Volume 4: The End of Cosmic Secrets, Chapter 426: The Realm of Endless Suffering

“The Buddha said there are eighteen Nīlī realms, ranging from the phoenixes and divine dragons to beasts, fish, and insects. Those who enter my eighteen Nīlī realms and do more good than evil will emerge quickly; those who do more evil than good will emerge slowly!” Bodhisattva Nīlī said slowly. “Today, I will let you all experience the suffering of these eighteen Nīlī realms!”
Ksitigarbha suddenly realized and shouted, “How dare you arbitrarily judge good and evil!”
Nīlī sneered, “This place is under my control!”
Only then did Ksitigarbha understand that it wasn’t that he couldn’t discern Bodhisattva Nīlī’s good or evil—rather, in this Buddhist hell, Bodhisattva Nīlī was the ruler. Whoever he declared good was good, and whoever he declared evil was evil! This was the true power of a ruler of a realm!
Bodhisattva Nīlī said, “The first Nīlī realm is the Prison of Desire to Fight!”
As this cry was uttered, everyone felt the scene before them change. In the phoenix’s eyes, the face of the Buddha, the sovereign of the world, became increasingly clear. The Buddha held a peacock in his left hand and a roc in his right, smiling viciously at him. Anger flared in the phoenix’s eyes as it prepared to charge forward, but then a clear voice sounded in its ears: “Everything is an illusion!”
The phoenix froze, feeling ashamed. It thought its cultivation level should have prevented such a reaction, but since it hated the Buddha deeply and felt responsible for putting everyone in danger due to its own mistakes, it was the first to lose its composure. It felt extremely uneasy upon entering this Buddhist hell, knowing that the peacock was willingly helping the Buddhists, and that as its father, it was utterly powerless. It was only Ksitigarbha’s warning that restored it to its usual state, allowing it to focus its mind again.
The so-called Prison of Desire to Fight made people develop murderous thoughts upon entering it. The Buddha the phoenix had seen was actually where Zhu Rong was. In a daze, Zhu Rong was fighting against divine apes with Yu and others. Just as a divine ape’s magic struck Gonggong, hesitating whether to intervene, he heard Ksitigarbha’s reminder and quickly regained his senses.
Hou Tu and Hou Yi, on the other hand, were unaffected. One had profound cultivation, and the other had few distractions, so they realized this was Nīlī’s trick.
What surprised Nīlī was Wukong. His eyes remained as clear as ever; this “Prison of Desire to Fight” had no effect on him at all. The second Nīlī realm made people feel as if they were in a raging fire. With the Fire God Zhu Rong there, Bodhisattva Nīlī knew it would be useless to use this realm. The third Nīlī realm involved mountains, but what could it do to Hou Tu?
Bodhisattva Nīlī expended immense magical power to unleash the “eighteen Nīlī realms.” Trapping these seven sages was no easy task, so he needed to act quickly. After some calculation, he used the eighth Nīlī realm— the Cold Mountains of Darkness.

When this spell was cast, seven giant peaks in the distance were seen moving toward them. There had been fire on their peaks, but as they drew nearer, it turned into streams of ice flames. The massive mountains moved like plows, heading straight for the seven people. Even from a distance of a hundred miles, one could feel the bone-chilling cold.

Zhu Rong glanced sideways and thought to himself, “What is the Mud Plow Bodhisattva’s intention in using ice magic in front of the Fire God?” She sent out a purple flame to block those ice peaks, but the Mud Plow Bodhisattva simply raised her hand and swiped, causing the purple flame to vanish into thin air. Wukong said, “In his realm, he can create space at will.”

How could Zhu Rong not know this? He had only done it to test them. So he shouted, “Grab him!” Everyone leaped into the air, but only Wukong was the fastest. It seemed he wasn’t controlled by the Eighteen Mud Plows, and his speed was no different from usual.

The Mud Plow Bodhisattva was shocked once again. There were simply too many strange aspects about this intelligent divine ape. Even the Three Pure Ones would find it hard to escape—after all, this realm was created by him. Who could escape the rules of one’s own realm?

