Chapter 414: The Sea‑and‑Mountain Tribes Emerging from the Water

The Vajra Carving can seize magical weapons, yet it cannot capture people the way a post‑birth Human Breeding Bag does.

The Green Lion King also spotted this point, and so brazenly reverted to his true form.

It is rumored that he once swallowed a hundred thousand celestial soldiers in one gulp, relying on his massive size and the mountain‑devouring divine power.

"How dare you!"

The Nine‑Spirit Primordial Saint, who has never been able to act due to constant interference, finally reaches his limit; lacking any magical artifact, he can only endure when facing Yellow‑Eyebrow Patriarch and Green Bull Spirit.

But now both the Green Lion King and he belong to the Lion Demon; he is the king among lions, how could he tolerate such provocation from the Green Lion King?

In a swift motion, his true form appears: a nine‑headed Lion Demon, whose size exceeds the Green Lion King by a whole circle.

"Roar!" The Nine‑Spirit Primordial Saint's nine heads bellow together, as if the very heavens tremble.

"Brother, I'm here to help!" The White Elephant King, having settled the Golden‑winged Roc, also reveals his true form—a colossal elephant over a thousand zhang tall—and charges toward the Nine‑Spirit Primordial Saint alongside the Green Lion King.

"Elder Four, Elder Seven, you go to Spirit Mountain; we'll handle this place!"

The Bull Demon King looks at the Green Bull Spirit's Vajra Carving with trepidation; although he still holds a Banana Leaf Fan, he dares not draw it now.

Seeing the Green Lion King, White Elephant King, and Nine‑Spirit Primordial Saint already in true forms, he, lacking his Mixed Iron Staff, decides to act, roars at his brothers behind him, and then transforms into a thousand‑zhang white bull, joining the battlefield.

The battlefield dynamics are completely altered by the Green Bull Spirit's Vajra Carving; with everyone stripped of weapons and artifacts, they can only rely on their most primal bodies to fight.

In an instant, the battlefield erupts into chaos at the foot of Spirit Mountain, where a horde of thousand‑zhang‑tall demon kings clash, and the world seems to revert to a primeval era, filled with wild exotic beasts.

"Go!" Mu Yi hoists the unconscious Tang Monk and rushes toward the summit of Spirit Mountain.

The great demon‑king melee is the perfect time to fish in the muddied waters, and Tang Monk clearly serves as an effective key; though he is the key to opening Spirit Mountain's gate, he might also unlock other doors.

Clearly, Mu Yi is not the only one sharing that thought.

A crisp birdcall sounds, and a great Roc appears before Mu Yi.

It is not the Golden‑winged Roc of Lion‑Camel Ridge, but the Peng Demon King among the Seven Great Saints.

"What a swift speed!" Mu Yi exclaims in surprise; the speed is so extreme he almost couldn't react.

Although it is not the Roc's wing‑beat that can cover ninety thousand li in an instant, it is still not to be underestimated.

"Strange little demon… no, are you the outsider they speak of?" Peng Demon King says with a knowing look.

"Hidden right under our noses, that's indeed a clever choice!"

The Peng Demon King's voice reaches Mu Yi's ears, but the next moment Mu Yi feels the demon drawing near, the barrier expanding fiercely, trying to seize him.

Yet at the instant the barrier is about to envelop the Peng Demon King, he slips away like a phantom.

"Hehehe, interesting!"

The Peng Demon King is in no hurry; speed is his advantage, and now that the Golden‑winged Roc has withdrawn, no one can match his pace, giving him an innate invincible position,

so he prefers to probe a few more times rather than risk himself.

Yet while the Peng Demon King watches Mu Yi, he suddenly feels dizzy and light‑headed, collapsing on the spot.

"Run! This thing can only put them to sleep for a while!" Masked Jing Liuyun appears before Mu Yi, urging him to flee together.

"What's happening now!"

Mu Yi is a bit startled; just now he sensed a fluctuation of cause and effect.

"Got a good item from the Fengshen world!" Jing Liuyun waves the banner in his hand at Mu Yi.

The banner is triangular, with six tails gently fluttering beneath it.

Two of the tails bear the names Golden‑winged Roc and Peng Demon King.

"Six Soul Banner?" Mu Yi asks, surprised; this item, to some extent, surpasses even the Human Breeding Bag and Vajra Peck.

"Why not just kill the Peng Demon King outright?"

Mu Yi asks, puzzled, that if everything had aligned, they could have slain the Peng Demon King then and there to eliminate any future trouble.

"This isn't a genuine one; it can't kill. I've tried before— even a regular demon king can eventually recover, so not killing lets them stay unconscious a bit longer!"

