Within the secret realm of the Six Paths Wheel of Reincarnation.

Great Virtue Earth Mother sat quietly by the riverbank. She no longer watched where the monkey was, her expression rather composed, as if nothing had happened before.

She was indeed somewhat startled.

She knew that the Saint Slayer Li Changshou had been driven out of the Primordial World by the Dao Ancestor. In the Purple Void Palace, she sensed the great battle between the Dao Ancestor and the Supreme Pure Saint.

Earth Mother knew everything that happened on the day the Severing Sect fell, and through the eyes of her Seven Emotions Avatar, she had witnessed the greatest gambit since ancient times in the Primordial World.

Likewise, Earth Mother knew perfectly well the outcome of that gambit.

The Supreme Pure Saint was sealed, Li Changshou was banished, the Severing Sect was destroyed, and the Jade Emperor of the Heavenly Court was bound by the Heavenly Dao.

But why had she seen Li Changshou’s mark on this Buddhist Rise Emissary chosen by the Dao Ancestor…

Earth Mother had never told anyone about the Immortal Golden Soul technique; if only Li Changshou knew of it, and the method was mature, for this monkey cultivator to have succeeded in practicing it…

The matters here were truly intriguing.

Earth Mother suddenly laughed, her expression rather complex.

Had the Dao Ancestor intercepted the technique she gave to Changshou? Or had Changshou calculated that the monkey would come to the Underworld, using this method to give her a hint?

Or was she overthinking, and this was purely a coincidence?

If it wasn’t a coincidence, was Changshou perhaps seeking her aid, but how could he have enabled the monkey to cultivate the Immortal Golden Soul…

Earth Mother pondered quietly, unconsciously falling into deep thought;

So much so that when the monkey swaggered out of Fengdu City back to the mortal realm, Lady Earth Mother did not react.

When she came to her senses again, she found that the various parts of the Reincarnation Immortal Island had quieted down, with the Ten Kings of Hell discussing the matter of reporting to Heaven.

This…

Even though Earth Mother had seen many storms and witnessed all kinds of schemes, she still couldn’t make heads or tails of this situation.

She couldn’t confirm whether this was Li Changshou seeking aid, nor could she confirm if the Immortal Golden Soul technique was still exclusively theirs.

Moreover, if she were to act rashly now and expose something, it would more easily ruin whatever calculations Changshou might have in place.

“Sigh…”

Lady Earth Mother sighed softly, continuing to sit by the small river combing her long hair.

She could only assume that this Sun Wukong was connected to Li Changshou, that he was a piece arranged by Li Changshou, and thus prepared herself to act accordingly, contemplating what she could do.

If the Six Paths Wheel of Reincarnation suddenly trembled, the Heavenly Dao could be ‘paralyzed’ for an instant.

Was this perhaps what Changshou wanted?

Matching wits with Teacher Dao Ancestor was certainly taxing, and probing the thoughts of the Dao Ancestor’s opponent was equally wearing.

Better prepare for now and quietly await what follows.

How did that saying go?

Ah yes, better safe than sorry.

…

In a minor world, Li Changshou sat before a water-attribute spirit root shaped like an orchid grass, silently calculating in his heart.

At the last stop, he had buried another fifteen Phantom Spirit Nails, and the progress made in these thirteen years was quite satisfactory.

He still had to thank Wukong for diverting the Dao Ancestor’s attention.

After all these years of traveling east and west, from the western region of the Three Thousand Worlds to the eastern region, now circling toward the north.

He had found over nine thousand two hundred locations where the Great Dao manifested;

He had utilized over three thousand six hundred of these manifestation points;

Of the foundational Great Dao that constituted the Heavenly Dao, eighty percent had been embedded with Phantom Spirit Nails.

This level was already sufficient.

But Li Changshou was a person with a very special sentiment, with stability written in his marrow. Even now he wasn’t satisfied, wanting to do whatever he could before formally challenging the Dao Ancestor.

Even if it only increased his chances of victory by one in one hundred and twenty thousand, it was enough for him to busy himself with the effort.

The Sect Master of the Stability Sect embodies stability himself.

‘I wonder if Lady Earth Mother received the signal I sent out.’

