Chapter 464: The Three Pure Ones

East has Qiming, west has Changgeng.

Taibai is the essence of metal in the west, son of the White Emperor, symbol of the Upper Duke and Great General.

"Old sir, where around here can one drink and eat meat?" Su Lin tugged the reins and asked, "This monk is starving, he even wants to return to the Eastern Land of Tang for some fun."

The old man rose from the stone and walked down, smoothing his long white beard: "So it is the Holy Monk before me—but isn't drinking alcohol a breach of precepts for a monk?"

"Wine and meat pass through the intestines, but the Buddha remains in the heart." Su Lin quoted the Mad Monk Ji Dian; since the Dragon-Subduing Arhat of this world was gone, it was now his own words.

He didn't care that someone behind him was yelling about a hundred percent plagiarism rate—in short, he wanted to see what the Heavenly Court was up to.

The Tianhe Battle Robe was already worn, ready to activate at any moment; if anything felt off, he'd just temporarily become a Tian… no, better keep far away from anything tied to the Hun Tian Di.

"Master, your Buddhist wisdom runs deep," the old man praised. "Within a hundred li, there are no demons, no monsters, no human habitation. If you seek the mortal world, you must reach Gao's Village."

The Journey to the West was even more chaotic than imagined; apart from major prefectures and a few places, regions without cultivators or government protection had suffered—no village had been seen since Famen Temple.

Meng Qi glanced at the group message; Su Lin and the others seemed unwilling to exchange veiled words with Taibai Jinxing, so they pushed him forward to speak.

After a brief pause, Meng Qi dismounted, bowed respectfully, and smiled: "Elder…"

"Oh my!" The old man, seeing Meng Qi's motion, eyes wide with terror, dissolved into a gentle breeze and vanished.

Moments later, a white-bearded elder appeared, holding a soft, luminous fly-whisk.

"Tian… Great Sage, don't! You humiliate me, you humiliate me!" Taibai Jinxing hastily returned the bow, trembling with fear: "Please, Great Sage, forgive this servant."

"So it is Taibai Jinxing before me! Old Sun has been impolite," Meng Qi realized. "Why are you here?"

Taibai Jinxing wiped his forehead with his white sleeve and said: "The Heavenly Court has cleared the initial stretch of your journey west. Rest assured—whether celestial demons or malevolent spirits, none will appear within the borders of Tang."

"The Journey to the West requires eighty-one trials. If the Heavenly Court cleanses them all, how will we endure suffering to attain enlightenment?" Su Lin asked.

Cleaning up demons—it made one think a superior had come down to inspect work, and the department, desperate for satisfaction ratings, had pulled all-nighters to slash targets and complete evaluations.

No wonder, since Fa Hua Temple, not even a single cannibal demon's hair had been seen. Leaving aside the time-travelers who left voluntarily, weren't there still plenty of mountain lords and river masters?

It forced them to order takeout.

"Why didn't you do this earlier?" Li Huowang deliberately grumbled, his tone full of discontent.

It seemed like youthful anger at the Heavenly Court watching from afar—but it was deliberate.

With these words, Taibai Jinxing would at least have to explain something.

"Celestial demons and these monsters are of the same ilk. We cannot intervene in six out of ten places. Until today, the vast majority of the Heavenly Court's strength is engaged in battle across the Three Realms and Six Paths, and in countless Minor Thousand Worlds against these invaders—we simply cannot spare more."

"Moreover, before the possibility of counterattack arrives, we dare not act rashly. Besides, the current Heavenly Court has only us civil officials left to hold the situation together."

Could this "counterattack" refer to us?

Probably not.

Their arrival was an accident; before this, the Heavenly Court must have had another plan.

Su Lin smiled faintly: "Am I not also a celestial demon?"

Taibai Jinxing chuckled: "If any of you see something you like, take it—claim it freely."

This attitude was truly strange.

Taibai Jinxing glanced at Su Lin and the others in the group, then fixed his gaze on Meng Qi—as if seeking his approval.

"Zhang Heng, Chu Lingyun, Old Sun has here a Formless Zen Blade. Go there, calm your minds, and practice." Meng Qi sent two beams of light, returning their smiles.

Zhang Heng was no fool—he understood this was something the two newcomers couldn't know; it made sense, and they'd even been given a gift, so face was preserved.

The two thanked him, then sat cross-legged nearby, sealing their senses.

Su Lin: "He recognizes you, not Shi Hao."

Meng Qi: "After all, I have closer ties to the Three Pure Ones."

And no matter how shocking it had been at the time, once back in the Heavenly Court, using other methods to verify or simply thinking carefully, no one would ever link Shi Hao to the few figures of this world.

Kleine: "Everyone is the protagonist of their own life."

Lu Mingfei: "?"

Su Lin: "What you love is…"

Kleine: "And you, my friend, you are the true protagonist. @Meng Qi"

Indeed, the whereabouts of the Three Pure Ones of this world are unknown. If the timing is right, Meng Qi could perfectly replace them—one standing in for three?

