In less than a nano-second, the world snapped back.
The silent, frozen tableau of the temple courtyard fractured into a cacophony of motion and sound. The last word Jack heard before the torrent of memories was the first he heard upon his return—Cheng Wudao's desperate shout.
"—wait!"
Jack came to his senses instantly. He looked down at his hand, the one that had just held the golden headband. It was empty. The sacred relic had vanished the moment he touched it.
Cheng Wudao, stumbling forward, also saw Jack's empty hand. The realization hit him like a physical blow. The relic was gone.
"What did you just do?!" he roared, his voice raw with anger and disbelief.
Jack turned to him, a serene, almost beatific smile on his face. He pressed his palms together in a mock prayer. "Amitābha," he said, his tone dripping with unholy piety. "A monk shouldn't raise their voice like my step-mom."
Wudao's face flushed a deep crimson. He inhaled sharply, forcing the word out through clenched teeth, "Amitābha." He was trying, desperately, to keep his anger in check.
"Good," Jack said, patting him on the shoulder like a proud teacher. "Now, as for where your sacred relic went… I absorbed it."
"WHAT?!" Wudao's control shattered. The shout was so loud it sent a flock of birds scattering from the temple eaves.
Jack held a hand to his ear with a wince. "Calm down. At this point, you'll learn how to do the Lion's Roar with all that shouting." He grinned, his tail flicking lazily behind him. "Anyway, the thing you were guarding was one of my fragments. In a sense, it's like you were holding a part of me in prison." His grin widened into something wicked. "I should thank you for that, really. I couldn't have unsealed it without your little dance. Kekekeke."
With that, Jack turned and strolled casually toward the giant snake demon, which was still pinned helplessly to the ground by the colossal Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Cheng Wudao stood frozen, Jack's words echoing in his mind. He tried to reflect on what had just happened, his entire worldview crumbling around him. This whole time… the sacred relic his temple had guarded for generations, the object of their highest reverence… had not been sacred at all. It had been a prison. And he, with his own hands, with the footwork passed down by his master, had just unlocked the cage.
Jack strolled toward the colossal staff, the snake demon still writhing and hissing beneath it, its one good eye burning with impotent rage. "Alright, Ruyi," Jack said, patting the massive pillar as if it were a loyal dog. "Playtime's over for you. My turn now."
With a single, effortless tug, he pulled the Ruyi Jingu Bang free. The staff shrank instantly, returning to a comfortable size in his hand.
Freed, the snake demon roared, lunging at him with the speed of an avalanche. Its fangs, dripping with black venom, were aimed straight for Jack's throat.
But this was a different Jack. The fragment of the Great Sage's soul hummed within him, a chaotic symphony of ancient power. He didn't dodge. He simply shifted his weight, and reality seemed to bend around him. The snake's attack missed by a hair's breadth, its massive head crashing into the temple wall behind him, sending stone and dust flying.
"Whoa," Jack muttered to himself, looking at his own hands with a newfound sense of wonder. "Okay. That was new." He felt faster, stronger, his senses sharpened to a razor's edge. He grinned. "This is gonna be fun."
The snake recoiled, shaking its head, and struck again, this time with its tail, a whip-like blow that could shatter mountains. Jack met it with his staff.
CLANG.
The sound was not just metal on scale. It was a shockwave. The force of the impact sent the snake's tail flying back, its scales cracking under the blow. The demon hissed in pain, surprised by the sheer power behind the seemingly casual block.
"Note to self," Jack said aloud, his grin widening. "My new default setting is 'overkill.' Good to know."
He fell into a fighting stance—not his usual sloppy, unpredictable brawl, but something else. Something ancient. His knees bent, his back straightened, and his staff flowed into position with a grace his body had never known before. It was the stance he had seen his past self use against Ares.
The snake demon hesitated, its animal instincts screaming at it. The presence before it had changed. It was no longer just a chaotic trickster; it was a warrior born from legend.
Jack laughed, a wild, joyous sound. "Let's see… what did I do to that Musclehead? Oh yeah, this."
He lunged forward, his staff a blur. He feigned a high strike, then, just as the snake reacted, the staff in his hand dissolved into a single strand of hair. The real Ruyi Jingu Bang materialized in his other hand, striking the demon from below in a brutal uppercut to its jaw.
CRACK.
The demon's head snapped back, its massive body lifted from the ground before crashing back down with a thunderous thud. It writhed in pain, confused and disoriented.
"Kekekeke, works every time!" Jack cackled, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
He wasn't just fighting anymore. He was remembering. He was experimenting. The memories from the fragment weren't just stories; they were muscle memory, instincts, techniques buried in his soul, now bubbling to the surface.
The snake, desperate and furious, coiled its body and unleashed its final attack. It spat a torrent of corrosive venom, a black river of death that sizzled as it flew through the air, melting the very stone it passed over.
Jack's eyes gleamed. He recalled the memory of the Dragon King's Palace, the immense pressure of the deep sea. He channeled his own divine aura, not to attack, but to command. He pushed his will outward, and the very air around the venomous blast thickened, becoming as heavy and dense as the ocean's floor.
The stream of venom slowed, struggling against the invisible weight, before falling harmlessly to the ground, where it ate through the ancient stone, leaving a smoking, blackened scar.
The snake demon stared in disbelief. Its ultimate weapon, rendered useless.
Jack stood over it, his staff resting on his shoulder. His chaotic energy was now a focused, burning star. He had not just won. He had understood.
"Well," he said, a final, unhinged grin on his face. "That was a productive training session. Thanks for being my divine punching bag." He leaned down. "I'll send you a thank-you card. Or a handbag. Haven't decided yet."
