“Xuanyue!” The Dark Queen was already crying heavily. She let go of the cat in her arms and embraced Xiao An firmly with all of her strength. She was afraid that this was all a dream.
Meow! Xuanyue landed on the ground gently and turned around, crouching down on the side. She gazed at the embracing mother and daughter, feeling both happy and lost.
“Sorry, mother. I’ve made you wait.”
Xiao An rubbed her back as she also felt warmth flow through her heart. In a daze, she felt like their identities had been switched. She was no longer a child anymore.
“One Will, are you really princess Xuanyue?” the Dauntless monk said in disbelief. He felt a little overwhelmed by the information.
“I once was.” Xiao An’s voice was gentle, with the power to calm everyone, such that no one could develop any doubts.
“I don’t believe you! You’re lying!” the Light Queen said loudly.
The Light Queen felt deeply threatened. Originally, the position of the King of Chu only had a single successor, Ji Xuanri. Now that such a powerful competitor had suddenly appeared, that changed many things or even everything.
“You bitch, how dare you-” The Dark Queen was furious.
“Mother.” Xiao An patted the Dark Queen’s hands and shook her head at her with a smile before asking the Light Queen, “Your highness, what would you like to say?”
“Xuanyue is already dead!” the Light Queen said firmly.
“Oh? How do you know?” Xiao An asked.
“Everyone in the world knows!” the Light Queen said.
The Fierce King of Chu felt a hint of doubt too. He had asked naturalists from the school of Yin-yang to carry out divinations numerous times, but the end result was always that Xuanyue had run out of vitality. How could she come back from the dead?
Xiao An said, “I have indeed died once, but I was saved by someone, so I came back alive.”
“Who saved you? I must thank them heavily,” the King of Chu asked.
“He’s not a person of this world. He’s already flown off.”
Xiao An raised her head slightly. Her gaze seemed to pass through the ceiling, drifting towards the distant heavens. Perhaps it was because he had mentioned it far too many times around her, but she also wanted to take a look at beyond the Nine Heavens. In the past, she had never cared about something like that.
“You’re lying! How can someone from beyond this world enter this world freely?” the Light Queen said.
Yue Wuyang and Jin Fugui exchanged glances. They both found this to be unbelievable. All of those who had been invited to the conferment ceremony were existences that stood at the apex of the nine provinces. They understood the powers of the laws of the world best. If it were not for the protection from the laws of the world, the Demon domain would have swallowed the nine provinces a long time ago.
“I’m not sure either.” Xiao An confessed.
This did go against common logic. Even for an existence like Demon God Qiongqi, descending here once would take tremendous effort and create a very large disturbance. The only explanation was that Li Qingshan’s “brother ox” was an existence even higher than Qiongqi, but even if she said that, it was not something these people could understand!
“One Will, you sure have hidden it well from me. So this is where your true legacy came from.”
The Dauntless monk came to a realisation instead and let out a great sigh.
Originally, he was still worried that Xiao An had inherited the Golden Cicada Spirit King’s legacy, but even the Golden Cicada Spirit King could not make her undergo three consecutive tribulations in the short span of a few decades. On top of that, the ability to control the thirty-three buddhist treasures at once was not something that belonged to this world. With what she said, everything made sense now.
“He didn’t want me to reveal this.”
“The ‘he’ you speak of, don’t tell me he’s actually a bodhisattva?”
The Dauntless monk’s voice trembled slightly, instinctively believing that this person from outside this world was a part of buddhism. He believed that only bodhisattvas could travel through the worlds, revive the dead, and make flesh regrow on white bone, nurturing a buddhist prodigy like her.
Xiao An said, “He did mention bodhisattva before.” Except he was talking about the White Bone Bodhisattva. “And I’ve never seen him reveal the form of a bodhisattva.”
“Bodhisattvas can take on thousands of embodiments to bring salvation to all. It’s normal even if he doesn’t reveal his true form.” The Dauntless monk ravished with even greater joy, even developing deep respect towards Xiao An because she had seen a bodhisattva.
If this all was true, then she was the chosen one. She was the hope of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, no, the hope of all of buddhism. He was willing to believe in this too. Compared to that, the mere status of Monk King was nothing.
A messy jangle rang out from behind the grand hall.
The Seven Treasures Monk King gripped his buddhist staff firmly, unable to hold back his excitement, which made the golden rings shake. He had come with the edict to confer the title of Monk King to Xiao An, and he was prepared to persuade Xiao An again. However, when Xiao An went out to reunite with her mother and father, she had asked him to wait there.
He never expected to actually hear such a shocking secret. Having lost to Xiao An’s thirty-three buddhist treasures, he basically believed in what she said more than anyone else. He repeated again and again inside, I see! I see! I need to report this to the grand preceptor. I must get her to visit the Spirit K?etra temple! I must get her to visit the Spirit K?etra temple!
“Amitābha, benevolent be the buddha!”
The four guardian kings brought their palms together and uttered the buddha’s name, bowing towards Xiao An. They were not bowing towards her, but the vague figure of the bodhisattva behind her.
Immediately, the grand hall became enveloped in a mysterious, solemn, and religious atmosphere.
The cultivators all looked at one another. They struggled to understand this feeling as non-buddhists.
If Xiao An truly was the successor of a certain bodhisattva, then that was akin to the arrival of the saviour of the world to all buddhist disciples in the world. The bodhisattva must have revealed himself to Xiao An to guide this world.
I see. That’s the only way to explain their cultivation speed and unbelievable power, except that probably wasn’t some bodhisattva! Gu Yanying thought to herself. She had witnessed both Li Qingshan’s daemon body and Xiao An’s form of white bone. She struggled to believe that was a bodhisattva’s handiwork.
Caught in this atmosphere, the Light Queen was unable to dwell on this problem any further either. She questioned, “Alright then. Even if what you’ve said is true, why have you waited all this time to disclose your identity? If I recall correctly, you became a disciple of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga many years ago!”
“I was murdered. My soul was injured, and my memories were lost. In the very beginning, I couldn’t even talk! Even if I could still recall some memories, I would never be bold enough to admit it. Only afterwards did I completely recover my memories of the past. I’ve made you wait, mother,” Xiao An said apologetically.
“Who murdered you? Was it that woman?” the Dark Queen pointed at the Light Queen and asked.
Xiao An gazed at the Light Queen deeply. Her clear, empty eyes actually made the Light Queen feel a hint of fear. That was not a gaze for looking at a person. It seemed more like she was gazing at nothing.
The Fierce King of Chu frowned heavily. If Xuanyue actually identified the Light Queen as the murderer, then the issues would become severe.
Xiao An shook her head gently. “I’m not too sure. After all, I was still young back then. But this isn’t important. What’s important is that I’ve returned, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, you’re right.” The Dark Queen’s hatred could not be pacified, but she did not want to investigate the matter right now either and ruin the happiness of their reunion.
“No matter who the murderer is, I will make them pay!” The Fierce King of Chu eased up, basically recognising Xiao An’s identity indirectly. Even without that wondrous feeling that existed between close family, he did not believe she had a need to impersonate his daughter.
“Thank you, father.” Xiao An bowed and turned around. She asked the master of the Sword Collection palace, “Palace master, please take out the xiezhi’s horn! Have I told any lies?”
ps: 哇，好累啊，感觉快要燃成灰烬了!
