Chapter 41

After leaving the South Sea, Yang Zhen flew westward toward Xiniu Jizhou. Afraid that Guanyin Bodhisattva would pursue him, Yang Zhen maintained the form of a dragon eagle. Although the dragon eagle had little magical power, its flying speed was extremely fast. Yang Zhen traveled by day and rested at night, and finally returned to Fangcun Mountain after half a year.

Seeing the long-separated Fangcun Mountain, Yang Zhen had a different feeling. After crossing over to the mythological world, Yang Zhen had lived the longest time on Fangcun Mountain, especially since Patriarch Subhuti had entrusted Fangcun Mountain to him. Therefore, Yang Zhen subconsciously recognized Fangcun Mountain as his home.

Living at home naturally felt different from living elsewhere. As the saying goes: "No matter how luxurious a golden nest or a silver nest is, it's not as good as one's own humble abode."

The first thing Yang Zhen did upon returning to Fangcun Mountain was to go to the pond in his courtyard. Seeing that the lotus flower given to him by Patriarch Subhuti had not yet bloomed, Yang Zhen sighed silently, feeling a myriad of emotions. At this moment, Yang Zhen felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness, permeating his entire body.

Ten years ago, Yang Zhen, with the intention of changing history, broke the agreement with Patriarch Subhuti. He thought that with his knowledge of the future, he might be able to change the fate of his good friend Sun Wukong, at least to prevent him from suffering the 500-year imprisonment.

However, what Yang Zhen did not expect was that his appearance led to Guanyin Bodhisattva taking action personally. In the end, not only did he fail to change Sun Wukong's fate, but he almost lost his own life.

After meeting Guanyin Bodhisattva, Yang Zhen realized the true gap between himself and the world's top experts.

He was captured by Guanyin Bodhisattva in less than ten moves, even though he had used his full strength, he did not cause any harm to Guanyin Bodhisattva. In the battle of the gods, Guanyin Bodhisattva's cultivation and strength were not outstanding; there were many people more powerful than her. However, Guanyin Bodhisattva had good luck and did not end up on the list of the gods, while those with higher cultivation than her died in the battle of the gods.

Through this battle, Yang Zhen truly recognized his own strength and no longer blindly believed that having the 'Mall' and knowledge of history could change everything.

This time, upon returning to Fangcun Mountain, Yang Zhen decided to abide by the agreement with Patriarch Subhuti. As long as the lotus flower did not bloom, he would not leave Fangcun Mountain. As for the cause and effect with Guanyin Bodhisattva, Yang Zhen was determined to settle it sooner or later.

As for Sun Wukong, Yang Zhen no longer planned to intervene. Since there was no danger to his life, it was best to let things take their natural course when his strength was insufficient.

...

Peaceful cultivation always passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, another forty years had passed. During these forty years, Yang Zhen stayed on Fangcun Mountain to cultivate, only leaving the mountain to do good deeds for merit, and did not interact with anyone else.

In forty years, Yang Zhen's cultivation had improved by one level, reaching the second level of Taiyi True Immortal, and he was not far from the third level. Most importantly, Yang Zhen had purchased three skills, significantly enhancing his strength.

These three skills were "Five Elements Sealing," "Swallowing the Heavens and Earth," and "Illusory Sword." Unlike the skills of pets, which mostly increased attributes, and occasionally had active skills like "Heavy Strike," "Sweep," and "Deceptive Strike," which had little effect and merely increased attack power.

However, the skills used by characters were mostly active skills. In the game, these skills could be obtained through quests or purchased from the mall using 'Bound Yuanbao' and 'Yuanbao.' Although the skills in the mall could increase the gap between paying players and ordinary players, it was not an insurmountable gap.

The three skills Yang Zhen chose were all highly effective. Even when facing cultivators with higher cultivation than himself, they were not without effect.

"Five Elements Sealing," as the name suggests, uses the power of the five elements to seal the opponent's magic. Yang Zhen had once used it on a demon. Once "Five Elements Sealing" hits, it can prevent the opponent from using magic for a certain period of time, the duration of which depends on the opponent's cultivation.

"Swallowing the Heavens and Earth" is similar to Zhenyuan Great Immortal's "Sleeve of the Universe" technique, which can suck people into a different space, making it a very practical skill.

"Illusory Sword" is an attack skill. Once "Illusory Sword" is used, it can instantly create hundreds of flying swords, each tens of meters long, and attack the opponent simultaneously. The real sword is hidden among these hundreds of illusory swords, and the user can freely control the transformation between the real and illusory swords.

In other words, even if the opponent avoids all the illusory swords, as long as one sword hits the opponent, Yang Zhen can convert that sword's shadow into a real attack. If the opponent is hit by ten swords, Yang Zhen can convert the illusory swords that hit the opponent into real swords, causing the opponent to suffer ten attacks.

The "Illusory Sword" skill is such that only the swords that hit the opponent are real, while those that are avoided or blocked are illusory.

In short, it is a very practical skill.

After learning these three skills, Yang Zhen felt much better. After forty years of effort, he had upgraded "Swallowing the Heavens and Earth" to level 3, greatly enhancing the skill's power. Yang Zhen planned to upgrade all his skills to level 5 before learning new skills.

Since there were no cooldown restrictions, Yang Zhen could use these skills infinitely, so enhancing the power of the skills seemed more important than learning more skills.

One day, Yang Zhen was meditating in his room as usual when he suddenly noticed a green light shining in the courtyard. The light flickered, and there seemed to be a pink glow mixed in, looking very splendid.

When he came to the courtyard, Yang Zhen found it was night, with few stars in the sky, but the moon was full and bright, casting a silver glow on the ground, giving a feeling of "doubting it was frost on the ground."

In the pond, the lotus flower was emitting a green glow, and the top bud was slowly opening. The brilliant light in the darkness gave a sense of unreality, as if everything before his eyes was not in this space but appeared as a phantom that had crossed space.

"Finally, it's about to bloom!" Yang Zhen sighed.

"How many years have passed, you finally bloomed, so I can leave here." Looking at the scene before him, Yang Zhen said to himself, "The lotus blooming means that the matters in heaven are also coming to a close, right?"

"Boom!"

Looking up at the sky, he saw a huge fireball roaring down from the ninth heaven, heading toward Xiniu Jizhou.

With just one glance, Yang Zhen confirmed that the fireball was the Three Pure Fires. It seemed that Sun Wukong had escaped from the Eight-Trigram Furnace, learned the Fire-Eye Golden Vision, and was about to start the final battle in Heaven.