ATPnovel Chapter 115 Dismantling the Buddha and Extracting its Core
Chapter 115 Dismantling the Buddha and Extracting its Core
The Buddha statue's eyelids twitched.
The entire Tibetan room trembled slightly.
It was neither wind nor a surge of magical energy.
Like a vast ocean of scriptures, suddenly lowering the volume of breath.
Chen Fan stared at the fragment between its brows, not taking a step back, but instead taking two steps forward.
"As expected, it's here with you."
Tang Sanzang saw it clearly, and slammed his staff on the ground with a deep sound.
"This thing shouldn't have been left in the prayer cabinet."
Zongwu stood to the side, holding the Untitled Sutra, his Adam's apple bobbing twice.
His eyes were unfocused.
It's not fear.
Every time he looked at this place, a new line of thoughts appeared in his mind.
It was as if someone was stuffing case files into his bones.
The Buddha statue slowly opened its eyes.
There was no golden light in his eyes.
There were only two pages of white paper.
It didn't even glance at Chen Fan, but looked at Tang Sanzang first.
"Old Manuscript of Golden Cicada"
It spoke slowly, uttering each word slowly and deliberately.
"You dare to come back?"
Tang Sanzang looked up.
"I'm back to get my stuff."
The Buddha statue's face was expressionless, but its voice suddenly turned cold.
"You didn't come here to collect it."
"You've come to admit your mistake."
The blank wall behind it suddenly cracked open, and pages of tattered scriptures flipped out on their own, hanging in mid-air, like an examination of documents.
On every page, there is the shadow of Tang Sanzang.
There's a picture of him sitting on a high platform when he was still Jin Chanzi.
There is a depiction of him wearing a cassock on his journey to the west.
There is also the image of him now, carrying a monk's staff, his face covered in blood, his eyes blazing with fire.
The Buddha statue said, "The scriptures are archived; you are a worthless scroll."
"Your questioning of the true meaning and alteration of the Buddha's intent back then already constituted a mistake."
"Kneel down."
"Acknowledge that you are merely an unwritten scripture of failure."
The words fell.
The entire Tibetan room felt like it was being weighed down by a mountain.
The sutra cabinets on all sides shone brightly.
Golden threads emerged from the crack in the cabinet door and began to wrap around Tang Sanzang's feet.
Tang Sanzang stood still, his back taut.
He looked at the tattered scriptures and suddenly laughed.
"I was sick of listening to your sermons back in the day."
"Still using this tactic now?"
The two blank pages in the Buddha's eyes were turned over.
"kneel."
The gold thread suddenly plummeted.
The ground cracked open in a semi-circle, directly below Tang Sanzang's knees.
This is an attempt to force him to kneel.
Zong Wu's face changed, and he frantically flipped through the files.
"There are suppression clauses, mandatory archiving clauses, and... there's also a process for repenting for old drafts."
"Master Chen, this thing really can use the rules to pressure people."
Chen Fan smiled.
"rule?"
He raised his hand and swung the black stick horizontally.
"Then let's remove the book cover first."
The voice just fell.
The others had already rushed out.
There was no build-up whatsoever.
In short, smash it.
With a muffled thud, the black stick smashed directly into the Buddha statue's forehead.
The Buddha statue seemed not to have expected Chen Fan to do this. The two pages of white paper in its eyes suddenly trembled, and a layer of scripture wall immediately opened in front of it.
The densely packed gold lettering forms a solid wall.
next moment.
"boom!"
The scripture wall exploded on the spot.
The black stick smashed through the gold lettering, its momentum undiminished, and swung straight at half of the Buddha statue's face.
Stone chips flew everywhere.
The Buddha statue that had always stood high above with its eyes closed was knocked askew by the blow, leaving a long crack in its face.
Immediately, a cacophony of gasps of astonishment echoed from the depths of the sea.
It felt like someone was watching from the shadows.
Just like this sea, it has countless eyes.
Tang Sanzang was taken aback at first, then grinned.
"right."
"Just tear it down like this."
The Buddha statue's head was tilted to one side, and it took a while for it to turn back.
The cracks on its face didn't actually contain a stone core.
It is filled with densely packed scripture pages.
Every page was filled with annotations.
"Delete."
"turn down."
"It cannot be established."
"heresy."
Its face is made up of a bunch of negations.
Chen Fan found it even more amusing.
"I thought you were some kind of Buddha."
"Turns out, he's just a reviewer."
The Buddha statue stared at him, and its voice finally changed, no longer as flat as before.
"I am the unpublished truth."
"The final appraiser in the imperial examinations."
"All those who enter this sea are subject to my final approval."
"You, a nobody, dare to touch me?"
The two characters "外字" were uttered.
All four cabinets were open.
Hundreds of golden chains shot out in unison.
It wasn't just Chen Fan who was involved.
Three people, and they paid for everything.
Chen Fan swung his stick again, breaking more than a dozen of them, but the rest came around from the ground, walls, and cabinet doors, weaving through the cracks like they were trying to squeeze through.
Tang Sanzang swept away the three obstacles in front of him with his staff, but his left arm was still entangled, and a corner of his cassock was torn on the spot.
Zongwu suffered the most.
He was the weakest in cultivation, and after only taking two steps back, five or six golden pages were already hanging from his waist. He was almost dragged towards the scripture cabinet on the side.
"Master Chen!"
"It's cataloging me!"
Chen Fan sidestepped and struck with his stick, breaking both of his legs, cursing under his breath.
"Stop howling."
Ask it.
Zongwu was taken aback.
"Now?"
"Yes, now."
Chen Fan kicked open the cabinet door that was pressing down on him, the sound was fast and fierce.
"Aren't you good at questioning?"
"Give me the rules for carding it."
Upon hearing this, Zongwu's eyes immediately lit up.
This is what he excels at.
That was also the only part of him that made him stronger than others in this godforsaken place.
He slammed the untitled sutra open, the file trembled, and his voice became several decibels higher.
"The true meaning of the scriptures, which have not yet been published, is subject to mandatory questioning."
The golden chain paused.
The white paper in the Buddha's eyes was turning.
"You have no right—"
Zongwu interrupted it directly.
"answer."
"Whose name does the object embedded between your eyebrows belong to?"
The Buddha statue lowered its voice.
"Keeped safe by the sea."
Zongwu immediately pressed for more information.
"Storage does not equal ownership."
"Registered name".
"Who is it?"
The Buddha statue remained silent for a moment.
Chen Fan smashed the chain with a stick and stared at it intently.
Tang Sanzang also stepped forward half a step with his staff, as if he would smash its mouth with the next blow if it dared to talk nonsense.
The sliver of light between the Buddha's eyebrows flickered on and off.
It finally spoke.
"Not registered."
Zongwu's breath hitched.
His hands were practically burning from flipping through the case files.
"Answer again."
Can unregistered items be considered as ownerless, sealed items?
The Buddha statue remained silent for an even longer time this time.
The entire Tibetan room was shaking.
It was as if something was preventing it from answering.
The Untitled Sutra suddenly turned a page by itself, and two words appeared on the paper.
You may ask.
Zongwu, as if injected with adrenaline, raised his voice even higher.
"answer!"
The cracked face of the Buddha statue twitched slightly.
"Yes."
One word.
The entire room fell silent for a moment.
The next moment, Zongwu jumped up.
"Master Chen! Unclaimed!"
"This fragment is an unclaimed, sealed item!"
"According to the regulations governing the sealing of goods at sea, whoever unseals the goods first has priority in taking control!"
These words had barely left his lips.
The Buddha statue revealed an angry expression for the first time.
The entire wall behind it exploded open, and scrolls of ancient black scriptures shot into the sky, like black crows swooping down on Zongwu.
"You, a mere cataloging remnant, dare to tamper with the records!"
Zongwu was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he squatted down, covering his head.
"Master Chen, help!"
He's stubborn for only a short while, and he cowers just as quickly.
Chen Fan had been waiting for this opportunity.
Once the rules are set, who will bother talking nonsense with you?
"Tang Sanzang!"
"Suppress it!"
"clear!"
With a loud shout, Tang Sanzang swung his staff in a wide arc and smashed it down.
He didn't flush the fragments.
They specifically target the legs of Buddha statues.
With a "bang".
A corner of the Buddha statue's seat was instantly blown apart.
