"The Heavenly Venerable?"
"Yuanshi Tianzun also went by the name Pangu?"
Wukong stared at Xuanzang for a moment, then raised a hand to scratch beside his ear.
"Old Sun hasn't heard much about these sorts of names and titles."
With that, Wukong suddenly turned to Bajie.
"Idiot, have you ever heard of this?"
Bajie had been standing with his arms folded, gazing solemnly at the chaos.
The moment Wukong asked him, he put away his solemn expression and broke into a cheeky grin.
He puffed out his chest.
"Brother Monkey, you've asked just the right person."
"After hearing what Master said, I actually remembered a few things."
Wukong leaned closer. "Then tell us."
Bajie cleared his throat.
He looked up at the circles of all sizes within the chaos.
His expression gradually grew serious again.
"A Daoist scripture says: there is Yuanshi Tianzun, born before the Great Origin, endowed with the breath of nature, empty and still, profound and far-reaching, his limits unknown."
As his voice fell silent,
a speck of clear, jade-colored light slowly lit up deep within the chaos.
The clear light stood outside the golden circles Wukong had drawn.
No matter how the circles turned, that light never moved.
A figure sat within the light.
His features were indistinct.
His sleeves spread outward, seemingly joined to the void in all directions.
Bajie continued:
"Heaven and earth perish, and the allotted calamities reach their end, much as the Buddhist scriptures describe."
"The Heavenly Venerable's body endures forever, never perishing."
Within the vision,
a world collapsed amid flames.
Mountains and rivers turned to ash.
Seas and waterways boiled dry.
Then a great flood swept over the remnants of the world.
Fierce winds scattered the last trace of light.
The jade-colored figure remained seated there.
His form had not diminished