South China Sea, Mount Putuo.
For days now, Guanyin had felt something was amiss.
"Why does my heart keep thump, thump, thumping like this…?"
Ever since returning from Lingshan, she had been unable to find stillness. Today, she couldn't even maintain a chant. She opened her eyes; confusion flickered across them.
In the distance, the gathered spirits—kneeling demons and temple acolytes—stared at the Bodhisattva of Compassion with unease. Today should have been her monthly sermon. Why had it not begun?
Sensing their gaze, Guanyin parted her lips and sighed. "You may all withdraw. My heart is unsettled today; I will not preach."
"Yes, Bodhisattva."
They bowed and withdrew.
The vast lecture terrace fell silent, leaving Guanyin alone.
She raised her eyes to the sky, then closed them and began to probe inward.
"Could someone be plotting against me?"
Her divine spirit—pure and flawless—showed neither blemish nor the slightest trace of a curse. Then why this disquiet?
She frowned. If her soul was sound, then what of her faith?
When Guanyin examined her golden dharma-body, she found at last the problem: the bright, resplendent gold was dim—shockingly dim—and growing dimmer by the moment.
"This… Is someone targeting the Dharma itself?"
Guanyin was startled. Her primordial spirit split into countless strands, tracing the channels of her golden body back toward the source.
…
Jiayu Town.
Before the ancestral shrine of Guanyin.
A crowd had gathered, but not as they had in the past. No one held incense or candles. This time, they carried sledgehammers and axes. Some were already prying at the shrine's own plaques.
"Smash it! A Guanyin Temple like this doesn't deserve to exist!"
"Right!"
"Break down this hypocritical Bodhisattva first—then we'll topple her golden statue!"
…
Shouts rose and fell in waves.
With a thunderous crash, the temple roof caved in; the Buddha images within were shattered in the next instant.
Guanyin saw their furious faces and truly froze.
A corresponding anger surged up from her heart—but before she could flare, a familiar figure passed through her mind's eye: a villager on the banks of the Tongtian River!
This… was it because of that?
Cold sweat beaded at Guanyin's temples. For the first time, fear pried at her composure.
So it all came back to her.
In that instant, Yang Jian's rebuke echoed in her heart:
"The parents of those children—did you ever consider them? That a fish-spirit of your own letting slips out to eat people when it wishes—and you know those are children raised by parents, not feed for a fish demon!"
And that was merely one vignette.
Elsewhere, similar scenes were unfolding.
In the span of three hours, dozens of temples fell one after another.
And Guanyin understood the cause.
The Tang Emperor had publicly declared the abolition of Buddhism.
The reason was simple.
Buddhism, as practiced now, could not govern the world; it could only raise up a brood of complacent gluttons.
"What temptation has ensnared the Tang Emperor to make such a dreadful proclamation!"
Guanyin could not bear it. Her heart heaved; she stepped onto auspicious clouds and flew toward Chang'an.
Though the world of Journey to the West is vast, the Bodhisattva's power should not be underestimated. In six hours, she crossed the South Sea and reached Chang'an.
Night had fallen.
Guanyin descended above the city.
She gathered her power, prepared to manifest.
But the moment the Buddha-light kindled, a dragon shadow leaped up from the earth.
A roar shook the clouds.
People jolted awake across Chang'an. In the sky above, Guanyin hovered, luminous. Many, thinking she had come to demand justice, fell to their knees and kowtowed.
Unexpectedly, a crimson figure streaked from the imperial city and drove a fist straight into Guanyin's abdomen.
"Ah… I've been waiting for you, dear Bodhisattva Guanyin."
Li Xiuning's strike landed cleanly. She did not press the attack; instead she smiled, sly and serene, at Guanyin, who had been forced back by that single blow.
"Who are you?" Guanyin asked coldly, one hand pressed to her abdomen.
That speed… that peculiar method of attack—she had never seen its like. Plainly a cultivator—yet why did dragon qi backbite her while it spared this woman? Something was deeply wrong.
Li Xiuning tucked a stray lock behind her ear. "An enemy of Buddhism. One of the goddesses of the Eternal God. Li Xiuning—from another world."
How could she be Li Xiuning?!
Guanyin was taken aback.
"Don't look so surprised. In that other world, I too am the sister of the Tang Emperor, Li Shimin. In truth, I've been waiting for you. Since you dwell in the clouds and understand courtesy, how about serving as a maid to my God?"
They faced each other in midair.
Below, within the imperial compound, the ministers of Great Tang had assembled. Li Shimin addressed them:
"You see that the temples are fallen and this Guanyin has appeared. When calamities—natural and man-made—struck, where was Guanyin? Now you understand my design."
"Of course," Cheng Yaojin harrumphed, "human matters are handled by humans."
"Ah—she's truly a goddess. One punch and she knocked Guanyin back."
