Chapter 7: The Eighth Precept

  "Monkey, go quickly, we can hold out here, don't worry about us."

  Sun Wukong was not a procrastinator, knowing that his brothers were already prepared to fight to the death, and his task was not to deal with Tai Shang Lao Jun and others. With a swift movement, he flipped onto the筋斗 cloud and was about to leave when he heard the voice of Bodhi Patriarch in his ear: "Wukong, be careful! The Jade Emperor is not someone to be underestimated."

  Sun Wukong didn't look back, his eyes just became more determined, then he leaped away.

  "Brothers, the monkey is gone, now it's our time to go all out! As the mighty Seven Victorious Demons of the Yao tribe, how can we be suppressed by just one magical treasure?"

  The six saints then revealed their true forms. A black cow as big as a mountain, a dragon as long as a river, and a giant roc as large as the sky appeared. The only one whose physical form did not change was the monkey king, who instead became even smaller. The six people who were originally suppressed suddenly reversed the situation, each using their own special moves. As a result, the six heavenly demons were no match for them and were severely injured.

  As the Bodhi Patriarch suppressed his life treasure, the Tongtian Sect Master was also exhausted from splitting his body, and could only watch helplessly. At this time, Tianmo was injured, and the Tongtian Sect Master could no longer remain calm.

  "Senior brother, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and use the Eight Trigrams Furnace! Otherwise, my Heaven Demon Flag will be wasted."

  The Supreme Elder Lord didn't say a word, but his expression turned fierce as he swung his large sleeves and took out the Eight Trigrams Furnace. As soon as the furnace appeared, the six injured Heavenly Demons flew into it. The Supreme Elder Lord then continuously shot various golden elixirs and spiritual medicines into the furnace with both hands. Suddenly, the Eight Trigrams Furnace erupted in flames, completely enveloping the Supreme Elder Lord and the Heavenly Demons in fire. The residual heat from the flames even forced Liu Yun to retreat repeatedly.

  "Goodness gracious, what kind of fire is this? How can it be so hot? Compared to the Samadhi True Fire, this one has become completely ordinary."

  Jiaomo Wang's face turned pale with fear. He was originally a water-born demon beast and had an innate dislike for fire.

  "This is the Nine Heavens Profound Fire, the most overbearing flame in the world. I didn't expect that the Supreme Elder Lord could actually obtain this kind of flame."

  Before Zhen Yuansu could finish speaking, six flames shot out from the Bagua furnace wrapped in Jiutian Xuanhuo and flew towards the Six Saints. The Six Saints were shocked, and the Jiutian Xuanhuo was already unbearable for them even at a distance. If they allowed this fire to hit their bodies, wouldn't it burn their souls away? So the six of them shed their true forms and transformed into human shapes, barely dodging the flames. However, the speed of the flames was too fast, and although they dodged past, Pengmowang still got a thread of flame on him. This thread of flame shouldn't be underestimated; in just an instant, it burned away half of Pengmowang's arm.

  The Peng Demon King was indeed a ruthless character, and without saying another word, he swung his right hand and chopped off half of his left hand which was burning. Although it seemed like the Peng Demon King had cut off half an arm, for a powerful demon like him, this injury wasn't too severe, and in the future, as long as he ate some medicine to reconnect bones and regrow flesh, he would be fine.

  But before Peng Demon King's severed arm even hit the ground, a roar of pain and terror was heard from him. The Monkey King flashed over to his side and asked: "Old Peng, what's wrong? Is something strange going on?"

  The Demon King squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: "This fire is burning the soul and consciousness, and it's still burning."

  Everyone was shocked by the ferocity of this fire. This battle is already unwinnable, Peng Demon King was only set on fire for a moment and yet he's so miserable, and just now the six-headed Tianmo are all engulfed in flames from the Nine Heavens Xuanhuo. What's even worse is that because everyone was worried about Peng Demon King, they all gathered around him earlier, resulting in them being surrounded by the six-headed Flame Tianmo now. Now, it's impossible to escape.

  It seems like they have fallen into desperation.

