The Primal Choice

The golden cocoon was bound in place, with intricate threads imprisoning the person within.

If that person was still alive.

Emperor Bai Li looked at the golden cocoon, feeling a slight headache. "This is fine, but my Incense Power and the Eternal Key..."

...

The narrow eyes of Monk Zhi Shen were deeply etched with the marks of time. In just one year, he had aged visibly, losing his youthful handsomeness.

Living for a thousand years was not something an ordinary monk could do... Aside from experts who had reached the Dao Integration realm like Wei Xian and Emperor Bai Li, only the founding patriarchs of the ten great sects, who could not bear to leave the mortal world and craved the afterlife, still existed in this world.

Even an Emperor could only pray in vain for the heavens to grant another five hundred years of life.

But Monk Zhi Shen had lived for more than a thousand years.

Monk Zhi Shen slowly lowered his head, seemingly mimicking the shape of the cocoon.

His hands formed a strange seal, and his expression gradually became ferocious... The power within his body drained away as time passed, until finally, he seemed no different from an ordinary person.

Wei Xian performed a final bow toward the old man. "Grandmaster Zhi Shen, if fate permits, we shall meet again in a thousand years!"

Monk Zhi Shen seemed to transform into a beam of transparent golden light, slowly pouring into the Sarira before him.

The originally silent Sarira suddenly split into threads, slowly flowing into the Ten Directions All Demons Grand Array ahead... By joining the array, Monk Zhi Shen had become its final piece!

The once still grand array seemed to come to life... but very soon after.

...The golden light flared brilliantly and then abruptly extinguished, returning to its original state.

The smiles on the faces of Wei Xian and Emperor Bai Li had not yet faded... when they saw Ye Fan, completely unharmed and composed as if taking a stroll, walking out from the golden cocoon.

There was no world-shaking aura, nor was there a metamorphosis into a butterfly.

There were only a pair of eyes that no longer held any confusion.

Natural Dao charm and the Buddhist Golden Body had merged into one. Just now, while inside the golden cocoon... as the great hall began to fall like an abyss, Ye Fan could have easily escaped.

However, the Dao Infant, which had remained motionless from beginning to end, appeared.

"This choice, you must eventually make it."

"Ah, another choice."

Strange existences always appeared. Like the Bone Infant that carried Ye Fan's memories; after awakening, it only wanted to drag Ye Fan to make a lot of money.

The Buddha Infant seemed to have no desires, only because Ye Fan had unintentionally absorbed a great deal of incense. This incense had now entirely become nourishment for the Buddha Infant, allowing it to remain quiet and continue hiding within Ye Fan's body. Therefore, the Dao Infant appeared to have no desires, perhaps because the thing it sought had not yet arrived.

Until not long ago.

Ye Fan once asked it, "You always make me choose, you should at least tell me what I can choose..."

The Dao Infant shook its head. "The world is about to collapse; you only need to simply make a choice..."

"Then what can I choose?"

"Just simply make a choice, not like now..."

Only then did Ye Fan understand.

Perhaps the Dao Infant had not yet found what it wanted, nor did it care about the trivial matters before it; it only wanted Ye Fan to do something extraordinary.

...In a certain sense, the Buddha, Dao, and Bone Infants were Ye Fan himself.

What they sought and what they thought were merely Ye Fan standing from a different perspective, seeing a different world, and thus having different requirements.

...So in the end.

Ye Fan was trapped in the cocoon.

It wasn't because Monk Zhi Shen's Ten Directions All Demons Grand Array had worked, but because Ye Fan was willing to be trapped.

...Not long ago.

"Look, now I am trapped. What do you want to do... Do you want me to continue choosing, or will you leave yourself?"

Ye Fan only smiled faintly, but the Sixteen-foot Golden Body on his person radiated a perfect light, a majestic treasure image that surpassed countless Golden Body Arhats.

The Dao Infant looked at Ye Fan, its gaze extremely complex.

"Is this also your choice... But this way, for both you and me, it is not the best choice..."

The Ten Directions All Demons Grand Array was not something an ordinary person could use.

It required someone with the orthodox heritage of the Buddhist path, using a golden Sarira, and arranging it for forty-nine days to complete the array.

Old Monk Zhi Shen had reincarnated for a thousand years, his final memories awakening when he saw a stone statue of a Zhu Que on Zhu Que Street.

He was not a mortal.

Nor was he a pure Core Formation monk.

All the Sariras in Da Gan were formed by his reincarnations across lifetimes.

The grand array now was formed from his entire strength; compared to the negligible power of a thousand years ago, most of his power was now gathered here.

No matter who it was, as long as they violated his precepts on this land, he would bring down Heavenly Tribulation.

...Now.

Ye Fan was elegant and composed.

The brilliant golden light dissolved like a thousand shimmering stars, leaving a final glow in the sky.

The awakening and final determination of Old Monk Zhi Shen, in a moment of Ye Fan's distraction, had turned to ashes in the wind... At the same time, Emperor Bai Li and Wei Xian fell into a long silence.

Now, even for them, there seemed to be no way out... The disparity in strength was too clear, leaving them nowhere to hide.

Furthermore, the Eternal Key was still in the opponent's hands.

Ye Fan was heard laughing: "Now, do you still want my things that badly?"

...