"These so-called immortals are merely powerful practitioners—only earlier in the way than we."
By Li Shimin's decree, the Datang officials had already begun cultivating the doctrine of Eternal Meditation. Now the ministers stood in renewed vigor. The hidden wounds and ailments that had plagued them were gone.
With such ministers at his side, what fear had he that Tang's glory would not continue?
Li Shimin was certain: so long as the faith of the Eternal God spread, his empire would endure.
And a goddess's guarantee—was worth countless times more than the Buddha's empty promises.
The murmurs below drifted up to Guanyin's ears. At first she did not heed them. But as the ministers' words grew more unsettling, she looked—not with divine condescension, but carefully—into the hearts and auras of these people.
The results shocked her expectations.
The emperor—who ought to be unable to cultivate—now possessed power approaching the immortal. The ministers followed suit.
Guanyin lowered her gaze to the "Li Xiuning" before her and said, cool and even, "Since you've shown your true face, let us go elsewhere to fight. I will not allow you to rampage here."
There must be a reckoning today.
You will not leave.
Li Xiuning smiled. "Very well. Let's change the venue."
They sped away, one after another. Li Shimin turned back to the assembly.
"I have allowed this today to show you that the so-called immortals and Buddhas, before the Eternal God, are nothing but naked pretenders stripped of their fig leaves. And if I learn that any of you harbor ulterior motives—you will end as those others did."
Just the day before, Li Shimin had seized many traitors—collaborators of Buddhism. They had practiced the Buddhist teachings, and after receiving the Dharma, they conspired to leak intelligence. Now they were scattered to the winds in a hundred nameless graves.
Many shuddered under the warning.
…
On a wilderness plain far from Chang'an, Guanyin halted. Her internal injuries mended in a single breath. She lifted the Yujing Bottle in her hand and pointed it at Li Xiuning—striking first.
Kindness and morality? In this hour, only victory would speak.
The moment Guanyin moved, two figures flickered into being at her left and right.
"Threefold Primordial Sever-Heaven Formation—activate!"
Three voices rang as one.
An array spread like a vaulted sky and fell over Guanyin.
"You… Yang Jian—is this all your arrangement?"
On Guanyin's left stood Yang Jian. On her right—a blonde girl. And Li Xiuning faced her head-on.
The three formed the formation, sealing off every thread of heavenly perception between heaven and earth.
"To be precise," Yang Jian said, "we had already calculated this the moment Altria and I arrived."
"We foresaw that once the temples were demolished, all the Buddhas' attention would be drawn. If we aimed for you alone, the matter would be simple."
"So, Bodhisattva Guanyin—please accept your fate. Think of it as the honor of becoming our offering to God."
Two goddesses, and a chief priest on par with the Tathagata.
Not to mention the Bodhisattva herself—even if the Tathagata, her patron, came in person, he would have to kneel.
Seeing the situation, Guanyin recognized she could not flee. She sneered. "Do you truly take the poor monk so lightly? Even if I die, I will not be made an object to be gifted to your evil god."
From the Yujing Bottle she poured out the Sanyuan Water in a gleaming torrent.
Terrible as it seemed, the flood did not touch any of the three.
Altria held Avalon in her hand. Empowered by divine grace, the scabbard had been reforged by a goddess adept in the making of artifacts. It could offset any attack.
Everything felt like a dream.
Such is the terror of Avalon—not brute resistance, but the nullification of all strikes.
"The Buddhist Mystic—Peacock Lotus…"
Her first move having failed, Guanyin gathered her mana and resolved to perish together. In that sealed pocket of sky, a thousand lotus blossoms opened at once, each weighted with the force of a Golden Immortal's strike.
Yet Li Xiuning, Altria, and Yang Jian did not blanch. They only regarded her with faint amusement.
"Do you know why we never attacked?" Li Xiuning asked.
"It isn't to maintain this formation," Yang Jian added.
"It's to build an altar," Altria finished, eyes bright. "For all your wisdom, Guanyin—you are not so clever."
Below them, the mountains flared with countless divine sigils.
Boom.
A storm of divine radiance speared up from the earth. Every lotus shattered like a bubble.
Guanyin had no time to react before the force above slammed her from the sky and pinned her to the ground. She struggled to lift her head. Through the torn firmament, she glimpsed a ragged void of stars—and a hopeless smile tugged at her lips.
So this is how I end?
Given as a tribute to a god.
A bitter laugh rose in her heart. No one from Buddhism had come. "Three lifetimes of ascetic practice; seven lives of vows"—empty words, all.
Her strength had been spent. Even her dust-stained robes were fraying at the seams.
Then the divine light closed.
Guanyin's body rose, drawn upward—higher and higher—until she vanished from the sight of the three.
Yang Jian turned to Li Xiuning and smiled. "Thanks to your strategy, Goddess Li, we've broken one of Buddhism's pillars. The rest will be far easier to discuss."