Chapter 472

Why, while the Heavenly Court was desperately defending Chang'an, did it keep letting through the Reincarnators posing as the Scripture Seekers?

Why, at the midpoint, did the Scripture Preservation Faction of Lingshan suddenly turn their weapons against the Reincarnator team?

Why can merely holding these relics grant inheritance, and why can only those holding them use partial cultivation?

Why did Yuan Shoucheng appear at that exact moment in Chang'an, and why did he immediately approach our group without fear of alerting anyone?

All the doubts and inconsistencies along the way surfaced—Taibai Jinxing neither concealed nor fully revealed certain matters.

Under Meng Qi's gaze, Su Lin summoned the Nine-Ringed Staff and the Brocade-Embroidered Kasaya into his hands, then opened another portal to place them inside the Moon World.

Su Lin's eyes slightly widened, and in a daze, he saw the image of a golden cicada shattering and dissolving.

He frowned slightly and continued observing.

But this time…

He saw a handsome monk whose soul had long been extinguished, utterly irreparable, leaving only will and a broken body.

He remained there, untouched by the erosion of time and years, neither born nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither empty nor real.

Hands clasped together, his dead-gray pupils flickered with scenes from past and present lives, and

the final sorrowful vow.

Taibai Jinxing placed a white stone on the edge of the chessboard, crossed his arms, and said: "The Nine-Ringed Staff and the Brocade-Embroidered Kasaya have vanished again."

"Don't bother with this one, keep going—it's your turn," said the Eastern Pure Glory Great Emperor, wearing a coronet and a radiant robe.

Within the once glorious and ethereal celestial palace, music, dance, flutes, and lutes filled the air; some fished, some played chess, some roasted demons and monsters.

Zhongli Quan sighed: "We've wronged Elder Tang and his disciples."

"No one wanted this," Taibai Jinxing dropped another stone, casually saying, "This time, they can rest properly."

"It's my fault, all my fault," the Old Moon God pulled at tangled strands of red thread, yanking them from the corpses of demonic immortals, complaining:

"I shouldn't have helped you scheming bastards tangle Marshal Tianpeng's romantic threads! It got him entangled in love and broke heavenly law!"

"Rest? Call it rest if you like, but in truth it means they're useless now—demons and monsters aren't as cruel as we gods."

The Barefoot Immortal glanced at the Old Moon God, who was muttering and pulling the red thread into more chaos, then wearily patted his shoulder.

"Just as they were about to attain true enlightenment," the Old Moon God's eyes were dull and lifeless; he stared at the tangled red thread, pulled out scissors, and snipped it:

"Why did you all have to wade into this muddy water? Why did it have to be them?"

"Now you pretend to be the good one? Fine, fine—bad deeds are always mine to do," Taibai Jinxing set down his chess piece, utterly disinterested.

Inside the Lingxiao Palace of the Heavenly Court, music and song abruptly ceased; the immortals and gods turned their gazes toward it, yet no one spoke a word.

Taibai Jinxing rose and gazed at the ancient mirror capable of observing the Three Realms: the collapsing sky and the devouring light raced toward the Outer Heaven; the primordial void known as the Sky's Wound, once eternally formless, now held a fleeting white streak.

He murmured softly: "Because we have no other choice."

"Ninety-nine trials, this monk's karmic debt is not yet fulfilled—this trial must come."

"Taibai, this can be done, but you must watch over Cuilan—don't let those bastards take advantage of her. Cuilan, no matter what, is my officially wedded wife."

"If the Master and the brothers are going, then I'll go too—perfect, I'll finally get some peace. Tell Hun Tian Di I've long wanted to smash his damn glass cup!"

"I cut off my horns, shed my scales, became a horse—I've atoned for half my life's mischief. This journey counts as merit; I only ask the Heavenly Court to credit this merit to the Four Seas' aquatic clans."

"Heh, such a small thing. Taibai, when will one ever be free from fate? Rising early, sleeping late—no freedom. Old Sun, I've finally realized emptiness, hehehe."

Born again, died again.

Illusory and unreal, ever-changing, impermanent.

Five hundred years were ultimately empty.

"Sun Wukong," Taibai Jinxing walked out of the Lingxiao Palace, holding a soft, luminous fly whisk, gazing upward: "Great Sage."

"When did you realize?" Su Lin wiped his hands with a towel, unable to help asking.

Tang Seng and his disciples were ambushed outside Lingshan; their identities were extracted by unknown means and turned into mission items within the Reincarnation Space.

