242: Chapter 242 Finding the Needle in the Sea - Startling the Monkey with a Peep

"Chirp—chirp—!"

Two piercing cries tore through the void.

Before they could even unleash their divine abilities, a few weaker phoenixes at the rear of the Phoenix Clan were already swept into the gourd!

That was the Chaos Gourd, containing the energy of chaos within, forming its own realm of refinement!

As soon as the phoenixes entered, they were instantly eroded by the chaos, their flesh stripped away and their spirits incinerated!

"Chirp—!"

"Chirp—!"

Miserable howls rang out one after another, each more heart-wrenching than the last, enough to make anyone who heard them tremble with terror!

It was as if those phoenixes had already been reduced to ashes in the chaos!

...

"Divine Dragons! Act quickly! This is our last chance!"

Yuanfeng finally realized—all that talk about Heavenly Realm forging and Chaos creation wasn't just empty boasting!

It was forged with supreme divine abilities and peerless martial power, hacked out one blade strike and one sword slash at a time!

His expression changed drastically as he frantically sought help from the Divine Dragons.

However—the sky full of Divine Dragons, all suspended outside the star domain, were like clay statues and wood carvings, unable to move!

They had long been completely imprisoned by the Chaos energy!

The slightest reckless movement would result in their bodies shattering and their spirits being annihilated!

"Chirp—!"

Yuanfeng screeched, wanting to pull back and retreat.

Queen Mother of the West sneered. The gourd shook again, its suction power surging violently, like a giant maw devouring the sky, pulling with immense force!

In an instant, one of Yuanfeng's legs was pulled into the gourd!

It wasn't just being pulled in; the power of chaos was simultaneously refining it, melting its flesh and disintegrating its bones!

"Chirp—!"

It struggled frantically, exerting all its strength to pull back its sharp claw—when it looked up, only a withered bone remained, all flesh gone, looking grim and terrifying!

Terrifying! Simply too terrifying!

The Chaos Gourd was actually this terrifying!

Yuanfeng wailed and roared, its voice changing pitch, almost as if it were begging for mercy: "This is completely different from what Tathagata said!"

"This Heavenly Court, this chaos... how are they weak and vulnerable?"

"It's total bullshit! It's all a lie!"

With this roar, Jiang Chen immediately understood—someone was instigating this from the shadows!

The mastermind behind the scenes was none other than Tathagata of the West!

"Swish!"

With a thought, he first immobilized the remaining few phoenixes, sealing off their escape routes.

Jiang Chen took a step forward and pushed with his hand; Yuanfeng, as if struck by a force of ten thousand tons, was smashed straight into the Chaos Gourd!

The situation was suppressed in an instant.

Jiang Chen turned around, his gaze falling upon the Divine Dragons.

He flipped his palm, and the God-Slaying Sword was unsheathed!

With a flash of sword light, the cold gleam was already pressed against the throat of the Divine Dragons!

"Swish—swish—!"

Sword shadows swept through like a storm, fierce and unparalleled; in an instant, the Ancestral Dragon's body shattered inch by inch!

Executed by slow slicing! Body and spirit destroyed!

Because of the Chaos imprisonment, the Ancestral Dragon didn't utter a word until its death, leaving only lingering shadows that dissipated and were completely annihilated!

"Ah—!"

Seeing this, Queen Mother of the West did not hesitate to urge the Chaos Gourd to refine Yuanfeng with all her might!

"Thunderous methods! Truly ruthless!"

Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden, leading one hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and generals, had originally thought that they were the peak combat force.

She hadn't expected the methods of the Chaos Sovereign to be so fierce.

Killing without hesitation, and in the blink of an eye, the one wiped out was the Ancestral Dragon!

This scene made her heart tremble, and awe surged like a tide.

And the fact that Queen Mother of the West refined Yuanfeng in almost an instant made her spirit tremble even more.

So, the supreme powerhouses of the Three Realms acted with such decisiveness and ruthlessness, without a hint of hesitation.

"The Ancestral Dragon and Yuanfeng had deep obsessions and did not understand how to cultivate their essence and nourish their spirits; keeping them is useless, they can only be exterminated!"

"As for the Dragon Clan and the Phoenix Clan—from today on, the Dragon Clan will be under my command, and the Phoenix Clan shall be completely subdued by you, Queen Mother of the West, using the Chaos Gourd!"

Jiang Chen spoke, his tone brooking no argument.

Queen Mother of the West gladly accepted the order, a flash of joy passing through her eyes.

Thus, a grand operation to control the dragons and subdue the phoenixes, sweeping across the world, began.

The Phoenix Clan resided in the depths of the star domain.

