The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 214 is submitted! (4k views)

"Oh?"

Du Yuan raised her hand and summoned the memorial presented by the white ape.

As you twist open the folded page with your fingertips, you are greeted by dense ink marks, with names and place names interspersed, almost filling the entire page.

As Du Yuan flipped through the pages, her expression darkened slightly—under each name, there were detailed notes about the person's actions, including their current hiding place.

"What are you doing?"

surrender?

The white ape lay prostrate on the ground and said:

“Old Monkey, I know my sins are grave, so I want to atone for them! Great Master, these are the deeds and hiding places of those who are currently hiding in the southwest.”

"The hiding place of the last batch might not be correct, but the old monkey guarantees that the location of the first batch is absolutely right!"

Fighting against a Taoist immortal who holds a position of power doesn't sound like something a normal person could do.

The white ape also admitted that, according to the old enemy's deduction, it felt that if they dared to fight to the death, they might actually have a chance to replace a Taoist immortal with a remaining position by relying on the will of Heaven and the current situation.

It believed it could win, but it didn't believe it could run.

Taoism is one of the three major religions, and its disciples are countless immortals. Even for such a great religion, a true immortal who possesses the power to possess ...

The Taoist almanac, the kind that's always at the very beginning no matter which way you flip through it!
In ordinary times, it would be a huge deal if such a deity were to die, or even just be injured.

But if he really dies, then it's all over. The Taoist ancestral court will be furious and investigate to the end! The main lineage and all branches, and the entire territory, will be thrown into turmoil!

In such a situation, the other two sects would not only not stop them, but would most likely even help with the search.

Who knows, it might even lead to several high-ranking officials dedicating themselves to this matter!

So, there's no way he can escape!
No matter how vast the world is, can it be greater than the three religions?

Since that's the case, there's only one way—feign an alliance, gain trust, find out their true intentions, and then offer them everything!

As the saying goes, "I'd rather die than see my fellow Daoist die!"

Other people's affairs and face-saving issues are nothing compared to one's own life.
It's all fake!

Thinking of this, the old white ape bowed again and shouted:
"I beg you, Great Master, to spare my life and atone for my sins!"

As it spoke, it caught a glimpse of the burning incense sticks on the ground out of the corner of its eye.

It was incense I gave away, but how did it break? And why does it retain the aura of heaven?

Puzzled, it couldn't help but do some calculations.

Things that are tainted by one's own karma must be taken seriously.

It immediately froze in place.

Then, he looked at Du Yuan and the great dragon that was still wandering in the heavens in disbelief.

For a moment, the old white ape's throat bobbed incessantly, and its mouth twitched repeatedly.

This Taoist priest not only brought rain, he also cast a spell!

A technique that covered the entire southwest!

Furthermore, it is so exquisite and contains a hidden divine power that anything it provides will be ineffective without the approval of a Great Master.

It couldn't see what this spell was doing; such a wide-ranging magic was still hidden from everyone.

That must mean they have grand ambitions, perhaps even something as grand as the Daoist Master's. Has the Southwest been completely seen through by him?

Where we hid and what we plotted were all clearly seen by the Taoist priest.
Upon realizing this, the white ape nearly fainted.

If that's the case, then its surrender would be completely pointless!
How to do how to do?
Du Yuan on the other side listened in awe.

This guy is shameless!
After closing the folded book, Du Yuan held it up and said:
"You thing."

What is this? It's probably not enough?

No, we can't let the Taoist priest say it out loud, it will be too late if he does!

Startled, the white ape hurriedly spoke up:

"Great Master, please wait a moment. This old monkey has something else to tell you!"

"Oh? Is there anything else?"

Du Yuan put down the memorial again. The old white ape breathed a slight sigh of relief, but dared not delay and hurriedly said:

"The other families are all plotting to attack you once you have pacified the southwest. They are trying to use the Emperor's authority to put you to death!"

These guys are definitely planning something big!

Du Yuan began to take it seriously; so many people were hiding in the southwest.

If they all rush out at once, they might be really hard to deal with.

"Moreover, to increase your chances of winning, they will help stabilize the southwest before you succeed, so that humanity can be restored and the secrets of heaven can be restored, so that the heavenly law will come even more fiercely at that time!"

"Old Monkey, I am not only willing to keep you informed of the situation at any time, but I am also willing to travel around and persuade them to do their utmost to help you stabilize the people of the southwest!"

