Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had all started on a stormy night, pitch black clouds covered the sky like some greater power had taken a blanket and covered up the sun, freezing cold rain falling down from the sky, coating every inch of solid ground in it’s liquid, turning the patches of dirt into a muddy grave, just waiting for something or someone to succumb to its grasp.

This is the setting that took place as nezha and wukong exchanged blow after blow, wukong with her cudgel and him with his fire tipped spear, given to him from the gods. these two have been fighting for over a week now, never stopping to take a breath, afraid that if they did it would end up being their last.

“WHY WON’T YOU JUST STOP THIS ACT OF TREASON AND JUST SURRENDER ALREADY!?” The third lotus prince cried out over the thunder and lightning that stretched across the sky, wukong only laughed while dodging another fatal blow with ease “oh nezha nehza nehza… you should know by now that I’m not the kind of person to GIVE UP THAT EASILY-“ wukong tried to jab him in the face with the tip of her staff, but nezha was quick and flew out of the way, those fire wheels of his constantly turning even as he was out of breath, far enough away from the golden monkey to breathe “WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT DOING ANY OF THIS WILL PUT YOU IN ANYONE’S GOOD GRACES!? ALL YOU’RE DOING IS MAKING A MESS OF EVERYTHING AND DISTRACTING US FROM FOCUSING ON SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR WORTHLESS. INSIGNIFICANT. PRIDE!” nezha shouted, a clash of thunder striking down on the earth with his words.

Wukong stood stock still, eyes blown wide like they had just heard that the whole universe was a lie, then they released a sneer, droplets of tears seeping through her eyes and flying off into the distance, as she yelled, pure rage and frustration in her voice “WORTHLESS!? DID YOU JUST CALL ME WORTHLESS!? I HAD CAME TO YOU PIECES OF SCUM CAUSE I THOUGHT I COULD FIND A PLACE HERE, BUT INSTEAD YOU ALL SPAT IN MY FACE AND CALLED ME A MONSTER JUST BECAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW THE RULES TO A BOOK THAT I HADN'T EVEN KNOWN EXISTED!!

nezha barely had time to dodge as the stone monkey came barreling towards him, her speed having increased ten fold, jumping out of the way as he watched her yell into the sky, hollering loud enough that all of heaven and the underworld could hear the golden monkey’s cry, before barreling towards him again while bringing her staff over his head.

The jade emperor watched from a safe distance a few miles away, watching as the third lotus prince, and the monkey, only known as sun wukong fought with all their might, he had watched as nezha, the loud and abrasive boy with a dark past had yelled something at her, surprising the jade emperor as that actually made the monkey still for a moment, not uttering a word.

Is this it? Is the monkey king finally gonna succumb? But just as he thought that, the monkey yelled again, a lot louder then the last few times, and shot towards the prince with hatred in her eyes. What ever are those tears for? the monkey has nothing to grieve.

Then he heard it, a scream that reverberated throughout the three realms, a scream so full of rage and anger that it sent shivers down his spine. that’s when he knew the battle was over, doesn’t matter who won or lost, this game had gone on for long enough.

Gathering his chi, he summoned a cloud and flew off in the direction of the boys makeshift battlefield in the sky, arriving just in time to see nezha block a devastating blow with his spear, having already seen enough, he cleared his throat, trying not to smile as both froze in place and whipped their heads towards him, one giving him a look of shock, while the other just gave him a sneer.

What manners this cretin has…

“That seems to be enough for today, this battle has gone on for long enough” he said evenly, sounding as if he was breaking up an argument between two children and not two immortals fighting to the death.

Nezha looked at him with an unreadable expression on his face, before his brows knitted together in determination before nodding his head “yes your greatness, thank you your greatness” before flying off, but not before he looked at wukong over his shoulder and mouthed something to them, before flying back to the celestial realm, most likely to go back to rest.

The jade emperor then looked back at the only remaining member of the battle, only to raise an eyebrow as he saw wukong slowly making her way back to the ground, but stopped when the jade emperor cleared his throat “I didn’t say you were excused, sun wukong.” he said with a menacing tone, not afraid to get nasty if they didn’t behave.

Wukong slowly turned back around, having the gall to look nervous, looking as if she had been caught reaching her hand up to steal an immortal peach, “I heard what you said a few minutes ago while you were battling the prince, how you wanted to be one of us.” he started, voice as even as the waves in the sea on a calm sunny day. “how you had called us pieces of scum just because you didn’t get what you wanted. tell me child, what makes you think we’ll do anything for you after insulting us like we are your average human? i don’t know how you demons socialize back where you are from, but up here we show respect.”

Wukong just set there and glared at him, shoulders raised up to their ears, wrinkling her nose up with a sneer on their face, not taking kindly to being scolded like they were some small child “well you know what? MAYBE IF SOMEONE had shown me some respect and not made me a stable boy, and had given me an actual title instead, I wouldn't have fought all of your armies!! you talk about showing respect, but in the end you don’t know the meaning of it! all you do is treat me like some lowly peasant when I hadn’t done anything to you!!”

Jade’s expression slowly morphed from calm indifference to enraged the longer wukong talked, until his whole face was bright red with anger “YOU STOLE THE PEACHES OF IMMORTALITY FROM RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES, AND THEN BARGED INTO A BANQUET THAT YOU WEREN'T EVEN INVITED TO, AND TOOK OFF WITH BOTH THE SECRED WINE AND THE PILLS OF LONGEVITY, that is utterly unacceptable behavior from someone who says they want to be one of us.” jade hissed out, growing increasingly tired with how long this little argument of theirs had gone on for.

Wukong’s fur ruffled in anger as she spoke up “well here’s the thing jadey, about what happens when you treat people that thought you were good with such disrespect, they end up turning those feelings into those of hatred, now all I see when I look up at you is a self entitled BRAT that thinks just because he has power on his side it means that he can just order people around and treat them like shit. BUT HERE’S A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT: MAYBE IF YOU ACTUALLY TREAT PEOPLE WITH ACTUAL RESPECT, THEN MAYBE PEOPLE WOULD ACTUALLY RESPECT YOU MORE CAUSE OF YOUR PERSONALITY INSTEAD OF YOU BEING OF HIGHER POWER!!” wukong yelled, almost immediately clasping her hands around her mouth, horrified at what they just said, in front of the jade emperor no less.

But it was far too late, for the moment the words came out of their mouth the jade emperor looked at them with a mixture of shock and rage, rivulets of lighting beginning to dance around his body as he tried his best to reign in his anger, trying his best to be the bigger person, but it was no use. cause the moment he looked at the golden monkey, he was instantly filled with such boiling hot rage that he hadn’t felt in eons “YOU- YOU IMBECILE- YOU- YOU RANCID BREAST!! HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH AN UNCOUTH MANNER!? YOU SHOULD BE SENTENCED- NO EXECUTED FOR YOUR CRIMES!!” he was inconsolable in his rage, the thick riverlets of lightning that had been gently cursing around his form grew larger and larger, charging up for a devastating attack. huffing and puffing, trying his best to regain his composer, he glared at the stone monkey, who was now slowly inching away from the ticking time bomb that is the jade emperor, his eyes now glowing a bright green, eyes sparkling like they themselves held lightening.

“but…thinking about it now, I have the perfect solution, to show you unimaginable pain, a pain that is so great that you will barely be able to stand.” with that, jade clenched his fists, gathering as much energy as he could, raising them in the air while making a circle with his arms, the lightning slowly growing into a big ball of energy inside of it, until it was about the size of a beach ball, and before wukong could react, it was released, barreling towards them with unmatched speed, hitting her straight in the chest and engulfing her entirely. making them let out a scream of untold agony as she felt pain like thousands of pins and needles were being stabbed into her flesh, the lightning coursing through their veins seeped deeper and deeper into her body until it reached her bones, spreading all throughout her body and injecting itself into every one of her fat cells. Which made the cells swell upon contact before going even deeper until they reached the atoms that made up the golden monkey’s being, running around and seeping themselves into every single atom. Causing the simians body to glow a bright green, before slowly fading out, the same thing happening again and again and again, making wukong yell louder and louder as the pain in her body grew in intensity every second. thousands and trillions of bolts running up and against every part of her being. Finally, after what felt like hours, it stopped. leaving wukong stock still as her now unconscious form fell through the air and back towards the earth, a figure in the distance running towards them just in time to catch wukong in his strong muscular arms, not taking a chance to pause to catch his breath before turning around sharply, kicking up globs of mud and grass in his wake, and sprinted his way back towards the horizon, most likely in the direction of their camp.

But the jade emperor could care less about one insignificant demon, as he breathed heavily, exhausted after using so much power, before making his way up to the palace in the celestial realm, passing by nezha who was standing there slick jawed, face white as a sheet, having witnessed the entire scene that had taken place, before following the emperor back to the palace, but not before briefly looking over his shoulder towards the place the great sage previously stood, turning around and walking off, trying not to think of what untold horrors awaited the sage.

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Dbk generally slowed down from his sprint as he looked over his shoulder to check if anyone was chasing after him, before lowering his gaze down to the monkey cradled gently in his arms, sighing deeply as he rose his head to see the siheyuan that was only reserved for his most valued allies that was coming up ahead, having passed by the training grounds and huts a few miles back, knowing that wukong needed something better than a cheap cot, especially in his weakened state.

“I don’t know what you had done to invoke the wrath of the jade emperor, but I just hope you didn’t do too much damage that you can’t fix on your own.” he said, watching as wukong’s chest rose and fell in his sleep, looking far more fragile than he’d ever seen him, the thought alone causing him to unconsciously tighten his grip around the golden monkey protectively.

the moment he had heard that Wukong was fighting against the jade emperor from one of the scouts that was previously on patrol, he had felt a sinking feeling in his chest and ran off in the direction of the large storm clouds that had overtaken a major part of the feld. praying to whatever entity that was graceful enough to listen to him that he wasn’t too late.

and now, looking down at wukong, he hoped with all his heart that he wasn’t. opening the gates to the siheyuan with one hand, he made his way inside, going in the direction of one of the guest rooms that occupied the state, the one he had specifically organized for when wukong came to visit after one of his battles, opening the door to the bedroom and gently placing him on the bed, he took the time to look over the damage.

He looked bad, the outfit that he had seen him wearing before he left was tattered and worn, littered with black spots that covered every inch of his body, coloring his once bright orange fur a dark brown, barely any sign of the soft and sunshine like fur that his brother had oh so cherished.

Dbk’s brows furrowed, knitting together in a straight line as he looked over the damage of his beloved friend, he knew that wukong was immortal and that he would be back, healed and ready for another battle in no time, but those brief times that he wasn’t quick enough, to dodge a blow from a particularly quick witted foe, or accidentally cutting himself while trying to learn a new move with his staff, he can’t help but worry for him, though he would never admit it aloud.

Wanting to give him some space, dbk turned around and walked out of the room, gently shutting the door behind him, already planning on venturing into a nearby village to fetch himself a nurse from a nearby town so that they can assess the damage more thoroughly, if only so he could put his own mind at ease.

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A few hours later…

It had been little over three hours since dbk left the room, leaving wukong to sleep and recover, but even though the golden furred monkey was home safe it didn’t mean she was out of the woods just yet. as was apparent as wukong soon started whining in discomfort as strings of lightning begun to dance across her body, bathing their room in an unethical glow, brows scrunched together as her body started to spasm, the curse finally taking effect as her body slowly started to change, her body generally began thickening up by the second, her face starting to grow in size to better accompaniment the fat that was swelling up around their face, spreading from her face to the rest of her body, going down to her belly which slowly started rising from the bed with a soft gurgling noise, her already torn shirt straining against their skin, the fat continued to spread further until it reached her chest. that began to grow in size until it developed into big breasts that continued to grow larger and larger, which caused her shirt to start to lift up until it began lifting off her belly completely. Said belly began to inflate as loads of fat began building up beneath her skin. Her belly growing bigger and bigger until it was soft and heavy like dough, resting above the edges of their thighs. their arms began thickening up as well, until they became soft and pudgy, her chubby biceps rising anytime she raised her arms to stretch in their sleep, which only left her poor collar to battle for dominance until there was a soft ripping noise as the collar finally lost the battle. leaving her breasts to continue to grow even larger until they almost hid Wukong's face from view. With that done, the trickles of lighting traveled down to her legs which began to thicken up as well, growing larger and larger, pounds upon pounds of fat flowing into the simians legs and waist until her pants couldn’t keep up anymore and began straining against it before letting out soft rips and tears that resounded throughout the silent building.

Letting out a groan of discomfort, Wukong slowly turned over to get into a more comfortable position, causing the simian’s body to slowly sink into the thick material of the bed, the frame creaking in protest from the added weight. leaning her chubby chin into her breasts and sighing blissfully, wukong’s chin slowly sank into the crevice between her breasts. Upon moving onto her side, her butt began thickening up, growing larger and larger, growing soft with pudge until it was as soft as cotton. with the process complete, the lightening that was running along the golden monkey’s body slowly fizzled out, the room darkening at the loss of light. leaving the occupants of the estate completely unaware of what just transpired.

But one things was for certain, wukong is gonna have quite the surprise upon waking up.

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The following morning, the first thing dbk did upon waking up was venture out into a nearby village to find a healer for his dear brother, cause dbk is a demon of combat not medicine! …though he kinda wished he was right about now as he walked around town asking around if they could tell him where the healer of the village was, and though some inched away from him cause of his intimidating build, one person did point him in the right direction. which led him to a church, leading him to come across a young woman that had long black hair and emerald eyes, she wore a simple hanfu that was emerald green that complimented her eyes, he gently tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to turn around to face him, and instead of being scared of him like the majority of the people of the village were, she just looked up to him with a quizzical look “is there something I can help you with sir? we don’t get many demons like you around these parts,” she then gave a small smile of reassurance, probably sensing how tense he was.

Scratching the back of his head, he begun “yes, my friend had recently gotten struck by lightning the night before,” he paused as the woman let out a gasp of shock at this, beyond horrified by this no doubt, “and I don’t know that much about medicine, so I figure I’d come out here to look for a healer, and then I ran into you, so do you mind looking at my dear friend to make sure he’s okay?” Dbk pleaded, hands clasped together.

The healer gave him a look of sympathy, before nodding and walking back into the building to gather some supplies, and began to walk beside him as he made his way back to the siheyuan where both his Fiancé and wounded younger brother lived. since he had traveled far from where he lived, the woman thought it best to start up a conversation to break the ice, “so you said that your friend had been struck by lightning, correct?” pausing momentarily, dbk nodded before continuing “and I’m guessing that he was still breathing when you found him, which leads me to believe that he’s very strong willed to survive something as horrible as that, so, forgive me for being so blunt, but did your friend by any chance anger one of the gods?”

The moment she asked, dbk’s brows furrowed, deeply troubled, before nodding “yesterday he had ventured out to the fields to fight one of the deity’s named nezha the third lotus prince, but as it turned out he had ended up getting into a fight with the jade emperor, who struck him with lightning just as I arrived.”

The women looked down at the ground in great sorrow, deeply fearing for his friends life, cause if what dbk said was true, then the jade emperor must’ve unleashed a great curse on him, and a curse from the great jade emperor is not an easy thing to break, she remembers hearing stories when she was a little girl, about how angering the great jade emperor only leads to great tragedy for the person or people involved in making him angry. And instances the victim/victims would be faced with death, or, like with the bull’s brother, the jade emperor would cast a curse on them of his choice. And whatever happens next is only up to the great Buddha, who had great power and was of a higher power then even the jade emperor himself. The Buddha has the power to lessen or even make the curse disappear entirely if the person or people show great grievance for what they had done. But for how powerful they are, the Buddha still has some limitations in his power, cause even the great Buddha has to abide by rules of his own, and one rule states that “one cannot interfere with something that is out of his control.” So hearing that the demon bull kings brother may have been cursed by the jade emperor made her stomach twist into knots, cause she doesn’t know if whatever curse has been placed on him can be undone, even by the Buddha himself. Despite the women's thoughts, she never let it shine though on her face, instead she kept up a neutral expression as She asked another inquiry. “what does your friend look like by chance? I’m just wondering so I know what to look out for if something seems to be amiss,” dbk nodded, seeming to agree with her logic, “well, he’s a demon monkey with orange fur, he’s four feet tall and has quite the attitude, and can be pretty reckless, which makes the fight he had yesterday make sense in retrospect, is there anything else you wanna know?” the woman shook her head, having finished writing all this down on a parchment of paper, which she then rolled up and put in her satchel “nope.” and with that two spent the rest of the short journey in relative silence, until they finally arrived at the bull’s estate, where dbk opened the door for her and walked inside, just to see princess iron fan standing close to the entrance, with her hands clasped politely in front of her, smiling while giving him a look that made him tense up, knowing well that he had a lot of explaining to do.

Looking to the healer, who had also tensed up upon sensing the immense tension in the room, turned to dbk as he spoke “my friends room is on the top floor, the door has gold plating on the front with the name “sun wukong, great sage equal to heaven” on it, you can’t miss it, just wait for me there.” with that the woman made to bow in the direction of princess iron fan and dbk before making her way upstairs, leaving the couple alone.

“…listen princess, it’s not what you think, I just went into the nearby village to find a healer for wukong, you got to believe me, I would never break your trust by sleeping with another woman,” with this he gave her one of the most sincerest looks, his eyes glistening, which made her scrunch her brows together in hopes of maintaining her composure, until she suddenly let out a snort, her stone cold expression crumbling at how silly he looks “gods damn it, it’s hard to stay mad at you when you give me that look,” she said as she covered her face with one hand to hide her grin, looking out of the corner of her eye as dbk’s tail started to wag, which only made her laugh harder, dbk joining in shortly after.

They eventually made their way to the living room to sit down on their seating mats to compose themselves, princess iron fan then looked at him with a serious expression “is it really that bad? you know, wukong being struck by lightning last night, I know you had trouble going to sleep last night, cause you constantly wanted to go check on him.”

Dbk nodded, remembering clearly how distraught he was, laughing softly as he spoke “yeah, and I also remember you having to drag me back to bed, more than once in fact, saying that he will still be there when I wake up,” which caused his princess to gave him a look “yeah, and it took you hours to do so, when you finally fall asleep it was only a couple hours before sunrise,” hearing this only made dbk look down in guilt, causing princess iron fan to sigh while scooting over and gently cupping his chin with her hand to bring his eyes to meet hers “listen qīnài de, wukong is a strong monkey, you know that he wouldn't simply be knocked down for long by something as insignificant as lightning, and constantly worrying about him won’t do you any good, the only thing we can do right now is wait until he wakes up.” dbk smiled as he nodded, causing princess iron fan to let go of his chin, “right, with that out of the way, I’m gonna go join the healer upstairs,” dbk said, pointing his thumb in the direction that the woman went “don’t want our guest to get lost,” with that dbk made his way upstairs, turning in the direction of wukong’s room, and being faintly surprised upon seeing the woman standing in front of his room, turning her head and giving him a smile as she faced towards him, “I’m guessing you’re done speaking with your spouse?” dbk nodded as he walked over to her “yes, I’m deeply sorry if I took too long,” the woman shook her head frantically in response “oh no no no! it’s fine! i can tell that me arriving here had caught her off guard, so it’s perfectly fine that I had to wait a little bit until you resolved the issue.”

There was a beat of awkward silence.

“So you wanna check on my friend now? he’s in the room in front of you,” dbk stated awkwardly as he pointed at the door, with the woman nodding in response “do you think it’ll be alright if you stay out here until I’m done? i don’t want the room to be too crowded in case he wakes up,” dbk nodded in understanding “yes, that’s fine, the last thing I’d want is for wukong to get overwhelmed.”

The woman smiled as she gently opened the door and stepped inside, the first thing she noticed upon walking in was that the room was noticeably dark, with silken curtains covering the windows, which makes sense since the person in question was still fast asleep, quietly lifting a candle that was on a nearby end table in her hands, she lit the candle and watched as the soft light illuminated the room, letting her get a better view of the interior of the room, which didn’t have much except for a walk in closet to the right, and a wide bed fit for a king on the far left where her supposed patient resided, the bed frame had smooth engravings that depicted bull heads and fire, with poles that held the “roof” of the bed, with deep red curtains that hid the monkey from view, with a small end table next to it. making sure to be as quiet as possible, she made her way over to the bed, the light slowly illuminating the shadow of Wukong that laid behind the curtain, who was laying on their back, the human girl noticed that the simian seemed a lot…bigger then the demon king had described, the monkey was big enough that, if wukong attempted to walk, their steps would for sure be heard from several stories down. The women quickly looked behind her to the door, worried that she perhaps had gone into the wrong room, being as quiet as she could, she inched towards the door and opened it enough to take another look at the golden plate on the door, being faced with the words engraved in bold writing “sun wukong, great sage equal to heaven.” Though this only led to confuse the poor women even more. Who, after closing the door again, looked back in the direction of the supposed ‘tiny monkey’ who didn’t look quite so tiny from what she’s seeing in front of her.

The women then got struck with a horrible thought that caused a cold chill to run up her spine, causing her arms to be covered with goosebumps, what if she’s being tricked? what if the supposed demon that had been struck by lightning from the jade emperor was all a lie? and that the demon bull king had another reason for bringing her here? Panic began to overtake her as her breathing began to quicken, and only faintly noticed herself slowly start sinking to the floor, with only the lit candlelight as the only source of light. It was only when she heard soft mumbling from the bed did she snap out of it, shooting her head upwards in fear, terrified that in her fear she had accidentally awoken the demon that may or may not be a monkey, only to release a quiet sigh of relief as the demon behind the curtain only adjusted themselves, and quickly fell back asleep. With the danger now gone, the women had time to clear her head, and thought back to how the demon bull king had acted, remembering that he seemed like a really nice guy, who seemed to have great respect for not only his brother, but also his wife too, thinking about this made her realize that someone like that couldn’t possibly have any malice intent, and that she had only let the fear get to her head.

A few minutes passed in silence as she tried to slow her breathing enough that she didn’t feel like she was gonna scream, she quickly got up from off the floor, making sure to pick up the candlelight, and continued her way back to the bed containing the demon monkey, even without the chilling thought that the bull demon king wasn’t trying to trick her, she was still left confused as to why the description she had been given by the demon was vastly different then what she saw right in front of her. The only thing she know for sure though, was that something wasn’t adding up, and the only way to find out more about it is to see the demon for herself. To see whether or not she had been tricked or not, and find out whether what the demon bull king had said was true.

With all these thoughts surging though her mind, it was no surprise when she noticed her hand began to shake as she slowly brought her free hand up to the curtain and gripped the soft fabric tightly enough that her knuckles turned white, praying to the merciful goddess quanyin herself that she will protect her from any harm, and gently, as to not wake the demon up, she pulled the curtain away.

What lay before her was a monkey with soft orange fur that spread all across her body, who wore tattered clothing that looked burnt in some places, looking as if it could break apart with the faintest touch, looking closer, the women noticed that the monkey was pretty hefty, with two humongous breasts the size of watermelons resting on their chest, their arms, that were placed around her well rounded belly were covered in a thick expense of fat, their face was noticeably chubby as the monkey breathed evenly, which caused their breasts and belly to rise and fall in a gentle rhythm, making them look more like a grizzly bear then a monkey, not that she was judging, she’s sure monkeys come in all shapes and sizes, especially when it comes to demons. Though something seemed off, the demon bull king had said that his brother had been struck by lightning, but the sleeping simian sleeping in front of her was obviously that of a female.

…Perhaps the bull king was somehow unaware that wukong was a girl? it would make sense in theory, male and female monkeys seem to look almost identical to each other, with only slight differences to tell them apart, so it wouldn’t seem that strange if dbk had simply made the mistake of seeing wukong as male instead of female, returning her attention to the monkey in front of her, she saw that her legs were equally as thick as her arms, taking up the majority of the bed with its immense size. taking a final glance over the monkey’s body, she stood up on her tippy toes to be able to see her clearly, and saw that wukong’s face was clear, with no flushed cheeks to show that she had a fever, she got down off her tiptoes to gently wrap her fingers around the monkey’s wide whist to check her pulse, quietly sighing in relief when she felt a calm orderly pulse, thankfully the female monkey was in no danger.

Making sure to keep a tight grip on the candle in her free hand, she made her way back to the door, once there she blew out the candle and set it back where she found it, softly gripping onto the doorknob and opening the door wide enough for her to fit though, but closed enough so that not much light filtered into the room. upon exiting the room dbk straightened up from his place against the wall to give her a worried look, wanting to know how his friend was doing “so how is he? Does he have any sign of a fever? chills? a stomachache???” she quickly raised her hands in the air and lowered them as a sign for him to calm down, feeling a sense of sadness that the demon king indeed had no idea that the demon monkey in the room was female, but she didn’t say anything for fear of intruding, cause even with what she knows about the great sage, she knew that none of this had nothing to do with her, and instead was between the demon king and the orange monkey. She only hoped that nothing disastrous happened when the truth finally comes out. She instead focused on the present situation, “your friend is fine, he has no sign of any type of illness, when I went in there he was sleeping soundly, he had no trouble breathing or anything, the only thing he needs right now is to rest so he can recover, your friend is lucky to be alive, cause if anyone else had been through what he had, they would have certainly died before you could get help. so you have nothing to worry about.” dbk nodded his head “thank you miss, for checking on my friend, I wouldn’t know what to do if something was wrong.”

She shook her head with a smile “no need to thank me, this is what people like me do, I’m just doing my part. Now may you please lead me to the entrance? this place is mighty big and I don’t want to get lost,” dbk nodded his head in response “oh of course of course! right this way!” dbk exclaimed while guiding the woman back downstairs and to the door, waving bye to her as she made her way back to the village. all while trying not to think about the fact that the bull's friend had indeed changed in the short amount of time he hadn’t seen him, but the women knew that it wasn’t her place to tell the bull that his ‘brother’ was actually a demoness instead. She could only hope for the best.

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Three weeks later…

The sun slowly rose from beyond the horizon, bathing the previously dark expense of land in its warm light, its light reaching a certain siheyuan surrounded by a forest of trees, it continues to stretch over the forest and peeked between the gaps between the trees in the area in order to make its way to the estate.

One such place the sun reached was inside a bedroom housing a certain bright furred monkey, the light managing to shine though a gap in the curtains, and shining down on the demoness’s head, who upon being hit with said light, squeezed her eyes closed further, turning over on their side and away from the window, blocking the light out by bringing the blankets over her head.

A few minutes passed in silence as the monkey continued to snooze, before being awoken again by the sound of their stomach growling, not pleased by being woken up by her own bodily functions, wukong slowly set up with a grimace, the golden monkey’s hair sticking up in odd angles. Rubbing her eyes to get the gunk out, they rose her arms in the air with a big long stretch, yawning loudly all the while, showing off their sharp canines for all the world to see, opening her eyes, wukong almost immediately slid them closed again at the bright light that shone in them. Choosing to block it out with their arm instead as she gripped their head with the other with a grunt of annoyance, Just as they felt a splitting headache spiked though her head, when the pain finally subsided to a small throb, she slowly lowered her arm away from her face only to catch something moving in the corner of her eye, looking back at their arm, their eyes widened in surprise when she noticed that it was a lot thicker than normal, a bit of fat hung off the bottom of her arm, with the rest of it covered in fat from her shoulder all the way down to her bicep, glancing to her other arm only to see the same thing.

Looking down her body she noticed a huge pair of breasts the size of watermelons that blocked most of her view, sitting up a bit to get a better look, they saw that her breasts were accompanied by a huge gut that was big enough to reach the the top part of her thighs, that expanded outwards, making it look like rising dough, her legs, which had also thickened up a considerable amount, had grown into well rounded mounds of fat, very smooth and soft to the touch, looking like it had always been there. (How long had they been like that??) breath quickening, wukong quickly jumped off the bed, flinching as her now heavyweight body made contact with the floor, the action causing her now chubby cheeks to grow hot in embarrassment. stiffening in place as something heavy slid off the bed with her, prompting them to look behind her to see their ass had doubled in size as well, having previously taken up over half of the bed behind her.

Heart hammering in her chest, wukong raced forward, praying nobody heard the increasingly loud thuds from above, only to skid to a stop upon catching a glimpse of themselves in the mirror. heart simultaneously dropping and quickening its pace as they could only stare dumbly at the stranger staring back at her, feeling a mixture of shock and horror.

She looked HUGE, the once muscular and toned body they previously had had been overtaken by mounds of fat that covered every inch of her body, every nook and crevice being filled in by fat, the golden monkey demoness’s once flat chest had grown into plump sized breasts that jetted outwards in front of her. Their waistline had also thickened up tremendously, having grown ten times wider, now not the tiny waist she knew, they remembered how in the past if someone picked her up, depending on the demon, their hand or hands would easily wrap around her waist. Though if the demon in question was an enemy, they would’ve been sent hurtling into the sky before they could so much as scream. But now, if someone were to wrap their arms around her waist from behind, they would barely reach their midsection, not to mention how big her ass had grown, it was big and heavy enough that she wouldn’t be surprised if both cheeks weighed about five hundred pounds each. the fat spread from there to her legs, which had plumped up much like her waist. her poor clothes taking the brunt of it. they were blackened, along with being torn and worn, her breasts for sure not helping matters as they stretched the top of their hanfu out until it strained against her skin, the torn hanfu turning into a makeshift corset in order to hold the added weight. Causing the bottom of it to hang in the air, leaving her equally large belly open for the world to see.

Wukongs cheeks continued to heat up as she looked over her changed body, the pit in their stomach growing even heavier at the thought of anyone seeing her like this. The golden monkey brought their chubby arms up to her face, only to feel how soft her cheeks had become, gently squeezing and moving the fatty layer around with their hands, she watched as it easily moved with the motion, Wukong let them go, and felt as it went back into place. moving her hands away from her face to wrap around their chest instead. briefly gripping onto her weighty breasts in pent up stress, only for the soft mailable flesh to easily give in under her touch, much like her cheeks, leaving them to sink deeper into it, which only led the golden monkey to bring them away with a gasp, completely unfamiliar with the sensation. with nowhere to put them, her arms were left suspended in the air, neither wanting to touch their changed body, but also wanting something to hold. Overwhelmed by both panic and fear, wukong began to whimper as tears sprung to her eyes, her tail swishing side to side in agitation.

The golden monkey held back the urge to cry, cause the last thing she wanted was for dbk, or even another one of her sworn brothers to come in here, only to see their once fearless ‘brother’ having been reduced to a sniveling, crying mess. If that ever had the misfortune of happening, she would never be seen as the strong willed warrior and king that everyone saw them as. instead of pacing along the floor of her room like they wanted to, she instead went back over to their bed, sitting down on the end and watched as her body weight made her sink into it, causing the simian to feel nothing but shame as they tried to remember what on earth could have caused this. thinking deeply until she remembered being hit with a giant ball of lightning that had been casted by the jade emperor, the sudden remembrance of this causing her to shoot up in bed, not realizing that she had lied down in the first place, (blame the literal sinking feeling of her body sinking into the cursed bed.) with a gasp “THAT’S IT!! THAT BASTARD SHOT THAT WEIRD BALL OF LIGHTNING AT ME!! that must be why I look like….this.” she trailed off as she looked at her body once more with a small grimace, they then wondered to herself how in the three realms having a ball of lighting being shot at them could make their body change so drastically like this, but then shook her head to clear their thoughts, deeming it unimportant before standing up again. trying her best to not make a lot of noise this time.

but unfortunately for her, the universe seemed to have other plans as she let out an anxiety filled sneer. the second her lower hands were placed on the floor, she heard a loud creaking noise emit from the wooden floorboards underneath them, caused by the added weight being put on them. glaring down at the floor, as if to say that it’s not that old, so it had no reason to creak like an old cabin in the woods. They then continued to walk until she stopped in front of the mirror once again to take a look at her clothes, they had turned from the bright golden hanfu that had shorn like the sun, to a dark brown that was blackened along her collar, along with their sleeves and the edges of her skirt, rips and tears ran all along the worn clothing, from both being struck by lightning and the heavy weight of the golden monkey demoness’s body that stretched it out to its breaking point. looking more like a worn cloth then the supreme clothing belonging to the great sage equal to heaven. which filled wukong with a strong sense of sorrow that about caused her to break out into sobs.

Out of pure anger than anything else, Wukong gripped the collar of her hanfu with both hands and ripped it apart with little resistance, the cloth only letting out a loud “riiiiiiiip” as its only plea. Her previously confined breasts bounced in place before plopping down near her belly, similarly to cracking an egg, before doing the same to her pants. gathering the articles of cloth into their hands, she made her way to the nearby dustbin and threw them inside, most likely never to see the light of day again. Now completely in the nude, Wukong made her way over to the hole in the wall that was her walk-in closet, needing to find something to wear if she was ever gonna find a way out of this mess that involved going outside their room. generally slowing her pace as she thought back to what dbk had said back at camp a few nights ago after another one of their victorious battles against heaven’s armies.
—————
Flashback

Dbk was sitting around a lit campfire with a bowl of wine in his hand, surrounded by wukong and their sworn brothers, along with the best soldiers from their respective kingdoms, but the bowl of wine that the demon bull king held wasn’t no ordinary wine, but instead was holy wine that wukong had stolen from the peach banquet back during her stay in heaven. and after leaving the stuffy old place, wukong had thought it’d be a great idea to share it with her sworn brothers, which caused one of their sworn brothers to invite their favorite and most strongest of soldiers to have a drink, the other sworn brothers, seeing no harm in this, invited their own soldiers as well. Which continued to escalate until the entire camping ground was filled with drunk loud a violent demons, that were having a great time, laughing and singing and sparring with each other, wukong having to strip them of their weapons half way through so that neither one of them accidentally stabbed themselves, only to be rewarded by being half the demons chanting Ayi at her for the next several hours. So it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to admit that things had kiiiiiinda got outta hand. And at this point Wukong was beginning to regret their choices. The great sage had thought to tell dbk that they should probably start to wrap things up, but was left dumbfounded upon finding out that the bull demon had also had too much to drink, which had the side effect of him not having the clearest of minds, and so he didn’t seem to notice how uncomfortable his sworn brother had become. So with nothing else to do, and everything having already gotten way past the point of control, the golden monkey demoness simply held onto her own bowl of wine in an iron clad grip, and prayed that things would calm down soon. The monkey demoness was snapped out of their musings by dbk piping up again, having started another one of his rants, having already talked wukong’s ear off plenty at this point. But she didn’t have the heart to leave him to do who knows what, so there she stayed. his face was flashed a deep red from the high alcohol intake as he spoke, “aaaand ANOTHER THING! iiiiii really don’t like fat people, they are all fat and are ALWAYS hungry and eat all my food, they’re just an inconvenience really, so not many of my troops are heavy weight because of this. my brothers and troops are ALL MUSCLE AND BRAINS!! not one of them would EVEN DARE to eat any more food then they were given. iiiiiif I HAD A FRIEND that was secretly fat or something, i would just get rid of them! cause I don’t want any fatty weighing me down while I’m out there battling!”

The demons around him all yelled out their agreement, causing wukong to jump up a few feet into the air, the fur along their back standing up on end from the noise. their yelling soon turning into drunken laughter as they all went back to what they were doing, the loud conversations and arguments rebounding off of the trees and boulders around them, feeling like they were all trapped in a force field of noise. Wukong meanwhile tried to keep her spirits up, but was internally dying inside at all the chaos happening around them, never having felt so much regret before, all the golden monkey wanted to do at this point was hide in the furthest point inside or outside the camp until everyone fell asleep, but knew that as the only sober one in the group, she had to withstand it, cause it was her responsibility to make sure that everyone here remained unharmed while in their drunken driving state. Having already poured the rest of the heavenly wine into the nearby lake when everyone was distracted.

End flashback
————————
Wukong grimaced upon remembering the events of that night, turns out that all her sworn brothers hadn’t fallen asleep until the early hours of the morning, leaving the poor monkey to physically have to move all of their sworn brothers and their men into the respective tents. Only then did she finally fall asleep, waking up a few hours later tucked into their bed, with dbk telling her later that when they had all woken up with splitting headaches, they all found the golden monkey softly dozing on top of a boulder, having climbed up there during the night. The golden monkey snapped out of it when she heard their stomach growl again, almost like it was taunting her, not being pleased at being ignored. Is that what they are gonna become? Just akin to a beast that will just end up eating food constantly, with no regard for anyone else?

She shook their head, trying in vain to get rid of those thoughts. They knew that ox brother was just black out drunk at the time, he didn’t have the mind nor the conscience at the time to think about what he was saying. and had only said those things in the moment, he didn’t really mean that right?… Of course not! (so then why do they suddenly feel like she’s wrong somehow?) He wouldn't just abandon them just because her appearance had changed, their bond is stronger than that! heck they were so sure about it that if she walked over to him right now (fully clothed of course, they are still her brother) he would completely understand where they were coming from, she’s sure of it!

…..a few minutes passed in silence as Wukong thought about her plan, then continued looking through their wardrobe. first before all of that they have to find some decent clothes to wear if she’s ever hoping to figure out any sort of plan, a few minutes later wukong let out a sound of triumph as she pulled out a golden hanfu from the wardrobe, the soft silky texture glistening in the light from the nearby window, giving it an alluring charm, looking it over she noticed that the inner part of the robe was colored a dark crimson, which went together nicely with the golden silk of the outer robe, it also came equipped with dark crimson pants the same color as the inner robe, which made wukong grimace as she looked down at her plump ass and thighs, but followed though regardless (she wasn’t about to be defeated by some tight pants)

Feeling giddy, wukong wasted little time putting it on, having a little difficulty with her cursed bottom putting up a fight, when she was pulling up the pants they paused as she felt her butt press against the hem of the pants, and had to pull at the fabric really hard just so that she could bring it over her inflated bum. and by the end of it she was sweating from the effort. but the good thing about this is that her butt worked kinda like a belt, so in the end she succeeded, now that the hard part was over, everything else was smooth sailing. from there she pulled their arms through the sleeves of the crimson robe, secretly relieved that the long sleeves hid how chubby her arms had become, wrapping it around herself like she had been taught, before grabbing onto the left side of the front of the robe to wrap it around to her right, tying it together, then wrapping the right side of the robe to her left, and tying it together on that side. then grabbing the red skirt from off the side of the bed, she wrapped it around their waist before tying it together, and wrapping the other side and tying it again.

She had once asked princess iron fan why they had made hanfu’s so difficult to get on and off, cause if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s practically taboo to walk around naked, they would have happily walked around in nothing but pants till the end of their days. She had laughed at this and shrugged, being the only one in the group that had found out about wukong being a girl. And replied “well hon, that’s just how it’s always been, men just get so uncomfortable seeing bare woman’s tits out in the open. It would be weird if we all just started walking around shirtless all the time. besides, us and many other woman have already gotten used to wearing clothes all the time, so it would feel really weird and uncomfortable if that changed.”

When she was done with that she picked up the golden outer robe from off the bed and slid her arms though the sleeves, making sure that their hair didn’t get caught in the inside, then wrapped the right part of the robe to the left, and then wrapped the left part of the robe to the right once and twice, then tied it all together with string.

Picking up the sash on the bed, which was colored a deep crimson, they wrapped it around her waist, before tying it in the middle.

looking themselves in the mirror to check herself out, she was pleased to find out that the hanfu had barely reached past their knees, giving them enough room to run around without worrying about tripping, her grin slowly shrink as they noticed that her breasts were pushing out against the fabric, giving them a more feminine appearance unlike an expecting emperor’s wife, and their legs that she’d worked so hard to maintain were now thick with fat, making them look soft. so unlike the steeled calves that once looked ready to roundhouse kick an unsuspecting foe. looking around, she suddenly caught a glimpse of their golden plated armor on the stand near her bed, glistening a bright gold, wukong walked over to it, trying to ignore the feeling of their breasts bouncing around with every step, she softly gripped the armor in their hands with such gentleness only reserved for the most kindred of objects, they brought the top part of her armor to their chest and slowly clicked it it into place, sighing deeply in relief before flinching in surprise as they felt her breasts press against the golden plated armor, realizing with dread that they had to get her armor refitted.

…They had NEVER had to get her armor refitted in their life! That was only reserved for young demons that were about to reach another growth spurt, or warriors that complained about their potbelly’s not fitting inside their armor, that didn’t fit them at all, not at all. but unfortunately for her, neither did her armor.

Making sure that her upper plate of armor was settled on correctly so as to not fall off while walking (their breasts doing a good job at holding it together properly) she slowly opened their bedroom door that led to the rest of the manor, and made a brisk walk towards the forging room, hoping she didn’t look as nervous as they felt, everything was going great until she turned a corner and bumped right into dbk, the one person they didn’t want to see right now.

“WHA- HEY WHO DO YOU THI- WUKONG!? YOU’RE FINALLY AWAKE!! dbk exclaimed, and before wukong could stop him, he hoisted them up off the floor like she weighed nothing (something they were extremely grateful for) and wrapping them up in a tight hug, causing her to let out a squeak of surprise, before he just as quickly set them down, looking almost like he was about to start crying. which is weird cause she’s never known their brother to cry easily.

After recovering from the sudden embrace, Wukong laughed nervously before clearing her throat, trying to sound as calm as possible, praying to nothing and everything at once that dbk didn’t notice anything amiss “OH! Hey there, big guy! I was just on my way to the forging room, I thought you would be outside training with the others?”

“I was, but then I figured it would be a good idea to check up on you, make sure you were healing alright after….you know, after what happened.” dbk said, scratching his chin, most likely thinking back on them being shot by lighting, which was…..

Wukong paused in thought, wondering just how long she had been out for “uhhhh, hey dbk? How long was I out for? i only remember being shot by lighting. then….waking up here,” the golden monkey demoness almost regretted asking as dbk’s face fell, scrunching up into a grimse, looking like he was recalling something tragic “that…happened a few weeks ago wukong, you’ve been out cold for almost a month”

There was silence, as wukong processed this.

“WAIT WHAT!? ALMOST A MONTH!? I’VE NEVER BEEN OUT FOR THAT LONG!!” Wukong exclaimed, raising her arms to their head in panic, feeling like their whole world had been turned upside down. the thing that worried her the most though was the fact that since they had been unconscious for all that time, macaque and the others must be worried sick! for Wukong had made sure to let them know ahead of time that she was gonna be gone for longer than usual. The golden monkey’s panic only grew as they realized that since her change, they’d have to explain to them what had happened to her, even though they didn’t know much about it herself.

dbk raised his hands awkwardly in an attempt to calm the panicked monkey down, only to notice that they were beginning to breath erratically, unknown to the bull, the sudden movement was putting even more pressure on her chest, making them feel like she was being suffocated. that was when dbk placed a comforting hand on their shoulder, almost entirely covering it in the process.

Wukong looked up to see dbk had lowered down to be at eye level with her, looking them straight in the eye with a worried look on his face “try to focus on your breathing, wukong. in, and out, hold your breath and count to ten.” to demonstrate dbk held his breath, and after a beat wukong slowly followed his lead, holding her breath in and counting to ten in their head, then exhaled the same time as he did. The two did this for a few minutes, while quietly listening to the noises outside, like the sound of the birds chirping in the trees, and the distant sound of yelling and the clashing of metal against metal from the training area near the house. after a while wukong had finally calmed down enough to speak. Sliding down the wall until she reached the floor, bringing their knees to her chest while lowering her hand down to run their fingers though the soft carpet. hearing movement to the side as dbk set down next to them, giving the golden monkey an empathetic look. “I know this must be a lot to take in, hell I thought you were gonna wake up in at least a day or two, so you can imagine my shock when you didn’t wake up once during that time. neither the next week, or the week after that, and before I knew it, you were out for almost a month! i would’ve gone and checked on you sooner, but the healer I had brought here to monitor your vitals said you were fine, and your body was still healing from being struck by lightning, saying that “if anyone else had been through what he had, he would’ve been dead before you could get help.” and that’s when I realized how close to death you had been, and i would’ve had no way to bring you back…so I’ve been training with the others ever since to help get my mind off it.”

Wukong looked down at her feet, feeling extremely guilty that they had worried dbk so much, then looked back at him and gave the bull a grin, placing a hand on his bicep and giving it a quick pat, “hey, don’t worry about me d, I’m fine now, aren’t I?” as a show, she got up off the floor and did a little dance, before jumping onto her upper hands and doing a cartwheel around the hall, landing back on her lower hands and bringing their arms up in a show of jazz hands, her smile growing into a grin, “tada!!”

Dbk smiled as he got off the floor as well, “well, I guess you’re right, you do look a lot better then when I found you, since you seem to be back to your old self, there’s still a few hours left before Wǎncān, you wanna race to the dinning hall before the guys are done?” Dbk asked with a mischievous grin, looking ready to start running.

Wukong laughed, “I’d love to, but I need to go polish my cudgel,” she lied as they brought out her staff from their ear, it admittedly needing a fresh polish, being covered top to bottom in dirt, along with the faintest traces of blood.

Dbk sweat dropped, wondering how on earth the golden monkey doesn’t have an ear infection with how little he cleans that thing, before shrugging and started making his way to the kitchen “Suit yourself, I’m still gonna go eat something, though I’ll make sure to save you some in case you change your mind.” with that dbk waved and then turned around, and began to sprint down the thankfully empty hall, not joking in the slightest about the race.

Wukone shook her head in amusement, never getting tired of their big brother's antics, before continuing to make her way to the forging room, wheezing in discomfort as they heard her stomach growl for the third time that day, “I know i know, I’m gonna! i just have to refit my armor first,” she said to themselves, pretending that she didn’t just talk to their own stomach. turns out that the forging room was all the way on the other side of the mansion, which is a little silly in retrospect since the place mainly housed only the toughest warriors in the surrounding area, minus dbk’s fiancé princess iron fan, but even then she knew how to defend herself. but they didn’t really mind since she had time to reorganize their thoughts, like planning what she was gonna do once they were done getting her armor refitted. Well they knew that the first thing she’s gonna do is head into the kitchen and eat to their heart's content, hoping that they still had left overs from that fried boar that they had caught a few weeks back, feeling so starved that they felt like she could eat an ENTIRE FIELD of boars-

She suddenly cut that train of thought short as they realized what she had just thought, “AN ENTIRE FIELD!? I CAN’T EAT AN ENTIRE FIELD OF BOURS, THAT’S ABSOLUTELY BARBARIC!! I’m supposed to be the cool and collected part of the team, not some wild animal that’s only concern in life being what to eat!” slapping herself in the face, they clutched her hands into fists “I can’t keep getting distracted like this, my first course of action should be getting my armor refitted, and then I’ll worry about my stomach!”

and then only after that she’ll make their way to the kitchen, and ONLY eat a normal amount, there’s still people that live here for goodness sake. and if dbk was right about her being out for three weeks (which they still had trouble wrapping her head around) they would have to start by running a few laps around the estate a few times to test that their endurance was still up to speed (no pun intended) then after that she would sparr with dbk, since they haven’t done that in awhile.

…..and that’s about it I suppose- “WAIT A MINUTE!” wukong exclaimed, interrupting their own thoughts again while stopping in her tracks to the forging room “I HAVE TO TRACK DOWN THAT SON OF A BITCH THAT CURSED ME!!” wukong then smiled to themselves, having finally figured out a plan, then continued her way to the forging room and came across two giant metal doors leading to said place, cracking their knuckles as she put their entire body weight into pushing the door open, it giving in easily under their strength. which she was greatly relieved by since they wasn’t sure what she would do if they wasn’t able to open the door.

upon opening it, she was met with a big imposing metal room, equipped with a furnace, an anvil, used to band swords and the like into place, (they wouldn’t be needing that anytime soon, she thought to herself with pride) and a working bench equipped with different types of tools on the wall, looking around, Wukong finally found what they were looking for.

Walking over to the workbench, she looked off to the side to see a bucket filled to the brim with pure gold, which shined in the light from a nearby window that was positioned near the workbench, picking up some pieces and setting them on the countertop of the bench. The golden monkey demoness grabbed one, along with a steel hammer from off the wall, and made their way to the anvil. Even if she wouldn’t need it to bend swords or other weapons, she didn’t say anything about armor.

With that, they gently placed the piece of gold on the top of the anvil, holding it in place with one hand as she hammered it with the other, the sound of metal against metal reverberating throughout the room, tongue sticking out in concentration as the monkey king worked.

A few minutes passed with only the sound of wukong working filling the room, until finally she held up the first plate of their new armor, it looked pretty similar to the one she has on now, with the exception of the inner part of the front being a lot wider to give more space for their breasts. so she was able to breathe a little easier while out in battle, latches were attached onto both sides of the breastplate and under it so that it could click into place easily with the rest of their armor.

Bringing over another big piece of gold, she went to work ironing out the details. This one a lot bigger than the previous one, so that it could line up easily with their waist, doing the same thing she did with the breastplate and hammering inside the inner part of the front of the golden shell to give room for their gut to fit in easily without worrying about getting stuck, cause that would not be something she’d ever want to happen. The golden monkey shivers just thinking about it, done with that, they once again attached laches to the sides of the shell so that it could easily click in place.

finally, she can now work on putting the pieces of armor together, which meant taking off the now outdated armor they were wearing. Bringing her arms up to their sides, she swiftly unlatched the armor from their chest and sighed in relief at the feeling of her breasts once again plopping down into place. not really knowing how to feel about the fact that they’re already getting used to this. wukong then walked over to the work bench. New armor in hand as she started disassembling it, throwing the outdated parts into the open flames of the furnace to get melted down into the iron bucket beneath it, ready to be made into either another suit of armor or weapons.

With that out of the way, Wukong assembled the armor with the new and improved pieces, clicking it into place with the rest, and held the finished product up with a grin, pleased with their craftsmanship. it looked almost exactly like her old armor, only this time it was a lot bulker, but they’re sure no one will notice the difference.

Putting it on, she sighed in satisfaction as they felt both the breastplate and the metal around her waist fit them perfectly, making the golden monkey immensely relieved as they sat down in the chair that was positioned in front of the bench, unaware in her bless the sound of the wooden chair creaking under their weight. small cracks began to spiderweb across the dense wood, and before they knew it, wukong let out a yelp of surprise as the poor wooden chair gave out from under her, breaking in half. causing the golden monkey demoness to fall down on the floor, landing right on her ass that thankfully cushioned their fall, prompting them to spread outwards from the sudden weight being put on them.

letting out a sigh, good mood quickly ruined, wukong got up from off the floor and glared at the cursed chair that had brought her to the cold floor, only to see the broken remains of said chair in shambles, small pieces of wood sworn all over the floor. letting out a deep growl, Wukong stomped over to the nearest supply closest, not caring about how much noise they made as she brought out a broom, face formed into a pout as they swept the pieces of the broken remains of the chair into the nearby dustbin aggressively.

After that, wukong dusted herself off and made their way out of the forging room, thinking to herself that whoever next used the place will have to find a replacement chair. feeling relieved that they don’t use the place much, so she wouldn’t be the first to be blamed. exiting the room, Wukong made their way over to the kitchen to eat, cause apparently their stomach doesn’t care if she’s in a bad mood or not, for it wouldn’t stop growling like an angry dog while they were cleaning up. Opening the door to the kitchen, she was met with an ENORMOUS fried bour laying flat on the island counter, it’s skin having been ripped open in order to get to the meat inside, walking towards the front, Wukong paled as they saw that a huge chunk of the meat was gone, leaving the remainder of it’s stomach hollow. guess dbk and the others were hungry…

Looking around she noticed that it’s legs had been completely spared from the feast, not having any sign of bite marks on it, causing it to glisten with grease. the sight alone causing wukong’s mouth to water and stomach to growl in pure want, without thinking, they reached forward towards the nearest bour leg and tour it off. not even waiting for it to reach her mouth before bending over and biting into it. the juices from the meat filling their mouth and dribbling down her chin. swallowing the remainder of the juices along with the meat, they bit into it again with deep seated furiosity, growling all the while, swallowing the meat and biting into it again and again until it was nothing but bone. still hungry, wukong reached for the next one and gripped their now sharpened claws around the meat and bit into it. letting out a deep growl in pleasure as she once again swallowed the meat whole and bit into the soft flesh again, tearing it apart right off the bone with their sharp canines, another bour leg devoured, she ate the next two legs in the same manner, leaving them to sigh in relief as her stomach was finally full, leaning against the counter with one arm as leverage, the four bour legs, now completely devoid of meat, sat neatly on the counter next to the dead bour.

Blissful silence. That was until the golden monkey heard a familiar deep voice chuckle from the entrance of the kitchen, which immediately caused wukong’s heart to skyrocket, feeling like it was seconds away from beating out of their chest, she bolted upright from their previously relaxed position, face and hands greasy from her impromptu feast, back ramrod straight, with clear panic on their face as wukong was instantly filled with dread. whipping her head around in the direction of the voice, only for their worst fears to be true as she saw dbk leaning against the entrance, body lax with arms crossed, looking down at them in clear amusement.

but from wukong’s point of view he was looking down at her with disappointment in his eyes, which about brought tears to their own eyes, as she felt like they had just insulted his entire family, rushing around the counter to be in front of him, she fell to their knees and started katowing furiously, vision blurry from tears as she rambled, scared to death that they were gonna lose him. “I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSOSORRYI’MSUCHAPIGISHOULDHAVENEVERDONETHATNOWYOUGUYSDON’THAVEANYFOODTOEATALLBECAUSEOFMEBEINGSELFISHAND-ANDGREEDYANDADISGUSTINGSLOB!!!YOUSHOULDJUSTDISOWNMEASABROTHERANDLEAVEME,CAUSEIDON’TDESERVE-“

They suddenly flinched as she felt a soft hand gently touch their back as she began to sob, with tears streaming down her face, they looked up in surprise to see dbk looking at her, once again with his eyes filled with worry (why can’t they just stop worrying him!?) “wukong, it’s okay, I’m not mad at you,”

Wukong choked on another sob, half in relief and guilt, not able to understand how in the world he couldn’t be mad at her, they just acted out of pure greed, instead of a great king looking out for her subjects, they had eaten four boar legs that were all supposed to be for everyone, but instead of thinking about anyone else she had only thought about their own stomach, which only seemed to remind her of what dbk had said back at camp, causing them to cry harder.

feeling like the worst person in the world, she chokes out “but why??? I just ate four whole boar legs, I should’ve had more self control then that…” they said, lip wobbling while trying to avoid her brothers gaze, staring down at the floor instead, not knowing what felt worse. dbk being disappointed in them or him being worried for her, THEY ARE A GODS DAMN WARRIOR AND KING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SHE SHOULDN’T BE SHOWING SUCH DISRESPECT TOWARDS THE PEOPLE THAT ARE CURRENTLY RISKING THEIR LIVES ON THE BATTLEFIELD JUST TO JOIN THEM IN HER RECKLESS WAR AGAINST HEAVEN. Wukong could feel nothing but shame as they set there on the hard kitchen floor, tears rolling down her face like a newborn chimp, right in front of one of their most valued friends, someone who thought the world of her, and treated them like one of his own.

Dbk spoke up, rubbing soothing circles around his back to the best of his ability, having trouble since wukong had his armor on- wait is that new armor??? “I couldn’t quite hear what you were saying, but I picked up some of it, why would you think I’d disown you just because you ate your fair share? i had saved those boar legs specifically for you after all,”

That made wukong pause, finally looking at him while snot dripped from her nose, “what???” wukong crooked out, having trouble speaking since they were congested, dbk gave the golden monkey a rag from nearby, which wukong gladly blew into, before dbk continued “yeah, don’t you remember me saying that I was gonna save you some? you know, before you went to the forging room?” he then gestured at her new armor, with the front unfortunately covered with grease, which caused wukong to grimace in disgust, before looking back at him confused “wait, how did you know I went to the forging room?”

“Well it’s not everyday I see you walking around in a brand new set of armor, especially since it’s so bulky, so what’s the occasion? Is there a battle coming up that I don’t know about?” Dbk joked with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. which wukong appreciated as she scratched their cheek, even if dbk wasn’t mad at her, they still didn’t want him finding out about the fact that she had woken up this morning several pounds heavier. They care about the big guy and knows that he’s understanding most of the time. but she can’t stop thinking about what he had said the night at camp while drunk, they know it’s stupid to be worried about something like that, but she doesn’t really have many people that they’re close to like dbk.

“Eh, it’s nothing really,” she started off nonchalantly while picking themselves off the floor, temporarily wobbling on the way up cause of the added weight of both her armor and body. But thankfully regained their balance before dbk could help, instead the bull king stood up from off the ground along with her, His hooved feet clanking. “I just thought it would be a good idea to get some extra padding for this baby in case another one of those celestial’s tries anything funny,” they quipped, trying not to think about the fact that the reason her armor is balky in the first place is cause of something they did, which wasn’t funny in the least. probably to them, but they could care less about what they thought, bringing one of her hands to bang on the front of their chest plating with a clank “nice and sturdy, just as papa planned!” This statement made dbk let out a loud belly laugh, causing the golden monkey to grin wider, her tail swishing back and forth in happiness.

“I always knew you had a plan up your sleeve, putting padding in your armor is such an insightful idea, that I wish I’d thought of it myself! maybe I’ll take a trip to the ole forging room to configure one of those,” while dbk was deep in thought, he didn’t notice wukong tense up in newfound anxiety, remembering how they had broken the only remaining chair in the room…

I’m sure it will be fine.

“Anyway, I’m gonna head back to the training area if you need me, come join me if you want to train before heading out,” dbk stated before walking out of the kitchen, breaking wukong out of her thoughts, confused on what he meant “heading…heading ou- OH YEAH that’s right, training! with everything that’s happened I almost forgot about the third stage of my plan. it would be a good idea to train before showing that jade emperor not to miss with sun wukong, great sage equal to heaven!” They stated dramatically with hands on her hips, which looked a little silly since there was no one around. Wukong sweatdropped before clearing their throat before cleaning off the front of her armor and face with the clean side of the rag along with their hands before throwing it away into a nearby dustbin, and made her way outside.
————————

Stepping out, wukong set her hands on her hips as she breathed in the sweet morning air, full of the scent of pine nettles and moss that grew on the sides of the bark, looking around at all the trees that surrounded the estate, almost looking like they themselves were shielding them from harm, it’s a nice thought at least. with that in mind wukong made her way down the wooden steps of the siheyuan, putting the least amount of weight as possible on the planks before landing on the cool grass, just then realizing that she had forgotten her boots, …eh I’m sure I’ll be fine without them. It might be a good thing that she doesn’t put her boots on, for they’re not sure if they can even fit them anymore with their sudden growth in size, they could even make her thick thighs stand out even more.

wukong surveyed the trees around her, already mapping out her own little obstacle course in her head to test their indurance, before running up against a nearby tree to gain momentum, and kicked off the middle of the tree and jumped while gripping onto one of the low hanging branches nearby with her lower hands, glad that she hadn’t brought her boots out after all. for if they had they wouldn’t be able to pull this off, swinging from said branch to the next while grabbing onto the branch on the opposite tree with her upper hands, the golden monkey generally began gaining more and more momentum as she continued swinging from tree to tree, looking like a starfish on land with how fast she switched from grabbing onto the branches with her upper hands and then her lower ones, her eyes widened in glee as she watched as a flat expense of land vastly appeared in front of them, which only made them swing faster until she was at the last tree in the area and leaped down and fell towards the ground, changing her position at the last minute and landing on her upper hands instead of her feet (which in retrospect wouldn’t have even mattered, cause she’s a monkey) using the extra momentum from the fall to do a cartwheel, her body resembling more of a loose barrel then anything as she cartwheeled all the way into the valley, before stopping and landing softly on her bum with a laugh, really dizzy, but excited as well as she waited for the dizziness to go away before standing up, her heart still pumping in her chest, and noticed with relief that she hadn’t felt worn out yet, not even breaking a sweat.

So I guess my weight doesn’t effect me huh? well that does make sense cause of the fact that I was born out of a rock, which is naturally pretty heavy. focusing back on the present, wukong looked back to the siheyuan, surprised at how far of a distance she wenr from it, then grinned and bent down on her haunches, hands on the ground as she thought up a plan, waiting a bit to build suspense, before suddenly kicking off the ground as the golden monkey began to run on all fours, quickly picking up speed, feeling way more comfortable running on all fours instead of two, but nonetheless brought herself up to run on two as she neared the estate. before skidding to a stop right in the middle of the training grounds, everyone looking at them stunned. jaws hanging open in shock.

The first one to speak up was dbk “well well well, looks like your energy has returned! I’ve never seen you run that fast before, not to mention how you did that thing with your hands and feet, in the trees and on the ground, it kinda looked like an impersonation of a barrel,” he laughed good naturally, with a few others joining in, some good naturally and others not so much. but dbk made sure to give them a stern glare before continuing “so I’m guessing you’re not too tired to have a quick sparr before you leave?” at the prospect of a challenge, the group of demons who had previously surrounded the two quickly stepped back, moving to the edges of the arena to give the two some room.

Wukong laughed “are you kidding? I barely broke a sweat back there! this will be easy.” wukong quipped, giving the other a challenging glare, already ready to fight with her best friend and most varied ally. Bringing her cudgel out from their ear, glad that she hadn’t taken him up on the offer of polishing it a few hours prior. the sight of the unpolished staff prompting dbk to raise an eyebrow before bringing forth his own weapon: a long darksteel axe, complete with a maroon handle, looking so huge compared to the great sages golden tipped staff. Looking as if anyone else were to try to weald it, they would be shocked at how heavy it is, the only ones being able to weald it being dbk himself and sun wukong. remembering how the two used to get into fights after wukong had gone into battle with his battle axe, much to dbk’s dismay. the thought causing wukong to snicker.

dbk growled, not out of hatred but instead in impatience, readying himself for battle, or at least a sparr made to look like a battle, but the two of them both knew it wouldn’t stay like that for long, bringing her staff over their chest, wukong barely had enough time to dodge out of the way as dbk rushed towards them, battle axe in hand, swinging it just as wukong dipped out from under it, dbk missing them by only a few hairs, causing the bull demon to drive his axe several feet into the ground. still ducked low, wukong made her way behind him and wracked him on the shoulder with their staff, causing dbk to yelp in surprise as he momentarily loosened his grip around the axe, growling in anger as he pulled his weapon out of the ground, causing clumps of dirt to fly into the air. turning around to hit them, only for wukong to sprint to the opposite side, raising her staff again for another hit. only to be shocked as dbk turned back around sharply, causing the wind to pick up around them as it swirled around, picking up the clumps of dirt from the movement. As fast as lightning, he brought down his axe towards the golden monkey, missing them by only an inch as wukong quickly made her way to the other side and wracked him on the side of his chest, leaving him to yell out in pain as he stumbled backwards, being taken aback by the strong blow, only to trip over wukong’s tail and fall on the ground, with wukong climbing atop his chest and holding the tip of her staff in front of his face. The battle was over.

Or at least, that’s how it looked, cause the moment wukong was distracted, dbk slowly moved his arm towards his fallen axe, before suddenly rising and cutting them across the chin, leaving wukong to stagger off him while gripping her staff in an iron claud grip, blood slowly dripping from the small cut on her chin, huffing as she gave dbk a sly smirk “ah…smart trick with the whole “pretending to be down bit, very classy,”

Dbk grinned back, also out of breath as he spoke “not as clever as you using your small size to your advantage to get some lucky hits, just a heads up: there might come a time where your size won’t help you in battle.” this harmlessly quip causing wukong’s face to shift, briefly turning into a grimace as she thought about her recent growth in weight, and wondered to themself if that was the only thing that was gonna change. and as quick as it was there it was gone in seconds, swapped with a grin as she laughed good naturally, even if dbk gave them a worried look, who had definitely seen that facial change, “I’m sure, if that time comes I’ll think of something, you don’t have to worry about me.” she said as they brought her staff up to the side of her head, and shrank the cudgel into the size of a needle and put it in her ear. finally concluding the battle.