As long as the monkey went to the Underworld, Earth Mother should have seen it; moreover, the monkey had his exclusively taught ‘Immortal Golden Soul’, though he wasn’t sure if Earth Mother would recognize it.

Although Li Changshou didn’t want Earth Mother to act, to be safe, if at the crucial moment this ‘secondary Dao merger’ could help contain the situation, it would certainly increase his chances of victory by one or two percent.

How had he hidden this from the Dao Ancestor?

Very simple, this Immortal Golden Soul technique was something ‘Virtual Bodhi’ had gradually deduced and comprehended.

Li Changshou had simulated the entire comprehension process, writing down the cultivation mantra for the Immortal Golden Soul technique under the Heavenly Dao’s watchful eye, and this mantra had no similarity whatsoever to the incomplete technique Earth Mother had given him years ago.

This was how he could send a message through Sun Wukong’s primordial spirit under the very nose of the Heavenly Dao.

Of course, the greatest significance of this technique was strengthening Sun Wukong’s primordial spirit, compensating for Sun Wukong’s greatest weakness in combat, and allowing Sun Wukong to simply and directly improve his Dao realm.

The downside was that when conceiving the technique, it was easy to lose hair.

Better prepare for the worst—assume Earth Mother didn’t receive this ‘signal’ going forward.

If Earth Mother could act, that would certainly be a fine thing;

If she couldn’t act in time, it wouldn’t affect the greater situation.

A gentle breeze blew past, causing the spirit root before him to sway slightly as if begging for mercy; two layers of maturation formations had already been arranged around it, and it would take several more months before this spirit herb could be harvested.

He had been pondering how to unlock the Heavenly Dao’s shackles on the Dao realm.

Having cultivated to Virtual Bodhi’s level, the Great Dao was his everything, his foundation for standing firm.

If one’s Great Dao was sealed and one didn’t try to unlock it, that would be the real problem.

And now, the more depressed, helpless, and unwilling to give up he appeared, the more at ease the Dao Ancestor would feel about ‘Virtual Bodhi’.

[To play a character well, one must understand their true state of mind, let the performance come from within, respect the deceased original character, and fully express that character’s true nature.

—”Primordial World Film and TV Discussions”]

Speaking seriously.

The identity of Virtual Bodhi had indeed helped him greatly.

From hunting down Virtual Bodhi years ago and planting demons in his Dao’s heart to burying the Thunder Demon Sovereign’s spirit core beneath that Reincarnation Tower, to the immediate counterattack when forced to leave the Primordial World.

The entire calculation was now approaching its conclusion.

From himself being in the light and the Dao Ancestor in the dark, switching to himself in the dark and the Dao Ancestor in the light, to gradually taking control of the initiative afterward, understanding this world more profoundly, the foundation for victory had already been laid.

In fact, from the moment the Dao Ancestor hastily acted, having Taiji kill Stone Sovereign, triggering the first large-scale conflict between the Enlightenment and Severing Sects, the Dao Ancestor was already heading toward defeat.

Defeated by the Dao Ancestor’s lack of confidence in the script of the Investiture of the Gods catastrophe.

Defeated by the Dao Ancestor’s inability to overcome the Supreme Pure Saint in combat.

All of Li Changshou’s subsequent efforts could be seen as his search for the minimal cost to eliminate the Dao Ancestor.

Pangu had actually left a backup plan, it’s just that this plan was a bit convoluted, and few could understand it.

Why would the Heaven-Opening Axe be divided into three parts?

The Heavenly Dao Saints could already reforge wind, fire, water, and earth, destroying and recreating the world after its destruction.

The three Heaven-Opening artifacts could be interpreted another way.

When Saints wield the Taiji Diagram, they can destroy Yin and Yang, reversing pure and turbid, returning all to chaos;

When Saints wield the Pangu Banner to cleave chaos, they can open another realm, creating new heavens and earth;

The Chaos Bell can contain a minor world, and if one uses the Bell’s power to accelerate or slow time, countless beings could be crowded into this minor world. One would only need to accelerate time briefly to last until the new world stabilizes.

In this process, both the Heavenly Dao and Dao Ancestor would completely shatter.

