He suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Sun Wukong. "Since this is a journey to fetch the scriptures, Great Sage, you'll have to call me 'master.'"
Sun Wukong was taken aback. "Why should I?"
"I don't know either, but it just seems like it should be this way. How about we each keep our own titles—I'll call you Great Sage, you call me master. Deal?"
"Get lost!"
But what pleased Fang Zhiyi was that, ever since they entered Yang Jian's territory, the atmosphere had noticeably improved. With Yang Jian promoting Buddhism, Fang Zhiyi's treatment also got better. Along the way, they didn't encounter a single demon, not even bandits.
Sun Wukong, thinking of his Flower-Fruit Mountain, made a detour to visit it. However, to his surprise, after being crushed under the Five Elements Mountain for centuries, Flower-Fruit Mountain had changed beyond recognition. The monkey subjects he once knew were all gone, replaced by wild monkeys watching him warily from a distance.
Fang Zhiyi, fearing that the Great Sage might suddenly lose his temper, moved far away in advance. But unexpectedly, Sun Wukong simply walked alone into the cave behind the waterfall and sat there all night. The next day, just as Fang Zhiyi was sleeping soundly, he was woken up.
"Let's go, now."
Sun Wukong's face showed no particular emotion—no sorrow, no anger, just a trace of world-weariness.
"Great Sage, that's how immortals are. Relatives and friends all have their lifespans. Don't take it too hard," Fang Zhiyi said, trying to be understanding.
Sun Wukong grumbled angrily, "What do you know about it! That big old monkey still owed me twenty jars of fine wine from gambling debts. Now he's dead—who am I supposed to collect from?"
Fang Zhiyi was momentarily speechless.
But the journey to the scriptures had to continue.
The trio—one man, one monkey, one ghost—entered the Liangzhou region. From there, Fang Zhiyi officially stepped onto the Hexi Corridor. However, none of them were familiar with the route, relying on asking for directions as they traveled west. This led to the situation where a river blocked their path.
Fang Zhiyi opened his well-worn map, bought from a merchant, and studied it carefully. But there was clearly no river marked on it.
As he frowned in thought, Sun Wukong chuckled knowingly.
"What are you laughing at?" Fang Zhiyi asked casually. By now, he had grown quite familiar with Sun Wukong, with the two often sharing similar ideas and drawing closer in their relationship.
"I'm laughing at how dumb you are," Sun Wukong said, looking mysterious. "Want to take a closer look at the river?"
Fang Zhiyi frowned. "What's so interesting about a river?"
Still, he walked a few steps to the riverbank. When he saw the murky water, a thought suddenly struck him.
But then, the river churned violently, and a figure burst out. This man was over twelve feet tall, dripping wet with moisture. He had a shock of fiery red hair, messy and untamed, a coarse beard like steel needles, a silk sash around his waist, black canvas trousers on his lower half, and an exposed torso. Around his neck hung a necklace of human skulls.
"Ha ha! Since you're here, you might as well stay!"
His weapon lunged at Fang Zhiyi, the gleaming crescent blade aiming straight for his face.
Sha Liujing had been observing them from the water for a while. He concluded that the monkey with the pointy face and thunderous mouth was not to be trifled with, but this monk seemed like an easy target. If he could drag the monk underwater, the other one wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Got him!
But the next moment, his smile froze.
The spear thrust at Fang Zhiyi was firmly blocked by a metal rod, unable to advance any further.
"How could I forget about you? Even though the pig hasn't descended yet, you've been waiting here for a long time," Fang Zhiyi said without surprise. He knew Sun Wukong's personality all too well—the monkey would never stand by and do nothing.
"You... you... let go!" Sha Liujing panicked, finding that he couldn't pull back his staff either. The monkey had grabbed the other end with one hand.
Fang Zhiyi flashed an exaggerated grin.
"I hear you've eaten several scripture seekers already. Is there a reward for eating scripture seekers?"
"What are you talking about..." Before Sha Liujing could finish, he got a hard slap on the face. Enraged, he tried to fight back, but the monkey snatched his staff and set it against his neck.
Fang Zhiyi cracked his knuckles eagerly. "Kid, you're done for."
Sha Liujing realized he might have picked a fight with the wrong people.
After a storm of fists and slaps,—
"Stop hitting! Stop hitting! I surrender!" Sha Liujing wailed, covering his head, never imagining he would end up so pathetic.
"Surrendered, have you? Fine, sign your name and press your fingerprint. You're coming with us to fetch the scriptures. Move it."
Looking at the red inkpad and paper thrown in front of him, Sha Liujing opened his mouth. What kind of crazy talk was this about fetching scriptures?
"Great monk, I... I can't read..."
But when he saw the monk's raised palm, he pressed his thumbprint onto the paper without hesitation.
"There, that's more like it! You'll lead the horse and carry the luggage from now on, understand?"
"Understood, understood, understood."
"And I'm giving you a new name. From now on, you'll be called... Sha Wujing."
"Huh?"
"What 'huh'?!"
"Oh."
"Done yet? Let's move. We're pressed for time," Sun Wukong stood up and stretched.
"Let's go!"
"Ghost Monk, you're letting this kid fetch the scriptures for you while you get nothing. That's pretty cheap," Sun Wukong leaned close to Tripitaka and whispered, but Tripitaka didn't look at him.
"Miserly with words, no fun." Sun Wukong stretched again, watching Sha Wujing grudgingly lift the luggage under Fang Zhiyi's threats, and suddenly laughed.
This journey so far has been interesting enough. The world had changed during the centuries he spent under the mountain. Well, he had nowhere else to go—might as well travel with them for a while.
Meanwhile, an old woodcutter stood dumbfounded in front of the large hole where the Five Elements Mountain had once imprisoned Sun Wukong.
"Where is my monkey?????"
An echoing question hung in the air. A puff of white smoke rose, and the old man transformed into a veiled woman holding a jade vase.
Guanyin was bewildered. She had originally come to check on Sun Wukong's situation as usual, so she could notify him in advance about escorting the future Tripitaka on the scripture journey. But what was going on now? Sun Wukong had escaped? How was that possible?
Such a major event—why hadn't there been any response from the Heavenly Court?
She spun around and flew straight into the sky.
News of Sun Wukong's mysterious disappearance spread through the Heavenly Court in an instant. Almost every deity swore they had nothing to do with it.
Even the slacking Day Duty Officer at the time claimed the same.
"If Sun Wukong isn't around, how are we supposed to handle the scripture journey?" Guanyin sounded visibly anxious. This matter had been settled long ago, approved by both Tathagata and the Jade Emperor. And she had put a lot of effort into it herself.
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
