ATPnovel Chapter 126 Whoever blocks the way is out
Chapter 126 Whoever blocks the way is out
The moment those four bloody words appeared, the entire audience felt as if they had been struck on the head with a hammer.
[You're out first]
Chen Fan stared at the third page, his gaze unchanged, but his hand had already moved.
He didn't delete those four words.
He picked up his pen and added a line below those four characters.
"Whoever places a character in the game enters the game."
As soon as the words were finished, the third page suddenly jolted.
The black and gold book seemed to have bitten something, and the edges of the pages suddenly tightened, making a harsh scraping sound.
The first spectator in the high position had a somber expression.
The person observing the sutra also looked down at their own fingertips.
The Buddha paused for a moment as he raised his palm.
Chen Fan smiled.
"Don't you like standing on high places?"
"OK."
"I'll write you all down."
He pressed down with his wrist, and the pen swept across the paper.
"Tathagata, the current conflicting character."
"The first audience member, the current conflicting character."
"The one who observes the sutra is currently in a conflict."
Three lines of words fell.
The entire book of scriptures was heated directly.
The blood lines on the page crawled outwards like crazy, like three chains, suddenly shooting out into the void.
The first one was wrapped around Buddha's wrist.
The second lock was the pen that captivated the first viewer.
The third one is the most ruthless; it burrows directly into the chest of the person observing the sutra.
The person observing the sutra trembled and took a half step back for the first time.
"You dare!"
"I've already written it down, so do you think I dare to do it?"
Chen Fan stepped forward, his voice extremely low.
"Once you're in the game, don't expect to stand on the shore and watch the show."
"Eat the wounds, eat the debts, eat the ending."
As soon as he finished speaking, a string of small print appeared at the bottom of the third page.
[The currently conflicting character cannot be immune to damage, cannot withdraw, and cannot stand by.]
[Those who violate this rule will be forced to re-enroll]
The Jade Emperor's eyelids twitched violently as he watched from the other end.
He stared at the line of text, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"This kid..."
When the Buddha looked up, a burst of light erupted, illuminating half the sky.
"You used a torn page to bind me?"
Chen Fan was too lazy to reply.
He just yelled it out.
"It depends on the person!"
Sun Wukong had been waiting for this line.
"I, Old Sun, will go first!"
boom!
The golden cudgel shot out in a straight line, directly striking the Buddha's face.
This blow was more ferocious than any of the previous ones.
It's not a test.
They just smashed it to death.
The Buddha raised his palm to receive the staff, and just as his palm touched the head of the staff, the blood-red words on the third page flashed suddenly.
Click.
His metacarpal bone cracked on the spot.
For the first time, Tathagata's gaze turned completely stern.
he got hurt.
It is not that the Buddha's light is scattered, nor that the Dharma image is broken.
It's a real injury.
Those Buddhist soldiers in the distance, who had been holding on, turned pale when they saw this scene.
"Buddha... has he bled?"
"How is that possible!"
"Wasn't he an outsider? How did he get injured?"
"That's not the case anymore."
As he cursed, Pigsy swung his rake and slammed a charging Vajra into the ground.
"Even I, Old Pig, understand, and you still don't?"
"Anyone whose name is written on it will get a beating today!"
On the other side, the first audience member was already thinking of taking his pen and leaving.
But as soon as he stepped back, the seats beneath his feet flipped over on their own, dragging him back to the center of the battlefield.
Yang Jian, carrying a three-pointed double-edged sword, stood blocking the way with a cold face.
"Where are you going?"
The first audience member stared at him, his smile freezing.
"True Lord, this is not the time for us to fight to the death."
Without uttering a single word, Yang Jian flipped his blade and slashed directly at the target.
"That's it now."
clang!
The pen knives clashed, sparks flying everywhere.
The first audience member's wrist went numb, and he almost couldn't even hold the pen.
The composure on his face finally crumbled.
"You can hurt me too?"
Yang Jian took a step forward.
"You can fall down."
On the other side, Chen Fan had already rushed towards the spectator.
Tang Sanzang followed on the left, constantly writing down punctuation with his pen.
Zongwu pressed down on the right, his palms on the ground, and large black lines spread along the cracked ground, sealing off the observer's feet.
The sutra reader raised his hand and turned the page, creating a wall of shadows.
"You three think you can touch me?"
Tang Sanzang picked up his brush and made a mark.
"Delete one page of yours."
The wall panel cracked open with a sound.
Zong Wu suddenly stood up and punched the opening, widening it.
Chen Fan didn't stop, he squeezed into the crack, and his fist went straight for the observer's heart.
boom!
That punch landed squarely.
The person observing the sutra swayed slightly, but their chest only dented in a little before immediately bulging back out.
Chen Fan shook his numb hand and cursed.
"Really hard."
The spectator looked down at his chest, his gaze growing even colder.
"You were smarter in the last round than you are now."
I lost the last round.
Chen Fan grinned.
"This time, I'm not being reasonable."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Tang Sanzang's pen arrived again.
This monk is darker than anyone else today.
He stopped chanting scriptures and started writing malicious tricks.
"Those who contemplate the sutra bear the spillover effects of current conflicts."
"Those who are accumulating inventory will be given priority in returning the original product."
As soon as the two lines were pressed down, the third page immediately responded.
The wandering shadows around the sutra observer seemed to suddenly go out of control, all crashing into him.
puff!
A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of the sutra-observing person's mouth.
The entire room fell silent for a moment.
Even Sun Wukong, who was fighting fiercely with Buddha, glanced back and then burst into laughter.
"good!"
"So you bleed too!"
The specter looked up at Tang Sanzang.
That gaze was like a knife.
Tang Sanzang, however, lifted his cassock and stood up straight.
"This humble monk used to chant sutras for people to listen to."
"It's your turn to listen today."
"You've got to pay for it, so keep spitting it out."
High in the sky, Buddha was furious to the extreme.
He clasped his hands together, and a towering Buddha-like figure rose up from behind him, ready to crush Sun Wukong and his staff together.
"evil creature!"
Sun Wukong gritted his teeth, and his monkey hair stood on end.
"You think you can bully me once and then try again?"
He raised his hand and grabbed, and the golden cudgel suddenly thickened, pushing against the Buddha's body and rushing upwards.
The two forces collided, and the sky began to twist.
Large swathes of space cracked open, and the seams between the three realms below trembled.
Upon seeing this, the Jade Emperor dared not wait any longer.
He slapped the sky with his palm.
"Open the base formation!"
Rumbling--
Behind the South Heavenly Gate, all thirty-three heavens lit up simultaneously.
One ancient array pattern after another rose from the depths, like iron nails, directly driving into the seams of the three realms.
The crack that had already broken open was held up by the power of the Heavenly Court's resources.
The Queen Mother stood behind the formation, her face pale.
"You really opened this whole thing?"
The Jade Emperor stared at the battlefield, his voice deep and resonant.
"If we don't reinforce it now, the Three Realms will be scattered before they finish their battle."
"Let them finish their fight first, regardless of who wins or loses today."
The gods in Heaven felt their scalps tingle upon hearing this.
This was the first time the Jade Emperor had revealed his true intentions.
It wasn't to stop Chen Fan.
They're there to cover for them.
Everyone below understood as well.
The Bull Demon King was the first to react, and he laughed while holding his iron cudgel.
"Okay, at least that one in the sky is acting like a human being now."
"Men, clear the area!"
"Don't let any of these remaining bald monks and miscellaneous soldiers from the Correction Division go!"
Red Boy was the first to rush out, and with a flick of his Fire-Tipped Spear, the Samadhi True Fire burned into a line of fire, cutting half of the Buddhist army in half.
"Whoever runs will die!"
Pigsy swung his rake and rammed it in, cursing incessantly.
"Weren't you being quite arrogant just now?"
