Chapter 625
Eliminating future troubles completely!
Jiang Wang raised his hand and summoned the Dragon Spear, which flew out of the Ice Law Small World and landed steadily in his hand.
He gripped the gun handle, feeling a cool and heavy sensation. The spear's body was smooth as jade, with lifelike dragon scale patterns. Over 100,000 runes flowed endlessly across the spear, emitting a faint golden light.
He carefully sensed the grade of the dragon spear, but his brows furrowed slightly.
The initial grade of this dragon spear was actually only a post-natal supreme treasure.
Although acquired treasures are extremely rare, far surpassing ordinary innate spiritual treasures, with his current configuration, he should have been able to reach an even higher level.
He instantly understood the reason—the spear blank was previously forged by his clone. At that time, the clone had not yet mastered the Primordial-level Ao Iron Forging Technique, and the upper limit of the spear blank's origin was limited. Even if he later used the Primordial-level Forging Technique to forge, imprint, and quench it, it would be difficult to completely break through the constraints of the spear blank itself.
"Pity."
Jiang Wang sighed softly, a trace of regret welling up in his heart.
If this spearhead had been forged by him personally from the beginning, relying on the Primordial-level Ao Iron forging technique and the "Soul of Treasure Refining,"
Talent doesn't necessarily preclude one from pursuing the innate treasure.
He shook his head, then a resolute glint flashed in his eyes, the "Soul of Treasure Refining" within him...
His talent was instantly activated.
A mysterious power surged from the depths of his soul, flowing through his arm into the dragon spear.
As if summoned by some force, the dragon spear trembled violently, and the runes on its body shone brightly, its aura as an acquired treasure rapidly increasing.
The surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth converged wildly towards the dragon spear, stirring up the clouds in the hidden realm.
A quarter of an hour later, the tremors of the dragon spear gradually subsided, and an aura that was far more powerful and pure than before emanated from the dragon spear.
Jiang Wang sensed it again, and a look of satisfaction appeared in his eyes—this dragon spear had successfully advanced to a primordial spiritual treasure, and a very high-quality one at that, only one step away from becoming a top-grade primordial spiritual treasure.
Although he ultimately missed out on the innate treasure, Jiang Wang quickly came to terms with it.
He thought of the Ancestral Dragon Abyss, where there were endless dragon materials, including golden dragons, purple-gold divine dragons, and even rarer ancestral dragon scales, blood, and tendons.
Given enough materials, he could refine it from scratch, and he would surely be able to create a truly top-grade innate spiritual treasure, or even an innate supreme treasure.
He glanced at the innate spiritual treasure, the Dragon Spear, in his hand, and with a thought, he put it into the virtual interface of the Hongmeng Exchange Platform.
Instantly, a notification sounded in his mind: "Innate spiritual treasure Dragon Spear detected. Meets the exchange criteria. Can be exchanged for 20 million experience points."
Jiang Wang chose to exchange without hesitation. Twenty million experience points were instantly credited to his account. Although his cultivation level did not break through immediately, the magic power in his body became more abundant, and his soul also received some nourishment.
After dealing with the dragon spear, Jiang Wang did not rest, but instead went to the five thousand unfinished dragon spears again.
Now that we have mastered the process, the next step is to mass-produce the products.
He raised his hand and waved, and dozens of semi-finished dragon spears flew into the Eight Trigrams Furnace at the same time. The Dao Fire surged again, and the forging process started again.
This time, his movements were more skillful and his control of his mind was more precise. Although batch refining consumed more mental energy and mana, it was the most efficient way for him.
Inside the cave, the sounds of burning Dao fire, the humming of engraved runes, and the quenching sounds of the small world of the Ice Law intertwined, forming a unique refining symphony.
Jiang Wang was so engrossed in the process of refining the weapon that everything outside seemed to isolate him. His eyes were only on the dragon spears that were being continuously forged, engraved, and quenched, and he had only one thought in his mind—to refine all of these dragon spears into innate spiritual treasures.
Meanwhile, far away in the underworld, in the City of the Wrongfully Dead, a completely different scene unfolded.
The City of the Wrongfully Dead, as its name suggests, is a place that houses the souls of those who died unjustly. Here, the wind blows incessantly, and the sounds of ghosts wailing and howling are never-ending. The air is filled with a thick aura of death and resentment. Ordinary ghosts that stay here for too long will gradually be corrupted by the resentment and become mad and violent.
However, in a secluded courtyard in the City of the Wrongfully Dead, there was an unusual atmosphere.
