Honghuang: My understanding is beyond belief. I am the first immortal of Jiejiao.

"Disciple Chen Xuanzang, by order of the Emperor of the Great Tang Dynasty in the East, is going to the Western Paradise to worship Buddha and seek scriptures. Now I have encountered this mountain, where a divine monkey is imprisoned. He claims to be the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, and says that he was persuaded by Guanyin Bodhisattva to convert to Buddhism and protect me on my journey to the West."

If this is true, and the monkey is genuinely virtuous, then I, as the disciple, will be able to unlock the golden token, rescue him, and together we will witness the sacred mountain and achieve good karma. If, however, he is a wicked and unruly creature who deceives me, then I will not be able to unlock the token, and I will have no complaints.

After finishing his prayer, he stood up, composed himself, reached out, carefully grasped one corner of the gold ingot, and forcefully peeled it off—

Surprisingly, it went smoothly! The gold plaque seemed to be lightly affixed to the stone, but when he peeled it off, it detached directly from the stone!

Almost the instant the gold plaque was lifted off the stone, a strange change occurred!
Suddenly, a fierce and unexpected gale swept up the mountaintop! The wind was strange and incredibly strong. Tang Sanzang felt his hand become lighter, and the golden scroll was blown out of his hand by the gale. It tumbled in the air like a golden butterfly and disappeared into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
"Oh!"

Tang Sanzang exclaimed in surprise and tried to grab it, but it was too late.

He stared blankly in the direction where the gold ingot had disappeared, then looked at the empty stone, blinked, and then his face lit up with ecstasy!

"Haha! Buddha is giving us face! Buddha must have heard his disciple's prayers and knew that this monkey was truly turning to good, so he took the gold ingot away with the help of the wind! Brilliant! Brilliant!"

He thought he had grasped the "will of Heaven" and was so happy that he danced with joy. He even started to make plans in his mind.

With such a peerless demon protecting me, let's see which foolish monster dares to provoke me on the journey to the West! My journey to obtain the scriptures is now secure!

Overjoyed, he turned around and prepared to go down the mountain to tell Sun Wukong the "good news" and, incidentally, to receive his newly minted, incredibly powerful disciple.

However, as soon as he turned around and before he took a step, a violent tremor, as if it were erupting from the depths of the earth, suddenly came from the mountain beneath his feet!
"Boom--!"

The entire Five Elements Mountain, like a sleeping behemoth suddenly awakened, began to shake violently! Rocks tumbled down, dust filled the air, and the solemn and vast Buddhist power that had previously existed receded rapidly like a tide!
"what happened?!"

Tang Sanzang lost his balance, his face turning deathly green with fear. He hurriedly grabbed a nearby rock and looked down the mountain in terror, his voice trembling.

"You impudent monkey! What are you doing?! Don't move! If you move again... if you move again, this humble monk will have to perform a ritual to send you to the afterlife!!"

He thought it was caused by Sun Wukong struggling wildly below.

Down the mountain, Sun Wukong, who had been imprisoned for five hundred years, felt it most clearly at this moment. In the instant the golden token was removed and the whirlwind swept it away, he clearly sensed that the supreme divine power and suppressive will of the Buddha, which permeated every inch of the Five Elements Mountain, vanished as quickly as ice and snow melting away!
This mountain is now just an ordinary, enormous peak! Perhaps it is more solid than ordinary mountains, but for his body, which has been tormented and honed for five hundred years and has just been nourished by the Yellow Plum, it is no longer an unshakable shackle!
"Roar--!!!"

A roar, suppressed for five hundred years and seemingly capable of shattering the heavens, erupted from the bottom of the mountain! The cultivation within Sun Wukong, suppressed for too long, surged forth like a flood bursting its banks, unleashed and wildly expanding! The surging demonic power, like a rainbow interwoven with blood and gold, shot into the sky from his exposed head and right arm, piercing the clouds!
"Open it for me!!!"

With this earth-shattering roar, Sun Wukong's only movable right arm, along with his body trapped in the stone box, unleashed unimaginable power! He braced his hands against the ground, his back and waist like a bowstring stretched to its limit, and then, he thrust upwards with tremendous force!
"Crack! Boom—!!!"

The earth shook violently! A large area near the foot of Five Elements Mountain was lifted more than half a meter high by this terrifying force! Countless boulders crumbled, soil churned, and dust rose like mushroom clouds!
Tang Sanzang, who was terrified by the shaking of the mountainside, suddenly felt his feet sink and the rocks beneath him crumble and collapse! He screamed and was thrown down the mountainside along with the falling rubble!

"Ah—! Help—!"

High above, Guanyin Bodhisattva's expression changed drastically! The momentum of this monkey's escape far exceeded expectations! Moreover, the violent and destructive aura it unleashed set off alarm bells in her heart!

