The fairy maidens discussed for a while and decided to all participate, including the Third Mother who expended quite a lot of mana in the previous round as well.
Before joining the Flowers Conference, her elder brother, Erlang Shen, had carefully admonished her to make sure to pass the three challenges, and she naturally gave it her all.
"Shall we go together later?" emerged from the Turquoise Pool on a precious steed-drawn carriage, arriving in front of Yang Qinglan, Chang'e, and Li Qianxia.
"Sure." Chang'e nodded, with the beauty of the Turquoise Pool, she was indeed qualified to be her friend.
"Tsk! Monster!" Li Qianxia suddenly pointed at Li Changzhou, "We will not bully you, the topic is set by us, so you choose the finishing point of the competition!"
[It was the Turquoise Pool before, now it's your sister, I feel like you are living off women?] Guanyin said.
[Indeed, I even feed off the Bodhisattva.]
"Really?" Li Changzhou asked.
"A word once spoken can not be caught by four horses!" Li Qianxia affirmed.
The siblings had made a definite promise!
The other fairies had no objections either, even the cautious or stingy ones would not show it in front of so many people.
"Good!" Li Changzhou laughed, "I am naturally a wanderer and excel in escape skills. I don't need to exert much effort in this challenge to win, I shall 'play chess for fun' this time, as an act of mercy to all fairies!"
"Play chess for fun? Wait until you win before you say that, but there will be a time when you cry!" The grievance in Li Qianxia's words was heartfelt.
"Stop the nonsense." Chang'e said coldly, "Where to?"
Where else?
The places the Roc had seen, Li Changzhou could also reach, but if the distance was too short, 'teleportation' indeed wouldn't beat these fairies.
"Penglai?" Li Changzhou named the destination.
The fairies nodded in agreement. As for Chang'e, who asked, she acted as if it was none of her concern.
The purple-robed fairy said, "Let the sound of thunder be the command, the race starts when the thunder roars."
Li Qianxia tensed her body, white as ivory.
The other fairies also had serious expressions. Those who advanced into the third round generally had inside information and were aware of the importance of this Flowers Conference.
This was also the reason Guanyin came out to stop Sun Wukong from causing trouble.
The Queen Mother had ordered, the Mother of Lightning went forth, at that moment—
Boom!
Lightning streaked across the sky, as if tearing open a bright slot in the heavens.
A path of moonlight unfurled beneath Chang'e's feet, stretching all the way to Penglai.
The soft skin of the Flowers Fairy shattered, turning into tender petals that fluttered upwards.
The Immortal Crane spread its wings mightily, tearing through the clouds. The Nine Heavens Fairy's boundless magical power left her garments flapping wildly, unstoppable by anyone.
Boom, boom, boom!
The fairies were anxious, looking up as if the sky was falling. Among the clouds, the gigantic Golden Winged Roc obscured the sun and sky, its eyes as large as lakes, seemingly already sighting the East Sea.
With a single flap of its wings, a gale swept forth, toppling countless ancient trees and raising mounds of earth.
Leveraging the strength borrowed from the heavens and earth with each wingbeat, the Roc instantly surpassed the Nine Heavens Mystic Goddess and caught up with Chang'e, who started first.
In a short amount of time, a human immortal could burst forth with strength not inferior to an average Earth Immortal, especially for those Earth Immortals without powerful Daoist magic.
"A favorable wind takes advantage of strength, sending me to Penglai!" Amid the chanting, a gust of wind swept through, and no one was visible behind the wind.
Li Qianxia felt a rush of air close behind her, her sense of crisis surged, and she instinctively wanted to flap her wings again and burn mana.
But then she stopped.
Why be so eager? Wasn't it key to hold off the pursuers and let her brother take first place?
She halted as well, letting her Roc Body glide through the nine heavens, forcing some cloud-riding cultivators to hastily dodge.
The Roc in the sky was like a gigantic mountain range and floating island moving across, its power striking fear in the hearts of the beholders.
Yang Qinglan was also fast in using escape skills.
Having comprehended the natural world, she had become an Earth Immortal. Many nature-based spells came to her almost instinctively, easily mastered, and her technique for riding the wind and clouds could almost keep up with Chang'e.
"If it were night, hmph!" Chang'e glared at the Golden Winged Roc and the pursuer ahead, snorting coldly.
The moonlight path bore her graceful jade-like body forward, shrouded in a misty radiance, her black hair fluttering, her complexion bright as jade.
"This is just the second challenge, there will always be one we excel in." Yang Qinglan possessed a spiritual radiance at this moment.
"Didn't we agree to go together?" the Turquoise Pool drove her precious steed-drawn carriage, ending up in the last group.
This included the Third Mother, Magu, Mazu, and others.
Their cloud-riding skills were already top-notch among the female immortals, but compared to Li Qianxia and the one behind her, it was akin to the difference between amateur and professional players.
Unless they were like the Nine Heavens Mystic Goddess, who could contend with deep mana even without strong escape skills.
And Li Changzhou had already arrived.
The East Sea waves towered, the surging waves higher than mountains, and their crashing louder than thunder.
This was the Primordial East Sea, where even human immortals seemed insignificant.
[Before they arrive, let's hurry up and cultivate, the stronger we are, the better.]
[Okay.]
Li Changzhou looked down at Penglai from the air, searching for a river to 'refine blood', and turning around, he saw Sun Wukong standing behind with the Jingu Bang.
His body tensed instinctively.
◇
Tongtian River.
Guanyin glanced from atop the clouds at Sun Wukong sitting by the riverbank and shook her head slightly.
"This audacious monkey..."
◇
[This audacious monkey, I just knew it! Let alone before the Queen Mother, even if he went to the Western Heaven and saw the Tathagata, he would dare to kill someone right in front of the Buddha!] Li Changzhou thought back to the Six-Eared Macaque who was killed with a single strike, although that incident had not yet occurred.
"Sun Wukong," he said with a serious face, "what are you doing here?"
Sun Wukong's face, like the Duke of Thunder, cracked into a smile.
"Do you know the importance of the Flowers Conference? Aren't you afraid the Queen Mother will blame you!" Li Changzhou scolded.