Chapter 659

"Master, could it be that the Grand Supreme Elder Lord wants to refine Yang Jian?"

Zhu Bajie thought of a terrifying possibility and couldn't help but speak up.

Tang Luo shook his head: "I don't know."

The Grand Supreme Elder Lord is a figure at the very top of the Mountain and Sea Realm's pyramid; big shots like this all share a common trait.

That is, they are completely unfathomable — no one can figure out what they are thinking.

Take Tang Luo himself; he doesn't understand why the Tathagata would think he, a transmigrator, is the reincarnation of his disciple Golden Cicada.

Later, through the matter of Sha Wujing's reincarnation as a tool spirit, Tang Luo puzzled out a thought: Golden Cicada might really be some past life of his that he doesn't know about.

In the Tathagata's eyes, he is simply his disciple.

Yang Jian is a disciple of the Jade Void Palace; the Grand Supreme Elder Lord, the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, and the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerable are all martial brothers.

After the Investiture of the Gods war, the Primordial Heavenly Venerable and the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerable both went into seclusion.

Their disciples can be said to have all been entrusted to the Grand Supreme Elder Lord's sect.

The Grand Supreme Elder Lord himself does not widely accept disciples; he merely looks after the disciples of his two junior martial brothers.

The Grand Supreme Elder Lord is a figure of the rank of Yang Jian's grand-master and patriarchal grand-master.

He has no reason to refine Yang Jian.

Yang Jian not giving a damn about the Heavenly Court doesn't mean he doesn't give a damn about the Grand Supreme Elder Lord; he is just arrogant by nature, not an ungrateful wolf who betrays his masters and destroys his ancestry.

Unless something happened — the Grand Supreme Elder Lord's nature drastically changed, or Yang Jian's nature drastically changed.

Only then would the situation of Yang Jian being refined inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace appear.

Judging from Tang Luo's contact with Mu Yang, the landscape may change but one's nature is hard to alter; Yang Jian's nature hasn't changed at all.

Then... the Grand Supreme Elder Lord turned bad?

This outcome, to tell the truth, is far worse than if Yang Jian's nature had drastically changed, causing the Grand Supreme Elder Lord to want to refine this unworthy disciple.

The roasted Zhu Bajie returned to human form; the crimson color on his body had not faded, and unease showed on his face: "If it really is the Elder Lord refining Yang Jian, we're done for."

He strongly implied "let's disband."

"Woof..." the Howling Celestial Dog bared its teeth at Zhu Bajie.

You give up way too fast.

"It's not necessarily refining Yang Jian to death." Tang Luo thought for a moment and said, "Remember the Heavenly Apex Star People?"

"Of course." Zhu Bajie nodded, "At first we even suspected they were related to the Source."

After Tang Luo underwent heavenly thunder tempering, Zhu Bajie called Tang Luo over.

The two studied the Heavenly Apex Star People; at that time it was already confirmed they had nothing to do with the Source.

The basis for judgment was also quite simple: after taking off their armor, their power to kill the Heavenly Apex Star People did not diminish in the slightest — one hundred percent damage.

As for the Source, as a higher-level existence.

Many powers against it are like an egg striking a rock — they have absolutely no effect even upon impact.

The Heavenly Apex Star People don't actually possess this trait — conventional weapons of this world can't move them because they lack a special kind of power.

This power, with the death of the Heavenly Apex Star People, flows into the attacker.

Tang Luo sensed a faint medicinal fragrance, extremely faint, like an illusion.

Thinking back now, it wasn't an illusion; the Heavenly Apex Star People are most likely medicine!

That power is medicinal potency!

The sturdy armor shell is the "pill's" wrapping; inside is medicinal potency, used for recovery.

The Grand Supreme Elder Lord is refining Yang Jian, but not refining him to death — rather, in an unconventional way, tempering him, a "healing refinement"!

Sun Wukong mentioned that back then he could escape the Eight Trigrams Furnace; previously he didn't feel anything, just thought he, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, was invincible under heaven, that the Eight Trigrams Furnace couldn't trap him.

Later, recalling carefully, it was probably the Grand Supreme Elder Lord deliberately going easy.

At that time, the ones watching the furnace were just boys.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace can not only refine pills, but also refine people.

Back then Sun Wukong refined Fiery Golden Eyes; now Yang Jian is also in the Eight Trigrams Furnace, slowly recovering.

There are no alchemical pills being refined inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace — it is refining Yang Jian!

Hearing Tang Luo's speculation, Zhu Bajie's eyes lit up: "Right, it's definitely like this."

This situation is safe; at least we don't have to become enemies with the Grand Supreme Elder Lord.

Zhu Bajie also doesn't think the current Master can hard-block the Grand Supreme Elder Lord; if his injuries fully recover — hmm, still unclear.

That realm looks like it's not too far from Zhu Bajie.

But in reality, a hair's breadth difference is a world of difference.

It's not that easy to fathom and judge; one doesn't even have the qualifications to act as a bystander commentator.

The more he thought along this line, the more Zhu Bajie felt Tang Luo's analysis made sense.

Yang Jian in the Eight Trigrams Furnace is recovering, not being refined to death.

The Heavenly Apex Star People aren't aliens, but special medicine; attacking them is actually assimilating and absorbing medicinal potency — killing them yields no merit.

If "eating" a pill could yield merit, Tang Luo's merit would have exploded off the charts long ago.

Those people have no souls, because they don't even count as living beings; they are existences equivalent to NPCs.

However, these people might also truly become living beings; you should know, pills gaining sentience is not impossible.

This is the Grand Supreme Elder Lord's Eight Trigrams Furnace, after all.

Of course, this probability is extremely, extremely low; if a refined pill rushes out of the furnace upon completion, that already proves it is an immortal-grade miraculous medicine.

