The world of the living
Sun Wukong lay listlessly in the old shepherd's yard; the stench of blood had long since vanished.
After Xu Xiao left, Sun Wukong summoned the local mountain gods and earth spirits to clean the courtyard and also instructed them to take care of the old shepherd boy's family.
Although the cause and effect of the old shepherd boy feeding them at the foot of Five Elements Mountain was gone, the monkey still had a good impression of the family and didn't want them to suffer misfortune after he left.
This world is full of hardships and tribulations. Even a deity like him suffered calamities and misfortunes, let alone a mere mortal.
Even Celestials have to go through tribulations and hardships, so ordinary mortals are like dust in the wind. This is all he can do.
Seeing the old shepherd's family so anxious after their misfortune, the monkey could only sigh and continue to lie in the yard basking in the sun.
Soon, with a familiar fluctuation of Magic Power appearing, Xu Xiao led a stunned Xuanzang back to the courtyard.
"Big brother, you're back!"
The monkey excitedly went to greet them, and then saw Xu Xiao with a smile on his face and Xuanzang with a blank Xuanzang.
"What... what's going on? Why does this monk suddenly seem like he's lost his soul?"
"It's not that they've lost their soul, it's that they've lost their Buddhist heart."
Xu Xiao smiled and shook his head. With a flick of his sleeve, Xuanzang naturally fell to the ground, his face blank and expressionless.
A broken heart is a great calamity for any Buddhist Sect practitioner. The fact that Xuanzang did not pass away on the spot is because he was Pilgrim, a child of great destiny.
The debate with Xu Xiao rendered all the Buddhist principles that this virtuous monk had always firmly believed in Utakata; at this moment, he was nothing more than a living shell.
"He has lost his Buddhist heart!!"
"This is getting out of hand!" A rare look of worry appeared on the monkey's face; he was no longer the naive little monkey he used to be.
This is a major event for any cultivator, let alone Xuanzang, who was appointed by the Western Heaven to Pilgrim. This is no small matter!
"It's alright. His Buddhist heart is inherently flawed. If we hadn't debated him, I wouldn't have been able to exploit his Liaokong so easily." Xu Xiao shook his head.
My eyes glanced up at the blue sky and met a few pairs of eyes that were also peering in this direction.
The Six Ding and Six Jia, the Five Directions Jiedi, the Day Travelers and Night Travelers... Whether it's the Heavenly Court or the Western Sect, there are always people watching them.
But is staring at it really useful?
Xu Xiao sneered. An invisible Power of Variables had already enveloped the area, and the immortals and gods wouldn't be able to detect anything unusual for the time being.
The Dao of Variables excels at concealment and disguise; ordinary immortals and gods cannot see through everything happening here.
Since he chose to send Xuanzang to the Karmic Mirror Terrace to shatter his Buddhist heart, it wasn't simply because he disliked him; rather, it was a scheme he had been planning from the very beginning.
From the Journey to the West began, the renowned monk Xuanzang was treated with utmost care and attention, with Xuanzang being personally involved in everything, all in an effort to sway Xuanzang's emotions.
It should be noted that Xuanzang was merely a mortal in this life. From a high-ranking monk of the Great Tang Dynasty, who was the younger Imperial Younger Brother of Emperor Taizong, to an ascetic monk who did everything himself on the journey to obtain the scriptures, Xuanzang, though he did not say it, actually felt a certain sense of disparity in his heart.
Don't say that unwavering faith is unshakable. Even gods and immortals can change their minds and develop obsessions, let alone a mortal.
From the moment Xu Xiao took on this journey to the Journey to the West, he knew that the biggest variable, besides the monkey, was Xuanzang himself.
As two key figures in the pilgrimage team, Xu Xiao had already intercepted the Monkey King. How to change Xuanzang without causing the West to directly break off relations was what he had been pondering.
Otherwise, how could mere bandits possibly appear before a Golden Immortal, let alone prepare to commit violence?
It was precisely by taking advantage of this destined calamity with the bandits that Xu Xiao deliberately came to suppress Xuanzang's Buddhist heart.
Seeing the stunned Xuanzang, Xu Xiao formed a hand seal, and his own Golden Immortal Great Dao began to circulate.
An invisible Power of Variables begins to flow, probing into this world's formidable place of destiny— the Heavenly Mandate Ruins of Return —and grasping something unique from within.
If the heavenly secrets were normal, with the Heavenly Dao suppressing from above, the Sage overseeing from the middle, and the Heavenly Court unifying from below, Xu Xiao would never dare to be so reckless.
But now, the Journey to the West Calamity has begun. Under this destined calamity, even the so-called Supreme Heavenly Dao is confused and may not be able to detect Xu Xiao's actions.
Xu Xiao was betting on this sliver of opportunity.
First, destroy the Buddha's heart, then find a suitable vessel from the vast and uncertain fate of Journey to the Journey to the West!!
Although the Pilgrim was destined to be Jin Chanzi and could not be replaced, the differences between Xuanzang in different times Pilgrim spaces were still enormous.
The Journey to the Journey to the West Great World is filled with countless destinies across countless timelines, each with its own unique Xuanzang fate.
Xu Xiao has experience traveling through countless worlds and has his own unique understanding of how to rescue people from different timelines.
Most of the Dao traces behind Xu Xiao were revealed, and a mysterious and unpredictable power lingered in the Land of Destiny's Ruins in the Journey to the Journey to the West World.
Only deities who are well-versed in the Dao of Cause and Effect can witness that vast and wondrous sight in this mysterious land.
A dense, crisscrossing network of cause and effect threads of various colors intertwine here, one end extending to the origin of the Journey to the West Great World, and the other end extending to other infinite spaces and times within the Journey to the West Great World.
These different time-spaces are all derived from and reflected by the original Journey to the Journey to the West Great World. Although they are essentially still about Journey to the West, some of them are different.
Xu Xiao's gaze followed Xuanzang's golden thread of cause and effect, finding a chaotic and tangled ball of golden light.
This is the Origin of Fate, woven from countless threads of cause and effect across time and space within the Journey to the West Great World. Each thread represents Xuanzang's fate in different time and space, and their entanglement forms the origin of Xuanzang's Origin of Fate at different moments.
The myriad dimensions of time and space are intertwined here, somewhat like the Daluo reflecting all the heavens, but it has not yet been completely unified.
"As expected, I guessed right. Everything revolves around Xuanzang from the main world, who hasn't yet reached the realm above the Daluo level."
After Xuanzang's merits and deeds were perfected, he became a true Sandalwood Merit Buddha, at least Golden Immortal, if not Daluo Immortal, and perhaps even a higher realm in the future.
Once one steps into the Daluo, having consolidated the self of countless times and spaces and transformed into that one unique "one," this Origin of Fate will be in one's own hands, and no one will be able to harm it.
However, Xu Xiao had already summarized a pattern based on his experience of traveling through multiple worlds.
That is the world he entered, which must be the main plane of the world's protagonist, and is not affected by the paradox of cause and effect.
Otherwise, long ago, when Xu Xiao entered those worlds where the protagonists would ascend to higher realms, and when he attacked them in their childhood, he would have been met with revenge that transcended the river of time.
Without this concern, and with Xu Xiao's Power of Variables, he would dare to do far too many things.
"Found you."
Xu Xiao smiled, but his eyes sharpened.
The mysterious Power of Variables transforms into the sharpest knife, carving out a unique piece of 'fate' from it.
The Dao of Variables! It is the power to turn the impossible into the possible!