Chapter 86: Palm of a Hundred Thunderbolts, The Great Way of Bodhi Arrives

  "This time, I've obtained the Palms of Thunder, it's truly a divine method. From now on, I'll be more careful in my cultivation." Sun Yuan shook off his idle thoughts and refocused his mind on the technique. The first stage of the Palms of Thunder was to acquire the power of Purple Clouds, the second stage was to successfully attract a bolt of lightning, the third stage was to control a hundred bolts of lightning at the same time, the fourth stage was to control a thousand bolts of lightning, and the fifth stage was to control ten thousand bolts of lightning. Only then could this Palms of Thunder be considered slightly accomplished.

  The first four levels are called Ning Lei Xian, One Thunder Limit, Hundred Thunder Limit, and Thousand Thunder Limit. From the fifth level onwards, it becomes a realm. The fifth level is Wan Lei Jing, the sixth level is Bai Wan Lei Jing, the seventh level is Qian Wan Lei Jing, the eighth level is Yi Lei Jing, the ninth level is Tian Fa Zhi Bian, and the tenth level is Tian Fa Zhi Yan, which is also Da Cheng Jing.

  Lao Yanzi had narrowly escaped death for hundreds of years, and had only managed to cultivate the Palm Thunder to the limit of a thousand thunders. However, he no longer dared to practice it. Nevertheless, relying on this limit of a thousand thunders, Lao Yanzi was considered one of the top masters among the many disciples of Bodhi Old Ancestor.

  "Now try to condense the thunderbolt." Sun Yuan pondered in his heart, and at the same time, he pinched his fingers together, starting his formal cultivation movement.

  Two hours later, a bright lightning bolt descended from the sky and directly entered Sun Yuan's body through his Baihui acupoint. Sun Yuan's entire body violently convulsed, and a black gas spewed out of his mouth and nose. He suddenly became alert, opened his eyes, and struggled to resist the power of the lightning bolt. After a moment, his entire body was charred, and under the destructive force of the zigzagging lightning, the meridians in Sun Yuan's body had become a tangled mess.

  "This directly affects the internal thunder, compared to the external thunder, it is much harder to resist." Sun Yuan's mouth corner showed a wry smile, and he quickly operated his magic power to repair the meridians inside his body. During the process of attracting lightning, in order to avoid failure, Sun Yuan did not dare to urge his magic power at all, so as not to affect this process. As a result, all the power of thunder had to be withstood by his physical body alone.

  Having obtained a strand of Zi Yanzi's purple thunder and lightning seed, combined with his own hundreds of years of Yao Dan cultivation, Sun Yuan reached the limit of one thunder in just two hours. At this time, after undergoing a baptism of thunder and lightning, Sun Yuan was able to emit palm thunder, but every time he emitted palm thunder, his body would inevitably suffer some backlash force.

  This backlash, under the condition of one thunder limit, Sun Yuan relied on his own deep cultivation to bear it, but based on the current backlash he was bearing, Sun Yuan estimated that he could now only bear the backlash of a hundred thunder limits at most, and the thousand thunder limits were unbearable no matter what.

  "It seems that the Laborious Swallow is not exaggerating at all, and from now on, I must practice the Heaven-Cleaving Divine Palm well!" Having experienced the importance of this technique for his body, Sun Yuan's thoughts involuntarily turned to the Heaven-Cleaving Divine Palm. After practicing it several times, Sun Yuan found that this technique was very useful for refining his body, except for occasionally fainting, he didn't discover any side effects, so now he thought of the Heaven-Cleaving Divine Palm.

  After finishing his training, Sun Yuan finally got what he wanted, spitting out the annoying air in his heart, and stood up from the ground, grabbed the long stick by his side, and walked towards a nearby mountain valley.

  This Thunder Inducement Technique is indeed overbearing. Although Sun Yuan relied on his own deep foundation to break through the boundary of one thunderbolt in a short period, it also brought no small trouble to his body. Normally, it can't be seen, but if he rashly absorbs new thunder and lightning into his body again, these hidden ailments will erupt together.

  So, cultivating Palm Thunder requires a very long interval, and only when he has digested the power of this thunder can he start new cultivation.

  Since he had reached a certain limit in his cultivation of Palm Thunder, Sun Yuan naturally put it aside for the time being and picked up his staff to find Long Xuzi to compare notes on stick techniques. Although he would always be abused, each time his stick technique would show significant improvement, which was something that Sun Yuan was delighted to see.