"Come on, keep calling for your grandpa pig."
Sha Wujing was a man of few words, and with a single swipe of his crescent shovel, he would take down enemies one by one, specifically targeting those who were still trying to form an array.
The white dragon horse transformed into its dragon form, sweeping across the ground and knocking over all the remaining soldiers of the Correction Division.
The moment the fighting started, the situation changed immediately.
The Buddhist soldiers who had previously tried to surround them began to retreat in droves.
But as soon as they left, words appeared on the third page.
[Leaving a meeting during a battle is considered a disqualification]
The next instant, the dozen or so people who ran first in the back row were instantly blown into a cloud of blood mist.
The remaining people stood there, their legs trembling.
"Retreat or not, we'll both die?"
"Who wrote this rubbish?!"
"Chen Fan!"
"Then kill Chen Fan first!"
Hundreds of eyes turned to them instantly.
Chen Fan was chasing after the spectator and beating him fiercely, without even turning his head.
Zong Wu laughed first, revealing a mouthful of bloody teeth.
"Looking for him?"
"Go first, I'll go first."
With a tug of his hands, the black patterns on the ground stood up and transformed into chains, dragging the charging person down by the waist.
Tang Sanzang picked up his pen to deliver the final blow.
Those who interfere in the chaos will first suffer the backlash.
Bang bang bang!
The first group of people had just crashed in when they were hit as if they had run into an invisible wall; their noses were broken and their faces were covered in blood.
The onlookers were all dumbfounded.
"How are we supposed to fight like this?"
"Whoever takes the position will fall!"
"They've brought the rules to life!"
Above, the face of the first spectator grew increasingly grim.
He was originally best at setting the stage from the outside and observing how people got involved.
Today, he himself became the one in the line.
Yang Jian's attacks grew heavier and heavier, each strike aimed at the pen in Yang Jian's hand.
The seventh strike landed.
click!
The pen finally cracked open.
The first audience member's hand trembled, and his eyes shrank.
"You dare destroy my pen?"
Yang Jian sneered.
"Don't you like to change other people's things?"
"I'll change you today."
His third eye suddenly opened, and a beam of divine light shot down, striking the first spectator squarely between the eyebrows.
The first audience member screamed and fell off his seat, half of his face burned.
Below was utter silence.
The gods in Heaven felt a chill run down their spines.
Those from the Buddhist community were even unable to speak.
One Buddha saw blood.
One of the first spectators fell from his seat.
Today's game has really turned the tables.
Chen Fan ignored the people around him.
He only had eyes for those who observed the scriptures.
This guy is the most troublesome.
After several rounds of trapping, they finally dragged him into the police station, but he was too sturdy; despite taking so many hits, he wasn't fundamentally harmed.
Those who observe the scriptures also see it.
He stared at Chen Fan, his voice hoarse.
"You think you can win by making me a character?"
Chen Fan approached step by step.
Whether you win or not depends on whether you can break down.
The sutra reader raised his hand, and the surrounding pages spun wildly, eventually drawing out another gray shadow from behind him.
It's the same stuff from "the last round" again.
Tang Sanzang's expression changed.
"Don't let him unfold!"
Zongwu pounced on him and pressed down.
But the gray shadow only emerged halfway before the Observer forcibly stuffed it back into his body.
He clearly didn't dare to put the old wheels' stuff in at this time.
Chen Fan's eyes lit up even more when he saw this.
Scared.
Where there is fear, there will be a breach.
He suddenly stopped and looked down at the third page.
With a flick of the pen, another line is written.
"Those who contemplate the sutra first inherit the damage from the previous cycle."
With that stroke, the black gold scripture almost exploded from his hand.
Chen Fan's tiger's mouth was split open, and blood flowed down the pen.
The cost is high.
The character "可" was completed.
The person observing the sutra suddenly froze.
The next moment, the area on his chest suddenly sank inward by an inch.
It's like some old wound has suddenly resurfaced.
"Now!"
After Chen Fan finished shouting, he had already rushed in front of him.
Tang Sanzang is on the left, holding up his pen to cover the shadow on the page.
Zongwu, on the right, smashed through the protective layer with a punch.
Chen Fan crashed head-on into the spectator, all his strength striking the spot on the chest.
The first punch.
The person observing the sutra took half a step back.
The second punch.
A muffled thud came from my chest.
The third punch.
Click.
A soft sound, very soft.
It was more piercing than any roar.
The sutra reader bowed his head.
A thin crack finally appeared in the center of his chest.
It's not a surface crack.
It's truly cracked inwards.
Everyone around saw it.
Sun Wukong grinned and smashed Buddha back a hundred feet with his staff.
Yang Jian also looked up.
The Jade Emperor straightened up immediately.
The Buddha's gaze turned utterly cold.
The first audience member was even more horrified, as if they had seen a ghost.
"impossible……"
Chen Fan didn't laugh.
He stared at the crack, his pupils shrinking sharply.
Because something fell out of the crack.
It's not blood.
It's not bone.
It is a very small seed.
It was grayish-white, wrapped in a layer of old paper, as if it had been buried for many years and had just been dug out from the deepest place.
When it fell from the chest of the sutra reader, the third page vibrated violently.
On the black and gold scripture, all the blood-written words lit up simultaneously.
The system's voice also exploded in Chen Fan's mind.
[Earliest version detected...]
[System seed...]
Chapter 247 The Earliest Seed
The moment the grayish-white seed fell out, the observer's expression changed.
The first time, he wasn't staring at Chen Fan.
It's about keeping an eye on that seed.
It's like staring at your own life that's about to be lost.
"Give it to me!"
This sound was very urgent.
He was so anxious that even the first spectator turned his head to glance at him.
Chen Fan reacted even faster.
Before he could move, the black and gold scripture exploded with a ring of bloody light. The third page trembled violently, frantically trying to stick to the seed.
The system sounds blended together.
The earliest version of the system seed was detected.
Original write traces detected.
The contemplation of scriptures is not the only source.
[Permission conflict, permission conflict]
Chen Fan's eyelids twitched.
Not the source?
Was that old man just one of the people who received it?
High above, Sun Wukong had already swept away Buddha's palm shadow with his staff, shouting, "Old Chen, grab the stuff first!"
"nonsense!"
Chen Fan stomped his foot and shot forward.
Those who observe the scriptures will be faster.
Ashes were still seeping from the crack in his chest as he raised his hand to grab it. His five fingers, like five slender paper hooks, reached out to grasp the seed from afar.
They didn't manage to grab it.
Zongwu rushed in first.
He had been huddled to the side, suffering the most beatings in the previous chapters, but now he was as fierce as a mad dog. Half of his sleeve was burned off, and he charged headfirst into the middle of Chen Fan and the Observer of Scriptures, carrying the Questioning Stone in his hand.
"Want to recycle? You're dreaming!"
boom!
He took the stone directly.
As soon as the black stone fell, a hard shell immediately appeared on the seed.
Cardboard, stone shell, and blood-stained patterns—three layers locked together.
When the observer reached out with his hand, he only managed to grab a string of sparks.
His eye twitched, and his voice became deep.
"Zongwu, you dare touch this?"
Zongwu grinned, his mouth full of blood.
"I'm about to die, what's one more charge to me?"
Upon hearing this, the Bull Demon King laughed first.
"Okay, that sounds like something a man would say."
The spectator didn't reply, but raised his hand and pressed down again.
A sea of paper fell from the sky.
Each page of paper was washed away with the seeds.
Chen Fan flipped through the book in his hand, and the blood-red characters on the third page suddenly lit up, drawing a red line in mid-air and cutting the sea of paper in two.
"Since you're in such a hurry, I absolutely cannot give it to you."
The spectator stared at him with a cold gaze.
"Chen Fan, you have no idea what you've obtained."
