The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

The power of communicating with the Myriad World was very much limited even in the Jade Palace. The aura of the mighty people was like a supercluster formed by many streams and galaxies, it was wide and deep, making people feel extremely small.

Meng Qi was standing at the side of the Green Lotus of Chaos. He was surrounded by the auspicious cloud of Supreme Endless Premier which was above his head. It never descended and only clustered around the Premier Priest who transformed from the real spirit. He calmly felt the horror of the mighty people.

Even if there were many celestial beings, it was difficult to fight a Legend without the awakened Peerless Heavenly Magic Weapon and the particular tactical formation. Many hands did not necessarily provide great strength.

After all, surely the number of celestial beings was not as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, and the reflections of the mighty people could exceed this amount. Each reflection carried ten to a hundred times or even more power of the celestial beings.

The Jade Pure Palace shuddered and subsided. Meng Qi’s vision penetrated through the chaos and he saw a tall figure wearing a grey robe coming out. His hair was hanging down loosely and there was a thick black beard on his chin. His eyes were light and colorless, looking slightly cool and indifferent. There was a chain of prayer beads glazing with azure golden light in front of his chest. Each of the prayer beads was like a white bone of the skull, sacred yet savage.

Meng Qi was struck by a thought at the sight of the Luo Sect Legendary and said,

“Sha Wujing!”

The chain of prayer beads was really a symbolic item. Moreover, he had heard about the image and appearance of Monk Sha when he was asking for directions from the demon race in the West.

Among five of the masters and disciples of the Pilgrimage to the West, White Horse was dead, Pigsy had fallen, the Great Sage’s life was uncertain and Tripitaka’s whereabouts were uncertain. Unexpectedly, Monk Sha, the only one without any news appeared at this place and became the Oracle of Ajati Matriarch. He had broken through the former limit and became a person of the Legendary Realm!

A strong feeling of eeriness rose in Meng Qi’s heart.

The mighty person of the Luo Sect who was wearing a grey robe stopped his pace beside the lotus pool and spoke in a hoarse voice, “Although it has only been 800 years since the Pilgrimage to the West, it was like forever to the Real World, so I didn’t expect that you would be able to recognize me.”

He admitted his identity frankly. His light and colorless eyes seemed to be able to penetrate through the chaos and land on Meng Qi’s face. Without waiting for his reply, he continued, “The Ajati Matriarch asked me to pass on three messages.”

“What messages?” to be honest, Meng Qi had never thought that the Ajati Matriarch was just like what Zhao Qian said, dragging in lots of people and sending a mighty person just to pass her messages.

All of a sudden the eyes of Sha Wujing turned deep.

“First message, the second disciple of Gautama Buddha is Ananda, not the Golden Cicada. The Golden Cicada is not even in the top ten disciples.”

Who was the Golden Cicada then? What was the purpose of the Pilgrimage to the West? Meng Qi was stunned and pondered about it.

“Second message, before the Pilgrimage to the West and going through all kinds of incidents, Gautama Buddha who gained many advantages had become one of the most ancient Nirvana Realm Individuals and started making reductions to achieve nothingness,” Monk Sha did not explain the previous message and just kept his role as a mouthpiece.

Meng Qi frowned slightly, he got the meaning beyond the actual words. Could it be that the Golden Cicada was the outcome of what Gautama Buddha reduced to achieve nothingness? For him, was the Pilgrimage to the West definitely not the sole purpose of preaching Mahayana Buddhism to the Nanzhan State?

Sha Wujing looked indifferent, “Third message, there will be changes in the Endless Sea in no more than five years and the Nine Levels of Underground Evil Demon will be active again.”

Switching the topic, the subject of the conversation turned to Real World matters and was no longer about the Pilgrimage to the West. Besides, he never mentioned a single word about Gu Xiaosang, neither did he try to rope Meng Qi in. It seemed like he knew the answer and there was no need for further inquiry.

“Only these three messages?” Meng Qi asked curiously in reply. “Since you mentioned the issue about the Golden Cicada, why don’t you talk more specifically about the Ajati Matriarch’s analysis?”

Awakened, and suffered from the damages beyond remedy?

Sha Wujing spoke in a low voice, “Yuanshi stopped the deification and Dao De drew out the Pilgrimage to the West. Each of them were spreading their own circle. Most probably they buried the history to cover up something. You are carrying the Principles of Karma and got involved in the conflicts of the Nirvana Realm. If you want to get out of it and be the chess player, sooner or later you will have to face these things. Enlightening you in advance without giving the details is beneficial for you to mess around. Crashing here and there could stimulate changes, and consequently reveal a little more about the covered-up information.”

“Hmm. All the above-mentioned were the explanation of the Ajati Matriarch, not mine.”

