Volume 4: The Revelation Revealed Chapter 520: The End of Taiji

Xuan Nu remained silent in thought, while Tathagata did not rush her, merely watching her with a smile.
Finally, Xuan Nu spoke, “What grudge do you have against Pangu?”
Tathagata shook his head and said, “How could he even be my opponent?”
Xuan Nu replied, “That’s somewhat untrue. This world has trapped you for seven cycles already. Whether you can escape this cycle is still uncertain.”
Tathagata said, “If it weren’t for you all being deceived, why would I go to such lengths?”
Xuan Nu sneered, “How dare you say that? Today’s outcome is all because you deliberately suppressed the Creative Divine Ape and sought to seize Pangu’s fate!”
Tathagata, rarely, showed a look of confusion and asked, “What? Are you saying I was wrong?”
Xuan Nu nodded firmly and said, “You were wrong from the very beginning!”
Tathagata remained silent for a long time before saying, “Let bygones be bygones. Since the Divine Ape also wants to leave this world, whether he becomes an enemy or an ally depends on him.”
Xuan Nu asked, “Do you want me to mediate?”
Tathagata replied, “Who else besides you knows the stakes involved?”
Xuan Nu said, “Tathagata, forgive my bluntness, but perhaps you overestimate yourself.”
Tathagata raised his eyebrows and asked, “Why do you say that?”
Xuan Nu replied, “You should know that Lingming and YinYang have reached extremely high levels of cultivation. The mere Great Sun Tathagata is nothing in their eyes. If they want to leave this world, why do they need your help? Moreover, since the beginning of these cycles, you’ve been secretly harming the Creative Divine Ape. Surely you’re feeling uneasy now, right? Otherwise, why return to Qitian Ridge to show goodwill?”
Tathagata was taken aback and laughed, “Well, you’re right. Lingming and YinYang indeed exceeded my expectations. But don’t forget—I am someone from beyond the heavens!”
“And what if I am from beyond the heavens?” Xuan Nu asked.
Tathagata said, “I won’t force you to mediate. Just convey these words to them, and they’ll naturally know how to decide.”
Xuan Nu was skeptical and said, “Aren’t you afraid that I might let the Divine Ape turn against you once I’m free?”
Tathagata smiled bitterly and said, “Even if they destroy the Buddhist realm and kill me, what can they do? When the calamity of these cycles arrives, everything will be destroyed! And I… I…”
Xuan Nu asked, “Aren’t you afraid?”
“I’m afraid, of course. When that calamity comes, everything starts over. Who isn’t afraid?”
Xuan Nu then asked, “Could it be that you also belong to the lineage of creation, able to be reborn from chaos?”
Tathagata shook his head and said, “What lineage of creation? Even if creation perishes, I will not perish!”

Xuan Nu was shocked. What was Buddha’s true origin? How dare he speak such bold words? Even when creation perished, he would not perish—was this a supernatural power or innate talent? Were all those from beyond the heavens like this? What about the Divine Ape of Creation and the Kunpeng?

Buddha stretched out his hand and created a door in midair, saying, “Go through here, and you’ll return to that world. At this point, there’s nothing left to hide from you. Only by leaving this heaven can there be hope for survival.”

Xuan Nu didn’t rush in. “I’m afraid it’s only your own chance at survival, right?”

Buddha replied, “I don’t blame you for not believing me. Alas, if this cycle fails, I’ll just wait for the next one. What else can I do? Seven… seven cycles have already passed…” Hearing Buddha’s sighs filled with sorrow, Xuan Nu felt deeply moved. She stepped through the door and left the Buddhist hell.

Seeing Xuan Nu go, Buddha stood motionless for a long time. In the vast Buddhist hell, his white robes made him appear extremely lonely. Suddenly, Buddha raised his sleeve, and from the highest point of the hell, a tall tower descended.

This tower was the Stupa Tower. Buddha put the tower into his sleeve and said softly, “You all, come out.”

As soon as his words faded, countless bodhisattvas, arhats, and Buddhas poured out from the eight peaks of the Buddhist hell—tens of thousands in number.

Buddha created a gate wide enough to span a hundred zhang. With a gesture of his hand, they entered silently and left that realm. It took them half an hour to all pass through.

Buddha closed the gate and said, “Nili, you go too.”

Nili Bodhisattva appeared out of nowhere. After hearing Buddha’s words, he bowed slightly and tapped his body countless times. His flesh was torn to pieces by his own blows, with the final tap landing on the Nili Palace. This evil-minded Nili Bodhisattva destroyed himself at Buddha’s command without any resistance.

Nili Bodhisattva’s body turned into a wisp of smoke that lingered in the air for a long time. Then, the Great Sun Buddha appeared and absorbed the smoke into his dantian.

Buddha dispelled all the forces of the Buddhist hell and destroyed Nili without any trace of sorrow. He merely murmured, “Though I bear no resentment, there are too many who hate me. I’d better leave.” Buddha knew that Nili had an ugly appearance and had never been liked by anyone. Moreover, as the ruler of the Buddhist hell, Nili had stolen countless people’s fates over the years. During the several attacks on the Buddhist hell by Qi Tian Ling, Nili had been the main force behind them. Thus, he held the deepest grudges against Qi Tian Ling’s people, a conflict that was hard to resolve.

