Chapter 396: The Planet Venus Descends to Offer Amnesty; Seeking the Lao Jiao to Plan for the Precious Lamp

Now, as for Li Jing and Nezha, after they had finished performing a monkey play with Sun Wukong, they led the various generals straight to the Lingxiao Treasure Hall and reported:

"We, your subjects, acting on Your Majesty's Dharma decree, went down to the lower realm to subdue the demon immortal Sun Wukong. Unexpectedly, he possesses vast magical powers, and we were unable to secure victory. We still hope the Great Heavenly Venerable will send reinforcements to exterminate him."

The Jade Emperor looked at the dead-serious Li Jing and Nezha, struggled to suppress an eye-roll, and said, "Assuming a single demon monkey, how much ability can he have that you still need reinforcements?"

Nezha was quite the actor himself; he feigned a dejected appearance, stepped up before the Jade Emperor, and reported: "I beg the Great Heavenly Venerable to pardon my death-deserving crime! That demon monkey wields an iron rod; he first defeated the Giant Spirit God, then wounded my arm. Outside the cave gate, he has erected a banner inscribed with the four characters 'Great Sage Equaling Heaven,' saying that if he is granted this title, he will cease hostilities and submit; if it is not this title, he will fight his way up to the Lingxiao Treasure Hall."

"How dare this demon monkey be so arrogant! Order the generals to execute him immediately." The Jade Emperor was also a fine actor; he immediately unleashed his might, appearing to be in a great rage.

This terrified a large portion of the immortals and gods in the hall who were unaware of the details, leaving them all trembling with fear.

Fang Longye's Divine Dao avatar in the hall only wanted to laugh at the sight, and he could not help but cast his gaze toward Taibai Jinxing, who stood in the ranks looking perfectly composed, thinking to himself:

"Old man Jinxing, it is time for you to take the stage!"

Sure enough,

The next moment, Taibai Jinxing opened his eyes, walked out from the ranks, and reported just as he had last time: "That demon monkey only knows how to speak, not the size of things. If you add troops to fight him, I fear you will not be able to subdue him for a time, and instead, you will only tire the army. It would be better for Your Majesty to show great mercy and issue a decree of amnesty, simply letting him be a Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Just add an empty title to him, with office but no salary, that is all."

"What is meant by 'with office but no salary'?"

"The name is Great Sage Equaling Heaven, only he is not given any duties to manage, nor is he given any salary. He is kept between heaven and earth to restrain his evil heart and prevent him from becoming arrogant, so that the universe may be peaceful and the seas and lands may find tranquility."

The Jade Emperor pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "Very well, let it be as you have requested."

He immediately ordered the decree to be issued and again had Jinxing lead the way.

For a time, in the Lingxiao Treasure Hall, the majority of the immortals and gods who were in the dark looked at one another in dismay.

What kind of bizarre development was this?

That demon monkey had been an official in the Heavenly Court, embezzling military pay and reselling supplies. After his failure, not only did he leave the Heavenly Court, but he also clamored about the official rank being too small.

After defeating the Heavenly Court's army and making Li Tianwang and the others look like fools, with the Heavenly Court's might, not only did they not send people to suppress him, but they were actually going to give him the title of Great Sage Equaling Heaven? Since when was Taibai Jinxing so easy to talk to? Could it be that Sun Wukong is an illegitimate son he had with a lover in the lower realm?

Even more bizarre was that the Great Heavenly Venerable actually agreed.

Wasn't he the one who valued the dignity of the Heavenly Court most?

The ins and outs and the inside story were truly incomprehensible to people, feeling like a complete mess.

Fang Longye, in the hall, seeing these immortals and gods who were kept in the dark, could not help but shake his head inwardly; this was the reason why people must pursue strength.

Weak people cannot even learn the truth, let alone have the right to choose; they can only go around in circles, following the great trends pushed by others~

After receiving the decree, Taibai Jinxing went straight out of the South Heaven Gate and arrived at Huaguo Mountain once again.

