Lion Cal Ridge, Lion Cal Kingdom.
This was a story both Bai Yang and Wutian knew well, a place familiar to many. It was also the thod he had chosen to help Wutian continue his plan.
Wutian's plan was simple: use the three sufferings to test three types of people. If even one person among those three types showed the slightest trace of kindness, he would spare one-third of the population.
There was inherently nothing wrong with this approach, but for soone acting as a Buddha or a Bodhisattva, employing such a thod presented a slight issue—naly, the problem of justifying it in the end.
After all, whether people were guided to enlightennt or abandoned entirely, both outcos were essentially unique manifestations of cruelty.
If Wutian intended to play the role of a Buddha for the rest of his life, this naturally would not be an issue. However, he had no desire to be a Buddha; he rely wanted to cause trouble for Shakyamuni!
Under these circumstances, if he truly played both the villain and the savior, he would inevitably suffer a devastating blow to his belief system once his true identity was exposed.
This was not what Bai Yang wanted to see, nor was it sothing he wished to happen. Therefore, he chose to intervene personally, helping Wutian by playing the benevolent role.
Wutian had his reservations, but Bai Yang had none. He had been a mastermind operating in the shadows for years now; even though this city had a massive population, it made no difference to him!
Coincidentally, Wutian also recognized this fact, so he chose to silently consent.
This way, even if the Buddha pursued a reckoning in the future, Wutian would be seen as the savior rather than the perpetrator. On the level of faith, even possessing a Wrathful Vajra Gaze would not allow one to simply enact direct destruction like so malevolent deity.
Wutian was no longer the figure from the original story who possessed only ideals and power while utterly lacking political acun.
He needed to think like a Buddha, considering exactly what he should do after truly taking possession of this Buddha Kingdom!
Thus, within the ntal world, the four-hundred-kiloter expanse of Lion Cal Ridge descended from the heavens!
In "Journey to the West," this place was described as a paradise for demons and a living hell for humanity!
Therefore, when Bai Yang and Alvin descended upon this realm, this was exactly the scene they witnessed.
A hellscape of flesh and blood, a grazing ground for demons, where humans were treated as food and bones ford dense forests!
This massive mountain range stretched a full four hundred kiloters deep. It was originally known as the Lion Cal Kingdom, a forr Buddha Kingdom, but it had long since devolved into a land of demons. The demons, both great and small, numbered in the tens of thousands!
However, the population Bai Yang had dragged into this city numbered fifteen million. Consequently, these people naturally beca an integral part of this peculiar dreamscape kingdom.
That colossal population made the place look even more like an authentic hell!
For instance, the three great demon kings—the Azure-Maned Lion Spirit, the Yellow-Tusked Elder Elephant, and the Great Golden-Winged Peng—sat high above in the sky. With their terrifying figures and hideous visages, they gazed down upon everything unfolding before them!
[Overview of Lion Cal Ridge]
The sky of this world was not governed by the sun and the moon. Instead, the looming presence of the three great demon kings rendered the heavens gloomy, dark, and utterly terrifying!
These three great demons were not real, of course. They were a special manifestation crafted by Bai Yang. The three demon kings represented greed, arrogance, and violence, respectively!
In Buddhism, this naturally referred to the three poisons: greed, anger, and ignorance. As for the minor demons serving under them, they were shape-shifting embodints of various mortal desires.
However, Bai Yang took a more innovative approach. He chose to use this shape-shifting to directly assimilate the people into the environnt.
This assimilation did not rely on their external identities or real-world power, but purely on their inner desires!
He was incredibly curious to see just how many individuals driven by desire existed among these people, and to what extres those desires would push them.
What kind of atrocities would such desires compel them to commit within this world?
Regardless of the outco, the mont these people were assimilated into this realm, their faith would undergo a fundantal shift. Every single one of them would beco a cog in the belief system Bai Yang had forged.
After all, once they were so deeply imrsed, how could there be any real chance of breaking free?
And so, the two descended slowly through this surreal, magical world, arriving within the massive mountain ridge to observe the current state of life below.
The first things to catch their eyes were the most abundant creatures in this kingdom: a horde of ugly, unruly minor demons.
They bore the features of wolves, tigers, and leopards, strutting arrogantly and frequently bullying other demons that resembled pigs, dogs, cats, or cows. It seed that even within this demonic hierarchy, a very specific chain of disdain existed.
The minor demons with the heads of carnivores were vastly more powerful than those with the heads of omnivores or herbivores.
They were currently in the midst of establishing a peculiar new social structure here.
"Alvin, can you tell what castes these people belonged to in the city?" Bai Yang asked. "Crown, I can discern it roughly. Those tiger-headed and leopard-headed minor demons are primarily Brahmins and Kshatriyas, while the remaining omnivorous minor demons are mostly Vaishyas and Shudras. It perfectly aligns with your expectations!" Alvin replied.
