On the Dragon-Slaying Platform, I was executed and became Yang Jian's brother-in-law.

In the netherworld, the cold wind howls.

Although Laozi's withered figure was not tall, when he stood before the Hall of the Underworld, he was like an insurmountable ancient divine mountain, pressing down on the laws of the entire Netherworld, causing them to groan in despair.

"check."

Laozi's lips moved slightly, uttering a cold word without the slightest emotional fluctuation, yet it made the Ten Kings of Hell kneeling on the ground feel as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

"Yes...yes..."

King Qin Guang, his hands trembling, picked up the heavy Book of Life and Death. Cold sweat poured down his forehead, shattering on the dark ground. He dared not look up at Laozi, much less at Su Bai, whose eyes remained defiant even after being suppressed by the sage.

The Book of Life and Death turned its pages once more, and the Netherworld Divine Light flickered, attempting to penetrate Su Bai's "Yinglong" divine soul, which had already been separated, to trace back to an even more distant past.

Meanwhile, Su Bai, who was bound hand and foot, was experiencing a frenzied storm in his mind.

"This old bastard... he's determined to kill me."

Su Bai squinted, feeling the omnipresent pressure of a saint all around him. He knew very well that the personal intervention of Laozi meant that things had escalated completely.

Although his previous incarnations had won over the Jie Sect and the Dragon Clan, and even gained favor with the human race, these "favors" seemed insufficient to secure his escape from death in the face of absolute power.

Laozi's logic is clear: merit is merit, and fault is fault. Merit should be recorded and dealt with later; but today's mistakes must be severely punished.

The so-called severe punishment is nothing more than stripping away one's mind, casting one into the cycle of reincarnation, or even worse, directly scattering one's soul, leaving only a trace of one's true spirit to fill the pit of the Eight Heavenly Dragons.

"Push forward... but what else can you push?"

Su Bai secretly pondered, "Yinglong's incarnation was already at the end of the Lich War. Going back further, should I fabricate a story about him being the illegitimate son of the Ancestral Dragon during the First Tribulation of Dragon and Phoenix? Or should I fabricate a story about him being a mortal guest listening to the Dao at Zixiao Palace?"

"it's useless."

Su Bai quickly dismissed the idea.

Even if he fabricated that he was the reincarnation of the Ancestral Dragon, or that he had met Hongjun Daozu once, so what?

The past is history, dead history. For a sage, no matter how glorious the past, if it poses no threat or has no use to him now, he will still kill. Laozi dared to scheme against even the direct disciple of the Tongtian Sect Master; why would he care about killing a "past-his-prime" reincarnation of an ancient power?

"To survive, you can't just look to the past; you have to look to the future!"

A glint of light flashed in Su Bai's eyes.

What do sages care about most?

Is it the dough? Is it luck? Or... the overall trend?

What is the biggest trend in the prehistoric world right now? Without a doubt, it is the upcoming Journey to the West catastrophe!

The eastward spread of Buddhism was ordained by Heaven, and it was also the focus of the power struggle between Eastern and Western sages. The reason Laozi was angry with the Jade Emperor and so eager to suppress the Jie Sect was precisely because he feared the chaos would be too great and disrupt the overall plan of the Journey to the West.

"Since you care so much about Journey to the West, then I'll show you what kind of monster it will become if I die!"

"Or rather... if I were alive, I would become an inextricable link in this Journey to the West calamity, one that can't be removed no matter how hard you try!"

Su Bai took a deep breath and focused his mind on the [Marriage Editor] system in his mind.

"System! Besides 'Resume Editing,' do I also have a 'Future Prediction' function?"

The system's cold, mechanical voice sounded: [Yes, host. 'Future Deduction' can deduce and edit certain possibilities in the future based on the host's current causal timeline. Note: The deduced content must conform to logical reasoning and will have a subtle influence on reality.]

"That's enough!"

Su Bai's lips curled into a crazy smile.

Logic? If I want to, there is no illogical thing in this primordial world!

"Old Deng, since you're not going to let me off the hook, don't blame me for flipping the table!"

"You want to see my hand? Then I'll show you plenty!"

"But it's not a trump card from the past, it's a bomb for the future!"

"Let this unofficial history...become even wilder!!"

Su Bai's thoughts surged wildly as he began to construct a "future script" within the system that would make both Buddhism and Taoism furious.

He wanted to tie himself tightly to the Journey to the West chariot, to that most crucial and troublesome juncture!

……

While Su Bai was secretly working on the system, the external inquiries also reached a stalemate.

