Meng Qi sat upright in the Jade Pure Hall, his eyes reflecting the myriad immortals paying homage to the Biyou Palace, where teachings were imparted without discrimination. The palace was filled with countless figures and a clamor of auras, yet the Celestial Venerable Lingbao was conspicuously absent, leaving only faint traces behind, with the echoes of the Great Dao resonating endlessly.
When he first encountered the Celestial Venerable Lingbao, His imprint did not vanish or get replaced, indicating that Meng Qi was not a product of His “reduction to emptiness” and had no direct connection to Him. In contrast, whenever Meng Qi came into contact with the residual imprint of the Celestial Venerable Yuanshi, illusions and natural replacements occurred immediately, perfectly aligning with his inheritance of Yuanshi’s title, becoming the “Cause of All Effects” in the current era, and confirming his status as a product of Yuanshi’s “reduction to emptiness.”
However, after Meng Qi replaced Yuanshi’s imprint, the imprint of the Celestial Venerable Lingbao from the same historical period vanished as well. Combining this with previous deductions, the answer seemed almost obvious!
Since Meng Qi was not directly a product of Lingbao’s “reduction to emptiness,” the disappearance of Lingbao’s imprint was clearly due to Yuanshi, suggesting some bizarre connection between the two!
Of course, this did not mean Yuanshi had merged or assimilated Lingbao, for if they had truly become one, their essences would have been identical, leaving only a singular existence. If Meng Qi had encountered Lingbao first, it would have similarly led to the disappearance and replacement of His imprint.
At this moment, all the related knowledge Meng Qi had acquired in the past flowed through his mind:
During the fall of the Heavenly Court, Yuanshi faced the World Tree and lamented, “The Dao Fruit cannot be attained through external means.”
After their disappearances became enigmatic, Yuanshi and Lingbao engaged in a fierce battle in the Qingwei Heaven. If this was not a fabrication by the Golden Emperor, it suggested they were still contesting something.
Yuanshi, Lingbao, and Daode were all born as Nirvana beings, emerging simultaneously—first the Three Pure Ones, then the heavens.
They respectively represented the transition from nothingness to existence, the foundation of existence, and the return from existence to nothingness. Together, they encompassed all without omission, neither increasing nor decreasing.
Yuanshi extracted the timeline of the Investiture of the Gods to conceal Lingbao’s whereabouts, while Daode carved out the Journey to the West to obscure Yuanshi’s traces…
Did this not indicate that the “Dao” had manifested as the Three Pure Ones, with each representing one facet of the “Dao”? Only by mutually affirming one another could they attain the Dao Fruit, the complete “Dao.” Thus, even if they strove in the later stages to embody the “Dao” symbolized by the others and achieved a flawless nascent Dao Fruit, the mutual influence among them would make it nearly impossible to take the final step. As the Three Pure Ones were one, they had to transcend together.
Recognizing this, Yuanshi declared, “The Dao Fruit cannot be attained through external means,” and secretly clashed with Lingbao to vie for dominance in the subsequent era, settling past karmic debts like the Investiture of the Gods. Before witnessing the fruit of the World Tree, the Three Pure Ones pursued their own paths, sometimes allies and sometimes enemies due to their contention over the Great Dao, accumulating grievances that led to the emergence of other Nirvana beings.
Following this reasoning, the appearance of the Biyou Palace atop Mount Kunlun and other events could be perfectly explained.
Similarly, concealing the whereabouts of Yuanshi and Lingbao was actually to hide their current states, preventing other Nirvana beings from targeting or sabotaging them prematurely.
By the time Meng Qi broke free from the Sea of Bitterness and ascended to Nirvana, it would be too late for the others to intervene—they would have to seek other means to stop him!
“No wonder there was a sense that the Celestial Venerable Lingbao had altered His state, existing in the world in some strange manner…” Meng Qi sighed inwardly as he gazed at the Biyou Palace.
At this moment, profound gazes from the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss, the Bodhi Wisdom Pure Land, the Demon Emperor’s Palace, the newly born Nine Nethers, the Vacuous Hometown, the Reborn Immortal Realm, and the Fusang Ancient Tree Realm all turned toward the now “empty” Biyou Palace.
At this stage, they, too, could roughly discern the situation.
