One present, one past—which me do you love more?

He answered: Not you.

In the Thousand Buddha Hall, there was a moment of silence.

The female demon Jian Chou seemed to freeze for an instant, then burst into laughter as if hearing some tremendous joke. When she looked back at Xie Buchen, her gaze carried an indescribable flavor.

“Not me, hahaha…”

She froze, not because this answer was unexpected, but because he faced his own feelings and heart demon so calmly and rationally!

She laughed, not because this answer touched her heartstrings, but because despite loving deeply, when it came time to abandon, he was utterly merciless—cruel enough to make one’s teeth chatter.

After quite some time, she finally laughed enough.

On that originally cold face, several traces of strange warmth appeared.

The female demon Jian Chou paced on the steps, this time finally turning to the other side—to Jian Chou, who had been coldly observing for a long time, her future as a female demon, the true present Jian Chou.

“Congratulations to you. When you kill him in the future, you can also let him taste the pain of being killed by his beloved.”

The logic was sound, but Jian Chou didn’t care that much.

Killing Xie Buchen wasn’t because the hatred was still so intense—it was simply that there was still karma between them that needed resolution. Everything should have a beginning and an end.

Whether Xie Buchen suffered or not—what did that have to do with her?

The female demon Jian Chou gazed at her, and she gazed back.

Jian Chou stood in place without moving, only smiling slightly, getting straight to the point: “You should be clear about why I came today, shouldn’t you?”

How could she not be clear?

After all, in a certain sense, she was indeed the past Jian Chou, having once been part of her emotions. Even if she didn’t know the present Jian Chou inside and out, a person’s character and temperament wouldn’t change casually.

The moment she appeared in the hall, the female demon had known why she came.

However…

“I also have a question I’d like to ask you.”

“Oh?” Jian Chou’s tone rose slightly, seeming interested but also seeming unconcerned. “Between you and me, there’s quite a connection. Feel free to ask.”

More than just a connection?

The female demon still remembered that scene from back then—her axe striking down, severing past from present, making herself stand on this side of the chasm while watching her walk away into the distance.

That look in her eyes at the time was her first memory as a female demon.

“You once wanted to ask him why, and by what right. I also want to ask you—why, and by what right?”

Her smile had turned cold, every word an accusation!

“I am your past, your cherished love, your deep hatred, your bonds and concerns. Why could you abandon me, and by what right did you abandon me? Just because in the Gate of Cause and Effect that day, I blocked your path forward?”

“…”

She was the one who had been abandoned. Jian Chou thought she should give her a gentler answer. But the truths of this world were often brutally stark—how could they be connected with the word “gentle”?

So after a moment of silence, she gave an answer even colder than Xie Buchen’s earlier response: “Yes.”

Yes.

Yes?

Ha.

The female demon Jian Chou couldn’t tell if she felt surprise or anger.

She was the embodiment of the emotions and bonds that Jian Chou had cast aside and abandoned along her journey. Though representing Jian Chou’s past, her appearance, character, and temperament all seemed identical to Jian Chou’s. But because of these emotions and bonds, they had stark differences in subtle ways.

Like her unwillingness, her indignation.

“Yes?”

The sharp mockery in the female demon Jian Chou’s expression was even stronger than when she had questioned Xie Buchen!

“What a fine ‘yes’! What a fine ‘yes’! Your past—you abandoned it; your bonds—you also abandoned them. But what about the child… Is your heart cast from iron and stone? Even that, you could abandon?!”

Child.

These two words pierced her heart upon hearing them. Jian Chou hadn’t heard them for a long time, hadn’t even thought about them for a long time. Now hearing them again from her past self’s mouth inevitably brought myriad complexities.

At this moment, she actually felt an instant of weakness, like someone had pried open her hard shell.

But it was only for that instant.

The female demon Jian Chou’s sharp questioning only pried open that shell for an instant. The next moment, it silently closed again, wrapping all softness inside like an impregnable fortress.

Except for herself, no one could detect that moment of weakness.

Standing in this Thousand Buddha Hall was still that powerful, peaceful, and calm Jian Chou—a present Jian Chou.

She looked back at the female demon without avoiding anything, speaking words so plain they were startling: “…As you said, even you I could abandon—what in this world can’t I abandon?”

