Chapter 28: The Far North Ice Plains

  When the sky was slightly bright, Sun Wukong stopped his footsteps. After looking around, he found a low-lying mountain valley and sat down cross-legged to recover the spiritual energy consumed that night. Originally, if it were normal, Sun Wukong's one somersault would have covered 108,000 miles, but in this extreme northern ice field, he had only traveled about 300 miles in one night. It was simply heaven and earth apart, but with just this 300-mile journey, Sun Wukong could be proud of himself. If it were other ordinary saints, they might already have reached their limit at a hundred miles. Those who did not have the power to reach the realm of the saints probably couldn't even take one step out.

  Unfortunately, even with the strength of Sun Wukong and a body comparable to that of an ancient witch doctor, he couldn't withstand this extremely cold body. In just one night, his spiritual energy had been depleted by more than half. He had no choice but to sit in place, otherwise he would likely be frozen into an ice block soon. Moreover, the extreme north ice field was exceptionally treacherous, and this extremely cold environment was only one of its many dangers.

  The more dangerous ones are the occasional snow dragon rolls and the herds of ice plain demons, which are species between beasts and demons. They have low intelligence, only knowing how to roam around and hunt for prey. But if you underestimate them because of their low intelligence, then you're done for. It's precisely because they have such low intelligence that they're all extremely ferocious and fearless, completely unaware of what fear is. What's more important is that the strength of these demons is at least at the level of a Heavenly Immortal, so think about it, in an environment where every step is treacherous, being surrounded by a group of fearless Heavenly-level demons, how terrifying would that be?

  So, when walking on the ice plain, the most important thing is to absolutely not exhaust one's spiritual energy, and at least keep three tenths of it in reserve in case of unexpected events. Therefore, although Sun Wukong still had some spare energy, he didn't dare to be overconfident. Moreover, here in this icy and snowy land, apart from water and ice elements, other elements were extremely thin, so Sun Wukong was even more unwilling to take risks. Even the million Buddha soldiers couldn't hold him back, but if he lost his life due to temporary arrogance on this extreme northern ice plain, that would be absolutely unacceptable for Sun Wukong.

  Three quarters of an hour later, Sun Wukong stood up. Although he had not recovered to his peak state, he had also recovered about 90% of his spiritual power. From now on, as long as he didn't use the ultimate move that consumed a lot of spiritual power, and walked slowly, he should be able to hold on until sunset. This icy tundra was really too terrible, staying one more minute would only increase countless dangers.

  Step by step, with the spiritual energy shield on top, Sun Wukong moved forward slowly. At the same time, his fiery eyes and golden pupils were opened to their limits, otherwise, after walking on the ice field for a long time, his eyes would form snow blindness, and if there were any monsters or beasts around, he might not be able to detect them. When he first stepped onto the ice field last night, Sun Wukong found that his spiritual awareness was suppressed to its lowest level, and he could only probe within a radius of 100 meters. Any further away, and he couldn't sense anything. For someone like Sun Wukong, 100 meters was almost as close as an inch. So, Sun Wukong simply shut down his spiritual awareness and relied on his eyesight and hearing to explore. This way, the use of his fiery eyes and golden pupils was greatly enhanced.

  With his fiery eyes and golden gaze, Sun Wukong had successfully evaded two groups of demonic beasts. One group consisted of about fifty snow-white wolves with the highest strength reaching the peak of Golden Immortal and the lowest being Lower Heavenly Immortal. Normally, this group of wolves wouldn't even be worth a swing of the Golden Hoop Staff. Unfortunately, Sun Wukong had to take a detour here. Although he wasn't afraid, once a battle started, it would likely consume a huge amount of spiritual energy and might attract nearby demonic beast groups. Sun Wukong's goal this time was to find the Ice Clan and ask about the Water System Divine Stone, not to engage in a large-scale battle with demonic beasts.

  Thinking of this, although there was a hint of reluctance in his heart, Sun Wukong still chose to take a detour. Very soon, Sun Wukong discovered that his decision was incredibly wise. Because he had only traveled less than thirty miles when he came across a group of ice and snow leopards. This group of ice and snow leopards all possessed the strength of Daluo Jinxian, and the leader was already a half-emperor level demon beast.

  At that moment, Sun Wukong was secretly rejoicing in his heart. If he had just been slightly impulsive and fought the demon wolf, the aura of battle and the smell of blood would have definitely attracted this group of snow leopards. At that time, it's likely that things would have really turned out for the worse. In this accursed place, he could at most exert only 50% of his true strength. Unless he transformed into a giant ape like last time when he fought against the Buddha of Light and Freedom, but as soon as he thought about the terrifying aftereffects, Sun Wukong's heart suddenly turned cold, all his thoughts disappeared, and he carefully skirted around the group of snow leopards, proceeding cautiously.

  It was because on that day, Sun Wukong transformed into a giant ape due to his rage, and for some reason, he inadvertently activated the Golden Essence Divine Stone within his body. Suddenly, a vast and unstoppable surge of golden energy burst forth. One part flowed through his meridians, nourishing his muscles and bones, while another part seeped out from his pores, merging with his skin and hair. This was why Sun Wukong possessed such terrifying speed and strength, as well as astonishing defensive capabilities. A sacred artifact that had been refined by a superior saint's life force was crushed to pieces in his hand. His physical power was simply unimaginable. Even the Buddha himself didn't have time to react before his skull was shattered into fragments.

