When Liu Chenxiang arrived at his door with two young girls, Wang Xuan immediately felt a headache coming on.
Wang Xuan believed his strength far surpassed Sun Wukong's, but the resources required to cultivate Liu Chenxiang to the level of a god or demon in a short period of time were terrifying!
When Wang Xuan transmigrated to the world of the Lotus Lantern, the cultivation resources he carried were only enough for his own cultivation; they were simply not enough to nurture another expert at the level of a god or demon.
"Let this kid go to the Heavenly Court and wreak havoc as originally planned, eating his fill of peaches of immortality and nine-turn golden pills. That should provide enough energy for him to break through to the realm of gods and demons." Wang Xuan thought for a moment, then took Liu Chenxiang and flew towards the heavens.
In the ordinary world, the heavens are mostly filled with the sun, moon, and stars, as well as endless celestial winds.
The world of the Lotus Lantern is different. Above the nine heavens in this world, there is a portal connecting to the Heavenly Court, called the Southern Heavenly Gate. Through the Southern Heavenly Gate, one can directly reach the thirty-third heaven of the Heavenly Court.
"Master, where are you taking me?" Liu Chenxiang asked, puzzled. As they flew higher and higher, almost reaching the legendary Southern Heavenly Gate, she finally couldn't help but ask.
"Could my master be planning to hand me over to the Heavenly Court for a reward?" An absurd thought surfaced in Liu Chenxiang's mind, and the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Seeing Liu Chenxiang's panicked expression, Wang Xuan couldn't help but flick him on the forehead. He then explained, "If you want to quickly raise your cultivation to a level where you can rival Erlang Shen Yang Jian, the best way is to eat peaches of immortality and take elixirs!"
"Back then, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong, was somewhat inferior to Erlang Shen, Yang Jian. However, after consuming a massive amount of peaches of immortality and the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, his strength underwent a qualitative change, and he fought Yang Jian for three days and three nights without a clear victor."
Upon hearing Wang Xuan's explanation, Liu Chenxiang's panic vanished, replaced by a hint of excitement.
Although Liu Chenxiang has only been on the path of cultivation for a few years, he has a clear understanding of Sun Wukong's havoc in the Heavenly Palace and admires him greatly.
Now that his master is going to take him to eat peaches of immortality and take elixirs of immortality, to retrace the path of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, how could he not be excited?
They hadn't flown for long when they were already close to the South Heavenly Gate.
With a wave of his sleeve, Wang Xuan activated his "Sleeve Universe Great Divine Power" and took Liu Chenxiang inside.
The Heavenly Court is fraught with danger, so it would be more prudent to put Liu Chenxiang away, as it would also make him easier to hide.
If he hadn't wanted to rely on Liu Chenxiang's extraordinary luck to increase the success rate of stealing the pills and peaches, he wouldn't have brought Liu Chenxiang with him.
After Wang Xuan put Liu Chenxiang away, he quickly shrunk his body to the size of a speck of dust and used invisibility magic before approaching the direction of the South Heavenly Gate.
After flying for a while, the South Heavenly Gate came into view, guarded by the Four Heavenly Kings.
Each of the Heavenly Kings is a mid-stage sixth-order cultivator. If the four of them join forces, they can suppress a powerful expert at the peak of the sixth-order realm. Their combat strength is roughly equivalent to that of the Bull Demon King in this world.
With Wang Xuan's cultivation and strength, he was naturally not afraid of these four Heavenly Kings. It could be said that he could knock all four of them to the ground with one hand.
However, the Heavenly Court is filled with countless experts, and Laozi is stationed in the Tushita Palace of the Thirty-Third Heaven, which makes Wang Xuan unwilling to disturb the Four Heavenly Kings.
Once he engages in battle with the Four Heavenly Kings, even if he defeats them instantly, the resulting energy fluctuations will attract all the experts from the Heavenly Court.
Even when surrounded by Heavenly Court experts, Wang Xuan remained undaunted. However, if the Supreme Lord Laozi were to intervene, Wang Xuan would certainly be no match for him.
The Supreme Lord Laozi is the Supreme Dao Ancestor, and is absolutely the most top-level existence in this world. He has reached the limit of cultivation that this world can contain, which is the perfect realm of the seventh-order god and demon!
Because he was wary of Laozi, Wang Xuan cautiously approached the South Heavenly Gate, intending to sneak into the Heavenly Court through it.
But when he arrived at the gate of the South Heavenly Gate, a personal force suddenly locked onto his aura, subtly trying to force him to reveal his true form.
Wang Xuan was shocked. He looked up and realized what he had overlooked.
In almost every legend about a celestial court, a demon-revealing mirror hangs above the South Heavenly Gate to verify the identity of those entering the celestial court and prevent those with malicious intentions from sneaking into the South Heavenly Gate.
Wang Xuan momentarily overlooked the situation and evaded the scrutiny of the Four Heavenly Kings, but was caught red-handed by the Demon-Revealing Mirror.
"This demon-revealing mirror is truly a treasure; even immortals and Buddhas cannot hide from it." Wang Xuan exclaimed inwardly, and with all his might, he managed to suppress his aura and break free from the mirror's lock.
