Volume 4: The Revelation Unveiled Chapter 499: Carving in Gold and Stone

Although Wu Kong had some suspicions, he was still shocked—Huangjiao the Great Immortal was actually the Queen Mother!
Xuan Nu said, “This secret technique is similar to soul theft. It’s amazing you came up with it. But how could Huangjiao willingly let you control him?”
Huangjiao shook his head. “It’s very different from soul theft. Right now, I am both Huangjiao and the Queen Mother, yet I still control him through my soul energy. If he refuses, we’ll both die together.”
Wu Kong asked, “So should I call you the Queen Mother… or Huangjiao the Great Immortal?”
Huangjiao replied, “Of course, it’s Huangjiao. The Queen Mother will never appear in this world again.”
Wu Kong nodded and said, “No wonder you could still control the thirty-six sages in the Jade Pool. It turns out they were never out of your control. When the Queen Mother died, the sages pretended to flee, deceiving Buddha.”
Huangjiao smiled bitterly. “Being controlled by others was the only option left.”
Wu Kong no longer cared about the past of the Heavenly Court. What interested him more was what the Queen Mother and the sages were doing with the Pillar That Supports the Heavens. Xuan Nu asked first, “You gathered here, surely not just to enjoy the scenery?”
Huangjiao gritted his teeth. “Buddha has ruined my life—how could I just give up so easily?”
Xuan Nu asked, “What plan do you have then?”
Huangjiao replied, “I know there’s a great secret inside the Pillar That Supports the Heavens. I’ve been studying it for many years.”
Xuan Nu asked, “What secret?”
Huangjiao said, “It’s about the formation within the pillar. If this formation is destroyed, Buddha won’t be able to create his third body!”
Yuan Shi asked from the side, “How do you know that?”
Huangjiao snorted. “I obviously have my methods. This is 100% true; there’s no possibility of error.”
Yuan Shi frowned. According to his calculations, destroying the formation would have unpredictable consequences. Only by sealing it could one prevent the forces of reverse fate from entering. But why was Huangjiao so confident? What did he have as a basis?
Yuan Shi asked Huangjiao several more times, but Huangjiao refused to reveal anything, so he stopped pressing him. With Buddha’s cunning, even the Queen Mother couldn’t outwit him. The flaw Huangjiao mentioned might well be something Buddha deliberately left behind. If the formation were truly destroyed, who knew what would happen?
At that moment, Wu Kong said, “It doesn’t matter how you know it. I really want to see how you plan to destroy this formation!” The Pillar That Supports the Heavens was the hardest thing in the world. Apart from the blood of the five kinds of kings, nothing else could destroy it.
Huangjiao said angrily, “That’s exactly what worries me. This pillar is incredibly hard. It’s taken me hundreds of years to make even slight progress.”

“What did you say?” Wukong was shocked. If something had already shown some effect, could it be that Huangjiao had found another way to destroy the Pillar of Heaven? This was truly astonishing. It was Ran Deng and Wukong who had spoken of the Pillar of Heaven. Ran Deng was the person Wukong respected the most in this world, and he naturally took his words as absolute truth. Only the kings of the five categories could merge with the Pillar of Heaven; there was no other way.

Xuan Nu also sneered, “That’s pure delusion!”

Although Huangjiao the Immortal had high cultivation, his mindset was largely influenced by the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother had once held supreme power in the heavenly court, commanding absolute obedience, and was extremely cunning. Yet in front of Xuan Nu and Yuan Shi, she was well aware of her own status and origins. What further diminished her sense of authority was that Wukong and Yin Yang’s cultivation levels were utterly unpredictable. She had thought that even if Huangjiao wasn’t the number one in the world, he would still rank among the top three. Who would have imagined that the cultivation of the Divine Ape could grow so rapidly as if defying fate? How could she not be alarmed?

But after Xuan Nu said that, Huangjiao became competitive. Pointing at the array above the Pillar of Heaven, he said to Xuan Nu, “Look into the array!”

The array was very strange. For those who had reached the realm of Hunyuan Golden Immortal, the array seemed like nothing at all, but those below that realm could not escape its constraints.

Actually, this wasn’t surprising. How many people below the realm of Hunyuan Golden Immortal could even reach this place? Aside from that stubborn and highly skilled Golden-winged Roc, there were probably few others. Back then, the Roc had been trapped by this array for a long time due to insufficient cultivation. Fortunately, the Phoenix gave him a few pills, allowing him to rise to the rank of Hunyuan Golden Immortal and escape.

Xuan Nu knew about the uniqueness of this array. Without hesitation, she stepped inside. What she saw was extraordinary—right in the center of the illusionary array, there was a depression about the size of a bowl. It was no deeper than an inch, but since the Pillar of Heaven was smoother than a mirror, it must have been caused by an external force.

Xuan Nu asked in shock, “Did… did you do this?”

Huangjiao replied, “What’s the problem? After three hundred years of effort, I’ve only achieved a little success, and now you laugh at me?”

Wukong also came over to take a look, filled with shock. He even began to suspect that the Queen Mother also had the blood of the kings of the five categories. But if she did, why would it have taken so many years?

Unconsciously, Wukong touched the jade box on his body. Inside, there were still two drops of the Supreme Spirit Liquid—probably the only two left in this world.

Xuan Nu asked Huangjiao, “How did you do this?”

