HomePull StringsChapter 742: Indestructible Golden Soul

Chapter 742: Indestructible Golden Soul

“Friend, have you heard? A great demon king has emerged from Flower Fruit Mountain in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent!”

“Ha, isn’t that last year’s news?

That demon king was born a monkey spirit, reportedly a Heaven and Earth Spirit Embryo. Somehow he got mixed up with the demon race, and who knows where he learned such incredible divine abilities that reach through heaven and earth.

Goodness, he beat a group of old demon kings until they couldn’t lift their heads! When he went to the Dragon Palace, even the Dragon King treated him cordially as a guest, and he walked away with the Ruyi Jingu Bang used by Yu the Great to control the floods!

Who knows what background this Beautiful Monkey King has, to act so lawlessly.”

“The Dragon Clan has fallen.”

“Indeed, the Dragon Clan has truly declined.”

“Didn’t the demon race announce they would strongly support this Beautiful Monkey King? To contest heaven and earth with us humans again?”

“I heard the Beautiful Monkey King went and demolished the mountain gate of the old demon who said that.”

“Haha! This Beautiful Monkey King has quite the temperament, though he has indeed become a pillar of the demon race.”

“The demon race rising again? Hah, daydreaming.

This Beautiful Monkey King’s influence hasn’t fully risen yet. If he causes more trouble, the Heavenly Court will surely send troops to suppress him.”

“Friend, you speak truly. To be frank, today’s Heavenly Court isn’t the same as during those final years of antiquity.

Now, any one or two of the Eight Division True Gods could handle a Beautiful Monkey King without issue.”

“A mere demon king, could he turn heaven upside down?”

In a great world somewhat distant from the Five Regions of the primordial realm, within a fairy forest where immortals often gathered, a group of immortals surrounded each other, discussing the ‘primordial news’ from half a year ago.

Without the Heavenly Court’s great promotional push behind it, news spread from near to far.

Li Changshou, riding his [Bodhi Patriarch Classic Edition False Body], passed by this fairy forest on a cloud, listening to their discussion as he returned expressionlessly to his nearby temple.

Expressionless…

Indeed, he should be expressionless.

With his Dao realm sealed, appearing carefree or wearing a smile would be unreasonable.

The sealing of False Bodhi’s Dao realm naturally had no effect on Li Changshou – only the Void-Breaking Dao was sealed.

It was just…

After hundreds of years of effort, he had worked for nothing and miserably had his own Dao sealed.

If False Bodhi were still alive, he might have turned to darkness from this.

Looking toward the peach blossom forest, concealing an immortal mansion within.

It was a magnificent temple compound, where one could see groups of male and female disciples, some playing by streams, some discussing scriptures in incense-filled halls, some sitting under eaves drinking and chatting.

Had the Bodhi Patriarch gained more disciples?

Not at all.

This temple was already a famous [Immortal Manor] in this realm. Li Changshou was merely residing here, letting his disciples cultivate in this place.

As for himself, he would occasionally go out searching for spirit roots and ways to unlock the Heavenly Dao’s shackles.

What gave Li Changshou some comfort was that the Dao Ancestor’s move of ‘killing the rabbit after using the hunting dog’ had given him a perfect excuse to explore places where the Dao might manifest.

He was just going with the flow again.

Though having to maintain a dejected expression daily was somewhat depressing.

Returning to his temple, Li Changshou went straight to his tower, changed into a Daoist robe, and sat cross-legged on his couch to rest.

His finger opened a cloud mirror, borrowing the Heavenly Dao’s power to observe the situation at the Water Curtain Cave of Flower Fruit Mountain.

Since he was borrowing the Heavenly Dao’s power, these actions were naturally known to the Dao Ancestor.

This detail was also calculated – Li Changshou was actively maintaining a weak presence to avoid the Dao Ancestor suddenly thinking of him and looking over him.

If unfortunately, the Dao Ancestor saw him tampering with the primordial Dao, the great battle would begin prematurely.

In these thirty years, Li Changshou’s progress had been quite good, completing about sixty percent overall. Another twenty or thirty years would be sufficient.

