Chapter 777

"Wait, let me take a look first," Yang Jian said.

"Are you really up to it?" Tang Luo and the others cast doubtful gazes; you're an injured person, after all.

Yang Jian let out a cold chuckle, not deigning to respond; would he, Yang Jian, be incapable?

From within the Eight Trigrams Furnace, a faint golden light emerged, striking the stone.

The sensation it gave was like shining a flashlight.

This style instantly dropped a notch, indirectly reflecting that Yang Jian was indeed not doing too well at the moment.

But no one exposed it.

"You haven't also had someone secretly tamper with you, have you?" Tang Luo asked tactfully, "Shall I perform an eye-opening for you?"

"No, I'm recovering well, just a bit slowly..." Yang Jian's voice cut off abruptly, and the light of the Heavenly Eye vanished simultaneously.

Turning into a muffled groan.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." The Yang Jian formed of white mist dissipated, only reforming after a moment, "Just a bit unexpected."

Being injured is fine, but face cannot be lost.

The idol baggage could be said to be extremely heavy; after all, he is the number one cool guy of the Mountains and Seas Realm.

"What unexpected thing?" Tang Luo very tacitly did not ask further.

At most there would be some minor ripples, not enough to make Yang Jian pull a muscle or dislocate a bone.

"What I saw was actually a world that is neither false nor true, like a dream or illusion," Yang Jian said.

"Oh?" Tang Luo's eyebrows twitched slightly.

"That monkey should be undergoing some kind of change within that world," Yang Jian said.

"As expected, it is changing." Ao Yelie said in a low voice, "But is it good or bad in the end?"

The Yang Jian formed of white mist shook his head, indicating his Heavenly Eye had failed to see through it.

He had only seen a "world"; he hadn't even located where Sun Wukong specifically was.

"No matter, using Du Hun to 'Observe' will tell us," Tang Luo said.

Nothing to guess about; practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.

Tang Luo is a standard man of action.

"Master, this matter is probably not simple," Zhu Bajie reminded, his expression slightly grave.

One always feels the conspiracy is especially huge.

Tang Luo nodded, then placed his hand on the stone again, gathering his power for a moment.

To tell the truth, this was still his first time casting Du Hun on a stone; it felt weird.

Du Hun!

A moment later, Tang Luo's eyes focused, and Du Hun "unfolded."

Unlike before, where he directly pressed on someone's soul to drag it out for a beating, the world before Tang Luo's eyes spun and transformed wildly.

He was entering that world Yang Jian spoke of — like a dream, like an illusion, neither false nor true.

"Why does it feel a bit like the 'Temporary World' of the God and Demon Game?" Tang Luo thought to himself.

It was said before that the mission worlds of the God and Demon Game, after analysis by the God and Demon Walkers, were believed to be roughly divided into two types.

One type is the "Temporary World" generated for the sake of a mission.

The other type is a proper, complete world.

Tang Luo had experienced the former not many times; the first mission world was this kind of temporary world.

The latter was relatively more common; the vast majority of mission worlds are complete.

There are also special cases, like the world formed by the obsessions of Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li and the heavenly soldiers, and the inner world of the Eight Trigrams Furnace — those also count as the first type.

The world Tang Luo was now entering felt just like this kind of world "temporarily constructed" for some purpose.

Regarding this point, Tang Luo was not the least bit surprised.

He was merely wondering just how close the connection between this world and Sun Wukong really was.

Being within it, or perhaps, omnipresent; I am the world?

The shifting scenes before his eyes halted; Tang Luo stood on solid ground, discovering he was inside a mountain cave.

Dark and damp, gusts of eerie cold wind blew from who knew where, carrying a howling sound.

Tang Luo was not the only one around; there were also several people lying unconscious on the ground.

Judging by their pale lips and complexions, they should be poisoned.

Tang Luo casually drew a healing talisman and tossed it down.

"There's demonic Qi." Tang Luo sniffed lightly.

