The Celestial Realm, the Buddhist Faction, Mount Meru.
After an hour-long secret meeting, two young women departed from Buddhist territory, escorted by Indra.
One of them, a golden-haired girl who looked no older than fourteen or fifteen, had golden pupils that shimmered with light. Below her slender, lively eyebrows was a natural-looking red eyeshadow, and her entire being radiated a clear, sharp fighting spirit.
Her eyes were the Fiery Golden Eyes, and her name was the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal.
"World King, thanks for speaking up for me back there. Let me escort you this time!" the girl said, hoisting her Golden-Hooped Rod onto her shoulder as she spoke to the petite girl beside her.
"I'll be in your care then!" the silver-haired girl replied with a cheerful nod, not bothering with pleasantries. "But really, you don't have to thank me. A boring guy like Shakyamuni isn't that easy to persuade. If he agreed to let you come with me, he would've let you go even if I hadn't said a word!"
The silver-haired girl spoke casually, hands clasped behind her head as she strolled forward with a carefree air.
Just as Sun Wukong had called her, this girl had a figure similar to Shiroyasha's child form.
Aside from her ruby-red eyes, her delicate and beautiful features were a mirror image of Shiroyasha's, as if they were twin sisters. She was the one in whom the World-Honored One and the Twin Goddesses had placed their hopes.
The Pure-Blooded Dragon, Kurma, a being of the Full Authority Domain.
Despite her status, she didn't put on airs like the World-Honored One or the Twin Goddesses. On the contrary, she was quite approachable, almost to a childish degree. Her mental age seemed to perfectly match her appearance.
Even Shiroyasha, a problem child herself, sometimes seemed far more mature than her.
"Even so, if it were just me, I probably would have had to talk his ear off," the golden-haired girl said, a flicker of wisdom in her eyes, unsurprised by Kurma's words.
"I'd rather just whack him with my staff than go through that ordeal. But I can't. I promised to accept the Buddhist Faction's authority back then, so even I can't easily violate a contract I made myself."
She shrugged helplessly. Clearly, despite her brash demeanor, she was by no means lacking in wisdom.
Hearing the girl's words, a spark of curiosity lit up in Kurma's crystal-clear, ruby-like eyes.
"A contract?"
The silver-haired girl tapped her lips, blinking as she spoke. "Actually, little Kurma has been curious for a while now. How did a mighty Half-Celestial Spirit like you get tricked into joining the Buddhist Faction by that baldy monk, Shakyamuni? Did he offer you a really sweet deal, or does he have some dirt on you?"
As a fellow member of the Sun King Group, she showed the World-Honored One no face at all. Coming from anyone else, such words would have been gravely disrespectful.
"While those were contributing factors, they weren't the real reason." Sun Wukong shook her head, her expression growing slightly complicated as Kurma asked about it.
She still remembered the days when she banded together with the Bull Demon King and the others under the banner of the Seven Great Demon Kings, leading all the monsters and rogue deities in a rebellion against the Celestial Court.
Though she was branded a Demon Lord for rebelling, though she endured several sieges, and though her followers and supporters suffered heavy casualties and made immense sacrifices...
None of that was the reason she ultimately chose to convert.
After such great sacrifices, if she had surrendered out of fear of further losses, how could she possibly face those who had died?
And yet, in the end, she became the Victorious Fighting Buddha. In the eyes of her former brothers and sisters, she must have betrayed the cause they once shared.
With that thought, she let out a long breath and said casually, "If you want a direct reason, I guess it was just a lack of strength. The Tathagata's power was a hundred times greater than mine. He suppressed me for five hundred years. I was no match for him."
"Huh? That can't be right."
Hearing this, Kurma shook her head, dissatisfied. "You can fool others with that line, but you can't fool little Kurma!"
"Thanks to that idiot, the White Night King, little Kurma knows a whole lot about the Celestial Spirit race!" the petite girl declared, puffing out her chest in a proud, show-offish manner.