The cloud mirror showed:

In the Water Curtain Cave of Flower Fruit Mountain, a group of monkey spirits jumped about, along with several powerful demon experts.

Since demon race transformations usually retained characteristics of their original species, and in general demon culture, retaining more original features after transformation was considered more glorious;

At a glance, the Water Curtain Cave was full of tiger heads, deer heads, leopard heads, rabbit-eared men, fox-men, and donkey-eared men, creating quite an interesting atmosphere.

The Water Curtain Cave, originally a blessed land, was now filled with the scent of wine and demonic energy.

Sun Wukong and several great demon kings were drinking and chatting around the high platform’s throne.

Among the demon kings surrounding the monkey were an old bull wearing a nose ring, a handsome youth transformed from a flood dragon, a black-feathered roc demon, a lion head as red as if braised…

Li Changshou looked closely – that was the Lion King with a face flushed red from drinking, King of the Lion-Camel.

These great demons were all purely of demon race descent, except for that old bull. Each demon king represented a major demon race power faction.

That old bull… bull…

“Hmm?”

Li Changshou secretly raised an eyebrow, catching through the cloud mirror several of the old bull’s habitual small movements, his heart filling with surprise.

The Elder Lord’s Azure Bull?

Li Changshou was quite puzzled by this.

These several demon kings of considerable strength were Sun Wukong’s sworn brothers, the Seven Great Sages that the demon race would soon promote, considered an important move by the demon race.

That old bull would later become Bull Demon King, Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

But why did Li Changshou see shadows of the Azure Bull in this Bull Demon King?

Was this Brother Bull’s external manifestation?

Ugh, could it be that Azure Bull created an identity in the lower realm to be with Iron Fan?

If that were true, then Brother Bull’s later affair with Princess Iron Fan…

Pah!

Unfaithful bull!

Not daring to look longer, Li Changshou dispersed the cloud mirror technique, then deliberately showed a somewhat helpless expression, shaking his head slightly.

As a master, he naturally didn’t want to see Wukong ‘fall’ like this.

In reality, Li Changshou could feel that Wukong was truly happy right now.

From what he had just seen, the Phoenix-Feather Crown, Lotus-Thread Cloud-Walking Boots, and Chain-Link Golden Armor were already worn on Sun Wukong’s body, clearly having raided the Dragon Palace.

Thinking of this, Li Changshou felt… quite regretful.

He wanted to see the ancient powerful being, the East Sea Dragon King, being ‘bullied and taken advantage of’ by his disciples in various ways.

The old Dragon King’s temperament was quite good.

The Ruyi Jingu Bang had long lost its use sitting at the sea’s eye position; its merit had already been exhausted when sealing the Eastern Sea’s eye previously.

This divine treasure was different from traditional primordial treasures, perfectly matching Sun Wukong’s combat methods, and destined to shine brilliantly in Sun Wukong’s hands.

It was just…

The current Heavenly Court had many experts whose physical bodies were on the Investiture of the Gods list, receiving the Heavenly Dao’s power enhancement; the Heavenly Court’s strength far surpassed that of the court after the original Great Investiture.

If the Heavenly Court didn’t hold back, Wukong’s attack would probably struggle to reach the Hall of Clarity.

Li Changshou could only hope that this monkey wouldn’t provoke certain harmless true gods of the Heavenly Court, like the God of Wealth or the God of Plague.

By the way, Lu Yue ultimately didn’t escape the fate of divine investiture, though he was invested as a god before being captured by the Heavenly Dao.

That day, when Lu Yue emerged from the Sky’s Edge Tower Secret Realm, his legs were weak but his gaze was determined. With Zhao Gongming’s plea for mercy, he managed to get his physical body onto the divine list.

Due to Lu Yue needing to refine poison pills, which could accidentally affect half the heavens, the Hall of Clarity ordered him to refine pills outside, requiring at least sixty years of service in the Heavenly Court every hundred years, and to behave himself.

This was already showing Lu Yue considerable consideration.

During the havoc in the Heavenly Palace, if an expert of Lu Yue’s caliber were to act, Wukong would truly have difficulty handling it, as Wukong’s foundation in the Dao was still somewhat weak.