"Sun Wukong! How dare you be so insolent! That's your master!!"

Guanyin shouted sternly, her voice like thunder, echoing through the mountains and fields. At the same time, she raised the willow branch and the vase in her hand, ready to suppress it at any moment.

However, Sun Wukong, who had already escaped most of the predicament, responded to Guanyin's rebuke with an even more unrestrained, mocking, and hateful laugh.

"Master? Hehe... I know! Of course I know he's my master!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a loud "bang" was heard, and one corner of the Five Elements Mountain, which had been lifted half a meter, exploded! A figure shrouded in a violent aura of gold and dark red, like a demon god breaking free from an ancient seal, soared into the sky!

As the pebbles rained down and the dust had not yet settled, the figure flashed like a ghost and appeared in front of Tang Sanzang, who was falling down the mountain and was terrified. The figure stood in mid-air, blocking his path.

Tang Sanzang's descent abruptly stopped. Still shaken, he looked up at the figure before him—the hairy-faced, thunder-mouthed man. Though still disheveled, he was no longer weak and exuded a suffocatingly fierce aura. His golden, fiery eyes were now staring intently at him with a cold and malicious gaze he had never seen before.

"You...what do you want to do?!"

Tang Sanzang's heart nearly leaped out of his throat. He asked in a fierce but weak voice, his hand already instinctively reaching for the... Zen staff at his waist.

Sun Wukong slowly grinned, his smile as ferocious as a demon crawling out of hell.

He calmly reached into his ear and, with a flash of golden light, grasped a stick as thick as a bowl, with gold hoops at both ends, black iron in the middle, and five ancient seal characters engraved on it that read "Ruyi Jingu Bang" in a flamboyant style.

He casually hoisted the heavy staff, weighing 13,500 jin, onto his shoulder, leaned slightly closer to the pale-faced Tang Sanzang, and spoke slowly and deliberately in a tone that was almost gentle yet chilling to the bone.

"What are you doing? My dear master..."

He paused, his eyes flashing with a fierce light, and he grinned maliciously.

"I promised that old Buddha I'd 'send' you to the Western Paradise!" "!!!"

Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints, and his blood seemed to freeze instantly. A bone-chilling coldness shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head! He stared intently at Sun Wukong's face, which was full of malice and murderous intent, his mouth agape, but he couldn't utter a single word.

Before Sun Wukong finished speaking, the murderous light in his eyes had already surged to its extreme! The hatred of five hundred years of suppression, the raging flames of anger at the scheming against the Western Paradise, and the extreme desire for the word "freedom" all turned into an unreserved killing intent in this instant!
He gave Tang Sanzang no chance to react, beg for mercy, or even think. The Ruyi Jingu Bang in his hand, with a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air and a heart-palpitating dark light, smashed down on Tang Sanzang, who was right next to him and had been scared out of his wits, in the purest and most violent way!

"Do not--!!!"

Tang Sanzang only had time to let out a short, extremely sharp scream filled with endless fear and despair.

He couldn't even see the trajectory of the stick, but he felt a destructive force approaching him!

"puff--!"

A dull, teeth-grinding sound—the sound of flesh and bones being instantly crushed!
Without golden light protecting him, without the manifestation of Buddhist treasures, and without any miracles, Tang Sanzang's mortal body, which had just been somewhat complacent about the "new Buddhist teachings" and his meager spiritual power, was as fragile as a candle flickering in a storm under Sun Wukong's all-out attack, unable to offer even the slightest decent resistance.

Under the weight of the 13,500-jin Dinghai Divine Iron, he was completely reduced to a pile of flesh mixed with broken bones, fragments of internal organs, and scarlet blood! He died on the spot, utterly dead!

In a physical sense.

"Send them to the Western Paradise!"
Above the clouds, Guanyin Bodhisattva, who had been on high alert, ready to "guide" or "protect" at any moment, witnessed this tragedy that occurred in the blink of an eye. She was struck by lightning and froze on the spot!

Her once clear and compassionate eyes were now wide open, filled with extreme horror, disbelief, and a sense of utter despair that her plans had completely spiraled out of control and that all her hard work was about to go to waste!
Sending...sending them to the Western Paradise?!
Sun Wukong's words, "send him to the Western Paradise," actually... actually meant literally?! To kill him outright with a single blow?! That impudent monkey! How dare he?! How dare he so distort, no, so "directly interpret" the Buddha's teachings?! Doesn't he understand that if the pilgrim dies, how can the journey to the West continue?!

Guanyin felt a surge of blood rushing to the top of her head, and her vision went black.

She had calculated everything, including Sun Wukong's unruly nature, Lin Zhu's potential for trouble, and even Tang Sanzang's cowardice. But she hadn't anticipated that the monkey's first act after escaping would be to kill the pilgrims on the spot in such a direct, violent, and ruthless manner!

