The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Above the sea of clouds, the conveyance light streaked past fleetingly. While Meng Qi checked the collections of the Afflatus King, he pondered on the previous two questions.

The main purpose of the mission was to ask about the time when the Heavenly Court collapsed, and to go back in time to witness the collapse in order to find the locus of the scattered Sea Calming Pearl. From there, an approximate location of the scattered pearl could be determined, laying a foundation as to where to seek them after returning to the future. Then, he suddenly thought to inquire about the time when the Demonic Lord invaded the Heavenly Court.

I still remember talking to a little demon during the first time I entered the West. It said that the Demonic Lord's invasion into the Heavenly Court and the collapse of the Heavenly Court were related. It even thought that the former was the direct cause of the latter, which had an obvious contradiction to the timeline that I came to understand.

Based on both the direct and indirect verification of the parties concerned, such as the Devil Buddha and Sha Wujing, he believed that with the War of Deification, the Heavenly Court benefited and formed a strong alliance with Heavenly Lord Yuanshi and Lord Dao De who were hidden behind the scenes, thus completely suppressing the power of the demons, achieving the most prosperous stage. However, there was nothing permanent in this world. For every peak, there was always a valley. As the Celestial Ruler's Cultivation Day advanced, perhaps he was no longer satisfied with being the face for Heavenly Lord Yuanshi and Lord Dao De, so he secretly schemed and caused dispute in Hell as well as an undetected crack in their alliance.

At this profound moment, the Demonic Lord immediately took advantage of the situation and invaded the Heavenly Court. He utilized a double-edged technique to gravely injure the Celestial Ruler and at the same time, exposed the discord between the Celestial Ruler, Heavenly Lord Yuanshi, and Lord Dao De. The situation changed after the exposure. The Buddhist Society started to lay out schemes, the Taoist Sect reacted accordingly, and the Celestial Ruler walked on the edge, trying to manipulate the situation in his favor by cleverly utilizing and balancing all existing forces between parties. In the midst of this chaos, the Congenital Sacred Stone of Demon Nuwa bred a Sun Monkey. With the string of events that came next, such as the prolonged dispute in Hell, the Uproar in Heaven, and the constraint on the Celestial Ruler to make him yield, who would have thought that the Celestial Ruler would turn directly to Gautama Buddha?

Later, Gautama Buddha, who gained a great advantage, finally reached the state of Heavenly Lord Yuanshi. He began trying to achieve Nirvana and planned for the Pilgrimage to the West. Not long after the pilgrimage ended, for some unknown reason, the Heavenly Court collapsed. It was suspected that the few Nirvana Realm individuals joined forces and broke through the Nine Levels of Heaven, and the Celestial Ruler sacrificed himself and manifested into a Time Blade. Amidst this progression of events, no one knew whether his allies were being subdued or that they had yet to make their move.

After the Heavenly Court fell, Gautama Buddha passed away. Thus, when The Demonic Sage invaded Spirited Mountain, coupled with Ananda's betrayal, the collapse of the Thousand Buddha was imminent.

The deification. The Demonic Lord's invasion. The Pilgrimage to the West. The collapse of the Heavenly Court. The Battle of Spirited Mountain. This is the sequence of events that I came to discover. However, it was not so to the little demons of this world. Obviously, there was a big time gap of the Great Sage Equalling Heaven and the Pilgrimage to the West in between. It was impossible for them to be confused, thinking that the invasion of the Demonic Lord was the cause of the Heavenly Court's collapse.

Their memory and the timeline did not match. There was something fishy going on. So, Meng Qi inquired about the time when the Demonic Lord invaded the Heavenly Court. The Afflatus King's answer was as he suspected.

The invasion of the Demonic Lord occurred less than six years before the collapse of the Heavenly Court!

The interval was so short. It was no wonder that the little demons, who existed a few hundred years later, talked about both events as if they were logically one and the same event. And the Pilgrimage to the West happened more than eight hundred years ago, which was long before the invasion of the Demonic Lord. It contradicts with the timeline that I came to understand.

Who is right and who is wrong then?

Meng Qi would have no hesitation insisting on his previous assumption because it was affirmed by two parties involved, the Devil Buddha and Sha Wujing. However, the West was an evolution caused by Lord Dao De's extraction of historical events. No one knew how much history was altered. Hence, the confusion on the sequence of events was completely understandable. Not to mention that there were some who even suspected that Lord Dao De withheld the information to cover up a certain secret.