"I know," Chen Fan replied immediately, "I know you're as anxious as if your ancestors' graves are emitting smoke."
Pigsy was stunned by what he heard, then slapped his thigh.
"Well said!"
Those high-ranking individuals gathered around the remaining seats turned pale.
They can tell.
This thing is unusual.
Otherwise, the person observing the sutra would not have lost their composure like this.
The first audience member is in an even worse situation right now.
His seat was mostly cracked, with only a narrow strip of floorboards remaining under him, and he still had to keep his eyes on the collapsed audience seats. And to make matters worse, Sun Wukong and Yang Jian were on either side of him, giving him no chance to breathe.
"Keep pressuring him!"
Tang Sanzang suddenly shouted.
He tapped the pen in his hand three times.
A stroke landed on the head of the first spectator.
A stroke landed on the broken edge of the seat.
The final stroke landed at the feet of the Buddha.
"If everyone else ignores you, what right do you have to sit in first place!"
As soon as the word comes out.
Many of the torn and rewritten images below looked up, all turning to look at the first audience member.
Their gazes converged.
The composure on the first audience member's face completely crumbled.
Click!
The seat beneath him split open again.
My whole body suddenly sank.
The Buddha's side is also not having an easy time.
Sun Wukong showed no mercy to the Buddha, his staff moving faster and faster, aiming specifically at the Buddha's palm and the edge of the lotus platform.
"retreat!"
"If you don't back down, I, Old Sun, will beat you down today!"
The Buddha raised his palm to receive the three blows.
When the fourth batter landed, he actually took a half step back.
Just this half step.
The entire room fell silent for a moment.
The Bull Demon King's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"Has Buddha retreated?"
Pigsy's throat bobbed.
"They really withdrew..."
The Jade Emperor's face darkened further, and he clenched his fists in his sleeves.
The Buddha sits too high in the Three Realms; even taking just half a step back is like receiving a slap in the face.
Sun Wukong understands this best.
He grinned broadly, showing his teeth.
"You're quitting too?"
"You were pretty hard when you were on top of me back then!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than he turned and struck again with the stick.
The blow caused the Buddha's palm to tremble with light, and a corner of the lotus platform broke off.
Chen Fan stopped watching the battlefield.
He had already caught the seed.
The moment I touched it, it wasn't hot; instead, it felt cool.
It's like picking up an old bone dug out of a grave.
The outer paper layer of the seed is cracking little by little.
The black and gold scriptures were pasted to the side, like wolves smelling meat.
The system volume has been lowered.
[Read immediately recommended]
[Short read time]
[But it will reveal your coordinates]
Chen Fan's lips twitched.
"You always say the second half of the sentence at times like this."
He had just finished cursing when the seed cracked open on its own.
There are no buds inside.
It was a very thin wisp of white light.
The white light contained many fragmented words.
Chen Fan only glanced at it, and sweat broke out on his back.
That's not normal text.
It's more like a record.
Two words that he had seen before popped up first.
[Continue the writing plan]
[Data wipe plan]
The next instant, the third line squeezed out.
[Free-range grazing plan]
Chen Fan paused, his breath catching in his throat.
A third option?
I will neither continue writing nor delete it.
Free-range?
As soon as he tightened his grip, the fragmented words flipped backward on their own, as if someone was desperately pulling the paper from the other end.
A few more lines of broken sentences flashed in the white light.
[Observe the fluctuations]
[Allowing things to get out of control]
[Sifting plate...]
The following words did not appear.
The spectator suddenly went mad and pressed down with both hands.
"Shut it!"
This was the first time there was a hint of panic in that sound.
Even Buddha glanced in this direction.
The first audience member's face turned ashen.
Chen Fan wouldn't listen.
He took the seed and directly thrust his divine sense into it.
With a loud bang.
It was as if a door had been smashed open in front of me.
He saw many things.
I see different versions of myself: dead, insane, kneeling, and seated in a high position.
I saw different versions of Sun Wukong. Some were pressed back down the mountain, some became fighting stone statues, and some simply burned the Heavenly Court to the ground.
They saw Tang Sanzang chanting sutras until his mouth bled.
They saw the white dragon horse dragging an empty sedan chair through the dilapidated road to the Western Paradise.
These images flashed by extremely quickly.
It was all in an instant.
It's like someone doesn't want him to see the whole thing.
Chen Fan held on tightly.
Finally, on the innermost layer of old paper, he only had time to make out two words.
Outside the trading range.
Just those two words.
The next second, the seed jolted violently.
The white light receded.
It's as if some deeper content was forcibly cut off.
Chen Fan's mind exploded.
Outside the trading range?
What do you mean by "outside the table"?
Outsiders?
A move outside the trading range?
Is there another game going on outside the main board?
"Give it to me!" The Amitabha Buddha almost pounced on him.
He was really anxious.
They were so desperate that they didn't even care about maintaining their high positions and dignity.
Seeing this, Zongwu took the questioning stone and slapped it with his backhand, directly slapping the seed into the heart of the stone.
"seal up!"
A muffled thud.
Immediately, a ring of fine lines appeared on the surface of the stone.
The seed sank completely inside.
Only a bit of gray-white remains in the center of the stone.
The person who was observing the sutra grasped at empty air, and their face fell.
"Zongwu!"
With a flick of his sleeve, he slashed down a page of black paper.
Zongwu was too exhausted to dodge.
Chen Fan stepped in front, blocking the way with a scroll.
Snapped!
The black paper collided with the third page, exploding into a shower of scorched dust.
Chen Fan's arm went numb, and half of his shoulder felt heavy.
"If you want to steal something, ask me first."
"Are you worthy?" the Observer stared at him. "You haven't even figured out which batch you wrote it in."
That's a very hurtful statement.
The Bull Demon King and the others paled upon hearing this.
Chen Fan smiled.
"If you're being so harsh, it means I was right just now."
"What you're afraid of isn't me getting the seeds."
"You're afraid I'll find out that you're not the only one truly orchestrating this."
One sentence was enough.
The observer's pupils contracted slightly.
very short.
Chen Fan still managed to catch him.
correct.
You guessed right.
A surge of anger welled up in Chen Fan's heart.
So there really were hands up there.
The contemplative practitioner is just one of the holders.
The so-called continuation plan and deletion plan are not the end at all.
There's also a free-range grazing plan.
It also has a code name.
Outside the trading range.
These two words pierced his mind like hooks.
The aerial battle became even more chaotic at this moment.
The first audience seat was completely overwhelmed.
Snap, snap, three snaps in a row.
The entire first seat was spread out from the middle to both sides.
His face turned pale, and he frantically tapped his pen more than a dozen times to fill in the missing bits.
Tang Sanzang immediately raised his brush to counter.
"What are you patching up for? You'll just fall!"
Yang Jian wielded his three-pointed, double-edged sword horizontally, severing the last support of the seat.
Sun Wukong was even more decisive, swinging his staff across the air.
"roll!"
boom!
The first spectator swayed.
The top spot has been lost by 70%.
One of his legs was dangling in the air.
Buddha also took another step back.
This time it wasn't half a step, it was a whole step.
The area covered by the Buddha's light immediately shrank by one circle.
The demon army below fell silent for a moment, then roared, shaking the entire fault line.
"Refund!"
"Buddha has retreated again!"
"Hit them again! Give them a good beating!"
Pigsy roared the loudest, and his belly trembled along with it.
Sha Wujing, who was usually a man of few words, slammed his crescent shovel on the ground at this moment.
"Press it down!"
The situation is about to turn around.
Just then, everyone's feet suddenly lost their footing.
It wasn't anyone who made the move.
It was the seam between the three realms below that collapsed.
First came a soft sound.
Like cloth being torn apart by fingernails.
Then the seam that had been hidden deep inside suddenly tore wide open.
