Within the cave abode, the Immortal Lord of Myriad Laws' restrictions remained.
No spiritual treasures could emerge, no Dao arts could circulate, no brute strength could be unleashed.
Yet all these external restraints could lock away techniques, arts, and strength, but not the Dao heart, not self-attainment, not the true self's transcendence.
For ordinary people to attain immortality, they needed heaven's blessing, an official investiture, accumulated merit, and a condensed Dao fruit.
The Preaching Squad did not follow the ordinary road to immortality.
They stormed purgatories, shattered gods and demons, and broke through falsehood.
Every bloody battle deepened their Dao foundations.
Every desperate ordeal tempered their Dao hearts.
Countless past tribulations of life and death had already laid ample groundwork for attaining the Dao.
They simply had never deliberately raised their ranks or condensed the Dao fruit of an Immortal Lord.
Now, driven into a desperate corner, they could seize the moment to break through and attain their ranks against the tide.
Sun Wukong stood in the center, his golden eyes closed, his consciousness sinking into the depths of his sea of awareness.
He examined the bones and sinews forged through a hundred battles, refining his own unyielding Dao heart.
He sought no hollow title of Heaven's Equal, only transcendence in this moment.
Drawing upon their immortal foundations from the Heavenly Court, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujin purified their immortal resonance and stripped away the shackles of false order.
They shifted from passively enduring immortal regulations to actively taking command of their immortal pathways.
Little White Dragon cleansed the immortal resonance in his dragon blood, blending the Dragon Clan's supreme source with the immortal path order.
With his nirvana Dao body, Tang Sanzang buried the shackles of his former self and broke through the barrier between mortal and immortal.
Five