Chapter 00069: The Legend of the First Cycle
# The Legend of the First Cycle
Chapter 69
Novel: After the Myth
Chapter 69: The Legend of the First Cycle
The little creature clearly understood Ding Huan's words.
It suddenly raised its front paw and began gesturing in the air...
But after just a few gestures, it dejectedly lowered its paw.
Ding Huan was furious.
He raised his hand and slapped the little creature on the head, sending it flying into the wall before it slid down to the floor.
"I've seen plenty of ungrateful creatures, but never one as ungrateful as you. I saved your life, and all I did was ask you a few questions, and you wanted to kill me? You little beast..."
Even though it wasn't a dog, Ding Huan kept scolding it as if it were one.
Ding Huan knew a few small spells like fireball and wind blade.
When he saw the little creature gesturing, he immediately realized it was trying to form hand seals to cast a spell on him.
But the creature had just woken up and forgotten that it was now just a first-level gene beast.
What kind of spell could it possibly cast?
Although Ding Huan hadn't used his full strength, the little creature was clearly hurt.
It trembled as it stood up, its eyes filled with fear.
"Chirp chirp chirp..."
After being scolded by Ding Huan, the little creature didn't dare act on its own anymore.
It started chirping, but Ding Huan couldn't understand a word.
Ding Huan rubbed his forehead.
"Forget it, I can't understand your bird language. Let me ask you, are you from the Dao Cultivation Era?"
The little creature clearly didn't know what the Dao Cultivation Era was.
It stared blankly at Ding Huan and then shook its head.
It didn't know about the Dao Cultivation Era?
Just as Ding Huan was wondering where to start, he suddenly saw the little creature leap onto the experiment table and pick up a pen.
"You can write?" Ding Huan was overjoyed.
He quickly opened a notebook and placed it in front of the little creature.
"It's Duobao. He broke his promise and ambushed me..."
To Ding Huan's surprise, the monkey actually wrote a line of text.
The handwriting was decent, and although it was in an ancient script, Ding Huan could still read it.
Duobao? Duobao Daoren? Tathagata Buddha?
While Ding Huan was still puzzled, the little creature continued writing, "I was ambushed by Duobao, and then the Stone Monkey hit me on the head with his staff..."
"Wait, are you saying Journey to the West is real? Are you Sun Wukong?" Ding Huan suddenly realized and asked in astonishment.
The little creature looked at Ding Huan in confusion and then wrote, "What's Journey to the West? What's Sun Wukong? Are you talking about the Stone Monkey?"
Aside from the first few characters being a bit messy, the little creature's writing improved as it went on.
"No, there's a myth in China about Sun Wukong, who was transformed from the Stone Monkey. He protected the monk Tang Sanzang on his journey to the West to retrieve Buddhist scriptures. On the way, they encountered a Six-Eared Macaque who transformed into Sun Wukong's appearance and claimed to be him. The Six-Eared Macaque and Sun Wukong were so similar that no one could tell them apart. They went to Tathagata Buddha to ask for help. Tathagata Buddha identified the Six-Eared Macaque, trapped him with a magical treasure, and then Sun Wukong killed him with his staff. Right?"
As Ding Huan spoke, he seemed to remember something and added,
"Later, I read many theories suggesting that in Journey to the West, the one who was actually killed was Sun Wukong, and the Six-Eared Macaque, under Tathagata's orders, continued to lead Tang Sanzang to the West and eventually attained Buddhahood."
At this point, Ding Huan widened his eyes and looked at the little creature.
"You're not that unlucky Sun Wukong, are you?"
The little creature looked even more confused.
It shook its head and after a while wrote,
"I don't know about Journey to the West, or Sun Wukong, or the journey to the West. But I am indeed the Six-Eared Macaque. What's going on?"
"Could it be that part of your memory is missing?" Ding Huan said uncertainly.
He had thought he had extracted all of the Stone Monkey's memory genes, but this was his first time doing something like this, so he wasn't sure if he had completely separated the Stone Monkey's memory genes.
"..."
The little creature tried hard to cover its head, but it couldn't remember anything about the journey to the West.
"Then don't think about it. Just write down what you remember. Forget it, from now on, I'll call you Liu Er (Six Ears)," Ding Huan said.
"I don't like that name. I don't want to be called Liu Er," the little creature wrote.
Ding Huan had no choice but to say, "Fine, I'll call you Lao Liu (Old Six) from now on. You know about Laozi, right? Anything with 'Lao' in it is powerful."
"Okay, I'll be Lao Liu," the little creature wrote excitedly.
It loved the name.
Laozi was a sage, after all.
Now its name also had 'Lao' in it.
How impressive was that?
"Listen, Lao Liu, now that you have a name, write your story properly. I'm watching," Ding Huan interrupted Lao Liu's daydreaming.
"The sect leader told me that as long as I transformed into the Stone Monkey's appearance and argued with him, the sect leader would intervene and restrain the Stone Monkey, and I would take the opportunity to kill him..."
Lao Liu suddenly stopped writing.
Wasn't this exactly the story Ding Huan had just told?
Ding Huan chuckled.
"You still say you're not the Six-Eared Macaque from Journey to the West? I told you your memory is missing. Well, it might be because I'm not skilled enough. It's fine, keep going. The missing memory isn't important."
Lao Liu looked at Ding Huan, as if trying to discern the truth in his words.
After a while, it continued writing, "As long as I killed the Stone Monkey, when the Earth Star cycled, I, the Six-Eared Macaque, would survive. I didn't expect that the sect leader restrained not the Stone Monkey, but me. The Stone Monkey's actions were exactly what I had planned. It hit me on the back of the head with its staff..."
