, rendering them utterly immobile.
The experts hiding in the distance to observe the battle had just been shocked, wondering why the Tathagata Buddha Palm summoned by Miao Tathagata was so fragile, disintegrating with a single coiling by the Heavenly Dragon True Emperor transformed into the skull-dragon.
Only when the five Buddha Statues descended did everyone understand the profound mystery.
The Tathagata Buddha Palm had not disintegrated earlier; it had transformed into five Buddha Statues.
To be precise, it wasn't exactly that it transformed into five statues, because these five Buddha Statues were originally the five fingers of the Tathagata Buddha Palm.
The Tathagata Buddha Palm was hailed as the supreme Buddhist divine ability. Besides containing boundless Buddha Dharma, more importantly, its five fingers represented the Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings of the Buddha Dao, and they were also the five Wrath Incarnations of the Great Sun Tathagata.
The central Motionless Wisdom King is the Wrath Incarnation of the Great Sun Tathagata!
The eastern Conqueror of Three Worlds Wisdom King is the Wrath Incarnation of the Akshobhya Tathagata!
The southern Kundali Wisdom King is the Wrath Incarnation of the Ratnasambhava Tathagata!
The western Great Might Wisdom King is the Wrath Incarnation of the Amitayus Tathagata!
The northern Vajra Night Demon Wisdom King is the Wrath Incarnation of the Amoghasiddhi Tathagata!
Roar!— The Heavenly Dragon True Emperor continued to struggle, but the more he struggled, the weaker the blood fire around him became, the billowing smoke scattered in disarray, and even the dragon's body twisted and blurred. He could not budge the five Wrath Incarnations of the Wisdom Kings, transformed from the Tathagata Buddha Palm, in the slightest.
Within the distant ancient ruins, the woman's lovely face was filled with awe. Gazing up at the five Buddha Statues in the sky, she exclaimed in wonder, "Heavens! Is this the legendary Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings? Is this the true power of the Tathagata Buddha Palm?"
"Young Miss, as this old one said earlier, the Tathagata Buddha Palm summoned by Miao Tathagata possesses only the Tathagata's form and intent, not its divine soul. The true Tathagata Buddha Palm's power is comparable to heaven-destroying, earth-shattering force, utterly beyond our imagination."
Pausing briefly, the Seventh Elder continued, "Moreover, the Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings that Young Miss sees are merely transformations of the form-and-intent-only Tathagata Buddha Palm summoned by Miao Tathagata. They too possess only the form and intent of the Five Great Wisdom Kings' Wrath Incarnations, not their divine souls."
"The true Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings..." At this point, the Seventh Elder stopped, not continuing. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he himself had never seen the true Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings.
As was widely known,
the Five Great Wisdom Kings were the great Dao elders of the Buddha Dao. They had vanished a very, very long time ago, even before the end of the Ancient Desolation Era.
As for how they vanished, or the manner of their disappearance, whether they truly vanished or fell into slumber, no one knew. It was a mystery.
Precisely because the Five Great Wisdom Kings mysteriously disappeared, any Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings invoked from the Western Heaven Buddha Realm thereafter possessed only form and intent, lacking divine souls. Even the Buddha Dao's Tathagata Judgement was no exception.
The Seventh Elder had never seen the true Tathagata Buddha Palm before. Yet, when Miao Tathagata summoned the Tathagata Buddha Palm, he recognized at a glance that it possessed only the Tathagata's form and intent, not its divine soul. This wasn't due to his vast experience, but because he knew that since the disappearance of the Five Great Wisdom Kings, no one could summon the true Tathagata Buddha Palm—not even someone hailed as the Western Heaven Buddha Emperor, Miao Tathagata.
This wasn't a matter of talent or comprehension, but a problem of origin. The very origins of the Five Great Wisdom Kings had vanished, so how could one invoke their Wrath Incarnations?
If one cannot invoke the Wrath Incarnations of the Five Great Wisdom Kings, how can one summon the true Tathagata Buddha Palm?
Unless Miao Tathagata possessed vast supernatural powers and could become a Sixth Wisdom King beyond the Five Great Wisdom Kings, otherwise, he would never be able to summon the true Tathagata Buddha Palm.