Silence settled over Chaos.
The golden circles Wukong had drawn still hung around them.
Larger circles enclosed smaller ones.
Xuanzang studied them for a while, then nodded.
"Wukong, when your master heard this back then, I too had many questions."
Wukong squatted down before Xuanzang again.
"Master, what did you ask?"
"And what did that old fellow say?"
Xuanzang did not answer directly.
"You just said that His Majesty the Jade Emperor endured one thousand seven hundred and fifty kalpas of hardship."
"Along the way, we have also often heard that this Journey to the West is a great calamity."
He looked at his disciples. "Then do you know what a kalpa is?"
"What is a great kalpa?"
Wukong scratched his ear.
"All I know is that it can mean a calamity, and it can also be used to count years."
"As for anything more precise..."
Wukong glanced at the circles he had drawn in the air.
"I really couldn't explain it."
He shrank the Golden Cudgel and tucked it back into his ear, then pressed his palms together.
"Please teach me, Master."
Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Little White Dragon also straightened up, while A-Hu lay at Xuanzang's right.
Great King Si remained standing opposite them.
Xuanzang raised his right hand, and a wisp of white-gold fire flew from the Buddhist halo behind his head.
"In Buddhist scriptures, this span is also called a kalpa. Its original meaning is a division of time."
"According to the reckoning that combines one increase with one decrease."
"The lifespans of sentient beings in the world gradually diminish from immeasurable lengths."
"After they fall to eighty thousand years, living beings commit many unwholesome deeds, and their lifespans continue to shorten until they reach ten years."
"When human lifespans reach ten years, living beings suffer