You’ve already worried yourself to death because of me already. Wukong thought to themselves, thinking back about how dbk had faired after rescuing her from the train wreck that was the battle between them and the jade emperor.

Keeping her spirits up, wukong leisurely made their way over to dbk, who had since gotten over what had happened a few moments ago, and was giving them a soft smile as wukong looked up to him with a familiar glint in her eye, dbk having seen that look countless times since he’s met the little fire starter, “I’m gonna head out now, I have some business with a certain celestial, who has a serious ass kicking in his future. but first i need to ask you something, a question that might mean the difference between life and death.” that made dbk start, letting out a noise of surprise before quickly sobering up, staring down at them with a serious expression on his face, knowing that wukong for sure was serious too (and if he was wrong, and wukong was about to make a joke, he would give him something worse then the cut on their chin.) bending down on his hunches to be at eye level with him, he spoke “yes, I vowed from the moment we became bond brothers that no matter where you go, or how far you are, I’ll always do my best to fight with you, be it land or sea, land or snow, from the deepest depths of a forest or cave, to the highest point that I can reach, I promise that I’ll always stand by your side brother.”

Wukong stared at him with a mixture of shock and awe on her face, before smiling softly, tearing up a bit at the statement, she sometimes forgets, with him being brash and crude most of the time, that dbk is capable of being kind to the people he cares about, those being them and princess iron fan. wukong raised her hand, understanding what he was doing, dbk rose his as well, and both locked hands in a firm handshake “I know you will, that’s why I’m asking you, that when I go to fight against heaven, if when things start to get too rough or out of hand, I’ll need you to make a retreat without me-” as expected dbk protested immediately. “WHAT!? wukong, I would never leave you in your time of need! I know that fighting against heaven is important to you, but you can’t possibly think of fighting alone! we’re a team, remember?” Dbk crooked out, for the first time in what felt like decades beginning to tear up, and wukong could only furrow her brows in guilt, knowing that they’re the reason for that. but despite the heavy feeling that has once again made itself known in her chest, they continued. “I know it sounds bad, and it is! but I also know that you have a whole future waiting for you with your fiancé,” she then gestured to a balcony on the second floor, where princess iron fan stood, who had been watching the sparr unfold all this time, she was giving dbk a worried look, obviously too far away to hear what they were talking about. the demons that were previously watching had since dispersed, knowing this was a conversation for the bull demon and monkey demoness only. dbk looked back at him, “and you don’t? wukong, forgive me for prying, but it sounds like you are planning on dying up there, isn’t that why you became immortal in the first place? to make sure that doesn’t happen?”

Wukong averted his gaze, clear guilt written on her face, before looking back, “it’s not that, I know that I won’t die, that’s why I’ve been certain that I can fight against heavens armies in the first place! but as strong as you and our other brothers are, you guys are still mortal, and thus can easily be killed by anything those celestial’s threw at you. And it would be all my fault, you guys haven’t been though the same things I did to become immortal, and I want nothing more than for you to not die cause I was too reckless to save you. So please, please promise me, that if things get too dangerous, that if you see that things are getting out of hand, and everyone around you are dropping like flies, that you will hightail it outta there and retreat, if not for me then for your sake. For your princess’s sake, for your future children’s sake, just please promise me that you won’t die.” she pleaded, now on the verge of tears as well, gripping the demons hand in a vice grip.

Upon seeing this dbk paused, looking down and weighing his options, if he stays and fights against heaven with him, then he’ll risk getting himself killed somehow, then everything he has planned with princess iron fan would never come to be, especially them having a child or two to raise, but if he decides to retreat and leave wukong at the mercy of the celestial’s, then he might very well never see him again, he sighed as he nodded his head in resignation, knowing wukong well enough that if he did choose to fight against his side then wukong might very well kick him out of heaven himself.

“Alright, I promise that I’ll retreat if it comes to that, but I’ll need you to promise me that you’ll come back when this is all over, to not die like thousands of others have died whilst doing what you’re about to do.” wukong shook her head as she gave him a smile, their eyes glossy from tears, in a mix of both happiness and sorrow, extremely happy that she has someone that cares about her so much to the point that they don’t want them to die. but sorrow cause of the fact that they might very well risk her life out there, which will only bring about sadness and heartbreak in its wake. even if she’s the only one to lose somehow. “I’m sorry dbk, but I’m afraid I can’t promise that.” The golden monkey replied softly, giving the bull the ghost of a smile.

That statement alone may as well have shattered dbk’s entire being if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s made of the toughest stuff there is, but he did let a single manly tear slide down his face as he laughed hollowly, raising his head to meet the king’s eyes, giving him a small smile, the only thing he could give at the moment “then, as your most trusted ally, I hope and pray that we have a victorious battle tomorrow, full of laughter as we behead our enemies and color the sky red! and in the end we can sit down and have a bowl of the finest wine- ” dbk stated, but paused as wukong gave him a look, “uhh- and by wine I mean the non-celestial kind, since we seemed to have already drank all of it!” The bull demon laughed nervously, causing wukong to smile softly, the thought of feeling the happiness and relief after such a big battle making the ache in her chest just a little bit more bearable.

Wukong grinned, making sure they looked as happy as she could, even if she felt like they were breaking inside “I’d like that. but until then we have a battle to win.”

Dbk nodded in agreement as he stood up, finally letting go of wukong’s hand, not used to being in that position for that long as he grunted, popping his back that had since become stiff. “man I’m getting too old for this,” he grunted out, which only made wukong bark out a laugh, prompting dbk to give him an simi-annoyed look with a smirk “oh you think that’s funny huh? too bad you’re immortal cause I’d love to see your reaction to experiencing back pain,” this comment only made wukong laugh even harder as she bent over and gripped her stomach in their laughter before standing back up with a grin, shoulders still shaking, “yeah well, sucks for you then, I didn’t go to that stuffy place for twenty years to master the immortal arts for nothing!” the monkey quipped, pointing at themself with her thumb for emphasis.

Dbk rolled his eyes as he smacked him on the back, the sheer strength behind it causing wukong to stumble back, almost falling to the ground for the second time that day, whipping her head around, only to see dbk giving her one of the smuggest smirks she’s ever seen, which made her sneer “YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE YOU SHIT HEAD!!” This comment made him look away, his smug smirk turning into a grin the longer Wukong yelled at him. pouting, wukong turned around and marched off, the action causing dbk to quickly sober up “wait, you’re leaving already? don’t you want to stay for dinner first?” dbk asked, the question making wukongs stomach growl, which made her stop at the entrance to the training grounds, looking up to the sky, she saw that the sun was already setting, painting the sky with a mixture of reds yellows and pinks, turning around to look at him, only to see dbk of all people giving them puppy dog eyes.

Damn it, that’s what I do! she thought to herself as they slowly turned around completely, to dbk’s delight “fine, but I’m only staying here until tomorrow morning, then and only then I’ll track down the jade emperor.”

Dbk nodded his head, hardly listening as he guided them back into the entrance to the siheyuan “yes yes, you will get to kick the jade emperor’s ass tomorrow brother, but right now you need to eat and get some good rest for tomorrow. after all it’s not every day that you get to take on the jade emperor.” wukong looked down, a small smile on her face to mask how nervous she was, the two entering the building to see princess iron fan walk downstairs with a worried look on her face. “what were you two talking about down there? it looked pretty serious.” she asked, giving each a look, to which both glanced at each other, and looked back to her with calm smiles “nothing you should worry about none love, just us two making promises like sworn brothers do.” dbk said, trying to act nonchalant like, only for princess iron fan to raise an eyebrow while crossing her arms, obviously wanting a real explanation, but nonetheless her face softened as she remembered how desperate both were a few minutes back. “alright, but just make sure you two protect each other tomorrow, cause I don’t want either one of you to die by those celestial’s” she demanded, pointing her finger into dbk’s chest, which made him stiffen “yes dear,” with that he walked off, most likely to figure out what to make for dinner.

Princess iron fan then directed her attention to wukong, who sweatdropped at having the focus directed on herself. kinda wishing that dbk hadn’t walked away just now, “and you, I don’t know what you told him out there, but I hope you know what you’re doing. cause if you end up breaking that poor man’s heart by doing something reckless, I’ll personally make my way to the little hole you dug yourself in and fight you myself, do I make myself clear?” she said, having started to lean over in order to make herself seem taller, easily towering over the small monkey by her stance alone. which caused wukong to slowly inch their way back in fright “uhhhhh, y-yes ma'am, I’ll make sure to do my best to make sure he stays out of harm's way in any means possible!”

Princess iron fan sighed, beyond tired with this “that’s not what I meant, but I appreciate the thought, I mainly meant to make sure you won’t die out there as well, cause if you do you’ll end up in much bigger trouble then you are now.”

Wukong nodded her head in understanding “I know princess, I’m gonna try my best, but at the same time I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, I don’t know if I’ll live or die, though I’m pretty sure I have no chance of dying because I’m-“

“Because you’re immortal, I know I know, you told everyone that the moment you came back from that place, but what happens if something worse happens? what if they end up taking you captive and torturing you for all eternity?? you may not be able to die, but those people up there will for sure make sure you wish you could if they get their hands on you.”

Wukong gave the women a horrified look, not liking the thought of being tortured for that long, seeing this, she bent down to be at eye level with the monkey demoness, much like how her fiancé did, while placing a hand on their shoulder “look, I know you only want the best for everyone involved, but if you are too busy protecting the people around you, then who is gonna protect you? you have to start thinking with your head now wukong, cause this isn’t like those times in the past where you fought an army for land, and the worst things you would get out of it are some cuts and bruises. fighting heaven itself is a big deal, those people have power you could barely even imagine having at their disposal, along with weapons that we don’t even know about, you have to have an actual solid plan, cause you can’t just do whatever you want this time, cause unlike the last time you fought heaven you actually have people beside you that will help you reach your goal. you have to rely on them to give you the strength to fight.”

Wukong remembered how dbk had told her something similar himself a few years ago, about how the celestial army has much more powerful weapons and powers then any human and demon have any right to achieve. that all seemed so long ago now, she only hopes she’ll or has avoided the three disasters, for that’s one of the things that keep them up at night.

Wukong nodded, she understood why princess iron fan was so insistent on this, cause since they’re sworn brothers with dbk, it means that princess iron fan is her sworn sister by association. And she also cares about them just as much as dbk does, and would be absolutely devastated if anything were to happen to them. before she could say anything more the front doors of the siheyuan burst open with a bang, causing both of them to jump and whip their heads around to see the rest of the demon army holding a dead boar in their arms, freshly killed which became pretty apparent as blood began dripping down from the animal carcass onto the wooden floor, the sight alone making princess iron fan quickly stand up straighter, enraged by the mess “WHAT ARE YOU NUMBSKULLS DOING!? YOU’RE GETTING THE FLOOR ALL BLOODIED UP, QUICKLY GO GO GO INTO THE KITCHEN AND SPRAY THAT THING DOWN!!” the demon lankies, instantly scared out of their minds at having the eventual wife of dbk chewing them out, quickly made their way to the kitchen as fast as they could, a trail of blood falling from the animal carcass, which princess iron fan glared at in distaste. upon entering the kitchen, the two soon heard a sound of surprise from a certain bull, along with the sound of a nearby faucet turning on, accompanied by the sound of grown men yelling.

Shaking her head, princess iron fan made her way over to a supply closet and brought out a mop, it had a wooden handle with stringed wool on the bottom, and started scrubbing the floor that was littered with blood with frustration, glancing at wukong who hadn’t moved from her spot since the sudden commotion. “you can go back to your room if you want, dinner should be done in around an hour if I get in there fast enough.” nodding her head, wukong made their way up the stairs and to her room, opening the door and walking over to their bed and flopping down on it, which gave out a creak of protest as she sank down into the woolen sheets. taking off their armor and letting it fall to the floor next to them with a clank.

She had a lot to think about tonight, like the fact that they have no idea what their gonna do about tomorrow’s battle, cause apparently they have to make sure she doesn’t get killed or captured, which sounds easy enough, but what doesn’t is the fact that they have to also make sure that dbk or anyone else doesn’t get killed in the crossfire, which doesn’t sound as easy, since as reckless as they can be at times, she doesn’t hold a candle to the kind of reckless anarchy their brothers can get up to without the proper guidance.

As she thought about this, they barely noticed as she pushed themselves from off the bed and started pacing the room, this would be way easier if she could just wing it like she always does, but princess iron fan specifically told them not to do that, so she actually had to make up a plan. But as time passed wukong wasn’t any closer to figuring out a solution, going back and lying down on her bed after awhile, bringing their hands up to her face as she groaned.

Well this sucks.

As the golden monkey continued to lay there, they began sinking deeper and deeper into the bed compared to the first time, her emotions causing their body to grow even heavier. growing increasingly tired from the day’s events as the hands that were previously on her face went slick as it slowly moved from their face down to her chest, her claws finding purchase in the soft material. before slowly drifting off to sleep.

———————

She woke up with a start when she heard a knock on her door, quickly diving to the floor where her armor laid and putting it on, just as princess iron fan opened the door, peeking her head into the room “Wǎncān’s ready, you better get down there before the boys eat it all” princess iron fan quipped with a grin, seeming to be in a much better mood compared to the last time she saw her. letting out a chuckle as she slid off the bed, walking towards the entrance before she suddenly stepped in front of her to stop them, bringing her hands up, she said “whoa there mister, you’re not thinking of eating with your armor on are you?” she asked, gesturing to his armor, which still had some left over grease stains from earlier that day, the sight causing the bull demoness to grimace in disgust.

And before she could stop her, she reached forward and gripped onto the sides of her armor, the place where her latches were, and unclasped them easily, before bringing the armor over their head, not noticing in her haste wukong’s breasts bouncing in place from the sudden movement, which wukong instantly stopped by wrapping her arms around her chest, trying to make herself look like she was just crossing her arms. giving her a pout for good measure.

She raised an eyebrow skeptically before continuing “you’re not getting these back until tomorrow. and until then I’ll put these in the forging room to get cleaned and polished later.” with that she walked out of the room while leaving the door open. wukong trailed after her with her eyes as she glared, before sighing.

Looking in the mirror, she noticed that her hanfu was a bit messed up from being covered by their armor all day, the upper part of the hanfu being loosened around her collar, which gave her breasts ample chance to push against the cloth, leaving them open enough that her cleavage was bare for the world to see, face heating up at the thought that, if princess iron fan hadn’t been so focused on her armor then she would’ve definitely noticed. With that in mind Wukong quickly closed the collar up, making sure to tighten the straps around it as tight as possible, so that it couldn’t get loose again, looking back in the mirror to see that it looked a little better, with only a slight indication that there’s something there.

Satisfied with her work, she took one last look before exiting her room and heading downstairs into the kitchen, walking into the dinning room to see a long table stretching from one side of the room to the next, filled with over twenty five chairs that were filled with dbk’s friends and ally’s, eating different kinds of meat and vegetables, greatly enjoying their fill, dbk and princess iron fan were sitting near the entrance, with one empty seat next to dbk, who looked up from his plate when she walked in and grinned, before gesturing to the empty spot next to him, filled to the brim with meat, four boar legs to be exact, with three bowls of rice next to it. the sight before them causing their stomach to growl from underneath her hanfu, making her blush slightly as she walked over and sat in her seat, looking over to dbk confused “uhhh dbk? Is this really all for me? it seems to be a bit much,”

To this dbk laughed good naturally “come on wukong, you remember what happened today in the kitchen? you managed to eat four whole boar legs in one sitting!! I’m sure enough time has passed that you can do it again.” dbk stated, gathering the attention of some of the other demons, along with princess iron fan, who upon hearing this, leaned over to give wukong a look, before sitting back up, staying quiet. He was right, Wukong thought as she looked down at her plate. They already felt starved even after the meal she had eaten earlier that afternoon. but as they slowly gripped onto the bone of the first leg one of the demons, this one a tiger sitting at the table spoke up “wait really?? wukong had actually eaten that much? but he’s just a little guy,”

Another one, a long toothed walrus who had a hefty stack of fish that sat next to the left of the tiger demon spoke up, “Do you think he might be nearing a growth spurt??”

The tiger looked at him like he had grown a second head “are you serious??? the monkey just got out of a coma, the reason why he’s so hungry is because he hadn’t eaten in all that time!”

The two continued to argue with each other until dbk suddenly banged his hand on the table, gathering everyone’s attention and making both wukong and princess iron fan flinch, giving him a look like he had just gone mad “THAT’S ENOUGH!! it doesn’t matter why wukong’s appetite has suddenly changed, what matters is that he’s eating at all. so stop bickering and shut up and eat before I throw you out.” with that the two quickly nodded their heads and remained quiet, not even daring to look at either dbk or the monkey demoness.

Wukong just set there dumbfounded, looking over to dbk to see him lock eyes with her, giving them a thumbs up while smiling softly, wukong returned the smile while she started to eat, generally speeding up the pace as they began to relish the taste of the cooked boar legs along with the softness of the rice. not even noticing when some demons around the table started to give them weird looks as she started to wolf down her food without a care, they were just glad that dbk was still on her side.

She had ended up eating everything on her plate, including the three bowls of rice.

After dinner she and dbk and princess iron fan started to clean up the table, throwing away leftover bones into the dustbin and washing the dishes and bowls, and before they knew it, it was time for bed. wukong waved goodnight to dbk and princess iron fan as they went their separate ways in the hallway, dbk and princess iron fan going to their room while wukong went to hers. opening their door, wukong staggered into their room, the massive intake of food finally catching up to them as she made her way to their bed, sitting down and taking off the outer robe of her hanfu, before standing back up, folding it up and placing it on the nightstand that stood next to their bed, with that done, she stretched her arms up above their head and yawned, before crawling into bed, placing her hands on the edges of their robe and begun to take it off. Wukong made it past her shoulders until they realized what she was doing, and looked down to their now naked breasts, a few minutes passed in silence before she wrapped the robe back around themselves with a blush, realizing that she can’t sleep around shirtless like they used to before today. laying down atop the bed, she brought the covers around herself and up to their neck, trying to cover up the body she felt so ashamed of.

Wukong then looked outside though the window next to her bed, wondering once again how tomorrow will fare, she still didn’t have a plan for what she’s gonna do about the battle tomorrow, cause it’s way too late to surrender, not that she was going to anyway. but the thought still left her feeling helpless as she rolled onto her side with her back facing the window, and closed her eyes, hoping that sleep will come to them easy tonight.

—————————

The next morning…

Wukong woke up to the smell of food, wafting through the air and into her bedroom, wukong’s nose softly twitching around as she smelled the delicious aroma, slowly opening her eyes and sitting up, her breasts bouncing along with her movements, giving them a brief glare before slowly getting up, careful to not make too much noise as she reached for the outer robe of her hanfu and slid it on, before wrapping it around into place before leaving her room.

So yesterday really did happen…

As wukong made her way downstairs, the delicious smell kept getting stronger and stronger until she was left with her mouth watering as she entered the kitchen, princess iron fan was standing at the stove, with a steel pot on top, she was currently dishing out some bāozi buns onto a cooling sheet, with a stack of scallion oil pancakes on a nearby counter, along with deep fried dough sticks.

Wukong’s eyes were practically sparkling as she made a mad dash to the nearest seat in the dining room, which conveniently enough was right next to dbk, who chuckled at wukong’s antics “Zǎoshang hǎo to you two simian, I’m guessing you’re hungry?” he states with a soft grin, watching as he feverishly nods his head, which only made him let out another chuckle as princess iron fan came over with two dishes, both including the soft delicacies they both adored “I’m starting to think that you wanted to marry me just for my cooking” she states with a sly grin as they watched as wukong immediately dug into his food with a muffled “Xièxiè nǐ!” which just made them laugh, with princess iron fan coming back over and sitting down across from them with her own plate.

“Well, that’s part of it, but I also married you for your soft, compassionate nature, along with your impressive fighting skills on the battlefield, not to mention your drive to make things right”

Princess iron fan leaned her face into her hand, utterly enamored by his words “keep talking”

Dbk opened his mouth to do so before he glanced at his side, and then looked back to her with a smug look “I would, but I think someone wants to eat his breakfast in peace” he said while pointing his thumb next to him to wukong, who is giving both of them a tired glare, deep fried dough stick halfway in his mouth “do you two mind?” She asked rhetorically, it being too early in the morning to hear these two being all lovey dovey with each other. sharing a look, the two decided to give the poor monkey a break, for now at least “good point, so wukong, I’m guessing you really like my cooking huh?” she asked, waiting for him to swallow his bite before he spoke “UHHHH YEAH!! your cooking is amazing!! are you sure you weren't born a goddess that was sent down here to share her cooking?” he asks, which surprised a laugh out of her “well…no, but I did learn a lot from my mom growing up, she used to make these exact foods for me growing up, so I’m just glad i could spread her good fortune with others” she explained.

Wukong looked at her with stars in his eyes, dough stick falling out of his mouth “that’s soooooo coooool!! I kinda wish I had a mom that I could learn stuff from!!” he then picked up his fallen dough stick and went back to eating, not noticing dbk and princess iron fan sharing another look, this time with more of a saddened glint.

——————————

After they all finished breakfast and cleaned up, princess iron fan told them to wait out front towards the entrance of the siheyuan so she could get something, before entering the forge and returning with wukong’s armor in her hands, which was now nice and clean, sparkling in the light of the sun.

Wukong was obviously ecstatic upon seeing it, and after she put it on, she raced towards her and wrapped her arms around her in a hug, with princess iron fan laughing all the while as she gently patted her on the head, after that dbk called the rest of the demon army for battle, and then, before he knew it, it was almost time to go.

“Don’t worry about me my dear, I’ll make sure to come back to you before the sun sets” dbk promised as he stroked his fiancé’s cheek with his thumb, being ever so gentle, like she was made of glass, princess iron fan smiled gently as she held onto his hand “and I’ll be here too my love…just promise me that you’ll come back home” she said softly as her eyes started to brim with tears, one or two falling down her cheek, which dbk easily wiped away.

“I promise, my dear sweet queen, that no matter what happens, I’ll always come back to you” with that he ever so gently gave her a peck on the lips, enveloping her in a hug before parting reluctantly.

Wukong was not gonna cry.

SHE WASN’T!! she thought to herself as she quickly wiped a single tear out of her eye as dbk joined her, looking at her while giving the golden monkey a look “were you about to cry?” This caused Wukong to stagger back like she had been slapped, “WHAT!? NEVER!! i simply had some dust in my eye” she said as she turned around to avoid her brother’s gaze, which only made dbk laugh, not buying him for a second.

A few minutes passed as they set down on the ground while waiting for the demon army to arrive, wukong sitting with legs crossed while dbk joined him, sitting down with his legs dangling off the edge of the ledge.

“….we won’t die out there you know” wukong muttered out, still avoiding his gaze “we will find a way to win the battle, and no one will die.”

There was silence.

“May I ask you a question? as a friend” dbk begun, having been wondering this since the fight with heaven had begun.

Wukong laughed “you just did” this made dbk huff out a laugh “I’m serious wukong!”

“Alright, alright! shoot.”

“What do you hope to achieve by defeating the jade emperor in battle? i mean I know you can be reckless and a bit airheaded at times-

“Easy there buddy-“ wukong warned with a smirk.

“-but I know you have to have a reason for why you’re doing this right? So what is it? What could you possibly hope to accomplish by doing this? isn’t it so that we can live free without fear of the gods sniping us out of existence if we step out of line?.”

Wukong looked down, fiddling with her hands as she tried to think on how to put what she was thinking into words “well….kinda, you remember when I told you how I had gotten invited up to heaven?”

Dbk huffs, laughing as he remembers how excited the small king was as he jumped around in his estate, practically bouncing of the walls in his excitement as he shoved the silken parchment in his face with a grin, telling him how he had finally found his big break, how he had finally gathered the attention of the holy celestial people that had no doubt seen how great he is. Only for him to come back a year later absolutely distraught, telling him how disrespectful the jade emperor was for giving him the lowest title in heaven, which was the ‘protector of the horses’ and explaining that it was so low a rank that it didn’t even have a class. and so he expressed his desire to rage war against heaven for having the audacity to show him such disrespect.

“How could I forget? you were delighted when you got sent that invitation, saying that you finally had a chance at gaining a powerful rank in heaven, saying how everyone was finally gonna see how great and powerful you were, only for me to find out a year later when you kicked down my door how you had been savagely tricked into being put in the lowest rank imaginable, a rank unsuitable for a king like yourself.”

Wukong raised her hands above her head up upon being reminded “EXACTLY!! I MEAN HOW HARD COULD IT BE TO FIND A SUITABLE RANK IN THAT PLACE!? worst case scenario they could’ve just sent me back home until they found a spot for me, I have nothing but time after all” wukong stated, resting her head in one of her hands. her tail thumping around in agitation “the only thing I want- the only thing I EVER wanted in life was to be respected, but apparently some people, like those damn celestial’s, that are so high up on their little thrones to ever think of showing any sign of empathy or respect to anyone, don’t seem to share the same thought process, CAUSE HEAVEN HAVE MERCY IF THEY DECIDED TO TREAT PEOPLE WITH RESPECT! we aren’t even asking for much…

Dbk nodded in understanding “unfortunately, there’s more people like them in the world. emperors and empresses that think that just because they have power it means that they can just boss other people around, a lot of innocent people died trying to either escape from their homes cause things had gotten out of hand, or try to fight against them, cause in their eyes they saw them as evil dictators that only wanted power. but it all ended the same…”

There was a beat of silence as the two kings set there, then Wukong furrowed her brows in thought, before looking up at him “promise me that you won’t end up as an evil dictator like those people? cause I really don’t want to have to fight you just to keep the peace.”

Dbk looked at him with a smile as he once again rose his hand to shake on it “as long as you don’t do the same, I wouldn’t want a powerful guy like yourself causing trouble for anyone.” wukong nodded, placing her hand into the bulls, it easily being enveloped much like princess iron fans were, they both grinned as they both shook on it “deal.”

That’s when they heard heavy footfalls as dbk’s demon army finally arrived, causing both to stand up and turn around to see over a thousand demons of all sizes standing to attention, facing towards the two kings. dbk spoke up as he stood up, his face stone cold as he went into warrior mode. his voice booming “ALL OF YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE, THE CELESTIAL KNOWN AS THE JADE EMPEROR HAD TRICKED OUR FRIEND AND ALLY SUN WUKONG INTO JOINING THE LOWEST RANK ON IT’S SYSTEM” the crowd abrupted into boos growls and hisses, very displeased upon hearing this, dbk continued “AND BECAUSE OF THAT THEY MUST PAY WITH THEIR LIVES, FOR EVEN DARING TO HISHONER ONE OF OUR OWN!! WE WILL MAKE OUR WAY TO THE EMPEROR’S PALACE WITH WEAPONS DRAWN AND THE EMPEROR WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO GIVE HIM A NEW POSITION!!!” dbk yelled, his voice growing louder and louder with every word.

The crowd erupted into cheers and hollers, very excited and pumped for the upcoming battle, falling into step soon after behind dbk and wukong as they made their way out of the comforts of the forest, and on their way towards the valley where the previous battle with the emperor had taken place. the forest fading away only to be replaced by Rocky Mountains and cliff faces in the distance, patches of trees and bushes scattered around the valley, but unlike the forest where the estate resides, there was plenty of lush land.

Wukong started to sweat as they made it closer and closer to the valley, trying to keep her composure as she tried not to think of the memory of her being struck by lightning, the thing that had started this mess in the first place, and because of that she was experiencing changes in her body that she’s never felt before. the emperor must’ve known this would happen, and had expected her to just fall over and die, but she’s not a weak little thing, instead she’s a strong willed warrior! birthed from a great big boulder on flower fruit mountain, raised a soldier that will stop at nothing to get what she wants. she’s the one and only great sage equal to heaven, and she isn’t gonna let these changes keep her from beating that man black and blue!!

Fired up, Wukong brought her gold rimmed cudgel out of her ear, growing it to be as thick as a rice bowl, before summoning her cloud with only a breath, just as they made it to the clearing where it had all started. gesturing for everyone to stay put, she made her way up to the jade palace, running over to the gate and smacking the guards out of the way, pushing open the gates with her bare hands as she stomped her way to the pristine double doors leading to the hall of miraculous mist where the jade emperor resides.

The ground began to shake with the sages weight as she slowly began to grow taller and taller, arms thickening up, her skin pushing against her armor until it broke from the strain, and fell to the floor below with a clatter. but wukong didn’t bat an eye at this sudden turn of events as she continued making her way to the door, and as she ran, her legs grew bigger and chubbier, her pants straining against her skin, but stayed intact. her breasts growing larger and larger in size, the fabric of her hanfu straining against the building pressure until her collar ripped open, leaving her breasts to slide out of their confines and began bouncing along in tune with her movements without restraint, as she kept growing in height she ended up standing to be half the size of the double doors in front of her, and kicked them open with the heel of her boot. no longer the same 5 ½ foot tall monkey from before.
——————————

The jade emperor was sitting on his throne as he casually sipped his fresh warm tea, sighing in bliss as he took in the sweet silence of the palace, until he suddenly heard panicked yelling throughout the palace as he heard what sounded like heavy footfalls vastly approaching the hall, and before he knew it something broke down his door, leaving him to jump in surprise while dropping his cup of tea with a crash, when the dust settled he recognized who it was.

“SUN WUKONG!? HOW ON EARTH DID YOU GET HERE!?!?” he demanded, realizing with fright that she was now ten+ bigger than she was before, around nine feet tall with a very thick bodily structure, the monkey in question glared at him with a deep growl from the deepest depths of her being, which only made him tense up further
“You….you look different” he hesitantly squeaked out, voice breaking in fright as he tried to make small talk as he generally started scooting his way off his thorne.

The monkey sneered, steam blowing out her nose while her eyes never left his form as the jade emperor pinned himself to the wall, trying in vain to inch himself to the exit, only for wukong to land on all fours and growl menacingly “yeah. no thanks to you” running out of options the jade emperor yelled out “ERLANG THE MONKEY KING HAS RETURNED!!!”

there was silence until they heard heavy footfalls reach the entrance of the hall of miraculous mist, then erlang rounded the corner, accompanied by nezha “I’m here your grea- HOLY MOSES ON ICE IS THAT THE GREAT SAGE EQUAL TO HEAVEN!?” the god exclaimed in fright as Wukong slowly turned her head to look at him, golden eyes shining in a glare as she slowly turned around to face the two. leaving the jade emperor to flee the room, not taking any chances as he frantically called for reinforcements, leaving the great sage alone with erlang and nezha, the prince looking at her with shock, having now realized what had happened.

Both watched in horror as wukong slowly sat up on her feet, showing the two how tall she had gotten in the short time she was gone, while bringing out his golden banded cudgel. shaking his head to gather his bearings, erlang took out his double edged trident while nezha took out his fire tipped spear.

First order of business was to get wukong as far away from the emperor as possible, giving nezha a look, nezha tightened his hold around his spear and charged towards the golden furred demoness with a battle cry, wukong raising her staff just in time to block the attack, but the force behind nehza’s sprint caused her to trip and temporarily lose her balance, which gave nezha enough time to take the red filt around him and wrap it around the monkey’s waist, and using all his strength, dragged wukong out through the entrance of the hall and made a mad dash down the hall to the gate where he finally threw the sage into the sky, unwrapping his filt around her in the process, it wrapping back around his body instantly.

Meanwhile wukong was NOT happy at being treated like a wild animal, and openly sneered at the prince and charged towards him, but was stopped when erlang rushed forward and punched her in the gut, causing them to fall back a bit, just as erlang rushed towards her with trident drawn and slashed her across the face, leaving a big cut running from the top of her forehead down to her cheek. growling, wukong raised her staff and swung it towards him, hitting him square in the shoulder, which made erlang wheeze in pain, then charged towards her again and struck her in the chest, causing her to fall and smash into a nearby mountain, leaving a sizable crater in her wake as she quickly got up to block another one of his blows.

This went on for awhile until seven celestial scouts went over to them, giving erlang a parchment of paper, which he took while blocking wukong’s face with one of his hands, reading the note and looking back at the guards with a quizzical look “we were sent to retrieve sun wukong back to the palace to be executed for her crimes, we ask you to step back and let us restrain the demoness.”

===START OF A SCENE THAT MIGHT MAKE READER’S UNCOMFORTABLE===

looking back at the still enraged monkey demoness, who was currently biting his hand, then back at the scouts, he looked like he was weighing his options, before he shrugged while letting go of the sage. causing her to make a break for it by summoning her cloud and flying off, but curiously the scouts didn’t chase after her, seeming to be waiting for something. but unknown to erlang, lord Lao zi was hiding out in one of the clouds in the sky. while sitting on top of his somersault cloud, and when he noticed wukong making a break for it, he rolled up one of his sleeves and took out his diamond snare and threw it towards the monkey demoness, hitting her cleanly in the back, it falling down and attaching itself to her leg, which instantly tightened around it making wukong yelp in pain, causing her to lose focus and causing the cloud under her to evaporate. with nothing to keep her in the air the golden monkey fell to the ground, just as the seven scouts caught up to them, with Wukong giving them a sneer, which was the only thing she could do at the moment, for she couldn’t move with the diamond snare digging into her flesh.

Unphased, the scouts got into position, one of them bending down to get a better look at her while the others gripped onto her arms and legs, leaving the demoness trapped and at their mercy “don’t know why you’re dressed up like that for battle, you won’t be needing this anymore” the scout in front of her said as he gripped onto the busted collar of her hanfu and pulled it open, one hand going left while the other went right as the scout started to take off the outer layer of the hanfu, wukong’s breasts started to bounce in place as she began to struggle in the scouts combined grasp, blushing in a mixture of anger and embarrassment, not pleased at having several scouts forcefully taking off her clothes. for what reason she didn’t know.

then the scout started to unveil her hanfu even more to the point where the outer robe reached her shoulders, with wukong struggling harder, starting to yell at them to stop, but it fell on death ears as the soldiers didn’t adhere to her cries, continuing to undress the monkey as the soldier finally unwrapped the robe completely, the other soldiers that were holding her arms down adjusting their grip as the first soldier took off the outer robe with ease, throwing it into a nearby bush.

The first soldier bent down again and gripped onto the left side of the inner robe and pulled it back, before taking it off completely and throwing it into the same bush as the first one, leaving wukong’s bare breasts to bounce in place once more, and growling in disgust at the pleased looks the scouts were giving them, which caused wukong to want to both puke and hide inside a hole at the same time. She was now shirtless and absolutely miserable as she tried in vain to struggle out of the scouts grip, but despite her immense strength the scouts above her seemed to be stronger. She began to tear up as the scout in the front bent down again and pulled her pants off, tossing it with the others, leaving the demoness entirely naked, with the process done the scouts around her tightened their grip further as the one in the front brought out a steel embroidered rope, bending down and wrapping it around wukong’s naked body, after the rope was vastly tightened as to make sure she couldn’t escape, the one in the front gave the other scouts a nod and they moved positions, three holding onto one side of her body while the other three took the other, leaving the seventh one, who wukong realized was the leader, to push off the ground while the others followed suit. making their way to the emperor's palace to have the sage executed.

B=========== END OF SCENE =========

While the group were in mid air, wukong looked down to see that a fight had broken out between the demon army and the celestial’s. sound of clashes of steel against steel and yelling and screaming could be heard even up to where she was currently being forcefully escorted in the air. frantically looking around the battlefield, wukong finally spotted dbk fighting against erlang, who upon being dismissed by the scouts had joined the fight against the demons, nezha fighting near the front of the palace to make sure that no one got inside. and it looked like erlang was slowly overpowering dbk, which made wukong’s heart drop, not wanting her brother to die she screamed out at the top of her lungs, her voice raising in pitch cause of her anxiety “DBK. TELL EVERYONE TO RETREAT NOW!!!” her cry thankfully grabbing the bull king’s attention, but unfortunately also erlang and nahza, with erlang showing off a wicked grin while nezha looked on with a conflicted look, not pleased upon finding out that the golden monkey had been stripped naked and taken captive.

Upon seeing him being tied up and restrained by seven celestial scouts, dbk released a roar of rage, shoving erlang aside like a rag doll and rushing towards him, “NO!! STOP STOP, I SAID RETREAT!! I HAVE TO FIND MY WAY OUT ALONE!!!” wukong screamed again, more desperate than she’s ever felt in her life as tears continued to stream down her face, not caring in the slightest if anyone saw her tears.

Dbk grew increasingly frustrated, yelling out “BUT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT EACH OTHER REMEMBER!? I CAN’T PROTECT YOU IF YOU’RE DEAD!!” at that moment erlang wrapped his arms around his neck, with dbk retaliating by punching him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.

“I’M NOT GONNA DIE DBK, I MADE SURE THAT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, BUT YOU'RE NOT IMMORTAL LIKE ME, SO I NEED YOU TO RETREAT!!” She pleaded, face wet from her tears as she started to sob, completely terrified that she’s about to watch her brother die. being helpless as she continued to be dragged towards the palace against her will, far enough away that she could barely make out his face anymore. but after a few minutes she saw the silhouette of dbk turn around and started running back, passing his demon soldiers, who upon noticing him retreating immediately followed suit.

Wukong sighed in relief at this, sagging further into her binds, glad that at least one of them will be safe.

——————————

When they made it to the palace the scouts led wukong to a part of the palace called the demon beheading tower and used the metal embroidered rope around her to tie her to the demon subduing pillar, where they picked up all sorts of weapons like sabers, axes and jabbed her with spears and made puncher wounds with swords, and even after that wukong stood tall, even as her body was bloodied and bruises colored her pudgy body in a mix of purples blacks and blues, but despite it all it was already starting to heal, with the sage giving the scouts a smug look, the tear tracks on her cheeks having long since dried.

Can’t believe these bèn dàn’s were stupid enough to think that they could kill me with some worthless human weapons, don’t they realize that I’m immortal?

the scouts, angry that they weren’t able to inflict any lasting damage on the imp, doused her with gas and set her body aflame, but a few minutes later the fire faded to reveal that wukong was still sitting upright, the fire having burnt away parts of her fur and hair, patches of third degree burns littered across her body. but to their shock it was already starting to heal.

Enraged, they ordered the department of lighting to electrocute her, but that only made wukong’s fur stand on end, electrical currents running along her body. She was left unharmed once more. at a loss of what to do, the scouts reported this to the jade emperor, who had finally made it back to his throne room, and told him the grim news.

The jade emperor stroked his chin in thought, never having had something like this happen, meanwhile lord Lao zi, who stood next to the throne spoke up “well, that monkey demoness had eaten most of the heavenly peaches, along with the heavenly wine, also my-“ Lao zi gripped his hands into fists, still beyond furious about what had happened “-had stolen and consumed my pills of immortality, I think the right punishment for crimes like that is for me to take her unholiness and throw her into my eight trigram furnace, so that hopefully that wretched cretin will be melted down into immortality elixirs” with this he grinned while rubbing his hands together, the jade emperor and the scouts looking at him with fright.

After a moment the jade emperor turned back to the scouts, clearing his throat “well…since we are running out of options, i guess it wouldn’t hurt, so you scouts go back into the demon beheading tower and retrieve the sage to be handed over to lord Lao zi to be thrown into his furnace” the jade emperor ordered, with that the scouts headed back to the demon beheading tower and entered the room, where they found wukong softly dozing against the pillar, the burn marks that had previously littered her body had now fully healed, the lost patches of fur fully grown in.

Sighing, the scouts got to work untying the monkey, not caring to be careful and causing Wukong to wake up. realizing what they were doing wukong started to struggle to escape, but the scouts that weren’t busy intieing her grabbed her by the fur on her head to prevent them from leaving “you know, i like being manhandled like everybody else, but this isn’t what I had in mind” wukong quipped with a grin, watching in amusement as the scouts that were holding her in place staggered back in shock, which gave the sage enough time to break out of her bounds that had loosed enough and ran out of the tower with the scouts chasing after her, laughing all the while.

Lord Lao zi looked on as the fire–boys continued heating up the eight trigram furnace when he turned his head to see the seven scouts carrying a very angry nine foot tall monkey, the scouts looking disheveled like they had just wrestled a grizzly bear. blinking slowly, he hesitantly held out his hands, and then immediately staggered back at how heavy the monkey is “H-HOW- WHY IS SHE SO HEAVY!? SHE WASN’T LIKE THIS BEFORE!” the god sputtered out, before finally regaining his footing and giving them a glare, as of they were responsible for the monkey demoness’s growth in weight.

“Uhhhh, yeah, why do you think it took seven of us to carry her?” one of the scouts said, causing wukong to blush in embarrassment, wishing once again to crawl into a hole and hide for the next century, after a minute Lao zi nodded his head, before scaling the ladder next to the furnace and throwing the sage in, immediately shutting it closed so she couldn’t escape.

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Wukong was burning, the moment she had been thrown into the furnace she thought it would be like being set on fire back in the tower, but this time it was worse. when she fell down into the black abyss that was the furnace, she fell onto her front with a loud thud that echoed in the chamber, her bare skin hitting the metal with a clap, her butt cheeks clapping together and bobbing after the impact, getting up she couldn’t see anything at first until fire suddenly erupted from a machine that was situated in the middle of the room like a volcano, which as expected lit up the small space. She watched as the machine turned and clanked until it started releasing fire from the sides, bathing the whole floor in fire, which Wukong realized far too late was piled high up to her ankles in wheat. and the second the fire started to lick at the edges it quickly spread to the rest like a forest fire, causing her legs to be surrounded and engulfed in said fire.

Yelling from the pain, wukong stumbled back as far away from the lit fire as she could before bumping into the wall, recoiling back from it with a yelp since it had also heated up from the flames. it soon became worse as steam started pouring out of every vent, one jetting out smoke right in her eyes, making her to cry out as she desperately wiped at her eyes, feeling like she had hot coals shoved into them, the thick smoke began to spread all around her in a thick mist, the fire under the monkey demoness soon spread enough that smoke started to appear, spreading through the air and mixing in with the mist until wukong had no choice but to crouch down on the ground so she could breathe, the fire still licking at her legs and turning it a bright red, but even then she had trouble as she started coughing, as she instinctively tried to inhale air that wasn’t there.

Desperate, she crawled to a nearby vent that was far enough away from the fire, that was thankfully pouring out air instead of stream or smoke, and curling up against it, she huddled against the vent as she tried to wait out the process, the flames getting progressively worse as her whole body was engulfed in flames.

After what felt like days she heard the sound of clanking machinery as everything slowly started to turn off, first the flames, then the steam, until she was once again left in an empty chamber. the only sound being her heavy breathing as she tried to inhale as much air as she could, sitting there still curled up as her body started to repair itself, the burns that covered every inch of her body slowly fading away as her fur, that had been burned off by the flames generally started to grow back.

After a while she slowly set up, her muscles tensing at the strain, slowly moving into a sitting position, she looked up just as she heard the sound of something at the top opening, causing light to spread though the once dark chamber. quickly getting up despite her body’s protests, wukong pushed herself off the floor and jumped towards the light, causing Lao zi to get kicked in the face just as he was fixing to peek inside, finally free, wukong let out a triumphant yell as she landed down on all fours on the priceline floors of the boiler room. turning around and emitting a growl at the shocked god “HOW ON EARTH DID YOU MANAGE TO SURVIVE IN THERE!? THAT SHOULD’VE KILLED YOU!!” Laozi exclaimed in fright, causing wukong to let out a laugh while standing up, even as her body screamed at her not to.

“You think you could kill me just like that? I’m made of stronger stuff then anything you’ve put in that thing!” wukong quipped while pointing at the offending object, making Lao zi fume in anger at the blunt disrespect “WHY YOU LITTLE INGRATE- YOU ARE THE MOST DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE DEVIL THAT I’VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO COME ACROSS!!” the man yelled, which only made wukong smirk

“Gee pal, I don’t know what to say! I’m only a little monkey” she said while giving him an innocent look, pretending that she wouldn’t kill him and many others if she wanted to. this only making Lao zi even angrier as his face slowly turned red, he was so full of rage that he tried to grab her to throw them back into the furnace -and not wanting to go through all that again- wukong quickly took out her golden banded cudgel from her ear, shook it until it was as thick as a rice bowl and hit the man upside the head, causing laozi to stumble back from the force of the blow.

Taking this chance to escape, wukong ran towards the exit of the boiler room, but was briefly stopped by the fire–boys and the keepers of the furnace and the six dings and the jias, but raised up her staff and beat them all senseless until they all laid defeated on the ground, leaving the exit open to her once again. Fighting her way through the palace until she made it to the universal brightness outside the hall of miraculous mist. where the kingly spirit was on duty, upon hearing someone enter, the officer whipped his head towards her while letting out a yell of surprise at the huge beast that had entered, quickly bringing out his golden mace, he raced towards her and engaged the demoness in battle.

“WHERE ON HEAVEN DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING YOU DAMN MONKEY!?” he exclaimed “you can’t possibly think I’m just gonna let you go after the chaos you have unleashed in this palace, you don’t belong here!” the great sage, beyond tired of fighting, what she deemed as below her, decided to humor the god and fought him a few rounds.

As they fought they were seen at an even match, with neither one backing down, realizing this, the lord quickly sent an officer to send a message to the Thunder palace to order the thirty six Thunder generals to surround the great sage, when they arrived he took that time to make his retreat. Upon being meant with even more weapons being shoved in her face, the great sage sneered and yelled as she transformed into a much bigger beast, with three heads and six arms, her cudgel appearing in each hand as she soon made quick work of the now outnumbered generals.

She was even more massive than she was before, her now six arms thick with both muscle and fat that moved to and fore as she smashed her cudgels around recklessly, the sound of them slamming on the ground causing rumbles to shake through the palace, and creating a spiderweb of cracks that ran through the priceline floors, her giant breasts, each of them now as big as a glass dome, soon turned into weapons of their own as they whipped around in all directions, smashing and paving their way through several bodies with the force of a thousand boulders, her ginormous gut swinging side to side, while her legs were as thick and sturdy as the pillars that decorated the palace, shaking the ground beneath her with such terrifying tremors, her tail that took up over six miles of space shrushed back and forth behind the wicked demoness like a whip. She was quiet a force to be reckoned with indeed.

By this point most of the soldiers had succumbed to their injuries, but there were still plenty of thunder generals that were still able to fight, doing their best to make sure that the sage didn't reach the hall of miraculous mist. as this was happening wukong became more and more angry, her movements becoming more and more brash and desperate, but despite it all they were both still held in furious combat, the generals hoping and praying that someone will come to rid the heavenly palace of this beast.

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The jade emperor, having heard all the yelling and screaming from the other room, feared for his life as he desperately tried to come up with a solution, erlang was sitting next to him while cleaning off his trident after returning from battle, stating that the demon army has retreated after witnessing wukong being carted away, which seemed to be the only good news. and that the jade emperor was beyond grateful for his and prince nezha's service, but until they got rid of the menace that is sun wukong, he can’t even think of hosting a celebration of any kind. Meanwhile Lao zi sat in the corner holding an ice pack to his head after returning from his failed mission of trying to melt the sage in his furnace. while nezha stood close to the entrance of miraculous mist with spear held in stiff hands. knowing that at any moment wukong will come running. with or without the thunder generals on her tail.

All n all, two out of three of the occupants of the room weren't really faring well after coming in contact (sometimes literally) with the beast that is sun wukong, everyone was beyond worried for the state of heaven. if they don’t find a way to stop wukong then heaven could very well fall into ruin.

Gripping his spear tightly, nezha couldn’t stop thinking about how different wukong had looked when she had first appeared, looking almost nothing like the sage that he had fought only days prior, he knows that time works differently on earth compared to heaven, but he can’t wrap his head around how her body could’ve changed so drastically. he then remembered the memory of wukong being struck by lighting by the jade emperor, herscreams of agony ringing in his ears, which made him outwardly wheeze, unconsciously holding his spear tightly to his chest like a child would a blanket or a stuffed toy.

The noise soon gathered the attention of erlang, who switched his attention from his own thoughts to look at him with concern, nezha waved him off with his hand, mouthing that he will be fine, before walking over to the jade emperor, trying not to focus as multiple eyes zeroed in on him, making him feel like they still thought of him as a monster that could only do nothing but cause trouble, but in reality they were just looking at him with curious stares.

Stepping in front of the emperor’s throne, all while trying his best to repeat to himself that he was fine in his head, his heart hammering in his chest like a drum, the jade emperor finally looked up when he noticed him standing there, and gave him a crooked grin “greetings prince nezha, is there something on your mind? i know that times are a bit hard right now, but I’ll try to answer any queries you have.”

Nezha only nodded his head, trying to force his lungs to move as his mouth felt as dry as a desert, clearing his throat he began “yes, I’ve actually been wondering this for awhile now, and current events have led me to ask you this: I’m sure you remember what happened six days prior correct? when the sage and I were engaged in battle until you stepped in.” he knew that he shouldn’t be so nervous over such a simple question, but past events have made him all too aware of what asking the wrong questions would cause

He still has nightmares of what happened the day he ‘died’…how he had quite literally spilled his guts for his parents sakes…

The jade emperor’s eyes widened, having realized what nezha was talking about, unaware of the prince’s current thoughts “right, yes, I never explained what I had done to the sage that day, you only witnessed what you could see.” sighing he prepared himself for the conversation ahead. knowing that his past actions have led to this very outcome, even though doing so was only done in good intentions. noticing as three pairs of eyes peared in his direction, he cleared his throat as he continued “as you know, when I had stepped between you two to stop the fight, I had tasked you to wait for me up here, what I didn’t tell you was what I had planned to do to the sage, which is pretty self explanatory since she was only a few feet from me” he let out a soft chuckle, humorless in everything but the movement “when I had shot that bolt of lighting at her, it was in a moment of weakness as I had acted out recklessly much like the furry fool in front of me, I will explain that I hadn’t expected to use as much energy as I did, but what I did know was what I did to her.”

“….what did you do to her.?” Nehza asked, trying his best for it to not sound like a plea.

“…I had planted a curse on her, a curse truly befitting her crimes, the fact that she had eaten almost all of the immortal peaches, and drank the immortal wine, was a sign of greed and gluttony, so the curse I planted on her would slowly cause her body to produce much more fat then she was used to overnight, as I hoped that would slow her down. what I hadn’t expected was for her to use this as a weapon. I felt like a fool when I remembered that she was born from earth and stone, which made the curse I put on her more of a blessing in disguise. as was apparent when the sage had bashed down my door with only her brute strength.” he explained as he looked over to his now repaired door, which had a spider web of cracks running through it from when it had shattered into pieces like glass just a few hours ago.

there was silence until nezha spoke up “she looked really mad when I saw her, like you had ruined her life, I’m thinking that even though you didn’t destroy the monkey demoness physically, her emotional and mental state might have been set into disarray by her sudden transformation, I feel like she might have trouble making connections because of the fact that she will spend her time worrying about how she looks, cause she might be worried about how people will perceive her now that she doesn’t have the typical beautiful body, if nothing else you might have finally given them her comeuppance.” he was rambling at this point, the things he was spilling out were more of him putting his thoughts into words instead of something he actually believed. he knew this even as everyone stared at him with mixed expressions, but as he turned back to the emperor, he felt sick as the emperor actually looked pleased by his speech, making him regret even opening his mouth.

“Yes, I guess you’re right little prince” he internally wheezed at the nickname, having hated that name since he was a child, for it sounded a bit demeaning, which only got worse as he got older cause he was far from little, but didn’t say anything “but unfortunately all of that won’t help us get her out of the palace, but luckily I have the perfect person to call in times like these” with that he called over one of the generals that weren’t busy fighting the demoness that was wukong, the Miracle Official Youyi, along with the great lord that had just entered the hall after escaping from wukong, and ordered them to go fetch the Buddha, cause only he is strong enough to withstand the sages power.

Upon being directed this order from the great emperor, the two nodded sagely and made their way to the Miraculous Mountain, where they offered their greetings to the Four Vajrapanis and Eight Bodhisattvas before the Thunder Monastery and hem to pass on their message. The gods went to the foot of the lotus seat to inform the Tathagata, who invited the two sages to his presence, When the sages had performed the threefold obeisance to the Buddha they stood in attendance below the throne

“Why has the jade emperor troubled you two sages to come here? the Buddha asked, having been surprised at the unexpectedness of it all

That’s when the two sages explained to the Buddha about sun wukong, how she was born from the island of flowers and fruit, she has used her power to unite in army of demons to try to attack the emperor, nezha the third lotus prince and erlang has been successful with drawing them away, a few days ago the jade emperor, in his kindness had appointed the monkey the title of the protector of the horses, but instead of being grateful, she had thrown a fit cause she had stated that the title was beneath her as the king of the monkeys, so the jade emperor, as a way to appease her gave the demoness the title “great sage equal to heaven” which is something she had made up, and so had no ranking in heaven. and so as another way to appease her the jade emperor had appointed her to protect the peach orchard, which as you know is very important, and is used to hold the ever as delightful peach banquet, but in her greed, and out of pure gluttony, the sage had eaten almost all the peaches in the orchard, just as a peach banquet was about to begin.

Upon finding out about the peach banquet, and how she wasn’t invited, she had stormed into the place before anyone could arrive and stole and ate all the heavenly delicacies and drank all the heavenly wine, in her drunken state, she staggered into the taushit palace, stole lord Lao zi’s pills of immortality, and then left heaven again. The jade emperor then sent a hundred thousand heavenly troops, but with the aided forces of the monkey king along with her demon army, we were sadly unsuccessful in apprehending her. it was only after a few days of silence from them until sun wukong came back to fight against prince nezha, seeing an opening, the jade emperor stopped the fight and shot a bolt of lightning at the sage, casting a wicked curse on her. causing the monkey to fall unconscious for three weeks, which was enough time for our soldiers and troops to regather their bearings.

but after those three weeks of silence were over, wukong came back, but she had changed, originally she was a five ½ tall monkey, but when she had bashed down the door to the hall of miraculous mist, frightening the emperor, she had grown to be nine feet tall, with a Hulking bodily structure that was covered in a thick mound of fat that covered her like armor, her arms and legs thicker then the pillars on the palace, with disheveled hair. it was truly a horrifying sight.

Prince nezha and erlang had managed to lead her outside, which caused her to be captured by the scouts, but everything we threw at her, being axes made of the finest steel, the most sharpest spears or swords, it didn’t leave any lasting impact on her flesh, even after being struck by lighting from the thunder generals and lit on fire after being covered with gasoline, she did not succumb. so lord lao zi had the great idea to throw her into his eight trigram furnace, in hopes to be melted down into immortal elixirs, but after forty nine days later when he opened the furnace, the wicked ape, still alive, jumped out and was conked in the head with her gold rimmed cudgel and fought off the fire–boys, the keepers of the furnace, along with the the six dings and the jias, and then preceded to fight with anybody she came across, right now she had been currently fighting with Kingly Spirit Officer, the lieutenant of the Helpful Sage, along with many other troops that are currently risking body and limbs to make sure she doesn’t reach the emperor. In this crisis the jade emperor makes a special apparel to you, the tathagata, to help him in his time of need and save his throne.”

Upon hearing this, the tathagata said to his assembled bodhisattvas, “you stay here quietly in this dharma hall and behave yourselves in your seats of meditation, while I go and be rid of this foul demoness and save everyone from any more harm.”

Telling the Venerable Ananda and the Venerable Kasyapa to accompany him, the Tathagata left the Thunder Monastery and went straight to the gate of the Hall of Miraculous Mist, where his ears were suddenly bombarded by the sounds of yelling and the clashing of weapons, turning his head he saw most of the thirty six generals had surrounded a huge beast in front of the double doors leading to the hall of miraclous mist, which must be the great sage that he had heard about. he yelled out as loud as he could in order to reach the ears of the thunder generals “thunder generals, you have done more than enough, you’ve fought very bravely in such a tremendous time such as this, leave the sage to me and go into the mist to guard the emperor” with this decree, all of the thunder generals finally fled from the beast and ran into the hall of miraculous mist, this only angering the sage as she only saw this as a show of cowardice, and would’ve followed them into the hall of it wasn’t for the Buddha stepping in front of her path. upon recognizing the figure in front of her as the great Buddha, she growled as she slowly transformed back into their original form as a sign of respect, the Buddha then looked over her body and asked “Tell me child, why are you devoid of clothing? it is highly indecent to run around without a scrap of clothing on you” to this wukong bowed down to the ground, raising her head to look at him “please forgive me great Buddha, for the reason I don’t have clothing is cause of the fact that a group of scouts, looking to be only a thousand years old, had hald me down and undressed me so that I could be tortured to the fullest extent. please forgive me for I couldn’t find any clothes in the palace while I escaped.”

The Buddha nodded his head sagely, internally wondering what kind of punishment those scouts should have after doing something so ruthless and unbecoming “you are forgiven for this, but what you aren’t forgiven for is stealing and eating both the immortal peaches and drinking all the immortal wine, you should know that those weren’t for you to have.” to this wukong lowered her head and glared at the ground, being extremely frustrated by being scolded like some child, especially by the Buddha no less.

The Buddha continues “and forth more I’ve heard of your other misdeeds, how you wanted to play god and erased your name and countless others out of the book of the dead, and stole from the dragon of the East Sea, and were about to attack the great jade emperor.” Hearing this only made Wukong much more angry, standing up from her bowing position to give him a glare full of anger and malice “HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME IN THAT WAY! first of all, the reason I erased my name and countless others from the book of the dead is cause I want to stay the one and only monkey king, and I don’t want to see my kingdom die from death and disease, and the reason I ‘stole’ the Ruyi Jingu Bang from the eastern water palace is because I needed a weapon to help me protect my people. and I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the jade emperor had actually CURSED MY BODY to be like this!” She gestured to her plump body, very displeased with her appearance “so I thought i would get him back by fighting him and taking over the throne, that could easily pay back everything he did to me.”

The Buddha just stared blankly at the golden monkey, completely dumbfounded how she could possibly come to such a conclusion, before letting out a mocking laugh before glaring at her “You wretch! You are only a monkey spirit and you have the effrontery to want to grab the throne of the Jade emperor!? He has trained himself since childhood, and suffered hardship for one thousand, seven hundred and fifty kalpas. Each kalpa is 129,600 years, so you can work out for yourself how long it has taken him to be able to enjoy this great and infinite Way. But you are a beast who has only just become a man for the first time. How dare you talk so big? You're not human, not even human! I'll shorten your life−span. Accept my teaching at once and stop talking such nonsense! Otherwise you'll be in for trouble and your life will very shortly be over, and that will be so much the worse for your original form too."

Wukong snorted, beyond pleased with herself that she had worked up the great Buddha, she honestly thought he would’ve been much more chill then the jade emperor, but I guess everyone has to have their falls, the sage wasn’t scared by his threat at all, knowing that she’s been though far more harsher situations then anything he could put her though “Although he has trained himself for a long time, ever since he was a child, he still has no right to occupy this place forever” the thought alone that the jade emperor was practically given the place on the throne on a silver platter only fills her with Jealousy and hatred “As the saying goes, 'Emperors are made by turn; next year it may be me' If he can be persuaded to move out and give Heaven over to me, that'll be fine. But if he doesn't abdicate in my favour I'll most certainly make things hot for him, and he'll never know peace and quiet again."

The Buddha only scoffed, not taking kindly to the jade emperor being given such disrespect “What have you got, besides immortality and the ability to transform yourself, that gives you the nerve to try to seize the Heavenly Palace?" the Buddha asked.

Wukong smirked, “I can do many tricks indeed," the Great Sage replied. "I can perform seventy−two transformations, and I can preserve my youth for ten thousand kalpas. I can ride a cloud that I make with my own breath, that has the ability to take me thirty−six thousand miles. So why shouldn’t I sit on the throne of heaven? it just seems incredibly obvious at this point that I’m the perfect candidate.”

The Buddha sighed, beyond tired of this moronic ape, feeling like he was talking to a brick wall, knowing what he has to do “I'll have a wager with you then” said the Buddha. "If you're clever enough to get out of my right hand with a single somersault, you will be the winner, and there will be no more need for weapons or fighting. I shall invite the jade emperor to come and live in the West and abdicate the Heavenly Palace to you. But if you can’t get out of the palm of my hand you will have to go down to the world below as a devil and train yourself for several more kalpas before coming to argue about it again."

When she heard this offer the Great Sage smiled to herself and thought, This Buddha is a complete idiot. I can cover thirty−six thousand miles with my cloud easily, so how could I fail to jump out of the palm of his hand, which is less than a foot across?

With this in mind she asked eagerly, "Do you guarantee that yourself?" With a grin, seeming to think that this is child's play, but if this is the way the ole Buddha wants to play, then she’s all for it. She can’t imagine this ever going wrong.

"Yes, yes," the Buddha replied, and he stretched out his right hand, which seemed to be about the size of a lotus leaf. Putting away her golden rimmed cudgel, the Great Sage summoned up all her divine powers, jumped into the palm of the Buddha's hand, and said, "I'm off!” and jumps off in a golden streak of light, and disappears completely, The Buddha, who was watching her with his wise eyes, saw the Monkey King whirling forward like a windmill and not stopping until she saw five flesh−pink pillars topped by dark vapours.

"This is the end of the road," she said, "so now I'll go back. The Buddha will be witness, and the Hall of miracles mist will be mine.” Then she thought again, “wait a minute. I'll leave my mark here to prove my case when I talk to the Buddha” She pulled out a hair, breathed on it with her magic breath, and watched as It turned into a writing brush dipped in ink, and with it she wrote THE GREAT SAGE EQUALING HEAVEN WAS HERE! in big letters on the middle pillar. when that was done, and, not caring in the least about herdignity, transformed her smooth body part into a penis and then proceeded to make a puddle of piss around the pillar with a grin, after all, she was a monkey. and by law in the animal kingdom, she had to make sure everyone knew that this place was hers. Then she turned, and with a single breath created a cloud in thin air and went back to where she had started from.

“I went, and now I'm back. Tell the Jade Emperor to hand the Heavenly Palace over to me" she said, standing on the Buddha’s palm. but the Buddha only glared at her, trying his best to not drop the monkey then and there “I've got you, you piss−spirit of a monkey," roared the Buddha at her. "You never left the palm of my hand."

Wukong’s stomach dropped, suddenly feeling nervous all of a sudden, but then grinned, saying to herself that he was simply lying, she could understand after all, if she was in his place, she wouldn’t want to be stuck living with the jade emperor too. “You're wrong there," the Great Sage replied. "I went to the farthest point of Heaven, where I saw five flesh−pink pillars topped by dark vapours. I left my mark there: do you dare come and see it with me?."

The Buddha continued to grind his teeth, the urge to fling him about fifty miles growing ever stronger “There's no need to go. Just look down." The Great Sage then looked down with her fire eyes with golden pupils, only for them to shrink into pinpricks, skin turning as white as a sheet as she saw the words The Great Sage Equaling Heaven Was Here written on the middle finger of the Buddha's right hand. The stink of monkey piss rose from the fold at the bottom of the finger.

