Chapter 51: Shadow Storage, Buddha Solanum Rescues the World

Releasing the Tiger Demon form, Yuan Zhu, standing 1.89 meters tall and clad in a pitch-black racing suit, stepped back onto the stone pathway. The ferocious, baleful aura of the tiger had yet to fully dissipate.

Looking up at the sky, the stars shone brilliantly. His right hand locked onto the throat of a golden Buddha statue, dragging it half-way across the ground as he walked. He looked cruel and domineering, much like someone wielding a solitary golden club ready to pick a fight.

As he strode forward, the fabric wrapping around his right arm wriggled restlessly, splitting into pitch-black threads that crawled and spread across the surface of his clothes. Moving all the way down, they followed the glove and latched onto the golden Buddha statue, gathering in ever-growing numbers.

First, they wove into strands, using brute force to bend all eight of the Buddha’s arms—whether raised high or held up—pressing them tightly against its body to stand strictly at attention! Next, they stretched like plastic wrap, packing the Buddha statue layer by layer until it was wrapped into a dark, blur-contoured cylinder.

The sprite came online synchronously: "Boss, perhaps I can add a portable inventory space to your human form?"

Yuan Zhu paused, his tone filled with skepticism: "You have this ability?"

"I don't, but you do. The principle is simple as well: use the shadow-manipulation ability of the uniform to stuff the Buddha statue, already packaged by the 'shadow threads,' into your shadow for temporary storage. The space rules of this bubble world are crude, and shadow pores are far too easy to exploit. You can easily stuff the bundle into the folds of your shadow to carry around with you. However, your physical body will need to bear this weight."

Using a shadow for storage and bearing the Buddha statue's weight with his own flesh, yet freeing up his hands and feet like an invisible yet tangible backpack—this could be considered progress. At the very least, it wouldn't hinder his combat performance, nor would it be an encumbrance hanging from his back.

He asked again, "Can this technology be applied to the real world? Storage space, the essential dream of every transmigrator."

"I haven't tried it, but it probably shouldn't work. Besides, shadow storage isn't as safe and decent as you might think. In the eyes of ordinary people, this might be unfathomable spatial ability. But in the eyes of powerful beings capable of observing shadows, shadow storage looks just like a homeless person on the street carrying a net bag to collect scrap metal. Behind the seemingly glorious and decent appearance lies the fact that you've turned your shadow into a net bag and are carrying it on your back yourself. Your entire foundation is seen through at a single glance, and others can even steal or directly loot it right out of your shadow folds. It is neither confidential nor safe."

Yuan Zhu imagined himself carrying an invisible shadow net bag on his back, filled with instant noodles, snacks, toys, trophies, and weapons. Clearly exposed in every way yet standing there all nonchalant, looking like he was about to settle scores and fight to the death with an enemy—he was suddenly overcome with a sense of shame.

No, the mental image was simply too vivid.

"Can't this crappy ability be improved?"

The sprite argued eloquently: "I'm carrying the net bag on my strength, what is there to be ashamed of? Those storage bags and mustard-seed secret techniques in the immortal cultivation universe use similar principles—they're just optical illusions fooling mortals. Besides, I think your teammates currently don't have the ability to see through your foundation, Boss. You can totally show off in front of them."

Ignoring the sprite's instigation, Yuan Zhu tried stuffing the wrapped Buddha into the shadow beneath his feet. As the shadow power spread outward beneath his feet, his shadow rippled, and the bundle was indeed pressed into it bit by bit.

When the Buddha statue vanished, his body suddenly grew heavy, an invisible pressure enveloping him entirely and pressing down from all directions with no blind spots. However, the pressure of contact between the soles of his feet and the ground did not increase; this heavy burden targeted only his own physical body without interfering with the outside world. Yet, it seemed it could be guided and transferred via 'shadow manipulation'?

"Hmm? Perhaps this can be used as a fitness method."

The sprite: "Once you become stronger, this pressure will gradually disappear, and you can also adjust and amplify it autonomously."

***

Boom!

He suddenly half-squatted and slammed a heavy punch into the ground, causing spiderweb cracks to fracture across the stone slabs.

For this punch, Yuan Zhu only mobilized a tiny fraction of the shadow power within his uniform, mainly to enhance his defense and protect his knuckle joints. Most of it was channeled through shadow manipulation, transferring the pressure of the Buddha statue from his shadow directly into his arm and unleashing it all at once. The effect looked quite decent.

"This punch carries the blessing of 100 kilograms of golden Buddhist power! How do you defend against it?"

"The Golden Bodhisattva Fist! To be able to utilize the pressure of shadows with such flexibility—it's simply like a homeless person swinging a net bag filled with bricks to smash passersby, turning a burden into strength! Boss, your imagination in the realm of shadows is truly boundless and flexible; you are a peerless genius!"

"Shut up!" It was too humiliating; even the visual imagery was playing out in his mind.

Yuan Zhu stomped the ground angrily, relying on the shadow conduction of the uniform and the golden Buddha to stomp the hard stone slabs into a fractured depression. Following that, the crack propagated further and further, spreading for dozens of meters without stopping, growing increasingly fierce until it shook the ground of the entire street into fractures. Immediately afterward, the houses along the street began to collapse in an endless chain reaction, the heavens falling and the earth shattering...

"Damn it, Boss is defying the heavens! Boss is awesome! This is the true Golden Buddha Footwork..."

Yuan Zhu raised his head in shock, cursing inwardly: "Crap! Stop overpraising me, I really didn't do this."

