From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

"And hear me—"

Pingping chuckled and told everyone her plan.

"good idea!"

Bajie praised, "As expected of a fox spirit, so cunning and clever. In that case, you and Lüzhen should search in this charnel ground. The Lion Camel Cave should still be there. You can then lead him into the Lion Camel Cave."

The words fell.

Bajie and Bajing then revealed their original forms and swaggered around the charnel ground.

Upon seeing the two, the incarnations immediately surrounded them.

Instead of fighting to the death, the two fought their way through the Lion Camel Kingdom.

Those incarnations were driven by obsession but lacked any true spirit; they relentlessly pursued Bajie and Bajie all the way to the Lion Camel Kingdom.

The country's doors have been opened.

Dapeng stepped forward, wielding his halberd, and recalled the 21,000 avatars. He sneered, "Instead of fleeing for your lives, you dare to come before me seeking death?"

"You scruffy bird, stop talking big!"

Bajie, carrying his rake, sneered, "You're a despicable man. You agreed to fight us for real, but halfway through the battle, you changed your mind and used some kind of clone technique to outnumber us. You're not a hero at all!"

Dapeng was not a hero, but he still had his pride. He was so angry at Bajie's insult that his lungs swelled up. He cursed, "You were the ones who bullied me first with your numbers, and you still dare to talk back to me?"

"Let's not talk about the past, let's talk about the present."

Bajie brushed it off and challenged Dapeng to a duel, "This time, it's just me and you fighting. If I win, you'll release my eldest brother; if you win, I'll give you this piece of meat to have a taste! Tsk tsk, this piece of meat of mine is so tender it's like you could squeeze water out of it!"

Upon hearing that Pigsy had wagered his own flesh and blood, Roc's eyes instantly gleamed.

So tender you could squeeze water out of it?

joke!

Pigsy's body is quite coarse and muscular!

However, having not tasted meat for five hundred years, he couldn't help but swallow hard and said, "How can I trust you?"

"Ah!"

Bajie brandished his rake and pointed at the Roc, mocking, "I thought the Roc, who could travel ten thousand miles in the clouds, was some kind of heroic demon, but I never expected him to be such a coward."

Immediately, Dapeng was furious and cursed, "You pig-headed idiot, if I don't gamble with you today, I'll ruin my reputation!"

Seeing that Dapeng agreed, Bajie was overjoyed, but he remained outwardly calm. He simply said to Bajing, "Junior brother, you must watch the battle from the sidelines and not make a move, or I will not forgive you."

"Yes, Second Senior Brother."

The eight pure ones should descend.

Seeing this, Dapeng could no longer hold back and charged forward with his halberd. Bajie also shouted to help him and used his rake to defend himself.

The battle lasted for thirty rounds without a clear winner. Pigsy found an opening and was struck by the Roc. He pretended to panic, turned into a wisp of smoke, and leaped towards the charnel ground.

"Don't even think about escaping!"

Dapeng was overjoyed, not caring whether Bajing would break into the city—even if he did, without his abilities, he wouldn't be able to rescue the monkey!

He transformed into his true form, spread his wings, and flew into the charnel ground. His claws were sharp, seemingly imbued with the flow of yin and yang energies, and just as he was about to seize that wisp of smoke—

Whoosh!

Hu Yuan and Hu Jue leaped up from the forest, riding the wind, their two swords crossed, and with a shout, they slashed out two blades that sliced ​​through the wings of the roc.

"cry!"

The roc, its wings broken and bones severed, could no longer fly or cast spells. It crashed heavily into the charnel ground, losing its anger and no longer daring to provoke Pigsy. It also lost its infatuation and no longer wanted to patrol the mountains and capture people. It simply ran quickly through the forest, trying to escape back to the Lion Camel Kingdom via a forest path.

But before Dapeng had gone three or five miles, he heard the bushes rustling and saw a wolf and a fox emerge from them, their eyes meeting.

The wolf and the fox seemed frightened when they saw the giant roc, which was about ten feet tall, and slowly retreated.

But how could Dapeng tolerate it?

They haven't eaten blood food in five hundred years!

Now, with its wings clipped and wounded, driven by instinct and consumed by greed, it hastily changed direction and chased after the wolf and fox, eager to have a good meal!

Before long, disregarding his injuries, Dapeng chased the wolf and the fox for nearly four hundred miles through the forest, until he arrived at a cave.

It is indeed the Lion Camel Cave!

Seeing the wolf and fox disappear into the cave, Dapeng thought to himself, "I wondered why there were still living creatures in this mountain forest. They were hiding in the cave that my elder brother, my second brother, and I used to live in."

Then, he had no more scruples, his mind completely consumed by the desire to devour flesh and blood. He hurriedly rushed into the cave, intending to devour the wolf and the fox.

But as soon as they entered the cave, the wolf and the fox disappeared.

Just as Dapeng was wondering, he suddenly felt a burning heat behind him. He turned around and saw a ball of Samadhi Fire rushing towards him, instantly igniting his feathers.

