Under One Person: I Opened the Age of Mythology

Chapter 585

Deep within the earth, the violent energy of the Ice and Fire Prison roared and collapsed in the aftershocks of the crystal monument's destruction.

The blinding purplish-black evil light and the destructive shockwave completely swallowed Han Hai's last unwilling roar, crushing him and his blasphemous ambition into dust.

However, the price of victory was devastatingly high.

Nezha is suspended above a chaotic vortex where boiling magma and chilling ice intertwine.

The once mighty Demon-Slaying Marshal now resembles a shattered glass doll, its body covered in dense golden cracks, as if a gentle touch would cause it to crumble completely.

The fiery wheels dimmed completely, turning into two ordinary iron discs that fell into the lava below, only splashing up a few tiny sparks.

His immortal essence was so depleted that it resembled a desert, and even maintaining his levitation became a precarious burden.

Even more deadly, the chaotic evil energy that dissipated after the crystal tablet exploded and the extreme resentment left by the cold bones were like maggots clinging to his bones, frantically eroding his soul on the verge of collapse. The coldness and burning pain gnawed at him alternately, and his consciousness kept slipping on the edge of ruin.

Just as darkness was about to completely engulf him—

"Om..."

A wisp of delicate yet incredibly resilient pure energy pierced through the thick layers of earth's crust and the chaotic energy field, falling precisely downwards.

It originates from the core of the Bagua Furnace in the Tushita Palace, which has survived countless eons and contains the supreme Daoist essence of alchemy and the essence of the furnace fire.

This wisp of pure energy, like sweet rain, nourished Nezha's depleted immortal essence core, and with an incredibly gentle force, smoothed and reinforced the most fatal cracks in his Dharma body, barely keeping the last trace of his true spirit alive.

A strange change quietly occurred at this critical moment. That wisp of pure energy not only stabilized his injuries, but also, like a spark thrown into dry tinder, instantly ignited a certain quality hidden deep within Nezha's bloodline and soul—the chaotic affinity he had unexpectedly gained under the influence of the fragments of chaos!
This power was thoroughly stimulated and purified by the essence of the furnace fire in the Tushita Palace, and was no longer chaotic. Instead, it presented a primal maternal aura that encompassed all things.

This purified, chaotic affinity resonated fiercely with the wounded land of Luzhou beneath our feet!
The fragments of Nezha's shattered body began to peel away and melt uncontrollably. Instead of dissipating, they silently merged into the boiling magma and seeped into the cracks in the earth's veins, like water droplets returning to their mother's body.

melt!

It's not about disappearing, but about a deeper level of integration.

Phantom images of fiery lotuses, burning with pure lotus flames, emerged from the cracks in Nezha's immortal armor, stretching out their supple yet blazing roots, deeply and greedily plunging into the shattered earth veins of Beiju Luzhou.

The form of the Demon-Slaying Marshal was rapidly disappearing, replaced by a faint yet omnipresent scorching will that covered the entire land of Luzhou!
This will, weak and feeble like a candle flickering in the wind, was filled with the throbbing of new life. It used the subterranean fire as a medium and the rock strata as its veins to perceive every pulse, every cry, and every flow of subterranean fire throughout this land.

Nezha's "form" is dissolving, but his "spirit" is becoming more closely connected with the land he has just saved in an unprecedented way.

A new form of existence, existing between physical and spiritual entities, is beginning to take shape at the intersection of the Earth's core chaos and the pure spirit—the Earth Fire Lotus Heart.

Meanwhile, in the Qitian Palace high above the nine heavens, the Karmic Fire Purgatory faced its most violent and desperate counterattack!
Sun Wukong sat cross-legged in the center of the karmic fire storm. His golden body was no longer a symbol of brilliance and immortality, but was melted into a scorching, dazzling iron-like color.

Beneath the skin, billions of venomous faces, formed from the combined karma of the Southern Jambudvipa, the Kunlun Dark Star Crystal Origin, and the Northern Julu Continent Earth Fire Core, roar, collide, and devour madly!
They are not merely the backlash of power, but also the overwhelming resentment and torrent of pain accumulated by countless beings in suffering, greed, betrayal, and exploitation. At this moment, they have found an outlet to vent their pent-up emotions and are determined to completely burst and burn this "heart furnace" that dares to bear them!
The celestial gold and jade pillars of the Qitian Palace twisted and deformed under the licking of karmic fire, and the glazed tiles turned into dripping hot lava.

The remains of the heavenly guards were engulfed by the karmic fire, turning to ashes before they could even scream.

The entire magnificent hall seemed to have become an altar for the burning of karma from the three realms.

Laozi's Taoist robe had been mostly burned away by the raging karmic fire, his white beard was scorched and curled, and the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead were instantly evaporated.

But his withered hands were as steady as mountains, and his body beneath the Taoist robe exuded a powerful Taoist aura that was completely opposite to his appearance.

His hands formed a mudra, spinning like a wheel. The "Doushuai Purple Fire," unique to the Tushita Palace and containing the mechanism of creation and destruction, entwined around the Pure World Blue Lotus, which was riddled with cracks and eroded by the poisonous insects of filth and karma.

