Myriad Paths

Maudgalyayana died.

Kapilavastu was attacked by the demons, and Maudgalyayana went to stop them. He used his supernatural powers to pass through the blockade and wanted to save Kapilavastu's people, but karma was too much to resist, and he failed to save them in the end.

This even exposed his weakness and was discovered by the demons. Maudgalyayana's supernatural powers were no match for karma, and a demon named Aslana finally seized the opportunity to trap Maudgalyayana under the mountain and smash him to death.

Maudgalyayana was trapped by karma, his supernatural powers failed, and he eventually died here.

After Maudgalyayana died, Kasyapa found the prince of demons.

Because the one who controls the karma of the universe the most is the prince of demons. He was deprived of the power of the demon of karma because of the retribution of the evil karma of the heavenly demons. Now he controls a part of the underworld and controls the cycle of karma to hone his skills.

"So, what do you want to know from me?" the prince of demons asked Kasyapa.

From beginning to end, the demon prince had no expression.

Jiaye did not answer directly, but looked at the beings in the underworld.

The scenery of the underworld was the same as his expression, as always without any change, the dark red sky was like a night that would never come, and a dawn that would never appear.

The earth was withered, the sky was lonely, and everything was unchanged.

There were always people who described something as a "hellish existence", but when they saw hell with their own eyes, they would probably find that few people in this world could deserve the adjective "hellish".

The existence of hell transcends will, and endless chains drag countless souls and throw them into different layers.

And those claws that stretched out from hell because of unwillingness and despair grabbed the arms and legs of every newcomer, making them unable to move and terrified.

The souls screamed here, but they couldn't make any sound, because the souls didn't have vocal organs. Their screams would only create a 'gloomy' atmosphere, making people feel creepy, but they couldn't find any traces.

People who often come to hell sometimes sigh that they would rather be buried in a suffocating dark grave than stay in the underworld.

The pressure of the underworld can make all practitioners feel that they are getting weaker and weaker, and those souls who are punished in the underworld because of karma, even perceiving the outside world has become a luxury.

Endless souls either spontaneously or detained by ghosts came to this place, walking on this lonely and withered land, queuing up to be judged.

Of course, if there is no cause and effect, then they will leave here soon, and those who are entangled in cause and effect will be delayed here for a long, long time.

The Devil Prince has been in charge of the karma of the underworld until now, and what he has seen has always been like this, but compared with the retribution of black karma, these can only be regarded as a drop in the bucket.

After a long silence, at least seven years, Kasyapa seemed to have seen all the sentient beings in the underworld, and finally spoke: "Have Shariputra and Maudgalyayana been reincarnated?"

"It's hard to support alone?" The demon prince who was sitting raised his head and asked.

"Not really, it's just... the Taoism is in my hands, and there is not enough vitality. I am like a stubborn stone in the mountains. I can maintain the existence of the Taoism, but I can't let them go further." Kasyapa sighed.

Kasyapa said very sincerely.

Under the leadership of Kasyapa today, Buddhism can only be said to be "still there", not to mention the slightest vitality. Kasyapa does not have the positive and enterprising spirit of Sariputra and Maudgalyayana. Today's Buddhism has a heavy atmosphere of retreating to the mountains and forests and conservative asceticism, which is greatly influenced by Kasyapa.

Kasyapa can endure hardships. Although he can't do anything else, he can persevere through any difficulties. Therefore, after the Buddha passed away, he took the initiative to take on the remaining responsibilities of the entire Taoism, collected the Buddha's manuscripts, re-compiled the Tripitaka, and rebuilt the Taoism with the help of Ananda and Upali, but all this was to lay the foundation for the reconstruction of the Taoism in the future.

And Kasyapa couldn't do the reconstruction of the Taoism by himself.

He just relied on his perseverance to maintain the current status of participation and not continue to fall. As for the real take-off, he still needs to rely on people like Sariputra and Maudgalyayana.

And now, Sariputra has passed away, Maudgalyayana has died, and other Buddhists can't take up this responsibility, so Kasyapa came to find the demon prince?