Just as the Buddha statue was about to get up, the second staff came and struck it squarely in the chest.
The chest, made of pages pieced together from scriptures, was struck so hard that it collapsed inwards, sending pieces of paper flying everywhere.
Each of the flying papers had the words "abandon," "refute," and "delete" written on it.
Tang Sanzang was annoyed by the sight and kicked him again.
"I told you to delete it!"
"Delete yourself today!"
The Buddha statue roared and raised its hand to press down.
A large golden handprint materialized above the chamber and pressed down on Tang Sanzang's head.
Chen Fanren has arrived.
He thrust the stick in from the side, forcefully twisting the handprint.
He then leaped up, stepping onto the Buddha statue's shoulder.
The Buddha statue was grabbed with its hand behind its back.
Chen Fan didn't dodge at all. He pressed his free left hand against the crack on its forehead and smashed the black stick down hard on its brow.
"Open it!"
"Click—"
That sound was particularly crisp.
It's like breaking open a shell that's been there for a long time.
The Buddha statue's brow was split.
A beam of starlight suddenly shot out from inside, instantly illuminating the entire Tibetan chamber.
The fragments in the stone slab sensed something.
Chen Fan felt a warmth in his arms.
That familiar pulling sensation returned.
The Buddha statue finally panicked, and its voice became distorted.
"This item must not be allowed to leave the country!"
"Put it back on the shelf! Put it back on the shelf immediately!"
It opened its mouth and spat out a sheet of gold paper, attempting to wrap the star core fragment back up.
Zongwu reacted quickly this time, throwing the file aside.
"Additional questions!"
Is it a violation of regulations for unclaimed sealed items to be resealed by the original custodian?
The Buddha statue seemed to be pulled by a hook, causing its movement to slow down by half a beat.
"Violation..."
Just this half-beat.
enough.
Chen Fan grabbed the fragment and ripped it out from between the Buddha's eyebrows.
It was piping hot to the touch.
Like grasping a small, raging spark.
The entire Buddha statue froze at that moment.
The two pages of white paper in his eyes first shrank, then burst into flames with a "poof".
"No--"
It only uttered half a sound.
Starting from the center of the forehead, the entire Buddha statue collapsed inch by inch.
It's not broken.
It's falling apart.
Like a book whose main plot has been removed, the pages fall apart and words fly everywhere.
The surrounding sachet emitted a sharp buzzing sound at the same time.
Black cracks appeared in the floor of the Tibetan chamber.
The sea has gone out of control.
Chen Fan ignored all of that.
He looked at the second star core fragment in his palm, and the system notification popped up as it exploded.
[Ding! Second star core fragment detected fusing!]
[Resistance to being removed from the boundary has been greatly increased!]
[Some deleted scenes can be reversed and repaired!]
[You have been granted temporary access: Delete in a second!]
Chen Fan's eyelids twitched.
Can you erase it in an instant?
That's ruthless.
The most troublesome thing in the Jinghai was that people, scenes, and records would be deleted at the slightest disagreement.
Now, by forcing himself to eat two fragments, he has finally managed to pry open a corner of the most disgusting rule in this wretched place.
Tang Sanzang also heard the commotion, and his eyes lit up.
"Did it work?"
Chen Fan grinned.
"It's done."
"If anyone dares to delete you next time, I'll delete them back in reverse order."
Zongwu was dumbfounded.
He stared at the collapsing storage room, then at the fragments in Chen Fan's hand, and felt completely numb.
"Did...did you really win him over?"
"The unpublished truth."
"The one who makes the final decision on the matter."
"You're just going to tear it down like that?"
Tang Sanzang, holding his staff, spat on the pile of torn pages on the ground.
"Is the Buddha statue for worship?"
"no."
"It was demolished."
As soon as he said that...
The entire sea suddenly overturned.
It's not a metaphor.
It's a real translation.
The vast sea of scriptures in the distance, seemingly endless, appeared to be lifted up from below by a giant hand. The sea surface became a wall, and countless gold pages, black pages, fragments, and covers were all rolled into the air and crashed down with a thunderous roar.
The cabinets were overturned in rows.
The scriptures, like seawater, poured into the library.
Zongwu clutched his head and screamed.
"It's collapsed!"
"Jinghai has collapsed!"
Chen Fan grabbed him by the back of his collar, about to back away.
Suddenly, a straight line split open in the middle of the sea.
It's not a crack.
It's like someone taking a knife and cutting a gash in the entire sea.
Then, a hand reached in.
That hand was very white.
Long, slender fingers.
The knuckles are covered with fine serial numbers.
Each number is glowing.
It didn't come from the sky.
It extends in from overseas.
Like someone turning the pages of a book, finally reaching their hand into the book.
Zong Wu saw it at a glance, and his face turned as white as paper.
"Cataloger..."
Chen Fan's pupils contracted.
That hand didn't grab him.
They didn't even grab the fragments.
It passed through the surging sea of scriptures, over the collapsed scripture cabinet, and stretched straight towards Tang Sanzang.
The hand hasn't arrived yet.
One voice had already fallen.
mild.
calm.
It's like someone at a desk talking about something perfectly normal.
"Your scripture."
"It's time to put it back on the shelf."
That hand was already reaching for Tang Sanzang's throat.
Chapter 191 The End of the Milky Way
At the end of the Milky Way, things were even more chaotic than Wukong had imagined.
Having fought their way here, there were hardly any celestial soldiers patrolling the river ahead. Further on, the flow of the Milky Way suddenly slowed down, as if it had crashed into a stagnant pool. There was no celestial mist on the river's surface, only a layer of grayish-white, chilling air, pressing very low.
When the Bull Demon King landed, his foot struck a black iron plate with a loud thud.
He looked down and his face turned ashen.
"Is this place the Heavenly Court's waste disposal site?"
All around were the remains of old factories.
A broken star rail beam, a cracked copper wheel, half a charred cloud boat skeleton, and a pile of unrecognizable old components were stuck between the ice and the river. In the distance, a few grayish star fragments drifted, like stones that had crashed in from outer space, their edges still bearing the marks of melting.
Red Boy squatted on a slanted iron pillar and poked a broken puppet at his feet with his fire-tipped spear.
The puppet's head tilted to the side and it fell into the river without even making a splash.
"Dead like this, and you still want to use them to guard the place?"
Yang Jian did not respond.
He stood at the front, looking at the giant valve at the end of the Milky Way.
That's not a door.
It looks more like a strange eye embedded in the riverbed.
The valve consists of two dark blue-black metal plates, so wide they seem to have no edge, their surfaces covered in old cracks. In the center of the valve core is a circular ring, resembling a lock or some kind of interface. Nine flow-regulating columns are inserted around it; three are broken, leaving six barely holding the valve together and preventing it from collapsing completely.
Wukong glanced at it and scratched his ear.
"The third fragment is inside?"
Yang Jian nodded.
"It's clearly written in the old Ministry of Works archives. The Tianhe Valve suppressed a stellar core fragmentation tide once. After the fragments were swept in, they were caught in the valve core."
The Bull Demon King grinned.
"It's even better if it bites down; just pry it out."
Yang Jian turned to look at him, his eyes cold.
"You can try to pry it open with your bare hands. Once the valve core starts spinning randomly, the entire Milky Way will overflow. Not only you, but half of the celestial waterway behind it will be blown up."
Red Boy snorted.
"You've led the way here, and you're still so annoying."
Yang Jian wasn't annoyed and said directly, "I promised Chen Fan I would only help you open the gate. As for the core, you can take it yourselves. I'll only hold off the people for a while. If you really want me to help you turn the Tianhe Plain upside down, that's another matter."
The Bull Demon King narrowed his eyes.
"Afraid of completely breaking ties with the Jade Emperor?"
Yang Jian looked at the valve, his tone flat.
"It's not the right time yet."
Wukong waved his hand.
"Alright. If you want to leave yourself an out, that's your business. I didn't come here to listen to your talk about timing."
He finished speaking and walked forward.
Before I had taken ten steps, a row of blue lights suddenly lit up in the cold mist ahead.
It's not a lamp.
It is an eye.
Armored soldiers rose from behind the rubble heap.
At first, there were dozens.
Then hundreds more.
Finally, even behind those few floating star debris, armored figures emerged.
The armor is black, bearing the old patterns of the Ministry of Works. A broken river pattern is engraved on the chest, as if it had been slashed.
