That was still ancient times, wasn’t it?

Some people personally witnessed the miracle of the statue transforming into a living person, or rather, into what they considered a true deity in their eyes, and thus became even more devoutly faithful.

The Buddha statue in the temple had disappeared, and no one erected another.

Sometimes He would walk to other places in this snow region to have a look, and sometimes when bored, He would return to this increasingly magnificent temple complex to dwell, sitting on that lotus seat, gazing at the ordinary people who came to worship Him.

These peaceful days continued for hundreds of years.

Until one day, this snow region isolated from the world welcomed a group of unexpected guests. They wore the same monk robes, hung the same prayer beads around their necks, and proclaimed their Buddhist principles and scriptures to all the residents of this place. They quickly discovered this snow peak, and the temple on the snow peak, and Him in the temple.

They claimed to come from the Buddhist sect of the Central Domain, belonging to the Tantric branch. They had traveled over mountains and rivers to reach this pure land-like snow region that had not yet been touched by cultivators, only to universally save the ignorant sentient beings.

They possessed various miraculous powers that amazed all the simple residents, and thus generated sincere awe.

So they obtained permission and occupied the temple.

In His original temple, on His original altar, they erected a new Buddha, and proclaimed Him the “Buddhist Saint Son,” claiming He was the clear evidence of Buddha’s manifestation through hundreds of lifetimes of reincarnation.

From then on, He had His own name.

Jiye…

Jiye.

But the people who believed in Him gradually became fewer, as people turned to believe in those monks on the sacred mountain who possessed the power to destroy heaven and earth, making offerings to them and revering them.

His power gradually became less stable.

He began to disappear from time to time, sometimes for long periods, sometimes for short ones. The power from people’s hearts could no longer support His constant appearance in the world, unless at certain times when the Tantric monks held altar ceremonies, guiding people’s thoughts to accumulate enough power for Him to appear.

Saint Son Jiye gradually became the most mysterious existence in the snow region.

Similarly, what came with the arrival of the Tantric monks was not only changed faith, but also spilled blood.

After the Battle of Yin-Yang Realm, the Buddhist sect completely migrated north.

The snow region, which had originally served only as a pure land for Tantrism, from then on became the snow region of Tantrism, becoming their stronghold.

Soon, there were consorts, dakinis, dharma masters, gurus, and even dharma kings…

Of course, there was also slaughter.

It was the monks’ rule and dominion over mortals, the divergence and conflict between New Tantra and Old Tantra.

The originally clean and clear sky above the snow region suddenly became filled with layers of oppressive blood-red color. People’s faith in gods and Buddhas began to waver. Even those who traveled over mountains and rivers to reach the sacred mountain were merely begging for wealth, beauty, power, and even longevity from the clay and wooden puppets in that temple.

They poured out their evil desires above the sacred temple.

Walking within the sacred temple, the monks who daily made offerings to gods and Buddhas brazenly committed filthy and corrupt acts.

The corpses of dakini consorts, the shells that perished in the struggles between new and old, on one moonlit night after another, were coldly discarded like worn-out shoes and thrown into the gem-like lake behind the sacred temple, splashing up ripples before returning to stillness.

The Sacred Lake in the sky, Jialan.

It silently witnessed all the cruelty that occurred in this snow region, all the greed and ugliness belonging to human nature, and also contained countless unwilling and resentful souls.

In the alternation between slumber and wakefulness, Jiye could clearly feel the changes in this Sacred Lake at the peak of the snow region.

It gradually gave birth to its own consciousness.

Thus it also became “Him.”

Only He was not clean white, but melancholy deep blue. During the day when the sun shone brightly, His traces couldn’t be seen. Only in the nights when stars and moon were hidden could His movements be glimpsed.

That was an existence completely different from himself.

Also beautiful.

Also the appearance everyone most desired and yearned for.

The cold and clear lake water of the Sacred Lake condensed into His smooth long hair, wove His silk-like robes, and even forged His sky-sapphire-like pupils…

Hundreds of years ago, on a certain day, Jiye saw a little girl climb the sacred mountain, enter the sacred temple to worship, and then come to the shore of the Sacred Lake.

She was awed by the beauty of the Sacred Lake and devoutly knelt down to worship.

She prayed to the Sacred Lake, praying for everything to go smoothly, praying for her parents’ health, praying that the Sacred Lake in this snow region would maintain today’s most beautiful appearance in every future day.

Then she heard Jialan speak for the first time.

That was truly the most gentle and clear voice Jiye had ever heard in the world, with the rippling lake water gently swaying as accompaniment.

He said to that little girl: “Jialan, my name is Jialan…”

The little girl’s face turned pale with fright. She immediately threw away the blue-green sparrow flowers she had picked from the foot of the mountain, crying “The Sacred Lake spoke!” as she ran down the mountain.

Soon, she disappeared without a trace.

So Jiye walked over and picked up that bundle of blue-green sparrow flowers from the lakeside.

Jialan spoke to Him for the first time: “She was making a wish to you, this bundle of flowers was originally for you too. She found the wrong person.”

Jiye fell silent.

After a long time, he shook his head and said: “It’s for you.”

The vivid blue-green sparrow flowers were like birds about to spread their wings and fly.

After He said that sentence, He stood by the lakeside, extending this bundle of blue-green sparrow flowers toward Jialan. But after waiting for a long time, the lake water remained silent, showing no intention of taking them.

So He stepped back and placed the blue-green sparrow flowers by the lakeside.