But the problem lies in the sheer number of beings in the Primordial World—the Chaos Bell cannot contain them all. The casualties would be devastating, and it would be considered decent if thirty percent of Primordial World beings survived.

‘Sigh…’

With an internal sigh, Li Changshou stared at the spirit herb before him, several profound questions crossing his mind.

The endpoint of the Primordial World, the destination of heaven and earth, the evolution of the Chaos Sea, the extinction of the realm of form.

These were unavoidable topics he would have to discuss when facing the Dao Ancestor again. Only by surpassing the Dao Ancestor in answering these questions would he have the confidence to point at the Dao Ancestor’s nose and curse:

‘You hypocrite, Hong Buqun, you just want to dominate the realm of form.’

Just thinking about it was particularly satisfying.

Since he was just waiting anyway, Li Changshou actively invoked the power of the Heavenly Dao and opened the Cloud Mirror to check on Sun Wukong’s current situation.

Heh, the monkey tribe was in an uproar.

Up and down Mount Huaguo, a group of karma-entangled monkeys jumped and bounced around, enjoying the so-called joy of endless longevity, still unaware of the impending disaster.

After Sun Wukong’s trip to the Underworld, he destroyed the Mount Huaguo section of the Book of Life and Death, making all the Mount Huaguo monkeys ‘immortal’.

This was actually due to Sun Wukong’s misunderstanding.

Being erased from the Book of Life and Death didn’t mean these monkeys wouldn’t die—it just meant that when these monkeys grew old and feeble, they would cling to their last breath until their bodies couldn’t hold on, then become wandering ghosts.

The Book of Life and Death and the Judge’s Brush were supporting artifacts of the Six Paths Wheel of Reincarnation, mainly used to determine this life’s longevity and fortune based on the merits and karma of a soul’s previous lives.

If absence from the Book of Life and Death meant immortality, the world would have been crushed by living beings in the early-middle ancient period, before the reincarnation system was established.

It was purely an over-interpretation.

Well, it was also his fault as a teacher for not explaining clearly.

These monkeys’ fate was destined to be quite miserable.

Thinking of this, Li Changshou felt somewhat reluctant, after all, the monkey had done wrong with good intentions, and all these events were the Dao Ancestor’s calculations from behind the scenes.

The last one calculated by the Dao Ancestor like this was Li Changshou himself.

There was no use in watching more. After a few more years of preparation, he would go to the Purple Void Palace to lay his cards on the table.

Li Changshou raised his finger, about to dismiss the scene before him when suddenly his eyelid twitched slightly.

The scene in the Cloud Mirror shifted, focusing on the East Heaven Gate.

There, an elderly man in white robes with kind eyes and brows, holding a duster and stroking his beard, had left the East Heaven Gate and was heading toward Mount Huaguo.

The Gold Star of Metal Essence, the counterfeit version.

Li Changshou’s true body’s mouth twitched, but his ‘Virtual Bodhi’ false body dared not have such a reaction, instead slightly furrowing his brow and calculating with his fingers.

The Heavenly Dao had no defenses against Virtual Bodhi, and he easily calculated what had happened.

Li Changshou wasn’t originally skilled in calculation methods; he excelled in the method of ‘exhaustive search’.

But after occupying Virtual Bodhi’s Dao body and primordial spirit, he naturally absorbed Virtual Bodhi’s primordial spirit and mastered the calculation method.

Sure enough, through calculation, he learned that the four Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, along with several of the Ten Kings of Hell from the Underworld, had jointly gone to the Crystal Palace to file a complaint.

The Dragon Palace complained that the Handsome Monkey King of Mount Huaguo’s Water Curtain Cave had taken by force and caused trouble in their Dragon Palace, even stealing the Sea-Calming Needle, which was a major offense.

The Underworld was even more serious—the Kings of Hell directly accused Sun Wukong of destroying the Book of Life and Death, causing upheaval in the Underworld, a truly great crime.

The Jade Emperor immediately expressed appropriate anger and was about to order the capture of the monkey demon, but the ‘Heavenly Court Messenger Pigeon Metal Essence Coo’ beside the Jade Emperor stood up.