Smelling a demonic odor; this world also has demons.

Just unknown what kind of demons; Tang Luo walked for a while inside this maze-like cave.

He stopped, getting lost very decisively.

He raised his hand, even more decisively slapping to the side; a hollow handprint the height of a person appeared, leading from inside the mountain body straight to the outside.

A total of a hundred meters; sunlight shone in.

There were originally no roads in the world, so one must rely on oneself to open them up; perfectly logical.

Tang Luo's road-opening action attracted the attention of the demons inside the cave; a huge spider rushed over to court death.

Its spiritual intelligence was unopened; it didn't even count as a demon yet.

One second later, Tang Luo left along the road he had opened, rising into the sky; surrounding him were mountains, rivers, and streams — magnificent scenery.

"Hm?"

Tang Luo's eyesight was astonishing; he saw a waterfall in the distance, its current swift.

That wasn't the point; the point was that after seeing the waterfall, he saw a mountain cave behind it, with the three large characters "Water Curtain Cave" conspicuously written above the entrance.

"So this is Flower Fruit Mountain?" Tang Luo strode forward, arriving near the Water Curtain Cave.

Taking the deep pool beneath the waterfall as its source, along the river, an oval-shaped mountain stronghold village had been established here.

The residents weren't a troop of monkeys, but a group of people.

At the very front entrance, a wooden palisade and a main gate had also been erected, bearing the three large characters "Black Wind Stronghold".

The well-known cannon fodder in a bandit den.

Tang Luo fell silent for two seconds, then plunged headfirst into the Water Curtain Cave; inside, it wasn't much different from the monster cave he'd just left — gloomy and damp.

Only there was no demonic qi, and it was empty and desolate, not looking like a place where people lived at all.

Perfectly normal; this cave was a good fifty-plus meters from the ground, and behind a waterfall — fundamentally not somewhere ordinary human strength could enter.

The interior of the Water Curtain Cave wasn't as complex as that spider demon cave from before.

Tang Luo soon reached the depths, furrowing his brow slightly.

He saw that on the innermost wall of the Water Curtain Cave, a golden rod was embedded, and on the stone table, a golden circlet lay.

The Golden-Hooped Rod, and Sun Wukong's Golden Hoop.

"Zhizunbao, A Chinese Odyssey?" Tang Luo reached out, picked up the Golden Hoop — sure enough, the front was heavy, the back light.

Better to find the village blacksmith to reforge it so it's easier to wear.

In terms of quality, it couldn't compare to the Golden Hoop Tang Luo had gotten his hands on back then.

He thought for a moment, then directly took the Golden Hoop; as for the Golden-Hooped Rod, it was connected too tightly to this mountain peak.

Forcibly digging it out would easily cause a mountain collapse.

Leave it here for now.

After taking the Golden Hoop, Tang Luo came to the Black Wind Stronghold gate and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Call your Chief out here!"

Looking entirely like he'd come to pick a fight.

Before long, the Black Wind Stronghold bandits stirred at the news, rushing before Tang Luo — each one crooked and lopsided, bizarrely shaped, dressed in rags and tatters.

Their reaction showed the stronghold's business performance was poor, hovering on the edge of "bankruptcy and closure".

"Brat, you actually dare come to my Black Wind Stronghold seeking death!"

"Kill him!"

"No, sell him to a male brothel — look at those red lips and white teeth..."

A chaotic mob, but their momentum wasn't bad.

"All of you, shut up!"

A roar cut off the bandits' babble; a bearded man wielding a Nine-Ring Broadsword pushed through the crowd: "Who are you, daring to come call at my Black Wind Stronghold's gate?"

"You're Zhizunbao?" Tang Luo asked.

The bearded man said strangely: "What Zhizunbao! This old man is the Chaos Demon King who's beaten flat all comers within a hundred li — Liu Batian!"

"Brother Ergou is mighty!"

"The Chief is formidable!"

