448: Chapter 448 The Real and Fake Monkey King?

Day broke and then faded into darkness again.

Chen You stood on his yuhuang sword, his hair blown into a bird's nest by the gale.

He was numb. Nearly thirty hours had passed.

He had traveled over ten thousand kilometers, cleaved thirty-nine mountain peaks, blown up twenty-one water mansions, and even burned down seventeen patches of poisonous miasma forests along the way.

This wasn't some crusade against demons in the Western Region; it was more like a demolition squad for the Western Region.

Chen You looked down at his quest panel.

[ Current Progress: 80 / 81 ]

"Just one more left." Chen You exhaled a breath of stale air and took out that dark gold cyber merit wooden fish.

He raised his hand and tapped it.

"Clack."

No response.

The blue arrow on the surface of the wooden fish flickered twice, suddenly froze, and emitted a "zzzt" sound of electricity.

Chen You frowned and tapped it again.

"Clack."

Still no response.

The arrow seemed to have crashed, frozen in place and trembling frantically.

Chen You's temper flared up instantly.

He had had enough of this lousy navigator for the day.

It had led him through dog holes, sewers, and long detours, and now, at the final moment, it was pulling a crash on him?

"Are you asking to be smashed?" Chen You backhanded the hilt of his yuhuang sword, raised it high, and aimed it at the wooden fish.

Just as the hilt was about to come down, a burst of blue light erupted from the surface of the wooden fish, and an emotionless, mechanical voice sounded:

[ Recalculating route for you. ]

Chen You's hand froze in mid-air.

"Are you kidding me? You even have network latency?"

[ Route recalculated successfully. Traffic ahead; switching you to an optimal route. ]

[ Please head due north; turn left after two hundred kilometers. ]

Chen You took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to cleave the broken wooden fish in two.

"Two hundred kilometers... fine. Once I finish this one, I'm definitely melting you down for scrap metal."

Just as he was about to head north, Chen You suddenly felt something was off.

What was this about "traffic ahead"?

How could it even crash this exclusive quest item?

Instead of turning north, Chen You stepped on his yuhuang sword, accelerated sharply, and sped straight towards the "congested section" to the west.

The wind whistled past his ears.

Are you joking? When you encounter "traffic ahead" in a game, could that really just be a traffic jam?

That was definitely a glitched hidden plot or a large group of players doing something together.

How could he pass up an opportunity to join in the fun and pick up some loot?

After flying forward for about a hundred kilometers and passing through the mist, the terrain ahead changed drastically.

Under the moonlight, five towering mountain peaks rose from the earth without warning.

The five peaks were of varying thickness, with the highest in the middle and decreasing in height on either side. They were overgrown with vegetation and appeared a strange, dark cyan.

They stood close together, piercing the clouds. From a distance, they looked like a giant hand reaching out from the ground, trying to hold up the heavens.

Chen You abruptly halted his flying sword in mid-air.

He looked at the five mountains, then looked down at the cyber merit wooden fish in his hand, which wasn't even flashing blue anymore.

"Five Finger Mountain?"

Chen You's mouth twitched.

Black Wind Mountain, Yellow Wind Ridge, White Bone Cave... and now, a Five Finger Mountain.

"Come on, bro," Chen You couldn't help but complain to the void.

"I'm almost done with the Eighty-One Tribulations, my progress bar is at 80/81, and you're only spawning the Great Sage now? Is this pilgrimage route reversed?"

Complaining aside, Chen You's heart rate couldn't help but accelerate.

That was the Great Sage Equaling Heaven!

If he could really release that guy from under the mountain, forget the Eighty-One Tribulations; even if the system told him to tear down the City of Gods, he would dare to hand over the hammer.

Chen You immediately lowered his altitude and circled the foot of Five Finger Mountain, skimming the ground.

The mountain exuded an extremely powerful pressure. This pressure was not a fluctuation of spiritual power, but rather something more like a force of rules originating from the foundation of the world.

Chen You didn't dare get too close. He flew half a circle around the foot of the mountain, trying to find that stone box overgrown with weeds.

"Great Sage?" Chen You called out tentatively.

His voice echoed in the empty valley, but apart from the wind, there was no response.

"Great Sage Equaling Heaven? Sun Wukong? Protector of the Horses?" Chen You tried a few different titles.

Still dead silence.

Hadn't he spawned yet? Or had he been censored by the system?

Chen You put away his yuhuang sword and landed on a beach of scattered rocks at the foot of the mountain.

He decided to search on foot to avoid missing any hidden trigger points.

There were no minor monsters here, but the weeds were taller than a person, making it difficult to walk.

After walking for about ten minutes, Chen You's ears suddenly twitched.

The wind seemed to carry an extremely faint sound of cursing.

"...Pitiful... trashy thing... I..."

The voice was intermittent but extremely familiar.

So familiar that it gave Chen You goosebumps.

He followed the direction of the sound and quickly rounded a massive weathered rock.

At the base of the mountain ahead, there was a natural depression about half a meter high.

The perimeter of the depression was overgrown with thorny black vines, blocking everything inside completely.

The cursing was coming from behind the vines.

"Great Sage?" Chen You swallowed hard and cautiously leaned in.

"Is that you? Why does your voice sound like that? Did your throat crack from not drinking water for five hundred years?"

The cursing behind the vines stopped abruptly.

After two seconds, a voice filled with caution and a hint of disbelief came from within: "Who's out there?"

Chen You froze.

This voice... why did it sound more and more like his own?

He didn't think too much, backhanded his yuhuang sword, and used the back of the blade to push aside the thorny black vines.

Moonlight shone into the depression.

Chen You saw the scene inside clearly and was struck dumb, freezing in place.

There was no monkey in the pit.

Only a head and a right hand were exposed.

That face was covered in dirt and grime, stained with dried blood, and the hair was as messy as a bird's nest.

But the facial features, and even the tiny mole at the corner of the eye, were exactly the same as Chen You's!

Not only was the face identical, but the clothes this person was wearing were none other than that costume—the moyuan star river robe!

It was just that the star river robe was now tattered and covered in dust.

Their eyes met.

The air fell into a deathly silence.

Chen You outside the mountain widened his eyes.

The Chen You under the mountain also widened his eyes.

"Holy shit!" Both of them cursed in unison.

Chen You outside the mountain suddenly took two steps back, pointing his sword tip directly at the other: "Who the hell are you? A disguise technique? Or an illusion?"

The Chen You under the mountain rolled his eyes, trying to use his only movable right hand to wipe the mud off his face.

But his wrist was stuck by a protruding rock, and he could only wave it helplessly.

"Disguise your ass!" The Chen You under the mountain cursed.

"I am you! To be precise, I am the you who got screwed over by you!"

Chen You was even more confused.

He quickly pulled up his system panel and checked his status.

Level 49, health was healthy, no illusion debuffs, and all the items in his inventory were there.

"You're me?" Chen You sneered, his eyes gradually becoming sharp.

"Fine, then tell me, what's my bank card PIN?"

"Six 8s! You hick!" The Chen You under the mountain blurted out without hesitation.