Imperial Heaven bears witness, Queen Earth seals, All Beings decree!

Jiye’s chanting voice carried an ancient resonance that harmonized with heaven and earth, extending through the snow-capped peaks and ridges, echoing through thousands of valleys and ravines!

The entire snow region was His domain!

The Burning Lamp Sword transformed into an ancient, simple lamp in His palm. Layer upon layer of carved lotus petals surrounded the exterior, but inside it lacked a wick. At the bottom, a golden “卍” character seal quietly rotated, emanating infinite Zen essence.

Twenty-one precious lotus patterns leaped forth, scattering in all directions.

Between Jiye’s lowered brows and eyes, there suddenly filled a strange melancholy and compassion. It was unclear whether this sorrow was for the ignorant beings of this world, or for Himself who was born from this ignorance.

The Burning Lamp Sword was a sword that Jian Chou had acknowledged with her blood, connected to her mind and spirit. Outsiders should not have the ability to wield its power, much less so effortlessly make it transform.

Though the sword was now in Jiye’s hands, she could still clearly feel its changes.

That was a feeling completely different from when she wielded the sword herself…

More powerful.

More natural.

Simply like using one’s own arm to direct one’s finger. Every change in an instant carried the smoothness of flowing clouds and water, with a clarity that could penetrate through myriad illusions.

Jian Chou became confused.

She knew of the Three Seals of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, and knew they corresponded to Imperial Heaven’s Witness, Queen Earth’s Seal, and All Beings’ Decree. Imperial Heaven’s Witness was a treasure of the Central Domain, alternately governed by Kunwu and Yashan, but only Fudao Shanren knew the methods to control it. Queen Earth’s Seal had fallen into Buddhism, changing hands to be controlled by the New Tantra, becoming Treasure Seal Dharma King’s greatest reliance in the past. As for All Beings’ Decree…

Everyone said All Beings’ Decree was lost in the Southern Domain, with no trace to this day.

But why, at this moment, was the Snow Region’s Saint Son Jiye holding this lamp transformed from the Burning Lamp Sword, chanting the words of All Beings’ Decree?

Jian Chou only felt a wave of mist surging, unable to understand.

Dakini Yang Jin on the other side obviously hadn’t seen such a scene before, much less witnessed the power of All Beings’ Decree, so her expression was as cautious and puzzled as Jian Chou’s.

Master Xuelang Chan was different.

Back when Jian Chou emerged from the Sumeru Mustard Seed and stayed at the Chan sect, he had already seen this Burning Lamp Sword she carried, which had great connections to Buddhism. He naturally knew some of the Buddhist cases and stories related to this sword, so at this moment he only watched calmly.

No one noticed that at this moment, the expression on Qu Zhengfeng’s face was different from everyone else’s!

Gazing at Jiye from afar, there was brilliant radiance in his eyes!

If Jian Chou turned to look at this moment, she could easily see from his gaze that mysterious air of knowing everything and having complete confidence…

Jiye floated in mid-air, the fragrance of blue-green sparrow flowers faint and subtle. The Burning Lamp Sword’s twenty-one precious lotus patterns rushed toward the distance, falling into every corner of the snow region!

Thus at this moment, endless sounds like tidal waves suddenly appeared between heaven and earth!

They were actually countless human voices—male and female, old and young, some crisp and some deep, some trembling with fear, some firm with anger…

Countless voices wove together in an instant!

Everyone who witnessed this scene at this time and place could hear these sounds. Although they couldn’t clearly hear what each person was specifically saying, they could clearly distinguish their own voices from among them!

Not one of them had opened their mouth to speak!

Under the night sky before dawn, everyone stood in profound silence, yet the space between heaven and earth was filled with their voices!

“Saint Son, save us…”

“Buddha Lord, protect us!”

“Yashan, my soul…”

“This poor monk knows no Buddhism.”

“Save me, save me!”

“My way, the human way…”

…

Voice by voice, sentence by sentence—not words from the mouth, but words from the heart!

These twenty-one precious lotus patterns fell, reflecting not any false words from the mundane world, but the deepest, longest-held, and perhaps most unknown heart voices of everyone!

In the moment when these heart voices intertwined, millions of light points lit up simultaneously!

From all directions, from every corner of this snow region, from the living, from the dead, even from the brows of the foreign cultivators from Chan sect, Xinghai, Yashan and others at the foot of the mountain!

The galaxy formed by the scattered array formation in the sky dimmed, while the galaxy ignited by endless heart flames on earth brightened…

The originally clear and empty snow region, at the moment these star-like flames lit up, became tinged with a worldly, smoky atmosphere that shouldn’t have belonged there.

The scroll of the mundane world suddenly unfolded in everyone’s hearts.

Snow filling the courtyard, a solitary lamp lighting the night; smiling faces like flowers, red candles burning high; cold rain connecting rivers, boats swaying with fishing fires; mournful sickbeds, flames weak as beans; twilight dim, cooking smoke enveloping; sitting dry before Buddha, old monks with green lamps…

Mortals, cultivators!

