Volume 3: A Long Journey – Chapter 231: The Aspiration to Dominate Heaven

That day, the Golden-Winged Roc left the Southern Heavenly Gate. The world seemed vast and boundless, yet there was no place he truly wanted to go.
Wukong had been captured and thrown into the Eight Trigrams Furnace—a situation that should have been fatal. He took advantage of Buddha’s absence from the Spirit Mountain to steal treasures from the Mahavira Hall, but was stopped by the Lamp-Bearing Buddha and Maitreya. His elder brother, the Peacock Great Brightness King Bodhisattva, was merely under house arrest; his father, the Phoenix, was controlled by others, with an unbreakable seal within him…
Thinking of all these grievances, the Roc soared through the nine heavens and let out a long cry, spewing a mouthful of black blood.
Ultimately, it was because his strength was far inferior to others that he had to endure such humiliation!
The Roc circled the four great continents for several days. He saw that the eight sacred realms were in disarray, while the Heavenly Court remained glorious as ever, and the Western Heaven as solid as before. Determined, he flew beyond the four continents toward the Golden Heaven and Silver Land.
He had only heard from his elder brother, the Peacock Great Brightness King Bodhisattva, that this place was extremely dangerous yet ideal for cultivation. Having suffered a severe setback, the Roc’s fighting spirit grew even stronger. He realized that while his swift movement could bring temporary satisfaction, he was still powerless against true masters—he had underestimated the world.
Without regard for direction, the Roc crossed ten continents and three islands, arriving outside the Eastern Victory Divine Continent.
Leaving the four great continents and crossing the vast oceans, he faced fierce gales that made movement difficult. Seeing the golden sky and gleaming land ahead, he knew this was the Golden Heaven and Silver Land.
Anyone encountering this scene for the first time would be utterly stunned. The world was empty—aside from the golden sky above and the silver land below, there was only the razor-sharp gales.
The Roc thought, “As my brother said, this place is perfect for me, the Great Saint Who Dominates Heaven, to cultivate.” He charged headlong into the gales. The journey grew harder, but thanks to his renowned agility, he managed to discern a pattern in the winds. By dodging and weaving, he found gaps between the gusts, which made things much easier.
After flying for several days, the Roc saw a mountain standing at the eastern extremity of the world. With his determination, there was no mountain he couldn’t climb, so he flew straight eastward.
This mountain was one of the eight pillars supporting the heavens—the Kong Sang Mountain.
When the Roc reached the foot of the mountain and looked up, there weren’t a single cloud in the fierce gales of the Golden Heaven and Silver Land. Yet even so, the mountain appeared as a thin black line stretching endlessly upward.
A desire to conquer surged within the Roc, and he soared upward.

The higher he went, the stronger the winds became. Eventually, the Great Peng could hardly flap its wings in such winds and had no choice but to use teleportation spells. In the Four Great Continents, a single leap could take it ninety thousand li, but here, it could only cover twelve or fifteen thousand li. At higher altitudes, even the circulation of its magical power was hindered, and its ascent slowed down significantly.

On the first day, the Great Peng’s magical power was exhausted. By the time the sun set at the sky’s apex, it landed on the ground and meditated by Mount Kong Sang to restore its strength.

The second day was the same. The Great Peng tried to fly up along the mountain peaks, but the pressure remained unchanged, just as intense as in open areas.

Day three, day four… day ten… a year… ten years… fifty years…

It seemed there was nothing else in the world but one mountain peak and a never-surrendering Great Peng, rising into the air every day at sunrise and descending to rest at dusk.

Twelve hours a day, the Great Peng spent in the fierce winds. It climbed like this for fifty years. Its wind and thunder wings, once as thin as gold and iron, had become much thicker and twice as resilient.

Throughout those fifty years, the Great Peng did not speak a word. Its daily goal was to make one more leap than the previous day.

The Great Peng could sense that these fierce winds were merely an illusion at this place. The winds high above were not actually stronger than those below; it was merely the spatial pressure from above that created this illusion.

Whether flying or teleporting, it became harder the higher one went. On the ground, teleportation could cover forty thousand li, but the last teleportation of each day was only about a thousand li.

Every evening was the most painful time for the Great Peng. In the high skies filled with unseen pressure, it no longer had the might of the Heavenly Monarch. It was like a small boat in a raging sea. Eventually, it could no longer tell which direction was up and could only try to teleport in the direction of the greatest pressure. If it had made five thousand leaps yesterday, it would make five thousand and one today. What it needed to do was stay in this extremely difficult situation a little longer—that was success.

It couldn’t remember how many times the Great Peng had exhausted itself mid-air and fainted, only to be awakened by the fierce winds. Fortunately, there were still winds here. The Great Peng fluttered in the air like leaves swept by the wind, preventing it from crashing straight to the ground. Otherwise, with its iron-like body, it might have suffered serious injuries.