"Even as a Half-Celestial Spirit, you should still possess a portion of the Celestial Spirit's immortality. At most, Shakyamuni could only seal you; he couldn't erase you. That means, as long as you were stubborn enough and refused to yield, you'd be fine even if all the gods sealed you together."
"Besides, for us long-lived species, five hundred years is just a nap. What's the big deal? Why, little Kurma can sleep for tens of thousands of years at a time out there!"
"..."
Sun Wukong was rendered speechless by Kurma's declaration.
She wasn't wrong, but was sleeping for a long time really something to be proud of?
Sun Wukong had heard that this World Dragon was always soaring through the sea of stars outside Little Garden. At first, she thought this Full Authority Domain must have some special mission she was carrying out. She never imagined she just went out there to sleep in.
Before she could voice her sarcastic thoughts, Kurma saw her stunned silence and assumed her sharp analysis had awed her. Her delicate little face grew even more smug.
"Besides, you're the Half-Celestial Spirit of Earth. The only reason Shakyamuni could seal you is that you had only just been born, and your Divinity hadn't fully awakened yet."
"Once you awaken your complete Divinity, you'll instantly evolve from a 3-digit All-Powerful Domain to a Full Authority Domain."
"Given the special status of Earth's Celestial Spirit, you might even become stronger than that idiot, the White Night King. You might even surpass little Kurma and become the strongest of the Full Authority Domains, aside from the Wind of Decadence!"
"A fully realized Earth Celestial Spirit is not something a mere Shakyamuni could ever hope to subdue!"
Although she had been away from Little Garden for a long time, Kurma still had a considerable understanding of its fundamental secrets. While her words held a hint of self-praise, her assessment was accurate. The station of the Earth Celestial Spirit was at least on par with that of the Sun's.
And excluding the Wind of Decadence, the previous undisputed strongest of the Full Authority Domains had been the White Night Demon King.
"As long as you successfully awaken, forget breaking the seal—you could even overthrow Shakyamuni and become the Lord of the Buddhist Faction yourself!" she declared, once again speaking utter heresy.
The golden-haired girl didn't respond, her expression complicated.
Seeing this, Kurma blinked and tapped her own head. "From the look on your face, there's a story behind it, isn't there?"
"Don't tell me... Shakyamuni really has some dirt on you, or he's deliberately preventing you from awakening your complete Divinity so you can't gain the power to defeat him?"
As she said this, the silver-haired girl scratched her cheek, looking a bit puzzled. "No, that's not right. Shakyamuni's thoughts may be winding, but I don't think he'd do something so vile. The birth of a Celestial Spirit-side Origin Candidate should be a good thing for Little Garden."
"Even if you did something to displease him, he's not so petty as to retaliate on such an important matter..."
"So... what on earth did you do that made Shakyamuni willing to restrain you like this, rather than let you awaken your full Celestial Spirit Divinity?"
Full of questions, the silver-haired girl stopped walking, moved closer to Sun Wukong, and tilted her head up, her innocent and adorable face filled with overwhelming curiosity.
"Can you tell little Kurma? I'm super curious!"
"..."
Looking into Kurma's pure, untainted eyes, Sun Wukong gave a wry smile.
If anyone else had asked such a private question, it would have been seen as an offense. But coming from this girl, who asked so forthrightly, it somehow didn't feel that way at all.
It was clear she wasn't interested in any political entanglements or gossip; she was just purely curious.
Whether it was a question from a little girl or a question from a 2-digit Full Authority Domain, it seemed she had no reason to refuse.
And in truth, she felt no resistance to answering.
"There's no special reason, and there's no conspiracy. My reasons for joining the Buddhist Faction have nothing to do with the World-Honored One. And he isn't forcibly preventing me from evolving into the complete Earth Celestial Spirit."
Though she hadn't been particularly polite to the World-Honored One earlier, she now found herself explaining on his behalf.
After clarifying, she lowered her head and met Kurma's clear, pristine red eyes.
"The reason I haven't done so... is simply because I don't want to."