Longevity, starting from being a chicken raising servant Chapter 2479: 229: Origin

Chapter 229: Origin

“Where exactly am I?”

Wang Ba gradually pried his ‘eyes’ open, casting a reflexive glance around his surroundings. He discovered himself enveloped within a vast expanse of ‘seawater’, shrouded in a murky, gray haze. There was practically no illumination to be found here. The environment felt hollow, crystalline, and tranquil, permeated only by that pervasive, ghostly gray.

Vague, microscopic particles appeared to be drifting through the liquid. Whether he cast his gaze forward or peered behind him, there existed nothing but a profound, unending void. Yet, at the very edge of his ‘perception’, it seemed as if some colossal entity was rapidly carving through the deep abyss.

He instinctively attempted to inspect ‘himself’, only to find a total absence of a physical form. His focus turned toward what he perceived to be ‘below’. No, he couldn’t even be certain if that orientation held any meaning. Suddenly, within that depths, he caught sight of footprints slowly manifesting, pacing across the rippling surface, causing tiny waves to radiate outward.

“Footprints?”

Wang Ba felt a spark of alarm, his instincts driving him to pursue them. However, just as he prepared to propel himself forward, he watched as those strange impressions silently dissolved into the ether, vanishing at a rapid, unsettling pace.

He was struck by a moment of clarity:

“Was I not in the middle of a battle with Tianshang Buddha?”

His mind wavered for a split second before memories, long buried deep within his consciousness, began to resurface. He recollected the sensation of his True Spirit being battered out of his mortal frame by Tianshang Buddha. He could still feel the phantom sensation of a powerful force within the monk’s sleeve, dragging him into this strange ‘ocean’, and he even sensed a massive, hidden consciousness lurking in the depths of these waters.

“Is this connected to that horn?”

The events grew sharper in his mind. He recalled being yanked toward the waves by the sheer power of that relic.

“This sensation is somewhat similar to the experience of seeking approval from the core of Zhang’s Ruins.”

Wang Ba meticulously parsed through his recovered memories. Though he had possessed only fragments in the heat of the clash, every bit of his history now felt crystalline and precise. All he had to do was focus, and these memories would swell forth without a single detail missing. He could even clearly remember the books from a past life, long before his incarnation into the Little Cang World, as if they were written yesterday.

“The horn must be linked to Zhang’s Ruins; it was the catalyst that drew me to the heart of the ruins… yet, another power pulled me away from there.”

By tracing each sensation, he reconstructed the moments after his True Spirit had been liberated by force. The horn had initially pulled him inward before another unseen influence diverted him to this current ‘sea’.

“But if that is the case, where is this place?”

He pondered the question internally. Almost instantly, a piercingly vivid memory reminded him of the specific taunt Tianshang Buddha had uttered while striking him:

“The vast earth remains eternal, yet it still contains the Four Great Emptiness.”

“The Four Great Emptiness… the vast earth is merely one of the four, which explains why the protective barrier of the Land-Parting Staff failed to stop him.”

“It is no wonder… no wonder he could displace my True Spirit with such ease.”

In a flash, Wang Ba understood the intricate web connecting the six great powers of Buddhism. These elements were interdependent; any deficit regarding an opponent like Tianshang Buddha, who possessed the complete set of the Six Greats, created a fatal opening.

“I am still missing the ‘True Void Staff’ from the Eastern Luli Buddha Realm,” Wang Ba noted to himself. He felt a lingering premonition: if he could unify these Six Root Magic Staff, his future confrontation with Tianshang Buddha, even if not a guaranteed victory, would at least prevent the instant shattering of his defenses.

“Still, the disparity in our cultivation realms is far too immense; even with a vulnerability, it should not have been this easy…”

His heart vacillated between newfound confidence and deep helplessness. These feelings were fleeting, however, as a torrent of emotions and thoughts surged through him like an unbridled tide. Joy, rage, lamentation, delight, and regret flooded his senses.

He quickly recognized that his mental state was becoming unstable. Even as his True Spirit attempted to recite the Taishang Emotion-refining technique, he found he could not suppress the deluge of internal noise. In truth, the harder he tried to stifle them, the more rampant those thoughts became. Yet, he simultaneously acted as an impartial observer, watching his own emotions bloom and wither—a heart like polished ice.

The entirety of his cultivation journey, the esoteric rules of cultivators, the deeper meanings of the Six Greats—every experience he had ever endured flowed past him as clearly as markings etched into his palms. Concepts he had once deemed obscure or incomprehensible now revealed their truths, the fog of ignorance lifting completely.

He felt, with bizarre certainty, that his grasp of the Six Greats had reached a level comparable to those residing in the Bodhisattva Realm.

“Even so, against Tianshang Buddha, this is nowhere near enough…”

Wang Ba released a silent sigh. That single ripple of regret was enough to shake his surroundings, and abruptly, he was pulled away from the absolute clarity of his empty state.