This sentence was originally what the female demon had said when questioning her yesterday, but now Jian Chou used it to answer her current questioning.

How absurd was that feeling?

But what was more frightening was that such an answer was truly normal and correct. After all, when asking these questions, didn’t she already have the answer in her heart?

Suddenly, vague tears appeared in the female demon Jian Chou’s eyes, yet she smiled as she asked: “So you don’t find yourself terrifying? Abandoning the past, severing love. How are you, standing here now, any different from these clay and wooden puppets, these emotionless gods and Buddhas in this hall?”

Different?

Jian Chou raised her head, following her question to look at the gods and Buddhas filling this hall. Though their faces were compassionate and their forms dignified, they were indeed as she said—emotionless, unfeeling clay and wooden puppets.

But, “Who told you I was emotionless?”

This answer finally surprised the female demon.

She immediately froze, feeling this statement had no basis.

But Jian Chou smiled, gazing at her with calm and gentle eyes, as if looking not at a female demon who had nearly caused her death, but at a dear friend she had known all her life.

Sincere and genuine.

“I did indeed abandon the past and sever love.”

“But what has already passed should be abandoned. A human life is so long—if past bonds always followed this body, how exhausting would that be? Love was indeed severed, but that was only past love, past affection.”

“Rather than saying it was cast away or severed, it’s better to say it was ‘let go.'”

At some point, Monk Yichen and Abbot Wugou had arrived outside the hall doors.

But at this moment, they didn’t enter or interrupt. They only stood with their respective thoughts, like the other two, quietly listening.

Jian Chou didn’t mind being overheard either.

All she felt came from her heart, all she said came from her depths. Standing here, every word and phrase was like laying bare her most secret self openly.

Neither false nor reserved.

“The present me is your future.”

“I am here, before your eyes.”

“Letting go of bonds, there will be new bonds; letting go of love, there will be new love; letting go of the past, there will also be new past. It’s just that the former was what I abandoned, the latter is what I chose.”

All this was what she had understood at the Cinder Pool yesterday.

Buddhism once had two famous verses.

One said: The body is like a bodhi tree, the mind like a bright mirror stand; always diligently wipe it clean, don’t let it gather dust.

One said: Bodhi originally has no tree, the bright mirror is not a stand; originally there is nothing at all, where can dust settle?

Whether Buddhist disciples or worldly cultivators, all considered the latter to have higher enlightenment. But Jian Chou, recognizing her ordinary heart and mundane thoughts, disagreed.

Buddhism took the empty nature of all phenomena as the highest realm, thus favoring the latter.

But where in this world were there so many high monks who reached the realm of emptiness and form?

Ordinary people, busy and anxious, managing to “diligently wipe clean” was already extraordinary.

These two verses had no difference in enlightenment level.

It was simply that one was worldly, the other otherworldly.

The Lamp-Lighting Sword in her palm seemed to sense her current flowing emotions. Faint radiance emerged from the sword body, penetrating the scabbard.

Jian Chou’s gaze watching the female demon didn’t shift.

“Love never left, just as you see me now—I have true feelings, great love. The way of choice and abandonment lies in my heart. Love, hatred, sorrow, and joy remain, and emotions, vengeance, separation, and reunion are still moving.”

“But what about me? What am I!”

The female demon Jian Chou finally understood her words, but what followed was a vague despair.

“In your eyes, what am I really?”

“You are you, I am me.”

“You are my ashes, my past, my bonds. Nine parts me, one part demon. However, the moment you gained spiritual intelligence, you became unrelated to me.”

“The past you cannot influence the present me; but the present me exists because of you.”

No one could truly cast away their own past. Even if all those memories were erased, the world already experienced wouldn’t change because of erased memories.

More precisely, Jian Chou had never cast away her past.

What she cast away were the bonds that existed with that segment of past, but she never denied the actual past.

However, all this love, hatred, and bondage existed dependent on that segment of past. If the past didn’t exist, love, hatred, and bondage wouldn’t exist.

The female demon was her past love, hatred, and bonds.

But for her to exist, she must depend on this past and history.

Jian Chou finally sighed: “Today I came only to ask you one question, to give you one choice.”