"What a thing to happen," exclaimed the Great Sage in astonishment, beads of sweat raining down from her forehead, as the reality of what just happened came crashing down on her. I wrote this on one of the pillars supporting the sky, so how can it be on his finger now? He must have used divination to know what I was going to do. I don't believe it. I refuse to believe it! I'll go there and come back again-

The dear Great Sage hurriedly braced herself to jump, but the Buddha turned his hand over and pushed the Monkey King out through the Western Gate of Heaven, watching as she flew about 50 miles exactly and landed on the ground, now in an unfamiliar place filled with mountain tops that surrounded her, desperately wanting to go back up there for a rematch, wukong begun to focus on creating her cloud, but was stopped when she noticed a bunch of boulders and rocks starting to move around her, which soon turned into a cyclone, she watched in horror as the boulders started to connect to each other like puzzle pieces, slowly creating a wall around her. and before she knew it she was trapped in the walls of some sort of small caved space, with barely enough room for her to move around, and at the top of the supposed tower set a hole that was barely big enough for her to fit through, especially at their ginormous size, she was scared that she would end up getting stuck if they tried.

there she set for what felt like a few hours but was actually days, the only company being the sun and the moon, but all that changed when the sky was surrounded by dark angry clouds, which unleashed clashes of thunder that made the demoness flinch in place, knowing that if it wanted to it could struck her down mercilessly, and she would be helpless to stop it. and then it started to rain for the next few days, a heavy downpour of rain falling on the soft grass outside of her prison- cause that’s what this is, a prison. her prison- and watched with growing unease as the rain started to gather on the ground of the cavern, growing up her ankles, past her waist until it reached her chest and the top of her shoulders, covering almost their entire body in ice cold water, causing her to shake in place. watching in horror as the water continued to rise until herhead was the only thing above water, and even that was hard at times as the clash of thunder made her duck under the water to get away from the noise, only to realize when she went back up that the water had risen to the highest level that she couldn’t reach, leaving her to sit there helplessly as she tried her best to hold their reath, but in the end was unsuccessful as another clash of thunder sounded from outside her tomb. Making her gasp in surprise, which ultimately left her to choke on water, with no way to get above the surface, she would’ve blacked out then and there if she didn’t hear the yelling coming from outside, dbk and princess iron fan were calling out to her in the rain, with the rest of the demon soldiers trying to do their part, including voices that she thought she’d never hear again.

Macaque and ma, along with ba and bang, this realization making her want to sob, as all she ever wanted more then anything on that moment was to be with her mate and closest friends again. but unfortunately that’s all the universe wanted her to hear, as she slowly dipped into unconsciousness, the last sounds she heard was macaque and ma calling out for her.

She set there unconscious for over 500 years, only being startled awake during that time as she heard the muffled sound of human children playing outside her tomb, which made her cover their ears, feeling like they were mocking her, then slowly fall back into unconsciousnesses, during that time her hair had generally grown longer and longer until it reached the middle of her back. only being woken up for the last time as she heard talking coming from outside. it sounding like a middle aged man and a young man around his twenties, they were both human.

Realizing that this could be a chance for her to finally be free, she started banging on the wall of her tomb desperately, hoping and praying that they would hear her. She barely heard above her banging as the two men paused, with one of the man running back. She stopped banging as she could only hear silence. as it seemed like they had ran off. but before she could drown in despair again they suddenly jumped as she heard a loud thud above her, and listened intently as what sounded like a parchment of paper was torn off, and almost like something out of a dream, the boulders and rocks that made up the wall started tumbling down, and before she knew it, she was laying facedown on the grass, soaked from head to toe, but she couldn’t care less about that as she started coughing up the water that had trapped in her lungs for all that time. when her airways were cleared- that thought alone causing her to want to cry in relief - she began gasping in as much air as she could, and that’s what she did for the next few minutes, until they laid her head on the ground with a wet thud.

There was silence as she heard the clear sounds of nature, having not heard it for so long. until she suddenly heard a loud CRACK near her. Which caused her to jump up with a loud roar, causing the human in front of her to reel back with a scream, they were wearing some kind of robe, looking at her with a mix of surprise and terror. The two then stood there in silence as Wukong looked around before landing on the sight of a fallen stone pillar. with countless cracks running though the smooth stone. With water continuously pouring from the edge that soaked the grass beneath it. Wukong then looked back to the human with wide eyes as she realized that he was the one that had freed her.

End of chapter one

Chapter Text

There were a lot of things I didn’t expect when i set out on this journey that had been gracefully given to me by the ever so graceful and compassionate Bodhisattva guanyin, that had been carried out by taizong of the tang empire, he knew from the moment he was tasked with this that the success of this journey rested heavy on his shoulders. Despite this he had thought that he would be fine as long as he had his horse and host of two monks by his side, but unfortunately the journey to the west was very dangerous, with wide rivers and high mountains to cross, there would be many a tiger and leopard along the way, so with a heavy heart he had sent the two monks back to the Fa Men Monastery, leaving only him and his attendants by his side.

Unfortunately all was not well, for in his impatience, Tripitaka had accidentally gotten up earlier than expected (around two in the morning) to continue on, even as it was still pitch black outside, and that led to his downfall for after walking for what felt like ages in the underbrush, all three of them (including the house) stumbled and fell into a pit, before being instantly surrounded by fifty or sixty demons, and were dragged away, eventually they were dragged to a wide valley where set a most evil king, he had bright yellow eyes and a great booming voice, he had razor sharp teeth that could cut though the most thickest of meat and bone. his body was covered with brocade, he had a steely white beard along with hooked claws that were equally as sharp as his teeth.

He was the white-browed king of the southern mountain, feared by the yellow lord of the eastern sea.

Tripitaka was frighted by the sight, while his two attendants could do nothing but shake in fear, frozen by pure terror, unable to move an inch. the demon king then roared out an order for them to be tied up, leaving the three to do nothing as the demon underlings did just that, tighting them so tight that he could feel the rope burn his skin as he and his attendants began to struggle in their bounds, rationality thrown out the window as their only thought was to survive. the king was just about to eat them whole until they all heard a great noise from outside as the sudden arrival of Mountain Lord Bear and Hermit Ox was announced. Tripitaka looked up from his struggling, having not heard those names in his seventeen years of life.

One was colored black, he was known to be very courteous, light and strong in body, he was powerful in crossing rivers, showing his great might as he ran though the woods, he was always greeted by lucky dreams, he was now revealing his great valour. he can now uproot and snap a green tree, and when he felt cold he could change the weather. clearly he has proof of his miraculous powers for he is the mountain lord.

Behind him Tripitaka could see a hefty man wearing a hat with horns, his shoulders were squarely set, his preference on clothes were of dull colors, and his pace was always sluggish, his male ancestors were named bull while his mother was known as cow. He has the ability to work for farmers for his name is hermit ox. when these two came swaggering in, the demon king rushed to greet them.

“General yin.” said hermit ox, “my felicitations on being ever−victorious."

“How have things been for you two gentlemen recently?” asked the demon king.

“Much as usual” replied mountain lord.

“Eh, I get by.” answered the hermit. These preliminaries over, the three of them sat down to laugh and joke together, meanwhile Tripitaka’s two attendants were howling pitifully in their bonds as Tripitaka was left confused at such casual greetings between the demons, for he had only known them in stories as monstrous beasts that take delight in ripping and tearing their enemies apart limb by limb, hardly caring about anything but themselves, they were known as the seed of all evil, so why were these demons acting so civilized all of a sudden?

Distracted by the noise, the black ox looked over to the huddled humans in the corner with a raised brow, having just now noticed them “how did those three get here?” the ox asked, truly perplexed.

“They delivered themselves to the door” the demon king replied calmly as he clasped his hands together with a pleased grin, to the utter bafflement of the three humans, two of whom yelled out that they had fallen into a nearby ditch, and that they had no plans for getting killed so early in their lives, but they were easily ignored while Tripitaka had begun to sense a headache coming on.

"Will you be serving them to your friends?" asked the Hermit with a smile, already looking forward to the upcoming meal.

"I would be honoured to." answered the demon king, to this the weiling of the two attendants only grew louder in volume, the only sign that they were being heard was the ox’s ears pinning down to his head to block out the loud noise, despite this he kept a level expression as the conversation continued on “We won't need them all.” the mountain lord remarked, “We could eat two and keep the third.” with a pleased sound the demon king ordered that his servants cut open the two attendants, scoop their hearts out, and chop their bodies into mince. all while Tripitaka sat there, still tied up, horror struck at seeing his companions reduced to nothing but grub.

I retract my previous statement, demons are by far the worst, he thought to himself as he turned his head away from the carnage, trying to block out the sounds of the screaming by reciting one of the chants he’s memorized since he was small, as to try to quell his immense fright.

Meanwhile the demon king presented the heads, hearts, and livers to his two guests, eating the limbs himself and dividing the rest of the flesh and bones among the fiends. all that could be heard was a crunching and munching that sounded just like tigers devouring lambs, and in a few moments it had all been eaten up. Tripitaka was almost dead with fright, yet this was only his first tribulation, coming so soon after leaving Chang'an.

In his despair he noticed that the East was beginning to grow light, and when dawn broke the two monsters left, saying, "We have been handsomely entertained today, and we shall repay your hospitality in full another day." With that they both rushed out. A moment later the red sun rose high in the sky, but Tripitaka was to befuddled to know where he was, the only thing he could feel was how much his body ached after being tied up against a tree all night, his arms were sure to have rope burns from how hard his long lost companions had struggled against them before they-

NO NO. NO NO NO NO. he wasn’t gonna think about that! the only thing he can do now is hope and pray with all his soul that the two are at peace wherever they are, he just hopes he can survive long enough so their deaths won’t be in vain.

Just when all seemed lost, an old man appeared, walking towards him with the help of a stick. He came up to Tripitaka, broke all his bonds with a wave of his hand, and revived him by blowing air into his face, Tripitaka fell to his knees and bowed low to him, saying ‘thank you, venerable ancient, for saving my humble life.”

The old man returned the bow “do get up, did you lose anything?”

“My Attendants have been eaten by monsters, and I don’t know where my baggage or horse is” Tripitaka replied.

the old man pointed with his stick and asked “Isn't that a horse with two baggage−rolls over there?” whipping his head around so fast the old man thought he would get whiplash, Tripitaka looked in the direction the old man had pointed to see that his things had not been lost after all, which somewhat relieved his anxiety.

“Venerable sir” he asked “What is this place, and how did you get here?”

"This is the Double Forked Mountain, where tigers and leopards make their dens. How did you fall in here?”

"I crossed the frontier at the garrison city of Hezhou at cockcrow, not realizing that I had gotten up too early” Tripitaka replied “Just as we were making our way through frost and dew we suddenly fell into this pit. A dreadfully ferocious demon king appeared and had me and my attendants tied up. Then a dark fellow called Mountain Lord Bear and a hefty looking one called Hermit Ox came in, and they addressed the demon king as General Yin,” he decided not to talk about how he had a lapse in judgment when he saw the three demons talking all civilized like humans, cause he might look crazy if he said that he thought they might’ve been good people “The three of them ate up my two attendants, and their party only ended at dawn. I cannot imagine why I should have been fated with the good fortune of you coming to rescue me, venerable sir.” by this point he was shaking, having tried to forget about the memory of last night, and talking about it only made him feel all those feelings of fright all over again.

the old man frowned in sympathy, feeling bad for the boy, even so he spoke up, knowing that he needs to know this so he can have a chance at survival “The Hermit is a wild bull spirit, the Mountain Lord is a bear spirit, and General Yin is a tiger spirit.” the old man replied, watching as Tripitaka tensed up “The fiends who serve him are mountain spirits, tree devils, monsters, and wolves. The reason they did not eat you is because your fundamental nature is enlightened. Come with me and I'll show you the way.” overcome with gratitude, Tripitaka put the packs on his horse and led it to a birdie as he followed the old man out of the pit and on to the main road. tying the horse to a nearby bush beside the road, he turned around to bow low to the old man and thank him, but he changed into a puff of wind and rose into the sky on the back of a red crested white crane. all that was to be seen was a piece of paper drifting down in the wind with four lines of verse written on it:

"I am the Planet Venus of the Western Heaven

Who came to save your life

In the journey ahead you will have divine disciples:

Do not in your troubles feel angry with the scriptures.”

When he had read this Tripitaka worshipped Heaven and said “many thanks, planet, for delivering me from this danger.” he said with a wide grin, feeling happy for the first time since this journey had begun, with this done, he continued on his difficult journey, feeling very lonely as he led his horse along. on this mountain there was cold rain, with winds that howled loudly in the trees, streams splashed noisily down gullies, Fragrant wildflowers decorated the ground like the most lovely of paintings, Screens of rocks and boulders stood tall while deers ran along the side of the river to take a drink, and apes made raucous howls, roebuck and muntjac ran in herds, while birds continued to sing their melody in the trees, but there were no trace of men.

Despite the wildlife around him he couldn’t help but feel tense, his horse must be sensing it too cause it barely lifted up their hoofs from the ground, almost like they thought that if they made any loud noise something bad would happen. he could understand.

Despite this Tripitaka pressed on amid the mountain peaks, knowing that there are far worse things to be worried about, I mean he just got saved by a god! and as much as he appreciates it he highly doubts he’s gonna be rescued the same way again, if he’s even saved at all. He had been going for many hours without seeing any sign of a human house, he was hungry and was finding the going heavy. Just at this critical moment he saw in front of him a pair of ferocious tigers roaring, while two long snakes were coiled up behind him. To his left were venomous reptiles, and to his right were terrible monsters. Being by himself and unable to think of a way out, Tripitaka prepared to abandon his mind and body and let Heaven do as it would. Besides, the horse's back was now so tired and its legs so bent that it fell to its knees on the ground and collapsed. Tripitaka could not move it, either by blows or by dragging it by it’s birdie.

The poor master of the law, who had nowhere to shelter, was feeling thoroughly wretched, convinced that nothing could save him from death. But when his troubles were at their worst someone came to his rescue. Just when all seemed lost he saw the venomous reptiles and the evil monsters flee, while the tigers and the snakes hid themselves.Tripitaka looked up to see a man coming across the hillside with a steel trident in his hand, and bow and arrows at his waist. On his head he had on a leopard skin hat with artemisia patterns, on his body he wore a coat of woolen cloth around his waist that was tied with a lion belt, On his feet a pair of deerskin boots. His eyes were as round as an evil spirit's, His curly beard was like the evil god of the moon's. From his waist hung a bow with poisoned arrows, And in his hand was a steel−tipped trident. The thunder of his voice would make a wild beast tremble, And his ferocity terrified the pheasants.

Seeing him approach, Tripitaka knelt down beside the path, put his hands together, and shouted at the top of his voice “Spare me, bandit king, spare me!” The man went over to him, put down his trident, and raised him to his feet with a chuckle “don’t be frightened, venerable monk.” he said “I’m not a bad man, I'm a hunter who lives in these mountains. My name is Liu Boqin and I am known as the warden of the mountain. I came along here because I wanted a couple of animals for the pot. I never expected to meet you here—I must have offended you.”

“I am a monk sent by the emperor of the great tang to visit the Buddha in the western heaven and ask for the scriptures.” Tripitaka replied. “I had just got here when I found myself completely surrounded by wolves, tigers, snakes and other creatures, which meant that I could go no further. Then suddenly you appeared! High warden and saved my life, thank you very much sir.”

"Those of us who live here” replied Liu Boqin, "can only support ourselves by killing tigers and wolves and catching snakes and other reptiles, which is why all those animals fled in terror from me. As you are from the tang empire, we are compatriots. This is still the territory of the Great Tang, and I am a Tang citizen. Both of us depend on the Emperor's lands and rivers for our food and drink, and we are fellow−countrymen, so there is nothing to fear. you must come with me to my hut, and your horse can rest. I'll take you on your way tomorrow.” Tripitaka, who was delighted to hear this, thanked him and went along behind him, leading the horse.

When they had crossed the mountainside they heard a sound like the howling of the wind. “Sit down here and don’t move, venerable monk.” said Boqin, “That noise like a wind means that a mountain cat is coming. Just wait a moment while I catch it, then I can take it home to feed you with.” This news so terrified Tripitaka that he dared not move. The high warden was striding forward, brandishing his trident, to meet the animal, when a stripped tiger appeared in front of him. At the sight of Liu Boqin the animal turned to flee, but the high warden let out a thunderclap of a shout “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING, WRETCH?” When the tiger realized that Liu Boqin was in hot pursuit, it turned and charged him, baring its claws. The high warden raised his trident to meet his opponent. at the sight of this Tripitaka collapsed on the ground in fear, curling up with his knees to his chest while avoiding looking directly at the fight, never had he seen anything so terrifying in all his born days.

The tiger and the high warden fought a magnificent battle under the mountain, Bursting with anger, and mad with rage, The warden bristled, immensely strong. mad with rage, the stripped tiger snorted out red dust as it showed its might. One bared its teeth and brandished its claws, while the other twisted and turned as the trident blocked out the sun with his swift swings, The patterned tail of the furious tiger stirred up mist and clouds, One made wild stabs at the chest, while the other struck at the head with all his might. To avoid the blows was to win a new life, for a hit was an appointment with the King of Hell. All that could be heard was the tiger bellowing and the high warden shouting. When the tiger bellowed, Mountains and rivers split open, to the terror of birds and beasts. At the high warden's shouts, The sky was parted and the stars revealed. The tiger's golden eyes were wide in fury, it’s brow wrinkling up, while The hunter's valiant heart was full of wrath. How admirable was high warden Liu of the mountain, How splendid the lord of the beasts of the land. As man and tiger fought for victory, whoever weakened would lose his life.

After the pair of them had been fighting for about two hours the tiger's claws began to slacken as it grew tired, and just then the high warden smote him full in the chest with his trident. Its points pierced the animal's liver and heart, a pitiful sight. within an instant the ground was covered with its blood as the hunter dragged it along the path by its ears. What a man! Without panting, and with his expression unchanged, he said to Tripitaka “What a piece of luck. This mountain cat will be enough to feed you for a whole day.” with a grin, Tripitaka just stared at him in a mixture of gratitude and horror, on one hand the man had just killed a tiger all by himself, which was a feat in itself and was beyond worthy of praise, but on the other hand seeing him kill that poor mountain lion was too hard to watch, as he avoided looking at the dead caucus and instead stared at the man in awe “High Warden, you really are a mountain god.” he breathed, this statement caused the man to let out a hearty laugh, his shoulders bouncing with the movement “It was nothing," said Liu Boqin, "so please don't exaggerate. This is all the result of your blessings. Come on, let's skin it and boil up some of its meat as soon as we can so as to get you fed.” he said as he held his trident in one hand while dragging the tiger with the other as he led the way, Tripitaka followed along while leading his horse. wheezing slightly at the thought of eating meat.

As they wound their way across the mountain, a cottage suddenly came into view. In front of its gate there were ancient trees that reached towards the sky, while wild creepers covered the path. cool was the wind that reached the valleys, strange vapours coiled around the cliffs. The scent of wild flowers was all along the path, deep, deep were the green of the bamboos. A thatched gatehouse, A fenced yard, Both pretty as a picture. A stone bridge stood in front of the hut, charming austerity.The loneliness of autumn coupled with airy isolation. Yellow leaves lay fallen beside the path, while white clouds drifted above the peaks. mountain birds sang in the woods while a puppy barked outside the gate.

When he reached the gate, the high warden Liu Boqin threw down the tiger with a loud thud that caused Tripitaka to jump in place as the hunter cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "WHERE ARE YOU LADS!?” three or four servants of strange and odd appearances came out, and with much pulling and tugging they carried the tiger in. Boqin told them to skin it at once and prepare it to offer to their guest, then turned around to welcome Tripitaka in, who entered the house hesitantly, When they had formally greeted each other Tripitaka bowed to Boqin to thank him for taking pity on him and saving his life.

“Why bother to thank me? We're fellow countrymen” he stated, when Tripitaka had been offered a seat and served with tea, an old woman came out to greet him followed by a young one. Liu Boqin explained that they were his mother and wife.

"Madam, please take the highest seat while I bow to you.” Tripitaka said.

"You are a guest from afar, venerable monk, so let us each preserve our dignity and neither bow to the other.” the old woman replied with a gentle smile, “mother” said Liu Boqin "he has been sent by His Majesty the Tang Emperor to go to the Western Heaven to see the Buddha and fetch the scriptures. I met him on the mountain, and I thought that as we were fellow−countrymen I should invite him home to rest before I take him on his way tomorrow.” the old woman was delighted.

“Good good, she said. "But it would be even better to ask him to stay longer. Tomorrow is the anniversary of your fathers passing, and I would like to trouble the venerable monk to say some prayers and read a sutra for him, you could take him on his way the day after.” Although this Boqin was a tiger−killer and the high warden of the mountain, he was also a dutiful son, and when he heard this suggestion he made ready paper and incense and asked Tripitaka to stay.

While they talked they had not noticed the evening drawing in. The servants set out a table and stools, then brought in several dishes of tender tiger−meat, which they placed steaming hot on the table. Liu Boqin asked Tripitaka to help himself while he served the rice. Putting his hands together in front of his chest, Tripitaka replied “this is wonderful, but I must tell you frankly that I have been a monk ever since I left my mother's womb, so I am quite unable to eat meat.” Boqin thought for a while before replying, "Venerable monk, our family has not eaten vegetarian food for generations. When we cut bamboo shoots, pick fungus, gather wild vegetables for drying, or make bean−curd we always cook them in the fat of roebuck, deer, tiger or leopard, so even they aren't really vegetarian; and our two cooking pots are steeped in fat, so what are we to do? I’m afraid it was wrong of me to ask you here.” the man stated solemnly, beyond ashamed at thinking so recklessly.

To this Tripitaka shook his head "There's no need to worry, please go ahead and eat. I'd go without food for four or five days, or even starve, rather than break the monastic rule about vegetarian food.”

"But we can't have you starving to death!” protested Liu Boqin, "Thanks to your great kindness, High Warden, I was saved from the packs of tigers and wolves. Even if I were to starve to death, it would be better than providing a meal for tigers” Liu Boqin's mother, who had been listening to their conversation, said, "Don't talk nonsense, son. I've got some vegetarian things that we can offer to him.”

"Where did you get them from?" Liu Boqin asked, to which mother replied, "Never you mind how, but I've got them.” She then told her daughter−in−law to take down the little cooking−pot, burn the fat out of it, scrub it and wash it several times over, then put it back on the stove. Then they half filled it with boiling water that they threw away. Next she poured boiling water on mountain−elm leaves to make tea, boiled up some millet, and cooked some dried vegetables. This was then all put into two bowls and set on the table. Then the old woman said to Tripitaka “Please eat, venerable monk. This is completely pure tea and food that I and my daughter−in−law have prepared” Tripitaka thanked them and sat down in the seat of honour. Another place was laid for Liu Boqin, where they set out bowls and dishes full of the meat of tiger, roebuck, snake, fox, and hare, as well as dried venison, all cooked without salt or sauce, which he was going to eat while Tripitaka had his vegetarian meal. He had just sat down and was on the point of picking up his chopsticks when he noticed Tripitaka put his hands together to recite some scripture, which so alarmed him that instead of picking up his chopsticks he stood beside him. When Tripitaka had recited some lines he urged Boqin to eat.

“Are you a short−sutra monk then?" Boqin asked. Tripitaka shook his head with a smile “That wasn't a sutra, it was a grace before eating.” he replied, which caused the man to let out a soft chuckle.

"You get up to all sorts of tricks. Fancy reciting sutras at mealtimes.” was Boqin's response.

When the meal was over and the dishes had been cleared away, Liu Boqin invited Tripitaka into the gathering darkness for a stroll at the back. They went along an alley and came to a thatched hut. Upon pushing the door open and going in Tripitaka saw bows and crossbows hanging on the walls and quivers filled with arrows. From the beams were slung two gory and stinking tiger−skins, and at the foot of the wall stood
many spears, swords, tridents and clubs. In the middle were two seats. Liu Boqin urged Tripitaka to sit down, but Tripitaka couldn’t bear to stay there long among the horrifying filth, and so he went outside. Going further to the back they came to a large garden full of clumps of yellow chrysanthemums and red maple−trees. Then with a whinnying noise about a dozen plump deer and a large herd of roebuck ran out, they were docile and unfrightened on seeing humans.

“Were those roebuck and deer raised by you?" asked Tripitaka.

"Yes” replied Boqin. "When you Chang'an people have some money you buy valuables, and when you have land you accumulate grain; but we hunters can only keep a few wild animals for a rainy day” Dusk had fallen unnoticed as the two of them talked, and now they went back to the house to sleep.

Early the next morning the whole family, young and old, got up and prepared vegetarian food for the monk, and then they asked him to start reciting sutras. Tripitaka washed his hands, went to the family shrine of the high warden, burned incense there, and worshipped, then hit his wooden fish as he recited first a prayer to purify his mouth, then a holy spell to purify his body and mind, and finally the Sutra to Deliver the Dead. When he had finished, Boqin asked him to write out a letter of introduction for the dead man and also recite the Diamond Sutra and the Guanyin Sutra. Tripitaka recited them in a loud, clear voice and then ate lunch, after which he read out the several chapters of the Lotus Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, as well as one chapter of the Peacock Sutra and told the story of the cleansing of the bhikshu. By now it was dark, and when they had burned all kinds of incense, paper money, and paper horses for all the gods, and the letter of introduction for the dead man, the service was over and everyone went to bed and slept soundly.

The soul of Boqin's father, now delivered from being a drowned ghost, came to the house that night and appeared in a dream to everyone in the family.

“I suffered long in the underworld, unable to find deliverance." he began, "but now that the saintly monk has wiped out my sins by reading some scriptures. King Yama has had me sent back to the rich land of China to be reborn in an important family. You must reward him generously, and no half measures. Now I'm going.”

When they all awoke from their dreams, the sun had already risen in the East. Boqin's wife said, "Warden, your father came to me in a dream last night. He said that he had suffered long in the underworld, and couldn't find deliverance. Now that the saintly monk has wiped out his sins by reading some scriptures, King Yama has had him sent back to the rich land of China to be reborn in an important family. He told us to thank him generously, and no half measures. When he'd said this he went out through the door and drifted away. He didn’t answer when I called, when I couldn't make him stay. I woke up and realized that it was a dream.”

"I had a dream just like yours," replied Liu Boqin. "Let's go and tell mother about it." As they were on the point of doing this they heard his mother shout, "Come here, Boqin my son. There's something I want to tell you” The two of them went in to find the old woman sitting on the bed in tears.

"My child, I had a happy dream last night. Your father came home and said that thanks to his salvation by the venerable monk, his sins have been wiped out and he has gone to be reborn in an important family in the rich land of China!” Husband and wife laughed in joy and her son said, "I and my wife both had this dream, and we were just coming to tell you when you called us. So now it turns out you had it too!” They told everyone in the house to get up to thank Tripitaka and get his horse loaded and ready. They all bowed to him and he said “Many thanks, venerable monk, for recommending my father for delivery from his sufferings and for rebirth. We can never repay this debt of gratitude.”

“What powers do i have that you should thank me?” Tripitaka asked with a confused grin, honestly very befuddled by everyone treating him so generously, more then usual, a part of him doesn’t mind it, but as a mere monk he shouldn’t in good faith be treated like an emperor. Boqin then told him about what the three of them had been told in their dreams, and Tripitaka lit up as he grinned, beyond delighted that his father had finally found peace. then they gave him his breakfast and an ounce of silver as an expression of their thanks, but he kindly declined the offer of silver, although the whole family begged and beseeched him to do so.

"If in your mercy you could escort me for the next stage of my journey I would be deeply touched.” he said, All that Boqin, his mother, and his wife could do then was to prepare some scones of coarse wheaten flour as his provisions, and make sure that Boqin escorted him a long way. Tripitaka gladly accepted the food. On his mother's orders the high warden told two or three servants to bring hunting gear as they set off together along the road. They saw no end of wild mountain scenery.

When they had been travelling for some time they saw a mountain in front of them, or at least something that looked like a mountain, it stood around 30 feet tall and easily rose above the trees, it was very thick, like it was made of the most hard and dense stone, before long they had reached its base, Tripitaka stared up in wonder at the marvelous pillar, before looking back at boqin with a question on his tongue, but before he could open his mouth, the man spoke up, “do you recognize this pillar my boy?” he asked with a hardened expression, staring up at it like he was trying to figure out the most difficult of riddles, Tripitaka shook his head, taken aback by the man’s sudden change in demeanor, boqin laughed heartily before continuing “this pillar here has been here longer than my father, grandfather, and great grandfather have been alive. they tell stories that it didn't exist in this valley.”

This caused Tripitaka to give him a weird look “how can that be possible?? this looks like it’s been here since the beginning of time.” he said as he placed his hand atop the flesh of the stone wall, running his hand down the smooth stone before putting his ear against it, freezing when he heard the sound of water, Tripitaka looked behind him only to see boqin walking away “wait- where are you going??” he asked, which caused the man to stop to look over his shoulder “You don't seem to know that this is called Double Boundary valley” said the high warden “The Eastern part belongs to our Great Tang, but the Western part is Tatar territory. The tigers and wolves on that side are not subject to my control, which is why I can't cross the boundary. You must go on by yourself.”

The monk was so alarmed to hear this that he waved his arms around and grabbed hold of the hunter's clothes and sleeves, weeping and refusing to let him go while the warden looked at him in sympathy. When at last Tripitaka was bowing repeatedly to the hunter to take his leave a sudden noise like thunder sounded as a nearby branch from a tree, that was thick as a club, fell down and smacked the top of the stone pillar, the two stood there stunned as they watched as a wide crack began to run down from the top of the stone surface until it reached the bottom, a small pool of water leaking out onto the grass, they soon grew horror struck as they began to hear movement coming from inside.

The terror−stricken Liu Boqin and Tripitaka then heard another crack as the stone pillar begun to break in half, boqin then grimaced as he looked down at the ever growing pool of water that began to reach their feet “so it is true after all.” this causing Tripitaka to look at him with fright in his eyes “what- what do you mean? what’s happening!?” Tripitaka pleaded as they kept on hearing more cracks from the stone “long ago, there is a tale of a demoness that had been trapped in a stone pillar filled with water by the Buddha himself” this shocked the monk, who stumbled back, only regaining his balance when he gripped onto the birdie of his horse “wait, but i thought- isn’t that a myth??? if that really did happen then wouldn’t the demoness be dead by now??”

“You would think, but from what I’ve read, the demoness had managed to learn the sacred art of immortality, but unfortunately the demoness soon grew hungry with power and went up to heaven to overthrow the jade emperor, which ended with the Buddha stepping in and trapping her into a stone pillar, exactly the one we’re standing at right now.” the warden explained, by this point there were so many cracks that it looked more like a broken vase than a pillar made of stone, but oddly enough it didn’t collapse “tell me, why is it that there are so many cracks but it still hasn’t crumbled down yet?” He asked, boqin only shrugged “beats me, but you should try to get a safe distance away before something bad happens, for if it does crumble who knows what will be waiting inside it.” With that ominous message the warden turned his back and walked off, leaving Tripitaka alone with nothing but his horse, belongings and the thirty foot tall pillar that looked seconds away from bursting.

deciding to do something, Tripitaka went over to his horse and dug through his bags until he pulled out a rope made of hardened straw, going over to the tree that stood next to the pillar, he pulled his arm back and threw the end of the rope towards a nearby branch that set above where there used to be the branch that had fallen on the pillar that had started this mess, and watched as it wrapped around it perfectly, the gods must be watching over me, cause I was sure I was gonna miss that. the monk thought to himself as he sighed in relief and pulled on his end of the rope to make sure it was holding on strong before climbing up the rope until he reached the top, now able to see the top of the pillar perfectly, he suddenly froze as he gasped in shock as he spotted a parchment of paper on the top, upon closer inspection he realized it was a magical seal that must be keeping the stone pillar from crumbling.

His mind then seemed to catch up to him as he let out a strangled noise while tightening his hold on the branch like one would a koala, WAIT A MINUTE! What am I even doing??? I’m not seriously thinking of unleashing a demoness am I? no, no I can’t. I can't just do this just to quench my curiosity!

…..but what if the demoness is somehow alive? boqin did say that she had mastered the art of immortality, so it would make sense that the demoness would still be alive, the thought alone made him horrified as he imagined the poor thing suffering in there, Tripitaka gripped tightly onto the branch he was sitting on as he slowly stood up on his feet as he looked between the platform he’s on and the pillar. judging the distance before bending down and jumping. it felt like time seemed to slow down as he jumped off the branch and seemed to sour through the air like a bird, then he landed on top of the pillar. and sound seemed to return as a loud CRACK emitted from where he’s standing, looking down he froze as he realizes that he’s only a few feet away from a hole that led into the inside of the pillar, it was barely wide enough for his arm or leg to fit though, but if he had landed a few feet towards the right then he would’ve been stuck, that’s when it just now occurred to him how dumb this all was.

But before he could berate himself further he saw a myriad beams of golden light and a thousand wisps of propitious vapour coming from a large, square rock on which he went up and knelt down before a lump that jetted out of the stone, then read the golden words that was pasted on a paper seal bearing the golden words Om mani padme hum. Tripitaka bowed his head to the ground a number of times. He looked to the West and prayed, "I am the believer Chen Xuanzang sent on imperial orders to fetch the scriptures. If this mysterious demoness is good at heart and will help me on my journey, may I be able to tear off the golden words and release the tormented soul trapped within. but if she isn’t and is actually an evil spirit that craves to wreak havoc on this precious land. then may I be unable to remove it.” When he had finished praying he bowed again, after which he went up and gently tore the paper seal off. a scented wind blew in his face and carried the paper up into the sky as a voice called, "I am the Great Sage's guard. Now that her suffering is over I am going back to see the Tathagata and hand in this seal.” the startled monk quickly bowed to Heaven in respect.

…..

A few minutes passed in silence as nothing more seemed to happen, causing Tripitaka to look down at the stone, only for him to feel a sudden rumbling from underneath him, leaving him only a few seconds to process as the only thing that was holding the stone back had been removed, which caused a chain of events that the monk would not forget for as long as he lived. the front of the pillar burst open like a beavers dam, causing him to stumble in place as the pillar started to tip over with him still on it, he yelled as he fell to the cold wet ground with a thud, his head and arms taking the brunt of it as he yelped in pain. cradling his head in his arms before getting up to look at the damage, only to freeze as he saw a lone form lying on the floor, quickly getting up from the ground he started to walk towards it until the figure suddenly lurched upwards and started coughing up mouthfuls of water, covering the already damp grass, causing it to be even more damp, as her arms were doing their best by keeping them somewhat steady as they continued to cough.

this lasted a few minutes until it slowly subsided, leaving the figure to lay back down on the ground there. feeling kinda awkward just standing there, Tripitaka slowly made his way over to them, not noticing a twig that lied in front of him before he heard a loud CRACK! from underneath him, which caused the figure's eyes to snap open and they rushed to their feet with a growl, letting the monk get a closer look at what they looked like.

They towered over him a whopping nine feet tall with long hair the color of light begonia blossoms that reached its hips, it has red eyes with golden pupils that had shrink into pinpricks that stared down at him with a mixture of rage and panic, which slowly ebbed into confusion as she noticed that he wasn’t holding any sort of weapon. realizing this, they slowly calmed down, their shoulders slumped as they looked around at their surroundings, their tail swishing behind them anxiously as they turned to look around, it looked to be a monkey but Tripitaka hadn't heard of any this tall before. It has bright orange fur that covered her back, and arms and legs, leaving her chest and belly bare, as they turned towards him to look at some birds in a tree he realized with a flash that she had a big chest with breasts that looked about the size of his head, and their belly hung out slightly.

it was at this moment that he realized how quiet it had suddenly became, now that the cracks from the pillar were gone. “uhhhh hello there-“ before he could finish his sentence, the monkey whipped her head towards him and spoke in a deep menacing voice “YOU. WHERE AM I? WHO ARE YOU?!” The monkey demanded in a deep growl, causing the monk to take a few steps back in fright “uhhhhh, okay to start off, we are in Double Boundary valley, just east of the tang empire, and my name is Tripitaka, I’m a monk tasked with traveling west to see the Buddha and retrieve the sacred scriptures.” he replied quickly, having already memorized it by heart. the monkey cocked her head to the side, seeming to recognize that name, which would make sense since everyone knows about the Buddha, as he was talking he noticed the monkey growing more calm until they sat down on the ground with a thud, one of her knees pulled up to their chest.

Well, at least we’re finally at eye level now, Tripitaka thought to himself, “but enough about me, what’s your name, how did you end up in that tall pillar?” He already knew the answer to that second one, but he was curious to hear their side of the story. the monkey’s eyes widened as they looked at the broken down pillar that was now nothing more then rubble at this point, before looking back at him “I’m known as the monkey king, great sage equal to heaven, but my friends and enemies call me sun wukong, my whole life I knew there was more to life than staying in one place my whole life, so at the age of thirteen I ventured out into the open seas to find me a master to teach me the art of immortality. so that i could find a way to discover a cure to rid my people of sickness, disease and death. so that they wouldn’t be sent to the underworld or being reincarnated. for if they did, I would never see them again, which is terrifying to think about cause what’s the use in living if you don’t have people to spend it with?”

Tripitaka nodded in understanding as he found a nearby log to sit on and sat down, urging the golden furred monkey to continue “but when I got to a human village I realized that it wouldn’t be that easy. see, I had figured out that I’m not like everyone else, which I would be completely fine with if it was something i could control. you know how my title is the monkey king right?” the monk nodded “as it turns out humans have this thing called gender, which is really confusing and I don’t understand how you humans deal with it. apparently, as a kind women once explained to me, humans are separated into two genders, the first one being males, who are commonly the ones that go out and hunt and take care of all the hard work, while the next one being called females, who are the exact opposite of males in that they are commonly seen as more fragile, and so don’t or can’t do the hard kinda work that males do. which I see as kinda offensive. and human females are tasked with creating and taking care of the young members of the human species. having to cover their chest and bottom for reasons I still don’t understand. All I know is that it’s ‘inappropriate’ for a female to walk around naked. And to make matters worse, despite being capable of doing things men can do, they still have to stay behind to look after everyone else, which is completely backwards for me cause it’s actually the opposite back where I’m from.”

Tripitaka let out a confused noise while leaning forward “whatever do you mean wukong? don’t the males of your land go out to hunt and fight too? Also do you always walk around naked, or is this cause you were trapped in a pillar?” the monk asked, wukong shook her head “quite the opposite my dear monk, where I’m from the females and males actually take turns going out and looking for food, scaring off any unwanted enemies, but when it comes down to it, the females are actually the leaders of the tribe. Also yes and no, the female members of my tribe can choose whether or not to wear clothes. And having a rule saying that you absolutely HAVE to wear some article of clothing is kinda redundant since we have all of this” the golden monkey then gestured to the fur covering most of her body, while Tripitaka nodded in understanding, “that’s understandable, but humans are pretty different in that respect, for the males of my species start to act a little….weird, when they see a womens chest and lower region.” Tripitaka explained awkwardly, wukong grimaced as she seemed to remember something, “yeah…I had to find that out the hard way.”

Thus monk decided to change the subject, which the golden monkey was deeply grateful for. “So are all demons like this?” he asked, wanting to know more, wukong let out a soft chuckle as the monks eyes sparkled, reminding her of when she would tell the baby monkeys back on flower fruit mountain about her adventures, she wondered how they were doing, “well, I don’t think every demon tribe is like ours, but what we have in common is that we all carry our own weight so to speak, maybe someday your kind will be like that too.”

A few minutes passed in silence as the two sat there enjoying the sounds of the forest, wukong looked over to the monks horse to see it giving her an uneasy look, furrowing her brows in thought, she got up from the ground and walked over to it, much to the horses surprise and fright, as it let out a loud “Neeeeeeigh!!” before realizing that the golden furred monkey was only interested in the bags strapped to its back. causing it to let out a sigh of relief in a form of a huff.

Looking through the loads of bags that contained food for the monks journey, wukong noticed that there were nothing more, there were no type of weapon to be found, which made sense for the man is a monk, but wukong felt uneasy as she looked around to see that the forest was empty except for her and the monk, and of course the horse, who upon figuring out that the golden monkey wasn’t a threat, had bent down and ate some grass. But Wukong was oblivious to this as she instead walked back over to Tripitaka with a question on her tongue “if you don’t mind me asking, are you currently traveling alone? cause I don’t see any other horse or person, are they perhaps running late?” the golden monkey inquired, Tripitaka wheezed as he remembered what happened to his previous companions “no, it’s just me, I did have two assistants but they sadly got eaten by some demons…”

Wukong’s eyes widened in shock before it turned into a look of sympathy “I’m deeply sorry about your loss, were you close to them?” the monk shook his head sadly “no, they were only assigned to me by the emperor of tang, so I hadn’t had time to know them before the journey.” the monkey nodded as she stroked her chin, if this monk didn’t have anyone to accompany him to the west then he’s good as dead, for the west is full of all kinds of demons that wouldn’t think twice about eating someone like him. But then an idea struck her and she turned around to look at the monk that was staring sadly in the distance, as the sun started to go down. Which meant that they needed to find shelter soon “pardon my boldness, but if you are going west to fetch the scriptures you’ll need someone to protect you, so I humbly ask if I may join you on your journey to the west so you may succeed.” upon hearing this, Tripitaka looked at her in surprise, not expecting a demoness such as the great sage to offer something like this. “I am beyond thankful for your offer, but if I may ask, what do you want in return? I may not understand your traditions and beliefs, but I do know that demons don’t just ask something for free.” the sage then stretched the top of her head, which had now long since dried, having not really thought of anything she wanted, until they looked down at her body, with her huge breasts the size of watermelons, and a big gut that protruded outwards, she then remembered why she fought the jade emperor in the first place “to tell you the truth, I actually want to talk to the jade emperor to reverse the curse he put on me-” Tripitaka’s eyes widened in shock upon hearing this “WHAT??? YOU GOT CURSED BY THE JADE EMPEROR!?” he exclaimed, looking like he might faint, holding onto the edge of the log. wukong raised her arms in the air in a way to calm him down “okay okay I understand that sounds bad, and it is. see, it all started when I was fighting one of the gods named nezha the third lotus prince, we were like buddies, but the fight was stopped when the jade emperor arrived and broke up the fight, which was rather rude.” Tripitaka frowned in disapproval upon hearing this act of violence, but stayed silent as he watched the sage’s face change into a look of resentment, “he explained to me that he didn’t approve of me wanting to be equal to them, i deeply desired to be treated like one of their own, even though I have enough powers and capabilities to command a whole army and much more, but unfortunately he didn’t think about that and instead berated me like I was some child, so I mayyyyy have insulted him out of anger,” she admitted, watching as Tripitaka gasped while bringing his hands to his mouth “yeeeeaaaaah, I quickly realized my misjudgement, but by the time I did, the emperor was already angry, turning into a spittering mess in his anger and then shot me with a beam of lightning. which hurt like a thousand knives were slashing at my body, when I woke up I noticed that my body looked….different.”

Tripitaka looked at the golden monkey in confusion, “wait, you didn’t always look like that?” the sage shook her head “nope, you remember when I stated that I’m not like anyone else?” when the monk nodded she continued “well there’s a reason for that, see, when I was born I had been given a female body, which I didn’t mind as much since it didn’t give me any problems. that was until I first ventured into the human settlement. I was confused as to why everyone stared at me like I did something wrong, with a bunch of men staring at me like I was a sack of meat. It was really unnerving, only for a women to shove clothing in my hands, yelling about how a women shouldn’t be seen naked in public, and eventually gave me the rundown about how women shouldn’t be seen with these out.” Wukong once again gestured towards her chest, “so after that incident, I chose to always wear clothes especially when I was in a human settlement, and eventually started wearing more clothes back home that weren't just for ceremonial purposes. and eventually found out upon meeting up with the other demon kings of the land that wearing clothes was commonly seen as the norm, so I just continued wearing clothes. that is until I had been cursed by the jade emperor. see, I didn’t always used to be this….weighty. But that curse he had put on me caused me to gain multiple pounds in a short amount of time. Which I hadn’t known about until a month later, for the curse had put so much strain on my body that it caused me to be knocked out for all that time. So after that it was a lot harder to hide my body, until the battle against heaven happened and…I’m sure you can guess the rest.”

Tripitaka looked at her in sympathy, sure she had done wrong by insulting the jade emperor, but she didn’t deserve having her body changed like that, he then thought back to his prayer on whether or not it was a good idea to release the demoness from her watery tomb, and thought about how easy it had been to rip that seal off. “you know, before I released you, there was a seal stuck on the pillar, I had prayed that if you were good the seal would come off, but if you had evil intentions it wouldn’t, so I’m thinking that whoever was in charge of your imprisonment , they must’ve known that you were good, so protecting me on this journey might be your second chance.”

Wukong looked at him with awe, then nodded her head in understanding “well if that’s the case then I shall assist you on your journey to retrieve the scriptures!” She announced happily as she placed her hands on her hips with a wide grin, then went over to the monks horse, who had heard about the declaration and had been taken aback by the news, and gripped onto the birdie and led the shocked horse over to the monk, who bowed in thanks and climbed on. and before Tripitaka could speak, Wukong took the luggage in her hands and put it on her back, the large amount barely reaching the small of her back, and then they set off. Suddenly a ferocious tiger rushed at them, roaring and lashing about with its tail. Tripitaka was terrified while wukong growled dangerously as she stepped in front of him and the horse protectively, glaring at the beast straight in the eye, not feeling an ounce of fright. without looking she took the luggage off her back and gently placed it on the path. “don’t worry, master. this small beast isn’t gonna hurt you, instead it’s gonna feel my wrath when I cut into it!” with that she pulled a needle out of her ear and shook it in the wind, turning it into an iron cudgel as thick as a rice bowl. She laughed gleefully as she examined her prized weapon “I haven't used this little treasure in over five hundred years!” She exclaimed with a grin “today I’m gonna smash its head in so I can get myself some clothes to wear.”

“Excuse me, your gonna WHAT-“ Tripitaka tried to interjected, but could only watch as the demoness rushed forward with incredible speed at the tiger shouting “Where d'you think you're going, WRETCH?” The tiger then preceded to crouch in the dust, not daring to move, as the cudgel smashed into its head. Thousands of drops of red brain and many a pearly piece of tooth flew everywhere, so terrifying Tripitaka that he fell out of the saddle, biting on his finger and crying, "Heavens, the high warden had to fight for ages before killing the striped tiger the other day, but this Sun Wukong has smashed a tiger to pieces with a single blow. She really is tougher than tough” he stated. the monkey stood back up as she wiped the blood from off her cudgel “you damn right I am, now sit tight while I strip the clothes off him to wear on the journey” she said as they dragged the tiger over, holding a sharp rock shaped like a cows ear in her hand that was sharpened to a point.

“But he hasn't got any clothes!" Tripitaka protested, just wanting her to leave the poor thing alone, “Don't bother yourself about it, I know how to cope” The splendid Monkey King then cut the sharp edge of the rock into the skin on the tiger's belly, she took it all off in a single stroke, chopped off the head, and claws, then held up the square hide to get an idea of its size while sticking her tongue out in concentration, looking like she was working on a painting and not disemboweling a tiger. “It's on the big side," she said, "so I could make two kilts out of it” and with these words she took her sharp rock and cut it in two. One piece she put away, and the other she wrapped around her waist to cover the lower half of her body and tied it firmly with a creeper she pulled down from beside the path.

“Let's go on, master, let's go on" she said. "The sewing can wait till we reach a house where we can borrow a needle and thread.” she pinched her iron cudgel to make it as small as a needle again, put it back in her ear, took the luggage on her back, and asked Tripitaka to mount his horse. the monk nodded dumbly as he did so, face as white as a clear sheet of fabric, scarred from the experience. As the two of them went along, the venerable monk asked from the horse's back, "Wukong, where has the iron cudgel you used to kill the tiger disappear to?” he asked, not having noticed the golden furred monkey put it back. wukong laughed as she spoke “What you don't know, master” wukong said with a grin “is that I got it from the dragon palace of the Eastern Sea, and that it's called the Magic Iron to Hold the Bed of the Milky Way in Place or 'As−You−Will Gold−Banded Cudgel'. When I raised my great rebellion against the Heavenly Palace in the past, it served me well. It can change into anything and be whatever size I want it to be. Just now I turned it into an embroidery needle and put it away in my ear. I only take it out when I need it, I don’t want any unwanted demon or human stealing it after all.” Concealing his delight at hearing this,Tripitaka went on to ask, "Why didn't that tiger move when it saw you? Why on earth did it let you hit it?."

"I can tell you in all truthfulness, master, that not just tigers but even dragons have to be on their best behavior. I know a few tricks for putting them in their place and have the power to make rivers run backwards and stir up the seas. I can tell what things are really like from appearances alone, and sort out the truth behind what is said. When I want to make myself big I measure myself against the universe, and when I shrink I can be held on a downy hair. There's no limit to the transformations I can perform, and nobody can tell when I'm going to vanish or when I'm going to reappear. There was nothing wonderful about skinning that tiger. Wait till I show you a thing or two.” wukong said with a grin, this took a great load off Tripitaka’s mind, and he whipped his horse on. As master and disciple went along their way talking together, the sun continued sinking in the West, as they saw, In the fiery glow of the setting sun, the clouds returned to the ends of the sky and the sea. The birds on a thousand mountains chirped and called, Flying in flocks to the woods for the night. The wild beasts go two by two as all species return to their dens. A crescent moon breaks through the dusk, As countless points of starlight shimmered in the deep blue sky.

“We must hurry up master, for its getting late” wukong said "There must be a house in that clump of trees over there, so let's get there as soon as possible to settle down for the night” Tripitaka nodded in agreement as he whipped on his horse once more and galloped to the house, where he dismounted. Wukong put down the luggage, went up to the gate, and shouted, "Open up, open up!'' A few seconds later an old man came out, leaning on a bamboo stick, and the gate creaked as he opened it. At the sight of Wukong's towering frame and her ever apparent resting bitch face, with the tiger−skin wrapped around them, it made her look like the god of thunder. the old man was so terrified that his legs turned to jelly and his body went numb.

“A devil.... A devil" he muttered deliriously.

Tripitaka went up to support him while wukong rolled her eyes, saying, "Don't be afraid, aged benefactor. He's no devil, he's my disciple” When the old man looked up and saw Tripitaka’s pure face he felt steady on his feet at once, and he asked what monastery Tripitaka was from, and why he had he brought that evil−looking creature to his house. "I come from the Tang Court” said Tripitaka “and I am going to the Western Heaven to visit the Buddha and ask for the scriptures. As we were passing this way at nightfall we came to your mansion, good benefactor, to ask for a night's lodging. We shall be off before dawn tomorrow. I very much hope that you will be able to help us in our time of need”

"You may be a Tang man," the old fellow replied, "but that frightening brute certainly isn’t”

"You've got no eyes in your head, you silly old man” wukong uttered with a glare, only seeing him as nothing more then a bug that could be easily squashed underneath her heel “He's my master and I'm his disciple. I'm no Tang man or Spike man, I'm the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Some of the people who live in this house must know me.”

“What rubbish” the old man retorted.

"It's you who's talking rubbish, my child” replied Wukong. "You don't know who I am, but I'm the Great sage that was trapped in the pillar in Double Boundary valley.“ The old man at last remembered a story he had heard about one unlucky demonness getting sealed away by the Buddha. realizing who she was and asked “I suppose you must be that demon, but however did you get out?” Sun Wukong told him the whole story of how the Tang Priest had stumbled upon the great and tall stone pillar that she had been trapped within, and with his deep kindness and warm soul he had taken off the seal binding it together to release her. The old man went down on his knees and bowed his head, inviting the Tang Priest inside and calling his wife and children to come and meet him, they were all very happy when they heard what had happened.

When they had drunk tea he asked Sun Wukong, "How old are you, Great Sage?"

"How old are you?” Wukong retorted easily, as she rose a brow.

"In my senile way I have reached a hundred and thirty”

"Then you could be my remote descendant” wukong said “I can't remember when I was born, but I spent over five hundred years within that watery tomb.”

"True, true" remarked the old man, "I remember my grandfather saying that this stone formation had formed out of nowhere. He had always joked that it must have come from the heavens above, but now that I know that you had been trapped within, it seems my old man’s jokes seemed to have some mirth after all. and the tiger−skin around your waist makes you as near a devil as ever.” This conversation went on for a few minutes until dinner was ready, and as he was a kind old man he had a vegetarian meal set out. When the meal was over, Wukong laid on her side, having only eaten half of the food she had been given, for her body was not used to ingesting food being deprived from it for five hundred years while trapped, so was out of practice. After making sure that wukong was okay, with the golden monkey giving him a shaky thumbs up, Tripitaka asked the old man his surname.

“Chen” the old man replied. Upon hearing this Tripitaka raised his hands in greeting and said “Venerable benefactor, you are of the same clan as myself!”

But master!” wukong protested as she sat up, not quite having recovered yet, as was apparent from how droopy her eyes had become, "You're called Tang, aren't you, so how can you belong to the same clan as him?”

"My secular surname is Chen, and I am from Juxian Village, Hongnong Prefecture, Haizhou, in the Tang empire. My Buddhist name is Chen Xuanzang. But as our Great Tang Emperor Taizong called me his younger brother and gave me the surname Tang, I am known as the Tang Priest.” he explained, The old fellow meanwhile was delighted to hear that they shared a surname. "Chen, old fellow” said wukong “I'm afraid this will be putting your family out, but I haven't washed for over 500 years, so could you go and boil up some water for me and my master to have a bath before we set out again? Thank you.” The old man gave instructions for water to be boiled and a tub brought out, and he lit a lamp. When master and disciple had bathed (with Tripitaka keeping a close eye on the demoness so that she didn’t accidentally fall) they sat down by the lamp, with wukong eating small amounts of food and liquid from two separate bows next to her, the monkey demoness asked once more, “old Chen, there's another thing I'd like to ask you, could you lend me a needle and thread?”

"Yes, of course,” the old man replied, sending his wife to fetch them and then handing them to her, wukong’s sharp eyes had observed her master take off a short cotton tunic the color of the blue sky, which he did not put on again. So Wukong grabbed it and put it on herself. gleaming in delight when she felt as the soft cotton covered her plump chest perfectly, leaving her midsection bare, Then she took off her tiger skin, joined it up with a pelt, wrapped it around her waist again, tied it with a creeper, went up to her master, and asked “How would you say these clothes compare with what I was wearing before?” She asked with a grin, "Splendid, splendid!“ Tripitaka replied as he clapped his hands, beyond relieved that the golden furred monkey had found some suitable clothes, “it makes you look quite like a real monk. If you don't mind cast−offs, he added “you can go on wearing that tunic,” he said, pretending he hadn’t taken it off just so she could have some actual clothing, Wukong chanted a "na−a−aw" of obedience and thanked him, then went off to find some hay for the horse, practically jumping in glee. When all the jobs were finished, and wukong had finished her dinner, master and disciple went to bed, both sleeping soundly in their cots as wukong lay curled up in her warm blankets while soft purring could be heard throughout the house.

Early the next morning Wukong woke up and asked her master to set out. Tripitaka got dressed and told Wukong to pack the bedding and the rest of the luggage. They were just on the point of leaving when the old man appeared. He had prepared hot water for washing as well as breakfast. After that they set out, Tripitaka riding the horse while Wukong led in front of him. They ate when they were hungry and drank when they were thirsty, wukongs body finally getting the hang on the whole eating thing, travelling by day and resting by night. Thus they went on until they realized it was early winter. When the frost destroys the red leaves the woods are sparse, on the ridge only pine and cypress flourish. The unopened plum buds exhale a dark perfume, Warming the short days, a touch of spring. When the chrysanthemum and lotus is finished, the wild tea blossoms.

By the cold bridge and the ancient trees the birds quarrel for branches. In the twisting gully the waters of the spring run low, Pale snow clouds drift across the sky. The North wind blows strong, tugging at your sleeves. Who can bear the cold towards evening? When master and disciple had been travelling for a long time, they heard a whistle from beside the path, and six men rushed out with spears, swords, cutlasses, and strongbows. "Where do you think you're going, monk?" they roared. "If you give us your horse and luggage we'll spare your life” Tripitaka fell from his horse, scared out of his wits and unable to utter a word. Wukong helped him to his feet and said “Don't worry, master, it's nothing serious. They’ve come to bring us some clothes and our travelling expenses.” The golden monkey remarked with a sly grin.

"Are you deaf, Wukong?" the other asked. "They told us to give them our horse and luggage, so how can you ask them for clothes and money?"

"You look after the clothes, the luggage and the horse while I go and have a bash at them. We'll see what happens.” Wukong replied.

"A good hand is no match for two fists” said Tripitaka “and a pair of fists is no match for four hands. They are six big men against you, all by yourself. You can't possibly have the nerve to fight them.”

The brave monkey did not stop to argue. Instead she stepped forward, folded her arms across her chest, bowed to the six bandits and said, "Why are you gentlemen obstructing our way?" She asked, with the most stone cold expression imaginable. emitting a dangerous aura that caused some of the bandits to shuffle from foot to foot in fright. For messing with a demoness is a sure fare way to get killed.

Despite this, the leader of the gang of misfits grinned, not seeming to heed the other members that were giving him nervous glances. "We are mighty robber kings, benevolent lords of the mountain. We have been very famous for a long time, although you don't seem to have heard of us. If you abandon your things at once, we'll let you go on your way. but if there's even a hint of a 'no' from you, we'll turn your flesh into mincemeat and your bones into powder” wukong let out a loud boisterous laugh, seeming to be quite amused by the leaders threat, while Tripitaka and the robbers gave her an odd look “I too am a hereditary robber king, and have ruled a mountain for many years, but I've never heard of you gentlemen. Hmmmm, I wonder why that is? is it cause you aren’t as well known as more, well known bandits around here? for if that’s the case, I kinda feel bad for you.” Wukong replied with a chuckle, seeming to find great amusement in riling then up. it’s what she was known for after all.

the leader let out a growl, fully disgusted and infuriated with the demoness’s taunting. standing up straighter with a grin “Since you don't know our names, I'll tell them to you: Eye−seeing Happiness, Ear−hearing Anger, Nose−smelling Love, Tongue−tasting Thought, Mind−born Desire, and Body−based Sorrow” wukong let out a laugh once more “so I was right, you're just a bunch of small−time crooks. You can't see that I'm your lord and master, although I look like your average monk, but I’ll assure you that I am FAR from that. and you have the effrontery to get in our way. Bring out all the jewels you've stolen, and the seven of us can share them out equally. I'll let you off with that.”

This made the bandits happy, angry, loving, thoughtful, desirous, and sorrowful respectively, and they all charged her, yelling, "You've got a nerve, monk. You've got nothing to put in the kitty, but you want to share???” Waving their spears and swords they rushed her, hacking wildly at her face. Seventy or eighty blows crashed down onthe demoness, but she simply stood in the middle of them, ignoring everything. "What a monk!" the bandits said. "This woman is a real tough nut!”

Upon hearing this, Wukong's grin widened until it scratched across their face until it met her eyes. Causing the bandits to still in pure terror. “I think that’s enough of that.” wukong said with a wicked grin as she casually moved a blade out of her face. all six bandits felt chills run down their spines, for they realized far too late what they had done. "Your hands must be tired after all that bashing, Now it's my turn to bring out my needle for a bit of fun.” this sentence made them all confused, wondering what’s so bad about a needle, "This monk must have been an acupuncturist," said the bandits. "There's nothing wrong with us. Why is she talking about needles?"

Taking the embroidery needle from her ear, Wukong shook it in the wind, at which it became an iron cudgel as thick as a ricebowl. With this in her hand she said, "Stick around while I try my cudgel out on you lonesome fiends!” She yelled. The terrified bandits tried to flee in all directions, but Wukong was much faster and taller than all six combined, with the added strength of ten thousand men, she easily rushed after them with speed that could rival the fastest Cheetah. caught them all up, and killed every last one of them. Then she stripped the clothes off them, took their money, and went back with her face covered with a wide grin, "Let's go, master; I've wiped those bandits out” she said, even though Tripitaka was very grateful that wukong had wiped the bandits out to protect him, he still felt like there could’ve been another way "Even though they were highwaymen, you're really asking for trouble” Tripitaka said with a weary expression “Even if they had been arrested and handed over to the authorities, they wouldn't have been sentenced to death. You may know a few tricks from back home, it still would’ve been better if you'd simply driven them away. Why did you have to kill them all? Even taking a man's life by accident is enough to stop someone from becoming a monk. A person who enters spares the ants when he sweeps the floor, Covers the lamps to save the moth. What business did you have to slaughter the lot of them, without caring which of them were the guilty and which were innocent? You haven't a shred of compassion or goodness in you. This time it happened in the wilds, where nobody will be able to trace the crime. But say someone offended you in a city and you turned murderous there. Say you killed and wounded people when you went berserk with that club of yours. I myself would be involved even though I'm quite innocent.”

Wukong scowled as she glared at him with anger in her eyes “But if I hadn't killed them, they'd have killed you, master!” wukong protested “say what you will about how one or some of them could’ve been innocent, but the truth is if they were innocent in the past they have already made their choices now, knowing full well where their path would lead them, and in this case it was through death. I killed them to protect you, cause I knew that if I wasn’t here they would’ve killed you without hesitation. it’s time you learn what the real world is like instead of constantly worrying about the consequences.”

Tripitaka shook his head in disagreement, seeming to have made his choice on his beliefs long ago "I am a man of religion, and I would rather die than commit murder” he said stubbornly, “If I'd died, there'd only been me dead, but you killed six of them, which was an absolute outrage. If the case were taken to court, you couldn't talk your way out of this even if the judge were your own father!”

“I don’t have a father, so your argument is irrelevant. To tell you the truth, master, I don't know how many people I killed when I was the monster who ruled over the mountain of Flowers and Fruit.” wukong said “but if I'd acted your way I'd never have become the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.”

Tripitaka growled, getting increasingly aggravated with the monkey “"It was precisely because you acted with such tyrannical cruelty among mortals and committed the most desperate crimes against Heaven that you got into trouble five hundred years ago!” he retorted, “but now you have entered the faith by helping me though this journey, you'll never reach the Western Heaven and never become a monk if you don't give up your taste for murder. You're too evil, too evil!”

wukong, who had never let hersell be put upon, let out the deepest of growls that reverberated throughout the land, making all woodland creatures big and small go into hiding. the fur on her head and body flaring up in agitation at Tripitaka’s endless nagging, "If you say that I'll never become a monk and won't ever reach the Western Heaven, then stop going on at me like that. I’m going back.” before Tripitaka could reply, wukong leapt up in a fury, shouting, "I'm off!” He looked up quickly, but the demoness was already out of sight. All that could be heard was a whistling sound coming from the East. Left on his own, the Priest nodded and sighed to himself with great sadness and indignation. “The incorrigible wretch," he reflected. "Fancy disappearing and going back home like that just because I gave her a bit of a telling−off. So that's that. I must be fated to have no disciples or followers. I couldn't find her now even if I wanted to, and she wouldn't answer if I called her. I must be on my way.” so he had to strive with all his might to reach the West, looking after himself with nobody to help.

Tripitaka had no choice but to gather up the luggage and tie it on the horse. He did not ride now. Instead, holding his monastic staff in one hand and leading the horse by the reins with the other, he made his lonely way to the West. Before he had been travelling for long he saw an old woman on the mountain path in front of him. She was holding an embroidered robe, and a patterned hat that rested upon it. As she came towards him he hurriedly pulled the horse to the side of the path to make room for her to pass. "Where are you from, venerable monk," the old woman asked, "travelling all alone all by yourself?"

"I have been sent by the great King of the East to go to the West to visit the Buddha and ask him for the True scriptures.” he replied,

"The Buddha of the West lives in the Great Thunder Monastery in the land of India, thirty−six thousand miles away from here. You'll never get there, just you and your horse, without a companion or disciple.” this only made Tripitaka sigh as he slumped against his horse “"I did have a disciple, but her nature was so evil that she would not accept a little reproof I administered to her and disappeared into the blue sky.” he replied. "I have here an embroidered tunic and a hat inset with golden patterns that used to be my sons.” she said “but he died after being a monk for only three days. I've just been to his monastery to mourn him and say farewell to his master, and I was taking this tunic and this hat home to remember the boy by. But as you have a disciple, venerable monk, I'll give them to you instead.”

Tripitaka smiled sadly at her kindness and said “Thank you very much for your great generosity, but as my disciple has already gone, I couldn't accept them”

“Where has she gone?" the old women asked.

