I start by accepting Sun Wukong as my disciple and reshape the Journey to the West

Chapter 157 Earth Mother Goddess
May Mount Ling be safe and sound!

As Li Shimin spoke, the twenty-four ministers behind him bowed in unison.

May Mount Ling be safe and sound!

Roar!
At this moment, the Great Cauldron of National Fortune shone with dazzling golden light, and the Dragon King of the Jing River flew out from it, spitting a mouthful of dragon saliva onto the phantom images of Buddhas behind Maitreya Buddha.

This is a blessing from the nation's destiny.

At this moment, Maitreya Buddha's eyes were filled with tears. He knew better than anyone what this mouthful of dragon's saliva meant—it was a blessing bestowed by the power of an entire nation.

If the Asura lineage truly possesses endless killing power and the strength to completely seize the bodies of the Buddhas of the Western Paradise, then this mouthful of dragon saliva will protect their last shred of consciousness at the most crucial moment.

This is the foundation of a nation's destiny. It means that the Tang Dynasty will live and die together with the monks of the Western Vulture Peak. As long as the Tang Dynasty does not perish, the monks will have the possibility of turning the tide against all odds.

"On behalf of the Western Paradise, I thank the Tang Emperor!" Maitreya Buddha said.

“The sage said that the monks of Mount Ling are also among the sentient beings, so they are willing to help at this time. If you really want to thank him, then thank the sage.”

Upon hearing this, Maitreya Buddha and the other two were stunned. In their hearts, they thought it was a karmic guidance under the great calamity, but they never thought that Ye Xuantian would be willing to go to such lengths for the Western Paradise.

"We will chant the saint's true name and pray for him!"

Maitreya Buddha finally put his hands together in prayer and said earnestly.

"Pray for the saint!" the monks echoed.

Maitreya Buddha turned to the monks and said, “This calamity is the karma of our Buddhist sect, but the three realms are working hard for us. I urge you all to persevere for as long as possible.”

Among the monks, the Arhat who subdues dragons spoke up: "Venerable One, please rest assured, we are with the Buddha. Please close the passage, lest we become a laughing stock for the believers of the Tang Dynasty."

"Venerable One, Bodhisattva, please take care!" The Arhat Subduing Tiger stepped forward, his words tinged with a hint of melancholy.

All the monks clasped their hands together and stopped echoing, while the Buddha light surrounding them began to be tinged with blood.

Without further hesitation, Maitreya Buddha waved his sleeve, and the illusory image of the Great Thunder Temple slowly closed like a scroll.

Almost at the moment of closing, an overwhelming stench of blood erupted.

However, the people of Jambudvipa could not see any of this.

Maitreya Buddha said to Tang Sanzang, "Since you have been chosen by Heaven, please be sure to uphold your original intention and do not give up halfway, lest you miss the opportunity to attain enlightenment!"

"This disciple will certainly not fail Your Excellency's trust!" Tang Sanzang quickly replied.

Seeing this, Maitreya Buddha no longer hesitated and looked at Guanyin Bodhisattva and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva: "Please return to your respective temples, suppress your own karma, and lest you lose your mind when the River Styx attacks."

"And what about you? Venerable One, are you truly able to purify those Bodhisattvas?" Guanyin Bodhisattva's eyes were full of worry: "After all, back then, in order to get rid of the corruption of the Desire Realm, I had the Sage Xuantian make several moves before I could completely cleanse it."

"Although Fellow Daoist Xuantian did not tell me how to escape from Mount Ling, he did tell me who to look for once I was out of trouble, so Bodhisattva need not worry."

Seeing Maitreya Buddha's certainty, Guanyin Bodhisattva and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva bowed to Maitreya and said, "Without further ado, let's head back now."

After the two disappeared, Maitreya Buddha turned his gaze back to Li Shimin below.

"The blessing of the Emperor Star's power is truly enviable. King Tang was able to abandon his own heart and help my Western Spirit Mountain. Maitreya is extremely grateful."

This time, Li Shimin did not refuse Maitreya Buddha's thanks.

"Please take care, Your Excellency!"

"Ok!"

Maitreya Buddha said no more, his figure flickered slightly, and he flew towards the Heavenly Court.

Inside the barrier, the Styx Ancestor frowned deeply, and then, *crack*.

A crisp sound rang out, and the Styx Ancestor suddenly opened his eyes, looking at Ye Xuantian with an icy expression.

"You actually let those Bodhisattvas escape!" Old Ancestor Styx asked through gritted teeth.

Ye Xuantian did not answer, but instead leaned back, and a crack opened in the void, completely swallowing Ye Xuantian.

"You still want to leave!"

The Styx Ancestor was truly furious; Ye Xuantian really didn't take him seriously at all.

