From God of Lies to Lord of All Worlds

Chapter 231: Unscrupulous High-Castes

"Wow, what a ruthless heart, what a heavy obsession, and what powerful magic!" Bai Yang was naturally paying attention to Zhenluo's whereabouts as well.

This supposed Buddha who criticized Shakyamuni every single day truly had his own ideas, and rather extreme ones at that.

Just as Bai Yang thought this entity might need a period of reflection before choosing his method, the other party had already given him a massive surprise!

"Whew! To be honest, for this city and for this nation, to guide them to enlightenment might not actually be a bad thing!"

Bai Yang wore an indescribable expression. As expected, he still could not compare to a true member of the Buddhist sect. They were truly ruthless and incredibly deep-scheming. His first move was to guide the entire city to enlightenment!

Such ruthlessness and decisiveness could truly only be executed by a figure like this. It was not that Bai Yang was incapable of doing it, but rather that he simply would not have thought of it.

He had even considered killing everyone and stuffing their souls into a virtual space to determine the fate of the lives in this city, yet he had never imagined there would be a special solution unique to Buddhism like choosing to guide them to enlightenment.

This so-called guiding to enlightenment was actually a process of brainwashing the faithful through the power of scriptures and Buddha's Enlightenment. The moment they were completely guided to enlightenment, their lives would undergo the most terrifying transformation. They would no longer be their original selves, but rather a new entity that no longer belonged to them.

They remained human, yet they no longer had any connection to their former selves. All that was left was an empty shell and a soul entirely disconnected from its past!

"In this sense, it truly is the equality of all sentient beings!" Bai Yang could not help but remark. However, since he had decided to delegate authority, he had absolutely no intention of taking it back.Perhaps a wicked land needed a wicked person to grind it down. Perhaps this kind of future was exactly the future the vast majority of the people in this city were destined to encounter.

"I just wonder if the Wutian of today will be able to find his destined Buddhist followers in this city, or if he will remain entirely alone?"

Bai Yang was highly intrigued. His gaze swept past a certain Asura, but he did not linger. "Merely an Asura. They truly do not rank high in the hierarchy of the Buddhist sect!"

"Since they belittle and degrade themselves, there is no longer any possibility of them receiving attention!"

He remembered that there really seemed to be a few Asuras under Wutian's command, but they were just a group of craftsmen.

...

"Clang!" The iron rings on the monk's staff chimed down this relatively clean street, drawing the attention of many people stepping out of their homes to this simply dressed Buddhist monk with a calm demeanor.

These people were surprised by Zhenluo's appearance, but they made no move to interact with him until the monk calmly knocked on the door of a house.

"I come from the East and am heading to Nalanda Monastery in the West. Passing through here, I hope to receive some food!" Zhenluo lowered his head and spoke to the person who opened the door.

He was quite familiar with begging for alms. Since he could not get anything from the lower classes and was barred from entering the areas of the high-level officials, he entered this relatively clean neighborhood with few pedestrians to beg for a bite to eat.

Then, the man, who had thoroughly looked him up and down, raised the wooden club in his hand!

"You damn low-caste pariah! Did you think you could join us just by dressing up like this and disguising yourself as a Buddhist monk?"

The man swung the club down, but Zhenluo dodged it. He did not get angry; instead, he brought his palms together in a respectful greeting. "Since the patron is unwilling, I will try the next house!"

But even so, the man did not let him go. Instead, he bellowed loudly, "The next house? You still want to continue polluting our land! Hurry up and get the hell out of here!"

He showed no intention of stopping the club in his hand, chasing after the monk to beat him.

Zhenluo did not stop walking. The other man lacked the strength to actually land a blow with his club; instead, through his own violent swinging, he threw his own body off balance and tumbled to the ground in a highly comical fall.

Now, the man was truly beyond furious. He stormed wrathfully back into his house and grabbed a knife!

This damned pariah had actually dared to make him look like a fool in broad daylight! He was going to kill the man to vent the raging fury in his heart!

Yet, when he stormed out of his door looking for that damned Buddhist monk, he discovered the man was already accepting a portion of food from another resident.

"Thank you for your charity, Lord Buddha is merciful!" Zhenluo chanted a Buddhist invocation, intending to thank the person, only for her to slap the alms bowl right out of his hands.

This woman, who had originally intended to offer him some leftovers out of a good mood, suddenly changed her expression. "You are not a Hindu priest? You are a Buddhist monk?"

