Chapter Nineteen Cause and Effect

  Because the sacred land of Buddhism, the Western Heaven's Spiritual Mountain, has become a ruin. Pavilions, towers, and temples have all been destroyed. Moreover, what makes the Tathagata furious is the bloodthirsty vengeful spirits that permeate the entire Western Heaven. The majestic Spiritual Mountain now hardly differs from the Ghost Realm. This is the old nest of Buddhism, the sacred land of all Buddhist disciples, yet it has been reduced to this state. To restore its original appearance would take at least a thousand years. Furthermore, this is an unbearable shame for Buddhism. They led their troops to launch a sneak attack on someone else's lair, only to have their own lair be ambushed and destroyed in an instant.

  This war, the Tathagata doesn't know whether he won or lost, gained or lost. Although they occupied Heaven's Court, from now on, the Eastern Divine Continent and the Southern Jambudvipa have become Buddhist territories, in addition to the Western Cowherd Continent which was already theirs. They have taken over three of the four continents, which is very beneficial for the development of Buddhism and the absorption of believers. However, the Spirit Mountain was destroyed, so the Buddhists had no choice but to relocate to Heaven's Court. Moreover, the most important target this time, Sun Wukong, was rescued by Tang Sanzang at the last moment. The Tathagata spent 2,000 years carefully planning just to seize the spiritual essence of Sun Wukong's Five-Colored Divine Stone. But this time, they only managed to absorb less than a tenth of it, which is useless for the current Tathagata, like a drop in the bucket.

  The Tathagata gazed at the Spirit Mountain with a gloomy face, then gritted his teeth and suddenly swung his hand. He said: "All Buddha soldiers listen to the order, regardless of the cost, exterminate the demon army. Do not take prisoners, all, kill!"

  Two million Buddha soldiers, each with eyes glowing red, charged towards Spirit Mountain. Overwhelming and majestic, their momentum was like a rainbow. These were the Buddha's soldiers, crazy and fanatical, even if they faced a mountain of knives or a sea of fire, they would charge forward without hesitation. This was the terrifying power of the Buddhist faith.

  Two million versus six hundred thousand, two million are elite troops, six hundred thousand are exhausted forces. The outcome is obvious. Although the demon tribe and heavenly court coalition army knew they would lose, not a single person retreated. Each person fought with determination to die.

  Finally, the Buddha's army won as a matter of course. The coalition forces of the demon tribe, including the great demon Chiweimao, were completely defeated. Not one person survived, not one person surrendered, and not one person escaped. The Queen Mother of the West was captured by Guanyin and imprisoned.

  The war in the heavenly court of the demon clan has officially come to an end.

  Heavenly Court, the Demon Clan was almost completely annihilated. The Demon Clan's sacred place, Mount Huaguo, was destroyed, and the entire Heavenly Court was occupied by Buddhism. Although Buddhism also suffered heavy losses, with Ling Mountain being destroyed, in the end, Buddhism emerged as the ultimate victor of this war, becoming the only superpower in the Three Realms.

  Panxi Ridge Panxi Cave

  At this time, Sun Wukong was still in a coma. It seemed that Nezha's Five-Colored Divine Stone had forcefully entered his body earlier, causing great harm. Moreover, later on, the Tathagata and others had extracted one-tenth of his spiritual energy, which further caused fundamental damage to Sun Wukong. This injury would not be recovered from in a short period of time.

  Tang Sanzang's situation was also dire. He had already been injured during the battle with Tongtian, and later when Rulai launched a sneak attack on Huaguo Mountain, Tang Sanzang forcibly activated the Du Hua flower, which further exacerbated his injuries. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been captured by Rulai.

  But in the end, when he saw Sun Wukong's life was at stake, Tang Sanzang finally went crazy. He desperately urged on the Huahua flower, but due to his severe injuries and exhaustion of his magical powers, he couldn't urge it out.

  Finally, Tang Sanzang merged the Huā Jiànghuā into his own body. Only then did he proudly unleash the Huā Jiànghuā, using the sea of flowers to gain time for their escape.

  Although the two finally escaped, Tang Sanzang was already on the verge of death!

  After an unknown period of time, Sun Wukong finally slowly woke up. The moment he opened his eyes, all the memories before he fainted rushed into his mind crazily, and Sun Wukong's head was splitting with pain. Among these memories, there was one that made Sun Wukong's heart skip a beat. Enduring the headache, Sun Wukong closed his eyes again. That memory turned into a voice. "Sun Wukong, I am Nezha. When you hear this memory, it means you have survived. Don't be in a hurry, listen to me. Although I know you have many questions, time is limited, so I'll only say the most important things. First of all, my true form, Nezha, is also a piece of five-colored divine stone, but mine is smaller than yours. The five-colored divine stones were originally refined by Nüwa to repair the sky, and they are divided into five attributes: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. However, when Nüwa was refining the stones, she inadvertently calculated that the demon clan would have a catastrophic disaster in the future. To leave a glimmer of hope for the demon clan in this disaster, Nüwa intentionally left behind five pieces of divine stones with different attributes during the repair of the sky. Moreover, she infused a thread of her own power into these five divine stones, and even added a thread of Pangu's primordial power to the earth-attribute stone."