"You let those Bodhisattvas go, so I will leave you here and replace them." The Styx Ancestor took three steps in two and rushed towards Ye Xuantian.

During the rush, the barrier seemed unable to withstand such immense power, and more obvious cracks began to appear.

The Styx Ancestor covered a thousand miles in a single step, grabbing at Ye Xuantian at an extremely fast speed. It was true that the power of Mount Ling was pushing Ye Xuantian out, but the problem was that Mount Ling ultimately belonged to the Buddha.

At this moment, the Styx Ancestor was radiating Buddhist aura, which slowed down the speed at which Ye Xuantian was swallowed by the void.

"You can't run away!"

Finally, just as the Styx Ancestor was about to capture Ye Xuantian, a sudden change occurred.

Bang!

The Styx Ancestor fell out of the void barrier and landed on the ground! He landed on the ground!!!
Therefore, they naturally couldn't catch Ye Xuantian.

Taking advantage of the last bit of time, Ye Xuantian was finally completely swallowed by the void and disappeared from the sight of the Styx Ancestor.

Bang bang bang!
The Styx Ancestor kept pounding on the lotus platform. He really didn't expect that his failure this time was because he was too focused and did not notice that the barrier was breaking.

That's why it fell!

At this moment, the Great Thunderclap Temple was enveloped in endless crimson. In the past, if the Styx Ancestor had smelled such a strong bloody stench, he would have been very happy, because it would have been of great benefit to his cultivation.

But today, He didn't want to smell it at all, because there was no one with high cultivation here, and the stench of blood was so foul that even the Styx Ancestor felt like vomiting.

The Styx Ancestor surveyed the assembled monks and finally spoke, "Are you all useless? You can't even keep a few Bodhisattvas in check, what use are you to me!"

As he spoke, the Styx Ancestor slapped the monks present with one hand.

The enormous hand, like a mountain, slammed down without hesitation.

However, the Arhats, monks, and nuns enveloped in blood seemed completely unaware of the impending danger, all calmly chanting scriptures. Just as the Styx Ancestor's palm was about to obliterate the monks, it suddenly changed direction and slammed down hard on the dome of the Great Thunderclap Temple.

hum!
A terrifying aura rippled outwards, and the shockwave even diluted the crimson hue of the Great Thunderclap Temple. The Eight Trigrams Formation slowly took shape, its runes incredibly profound.

Blocked!
The powerful attack of the Styx Ancestor was actually blocked by the Bagua diagram.

"Are you planning to trap me here? Ye Xuantian, you've gone too far!"

The Styx Ancestor trembled, his figure suddenly growing taller, covering a distance of a thousand meters in the blink of an eye. His enormous body directly punched a large hole in the roof of the Great Thunderclap Temple, but the Bagua diagram was not broken through. Instead, it grew larger along with his figure.

"It's now!"

A loud shout suddenly rang out in the void, followed by the sound of wind breaking, and a streak of silver light aimed straight at the brow of the Styx Ancestor.

Click!

The silver light penetrated an inch into the space between the eyebrows of the Styx Ancestor, but could not continue, because white bones emerged and blocked the attack.

On the rusty Qingping Sword, a dense aura of killing intent continuously eroded the white bones, while the white light emanating from the bones shone brightly, standing in stark contrast to it.

The Styx Ancestor narrowed his eyes, his face becoming even more serious.

"The Grand Sage of Tongtian uses the Qingping Sword as the array core? If so, breaking through it will indeed be quite difficult."

With a slap of his palm, the Styx Ancestor sent the Qingping Sword flying. The next second, the Styx Ancestor withdrew his Dharma body, returned to his original form, and sat back on the lotus platform.

"Ye Xuantian, don't be so smug. Even if Maitreya Buddha takes those Bodhisattvas out, what can you do? Can you use those chosen ones of destiny to erase the demonic will from their bodies again? You can't do it. Guanyin alone made your people use every means possible. Now, Maitreya Buddha is taking so many demons out... Hahahaha!"

When Styx Ancestor finished speaking, he couldn't help but burst into laughter. He knew very well the strength of Tianbo Xun and the others; they were no weaker than Yuse Tian.

The reason they couldn't be released before was because they didn't have complete control over the Bodhisattvas and couldn't maintain true autonomy. But now that they've influenced these Bodhisattvas for so long, if external forces really disrupt their balance, then those demon kings might actually be able to completely possess the Bodhisattvas.

Ye Xuantian slowly condensed his form, looking down at the Styx Ancestor.

"Then, Ancestor, do you think that all the effort I put into bringing them out was just to benefit you?" Ye Xuantian said, and before giving Ancestor Styx a chance to answer, his figure flickered and disappeared.

"What do you mean?" the Styx Ancestor demanded.

However, apart from the chanting of the monks amidst the blood-red atmosphere, the only other sound was the constantly changing Bagua formation.

