Chapter 705

With just one punch, Sun Wukong was blasted flying again, bones shattered, sinews torn, spouting blood in great gulps.

"This… how could anyone have a body this strong? Stronger than my Golden Immortal Body!"

He activated his divine power, restored instantly, and charged forward again.

The Chaotic Body remained calm, swinging fists and feet, striking out.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Again and again, Sun Wukong could only defend, hammered to the ground, cratering it deep, then bounced out by a single stomp from the Chaotic Body, pummeled relentlessly.

Boom—

Finally, one punch launched, and Sun Wukong's body exploded once more, ending the battle.

"I won't accept this! I want to fight with weapons!"

"Is that so?" Zhang Taixuan smiled lightly, his thought stirring—the Holy Spirit Avatar appeared; the Taixuan Sword slashed, and instantly, a sword intent that cleaved heaven and earth spread through the air.

Crack!

Sun Wukong's form was sliced cleanly in two once more.

He activated his divine power, trying to recover, but felt a ferocious, malevolent sword intent clinging to his flesh like a bone-deep parasite, impossible to remove.

"Ahh…"

Finally, the sword qi erupted, and Sun Wukong's body dissolved into dust beneath the sword intent.

"I want to fight with divine arts!"

Sun Wukong reappeared, his defiant gaze diminished.

In his view, he had lost with weapons and body—could his Seventy-Two Transformations possibly lose too?

This man was so young; he couldn't possibly excel at everything.

As the former Great Sage Equaling Heaven, he was proud, determined to reclaim one victory.

In spectator mode.

Su Xiao laughed arrogantly: "Divine arts? Hah! Most of the divine arts in Shangcheng were created by Brother Taixuan—he's actually challenging Brother Taixuan to divine arts?"

Xiao Mai chimed in: "This is exactly what Jin Chan said—a frog at the bottom of a well."

Ye Hei chuckled: "He's done for."

Sure enough, as soon as he spoke, Zhang Taixuan's body produced another avatar.

The Phoenix Avatar emerged, and instantly, celestial music rang out, shaking the cosmos.

Before Sun Wukong could react, the Phoenix Avatar spread its wings, five-colored auroras surged upward, and a rain of swords fell.

Puff!

The next instant, his Golden Immortal Body was once again cut to nothingness.

"No!"

"Impossible! How could my Golden Immortal Body be this weak?!"

It was supposed to be indestructible—magic treasures and flying swords couldn't harm it—why was it shattered every single time?

Even when he stormed the Heavenly Court, this had never happened.

He didn't know that the so-called Golden Immortal Body had its limits.

In a small world, it was indestructible; in a middle world, it meant nothing.

In a middle world, it was indestructible; in a great world, it was the same.

The boundaries of worlds differed; the so-called Golden Immortal Body was a joke.

"I want to fight your true body!"

"Is that so?" Zhang Taixuan sneered; the Star-Measuring Ruler appeared in his hand, tossed lightly.

Puff!

The next instant, the Ruler landed on the demon monkey's body and erased it.

This time, the demon monkey did not reappear for a long while; after a long pause, he finally reappeared on the arena, face filled with disbelief.

"Impossible—why do I lose every time?"

Zhang Taixuan said nothing, and directly disabled the arena function.

Chat group.

Su Xiao: "I'm dying laughing—does this Sun Wukong have a masochistic streak? He keeps fighting after losing so many times?"

Xiao Mai: "Did Buddha abuse the monkey too badly and drive him insane?"

Ye Hei: "Animal rights activists send their condemnation—Buddha is too cruel! 【Smirking】"

Hu Yifei: "It's definitely monkey abuse, but this monkey is brutal—I still support the decision of this world's Buddha."

Jin Chan: "This monkey should be locked up; letting him roam free would cause great disasters."

Jin Chan: "Besides, this world's Buddha probably isn't a good person either."

Hu Yifei: "How so?"

Jin Chan: "If Miss Hu were in the environment of the Great Sun Buddha, and knew the pig demon ate people, the fish demon ate people—what would you do?"

Hu Yifei: "I'd slap them dead instantly."

Jin Chan: "See? The answer is obvious. Miss Hu doesn't preach compassion, yet she can't tolerate this—yet the Great Sun Buddha preaches compassion, yet ignores such things completely."

Fa Hai: "This does differ from our Buddha's teachings. But wasn't it later explained? To temper Tang Seng, to help him realize great love and small love, so he could retrieve the sutras and save all beings?"

Jin Chan: "Hilarious! A common man who doesn't even love his own family—then claims he loves his country. Do you believe that?"

Hu Yifei: "Hard to believe."

Xiao Mai: "Indeed—if someone treats his own family terribly, claiming he loves his country? It's unthinkable."

Yue Fei: "If you don't love your own household, you won't love your nation."

Jin Chan: "Exactly. The so-called great love and small love aren't nonsense. Small love is love, and great love is also love. Is there any conflict between loving the people around you and loving everyone under heaven? There isn't! To put it plainly, the arrangements Great Sun Tathagata made were nothing more than to temper Tang Seng and gild him."

Jin Chan: "I've read history books — this kind of gilding, especially in officialdom, happens all the time, very common. But the mistake is that Great Sun Tathagata preaches compassion on one hand while doing something else entirely. It's really wanting to have it both ways — utterly disgusting."

Su Xiao: "Put that way, it does make sense. If it were an ordinary sect doing this, no one could say anything. But the Tathagata's teachings and his actions are clearly inconsistent."

Sun Wukong: "Is that not normal? The various Buddhas of Lingshan simply treat common folk as a source of incense offerings. As long as they can spread their sect, sacrificing some ordinary people — what would they feel? A conscience? How could someone with a conscience become a Buddha or an ancestor?"

Xiao Mai: "Isn't that too sweeping a judgment? Surely there are good people at Lingshan, right?"

Sun Wukong: "To become an emperor in the mortal world, one must give up many things — conscience, morality. In the cultivation world, to become a long-lived Bodhisattva or Buddha, one naturally has to give up even more."

Wan Wan: "@Li Shimin, what does Your Majesty Li Er think?"

Li Shimin: "Very reasonable. At least for me, a sense of morality too strong means there's no way to be a good emperor. You're asking me — you must want to ask about the Xuanwu Gate Incident. What I want to say is, even if I could choose again, I would still do it."

Zhu Yuanzhang: "【Appreciation】 As an emperor, one must have resolve. Dare to act, dare to take responsibility. That's the way it should be. As for the common man's sense of morality, that sort of thing is useless to an emperor. Having morality makes one easily held hostage by it; having a conscience makes one easily exploited. An emperor has always been a lonely soul — what is needed is coldness and reason."

Ying Zheng: "Well said. The merciful cannot command troops, the kind cannot be officials. In short, to achieve great things, many things must be given up. The leader of a sect must, just as Jin Chan said, give up much. An ordinary person, seeing a rampaging demon, would slay it. But he instead used those demons to gild Tang Seng and add renown to his sect. With too strong a sense of morality, one could never do such a thing."

Wang Chao: "Without demons, ghosts, monsters, natural disasters, and human calamities, how would the gods and Buddhas have incense offerings!"

Fahai: "I'm lost — does that mean this Buddha path can't be cultivated anymore?"