The Reincarnators gained the identity of the Scripture Seekers; by merely completing the final journey to the Western Heaven—going through the motions—they could inherit the qi and merit accumulated along the pilgrimage.

Would the Heavenly Court simply allow this manipulation? Clearly impossible.

As thoughts churned, Su Lin and the others stared silently at the neatly arranged Ruyi Jingu Bang and other relics—even the roasted lamb chops, golden and dripping with fat, went untouched, no scallions or cumin sprinkled.

"Remember when we were in Chang'an? At that time, none of us could store these items—not even Shi Hao could," Meng Qi said, pointing at the Ruyi Jingu Bang; he left half his sentence unsaid.

Except for that one guy who was cheating.

"No wonder right after I prepared to flee with the mission items, Yuan Shoucheng popped up," Su Lin muttered by the campfire, repeatedly storing and retrieving the Ruyi Jingu Bang's inner artifact into his system backpack.

After a while, seeing no movement in the heavens, he placed the Kasaya and Staff into his system backpack and returned the other weapons to the group.

Meng Qi smiled: "They probably feared you'd actually run away."

The sudden disappearance of a key item affecting the entire scheme likely made the immortals above consider eliminating us as unstable variables.

Kleine stared at the artifacts, then suddenly tossed a coin into the air; when it landed, it stood upright, stuck in the soil.

He continued: "From the moment you chose your identities, they already knew your information. The initial Huasheng Temple wasn't just the Reincarnation Space's setup—it was the Heavenly Court's first move."

Su Lin smiled at this, then clapped slowly, his expression complex: "This kind of killing trap—anyone who enters dies."

"These aren't merely relics left behind by Tang Xuanzang and his disciples—they're fused remnants of their bodies and souls."

Their powers and cultivation weren't conjured from nowhere, nor provided by the Reincarnation Space—they were deliberately left behind by Tang Xuanzang's party.

Perhaps originally it wasn't like this; Tang Seng and Sun Wukong weren't inherently unresurrectable.

But from one moment onward, to reclaim the merit and qi of the Western Journey—or to buy time for the transcendent beings who vanished beyond the Outer Heaven—

under the Heavenly Court's manipulation, the Scripture Seekers entered the trap themselves, fusing their bodies, cultivation, souls, and wills into the relics, and delivered them to the Reincarnation Space, allowing Reincarnators arriving in this world to gain cultivation and inheritance.

Abilities and cultivation aren't born from nothing, nor are they provided by the Cycle Space—they are things deliberately left behind by Tang Xuanzang and his party.

Perhaps the original situation wasn't like this; Tang Seng, Sun Wukong, and others weren't inherently unrecoverable.

But from a certain moment on, to reclaim the merit and fortune of the western journey, or to buy time for the transcendent beings who had vanished beyond heaven.

Through the Heavenly Court's methods, the scripture-seeking master and disciples entered the scheme themselves, fusing their bodies, cultivation, souls, and wills into artifacts and delivering them to the Cycle Space side, beginning to allow Reincarnators who arrived in this world to gain cultivation and lineage.

There must be some agenda behind this.

Kleen played with the coin and said, "All gifts of fate have long been marked with a price."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch," Meng Qi remarked, then turned his gaze to Han Li: "Brother Han Li, in terms of caution, I still have much to learn from you."

Everyone nodded; he was the only one who hadn't hesitated at all and immediately suspected these things were problematic and refused to accept them.

Until now, most of the time Li Huowang has been playing the role of Sha Wujing outside.

Han Li smiled faintly and shook his head: "If you don't choose an identity, you can't leave Huasheng Temple. In the end, from the very beginning, someone had to enter and take the place of the pawn."

Without sufficient foundation, even the utmost caution is meaningless; ample strength is the way to handle all changes.

"So the problem with these things is huge?" Lu Mingfei looked bewildered, pointing at the Dragon Scale Sword.

Not only did I become a Dragon Horse, but there are also conspiracies inside.

"For the Reincarnators of Lingshan, this is a major problem," Su Lin walked to the bonfire, picked up his bowl and chopsticks, and said, "But for us, it shouldn't be an issue."

I just wonder how Lingshan is doing now—surely not that bad. Probably.

Su Lin's emotions were complicated; he set the question aside: "This involves far too much. Only magic and current reasoning are insufficient to grasp the full picture."

If I must describe it, Tang Xuanzang and the others now have not even a speck of true spirit left—only residual obsessions and magical techniques engraved on their treasures.

The task announcements from the Reincarnation space are also ambiguous.

"Huowang, could you let Zhuge Yuan come out for a moment?" Su Lin asked.