"This...this isn't right..."

King Qin Guang's hands trembled more and more as he flipped through the Book of Life and Death. His expression changed from fear to bewilderment, and finally to astonishment as if he had seen a ghost.

On the Book of Life and Death, below Su Bai's name, the light flickered, but it remained fixed on the page with "Yinglong". No matter how much King Qin Guang tried to activate his magic power, or even overdraw his own source to activate it, that page was as if it were welded shut, and he could not turn the page at all!

"What happened?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who was standing nearby, also noticed something amiss and frowned as he asked, "Could it be that the evil dragon's soul is strange, obscuring the secrets of heaven?"

"No...it's not about covering up..."

King Qin Guang raised his head, his face covered in sweat, and stammered, "Yes...yes, there isn't any left!"

"That's all?" Laozi frowned slightly, his indifferent eyes sweeping over them. "What do you mean?"

"Reporting...reporting back to Laozi!"

King Qin Guang knelt on the ground with a thud, held the Book of Life and Death high above his head, and said in a trembling voice, "The Book of Life and Death shows that Su Bai's soul tracing back to its origins, in Yinglong's lifetime... is the end!"

"That means... he... he didn't have any earlier lives!"

"His first incarnation was that Yinglong!"

These words caused a stir among those present.

Not only the judges of the underworld, but also the celestial beings of heaven and the Buddhas of the West who were observing everything through the water mirror, were stunned at this moment.

"Huh? That's it?"

In the Lingxiao Palace, Nezha, who had just been preparing to watch the grand spectacle, couldn't help but scratch his head, looking utterly disappointed. "I thought Su Bai might be connected to the Great God Pangu, or perhaps be some reincarnation of a Chaos Demon God, but... is that all?"

"Yinglong... although it is also an ancient divine beast with an extraordinary origin, but..."

Venus stroked his beard, his brow furrowed, seemingly puzzled. "But this background, while top-tier in this primordial world, shouldn't warrant such a drastic move from a sage, shouldn't it?"

The immortals discussed among themselves, their voices filled with confusion and astonishment.

You should know that there are many powerful beings with profound origins in the primordial world.

Leaving aside distant examples, take Kong Xuan, the son of Yuan Feng, the first peacock in the world; Lu Ya, the tenth son of the demon emperor Jun, a three-legged golden bird; even the Ksitigarbha King in the underworld, whose origins are not much inferior to Ying Long.

But what about Su Bai?

It was merely the reincarnation of a remnant soul of Yinglong that caused Jinling Shengmu to risk her life for him, the Three Immortal Maidens to set up an array for him, Zhao Gongming to scatter his wealth for him, and even Taishang Laojun to personally investigate his background.

Is this reasonable?

"This is outrageous!"

One of the wandering immortals, who had been quietly observing the situation, couldn't help but complain, "Which of us old guys who have cultivated for countless eons doesn't have a story from our past lives? Why don't we see the sages paying this much attention to us? What makes Su Bai so special?"

"Indeed, if it were only Yinglong's background, would Laozi be so alarmed?"

The underworld is a strange and oppressive place.

The purplish-red light that had just risen from the Book of Life and Death was suddenly pressed down by Laozi's withered hand before it could fully unfold.

Laozi's gaze remained fixed on the unmoving page in the Book of Life and Death—"Yinglong".

Turning the page further back reveals a chaotic blank space.

There was no trace of the Ancestral Dragon's bloodline, no evidence of listening to the Dao at Zixiao Palace, and no lingering aura of the Chaos Demon God.

Clean and tidy, pure and innocent.

"That's... all?"

Lao Jun's two long eyebrows were almost knotted together, and his eyes were filled with astonishment and disbelief.

The reason he was so certain that Su Bai had a grand scheme behind him, and even went so far as to personally intervene and use the incarnation of a saint to investigate the background of a junior, was because the various "variables" that Su Bai displayed were too astonishing.

Severing the cause and effect of the Investiture of the Gods, fusing with the Golden Dragon Scissors, disrupting the situation in the Heavenly Court, attracting all the immortals of the Intercepting Sect to pay homage... How could an ordinary prehistoric being accomplish all of these things?

In Laozi's pre-set script, Su Bai should at least be the reincarnation of some ancient great being, or a secret weapon secretly cultivated by the two Western Saints for countless eons.

But now, the Book of Life and Death tells him: You're overthinking it. He's just a dragon with a little bit of luck.

"Impossible... Absolutely impossible!"

