Standing by the hollow of that dead tree, even Master Subhuti, with his profound cultivation and status as one of the world's top patriarch-level sages, couldn't help but show a wry smile on his face. In all these years, he had never been taken advantage of like this.
A thin, long thread, made of cotton yarn twisted with silk spun from an old silkworm's mouth, was extremely sturdy despite its thinness. It stretched from the tree hollow directly to the jade lotus platform beside the jade terrace in the Three Stars Cave, and another thread led to beneath the jade plate in his meditation room.
Through the tree hollow, the sound from the jade terrace came through clear and audible, as if it were ringing right next to one's ear.
Everything was due to this seemingly ordinary cotton thread.
No wonder that crow spirit's cultivation speed was so fast. No wonder when he saw him yesterday, he seemed to have already completed his transformation. So that's how it was.
He still had some impression of this little crow spirit because it had entered the Three Stars Cave almost at the same time as that monkey. At first, he only sensed a tiny bit of monster energy on the crow and didn't pay much attention, just treating it as a newly spiritually aware creature. In the past, it wasn't uncommon for such newly aware creatures to be attracted by the spiritual energy of the Three Stars Cave and enter the cave to listen to the teachings in a semi-instinctive, semi-confused state.
It's just that this crow's spiritual awareness seemed to be a bit more developed. So, sometimes when he was teaching, he would mention some monster cultivation methods, speaking for that crow to hear. After all, this could be considered a small act of merit.
Because for someone of his level, that crow spirit was really too insignificant. So, except for occasionally revealing some monster cultivation methods during his teachings, he didn't pay much attention to it and naturally wouldn't deduce its past and future.
After a few years passed, that crow spirit seemed to have a great increase in monster energy and could no longer enter the Three Stars Cave. The old master thought it had left Spirit Platform on Mount Fangcun and naturally didn't think more about it. Until yesterday, when he saw Wukong, he suddenly discovered it again, and what was most surprising was that this monster had already completed the transformation stage. Counting the days, from the beginning until now, it had only been just over twenty years. How could it be so fast? At that time, he started to have doubts, but he had to answer disciples' questions and teach Wukong the Somersault Cloud, so he didn't have time to deduce it. It wasn't until he had fully passed on the Somersault Cloud to Wukong that he finally had the leisure to start deducing the workings of heaven, wanting to see exactly why that crow's cultivation speed was so fast.
Unexpectedly, this deduction startled the old master.
Why?
Because the result of the deduction was that this person didn't exist!!
In other words, this little crow spirit was not within the heavenly dao, nor did it exist in this world. This scared Subhuti into a cold sweat. Although he hadn't deduced the workings of heaven for over a thousand years, it shouldn't be wrong. So, he carefully deduced again. This time, he was horrified to discover that the changes in the workings of heaven, which were usually crystal clear to these patriarch-level sages, had started to become obscure, seeming to return to the scene of the primordial chaos. And that little crow was still not included in the evolution of heaven's workings.
The workings of heaven had changed!
This was the conclusion Master Subhuti reached in that instant. And that little crow was likely the most crucial link in this change in heaven's workings. Thinking this through, he prepared to catch that little crow and question it, to see what its background was. You should know, the evolution of heaven's workings also needs data, just like mathematical deductions and inferences nowadays. If the data is incomplete, the deduced result becomes more vague; the more complete the data, the more accurate the deduced result. For a sage patriarch like Subhuti, since the primordial chaos, the evolution and changes of all things in this world had been before their eyes. It could almost be said that nothing could escape their notice. So, once they started deducing the workings of heaven, it was always successful. But Mo Xuan was different. He came from another world. Even these sage patriarchs didn't know much about his data and everything he knew. At the same time, no one would have thought of his existence. So, no matter who did the calculations, they would naturally miss him. But his appearance in this world couldn't possibly have no impact on this world. Just like the so-called butterfly effect. Although his role was very small now, even non-existent, any subtle change in this world that was not under the original order would naturally cause the entire workings of heaven to become more complex. And now, what the old master wanted to do was to catch him back, clarify his background, and then re-deduce the workings of heaven, in hopes of gaining the upper hand in the upcoming changes in heaven's workings. This kind of thing was not to be told to outsiders, so the old master came personally.
Who would have thought that after scanning the entire Spirit Platform on Mount Fangcun with his divine sense, he still couldn't find any trace of this crow. But unexpectedly, he discovered that two dead tree stumps not far from the Three Stars Cave seemed a bit odd. Coming over to look, he discovered this small eavesdropping device made by Mo Xuan and quickly discovered its function.
So, this guy had been using this kind of thing to listen to his teachings. And obviously, this little crow was not a newly spiritually aware little crow, but a creature with extremely high intelligence. There was only one reason for this situation to occur.
Parasitism.
After the death of some high-level creature, its soul had attached to this crow's body for some unknown reason. In other words, if he wanted to deduce the workings of heaven, the focus shouldn't be on the crow, but on the dead person. With this thought, Master Subhuti began to deduce again, but the result still left him disappointed.
"What exactly is going on? Among the wandering ghosts who died in the past thousand years and didn't report to the underworld, there's not a single match?" The appearance of this result made the old master feel very embarrassed. Even with his tens of thousands of years of cultivation, he couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged at this moment. And just at this time, he heard laughing sounds coming from one of the tree stumps, mixed with cries of "Good monkey, good monkey." His face changed slightly, he tapped his wooden staff, and his figure appeared on the jade terrace.
On the jade terrace at this time, quite a group of disciples had gathered, surrounding a pine tree and laughing incessantly. A burst of anger rose from the old master's heart. With his divine powers, how could he not see that the pine tree was Sun Wukong in disguise?
"This damned ape, I taught him transformation methods to avoid the three disasters, but unexpectedly he's showing off here!" For a moment, the anger that hadn't arisen for tens of thousands of years finally erupted. He snorted coldly and walked towards the jade terrace. After a round of scolding, he expelled that monkey from his tutelage.
As for Mo Xuan, after coming down from Spirit Platform on Mount Fangcun, he originally wanted to go to that Flower Fruit Mountain, wait for the monkey to return, and then secretly follow behind him to gain some benefits. However, he hadn't expected that the distance from Flower Fruit Mountain to this Spirit Platform Mountain was no less than 108,000 li. Now that his monster energy was completely depleted, where would he have extra strength to ride clouds and mists? According to his current physical condition, it would take at least five or six years of cultivation before he could achieve the level of riding clouds and mists, touring the North Sea in the morning and Cangsang in the evening. Thinking again that the time for Sun Wukong's great havoc in heaven was still early, at least ten to several decades away, so overall, time was plentiful. Why not take this opportunity to take a tour of this world and see what special features this world of gods and demons had?