Deep within the Eye of Guixu, the soul of Yaoji was anchored to the Mending Heaven Stone by nine Soul-Locking Nails. Five-Colored Stone slurry flowed from Yang Jian's Heavenly Eye, resonating with the Mending Heaven Stone. The Ancestral Dragon Reverse Scale, swallowed by the Xiaotian Hound, burned within its belly; as the hound’s fangs clamped onto the chains, visions of the primordial Dragon-Han catastrophe flickered into view.
"So, the Ancestral Dragon Reverse Scale is the key..." Yang Jian slashed his wrist, his divine blood staining the Three-pointed Double-edged Blade. The taotie patterns on the blade writhed as if coming to life, identical to the carvings on the South Heavenly Gate that Sun Wukong had shattered during his havoc in Heaven. As the blade touched the Mending Heaven Stone, the scene of Yaoji’s capture five hundred years ago replayed:
The Jade Emperor, wielding a dagger forged from Empress Nüwa’s stone, extracted Yaoji’s threads of emotion one by one. With each extraction, he used them to patch the cracks in the Heavenly Dao. "Jian'er, run..." his mother in the memory suddenly turned, her pupils reflecting the Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle deep within the East Sea.
The Xiaotian Hound suddenly stood on its hind legs, its front paws tearing open its own chest. From its heart, instead of flesh and blood, flew half of the Hetu and Luoshu. The moment the fragment merged with the Mending Heaven Stone, the Eye of Guixu opened completely, its pupil reflecting the Chaos beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens—where the true, sealed Heavenly Dao floated in suspension.
"Mother... she is the incarnation of the Heavenly Dao..." Yang Jian’s Three-pointed Double-edged Blade flew out on its own, its hilt transforming into a spectral image of Yaoji’s hand, which gently brushed his cheek. The Mending Heaven Stone shattered with a roar, its flying fragments coalescing in the air into the Great Array of the Twelve Heavenly Godly Fiends. The spirit of Dijiang, at the center of the array, opened its single eye and let out a heaven-shaking roar: "Hongjun, you old thief, return the fortune of the Wu Clan!"
Sun Wukong’s Ruyi Jingu Bang suddenly stretched across the East Sea, the surface of the staff revealing the scene of Gonggong angrily striking Mount Buzhou. Nezha’s Universal Heaven Ribbon entangled Dijiang’s wings, the blood-written script of Madam Yin upon the silk transforming into a seal. When Yang Jian shattered the final shackle, Yaoji’s soul suddenly turned into a streak of light, pouring into the Spirit Pearl held in Nezha’s arms.
The Great Array of the Twelve Heavenly Godly Fiends suddenly reversed, and Dijiang’s wings unfolded, blotting out the sky. Every feather reflected a devoured Wu Clan soul, wailing as they struggled to break free from their confinement. A phantom of Nuwa suddenly projected from the Spirit Pearl in Nezha’s arms. With a light wave of the clay-molding whip in her hand, the Wu Clan souls transformed into specks of starlight and melted into the earth—the starlight took root, growing into exotic flowers and herbs infused with the essence of Pangu. Yang Jian’s Three-pointed Double-edged Blade suddenly emitted a dragon’s roar, the taotie pattern on its hilt becoming corporeal and swallowing the Dijiang spirit in one gulp! A scream from the Jade Emperor echoed from deep within the Eye of Guixu, and the entire East Sea began to boil. Nine massive bronze cauldrons rose from the seabed—engraved upon them were none other than the seventy-two transformations Sun Wukong had used when he wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace!
Dijiang’s spirit wings blotted out the sky, every feather churning with blood-colored runes. Yang Jian’s Three-pointed Double-edged Blade struck the wings, sparking showers of light—the surface of the feathers was coated in a layer of dried primordial blood scabs; upon closer inspection, these were the crystallized resentment of those who fell during the ancient war between the Wu and the Demon tribes. "These souls have been imprisoned for a hundred thousand years..." The Spirit Pearl in Nezha’s arms suddenly trembled. Nuwa’s phantom flicked her clay-molding whip, and where the shadow of the whip passed, countless human phantoms were stripped from the Wu Clan souls. They drifted to the ground and turned into sparkling light points, growing into ten thousand miles of jade-marrow coral along the East Sea coast. Inside the pearls hanging from the coral branches, the reflections of reincarnated souls could be faintly discerned.
"Roar—!" Chaotic, murky energy erupted from the wounds where Dijiang had been devoured by the taotie pattern. As the murk hit the ground, it turned into countless miniature Dijiangs, their claws and teeth entwined with black Karma Threads. Sun Wukong swept his Ruyi Jingu Bang, and water-control incantations of Wuzhiqi appeared on the staff, causing the East Sea water to freeze into ten thousand ice swords hanging in the air. "Little tricks!" the monkey sneered, his fangs bared, as the ice swords poured down like a torrential rain, each one precisely piercing the single eye of a miniature Dijiang. The monsters shivered and exploded into black fog, within which scenes of the Twelve Ancestral Witches being tricked by Hongjun into signing the blood pact emerged!
The Heavenly Eye on Yang Jian’s forehead suddenly emitted a green light, illuminating the inscriptions on the nine bronze cauldrons—the divine arts such as "Lawful Heaven and Earth" and "Seventy-Two Transformations" carved on the cauldrons matched the techniques Sun Wukong had used when he wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace exactly! On the inner wall of the central cauldron, a line of scrawled, sloppy characters read: "Old Sun was here," the handwriting still conveying the arrogance of five hundred years ago. Nezha’s Universal Heaven Ribbon suddenly wrapped around the cauldron’s handles, the blood script of Madam Yin resonating with the inscriptions on the cauldron. Seven rays of light erupted from the vessel, condensing in the air into the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper formation, pinning the Dijiang spirit firmly to the center of the array.
"So these cauldrons were left behind by you back then..." Yang Jian looked toward Sun Wukong, only to find the monkey staring blankly at the bottom of the cauldron—there, a prophecy was carved in demon script: "When the nine cauldrons appear in the world, the Empress Nüwa shall return." Suddenly, a phantom figure rose from the cauldron; it was formed from the threads of emotion cut away by Nüwa when she mended the heavens! Those threads of emotion gently caressed the Spirit Pearl in Nezha’s hand, and the sleeping soul of Yaoji within the pearl suddenly awakened, turning into a streak of light that merged into Yang Jian’s Heavenly Eye.
"Mother!" Yang Jian roared, and Five-Colored Stone slurry poured from his Heavenly Eye. As the slurry touched the ground, it grew rapidly, turning in a blink into the sky-piercing Jianmu Tree, its branches piercing the Thirty-Three Heavens. The fruit at the top of the Jianmu Tree burst open; in the erupting radiance, the main body of Yaoji, sealed deep within the Flat Peach Garden, suddenly opened her eyes—the roots winding beneath her feet were connected directly to the Eye of Guixu deep within the East Sea!