Duanliu Army.
The moment these people moved, the deathly aura around them instantly came alive.
The previously motionless debris was now all strung together by invisible waterlines. Broken beams formed arrays, iron wheels became locks, and wrecked boats capsized, blocking both the way forward and backward. Dense blue lights also emerged from beneath the river's surface, as if something was swimming beneath the ice.
Red Boy stood up straight immediately.
"There really was an ambush."
The Bull Demon King picked up his iron cudgel and slammed it to the ground.
"Perfect. I didn't get to have a proper fight along the way."
The army that cut off the flow of water split off into two paths.
A tall figure walked out from behind.
The man wore old silver armor, its surface covered in scratches, and a piece of armor was missing from his left shoulder. He carried a long halberd, its blade gleaming with an icy blue light. His face was thin, his eyes sunken, as if he had never seen the sun in years. Most striking was his Adam's apple, where a black nail was driven into the ground, surrounded by old, cracked scars.
He walked to the front of the formation and looked at Yang Jian first.
"Even the God of Justice is here to rob a tycoon?"
Yang Jian remained silent.
The man looked at Wukong again, and only then did his eyes show some movement.
"Great Sage Equal to Heaven. When you wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, you only smashed things openly. But Chen Fan behind you has been even dirtier. He dared to rummage through old files and even tried to dismantle the Heavenly River valve."
Wukong was amused.
"You know me, that's good. But you should also know that those who block my way never end up well."
The man gripped his halberd tightly and sneered.
"My name is Li Chenzhou. Commander of the Duanliu Army. Guarding the clan for seven thousand years. Whoever challenges the clan today will be left behind."
The Bull Demon King cursed, "Seven thousand years and you're still guarding a useless gate? You've developed a servile mentality."
Li Chenzhou's face immediately darkened.
The Duanliu Army soldiers behind him also looked up in unison, their eyes fixed on him like those of a dead man.
Several soldiers couldn't contain their anger and spoke up directly.
"How dare a mere demon trespass upon the forbidden land of the Heavenly River?"
"The rebel lackeys even brought a child to their deaths."
"Does having Yang Jian backing you up mean you can act like this?"
Red Boy hates this kind of talk the most.
He raised his gun, and the flames shot up instantly.
"Come on, who will say it again?"
Li Chenzhou raised his hand to restrain his subordinate, but his gaze remained fixed on Wukong.
"Of the four of you, only one dares to charge forward."
"Sun Wukong, I'll give you a chance. Retreat. Today, we'll only hold Chen Fan accountable, not you."
Wukong tilted his head to look at him, as if he were a joke.
"Your face is better suited to being spoken to while kneeling."
A sentence was uttered.
Li Chenzhou's cold smile froze instantly.
He had guarded the gate for many years and had seen people come to steal, break in, and beg, but he had never seen anyone so straightforward.
What's even more infuriating is that many of the Duanliu Army soldiers who were originally calm changed their expressions upon hearing this.
The Bull Demon King burst out laughing on the spot.
"Good, good, that's more like you."
Yang Jian stood at the back, without moving.
He knew the talks had fallen through.
Wukong had already taken out the golden cudgel.
"Old Sun is too lazy to identify them one by one. Whoever is the leader, come out and take the beating. The rest of you, if you want to die, then come on up."
Li Chenzhou stared at the stick, and the black nail in his throat seemed to move slightly.
The next instant, his feet shook, and he rushed out.
The halberd left a trail of icy blue water as it slashed diagonally toward Wukong's neck.
Too fast.
The surrounding scraps of iron were all sent flying by this halberd.
Wukong didn't even try to dodge; he simply held his golden cudgel horizontally in defense.
clang!
With a loud bang, half of the scrap yard exploded.
Iron fragments flew everywhere, the ice cracked, and the river surged dozens of feet high.
Li Chenzhou had thought that this halberd strike would at least force the monkey back half a step.
The force from the stick felt like a mountain crashing into you head-on.
His hand went numb, and he slid backward for over a hundred feet, his feet carving two deep furrows in the ice.
He had barely regained his footing when Wukong arrived.
"this one?"
The stick struck his face directly.
Li Chenzhou roared, pressing down with the end of his halberd, while the Duanliu Army behind him formed hand seals in unison. Blue light surged beneath the river's surface, and a water dragon carrying scrap iron shot into the sky, forcefully raising Wukong's staff by half an inch.
With just that half an inch, Li Chenzhou turned and withdrew.
His chest heaved, and for the first time, a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes.
This is not an exaggeration or a rumor.
This monkey is even fiercer than it was back then.
The Duanliu Army was in an uproar.
"The commander was suppressed?"
"How is that possible? He borrowed the entire flow-cutting array."
"Didn't this monkey just come back from the lower realm? Where did it get this strength from!"
Red Boy was pleased with what he heard, and raised his chin to scan them.
"You're making a fuss over such a small noise? Don't come crying later."
The Bull Demon King wasn't idle either.
He took a step forward, swung the iron rod to the side, and smashed the three assembled scrap platforms to pieces.
"Enjoy the show, but don't use the 'Breaking the Formation' technique to disgust people."
Immediately, soldiers from both sides of the Duanliu Army rushed forward.
Red Boy twirled his Fire-Tipped Spear, and Samadhi True Fire shot out along the spear shaft, burning a line of fire along the ground. A dozen armored soldiers had barely landed when their armor plates exploded, scalding them and sending them sprawling across the ground.
"Come on, weren't you being stubborn?"
Yang Jian finally raised his hand.
As the three-pointed double-edged sword slashed through the air, the six flow-regulating columns around the valve lit up simultaneously.
"I'll just open the door."
He said it in a cold voice.
"Whoever tries to stop me, I'll kill them."
Most of the troops who had intended to rush towards the valve stopped abruptly.
Li Chenzhou's eye twitched when he saw this.
"Yang Jian, you really dare to touch the clan seal!"
Yang Jian was too lazy to explain, and changed the hand seals in his hands again.
The six flow-regulating columns turned at the same time, and the valve core ring began to emit a low rumble.
opened.
It's really open!
Li Chenzhou's eyes turned red.
"Stop him!"
Ignoring Wukong, he turned around and tried to pounce on the valve.
Wukong would never let him go.
The golden cudgel stabbed him directly in the back.
Li Chenzhou parried with his halberd, but he was still sent flying, smashing through two layers of the old boat hull.
Wukong caught up in one step and stepped on his chest.
"You dare to get distracted while fighting Old Sun?"
Blood spilled from Li Chenzhou's mouth as he glared at him intently.
"Do you even know what's locked behind that valve?!"
Wukong grinned.
"Old Sun knows now that you're not going to make it."
After saying that, he raised the stick high.
Li Chenzhou's expression changed.
The soldiers around them who had cut off the flow of blood fell silent.
Someone wants to save them.
The Bull Demon King swept away a whole group with a single blow of his staff.
Someone wanted to force the valve open.
Red Boy swept across the sea of fire, burning them so badly they couldn't even retreat steadily.
Even the old soldiers behind them were stunned.
They originally thought Yang Jian was the most troublesome of the four. Who would have thought that Sun Wukong would be the most unreasonable? He didn't care about formations, rules, or listen to any nonsense. He attacked as soon as he arrived, and he relentlessly beat the enemy's commander.
This kind of fighting style is most damaging to morale.
If the commander kneels, the Duanliu Army will collapse today.
Li Chenzhou obviously knew this as well.
He gritted his teeth, and the black nail in his throat suddenly lit up.
"Do you think all I can do is guard the goal?"
The next second, he felt as if he had been forced open by something stuck in a nail.
His old silver armor cracked inch by inch, and large swathes of icy blue water surged from within him, instantly wrapping around his halberd and arms. The river water beneath his feet poured over him like a madman. All the surrounding debris was torn up and pieced together to form layers of heavy armor.
The energy surged dramatically.
It's much better than before.
The Bull Demon King smashed the enemy in front of him with his staff, then glanced back.
"That old bastard has a trick up his sleeve."
Red Boy's eyes also changed.
"He didn't use this opportunity. He's locked himself into the trap."
Yang Jian frowned.
"That nail was a lock nail from the old Ministry of Works. The man who had it driven into his throat was half-dead, sharing his fate with the magistrate."