"Brother Ergou is invincible under heaven!"

The surrounding bandits immediately clamored, and even female bandits cast tender, lingering glances.

"Shut up, call me Batian Ye!" Chaos Demon King Liu Batian flew out with a few kicks, sending those ignorant bandits who'd shouted his given name flying.

It was clear he genuinely had some remarkable martial skill.

Not just empty boasting.

"Shouldn't be Sun Wukong." Tang Luo muttered, but still took out the Golden Hoop and beckoned, "Come here, put it on and see if it fits."

That manner — like he was calling his own dog.

How could Chaos Demon King Liu Ergou Batian endure such humiliation?

Although that round thing was made of gold, and he really wanted it, it had to be presented to his Grandpa Batian — with a trembling, fearful attitude.

Looking like you are now — are you calling a dog?

The enraged Liu Ergou immediately kicked out.

He couldn't kill — judging by the white-haired youth's appearance, selling him to a male brothel might fetch even more than the gold ring he'd produced.

Struck it rich, struck it rich.

Liu Ergou laughed as he knelt before Tang Luo.

Tang Luo held the Golden Hoop and slipped it onto his head; Liu Ergou's head was large, and the hoop stopped fast after going on a little.

"Any feeling?" Tang Luo asked.

The smile on Liu Ergou, kneeling on the ground, had long vanished: "Grandpa, I was wrong, Grandpa, I was wrong."

"Shut up." Tang Luo slapped Liu Ergou flat across the face, "After putting it on, any feeling? Isn't there a power surging? Feeling like you're about to burst."

Liu Ergou shook his head repeatedly.

Seeing Tang Luo displeased, he immediately nodded: "Yes, yes, yes."

"... Speak."

"—It's just, the front feels a bit heavy, the back light. Grandpa, you say, what other feeling could there be, I've got them all!" Liu Ergou wailed, tears and snot streaming.

"Fine then." Tang Luo took back the Golden Hoop; this guy definitely wasn't Sun Wukong.

Who knew what the situation in this world actually was; anyway, take the Golden Hoop and search for now.

Seeing Tang Luo's back completely disappear.

Liu Ergou abruptly scrambled up from the ground: "Did you see that? Did you learn it? This is the reason I, Liu Ergou, am invincible under heaven."

I'm invincible under heaven not because all my enemies are dead, but because I know when to play the grandson at crucial moments.

Turn your enemies into your grandpas, and you won't have any enemies left?

That is the supreme realm of being invincible under heaven.

Tang Luo extended his index finger, spinning the Golden Hoop in circles as he pondered, then decided to make a trip to the Heavenly Court.

To see if this world has immortals filling the skies, and if so, whether they know anything about the situation.

The South Heaven Gate, guarded and patrolled by the Four Heavenly Kings and a host of celestial soldiers and generals.

It is a vital passage to the Heavenly Court; immortals entering or leaving must all pass through the South Heaven Gate.

The host of celestial soldiers guarding the South Heaven Gate saw a white-haired, blood-robed youth approach, a golden hoop spinning in his hand.

Yet it was a face they had never seen before, utterly unfamiliar.

"Halt! Who goes there!"

A celestial soldier shouted a challenge, his voice like rolling thunder — a weaker cultivator would likely have their three souls and seven spirits trembling in "fright" on the spot, "scared pissless" right then and there.

Tang Luo's steps didn't stop; as he drew closer he asked, "Friend, have you ever heard of Sun Wukong?"

The faces of several celestial soldiers changed.

"Oh, looks like you've heard of him." The Golden Hoop in Tang Luo's hand stopped spinning, and he asked with a smile, "Does anyone know where he is?"

"Tell him his master has come looking for him."

"Patriarch Bodhi the Devil!"

"Patriarch Bodhi the Fiend!"

Several celestial soldiers cried out in alarm, faces full of shock.

"???"

What the hell, Patriarch Bodhi's reputation ruined?