Chapter 90: Ten Dharma Realms

The tree was tall, thick, and massive—so wide that three people joining hands could not encircle it. Its trunk was lush with foliage, with dense branches spreading out in every direction. A tree requiring three people to embrace was indeed rare, but not unheard of. What truly astonished Fang Mu was what hung from the branches—corpses whose deaths had been utterly gruesome.

Each corpse had a chain of Buddhist prayer beads looped around its neck, with the other end fastened to a branch. Counting carefully, there were ten bodies in total. Their deaths were horrific beyond words: some had their noses gouged out, others had gaping, bloodied holes where their eyes should have been, and still others were missing both ears entirely. As far as their faces went, not a single one among them possessed a complete set of features.

Fang Mu lifted his gaze toward the top of the tree, where a single branch jutted straight upward. Upon it sat a skeleton. The skeleton was draped in a monk's robe, long since decayed into tatters.

But here was the question—sitting on an upright branch like that, wouldn't the skeleton's backside hurt?

Yan Xian stepped forward, swallowing hard. "Brother Fang, this is the Ten Dharma Realms!"

Fang Mu narrowed his eyes, not bothering to turn around. "The Ten Dharma Realms? What does that mean?"

"A reference from Buddhist teachings." Yan Xian's expression was grave. "If there's one thing the Heretical Buddha was most formidable at, it was entering the gates of the Strangers through Buddhist doctrine. His disciples inherited a trace of that. The Ten Dharma Realms are a classification within Buddhism: the Hell Realm, the Hungry Ghost Realm, the Animal Realm, the Asura Realm, the Human Realm, the Heaven Realm, the Shravaka Realm, the Pratyekabuddha Realm, the Bodhisattva Realm, and the Buddha Realm..."

Fang Mu frowned. "I don't understand any of that, but what I really want to know is... is it human, or is it an eerie?"

"It" referred to the skeleton at the very top of the tree.

"Judging by the look of things, it should be an eerie." Yan Xian gave a bitter smile. "The Skywatch Bureau once encountered an eerie manifested by a disciple of the Heretical Buddha. As the name suggests, to face the Ten Dharma Realms, you must break through the Six Dusts illusions of these ten corpses before you can confront the eerie at the very top."

"What happens if you just go straight up?" Fang Mu looked up at the skeleton on the branch and asked, "Also, what kind of eerie is this?"

Yan Xian explained, "Going straight up means enduring the Six Dusts illusions of all the corpses at once—the force behind it is far more than merely doubled. Not going straight up means breaking through them one by one. As for the type of eerie, based on the one the Skywatch Bureau encountered from that Heretical Buddha disciple, it should be of the Yin Corpse variety."

"Oh?" Fang Mu stroked his chin, pondering. "A Yin Corpse that can pull off something this arcane? I recall Yin Corpses are supposed to be immensely strong and impervious to blades... I see now."

The fact that his Corpse-Touching Technique had found nothing at the start suddenly made sense. Of course—everything here was an illusion, a fabrication, so naturally there was nothing to touch. But an eerie possessing such a peculiar ability, and now he was being told it was a Yin Corpse type?

Fang Mu recalled what Qing Ruowu had told him about the classification of erries. At the time, Qing Ruowu had said they either possessed powerful physical bodies or came with strange innate abilities. So this eerie perched atop the tree—Fang Mu was struck by sudden realization—was probably one of those that carried strange innate abilities.

Yan Xian gripped his machete tightly, his face tense. "The closer you get to the top, the more powerful the Six Dusts become. Every step is extremely dangerous. Moreover, if you destroy one corpse with a ranged attack, the other nine will erupt simultaneously and expand their range."

Hearing this, Fang Mu took a step forward.

Yan Xian hastily grabbed him, speaking quickly. "Brother Fang, you must not! Stepping into that range will activate the Six Dusts illusion. We need to proceed with extreme care..."

He never finished his sentence, because a change occurred in the sky.

A man dressed in black descended from above, landing right beside the tree. Fang Mu recognized him—he was Wu Li's husband, the son of the Five Gods Sect's old教主. (Note: I should translate 教主 as "Patriarch" or "Sect Leader")

The middle-aged man glanced at Fang Mu, hatred burning in his eyes. "I didn't expect you lot to actually chase us down!"

Fang Mu looked at Yan Xian and asked, "Why is he unaffected?"

Yan Xian had just said not to enter the tree's range, so why could this middle-aged man land right beside it?

Yan Xian didn't answer, but the middle-aged man provided the reply himself.

"Because the Strangers of my Five Gods Sect share a connection with the Heretical Buddha." The middle-aged man said darkly, "With the Heretical Buddha's guidance, we used the Six Dusts as revelation and created the Five Gods. Our Five Gods Sect counts as an outer sect of the Heretical Buddha!"

Fang Mu sneered. "Who do you think you are? Acting like victory is already in your grasp, showing off from a position of triumph? Come on then, come out and fight three hundred rounds."

The middle-aged man's face twisted with fury. He took a deep breath, then slowly closed his eyes. "Just wait. I'll tear you apart with my bare hands."

A radiance rose from the middle-aged man's body, and he slowly levitated, ascending all the way to the highest point in the air. Then, mid-air, he crossed his legs and turned himself upside down, pressing the crown of his head against the skeleton's skull in a most bizarre posture.

"He's absorbing the eerie." Yan Xian's gaze was heavy. "If he succeeds, we might be facing a formidable enemy."

Fang Mu rubbed his chin. "Then we fight head-on."

Yan Xian let out a sigh and sliced open his own wrist with his blade. Blood sprayed forth, hovering suspended in midair. "It seems that's the only way."

Fang Mu stared at the skeleton at the top, a flicker of excitement in his eyes. This was an eerie—a Yin Corpse type at that. If he could get a touch in, he wondered what effect it might have.

Fang Mu hefted his butcher knife and walked toward the tree. As the distance between him and the tree shrank, he showed no sign of panic at the danger ahead. Instead, a smile crept across his face.

A hundred meters... fifty meters!

When Fang Mu reached roughly fifty meters from the tree as its center, the corpse hanging lowest on the trunk began to move. The body gave a limp, feeble twitch, and a beam of golden Buddhist light emanated from it. The light swelled, then swept toward Fang Mu.

Fang Mu looked at the corpse before him, then suddenly took a step back, pulling Yan Xian out of the tree's range.

Yan Xian was baffled by this move. "Brother Fang, what are you—"

He couldn't understand why, after they'd already decided to fight head-on, Fang Mu had suddenly retreated.

Fang Mu pointed at the corpse ahead and said, "This range is where the effect activates. At fifty meters... let me ask you—is this corpse also a Yin Corpse type eerie?"

Yan Xian was taken aback. Had Fang Mu only been testing the range just now? Though confusion lingered in his mind, Yan Xian nodded and confirmed, "If the Skywatch Bureau's records are correct, those ten corpses are actually ten minor erries—ones that the Heretical Buddha disciple once absorbed. They too belong to the Yin Corpse category."

Fang Mu sheathed his butcher knife and broke into a grin. "I think... I've got a method..."

Yan Xian couldn't help but freeze for a moment at the sight of Fang Mu's smile.

Fang Mu pointed at the corpse not far away. "I have a plan, though it requires taking a bit of a risk. See that corpse over there? Here's what you need to do in a moment..."