Chapter 736: Dao Ancestor, This Big Monkey

The origins of Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Following Ear are quite interesting. They were originally human brothers who, after losing their lives, encountered two wisps of Heavenly Golden Essence and Water Essence. This transformed them into demon immortals, and they subsequently joined the Jie Teaching. Thousand-Mile Eye was named Gao Jue, and Wind-Following Ear was Gao Ming. They were Jie Teaching immortals who entered the Platform of Deification during the early stages of the Great Tribulation of Deification.

The brothers themselves didn't possess extraordinary abilities, but they were astute and quick-witted. They also had "semi-innate" investigative divine powers. Their appearance was somewhat unconventional yet rather imposing. After Li Changshou departed Hong Huang and Jiang Shang presided over the Deification, these two brothers were selected as messengers for the High Heavens Palace. Blessed by the power of the Heavenly Dao, they could instantly survey all corners of the Three Realms: Heaven, Earth, and Man.

Meanwhile, when a seven-colored divine light surged into the High Heavens Palace, all the immortal gods deliberating inside were startled. The Jade Emperor was fuming and on the verge of an outburst when Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Following Ear promptly entered to report. They were then ordered to observe the situation at the light's origin and subsequently reported their findings back to the hall.

“Reporting to Your Majesty!” Gao Jue reported firmly, “Your humble servant observed a stone monkey at the source of the divine light. It is located on Flower-Fruit Mountain, a demon territory in the Eastern Continent of Divine Victory. This stone monkey appears to possess innate divine abilities; its birth caused spiritual energy fluctuations, disturbing the Heavenly Court!”

“Stone monkey?” The Jade Emperor fell silent for a moment, and fluctuations of the Heavenly Dao’s power rippled through the High Heavens Treasure Hall. Soon, the Jade Emperor slowly said: “It is merely a stone embryo nurtured by the Sky-Mending Stone. Perhaps it received magical power bestowed by the Human Race’s Holy Mother. All my beloved ministers, please continue your discussions; there is no need to pay it further mind.”

All the gods bowed their heads and accepted the order, saying, “As you command.” Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Following Ear bowed and withdrew, positioning themselves to guard the palace entrance. They stood shoulder to shoulder with the former Four Sages of Jiulong Island, now the Four Marshals guarding the High Heavens Palace, presenting a majestic sight.

Inside the High Heavens Palace, the discussions resumed their pace, but the Jade Emperor’s mood had inexplicably improved. It had been a long time since the Heavenly Emperor had smiled, but today, he actually smiled several times.

On Spirit Platform Mountain, Li Changshou performed a calculation and soon divined through the Heavenly Dao that a stone monkey had been born in the East Sea and had startled the Heavenly Court. He hesitated slightly but still rode a cloud to the East Sea to secretly observe the Heavenly Court’s reaction. As the monkey’s master, personally appointed by the Dao Ancestor, these actions were simply “part of his duty.”

Half a day later, at nightfall, Li Changshou finally saw the stone monkey with his own eyes. It was curled up in a crevice in the mountain forest, its light golden fur obscured by mud, and its waist adorned with leaves forming a modesty covering. Do not underestimate this covering; it signified the difference between a spirit embryo born of heaven and earth and ordinary creatures. In the stone monkey’s eyes, Li Changshou perceived a touch of confusion, a hint of panic, and, more profoundly, a longing and curiosity.

As night deepened, the stone monkey rubbed its shriveled belly and went out to forage. It found some leaves and shallow grass, chewing them a few times, before quickly discovering several peach trees. It climbed up and feasted for a while. Afterward, the stone monkey cautiously returned to its previous crevice in the mountain wall, quietly curled up inside, and spent its first night since its birth. Large patches of dark clouds drifted over the East Sea, and wind and rain swept across Flower-Fruit Mountain. The stone monkey stared blankly at the dark mountains, listening to the rain and wind. Li Changshou wondered what it could see or feel at that moment, but it probably felt the loneliness of a living creature. The stone monkey yawned, its eyelids fluttering, and it slowly drifted off to sleep.

Li Changshou landed on the mountain wall, sat cross-legged, and concealed his aura, making his form ethereal. With a thoughtful expression, he watched over the stone monkey for the entire night. With the Heavenly Dao’s protection, Li Changshou had no concerns about the stone monkey’s safety. Yet, for some reason, he felt compelled to stay close to the monkey, to secretly accompany it through what was surely its most difficult night.