He dismissed the Boundless Bodhisattva and abandoned the World of Mud. If he could gain even a sliver of goodwill from the Divine Ape of Fate, it would be worth it. Besides, the cultivation level of the World of Mud had been absorbed by the Great Sun Tathagata without any loss. Although the Great Sun Tathagata could only reach the peak of Heavenly Saints in this world, his cultivation was not meant for this realm; his ambition lay beyond the heavens. In this world, he was no match for Wukong or Yin-Yang, and he was well aware of this. His goal was to leave this world, and only then would it be time for the Great Sun Tathagata to show his power. After absorbing all the essence of the World of Mud, the Tathagata said, “There’s no need for this Buddhist realm to exist anymore. Absorb it all as well.” The moment the Tathagata took back the Stupa Tower, the Buddhist Hell became fully visible at the edge of the Golden Heaven and Silver Earth. The Stupa Tower and the Buddhist Hell were interdependent—only together could they remain hidden. Once the Tathagata took back the Stupa Tower, the Buddhist Hell could no longer be concealed. The Buddhist Hell was vast, spreading across the world like endless dark clouds that darkened the Golden Heaven and Silver Earth. Gradually, these dark clouds shrank, and after about three hours, the Buddhist Hell vanished entirely, with the last trace of darkness drifting into the mouth of the Great Sun Tathagata. Now, only the Tathagata and the Great Sun Tathagata remained, facing each other in silence. Xuan Nu left the Buddhist Hell and headed toward the River of Flowing Heaven to search for Wukong. Upon arriving, she saw all seven Divine Apes there. Wang Yu was overjoyed upon seeing Xuan Nu and exclaimed, “Master!” Xuan Nu waved her hand, telling Wang Yu to calm down. She glanced at Wukong, who was still lying motionless, and asked Yin-Yang, “When will Wukong wake up?” Yin-Yang shook his head and said, “I don’t know.” Xuan Nu said nothing and sat down beside Yin-Yang, closing her eyes in meditation. Since Wukong wouldn’t wake up, she didn’t know whom to talk to. Although Yin-Yang had high cultivation, his cunning and strategy were far inferior to Wukong’s. Perhaps only Wukong could guess what the Tathagata was planning. Everyone sat in a circle, worried about when Wukong would wake up, while Wukong had already entered a strange realm. Inside his dantian, black and white leaves formed the shape of a pair of fish, with the Black-White Ball of Fate, created from the Primordial Dao Fruit, floating quietly above. Wukong lamented that though he was skilled in using the power of fate, he still couldn’t master the power that countered it. He tried to separate the ball, but whenever his fate energy touched it, it was instantly absorbed. Fortunately, Yin-Yang continued to supply him with the Colorful Tree Lotus. Finding the ball peculiar, Wukong poured all the fate energy in his body into it, and the ball absorbed it all without hesitation.

In the colored lotus of creation, a stream of pure white flowed into Wukong’s Mud Ball Palace. Wukong then poured this creation into the Creation Ball. Since the Creation Ball could hold it, he let it absorb as much as it could. There were at least thousands of colored lotuses from the Seven Treasures Pool on Spirit Mountain, but he never expected Wukong to be so terrifying in collecting creation. In just one hour, Yin and Yang were left with nothing. The more creation Wukong gathered, the weaker the connection between them became. Not knowing what was happening, with no creation left, they could only wait patiently for Wukong to wake up.

Wukong felt that the creation at his Mud Ball Palace suddenly stopped. At that moment, the black and white fish also ceased spinning. To his surprise, he gradually lost his six senses… He could no longer hear, see, or smell. He couldn’t even open his mouth. He suddenly lost contact with the outside world. The blue sky above vanished, the distant mountains disappeared, the River to the Heavens ceased to exist, and even Yin and Yang, who were only a thousand feet away, were no longer perceptible. All he could see and feel was himself, the black and white fish in his dantian, and the Creation Ball hanging above.

The black and white fish stopped spinning, and the Creation Ball remained motionless. Everything was still, except for Wukong’s consciousness, wandering and pondering between black and white.

Wukong felt as if he had returned to his state at birth. On the peak of Flower-Fruit Mountain, the nine-orifice immortal stones absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon, giving birth to a unique, intelligent divine ape. Named Lingming, he still emerged from stillness, from silence, from the void…

Why is life? For Wukong, in the world of Journey to the West, he had initially sought the scriptures and solved mysteries, following his true heart step by step until now, seemingly just one step away from success. But at this moment, he suddenly realized that what he had been pursuing was actually just one word—Dao!

All struggles, life and death, blossoms, and illusions are not the fault of humans, but rather differences in Dao!

Like Ratna and the Phoenix who fear death not in the face of powerful enemies, like Dayu and Hou Tu who show kindness in the mortal world, like Xuannv, the Three Pure Ones, Maitreya, Guanyin, and Ksitigarbha who give up ease for complexity, even like Tathagata who dares to defy the world just to transcend it—all these are manifestations of Dao, that pure land firmly held in the heart and untouchable.

And as for the Boundless Bodhisattvas, the Three Thousand Buddhas, and others, they originally had Dao, but their true Dao was deceived from them by others, replaced with a false Dao. What a tragic thing!

Wukong stared intently at the black and white fish and the Creation Ball. As he watched, he gradually entered a state of half-dream, half-awake.