"Do you know the secret of this Calamity? What is the truth, and what is its meaning?"
Da Xing the Mad Monk clutched his rusted bowl wine vat, brandished the Great Compassion Fan, and glared with furious eyes, sweeping his gaze across the entire assembly.
Faced with Da Xing the Mad Monk's questioning, none of the Buddhas from the Buddhist Eight Sects atop the Tathagata Treasure Pagoda, nor any of the Great Dao Ancestral Patriarchs from the Thirty-Six Grotto Heavens and Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, offered a response.
Firstly, their attention was fixed on Gu Qingfeng. At this critical juncture, none dared to be careless, their heartstrings taut, and naturally, they couldn't be bothered with the drunken, mad ramblings of Da Xing the Mad Monk.
Secondly, they truly did not know the secret, the truth, or the meaning of this Calamity.
"You don't know! None of you know!"
Da Xing the Mad Monk roared hoarsely, then asked again, "Do you know why the Book of Fate records that when Original Sin finds its True Lord, the Three Thousand Great Daos shall fall, the ancient and present heavens and earth shall be reborn, and the Daoless Age shall begin...?" "You don't know that either!"
"This old monk will tell you!"
"Original Sin will definitely find its True Lord!"
"The Three Thousand Great Daos will definitely fall!"
"The ancient and present heavens and earth will definitely be reborn!"
"The Daoless Age will definitely begin!"
"You cannot stop it! No one can stop it!"
"This Great Dao has long been fragmented, riddled with holes, utterly rotten and decayed! It's rotten to the core!"
"Only by annihilating the Three Thousand Great Daos can the ancient and present heavens and earth be reborn!"
"Only when the ancient and present heavens and earth are reborn will the Daoless Age begin."
"Only when the Daoless Age begins will the true Great Dao be reborn!"
"This Calamity is not meant to slaughter the Great Dao! On the contrary, it is meant to save the Great Dao!"
"To make the Great Dao break and then stand anew—that is the secret of this Calamity!"
"To make the Great Dao be reborn after the tribulation—that is the truth of this Calamity!"
"To make the Great Dao return to its original state—that is the meaning of this Calamity!"
"You only know that when Original Sin finds its True Lord, the Three Thousand Great Daos will fall. If the Three Thousand Great Daos fall, you will no longer be able to dominate your own Daos, nor will you be able to use your so-called Dao Laws to dominate all living beings!"
"You keep saying you want to protect the Great Dao, but in truth, you are not protecting the Great Dao at all! You are protecting the Dao Laws you yourselves established, protecting the lofty status the Great Dao grants you, and protecting the hegemony over all living beings that the Great Dao bestows upon you!"
"The reason the Great Dao is rotten and riddled with holes is because of you hypocrites, you self-proclaimed guardians of the Dao!"
Da Xing the Mad Monk's words left all the Ancestral Patriarchs present utterly shocked.
Especially his claim that this Calamity was not meant to slaughter the Great Dao but to save it—this struck all the Ancestral Patriarchs like a thunderbolt, leaving them dumbfounded and finding it hard to believe.
Da Xing the Mad Monk lifted his bowl wine vat, tilted his head back, and took another fierce gulp. Then he shouted sternly, "Do you know what Original Sin is? Where does Original Sin come from? And whose Original Sin is it?"
"You don't know!"
"This old monk tells you, it is precisely because this Great Dao is rotten and decayed that Original Sin was born! This Original Sin is nothing else—it is the Original Sin of the Great Dao itself!"
"The Three Thousand Origins of the Great Dao are the root of Original Sin! The Three Thousand Laws of the Great Dao are the origin of Original Sin!"
"And you lot who wield the Three Thousand Laws of the Great Dao—you are the true, thoroughgoing disciples of Original Sin! You are the Great Dao Sinners who bring calamity upon the Great Dao!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Da Xing the Mad Monk laughed wildly without cease, glaring furiously at the Great Dao Ancestral Patriarchs in the arena and berating them, "You think that being tainted by Original Sin makes you disciples of Original Sin? You think cultivating an Original Sin body makes you an Original Sin Patriarch? You think integrating Original Sin blood makes you a Child of Original Sin?"