Fools, wise ones!

Common people, saints!

Whether weak or strong, stupid or clever, mediocre or possessing supreme truth, at this moment all were crowned with the same name, all stood in the gap between heaven and earth, all were but insignificant grains among these countless beings!

Jiye listened to these infinite sounds in His ears, but what appeared in His mind were the faces that had knelt before the statue with indistinct features in the temple when it was first built, devoutly making wishes…

Ancient lamp in hand, He only pointed toward heaven and earth!

Endless weak flame light all converged toward His fingertip in this instant, like a vast galaxy flowing into a thin stream, condensing into a tiny point, then gently falling!

It was clearly a flame, but when it fell, it was like a drop of pure water…

Countless noisy heart voices were extinguished.

The moment that drop of fire fell into the lamp bowl of the Burning Lamp Sword, in the silent heaven and earth there seemed to be a “drip” sound, and the next moment came a “hiss”—within the foot-high lamp bowl, flames suddenly lit up.

Still no visible wick.

But the lamp flame was very bright.

It was a rootless flame, a baseless fire, the heart flames of all people, igniting the heart lamp!

It was clearly such a small lamp, clearly such a tiny point, but the moment it blazed, it seemed to suddenly illuminate this dust-covered mundane world, igniting this filthy black night!

Thus the voice in Jian Chou’s heart overlapped with Jiye’s melancholy chanting that rang out once more—

“Seven emotions suffer from six desires, Bodhi ignites the heart lamp.”

“Perfect reward body…”

“Like one lamp that can dispel a thousand years of darkness; one wisdom that can destroy ten thousand years of ignorance!”

“One lamp’s brightness transmits to ten thousand lamps burning; ten thousand lamps’ brightness, brightness beyond description…”

Burning Lamp Sword, Burning Lamp Bowl.

The first level was the Red Dust Realm, burning mundane worldly fire as flame;

The second level was the Ash Realm, burning people’s heart fire as flame;

The third level was the Illumination Crossing Realm, burning the lamp to illuminate this world, dispelling darkness for the lost, destroying ignorance for the stubborn, revealing what human hearts aspire to, ferrying worldly people across wrong paths, out of the sea of suffering!

The Burning Lamp Sword was not All Beings’ Decree, but when the rootless flame without a wick ignited, it could directly point to human hearts and command all beings!

This was the first time Jian Chou truly witnessed the power of this sword, and also the first time she gained a soul-touching understanding of the two words “Illumination Crossing.”

Jiye controlled the Burning Lamp, and the Burning Lamp connected to her mind and spirit.

When the lamp fire blazed, she seemed to produce a strange, almost unified resonance with the lamp bowl and with Jiye, clearly experiencing Jiye’s state of mind and completely feeling every flicker of the flame within the lamp bowl…

“Jiye! Jiye—”

Desperate roars echoed in the ruins beneath His feet, no longer showing the previous arrogance, only that continuously deepening fear!

The moment the Burning Lamp blazed, changes appeared in Treasure Seal Dharma King.

Whether because of this lamp’s illumination or his own fear, the deity’s power that had originally fused with his soul began to writhe frantically, as if extremely afraid of the light emitted by that lamp bowl, trying to escape from Treasure Seal Dharma King’s soul control!

Like insects and ants in a dark nest suddenly exposed to light!

How vast was the deity’s power he had absorbed when taking desperate risks earlier? It had already reached the limit of what Treasure Seal Dharma King could control, hovering on the edge of collapse. Once it began to overflow and flee, how could he stop it!

“Ahhhhhhh—”

A piercing scream instantly tore through the sky!

Treasure Seal Dharma King’s soul, which had previously fused with the deity’s power, had no resistance at this moment and was ruthlessly separated, condensing again into its original form.

One fragile Nascent Soul!

Escape!

Escape!

Escape!

In the screams, whether it was Treasure Seal Dharma King’s Nascent Soul showing terror and despair, or the now-masterless deity’s power that still seemed to retain its own will, at such a moment there was only one word: “escape,” one path: “escape!”

Treasure Seal Dharma King’s Nascent Soul exploded like self-destruction, bursting forth with its most powerful force in the Bounded Realm, rushing toward the depths of the ruins!

The deity’s power instantly transformed into countless black dragons, passing through the Sacred Lake’s wave light that could only imprison humans without obstruction, fleeing toward the four directions of the sky!

But where could they escape to?

In Jiye’s lake-water-blue pupils, the final storm clouds over the snow region were reflected. That single point of fire light was the only brightness in this boundless dark night.

He only lowered His eyes, and toward this flame light, gently blew!

The single weak fire that had originally only burned in the bowl instantly spread like wildfire! Endless vast lotus fire poured from the bowl toward those magnificent ancient ruins like the Milky Way overturning, radiance blazing for ten thousand zhang!