“All I heard was a whistling sound as she went back to the East.”

“My home isn't far to the East from here." she said, "so I expect she's gone there. I've also got a spell called True Words to Calm the Mind, or the Band−tightening Spell. You must learn it in secret, and be sure to keep it to yourself. Never leak it to anyone. I'll go and catch up with her and send them back to you, and you can give her that tunic and hat to wear. If she's disobedient again, all you have to do is recite the spell quietly. That will stop her from committing any more murders or running away again.”

Tripitaka bowed low to thank her, at which she changed into a beam of golden light and returned to the East. He realized in his heart that it must have been the Bodhisattva Guanyin who had given him the spell, so he took a pinch of earth as if he were burning incense and bowed in worship to the East most reverently. Then he put the tunic and hat in his pack, sat down beside the path, and recited the True Words to Calm the Mind over and over again until he knew them thoroughly, and had committed them to his memory.

Meanwhile back with wukong, who after leaving her master, went straight back to the Eastern Ocean on her cloud. putting it away she parted the waters and went straight to the undersea palace of crystal. Her approach had alarmed the dragon king, who came out to investigate where the loud stomping was coming from, for in her rage Wukong had forgotten that she was a lot bigger now, and so had unintentionally frightened the poor king. upon coming out the dragon king stepped back in shock at seeing her, before speaking up “wukong, I am deeply relieved that you are okay, for the past five hundred years I hadn’t seen or heard from you, so I had gotten worried, looking at you now I notice that you look a lot different now, you seem to have developed breasts the size of human heads, along with a gut that makes your figure look very round” he said, now normally if it was anyone else wukong would have bashed his skull in, but with this being the dragon king of the west she had to keep her anger in check as she sighed while following him in the castle and sitting down on the kings soft cushiony seat, ignoring how she quickly sank into it with her added weight, thanking him as he gave her a cup of tea.

“yeah well, long story short I got in trouble with the jade emperor and got cursed with this plump body of mine, and to make things worse, when I had gone up there to give him a talking to, the Buddha had stopped me and trapped me in a waterlogged pillar!!” She exclaimed, her fur ruffling up in anger all over again, “I only got out cause this MONK released me. and in my deep kindness I had asked to aid him on his journey west, cause apparently he has to go to the Great Thunder Monastery or whatever to pick up these holy scriptures to bring back to India, and what do I get after saving him from both a tiger and bandits that were going to kill him? HIM NAGGING AT ME WHILE SHOVING HIS BELIEFS DOWN MY THROAT!! even though I was trying to save him from being killed, how ungrateful is that!?” At this point wukong had set up from her spot, setting down her cup of tea as she began to pace back and forth, while the dragon king just sat in his chair calmly while sipping his tea.

“So that’s why I’ve come to see you” wukong said as she sat back down.
“that monk said that everything about me was wrong. You know how I can't stand people going on at me, so I left him to come home to my mountain. I looked in on you first to ask for a cup of tea to help calm my nerves, I wouldn’t want to scare my precious monkeys upon seeing me angry.”

The dragon king smiled softly, knowing that the monkey king has a soft spot for the ones she cares about most, after the events of their first meeting, the dragon king was a bit scornful at the golden furred monkey for how she had treated him. but after she had visited him a couple times throughout the years (sometimes literally breaking down the doors of his palace. scaring the daylights out of the poor dragon, he had reprehended her after that. To which she thankfully stopped.) and after a while the dragon king generally began enjoy the golden monkeys' company. so when he had heard the news that she had been imprisoned by the Buddha, he wasn’t exactly surprised, cause he knew first hand how disrespectful and crude they could be. Still, knowing this hadn’t stopped him from missing their talks. “Delighted to oblige.” he replied as he reached over and handed back over wukong’s tea, making wukong smile as she thanked him and took a sip, now feeling much calmer now.

When she had drunk her tea, wukong looked round and saw a picture called, "Presenting the Shoe at the Yi Bridge" hanging on the wall behind her.

"What's that a view of?" She asked. the dragon king looked over to the golden monkey looking at a painting "You wouldn't know about it because it happened after your time.” the dragon king replied. "It's called 'Presenting the Shoe Three Times at the Yi Bridge.”

"What's all that about?" wukong asked, now invested. “The Immortal is Lord Yellow Stone, and the boy is Zhang Liang, who lived in Han times.” the dragon king replied. "Lord Yellow Stone was sitting on the bridge when suddenly he dropped one of his shoes under it and told Zhang Liang to fetch it for him. The boy Zhang Liang did so at once, and knelt down to present it to him. Lord Yellow Stone did this three times, and because Zhang Liang never showed a trace of arrogance or disrespect, Lord Yellow Stone was touched by his diligence. One night he gave Zhang Liang some heavenly books and told him to support the Han cause. Later he won victories hundreds of miles away through his calculations within the walls of his tent. When peace came he resigned his office and went back to roam on his mountain with Master Red Pine and achieve the Way of Immortality through enlightenment. Great sage, if you don't protect the Tang Priest with all your might, and if you reject his instruction, then you might as well stop trying to win yourself a good later reward, because it will mean you're only an evil Immoral after all.” wukong stayed silent, currently in deep thought about something.

“Great Sage” said the dragon king, "you must make your mind up. Don't ruin your future for the sake of any easy life.” this caused wukong to look at him with a hardened gaze that made the dragon king tense, before looking down at the designs on her seat “let me ask you this, if I do continue aiding this monk on the journey west and reach the Thunder monastery and get my reward, is it possible that I can find a way to change me back to how I was before?” the dragon king leaned back in his chair, thinking deeply before responding “if it’s the great Buddha that he wishes to meet, then i wouldn’t dare have any doubt that he could find a way to figure out a way to help you. but that’s only if you help protect the tang priest.”

wukong nodded in understanding, having finished her tea as she stood up “Enough said. I'll go back and look after him.” She replied, The dragon king was delighted. “In that case I won’t keep you. I ask you in your mercy not to leave your master waiting for long.” wukong nodded, being thus pressed to go, wukong left the sea palace, mounted her cloud, and took leave of the dragon king. On her way she met the Bodhisattva Guanyin. who was very displeased at hearing that she had abandoned her mission “sun wukong, why did you abandon that poor monk in his time of need?” wukong frantically bowed to her from their cloud, having a lot of respect for her, but she didn’t quite know why. and replied “my deepest apologies Bodhisattva, for a monk by the name Tripitaka that had freed me from my watery tomb had talked to me in such a way that it caused me to have a fit and abandon him, but now after talking with a dear friend of mine I'm going back to protect him.” quanyin smiled in relief as she nodded in understanding “Hurry up then, and don't have any more thoughts about leaving him you hear?” With that they each went their separate ways. A moment later wukong saw the Tang Priest sitting gloomily beside the path. She went up to him and asked “Why aren't you travelling, master? What are you still here for?” Tripitaka looked up in shock, which soon turned to anger as he stood up "Where have you been?" he asked. "I couldn't move without you, so I had to sit here and wait till you came back.”

"I went to visit the Old Dragon King of the Eastern Sea to ask him for some tea, and ended up getting some advice instead.” She replied, "Disciple, a religious person shouldn't tell lies. How can you say that you went to drink tea at the dragon king's place when you haven't been gone two hours?"

Wukong sighed, she always liked knowing more then everyone else, but this was getting kinda old, unlike her of course "I can tell you quite truthfully” she replied with a grin “that with my cloud that I can summon at will, I can cover thirty−six thousand miles without it taking any time at all. That's how I got there and back.”

Tripitaka shook his head, having to remind himself that he has to stop questioning these things and said “"When I spoke to you a little severely you resented it and went off in a huff, It was all right for a clever person like you−−you begged yourself some tea. But I couldn't go, and had to stay here hungry.” he spat while glaring at her.

"If you're hungry, master, I'll go and beg you some food.” wukong replied, Tripitaka only shook his head, the thick headed monkey not getting the point “No need.” he replied “there are still some dry provisions in my bundle that the high warden's mother gave me. Take that bowl and fetch some water. When we've eaten some of it we can be on our way.” Opening the bundle, Wukong found some scones made of coarse flour, which she took out and gave to her master. She also noticed the dazzling brocade tunic and the hat with inlaid golden patterns. "Did you bring this tunic and hat with you from the East?" She asked. Tripitaka had to make something up on the spot. “I used to wear that back when I lived in the tang empire before the journey, With that hat on, you can recite scriptures without ever having been taught, and if you wear that tunic you can perform the rituals without any practice.” he explained, hoping to the Buddha above that she somehow believed his lie.

Wukong’s eyes sparkled in fascination, which made Tripitaka sigh in relief “ OOOOOOOH DEAR MASTER, PLEASE LET ME WEAR THEM, THEY LOOK SO PRETTY!!” She pleaded, Tripitaka tried his best not to grin as he said “I don't know whether they'll fit you, but if you can get them on, you can wear them.” without pause wukong took off the light blue cotton tunic, her breasts bouncing at the movement, and put the brocade one on instead, and found that it was a fit just like the cotton tunic, with it covering her breasts perfectly and leaving her midsection bare. Then she put the hat on hee head. As soon as she had the hat on,Tripitaka stopped eating and recited the band tightening spell, "My head aches, my head aches!!” Wukong cried, but her master went on and recited the spell several times more. causing wukong to roll around on the ground in agony as she trampled nearby flowers and flattened rocks, tearing the hat to shreds. Tripitaka stopped reciting the spell for fear that he would kill her. The moment the spell stopped the pain went away, reaching up to feel her head, wukong found something like a golden wire clamped so tightly around it that she could not wrench or snap it off. It had already taken root there. She took the needle out of her ear, forced it inside the band, and pulled wildly at it as tears started to gather in her eyes in panic. Tripitaka, frightened that dhe might break it, started to recite the spell once more. The pain was so bad this time that Wukong stood on her head, turned somersaults, and went red in the face and ears as she continued to cry out in agony as her body went numb. Seeing the state she was in, Tripitaka had to stop, and the pain stopped too. “…Master,” wukong uttered as she got back on her feet, fat tears running down her face from pain and betrayal. “why did you put a curse on me to give me such a headache like that??” She asked.

“I didn't put a curse on you, I recited the Band−tightening Spell.” Tripitaka replied.

“"Say it again and see what happens” wukong said with a growl, and when Tripitaka did as asked, wukong’s head ached again "Stop, stop!!” She shouted, “the moment you started reciting it my head ached. Why did you do it?" She asked.

“Will you accept my instructions now?" Tripitaka asked.

“…yes” wukong replied.

"Will you misbehave again in future?"

“I certainly won’t if you use those weaponized words at me.” She muttered out.

Although she had made this verbal promise, she was still nurturing bad thoughts, and she shook their needle in the wind till it was as thick as a ricebowl. She then turned on the Tang Priest, and was on the point of finishing him off when the terrified Tripitaka recited the spell two or three more times. The golden furred monkey dropped her cudgel and fell to the ground, unable to raise her arm, "Master!!” She shouted “I’ve seen the light. Stop saying the spell, please stop!!”

"How could you have the perfidy to try to kill me?" Tripitaka asked.

“I'd never have dared” wukong lied, adding, "who taught you that spell, master?"

"An old lady I met just now," replied Tripitaka, wukong exploded in rage, her fur sticking up in all directions "Tell me no more." She said, "I'm sure and certain the old woman was that Guanyin. How could she do this to me? Just you wait. I'm going to the Southern Sea to kill her.” respect be damned, she was gonna make that Bodhisattva wish she’d never interfered. "As she taught me this spell.” Tripitaka replied "she's bound to know it herself. If you go after her and she recited it, that will be the end of you.” Seeing the force of his argument, Wukong changed her mind and gave up the idea of going. She knelt down and pleaded pitifully, "Master, she's used this to force me to go with you to the West. I shan't go to make trouble for her, and you must recite scriptures instead of saying that spell all the time. I promise to protect you, and I shall always be true to this vow.”

“In that case you'd better help me back on the horse” Tripitaka replied. Wukong, who had been plunged into despair at essentially being chained up like some lowly beast, summoned up her spirits, tightened the belt round her brocade tunic, got the horse ready, gathered up the luggage, and they hurried off towards the West. with bonds broken and trust lost.

————————————-

Wukong looked after the Tang Priest as they headed West. They had been travelling for several days in the twelfth month of the year, with its freezing North winds and biting cold. Their path wound along overhanging precipices and steep cliffs, and they crossed range after range of dangerous mountains. One day Tripitaka heard the sound of water as he rode along, and he turned around to shout “wukong, where’s that water coming from?”

“As I remember, this place is called Eagle's Sorrow Gorge in the Coiled Snake Mountain. It must be the water from the gorge.” Before she had finished speaking, the horse reached the edge of the gorge. Tripitaka looked in and saw a thin cold stream piercing the clouds, Deep, clear waves shining red in the sun. The sound shakes the night rain and is heard in the quiet valley, Its color throws up a morning haze that obscures the sky. A thousand fathoms of flying waves spit jade colored water, the torrent's roar howls in the fresh wind. The current leads to the misty waves of the sea, The egret and the cormorant never meet by a fisherman. As master and disciple watched they heard a noise in the gorge as a dragon emerged from the waves, leapt up the cliff, and grabbed at Tripitaka, in her alarm wukong dropped the luggage, lifted Tripitaka off the horse and swang him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, turned and fled. The dragon, unable to catch them up, swallowed the white horse, saddle and all, in a single gulp, then disappeared once more beneath the surface of the water. Once in the clear, Wukong sat her master down on a high peak and went back to fetch the horse and the luggage. When she found that the horse had gone and only the luggage was left, she carried the luggage up to her master and put it down before him. "Master" she said, "that damned dragon has disappeared without a trace. It gave our horse such a fright that it ran away.”

"However are we going to find the horse, disciple?" Tripitaka asked, wukong tried to ignore the feeling of hurt she felt at not being called by her name, but quickly recovered, knowing that as her master he is not and never will be her equal.

Even if she secretly wanted him to be.

"Don't worry, don't worry, wait here while I go and look for it.” She said as she waved their hand. She leapt into the sky while whistling. Putting up her hand to shade her fiery eyes with their golden pupils, she looked all around below them, but saw no sign of the horse. sighing in frustration, she put her cloud away and reported "Master, that horse of ours must have been eaten by the dragon−−I can't see it anywhere.” She replied, much to the monk’s horror. "Disciple!” Tripitaka protested, “how could that wretched creature have a mouth big enough to swallow a horse that size, saddle and all? I think the horse must have slipped its bridle in a panic and run into that valley. Go and have a more careful look.” he ordered, wukong flicked her ear in annoyance, before laughing hollowly "You don't know about my powers.” wukong replied, “These eyes of mine can see what's happening three hundred miles away, and within that range I can even spot a dragonfly spreading its wings. There's no way I could miss a big horse like that.”

“But we'll never get across those thousands of mountains and rivers!” Tripitaka whined, As he spoke, his tears fell like rain. The sight alone made wukong roll her eyes in annoyance, never in her long life has she met someone so easily inconvenienced, if he had been born a monkey back on flowers and fruit, he would have been kicked out the moment he started to whine. She’s been raised by multiple matriarch’s since she had joined the tribe shortly after her birth. they didn’t spare any patience for anyone ungrateful enough to make their problems anyone else’s besides their own. unless they were carrying a cub, so she had learned very quickly how to carry her own weight. so the sight of this monk, who had been given far more than anyone he came across without lifting a finger, crying because he lost a horse, which could easily be replaced, lit a fire in the golden furred monkey that burned brighter than an inferno, her fur flaring up as she said “Stop being such an imbecile master! Sit there and wait while I find that wretch and make him pay for eating our house-“

“You mustn't go!” Tripitaka pleaded while grabbing a hold of her, “I'm frightened that he'll come creeping out again and kill me this time. Then I'll be dead as well as the horse, and that would be terrible!” wukong only growled while showing her sharp teeth in warning, oh NOW you suddenly care about your life??? the go,den furred monkey thought to herself with distrain. roaring with a shout, wukong tried to kick him off from her leg, but he held firm “You're hopeless, absolutely hopeless. You want a horse to ride but you won't let me go. This way you'll be sitting there looking at the luggage for the rest of your pathetic life!!” She screamed, the monk only cried harder. As she was yelling ferociously in a flaming temper, a voice was heard in the sky that said “don’t be angry great sage, stop crying, younger brother of the Tang Emperor. We are gods sent by the Bodhisattva Guanyin to give hidden protection to the pilgrim who is fetching the scriptures.”

At these words Tripitaka finally let go of wukong’s leg and immediately bowed, while wukong redirected her snarling face in the direction of the voice “Tell me your names, you lot!” She demanded, We are the Six Dings, the Six Jias, the Revealers of the Truth of the Five Regions, the Four Duty Gods, and the Eighteen Protectors of the Faith. we shall take it in turns to be in attendance every day.”

Wukong straightened at the prospect of more help, that’s a lot of gods that are here to protect such a lowly mortal “Who starts today?” She asked, wanting to know when their supposed ‘protectors’ are going to show up “The Dings and Jias, the Four Duty Gods, and the Protectors of the Faith will take turns. Of the Revealers of the Five Regions, the Gold−headed Revealer will always be with you by day and by night.” well that’s good news at least, knowing that she at least has someone to aid in protecting the monk made her relax a bit, the fur on her body flattening back “Very well then.” wukong said, “for those of you who are not on duty may withdraw. The Six Ding Heavenly Generals, the Duty God of the Day, and the Revealers of the Truth will stay here to protect my master, while I shall go to find that evil dragon in the gorge and make him give our horse back, by force if I have to.” The gods all did as they were told, and Tripitaka, now greatly relieved, sat on the cliff and gave wukong detailed instructions. "There's no need for you to worry.” wukong replied as she tightened the belt round her brocade tunic, folded up her tiger−skin kilt, grasped her cudgel, went to the edge of the gorge, and stood amid clouds and mist above the water. "GIVE US BACK OUR HORSE YOU MUD LOACH, GIVE IT BACK OR I’LL GO IN THERE AND TWIST YOU INTO A THOUSAND KNOTS TO THE POINT YOU CAN’T MOVE!!” She roared in fury, now having gone completely feral at the thought that the cursed dragon had ingested the horse, which was their only way to travel west. and she would rather go through the bowels of hell then have Tripitaka riding on her shoulders, cause that’s only reserved for the baby monkeys on floor fruit mountain, and only them alone.

Now when the dragon had eaten Tripitaka’s white horse it lay low in the stream, hiding its miraculous powers and nourishing its vital nature. When it heard someone shouting and cursing it and demanding the horse back, it was unable to hold back its temper. Leaping up through the waves it asked, "How dare you make so free with your insults?!?” The moment she saw it, Wukong roared, “DON’T YOU EVEN THINK OF LEAVING, GIVE US OUR DAMN HORSE BACK YOU CRETIN!!” and swung her cudgel at the dragon’s head. Baring its fangs and waving its claws, the dragon went for her. The dragon stretched its sharp claws, while wukong raised her gold−banded cudgel. The beard of one hung in threads of white jade, The other's eyes flashed like golden lamps. The pearls in the dragon's beard gave off a coloured mist, while The iron club in the other's hands danced like a whirlwind. One was a wicked son who had wronged his parents. The mother and protector of flower fruit mountain, the supposed evil spirit who had worsted heavenly generals. Both had been through trouble and suffering, And now they were to use their abilities to win merit.

Coming and going, fighting and resting, wheeling and turning, they battled on for a very long time until the dragon’s strength was exhausted and his muscles numb. Unable to resist any longer, it turned around, dived into the water, and lay low at the bottom of the stream. It pretended to be deaf as the Monkey King cursed and railed at it, and did not emerge again. As hard as it was to admit, wukong could do nothing, so she had to report to the monk “Master, I swore at that ogre till it came out, and after fighting me for ages it fled in terror like a coward, unlike the fearless warriors from the deep sea that I know. It's now in the water and won't come out again.”

"Are you sure that it really ate our horse?" Tripitaka asked, I just freaking told you not a few hours ago that my sight is far superior to your fleshy mortal eyeballs, the golden furred monkey thought to herself in a mix of distrain and exhaustion. “What a thing to say!” She said, pretending that she didn’t feel the urge to strangle the life outta the monk, the only reason she didn’t was cause there were currently multiple godly spirits that were watching over him “If it hadn't eaten the horse, it wouldn't have dared to say a word or fight against me.”

"When you killed that tiger the other day you said you had ways of making dragons and tigers submit to you, so how come you couldn't beat this one today?" Wukong had never been able to stand provocation, so when Tripitaka mocked her this time she showed something of her divine might. “Say no more, say no more. I'll have another go at it and then we'll see who comes out on top!” wukong leapt to the edge of the ravine, and used a magical way of throwing rivers and seas into turmoil to make the clear waters at the bottom of the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge as turbulent as the waves of the Yellow River in spite. The dragon’s peace was disturbed as he lurked in the depths of the waters, and he thought, How true it is that blessings never come in pairs and troubles never come singly. Although I've been accepting my fate here for less than a year since I escaped the death penalty for breaking the laws of Heaven, I would have the utter misfortune of running into this murderous devil. The more he thought about it, the angrier he felt, and unable to bear the humiliation a moment longer he jumped out of the stream cursing, "Where are you from, you bloody devil, coming here to push me around!?"

Wukong tightened her grip on their cudgel, ready to beat this overgrown river snake black and blue. “Never mind where I'm from” Wukong replied. "I'll only spare your life if you give back that horse, or I’ll have to make you upchuck it myself.” She growled out, "That horse of yours is in my stomach, and I won’t sick it up even if you made me, I'm not giving it back, so what about it?” The dragon replied with a wicked grin that caused wukong’s blood to boil.

“If you won't give it back, then take this! I'm only killing you to make you pay for the horse's life!” the two of them began another bitter struggle under the mountain, and before many rounds were up the little dragon could hold out no longer. With a shake of his body he turned himself into a water−snake and slithered into the undergrowth. Wukong let out a rage filled roar and chased after it with her cudgel in her hands, but when she pushed the grass aside to find the snake, She uttered the magic word om, thus calling out the local tutelary god and the god of the mountain, who both knelt before her and reported their arrival. "Put out your ankles” wukong demanded “while I give you five strokes each of my cudgel to work off my temper!” The two gods kowtowed and pleaded pitifully, "We beg the Great Sage to allow us petty gods to report.”

"What have you got to say?" Wukong asked "We didn't know when you emerged after your long sufferings, Great Sage.” they said, "which is why we didn't come to meet you. We beg to be forgiven.” wukong let out a chuckle, glad to finally be shown some respect. "In that case…” wukong began "I won't beat you, but I'll ask you this instead: where does that devil dragon in the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge come from, and why did he grab my master's white horse and eat it?" the two tutelary gods looked at each other, before looking back at the monkey in confusion "Great Sage, you never had a master.” said the two gods, "and you were a supreme Immortal with an undisturbed essence who would not submit to Heaven or Earth, so how does this master's horse come in?”

Wukong growled “OKAY FIRST OF ALL, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “WERE”?? I CAN STILL BEAT UP A THOSEND DEMONS WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND MY BACK. and secondly, You two don't know a damn thing.” wukong replied “Because of that business of offending against Heaven, I had to suffer in this watery pillar that suffocated me for five hundred years, and only got out a few days ago thanks to this monk, so as thanks I decided to aid him on the journey to the west to visit the Buddha and retrieve the scriptures, not that it’s any of your business, I just want you to know that I’m not doing this cause I was forced to. As we were passing this way we lost my master’s white horse.” "Ah, so that's what's happening…” the gods said. "There never used to be any evil creatures in the stream, which ran wide and deep with water so pure that crows and magpies never dared to fly across it. This was because they would mistake their own reflections in it for other birds of their own kind and often go plummeting into the water. That's why it's called Eagle's Sorrow Gorge.”

Wukong laughed at the mental image, glad that she’s smart enough not to mistake a measly reflection in the water for her own kind, the gods continued “Last year, when the Bodhisattva Guanyin was on her way to find a man to fetch the scriptures, she rescued a jade dragon and sent it to wait here for the pilgrim without getting up to any trouble. But when it's hungry it comes up on the bank to catch a few birds or a roedeer to eat. We can't imagine how it could be so ignorant as to clash with the Great Sage.”

Yeah, I sure as hell hope they wouldn’t. “The first time he and I crossed swords we whirled around for a few rounds.” wukong replied, “the second time I swore at him but he wouldn't come out, so I stirred up his stream with a spell to throw rivers and seas into turmoil, after which he came out and wanted to have another go at me. He didn't realize how heavy my cudgel was, and he couldn't parry it, so he changed himself into a water snake and slithered into the undergrowth. I chased him and searched for him, but he's vanished without a trace.”

"Great Sage, you may not be aware of this but there are thousands of interconnected tunnels in this ravine, which is why the waters here run so deep. There is also a tunnel entrance round here that he could have slipped into. There's no need for you to be angry, Great Sage, or to search for it. If you want to catch the creature, all you have to do is to ask Guanyin to come here, and it will naturally submit.”

….naturally they say, wukong thought bitterly. of all the Solutions that had to come, why did it have to be to ask the bodhisattva that was the one that had taught the monk the band tightening spell? Nonetheless, after telling the local deity and the mountain god to come with her to see Tripitaka and tell him all about what had happened previously. "If you go to ask the Bodhisattva to come here, Tripitaka asked, adding, "I'm terribly cold and hungry” Wukong once again rolled her eyes in annoyance. Before she could speak, they heard the voice of the Gold−headed Revealer shouting from the sky, "Great Sage, there's no need for you to move. I'll go and ask the Bodhisattva to come here.” wukong, who was delighted, replied “ thank you very much, please be as quick as you can.” the Revealer then shot off on his cloud to the Southern Sea. wukong than told the mountain god and the local deity to protect her master, and sent the Duty God of the Day to find some vegetarian food, while she patrolled the edge of the ravine.

The moment the Gold−headed Revealer mounted his cloud he reached the Southern Sea in seconds. Putting away his propitious glow, he went straight to the Purple Bamboo Grove on the island of Potaraka, where he asked the Golden Armour Devas and Moksa to get him an audience with the Bodhisattva. "What have you come for?" the Bodhisattva asked. "The Tang Priest," the Revealer replied, "has lost his horse in the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge, and the Great Sage Sun Wukong is desperate, because they can neither go forward nor back. When the Great Sage asked the local deity she was told that the evil dragon you sent to the ravine, Bodhisattva, had swallowed it, so she has sent me to ask you to subdue this dragon and make it give back the horse.”

Guanyin let out an earth shattering sigh, covering her face with her hands while moska patted her shoulder. before straightening up with a frustrated look on her face, her hair somewhat disheveled “That wretched creature was the son of Ao Run, the Dragon King of the Western Sea, whom his father reported for disobedience when he burned the palace jewels. The heavenly court condemned him to death for it, but I went to see the Jade Emperor and asked him to send the dragon down to serve the Tang Priest as a beast of burden. Whatever made it actually eat the Tang Priest's horse? I'd better go and look into it.” the Bodhisattva descended from her lotus throne, left her magic cave, and crossed the Southern Sea, travelling on propitious light with the Revealer. Honey is in the Buddha's words that fill Three Stores of scripture, The Bodhisattva's goodness is longer than the Great Wall. The wonderful words of the Mahayana fill Heaven and Earth, The truth of the prajna rescues ghosts and souls.

It even made the Golden Cicada shed his cocoon once more, And ordered Xuanzang to continue cultivating his conduct. Because the road was difficult at the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge, The dragon's son returned to the truth and changed into a horse. The Bodhisattva and the Revealer reached the Coiled Snake Mountain before long, and stopping their cloud in mid−air they looked down and saw wukong cursing and shouting at the edge of the ravine. When the bodhisattva told him to call wukong over, the Revealer brought his cloud to land at the edge of the ravine. Instead of going to Tripitaka first. he said to the demoness, “The Bodhisattva's here.”

Wukong immediately leapt straight into the air on her cloud and shouted at her at the top of their voice, "Teacher of the Seven Buddhas, merciful head of our religion, why did you think up this way of hurting me?!" to this quanyin sighed, knowing why the golden monkey was in such a fuss, “to tell you the truth, when I had the tang priest set out on the journey west, I knew that you were the perfect candidate to help protect him traveling west, what I didn’t take into consideration was how stubborn both you and the monk are, I’m deeply sorry, for I had to teach Tripitaka the band tightening spell so you don’t end up killing anyone innocent.” she replied.

Wukong bowed her head in respect “I thank you for having such faith in me. but I don’t understand how I have to wear this band of shame.” to this Guanyin smiled “ it’s cause you don't obey the commands of the faith, and you won't accept the true reward, so I’m afraid that if you weren't under control like this you might rebel against Heaven again or get up to any kind of mischief, If you got yourself into trouble as you did before, who would look after you? Without this violent mindset you have you'd never be willing to enter our Yogacatin faith.”

“….very well, let’s say I do have a tendency to cause violence.” wukong replied, “But why did you send that criminal and evil dragon to become a monster here and eat my master's horse? Letting evil creatures out to run is a bad deed.”

"I personally asked the Jade Emperor to put the dragon here as a mount for the pilgrim.” said the Bodhisattva. "Do you think an ordinary horse would be able to cross the thousands of mountains and rivers to reach the Buddha−land on the Vulture Peak? Only a dragon horse will be able to do it.”

"But he's so afraid of me that he's skulking down there and won't come out, so what's to be done?" Wukong asked, The Bodhisattva told the Revealer to go to the edge of the ravine and shout, "Come out, Prince Jade Dragon, son of the Dragon King Ao Run, to see the Bodhisattva of the Southern Sea.” after which the offspring would emerge. The Revealer went to the edge of the gorge and shouted this twice, immediately the young dragon leapt up through the waves, took human form, settled down atop a cloud comprised of aqua mist, the dragon prince was actually quite young, with long white hair that went down his waist, with a green stripe stretched above his brow. and greeted the Bodhisattva in mid−air. “In my gratitude to you, Bodhisattva, for saving my life, I have been waiting here for a long time, but I have had no news yet of the pilgrim who is going to fetch the scriptures.” The Bodhisattva pointed to wukong and said “Isn't she the pilgrim's great disciple?" the dragon looked at the monkey demoness and growled, showing his sharp teeth, while wukong showed hers “That cursed demoness is my enemy," the young dragon replied “I ate her horse yesterday because I was starving, so she used some powers of hers to fight me till I returned exhausted and terrified, then swore at me so that I had to shut myself in, too frightened to come out. She never said a word about anyone fetching scriptures.”

Wukong straighted up as everyone glared at her, saying “You never asked me my name, so how could I have told you?" She retorted, Guanyin just sighed as she placed her face in her hands, the dragon continued "I asked you 'Where are you from, you bloody devil?' and you yelled, 'Never mind where I'm from, and give me back that horse.' You never so much as breathed the word 'Tang'."

“Wukong! you are so proud of your own strength that you never have a good word for anyone else!” Said the bodhisattva, wukong only crossed her arms with a pout. She continued “There will be others who join you later on your journey, and when they ask you any questions, the first thing you must mention is fetching the scriptures. If you do that, you'll have their help without any trouble at all.” upon hearing this, Wukong was happy to accept instruction from her. The Bodhisattva then went forward, broke off some of the pearls from the dragon's head, soaked the end of her willow twig in the sweet dew in her bottle, sprinkled it on the dragon's body, and breathed on it with magic breath, and the dragon turned into the exact likeness of the white horse. "You must concentrate on wiping out your past sins” she told him, "and when you have succeeded, you will rise above ordinary dragons and be given back your golden body as a reward.” The young dragon took the bit between his teeth, and her words to heart. The Bodhisattva told Sun Wukong to take him to see Tripitaka, as she was returning to the Southern Sea wukong clung to her, refusing to let her go. "I'm not going," she said, "I'm not going. If the journey to the West is as tough as this, I can't possibly keep this mortal priest safe, and if there are many such trials and tribulations, I'll have an even harder time keeping him safe. How can I ever achieve any reward? I'm not going, I'm not going.”

Guanyin gave her a sad smile, knowing that she didn’t really have much of a choice. “In the old days, before you had traveled far from your home to learn the secret to immortality, and came in contact with humans for the first time, you found out that you were much unlike anyone else, even now you don’t know why.” the Bodhisattva replied “but you were determined to find a way to fit in by dressing and learning how to act how they wanted you to, you were also prepared to work on your awakening with all your power. But now that you have been delivered from Heaven−sent to calamity, you have forgotten why you were working so hard in the first place, In our faith, to achieve nirvana you must believe in good rewards. If you meet with injury or suffering in future, you have only to call on Heaven and Earth for them to respond; and if you get into a really hopeless situation I shall come to rescue you myself. Come over here so I can give you another gift.” wukong hesitantly walked over as she reached in herself and brought out a hanfu, the top was colored a dark pink, while the skirt was black with a red tie wrapped around it, the outfit had wukong’s eyes sparkling as she took it and put it on, smiling as she felt the soft fabric brush against her skin, moving their long shirt around in glee, she found that the motion gave them a certain type of euphoria. Quanyin only smiled, glad that the golden monkey could feel the same way she did when she transitioned. But then Wukong suddenly stopped and looked up at her quizzically. “I’m deeply grateful that you have given me this, but if I may ask, why? i did make a mistake by not telling the dragon prince about the scriptures.''

Quanyin only gave her a smile as she plucked three leaves from her willow twig, put them on the back of her head, uttered a chant, in which they turned into three life−saving hairs. "When the time comes and nobody else will help you.” she said, "they will turn into whatever is needed to save you from disaster.”

After hearing all these fine words, wukong finally took her leave of the All−merciful Bodhisattva, who went back to Potaraka amidst scented breezes and coloured mists. Wukong brought her cloud down to land, and led the dragon horse by the mane to see Tripitaka, who gave the golden monkey a weird look at her sudden wardrobe change, "Master" she said “we've got our horse!” She said happily, Tripitaka cheered up the moment he saw it, but then grew curious about her new attire “say wukong, where ever did you get that hanfu from? we are in the middle of nowhere without a spot of land to mark a house or hut.”

Wukong grew nervous upon this question, not wanting to say that she had been given it by the bodhisattva Guanyin, he never would believe her, so she came up with a lie on the spot “Oh this? i just found it somewhere while looking for our horse, it didn’t seem to belong to anyone so I took it.” Tripitaka narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but just shook his head, much to wukong’s relief whileao lie gave the demoness a flat look.

Upon Tripitaka walking up to the horse, he noticed an odd detail "Why is it sturdier than it was before?" he asked. "Where did you find it?"

"Master, you must have been dreaming. The Golden−headed Revealer asked the Bodhisattva to come here, and she turned the dragon in the gorge into our white horse. The coloring is the same, but it hasn't got a saddle or a birdie, which is why I had to drag it here.” Tripitaka was astounded “Where's the Bodhisattva? I must go and worship her.”

"She's back in the Southern Sea by now, so don't bother.” wukong replied with a wave of her hand, Tripitaka then took a pinch of earth as if he were burning incense, knelt down, and bowed to the South. When he had finished he got up and helped Wukong put their things together for the journey while Wukong dismissed the mountain god and the local deity, gave orders to the Revealer and the Duty Gods, and invited her master to mount the horse. though he was hesitant to do so, "I couldn't possibly ride it−−it's got no saddle or bridle,” her master replied, "but we can sort this out when we've found a boat to ferry us across the stream” wukong just gave the monk a look “Master, you seem to have no common sense at all. Where will a boat be found in these wild mountains? This dragon horse has lived here for a long time and is bound to know about the currents, so you can ride him and use him as your boat.” Tripitaka had no choice but to do as Wukong suggested and ride the horse bareback to the edge of the stream while wukong carried the luggage. An aged fisherman appeared upstream, punting a raft along with the current. As soon as he saw him, Wukong waved her hand and shouted, "Come here, fisherman, come here. We're from the East, and we're going to fetch the scriptures. My master is having some trouble crossing the river, so come and ferry him over!” The fisherman punted towards them with all speed, while Wukong asked Tripitaka to dismount and helped him onboard the raft. Then she led the horse on and loaded the luggage, afterwards the demoness didn’t hesitate to leap on top of ao lie’s pure white back and guided the horse dragon into the stream. Ao lies legs were strong enough to withstand the strength of the current, along with the weight of the monkey demoness. after which the fisherman pushed off from the edge of the stream and started punting with the speed of an arrow. Before they realized it they had crossed the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge and were on the Western bank.

When Tripitaka told wukong to open the bundle and find a few Great Tang coins and notes to give the fisherman, the old man pushed his raft off from the shore with the words, “I don't want your money, I don't want your money.” and drifted off into mid−stream. Leaving Tripitaka most upset while wukong gave the fisherman a weird and mildly upset look. the monk could do nothing except put his hands together and thank him. “There's no need to thank him, master,” when the monk gave the demoness a curious look, Wukong continued, “Can't you see who he is? He's the water god of this stream, and I should be giving him a beating for not coming to welcome me. He should consider himself lucky to get off the beating−−how could he possibly expect money too?" Tripitaka laughed lightly, who was only half−convinced by the demonesses words, mounted the saddleless horse once more and followed Wukong to join the main path. and hurried on towards the West. The great truth landed on the opposite bank, The sincere heart and complete nature climbed Vulture Peak. As disciple and master went forward together, the sun slipped down in the West and evening drew in. Pale and ragged clouds, the moon dim over the mountains as the cold frost fills the heavens, And the wind's howl cuts through the body. With the lone bird gone, the grey island seems vast. Where the sunset glows, the distant mountains are low. In the sparse forests a thousand trees moan, On the deserted peak a lonely ape screams. Wukong screams back to assert dominance and it grows quiet, The path is long, and bears no footprints, As the boat sails thousands of miles into the night.

As Tripitaka was gazing into the distance from the back of his horse, he noticed a farmhouse beside the path. “Wukong.” he said, "let's spend the night in the house ahead of us and go on in the morning.” wukong looked up, seeming to have read his mind and replied “Master, it's not a farm−house.”

“How so?” he asked, “A farmhouse wouldn't have all those decorative fishes and animals on the roof.if it’s not that then It must be a temple or a nunnery.” As they were talking they reached the gate, and when Tripitaka dismounted he saw the words TEMPLE OF THE WARD ALTAR written in large above the gate and went inside. Here an old man with a rosary of pearls hanging round his neck came out to meet them with his hands held together and the words, "Please sit down, master.” Tripitaka quickly returned his courtesies and entered the main building to pay his respects to the divine image. The old man told a servant to bring tea, and when that had been drunk Tripitaka asked the old man why the temple was dedicated to the ward altar. “This place is in the territory of the Western land of Kami.” the old man replied, "and behind the temple lives the devout farm family which built it. 'Ward' means the ward of a village, and the altar is the altar of the local tutelary deity. At the time of the spring ploughing, the summer weeding, the autumn harvest, and the storing away in winter they all bring meat, flowers, and fruit to sacrifice to the altar. They do this to ensure good fortune throughout the four seasons, a rich crop of the five grains, and good health for the six kinds of livestock.”

Upon hearing this Tripitaka said in approval, "How true it is that 'Go three miles from home, and you're in another land’ We have nothing as good as this in our country.” The old man then asked him where his home was. "I come from the land of the Great Tang in the East.” Tripitaka replied, "and I have imperial orders to go to the Western Heaven to worship the Buddha and ask for the scriptures. As our journey brought us this way and it is almost night, we have come to this holy temple to ask for a night's lodging. We shall set off at dawn.” the old man, who was very pleased to hear this, apologized profusely for having failed in his hospitality and told the servant to prepare a meal. When Tripitaka had eaten he thanked the old man. While the two men were talking, wukong’s sharp eyes had noticed a clothesline under the eaves of the building. She went over, tore it down, and hobbled the horse with it. "Where did you steal that horse from?" the old man asked with a smile. "You don't know what you're talking about.” wukong said while giving the old man a steely eyed glare, not happy at being accused of stealing something if she didn’t steal it. “We're holy monks going to visit the Buddha, so how could we possibly steal a horse?” She asked as they leaned against ao lie, who at this point was completely tuning out the current conversation, since it had nothing to do with him. “If you didn't steal it," the old man continued, the smile still on his lips, "then why do you have to break my clothesline because it's got no saddle, bridle or reins?" Tripitaka apologized for wukong and said to him, "You're too impatient, wukong. You could have asked the old gentleman for a piece of rope to tether the horse with. There was no need to snap his clothesline. Please don't be suspicious, sir.” Tripitaka went on with a nervous smile, addressing the old man. "This horse isn't stolen, I can assure you. When we reached the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge yesterday I was riding a white horse complete with saddle and bridle. We did not know that there was an evil dragon in the stream who had become a spirit, and this dragon swallowed my horse saddle, bridle and all, in a single gulp. Luckily this disciple of mine has certain powers, and she brought the Bodhisattva Guanyin to the side of the gorge, where she caught the dragon and changed it into a white horse, exactly like the original one, to carry me to the Western Heaven to visit the Buddha. It's been less than a day from when we crossed that stream to when we reached your holy shrine, sir, and we haven't yet saddle or bridle for it.”

"Please don't be angry, Kind monk, I was only joking.” the old man replied. "I never thought your respected disciple would take such offense to it. When I was young I had a bit of money, and I was fond of riding a good horse, but many years of troubles and bereavement have taken the fire out of me, and I've come to this miserable end as a sacristan looking after the incense. Luckily the benefactor who owns the farm behind here provides me with the necessities of life. As it happens, I still have a saddle and bridle−−I was so fond of them in the old days that I have never been able to bring myself to sell them, poor as I am. Now that I have heard, venerable master, how the Bodhisattva saved the divine dragon and changed it into a horse to carry you, I feel that I must help too, so I shall bring that saddle and bridle out tomorrow for you to ride on. I beg you to be gracious enough to accept them.”

Tripitaka thanked him effusively. The servant boy had by now produced the evening meal, and when it was over they spread out their bedding, lamp in hand, and all went to sleep. When wukong got up the next morning she said, "Master, that old sacristan promised us the saddle and bridle last night. You must insist and not let him off.” Before the words were out of their mouth, the old man appeared with the saddle and bridle in his hands, as well as saddle−cloth, saddle−pad, reins, muzzle and all the other trappings for a horse. Nothing was missing As he put it all down in front of the verandah he said, "Master, I humbly offer this saddle and bridle” when Tripitaka saw them he accepted them with delight. Then he told wukong to put them on the dragon horse to see if they fit him. Wukong went over and picked them up to look at them one by one, The well−carved saddle shines with silver stars, The jeweled stirrups gleam with golden light. Several layers of saddle−pads are made from wool, The lead−rope is plaited from purple silk.The reins are inlaid with flashing flowers, The blinkers have dancing animals outlined in gold. The bit is made of tempered steel, And woollen tassels hang from either end.

Wukong, who was secretly very pleased, put the saddle and bridle on the dragon horse and found that they fit as if they had been made to measure. Tripitaka knelt and bowed to the old man in thanks, at which the old man rushed forward and said, "No, no, how could I allow you to thank me?" The old man did not try to keep them a moment longer, and made Tripitaka mount the horse. When he was out of the gate Tripitaka limbed into the saddle, while wukong carried the luggage. The old man then produced a whip from his sleeve and offered it to Tripitaka as he stood beside the road. Its handle was of rattan bound with leather, and its thong of tiger sinew bound at the end with silk. “Holy monk.” he said “I would also like to give you this as you leave.” as Tripitaka took it sitting on horseback, he thanked the old man for his generosity

As Tripitaka was on the point of clasping his hands together to take his leave of him, the old man disappeared, and on turning round to look at the temple, the monk could see nothing but a stretch of empty land. He heard a voice saying in the sky, "Holy monk, we have been very abrupt with you. We are the mountain god and the local deity of Potaraka Island, and we were sent by the Bodhisattva Guanyin to give you the saddle and bridle. You two are now to make for the West as fast as you can, and not to slacken your pace for a moment.”

Tripitaka tumbled out of the saddle in a panic, and worshipped the heavens, saying, "My eyes of flesh and my mortal body prevented me from recognizing you, noble gods; forgive me, I beg you. Please convey my gratitude to the Bodhisattva for her mercy.” as he kept on kowtowing wukong just looked down at him with amusement before she went over and tugged at the Tang Priest. “Master” she said “get up. They’re already much too far away to hear your prayers or see your kowtows, so why ever are you doing that?"

"Disciple!” Tripitaka replied with a gasp, "what do you mean by standing beside the path sneering at me and not even making a single bow while I've done all those kowtows?"

Caaaaaaauuuuse I’m better than them in every conceivable way??? “You don't know anything.” wukong states with a shake of her head “A deceitful pair like that deserve a thrashing. I let them off out of respect for the Bodhisattva. That's quite enough, they couldn't expect me to bow to them too, could they? I've been a tough monkey since I was a cub, and I don't plan on bowing down to anyone. Even when I meet the Jade Emperor or the Supreme Lord Lao Zi I just chant a 'na−a−aw' and that's all.”

"You inhuman beast!” Tripitaka sneered “stop talking such nonsense. Get moving, and don't hold us up a moment longer.” with that Tripitaka rose to his feet and they set off to the West. The next two months' journey was peaceful, and they only met Luo Luos, Hooihuis, wolves, monsters, tigers, and leopards. The time passed quickly, and it was now early spring. They saw mountains and forests clad in emerald brocade as plants and trees put out shoots of green; and when all the plum blossoms had fallen, the willows started coming into leaf. Master and disciple traveled along enjoying the beauties of spring, and they saw that the sun was setting in the West. Tripitaka reined in his horse to look into the distance, and in the fold of a mountain he dimly discerned towers and halls.

"Wukong," he said, "can you see if there's anywhere we can go there?" Wukong looked and said, "It must be a temple or a monastery. Let's get there quickly and spend the night there.” Tripitaka willingly agreed, and giving his dragon horse a free rein he galloped towards it. Hall upon hall, Cloister after cloister. Beyond the triple gates, countless coloured clouds are massed. Before the Hall of Five Blessings Coil a thousand wisps of red mist. Two rows of pine and bamboo, A forest of locust and cypress trees. The two rows of pine and bamboo are ageless in their elegant purity, The forest of locust and cypress trees has color and beauty. In peaceful mediation the monks make firm their natures, As birds sing in the trees outside. Tripitaka dismounted while wukong laid down her burden, and they were just on the point of going in when a crowd of monks came out. On their heads they wore hats pinned on the left, On their bodies were clothes of purity. And silken belts were tied around their waists. Slowly they walked on sandals of straw, As they held wooden clappers in their hands. With their mouths they were always chanting their devotion to the Wisdom.

When Tripitaka saw them he stood respectfully beside the gate and greeted them. A monk hastily returned his greeting and apologized for not noticing them before. "Where are you from?" he asked, "please come to the abbot's rooms and have some tea."
"I have been sent from the East on an imperial mission to worship the Buddha in the Thunder Monastery and ask for the scriptures” Tripitaka replied, "and as it is almost night we would like to ask for a night's lodging now that we are here.”

"Come inside and sit down.” the monk said. When Tripitaka told Wukong to lead the horse over, the monk was frightened at the sudden sight of them and asked, "What's that demoness doing leading the horse?"

Tripitaka quickly looked behind him to see if wukong had heard him, but was greatly relieved when he saw the monkey was running her fingers though ak lie’s hair, undoing knots and picking up bugs and eating them. Ao lie meanwhile was secretly pleased at having his mane cleaned, but outwardly showed his displeasure at being treated like some sort of primate. turning back around, Tripitaka said in a hushed voice “Keep your voice down, keep your voice down. She has a quick temper and if she hears you showing her such disrespect, she'll be furious. She’s my disciple.”

Upon finding out that he had taken a demoness as a disciple, The monk shuddered and bit his finger as he remarked, “fancy taking a monstrous beast like that as a disciple.” he said, Tripitaka gave the monk a disapproving look and said "She may not look it, but as monstrous and terrifying as she looks, she has her uses'.' unfortunately the monk didn’t seem to see it that way, but had no choice but to go through the monastery gate with Tripitaka and Wukong, who was leading ao lie by the birdie, and inside they saw the words CHAN MONASTERY OF GUANYIN written in large letters on the main hall, Tripitaka was delighted, while wukong just looked up unfazed, stating “well, this is certainly convenient.”

"I have often been the grateful beneficiary of the Bodhisattva's divine mercy!” Tripitaka exclaimed, "but I have not yet been able to kowtow to her in thanks. To worship her in this monastery will be just as good as seeing her in person.” Upon hearing this, the monk, ordering a lay brother to open the doors, invited Tripitaka to go in and worship. while wukong just rolled her eyes as she tethered the horse, put the luggage down, and went up into the hall with the monk, who prostrated himself and put her head on the floor before the golden statue. When the monk went to beat the drum, wukong started striking the bell. Tripitaka lay before the image, praying with all his heart, and when he had finished the monk stopped beating the drum. Wukong, however, was so engrossed in striking the bell, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, that she went on for a long time. being a monkey, she loved the sound of loud noises.

"He's finished his devotions," a lay brother said, "so what are you still beating the bell for?" Wukong threw down the bell hammer and said with a grin, "You're ignorant, aren't you? 'Whoever is a monk for a day strikes the bell for a day' that's me.” By this point all the monks in the monastery, senior and junior, as well as the abbot and his assistant, had been so startled by the wild noises from the bell that they all came crowding out to ask what savage was making such a din with the bell and drum. wukong jumped out and cursed at them “I, sun wukong, great sage equal to heaven, was just having some fun.” All the monks collapsed with shock at the sight of seeing a simian demoness in their domain as they knelt on the ground, “Lord Thunder god, Lord Thunder God!” wukong just rolled her eyes at this display “I’m no thunder god, my name is sun wukong, and I would prefer to be greeted as such. Get up, get up, you've nothing to fear. I'm a lord from the land of the Great Tang empire in the East.” The monks all bowed to her, and could not feel easy until Tripitaka appeared.

“Please come and drink tea in my rooms.” said the abbot of the monastery. The horse was unloaded and led off, while they went round the main hall to a room at the back where they sat down according to their seniority. The abbot gave them tea and arranged for food to be brought, and after the meal it was still early. As Tripitaka was expressing his thanks, two servant boys appeared behind them supporting an aged monk. He had a Vairocana miter on his head topped with a gleaming cat's−eye jewel. On his body a gown of brocade, edged with gold−mounted kingfisher feathers. A pair of monkish shoes studded with the Eight Treasures, with a walking stick inlaid with Clouds and stars. A face covered with wrinkles, Like the Old Goddess of Mount Li. A pair of purblind eyes, Like the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. His mouth can't keep out the wind as his teeth have gone. his back is bent for his muscles are stiff.

“The Patriarch has come.” the monks all said, Tripitaka bowed low to him in greeting and said, "Your disciple pays his respects, venerable abbot." The aged monk returned his greeting and they both sat down. “The youngsters have just told me that gentlemen have come from the Tang Empire in the East.” he said “so I have come out to see you.”

"Please forgive us for blundering into your monastery so rudely.” Tripitaka replied while glancing next to him to give wukong a heated glare, wukong avoiding his gaze while whistling innocently "Don't put it like that," the aged monk said, going on to ask, "How long a journey is it from the Eastern lands to here?"

"It was over sixteen hundred miles from Chang'an to the Double Boundary valley, where I took on this disciple.” he replied as he gestured to wukong “We traveled on together through the land of Kami, and as that took two months we must have covered getting on for another two thousand miles before reaching here.”

“Over three thousand miles” breathed the aged monk “I have spent a life of piety and have never been outside the monastery gates, so you could really say that I have been 'looking at heaven from the bottom of a well,' and call mine a wasted life.” he sighed. “How great is your age, venerable abbot?" Tripitaka asked, “In my stupid way I have lived to be two hundred and seventy.” the monk replied. "Then you're my ten−thousandth−great grandson” wukong joked, Tripitaka whipped around to give her another glare "Talk properly. Don't be so disrespectful and rude.”

"How old are you, madam?” the monk asked, wukong gave the old man a sly grin filled with sharp teeth in warning. doesn’t this man know not to ask someone their age? It's rude. “I don't venture to mention it.” The aged monk then thought that the demoness must have been raving, so he put the matter out of his mind, and said no more about it, and ordered tea to be brought for them. A young page brought in three cloisonne teacups on a jade tray the color of mutton fat, and another carried in a white alloy teapot from which he poured out three cups of fragrant tea. It had a better color than pomegranate blossom, and its aroma was finer than cassia. When Tripitaka saw all this he was full of praise. “What splendid things," he said, "what splendid things. Wonderful tea in wonderful vessels!”

“They're not worth looking at," the old monk replied. "After all, sir, you come from a superior and heavenly court, and have seen many rare things in your wide travels, so how can you give such exaggerated praise to things like that? What treasures did you bring with you from your superior country that I could have a look at?”

"I'm afraid our Eastern land has no great treasures, and even if it did, I would have been unable to bring them on so long a journey.” then wukong jumped as she remembered something, “Master, isn't that cassock I saw in our bundle the other day a treasure? Why don't I take it out for him to see?" When the monks heard him mention the cassock, they smiled sinisterly. "What are you smiling at?" Wukong asked, looking at them with suspicion “We thought it was very funny when you said that a cassock was a treasure” the abbot of the monastery replied, “A priest of my rank has two or three dozen, and our Patriarch, who has been a monk here for two hundred and fifty or sixty years, has seven or eight hundred." He ordered them to be brought out and displayed. The old monk, who was also in on the game, told the lay brothers to open the store−rooms, while friars carried twelve chests out into the courtyard, and unlocked them. Then they set up clothes frames, put rope all around, shook the cassocks open one by one, and hung them up for Tripitaka to see. Indeed, the whole building was full of brocade, and the four walls were covered with silk.

Wukong examined them one by one and saw that some were made of brocade and some were embroidered with gold. Growling at the prospect of being outdone, she said "Enough, enough, enough," the demoness said. "Put them away, put them away. I'll bring ours out for you that will outdo all of these combined!” Upon seeing wukong getting increasingly riled up, Tripitaka drew her aside and whispered to them, "Wukong, never try to compete with other people's wealth, you and I are alone in this foreign land, and I'm afraid that there may be trouble” wukong only gave him an amused look, not really seeing a problem. “What trouble can come from letting him look at the cassock?" Wukong asked, Tripitaka repressed the urge to run his hand down his face in exasperation “You don't understand, The ancients used to say, 'Don't let greedy and treacherous men see rare or amusing things.' If he lays his eyes on it, his mind will be disturbed, and if his mind is disturbed, he's bound to start scheming. If you were cautious, you would only have let him see it if he'd insisted; but as it is, this is no trifling matter, and may well be the end of us.”

"Don't worry, don't worry” wukong said, “I'll look after everything” without another word of argument she rushes off and opens the bundle, which is already giving off a radiant glow. It still had two layers of oiled paper round it, and when she removed it to take out the cassock and shake it open the hall was bathed in red light and clouds of coloured vapours filled the courtyard. When the monks saw it their hearts were filled with delight and their mouths with praise. It really was a fine cassock. Hung with pearls of unrivalled quality, Studded with Buddhist treasures infinitely rare. Above and below a dragon beard sparkles, On grass−cloth edged with brocade. If it is worn, all demons are extinguished, when donned it sends all monsters down to hell. It was made by the hands of heavenly Immortals, And none but a true monk should dare put it on.

When the aged monk saw how rare a treasure it was, his heart was indeed disturbed. He went up to Tripitaka and knelt before him. "My fate is indeed a wretched one," he lamented, tears pouring down his cheeks. The monk helped him to his feet again and asked, "Why do you say that, venerable patriarch?"

"You have unfolded this treasure of yours, sir.” the aged monk replied, "when it is already evening, so that my eyes are too dim to see it clearly. That is why I say my fate is wretched.”

"Send for a candle and take another look.” Tripitaka suggested. "My lord, your precious cassock is already shining brightly, so I don't think I would see more distinctly even if a candle were lit." replied the aged monk. "How would you like to look at it then?" Tripitaka asked. "If, sir, you were in your mercy to set aside your fears and let me take it to my room to examine it closely during the night, I will return it to you in the morning to take to the West. What do you say to that?" This request startled Tripitaka, who grumbled as the monk whipped his head around to face wukong “see!? This is why you shouldn’t have shown the cassock. This is all your fault!”

"He's nothing to be frightened of.” Wukong replied with a grin. "I'll pack it up and tell him to take it away to look at. If anything goes wrong, I'll be responsible." As there was nothing he could do to stop them, with a heavy sigh, Tripitaka handed the cassock to the old monk with the words, “I'll let you take it, but you must give it back to me tomorrow morning in the condition it's in now. I won't have you getting it at all dirty.” The old monk gleefully told a page to take the cassock to his room, and instructed the other monks to sweep out the front meditation hall, move two rattan beds in, spread out the bedding on them, and invite the two gentlemen to spend the night there. he also arranged for them to be given breakfast and seen off the next morning. Then everyone went off to bed. Tripitaka and his disciple shut the doors of the meditation hall and went to sleep. After the old monk had tricked them into giving him the cassock, he held it under the lamp in the back room as he wept and wailed over it. This so alarmed the monks that none of them dared go to sleep before he did. The young page, not knowing what to do, went to tell the other monks, "Grandad's still crying although it's getting on for eleven." Two junior monks, who were among the old man's favorites, went over to ask him why he’s crying. "I'm crying because my accursed fate won't allow me to see the Tang Priest's treasure.” he said, to which they replied, "Grandad, in your old age you have succeeded. His cassock is laid before you, and all you have to do is open your eyes and look. There's no need for tears.”

"But I can't look at it for long," the aged monk answered. "I'm two hundred and seventy this year, and I've collected all those hundreds of cassocks for nothing. However am I to get hold of that one of his? However am I to become like the Tang priest?"

"Master, you've got it all wrong," the junior monks said. "The Tang Priest is a pilgrim far from home. You should be satisfied with your great seniority and wealth; why ever would you want to be a pilgrim like him?"

"Although I live at home and enjoy my declining years, I've got no cassock like his to wear.” the aged monk replied “If I could wear it for a day, I would close my eyes in peace. I'd be as happy as if I were a monk in my next life.”

"What nonsense," the junior monks said. "If you want to wear his cassock, there'll be no problem about that. We'll keep him for another day tomorrow, and you can wear it for another day. Or we can keep him for ten days and you can wear it for ten days. So why get so upset about it?"

Even if we kept him for a year," the old monk replied, "I'd only be able to wear it for a year, which wouldn't bring me any glory. I'll still have to give it to him when he went. I can't keep him here forever."

As they were talking, a young monk called Broad Wisdom spoke out. "Grandad," he said, "if you want it for a long time, that's easy to arrange too.” he said with a sinister smile, this naturally caught everyone’s attention, "What brilliant idea have you got, child?" the aged monk asked, cheering up. Broad wisdom continued “That Tang Priest and his disciple were so exhausted after their journey that they are both asleep by now, If we arm some strong monks with swords and spears to break into the meditation hall and kill them, they can be buried in the back garden, and nobody but us will be any the wiser. This way we get their white horse and their luggage as well as the cassock, which will become an heirloom of the monastery. We would be doing this for posterity,” The old monk was very pleased with this suggestion, and he wiped the tears from his eyes as he said, "Very good, very good, a marvellous plan” Another young monk called Broad Plans, a fellow−student of Broad Wisdom's, came forward and said, "This plan's no good. If we are to kill them, we'll have to keep a sharp eye on them. That old pale−faced one looks easy enough, but the hairy−faced demoness could be tricky. I'm sure you’ve heard of the tales of how dangerous female demons are, especially if they are a primate, she wouldn’t go down without a fight. So if by any chance we fail to kill them, we'll be in deep trouble. I have a way that doesn't involve using weapons, but I don't know what you'll think of it.”

"What do you suggest, my child?" the aged monk asked. “In my humble opinion" he replied, "we should assemble the head monks of all the cells, senior and junior, and get everyone to put a bundle of firewood outside the meditation hall. When it's set alight, those two will have no escape, and will be burnt to death together with their horse. Even if the people who live around this mountain see the blaze, they'll think that those two burnt down the mediation hall by carelessly starting a fire. This way they'll both be burnt to death and nobody will know how it happened. Then the cassock will become our monastery's treasure forever.” All the monks present were pleased with this suggestion, exclaiming, "Great, great, great; an even better plan." The head of every cell was told to bring firewood, a scheme that was to bring death to the venerable and aged monk, and reduce the Guanyin Monastery to ashes. Now there were seventy or eighty cells in the monastery, and over two hundred junior and senior monks. They shifted firewood all night, piled it up all round the meditation hall so that there was no way out, and prepared to set it alight.

Although Tripitaka and she had gone to bed, the magical Monkey's spirit remained alert and her eyes were half open even when they were asleep. Her suspicions were aroused by the sound of people moving around outside and the rustling of firewood in the breeze. Why can I hear footsteps in the still of the night? She wondered. Perhaps bandits are planning to murder us. She leaped out of bed, and was on the point of opening the door to take a look when she remembered that this might disturb her master, so instead she used her miraculous powers to turn herself into a bee with a shake of her body. Sweet we’re her mouth and venomous her tail, fluffy and rounded was her waist and light her body. She flew like an arrow, threading through willows and flowers, Seeking their nectar like a shooting star. Carried on the breeze by her frail and buzzing wings. Thus did they emerge from under the rafters, while going out to take a look. She saw that the monks had piled firewood and straw all around the meditation hall and were setting it alight. Smiling to herself they thought, So my master was right. This is their idea. They want to kill us and keep our cassock. I wish I could lay into them with my cudgel. If only I wasn't forbidden to use it, I could kill the lot of them; but the master would only be angry with me for murdering them. Too bad. I'll just have to take my chances as they come, and finish them off. The splendid golden monkey leapt in through the Southern Gate of Heaven with a single bounce , startling the heavenly warriors Pang, Liu, Gou and Bi into bowing, and Ma, Zhao, Wen and Guan into bending low as they all said “Oh no, oh no! The fellow who turned Heaven upside down is here again!” they cried. "There's no need to stand on courtesy or be alarmed, gentlemen.” wukong said with a wave of her hand, “I’ve come to find the Broad−Visioned Heavenly King.” Before the words were out of her mouth the Heavenly King was there and greeted them with “haven’t seen you for ages. I heard the other day that the Bodhisattva Guanyin came to see the Jade Emperor to borrow the four Duty Gods, the Six Dings and Jias and the Revealers of the Truth to look after the Tang Priest on his pilgrimage to the Western Heaven to fetch the scriptures. They were also saying that you were his disciple, which is hard to believe since you don’t seem like the type, how is it that you have the spare time to come here?"

“Let's cut the cackle” wukong said, “The Tang priest has run into some villains who have started a fire to burn him to death. It's very urgent, which is why I've come to ask you for the loan of your Anti−fire Cover to shield him with. Fetch it at once; I'll bring it straight back.”

“You've got it all wrong," the Heavenly King replied. "If villains are trying to burn him, you should rescue him with water. What do you need my Anti−fire Cover for?" Wukong shook her head, already getting a headache from the stress of talking to him for this long “You don't understand” she continued “If I try to save him with water, he may still be hurt even if he isn't burnt up. I can only keep him free from injury if you lend me that cover; and with that it doesn't matter how much burning they do. Buck up, buck up! It may be too late already. Don't mess up what I've got to do down there!!“ she pleaded, now growing desperate. The heavenly king only laughed “You're as wicked as ever, thinking only of yourself and never of others.”