A black line appeared between heaven and earth.
From the lingering shadow of the South Heavenly Gate, it stretched all the way to the ruined seat of Mount Ling.
Countless fragments began to fall inside.
The clouds, the mountain shadows, the broken pages of the law, even the illusory foundation beneath the audience seats was collapsing.
Chen Fan stumbled and immediately ducked.
Something was shining deep inside the crack.
It's not anyone.
It is a eukaryote.
The thing that had been hiding at the bottom, holding the key to the Three Realms, was now forced to its limit and issued a hoarse warning.
It wasn't just passed on to Chen Fan.
It was passed on to the entire audience.
Everyone heard it.
[Seam failure]
The Three Realms are about to be severed.
[The seam needs to be repaired immediately]
Otherwise, we'll both fall.
The entire room fell silent.
Even Sun Wukong's staff stopped in mid-air.
The Bull Demon King cursed, "Mending the seams? Who's going to mend them?"
After a moment of silence, the true core finally uttered a sentence.
One person is needed to enter the gap.
[Using oneself as a wedge]
Chen Fan suddenly looked up.
Sun Wukong also turned around to look at him at the same time.
Their eyes met.
The next instant, a hand suddenly emerged from the black line.
Chapter 248 The Man Who Mending
When that hand emerged from the darkness, the entire audience stopped.
Its palm was dry and thin, its fingers blackened, as if it had been soaking in a crack for too long. It first grasped at the air, making a couple of grasping motions, like a drowning person searching for shore. Then, it gripped the edge of the crack, its knuckles squeezing outwards inch by inch.
Pigsy's scalp tingled, and he stumbled back two steps.
"Damn it, can people even survive in this crack?"
The Bull Demon King held up his axe, cursing as he went, but didn't dare to move forward.
Sun Wukong's eyes flashed with anger, and he swung his golden cudgel to smash it down.
"Go back!"
Before the baton even hit, the core lit up first.
It's not blocking, it's pointing.
The hand revealed its true form in the light. The back of the hand was covered with densely packed tiny characters, as if someone had carved them stroke by stroke with a knife. There were so many characters that the skin was cracked. The top line was the largest.
[Seam Repair Log]
Sun Wukong's staff stopped in mid-air.
The hand crawled out a little further. It wasn't human. It was a half-body paper puppet. The upper body was human-shaped, but the lower half was still stuck in the seam, like a nail that hadn't been completely pulled out. It had no eyes, and its face had only a thin line that opened and closed, making a dry rustling sound as it rubbed against the paper.
"Investigate... mend... the cost..."
The eukaryote immediately connects.
[Can be supplemented]
[Part 1: The Origin of the Buddha's Land]
[Part Two, Section One: First Audience Judge Seat]
Part Three, The Writer's Half-Life
As soon as the voice fell, it was as if the surroundings had been emptied.
Pigsy broke the silence first.
"What do you mean by 'half-life'? And this thing can be split up and sold?"
The eukaryotes ignored him.
The black crack continued to spread beneath their feet. The one in the sky was even longer, like a sheet of paper torn apart, with fragments constantly falling from its edges. As the fragments fell, the rocks vanished without a sound, as if they had never existed.
Tang Sanzang looked up and gripped the pen in his hand tightly.
"We can't delay any longer."
Chen Fan didn't speak, but looked at Tathagata first.
The Buddha's palm held the ball of light steadily, and his expression remained calm, as if he had anticipated this scene. He looked at the true core and spoke calmly.
"If the original source of Buddhism is stripped away, the Western Paradise will be in chaos."
The Bull Demon King immediately spat.
To put it bluntly, it's because you can't bear to part with it.
The Buddha didn't even lift his eyelids.
"If you're willing to exchange it for the Great Sage Equaling Heaven Palace, it's not hard to say."
The Bull Demon King choked, his face turning as black as the bottom of a pot.
Everyone then looked at the first audience member.
The first audience member stood beside the seemingly real seat, slowly turning the pen in his hand halfway around, his voice cold.
"If the seat of adjudication is vacant, I will lose the power to define boundaries. At that time, the three realms will be in even greater chaos."
Pigsy laughed in anger.
"Good heavens, you two, one afraid of losing territory, the other afraid of losing chair. The seam is practically torn to the crotch, and you're still calculating."
The first spectator lowered their gaze.
Pigsy felt a chill run down his neck and, cursing, hid behind the Bull Demon King.
Chen Fan then spoke.
"And the third one?"
The eukaryotic light shone brightly.
[The sequel writer enters the gap]
[Stable seams between three realms]
[Price: Shortened lifespan, shattered consciousness, loss of half of the ability to continue writing]
[Life or death unknown]
The room fell silent again.
The white dragon horse took half a step forward, its breathing becoming erratic.
The color drained from Tang Sanzang's face little by little.
Sun Wukong turned his head and stared intently at Chen Fan.
"If you dare to even think about it, I'll break your legs first."
Chen Fan smiled.
"You knock."
Sun Wukong really did walk forward.
One step, and the ground exploded.
"Who do you think you are? You think you're the one who has to hold up the sky when it falls? Last time you fed Old Sun fruit on Five Finger Mountain for a hundred years, and now you want to use yourself to fill the gap? Chen Fan, are you tired of living?!"
Chen Fan neither retreated nor dodged.
"Right now, there are only three things that can mend the situation. If they won't deliver the first two, are you just waiting for the entire Three Realms to collapse?"
"Let it collapse, it's not your place to die."
"Who said I'm going to die?"
"Eukaryotes are said to be in critical condition!"
Sun Wukong practically roared this sentence.
The people around remained silent.
Everyone could tell that the monkey was really anxious.
Chen Fan stared at the crack. Things were still leaking out. Some were torn pages, some were fragments of writing, and some were half-figures. Everything was falling, and breaking as it fell.
He lowered his voice.
"This game can't drag on. Every moment we delay, the crack grows bigger. Once it's completely broken, it won't just be me who dies, it'll be game over for everyone."
"That won't work either."
This time, it was Tang Sanzang who spoke.
Tang Seng held the pen horizontally in front of him and stood in front of Chen Fan.
"This humble monk will not agree."
Chen Fan was stunned for a moment.
"You're here too?"
Tang Sanzang stared at him, his eyes slightly red, but his voice was very steady.
"You've changed the scriptures. You've overturned the path. You've dragged all of us, who were supposed to follow the old way, out of the pages. Now you want to go back into the pages yourself? What kind of person are you?"
Chen Fan opened his mouth, but couldn't reply for a moment.
Zongwu also came out.
This man, who was usually taciturn, looked extremely grim. He flicked his sleeve and stood to the other side, blocking the view.
"You can't get off."
Chen Fan frowned.
Give me a reason.
"You are the sequel writer."
"That's not a reason."
"That's the biggest reason." Zongwu stared intently at the crack. "Anyone can die now, but you can't. If you go in, who will take over the game outside? The Observers have just dispersed, the earliest seeds haven't been fully understood, and the three parties at the top are all watching. If you're gone, forget about patching up the cracks, the entire game will collapse."
Pigsy nodded quickly.
"Yes, yes, yes, I may not know much else, but this is reliable. You are the backbone of our group. If you really go in, the monks will go crazy, the monkeys will be slaughtered, and I, Old Pig, will probably be thrown into chaos too."
The Bull Demon King said in a muffled voice, "I won't stop you from showing off. But now is really not the time."
Chen Fan glanced around.
They blocked them all.
Sun Wukong held his staff, Tang Sanzang held his pen horizontally, and Zongwu blocked the side completely.
The atmosphere suddenly became extremely tense.
The Buddha suddenly spoke.
"Since no one is willing to give it up, let's look for another way."
Sun Wukong suddenly turned his head.
"If you had the law, why didn't you release it sooner?"