"The Buddha said that I can achieve the status of a bodhisattva in the future, but I cannot achieve Buddhahood. It's just like the current situation. I can only be a stone and cannot fly."

"And you, Shangfan, the Buddha said that two people can become Buddhas, namely Sariputra and you. Now Maudgalyayana is dead. I really want to know why the Buddha chose you. If I can see that you have the qualifications to become a Buddha, I will have no regrets." Kasyapa said so.

The demon prince sighed and said, "I don't know what qualifications I have. You don't have to take it to heart. If the Buddha Tathagata is really sure that he will never make mistakes, Buddhism will not be destroyed. There is no need to take his words too seriously."

This made Kasyapa speechless for a while.

In fact, Kasyapa is very tired.

He is called the 'first ascetic', and asceticism actually means 'asceticism'. When the Buddha passed away, the Buddhas retired, and the great bodhisattvas were busy with their own affairs, Kasyapa had been running for the remaining Buddhism.

Many billions of years have passed.

Even Kasyapa himself couldn't count the things he had experienced. In this dark universe, he needed to deal with many things in order to support the remaining sect to move forward.

The internal division of Buddhism, the covetousness of other sects for the great Tripitaka he compiled, various dangers, retribution, and even the oppression of other forces.

It has been a long time since the Buddha passed away. In today's Buddhism, Kasyapa feels that he has reached his limit.

The reason why he can still hold on is entirely because he knows that there is hope in the future.

Sariputra may be resurrected one day.

Maudgalyayana may be freed from karma, enlightened, and return to the religious group.

Ananda will grow up one day.

Rahula may wake up from his madness.

Then, with the help of Upali, he may be able to restore Buddhism to its former glory.

But in the end, Maudgalyayana's death hit Kasyapa hard, and made him realize that he might not be able to hold on until that time, so he began to look for the demon prince who would become a Buddha in the future as the Buddha said.

If the demon prince is bound to become a Buddha in the future, then he may also be a person like Sariputra.

But after hearing the answer from the demon prince, Kasyapa just put his hands together and said, "So that's it. I understand now."

"What do you understand?" The demon prince was puzzled.

Kasyapa replied, "Maybe I still care too much. I am obsessed with it and cannot be liberated. This may be the reason why the Buddha said that I cannot become a Buddha."

The demon prince just felt confused, so he said, "If you are bored, go back to work and don't bother me."

Kasyapa then performed a Buddhist salute, then turned around and prepared to leave hell.

The demon prince just felt that he had wasted seven years.

But looking at Kasyapa's appearance, perhaps the current situation of the Buddhist sect is really not very good.

The death of Shariputra was a big blow to them.

But the demon prince really didn't care much.

What he is thinking about now is mainly in the desire realm.

However, seeing Kasyapa's back, I don't know why, the demon prince suddenly said, "Wait a minute."

Kasyapa turned around and looked at the demon prince in confusion.

"I heard that you are compiling the Great Tripitaka." The demon prince said.

The Great Tripitaka is the Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma.

Although the Buddha has passed away, his teachings have never disappeared, but have been passed down.

Although all records about the Buddha disappeared completely after his death, they disappeared along with all existence. In this world, no real existence is even qualified to "record" the Buddha. The Buddha completely erased his own existence and there is no trace of him.

However, real existence can break this. Although the Buddha's existence has disappeared and all interference has been completely traced, his teachings have been passed down by the Buddhist disciples in the form of their own memories.

Finally, after the Buddha passed away, Ananda recited the Sutra Collection, Upali recited the Vinaya Collection, and Maudgalyayana sorted out the first Abhidharma Collection from the Sutra Collection. In the end, these materials were compiled by Kasyapa himself into the "Great Tripitaka", which was passed down as the current ideological system of the remaining Buddhist sects.

"It has been compiled." Kasyapa replied.

"I want to see the Great Tripitaka, can I?" asked the demon prince.

Kasyapa showed a surprised expression, then put his hands together, performed the Buddha salute and said: "Of course."