Dao De drew out the Pilgrimage to the West? As expected… Meng Qi nodded his head as he had predicted it.

History was torn to pieces and needed to be put together to catch a glimpse of it, otherwise, something would still be missing even if they traced back to the past.

“The West was extracted from the World of Gods by Lord Dao De?” Meng Qi asked.

Sha Wujing paused for a moment in silence, “For all I know, although the deification was suspended by the Ten Thousand Fairy Formation, and heaven and earth were broken because of this, it does not mean that the deification had failed completely. Those who were in the list before were all appointed to the position of God. The Heavenly Court was prospering after that. The alliance between Heavenly Lord Yuanshi, Lord Dao De, and the Celestial Ruler had reached its peak. I’m not sure why later there were the incidents of the Demonic Lord attacking the Heavenly Court and Big Brother creating a tremendous uproar in the heavenly palace. These had caused the split up in the alliance. The Celestial Ruler started to get close with Gautama Buddha. Thus, the Pilgrimage to the West began, until the fall of the Heavenly Court and the disillusionment of Spirited Mountain.”

“What Heavenly Lord Yuanshi intercepted was the history of the deification to the falling of the Heavenly Court and the disillusionment of Spirited Mountain. Lord Dao De extracted all the histories except those about deification. Therefore, those below the Legendary of World of Gods only knew that the Great Battle of Deification had caused the breaking of heaven and earth and only the List of Deification was left. But the Heavenly Court had already fallen and on the other hand, the Real World destroyed the history related to deification and Pilgrimage to the West. Only the fallen of the two Nirvana Realm Individuals, the Demonic Lord, and the Celestial Ruler could not be covered up. It had reached to the Heavens and the Myriad World, and was made known to the world.”

Meng Qi let out a sigh and said, “So that’s the original order. Looks like Lord Dao De is no less than Heavenly Lord Yuanshi…”

“Now both Heavenly Lord Yuanshi and Lord Ling Bao disappeared without leaving a trace, but Lord Dao De is still in the West,” said Sha Wujing. “At the beginning, Yang Jian went directly to Lord Dao De and asked for the Tao Te Ching. The reason for the Immortal Demon Fairy to stay at Tianzhu Mountain was also because the other Nirvana Realm did not dare to bring their power to the Pilgrimage to the West without authorization.”

So the Pilgrimage to the West was the Dao field of the Grand Supreme Lord. As one of the most ancient Nirvana Realm Individuals, he was not sure what he was planning.

Meng Qi opened his mouth, he wanted to ask about Lord Dao De again but eventually he changed to another topic, “It was out of my expectations that you weren’t gone in the fall of the Heavenly Court and the battle at Spirited Mountain. Instead, you became the Oracle of the Ajati Matriarch.”

“I was originally a subordinate of the Ajati Matriarch,” Sha Wujing said calmly. “I blended in the Heavenly Court first and served as the Great General for Folding the Curtain. Then, I was banished to the mortal realm for breaking the Ajati Matriarch’s glaze lamp. I turned into a demon and became one of the members of the team for the Pilgrimage to the West.”

“Intentionally?” Meng Qi seemed to have understood something.

Sha Wujing showed a rare grin on his face, “Second brother was the spy of the Heavenly Court, I certainly represent the will of the Ajati Matriarch and the person behind the Ajati Matriarch at that time.”

He was still using the appellation of Big Brother and Second Brother.

“The team for the Pilgrimage to the West is really, really…” Meng Qi thought for a while but could not think of a suitable word to describe it.

The eyes of Sha Wujing turned deep again and said, “Releasing Big Brother and giving him the Dharma practice to slay the Bodhi Golden Body was indeed a good move. Otherwise, otherwise the master would never reach Spirited Mountain.”

He touched the skeletal prayer beads in front of his chest while talking.

“The demons along the way didn’t seem to appear purely to make up the eighty one adversities. How could it be so easy for Lord Taiyi’s animal and the samanera under Maitreya to get lost…” Meng Qi suddenly came to a realization.

Sha Wujing remained silent for a long time before he opened his mouth, “It’s all over.”

He sighed and said, “You are exactly like Big Brother, both of you are arrogant and unyielding. He could create a tremendous uproar in the heavenly palace and pierce through Spirited Mountain, all for the sake of making a revenge. Still, there are some differences, he is outgoing and aggressive but you hide it inside. He is more like a demon, whereas you are more like a human.”

Speaking of that, he turned around slowly and walked back to the Jade Pure Palace. After a few steps, a deep voice called out,

“Hopefully you won’t be like him and make your life uncertain.”

The voice lingered in the air, it was full of desolation and lonesome.

Meng Qi let out a sigh of relief when he saw Sha Wujing disappear into the Jade Pure Palace. He felt extremely tired.