Li Chenzhou stood up from the ground, his chest still bearing the mark of Wukong's kick, but a smile slowly spread across his face.
"Now, try hitting me."
Wukong smiled too.
"OK."
Instead of retreating, he lifted his foot, giving Li Chenzhou room to get up.
"Get up. Old Sun loves to beat up those who are stubborn."
Just as Li Chenzhou stood up straight, Wukong's staff came crashing down.
This blow was even harder than the last one.
The air was sucked out of the container.
Li Chenzhou crossed his arms to block, but the heavy armor he wore, which had just taken shape, was smashed into a large crater by the blow. He knelt down again, his knees pressing the ice surface into a spiderweb of cracks.
"General!"
Someone in the Duanliu Army roared, and their voice changed.
Li Chenzhou himself was stunned for a moment.
He's already tied his life and his position to the powerhouse, how come he still can't stop them?
Wukong looked down at him, his eyes filled with ferocity.
"You make your living by taking on doors. Old Sun will dismantle you first, then take down the doors."
As he spoke, he jerked his arm, pressing the stick down even lower.
Li Chenzhou's mouth shrugged open, and the black nail in his throat emitted a piercing shriek.
It was at this moment that...
The valve at the rear was finally turned open by one level.
It wasn't the sound of a normal door opening.
It's like something deep inside, dragging iron, crawling out inch by inch.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Everyone paused for a moment when the sound rang out.
Even Wukong turned his head to look over.
Within the valve's inner ring, the slit grew wider and wider. There was no water, no light, only a bluish, chilling aura, so cold it felt like it could freeze a person's bones.
The next instant, a giant ice-blue chain shot out from within.
It's not about throwing.
It is an exploration.
Like a living creature, it slid out along the edge of the valve, each link of the chain the size of a human head, with dense monkey patterns engraved on it.
The smile on the Bull Demon King's face vanished instantly.
"Monkey print?"
Red Boy was also stunned.
"How come this is in here?"
The giant chain stretched longer and longer until it finally taut in mid-air.
At the end of the chain, something was hanging.
First, there was a hand.
It was covered in gray hair, with thin, dry fingers, but extremely long finger bones.
Further down, there are shoulders, a body, and half a crooked monkey face.
It was a corpse.
Monkey-shaped ancient corpse.
His entire body was frozen in a thin layer of blue ice, a giant chain pierced his chest, his head was lowered, but a slight smile seemed to still linger on the corner of his mouth.
When Wukong saw that face, his eyes narrowed sharply.
Because the ancient corpse's face resembled his by seven or eight points.
Chapter 192 Monkey Corpse
At the end of the Milky Way, the wind howls like knives.
The ancient monkey-shaped corpse hung in mid-air, a giant chain around its chest, and wisps of cold, blue-white vapor dripped from its feet. Its head was lowered, half its face twisted, as if it had been dead for a long time. But that hint of a smile was jarringly obvious.
It's like mocking someone.
Red Boy cursed first.
"What a jinx! Who are you trying to scare with a monkey corpse?"
The Bull Demon King did not respond.
He stared at the corpse, his nostrils twitching, his face even more somber than before.
"Not an ordinary corpse."
"Nonsense." Yang Jian, holding his three-pointed double-edged sword, spoke in a cold voice, "Anything that can be locked behind the Tianhe Valve, is it ordinary?"
Wukong remained silent.
He stared intently at that face.
Like.
so similar.
It's not the physical resemblance, nor the skeletal resemblance, but the same energy. That energy—that grinning, even when you're clearly dead, it's as if you were pulled from the same mold.
Chen Fan stepped to Wukong's side and whispered, "Don't touch him."
Wukong ignored him and took a step forward.
The giant chain suddenly tightened.
With a whoosh.
Something seemed to awaken within the entire Milky Way. A crack appeared in the previously blocked river surface, and a black boat emerged from the icy mist. An old flag flew from its bow, bearing only one word.
断。
As soon as the ship came to a stop, a person stepped out of the deck.
The man was clad in tattered armor, with a diagonal scar across his face running from his forehead to his chin. His left eye was missing, held in place by a piece of iron. In his right hand, he dragged a long hook, its tip still clinging to ice shards.
As soon as he came out, all the chains around him began to tremble slightly.
It was as if they were making way for him.
Yang Jian frowned.
"Commander of the Duanliu Army, Marquis of Liejiang."
The man looked up at Yang Jian and his mouth twisted into a smirk.
"It's not easy for the True Lord to still recognize me. I thought the celestial lords had already wiped away all the mess in the Milky Way long ago."
Chen Fan narrowed his eyes.
"You're guarding this corpse?"
"Guardian?" Marquis Liejiang laughed as if he'd heard a joke. "I'm just a gatekeeper. The real value isn't this body, it's what it represents."
Red Boy, carrying his Fire-Tipped Spear, immediately began to curse.
"Stop talking nonsense. Explain yourself clearly: where did this damn monkey come from?"
Marquis Liejiang looked at Wukong.
I watched for a few moments.
Then he laughed.
"Can't you tell?"
"It's not you."
"It's the one in front of you."
As soon as he finished speaking, even the Bull Demon King looked up abruptly.
Chen Fan's heart sank.
They arrived as expected.
Marquis Liejiang dragged his long hook and slowly walked to the bow of the ship. His voice was not loud, but each word was clear and distinct.
"The Heavenly Court needs a Monkey King who can cause trouble, rebel, and ultimately has to bow down."
"The Buddhist sect needs a Sun Wukong who can protect the scriptures, slay demons, and ultimately become a Buddha."
"Unfortunately, monkeys never like to follow a script."
He raised his hand and pointed to the ancient corpse.
"Some refused to perform."
"Some have broken through the stalemate."
"Some stormed the South Heavenly Gate and even smashed the Lingxiao plaque, but in the end, they still didn't survive."
"If they die, throw them into the Milky Way."
"Seal it up. Freeze it. Press it into the valve."
"We'll open it in the next version."
All around was quiet.
Red Boy couldn't hold back and cursed, "Mother!"
The Bull Demon King clenched his fist tightly, and the muscles on the back of his hand bulged out.
Yang Jian's expression changed.
He stared at Marquis Liejiang, his voice deepening.
"Do you know what you're saying?"
"Of course I know," Marquis Liejiang sneered. "I'm the one who collects their corpses."
"Every time a monkey refuses to follow the path, another skeleton is added to the Milky Way."
"Some only have half a body left."
"Some only have heads left."
"This body is now complete."
"You're lucky."
Wukong finally spoke.
The sound wasn't loud.
"I'm asking you."
"What did it do?"
Marquis Liejiang stared at him, slowly raised the hook, and tapped the giant chain on the chest of the ancient corpse.
when.
A crisp sound.
A crack appeared in the blue ice.
"This one has reached the gates of the Western Paradise."
"It tore the pilgrims apart, bit off the golden headband, and finally smashed the seven golden bridges in front of Mount Ling with its blows."
"Later, Buddha himself intervened and suppressed it for thirty-three years."
"Even after that, it still didn't give in."
"On the day the floodgates of the Milky Way were opened, it crashed in by itself."
Marquis Liejiang grinned.
He was still laughing before he died.
Red Boy felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing this.
"Hold."
Chen Fan glanced at Wukong.
Wukong's face remained expressionless.
But his tail was already taut and straight, and he was gripping the golden cudgel in his hand tighter and tighter, the cudgel itself was trembling.
Marquis Liejiang was still talking.
It seemed like he was saying it on purpose for Wukong to hear.
"That's not even the worst part."
"What's worse is that both the Heavenly Court and the Buddhist sect call this thing 'consumable material'."
"If one breaks, make another one."
"As long as the show can continue, who cares which monkey dies?"
That's a really harsh statement.
Even Yang Jian fell silent.
He always knew that the Heavenly Court was hiding many things.
But he never expected that he could hide it to this extent.
He stared at the corpse, his Adam's apple bobbing as if he were remembering something, his expression growing colder and colder.
"No wonder..." he muttered to himself.
Chen Fan asked, "What do you know?"
Yang Jian didn't turn around, he just stared at the chains.
"I once found a fragment of a scroll depicting the Milky Way at the mouth of the Guanjiang River. There were four characters written on it."
"The discarded case is returned to the river."
"I always thought they were the remains of ancient gods."
Chen Fan understood.