Still, there remained some details to be confirmed.

Based on Meng Qi's assumption, the Devil Buddha only admitted to the collusion with the Demonic Lord, his betrayal to the Celestial Ruler, as well as to have pitted the Buddhist Society and the demon race against each other, causing the Battle of Spirited Mountain. Regarding the other incidents, his response was non-committal, only mentioning that the Celestial Ruler was gravely injured by the Demonic Lord and could not exactly apprehend the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

This appeared to be undoubtedly pointing toward the Uproar in Heavens incident, but looking deeper into it, there were too many explanations. Who could be certain that after the Pilgrimage to the West, Sun Wukong would not fight against the Celestial Ruler for a second time?

For instance, the battle to collapse the Heavenly Court!

Even when the Uproar in Heaven happened, it was hard to say if the Celestial Ruler took part in the war.

After all, during that time, the monkey was definitely not as strong as he was after the Pilgrimage to the West. There was still a long way to go before he could perfectly complete his religious cultivation. Even if the Celestial Ruler was severely injured, he could still be there in the Celestial Field to gain countless protection. Besides, only Nirvana Realm Individuals could contend against their own. There was no reason to be afraid even if the situation worsened. The Devil Buddha only said that the Celestial Ruler could not exactly apprehend Sun Wukong. So, the Celestial Ruler must have been worried about the person behind the scenes who prompted the Monkey to cause the Uproar in Heaven, thus decisively called in Gautama Buddha for help. Under such circumstances, it was debatable whether he would lower himself to deal with the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

As for the battle to collapse the Heavenly Court, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven earned the title of Victorious Fighting Buddha from this battle and perfectly completed his religious cultivation. He might even have possessed the characteristic of Paramita to become a Nirvana Realm individual. Simultaneously, the other Nirvana Realm individuals involved the Celestial Ruler and they exchanged blows in passing. It was not surprising that they were almost taken down by the Celestial Ruler.

As a result, the words of the Devil Buddha could not be taken as evidence that the Pilgrimage to the West happened after the Demonic Lord's invasion. Instead, Sha Wujing, who could clearly and precisely elaborate this sequence of events; his memory still not muddled even with the altered history, seemed trustworthy.

Yet, when thought over carefully, it did not matter if it was the Pilgrimage to the West, the Demonic Lord's invasion, or the extraction of historical events by Lord Dao De. Sha Wujing mostly had not achieved Legendary status and it did not involve the River of Time. Under the circumstance of not having acquired the characteristic of the Nirvana Realm, if he successfully made a breakthrough, would he be able to restore the chaotic yet vague memories?

More importantly, Sha Wujing was the Oracle Juan Lian of the Ajati Matriarch, which meant he could not be trusted. He might not be willing to lie, but it was unavoidable if his Ajati Matriarch surreptitiously altered his memories.

The two most crucial pieces of evidence had flaws, but some of the details were becoming increasingly eloquent. For instance, as the little demon had mentioned previously, the Nine Spirited Saint was sent to guard the Nine Nether Gates after the invasion of the Demonic Lord. Until this day, he was still there standing guard. If the Pilgrimage to the West happened after the invasion of the Demonic Lord, then when Tripitaka, Sun Wukong, and their entourage encountered the Nine Spirited Saint, he should have supposedly been standing guard at the Nine Nether Gates, and not been able to confront them.

Furthermore, before the invasion of the Demonic Lord, the Great Emperor Zhenwu mysteriously vanished and headed to the life-and-death origin. Who, then, was the Ninth Heaven Dang Mo Patriarch, called in by Sun Wukong as reinforcement?

Although these are the records of the Pilgrimage to the West that I've read about, the contents might have been altered. For example, during the Pilgrimage to the West, there was no record of the Nine Spirited Saint's obstacle. And the Ninth Heaven Dang Mo Patriarch has never been called in for assistance. Still, some of these details could be verified by the mighty people later on. I'm no longer certain.

What if I place the Pilgrimage to the West before the Demonic Lord's invasion?

Meng Qi was immersed in his thoughts, trying to come out with another prospect.

