Chapter 671: The Celestial Horse Carriage
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“What is it?” Jiang Zhiwei asked with concern in the glistening surreal water.
Meng Qi closed his eyes but still felt the burning pain, as if he had been burnt by the smoke before he could successfully practice the Eight Nine Mysteries. He was crying uncontrollably and could only see something red in front of him.
“It’s okay, I’ll be alright.” Meng Qi managed to put up with the pain.
“If I didn’t practice the Eight Nine Mysteries to cover up the weak points of my eyes, I would have been blinded just now. It’s really terrible to closely observe a ‘star’!”
Jiang Zhiwei closed her eyes, and the Form of the Supreme Sword Master emerged. Her sea of consciousness reflected the Dark Dot on the planet while she observed the planet remotely.
“The corpse of a Pig Demon...” Her eyebrows furrowed tighter, as she had never seen a large Pig Demon like this.
After passing the first Celestial Ladder, she possessed some higher knowledge such as “mind-penetrating knowledge”, with which she could sense everything in every aspect, regardless of the distance.
If she could practice to the level of the Nine Primogenitors of Taoism or the level of the great Buddha, she would be able to see through the entire universe with that higher knowledge, as if it was all presented right in front of her. Now she had just started to utilize it and already found it really remarkable.
However, bearing in mind Meng Qi, she slightly “perceived” without any closer observation.
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s the Marshal Canopy.” Meng Qi’s eyes were still shut.
“Zhu Bajie died under the Celestial River? The slick Zhu Bajie didn’t dodge the bullet?
“He knew something bad was going on, packed up his things, and was ready to flee, so how did he end up being burnt while the Heavenly Army outside still had a chance to wake up?
“His eyes and expression were full of disbelief. Did the attacker surprise him or was he caught red-handed even though he fled before everyone else?”
“Marshal Canopy? Was it really a pig because its surname was Zhu...?” Zhao Heng was speechless.
Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms introduced the background of the Journey to the West verbally, so anyone would think the surname was “Zhu”.
Meng Qi took a deep breath. “I heard from other parties that the Marshal Canopy was really a Pig Demon before.”
Jiang Zhiwei and the others thought that he had heard from the disciples of the Immortals, and Zhao Heng thought that he knew this before they joined the team. But they did not question it further and asked what Zhu Bajie was like.
Meng Qi gave a general description of Zhu Bajie’s corpse lying on the planet and observed a moment of silence in his heart. He used to hate Zhu Bajie, thinking that Zhu Bajie was slick, lazy, and a liar. He even rather wanted Sun Wukong to strike him dead. But now, seeing his corpse, he could not help feeling sympathetic. After all, Meng Qi had started to read Zhu Bajie’s stories when he was a child.
“Even in comparison to the Grand Sun, he doesn’t seem small?” Zhao Heng asked in surprise. “What a demon!
“It’s said that there are the Monster God, the Great Sage after the Monster King, and the Big Monster, which one is he?”
“It seems that he used a higher knowledge similar to the Law Phenomenon, and he was frozen like the Heavenly Army when he died.” Meng Qi came up with his guess.
Ruan Yushu looked at the star from a distance. “The roasted pig, well, Marshal Canopy used to lead the Celestial River army and govern the district. He couldn’t have fallen accidentally. We may learn something about the Ninth Heaven’s disappearance and the Celestial Court falling on his corpse.”
“Unfortunately, it’s a star like the Grand Sun. If we approach it, we’ll be burnt to ashes at once. We also can’t examine the corpse to know the cause of death.” Jiang Zhiwei said with a sigh.
Meng Qi was imagining a series of scenes: Zhu Bajie sat in the main battalion barracks, sent out the Heavenly Army to patrol, and then he discovered something wrong. He thought that the Celestial Court might not survive it this time, thus he packed up his things and tried to flee through the Celestial River instead of crossing the Southern Heavenly Door. Who would have known he would be ambushed? Just when he was feeling triumphant, someone unexpected attacked him or he fell into a trap. He died without even putting up a fight because Meng Qi could still see the look of disbelief on his face.
Meng Qi assumed that Zhu Bajie did not have a chance to fight because there was not any trace that indicated it. Judging from Zhu Bajie’s large corpse, if they matched each other in strength or fought fiercely, they would have broken the “planets” and left them in ruins. But now the planets were running steadily, with many weird ones orbiting around the Grand Sun. Meng Qi and the others did not see any debris.
“Either the attacker was much stronger than Zhu Bajie and ambushed him, or the attacker was someone Zhu Bajie could never see coming.” Meng Qi closed his eyes and reflected on it.
“The enemy’s strength contained his Formations and treasures, not just his realm.
“Moreover, the strange part is why didn’t the attacker steal Zhu Bajie’s corpse, since only such a strong corpse could remain after years of burning on the Grand Sun?”
At the thought of this, he said in a hurry, “Zhiwei, sense around the Grand Sun to see if anything, such as a rake, floats around.”
“Do Zhu Bajie’s divine weapons, possessions, and inheritance from Master, Senior Brother, and Junior Brother remain?”
Jiang Zhiwei once again showed the Form of the Supreme Sword Master and utilized her higher knowledge. She remotely began to sense and saw a general picture.