This is actually a good thing. The mess in the southwest is extremely troublesome. These guys are lucky if they don't cause any trouble, but now they actually have to help stabilize the southwest?

This surprise came a bit suddenly, and Du Yuan didn't know how to respond.

As for Tianxian, he seemed to have never felt his presence.

But how should you respond to the other person?
Looking at the old white ape eagerly awaiting her next words, Du Yuan thought for a moment and then shook her head with a smile.

Seeing this, the old white ape was both surprised and frightened.

This isn't a rejection, it's laughable, laughing at their utter ignorance!

So the Taoist priest didn't care at all!

It seems my initial worries were entirely correct—even with all that, they might still be unable to do anything to this Taoist priest!
This is a Taoist priest who dared to brave the imperial edict and come alone to the Confucian Temple area.

The saying "Many ants can devour an elephant" is both true and false.

They had seen many instances of overwhelming powerful cultivators with sheer numbers.

However, this is limited to low- to mid-level cultivators.

The higher you go, the less effective the advantage of numbers becomes.

It is often seen that minor cultivators, who thought they were capable before and still were capable now, gather many companions, only to be killed by powerful enemies without any power to resist.

It's over, it's completely over. This Taoist priest not only knows their background, but he's not afraid of them joining forces at all.

In this way, it shows absolutely no sincerity whatsoever!
In that instant, the old white ape couldn't help but curse those idiots.

Why can't you guys be a little more capable so I can be of some use?!
How could you all be so useless!

With things having come to this point, the old white ape hardened his heart and instantly activated his final plan.

It suddenly stood up, its entire body displaying a ferocious appearance. Du Yuan was quite puzzled by this, thinking that the creature had suddenly gone mad and was about to fight to the death.

But then this guy suddenly knelt down on the ground and said:
"Old Monkey knows that the Great Master cannot tolerate any injustice, and he also knows that someone like me deserves to be struck down by heaven and earth!" "So Old Monkey came here not to ask for a way to live, but to ask that the Great Master allow me to be reincarnated!"

"Furthermore, my cave dwelling is ultimately entangled with me, the old monkey. If the old monkey wants to hide some opportunities within, it's possible that the old monkey's reincarnation could benefit from this!"

"Therefore, old monkey, I beg you to be lenient on this matter."

"If in the end, my reincarnation doesn't get this opportunity at all, or if someone else gets it, I will have no complaints!"

Having said that, the old white ape knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly:

"Please have mercy! I beg you! This old monkey really only asks for this little thing!"

Since we can't offer any decent sincerity, we can only lower our expectations.

Although this still leads to certain death, at least there is still some hope.

Not only would the chances of success be greatly increased, but what if the Taoist priest remembered that he had accumulated some merit and good karma, and specially helped him to be reincarnated?

Du Yuan was utterly astonished by what she saw.

You went through all that trouble just for this little bit?

With such high awareness, why did you choose to fall into the demonic path in the first place?

So Du Yuan sighed and said:

"If I had known this, why did I do it in the first place?"

These words immediately filled the old white ape with immense sorrow.

Who would have thought that someone from the Southwest would come here?

Everyone's busy figuring out what kind of treasure it is and figuring out how to cheat Pang Yu!
If I had known, I definitely wouldn't have dared to show my face here!

"Okay, I promise you!"

Since it said so itself, Du Yuan must have agreed!

Seeing Du Yuanzhen nod, the old white ape did not feel relieved. Instead, he felt a void in his heart and was filled with indescribable emotions.

Seeing this, Du Yuan knew that although it was it that had spoken, when it came to matters of life and death, who could truly be completely carefree?

So after thinking for a moment, Du Yuan still asked:
Is there anything else you'd like to say?

Du Yuan's original intention was to ask if it had any other requests. If they weren't excessive, she could handle them accordingly. After all, regardless of what it was thinking, it was indeed very understanding.

As long as this remains unchanged, Du Yuan will naturally be willing to do her a favor.

The old white ape paused, then pulled the book from his robes, his voice tinged with melancholy:

"Old Monkey, I have too many things on my mind that I can't let go of, but after thinking it over, this thing still occupies the most space in my heart."

He handed the book forward a little and continued:

"This is the mountain master of Dachong Academy. He saw me off when he was leaving because I had guarded the mountain gate for the academy for three hundred years. At that time, he also said something like, 'Heaven and earth are not perfect.'"