"Exactly so!" Zhenluo's words instantly infuriated her. "Then why did you come to me begging for alms? Get out of our neighborhood! You low-castes are not welcome here!"

Here, a Buddhist follower equated to a low-caste. It seemed to have become an unspoken rule.

Furthermore, no one thought this was wrong. In fact, their exchange caught the attention of the surrounding neighbors. More doors swung open, and cleanly dressed high-castes stepped out of their homes one by one.

Gripping wooden clubs and iron chains, they marched toward Zhenluo together, shouting curses as they approached! "Which state are you from, you pariah? How dare you pollute our land?"

"Where did a pariah like you come from, daring to touch our houses with your filthy hands?"

"As a pariah, how dare you beg from us? Your tongue should be cut out, your limbs should be broken, you should not even exist in this world!"

"Pariah, you have tainted our land! Our neighborhood's value will plummet because of your arrival!"

These people were furious, some even rabidly so. It was as if they were simply doing what needed to be done—such as beating this pariah to death and hanging his corpse at the front of the neighborhood to warn other pariahs of the consequences of offending them!

Only then could they recover a fraction of the losses they had suffered.

No one felt this was wrong, and no one saw any problem with such actions. Every single one of them was a willing participant in this malice.

Zhenluo felt little fear. He merely raised his monk's staff to block the first wave of attacks while speaking:

"The Buddha preaches the equality of all sentient beings. Why must you divide people into ranks and classes?"

"The Buddha says life and death are fated. Why must you decree a person's life or death with a single sentence?"

"The Buddha declares greed, hatred, ignorance, and rage are all among the five poisons. Why do you allow these poisons to infest your bodies without seeking a cure?"

These words appeared to be questioning the mob, but in reality, they were directed at the Buddha. It had to be said that when it came to subtly jabbing at the World-Honored One, he was a true professional!

However, preaching these words to the mob before him was like describing ice to a summer insect—an utterly futile endeavor!

"You filthy pariah, how dare you speak to us of equality?"

"A pariah is a pariah! You memorized a couple lines of scriptures, and now you dare debate equality with us! If you study for another two years, won't you try to trample over our heads?"

"Kill him! Teach him his place!"

These people cared nothing for what he preached. They only knew that in this realm, the so-called Buddhist followers were mostly a group of people who, unable to become high-castes, sought alternative paths to status!

In this realm, Hinduism was the absolute dominant force, because these high-castes inherently maintained the orthodoxy of this sect, which was synonymous with maintaining their own supremacy.

These people had long ceased to be human. They had been alienated by the caste system into mindless tools defending their own class interests.

They would feel fury when their interests were encroached upon, and resentment when their interests were damaged. But ultimately, it all stemmed from the sense of superiority brought about by their social class!

The twisted desires they vented upon the low-castes had long made them forget that they, too, were being oppressed by those of even higher castes.

Or perhaps some knew, but they simply did not care!

Therefore, after smashing past the blocking monk's staff, the clubs rained down heavily on Zhenluo, instantly knocking the Buddhist monk to the ground.

"Thus have I heard: Commit no evil, and perform all good!"

"Forever abstain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, idle chatter, greed, anger, and wrong views. These are the Ten Precepts."

"Just as when King Kali was dismembering my body, at that time, I harbored no notion of an ego-self, no notion of an other-self, no notion of a sentient being, and no notion of a lifespan. Why? Because in the past, when I was being torn limb from limb, had I held the four notions, I would have bred resentment and hatred."

He lay on his back on the ground, his body covered in bruises and welts from the brutal beating. This was a mob assault vicious enough to beat a man to death, and it was also his second test.

The second agony was complete. These people were truly beyond saving. The low-castes were beyond saving, and the high-castes were even more so... Everyone was a part of this terrifying system within this society!

Then, surrounded by the mob, he threw his head back and laughed:

"Hahahahaha! World-Honored One, what on earth did you encounter in this land to make you utter such words!"

"You preach that one must not breed resentment, yet you also say the Buddha possesses a wrathful vajra. Did you also endure such agony here?"

"Hahahahaha!"

The sheer volume of this laughter caused the surrounding crowd to exchange uneasy glances. Then, the man from the very beginning arrived. Gripping a knife, he ruthlessly slashed it right across Zhenluo's neck.

With bloodshot eyes, the man roared furiously, "Pariah, this is your retribution for stepping foot onto this land!"

This was the behavior of the high-castes toward the low-castes—brutal, sadistic, and utterly unscrupulous!