Chapter 677: Just A Thank You?

After arriving at the hidden site of some ruins, Chu Liang's group could finally take a breather. Xu Ziyang placed the totally black Golden Toad on the ground. Black bubbles were still forming all over its skin.

The Golden Toad appeared to be in a deep slumber.

Princess Liange gazed at it with great sympathy. "It must be in so much pain."

"I'll try to help it now," Chu Liang replied.

He turned over his hand and took out the Poison-Expulsion Whip.

The moment Princess Liange saw the whip, her eyes reddened.

I knew it! They're not good people.

Who uses a whip to eliminate poison? Are you trying to eliminate the poison or eliminate the Golden Toad?

Princess Liange mustered the courage and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, Princess," Chu Liang reassured her.

He gave the whip a flick.

Snap!

Whoosh.

A cloud of black qi rose from the Golden Toad and into the air.

Chu Liang hadn't used the Poison-Expulsion Whip for six years, but it worked instantly, living up to his reputation as The Young Hero with the Divine Whip.

When Princess Liange saw that, her first thought was,

You whipped it so hard it's emitting smoke...

However, she then realized it wasn't quite like what she thought. The smoke seemed toxic.

Chu Liang whipped the Golden Toad five more times, and the color of the Golden Toad's skin gradually became lighter. It swiftly recovered its brilliant golden glow.

The Golden Toad's large eyelids twitched, and its belly swelled, producing a low rumble like distant thunder.

"

Guuu...

"

Moments later, the spirit beast fully awakened.

"

Gu!

"

Upon opening its eyes, the first thing it did was gaze at Chu Liang.

"Guuuuuu!!"

"It's thanking you!" Princess Liange exclaimed.

She smiled embarrassedly, feeling guilty for having misunderstood Chu Liang earlier.

"Really?" Chu Liang stepped closer, gently rubbing the rough back of the Golden Toad with a smile. "All I get is a thank you? I heard that you have a belly full of treasure. Aren't you going to let me see for myself?"

The Golden Toad let out more thunderous croaking. "

Guuguu!

"

"It says yes!" Princess Liange translated. "As long as you feed it a spirit plant, it will give you a valuable item."

Chu Liang blinked. "..."

This feels more like a trade than an expression of gratitude.

Nevertheless, he had heard that trading with the Golden Toad never led to losses, only gains. In that case, there was no harm in trying. After all, one spirit plant wasn't much. He had plenty stocked up in his storage tool anyway.

With that thought, Chu Liang took out a spirit plant and fed it to the Golden Toad.

"

Guuuuuu!

"

The Golden Toad's belly swelled dramatically, and it held its breath like that for a moment. Then it opened its mouth wide and spat out a ball of golden light.

Whoosh.

Chu Liang caught the ball of light. When the light faded, he found three smooth, yellow beads resting on his palm. Seeing the beads, he suddenly understood how to use them. It was as if he had been given a boost in intelligence along with his good fortune.

The enchanted artifact was called Bewildering Beads. When thrown together, the three beads had the effect of disorienting the target's senses and divine sense, preventing them from being aware of their surroundings for a short time.

At that moment, Chu Liang felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Why does this Golden Toad's treasure exchange seem pretty similar to my White Pagoda's reward system?

The only difference is that the Golden Toad requires me to supply treasures of nature, while the White Pagoda requires me to supply golden imprints, which I can only obtain by slaying demons and monsters.

Is there some connection between the two?

Nonetheless, the White Pagoda was Chu Liang's greatest secret, so he didn't show any joy at obtaining the enchanted artifact.

Instead, he asked, "Where do all the treasures of nature that the Golden Toad swallows go? Its cultivation level isn't that high, so it probably isn't absorbing them... Where do those spirit plants get absorbed?"

"I don't know..." Princess Liange looked quite puzzled as well. "I've wondered about that too. The Golden Toad's stomach probably contains a hidden realm where the exchange is completed. As for where that hidden realm appeared from, maybe the Hallowed Mother created it?"

Chu Liang wondered,

But why would the Hallowed Mother create a hidden realm like that?

Could she have foreseen her own resurrection and was gathering spiritual energy for that day? Or was there some other reason?

Chu Liang pondered for a while, but he still couldn't figure it out.

He then said to the others, "Let's make some preparations. We need to expose the Sea Master's scheme to the sea demons. They must not be tricked into continuing this meaningless war."

...

"It's missing?"

Demon King Changfeng furrowed his eyebrows.

