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Volume 5 Trouble File First Half Part 6

Even if they were not bound by blood, they were still bound together by the oath of the chalice that they swore to each other, becoming each other’s brothers-in-law, and that was enough for them to risk going against the mightiest force of their mythology in order to save one of their own. And so they raised their flags and marched out to war, each one of them being stronger than the thousand of the finest mortal soldiers banded together. But even then, when all of them banded together, it did not matter how strong they were as individual youkai or Demon Lords, when compared to those whom they were about to go against, it could be said that they were small and insignificant. And most importantly, the forces of the Jade Emperor would not simply stand by and do nothing, allowing Sun Wukong’s kin to run amok and do whatever they wanted.

Because the Jade Emperor would not allow anyone to oppose him so openly. Because the act of going against him was something that the Gods themselves would not forgive. Because such act of high treason was something that even the Buddha himself would not be able to avoid getting punished for.

So when they went against the Jade Emperor and broke Sun Wukong out of confinement where she was to await her judgement, the Jade Emperor has decreed that if they wished to defy him so much, they are going to meet their deaths for it, but before he ordered that decree to take effect, he send the last message to The Seven Great Sages, and that message read as such:

「Hand over Sun Wukong. She is a great sinner who dared to divide the heavens themselves into two with her misgivings, and for committing those sins she needs to be rightfully punished.」

A great sinner. That is what the Jade Emperor called her. An evil that disturbs the order of the world simply by existing and a calamity that destroys all that is good and threatens the well being of the people around her. But that message was all the proof that The Seven Great Sages needed. The Jade Emperor simply wanted to have Sun Wukong brought before him so that he could kill her, and the crime of vandalizing the Jade Emperor’s gardens was nothing but a cheap excuse for him to do so. But now that he has made such claims and the charges were made, it became more than certain that the Jade emperor will not reconsider his decision, and will stop at nothing to see his order of snuffing the life out of Sun Wukong fulfilled. But even so, The Demon Bull King quelled the anger that was boiling within him, and send the reply back to the Jade Emperor, in which he was asking him to present amore convincing charges and the reasoning behind his orders to have Sun Wukong captured and brought before him. And the reply that he got back from the Jade Emperor was.

「That thing is a 『King’s Vessel』 born from the stars. It is therefore self-evident that if anyone born with such extraordinary qualities were to ever appear in the realm of us, The Divine Jade Emperor, their sworn duty would be to surrender themselves in all their power and brilliance to the service of us, The Jade Emperor. But if such an individual were to not heed the call and not only refuse The Emperor’s will but to also chose to openly go against him, then it is our duty as the ruler of the Divine Realm and all that is beneath it to act with all due haste so that we could subdue the threat that such a person possesses before it grows too large to be contained from causing harm to both the Divine and Mortal realm. So if you need a more valid reason to hand her over so that she could be judged for the crimes that she committed, then let it be known. . .  」

. . . . that the gravest sin committed by Sun Wukong was being born into the world in the first place.

「. . . . 」

All of the six youkai stared at the message that stated that Sun Wukong’s greatest sin was the fact that she was born to this world in the first place in blatant disbelief. They could not believe that someone like The Jade Emperor himself would use something like that as a valid argument for sentencing someone to death and still claim that it the reasoning he presented in the message was a plausible one. Nevertheless, at that point in time they were still on the fence about exactly what kind of action they should be taking, so when the Jade Emperor’s forces came they had no choice but to hand Sun Wukong over to them. However, if there was one thing that they could agree with the Jade Emperor, it was the fact that Sun Wukong was a brilliant person to whom all of them were drawn, and so they immediately gave chase and followed after her to the execution site.

Since she was able to capture the hearts the hearts of such fierce men as The Seven Great Sages was definitely a talented person who deserved to be called a 『King’s Vessel』. And that is why all six of The Seven Great Sages screamed from the bottom of their hearts as they finally decided to take action, knowing exactly what it was that needed to be done.

The Jade Emperor might have been convinced that his judgement was the correct one and that he was finally about to have everything go exactly the way he has planned it. . .  but even if his judgement was indeed correct, he was to slow in executing it.

The Seven Great Sages broke into the execution ground and taken Sun Wukong back, and when The Demon Bull King was holding her in his arms, he closed his eyes and slowly raised his right hand, now clenched tightly into a fist, into the heavens, and the others soon followed his example, closing their eyes and raising their right fists towards the sky. They have made their decision. The battle that they were about to involve themselves in was not the one they would be fighting so that they could achieve glory. The battle that they were about to involve themselves in was not the one they would be fighting so that they could emerge victorious from it.

They were going to fight that battle just so that they could say that they have remained true to both themselves and their comrade. To fulfill the oath that they have sworn to one another, which was thicker than the bonds of blood. . . . and in order to prove that even though her life might have been the one filled with sinful acts, she herself has never been evil.

Gazing up at the seven flags floating in the sky, their leader gathered up all of her determination that was burning in her wounded body and howled towards the heavens and everyone dwelling in them:

『MY NAME IS TAIZAN FUKUN. . .  KNOWN OTHERWISE AS SEITEN TAISEI, SUN WUKONG, THE GREAT SAGE EQUALLING HEAVEN! ! ! ! AND IF ANYONE DISAGREES WITH MY EXISTENCE, LET THEM STEP FORWARD AND SPEAK! ! ! ! THEN WE, THE SEVEN GREAT SAGES, SHALL ACCEPT THEIR CHALLENGE AND SHOW THEM HOW WRONG THEY ARE, NO MATTER WHO OR WHAT THEY MIGHT BE! ! ! ! ! ! !』