"Where is this?"
Darkness, silence, the unknown...
A surprised voice suddenly rang out in the void, breaking the stillness.
Feng Lin slowly opened his eyes, realizing he had somehow curled up in a dark space, so cramped that he couldn't stretch his limbs, making him feel stifled and uncomfortable.
A scene that felt strangely familiar.
He reached out and touched his surroundings, finding a hard stone shell outside, like an iron wall trapping him firmly inside.
Feng Lin pounded his fists against it repeatedly, but unfortunately, this body had just been reborn, its strength incredibly weak. After pounding for a long time, not a single crack appeared, and he couldn't budge it, so he had to give up.
He couldn't help but laugh bitterly.
I've already become an elite cultivator!
Why am I back to being reforged?
Turned into a stone monkey again?
...
A strange feeling stirred in Feng Lin's heart. His spiritual power automatically spread outward, like an invisible pair of eyes piercing through the stone wall, seeing everything outside clearly, the entire world within his perception.
On a lone cliff of a sea island, he had transformed into a large stone shaped like a monkey, standing upright, close to the ocean.
The sea breeze, carrying the salty scent of waves, rushed toward him. The air was thick with dense spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which entered his body through the stone shell as he breathed.
In an instant, Feng Lin felt an immense warmth, as if he were drawing nourishment from the mother of heaven and earth, continuously growing stronger.
Time flowed, the world aged, seasons shifted, and things changed.
Feng Lin naturally activated the method of refining essence into energy, absorbing the power of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and moon, to strengthen himself.
This was an innate instinct!
Feng Lin suddenly understood—this was the complete memory of the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey's birth, not just the fragmented scene of a mere stone monkey from before.
Spiritual energy of heaven and earth entered his body, and his form kept growing, growing, growing...
In the heavens and earth, there was an immortal stone, three zhang, six chi, and five cun in height, and two zhang and four chi in circumference. The height corresponded to the three hundred and sixty-five degrees of the celestial cycle; the circumference matched the twenty-four solar terms of the calendar. It had nine orifices and eight holes, corresponding to the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams. Around it, there were no trees to provide shade, but on either side, orchids and fungi complemented it. Since the creation of the world, it had absorbed the essence of heaven and earth, the vitality of the sun and moon. Over time, it became imbued with spiritual awareness. Inside, it nurtured an immortal embryo. One day, it burst open, producing a stone egg, round like a ball. When exposed to the wind, it transformed into a stone monkey, complete with all five senses and four limbs...
As the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was drawn in, Feng Lin's thoughts grew clearer and clearer. Countless memories surfaced in his mind without any apparent cause—these were the precious memories inherited from the genes of the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey.
It turned out that the stone monkey was merely an incomplete form of the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey, inheriting only the fragmented legacy of Sun Wukong.
Over countless years, across the vast universe, there had been many stone monkeys in the world, but only one had truly become famous.
Not every monkey was a Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!
The Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey was a spiritual being born of heaven and earth, the Heart Ape among the Four Spiritual Monkeys, endowed with extraordinary talent and infinite potential.
Only by awakening the genes of the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey could one truly step onto the righteous path of Sun Wukong's mythological journey.
Once entering this path, there was no turning back!
Unless Feng Lin later fully comprehended this path and transcended it, there was no possibility of backing out midway!
But Feng Lin didn't hesitate much. Since he had entered this path, why bother with such concerns?
A thousand words, a million phrases, all boiled down to one sentence.
Just walk forward!
In a daze, unaware of the passage of time, it felt as if he were in a state of chaos before the heavens and earth were separated.
Feng Lin's body had unknowingly grown large enough, yet it remained curled up in this cramped space, like a cage, unable to move.
It was too cramped!
So cramped that he couldn't even stretch his legs, denied any freedom.
Feng Lin mustered all his strength and furiously struck out, only to find the stone shell as hard as iron, far tougher than before, beyond imagination, impossible to budge.
He understood in his heart.
The stone shell had already been broken, but the inner barrier was hard to overcome.
To break out of a lifeless stone and become a living being—how much mental obsession was needed to reverse life and death?
To break through stubbornness, one must awaken!
Feng Lin calmed his mind. Days and months passed, stars shifted, time slipped by day after day, and the world seemed to stand still.
Mists drifted, waves crashed, surging wave after wave, washing away countless years.
A thousand years, ten thousand years... passed like flowing water.
All this changed silently, slowly, as the desolate sea island transformed into a mountain of flowers and fruits, full of birdsong and fragrance.
Feng Lin's heart gradually grew numb. Even if the scene before him was as beautiful as a fairyland, after seeing it for so long, it became tiresome and dull, plunging him into a dead stillness of the soul. He couldn't muster any spirit, gradually sinking like a stone, unable to stir a single thought.
But just as his mind was about to fall into complete stillness, an instinctive unease and sense of crisis emerged. A faint ripple stirred in the depths of his heart, gradually surging like waves.
"Wake up!" Feng Lin shouted desperately in his heart, forcing himself awake.
What's wrong with me?
He was terrified.
That state of mental stillness just now was too eerie—not a single thought stirred, as if he were becoming a stone.
If his heart died like stone, the consequences would be unimaginable.
This was a backlash from the supernatural!
Mythological genes held infinite potential, but awakening them was no simple matter.
At the moment of awakening, a vast surge of supernatural power would pour out like a flood. If one couldn't maintain clarity of mind, they couldn't withstand this immense torrent. If their will collapsed, at best they'd become an idiot; at worst, their brain would explode.
This was the backlash of the supernatural.
To wield supernatural power, to gain strength far beyond ordinary humans, one had to bear the cost.
Different mythological genes had different backlash phenomena when awakened.
Now it seemed that the petrification of the mind was the backlash of the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey's genes.