  Some people always like to appear at critical moments, just like this is the appearance of Tang Sanzang.

  Just as Pengmo Wang and others were about to use their self-mutilating spells in a desperate bid, the sky suddenly burst into a loud, off-key singing. Then, from some point in space-time, the space began to shake violently, followed by a sudden appearance of petals filling the air everywhere, occupying all visible space with its gentle fluttering. If it were just flower rain, this would be merely a trivial trick, but what made Taishang Laojun's heart skip a beat was that this ordinary-looking flower rain fell on the Tianmo who was burning with deadly flames, and actually extinguished the raging fire. In just an instant, all the flames on the six-headed Tianmo were extinguished. But the flower rain did not stop; instead, it grew heavier, until the entire space was filled with petals, making it impossible to see anything else.

  The Supreme Elder Lord knew that this flower rain was strange, and in the brief shock, he came back to his senses and prepared a spell to condense the wind power to disperse the flower rain. However, before the Supreme Elder Lord's wind could start blowing, the flower rain gradually became smaller and disappeared. This made the Supreme Elder Lord take a closer look, and he was shocked in his heart, because the six-headed Heavenly Demon had vanished, and in the position where the Heavenly Demon was, there were suddenly six bald monks, who looked exactly like the six-headed Heavenly Demon in terms of their clothing and stature.

  Even a fool would know what's going on. Those six heavenly demons went through the baptism of flower rain and actually became Buddhist arhats!

  "This, this, this is actually Du Hua Flower Rain, how can it be, how can it be, how can there still be someone in this world who cultivates Du Hua Flower Rain?"

  The usually high and mighty Taishang Laojun has lost his composure so many times today, if it weren't for the fact that things have become too strange, it wouldn't have ended up like this.

  "What is this 'Du Hua Flower Rain'? Is it something? Town Yuan Immortal, you are knowledgeable and well-informed, do you know what this Du Hua Flower Rain actually is?"

  "Du, Du Hua Yu, it's actually Du Hua Yu! I never thought that in my lifetime, old Dao would be able to see this." Zhen Yuanzi came back to his senses from the shock, and then his eyes couldn't hide the extreme joy. Then he said: "This Du Hua Yu is said to be after Pangu opened up the sky and earth, exhausted his strength, and finally fell. And this Du Hua flower was a flower that grew under Pangu's feet when Pangu opened up the sky. As Pangu held up the sky, the heaven and earth gradually separated, and the flower also gradually grew taller with the heaven and earth. Finally, it grew as tall and majestic as Pangu. This process took tens of millions of years, so this flower actually developed feelings for Pangu. After Pangu exhausted his strength and fell, the flower was heartbroken and wanted to die, so it self-destructed its life force, and all the petals withered. And these withered petals are Du Hua Yu."

  "What is the effect of this flower rain?"

  "This Flower of Rain, as far as is currently known, has only one function, which is to baptize. Anyone who comes into contact with its petals will be baptized. During the baptism process, this flower will give the baptized a brainwashing ritual. No matter how great your divine powers are, they are useless. That's why people in this world now remember Pangu, the Great God. It's because this heaven and earth have been baptized by the Flower of Rain before, so all living things on this earth will be forced to follow the will of the Flower of Rain."

  "But why haven't we been purified? And the injuries I suffered before, they seem to have healed and even improved?" Pengmo Wang was the most seriously injured, so he felt it particularly clearly.

  "Hehe, this is because this flower rain was laid out by a familiar person. So the heavenly demon was enlightened while we were recovering from our injuries."

  "An immortal? Who has such great magical powers?"

  Before Zhenyuanzi could respond, the Tianxian Sect Master's voice was heard, full of resentment: "Who is this superior being? Destroyed my six-headed heavenly demon? Hiding one's head and showing one's tail."

  The Tongtian Sect Master was indeed greatly enraged, first his Xianjian Sword Array was broken, and then he was restrained by the Bodhi Old Ancestor for so long that it was suffocating. But now, a mysterious expert has appeared out of nowhere and ruined his Six-Headed Heavenly Demon, leaving the Tongtian Sect Master heartbroken.