Before he could settle his thoughts, Wukong had already reached him and swung his staff at him. The Heaven’s Secret Staff? The Mud Plow Bodhisattva felt a chill in his heart and reached up to catch it. When the staff touched his palm, Wukong felt a surge of powerful creative energy flowing from it. Not knowing whether this was good or bad, he assumed it was some extraordinary power of the Mud Plow Bodhisattva and quickly retracted his staff.

At that moment, the Mud Plow Bodhisattva suffered greatly. He never expected that the Heaven’s Secret Staff could absorb the essence of creativity from a living being. It was fine if he didn’t use any magic, but once he did, he had to rely on that creative energy. How could he give away the essence of creativity, which he had cultivated for years and regarded as a treasure, to this monkey? The two only touched each other for a moment before separating. Wukong paused, seeing nothing unusual, and noticed a look of surprise in the Mud Plow Bodhisattva’s eyes. Then he realized that the Heaven’s Secret Staff was actually the Mud Plow Bodhisattva’s nemesis.

If that was the case, why should he fear him? Wukong unleashed his full strength, using his staff skills to the fullest. The Mud Plow Bodhisattva didn’t dare to confront him head-on and could only dodge. Back and forth, Wukong gradually gained the upper hand. While he kept the Mud Plow Bodhisattva occupied, the ice peaks in the distance gradually retreated, and the group’s situation, which had been like being trapped in mud, also improved.

Seeing that things were heading in this direction and he might once again be surrounded, the Mud Plow Bodhisattva felt distressed. He found an opening, muttered a spell, and a flash of black light appeared on his body. A bone-chilling cold spread throughout the space, and in an instant, everyone felt as if they had stepped into emptiness. In this void, they could neither see each other nor hear each other’s voices. Alone, only themselves existed. At the same time, an unstoppable wave of sorrow and pain surged from everyone’s heart, like a tide that could not be resisted.

Wukong turned around and saw that everyone else was standing there with furrowed brows, looking distressed and motionless, while only he could speak and move. He demanded, “What have you done to them?”
Nili did not answer but instead asked, “How did you manage to avoid my Eighteen Nili Techniques?”
Wukong replied, “It’s just a trivial trick—how could it affect me?” To be honest, Wukong himself didn’t know why he was different from the others. It probably had nothing to do with the Divine Ape of Creation and everything to do with his ability to travel through time. At that moment, Nili saw a glimmer in Wukong’s right eye, as if he had suddenly understood something. Frowning, he waved his hand, creating a rift in space from which four Buddhas emerged, blocking in front of Bodhisattva Nili.
Nili had previously overestimated himself, thinking he could capture everyone alone. Yet even the Extreme Earth and Extreme Fire made him wary, let alone Hou Yi’s divine archery skills. There was also Ksitigarbha and Di Ting, who never intervened at all. The most troublesome of all was the Divine Ape of Clarity—his Eighteen Nili Techniques had no effect on it at all!
And that Staff That Reaches the Heavens could even draw out the essence of creation from his own body. Hmph! If he didn’t capture this monkey today, it would surely become a great threat in the future! Bodhisattva Nili summoned the four Buddhas, planning to have them keep Wukong occupied while he dealt with the six trapped in the “Realm of Suffering” one by one!
The four Buddhas naturally obeyed Nili’s orders. They surrounded Wukong from all sides. In a flash, Nili appeared in front of Zhu Rong and struck at him with a palm strike.
The greatest suffering for humans is mental suffering. As the most intelligent of all creatures, humans begin to develop consciousness just over a year after birth—a capability unmatched by anything else in the world. But with greater knowledge comes both joy and sorrow. It is said that suffering arises from desire, worry from desire, and fear from love. It is also said that pleasant things are desirable and unpleasant things are fearsome, but these are merely thoughts before they actually happen. Yet even though these things haven’t occurred yet, they linger in the mind, making it impossible for people to let them go easily.
Seeing Zhu Rong closed his eyes in deep thought, his mind filled with Gonggong’s sincere and honest face, recalling how they had missed each other’s fates and cost Gonggong his life, Zhu Rong’s heart was torn apart. At that moment, he wished he could die right away. Just as the palm strike was about to hit her, with nowhere to escape, a dark shadow flew over—it was Di Ting. Di Ting stood in front of Zhu Rong, blocking Nili’s strike with his foot, letting out a strange cry that awakened Ksitigarbha, who was connected to him by blood.