The Buddha ignored him and only looked at the true core.
"There should be more than one old method for mending seams."
The first audience member seemed to have thought of something; his eyes flickered slightly, but he remained silent.
Chen Fan saw this scene and his heart stirred.
These two people haven't completely vomited anything.
Just as he was about to press for answers, the paper puppet in the dark suddenly twitched. The thin line on its face abruptly split open, making an even more unpleasant sound.
"time limit……"
The eukaryote shuddered.
The seams continue to deteriorate.
No supplementation within thirty breaths
[The Fall Begins]
The next instant, a corner of a palace roof fell directly down from the gaping hole in the sky.
The corner of the roof fell, turning into grayish-white paper scraps. It exploded with a deafening roar mid-air. Hundreds of miles away, an entire mountain range vanished, as if smoothed out by a single hand.
Everyone's expression changed.
If we delay any longer, it'll really be over.
Chen Fan took a breath and walked straight ahead.
Sun Wukong flashed and blocked the way.
"Try taking one more step forward."
Chen Fan's eyes hardened as well.
"Get out of the way."
"No."
"Monkey, I don't have time to mess around with you."
"Old Sun didn't cause you any trouble."
The two were pressed together, like two pieces of iron about to shatter.
Suddenly, Tang Sanzang pointed his pen at the ground.
That's enough.
The sound wasn't loud, but the surroundings were completely silent.
He stared at Buddha, then at the first audience member, asking each question word by word.
"Are there really only these three things?"
The Buddha remained silent.
The first audience member remained silent.
Even Pigsy (Zhu Bajie) understood this.
"There really are others!"
The Bull Demon King immediately cursed.
"I knew it. These high-ranking people never say a complete story. Even now, they're still hiding things."
Sun Wukong's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and he pointed his golden cudgel directly at them.
"explain."
The first audience member's face darkened.
"The old work rules have been abolished for many years."
Zong Wu, who had been staring intently at Chen Fan, suddenly stiffened upon hearing those four words.
He suddenly turned his head as if he had grabbed something.
"Old labor rules?"
The first audience member shut up.
Zong Wu's eyes grew brighter and brighter, like a ball of fire burning fiercely. He rushed to the paper puppet, staring at the words carved on the back of its hand, and quickly blurted them out.
"Repair record... Old seam procedures... Workmanship liability determination..."
He looked up at the crack, at the core, at Tathagata and the first audience member, and finally slapped his forehead hard.
"I remember now!"
Chen Fan immediately asked, "What?"
Zong Wu was panting, speaking at an alarmingly fast pace.
"There's a rule in the old construction rules: seams aren't just patched by whoever wants to. Responsibility is determined first. Whoever caused the crack has priority in patching it. Whoever bears the most responsibility goes first. If the patching isn't enough, then the next person in line goes down."
These words stunned the entire room.
Pigsy's eyes widened in surprise.
"There's such a good rule?"
The Bull Demon King laughed loudly.
"Damn, this is more like it. Whoever broke the pot, wash the dishes."
Sun Wukong was taken aback at first, then grinned and looked up at the sky with murderous intent.
"Then investigate."
Tathagata's eyes sunk slightly.
The first spectator's hand holding the pen stopped.
Chen Fan also realized what was happening.
How did this crack appear?
The Observer snatched the third page. A high-level interception. The first audience blocked the way. The Buddha suppressed it. The true core was unbalanced. Even earlier, those high-level transactions, those rounds of rewriting, were what brought the gaps to where they are today.
If anyone is to be held responsible, he should not be the first to be blamed.
Tang Sanzang raised his pen and pointed directly at the true core.
"Given the precedent, pronounce judgment immediately."
The eukaryote remained silent for two breaths.
Like searching.
Buddha finally spoke, his voice turning colder.
"The old rules were abolished long ago. Reviving them now will only make the situation more chaotic."
Zong Wu swung his hand back, and a gray-black talisman struck the back of the paper puppet's hand.
"Don't give me that crap. Just because it's blocked doesn't mean it's gone."
The paper puppet was stimulated by the talisman, and all the words on its arm lit up.
Lines of old characters emerge from the surface.
【Seam Construction Guidelines】
First assess the damage, then determine liability, and finally repair the damage.
[Prioritize your primary responsibility]
The first audience member's expression finally changed.
"Zongwu, how dare you?"
Zongwu seemed to have no choice but to retort with insults.
"I'm about to fall into the Three Realms along with you, what else wouldn't I dare to do!"
He suddenly reached into his pocket and pulled out a black iron plaque.
The sign was small and cracked at the edges, clearly an old item from many years ago. Only two characters were engraved on it.
Judgment.
Chen Fan's pupils contracted.
This guy actually had something like this hidden in his hand.
Zongwu bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The black iron plate blazed brightly with a loud hum.
The Buddha raised his hand to press down.
Sun Wukong slammed his staff down, forcefully holding the Buddha's palm in mid-air.
"You dare to move and try."
The first viewer picked up his pen to write.
Tang Sanzang directly wielded his brush, and large swaths of ink surged up, tightly binding the brush.
"Anyone who tries to obstruct the verdict today is guilty."
The Bull Demon King and Pigsy pressed forward from the left and right respectively.
The white dragon horse raised its head and neighed, its dragon shadow soaring into the sky, instantly holding up the space below the rift.
Chen Fan did not make a move.
He only stared at Zongwu.
Zong Wu gripped the black iron plaque with both hands, the veins on the back of his hands bulging as if he were pressing all the bones in his body into it. He roared at the True Core.
"The old rules still apply, do you accept them or not?"
The eukaryote dimmed briefly.
The next moment, the entire world shook violently.
The paper puppet suddenly raised its head, its gaping mouth stretching all the way to its ears.
[Rule recognition in progress]
[Initiating access to work-related judgment permissions]
[Tracing the source of the cracks]
[Start Determining Liability]
The beam of light shot up from the core, first shining on the crack, then on Tathagata, then on the first audience member, and finally on Chen Fan.
Everyone held their breath for a moment.
Immediately afterwards, the True Core spat out a new line of blood-red characters.
[Primary Responsible Party]
Chapter 249 Judgment and Repair
He hadn't even finished uttering those three words.
The Buddha made the first move.
He raised his hand and struck with a palm, the golden light pressing down on the entire crack, clearly intending to crush the true core's judgment directly.
"You old bald monk, what's your hurry!"
Sun Wukong had been watching him for a while.
With a sweep of the golden cudgel, half the sky trembled with a loud bang. Before the golden palm could even land on the core, it was shattered in mid-air by the cudgel's shadow.
What shattered was not light.
It is scripture.
It fell densely, like a rain of scalding paper.
Pigsy, shrinking back, cursed, "Damn it, they're really getting desperate. Isn't this just a guilty conscience?"
The eukaryotic research hasn't stopped.
The blood-red characters squeezed outwards stroke by stroke in mid-air, like someone carving on a stone with a blunt knife.
[Primary Responsible Object – Tathagata]
The whole stadium erupted in cheers.
The Bull Demon King was the first to burst out laughing, slapping his thigh with laughter.
"Good! Very good! I knew that old monk wasn't clean!"
Tang Sanzang raised his eyes and stared at Buddha, his hand holding the pen bent from gripping it so tightly.
The first audience member turned pale and shouted, "This ruling is invalid! The eukaryotes are contaminated; the rules have already been distorted!"
"You're biased towards your mother."
Chen Fan took a step forward and slapped the black gold scripture directly in front of his chest.
"You were just adhering to the rules. Now that the verdict is against one of your own people, you're saying it's invalid?"
The first viewer's eyelids twitched violently.
He was about to speak when the paper puppet in the crack laughed first.
His mouth stretched wide, and half of his face split open.
[Secondary Responsible Party – The First Audience]
Now even the Heavenly Court was silent.
