Chapter 94: Cold Pool Breakthrough, Two Monkeys Display Divine Ability

  Zi Xia called Lao Yan Zi, and the two of them thought that the reason was in the water of the Extremely Cold Pond. Under his wife's orders, Lao Yan Zi had to hurry over early in the morning with his refined green calabaza gourd to fetch the water from the Extremely Cold Pond.

  Just as Labor Yanzi was about to throw the gourd into the water, he suddenly stopped. His eyes scanned the surrounding area and saw something floating by not far away. Labor Yanzi's heart skipped a beat - what was that thing that looked so much like a person?!

  The swallow hastily looked over and, as expected, not far from him, a yellowish thing was floating in the water. He quickly walked a few steps forward and took a closer look, only to see a furry creature bobbing up and down with the ripples of the pond, but it was a living being. Half of its body was lying on the shore, while the other half was submerged in the pond water.

  At this sight, Labor Yanzi didn't care about the green gourd anymore. He hastily lowered his body and took a closer look, suddenly exclaiming, "Junior Brother Sun Yuan? How did you end up here?"

  Seeing Sun Yuan's eyes tightly closed, his whole body was wrapped in the ice sculpture. Labor Yanzi suddenly understood the situation and waved his hand, a strong gust of wind swept over, lifting Sun Yuan out of the water and placing him flat on the grass beside him.

  After dispelling the floating ice around Sun Yuan's body with his technique, Lao Yanzi reached out to feel and found that there was still a hint of warmth on Sun Yuan's forehead. He couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, saying "It's okay, it's okay, there's still some warmth."

  At this time, the sun rose, and the sunlight shone into the valley, dispelling a hint of chill. The laborious swallow picked up Sun Yuan and leaned him against a tree, pinched his fingers together, and shot out a golden light that hit Sun Yuan's forehead. After a moment, Sun Yuan spat out a mouthful of water and regained consciousness.

  "Am I dead? Where am I?" Sun Yuan slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself already out of the icy pool. He muttered to himself, and his desperate move had paid off. At the critical moment, he had borrowed a burst of momentum to pass through this difficult hurdle, successfully transforming into a small fish that delighted in cold air.

  But Sun Yuan obviously underestimated the backlash of the 72 transformations. The transformation of living spirits requires kneading the divine soul, and with the divine soul reflecting the physical body, so the backlash is much greater than that of turning into stone or the like. This backlash came when he was still transforming, and as a fish, how could Sun Yuan bear such a backlash? He would immediately face death.

  At the critical moment, Sun Yuan controlled the new body and plunged out, then restored his water ape form, but was stimulated by the pool water and fainted. Now it seems that he has rushed out of the central pool and floated out with the current.

  "Hey, you're awake! Great physique." Labor Yanzi picked up his own green calabash from the edge of the pond and turned around to see that Sun Yuan had regained consciousness, staring blankly at the sky.

  "Brother Lao! What's this?" Seeing Labor Swallow appear before him, and combining it with his current situation, Sun Yuan's heart moved, and he suddenly understood that it must be Brother Labor Swallow who lent a hand!

  "Hey, I came to fetch water early in the morning and found you frozen into an ice ball, leaning against the shore." Labor Yanzi pointed at the gourd and then at a patch of wet grass not far away from the shore, saying "So, I pulled you up with ease. I said, are you out of your mind? How did you end up in this extremely cold pond? Are you really courting death?"

  Sun Yuan let out a bitter laugh, just about to respond, when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest, his throat turned sweet, and a mouthful of fresh blood gushed out. For a moment, his body felt like it was being pricked by needles, the pain was unbearable, and his face instantly turned as white as paper.

  Forcing himself to suppress his injuries with his martial arts skills, Sun Yuan smiled wryly at the concerned-looking Lao Yanzi and said, "This matter is hard to explain in one sentence. For now, my injuries are too severe, so I won't explain it to Shifu. We'll talk about it another time!" As he spoke, Sun Yuan coughed up several mouthfuls of blood again, startling Lao Yanzi into saying, "I understand! You should go back and treat your wounds immediately. We can discuss this later."

  Sun Yuan nodded, and with a wave of his hand, a gust of eerie wind swept back into the cave, and he began to treat his wounds. The injuries he had sustained last night were originally suppressed by the cold energy, so they hadn't fully erupted yet. Now that the cold energy was dispelled, it naturally burst out, and he had no choice but to suppress it with all his might. Otherwise, there would be a calamity of annihilation. Fortunately, Sun Yuan's foundation was deep, and his spirit and soul were as hard as steel, so he managed to withstand this counterattack.

  After a long time, Sun Yuan Zhang spat out a stream of green air, and his tightly closed eyes reopened. He had completed this suppression, but the backlash hadn't been completely eliminated by him. Perhaps it was because he had cultivated another major transformation. Sun Yuan always felt that every time he used a transformation, this backlash would erupt, and now he had only suppressed this force without clearing it away.

  Sun Yuan's feeling was actually not wrong, the reason why these seventy-two changes have such strict requirements for the demon body is precisely this. As the cultivation of this divine ability deepens, the counter-attack force will only become stronger and stronger. Except for those with special physical qualities, others can only move forward on a single path. If there is any pause on the way forward, they will be destroyed.

  Sun Yuan should actually feel lucky. If his soul wasn't so extremely perverted, he would be suffering from more than just physical backlash by now.

