The entire Untainted Land was startled to learn that Liu Er had gotten the Self-centric Separation. In Untainted Land, there were so many Almighties as well as the seven Sages, but only Minghe had the Self-centric Separation. Liu Er had just done it by using the Origin of the Long-Armed Ape Monkey, greatly elevating his vital force and vaguely having the sign of actualization. However, it was somehow suppressed by Liu Er.
There would not be clearer in the actualization of Liu Er. He had collected the Origin of the Four Monkeys of Destruction, which was the Self-centric Separation of Long-Armed Ape Monkey, the Good Separation of the Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey, and the Evil Separation of the Wise Monkey. Furthermore, Liu Er himself was Liu Er Macaca Mula. He could change into the Physical Body of the Mazinger with the Origin of the Four Monkeys of Destruction integrated into one. What Liu Er had done was the same as the Way of Divine Beings of Minghe.
What they could not understand was only that it had to experience the ordeal of the Way of Heaven, which was the Divine Punishment, to change into Rakshasa in Untainted Land. Though the Divine Punishment of Liu Er might be inferior to that of Minghe, the power of it definitely would not be too weak. Was Minghe so sure that Liu Er could pass the tribulation? Once it failed, Liu Er would disappear into ashes under the Divine Punishment.
No matter how it had happened, Liu Er had fiercely killed the Good Separation of Sage Zhunti and powerfully separated the Self-centric Separation, all of which were enough to astound the entire Untainted Land. Zhunti had lost face completely with his Original Body as well as his Good Separation and Evil Separation that had been killed one after another, and his power had been greatly damaged. Obviously, it became the joke among all the Sages. Though no one dared to mention it in the face of Zhunti, they would discuss it on the sly.
Liu Er smiled after the separation of his obsession. Collecting the Self-centric Separation, he went to the side of Kong Xuan and the others and said with a smile, "Well, since it has been done, we need to leave." There was no point in fighting with the three religions at this time. Moreover, Liu Er needed a quiet place for Closed Door Meditation since he had just acquired the Self-centric Separation.
Hearing that, Kong Xuan and Black Tortoise smiled indifferently. It was time for them to leave since Liu Er had found the fated chance of actualization, Kong Xuan had been injured, and Black Tortoise had made a great breakthrough in cultivation. As for the military forces inside the pass, Kong Xuan could write a letter to send all of them to Zhaoge to serve King Zhou. Though the others did not know King Zhou's identity, Liu Er and the other two were clear about it.
Yang Chan, not in favor of fighting with others, did not have any opinion about leaving here right now, while Nezha, finding such a good match, was somewhat unwilling to leave. Liu Er touched his head and said, "Don't be angry. I will take you to the Blood Sea. Haven't you wanted to go there?"
Upon hearing that, Nezha immediately beamed with delight. Following Liu Er in cultivation for several years, he had heard that the Blood Sea was where the teachers lived, but he had not yet visited it. From what his father had said about the Cultivation Tribulation, the Blood Sea was an ominous place in Untainted Land. No one would go there except for the tribesmen of the Blood Sea. Even though it sounded terrible, Nezha took a great interest in the Blood Sea.
In the end, Liu Er, Kong Xuan, Black Tortoise, and Nezha rode on clouds to the Blood Sea while Yang Chan went back by herself to the Ashram on Mount Hua. Millions of military forces also were withdrawn to Zhaoge, only leaving an empty Impregnable Pass for Western Zhou. After the battle, the two sides did not have any losses in military forces. Nevertheless, the three religions were upset to know that they had lost more than 10 Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals.
High up on Mount Shouyang sat Laozi and Honored Lord of the Origin, whose faces took on ghastly expressions when seeing that Liu Er had killed the Good Separation of Zhunti and successfully gotten his own Self-centric Separation. Honored Lord of the Origin shouted abuses at Zhunti in his heart, saying that he was too incompetent to be killed by one who was only a half step to the Origin. That really gave the Sages a bad name. However, they could do nothing to save the situation but to look at Minghe coldly and then go back to Mount Shouyang.
Then, Minghe and Red Lotus Taoist smiled at each other. Red Lotus Taoist changed into a red light and then went into the body of Minghe. Taking a glance at Mount Shouyang, Minghe smiled and instantly went back to the Blood Sea with a step into the Void. Meanwhile, Heaven and Earth Taoist, as well as Musen, also went back to the Blood Sea in order to have a cultivation on the Three Flowers of Minghe.
After the separation of the obsession of Liu Er, there was only one step before actualizing the Realm of the Origin and changing into the True Body of Rakshasa, which was to experience the Divine Punishment. The Divine Punishment's power was so strong that Minghe did not have a great deal of certainty that Liu Er would succeed in going through the Divine Punishment. Different from Liu Er, Minghe changed into the True Body of Rakshasa through the refinement of the human body step by step.
