I just became the Pirate King, and you're telling me I also time-traveled at the same time.

Chapter 1099 The Humanoid Sun

At the end of the cave passage, the pearl inside the grotto was still emitting a soft, warm light.

The monk who had passed away—Yin Wuyai—was still sitting cross-legged in the center of the cave, maintaining the posture they had adopted when they left yesterday.

The golden elixir emitted an orange-red light through its shriveled abdomen, flickering like breathing.

The moment the stone stepped into the grotto, all the hairs on its body stood on end.

It wasn't out of fear, but because the spiritual energy was too strong.

At the same time, the demon bones inside its body reacted violently—one of the demon bones was absorbing spiritual energy, but the absorption speed was too fast, so fast that the stone's meridians could not withstand it.

Its body began to tremble, its legs shook, and its teeth chattered, but it did not retreat.

Its eyes were fixed on the glowing golden pill, its pupils reflecting orange-red light.

"Sit down." Chu Yang pressed Shi Tou's shoulder and made him sit cross-legged on the ground.

Follow the breathing method I taught you, don't rush.

The spiritual energy is yours; the key is to remain calm.

Stone's legs were still trembling, but it gritted its teeth and curled up its two hind legs, placing its two front paws on its knees with its palms facing up.

It closed its eyes and began to regulate its breathing according to the breathing method taught by Chu Yang.

When it inhaled the first breath of spiritual energy, its body trembled violently, as if it had been electrocuted. The spiritual energy was so concentrated that its tender meridians were under immense pressure for a moment. However, its demon bones also played a role at the same time, acting like a sponge, frantically absorbing the incoming spiritual energy.

When he exhaled the first breath, Shi Tou's body stopped trembling.

When it took its second breath, its breathing began to become even.

By the third bite, its back had straightened, its head had risen, and the pain on its face had faded, replaced by an extremely focused calm.

Sun Wukong and Chu Yang stood on either side of the stone behind it, watching its every change.

The cave was very quiet, with only the sound of the stones breathing and the extremely faint humming sound of the golden elixir circulating.

"One incense stick's time," Chu Yang said softly. "The first time, he left after one incense stick's time."

Sun Wukong nodded.

Stone had no idea what they were talking about.

It was completely immersed in breathing.

In its perception, everything around it had vanished—the Golden Core, Chu Yang, Sun Wukong—all were gone.

It felt a warm current flowing through its body, entering through its nasal cavity, passing through its chest, sinking into its dantian, and then spreading from its dantian to its limbs, flowing to the tips of its claws, and to the tip of its tail. Every inch of its body was enveloped by that warmth.

Ten thousand miles away, in the Zhenyue Hall of the Iron Sword Mountains, the red light on the Heavenly Mystery Pillar suddenly flickered.

It wasn't a normal pulsating beat, but a sudden, violent beat, as if it sensed something was changing.

Xuan Chengzi hadn't left yet when he saw that movement and frowned.

He placed his hand back on the Heavenly Mystery Pillar and closed his eyes to read the information.

A few breaths later, he opened his eyes, a very faint smile appearing on his lips.

It wasn't a happy laugh, but the kind of laugh a hunter gives when he sees the footprints of his prey.

"Someone touched Dan," he said.

Mo Yunzi stood at the entrance of the palace, the morning light shining in from behind him.

It's almost dawn.

"Chifeng and Jiang Yan have already set off," he said. "They will enter the southeastern coastal area before sunset today."

Xuan Chengzi nodded and removed his hand from the Heavenly Mystery Pillar.

Three more burn marks appeared on his fingertips, deeper than the ones from last night, but he glanced at them and tucked them into his sleeve.

"Keep the Heavenly Mystery Pillar running," he said, "and record the changes in the elixir energy every half hour."

"The person who touched Dan," he paused, looking out the window at the rising sun, "probably doesn't know what he's gotten himself into."

The arrival of Master Chifeng and Jiang Yan on the southeastern coast of Dongsheng Shenzhou was three days later than Mo Yunzi had predicted.

It wasn't that we encountered trouble on the road, but rather that the Soul-Chasing Order was misdirecting.

The day after they left the Iron Sword Mountains, they entered the southeastern coastal area, but the pointer on the Soul Chasing Order kept swinging, sometimes pointing due east, sometimes deviating to the southeast, and sometimes trembling back and forth between the two directions, as if something was interfering with its judgment.

Master Chifeng had lived for three thousand years and used the Soul-Chasing Token no less than a hundred times, but he had never seen anything like this before.