  After the completion of heaven, Nuwa felt that she was about to attain enlightenment due to her boundless merits. Therefore, she scattered the five spiritual stones throughout the three realms, hoping that one day they would transform into human form and cultivate the great Tao, helping the demon tribe during their great calamity and preventing their extinction. And I, Nezha, am the smallest of the golden attribute spiritual stones, while you, Sun Wukong, are the largest of the earth attribute spiritual stones. However, due to some unexpected events, I was mistakenly cast into my mother's womb, Yin Shi, thus becoming the first of the five spiritual stones to awaken, and surprisingly, not as a demon but as a human. Later, I used my human body to commit suicide, using lotus roots as my new form, ultimately becoming a demon.

  I had known you were the divine stone long ago, but I wasn't sure if you would help the demon clan. It wasn't until today that I realized you indeed didn't go wrong. Originally, we should have waited for all five divine stones to awaken before inheriting this memory, but for some reason, only two of us appeared when the great calamity arrived, and you didn't inherit the memory. This shows that due to time constraints, an accident must have occurred.

  So I transformed into the essence of the divine stone and merged with your body, helping you escape at the last moment. I know that what needs to be done now is on the verge of extinction. Therefore, your next task is to search the three realms to find the other three divine stones and merge the five divine stones into a colorful divine stone. Only then will you have enough power to turn the tide, defeat the Buddha, and restore my demon clan's prestige!

  The locations of the other three divine stones have been etched into your memory. Alright, no more time to waste. My last bit of energy should also dissipate now. Remember, Sun Wukong, you cannot be defeated and will not be defeated. You must find the other three divine stones and then defeat the Buddhist sect, restoring my demon clan's supreme prestige from ancient times...

  At last, the voice faded away, and Sun Wukong fell into a long period of deep contemplation. The Five-Colored Divine Stone, the Earth Attribute Divine Stone, Nezha, Pangu, the Primordial Force, the Great Calamity of the Demon Clan, the other three divine stones... Old Sha was dead, Zhu Bajie's life or death was unknown, and Little White Dragon's fate was also unclear. Master... Ah yes, Master! At last, due to the shock and the massive influx of memories, Sun Wukong's brain, which had been stunned for half a day, finally remembered: it was Master who saved him at the critical moment.

  Sun Wukong gritted his teeth and endured the intense pain throughout his body, getting up to check. "Ah, fortunately Master is still alive." With great difficulty, he slowly made his way to Tang Sanzang's side, almost collapsing halfway through. He reached out to feel Tang Sanzang's breath, which was weak but still present. Sun Wukong let out a sigh of relief and sat down on the ground, grateful that Master hadn't died, just fainted. However, he soon became worried - fighting was no problem for him, but saving someone... Sun Wukong really didn't know what to do. After some thought, it seemed like using his own blood was the only option left.

  Slowly, he reached into his ear and rummaged around, producing a small, glittering golden needle. However, Sun Wukong's brow furrowed suddenly, and his little finger continued to dig around. This time, a small, embroidery-needle-sized trowel appeared in Sun Wukong's hand. "Huh? How did the stupid Nine-Tooth Rake end up in my ear?" He shook his head, ignoring this, and transformed his Golden Hoop Rod into a short dagger, using force to slash open his own left wrist.

  A drop of golden liquid-like blood slowly seeped out from the wound and fell onto Tang Sanzang's forehead. "Huh? Why has my blood turned into this golden color? And it's so thick? After dripping one drop, I couldn't drip a second drop? This...this wound healed in an instant?" Sun Wukong didn't have time to think about this series of strange events. Watching that single drop of golden blood merge into Tang Sanzang's brain, Sun Wukong also became extremely tense. Whether or not this blood would be effective, Sun Wukong had no idea. He only knew that his own blood contained innate spiritual energy, and it seemed to have an effect when he was in a state of fury, but he didn't know if it would work for saving someone.

  As soon as he thought of Fan Xiang, Sun Wukong's heart suddenly tightened, and then slowly relaxed. He muttered to himself: "Even if the Heavenly Court is occupied by the Tathagata, the Peaches of Immortality are after all the spiritual roots of the ancient times, the Tathagata should not destroy them. Yes, definitely won't destroy the Peach Garden. And except for Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, no one else should know about Fan Xiang's affairs. Nothing will happen, certainly nothing will happen."

  Just as Sun Wukong was thinking, Tang Sanzang, who had been unconscious for a long time, suddenly opened his eyes. Moreover, a sharp and dazzling golden light shot out from both of his eyes, although it flashed by in an instant, this sharpness made Sun Wukong feel apprehensive.

  Tang Sanzang's first words upon waking up were: "Wukong, keep a distance from me, the Peaches of Immortality are about to ripen."

  This is it:

  Great calamities will not kill me, worldly affairs are known by Nuwa with all her heart and mind.

  From then on, the master and disciple corrected their ways and waited until they reached the Red Mountain of the Holy Spirit.