Investiture of the Gods: I am Bigan, the Master of Conspiracy

After the discussion at Wuzhuang Temple, Yin Ziyu's goal for the Great Tribulation was basically finalized.

Yin Ziyu's path is to refine his mind through countless eons. The last eon of the Investiture of the Gods caused Yin Ziyu's cultivation to increase to the point that it almost surpassed the arduous cultivation of all those with innate foundations, which took tens of thousands of years.

The "Great Tribulation Refines the Mind" is, in layman's terms, somewhat similar to the "Great Tribulation Adventure," which is essentially making a fortune from war.

Such speed is extremely fast. Although the cultivation level is improved quickly, it does not damage the foundation. This great tribulation refines the mind, and first of all, it involves the integration and mastery of one's own Dao.

From the beginning to the end of the Investiture of the Gods, Yin Ziyu's great tribulations and adventures led him to a level equivalent to a Great Luo Golden Immortal. Now, the Journey to the West has reached a crucial step, which is to move from the end of the road to the Hunyuan Road.

The Great Luo Golden Immortal realm, regardless of the world, is the end of the road, equivalent to the Immortal Emperor of the outer heavens, for the Immortal Emperor has already reached the end of the road.

The next higher realm is the realm of "Leaping into the Abyss," a special realm primarily for those striving towards the Primordial Chaos, as exemplified by the Quasi-Saint realm in the Primordial World.

The realms below the Great Luo Golden Immortal are predetermined, but this realm is not. This realm represents what path to take and what methods to use to advance.

Although Yin Ziyu never told anyone, he understood that severing one's corpse could not lead to the attainment of the Primordial Chaos Realm.

Not to mention that in Yin Ziyu's eyes as a transmigrator, no one has ever used this method to prove their Dao, but from a fundamental logical point of view, this method of severing the corpse is a new path that Hongjun preached and spread throughout the primordial world after the path of the Great Luo Golden Immortal had come to an end.

However, the method of severing the corpse was something that Heaven required Hongjun to preach three times before passing on this method, and only then could Hongjun attain enlightenment.

It can be said that Hongjun's path to enlightenment was based on many conditions with the Heavenly Dao. He even distributed all the spiritual treasures he had collected during the Dragon-Han Calamity in order to achieve the Primordial Chaos Dao. However, he also had to be in harmony with the Heavenly Dao.

So, did Heaven allow Hongjun to pass down the method of severing corpses so that all living beings in the prehistoric world could have a new path of evolution?
In layman's terms, if a person can succeed, opportunity is the most important factor, followed by things like comprehension. It absolutely does not come from textbooks; no one can succeed by relying solely on textbooks.

The method of severing the three corpses that Hongjun taught in the prehistoric world is similar to a textbook teaching method, so it is absolutely impossible to prove one's Dao through this method.

The ultimate result of severing the three corpses is that one will be assimilated by the Heavenly Dao. This is because severing the three corpses means losing oneself and having only the nature of the Heavenly Dao, but no longer one's true self. At this point, although there is still the possibility of the three corpses uniting to prove the Dao, Yin Ziyu believes that at most, after severing the three corpses, they will no longer be able to unite.

Ultimately, they were assimilated into the Heavenly Dao. Of course, it's not that they couldn't get out, but it would be difficult to truly break through. Once they lost their sense of self, how could they reunite their three bodies?

When your obsession is to attain the Dao and achieve Hunyuan, once you cut off that obsession, it becomes impossible to attain the Dao and achieve Hunyuan.

When obsession is the means to save the world from collapse, cutting off the obsession immediately reveals that it is the will of Heaven. Therefore, cutting off the obsession and then trying to achieve primordial chaos becomes an impossible paradox.

Fundamentally speaking, would Heaven need uncontrollable Primordial Golden Immortals?
The six saints were granted titles, and fundamentally, they could not defy Heaven.

Saints do not defy Heaven, for defying Heaven does not make one a saint. However, the Primordial Golden Immortal does not care about such things. If there is Primordial Chaos, then all the great trends of Heaven will become chaos and become uncontrollable.

Therefore, Yin Ziyu had long ago come to the conclusion that he never intended to take the path of severing corpses, as it was a dead end. It was only because Hongjun became the first saint that all the saints of the three realms were trapped in the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm, and the path had come to an end.

Now that a new path of evolution has emerged, everyone naturally flocks to Zixiao Palace to listen to the Dao, making corpse severing the new path of evolution.

Of course, this evolutionary path is not fake. After severing the corpse, a true qualitative change occurs for a Great Luo Golden Immortal. However, if they continue down this path, Zhen Yuanzi and others will inevitably be assimilated into the Heavenly Dao in the end.

Hongjun once said that there are three ways to prove the Dao: prove the Dao with force, prove the Dao with the Three Corpses, and become a saint through merit. However, becoming a saint through merit is a gift from the Heavenly Dao, except for this one.

The Three Corpses Proving the Dao is a ruthless path, and all paths that do not follow the path of merit or sever the Three Corpses are paths that prove the Dao through force. The core of proving the Dao through force is to break the shackles of the Heavenly Dao!
At the same time, all paths that do not lead to enlightenment through the Three Corpses are the path of sentient beings.