  As soon as the Tianxian Jiao Master finished speaking, a golden lotus throne floated in from afar, with two people sitting on it. However, these two people were quite strange. The man wore a kasaya, held a staff, and wore a flat cap, although he was dressed very ordinary, but his face was exceptionally handsome. And the woman next to him, was stunningly beautiful, every frown and smile made people feel delighted, although she was beautiful, yet it didn't evoke any evil thoughts.

  These two people were the monks who went to the Western Heaven to fetch scriptures, Tang Monk Tang Sanzang. And the woman was the queen of the Women's Country, Queen Xiliang.

  Let's not mention how Tongtian and Taishang Laojun were shocked by Tang Sanzang's appearance for now. Instead, let's talk about Sun Wukong, who had already reached the gate of Yu Huang's Lingxiao Treasure Hall. Just as he was about to kill his way in, he suddenly heard a voice behind him saying "Monkey King, slow down." Sun Wukong turned around and saw a heavenly general wearing a cyan dragon armor, a Chongtian helmet, and flying cloud shoes, charging towards him with a fierce momentum. Sun Wukong didn't think much of it and said with his mouth open: "What a majestic golden armored heavenly god, you've come at the right time." After saying that, he flicked his wrist, and the other end of the Golden Hoop Rod suddenly grew several dozen times larger, transforming into a giant hammer in an instant. The golden armored heavenly general opposite him didn't show any weakness either, and suddenly produced a huge wolf-tooth club in his hand, with the roots of the club's sharp thorns flashing with cold light, emitting a fierce and sharp aura that seemed to want to poke a hole in the sky.

  The next moment, a deafening roar spread out, and even the Lingxiao Treasure Hall seemed to shake slightly. When the breath was slightly calm, I saw that Sun Wukong's double hands were swollen with muscles for a whole circle, and the back of his hand had bulging blue veins, obviously using great force. The heavenly general opposite him was also unbearable, his eyes were wide open in anger, and the armguard on his right arm had several cracks. It can be seen that this record of hard fighting, both sides used how much strength, I'm afraid even Mount Tai could easily be crushed into powder.

  The two of them seemed to be evenly matched, so they clashed again, but their strength was not as great as it had been at first. It was clear that both sides were trying to use the momentum to retreat and create some distance. Sun Wukong flipped over with a somersault and stood on his cloud, secretly being vigilant and thinking to himself: This golden-armored heavenly general who came from who-knows-where is actually quite impressive, probably not inferior to Erlang Shen and perhaps even slightly stronger. How did the Heavenly Court have such a powerful general without me knowing?

  Monkey King Sun Wukong secretly calmed down his surging magical powers, only to be met with another blow. At this time, he heard the opposing heavenly general crying out in a mournful tone: "You're really abnormal, Monkey Brother! How can you still be so vigorous? Your strength is even greater than mine now, it's simply too exaggerated, even if you were the Heaven-Giant Ape, you couldn't be this over-the-top. You've shattered my old pig's Cyan Dragon armor and gloves, I'm done for, I'm dying, I'm dying!"

  Upon hearing the words that seemed to make the heavens cry, Sun Wukong was taken aback for a moment, then his face filled with surprise as he stared at the Heavenly General who looked like Tang Monk drinking wine and eating meat, saying: "You, you, you can't be Zhu Bajie, can you?"

  "What's wrong with you, you wretched monkey? Hurry up and use your sharp eyes to take a look. Otherwise, I'll give this old pig another stick and I won't be able to take it."

  No need to look closely, Sun Wukong already knew. After decades of traveling together on the journey to retrieve scriptures, he was extremely familiar with Zhu Bajie. However, he was still shocked by Zhu Bajie's current strength and found it hard to believe. To think that back then, Zhu Bajie's martial arts skills were so weak that he couldn't even defeat Kui Mu Lang, one of the Twenty-Eight Constellations, but now he was stronger than Erlang Shen by a huge margin! This enormous gap was really hard to believe. Moreover, just a while ago at the South Heavenly Gate, Zhu Bajie wasn't this fierce.