The Jade Emperor stood the furthest away, but his hands inside his sleeves were clenched tightly.
Everyone can see it.
This is not a small pot.
This is a massive, collapsing cauldron.
The compassion on Tathagata's face finally crumbled. He stared at the true core, his voice low and cold.
"The old rules of the trade were that you only repaired the seams, not punished anyone."
"That's what you said."
Chen Fan raised his hand and pointed at the paper puppet.
"It's about tracing the source of the cracks and then assigning responsibility. You're too late to change your tune now."
"Chen Fan!"
The Buddha's voice sounded as if it were being squeezed out from between his teeth.
"Do you really think you can overturn everything with just an old rule?"
"Whether we can turn things around or not, let's settle the score first."
Chen Fan retorted with a single sentence, giving him no chance to respond.
That's the exciting part.
Everyone present could see that Buddha wanted to suppress [the Buddha].
It just can't be suppressed.
The eukaryotic samples will continue to be analyzed.
The beam of light swung and landed at the deepest part of the crack.
There used to be only black lines there.
At this moment, the black thread was lifted, revealing layers of old marks. It looked as if someone had sewed it up, then unraveled it, then sewed it up again, then unraveled it again. The deepest layer even held a tattered piece of paper.
A line of old words was written on the scrap of paper.
[Use the pilgrimage thread to cover the original crack]
Pigsy understood, and his face turned green.
"So, they knew this place was cracked all along. The pilgrimage wasn't just about the journey itself, it was about using us to patch up the leaks?"
The white dragon horse's breath hitched, and its four hooves kicked up sparks in the air.
Tang Sanzang immediately replied, "It's not about patching up leaks. It's about using living people as thread and all living beings as glue."
These words made the situation even more tense.
The expressions on the faces of the heavenly soldiers and generals began to change.
They used to only know how to obey orders.
No one seems to have considered that the sky they stand under might actually be leaking.
Buddha suddenly smiled.
It wasn't that kind of compassionate smile.
It was a cold laugh that was completely torn apart.
"So what if I know?"
He took a step forward, and golden lotuses burst open beneath his feet.
"The cracks need to be patched. Someone has to go in."
"All this fuss is just a way for you to find a different way to die."
Sun Wukong's eyes widened instantly.
"Before I go, I'll twist your head off first."
The golden cudgel crashed down.
The Buddha clasped his hands together, and the Buddha wheel behind him opened wide, taking the blow head-on.
The loud noise caused many heavenly soldiers to bleed from their ears.
The two had just collided when Zhenhe spoke again.
[Firmly found liable]
The person primarily responsible must provide compensation first.
[Without compensation, no one has the right to designate the person to fill the gap]
This sentence is like a slap in the face, landing squarely on Buddha's face.
The Bull Demon King laughed until he was panting.
"Did you hear me? You owe money, pay it back first!"
The first audience member looked even uglier.
He understood better than anyone that the moment those words were spoken, the situation would change.
The original intention was to force Chen Fan and his group to choose one of them to die.
Now it's become that Buddha and he bear the responsibility first.
Chen Fan's eyes lit up, and he immediately chased after the attacker.
"What is the compensation method for eukaryotes?"
The paper puppet tilted its head, as if it were checking old files.
The old papers pasted on its body were flipped open one by one, finally revealing a string of bloody words.
[The person in charge relinquishes overall authority over the pilgrimage]
The person in charge shall relinquish the authority to observe the scriptures.
[Upon return, half of the sewing damage can be offset]
The entire room fell silent for a moment.
The next moment, even the Jade Emperor looked at Buddha and the first audience member.
This is hardly compensation.
This is skinning.
Once the overall authority over the pilgrimage was handed over, Buddhism was essentially stripped of its backbone.
As soon as the viewing privileges were restored, the top audience member immediately fell from their high position.
Which of these two would be willing to give up?
The Buddha said in a deep voice, "And if you don't hand it over?"
The paper puppet grinned.
[Then the primary responsibility lies with the seam first.]
Sun Wukong burst out laughing.
"Great! I love hearing that!"
Pigsy got excited too, put his hands on his hips and shouted, "Come on, come on, let me see you off. Once you're inside, the Western Paradise will be a bit quieter."
Someone in the Heavenly Court couldn't help but chuckle, then quickly suppressed it.
The Buddha's expression was no longer pleasing to the eye.
The first audience member was even more direct, turning around and leaving immediately.
He wanted to run away.
Chen Fan had anticipated this move. He flipped through the black and gold scripture in his hand, and the blood-red words on the third page instantly stretched into a long chain, wrapping around it with a whoosh.
"Why are you running? Don't you love watching plays?"
The first spectator raised his hand to slash, but the blood chains multiplied with each strike, eventually binding half of his body.
"Chen Fan, how dare you lock me up?"
"What's wrong with locking you up?"
Chen Fan's lips twitched.
"You've tried to kill me off in writing so many chapters already, can't I charge some interest?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the system voice sounded in his mind.
[Ding! The host has used the old rules to counter high-level trading, gaining +300000 Unethical Points]
[Ding! Access to the Guanyin Sutra has been detected and may be revoked]
[Should a forceful seizure be launched?]
A glint flashed in Chen Fan's eyes.
you still need to ask?
"Take it!"
The next instant, the blood-red words on the third page seemed to come alive, climbing up the blood chain and directly into the first viewer's forehead.
The first spectator froze.
Immediately afterwards, the gray-white halo above his head was forcibly pulled out.
"No--"
The sound finally broke.
That arrogant air he had before was gone.
The gray-white halo flew into the air and swallowed the true core in one gulp.
The old paper on the paper puppet suddenly became shiny.
Compensation for secondary liability completed.
[Suture damage decreased by 10%]
"Only 10%?"
The Bull Demon King spat.
"That bastard doesn't have enough power."
Upon hearing this, the first audience member almost vomited blood on the spot.
He fell into the air, his eyes glazed over.
Falling from the audience seats, the most painful thing isn't the injury itself.
It's a face.
Everyone watching was watching.
He was just shouting that it was ineffective, but now he's the one who's been drained.
That was a really hard hit.
But the real ruthlessness is yet to come.
The beam of light from the true core has completely enveloped the Tathagata.
[Please, those in charge, relinquish control of the pilgrimage.]
The Buddha did not move.
He simply looked at Chen Fan, and for the first time, a genuine killing intent appeared in his eyes.
"It was you who pushed things all the way to this point."
"Yes, it's me."
Chen Fan was not at all swayed.
"You're not convinced?"
"Then hand over the power and come fight me again."
Sun Wukong slung his golden cudgel over his shoulder and grinned, saying, "He wouldn't dare. Once he relinquishes power, he's no longer the aloof Buddha."
Tang Sanzang also took a step forward.
He looked at Buddha and spoke slowly and deliberately.
"Only today did I realize that the so-called journey to the West was nothing more than a patched-up ticket."
"Since that's the case, then we might as well not take this scripture."
These words were like needles, piercing directly into the ears of the Buddhist monks.
The Buddha's light behind him was momentarily disrupted.
The pilgrimage route is the very foundation of Buddhism.
Even Tang Sanzang (the monk in Journey to the West) has now publicly overturned the table.
This is even more ruthless than Sun Wukong smashing Mount Ling.
Buddha finally raised his hand.
Everyone held their breath for a moment.
Everyone assumed he was going to pay.
He then flipped his palm over and slapped his own chest.
boom!
A muffled thud.
A golden seal flew out from his body, not to the true core, but directly towards the depths of the crack.
"He wants to seize power first!"
Chen Fan's expression changed, and he instantly understood.
That old man is ruthless.
He would rather smash the entire command of the pilgrimage into a crack than hand it over.
Even if power is granted, the true core may still be vulnerable.
