The Tathāgata Must Fail

The elder looked at Sun Wukong, his gaze devoid of sadness or joy, emotion or desire.

"Not dead yet."

Sun Wukong grasped the Jingu Bang tightly: "No, you are not like them."

The elder had chains on his feet, an immortal, but unlike other immortals, he did not carry the aura of death.

Sun Wukong could not sense any aura from him.

"Who are you?"

Sun Wukong asked.

The elder did not reply, but instead looked at the black mist filling the sky.

"Such filth should be purified."

He extended his hand.

His palm was empty, holding nothing.

But Sun Wukong noticed that suddenly, the world became eerily silent.

The sounds of the black mist burning, of space twisting, suddenly stopped.

All within space was frozen.

"What kind of spell is this?"

Sun Wukong was startled; he hadn't felt any fluctuations of a spell, and he had no idea what the elder was intending!

The next moment, without waiting for Sun Wukong to react, the black mist that filled the sky was yanked towards the old man's palm as if seized by an invisible force.

At the same time, a tremendous power surged from behind Sun Wukong, pushing him toward the elder's palm.

Sun Wukong quickly tossed the Jingu Bang forward.

The sky above his head was getting closer, and his form was continuously growing larger.

But Sun Wukong knew that the problem was not with him.

"Jingu Bang!"

Sun Wukong tightly grasped the Jingu Bang, which grew rapidly with his intention, stretching tens of thousands of meters in the blink of an eye, piercing the shrinking heaven and earth.

Yes, the heaven and earth were shrinking.

The sky and the ground, with their endless black mist, imposing and stretching miles, began rapidly retracting into the elder's hand.

Soon, they shrank to the size of a palm, then disappeared into the elder's palm, turning into a black mist emitting glass orb.

Such a vast world had been turned into a glass orb.

Sun Wukong was shaken inside.

The elder looked at the glass bead in his hand and squeezed it hard, but he could not crush it.

"It still has attachments."

The elder looked at Sun Wukong, the glass bead connected to Sun Wukong with a strand of black mist.

"Sun Wukong."

The elder called Sun Wukong's name, asking, "Do you want this power?"

Sun Wukong was instantly startled.

Who exactly is he? What does he want to do?

The elder took a step towards Sun Wukong; with just one step, he appeared right before his eyes.

"So fast!"

Sun Wukong was shocked, striking forward with the Jingu Bang, powerful enough to collapse heaven and earth!

But the elder pulled with his right hand, tearing open space and entering nothingness.

Sun Wukong's strike passed through his body, having no effect at all.

"This man is strange!"

Sun Wukong thought to retreat, but his body was a step too slow.

The elder held up his left hand, placing the glass orb into Sun Wukong's body.

"This is what you drew out; you should bear it."

After the elder spoke, he was already ten thousand miles away.

He looked at Sun Wukong, as the black mist engulfed Sun Wukong's entire body like a storm, dyeing him an endless ink color.

Immense Curse and agony churned within Sun Wukong, quickly shattering his body into fragments, revealing white bones.

He couldn't bear it any longer.

The elder thought that now, all the filth was on Sun Wukong alone.

That body couldn't endure the strangulation by that Karma.

Continuing like this, the only outcome was utter annihilation.

The elder waved his hand, creating a pitch-black coffin out of thin air.

Boom—

The coffin before his eyes suddenly burst apart, its fragments scratching the back of his hand.

The elder looked over, a thin black iron rod stood where the coffin had been, as if it had never moved.

"Still not dead?"

He looked up to see Sun Wukong.

In the blaze of black fire, Sun Wukong suddenly opened his eyes.

His pupils were devoid of flame, the endless black had swallowed his golden eyes.

"Who are you?"

Sun Wukong spoke, his body so mutilated as if lashed by countless whips, innumerable wounds bleeding.

The blood that would not dry flowed from the wounds, streamed over his shattered body, then turned into rising black mist.

"Turning Karma into your own use?"

The elder saw through Sun Wukong's current state: "To remain lucid, impressive."

"Who exactly are you?"

Sun Wukong asked again: "What is your relationship with the Venerable?"

He clenched his hand out of thin air, retrieving the Jingu Bang, blood flowing along the Jingu Bang's body, then dripping off.

Nine Divine Rings unfolded behind him in succession, that was the power of nine, a power originally not belonging to Sun Wukong, now blooming in a pitch-black form behind him.

Clang—

Under Sun Wukong's feet appeared a blood-red chain.

Iron chains bound his feet, fitting perfectly together, inseparable, one with him.

That was a Curse.

The elder watched this scene, expressionless.

"I am an immortal."

The elder answered: "An immortal loyal to the Venerable."

He was different from those immortals.

He knew all, saw through all.

He had not lived in the past, nor held any reminiscence for Hongmeng.

He was the Venerable's left hand, the Venerable's Dharma Protector God.

"I purify the path for the Venerable."

The elder spoke: "The Venerable is on his way here; I will not allow you to dirty his hands."

Before the Venerable's arrival, Sun Wukong must die here.