Ah!
Within the central hall of the Kun Peng Secret Realm, the Four Plum Guardians had arranged themselves in the Formation of Four Symbols. They were responsible for maintaining awareness of the gaps in the dao hearts of beings in the Primordial World and following Li Changshou’s guidance, they planted some removable ‘beneficial heart demons’ in certain beings who might prove useful.
After all, if a good person’s heart demon drives them to evil, then an evil person’s heart demon could drive them to do good.
Such was the comprehension at the Primordial level.
As for Li Changshou at this moment…
He felt somewhat embarrassed.
Earlier, in his excitement, he had revealed all the preliminary plans. Fortunately, he had only told the two of them and hadn’t touched upon his ultimate countermeasures against the Dao Ancestor, nor the weapon that could breach the Dao Ancestor’s defenses.
That part still needed to maintain some mystery.
If he said too much, it could affect Yun Xiao’s dao heart and their fundamental understanding of the Primordial World.
But looking back at what had just transpired, he felt a faint sense of shame.
It was a very particular kind of shame.
Despite being a fairly mature elder, he had just experienced that same youthful idealism he’d had in his previous life when discussing entrepreneurial dreams during university.
Upon reflection, he felt his mindset might have become somewhat unstable, so he silently recited scriptures hundreds of times.
He wasn’t one for theatrics, but he had kept things bottled up for too long. Cloud and Ling E were his closest confidants, and being away from the Primordial Heavenly Dao’s surveillance, he simply couldn’t help himself.
What would they think of him?
Li Changshou opened his left eye slightly, watching as Ling E and Yun Xiao planned the hall’s layout, arranging various flowers and plants.
This harmonious scene truly made him… unable to resist using his divine sense to check his Senior Brother’s location.
There was killing intent!
Ahem, back to business.
Li Changshou was currently reading through Virtual Bodhi’s memories.
Through the ‘Dao Heart Demon Technique’ — a temporary name he’d given it — he had induced Virtual Bodhi’s heart demon, embedded his simulated primordial spirit within Virtual Bodhi’s body, and then activated it using the ways of the Outer Heavenly Demons, turning Virtual Bodhi into his second puppet primordial spirit.
This process carried some risks, as the Three Thousand Great Daos were constantly under the Heavenly Dao’s surveillance.
That’s why Li Changshou chose to act immediately upon entering the Kun Peng Secret Realm, as the Dao Ancestor and Heavenly Dao were busy constructing the world barrier and preparing defenses against his frontal assault, their attention somewhat diverted.
How could Li Changshou possibly launch a frontal attack?
That would inevitably lead him into the Dao Ancestor’s trap, forcing him to confront the entire Primordial World’s spiritual energy and its beings — unwise.
The best strategy was to collapse Hongjun Dao Ancestor’s designed world system from within.
Of course, Virtual Bodhi was just one piece in Li Changshou’s plan. He had over thirty backup pieces, all cultivators with gaps in their dao hearts and barely acceptable strength.
But Virtual Bodhi was crucial.
If one were to ask why, being the Heavenly Dao’s chosen [Monkey Master] was only part of it.
More importantly, Li Changshou had discovered long ago that Virtual Bodhi’s cultivated dao was the Dao of Resolving Emptiness, advocating that phenomena arise from causes and conditions, and emptiness is the true nature of all things.
Combined with his dao title, it formed the characters for ‘Virtual Emptiness.’
The famous “Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form” from his old world Blue Star was an extension of this dao.
The old emptiness expert.
This dao’s resonance was close to the Supreme Clarity Dao, perfectly concealing Li Changshou’s understanding of the dao.
—Emptiness and Non-Action were completely different concepts.
Later, he would only need to find the right opportunity to visit some Dao sect masters in the world, and he could legitimately “incorporate the strengths of all schools” and “cultivate both Dao and Buddha,” allowing his strength to increase [reasonably].