I AM THINKING OF OTHER PEOPLE YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON!! is what wukong wanted to say, but she kept that to herself lest they destroy any chance she has in saving the monk and bi long. “Hurry up, hurry up!!” Wukong pleaded, “You'll ruin everything if you go on nattering!” The Heavenly King, no longer able to refuse, handed the cover to the demoness. Taking the cover, Wukong pressed down on her cloud and went straight to the roof of the meditation hall, where they spread the cover over the Tang Priest, the dragon horse, and the luggage. Then she went to sit on top of the aged monk's room to protect the cassock. As she watched them starting the fire she kept on reciting a spell and blew some magic breath towards the Southwest, at which a wind arose and fanned the flames up into a wild and roaring blaze. Spreading black smoke, Leaping red flames, The spreading black smoke blotted out all the stars in the sky, while The leaping red flames made the earth glow red for hundreds of miles. When it started It was a gleaming golden snake, but later on It was a spirited horse.
The Three Spirits of the South showed their might, while The Fire God Huilu wielded his magic power, The bone−dry kindling burned ferociously, As when the Emperor Suiren drilled wood to start a fire. Flames leapt up from the boiling oil before the doors, Brighter than when Lord Lao Zi opens his furnace. As the cruel fire spreads, What can stop this willful murder? Instead of dealing with the disaster They abetted it. As the wind fanned the fire. The flames flew many miles high, the fire grew in the might of the wind, Sparks burst through the Nine Heavens. Cracking and banging,
Like firecrackers at the end of the year, Popping and bursting, Like cannon−fire in battle. None of the Buddha statues could escape the blaze, And the guardian gods in the Eastern court had nowhere to hide.

A single spark can start a prairie fire. In a few moments the raging wind had blown the fire up into an inferno, and the whole Guanyin Monastery was red. the monks came and went as they moved away boxes and baskets, grabbing tables and carrying cookingpots on their heads. The whole monastery was full of the sound of shouting and weeping. Wukong protected the abbot's rooms at the back, and the Anti−fire Cover covered the meditation hall in front. everywhere else the fire raged, its red flames reflected in the sky and its dazzling brightness shined through the wall. When the fire broke out, all the animals and demons of the mountain were disturbed. Seven miles due South of the Guanyin Monastery was the Black Wind Mountain, on which there was a Cave inscribed with its namesake, in this cave a monster awoke and sat up. Seeing light streaming in through his window, he thought it must be dawn, but when he got up to take a better look he saw a fire blazing to the North. “Blimey!” The demon exclaimed with astonishment, "those careless monks must have set the Guanyin Monastery on fire. I'd better go and help them." The good monster leapt off on a cloud and went down below the smoke and flames that reached up to the sky. The front halls were all empty, and the fire was burning bright in the cloisters on either side. He rushed forward with long strides and was just calling for water when he noticed that the rooms at the back were not burning as there was someone on the roof keeping the wind away. The moment he realized this and rushed in to look, he saw a magic glow and propitious vapours coming from a black felt bundle on the table. On opening it he found it contained a brocade cassock that was a rare treasure of the Buddhist religion. His mind disturbed by the sight of this valuable object, he forgot about putting out the fire or calling for water and grabbed the cassock, which he made off with in the general confusion. Then he went straight back to his cave by cloud.

The fire blazed on till dawn before burning itself out. The undraped monks howled and wailed as they searched through the ashes for bronze and iron, and picked over the cinders to find gold and silver. Some of them fixed up thatched shelters in what remained of the frames of the buildings, and others were rigging up pots to cook food at the bases of the exposed walls. Wukong grabbed the Anti−fire Cover, took it back to the Southern Gate of Heaven with a single bounce, and returned it to the Broad−visioned Heavenly King with thanks. "Great Sage," said the Heavenly King as he accepted it. "You are as good as your word. I was so worried that if you didn't give me back my treasure, I'd never be able to find you and get it off you. Thank goodness you've returned it.” wukong just gave the king an unamused look while crossing her arms “Am I the sort of bloke who'd cheat someone to his face?" She asked “After all, 'If you return a thing properly when you borrow it, it'll be easier to borrow it next time.”

Where on earth did this simian learn that from??? the king thought to himself, before replying “As we haven't met for so long, why don't you come into the palace for a while?" He asked, but was surprised when the monkey demoness shook her head. “I'm no longer one to 'sit on the bench till it rots, while talking about the universe,'” Wukong replied, “I’m too busy now that I have to look after the Tang Monk. Please excuse me.” Leaving with all speed, she went down on her cloud, and saw that the sun was rising as she went straight to the meditation hall, where she shook herself, turned into a bee, and flew in. On reverting to her true form she saw that their master was still sound asleep. I’ve never been so glad to find out that someone’s a heavy sleeper in my long life, wukong thought to herself as she went over to wake him up. "Master, get up, it's dawn," she called, Tripitaka woke up, rolled over, and said, "Yes, so it is!” with a smile on his face, unaware that he had almost been burned alive last night, wukong just gave him a blank stare as he got dressed and opened the doors and went outside, only for his smile to fade when he saw the walls reddened and in ruins, and the halls and towers gone “OH MY GRACIOUS BUDDHA, WHAT HAPPENED HERE!?” The monk exclaimed in shock, “why have the buildings all disappeared? Why is there nothing but reddened walls?!"

Wukong leaned against a nearby frame that used to be a wall and shrugged. “let’s just say something happened last night that started a fire in the temple, burning it to the ground. if I have to guess, I’d say the people here must’ve messed with something they shouldn’t have.” She replied as they examined her claws. Tripitaka turned around to give the demoness a look “why hadn’t I have known of this? you would think i would’ve woken up in terror if the building was aflame.” wukong’s look did not change, instead it only deepened, now traced with annoyance "I was protecting the meditation hall, and as I could see you were asleep, master, I didn't wish to disturb you” she simply replied while Tripitaka gave them a look of bewilderment “If you were able to protect the meditation hall, why didn't you put out the fire in the other buildings?" he asked, wukong laughed nervously, crossing her arms tightly as she thought back to what the monk had said the night before “welllll, you know how you had said that you had a bad feeling that the monks mind would be disturbed if he looked at the cassock? Well you were right. They seemed to fancy that cassock of ours so much so that they had planned to burn us to death so they could keep it forever. If I hadn't noticed, we'd be bones and ashes by now.”

"Did they start the fire?" Tripitaka asked, horrified to learn this. There was a beat of silence as Wukong just looked at him with a tired expression, before running her hand down her face as they sighed heavily, now regretting saving the monks ass, “who else would it be???” She said. "Are you sure that you didn't cook this up because they were rude to you?" Tripitaka asked.

"I'm not such a rascal as to do a thing like that” Wukong said, not anymore anyway. S
She continued “Honestly and truly, they started it. Of course, when I saw how vicious they were I didn't help put the blaze out. I helped them with a slight breeze instead.” She said, Tripitaka looked horrified once more, before saying “wait…you….YOU HELPED FAN THE FLAMES OF THE FIRE!? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!? THERE ARE INNOCENT PEOPLE LIVING HERE!!”

Wukong growled as she pulled at her hair before looking at him “OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD MASTER, THEY TRIED TO KILL YOU TO KEEP YOUR CASSOCK!! there’s nothing innocent about them, I’m sure of it. You must know the old saying−−'If people didn't harm tigers, tigers wouldn't hurt people.' If they hadn't tried to kill us by starting a fire, i wouldn’t have had to fan the flames with the wind, they knew just what they were doing when they set this monastery on fire, in their greed for one cassock they ended up losing everything.”

Tripitaka’s shoulders dropped, seeing that she had a point, before looking around the ruined building, sensing something was amiss “Where's the cassock? Don't say that it's been burnt too.” wukong only waved their hand dismissively, having already thought of that, it’s not like I had been awake all night or anything… “It's all right, it hasn't been burnt. The abbots' cell where it was kept didn't catch fire.” Tripitaka’s face scrunched up in frustration, having had enough of the monkeys dismissive attitude “I don't care what you say. If it's come to any harm, I'll recite that spell till it kills you.” upon hearing this wukong gave him a glare full of fire “now why would you do that for?? I’m the one that saved your ass, the best you could do is be grateful that you’re still alive!” At this point the rising argument had woken bi long up, when upon seeing the two yelling at each other, looked around at the now burnt down monastery, looked at the two again. Then laid his head back down whilst pretending to still be asleep with a huff, not even wanting to know.

as both master and disciple glared at each other, wukong sighed “alright fine, FINE, if it’s the cassock you want I promise I’ll fetch it for you, BUT ONLY if you don’t use that binding spell on me, and when I do get it back we’re getting outta here.” Tripitaka nodded, feeling like they had long overstayed their welcome. walking over to bi long, he gently tugged on his birdie to wake him up, when he got up upon his four hooves, Tripitaka began to lead him out of the room while wukong carried the luggage. They went out of the meditation hall and straight to the abbot's lodgings at the back. When the griefstricken monks of the monastery suddenly saw master and disciple emerge with horse and luggage from the meditation hall, they were terrified out of their wits, and screamed, "Their avenging ghosts have come to demand our lives!!”

These cowards, if I wasn’t busy protecting the monk, I would've killed all of them in their sleep without them even knowing “What do you mean, avenging ghosts coming to demand your lives?!” Wukong shouted, beginning to get real tired of everyone she met acting like frightened deer. “Give us back our cassock at once or I will make you wish you had died in that fire!!” The monks all fell to their knees and kowtowed, saying, "Masters, wrongs are always avenged, and debts always have to be paid. If you want lives, it's nothing to do with us, It was the old monk and Broad Plans who cooked up the plot to kill you. Please don't punish us!” Wukong only growled as she felt the overwhelming need to bite and kill, before snorting and saying “I don’t give a mule’s behind about whatever that old beat had tried to do. just bring out that cassock and we'll be on our way.”

Two brave men from among the monks said, "Masters, you were burnt to death in the meditation hall, and now you come back to ask for the cassock. Are you men or ghosts?" Wukong sneered, hardly believing people this stupid actually had enough mental energy to live. “there wasn't any fire. Go and look at the meditation hall and then we'll see what you have to say." The monks rose to their feet, and when they went forward to look, they saw that there was not even the slightest trace of scorching on the door and the window−frames. The monks, now struck with fear, realized that Tripitaka was a divine priest, and wukong a guardian goddess. They all kowtowed to the pair of them and said, "Our eyes are blind. We failed to recognize saints sent down from Heaven. Your cassock is in the abbot's rooms at the back.” Tripitaka went past a number of ruined walls and buildings, while wukong trailed behind, the monk sighing endlessly, and saw that the abbot's rooms at the back had indeed not been burnt. The monks all rushed in shouting. "Grandad, the Tang priest is a saint, and instead of being burnt to death he's wrecked our home. Bring the cassock out at once and give it back to him.” they ordered.

Now the old monk had been unable to find the cassock, which coming on top of the destruction of the monastery had him distraught with worry. When the monks asked him for it, he was unable to reply. Seeing no way out of his quandary, he bent his head down and bashed it against the wall. smashing his skull open and expired blood poured all over the floor and walls, Leaving Tripitaka horrified while wukong just looked disappointed. Alas that the aged monk in his folly had Lived so long a life for nothing. He wanted the cassock as an heirloom for the monastery, even though he knew it didn’t belong to him. As he took the changeable for the eternal, His sorry end was quite inevitable. What use were Broad Wisdom and Broad Plans? To harm others for gain always fails. The other monks began to howl in desperation, "Our Patriarch has dashed his brains out, and we can't find the cassock, so whatever should we do?!” Wukong just sighed “I think you've hidden it somewhere” she said, "Come out, all of you, and bring me all the registers. I'm going to check that you're all here." The senior and junior abbots brought the two registers in which all the monks, novices, pages, and servants were registered. There were a total of two hundred and thirty names in them. Asking their master to sit in the place of honour, Wukong called out and marked off each of the names, making the monks open up their clothes for her inspection. When she had checked each one carefully there was no sign of the cassock. Then they searched carefully through all the boxes and baskets that had been saved from the flames, but again the demoness could find no trace of it. She could only growl in anger, knowing someone else must’ve stolen it while everyone was distracted, meanwhile Tripitaka was absolutely furious with her, starting to recite the spell as he sat up high. Wukong instantly fell to the ground in great agony, clutching her head and pleading, "Stop, stop, I swear to return the cassock to you!!” She said while grinding her teeth, The monks, trembling at the sight, begged him to stop, and only then did he shut his mouth. Wukong leapt to her feet, took their iron cudgel from behind her ear, and was going to hit the monks when Tripitaka shouted “YOU IMBECILE! aren't you afraid of another headache? Are you going to misbehave again? Don't move your hand or hurt anyone. I want you to question them again instead.” wukong just growled as she put her weapon back in their ear, redirecting her gaze from glaring at Tripitaka to the crowd of monks instead. who upon being faced with the golden monkeys wrath, they all began kowtowing to her and entreated her most pitifully to spare their lives. “We’ve honestly not seen it, It's all that dead old bastard's fault. After he saw your cassock yesterday evening he cried till late into the night, not even wanting to look at it as he worked out a plan by which it could belong to the monastery forever.” so I was right, Wukong thought, though she was far from happy about it. the monks continued “He wanted to burn you to death, masters, but when the fire started, a gale wind blew up, and we were all busy trying to put the blaze out and move away what stuff we could. We don't know where the cassock went.” they explained.

Not being able to take it anymore, wukong went into the abbot's quarters at the back in a great rage and carried out the corpse of the old monk who had killed himself. When she stripped the body the demoness found no treasures on it, so she dug up the floor of his room to a depth of three feet, again without finding a sign of the cassock. Wukong then thought of something and asked “Are there any monster turned spirits around here?” "If you hadn't asked, madam, I'd never have imagined you wanted to know, '' the abbot replied “There is a mountain due South of here called the Black Wind Mountain, and in a cave lives a Great Black King. That old dead bastard of ours was always discussing the Way with him. There aren't any other evil spirits apart from him.” wukong climbed out of the hole she had dug in the floor, wiping off any dirt that got on her hanfu and asked “How far is the mountain from here?"

"Only about seven miles," the abbot replied. "It's the mountain you can see over there.” he then pointed to a nearby mountain, wukong smiled and said to Tripitaka “Don't worry, master, there's no need to ask any more questions. No doubt it was that monster that lives on that mountain.”

"But his place is seven miles from here, so how can you be sure it was him?" He asked.

“You didn't see the fire last night.” Wukong retorted as she crossed her arms “The flames were leaping up hundreds of miles high, and the glow penetrated the triple heavens. You could have seen it seventy miles away, let alone seven. I'm convinced that he saw the glare and took the chance to slip over here quietly. When he saw that our cassock was a treasure, he must have stolen it in the confusion. I’ll make sure to hunt him down and bring it back.”

"If you go, who's going to protect me?" Tripitaka asked, wukong then facepalmed, getting increasingly tired from the stress of the situation “OH FOR THE LOVE OF- remember that gods are watching over you in secret, and in the visible sphere I'll make these monks serve you.” with that she called the community together and said, "I want some of you to go and bury that old ghost, and some of you to serve my master and look after our white horse." The monks all assented obediently, and wukong continued “I won't have you agreeing glibly now but not waiting on them when I’m gone. Those of you who look after my master must do so with pleasant expressions on your faces, and those who feed the horse must make sure he gets the right amount of hay and water. If there's the slightest mistake, I'll hit you like this.” The demoness pulled out her cudgel, and smashed a fire−baked brick wall to smithereens, much like the monkeys that raised her did to whip them into shape, though without the consequence of death, it would just hurt like a bitch. At the sight of this the monks' bones turned to jelly, and they knelt down and kowtowed to her with tears pouring down their cheeks. "Don't worry, master, you can go−−we'll look after him. We promise not to show any disrespect” Wukong, satisfied with this, then went straight to the Black Wind Mountain with a leap on her cloud, on their way to search for the cassock.

Chapter Text

As Wukong leaped up on her cloud, the senior and junior monks, the novices, the page−boys, and the servants of the monastery all bowed low to the sky and said, "Master, you must be a cloud−riding Immortal come down from Heaven. No wonder that fire can't burn you. Damn that stupid old skinflint of ours! He destroyed himself with his own scheming.”

"Please rise, gentlemen” Tripitaka replied, “there's no need to hate him. If my disciple finds the cassock our troubles will all come to an end, but if she doesn't find it, she has rather a nasty temper and I'm afraid that none of you will escape with your lives.” When they heard this warning, the monks' hearts were in their mouths. Once in mid−air, the Great Sage Sun Wukong sped off towards the direction of Black Wind Mountain, Stopping her cloud while she took a careful look around, they saw that it was indeed a fine mountain, it was a very nice spring day. The myriad valleys' streams compete, A thousand precipices varied in beauty. When the blossoms fall, the trees are still left fragrant. After the rain, the sky and the lowering cliff are moist, As the pines bend in the wind, they spread an emerald screen. The mountain herbs grow, so many kinds that good heal the sick or heal a scrape or bruise, The wild flowers blossom, Hanging over beetling crags, The wild fig thrives And fine trees flourish, on craggy range and flat−topped hills. Beside the stream a pair of cranes drink, while wild apes gambol on the rocks. Peaks like mussel−shells, gleaming black, Lofty and green as they shine through the mist. Wukong drank in the sounds and smells of the mountain top, finally glad to be back in nature after so very long, she stretched her arms towards the sky, and then let them rest at her sides as she looked around at all the herbs that were lying around for the picking. Like astragalus, dong quai, ginger, kudzu, licorice, lycium, Panax ginseng, and schizandra. which she gently picked up and put it in the pockets in the skirt of her hanfu, she internally thanked Guanyin for giving her this, not only was it a beautiful color, but it also had pockets that had been hand stitched onto the sides of the skirt, so she had a place to store stuff too. When she was done, they walked around until she started to hear the sound of voices from in front of the grassy slope. She slipped off to conceal herself under the rock−face and took a look. There she saw three fiends sitting on the ground. At the head was a dark fellow, and to his left was a Taoist, and to his right a white robed scholar, and they were all talking about lofty and broad matters. about refining cinnabar and mercury with tripods and cauldrons, and about the white snow, mercury, the yellow sprout, lead, and other esoteric teachings. In the middle of this the dark fellow said “As it's my birthday tomorrow, I hope you two gentlemen will do me the honour of coming along.”

"We celebrate your birthday every year, Your Majesty.” the white−robed scholar replied, "so of course we shall come this year!” "I came across a treasure last night.” the dark fellow went on, "a brocade cassock for a Buddha, and it's a wonderful thing. I'm going to give a big banquet for it the day after tomorrow and I'm inviting all you mountain officials to come and congratulate me, which is why I'm calling it a 'Buddha's Robe Banquet.”

"Wonderful, wonderful!” the Taoist exclaimed with a smile. "Tomorrow I'll come to congratulate you on your birthday, and the day after I'll come again for the banquet.” upon wukong hearing about the mention about the Buddha's robe, she gripped onto the side of the stone outcropping in front of her until it cracked, certain that it was their treasure, and unable to hold back her anger. They leapt out from the cliff brandishing her gold banded cudgel with both hands and shouting “THIEVES! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!! You stole our cassock, and now you think you're going to have a 'Buddha's Robe Banquet'. Give it back to me at once!” without pause, she ran towards the terrified folk stating "Don't move.” and brought it down towards the monster's head. The black fellow turned into a wind to flee in terror, and the Taoist rode off on a cloud, so wukong was only able to slay the white robed scholar with a blow from the club. When she dragged the body over to look at it, she saw that it was a white−patterned snake spirit. In her anger, she picked the corpse up and tore it to pieces, then went into the recesses of the mountain in search of the dark fellow. Rounding a sharp pinnacle and traversing dizzy precipice, she saw a cave palace in the cliff. Thick, misty clouds covered the fortress like a blanket, surrounded by dense thick cypress and pine. The dense stands of cypress and pine surround the door with green. For a bridge there is a dried−out log, which looked steady enough, but Wukong was worried that her added weight could easily break it in half, while wild fig coils around the mountain peaks. Birds carry red petals to the cloud−filled valley, Deer tread on scented bushes as they climb the stone tower. Before the gates the season brings out flowers colored with many shades of day and night. Butterflies flit among the peach−trees on the bank. This ordinary scene can yet compete, With lesser views in fairyland.

After crossing the log that was used as a bridge successfully, reaching the gates wukong saw that they were very strongly fastened, and above them was a stone tablet inscribed with the words Black Wind Cave of the Black Wind Mountain in large letters. She brandished her cudgel and shouted, "Open up!" at which the junior devil, who was guarding the gates opened them and asked, “Who are you, and how dare you come and attack our Immortals' cave?" This question made wukong’s blood boil as she let out a growl that reverberated throughout the mountain, it was as deep as the ocean, with enough venom to kill a thousand men “OH I DEFINITELY DARE. YOU NO GOOD BASTURD, I AM SUN WUKONG, GREAT SAGE EQUAL TO HEAVEN, AND I WON’T SIT IDLY BY WHILE YOU TALK TO ME IN SUCH A MANNER, OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT THIS INSTANT AND I’LL MAKE YOUR DEATH SWIFT AND PAINLESS!!” The demoness roared as she punched and kicked the door with relentless force that created countless dents, causing the demon at the door to flee in terror and rushed in and reported, "The 'Buddha's Robe Banquet' is off, Your Majesty. There's a hairy faced demoness outside the gates who's demanding the cassock!”

The dark fellow, who had barely had time to shut the gates and had not even sat down properly since wukong had chased him away from the grassy slope, thought on hearing this news “this is a tricky situation indeed, but perhaps I can find a way to calm this demoness down.” he then called for his armor, tightened his belt, and strode out of the gates with a smile on his face, tightly guarding his nerves behind a wall. His bowl−shaped iron helmet shone like fire, while His black bronze armour gleamed. He had on a black silk gown with billowing sleeves, along with a dark green silken sash with fringes. Though he did not hold any such weapons, he was still on guard in case the one in front of him wanted a fight. On his feet he wore a pair of dark leather boots. Lightning flashed from his golden pupils, He was indeed the Black Wind King of the mountains. He looked to get a closer look at the one who had chased him all the way here, and his heart caught in his throat at the sight.

She was a very tall demon monkey, much taller than him, reaching up to nine feet tall, who growled down at him with razor sharp fangs that glistened in the light, they had long orange hair that flowed down to her back, with humorous breasts that size of watermelons, and a strong thick figure adorned with the perfect amount of muscles and fat that shaped her calves and arms perfectly, she even had quite a big belly that pushed against the deep maroon fabric that made up the top part of the demonness’s hanfu. to put it simply: she looked like a goddess.

Wukong growled lowly as she scrutinized the demon in front of her, he was around five feet five inches, which made for the perfect punting size for a strong demoness like herself , though what caught their attention is that the bear demon hadn’t come out with a weapon like she expected, she grinned as they brought out her gold banded cudgel from her ear, making it as thick as a rice bowl, watching in glee as the demons eyes widened and pupils shrink at the display. and was about to bash him on the head like his other companion, when the demon suddenly got down on his hands and knees and kowtowed at her, which greatly surprised the demoness. After he was done, the demon looked up at her with pure adoration in his eyes, and wukong felt like a brick had been dropped into her stomach as she realized what was going on. “my apologies madam, I was not aware that the cassock I had found near that burned down monastery was yours, to make it up to you it would be my pleasure if you would join me tomorrow evening to celebrate my birthday, then after it is over I’ll give you the cassock back” he proposed.

Wukong stood there stunned, not having expected how this would go. She just figured she would fight the dude for a bit, then bash him on the head and take the cassock. But now the demon is actually willing to give it to her if they attends his party?? She had to think this though, she can’t just say no, cause if she does it will be much harder to get the cassock back. but if she accepts then they would have to hang around this demon for Buddha knows how long. but as she looks down at the bear demon, she tenses up upon seeing him looking at her with eyes glistening, wukong then sighs as she makes up their mind. putting up a front as she smiles “my, you sure pay a hard bargain, uhhhh sure, why not, I’ll accompany you to your birthday party or whatever you wanna call it, I’ll swing around here tomorrow at sunrise, and you better have the cassock.” She says as they glare down at him for good measure. Watching in glee as he shrinks back with a nervous grin, before bowing low, “of course madam, I’m looking forward to it.”

Wukong smiled nervously as she summoned her cloud and raced out of there, heading straight towards the burnt down monastery. After the demoness had left, the bear demon ran back into his home and ordered his minions to fetch him some paper and wrote invitations asking all the demon kings of the mountain to come to the celebratory feast. Meanwhile wukong came back to the guanyin monastery in a panic, where the monks had since buried the old patriarch and were now all in attendance on the Tang Priest in the abbot's quarters. Breakfast was over, and lunch was being brought in. Wukong hadn’t realized until now that she had missed breakfast, as was apparent as a loud growl sounded from within her belly that caused everyone in attendance to jump in their skins, whipping around towards the demoness with looks of surprise. wukong blushed deeply as she sat down in the chair next to Tripitaka, who was giving them a look of concern “are you quite alright wukong?” he asked, wukong waved him off as she sat there with increasing hunger as she smelled the food cooking in the kitchen, that had thankfully not been burned down. She began to drool, but quickly wiped it away as she replied “oh yeah! I’m fine, I just forgot to eat this morning while talking with the demon that resides on Black Wind Mountain.'' She replied as they tried her best to focus on the current conversation, and not the delicious and delectable food that rafted through the air.

“Ah, and did you find anything out about the cassock?” The monk asked, wukong grew nervous as she remembered what she had agreed upon, gripping the skirt of their hanfu with both hands as she tried to remain cool. “indeed I have, we seem to have misjudged these monks. It was in fact stolen by a fiend from the Black Wind Mountain. I went to have a quick look for him and found him sitting in front of a grassy slope talking to a white gowned scholar and an old Taoist. he’s planning on hosting a banquet to celebrate his birthday, and then the day afterwards him finding the cassock.” Tripitaka’s eyes widened upon hearing this news, pausing as he sat down his cup of tea. “and have you found a way around this?” he asked. wukongs grip on her skirt tightened, knowing that he wouldn’t like this “welllll, yes, when I had tracked this bastard back to his palace-“ she paused as the monk gave her a disapproving look “-I ordered him to come out and fight, but when he did, he had his armor on with no weapon. and to my surprise he started kowtowing to me like I was a goddess- and that’s when I realized that the demon had fallen in love with me. so he then asked me to join him for his birthday party, only then he would give me the cassock the day after, what should I do master!? I’ve lived my whole life with demons, and I know that he won’t remain truthful, but I desperately need to get the cassock back so we can continue on our journey west!” At this point wukong was so overwhelmed that she brought her hands to their head and started pulling on the long strands of hair beside her ears, as she began to hyperventilate. feeling like her chest was being constricted- but stopped when Tripitaka leaned over the table and placed his hand on her shoulder, telling them to breathe deeply, and that’s what she did. The next few minutes were filled with the sounds of breathing, until wukong had calmed down.

“Now I understand that this is a tricky situation.” Tripitaka began, trying to keep his voice low as to not startle the demoness. “but as you’ve told me you are familiar with how demons are, so you would instantly know when things start to go south, so all you have to do is play the part of the guest until you can grab the cassock and get out of there.” wukong nodded in understanding, thanking him with a nod, standing up wukong looked at the monks and abbots in the room “now listen up! just because I’ve found out where the cassock is doesn’t mean you all are safe, it will be at least another day until I can get it back. And if there is the slightest mistake, remember that I'm a very quick tempered demon, and I won’t hesitate to beat all of you with my cudgel until you have learned your lesson. Have you given my master the best food and tea? Have you given my horse the best fodder?”

"Yes, yes, yes” the monks hastened to assure her. "We haven't been remiss in any way while looking after his reverence” wukong nodded her head in understanding, but was still deeply mad about what she has to do tomorrow, but redirected her attention as Tripitaka cleared his throat, not wanting the sage to have to harm anyone "While you were away all morning I've drunk tea three times and eaten twice, and they have not been at all offhand with me.” Tripitaka explained.

At that moment the senior abbot came in, set out the vegetarian meal, and invited wukong to eat, wukong rushed towards her seat, their hunger returning as she looks at all the delicious food: there was broccoli covered with garlic sauce, tofu and broccoli, and garlic sesame noodles. Wukong especially liked the last one cause they had cut the noodles perfectly, so they came out extra thick, and after only two bowls she was stuffed, she lay on a cot on the ground as her stomach began digesting the food. Having not noticed she had fallen asleep until Tripitaka poked her awake, saying that it was dinner time. the lead abbot had made more garlic sesame noodles, since she had enjoyed them so much earlier that day, as well as green beans that were crisped to perfection, after eating two more bowls of the noodles, along with one bowl of green beans, wukong staggered back to her cot and laid down, sleeping on their back as her belly stuck out in front of her, having grown much bigger and wider after eating so much. Tripitaka gave the sage an amused look as he laid down on his own cot and fell asleep, both with full stomachs.

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The next day

Wukong sat up with a yawn as she stretched out her arms and legs, looking down to see that her stomach had returned to its usual chubby size, though it had grown a bit bigger than it was before. and laid comfortably on her upper thighs as she watched the sun come up from the horizon, looking to the other cot next to her, she saw that Tripitaka was still sleeping soundly, drooling a little as he slept. Wukong suppressed a chuckle as she wished that they had some paper to sketch this out on, but redirected her attention to the tall mountain where the black bear demon was, as well as the cassock. Summoning her cloud, she slowly climbed on as to not disturb the monk and went off on her hunt. On her way she saw a junior goblin going along the main path with a rosewood box under his left arm. Guessing that there must be some kind of letter in the box, Wukong raised her cudgel and brought it down on his head. The blow did not just kill the goblin: it left him looking like a crushed pile of meat and bones. Throwing the remains aside, Wukong wrenched open the box and saw that it contained an invitation: Your pupil Bear presents his humble greetings to Your Excellency, the Supreme and Venerable One of the golden pool. I am deeply grateful for the magnificent kindness that I have so frequently received from you. When I saw the fire last night I failed to put it out, but I am sure that your divine intelligence will have suffered no harm from it. As your pupil has been lucky enough to obtain a Buddha's robe, I am giving a banquet, to which I hope you will come to appreciate the robe. I would be profoundly grateful if you would honour me with your presence at the appointed time.

Ps: shortly after writing this, a nine foot tall monkey demoness had tried to attack me, and had chased me all the way to my palace, I do admit that I was afraid, but also highly aroused, I have also invited her to my banquet, I sure hope she’ll like what I have planned.

From your student and friend, black bear of the Black Wind Mountain, it had been written two days beforehand. well that’s a little ominous, wukong thought.

After reading this wukong roared with laughter "That crooked old monk. He thoroughly deserved to be killed. He'd been ganging up with evil spirits, had he? It's odd that he should have lived to be two hundred and seventy. Sad that the ole bear hadn’t known he had killed himself over having lost the same cassock that he has in his possession right now. but that just makes getting it back even easier!” Wukong said as she laughed mischievously, summoning her cloud once more, she continued to make her way to the palace, looking out and saw that the courtyard was green with bamboo and cypress, while peach and plum trees vied in beauty amid blossoming shrubs and fragrant orchids. It was a cave paradise. landing down in front of the door, she paused as they looked down at her hanfu to see that it had a few wrinkles on it, which she quickly flattened out with her hands before banging on the door “OOOOOH BLACK BEAR!! I’ve come as promised~” she called out with the most sultry voice she could manege, needing to act the part of a mistress if she wants a decent chance at getting the cassock. She then heard heavy footfalls from beyond, and then a loud thud, as whoever was running seemed to have fallen, wukong bit her lip as they tried not to laugh, straightening up when the door opened to reveal the black bear demon, who seemed to be a bit out of breath as the fur around his forehead was wet with sweat. I just got here and you’re already not making a good impression. wukong thought to herself with a amusement and the faintest trace of pity.

Clearing his throat he said “ahhhh sun wukong! glad you could join us, I must say you are looking quite ravishing in that hanfu of yours.” wukong smiled politely as she spoke “this is the same hanfu I wore yesterday.” watching in thinly veiled amusement as the demon’s eyes widened, having realized this fact also, before laughing nervously and stepping inside, “where are my manners, come in come in, no one hasn’t arrived yet, so it’s just us two for right now.” he said as he stepped in tune withthe demoness, wukong gave him a fake smile while clutching her teeth, having some regrets about killing that demon that had held the invitation. “ooooh goody!!” the two then fell into silence as wukong looked over to him and saw that the dark fellow was wearing a dark green silken tunic over which was slung a black patterned silk cloak; on his head was a soft black hat, and on his feet a pair of dusky deerskin boots.

They eventually came into a room with wide windows with animal skin decor on the walls, oooooh Tripitaka would hate this place. wukong thought, black bear then walked over to a line of throw pillows lined up in front of a table and sat down, pointing to a seat in front of him “please, take a seat, the tea should be ready in a moment” wukong nodded as she walked over and sat down on the seat in front of him while crossing her legs, “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you after yesterday's meeting, I’ve hardly slept a wink after you left. wanting to know who the great sun wukong is.” he said as he propped up one of his arms on the table's surface, and leaned his head on his hand, while giving the demoness a lovesick smile. Wukong grinned nervously, WOW…this guy has really fallen hard for me, if I didn’t already have a mate back home I would be flattered, but fortunately for me I do. and I just see him as being a suck up. luckily the demoness already had something memorized for just this occasion, she copied the demon as they propped her head on her hand as she looked at him with a sly smirk “so you want to know about me huh? There's lots about me, so you have to be a little more specific…” she breathed as she leaned forward in her seat with her butt in the air, giving the bear a sultry grin. With eyes that bore into him, looking ready to devour him whole. black bear leaned back with a nervous grin, a deep blush coloring his face, trying very hard to hide his hardening bonor. just as one of his minions comes in with two cups of tea, setting it down on the table, leaning back, Wukong picks up her cup and takes a sip while still looking at him as the bear takes a moment to recover, having not expected the demoness to be so bold. “to answer your question, I’d like to know how you became the great sage equal to heaven, how was your life before you had risen to glory?” now he’s just buttering me up to cook me later, wukong thought before replying “welll it had all started when I was born from a stone egg on an island called flower fruit mountain, where I lived for several years with others of my kind, eventually when i was around thirteen I went out amongst the waves of the sea to find a master that could show me the way of immortality, since a few years after being crowned the monkey king, some of the members of my tribe had fallen ill and soon died, so I had put it upon myself to go out to look for a cure. When I made it to a human village, I climbed to a place where I found some magical scrolls that when read gifted me with wondrous powers, and soon after mastering these arts. the road to immortality and sagehood was not long. for In three years I acquired a magic body, That did not suffer like a common one. When my time there was up, I went back to my home, only to see that a monster had kidnapped some of the members of my tribe, though with my powers that I had taught myself those many years ago, I made quick work of him and rescued them. Afterwards I was recrowned as king. I quickly began making my Lineage known by taking a trip with my cloud to the dragon palace and retrieving a golden tipped cudgel that could bend to my will, where I can control how big or small it is. It was a great weapon to use to keep my island safe from harm. A few decades of peace transpired before I got into a disagreement with heaven, see, they had wronged me by giving me a rankless title, even though I deserve a helluva lot more than that. Though they eventually made up for it when I requested to be called the title of great sage equal to heaven, with them agreeing. Though even with this rank I still wasn’t shown respect. So naturally I had wrecked the Hall of Miraculous Mist multiple times to show them that I wasn’t to be trifled with, and when I was hungry I stole the Queen Mother's peaches, and when I was thirsty I stole the heavenly wine. Afterwards a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers in serried ranks, came down to my sacred island with spears and swords to put me down. Though I put up a great fight, not wanting to go down easy, I sent the heavenly kings back up there in defeat, with my sworn brother, demon bull king at my side with his demon army. Though all was not well. For after fighting Erlang for a few rounds, a band of seven scouts came and banded me in rope and carried me to the palace where they planned to execute me. I was then tied to the Demon−subduing Pillar, but even though I was being hacked with swords and pounded with hammers and anything else they had at their disposal, I was left unharmed, even when I was struck by lightning and burned with fire. I could tell they were running out of ideas, so they carried me and threw me into Lao Zi's furnace to be refined. the six dings rousted me with fire. When the time was up and the furnace opened, I jumped out and rushed towards the exit, beating back anyone that got in my way with my trusty cudgel. No one could stop me as I fought against countless soldiers and gods, heading my way to the hall of miraculous mist to overthrow the jade emperor. though when I got to the doors, I was met with the great Buddha themselves. and after being tricked by him, I was thrown out of heaven and trapped in a pillar that slowly rose with water. There I stayed in agony for five hundred years until a monk by the name of Tripitaka released me and I became his first disciple, now I have reformed and am going to the West to climb the Thunder Peak and see the Buddha” she explained, grinning in amusement at the bears shocked expression.

Oh my sweet Buddha she is definitely the one to be my wife for all eternity, the black bear thought as he could feel his dick hardening even more from hearing that story. What an amazingly strong woman, she had fought against heaven with only a cudgel at her side, she’s so wonderful I could just collapse, shaking his head he grinned “wow! I’ve never heard of someone accomplishing such feats! I can tell that you are one hell of a demoness, and a strong one at that. Tell me, would you be interested in sharing your land with me? I am certain that with the two of us ruling together we will make quick work of any demon or celestial that comes our way, we would be unstoppable on our path of victory!” By this point the black bear was so pumped up that he stood up from his seat. Leaving his erection for all to see. oh my Buddha he was actually aroused by that, wukong thought, stunned by these turn of events, lips thinning into a straight line, her cup halfway to her mouth, before quickly recovering when the demon sat back down “as….wonderful as that sounds, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline your offer, see. I’m not really interested in having anyone else to rule my mountain with. Besides, having a bear living among a bunch of monkeys isn’t really something I would like on my resume you know?” As well is the fact that I’m currently in love with a certain black furred monkey of mine. that I wouldn't throw away for all the riches in the world. “I hope there’s no hard feelings.”

The black bear was indeed frustrated by this, wanting more than anything for this hot cake of a demoness as a wife, but this just meant he has to try a little harder. Grinning, he said “oh! sure thing, I just thought it would be beneficial for our clans to come together, but I can completely understand if you don’t feel the same way. now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go into the kitchen to see what my little minions have cooked up” with that the black bear stood back up and made his way to his kitchen. wukong waited a bit until she was sure he was gone before getting up and rushing around in search of the cassock for the next few minutes, but unfortunately it was nowhere to be seen, going back to her seat in disappointment just as black bear returned, having finished checking up and planning his feast with the great sage. with his hands behind his back he bowed to her, as she got up and bowed back. “I just checked in with the cooks, and I have an amazing meal planned for you, but It’ll take awhile, so I thought we could go somewhere where I can show you my armory, how does that sound?” He asked.

Wukong internally wheezed at this, knowing Tripitaka would be very displeased if she got the cassock before sundown, but outwardly she smiled, having to butter the bear up so she can easily betray him later. “Sure, I love seeing other peoples armory.” She lied, and with that the two made their way out of the main room, turned down a long hallway where there was a pair of big steel doors, opening it, wukong’s eyes widened at all the weapons. There were swords of all shapes and sizes, all made of different materials, with crossbows made of the finest string and steel. All hung up on the wall like the world's fanciest awards, seeing her expression, black bear grinned to himself, thinking to himself that he’s definitely got her hook-line-and-sinker. only for her to shake her head and look at him with an unimpressed look, looking like she had seen this a hundred times before “these are nice weapons and all, but do you have anything….i don’t know, more extravagant? This all just seems like your average hunting gear.” black bear could only gap in shock at having his babies shunned like that, but hid his anger behind a smile “I don’t know what you mean, this is my most finest selection of weapons, bought and traded by my most trusted allies! you don’t think not one of them is the least bit special?” Wukong took a moment to think, putting a hand to her chin, before shaking her head “ehhhh nope!”

Wukong could hear a strangled sound as air wheezed out of the bears lungs, sounding like she had personally punched him in the gut, wukong hid her wide grin behind her hand. She’s not exactly lying either. There were definitely way more powerful looking weapons out there, like dbk’s red blooded war axe, and weapons made out of the finest of steel, with gold trimming and handles made out of cowhide. so these mortal possessions didn’t really impress her that much, taking one last look at the black bears so called ‘armory’ she turned around to head back to the main room, smiling as black bear quickly ran after her as to not be left behind. seeing this, wukong just walked faster. entering the main room, she sat down in her spot just as black bear made it to the entrance, heaving as he dropped to one knee as he tried to catch his breath, all while wukong took a sip of her now lukewarm tea. having sprinted all the way to the main room with the main intention of leaving him behind. After finally recovering, black bear sat down in a mix of embarrassment and anger just as a servant came out with a big tray full of delicious dishes that normal people would kill for, placing it down in front of wukong and walking away. There were all kinds of sweet treats, all different kinds of pastries, like mooncakes filled with rich strawberry filling, along with tangyuan rice balls colored pink and brown, green dumplings filled with bean paste, steamed pea flour cake, and Osmanthus cakes. wukong’s eyes sparkled at all the delicious food, but looked up to see the demon didn’t make any move to eat, spirits having brightened upon seeing the food, raising a brow the demoness asked “are you gonna eat?” the black bear shook his head while still smiling, that was really starting to creep them out “oh no, these aren’t for me, I made these specifically for you! since you had arrived here so early, i would assume you hadn’t eaten anything, so I had told my servants to make you some desserts for you.” wukong squinted her eyes in suspicion, but then shrugged and started eating, if he had spiked any of these with poison it wouldn’t kill her since she’s immortal, something everyone up in heaven hadn’t seemed to get, and she highly doubts the bear demon would be any smarter, she starts with the mooncakes, her eyes widened upon biting down on one, the soft pastry easily tearing part with a pull from her teeth, and the taste was even better, the crust was nice and smooth, sweetened by the strawberry filling, and before she knew it, she had eaten all eight of them, starting on the tangyuan rice balls next, which was very sweet and soft to the touch, her tongue moving around the rice ball before swallowing it, doing the same to the rest until she moved onto the green dumplings that were ever sweetened by the bean paste that filled up her mouth with every bite, each one more filling then the last. and wukong found herself eating all those too. Until finally moving onto the steamed pea cakes and Osmanthus cakes. Which she picked up two in each hand and ate with quick succession.

Finally done, Wukong let out a sigh, now extremely full, before blinking and leaning back when she noticed that the bear demon was still staring at her, with his eyes glazed over as he gave her a soft grin. quickly getting up, her breasts and now enlarged belly bouncing with her as she stood up, she noticed that the weight of her breasts and belly combined weighed her down slightly. having to move her legs further apart so as not to lose her balance. They were now extremely creeped out as she looked around to avoid eye contact as she spoke, her tail whipping around behind her like a coiled snake. “so uhhhh, about that cassock-“ she jumped as the black bear laughed, “you won’t get that until tomorrow remember? Why don’t you stay here for the night? I’m sure you are quite full after eating all that food.” wukong then realized why he had given her all those sweets, he was planning on weighing the demoness down enough so that she would be too sleepy to leave. but as she jumped up and down, the movement causing a loud thud to sound from beneath her, her breasts and belly jiggling in the process, they realized that, even with her being weighed down by the cuprous amount of food she had eaten, they didn’t feel any less light on her feet than before, thanking her stone genes, she looked up with a smile. “Actually I would just like to know where the cassock is if you don’t mind, you know, for tomorrow.” the black bear nodded in understanding and made his way to a flight of stairs “I see, follow me then.” wukong took a moment to steady herself, and followed the bear demon up the stairs. making sure she was behind him so he wouldn’t get the chance to try something, and the two walked up to what she found out was his bedroom, with a big platform bed that stood a few inches off the ground, the room had wide windows much like downstairs, next to the door was a brown chest that he walked up to, taking out a key, he unlocked it and brought out the cassock, it was free of any scratches or tears. which the demoness was beyond relieved by. the black bear demon then put it back and locked the chest again, turning to look at her with a grin “see? safe and sound, now if you would come over here for a moment, I have something to show you” he said as he went over to the bed and lied down, seeing what he was trying to do, wukong grinned slyly as she went over to the edge of the bed and started climbing on her hands and knees towards him, her belly dropping to the surface of the mattress easily. The black blear blushed deeply at the action, watching with an unwavering gaze as the sage continued to make her way towards him before sitting down on his legs with her extra heavy and plump ones, essentially pinning him down. the sudden weight making him gasp, wukong grinned wickedly as she leaned in closer so that she was leaning her whole body weight on him, before whispering in the demons ear “this was by far an interesting time, but I think it’s time for this little game of ours to end” and before the demon could speak, wukong took out her cudgel from her ear, made it so it was as thick as a rice bowl, and bonked him on the head, the bear instantly falling unconscious. Satisfied with a job well done, Wukong dug through the bear's pockets and brought out the key, before sitting up and going over to the chest and unlocking it and taking out the cassock. looking back at the bear demon one last time, she descended the stairs with cassock in hand and bashed the heads of any small demons that were around, exiting the palace and summoning her cloud, they went back down to tell Tripitaka the good news.

——————————
After taking her leave of the black mountain palace, wukong brought their cloud down into land, hung the cassock on a nanmu tree, pulled out her cudgel, charged into the Black Wind Cave, and found not a single goblin inside. Wicked thoughts begin to welled up in the golden monkey as she grinned, and after piling up dry firewood all around the multi−storied gate, she set it alight, turning the Black Wind Cave into a Red Wind Cave. Then she went back to the nenmu tree to take hold of the cassock, and went back to the North on a beam of magic light. Tripitaka, who had been anxiously waiting for the demoness, was beginning to wonder why she had not come back. Had wukong just made up a story to escape? As the monk had been wracked by that desperate thought a shimmering cloud appeared in mid air and wukong came down and knelt before him before saying “Master, here's the cassock” she announced, much to Tripitaka’s joy. All the monks of the temple were delighted too, and they exclaimed, "Wonderful, wonderful, our lives are safe at last!”

“Wukong” Tripitaka said as he took the cassock from them “when I woke up this morning, you were nowhere to be found, I was thinking the worst when one of the monks said that they had seen you set off towards the direction of black wind cave, and to not worry for you would come back with the cassock in no time, but as time wore on, you didn’t come back till sunset, so what happened?” Wukong then explained how she indeed had left for the mountain when he was still asleep, but only cause she didn’t want to wake him. and when they had got there she was caught in a conversation with the black bear demon for some time, only for the demon to suggest them joining their clans together, in which she declined. Then the bear demon showed her his armory as a ploy to get the demoness hooked, which she responded with a nonchalant attitude. and a few minutes later the wicked bear demon had ordered his cooks to make her countless pastries, and it wasn’t until she had eaten them all that she had realized that the demon had tried to weigh her down enough so she would be too sleepy to escape, but being a stone monkey, she was immune to the heaviness that comes from high calorie foods. and instead asked him where the cassock was, and when he did she took the chance and bonked him on the head, knocking him unconscious. which gave her the chance to grab the cassock with little fanfare.

Tripitaka clapped his hands in delight, glad that she had not killed anyone this time. “wonderful wonderful! Wukong, now that we have the Buddha's robe, pack our luggage as quickly as you can.”

“Not so fast, not so fast” Wukong replied “It's already evening, too late to hit the road. Let's set out tomorrow morning instead.” The monks all knelt and said “mistress wukong is correct” wukong fixed them with a heated glare, they continued “For one thing it's too late, and for another we made a vow. Now that all is well and the treasure has been recovered, we would like to carry out that vow and invite you two to share in the thanksgiving meal. Tomorrow morning we'll see you off on your way West.”

“Yes, yes” wukong urged. The monks then emptied their bags and produced everything that was left of what they had saved from the fire to make an offering of food. Then they burnt some paper to bring blessings and recited some sutras to ward off disaster. The ceremonies were finished that evening. The next morning the horse was curried and the luggage packed, and then they set out. The monks escorted them a long distance before turning back, after which wukong led the way, it was now early spring. The grass cushioned the horses hooves, new leaves emerged from the willows golden threads. Apricot vies for beauty with peach, the wild fig around the path is full of life. On sun warmed sandbanks sleep Mandarin ducks, in the flower scented gully the butterflies are quiet. One evening, after they had been travelling along a desolate path for six or seven days, master and disciple saw a distant village. “Wukong.” Tripitaka said “do you see the village not far over there? Let’s go and ask them to put us up for the night, we can set off again tomorrow morning.”

“Wait till I’ve made sure it’s safe before deciding.” wukong replied, gazing at the village as Tripitaka pulled on the silken rein, she saw close planted bamboo fences, many thatched roofs. Outside the gates sour lofty trees, houses were mirrored in the waters under a bridge. Green grew the willow beside the road, fragrant flowers bloomed in the gardens. As the sun sets in the west, the birds sing in the wooded hills. The smoke of evening rose from the stoves, along the paths roamed sheep and cattle. Well fed chickens and pigs sleep under the eaves, while drunk old men sing songs from right next door. When she had surveyed the scene, Wukong said “Go ahead, master. It's definitely a good village. We can spend the night there.” Tripitaka urged bi long forward, and in a few minutes they were at the beginning of the Main Street. A young man appeared wearing a silken turban, a blue jacket, a pair of trousers tied at the ankles, and a pair of straw sandals. He was carrying an umbrella in his hand and a pack at his back. He was a fine sight as he walked briskly down the street. Wukong suddenly grabbed him and asked “where are you going? I need to ask you something—where is this?” The man, that was trying to break lose. glared at her and said “if you’re asking me which Century or the name of this village, I’ll tell you neither, now let me go!” Despite the obvious anger from the man, wukong smiled as she lifted him up, her current height making it so the man was several feet off the ground “don’t be angry, kind sir.” wukong said as the man froze in his struggles upon noticing how high up he was. “to help others is to help yourself, what harm can it do to tell me what the place is called? We might be able to bring your troubles to an end you know.” struggle all he might, the man couldn’t get loose. Which filled him with fury “DAMN IT DAMN IT!!” He shouted, “I get more bullying from the old man then I can stand, and now I’ve been caught by a monkey demoness that will either kill me, eat me, or make me her sex-toy. You’ve got it for me too.” Upon hearing this, Wukong almost dropped the man in surprise, before tightening her grip around the man's waist as she growled out “if you’re good for anything, try to get out of my grip, only then I’ll let you go.” the young man twisted and turned. But he could not break free, it was as if he was held in place by a pair of pillars. In his temper he threw down his umbrella and his bundle, and tore at wukong with both hands like an angry cat. Trying to get a hold of her, even as he kicked at her protruding belly, it just bounced back like nothing had happened. Wukong was holding the luggage in one hand, while holding the man up with the other. her hand clasped firmly on his waist to hold him in place. looking at the small man with great amusement, while the man was bursting with fury.

Tripitaka meanwhile was sitting awkwardly on the back of bi long, who in turn was looking at the monkey in surprise, the monk, worried for the young man’s well being, dismounted from the horse and walked up to the tall demoness, tugging on the edge of her skirt “wukong, I think that’s quite enough, why don’t you let the poor man down?”

At this wukong turned her head and looked at him with a pout “but master, you don’t understand, it would be no fun to ask anyone else. I have to ask him if there’s anything to get out of this.” seeing that the demoness wouldn’t let him go, the man sighed in frustration and started to talk. “this is old gao village in the country of stubet, and it’s called that cause practically everyone has the surname gao. Now will you let me go?” Wukong continued, ignoring his question “from your get up, you seem to be going on a long journey” wukong went on as the man leveled her with a glare upon being ignored “tell me where you’re going and what you’re up to, then I’ll let you go.”

Still glaring at her, he replied, not having any other option “I’m gao cai from the family of squire gao. His youngest daughter is twenty and not yet married, but three years ago an evil spirit came and took her. He’s been staying with us for three years. And he isn’t all that pleased. There’s no future in having a girl marry an evil spirit, he says, it’s ruining our family, and we don’t get a family of in-laws to visit. He’s always wanted to get rid of the evil spirit, but he refuses to go. Now he’s shut the girl up in the back building for the best part of a year, and he won’t let any of the family see her. My old man gave me two ounces of silver and sent me to find a priest to capture that monster. Since then I’ve been on the go for ages now, and asked three or four of them, but they were all hopeless monks or pimples of taoists—none of them could control him. The old man’s just been swearing at me as an utter idiot. Given me five more ounces of silver as traveling expenses, and told me to find a good priest who’ll deal with the monster. Then I was grabbed by you, you frightening demoness, and that’s made me later than ever. No wonder I shouted at you, I’m pushed around at home and pushed around when I go out. I never thought you’d be such a good wrestler that I wouldn't be able to break out of your clinch. Let me go now, I’ve told you everything.”

Yeah, not to mention your whole life story too, wukong thought “well you’re in luck, we’re in the business!” Both men gave her weird looks, Tripitaka saying “wait, we are??” as she continued “this is quite convenient. You needn’t go any further or spend any of your money. We’re no hopeless monks or pimples of taoists. We’ve got some real prowess, and we know how to deal with evil spirits. this’ll do us both a bit of good. Go back and tell the head of your household that my master is a saintly monk, and the younger brother of the emperor of the east, who has sent him to visit the Buddha in the western heaven and seek the scriptures. We are very good at controlling demons and capturing monsters.” though unfortunately the man didn’t seem to believe the demonesses words, for he said “don’t lie to me.” he growled out “I’ve had enough of being pushed around. If you’re tricking me, and you have no special prowess, and can’t capture that fiend. You’ll only get me into more trouble.”

Jeez this man is a grouch, no wonder he hasn’t gotten much help. If I was asked by this guy who looks as if he hasn’t slept in a century, I wouldn't help him either. but since I’m already invested in whatever’s going on, I just gotta see what this ‘dangerous demon’ of theirs is like. “I swear I’m not fooling you.” She answered with a grin “show me the way to the front door” with that she finally let the poor man go. and once he was free. He wasted no time picking up his bundle and umbrella, and turned around to take the two of them to his gate. Where he said to them “Reverend gentlemen, would you mind sitting here on the verandah for a moment while I go in and tell the master?" Wukong nodded as she put down the luggage and carrying pole that they had got in a nearby village, took hold of bi long’s reins and sat down in front of the gate. The young man went in through the gate and straight to the main hall, where he happened to meet Squire Gao. who upon seeing him glared down at him with a scowl “Well, you savage, why have you come back instead of going to find someone?" Squire gao demanded. Putting down his bundle and umbrella, the young man replied “I must report to you sir, that I had just gotten to the end of the street, when I came across a nine foot tall monkey demoness and a monk. The monk was on horseback while the demoness held a carrying pole on her shoulder. She then grabbed me by my waist like I weighed nothing and held me up several feet in the air. and no matter how much I struggled she wouldn’t let me go, then asked me where I was going. I refused to tell her several times, but she had me locked in such a tight grip that I couldn’t even dream of getting out. So I had no other option but to tell her all about the mission you gave me. Sir, she was absolutely delighted when she heard about it, and wanted to catch that monster for us.”

“Where are they from?” Squire gao asked “she says that her master is a saintly monk, the younger brother of the emperor of the east, who has sent him to visit the Buddha in the western heaven and seek the scriptures.” the young man replied. Even after hearing all this, squire was still unsure “even if this demoness and monk are from far, far away, they may not really be capable of anything. Where are they now?”

“Waiting outside the gate.” the young man said simply. The old man quickly put on his best clothes and went out with the younger to greet them. Addressing them as “venerable elders” Tripitaka hurriedly turned around when he heard this, and found them standing before him. The older man was wearing a black silk turban, an onion white robe of sichuan brocade, a pair of calf skin boots the color of unpolished rice, and a belt of black silk. He came forward and said with a smile “greetings venerable elders” as he bowed, holding his hands together. Tripitaka returned his bow, but Wukong just stood there still as a brick wall. At the sight of Wukong's frightening stature and build, the old man was too afraid to bow to her. Upon noticing this, Wukong narrowed her eyes and asked “why won’t you bow to me?” Much to the old man’s fright, “I don’t feel the need to bow to a demoness such as you. we’ve already got a horrifying monster at home as a son-in-law we can’t get rid of, so why ever did you have to bring this terrifying demoness here to ruin us?” He asked, addressing Tripitaka, who tensed up at the elders' boldness as to insult wukong like that. knowing that he had just made a huge mistake, as was evident by wukong leaning forward past Tripitaka and towards the older man with a growl, her lips pulling back to reveal razor sharp canines that could tear flesh and bone apart in an instant. “gao you old bastard. You’ve been living all these years for nothing. You’ve still got no sense when to shut your yap when addressing someone that could very easily kill you without any hassle, it’s completely wrong and senseless to judge people just by how they look, you don’t know me. And I don’t know you. So you wouldn’t know a damn thing about whether I’m bad or good. I may not look like your average beautiful dolls you call women, but I’m much stronger and tougher then any men you could name. I’m quite clever, you know, so I can easily grab your so-called ‘evil spirit’ by the neck and drag him out of this building with my bare hands. and I wouldn't even be breaking a sweat. So you can finally get your oh so precious daughter back, by doing that I’ll be doing you a great deed, so there’s no need to worry about my looks.” by this point the man was shaking in fear, but pulled himself together and stepped aside and guided them inside. Wukong took hold of bi long’s birdie, who by now was as terrified as the man, his eyes blown wide enough that he could be mistaken for a goldfish. Wukong meanwhile ordered the young man to carry the luggage, and went in with Tripitaka. Still steaming after being so greatly insulted. In her usual devil-may-care way, she tethered bi long to one of the pillars of an open pavilion. Wukong then suddenly turned around to look at bi long with a guilty look on her face. “Sorry you had to see me like that bi long. That man just really got under my skin, I’ll make sure to rein in my anger better next time.” but before bi long could speak, Wukong walked up the stairs of the pavilion and pulled up a gleaming lacquered armchair, and told Tripitaka to sit. Acting like what had just transpired just a few seconds ago never happened, leaving the dragon horse stunned, afterwards wukong brought over another chair for herself and sat down next to him, the chair creaking with the added weight.

“…the young demoness seems to have made herself at home” the old man replied, wukong gave him a sharp toothed grin “I’d feel more at home if you entertained us for the next six months” she replied, Tripitaka gave her a pleading glance from beside him, silently asking her to be more respectful, thankfully the old man seemed to ignore that comment as they all sat down. “the boy told me a moment ago that you are from the east.” he remarked, Tripitaka smiled as his body relaxed at the topic change “that’s right” he replied, “the court has sent me to worship the Buddha in the western heaven and ask for the scriptures. As we are passing this way on our journey, we would like to spend the night here before continuing on our way tomorrow morning.”

“And it would be such a delight if we could sleep in your most luxurious beds you have to offer, you know, since we ARE getting rid of your horrifying and grotesque son-in-law, it would really help us out.” wukong said with a grin as she clasped her hands together. Immediately Tripitaka turned around and smacked her on the arm, leveling the demoness with a glare as he leaned over and hissed in her ear “WUKONG I SWEAR TO THE ALMIGHTY BUDDHA THAT I WILL RECITE THE BAND TIGHTENING SPELL IF YOU DON’T TREAT THIS MAN WITH RESPECT THIS INSTANT.”

Wukong returned his glare with one of their own, leaning in so that old gao couldn’t hear “BUT HE INSULTED ME!! HE DESERVES ALL MY WRATH AND MORE FOR DISRESPECTING ME IN SUCH A MANNER. NOT TO MENTION HE WANTS TO KICK OUT HIS OWN SON-IN-LAW JUST BECAUSE HE’S A DEMON, I’VE SEEN A TON OF RACIST SCUMBAGS IN MY TIME. BUT THIS GUY IS BY FAR THE WORST.”

“Lower your voice this instant wukong, I can understand that what he said back there was wrong, but the man is stressed cause he hasn’t seen his daughter in over a year. So I can understand why he might not be making the best decisions right now.”

As the two were arguing, there was another argument taking place on the other end of the pavilion “I DON’T CARE THAT SHE’S THE MOST FEARED DEMONESS IN HISTORY, SHE SHOULDN’T BE TALKING TO ME LIKE I’M JUST SOME LOWLY TOWNSMEN, IF ANYTHING SHE SHOULD BE TREATING ME WITH RESPECT.” squire hissed, the young man, now in charge of keeping the man from jumping the very horrifying and dangerous demoness, said “I understand you’re mad, and believe me I get it. but she might very well be the one to defeat that monster and rescue your daughter. So can you just sit tight until then?” Squire sighed as his shoulders sagged, before nodding his head. After that both parties turned around to continue the conversation “if you two want to spend the night here, why all this talk about fighting monsters?” Squire asked.

“As we’ll be spending the night here.” Wukong began, “we thought it would be fun to catch a few monsters while we’re at it. May I ask how many are in your residence?” Wukong asked, ignoring Tripitaka’s nod of approval, wanting nothing to do with being polite to someone like him, but knowing she didn’t really have many options. “Good heavens!” The old man exclaimed “however many do you want?”

“As many as you got, I really feel like bashing some heads in for some reason….” Wukong responded with a growl. gripping the skirt of her hanfu so tight that her knuckles turned white. squire felt beads of sweat rain down his forehead at the demonness’s thinly veiled threat, as he continued “we’ve only got this monster of a son-in-law, and he’s ruined our lives.”

Wukong leaned her arm against the arm of their chair while looking at the old man with an oddly calm look. “Tell us about this supposed ‘monster’ from the beginning.” wukong said, but it sounded more like a command, the demonesses years of being king taking over. “I must know about his many powers so I know what to expect when I go to capture him for you.” the old man cleared his throat as he sighed, “this village has never had any trouble from ghosts, demons, or evil spirits before. It was my misfortune to have no son, only three daughters, of whom the eldest is called Flagrant orchard, the second jade orchid, and the third blue orchid. The other two were betrothed to men from the village when they were children and have been married off. I wanted the third to marry a man who would live here to support me in my old age, look after the household, and do jobs around the place. And about three years ago a good looking young man turned up and said that his name was Zhu and he came from the mountain of blessing. He told me that he had no parents or brothers, and wanted to marry and live with his in-laws. As he had no family commitments I offered him my daughter’s hand, old fool that I am, and from that moment on he became a member of our family. He worked very hard, he ploughed through and hoed without using oxen or tools, and he didn’t need a scythe or a stick to harvest the crops. As day followed day, there was nothing wrong with him, except he started to look different.”

“Different how?” Wukong asked, slowly gathering pieces of a puzzle that didn’t quite fit right. “At first he was a plump, dark chap, but later on he became a long nosed idiot with thick hairs running down from the back of his head and a great thick body. His face is just like a pigs. His appetite is enenormes too. He needs several bushels of grain at every main meal, and over a hundred griddle cakes for breakfast. Luckily he is a vegetarian. If he ate meat and wine he would have ruined us in six months.”

As squire was talking, everything he said reminded wukong of how she had started out when she first got cursed, how their appetite had grown exponentially while she was passed out. She remembered how on the first day she had eaten four entire boar legs in quick succession, and another four the following night with three bowls of rice. Not to mention how much weight she had gained upon waking up. and if she had stayed with dbk and pif for longer she would’ve ruined them for sure!

Tripitaka looked over in concern upon seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, only to turn his head just as wukong ran past him with a haunted look on her face, the old man looked in the direction the monkey had ran off in and chuckled “see, just as I said, even a demoness such as her can clearly see how revolting that monster is.” before reeling back when both Tripitaka and the young man gave him disapproving looks, before Tripitaka ran off in the direction wukong had gone, saying “uhhhhh, I’ll be right back!!” Before running off, leaving squire to look befuddled as he looked back at the young man “did I say something wrong?” He asked, this prompted gao chi to bring a hand to his head and slapped his forehead.

Back with Tripitaka, he had finally found wukong, who was sitting huddled up amongst bushes that lead to the forest behind the house, the monk could hear quiet sobs coming from within, he also spotted a fluffy tail that was curled up around the monkey’s legs. Tripitaka felt like a thousand pins and needles had pierced his heart upon hearing this sound. before he gently shook one of the branches of the bush, the sobs abruptly stopped, and a voice crocked out “I can’t fight your demon son-in-law right now, just please leave me alone!”

