Five-Colored Stone

Wherever Little White Dragon passed, trees fell with crackling crashes.

He charged straight at the trees.

Tang Yu stared wide-eyed. Was the medicine really this potent?

Judging by Little White Dragon's state, he had clearly lost his mind completely.

He howled nonstop.

His blood and qi surged throughout his body, making him look rather terrifying.

Guanyin Bodhisattva was equally bewildered. What was going on?

She hurriedly calculated, and her face immediately turned green.

"What's going on?" Sun Wukong scratched his head, looking puzzled. "Horse Madness? But Old Sun has only heard of goat epilepsy."

Tang Yu's lips twitched slightly. Holding back his laughter, he said, "Bodhisattva, this horse seems to be, well, in heat. Cough, cough. How about finding him a mare to breed with?"

Even breeding would not be finished in a moment.

The system had said the medicine would last three months.

If it had been an ordinary person, he probably would not have lasted more than a few days before dropping dead.

But Little White Dragon was a dragon, so he should be fine.

Amitabha. What a sin, what a sin.

With no remorse whatsoever, Tang Yu silently recited a Buddhist invocation in his heart.

Breed with a mare?

But Little White Dragon was a dragon, not a horse.

Guanyin Bodhisattva's face darkened. With a wave of her hand, she tried to make Little White Dragon revert to his true form, but under the effects of the medicine, he seemed unable to transform back.

Having no other choice, she cast a immobilization spell and temporarily froze Little White Dragon in place.

"Amitabha." Guanyin Bodhisattva recited a Buddhist invocation. "Wait here for a moment. I will return to Spirit Mountain and report this to Buddha."

In truth, she did not need to report anything, because Tathagata Buddha already knew what had happened.

Yet he had no way to calculate its cause.

It was as though the secrets of Heaven had been obscured by some unseen force.

"Is this the work of the variable again?" Buddha murmured. "Is the variable a person, or has a Saint intervened?"

Either way, he needed to report this to the Saints behind him.

An unfavorable situation had now arisen in the Journey to the West Tribulation, and they had to find a way to stop it in time.

"Buddha." Guanyin Bodhisattva returned.

Tathagata Buddha said, "There is no need to say more. I already know everything."

After pondering briefly, Buddha continued, "Venerable Guanyin, I must trouble you to make a trip to the Heavenly Court and temporarily borrow Zhang Guolao's donkey. We must not delay the great undertaking of obtaining the scriptures."

Things were becoming more and more unexpected.

A perfectly good Journey to the West Tribulation seemed to be getting interfered with by someone in secret.

Guanyin Bodhisattva went to the Heavenly Court, while Tathagata came to a place in the Primordial Era.

"Greetings, Saint."

"There is no need to say more. I already know everything," Zhunti said. "A variable has appeared in the Journey to the West. You must put more effort into handling it."

"May I ask, Saint, is this variable a person? Or is it a variable born of karma?"

"I do not know." Zhunti kept calculating. "Even we cannot determine it, but it is very likely the work of someone."

In the Thirty-third Heaven.

Taishang Laojun stared at the Heavenly Dao Stone before him and calculated without pause.

After a while, he murmured, "A variable again?" His gaze was sharp as fire as he stared at the Heavenly Dao Stone.

He could not calculate it. There was no answer.

Everything seemed to have been obscured.

Looking down at Tang Yu and his group, Taishang Laojun hesitated slightly before taking a step forward.

At this moment, only Tang Yu and a frozen white horse remained.

As for Sun Wukong, he had gone off to hunt wild game again.

During this time, he had eaten and drunk well while following Tang Yu. The monkey had put on several pounds.

Hmm?

As if sensing something, Tang Yu looked to the side and saw an elderly man in green robes who had appeared at some unknown time.

His eyes were deep, as if chaos flowed within them. At this moment, he was watching Tang Yu.

Taishang Laojun!

"Tang Sanzang greets the Saint." Tang Yu hurriedly bowed.

At that moment, he could not help but worry. Had he been exposed?

If that was the case, it would truly be troublesome.

Thinking about it carefully, he really had gone a little overboard. Anyone would probably suspect him.

Yet the reason he had dared to act so recklessly was because he knew those bastards from the Buddhist Sect would not dare do anything to him.

But Taishang Laojun's appearance gave him a bad feeling.

After contemplating for a moment, Tang Yu gritted his teeth and asked bluntly, "May I ask, Saint, is the grand course of the Journey to the West impossible to change?"

Taishang Laojun's eyes narrowed at once, then he chuckled. "The grand course cannot be changed."

"What about the minor course?"

"It can." Taishang Laojun stared at Tang Yu. "So it truly is you. You, a fixed constant, have become a variable."

He suddenly burst into laughter. "Interesting, interesting. As the most crucial link in the Buddhist Sect, even if they one day discover that you are the variable, they will still be powerless against you. Interesting..."

"If possible, I would not want things to be this way either. But trapped within the game, I cannot control myself."

Tang Yu gave a bitter smile. Who would want to travel west for scriptures and become a monk, trekking over mountains and rivers all the way?

If it had been for the benefit of all under Heaven, he could have endured it.

But it was merely a method, a method for the struggle between Buddhism and Daoism. He had been dragged into it and could not get out.

"Sanzang, since you are already within the game, escaping it will still depend on yourself." With one hand behind his back, Taishang Laojun said mournfully, "You, Sun Wukong, Marshal Tianpeng, Curtain Rolling General—who among you is not trapped within the game?"

He glanced at Little White Dragon, who was frozen beside them. "Originally, he was as well. But now, it seems he has already stepped out."

"At first, I believed Sun Wukong had the best chance of escaping the game. Yet now, you have appeared."

Taishang Laojun spoke faintly, his green robes fluttering.

Tang Yu froze slightly at those words. Back when Sun Wukong wreaked Havoc in Heaven, he had been refined in Taishang Laojun's Eight Trigrams Furnace for forty-nine days.

Not only had he not been burned to death, but he had gained Fiery Eyes Golden Gaze.

Now Tang Yu seemed to understand something. Taishang Laojun had most likely done it deliberately.

Even if Sun Wukong had been a Heaven-born stone monkey, beneath the Saints, he was still no more than an ant. How could he possibly have been impossible to kill?

It seemed that, in this Journey to the West Tribulation, some Saints had long since been making arrangements behind the scenes.

Swish.

With a wave of Taishang Laojun's hand, a glowing five-colored stone appeared in Tang Yu's palm.

"What is this?" Tang Yu asked in confusion.

"A Five-Colored Stone."

"But when Nuwa Mended the Heavens, wasn't only one Five-Colored Stone left behind?" Tang Yu asked.

Everyone knew that story. When Nuwa Mended the Heavens, one Five-Colored Stone had been left behind.

That stone had become Sun Wukong!

Taishang Laojun smiled. "Many fragments were left behind, but Sun Wukong became an anomaly. Keep this stone safe. In the future, it will be of great use to both you and Sun Wukong."

From Taishang Laojun's words, it seemed many Five-Colored Stones had been left behind, but only Sun Wukong had cultivated into a monkey.

Tang Yu opened his mouth, wanting to ask more.

But Taishang Laojun said, "That happened long ago. There is no need to speak of it. Perhaps you will learn of it in the future."