Journey to the West: Please Call Me the White Bone Demon

Yun Zhao sat cross-legged in the void, his eyes closed, and the chaotic light around him was pulsating at an increasingly rapid frequency.

The Qi Luck Fruit within his body had now completely dissolved, its shattered shell transforming into fine, sand-like golden particles that surged along his meridians to his limbs and bones. Each particle contained the immense power of human destiny, causing his meridians to emit a silent hiss.

But amidst that scalding heat was a clear crack.

He sensed that he was standing in front of a door, a door that was majestic and enormous, with countless extremely complex Dao runes engraved on its doors. Although the breakthrough was right in front of him, the door gave him a feeling of being so close yet so far.

The door was tightly shut, with not a sliver of light shining through the crack. Yun Zhao could sense that behind the door lay a vast and boundless expanse; if he pushed it open, he would step into a completely new world.

He took a deep breath and channeled all his magical power to crash into the door.

A muffled thud reverberated within him. The door remained unmoved, but the shock made his throat taste sweet and a trickle of crimson blood seep from the corner of his mouth.

If once doesn't work, try twice; if twice doesn't work, try three times.

Like a bull charging into a mountain, he repeatedly channeled all his cultivation into a torrent that crashed against the tightly closed giant door. Each impact caused the Dao runes on the door to flicker, but each backlash added a few more cracks to his meridians.

At this moment, Yun Zhao's eyes were tightly closed, his face was contorted, and blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth. Dense golden cracks appeared on his skin beneath his robes.

But he couldn't care less about that. He could sense the vibrations of the outside world through his tightly closed eyelids with every breath. The oppressive feeling brought about by Zhunti's swing of the Seven Treasures Tree was like a tide crashing onto the great array protecting the Chu Kingdom, making the already precarious light even thinner.

He could vaguely hear sounds from outside.

The subtle crackling sounds of Shen Gongbao's array net breaking and rebuilding, the ear-piercing hiss of Lu Ya's Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife being forced back by the seven-colored treasure light, the dull impact sounds of the four forces of Guanyin, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and Tathagata constantly wedging in and being forced back, and the bone-chilling hum of Zhunti every time he swung the treasure tree.

He discerned a fact among these voices.

The strength of the group is gradually waning.

The reactions were getting slower and slower, the attacks were getting weaker and weaker, and the breathing was getting more and more frequent. Everyone was using their remaining magic power to barely keep themselves from collapsing, but the defensive line was retreating little by little and getting thinner and thinner.

Zhunti's patience was also waning.

He swung his hand holding the Seven Treasures Tree faster and faster, each swipe heavier and more powerful than the last. The Sanskrit characters within the seven-colored light grew denser and denser, each character bursting forth with fragments of holy light like shattered stars, carving thin, hair-like black lines into the sky above Yingdu City.

Looking at the ants in front of him, constantly falling down and getting back up, constantly spitting blood and struggling to form hand seals, he finally felt a real sense of annoyance, which had initially made him arrogant.

The people in front of him were like unkillable maggots, blocking his way once, twice, three times. Every time, he felt that he could crush them all with the next swipe, but every time they would struggle to rise from the ruins at the last moment, tightening the defense line that was about to collapse a little more.

How long have they been delaying?

He didn't really want to calculate, but he could feel the power of the Fallen Saint Pill within his body gradually eroding the foundation of his Sainthood, like a small insect slowly gnawing at the trunk of a large tree. Although it was far from collapsing, the feeling of being gnawed made him more irritable than ever before.

"That's enough!"

He uttered those two words in a low voice, but the murderous intent hidden within them was more intense than in any of his previous readings.

He gripped the Seven Treasures Tree tightly with his right hand, and the seven-colored light on it suddenly surged to an unprecedented brightness. The entire tree emitted a long hum in his palm.

Seven kinds of precious light intertwined to form a seven-colored pillar of light as thick as a dragon's body. The Sanskrit characters in the pillar of light were no longer fragmented characters, but condensed into a blurry golden Buddha phantom. The phantom's features had not yet taken shape, but it was already rolling towards Yingdu City with a world-destroying momentum.

The moment Shen Gongbao's array net touched the pillar of light, it shattered by half. He was thrown backward by the backlash, spitting out a mouthful of blood. The array plate flew out of his palm, spun, and fell to the ground, breaking into three pieces in mid-air.

