Sun Wukong and Sha Seng went to investigate, finding that while this ghost's spiritual power was low, it was extremely cunning, tricking and escaping from them several times.
After luring the three—Sun Wukong and the others—away once more, A Cui's vengeful spirit manifested. With a green face and fangs, black flames swirling around her, she lunged at Tang Seng the moment she saw him. In life, she had faintly overheard the monsters of the Sunward Cave discussing how there were great benefits to eating this monk, though they had only been talking idly.
Now, wanting revenge, she desired to devour this monk; even a single bite would be good.
Little did she know, Sun Wukong actually revealed himself from a corner, shouting as he struck with his staff. Golden light radiated in all directions. The vengeful spirit let out a shriek but did not dissipate. Sha Seng stepped forward, raising his Demon-Subduing Staff, and Bajie swung his rake. Only by combining their strength did they gradually disperse the resentment surrounding the spirit. A Cui's soul gradually became clear, restoring the appearance of a young maiden. She looked at Tang Seng, tears falling: "I never wanted to harm anyone; they harmed me first..."
Tang Seng pressed his palms together and said, "When will the cycle of vengeance end? Please let go of your attachment and seek reincarnation soon." As his words fell, A Cui gradually dissipated.
Sun Wukong scratched his head: "Master, she probably can't reincarnate."
Tang Seng merely chanted "Amitabha Buddha" and closed his eyes.
The villagers immediately offered the prepared grain and clothing. Tang Seng declined, so the villagers then begged the eminent monk to take action and eliminate the mountain king. Tang Seng agreed and dispatched his eldest disciple.
Sun Wukong sped along and quickly found the bear demon gnawing on wild fruits. After watching for a moment, Sun Wukong shook his head—this thing wasn't a man-harming monster either, was it? He secretly left again, merely telling the villagers it was resolved. The village rejoiced.
The master and disciples continued their westward journey, unaware that from the direction of the nameless mountain behind them, a black wind carrying a figure was chasing after them. It was the bear demon. Having calculated that A Cui should have returned, it went down the mountain to look for her, but at the village entrance, it heard villagers saying, "That monster's woman was eliminated by the eminent monk."
It charged into Chen Village, saw A Cui's burnt-down house, smelled the lingering resentment in the air, and recalled the villagers' words, "the eminent monk struck and dispersed her with one blow from his staff." It suddenly froze on the spot, grabbed a villager at random, and under its intimidation, the villager recounted the whole story.
What had A Cui done? It remembered this human girl as very kind; the little imps in the cave all liked her... It didn't understand. A Cui had only wanted to seek justice for herself, so why was she eliminated as "evil"? It also didn't understand why the villagers who had harmed A Cui could stand safely to the side, watching Tang Seng and his disciples "subdue the monster."
The bear demon knew its own spiritual power was low, no match for that monkey who could unleash golden light. But it also wanted an explanation. Why should a perfectly fine person, who died and became a ghost, have to die again? It didn't know anything about the Eighty-One Trials, nor did it understand why there had to be Eighty-One Trials.
Under the setting sun, the golden light of the Golden-Hooped Rod flashed. The black-maned bear demon fell to the ground. Its last glance was still towards the direction of Chen Village.
The wind swept up dust, covering its body and also burying the unasked question of "justice." When it woke again, it had no memory. Glancing at the monkey before it, it instinctively felt he was not to be provoked, so it turned and ran into the woods.
"Why bother? Centuries of cultivation, just thrown away like that?" Sun Wukong shook his head, but then he touched the golden fillet on his own head and also sighed.
Fang Zhiyi felt somewhat dazed. He looked down at his own furry palm: "Little Hei, we've gone a bit too far, haven't we?"
Little Hei was also somewhat helpless: "No choice. It was bound to come sooner or later."
"Do you know the sheer weight of 'Journey to the West'?" Fang Zhiyi asked with a bitter smile.
Little Hei shook his head.
"Let me put it this way: here, a minor monster that Sun Wukong casually smashes to death would, in the worlds we've visited before, be at least at the level of a patriarch!"
Little Hei looked utterly innocent.
Fang Zhiyi could only sigh.
"Great King! Great King! Something terrible has happened, Great King!" A wolf demon, carrying a broken wooden club, rushed in.
Fang Zhiyi asked in a muffled voice, "What's all the shouting for? I'm perfectly fine!"
The wolf demon wore a pained expression: "This humble one was patrolling the mountain and heard some humans spouting nonsense!"
Although Fang Zhiyi knew what it was about, he patiently asked, "What did they say?"
"They said you, Great King, ate the virgin girl they offered but aren't protecting their village, and their village even lost two pigs!"
Fang Zhiyi took a deep breath: "That's it?"
The wolf demon nodded, then after a moment: "Great King, when did you eat her? How come we didn't know?"
"Eat your old mother, that's what!" Fang Zhiyi cursed, immediately standing up and kicking a nearby stone block, which instantly cracked. "I'm going to demand justice!"
"Ah? Great King? Great King? You're going to demand justice? This..."
The wolf demon's voice was left behind as Fang Zhiyi strode down the mountain path. The demonic power within him flowed slowly through his meridians. It had to be said, the original owner of this body was a sincere demon, having cultivated diligently for centuries. His demonic power was as pure as freshly refined iron. Pity he was born in the wrong place. In another world, he'd be a proper regional overlord, but in the world of Journey to the West, he couldn't even beat the Golden-Maned Hou that guards the door for Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Sun Wukong? Fang Zhiyi felt a bit disoriented. Was he really going to meet that monkey of heaven-defying power?
Just like in the original plot, Fang Zhiyi stormed to the entrance of Chen Village and took a deep breath.
"Whoever's in charge, get out here!"
At this roar, people in the village peeked out cautiously. Upon seeing him, they immediately screamed in terror.
"Monster! The monster's here!"
"Quick, quick, fetch the village chief!"
In just a moment, the village chief arrived, followed by several villagers. They didn't even dare look Fang Zhiyi in the eye.
"Monster Lord, Monster Lord, please spare us!" The village chief's legs trembled. The legends were true after all! "Please calm your anger. We humble folk have prepared this year's virgin girl for you. Please accept her!"
He reached to untie a sack. Fang Zhiyi saw Chen A Cui's pale face. She wore a faded coarse cloth jacket, her hair tied with a straw rope, a bit of dust on her face, but her eyes shone like stars in the mountains. She wasn't afraid at all; instead, she stiffened her neck and met Fang Zhiyi's gaze.
"Bullying the small! Shameless!" Chen A Cui, stared down by Fang Zhiyi's unblinking eyes, actually showed no fear.
The village chief, however, was so frightened he shuddered, glaring at her viciously: "Shut up!" Then he turned to Fang Zhiyi. "Monster Lord, she..."
"You call this age a 'virgin girl'? Do you think this Great King hasn't read any books?" Fang Zhiyi frowned. Should he just find a fault and crush this old fool to death?
The village chief was momentarily speechless, only forcing an obsequious smile. "Time was a bit tight, Great King. Please don't disdain her..." His face wore a fawning smile, rubbing his hands together like a giant rat that had gained sentience.
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."
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?!
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.
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...
