Chapter 292
Chapter 292
The instant I sprang into the air, the long line behind me gathered its strength, and the little hand at my waist thrust sharply upward.
Their combined effort practically launched me straight into the Golden Dragon’s mouth.
With that final boost, I was completely separated from the group behind me.
After the Three-Eyed Golden Toad failed while trying to Undergo a Tribulation, their mission was complete.
I had planned to lead them in an assault on Xiaoyingkou, but the appearance of the Golden Dragon had changed everything.
The Black Cat and the Great Lama shared the same origin. When the Great Lama created the Retrospection Illusion Mirror to confuse me, the Black Cat had been able to warn me. That alone was enough to prove it did not fear the Great Lama.
There had to be a reason it was meowing to warn me now.
I chose to trust it.
I couldn’t bring the Mouse Immortal juniors behind me inside. Once I broke the Golden Dragon Formation, Hui Moqiong would lead them into Xiaoyingkou to finish things off.
The instant I fell into the Golden Dragon’s mouth, its jaws snapped shut.
The Golden Dragon had been made by stacking one Golden Copper Coin after another. I had assumed it possessed only an outward form and no real substance.
Yet once I entered its mouth, the first thing I saw was living flesh and blood.
Everything was far too real. I could even see pulses constantly throbbing within the flesh.
For a moment, I was once again seized by the feeling that I could no longer distinguish reality from illusion.
Just then, another meow from the Black Cat sounded up ahead.
I steadied myself, cast aside my hesitation, and strode resolutely forward.
The sensation beneath my feet was disturbingly real. Every step felt as though I were treading on actual flesh. Worse still, as I advanced, the Golden Dragon’s body kept contracting around me.
The flesh continued closing in, making every step forward more difficult.
As far as I could see, the path ahead seemed endless.
I could see neither its end nor the Black Cat.
I stopped. Continuing blindly like this wasn’t going to work. Soon, the path of flesh ahead would be squeezed shut, leaving me with nowhere to go.
After a moment’s thought, I reached for the Golden Copper Coin hanging around my neck beside my jade pendant.
I tore the Golden Copper Coin free and flicked it lightly with my finger.
The Golden Copper Coin rang out with a crisp chime that echoed endlessly through the Golden Dragon’s body.
At the same time, the surrounding Golden Copper Coin began to vibrate in unison.
With a sharp swing of my arm, I hurled the Golden Copper Coin forward with all my strength.
Wherever the Golden Copper Coin passed, the flesh parted on its own. I immediately raced after it.
The vibration of the Copper Coin never stopped. I ran forward with everything I had, terrified that the moment it fell, the flesh would close in again.
To my surprise, the Golden Copper Coin never fell. I felt as though I were racing through a sealed tunnel.
I had no idea how long I had been running when another meow suddenly came from ahead. The Golden Copper Coin rebounded as though it had struck the end of the passage and flew back into my hand.
I jerked my head up and saw the Black Cat sitting upright before me. Its head was tilted slightly upward, its gaze fixed on something ahead.
Before it was… an enormous, beating heart.
The massive heart was wrapped in layer after layer of Golden Copper Coin. Every time it beat, living flesh squeezed out through the holes in the surrounding Copper Coin, creating an indescribably suffocating sight.
And seated cross-legged in the very center of that massive heart was Liu Junyan.
His head hung low and his eyes were tightly shut. Countless scripture glyphs streamed back and forth across his body.
His face was deathly pale, and his chest did not rise or fall. A faint aura of death seeped from his entire being, radiating from the inside out.
That aura of death meant his Spirit Soul and vital essence had been utterly depleted. He was on the verge of being unable to hold on any longer, perilously close to having his soul completely dispersed.
I snapped awake.
What “Golden Dragon”?
What flesh-and-blood body?
This was the “Evil Monk” illusion Liu Junyan had personally created for the Great Lama.
A cage meant to trap the Great Lama.
It was hell!
But Liu Junyan had paid an enormous price to create it.
The Great Lama had used Retrospection to confuse me, and what it revealed went far beyond three lifetimes.
Besides everything involving Liu Junyan, me, and Feng Linu, I had also seen Chan Master Dahui Liu Xingyi, the Copper-Coin Figure, and Ah Wu.
I had never understood why Chan Master Dahui’s seated remains had been left inside the tower in Mount Song Gorge, while a Copper-Coin Figure still existed in the West Room of the Pawnshop.
Were they separate entities, or had they always been one and the same?
Retrospection had unexpectedly given me a definitive answer — Chan Master Dahui and the Copper-Coin Figure were one, but existed in different forms.
Chan Master Dahui had urged Ah Wu to return to Cangwu Mountain.
The Copper-Coin Figure, however, wanted to achieve Ascension with Ah Wu.
If Chan Master Dahui embodied Buddhist selflessness and freedom from all wants and desires, then could the Copper-Coin Figure be his other side — a manifestation of Chan Master Dahui’s desires?
That was why they called the Copper-Coin Figure the Evil Monk.
If the Copper-Coin Figure truly was a manifestation of desire, then it had no physical substance to begin with. That was why it needed to encase itself in Golden Copper Coin and forge itself a golden body.
At that realization, everything seemed to fall into place.
Clearly, Liu Junyan had realized this as well. That was why he had taken such a desperate risk and transformed himself into the “Evil Monk.”
To transform into the “Evil Monk” was to amplify one’s desires to their absolute limit, forge those desires a suit of armor with Golden Copper Coin, and simultaneously seal away and imprison one’s physical body.
Only then would one become a more suitable — and much easier — target for Body Possession!
This was Liu Junyan’s second trump card, as well as the key to drawing out the Great Lama.
I raised my head and looked around. This enormous “Golden Dragon” body was the manifestation of Liu Junyan’s desires. The Great Lama had taken it over through Body Possession, while Liu Junyan’s physical body was imprisoned in the deepest recesses of its heart.
Once those desires became powerful enough, wouldn’t his physical body eventually be erased completely?
To save Liu Junyan, I couldn’t simply use brute force to shatter the many-layered Copper Coin shell encasing the heart. Doing so would inflict a devastating backlash on Liu Junyan and spell his death.
Otherwise, the Black Cat wouldn’t have needed to lead me in here. It could have done that itself.
What, then, was Liu Junyan’s desire?
Was it to gather all seven pieces of Golden Scale, reclaim his Lifebound Artifact, and rescue his mother?
Or was it “Lingshui Tangtang, Cangwu Zheliu”-to win back Feng Linu?
Or, as Abbot Kongji had said, was Liu Junyan’s ultimate destiny still to return to the Great Dharma King Temple and embark on a Worldly Pilgrimage for the sake of the Dharma and all living beings?
…
No.
Before we parted, he had told me with absolute certainty that the time had not yet come.
This Calamity was not the one Abbot Kongji had spoken of.
In that case, Liu Junyan’s desire had nothing to do with the Buddhist Order.
The moment I handed Liu Junyan the Willow-Twig Bracelet I had brought back from Cangwu Mountain, Feng Linu had truly become a thing of the past.
As for gathering the Golden Scale, reclaiming his Lifebound Artifact, and rescuing his mother, those were things we had been working toward all along. They had never been Liu Junyan’s obsession.
Otherwise, when I brought that little box back from the Linghai Forbidden Zone and handed it to Liu Junyan, he would have opened it immediately.
So none of those things were what he desired now.
His desire…
I raised my hand and stared at the Golden Copper Coin in my palm.
Through the hole in the Golden Copper Coin, I saw the final answer.
And long ago, Liu Junyan had already placed that answer into my hand himself…