Chapter 135: Shadow King Buddha
“Shadow King Buddha?” Luo Ying was completely baffled. He’d never heard of this type of deity before. And when had he ever become a Buddha?
“Don’t like the sound of Shadow King Buddha, huh? ‘Immovable Vajra Buddha’ sounds nice, right? Think of it like that—call yourself the ‘Unrestrained Shadow King Buddha,’” Jiang Li suggested casually.
“No no no, that’s not even a naming issue!”
Luo Ying and Luo Zhu were both stunned speechless by Jiang Li’s words.
Jiang Li casually pointed, and a dignified, solemn golden Buddha statue appeared. Draped in a kasaya, holding prayer beads, and sporting a shiny bald head, it looked like a normal Buddha statue at first glance—but the more Luo Ying looked at it, the more something felt off.
Luo Zhu blurted out, “Brother, you’ve become a Buddha?”
“No way!” Luo Ying immediately denied it.
But the face on the statue—was undeniably his own.
“This is your new image I designed for you. You’re now the object of faith for all zombies—Shadow King Buddha. Anyway, this is the only way to defeat that Tier-5 zombie, so just go with it.”
Although completely lost, Luo Ying knew this wasn’t the time to argue. That zombie whale was flying toward them. Gritting his teeth, he accepted it: “Fine—I’m the Shadow King Buddha.”
As soon as he said the words, he also silently accepted this mysterious new identity deep in his heart.
And with that, an endless surge of Power of Faith poured forth like a rain of radiant light, bathing Luo Ying. It was as if this power had been searching aimlessly and had finally found its source, now rejoicing in its return.
The moment this mysterious force touched him, Luo Ying instinctively understood how to use it. It was a power capable of turning the tide—one that could raise him to Tier-5 without him needing to worry about whether his body could withstand it.
It was equivalent to creating a temporary Tier-5 Enhancer avatar—except this avatar merged into his own body.
Just as Luo Ying was about to use this power to ascend to Tier-5, Jiang Li stopped him.
“This is a rare chance—why not try breaking through to the Soul Formation Stage?” Jiang Li said with a smile.
Jiang Li had long explained the concept of the Soul Formation Stage. At the time, Luo Ying thought it was just a bit of background on cultivation. Looking back now… it had all been in preparation for this moment.
“Let’s do it!”
The core principle of the Soul Formation Stage was simple: transform all things into the god within your heart. The Dharma Body Sect’s entire philosophy evolved from this foundation.
Jiang Li believed the most powerful path was to turn oneself into the god. Make yourself the deity within your own heart.
Luo Ying accepted this perspective. He transformed himself into the divine, using the Power of Faith to ascend to the Soul Formation Stage—a realm he had never touched before!
The moment he stepped into the Soul Formation Stage, a vast surge of power flooded his being—stronger than anything he had ever experienced, even in his peak moments.
This was the cultivation system—far beyond the Enhancer path!
In this state, Luo Ying’s spiritual mind expanded to unprecedented levels. In an instant, he evolved the Immovable Vajra Mantra to suit the Soul Formation level and cast it effortlessly.
Behind him, the Immovable Vajra Dharma Form appeared—tall and majestic, four-faced and four-armed, its expression fierce, engulfed in raging flames. One hand held a sword, another held chains, and the remaining two were folded against its chest.
The rampaging zombie whale didn’t fear the sudden appearance of the Dharma Form. Back when it was Tier-4, it had relied on brute force to bulldoze everything in its path. Now that it was Tier-5, how could anything possibly stop it?
BANG—
The whale rammed head-on into the Immovable Vajra Dharma Form—like a rabid dog slamming into a wall. But how could a wall like that possibly break?
The Dharma Form didn’t budge an inch.
That’s the meaning of Immovable. It was a Dharma Form that could not be shaken!
All four arms of the Dharma Form moved at once, slamming the reckless zombie whale into the ground, pounding it mercilessly. Then it grabbed the whale’s tail, flung it into the sky, and Luo Ying leapt up, forming a hammer with both fists and smashing down with all his might—unleashing overwhelming destructive force!
Far away, the Eternal Stronghold’s military had detected the emergence of a Tier-5 zombie with their scanners, and their hearts sank.
But before they could even process the fear of death, they saw something even more powerful than a Tier-5 zombie appear. It wasn’t from the Enhancer system, and the detectors couldn’t even register its level—but its strength was undeniable.
The Brahma Tower streaked through the sky and came to Jiang Li, grumbling, “All it takes is a few words from your mouth, and you’ve got me working again. But it’s done now… oh, wow. That’s one brutal beating.”
“What’s going on?” Luo Zhu couldn’t help but ask. Her brother getting stronger was great, but neither of them understood where this Power of Faith was coming from.
“You know I’m the Human Sovereign, right?” Jiang Li asked.
Luo Zhu nodded obediently. Jiang Li had introduced himself as Jiang the Human Sovereign from the very beginning—even if she didn’t fully understand what that meant.
“Throughout history, every Human Sovereign has used the Power of Faith to grow stronger. I didn’t really think about it at first, for… personal reasons. But a month ago, when the Brahma Tower said it wanted to visit its Buddha Nation and called me the Human Sovereign—it reminded me. I could use faith.”
“As the name suggests, Power of Faith comes from belief. Ancient ancestors, gods, immortals, Buddhas—whoever you believe in, that belief generates power. But belief is easy to talk about and hard to cultivate.”
“Even though you and Luo Ying became heroes in the apocalypse—and your brother even became the Shadow King a decade later—none of that generated real faith. That’s because, one, you never actively cultivated followers. And two, what people felt toward you wasn’t faith—it was admiration.”
“If you really pushed for it, marketed yourselves hard, you could probably get people to worship you. But that takes time—and let’s be honest, neither of you really wants that.”
Luo Zhu imagined herself becoming a goddess, with people fanatically worshipping her… and felt super awkward.
“Human hearts are complicated. But zombies? Zombies are simple and easy to fool. So I thought of the Buddha Nation that the Brahma Tower had built. Even though we rewound time and the Buddha Nation no longer exists, the method still works.”
“Since the Brahma Tower fled here and met you all, nine months passed in Nine Provinces time. But in your world—it’s only been one month.”
“In other words, the Brahma Tower only needed a month to build a Buddha Nation.”
“Before it left, I told it to hype up Luo Ying. Rebrand him as the Shadow King Buddha. Say things like The Diamond Sutra and The Great Sun Sutra were all written by the Shadow King Buddha. That way, zombies would develop faith in him.”
This time, after converting Tier-4, -5, and -6 zombies, the Brahma Tower realized Tier-4 ones were easily shaken, and it couldn’t drag them along. So it made the Tier-5 and -6 zombies chant sutras to strengthen their faith.
And just like that, it smoothly built another Buddha Nation in a month.
But this time, the zombie Buddha Nation didn’t believe in anyone else—only in the Shadow King Buddha.
“If Tier-4 zombies can be converted, why not these zombie whales?”
“Because those whales aren’t zombified humans. They don’t think things like ‘Who am I?’ ‘Where did I come from?’ or ‘Where am I going?’ It’s hard to convert minds that never question their existence.”
“So basically… my brother’s believers are now spread across the entire universe?” Luo Zhu pictured a bunch of zombies sitting in solemn lotus positions, chanting the name Shadow King Buddha, and burst out laughing.
“Hey hey hey—I heard that loud and clear! Mr. Jiang, you totally played me!” Luo Ying shouted.
“And why is it that other people’s followers are humans, but mine are zombies?!”
The Shadow King Buddha flew into a rage. All four arms swung with force—ripping the zombie whale in half and extracting its brain core.