  Sun Yuan obtained the methods of Palm Thunder and Heavenly Splitting Palm, practicing every day without stopping. In his free time, he would look for Monkey King and Dragon Beard to compare their skills, and each person gained something from it. When they were a bit tired, they would look for other fellow disciples to practice those meditation and divination techniques, as well as the ways of exorcising ghosts and refining demons.

  Every few days and months, Bodhi Laozu would ascend to the platform to expound the Dharma, combining his own cultivation experience. Sun Yuan was able to refine a demon pill with increasing ease.

  Thus, Sun Wukong practiced martial arts and cultivated his skills every day, also listening to the Taoist teachings and lectures on scriptures. He would also practice calligraphy, burn incense, sweep the floor, weed the garden, tend flowers and trees, gather firewood, fetch water, and play with the Monkey King in the mountain streams, and before he knew it, time had passed.

  On this day, on the highest peak of Fangcun Mountain, Wangyue Peak, Longxuzi had a solemn expression as he looked at his opponent, tightly gripping the long staff in his hand and assuming a defensive stance. A gentle breeze blew by, and from across the way came a soft hum, a black shadow suddenly pounced forward, and instantly a fierce whooshing sound echoed through the air, a dark afterimage, with a speed so swift it seemed to precede the sound of thunder, swept towards Longxuzi's waist.

  "Come on!" Long Xuzi shouted, his unkempt beard rising high. He spun around, holding the long pole and making a swift turn, using the "Linglong Pancha" stance. His body suddenly darted forward, dodging the pole shadow in mid-air, while his own pole pointed straight at the opponent's throat.

  "Haha, you've been fooled again!" Just as Long Xuzi was secretly pleased with his own move, a voice suddenly came from the black shadow in front of him.

  Long Xuzi's face suddenly changed, and he shouted "Not good!" He threw away the long stick in his hand and jumped up with a fish leap. His reaction was extremely swift, but it was still a bit late.

  A flash of light suddenly tore through the evening fog, appearing in a zigzag shape between heaven and earth. It immediately followed along the long pole in mid-air, winding its way up, and struck down at Longxuzi's body with lightning speed. In that instant, Longxuzi's entire person was frozen stiff on the spot. After a long time, a faint wisp of black smoke emerged from his mouth.

  "I'm telling you, Monkey King, what's the point of this? This move won't do your staff technique any good." Long Xuzi looked disheveled and scratched his scorched clothes, shouting with a sullen face "Stop it, stop it! This laborious sparrow is really something, why bother teaching you Palm Thunder, it's simply unreasonable."

  "After two hundred rounds, my senior brother still wouldn't give in, so I had to resort to some tricks." Seeing that Long Xuzi didn't have the desire to continue fighting, the person opposite him suddenly jumped out, and it was exactly Sun Yuan.

  "Hmph! I may not be able to beat you in close combat, but can't I even have the advantage with this long-range weapon?" Long Xuzi's face was gloomy as he walked a few steps to a huge boulder beside him and said, "You two monkeys are really annoying. One is incredibly fierce in close combat, while the other is naturally talented with a staff. It's a pity if you don't go out and conquer the world."

  "Isn't this a good opportunity for Brother Sun to teach me?" Sun Yuan took a step forward and sat down on the rock, chuckling, "My Palm Thunder has just reached the limit of 100 thunders, I wonder if Brother can grant me the favor of letting me try it out on you, to see how powerful it really is?"

  "Never mind! You'd better go find Labor Yanzi to try and recruit him!" Long Xuzi's eyes bulged, looking at the charred fur on his hands, and bitterly said "You still think I'm not miserable enough, now I don't even need to groom my whiskers anymore!"

  "However, young one, how's your Heavenly Splitting Palm coming along? I'll tell you, don't look at that Stone Monkey being naturally talented in staff techniques, and don't look at the Thunderous Palm seeming to be very powerful, but all these are no match for the Heavenly Splitting Palm. You mustn't waste your innate talent in the Heavenly Splitting Palm." Dragon Beard said seriously to Sun Yuan after catching his breath.

  "I get it, can't you change the subject?" Sun Yuan rolled his eyes and put on a "whatever" expression. "If you don't believe me, we can have a palm-to-palm test to see whose Split Heaven Palm is more powerful."