When the second day dawned, as Li Changshou prepared to quietly leave, many insights arose in his heart. These insights were not about the Great Dao or divine powers, but about life itself. Living beings are born alone, and thus they yearn for companionship. Trapped alone in this lightless night, the stone monkey’s heart might, because of this, come to yearn for and pursue light. Perhaps because the night is so profound, one believes even more that light lies ahead.

Li Changshou’s heart was filled with emotion. For some reason, he recalled the arduous days leading up to his death in his previous life. When his condition deteriorated for the second time, he concealed it from his family, allowing only his best friend to accompany him on his final journey. He left a farewell video, expressing his gratitude, thanks, and guilt towards his loved ones. Enduring the pain while sitting in a wheelchair, looking up at the yellowing leaves of a phoenix tree, Li Changshou had questioned and felt confused, wondering what his life, which ended prematurely in middle age, truly amounted to. But questioning and doubt could change nothing; the end of life was complete darkness.

Li Changshou had asked himself this question more than once: “Was the self who woke up in the Hong Huang world still the self from my previous life?” The answer he had already found: It was not a grafting of memories, nor the rebirth of a soul, and certainly not a reincarnation after drinking Granny Meng’s soup. Simply put, it was the true spirit of Li Changshou as an individual being, pulled through a spacetime rift into Hong Huang’s Six Paths of Reincarnation system. The long river of true spirits does not merely flow within the Sea of Chaos and Hong Huang; it flows through all tangible realms, projecting myriad living beings. The Sea of Chaos is not the only tangible realm. As long as he could find that spacetime rift, he might be able to return to Earth. The truth of his transmigration was an extremely minuscule event: a single true spirit retained the consciousness of the projected being from its previous iteration.

Once Li Changshou comprehended this, his Dao realm swiftly ascended. Previously, in the Purple Heavens Palace, Li Changshou had debated this matter with the Dao Ancestor, deliberately giving the answer the Dao Ancestor wanted to hear. This led the Dao Ancestor to mistakenly believe that Li Changshou was convinced that Elder Lang had pulled him into Hong Huang. In reality, Elder Lang couldn’t do this at all, and neither could the Dao Ancestor. It was purely coincidental. Elder Lang, by deducing the Heavenly Dao, saw Li Changshou in Hong Huang’s future and mistakenly thought it was the Dao Ancestor and the Heavenly Dao who had summoned Li Changshou as a supplement to the unfinished plan of their Hong Huang Neighborhood Committee. After all, both Dao Ancestor Hongjun and Elder Lang were merely inferring the problem from their own perspectives. Li Changshou, however, took a different approach, delving into the characteristics of true spirits and how they interact with the Dao, thereby fundamentally proving his method of transmigration.

The unfinished plan of the Hong Huang Neighborhood Committee was, in fact, the truth behind Elder Lang’s final desperate struggle, though Li Changshou currently lacked sufficient evidence to be entirely certain. From this perspective, Li Changshou and the stone monkey could be considered kindred spirits. When Li Changshou looked at the stone monkey, it was as if he saw the male infant who had just awakened memories of his previous life, curled up in his parents’ tent, his body trembling slightly. Facing the fear of the unknown; the longing for the outside world; the excitement of gaining life; the pathetic yet laughable sense of loneliness in his heart…

“Enough,” Li Changshou sighed softly. In that moment, he decided to properly mentor the stone monkey, not to burden it with any mission, nor to deliberately bind it to the chariot of rebellion against Heaven. Rebelling against Heaven, he alone was enough.

Before departing, Li Changshou saw a group of monkeys passing by the crevice where the stone monkey lay, and a slight smile touched his lips. His Master should be safe and sound in reincarnation, right? While comparing his Master to a monkey might be inappropriate, weren’t these monkeys who took in the stone monkey just like his Master who had taken him in back then?

With that thought, Li Changshou’s brows furrowed slightly. But he did nothing further; his cloud didn’t stop, and his form remained hidden among the white clouds. He would not burden the stone monkey with a mission or add to its destiny, yet the Heavenly Dao intended to use it to scheme against the demon race and greatly expand Buddhism. The stone monkey had even been nurtured by Heaven and Earth precisely for this preordained destiny. Whether it could break free from this confinement would depend on the stone monkey’s future choices. Li Changshou wouldn’t mind sacrificing a slight chance of victory for this monkey, even if it meant confronting the Dao Ancestor earlier. It would depend on how the Dao Ancestor chose.

