Volume 4: The Revelation Revealed – Chapter 429: The Prison of Waiting for Death

Wukong sighed. Dapeng’s journey was surely not to destroy any Buddhist hell; he must be searching for the phoenix. Though he knew the risks were great, who could stop his heart? Wukong lifted Dapeng and left the cave, saying to Xuan Nu, “My third brother is worried about the phoenix’s life and death. Please show some leniency, elder.”
Xuan Nu didn’t even look at him. With a wave of her hand, she lifted the restrictions on Dapeng and said coldly, “Life and death are in one’s own hands. Be careful.”
The group set off with a clear purpose, needing no disguise, and flew straight toward the Western Liang Women’s Kingdom. Among these fifty or sixty people, not a single one was incompetent, and they arrived in an instant.
Seeing the towering Stupa Tower from afar, Wukong asked Xuan Nu, “Should we attack from the Stupa Tower?”
Xuan Nu shook her head. “As I expected, the Great Sun Tathagata is inside the Stupa Tower. Though I don’t know how advanced his cultivation is, it’s better not to provoke him first. If we destroy the Buddhist hells, he will lose access to the essence of creation and may never wake up again!”
Wukong knew Xuan Nu had long harbored plans against the Buddhist hells and must have thought it through carefully, so he decided to follow her advice.
Suddenly, Xuan Nu’s tone changed as she snapped at Wukong, “You’ve studied the secrets of the Xuan Kong Method, yet you couldn’t see such a simple trick from Xiang Liu!”
Wukong felt ashamed at Xuan Nu’s words. It was indeed his fault for being lured into the Buddhist hells. If he had paid more attention, even though the techniques of creating realms were sophisticated, he would have noticed the flaws. So he said respectfully, “This is the only time. I will surely remember it.”
As they approached the Stupa Tower, they saw the Western Liang Women’s Kingdom was utterly deserted, with not a single soul in sight. Xuan Nu asked, “Goddess Hou Tu, where did you enter last time when you broke through the boundaries?”
Hou Tu replied, “It wasn’t here. The Buddhist hells are vast and constantly changing, as they are realms of mud. I just happened to enter by accident.”
Xuan Nu said, “I was wondering—given the current state of the Buddhist hells, you probably can’t enter again.”
Wukong used the secrets of the Xuan Kong Method to look down. Indeed, this technique was miraculous. With just one glance, he could see the entire Buddhist hell clearly and distinctly. The Buddhist hells consisted of eight major hells, each spanning thousands of miles. There were four hells on each side of a deep abyss, with clear boundaries between them.
Outside these hells, arrays were densely arranged. No wonder Xuan Nu said Hou Tu couldn’t enter again—probably because the realm of mud wouldn’t allow it, and no one could get in.
Wukong asked, “What should we do?” As he spoke, he looked toward Yuan Shi. Yuan Shi focused his gaze downward, then flew eastward and landed on a flat area before disappearing into the ground without hesitation.

Hou Tu followed closely behind, clearing a path. The more she pursued, the more terrified she became. Yuan Shi’s earth-based powers were clearly not yet perfected—how could his earthearthearth escape (earth escape) be so fast? It took her considerable effort to chase after him.

Yuan Shi rushed like lightning to the boundary of the Buddhist Hell. This place was thousands of miles deep underground, surrounded by protective formations. If it weren’t for his mastery of the Xuan Kong Secret Technique, breaking through these formations would have been difficult. But at this moment, they were a piece of cake for him.

It should be noted that the Buddhist Hell was extremely vast. Even the Tathagata didn’t have the energy to deploy extremely powerful formations everywhere; he could only alternate between real and fake, high and low formations, which might suffice to stop those like Wukong and Hou Tu who knew nothing about formations. How could they stop Yuan Shi Tianzun?

Yuan Shi chose the most remote area. His intentions were clear—many people had entered the Buddhist Hell. If they were discovered too early and attacked all at once, it would be disadvantageous. It was better to enter an uninhabited area and assess the situation before taking action.

In just a short while, Yuan Shi had broken through the outer formations of the Buddhist Hell. Xuan Nu said, “I can see clearly now. This realm is divided into eight major hells, each guarded by hundreds of Buddhas. If we divide our forces, we risk getting stuck in a stalemate. It’s better to destroy them one by one.”

Yuan Shi replied, “In the Buddhist Hell, the most crucial thing is the creation energy. The key is to scatter this energy so it can’t be refined into essence.”

Xuan Nu thought for a moment and shook her head. “There’s no good solution.”

Yuan Shi pondered for a while and said, “Then uproot them completely!”

Xuan Nu smiled bitterly. “How can we kill them all? If only Wukong would agree to take in their creation energy, things would be easy. The Creation Divine Ape isn’t afraid of creation energy and would take in as much as possible. But he…”

Yuan Shi raised an eyebrow. “How could I forget this? In that case, it’s better not to tell him for now. When the time comes, he’ll have no choice but to agree!”

Xuan Nu laughed. “It’s said that Wukong is very stubborn. He ignores countless creations in the three realms just to save people.” Yuan Shi said, “That’s true, but times change. In the three realms, all creations are made by humans. It’s understandable that Wukong can’t bear to see them suffer. In this Buddhist Hell, everyone lives in misery. If Wukong can truly take in their creation energy, it’s actually saving them.”

Xuan Nu said, “It would be good if he could change his mind.”