Lu Ya's Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife barely managed to meet the beam of light before being knocked back into the gourd, leaving a clear crack on the gourd's shell.

The barrier formed by the combined efforts of Guanyin, Manjushri, and Samantabhadra was pushed back as if it were made of paper in front of that seven-colored pillar of light. Almost simultaneously, all three of them coughed up blood, and their injuries worsened.

The golden barrier of Tathagata was the first to be hit, and most of the Buddha's light was shattered in the first wave of impact. Tathagata knelt on one knee in the void, his hands still holding on with the hand seals, but his hands were already trembling violently.

Even after overcoming the obstruction of six people, the seven-colored beam of light still retained more than 60% of its power and was heading towards Yingdu City at an unstoppable speed.

At the very moment that pressure was closing in, Yun Zhao sensed an unprecedented urgency.

His mind pounded wildly against the tightly closed giant door, his internal energy was almost completely depleted, and the cracks in his meridians were increasing, but the door remained unmoved.

He couldn't help but recall the words of the three human emperors in the Fire Cloud Cave.

This item has the potential to help people break through to the realm of sainthood. Whether or not this breakthrough is successful, and how long it will take, depends entirely on individual destiny.

Daoguo only gave him a key, but after inserting the key into the lock, he still had to exert the force to push open the door himself.

But he was almost out of strength.

"Please, if we could just advance one more realm, break through to Quasi-Saint, maybe we could stop Zhunti!"

Just as the seven-colored beam of light approached within a hundred feet of Yingdu City, and the people of the entire city were forced to prostrate themselves by that holy might, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him.

The light was extremely bright and short, like lightning splitting the night sky.

It was as if someone was whispering in his ear, telling him that he was wrong, that he had gone down the wrong path.

There is more than one path from the Great Luo Golden Immortal to a higher realm than the Quasi-Saint.

The method of severing the three corpses was created by Dao Ancestor Hongjun, and it is indeed ingenious. However, that path can only touch the threshold of sainthood but cannot be crossed. The true realm of sainthood has never been achieved by severing the three corpses.

A sudden realization dawned on him, a realization that was light and faint, like a seed sprouting its first bud in the soil.

Above the Great Luo is the Primordial Chaos.

The Primordial One is the one to whom all laws return and the Great Dao is perfectly integrated; it is neither destroyed nor harmed.

The so-called Quasi-Saint is actually a middle realm achieved through the shortcut of severing the Three Corpses, neither high nor low, seemingly a saint but not a saint.

The true foundation for becoming a sage should be laid at the level of a Primordial Golden Immortal. Only after the foundation is solid can one attain the realm of a Primordial Great Luo Golden Immortal.

Among the six sages of the primordial era, the sages led by the Taiqing Sage all followed the path of severing their corpses to become sages. That path allowed people to reach the realm of sages more quickly, but it also trapped them in that position.

The true Dao has always been defined by the two words "Primordial Chaos".

He got it.

The tightly closed giant door suddenly changed at the very moment he realized this.

The densely packed Dao runes on the door began to flow, rearrange, and recombine on their own. The originally chaotic patterns gradually pieced together a clear path before his eyes. The path led straight to the back of the door, with countless pillars of light standing on both sides of the path. Each pillar of light reflected a profound truth of the Dao Law.

Instead of ramming the door, he strode towards the path, and the moment his figure passed through the doorway, the majestic gate burst open behind him.

The chaotic light within his body suddenly exploded, transforming into a visible shockwave that swept outwards in all directions, momentarily dispersing the remaining holy might above Yingdu City.

A surge of immense magical power, so powerful it shook the void, erupted from his body. This power was far stronger and more profound than he had ever been before, yet it did not carry the oppressive and domineering aura of a saint. Instead, it was a harmonious and unhindered, abundant power that breathed in harmony with heaven and earth.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

The blue light that was originally in those eyes has now turned into a deep, almost transparent color, as if the entire night sky has been crushed and melted into the pupils, in which there are stars flowing, mountains and rivers rising and falling, and all things arising and ceasing.

The seven-colored beam of light had already landed thirty feet above Yingdu City.

Yun Zhao raised his right hand and pushed forward.