"The elixir energy is unstable," he said to Jiang Yan on a flying boat crossing the sea.

The flying boat is a specially made flying artifact of the Tiangang Sect. It is shaped like a willow leaf, and is entirely silver-white. It flies silently and leaves no trace when passing through the clouds.

The deck of the airship was engraved with windproof patterns. When the wind from the sea reached the edge of the deck, it was blocked by an invisible barrier, leaving only the howling wind echoing outside the barrier.

"The golden core has been tampered with, and more than once."

Each time it is disturbed, the elixir energy fluctuates, and the Soul-Chasing Token will re-lock onto its direction.

Jiang Yan stood at the bow of the flying boat, his hands behind his back. The sea breeze could not stir his robes or his hair—a very thin layer of protective true energy surrounded his body, enveloping him completely.

His face was delicate to the point of being aloof; his features were regular but unremarkable, the kind you wouldn't remember after one glance.

I can't remember their face even after looking at them twice.

But his eyes are different.

His eyes were light gray, with a ring of very fine gold lines in the pupils that would shimmer slightly in the light, like two tiny gold gears embedded in his eyes.

That is the Barrier-Breaking Eye—in the ten thousand years since the founding of the Heavenly Gang Sect, he is the second person to cultivate this divine ability.

"We've been circling the southeast coast for two days now," Jiang Yan said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion. "If the elixir energy continues to fluctuate, the Soul-Chasing Token will continue to activate."

Is there any other way?

Master Chifeng took out the Soul-Chasing Token from his sleeve.

The Soul-Chasing Token is a palm-sized black token with the mountain-shaped logo of the Tiangang Sect engraved on the front and a smooth, mirror-like surface on the back.

At that moment, a thin red line was slowly rotating on the mirror, like the pointer of a compass, but the direction of rotation was uncertain, and it would shake every few rotations.

"Yes." Master Chifeng turned the Soul-Chasing Token over and showed Jiang Yan the mountain-shaped symbol on the front of the token.

Below the mountain-shaped sign are three tiny bright spots, two white and one red.

"When we flew over that area of ​​the sea yesterday, the red one lit up briefly."

The elixir's energy is underwater.

Jiang Yan looked down.

"Then let's go into the water."

"The sea area is too large." Master Chifeng put away the Soul-Chasing Token and pointed to the sea in front of the flying boat.

The sea is dotted with islands of all sizes. Some islands are covered with green vegetation, while others are just bare reefs, with waves crashing against them and breaking into white foam.

"The area where the elixir energy is most concentrated is about two hundred miles in circumference, and there are thousands of islands within this area."

We'll have to investigate each one individually; it'll take at least a month.

Jiang Yan remained silent.

He turned his gaze away from the sea, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the golden lines in his pupils lit up.

When the Barrier-Breaking Eye was activated, his vision completely changed—the water vapor rising from the sea surface turned into a pale blue stream of air, and the vegetation on the island emitted varying shades of green light, with each ray of light corresponding to a different concentration of spiritual energy.

He slowly turned his head, scanning the sea in front of him like a scanner scanning a huge map.

His self-illumination stopped when it swept across an island in the southeast.

The island wasn't large; from the airship's height, its outline resembled an irregularly shaped peach.

In the center of the island stands a mountain, not very high, but its summit is shrouded in a layer of pale golden light. This light is extremely thin and does not exist in the eyes of ordinary cultivators, but in the vision of the Barrier-Breaking Eye, it appears as a golden veil covering the entire mountain, from the summit to the foot of the mountain, and from the foot of the mountain to the coastline. The entire island is covered by this extremely faint golden light.

"That island," Jiang Yan pointed to the island, "the whole island is glowing."

It's not a natural aura; it's man-made. Something underground has been continuously releasing aura for at least several thousand years, enough to completely saturate the soil and water of the entire island.

Master Chifeng looked in the direction Jiang Yan pointed.

His cultivation level was much higher than Jiang Yan's, and he could sense the unusual concentration of spiritual energy on the island without using his Breaking Eyes.

He reached out and patted the rudder of the airship, and the airship silently changed direction and flew towards the island.

Huaguo Mountain lay quietly under the midday sun.

When the flying boat hovered directly above the island, Master Chifeng looked down.

He saw waterfalls, pools, peach orchards, and monkeys running around scattered on the flat ground.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the peach tree at the edge of the peach grove that had been snapped in half—the break was fresh, the white wood shavings hadn't dried yet, indicating that the tree had only been broken in the last few days.

