Rebirth in Journey to the West: Sun Wukong-Chapter 723 - 724: Investigating the Buddha-viewing Pagoda (Third Update!)

(PS: I have something to deal with today, only three updates, sorry!)

"Merit Great Dao Law? Tang Seng has already reached the Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm! When did he start cultivating?"

As Jiang Liu’er activated the Great Dao Law to cross the bridge, his cultivation could no longer be concealed and was clearly seen by the Guiding Buddha. Without further regard for the task assigned by Tathagata Buddha to strip away the physical bodies of Jiang Liu’er and his companions to form Buddha bodies, the Guiding Buddha quickly crossed the river by boat and rushed to the summit of Spiritual Mountain to report the situation to Tathagata Buddha.

"Xuanzang’s cultivation has reached the Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm?"

Tathagata Buddha was slightly startled; he had never paid attention to this before because along the way, Jiang Liu’er had never shown his cultivation in front of others. The Immeasurable Merit Determination allowed him to completely conceal his own cultivation, and no one within the Buddhist Sect truly knew that he had become an immortal.

"It must be that demon monkey Sun Wukong’s doing!"

Ran Deng Buddha pounded his fist on the table in front of him, instantly shattering the table. "Perhaps Golden Cicada Child has also been brainwashed by Sun Wukong. It’s not possible to reach the Taiyi Golden Line cultivation in just a short while!"

The hall fell silent, and the faces of the various Buddha Bodhisattva were not looking good. Manipulating a mortal and a Taiyi Golden Immortal were completely different matters. Now that Jiang Liu’er was a Taiyi Golden Immortal, he naturally knew the importance of Merit and Destiny, and it wouldn’t be easy to make him hand over the Merit and Destiny he had obtained.

"No worries! Once he is in the Buddha-viewing Pagoda, it doesn’t matter if he is a Taiyi Golden Immortal or even a Daluo Golden Immortal; he will obediently surrender the Merit and Destiny within him!"

After a change in his expression, Tathagata Buddha spoke in a deep voice, "Do not reveal anything, just act as if nothing has happened. Welcome the teacher and student into the hall, give them the True Scripture, and let them take it back to the Central Plains. Let’s first complete this Journey to the West to Seek Scriptures and gain Heavenly Dao’s recognition."

"That’s right, he’s just a Taiyi Golden Immortal after all, not afraid he would turn the heavens upside down! Once he is in the Buddha-viewing Pagoda, all the Merit and Destiny will belong to our Buddhist Sect!"

Ran Deng Buddha and others laughed. Immediately, they commanded the temple-guarding Divine Monks and others to go and welcome them, each then sitting calmly in the hall, quietly waiting for Jiang Liu’er and his disciples to come and pay their respects.

Sun Wukong did not follow them into the Great Thunder Sound Temple Treasure Hall as Jiang Liu’er and his disciples were welcomed by the Buddhist Sect’s Divine Monks. Instead, he quietly went to the hall that led to the Void Broken Realm, deactivated the barrier, slipped in, opened the passage between the two realms, and entered into the Void Broken Realm.

"That Buddha-viewing Pagoda can actually forcibly extract the Merit and Destiny from someone else’s body, which Flower-Fruit Mountain’s Heaven-Piercing Tower does not have. Old Sun would like to go and see it first!"

After entering the Void Broken Realm, Sun Wukong flew towards the center of the Void Broken Realm mentioned by Jiang Liu’er, where the Buddha-viewing Pagoda was located, hidden in the airspace of a circular valley.

The scenery in the Void Broken Realm was rather monotonous, and circular valleys were naturally easy to recognize. It did not take long for Sun Wukong to arrive at the circular valley.

"This is the place!"

"Void-Breaking Starry Eyes!"

Standing in the void, Sun Wukong activated the Void-Breaking Starry Eyes and looked towards the center of the valley. Indeed, he saw an invisible Buddha Seal appearing in the middle of the valley, which must be the one that activated the Buddha-viewing Pagoda.