"Hahaha! Little do you know! Those who created the Three Thousand Origins of the Great Dao are the true Original Sin Patriarchs! Those who bear the Three Thousand Heavenly Mandates of the Great Dao are the true Children of Original Sin! Those who execute the Three Thousand Laws of the Great Dao are the true disciples of Original Sin!"
"You are all Great Dao Sinners who bring calamity upon the Great Dao! Hahahahaha!"
"It is precisely because of you Great Dao Sinners that Original Sin came into being! Hahaha!"
If Da Xing the Mad Monk's earlier words had struck the Ancestral Patriarchs present like a thunderbolt, leaving them incredulous, then this speech was, for the Ancestral Patriarchs in the arena, nothing short of a cataclysmic disaster!
Original Sin was the Original Sin of the Great Dao.
The Three Thousand Origins of the Great Dao were the root of Original Sin. The Three Thousand Laws of the Great Dao were the origin of Original Sin.
Those Original Sin Patriarchs were not the disciples of Original Sin; the true disciples of Original Sin were them.
They were the sinners of this Great Dao!
Da Xing the Mad Monk's words echoed like continuous thunderclaps in the minds of the assembled Ancestral Patriarchs.
His speech was like a Calamity in itself, dealing a fatal blow to their worldview. Their outlook on life, their view of the world, their moral compass—though not yet collapsed—had begun to tremble and shake.
Was it over?
No, it wasn't over!
Da Xing the Mad Monk raised his bowl wine vat again, took another wild drink, and after drinking, burst into another peal of thunderous laughter.
He pointed at Gu Qingfeng, who was in the process of letting go of himself, and said, "Do you know why the Divine Sense and Demonic Thoughts of the Three Great Overlords appeared on the Gu kid?"
"Hahaha! You don't know!"
"But there is one thing you must know: that the Lord of Avici Asura rules over Hell, that the Lord of the Boundless Netherworld rules over Purgatory, and that the Devouring Heaven and Earth Blood Glutton rules over the Abyssal Prison!"
"This old monk believes you know even better what kind of place Hell is, what kind of place Purgatory is, and what kind of place the Abyssal Prison is!"
"Only damned Great Dao Sinners are cast into Hell!"
"Only damned Great Dao Sinners are cast into Purgatory!"
"Only damned Great Dao Sinners are cast into the Abyssal Prison!"
"The Great Dao is rotten, rotten to the core, rotten beyond redemption! And you Great Dao Sinners are too many—so many that Hell can no longer hold you all, so many that Purgatory can no longer hold you all, so many that even the Abyssal Prison can no longer hold you all! That is why the Divine Sense and Demonic Thoughts of the Three Great Overlords appeared upon the Gu kid!"
"They hope the Gu kid will ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin! They hope the Gu kid will slaughter the Three Thousand Great Daos! They hope the Gu kid will cause these heavens and earth to be reborn! They hope the Gu kid will open the Daoless Age! They hope even more that the Great Dao will break and then stand anew! They hope the Great Dao will be reborn after the tribulation! They hope the Great Dao will return to its original state!"
Da Xing the Mad Monk, like a mad demon, laughed uncontrollably. Waving the Great Compassion Fan in his hand, he pointed at all the Great Dao Ancestral Patriarchs and said, "Do you know or not that the Three Great Overlords are incarnations of the Great Dao?"
"Do you know or not that the Three Overlords are incarnations of the Great Dao—not incarnations of your so-called Three Thousand Origins of the Great Dao, but incarnations of the true Great Dao itself?"
"Do you know or not that the existence of the Three Overlords is to judge you Great Dao Sinners who bring calamity upon the Great Dao?"
"How laughable that you Great Dao Sinners actually have the gall to plot against the Divine Sense and Demonic Thoughts of the Three Great Overlords!"
"Is that something you Great Dao Sinners are qualified to plot against? Hahahaha!"
"You should feel fortunate! Fortunate that the Gu kid has not yet released the Three Overlords! Once the Gu kid releases the Three Overlords, it won't be a question of whether you plot against them or not, but a question of whether the Three Overlords will judge you Great Dao Sinners!"
"Open your damned eyes and look!"
"Look at the Purgatory manifestation above your heads!"
"Look at the Hell manifestation beneath your feet!"
"Look at the Abyss manifestations to your left and right!"
"The Gates of Purgatory, the Gates of Hell, the Gates of the Abyss have long been opened for you, just waiting for you to deliver yourselves to them!"