Queen Mother of the West ordered Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden to lead the heavenly soldiers and generals back to the Heavenly Court, while she herself held the Chaos Gourd, leaped alone into the starry sky, traversed the void, and began to hunt down the traces of the Phoenix Clan.

Wherever she went, with a flash of divine light, one phoenix after another was forcibly sucked into the gourd.

It was undeniable that the Phoenix Clan had astonishing combat power.

They specialized in cultivating their physical bodies; even the weakest phoenix could tear apart the true body of a Great Luo Golden Immortal with one claw.

But during these repeated suppressions, Queen Mother of the West suddenly realized Jiang Chen's deep intention—by letting her control the Phoenix Clan and borrowing the power of "Feng Wu Nine Heavens," wouldn't the future Heavenly Realm be equivalent to her own dominion?

There was likely another scheme within this...

As this thought arose, wild joy surged within her heart.

A supreme goddess, holding the Chaos Gourd, sped through the vast sea of stars, tirelessly hunting and suppressing every escaping phoenix.

The Chaos Gourd had long been completely under her control; it was not merely for devouring and refining.

Instead, it had transformed into a chaotic purgatory, imprisoning the phoenixes within, letting them struggle for survival in endless pain, yet not allowing them to perish.

In other words, this gourd was both a cage and a furnace.

The energy of chaos slowly eroded them, wearing away their will and obsessions, leaving behind only the purest instinct to fly.

What would eventually be forged was a legion of divine beasts that were absolutely obedient and had no heart to resist.

Once refined, if she pointed east, they would never go west; if she ordered them to fight, they would face death without retreating.

Feng Wu Nine Heavens would no longer be a clan secret technique, but would become the authority with which she ruled the firmament.

Queen Mother of the West traversed the galaxy, fighting and feeling unable to suppress her excitement.

Meanwhile, Jiang Chen had quietly descended to Earth and set foot upon the boundless four seas.

At this time, the human race still lived on land, had not dabbled in the ocean, let alone conquered the deep sea.

But the underwater world was another scene—schools of fish flourished, spiritual intelligence had just begun to awaken, and there were countless sea monsters lurking and swimming about.

This was the hidden realm of the Dragon Clan.

Except for a few who had been recruited by the Heavenly Court to manage rainfall, the vast majority of the Dragon Clan hid in the deep sea, silently cultivating and ignoring worldly affairs.

On this day, Jiang Chen stood above the sea, overlooking this vast, boundless ocean of mist and waves.

His Heavenly Eye opened suddenly, and in an instant, thousands of fierce and overbearing dragon breaths surged up from the depths of the sea abyss.

The Dragon Clan were the overlords of the sea; no wonder they were so arrogant and rampant when they broke into the starry sky and approached the chaos back then.

"Sea-Stabilizing Needle?"

Just as he was focusing his investigation, his gaze suddenly locked onto a spot on the seabed—a pitch-black, ancient, and mysterious long staff was standing quietly on the ocean floor.

It was actually the supreme treasure left behind when Great Yu tamed the floods, the Sea-Stabilizing Needle!

"Wukong, oh Wukong... it seems it is time to meet you."

Jiang Chen's eyes flickered slightly, his mind racing, and he instantly had a plan.

The tribulation of the Journey to the West was not essentially about the difficulty of the process, but about the change in the outcome.

As for where it would specifically lead, even he could not fully foresee.

But he came from a future civilization and was already intimately familiar with that legend.

Now, all he could do was constantly tamper with the plot and defy the heavens to change fate.

At present, Sun Wukong had not yet wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, which was the first step of success.

"The matter of taming the Dragon Clan, perhaps... it can be left to Wukong."

He whispered to himself, his mind made up.

Chaos creation and destruction was the power of the Great Dao that opened up the world and could destroy heaven and earth.

The universe was born from it, and could also perish because of it.

Unless the Three Realms faced an existential crisis, such power would never easily appear in the world, nor would the Chaos Sovereign intervene.

To put it bluntly—if Jiang Chen were to personally suppress the Dragon Clan, he would very likely wipe out the entire clan while he was at it.

"What is Wukong doing now?"

He himself became interested, immediately activating his Heavenly Eye to gaze toward Flower Fruit Mountain.

"He... where did he get that immortal elixir?"

Unexpectedly, Sun Wukong was sitting cross-legged in the depths of the Water Curtain Cave on Flower Fruit Mountain, chewing on an immortal elixir; rosy clouds soared into the sky, spiritual energy rolled, and the entire cave abode was dyed gold.

The immortal elixir shimmered with the brilliance of the Great Dao; it was clearly a supreme treasure refined by Lord Taishang himself, definitely not ordinary.

"Could it be... has Wukong already wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace?"