"You wicked creature! How dare you defile my Dao Source!"

Laozi's hair and beard bristled, purple lightning flashed in his eyes, and his words were like a divine decree: "Heaven and earth are the furnace, creation is the craftsman! Yin and Yang are the charcoal, all things are the copper! With you as the furnace, and the lotus as the coffin, I hereby seal this old Daoist!"

The last word "seal" was like the sound of the Dao that opened the heavens and the earth, carrying Laozi's lifelong cultivation and the purifying power of the Tushita Purple Fire, and pressed the struggling and wailing Pure Lotus against Sun Wukong's burning chest!

"puff--!"

The moment the green lotus touched his heart, Sun Wukong suddenly spat out a mouthful of golden blood burning with purplish-black flames.

The immense pain nearly caused him to faint instantly. The Pure Lotus was like a foreign object forcibly inserted into his heart, a prison!
The lotus base is deeply embedded in the heart meridian, and the six lotus petals sway wildly under the impact of karmic fire, trying to envelop the violent source.

The golden Buddha's bones trembled violently, emitting a mournful cry of unbearable strain. Instinctively, they transformed into the most solid furnace wall, merging with the blue lotus inside and out, forcibly imprisoning and restraining the raging torrent of karmic fire.

A temporary "heart furnace," with Sun Wukong's golden body as its wall and the Pure Lotus as its coffin, was painstakingly formed in the center of the Qitian Palace's sea of ​​karma amidst extreme pain and a life-or-death seal!
The raging karmic fire was temporarily confined within the small space of his heart, no longer wantonly burning down the palaces, but its destructive power reacted a thousandfold against Sun Wukong's soul!

"Ugh—!"

Sun Wukong let out a beastly growl, his muscles bulging, golden Buddhist light and purplish-black karmic fire fiercely clashing and intertwining at his heart. Each heartbeat was like a giant hammer pounding against the inner wall of his heart furnace, bringing excruciating pain that tore at his soul.

The whispers, curses, and wails of countless vengeful spirits echoed wildly in his mind, assaulting the dam of his will.

Just as he was on the verge of complete collapse, two faint yet incredibly pure thoughts, like shooting stars piercing the abyss, suddenly poured into his chaotic and boiling sea of ​​consciousness!

One, carrying a sense of relief after deep sorrow and a touch of warmth and kindness, is the true spiritual fragment of Xu You, who was finally awakened by Nezha and then washed away by the torrent of karmic fire.

The other was the pure, primordial essence of earth fire, containing the pulse of the earth and the power of destruction and rebirth—a final gift left behind by the young man "Jin" from Beiju Luzhou.

The two thoughts, without uttering a word, directly illuminated a path of enlightenment deep within Sun Wukong's chaotic consciousness, guiding him through his confusion:

"Karma is not an enemy, but a mirror reflecting all beings."

"Only by embracing all things in one's heart can one truly see oneself."

"Greed, anger, and ignorance are the source of all evils, but also the fire that refines true gold."

Karma!

It is not an external demon; it is simply a reflection of the thoughts of all sentient beings in the three realms!

It is the sum of the pain and karmic consequences that one has witnessed, experienced, or even unintentionally inflicted on others! It is not meant to be suppressed, but rather to be faced directly, embraced, and ultimately transformed with supreme will!
Sun Wukong's defiant eyes, almost worn down by pain, suddenly burst forth with golden light that pierced through illusion amidst the burning of karmic fire!

"Good! What a wonderful 'Mirror of All Beings'!" He roared silently in his heart, his determination as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven never so resolute. "Since I, Old Sun, dare to call myself 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven,' how can I not tolerate the karma of all beings?! Burn it? Then burn it even brighter! My golden body is just missing your fire to temper it!"

He no longer resisted the burning pain, but instead opened his heart and took in the howls of countless vengeful spirits and the suffering and karma of all living beings into his "Heart of Equaling Heaven"!
The Buddhist compassion, the Taoist non-action, the true nature of the stone monkey... all these insights are fused together at the edge of life and death.

With his heart as the foundation and the all-encompassing will of heaven and earth as the inextinguishable fuel, he pushed the power of the fusion of Buddhism and Taoism to its limit, igniting a wisp of...heart flame within the furnace of his heart!
This flame of the heart, pure and fierce, with the dual attributes of inclusiveness and tempering, began to actively meet the violent torrent of karmic fire!
It is no longer a simple suppression and imprisonment, but a process of using the heart as a furnace and the will as a hammer to treat this boundless karmic obstacle as the resources for forging an unparalleled golden body, and to carry out an unprecedented...heart refinement!
Almost at the same time that Sun Wukong ignited his inner flame and Nezha merged into the earth veins of Luzhou, a strange change occurred in the core of the newly born spiritual jade vein deep in the Kunlun Mountains, which should have been teeming with boundless vitality!

The crystal-clear dew, formed from the void and completely corrupted by evil power, which was crushed before the cold skeleton was annihilated, did not completely dissipate.

