Cang Yaochen once believed that the weight of divinity was the faith of all living beings. It wasn't until he shattered the void and stepped onto this scorched earth once more that he realized the weight of divinity was, in fact, the ashes of those same beings.
He was a True Buddha. Ten thousand years ago, his touch could bring life to a withered tree; now, upon his return, he saw only ruins stretching into infinity. The moment he landed, his Golden Cicada Silk robes—untouched by a speck of dust for ten millennia—were corroded with jagged black holes by the acidic blood-rain. The first sound he heard wasn't the chanting of his followers, but the sickening crack of a mother's knuckles as she personally strangled the infant in her arms to spare it from being devoured by demons.
"Mercy... The mortal realm I once protected, how has it turned into such a purgatory?"
His eyes grew faint with grief. Habitually, he raised his right hand, golden light gathering in his palm. It was supposed to be the Swastika Buddha Seal—a power meant to deliver all souls. But just as the radiance flickered, a bolt of violet-black lightning tore through the sky, piercing straight through his palm.
[Ding!] [Warning: The laws of this world have "rotted." High concentration of "Pure Buddha Qi" detected. Subject identified as a World Virus.] [The "Heavenly Samsara System" is forcibly binding... Restructuring survival logic...]
Cang Yaochen trembled, his soul feeling as if it were being torn apart. "I have cultivated the Buddha's path for ten thousand years. If I do not save those in peril, how can I be called a Buddha?"
[Warning: The Path of Mercy is dead. If the Host forcibly uses Buddhist arts, the World Will shall erase you within three minutes.] [To save them, you must release the Demon within your heart.]
"If there is no mercy, what is the use of my return!" Cang Yaochen roared, desperately pushing his remaining cultivation to shield the few mortals being surrounded by demons.
[System Intervention: Use of Buddhist Arts prohibited!] [Forcibly awakening Second Persona: "The God of Love."] [Price of Awakening: A segment of the Host's "Buddha Nature" will be permanently erased.]
In that instant, Cang Yaochen felt as if a piece of his soul had been gouged out. He could no longer remember why he had been weeping a second ago, nor could he recall the first line of the scriptures.
The look in his eyes changed.
Those once-clear pupils, capable of seeing through the vanity of the world, were now coated in a thick, alluring glaze like peach-blossom nectar. He no longer looked at the hideous demons; instead, his gaze fell upon a small beggar huddled in the shadows—Jiang Li.
"What a beautiful child."
Cang Yaochen spoke. His voice was no longer like a majestic bell but a low, seductive whisper that sent shivers down one's spine.
He casually snapped the prayer beads in his hand and tossed them out like a shower of petals. There was no grand Buddhist light. The shards tore through the air, trailing eerie streaks of pink radiance. The demons were not purified; instead, blood-red flowers bloomed from their bodies, and they dissolved into gore amidst an agonizing ecstasy.
Cang Yaochen walked toward Jiang Li. His snow-white robes swept through the filthy puddles of blood as he knelt, his slender fingers hooking under the girl's chin.
His fingertips were cold, but his gaze burned with a feverish greed. "Have you been waiting for me for a long time?" He let out a soft laugh.
The little beggar, Jiang Li, shrank into the corner. Despite being saved, her eyes were filled with the wariness of a lone wolf ready to kill. She lunged forward, sinking her teeth deep into Cang Yaochen's wrist.
Blood seeped out—divine blood tinged with gold.
[Ding! Target Locked: Jiang Li (Primordial Soul Projection).] [Current Relation: Fated Enemy (Karma Value Maxed).] [Warning: The Asura God Persona has sensed the blood of its rival. Seal integrity decreased by 0.01%...] [The eye within the abyss... has opened.]
Cang Yaochen looked at the bite marks on his wrist, the pink hue in his eyes deepening. He leaned down and whispered into Jiang Li's ear like a devil's curse: "Little trouble... this time, it was you who caught me first."