In the last few days of those fifty years, the Great Peng clearly sensed that it was on the verge of breaking through a barrier. The spatial pressure seemed to have reached its limit.

At that moment, another force emerged from the oppressive pressure of this space—a force that seemed to carry an implicit pressure on the spirit and a destruction of will. The wind wasn’t strong, but as it passed through the Great Peng’s wings, its whistling sound seemed to say, “Why go to such lengths? You’ll never succeed!”
“I was born with these wings precisely to take flight. As a descendant of the phoenix, I must free my ancient clan from the shackles of fate. How dare you stop me?” With this determination, the Great Peng continued to charge against the void above.
He could now see that the mountain had nine branches, which extended upward like a giant hand reaching toward the sky. He had a vague feeling that those nine branches must be different from this place. Once he broke through this height, he would reach a brand new space. With this goal, the Great Peng gained endless motivation once again.
Fifty years and twenty-one days after arriving here, he finally burst forth like a red sun breaking through the sea, entering another space.
As soon as he landed, the pressure suddenly lessened, but he was already at his limit and fainted immediately. Before losing consciousness, he faintly heard a very unpleasant voice: “Huh? He actually made it up here.” Then he was wrapped in a pair of warm wings—a feeling akin to returning to his mother’s embrace…
After what seemed like a long time, the Great Peng woke up. He found himself sitting atop that giant peak—yes, he had finally reached those nine branches.
Gazing at those infinitely stretching branches, the success he had achieved after fifty years did not bring him a sense of accomplishment; instead, it left him even more powerless.
There was nothing where he sat. Had that unpleasant voice and those warm wings been just his illusions? The Great Peng smiled self-mockingly—given his current level of cultivation, he still doubted he was hallucinating. He searched carefully among those nine branches but found nothing.
He felt extremely uncomfortable here, as if this place did not belong to him. As he thought about it, the Great Peng suddenly realized that these nine peaks were probably not a place even a Taiyi Golden Immortal could reach. Above that was the Hunyuan Golden Immortal. Could it be that, through sheer stubbornness, he had entered this legendary forbidden land?
The Great Peng sat down to recuperate. Over these fifty years, he had struggled against adversity, and his cultivation had indeed advanced rapidly, but he was still far from reaching the level of a Hunyuan Golden Immortal.

Dapeng was overjoyed. This Golden Heaven and Silver Earth was indeed a wonderful place. Since he had come here, he must reach the level of Hunyuan Golden Immortal before returning to Ling Mountain to retrieve that important item. By then, who could stop him anymore! With his cultivation complete, he decided to explore further. In his triumphant state, he had some peculiar ideas—even thinking whether flying around like this could lead him to the realm of a sage. Feeling that the pressure here was much less than at the foot of the mountains, he boldly spread his wings and soared upward. Just after flying a hundred meters, he suddenly felt as if struck by lightning, the world spun around him, and he began to fall. This time, he didn’t land on any of the nine mountain peaks but returned to the foot of the mountains shrouded in strong winds. Dapeng was heartbroken—after fifty years of hard work to climb up, his greed had forced him to start over from scratch. He knew that if he tried again with all his might, it might not be impossible to reach that place, but recalling the lightning strike, he still felt terrified. He couldn’t withstand such a shock, and it seemed pointless to go up without reaching the level of Hunyuan Golden Immortal. He needed more practice. After resting for another day, he left Kong Sang Mountain and flew straight north. Since there were mountains in the far east, there should be others elsewhere too. He wanted to see what made those mountains different. This flight lasted half a year as he traveled through the Golden Heaven and Silver Earth, but it was nowhere near as smooth as traveling across the four great continents without obstacles. Finally, one day, Dapeng reached the far northeast corner of the world. There, there was a mountain identical to Kong Sang Mountain in the east. After resting briefly, he soared upward. He had heard of the Pillars Supporting the Sky before but hadn’t paid much attention. Seeing the two mountains’ immense thickness and not being able to tell what material they were made of, he thought they might truly hold up the sky. But the voice he heard on Kong Sang Mountain had left him puzzled—how could a Hunyuan Golden Immortal be here in such an empty place? From the tone of the voice, it seemed the being had been observing him for days. And whose wings surrounded him, trying to save him? With these questions in mind, Dapeng resolved to explore all eight Pillars Supporting the Sky. Though he had experience climbing mountains before, it still took him a great deal of effort to reach them again, finally succeeding on the sixth day. Once atop these nine peaks, he examined them carefully and indeed found something suspicious—there were arrays densely spread all over them. Knowing nothing about arrays, Dapeng could only detect unusual spiritual energy. He thought to himself, “Who would bother setting up arrays here for no reason? I’ll go back and find Feng Tong to see what secret schemes are going on!”

Just as he was about to go down, he felt a sense of confusion ahead; it turned out he had already entered an illusionary array.