Who are you calling a stable boy?!

Some say he died in battle against the progenitor of evil spirits.

Some say he completed his mission and returned to heaven.

Some people say...

He set off again, embarking once more on that wondrous journey with no end in sight.

Sounds like a nice bedtime story, right?

Good will never prevail over evil, and heroes will vanish without a trace.

So what are the facts?

hey-hey--

"Hi Hi!"

Inside the Great Sage Temple, Zheng Jing shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Old Zheng is back!"

Chapter 54: Holy crap! A stick?!

Don't misunderstand.

Zheng Jing wasn't just faking his death for fun.

He's really gone.

To be precise, it was his projection that was truly gone.

To ensure that Muzan was completely crushed and to prevent any omissions that could allow the bastard to revive, Zheng Jing used all the internal energy he had recovered during the battle in one go at the very last moment.

The passive effect of the Vajra Indestructible Divine Skill allows him to have high resistance to damage from enemies below the extraordinary level when his internal energy is insufficient.

This resistance will naturally also be effective against Muzan's poisonous blood.

But little by little, they eventually managed to take down this level two novice monk.

With the projector's demise, Zheng Jing will inevitably be affected to some extent.

His soul will be weakened for six hours as a result.

To use an analogy, Zheng Jing felt that this so-called weakness of the soul was a bit like the feeling he had when he bought ○De Gate 3, stayed up for two days straight to complete the first playthrough, and then looked at the ceiling with his hands off the mouse and keyboard.

According to the courtyard, generally speaking, a level 2 player will remain in a weakened state of soul for more than 24 planes after losing their projection.

Sufficiently high perception and intelligence, as well as certain soul-related talents, characteristics, abilities, and items, can mitigate the effects of a weakened soul state or reduce its duration.

If you wish to quickly overcome this weakness, you can choose to purchase a special type of wine from the exchange...

When Zheng Jing learned of this, he thought it was fortunate that the projection would only weaken him instead of disconnecting him from the courtyard.

In short, Zheng Jing is not planning to do anything mentally taxing for at least the next six hours.

This includes, but is not limited to, boiling oneself over a raging fire.

However, it's still fine to take a look at what I've gained!

Studies have shown that watching your savings grow can effectively cure many mental illnesses!

Zheng Jing opened the panel, pulled up the prompt bar, and started checking the accounts against the deposit interface.

The most eye-catching thing is the fee given by Muzan for his salvation, which is a whopping 9000 experience points and 5000 courtyard coins.

Below that is Akaza, who gave 6000 experience points and 3000 courtyard coins.

"Look, you, you little rascal!

Zheng Jing laughed out loud, reaching behind his waist, but found nothing.

"...Hey, what a silly thing to do."

Akaza had already seen him off for the last time under the rising sun.

Zheng Jing withdrew his hand, slapped his forehead, and the smile on his face seemed to dim slightly.

He immediately lost interest in continuing to meticulously check the accounts.

After glancing at the panel and adding up the remaining odds and ends, Zheng Jing found that he had nearly 30,000 experience points and 18,000 courtyard coins in his pocket. He then stopped looking at the panel.

Nearly 30,000 experience points and 18,000 courtyard coins seem like a lot, but actually—

It's not exactly a small number.

According to the explanation given by the courtyard regarding job levels, it seems that for most jobs, starting from level 5, the calculation method for the experience points required for leveling up will change. Compared to levels 1 to 4, more experience points are required for each level up, and some jobs may even require meeting some unique conditions.

When a character reaches level 16, they will face a bottleneck known as the "Legendary Barrier"...

Of course, those are not issues that Zheng Jing needs to consider at the moment.

With nearly 30,000 experience points, if all of them were used to upgrade his class level, theoretically he could directly raise his Monk class level to at least level 5.

The nearly 18,000 courtyard flower coins allowed Zheng Jing to directly turn his attention to the blue-quality goods on the exchange.

While the advantage of monks is that they don't have high requirements for armor and weapons, and they are often the main focus of a team, they can pick up trash and eat on their own without the others having to worry about them, that refers to monks with fixed teams.

Most lone wolf players believe in the truth that you can never have too many cards or insurance.

However, for Zheng Jing, whether it's experience points or courtyard coins, there's a better place for him to use them.

Zheng Jing's gaze fell on the option of "Exchange for Biological Products of This Dimension".

The change in this option occurred after the battle with Enmu, one of the Lower Moons.

Zheng Jing knew that he must have been dreaming at that time.

But for some reason, he had no recollection of what he had dreamed about.

After that battle, when he had some free time, Zheng Jing glanced at the notification bar on the panel and noticed this change...

However, since we can't use the stove right now, there's no rush.

There is something that might be a bit urgent.

Zheng Jing pulled out the Crimson Iron Rod from his backpack, placed it across his crossed legs, and scratched his cheek in annoyance.

In the battle against Muzan, this staff, whose quality was almost at the blue level, not only made a great contribution but also deserves high praise.

Especially considering that it withstood two extremely close-range shockwaves from Muzan alongside Zheng Jing, and only showed a few minor cracks, it was enough to demonstrate the exquisite skill and profound dedication of the craftsman who forged it.