Lao Jun suddenly raised his head, his voice low yet carrying a chilling stubbornness and coldness, "What makes a mere Yinglong capable of stirring up such a storm? What makes Jinling and the Three Immortals so devoted to you? What makes you capable of severing the shackles of the Investiture of the Gods that I set up?"

"There's definitely something fishy going on here!"

Lao Jun refused to believe in superstition. He once again activated his saintly power, and two beams of divine light shot out from his seemingly cloudy old eyes, like two scalpels, frantically cutting and probing into the depths of Su Bai's soul.

He tried to find even the slightest trace of contact with the two Western saints (Jieyin and Zhunti), and tried to find the causal thread that belonged only to Western religion.

However, nothing was found.

Su Bai's soul was like a clear crystal, except for the few exposed love-hate relationships and national righteousness, it was so clean that it was outrageous.

"How could this happen..."

Laozi's expression grew increasingly grim.

If even the Supreme Purity Divine Light couldn't detect anything amiss, then there's only one explanation—the person who made the move is at a level no lower than his, or even…

"Unless the true form of Taiqing personally takes action, even this benevolent incarnation of mine cannot see through the concealment methods of those two saints."

Laozi was certain, "It must be those two old fellows, Jieyin and Zhunti! Excellent methods, truly excellent methods! They managed to erase cause and effect so cleanly, leaving me with absolutely no leverage!"

King Qin Guang and Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, standing to the side, were drenched in sweat and dared not even breathe.

King Qin Guang, in particular, knelt on the ground holding the Book of Life and Death, feeling like an ant caught between two giant millstones.

"Lao...Laojun..." King Qin Guang stammered, "I really tried my best...This Book of Life and Death is one of the three books of Heaven, Earth, and Man, recording the reincarnation of all beings, and it is absolutely true. Since we can't find it, then...then it really is not there..."

"Shut up!"

Laozi coldly rebuked, "You cannot see it because your cultivation is insufficient! It is because someone has obscured the secrets of heaven!"

"Do you think I'm being unreasonable? Or are you saying that your underworld is also trying to deceive me along with this wicked dragon?"

King Qin Guang was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly: "This humble king wouldn't dare! This humble king wouldn't dare! But... but it really isn't on this list, this humble king can't just make up a passage himself, can he?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva also looked helpless, and put his hands together, saying, "Amitabha, Laozi, please calm down. Perhaps... Benefactor Su Bai is truly just exceptionally talented and blessed with great opportunities."

"Opportunity?"

Laozi sneered and flicked his whisk, clearly dismissing the explanation.

He paced back and forth, but the gloom in his eyes did not dissipate; instead, it grew even heavier.

Since no trace of the past can be found, it means that the opponent's defenses are watertight. Continuing to dwell on the issue of the "past" will not only yield no results, but will also make him, the Dao Ancestor, appear somewhat unreasonable and lose face as a saint.

"Okay, very good."

Laozi stopped, his gaze sharpening like a knife once more. "Since we can't find anything in the past, then I won't investigate further."

The past can be concealed, but the future... is already predetermined!

"The Great Tribulation of Journey to the West is approaching; this is the inevitable trend of Heaven, and no one can change it! If Su Bai is truly a pawn planted by the West, then he will undoubtedly play a crucial role in the future Great Tribulation of Journey to the West!"

"As long as I can deduce his actions in Journey to the West and find irrefutable evidence of his sabotage of the Taoist sect's fortune and collusion with the Buddhist sect..."

"Then let's see what those two from the West have to say!"

Thinking of this, Laozi's eyes gleamed brightly. This was not only a way to break the deadlock, but also an excellent opportunity to turn the tables.

He whirled around, facing the Water Mirror and the assembled immortals of the Three Realms who were watching the situation in the Underworld. His voice boomed, echoing throughout the Six Paths:

"Fellow immortals!"

"Since the past life of this wicked dragon has been obscured by a powerful being, and its true nature cannot be ascertained, then this humble Taoist will today employ the Supreme Purity Divine Power, borrowing the power of the Book of Life and Death, to deduce the future!"

"I will show you all what this wicked dragon will truly be like in the future! And how it will wreak havoc on the Three Realms!"

Having said that, Laozi formed a hand seal, and a vast and boundless magical power flowed into the Book of Life and Death.

"Life and death are a cycle, cause and effect are a cycle! The future... is here!"

With Laozi's low shout, the Book of Life and Death, which had already begun to tremble, instantly burst forth with an even more dazzling light.

Meanwhile, Su Bai, who was still bound in place, deepened the crazed smile on his lips.