Bai Yang nodded. "Yes, their general identities are correct, and their social standing remains unchanged. So, will the subjects of this story and the nature of the crisis change?"
"Most likely not, right?" Alvin frowned. "The disparities in power and status among these people are even greater now. It should be much harder for the lower classes to rebel against the elites!"
"No, no, no, Alvin. Your observation is correct, but your conclusion is flawed!" Bai Yang countered. "These people have indeed transford in that manner, but there is one underlying issue that is entirely different from the real world!"
"And that is the nature of their interest groups and the direction of those interests! Therefore, I guarantee that these people will definitely rebel! Moreover, their rebellion will be intensely fierce!"
As Bai Yang's words fell, it beca visibly apparent that in certain areas, groups of lower-status minor demons had already begun banding together, dragging the higher-ranking demons into the concealed depths of the mountain forests!
These minor demons dragged the much stronger demons into the shadows, dismbering and devouring them!
Even though they had just been the victims of bullying monts prior, they imdiately turned around and ford alliances!
As a result, they acquired even greater power, thereby elevating themselves into the ranks of the major demons!
Such scenes were not isolated incidents. They were happening everywhere—the strong and weak cannibalizing one another, engaging in mutual conquests and unending slaughter!
Alvin saw this all very clearly and perfectly understood the profound implications behind it!
Bai Yang continued, "In reality, would the Shudras ever dare to band together and do sothing like this to the Brahmins? I highly doubt it! But in this world, they absolutely dare!"
"A deadly weapon in hand gives rise to a murderous heart?" Alvin remarked curiously. "Ah, I rember now! Although these high-ranking individuals appear dominant and wield greater physical strength, the subordinates under their command no longer possess any power to protect them!"
Alvin suddenly realized the truth. Every individual here possessed imnse supernatural power, making them rely entirely on themselves. While focusing solely on their own internal strength, they completely neglected the necessity of building an organized faction.
"No, that is still not the primary reason!" Hearing Alvin's words, Bai Yang shook his head and smiled. "The true, most fundantal reason is that the societal system these people were so accustod to has completely collapsed!"
Was the system relied upon by the high-caste individuals of India truly based on the nobility of their birth? Or was it built upon their formidable personal power?
It was, but at the sa ti, it wasn't.
In truth, what they relied on was a hierarchy where the high castes ruled and exploited the lower castes, and those lower castes in turn oppressed the even lower castes. This chain of exploitation continued all the way down to the pariah class, who still trampled over one another in the face of conflict and existential threats!
But in this world known as Lion Cal Ridge, those so-called economic, power, and societal structures had shattered. The three great demon kings reigned supre over the realm, effectively reducing all the minor demons to the exact sa social stratum—equal subjects of absolute oppression.
And within the harsh existence of these oppressed subjects, the collapse of all civil order allowed the only true law to reveal itself—the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak.
Under the law of the jungle, all conventional rules were aningless. The great demon kings cared nothing for the lives or deaths of the minor demons, and the minor demons never worried about any rebellion from the humans beneath them. As a result, the conflicts between them intensified in an incredibly short span of ti!
"Thus, whether they are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, or Shudras, there are no longer any disparities in their identities—only disparities in sheer strength!"
"And because raw desire is the sole tric for determining that gap in strength, devouring others has beco the absolute only path to increasing one's power!"
"Therefore, once a few individuals realize they can band together to slaughter stronger targets, both the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas will inevitably beco nothing more than re participants in this frenzied killing spree!"
Bai Yang stated, slowly nodding as he watched the four-hundred-kiloter expanse of Lion Cal Ridge gradually transform into a chaotic Asura's Battleground, filled with mutual butchery from top to bottom.
What's that? You ask what happened to the Dalits?
Naturally, these Dalits had been turned into the literal "at" lining up to be boiled, serving as the most indispensable component of this massive slaughterhouse!
They were indeed still humans, yet they exhibited absolutely no signs of suffering or anguish. Instead, under the guidance of the countless minor demons, they were walking step-by-step toward the boiling cauldrons of oil.
For those who had endured a lifeti of unrelenting tornt, coming here simply to beco food—raised rely to be slaughtered—was practically a state of bliss!
Consequently, these people were remarkably docile and calm, marching toward their inevitable deaths without a single trace of fear on their faces.
To them, this didn't even register as suffering.
"Under these circumstances, you will discover that even Lion Cal Ridge, a place renowned as a nightmare and a living hell, pales in comparison to the sheer, surreal horror of real human society when it cos to instilling a sense of crisis and despair!"
Bai Yang concluded.
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