Chapter 254: So I'm the Truman Show, for fuck's sake?

Sun Wukong beckoned to Tang An and hopped over in a few strides.

"Master, the business is done, it's time to go back with old Sun."

Yang Jian opened his fan, smiling as he fanned himself, his face full of doting joy for Tang An.

"Master, whether it is in your world or our world, we have always been here." He used his fan to tap the spot over his heart.

Nezha walked toward Tang An and held out his hand.

"This time, let us be the ones to lead you out of the gloom."

Tang An brushed her bangs back with a flourish and placed her hand on Nezha's.

"You bet, we're all brothers, all in the heart..."

"Hey—"

Before she could finish, Tang An felt the world spinning.

When she regained consciousness, she cried out in pain.

Even though she hadn't done anything, her body felt as if it had plowed dozens of acres of land overnight. From the neck down, there wasn't a single place that didn't ache.

"Did you guys beat me while I was unconscious?"

Tang An saw the Jade Emperor and raised an eyebrow. "You?"

The Jade Emperor went "Hm?", what, was there no pot for him to be forced to carry the moment she woke up?

"Big sister."

Jiuyue transformed into her human form, crying her eyes out.

"Oh my, Jiuyue, don't cry, don't cry." Tang An hugged Jiuyue, sensing that she must have been worried sick.

"Who made our Jiuyue cry? It must be the Jade Emperor, yes."

Jade Emperor: "???"

"You girl, as expected, you're full of life the moment you wake up."

"That goes without saying." Tang An patted Jiuyue's back, coaxing her for quite a while.

Once she had finally coaxed Jiuyue, Tang An looked toward Pilanpo.

"You are..."

Tang An's smile froze on her face.

She had been thinking that she should thank Pilanpo Bodhisattva for saving her.

But the moment Tang An saw Pilanpo, that special connection, that most intuitive instinct, left her stunned on the spot.

"You..."

Pilanpo Bodhisattva revealed a loving smile but remained silent.

"Are you..."

"Impossible." Tang An laughed. "Right, impossible."

How could it be Grandma? Grandma was a modern person; how could she be an immortal, how could she be a Bodhisattva of the Western Heaven?

Besides, she had checked the Three Lives Stone; Grandma's name wasn't there, let alone any reincarnation of hers.

It couldn't be, how could it be.

Tang An's smile was somewhat forced as she bowed. "Tang An thanks the Bodhisattva for the grace of saving my life."

Pilanpo Bodhisattva looked at Tang An and gently touched her hand.

Just for a second.

Just that one touch.

Tang An threw off Pilanpo's hand as if electrocuted, breathing rapidly to steady her emotions.

"The Bodhisattva's grace, Tang An will surely repay in the future."

"Today, I will not keep you; please return."

Tang An's behavior exceeded everyone's expectations.

Her reaction was not the style she usually had.

Pilanpo Bodhisattva sighed. "The world is in Reincarnation, causes and conditions meet, it is unfathomable."

"An'an."

"Don't speak!" Tang An pointed at Pilanpo and roared, something no one had anticipated. "I told you not to speak!"

Pilanpo sighed. "Do you all now understand why I questioned whether my saving her was truly saving her?"

Tang An clutched her head, her head splitting with pain.

"It's an illusion, right?"

"You are all illusions, all fake."

Tang An pounded her head with the heel of her palm, wanting to run away.

Pilanpo appeared in front of Tang An in an instant, blocking her path, and administered a heavy dose of medicine by transforming directly into the appearance of Grandma.

Tang An immediately pulled a gold brick from her Universe Bag and pointed it at Pilanpo.

"Don't come over here, you are not my grandma, you are not allowed to turn into her!"

Grandma sighed. "If it is a Heart Demon, only the heart can resolve it."

"But the most feared part of this tribulation is that after repeatedly torturing your Heart Realm, it gives you one final, greatest blow to directly destroy your Dao Heart."

"You are the child I raised; others may not know your temperament, but I do."

"Enough, stop talking." Tang An's face turned cold, tears swirling in her eyes, the corners of her eyes turning red.

She swallowed her tears, feeling for the first time that tears were so bitter.

"Zhun Ti, Jieyin, Rulai."