Unless the Grand Supreme Elder Lord intends it, no "immortal pill person" would be born.

"Master, are all the God and Demon Games really created by those big shots?" Zhu Bajie pointed at the sky.

After saying that, he felt something was a bit off.

If the gods and demons are the Supreme Lord Lao, why would they send them to wipe out the resistance army — that is, the Home Guard's viable fighting force?

Isn't that preventing Yang Jian from recovering?

Given Yang Jian's current strength, the best choice is to slash at the Tianjian Star people together with the Home Guard; one slash killing three, one slash killing four is already the limit.

Even after Tang Luo's tempering, at most it's only one slash killing five.

The Home Guard falls, and the Tianjian Star people keep descending.

Yang Jian also lacks the strength to continue taking the medicine; it's estimated he'll soon be able to undergo the special "next life" cultivation recovery.

Although everyone appeared in the form of "medicine," seemingly as a gift to Yang Jian.

But the armor can't trap them either; it gets destroyed in minutes.

The Supreme Lord Lao wouldn't be so clueless as to misjudge Tang Luo's strength, thinking this "outer shell" could trap Tang Luo.

"Can ask."

Tang Luo looked up at the sky.

"Master! Calm down!" Zhu Bajie instantly turned into a peacemaker; he knew very well what Tang Luo wanted to do.

Isn't it just flipping this Eight Trigrams Furnace to see what the situation outside really is?

If it really is the Supreme Lord Lao, we'll have a chat.

What, the Eight Trigrams Furnace got flipped? Don't mind such details.

Sun Wukong did it back then; as the master, how could I fall behind my disciple? If you want revenge, Old Lord, go find Sun Wukong — a father's debt, a son repays.

Or you could go find the Tathagata, flip him over; trouble happens, find the parent, nothing wrong with that.

"Relax." Tang Luo gave Zhu Bajie a steadying answer, "Definitely not now."

"..."

"That, Master, the Eight Trigrams Furnace's grand formation, I can't break it." Zhu Bajie said.

The formation inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace isn't something he can crack, even if no one is controlling it from outside.

Back then, Sun Wukong hid in the Xun palace position among the eight trigrams: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui.

Xun is wind; where there is wind, there is no fire.

Later the boy opened the furnace, and he just happened to escape; the Supreme Lord Lao wasn't there at all.

Nor was it as *Journey to the West* says, that he grabbed Sun Wukong and got tripped by Sun Wukong, like a scamming old man.

"No rush." Tang Luo said, "The Eight Trigrams Furnace can refine Yang Jian, and it can refine us too."

Since we're here, we certainly can't be in a hurry to leave.

Tang Luo suspected a bit that no one is controlling the Eight Trigrams Furnace at all, whether it's the Old Lord or some alchemy boy — they're probably not there.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace's grand formation is just operating normally.

"Mm." Zhu Bajie nodded vigorously; as long as they don't directly flip the Eight Trigrams Furnace from inside, everything is negotiable.

Refining whom isn't refining?

There's no heaven-and-earth Qi in the Eight Trigrams Furnace; having the Tianjian Star people as medicine is enough.

"Right, Master, how's Yang Jian?" Zhu Bajie changed the subject and asked.

"Condition's good, strength has improved; me and Yue Hao will continue tomorrow." Tang Luo smiled.

Zhu Bajie silently mourned for Yang Jian in his heart.

Who told you to insist on chasing Master for a hundred and eight thousand li back then? Before, you played ghost chasing me; now I play ghost chasing you.

Karma cycles, retribution never misses.

Master is a Buddhist disciple, and a "Buddha"-rank one at that — the Victorious Fighting Buddha — he particularizes this.

Zhu Bajie certainly wouldn't stop Tang Luo's behavior; whatever else, it's for Yang Jian's own good.

Even if it weren't, Zhu Bajie would still give a thumbs-up: Master, as long as you're happy.

"In ten days or half a month, I plan to bring out 'Yang Chan' to further help Yang Jian." Tang Luo said.

The umbrella Yang Chan transforms into will also accelerate Yang Jian's recovery.

Strength-wise it's debatable, but on the "memory" aspect it definitely helps.

"Maybe he'll recall it on the spot, tsk." Zhu Bajie thought a moment; Yang Jian that sis-con, things are serious.

No, the chief culprit is dead and gone.

Even the remains were refined into Xuan Bian, to serve as Master's weapon.

Feels like Yang Jian became Huang Shang — divine skill perfected, but the enemy's already dead and strolling about; that's really awkward.

"Master, where did Little White Dragon go?"

"Don't know, running around blindly everywhere."

"Oh."

Neither worried about Ao Juelie's safety; Sha Wujing is there.

If they really run into a problem the Tianjian Star form can't solve, the two of them can break out of the armor together, and with Ao Juelie's speed, the call for help would be very fast.

"Since it's the Eight Trigrams Furnace, I'll wander around." Tang Luo said, "You rest."

"Okay." Zhu Bajie nodded, simply sinking to the lake bottom.

After spending over an hour, Tang Luo figured out the current situation of the Eight Trigrams Furnace's "internal world."

It's not some round heaven square earth; the land underfoot is spherical like Earth, floating in the center of the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

The light isn't the sun, but comes from the furnace fire.

Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui — the eight trigrams, positions constantly shifting, changing myriad ways; basically impossible to find the windless Xun palace position.

And Zhu Bajie judged that even if found, it probably wouldn't be the "Gate of Life" to escape.

To leave, there must surely be another "path".

Tang Luo did not continue forcing his way in for now, to go touch the pill furnace's true interior.

If he really did that, it wouldn't just be heavenly thunder striking down; he would also have to face the subsequent Six Ding Divine Fire.

Now is not the time.