Upon returning to Spirit Platform Mountain, Li Changshou remained busy. He had previously accepted disciples from the Central Divine Continent. This time, on his way to Flower-Fruit Mountain, Li Changshou also took in a group of minor demons, bringing them back to the Daoist temple for instruction and accepting them all as disciples. After all, they were disciples of “Patriarch Bodhi,” so what did that have to do with “the exiled” Li Changshou? Accepting these demons was actually to help the monkey adapt to the teaching environment of Spirit Platform Mountain, ensuring it wouldn't develop an inferiority complex and would have companions while cultivating there. From certain details observed last night, it was clear that this stone monkey possessed a very delicate sensibility. Thus, Li Changshou gathered twenty-seven young disciples. The previously enlightened boys and girls were tasked with overseeing their daily lives, and small-group teaching and Dao instruction commenced in the Slanted Moon and Three Stars Cave.

Li Changshou treated every disciple equally, considering them all his nominal disciples. He also had strict requirements for each disciple’s character, aiming to prevent them from causing trouble that might implicate him, their master. While teaching these disciples, Li Changshou was reminded of the pleasant years he spent nurturing Ling’e. Of course, he felt no particular sentimentality, as Ling’e was right by his side, and he now regularly took time to accompany her. Li Changshou simply felt that he had done an excellent job teaching Ling’e back then, and she could be considered a qualified disciple of their “steady” teaching approach.

Thus, spring followed autumn, and unaware of the changing seasons in the mountains, more than sixty years passed. This batch of Li Changshou’s nominal disciples had all grown into adults, half of them having passed the Flying Immortal Tribulation and gained immortal bodies. Under Li Changshou’s deliberate guidance, they learned not to discriminate based on origin, treating all beings equally. They would help woodcutters lost in the mountains and rescue black bears wounded by hunters. As the range of these disciples’ activities expanded, the reputation of his “Spirit Platform Mountain, Slanted Moon and Three Stars Cave” gradually spread. Many qi-refiners came seeking its reputation but couldn’t find the location of Spirit Platform Mountain at all. Some old immortal hermits also wished to meet Patriarch Bodhi, but they were simply turned away by the disciples with the phrase, “My master does not see outside guests.” For safety’s sake, Li Changshou reduced his main body’s activities and focused on expertly portraying Xubodhi. Alas, with two quasi-Dao companions by his side, he was here, waiting for a monkey to come and seek his tutelage… He couldn’t dwell on it; thinking too much would bring tears to his eyes.

One day, as Li Changshou was napping in the back hall, he suddenly sensed a wisp of Dao rhythm permeating his mind, and the Dao Ancestor’s voice resonated within his spiritual platform. “‘Bodhi,’ the Dao Ancestor’s voice said, ‘that stone embryo has already left Flower-Fruit Mountain. You must secretly protect it and ensure no one else takes it in.’” Li Changshou flipped over and jumped up, bowing respectfully towards the sky, and quietly affirmed. Tying his Daoist robe and taking up his whisk, he hurried to the border between Southern Jambudvipa and the Eastern Continent of Divine Victory, secretly watching over the stone monkey that had ventured into the mortal world.

This fellow… Having just entered the human world, it was truly a source of endless amusement. The stone monkey had left Flower-Fruit Mountain with only one purpose: to apprentice under an immortal and seek the Great Dao of longevity. The stone monkey was born extraordinary, possessing various innate divine abilities, so conquering a monkey tribe with only a few monkey spirits was effortlessly achieved. For more than sixty years, the stone monkey lived a carefree and joyful life on Flower-Fruit Mountain, leading a large group of monkeys in play all over the mountains. Flower-Fruit Mountain was rich in resources, and demons had previously resided there. The monkey spirits quickly discovered various caves and dwellings, along with some weapons and treasures. Not only did they have no worries about food and drink, but they also lived a life of “comfortable demon prosperity.” Carefree and very lively.