"Isn't this your secret? The Buddha recited and you memorized many teachings. Isn't this very precious?" The Demon Prince was a little surprised that the other party agreed so straightforwardly.

"You are the one who the Buddha himself said will become a Buddha in the future. There is no reason to refuse you anyway." Kasyapa said so.

"Yes." The Demon Prince nodded, then temporarily put down the things in his hands and left hell with Kasyapa.

He was still very interested in the guidance and ideas of the Buddha.

Especially when he still had the formless realm in his hands, reading the books compiled by the Buddha's disciples would definitely be good for him, and...

Now that Li Qi has not made any progress, it means that he has indeed encountered problems.

Then he can't just wait here, he has to find some possibilities for breakthroughs.

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What he didn't expect on Li Qi's side was...

Zhu Fengdan did not go directly to Wu Xian, but brought Li Qi to visit someone Li Qi had been looking for for a long time.

Xiantian!

That's right, Zhu Fengdan actually has a way to contact Xiantian.

But if you think about it carefully, it's also normal.

In the beginning, it was actually Zhu Fengdan who was responsible for contacting Xiantian, so it's normal for him to have Xiantian's contact information.

However, Li Qi was a little puzzled, so he asked: "Teacher, we came to find Xiantian, do you think Xiantian will help us?"

"How is it possible? Xiantian is so stingy, it would be strange if he helps us." Zhu Fengdan curled his lips, his face full of disdain.

Obviously, he knew Xiantian's nature very well.

"Then, when I was looking for Xiantian, I made a lot of noise. Why didn't you come and tell me that you could contact Xiantian?" Li Qi was a little helpless.

"?" A question mark appeared on Zhu Fengdan's head.

And it really appeared, his thoughts manifested into reality, so the surrounding aura and time and space were clearly distorted into the shape of a question mark.

Li Qi waved his hand: "Okay, I understand, let's move on."

The question mark on Zhu Fengdan's forehead disappeared, and he showed his most common smile again. Then, they continued to travel in the void.

After about 60,000 years of perceived time, they finally passed through this void.

However, things like perceived time are usually not counted. For the second-grade, their perceived time can be completely disconnected from the perceived time of others.

They go to a place to fight for thousands or trillions of years. After they come out, the time of the real universe is likely to go backwards.

Time, a subjective feeling, is very empty and unreal. It can only be used as a metric to describe the scale of movement, but cannot be used as an absolute reference system.

The classic absolute view of space and time has long been invalid at this stage.

Soon, the master and the apprentice came to a... indescribable "branch space and time".

The reason why it is a branch space and time is actually because the composition of this space and time is relatively complex.

Generally speaking, a person can only make one choice, one choice corresponds to one reality, and other choices that have not been made will disappear in the sea of ​​possibilities.

But some space and time are not necessarily. Here, people can make all possible choices at the same time. No matter how small the possibility is, these possibilities will occur at the same time, and then produce endless "branches".

This will produce a space-time form called "tree-like space-time". Endless possibilities will produce endless branches every second, and endless branches will each produce endless subordinate branches.

Infinite infinite infinite, and so on.

However, infinity plus infinity added together is still infinite.

Aleph zero to the power of Aleph zero is still equal to Aleph zero.

As long as Aleph one, that is, "new possibility", is not reached, and new properties that Aleph zero absolutely does not have are produced, then no matter how many infinities are superimposed together, there will be no change.

Infinite to the power of infinity sounds powerful, but it is no different from ordinary infinity.

Therefore, although Li Qi cannot traverse the entire infinity, he can easily deduce the properties contained in all infinity. With these properties, the position of each point in infinity can be obtained, which is close to understanding infinity itself.

So, Li Qi looked at this abstract infinite space-time and said, "Is this... Xiantian's new creation? He seems to be controlling history. This should be something that should be learned when he is a third-grade student - no."

Li Qi suddenly realized.

At the beginning, Xiantian was still studying the fifth-grade moves.

But after all these years, when I saw him again, he was actually studying the third-grade moves.

"Is this... growing?"

"Of course he will grow." Zhu Fengdan replied.