Through the Biyou Palace and the swirling immortal mists, Meng Qi looked toward the radiant full moon casting its pure light, his gaze meeting the lofty and indifferent eyes of the Golden Emperor. There was no ripple of emotion—only icy calm.
The Golden Emperor must have known this all along. Her recent consecutive setbacks and continuous weakening were all part of her script, and she surely had corresponding countermeasures…
This realization flashed clearly in Meng Qi’s mind, deepening his understanding of their past confrontations.
If the Golden Emperor had not provoked him into delivering the self-destructive slash, his mastery of the Infinite Seal and the Primordial Beginning Seal would have allowed him to attain the nascent Dao Fruit in the shortest time, ascending to the ranks of the Ancients. He would have perfected the Great Divine Ability of “Three Purities in One Breath,” achieving the weak Nirvana state without assimilating the Medicine King Buddha or the Golden Body of the Sacred Buddha. This would have enabled the trinity of Yuanshi, Lingbao, and Daode to transcend, leaving her with no hope of attaining the Dao Fruit in this epoch.
That slash was indeed the one she had been anticipating since her schemes involving Little Sang began!
Withdrawing his gaze, Meng Qi turned his attention to the Tushita Palace beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, as if he could see the robed elder meditating with closed eyes.
“The Celestial Venerable Daode is the foundation of existence. Unlike Yuanshi and Lingbao, He cannot withdraw from the world and exist in an anomalous state. He must wait until the end of the epoch, when heaven and earth cease to be, before departing freely and transcending alongside Them. Thus, before that, He must perfect His ‘reduction to emptiness,’ enabling me to become an Ancient…”
“At this point, this scheme can no longer be concealed. What countermeasures do the Three Celestial Venerables have left?”
It was easy to imagine that every step of his future progress would face frenzied opposition from Amitabha, the Ancient Bodhi, the Mother of No Birth, the Heavenly Emperor, the Devil Buddha, and even the Demon Emperor.
Fortunately, that self-destructive slash had slowed his progress, making significant advancements difficult without great opportunities—otherwise, he would already be the target of all!
Had the Golden Emperor planned something similar or prepared countermeasures for when he gained another opportunity, on the verge of manifesting a third weak Nirvana avatar and attaining the nascent Dao Fruit? Would she suddenly expose the secrets of the Three Pure Ones, rallying the other Nirvana beings to besiege him as they had the Heavenly Emperor? In that case, even if Little Sang ascended to Nirvana, she would be isolated and helpless, constrained by the other Ancients, unable to pose the slightest threat to the Golden Emperor.
Truly, one scheme interlocked with another, leaving no room for error…
Revealing this matter prematurely was not entirely bad…
The intricacies of the situation were vividly clear in Meng Qi’s mind, and he grew increasingly eager to uncover the Golden Emperor’s countermeasures tied to the secrets of the Three Pure Ones. In this regard, she was a more formidable adversary than the Devil Buddha.
To uncover this, however, he first needed to unravel the secrets of the Three Pure Ones and reintegrate the Investiture of the Gods and the Journey to the West into the real world.
Achieving this would require rewinding time to before the creation of heaven and earth—a feat only possible for the most ancient beings. In the current era, only the Celestial Venerable Daode and Amitabha possessed such power!
Only They could open the source of time at the moment of creation.
In this matter, the other Nirvana beings could not even assist, as they could not reach back to the time before creation. In other words, while they might block Daode after creation, they could not influence Him before it.
The advantage of superior realms among Nirvana beings manifested in such ways!
In normal combat, the differences in realm among Nirvana beings were often less apparent, as rewinding time to erase the past was hindered by the epoch’s end and restart, making it less effective against fellow Nirvana beings—unless one was willing to perish together and forgo creation. Similarly, with so many means to compensate for combat power—like Meng Qi himself, who, despite not having a nascent Dao Fruit, could overpower the Golden Emperor, an Ancient who had lost the Numinous Treasures Sword Formation, with his two weak Nirvana avatars—the slightest gap in realm became insurmountable in matters like this. No amount of effort could bridge it.
“Amitabha surely wishes to reintegrate the Investiture of the Gods and the Journey to the West to uncover all secrets, but would the Celestial Venerable Daode agree?” Meng Qi could only shake his head with a faint smile. In a flash, his figure descended before the gates of the Tushita Palace.
Some things were better asked directly!
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