  "Old pig, you numbskull, did you take advantage of Taishang Laojun's absence and plunder his Jade Palace? Otherwise, how could your strength suddenly surge so much? Hurry up and tell the truth, how many Golden Elixirs have you stolen?"

  "Go, go, go! I'm an honest old pig, how could I steal Lao Jun's golden elixir? However, hehe, just now when I came back from Chang'e, I saw that the Tushan Palace was unguarded, so I went in and accidentally took Lao Jun's old nest, hehehe."

  "Dummy, I knew you've been craving the immortal's elixir all along. Now that your wish is finally granted, come on and give some to Monkey King, that last hit really hurt me."

  "Monkey King, you're looking down on me, old Pig, aren't you? Although I'm greedy, this Laojun's immortal pill isn't ordinary stuff. I've divided it equally, five portions in total. Old Sha, White Horse, Master, and the five of us will each get one portion. Here, this is yours, and your portion is the largest!"

  "Haha, this is not bad. There's been progress. However, Bajie, you can't eat too many of these immortal pills. In the past, I secretly ate several gourds of Lao Jun's immortal pills, and the medicinal power was too strong, almost bursting me apart. If it weren't for Taishang Laojun using the Eight Trigrams Furnace to refine my body at that time, eliminating all the medicinal power, I probably wouldn't have been able to cause such a big commotion in Heaven later on."

  "Don't worry, Monkey King. I haven't even taken one of these divine pills. My magical powers aren't something that can be obtained by eating divine pills."

  "What's going on? Hurry up and tell me, after you're done, we two brothers will charge into the Lingxiao Treasure Hall together and overthrow the Jade Emperor's dragon throne."

  "This thing, it's necessary to start from that year. That year, I and Chang'e were in love, violating the heavenly code. The Jade Emperor wanted to send me into reincarnation to suffer from past emotional karma, but he was also worried that the six paths of reincarnation couldn't wash away my magical powers and memories. After all, I had already cultivated for over 100,000 years, and my magical powers had long been fully integrated, not something that could be easily washed away.

  So later, the Jade Emperor took action, stripping me of my magical powers and sealing them within the Osmanthus tree in the Guanghan Palace. You know the Osmanthus tree, right? It's the one on top of the Guanghan Palace transformed from the eyelashes of Pangu. He also ordered Wu Gang to chop down the Osmanthus tree day and night. Because my magical powers were inside the tree, every time Wu Gang chopped at it, a bit of my power would flow out to repair the damage to the tree.

  This way, one day my powers will be completely gone, and I'll lose my immortal status forever, becoming an ordinary person."

  Here is the translation:

  "Now, Pigsy threw a sacred pill into his mouth and sat down cross-legged to recover the spiritual power he had just lost. The wolf-toothed club also transformed into a nine-toothed nail rake. Monkey King also sat down cross-legged to recover his spiritual power. Then Pigsy continued: 'But there's a saying that goes, "How can one know whether it is good or bad fortune when the old man loses his horse?" Wu Gang may have cut down the osmanthus tree every time, but what he didn't know was that the osmanthus tree was actually transformed from Pangu's eyelashes. And my true form is the ancient desolate beast Lei Jiao Ba Tian Zhu, which has a blood relationship with Pangu. So not only did the osmanthus tree not cause me to lose spiritual power, but it also tempered my spiritual power. After so many years have passed, the spiritual power that was left in the osmanthus tree has now been imbued with a hint of Pangu's aura. And after I went to Guang Han Palace to retrieve my spiritual power this time, I transformed back into the Heavenly Marshal Tian Peng, and even surpassed what I was like back then. My current spiritual power hasn't fully merged yet, but if I can fully merge the spiritual power from the osmanthus tree in the future, it should be at least two or three times stronger than now.'"

  Pigsy finished speaking, and Monkey King's mouth was already agape with astonishment. In his heart, there was only one thought: the Jade Emperor is really going to be out of luck!