Chapter 70: The Legend of the First Cycle

This little thing clearly understood Ding Huan's words; suddenly it raised its front paw and gestured frantically in the air…

But after only a few gestures, it slumped and lowered its paw.

Ding Huan flew into a rage, raised his hand, and slapped the little thing on the head, sending it flying into the wall, then sliding down.

"I've seen plenty of ungrateful bastards, but never one like you. I saved your dog's life, asked you a few questions, and you try to kill me—you damn dog—"

It wasn't even a dog, yet Ding Huan kept calling it a dog.

Ding Huan knew fireball spell, wind blade spell, and various minor arts. Seeing this little thing gesture, he realized it was forming hand seals, trying to cast a spell on him.

But this thing had just awakened its memories and forgot it was now merely a Level One Gene Beast—how could it cast any spell?

Though Ding Huan hadn't gone for the kill, the little thing was clearly badly hurt; when it finally staggered to its feet moments later, fear gleamed in its eyes.

"Ji ji ji ji…" After being scolded by Ding Huan, the little thing dared not act on its own again; it quickly let out a flurry of "ji ji ji ji," which Ding Huan understood not a word of.

Ding Huan rubbed his forehead. "Forget it. I can't understand your bird language. Let me ask you—are you from the Dao Cultivation Era?"

The little thing had no idea what the Dao Cultivation Era was; it stared blankly at Ding Huan, then shook its head.

Didn't know the Dao Cultivation Era?

As Ding Huan pondered where to begin, he suddenly saw the little thing leap onto the lab table and pick up a pen.

"You can write?" Ding Huan rejoiced, quickly opening a notebook and placing it before the little thing.

"Duobao broke his word, ambushed the Monkey King…" To Ding Huan's astonishment, the monkey had actually written a line.

The characters were neat enough, though archaic; Ding Huan recognized them all.

Duobao? Duobao Daoist? Buddha?

Before Ding Huan could ponder further, the little thing continued writing: "I was ambushed by Duobao, then struck on the head by the Stone Monkey's staff…"

"Wait—was the Journey to the West real? Are you the Stone Monkey?" Ding Huan realized, astonished.

The little thing stared at Ding Huan in confusion, then wrote: "What is the Journey to the West? What is Sun Wukong? Are you referring to that Stone Monkey?"

Aside from the first few crooked characters, the little thing's writing improved with every line.

"No, in Chinese mythology, Sun Wukong was born from a Stone Monkey, who later escorted Tang Sanzang on a journey west to obtain scriptures.

Along the way, a Six-Eared Macaque impersonated Sun Wukong and claimed to be him.

But the Six-Eared Macaque looked so much like Sun Wukong that no one could tell them apart, so they went to Buddha to have him identify the true one.

Buddha identified the Six-Eared Macaque, trapped it with a treasure, and Sun Wukong killed it with one blow of his staff. Correct?"

As Ding Huan spoke, something struck him; he added:

"Later, I read many theories suggesting the real Sun Wukong was the one killed, and the Six-Eared Macaque, acting on Buddha's orders, continued escorting Tang Sanzang westward and eventually attained Buddhahood."

Ding Huan stared intently at the little thing before him. "You're not telling me you're that unlucky Stone Monkey, are you?"

The little thing grew even more confused; it shook its head, then after a long pause, wrote again:

"I don't know the Journey to the West, nor Sun Wukong, nor the journey west for scriptures. But I am indeed the Six-Eared Macaque—what's going on?"

"Could it be that some of your memories are missing?" Ding Huan said uncertainly.

He had felt certain he extracted all the Stone Monkey's memory genes, but this was his first time doing so—and now he wasn't sure if he'd fully separated them.

"..." The little thing pressed its hands to its head, straining to recall the journey west—but nothing came.

"Then don't think about it. Just write what you remember. Fine, from now on, I'll call you Liu'er."

"That name sounds awful. I won't be called Liu'er," the little thing wrote.

Ding Huan sighed. "Alright then—I'll call you Lao. Anything with 'Lao' in it is powerful."

"Good, then I'll be Lao Liu," the little thing said, thrilled. It loved the name—Lao was a Sage, after all.

Now its name had a "Lao" in it too—how glorious!

"Hey, Lao Liu, you've got your name. Now write your story properly—I'm watching," Ding Huan interrupted Lao Liu's daydreaming.

"The Sect Master told me that if I took the Stone Monkey's form and argued with him, he would move to subdue the Stone Monkey, and I'd seize the chance to kill him…"

As Lao Liu wrote this, it froze—this was exactly the story Ding Huan had just told.

Ding Huan chuckled. "Still saying you're not from the Journey to the West? Hmm, maybe it's because my skills are too weak.

Doesn't matter. Keep going. This missing memory isn't important."

Lao Liu glanced at Ding Huan, as if judging his sincerity, then continued writing: "If I killed the Stone Monkey, then when Earth's Cycle comes, I, Lao Liu, would survive.

I never expected the Sect Master subdued not the Stone Monkey, but me. The Stone Monkey's actions were exactly what I had planned—it struck me on the back of the head with its staff…"

"Wait…" As Ding Huan read this, he felt something was wrong.

"What do you mean by 'Earth's Cycle'?" Ding Huan asked.