In reality, the true Virtual Bodhi was dead, and this was now Li Changshou’s second primordial spirit, equivalent to a special paper puppet.
For stability’s sake, Li Changshou had already destroyed Virtual Bodhi’s original consciousness, replaced his primordial spirit with a simulated one, and transformed Virtual Bodhi’s primordial spirit into part of the simulated one.
The Second Primordial Spirit technique came from Senior Rogue, while the Simulated Primordial Spirit came from research on Outer Heavenly Demons. Li Changshou had now played these two trump cards, completing a perfect flanking maneuver.
A thousand-year kill shot, aimed precisely at the Heavenly Dao’s back door.
Suddenly, a skylark-like voice came from beside him.
“Sister, let’s go greet everyone,” Ling E whispered. “We’ll just say my Master Brother is in a bad mood, practicing in seclusion, and can’t meet with everyone right now.”
Yun Xiao replied softly, “That’s fine, but be mindful of your expression. This matter cannot be mentioned even to Qiong Xiao and Bi Xiao.”
Li Changshou felt relieved inside.
His earlier urge to confide shouldn’t have affected their perception of him.
After they left the formation, Li Changshou opened his eyes, glanced at the now somewhat changed hall, gave some instructions to the Four Plum Guardians, and continued adapting to his ‘Virtual Bodhi’ identity.
Better secure things further.
He should make more backup plans and not rely too heavily on the Heavenly Demon technique.
Spreading out Virtual Bodhi’s memories, the information was quickly absorbed by Li Changshou and categorized as ‘important,’ ‘ordinary,’ and ‘useless information.’
Virtual Bodhi was born in the late Ancient Era, an Innate Mighty One of ordinary background, and his memories were quite extensive.
Therefore, Li Changshou didn’t view these memories chronologically, but rather according to Virtual Bodhi’s original impressions, starting from the most profound memories.
By the way, this fellow’s deepest memory was being hunted down by Li Changshou.
The grievance was hard to resolve, the hatred difficult to dispel, but unfortunately, there was no chance for revenge anymore.
Li Changshou could also directly access these memories through calculation methods, ensuring no major oversights.
Given how badly Virtual Bodhi had been hunted down by him before, it would be reasonable for him to act more cautiously in the future.
Over the next half month, Li Changshou reviewed the entire development process of Western Teaching and gained a crystal-clear understanding of its current internal structure.
Incidentally, Li Changshou also saw Virtual Bodhi’s many good deeds.
—Though all these good deeds combined didn’t match the evil of Virtual Bodhi establishing a single divine kingdom of mortal worship.
‘Let’s walk this Primordial path once more.’
Li Changshou chuckled inwardly.
It was quite interesting, the growth path of the Bodhi Patriarch.
Thus, half a year later.
Li Changshou received a message from the Western Teaching’s Great Sage, calling back the disciples who had been avoiding disaster outside Spirit Mountain.
Li Changshou didn’t hesitate. He practiced Virtual Bodhi’s walking posture several times in his cave dwelling, practiced his most commonly used divine abilities, and carefully grasped Virtual Bodhi’s speech patterns and habitual expressions…
Finally, wrapped in the faint dao resonance of resolving emptiness, he concealed his form and returned to the Five Continents region.
Walking through the world again, Li Changshou could sense that the world seemed somewhat more stable.
But the voices of living beings were slightly more subdued than before.
The great world where Virtual Bodhi had originally been hiding wasn’t far from the Five Continents. Li Changshou calculated the cultivation level Virtual Bodhi should display and the corresponding travel speed, arriving “on time” at the World’s End in the Western Sea.
Not daring to use the Wind Speech Spell, Li Changshou honestly extended his divine sense and immediately received much information.
For instance, the Enlightenment Teaching’s Jiang Shang, overseer of the Investiture of the Gods Catastrophe, had already presided over the Investiture Ceremony at the Investiture Platform, establishing the various gods of the Celestial Court, which would now flourish.