The case is scrapped.
In the eyes of those people, Wukong was nothing more than a scrapped idea.
Looking at everyone's faces, Marquis Liejiang's smile deepened.
"What, can't you stand it anymore?"
"Can't even handle this?"
"Then let me tell you something else."
He raised his hand and patted the side of the boat.
There was a loud thud from the bottom of the ship.
More shadowy figures emerged from the glacier behind them.
One, two, five, ten.
They were all buried under the river.
At the end of each one, something was faintly hanging.
Some are bones.
Some are hairy.
Some are just half a stick's shadow.
"At the end of the Milky Way, there is more than just this one."
"This is just a warehouse."
"The real river granary is below."
Red Boy's eyes turned red.
"I'll burn your lousy ship!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the furnace fire on his body suddenly exploded, and he charged forward, his fire-tipped spear piercing straight into Marquis Liejiang's face.
Marquis Liejiang raised his hook to block.
boom!
Sparks were flying everywhere.
But Lord Liejiang didn't retreat an inch. He hooked back with his hand and forced Red Boy back half a step.
"You little brat, your fire is so weak it's barely enough to burn incense."
"Yeah?"
Red Boy grinned, his eyes gleaming with ferocity.
"Then try this."
He clapped his hands together, and the fire pattern on his chest suddenly lit up. The next moment, a ball of white fire spewed from his mouth, directly engulfing the giant chain that pierced through the ancient corpse.
The heart fire of the furnace.
When the fire touched the chain, the entire chain squeaked and hissed, like ice being thrown into a pot of oil.
Marquis Liejiang's expression finally changed.
"Stop him!"
Dozens of soldiers from the Duanliu Army on the ship leaped up simultaneously, their grappling hooks flashing out.
The Bull Demon King stepped forward and stood at the very front, spreading his arms to reveal his true half-demon form.
The two bull horns pushed upwards.
Bang!
Seven or eight hooks were wrapped around his shoulders and back, sparks flying everywhere.
The Bull Demon King gritted his teeth, grabbed all the chains, and slammed them to the ground.
"Get down here!"
He swung the group of soldiers who had stopped flowing from mid-air onto the deck, smashing them so hard that the entire black ship rattled.
Chen Fan wasn't idle either.
He tossed out a fragment of the stone disc, which spun in mid-air before slicing through the stern valve. With a snap, three of the sealing lines on the valve broke instantly.
"Old Niu, pull the valve!"
"good!"
The Bull Demon King roared, stomped on the deck, and used the momentum to pounce on the riverbank. He grabbed the valve wheel with his two big hands, his veins bulging, and pulled it outwards.
The valve remained completely still.
Marquis Liejiang roared, "You're courting death!"
Without wasting words, Yang Jian opened his Heavenly Eye, and a divine light blasted Jiang Hou's chest open.
Marquis Liejiang used his horizontal hook to block.
With a bang.
He slid more than ten feet away, tearing a long groove in the deck beneath his feet. The breastplate shattered on the spot, revealing the blackened flesh underneath.
Yang Jian drew his sword and approached.
"You've been guarding the gate so long that you've forgotten you're a dog too."
Marquis Liejiang spat out a mouthful of blood, but instead laughed.
"True Lord, are you calling me a dog?"
"And what are you?"
"Does the Heavenly Court consider you one of their own?"
These words were like needles, piercing Yang Jian's eyes and making them even colder. He swung his three-pointed double-edged sword in a wide arc and chopped down.
Marquis Liejiang raised his hook and met the attack head-on.
Another loud bang.
The entire ice sheet cracked open.
On the other side, Red Boy's Reverse Furnace Heart Fire burned ever brighter, and the monkey patterns on the giant chain gradually lit up, as if they were alive. It was as if something was screaming in agony from inside the chain, piercing one's eardrums with pain.
The Bull Demon King was still desperately pulling on the valve.
He almost ground his teeth to powder.
Give me some more!
Chen Fan rushed over, placed his hands on the valve seal, poured his mana into it as if it were free, and pressed all the remaining power of the stone plate onto it.
The seals burst open layer by layer.
Click.
Click click.
The valve finally loosened by an inch.
Wukong didn't move at all from beginning to end.
He just stared at the ancient corpse.
Upon seeing this, Marquis Liejiang suddenly burst into laughter.
"What, scared?"
"Seeing their own fate, they're too afraid to open it?"
"That's true. Who wouldn't go weak in the knees after seeing so many of them die ahead?"
He had barely finished speaking when...
Wukong, carrying his staff, took a step forward.
Just one sentence.
"Then I'm definitely going to open it."
The moment he finished speaking, he had vanished.
When it reappeared, the golden cudgel had already smashed into the center of the giant chain.
boom!
With this strike, even the Milky Way seemed to sink.
The giant chain that ran through the ancient corpse's chest first bent, then cracked, and finally broke in two right before everyone's eyes.
Marquis Liejiang's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
"impossible!"
The ancient corpse lost its support and plummeted straight down.
Wukong caught it in his arms.
The moment the palm touched the ice shell, the thin layer of blue ice suddenly exploded.
The icy mist covered Wukong's face.
The ancient corpse in his arms was finally revealed in its entirety.
A large hole in his chest.
My left arm is broken.
Half a broken golden hoop was nailed to its back.
But the smile on its face was even clearer than before.
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
wrong.
That's not right at all.
"Wukong, let it go!"
He had just shouted it out.
The ancient corpse's closed eyes suddenly opened.
There are no pupils in his eyes.
There are only two points of dark gold fire.
The next instant, its cracked mouth slowly opened, and a hoarse sound squeezed out of its throat.
It didn't look at anyone else.
He only focused on Wukong.
"finally found you……"
Wukong's hand froze.
The smile on Marquis Liejiang's face vanished instantly.
The ancient corpse's lips twitched, as if it wanted to laugh or cry, and then it called out a name.
A name that Wukong never told anyone.
"Shisheng."
Chapter 193 Old Name
"Shisheng."
The moment those two words were uttered, the entire glacial estuary fell silent.
Marquis Liejiang was taken aback at first, then his eyes lit up.
"So there was this dish too."
He stared at Wukong, his smile growing even more sinister.
"The Monkey King? The King of Flower Fruit Mountain? After all this time, you still have an old, incredibly rustic name."
Red Boy cursed.
"Shut up, you dare laugh at him?"
Marquis Liejiang ignored him completely and instead deliberately raised his voice.
"Shisheng, the name of a bastard born from a rock, is quite fitting for you."
The soldiers around them who had cut off the flow of blood also chuckled softly.
The laughter had just begun when Wukong didn't move.
He was still holding the monkey carcass's wrist.
The palms tightened little by little.
Two dark golden flames stared straight at him from the eye sockets of the monkey corpse, as if looking at an old mirror.
Chen Fan glanced at Wukong.
The first thing he noticed wasn't Wukong's face.
It's the tip of Wukong's tail.
That section was stretched perfectly straight.
This shows he really cares.
"Monkey," Chen Fan said, "Don't let a dead monkey cause trouble."
Wukong didn't turn around.
After a couple of breaths, he suddenly laughed.
It's very light.
The next moment, he looked up at the monkey carcass.
"Ishio?"
"Yes, I've used it before."
Marquis Liejiang laughed even more unrestrainedly.
"You really admitted it?"
Wukong then turned his head and glanced at him.
"So what if we admit it?"
"Those who have died before are not the same as my current life."
The moment those words were uttered, the smile on Marquis Liejiang's face froze.
Red Boy was stunned at first, then slapped his thigh and burst into laughter.
"Great! That's satisfying!"
Yang Jian stood behind, his eyes flickering slightly.
Zongwu murmured softly, "Even his old name can't suppress him..."
Chen Fan raised the corner of his mouth.
This is what a monkey should be like.
Acknowledge it, don't hide.
After recognizing it, he smashed the old shell.
Upon hearing this, the monkey corpse suddenly raised its neck inch by inch.
Click.
Click click.
The giant chain on its chest vibrated violently, and the monkey patterns on the chain lit up.
The blue ice cracked rapidly.
An even older aura emanated from the corpse.
not cold.
It was like an old temple door that had been rotten for a long time being forcibly pried open, revealing a room full of accumulating dust.
"Code name confirmed..."
A sound rolled out of the monkey carcass's throat.
"The old version is still available."
