The Great Sun was falling!
Dusk was descending!
Twilight was enveloping!
Darkness was sweeping!
Gu Qingfeng, holding Jun Xuanji in his arms, strode step by step towards the Wrath Incarnation of Great Sun Tathagata, defying the overwhelming Buddha Light and the pervasive chanting of scriptures. With each step, the solitary, cold, violet Nether Flame surrounding him grew more frenzied, the deathly stillness of the Nine Nether Flames incinerating the pervasive Buddha Light and sacred sounds.
"Back when I cultivated in this world," Gu Qingfeng's voice rang out, like the roar of ten thousand demons, filled with murderous aura! "You tried to erase me three times!"
"The first time was when I condensed my Dharma Form!"
"The second time was when I ascended to the Immortal Dao!"
"The third time was when I ascended to the Demonic Dao!"
Here, the Wrath Incarnation of Great Sun Tathagata's voice was vast and Buddha-like, while Gu Qingfeng's was a rolling tide of demonic sound.
The Great Sun Tathagata's words manifested Buddhas, while Gu Qingfeng's words spawned demons.
The Great Sun Tathagata's sounds were sutras, while Gu Qingfeng's sounds were demonic howls.
The Great Sun Tathagata was performing salvation, while Gu Qingfeng was burning!
The Great Sun Tathagata's Buddha sounds were saving all things, while Gu Qingfeng's Nether Flames were incinerating all things!
The vast, solemn, and sacred Buddha Light and the towering, solitary, deathly still Nether Flame clashed wildly in this World.
Boom!
Crack—the World trembled, shattered, disintegrated...
"You couldn't erase me!"
"During the Judgment of the Immortal Dao, you tried to convert me!"
"That was the first time!"
"The second time was in the Celestial Realm, when I contended with the Nine Heavens, you tried to convert me again..." "Three more times! When you couldn't convert me, you laid down a celestial net, trying to suppress and seal me!"
"Also three times!"
"The first time was in an Ancient Buddha ruins, the second in the Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda, the third in the Pure Land Mountain!"
"You couldn't erase me!"
"You couldn't convert me!"
"You couldn't suppress me!"
"Finally, you resorted to sinister schemes, trying to drive me out of Heaven and Earth!"
"The first time, you trapped me in the Endless Sea!"
"The second time, you trapped me in the Endless Ruins! The third time, you trapped me in the Endless Abyss!"
Gu Qingfeng listed, step by word, all the despicable methods the Buddhas of the Western Heaven had used against him over the years. In his arms, Jun Xuanji nestled against his chest, holding him tightly, her three thousand strands of silver-white hair dancing slightly across her heartbreakingly beautiful face.
"In the five hundred years since I began cultivating, I have never provoked you. Never! Not even once!"
"But!"
"You have tried time and again to put me to death!"
"I don't know why you did this!"
"And now, I don't want to know anymore. Whether it's for the order of Heaven and Earth, or for the laws of the Great Dao, that's your business. It has nothing to do with me!"
"I have never feared Heaven and Earth, never feared Immortals or Demons, and I have never believed in Fate. But towards Buddha, I have always held reverence. Always. Even until just now, it remained so!"
"But that was only just now. From this moment forward, I will have no reverence for Buddha. Not a shred, not a trace, not a hint!"
"From this moment forward, there is no enmity between me and you Buddhas of the Western Heaven. There is only life and death. Either you die, or I live!"
Gu Qingfeng, holding Jun Xuanji, stood firm in the void, the deathly Nine Nether Flames surrounding him and the pervasive Buddha Light incinerating each other.
He stared at the Wrath Incarnation of Great Sun Tathagata chanting sutras in the sky, his eyes filled with overwhelming killing intent, and shouted fiercely, "Today, you'd better spare no cost to deliver me! If you fail to deliver me, I will settle every single one of the deeds you've done to me, one by one!"
With that, the violet Nether Flame surrounding him suddenly turned gray.
If the violet flame represented solitude and deathly stillness, then the gray flame represented madness and savagery.
The stillness was no longer still; it became death, turning into demonic howls, like a song of death, with demonic howls everywhere.
"Burn!"
Whoosh!
The gray flame burned wildly, incinerating the pervasive Buddha Light into a bloody storm.
In the sky, the Demon-Subduing Seal, like a blazing sun, trembled violently, radiating layers of Buddha Light to resist the burning gray flame, struggling to rise again.
"Get down!"
A figure in white robes.
Three thousand strands of black hair.
Gu Qingfeng's originally dark eyes were no longer dark, turning ash-gray. As he flashed into appearance, he stepped onto the Great Sun Tathagata's Demon-Subduing Seal.
Boom!
The Great Sun Demon-Subduing Seal trembled violently, its Buddha Light scattering, dimming and fading as it plummeted from the sky.
It fell to the ground. Whoosh!
Buddha Light surged forth again, instantly enveloping everything. In that instant!
One Demon-Subduing Seal appeared in the sky, followed by a second, a tenth, a thousand, ten thousand...
In the blink of an eye, the sky was filled with Demon-Subduing Seals, like countless blazing suns.
"You think a mere Demon-Subduing Seal can imprison me?!"
Gu Qingfeng, stepping on one Demon-Subduing Seal, held Jun Xuanji with one arm. Raising his right hand, he pointed into the void and shouted fiercely, "All of you, get down!"
Instantly!
The gray flame vanished, replaced by a Dark flame.
If the violet Nether Flame represented solitude and deathly stillness, and the ash-gray Nether Flame represented madness and savagery,
then the Dark Nether Flame represented absolute disdain and absolute supremacy—the disdain that scorns all, the supremacy that devours all!
Whoosh!
As the Dark Nether Flame burned, the entire Great Sun World plunged into absolute Darkness.
In the sky, the Demon-Subduing Seals, like blazing suns, fell one after another. In an instant, all the pervasive Demon-Subduing Seals plummeted and scattered. Only the true Demon-Subduing Seal beneath Gu Qingfeng's feet remained, struggling to hold on, enveloped and burned by the Dark Nether Flame, trembling as it fell.
"Wretched creature!"
A vast Buddha sound echoed. The Great Sun World, shrouded in Darkness, regained its light. Buddha Light once again shone universally. In the sky, the massive Wrath Incarnation of Great Sun Tathagata no longer held its palms together but pushed out a palm strike, directly assaulting Gu Qingfeng.
This palm seemed to contain the power to destroy Heaven and Earth. As it struck, pervasive Buddha Light bloomed wildly...
The sound of chanting scriptures swept in from all directions.
This World instantly became like a blazing sun, its sacred Buddha Light purifying everything. Gu Qingfeng's Dark Nether Flame was instantly scattered and extinguished.
Here, Jun Xuanji clung tightly to Gu Qingfeng, burying her head in his chest and closing her eyes, refusing to look.
But Gu Qingfeng neither dodged nor evaded. Still stepping on the Demon-Subduing Seal, he held Jun Xuanji even tighter in his arms. At some point, his eyes had turned crimson, like a sea of blood churning within them, roaring like raging rivers, terrifying to behold.
The Nether Flame surrounding him still burned, but it was no longer Dark. It had turned crimson.
This crimson was not solitude or deathly stillness, not madness or savagery, not disdain or supremacy. It was evil.
Boundless evil, infinite evil, endless and inexhaustible evil!