He saw that the entire Huaguo Mountain, compared to before, had much more of a murderous aura; all kinds of demons were holding swords, grasping spears, wielding knives, and brandishing staves, roaring and leaping about.

Upon seeing Taibai Jinxing, they all stepped forward to attack.

Taibai Jinxing said: "You heads of the factions, go! Trouble yourselves to report to your Great Sage. I am an angel sent by the Supreme Emperor, and I have a Dharma decree here to invite him."

The demons, upon hearing this, hurriedly ran in to report:

"Great King, Great King, an old man has come outside; it is the same Taibai Jinxing from last time. He says he has received the Jade Emperor's Dharma decree again and wants to invite you once more."

Sun Wukong chuckled coldly: "He comes at the right time, he comes at the right time! Last time it was this old man who deceived me, tricking me into being that gatekeeper, and this time he actually dares to come again!"

"Watch how I, Old Sun, deal with him!"

He immediately ordered the heads of the factions to open the banners and drums, line up to welcome him, and lead the group of monkeys to show off their power.

"Good for you, old man, you tricked me, Old Sun, last time, and you actually have the face to come back as a lobbyist this time!"

"Great Sage, it's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding!"

Taibai Jinxing hurried forward, went straight to the entrance of the Water Curtain Cave, stood facing south, and said: "Now the Great Heavenly Venerable has already investigated the truth. Previously, it was purely the Patrol Angel who spoke evil words to the Great Sage, and the Great Sage could not bear his harassment, which is why you descended to the lower realm."

"As a result, that Patrol Angel held a grudge against the Great Sage. After being saved and revived, he colluded with your former subordinates, Great Sage, and insisted that you had embezzled military pay and resold supplies. Only then did the Jade Emperor become enraged and issue a decree for Li Tianwang to lead Nezha to the lower realm to engage in battle."

"Hmph! Are you sure it isn't because you saw that I, Old Sun, possess boundless magical powers, and only then thought of coming to offer amnesty again?"

Sun Wukong let out a cold snort and chuckled coldly.

"The Great Sage does not know, but after Li Tianwang and his son suffered defeat, they returned to heaven and reported: 'The Great Sage has erected a banner and wants to be the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.' The other martial generals wanted to prevaricate, but it was this old man who risked punishment to report it for the Great Sage, to avoid raising an army and to invite the Great King to receive the title. The Jade Emperor approved the request, which is why I have come to invite you."

"So, I have to thank you, old man Jinxing, do I?" Sun Wukong continued to sneer, refusing to let go of the original issue, and questioned Taibai Jinxing: "Was it not you who tricked me, Old Sun, last time? I, Old Sun, am the dignified Handsome Monkey King, yet I guarded your gate for over ten years. How is this account to be settled?"

"Great Sage,"

Jinxing argued earnestly: "I know the Great Sage dislikes that the official rank was small, but since ancient times, whenever an official position is granted, it is always from low to high; this is the rule. Moreover, Great Sage, think back: which of the Guardian Marshals you knew back then was not a Golden Immortal?"

Seeing Sun Wukong's expression soften, as if he were lost in memory, he continued to strike while the iron was hot:

"The Great Sage has an extraordinary background, and the position of Guardian Marshal was indeed a slight to the Great Sage, but according to the rules of the Heavenly Court, letting you, Great Sage, serve as a Guardian Marshal was not a deception, was it?"

Taibai Jinxing saw Sun Wukong nodding involuntarily at his words, waved his whisk, and continued: "I remember telling you, Great Sage, at the very beginning that the Heavenly Court's rules are strict and it is a place that values seniority. You should have accepted the position of Guardian Marshal for the time being; with your abilities, Great Sage, it would not have taken long before you could have established all kinds of merits, and then what official position could you not have obtained?"

"But you, Great Sage, could not hold your temper; you only served for a few years before complaining that the rank was small. Ask your own conscience, where did I deceive you?"

"Oh? According to you, old man Jinxing, it is my fault then?"