Li Changshou’s entrusting of the Demon-Striking Rod had included this calculation.
But there was no position for Jiang Shang on the Investiture List. This person who had managed the investiture remained in the mortal world as a great feudal lord, causing much sighing.
It couldn’t be helped — he had lost karmic merit due to Broad Completion Immortal’s schemes earlier.
Li Changshou had worried that the Dao Ancestor would forcefully modify everyone’s memories, directly implanting the original Investiture script.
But after carefully listening to the discussions from various places for a while, he felt somewhat relieved.
The Saint-Killer Zhao Gongming was invested as the True Lord of the Dragon-Tiger Dark Altar, controlling the Wealth, Struggle, Thunder, and Plague Departments, while Golden Spirit Holy Mother was invested as the Dipper Mother Sovereign, managing the Struggle Department and commanding the Twenty-Eight Constellations.
This couple would become part of the real power structure in the Celestial Court.
The Dao Ancestor must have been concerned about consuming the world’s original force and hadn’t extensively modified everyone’s memories, only correcting ‘Grand White Golden Star’ and erasing Li Changshou’s title.
{Impressive}.
Senior Rogue received the same treatment.
One of Li Changshou’s major trump cards lay in discovering the secret of Senior Rogue’s death — why Rogue had insisted on shattering the Primordial World.
According to the information Li Changshou now possessed, after the opening of heaven and earth, Senior Rogue had fallen into deep sleep due to severe injuries. Upon awakening, he had also become a Founding Merit Immortal, using his second primordial spirit ‘Beast Tribe Fu Xi’ as cover to wander the Primordial World.
At that time, Senior Rogue had already known Hongjun, and several Mighty Ones had gathered to form a mysterious organization.
[The Primordial Residents’ Committee].
This organization was crucial, essentially determining the direction of a series of major events in the Ancient Era. Senior Rogue and Hongjun were the planners and chess players behind the scenes at the time.
The Three Pure Ones, being transformed from Pangu’s primordial spirit, were key talents cultivated by this [Primordial Residents’ Committee].
However, with Senior Rogue’s split from Dao Ancestor Hongjun, and his death at the hands of Hongjun and the Heavenly Dao in their final battle, this mysterious organization became dust in the Primordial World.
The Three Pure Ones didn’t even know these internal affairs.
To this day, Li Changshou still has two questions he couldn’t fully understand.
One was about the process of his transmigration to the Primordial World and how it was accomplished, and the other was related to the True Spirit Dao.
These would be the direction of his future dao enlightenment.
What Li Changshou could confirm now was that the master of the Western Teaching’s two saints, Jieyin and Zhunti, was also a member of that [Residents’ Committee] back then.
He was probably eliminated by the Dao Ancestor later.
This easily brought to mind the ‘Mysterious Elder in Burning Lamp’s Ancient Coffin’ buried beneath the Reincarnation Tower along with the Demon Sovereign’s spirit core.
But that wasn’t right — the timelines didn’t match. Li Changshou didn’t know that elder’s identity, but by analyzing the evolution of various daos in the Primordial World, he had ruled out that elder.
That was just an Innate Mighty One who died in ancient times, whose strength was so formidable that he couldn’t completely die.
The Primordial World was eternal, with countless secrets.
Li Changshou also knew that his time in the world had been too short, just a thousand or so years, and his understanding of these matters was too limited.
Not lingering at the market towns of World’s End, Li Changshou collected some useful information and headed toward the Western Ox Continent.
The Investiture of the Gods Catastrophe had been forcefully ended by the Dao Ancestor.
In the short time since his departure, many changes had occurred in the Three Realms, though all were within his previous calculations.
Because the Severing Sect had angrily rebelled against Heaven, the Heavenly Dao had sent down divine punishment, destroying thousands of Severing Sect immortals. The final karmic destiny was fulfilled, and the Great Catastrophe officially ended.