He attempted to apply for usage permission of Li Huowang's external brain.

Li Huowang was slightly startled, then nodded in agreement once he realized.

With his current cultivation level and the amount of primordial qi stored within him, he could naturally use the Xin Su trait to manifest Zhuge Yuan for a long time.

Soon, a tall, slender man dressed as a white-robed scholar stepped out of the air, holding a folding fan. He glanced around, then bowed to the few he recognized:

"Brother Li, Brother Su, Brother Meng, and everyone else—it's been a long time."

Li Huowang was about to explain the current situation to Zhuge Yuan and ask for his help, when Su Lin suddenly spoke up.

"Wait a moment, Brother Zhuge—could you shorten your hair? Like modern people's short hair."

Zhuge Yuan blinked, then chuckled: "Of course I can."

Soon, Zhuge Yuan changed his hairstyle. While everyone else was confused, Su Lin pulled out a pair of glasses and handed them to him, gesturing for Zhuge Yuan to put them on.

"Brother Su?" Li Huowang frowned.

"Smile less. Don't let too much humanity show in your eyes—like Qing Wanglai did before," Su Lin's eyes lit up. "Push your glasses. Now, repeat after me."

"The wisdom of mortals."

Zhuge Yuan pushed his glasses with a blank expression and said: "The wisdom of mortals."

Nice! Su Lin gave a thumbs-up.

Meng Qi suddenly understood: "So it can be done this way? Excellent!"

Li Huowang: "."

Lu Mingfei: "."

Kleen: "."

I hope that after Zhuge Yuan leaves, these two won't go tie up Qing Wanglai here and play dress-up.

"We still need a lolicon and a good guy," Su Lin asked Meng Qi: "What about Song Shuhang?"

Meng Qi nodded: "That young man Zhang Heng—we can contact him after completing this mission."

"We need a beautiful female assassin…" Su Lin's gaze lingered for a moment on Lu Mingfei, then moved away.

Lu Mingfei cracked his knuckles and forced a laugh: "Get back to the matter at hand, you bastard."

Zhuge Yuan adjusted his glasses: "I suspect that by the later stages of the Journey to the West, the Reincarnation team playing the pilgrims was no longer the original group—hence why the Soul-Scattering Team hunted them down."

"You mean possession?" Su Lin had considered this possibility, but how could one possess someone with not even a speck of true spirit left?

"The Fate Devourers you encountered on the road gave me some inspiration."

Zhuge Yuan said:

"Destiny patterns—my world has such things too. Perhaps through these treasures, with the Immortals' methods, they could gradually assimilate the destiny patterns of the Reincarnation team receiving the inheritance."

"Or, think carefully: whenever the pilgrims encountered demons or monsters they couldn't overcome, they either went to Bodhisattvas or to Heaven to summon Immortals for help. During that help, many things could be done—including implanting residual souls into the Reincarnation team during the process."

"It must be that the Annals of Time discovered something, which is why the previous Reincarnation teams were ambushed and slaughtered by the Soul-Scattering Team."

"I speculate that the more these treasures are used, the more they influence the user, causing the final merit and fortune to transfer to the native world. Chang'an City is a filtering tool: the stronger the team, the less they fit Heaven's standards and are assassinated; the weaker teams are released, because they rely on the cultivation within the treasures."

"No wonder, Brother Zhuge," Li Huowang praised.

"Oh, these are merely my own speculative deductions," Zhuge Yuan smiled, then looked at Su Lin: "Brother Su, could you return my folding fan?"

"You really won't consider resurrection?" Su Lin said regretfully.

Hearing this, Li Huowang looked at Zhuge Yuan with a glimmer of hope.

"No," Zhuge Yuan smiled carefreely. "It was never real to begin with. To take it as real is to be attached. Isn't my Three Bodies already living well enough?"

"Brother Li, I must go. Seeing you begin to explore other worlds makes me happy."

Li Huowang's expression grew somber, but he didn't insist on keeping him. He smiled: "Thank you, Brother Zhuge."

"Take care," Zhuge Yuan's form flickered, then dissolved into the air.

Meng Qi nodded slightly: "I think this speculation is plausible. Should I go to Heaven to verify it?"

Previously, Taibai Jinxing had left the method to reach Heaven; if he wished to go, a single thought could transport him—but he'd need to prepare first.

"No," Su Lin remembered the Soul-Scattering Team calling him a Strange Entity, clapped his hands, and sat down directly to resume eating:

"Our master-disciple journey to the West must now accelerate."

(End of Chapter)