  "Never mind!" Long Xuzi started to look eager, then thought for a moment and fell silent, saying "Let's keep some mystery! Although I'm definitely much stronger than you, it's not that I'm afraid of losing, but what if I have bad luck and lose a move or two? Wouldn't that be a great loss of face?"

  "I knew you'd say that!" Sun Yuan had a speechless expression, and it had been six or seven years since they became apprentices on Lingtai Fangcun Mountain. During this time, not only did Sun Wukong undergo earth-shattering changes, but Sun Yuan himself also gained a lot.

  In the seven years, Sun Yuan learned all the miscellaneous studies of his fellow disciples in the mountain, although it can't be said that he was proficient in everything, but it can also be said that he had a wide range of knowledge and skills. Among these various techniques and methods, Sun Yuan's greatest efforts were on Palm Thunder, Heaven Splitting Divine Palm and Staff Techniques.

  Due to the unyielding divine soul's destructive power, Sun Yuan's cultivation of the Heaven-Cleaving Divine Palm can be said to be extremely rapid. In just a few short years, Sun Yuan had already completed the foundation-building stage of the Heaven-Cleaving Divine Palm, and his demonic body was more than ten times stronger than before.

  Benefiting from this, Sun Yuan's cultivation of Palm Thunder also made rapid progress. With his robust body and profound magical powers, within a short span of several years, Sun Yuan repeatedly risked his life to venture into the heart of thunderstorms, using the power of the storms to cultivate Palm Thunder. Finally, his efforts paid off, and just a few days ago, he officially entered the realm of Hundred Thunders. However, at this point, his Palm Thunder had already reached a certain limit; unless his demonic body became even stronger, he would never dare continue cultivating Palm Thunder voluntarily.

  In the seven years, Sun Wukong saw Sun Wukong's talent in stick method. At this time, Sun Wukong swung a pair of sticks, and even Long Shu Zi was not his opponent. Often, the three-person stick fight was Long Shu Zi and Sun Yuan joining hands to confront the mischievous Monkey King.

  Although Sun Wukong's stick method is slightly inferior to Baozhu, Sun Yuan's stick method has also made rapid progress. Now he is no longer the "stick method idiot" in Long Xuzi's mouth at that time. Now, even if he faces Long Xuzi alone, he can still hold his own within a few hundred moves. Even when facing Meihouwang alone, he only slightly falls short.

  "I knew you'd say that, are you afraid of my terrifying demonic body?" Sun Yuan flexed his arm, revealing his solid muscle mass, and chuckled.

  "I'm scared, what a joke! Alright, the time for the ancestor's lecture is almost here, I need to go wash up, or else I'll bump into the ancestor and my sin will be even greater." Long Xuzi's face suddenly turned bright red, and he immediately jumped up, shouted two sentences, and left the mountain top in big strides.

  "Split Heaven Palm, Split Heaven Palm? What a Split Heaven Palm! With one move, it's either death or injury! This technique is a great harm to the harmony of heaven!" Sun Yuan gazed at the gradually disappearing figure of Long Xuzi, his eyes narrowing into a line, and muttered.

  He immediately propped his hands on the ground and jumped down from the top of the mountain. It seemed that it was the most important moment in Sun Wukong's life, and it could be said that Sun Yuanzhi insisted on becoming a disciple of Bodhi just for this moment, which was when Bodhi would impart the Taoist teachings to Sun Wukong, the moment he would obtain the Golden Elixir Great Way.

  It is indeed "difficult, difficult, difficult! The Tao is most mysterious, don't take the Golden Elixir lightly. Without meeting a superior person to transmit the wonderful key, empty words will get your tongue stuck and dry!" Sun Yuan knew that in this Western Journey world, the most important thing was this set of Golden Elixir Great Way Key. Without this set of keys, even if you have great magical powers, it's like water without a source or a tree without roots, and you won't be able to last long.

  Although the world of Journey to the West is not a world that values its own treasures, those who control this set of skills are also not ordinary people. They belong to the legendary great masters and will not easily pass on this set of skills, especially the Golden Elixir Skill passed down by Bodhi Patriarch. As the saying goes, "snatching the creation of heaven and earth" and "invading the mysteries of the sun and moon", the difference between becoming an immortal with this skill and becoming an immortal through other means is as clear-cut as the difference between proving one's way through power and proving one's way through merit.

  So from then on, Sun Wukong's heart was tied to this place since he took refuge in the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits.