The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

Deep blue waves moved up and down, and there was not a single island in sight. The dark night was surrounded by complete silence as a small boat rocked on the surface of the water. Meng Qi and Gao Lan both sat at the head and tail of the boat respectively, with jars of wine laid out in front of them. They went their separate ways to Heavenly Crown and Bamboo Cloud Crown without caring about their messy appearances.

“Fuck!” Gao Lan did not conceal his misery as he lifted up a jar of wine and chugged it all down his throat.

Regarding the incident in Plain Girl Fairyland, Meng Qi felt that it was a shame as well. He was also worried that Brother Doubi’s personality would split again. When relaying the reflected self, and when facing the legendary threshold of I am who I am, this sort of situation would mean the end of his path on martial arts. With that, he raised another jar of wine and glugged it down.

With the access to the Myriad World, everything had become incredibly convenient. Even in the deep parts of the faraway Donghai, one could easily access the market to buy small boats and wine, without the need for any preparation beforehand. Sadly, even if there was no distance, even if there would no longer be any hindrance in communication between myriad worlds, the essence of emotions will never be altered. There would still be joy and misery, some would be in love and some would be alone.

Compared to Gao Lan’s decades of effort and decades of hope which were all destroyed in a blink of an eye, his ten years of meditation and ten years of loneliness did indeed seem unfair. Meng Qi started to feel pity this man whom he could relate to.

The two drank a few jars in silence. Gao Lan finally let out a long and heavy sigh. With his hair flowing in the wind, he seemed less imposing, and more messy, “In the current world, you and I are the ones who sit at the very top, respected by the world. There are no more than two people who can actually challenge us. It is a shame that we were unable to triumph over our own fates, unable to do anything but watch helplessly as it trampled us.”

“What good will owning this realm do to me? What good will having all this power do to me?”

His tone was just as straightforward as when Meng Qi first met him. His words were not exaggerated, but rather illustrated the truth. After stepping into the Heavenly Realm, Meng Qi who had already been equipped with the legendary Nirvana traits, possessed abilities which were comparable to the old saints due to his indestructible original body. In this world, he need not be humble. He could say with pride that out of all the martial arts masters out there, there were only two and a half people who could challenge him!

Mister Luda had become a heavenly celestial for many years, but due to his principle to not rely on others, he had to go through thorny paths which left his clothes in tatters, as he fumbled forward step by step. His improvement was fairly slow, but he undoubtedly had strong potential in the future. As of now, there was still quite a large gap between his level and the saints. Even if his sword skills slightly exceeded Meng Qi’s, his overall abilities were still much lower.

When he was still an Earth Fairy, Meng Qi was able to hold his fight against both the Primeval Deity and the Primeval Dipper at once. Although his opponents did go easy on him, the Invincible Blade and the Wu’Ji Seal’s strength was still proven. Now that he had become a Celestial Being, the same could no longer be applied. It was only natural that he would win over the Primeval Deity.

Which is why, other than the Tirthankara Supremes and the mighty Great Mediums, the two Celestial Beings that Meng Qi was wary about were the Devil Master Han Guang and the Heavenly Sword Su Wuming. The former was the incarnation of both Yama and the Celestial Ruler, and could easily take control of space and time with his mighty power, which could be proven from the battle with Brahma in the Jade Palace. The latter had not appeared in public for many years. Although the rumors from the right path for humans is the vicissitudes of life group could not accurately depict the truth, Meng Qi believed that with his accumulated experience with communicating with reflected selves, the rumors should not have strayed too far away from the truth. He must have improved drastically.

The other half would be Gao Lan from the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Even against them, Meng Qi did not lose a fraction of his confidence. After hearing Gao Lan’s sigh, he smiled bitterly and said, “Not everything can go according to our wishes. As long as we do not go against our conscience, we should always continue to strive.”

At that moment, an opponent who he could not compete against flashed across his mind: the legendary Sha Wujing who had awakened in advance. However, after leaving the Jade Palace, he was nowhere to be seen. Nobody knew where he had gone off to, and what secret mission did he have.

He then remembered that the Death Mother had purposely reminded him about the secret Pilgrimage to the West, which made Meng Qi suspect that Sha Wujing had gone to the West.

Gao Lan raised up the wine jar, and chugged down another mouthful. With his messed up hair and insane expression, he pointed to the sky and yelled, “You useless God! I shall replace you once and for all!”

“So what if fate makes a fool out of me? So what if I can’t win over destiny? When I reach Nirvana and turn back time, I can still bring her back to life! No one can stop me!”

Strong wine has little effect on Celestial Beings. Even so, often it is not the wine which intoxicates, but the drinker who is drunk in his own thoughts.

His shout echoed through the night, and Gao Lan felt a sudden wave of misery washing over him. Straining his hoarse voice, he sang at the top of his lungs,

“A century passes by like a dream, I sigh as I think of the past.”

“Spring comes today, flowers wither tomorrow, give me my punishment so I can blow out the candles.”

…

“How many Chong Yang Festivals can we celebrate, how many cups can we drink?”

The wild song sounded like a cry. He reminisced the scenes before they were sworn brothers, only this time it was more miserable. It was as though the persistent loneliness, sadness, and the broken golden Buddha statue had appeared right before his eyes. The flowers have bloomed and withered for countless times, the Buddha did not appear, and even the person was nowhere to be seen.

While tapping the sides of the boat, he sang along with Gao Lan,

“… afraid of the dusk but the dusk comes quickly, unwilling to grieve but how can I not? The new tear stains overlap with the old, the heartbroken are thinking of the heartbroken…”

They sang as they grieved, and grieved while singing. Gao Lan threw out the wine jars one by one, and sobbed as he sang,

“The heartbroken are thinking of the heartbroken…”

When the song had ended, the pain remained. Gao Lan suddenly took a few steps forward, toward the west. A normal talking voice suddenly drifted into Meng Qi’s ears, “I plan to declare war on the Myriad Worlds to spread the glory of humanity.

Declare war on the Myriad Worlds to spread humanity? Meng Qi was stunned. He quickly understood that this was the legendary path of all royal descendents, to communicate with the other selves, and to conquer the world.

Although Gao Lan had been a Celestial Being for quite some time, it was still hard to believe that he could influence Myriad Worlds without any aid, just like the effect of the Hao Tian Mirror fragments. Of course, being the inheritance from the legends of Nirvana, the Emperor’s Golden Book might contain some secret countermeasures.

Gao Lan’s figure disappeared, leaving behind one sentence, “The Southern Wasteland won’t be excluded from the spreading of humanity. I will eventually fight him, but not anytime soon.”

Surprise flashed across Meng Qi’s eyes, he was suddenly sober. This certainly put him in a difficult position. Fortunately, Brother Doubi was provoked, and wanted to quickly prove the legends. Perhaps there was still room to turn things back.

“Where should I go next?” Meng Qi sighed after a long time.

Repairing the boundaries of the Endless Sea was the most crucial task, but the only thing he could think of was the Sea Calming Pearl. To find the Sea Calming Pearl, he has to turn back time and find the clue, which can only be done with an artifact like the Moonlight Mirror.

Regarding this matter, he need not worry as he had the unreturned Seven-Kill Tablet with him. As it has been less than nine hundred years since the ones from the Pilgrimage to the West had fallen from the Heavenly Court, the tablet could still go back to where he wants to.

The only problem was that his power was at its limit. It would take ten years for him to recover completely.

“The Endless Sea will definitely undergo changes in ten years time. There’s no way I can wait for ten years. The only alternative is to search for a universe with a different time flow,” Meng Qi nodded to himself. “Also, I’d need to leave some time to search for the Sea Calming Pearl. Ideally, I need a world where a few months will equal to ten years here.”

Although he could sense quite many universes with the power of the Hao Tian Mirror fragments, and even created many legends, he had yet to discover time flows with such a large contrast.

“Zhiwei has been practicing this for a longer time than I have, and not to mention Senior Su. I should seek their advice. Meng Qi took out the Myriad World Talisman, and logged into the right path for humans is the vicissitudes of life group chat to seek advice.

After a while, Jiang Zhiwei’s familiar voice rang, “I actually do know of a similar universe. However, the faster time flows, the weaker the universe. It won’t be able to bear the weight of our arrival.”

Won’t be able to bear the weight of our arrival? Meng Qi gave it some thought and conversed with Zhiwei in private, “If the power used to bind the Seven-Kill Tablet is transferred using another method, will it work?”

Zhiwei hummed a while and said, “That might work, but you ought to give it a test beforehand. Don’t send the Seven-Kill Tablet in straight away as it might destroy the universe together with the living beings in it.”

“If possible, it won’t be a bad idea to send Yu Shu and Zhao Laowu there to train for ten years,” Meng Qi said with a smile.

…

In the Blessed Nation.

A young boy in his teens sat beneath the eaves of the house, looking at the moonlight with a dazed look on his face. Today was the day to connect and communicate with the protection deity, but when he tried it out in private, there was still no response at all.

The foundation of the Blessed Nation was theurgy, which summons the corresponding protection deity to possess one’s body to fight. Therefore, this matter was taken very seriously. Without the protection deity, one would be considered as nothing but trash.