Night fell, and the evening breeze was gentle.

The moon turned and stars shifted, and in the blink of an eye, a night had passed.

Early the next morning, that bundle of blue-green sparrow flowers by the lakeside had disappeared, leaving only the lake water with floating ice still gently rippling.

Jiye thought, perhaps the wind was too strong that night and blew away that small bundle of flowers?

Several years later, the little girl became a maiden.

Jiye and Jialan saw her appearance among the group of new consorts who had come up the mountain to the sacred temple.

She had also become a consort.

Her originally fresh and beautiful appearance gradually withered in the cold wind of the sacred mountain.

Having become a maiden, she already knew about many strange things in this world and was no longer afraid of the Sacred Lake that had spoken that year.

Every quiet night when no one was around, she would bring a bundle of blue-green sparrow flowers to the shore of the Sacred Lake, hugging her knees and curling up, pouring out her heart to the boundless rippling lake water.

But the Sacred Lake never spoke again, and Jialan never opened his mouth to speak again.

Day after day, time passed like a white horse through a gap.

Suddenly, one day, the maiden no longer appeared by the lakeside.

Three days later at dawn, her lifeless broken body was thrown into the lake by the monks of the sacred temple. The cold, clear blue lake water filled her sad, tearful eyes, soaked through her naked body, flowed over her cloud-like hair, becoming the final tomb that buried her…

In the sacred temple, there was no longer such a charming face;

By the Sacred Lake, there were no longer those blue-green sparrow flowers ready to take wing.

What remained was only increasingly chaotic struggles and increasingly thick blood…

In those past days, Jiye always wondered whether such a special self, such a special Jialan, counted as deities or demons?

Now he knew that this question was not important.

What was important was that the mortals in this world, in this snow region, all regarded Them as deities.

But what use were deities?

Jiye came from the most devout faith in people’s hearts, the purest fleeting thoughts; Jialan was born from people’s inextinguishable desires, the most polluted longings.

Goodness gives birth, evil begins—human hearts have always been divided in two.

People craved the protection of deities like Them, thinking deities controlled everything, thinking deities were incomparably powerful, not knowing that deities also craved people’s faith.

Without deities, people could still survive in the world.

Without people, deities could only perish silently!

That small bundle of blue-green sparrow flowers lay in His palm, its blue-purple petals stirred by the wind. Jiye could hear the voice from deep within His heart.

Perhaps it was His own voice, perhaps it was Jialan’s voice.

So He raised His finger, using a familiar yet strange gesture, holding the flower and smiling, gently placing this bundle of fresh, swaying blue-green sparrow flowers by His ear among His hair.

That was a kind of beauty shrouded in mist-like haze. His face couldn’t be seen clearly with the eyes, but when felt with the heart, one could sense that kind of beauty that pointed directly to the depths of the human heart…

At this moment, He was Jiye, and also Jialan.

At this moment, He was good, and also evil.

At this moment, He was the deity in everyone’s eyes, and also the most ethereal dream in His own eyes.

Not far away, Treasure Seal Dharma King had already discovered the change the moment the sacred ritual array formation disappeared, but at this moment, Qu Zhengfeng and the others seemed to have guessed his thoughts and struck at him precisely at this moment!

Dakini Yang Jin had already been injured in the previous struggle, her face pale as death;

Master Xuelang Chan, as a powerful being of the Bounded Realm, also showed fatigue on his face after resisting that fierce attack just now;

Even Qu Zhengfeng, who wielded the Yashan Sword, had blood seeping between his fingers.

But they were clearer than anyone that this moment was the most crucial moment of this battle. So the snow-white dharma conch fell from mid-air, golden Sanskrit seals rose from the ground, and the dark gray Yashan Sword burst forth with the longest sword cry, sweeping across horizontally!

But the ferocious black qi happened to surge and boil at this moment!

Before these three fierce attacks arrived, the originally large mass of black qi suddenly split apart, dividing into thousands upon thousands of streams!

Like clouds, like water columns, like strings of pearls!

An angry roar between heaven and earth!

In this critical moment of lightning speed, Treasure Seal Dharma King actually divided his current form into thousands, escaping and scattering, transforming into a piece of black cloud that blocked out the sky and sun, heading straight toward Jiye above the ruins!

“Boom!”

Three powerful attacks arrived almost simultaneously, but also simultaneously missed their target, colliding together in the void and annihilating each other wildly!

In the sky, there was only that black cloud.

The fierce wind howled, and danger had arrived!

But at this moment, what did Jiye have to fear? He gazed ahead, gazed at this “Treasure Seal Dharma King” who was no longer Treasure Seal Dharma King, gazed at His body that should not belong to this realm, only remembering himself, the beginning and end of how Jiye and Jialan were born into this human world.

They were absurd existences nearly paradoxical in this world.

People craved salvation, longed for liberation, so they believed in deities; but deities could not bring them salvation and liberation.

Perhaps they could save one, but not all.

People vainly placed their vague yet earnest hopes on deities that didn’t exist in the world, forcibly creating deities, but from then on lost the power to save themselves.

Between heaven and earth, deities should not exist!

Perhaps the original wish was a beautiful mistake?

In the ferocious black cloud sweeping toward Him, He wore that bundle of blue-green sparrow flowers on His head, letting His half-white, half-blue robes billow, and finally smiled gently. As if lifting something heavy as light, ordinarily and casually, He pressed down with one palm!