"Someone has done something here," he said.

The flying boat descended slowly, passing through the clouds, and the entire view of Flower Fruit Mountain became clearer and clearer.

The monkeys were the first to spot the strange object in the sky. A small female monkey with unusually large ears was picking wild fruit at the edge of the peach orchard when she heard the sound of wind pressure overhead. She looked up and saw a silver object shaped like a willow leaf descending.

It paused for a moment, then dropped the wild fruit and ran towards the pool while screaming.

The screams echoed throughout the entire troop of monkeys within moments.

Monkeys emerged from the trees, the water's edge, and the caves, looking up at the silver object.

Stone was practicing boxing with a dozen young monkeys on the flat ground when he heard the screams. He stopped his stance, looked up, and then turned and ran towards the waterfall.

It ran very fast, on all fours, each step sending stones flying.

Sun Wukong and Chu Yang were by the pool.

Sun Wukong was sitting cross-legged on his big rock, holding a peach in his hand. He took a bite, and peach juice dripped down the corner of his mouth. He wiped it with his sleeve and continued to bite.

Chu Yang stood on the other side of the pool, bending down to wash his dagger—the dagger was already clean, he just habitually put the blade in the running water to rinse it, watching the water flow on the blade separate and then close again.

They both heard the sound of Stone's footsteps rushing out of the peach grove.

Stone ran to the edge of the pool, its two front paws gesturing rapidly, pointing to the sky, and making short "squeak" sounds.

Chu Yang looked up and saw the descending airship.

Sunlight shone on the silver hull of the flying boat, reflecting a dazzling white light that cast a moving shadow on the surface of the pool.

Sun Wukong saw it too.

He casually tossed the peach pit in his hand; it bounced three times on the water's surface before sinking.

"Someone's coming," he said, his tone unhurried, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

But when he stood up, the golden cudgel had already slipped out of his ear, as thin as a needle tip, and with a turn in his palm, it turned into an iron rod as thick as his wrist.

The airship stopped at a height of about fifty feet above the ground.

Then the two of them jumped off the flying boat and landed directly without using any magical artifacts.

The taller one landed first, his feet stepping onto the gravel slope. The gravel couldn't withstand the impact of his landing, and it exploded outwards from the soles of his feet. The flying stone dust was blown by the wind, revealing a pair of black boots.

The shorter one landed next, silently, like a leaf floating on the water.

After regaining his footing, Master Chifeng patted the stone dust off his shoulders and looked around at his surroundings.

Peach orchard, waterfall, monkeys.

His gaze lingered on Chu Yang for a moment, then on Sun Wukong, before finally passing over them and looking at the mountain wall behind the waterfall.

He sensed it—something inside the mountain wall was releasing spiritual energy at an extremely slow pace.

The rhythm was stable, and the frequency perfectly matched the red light pulses recorded on the Heavenly Pillar.

"Found it," he said, his voice carrying the calmness of someone who had confirmed the location of their prey.

Jiang Yan stood half a step behind him, the golden lines in his eyes still glowing faintly.

The barrier-breaking pupils swept over everyone present.

Ordinary people have a pale white aura, cultivators have a pale blue aura, and demon cultivators have a pale purple aura.

His self-glow paused for a moment when it swept over Chu Yang. Chu Yang's aura was very strange. It was neither a pure cultivator's aura nor a demonic aura, but a mixture he had never seen before. It was like a layer of light blue light wrapped in a layer of gray mist, with a few extremely fine silver threads mixed in with the gray mist.

Then he looked at Sun Wukong, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

In his vision through his penetrating pupils, Sun Wukong stood there like a human-shaped sun.

It's not an exaggeration; it's literally a description of how Sun Wukong's body was enveloped in a layer of intense, almost tangible, golden light. This light wasn't radiating outwards, but rather drawing inwards, like a supernova that might explode at any moment, temporarily compressing all its energy within its core.

Jiang Yan has cultivated for a hundred years and has seen countless masters, but he has never seen any creature with such a strong aura.

His Eye of Penetration couldn't even look directly at Sun Wukong for more than three breaths. When he looked at him for the third breath, his eyes began to sting, and tears welled up involuntarily. He had to turn his head away and retract his Eye of Penetration.

"That monkey," Jiang Yan said in a low voice, "is not an ordinary monkey."

Master Chifeng heard it.

His gaze swept over Sun Wukong once more, this time with the seriousness of assessing an opponent.