The Investiture Ceremony was also a grand affair, with Heaven sending down the Investiture List, and Jiang Shang establishing three hundred and sixty-five proper gods.
Among the most talked-about were King Di Xin and Da Ji becoming a pair of gods managing ‘wedding affairs,’ complementing the Moon Elder God of the Marriage Palace, giving this mortal king and queen quite a decent ending.
Then there was the Severing Sect’s Holy Mother Group that caught cultivators’ attention. Apart from the Golden Spirit Holy Mother becoming the Dipper Mother Sovereign and the Golden Light Holy Mother being invested as the Lightning Goddess or ‘Thunder Mother,’ the others’ whereabouts were uncertain.
Some said Turtle Spirit Holy Mother and Boundless Holy Mother perished under divine punishment, their souls destroyed;
Others said a large group of Severing Sect experts had fled beyond the heavens, waiting for a chance to seek revenge against the Three Realms.
Most interesting was that the three immortal ladies Yun Xiao, Qiong Xiao, and Bi Xiao hadn’t appeared at the Investiture Ceremony at all, yet were given the divine position of ‘Midwife Immortal Envoys.’
In other words, they had a ‘legitimate identity’ to return to the Primordial World at any time, completely different from ‘stowaways’ like Li Changshou.
What was this?
The Dao Ancestor’s gesture of goodwill toward his side?
Li Changshou could only laugh it off, not thinking too much about it.
No one in the Three Realms discussed the battle of the saints, nor did anyone know what happened in the Purple Void Palace. Only a few mighty ones knew that there was now an additional stone statue in the Purple Void Palace — that of the strongest saint who had been the only one able to make the Dao Ancestor panic.
After the Investiture Ceremony, the Dao Ancestor appeared above the Investiture Platform and established a rule.
The Primordial World would no longer manifest saints.
The Purple Void Palace would also hide beyond the world, the Three Realms would respect the Celestial Court as supreme, and the Netherworld, Dragon Palace, and Saint Teachings would assist the Celestial Court’s affairs, all under the Jade Emperor’s jurisdiction.
The Dao Ancestor had indirectly placed the Initiation Saint and Original Heavenly Lord under house arrest.
Due to the source of information — this market town at World’s End was in the Western Sea — Li Changshou couldn’t learn news about the Immortal Crossing Gate, and would have to find an opportunity to investigate later.
The first step would be to begin collecting intelligence about the current Primordial World.
The paper puppets hidden in various parts of the earth were currently inactive, dissolved among sand and soil, within earth veins, like grains of sand or dust.
But Li Changshou dared not use this intelligence network.
The ‘Bodhi Patriarch’ identity must be kept separate from that ‘Paper-Cutting Maniac,’ with no elements that could suggest a connection.
Ahead, Spirit Mountain was already in sight.
Spirit Mountain still had its half-sheared appearance, but atop the flattened peak stood numerous magnificent golden palaces, surrounded by immortal light, clearly marking it as a sacred cultivation site.
The West still focused on face-saving projects.
Li Changshou easily descended into Spirit Mountain’s grand formation, nodding in acknowledgment to the one or two familiar old Daoists who knew Virtual Bodhi, then hurriedly headed toward a hidden palace in the rear mountain.
That was where the Western Teaching’s core disciples held their ‘regular meetings.’
Entering the palace, Li Changshou maintained a cold expression and walked to the left meditation cushion in the front row, lifting his robe’s hem before sitting cross-legged.
Which foot entered first, which leg crossed over in meditation, breathing frequency after sitting, the range of his dao resonance — all these details were perfect.
He even glanced twice toward Initiation Saint’s current residence before lowering his head in silence.
“Senior Brother Bodhi…”
A voice transmission suddenly came from an old Daoist nearby.
Li Changshou immediately located this old Daoist’s basic information and transmitted it back: “What is it?”