His qi fluctuated chaotically as he leaned backward onto a massive azure lake. Changfeng's upper body remained in human form while his lower body soaked in the water, his huge gorgeous purple tail faintly visible beneath the surface.

Caiyi was in a slightly better state, managing to keep her qi under control. She stood on the shore, clutching a jade slip in her hand. Her expression was equally frigid.

She said slowly, "The jade slip from the Ruins of Return Cult says that... while the Sea Master was away, a thief broke into his home, killed his subordinates and two divine envoys, and stole the Azure Wave Lamp."

"Haha!" Changfeng was so enraged that he laughed. "It appears that it's so darn easy to sneak into the grand Ruins of Return, hey?"

They had just experienced a life-and-death battle at the Buddhist Cloud Monastery, fighting until the clouds shattered and the world around them changed colors.

Fights between the eighth-realm existences were rare, let alone chaotic clashes involving more than two of them. If this fight had taken place on land, countless innocent civilians would have suffered.

When the battle began, the only eighth-realm cultivator remaining at the Buddhist Cloud Monastery was Dhyana Master Dawu. He wielded the Great Dao of Seven Emotions, and his Brahma Sound of Wisdom was godlike. Changfeng was no match for him.

However, the ten high monks maintaining the Grand Mountain-Protecting Formation could not withstand Caiyi's assault. The monastery teetered on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, at that moment, Dhyana Master Shenyou awakened the Vajra Lion, the Buddhist Cloud Monastery's eighth-realm guardian celestial beast that had been sleeping in the sea of clouds.

The Vajra Lion had guarded the monastery for thousands of years with its immense cultivation power. With the Vajra Lion around, the two demon kings didn't have much of an advantage.

After a brief deadlock, the two demon kings figured that the Dharma Lotus Platform would soon return, so they chose to retreat. Without legendary artifacts, it was impossible for the monks to stop the two eighth-realm Eminent Ones who were determined to leave.

The battle resulted in the deaths of dozens of disciples and the collapse of half of the monastery's structures. Even the foundation holding up the sea of clouds had nearly crumbled.

Despite the apparent devastation, the actual damage to the monastery was, on the whole, not that severe. As long as the core disciples of the younger generations survived, it wouldn't take long for them to bring in new disciples to make up for ones they had lost. Rebuilding the collapsed structures and the sea of clouds' foundation would be an even easier task.

However, the battle certainly served as a great deterrent to the demons' benefit.

This marked the first time in three thousand years that the demons had launched a counterattack against the supreme immortal sects of the human realm. It was a major wake-up call for the rest of the Divine Nine.

From now on, the Divine Nine would have to reconsider whether they should take their sect's legendary artifacts out with them when they leave their sect's mountain. Even if it was unlikely they would lose their sect's legendary artifact, taking it outside meant there was a significantly increased risk their sect's mountain would get destroyed while they were gone.

Of course, the Mount Shu Sect was the exception. They had no such concerns.

Many of the older immortal sects had long since been aware of that risk. They enforced strict rules and rarely took their legendary artifacts beyond their sect grounds. The Buddhist Cloud Monastery, being one of the less experienced sects among the Divine Nine, had likely not suffered such a huge loss yet.

During the last battle at Mount Shu, the Buddhist Cloud Monastery had brought their legendary artifact to assist. It was very unlikely that any of the other sects would ever do the same.

Now, there was an even greater risk that the demon kings would launch an attack on an immortal sect when their legendary artifact was not on sect grounds. It was a very real threat that would send the Divine Nine into an era of fear, where they would avoid taking action against the demons.

This had been the primary goal behind the two demon kings' bold attack. Abbot Dayu had used the Dharma Lotus Platform to suppress the demons in the South Sea this time, but occurrences like that would now become increasingly rare.

Of course, this wasn't simply the work of the demons of the Far West. Demons and evildoers had made secret connections through some factions and then combined forces to coordinate this multi-stage attack. That was how they produced a situation where the Buddhist Cloud Monastery had to split their forces to suppress the sea demons, leaving their monastery vulnerable to being attacked by the demon kings of the Far West.

To counter this, the Divine Nine sects simply needed to unite. When one sect deployed its legendary artifact, powerful cultivators from the other sects would go over to provide support. The power of righteousness would ultimately surpass that of evildoers.

However, it was very difficult for the Divine Nine to achieve unity at the present time.

Fortunately, due to the existence of a certain Mount Shu Sect disciple, the fragile alliance among the evildoers had already begun to fracture.

"They dared to steal from us?" Changfeng sneered viciously. "It's time to teach those sea demons a lesson."