Journey to the West 03

Fang Zhiyi snorted. What a bunch of worthless trash this whole village was, selfish and ungrateful... After only a brief thought, he made his decision. "You're coming with me!" He pointed at Chen A Cui.

Chen A Cui bit her lip. "You have to promise me you won't hurt the villagers!"

"Why would I hurt them? They'd dirty my claws." Fang Zhiyi scoffed, then remembered something and added, "Bring your grandmother too."

Chen A Cui was taken aback. "Is that allowed?"

Fang Zhiyi frowned. "Why wouldn't it be? Are you afraid I can't afford to feed an old woman?"

"Really? But my grandmother is blind, she can't walk fast..."

Chen A Cui hesitated. She was also worried about what would happen to her grandmother if she left. But while she was hesitating, the villagers had already pushed her grandmother out. They had to satisfy the monster's demands, as long as it meant saving their own skins.

As they were leaving, Fang Zhiyi looked back and saw the villagers kneeling and kowtowing to him. Faint whispers drifted to his ears.

"That jinx is gone. Can we divide up her family's land now?"

"Shh, keep your voice down. The village chief will remember when the time comes."

Fang Zhiyi restrained himself from killing them. He was a good monster now, after all.

Chen A Cui was very talkative. Supporting her grandmother, she kept asking Fang Zhiyi strange questions.

"Do you live in a cave?"

"What do you usually eat? Do you eat a lot of people?"

"How old are you?"

Along the way, Fang Zhiyi felt his head was about to explode. But looking at Chen A Cui's dark eyes, he could only force a smile, though it looked rather fierce. "Can you shut up?"

Chen A Cui said "Oh," but immediately continued, "If you want to eat someone, eat me. Don't eat my grandmother."

"Great King... you're back... Whoa! What are these?" The little monster guarding the entrance was surprised to see the old woman and young girl following behind the king.

"Go, prepare a place for them to stay," Fang Zhiyi ordered.

"Huh? Right, right." The little monster scurried off.

This so-called Sunny Cave Abode was really just a slightly larger cave, quite crude. Fang Zhiyi looked at his dwelling place with some disdain and immediately summoned all the little monsters. Thus, that very afternoon, the Sunny Cave Abode's first cleaning mission commenced.

Watching the little monsters bustling about, Fang Zhiyi couldn't help but nod. It had to be said, monsters had one good point: they could scale walls and walk on rafters. If he started a housekeeping company, he'd probably get tons of business.

After settling the blind grandmother, Chen A Cui squatted on the ground watching the busy monsters. She was curious, and the monsters were even more curious. They had seen humans before, but never had a human come to their territory. So, everyone who passed by would take a good look at her.

Fang Zhiyi's mind was a bit chaotic. He pondered all afternoon and only came out when his underlings reported the cleaning was finished. He saw his minions gathered around Chen A Cui, taking turns patting her head like she was a pet. Chen A Cui was also wide-eyed, looking utterly amazed.

"How do you have four hands?"

"Your claws are so long!"

"Can your tail be used as a swing?"

The little monsters were more than happy to answer her questions, even demonstrating on the spot, until someone noticed Fang Zhiyi standing nearby, and they quieted down.

"So... do you want to learn some immortal arts?" Fang Zhiyi looked at Chen A Cui. This world was clearly quite different, and he was somewhat at a loss himself.

As for fighting Sun Wukong? Don't even think about it!

Chen A Cui looked curious. "Immortal arts? Aren't you a monster?"

The little monsters also looked at their king. Yeah, we're monsters. If we're teaching anything, it should be demonic arts, right? Wait, no, this girl is human. She can't learn demonic arts.

Fang Zhiyi coughed. "Never mind that. I have my ways." Just kidding, in the world of Journey to the West, cultivating immortality is normal, right?

And so, under Fang Zhiyi's guidance, Chen A Cui stepped onto the path of immortal cultivation.

Not only that, Fang Zhiyi also had his underlings sit in on the lessons. Although monsters cultivated differently, as long as they could understand, it would be of great benefit to them.

A Cui's grandmother was initially terrified, but fortunately, she couldn't see. Fang Zhiyi had tried to heal her; her blindness was congenital, and demonic power was almost useless. Yet, precisely because she couldn't see, the old lady adapted quite quickly. She sensed these monsters meant no harm, they were just a bit noisy and had a strong smell. So, she settled down peacefully, even setting up a statue of a deity she had specially brought in her little wooden hut, offering prayers daily.

"This is strange..." Fang Zhiyi felt a headache coming on. He had already selected the most suitable cultivation method for A Cui, but A Cui remained stuck at the threshold. Although she was already stronger than an ordinary person, there was no sign of further progress.

Xiao Hei said lazily, "Heavenly Dao suppression. The Heavenly Dao of this place... is unprecedented."

Fang Zhiyi glanced at the sky, calculating in his heart.

"It's fine. As long as she can protect herself." In the original storyline, she was burned to death by the villagers. Now, those wretches couldn't possibly be her match.

A Cui was like a stone thrown into a calm lake. The entire Sunny Cave Abode brimmed with vitality every day after her arrival. For the little monsters, this human girl was fascinating. She taught them many things, even some human writing.

A Cui said that she once helped a traveling teacher who passed by. He taught her some characters, saying something like "only through reading can one understand principles." She wanted to study, but the next year her father was killed by a tiger, and she had to shoulder the household chores.

But seeing the wrong characters A Cui wrote, Fang Zhiyi simply couldn't hold back any longer.

"You wrote 'left' and 'right' backwards!" On the fifty-sixth time seeing her write a character wrong, Fang Zhiyi finally intervened. He reached out with his claw, knocked the branch from A Cui's hand, and carefully wrote the characters stroke by stroke. Turning his head, he was met with a bunch of dumbfounded stares.

"What?" Fang Zhiyi became somewhat wary.

"G-Great King, you know how to write?" the wolf demon asked cautiously.

"Obviously."

He was met with a sea of skeptical looks.

A Cui snatched the stick back. "You're the one who wrote it wrong! Mine is correct!"

The monsters all nodded in agreement. One even said, "Great King, why don't you go play somewhere else? Don't hold back our progress."

Fang Zhiyi felt these guys were really a bit ungrateful. He might not be a walking library, but he had at least thoroughly memorized the Three Hundred Tang Poems!

So, when he used a stick to write out an entire poem, the expressions of all the monsters changed. They couldn't understand it, but they could be sure of one thing: the Great King truly was literate.

"Great King, I've heard other monsters say that if you eat a scholar, you gain their knowledge. Tell us the truth, did you eat a scholar?" The little monsters all looked at Fang Zhiyi with suspicion.

"Get lost!"