This impostor’s angle in defending the monkey was peculiar—he didn’t mention the monkey’s prior wrongs or how the destruction of the Book of Life and Death section would affect countless beings, but instead said that this Handsome Monkey King could beat the Dragon Kings and subdue the Kings of Hell, surely possessing true ability.

The Jade Emperor put on a stern face, and all the immortals in the Crystal Palace fell silent.

Although what the Gold Star of Metal Essence said made sense, they had heard contrary arguments somewhere.

[The Heavenly Court’s recruitment of immortals must not only recognize ability but primarily value conduct.]

These were words the ‘Jade Emperor’ had written in the heavenly laws.

But in the end, the Jade Emperor didn’t say much, accepting the ‘Gold Star of Metal Essence’s’ suggestion and decreeing that the Gold Star of Metal Essence should recruit the Handsome Monkey King to serve in the Heavenly Court.

Thus, this led to what Li Changshou now saw through the Cloud Mirror.

After some thought, Li Changshou continued watching for a while, until he saw this impostor ride the clouds to Mount Huaguo, display some immortal power, put on an act of mystique, and cleverly persuade Sun Wukong.

When Sun Wukong heard that the Heavenly Court was recruiting him for a high position, he was naturally overjoyed.

He summoned his monkey children and grandchildren, and various demon kings of Mount Huaguo, saying he would go to the Heavenly Court to play around and explore, and if the Heavenly Court was a good place, he would move Mount Huaguo straight up there.

Li Changshou: …

This was probably the very essence of inflation.

Even he, a former power minister of the Heavenly Court, didn’t dare make such boasts!

Closing the Cloud Mirror, Li Changshou didn’t watch the subsequent events, which would just be the drama of ‘Imperial Horse Tender Battles Unworthy Heavenly General’.

Based on his understanding of Sun Wukong, Sun Wukong would certainly make many friends in the Heavenly Court, and that scene would surely be quite lively.

Unfortunately, his Cloud Mirror couldn’t probe the Heavenly Court, and forcefully watching would easily attract the Dao Ancestor’s attention.

After harvesting this spirit herb, he would continue planting nails.

Li Changshou sat quietly there, staring at the spirit herb before him, trying to empty his mind of thoughts.

In a flash, three months passed.

The orchid grass before him flickered with ethereal light, with strands of fragrance slowly flowing, having reached the time for harvest.

Li Changshou spread his pressure, making all the beings attracted by the spirit herb retreat.

He had no great use for such spirit herbs, it was just for show—creating some smoke screens. Even if he took it back, Virtual Bodhi didn’t have such pill-refining skills.

With his Dao realm and cultivation, in this remote place, if someone could steal this posterior spirit root from him, then he, Li Changshou… would write Virtual Bodhi’s name backward.

Might as well harvest it, not caring about the last bit of medicinal power.

No, ‘Virtual Bodhi’ should be extremely concerned about this medicinal herb, after all, it carried Virtual Bodhi’s hope of unlocking the Dao realm’s shackles.

Small impatience disrupts great patience—endure a bit, endure a bit.

Thus, another seven or eight hours passed, until the second day’s dawn.

Li Changshou felt inspired, took out a jade box, and slowly approached the spirit herb, his face showing a faint smile, enjoying that slight sense of satisfaction.

Just then…

A strand of Dao rhyme suddenly appeared nearby, and a cow’s cry entered his ears, making Li Changshou’s movements instantly freeze.

Somewhat strainedly turning his head to look, he saw mist rising in the nearby forest, and a green ox stepped out from within, carrying an elder with half-lowered eyes on its back.

The Elder Lord?

Green Ox?

Li Changshou’s Dao heart shook, almost biting his tongue.

Just as he thought he had revealed a flaw, the Elder Lord said:

“This poor Dao would trade pills for your treasure herb, if acceptable.”

So the Elder Lord’s frequent outings to travel were actually for gathering herbs?

This!

Li Changshou’s heart stirred, and suddenly he had a not-so-bold idea.

Should he make advance contact with the Elder Lord?

Tell the organization he had already returned?

If the Elder Lord helped, putting some ingredients in the golden pills of the Tusita Palace, it might give Wukong the strength to overturn the Heavenly Court, leaving the Dao Ancestor unable to control the situation, thus creating the best timing for his entrance.

This move could work.