Therefore, no matter which path Yin Ziyu takes, as long as he does not sever the three corpses, the final result will be to break the shackles of the Heavenly Dao.

Whether it's Yin Ziyu's future path of enlightenment or his stance, he has essentially gone against the will of Heaven, which is determined by his identity.

The will of Heaven is itself a process from the Investiture of the Gods to Journey to the West. However, Heaven will not explicitly say that the Yin Shang and Jie Sect must be eliminated, or that the Heavenly Way must destroy its power. If it did, it would create the paradox that everything is predetermined by Heaven, blocking any chance of survival for the Great Way.

Because Tongtian is also a sage of the Heavenly Way, representing the equality of all beings, it means that the ruling party of a country cannot deny the existence of the opposition.

Therefore, the role of a sage is to understand the will of Heaven and carry out the general trend of the will of Heaven. The Tao of the two Western sages and the Tao of Laozi and the Tao of the Primordial Beginning are naturally opposed to the Tao of Tongtian. This is the true meaning of the Investiture of the Gods.

In other words, the conflict surrounding the Investiture of the Gods was already predetermined when the Six Saints were enfeoffed.

Based on this, the arrangement of bestowing sainthood upon the six saints was predetermined by the Heavenly Dao in order to achieve sainthood. So, is the conflict among these six saints caused by Hongjun or by the Heavenly Dao?

Clearly, Hongjun, who had just attained enlightenment but had not yet achieved the Dao, was neither capable of nor authorized to make these arrangements.

This is the ultimate reason why Yin Ziyu tried to win over Haotian Yaochi.

However complex the cause and effect may be at this moment, when Yin Ziyu finally takes his ultimate leap, he will need to break the shackles of the Heavenly Dao. This is the path he will inevitably take in the end.

But what are the shackles of the Heavenly Way?
The first shackle of the Heavenly Dao is recognizing that one is in the midst of the situation, skipping over the path of severing corpses that all living beings agree on, and refuting lies as the first shackle. If one cannot do this step, any subsequent efforts will be in vain.

When Yin Ziyu first began his cultivation, he broke free from the first shackle of the Heavenly Dao. As the saying goes, "following the natural order makes one a human, while defying it makes one an immortal." This applies to attaining the Dao as well: following the natural order makes one an immortal, while defying it allows one to attain the Dao.

Nowadays, apart from Yin Ziyu, no one in the Three Realms can deny all their knowledge, nor does anyone dare to deny the Three Corpses Severing Technique.

Now, the Journey to the West is the most important step Yin Ziyu has taken in his spiritual path, the key to stirring the hearts of all beings and gathering the fire of humanity. The significance of the discussion at Wuzhuang Temple is that Yin Ziyu has turned the Journey to the West into a testing ground for all beings.

At that moment, Yin Ziyu and Mi Fei began to prepare for the first trial, which was the predicament of the Golden Immortal, that is, the inability of the path of faith to break through to the Golden Immortal realm.

After setting off from Wuzhuang Temple, Tang Sanzang and his disciples traveled westward.

As Sun Wukong walked, he grumbled, "Last night at the Wuzhuang Temple, I hadn't even had a proper debate with them before I was carried back to my room in a daze." Zhu Bajie chuckled beside him and chimed in, "Brother Monkey, you were just sleepy. I, Old Pig, was being kind and carried you back to your room."

Sun Wukong glared and immediately retorted, "Nonsense! With my current level of cultivation, how could I easily fall asleep? Bajie, I'm just wondering why they're discussing the Dao, instead of talking about the difference in supernatural powers, they're just spouting nonsense that I, Old Sun, can't understand."

Pigsy scratched his head and said with a simple and honest expression, "Brother Monkey, why bother with these things? Think about it, if you were to listen to those Confucian scholars swaying their heads and discussing classical Chinese, you still wouldn't understand a thing."

Sun Wukong listened and nodded thoughtfully, saying, "What Bajie said makes sense. Those two must not be very powerful, so they just spouted useless nonsense."

Pigsy nodded quickly and chuckled, "Brother Monkey is right. But speaking of which, that ginseng fruit is truly a treasure; we're all in for a treat this time."

As everyone chatted amongst themselves, they gradually drifted away from Wuzhuang Temple without realizing it.

In a year or two, while passing through White Tiger Mountain, he killed a White Bone Demon. When he arrived at a certain place, he saw a country in front of him called Wuji Kingdom.

There were some tribulations arranged by Guanyin on the journey to the West, but Yin Ziyu did not interfere with them as they were useless. Yin Ziyu only arranged five tribulations, leaving the rest to the Buddhist sect to arrange as they saw fit.

The four travelers entered the Kingdom of Wuji and found it to be a land of good weather and abundant harvests, where the people lived in peace and contentment, the king was a capable ruler, and the people were honest and kind.

The Kingdom of Wuji itself existed, but due to Yin Ziyu's arrangement, the Buddhist sect cancelled its original arrangements for the kingdom.

