Chapter 664: Chapter 385: The Weight of Cause and Effect, Heavier than Buzhou! (Part 2)
"Now that you have come of age, it’s time to perform the coming-of-age ceremony, and you should also have a courtesy name to show your aspirations and remember your path."
The old gentleman paused, took a breath, and spoke clearly into the young man’s ear:
"You are second in line, so take ’Zu’ as the sequence, and since you once roamed around the foot of this Mount Niqiu in your childhood, take ’Ni’ as a remembrance."
From now on... your courtesy name will be Zhongni, and this wooden plaque will serve as your coming-of-age token."
"Zhongni..."
The young man recited in a low voice, then suddenly burst into tears, kneeling on the ground, bowing his head deeply to the old gentleman:
"Thank you, sir, for performing my coming-of-age ceremony! Thank you for bestowing my courtesy name! Zhongni will take your teachings as the foundation of his life, spreading the way of benevolence and forgiveness, and will not fail the trust you’ve placed in me!"
After three kowtows, he lifted his head, only to find the old man lying on the couch, silent and breathless.
Next to the thatched cottage appeared a small mound,
In front of the mound stood a tombstone engraved with ’Tomb of Teacher Zhang Fusheng’, with only the character Kong Qiu inscribed at the side.
This life also came to an end.
A hundred lifetimes are over.
Open your eyes.
Still, floating above the illusory river of time, still within the vast, boundless pool of reincarnation.
Memories of a hundred lifetimes sequentially emerge in Zhang Fusheng’s mind,
And before his eyes, one illusion after another reflects from those lives.
"Are these... all illusory?"
Zhang Fusheng asked gloomily, his expression somewhat dazed,
Because in these hundred lifetimes, some lives, like the last life, ended after just a few decades,
Yet others transformed him into calabash vines, celestial deer, living for untold eons,
These memories, at this moment, truly exist, truly manifest,
Accompanying the flood of time, washing over his own mental and spiritual world.
"They are illusions, yet not entirely so."
A deep voice transmitted over, and Zhang Fusheng looked up, a blurry figure stood on the illusory river of time,
At some point, it had already solidified into an entity.
Yang Erlang.
Seeing the bloodied hole on Yang Erlang’s forehead, Zhang Fusheng reflexively touched his own brow—but then he realized,
This is the Human Ancestor’s body, not his true self, and there was no Celestial Eye in the Ancestral Acupoint of his brow.
"I don’t understand."
Zhang Fusheng spoke in a low tone:
"You, Sun Monkey, Laojun, and Wa... what exactly do you want me to do?"
Since this pool of reincarnation was created by Wa Empress, naturally there’s no fear that after the town stone fails, this conversation will be known by the Supremes.
Yang Erlang pressed his lips and sighed softly:
"It’s a long story, so it’s best not to speak of it."
Zhang Fusheng frowned:
"Why the need to obscure and conceal?"
Yang Erlang gazed at the young man before him, speaking softly:
"Do you know, the hundred lifetimes you’ve experienced, what does it mean?"
Zhang Fusheng raised his eyebrows and bowed:
"I would like to hear more."
Yang Erlang turned his body slightly:
"I cannot afford your courtesy, now you and many with Supreme Fruit Position are addressed as Dao friends, if truth be told, you are two generations older than me..."
After a pause, he changed the subject:
"The pool of reincarnation was co-created by Wa Empress and Lady Houtu."
"In the late tribulation chaos, Lady Houtu was plotted against, the position of Lord of the Nine Netherworld was nearly stripped, and those who plotted against Lady Houtu were the Three Pristine Ones, and not just the Three Pristine Ones."
Zhang Fusheng listened quietly, suddenly realizing, no wonder he so easily became the Master of the Nine Netherworld,
No wonder the Central Pole Sect Leader had almost no obstacles in perfecting the Celestial Position of the Lord of the Nine Netherworld.
Instinctively, Zhang Fusheng glanced at the silhouettes standing like sculptures over the illusory river of time,
Some of these figures were no different from Meng the Thirty-Fourth—naturally they were ’sisters’ of Meng the Thirty-Fourth,
Or rather, they were incarnations of Lady Houtu after severing her past.
"The divine crane truly exists." Yang Erlang suddenly said.
Zhang Fusheng’s eyelid twitched; in one lifetime, he transformed into a divine crane and raised Houtu,
But ultimately transformed into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, saying it was to achieve Houtu’s path through his own form, but in reality,....
Reflecting on that life now, shadows of many Supremes loomed unmistakably.