The courtyard was small, and it was surrounded by an invisible barrier that kept out the eerie winds and ghostly wails from the outside world.
Inside the courtyard, in a simple wooden hut, Tang Sanzang lay on the bed, his face as pale as paper. His once handsome face was now filled with pain and exhaustion, his brows were tightly furrowed, his forehead was covered with cold sweat, and he occasionally let out suppressed groans.
His abdomen was swollen high, like a woman in her tenth month of pregnancy, and it was rising and falling rhythmically. Each rise and fall was accompanied by a sharp pain, causing his whole body to convulse and almost making him faint.
These contractions had been going on for three days, each one more intense than the last, as if something was about to burst out of his abdomen.
Tang Sanzang had been a wandering ghost in the City of the Wrongfully Dead for thirty years.
Thirty years ago, he was a high-ranking Tang Dynasty monk on his pilgrimage to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures. He was full of piety and only wanted to obtain the true scriptures to save all sentient beings.
But he never imagined he would encounter such an absurd and bizarre situation: he had been impregnated and was unable to have an abortion, forced to watch helplessly as the "thing" inside his womb grew.
Growing up day by day.
He has suffered greatly over the past thirty years.
As a ghost, one cannot eat and live like an ordinary person, and must also endure the endless pain and torment brought by the fetus in the womb.
What he found even more unbearable was the humiliation and torment he felt inside.
He was a monk who valued purity and abstinence from sex and meat, yet now he was pregnant as a ghost, which was the greatest mockery of his lifelong faith.
Four women surrounded the bed in the wooden cabin. They were dressed differently, some in coarse cloth dresses and others in gorgeous brocade. They were all beautiful, but their eyes held a strange expectation.
One of the women was tall with dark skin and calloused hands. She had a sharp butcher knife at her waist, and the blade still smelled faintly of blood.
She was the descendant of a family of pig butchers, surnamed Wang, and everyone called her Butcher Wang.
At this moment, Butcher Wang was stroking the pig-slaughtering knife in his hand, his eyes fixed on Tang Sanzang's bulging belly, a cold smile on his lips: "Elder Tang, the thirty-year period has come to an end, and this child should be born soon."
"Don't worry, my Wang family's pig-slaughtering skills are ancestral. One cut, and it'll be clean and quick, without you suffering a single bit of pain."
Tang Sanzang heard "slaughtering a pig"
At those two words, his face grew even paler, his eyes filled with fear and resistance. He weakly shook his head and said in a hoarse voice, "No...no...I am a monk...how...how can this be..." A woman in a brocade dress stepped forward and wiped the cold sweat from Tang Sanzang's forehead. Her voice was soft and charming, yet carried an undeniable authority: "Elder, what are you still struggling for now? Thirty years ago, you promised us that once the child was born, it would be with us sisters, sharing wealth and glory."
You can't go back on your word.
"I...I didn't..."
Tang Sanzang wanted to explain, but the intense pain in his abdomen prevented him from uttering a complete sentence; he could only groan in pain.
He vaguely remembered that thirty years ago, after he was implanted with a fetus, he was in great pain. These women came from nowhere and took great care of him, but they also often whispered in his ear, asking him to promise to be with them after giving birth.
At that time, he was so tormented by pain that he was delirious. Perhaps he just made a casual promise, but he never expected that they would remember it.
Another woman dressed in coarse cloth also spoke up: "Elder, we sisters have taken care of you for thirty years, serving you tea and water, and protecting you from the evil spirits of the City of the Wrongfully Dead. We have done more than enough."
Now that the baby is due, you can't turn your back on me.
Wang the butcher weighed the pig-slaughtering knife in her hand, the blade gleaming coldly. She took a step forward, approaching the bedside, and said with icy eyes, "Elder Tang, don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit."
This child must be born today. If you cooperate obediently, I can spare you some suffering. But if you dare to resist again, don't blame me for being merciless!
Tang Sanzang looked at the butcher's knife in Wang's hand and felt the increasingly intense pain in his abdomen, his heart filled with despair.
He never imagined that his lifelong pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment would end in such a way, being forced to "deliver" children as a ghost and being forced to be with these strange women.
Just then, a loud bang came from outside the courtyard, "Boom!"
With a loud bang, the invisible barrier that enveloped the courtyard shattered instantly.
A powerful and familiar aura swept over, causing the four women in the room to change their expressions drastically and instinctively take a few steps back.
The door to the cabin was flung open with tremendous force, and a golden light flashed in, landing beside the bed.