“Wukong, wukong it's alright, it’s me, Tripitaka.” upon hearing this, there was a beat of silence before a branch was pulled back to reveal wukong, she had tears rolling down her wet cheeks, along with snot that ran down her nose, she sniffed as she averted his eyes “why are you here? shouldn’t you be with the others planning on how to take down zhu?” Tripitaka sat down in front of the upset golden monkey while crossing his legs “well I was, but then I saw you running off like you had seen a ghost.”

“I might as well have…” wukong muttered, when Tripitaka gave the demoness a confused look she began “remember the day we met before I joined you on the journey, I told you about how the jade emperor had cursed me?” The monk nodded “well, when I ended up passing out for three weeks” Tripitaka’s eyes widened upon hearing this “WHAT!? BUT THAT’S A ENTIRE MONTH-“ wukong quickly put a finger to his mouth “SHHHHHH!! Be quiet! you are the only one I’ve told this to.” Tripitaka nodded as he lowered his voice, feeling honored. Wukong continued “when I woke up, the last thing I expected to see was that my body had gained multiple pounds in what felt like overnight. i was horrified by my appearance, but also scared cause back then I didn’t know what had caused it, as time went on I noticed that I became really hungry. which could only be satisfied by eating twice the amount of food then normal, I was so ashamed of myself, I felt like a pig.”

Tripitaka stilled as his eyes widened as he finally realized what had made him so upset. “This is about what they said about zhu, isn’t it?” he frowned as wukong nodded her head, their arms were wrapped around her body almost like she was trying to give herself a hug. “when I began to fight against heaven five hundred years ago, I was aided by my best friend and sworn brother, demon bull king, we made a great team with him fighting with his hoard of demons behind him, we were unstoppable. but when I got cursed I stayed with them until I had recovered, and thinking back to what squire said about how zhu had ruined their lives, I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if I had stayed there longer. I’m scared that I would've ruined all that he had, I would’ve eaten all his food and starved them!” She exclaimed as fat globes of tears rushed down her cheeks as she covered her face in shame. Tripitaka suddenly placed his hand on her arm and started breathing in and out, wukong uncovered their face and looked confused at first until she remembered what he taught him back at the burnt down Guanyin monastery, and began breathing in tune with him, having not realized that she had started to hyperventilate again. after she had calmed down, the monk spoke “I admit that the thought of losing control of yourself like that is….not something i would think of fondly, but I know there is more to you then just your appetite, you are also an amazing fighter, even if i would rather you avoid injury to someone at all possible-'' wukong looked at him with a flat look, “point being?” Tripitaka shook his head “-I still appreciate you protecting me, I might not say it as much as i should, but I’m proud of you.”

Wukong’s eyes widened in surprise, looking at him like he had grown a second head. “Wait, you are?” Tripitaka nodded “you might not make the best decisions in the heat of the moment, but I still remember what you said back at black wind mountain, how you had explained that, instead of killing the bear spirit, you had knocked him unconscious instead. you knew that you could’ve killed him, but you didn’t. It's so easy to resort to violence, cause it’s easy to do. but just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s right. Back in the tang empire I had heard from monks' own mouths, ones that had become monks so they could cleanse their sins, how they had done awful things, horrid things that made me want to puke. but the fact that they felt bad about it, and wanted to change meant that they still could be saved. and looking at you now, I know in my heart that the same applies to you.” at this point wukongs tears of sadness had turned to tears of joy, as she emerged from out of the bushes and wrapped her arms around the monk in a hug. as they pulled back Tripitaka looked up to the sky to see that the sun was going down, getting up from the ground, he turned around and stretched out his hand towards the golden monkey, who gave the monk a soft smile and took his hand as she stood up “we should probably get back, they might start to think we ditched them or something.” wukong let out a laugh as she wiped away their tears “eh, I’m still thinking about it.” Tripitaka elbowed them in the side, causing her to let out a startled laugh as Tripitaka gave the demoness a playful grin “come on now wukong, we made a promise remember?” wukong nodded as they made their way back to the pavilion, where the old man and young man were quietly talking, before straightening up upon seeing them “ah good, you found her! i had started to get a little worried.” the old man said as Tripitaka and wukong went back to their seats.

“Don’t worry about us, let’s just focus on the topic at hand, as you explained, zhu started eating more than usual, correct?” Squire nodded, “well I think he was eating so much cause he was working on the farm a lot, so after a long day of that, he would need to eat lots of food so he could refuel, regaining his energy and strength that he had lost.” Wukong looked at the monk with a small smile, seeming to understand what he was getting at, but kept her mouth shut.

“I do admit you have a point, but that’s not the main thing.” squire gao continued “he can also summon up a wind, make clouds and mist come and go, and send pebbles and sand flying. He’s terrified our neighbors, who don’t feel safe living here any longer. He's shut my daughter away in the building in the back, and nobody’s seen her for six months. We don’t even know if she’s still alive. That is how we know he is an evil monster, and why we want a priest to come and get rid of him.”

“No difficulty there,” wukong replied, “don’t worry ole chap, I guarantee that I’ll get him tonight, make him write out a document divorcing your daughter, and bring her back to you. What do you say to that?” The old man gave her a flat look “I’m afraid it’s far too late for that, because I thought there would be no harm in offering my daughter, I’ve ruined my reputation and entranged all my relations.” squire gao replied “if you can catch him, why bother with a divorce document? Wipe him out for me, if you please.” wukong paused as Tripitaka and her shared a look, “easy, easy, I’ll get him tonight.” wukong said with a nervous grin. the old man was delighted, he had a table and chairs set out and wiped clean, and a vegetarian meal brought in. When the meal was over and he was about to go to bed, the old man asked wukong what weapon and how much men she would need.

“I have a weapon.” wukong replied simply, the old man rose a brow and gave the two a look “you two only have your monastic staves, how will you be able to kill the fiend with them?” The old man asked, wukong chuckled before taking out the embroidery needle from her ear, held it between their fingers and willed it to change, in an instant it turned into the golden banded cudgel that was as thick as a rice bowl. Wukong gently sat the heavy weapon on the floor next to her, turned to squire gao and asked “how does this cudgel of mine compare to the rest of the weapons you have in here? Will it do to kill the monster?” She said with a smirk. “So you have the weapon.” the man went on, ignoring the monkey’s question much to her frustration “but do you have the men?” Wukong stared at him for a few seconds before barking out a laugh, “pfffff, I don’t need any men to do the heavy work for me, I can easily defeat that pig on my own.” She bragged, “though i would appreciate having a few respectful men to come and keep my master company while I’m away. When I’ve captured him they can witness his confession before I wipe him out for you.” the old man thereupon sent his servants to ask a few old friends over, and before long they had all arrived. Most of them stared at wukong with a mix of horror and awe, since wukong still had her cudgel out. When the introductions were over wukong said “master, you sit here and do not worry, I’m off.” with that she walked over and took hold of the old man and said “now take me to the building at the back. I want to see where this supposed evil spirit lives.” squire gao nodded and led the demoness to the door at the back of the building, and wukong told him to bring the key at once. “Look here.” the old man began “if a key would’ve done the trick, i wouldn’t have asked for your services.” wukong just levered him with a blank stare, eyes half lidded “can you tell at your age when someone's joking?” She asked, “I was only teasing. You shouldn’t have taken me so seriously.” She felt the lock and found that molten copper had been poured into it, so she readied herself into a wide stance and struck it with a vicious blow with her cudgel and shattered it. Pushing the doors open, she saw that it was pitch black inside. “Call your daughter’s name, old gao, and see if she’s in here.” She said.

The old man summoned up his courage and called out his daughters name, and the daughter, Recognizing her fathers voice, answered feebly, “dad, I’m in here!” With a roll of his golden pupils, Wukong peered into the darkness to take a closer look at her. Her cloudy black hair was tangled and unkempt, while her face was filthy and unwashed. Her orchid heart was as pure as ever, but her beauty lay in ruins. There was no blood nor life in her cherry lips, and her limbs were crooked and bent. A sad frown on her forehead, her eyebrows pale, weak and frightened, only daring to whisper. When she came out and saw her father, she grabbed hold of him and wept, for her freedom, for her beauty, but most of all: her virginity.

“Hey hey, don’t cry.” Wukong pleaded “where has the monster gone?”

“I don’t know. These days he’s been setting out at dawn and only coming back in the middle of the night. There’s always so much cloud and mist that I can’t tell where he goes. He knows that my father wants to exorcise him, so he’s always on alert. That’s why he comes back late and leaves at dawn.”

“Of course he would, that’s what all cowards do.” wukong remarked “old man, take the girl to the front building. You two can have a good talk, I’m going to wait for the monster here. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t show up, but if he does, I’ll wipe him out for you.” The old man happily took his daughter to the front building, where she would be safe. Wukong then closed her eyes and concentrated on using some of her magic powers that she had been gifted the moment she was born. Slowly her body transformed into the likeness of the human girl. She had long black hair that reached her waist, with pale pink skin that was the color of the lightest peach, to complete the look she was wearing a light green hanfu with a dark green sash that secured her waist. The disguised demoness was left with nothing to wear on her feet, since the woman wasn't wearing any when they arrived. After looking herself over, she realized with a pout that her weight seemed to have transferred over to the disguise, with her frame having tripled and condubled in mass. her breasts having grown to a humongous size, that were soft and hefty, that hung above her stomach, and her arms and legs were thick with fat, with the faintest hint of muscle, leaving both limbs soft to the touch. Her belly protruded in front of her, stretching the fabric. Along with her butt that stuck out behind her. Wukong sighed, having thought that being disguised would keep the curse at bay, but it seems that didn’t seem to be the case.

At least the room was dark, so her cover wouldn’t be blown immediately, let’s hope the demon likes fat women.

With that thought in mind, she went and sat down on the bed in the room to wait for the evil spirit, her butt spreading out behind her, causing her to outwardly sigh. Before long there was a marvelous wind that sent stones and dust flying. It began as a soft breeze that generally became a tremendous gale, when it was a gentle breeze it filled heaven and earth. But when it grew, nothing could withstand it. unless you were made by the heaviest of stones that could not be moved no matter how strong the wind grew. Wukong just sat there on the ground with a calm smile on her face as she watched as the wind stripped off flowers from their beds and snapped willows like stalks of hemp, uprooting forests as if it wore picking up vegetables. It threw rivers and seas into turmoil, to the fury of gods and demons. Splitting rocks and mountains as heaven and earth watched in horror. The flower eating deer lost their way, the fruit plucking monkeys did not know where they were. Seven stored iron pagodas fell on the Buddha’s head, the streamers in the temple on the jeweled canopy. Golden beams and pillars of jade were shaken from their roots, tiles flew from the roof like swallows. The guardian god of the city ward abandoned his shrine. The dragon kings of the four seas bowed to heaven, the yaksha demon boats were wrecked on the coast, and half the length of the great wall was blown down.

As this gale passed, an evil spirit appeared in mid air. He was certainly a pig demon with his dark face, stubbly hair, long nose, and big ears. He wore a cotton tunic that was dark blue that showed off a huge beer belly, and around his waist was a patterned cotton cloth. Huh, so that’s what he looks like, Wukong thought with a smile. And without greeting him or asking him anything he laid down on the bed, breathing heavily and pretending to be ill, not knowing who the woman in front of him truly was. The monster came straight in, put his arms around her and tried to kiss the disguised demoness, who instinctively leaned back with a scowl on their face.

Wukong suppressed a laugh as she thought, wow, he really wants to fuck me, then she thrust her hand up under the monsters long nose to throw him off balance. The monster fell off the bed, as the pig demon pulled himself up he leaned on the edge of the bed and said “darling, why are you so angry with me today? Is it because I’m late?” He asked, wukong crossed her pudgy arms over her rather plump chest and said “I’m not angry, not angry at all.” this only made the pig demon even more confused “if you’re not angry with me, why did you make me fall over?”

“You should have been more thoughtful and not tried to hug and kiss me. I’m not feeling very well today, if I’d been my usual self I’d have been waiting for you at the door. Take your clothes off and come to bed.” not realizing what she had unintentionally offered, the monster started to undress. and not wanting to see the demon she was about to fight naked, wukong jumped out of bed and sat on the dresser beside the bed as the pig demon went back to bed and groped around without finding the girl “where’ve you gone, darling?” He asked, “take your clothes off and come to bed.”

Not in your wildest dreams you bozo, wukong thought to herself “go to sleep.” She replied, the pig demon did as he was told, wukong sighed and said, “what terrible luck.” this caught the attention of the pig demon, who was about to doze off “what are you so fed up about?” He asked, “what do you mean by “what terrible luck”? I may have eaten some food and drank some tea since marrying you, but I haven’t been idle either. I’ve swept for your family and dug ditches, I’ve shifted bricks and tiles, I’ve built walls for you, I’ve ploughed and weeded your fields, I’ve sown your wheat, and I’ve transplanted your rice, I’ve made your family’s fortune. These days you dress in brocade and have golden pins in your hair, you have fruit and flowers in all seasons, and vegetables for the pot throughout the year. But despite this you’re still not satisfied, groaning and moaning like that and complaining about your ‘terrible luck’. “

Wukong could only sneer in disgust at this revolting man, in reality the reason why blue orchid isn’t happy or ‘satisfied’ as he put it, is because the pig demon had separated her from her own flesh and blood just because her father doesn’t approve of him, I can understand why he would feel attacked by this. but trapping his daughter somewhere he can’t find her is going too far. Nonetheless wukong kept playing the act, needing to find the right moment to strike, “I didn’t mean that.” wukong replied, “Today I could hear my father through the wall. They were smashing up bricks and tiles and pretending to curse and beat me.”

“Why should they want to do that?” The pig demon asked, horrified and shocked, “they said that since we married and you became the resident son-in-law, all respectability has gone by the board. They were complaining about having such an ugly fellow as you around, and about never meeting brother-in-law or other relations of yours. Besides, all that wind and cloud whenever you come on and go out, they wonder what on earth you can be and what you are called. Your ruining their reputation, and disgracing the family. That’s why they were so angry that they went through the motions of beating and cursing me.”

“I admit I might be a bit of an eyesore.” the pig demon began “but if you want me to be a good looker I can fix that without any difficulty. When I first came I had a word with your father, and he agreed to the marriage of his own free will. Why is he talking like this now? My home is the cloud pathway cave, or the mount of blessing. my surname, zhu, is like my face “pigsy” and my correct name is zhu gangile, iron haired pig. You tell them all that if they ask you again.”

He’s an honest demon, wukong thought, if he came out with all this without being tortured. Now I know who he is and where he’s from, I’m sure I can catch him. “He’s sent for a priest to come and catch you.” wukong said aloud, though the pig demon didn’t seem that bothered by that, as he pat his hand on the bed while saying “come to bed, come to bed, and forget about him.” he said with a laugh “I can do as many transformations as the plough, and I have my nine pronged rake too, so what do I have to fear from priests monks or taoists? Even if your old man were holy enough to summon the demon destroying Patriarch down from the ninth heaven, he’s an old friend of mine and wouldn’t do anything to harm me.”

You sure about that big guy? i thought I could overthrow the jade emperor cause I thought we had equal power, and look where that turned out for me, I’m sure if you tried anything, you would probably get a worse punishment than me, wukong thought “my father said he’d asked for the assistance of a very powerful demoness by the name of sun….wukong? the great sage equal to heaven or however it was called, who made great trouble up in the heavenly palace some five hundred years ago, to come and capture you.” the pig demon was somewhat taken aback upon hearing this name and said as beads of sweat rained down from his forehead “in that case I’m off, we’re through.” much to the surprise and delight of wukong, who grinned wickedly as she watched as the pig demon quickly got off the bed and made his way to the balcony, the monkey standing up from off the dresser as she said “you can’t just go like that.” only for the pig demon to shake his head, truly frightened now “you wouldn’t know.” he replied, “but the protector of the horses who made such trouble in the heavenly palace is quite the fighter. I might not be able to beat her, and that would spoil my good name.” with these words he pulled on his clothes, opened the door, and was just about to go when wukong grabbed him by the arm, tightening their grip so he couldn’t escape, transforming back into her normal form, and watched in glee as the pig demon squealed as he was picked off the ground by the now nine foot tall monkey, turning his head just to stare in shock at the demon in front of him. she was a fine looking demoness that easily towered over him at nine feet tall, she was a monkey demoness with bright orange long hair that went down her back and slipped over her shoulders as she bent down, her breasts were the size of the biggest watermelons that he had only seen once a good harvest, with a big belly that strained against the dark maroon hanfu she wore. her arms and legs were thick with both fat and muscle, while her tail lashed behind her like a whip as she growled down at him.

He was both terrified and aroused, “where do you think your going ‘Darling?’ She growled out while adding “take a look and see who you’re missing with.” the pig looked at her more closely to see razor sharp teeth that could easily tear through skin and bone with ease, fiery eyes with golden pupils. At the sight of this his hands were numbed and his legs were paralyzed in fear, opting to go with being terrified at the frightening demoness in front of him. Then with a great tearing sound he broke free, ripping his clothes, and escaping in the form of a hurricane. Wukong rushed off after him with a curse, grabbing her iron cudgel she took a swipe at the wind. The pig demon then changed into ten thousand sparks and went straight back to his mountain. Wukong quickly mounted her cloud and went after him shouting “I SAID, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING? IF YOU GO UP TO HEAVEN, I’LL CHASE YOU AS FAR AS THE DIPPER AND BULL PALACE, AND IF YOU GO INTO THE EARTH, I’LL PURSUE YOU AS FAR AS THE HELL OF THE UNJUSTLY SLAIN!!” She roared, the pig demon temporarily transformed back into his normal form and gave the demoness a smirk “if that’s the case, I’ll call it a date-“ only to turn back into the lightening sparks when he saw the golden monkeys cudgel hurtling towards him,
and continued on his way to his mountain, followed by a screaming wukong.
The pig demon shot forward as a stream of sparks, with the great sage behind him on their cloud. As he was racing along, Wukong saw a tall mountain appear in front of them, here the demon put himself together again by reassembling the sparks, rushed into a cave, and came out with nine pronged rake in his hand to do battle. Wukong looked at this with barely concealed bafflement, before shouting “YOU WRETCH, WHERE ARE YOU FROM? HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME, YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A DEMON!? What powers have you got that you think you can fight against one such as I? Tell me honestly and I’ll spare your life.”

The pig demon let out a chuckle that made the monkey’s blood boil “you don’t know what I can do.” the pig demon replied, “come a little closer and I may tell you. I was born stupid, an idler and a slacker. For I never nourished my nature nor culvated the truth, so I spent my time in primal ignorance. Then I happened to meet a true immortal, who sat down with me and chatted about the weather, advised me to reform and to not sink among mortals, for taking a life was a heinous sin. And one day, when my life came to an end, I would think that it would be too late to regret the punishment in store. His words moved me to seek reform, and my heart longed for miraculous spells. I was lucky enough to have him as my teacher, he showed me the gates to heaven and earth. He taught me the nine changes and the great return of cinnabar, as we worked by day and night with never a break. it reached up to the mud ball palace in my head, and down to the bubbling spring at my feet. The circulating magic liquid reached the flowerey pool at my tongue, and the cinnabar field in my abdomen was given exactly warmth, the Bebe, lead and the girl mercury, were married, and combining together, they divided into sun and moon. The dragon and tiger were harmonized, the sacred tortoise drank the golden crow’s blood. The three flowers gathered at the top and and returned to the root, the five essences faced the origin and flowed in all directions. When their work was done, I could fly, and the immortals of heaven came in pairs to greet me, colored clouds grew beneath my feet, the jade emperor gave a banquet for all the immortals, and all lined up according to their ranks. I was made field marshal in charge of the Milky Way, commanding all the sailors on the river and in the sky. When the queen mother gave a peach banquet, she invited many guests to the jade pool. And as drunkenness clouded my mind that day, I lurched and staggered around. And charged in drunken pride into the cool broad palace, I was greeted by an exquisite immortal maiden. At the sight of her beauty my soul was captivated, and I could not repress my mortal passions of old. Losing all sense of rank and dignity, I seized the beauty and asked her to sleep with me.”

Wukong wheezed at her place on their cloud, having laid down into a comfortable position to hear his story. and upon hearing what had happened at the pig demon's own peach banquet, the monkey couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. the pig demon continued “three times, four times she refused, she tried to dodge and hide in her distress, but my great lust, upon being denied multiple times, I roared like thunder. All but shaking down the gates of heaven. the miraculous inspecting officer reported to the jade emperor, and from that day I was doomed. The cool broad palace was closely surrounded, I could neither advance nor retreat, escape was impossible. I was then arrested by the gods, but as I was still drunk I was not scared, I was marched to the hall of miraculous mist to see the jade emperor, and after questioning I was ordered to be sentenced to death, but luckily the great white planet had stepped forward, bowed low, and interceded. My sentence was commuted to two thousand strokes of the heavy rod, which tore at my flesh and all but crushed my bones. I was released alive and expelled from heaven, so I tried to make a living on mount of blessing. For my sins I was reborn into the wrong womb, and now I am known as iron haired pig.”

Wukong sat up and stretched, before standing up and leaning against her staff “so you are an earthy reincarnation of marshal tian peng.” She said, after she had heard this. “No wonder you knew my name.” the pig demon let out a chuckle full of faint amusement and frustration “ha, your insane rebellion caused great trouble for many of us, protector of the horses. I suppose you are here to throw your weight around once more? it seems you have gained some to give me a run for my money.” he remarked while gesturing at her. Wukong gave him a puzzled look and looked down at their body, before shortly realizing what the pig meant, and was thus fueled by red hot rage. She yelled as she brought their cudgel down and hit the pig demon square on the noggin. causing a great battle to ensue near the mountain. Wukong’s golden pupils flashed with lightening, as the pig demons glaring eyes flashed with silver, a gold banded cudgel and a nine toothed rake, are two splendid hero’s. One a great sage down among mortals, while the other is a marshal banished from heaven. One had been stripped of his honors and became a monster, while the other had been saved by the brother of the great tang emperor, and thus aided him on his quest. When the rake attacked, it was like a dragon stretching it’s claws. While the cudgel blocked it as nimbly as a phoenix flying though flowers. The pig demon said “in wrecking my marriage, your crime is as great as parricide.”

Wukong sneered as she replied “YOU WRECKED YOUR OWN MARRIAGE BY LOCKING A MAN’S DAUGHTER WHERE HE COULDN’T FIND HER!!” Amid these exchanges and wild shouts, the cudgel and rake crossed and clashed. They fought each other till day began to dawn, and the demon pigs arms were tired out. They fought from the second watch of the night until the sky began to grow light in the east. The pig demon, not wanting to fight anymore, broke away and fled, turning himself into a hurricane again. He went straight back to his cave, shut the gate and did not come out again. Wukong huffed, then saw a stone tablet outside the cave, in which was inscribed CLOUD PATHWAY CAVE. It was now broad daylight, so Wukong thought that her master might be waiting for them, so she best go back to see him. She could come back later to catch the cowardly pig demon later. Willing her cloud to move, they was back in old gao village in an instant. Tripitaka meanwhile had been talking all night with the elders about things ancient and modern. And had not slept a wink, just as he was beginning to think that wukong wouldn’t come back, she appeared in the courtyard, put away her cudgel, straightened her clothes and entered the main room, giving the monk a disapproving look as she noticed the bags under his eyes “master, don’t tell me you didn’t get any sleep.” to this Tripitaka gave the demoness a confused look, while cocking his head “but whatever would I do that for? lying isn’t very polite.” Wukong just slapped a hand to her face, way too exhausted to deal with this. “Wukong, you’ve been out all night.” Tripitaka continued, “where did you end the evil spirit?”

Huh, I guess he’s okay with murder now, it was about time he became numb to it. “he’s no common or garden ghost, master,” Wukong replied, “and he isn’t an ordinary wild animal turned monster. He is marshal peng, who was exiled to the mortal world. As he was placed in the wrong womb, he has a face like a wild bour, but nonetheless has still kept his original divine nature. He says that he takes his name from his looks and is called zhu ganglie, iron haired pig. I was going to kill him in the building in the back, but he turned into a hurricane and fled. When I struck at the wind, he changed into sparks, went straight back to the cave, came out with a nine pronged rake, and fought me all night. He broke off the engagement in terror as the dawn broke and shut himself in his cave. I was gonna smash down his door, cause I don’t like being ignored, when it occurred to me that you might be worried after waiting for me for so long. So i came back to let you in the know.”

After she had made her report, squire gao came up and knelt before the demoness saying “venerable madam, I’m afraid that although you had chased him away, he’ll come back after you’ve gone, so this is no real solution. Please, I beg of you, catch him for me and exterminate him to prevent trouble later. I promise you that I shall not be remiss if you do this for me, and there will, of course, be rich rewards. I shall write a deed , witnessed by my relations and friends, giving you half my property and my land. Please, please eradicate this evil weed and save the honor of my family.”

Wukong put her hands up, surprised that this old man would be so desperate as to give away everything he has. “ Whoa there, calm down! I don't intend on taking any of your land, I already have an entire island for myself back home. you’ve got no sense of what’s proper, old man.” She replied, being mad on the man’s behalf that he would risk selling off his property to people he had known for only a day, “he told me that although he may have put away a lot of your rice and tea, he’s also done you a lot of good. You’ve piled up a lot of wealth in the past few years. All thanks to his efforts, he says that he hasn’t been eating your food in idleness, and wants to know why you’re trying to have him exorcised. He maintains that he is a heavenly immortal come down to earth who has been working for your family and has never harmed your daughter. —you know, physically— I would say that he is a very fitting son-In-law for you, who does your family’s name no harm. You really ought to keep him.”

“Venerable madam” the old man replied, “he may haven’t done anything wicked, but it does our reputation no good to have a son-in-law like him. People say that the gaos have asked a monster to marry into the family, and I simply can’t bear to hear a thing like that.” upon hearing this, wukong released a sneer that sent the old man skittering back to the table in fear, the monkeys fur brusseled in agitation as she yelled out, angry for both herself and zhu, “OH SO YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT YOUR REPUTATION HUH!? YOU DON’T CARE THAT THE MAN WORKS NIGHT AND DAY WORKING ON YOUR FARM TO GIVE YOU FOOD AND WEALTH, AND THE ONLY THING YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS ABOUT HOW OTHER PEOPLE SEE IT!?” Upon seeing how the old man and Tripitaka were staring at her stunned, she sighed, forcing herself to calm down. “I see now that you don’t deserve someone like him as a son-in-law, cause instead of just talking to him and telling him about this, you just think of the worst possible scenario, and would rather go the easy route and try to exorcise him instead. you make me sick.” they all stood in silence, neither one of them able to speak. Until Tripitaka got up from his spot at the table and walked towards them. not scared in the least at the angry demoness in front of him. Passing by squire gao, who gave him a stunned look, not understanding how the monk could go up to something that could kill him in one hit. But Tripitaka wasn’t hindered by this, and instead stopped in front of wukong, who had sat into a crouch so the two could be at eye level, and placed a gentle hand on her arm and said “I understand you’re angry wukong, but despite how wrong this must seem to you, you still need to defeat zhu so that this man and his family can feel safe again.'' Wukong looked the monk in the eyes with an unreadable expression, seeming to be thinking for a moment. then nodded “fine, I’ll try to trick him this time.” he replied, “I guarantee that I’ll bring him back this time for you to look at, but try not to be mad at him.” wukong then looked back at old gao, who stiffened upon being in her gaze, “old gao,” she continued, addressing him fully “look after my master while I’m gone.'' wukong then stood back up to her full height, turned around and went back out the front door. The only sound they could hear was the faint whistling of wukong zipping away on their cloud, she leapt up the mountain and smashed the gates of the cave to splinters with a single blow from her cudgel, shouting “WAKEY WAKEY EGGS AND FUCKING BAKEY~ TIME TO GET UP AND FIGHT ME YOU CHAFF GUZZLING MORON!!” zue, who had been sleeping inside the cave, jumped out of bed upon hearing the gates of his cave being smashed in. Upon hearing the insult “chaff guzzling moron” from the demoness, went wild with fury. Seizing his rake and summoning up his spirit, he rushed out and shrieked “YOU DAMN SHAMELESS PROTECTOR OF THE HORSES, WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU TO MAKE YOU SMASH DOWN MY GATE? YOU’D BETTER TAKE A LOOK AT THE STATUTE BOOK, THERE’S A DEATH PENALTY FOR BREAKING AND ENTERING!!”

Wukong blew a raspberry as she easily blocked his rake with her cudgel “pffff really? Of all the things I’ve done in history, THAT’S the thing you’re angry about? you really need better priorities.” wukong laughed, “I’ve got a very good justification for smashing your gates—you abducted a girl by force, without matchmakers or witnesses, and without giving proper presents or observing the right ceremonies. You're a fine one to talk about who deserves to have their head cut off.”

Zhu could only growl as he yelled “STOP TALKING SUCH NONSENSE YOU DAMN FOOL AND FIGHT ME!!” Blocking the blow with her cudgel, wukong retorted with a smirk “is that the rake you used trilling the fields and growing vegetables for the gao’s as their hired hand? I don’t see how I should be afraid of someone that is so deluded into thinking they can actually beat me with some measly farm tool.” only for zhu to let out a chuckle “what you don’t know, is that this is no ordinary weapon- he replied, only to be cut off by wukong “pfff, could’ve fooled me.” zhu sighed as he continued “this weapon of mine has been refined from divine ice-iron, polished till it gleaned a dazzling white, hammered by lord Lao Zi himself, while ying huo fed the fire with coal dust. The five emperors of the five regions applied their minds to it, the six dings and jaws went to great efforts, they made nine tooth of jade, cast a pair of golden rings to hang beneath them, decorated the body with the six bright shiners and the five planets, designed it in accordance with the four seasons and the eight divisions. The length of top and bottom match the heaven and the earth, positive and negative were to left and right, dividing the sun and moon. The six divine generals of the oracular lines are there, following the heavenly code: The constellations of the eight trigrams are sat out in order, it was named the supremely precious gold imbued rake, and starved to guard the gates of the jade emperor’s palace. As I had become a great immortal, I now enjoyed eternal life, and was commissioned as marshal tian peng. With this to mark my imperial office, when I raise it, fire and light stream forth. And when I lower it, a snowy blizzard blows. It terrifies the heavenly generals, and makes the kings of hell quake in fear-“ he was suddenly cut off as wukong laughed “heh, that’s easy, that’s just my regular Tuesday.” zhu sighed as he continued “-there is no other weapon matching it on earth, nor iron to rival it throughout the world. It can change into anything I like, and leaps about whenever I say the spell. For many a year I’ve carried it around, keeping it with me every single day. I will not put it down to eat, nor will I when I sleep at night. I took it with me to the peach banquet, and carried it into the celestial court, when I sinned my sin in drunken pride, I used it to force compliments with my evil will. When heaven sent me down to the mortal dust, I committed all kinds of wickedness down here, I used to devour people in this cave-” he said as he gestured at the wide open cave, which housed tons of human bones and skulls of different sizes and shapes “-until I fell in love and married in gao village. This rake has plunged beneath the sea to stir up dragons, and climbed up high mountains to smash up tigers' dens. No other blade is worth a mention besides my rake, the sharpest weapon ever created. To win a fight with it requires no effort, of course it always brings me glory. Even if you have an iron brain in a brazen head and a body made of steel, this rake will scatter your souls and send your spirit flying!” He finished.

The two sat in silence as Wukong looked at him unimpressed from her place sat on her cloud, lying on her stomach while their breasts cushioned her face, her weapon long since put away “you done?” She asked, zhu physically sagged his shoulders at the demoness’s reaction, and nodded “yeah, I’m done.”

“Good, cause I have some questions, you say that you were born into the wrong womb correct?” Wukong asked, zhu nodded “yeah, as is blandly obvious a pigs, she was a loving mother.” wukong nodded, not having any idea what having a mother is like as she continued “so if that’s the case, where did your all powerful rake go? cause I’m certain that the jade emperor hadn’t ordered for it to be removed from your person, so where did it go when you were born?” Zhu put his hand to his chin as he thought for a moment, before replying “a few years after I reached demon maturity, I had sat out from my home from this mountain and found it sticking straight outta the ground, the handle alone was a sure fire sign that it was mine.” wukong nodded , “interesting, interesting, so my next question is about how you say that you don’t let go of it even when you’re sleeping, does that mean you sleep with it?” Zue nodded his head, actually proud of this fact “yup! I keep it close in case there’s a break in, which doesn’t happen a lot since the village is far from any other civilization. but when it does I’m always prepared” wukong grinned, knowing that the gao’s would not only lose a valuable son-in-law that works on the farm to feed them and bring money to the table, but would also lose a great bodyguard in the process. She sat up on her cloud as she said “alright now, that’s enough chitter-chatter, I’m now sticking my head out for you to hit. Let’s see you scatter my souls and send my spirit flying, even though I only have one soul, which is mine.” without any hesitation, zhu raised his rake and brought it down with all his might, only for a resounding CLANK to sound the moment it hit the demonnesses head, who in turn only looked at him with a smirk “as I’ve said before, are you done?” She asked as her hair was in her face, she didn’t have a scratch on him, which greatly surprised the pig demon. Who’s arms and legs turned to jelly as he dropped his rake in surprise, stepping back as he looked at the demoness in a new light “wha….but how???” He whispered, wukong only grinned as she swiped back their hair back into place, starting her own tale “you wouldn’t know.” She began as she laid back down on her cloud, adjusting herself so they had her chin cushioned between her breasts as she began to get comfortable. “when I was captured by the heavenly troops for wrecking the heavenly palace, stealing the pills of immortality and the heavenly peaches and stealing and drinking the imperial wine.” She said as they counted on her fingers, talking casually like she was recounting her trip to restock on food, and not the most heinous crimes known to men. “I was marched to a place outside the dipper and bull palace, where these eight scouts hacked at me with axes, hit me with maces, cut me up with swords, stabbed at me with daggers, tried to burn me with lightning, and pounded me with thunder. But none of it did any permanent damage, since I’m already immortal, it all healed up. -Honestly it was kinda stupid of them to think hacking me with weapons would actually kill me- then I was taken off by the great high lord lao, and put in the eight trigram furnace. Where I was refined with divine fire, so that my eyes are fiery, my pupils stayed golden, my head brazen, and my shoulders of iron. If you don’t believe me, try a few more blows to see whether you can hurt me or not.” The monkey demonness said with a grin, just wanting to egg the guy on at this point.

“I remember you alright,” zhu replied “when you made trouble in heaven, you lived in the water curtain cave on flower fruit mountain in the land aolai on the continent divine body and mind. I haven't heard of you for a very long time. What brings you here, and why are you bullying me in front of my own gates? Surely my father-in-law didn’t go all that way to ask you to come here?”

You’d be surprised how much that supposed ‘father-in-law’ hates your guts right now. Wukong thought to herself.

“Nope, as much as I’d love to be at my island right now, covered by my baby monkeys on a sunny day, while being with my mate by the name of six eared macaque, I’m afraid I had been too busy being trapped in a waterlogged pillar to visit. But when my dear master, patriarch Tripataka, the younger brother of the great tang emperor, had released me, I had turned over to good, and decided to help protect him on his journey to the western heaven to visit the Buddha and ask for the scriptures. We happened to ask for a night's lodging when we came to gao village, and in the course of our conversation, old gao asked me to rescue his daughter and capture you.” zhu suddenly dropped to the floor while chanting respectfully, and said “where’s the pilgrim? Please take me to meet him.”

“What do you wanna see him for?” Wukong asked hesitantly while squinting her eyes in suspicion, not really trusting him enough to be around Tripitaka yet.
“Bodhisattva quanyin converted me and told me to obey the monastic rules and eat vegetarian food here till I could meet the pilgrim, the one that’s going to the western heaven to worship the Buddha and ask for the scriptures. I’ll be able to make up for my sins through this good deed, and win a good reward. I’ve been waiting for him for years, but there’s no news of him till now. If you’re a disciple of his, why didn’t you say something about fetching the scriptures before, instead of making this vicious attack on me in my own home?”

“Okay, first of all, how the HELL was I supposed to know about any of this? the only thing I’ve known since we’ve got here is that you were making trouble with the gao family, you didn’t say ANYTHING about being converted by Guanyin. secondly, this had better not be a ploy to soften me up and make you get away.” wukong said with a glare, if this ends up being true she’s gonna uproot a nearby tree in rage. “If you really want to protect the tang priest and you aren’t trying to make me a fool, then you’d better make a vow to heaven, and I’ll take you to my master.” the demon pig fell to his knees with a thud, and kowtowed to the sky so often that he looked like a rice pestle. “Amitabha Buddha!” He cried out, “if I’m not completely sincere, cut me up into ten thousand bits for breaking the laws of heaven!” After hearing him swear this oath, wukong said “alright, alright get up, now light a brand and burn this place of yours out. If you do that, I’ll take you.” zhu piled up some weeds and brambles, lit a brand, and set the cloud pathway cave aflame, it burned as well as a brick kiln that has gone out of control. “I have no second thoughts” he said as he wiped away a few tears, one’s of sadness or happiness wasn’t clear “so please take me to him.”

“Just give me that rake of yours first” Wukong ordered, and the pig demon obediently handed it over. Wukong then plucked out a hair from off her head, blew on it, chanted, and it then turned into three lengths of rope, with which she bound the pig demons hands behind his back. Zhu docilely put them there and let the demoness tie him up, all whilst trying to push out dirty thoughts. Wukong then seized him by the ear and led him off with the words “quick march!”

“Take it easy!” Zhu pleaded, “you’re pulling so hard you’re hurting my ear!” To this wukong shook her head with a smile “nope, I’m afraid it can’t be done.” She replied, “can’t show any favors, wait until you’ve seen my master. If you really are sincere, only then you’ll be released.” the two of them went through cloud and mist to gao village. The golden vajra is stronger than wood, the great sage could bring the wooden dragon to submission. When metal obeyed and wood was tamed they were as one, when wood was loving and metal kind they worked together. One host and one guest with nothing to keep them apart, with the three in harmony they had a strange power. Nature and feelings both rejoiced as they joined the Supreme principle, they both promised without reservation to go to the west. In a moment they were back at the village, holding the pig demon’s rake in one hand and twisting his ear with the other, she said “do you know who that is sitting up straight in the main hall? that’s my master.” with a fond smile, when old gao and all his friends and relations saw wukong coming, tugging the bound pig demon by the ear, they all came into the courtyard and said happily “vulnerable madam, this is the son-in-law alright” the pig demon went forward, fell to his knees, and kowtowed to Tripitaka with his hands behind his back. “Master!” He shouted “your disciple failed to welcome you, had I known, master, that you were staying in my father-in-law’s house, I’d have come to greet you and do homage, and I’d have prevented all this agony.”

Tripitaka, now extremely confused, looked at wukong and asked “wukong, how did you make him submit and pay homage?” Instead of replying, Wukong let zhu go, hit him with the handle of the rake and yelled “TELL HIM YOU FOOL!” Much to Tripitaka’s worry, the pig demon then told Tripitaka all about how he had been converted by the Bodhisattva. Tripitaka was so pleased that he asked squire gao for an incense table to be brought, which was done at once. Tripitaka then washed his hands, burnt incense, bowed low to the south, and said “thanks to be to the Bodhisattva for her divine grace.” the elders also burnt incense and bowed in worship. When this was done, Tripitaka took the seat of honor in the hall and told wukong to untie zue. Wukong shook herself to take her hairs back, and the rope untied themselves and disappeared, much to the pig demon's shock. Zhu bowed to Tripitaka once more and vowed to go to the west with him. Then he bowed to wukong as his elder sister cause she had joined first, addressing her as “elder sister” from then on. Meanwhile wukong just smiled nervously, not exactly liking the thought of having another ‘brother’. for the memory of what her so called ‘spiritual brothers’ had done still sat painfully in her memories, but alas she would just have to deal. “If you wish to earn a good reward by going with me as my disciple, I’ll give you a Buddhist name to call you by.”

“Master” he replied, “when the bodhisattva laid her hand upon my head and told me to obey the prohibitions, she game me a Buddhist name—zhu wuneng, Pig awakened to power.”

“Wonderful wonderful!” Wukong exclaimed with a smile, having been snapped outta their musings, while jumping up and down, her breasts and belly bouncing along with her movements “I’m called wukong, awakened to emptiness, and you’re called awakened to power. That makes us members of the same sect in the Buddhist faith!” zhu smiled as he turned back to Tripitaka “master, I have been instructed by the Bodhisattva that I never eat the five stinking foods and the three forbidden meats—-wild goose, dog, and snakehead. I’ve eaten vegetarian food in my father-in-law’s house and never touched the stinking foods, but now that I’ve met you, master, I’m freed from these restrictions.”

“You are not.” Tripitaka replied with a shake of his head “you are not to eat the three stinking foods and the three forbidden meats, and I’m giving you another name—eight prohibitions, or bājie.”

“I shall obey my master’s command.” the big demon replied happily, and from then on he was known as zhu bājie, or eight prohibitions pig. Squire gao was happier then ever to see that he had turned from evil to good, and he ordered his servants to sat out a banquet with which to thank the tang priest and his first disciple sun wukong. Bājie went over to Squire gao, tugged at his coat and asked “sir, may my wife come and pay her respects to these two gentlemen?”

“Brother.” wukong said with a laugh “you’ve entered the faith now and have become a monk, don’t ever talk about a wife again. Only taoist priests can have family’s—-we Buddhist monks never marry. Let’s all sit down and eat our vegetarian meal, then we can set off early tomorrow morning on our journey to the west.” squire gao had the table and chairs sat out and asked Tripitaka to take the seat of honor once again. Wukong and bājie sat on his left and right, and all the relations sat below them. Squire gao opened a pot of wine, from which he filled a cup and poured a libation to heaven and earth before handing it to Tripitaka. “Frankly sir.” he said “I have been a vegetarian from the womb, and have not consumed strong flavored food since my earlier childhood.”

Venerable master, I know that you are a vegetarian.” squire gao replied “which is why I haven’t pressed any meat or strong flavored food upon you, but this wine is made from vegetable matter, so a cup of it will do no harm”

“I don’t drink either.” Tripitaka explained, “as alcohol is the first prohibition of the priesthood.”

“Master!” Bājie hastily interjected, “I may be a vegetarian, but I haven’t given up liquor.”

“And although I haven’t a strong head for the stuff and can’t finish a whole jar of it, I haven’t given it up either” wukong added, Tripitaka sighed resignedly and said “in that case you two better have some, but don’t get drunk and ruin everything.” he said, the pair instantly took the first cups, after which everyone sat down again as the vegetarian dishes were brought in, words could not describe the flowing cups, the well filled dishes, and the splendid food, both wukong and bājie of course had double servings, even when wukong was a little self conscious at first, but quickly forgot about it upon digging in, as everyone at the table didn’t mind. When master and disciples had eaten, Squire gao brought pieces of gold and silver to the weight of two hundred ounces on a red lacquer tray and offered them to the three pilgrims to help with the expenses of their journey. Then he produced three brocade collared gowns that could serve as overcoats. “We are mendicant monks.” said Tripitaka, “who beg for our food on the villages and other places through which we pass, so we could not possibly accept gold, silver, or cloth.” wukong then marched up and grabbed a handful of the money, then she addressed the young man gao cai. “Yesterday.” She began “i troubled you to lead my master here, and today he has recruited another disciple, but we have been unable to show our gratitude. So take these pieces of gold and silver as your fee for guiding us, and buy yourself a pair of straw sandals. If you have any more evil spirits in the future, and you help us again, we’ll be able to show you even more appreciation.” the young man gao chi took the gold and silver, then kowtowed to express his thanks.

“If you won’t take gold or silver.” Squire gao said “please be good enough to accept these rough clothes as a mark of our gratitude.”

“If we monk’s accepted a single thread, we would have to atone for it a thousand ages.” Tripitaka replied, “it will suffice if we take the pancakes and fruit that we haven’t eaten with us as provisions for the journey.”

“Master, elder sister” bājie said, who was standing beside them, “it’s alright for you two to refuse them, but I was a son-in-law in this family for several years, and I deserve three bushels of grain to take with me. Oh yes, father-in-law, my tunic was torn by elder sister yesterday and my shoes have split, so please give me a black brocade cassock and a good pair of new shoes.” old gao, who could scaredly refuse this request, gave him the new shoes and a tunic in exchange for his old ones. Bājie swaggered over to old gao, chanted in respect, and said “please inform my mother-in-law, my sisters-in-law, my brothers-in-law, and my uncles that I have become a monk today. and ask them to excuse me for not saying goodbye to them in person. Father-in-law, look after my wife well, for if we don’t get the scriptures, I’ll go back to lay life and work for you as a son-in-law again.”

“YOU MORON!!” Wukong shouted as Tripitaka clung onto her waist in fright upon hearing what bājie had just said, eyes blown wide like a bunnies, while wukong rubbed his back protectively “STOP TALKING NONSENSE!”

“I’m doing nothing of the sort!” Bājie replied as he turned around to look at her “I’m thinking that If things go wrong I’d be wasting my time as a monk, and my wife’s marriage would have been ruined, both for nothing.”

“Enough of your idile chatter” Tripitaka said as he finally regained his bearings, silently looking at wukong in thanks as he continued “let’s be on our way at once” their luggage was hung from a carrying pole on bājie’s shoulder. When the white horse was saddled, Tripitaka mounted it, and Wukong led the way with her iron cudgel over her shoulder. Thus the three of them left squire gao, his relations, and his friends, and headed west.

Chapter Text

After traveling peacefully Westwards for a month, the three of them left the territory of Stubet and saw a mountain soaring up above their heads. Tripitaka stopped bi long, reined him in, and said “wukong wukong, that’s a high mountain in front of us, so please go and reconnoiter it” before wukong could make a move, bājie spoke up “no need, It's called Pagoda Mountain, and there's a Rook's Nest Hermit who cultivates his conduct on it. I've met him.”

“What does he do?” Tripitaka asked, "He has some powers.” bājie replied “He once invited me to cultivate my conduct with him, but I didn't go.” wukong raised an eyebrow, but quickly looked away, seemingly uninterested. As master and disciple talked they were soon on the mountain, South of it were blue pines and verdant locust trees, To the North were green willows and red peach−blossom. Cawing noisily were the wild birds that talked to each other, Soaring gracefully, The cranes flew together. Rich in fragrance were the thousands of different flowers, softly dark were the endless kinds of herbs. In the gullies were bubbling green streams, The crags were wreathed in auspicious cloud. It was indeed a scene of rare and elegant beauty. Lonely, where no man came or went.

As the master surveyed the scene from his horse he noticed a grass hut in front of a fragrant locust tree. To the left of it were David's−deer with flowers in their mouths, and to the right were monkeys holding offerings of fruit, while phoenixes of many colours wheeled around the top of the tree, in which cranes and golden pheasants had gathered. Bājie pointed and said “"That's the Rook's Nest Hermit.” with a nod, Tripitaka gave his horse the raine and went straight to the foot of the tree. When the hermit saw the three of them coming he jumped down from his bird's nest. Tripitaka dismounted and bowed to him, and only then the hermit replied as he helped him up “Please rise, holy priest. I'm sorry I did not welcome you properly.” bājie then stepped up next to the monk and said "Greetings, venerable hermit.”

"Aren't you the Iron−haired Pig from the Mount of Blessing? How have you had the great good fortune of traveling with the holy monk?”

“Last year” bājie replied “I was converted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin, and I swore that I'd go with him as his disciple.” he explained, "Wonderful, wonderful!" exclaimed the delighted hermit, who then pointed at wukong and asked “where ever did you find this delightful woman?”

“Old hermit.” wukong began, “how is it that you recognized someone like...” She gestures vaguely at bājie, who shoots them a glare “…him, but not me?”

"Please excuse my ignorance” the hermit replied “are you some kind of mystic warrior demoness? If so I’m terribly sorry, for I don’t quite recognize you.”

“Her name is sun wukong” Tripitaka replied as he rose an arm to block the monkey demoness from beating the poor man up, steam blew through the monkeys nose in anger upon not being recognized “I apologize for my discourtesy.” the hermit replied, having grown afraid upon accidentally angering the demoness, Tripitaka bowed again and asked him the way to the Great Thunder Monastery in the Western Heaven “far away.” the other replied, "far away. The journey is a long one and there are many tigers and leopards along the way. It will be difficult.”

Upon hearing this wukong barked out a laugh “heh, I don’t see what’s so scary about tigers and leopards, I used to eat those for breakfast, if anything they should be scared of ME!”

After a moment of silence, Tripitaka asked "How far is it?" "Although the journey is a long one.” the hermit replied “you are bound to get there in the end. But there will be evil influences that you'll find hard to dispel. I have a Heart Sutra, a total of 270 words in 54 sentences, and if you recite it when you encounter evil influences you will come to no harm.” Tripitaka prostrated himself on the ground and begged the hermit to tell him it, and the hermit begun to recite it to him. When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara was meditating on the profound prajna−paramita, he perceived that all the five aggregates are void and empty, and he was thereupon freed from all sufferings and calamities, As the Patriarch from the Tang had already the origins of enlightenment inside himself, he was able to remember the Heart Sutra after only one hearing, and it has been passed on down to this very day. This sutra is the kernel of the cultivation of the truth, and it is the gateway to becoming a Buddha. When the hermit had recited it, he started to rise up to his crow's nest by cloud, but Tripitaka tugged at him and said that he wanted to know the way to the western heaven. To this the hermit replied with a smile “The journey will not be difficult, if you try to follow my instructions. There will be a thousand mountains, and a thousand deep rivers. Many evil miasmas, and many a demon that will try to hurt and deceive you. If you reach the edge of the sky, do not worry or be afraid. If you come to Precipitous Cliff, walk with your feet placed sideways. Be careful in the Black Pine Forest, Where many a evil and cunning fox may block your path. The capital cities will be full of spirits, and demon kings will live in the mountains. Tigers will sit in the music rooms, Wolves will be in charge of the accounts. Lions and elephants will all be kings, A wild boar will carry your luggage, A water monster will lead the way. While a wary stone monkey, who has lived with great pain all these centuries. Has to find it in themselves to not be angered at past actions. Ask those friends of yours, they know the way to the west.”

Wukong smiled bitterly, pulling back her lips to show the hermit her razor sharp fangs, I thought you said you didn’t know about me you little prick- before facing Tripitaka with a calm grin “Let's go. No need to ask him, you can ask me.” Tripitaka stared at the demoness confused, seeming not to understand what she meant until the hermit changed himself into a beam of golden light and went up to his nest, while Tripitaka stood there in shock before bowing to him in gratitude. Wukong on the other hand was FURIOUS, the monkey raised her golden tipped cudgel, and was about to go up to wreck the place when ten thousand lotus flowers appeared, protected by a thousand miraculous mists. “Sister monkey, you are strong enough to stir up the ocean or turn a river upside−down, but don't even dream of touching a twig of that nest!” When Tripitaka saw what they were about to do, he reached up as far as he could and grabbed ahold of the collar of her hanfu and pulled them back "Wukong, what do you mean by trying to wreck this Bodhisattva's nest?!” wukong quickly turned around and pulled herself out of his grip, both hands balled into fists at her sides "He insulted us two disciples!”

"He did not insult you.” Tripitaka replied “He was talking about the way to the Western Heaven.” wukong preceded to shake her head “You wouldn't be able to understand.” wukong replied "When he said, 'A wild boar will carry your luggage,' he was insulting bājie, and when he said ‘While a wary stone monkey, who has lived with great pain all these centuries. Has to find it in themselves to not be angered at past actions’ he was insulting me for daring to say that they understand ANYTHING about me, just because these higher ups act so high and mighty, it doesn’t give them the right to try to talk to me like they know me! You didn't get his meaning, of course.” wukong said as she crossed her arms across their chest, purposely not looking at him when bājie spoke up “Don't be angry, That hermit knows about the past and the future as well. We don't yet know whether his talk about a water monster leading the way will come true or not. Let him off.”

Wukong watched as the lotus blossoms and the miraculous mists draw in round the nest, and hurriedly asked his master to mount the horse and go down the mountain to the West. Although they knew blessings were rare on earth, There was many a demon and disaster on the hill.

———————————————————

Eating and sleeping in the open, the three of them traveled on, and before long the heat of summer was upon them. The blossoms were over, the butterflies' passion spent. High in the trees the cicadas screeched. While wild silkworms spun cocoons amid the pomegranate blossom, As lotus flowers opened in the pool. As they were travelling along one evening they saw a cottage beside the road. “Look!” Said Tripitaka, “the sun is setting behind the Western hills, hiding its mirror of fire, and the moon is rising from the Eastern sea to show its wheel of ice. How lucky that there is a family living by our path. Let's spend the night here and set off in the morning.”

Bājie nodded his head in agreement, quite pleased with this plan “Well said” the pig replied, “I'm a bit hungry, and if we begged some food from that house I'd have more strength for carrying the luggage.”

"Homesick ghost.” wukong scoffed, “you've only been away from home for a few days, but you're already regretting you came.” to this bājie shot the demoness an annoyed look, quite tired of his elder sisters attitude, “elder sister.” he replied, unaware of how wukong flinched lightly at the title, the only one who noticed being Tripitaka, whom sent the monkey a concerned glance. he continued "I can't live on wind and mist like you. You couldn't realize how the hunger's been gnawing at my stomach all these days I've been following our master.”

“Bājie.” Tripitaka begun “if your heart is still at home, you are not intended for a religious life, and you'd better go.” upon hearing this, bājie fell to his knees and pleaded, "Master, please don't pay any attention to what my elder sister says, it’s an insult, she says I wish I hadn't come, but in fact I've had no regrets at all. I may be stupid, but I'm straight. I just said that I was hungry and want to beg for some food, and she starts calling me a homesick ghost. But the Bodhisattva told me about the prohibitions, and you have been so kind to me, so I really do want to serve you on your journey to the West. I'll never have any regrets, I swear I won't. This is what they call 'cultivating conduct the hard way'. What right have you to say I shouldn't be a monk?"

Tripitaka sat there thinking deeply about what the pig said, if he’s really being genuine about being his disciple and continuing on this journey, he wouldn’t in good conscience send him away. looking over to wukong for assistance, the monkey gave him a nod, turning back to bājie he replied “Very well then, up you get.”

Almost like he had been placed on coiled springs, the pig leaped up to his feet and picked up the carrying−pole, chattering incessantly. Then he pressed grimly on. Before long they reached the roadside house, where Tripitaka dismounted as wukong took the birdie and bājie put down his burden. They all stood in a green shade. Tripitaka took his nine−ringed monastic staff, straightened his rattan hat, and hurried to the gates, where he saw an old man lying back on a bamboo bed mumbling Buddhist scriptures to himself. Not wanting to shout loudly, Tripitaka said in a quiet voice, "Greetings, benefactor” The old man sprang to his feet, straightened his clothes, and came out through the gate to return his greeting. "Excuse my discourtesy, venerable sir," he said, going on to ask, "Where are you from, and why have you come to my humble abode?”

"I am a monk from the Great Tang in the East.” Tripitaka replied, “and I bear an imperial command to worship the Buddha in the Thunder Monastery and ask for the scriptures. As we find ourselves in this district at nightfall, I would be enormously obliged if you could allow us to spend the night in your mansion.”

"You'll never get there.” the old man said with a wave of his hand and a shake of his head. "It's impossible to get scriptures from the Western Heaven. If you want scriptures you'd better go to the Eastern Heaven” Tripitaka said nothing as he asked himself why the old man was telling them to go East when the Bodhisattva had instructed them to go West. How could the scriptures be obtained in the East, he asked himself. In his embarrassment he was at a loss for words, so he made no reply.

Wukong on the other hand, who was rough by her very nature, could not stand for this, so they went up to the old man and yelled “old fellow, you may be very ancient but you're a complete fool. We holy monks from far away come to ask for lodging, but all you can do is to try to put us off. If your house is too poky and there isn't room for us to sleep in it, we'll sit under the trees all night and won't trouble you any further.”

Quite frightened by the sight of such a towering beast such as her, the old man grabbed ahold of Tripitaka and said “Master, you didn't warn me that you had a disciple with such a towering stature and frightening aura, looking like a thunder goddess with her red eyes, You shouldn't let a demon like her alarm and offend a person of my age.”

Wukong scoffed at the old man's pathetic display “oh get a grip will ya? it’s like you’ve never seen a demon before, with how your quivering in your boots like you are.” She replied as she crossed her arms with a dark shadow over their face “You're completely lacking in judgement, old man, Those pretty boys may look good but, as they say, they don't taste good. There’s not a man or demon on earth that could defeat me. for I am tough, and it's all muscle under my skin.” Mostly anyway, Wukong thought bitterly.

"I suppose you must have some powers.” the old man replied after a ponder, wukong only straightened with a scowl, some??? It’s like this old bag of bones in just asking to get hit, but tried to calm herself if only to not anger their master, she instead gave him a ghost of a grin “Without wishing to boast, I get by.”

"Where is your home?” The old man asked, this caught Wukong by surprise, for she did not expect the man to ask such a personal question, but replied nonetheless “My ancestral home is the Water Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit in the land of Aolai which lies across the sea to the East of the Eastern Continent of Superior Body and mind. I’ve not been there in quite some time, but I still hold fond memories of the place. That is where I learned almost everything I knew from birth to when I left when I was thirteen years of age in search of divine power, and my name is sun wukong, or Awakened to Emptiness. I used my abilities that were given to me at birth to make myself the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, but as I declined heavenly office and raised a great rebellion against the Heavenly Palace, I brought a disaster down on my own head. My sufferings are now over. I've turned to the Buddhist faith and am seeking a good reward for the future by escorting His Tang Excellency, my master, on his journey to the Western Heaven to visit the Buddha. Despite all this I do intend on returning to my place of birth once this journey of ours is over, for I am also the king of the demons living there, and I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting for longer then needed. I'm not afraid of high mountains with precipitous paths, or of broad rivers with huge waves. I can catch monsters and subdue demons, capture tigers or dragons, walk in the sky, or burrow into the earth. As long as your mansion has a few broken bricks and tiles, a singing pot and an open door, I'll be able to rest here contented.”

After hearing this speech, the old man said with a chuckle, "So you're a monk with the gift of the gab who switched destiny’s.” he replied, not as a question but more as a statement of fact, wukong stood there stunned for a moment, not having thought about that before. “well…i wouldn’t really say I’ve switched it, it’s more of that I’ve just taken a detour, by the end of this journey I’ll still be the same ole monkey that takes no shit from nobody.” a pause “but I’ll still try my best to be merciful when needed. now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m quite tired from the strain of the journey with my master to talk any longer.” upon hearing this, bājie poked his head around Tripitaka’s shoulder to give his elder sister a baffled look, having just been scolded moments before about complaining about being hungry, it just didn’t add up.

"It's as well you are," the old man replied, "or you'd be talking me to death. If you have all these powers you'll be able to reach the West. How many of you are there? Please come into my cottage for the night.”

Tripitaka bowed to him in thanks “Thank you very much for not losing your temper with her, there are three of us.”

"Where is the third?" the old man asked, "Your eyes are very dim, old man” wukong said, pointing as she continued, "Can't you see him standing in the shade there?”

When the old man, whose eyes were indeed dim, looked carefully and saw bājie’s face he was so terrified that he ran into the house shouting, "Shut the gates, shut the gates, there's a monster here!” Without wasting a single breath, wukong ran over and and grabbed him. “Don't be afraid, old fellow, he's not an evil monster, he's a fellow disciple of my master, otherwise known as my dimwitted younger brother, so there’s no need to cause any panic.”

"Very well then," replied the old man, who was trembling all over, "but what a hideous creature to be a monk.” This only caused bājie to give the old man a heated glare. As the old man was talking to the three monks in front of the gates, two young men appeared at the Southern end of the farm bringing an old woman and three or four children back from transplanting rice−seedlings, for which reason their clothes were tucked up and their feet were bare. When they saw the white horse and the carrying pole with luggage and heard the shouting at the gates of their home, they did not know what was up, so they rushed forward and asked, "What are you doing?" Bājie turned round, flapped his ears, and thrust his snout at them, at which they all collapsed in terror or fled, In the confusion Tripitaka kept calling out, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we are good men, we are monks going to fetch the scriptures!” In desperation, all while wukong just shook their head and muttered “stupid pig.” The old man then came out again, and helped the old woman to her feet, “Up you get, wife.” he said, “"there's no call for panic. This holy father is from the Tang court, and although one of his disciples is quite ugly, their hearts are in the right place. Please take the youngsters inside.” the old woman clung to the old man while the two young men took the children inside.

As he sat on a bamboo chair in the gatehouse, Tripitaka said indignantly “Disciples, the pair of you are quite frightening to look at, and your language is too coarse. You gave that whole family a terrible fright, and got me into trouble.”

"I tell you truthfully, master” bājie replied, “that I've grown better−looking since I've been following you. When I lived in Gao Village I looked so awful that I often used to scare twenty or thirty people to death by making a face and waggling my ears.”

"Don't exaggerate, stupid.” wukong said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes “and tidy that ugly mug of yours up a bit.” this statement only led to confuse the monk, who said “What nonsense you're talking wukong? He was born that way, so how can you expect him to tidy his face up?”

Wukong replied calmly without missing a beat “He could stick his rake of a snout into his chest, and not bring it out, and he could lay those fan−shaped ears down behind his head and not waggle them. That would tidy his appearance up.” bājie then tucked his snout away and laid his ears back, and stood beside Tripitaka with his head bowed, wukong nodded in satisfaction, took the luggage inside and tethered the white horse to a post. In truth, wukong doesn’t agree with the way humans react around her younger brother, it only served to make the demonesses gut churn with discomfort as she is reminded back to a time where, in the rare times she and dbk would go out into a human settlement for whatever reason, her elder brother would be forced to cover his face and horns for fear that he would scare the townspeople. All he wanted to do back then was go up to him, rip off the blanket he had draped upon his head, turn around to the townspeople and say “hey you! this bull right here doesn’t deserve to hide the parts of him that you see as ugly or frightening, and if you have a problem with how he looks you can just shove it!” but knew deep down that that would only cause panic, not to mention it would leave dbk in a state of discomfort, and she’d rather battle a thousand demons then let that happen.

She only wished that someday in the future, demon kind and humans could learn to coexist as a community without having to hide who they are. but until then, wukong will just have to make due with what she’s got.

================== 🛑 start of uncomfy topic 🛑 ==================

Meanwhile the old man came out again with a young man who was carrying a tray with three cups of tea on it, and when it had been drunk he gave instructions for a vegetarian meal to be prepared. The young man then brought out an old, dented, and unlacquered table, as well as a pair of benches with chipped tops and broken legs, which he put in a cool spot before asking the three of them to sit down. In no time at all, the youth came in with food, which they put on the table with the words, "Please eat." Tripitaka put his hands together and started to recite the grace. By then bājie had already swallowed a bowlful, while wukong sat there rimroid straight as she stared blankly at all the extra food the youths had made for the two with great embarrassment. knowing exactly why her serving was much larger than bājie’s. Speaking of whom, the pig had already finished three more before the short prayer was over. "What a chaff−guzzler…” wukong muttered, if only to distract herself “We do seem to have run into a hungry ghost.”