"In the past, the Supremes allowed Lady Houtu to attain supremacy, but among the Supremes, she was an anomaly akin to Wa Empress."
"She possessed a heart of compassion, heavily valuing attachment."
The initial plan of the Supremes was to use the divine crane as a shackle to bind Lady Houtu... The divine crane knew, and resolutely self-transformed into the Way, becoming the Six Paths of Reincarnation."
Yang Erlang narrated calmly:
"It used to be a Daluo. After becoming the Six Paths of Reincarnation, its True Spirit was erased. Because the Six Paths of Reincarnation inherently belong to the realm of the Supreme Fruit Position, even Lady Houtu couldn’t retrieve the divine crane’s True Spirit from the past."
Zhang Fusheng listened in silence, asked softly:
"Deep-seated enmity?"
"Deep-seated enmity." Yang Erlang nodded, then changed his tone: "And the pool of reincarnation, it holds the power of illusory time, overseen by Wa Empress."
"At the same time, it also possesses the power of true reincarnation crafted by Lady Houtu."
"In other words, the hundred lifetimes of reincarnation Dao brother experienced can be illusions, but they can also... become reality!"
Zhang Fusheng’s eyelid twitched, thinking of his contact with Confucius in the last life, considering the interactions with each Supreme throughout many lifetimes,
He said deeply:
"If these hundred lifetimes became reality, wouldn’t they immediately be detected and corrected by the Supremes?"
"Yes."
Yang Erlang nodded straightforwardly, his gaze blazing like fire:
"Some Supremes will correct it, others, perhaps won’t bother with it..."
Zhang Fusheng pondered, recalling Wa Empress’s words when he was the gourd vine,
At that time, he had no memories of the past, not understanding its meaning, but now...
Shakyamuni Buddha is about to fall from the level of the Supreme, about to have his current authority reclaimed by the Celestial Lord of Tao and Virtue, his Fruit Position devoured.
In other words, Shakyamuni Buddha must be his ally.
Yang Erlang’s voice sounded timely:
"However, with the methods of Wa Empress and Lady Houtu, as long as the pool of reincarnation doesn’t perish, once your hundred lifetimes become real, they can’t be corrected."
Zhang Fusheng’s eyelid flickered:
"How much longer can the pool of reincarnation persist?"
"Perhaps a moment, perhaps a million years, it can’t be said for sure."
Yang Erlang’s eyes shone fiercely:
"But even a moment is enough... Has Dao brother considered, the hundred lifetimes of reincarnation, all of heaven, earth, and the Supremes, owe you various debts of karma large or small...?"
"Moreover, Dao friend can choose when these hundred lifetimes become reality, and can choose which ones to realize first!"
Zhang Fusheng looked up in amazement, seeing Yang Erlang’s figure beginning to fade:
"This is the gift Wa Empress and Lady Houtu give you...."
"With such immense karma, how would those Daluo’s dare to trouble you?"
"Like that Mother of No-Birth, why would she hunt the celestial deer that accompanied her for countless years?"
"The weight of karma, heavier than Buzhou."
Zhang Fusheng watched the disappearing Yang Erlang and asked for the last time:
"You and Sun Monkey, what exactly do you intend to do?"
Yang Erlang smiled:
"Rebellion!"
He then disappeared.
The past hundred lifetimes all transformed into strands of silk, presenting themselves before Zhang Fusheng, sinking into the depths of his True Spirit——
Whenever he wished, he could merge a ’strand of silk’ into real time, making it reality!
"Celestial deer, divine crane, gourd vine, Buddha’s bodhi, sky-supporting giant turtle, the old man..."
Zhang Fusheng slowly lowered his eyelids,
These sentiments between himself and the Supremes like Daluo and Confucius, even if they become real, belong to real time, can be discarded at any moment,
But the karma between each is also truly undeniable.
The weight of karma, heavier than Buzhou, it’s not something that can be easily ignored....
"Even the Supremes... need to repay karma, seeking purity, seeking perfection."
Zhang Fusheng murmured to himself, grasping the threads representing hundreds of timelines, holding them tightly in his hand.
Like gripping his own trump card.
Thoughts subsided, detaching slowly from the pool of reincarnation,
Upon opening his eyes again, the hundred lifetimes of reincarnation, life after life, were nothing more than an instant.
The Celestial Vault was shaking.
The first True God to squeeze through the Profound Yellow Waterfall had appeared from the inverted world, a Different Dimension, to descend upon the Netherworld.
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