How many years until Sun Wukong would take office in the Heavenly Court?

Li Changshou calculated carefully but couldn’t determine the Dao Ancestor’s specific timeline.

He could only secretly plan his next path, trying to embed more Phantom Spirit Nails as efficiently and covertly as possible.

Whether he could eliminate the Dao Ancestor and the Heavenly Dao’s will at minimal cost would depend on how well he could ‘hide’ in the next twenty years.

Current probability of complete victory: ninety-two or ninety-three percent.

Only three hidden dangers remained.

Thus, thirteen years later…

At the Netherworld’s Reincarnation Immortal Island, outside the Hall of Yama.

“Horse, how did this task fall to us two, moo~”

“Don’t complain, don’t grumble, just work hard, neigh~”

The two marshals, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, each carrying a set of ‘ghost official robes,’ headed toward their mansion in Fengdu City.

Ox-Head’s face had become like a bitter melon, while Horse-Face was trying to encourage him.

When they dejectedly returned to their simple, fence-like mansion, they instructed several vengeful spirits to guard the gate and hid in the main room.

With two pops, Ox-Head and Horse-Face pulled off their headgear. The two sturdy men of the Shamanic race looked at each other and sighed deeply.

These years hadn’t been particularly good for them.

It wasn’t that the Netherworld had difficulties, or that the Shamanic race in the Netherworld had troubles.

The specific reason was unclear to them;

But from a certain day, they forgot what deliciousness was, forgot the pleasure of wonderful flavors blooming on their tongues.

They searched for hundreds of years, waited for hundreds of years, and could only reach one conclusion…

The former delicacies existed only in dreams.

They had experienced hallucinations.

Afterward, they became like salted fish that had lost their dreams, lounging daily at the Xiong Pass in the One-Line Sky east of Fengdu City, having lost their drive to discover Netherworld specialties and their hope of studying the underworld’s music.

They nearly became depressed.

“When did the master tell us to go?”

Ox-Head casually asked, spreading out the pure black robe before him, and examining it up and down.

“Three days later, at midnight.”

Horse-Face answered, spreading out his pure white robe, and stroking his chin in contemplation.

Ox-Head couldn’t help complaining: “What soul requires such ceremony that we must go personally!

The master even said if they resist, just beat them half to death, but don’t kill them, emphasizing that we must bring back the living soul.

Making it all so mysterious.”

Horse-Face said: “The Book of Life and Death had problems half a month ago, perhaps related to our matter.”

“What problems could the Book of Life and Death have?”

“There’s a Golden Immortal who should have transcended life and death, but hidden their pre-cultivation lifespan in the Book of Life and Death. However, that Golden Immortal’s original lifespan remains, seemingly only three hundred some years.

The Judge wanted to modify it, but the Judge’s Brush projection broke.

We’re going to capture them.”

“Hiss—Three hundred years? Golden Immortal?”

Ox-Head’s eyes widened: “That strong? Heaven’s favored child?”

“How would we know,” Horse-Face smoothly slipped into his robe, his long neck gently swaying. “Let’s just do the job.”

“True enough, the Ten Yama Kings won’t go out, the Five Ghost Emperors fear yang energy, we’re among the few who can fight in the Netherworld, so this task naturally falls to us.”

Ox-Head paced around, his eyes showing slight unease as he muttered: “Something’s wrong, there must be something wrong here.”

Horse-Face said: “Let’s just do the job.”

Ox-Head glared at Horse-Face and put on his black robe.

These two Shamanic race experts fiddled around, donning black and white hats, taking two ghost implements, and hanging bright red tongues at their mouths.

Ox-Head and Horse-Face are super devolved—into Black and White Impermanence!

“Still three days, shall we go now?”

“Nothing to do here anyway,” Horse-Face said deeply. “Though I don’t know why, I now always want to be extra careful. Let’s go early.”

Ox-Head snickered, swaying the wooden whip in his hand, looking somewhat the part.

“Let’s go, can’t shame our Netherworld.”

