Chapter 41

In a place beyond the reach of Zhihang Pudu's gaze, White Crane Boy seized Great Cave True Lord and soared straight into the clouds, neither going to the Heavenly Court to pay homage to the Jade Emperor nor visiting the Queen Mother of the West at the Jade Pool.

With a flap of his wings, he ascended to the highest realm above the thirty-third heaven.

He loosened his claws and threw Great Cave True Lord onto the clouds, then spread his wings and flew toward the horizon.

Above the vast emptiness, Great Cave True Lord, disheveled and bedraggled, rolled on the clouds and stood up. Just as he was about to confront Zhihang Pudu, he felt a gentle breeze and saw auspicious clouds filling the sky. Looking around, he saw no evil Buddhas or demons, only the distant, verdant mountains stretching endlessly.

The sky was bright with the purest azure light, displaying myriad transformations.

Great Cave True Lord recognized this place as the Great Red Heaven, the Supreme Clarity Realm. He couldn't help but feel a deep sorrow, recalling the fierce battle and feeling a wave of sadness. Standing outside the Jade Mansion, he suddenly realized, "The Jade Mansion is above the thirty-third heaven, the abode of my Grandmaster, the Supreme Saint of the Departure from Sorrow Heaven. How did I end up here?"

This was a sacred place of the Daoist sect, not to be entered by ordinary people. Great Cave True Lord felt a chill and hesitated to enter the Jade Mansion.

As he was hesitating, a Daoist priest emerged from the Jade Mansion, wearing a Taiji robe and holding a duster. His gentle and elegant voice said, "Foolish child, foolish child, why don't you come in and pay homage to Grandmaster?"

Who else could this priest be but Xu Xun, Xu Jingyang?

Seeing his master's face, Great Cave True Lord cried out in sorrow, "Master, I have failed you!" Xu Tian Shi, being in the Daoist court of the Supreme Saint, could not be unaware of what was happening in the lower realms. He sighed and led Great Cave True Lord into the Jade Mansion.

Great Cave True Lord lowered his eyes and followed Xu Tian Shi into the palace. The Supreme Daoist Ancestor was sitting on the Zhu Ling Dan Platform of the three-story high pavilion, discussing the Primordial Daoist Fruit with the Jade Purity Saint. Among the disciples of the Supreme Clarity, there were the Great Master of the Mystic Capital, the Four Great Heavenly Teachers, the Eight Immortals of the Upper Cave, and the fourteen disciples, including the Gold and Silver Boys, all standing on either side to listen.

When the Jade Purity Saint saw Xu Tian Shi bringing Great Cave True Lord into the palace, he paused his lecture and smiled, "Elder Brother, your great-granddisciple is a filial person, indeed blessed."

His own disciples were few, and after the Great Tribulation of the Sealing of the Gods, half of them had become Buddhas. Among the third-generation disciples, only Erlang Shen Yang Jian and the Great Deity of the Three Altars, Nezha, were renowned throughout the Three Realms. The rest could not match Great Cave True Lord.

The Supreme Saint closed his eyes, occasionally revealing a sharp gaze, and looked at Great Cave True Lord, sighing, "The great tribulation of the world is unceasing, this is the will of heaven and the destiny of all."

"From the first great tribulation in the ancient Dragonhan era, to the war between the Witches and the Immortals in the ancient times, and the Sealing of the Gods at the end of the Shang Dynasty, every great tribulation brings forth a person destined to face it. Now that our Dao is flourishing, it is in line with the principle of fullness leading to decline. I miscalculated, thinking that the birth of the stone monkey was the key to this tribulation, but it turned out to be a gift to the Western Paradise."

The Buddhist teachings say that life has eight sufferings: birth, aging, illness, and death are the four sufferings; the suffering of meeting with what one hates, the suffering of separation from what one loves, the suffering of the five aggregates, and the suffering of unfulfilled desires.

Living beings in the world have love, hate, greed, anger, and delusion. Every action and interaction with others inevitably leads to entanglements, which are the causes and effects. These causes and effects are deeply rooted in the destinies of all beings, entangled and unending, forming karma.

The Great Dao has forty-nine aspects. Whenever karma accumulates, it causes the world of Pangu to become unbearable, leading to a great tribulation.