The old Daoist smiled and transmitted: “Could you come by my place later? I’ve prepared some immortal tea and would like Senior Brother to sample it.”
“Busy.”
Li Changshou calmly transmitted back, merely glancing at that old Daoist before closing his eyes in meditation.
This wasn’t him deliberately acting cool — this was how Virtual Bodhi treated his Western Teaching fellow disciples.
Soon, twenty or thirty figures had taken their seats, the atmosphere quite heavy.
Suddenly hearing a sigh, an old Daoist in white robes appeared on the meditation cushion before them, his eyes showing worry — it was Initiation Saint.
Li Changshou and the other disciples rose, made a dao salute to Initiation, and addressed him as a teacher.
Then they all sat back down, waiting for Initiation Saint to speak.
Li Changshou: …
Circumstances demanded it, circumstances demanded it — he would forever have only one teacher, one master!
Initiation Daoist sighed softly and said:
“Now that the Great Catastrophe has passed, I’ve called you here to discuss how the Western Teaching should proceed from here.
Currently, the most thorny issue facing our Western Teaching is that our destiny has been damaged, and we suddenly have thousands more disciples.
You may speak freely.”
The disciples remained silent, most gazes converging on the seven or eight figures in the front row.
A young Daoist asked: “Teacher, has the Golden Lotus truly met with disaster?”
“Ah…”
Initiation sighed lightly, his palm blooming with golden light to reveal a golden lotus pod.
The pod had three withered petals hanging on either side, but at least its spiritual power had stabilized.
Li Changshou frowned, looking at Wen Jing’s handiwork…
He almost laughed out loud.
“Well, in the end, I misjudged someone,” Initiation sighed. “Though we now lack the Golden Lotus to stabilize our teaching’s destiny, we’re only in the same situation as the Severing Sect before the Great Catastrophe.
The next Great Catastrophe should be far off, there’s no need to worry.
Moreover, the Heavenly Dao has foretold that the West will soon prosper greatly, so rest assured.”
A disciple asked: “Teacher, can we use merit to restore the Golden Lotus?”
Immediately other disciples objected: “The Three Thousand Worlds have been occupied by the Immortal Alliance and Approaching Heaven Palace. It’s said that the Palace Master of Approaching Heaven died suddenly while cultivating, and the Celestial Court directly took over the entire Approaching Heaven Palace.
Where can we find merit?”
The disciples immediately became worried.
Initiation continued: “The Merit Golden Lotus will be difficult to restore. I will seek other items to stabilize our teaching’s destiny.
There’s no need to rush with the Three Thousand Worlds. According to the Heavenly Dao’s prophecy, spreading our teaching’s doctrine is most urgent now.
I called you back today to settle the matter of spreading our doctrine.
Bodhi, do you have any good methods?”
Following Virtual Bodhi’s personality, Li Changshou immediately said: “This disciple has no good strategy, only one or two points of confusion.”
Initiation’s lips showed a slight smile as he said: “What confusion?”
Li Changshou said: “Why do we base ourselves in the Western Ox Continent yet not widely spread our doctrine there? The Three Thousand Worlds are important, but the Five Continents are most crucial.”
“Good,” Initiation smiled. “Bodhi’s words are indeed a good strategy.”
Li Changshou’s heart twitched slightly.
He had been careless.
He had only considered creating the false identity of ‘Bodhi Patriarch’ for convenience in future schemes but had overlooked this detail.
Now he had to strategize for the Western Teaching!
Though Virtual Bodhi had been defeated by him, Li Changshou, several times before, the failures of other fellow disciples proved that it wasn’t because Virtual Bodhi was too weak, but because that ‘Grand White Scoundrel’ was full of schemes.
But looking at it from another angle…
If he prepared thoroughly, couldn’t he directly drive this Western Teaching vehicle toward the Western Sea — straight into the sea trench?
Hmm, interesting.