Although the Demon-Revealing Mirror is a rare treasure, there are many more powerful treasures in the Heavenly Court. Due to the limitations of the hierarchy in this world, even the most top-tier divine artifact, the Lotus Lantern, is only a high-grade spiritual treasure, let alone the Demon-Revealing Mirror.
In Wang Xuan's perception, this demon-revealing mirror was barely at the level of a low-grade spiritual treasure, which is why Wang Xuan was able to truly break free from the mirror's lock.
If it were the Demon-Revealing Mirror from the Journey to the West world, Wang Xuan, with his current cultivation level, would be unable to break free from the lock and would have nowhere to hide under the Demon-Revealing Mirror!
After breaking free from the Demon-Revealing Mirror's lock, Wang Xuan flew into the Heavenly Court.
The Heavenly Court is vast, divided into thirty-three heavens. Wang Xuan, being an outsider, naturally did not know where Pan Tao Garden was. So he grabbed two little fairies with shallow cultivation, marveled at the location of Pan Tao Garden and the Tushita Palace, and then erased their memories from that moment.
This is all for everyone's good. If their memories aren't erased, Wang Xuan might be exposed.
First of all, he only erased a few minutes of the other party's memory, which will not have any impact on those fairies.
Following the directions of the fairies, Wang Xuan stumbled along the way until he finally arrived at the Peach Garden.
If you calculate the time, only a few decades have passed since the Journey to the West in this world, and only five or six hundred years have passed since Sun Wukong wreaked havoc in Heaven.
A day in heaven is a year on earth. If we put it on a scale, only five or six hundred days have passed. I wonder if the peaches are ripe yet.
Chapter 254
According to legend, the Queen Mother of the West's Peach Garden had a total of 3,600 immortal peach trees.
The first 1,200 trees have tiny flowers and fruits that ripen once every 3,000 years. People who eat them will become immortals and attain enlightenment.
The middle 1,200 trees ripen once every 6,000 years. If a person eats them, they will ascend to heaven and live forever.
The following 1,200 plants, with purple veins and fine kernels, ripen once every 9,000 years. Those who eat them will live as long as heaven and earth, and be as old as the sun and moon.
Five or six hundred years have passed since Sun Wukong wreaked havoc on the Peach Garden. If we consider the Heavenly Court's timeline, only two years have passed. Logically speaking, the remaining peaches should not even be ripe yet.
However, when Wang Xuan arrived at the Peach Garden, the scene he saw was not like that.
The peach orchard was laden with fruit, each peach radiating divine light, appearing quite mystical. It was clearly a scene of abundant harvest, with not a trace of any damage whatsoever.
Wang Xuan didn't dwell on this, as he knew that matters concerning immortals couldn't be deduced from common sense.
For example, Wang Xuan also planted many spiritual fruits and herbs in the Kunlun Cave Heaven of the Xuantian World. He usually irrigated them with extremely pure spiritual liquid, which greatly shortened the ripening time of the spiritual fruits.
"It seems that the ripening time of the peaches is said to be several thousand years in the mortal world. Moreover, with the Heavenly Court's millions of years of resources, there are plenty of ways to shorten the ripening time of the peaches. For example, the famous Three Lights Divine Water, a drop of Three Lights Divine Water can probably ripen a peach tree immediately."
Wang Xuan found a peach tree and picked a peach the size of a human head.
You heard right, it's the size of a human head. And this is a 3000-year-old peach, the so-called "tiny flower and fruit"...
Wang Xuan had good teeth and finished the peach in a few bites, secretly sensing the changes within his body.
He could feel a warm current flowing within his body, nourishing his essence and spirit, and enhancing his cultivation. However, this effect was extremely limited; a 3,000-year-old peach was equivalent to the effect of one or two days of cultivation.
Wang Xuan walked into the peach orchard and picked a peach the size of a tabletop. Its size was so exaggerated that it didn't look like a peach at all.
This is a peach that ripens only once every six thousand years. It contains pure and powerful energy. Eating it is equivalent to Wang Xuan's cultivation effect over half a month.
Wang Xuan sighed. Once his cultivation reached this level, it would take tens of thousands of years to break through to the next level using normal methods.
These two types of peaches have very limited effect; let's leave them for someone else.
Wang Xuan walked to the deepest part of the Peach Garden, where the purple-veined peaches, which ripen only once every nine thousand years, were located.
Unlike the previous two types of peaches, the Purple-Veined Peaches, which ripen once every nine thousand years, are not much larger than normal peaches. However, they have faint purple Dao patterns engraved inside. Eating them can not only improve one's cultivation level but also enhance one's Dao comprehension!
"This is what a true peach should be! In my Xuan Tian world, I can find many spiritual fruits comparable to the previous two types of peaches, but the Purple-Veined Peach is a spiritual fruit that the entire world has never nurtured that corresponds to it!"
Wang Xuan exclaimed in admiration, and without hesitation, picked a purple-veined peach and ate it.
The moment Wang Xuan ate a single peach, he saved himself a year of cultivation time; the effect was astonishing.