  However, the world is balanced. Although the golden spiritual power initially gave Sun Wukong terrifying attack and defense capabilities, he soon realized that something was wrong. The power reached a peak, and then Sun Wukong's body began to rapidly disintegrate. Just after Sun Wukong smashed Guangming Zi Zai Fo into minced meat, his arm muscles snapped, followed by his tendons, and finally even his bones cracked open.

  So in the end, Sun Wukong only glanced at the Buddhas and didn't even have time to slaughter them before hastily flying away, because he didn't know if his body would suddenly shatter into dust under the might of the Buddhist crowd. When Sun Wukong barely made it back to the Cave of Silken Threads, he quickly transformed back into his true form, at which point the internal splitting force finally stopped, but it was too late. By this time, Sun Wukong had already been severely injured and was on the verge of death.

  At the critical moment, the golden divine stone in his body quietly emitted a soft golden light, protecting Sun Wukong's heart and preventing him from dying.

  Now thinking about it, Sun Wukong was just a little scared afterwards. That power was extremely strong, but his physical body seemed too weak to bear that power. But that was just the power of one divine stone, and Sun Wukong couldn't even control it, let alone merge with it.

  But this is still far from enough, Sun Wukong also wants to find the three divine stones of water, wood and fire systems and merge them into his body. But relying on his current physical body, it's obvious that he would be seeking his own destruction. If he doesn't think of a way to strengthen his physical body, even if he can find the remaining divine stones, he won't be able to fuse with them and they will be useless.

  This time, on the expedition to the extreme north ice field, Sun Wukong did not have the idea of exercising his physical body. In such a harsh environment, walking and relying on spiritual power to maintain body temperature, only when he really couldn't hold on would he use spiritual power to cover his whole body, so as not to let his body freeze stiff. If this time he can persist until he walks out of the ice field, his physical body will definitely become much stronger.

  As he pondered while walking, suddenly, a extremely cold killing intent directly locked onto Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong instantly felt a chill and then immediately entered a state of combat readiness. This killing intent was so strong that it seemed almost tangible. It could be inferred that the owner of this killing intent had an absolutely formidable power. It's very likely to be at the Emperor level, and even among the Emperors, it's probably mid-tier.

  Just as Sun Wukong was about to open his fiery eyes and search everywhere, a cold breath came from behind him. In the next instant, a huge snow-white tail suddenly appeared out of thin air. Sun Wukong quickly turned around, his right arm flexing, muscles rapidly bulging. His entire right arm became extremely thick, contrasting strongly with his left hand. Then, his right hand grasping the golden hoop staff swung around fiercely, making a "clang" sound, like the collision of metal and iron that shook one's ears. Sun Wukong only felt the golden hoop staff in his right hand trembling violently, and when he looked again, the huge tail had already deviated.

  Just as Sun Wukong was about to let out a sigh of relief, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back. He slightly turned his head and was shocked to find that it was a huge python. The python had just attacked him with its tail, and at the moment he turned around, it suddenly poked out its bloody mouth. This python was incredibly intelligent.

  However, Sun Wukong was shocked but not panicked. Although his current strength was only three or four tenths of his peak period, he was not something that this low-ranking emperor-level demon beast could hurt, even in such extremely bad conditions.

  Just as the giant python's huge mouth was about to swallow Sun Wukong, a red light suddenly flew out from behind Sun Wukong's back and wrapped the python into a rice dumpling after a few flashes.

  "Hun Tian Yun, tight." In an instant, the red light of Hun Tian Yun became even more intense and directly severed the seven-inch-long body of the Emperor-level Mid-grade Frost Python, killing it instantly.

  "Hmph, a mere giant snake dares to try and swallow old Sun? How ridiculous. But you've come at just the right time. Old Sun has been traveling for a day and night and is starving, so I'll use you to fill my belly."

  After finishing, he quickly peeled off the snake skin and found a windy spot. With a flick of his hands, a transparent small flower appeared. Then Sun Wukong waved his hand, and the flower fell to a position one foot above the ground, and began to burn fiercely. However, what was burning was only ordinary Samadhi True Fire. But this was enough, because Sun Wukong summoned the Void Degree Flower just to roast the snake meat. If Tang Sanzang knew about it, he would definitely recite the Tightening Spell ten times.

  While roasting the snake meat, Sun Wukong played with a snow-white pearl. This pearl was actually the snake pearl of this giant python. As is well known, snakes, pythons, water serpents and turtles can easily produce pearls. Ordinary demon beasts or monsters only have internal elixirs. Internal elixirs are also precious treasures, especially those above the Mahayana Golden Immortal are extremely precious. However, internal pearls are even more precious a hundred times over.

  No exception, because the inner pearl has the ability to strengthen the body. Among the immortals, unless it is a kind of physical repair, otherwise they are all physically weak and spiritually strong. So this inner pearl that can enhance physical strength became priceless treasure.

  "Just in time, I'm about to temper my flesh, and you're delivering a spiritual core. Hehe, this is truly like sending charcoal in the snow."