The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 276 A Secret

Not surprisingly, Li Ye saw Wu You. Her Yin Spirit was floating quietly in the air. It made her look mysterious and beautiful in the overflowing glow. She also found him and looked at him. Her obsidian-like eyes were full of surprise and undisguised joy.

Li Ye’s heart moved, as if he had been hit fiercely by a needle. At that moment, he suddenly felt extremely lucky that Wu You was still here.

Li Ye smiled at Wu You, as usual. Time seemed to go back to a long time ago. When he woke up under the big locust tree in the afternoon, he gave a soft, ordinary smile to the little girl who stood by to keep mosquitoes away from him, which meant that you were still here.

The little girl would smile as well and the sun would get drunk on her dimples, like saying that I had always been here.

After smiling, Li Ye turned to the monkey on the bluestone and bowed deeply to him. They came to his territory without being invited, so they should take the initiative to salute. Li Ye was grateful to him for saving Wu You.

The monkey was still sitting on the bluestone. He turned around and looked Li Ye up and down. Seeing Li Ye bowing deeply to him, the monkey didn’t say anything but glanced at the Son of God meaningfully. When the Son of God met the monkey’s gaze, he trembled all over. It was definitely not a look of encouragement or appreciation for what he had done.

The Son of God smiled bitterly, but he didn’t say anything, because he couldn’t say more at this moment.

Under this delicate atmosphere, Su Emei stepped out to the monkey and gave him a bunch of bananas. She smiled and said, “I don’t know if your taste has changed since we haven’t seen for many years.”

The monkey readily took the bananas, broke one apart, and stuffed it into his mouth, as if he was not surprised at Su Emei’s actions. He said while eating the banana, “I didn’t expect that Guanghan Fairy would be the first old friend I met after so many years.”

Su Emei squatted beside the monkey and recalled, “Great Sage, you are no longer shining after so many years. From the awesome God of War, you now become a lonely and sad mountain man.”

After finishing one banana, the monkey peeled another. He sneered. “I have never been awesome, so I don’t feel lonely and sad on the mountain.”

When the monkey and Su Emei began to talk about the past, Li Ye didn’t know what he should do for a while. The monkey had great prestige. Even though he was in the trap of others all his lifetime and every step he took was designed by others, his strength should not be underestimated.

Whether or not he had reached the Pre-sage Realm, at least, Li Ye could only look up to him at this moment.

Moreover, after all, the monkey was still a demon. Now, Wu You was in the monkey’s territory, so Li Ye had to be careful.

After the monkey and Su Emei chatted for a while, he beckoned Li Ye and the Son of God over.

In the end, the monkey, Li Ye, Su Emei, and the Son of God sat opposite each other, each of them occupying a direction. The nine-tail Demon Fox was embarrassed because she was the only one who didn’t have a seat. But she wasn’t angry and her expression didn’t change. She felt free to sit behind the Son of God, looking as though she didn’t want a seat but just wanted to listen by the side.

The monkey glanced at Li Ye and suddenly said, “I have a story. Do you want to listen to it?”

Since he was a guest, Li Ye naturally had no reason to refuse.

The monkey began to tell the story slowly in a calm tone and his expression didn’t change, like telling a wild story, but everyone looked solemn as they listened to it.

“A long time ago, Buddhism rose in Tianzhu and spread widely. With many followers, the Buddhas gained great power and successively annexed many God’s territories. After they developed and grew, he targeted Shenzhou, this amazing earthly paradise. He wanted Buddhism to enter Shenzhou from the east and took control of it. If Buddhism could occupy Shenzhou, it might become the most powerful in heaven and earth. However, Shenzhou was always the territory of the Taoist sect, and the Taoist sect Immortal Court was very powerful, so Buddhism didn’t dare to start a war casually.”

“At that time, they needed a person, who was from Shenzhou, to mess up the relationship between the Immortal Court and the Taoist sect. Just at that time, a monkey was born and he was looking for an immortal to be his master. He wanted to practice the method of immortality, but he couldn’t find the way—of course, he couldn’t find the way because he was a demon, and it was impossible for the Taoist sect to pass their methods to a demon. At that time, it was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and all schools of thoughts contended for attention in the human world, which brought a lot of trouble to the Taoist sect and the Immortal Court. Buddhism thought the monkey was very talented, so it seized the opportunity to lead the monkey to Fangcun Mountain in Lingtai by Master Bodhi personally. Master Bodhi let the monkey enter the door of cultivation and taught him all his skills.”