“Aren’t you here to kill me?”

Could there really be someone in the world who could tolerate another demon identical to herself existing?

The female demon Jian Chou looked at her, her gaze gradually calming, as if for the first time, earnestly and carefully examining the Jian Chou standing before her.

Jian Chou shook her head: “Without you, without my past self, how could there be the present me? I won’t kill you, but there are three paths before you.”

The female demon Jian Chou didn’t speak.

Jian Chou continued: “The current you has nine parts of my past self and one part demon formed from my past. As my past, you cannot defeat the present me, because I’m not mediocre and haven’t walked backward. So even if you exhaust your entire life, you cannot kill me.”

Her killing intent toward her, her killing intent toward Xie Buchen—both were never hidden.

They both understood this clearly.

Jian Chou smiled slightly, her eyes transparent and clear, reflecting the image of this past self before her, then extended her palm and gently opened it.

In her palm was that silver lock threaded with red string, already somewhat worn!

At this instant, the female demon Jian Chou suddenly trembled all over.

Those eyes, so different from Jian Chou’s—panicked and desolate—looked toward her, seeming shocked by her ruthlessness and pained by her indifference.

“How dare you…”

“You and I share the same name—I’m called Jian Chou, you’re also called Jian Chou. This self-imposed degradation—doesn’t it disgrace my name?”

“You have quite a few choices—”

“Abandon one, take nine—from now on become my past, following like a shadow; abandon nine, take one—from now on become a free demon, having nothing to do with my past, present, or future…”

“Or abandon both nine and one, becoming the true me, the present me.”

Jian Chou had nothing she didn’t dare do.

Sometimes she felt that mysteriously, she had made this decision long ago. Like going to the Extreme Domain, going to the underworld—as long as she was willing to think, there were a thousand, ten thousand ways to investigate reincarnation, investigate the past, and investigate that child from back then.

But she hadn’t gone.

Back then it was only a vague feeling, but now it was completely clear.

For the female demon, for her past self, this silver lock was where love focused, where affection was tied, where hatred pointed. But for the present her, this was just an ordinary silver lock—perhaps with love, affection, and hatred, but no longer impossible to let go.

All past things were but ashes.

So at this moment, she only extended the palm holding the silver lock toward the female demon, gazing at her with clear, shallow eyes: “At this moment, choice and decision lie entirely in your heart.”

Seeing this scene and hearing these words, Monk Yichen outside the hall immediately changed expression.

On that originally calm face, several traces of complexity suddenly appeared.

Both toward the female demon and toward Jian Chou.

However, he ultimately held back and didn’t enter to interfere.

Outside, sunlight had spread across the entire mountain.

In this originally dim Thousand Buddha Hall, some sunlight also projected in—very bright and very dazzling.

The silver lock in Jian Chou’s palm seemed to still carry the warmth of bygone days under this light.

The female demon Jian Chou almost immediately extended her hand, seeming about to pick up that small silver lock. But just as her fingertips were about to touch it, she began trembling uncontrollably!

She stopped at that hairline distance.

A hairline distance, yet also a chasm-like line!

Choice and decision lay entirely in her heart.

Become a free demon, become her past, or become the true her—the present her?

She slowly raised her eyes, her gaze falling back on Jian Chou.

For the present Jian Chou, the female demon was her past; for the present female demon, Jian Chou was her future.

Moon-white robes, complete openness and integrity.

Her eyes were calm, her brows gentle. She held a long sword and had the world in her heart. She possessed extremely high cultivation and extremely high mental state…

Powerful, calm, and peaceful.

So dazzling, so outstanding.

Just one glance could make one’s heart surrender!

Under heaven, how could anyone refuse such a future?

The female demon Jian Chou watched and suddenly laughed aloud, yet tears fell from her eyes: “Worthy of being me…”

The raised palm, whose fingertips were about to touch that silver lock, finally fell limply.

The female demon stepped back.

In this instant, the silver lock in Jian Chou’s palm immediately turned to ash! Even the gods and Buddhas enshrined throughout this hall seemed to sense her choice—

Whether dignified Buddha ancestors or compassionate bodhisattvas; whether glaring vajras or smiling Maitreyas…

Hundreds and thousands of Buddha statues all shook thunderously at this moment!