A wisp of the most refined essence, condensed with the venomous resentment and extreme evil thoughts of the cold bones, mysteriously escaped into the depths of the earth vein amidst the shockwave of the exploding crystal tablet, as if it possessed a life of its own, and finally attached itself to a piece of pure and flawless spirit jade mother ore that had just been formed at the very core of the vein!
This mother mine, which was originally full of vitality and spiritual power because the Golden Cudgel Divine Stake repaired the earth's veins and gathered pure spirits, has now become the perfect breeding ground for evil!

"Chichichi..."

The deep purple, sinister patterns, like the blood vessels of a living creature, spread rapidly from the point of contamination by the golden dew, greedily absorbing the pure energy of the spirit jade mother ore.

The warm, lustrous sheen of the jade surrounding the mother ore was visibly tinged with an ominous, dark purple.

The temperature of the entire mine began to drop sharply, and a chilling, deathly, and predatory atmosphere spread.

Deep within the mine, several ancient stone spirits who were mining were the first to come into contact with the dissipating dark purple aura.

Their movements suddenly froze, and their smooth, jade-like skin was instantly covered with a layer of deep purple ice crystals.

The spiritual light in its eyes went out, replaced by an empty purple glow. An unintelligible gurgling sound escaped its throat, its joints twisted stiffly, and it instinctively lunged towards its terrified companion beside it!
The miners who were struck, whether strongmen or monsters, all had their skin quickly covered in purple spots and ice crystals, and their eyes became equally empty and fierce.

"Spirit Jade Plague" - When a living being comes into contact with contaminated spirit jade or its aura, it will be transformed into amethyst monsters!
It spread through the mine tunnels at an alarming speed, and the mournful screams and eerie roars replaced the work chants of the past.

At the core of the ore vein, the combination of the polluted golden dew essence and the spirit jade mother ore pulsated even more powerfully. Each pulsation was like an evil heart, pumping more dark purple evil power into the ore vein, giving birth to more amethyst puppets, and also frantically absorbing the spiritual power of the entire Kunlun ore vein, giving birth to an unprecedented thing - the Chaos Jade Embryo!
“Report——!!!”

A mournful communication talisman tore through the oppressive air outside the Qitian Palace, projecting the phantom of a guardian general, covered in blood and half-covered in eerie amethyst, onto the palace entrance. His voice was distorted by fear and pain:
"Reporting to the Great Sage! The Kunlun Spirit Jade Mine... has undergone a drastic change! Evil energy has erupted... those who come into contact with the Spirit Jade... have turned into amethyst monsters... killing anyone they see... the spread is extremely rapid! At the core... a terrifying evil creature is being conceived at the core! Laozi... Laozi has sent a message, the evil energy is of the same origin as the Dark Star, it is feared... it is feared to be the evil transformation of the Chaos Mother Core embryo! Please, Great Sage, send reinforcements immediately! Seal... seal off the mine!"

Before the words were finished, the projection was swallowed up and dissipated by a deep purple cold wave.

Almost simultaneously, another dazzling jade talisman shot forth, carrying Yang Jian's voice, calm yet unusually grave: "Great Sage! The demonic cultivators in the Southern Continent have been initially suppressed, but the root cause, the power of 'karmic obstacles and spirits,' traced through the Heavenly Eye, ultimately points to... the Heavenly River Navy! Some heavenly soldiers had contact with the early contaminated Pure Lotus, and the pollution within them has been stirred up by the spirits! There may be hidden dangers in the Heavenly River; I will immediately conduct a thorough investigation and cleanse! The anomaly in Kunlun must be dealt with immediately!"

Inside the hall, although the karmic fire was forcibly confined to a small area by the Heart Furnace, the pain of burning the soul and the impact of the Heart Furnace operating at overload still made Sun Wukong feel as if he were in purgatory.

He suddenly opened his eyes, golden light intertwined with karmic fire, and a powerful pressure accompanied by excruciating pain poured forth. He heard the devastating news from Kunlun, and the hidden dangers lurking in the Heavenly River!

He did not respond immediately. His gaze pierced through the palace, as if he saw the chaotic jade embryo growing wildly deep in the Kunlun Mountains, the lingering evil energy that Nezha sensed after merging with the earth veins, and the crisis of trust that Yang Jian faced in the Milky Way.

The three crises are interconnected, all arising from karma, but they must be severed with swift and decisive measures!
"Laojun!" Sun Wukong's voice was hoarse like the grinding of metal, each word carrying immense pain, yet filled with an undeniable resolve. "The Kunlun mine is yours! At all costs, nail that evil embryo to the spot for me, and once I've calmed this fire in my heart, I'll immediately come and refine it!"

Laozi's expression was solemn as he looked at the "heart furnace" in Sun Wukong's chest, where karmic fire and heart flames clashed fiercely. He knew that the pressure Sun Wukong was under had reached its limit, and that forcibly intervening might destroy the furnace and kill him.

He nodded emphatically: "Great Sage, rest assured! Even if I have to destroy the Eight Trigrams Furnace again, I will never allow that evil creature to be born and wreak havoc on the foundation of the Three Realms!"

Having said that, his figure transformed into a streak of purple fire and shot straight towards Kunlun.

(End of this chapter)