With the formation broken, entering this realm became easy. Laojun stepped forward, sketched an Eight Trigrams diagram in the air, then took out his banana fan and gave it a light swish. Immediately, a dark abyss appeared before them, with a strong foul wind blowing out from it. Lingbao frowned and said, “What a strange wind—full of deathly energy!” With a sweep of his sleeve, he drove away the foul wind and was the first to leap into the abyss.

One after another, they entered. This place was at the end of the deep abyss due east of the Buddhist hell, with grotesquely shaped, terrifying peaks rising on both sides.

Xuan Nu saw clearly that there were four hells arranged in a row on the left, each pair separated by thousands of miles. Ran Deng stepped forward and said, “The first one on the left is called the Hell of Waiting to Live. According to the will of Ni Li, those whose minds are chaotic and who constantly harbor thoughts of harming others are sent here. Those who commit killing or slander the true Dharma also end up in this hell.”

The group concealed their forms and headed toward the Hell of Waiting to Live. Only upon approaching those perilous peaks could they see clearly—countless iron claws extended from the peaks, and ropes were used to lower numerous people, whose fate was unknown. These iron claws could move, grabbing at people one by one, tearing off pieces of flesh with each strike. Once their flesh was exhausted, they died beyond death. But when the foul wind blew from the mountains, their flesh regrew, forcing them to endure the same suffering again and again, until all the essence extracted from them was gone.

Wukong entered this hell and secretly felt lucky. Just this one Hell of Waiting to Live spanned thousands of miles. His good fortune that day was truly remarkable; otherwise, how could he have spotted Prince Zhang among thousands of people?

As they continued, they encountered bald ghostly servants. They simply used their supernatural powers to attack them. The purpose of their journey today was not to eradicate the entire Buddha lineage but to cut off the source from which the Great Sun Buddha drew his essence. Therefore, the more thorough, the better. Since this involved the fate of heaven and earth, none of them showed any mercy.

They pressed forward without a single battle, passing through numerous mountains. At the center of the mountains lay a huge pond, into which all the essence scattered from various places flowed.

The essence swirled in the pond like a lake filled with mist and vapor. Wukong couldn’t help but gasp—how many living people must have been sacrificed to produce so much essence?

Along the edge of the pond stood countless Buddhas, chanting scriptures toward it. Upon closer inspection, Wukong saw that the white essence in the pond seemed to move with the chants, condensing into thin strands of light gray essence that floated upward, their destination unknown. Wukong couldn’t help but ask, “Is this the method by which essence is refined into pure essence?”

Xuan Nu asked, “Is there anything you don’t understand?”
Wukong replied, “So even this can be used to cast spells? Does that mean these spells were created by Tathagata?”
Xuan Nu said, “The art of spells is truly beyond easy explanation. With my current level of cultivation, I still can’t create them on my own, but Tathagata can.”
Wukong thought for a moment and said, “That doesn’t contradict anything. There must be something he knows that you don’t.”
Xuan Nu agreed, “Exactly. I indeed don’t know as much as he does about the rules of this world.”
Wukong said, “We can discuss this carefully when we return. What’s urgent now is how to destroy this Buddhist hell.”
Xuan Nu looked at Wukong and said, “That depends on your determination.”
“My determination?” Wukong was surprised. “What merits or abilities do I have?”
Xuan Nu asked, “What’s the most important thing in the Buddhist hell?”
Wukong thought for a while and said, “The most important one is, of course, the Three Thousand Buddhas. No, actually, it’s the Great Sun Tathagata.”
Xuan Nu nodded. “You’re right. The Great Sun Tathagata is indeed the source of all evil. If he regains his former strength, great disaster will befall the world. We must stop him at all costs.”
Wukong said, “Xuan Nu, just tell me what to do.”
Xuan Nu replied, “There are only two methods. The first is to kill all of Tathagata’s supporters. But this is extremely difficult. As you can see, there are millions of Buddhas in this hell. With our limited strength, even if we give it our all, it’s unlikely we can shake Tathagata’s foundation.”
Wukong gradually understood what Xuan Nu meant and asked, “The second method is to sever the roots of his creation?”
Xuan Nu confirmed, “That’s right. If we can drain all the creation energy from the Creation Pool, what will the Great Sun Tathagata use to refine creation essence or form a third body? This method is much easier than direct combat. But among all of us here, only you possess the abilities of the Creation Divine Ape and can operate without being affected by creation energy.”
Wukong couldn’t help but recall his time in the Three Realms. Laojun had said that all the creation energy of the beings in the Three Realms was meant for the Creation Divine Ape. The stronger the Creation Divine Ape, the greater the obstacle it posed to Tathagata. But back then, he couldn’t bear to see countless beings perish as the Three Realms collapsed, so he declined Laojun’s offer.
And now, did what he was about to do count as disregarding creation energy?
Seeing Wukong’s hesitation, Xuan Nu added, “If you refuse, I suppose the others will think the same. Then we’ll just have to fight our way through. In that case, out of these fifty or so people, few will likely survive.”

Wukong glanced at the Three Pure Ones, then at Dayu, Houtu, the Qilin, and Zhenwu. He also looked at the group of yellow-robed monks with long hair who had come with Randeng, before finally fixing his gaze on Randeng. Wukong’s knees weakened, and he knelt down, saying, “Please teach me, master.”