Volume 4: The Revelation Revealed – Chapter 515: Making a Bet

When the Realm of the Five Elements was sealed, the Five Elements Divine Apes became extremely vigilant. It took all five of them working together to trap the Great Sun Tathagata; alone, none of them could match him. Acting like this was essentially sending a tiger back into the mountains, but Tongfeng had no choice but to do so in order to break the Buddhist hell and rescue the entire Qitianling.

The Great Sun Tathagata said calmly, “Surrender quickly. I won’t harm you.”
Who would believe such words? Tongfeng asked, “You swallowed Qitianling into this realm for us five of us, right?”
“The Great Sun Tathagata replied, “Exactly.”
Tongfeng continued, “Matters related to heaven concern no one else. Why not let them go?”
The Great Sun Tathagata shook his bare head and said, “If you all escape through a gap, won’t I have to go to more trouble?”
Wuzhiji shouted, “Just destroy this realm! All your words are nonsense!”
The Great Sun Tathagata sneered, “Since I dared to swallow Qitianling, I naturally know you lack the ability to do so.”
Tongfeng suddenly said, “Don’t be arrogant. What if I manage to create a passage out of this realm?”
The Great Sun Tathagata raised his head, let out two dry laughs, and said, “Interesting. How about we make a bet?”
Tongfeng asked, “What’s the bet?”
The Great Sun Tathagata replied, “If, with the combined strength of Qitianling, you can break through my realm, I won’t trouble you anymore today and will let you all escape.”
Tongfeng said, “Agreed!”
The Great Sun Tathagata added, “If you can’t break through, then stop fighting futilely, alright?”
After thinking for a while, Tongfeng realized this bet was beneficial for them with no risk. At worst, if they failed to break through, they could fight again. But he still asked, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll go back on my word?”
The Great Sun Tathagata shook his head and said, “Not afraid.” It wouldn’t be easy for him to capture the Five Elements Divine Apes either. The unity of the five elements posed a threat to him, as his body was extremely precious. Any damage required him to use reverse creation energy to restore it—though there was an unknown secret behind this.

“At this moment, you are like fish, and I am like the butcher’s knife. But since you are the Five Elements Divine Apes, you are of great use to me. Naturally, I don’t want to harm you,” said the Great Sun Tathagata.
Tongfeng said, “Good. Then you and Nili stay away from here and don’t interfere with us breaking through the realm!”
Nili laughed strangely from afar and said, “This realm belongs to me. With a thought, I can be anywhere. What difference does it make where I am?”
Wang Yu said coldly, “You two are so ugly that just looking at you damages one’s cultivation.”

Nili became furious. It was one thing to call him ugly, but even the Great Sun Tathagata was implicated. One must know that the Tathagata had a grand aspiration—to create a Chakravartin King. A Chakravartin King possessed seven treasures and four virtues. The seven treasures were: the treasure of the wheel, the treasure of the elephant, the treasure of the horse, the treasure of women, the treasure of wishes, the treasure of subjects, and the treasure of soldiers. For the Tathagata, obtaining these seven treasures was as easy as reaching out his hand at any time. Yet achieving those four virtues required immense effort beyond human power.

The first virtue was wealth—to be the richest in the world, unmatched by anyone. This seemed simple, but the world now was not as it once was. Most things in the world belonged to Qitianling. To achieve this, fierce battles and struggles were inevitable. The second virtue was grace. While wealth was difficult but had a clear goal, grace required the Chakravartin King to have a appearance unmatched in the world. As for appearance, everyone had their own standards. Thus, though the Great Sun Tathagata was whole-bodied, he had no facial features. It was not because his cultivation was insufficient, but because the Tathagata had yet to decide what appearance the Chakravartin King should have. As a result, this prospective Chakravartin King was currently a faceless man.

The third virtue was health—the Chakravartin King needed to be free from illness and injury, unmatched by anyone. With his divine cultivation, staying healthy was easy, but remaining unharmed was difficult. To fight against the Five-Element Divine Apes and emerge unscathed was even beyond the Great Sun Tathagata’s ability. Therefore, when he saw the situation turning in his favor, he felt relieved. A lose-lose situation was certainly not what he desired. He proposed a bet as a way to avoid further involvement in the struggle.

The fourth virtue was longevity—living a stable and long life, which was quite simple.

According to Buddhist scriptures, once the Chakravartin King appeared, he could unify the four continents of Sumeru and rule the world with the true Dharma. In other words, it meant a position of supreme supremacy in the world.

Wang Yu said the Great Sun Tathagata was born too ugly, directly touching upon the Tathagata’s taboo. To achieve this virtue of grace, he had racked his brains countless times without finding a solution. Nili’s anger was not unfounded. He raised his eyebrows, ready to strike.

The Great Sun Tathagata let out a soft “hmm,” and Nili fell silent like a cicada in winter, quickly pulling back and standing at attention. The Great Sun Tathagata said, “I give you three days. If there are still people in this realm after three days, I shall deal with them as I see fit.”

With that, the Great Sun Tathagata took Nili and flew upward without looking back, disappearing in an instant.