The newcomer was dressed in golden chainmail, wore a phoenix-winged purple-gold crown, and held a Ruyi Jingu Bang (a magical staff). He was none other than Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who had wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace five hundred years ago.
His eyes were sharp as an eagle's as he scanned the room. When he saw Tang Sanzang lying on the bed, pale-faced and with a swollen belly, his eyes were filled with shock and confusion.
"Master?"
Sun Wukong's voice was filled with disbelief. He never imagined that the master he had been searching for for thirty years would turn out like this.
Especially upon seeing Tang Sanzang's bulging belly, and the butcher Wang holding a pig-slaughtering knife and three other women by the bedside, Sun Wukong's face instantly darkened, and his murderous aura surged dramatically.
"Who are you? How dare you plot against my master!"
Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang instantly grew larger, pointing at the four women by the bed, his eyes blazing with fury.
He could sense his master's pain and weakness, and he could also tell that these four women were no good, especially the one wielding the butcher's knife; the fierce glint in her eyes...
The sky over the City of the Wrongfully Dead is always gray, as if shrouded in a layer of indelible blood mist, and even the sound of the wind blowing through the streets and alleys is hoarse and wailing.
The slaughterhouse in the northwest corner of the city was more somber than any execution ground in the City of the Wrongfully Dead. The smell of blood mixed with incense strangely clung to the beams and pillars, refusing to dissipate.
The female butcher's boning knife was still dripping with dark red blood, remnants from processing the pig, but now the blade was pointed at Tang Sanzang, who was sitting cross-legged.
Tang Sanzang's face was as pale as paper, his forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, his hands were pressed against his pregnant belly, his brows were furrowed, and his lips were pressed together until they were white.
His brocade robe was soaked with sweat and clung to his thin body, dimming the originally holy aura of Buddha. Only the cinnabar mark between his eyebrows still shone with a faint spiritual light.
"Monk, have you thought this through?"
The female butcher's voice was rough and hoarse, like two stones rubbing together, "After this cut, whether you live or die is out of your hands."
She had been slaughtering pigs for years, and her hands were incredibly strong. Her knuckles were white from gripping the knife, and the blade gleamed coldly in the dim light, making the scars on her face look even more grotesque.
Tang Sanzang nodded with difficulty, his voice weak but firm: "Benefactor, let's begin."
This fetus is not a good one; if it is allowed to be born at full term, it will surely bring disaster to the world.
This humble monk is willing to risk his life to rid himself of this karmic obstacle.
He could clearly feel the thing inside his abdomen wriggling, sometimes as cold as iron, sometimes as hot as fire, and a sinister aura was constantly eroding his Buddhist cultivation, making his heart tremble.
Last night, he actually spoke with the fetus in his dream. The voice was childish but carried a chilling malice, saying that it wanted to absorb all his cultivation, flatten Mount Ling, and disrupt the Three Realms.
Sun Wukong paced anxiously to the side, his golden cudgel spinning in his hand with a whooshing sound, his golden fur standing on end in anger.
"Master! This evil creature can be dealt with by my own staff. Why let this butcher do it and make him suffer for nothing!"
He couldn't understand why his master, who was clearly protected by Buddhist teachings, would choose the most dangerous method. What if something happened to him? What would become of their journey to the West?
"Wukong, no."
Tang Sanzang slowly shook his head, "This fetus is connected to my life force. If you strike it with your staff, I fear my life will be in danger."
Moreover, this fetus possesses a very strong evil aura. Although the Golden Cudgel can harm it, it may not be able to eradicate it completely. Only by removing it from the womb can the future troubles be completely eliminated.
The female butcher said no more, took a deep breath, and with a flick of her wrist, precisely pierced the soft flesh of Tang Sanzang's abdomen with her boning knife.
The moment the blade pierced the skin, a piercing scream emanated from the abdomen. It was not the cry of an infant, but rather the roar of some wild beast, making the doors and windows of the slaughterhouse vibrate.
Tang Sanzang shuddered, the intense pain making his vision go black. He almost spat out a mouthful of blood, but he forced it back down. He gripped the wooden stool beneath him tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white.
Fresh blood flowed slowly down the blade, staining Tang Sanzang's monk's robe red, and dripping onto the blue bricks on the ground, spreading out in dark red patterns.
The female butcher's eyes narrowed, and with a flick of her wrist, the blade slashed open a long, narrow gash.
Just then, a wisp of black energy shot out from the wound, transforming into a fist-sized ball of flesh, its surface covered with fine blue veins, still wriggling slightly, emitting a nauseating stench. (End of Chapter)