Whether Huang Mei truly possesses those magical treasures, only by truly seeing them can we know for sure.
Zhong Yuan didn't hesitate for long. After resting for half a day, he casually stepped out of the Buddha-carved cave at the foot of the mountain and walked up the mountain path.
He was going up to find Huang Mei's Little Thunder Sound Temple, as well as to look for Ma Ge.
Although according to his speculation, Ma Tian Ba shouldn't face much difficulty at Huang Mei's place and shouldn't be in danger, it would be best to see him and confirm it.
He intentionally walked directly like this, wanting Huang Mei to know he had arrived.
It's best to come out yourself.
Of course, he wasn't truly being reckless.
The moment he stepped into the snow, his true body had already vanished into the surrounding air using the Gathering and Dispersing Technique, leaving only a hairy monkey avatar walking the path.
However, his external body technique, with its magical power and fleshly body, were the same as his true body. Except his soul wasn't there, it was controlled by a hair, making it almost indistinguishable in normal circumstances.
Even if there were surely many people secretly watching him, Zhong Yuan was very confident that his substitution technique wouldn't be seen through.
His Gathering and Dispersing Technique had already been elevated to an unimaginable realm, reaching the Supreme Limit. Even in the world, only a few people could find his trace when he vanished into the air.
Gathering and Dispersing, this could now be considered his true fundamental technique, besides the Eight Nine Profound Skill.
Everything he learned, be it external body techniques, fire techniques, wind techniques, earth-遁地替身 (earth-dodging replacement), and even the Law of Heaven and Earth, actually relied on this Gathering and Dispersing technique.
Zhong Yuan decided to strike directly.
No matter what kind of gods or Buddhas, what kind of magical treasures, just go for it!
Using this external body technique to fight, the only thing he felt a bit regretful about was that some magical powers and transformations weren't as convenient to use with an avatar.
The Gathering and Dispersing technique couldn't be used carelessly. If the avatar's body disappeared, he could accidentally leave a hair behind, causing the avatar to be cancelled and withdrawn.
For him to rely on a single hair to use such a technique from a far distance, it was somewhat difficult.
As Zhong Yuan slowly walked into the wind and snow, a small statue of a novice monk in the cave where Zhong Yuan left suddenly came alive. Looking rather clumsy, it climbed up, looked up, and shook its head.
“You finally came.”
“I wonder if you can pass my disciple's test?”
…
Zhong Yuan walked forward, and soon saw a few strong monks digging stones on the mountain path, looking somewhat like martial monks.
However, their auras felt strange, their eyes closed, as if they had gone blind.
They heard the sound, but didn't care about anything else, rushing forward to attack.
Zhong Yuan frowned slightly, raised his hand and sent out two immobilizing spells, instantly freezing them in place.
“These people seem to be human, but they also seem to have fallen into the devil path.”
“Huang Mei's Little Western Paradise is truly no good place.”
Zhong Yuan didn't directly kill them, although he felt some of them probably attacked passersby as well.
But it was also troublesome to distinguish them, and they were all beguiled by Huang Mei, so they couldn't be entirely blamed.
Little Western Paradise was different from Mount Sumeru.
“If it were Mount Sumeru, I would just kill my way up.”
Zhong Yuan continued walking forward. Not long after, he saw many corpses that were completely frozen in the snow on the path, humans, their life and death hard to discern.
Humans and demons, indistinguishable.
Zhong Yuan became even more silent.
Many of them didn't even have clothes on, seemingly deliberately undergoing some kind of crazy cultivation.
Some looked like ordinary people climbing and making pilgrimages.
But these people, who had heard that this was the Western Paradise, or truly believed it was the Western Paradise, entered the mountain and all froze to death.
This mountain was obviously strange. Some of their corpses turned into snow zombies after death.
“Chirp chirp.” As Zhong Yuan was observing, he heard the sound of a monkey’s cry coming from a small temple by the road.
Zhong Yuan looked up and saw a black-faced strange monkey with a long sword hanging from its waist. Its hair was messy, it looked a bit crazy, and it was playing with a peach.
The Crimson-Haired Monkey?
Zhong Yuan didn't actually know the monkey's identity, but his true body hidden around him felt a tremor in the great sage's root.
Zhong Yuan simply used the bell sound technique combined with Fire Eyes and Golden Sight, and sure enough, he saw his identity and origin.
The Crimson-Haired Monkey was originally a Marshal under Sun Wukong on Flower Fruit Mountain, but when Sun Wukong was killed, he couldn't stay on Flower Fruit Mountain anymore. He escaped with some monkeys.
However, on the way, the monkey group was accidentally infected with a plague.
So the Crimson-Haired Monkey had people throw the monkeys down a deep valley. But this action frightened the remaining monkeys, they no longer wanted to follow the Crimson-Haired Monkey, and they all ran away.
The Crimson-Haired Monkey also discovered that his body had undergone a strange change, with a pair of black wings growing on his back.
He eventually came to the Little Western Paradise and worshipped a fat monk. It seemed to be Huang Mei.
Huang Mei raised his hand and pinched the feathers, saying: "Such vulgar means, you dare to use them on your monkeys. You truly don't know the ways of the world." Then he swung his wolf-tooth club, emitting a spiritual light that fell on the Crimson-Haired Monkey.
The wings indeed retracted.
Huang Mei then went on to make promises and deceive him, saying things like, “You’ve suffered enough, I’ll lead you to become a Buddha-Dragon Elephant.”
He said that power was the foundation, and ultimately persuaded the Crimson-Haired Monkey to kowtow and become his disciple.
However, in the end, Huang Mei nodded in satisfaction, but took out a satchel from his waist and directly put the Crimson-Haired Monkey inside.
After a while, Huang Mei opened the satchel again and released the Crimson-Haired Monkey. He looked a little bit crazy.
Kneeling before Huang Mei, he was even more devout.
Zhong Yuan became even more silent.
“This satchel, could it be the Later Heaven Human Seed Bag?”
“But how can it seem to brainwash people?”
He remembered that while the Human Seed Bag was very powerful, it had one small unfortunate drawback: people inside it wouldn't encounter any danger.
The Human Seed Bag wasn't like the Golden Cymbal. There wouldn’t be any danger of turning into blood after staying inside for too long.
This brainwashing, he wasn't sure if it could be undone.
They were both from Flower Fruit Mountain. The Crimson-Haired Monkey was originally a Marshal on Flower Fruit Mountain. His current situation was truly pitiful.
If there was a chance, Zhong Yuan still hoped to help him break free from this control.
Those black wings that appeared out of nowhere, according to the old tradition of Buddhism, were most likely created by Huang Mei himself.
At this time, Zhong Yuan was looking at the Crimson-Haired Monkey, and obviously, the Crimson-Haired Monkey was also looking at him.
After seeing Zhong Yuan, the Crimson-Haired Monkey paused for a moment and threw the fruit in his hand on the head of a snow corpse not far from Zhong Yuan. The snow corpse roared, and suddenly came alive.
His roar also awakened more snow corpses around him.
Zhong Yuan raised his hand: "Immobilize!" The snow corpses that were about to move were instantly fixed in place again. His immobilizing spell, against these level of ghosts, could not be broken, theoretically it could be immobilized for a lifetime.
The Crimson-Haired Monkey was startled and quickly ran away.
Zhong Yuan didn't hesitate and chased after him.