With these two gone, the Five-Element Divine Apes felt much less pressure. The Great Sun Tathagata was so arrogant that he seemed unlikely to deceive anyone. Since he believed no one in this realm could defeat him, he would not resort to any hidden tricks. Anyway, no matter what Qitianling did, it remained within this realm and could not escape his control.

Looking down from Fengtong, although the fierce battle had just taken place, Qitianling hadn’t been greatly affected. Though a few peaks had collapsed, it was nothing serious. The Five Elements Divine Apes descended and rested for a while. Dayu and Houtu, having heard about their fight, couldn’t help but ask, “No matter how strong this realm is, it can’t stop so many people, right?” Fengtong smiled bitterly and said, “Tathagata is by no means reckless. His realm is very different from before.” He glanced at Dayu. Though he knew it was useless to say anything, he still added, “This realm is filled with the power of anti-creation. At the edges of the realm, this power is extremely strong. We can only slowly weaken it using the extreme power of the Five Elements, hoping to succeed within three days!” Houtu suddenly said, “Hey! If you already know this, why didn’t you negotiate with him? If he said three days, it’s three days!” Fengtong replied, “Do you think he would agree?” Dayu said, “Then it really can’t wait. Hurry up and take action!” Over there, Qilin could no longer hold back and shouted, “It’s not just the Divine Apes who can break through the realm—everyone in Qitianling can try!” With a few leaps, he arrived at the edge of the Buddhist Hell. What seemed like an edge was actually just a pitch-black expanse, like solid mist, blocking people from entering. The Five Elements Divine Apes knew this was the power of anti-creation, but Qilin had no idea. He threw a punch at the mist. Despite using all his strength, it was like throwing a mud ox into the sea—there was no reaction at all. Qilin used every skill he had to fight against this force of anti-creation, but since there was already an abundance of such power in the Buddhist Hell, even with all his efforts, he could only cause the mist to move slightly. After struggling for a long time, he failed to disperse it at all. Houtu, eager to try as well, stepped forward and struck with a palm. A yellow light burst forth, causing the black mist to shake violently before returning to its original state. Qilin was shocked and said, “You’re so much stronger than me?” Houtu shook her head and replied, “Not really! I’ve encountered the extreme power of earth, which is why I can achieve such results.” With a thought, she summoned Zhurong, Rushou, and Jumang as well. It seemed Fengtong was right—aside from the extreme power of the Five Elements, ordinary divine powers of others had almost no effect on this force of anti-creation. In Qitianling, only these four had the fortune to possess the extreme power of the Five Elements. Although their cultivation level was lower than that of the Five Elements Divine Apes, it was still better than nothing. The Five Elements Divine Apes flew over and saw Zhurong delivering a palm strike, causing the black mist to surge, only for it to reunite instantly. Fengtong said, “This won’t work.”

He silently sent a message. Wang Yu held the God-Slaying Ring and pointed; a white light shot straight into the black mist. Upon encountering this white light, the black mist dispersed as if driven away by a strong wind, revealing a clear space immediately. The Qilin shook its head in admiration— the Creation Divine Ape was truly enviable.

The black mist wasn’t thick, only about twenty feet deep. After it was dispelled, a black wall appeared behind it. Feng Tong said, “This is the boundary of the Buddhist Hell.”

Wang Yu continued to maintain the white light and said, “To destroy this wall, the five of us must work together, using the five-colored creation forces to wear it down. But during these three days, we must not be distracted and try to disperse the black mist again.”

Hou Tu asked, “Are you saying we need to do this so that the black mist can’t get close?”

Feng Tong replied, “Exactly! There’s a great deal of anti-creation force inside this black mist. Getting too close is extremely uncomfortable.”

Hou Tu nodded and said, “Then let’s give it a try.”

Hou Tu and the three gods of metal, wood, and fire approached the black wall and each used their ultimate spells of the five elements, struggling to create a clear passage. Only then did they realize what level of cultivation Tian Sheng possessed.

Wang Yu used the God-Slaying Ring with ease, creating a path with just a wave of his hand. The other four, however, had to concentrate hard and still found it somewhat difficult.

Seeing Hou Tu and the others holding back the black mist firmly, Feng Tong shouted, “Concentrate the five elements!”

The Five-Element Divine Apes stood outside the passage, forming a semicircle. Each emitted a palm strike, releasing five-colored lights that struck the black wall. The five-colored lights merged in the air, forming a multicolored creation force that struck the black wall.

They knew that beyond this wall lay the original world—the boundary of the Buddhist Hell, entirely formed from anti-creation force. One could only imagine how much effort Buddha had put into it.

Buddha surely wouldn’t do anything useless. This anti-creation force was meant to imprison the Creation Divine Ape. Among the Five-Element Divine Apes, the Intelligent Divine Ape was not as powerful as Tian Sheng, which was its biggest flaw. By setting a deadline of three days, Buddha had taken into account all the strength in Qi Tian Ling. It was impossible to break through this wall in three days.

Although the Buddhist Hell had consumed Qi Tian Ling, it had now disappeared from the world, hiding inside the Stupa. Even if Wukong and Yin Yang came to search, they wouldn’t find any trace of it.

To escape the Buddhist Hell, they could only rely on those trapped inside the realm!