"The Dharma Decree to activate the Buddha Seal mentioned by Jiang Liu’er...should be like this!"

Threads of Chaos Primordial Force emerged from Sun Wukong’s fingertips, transforming into strands of Buddha Primordial Force. Chaos Primordial Force could assimilate all energies in the world, and equally mimic any form of energy, so simulating Buddha Primordial Force was not a difficult task for Sun Wukong.

Following the method taught by Jiang Liu’er, Sun Wukong outlined a Buddhist Dharma Decree and struck it towards the Buddha Seal at the center of the valley.

Om~!

As soon as the Dharma Decree made contact with the Buddha Seal, the seal immediately emitted a fluctuation that enveloped the entire circular valley. In the next moment, beams of light burst from every mountain peak around the circular range, converging towards the sky above. At the center of convergence, a towering Buddha-viewing Pagoda materialized.

It was indeed the Buddha-viewing Pagoda!

From afar, the body of this Buddha-viewing Pagoda was wrapped in layers of Buddha’s Light, with Buddha Seals engraved upon it. It had nine levels, closely resembling the Heaven-Piercing Tower of Flower-Fruit Mountain. Each level of the pagoda had the virtual image of a Buddha that appeared intermittently. Through his Void-Breaking Starry Eyes, Sun Wukong found that these Buddha images were entirely formed by the condensation of Merit and Destiny!

The most solid among them was the virtual image of Tathagata Buddha on the topmost level of the tower. Compared to other intermittently visible semi-transparent Buddha images, Tathagata Buddha’s image was considerably more solid, continuously shimmering with a soft Buddha’s Light.

Just one layer below Tathagata Buddha’s image were the images of Ran Deng Buddha and Maitreya Buddha, which seemed more ethereal than Tathagata Buddha’s image, but were much more solid than other Buddha images and shadows below them!

"This Buddha-viewing Pagoda really is quite interesting, let Old Sun take a look inside!"

Perhaps the daring of the skilled emboldened him, because after seeing the Buddha-viewing Pagoda manifest, Sun Wukong directly charged into the pagoda’s entrance at the lowest level.

The structure inside the Buddha-viewing Pagoda was similar to the Heaven-Piercing Tower of Flower-Fruit Mountain, also divided into many areas, clearly also a holy site for Buddhist experts to cultivate.

However, what made Sun Wukong feel uneasy was the moment he entered the Buddha-viewing Pagoda, he felt an oppressive sensation and it seemed like a force was trying to pull out the Merit and Destiny that belonged to him from his body.

Sun Wukong, now the Sect Hierarch of the Demon Cult, had a golden statue on the square in front of the Water Curtain Cave Heaven in Flower-Fruit Mountain, specifically for storing the Power of Faith and Merit and Destiny. Of course, he also harbored a considerable amount of Merit and Destiny inside him, although not quite as much as Jiang Liu’er.

The force that tried to seize was indeed his internal Merit and Destiny!

No, it was not just one force pulling, but many. Sun Wukong felt there were at least a dozen forces acting on him. If his physical body had not been so stable and his control so strong, these pulling forces might have succeeded!

"It’s those Buddha Statue Shadows! The pulling forces are coming from those Buddha Statue Shadows!"

After a thorough examination with his Void-Breaking Starry Eyes, Sun Wukong located the source of the pulling forces—it was indeed those Buddha Statue Shadows he had seen from outside the tower!

The Buddha images on this first level weren’t particularly powerful, so naturally, the pulling forces weren’t too strong. The higher up he went, the stronger the corresponding Buddha’s strength represented by the Buddha Statue Shadows and presumably, the stronger the pulling forces as well?

"Let Old Sun first verify this!" freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

With that thought, Sun Wukong couldn’t hold back any longer and directly ascended toward the higher levels of the Buddha-viewing Pagoda.