Jia Zhuangyuan asked, “How much food and water does everyone still have?” Those who had remaining supplies took them out. Looking at the pitifully small amounts of food and water in each person’s hands, everyone lowered their heads, silent and speechless.
Suddenly, Liu Dashao opened his eyes wide and shouted, “I have a feeling—we will survive and get out of this place, and we’ll uncover all these mysteries!”
Everyone immediately turned their eyes toward Liu Dashao. Their expressions suddenly became animated, even excited beyond control.
Jia Zhuangyuan urged urgently, “Quickly, tell us what you’ve sensed!”
Liu Dashao smiled and hurriedly explained, “Everyone, think about this: first, after the golden orb—the Fenghuang Core—was taken by the Fenghuang from the white box, the palace shook violently. Why did this happen? It must have been because the Fenghuang Core left the white box.”
Jia Zhuangyuan blinked his small eyes and asked, “So what?”
Liu Dashao continued, “Second, why did this palace suddenly shut itself? I believe it was deliberately designed by its creator. The timing, the events, perhaps even our very presence here, the appearance of the Fenghuang, and the removal of the Fenghuang Core—all these might have triggered the palace’s closure.”
Everyone nodded, staring eagerly at Liu Dashao, who continued, “Third, the moment the palace doors shut, the shaking stopped immediately. Soon after, I felt my entire body suddenly pulled backward and downward by some force. I believe this hall we’re in now… how should I put it… must be moving, or perhaps being manipulated by some force.”
Everyone stared at Liu Dashao in disbelief, feeling the situation was incredible.
Unfazed by their skeptical glances, Liu Dashao continued to share his insights: “Fourth, if the doors were sealed to trap us here forever, why would the designer allow the white box to show us those images earlier? This suggests the designer wants us to understand certain information.” Pausing, he smiled and added, “From what I’ve just said, I have a strong feeling that this palace has been silently moving and will open again at a specific time and space. Perhaps at that moment, we’ll finally uncover all the mysteries.”
Just as Liu Dashao finished speaking, suddenly he felt his body being pulled backward again by a powerful force, and a strong sensation of falling surged through him.
“Heavens! I feel it too—it’s a falling sensation!” Jia Zhuangyuan shouted.
At that moment, Liu Dashao saw the same shocked expression on everyone’s face. He knew they had all felt it. About ten seconds after the sensation began, a slight vibration came from the floor of the hall, and the falling sensation abruptly vanished. A sudden wave of nervousness surged through him—he guessed they had arrived at their destination.
Sure enough, Fant Debao pointed at the entrance of the hall, his face a mix of ecstatic disbelief as he stammered, “The door… the door is open… it’s really open!” Everyone immediately stood up, gazing at the exit revealed by the opened door, their faces glowing with immense joy. Naturally, each person’s heart was filled with countless indescribable emotions.
The door had finally opened. From where the group stood, a gentle beam of white light poured in. Liu Dashao silently gazed at the soft white glow, suddenly feeling a deep sense of peace. He felt as though a familiar and kind voice was calling him from beyond the door, compelling him to step forward instinctively.
Seeing Liu Dashao walking toward the exit without hesitation, everyone followed him toward the unknown space beyond.
They filed out of the Wujie Daozang and immediately found themselves inside a not-very-large space station. Although it was large enough to contain the Wujie Daozang, Liu Dashao quickly scanned the station and could see its entire structure at a glance.
He noticed smooth steel panels joined together like something from a movie, with various pipes and cables of different lengths and shapes on the ceiling, some occasionally flashing with strange lights.
Observing the surroundings, Liu Dashao was certain this place did not belong to Earth. But there was something else in the station that surprised everyone even more: on a control panel stood a rectangular device resembling some kind of instrument. It had a black casing and a white glowing screen on its front, which bathed the entire chamber in soft white light. Below the screen were several raised buttons. The whole thing looked exactly like a large television set.
Seeing the device, everyone was astonished. Fant Debao even exclaimed with wide eyes, “Goodness, who put a television here?”
No one responded to Fant Debao’s remark. Instead, they slowly approached the stone platform where the strange device rested. Liu Dashao was the first to speak: “What do you think this is?”