From this moment on, the Journey to the West plan completely deviated from its intended course and slid into an abyss that even she could not have foreseen!
However, just as Guanyin was horrified and Sun Wukong grinned as he withdrew his golden cudgel, looking at the pile of flesh with a hint of pleasure and an even deeper chill in his eyes, another unexpected event occurred!

Where Tang Sanzang died, from within the blurry mass of flesh and blood, a burst of incomparably pure and dazzling golden light suddenly erupted! That light was not Buddhist light, but rather an aura that was more ancient and mysterious, seemingly containing the origin of life and the secrets of reincarnation!

Within the golden light, a cicada shadow, translucent as glass, with six wings on its back and an ancient form, could be vaguely seen flashing by! Immediately afterward, the golden light seemed to come alive, shrinking abruptly, and then transforming at an unbelievable speed into a thin golden thread, so fast that even Sun Wukong's fiery eyes could barely catch its trajectory.

With a "whoosh," it pierced through the void and sped towards the eastern horizon, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye!
"Um?!"

Sun Wukong's sinister smile froze instantly, his golden cudgel held horizontally in front of his chest, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

That blow he just delivered clearly shattered the monk's very soul! What was that golden light? And what escaped?
Lin Zhu, who had been observing calmly, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, a hint of understanding and amusement flashing in his eyes.

"Golden Cicada Shedding Its Shell... no, it's 'Golden Cicada Primordial Spirit Escape'."

Lin Zhu muttered to himself.

"As expected of the reincarnation of Jin Chanzi, the foundation of ten lifetimes of cultivation is still there. The death of the physical body, which touched the great terror of life and death, instead stimulated the original talent that was dormant deep in his primordial spirit. He abandoned this physical body and exchanged it for the escape of his primordial spirit at a huge cost... Interesting."

Having been eaten by Sha Wujing at the Liusha River nine times before, his primordial spirit was probably still in a daze and had not truly 'died,' thus failing to trigger this supernatural power.

This time, I truly 'died' once, and it forced me to unleash my most hidden skills.

He could see clearly that the golden light had fled not to the Western Paradise, but to the Tang Dynasty in the East! Jin Chanzi's primordial spirit was severely injured and would probably need a very long time to recover. He might even need to find a new body to reincarnate. Journey to the West... that was out of the question in the short term.

Guanyin Bodhisattva was also startled by the sudden golden light disappearing, but she immediately realized what had happened, and all color drained from her face! Jin Chanzi's primordial spirit had escaped!

This means that the "death" of the pilgrim is a foregone conclusion, but his most core "original spirit" has not been destroyed, and the "seed" of the Journey to the West is still there, but when it can sprout again is unknown! The plan has been completely disrupted, and in the most violent and unpredictable way!
"Sun Wukong—!!!"

Guanyin finally recovered from her extreme shock. The anger, panic, and resentment she had been holding onto towards Lin Zhu instantly transformed into a fierce shout containing the power of a half-step quasi-saint, which shook the clouds within a hundred miles!

Her body radiated Buddhist light like a raging sea, and the blue light of the jade bottle and willow branch in her hand intensified. She aimed at Sun Wukong below, who was holding the golden cudgel and still looking bewildered. It seemed that she was about to do everything she could to suppress him!

But just as she was about to make her move, she caught a glimpse of Lin Zhu, who remained calm and composed, even with a slight smile on his lips, and her heart skipped a beat!
No! This monkey is acting strangely right now, his strength has surged far beyond what was expected, and more importantly, Lin Zhu, the biggest variable, is lurking nearby! If I rashly attack Sun Wukong alone, Lin Zhu is very likely to seize the opportunity to launch an attack! At that time, the situation will become even more uncontrollable!

Thinking of this, Guanyin forcibly suppressed the urge to act immediately. She formed a mudra with her jade hands and chanted mantras rapidly. A dazzling Buddhist light, carrying her unique aura and an urgent plea for help, shot into the sky like a signal flare, heading straight for the Buddhist army that was already in full battle array in the distance!
"Immovable King! Come quickly to my aid!!"

Almost at the same time that pleading Buddha light rose, the thick clouds in the distance, which had only faintly revealed Buddha light, suddenly burst forth with boundless radiance!

A colossal Dharma form, tens of thousands of feet tall, entirely indigo blue, with a wrathful expression and wreathed in blazing flames and thunder of wisdom, suddenly opened its eyes! It was none other than the Acala, the chief of the Buddhist Dharma Protectors, renowned for his formidable combat prowess! He had already advanced to the early stage of the Quasi-Saint realm, and at this moment, his manifested Dharma form exuded overwhelming power! (End of Chapter)