"Activate the valve."
As soon as the last two words were uttered, its entire body suddenly swelled up.
The skin and flesh haven't grown, but the skeleton is being stretched.
Six ice spikes sprouted from its back, its arms stretched out, its claws bent into hooks, and the chain on its chest coiled around its neck like a living snake.
Marquis Liejiang's expression changed.
"A valve-guarding monster?"
"Retreat now!"
He retreated quickly, while the two soldiers next to him who were a step slower were directly hit by the chain tail, and half of their bodies exploded into ice shards on the spot.
Red Boy's pupils contracted.
"That damn thing changes its mind faster than turning the pages of a book!"
The one who guards the gate doesn't look at others.
It stared intently at Wukong.
He was still using that name.
"Shisheng, return to your place."
"Return to your ancestors."
Wukong took a step forward, and the golden cudgel smashed directly into his face.
boom!
This blow caused the glacial fault line to sink downwards.
The monster guarding the valve tilted its head to one side, but then suddenly snapped it back to its original position, its mouth splitting open.
"A world shift has been detected."
"Initiate recycling."
Before he could finish speaking, a giant chain shot out from its chest.
It's not that I'm clingy.
It is a shadow that is entangled.
The moment the chain touched the shadow beneath Wukong's feet, the entire space immediately emitted a "click" sound, as if a door latch had been pried open.
Chen Fan's heart sank.
"No, don't touch that chain—"
late.
The ground beneath Wukong's feet collapsed first.
It's not that the ground collapsed.
People sink down first, as if being dragged into the water.
The surrounding glaciers, the sea, and the broken bridge all faded quickly in his eyes.
The monkey corpse kept muttering to itself.
"Shi Sheng returns to his rightful place."
"Shi Sheng returns to his rightful place."
Red Boy rushed up and breathed fire, but the flames were immediately sucked away as soon as they touched the chain.
Yang Jian slashed down, but only managed to cut through a few afterimages.
The chain wasn't outside at all.
It has already gotten stuck in Wukong's old wound.
Upon seeing this situation, Marquis Liejiang's eyes flashed with ruthlessness.
"Good, very good."
"Sun Wukong got himself into trouble, which made it perfect for capturing them all at once."
He was about to raise his hand to press down.
Chen Fan had already stepped in front of him to block the way.
"Give it a try."
Four words, but no sound.
Marquis Liejiang stopped in his tracks.
He really doesn't dare to try now.
These lunatics ahead are all incredibly difficult to deal with.
He had personally witnessed Chen Fan's ruthless determination when he dismantled the Buddha statue and extracted its core.
At this moment, Wukong was half in light and half in darkness.
It's like standing between two worlds.
Just as Chen Fan was about to forcibly pull him away, Wukong suddenly turned his head and grinned at him.
"Old Chen."
"This time, let me go in by myself."
Chen Fan frowned.
Are you sure?
"Sure."
Wukong twirled his golden cudgel, and the fire in his eyes shone even brighter.
"A dead monkey is trying to trick me with an old script."
"I'll go take a look too."
"It arranged so many plays for me."
As soon as he finished speaking, instead of retreating, he advanced, following the chain, and directly crashed into the faded hole.
The guardian monster seemed to have been waiting for this moment, and suddenly clenched its claws.
The entire void closed instantly.
Wukong disappeared completely.
Red Boy cursed and raised his spear to stab the monster.
Chen Fan raised his hand to stop him.
"Don't do anything reckless."
"The fact that the monkey went in on his own means he was confident."
"Let's do our thing."
Yang Jian had already raised his eyes and was looking behind the guardian monster.
There is an old bronze door over there.
The door was covered with valve marks.
The moment Wukong was dragged inside, the bronze door lit up.
Chen Fan followed his gaze and immediately understood.
"Valve lock".
Zongwu also realized what was happening.
"The third fragment might be just around the corner."
Upon hearing this, Marquis Liejiang turned pale.
"Stop them!"
As soon as the Duanliu Army charged forward, Red Boy exploded first.
"Samadhi Fire, burn it for me!"
A fire dragon shot up, instantly knocking over a row of people.
Zongwu, carrying the Untitled Sutra, rushed to the side, flipped the pages, and fired out more than a dozen white beams like nails, pinning several Duanliu Army soldiers who wanted to launch a sneak attack to the ice wall.
Chen Fan was more direct.
He punched Liejianghou away and threw out a fragment of the stone disc with his other hand.
The fragment vibrated in mid-air and reacted with the patterns on the valve lock.
"Yang Jian, open the door!"
"it is good."
Yang Jian leaped forward, his three-pointed double-edged sword dragging diagonally across the ground, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake.
The guardian monster sensed something was wrong and turned to pounce.
Chen Fan met him head-on.
boom!
The human and the monster collided, and the ice beneath their feet shattered.
The guardian monster unleashed six ice spikes simultaneously. Chen Fan didn't dodge at all, taking two of them head-on, and then grabbed the chain around its neck and pulled it down sharply.
"Trying to drag the monkey back?"
"You get down right now!"
With a loud bang.
He forcefully pushed the monster into the ice cave.
Red Boy's eyelids twitched as he read this.
"This person is becoming less and less human."
On the other side, Yang Jian had already arrived in front of the bronze gate.
With a flick of the blade.
The first valve is shut off.
A deep, resonant sound came from inside the bronze door.
Another cut.
The second valve is shut off.
Starlight immediately shone through the crack in the door.
Marquis Liejiang's eyes turned red, and he pounced on the enemy like a madman.
"Don't open it!"
Zongwu blocked his way.
The untitled sutra was slapped hard across the face of Marquis Liejiang.
"roll!"
With a snap, Marquis Liejiang was sent flying, crashing into three ice pillars and shattering them.
Chen Fan was stunned for a moment.
"You're getting better and better at using this book."
Zong Wu was panting, his ears burning.
"I didn't expect it to be this good."
At this point, only the last section of the third valve lock remained.
Yang Jian tightened his grip on the knife.
The divine light on the blade suddenly dimmed.
"open."
Click.
The last piece of the lock broke.
The bronze door suddenly cracked open.
There is no way behind the door.
There was only a cluster of fragmented light suspended in mid-air.
Big fist.
Fine cracks were visible along the edges.
It is exactly the same as the previous two star core fragments.
The third one has finally been revealed.
When Marquis Liejiang saw this scene, his face contorted in shock.
"impossible!"
"This place has an old name, how could it possibly contain a star core!"
Chen Fan sneered.
"You Duanliu Army have been guarding for so long, and you don't even know what you're guarding."
He was about to reach out and grab it when he said that.
Just then, a loud clang of a stick suddenly came from the empty space in the distance.
It was too loud.
It looked like someone was smashing down the iron gate, layer by layer.
Everyone instinctively looked over.
First word.
A crack appeared in the cavity.
Second tone.
Golden light gushed out from the crack.
Third tone.
The entire old cycle suddenly exploded.
Wukong walked out from inside.
Not urgent.
Step by step.
He carried the golden cudgel on his shoulder.
A few strands of grayish-white shavings were still clinging to the hair.
It looked like they had just walked out of a pile of burnt-down stages.
The gatekeeper monster even tried to get up.
Wukong didn't even look, and swung his staff backhand.
boom!
The monkey-faced head flew off.
Roll far away.
It was still screaming when it landed.
"The old ending..."
Wukong walked over and stomped on it until it burst.
"Fuck your mother."
The glacier estuary was completely silent.
Even Marquis Liejiang forgot to move.
He looked at Wukong, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down twice.
"What...what did you see inside?"
Wukong glanced at him sideways.
"I saw the play you guys arranged for me."
"Pressing down the mountain. Wearing a golden headband. Protecting the monks. Kowtowing all the way. Finally becoming a Buddha, becoming a decorative object."
"And others. Some died in the mountains. Some died at the hands of heavenly soldiers. Some died by their brothers' swords."
"There's been a long queue."
He says one thing, and takes one step forward.
Marquis Liejiang then took a step back.
"Then how did you get out?"
Wukong grinned, revealing his teeth.
"It's very simple."
"I also smashed each one."
As soon as he said that, Red Boy burst into laughter.
"That's how it should be!"
Chen Fan couldn't help but laugh.
That's what I call satisfying.
The old name is back; I accept it.
The old road came, and it was smashed.