Jing Liuyun also feels helpless; originally this item, combined with his myriad transformations, should be the ultimate assassination tool, but unfortunately the Six Soul Banner he holds is a counterfeit.

It cannot deliver a divine‑soul strike; it merely induces a brief coma, and once life is threatened, the target instantly recovers.

Against other demon kings, using it as a first strike would still be acceptable.

But the Peng Demon King's speed is too great; once the opponent reacts, they simply cannot kill him.

Instead, it would only provoke a relentless pursuit, so it's better just to run away.

"I just saw that Black‑robed Wizard's squad already charging up Spirit Mountain; we should hurry!" Jing Liuyun says, a bit helpless.

He originally intended to use the demon king's power to hold these people back, but the opponent proved even more cunning than he imagined; from the start they sent a puppet forward, while the true body hid among the little demons.

"Where's the Six‑Eared Macaque?"

Mu Yi feels a headache; the situation is too chaotic, and he can't fathom what to do next.

"I don't know; the opponent's ears are too sensitive, I dare not approach lightly!" Jing Liuyun also feels helpless; he previously discovered the Six‑Eared Macaque's ears are extraordinary, so he can only keep his distance.

He also doesn't know whether the opponent has seen through his disguise; in any case, during his active scheming, the opponent never interfered.

However, each time he attempts to assassinate a member of the Seven Great Saints and replace one, the Six‑Eared Macaque always appears beside his target, leaving him no opening.

Mu Yi releases Mo Fei and Shen Wanqian together, letting them fly along Spirit Mountain.

Midway up Spirit Mountain, a thin veil of mist swirls, hazy and indistinct; Mu Yi's Thousand‑mile Eye cannot pierce it, only sensing that behind it lies a vast expanse of sky.

"Some monsters have already entered!"

Along the way, monsters frantically slashed at each other, yet some monsters, heads covered, charged upward.

"There's no time to lose; we'll go in too!" Mu Yi says seriously.

A layer of icy, bone‑chilling freshness covers his skin; Mu Yi's head feels slightly dizzy, as if he were instantly propelled from the ground to ten thousand feet high.

The primal qi between heaven and earth surges like an ocean, almost materializing and permeating all around, making Mu Yi feel repeatedly battered and cleansed, his body lightening involuntarily.

"What a treasure of a place!"

Mu Yi is greatly astonished; cultivating here might allow him to achieve in one day what would normally take a month outside.

In the next instant, what came into their view was a majestic treasure hall, its plaque leaning slantwise against the ruined gate, glazed like crystal, bearing four characters imbued with a peculiar charm.

"Great Hero Treasure Hall!"

And this place, which should have been a sacred Buddhist Sect holy site, was now thick with demonic aura, with all manner of monsters battling within.

The eight Bodhisattvas, four Vajras, five hundred Arhats, three thousand Jieti, eleven Great Radiances, eighteen Kalanas, and most importantly the Shakyamuni Buddha were nowhere to be found.

"There!"

The Black Robe Squad cut through countless monsters and charged straight toward the Great Hero Treasure Hall.

Although Mu Yi and his companions were unclear about what lay behind this, one thing was certain: the Black Robe Squad must know something.

"Follow them!"

Without further hesitation, Mu Yi and his group instantly decided: this Spirit Mountain surely hides a great secret, and the Black Robe Squad definitely knows something.

By following them, they were sure to discover something.

"Even if the Zhu Dragon's rampage can affect heaven and earth, it shouldn't make an existence of the Tang kind of fruition vanish without a trace!" Jing Liuyun was baffled.

In fact, this had always been their biggest puzzle: Zhu Dragon, the deity of Zhongshan, truly wielded a supreme power over time, yet even if the Zhu Dragon itself fell, it shouldn't cause the Heavenly Court, Underworld, and Spirit Mountain to disappear together.

Even if we step back ten thousand miles and say the Zhu Dragon's rampage pulled time back to the ancient era, separating the Heavenly Court, Underworld, Spirit Mountain from the mortal world, now that they've arrived at the Spirit Mountain, it looks like a deserted, ghostly ruin—what on earth is happening?

Racing alongside the Black Robe Squad, they reached the Scripture Repository, the place where the Journey to the West Squad collected the scriptures.

Yet under Mu Yi and his companions' gaze, the Black Robe Squad was forced back by a burst of Buddhist light.

"Damn, how could this happen!"

The Black Robe Wizard clearly hadn't anticipated this; he couldn't understand why Buddhist light would appear in such a place.

"What do we do now?"