"Wait..."
Seeing Lao Liu write this, Ding Huan felt something was off.
"What do you mean by the Earth Star cycling?" Ding Huan asked.
"It's the Earth Star's cycle. The Dao Ancestor said the Earth Star was going to cycle. No matter who you are, if you stay on the Earth Star, you'll die. To leave the Earth Star, you must enter the Cosmic Disk. Without such a treasure, only sages could survive in the vast universe. Ordinary immortals who enter the lifeless cosmos would surely die," Lao Liu wrote.
"What's the Cosmic Disk?" Ding Huan followed up.
"It's the Dao Ancestor's treasure. Only those who have attained an immortal position or equivalent can enter. Among the four chaos monkeys of heaven and earth, only one can attain an immortal position. So, only one of me and the Stone Monkey could enter the Cosmic Disk."
By now, Ding Huan realized that it wasn't that he hadn't fully extracted Lao Liu's memory genes.
This really had nothing to do with Journey to the West.
But it did align with the information he had about Earth's cycle.
This Lao Liu was useful.
Satisfied, Ding Huan continued, "What's an immortal position?"
"An immortal position is just that. There are also Buddha positions, human emperor positions, demon positions, ghost positions, and so on. At that time, the Jie Sect held the most positions. To stop the Jie Sect, the Chan Sect conspired with the Western Sect to plot against the Jie Sect's sages..."
As Lao Liu wrote this, it suddenly realized something.
It stared blankly at the table.
It seemed it had also been a pawn in the scheme.
Damn it, even a single position was worth scheming over?
Ding Huan roughly understood the intrigue during Earth's first cycle.
Lao Liu's account was simple, but the situation must have been complex and treacherous.
So, the Investiture of the Gods was the scheming among the major sects during Earth's cycle?
But that didn't make sense.
The timeline didn't match.
According to the timeline, the Investiture of the Gods was a legend from Chinese history, dating back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
At that time, Earth couldn't have cycled.
If it had, he probably wouldn't exist.
Ding Huan held his head.
He felt his thoughts were getting tangled.
Who was right and who was wrong?
Wait, something Lao Liu said seemed off.
"Lao Liu, let me ask you, when you say the Earth Star cycles, are you talking about Earth's cycle?" Ding Huan grasped the key question.
Lao Liu looked at Ding Huan blankly.
After a while, it wrote, "What's Earth?"
Ding Huan said urgently, "Earth is where we live. Is the Earth Star you're talking about Earth? If that's not clear, let me put it this way. Earth is a planet, and the farthest distance between two points on its surface... is about twenty thousand kilometers."
Lao Liu instinctively shook its head, then realized and quickly wrote, "That's definitely not it. Twenty thousand kilometers? Heh, I can travel that distance in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Such a small place isn't even one ten-thousandth the size of a single continent. The Earth Star's ten great continents are just a part of it. Besides, the Earth Star doesn't include the Nine Heavens. If you count the celestial realm and the Nine Heavens, I don't even know how big it is..."
Writing this, Lao Liu became confused again.
Hadn't it died? During the Earth Star's cycle, who could have saved it? It subconsciously glanced at Ding Huan.
Was this person a supreme being? Stronger than a sage?
But that didn't seem right.
This person in front of him didn't seem particularly powerful.
It had no cultivation now and didn't sense any strong aura.
Ding Huan nodded.
This made sense.
It seemed the Earth Star's cycle wasn't Earth's cycle.
As Ding Huan thought this, a stream of information suddenly appeared in his mind.
"After our planet cycles, even though we've lost the Nine Heavens, the ten great continents, the immortals, and the spiritual roots... Over the long river of time, a new civilization will surely emerge. Someone will record our era... Some souls from our era will also reincarnate. They might not remember who they once were, but they'll vaguely recall some past events. These memories will allow the new civilization to follow the path of the previous one. Many years later, someone might even use memory genes to resurrect the souls of our era... I wish myself good luck too..."
After receiving this information, the clues in Ding Huan's mind became clearer.
The former world included the Earth Star and the celestial realm, and even the underworld.
For example, the Jade Capital was in the celestial realm.
The Jade Void Palace, the Eight Scenes Palace, the Jade Pool, the Heavenly Court, and the Three Immortal Islands were all in the Jade Capital.
Such a vast Jade Capital was probably just a small corner of the celestial realm.
It was unclear if the Nine Heavens were part of the celestial realm.
When the Earth Star cycled and the universe began to collapse, it was unknown whether the Nine Heavens and the Jade Capital had collapsed or been relocated.
The Earth Star collapsed until only one billionth remained, and that one billionth was Earth.
Since Earth was once part of the Earth Star, there were also deceased immortals and gods here.
When Earth gave rise to a new civilization, they reincarnated with partial memories.
These memories became the link to the former Earth Star civilization.
Whether it was Journey to the West or the Investiture of the Gods, these stories were novels rewritten by reincarnated individuals based on their vague memories.
What Ding Huan admired most was the expert who left the parchment, who had predicted that someone could use memory genes to restore the soul memories from the Earth Star era.
That person must have been stronger than a sage.
Who was this expert who left the parchment?
And why did this expert say, "I wish myself good luck"?
(Added an extra chapter today, no reason.
If I had to give a reason, it's that I forgot at noon and didn't dare not add one in the evening.
The extra chapter for the alliance leader will come after the book is officially released!
That's all for today's update.
Goodnight, fellow Daoists! Please support with monthly votes.)
(End of Chapter)