“Is that the only way?” Jiang Yong looked grimly at Pan Sheng. Based on what he saw just now, to capture the person who’d placed the formation would require the few of them defeating around forty opponents of the same level.
That was nothing but the ravings of a madman.
“Of course, there are other ways too. For instance, we could break through the formation with sheer force,” said Pan Sheng, offering up yet another impossible solution.
If they were strong enough to straight-up break the formation, they wouldn’t have had to retreat in the face of those demons.
“I really don’t get what you people are worried about!” said the Great Sage with a peal of haughty laughter. He took out the Ruyi Jingu Bang, and his eyes blazed with the will to fight. “Let’s just fight them.”
You want to fight? Fine, let’s fight!
His simple, violent solution to the problem filled them with confidence.
Murong Xue’s eyes narrowed. She snorted, “Who said otherwise? We’ll just have to fight. Jiang Yong, you’re awfully embarrassing. Aren’t we just trapped in a formation? Look at how cowardly you are!”
“Cowardly? Who’s a coward?” Jiang Yong snorted coldly and hefted his battleax. “Aren’t they just a handful of demon scum? Wait and see! My axe will take their heads right off!”
The Great Sage’s will to fight seemed to have lit the others’ hearts ablaze. Their worried frowns disappeared, and their gazes sharpened.
Ye Zichen watched from the sidelines. He chuckled despite himself. At times like this, he needed the Great Sage.
Otherwise, with everyone so down in the dumps and feeling defeatist, if they really came to blows, it was easy to imagine what would happen to them.
“Come on! They’re nothing but a bunch of demon spawn! Let’s go get them!” Jiang Yong roared and turned the ship back around, right towards the demons. When they reached their former location, the demons still hadn’t moved. It was as if they’d been waiting for them to return.”
“You’re back. And here I thought you’d be too afraid to come back and face us.” A burst of playful laughter emanated from the chaos. Jiang Yong set aside the ship’s controls and hefted his axe, then walked right up to the bow of the ship.
“Who exactly are you people?” Jiang Yong frowned at them.
The figure within the patch of chaos laughed. “There’s no need for you to know that.”
With that, they saw a black shadow bear down on them. Everyone onboard the flying vessel readied their weapons, while the Great Sage took the lead. “Taste my staff!”
His staff slammed hard into that dark shadow. The instant it landed, the shadow split in two. Before long, it fused back together and continued charging towards the ship.
“Out of my way!” Murong Xue shouted, gestured, and a wave of flames covered the heavens. The Dao Sisters, the “Golden Flowers” of the Appearance Association, stood beside her and fanned the flames.
Soon, the entire sky was a blazing patch of red. When the shadow in the sky saw it, it slowed somewhat. As it slowed, the demons reacted as if they’d received orders. They charged towards the ship.
“You still dare attack?” Jiang Yong rubbed his chin, then swung his axe at the incoming demons.
The Great Sage laughed gleefully, and his staff extended to dozens of times its original size. Countless illusory staffs filled the air, then slammed into the demons.
But to their shock, the demons didn’t cross blows with them at all.
Not even when Jiang Yong’s axe and the Great Sage’s staff hit them. They didn’t resist in the slightest. Instead, they kept flying relentlessly towards the ship.
Ye Zichen couldn’t help but frown. He glanced behind himself at the demon “bandits.”
“Their goal is our demon captives.”
Just as he suspected, both the shadowy figure and the demons charged relentlessly towards the captive demons. Their goal was retrieving all the captured demons.
“Bring them all back!” barked the shadowy figure.
As soon as Ye Zichen said the demons were after the captives, Pan Sheng placed a seal around the vessel.
But the demons fought their way in with no regard for their own lives, both relentless and absolutely agile.
As a result, before Pan Sheng could even finish placing his seal, the incoming demons had already boarded the vessel.
Dozens of seventh-stage sky demon supremes had boarded their ship. Even if Ye Zichen and the others fought with all their might, they were outnumbered many times over. This was an enormous disadvantage.
In the blink of an eye, the demons retrieved several of the captives.
They couldn’t let the demons reclaim the captives. The captives represented humanity’s hope of uncovering the demons’ presence-cloaking technique and method of disguising themselves as human.
Just as Ye Zichen prepared to open the Yao-Sealing Pagoda and draw the remaining captives inside….
“Don’t even think of escaping, you demons!” The Great Sage transformed into a beam of light. He swung his staff straight into a demon’s skull.
The demon’s skull instantly split open, splashing brain fluids and blood. It fell dead onto the deck.
Without so much as missing a beat, the Great Sage attacked the next demon, then the next without pause.
Wherever his staff landed, a demon died!
His subordinates’ violent deaths infuriated the shadow in the sky. The shadowy figure could tell that, if he wanted to retrieve the captives, he had no choice but to kill the Great Sage, Ye Zichen, and the others first.
“Kill them!” With a sharp cry, the demons gave up on the prisoners and attacked the Great Sage.
“Good! Come at me!” The Great Sage grinned, then tossed his staff high into the air.
It instantly split into countless identical staffs. The Great Sage, too, split into countless clones. Each took hold of a staff, then attacked the demons.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ye Zichen and the others didn’t even need to make a move. The Great Sage wiped out every last demon in the blink of an eye, just like that.
After wiping out all the demons, the Great Sage’s clones remerged into his main body. He clenched the Ruyi Jingu Bang and stood proudly in the air.
“That monkey is intense!” Everyone aboard the ship gasped despite themselves, but then…
“Not bad.” A low voice reverberated through their ears. When they looked up, they looked up, it looked as if someone had torn the very dome of heaven itself asunder. A pair of enormous hands emerged from the right and took hold of that first silhouette, then grabbed every demon onboard the ship, including the ones the Great Sage had just beaten to death.
When the mighty Great Sage saw this, he somersaulted forward. He swung his staff downwards with all his might.
His opponent merely flicked his finger…
Whoosh!
The Great Sage flew explosively back. The Ruyi Jingu Bang extended, jutting into the earth, and slowed the Great Sage’s fall. Even so, the staff’s momentum carved a line fully one thousand meters long in the earth. Only then did he manage to stabilize himself.
“Not bad at all.” The voice within the sky muttered, then snorted, “Who are you?”
The Great Sage narrowed his eyes, returned the Ruyi Jingu Bang to its normal size, then propped it up in the air.
“Sun Wukong, the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven!”
