Chapter 27: Alchemy Furnace in Tushita Palace

There were no excessive visions, nor were there excessive fluctuations.

Zhang Xuan felt a gentle force envelop his phantom form; it would not cause him any harm, and he could break free with a single thought.

After a moment of thought, Zhang Xuan did not struggle, but instead allowed this force to carry him; in an instant, he vanished from that place.

Time shifted and moved, and when he regained his senses, he was already standing within a palace.

The first thing that caught his eye was the iconic appearance of Laojun: his beard and hair were all white, his complexion was ruddy, he wore a wide Eight Trigrams robe, and he held a whisk in his left hand.

Beside him, the two boy attendants, Jin Jiao and Yin Jiao, watched in ignorance, their large eyes black and white, clear and sparkling.

Taishang Laojun, the incarnation of the Dao Ancestor, had been smiling before seeing Zhang Xuan, but when Zhang Xuan appeared in the Tushita Palace of the Thirty-Three Heavens and he saw Zhang Xuan's form, even the Dao Ancestor was taken aback.

The reason he did not want to take action in the Shaolin Miscellaneous Affairs Courtyard before was because the Lunhui Zhi Zhu focused heavily on that place.

Demon Buddha Ananda was once an Existence of the Other Shore who cultivated the Tathagata Palm in reverse and could contend head-on with Tathagata Buddha; he was considered an Ancient One.

The fall of Lingshan back then was all because of Demon Buddha Ananda.

Added to the other powerful figures who jointly established the Lunhui Zhi Zhu, the Dao Ancestor did not want to take action there if he could avoid it.

Although it was easy for him to conceal these traces in the early stages and they were not easily discovered by others, it would ultimately increase the risk of exposure, which was completely unnecessary.

With the calculating methods of the three of them, they could sit securely on the fishing platform and wait until the final moment to take action.

Even now, taking action was done in the most secretive way; he had not expected that the person transferred over from an endless distance would actually be an existence suspected to be at the level of the Other Shore, untouched by the passage of time.

Not even a single point of karma could be seen upon him.

When the two boy attendants beside Taishang Laojun saw this existence with no traces of karma appear, their hearts trembled, and they immediately lowered their heads, not daring to look again.

As attendants beside Laojun, their discernment and knowledge were among the best in the world.

Even in terms of strength, any one of them could now roam invincible in the true Shi Jie where Meng Qi resided; they were certainly not people that ordinary characters could plot against.

"Laojun, or perhaps I should call you Dao."

Compared to the unfamiliarity of the first time, Zhang Xuan was now more composed.

After all, having succeeded once and confirmed that even Dugu Baitian's ability to grasp the world with one hand could not bind him, Zhang Xuan was now much more relaxed overall.

He was not empty-handed now; he truly possessed a peerless cultivation art in his hands.

The latter part of the Record of Taishang Forgetting Emotions could be ignored, and there was no need to worry too much about the first part; the most crucial thing was to cultivate all the way to the step of opening the Inner Heaven and Earth.

Zhang Xuan believed that as long as he had this step, everything could proceed.

Among all those of the Other Shore, the Opening Heaven and Earth Three Brothers were second to none in strength; logically speaking, after the Dao Ancestor transcended, they should have been the first of the three brothers to transcend.

As it turned out, after an eon of dragging each other down and setting traps for one another, the three of them suddenly realized that they were one entity, and to transcend, all three had to do it together.

Yuanshi and Lingbao were fine, but the most difficult to transcend was the Dao Ancestor.

As the Basis of the Existing World, the Dao Ancestor's existence allowed the world to exist; to "reduce the self and seek emptiness" and let someone else bear the karma, a person capable of bearing the entire world had to appear, and it had to be at the end of the eon.

Only when the world was destroyed could he, the Basis of the Existing World, truly have the opportunity to withdraw and let someone replace him.

Therefore, after understanding this point, there was much that could be manipulated.

These three most powerful figures in the world had been silently waiting, waiting for that person who could bear the Opening Heaven and Earth and the Basis of the Existing World.

Meng Qi was Ananda's fish, and at the same time, he was the fish they had selected.

But this was not a sure thing, and there were still many disputes.

At the very least, in the final battle, the Golden Emperor committed suicide in a desperate situation, seeking to transcend earlier than the Opening Heaven and Earth Three Brothers.

Although she failed, it could also show that the overall competition was quite intense.

And Zhang Xuan coming here was to provide the Dao Ancestor with more bargaining chips.

"Who are you?"

Taishang Laojun was quite puzzled, and his heart was actually trembling.

At the very moment he saw Zhang Xuan, he had already looked across the entire Time River, from the most ancient period of the Opening Heaven and Earth to the downstream of the Time River.

Yet, in the entire Time River, he had never seen this person.

Even though Zhang Xuan was standing before him now, he had never seen this existence in the Time River.

Yes, as long as he closed his eyes and used the rules of the Time River to probe for Zhang Xuan's existence, then Zhang Xuan did not exist before him.

Even though there was a person speaking right in front of him now.