They don't give me any face at all.
After the guardian monster died, the giant chain also began to break.
The monkey pattern on the chain peeled off piece by piece, revealing deeper engravings inside.
Yang Jian glanced at it and suddenly narrowed his eyes.
"wrong."
"This is not an old pattern from Flower and Fruit Mountain."
"These are the battle armor numbers of the Heavenly Crafts Battalion."
Chen Fan paused.
"The Heavenly Ministry of Works?"
Before Yang Jian could reply, heavy footsteps suddenly came from behind the bronze door.
It wasn't just one person.
Like a complete suit of armor dragging along many old parts, it slowly approached.
Upon hearing this voice, Marquis Liejiang turned pale and immediately knelt down on one knee.
The rest of the Duanliu army also knelt down.
They didn't even dare to lift their heads.
"Welcome, Commander-in-Chief."
Red Boy was taken aback.
"Commander-in-Chief?"
Chen Fan, Yang Jian, and Wukong all looked into the depths of the bronze gate.
A figure emerged from behind the shattered light.
He was tall and wore an old suit of armor.
The armor plates were covered in knife marks, and a broken valve chain still clung to the edges.
He is holding a black tower in his left hand.
The tower has cracks.
His right hand rested on the long sword at his waist.
When the man raised his face, Chen Fan's eyes narrowed sharply.
Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King.
This time, however, he wasn't wearing the Heavenly King's robe.
He was wearing a set of old industrial combat armor.
Chapter 194 Li Tianwang's Last Stand
There was silence behind the bronze door.
The Duanliu Army knelt down in unison, their heads bowed low.
Marquis Liejiang, who had been smiling, now had a frozen expression. He stared at the old armor as if he had seen something that shouldn't be alive, and his Adam's apple bobbed twice.
"Old armor..."
His voice was dry.
"Wasn't this thing already blocked in the database?"
Li Tianwang didn't look at him.
He walked forward step by step, his iron boots clattering on the broken ice and chains. The old armor was truly worn, with gaps along the edges of the plates and cracks in the tower. Yet, the more worn it was, the more daunting it became. A dark red light crept through the cracks in the armor, like embers flickering and then glowing again.
Chen Fan's eyelids twitched.
He first looked at the tower, then at the armor, and finally fixed his gaze on the round iron seal on Li Tianwang's chest.
That iron seal was not a celestial decree.
There is only one word on it.
delete.
It was thicker and heavier than any corrections I had ever seen before.
"Interesting." Chen Fan chuckled. "The Heavenly Court is really generous. They even dug this old thing up. What, is Heavenly King Li planning to pull off one last big heist before retiring?"
Li Tianwang finally looked up.
His gaze was neither fierce nor angry.
It's very flat.
It's as flat as a cutting board.
"Chen Fan, you always talk about important things like it's a joke."
"Then let me rephrase my question," Chen Fan said, staring at him. "Who are you coming to get?"
Li Tianwang stopped.
The black tower trembled slightly.
A wisp of gray mist drifted out from the cracks in the tower, instantly lifting up the fragments of the monkey corpses on the ground and turning them into dust in the blink of an eye.
Wukong's eyes darkened.
He held the golden cudgel horizontally forward.
Li Tianwang looked at him and slowly spoke.
"I'm not taking you today."
Upon hearing this, both Marquis Liejiang and Duanliu Army were stunned.
Even Red Boy tilted his head slightly.
The next sentence is even harsher.
"We're here today to shut down all the monkey-themed versions."
The entire ice cellar fell silent.
The smile on Chen Fan's face gradually faded.
Say it again.
Li Tianwang's tone remained the same, as if he were announcing a document.
"The Stone Monkey Line, Six-Ear Line, Through-Arm Line, and Red-Bottom Line, including all similar branches, are all sealed and deleted. From now on, no more Monkey versions will be allowed to appear in this world."
Wukong didn't say anything.
He just stared at Li Tianwang, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
The ancient corpse called "Shisheng," which had been kneeling by the ice platform, raised its head. Flames flickered wildly in its dark golden eyes, as if it had heard the most absurd words.
The Bull Demon King exploded first.
"Li Jing, are you fucking insane?"
He stomped on the ice, shattering it and causing the surrounding chains to rattle.
"Is sealing off one not enough? You want to cut it all down? Heaven itself has created this trouble, and now you're dragging all the monkeys in the world into it? Do you really think you're the law of heaven?"
Li Tianwang turned to look at him.
"Old Niu, you still don't understand."
"You don't understand a damn thing."
"Stability is more important than the truth."
That's an understatement.
But it was like a piece of hard iron, smashing straight into everyone's ears.
Li Tianwang continued, "You always want to trace the source, find old grievances, and dig up old records. But digging up these things will only create chaos. The monkey version itself is an unstable source. One Sun Wukong wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace. If a second, a third appears, who will clean up the mess?"
The Bull Demon King laughed in anger.
"If you can't handle them, then kill them all?"
"It's not about killing," Li Tianwang said, looking at him. "It's about sealing them. Sealing them into the Deleted Realm. Making them never have existed."
Chen Fan's heart sank when he heard this.
Execution right to delete boundaries.
The iron seal on Li Tianwang's chest was indeed not just for show.
This bastard isn't here to arrest people, he's here to wash the lines.
No wonder he dared to come here alone.
Because what he held in his hands was no longer the power of an ordinary heavenly general.
Yang Jian stood to the side and behind, without moving.
At this moment, his gaze turned cold as he looked at the iron seal.
"Who gave you this authorization?"
Li Tianwang looked at him.
"It's addictive."
"Who's in charge?"
"You don't need to know."
Yang Jian smiled, but his smile was cold.
"Can't you say it, or are you afraid to say it?"
Li Tianwang didn't respond to that.
He slowly lifted the black tower, aligned the base of the tower with the ancient corpse, and then slowly swept it towards Wukong.
"The monkey line must be closed today."
"Whoever gets in the way, will be dealt with as well."
This caused even the Duanliu Army to tremble.
They had originally knelt to welcome their commander, but by the end, they felt as if they themselves were about to be drawn into the fray.
Marquis Liejiang turned pale and quickly took two steps back.
Red Boy was the first to lose his temper.
"Let me see just how tough your armor-piercing armor is."
The voice just fell.
The fire-tipped spear trembled.
A burst of Samadhi True Fire was unleashed.
It wasn't the kind of burning that spreads everywhere.
His shot was very precise, the line of fire like a red snake, aimed precisely at the iron seal on Li Tianwang's chest.
It's cunning enough, and accurate enough.
Chen Fan's eyes lit up.
If this hits, half of the boundary seal will be destroyed.
The next moment.
A sudden change occurred.
The moment the line of fire touched the old armor, a dark red light suddenly shone from the seams of the armor plates. The entire suit of armor seemed to come alive, with grooves appearing on its surface, swallowing the Samadhi True Fire whole.
It's not a block.
It really swallowed.
The fire didn't explode or dissipate.
It flowed directly along the nail grooves.
It flowed all the way to behind Li Tianwang.
Then it quietly disappeared.
Red Boy's eyes widened.
"Damn it, it even eats fire?"
Li Tianwang glanced at him.
"The old armor was originally designed to collect unstable sources. Fire is one of them."
"Then try eating a bigger one." Red Boy got angry and blurted out.
This bite was much stronger than the previous one.
The entire ice prison was bathed in red light.
The temperature rose sharply.
The ice shards crackled and popped.
The soldiers, whose knees were so heavy they could barely stay on their knees, rolled and crawled as they fled.
But as the sea of fire rushed towards Li Tianwang, the old armor plates all opened in a line, like a row of thin mouths, and in the blink of an eye, they swallowed up eighty percent of the fire. The remaining twenty percent exploded, causing Li Tianwang to slide back half a step.
Just this half step.
That's scary enough.
Red Boy's fire is Samadhi True Fire.
To be able to eat this much, this Jia is truly extraordinary.
Li Tianwang stood firm, and the dark light from under his nails shone even brighter.
The character "删" on his chest even had an additional layer of fiery red border.
Thank you.
Upon hearing this, Red Boy almost cursed on the spot.
"You really think I'm just adding fuel to the fire?"
Li Tianwang didn't waste any more words.
He raised his hand and delivered a slap.
The old armored man's arm cracked open, revealing a black ring in his palm.