After going through a satisfying period of alliance, the Celestial Ruler, who had advanced into his Cultivation Base, possessed the ambition to become the Master of the World. The Buddhist Society did not want to witness the Taoist Sect to eternally dominate the Heavens and the Myriad World, thus conflicts began to aggravate. For instance, the dispute in Hell. Under such circumstances, Sun Wukong, who emerged from the Congenital Sacred Stone at this time, became the pawn to their games and battles time after time.

During the Uproar in Heaven, perhaps Sun Wukong had the help of Lord Dao De, all the fairies associated with Taoism went easy on him, making it appear as if the Celestial Ruler had no choice but to make the decision to deal with the monkey himself. Once the Celestial Ruler acted, the mysterious master of Sun Wukong rose to revolt the Celestial Ruler to achieve a certain purpose. And seeing that the situation was unfavorable, the Celestial Ruler promptly called in the Western Gautama Buddha for assistance. Perhaps the purpose was to pursue a new balance by exposing the Celestial Ruler's reverted faith to the Buddhist Society, or by exposing his collusion with Gautama Buddha.

After the Pilgrimage to the West, things brewed throughout the years, thus causing the occurrence of the Demonic Lord's invasion. This time, the Celestial Ruler displayed a strength of terrifying intensity. Did he defeat a Nirvana Realm individual on his own without the help of Heavenly Lord Yuanshi, Lord Dao De, or Gautama Buddha?

Only the Nirvana Realm individuals could contend against their own. Even among themselves, it was near impossible to kill a Nirvana Realm individual. They were usually sealed or repressed. No matter how great the price paid, how great an advantage a person had in the Celestial Field, or even when the Demonic Lord newly ascended to the Nirvana Realm, without the help of other ancient individuals, it was impossible to defeat a Nirvana Realm individual. To defeat one of them single-handedly, this shows the might of the Celestial Ruler. He could now rival with God Hao Tian in the Archaeozoic era, truly impressive.

As for why the Demonic Lord invaded the Heavenly Court, perhaps someone wanted to put on a test. To spell it out, someone wanted to know why the Celestial Ruler was nonchalant to gamble with the two God Masters previously. Under some probing, they discovered the strength of the Celestial Ruler and the defeat of the Nirvana Realm individual by his hands.

Not long after figuring out these secrets or being testified that these secrets were directly related to the Fruit of Dao, a number of Nirvana Realm individuals joined forces and broke through the Nine Levels of Heaven, leading to the death of the Celestial Ruler, and perhaps the passing of Gautama Buddha as well?

Although there was a lack of key points to link these events together, these assumptions seemed to complete the picture from another perspective, giving some explanation and clearing some of Meng Qi's doubts… Meng Qi sucked in a breath, feeling that the events of the ancient times were becoming increasingly confusing, merely thinking about it briefly made his scalp itch. It was even more so, after going through twice the extraction of historical events, making it difficult to determine what was true and what was not.

In the future, if I want to go back in time and take a step further into figuring out these events, I'm afraid I won't be able to avoid those obstacles.

Without knowing it, he had reached Donghai. And the treasures in the Crystal Palace of the Afflatus King had been long since forgotten.

His conveyance light descended and Meng Qi found the Donghai Marine Family. He dove straight to the Crystal Palace after asking about its whereabouts.

There were two huge crabs standing guard at the entrance to the Crystal Palace. With a faint smile, Meng Qi walked up to them and bowed,

"I'm Su Meng, requesting an audience with the Dragon Emperor."

"This is a gift for his majesty."

With a flick of his hands, two huge golden hammers flew and landed in front of the Crystal Palace.

Boom!

The ground shook, followed by an earthquake in the Crystal Palace. The Restrictive Spell surrounding the palace flickered.

"Invaders!" Alarms sounded, and from inside the Dragon Palace came the voices of surprise, "Purple Light Golden Hammers? The Afflatus King's Heavenly Weapon?"

Such a dilapidated Heavenly Weapon of the Afflatus King actually fell into the hands of a mysterious Taoist!

Ideas popped up in the Donghai Dragon Emperor's mind as he stood abruptly and rushed toward the entrance of the Water Crystal Palace to greet and welcome the mysterious Taoist!

Even Afflatus was defeated by this character, he must be treated courteously!