Jia Zhuangyuan suggested, “Could it be an instrument used by aliens, like the one in the first image inside the Wujie Daozang, the person wearing the shiny silver suit?”
Liu Dashao replied, “I think you’re right. It must be some kind of instrument, perhaps even one used by that person. But now, it’s probably meant for us—or for whoever arrives here in a spacecraft.”
“A spacecraft?” Jia Zhuangyuan looked at Liu Dashao in surprise.
Liu Dashao smiled and said, “Yes, a spacecraft.”
He turned and pointed at the Wujie Daozang he had just exited: “That Wujie Daozang is the spacecraft that brought us to this space.”
Everyone suddenly understood. Jia Zhuangyuan shook his head with a bitter smile: “Incredible.”
Liu Dashao nodded and said, “Indeed. Humanity has always been exploring unknown spaces and life forms beyond Earth. We should believe that beyond Earth, there exist more wondrous, more advanced, and more incredible worlds and life forms.”
After a moment of reflection, everyone turned back to the strange television-like device on the circular stone platform. Fant Debao looked at Liu Dashao and asked, “Dashao, your thoughts always seem more accurate than ours. What do you think this device is, and what might it bring us?”
Liu Dashao pointed at the buttons below the white screen and said, “I think the key lies in these buttons. My strongest guess is that this device, like the white box inside the Wujie Daozang, might display some images to tell us something.”
Fant Debao added, “Right, this thing looks like a TV. It must show us some images to reveal secrets.”
Everyone nodded, agreeing this was the most plausible guess.
Cai Qingchong then raised another question: “But there are four buttons here—one white, one green, one silver-gray, and one red. What does that mean? Which one plays the images? What about the other three? And what if we press the wrong one?”
Everyone fell silent again. Indeed, what was the significance of the four buttons? No one dared to say what might happen if they pressed the wrong one.
For a moment, Liu Dashao’s mind became confused. Four buttons? What could they mean? Could his guess be wrong—that this wasn’t a playback machine but something else entirely?
Suddenly, he seemed to hear a faint, familiar voice speaking to him, but it was so soft that he could barely make out the words. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to clear his mind and listen carefully. This time, he faintly heard the voice repeating: “Left one, right one, left two, right two, the truth, rebirth…” Liu Dashao suddenly opened his eyes wide. He suddenly realized—the voice sounded exactly like Zhang Enpu’s.
Liu Dashao silently repeated the twelve words in his mind, then whispered inwardly, “Master, thank you!”
He took a deep breath, looked at the worried faces around him, and slowly extended his left hand to press the first button on the left—the white one.
Everyone stared in shock as Liu Dashao silently pressed the white button, unsure why he had suddenly done so.
Liu Dashao gave a slight smile and pointed at the strange device, saying, “Believe me! Watch the machine—we’re about to uncover all the mysteries.”
As he spoke, everyone quickly turned their eyes back to the device. Sure enough, after a few flickers, the white screen displayed a clear image. Strangely, the first image was exactly the same as the first image they had seen inside the Bai Box at the Sanyuan Transmission Hall. Everyone exchanged puzzled glances—how could this be?
At that moment, a voice came from the screen: “I don’t know who you are, but I know that one day, humans on Earth would discover the secret of the Wujie Daozang. By coming here, you will learn everything through this message machine. You must have seen those images in the spacecraft. I am the person in the first image—the one known in China as Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism you speak of. I come from a distant world. I accidentally passed by your Earth and found it plagued by disasters and death, yet lacking the civilization and faith to cope. So, I stayed temporarily on this beautiful planet with one of my servants, spreading the seeds of faith into human minds, giving them self-respect, self-love, strength, and the courage to live. Over time, this gave rise to what you now know as Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and so on.”
“In this world, I also met many beings from other worlds—some good, some evil. The good ones, like me, aimed to help this backward planet develop civilization, while the evil ones stirred up conflicts among humans, with malicious intentions of seizing this beautiful planet. Their schemes eventually caused great disasters—fire and flood. So, I and many good friends from other worlds helped some human tribes enter the time-space station we built on Earth, preserving the last life forms of this planet.”
