My version of Heavenly Dao is too old, so it's full of bugs.

Chapter 403 Ksitigarbha takes the blame, Taibai suffers the consequences!
In the vast and chaotic void,

Beside the collapsed ginseng fruit tree.

The Heavenly Court and the Nine Saints Heretical Paths were still locked in a standoff, completely blocking the area around the Ginseng Fruit Tree and sending out people to search the surrounding area again and again.

Lord Bingzhu! We still haven't found the ginseng fruit.

【Great Sage, we agree too.】

After exchanging a glance, Venus and the Monkey King tacitly stepped out from the crowd and headed towards the canopy of the ginseng fruit tree.

Along the way, the corpses of many children had already decomposed, and the "umbilical cords" made of intestines had become smelly and black, but the two deities seemed oblivious, and walked all the way to the depths of the tree canopy, stopping in front of a fruit stalk that was only the size of a palm.

Even though the ginseng fruit tree had been felled and died, and even though the children who were used as waste had rotted into corpses, this branch of fruit was still absorbing the last nutrients from the ginseng fruit tree, emitting a dazzling five-colored divine light!
If you look closely, you'll find that this fruit stalk is shaped like a lotus platform, with layers of ginseng fruit tree branches surrounding it like lotus petals, forming a special Dharma image of the five elements rotating.

[The lotus platform supports the Dao, allowing one to contemplate its myriad aspects, condensing into the form of an infant—this is ginseng! Since the lotus platform still exists, it means that Zhen Yuanzi's idea of ​​breaking the balance of the spiritual roots of heaven and earth and using over thirty million people as fertilizer has succeeded!]

The last ginseng fruit in the world should have already taken shape! But how could it have vanished right under our noses?

Venus let out a cold laugh: "Great Sage, do you believe it? I certainly don't. So... was it taken by the dark web?"

The Monkey King coldly replied: "Your courage to question me while severely injured is indeed commendable, but I also want to ask, was this really not taken by the Three Pure Ones?"

[Heh! If the Three Pure Ones took it, how could our Heavenly Court not know?]

Does the Heavenly Court you speak of truly represent the Heavenly Court itself? Or rather, whose Heavenly Court does it represent? If it weren't for the Three Pure Ones' intervention, who could have stolen the Ginseng Fruit right under everyone's noses? Li Wei?

Venus chuckled silently.

Although the boy felled the ginseng fruit tree, he was bound by fate from beginning to end, and under the watchful eyes of the gods, he never actually entered the depths of the ginseng fruit tree's canopy.

Moreover, after he was seriously injured and fell into a coma, the gods of Heaven took him back and conducted countless examinations. If the ginseng fruit had been on him, it would have been found long ago.

Of course,
After the ginseng fruit went missing, the gods did have their suspicions. So, Emperor Gouchen and Laozi both went back and checked Li Wei again, but found nothing wrong.

So you're saying Li Wei stole the ginseng fruit?

Give me a break!

Of everyone present that day, whether they were the gods of Heaven, demons, or even Venus himself, all were suspected of stealing the ginseng fruit, but Li Wei had been excluded from the list of suspects.

The Great Sage Equaling Heaven naturally understood this principle, so he too was puzzled: "If it wasn't you gods, nor us demons, then who took this fruit?"

Reshaping cause and effect, reversing time, and diviner of destiny—during this period, both the righteous and demonic paths tried every possible method, but in the end, they still failed to find the thief who stole the fruit. This is something that ordinary people cannot do.

After much deliberation, Venus and the Great Sage Equaling Heaven both thought of the same person. They exchanged a glance and realized that they had the same idea.

So, is it Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?

When Li Wei felled the ginseng fruit tree, the ginseng fruit was still within the destiny script woven by the Three Pure Ones, in a special realm of fate between reality and illusion. Logically speaking, even top-level gods like them couldn't enter it.

However, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva used the Lesser Hell of the Pure Land School as a means of passage to enter the realm of destiny, and lingered for a moment in front of the Ginseng Fruit Tree, so he is the most suspicious.

Why didn't the Heavenly Court and the Nine Saints suspect Ksitigarbha before?

Even within Buddhism, this guy is a complete anomaly—a stubborn idealist who still adheres to the ancient ascetic precepts of Western religions. He wouldn't even lie normally, let alone steal!

But since neither the righteous nor the demonic have taken it, then it can only be Him!
Venus sighed and said, "I didn't expect that even Ksitigarbha has changed."

The Buddha once praised Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva for being as steadfast and immovable as the earth, and as profound and secretive as a hidden treasure. The steadfastness and immovability refer to His nature of upholding His inner purity and not being swayed by external things.

The earth is constant; though it has ravines and undulations, it is not shaken by external things.

If one day even the earth itself becomes greedy and commits theft, then the "morality and human nature" of the three realms will probably be almost completely lost.

Sun Wukong turned back to look towards Hell and said deeply, "It seems that the matter of Zhen Yuanzi and the ginseng fruit has brought out all those hidden deep beneath the surface!"

That makes sense, though!

