Chapter 807: This Old Monkey, I'm Back!

Maitreya!

Tang Luo's "demonic monk" title was spoken by that smiling, big-bellied Buddha.

The Buddha before Tang Luo, who looks exactly like him, is very familiar with the term "demonic monk."

Tang Luo suspects this guy has some connection to Maitreya, but whether he's a fragment of Maitreya's divine sense or just a pawn is hard to judge; the only certainty is that he is not Maitreya's true form.

Yet Maitreya's hand is definitely involved, including Sun Wukong's abnormality and the formation of this seemingly real but false world.

Maitreya's shadow flickers behind it all.

Facing Tang Luo's question, the Buddha does not answer; his life force further declines, nearing true death.

Tang Luo also did not shake him while shouting loudly, "Don't die yet—speak clearly before you die!"

He was just asking casually; whether the other could answer or not didn't matter.

Anyway, next time I see Maitreya act, I'll just ask him then.

Tang Luo is not the type obsessed with uncovering some hidden mastermind, otherwise he'd lose sleep and appetite, tossing and turning like ants on a hot pan, utterly drained.

His calm mindset was forged during the journey westward.

If Maitreya hides behind the scenes pulling strings, fine—next time we meet, we'll just fight.

No pointless nonsense.

If it's not Maitreya, it doesn't really matter anyway.

We're all Buddhas of Lei Yin Temple; let's just treat it as sparring among fellow disciples.

Back then, Tang Luo had also considered fighting someone like Maitreya to test himself.

Unfortunately, including Maitreya, none had any intention of fighting Tang Luo—they simply avoided him.

Tang Luo couldn't very well block someone's doorstep and shout insults—otherwise, the eight hundred precept monks would fight to the death to drag him to the Demon-Subduing Tower, forcing him to chant sutras or have sutras chanted over him for three hundred years.

He reached out and grasped, sending this Buddha who looks just like him ahead to the "Western Paradise."

Tang Luo felt no inner turmoil, nor did he develop any sense of "I killed myself."

As Sun Wukong "disappeared," the Buddha died, and this world began to change.

Tang Luo felt as if he were immersed in a chaos.

The outside.

Zhu Bajie fell from the sky, landing back on the stone bridge where Yang Jian, Tang Luo, and Sun Wukong were.

At the spot where Tang Luo and Sun Wukong stood, an indescribable force now coiled.

It prevented Zhu Bajie and the others from approaching.

Only a vague outline of Tang Luo's silhouette could be seen, still standing before the stone Sun Wukong had turned into, his hand pressed upon it.

Beside him lay the askew golden cudgel.

It had been nearly a year since Tang Luo cast the Soul-Degree technique on Sun Wukong.

At first, Tang Luo's state was still normal, but later that force seeped out, startling Zhu Bajie and the others.

Out of trust in Tang Luo and Sun Wukong, including Yang Jian, none resorted to forceful action, intending instead to investigate.

Doing so might still ruin things; better to watch from the sidelines.

And a month ago, during their mission as divine-demonic wanderers, clues emerged that Zhu Bajie and the others began to revalue.

Occasionally in the sky, a strange black rift would appear, like a passage torn open.

The "extraterrestrial heavenly demons" in the mission emerged from such passages, beginning their invasion of this world.

To speak frankly, when they saw this, Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie were stunned for a moment, then recalled that upon entering this world, they had also taken on the mission: "Extraterrestrial heavenly demons will invade this realm; resist the extraterrestrial heavenly demons."

At first, Zhu Bajie took it seriously, investigating beforehand.

Finding no trace of the extraterrestrial heavenly demons, he temporarily set it aside.

Later, he focused on observing Tang Luo and Sun Wukong's condition.

Only when the extraterrestrial heavenly demons appeared did Zhu Bajie and the others think, "Oh, right—we still have this mission."

Ao Yulie, the Heavenly Hound, and Sha Wujing stayed behind to guard this place, while Zhu Bajie went to the outside world to check things out.

If the mission were too easy, they'd just leave it be.

But if they accidentally completed it, causing everyone to return early, that wouldn't be good.

Yet the actual situation was far less optimistic than imagined; this mission's difficulty far exceeded Zhu Bajie and the others' expectations.

If we set aside Tang Luo, just for Zhu Bajie and the others, the mission's difficulty had already reached a quite dangerous level.

Facing the mission head-on, Zhu Bajie and the others faced mortal danger.

The extraterrestrial heavenly demons are not just a "certain something" as initially guessed, but a group—beings hard to describe or define with a single word.

If forced to say, the term "extraterrestrial heavenly demons" is actually fitting.

After noticing the extraterrestrial heavenly demons' appearance, Zhu Bajie went out, and in a short time encountered more than eight types.

These extraterrestrial heavenly demons basically resemble various bizarre insects, or deep-sea monsters that, since everyone "can't see" each other, just grew wildly strange.

The eight types fully cover land, sea, air, and even underground.

The extraterrestrial heavenly demons are not a single race, but a "legion"—born for war and destruction.

Even when everyone was still at "Five Fingers Mountain," and even before arriving in this mission world, the extraterrestrial heavenly demons had already silently infiltrated this world.

And they settled in, beginning to develop.

During this period, some scattered incidents of harming people or destroying villages occurred.

But this mission world follows the path of power returning to oneself; after experiencing the qi cultivator and celestial deity routes, it is now the era of the "Mandate Weapon Wielders."

The strength of these Mandate Weapon Wielders is equally capable of moving mountains and filling seas.