"Years ago, I, the old monkey, begged the mountain lord to use my birth year's inscription to complete a priceless treasure of undeniable origin. But in the end, I only received this book and that phrase." The old white ape's throat bobbed, his eyes filled with melancholy and confusion. "These past years, it has weighed heavily on my mind, and I don't want to die still in a daze. You are a great Taoist master; it is said that the three teachings (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism) are interconnected."

It raised its head, looking at Du Yuan with eyes full of earnestness:

"Could you please take a look, old monkey? Is this some kind of trick by the mountain lord, or is it simply that my comprehension is too poor to grasp the key to this?"

Du Yuan took the book and flipped through a few pages. It wasn't a classic or famous book; it didn't even have a title. It was mostly filled with miscellaneous essays, densely packed, inconsistent, and heavily edited. It really looked like a white ape being teased.

But then she thought again, the mountain lord shouldn't be like that. With this question in mind, Du Yuan looked up at the white ape, but her gaze first fell on the sun crown.

The sun crown did not have the mystical origin that the white ape speculated; it was simply carved by a few mountain people who temporarily lived here in ancient times for the purpose of keeping track of time.

As time passed, the mountain people who carved the sun's corona had long since vanished into the past, and even the corona itself was shattered by lightning one day, leaving only half a piece. However, it was precisely because of that lightning tribulation that this half of the stone acquired a touch of spiritual energy.

Year after year, the sun and moon alternated, unchanging through the ages. Until a white ape came here, staring blankly at the half of the sun's corona and the light falling upon it.

Looking down at the book in her hands again, Du Yuan saw the scene before her eyes once more:
A young boy was hunched over a desk, carefully writing his thoughts in a notebook. As he grew older, he wrote more and more, and his knowledge deepened day by day.

I made more and more deletions and revisions to my previous notes.

Once he stepped into the academy, there was nowhere left to write in this book.

Combining everything that had happened, Du Yuan suddenly understood. He looked up at the old white ape and slowly spoke:
"What he means is that you're too fixated on perfection! To the point that you've overlooked the fact that it's precisely this imperfection that has given you what you have today!"

The white ape remained puzzled, while Du Yuan held up the book and said:
"Do you know which mountain lord wrote this book when he was young? There are countless deletions and revisions in it, and inconsistencies are as numerous as hairs on a cow."

"But it is precisely because of this that he has achieved what he has today!"

Nothing is absolutely perfect from the start, and the mountain master's rough childhood notes perfectly embody this imperfect beauty!
The old white ape still seemed to understand but not quite.

Completely unable to understand what Du Yuan and the Mountain Lord meant, they only felt that since it was written by the Mountain Lord of the Academy in his youth, this book could definitely exert unimaginable power in many situations!

Seeing this, Du Yuan sighed helplessly and said:
"He wants to tell you that there is no absolute perfection in the world, and this applies to people, things, and events as well. Including your sundial! In fact, the reason you have achieved what you have today is because it is incomplete! If I were to repair it, I would not only fail to give you the treasure you want, but I would also give you a useless rock."

Without that lightning strike, the corona would have been nothing more than a rock.

The abbot of Dachong Academy clearly saw this as well, and therefore refused to complete it.

The white ape instantly lost its voice:

“Is that so?!”

The corona, which I've cherished and regretted for countless years, only became powerful because it was incomplete?!

"Yes, your corona was shattered by heavenly lightning, which is why it began to absorb spiritual energy, and then complemented the spiritual energy of heaven and earth until it met you!"

The white ape was at a loss for words. It felt that all its previous efforts to repair the corona had become a complete joke.

After a long silence, it finally spoke:
"Then why didn't he just tell me?"

Du Yuan shook her head and pointed at it, saying:
"Look at what you've done these days!"

The white ape was speechless for a moment. What had it done now?

It transformed from a renowned and promising guardian spirit of the academy into a monstrous demon that wreaked havoc on the region.

Looking back now, it seems that the mountain lord had long seen through its bad nature, and after three hundred years of stalemate, he had failed to teach it a lesson. Therefore, he left without saying a word, but only hinted at it in secret.

If one can comprehend it, it is what it deserves after three hundred years.

No, he has done his duty to the world.

After all, we can't let him be killed before his demonic influence manifests.

Having grasped the key point, the old white ape plopped down on the ground.

This was an answer it had never considered.

Du Yuan then looked up at the sky above and said:

"The rain is about to stop, so is there anything else you want to say?"

The white ape opened its mouth, but ultimately shook its head in silence.

Perhaps it shouldn't have left the academy.
(End of this chapter)