Tathagata’s lotus fell, Guanyin’s vase toppled, Bodhidharma’s prayer beads shattered, the arhats’ lotus platforms collapsed. In their hands, all dharma implements, all demon-slaying knives, all fell and crumbled!

In the Thousand Buddha Hall, dust rose everywhere.

The female demon’s face before Jian Chou immediately blurred. A thread of golden Buddha light emerged from between her brows, like a spark that instantly spread throughout her entire body.

Thus that shell, like that silver lock, all turned to golden ash!

Put down the butcher’s knife, instantly become Buddha!

This was originally only a legend in Buddhism, a metaphor. Even Yichen had never thought he would witness it firsthand!

However, it was ultimately somewhat bitter.

At this moment, auspicious clouds stretched ten thousand li in the sky, Buddha light shining universally.

But on the steps in the hall, only a glassy phantom floated in the air.

Everything of the female demon Jian Chou, like a statue, had completely stopped at the moment of choice. Tear traces remained, yet her eyes were full of relief.

After a moment, the Buddha light faded and the phantom disappeared.

Golden ash scattered down onto the ground. Blown by wind from outside the hall, it dispersed in the blink of an eye…

“Worthy of being me…”

Jian Chou gazed in a daze, feeling a vague melancholy, yet a slight smile also appeared at the corner of her lips as she softly said.

“Thank you.”

Thank the past you for creating my present;

Thank the present you for fulfilling my future.

And thank myself for never looking back or retreating from beginning to end, never disappointing all the storms and suffering experienced along this journey.

It’s said Dipankara Buddha was the Past Buddha, able to deliver all suffering beings in the world. The so-called “lamp-lighting” meant first burning the past to preserve the present, second illuminating the world to remove ignorance.

But she was ultimately just an ordinary person.

This heart lamp of hers couldn’t deliver all sentient beings in the world—it could only deliver herself.

The ash of that silver lock in her palm also scattered with the wind. The ash in Jian Chou’s heart also completely dispersed, suddenly becoming light. For a moment, she was as clear as washed, lucid and understanding.

When all obstacles were removed, the Dao was born.

Thus that mental state suddenly broke through a certain barrier. Four hundred years of accumulated cultivation poured out like flood through opened gates, destroying all the restrictions she had set for herself!

Cultivation soared, realms stacked higher and higher!

From Nascent Soul to Soul Separation, from Soul Separation to Worldly Integration—in just a blink, she had already reached the peak of Worldly Integration, just a hair’s breadth from Void Refining!

How earth-shaking, how astounding!

Yichen and Wugou had both cultivated for over a thousand years, but like the female demon’s instant Buddhahood just now, this scene was something they had never witnessed in their lives!

Abbot Wugou wore a solemn expression.

Monk Yichen looked at Jian Chou with considerable complexity and some appreciation.

The female demon Jian Chou achieved instant Buddhahood.

First because she put down the butcher’s knife, second because she sacrificed herself.

The moment she saw Jian Chou, she had already surrendered her heart to this future self.

What she chose was to become the present Jian Chou, to become her true self. But the present Jian Chou was one who had already cast away the past and bonds…

Choosing to become her meant abandoning the past.

But the female demon was originally Jian Chou’s past, her bonds, existing because of this past. Abandoning the past meant abandoning herself—true “self-sacrifice.”

One thought becomes demon, one thought becomes Buddha.

Though Yichen wasn’t the female demon, at this moment, gazing at Jian Chou, he could completely penetrate and understand her choice: nine parts past, one part demon nature—none could resist the temptation of becoming such a person…

He sighed long and deeply, put his palms together, and finally smiled slightly: “Congratulations to Benefactor Jian Chou.”

Jian Chou turned and returned the courtesy but didn’t say much.

She only stepped out from this Thousand Buddha Hall, letting that bright sunlight fall on her body. Standing on the open ground outside the great hall, she raised her head to gaze toward the distant horizon.

At this instant, heaven and earth also seemed provoked by her gaze!

“BOOM!”

A thunderclap, clouds moving in all directions!

That oppressive yet mysterious aura instantly transmitted toward the entire land of Shijiu Zhou…

The Dao tribulation was coming.