From God of Lies to Lord of All Worlds

Chapter 230: The Wooden Fish Strikes, the Funeral Bell Tolls

Even for Zanluo, today's events could be considered a truly rare experience.

He rarely encountered a situation where people remained completely indifferent, even when struck by the profound words of the Buddhist scriptures.

Most people would at least pause to ponder and reflect, or show a moment of hesitation. Unlike them, the people standing before him lacked any remorse; instead, their Murderous Intent only flared stronger!

And so, he switched to another scripture and continued to chant:

"The Three Realms are Without Peace, Like a Burning House, Filled with Countless Sufferings and Great Fears."

This time, he chanted the Lotus Sutra, yet it still yielded little to no effect. He could only see the ferocious and terrifying expressions on the faces of the men before him. In Zanluo's eyes, their desires and wicked thoughts had solidified into something as stubborn, clumsy, and rigid as Buddhist precepts that had remained unchanged for Eons.

The difference was that these people were truly and utterly unrepentant. The wicked thoughts radiating from their very bodies had practically condensed into a tangible, absolute will!

Driven by this twisted reality, the thugs rushed up to him without a moment's hesitation. The ferocious looks on their faces and their greedy desires seemed almost palpable!

"He's so pale and clean. He'll definitely feel amazing to use!"

"Yeah, so fair, so pretty, so damn perfect...""You got to go first with the last one, so I'm going first this time!"

"Shut up, all of you! Obviously, I'm going first today. I'm the one who found him!"

Even before achieving their vile goal, they had already begun to divide the spoils among themselves. Only, the loot wasn't gold or goods, but a living person!

The men surrounded Zanluo with lewd, perverse grins, one of them even reaching out to stroke his cheek. "So beautiful, Buddhist Monk..."

"Tap!" The Wooden Fish was struck, and the man's hand was sharply repelled by the force. Zanluo slowly opened his eyes, raising his gaze to look at them. He felt nothing but profound disappointment.

"I gave you three chances: once when entering the city, once when entering this alley, and once when I changed the scripture. Yet, you hold absolutely no reverence in your hearts. Instead, your lust has only grown stronger and your greed heavier. Since Karmic Retribution does not bind your bodies and the Karmic Principle fails to guide your actions, you shall suffer the Karmic Consequence of Avici Hell!"

"What the hell is he babbling about?" A few of the men from India exchanged baffled looks, ultimately deciding that pulling down their pants was a much more practical course of action.

It was incredibly rare to stumble upon someone so pale and pristine. Besides, a Buddhist Monk was bound to be much cleaner than those filthy Western tourists. Based on their past experiences, this was going to feel immensely better!

Hearing their vile words and sensing the depraved thoughts swirling in their minds, even Zanluo felt that these men were truly, completely beyond saving!

The sheer depth, weight, and intensity of their toxic malice were something rarely seen in this world!

"Tap!" He struck the Wooden Fish in his hand once more. "Since you harbor zero remorse, then you will have no chance to regret. The Tathagata has Compassionate Mercy and Patience, but I do not!"

The rhythmic sound of the Wooden Fish echoed again. This time, it was no longer just a simple noise, but carried numerous supernatural properties. "Come into My Trap!"

Sacred names of the Buddha erupted beside their ears, resounding Buddhist Chants echoed right in front of them, and profound Buddhist Verses manifested at the perfect moment, forcing every single man to freeze in his tracks.

A peculiar, dazed expression washed over their faces as they uniformly dropped to their knees before Zanluo and began to kowtow.

"You aren't even capable of atonement, nor have you repented for your crimes, yet all you can do is kowtow?" Zanluo chuckled out of pure exasperation and raised the Wooden Fish. "Then you shall kneel and atone. Kneel, bear your sins, and crawl!"

All the thugs knelt and slammed their heads against the ground before Zanluo, yet they lacked even the slightest shred of remorse. It was as if the very concept of "repentance" simply did not exist within them. Such deep-rooted ignorance and toxicity infecting their minds was truly a rare sight in this world!

"This city... is not merely sick; it is dead. A dead city might at least retain a fraction of residual warmth, but this place? This place is filled with nothing but lingering venom!"

"Shakyamuni, this is the country of your birth, and it is also the land that bears your sins!"

"Hahahahaha! What an absolute, incomparable joke!"

He laughed loudly, allowing the rhythmic taps of the Wooden Fish to echo continuously down the alley, the lingering sounds refusing to fade.

"Tap!"

"Tap!"

"Tap!"

The streets of Kolkata were far from well-developed. The intermingling of the slums and the wealthy districts left the entire area in a state of extraordinary, chaotic disorder.

Even so, the distinct tapping of a Wooden Fish echoing from the alleyway was simply too strange, naturally drawing the attention of many passersby.

This was especially true for the criminal gang backing that black-hearted local guide. Hearing the sound, they felt an inexplicable restlessness, their minds wandering erratically.

As a result, after a short while, they finally sent a few men over to check on the situation.

How could a lone Buddhist Monk with no background delay them for this long? Could it be that the gang had already taken turns enjoying the monk twice over by now?

They pondered this with intense, malicious amusement!

One man went in, but no news returned.

Two men went in, and still, there was no news. Three men went in, yet the silence remained unbroken.

The ringleaders couldn't tolerate the suspense any longer. Gathering dozens of their thugs, they swarmed toward the alley, determined to see exactly what had happened.

They poured into the alleyway en masse, only to be greeted by a sight so bizarre they felt as though they had seen a ghost.