“I don’t know how the other tribes survived, left the station, and repopulated Earth. I only know that the tribe I preserved perished due to my negligence.”
“After bringing this Earth tribe to the time-space station, I had to return to my world due to sudden events, leaving my servant to care for them. Unfortunately, my servant developed ambitions during my absence, inciting the tribe to return to Earth and establish the Yellow Turban Army. During this time, my servant used the Fenghuang Core I left behind to repeatedly resurrect the Yellow Turbans, turning a small tribe into a powerful force capable of challenging the mighty Han Dynasty.”
“My servant was originally a fellow ascetic from my world, but he fell for a human woman’s desires and came to Earth, helping her become the so-called Great Sage Zhang Jiao. But he didn’t know that the Fenghuang Core wasn’t what he imagined—it couldn’t grant endless resurrection or immortality. Instead, it brought only endless disasters. Once a person was revived by the Fenghuang Core after death, they ceased to be human. Though retaining human instincts and intelligence, their personality became a combination of cruelty, greed, selfishness, lust, and other vices. These beings brought endless wars, killings, and disasters to Earth, and their reproduction would eventually destroy this beautiful planet.”
“When I finished dealing with matters in my world and returned to the Earth time-space station, I learned that all this was caused by my servant. I decided to rectify it. Zhang Lu, my other servant, transformed into the leader who crushed the Yellow Turban Rebellion. I used him to defeat the undead soldiers revived by the Fenghuang Core and dealt with them properly. But my servant had already taken Zhang Jiao’s body to the Golden Ancient City, trying to revive her with the Fenghuang Core. However, the Core’s power failed, turning Zhang Jiao into a living corpse with no consciousness. When I arrived at the Golden Ancient City, my servant ambushed me. In the end, I used my last remaining cultivation power to destroy him along with myself. My only regret was failing to restore the ‘Ninety-Nine Heavens’ to its original purity, causing you to encounter countless evils.”
“After my body was destroyed in the mutual destruction with my evil servant, my essence remained. I ordered my other servant, Zhang Lu, to seal the Fenghuang Core inside the Wujie Daozang at the time-space station where I had cultivated—it was the only place my evil servant dared not corrupt. However, I didn’t expect my evil servant’s essence to also survive. Though he could no longer take human form, he transformed into an evil dragon with the help of an evil being from another world, attempting to reclaim the Fenghuang Core. Fortunately, my loyal servant Zhang Lu, with the help of the Fenghuang I left behind, sealed him in the Baolan Lake.”
“What happened afterward is what you experienced. The Fenghuang I left behind must have defeated the evil dragon, which had lost its cultivation power after a thousand years of sealing, and protected the Fenghuang Core. That’s why you were able to come here and hear this message left by my essence.”
“In this message machine, one of the three buttons will lead you into the Immortal Realm. There, you will face life-and-death trials and may even enter our world as cultivators. Another button will take you back to your world. The last one will destroy the entire ‘Ninety-Nine Heavens’ time-space station. No matter whether you choose to enter the Realm of Life and Death or return to your world, you must first locate the button that destroys the Ninety-Nine Heavens. First, destroy the time-space station corrupted by my evil servant into an evil place.”
“Lastly, I must clarify: you must choose whether to enter the ‘Ninety-Nine Heavens’ to attain immortality and become beings from beyond—what your Taoist predecessors dreamed of as ascension to the heavens—or return to your world as Earthlings. Think carefully. There are only three buttons left—choose wisely!”
At this point, the device the voice called the “message machine” flickered, and the screen returned to blank silence.
Everyone remained stunned for a long time, staring at the now-silent machine, unsure of what to say.
The mystery had indeed finally been unraveled, though Zhang Daoling hadn’t explained every detail. Liu Dashao thought perhaps some things didn’t need to be completely clear. Perhaps it was better to leave some stories to be discovered later.
Now, as everyone slowly regained their composure, they stared at the remaining three buttons, unsure of what to do next. Slowly, their eyes turned back to Liu Dashao once again.
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