In a World of Gu and Monsters, I Seize the Dharma, Build a Buddha, Fall into the Dao, and Ascend to Immortality

[A sinister, idealist world + Two paths: becoming a Buddha or falling into depravity + Mildly dark + Light mystery] [The protagonist grows more loving by the day: all things are equal + salvation for all beings] Fellow Daoist, by the time you see this formless Buddha head, I will almost have become a Buddha. This is a strange world of Gu, Daoist magic, and the uncanny. Please be careful. The Heavenly Dao’s heart is tainted, and it uses Daoist magic to alter people’s hearts, devouring them to nourish itself. The Earthly Dao’s heart is polluted, and it corrupts people with evil to resist the Heavenly Dao. You ask why I’m nothing but a head? When cultivators die, their hearts linger, transforming into disasters and uncanny horrors. I, a merciful and compassionate soul who saves the suffering, wanted to deliver them from evil, no, to redeem all living beings. Unfortunately, I was separated from my body amid those horrors. You ask where the rest of me went? That doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you would offer up your heart’s image to help me fulfill my great ambition to benefit all beings in heaven and earth. Hey, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m kind and compassionate; I’m only worried that this world will devour you. What? After all that, you still refuse? You have no spirit of sacrifice at all. You must have already fallen to the evil path. Take this: the Great Formless Soul-Shattering, Spirit-Severing, Heart-Seizing Palm! Wonderful, wonderful! One more good deed today, one more heart’s image from beyond the heavens. I’m one step closer to Buddhahood. Heh heh! Now then, where should I look for my next lucky little darling? (This book has Dao companions, but no lovers; daughters, but no wife, so it’s more or less without a female lead. Any character who seems like a possible female lead is definitely hiding something.)