Oh, no—that's not replacing them. That's reclaiming what was his.

Carefully counting, how many universes is this now? Why does it feel like this man…

"Taibai Jinxing, speak plainly," Meng Qi looked at him.

"The Journey West is of utmost importance," Taibai Jinxing bowed again, this time lowering his head without rising:

"The Buddhist-Taoist conflict is false. The true purpose is to forge the Great Array of Heaven and Earth, to let demons, monsters, humans, gods, immortals, spirits, beasts, ghosts, and Buddhas undergo tribulation and dissipate the calamity-qi of heaven and earth, then gather grand merit to repair the heavens' wounds."

"Fate is sealed. Thus, since the Journey West began, this task must be carried out by Jin Chanzi and his disciples to activate the Great Array."

"But before the heavens could be mended, celestial demons assassinated Tang Seng's party, causing the plan to fail."

From Taibai Jinxing, they learned that the original pilgrimage party had nearly reached the foot of Lingshan—when, right then, certain "celestial demons"—in fact, time-travelers—murdered Tang Seng's group beneath the eyes of countless gods and buddhas in Tianzhu.

Did those great ones just watch?

Or were these enemies so powerful even the great beings of this world were powerless?

Su Lin's hand reached out from the past and snatched the interdimensional talisman Han Li had just pulled out.

"The calamity struck suddenly. The great ones had only time to entrust a few final instructions before flying into the cosmos. We do not know what happened, only that they never returned—leading to the later suffering of Tang Xuanzang's party."

Taibai Jinxing shook his head helplessly:

"Now, those who occupy Lingshan and seek to disrupt the Underworld are the very ones who assassinated Tang Xuanzang."

But his once-dim eyes turned fiercely earnest as he looked at Meng Qi.

He understood roughly: the current Journey West had become a struggle between time-travelers and the surviving immortals and gods.

If the Journey fails, the Heavenly Court will use the Hun Tian Di's remaining treasures to restart the temporal-spatial fabric of the mortal realm and begin the Journey to the West anew.

Combining the earlier self-introduction of the Reincarnator named Canglang—who claimed the identity of the Black Wind Cave trial—and the fact that the Shuangcha Ridge Reincarnator and the original Tang Seng's party had not been revived, one can deduce that

——any participant in the Western Journey who died at the hands of a Reincarnator in the past had their fate-seal seized by the Reincarnation space and used to assign identities to Reincarnators?

In the chat group, Kleine analyzed: "Reincarnators are essentially consumables, repeatedly entering this world to complete missions. The Tang Seng tombs we saw in Chang'an were likely those Reincarnators who acquired the Tang Seng identity."

"After several prior trials, the Heavenly Court, to some extent, mastered the pattern of the Reincarnation space's Tang Seng refreshes, and added Li Shimin—who possessed the aura of the Human Emperor—to the renewed whitelist. Afterwards, they stationed themselves at the spring refresh point to make preparations?"

"Mr. Detective, how much credence do you give his words?" Su Lin asked.

Kleine replied: "The truthfulness is unproblematic, but Tai Bai Jin Xing certainly hasn't revealed everything, Meng Qi."

"I could forcibly peer into some secrets using the hidden Heavenly Dao I control," Meng Qi considered, then said: "Let's wait a bit longer."

Shi Hao: "The Reincarnators we encountered in the Chang'an imperial palace weren't participants in team-vs-team missions; they arrived much earlier."

Han Li: "Their goal is also tied to the Western Journey, which is why they're watching us. Perhaps the Reincarnator who just attacked us wasn't motivated solely by team battle factors."

So was the identity of the scripture seeker always a Hell mode? Those seventy-odd tombstones mean over seventy scripture seekers perished en route.

Now it seems the Reincarnation team at Lingshan is truly the one needing the scripture seeker to complete the Western Journey, while the Heavenly Court secretly strikes hard, eliminating Reincarnators who take on the scripture seeker identity.

But according to Tang Huang's account, after eliminating them, the timeline is restarted—doesn't that amount to brute-force dragging?

There must be another intention, but that's not something to ponder now.

"If I side with the Reincarnation space, didn't I just attack my own teammates?" Su Lin recalled how, in the Golden Throne Hall, those Reincarnators had been arrogant in attitude, yet their expressions later clearly showed something was off.

No—when it comes to the fate of all living beings, there is no such thing as teammate or not.

This is justice.

Thinking of this, Su Lin asked Tai Bai Jin Xing: "How does my completion of the Western Journey differ from that of other Buddhist companions?"

Judging by Tai Bai Jin Xing's posture, he wants them to complete the Western Journey—even adopting a cooperative stance.

Because of Meng Qi's identity?

"Wearing the Golden Circlet means that with each trial overcome, the merit of calamity-erasure is credited to the Heavenly Demons at Lingshan," Tai Bai Jin Xing explained.

