Chapter 129

At the foot of the mountain, the crowd surged.

Countless Mortals in ragged clothes, their faces pale with hunger, were gathering into a pious river.

They looked up at that Ling Shan, which in legend is bathed in Buddha's light.

Their eyes flickered with a frenzied longing for the bliss of the next life.

Sun Wukong was mingling among this crowd.

He restrained all his aura, like a stone washed smooth by river water.

Calm, and utterly unnoticeable.

He looked at these Mortals, struggling to survive in the sea of suffering.

Watching them, they entrust all they have to an illusory, ethereal Buddha.

In his heart, there is not a ripple left.

He raised his head, looking toward that mountain path, smoothed and made shiny by countless knees.

Then, he lifted his foot.

The first step.

He blended into the crowd, and ordinary as ever, stepped up with one foot.

Just as his sole touched the cold stone step.

Beside the step, a Bodhi ancient tree, requiring several people to encircle it, suddenly shuddered.

That tree, it is said, has been growing here for thousands of years.

Its canopy, like a huge green umbrella opened.

Each leaf seems soaked in Buddha's light, vivid green as if about to drip.

But, at this very moment.

The tree's lush green, at a speed visible to the naked eye, rapidly faded!

In an instant, it turned into a patch of lifeless, withered yellow!

Whoosh—

A gentle breeze blew past.

The tree's withered leaves fell like a rain of despair.

Scattered, they withered and drifted down.

Only a bare, smooth trunk and twisted branches remained.

Like an old man who, in an instant, had all his vitality drained.

In the wind, he silently wailed.

Sun Wukong, set down his second step.

Another step, he stepped onto a new stair.

The stone steps beneath his feet, on both sides.

Originally, they bore unknown strange flowers and herbs, in bloom.

Variegated colors, vying in beauty.

But as this step of his landed.

Those gorgeous flowers seemed, as if an invisible giant hand had choked their throats.

Petals, instantly, withered and curled.

The vivid colors faded completely.

Then, together with roots, stems, and green leaves.

They turned into a handful of black ash.

A gust of wind blew, and they scattered.

One step, one withering and flourishing.

With each step he ascended, the vitality on either side beneath his feet would retreat a thousand years backward.

Green grass turned to scorched earth.

Fresh flowers turned to dust.

However, strangely.

Those Mortal believers beside him, actually noticed nothing of it.

They remained immersed in their own devotion.

As for the bizarre spectacle beside them, they turned a blind eye.

In their eyes, only the Da Lei Yin Si, drawing ever nearer.

They murmured prayers under their breath.

As if, by completing this path, they could reach the Pure Land of Bliss.

Sun Wukong's mouth curled into a cold arc.

What he walked was not a mountain path.

What he walked was the dragon vein of Ling Shan's fortune!

Back then, Fómén crossed eastward, stealing the eastern fortune.

Only then did the Buddhist splendor of Xiniu Hezhou arise.

And this Ling Shan is the hub of that fortune.

It is the heart of the eastern dragon vein, raised in captivity!

Sun Wukong, with each step he ascended.

It is as if, on the heart of this dragon vein, one mercilessly stamps a footprint!

What he wants is not to smash this Spirit Mountain.

What he wants is to make the "roots" of this Spirit Mountain rot completely, die completely!

He walks very slowly.

Yet, he is unwavering.

When he reaches the mid‑mountain slope.

The anomaly begins to spread toward the entire Spirit Mountain!

In the mountains, a waterfall that should have plunged straight down.

That snow‑white spring water actually defied the fundamental principle of Heaven and Earth.

It began to flow upward inch by inch!

In the forest, a flock of birds that should have chattered.

Suddenly let out an extremely terrified scream!

Then, like dumplings dropping, they fell straight down from the sky!

They hit the ground and fell silent.

A few spirit deer drinking at the creek also seemed to sense some colossal terror.

Their docile eyes were filled with Bloodshot.

They emitted uneasy and mournful screeches.

Like madmen, they fled desperately down the mountain!

The entire Spirit Mountain trembles!

All are wailing!

……

At the same time.

Inside the Great Thunder Sound Temple, within the Daxiong Baodian.

Upon the Lotus Platform, Rulai Buddha appears in a resplendent form.

He is presently lecturing the sutras to the three thousand bodhisattvas and eight hundred arhats seated before him.

"…What is called emptiness is not the emptiness of emptiness, but …"

His voice is grand and serene.

Each word contains supreme Buddhist truth.

It makes listeners feel as if bathed in a spring breeze.

But, at this moment.

Rulai Buddha's voice suddenly halted.

A faint, extremely subtle change appeared on his eternally unchanging face.

Just in that instant.

His heart suddenly thumped!

As if a poisoned ice needle from the Nine Abyss had brutally pierced him!

An indescribable, colossal terror descended upon his heart without warning!

It made his whole body shiver!

"What's happening?"

Rulai Buddha frowned slightly.

He immediately performed a finger‑count calculation.

He wanted to deduce the heavenly mechanism to see exactly what had occurred.

However, at the point of entry, there was an unprecedented expanse of Chaos Realm and void!

Nothing could be calculated!

The heavenly mechanism was completely blocked by a force he could neither comprehend nor resist!

Not only him.

The great bodhisattvas seated beneath him—Guanyin, Samantabhadra, Manjushri, and others.

And those Golden-bodied Arhats and Guardian Armor.

Also sensed the anomaly!

"Buddha Patriarch, this …"

Guanyin Dashi's face bore an unmistakable look of startled doubt.

She felt her connection to this world being rapidly weakened!

The others felt the same.

Inside the great hall, the originally harmonious and eternal ten‑thousand‑foot Buddha light

began to flicker wildly out of control!

Bright for a moment.

Dark for a moment.

Like a bulb with poor contact.

Or like a candle in the wind that could go out at any time!

The entire Daxiong Baodian, its solemn and sacred atmosphere, was instantly completely replaced by an invisible panic!

And at this moment.

The instigator of all this, Sun Wukong.

Finally, (he) has walked the entire pilgrimage road.

He, already, stands at Da Lei Yin Si's gate.

He lifts his head.

Looking at the lintel, at that plaque, written in Sanskrit, "Daxiong Baodian".

That golden plaque, in his eyes, already, is dim and lifeless.

He recalled.

The last time he came.

He, once with a single blow, smashed it to shreds.

What a lofty, spirited vigor.

What a rebellious, unbridled.

Sun Wukong, withdrew his gaze.

On his face, there is no expression at all.

This time, he did not come to cause trouble.

He came to collect a debt.

He does not linger at all.

Calmly, he lifts his leg.

Then, just like that, amid the countless gods and Buddhas' horrified, desperate resonance.

One step.

Stepped over that barrier, which, unknown how many Mortals it has separated, a high, lofty threshold.