Chapter 614

Zhang Taixuan: "If you'd been reincarnated five hundred times, then remembered your memories before being enlightened, you'd be just as irritable!"

Yue Buqun: "Five hundred times? I wonder how many lifetimes it took for the Master to awaken his memories?"

Tang Xuanzang: "By the hundredth reincarnation, I had already awakened my memories. Since then, each life has repeated the same events, all while hiding it from Lingshan—do you know how hard that is?"

Su Xiao: "Aren't you a high-ranking member of Lingshan? Why fear them noticing?"

Tang Xuanzang: "Hmph, high-ranking? Just words! Don't project your own thoughts onto the Buddhas of Lingshan. You probably think even if I were exposed, it wouldn't matter."

Tang Xuanzang: "But I'm unwilling to test that outcome. Heh, after all, the danger falls on me—I don't want to die without knowing why."

Xiao Mai: "That's true! Sun Wukong suffered so much—if Lingshan found out, the Master might get his own special reincarnation package."

Su Xiao: "Worse still—if the Master reveals his Jin Chan memories, it'll be even worse!"

Zhang Sanfeng: "Five hundred reincarnations, all just to fetch the scriptures, just to enlighten Sun Wukong. Is it really that important?"

Ye Hei: "Legend says Sun Wukong was the Stone that Mended the Sky—could there be a connection?"

Zhang Taixuan: "Uh, Ye Hei, you're reading secondary canon, right? In the original Journey to the West, Sun Wukong was never called the Stone that Mended the Sky."

Hu Yifei: "That's true—the original Journey to the West only says he was a divine stone, never that it was left by Nüwa to mend the sky."

Ye Hei: "... So what I remembered was secondary canon?!"

Ye Hei: "Let me check the original text—sure enough, it's just a divine stone. Stunned. If Sun Wukong has no special origin, then why is Lingshan going to such lengths?"

Zhang Taixuan: "Why do you assume Sun Wukong has no great origin just because he isn't the Stone that Mended the Sky?"

Ye Hei: "??"

Ye Hei: "Is there some hidden meaning here?"

Zhang Taixuan: "Huaguo Mountain is the ancestral root of the Ten Isles, the dragon vein of the Three Islands—a place of Zhong Lingyuxiu's divine creation."

Ye Hei: "I've read that line too—does it hold some secret?"

Tang Xuanzang: "Speaking of which, I'm familiar with this. The Ten Isles refer to the Three Realms: the human world's four continents—Dongsheng Shenzhou, Xiniu Hezhou—and the heavenly realms, totaling ten. What's the significance of being the ancestral root of the Ten Isles?"

Tang Xuanzang: "The Three Islands are Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou—you're all cultivators, you know the fame of these three Xiandao. Sun Wukong is a celestial pillar stone, nurtured for eons at the world's center, untouched by the cycles of heaven and earth. He is, in essence, the world's very center, endowed with immense cosmic fortune."

Tang Xuanzang: "Otherwise, how remarkable is it for a mere stone to attain enlightenment?"

Zhang Sanfeng: "A world's celestial pillar transformed?"

Su Xiao: "I've never heard this version before! But what's the function of a world's celestial pillar?"

Tang Xuanzang: "The world's celestial pillar represents the world's center. If the pillar resides in Lingshan, then Lingshan becomes the world's center, and its fortune surges—Buddhism and Daoism flourish."

Su Xiao: "So that's why. I thought you were the true focus of the western journey! Turns out Sun Wukong is the most important figure."

Xiao Mai: "Wait—that doesn't make sense. If Sun Wukong is so important, why would the Heavenly Court let him go? A celestial pillar is too vital—it should be kept in the East at all costs."

Tang Xuanzang: "Who said the Heavenly Court willingly let him go? They were forced to!"

Su Xiao: "Forced?"

Tang Xuanzang: "Of course! Otherwise, even if they couldn't keep the pillar, they'd rather destroy it than let another faction have it."

Hu Yifei: "Then why didn't they destroy it?"

Tang Xuanzang: "Did the Heavenly Court never consider destroying the celestial pillar stone? Judging by your expressions, you've read my version (Li Mahao). You know how Sun Wukong was thrown into Laojun's furnace, right?"

Xiao Mai: "We know that!"

Su Xiao: "But he overturned the furnace and escaped!"

Tang Xuanzang: "Wasn't that the Heavenly Court's destruction plan? They wanted to refine Sun Wukong into a supreme elixir, helping someone break through their current limits, end the cycle of heaven and earth, and shatter their constraints. But fate is unfathomable—the celestial pillar resisted refinement, and even Laojun ended up covered in soot."

Tang Xuanzang: "The Heavenly Court was too greedy, trying to devour the celestial pillar and seize creation—it was rejected by the pillar, its fortune plummeted, and it lost any chance for a second attempt. Otherwise, if fortune fell further, the divine slaughter might have descended!"

Tang Xuanzang: "At that moment, the Buddha presented the Journey to the West strategy to Xiang Yudi: on one hand, he removed the celestial pillar's incarnation, Sun Wukong, from the Heavenly Court, attempting to subdue him; on the other, he gave the Heavenly Court's immortals a chance to reconnect with Sun Wukong, mending their relationship and recovering the lost fortune."