Chapter 540: A Perfect Game of Chess, Yet the Only One Not Spared Was Herself

"You remember now?" Bodhi Patriarch asked Tang An.

Tang An nodded, caught between laughter and tears. "I remember."

"So it was the Heavenly Dao calculating against the Heavenly Dao; I became the Heavenly Dao, and finally, I broke free from the Heavenly Dao."

"For the sake of freedom, and so that the people I care about could live, I personally engineered my own death."

"Although I still had to break the game through death, I finally rebelled against the so-called Fixed Number and fate."

"Even if it was a pyrrhic victory, at the very least, in this round, I am the final winner."

The Heavenly Dao has a Fixed Number, and people are born with a fate. From the moment Tang An became the Heavenly Dao, she naturally knew everything.

To escape her own fate, to modify the Fixed Number of their Great Tribulation, and to ensure that her closest kin, Sun Wukong, Yang Jian, and Nezha could survive.

Tang An could no longer remember how many times she had overturned and reorganized this game.

Every time, success was always just a hair's breadth away.

And every time she started over, she was forced to face those endless, impossible-to-guard-against schemes.

The Western Sect, the Heavenly Dao, Nuwa, the Outer Realm Demon Race—she had too many opponents. A single mistake would lead to her total defeat.

The last reincarnation was the closest she had ever come to winning. Not only did she save everyone's life, but she also saved herself, managing to break free from the Heavenly Dao to live the mortal life she wanted.

Yet, at the very moment of her birth... she personally caused her mother's death.

Another cycle of unwilling reincarnation began; she stopped resisting and instead became the Heavenly Dao as quickly as possible.

Returning to the beginning of creation, from that moment on, she laid out this game for herself.

A perfect game where, by sacrificing only herself, all her wishes could be fulfilled and everyone could be preserved.

"On the Journey to the West, during the Tribulation of Baimu Mojun. At the time, I thought I had understood that all fate was a closed loop that could not be escaped."

"I even thought I was standing in the middle of the story, looking toward my own inevitable death."

"I never expected that I had already been standing at the beginning of the story, personally setting up my own inescapable death."

Bodhi Patriarch looked at Tang An, "You have indeed completed a game, a nearly perfect chess match."

Tang An gave a bitter smile, "If there were a choice, who would want to tread so carefully and exhaust all their efforts?"

Originally, she thought she was being suffocated by the schemes of Nuwa and the Heavenly Dao.

Now, looking back, it was she who utilized Nuwa, the Heavenly Dao, and all the Saints to conduct a game of calculation and counter-calculation.

Even the Houtu Divine Ring, which seemed to be obtained by chance, was something she had personally arranged for herself. The purpose was to ensure she could live to forge the Great Killing Weapon.

At the same time, she also facilitated the fates of all beings in the Three Realms, connecting those seemingly unrelated nodes of fate into a line that assisted her success.

By doing so, she burdened herself with Causality to drive the development of the chess game, completing a connection like a Möbius strip."

During this period, she held her own fate in her hands, rewriting it herself.

Whether it was the Great Dao or the Heavenly Dao, from then on, they could no longer control her life.

It was just that when she was calculating, all her seven emotions and six desires faded away. Thus, she was also ruthless and reckless when it came to herself.

Furthermore, in order to maintain the clarity required to seek the result, she did not care at all about the psychological damage the process would cause her.

"Learning everything before I dissipate can be considered giving myself an answer; I have no regrets." Tang An truly felt a sense of relief, having let go of all her obsessions.

Bodhi Patriarch opened his palm, and a Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl appeared within it.

The Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl was a primordial treasure left behind when Pangu created the world.

It was also the treasure she had sought during her previous attempts at reshaping reincarnation to restart a new life for herself.

But she had used it once, and it caused the death of Tang Zhenzhu. Therefore, she no longer intended to use it.

"Bodhi Patriarch, were you not unwilling to trade with me? Why have you brought the Fetal Pearl here today?"

Tang An did not know the origin of Bodhi Patriarch; even after becoming the Heavenly Dao, she had no way of knowing.

It was precisely because of this that she felt safe entrusting the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl to Bodhi Patriarch for safekeeping. This way, even Hongjun could not detect the existence of this pearl.

And it was also because of this that, even with the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl as a turning point, the Two Sages could still find no way out when they divined her fate.

Bodhi Patriarch flicked his Whisk, "I never trade with the Heavenly Dao, nor do I trade with sentient beings."

Tang An was not surprised, "When I gave the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl to you before, I only thought of preventing Hongjun Laozu from detecting it and ruining my plan."

"For this, I even specifically guaranteed that I would not let Wukong be harmed and would take the opportunity to change his fated Tribulation."

"You were unwilling to trade Wukong with me, yet you did not refuse to let me keep the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl at Lingtai Fangcun Mountain."

"Now that everything is settled, you can handle the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl as you see fit; why come looking for me?"

Bodhi Patriarch smiled and stroked his beard, "I did not trade with you; you placing that pearl there was, to me, no more than adding a stone to the mountain."

Tang An nodded, knowing that Bodhi Patriarch's realm was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

"Since that is the case, please take the Heaven and Earth Fetal Pearl back, Bodhi Patriarch." She had no intention of using the Fetal Pearl again.

As long as she did not enter Reincarnation, Tang Zhenzhu would not give birth to her. Without her as a burden, Tang Zhenzhu could live well, divorce that scumbag, and support her grandmother until old age.

Her grandmother would no longer have to bury her own child, nor would she have to labor so hard for her, working herself into illness, only to suffer so much when the end came.

Bodhi Patriarch did not leave, but instead asked Tang An a question.

"I did not trade with you, so why did you still change Wukong's fate and take on his fated death-tribulation for him?"

Tang An laughed: "Heh, come to think of it, I actually got the better end of the deal; we are peers, after all."

"Wukong is not only your disciple, he is also my disciple."

"As for trades or no trades, it's really just something said to increase bargaining chips. Even without a trade, I couldn't just watch Wukong sacrifice himself in front of me and remain indifferent."

"Anyway, no matter how I change it, my ending is a dead end. Better to let one whale fall so that all things may live, and use it to fulfill and change the bitter fates of more people."

Bodhi Patriarch listened to Tang An's words and nodded in great appreciation.

"Do you know how powerful the heart is?"

"The heart?"

Bodhi Patriarch flicked his Whisk, and Tang An saw everyone exhausting their Dharma Power to repair the Array she had long ago severed.

"Nonsense, isn't this all just acting foolish?"

Watching everyone burning their Primordial Spirit and exhausting their Dharma Power for an impossible result, how could Tang An not feel a sense of lament in her heart?

"The power of the heart is very strong; the obsession born from the heart can also be great or small."

"It can be as small as a bite of food in the eyes of a mortal, or as great as you enduring thousands of hardships and countless cycles of reincarnation, just to change your own fate and also change the original Fixed Number of the Three Realms."

"Wild grass grows in the desert, great trees grow between cliff faces, mayflies emerging from water struggle to live a single day, and the Foolish Old Man moving mountains takes more than a hundred years."

"To act knowing it cannot be done, and to guard the thought within one's heart, is the only way to transcend the predicament."

Tang An turned her head to look at Bodhi Patriarch and cautiously took two steps back.

"I will not use the Fetal Pearl again; this life shall end here."