  No matter what, Sun Yuan has survived this change crisis and successfully changed two major categories. The 72 changes are quite accomplished, and from then on, Sun Yuan did not dare to try other changes easily. He put all his time into practicing the Heavenly God Palm, which made Long Xuzi look very relieved.

  Days passed day by day, after the seventy-two changes, the two monkeys became well-behaved and devoted themselves to their cultivation, looking forward to the day when they would achieve success. During this period, Bodhi Patriarch occasionally came out to preach, explaining some difficult problems in cultivation, but the frequency of his preaching gradually decreased.

  Every time at this moment, everyone gathers together to think about their own path and after the lecture is over, it's time for everyone to have fun together, usually they don't have many opportunities to gather together.

  On this day, Bodhi finished his lecture, and Sun Yuan, Monkey King, Labor Yanzi, Purple Clouds, and Dragon Beard sat on the ground at the foot of the mountain, chatting about the strange encounters everyone had during this period.

  At that moment, Sun Yuan's expression suddenly changed, and a thread of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. He immediately swallowed it back, but the counter-attack force had started to take effect again.

  "Little monkey, are you okay?" Zixia asked with concern, having noticed Sun Yuan's abnormality at a glance. Although she knew that the monkey was trying to get Palm Thunder, Zixia still felt grateful towards him. Earlier, through Labor Yanzi's hands, Zixia had passed on her unique skill, Small Mustache Mysterious Steps, to Sun Yuan, which made her feel slightly more at ease. She was a kind-hearted girl after all.

  After hearing Zixia's words, everyone discovered Sun Yuan's abnormality and cast concerned glances at him. Facing the inquiring eyes of the crowd, Sun Yuan suppressed his counterattack force and said nonchalantly, "It's just some old injuries, I'll be fine after a good rest. Speaking of which, I should thank Zixia Shifu for her Small Whirlwind Step, otherwise my injury wouldn't have recovered so quickly."

  "Hehe, it's fine as long as nothing's wrong." Zixia saw that Sun Yuan's face had regained its color, and she smiled slightly, saying "You little monkey are indeed eloquent. That little Mustard Seed Step is worthless, don't be fooled by the nice-sounding name, in reality it's utterly useless, and when it comes to cultivating the body, it's not of much use at all. Your words were false!"

  "Xiao Xu Mi's reputation is so great, how can it be that he is useless?" Seeing Sun Yuan had nothing to do with him, Long Xu Zi put down his heart and asked curiously, while Sun Wukong and Lao Yan Zi also looked at Zixia in confusion.

  "The Xiao Xu Mi's mysterious steps are indeed a big name, but unfortunately it is only a basic step method." Seeing the crowd showing curiosity, Purple Cloud smiled slightly and said, "It is said that there is a great divine technique in the world, which is based on the Xiao Xu Mi's mysterious steps. This great divine technique is called 'shrinking the earth to an inch', as in shrinking the earth to an inch, the ends of the earth are like neighbors, it's this principle."

  At this time, the ancestor had not left yet and was still playing with the late scenery in a place not far from everyone. After Zi Xia finished speaking, the ancestor seemed to have realized something and looked over here for a moment before walking up with his long sleeves fluttering.

  Everyone hastily stood up to pay their respects. The ancestor slightly nodded his head, looked at Sun Yuan and Sun Wukong, the two monkeys, and said in a loud voice: "How have you two been practicing recently? Do you have any divine powers by your side?"

  Sun Wukong jumped out, went forward and bowed his head saying "I report to the Master, thanks for the Master's great kindness, teaching me the way to heaven, recently I have completed my cultivation, I can already ride on clouds and fly up, galloping in mid-air, roaming freely between heaven and earth!"

  The venerable master nodded slightly, looked at Sun Yuan, and a strange color flashed in his eyes. He didn't expect this little monkey to actually withstand the backlash of the first major transformation. Bodhi shook his head imperceptibly, and in his heart, he had already sentenced Sun Yuan to death. To know that this backlash would only get stronger, occurring once every period of time, from ancient times to the present, no one who forcibly cultivated the 72 transformations had ever survived. Bodhi believed that Sun Yuan naturally didn't have the endurance either.

  "Can this monkey soar through the clouds and ride the mist?" The Ancestor asked Sun Wukong, bowing his head.

  "The disciple has also cultivated some magical powers and is slightly skilled in the art of cloud soaring." Facing Bodhi's inquiry, Sun Yuan, who had already thought about it in his heart, stepped forward and bowed.

  "Alright! You two go ahead and show off, I'll be the judge along with your fellow disciples." The old ancestor of Bodhi flicked his sleeve and a lotus platform suddenly appeared on the ground. After he sat down calmly, he waved his hand to signal the two monkeys to start quickly.

  The Monkey King exercised his magical powers, and with a sudden movement of his body, he muttered an incantation in his mind, performed a series of rapid somersaults, and leaped into the air to a height of five or six hundred feet. A bank of cloud and mist instantly appeared beneath his feet. The Monkey King recited a spell, and at once the clouds began to move, drifting away towards the distance.

  Seeing this, Sun Yuan was not willing to fall behind. He was more elegant than Sun Wukong. Sun Yuan recited an incantation, stretched out his right hand, and extended two fingers in a scissor-like shape. With a loud shout of "Rise!", the clouds around him rose, and a white cloud appeared under his feet, carrying his body slowly upwards, stopping at a height of about five or six meters. Then he shot towards Sun Wukong's direction.