King Ksitigarbha was originally contemplating all sentient beings in the world when he suddenly woke up, realizing it was a critical moment of survival—how could he have the leisure to think about such things? It was lamentable that none of them possessed the purity of heart found in Diting. As the Listener of Fate, he had long witnessed all the joys and sorrows of the world, but it was merely a passing thought in his mind. He was not human and did not have many complex thoughts. From the perspective of fate, humans are born from fate and perish because of it—this was simply the order of the universe, nothing extraordinary. As for love, hate, and emotions, Diting had never experienced them, so in this realm of suffering, he was the least affected, second only to Wukong.

Bodhisattva Nili was furious. Why was he encountering only monsters today? He exerted his power, sending Diting flying far away, while King Ksitigarbha stepped forward with his Staff of Good and Evil to stand alongside Nili.

Meanwhile, Wukong was fighting fiercely against the four Buddhas. Unlike Nili, these four dared to confront Wukong’s Heavenly Fate Staff head-on. This time, Wukong truly encountered his match. Each Buddha possessed immense strength. Although he used the Heavenly Fate Staff, he dared not employ his older techniques, so he could not fully unleash its power.

Bodhisattva Nili repelled King Ksitigarbha with just a few moves, then waved his hand to summon four more Buddhas. It seemed he would not stop until Wukong was captured.

At that moment, the Phoenix opened his eyes. Having gone through the realm of suffering, he recalled both his past and future lives in nirvana. He knew about the calamity of Yuanzhi and had long harbored the desire to leave this world. Yet this desire was exploited by the Tathagata, forcing him to become an accomplice. What hurt him even more was that his eldest son, the Peacock, had fallen even further—initially wanting to capture the Tathagata to avenge his father, but later, for some reason, he became one of the devoted Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist hell.

The Phoenix, who should have been the ruler of all birds in the universe, soaring freely in the nine heavens, now had a seal within him, preventing him from even enjoying freedom. How could he not suffer?

After tens of thousands of years, he finally saw hope of breaking the seal. He planned to capture Xiangliu and ask Yuanshi to relieve his calamity. Yet he fell victim to the Tathagata’s trickery, leading Wukong and the others into the Buddhist hell. From suffering, the Phoenix turned to hatred, and from hatred to anger. Unconsciously, he broke free from the “Realm of Suffering.”

Seeing Nili forcing King Ksitigarbha back and attacking Zhu Rong, he hurried over, flapping his wings to block them, shouting, “Go save Wukong!” King Ksitigarbha and Diting followed his orders and joined the other battle group.

Zhu Rong gradually woke up from her daze, sensing that someone intended to harm her. Who wanted to kill her, and who wanted to save her? She opened her eyes and instantly regained clarity, then joined the Phoenix in resisting Nili.

Then, Hou Yi and Hou Tu also woke up soon after. Seeing the intensifying battle, they felt ashamed. Hou Yi shot his feather arrows at Ni Li one after another. Upon seeing Hou Yi attacking, Ni Li hurriedly dodged, not realizing that Hou Yi only had one “armor-piercing arrow,” which he had broken in his anger earlier. Where could he find another one now? The Phoenix took advantage of the situation and attacked Ni Li like a storm. Ni Li became furious and shouted, “It’s as easy as flipping my hand to take your life!” The Phoenix said nothing, only flapping its wings desperately to strike. Ni Li laughed heartily and said, “You really want to die? I won’t activate the array inside you.” With a flick of his finger, four bodhisattvas wearing crowns appeared in midair. The one at the head, exuding noble elegance, was none other than the Peacock!