If the seam isn't patched up by then, the pot might not be completely sealed.
"Monkey King, stop him!"
"I'm going too!"
Sun Wukong soared into the sky in one step.
The golden cudgel transformed into a ten-thousand-foot-long object and smashed down on the golden seal.
The Bull Demon King also charged in, his horns raised.
Tang Sanzang picked up his brush and wrote the character "停" (stop) in the air with a single stroke.
Three forces pressed down simultaneously.
The gold seal swayed slightly.
It didn't stop.
It was only three zhang away from the crack.
A hint of ruthlessness finally appeared in Tathagata's eyes.
"Trying to seize my power? Dream on."
Chen Fan's palms were sweaty.
If we're even a fraction of a second slower, all our previous efforts will have been for nothing.
The system kept sending out notifications.
[A transfer of primary responsibility and authority has been detected]
[Illegal sealing operation detected]
[Consume system seeds and force takeover?]
Chen Fan was startled.
System seed.
The earliest version of the seed.
He hadn't dared to touch that thing.
If we actually use it, nobody knows what will happen.
But right now there's no other choice.
If we don't take over soon, Buddha will turn the tables.
"take over!"
Chen Fan let out a low growl.
The third page of the Black Gold Sutra has a crack.
The grayish-white seed burst forth.
It didn't grow roots or sprout.
It just trembled slightly as it flew into the air.
next moment.
The golden seal, which was about to rush into the crack, came to a sudden stop as if it had hit an invisible wall.
The pupils of everyone in the audience contracted simultaneously.
For the first time, even Buddha lost his voice.
"This is impossible..."
The old paper coating on the seed slowly peeled off, revealing a tiny, extremely dark light inside.
It is neither Buddha's light nor celestial light.
It looks more like an unfinished character.
The eukaryotes vibrated violently.
The paper puppet's gaping mouth gradually closed.
It seemed to recognize something, and for the first time, its voice was no longer hoarse.
[Supreme old authority successfully identified]
[Priority higher than the overall authority of the pilgrimage]
[Now applying for a new primary liability judgment]
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
A new primary liability defendant?
Before he could react, the blood-red characters above the core suddenly changed.
[Original principal responsible party frozen]
[Substitute Judge – Chen Fan]
Sun Wukong suddenly turned around.
"What do you mean?"
Pigsy was dumbfounded.
"Seriously? We just pinned that old bald monk down, and now he's jumping on Old Chen's head again?"
Chen Fan himself was also taken aback.
The next second, Truecore added the second half of the sentence.
[Substitute Judge – Chen Fan]
Please take over the overall responsibility for repairing the seams.
The world suddenly fell silent.
Buddha was taken aback at first.
Then, he actually laughed.
His smile was extremely cold.
"I see."
"What you seized was not a path to survival."
"It's a pot."
Big Explosion, Rules Turn Against High-Level Players
The Black Hall fell silent.
The words in the sky are still hanging there.
Who dares to appease the void?
Chen Fan smiled first.
"Soothe my ass."
He pointed his stick at the unadorned door in front of him.
"Let's open the accounts. First, settle the debts."
As soon as he finished speaking, a loud bang came from inside the door.
The entire Mirror Palace suddenly lit up.
The four mirrored walls no longer reflect people, but instead reflect the sky.
The Western Paradise, the Great Thunder Temple.
Golden lotuses bloomed one after another on Mount Ling, their light filling half the sky. In the next instant, the central nine-petaled golden lotus trembled, and the Buddha opened his eyes, two of the prayer beads in his hand snapping off with a crack.
Turn again.
High above the heavens, a row of suspended seats appeared. The person at the very front, wearing a bronze mask, sat the highest, with a semi-transparent gavel hanging from his feet. The shadow of the gavel pressed against the crack at the edge of the Three Realms, as if watching a play.
Turn again.
The boundless sea of scriptures turned its pages like a surging tide. In the center of this sea of scriptures stood a man in a gray robe, holding a long pen, with a scroll of scriptures spread out before him. He kept his head down, taking notes, not missing a single word, like an accountant who was merely observing.
Sun Wukong looked up and around, his monkey eyes narrowing.
"Old Chen, everything's ready."
Chen Fan nodded.
"One person takes the blame and refuses to fix it, another sits in a high position watching the show, and the third keeps the accounts but doesn't take responsibility. Today is the perfect day to take them all down."
The voice from inside the hall rang out again.
Without joy or anger, like an iron ruler scraping stone.
"The rift between the three realms has formed. The accountability mechanism is now in place."
"Those who fail to repair cracks will be held responsible."
"Those who stand on high ground and observe bear responsibility."
"Anyone who fails to record the facts will be held responsible."
With each sentence spoken, the mirror wall exploded with a burst of white light.
The Buddha's wheel behind him trembled, and his expression darkened for the first time.
The first spectator in the high seat looked up, as if he hadn't expected this thing to actually be applied to him. The mallet at his feet swayed, as if trying to suppress the rule.
The gray-robed man in the sea also stopped writing.
He looked up at the Black Hall, his voice cold.
"I only study the scriptures, I don't get involved. How can I have any responsibility?"
Chen Fan laughed when he heard this.
"You remember it clearly, and you pretend to remember it even more clearly. The cracks are so badly damaged, and you keep writing about it page by page. There was no warning, no sealing off the area, no reporting it, and you dare say you bear no responsibility?"
Tang Sanzang took a step forward, carrying the scriptures.
Along the way, he had lost his former wooden demeanor, and his eyes had become sharp.
"To observe without speaking is also a form of collusion."
The gray-robed man stared at him, his face turning pale.
"You, a person who studies scriptures, dare to criticize me?"
Tang Sanzang flipped through the scripture and slapped it into the air.
"This humble monk no longer recites your worthless scriptures. Today, I remember you."
boom!
The scriptures unfolded on their own, page by page.
A line of red characters immediately appeared above the gray-robed man's head: "The Scripture Observer is awaiting trial."
At this moment, even the right to be a bystander was torn in half.
Sun Wukong laughed heartily.
"Bald monk, well done!"
He swung his golden cudgel backwards, pointing it directly at Buddha.
"And you too. I endured being pressed down by the Five Finger Mountain for five hundred years. But you use the rift between the Three Realms as a millstone, pressing down on me without mending it, and you still want to sit on a golden lotus and pretend to be compassionate?"
The Buddha remained expressionless.
"You demon monkey, how dare you ask the Buddha a question?"
"You'll soon find out whether you're a good match or not."
Sun Wukong took a step forward, his entire body transforming into a golden thread, the shadow of his staff tearing open the Mirror Palace and crashing straight into the center of Mount Ling.
The nine-tiered golden lotus instantly rose into a Buddhist veil.
boom!
The first blow cracked half of the Buddhist curtain.
The expressions of all the Buddhas on Mount Ling changed.
"How is that possible?"
"This is the Hall of Rules, yet he managed to use its power to attack Mount Ling?"
"The Buddha's golden lotus aura was shattered by a single blow?"
With a flick of his hand, the Buddha manifested a Buddhist kingdom within. Countless chants of Brahma's voices pressed down, attempting to freeze the blow in place.
Chen Fan spoke coldly.
"Don't worry. Your pain hasn't reached its peak yet."
He raised his hand and pressed down on the true core.
The core left behind by the primordial forgotten star spun, and the entire black palace roared.
"Accountability confirmed."
"Level of responsibility: High-level primary responsibility."
"Execute the divestiture."
A strange light finally appeared in the Buddha's eyes.
The next instant, a layer of the Buddhist kingdom behind him was forcibly torn off.
It's not that the Buddha's light is dissipating; it's that the source is being stripped away.
It's like tearing skin off flesh.
The entire Ling Mountain swayed.
The Buddha's hand gesture tilted, and a trickle of golden blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
All the Buddhas were dumbfounded.
