Chapter 112: Chen Changsheng The Knife Is in Your Hand, The Mysterious Yaoguang Saint Son

Chapter 112 Chen Changsheng The Knife Is in Your Hand, The Mysterious Yaoguang Saint Son

Sensing the sudden expansion of Chen Changsheng’s realm, a flicker of complex emotion passed through Xuan Xin’s eyes.

The Buddhist path taught one to sever the eight sufferings of the mortal world, yet he himself remained chained to unfulfilled desires and the inability to let go.

It was precisely to sever these chains that he had traversed millions of miles to the Middle Heavens to participate in the Heavenly Talent Assembly.

Observing the turbulence in Xuan Xin’s aura, Chen Changsheng offered a faint, cynical smile and continued his verbal assault.

“Xuan Xin, are you a demon, or are you a Buddha?”

Facing this pointed interrogation, Xuan Xin pressed his palms together. “This humble monk has mastered the forty-eight thousand methods of the Dharma to deliver all living beings from suffering. Naturally, I am a Buddha.”

“If you are a Buddha, why do you still harbor a butcher’s knife in your heart?”

“This humble monk holds no such blade!”

“You do!”

“The knife is already in your hand!”

As his weary voice dropped, Chen Changsheng pointed a single finger forward. Instantly, a heavy, blood-soaked butcher’s knife manifested within Xuan Xin’s grasp.

Staring down at the gruesome weapon, the pure Buddha-light radiating from Xuan Xin’s flesh began to wither. In the void behind his back, the phantom of a terrifying, wrathful Buddha draped in billowing black Qi materialized.

Witnessing this dreadful transformation, Jiang Bufan and the surrounding heavyweights instantly narrowed their eyes.

Xuan Xin walked the razor’s edge between the demonic and Buddhist Daos. With a single, piercing sentence, Chen Changsheng had violently unearthed the monk’s suppressed demonic nature, threatening to send him spiraling into complete Qi Deviation.

After a suffocating silence, Xuan Xin finally raised his gaze back to Chen Changsheng.

“The sacred sutras declare: lay down the butcher’s knife, and attain Buddhahood on the spot.”

“Since this humble monk harbors a knife in his heart, it merely proves I am but one step away from becoming a true Buddha.”

Upon uttering those words, the physical manifestation of the butcher’s knife dissolved into mist, and the resplendent Buddha-light flared back to life around his body.

“Is that so?”

“You cast aside your own blade and attained instant enlightenment. But what of the knife in my hand?”

“Your Dharma boasts forty-eight thousand methods. I wonder, which of them possesses the supreme weight to deliver me?”

“If I slaughter every living Buddha beneath the heavens, and only then toss aside my bloody blade, will I still be crowned a Buddha?”

Confronted by this blasphemous Dao, Xuan Xin maintained his chilling serenity. “There is no soul the Buddha cannot save. As long as the Benefactor is willing to relinquish the blade, you shall naturally ascend.”

“What a pathetic joke. The butcher’s knife in my heart was forged by your presence.”

“As long as you draw breath, how can I ever drop my weapon? If you wish for me to abandon my blade, you must first shatter the one rotting inside your own soul.”

“From the very moment you crossed the borders of the Northern Desert, your arrogance has forced every living cultivator in this realm to grip the butcher’s knives in their own hearts.”

“Tell me, monk—are you delivering the masses, or are you slaughtering them!”

The weight of those words struck like a physical hammer, causing Xuan Xin to stagger violently. The dispelled cleaver materialized back into his trembling grip, and the wrathful phantom-Buddha exploded into the void once more.

Watching Xuan Xin’s spiritual foundation buckle, the corner of Chen Changsheng’s mouth curved upward.

He knew with absolute certainty that this Dao discourse was already won.

However, not everyone possessed the profound wisdom to dissect this cryptic exchange, and Gongsun Huaiyu remained blissfully ignorant among them.

……

“Is this what you call a Dharma debate?”

“It just sounds like two lunatics spouting nonsense!”

Gongsun Huaiyu scratched her head, entirely incapable of grasping the lethal undercurrents of their words.

Seeing her bewilderment, Ye Hensheng quietly approached and whispered, “Miss Gongsun, lower your voice.”

“Brother Chen and Xuan Xin are crossing swords over the supreme laws of the Great Dao. Ignorant comments will only invite ridicule.”

Hearing this, Gongsun Huaiyu shot Ye Hensheng an exasperated look. “Where exactly is this ‘supreme law’ hidden in their rambling?”

Faced with her stubborn lack of comprehension, Ye Hensheng kept his eyes glued to the tense standoff between the two monsters as he explained.

“Both of them are absolute Experts in the Dharma. Therefore, they do not waste breath reciting sutras, but rather launch strikes directly at the primordial essence of the Dao.”

“When Brother Chen asked if he was a demon or a Buddha, he was fundamentally questioning the legitimacy of Xuan Xin’s cultivation path.”

“By claiming to be a Buddha, Xuan Xin was declaring that his Dao is meant to deliver the mortal world from suffering.”

“Yet Brother Chen violently inverted that logic. He branded Xuan Xin a demon, accusing him of using his Dao to ‘slaughter’ the masses.”

