He had blown this small flame into a heavenly waterfall that spread across the land!

The momentum was truly swift!

In just such a brief moment, like the Sacred Lake’s water before, it covered the lake bottom, submerging the entire ruins, and also swallowing the Nascent Soul of Treasure Seal Dharma King who had just plunged into that lake bottom!

Even the deity’s power that had previously ignored all restrictions and attacks in the mundane world could not escape this calamity!

Fire fell like rain!

Without allowing them to escape very far, all the lotus fires suddenly swelled, as if possessing spirit, transforming into burning sparrows to capture them!

Between heaven and earth there were no screams, utterly silent, yet it seemed filled with screams, a cacophony!

Treasure Seal Dharma King had never thought he would be defeated in such a manner!

He came from the Buddhist sect, and at the height of his fame was completely equal to those three great powers from the junction of ancient and present times. But they ascended one after another, while he made no progress, trapped for a long, long time in the Bounded Realm, unable to touch the gate of ascension!

He sought among people, among the heavens, among immortals and Buddhas, but none could resolve even half of his predicament. Only by chance and coincidence did he find fragments of words related to deities from nearly lost ancient texts, leading Him to descend to this realm to guide him out of confusion!

It was clearly infinite light…

It was clearly a smooth path to heaven!

How could it, how could it, how did it become like this?

The moment he was enveloped by that lotus fire, his heart still held unfulfilled ambitions, incomplete heroic aspirations…

But all ended at this moment.

And turned to ash.

Being a Nascent Soul constructed from pure spiritual power and soul, he couldn’t even perform the vengeful act of self-destruction before being burned into nothingness.

This lotus fire had no searing heat, only the purest intention.

Human hearts, regardless of good or evil, when gathered to a certain degree, could create gods and demons from nothing. To destroy a single cultivator who was already among the masses—how simple was that?

They were the most fragile yet most powerful force in this world, sometimes crushing all your courage to face life, sometimes nurturing your resilience to grow in adversity…

Those who manipulate human hearts are ultimately burned by human hearts.

Along with the deity’s power he had summoned from ancient times through painstaking effort, it almost simultaneously followed in his footsteps, struck by countless lotus fires transformed into sparrows, silently roaring, painfully writhing, and perishing together with this lotus fire in the boundless void!

When the last wisp of black qi dissipated in the sky, the black night quietly ended. The last lotus fire flew toward the east, igniting the silent dawn before extinguishing, burning out a patch of faint red sky light, illuminating the snow plateau after this night’s bloody baptism!

The towering sacred mountain was like a bride wearing a veil.

The surrounding continuous snow peaks outlined the deepest contours of this otherworldly pure land, standing silently in everyone’s sight, wordless toward heaven.

Master Xuelang Chan and little monk Liao Kong, one out of compassion, one with a heavy heart, both joined their palms and sighed softly at this moment, gently chanting a Buddhist invocation;

Dakini Yang Jin gazed at that bursting sky light, smiling through tears;

Qu Zhengfeng also stood with his hand on his sword, unable to move his gaze from that Burning Lamp bowl;

Jian Chou rarely felt somewhat dizzy, her whole person nearly unable to stand, but after swaying, she steadied herself on the ground again.

A night of slaughter had quietly passed.

The sacred temple had collapsed!

Treasure Seal Dharma King and Treasure Vase Dharma King perished in this battle, and the entire New Tantra’s power was completely annihilated the moment the sun rose!

At the foot of the sacred mountain, traces of battle were everywhere.

The cultivators from Chan sect, Xinghai, and Yashan gathered by the withered forest, shocked by the power that had erupted from Saint Son Jiye’s seemingly effortless technique.

Inside and outside the mandala were ordinary believers.

Most had received summons from the sacred temple, voluntarily rushing to the sacred mountain like pilgrims, kneeling beneath the sacred temple, becoming part of the sacred ritual array formation.

Those who had been captured were trapped in the deep pit halfway up the mountain.

How powerful was the sacred ritual array formation that Treasure Seal Dharma King had previously urged and presided over? It completely forcibly extracted the essence and soul power from every believer, offering it to the deity connected by another array formation. How could ordinary people endure such torment?

When immersed in it, they felt nothing, but now that everything was over, they experienced a confusion like waking from a great dream, not even remembering much of what had happened, only remembering that they had come here for the sake of faith.

But why…

When they opened their eyes and came to their senses, there were quite a few scattered corpses beside them, dried up as if by wind, curled up among the crowd, stirring the deepest fear and terror in people’s hearts!

They looked at the corpses, at their companions, at the strangers in the distance, and also at that half-blue, half-white figure high on the sacred mountain.

That was their Saint Son, their deity!

So after a moment of daze, the believers who had fortunately survived showed smiles on their faces, feeling that it was the Saint Son who had led them through this danger, and they all prostrated themselves in worship…

“Buddha Lord protect us!”

