Chapter 133: Judgment! What Are the Eight Sufferings of the World?

The Tathagata has fallen into being a mortal.

Or rather, he can no longer be called the Tathagata.

He is now merely an old monk, his years like a candle in the wind, on the verge of death, a worldly monk.

He lay prone on the ground.

Those eyes, which once could perceive the three thousand worlds, were the Buddha's eye.

Now they have become utterly turbid.

Filled with the most primal fear and pleading.

He lifted his head, terrified, gazing at the demonic figure before him.

His lips trembled incessantly.

He wanted to say something.

Yet he could not utter a single word.

He was frightened to the core.

Sun Wukong slowly crouched down.

His face almost touched the Tathagata's face.

He stared at the other, those eyes filled with fear, utterly turbid.

One word.

After a pause, he spoke.

"You once told me."

"All beings suffer."

"What are the eight sufferings?"

The Tathagata's body shuddered violently!

He, of course, knows!

How could he not know!

This is the Buddhist teaching he has lectured on his whole life!

It is the foundation he uses to teach and convert beings, establishing the faith of the Buddhist Gate!

"Birth, aging, sickness, death."

"Separation from loved ones."

"Encountering those one hates."

"Unfulfilled desires."

"The five aggregates ablaze."

Sun Wukong spoke it for him.

His voice carried a hint of intense mockery.

"You say it so lightly."

"As if all the world's suffering is simply a matter of course."

"As if beings are born to suffer."

"After enduring suffering, they come to believe in your Buddha, seeking an illusory, elusive liberation in the next life."

His voice suddenly turned ice-cold and piercing!

"I, Old Sun, don't understand those grand principles!"

"All I know!"

"You yourself haven't tasted even a bit of suffering!"

"Thus you have no right to point fingers at others' pain!"

"Even less so!"

"Using these so-called principles to imprison and enslave all beings under heaven!"

Boom!!!

When the last few words fell,

Sun Wukong abruptly straightened his body!

He no longer looked at the old monk on the ground, who was like a dead dog.

Instead, he slowly raised his head.

His gaze pierced the vault of the Daxiong Baodian.

He looked toward the highest point of this heaven and earth!

In an instant!

A supreme, unsurpassable Dao rhythm, transcending all laws, the 【Equal Heaven】 Dao rhythm!

It erupted explosively from within his body!

This Dao rhythm possesses no destructive force whatsoever.

Yet it causes the entire Ling Shan to tremble violently!

It causes all remaining laws within the Three Realms to wildly wail!

That is submission to the supreme sovereign!

Sun Wukong's voice is no longer calm.

It has become grand, solemn, and indisputable!

Like an ultimate edict descending from the Nine Heavens!

It resonated throughout the entire Ling Shan!

"Today!"

"This old monkey!"

"Then I will, in the name of the Heavenly Dao!"

"I sentence you—"

He suddenly extended a finger.

He pointed far away at that trembling soul on the ground!

"Fall into!"

"Ten thousand lifetimes!"

"Reincarnation!!!"

These few words!

"Not a request!"

Moreover, it is not a vicious curse!

This is, yes, the most fundamental, core law of this universe.

A direct command, issued!

No room for doubt!

Cannot be resisted!

Must be carried out!

As Sun Wukong's voice just fell.

"Hum—"

A vortex, formed from the purest reincarnation power, pitch-black!

Beneath the Tathagata's mortal body.

Appeared out of nowhere!

That vortex, deep and dark.

Inside, there was not a trace of the gentle guidance of the underworld's reincarnation.

There was.

Only the most primal, violent tearing force!

Destructive force!

Enforcing force!

The Tathagata hadn't even had time to let out a miserable cry!

He just felt his own fragile soul, which had just broken free of his mortal body.

He was seized by an irresistible, immense suction, violently pulling him downward!

He felt his soul, his consciousness, himself, all traces of his existence!

All were to be utterly crushed and flattened by that terrifying vortex!

Transformed into the most primal fragments of true spirit!

"No!!!"

At the moment he was about to be completely dragged into darkness.

The Tathagata finally, from that extreme fear and pain,

He forced out a sound, desperate to the point of hoarseness, his final wail!

He, exerting all his strength, lifted his head.

Finally, what he saw.

Was Sun Wukong's pair of eyes, cold to the point of lacking any emotion, golden.

In those eyes, there was no pity.

No satisfaction.

Even, no hatred.

There was merely an expanse, deeper and colder than that reincarnation vortex...

Emptiness.

"I am waiting for you."

Sun Wukong's voice, in his soul, which was about to be completely erased, softly sounded at the last instant.

"Waiting for you, after you have tasted the eight sufferings of this world."

"Then, carrying that full-body unwillingness and resentment."

"Then come, ask me for a true liberation."

Pfft!

The pitch-black vortex suddenly contracted!

Along with the Tathagata's soul and his final desperate wail.

Together, they vanished without a trace.

As if they had never appeared.

Inside the Daxiong Baodian.

Once again, that suffocating silence was restored.

All the gods and buddhas fell silent like cicadas in winter.

Each of them trembled all over, like chaff being sifted!

They stared at that figure, still holding the outstretched-finger pose, a terrifying silhouette.

They felt their hearts about to burst from terror!

Dead?

No!

This is ten thousand times more cruel than simply beating them to death!

One hundred million times!

That is heart-extermination!

Moreover, it exterminates the soul!

Eternal damnation!

No way out!

No way to die!

Such punishment, even the mere thought of it, is enough to make gods and Buddhas collapse.

It leaves no room in their hearts for even the slightest rebellious thought.

All that remains is the most humble pleading.

They plead to the demon god who rules over all.

Can give them a swift end!

And Sun Wukong.

After doing all this.

He simply slowly retracted his finger.

Then.

He slowly turned around.

His calm gaze swept over the bodhisattvas and arhats, already terrified out of their wits.

Finally.

His gaze fell upon the corner of the hall.

That one remained silent from beginning to end.

That one, who looks exactly like him.

Victorious Fighting Buddha.

Six-Eared Macaque.