No one with karma can escape the tribulation. However, due to different foundations and varying degrees of fortune, when the great tribulation comes, it is a time to test one's achievements. Those with high Daoist cultivation and deep foundations can safely pass through the tribulation, those with high Daoist cultivation but shallow foundations will fall into the killing tribulation, and those with low Daoist cultivation and shallow foundations will be reduced to ashes to compensate for the destruction caused by the heavy karma in the world.

When Pangu opened the heavens and the earth and killed the three thousand chaotic demons, he accumulated the first thread of karma. This thread of karma was the jealousy and hatred of the demons who died in the chaos toward the life in the world.

After 365 million years, the first great tribulation in the world was triggered, with the phoenix ruling the sky, the qilin governing the earth, and the dragon clan dominating the sea, all fighting and ultimately perishing, becoming the first batch of beings to compensate for the world of Pangu.

Another 129,600 years later, the Three Pure Ones eliminated the dinosaurs, passing through the second great tribulation.

After that, the Empress Nüwa established the Heavenly Court of the Demon Race, and the Heavenly Emperor Jun and the Eastern Emperor Taiyi governed the world, leading to conflicts with the twelve ancestral witches of the Witches. The two races fought, triggering a great tribulation. Over countless years, every great era saw the appearance of countless tribulations, until the end of the Shang Dynasty, when King Wu of Zhou's campaign against King Zhou triggered the killing tribulation among the immortals.

The sages thought they could enjoy a peaceful period, but they underestimated the increasing desires and instincts of the beings in the Three Realms, their pursuit of fame and profit, and their selfishness. Six hundred and fifty years ago, the Supreme Saint calculated that a great tribulation was coming. He saw that Huaguo Mountain was the ancestral vein of the Ten Continents and the dragon vein of the Three Islands, formed after the separation of the clear and turbid and the establishment of the universe.

He also saw that Sun Wukong was a naturally born stone monkey, unrelated to the grievances of the masses, and thought that this monkey was the one destined to face the tribulation.

Therefore, the Three Pure Ones stood by and watched the two sages of the Buddhist sects laboriously plan the Journey to the West, hoping to use it to pass through the tribulation. However, when the Journey to the West ended and the Buddha Sakyamuni conferred the titles of the Five Holy Ones, the karma was not completely resolved.

Only then did they realize they had been deceived. In simple terms, the Journey to the West involved too few beings to qualify as a great tribulation. However, the killing and conquest along the way did alleviate some of the world's karma, delaying the great tribulation by more than five hundred years.

The Jade Purity Saint understood the subtleties and said, "During the Sealing of the Gods tribulation, the three sects agreed to seal the gods, with those of deep fortune becoming immortals and those of shallow fortune becoming deities. My disciples were all involved in resolving the killing tribulation, so they should not be involved in this tribulation."

In the last great tribulation, the Jade Purity Saint, although he had the advantage of taking in the destined person, miscalculated in human affairs.

What a great killing tribulation, it destroyed the Complete Perfection Sect, which had gathered ten thousand immortals, and took away half the foundation of the Exposition Sect.

It only benefited the two sages of the Western Paradise, who reaped the rewards.

The Supreme Daoist Ancestor shook his head and sighed, "In this world, humans and demons are on different paths, yin and yang are opposed, even I cannot foresee the changes in the Three Realms." After the Sealing of the Gods tribulation, he successively took in Zhang Daoling, Xu Jingyang, Sa Shoujian, and Ge Xuan, the four great heavenly teachers.

He also took in the Eight Immortals of the Upper Cave, from all walks of life, rich and poor, male and female, young and old. How could he not understand the situation in the Three Realms?

Among the beings in the Three Realms, only humans are uniquely favored, thriving and multiplying. Now, most of the karma will come from the human race. For the human race to grow and develop, they must compete for living space with immortals, sages, Buddhas, demons, and ghosts. The immortals, sages, and Buddhas are one thing, as the sage said, respect and keep a distance.

But the demons and ghosts living in the mortal world are already at odds with the human race, with human cultivators slaying demons and demons eating humans to improve themselves. The Supreme Saint calculated that the person destined to face this tribulation should be Xuankong, who was born with the power of the lightning tribulation. However, he was unclear about how Xuankong could resolve this inherent conflict.

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