“Saint Son protect us, Saint Son protect us…”

“Our Buddha shows mercy…”

“Truly manifested divinity, truly manifested divinity!”

…

At the foot of the sacred mountain, a whole area fell to their knees.

However, Jiye standing high above, under this rare morning sun, gazing at these suffering beings prostrating at His feet, showed no trace of a smile on His face.

The fire in the lamp bowl had been exhausted, returning to its ancient, simple stone appearance.

At this moment, what arose in His heart was an even greater confusion than these suffering beings, a deeper melancholy…

He was finally about to meet the destiny He had set for Himself.

Since it had been a mistake from the beginning, let it come to an end at the appropriate time, even if it came from the most beautiful initial intention.

But wrong was wrong.

“Do not kneel to me.”

Jiye stood at the highest point of this snow region, looking down at them, and finally spoke the first words to these believers who had nurtured Him with their vows for thousands of years—also the last words.

“Heaven and earth originally have no deities; supreme truth exists only in the heart.”

Heaven and earth originally have no deities; supreme truth exists only in the heart!

Originally just a plain sentence, but when it came from the height of this sacred mountain that the people of the snow region had looked up to for over a thousand years, it possessed a power that shook human hearts!

Because the one who spoke these words was their deity!

The deity said that heaven and earth originally had no deities!

This moment was like a great bell ringing beside everyone’s ears, washing through each person’s heart like huge waves, instantly destroying all past faith!

Countless people showed expressions of inability to accept.

However, Jiye no longer looked at them but turned around, gazing across the chaotic ice plain toward Jian Chou, who was pale-faced and also watching Him.

His five fingers holding the lamp bowl gently loosened, and the lamp bowl, as if finally sensing its original master’s mood, glowed faintly as it flew from His hands toward Jian Chou.

Jian Chou naturally raised her hand, and the lamp bowl fell into her palm.

Cold, without any residual warmth.

When gaze met gaze, she couldn’t see His appearance clearly—the entire world was a layer of deep red in her eyes.

But she could feel Him.

Feel His kind gaze, melancholy expression, and the smile that suddenly spread across His lips…

Without need for more words, she already understood everything and completely grasped the true meaning of that prophecy heard in the Polar Region eighty-one years ago…

Jiye asked her: “Friend Jian Chou, do you believe in deities?”

Jian Chou was silent for a long time, then answered Him: “I do not.”

So Jiye suddenly laughed aloud.

That was a hearty laugh, a carefree laugh, and after the tribulation in the snow region, the most gentle laugh…

His originally youth-like upright shell became rigid and pale when her calm and firm “I do not” fell.

The silk-like lake blue congealed on His robes also began to peel away…

Even His most perfect and flawless face and features in all people’s eyes became blurred into a mass!

“Rumble!” A tremendous sound!

The clear, pure blue Sacred Lake fell from His body!

In the deafening sound, like falling from the nine heavens, it crashed back into the dried lake bottom, submerging those magnificent mirror-like ruins!

In everyone’s eyes, the deity who could destroy heaven and earth with a gesture, Saint Son Jiye, at this moment transformed into a statue with simple and crude lines!

No spirit or form.

Much less any facial features.

This was His most primitive, most original appearance when He manifested in this world!

Jian Chou could not see such changes, nor could she see His appearance at this moment, but what first appeared in her perception were all familiar presences…

Like a dream.

She felt the youth she had first met by the Sacred Lake that day smiling at her, the woman who had draped the Sacred Lake over herself under the moonlight nodding to her.

But when the wind blew, the dream scattered like melting ice and snow.

He scattered.

She also scattered.

The physical statue instantly crumbled, transforming into myriads of scattered spiritual light. Between heaven and earth, only a tear that slid from the statue’s eyes fell, landing with a “drop” in the center of her lamp bowl, igniting a bean-sized flame light like ice and snow…

All beings have tears.

Saint Son Jiye, born among all beings, was also just one among all beings. All beings have heart voices, have heart fires…

He also had them.

Jian Chou also could not see His appearance when He perished, only able to feel that heaven and earth had lost that unique aura belonging to Him.

However, in the unseen realm, it seemed a voice asked:

Having met twice, can I be considered your friend?

So a great sadness arose in her heart, and she murmured in reply: “Yes…”

Eighty-one years later, you will become my dear friend, completing my nirvana.

So it was…

What He wanted to complete was not His nirvana, but to ferry these stubborn beings of the snow region through a nirvana! To let this pure land be reborn in destruction.

Under the bright light, the clear blue Sacred Lake reflected the pure blue sky.

A gentle breeze wrinkled the lake surface, and the magnificent ruins instantly vanished. Between heaven and earth, it seemed someone’s joyful laughter from endless years echoed endlessly, carried by the lake water’s waves.

The masterless blue-green sparrow flowers drifted and swayed, falling by the lakeside, still fresh and beautiful.