Unlike others who had been shocked multiple times, Sun Kong was the only one who truly understood the truth behind the events that had just unfolded.
Everything before had been an act.
Aside from Wu Zhiqi replacing Zhu Bajie and the Qiankun Ring being reforged and upgraded by him to enhance its power, everything else he had said was made up on the spot.
The so-called "half-truth, half-lie" meant that his appearance had further thrown the heavenly laws into disarray, making them unpredictable even for the Sages.
The lie was that while the "Innate Sweet Ring," reforged with impure Pangu's essence blood, could indeed no longer be controlled by Nezha, it had nothing to do with any prior reckless actions.
It was merely an excuse he had fabricated to scare Nezha, Guang Chengzi, and the others.
To his surprise,
So many people had believed him!
This entire operation was, in fact, the latest of Sun Kong's "self-destructive" maneuvers, following his previous act of crying, feigning righteousness in punishing his own kin, driving away Tathagata, and being replaced by Randeng.
He called it "advanced self-destruction," which involved feigning tears, acting, and playing the riddle-man to scare others!
He certainly didn't object to Lao Zi roaring in rage at his disciple twice in a row.
Nor did he object to Yuanshi Tianzun using this opportunity to severely punish Nezha and have Taiyi Zhenren lead Nezha to apologize.
However, compared to these minor matters, Sun Kong was currently more concerned with another significant issue: this attempt at advanced self-destruction.
It had been completely unimpeded.
And it had succeeded!
"Merely altering minor causes and effects to shock ordinary people can only be considered beginner-level self-destruction, yielding initial rewards, but not the greater rewards that follow."
"As expected, this time my daring attempt, combining feigned tears, acting, and playing the riddle-man, has truly taken effect."
"Although I don't know if Lao Zi's fury was genuinely directed at me for punishing Xuandu Da Fashi and others, or for some other reason, the fact that he was shocked to this extent and such great karma was created."
"It is indeed a great achievement, and I am overjoyed!"
"I just wonder what reward the system will give me this time. To shock Lao Zi to the point of abandoning Xuandu Da Fashi and his other disciples, I believe it won't be too weak."
As Sun Kong was secretly rejoicing about his act of deceiving all beings in the Great Desolation, Three Realms, through this advanced self-destructive method, which carried immense risk.
The system's notification indeed arrived.
A reward notification!
[Ding! The host, through advanced self-destruction, has shocked the Eight Immortals of Chan Sect multiple times over, making them completely convinced that the host did not steal the treasure, nor intentionally withheld it, but genuinely considered Nezha's well-being, only to be misunderstood.]
[Consequently, the Eight Immortals of Chan Sect reported to Yuanshi Tianzun. After evaluation, Yuanshi Tianzun immediately decided to apologize to the host, offer compensation, and declare that they would never doubt the host again.]
[Reward 1: One cowardly heart of Nezha, transformed from a mischievous child into a turtle egg. With this cowardly heart, the host will be like his grand-master descending upon Nezha whenever they meet, ensuring his unconditional obedience.]
[Reward 2: The hundred percent admiration of the Eight Immortals of Chan Sect. With this admiration, the host can treat the Eight Immortals of Chan Sect as fellow disciples and trust each other implicitly.]
[Reward 3: A personal apology letter from Yuanshi Tianzun. This letter represents the apology of the entire Chan Sect to the host and also signifies his intention to ask for the host's help in teaching Nezha how to use the Innate Sweet Ring again.]
[Remark: The Innate Sweet Ring, temporarily reforged by the host, has been greatly enhanced due to the karma of Pangu's essence blood, the host, and Nezha.]
[Innate Sweet Ring: A Half-step Innate Supreme Spiritual Treasure, upgraded from the original Qiankun Ring with Pangu's essence blood, the host's karma, and Nezha's karma.]
[Advantages: Its power is ten times that of the original Qiankun Ring; it is indestructible and can smash anything.]
[Disadvantages: Due to the complex entanglement of karma, it will belong only to the host until the host later withdraws the excess karma; it will not belong to anyone else.]
Upon hearing this first round of rewards, Sun Kong could only exclaim the power of his advanced self-destructive strategy and was greatly pleased by how Chan Sect was step-by-step being drawn into his camp.
Besides that,
Sun Kong took note of the description of the Innate Sweet Ring.
Although, at present, he couldn't care less about a Qiankun Ring or a Sweet Ring; such powerful spiritual treasures were rather useless to him.
However, through this new spiritual treasure, he had glimpsed a new method of reward for shocking more people in the future.
Before this, for those below the Sage level, their spiritual treasures would either be directly rewarded to him, or he would receive other elixirs, divine abilities, spells, treasures, and so on.
As for Sages and those above, like his mother Nuwa, due to special circumstances, there were no direct rewards of spiritual treasures, but rather imitation versions, with the Moon being the initial version.
The former was good, but as Sun Kong's strength increased, it gradually became insufficient.
As for the latter, there was no need to mention it; at best, it was a reward for his monkey descendants and his second and third brothers, completely beneath Sun Kong's notice.
But the situation was different now.
It was possible to combine multiple karmic threads and upgrade a specific spiritual treasure, and as long as he didn't actively withdraw the excess karma, the spiritual treasure would always belong to him alone.
This seemed to hint that this method could be applied to other targets, non-Sages, Sages, and those above Sages, in the future.
Whether it would succeed or not was another matter.
But if it succeeded even once, the benefits would be immense.
For example, the Creation Jade Disk, the Heaven and Earth Mysterious Yellow Exquisite Pagoda, the Taiji Diagram, the Pangu Banner, the Four Swords of Zhu Xian, the Chaos Bell, the Twelve-Grade Merit Golden Lotus, the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree, the River Map and Luo Book, the Yuan Tu Abi...
"Good heavens, if such a day were to come, to obtain ownership of numerous supreme innate spiritual treasures, and even innate supreme treasures and chaotic supreme treasures, through this unconventional method."
"Wouldn't I just die laughing?"
"By then, let alone the mere Tribulation of Journey to the West, achieving Buddhahood, or becoming an ancestor, even freely roaming the Great Desolation and Three Realms, and easily defeating Hongjun Laozu, wouldn't that be just around the corner?"
"However, speaking of which, my original ambition was not this grand. I just wanted to be a well-behaved Victorious Fighting Buddha, to get a position in Spirit Mountain. How did my ambition suddenly swell like this?"
"No, no, it's better to be more low-key, with fewer fantasies and more practical actions, lest a heart demon appears unintentionally, and I can't even achieve Buddhahood, which would be disastrous."
After a period of wild fantasies that would surely shatter the common perception of outsiders, Sun Kong finally stopped indulging too much and quickly calmed himself down.
Although the ultimate outcome of these fantasies was extremely tempting, he still dared not imagine too much or too far, to the point where he couldn't stand steady on his current path.
The immediate priority.
Was not to fantasize about these things every day.
But to quickly find the last two targets: Marshal Ju Lián, the former life of Sha Wujing, and the Third Prince Dragon, the former life of Little White Dragon!
"It's a pity that my 'Marquis Wu's Seven Stars Formation' cannot calculate anything in the Heavenly Court, the New Six-Eared Macaque, or other Sages' domains. Otherwise, finding these two troublemakers wouldn't be so difficult."
"What should I do?"
As Sun Kong was pondering with a headache, a monkey reported, "The evil corpse of the Grand Pure One Sage, Lao Zi, Li Er, requests an audience!"