The Styx Ancestor began to calculate rapidly with his hands. After a long while, he finally spoke: "Unless the Primordial Sage or the Heavenly Dao intervenes, no one can lure out and defeat my demon kings at the same time."

"Ye Xuantian, I never expected you to have learned to bluff!"

The Styx Ancestor exhaled deeply, ceasing all thought. He now only needed to wait for his demon kings to release the signal, so that he could seize the opportunity to completely overwhelm the will of all the monks in this place.

At the same time, Maitreya Buddha, holding the Human Seed Bag, traveled swiftly. He knew very well the extraordinary abilities of the bodhisattvas contained within his bag.

Conventional methods are not a problem for their own human race bags, but the problem is that the Asura lineage are not normal people, and they might use some underhanded means to sabotage the human race bags from within.

Finally, He came to a temple. This temple was different from others. There were no guards here, only a temple covered in dust.

A temple dedicated to immortals should not be in such a dilapidated state, but for some reason, Maitreya Buddha did not seem to be in any distress.

He bowed three times to the temple and proclaimed loudly, "The Venerable Maitreya of the Western Paradise requests an audience with the Earth Mother!"

That's right, this is the location of Mother Earth.

When the Earth Mother returned from the underground passage, she returned to her own abode. As she had told Lu Ya, she wanted to reclaim her divine status.

Maitreya Buddha actually found this place?

The question is whether the current Earth Mother is an existence under the will of Heaven, or a true soul awakened within the Earthly Creation Jade Disc.

"We've been waiting for you. Venerable Maitreya, please come in!" A voice came from inside, faint and barely audible.

Without any hesitation, Venerable Maitreya strode in.

The moment he entered, the energy of the place seemed to be drawn in, and in that instant, Maitreya Buddha felt as if he were being stared at by countless eyes.

Surprising!

"Fellow Daoist Xuantian wouldn't lie to me, would he? If what exists here is a puppet created by the will of Heaven, wouldn't that be terrible!" Maitreya Buddha thought to himself.

“I hold to the true meaning of the earth; every flower, every blade of grass, every speck of dust is my eye. Venerable Maitreya need not be afraid!”

Upon hearing this, Maitreya Buddha calmed his mind and entered the temple at a faster pace. At the deepest part of the temple, there was a clay statue of the Earth Mother Goddess sitting on a high platform, her eyes slightly closed, as if she did not want to see the world.

"Who do you think I am, Venerable One?" the Earth Mother Goddess asked.

“Naturally, it is Mother Earth!” Venerable Maitreya replied earnestly.

“The Sage Xuantian said that if I were to reclaim my true form, it would be a matter of losing a thousand of my own strength and eight hundred of the enemy’s. But I do not believe it. After all, I am the Earth Mother, existing in the underground passage! I do not believe that I cannot handle a mere remnant spirit. So I have returned.”

"But I really misjudged the Heavenly Dao. Although He only has a wisp of will, He actually seized my physical body and consumed my offerings with that wisp of will. He is even more like me than I am. In fact, He can mobilize more offerings belonging to the Earth Mother than I can. Isn't that a joke?"

The Earth Mother Goddess's tone was full of helplessness. She was truly determined to win, but what happened? She almost lost and was almost completely devoured by the will of Heaven.

The thought of this made him laugh. If he hadn't been so arrogant and had returned with Lu Ya Daoist, the outcome would have been much better.

"So, Venerable Maitreya, is there something you need?" the Earth Mother Goddess asked.

"Hasn't Mother Earth been waiting for a long time?"

“That’s right. I did receive instructions from Fellow Daoist Xuantian early on, saying that after I successfully gained control of my body, I should not move around, lest the will of Heaven notice me. I was told to wait quietly for the Venerable One to arrive in the Daoist temple. But Fellow Daoist Xuantian did not tell me what it was about.”

The Earth Mother Goddess's words left Maitreya Buddha momentarily speechless.

After a long silence, Venerable Maitreya finally spoke: "Now, the Western Paradise is being corrupted by the Asura lineage. My fellow Daoist Xuantian, along with Guanyin Bodhisattva and others, broke the deadlock and rescued several Bodhisattvas. However, their wills have been corrupted by the demon king of the Asura lineage. Therefore, we would like to ask the Earth Mother Goddess for help!"

At this point, Maitreya Buddha couldn't help but sigh, "But now the Earth Mother is nothing more than a clay statue, and I'm afraid she has no means to help us!"

After saying this, Maitreya Buddha bowed to the Earth Mother Goddess again: "It is truly presumptuous of me to come today. Earth Mother, please pretend that I have never been here!"

After speaking, Maitreya Buddha walked outside.

"Although I am just a clay statue, I can still deal with some residual will."

(End of this chapter)