Taishang Laojun was finally no longer as calm as before; he could not quite determine the other party's strength, his brows twitching.

In an infinitely distant Universe, a galaxy suddenly turned into a shifting star cluster, using multiple suns as its core, and then submerged into the Alchemy Furnace before him.

The lid of the Alchemy Furnace vibrated slightly, then returned to nothingness, without a single ripple arising.

Zhang Xuan raised an eyebrow, as if he had not seen this display of supreme strength by Taishang Laojun, and instead stared at the Alchemy Furnace with a smile: "Great Saint!"

The Great Saint Sun Wukong, who had once fought his way to the Western Heaven, was now in Taishang Laojun's Alchemy Furnace, not to be refined, but to heal the Monkey's wounds.

Taishang Laojun's heart also stirred, knowing that such a secret could not be hidden from the other party, and his heart grew increasingly astonished.

"Who are you? Why do you wish to see me?"

Laojun could not help but ask again; he was indeed curious, as to who else in the world besides himself could remain at the peak of the Other Shore.

He was the Basis of the Existing World, so his strength could not decline; he had to exist in the world.

Even though it was the end of the eon and others needed to avoid the corresponding calamities and wait for the time to recover, he could still maintain his state normally.

But apart from him, no one in the world seemed to have such an ability.

"Just a merchant who likes to make fair trades. I came here to conduct a round of trading; I wonder what Laojun thinks?"

Taishang Laojun's brows furrowed.

If not for the fact that the person before him possessed the characteristics of the Other Shore, and even the characteristics of a Dao Fruit, he would have directly made the person before him vanish.

For the Opening Heaven and Earth Three Brothers, there was nothing in the world they could not obtain, nor was there anything worth their attention or notice; any trade was meaningless to them, except for achieving the Dao Fruit.

And as for achieving the Dao Fruit, they already had a plan.

Meng Qi in the Shaolin Miscellaneous Affairs Courtyard had been chosen by them as that fish.

Because the three of them joined forces, the whole thing was done seamlessly, without leaving any traces.

Except for him, who as the Basis of the Existing World must exist in the present world, his other two brothers have basically stopped taking action, and their Reducing to Emptiness has already succeeded by a large margin.

Now that this mysterious person has come from the small courtyard where Meng Qi is located, and through their backup plan, Zhenhui, an avatar separated by Yang Jian, has arrived here, the Heavenly Venerable of Morality cannot help but suspect that his plan has been leaked.

The other party is using this posture; while calling it a trade, it is actually a threat, wanting to obtain some bargaining chips from him.

"Are you threatening me? What is it that you want?"

The words of Taishang Laojun remained calm, but their meaning made Zhang Xuan pause; he savored them slightly before he roughly understood the meaning of Taishang Laojun.

"It is that I came too abruptly and appeared too relaxed, so Taishang Laojun misunderstood, thinking that I am the mastermind hidden in the Darkness..."

A realization dawned in his heart; while Zhang Xuan found it amusing, he could not help but smile bitterly inside.

If he could truly become the mastermind in the world of The One-Life Sovereign, he should be happy.

As he is now, apart from a projection, he can do nothing.

He looks peerlessly powerful, but in reality, he is empty inside.

He was very satisfied with his performance this round, but the words that needed to be said still had to be said.

"I feel that your layout is not complete or perfect enough; I have another more suitable path and a more suitable cultivation method that I would like to exchange with you."

Taishang Laojun remained calm on the surface, still in that state, but invisible ripples had already shrouded Tushita Palace in the Thirty-Three Heavens, and no one could eavesdrop on the detailed situation inside.

He did not know why the other party did not attack, but since he was here, then no other Existence of the Other Shore could have overheard their conversation at that time.

At the same time, after the action was completed, Taishang Laojun also realized in his heart that the layout he and the other two had joined forces to create had been seen through by someone, and seen through very clearly.

"How exactly did he see through it? Could it be that there is still an Ancient One hidden in the Time River?"

He was calculating in his heart, while his face revealed nothing.

In reality, Taishang Laojun was unwilling to believe in a more perfect method.

This Reducing to Emptiness method is the result of their calculations over many rounds and negotiations with many figures; it is their plan of many years.

It has received the support of many Existence of the Other Shore, some obtained through force, and some through their eloquence.

Even the Buddha, who is in a half-Dao Fruit state, is willing to take action to escort them; it can be said that this epoch is basically worry-free.

What the three of them need to do now is to minimize accidents as much as possible, rather than seeking more.

The more one does, the more one errs.

"Oh, I would like to hear about it."

He calculated this way in his heart, but the words he spoke were different.

In reality, Taishang Laozi was not prepared to listen to what the other party specifically had to say; he had already prepared to offer some benefits to seal the other party's mouth or attempt to kill the other party right there.

However, when the thought arose in his heart, there was always an empty void before him, with nothing existing, making it difficult for him to strike at all.

"I wonder if you, fellow Daoist, have heard of the method of Inner Heaven and Earth?"

(End of this chapter)