"Has the original essence of Buddhism been stripped away?"
"Who dares to touch the foundation of Buddha's teachings?"
"This rule is insane!"
Sun Wukong seized the opportunity and smashed his second blow directly into the face.
The Buddha raised his palm to block, but the person was forced back onto the golden lotus. The lotus platform beneath him creaked and cracked open.
Wukong landed in mid-air, grinning fiercely.
"You're quitting too?"
Even Yang Jian was pleased with what he saw.
He stood in front of the mirror wall on the other side, holding a three-pointed, double-edged sword horizontally, his third eye already opened.
"The one in the very front row is mine."
The first audience member gave him a cold look.
"The God of War from the lower realms also wants to challenge Gao Xi?"
"I've touched you enough."
Yang Jian leaped into the air, his blade flashing directly at the afterimage of the judgment gavel.
The bronze-masked man finally stood up and raised his hand to press down.
"Those in positions of authority are not subject to punishment from those of lower realms."
Chen Fan almost burst out laughing when he heard this.
"You added your own point, perfect. The more convincing it is, the louder the slap in the face will be."
There was an immediate response from within the Black Palace.
"A seat was detected resisting accountability."
"Aggravated judgment".
"Standing on the sidelines and attempting to evade responsibility. Enforce the law with double the force."
A tremor ran through the high seats.
The seat in the very front row suddenly cracked open, as if it had been cleaved in two. It wasn't a phantom image; the real authority over the seat was falling away.
The first spectator suddenly felt a drop in his body, as if a section of the platform beneath his feet had disappeared.
For the first time, surprise appeared in his eyes.
"impossible!"
Yang Jian didn't give him a chance to say a second sentence.
The blade sliced in along the cracks in the pattern, striking precisely at the base of the hammer shadow.
Click!
The half-shattered hammer shadow was completely destroyed.
The man in the bronze mask felt a jolt in his chest and staggered back three steps, a crack appearing on the edge of his mask.
He reached out to steady himself on the high seat, but only grasped at empty air.
The entire front row of seats is now missing one person.
The blurry figures behind them instantly stirred.
"The first seat has been taken away?"
"Can it really fall from such a high level?"
"What exactly is this hall?"
Chen Fan's gaze did not fall on them.
He was looking at the sea of scriptures.
Because it's time for the third one too.
The gray-robed sutra reader still wanted to write.
The moment his long pen touched the ground, the tip caught fire.
It wasn't fire, but a black mark of deletion. The mark crawled from the edge of the sutra to the back of his hand, then disappeared into the scroll.
"With the authority to observe the scriptures, a section is removed."
"The record during this period is invalid."
"The appendix pending review has been included."
The gray-robed man's expression finally changed.
"No! That principle is something I've guarded for ten thousand years—"
Before he could finish speaking, the entire page in the sea of words turned gray.
It's like someone tore a chapter out of a book.
The long pen in his hand snapped in two with a snap.
Tang Sanzang raised his hand and pointed.
"Remember this. Also, include what you said today in the appendix."
The gray-robed man stared at him, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he didn't dare to curse again.
Because the line of red above his head shone even brighter.
All three parties were punished.
Above the Black Palace, three orbs of different colored primal energy were simultaneously extracted.
A clump of gold, a clump of green, a clump of gray.
As soon as the three beams of light appeared, the huge rift at the edge of the Three Realms emitted a piercing roar, like someone who had been starving for a long time suddenly smelling the aroma of meat.
Chen Fan raised his hand and waved.
"go."
The three streams of essence were directly poured into the crack.
boom!
The entire Mirror Palace was shaking.
The images on the mirror wall flickered wildly. The mountains stopped sinking, the sea stopped rolling back, and the black tear at the edge of the sky began to close at a visible speed.
Not all good.
At least most of the situation has been stabilized.
The void turbulence that was constantly leaking out was blocked by 70%.
Cheers from countless demon soldiers echoed from the direction of Huaguo Mountain.
On the Heavenly Court side, a group of celestial officials who were originally preparing to escape were stunned when they saw the crack close up.
"Is it really fixed?"
"Did they use the very essence of Buddha and others to make up for it?"
"You can do that?"
"Who made these rules?"
No one could answer it.
Because the one who set the rules is now standing in the Black Temple.
Chen Fan breathed a sigh of relief.
This time, the gamble paid off.
Being punished when you're in a high position is definitely the most satisfying.
And the profits aren't over yet.
The moment the crack stabilized, a dark seed of light quietly drifted out from behind the patternless door deep within the Black Palace.
It was very small, like a withered grass seed.
But Chen Fan recognized him at a glance.
The third option.
The system seed for the free-range grazing program.
All that commotion was just waiting for it to show itself.
Chen Fan flicked his sleeve, pretending to suppress the turbulent flow in the hall, but in reality, he opened his palm and the core space quietly opened.
The seed of light slid silently into his palm and instantly disappeared into his body.
Received.
Chen Fan felt reassured.
This is the real long-term winner.
Rules can be borrowed once, but seeds can be nurtured slowly.
Whether it's dismantling the scriptures or refeeding the system, we'll have to rely on it.
Sun Wukong landed back beside him and hoisted the golden cudgel onto his shoulder.
"Old Chen, are we still going to fight?"
"Fight. First, solidify our gains."
Chen Fan raised his eyes, looking at Lingshan, at Gao Xi, and at Jinghai.
"No one can pretend this didn't happen today."
The Buddha wiped the golden blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice deep and frightening.
"Do you really think you can judge the Buddha just by borrowing a temple?"
Chen Fan replied to him.
"Whether you're investigated or not, you've already lost weight, and you're still being stubborn."
Many Buddhas on Mount Ling turned pale.
They were usually high and mighty, and had never seen anyone point at the Buddha and curse him like that.
What's even more frustrating is that the criticism today was actually correct.
The first audience member stood at the edge of the broken seats, an eye peeking out from a crack in his mask, its shadow as sinister as a knife.
"Chen Fan, I'll remember you."
Chen Fan waved his hand.
"Queue up. Too many people want to remember me."
Yang Jian stood to his side and slightly in front, his blade hanging diagonally.
"If you come down, I will kill you again."
The gray-robed sutra reader fared even worse.
Once Jingquan fell, he couldn't even stand on the edge of the sea, and his feet kept sinking.
Tang Sanzang held the scriptures in his arms, his voice not loud, but every word he uttered was sharp and cutting.
"You may not delete or modify today's records until the appendix has been reviewed."
The gray-robed man's lips twitched a few times, and in the end he could only squeeze out one sentence.
You'll regret it.
Tang Sanzang lowered his head to write.
"Next, threaten the censor. Make a note of this."
The gray-robed man nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Sun Wukong slapped his thigh in disbelief.
"Good, good, good! You monk, you've finally learned to speak human language!"
Just as the situation was brought under control, the center of the Black Hall suddenly trembled again.
It's heavier than before.
Chen Fan turned his head.
The true nucleus is shining.
The scriptures in Tang Sanzang's arms also lit up.
The stone had been held in Sun Wukong's hand from the beginning, and now a thin crack appeared on its surface, through which a blinding white light shone.
All three cores glow simultaneously.
All sounds in the entire Mirror Palace were instantly silenced.
Even Buddha stopped.
Even the shadow on the high seat remained motionless.
All eyes were fixed on the center of the hall.
A new line of writing slowly floated into the air.
"Stage of writing complete."
"Please write the first new rule."
Sun Wukong turned to look at Chen Fan.
"Old Chen, what are you writing this time?"
Chen Fan stared at the line of words, his fingers tightening little by little.
Because beneath that blank space, a line of pale red text had already seeped out on its own.
Like a prompt.
It's like a death knell.
"Once a rule is written, it cannot be withdrawn."