Huang Jiao sighed, “The Pillar That Supports the Heavens—no one knows what material it’s made of. Truly a natural creation, unshakable. For someone like me, all I can do is resort to crude methods. This indentation was carved bit by bit by me and these twenty-seven sages, using our true power and magical artifacts!”
Upon hearing this, Wukong couldn’t help but feel admiration for Huang Jiao. He naturally knew how hard the Pillar That Supports the Heavens was—even if struck with the Heavenly Fate Staff for a year or so, it would likely not show any marks. The Queen Mother, filled with hatred toward Buddha, was resolute in her determination to use perseverance to undermine Buddha’s plans. Her willpower truly could not be underestimated!
Yuan Shi was extremely shocked upon seeing this indentation. His thoughts were completely different from Wukong’s, for he knew that the existence of this illusionary array depended on the strongest foundation in the world. If Huang Jiao really managed to shave off a layer from the Pillar That Supports the Heavens, the array would naturally cease to exist.
Yuan Shi shouted, “This must not happen!”
Huang Jiao asked in surprise, “Why?”
Yuan Shi replied, “You are far inferior to me in the art of arrays. If this array is destroyed, great disaster will surely follow!”
Huang Jiao glared at Yuan Shi and said, “Don’t spread fear!”
Yuan Shi said, “Where did you get this information? Don’t fall for Buddha’s trick!”
Huang Jiao replied, “You don’t need to know where I got it. The important thing is that it’s foolproof.” At this moment, Huang Jiao became arrogant. Having finally seen a chance to oppose Buddha and stop him from achieving his goals, how could he give up so easily?
Yuan Shi said, “If you insist on doing this, don’t blame me if I capture you.”
Huang Jiao glanced at Wukong, Yin, and Yang, then at Xuan Nu. After assessing the strength disparity, he realized he could only hold off Xuan Nu alone, while most of those twenty-seven sages were no match for Wukong and Yin and Yang. He couldn’t fight this battle. But if he avoided it, he could only keep fleeing. There were eight such Pillars That Support the Heavens in total. Leaving this place meant starting over elsewhere, wasting all those over three hundred years of effort.
Seeing Huang Jiao hesitating, Yuan Shi spoke calmly, “Why make things difficult? Buddha is the enemy of everyone. We’re here for this array as well.”
“Oh?” Huang Jiao asked skeptically, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Yuan Shi replied, “What you said isn’t entirely wrong. This array is closely related to Buddha’s creation of his third body. We must find a way to stop him, but instead of destroying the array, we need to—seal it!”
Huang Jiao became distracted and murmured, “Could it be that person was right?”
Wukong urged, “Who exactly is that person you’re talking about?”

Huang Jiao said, “To be honest, many years ago, I sent my trusted followers to infiltrate the Western Heaven. Over time, those followers all became bodhisattvas in the Western Heaven, yet they remained loyal to me. This information came from them.” Huang Jiao knew that Yuan Shi, Xuan Nu, and the others had been enemies of Tathagata for years, so it wasn’t really a secret anymore—there was no harm in revealing it.

Xuan Nu smirked and said, “You’re quite arrogant. Do you really think your skill in controlling others surpasses that of Tathagata? You control thirty-six saints through soul-blood, while Tathagata commands three thousand Buddhas and countless bodhisattvas with just a single scripture. Those bodhisattvas might already be part of the Buddhist community and could turn against you.”

Huang Jiao wanted to argue, but it would only make him seem weak. Indeed, he had lost to Tathagata—a defeated general has nothing to boast about! Huang Jiao said, “If that’s the case, I’ll follow your arrangements. As long as I can defeat Tathagata, I’m at your disposal.”

Yuan Shi laughed and said, “We wouldn’t dare command you. Just don’t cause trouble. Though persistence will eventually succeed, the speed might still be slower than Tathagata’s ability to manifest his third body. Without the right method… without the right method…”

Huang Jiao asked, “How likely is your method to work?”

Yuan Shi replied truthfully, “Seventy percent.”

Huang Jiao frowned and asked, “What if it fails?”

Yuan Shi said, “We have to try it to find out.”

At that moment, Wukong suddenly remembered something. Phoenix had said that he and Xiang Liu had contributed a lot to the formation on the Pillar of Heaven. Since Xiang Liu had been captured by Xuan Nu, having his help could increase their chances of breaking the formation.

When Wukong mentioned this, Xuan Nu was overjoyed and said, “I had forgotten if you hadn’t told me.”

She reached out, took out a small pouch, shook it on the ground, and set Xiang Liu free. With another wave of her hand, she lifted all the restrictions on him.

Xiang Liu shook himself and stood up. The scene before him was very familiar—to him and Phoenix’s many years spent here in the Golden Heaven and Silver Earth. He said quietly, “Why did you set me free?”

Wukong replied, “You’re not stupid. You should be able to guess.”

Xiang Liu shook all his heads at once and said, “You want me to help you break the formation? Dream on! I’m not someone who betrays his master—” His words stopped abruptly. An incredulous expression appeared on his face as he pointed at Xuan Nu and asked, “What evil spell did you cast on me?”

Xuan Nu was also stunned. Since capturing Xiang Liu, she had never set him free, let alone cast any spells. But she reacted quickly and said, “If you don’t obey, something even worse awaits you.”

Xiang Liu suddenly held his head and said in great pain, “My dedication to the Dao… my resolve in the Dao… where has my aspiration to follow Buddha gone…”