The old man however, found the speed at which Bājie ate very amusing, and said, "This reverend gentleman must be very hungry. Give him more rice at once.” bājie indeed had a large stomach. Which was plain to see as he, with his head still bowed, devoured at least a dozen more bowls, this only led to wukong having mixed feelings at the sight, on one hand the large amount of food bājie was eating made their large serving of food look like an appetizer dish, this lead the demoness to feel shame at the fact that she could very well have the ability to eat the same amount, causing her to slowly sink into her seat, but this unfortunately had the consequence of having both Tripitaka and the elder to take notice of not just her, but how she hadn’t even had a single bite herself , which only led the elder to ask “what’s the matter mistress? you hadn’t even touched your food, could it be overcooked? or perhaps you need more just like your younger brother? We couldn’t help but take notice of your larger stature and came to the conclusion that you needed more than one bowl of rice to tide you over for the night, if this isn’t enough we will gladly make you more”

This statement only left poor wukong in a stuttering mess, as she almost leaped out of her chair as they sat up, her face heating up to the point her face was the color of tomatoes, “O-OH N-NO, NO NO NO, YOUR FINE- THIS IS FINE-YOU DON’T NEED TO MAKE ME ANYMORE!” She pleaded as they waved her arms around in a show of peace and surrender, quickly shutting her mouth as they began to eat, all while trying her best to avoid everyone’s eyes, this is how the demoness was unaware of bājie giving her a look between bafflement and concern. While Tripitaka looked at her with saddened eyes, knowing exactly why she was acting like this. In trying to help his poor disciple, Tripitaka quickly changed the subject by asking the old man his surname, and was told, "Your humble servant's surname is Wang.”

================ END OF UNCOMFY TOPIC ===============

"How many descendants have you?"

"Two sons and three grandchildren."

"Congratulations, congratulations!” Tripitaka said, then he asked the old man how old he was.

"I have lived in my stupidity to sixty−one.”

“Splendid, splendid, you have begun a new cycle,” Tripitaka said. "Benefactor," he continued, "why did you say at first that it would be impossible to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven?" Upon hearing this both wukong and bājie stopped eating to listen, for they too were curious.

“There is no problem about actually getting the scriptures” the old man replied, “it’s just that the journey will be very difficult. Only some twelve miles to the West of here is a mountain called the three−hundred mile Yellow Wind Ridge, and it's full of evil monsters. That's why I said it would be impossible to get the scriptures. But as this younger gentleman says she has so many magic powers, you will be able to get there,” this caused wukong to straighten up while poofing out her chest with pride, spots of rice still stuck around her mouth and chin “why of course I will!” She began, while bājie gave the demoness a flat look, but was secretly glad that his elder sister was feeling better “With me, my master and my fellow younger brother, no devils, however fierce, will dare to provoke us!” Tripitaka gave the golden monkey an amused look, he too was greatly relieved that they were feeling better.

After all their meals had been eaten, bamboo beds were set out for them in the gatehouse, and they all went to sleep, all but one, whom had thankfully eaten her fill, but it was not in good conscience, for earlier that afternoon Tripitaka and her had pleaded for bājie to not eat the family out of house and home, even as he complained that he was only half full, but after Tripitaka warned him that if he didn’t stop he would sleep outside did he finally coincided. no matter how much wukong tossed and turned, she couldn’t stop thinking that they could very well end up like that: having an insatiable hunger with a belly that could only be filled with food made for four or eight people, ending relations and friendships in the process, thinking about all this led them to shake slightly as she tried her best not to cry, curling up into a ball as she gripped onto the covers with an ironclad grip.

She didn’t get much sleep that night.

————————————————

At dawn the next morning wukong went to saddle the horse while bājie packed the luggage, sending quick glances of concern at her whenever the demoness wasn’t looking, it was pretty obvious by the dark circles under her eyes that the demoness hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of a reason as to why someone like her would lose sleep. After he was done packing, he went over to her and casually leaned against bi long and asked “so, did you get any sleep last night?”

Wukong, who was focused on making sure bi longs saddle was put on correctly, hadn’t heard him. In fact, it seemed like she wasn’t really focused on anything, if the way her eyes were glazed over was any indication, this only served to worry him further. he asked again, trying his best to keep the urgency out of his voice, but it seemed he failed since she turned to look at him with a surprised look “what was that bājie?” Bājie sighed “I was asking if you had gotten any sleep last night, you seem a bit unfocused.”

Wukong stood there staring at him blankly for a few seconds, trying to process what he had said until she suddenly let out a laugh, which caused the pig to jump a few feet in the air “what?? me, Unfocused? I’ll have you know that back in my homeland I was the most focused demon there was, be it on the battlefield or doing something mandatory like gathering more herbs or going out hunting with my tribe. Heck, if I was ever unfocused I would've died a long time ago!” This last part seemed to be funny cause she almost fell off bi long from how hard she was laughing. Bājie and bi long gave each other bewildered looks, after a few minutes Wukong seemed to calm down enough for bājie to speak “well…if you’re not unfocused” he began, having his doubts “then did you sleep well?”

Wukong gave the pig demon a curious look “what makes you think I didn’t get enough sleep?” She asked, though her tone was casual, there seemed to be a darker undertone, so bājie tried his best to be cautious “well, it’s just that you have dark circles under your eyes, which is commonly a sign of exhaustion.”

This seemed to leave Wukong stumped, as she quickly avoided eye contact “uhhhhhhhhhh, well- it’s just- I mean-“ luckily before wukong could make a fool of herself, they heard old wang tell his wife to prepare some pastries and hot water for them, this causing wukong to flitch like she had been slapped, but she quickly recovered as Tripitaka made his way over to them and mounted the horse, the only one that seemed to notice being bājie, who thankfully decided to keep quiet.

He just hoped that whatever seemed to be bothering her would go away eventually.

After being given the pastries and water, they thanked him and said their goodbyes, "If anything goes wrong on your journey," the old man said, "you must come to our place.”

"Don't be so discouraging, old fellow,” wukong said “We're dedicated, and there's no turning back for us.” With that Tripitaka whipped the horse, bājie picked up the carrying−pole, and they headed West. As was expected on their journey there was no good path to the West, and there were undoubtedly demons and great disasters in store for them. Before they had been going for half a day, they reached the mountain. It was most precipitous, Tripitaka rode as far as the edge of a cliff, then dismounted to have a look. The mountain was very high, easily towering over all of them with its might, craggy was the ridges, and steep were the cliffs, there were very deep and luxurious valleys that seemed to span off to eternity as springs were to be heard not far from where they stood. While the sweet smell of flowers wafted through the air, the mountain was very high to the point that it’s summit seemed to touch the azure heavens.

The gorges were very deep to the point that if you looked close enough you could see the underworld, in front of the mountain clouds rolled lazily across the sky, seemingly oblivious to mortal paral. There seemed to be an abundance of towering crags as well, there seemed to be no end of myriad−fathom, soul−snatching cliffs, In which were twisting caves made for dragons, caves were full of stalactites dripping with water. He saw deer with branching antlers, And river−deer gazing with a fixed stare, Coiled, red−scaled pythons were seen in the grass and near streams, And mischievous, white−faced apes sat in towering trees. At evening tigers climbed the hills to find their dens, while dragons emerged from the waves at dawn, to enter their caves with thunderous roars. Birds flew above the grass in search of food, rose in a flurry as beasts walked in the woods, Suddenly a pack of wolves ran past, causing the heart to pound with fear. This is a place where caves are linked with caves, And mountains stand with mountains. The green of the peak made it look as if it was made of ten thousand feet of jade, As a myriad of clouds were piled above it like a cover of bluish gauze.

While Tripitaka urged his silvery steed slowly forward, wukong strolled ahead on her cloud and bājie ambled along with the carrying−pole. As they looked at the mountain they heard a whirlwind blowing up, which caught Tripitaka by alarm “wukong,” he began, “there's a whirlwind coming.”

What's there to be afraid of about a wind?” Wukong asked, who happened to be a wind demon, bājie wasn’t lost on the irony, It's only weather, after all, and nothing to be afraid of” yeah but if the winds are strong enough, it could easily rip a person or several people off the ground like mushrooms, "But this is a very evil wind, not like a natural wind at all” Tripitaka replied, called it, bājie thought to himself, wanting nothing more then to scurry back to that welcoming house with welcoming people. "How can you tell?" Wukong asked, "Just look at it!” Tripitaka replied, "Mighty and majestic it howls and roars, Coming out of the distant heavens. As it crosses the ridge the trees moan, The trunks bend when it enters the wood. The willow on the bank is shaken to its roots, And flowers and leaves go swirling round the garden. On the fishing boats gathering in nets, they pull hard on the cables while ships lower their sails, and all cast anchor. The traveler loses his way in mid−journey, while The woodcutter in the hills cannot carry his load. The monkeys scatter in the orchards of fairy fruit, as the deer flee from the clumps of rare flowers. Locust trees and cedars collapse before the cliff, While pine and bamboo in the valley are stripped of leaves. There are stinging blasts of dirt and sand, And waves boil on rivers and seas.”

A few minutes pass in silence as they all listen to the wind. Until wukong pipes up “you could’ve just said the wind sounds scary-“ Tripitaka whips his head around with an annoyed look “wukong this is serious!” This caused wukong to take a step back with a grin “chill, chill, I was just joking around,”

“Well it wasn’t funny.”

Bājie went up to wukong and grabbed hold of her “elder sister” he said, "this is a terrific storm. Let's take shelter” this only caused wukong to sigh like she was an exhausted parent handling a toddler “You're useless, brother” wukong replied with a mocking laugh, this only caused bājie to grip onto the demoness tighter, but she didn’t seem to notice “If a big wind makes you want to hide, what are you going to do when you meet an evil spirit?"

…….dammit. the golden monkey has a point, still he continues “elder sister, have you never heard the saying, 'Avoid a pretty girl as you would an enemy, avoid a wind as you would an arrow?'" Bājie replied “There's no reason why we shouldn't take shelter.”

There’s a pause.

“I could try to fight the demon if that’ll make you feel better-“

"You're talking through your hat again” bājie said through clenched teeth, “As if you could get a hold on a wind. Besides, even if you did, your hand would go right through it.”

There’s another pause. this time a bit longer, it could’ve been his imagination but he could swear the wind had gotten stronger, then wukong sighed “bājie, we’re talking about an actual demon here, but even if this demon can control the wind, that doesn’t mean I can’t stop it.” with this wukong grabbed her tail and took a sniff, even as bājie and Tripitaka gave each other confused looks “it certainly isn’t a good wind.” wukong replied, her face scrunched up in thought, “It smells like either a tiger wind or a monster wind. There’s definitely something suspicious about it.”

Bājie gave the monkey demoness a scrutinizing look “okay, now that we know that, shouldn’t we, oh I don’t know- TRY TO FIND SHELTER!?” He roared, almost beating the sound of the wind with his volume, wukong took a moment to ponder this question before a ferocious striped tiger leapt out at the foot of the slope, slashing with its tail, and rushing towards them. Tripitaka was so scared that he could no longer keep his seat in his carved saddle, falling headfirst off his white horse and lay sprawled in a witless heap beside the path. Wukong only let out a huff “great, it scared Tripitaka! Do you know how hard it is to unscare him!?” Bājie didn’t grant her with a response and instead threw down the luggage, grabbed his rake and, not letting wukong move forward, roared, "Animal, where d'you think you're going?" all the while Tripitaka felt a sense of Déjà vu. He went straight after it and smote it on the head. The tiger stood up on its hind legs, and with a swing of its front left claws ripped at its own chest. There was a tearing noise as its skin all came off, and then the creature stood beside the path as all three gave it stunned and horrified looks.

A gory, skinned body, Round, red legs and feet. Fiery, matted hair, And straight, bristling eyebrows. It had Four sinister steely white fangs, A pair of glittering golden eyes. With soaring spirits it gave a mighty roar, though a mighty and majestic shout. "Not so fast” it yelled, "not so fast. I am none other than the Commander of the Vanguard for the Great Yellow Wind King. I bear His Majesty's strictest command to patrol the mountain and catch a few common mortals as tidbits for him to nibble with his wine. Where are you from, monk, and how dare you wound me with that weapon of yours?"

Wukong seemed to be at a loss of words, gently massaging her forehead in confusion “okay, yeah, we got that- but why in heavens name would you rip off your own skin??? Don’t you know that leaving your skin lying around is highly unsanitary?”

The tiger stood there for a moment, baffled “why would I- why the hell not?? If I’ve got the ability I might as well show it off right?” It tried to plead, looking between wukong and the still paralyzed-with-fear monk on the ground, but wukong wouldn’t let him off the hook “yeah but, just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should!”

The tiger was now starting to get a little annoyed with this demoness’s attitude “oh so now you’re trying to mother hen me?? who do you think you are?? certainly not my mother, that's for DAMN sure!”

“Why you little-“ wukong began, but was quickly interrupted by bājie “I'll get you, you beast!” He replied angrily, “You don't seem to realize that I'm not just any old passing traveler: I'm a disciple of Tripitaka, the younger brother of the Tang Emperor of the East, who has been sent by the Emperor to visit the Buddha in the Western Heaven and ask for the scriptures. If you clear off, stop blocking our path, and don't frighten my master anymore, I'll spare your life. But if you go on raging about like that, there'll be no mercy for you” Not bothering to argue, the evil spirit rushed at him, feinted, and clawed at his face. Bājie dodged nimbly and swung his rake at the monster, who turned and fled as he was unarmed. With bājie at his heels he made for the bottom of the slope and produced two bronze swords from the tangled undergrowth there; then, brandishing them, he turned to face him. The two of them battled away at the foot of the hill, lunging and hitting at each other. Wukong, who was helping the Tang Priest sit up, said, "Don't be afraid, master. You sit here while I help bājie to defeat that monster, then we can be on our way.” Tripitaka, who had managed to sit up, was shaking all over and intoning the Heart Sutra.

With one final pat on the shoulder, Wukong stood up, grabbed her cudgel and shouted, "Get it!” as she joined bājie in the fight, bājie made a tremendous effort, and the monster fled from the scene of battle. "Don't let him get away!” Wukong yelled. "you must catch it." The pair of them chased the monster down the mountain, waving the rake and the cudgel around with trained focus. The monster was so hard−pressed that it did a " reverse golden cicada shedding its skin" trick. It reverted to its real form−−a ferocious tiger−−with a somersault, but wukong and bājie would still not let it get away, and were hot on its heels, determined to destroy it. When the monster saw how close they were, it ripped at its chest and tore off its skin again, then laid it over a rock that was shaped like a crouching tiger. Then it abandoned its real body, turned into a hurricane, and went straight back to the path, where it noticed Tripitaka reciting the Heart Sutra. Without wasting another second, Tripitaka was grabbed by the monster and carried away in the wind. The Monk of the River was fated to suffer much, In the faith of Nirvana it is hard to win merit.

Carrying the Tang Priest to the mouth of the cave, the monster stilled the hurricane and said to the gatekeepers, "Report to His Majesty at once that the Tiger of the Vanguard has caught a monk and is awaiting further instructions outside the gates." He was then admitted on the orders of the chieftain. With his two bronze swords stuck in his belt and holding the Tang Priest in both hands much like a kitten, he went forward and genuflected before the chieftain. "Your Majesty," he said, "your humble underling was patrolling the mountain as ordered when suddenly I met a monk. He is the Patriarch Tripitaka, the younger brother of His Majesty the Great Tang Emperor, and he was going to the West to visit the Buddha and ask for the scriptures. I have captured him and now offer him as a dish for your table” The chieftain was astonished at the news. "I've heard tell of the Patriarch Tripitaka the holy priest sent by the Great Tang Emperor to fetch the scriptures. He has a disciple called sun wukong whose magical powers are tremendous and whose cunning is considerable. However did you manage to catch him?"

“He has two disciples. The first one to come at me was a fellow with a long nose and big ears who wields a nine−pronged rake, and the second one has a gold−banded iron cudgel and fiery eyes with golden pupils. When the pair of them were after me and about to attack, I used a 'golden cicada shedding its skin' trick to make my getaway, then I caught this monk to offer to Your Majesty as a snack.”

"He's not to be eaten yet.” the chieftain admitted with a sigh, Leaving the tiger demon shocked. “You must be off your food, Your Majesty, if you won't eat what's put before you,” replied the tiger of the Vanguard. “You don't get my point," the chieftain replied. "It's not eating him that worries me, but the thought that those two disciples of his may come here to make trouble, which would be dangerous. Tie him to the wind−settling stake in the garden at the back, and leave him there for a few days till we're sure his disciples won't be coming to make trouble for us. This way he'll be nice and clean, and we can do what we like with him without any arguments. Whether we have him boiled, steamed, fried or scrambled, we can eat him at our leisure.”

"Your Majesty's plans are most far−sighted, and you are quite right.” said the Tiger of the Vanguard, who then ordered his underlings to take Tripitaka away. Seven or eight of them crowded forward to tie him up, and take him away. they were like hawks seizing bramblings as they bound him tightly. Then did the unfortunate Monk of the River long for sun wukong. the holy priest in his troubles wished Bājie would come.

"Disciples!” he called out, "I don't know on what mountain you are catching monsters, or where you're subduing evil spirits, but I've met with disaster and been captured by a demon. Alas, when will I ever see you again? If you come soon, you can save my life, but if you are too long about it I will be finished.” tears poured down like rain as he sighed in despair.

Meanwhile~

As wukong and bājie chased the tiger down the mountain side they saw that it had reached the bottom and was crouching at the foot of the cliff. Wukong raised her cudgel and brought it down as hard as she could, thus hurting her hands, while bājie took another swipe at the beast with his rake, which made its prongs splay apart. It was only then they realized that it turned out to be only a tiger skin spread over a rock shaped like a crouching tiger.

There was a moment of silence as they realized their mistake, the first one to speak being wukong “welp. this is bad” she uttered “the mongrel up and tricked us” bājie looked at the demoness in shock, having also caught wind of this. “How?”

“The trick is called 'the golden cicada shedding its skin'. He put his tiger−skin over this rock and got away. We'd better go back and see that our master comes to no harm.” The two of them rushed back to find that Tripitaka had disappeared. upon seeing this wukong dropped down to her knees and let out a wail that was as loud as thunder “it took our master!” She cried out, while bājie led the horse over, who was far from surprised by this turn of events, having seen this happen before, and said through his tears “Heaven help us. Wherever shall we look for him?”

"Don't cry” Wukong said, raising her head “don’t cry. If you cry you’ll dampen our spirits. I’m convinced he must be somewhere on this mountain. We must start searching for him.” The two of them hurried deep into the mountain, going through passes and crossing ridges, and after they had been going for a long time they saw a cave palace at the foot of a rock−face. Screened by many a jagged peak, With ancient paths winding around, Green pines merged with bluish bamboo, The softness of willows and wutong trees. Odd boulders stood in pairs before the cliff, While birds made couples hidden in the woods. The water in the gully splashed against the rock−wall, As the spring waters trickled over the sandbank. Under the billowing clouds, Rare herbs grew lush. Fox spirits and crafty hares darted around, while Horned deer and river−deer fought for mastery. Ancient creepers hung across the rocks, And a thousand−year cypress was suspended in a chasm. In pinnacled majesty it vied with Mount Hua, while The flowers and birdsong rivaled Tiantai Peak.

"Worthy brother” wukong said, “put our baggage in the wind−storing cave, let the horse out to pasture, and lie low while I go to the gates of that place and fight it out with them. I must catch that evil spirit before I can rescue our master” wukong stated determinedly.

“There's no need to give me instructions” bājie replied. “Go at once.”

Wukong straightened her hanfu, and went straight to the gate with their cudgel in her hands. Above the gate she saw YELLOW WIND CAVE OF THE YELLOW WIND RIDGE written in large letters. Taking a firm stance and brandishing the club she shouted, "Evil monsters, send my master out if you don't want this den of yours turned upside−down and your home trampled flat!” When the junior fiends heard this they were terrified, and they ran trembling inside to announce, “your Majesty, a disaster!”

"What is it?" asked the Yellow Wind Monster who was sitting inside. "There's a towering thunder−voiced monkey demoness outside with a great thick iron cudgel in her hands, and she says she wants her master back!” The alarmed chieftain sent for the Tiger of the Vanguard and said to him, “When I sent you to patrol the mountain you were only supposed to catch mountain oxen, wild boar, deer, and goats. Why on earth did you bring that Tang Priest here? It's provoked his disciple into coming to make trouble. What are we to do?"

“There is no need for Your Majesty to worry," the Tiger replied. "Your incompetent underling will take fifty junior officers out with me and bring back that demoness as a third course meal. when I saw that ape, she had enough meat on her bones that I’ll bet my left foot that she’ll last us through winter.”

"Apart from the higher and lower ranking commanders, we have about six hundred junior officers here,” said the chieftain. "Take as many of them as you like with you. If you catch that Monkey, we can dine off the priest at our leisure, and I promise to make you my sworn brother. But I'm afraid that you won't be able to get her, and that she’ll kill you. If that happens, don't blame me.”

“Rest assured," the tiger monster said, "rest assured. I'll soon be back with her.” Mustering fifty strong and spirited young fiends, he charged out of the gates with drums rolling and banners waving; his two bronze swords were tied to his body. Before leaving the palace he said “besides, I love a strong woman that can kick my ass.” then bursting out the double doors he looked up to the nine foot warrior that he was about to fight and said “WHERE ARE YOU FROM, APE MONK!?” he shrieked at the top of his voice. "What do you mean by all this yelling and shouting?"

"You skinned beast!” Wukong retorted, "you played that trick of skinning yourself to capture my master, and you have the nerve to ask what I’m doing!? bring my master out at once and I'll spare your life.”

"Yes, I captured your master” the monster replied with a smug grin, “and he's going to be served up at His Majesty's dinner table. If you have any sense, go away. Otherwise I'll catch you too, and you'll be served up with him. As I've got one of you, I'll let the other off.” this left wukong absolutely furious, and she gnashed her steely teeth as her fiery eyes opened wide in a terrible glare. "What powers have you," she roared, brandishing their iron cudgel, "to give you the nerve to talk so big? I should give you a good thrashing so you won’t ever think of disrespecting me in such a manner!” The tiger put his hands on his swords, and a terrible fight ensued as each of them showed off how they’ve gotten so far in life. For one, fighting is like living and breathing, while the other would only fight until they cower. The monster was like a goose egg, whilst wukong came from an egg−shaped stone. She was made not to be broken so easily. So trying to ward off the demoness with bronze swords was like throwing eggs at a stone. How can a crow or jackdaw fight a phoenix? What chance has a pigeon against a hawk? The monster snorted out winds that covered the mountain with dust, but wukong breathed a fog that blotted out the sun. After fighting it out for many a round, The Vanguard was exhausted, his strength all gone. He turned away, defeated, to flee for his life, only to have wukong harry him to death.

When he could defend himself no longer, the monster turned to flee. As he had talked so boastfully in front of his chieftain he dared not return to the cave, so he tried to escape up the mountain side. Wukong, who had no intention of letting him go, chased him as fast as she could, waving her cudgel, roaring, and howling. They chased him as far as the hollow where the wind was stored, where bājie could be seen pasturing the horse. As soon as he heard the shouting though he turned to look, and when he saw wukong pursuing the defeated tiger monster he let go of the horse, raised his rake, and struck the tiger diagonally across the head. The poor monster, who thought he had made his way out of the silken net, never realized that he had been caught by a fish−trapper. Bājie’s rake made nine holes from which the blood gushed, and the brains all spurted out. Converted to the true faith several years before, He avoided meat and was awakened to emptiness. Determined with all his heart to defend Tripitaka, He won this merit early in his religious life.

Planting his foot in the middle of the monster's back, bājie swung the rake with both hands and smote him again. When wukong saw this she was delighted, and they said, "That's the way, brother. He led a few dozen petty fiends out to do battle with me, but I beat him. Instead of running back to the cave he came this way, it’s as if he wanted to die, born a coward, always a coward I always say.” bājie nodded in agreement.

"Was he the one who made a gale and carried off our master?" Bājie asked.

“The very one!” Wukong replied with a grin, “Did you ask him where our master is?" Bājie asked, "He took our master into the cave and wanted to give him to his chieftain to eat with his rice. This made me so angry that I fought him all the way to here, where you finished him off. The credit for this must go to you, brother. You'd better go on looking after the horse and our things while I drag that monster's body over to the cave and challenge them to another fight. We must capture the chief monster if we're to rescue our master."
"You're right," bājie said, "so off you go. If you beat that chief monster, mind you chase him this way for me to corner and kill?” wukong nodded and went straight to the mouth of the cave with her cudgel in one hand and the dead tiger in the other. When the patriarch was in danger from evil monsters, Emotion and Nature combined to subdue the demons.

—————————————

The fifty petty devils fled into the cave, their banners and drums smashed, to report, "Your Majesty, the Tiger of the Vanguard is no match for that towering demoness! She chased him down the mountain.” the old fiend was very angry at the news, and he sat silent with his head bowed as he thought over what to do. As if it couldn’t get worse for the old fool, the petty demons from the gate came in to announce, "Your Majesty, the demoness named sun wukong has killed the Tiger of the Vanguard and dragged his body to the gates, where she’s now insulting us to provoke us to fight.”

The old fiend was angrier than ever when he heard this, and he said, "This wretch doesn't know what she’s doing killing my Commander of the Vanguard, although I haven't eaten his master. Hateful beast. Bring my armour. I've heard of this beast such as her, and now I think I'll go out to have a look at this nine−headed, eight−tailed monk. I'll capture her to avenge my Tiger of the Vanguard” The junior devils brought the armour as fast as they could, and when the old fiend had put it all on properly, he took his steel trident and led his devilish host out of the cave. He was full of martial dignity as he came out, His golden helmet shone in the sun, And light was reflected from his golden armour. A pheasant's tail floated above his helmet, And the thin silk robe over his armour was pale goose−yellow. The belt that girded his armour was dragon−brilliant, His shining breastplate dazzled the eye. His deerskin boots were the color of locust−tree blossom, His brocade kilt was patterned with willow leaves. He was no less as striking as then the Little Sage Erlang.

As he came out of his cave the old fiend shouted at the top of his voice, "ARE YOU SUN WUKONG, GREAT SAGE EQUAL TO HEAVEN!?” Wukong, who was jumping up and down on the tiger monster's corpse and brandishing her cudgel, replied, “yes, it is I, now bring my master out.” The evil spirit looked carefully at wukong and saw that no, she didn’t have nine heads, nor eight tails as he had heard, but she was still a sight to behold, she stood at a whopping nine feet tall, with long light orange hair that reached down to her waist. She has a plump figure with chubby arms and legs that looked as sturdy as tree trunks, beneath her hanfu he saw a bulging gut that didn’t even seem to weigh her down at all, with equally as big breasts. if she hadn’t had killed his one and only commander, he would ask her to be apart of his court, but alas.

It didn’t take long for wukong to notice him staring, and once again cursed the emperor for giving them this body that almost made as much trouble as Tripitaka did on his own, showing off a wicked grin, she spoke “you don’t seem to have a brain behind those eyes of yours hm? That’s quite the shame, I was hoping I’d get a bigger challenge after killing the ugly worm that was your commander.” She replied with a grin, as if to prove a point, she took her cudgel she was leaning on and bashed the tiger demons face in, leaving it looking so misshapen and disfigured that you couldn’t even tell what it was before. This seemed to finally anger him enough to raise his steel trident to hit the cursed demoness upside the head, even with the danger in front of him, she stayed where she stood.

CLUNG!

Wukong didn’t even flinch as the monster hit them, then with a bend of her waist she grew six feet taller, making herself fifteen feet tall altogether. This greatly astonished the monster, who put his trident down and shouted “SUN WUKONG! why do you come and do these defensive transformations at my gate? Stop fooling around and come over here so that I can average my fallen commander!”

“My child.” wukong said with a cheeky grin as she changed back to their original size. “As the saying goes, 'If you have any warm feelings, don't raise your hand in anger; and if you raise your hand in anger, put all feelings aside.' I have a very heavy hand, and I'm afraid that you may not be able to stand my cudgel.” No longer wishing to talk, the monster whirled his trident round and lunged at wukong's chest. With unrushed expertise Wukong easily parried the trident with their cudgel before striking at the monster's head. The demon king was furious, as the Great Sage showed her might. The furious demon king wanted to catch wukong in revenge for his Vanguard Commander, The mighty Great Sage Intended to capture the evil spirit and rescue her master. When the trident came the cudgel parried, When the cudgel struck the trident blocked. not once did one felter in their movements. One was supreme commander of the mountain, The other was the Handsome Monkey King, Protector of the Law. At first they fought in the dust, But then they rose into mid−air. The steel−tipped trident Was bright−pointed and deadly sharp, while the As−You−Will cudgel was black and banded with gold. Whoever was run through would go to the Underworld, If either was hit they would surely meet King Yama. It All depended on a fast hand and a quick eye, Strength and vigor were essential. For each were mindless of life or death, Who would survive, and who would be killed?

After some thirty rounds of combat between the old fiend and the Great Sage the issue was still not settled. As wukong wanted to win glory she summoned some clones from her hairs. When she did, the hairs turned into well over a hundred clones, all dressed like them and wielding iron cudgels. They surrounded the monster in mid−air, and in his fright he countered with a trick of his own. He turned his head sharply to the Southeast, opened his mouth three times, and blew. A yellow hurricane suddenly arose. it howled and moaned as all was changed, Without sign or shadow the yellow dust whirled, Whistling through forests, toppling mountains, and uprooting trees, Picking up dust to blot out the tumbling ridge. The Yellow River's waters were all in turmoil, While the Yangtse's waves were blown backwards in fright. The Polar palace was rocked in the sky, as The Senluo Palace in the Underworld was all but blown down. Heaven was filled with the shouting of Arhats, and The Eight Great Vajrapanis were all yelling wildly. And Manjusri's black−coated lion fled, Samantabhadra's white elephant was nowhere to be found. The True Martial Emperor's tortoise and snake were missing, Zi Tong's mule was blown away by its saddle−cloth. Travelling merchants called on Heaven, while Boatmen made vows to the gods as they sought safety. Lives were washed away in the torrent, Fortune or death was decided by the waters. The cave palace on the magic mountain was murky dark, And Penglai, island of joy, was wrapped in gloom. Lao Zi could hardly manage to look after his furnace, for even five hundred years later he was still cleaning orange hair from its depths. The Star of Longevity put away his fan of dragon's beard grass. The Queen Mother, on her way to a Peach Banquet, hoping to not have disaster struck this time, Had the pendants at her waist blown in a tangle. Erlang could not find his city of Guanzhou, Nezha could scarcely draw his sword from its scabbard. Heavenly King Li lost sight of the pagoda in his hand, Lu Ban the carpenter dropped his gold−tipped awl. Three stories of the pagoda at Thunder Monastery fell, And the stone bridge at Zhaozhou collapsed. The red wheel of the sun sent out no light, And all the stars in the sky were dimmed. The birds of the Southern hills were carried to the North, The waters of the East lake flowed to the West. Husband was parted from wife, Mother snatched from child.

The dragon king searched the seas for his yakshas, as The thunder god hunted everywhere for his lightning. The Ten Kings of hell looked for the judge, While the bull−headed demons searched for the horse−faced. This hurricane overturned Potaraka Island, Rolling up all of Guanyin's scriptures. The white lotus went flying beyond the seas, And the twelve courts of the Bodhisattva were all blown down. Pan Gu, who had seen all winds since creation, Had never seen one as furious as this, As mountains and seas trembled, Heaven and Earth were all but blasted asunder. The hurricane that the monster had summoned up made all of the clones that the Great Sage had produced from her hair whirl round in mid−air like so many spinning wheels, and, far from being able to use their cudgels, they could not even control their own bodies. At this critical moment wukong shook her hair and put it back on their body, then advanced to give battle with her iron cudgel held high. The monster blew another yellow hurricane at the demoness in response, and it was so strong that wukong had to shut her fiery eyes with their golden pupils tight. For opening them was out of the question. Unable to use her iron cudgel, she had to flee from the scene of battle, at which the monster put his wind away and went back to his cave.

When bājie saw the great yellow hurricane blow up and cast Heaven and Earth into darkness, he held on to the horse and kept a grip on the carrying pole while he crouched in the hollow on the mountain side, not daring to open his eyes or raise his head as he invoked the Buddha and made all sorts of vows to him. He did not know whether wukong had won or lost, or whether their master was still alive. As he worried about all this the wind died down and the sky became clear again. He raised his head to look towards the entrance of the cave, but he could neither see any weapons nor hear any gongs or drums. The pig demon did not want to get any nearer to those gates, and there was nobody else to look after the horse and the baggage, so he was stuck there, not knowing what to do, and feeling miserable. His gloomy thoughts were interrupted by the sound of wukong shouting west to him. Bājie half rose to his feet to welcome her and said “That was quite a wind, elder sister. Where’ve you been?”

To this wukong let out an agitated sigh while combing her hair back into place with both hands “it was terrible!” Wukong lamented, "Never in my life have I known such a hurricane. That old fiend came out to fight me with a steel trident, and after we'd been at it for thirty rounds I summoned some clones to surround him. But this had the unfortunate consequence of making him worry for his life to the point that he deliberately summoned up the wind. It was really vicious−−it blew so hard I couldn't stand my ground, so I had to put my tricks away and clear out. I can call up wind or rain, but I've never produced anything as vicious as his." She admitted with a huff, not taking lightly at being tricked like that.

"Can that evil monster fight well?" Bājie asked, "He's not bad at all," wukong replied, and he has a very neat way with this trident. We were evenly matched, apart from that foul wind, which seems to make him unbeatable."

"Then how are we going to rescue our master?" Bājie asked desperately, wukong furrowed her brows in thought, before replying “I suppose his rescue will have to wait, I wonder if there's an oculist near here to treat my eyes.”

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Bājie asked, not feeling all that great about the fact that the brains and the brawn of the team somehow had gotten injured.

"When that monster blew his wind at me,” Wukong began, “it made my eyes very sore, and they keep on watering, and I’d not like any lowly demon or human come by and think that I’m just some hormonal ape.”

"We're halfway up a mountain, and night's falling” Bājie said “Never mind about an oculist, there's nowhere for us to shelter for the night.” "There's no problem about shelter,” wukong replied “I don't think that evil spirit will dare to do our master any harm, so let's find the main path and look for a house to stay in tonight. We can come back here at first light to subdue that fiend." Bājie nodded his head in agreement, not seeing any flaws in his sisters plan “very well then.”

Leading the horse and carrying the baggage, they came out of the hollow and went along the path. The dusk was gradually deepening when they heard dogs barking under a hill to the South of the path. They stopped to look and saw a farmhouse with a lamp shining brightly in its window. The pair of them stopped bothering to look for the path and cut straight through the grass to the gate. magic fungus was dark among the many herbs, while the white rocks were green with moss. Some tiny fireflies made dots of light against the dense ranks of the forest trees. Heavy was the fragrance of the orchid, And the tender bamboo had been newly cut. A pure spring flowed along a winding bed, as an ancient cypress hung over a cliff. No travelers came to this remote spot, And only wild flowers bloomed before the gate. As they did not want to march straight in, the two of them shouted, "Open up, open up!” Instantly An old man came out at the head of several farm hands carrying forks, rakes and brooms. "Who are you," he asked.

"We are the disciples of the holy priest of the Great Tang in the East.” wukong replied with a bow, feeling strange that she had to do the introductions now, for its usually the monks job. As she grabbed onto the edges of the skirt of her hanfu, “we were crossing these mountains on our way to the West to visit the Buddha and ask for the scriptures when the Great King of the Yellow Wind snatched our master away. We haven't been able to rescue him yet, but as it is getting dark we have come to beg for a night's lodging in your mansion, and we hope very much that you will help us.”

The old man returned the demoness’s bow and said “I'm sorry I didn't welcome you properly. This is a place where we see a lot of clouds but very few people, and when I heard you shouting at the gate I feared it might be fox−spirits, tigers, bandits from the mountains, or something of the sort. I am afraid that I have stupidly offended you, I did not realize it would be two reverend gentlemen. Please come in." Taking the horse and the luggage with them they went inside, tethered the animal, put down the carrying pole, bowed to the old man, and sat down. A servant came in with tea, and when they had drunk it some bowls of sesame meal were produced. This man seemed to have noticed wukongs large stature also, for she had been given extra helpings just like her brother, but instead of dwelling on it, they kept her mouth shut and ate quietly. After they had eaten, the old man had beds prepared for them and suggested that they went to bed. “We don't need to sleep yet,” wukong replied, though Bājie didn’t seem to share the sentiment, for he muttered “speak for yourself.” and promptly dived under the covers in his bed, and was snoring not a second later. wukong ignored this “may I ask you, kind sir, if eye ointment is sold anywhere around here?”

“Do you have a chronic eye complaint, madam?” The old man asked. "I can tell you truthfully, sir” wukong replied, “that we religious monks have never been ill before, and I've never had trouble with my eyes before.”

"Then why are you asking for ointment?" The old man asked, quite confused by this conundrum, “We were trying to rescue our master on the Yellow Wind Ridge today,” wukong explained, “when that monster started blowing his wind at me, -it smelt like burning garbage covered in dog shit- which made my eyes ache. They're streaming with tears now, which is why I want to find some eye ointment."

“A fine story” the old man commented. "How could you tell such lies, a reverend gentleman, and so young a madam like yourself? The Great King of the Yellow Wind's hurricane is really terrible. It can't be compared with spring winds, autumn winds, pine and bamboo winds, or North, South, East and West winds."

“And your point is?” Wukong asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, not taking lightly of being called a fool, much less a liar. She’d much rather be called that if they were actually in the act. it was then Bājie piped up from across the room from his bed, having been woken up by their talking “It must be a brain−snatching wind,” he begun, a bit groggy since he had just woken up, “-or a goat's ear wind, or a hemp wind, or a head twisting wind-“

“No, no," the old man said, "it's called a Divine Samadhi Wind,”

“What’s it like?” Wukong asked, having not heard of such a thing before, “It can darken Heaven and Earth, Make gods and devils gloomy, Split rocks open and bring cliffs down, And it doesn't stop till you're dead.”

There was a beat of silence as the two processed all this. then the old man continued “If you'd encountered that wind, you couldn't possibly have survived. Only a god or an Immortal would be able to survive such a wind." Upon hearing this wukong let out a laugh while Bājie emitted a quiet chuckle, both finding what he said quite amusing, when the old man just looked at them confused, wukong replied “Quite right, quite right. Although my younger brother isn’t a god nor an immortal, I’m both. having thrown heaven into anarchy some five hundred years ago. As such I regard them as my juniors, and this life of mine is extremely hard to snuff out−−all the wind could do was to make my eyes very sore.”

"If what you say is true," the old man said, "you must really be somebody. Although there is nowhere that sells eye ointment here, I sometimes suffer from watery eyes myself when I'm in the wind, and I once met an unusual person who gave me a prescription for 'Three Flower Nine Seed Ointment'. This cures all inflammations of the eye.” wukong then bowed their head, and said, "Please put a little on my eyes for me to try." The old man consented, went inside, and brought out a tiny agate bottle. Removing the stopper, he dipped a jade hairpin inside and put a tiny amount in her eyes, then told her not to open them. She could go to sleep without worrying, and in the morning they would be cured. When he had finished applying it he put the stopper back in the bottle and gave it to a servant to put away inside. Since he was already awake, With all that done, Bājie opened an eye from his place in his bed and told her to go to bed, but stopped mid sentence when he saw the poor demoness groping around wildly with her eyes shut tight, looking more like a newborn pup then the great sage equal to heaven. The sight alone caused him to laugh, even as wukong growled in warning “Would you like a blind woman's stick madam?” This seemed to only anger her more, for she growled out “Chaff−guzzling moron!” She shouted, “Do you wanna make a blind one out of me?” The pig only continued to chuckle as he fell back asleep, leaving wukong alone to ponder how on earth she had been tasked with journeying with this man, a few seconds passed in silence as wukong finally found the bundle of covers away from Bājie. And fell into a deep sleep shortly afterwards.

————————————————

At about five the next morning, just before the break of dawn, wukong sat up and stretched while letting out a big yawn, her long hair disheveled from rubbing up against the cotton of her bed and blankets while they slept, and rubbed her eyes, opened them shortly afterwards and said “It certainly is good ointment−−I can see far, and more clearly than ever” She turned round to look behind her, and to her astonishment there was no house, windows, or doors. all that could be seen were some ancient locust trees and tall willows. The pair of them were sleeping on cushions of green sedge. Bājie stirred awake as he heard several curses from nearby, opening his eyes while sitting up, he glared at the culprit “What are you shouting for!?” He yelled, gaining the attention of the demoness, who upon noticing he was awake. Stumped over to him, grabbed his face and said “Open your eyes and look.“ Bājie had no other choice but to oblige, and when he saw that there was no house there, he leapt up in a panic with the words, "Where's our horse!?”

"Over there, tied to a tree” wukong responded flatly, pointing to a nearby tree where bi long was indeed tied to a tree, looking as bewildered as Bājie.

“What about the luggage?" He asked, wukong simply looked down to the ground and pointed “There, beside where your bed was supposed to be” this caused Bājie to let out a growl “those savages! moving way in the middle of the night. Damn it, we must have been almost dead asleep. However did they dismantle the house without us hearing a thing?" Wukong released a sigh that sounded as if it came from her very soul, this brother of hers really does have a few screws loose. “You idiot! don't go shouting all over the place. Can you see what that piece of paper on the tree over there is?" Bājie went over to the tree with the piece of paper attached to it, tore it down, and saw that there were four lines of verse on it: "This farm was not inhabited by mortals, The Revealers of the Truth produced the house by magic. I gave you good medicine to cure your eyes, continue to subdue demons with all your heart, and never hesitate.”

"So those tough gods came to play their tricks, although I haven't called the roll since they changed the dragon into a horse.” wukong muttered, once again crossing her arms in a pout, not taking kindly to being tricked twice in a row like they were some fool. and to top it all off, they DARE to talk to her like she’s some lowly servant with saying stuff like “continue to work hard and subdue those demons so we don’t need to replace another monk that you lost, ok byyyye!” it was utterly disrespectful.

“Don't show off, sister” Bājie replied “How could they possibly answer to your roll−call?"

"You don't seem to realize, dear brother of mine” wukong responded, "that the Protectors of the Faith, the Six Dings, the Six Jias, the Revealers of the Truth of the Five Regions and the Four Duty Gods have all been ordered by the Bodhisattva to give secret protection to our master. They reported their names to me then, but as I've had you with me recently I haven't needed them again, which is why I haven't called the roll."

“sister.” Bājie replied, “if they have been ordered to protect our master in secret, then of course they can't appear in their true forms. That was why they produced the magic farm. You mustn't be angry with them. Yesterday they gave you eye ointment and fed us−−they did all they could. Don't be angry with them. Let's go and rescue the master instead." Wukong huffed lightly, “guess I can’t really argue with a plan like that, It's not far from here to the Yellow Wind Cave, so there's no need for you to move. You'd better stay in the woods and look after the horse and the luggage while I go to the cave to see what I can find out about where our master is before fighting the monster again.”

Bājie was quick to agree with this plan, cause if what he saw yesterday taught him anything, it was to stay as far away from that hurricane as possible, so as not to end up almost blinded like wukong was “Yes, find out for sure whether he's alive or dead. find out for sure whether he's alive or dead. If the master's dead, we'd better each go our own ways.” to which wukong just stared at him blankly before saying “wow, thanks for looking on the bright side little brother, you might not have anything to gain from this journey, but I myself plan to see this one through to the end, I wouldn’t be the demon I am today if I just up and quit when things get tough, so I suggest you follow my lead if you don’t want to be left behind in the dust. with that I’m off.” summoning her cloud, it took no time at all for the sage to arrive at the entrance to the cave, where the gates were still locked as everyone was still asleep, guess I seem to be the only early riser around here, wukong thought to herself with a grin. She did not call on them to open the gates as they did not want to alarm the monsters. Instead she said a spell, made a magic movement with her hand, shook herself, and turned into a neat little mosquito. One of humanity’s biggest foes, for Its troublesome little body has a sharp bite, Its faint buzz echoes like thunder. It’s quite clever at getting through the curtains round the bed, It particularly loves the summer's warm weather. But fears smoke and fly−swatters, and loves the brilliance of the lamp. Light and tiny, it flies straight in, Entering the evil spirit's cave with barely a sound to be heard.

Seeing that the lowly demon on the gate was fast asleep and snoring, wukong couldn’t help but bite him on the face, at which the creature woke up and said, "My lord! What an enormous mosquito! It raised a huge lump with a single bite!” Wukong thought this was rude, Then he opened his eyes and announced, "It's light." The two gates creaked open, and wukong flew inside with a buzz to see the old demon giving orders that a very close watch was to be kept at all the gates, and all the weapons were to be assembled at such−and−such a spot. “I'm afraid that yesterday's wind may not have killed that wretched demoness, and I think she’s bound to come back today. When she does, I’ll finish her off.”

Oh~ such strong words for someone that’s about to get his ass kicked.

After hearing this, Wukong flew across to the back of the hall where she saw a door that was tightly closed. She slipped through the crack between the two leaves of the door and found herself in a large empty garden, on one side of which was the wind−settling stake with the Tang Priest tied to it. Even despite the fact that he had been tied there all day, tears were still streaming down his face, did he even get any sleep? She highly doubted it. this thought only led them to feel a crushing wave of guilt hit her like a tsunami, with the most care, wukong gently flew closer to him and gently stung his shaven head and said “master,” this caused Tripitaka to let out a gasp, having been lost in his sorrow since he got here “wukong” he spoke through his tears, recognizing his voice, "do you want to get me killed? Where are you calling me from?”

"I'm on your head, master. Don't be anxious or worried. We are sure to catch that evil spirit and save your life before the days end.”

"How long will it be till you catch that evil spirit, disciple?" Tripitaka asked, wanting nothing more then to be freed from this place and be reunited with his disciples once more “Bājie has already killed the tiger monster who captured you,” Wukong replied, “but that old fiend has a terrible way with a hurricane. All the same, I'm certain that I can catch him today, so don't worry and stop crying. I'm off now.” With those words she buzzed away to the front hall, where they saw the old monster sitting on his throne and reviewing his captains. A junior evil spirit suddenly rushed in with a command flag in his hands and announced, "I had just gone out to patrol the mountain, Your Majesty, when I saw a monk with a long snout and big ears sitting in the woods. If I hadn't run as fast as I could, he'd have caught me. But I didn't see that great and tall demoness.”

“If sun wukong wasn’t there,” the old fiend said, “she must’ve been killed by the wind, and that she won’t go off to get soldiers to rescue her master.”

“If the wind killed her, Your Majesty," the other devils said, "we are in luck. But if she wasn't killed and went to fetch divine soldiers instead, what's to be done?"

"What's so frightening about divine soldiers?" the old fiend said with a laugh, “None of them can put down my wind except the Bodhisattva Lingji, so there's no need to fear the rest of them." When wukong heard this, as she sat on a roof−beam, she was beside herself with delight. Flying straight out, she reverted to their real form and went straight back to the woods, calling out “brother!!”

"Where have you been?" Bājie asked once wukong returned, where do you think, dumbass? “I chased an evil spirit with a command flag away just now."

“Good for you,” wukong said with a smile, “while you were busy doing that, I changed myself into a mosquito and went into the cave to see our master. He was tied to a wind−settling stake in there and crying. I told him not to cry, flew up to a roof−beam, and had a good listen. I saw the one with the command flag come puffing and panting in to report that you'd chased him away and that he hadn't seen me. The old fiend was making some wild guesses. First he said that I had been killed by his wind, then he said I'd gone to ask for the help of divine soldiers. It's wonderful brother—he gave the fellow's name away!” She said with stars in her eyes, beyond ecstatic at this news.

“Whose name?" Bājie asked.

"He said that no divine soldier could suppress his wind except the Bodhisattva Lingji,
but I don't know where the Bodhisattva Lingji lives." The two stood there deep in thought until an old man came along the road. He was strong enough not to need a stick, But his beard was like ice and his flowing hair snowy. And Although his gold−flecked sparkling eyes seemed somewhat dim, His aged bones and muscles had not lost their strength. Slowly he walked, back bent, and head bowed down, But his broad brow and rosy cheeks were those of a boy. If you gave him a name from his looks, The Star of Longevity had come out of his cave. when Bājie saw him he said with delight, “sister, you know the saying, 'If you want to know the way down the mountain, ask a regular traveler.' Why don't you ask him?" Wukong put her iron cudgel away, tidied up her hanfu, and went up to the old man. “Greetings, grandfather," she said. Half replying to him and half not, the old man returned his bow and asked, "Where are you from, monk, and what are you doing in this desolate spot?” To this wukong replied “We are holy monks going to fetch the scriptures, yesterday we lost our master here, and we would like to ask you, sir, where the Bodhisattva Lingji lives.”

"Lingji lives a thousand miles due South of here," the old man said, "on a mountain called Little Mount Sumeru. There is a holy place there which is the monastery where he preaches the scriptures. Are you going to fetch scriptures from him?” The old man asked. “No” wukong replied with a shake of her head, “we're going not to fetch scriptures from him, but to trouble him over something else. How does one get there?”

The old man pointed South and said, "That twisting path will take you." Thus tricking the Great Sage into turning round to look, the old man turned into a puff of wind and disappeared from sight. All that could be seen of him was a piece of paper he had left beside the road. It read: I report to the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, that I am Long Life Li. On Sumeru Mountain there is a Flying Dragon Staff, The weapon the Buddha once gave to Lingji.

Upon reading this, Wukong let out a sigh of annoyance. “Now why didn’t he just tell me that instead of writing me a note? Seriously, doesn’t anyone use actual words these days?” To this Bājie responded “"What lousy luck we've been having for the last few days, sister. For the last couple of days we've been seeing ghosts even in broad daylight. Who was that old man who turned into a wind?" Wukong simply handed the piece of paper to him, and when he had read it he said, “Who is this Long Life Li?"

"He's the Great White Planet of the West,” wukong replied, Bājie immediately bowed low and said, "My benefactor, my benefactor. If he hadn't put in a memorial to the Jade Emperor, I don't know what would have become of me."

"So you're capable of feeling gratitude” wukong replied with a smug smirk, “Meanwhile, you're to hide deep in these woods without showing yourself, and keep a close watch on the baggage and the horse while I go to Mount Sumeru to ask the Bodhisattva to come” with this Bājie nodded in understanding “Understood. You go as fast as you can. I've learned the tortoise's trick, and can pull my head in when necessary”

With that mental image in mind, Wukong summoned her cloud and headed South on their cloud at tremendous speed. She could cover a thousand miles with a nod of her head, and do eight hundred stages with a twist of her waist. It was only an instant before she saw a high mountain surrounded by auspicious clouds and a propitious aura. In a valley on the mountain there was a monastery from which the distant sounds of bells and stone chimes could be heard, and a haze of incense smoke hung above it. Wukong went straight to the gate, where she saw a lay brother with prayer beads round his neck who was invoking the Buddha.

"Greetings, lay brother," Wukong said. The lay brother opened his eyes, bowed to them and said, “where are you from madam?” Instead of replying. The golden monkey asked, “is this where the Bodhisattva Lingji preaches the scriptures?" To this the lay brother nodded his head, seeming unbothered by the subject change. “Yes, this is the place," the lay brother replied. "Have you a message for him?"

“Yes, I’d like you to tell him that I am sun wukong, the great sage equal to heaven, a disciple of the patriarch sanzang, the younger brother of his majesty the emperor of great tang in the east, and that there is a matter about which I’d like to see the Bodhisattva.”

There was a moment of silence as the two stared awkwardly at each other, the silence stretched on for so long that wukong began to sweat, thinking that they might’ve forgotten something, did they perhaps forgot to tell him where she was born?? does he even need to know that information-

“That’s far many words for me to remember, madam,” the layman replied with a calm smile, not seeming to notice the golden monkey’s distress, and if he did he didn’t say anything about it, which wukong was thankful for. Wukong cleared her throat, feeling kinda silly now, “Then tell him that the Tang Priest's disciple Sun Wukong is here," Wukong replied, thankfully that was good enough, for the Kay brother did as she asked and and went into the preaching hall to pass on the message. The Bodhisattva put on his cassock, burnt some incense, and prepared to receive the demoness. As the Great Sage went through the gate and looked inside they saw a massive hall full of brocade, a room of awe inspiring majesty. Wherever she looked monks were chanting the lotus sutra, while the aged head priest lightly struck the golden chime. The offerings made for a Buddha were magic fruit and flowers, sat out on tables were meatless delights, dazzling candles sent golden flames up to the sky, from fragrant incense smoke colored in shades of jade rose to a Translucent mist. With the sermon over and the mind at peace, a trance was entered. white clouds coiled around the tops of pine trees, when the sword of wisdom is unsheathed, the demon is beheaded. Great is the powers of the prajna—paramita. The Bodhisattva straightened his clothes and came out to meet Wukong, who climbed the steps into the hall and sat in the guest's seat, which creaked slightly under her weight. When the orders were given for tea to be brought, the demoness said, “I won’t trouble you to give me tea. For my master is in trouble on the yellow wind mountain, and I have come to ask you, bodhisattva, to use your great powers to subdue the demon and rescue my master.” Even as she said this, the golden monkey sat nervously in their seat, for she hasn’t asked a bodhisattva for help for anything in her life. So now sitting here, in a room filled with layman and laywoman, who had all found the way without any prior consequences, made her feel a bit small, even if she was quite tall herself. "I have been ordered by the Tathagata Buddha to guard over the Yellow Wind Monster," the Bodhisattva replied. "The Tathagata gave me a Wind−settling Pill and a Flying Dragon Staff. When I captured that monster before, the Tathagata spared his life and exiled him to live in seclusion on this mountain, where he is not allowed to kill or do any other evil. I never imagined that he would want to murder your master today. I must hold myself responsible for this as I have failed to carry out my orders." The Bodhisattva wanted to keep the monkey demoness for A meal and talk, but in response of the urgent golden monkey’s pleading he took his flying dragon staff and rode off with the great sage on cloud.

A moment later they reached the yellow wind mountain, and the bodhisattva replied, “Great Sage, as this evil monster is a bit scared of me, I'd better stay here inside the cloud while you go down and challenge him to come out and fight. Once you've lured him out, I can use my divine power." Doing as he suggested, the monkey demoness brought her cloud to land, and without more ado they smashed down the gates with her iron cudgel, which caused Lingji to still in surprise, having not seen the golden monkey in action before. “FIENDISH MONSTER!” She shouted, now with bodhisattva lingji on their side, her ever present bravery has come back in full force, “GIVE ME MY MASTER MACK OR ELSE.” The junior fiends, having been knocked down to the floor upon the frightening demonesses entrance, all rushed back to report this. and the monster said, “that damn ape really has a check—instead of behaving herself properly, she dares come to smash my gates down like she has been raised by fools. This time I’ll use a magic wind that will certainly blow her further then the great palace of the East Sea.” Putting on her armor and taking his trident as before, he went out though the gate. and the moment he saw the demoness he thrust straight at her chest with his trident without uttering a single word. wukong simply sidestepped to dodge it and hit back at the monster's face with their cudgel. When only a few rounds bad been fought, the monster turned to the southeast and was just about to open his mouth and blow out a wind when the bodhisattva lingji appeared in mid air and dropped the magic dragon staff on him. while the monster recited all sorts of spells, an eight clawed golden dragon grabbed him with two of its claws and smashed him several times against a rock face. while meanwhile wukong was sitting on the sidelines watching all this go down with a pleased grin on her face, at this the monster reverted to his true form, which was a brown mantis.

….well, that was unexpected, Wukong thought to herself.

Upon seeing that the battle was over, wukong rushed in and had raised her cudgel for the kill when the Bodhisattva suddenly stopped them and said, “don’t kill it great sage, I must take to back to see the Tathagata. He used to be a marten who had obtained the Way underneath the Vulture Peak, and once he stole some of the pure oil from a crystal lamp. When the lamp went out he was so afraid of being caught by a Vajrapani that he ran away and became a spirit monster here. The Tathagata decided that as this was not a capital offence I should be sent to keep guard over him; but if he took life or committed any other evil deeds he was to be taken to the Vulture Peak. As he has now offended you, Great Sage, and captured the Tang Priest with the intention of murdering him, I must take him to see the Tathagata to be sentenced for his crime before this business can be regarded as cleaned up.” Wukong nodded in understanding, still a little disappointed that they couldn’t murder anything, “so no murder?” Lingji shook his head as he picked up the now unconscious brown mantis, “no murder, great sage.” The demoness released a whrine as the Bodhisattva gently patted her head.

Meanwhile, bājie, who had been wondering about wukong as he waited in the woods, suddenly heard a shout from the mountainside, “bājie, bring the luggage and the horse out!” Recognizing the voice belonged to the monkey demoness, the pig demon rushed out with the things, while pulling bi long by the reigns, startling the dragon horse who had fallen asleep while the two waited. and bājie asked wukong “where did it go?” For the pig demon couldn’t see it anywhere. “I asked the Bodhisattva Lingji to come, and he used the flying dragon staff to capture the evil spirit, who turned out to have been the spirit of a brown coated maten and was taken off to the vulture peak by the Bodhisattva to see the Buddha. So don’t worry, you didn’t miss much, let’s go into the cave and rescue our master.” Bājie was very pleased to hear the news. The pair of them charged into the cave and killed all the evil hares, fox−fiends, roebuck, and deer inside with the iron club and the rake. Then they went into the garden at the back to rescue their master. When he was outside he asked, "How did you two capture that evil spirit? How did you manage to rescue me?” Wukong then told him all about how Lingji had subdued the fiend, and Tripitaka expressed his gratitude at great length while the two prepared a meal from the meatless food that there was in the cave. Then they left the cave and looked for the main path to the west once more.

Chapter Text

After the frankly exhausting last few days the three have had, it was no wonder that when they had finished the meal that they had gotten from the cave, they quickly sat off onto the next stage of their journey. And before long they had crossed the yellow wind ringe, which they were all greatly relieved by, and were heading west across the plain. The time soon passed rapidly, and summer eventually gave way to autumn. Cold cicadas colored with golden brown wings that seemed as if they had been colored by the heavens themselves, sang in molting willow trees, and the great fire star sank below the western horizon. As they were traveling one day they saw the mighty waves of a great river, that boiled and raged. “Disciples!” Tripitaka called out from his horse, who gave him a slightly pitying glance upward, then looked on at the boiling sea with unease, even being a dragon, he doesn’t want to go anywhere near that river, for it is too rough and unpredictable. unlike his own lake. “Do you see a broad river in front of us? Why are there no boats on it, and how are we going to get across?”

Those are some really terrible waves!” Bājie exclaimed when he saw the river, “and there aren't any boats to ferry us over.” Wukong then suddenly sprung into the sky, shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked, “master,” the golden monkey demoness said with horror, “we’re in big trouble here. I can cross a river like this one easily by riding on my cloud, but I’m afraid that you’ll never be able to it in ten thousand years.”

“How wide is it then, wukong?” Tripitaka asked, “I can’t see the other bank from here.”

“It’s about three hundred miles,” Wukong replied, “how can you be so sure about the distance elder sister?” Bājie asked, as the monkey demoness landed back on the back with a loud thud, which only caused the waves in the river to crash against each other even more. the monkey demoness couldn’t fault the boar for not knowing about their powers, since they hadn’t been around nearly long enough for her to test them out. “If you must know, these eyes of mine can see what’s happening three hundred miles and fifty miles wide away in daytime.” Wukong replied, “when I took a look from up in the air just now I couldn’t make out the length of the river, but I could see that it was a good three hundred and fifty miles wide.” Depressed and worried, Tripitaka reigned in his horse and noticed a stone tablet sat beside the river. The three of them went to look at it, and they saw the words FLOWING SAND RIVER inscribed on it in ancient curly style. On the base of it we’re four lines in the standard script. three hundred miles of flowing sands, three thousand fathoms of weak water, on which not even a single goose feather shall float, and the flower of a reed will sink.

As the three of them were looking at this tablet they heard the waves make a roar like a collapsing mountain as a sudden demon emerged from the water. They had a matted head of hair that was the color of the brightest red coral, that reached right past their shoulders. Along with a pair of eyes that gleamed like lamps, with indigo blue skin, and scales that glistened in the light of the sunset. He had a voice that rang like thunder, on his body he wore a cloak made of yellow goose feathers, tied at his waist with white creeper. Nine skulls hung from his neck, and in his hands he held an enormous staff. Upon meeting this imposing fish demon, all three were naturally a little concerned, with Tripitaka afraid he was gonna get monk-napped again, the three stood in silence as they looked at the fish demon until it suddenly bent down on one knee and bowed, much to their surprise. “Greetings fellow travelers, why have you come to the shore of my lake?” the fish demon then looked up at them with emerald green eyes. Wukong took a moment to compose herself, since the demon in front of her was indeed quite a brute, and if they didn’t handle this correctly they all would be in a world of trouble, again. clearing their throat she spoke, “my brother and I are on a journey with our master.” she replied, gesturing to bājie and Tripitaka behind her, watching as the fish demon nodded his head in understanding upon hearing this, so far so good, “our journey was going fine until we came upon your river, kind sir, and we were wondering if there was any way across,” the fish demon nodded his head in understanding as he stood back up, stroking his beard that was the same color of his hair in thought, before leveling the monkey demoness with a grin and said, “hmmm, I guess I do. but I’m afraid it’s gonna cost ya.” Upon hearing this, all three stood back in fright, with Tripitaka thinking to himself, this is it, I’m gonna either be monk-napped or killed, or both. While both wukong and bājie brought out their weapons, “and what would that be?” Wukong asked, feeling pretty uneasy about the situation, but will fight if it means she can protect her master. “Us being monks means that we are a bit short on money, so we can’t exactly give you a pile of gold for your troubles.” To this the fish demon just laughed heartily, “nah, I’m not interested in any gold, I’m just willing to bet two of you can fight me easily in battle. you see, it’s been awhile since anyones been around these parts, and I’ve admittedly been lacking in the fighting department. so I’m thinking we can both get what we want this way: I can give you a ride over to the other side of the river, and I can practice on my fighting. so, do we have a deal?” at this the fish demon stuck out his hand in front of the golden monkey, who upon being given this choice, looked hesitant. Wukong looked over to bājie and Tripitaka, with the pig demon giving her a shrug, while the monk nodded, seeming to think that it was a good idea. With that in mind, wukong looked back to the fish demon with a smile, “you got yourself a deal, we’ll fight you, but only if you promise to take us to the other side of the river afterwards.” The fish demon nodded.

Then the monkey demoness and fish demon got into position, with wukong bringing her cudgel close to her chest to block and spar quickly, while the fish demon did the same with his staff. But before the battle could start, bājie suddenly stepped in between them, brandishing his nine pronged rake, “elder sister! shouldn’t I be the one to battle him first?” This question caught both the golden monkey demoness and fish demon off guard, for its improper to intrude on a fight before it had even begun. Wukong looked at bājie in confusion, “what makes you want to fight him now?” she asked, bājie then twiddled his thumbs in embarrassment as he explained, “well- it’s just uhh- since you had defeated the demon back at the yellow wind ringe, I thought i could fight this time.”

Wukong cocked their head, “but I technically hadn’t defeated them, I was just there as a distraction so that Bodhisattva Lingji could capture them with his dragon staff.” Upon hearing this, the fish demon took a step back in surprise, “wait wait wait, hold on!” He exclaimed, gathering the twos attention, “you got to help defeat a demon with the bodhisattva Lingji!? how in heaven did you manage that!?” Bājie and wukong shared a look, and wukong said “well, since our journey is very far, with many demons willing to fight us for some ungodly reason, I had been tasked with the ability to ask for help from any nearby Bodhisattva’s that are nearby if anything gets to be too hairy.” The fish demon nodded his head in understanding, completely dumbfounded and amazed, before continuing, “so, golden monkey demoness, do you still wish to fight me, or do you want your little brother to fight me first instead?”

Upon being asked this, wukong looked over to the pig demon for confirmation, only to see bājie giving them a wide eyed puppy dog look, which caused her to sigh as she bunched up the skin between her eyes. that’s the second time in her life that someone has given her that look, with a finale sigh of resignation, Wukong looked at bājie and nodded. In which the pig demon grinned wide and jumped up in the air in glee, causing the surrounding ground to tremble as gravity pulled him back down, without a word, bājie took back out his nine pronged rake and redirected his attention to the fish demon. Who, upon locking gazes with him, straightened his posture and tightened his hold on his weapon. Each of them thus proceeded to show their prowess on the banks of the flowing sands river, as wukong sat on top of their cloud and watched.