Seeing a flash of ferocity reappear in Sun Wukong's previously softened eyes, Taibai Jinxing knew the principle of stopping while ahead, and immediately shook his head, saying: "The culprit in this matter is naturally the Patrol Angel who forced you, Great Sage, to rebel against the Heavenly Court. If not for this villain's mischief, how would you, Great Sage, have abandoned a bright future to descend to the lower realm?"

"Now that the Great Heavenly Venerable has investigated the truth, he has already erased his immortal registration, executed his immortal body, and stripped his immortal bones, leaving only a wisp of his True Spirit, which has been cast into the eighteenth layer of purgatory. This can be considered as venting your anger for you, Great Sage~"

The Monkey was, after all, somewhat obsessed with officialdom. After Taibai Jinxing spent some effort, his attitude finally softened, and he said: "Then I wonder if there is such an official title of 'Great Sage Equaling Heaven' in the Heavenly Court?"

Seeing that Sun Wukong had finally found a step to climb down, Taibai Jinxing immediately smiled:

"This old man only dared to come with the decree after having this title approved; if it is not fulfilled, just punish this old man."

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong's attitude softened completely, and he even invited Taibai Jinxing to a banquet again.

After Taibai Jinxing declined, he was not annoyed; he simply handled the affairs in his Cave Abode and once again rode the clouds to follow Taibai Jinxing up to the Heavenly Court.

East of the East Sea,

The ocean was vast and boundless, stretching without end. A figure was shuttling through the void, constantly changing direction, seemingly searching for something. This figure was none other than the true body of Fang Longye.

He had inquired clearly about the time for the next Flat Peach Banquet, which was still a hundred or eighty years away.

That is to say,

After the Monkey ascends to heaven this time, it will likely be another hundred or eighty years before the Havoc in Heaven drama unfolds.

Therefore, taking advantage of his free time, he plans to find a few more treasures to enrich himself.

And the first thing that set him into action was the top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure in the hands of the old dragon who once pulled a carriage for Di Jun—the Cuiguang Two Instruments Lamp.

It is not that he craves this item the most;

in fact, with the various Spirit Treasures he currently possesses, even if he uses them until he reaches the Great Luo realm, they would be enough to protect him.

The key is that one must pick the softest persimmon to squeeze.

The Yin-Yang Two Qi Bottle that he keeps thinking about is in the hands of the Golden-Winged Great Peng; as the younger brother of Kong Xuan, this fellow is not to be trifled with.

The Giant Spirit Secret Treasury requires a massive amount of time to search for, so it naturally has to be pushed back.

The nine sons of the Ancestral Dragon, which could help him transform his Bloodline and continue to improve his foundation, have clear locations, but they involve too much and require full preparation.

There are several other items like this; they are either ethereal and elusive or fraught with difficulties.

After comparing them all, the old dragon with an Innate Spiritual Treasure in his hands is still the easiest to deal with. Just like that, through the deduction of the Great Destiny Art, Insight into the Hidden, Return to Heaven and Reverse the Sun, and a series of other divine abilities he had previously traded for, Fang Longye quickly determined the current location of that old dragon.

"Moving Stars and Changing Dippers!"

Fang Longye did not rush over immediately.

Instead, he mobilized most of his Dharma power to activate the Moving Stars and Changing Dippers divine ability to its maximum extent.

He obscured and tampered with the Heavenly Secrets related to it one by one, and then used Nine Breaths Serving Qi to quickly recover his own strength, only then quietly fleeing toward one direction.

……

On a jagged island with rocks like a crouching tiger, waves were surging all around, yet for a thousand miles in the vicinity, the water was calm and ripple-free; above the island, a figure floated independently.

This figure was in the likeness of a middle-aged man, wearing an Imperial Crown with auspicious colors, draped in Dharma robes, with a heroic face and an elegant temperament that carried a hint of evil.

This middle-aged man is none other than someone else;

he is precisely the old dragon that Fang Longye was looking for, who once pulled a carriage for Di Jun, named Hun Yu.

It is unknown what kind of dog-shit luck he had;

when he first met Fang Longye, he was still covered in unhealed, severe wounds, but now he has recovered from all his injuries and even achieved a breakthrough after destruction.