"Do not--"

Chapter 1550 Understanding One's Own Heart and Leaving the Lion Camel

Outside the Lion Camel Cave.

Pingping used the Samadhi Fire Technique to unleash the Samadhi Fire, and the raging flames burned the cave walls until they turned red and turned into lava, which poured down.

Inside the Lion Camel Cave.

Dapeng wanted to extinguish the Samadhi True Fire, but this fire was different from the one used by Red Boy. It was born with Qi, and as long as the body and mind were impure and the Qi around the body was disturbed, the fire would continue to burn until it burned people to ashes.

A short while later, the roc could no longer withstand it. Its feathers turned to ash and its internal organs were reduced to ashes, leaving only a bright, round lump of true gold with the energies of yin and yang circulating on it.

Liang Luzhen entered the cave, took out the gold, and said to Bajie, Bajing, Huyuan, and Hujue who had rushed outside the cave: "Dapeng has been burned to death, and only this piece of gold remains."

"It's that easy!"

Ba Jing seemed to be deep in thought.

If one were to fight the Roc head-on, one might win, but it would take an unknown amount of effort.

However, the design only needs to target Dapeng's "three corpses"—

It can be said to be a piece of cake.

"Yes, it's easy."

Looking at the piece of gold, Pigsy recalled how he had been banished to the mortal realm and turned into a pig after encountering the Jade Rabbit Fairy's secret rendezvous with the Jade Emperor while chasing her. He realized that the schemes of the immortals and Buddhas were nothing more than this: guiding the three corpses, six thieves, and nine worms within others to cause trouble.

In terms of personal cultivation, severing the three corpses is merely "subduing one's own mind"...

···

When the six of them returned to the Lion Camel Kingdom, Jiang Liu was already waiting at the city gate. He took the cassock handed to him by Bajie, put it on, and, still in the form of a martial arts sleeve, said, "Let's go, continue westward."

"You little monkey, you could have come out much earlier, right? You made us worry so much."

Pigsy laughed heartily.

After everyone packed up, they were about to set off when Pingping stopped in place. Liang Luzhen noticed this and said in surprise, "Pingping, hurry up and catch up."

"and many more!"

Pingping called out to everyone.

Jiang Liu stopped and turned to look at Pingping.

Pingping held the real gold, looked up at the city gate of Lion Camel Kingdom, and asked Jiang Liu, "Brother Yuanjue, Lion Camel Kingdom is a key link in what you're doing, right? But Lion Camel Kingdom has no one..."

"Heaven and earth are inherently incomplete; even if one of the nine orifices is missing, it doesn't matter." Jiang Liu smiled slightly, not caring at all, and simply beckoned her to follow.

"Yes, Pingping, hurry up and keep up."

Liang Luzhen urged.

But Pingping still didn't take a step. She just took a breath and said to Jiang Liu, "I want to stay."

"reason?"

Jiang Liu's gaze turned slightly serious.

“The world is inherently imperfect. Some choose to let go and find peace; others choose to gather the five elements and refine stones to mend the sky… Brother Yuanjue, you definitely did not choose the former, did you?” Pingping asked in return.

"Correct."

Jiang Liu smiled again, having already understood Pingping's intentions. He took out the Lion Camel Talisman and asked, "Do you really want to stay? I actually want to find the Peacock King Bodhisattva."

"Yes, I'm staying."

Pingping's eyes were burning. "From a young age, I lived under the protection of my father and mother, living a life of peace and stagnation, thinking that all things were like this."

But as I've come to understand this journey with Brother Yuanjue, I've come to realize that if one hasn't even experienced the world, then the past indifference to worldly affairs is nothing more than the instinct of eating and sleeping.

If one is so indifferent to worldly affairs, then the 'intelligence' that mountain spirits and wild monsters cultivate for hundreds or thousands of years is nothing but a burden.

But all living things crave this 'burden'...

But intelligence can never be a burden. The collision and inspiration of trillions of intelligences in the world may be what the universe wants to create.

I'm not as wise as Brother Yuanjue to know the specifics, but along the way I've come to understand one thing:

Only by understanding the conflicts in the world can one truly comprehend the meaning of non-contention.

Jiang Liu nodded and asked, "And then?"

"Then, I realized a problem: my goal was actually different from Brother Yuanjue's; it wasn't about going to fetch the scriptures."

Pingping gazed at Jiang Liu, spoke her truest thoughts, and accepted the Lion Camel Talisman. "Besides cultivation, my path is the four words 'Ultimate Freedom'."

Lion Camel Kingdom...

That is the end point of my journey.

My mother, my birth mother, married into my father's family. Our relationship developed later; initially, she was just worried about not being able to hold onto that vast family fortune.

I don't want to follow in my mother's footsteps...

Now that I understand the principle of whether to contend or not, I wish to put it into practice...

More importantly, since the Lion Camel Kingdom is so important to Brother Yuanjue, I'm willing to help him without troubling the Peacock King Bodhisattva.

"Pingping, you have surpassed most immortals and Buddhas in that you are able to understand where the end of a certain stage of your cultivation journey is."