Chapter 1279: Growing Old Together
Seeing the wavering in his resolve, Earth Monkey spoke again: "Kid, disconnect. Even if you flee alone, it won't affect anything. Instead of dying here, why not go find some backup?"
Heavenly Rooster looked at Earth Monkey with suspicion, his delicate face filled with confusion. But after mulling it over, he still felt that fleeing now was the best option. Even if it took ten seconds to run to Azure Dragon's room and inform him of the situation, that would be enough to turn the tide of battle.
To put Heavenly Rooster completely at ease, Earth Monkey pulled out a cigarette on the spot and began to smoke.
"Go ahead, I won't stop you." Earth Monkey waved his hand, then flicked off some ash.
He felt that this assassination mission was strangely eerie. The two of them—himself and Earth Rooster—had seemingly useless abilities, yet they had coincidentally encountered targets they could counter.
These two twin "Heavenly" ranks, who needed to remain calm to maintain their "Faith," had been pitted against "Provocation." The moment they started arguing, all of their paired skills became unusable.
After "Lush Wood" was cast, "Wild Growth" could not follow. After "Ingenious Tools" was used, materials for "Original Material" could not be found.
Now, not only were their Dao hearts in chaos, but their own "Spiritual Sight" had revealed a critical fatal flaw.
If it had been any other "Heavenly" rank, or if the ones who had entered were two different "Earth" ranks, the difficulty of this battle would have skyrocketed.
On the other side, Heavenly Rooster, after a long internal struggle, finally sighed and said to Heavenly Monkey, who was still grappling: "You wanted to see what my third ability is, didn't you...? I'll show you now..."
As he spoke, his entire form began to change within half a second. He grew half a head taller, and his body started to expand.
In the blink of an eye, the handsome young Heavenly Rooster transformed into a scruffy, bearded uncle, even bearing some resemblance to Earth Monkey beside him.
His eyes became lecherous, acne spread across his face, and even his teeth jutted outward.
Heavenly Monkey and Earth Rooster both froze in place, their hands gripping each other's hair slowly loosening.
"Huh...?" Heavenly Monkey blinked in disbelief, feeling like her eyes were playing tricks on her. "What... are you...?"
She felt a thread snap in her mind. The "Twin Blossoms" that had connected them disappeared at that moment.
"I am Heavenly Rooster," the uncle said. "My third ability is 'Shapeshifting.'"
Heavenly Monkey was silent for a long time before slowly saying: "Are you kidding me...? You said your third ability was your ace in the hole, the one that guaranteed your current 'Heavenly' rank achievement..."
Heavenly Rooster paused. "Isn't it?"
Heavenly Monkey was momentarily speechless. She stared at the uncle before her, feeling the world spin. For decades, she had been eating and sleeping alongside a disguised uncle. They had researched the unity of yin and yang, and they had even bound their lives together with "Twin Blossoms."
Had no other "Heavenly" rank discovered this absurd, ridiculous truth?
No... how could no one have noticed?
Heavenly Dragon had "Dream Entry," Azure Dragon and Heavenly Dog had "Spiritual Hearing," Heavenly Rat had "Spiritual Scent," and Heavenly Serpent had "Mind Reading." Aside from herself... probably none of the "Heavenly" ranks were unaware.
"All of them were messing with me..." Heavenly Monkey said, trembling. "They treated me like a clown..."
Earth Rooster took the opportunity to retreat to the side, standing with Earth Monkey. They both sensed that Heavenly Monkey seemed genuinely devastated. She was shaking all over, her "Faith" collapsing entirely.
"See how the little girl looks?" Earth Rooster whispered to Earth Monkey.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"People like us always react like this when we find out our partner is ugly... Just like me..."
"Ah, alright, alright." Earth Monkey quickly cut him off. "Spare us the chatter."
"But you know what..." Earth Rooster stared at Heavenly Rooster and muttered, "A-Jin was right. Compared to some people, you actually do have some manliness."
Having revealed his true form, Heavenly Rooster stepped forward, shook his head at Heavenly Monkey, and said: "What's there to be upset about? So many of us were willing to indulge your madness, and you're still complaining? If it weren't for my 'Shapeshifting,' how would you have agreed to Azure Dragon's yin-yang unity proposal? For all these years, just to satisfy your childish vanity, I've even forgotten what I really look like. And now you're ready to drag me down to die with you..."
"You..." Heavenly Monkey grew even angrier upon hearing this. "Why didn't you say any of this when we were sleeping together, bathing together? Even when you were hurt earlier, I never thought about untying the 'Twin Blossoms'... And all this time, you were just playing me..."
"You're young, so I won't argue with you." Heavenly Rooster waved his hand. "Focus on what's important. You keep them busy here. I'll go report to Azure Dragon."
With that, he turned and left, paying no mind to Earth Rooster and Earth Monkey standing nearby.
Just as the two were hesitating over what to do, Heavenly Monkey, blinded by rage, suddenly shot forward and grabbed Heavenly Rooster's arm.
Heavenly Rooster was startled by her frantic action. "What are you doing?"
"Heavenly Rooster... you've been deceiving my feelings all along..." Heavenly Monkey said, trembling. "You said we would grow old together, die together..."
"Are you never going to let this go?" Heavenly Rooster frowned. "I've always treated you like a child and humored you in everything. My goal was to one day truly achieve yin-yang unity and then take over Azure Dragon's and Heavenly Dragon's positions. But now the situation has changed. We need to survive first. If you want to argue, we can do it later."
"No!!" Heavenly Monkey roared in fury. "You're lying to me, aren't you? This appearance of yours now is fake... It's something you deliberately showed me to make me untie the 'Twin Blossoms'..."
"You're really insane..."
Heavenly Rooster tried to shake off her hand, but found her grip was incredibly tight. At that moment, a ominous feeling crept up on him. He felt as if the "Twin Blossoms" had locked onto him again.
"You... what are you trying to do?" Heavenly Rooster stared wide-eyed. "Are you throwing away your life for this?!"
"Come on... let us grow old together..." Heavenly Monkey grinned, her eyes wide. "What we agreed on can't change... right?"
"You..."
An extraordinary surge of "Faith," mixed with rage and despair, erupted astonishingly from Heavenly Monkey. Her fingers dug into Heavenly Rooster's wrist, and her lips moved slightly:
"Twin: Wild Growth—"
The moment she spoke, both of their eyes instantly went vacant. Wrinkles crawled across their faces, and their hair cascaded down like an explosive burst of fireworks.
"Holy shit!" Earth Monkey quickly shielded Earth Rooster behind him and backed away several steps.
Neither of them had anticipated this. At best, they had hoped the two would kill each other, but now the situation seemed far stranger than mutual destruction.
Both "Heavenly" ranks twisted grotesquely. Their bones creaked and cracked as they transformed into what looked like two monsters.