At a depth of one hundred thousand zhang in the East Sea abyss, nine black ice pillars suddenly shattered. The glazed cup in Ao Guang's hand dropped and smashed to pieces, the fine wine splashing onto the coral floor and corroding it into wisps of green smoke—the wine had been spiked with the Dragon-Dissolving Powder of Kunlun, a secret medicine originally bestowed by the Jade Emperor to suppress the divine iron.
"Bring the Dragon-Bone Whip!" The Dragon King's voice rolled like thunder in his throat, and eighty thousand Jiaolong Guards formed the Nine-Palace Spirit-Locking Formation. Under the dim light of the night-pearls, one could see the empty eye sockets of these dragon soldiers; their dragon tendons had been replaced with Immortal-Binding Ropes, clearly transformed into puppets through the extraction of their souls. A patrol yaksha tremblingly presented the divine whip refined from the remains of the Ancestral Dragon, its nine sections matching the movement of the celestial constellations, with the skull of a Daluo Golden Immortal embedded in each joint.
At the bottom of the abyss, the primordial spirit of Sun Wukong, transformed into a crimson-gold fireball, was scorching the black ice. Scarlet blood seeped through the cracks in the ice—it was the drained lifeblood of the monkeys of Flower-Fruit Mountain! The Fiery Eyes of Truth pierced the pitch-black seawater, revealing nine chains winding around the surface of the Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle—each chain forged from the spinal cords of the seventy-two cave demon kings, with Purple Cloud Copper Nails unique to Flower-Fruit Mountain driven into the joints, the nail heads covered in Sanskrit inscriptions reading "Suppressed for Eternity."
"Old Mudfish Ao Guang!" The Monkey King laughed in fury, his primordial spirit's phantom swelling to ten thousand zhang. The baleful energy of five hundred years of imprisonment turned into Karmic Fire-Burning Heavens, actually boiling away a hundred miles of the East Sea into a vacuum. As the black ice chains snapped inch by inch, crimson magma surged from the seabed fissures, solidifying in mid-air into ancient thunder patterns: "King Yu harnessed the floods, measuring the four seas; the divine iron returns to its place, resetting the universe."
The Dragon King lashed his whip toward the restless divine iron, and within the whip's shadow stained by dragon blood, the souls of three thousand aquatic beings emerged. Those merfolk whose tendons had been pulled and skin stripped, those turtle prime ministers whose eyes had been gouged out, wailed as they lunged at the Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle. Yet the divine iron suddenly shrank to the size of an embroidery needle, its shaft displaying the totem of subduing Wuzhiqi from the days of King Yu's flood control; dodging the whip's tip, it thrust straight toward the Dragon King's glabella.
At the critical moment, seven beams of precious light descended from the surface of the sea. Li Jing's furious roar shattered a hundred miles of coral: "Rebellious monkey, do not be arrogant!" Golden demon-subduing light shot from the base of the Exquisite Pagoda, and the soul-capturing bells hanging from the eaves chimed, each ring extracting a wisp of a Flower-Fruit Mountain monkey's soul. Ten thousand demon souls inside the pagoda suddenly rioted, gnawing at the Buddhist charms imprisoning them—those were actually the refined residual souls of great demon sages!
Taking advantage of the moment, Sun Wukong grasped the shrunken divine iron, his fingertips touching the sunken inscriptions on the shaft. The cinnabar mark from when his name was struck from the Book of Life and Death five hundred years ago suddenly surfaced, resonating with the magma of the East Sea abyss. The Ruyi Jingu Bang grew instantly in the wind, and the nine broken black ice chains condensed into the phantom of a sea-covering dragon, its eyes glowing with the clouds of Flower-Fruit Mountain.
"So that's how it is!" Golden light surged in the monkey's eyes. With a single swing of his rod, the East Sea split in two, revealing the true face of the seabed blood-sacrifice formation: one hundred thousand boys and girls were nailed to the blood-red coral, their chests pierced with soul-suppressing nails carved with the character "Li." Their souls converged into a river along the coral roots, continuously pouring into the base of the Exquisite Pagoda—what was suppressed inside that pagoda was no demon or monster, but the deep-seated grievances of those who died in the Conferment of the Gods!
Ao Guang's dragon horns suddenly snapped, and the essential blood he spat out condensed into a blood-red talisman in mid-air. Thunder clouds churned over the Thirty-Three Heavens as a beam of green light shot from the top of the Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle, piercing straight through the nine firmaments. The phantom of King Yu that appeared in the light raised his hand and tore apart the divine thunder of the nine heavens, recreating the scene of measuring the four seas with his square and compass: "Rivers change their courses, the fault lies not in the streams; the Heavenly Court is corrupt, it must be broken down and rebuilt!"
The pillars of the Crystal Palace fractured, and the shrimp soldiers and crab generals melted into pus and blood. Treading upon the Jiaolong phantom, Sun Wukong pointed his Ruyi Jingu Bang at the trembling Dragon King: "Old neighbor, I accept this generous gift!" Wherever the wind of the rod swept, ancient murals emerged on the jade walls of the Dragon Palace—when Nuwa was mending the heavens, half of a Five-Colored Stone had fallen into the East Sea, transforming into this Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle!
A sound like tearing silk suddenly came from the seabed, and a corner of the Universal Heaven Ribbon emerged from the void. Nezha's stern shout pierced the water curtain: "Li Jing! You would even plot against your own flesh and blood!" The afterwave of the Fire-Tip Spear swept past, causing half of Madam Yin's embroidered handkerchief to drop from the base of the Exquisite Pagoda; the blood-written words "Nezha, my son" on the handkerchief were not yet dry.
Sun Wukong's fangs gnashed audibly, and the hairs on the back of his neck transformed into thirty-six thousand golden needles, driving into the ley lines of the Dragon Palace like a torrential rain. Every needle was engraved with the names of the monkey clan of Flower-Fruit Mountain, staining the spiritual energy of the East Sea with a vengeful crimson gold. From the direction of Yaochi, the mournful sound of chime bells suddenly rang out, and the nine-phoenix glazed screen most treasured by the Queen Mother exploded into pieces—on the back of that screen, a rub of the Mending Heaven Stone stolen from Nuwa Palace was hidden!
"The good show is only just beginning..." The moment the Monkey King's primordial spirit returned to its place, monstrous qi soared into the sky from the ruins of the Mountain of Five Elements. Rulai's chanting stopped abruptly in the clouds, the water in the Lingshan Merit Pool suddenly boiled, and cracks appeared simultaneously on the golden bodies of the Eight Hundred Luohans. And the Eye of Guixu at the very depths of the East Sea was slowly opening at that moment—within that giant eye reflected the cold light of Yang Jian's Three-pointed Double-edged Blade as he cleaved the mountain to save his mother!