A black ring flashed.
The space beneath Red Boy's feet suddenly sank, as if a mountain had collapsed. Just as Red Boy was about to leap up, his body plummeted downwards, half of his legs sinking into the ice.
"Seal the ring," Chen Fan hissed. "Don't try to tough it out, dislocate and get out!"
Red Boy reacted quickly, immediately scattering his fire and transforming into shadow, managing to leap out from the edge of the sealed ring. Just as he emerged, a black light grazed his nose. Behind him, an ice pillar silently lost half its length, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.
This made even the Bull Demon King's scalp tingle.
"He really got the right to delete borders."
"We got some." Chen Fan's eyes darted around quickly. "Not all of them, otherwise he would have cleared the place out the moment he came in."
Wukong finally spoke.
"Are you done talking?"
Li Tianwang looked at him.
"If you shut yourself off, you'll suffer less."
"You mean the version with the monkey blocked?"
Wukong took a step forward.
"Does that include the little monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain?"
"include."
"Does that include the wild monkeys in the mountains before I was born?"
"include."
Wukong grinned.
But there was no warmth in that smile.
"Then you're not leaving today."
As soon as he finished speaking...
The golden cudgel swung in a circle and smashed down.
This blow was straightforward, just a hard smash.
A muffled thunderclap echoed throughout the entire ice prison.
Li Tianwang held up the tower with one hand and used his other hand to parry with a sword.
boom!
Sparks and ice shards exploded together.
Marquis Liejiang was thrown away by the aftershock, crashing into the door and spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The Duanliu Army fared even worse, with many falling to the ground.
Li Tianwang slid three zhang away, leaving two deep ditches in the ground.
But he actually caught it.
A section of the old work armor's shoulder blade was cracked, revealing a blackened old skeleton inside. The skeleton didn't look like metal; it resembled the spine of some ancient beast.
Wukong's second strike followed immediately.
This time, Li Tianwang didn't catch it; instead, he shifted his body and sent the black tower upwards.
The tower opened its mouth and sprayed out a string of gray runes.
The moment the gray talisman touched the golden cudgel, the monkey patterns on the cudgel dimmed slightly.
Wukong frowned, and with a jerk of his arm, shattered all the gray talismans.
Chen Fan's heart sank even further.
This black tower is specifically designed to counter the monkey line.
No wonder Li Jing dared to say that today's event wasn't just about capturing Sun Wukong, but about sealing off all monkeys.
"We can't delay!" Chen Fan shouted. "Interrupt his energy buildup; his armor is consuming power!"
The Bull Demon King understood and swung his axe to attack.
The ancient corpse let out a low growl, its chest chain trailing sparks, and lunged forward.
Li Tianwang was flanked by Li Tianwang from both the left and right.
Li Tianwang will not back down.
Six short cannon barrels suddenly emerged from behind the old armor, firing six black nails in succession in all directions.
As the black nail landed, rings of defacement patterns immediately appeared throughout the area.
The moment the Bull Demon King's axe cleaved in, 30% of its force was reduced.
The ancient corpse's movements became more pronounced, and half of its body began to blur.
"Get back!" Chen Fan shouted.
But it was too late.
Li Tianwang stomped his foot on the ground.
The six rings of the de-scratching pattern shrink simultaneously.
The old chain around the ancient corpse's chest emitted a screeching sound, as if it were about to snap. The Bull Demon King also had one leg bound, and the handle of his axe was almost bent from the strain.
"Open for me!" The Bull Demon King roared, his demonic energy surging forth, finally managing to create a crack in the ring pattern.
Red Boy took the opportunity to add more fire.
The fire was still consumed.
But it's not entirely useless.
The more the old armor swallowed, the brighter the red light emanating from its seams became, and the six cannon barrels on its back began to heat up and glow, as if they were about to give way.
Chen Fan's eyes flashed.
"It's not a bottomless pit. It's storing."
The words had barely left his mouth.
Yang Jian suddenly took a step forward.
No one spoke.
Even Li Tianwang looked at him.
Yang Jian placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and paused for a moment.
This was very short.
But it was as if something had been completely crushed.
Then.
He pulled out the three-pointed double-edged sword with a sudden jerk.
The sound of the blade being drawn from its sheath was crisp.
In this chaotic, icy prison, all other noises were drowned out.
Marquis Liejiang's eyes almost popped out.
"True Lord...you..."
The soldiers of the Duanliu Army turned deathly pale.
Everyone knows that Yang Jian has been wavering on the sidelines all along. He investigated old cases, suppressed revisions, but never truly broke through the final barrier.
But once the knife is pulled out, the taste completely changes.
This isn't about helping out.
This is the official team selection.
Yang Jian raised his sword, the tip pointing directly at Li Tianwang.
"Li Jing".
"This time, I'm on the monkey's side."
Li Tianwang looked at him and remained silent for two breaths.
"Do you know what this means?"
"Know."
"Disobeying the revision system."
"Then we will disobey."
After Yang Jian finished speaking, the divine eye between his forehead suddenly opened.
A white beam of light pierced straight into the old worker's chest.
In the same instant, the other person rushed out, the blade slashing diagonally, heading straight for Li Tianwang's neck.
That was too fast.
Li Tianwang raised the black tower to block the white light of the divine eye, but he was still a beat too slow. The blade grazed his shoulder armor, severing half a piece of armor.
With a loud clang.
The armor plate was still smoking when it hit the ground.
At the break, a dark red fire core compressed to its limit was exposed.
Li Tianwang frowned for the first time.
Chen Fan smiled.
"Okay, finally we see meat."
Without wasting words, Wukong slammed his third staff down on the broken end.
The Bull Demon King and Red Boy were added at the same time.
The ancient corpse, dragging a chain, bit up from the other side.
They were surrounded and attacked from all sides.
At this moment, Li Tianwang finally seemed to have been cornered.
But there was no sign of panic on his face.
Instead, he raised his hand and pressed it against the eraser mark on his chest.
"A last-ditch effort should always be the last resort."
The words fell.
The entire old suit of work armor suddenly opened up.
Shoulders, back, chest, arms, layer upon layer, flipped up like an iron flower exploding. Inside were not flesh and blood, nor skeleton, but densely packed old-fashioned artillery rails.
A main cannon was slowly pushed out from his chest and abdomen.
The muzzle was shiny black.
The surrounding space felt like it was sinking inwards.
Chen Fan's scalp tingled.
"spread!"
Too late.
The moment the main cannon was fired, the entire end of the Milky Way trembled. The distant floating icebergs, broken chains, fragments of monkey corpses, and even the lingering light of the previously shattered scripture pages were all pulled into the cannon's muzzle by a tremendous force.
The suction power is insane.
Red Boy was pulled so hard he stumbled.
The Bull Demon King planted his feet firmly on the ground, carving two furrows in the earth.
Wukong shoved his golden cudgel into the ground and grabbed Chen Fan by the collar, preventing him from flying out.
Yang Jian thrust his sword into the ground, his divine eyes fixed on the cannon muzzle, and his expression finally changed.
"This is not just a main gun."
"Nonsense, I saw that too!" Chen Fan gritted his teeth. "That bastard is using his power to delete boundaries to start trouble!"
next moment.
Something even more terrifying happened.
The stone plate in Chen Fan's arms suddenly became very hot.
The two fragments of the star core were vibrating wildly inside.
No, there are more than two.
A third point of light suddenly appeared deep within the chest of the ancient corpse in the distance.
Previously, it had been covered by chains and ice shells, so no one could see it clearly.
At this moment, under the suction of the main cannon, that point of light was forcibly pulled out of the ancient corpse's chest cavity, tearing open a bloody gash, and flying into the air with golden and red fragments of light.
The ancient corpse let out a hoarse growl and reached out to grab.
They didn't catch it.
Wukong's expression suddenly changed.
"That is—"
Chen Fan's pupils contracted sharply.
The third fragment!
It had been hidden inside the ancient corpse all along!
The main cannon on Li Tianwang's chest roared, like the mouth of a starving beast, with black light churning deep within the barrel.
The third fragment was held firmly by the suction force, less than three feet away from the muzzle.
Li Tianwang stared at the crowd, his voice carrying a hint of ruthlessness for the first time.
"Take your monkey thread and add fuel to the fire."
The fragment shuddered violently and crashed straight into the cannon barrel.