[After all, this is the last batch of fruit from the Heavenly Spirit Root, and the only one at that. It's a fruit that even Zhen Yuanzi, the ancestor of earth immortals, could save. Those guys in the Buddhist sect probably want it more than anyone else, right?]

The ginseng fruit tree used to take three thousand years to flower, three thousand years to bear fruit, and three thousand years to mature, with each harvest yielding thirty fruits. Therefore, although ginseng fruit was rare in the past, it never produced any particularly extraordinary fruits. But the fruits that have grown this time are different.

To save his own life, Zhen Yuanzi must have used all sorts of treasures besides using over 30 million children as hormones.

In the end, they even went so far as to disrupt the internal balance of the ginseng fruit tree, injecting almost all the essence of this spiritual root of heaven and earth into that one and only ginseng fruit!

You can see from the fact that even Li Wei's power couldn't stop the ginseng fruit tree in the end, which shows how much the ginseng fruit tree paid to nurture this one fruit.

Thirty million portions of flesh and blood from children born on special occasions were used as hormones, and the spiritual roots of heaven and earth were subjected to a near-self-destructive draining of resources. In addition, Zhen Yuanzi also contributed various other treasures and spiritual talents to combine the thirty fruits into one.

The death of the ginseng fruit tree will likely grant this last ginseng fruit some special power!
This fruit,

It will have unimaginable, miraculous effects!

This is also the core reason why the two sides, good and evil, have been confronting each other here for more than a month and are constantly searching for the ginseng fruit—that fruit can save a "big" life!

Great Luo, Great Vehicle, Great Sage.
Buddha!

Upon realizing this, Venus was suddenly startled: "You mean, Ksitigarbha wants to use this fruit to save the Living Buddha?"

Yes!

That makes sense!

Ksitigarbha, who strictly adhered to the precepts and practiced asceticism, might indeed have broken his own precepts if he wanted to save the Buddha.

The Great Sage Equaling Heaven's expression had unknowingly turned extremely grim: "You and I both know! If Buddha hadn't insisted on creating the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, causing a backlash of fortune, no one in the Three Realms would be His match, not even the Three Pure Ones!!"

The Three Pure Ones couldn't defeat the Buddha, not because they were truly inferior in combat power, but because they were inferior in the Three Realms!

Why?

Because Buddhism should flourish!

The Heavenly Dao wished the entire Heavenly Court would perish, so it specially cultivated the Buddha to rival the Heavenly Court!

Later, as the Western religion grew in power, the Heavenly Dao regarded it as its hope for escape. Therefore, it would help the Buddha fight against the Three Pure Ones' cultivation of the Three Balances of Qi, Destiny, and Life, and even directly oppose the Heavenly Laws!
Don't be fooled by the fact that Heavenly Dao is now suppressed within the Heavenly Court and has become its tool. In reality, it still retains a certain degree of autonomy and its favorite thing is to cultivate those forces that rebel against Heaven!

Whether it's the rise of the Western religion or even the rise of the Great Sage, they are all inextricably linked to the will of Heaven!
Even Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive at the thought of possibly facing that terrifying Buddha in the future.

but
Sun Wukong glanced at the wriggling ginseng fruit tree vine on the ground, then looked at Taibai Jinxing who seemed completely unaware. Instead of reminding him, he tried to help the vine conceal its presence, and then quietly took a step back.

Venus was greatly disturbed by the news of the Buddha.
In addition, His injuries had not yet healed, and the injuries from writing the script of destiny had compounded His injuries, so His external perception was greatly reduced, and He did not notice the abnormality behind Him at all!

Damn it,
How could Buddha awaken?

Whether it's Buddha or beings like Zhen Yuanzi, they are both too difficult to kill.

Therefore, it took the Heavenly Court two whole versions of time and countless human and material resources to make the Buddha enter Nirvana before they successfully led Him down the path of suicide to create the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

At that time, all the power of the Heavenly Court was devoted to this, and there was no time to spare for anything else. This gave the nine Great Sages room to grow. So the reason why the Nine Sages' Rebellion is happening now is ultimately because of Buddhism!

If Buddha awakens and Buddhism is revitalized, and with the addition of the Nine Saints and the Heaven-Slaying Alliance forming a demonic and heretical group, will the Three Realms enter a "Three Kingdoms era"?
The mere thought of that scene made Venus's head spin, so he immediately exclaimed, "We can't let Buddha awaken!! I'm going to the underworld right now to confront that bastard Ksitigarbha!"

The very moment He turned around!

brush! ! !
The lotus-shaped fruit pedestal on the ginseng fruit tree suddenly leaped up and pierced his brow in an instant.

"what!!"

Venus suddenly let out a scream.

【Lord Soldier! ! 】

The gods of Heaven were immediately alarmed and quickly surrounded the area. Upon seeing the lotus fruit holder wriggling between Venus's eyebrows, they glared angrily at the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

The black monkey shrugged and said, "Hey, hey, hey! Don't wrongly accuse the good monkey! He didn't notice the problem with the ginseng fruit tree, what does it have to do with me?"

(End of this chapter)