His cultivation has ascended to a higher level, and he has gone very, very far among the Taiyi Golden Immortals.

"The power of the Return Ruins is truly extraordinary~"

This old dragon was looking at a pool of bottomless depth in the center of the island, clicking his tongue in wonder.

Well, to be precise, this pool is more like an extremely strange funnel, frost-white above and profound black below; it is not clearly divided into black and white, but rather the boundary between black and white is constantly being broken and constantly intersecting.

Either the frost-white completely suppresses the profound black, or the profound black completely suppresses the frost-white, completely unbalanced.

This funnel seems to have a suction force, drawing in the Return Ruins Force from the mysterious void, injecting it into the funnel, and then turning it into a collapsing force so grand that it could sweep across all directions, incomparably chaotic.

If it were not for the suppression of the power of heaven and earth in the mysterious void, I fear this Abyssal Pool would long ago have ceased to be limited to this one island and would have raged in all directions.

A territory of hundreds of millions of miles would collapse and be destroyed, ceasing to exist, swallowed by the Return Ruins.

And this is not the true Return Ruins, but merely the pouring out of a wisp of power from within the Return Ruins.

This old dragon Hun Yu reached out and took a wisp of variegated Qi from the Abyssal Pool; this is a product of the Return Ruins Force interacting with other Auras.

It cannot be counted as the true Return Ruins Force.

But precisely because of this, he is able to grasp it in his hand; otherwise, with his current cultivation, even a single wisp of Return Ruins Force would not be so easy to handle.

He carefully examined this wisp of variegated Qi and could see that inside it seemed to be a projection of a world, constantly enacting various apocalyptic scenes.

Volcanic eruptions, floods, the arrival of death, mountains of Corpses and seas of blood,... and so on and so forth, filled with slaughter, chaos, and despair.

The benevolent see benevolence, and the wise see wisdom.

Hun Yu is enlightened in the Chaos Dao, so when he saw this wisp of variegated Qi, what he saw was not the end of the Return Ruins that devours and destroys everything.

If someone else were to look at it, it would naturally be different. Of course, this variegated Qi is ultimately created by the Return Ruins Force, so no matter who observes it, it will lean toward the path of negative destruction.

Extinguishing this wisp of variegated Qi, Hun Yu stepped to the side of this Abyssal Pool, watching the power in this Abyssal Pool flickering and shadowy, his expression filled with gravity, surprise, and joy.

This Abyssal Pool was not his own handiwork, but was discovered inadvertently when he was very weak. He guessed that it should have been formed when someone fought and broke the Return Ruins during one of the great Calamities of Honghuang.

Although it is only a wisp of the power of the Honghuang Return Ruins, it is unimaginably powerful to him; in the past, he could not even get close to it.

The point of his gravity and surprise is that this Return Ruins Force is truly sinister and powerful; even with his current state and cultivation, which have achieved a breakthrough after destruction and ascended to a higher level, he cannot help but frown at it.

And what makes him joyful is that such power seems to be able to perfect the Chaos Dao he has realized, allowing his Great Dao to ascend to a higher level.

"It's just not very easy to comprehend~"

The Return Ruins is the concrete manifestation of the path of ending in Honghuang; even if the Return Ruins Force here is only a wisp, it is not so easy to comprehend.

Otherwise, there would have long been a bunch of people in Honghuang possessing the power of the Return Ruins' ending.

Of course, there is also the obstruction and suppression of heaven and earth in the mysterious void; after all, the Return Ruins Force represents ending and destruction, so it is naturally not favored by heaven and earth.

Fortunately, what he has realized is the Chaos Dao, which ascended from the disorder of Yin and Yang; he is only borrowing from the Return Ruins Force, not intending to accept the path of the Return Ruins' ending in its entirety.

Therefore, it should be possible to gain something by spending time and effort to comprehend it~ Shaking his head, Hun Yu stopped thinking about it, found a large rock at random and sat down, just about to enter meditation to comprehend it, when suddenly a loud laugh rang in his ears: "Haha, I finally found you!"

(End of this chapter)