Gongsun Huaiyu stared blankly. “……”

Far from illuminating the profound truth, Ye Hensheng’s explanation only dragged Gongsun Huaiyu deeper into a swamp of utter confusion.

“What killing? What saving? Can you just speak plainly without the riddles?”

Confronted by her dense skull, Ye Hensheng twitched his lip and forced himself to elaborate with immense patience.

“Xuan Xin marched out of the Northern Desert and ruthlessly crushed nineteen supreme strongholds along his journey.”

“By humiliating so many sects, he has birthed an immeasurable tide of greed, wrath, delusion, and bitter hatred across the realm.”

“If a true Buddha is meant to sever worldly suffering, how could his mere presence cultivate such terrifying worldly sins in the hearts of men?”

“Therefore, the karma Xuan Xin sews is inherently ‘demonic’.”

“As an Expert in his own Dao, Xuan Xin naturally understands this paradox. That is why he quoted the sutra to lay down the butcher’s knife.”

“Stripped of its flowery language, he means he will take on the burden of helping the world discard the bloodlust he himself caused.”

With the metaphor finally broken down, a sliver of understanding pierced through Gongsun Huaiyu’s ignorance.

“And then?”

“Since Xuan Xin already possesses such a clear justification for his path, why does he suddenly look like he’s plunging headfirst into Qi Deviation?”

Hearing her hit upon the crux of the battle, Ye Hensheng’s eyes lit up with feverish excitement.

“This is where Brother Chen’s terrifying intellect shines!”

“Xuan Xin seeks to preach pacifism, yet Brother Chen cornered him into admitting that the origin of the world’s bloodlust is Xuan Xin himself.”

“A fatal flaw that Xuan Xin was forced to acknowledge just moments ago.”

“To eradicate an illness, one must sever it at the root. Yet, in this scenario, Xuan Xin’s own existence is the cancerous root.”

“A physician cannot operate upon his own heart. Trapped in his own paradox, Xuan Xin is powerless to resolve his Inner Demon.”

Gongsun Huaiyu tilted her head, turning Ye Hensheng’s lengthy analysis over in her mind.

“But that’s such a simple problem to solve!”

“Shouldn’t Xuan Xin just forfeit and withdraw from the Heavenly Talent Assembly?”

Listening to her embarrassingly naive conclusion, Su Tian, who had been silently observing nearby, could no longer contain himself.

“Fleeing the Heavenly Talent Assembly would indeed remove him as Brother Chen’s obstacle. But have you stopped to consider why Xuan Xin traveled here in the first place?”

“Whether to spread the glory of his sect or for deeper, unspoken motives.”

“The fact remains: Xuan Xin marches forward bound by a sovereign purpose.”

“If he turns his back now, he effectively admits his entire Dao is built on falsehoods. How could an Inner Demon forged over a lifetime be discarded so casually?”

“Furthermore, if he refuses to withdraw, his continued dominance will force countless cultivators to grip a butcher’s knife they are incapable of letting go.”

“To incite the mortal world to endless violence—is that the sacred mandate of a living Buddha?”

Pfft!

The very moment Su Tian finished his sentence, Xuan Xin, violently consumed by his own demonic Qi, sprayed a heavy mist of black blood across the stone floor.

The majestic spiritual pressure radiating from his flesh visibly withered, collapsing at a terrifying speed.

Wiping the foul blood from his chin, Xuan Xin shakily pressed his palms together and bowed his head. “Amitabha!”

“This humble monk concedes defeat. I offer my deepest gratitude to the wise one for illuminating the festering blade within my own soul.”

With his Dao severely fractured, Xuan Xin turned his back to the arena and solemnly returned to his seat.

Observing the monk’s precarious state, Chen Changsheng chose not to press the attack and grind his opponent’s Dao into absolute dust.

Regardless of his current state, Xuan Xin remained the chosen Buddhist son of the Northern Desert. If Chen Changsheng completely shattered his cultivation base with words alone, those ancient ascetics in the sands would undoubtedly hunt him down for revenge.

Just as the ideological slaughter between the two monsters concluded, the silent war between the Yaoguang Saint Son and the Heartless Fairy finally reached its twilight.

A blinding beam of spiritual light erupted from the center of Fu Yao’s brow, shooting across the void to merge back into Yao Yingying’s mortal vessel.

Slowly opening her eyes, Yao Yingying fixed the Yaoguang Saint Son with an immensely complex, heavy gaze.

Meeting her turbulent stare, the Yaoguang Saint Son simply offered a polite, unreadable smile.

After a suffocating silence stretching for several breaths, Yao Yingying formally cupped her hands. “The Yaoguang Saint Son’s reputation is entirely justified.”

“I, Yao Yingying, concede with absolute conviction.”

Leaving behind that quiet admission of defeat, Yao Yingying turned and gracefully returned to her seat.

Witnessing this bizarre conclusion, Chen Changsheng couldn’t help but raise a cynical eyebrow.

The reason these monsters were crowned as Heavenly Talents wasn’t simply due to their heaven-defying aptitudes, but because they possessed an iron-clad arrogance that refused to kneel before the heavens themselves.

For the Yaoguang Saint Son to subjugate a supreme talent like Yao Yingying—and force her to admit it with genuine reverence—proved this boy was hiding a truly terrifying foundation.