“The monkey learned well and became Master Bodhi’s proudest disciple. He did his best to serve his master, but he was expelled because of a small mistake. Before he left, his master also specifically warned him that if he made trouble in the future, he couldn’t tell anyone that he was his disciple.”

“The monkey had excellent skills, but he was slighted by the Immortal Court because he was a demon. Moreover, he was stubborn and obstreperous, so he had a conflict with the Immortal Court after a period of time. In the end, he caused great chaos in the Immortal Court and disturbed the order of heaven and earth. It was the time when the first emperor of Qin unified the six states of Shandong. The first emperor of Qin didn’t cultivate Taoist methods and the Qin Empire didn’t believe in the Taoist sect either. The Taoist sect suffered a major blow for the first time since it took charge of the Immortal Court so that its luck was greatly reduced, and it could hardly maintain its orthodoxy. The first emperor of Qin disturbed the human world, while the monkey disturbed the Immortal Court, responding to each other, which almost caused the Immortal Court in great chaos. At that time, the Buddhas of Buddhism came forward and suppressed the monkey. Therefore, Buddhism forged a good relationship with the Immortal Court and was allowed to spread to the east in the human world. Besides, they agreed that the monk could go to the west for Buddhist scriptures.”

“Afterward, the Immortal Court was refreshed. It made the treacherous officials steal the high positions through its great magical power, and then it confused Li Si’s consciousness and made him support Hu Hai, the second emperor of Qin, to eliminate Childe Fu Su with Zhao Gao together. The misconduct of the emperor made ordinary people suffer and angry. When countless reincarnated immortals grew up in succession, it supported the feudal prince to rebel and eliminate the Qin Empire that didn’t respect Taoism. Finally, it supported Emperor Gaozu of Han who believed in the theory of Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi, which was also known as Taoism. The orthodox status of the Taoist sect was reestablished.”

“After the Immortal Court calmed down, it realized that Buddhism played tricks in the monkey’s disturbing the Immortal Court, so it didn’t want the monk to succeed in going to the west for Buddhist scriptures and the doctrine of Buddhism to spread widely in Shenzhou. It arranged General Juanlian to the river of sand.”

“Buddhism arranged Jinchanzi to reincarnate and asked him to go to the west for Buddhist scriptures. The monk had been reincarnated for nine lifetimes and gone to the west for nine times, but he had never crossed the river of sand all the time because he was eaten by General Juanlian. Juanlian made a necklace of the monk’s nine heads and wore it round his neck. It made Buddhism furious. When the monk was reincarnated into his tenth life, Buddhism arranged the monkey to protect the monk on his journey to the west.”

“The monkey had been suppressed for five hundred years. When he was hungry, he was forced to drink molten iron and copper. He suffered a lot and his cultivation declined greatly as well, so he hated the Immortal Court very much. When the monk passed Five Finger Mountain, he saved the monkey. Without hesitation, the monkey decided to escort the monk to the west. At that time, the Immortal Court finally realized that Buddhism had saved this trick in advance, so it was resentful.”

“The Immortal Emperor was furious. He first sent Marshal Tianpeng to descend to the human world and find a chance to follow the monk. He asked Marshal Tianpeng to hinder the monk and yell to divide luggage to go home from time to time; then, he arranged the cultivators, like the young servants and the riding beasts of the immortals, to dress up as demons and stand in the way of the monk’s journey to the west. They casually found an excuse that they could live forever by eating the monk’s meat and started to make trouble for the monk.”

“The monkey didn’t take those cultivators seriously before, but he couldn’t defeat them now because he had been suppressed for five hundred years in Five Finger Mountain so that his cultivation declined. Moreover, they all took the unique Magic Treasures from senior immortals, so the monkey naturally couldn’t defeat them. However, the monkey wasn’t stupid. After he found out where they came from, he asked the Immortal Court for help on purpose to embarrass the Immortal Court. When the Immortal Court ignored him, he turned to ask Bodhisattvas of Buddhism for help. With the help of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas of Buddhism along the way, the monkey finally escorted the monk to his destination and retrieved the scriptures so that the doctrine of Buddhism could be widely spread in Shenzhou.”

“Buddhism gave the monkey a little benefit and also gave him the title of Fighting Buddha. Not only did he get back his cultivation which was influenced previously, but his cultivation also improved.”

At this point, the monkey finally stopped. Looking at Li Ye, he said, “That’s the end of the story. What do you want to say?”

Li Ye didn’t know what to say.