After a while, she shook her head. “No, the Grand Sun is so mighty. If anything floats around it, it’ll be drawn near and then be burnt to ashes.”
“True.” Meng Qi sighed, thinking that it might have been taken by the murderer as well.
“It’s getting late; the Monster Kings must have passed the barracks. We need to catch up to them in case they hunt out the treasures alone.” Zhao Heng looked up from under the Celestial River; the glistening water looked so surreal.
Meng Qi kept his eyes shut and the torching heat was fading away. Just now, he had not even been able to use his mental perception to sense things around him, like a truly blind man. Thus, upon hearing Zhao Heng’s words, he quickly flew toward the tunnel that connected to the pond.
“Boom!”
The waters around them rippled. Meng Qi covered his head as he was standing in front of a bronze door.
Meng Qi’s senses were still being affected. He failed to tell the right direction and distance, and directly hit the bottom of the pond. Finally, it turned out that he bumped into an ancient bronze door!
“Fortunately, I practice the Eight Nine Mysteries, or I’d be bleeding!” Meng Qi secretly felt happy.
“There’s a door at the bottom of the pond?” Zhao Heng was puzzled.
As the bronze door swung open slowly, Meng Qi did not sense any seal.
Jiang Zhiwei and the others raised their swords, or pressed on the zither. They became fully vigilant as they did not know what was behind the bronze door.
“Celestial Horses?” Meng Qi stood the closest and was the first one to perceive the situation behind the door.
Behind the bronze door was a wide square, on which carriages were sparsely parked. There were only carriages, no horses. Meng Qi could sense the seal’s strength.
However, one carriage was parked at the door, blocking the entrance. It was equipped with four handsome and robust horses that had white long hair. The horses’ flesh seemed to be full of strength, though not as strong as Dharmakaya, and the horses seemed to possess some high powers. The golden carriage was completely closed and well-decorated, on the top of which were characters inscribed in seal script.
It said “Celestial-river General”!
“Did the carriage belong to the Celestial River Army? Could the Celestial Horses walk into the void under the water? Is that how they patrolled?” Meng Qi refrained from slobbering. “I want a horse like that!”
The Celestial Horses were also frozen. Their bulging muscles and floating manes were all motionless, going against the laws of nature. Meng Qi stretched his right hand forward, but finally drew it back. “There may be a chain reaction if I wake up a horse. If the Heavenly Army rushes to capture us before we can control the Celestial Horses, we may even lose the chance to pay Karma points to return.”
Sensing further, Meng Qi discovered that the sealing strength was also frozen.“That means that if the sealing strength is restored, the ancient Celestial Court will reappear on the square, and we won’t be able to compete at all with the Heavenly Army in strength or realm...” Meng Qi felt frustrated.
While Meng Qi was in the midst of thoughts, Qi Zhengyan let out a sound of surprise. “This carriage was about to enter the Celestial River, but was stopped by a disaster and became frozen. Who was sitting inside it?”
Having been reminded by Qi Zhengyan, Meng Qi opened his eyes and stared at the carriage. He saw that the door was closed and that every gap was concealed with materials that blocked sensing or snooping from the outside.
“Was it the Heavenly Army who was going to join the patrolling? Or a big shot who wanted to flee through the Celestial River? Is that how Zhu Bajie knew that something bad was imminent?”
No sound was heard inside the carriage, it had been silent since ancient times. Meng Qi exhaled and suppressed his greed. He turned around without looking back and swam away.
“With our strength, we can’t take such a risk. If I woke up a Human Immortal or an Earth Immortal, we couldn’t beat them even using divine weapons!
“If he’s a big shot, where would he have been going riding in the carriage?”
Bearing that question in mind, he swam near the surface of the pond. However, he did not go ashore right away; instead, he sensed the surroundings first and perceived a lingering Demon Odor. Then, he jumped out of the pond.
“The Heavenly Army did not wake up.” Jiang Zhiwei looked back at the motionless barracks.
Qi Zhengyan nodded. “The monsters are experienced.”
Meng Qi blinked his eyes and found that they had almost recovered. Thus, he looked to the distance and replied, “Yes, indeed they didn’t touch anything.”
The monsters also had carefully sneaked through. They did not steal anything and did not dabble in the Celestial River. They only wanted to reach the end of the long bridge.
Immediately, they hid their breaths and figures, and followed the remaining Demon Odor. Before, they had been pursued by the monsters, but now they were pursuing the monsters.
It was time for killing!
The long bridge crossed over the Celestial River. Meng Qi and the others started to see the other end, where pavilions were surrounded by trees in the mist.
“Here comes the best part!” Meng Qi was delighted. “As long as there isn’t any frozen immortal soldier, anything we collect will be worth many Karma points. If we can capture a few Monster Kings, we’ll make a small fortune even if we fail the task.”
“Ow!”
A howling rang in the distance and the sound ended abruptly, as if something horrible had happened to its owner.
Meng Qi and Jiang Zhiwei exchanged glances; both of them felt a chill.
“Are they killing each other or is there another ‘horrible monster’ hiding in the shard of the Celestial Court?”