Chapter 451: Shedding the Mortal Form?

With the Jade Rabbit spirit being personally escorted back to the Palace of Eternal Cold by the Taiyin Star Lord, the "78th Trial · Tianzhu Kingdom Marriage Invitation" can be considered concluded.

Afterwards, they also went through the "79th Trial · Tongtai Prefecture Imprisonment".

In Tianzhu Kingdom's Tongtai Prefecture, Diling County, when the charitable, ascetic monk Kou Yuanwai had completed his meritorious deeds, he was robbed and killed by bandits; Xuanzang and his disciples were falsely accused as the culprits and fell into captivity.

Fortunately, Sun Wukong employed his divine powers, traversing heaven and earth, investigating openly and covertly, ultimately revealing the truth; the master and disciples Wash away the false accusations, and Kou Yuanwai also receives a just reward in the afterlife.

After a series of setbacks, the pilgrimage party set out on the final journey once more.

On this day, after trekking 108,000 li, the four of Xuanzang and his disciples finally arrived at the foot of the Western Heaven Ling Shan.

Xuanzang halted the White Dragon Horse and lifted his gaze,

The Ling Shan stood far away, its whole body suffused with a soothing pale Golden Light; the trees and rocks on the mountain were all perfectly formed, exceedingly pleasant.

The air carried an indescribable, clean fragrance that made one forget fatigue and still the mind.

What a realm of blissful Pure Land! Completely unlike the demons, perils, and mortal worldly scenes encountered along the way.

Xuanzang, filled with countless emotions, dismounted, adjusted his robes, and together with his disciples walked step by step up the Ling Shan.

Along the way, exotic flowers and strange herbs, auspicious birds and noble beasts did not shy away from people, further highlighting the harmony.

Continuing the ascent, they reached a lofty summit, where suddenly a broad, vast, misty river blocked the path ahead.

The river water was unlike ordinary water, faintly glowing with Golden Light, with hidden currents swirling, unfathomably deep.

There was no bridge across the river, only a slick, solitary log spanning the banks, exceedingly narrow and seemingly perilous.

Sun Wukong, with his fiery eyes, had already discerned reality, pointed at the log bridge, and said to Xuanzang:

"Master, look! Once you step onto this log bridge, be careful crossing the river; on the opposite bank where myriad rosy rays and auspicious vapors gather lies the Great Thunder Sound Temple! Tathagata Buddha and the myriad Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are waiting there for us!"

Xuanzang gazed at the rushing golden river beneath the log bridge, feeling no fear, only a clear serenity.

He was about to speak when a splash of water sounded nearby, and a clear voice rang out:

"Cross! Cross! Elders, board the boat! I will ferry you across!"

Following the voice, they saw a flat boat emerging from the misty waves.

At the prow stood a boatman, clad in coarse short brown cloth, wearing a bamboo hat, with an ordinary face and a warm smile, indistinguishable from a typical river ferryman.

However, Sun Wukong's fiery eyes recognized the man's true form at first glance—this was no ordinary boatman; it was the Guiding Buddha of the Western Pure Land, also known as the Namo Treasure Banner Light King Buddha!

Xuanzang, unaware, took him to be a benevolent ferryman at the foot of Ling Shan.

When the small boat drew near, Xuanzang looked down and was startled: the boat had no hull!

The boatman stood steadily on a "void" that seemed like the water's surface, and the vessel appeared to float in midair above the golden waves.

"Amitabha," Xuanzang pressed his palms together and asked:

"Boatman, why does your boat have no bottom? How can a bottomless vessel carry people across the river? Won't everyone fall into the water?"

The boatman heard this, laughed heartily, his voice booming like a great bell with a strange rhythm:

"My boat, from the primordial chaos, has been famed; fortunately it remains unchanged as I paddle. With waves and wind it stays steady, endless and timeless, joyful and peaceful. Unstained by the six dusts, it can return to unity; across countless kalpas it travels calmly. A bottomless boat is hard to cross the sea, now I come to ferry all beings across past and present."

After reciting the verse, his smile unchanged, he waved toward Xuanzang and the others:

"Elders, do not overthink; this is no ordinary boat, dedicated to ferrying those with affinity. Rest assured, just board!"

Xuanzang found his words profound and his bearing extraordinary; seeing Sun Wukong unchanged beside him, he believed him seven or eight parts.

He asked no further, bowed to the boatman and said, "Then, thank you, boatman."

Having spoken, he lifted his kasaya, raised his foot, and stepped onto the bottomless boat.

However, the instant his toe touched the "deck," an unheralded, extremely fierce gale suddenly rose from nowhere!

The wind came abruptly and swiftly, with astonishing force, blowing Xuanzang's figure to sway, his footing unsteady; with a "splash" he fell from the "bottomless" spot straight into the glittering golden river!

"Oops! Elder, how careless!" the boatman exclaimed, yet showed little panic; with a light poke of his bamboo pole, he precisely lifted the fallen Xuanzang from the river and placed him back on the boat, steady.

He muttered, "The river wind is a bit strong; now the elder is steady, don't slip again. Come, come, all aboard, we set off."

Xuanzang was drenched through, his kasaya clung to his body, looking somewhat disheveled, yet his gaze remained calm.

Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Seng also boarded the bottomless boat in turn.

The Guiding Buddha, seeing everyone present, lightly tapped the bamboo pole on the shore and shouted a resonant call:

"Off we go—!"

The bottomless boat then rolled steadily, leaving the shore, heading toward the misty river's heart.

Not far along, the group suddenly saw, upstream on the river surface, drifting slowly with the current, a corpse.

The corpse wore a robe identical to Xuanzang's brocade kasaya, its face indistinguishable from his, eyes closed, pallid, lifeless, floating downstream, about to pass their boat.

Seeing it, Xuanzang's brows knit tightly, and he instinctively whispered, "This… is this corpse… the poor monk?"

Sun Wukong, seeing clearly, grinned, nodded and said, "Master, fear not! That is not another; that was you!"

Zhu Bajie also leaned in, pointing at the watery corpse, laughing naively, "It's you, it's you! Master, that's you!"

Sha Seng, rarely smiling, clapped his hands and exclaimed, "It's you, it's you! Master, congratulations!"

Even the boatman, while paddling, sang a long chant and laughed loudly:

"That's you! Congratulations! Congratulations!"

Listening to the disciples' and boatman's successive congratulations, watching the corpse in the water that was identical to himself drifting farther, Xuanzang felt a sudden shock, as if a thunderclap rang deep within his Sea of Consciousness!

Many past fragments, doubts, and insights, at this moment, like trickling streams, finally merged into a sea, suddenly clear!

He recalled the young Daoist who had given him the Lunyu and the Mahayana Dao Method, the Supreme Buddha Method, who had shown him the Lion‑Camel Ridge Inferno and narrated another Xuanzang story—Yu Lin.

More clearly, he remembered Yu Lin's soul‑piercing question to him:

"Do you wish to be a puppet who merely obeys orders, moving step by step… or…"

"A person who can truly transmit the essential meaning of the Buddha's Dharma to the world, liberating all beings?"

At that time he answered without hesitation, "Certainly the latter!"

Now, watching the corpse representing his former mortal self drift away, hearing the "Congratulations" around him, Xuanzang suddenly understood something.

He pressed his lips together, said nothing, and simply stared quietly, deeply at that "self" corpse, until it vanished at the far end of the golden wave light and hazy water mist, no longer visible.