"The Nine-Ring Cane also holds hidden mechanisms—it can transfer the scripture seeker's accumulated aura to Lingshan."

"We have witnessed the Saint Monk's actions in Chang'an."

Upon hearing this, Su Lin's expression grew subtly odd, and even Meng Qi chuckled softly.

If one does not wear the Golden Circlet, one is the Saint Monk—what is one if one does wear it?

Had those Reincarnators not thrown Su Lin's scriptures and directly taunted him, the Golden Circlet might not have been worn—but then again, he might have accepted it without hesitation.

At that point, would the Heavenly Court have launched a hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to besiege the scripture seeker's small team?

Meng Qi asked Tai Bai Jin Xing: "Of the Six Sovereigns and Five Directions, where are the other deities now?"

"Leading the Immortals to construct a defense line, confronting the Outer Path Demons beyond the ninety-ninth layer," Tai Bai Jin Xing bowed lower, saying: "To this day, over half of the Immortals have perished."

"I understand," Meng Qi nodded. "Is there anything else you wish to say?"

Tai Bai Jin Xing lifted his head, fell silent for a moment, then said: "I humbly beg the Great Sage to bring peace to the suffering of all living beings."

"If it concerns the fate of all living beings, this Daoist will do his utmost," Meng Qi changed his self-reference.

At this moment, Tai Bai Jin Xing's eyes suddenly reflected the boundless, all-generating Wuji, faint and illusory black-and-white light blooming.

A figure, crowned with a radiant halo, draped in seventy-two colors, cradling an ancient lantern.

The origin of all things, the cause of all results.

Amidst vast, misty clouds, layered palaces stood, towering hundred-zhang pillars rising majestically.

An old man with a child's face and white hair, one hand holding red thread, the other carrying a staff and the Marriage Register, raced through swirling mist: "Tai Bai Jin Xing, how is it going?!"

Many Immortals had gathered; his belated arrival made him stand out, but now Yue Lao sensed something was amiss.

"Perhaps you all continue talking. Old man will return later."

"Wait," said Zhongli Quan, his hair tied in twin buns, beard long past his belly, holding a fan: "You've come just in time. When you observed the romantic fates before, did you truly see nothing?"

"Too distant! That one is as ethereal as the high heavens—just discerning a trace of fate was already a miracle," Yue Lao sighed. If the fate had already been sealed, one might glimpse minor branches.

Moreover, he dared not calculate further.

Zhongli Quan's injury from the backlash still hadn't healed; had it not been for Tai Bai Jin Xing's intervention, he would have borne the weight of karmic retribution.

Forcing him to calculate the unknown romantic fate of that figure would cost him his life.

Tai Bai Jin Xing spoke slowly: "It is indeed Tianzun."

Wuji, Chaos, Yin-Yang—the origin of all things—is indeed Yuan Shi Tianzun, yet Tai Bai Jin Xing also sensed the presence of two other Tianzuns upon him.

"Could it be that, to respond to the calamity, the Three Tianzuns have returned to the Nameless Dao, merging into primordial Chaos Qi?" guessed Wang Lingguan, his face red, beard thick, clad in golden armor and red robe.

Tai Bai Jin Xing's brow betrayed complex emotion, yet he found this possibility plausible: "The Dao gives birth to One; One gives birth to Two; Two gives birth to Three; the Three Pure Ones are one. Great Luo generates the primordial Qi of Yuan, Yuan, and Shi, transforming into the Three Pure Heavens."

"What else did the Great Tianzun say?" an Immortal asked: "The Hun Tian Di—"

Tai Bai Jin Xing shook his head: "Tianzun's state is unusual. I did not press further."

"Returning as a Heavenly Demon, along with those beings Tianzun brought back—is there no issue?" asked Wenqu Star Lord, concerned.

Previously, Wuqu Star Lord had been corrupted by an unknown horror on the Outer Battlefield, nearly causing a great disaster.

"Even if there is an issue, what can we do?" Tai Bai Jin Xing countered: "Do you think these scripture seekers are the same as the old Tang Seng's party, whom the Heavenly Court could control?"

Hearing this, the Immortals fell silent.

The Three-in-One Tianzun, the unknown Hun Tian Di, the "Tang Seng" with great merit and virtue, and several other beings whose identities remain unclear.

Even if the Three Realms had not descended into chaos, the scripture seeker team assembled by Tianzun was an entity no one dared provoke—let alone completing the Western Journey to fulfill the calamity; even after reaching Lingshan, who would sit in the main seat remains uncertain.

Fortunately, from recent developments, they need not overly worry for now.

"Let it be," Tai Bai Jin Xing sighed, though his facial expression relaxed slightly: "The Great Sage is weary; we are weary too."

Tai Bai Jin Xing flicked his fly whisk, gazing toward the misty, radiant heavens beyond.

"All is left to the variable."

(End of Chapter)