The story was similar to what he had known before. When the monkey was targeted by Buddhism and began to cultivate on the sea, he stepped on the road arranged by Buddhism. When he retrieved the scriptures, Buddhism just gave him a title casually and didn’t intend to let him stay in the Buddha realm permanently. That monk made a full achievement. He was reincarnated from Jinchanzi, so he surely returned to the Buddha realm.

The whole story was all about the struggle of forces between Buddhism and the Taoist sect, while the monkey was just a tool. Taking advantage of the general trend of the human world in Shenzhou, Buddhism let the monkey cause great chaos in the Immortal Court when the first emperor of Qin unified the six states of Shandong and the foundation of the Immortal Court wasn’t stable. Buddhism did have sharp eyes and a careful plan. However, it was not surprising that both Buddhism and the Taoist sect had the ability to predict the future.

The monkey was pitiful. He was a demon, so the Immortal Court didn’t like him. Since he caused great chaos in the Immortal Court that year, he offended the immortals. Later, he helped Buddhism to retrieve scriptures. It was lucky that the Immortal Court didn’t kill him, so the Immortal Court, of course, couldn’t allow him to go to the Immortal Court.

And the Buddha realm of Buddhism was using the monkey from the very beginning and didn’t take him seriously at all. In the final analysis, the monkey was an eastern demon not a western monk from birth, so Buddhism wouldn’t allow him, the outsider, to enter the Buddha realm—maybe, Buddhism would. However, the monkey had been used and schemed by Buddhism for a thousand years. Finally, he took advantage of Buddhism to disgust the Immortal Court. How could he be willing to be a flunky of Buddhism?

Li Ye secretly sighed that the monkey was indeed pitiful. That year, he followed Master Bodhi to cultivate. With his outstanding talent, he became Master Bodhi’s disciple who had the highest cultivation in a short time. Any normal Immortal sect should cherish such a treasure. But he was expelled because of a small mistake.

More importantly, before he left, he was warned that if he made trouble in the future, he couldn’t mention his master’s name or come back, otherwise, he would be killed—the monkey didn’t suspect this abnormal action because he was simple and kind and didn’t experience anything sinister at that time.

In fact, after the monkey left, the Bodhi who had finished the task also left...

It was no wonder that the monkey was lonely and sad now. Everyone would be lonely and sad if he experienced all these things.

Li Ye answered the monkey, “Great Sage, you’re Nvwa’s descendant. Since you were born in heaven and earth, you are not to be used.”

The monkey was a little stunned as he heard Li Ye answer him straightforward with no sympathy or resentment.

Su Emei also said, “Nvwa was a saint, and she was very powerful, so it was impossible for her to refine one extra sky stone with no reason. You were born of the sky stone, so you have to repair the sky!”

“Repair the sky...” The Son of God mulled over these words, deep in thought. He suddenly thought of something, he was shocked, and his expression changed greatly. Then, he stood stunned, with joy full of his eyes. He patted his thigh and said, “Great Sage, you are destined to repair the sky!”

The monkey glanced at the Son of God lightly with an expressionless face, as if he wasn’t interested in his destiny of repairing the sky. He looked at Li Ye and asked, “Do you know that you were Childe Fu Su in your last life?”

Li Ye was stunned.

Of course, he didn’t know. It was impossible for him to know that.

He came here because of transmigration. Before his transmigration, he was an ordinary child. Later, he was very lucky to become one of the best cultivators in the east by a step-by-step process. And then, he died and transmigrated accidentally. But no one had ever mentioned it to him.

Li Ye smiled awkwardly and said, “Really?”

He didn’t believe it.

This was a joke. If he were Fu Su, the son of the first emperor of Qin, then...

“There was no room for Taoism in the Qin Empire because they believed in Legalists. The first emperor of Qin burned books and buried the literati in pits. The literati were not the Confucianists but the alchemists. Alchemists were Taoists!”

“Although Xu Fu tricked the first emperor of Qin, took many boys and girls to the Dongying island, and founded the Dongying country, under the guise of the immortal of the Taoist sect, it was just an irrelevant issue for the Qin Empire at that time.”

“If Fu Su succeeded to the throne, the Qin Empire would not perish, Legalism would still be orthodox, and Taoism would not be flourishing.”

“Taoism would not be flourishing...”

Thinking of this, Li Ye was shocked!

“Taoism would not be flourishing... At present, under his crazy killing and transformation, Taoism was no longer flourishing in the Tang Empire.”

“Is this destiny?”

“Is it the cause and effect of his last life?”

“I and the monkey have such a kind of historical origins?!”