Chapter 542: Return, Harvest

Half a month.

Starting from when Nezha and the others began their work, vigorously revitalizing the wasteland humanity with bold and sweeping measures, half a month passed.

Tang Luo and the others then successfully completed their mission and returned to the real world.

As for the situation of the four companions on the journey to obtain the scriptures, Tang Luo and the others did not concern themselves with it; if fortunate, they could complete the task.

If luck was slightly worse, they might not have completed it, but it would not be considered a failure.

Exactly what went wrong is hard to say, after all, they somewhat bore the role of "bait," and it is unknown how the Divine Demon Game would judge it.

Regardless, these few people had good luck; even after being drawn into the "God-Buddha Struggle," they did not die.

One must know that previously, some Divine Demon Walkers had died in this mission world, and some secrets were even unearthed.

Moreover, according to Red Boy and the others, those outsiders spoke vaguely, and there were also cases of direct disappearance.

This precisely matched what everyone had summarized: the "erasure" of the Divine Demon Game.

However, one point: this erasure is established under the condition that Divine Demon Walkers actively reveal information; some people did not actively reveal, and were forced to have information dug out, and thus were not erased.

In other words, unintentional revelation does not incur any punishment.

Like Tang Luo, who merely covered up a brief mention, it is of no consequence.

Up to now, everyone still does not understand the meaning of this rule, but since it exists, we shall abide by it.

The gains from this mission were not immediately checked by Tang Luo and the others upon their return.

Tang Luo was discussing and researching a matter with Zhu Bajie and the others, a matter that only began to be seriously considered after meeting Nezha.

Contrary to how to bring "natives" out of the mission world, how to keep "outsiders" in the mission world.

From the perspective of Divine Demon Walkers, Zhu Bajie, Ao Yulie, Xiaotian Quan, and even the two ghost maidservants in the Cursed House are natives.

Tang Luo brought them out through various methods, and the Divine Demon Game defaults them as belonging to him.

They will follow Tang Luo in and out of missions.

Later, Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie even signed contracts, becoming official Divine Demon Walkers.

So, is there a way to let them remain permanently in another world, without having to follow Tang Luo "running back and forth"?

If such a method is found, then Tang Luo would only need to find two more sacrificial objects, return to the previous world, find Nezha, bring him back, and place him in the Great Seclusion world.

There, the weather is full of vital energy, allowing Nezha to slowly recover.

The three of them, along with Xiaotian Quan, occasionally made "meow meow meow" and "roar roar roar" sounds as they discussed.

They decided to try it in the next two missions.

The method to try is relatively simple: capture a small animal from the mission world, place it in the Cursed House to bring it out, and release it during the next mission.

Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie were brought out this way, and Xiaotian Quan is similar, except the Cursed House was replaced with the Merit Jade Lotus.

Directly capturing a small animal in the real world makes it impossible to bring into the mission world.

Even the Cursed House, a device that can temporarily hold living beings, cannot do so.

This point has already been tested by Divine Demon Walkers.

Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie suspect that they can follow Tang Luo in and out because they inwardly wish to be with Tang Luo, similar to a "recognizing the master" state.

If it were unwilling, it might still work—worth a try.

After discussing this matter, everyone began to review the gains from this mission.

First and foremost is merit power; this mission consumed a considerable amount of merit power, but also yielded some gains.

The death of the Yellow-Clothed King provided some merit power, and similarly, stopping the frenzied Bull Demon King provided some; both belong to the "wicked" category, punished by Tang Luo, and additionally, Tang Luo gathering Nezha and the others to revive humanity.

This belongs to exaltation of virtue, and the merit power gained is the greatest.

In the final half month, Tang Luo again performed enlightenment and healing on Nezha, and also on himself.

Now, merit power is balanced with the level before entering the mission, in a state of neither loss nor gain.

Tang Luo's invulnerability limit has increased from sixty percent to sixty-one percent, which includes healing from the Merit Jade Lotus and self-recovery.

Next is the reward from the Divine Demon Game; this mission's reward is a skill, not continuing Tang Luo's supportive path.

An offensive skill, named "Heavenly Gang Fire," sounds very impressive, but in essence, it is no different from a fireball technique.

Activating the skill generates flames that encircle the target and burn for a period of time.

The higher the skill level, besides the basic factor of shorter cooldown time, there are also increased number of targets, higher flame temperature, and longer burning duration.

Even in an underwater environment, the flames will continue to burn until the duration ends.

However, even at level three, the flame burning time is only two minutes, not long.