However, this means that until a craftsman can repair it, one must be a little careful when using it in combat...

"Oh, right."

Looking at the poor kid who had only fought two battles with him and was already injured, Zheng Jing muttered something and suddenly thought of his old lover.

He put away the crimson iron rod and stood up.

His weakened soul state will affect his physical condition, but not to the point that he will be unable to perform some daily activities.

Walking to the back of the main hall, Zheng Jing opened the locked back door, pushed it open, and entered the back hall.

The old temple is not large; apart from the living quarters, it consists of only one main hall and one rear hall.

Although it's called the rear hall, it's actually more like a large enough shrine.

Within a few steps of space, there was only a stone statue, taller than a person, placed in the very center.

The stone statue looks like an unfinished rough piece.

The hands, feet, torso, and head—the posture is exactly the same as the golden statue of the Great Sage enshrined in the main hall.

But there was no face on that stone head.

Zheng Jing found the stone statue, which he had seen since childhood, unremarkable. He simply stared intently at the statue's hands.

"Where's my stick?!"

Although Zheng often tells his friends that there are no valuables in this old temple, even if it were robbed, there probably wouldn't be anything to be lost.

But there is one thing that he values ​​highly, even if his mother doesn't say it.

That is the Ruyi Jingu Bang, which is said to have been passed down from generation to generation by the temple keeper and is only brought out during the performance of the Monkey King play.

Of course, while it's called the Ruyi Jingu Bang (the magic staff), it's actually just a prop from the Monkey King movie.

It is said that every generation of temple keepers has used this golden cudgel in the Monkey King play, and over the years, it has become a family heirloom.

Zheng Jing wasn't quite sure how long his family's carrying pole had been around, but he had indeed been using it to learn the Monkey King opera from his mother since he was a child.

When Zheng Jing returned from the hospital, he assumed his brother had put the golden cudgel back in its place and even thoughtfully relocked it, so he didn't think much of it.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered that their own stick had disappeared.

No, even if you were to sell that thing for money, how many coins could you get?

Chapter 55: Snowfall Followed by Clear Skies

Zheng Jing quickly ran into the room and retrieved his phone.

He opened QQ and immediately found the brother he had set as a special contact. He noticed there were still unread messages. Zheng Jing opened them and saw that his brother was asking him how he was doing.

However, by the time the message arrived, he had already gone to Tanjiro's side again.

[Truly a master of slacking off]: You've woken me up, you need to grant me three wishes.

[Quick Snow Clears Up]: ?

【Quick Snow After Clearing】: You've been too kind to me today, haven't you? You stinky monkey, believe it or not, I'll make you fly right now!

[Truly a master of slacking off]: If you're not satisfied, just say so. Why be so fierce? Sigh, back in school I called him "good brother," now I call him "stinky monkey"...

【快雪时晴】: You wait.

[Truly a master of slacking off]: No, no, no, it's only a few o'clock. If you really start now, the neighbors will see you and they'll talk about you for days.

【快雪时晴】：Wait.

[Truly a master of slacking off]: No, sister, please don't! It's not convenient right now!

[Quick Snow Clears Up]: ?

【快雪时晴】: What do you mean by "it's inconvenient right now"?

【快雪时晴】：I'll be there soon.

"hiss......"

Zheng Jing held his phone, scratching his head in frustration.

He was just teasing the other person out of habit, but he didn't expect the other person to get so easily angered today.

That's not right. He helped me practice Qi cultivation for over twenty years. It couldn't have been for nothing, could it?

Fine, let them come.

It's not that inconvenient.

Thinking of this, Zheng Jing casually put his phone in his pocket, first locked the door to the back hall again, then went into the kitchen, boiled water, opened the cabinet, hesitated between Tieguanyin, rock tea, and white tea, and finally took out the jar containing rock tea, grabbed a small handful and put it into the teapot.

He looked up at the clock in the kitchen.

Due to the difference in the flow of time between the two dimensions, he stayed there for so long, while it was only four o'clock the next morning back home.

Have you ever seen Liquan City at 4 a.m.?

It's nothing, I just wanted to tell you that it's practically impossible to find a place to buy breakfast at this time of day.

Take six eggs out of the refrigerator, put them into a small pot of water, then put in a small tea bag containing a pinch of broken tea leaves, and turn on the heat.

After finishing all that, Zheng Jing left the kitchen, stretched in front of the still-dark sky, found a pillar, closed his eyes, and leaned against it.

After a fierce battle, one's soul is weakened, and even with his vitality, he would want to close his eyes and rest for a moment.

"..."

After resting for a while, Zheng Jing suddenly opened his eyes and went back into the kitchen.

He took out the tea egg and put it into the prepared cold water, then poured boiling water into the teapot to brew the rock tea. He reached out, opened the sterilizer, and took out the blue and white mug.

A few minutes later, holding a steaming cup of black tea and two tea eggs between his fingers, Zheng Jing left the kitchen and headed towards the temple gate.

"Dong dong!"

Before Zheng Jing could even stand firmly at the temple gate, there were two hurried knocks on the other side.

Zheng Jing used his free hand to lift the door latch.