Not long after Ye Qiu and the others left on the flying sword, a figure appeared beside the campfire where Ye Qiu had been standing.
The newcomer was young, completely bald, and clad in monastic robes. He was none other than the Buddha-son of Mount Ling’s Great Thunderclap Monastery: Wu Hua.
In his hand, Wu Hua carried the primordial spirit of Wei Wuji.
“Where are they going?” Wei Wuji stared in the direction Ye Qiu’s group had vanished and asked.
“Heading straight east lies the Hengduan Mountain Range,” Wu Hua replied.
Wei Wuji’s eyes flashed with shock. “The Hengduan Mountain Range? What kind of place is that? Why are they going there?”
Wu Hua smiled faintly. “Prince Wei, if I remember correctly, many years ago your father, the current Emperor of the Great Wei Dynasty, once entered Immortality Mountain, did he not?”
Wei Wuji’s expression darkened. “What else do you know?”
Wu Hua continued to smile. “I also know that before he entered Immortality Mountain, your father was utterly unremarkable. Among the many imperial princes, he stood out in no way at all: average aptitude, average cultivation. Within the Great Wei Dynasty he was nothing more than a marginal figure.”
“Yet after he left Immortality Mountain, he soared. Not only did his cultivation explode upward, he displayed extraordinary methods and political skill.”
“In less than a thousand years, your father became a Saint, secretly built alliances, won over ministers, and finally launched a palace coup that forced your grandfather to abdicate. Thus he claimed the imperial throne.”
“As for the princes who had once oppressed him, they were either eliminated or imprisoned.”
“The turning point in your father’s fate occurred inside Immortality Mountain. The reason for his dramatic transformation was that he visited the Hengduan Mountain Range and obtained a fateful opportunity there.”
“Am I correct, little monk?”
Wei Wuji fell silent. Everything Wu Hua had said, he himself had only learned shortly before leaving Great Wei.
Yes, his father had originally possessed mediocre talent and had never stood out. Precisely because he was marginalised within the imperial family, he had volunteered to enter Immortality Mountain.
At that time, the Great Wei Dynasty sent many people inside, but no one had high hopes for his father. Who could have foreseen that after returning from Immortality Mountain, his father would be like a completely different person, rising unstoppable until he reached Sainthood and seized the throne?
When Wei Wuji departed Great Qian for Immortality Mountain this time, his father had seen him off and spoken of that past journey.
His father had told him that the reason his destiny had changed was because, inside Immortality Mountain, he had gone to the Hengduan Mountain Range and obtained both a sword and a sword art, thereby rocketing to greatness.
According to his father, another person had accompanied him back then and had also gained an opportunity in the Hengduan Range, later becoming a Saint who dominated an entire region.
But those events were ancient history. How did Wu Hua know about them?
At this thought, Wei Wuji’s pupils suddenly widened. He stared at Wu Hua in shock. “The person who accompanied my father that year, who also obtained an opportunity in the Hengduan Range and later became a Saint… could he have come from your Great Thunderclap Monastery?”
Wu Hua nodded with a smile. “Prince Wei is indeed perceptive.”
It really was someone from Great Thunderclap Monastery?
Curiosity overwhelming him, Wei Wuji asked, “May I know the name of the senior who travelled with my father?”
Wu Hua answered, “My master.”
What? That person was the Holy Monk of Mount Ling?
Wei Wuji’s heart shook violently.
Legend had it that millions of years ago, an enlightened monk crossed the river on a single reed and arrived in the Western Desert, where he began to spread the Dharma.
Over time, the Western Desert became the gathering place of Buddhist cultivators.
As Buddhist sects multiplied, many powers rose, but the strongest by far was Mount Sumeru.
The abbot of Mount Sumeru possessed profound Buddhist Dharma and heaven-reaching cultivation. Filled with compassion, he spent his life doing good and relieving suffering. The world called him the reincarnation of the Buddha.
All the other Buddhist factions of the Western Desert were moved by the abbot’s virtue and eventually submitted to Mount Sumeru.
From then on, Mount Sumeru commanded the Buddhist sects of the Western Desert, converting all beings in peace and keeping itself apart from worldly strife.
Yet countless tens of thousands of years later, the emergence of the Holy Monk of Mount Ling changed everything in the Western Desert.
It was said that the Holy Monk had been an orphan, wandering and begging, nearly starving to death one day until a passing monk from Mount Sumeru saved him.
Not wishing to endure hunger any longer, the future Holy Monk followed that monk back to the Western Desert and formally entered the Buddhist gate.
Who could have known that after joining Mount Sumeru, he turned out lazy and gluttonous, repeatedly breaking precepts and suffering punishment many times.
Once, he even robbed a merchant caravan, violated a beautiful young woman (who later took her own life), and, to silence witnesses, slaughtered the entire caravan.
Knowing he had committed an unforgivable sin, he fled overnight, but was soon captured, stripped of his cultivation, and expelled from Mount Sumeru.
From that day on, he nursed a bitter hatred for Mount Sumeru. Far from feeling gratitude for their mercy in sparing his life, he swore that one day he would destroy it utterly.
Later, somehow, his cultivation recovered. He entered Immortality Mountain, reached the Hengduan Mountain Range, obtained a fateful encounter, and then vanished for a thousand years.
When the Holy Monk of Mount Ling reappeared, he was already a Saint.
To fulfil his ancient oath, he marched upon the Western Desert and razed Mount Sumeru. On that day, he slaughtered one hundred and eight thousand people. Blood flowed in rivers; it was said only a single fish slipped through the net, a survivor secretly sent away by the combined efforts of the high monks using a grand formation. Whether that person lived or died, no one knew.
After destroying Mount Sumeru, the Holy Monk claimed a mountain, built Great Thunderclap Monastery, proclaimed himself Holy Monk, renamed the peak Mount Ling, and began preaching his own doctrine.
As ages passed, fewer and fewer people remembered this bloody history. Over time, more and more disciples joined Mount Ling, Great Thunderclap Monastery flourished, and its power grew ever greater.
Wei Wuji had never imagined that the very person who, alongside his father, had obtained an opportunity in the Hengduan Mountain Range all those years ago was none other than Wu Hua’s master.
“Now you understand why I saved you, yes?”
Wu Hua continued, “Back then your father and my master came to Immortality Mountain together and obtained opportunities in the Hengduan Range, thereby changing their destinies. In a sense, they were brothers who rose from humble beginnings and shared hardship.”
“It is only because you are the descendant of my master’s old acquaintance that I rescued you.”
“Prince Wei, if this little monk is not mistaken, you came to Immortality Mountain this time precisely for the Hengduan Mountain Range, correct?”
“My master once said that although he and your father both gained great fortunes there, one supreme opportunity within the Hengduan Range eluded them both.”
“Prince Wei, what say you: shall you and I join hands today and claim that supreme opportunity for ourselves?”