Perhaps due to the stone monkey’s abundant spiritual essence, the monkey tribe collectively gained sentience within a few years. They could speak human languages, were agile, and attracted more monkeys to join their “tribe.” They drove away tigers and wolves, chased off jackals and leopards, brewed fine wine, and bore offspring. The stone monkey was the strongest and most formidable fighter; many female monkeys had designs on him, but as he was no ordinary creature, he completely ignored such advances. When the stone monkey discovered the blessed Water Curtain Cave on Flower-Fruit Mountain, a group of monkey spirits naturally hailed him as their Great King. The stone monkey declared himself “Grandpa,” and the monkey spirits became his “monkey grandchildren.” In just a few decades, the Water Curtain Cave monkey spirits had clearly become the “overlords” of Flower-Fruit Mountain. Though they lacked many masters, the fact that all of them had gained sentience struck fear into the hearts of the demons secretly observing Flower-Fruit Mountain. The stone monkey was unaware that the ancient demons observing him eyed him with immense greed!

After sixty years of carefree joy, an old monkey spirit reached the end of its lifespan, dying of old age in Water Curtain Cave. This allowed the stone monkey to directly experience the power of “birth, old age, sickness, and death.” Living beings fear death and yearn for life, and the stone monkey was no different, asking what death truly was. A large macaque nearby proceeded to explain some profound principles, introducing the concepts of immortals and the Dao of longevity, and telling the stone monkey that cultivating immortal methods could grant eternal life. The stone monkey had a sudden realization and only then set off westward to seek immortals and cultivate methods of longevity. The stone monkey didn’t merely desire longevity. Before his departure, he grandly declared: “When this Great King returns, I will surely ensure that my children and grandchildren can also cultivate immortal methods and attain longevity!” He dared to say it, and that group of monkeys truly dared to believe it. By the way, that large macaque must have been an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao.

And so, the monkey ventured into Southern Jambudvipa, experiencing all sorts of worldly affairs under the gaze of the Heavenly Dao, the protection of Li Changshou, and the screams of mortals. It was also fortunate that the “monkey entertainment industry” had emerged in the mortal realm in earlier times, and the stone monkey itself was astute enough; otherwise, some tragedies would surely have occurred. The stone monkey struggled in the mortal world, facing disdain and scolding, yet it remained cheerful and smiling, though it did take things to heart at times. He also encountered many kind people who voluntarily gave him food and clothing, and even allowed him to stay in their homes overnight. However, the stone monkey paid no heed to the teasing or scolding, nor did it accept pity or charity. It simply frolicked in the mortal world, never allowing its pure Dao heart to be clouded by worldly affairs.

He had teased small monkeys chained with iron, found some gold, silver, and coins, and eaten meat and fish in restaurants. He had also taught lessons to unruly ruffians he disliked, driven away wild boars that gnawed crops, and, with a group of youths, peered through the windows of newlywed couples. He had even helped people exorcise ghosts, beaten up some fake immortals, and dismantled several corrupt Daoist temples… For over a decade, he traveled from the east of Southern Jambudvipa to its northwest. The stone monkey’s search for immortals in the mortal world naturally yielded nothing but solitude.

By the time he was secretly guided by the Heavenly Dao to the vicinity of Spirit Platform Mountain and heard the name of Patriarch Bodhi, his expression was already quite serene. When the stone monkey gazed from afar towards Spirit Platform Mountain, seeing spiritual energy soaring and immortal light swirling around it, he was startled in his heart, realizing he had found the true abode of immortals. So he began to run wildly, darting through the mountains and wilderness, leaping over ravines, and rushing through mists. Unconsciously losing his way, he then accidentally encountered a woodcutter and heard his profound poetry. The stone monkey repeatedly bowed, begging the woodcutter to accept him as a disciple. The woodcutter naturally pointed the way through the mists, leading him to the Slanted Moon and Three Stars Cave.

Li Changshou sat quietly in his cave dwelling. When his immortal perception caught sight of the monkey, a slight smile appeared on his face. Finally, he’s here. Then, observe the stone monkey as it bounced and leaped to the front of the Daoist temple, looking left and right, hesitating back and forth, climbing trees, and circling around, until it finally could no longer resist approaching the temple gate. The stone monkey looked left and right, seeing two lines of text carved on the door frame: “Those who enter my gate will attain the Dao, longevity for hundreds of years is within reach.”

“Oh?” The stone monkey shivered with excitement, rushed to the wooden door in a few steps, knocked a few times, and immediately shouted: “Master! Master! Your disciple has come to seek tutelage!”