A group of familiar street thugs—who usually acted like vicious "Hungry Ghosts"—were devoutly kneeling around a small Wooden Fish. One by one, they would strike the Wooden Fish and then crawl on their knees toward the deepest end of the alley.

Heads bowed, hands clasped together, kneeling firmly on the ground.

The heavy thudding of their kowtows—thump-thump-thump—synchronized perfectly with the rhythmic tapping of the Wooden Fish.

A wave of boundless terror gripped the hearts of the onlookers, yet they found themselves entirely unable to step back. Like puppets on a string, they could only follow the group and shamble forward!

Every single person who had come to investigate ended up doing exactly the same thing. They obediently lined up, obediently struck the Wooden Fish, and then, as if possessed, crawled into the alley to kneel and kowtow.

The sound echoing from the instrument no longer resembled a Wooden Fish; instead, it felt like a funeral bell tolling heavily against every person's heart.

Anyone harboring malicious intent was completely unable to escape the sound. Every single person who heard it struck the Wooden Fish and then began their profound Repentance!

Despite how much time had passed, out of all the people who had arrived, there wasn't a single individual who possessed even a sliver of goodwill in their heart.

However, this eerie phenomenon did not last forever. As the sound of the Wooden Fish finally ceased, the hypnotized crowd gradually regained their senses.

They had completely forgotten what had just transpired. They only realized they were huddled together in this dirty alley, utterly bewildered as they pressed tightly against a crowd of other men!

They screamed in terror, having no idea what had happened to them. They could only scatter and flee in sheer panic, completely unaware of the peculiar Buddha's Seal that briefly flashed within their very souls.

This was the initial stage of being Guided to Enlightenment.

A hand reached out from thin air and grasped the Wooden Fish on the ground, revealing the monk's figure in the dim alleyway once more.

"Tsk. The Buddha teaches that the five skandhas are empty, that form does not differ from emptiness, and emptiness does not differ from form. Yet, these people have utterly impure roots and entirely restless minds!" Zanluo remarked, a tangible will forming within his words. "In that case, let them be stripped of the notion of self, the notion of others, the notion of sentient beings, and the notion of lifespan!"

"These men lack even the most fundamental essence of humanity. How can one even speak of their spiritual roots or tranquility? There is simply nothing there!"

He tapped the Wooden Fish, his decision firmly made. "I shall establish a Dharma assembly and lock down the perfect moment. Let this city... be transformed into a city of the Buddha!"

This was the solution Zanluo had formulated for this city. In fact, one could even say it was the solution he intended to offer this entire nation!

After all, once Repentance was complete, the next step was to be Guided to Enlightenment—a process where the Buddha's words would brand their minds, the scriptures would pierce their hearts, and the heart of the Buddha would assimilate into their bodies.

He had once deeply despised the World-Honored One Shakyamuni's method of Guiding to Enlightenment. After all, such a method was practically indistinguishable from brute-force brainwashing.

But here in this nation—a place where the rigid caste system had rotted their brains and a twisted sense of superiority and inferiority had warped their hearts—he was genuinely astonished to find that such forceful methods actually felt like a true act of Compassionate Mercy!

If this had been him in the past, he likely would have swatted everyone in this city to death with a single palm strike. The vast majority of them would have been banished to the eighteenth layer of Hell, a smaller portion tossed into the animal realm, the realm of Hungry Ghosts, or the Asura Realm, leaving only a microscopic minority who would be allowed to reincarnate as humans.

But now, he had discovered a completely new solution.

If he could Guide the majority of this city's population to Enlightenment and make them members of his "Western Pure Land", wouldn't that work out just fine?

After all, the evil festering in this place was so dense that even Ksitigarbha, a Bodhisattva accustomed to witnessing endless sins, would call it ominous. The wicked obsessions of the people here ran so deep that even if Guanyin herself visited, she would be hard-pressed to find a single innocent soul!

So much time had passed, yet out of the entire crowd forced to their knees, he hadn't found even one so-called Virtuous Person.

The Buddha claimed that a Ten-Lifetime Virtuous Person could become an Immortal Being, a Person Blessed with Great Merit, or even a Savior.

Yet here, let alone a Ten-Lifetime Virtuous Person, he couldn't even find someone who had been virtuous for a single lifetime. Perhaps a Virtuous Person existed somewhere in the wealthy districts, but the immense weight of karmic retribution and ancestral resentment clinging to those elites was so suffocating that even Zanluo found it horrifying.

Therefore, he had chosen this specific path. He chose to Guide them to Enlightenment.

His little experiment in this alleyway solidified his decision. However, he wouldn't enact his grand plan immediately. Right now, he wasn't Wutian; he was Zanluo.

As such, he still had a journey to walk.

"Encountering people on the streets who harbor only malicious intent, without a single soul possessing Compassionate Mercy—this is the first suffering!" Zanluo murmured softly. "In the past, the Brahmin High Priest demanded that I accomplish three tasks before I would be allowed to continue Proselytizing!"

"This time, I shall encounter three different sufferings within this city. Only then will I Guide this city to Enlightenment!"

"If I find even a single genuinely good person, I will allow one-third of the population to leave the city unharmed!"

"But if there are no good people to be found... then this city shall become my own Buddhist kingdom!"

He shook the Monk's Staff in his hand, its rings clinking with a crisp, clear chime. Stepping out of the dark alley, he continued on his way.

He fundamentally refused to believe that any true goodwill could exist within this deeply sinful nation. Thus, this was the funeral bell he tolled for the entire city!