Now, Ao Tu released Wukong.
Once free, Wukong bowed slightly and offered a greeting, while actually stealing a look at Ao Tu with his Golden Eyes.
Wukong's Golden Eyes had originally been born of heaven and earth, nurtured by primordial forces. They could penetrate the mysteries of heaven and earth, perceive transformations, discern heaven's timing and the advantages of terrain, and shift the stars and constellations.
When Wukong attained the Dao in his youth, he had defied Heaven and wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, and was later thrown into Lord Lao's Eight Trigrams Furnace to be refined. Unable to withstand the Six-Ding Divine Fire within, Wukong had hidden in the furnace's Xun Position. This was its wind vent, where there was smoke but no fire. The smoke had assailed his fine eyes for seven times seven days, leaving them diseased, which was why they were subsequently called the Fiery Golden Eyes.
But in the Daughter Kingdom, Wukong had fallen into Ao Tu's Nine-Curved Yellow River Formation, where Ao Tu had used the Golden Bushel of Primordial Unity to strip away all his cultivation. Instead, this had restored his primordial state, turning misfortune into a blessing and curing his eyes.
Now Wukong looked at Ao Tu with these Golden Eyes, expecting to see through his transformation. Yet all he saw was Mahayana Buddha-Light, golden lotuses blooming and auspicious clouds billowing, shining up into the Nine Heavens and reaching down into the Netherworld. Celebration clouds and colorful mists surrounded a supreme-grade Lotus Throne, which radiated the light of Śarīra. Forty-Two Paths of white rainbows filled the sky, forming a North-South Rainbow. Truly, this was the holy image of a Buddha of the Western Heaven; only now could one know that Shakyamuni's great Dao had been fulfilled.
Deeply shocked at the sight,