Thus, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, disguised as Black and White Impermanence, strode out of Fengdu City, found the City God’s well near Flower Fruit Mountain, dove in, and successfully descended near Flower Fruit Mountain in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent.

The Netherworld’s City God system had actually been reorganized and reformed by Li Changshou, though these merits were now attributed to the Heavenly Court.

Ox-Head and Horse-Face were the Netherworld’s Soul-Collecting Marshals, only these two; Black and White Impermanence, like the Judge, were ‘titles’ for Netherworld officials.

And Ox-Head and Horse-Face were the direct superiors of Black and White Impermanence.

For this soul-collecting operation, the Ten Yama Kings wanted both stability and to avoid appearing too concerned, leading to the absurdity of having Ox-Head and Horse-Face disguise themselves as Black and White Impermanence.

It was just two different skins anyway, so Ox-Head and Horse-Face didn’t mind.

Three days wasn’t too long. They wandered around Flower Fruit Mountain several times, collecting several hundred lingering wronged and vengeful spirits, unconsciously reaching the ‘appointed’ time.

That night, Ox-Head and Horse-Face’s wooden whips transformed into ghost banners, their black and white robes emitting faint light, their decorative long tongues appearing even more frighteningly crimson.

Raising a gust of yin wind, Ox-Head and Horse-Face locked onto the being whose soul they were to collect, looking closely to see their target was a beautiful great monkey.

It was Sun Wukong.

Wukong was currently in a drunken sleep, right after a great feast, with thunderous snoring throughout the Water Curtain Cave.

These demon race experts played in the mountains, because the Beautiful Monkey King stayed away from women, only drinking and bragging for entertainment.

The brothers Ox-Head and Horse-Face exchanged glances, quietly sneaking behind the great monkey, simultaneously waving their ghost banners.

Just then!

The power of the Heavenly Dao descended, forcibly pulling out a phantom from the back of Sun Wukong’s head.

Ox-Head and Horse-Face moved swift as lightning, directly throwing two chains over it, then raised the yin wind, blowing toward the City God Temple near Flower Fruit Mountain, quickly escaping to the Netherworld.

The entire process was extremely quick, giving the drunken Beautiful Monkey King no chance to react.

However, Ox-Head and Horse-Face hadn’t anticipated that they had…

Brought back an ancestor!

Half an hour later, in the Hall of Yama.

Sun Wukong’s primordial spirit had actually materialized, his entire body radiating golden light, sitting casually on the Yama King’s throne.

That wasn’t all – his legs were crossed and propped on the desk, his hands holding a phantom of the Golden Cudgel, lightly tapping it on the table.

“Bring me the Book of Life and Death for the monkey tribe of Flower Fruit Mountain!”

The surrounding crowd of greater and lesser ghosts trembled together. The Great Judge who had put on the Yama King’s headgear to impersonate him now hemmed and hawed, wanting to refuse yet acquiesce, shy and reluctant, but finally ordered the ghost officials beside him.

“Go- go, bring them all.”

Horse-Face’s eyes widened as he was about to rush in and teach this monkey a lesson, but Ox-Head’s raised hand stopped him, pulling him aside.

Horse-Face glared and cursed: “Why stop me? This monkey’s too much!”

But Ox-Head said: “Why the rush? Didn’t you want to be more careful?

The masters have already arranged everything. This monkey seems to have significant backing, there must be calculations involved.”

Horse-Face snorted, watching the monkey throwing his weight around, his heart filling with anger.

But as Ox-Head said, at this moment the Ten Yama Kings were gathered in a nearby hall, all looking this way, occasionally smiling and exchanging a few words.

Most were just making jokes.

However, what no one knew was…

Inside the Six Paths Reincarnation Disc, the white-robed woman who had been sitting quietly by the river combing her hair now turned to look toward the monkey’s location.

“Oh?”

Indestructible Golden Soul?

Wasn’t this… a divine ability she had conceived before?

But in the end, she hadn’t fully developed it and later mentioned the concept of the Indestructible Golden Soul in a text recording Shamanic race battle techniques, which she had sent to…

Changshou!?

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