With a final, decisive blow, Jack brought the Ruyi Jingu Bang down upon the snake demon's skull. The sound was not a crack, but a wet, sickening crunch. The demon's massive body convulsed one last time, and then, with a final hiss, it went still.
A torrent of black, viscous blood erupted from the wound, splurging outward and upward like a macabre fountain before raining down upon the devastated courtyard.
Jack stood motionless in the downpour, his staff resting casually on his shoulder. He held his other hand out, palm up, feeling the thick, warm droplets splatter against his skin as if he were simply checking for a spring shower.
From the entrance of the vault, Cheng Wudao watched, his heart hammering against his ribs. He saw the serene, almost bored expression on Jack's face as he stood amidst the carnage. He saw a being of ultimate power, a guardian who met evil not with appeasement or sacrifice, but with absolute, unflinching annihilation. In that moment, Wudao's own decision—to offer up the sacred relic, to bargain with a demon to save his home—felt like the most profound act of cowardice. He didn't want to be the man who bartered. He wanted to be the man who protected. He wanted to be strong, not for himself, but strong enough to defend his home, his brothers… strong enough to stand in the rain of blood and not flinch.
As the gory downpour subsided, the sky filled with the soft whisper of wind. Jack's clones descended from the heavens on their Zephyr clouds, carrying the evacuated monks. They landed gently in the ruined courtyard, their faces a mixture of awe, terror, and profound confusion.
Jack turned to them, his white and yellow hanfu now drenched in the demon's black blood. "Ohh, hey baldies," he said with a cheerful wave. "Sorry about the temple, but at least I already handled the culprit who destroyed it."
Then, like a child who had just won a playground scuffle, he walked over to the snake demon's massive corpse and gave it a solid kick.
"Kekekekeke," he laughed, the sound echoing strangely in the solemn silence.
One by one, the monks disembarked from the clouds. As the last monk's feet touched the ground, the clones dissolved into shimmering strands of hair that were swept away by the wind.
The Abbot's gaze fell upon the open vault, his face paling. "What have you done?" he asked, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and reverence.
Jack pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Wudao. "Don't look at me. It was your muscle-head monk who opened it. I just stole the thing. Kekekeke."
All eyes turned to Cheng Wudao as he emerged from the vault, his face a mask of grim determination.
"Junior Brother, what have you done?" the Abbot pressed, stepping toward him. "Where is the sacred relic?"
But Wudao didn't react. He kept walking, his gaze fixed on Jack. He walked past the Abbot. He walked past his stunned brothers. He stopped directly in front of Jack, the chaos-bringer, the god, the monster.
"What?" Jack said, a taunting smirk on his face. "I didn't steal it. You guys were the ones who imprisoned my fragment."
Then, Cheng Wudao did something that sent a shockwave through the entire Hidden Headband Temple. He dropped to his knees, his forehead touching the blood-soaked stone in a deep, formal kowtow.
"Take me as your disciple."
…
Meanwhile, halfway across the world, on the sun-drenched, blooming shores of Krakoa, a very different kind of teaching was taking place.
"Move faster, you oversized salad!" a clone of Jack yelled, chasing the sentient island's petal-humanoid form through a dense jungle. He wielded a long, hardened vine like a switch, smacking Krakoa soundly on its leafy backside with every step.
WHAP!
"Ow! Master, what was that for?!" Krakoa yelped, stumbling over a root that it had created itself.
"That was for letting your Qi leak out like a punctured water balloon!" the clone shouted, his voice echoing through the trees. He pointed the vine-stick accusingly. "Your energy control is a joke! You have to learn to differentiate between your own internal flow and the external energy of the world around you!"
WHAP! He smacked Krakoa on the head this time.
"That itch you feel on your western shore? That's not you! That's the ambient energy from a passing school of tuna! You have to learn to ignore it!"
Krakoa, now a bit dizzy, rubbed its head. "But how can I tell the difference?"
"By feeling it!" the clone roared, now in full-on Master Perv mode. "Your own Qi is your blood, your spirit, your very essence! Everything else is just background noise! If you can't tell the difference between a cosmic tickle and a divine punch, how are you ever going to fight a god?!"
He reared back, his fist glowing with a small amount of concentrated energy, preparing for another "educational" blow. "Now, this next punch is—"
But halfway through the motion, the clone froze.
A jolt, electric and profound, shot through his very being. It was as if a missing piece of his soul had just slammed back into place. The world sharpened. The colors of the jungle became more vibrant, the scents of the flowers more intoxicating. He felt a wave of ancient memories, a surge of raw power, and a feeling of… wholeness. The real Jack, thousands of miles away, had just absorbed the fragment.
Unfortunately, the punch was already in motion.
Amplified by the sudden, massive influx of power, the clone's fist, which was meant to be a light tap, connected with Krakoa's shoulder with the force of a meteor.
BOOM.
A shockwave erupted from the point of impact. Krakoa's entire petal-humanoid form exploded into a whirlwind of blossoms and leaves, the force of the blow sending a visible ripple across a hectare of the island, cracking the earth and felling a grove of ancient trees.
The clone stared at his own hand, his knuckles faintly smoking, his eyes wide with a mixture of shock and glee. "Whoa."
Slowly, a few hundred feet away, the petals and leaves began to swirl back together, reforming into a very shaken, very confused Krakoa.
"Master… what was that?" it asked, its voice trembling.
The clone looked down at his hand, then back at Krakoa, a slow, dangerous grin spreading across his face.
"I become more whole," he said simply.
Krakoa's leafy form tilted. "What does that mean?"
The clone waved a dismissive hand, his demeanor now carrying a new layer of unhinged confidence. "It's none of your concern." He chuckled, a sound that was now identical to the real Jack's. "And it seems you'll have a junior brother from now on."
**A/N**
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**A/N**