The Lei Feng Pagoda has turned into a gray void zone, with a huge bronze door standing within it.

On the bronze door are four totems, the one in the middle completely devoid of luster.

The totems on the left and right are also dim, only the one on top emits a hazy gray light.

The figures on the totems are almost identical to the Buddhas I've seen.

But the monsters on the totems have no faces or tentacles, just a huge mass resembling a ball of intertwined ropes.

The bronze door has opened a small crack, and gray mist is emanating from within.

I glanced inside, and a huge figure appeared behind the door.

Just in that moment, my life shattered into countless fragments.

Then they were randomly pieced together, like a chaotic jigsaw puzzle.

I felt like I was thrown into a pool called life, with countless people from my life appearing irregularly.

One second I was Xǔ Xiān, the next I became an unnamed novice monk.

My master appeared before me to preach, but as he turned around, he became Monk Fǎhǎi.

I was eating steamed buns at Jīnshān Temple, then I looked up and found myself sweeping the floor in the Lei Feng Pagoda.

Next, even greater horror unfolded, not only in time but also in space.

The caretaker who entrusted me with the Lei Feng Pagoda became a servant at Bǎo'ān Hall.

Monk Fǎhǎi became the owner of an oil-paper umbrella shop by West Lake.

The umbrellas were not made of snake skin but human skin.

Bái Sùzhēn skinned me and turned me into a magical instrument.

My master abruptly appeared again and gave birth to a monster.

Finally, that monster gazed at me with its fierce eyes, and I gradually merged with it.

I became half of a face on the monster's body.

And that huge mass was Bái Sùzhēn's head, tightly connected to us in this form.

Countless tentacles devoured everyone, stuffing them all into my mouth.

Eventually, the tentacles tore Bái Sùzhēn's head apart and stuffed it in too.

In my world, only half of my face and emptiness remained.

As if everything had been destroyed, leaving just the core me, wandering in time and space.

After a while, I saw a row of stone tablets engraved with ancient characters.

My mouth uncontrollably made some strange sounds, which meant:

"The door to time and space—Yǒu Gésuǒtuōsī."

At that moment, a message flashed through my mind.

I couldn't pronounce it in full; otherwise, the terrifying monster would completely descend upon the world.

It turned out that the monster born from Bái Sùzhēn and me wasn't for a blood sacrifice.

It was just plotting for me to enter the Lei Feng Pagoda, see the enormous bronze door, and recite its name.

Bái Sùzhēn and I are the hosts of the monster. As long as we utter its name, it will perceive the world's existence.

Coming from the distant void, it will devour time and space, turning the world into true nothingness.

The Buddha in the Western Heaven is one of its incarnations, representing the past, present, and future Buddhas projected in this world.

The deeper one's Buddhist fate, the more they are influenced by it.

Monk Fǎhǎi is among the most devout, hence becoming the monster's follower.

At the moment of Bái Sùzhēn giving birth, the world plunged into chaos, offering it a chance to emerge.

Despite my utmost effort, my mouth slowly uttered one strange tone after another.

The gigantic figure behind the bronze door drew nearer.

Just as I fell into despair, a voice echoed in my mind:

"Live out your old age in Jīnshān Temple, or accompany me until old age."

The figure of the pink snake gradually appeared in my mind.

She seemed to be telling me:

"Hold on, otherwise this world is finished. We are all finished."