Comparable to the former divine generals.

Yet at the peak of combat power, they still fall short of the former celestial deities.

But such combat power was already sufficient; the appearance of a fate-instrument wielder destroying a village was nothing noteworthy.

After hiding for several months, the extraterritorial heavenly demons' control and understanding of this world kept increasing.

Thus, more and more heavenly demons appeared, and more and more "unidirectional spatial passages" were opened.

A war concerning the fate of the entire world's civilization system officially began.

Five Finger Mountain was too remote, far from the dust and turmoil of the human world, not within the extraterritorial heavenly demons' attack range—at least in terms of attack priority, it ranked very low.

When Zhu Bajie and the others saw the extraterritorial heavenly demons opening passages in the sky.

The war between the extraterritorial heavenly demons and this world's fate-instrument wielders had already truly begun.

Relying on their vast numbers and bodies born for war, the extraterritorial heavenly demons defeated the fate-instrument wielders repeatedly.

They occupied many human gathering places in this world.

Approximately one-third of human gathering places fell, becoming the territory of the extraterritorial heavenly demons.

Those places were shrouded in a gray, eerie mist.

In the mist, fate-instrument wielders suffered great suppression, not from combat power, but from perception.

In the mist-shrouded areas, even the strongest fate-instrument wielder was only slightly superior to an ordinary person, at best merely sharp-eared and clear-eyed.

Even Zhu Bajie's five senses and divine awareness were suppressed to a certain extent, far inferior to his normal state.

This mist was called the "War Fog."

All places where the War Fog existed were enemy territory.

Entering required caution, for one did not know where the extraterritorial heavenly demons would emerge from.

Seeing Zhu Bajie return, Ao Yulie went forward to meet him: "Second Senior Brother, how is the situation?"

"Not good." Zhu Bajie said, "Now the extraterritorial heavenly demons have firmly established their foothold; ordinary people before the heavenly demons are no different from livestock awaiting slaughter. Only fate-instrument wielders can resist, but their numbers are far too few compared to the heavenly demons."

The individual strength of extraterritorial heavenly demons is not strong; Zhu Bajie has encountered those that, whether one, ten, or even a hundred, he could easily slap to death.

But the number of heavenly demons is truly too great.

Besides those coming through spatial passages, the places where the War Fog exists surely also have additional "production bases."

If encountering ten thousand extraterritorial heavenly demons, for Zhu Bajie it would also be a battle requiring slight seriousness.

A hundred thousand would be a true battle.

One million would be a fight to the death.

Moreover, this is still a legion formed by medium-strength extraterritorial heavenly demon units.

If it were a truly all-around combined great army exceeding one hundred thousand, Zhu Bajie would have to fight and retreat; once trapped within, even he would sink into a mire, facing mortal danger.

Unless he had set up a great formation in advance, then he could slaughter the extraterritorial heavenly demons one by one.

During this time, Zhu Bajie appeared as a "recluse fate-instrument wielder," helping many fate-instrument wielders of this world.

Various formations were set up, teachings given.

This somewhat increased the power in the hands of fate-instrument wielders.

Increasing power by even a little also increased the possibility of victory.

Unfortunately, victory still appeared extremely bleak.

"Many places in those War Fog areas have already lost all traces of humans." Zhu Bajie said, "Even I, wanting to go deeper to explore, would find it very difficult."

"Shall I try?" Ao Yulie said.

"You?"

"Yes." Ao Yulie confidently smiled, "I and Third Senior Brother together—I handle running, Third Senior Brother handles taking hits—I mean, resisting attacks. You say, what extraterritorial heavenly demon could catch us?"

"Seems reasonable too." Zhu Bajie stroked his chin and nodded.

In terms of frontal combat power, Ao Yulie and Sha Wujing together are not his match.

But purely in speed and endurance, the two together would surpass Zhu Bajie.

"Isn't that exactly what scouts need—running fast, holding firm at critical moments, and transmitting information?"

"Be careful." Zhu Bajie said.

"Xiaotian, you come too." Yang Jian's voice came from within the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Plus Xiaotian's nose, perfect!

"Rest assured, Master's enlightenment has always been here." Ao Yulie's confidence was not blind, but came from Tang Luo.

At this moment, the sky above Five Finger Mountain suddenly tore open a huge rift.

Like a wound on this world.

Dense and numerous, an astonishing number of extraterritorial heavenly demons surged out, directly exceeding one hundred thousand.

Terrifying killing intent and destructive aura emanated from the extraterritorial heavenly demon army.

"They've come for us!"

Zhu Bajie narrowed his eyes, showing no panic.

The nearby area had long been set up by him with layered formations, blocking these heavenly demons—no problem.

But this would likely make this place a battlefield thereafter.

Not friendly to the immobile Master and Eldest Senior Brother.

The extraterritorial heavenly demons silently charged toward Zhu Bajie and company, like a flood of death rushing forward.

Zhu Bajie pinched the hand seal, about to activate the great formation.

Suddenly, a violent surge of power came from behind.

A golden light shot into the sky, tearing the heavens, directly striking the death flood.

The golden light surged into the extraterritorial heavenly demon army; the next moment, a huge heavenly pillar emerged, sweeping across the eight directions, cleansing the universe!

The death flood was shattered, turning into scattered "fragments."

Sun Wukong twirled the Golden-Hooped Rod, halted, and brought it down heavily into the air; power spread out, utterly shattering the remaining extraterritorial demons.

"Your old Monkey is back!"