"It's Earth's Cycle. The Dao Ancestor said Earth is about to cycle—anyone who stays on Earth will die. To leave Earth, one must enter the Cosmic Disc.

Without such a treasure, only Sages might find refuge in the boundless cosmos. Ordinary immortals who enter the Void Cosmos face only death." Lao Liu wrote.

"What is a Cosmic Disc?" Ding Huan asked.

"It's the Dao Ancestor's treasure. Only those who attain Immortal Status—or equivalent—may enter. The universe's four primordial apes are destined for only one Immortal Status, so only one of us, me or the Stone Monkey, may enter the Cosmic Disc."

Ding Huan now realized: it wasn't that he'd failed to fully extract Lao Liu's memory genes—it truly had nothing to do with the Journey to the West.

But this matched the Earth Cycle information he'd obtained. This Lao Liu was useful. Satisfied, Ding Huan continued: "What is Immortal Status?"

"Immortal Status is Immortal Status—Buddha Status, Emperor Status, Demon Status, Ghost Status, all of them."

"At the time, the Zuzhijie Sect held the most statuses. The Chan Sect, to block Zuzhijie's gains, allied with the Western Sect to scheme against the Zuzhijie Sage…"

As Lao Liu wrote this, it suddenly understood something; it stared blankly at the table.

It too had been a pawn in the scheme—damn it, even this position was manipulated?

Ding Huan now grasped the scheming behind Earth's first Cycle. Lao Liu's account was simple, but beneath it lay profound treachery.

So the Divine List was the result of the major sects' machinations during Earth's Cycle?

But this still didn't fit—the timeline was off.

According to the passage of time, the Legend of the Divine Tablets is part of Huaxia history, traceable back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

At that time, Earth could not have had reincarnation; if it had, he probably would not exist.

Ding Huan pressed his head, feeling his thoughts had grown chaotic—who was right and who was wrong?

No, there's something off about what this Sixth Brother said.

"Sixth Brother, I ask you—is the reincarnation of Dixin the same as Earth's reincarnation?" Ding Huan seized the key issue.

Sixth Brother stared blankly at Ding Huan, then after a long while wrote: "What is Earth?"

Ding Huan said urgently, "Earth is where we live—isn't Dixin Earth?"

"If that doesn't make sense, let me put it another way. Earth is a planet; the greatest distance between two points on its surface… is roughly twenty thousand kilometers."

Sixth Brother shook his head instinctively, then suddenly understood and quickly wrote: "That's definitely not it—twenty thousand kilometers? Heh, I could make several round trips in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea."

"This tiny place is less than one ten-thousandth the size of a single continent. Dixin's Ten Great Continents are only a part of it. Besides, Dixin doesn't include the Nine Layers. Including the Immortal World and the Nine Layers, I don't even know how big it is…"

At this point, Sixth Brother grew confused again.

Wasn't it dead? In the reincarnation of Dixin, who could have saved it? It glanced instinctively at Ding Huan—was this an ultimate transcendent? Stronger than a Sage?

Something's wrong—this person before me doesn't seem particularly powerful. It has no cultivation yet, and feels no overwhelming aura.

Ding Huan nodded instead—that made sense.

It seems the reincarnation of Dixin is not Earth's reincarnation.

As Ding Huan thought of this, a stream of information suddenly reappeared in his mind.

"After our planet's reincarnation, though we lost the Nine Layers, the Ten Great Continents, the Immortals and Gods, and the spiritual roots…"

"…in the long river of time, civilization must arise again, and someone must record our era…"

"Some souls from our time will be reborn—they may not remember who they once were, but can vaguely recall fragments of the past, allowing the new civilization to follow the path of the old one."

"Many years later, someone might even use memory genes to resurrect the souls of our era… I wish myself good luck…"

After learning this information, Ding Huan's mental clues grew clearer.

The former world included Dixin and the Immortal World, and even the Underworld—like Yujing, which was in the Immortal World; Yuxu Palace, Bajing Palace, Yaochi, the Heavenly Court, the Three Immortal Islands—all should have been in Yujing.

Such a vast Yujing was probably just a tiny corner of the Immortal World.

But it's unknown whether the Nine Layers were within the Immortal World.

After Dixin's reincarnation and the universe's collapse, the Nine Layers and Yujing either shattered or relocated.

When Dixin collapsed, only one in a hundred million remained—that one in a hundred million is Earth.

Earth was once part of Dixin, so it once held the corpses of Immortals and Gods. After Earth gave rise to new civilization, they were reborn with fragments of memory.

These memories became the link preserving the legacy of Dixin's civilization.

Whether the Journey to the West or the Legend of the Divine Tablets, both were merely novels rewritten by reborn souls clinging to vague memories.

He most admired the great master who left the hide scroll—somehow deducing that someone could restore Dixin-era soul memories through memory genes.

Could that be even stronger than a Sage? Who was the one who left the hide scroll?

And why did this powerful figure who left the hide scroll say, "I wish myself good luck"?

(Added an extra chapter today—for no reason. If you insist on a reason, I forgot at noon, so I dared not skip adding one tonight.)

The patron bonus chapter will come after the official launch!

Today's update ends here, fellow cultivator—good night! Please support with monthly votes.