Without a sufficiently strong and stubborn obsession, how could one break through the inner barrier and emerge from the shell?
Realizing this, Feng Lin felt a chill of fear.
Thankfully, he had reacted quickly enough; otherwise, the consequences would have been dire.
This stone shell firmly bound him, unable to move. A surge of uncontrollable anger gradually settled, turning into a fierce energy filling his chest, making him want to shatter the damn shell and turn everything upside down.
After who knows how much more time, Feng Lin's face twisted with rage, and he could no longer hold back.
As great as the mind's power, so great was the strength!
"Open, now!!!" He clenched his fists like hammers and struck out with all his might.
His spiritual power infused the blows, multiplying their force!
Two times, five times, ten times...
With a crack!
He unleashed a force far greater than before, as if to destroy heaven and earth, slamming heavily into the stone shell before him.
The shell couldn't withstand it, cracking with fissures. Slivers of light streamed in, making him squint slightly.
Fresh, free air rushed in.
Feng Lin was overjoyed, wild as a demon, striking again and again, like Pangu splitting heaven and earth, breaking through the darkness before him to reveal a bright world.
The stone shell shattered with a roar.
Boom!
It was like the birth of heaven and earth, a thunderous explosion.
Within the stone shell, a world of its own, a golden light split it open. He leaped out, soaring a hundred zhang into the air, then landed firmly on a lone peak. It was a golden-furred monkey with a hairy face and a thunderous beak. He gazed in all directions, his vertical pupils blazing with golden light, like pillars piercing the heavens, penetrating everything, shaking the Three Realms.
Eyes shooting golden light, reaching the Heavenly Court!
Feng Lin suddenly recalled the omen of Sun Wukong's birth.
This was the true Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey!
This was Sun Wukong!
Now that he had awakened the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey's genes, with complete memories, he had perfectly reenacted the birth of the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey.
Roar!
As Feng Lin immersed himself in this strange transformation, a chorus of beastly roars erupted from all directions.
Startled, Feng Lin looked around and saw countless beasts charging up from the foot of the mountain, forming a tidal wave. Their eyes were fixed on him, filled with ferocity and greed, as if they had spotted some rare treasure of heaven and earth, scrambling to claim it!
Every beast's eyes showed naked covetousness, as if they would tear him apart and devour him, sending chills down his spine.
Boom, boom, boom!
The ground shook, thousands of beasts stampeded, dust and smoke billowed.
Feng Lin instinctively sensed danger. Though this was an illusion, he was still in a spiritual form. If harmed, his vital energy would suffer greatly. If devoured by these beasts, the outcome would be dire.
Who said illusions couldn't kill?
If the mind was slain, it was often more terrifying than physical harm, harder to recover from, beyond the reach of medicine.
Feng Lin hurriedly dodged, his form turning into a streak of golden light, darting away swiftly.
But the beast tide surged relentlessly, as if locked onto him, impossible to shake off no matter how fast he ran.
Feng Lin guessed the reason.
Mythological tales were just that—tales. They recorded only the general experiences of gods and demons, not all the truths.
The Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey was a spiritual monkey born of heaven and earth, a rare spiritual being!
At birth, the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey was still very weak, possessing unparalleled talent but little power.
If devoured, one could gain all its essence and undergo a transformation.
Now that the Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey had just been born, it had become a treasure in their eyes, and they couldn't wait to feast on it.
Even the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, was incredibly weak at birth—a world of survival of the fittest, full of danger!
Feng Lin's eyes gleamed with sharp light, his mind racing.
What should he do?
He was covered in golden fur, his eyes blazing with golden light—too conspicuous!
...
Suddenly, an idea struck him. A passage from *Journey to the West* surfaced in his mind.
Interstellar cultivators had incredibly powerful memories, able to recall knowledge buried deep in their minds.
"...The immortal embryo burst open one day, producing a stone egg, round like a ball. When exposed to the wind, it transformed into a stone monkey, complete with all five senses and four limbs. It then learned to crawl and walk, bowing to the four directions. Its eyes shot two beams of golden light, reaching the Heavenly Court. This startled the Great Benevolent Sage of the High Heavens, the Jade Emperor, who sat in the Golden Palace of the Cloud Palace. He summoned the immortal officials and, seeing the golden flames, ordered the Thousand-Li Eye and the Shun-Feng Ear to open the Southern Heavenly Gate and observe. The two generals obeyed, went outside, saw clearly, and heard distinctly. In a moment, they reported back: 'We observed the golden light at the border of the Eastern Continent of Superior Body, the small country of Aolai, where there is a Flower-Fruit Mountain. On the mountain, there is an immortal stone that produced an egg, which turned into a stone monkey bowing to the four directions, its eyes shooting golden light to the Heavenly Court. Now that it has drunk water and eaten food, the golden light will fade.' The Jade Emperor, showing mercy, said: 'This creature below is born of the essence of heaven and earth; it is nothing unusual.'..."
Feng Lin instantly understood and dashed toward a distant pool.
The golden light in his eyes was the overflow of his spiritual power, too pure to blend with the mundane world.
He leaped into the deep pool, soaking in the ordinary water. Drinking the water tainted his pure spirit, and the strange signs on his body naturally disappeared.
But his golden fur still shimmered, very conspicuous.
The beast tide still locked onto him, charging forward.
"Change!" A flash of inspiration struck Feng Lin. He shook his body, and his fur rapidly faded to a dull gray, turning him into a nondescript monkey that vanished into the forest.
The beasts searched for a long time without finding their target, then roared and retreated.
Deep in the forest, a gray, mud-covered monkey blinked its round, clever eyes, a look of surprise on its face.
The Spirit-Intelligent Stone Monkey: Master of transformations, knower of the times, understander of the earth, mover of stars and constellations!