Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 80 The Great Sage Equal to Heaven

When all means were exhausted, suspended between the sea and the sky, Cai Fei became a sitting duck. Seeing more than a dozen sharp arrows imbued with golden spiritual energy hurtling towards him, he could only await his death.

It was at this time that...

In the vast sky, a face the size of a mountain suddenly appeared in the palm of the towering five-fingered phantom.

An earth-shattering aura erupted forth, and then the whole world seemed to pause for a moment.

In that instant, the sword energy that Wan Jie Leopard was about to unleash condensed at the sword's edge, the Thousand-Faced Beast's fully drawn bowstring froze at its ear, and the Hundred-Damage Rat's ferocious face froze at its open mouth full of yellow teeth—even Cai Fei's body, which was falling into the sea, was suspended in mid-air, and the blood gushing from the arrow wound congealed into a string of crimson beads.

Time is fleeting—the heartbeat of a newborn baby, a dewdrop sliding from a leaf to the ground, a carp leaping and falling back into the pond…

All the killing intent, clamor, and life and death in the world were grasped by an invisible giant hand in that instant, frozen in silence.

In a short while, everything returned to normal, but nothing was the same as before.

Immediately afterwards, the white light that had been firmly binding the Thief Bird vanished without a trace, the flames spewing from the Thief Bird's mouth disappeared without a trace, the ice arrow that was about to take shape between Long Hen's fingers disintegrated in an instant, the chilling sword energy that had been emanating from the old dean's blade suddenly disappeared, and the light of the magic arrays supporting various parts of Flower Fruit Mountain dimmed instantly...

The next instant, the flying swords soaring in the sky, the cultivators standing proudly on the flying swords, the arrows whistling towards Cai Fei, all the arrows and weapons flying in the air on Flower Fruit Mountain... suddenly all plummeted downwards.

The thieving bird was the first to wake up. With its back to the north, it didn't know what had happened, but the earth-shaking aura awakened its long-forgotten memories. The long-besieged beast let out a long cry, broke free, flapped its wings, and flew straight to the north.

The old dean and the flying sword fell at the same time. After his spiritual power recovered, he used his divine sense to recall it. As soon as he stood up, the old dean hurriedly drove the flying sword towards Cai Fei, covering a distance of a hundred feet in an instant, and caught Cai Fei before he fell into the sea.

Cai Fei was already unconscious. The old dean didn't have time to treat him. He just applied a third-level healing talisman to seal the acupoints and stop the bleeding, and infused a little spiritual energy to protect Cai Fei's heart meridian. Then he turned around and handed the sword to Fang Yingyue who had followed.

"Return to the Water Curtain Cave immediately for treatment!" the old dean shouted at Fang Yingyue, then immediately turned around and flew down, urging his flying sword to skim along the sea, searching for Feng Xiangguo, who had fallen into the water.

Fang Yingyue also recalled her flying sword after falling, and was completely dazed. After listening to the old dean's words, she picked up Cai Fei and turned to leave.

Wan Jie Bao no longer had time to stop them—Qian Mian Shou and Bai Sun Shu had already fallen off the flying sword and were plummeting downwards. After regaining control of the flying sword, he immediately grabbed his two brothers, but the flying sword had already shrunk back to its original size. The three of them crashed into each other, and it took a while of frantic activity to enlarge the flying sword again.

"What happened?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Both the Myriad Calamity Leopard and the Thousand-Faced Beast were fighting with their backs to the north, and at this moment they kept asking the Hundred-Loss Rat.

The latter, however, had already knelt down facing north, kowtowing repeatedly with a series of thuds, tears streaming down his face, his words incoherent: "Great Sage... Great Sage... Waaah... It's the Great Sage... Waaah... The Great Sage has returned!"

The giant face in the five-finger phantom in the northern sky had disappeared. Although the face only existed for a moment, during the fierce battle in the sky, everyone on the northern mountain of Flower Fruit Mountain was watching the sky, and countless people could see clearly that a monkey face had appeared in the five-finger phantom that had been clear and transparent for hundreds of years.

The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong!

At this moment, a large number of people had knelt down on the North Mountain. Whether they were ordinary people or cultivators, all the people of Aolai looked north with piety and tears fell to the ground.

The guests staying at the Heavenly Court were all in a daze. Whether they were officials from the Department of Appeasement, teachers from the Academy, or demon hunters, they stood either on flying swords or on mountain rocks, all facing north in a daze.

All the fighting had ceased. The siren rushed into the sea, while the bird monsters, after a brief pause, squawked and flapped their wings, flying in unison northward.

Not only Huaguo Mountain, but the entire Aolai Island is in shock at this moment.

In that instant, the flow of spiritual energy of everyone on Aolai Island suddenly stopped, and all the magic arrays, spells, and weapons supported by spiritual energy suddenly malfunctioned—the talisman makers' half-finished talismans collapsed; the fire in the alchemy furnace suddenly went out, leaving all the alchemists in a panic; the brawlers who were fighting to the death over a single angry remark suddenly lost all their spiritual energy...

Greatly alarmed, everyone ran outside to see what was going on. They then saw more and more people kneeling with their heads turned to the north, countless people calling out the name of "Great Sage Equal to Heaven," covering their faces and weeping as they looked at the distant phantom of five fingers.

In the central swamp teeming with spirits and monsters, a moment of utter silence, a suffocating stillness that lingered for several breaths, was followed by the ascent of countless bird demons and insect monsters taking flight in a dense, dark mass heading north; and countless beast demons and ferocious beasts running up the wetland hills, howling in unison toward the north.

In addition to Aolai, Fangcun Mountain was also affected.

People here couldn't see the face protruding from the five-fingered phantom, but at the same time, there was a phenomenon of spiritual power going out of control. Countless cultivators in Xingyuefang under Fangcun Mountain lost control of their spiritual power, and the mountain-protecting formation suddenly dimmed at that moment.

However, Xingyue was, after all, a super sect. After the mountain-protecting formation went dark, it shone brightly again, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Between the flickering of the protective array, a golden light shot out and vanished into the sky in an instant.

The moment the spiritual energy was restored, the three Nascent Soul cultivators of the Star Moon Sect gathered on the auspicious clouds above Fangcun Mountain, and more than twenty Golden Core experts also took to the air, forming a formation to guard the key position of the mountain gate. The entire Star Moon Sect was filled with surprise and doubt.

In a more distant place, the nine major scripture repositories scattered throughout Kyushu, which house the relics of Shakyamuni Buddha, all shone brightly at that moment, startling all the eminent monks in the temples who appeared to investigate.

A quarter of an hour later, envoys were simultaneously dispatched from Lingjiu Mountain in the Western Paradise and Putuo Mountain in the South China Sea, rushing towards Aolai...

In a small vassal world beyond the celestial realm, an old man riding a bull was enjoying a drink on its back when he suddenly choked on his wine, coughing repeatedly until he finally regained his breath.

"That damned monkey, it's been a hundred years and it still won't settle down!"

The old man shook his head and cursed, then reached out and hung the wine gourd on the ox's horn, lay down on the ox's back, and closed his eyes to lie down.

A moment later, the long-sealed Doushuai Palace in the Nine Heavens suddenly opened, and a message talisman drifted into an ordinary three-bedroom courtyard outside the palace.

Soon, three streaks of light rose from the courtyard. One went to the Lingxiao Pavilion in the Eighth Heaven, one to the Taixu Illusionary Realm of Kunlun Mountain, and the other went straight to the Li Family Compound in Tianqu—the ancestral home of Laozi.

The first streak of light paused briefly before taking off again, this time soaring high and far, heading straight for Aolai Island in the east.