Now, when Wukong and Kasyapa were sucked in by the Golden Bushel of Primordial Unity, their Niwan Palaces were sealed. Dazed and senseless, they tumbled into the formation.
The Yellow River Formation dissolved souls and destroyed spirits, turning a thousand years of cultivation into a painted cake; it damaged the mind and drained vital energy, bringing countless kalpas of hardship to ruin in a single misstep. As the saying went, even immortals could hardly enter without having the three flowers above the head stripped away; even if the Buddha met this calamity, the five qi in the chest would be dispersed. Whoever encountered this formation could not escape their destined tribulation; how could even a Perfected One evade it? All the Seventy-Two Transformations were useless-how could one escape disaster within the Yellow River Formation?
When the formation subsided, Wukong and Kasyapa lay asleep on the ground, their eyes tightly shut, all their cultivation and spiritual attainments lost.
Ao Tu kept Wukong's cultivation inside the Golden Bushel of Primordial Unity and returned Kasyapa's cultivation to heaven and earth.
The Five Directional Guardians, the Six Ding and Six Jia, the Four Duty Gods, and the Buddhist Guardian Garan watching over Tang Sanzang were all greatly alarmed.
Ordinarily, so long as Tang Sanzang's life was not in danger, they would not intervene lightly.
But Ao Tu was now acting in earnest, determined to hold Tang Sanzang and his disciples back for a full year. Fearing these beings would ruin his plans, he unfurled the Universe-Splitting Silk. In the wind, it became a vast expanse of red gauze ten thousand zhang long, sweeping every last deity back into his grasp.
Ao Tu had the Scorpion Demon build a prison behind the wooden house and locked the deities inside. Wukong and Kasyapa were still unconscious,