It should be noted that Wang Xuan is at the peak of the mid-stage of the seventh rank, and his accumulation of essence, energy and spirit is comparable to that of a late-stage seventh rank expert. Yet he can save a year of hard training because of this purple-veined peach!
If it were a cultivator with a lower cultivation level, such a peach could probably save them hundreds or thousands of years of cultivation time!
"There are 1,200 purple-striped flat peach trees in this peach orchard. Unfortunately, the yield of purple-striped flat peaches is much lower than that of other flat peaches. Only nine purple-striped flat peaches can be produced on each tree."
"Moreover, not all of these 1,200 purple-striped peach trees have borne fruit. In fact, most of the purple-striped peach trees are just flowering, and only about 100 trees have actually matured."
"After calculating, I can probably get a thousand purple-veined peaches, saving me a thousand years of arduous cultivation!"
Wang Xuan beamed with joy and picked all the peaches in the peach orchard without hesitation.
He took most of the purple-veined peaches, leaving only ten for Liu Chenxiang.
As for the other peaches, Wang Xuan took thirty percent, which was specially prepared for Cai Yan and Diao Chan. He gave the remaining seventy percent of the peaches to Liu Chenxiang, hoping that the boy would live up to expectations and break through to the early stage of the seventh rank as soon as possible.
"Disciple, time to eat the peaches!" Wang Xuan waved his sleeve and put the peaches he had prepared for Liu Chenxiang into his sleeve space.
At this moment, Liu Chenxiang was completely dumbfounded. He saw countless giant peaches, the size of a human head or even a tabletop, falling from the sky, like a small mountain, and engulfing him.
"Eat all these peaches. After you're done, I'll come out!" Wang Xuan thought for a moment and then sent a telepathic message to Wang Xuan.
Liu Chenxiang's lips twitched. How long was he going to go on eating all these peaches?!
Wang Xuan had ruined all the peaches in the Peach Garden, and he had no intention of staying any longer. He was about to turn around and leave, but after thinking about it, he decided that he should leave some mark to prove that he had been there.
He pointed his fingers like a sword and carved several large characters on a peach tree at the entrance of the Peach Garden: "Sun Wukong was here!"
"Speaking of which, it's probably been a long time since Sun Wukong visited the Peach Garden. Now that the peaches are ripe, it's quite plausible that he suddenly came and wreaked havoc on the Peach Garden!"
With a broad smile, Wang Xuan unceremoniously pinned a blame on Sun Wukong.
But he also knew that while the experts in Heaven might initially suspect Sun Wukong, they would eventually find out that it wasn't Sun Wukong who did it.
When that time comes, Liu Chenxiang will have to be pushed forward to take the blame. After all, that kid ate most of the peaches, so it's only right that he take the fall.
Okay, the portion of the peaches Wang Xuan took was the essence, but what can you do when Liu Chenxiang is his disciple? As the saying goes, "When the master is in trouble, the disciple should do his duty." As Wang Xuan's disciple, is it wrong to let Liu Chenxiang take the blame?
After doing all this, Wang Xuan concealed himself and left the Peach Garden, intending to steal the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir from Laozi at the Tushita Palace, but he hesitated and was wary.
The Supreme Lord Laozi's Tushita Palace is not the same as the Queen Mother of the West's Peach Garden. The Peach Garden is guarded by only one local earth god. Wang Xuan, with a single thought from a great distance, made the earth god faint, without even seeing Wang Xuan's shadow.
But the Tushita Palace is different; it is the Taoist temple of Laozi!
Sun Wukong was fearless in his ignorance back then, and Laozi didn't make things difficult for him, intentionally letting him have his fill of the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir.
It's important to understand that at that time, the protagonist's fortune in this world had shifted from Erlang Shen Yang Jian to Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong was the protagonist of the world at that time, blessed with great fortune from the Heavenly Dao, which is why Laozi turned a blind eye and allowed him to ruin his Nine-Turn Golden Elixir.
However, Wang Xuan did not have the protagonist's luck like Sun Wukong did. If he went to the Tushita Palace to steal the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, would Laozi hold him accountable?
Chapter 255 Caught in the Act
"The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir of the Supreme Lord Laozi is quite good. Its effects should be no less than those of the Purple-Veined Peaches of Immortality, which ripen once every nine thousand years." Wang Xuan had already infiltrated the Heavenly Court, so naturally he didn't intend to give up so easily.
The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir had a great effect on him. His cultivation had long since reached the peak of the mid-stage of the seventh rank, and he could break through to the late stage of the seventh rank at any time. His understanding of the laws of the Great Dao was more than sufficient; all he lacked was a little bit of foundation.
The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir and the Purple-Veined Peach were just enough to make up for the slight gap in Wang Xuan's foundation, allowing him to break through to the late stage of the seventh rank.
Besides, Wang Xuan's current combat strength is in no way inferior to a late-stage seventh-tier expert. Although he certainly can't defeat Laozi, escaping is still no problem. If he's determined to escape, Laozi won't be able to stop him.
It was precisely because of this confidence that Wang Xuan took the risk and secretly infiltrated the Thirty-Third Heaven, into the Doulu Palace, the Daoist temple of Laozi.