Unlike Tang Luo's Glazed Demonic Flame, Heavenly Gang Fire is proper, orthodox fire.

It has no special effect like "I burn you to make you stronger."

The greatest special feature of Heavenly Gang Fire is that it is extremely difficult to extinguish; Tang Luo tested it on Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie.

They entered the deep sea, yet could not stop the burning of Heavenly Gang Fire; of course, with their strength, Heavenly Gang Fire cannot harm them.

But know this: Divine Demon Walkers have always been high attack, low defense; most ordinary level-three Divine Demon Walkers have fire resistance not much higher than ordinary people.

This skill can actually be considered quite powerful.

Without considering whether to keep it, Heavenly Gang Fire became Tang Luo's fifth skill in the "skill bar."

Yes, in the previous mission, Tang Luo had two skills that he fully mastered and integrated, forming his own divine ability technique.

Ghost Shadow Step and Lotus Step—these two skills have already "disappeared from the skill bar."

Tang Luo truly mastered them, becoming his own "Cloud-Striding and Mist-Riding" technique; from then on, Tang Luo could freely levitate.

Ao Yulie gave it a name: "Step-by-Step Lotus Birth."

Very alluring, yet with a hint of Buddhism; many Buddhist masters sit on lotus flowers, such as Guanyin.

The Merit Jade Lotus is also a lotus.

As for this name, Tang Luo had nothing to say; anyway, when he displays his divine ability, it is as casual as eating and drinking, and he does not need to shout it out.

Additionally, the Step-by-Step Lotus Bloom is not merely a cloud-riding, mist-driving technique.

Speaking broadly, it can be counted as a Five Elements Evasion Art; this is thanks to the Ghost Shadow Step's wall-penetrating ability — Tang Luo can likewise move freely through earth and water.

Regarding equipment and magic treasures, he retrieved the Brocade Kasaya... the Brocade Kasaya has some damage, but it doesn't matter, it's not a big problem.

Nezha gave his Gold Brick to Tang Luo.

Tang Luo handed it to Zhu Bajie, letting him directly smelt it into the Xuan Bian.

Zhu Bajie's reward was also a skill, called Earth Fist Strike.

One punch smashed into the ground, and a large fist would strike out from the ground at the target's location — a pretty good offensive skill.

It just has certain requirements for the usage venue.

In water, in the air, places like the Dragon King Ship definitely cannot use it; at the very least it requires "ground".

In floors that are too thin, it also cannot be used.

Ao Yulie's reward is a bit hard to describe — it's a piece of equipment, named "Mount Saddle".

Judging purely by appearance, it's an ordinary horse saddle, with a certain degree of adaptive size and shape change; once equipped on a suitably built animal, that animal becomes a docile mount.

Simply put, equip it on a bear and you can ride the bear, equip it on a tiger and you can ride the tiger.

It completely satisfies many people's childhood dreams.

Against powerful extraordinary, legendary creatures, however, it is ineffective.

Ao Yulie transformed into dragon form and tried it on himself — completely no sensation at all, wanting to shake Tang Luo off from above... no, no, there was completely no such thought.

And this "no thought" naturally has nothing whatsoever to do with the Mount Saddle.

Swap in Zhu Bajie, and Ao Yulie easily shook the unresisting Second Senior Brother off.

This equipment is also not suitable for smelting into the Xuan Bian; the Xuan Bian can be considered a frame that can "hold" quite a few things, but it's not a trash bin where anything can be poured in.

Even if it were a trash bin, trash bins nowadays are picky too — some places are no longer the kind of trash bins where you could just throw things in whenever you wanted before.

No use, and hard to smelt.

The Mount Saddle's final destination was naturally to be hung on the Kai Guan Group's trading information.

Useless to Tang Luo and company, but to many gods and demons walking the world, it's definitely a good thing.

Just put up for a short while and someone snapped it up — highest "price" wins; "price" of course means healing items, this has never changed.

"Done."

One month after returning to the real world, Zhu Bajie successfully smelted the Gold Brick into part of the Xuan Bian and returned it to Tang Luo's hands.

On the black short staff, some golden patterns appeared, faintly visible.

Tang Luo deployed the Xuan Bian transformation; the weapon likewise gained golden patterns, looking quite a bit more cool and flashy.

The specific effect is that the Xuan Bian became harder and sharper.

The Xuan Bian indeed keeps developing toward stronger and harder — Ao Yulie's envisioned "40-meter ship-slicing great saber" isn't impossible either.