“Hahaha, old man, save your breath!” A lesser demon pushed him, “Let’s go!”
“My master is a high monk on a journey to retrieve the scriptures!”
“You’re insane! You’re a demon! What scriptures?”
The Tiger Demon stared with eyes like copper bells at the Eight-tailed Fox. Had this old fox lost its mind, babbling about scripture retrieval?
But the next moment, the old fox suddenly screeched at the top of its lungs, piercingly shrill: “Help! Master! Help!!”
In that instant, every demon in the cave was stunned.
Then came a roar of laughter.
A lesser demon at the entrance poked its head in to mock the fox: “Haha, look at you, after all those years...”
It didn’t finish its sentence before its whole body flew through the air, crashing onto the table in front of the Tiger Demon.
All the demons turned around at once.
At the entrance stood three strange figures. The one in the middle seemed human, a monk, with a monkey-man with a hairy face and a mouth shaped like a thunderbolt on one side, and a big dark-skinned man on the other.
“How dare you kidnap my disciple!” Fang Zhiyi thundered in fury.
“Who are you?!” The Tiger Demon finally reacted, leaping to its feet.
But no one answered him. The monkey raised its staff and started swinging, cutting a path from the entrance straight to the Tiger Demon. Hardly any demon lasted a single round against it.
Enraged, the Tiger Demon grabbed its weapon and charged, but against that unremarkable staff, its blade proved wholly inadequate.
Clang!
The sound of metal striking metal.
The Tiger Demon felt its hands go numb.
But the monkey raised the staff again, swinging down with the same move, no change in tactics.
It had no choice but to meet it once more.
Another sharp crack.
The Tiger Demon saw its great blade begin to splinter.
A third strike.
Its sword snapped clean in two.
The monkey didn’t pause, lifting the staff for a blow aimed straight at its head.
The Tiger Demon’s eyes went wide, then it made the safest move it could think of.
“Mercy!!!”
Its massive body hit the ground in a sprawl.
Though the fight had been brief, it knew beyond doubt that it couldn’t match this monkey.
It was only then that the old fox slowly got to its feet, smug satisfaction plastered across its face: “Hmph! You grab me, do you? You want to stew me, do you?” It kicked a few times at the smaller demon still twitching on the ground.
“I wish to convert to Buddhism and take refuge under the high monk!”
The Ruyi Jingu Bang hovered just a hair’s breadth from the Tiger Demon’s head.
The Tiger Demon’s whole body went rigid with terror.
“Lucky break, and quick thinking too.” Sun Wukong gave the Tiger Demon a compliment, then pulled back his staff and retreated.
With a few quick leaps, the old fox was right in front of the Tiger Demon, grabbing hold of its fur: “Listen up, kid! Take a good look! I am the Subduing Dragon Taoist! Got that?”
The Tiger Demon didn’t even dare to breathe.
“That’s my master, the venerable Tripitaka Master! And that one—even more fearsome—heard of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven?” The old fox babbled on. The Tiger Demon didn’t understand a thing, but the sheer gap in strength forced it to submit.
The old fox still seemed unsatisfied, having never been tied up like that in all its years: “You listen good! From now on, this cave of yours is the territory of the Tripitaka Master! Understand?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” The Tiger Demon nodded like a dog pounding garlic. Keeping its life was good enough!
“That’s more like it. So, Your Highness,” the old fox turned its head, “Pah—Master, do we rest here for the night or move on?”
Fang Zhiyi looked at the fox, half exasperated, half amused: “We’re all hungry anyway. Let’s stay the night.”
“You heard him! Don’t just play dead, all of you! Get up and scrounge up some food! Do it wrong, and I’ll skin you alive!”
It wasn’t until dawn the next day that the Tiger Demon finally saw those plagues off.
It still had no idea what had happened the day before—how it had been subjugated so easily. Worse still, those people had treated its cave like their own home, eating and drinking freely, and that so-called “Tripitaka Master” had even clamored for meat! Before they left, they looted a good chunk of its jewelry and provisions.
“Your Highness, where should we hang this?” a lesser demon asked timidly.
The Tiger Demon turned and saw two lesser demons holding up a banner made overnight, black cloth with white letters, clearly reading “Tripitaka.”
“Hang it...” The Tiger Demon started to swear, but suddenly a chill ran down the back of its neck. It glanced warily behind it and caught sight of its beloved weapon lying quietly nearby, clearly beyond repair.
“Hang it at the entrance! Get out! All of you, get out! Tell everyone—no more grabbing whoever you see! Whoever brings someone back here again, I’ll eat them alive!”
“Your Majesty, it seems the Western side has changed their plans on the fly and already sent someone down to the mortal world.” Tai Bai Jin Xing scurried into the Hall of Divine Might.
The Jade Emperor merely nodded.
Lord Lao remarked, “Looks like the Buddha isn’t too pleased. Who could have predicted this mess? By all rights, the scripture seeker hasn’t even reached the time for the westward journey.”
“We don’t bother with it—it’s not our affair,” said a celestial official. “Let’s just watch the show. With nothing much to do lately, seeing that monkey stir up trouble is entertaining enough.”
“But they likely won’t let this scripture-gathering succeed,” said Yang Jian.
Li Jing steadied the pagoda in his hand: “It was a farce to begin with. That monkey probably still holds a grudge. Best to suppress him again so he stops causing chaos—can’t beat him, can’t kill him.”
“No, no! If they’re sending people, we’ll send our own! That rogue monkey is still the disciple of Patriarch Bodhi. Last time they used the excuse of suppressing him on our behalf, but now openly sending someone down to bully him—that’s slapping our faces!” Nezha shouted. “I’ll go! I don’t get it—what’s so hard about retrieving scriptures that they have to block it left and right? They can take it up with my weapons!”
“Nezha, don’t be so reckless.”
The Jade Emperor toyed with a strange object in his hand and chuckled: “An anomaly... like this, that karma has been shattered by external forces.”
All the immortals turned to look at him.
“Since when did the Jade Emperor start fidgeting with trinkets like some mortal?” Nezha muttered.
Yang Jian elbowed him.
But even that muttering caught the Jade Emperor’s ear.
He looked up, smiling. The immortals didn’t see how he did it, but the smooth object in his hand suddenly crumbled to dust.
“We do not meddle in mortal affairs, nor do we meddle in Western affairs.”
Then his expression gradually hardened: “But if the Western side forcibly interferes with the mortal order, upsetting the balance of Heaven and Earth, that would be a problem.” He rose slowly. “That’s all for today. Roller, come with me.”
A guard leader with slightly curly whiskers gave a slight bow and followed the Jade Emperor out.
“What does he mean by that?” Nezha was puzzled.
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.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
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."
