Upon hearing this, the Jade Emperor glanced at Guanyin, who seemed about to speak, but saw Laozi watching coldly from the side. A thought immediately crossed his mind, and he ordered the Six Ding and Six Jia to untie the monkey and hand him over to Laozi. Laozi accepted the order and left. Meanwhile, Erlang Shen appeared, bestowing upon him a hundred golden flowers, a hundred bottles of imperial wine, a hundred elixir pills, rare treasures, pearls, brocade, and other items, instructing him to share them with his sworn brother. The True Lord thanked him and returned to Penglai Island to report back. (The story continues...)
Laozi went to the Tushita Palace, untied the ropes binding the Great Sage, removed the instrument piercing his collarbone, and pushed him into the Eight Trigrams Furnace. He ordered the Taoist priest tending the furnace and the boy tending the fire to fan the flames and refine him. The furnace was actually composed of the eight trigrams: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui. The Great Sage immediately hid himself under the Xun trigram. Xun represents wind; where there is wind, there is no fire, only smoke stirred up by the wind, which made his eyes red and irritated, giving him the appearance of "Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils."
This Eight Trigrams Furnace is an acquired magical treasure crafted by Laozi. It contains the Yin-Yang Pure Fire collected by Laozi, a rare true fire in the Three Realms, ranking even above the True Flame of the Sun, second only to the Primordial Chaos Fire, and on par with the Southern Bright Fire, the Nine Netherworld Fire, and the True Flame of the Sun. With the aid of this fire, Laozi's alchemy and treasure-making were always successful.
The monkey's body was being scorched in the Eight Trigrams Furnace, burned by the pure fire, its entire body burning intensely, the heat seeping into its very core. This monkey possessed a profound origin, originally refined from the pure energy of the Three Pure Ones, and further forged by the sage Nuwa using the Qiankun Cauldron. The Qiankun Cauldron was one of the Ten Great Primordial Treasures, containing its own universe and the Purple Blazing Extreme Fire, capable of transforming the acquired into the innate, making it truly extraordinary.
The Three Pure Ones were originally formed from the pure energy remaining after the creation of the world by Pangu's primordial spirit. This pure energy was extraordinary, and the Qiankun Cauldron reversed the acquired nature, transforming it into innate things. Therefore, the monkey's foundation can be said to be truly extraordinary. Since the creation of the world, the world has continued to evolve, and innate things are becoming increasingly rare, let alone cultivators with innate foundations.
There is a great difference between the innate and the acquired. The innate are free from cause and effect and karma. All cultivators must return themselves to the innate state until they merge with the chaos, their primordial spirit resides in the void, and they achieve the primordial state. In the ancient times, there were many innate gods. Not to mention the Three Pure Ones, even the Zixiao Palace Master Hongjun Daoist was an innate god. The innate have infinite wonders, which are incomparable to the acquired. For example, the Primordial One had a prejudice against Kunpeng, who was also very powerful. However, because he was born after birth, the Primordial One disliked him and rejected him along with Zhunti for the same reason.
Nowadays, most cultivators in this world are born after birth and cannot be compared with those in the ancient times. Even those born with intelligence are often found and refined into magical treasures. This monkey has this opportunity because of the merit of mending the sky, which is why it was not killed by others.
This monkey was extraordinary from birth. After absorbing tens of thousands of years of spiritual energy and achieving spiritual awareness, he also obtained a body-refining technique like the "Eight-Nine Arcane Arts," making his body incredibly hard. He not only devoured many peaches of immortality but also many golden pills refined by Laozi. The peaches of immortality and the golden pills were both made by a sage, one being an innate spiritual root and the other being refined by a sage, respectively, possessing immense magical power. If Sun Wukong had not been born a stone monkey with an incredibly hard body, he would probably have exploded and died after eating so many.
Now, within this Eight Trigrams Furnace, the Yin-Yang Pure Fire continues to burn, stimulating the medicinal power that has been immersed in Wukong's body. This pure fire burns and refines the medicinal power into Wukong's body, continuously strengthening his physical body. At the same time, some of the medicinal power is refined into his primordial spirit, nourishing the strength of Wukong's primordial spirit.
According to the original Journey to the West, after this refining process, the monkey's body became as hard as diamond, and his magical power also increased greatly. Logically speaking, since the monkey stole so many of his golden pills, Laozi should have had a grudge against the monkey. So why did Laozi still help him?
Unexpectedly, Laozi did not intend to help the monkey; he actually wanted to harm him.
Long ago, Gonggong broke Mount Buzhou, causing the Milky Way to leak and flood the land. Several sages discussed mending the heavens, and the Three Pure Ones each contributed a wisp of primordial energy. The Daoist Ancestor bestowed upon them the Qiankun Cauldron, which forged five-colored divine stones. Nuwa intended to use these stones to mend the heavens, achieving great merit. During Nuwa's mending, she received assistance from six sages of the four religions. These stones, therefore, were meant to repay the karmic debt for Nuwa. Two sages of Buddhism seized the initiative and were the first to act. Now, Buddhism is poised for great prosperity. Thus, these stones transformed into the form of Sun Wukong.
When Jieyin and Zhunti made their great vows to become saints, although it was a common practice, it differed from the other saints who founded their religions. At that time, when many people became saints, the Three Pure Ones all became saints by combining the merits of establishing their religions with the merits of creating the heavens. When they established their religions, they also made great vows to attract merits, which they then combined with the merits of creating the heavens to become saints.
Influenced by the Three Pure Ones, Jieyin and Zhunti also made a great vow to establish a religion and become saints. However, they were not as fortunate as the Three Pure Ones, who were born with the merit of creating the world. The merit of establishing a religion was just a prelude for the Three Pure Ones to use to bring out the merit of creating the world and become saints. Jieyin and Zhunti did not have such merit, so they could not become saints by establishing a religion. Helplessly, they made a great vow and finally gathered enough merit to become saints.
However, the two sides have different grand ambitions for establishing their religions. The Three Pure Ones' grand ambition for establishing their religions is equivalent to a transaction of money on delivery in modern terms. They can do whatever they want after establishing their religions, just like Laozi. As long as there is one person left in the human religion, his lineage will continue. No matter what happens in the world, he can ignore it and there will be no cause or effect. However, the initiative in this kind of transaction is in Laozi's hands.
However, Jieyin and Zhunti are different. They are somewhat like venture capitalists nowadays, or mortgage lenders. They borrow money from banks through some means to buy a house and then pay it off in installments. In this case, the Heavenly Dao is the bank, the loan is merit, and the saintly realm is the house. The initiative in this matter is in the hands of the Heavenly Dao, which is the bank. Unlike some methods nowadays, if Jieyin and Zhunti cannot repay the loan, not only will the house be taken back, but they will also be punished.
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