Chapter 490-2: Descent of the Mother Buddha of All Evils, the Price of Incense (2)

She was tall — far taller than the golden statue had suggested, so that she nearly touched the great hall's vaulted ceiling. Her form was unmistakably the same as the stone Dharma image outside: the Great Wisdom Sword in her left hand, the white bone alms bowl in her right. Yet where the statue outside was carved stone — cold, fixed, inert — she was something else entirely.

The sanguine light that had poured from the statue's cracks now suffused her entirely, clinging to her skin like a second garment. Her eyes, when they opened, were the deep crimson of old blood dried to lacquer.

She looked down at Lin Xun.

And then, unexpectedly — she smiled. The same smile as the statues. Not quite a smile.

[The Mother Buddha of All Evils has descended in partial manifestation. Current descent: 78%. She has not yet fully materialized — a portion of her divine body remains anchored to the incense source she commands across the Vermilion Empire's territories. As long as that anchor holds, she cannot be fully bound or fully destroyed here.]

[She looks at you and speaks in her true voice — no longer drifting from nowhere, but direct, present, filling the hall with its resonance:]

[— You are a curious one. The ancient dragons retreated from this world long ago. The ones who remain are sleeping in the deep places of the earth, too proud to involve themselves in what they consider mortal squabbles. Yet here you are, wearing a dragon's skin and making a dragon's mess in a Buddhist temple in a provincial city. Why?]

[How should you respond?]

[1. Answer her honestly — you are seeking the source of the world's corruption, and the incense system of the evil gods is the thread you are pulling.]

[2. Tell her that a beautiful Buddha like herself should not waste herself on this wretched provincial city. This seat has a more worthy altar waiting for her.]

[3. Say nothing. Drive the dragon lance through the white bone alms bowl in her hand and see if that disrupts the descent anchor.]

Lin Xun considered for a half-second, then chose the third option.

He had not come here to negotiate.

[You wrench the dragon lance from the altar's stone base and hurl it in a single explosive motion — not at her body, but precisely at the white bone alms bowl in her right hand!]

[In the instant the lance leaves your grip, her crimson eyes narrow. The Great Wisdom Sword in her left hand swings in a blinding arc to intercept — ]

[The collision between the dragon lance and the Wisdom Sword sends a shockwave tearing through the great hall. The remaining walls crack from floor to ceiling. The vaulted ceiling collapses in sections, great slabs of stone crashing down into clouds of debris. What had once been a magnificent temple great hall is now a ruin open to the sky.]

[The white bone alms bowl was not struck. She had blocked the lance.]

[Yet the force of the impact drove her three steps backward — three steps that carried the weight of something massive being moved against its will.]

[Descent progress: 78%. Holding.]

[She looks at the smoking impact point on her Wisdom Sword and then back at you. For the first time, the languid quality in her expression is entirely gone. What replaces it is something more honest — a predator's focused attention.]

[She says — so that is how this goes.]

[She raises the Great Wisdom Sword.]

[BOSS BATTLE INITIATED: Mother Buddha of All Evils — Partial Manifestation (Descent 78%)]

[WARNING: At current descent level, the Mother Buddha of All Evils cannot be permanently destroyed. Reducing her to zero health at this stage will force her to withdraw the partial manifestation and temporarily retreat. This will trigger a Forced Full Descent if sufficient incense pressure is maintained afterward. Continue pressing the incense source to force complete materialization!]

Lin Xun's eyes lit up.

Good. A two-phase fight.

The Shell of the Knowledge-Seeking Primordial Ancient Dragon hummed around him, the dark purple End Dragon's Destruction Armor blazing with renewed intensity as he called the dragon lance back to his grip.

Behind him he could hear the two Great Dharma Kings finally entering the ruins of the great hall — no longer hesitating now that the Mother Buddha herself had manifested. Their arrival barely registered.

[The Mother Buddha of All Evils descends, her sanguine light painting the sky above the roofless great hall the color of a dying sunset. The people of Wusi City, pressing their faces against their shuttered windows, see that crimson sky and prostrate themselves on their floors in worship — the very worship that feeds the anchor she is fighting to maintain.]

[She is beautiful and terrible and absolutely certain she will not lose to something wearing a borrowed shell.]

[You smile back at her with the cold, patient smile of an ancient dragon who has leveled through worse.]

[Let the bloodbath continue.]

[Shell Level of the Polar Star Society Executor Who Gazes Upward: 183 → Current EXP: Accumulating rapidly]

[The Great Wisdom Sword descends.]