The Buddhist sect did not stop Yin Ziyu from setting up the calamity. Since Yin Ziyu set the challenge, the Buddhist sect could simply disintegrate. In other words, the opposing side was actually using the situation to gain experience for itself.

The calamities set up by Buddhism itself are not difficult, and since they are self-directed and self-acted, they have no merit.

Only the calamities arranged by Yin Ziyu and others have real value.

In the original Journey to the West, no one was an enemy of Buddhism. They had no choice but to stage their own journey, and in the end, they gained very little merit. But now it's different; this Journey to the West has been given great significance.

The Journey to the West is imbued with so many important elements, such as the right to interpret the Dao, the struggle between the Daoist tradition, the struggle between East and West, the struggle for succession in cultivation, and the struggle for primordial chaos. Thus, the intensity of the Journey to the West suddenly increases.

It even reached a level of intensity and height that the original Journey to the West could never achieve.

By the time Tang Sanzang and his companions entered the country, night had already fallen.

The master and his disciples found a temple to stay overnight. The temple was very dilapidated, and there were hardly any monks there. Only an old monk was there with some nuns.

The abbot of the temple, seeing that a high-ranking monk from afar had arrived, hurriedly came out to greet him.

Looking at the dilapidated temple, Tang Sanzang asked in confusion, "Amitabha, may I ask Abbot, why is this temple in such a state of disrepair?"

After settling everyone in, the abbot suddenly sighed and said to Tang Sanzang, "Alas, decades ago, this country was a place where people devoutly worshipped the Buddha, with monks everywhere. It was a prosperous Buddhist country within a radius of ten thousand miles. But for some reason, the king's temperament changed drastically, and he ordered the people to worship some White Immortal instead. Under the king's strict order, the people of the whole country began to worship this White Immortal, reducing the number of monks. As a result, Buddhism gradually declined. Although our temple is dilapidated, it is now the only temple left in the country."

Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang's face immediately showed indignation, and he said righteously, "How can this king be so disrespectful to the Buddha? Most people in this world are trapped in the quagmire of greed, lust, and strife, as if they were in a sea of ​​evil and unable to extricate themselves. Only the supreme and wonderful methods of our Buddhist sect can save them. This king of Wuji Kingdom should have led his people to uphold their faith in the Buddha, but now he has gone against the grain, which is truly heartbreaking."

The abbot sighed upon hearing this: "Amitabha! With the king like this, there is nothing this humble monk can do. In less than ten years, when this humble monk passes away, there will be no more Buddhism in this Wuji Kingdom!"

Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang said, "This is outrageous! This is Xiniu Hezhou, where we should pay homage to the Buddha. How can we not pay homage to the Buddha and instead worship some White Immortal?"

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong frowned and pressed for details, asking, "White Immortal? Tell me in detail, what does this White Immortal look like?"

The abbot shook his head helplessly and said, "We have never seen the White Immortal. We only know that she is said to be a woman in white. The king claims that as long as the people sincerely worship her, Wuji Kingdom will surely have good weather and abundant harvests."

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong subconsciously scratched the back of his hand, pondering to himself, and muttered, "White Immortal... this White Immortal is probably a demon."

Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang immediately became anxious and hurriedly asked, "Wukong, is it really a demon? What should we do?"

Sun Wukong gripped his golden cudgel tightly and said fiercely, "I, Old Sun, cannot ignore this matter. Tomorrow, when I enter the city, I will see just who this White Immortal really is."

Upon hearing that Sun Wukong and the others intended to interfere in the affairs of Bai Xian in Wuji Kingdom, the abbot's face immediately showed worry. He hurriedly advised, "Gentlemen, please don't meddle in other people's business. You should quickly exchange your travel permits and set off to leave Wuji Kingdom immediately. Although we have never seen Bai Xian in person, judging from all the signs, she must be a person of extraordinary magical power. If you provoke her, I'm afraid you will not be able to escape unscathed."

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong chuckled and said, "You, Abbot, probably don't know who I am. I am none other than the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong, who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace five hundred years ago! On my journey westward, I have killed countless demons. How could I possibly take a mere White Immortal seriously?"

After saying this, Sun Wukong, feeling interested, decided to show the abbot his skills.

Sun Wukong was very pleased with himself at this moment. In a flash, he used his supernatural powers.

In an instant, the entire temple shone brightly, and Sun Wukong's golden cudgel grew longer and thicker, its tip radiating dazzling golden light that illuminated every corner.

This display of supernatural power left the abbot speechless, his mouth agape for a long time.

"thump!"

The abbot immediately knelt down, and Tang Sanzang quickly helped him up: "Abbot, why is this?"

"The arrival of these eminent monks is a great blessing for the Buddhist community of Wuji Kingdom. The Buddhist community of Wuji Kingdom is now saved!"

After hearing this, Tang Sanzang helped the abbot to his feet and said, “Subduing demons and guiding sentient beings towards Buddhism is the duty of us monks. Demons and monsters plague this world, blinding sentient beings and plunging them into suffering. Now that we have embarked on our journey to the West, how can we stand idly by while the demons of Wuji Kingdom wreak havoc on our country?” (End of Chapter)