Strictly speaking, it was opportunistic for Liu Er to integrate the Origin of the Four Monkeys of Destruction to become the True Body of Rakshasa. Without accumulation as what Minghe had done in passing the Divine Punishment, there would be less than a 30 percent chance of forcibly getting through it. With such low odds, Minghe would not allow Liu Er to take the risk.
However, Minghe had prepared for this in advance. The time for Liu Er's actualization had been selected by Minghe, and it would definitely also perfect the Fated Chance for Minghe. All they needed to do was wait. The newly acquired Self-centric Separation of Liu Er, which was still at the primary stage, needed time to be in the same realm as the Good Separation and Evil Separation to balance the Three Separations. Otherwise, problems would arise more easily. It would be perfect once everything achieved the peak realm.
In the Jadeite Palace, Sect Leader Tongtian sat up on the dais with the palace full of disciples in the Tribe of Severity. Before them, there was a Black Light Mirror hanging in the palace. What they saw clearly in the mirror was Kong Xuan fighting alone with elites of the three religions, Black Tortoise fighting against four enemies, and the killing of a Sage by Liu Er on Golden Chicken Mountain.
The Black Light Mirror disappeared at once as Sect Leader Tongtian waved his hands. Looking at his disciples filling the palace, he said, "How about that? After watching the performance of the three disciples of Minghe, do you have any feelings? What feelings do you have about the joint of the Tribe of Humanity, the Clan of Enlightenment, and the Western Religious Sect being against their enemies?" The Tribe of Severity had great power and influence, which made their disciples be a little proud and arrogant. Therefore, Sect Leader Tongtian wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get them to sober up.
As the elder disciple of the Tribe of Severity, Abundant Treasures said with a grave countenance, "Compared with Fellow Taoist Liu Er and his junior brothers, I admit that I am not better than them. As for the joint force of the disciples of the three religions, I think our Tribe of Severity failed to collaborate with others before, leaving an opportunity for the disciples of the three religions to exploit and, thus, defeat us. In the future, if we were to confront strong enemies from the three religions, we could try to cooperate with others to attack our enemies to avoid the same situation. At the worst, we can directly turn to those with the same master for help."
Hearing what he said, Sect Leader Tongtian nodded his head and said sincerely, "Be attentive! You're Tongtian's disciples, so none of you should hesitate to fight against disciples of the three religions. Your teacher will back up you. Even if you fail, I hope that you can survive and return. As long as you're alive, there will be many opportunities for our Tribe of Severity to stage a comeback."
On Mount Shouyang, Laozi and Honored Lord of the Origin, having grave expressions on their faces, had intended to make a deal with Minghe by using the Long-Armed Ape Monkey so Minghe would not interfere in the Battle of the Gods Investiture. At this time, the Self-centric Separation of Liu Er had appeared, demonstrating that their plot had failed. Although Liu Er and the others had withdrawn from Golden Chicken Mountain, who could assure that Minghe and his disciples would not appear halfway?
At the thought of the Three Separations of Liu Er and his cultivation at a half step from the Origin, Honored Lord of the Origin felt awfully dreadful. Compared with Zhenyuanzi and Hongyun, Liu Er was closer to the Realm of the Origin. Moreover, once Liu Er had achieved actualization, he would change into the True Body of Rakshasa, which was incomparable to the ordinary Origin. Given that Liu Er continued to make progress, it would pose a great threat to him.
However, what was done could not be undone and, furthermore, Minghe would protect Liu Er. Without any other means, he looked at Laozi and said to him, "Eldest brother, now Liu Er has separated his Three Separations, therefore, he is perhaps only one step away from the realm of the Origin. At present, how can we impede him? If we don't, when he becomes the Rakshasa, he will threaten us sooner or later."
After hearing that, as his countenance changed a little, Laozi said, "Second brother, it can't be helped, so you don't need to be plagued by it. Now the most urgent thing is the God Deification Ceremony. If we continue to impede him, we will be troubled by the joint force of Minghe and Tongtian. Since the disciples of Minghe have left voluntarily, they obviously don't want to interfere in the battle between us and the Tribe of Severity. In that case, Minghe is more likely not to interfere in the God Deification Ceremony, which is good news for us."
"Good news?" Even saying the words, Laozi displayed a sort of bitterness as well. Well, since Minghe had passed the tribulation, he put great pressure on all the Sages. All the Sages were timid and hesitant when things were related to Minghe. There was no way out. If it were only them, he would not care about it at all. But on the contrary, they had the entire Taoism lineage and many other concerns.