"Good, good..."

"What deep schemes, what far-reaching layouts."

"In order to control the Destined One, you really have stopped at nothing."

Pilanpo sighed, her tone filled with guilt and helplessness.

"The Jieyin Saint calculated that there would be a variable in the Journey to the West Calamity, so he properly arranged for the birth of a new Destined One."

"I accepted his order to raise a child to adulthood. This reincarnation did not go through Reincarnation, but was instead sent by the Future Buddha to the future."

"Originally, I also had no memories."

"It was not until the death of Tang Zhenzhu that I became dejected; at the brink of death, I was enlightened by the Jieyin Saint and recovered a few memories."

"I knew my mission was to raise you to adulthood. At the same time, I was also clear that I had become a chess piece in the surging undercurrents."

"Out of my own selfishness, I couldn't bear to see little you suffer so much. You and I, grandmother and grandchild..."

"Enough!" Tang An's arms trembled, her emotions suppressed to the extreme.

"I don't need your sympathy, and I need your charity even less!"

"So, I was abandoned by my biological father, and you took me back to raise me, because you awakened your memories and had to fulfill a mission???"

Then what about family affection? What does family affection count for?

Thinking of this, Tang An laughed out loud.

The family affection she believed in was the most precious emotion in the world. Yet in the end, it was just a so-called mission?

She finally understood how Nezha felt when Granny Bedside addressed him as the Great God of the Three Altars of the Sea.

"Why did you come! Why did you tell me all of this?"

"Couldn't you have just stayed in my heart as that best grandmother?"

"Why did you have to make me see the reality? Why did you have to make me know that everything I have experienced is all a fucking fake scam!"

Tang An shouted until her voice was hoarse, her worldview completely collapsed!

Just as Pilanpo wanted to speak, Tang An sneered. "It's Jieyin, he came to find you again, right?"

"Is it that Lingshan has endless scriptures to copy, and they need my decadence to buy them time, is that it?"

"Whether it's me being controlled by a Heart Demon and becoming a puppet, or my Dao Heart shattering and me being too decadent to go to Lingshan again."

"These are all results they are happy to see, right?"

At this moment, Pilanpo could not even look directly into Tang An's eyes, which were aching to the extreme.

"So, my birth is some fucking bullshit Fixed Number of Destiny."

"My mother's death is also some so-called Fixed Number of Destiny."

"She died to make room for you, giving you the chance to raise me—is that also a Heaven-ordained fate? Or is it that Lingshan has once again forcibly added a so-called dog leash around my neck!?"

Her questioning, roaring, and anger were hoarse and desperate!

At times she would laugh out of extreme anger, but her laughter was desolate to the extreme. It was like a knife carving flesh, every cut slicing into herself.

"What exactly is my birth?"

"Is it a chess piece forcibly arranged by the Heavenly Dao, or a toy that the Saints are fighting over?"

"Is it a fate you arranged for me at will while using each other?"

"Making me suffer so much just to temper my character? Wanting to see what I could eventually grow into? Whether I have any value to be used?"

Tang An's questioning left Pilanpo unable to speak.

"So, from childhood to adulthood, all my miserable encounters have been lived under the gaze of those eyes in the heavens?"

"For the sake of my growth, they arranged all sorts of characters to appear by my side."

"Tang Zhenzhu, Wang Maolin, you, and the companions who pushed me into the water, the classmates who bullied me at school..."

"Everyone is real, yet everyone is fake. Their appearance was just to accompany me in acting out a play for those big shots to watch, right?"

"In their eyes, I have no secrets, no privacy. They can see all my wretchedness and can easily deal me a fatal blow!"

"Right?"

Tang An laughed until she couldn't catch her breath, and cried until her tears fell like rain.

"I, I am Tang An, I, I am the Truman."

"I, Tang An, am the biggest, the biggest joke!"

Sun Wukong and the others wanted to step forward, but Tang An reached out to stop them.

"Nobody come over."

"Nobody..."

"Pfft—"

Tang An leaned over and spat out a mouthful of blood; she reached out to wipe the corner of her mouth, but gave a cold, indifferent sneer.

Then, with a "thud," she knelt on the ground, her eyes wide open, and she collapsed heavily toward the ground.