The other members of the Black Robe Squad grew restless; they had come for the Great Vehicle Scripture that could help them ignite Divine Fire and achieve divine status.

Now, with the final step blocked, how could they not be anxious?

"Don't forget, you promised us something!"

"If you fail, we won't let you go!"

The other squad members clamored, causing the Black Robe Wizard to frown; these barbaric outsiders were truly of little use.

The Black Knight silently stood in front of the Black Robe Wizard.

"Aren't they basically delivering themselves to us?"

The Black Robe Wizard coldly waved his staff, and in an instant several bolts of thunder sprang from nowhere, spreading toward Mu Yi and his party.

"Hand over the Tang Monk, or you will all die!" the Black Robe Wizard said gravely, staring at Mu Yi's group.

"Who exactly are you?"

Mu Yi frowned and stared at the Black Robe Wizard.

The other party was definitely from Jiuzhou; the Black Robe Wizard's garb was merely a disguise, and more importantly, he sensed a familiar feeling emanating from their bodies.

"You already guessed, didn't you!"

The Black Robe Wizard reached out and tore his wizard robe apart, as if performing a magic trick, instantly transforming from a gaunt caster into a hulking, massive demon.

Dense demonic aura raged from his body, his strength not inferior to that of the Bull Demon King and other demon lords.

"Ancient Shanhai myriad races!" Mu Yi's complexion began to sour.

Since inheriting Chi You's inheritance, he had been covertly dealing with him, and now finally leapt forward.

"Red‑headed, mouse‑eyed—are you of the Xieju clan?"

"Shanhaijing: There is a beast, its form like a wolf, red‑headed and mouse‑eyed, its sound like a pig, named Xieju, and it eats humans."

"Die! Chi You's inheritance should not revive!"

When foes meet, naturally their eyes blaze with hatred.

The Xieju's eyes flashed with vengeful light—not merely because they ate a few people—damned Chi You actually exterminated their entire clan, a race that once spanned the North Sea, now reduced in later ages to only two or three big and small cats.

Even this survival stems from the human race's cruel penchant for breeding.

"Die!"

The Xieju darted in front of Mu Yi, its speed barely slower than the Great Roc; as one of the ancient Shanhai myriad races, a Shanhai beast that preys on humans, its innate talent is wilder than that of later demon kings.

The Xieju is agile and adept at fleeing.

Although the Xieju clan's role is more like that of a deft gua sha master.

But the hard power gap between Mu Yi and the Xieju turns gua sha into bone scraping; if Mu Yi's physique weren't high and he didn't have Elite Talent boosting defense,

the Xieju could tear him to pieces in minutes.

Yet the Xieju wants to kill Mu Yi, and Mu Yi also wants to kill the Xieju; he knows this Xieju is just a small fry among the hidden masterminds, yet it's his first encounter with these rats hidden in the shadows.

He didn't expect these things to be selected by the network, but since they met today, he'll kill them to eliminate future trouble.

"Since you cherish Chi You so much, let me make you recall the horror of the human race—a massive fog!"

Mu Yi's body emitted a spreading great fog, the Xieju's eyes turned scarlet, and the lingering nightmare in its mind resurfaced.

Back then, Chi You did just that: shrouding sky and sun with fog, then slaughtering the Xieju clan to extinction.

That terror remains unforgettable to the Xieju.

Its form flickered, trying to escape the fog's range; though one can lose direction within fog, the distance between it and Mu Yi allowed it to slip out of the fog's grasp easily.

Regarding this method, it harbors an unspeakable fear.

"Fear is the most maddening poison!"

Mu Yi sneered, switching his Elite Talent to the Fear Talent, which maximally amplifies the opponent's fear and feeds it back onto himself.

Guang felt the surging empowering power within himself, and Mu Yi clearly understood how terrified the Xieju was of Chi You.

Even knowing it's not Chi You, even if it's stronger, under the fog's shroud the inner fear shadow magnifies beyond the Xieju's own control.

"Kill, kill, kill, I'll kill you!"

Ju Ju even had hallucinations, seeing Chi You walk out of the mist; panicked, he frantically bombarded the void in fear.

A sound so loud that even the great fog could not completely conceal it boomed across heaven and earth; Mo Fei, Jingliu Yun, and Shen Wanqian, who were originally engaged in a massive melee, couldn't help but turn their heads to look toward Mu Yi and his group.

However, the gradually spreading mist made them unable to see anything; they could only feel the earth trembling. This tremor seemed to trigger some kind of defensive prohibition on Spirit Mountain, and something ominous was reviving within Spirit Mountain.