In the distance, toward the square where the Buddhist festival was being held, a green vine reaching up to the heavens could now be seen. Guided by the endless starlight, its frail trunk swayed precariously, emitting starlight that illuminated its internal leaf veins and conduits. Defying science and gravity, it burst out of the ground, shaking left and right yet moving steadfastly upward as though determined to pierce the clouds and puncture the firmament.

"...Fo... Qie...!"

While the heaven-reaching vine surged furiously toward the starry sky, a grand, low, and solemn incantation also echoed above the leaf-shaped Buddhist realm. Under the starlight, ahead of the vine, a 'giant' woven entirely from countless starlight vines likewise burst out of the ground.

Compared to the glowing vine that reached up to the heavens, it was much shorter, standing only around a dozen stories tall. Yet, compared to the one- or two-story flat houses of Leye City, it was still a heaven-reaching giant, practically a true Buddha descended to the mortal world.

Yuan Zhu dodged the splitting earth as black threads shot out from the cuffs of his uniform, sticking to a nearby wall. Utilizing the recoil of the contraction, he leaped high like Spider-Man and landed atop a low wall. With a few spring-like bounds, he effortlessly climbed a two-story building, stood on the roof, and gazed into the distance: "Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands – Art of the Mountain Deities?!"

*No, it's the Tomato Buddha!*

Countless starlight vines burst from the ground like blood vessels and flesh, intertwining to form half of a lower leg, constructing bones and nerves, and continuously splicing and combining upward to weave a torso and arms, ultimately culminating in a giant, crimson, fruit-like Buddha head. It possessed human facial features, but its entire head of Buddhist ushnisha protuberances clearly consisted of magnified 'blood-red Buddha cocoons.'

Boom!

The giant Buddha pressed its palms together and chanted softly: "Namo Duwen Starry Foqie!"

***

The original flesh-petal head vanished, giving birth to a 'bloody Buddha head' that looked indistinguishable from a human's. The body, originally composed of vines, rapidly melted into one, transforming into normal human skin tone and flesh tissue.

Except that on important joints and parts such as the shoulders, knees, elbows, and chest, vermilion gemstones were embedded and growing. Upon closer inspection, they were clearly 'giant Buddha-tomatoes' with human faces grown upon them.

Each of them wore a smile, their expressions serene and not at all eerie, making the Foqie look somewhat like an Ultraman transforming.

"Boss, this version of Duwen Foqie looks much more pleasing to the eye; its dignified appearance actually looks human. Aside from that head of 'bloody Buddha-cocoon ushnisha' being a bit evil, the overall score can be 80 points. It's even more upright than the golden Buddha we picked up!"

Through Yuan Zhu's perspective, the sprite inspected this version of the 'giant Foqie.' It was far superior to the previous bizarre art style, resembling a major villain from the Land of Light.

"Buddha is merciful, this poor monk has sinned! I should not have used my own selfishness to demonicize the Leye Buddhist realm, attempting to fuse all living beings to attain Buddhahood, and nearly falling into the demonic path. Today, Duwen Foqie has repented and mended its ways, willing to use its own body to mend the flaws of heaven and block the disaster of the earth's collapse, to cut off the path of otherworldly demons, suppress the calamity of Yellow Springs corpses and ghosts, reshape human order, and pray that humanity and the Qie clan can coexist harmoniously, with the Buddhist dharma flourishing forever. The [Starry Dharma Net], open!"

At that moment, the giant blood-red kasaya also expanded infinitely in the air, the massive folds of fabric outlining the texture of skin before ultimately transforming into a huge, ferocious old monk's ghostly face that blocked out the descending starlight: "Duwen, you thieving bastard, what bullshit are you spouting!"

"Namo Arujiati Honored One! Patron Longyin, Abbot Duwen has already died. This poor monk is the consciousness-fused entity of the various starry Qie clan members who were enlightened by the Buddhist dharma and inherited their flesh and kasaya—[Duwen Starry Foqie]! In this life, I do not seek to become a Buddha; I exist only to guard the happiness and peace of all living beings in Leye City."

"You thieving bastard, playing new tricks again? Wahahaha, I'm going to make you die!"

The blood kasaya blocked the projection of starlight, emitting mournful, weeping wails as it flew all over the sky accompanied by hundreds of smaller kasaya ghosts. In the end, they swarmed toward the dozen-story-tall 'Duwen Foqie,' wrapping around it tightly.

Abbot Longyin opened the giant maw of his blood-red kasaya, crunching away as he devoured the flesh of the Foqie. Countless blood-red tomato juices sprayed and showered down from the sky; the Buddha was bathed in blood, yet his expression remained tranquil and indifferent.

"Patron Longyin, why don't you surrender quickly?"

Ignoring the pain entirely, the giant Foqie opened its arms wide, embracing and locking down the blood kasaya that was swarming over its body and devouring it frantically. Without retaliating or attacking, it instead grabbed the 'blood kasaya' on its chest in handfuls and fiercely shoved them back into the wound bitten open on its chest.

Its massive hands plunged deep into its chest, tomato juice and blood spurting and splashing continuously. Like a rushing waterfall, it stained the blood kasaya a dark red, splashing noisily onto the earth to nourish the soil and spawn even more tomato vines.

Abbot Longyin hurled curses and resisted in every possible way, but he was held tightly in a death grip by the giant Foqie, suppressed by the boundless starlight, as the 'blood kasaya' was pushed bit by bit into the wound on its chest—a suicidal, do-or-die sealing attitude.

In no time at all, the 'blood kasaya' soaked in the tomato-juice Buddha blood grew increasingly sluggish, its resistance weakening until it was entirely shoved into the chest by the Foqie. A massive bulge rose up, protruding like a ten-month pregnancy in the chest cavity, revealing a reluctant 'Longyin ghost face' that was thus sealed and suppressed within the body.