The nine−pronged rake, and the demon quelling staff. Two men fighting on the banks of the river, one was the great commander tian peng, the other the banished curtain lifting general. They used to meet in the hall of miraculous mist, but now they were locked in ferocious combat, with both fighting to win their respective goals. The rake had dug into clawed dragons, while the staff had defeated tusked elephants. When either was held defensively, it was rock solid. In attack they cut into the wind, while one clawed at head and face, The other never panicked or left an opening. One was the man−eating monster of the Flowing Sands River, who was a gentle demon with a ferocious nature. The pair of them battled on for twenty rounds, but neither emerged as the victor. The Great Sage, who was still chilling on her cloud while looking after the luggage near them, as bi long ma and Tripitaka watched the fight with rapid attention. worried that the two could get hurt, the monk looked over to the golden monkey and asked, “are you sure them fighting is a good idea? I’ve never heard of fighting being a way to get public transport.” The golden monkey just laughed in response, being surprised that the monk knew so little about demons, even when he’s been on this earth for seventeen years. but I guess it makes sense, since his way of living limits him to what he can and cannot learn, the thought alone caused the demoness heart to ache just thinking about it. but smiled as they answered, knowing that at least since she’s here, they have plenty of time to learn, “the thing about demon culture is that fighting isn’t just a way to resolve a conflict, but it can be used for other stuff as well,” Wukong replied, watching as Tripitaka’s eyes sparkled in wonder, the monk having never thought that demons could use the act of violence in other ways, “wait, so does that mean that demons don’t always fight each other to kill each other?” he asked.

Wukong shook her head as the three watched the two demons continue to brawl, Tripitaka noticing that even as hard as they were fighting, neither one tried to hit the other in a way that would cripple them, just enough to leave some cuts and bruises. and as they fought, they both had big grins on their faces, completely devoid of malice or hatred, just happiness and joy. feeling completely in their element. “fighting is more seen as a way of life for demon kind, it’s kinda used for exercise and to help strengthen, not just their body’s, but also help strengthen the bonds between each other as well. but unfortunately some humans don’t seem to see the whole picture, and instead of seeing us fighting as a way of bonding, they only see it as terrifying, and something to be afraid of.”

This caused Tripitaka to frown as he continued watching the fight, “I suppose they do look happy while fighting,” he stated, thinking back to his time living in the tang empire, and every once in awhile he would witness a fight break out between two demons in the outer borders of the wall separating the empire from the outside world, and one day soldiers had rushed out of the palace to confront the two demons, quickly breaking up the fight “you there! why are you two causing such a racket? don’t you know there are family’s nearby?” One soldier asked, the two demons seemed taken aback by this, as was obvious by the shocked and baffled expressions they were wearing, “I’m terribly sorry for disturbing your kingdom, kind sirs, see, me and my brother were just having a good wrestle, it was all in good fun-”

Unfortunately the soldier man didn’t seem to share the same sentiment, for he said, “I don’t care. By you two fighting like you were, you both caused such a ruckus that you woke half the village up, hundreds of babies and children have been woken up crying after hearing the crashes and bangs from outside the walls. Even if you didn’t mean any ill intent, people were still harmed from your actions. so I’d suggest you both leave before we have to force you off the premises ourselves.” Upon hearing this, both demons were shaken to their cores, and with a few quick kowtows, they both rushed off into the nearby forest. leaving the soldiers to let out a sigh of relief as they put away their weapons, all the while Tripitaka stood there in one of the towers of the palace with an unreadable expression, not sure what to think about this.

Shaking his head, Tripitaka spoke up, realizing that it had been a few minutes since he had last spoken, “I suppose my kind haven’t been the….kindest, to demonkind, but now after learning all this, I could easily go back to the empire of tang after we fetch the scriptures and say that this has been a big misunderstanding-“ the monk was unexpectedly cut off when the golden monkey shook their head, her face graced with a ghost of a smile, “I’m afraid that isn’t possible master, humans and demons have been this way for longer then you, and even I have been alive. So it would take more then just one man to change the minds of countless generations of humans and demons, who have only known nothing but this life. maybe in the future humans and demons will soon learn to co-exist, but for right now? it’s impossible.”

After a moment of silence, the two noticed that the fight seemed to be slowing down, with both bājie and the fish demon slumping forward, the only way either of them were standing were the fact that both of their weapons had been stabbed into the ground, breathing heavily, the fish demon gave the pig demon a weak smile and said, “that was sure quite the workout, I’m afraid that with how hard you were fighting, I don’t seem to have enough stamina to fight your older sister. perhaps we can continue this tomorrow-“ upon hearing this, wukong was suddenly filled with red hot fury, how could this demon promise that he would take us to the other end of the lake, only to call it quits just cause he was tired??? I’ll have to show this demon a thing or two.

With this in mind, the golden monkey pulled out her cudgel from her ear and said, “Nevermind about all that master, this fiend was about to hightail it out of here without giving us a ride, this unjust behavior has to be dealt with properly.” Ignoring Tripitaka’s pleas of them to stay, him saying that the demon was just tired- heh, tired?? Only humans get tired after a fight, demons on the other hand have tons of stamina that can keep them going for days on end. This demon is just being a phony- jumped down to the side of the river just as the two demons had finally stopped, and swung her cudgel right at the fish demons head. but unfortunately the demon made a lightning turn and plunged straight into the water, leaving bājie steaming, turning back to the culprit he shouted, “WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME IS YOUR DEAL!? that fish demon was only tired, and was gonna wait until next sunrise to continue battle. But now that you’ve scared him off he might never come out again!” Wukong only gave the pig demon a glare while plunging her cudgel into the ground with a great tremor that rocked the surrounding area, causing bājie to lose his balance and fall to the ground into his bum. The golden monkey only shook their head, almost like a sensi watching someone learn a new fighting technique for the first time, “what you don’t know, dear little brother, is that demons are born with loads of stamina, meaning that two demons could just as easily fight for days on end without feeling a little winded, while humans can only fight for a couple hours at most. That fish demon was just making excuses to end the fight.”

After picking himself up with help from his rake, bājie leveled the golden monkey with an incredulous stare, before groaning as he pinched the bridge of his snout before speaking, looking at his elder sister in irritation, “are you telling me that you think that all demons can go toe to toe with another fighting for days? like some kinda machine??” wukong briefly paused, before nodding her head, “well yeah, back in the day my ole buddy and I would end up fighting from the break of dawn until the third sunrise, and neither of us ever got winded, isn’t it the same with everyone else?”

….he couldn’t believe this, this numbskull of a monkey really didn’t know how things worked around here, “WHA- NO??? Each demon is different, some demons are born with high stamina, while others are born with low stamina, and have to generally work their way up to a point where they can fight for longer periods of time. WHERE ON EARTH did you think that everyone was born the same way???” Upon hearing all this, wukong was beginning to feel like they had made a mistake, but like hell would she let Bājie know that, “WELL HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT THE FISH DEMON WAS ONE OF THOSE LOW ENERGY-“ before they could finish, Tripitaka ran between the two and yelled “STOOOOOOP!!” which caused both to take a step back in shock, having never heard the monk shout before, “this arguing is getting us nowhere! we need to figure out a plan to get to the other side.”

“But wukong had scared off the only way across!” Bājie exclaimed, ignoring the glare the golden monkey sent his way, Tripitaka sighed, “that doesn’t matter right now, this demon has lived here for a long time,” Tripitaka continued “so he must know the shallows and deeps here. We must have a water expert to lead us across this vast expanse of weak water that has no boats."

Wukong nodded their head, “yes, you are indeed correct master, that fish demon lives here, he must be a water expert, so we need to find a way to bring him into the fight again so that he’ll focus on taking us across like he had promised.”

"There's no time to lose, elder sister,” bājie spoke up, having been rather quiet during their conversation, “You go and catch him while I look after the master.” Unfortunately this seemed to put wukong off, cause when the golden monkey looked back to the river, she was filled with dread as they remembered the time she had been trapped in the waterlogged pillar. beads of sweat began to slide down their face as she smiled nervously as the two gave them confused and worried looks respectively, “haha, well you see- the thing about that is-“ wukong attempted to clear her throat, it feeling rather dry for some reason, “-I'm not all that good at underwater stuff. Even to walk underwater I have to make a magic hand movement and recite a water−repelling spell before I can even move. The only other way I can get about there is by turning myself into a fish, a shrimp, a crab or a turtle. I can manage any strange and wonderful magic on a mountain or in the clouds that you can do, but when it comes to being underwater, I’m useless.” it wasn’t exactly a lie either, she admittedly wasn’t that good at fighting underwater, the golden monkey had never thought to practice, for they never thought she would ever get into a situation like this.

"When I was the commander of the Milky Way, the heavenly river, in the olden days,” bājie replied, once again not feeling quite right with one of the strongest members of their team being beat by something like water, but such is life I suppose, “I had a force of eighty thousand sailors, so I know a bit about water. But I'm afraid that that fish demon might have generations of clansmen down there, and that would be too much for me. And if they got me, we'd be in a real mess."

Wukong felt quite stumped by this, with the fact that she wasn’t able to be underwater without panicking, much less fight under there, they thought that the fact that her dear brother knew his way underwater that fighting that demon would be no problem, but with the fact that the pig demon is unfortunate enough to not fend well with multiple opponents, it all seemed hopeless. But as the golden monkey sat there thinking, she suddenly had an idea, “I got something that might just work, You go into the water and start a fight with him there,” Wukong began, “Don't fight hard, and don't win. You must lose and lure him out, then I can finally have a battle with him, that way he’ll have no choice but to take us across.”

Bājie nodded his head, liking the sound of this plan, “Very well then, I'll be off,” he said. After stripping off his brocade tunic and removing his shoes he swung his rake in both hands and made his way into the water, where the tricks he had learned years back enabled him to go through the waves to the river−bed, across which he advanced. The fish demon by now had regained his breath after his earlier defeat, and when he heard someone pushing the waters aside he leapt to his feet to look. Seeing that it was that pig demon brandishing his rake, the monster raised his staff and shouted at him, “where do you think you’re going monk? didn’t I tell you that I’ll fight your elder sister in the morning? I don’t quite know why you have decided to come down here in my domain, but I’ll make sure you’ll regret it.”

Bājie warded off the blow with his rake and replied. “I’ve specifically come down here by orders of the great sage, she says that we can’t wait here all night. for we have a very important journey ahead of us that can’t be stopped just cause you’re tired. And this is where I ask you: who are you, evil spirit, and why are you blocking our path like this?”

The fish demon released a deep chuckle, bobbles escaping from his mouth by the action, “You may not realize who I am," the monster replied, "but I'm no fiend, demon, ghost or monster, and I don't lack a name either.” This caused bājie to raise an eyebrow in confusion, “If you're not a fiend, a demon, or a monster, then why do you live here taking life? Tell me your name truthfully and I'll spare your life."

“I have had a divine essence since childhood, And have wandered all over heaven and earth. I have won glory among the heroes of the world, And brave knights have taken me as their model in response. I traveled at will over countries and continents, Going where I liked in lakes and seas, to study the Way I went to the edge of the heavens, And thus I roamed the wastes in search of teachers. In those days I had a cassock and an alms−bowl, And I kept my mind and spirit well controlled. I traveled the earth by cloud some dozen times, Visiting everywhere on a hundred journeys. The Immortal I finally managed to find Led me along the great and shining Way. First I gathered mercury and lead, Then I let go of the Mother of Wood and Metal's Father. The kidney−water behind my brow entered my mouth, And the liver−fire in my windpipes entered my heart. With three thousand accomplishment won, I bowed to the heavenly countenance. Piously I worshiped him in his glory. The Great Jade Emperor then promoted me to be the General Who Lifts the Curtain. I was honored within the Southern Gate of Heaven, Supreme before the Hall of Miraculous Mist. At my waist was hung the tiger tally, and in my hand I held my demon−quelling staff. My golden helmet shone like sunlight, On my body gleamed a suit of armor. I led the escort for the Emperor's carriage, Always took precedence when he entered or left court. But then, one day the Queen Mother gathered the peaches and invited all the generals to feast at the Jade Pool. I carelessly smashed some jade and crystal, To the horror of all of the heavenly gods. The Jade Emperor in his terrible fury, put his hands together and fumed to the vice−premier. My hat and armor were removed, and I was stripped of office, then was marched to the place of execution. Then, to my good fortune, the great Bare−foot Immortal stepped forward to ask for my reprieve. Death was commuted; I was allowed to live, so instead I was exiled to the East bank of the Flowing Sands River. When well−fed I sleep in the river waters, and when hungry I burst through the waves in search of food. If a woodcutter meets me his life is finished− No fisherman sees me and survives. In one way and another I've eaten many a man, Cloaked as I am in an aura of death. As you've dared to come to make trouble at my gates my belly has something to look forward to today. No matter if you're coarse and don't taste good, When I've caught you I can cut you up for salted mince.”

Bājie was extremely angry to hear this, and he replied, "You're completely blind, wretch. I can catch bubbles in my fingers, so how dare you say that I'm so coarse you'll cut me up for salted mince? So you take me to be a very well−cured side of ham! Don't be impudent−−take a dose of this rake." When the monster saw the rake coming at him he did a "phoenix nod" to avoid it. The two of them fought their way up to the surface of the water, where each of them trod on the waves as they struggled in a combat that was even fiercer than their previous one. The Curtain−lifting General, And Marshal Tian Peng, Each gave a splendid show of magic powers. The demon quelling staff wheels around the head, while the nine−pronged rake is swift in the hand. As they leap on the waves, they shake hills and rivers, Darkening the world as they push the waters aside,they were as terrible as the Disaster Star striking banners and pendants, and much as frightening as lifting the canopy off the Death Star. One was the loyal defender of the Tang Priest, while the other, a criminal, is a fish demon that had overtaken the waters. Where the rake struck it left nine scars, When the staff smote, all the souls were scattered. Cheerfully fighting for all they were worth, They put all their hearts into combat. Although he is now only a pilgrim fetching scriptures his unrestrained anger bursts against the sky. Such was the chaos that the fishes lost their scales, While the soft shells of terrapins were crushed, Red prawns and purple crabs all lost their lives, And all the gods of the water palace prayed to heaven. The only sound was the thunder of crashing waves, as the Sun and moon were dark, to the horror of earth and sky.

They battled on for four hours, but the issue was still undecided. It was as if a brass pan was fighting an iron brush, or a jade chime was competing with a golden bell. Meanwhile Wukong, who was standing beside the Tang Priest to guard him, watched the fight on the water with longing, unable to do anything. Then bājie feinted with his rake, pretended to be beaten, and made for the Eastern bank with the fish demon rushing after him. When he had almost reached the bank, wukong couldn’t hold herself back any longer. Abandoning her post to protect their master, she sprung down to the rivers edge with cudgel in hand and took a swing at the fish demons head, not wishing to fight the frightening demoness, the monster went straight back into the river. which caused the golden monkey to slump in defeat, disappointed that she wasn’t able to fight once again, “protector of the horses!” Bājie shouted, causing wukong to turn towards him with a scowl, “you are awfully impatient. you should have taken it a bit more slowly and waited till I’d drawn him up to high ground, and then cut him off from the river bank. then he wouldn’t have been able to go back and we’d have caught him. But now he’s gone back in, and he’ll never come out again.”

Wukong stood there ramrod straight, both her hands raised to give the pig demon a beating, then paused as they remembered master subhuti’s teachings about self control, and instantly changed their posture and began taking deep breaths, and once she was calm enough, she spoke, “don’t shout dear brother,” Wukong replied with a smile, “don’t shout. Let’s go back and see our master.” When they both reached the top of the bank, Tripitaka bowed to them and said, “you’ve both certainly had a tough time.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” bājie replied, but if we’d captured that evil spirit and made him take you across the river, then that would be a perfect solution.” Wukong gave the demon pig a sideways glare, but other than that she didn’t say a word. After a moment Tripitaka spoke up, speaking to bājie, “so how did your battle with the evil spirit go?”

"He's as good as me,” bājie replied with a sigh, “When I pretended to be beaten in the fight he chased me to the river's edge, but upon seeing elder sister waving her cudgel around he ran off back to the river.”

“So what are we going to do?" Tripitaka asked, having thought that with the two working together, it would take no time at all to defeat the fish demon, but i suppose it’s still quite a bit too early for that. "Relax, master,” wukong replied with a wave of her hand, there's no need to worry. It's getting late, so you'd better sit on the bank while I go and beg some food. When you've eaten, you can go to sleep, and we can decide what to do tomorrow morning.”

“Good idea, be as quick as you can.” Bājie said, Wukong preceded to summon their cloud and leapt atop it before giving him a smirk, “aren’t I always?” and before bājie could muster up a response the demoness was already gone, heading due North to a house where she begged some food, and came back to give it to her master. Seeing the golden monkey coming back so soon, Tripitaka said to them, “wukong, why don’t we go back to the house you begged this food and ask them how to cross this river. That would be better than having to fight this demon, "But that house is a long way away,” wukong laughed, “It's about two thousand miles from here. What would be the point in asking them about this river? They wouldn't know anything about it.”

To this bājie groaned, causing both to turn to him with puzzled looks, “your telling stories again, If it's two thousand miles away, how did you get there and back so quickly?” Now it was wukong’s turn to groan as she slapped a hand to her face, now getting extremely tired of having to explain the same damn thing every time. “You wouldn't know this, of course, she replied, “but the cloud that I can summon with my breath has the ability to cover over thirty six thousand miles in a single trip. so by returning in the way that I had came would take no time at all.”

“If it's so easy, sister, bājie replied, “you should carry the master on your back, take him across, and we wouldn’t even need the help of that fish demon.”

"You can ride clouds, can't you?” Was wukong’s response, “Why don't you carry the master across instead?"

"The master's mortal flesh and bones are heavier than Mount Tai,” bājie said, even as Tripitaka gasped in astonishment and offense, “So although I can ride clouds I could never lift him. Nothing but your cloud could do the trick.” Wukong simply rose an eyebrow, “now why would my cloud be any different? my cloud isn’t any different from yours. So if anything the same thing would happen to me, for Tripitaka isn’t an immortal like the two of us. When that other poisonous monster of a fiend made a magic wind I could only move the master by dragging and tugging him along the ground. Of course. I can do tricks like that, and all those other ones like making myself invisible or shrinking land. But although our master cannot escape from the sea of suffering he wants to go to a foreign land, so he finds every inch of the way heavy going. All we can do is escort him and see that he comes to no harm. We can't undergo all that suffering on his behalf, nor can we fetch the scriptures for him. Even if we went ahead to see the Buddha, he wouldn't give the scriptures to you or me. After all, if we could get them that easily, we'd have nothing to do."

Bājie, upon being told this, nodded his head in understanding, then they ate some plain rice without any vegetables, after which the three of them went to sleep on the Eastern bank of the Flowing Sands River.

“Wukong” Tripitaka said the following morning, "what are we going to do about it today?"

"There's nothing for it but to send bājie back under the water,” to this the pig demon snorted awake upon hearing his name, his ears angled awkwardly as he slept on the ground, raising his head to look at the demoness with a confused look, “your making me go underwater so you can stay dry dear sister,” he replied as he pushed himself off the ground. "I won't be impatient this time,” wukong replied, though the pig demon only squinted his eyes, not believing them. "I'll let you lure him out onto the bank and then I'll cut him off from the river. That way we'll be bound to catch him.

With nothing else to say to get out of it, bājie rubbed his face, summoned up his energy, took his rake in both hands, went down to the river, and parted the waters as he went back to the monster's lair once more. The fish demon, who had only just woken up, turned to see what was happening the moment he heard the waters being pushed apart. Observing that a rake−wielding pig demon was upon him, he sprang to his feet to stop him, shouting, "OH YOU LITTLE- STOP TRYING TO FIGHT ME ALREADY- YOU CAN’T JUST DO THE SAME THING TWICE YOU KNOW!” Bājie blocked the blow from the staff with his rake and said, "What do you mean by telling me not to fight you when you are the exact reason we haven’t crossed the river yet? if anything me battling you should be expected at this point.”

The fish demon only let out a deep growl from deep within his being, “You know nothing, you wretch," the monster replied, “Great is the fame of this staff of mine, for it was crafted from a Sala tree on the moon. Wu Gang cut down a branch of it, For Lu Ban to work with his unrivaled skill. A strip of gold goes right through its heart, And it is set with countless pearls. It is a precious staff, fine for subduing fiends like you, It could quell all demons when it guarded the Heavenly Palace. When I was commissioned as High General The Jade Emperor gave it me to use. It can be any length I wish, Thick or thin, responding to my will. It protected the Emperor at Peach Banquets, it even attended at court in the upper world. When I was at the palace, it met all the sages, and when I lifted the curtain, it greeted the Immortals. I nurtured it and made it a divine weapon, for it is no ordinary earthly arm. When I was sent down from Heaven in exile I roamed at will throughout the world. I do not need to boast about this staff, but it is unmatched by any spear or saber in the world. Look at that rusty rake of yours, I’ll bet it’s only good for farming or growing vegetables."

"I'll give you the beating you deserve, damn you!” Bājie said as steam blew out of his nose, causing a trail of bobbles to rise above him, “Never mind about
vegetable−growing, one swipe from it and you'll have nowhere left to put ointment, because your blood will be pouring out from nine holes. Even if it doesn't kill you, you'll have tetanus for the rest of your days.” In his shock, the fish demon dropped his
defensive posture and fought with the pig demon from the river−bed to the surface of the water. This battle was fiercer than the last. The precious staff whirled, while the deadly rake struck, And no word passed between the two foes. For the Mother of Wood conquered the Medicine Measure, The pair of them had to fight each other twice. With no victory in sight, and no defeat to be seen. The waves were overturned and knew no peace. How could one hold back his anger? How could the other bear his humiliation? As the staff parried the rake's blows, they showed their prowess, Each was most vicious as the Flowing Sands River rolled. Towering rage, with their strenuous efforts, all cause Tripitaka needed to go west. The rake was thoroughly murderous, while the staff was wielded with experience. Having enough of the battle bājie grabbed his enemy, trying to drag him ashore, While the other in turn tried to pull The pig demon underwater. The thunderous noise disturbed fish and dragons, as Gods and ghosts lay low as the sky was darkened once more.

The battle went on for thirty rounds, but neither emerged victorious. Finally bājie feigned defeat once again, and fled trailing his rake behind him. The fish demon charged through the waves after him as far as the bank, when bājie shouted at him, “I’ll get you, you heinous piece of salami! Come up on this higher ground where we can fight with dry land under our feet.” This caused the fish demon to growl as he tighted his grip on his staff, “You're trying to lure me up there, damn you," the monster replied, "for your mate to come and get me. Come back and fight in the water." The fiend, who had more sense than to go up the bank again, stood at the river's edge shouting up at the pig demon.

Bājie spluttered, baffled at the fact that the demon thought that he and the monkey demoness were mates, the thought alone made him want to laugh. sure, when the two had first met he had thought she was the most gorgeous demon in the world, but after getting to know her, she doesn’t really seem like his type. besides, she’s his elder sister, so it would only be seen as weird. When wukong saw that the monster was not coming up on the bank, she seethed with frustration at not being able to catch him. "Master," they said, “you sit here while I do a 'Hungry Eagle Falling on Its Prey' on him." She then stood at the edge of the river, the only noise being her heart beating in her ears like a drum, taking a few deep breaths to calm themselves, the golden monkey somersaulted into mid−air, then plummeted down towards the water’s surface to catch the fish demon, knowing that fighting them was much more important then her fears. who heard the noise of a wind as he was yelling at the pig demon, turned immediately, and saw the monkey demoness descending from the clouds. He put his staff away, plunged into the water with a splash, and was seen no more, just as wukong landed a few feet from the water's surface with a growl.

"Brother," wukong said as she turned to him as she landed on the bank, “the monster's made a smooth getaway. Whatever are we to do if he won't come on to the bank again?”

“It’s impossible,” bājie replied with a shake of his head, “We'll never be able to beat him. Even if I put everything I've got into it, I can only hold my own against him.” To this the monkey demoness sighed as she rubbed her face in frustration, having never felt so lost in such a long time. “The only thing we can do now is check up on our master.” The two of them climbed the bank and told the Tang Priest about the difficulty of capturing the fish demon, “this is indeed a difficult situation we have found ourselves in,” Tripitaka replied while looking down at the two with a forlorn expression, “However are we going to cross?"

"No need to worry, master,” wukong replied, even if she herself was indeed worrying quite a bit, but he doesn’t need to know that, “The monster is lurking deep down on the river−bed, where it's very hard to move around. You stay here and look after the master, bājie, and don’t fight with that fish demon again. I’m gonna head to the Southern Sea." This only caused the pig demon to cock his head to the side in confusion, not knowing why the monkey demoness would feel the need to go that far. “What for?” He asked, “This whole business of fetching the scriptures was started by the Bodhisattva Guanyin, and it was she who converted us. Now we are stuck here at the Flowing Sands River, and nobody but she can sort this one out. With her help we'll be in a stronger position to fight that monster." Wukong replied.

"Yes, yes," bājie said, eager to finally have a surefire way to finally defeat this fiend, “and when you're there, please thank her for converting me." Tripitaka stepped in front of wukong with a serious expression, “wukong, If you're going to ask the Bodhisattva to come, don't waste a moment, and be back as quickly as possible. we really have no time to waste.” The golden furred monkey nodded her head with a smile, determined to get to the bottom of this so they can finally proceed with their mission. Summoning their cloud once more, she went off in the direction of the Southern Sea, and before an hour was up she saw Potaraka Island. A second later they landed outside the Purple Bamboo Grove, where the twenty−four devas came forward to greet them with the words, “Why have you come, Great Sage?"

"Because my master is in trouble,” Wukong replied, “I have come for an audience with the Bodhisattva." The deva on duty that day asked the demoness to sit down while he went in to report, whereupon he went into the Tide Cave to announce that Sun Wukong was seeking an audience on business. The Bodhisattva was leaning on a balcony looking at the blossoms in the Precious Lotus Pool with the Dragon Princess Peng Zhu when she heard the news. She went back in her cloudy majesty, opening the door and summoned the golden monkey demoness to her presence. Who greeted her with grave reverence. “Why aren't you looking after the Tang Priest dear monkey?” She asked “and why have you come to see me?” She spoke in a calm orderly voice, not a trace of anger nor malice in her tone, “i haven’t seen you since I aided you with transforming the dragon prince bi long into a horse. tell me, how is he doing, has he made trouble with any of you?”

“Brother bi long has been on his best behavior since you’ve converted him, he hasn’t bitten any of us or given us any trouble, but that’s not why I’ve come here. you see, my master won a new disciple at Gao Village, Bodhisattva,” wukong began, “he’s called zhu bājie, and also has the Buddhist name Wuneng thanks to you. We have now reached the Flowing Sands River after crossing the Yellow Wind Ridge, but it's a thousand miles of Ruo River and my master cannot cross it. On top of this there's an evil monster in the river who's a great fighter, and although my younger brother bājie had three great battles with him on the surface of the water, he couldn't beat them. He is still blocking our way and preventing my master from crossing. This is why I've come to see you and ask you in your mercy to help us across.”

Quanyin sighed deeply, realizing that they had come across the tang monks third and final disciple, now wishing that she had given Tripitaka a list of names so this doesn’t keep happening. but what’s done is done I suppose. “Let me ask you this wukong, Why didn't you tell the monster that you are protecting the tang priest?”

"We wanted to catch him," wukong replied, “when we had first met him he had wanted to fight both of us as a challenge before helping us across the river, but after his first battle with bājie, he was too tired to continue fighting. which angered me greatly, since I’ve known all my life that demons have way more stamina then the average human. And since I’m not that fond of water as you know, bājie was the only one who could find the fish demon's den and did all the talking. I expect he never mentioned fetching the scriptures."

“The fish demon you have come across in the Flowing Sands River is the mortal incarnation of the Great Curtain−lifting General,” quanyin said, “and is a believer whom I converted myself and instructed to protect those who would be coming to fetch the scriptures. If you had told him that you had come from the East to fetch the scriptures, so far from fighting you, he would have joined you immediately.”

“But the craven monster is now skulking in the river, too frightened to come out," wukong replied, now being filled with dread at the thought that this whole situation would’ve been taken care of way sooner if she had gotten a grip and traveled underwater in the first place. feeling embarrassment and cold shame wash over them as the realization sank in. "so how are we to make him join us, and how is my master to cross the weak water?"

The Bodhisattva sent for her disciple Huian and produced a red bottle−gourd from her sleeve. "Take this gourd," she said, "and go with Sun Wukong to the Flowing Sands River. Shout 'Wujing'−−'Awakened to Purity'−−and he'll come out. First take him to submit to the Tang Priest, and then make him thread his nine skulls on a string like the Sacred Palaces. If he puts this gourd in the middle of them, it will make a dharma boat to ferry the Tang Priest across the river." In obedience to the Bodhisattva's command, Huian and the Great Sage took the gourd with them from the Tide Cave and the Purple Bamboo Grove.

The Five Elements were combined with the heavenly Immortal, Recognizing their master of the old days. They have been sufficiently refined to achieve great things, When true and false are distinguished, origins are seen. And when Metal joins Nature, life joins life, When Wood seeks the Passions, both are lost. When the two Earths achieve nirvana, Fire and Water will combine, and worldly dust be no more. A little later the pair of them brought their clouds down to land on the bank of the Flowing Sands River. Recognizing Huian as Moksa the Novice, bājie led his master forward to meet him. When Moksa had exchanged courtesies with Tripitaka he greeted the pig demon.

“Thanks to Your Holiness's instruction, I was able to meet the Bodhisattva, and since then I have obeyed the Buddhist law and had the pleasure of becoming a monk. As I have been traveling since then, I've been too busy to go and thank you. Please forgive me." Bājie said, this caused the golden monkey to roll her eyes as they spoke, “Don't be so long winded, dear brother, Let's go and call to that demon in the river.”

"Call to whom?" Tripitaka asked, "I saw the Bodhisattva,” wukong replied as she crossed her arms, “and told her what had happened. She said that the fish demon of the Flowing Sands River is the mortal incarnation of the Great Curtain−lifting General, who was thrown down to this river as a monster because of a crime he had committed in Heaven. He has been converted by the Bodhisattva and has vowed to go to the Western Heaven with you. If we'd told him we were going to fetch the scriptures, there would have been none of this bitter fighting. The Bodhisattva has now sent Moksa to give this gourd to that fellow to make a dharma boat that will ferry you across.” The golden monkey refused to look at any of them for she was still ashamed of how it was basically their fault that the situation had gotten so bad in the first place, the grip on her arms tightening upon thinking this. Thankfully Tripitaka didn’t seem to notice the golden monkey’s distress, and instead bowed in reverence to the Bodhisattva many times when he heard it, and also bowed to Moksa with the words, “please do this as quickly as you can, Your Holiness." Moksa then went by cloud and stood over the river with the gourd in his hands. “"Wujing, Wujing," he shouted at the top of his voice, "the pilgrims who are going to fetch the scriptures have been here for a long time. Why haven't you submitted to them?"

The fish demon, who had gone back to the river−bed for fear of the great and terrifying golden furred monkey demoness, was resting in his den when he heard his Buddhist name being called and realized that this was a message from the Bodhisattva Guanyin. On hearing that the pilgrims were there, his fears of being attacked melted away, and he pushed his head up through the waves to see that it was Moksa the Novice. Upon seeing them he bowed as much as he could in the water, his face covered with smiles. "I'm sorry I did not welcome you properly, Your Holiness," he said. "Where is the Bodhisattva?"

"She didn't come," Moksa replied. "She sent me to tell you to be the Tang Priest's disciple. You are to take the nine skulls you wear round your neck, arrange them with this gourd in the pattern of the Nine Sacred Palaces, and make a dharma boat to ferry him across this weak water."

"Where is the pilgrim?" Wujing asked. Moska simply pointed to the edge of the bank, where Tripitaka sat silently, “he is right over there, sitting on the bank.” Wujing then noticed the pig demon and couldn’t help a deep growl reverberate from deep in his throat at the sight, “I don't know where that bloody creature is from, but he fought with me for two whole days without giving me a nights rest, and never said a word about fetching scriptures. And as for this one,” he added, noticing the golden monkey demoness, who upon being addressed tensed up, tighting her hold on herself as she wanted nothing more in that moment then to disappear. “That demoness is that one's accomplice and a real terror. I'm not going with them."

Moska simply sighed, having noticed the golden monkeys increasing distress, “That one is Zhu Bajie, and the golden monkey over there is sister wukong. They are both disciples of the Tang Priest who have been converted by the Bodhisattva, so you have nothing to fear from them. Let me present you to the Tang Priest." Wujing put away his staff, straightened his yellow brocade tunic, jumped ashore, knelt before the Tang Priest, and said, "Master, your disciple's eyes have no pupils in them−−I beg you to forgive me for attacking your followers instead of recognizing who they were."

"You melon," bājie said, “why did you decide to fight me instead of submitting? What did you mean by it?"

“You can’t blame him, dear brother,” wukong mumbled just loud enough for him to hear, “We didn't tell him our names or even mention fetching the scriptures, there was no way he could’ve known.”

"Do you believe in our teachings with all your heart?” Tripitaka asked, having not overheard them, "I was converted by the Bodhisattva," Wujing replied, "and she gave me this river's name as a surname and called me by the Buddhist name of Sha Wujing, or Sand Awakened to Purity, so of course I must follow you, master.”

“In that case, you are welcome to join us on our journey west, but be warned: this journey of ours isn’t for the faint of heart.” In response wujing bowed to Tripitaka, wukong, and bājie with appropriate degrees of reverence. When Tripitaka saw him do this just like a real monk he was most delighted, knowing that wujing was now on the path of greatness. "Now that you have entered the faith," said Moksa, "there's no need to waste time talking. Make that dharma boat at once.”

Wujing took the skulls from round his neck without delay and tied them into the pattern of the Nine Palaces with the Bodhisattva's gourd in the middle. Then he asked Tripitaka to board it, and the monk found that when he sat on it that it was as stable as a small dinghy. Bājie and wujing supported him to left and right, while wukong led the dragon horse through the clouds behind him, who was most grateful that this whole situation was finally taken care of. and the golden monkey couldn’t help but agree. and Moksa stood above him on guard. The four thus made a calm and windless crossing of the weak water of the Flowing Sands River. The boat moved with the speed of an arrow, and it was not long before Tripitaka climbed ashore on the other side. He was neither wet nor muddy, and his hands and feet were completely dry. Thus it was that master and disciples trod on dry land again without any trouble. Moksa then landed his cloud, and took back the gourd. The nine skulls changed into nine gusts of wind and disappeared. Tripitaka bowed to Moksa to thank him and worshiped the bodhisattva, after which Moksa returned to the Eastern Ocean, and Tripitaka mounted the dragon horse once more.

—————————————

Long is the road as they travel West, In the rustling autumn breeze the frost−killed flowers fall. As the four headed along the main road West free of all impediment. They crossed blue mountains and fine blue rivers, and saw no end of wild flowers. The time flew by, and before long it was autumn. Hills covered with red maple leaves, while yellow chrysanthemums braved the evening breeze, Aging cicadas sung with less vigor, as autumn crickets longed for the days of plenty. The lotus was losing its green silken leaves, The fragrant orange tree was massed with golden globes. Lines of wild geese spread out like dots across the distant sky. As they were travelling along one day, evening drew in, and Tripitaka said, “Where are we going to sleep, disciples, now that it's getting late?"

"That's not the right thing to say, master," wukong replied with a laugh, “We monks are supposed to eat the wind and drink the rain, and sleep under the moon and in the frost. Our home is wherever we are. So why ask where we're going to sleep?”

"You may think that you've had an easy journey, elder sister,” bājie spoke up, “but you don't give a damn about other people being tired. Ever since we crossed the Flowing Sands River we've been going over mountain ranges, and this heavy load has fairly worn me out. We've got to find a house where we can beg some tea and food and have a good rest−−it's only fair."

It sounds to me, dear brother, like your having regrets once again,” wukong replied with a smug grin, “I'm afraid you can't have such an easy life now as you did back in Gao Village. If you want to be a monk, you have to suffer−−it's the only way of being a true disciple."

"How heavy do you think this load is?" Bājie asked with a glare, not taking kindly at not being taken seriously, "I haven't carried it since you and wujing have joined us, so how should I know?" Wukong responded with a shrug. Which only made the pig demon angrier, “just add it up,” he replied, “there are Four bundles wrapped in yellow bamboo mats, Eight ropes of assorted lengths. Then, to keep out rain and damp, Three or four layers of felt around it. The carrying−pole is terribly slippery, With nails at either end. Then there's a bronze and iron nine−ringed staff, and a cape made of bamboo and creeper, not to mention a long folded piece of tiger skin that you haven’t thrown out since you killed that tiger that attempted to attack our master on the first day that you were protecting him-“

“HEY! I’m just saving that for a rainy day, you don’t know when that would come in handy,” wukong interrupted the pig demon, which only caused him to huff in annoyance. “-With all this luggage to carry day after day, of course I find the going heavy. While you're allowed to be the masters disciple, I'm treated as a hired hand."

“Who do you think you're talking to, dear brother?” Wukong asked, squinting her eyes in warning, embodying the elder monkeys that have raised them. “I'm talking to you, elder sister.” bājie challenged, the golden monkey scoffed, “You shouldn't be complaining about this to me,” she replied, “My job is to look after the master's safety, while you and wujing look after the horse and the luggage. And if there's any slacking from you, you'll feel a heavy stick about you ankles." The golden monkey warned. Bājie growled in response, not one to be taken down so easily, “Don't threaten me with a beating, elder sister,” he replied, as Tripitaka and wujing gave each other uncertain looks, not sure what to do in this situation. “that would be bullying. I know that you're too high and mighty to carry the luggage, but the master's horse is a big, sturdy animal to be carrying only one old monk-“

“Actually I’m eighteen years old, I’m not even close to being old,” Tripitaka muttered to himself, quiet enough so that the two couldn’t hear him, “-I'd be very happy if it could carry a few pieces of luggage." To his surprise the monkey demoness barked out a laugh, “Do you think he's a horse?" She remarked with a grin, “He's no ordinary horse. He was the son of Ao Run, the Dragon King of the Western Sea, and his name is Prince Dragon−horse. Because he burnt the palace pearls his father reported on him as an offender against the Heavenly Code. Luckily for him, his life was saved by the Bodhisattva Guanyin, and he waited a long time for the master in the Eagle's Sorrow Gorge. He was honored by another visit from the Bodhisattva, who took off his scales and horns, removed the pearls from under his neck, and turned him into this horse, which has sworn to carry the master to the Western Heaven to visit the Buddha.” Checkmate bitch, Wukong thought to herself with a smug grin.

“This is a matter of him winning merit for himself, so you'd better leave him alone." She finished, leaving bājie speechless, as Tripitaka felt sweat rain down his face, knowing that the golden monkey had intentionally left out some key details, like how his original horse had been gobbled up by the dragon prince, and that it took a good few hours until the situation was dealt with properly. but he’d rather be thrown into a sea full of sharks then admit that aloud. “Is he really a dragon?" Wujing piped up from behind the group upon hearing this, “yes.” Wukong replied simply, sending the pig demon a smug look who returned it with a glare. “I've heard an old saying,” bājie began as he crossed his arms, pointedly not looking at the golden monkey, “that dragons can breathe out clouds, make the dust and sand fly, pull mountain ranges up by their roots, and turn oceans upside down. How is it that he's moving so slowly now?”

"If you want to see him go fast," Wukong challenged with a glint in their eye that caused everyone in the vicinity to jump, knowing that a look like that spelled nothing but trouble. “I'll make him go fast for you." The splendid Great Sage gripped her iron cudgel, and countless luminous clouds sprang from it. When bi long saw the golden furred demoness grab the cudgel he thought he was going to be hit with it, and in his terror he shot off at the speed of lightning. Tripitaka was too weak to rein him in as the equine dashed up the mountainside for all his dragony nature was worth before he slackened his pace. When Tripitaka began to get his breath back, he looked up and saw some fine houses in the shade of a bamboo grove. Cypresses were bent over the gates of the houses near the blue mountain. There were several spreading pines along with some molded bamboo. Wild chrysanthemum sat outside the fence, beautiful in the frost, The orchid by the bridge reflected red in the water. A whitewashed, plastered wall surrounded it. Handsome was the lofty hall, and peaceful the main building. There was no sign of oxen or sheep, or chickens, or dogs, It seemed to be the slack season after harvest.

Tripitaka stopped the horse to take a longer look, and then he saw wukong and the others arrive, “you didn’t fall off the horse master?” She asked with a wide grin, having seen the scene as nothing more then amusing. "You gave this horse a terrible fright, wukong,” Tripitaka huffed, not feeling as angry as he would have if he had indeed fallen off, “but I did keep my seat.”

“You don’t need to tell me off master,” wukong replied with a slight pout to her lips, not seeing what the big deal was, no one got hurt after all, “it was only cause bājie here said that the horse was going too slow, so i then thought with my very intellectual mind that i would simply give bi long a running start.” Bājie, who had been running quite fast after the horse, was puffing and panting as he mumbled, beads of sweat dropping down his brow like rain on a sheet, replied with a glare, “Enough of this. When you're bent double you can't relax. Although I'm carrying a load so heavy I can't pick it up, you DARE make me run after the horse.”

“Wukong,” Tripitaka spoke, trying in vain to change the subject, knowing that this argument is getting them nowhere, “do you see the farm over there? Let's ask if we can spend the night there.” Wukong then got the sudden sense to look up and saw that the sky above it was full of clouds of blessing, and knew that the farm had been miraculously produced by the Buddha or some Immortals. Which caused the golden monkey to bite her lip as she looked down at the ground. At least glad that she knew beforehand before they got tricked, she DESPISES being tricked, that’s supposed to be her thing, damn it all.

Not daring to give away the secrets of Heaven, however, she simply replied with a smile, “Splendid, splendid, let's ask if we can lodge there." Dismounting from his horse, Tripitaka saw a gatehouse with pillars like elephants trunks and beams that had been painted and carved. Wujing put down the carrying−pole and bājie said as he held up the horse, This is a very wealthy house." He said, even as bi long sent him a heated glare, wukong was on the point of going in when Tripitaka stopped them and said, “No, we people of religion should avoid incurring suspicion. You mustn't go charging in. We should wait till somebody comes out and then ask politely for lodging." Wukong simply responded with a huff as bājie tethered the horse at the sloping base of the wall while Tripitaka sat on a stone stool, and wujing and wukong sat beside the steps. When nobody appeared for a long time, Wukong jumped up impatiently and went through the gate to have a look. She saw a large hall facing South whose tall windows were shaded with bamboo curtains. Over the doorway dividing the inner and outer parts of the house was a horizontal landscape painting symbolizing long life and blessings, and on the gold−painted columns flanking the door was pasted a pair of scrolls reading, The tender willow leaves sway in the evening by the bridge, When the plum−blossom looks like snowflakes it is spring in the courtyard. “Okay, I don’t even know where to begin to decipher that one…” the golden monkey muttered. In the middle of the room was an incense table whose black lacquer had been polished, an ancient animal−shaped bronze incense−burner standing on it, and six chairs. Pictures of the four seasons were hung on the walls at either end of the hall. As wukong was peeping inside she heard footsteps from behind the door at the back. A woman, neither old nor young, came out, and asked in a charming voice, "Who has forced their way into this widow's house of mine?"

Taken aback by this sudden question, wukong hastened to greet her respectfully and say, "I am a humble monk-demoness from the Great Tang in the East, under imperial orders to go to the West to worship the Buddha and ask for the scriptures. There are four of us altogether, and since our journey has brought us this way as evening is drawing in, we have come to your mansion, divine patroness, to beg for a night's lodging."

She returned their greeting with a smile and said, Where are the other three gentlemen, venerable madam?” Upon hearing this, the golden monkey turned around towards the door where she came in and shouted, “Master! come in.” Instantly Tripitaka, bājie and wujing came in, bringing the horse and the luggage with them. As the woman came out of the hall to welcome them, bājie stole a glance at her with greedy eyes. She wore a green silk gown, And over it a pale red jacket, along with a skirt of yellow brocade, below which showed thick soled shoes. which suited her graying locks, coiled like a dragon. Palace−style ivory combs shone with red and green, while two golden pins adorned her hair, her half gray tresses soared like a phoenix in flight, Two rows of pearls hung from her earrings. Free of powder and paint, her beauty was natural, she was as attractive as a younger girl.

When she saw the three others she was more pleased than ever, and she invited them into the main room. When all the introductions had been made, she asked them to sit down and have some tea. A servant girl with her hair in plaits came in through the door leading to the back of the house, she was carrying a golden tray on which were set white jade cups of steaming hot tea as well as exotic fruits that smelt delicious. Her sleeves were wide, and with her fingers as slender as bamboo shoots in spring she handed each of them a jade bowl and bowed. When the tea had been drank, with the exception being wukong, who took her time drinking their tea at a steady pace. The mistress ordered a meatless meal to be prepared. “What is your name, venerable Bodhisattva?" Tripitaka asked, spreading out his hands. "And what is this place called?” wukong simply stared at the monk unimpressed while drinking her tea. always one for the dramatics, the golden monkey thought to herself.

“This is the Western Continent of Cattle−gift, or Godaniya,” she replied. "My maiden name is Jia and my husband's name was Mo. In my childhood I had the misfortune of losing both my parents, and I married to continue the ancestral enterprise. Our family is worth ten thousand strings of cash, and we own fifteen thousand acres of good arable land. We were not fated to be given sons, and we only had three daughters. The year before last I suffered the great misfortune of losing my husband. I have remained a widow, and this year I have come out of mourning. There are no other relations to inherit the family estate besides myself and my daughters. I would like to remarry, but not at the price of abandoning the estate. Now that you have come here, venerable sir, with your three disciples, I think it should be you. I and my three daughters want to marry while staying at home, and you four gentlemen would suit us nicely. I wonder if you would be prepared to consent.” Tripitaka simply sat there pretending to be deaf and dumb, while wukong spat her tea out in surprise, coughing shortly after. Meanwhile the monk kept his eyes shut and his mind calm. He made no reply.

The woman continued, “We have over four thousand acres each of irrigated land, dry land, and orchards on hillsides, as well as over a thousand head of oxen and water buffalo, herds of mules and horses, and more pigs and sheep than you could count. There are sixty or seventy farm buildings and barns. We have more grain in the house than we could eat in eight or nine years, and more than enough silk to clothe us for a decade−−to say nothing of more gold and silver than you could spend in a lifetime. You'll be even better off than those ancients who stored spring behind brocade curtains and kept girls whose hair was heavy with golden pins. If you and your disciples are prepared to change your minds and live in this house as our partners, you can enjoy wealth and ease. Wouldn't that be better than a difficult journey to the West?" Tripitaka simply sat there dead silent, acting as if he was brain dead, while wukong just looked at the woman in shock, oh my Buddha, she’s actually serious about this.

"I was born at the hour you of the third day of the third month of the year dinghai,” she continued. "My late husband was three years older than me, and I am now forty−four. My eldest daughter, Zhenzhen, is nineteen; my second, Aiai is seventeen; and Lianlian, the youngest, is fifteen. None of them have been betrothed. Although I am rather ugly myself, the girls are all quite good−looking, and they have all the feminine accomplishments. As my late husband had no sons, he gave them a boy's education, teaching them to read the Confucian classics from an early age and training them to recite poems and make couplets. Although they live in this mountain farmhouse you couldn't consider them boorish, and I think that they would be good partners for all you reverend gentlemen. If you are willing to broaden your outlook and let your hair grow, you could be head of the family and wear silks and brocades. Wouldn't that be far better than your earthenware begging bowl, rough clothes, straw sandals, and rain−hats?" Wukong was completely ignoring her at this point as she prioritized drinking their tea then partaking in the conversation, gazing around the house with a bored expression.

Meanwhile Tripitaka sat in the place of honor as still as a child terrified by thunder or a toad soaked in a rainstorm. He seemed to be in a trance as he leant back with his eyes turned up towards the sky. Bājie however felt an itch in his mind that was hard to scratch when he heard about all this wealth and beauty. He fidgeted on his chair as if needles were being stuck into his backside, and finally could bear it no longer. while wukong gave the pig demon a glance, knowing from past experience what was about to happen, but nonetheless continued to sip her tea. The pig demon went up to his master, tugged at his clothes, and said, "Master, why are you paying no attention to what the lady is saying? You really ought to take some notice." Tripitaka glared at him angrily, made a furious noise, and shouted at him to go away, “wretched beast, he said, "We are men of religion. It's disgraceful to allow yourself to be moved by the thought of wealth, honour or sex."

"Poor, poor things," said the woman as she shook her head with a smile. "What good can there be in being men of religion?"

"What good can there be in being of the world, Bodhisattva?" Tripitaka retorted in a terse tone, there was once again the sound of sipping as wukong laid back in their seat, just enjoying the show at this point. "Please sit down, reverend sir, while I tell you about the advantages of being in the world," she said. "There is a poem to describe them that goes: In spring we cut out linked diamond patterns and wear new silk, In summer we change to light gauze and admire the lotus, In autumn comes meat and delicious rice−wine, and in winter the house is warm, and our faces are red with drink. We have all that's needed in the four seasons, The treasures and delicacies of the whole year. Brocade clothes, silken sheets and a wedding night are better than plodding along and worshiping Maitreya."

Unfortunately for the golden monkey, she had run out of tea to drink, so she thought now would be as good a time as any to speak up, “well, as nice as that all sounds on paper, where’s the time for battles? or bloodshed? or just having fun with running unwanted demons out of your territory? What you're describing sounds more like something straight out of a fairy tail than actual real life. cause in real life you can’t always choose to get everything you want. Sometimes life’s a bitch that will not hesitate to drop kick you in the head until you’re down.” It was only after they were finished with their little rant that the monkey demoness noticed three pairs of eyes staring back at her with mixed expressions, the only one she could clearly make out was Tripitaka’s, who was sending them a mix of concern. “…or that’s at least what I think anyway, I can’t exactly tell you all want to do.” She muttered as she sat back down in her seat and looked anywhere else but them.

"Bodhisattva," Tripitaka continued, as he turned back to face the human woman, quickly changing the subject, which wukong was very grateful for, “it is, of course, very good to enjoy wealth and honor with plenty of food and clothes and a family. But what you don't realize is that religious life has advantages. It is no light matter to decide to enter religion, for you have to demolish the love and gratitude you felt before. Externals are created no longer, and your mouth is tightly shut. Negative and positives exist within your body. When all has been achieved, you face the golden gates, see your nature, clarify your mind, and return home. This is better than staying in the world to be greedy for blood and food, While your stinking flesh grows aged and decrepit." Wukong shuddered at the thought, but kept quiet.

"You insolent monk," the woman said in great anger. "If it weren't for the fact that you've come a long, long way from the East. I'd drive you out of my house. I invite you four with all sincerity to marry us and enjoy our wealth, and you repay my kindness with insults. If you have accepted the prohibitions and made your vows, you could at least let me have one of your underlings as a son−in−law. Why are you being such a stickler for the rules?”

As she had lost her temper, Tripitaka tried to sooth her, “wukong, could you stay here?” Wukong in turn gave the monk a look of disgust and betrayal, “master, you know that I’m not cut out for that sort of life, besides I have my own mate to get back to once this journey is complete. so there’s nothing you or that women can say that will change my mind.” Tripitaka simply nodded his head, eternally grateful that he has such a selfless disciple such as her. "Why not let bājie stay? He seems to be the only one to not see anything wrong with this.”

“Stop teasing, elder sister,” bājie replied, “We should all decide what's the best thing to do." To this the golden monkey gave the demon pig a sharp look, “since when have you known the right thing to do?” This only caused bājie to splutter as he tried to come up with a response, as wukong just sat there with her arms crossed unimpressed. “If neither of you will stay, I must ask wujing to,” Tripitaka said, wujing meanwhile, who had been leaning against the wall in silence as this all went down, jumped upon hearing his name and looked at him with an incredulous look, “What a thing to say, master. I was converted by the Bodhisattva, agreed to obey the prohibitions, and waited till you came, and since taking me as your disciple you've taught me more. I haven't been with you for two months yet, and I've had no time to win any merit at all. How could I possibly want wealth and position? I want to go to the Western Heaven even if it costs me my life, and I'm certainly not going to frustrate my hopes by doing that." In the face of their refusals the woman turned round, went out through the door leading to the back of the house, and slammed it behind her, leaving master and disciples to walk outside with neither food nor tea. Nobody else came out to see them.

"That's not the way to handle things, master," grumbled an angry bājie, “You should have been more flexible and given her some noncommittal answer, then you'd have gotten some food out of her. That way we'd have eaten well tonight, but would still have been able to refuse to marry them in the morning. We're going to have a lousy night with nothing to eat if that inside door is shut and nobody comes out to us."

“Speak for yourself dear brother, I’m gonna sleep in that tree over there,” Wukong said as she got up from off the ground and climbed up a nearby tree, her extra weight causing the trees branches to groan and bend, but it still remained intact. “Brother bājie, maybe you should stay here and marry one of the girls, since you want wealth and a wife so badly,” wujing replied.

"Lay off me," bājie replied, “We must decide what's the best thing to do." Wukong simply chuckled as they stretched out on a nearby breach, “why bother? If you want to marry one of them, you'll make our master and the woman in−laws, and you can be a husband living with his in−laws. A family as rich as this is bound to give a good dowry, as well as a feast for relations which will do us all a bit of good. So it's in all our interests for you to return to worldly life here."

"It sounds all right," bājie thought aloud as he stroked the hairs on his chin, “but it would mean going back to the world after leaving it, and marrying again after ending another marriage."

"Did you have a wife before, then?" Wujing asked, feeling like he had a lot to catch up on, the golden monkey let out a humorless laugh, “yeah, with a racist bastard as a father-in-law. Sorry to tell you this, dear brother of mine, but even if you hadn’t locked your wife in her own bedroom, I’m sure the guy would’ve found something to complain about. You see, bājie used to be a son-in-law with Squire Gao in Gao Village in the land of Stubet. After I defeated him and the Bodhisattva converted him and made him promise to observe the prohibitions, we managed to force him to become a monk. So he left his wife and joined our master for the journey to the Buddha in the West. I think that now he's been away from her for so long he's remembering all that business again. When he heard this woman's offer, it revived his old ideas. Blockhead," wukong finished as she flicked a small pebble at the demon pigs head that the golden monkey had transformed from one of their hairs, addressing bājie now, “marry into this family as a son−in−law. And I won't report on you. provided you bow to me a few times of course.” She said with a Cheshire Cat grin, but bājie simply shook his head, rubbing at his head as he glared at the golden furred monkey.

"Nonsense, Nonsense,” bājie said, “You've all been thinking the same thoughts, but you pick on me to make an exhibition of. It's always said that 'a monk among pretty women is a hungry ghost,' and that goes for all of us. But by acting so high and mighty you've ruined our chances of doing well here. We haven't cast our eyes on so much as a cup of tea, and there isn't even anyone to light the lamps for us. We may be able to stick it out for a night, but that horse will have to carry our master again tomorrow, and if he gets nothing to eat all night he'll collapse. You lot sit here while I take him out for a feed." He untied the animal and dragged it out in a great hurry, in which wukong let out a groan as the remainder of the group looked at them expectantly, sitting up from her spot in the tree and climbing down with quick expertise only a monkey like themselves have, “does he even realize bi longs not even a real horse? he does know that dragons can live without food for a couple days right?” The golden monkey looked to wujing, who shrugged, “look elder sister, as much as I’d love to help you, I’ve only been traveling with you all for a couple months, so I don’t know him as well as you do.”

Wukong released a sigh, “alright fine, wujing, be a dear and sit here with the master while I follow him and see where he pastures that horse. As much as he boasts about being a working man- I mean demon, I haven’t heard a single story about him taking care of a horse.”

"If you want to keep an eye on him, you may do so,” Tripitaka replied, “but don’t play any tricks on him.” Wukong internally cursed the fact that the monk knew them so well, but said outwardly “I understand,” and as she ran out of the clearing in front of the house, she jumped into the air and shapeshifted herself into a red dragonfly and flew out of the main gate, and caught up with the demon pig. Instead of letting the horse eat what grass there was, the blockhead chivied and dragged it round to the back door of the house, where he saw the woman and her three daughters admiring some chrysanthemums. When they saw the pig demon coming, the three girls rushed inside, while their mother remained standing in front of him. "Where are you going, reverend sir?" she asked. Bājie dropped the horse's bridle, greeted her respectfully, and said, "I'm pasturing the horse, mother." Wukong couldn’t contain the cringe they felt upon hearing this. They were currently hidden inside a bush nearby the back of the house, their itty bitty body easily camouflaging into the bush. you do not simply call an older women ‘mother’ without any prior context. It was then the golden monkey knew her dear brother was done for.

"That master of yours is too prim and proper," she said. "Wouldn't you rather marry here than go on plodding West as a travelling monk?"

"They're under orders from the Tang Emperor,” bājie replied with a solemn grin, “and are too scared of disobeying him to do a thing like this. When they put the pressure on me in the hall just now I was in a very awkward spot. I hope you don't mind about my long snout and big ears."

"I don't mind," she said, "as long as we can have a man about the house, though my girls might not find you attractive.”

"Tell your girls not to be so particular about a husband,” Wukong felt bad for those poor girls, “That Tang Priest may be very handsome, but he's completely useless. Although I'm as ugly as they come, I have something to say for myself." If that boggling oulf dares say anything bad about me, I’ll push away any feelings of siblinghood with that demon pig and kill him myself. “And what would that be?" she asked. "I may be not much to look at, But I certainly get things done. Fifteen thousand acres I can plough without an ox. Just by using my rake I plant crops that come up well. I can summon rain in a drought, Call up a wind when there's none. If you find your house too small, I can add two more stories, or three. If the ground needs sweeping, I'll sweep it, and If the ditches are blocked, I'll make them run. I can do all sorts of household jobs. And perform miscellaneous duties in the home."

Interesting story show off, wukong thought to herself, "Very well then," the woman said, "if you can manage the work about the place you'd better go and talk it over with your master. If there are no problems, then you can marry one of the girls."

"There's no need to talk it over with him,” bājie replied, which left the golden monkey shocked, “He's not my father or mother, and it's entirely up to me whether I do it or not."

"Very well then," she said, "Wait while I tell the girls." With that she went in and shut the door behind her. Bājie still did not let the horse graze but dragged it round towards the front of the house. Unknown to him, wukong, who knew all about what had happened, flew back, changed back into her own form and said to the Tang Priest, "Master, bājie is leading the horse back.”

"If he hadn't led it, it might have got excited and run away,” Tripitaka replied with a smile, at which wukong burst out laughing and told him all about what had taken place between the pig demon and the woman. Tripitaka did not know whether to believe them or not. At that moment the blockhead led the horse in and tethered it.

"Have you grazed the horse?" Tripitaka asked, "I couldn't find any grass that was good enough,” bājie replied, “so I couldn't graze it."

"You may not have been able to graze the horse,” Wukong said with a sly smirk, not about to let her dear brother get away with this when the golden monkey had caught him red handed just a moment ago, “but you managed to do some horse−trading.” This jibe caused the pig demon to realize that the cat was out of the bag, so he hung his head and did not say a word. There was a creak as a side door opened and the woman and her three daughters−−Zhenzhen, Aiai and Lianlian−−came in with a pair of lamps glowing red and two portable incense burners from which sweet−smelling smoke curled up as the jade ornaments at their waists tinkled. The three girls greeted the pilgrims, standing in a row in front of the house and bowing. All had moth eyebrows glistening blue, along with pale and spring−like faces. They were seductive beauties who could tumble kingdoms, Disturbing men's hearts with their quiet charm. Elegant were their ornaments of golden flowers, Their embroidered sashes floated above the worldly dust. Their half−smiles were like a bursting cherry, Their breath was perfumed as they walked with slow steps. Their hair was covered with pearls and jade. Trembling under countless jeweled ornaments, Their whole bodies were fragrant, Covered with delicate flowers of gold. They really were like fairies from the Ninth Heaven, Or the Lady of the Moon coming out of her palace.

Or that’s at least what bājie thought, wukong on the other hand just looked at the display with a thin veil of disgust, how could these women dress up like this? Like trophies that could just as easily be given away for money and gain. Not a single one of them ever thought their lives could be anything other than this, and the thought alone caused the golden monkeys chest to ache, never feeling so relieved that she hadn’t been raised in such a way. If the elders back in her homeland had a chance to see this now, they certainly would rip every piece of jewelry and gold off of their bodies and teach them some self respect, but unfortunately they weren’t, and were most likely all dead at this point. Even so, the monkey demoness imagined they would be rolling in their graves if they knew.

While Tripitaka put his hands together and bowed his head, the great sage pretended not to notice the woman’s arrival, feeling as if the golden monkey even looked at them again she would vomit then and there, and that wouldn’t look good on Tripitaka’s part. And wujing simply turned away, looking at all the surrounding trees instead. But bājie gazed at them with a fixed stare, his mind seething with lewd thoughts as his lust overwhelmed him. “Thank you, divine angels, for coming to see us.” He said, fidgeting, “but could you ask the girls to go please, mother?” Oh my heavens I think i might actually puke, wukong thought to herself as she covered her mouth with one of her hands, not even daring to look as all the girls went back into the house, leaving a pair of gauze- shielded lanterns behind.

“Will you four reverend gentlemen please decide which of you is to marry one of the girls?" The woman asked, “We've already made up our minds that bājie here is to be your son−in−law,” wujing replied, since wukong was currently preoccupied with trying to keep her tea down. “Don't pick on me, brother," bājie replied, “we should discuss this together."

“No need to,” wukong replied, having finally composed herself for the most part, “You've already fixed everything up at the back door and called her 'mother,' so there's nothing to discuss. Our master can represent the groom's family, this lady is the bride's family, I can be the wedding attendant, and wujing will be the matchmaker. There’s really no need to bother with the usual exchange of letters, and today is a most auspicious one full of heavenly grace, so bow to the master and go in to be her son-in-law.”

"Impossible," bājie said with a shake of his head, “impossible. I couldn't do a thing like that." Now wukong was getting really angry, the fur on her head and body standing on end as she stomped over and grabbed the pig demon by his shoulders, openly sneering at him now, “You've already called her 'mother' umpteen times. there's nothing impossible about it at all. Hurry up and fulfill your promise so that we can have some wedding wine, which will be one good thing about it." With a huff, the golden monkey seized the shocked bājie with one hand and grabbed the woman with the other. They said, “as the bride’s ‘mother’, you should take your son-in-law inside.”

Though even with this, the pig demon still hesitated, much to the monkey demonesses growing fury. wanting to go in, and the woman said to the servants, "Bring table and chairs and give these three relatives of ours a meatless supper. I'm taking our son−in−law inside." Then she told the cooks to prepare a banquet for their friends and relations the following morning. The servants did as they were told, and the other three pilgrims ate their supper, with one still steaming from the earlier conversation, spread their bedding, and went to sleep in their places.

——————————————

When Tripitaka, wukong, and wujing woke up early the next morning, the East was already lightening, and as they opened their eyes and looked around them they saw none of the lofty buildings that had been there. There were no carved and painted beams or rafters either: they had all been sleeping in a grove of pine and cypress. The only one not surprised by these turn of events was wukong, who only took a quick glance around and nodded. “Yep, just as I thought,” she muttered to herself, neither mad nor surprised, the golden monkey turned their head when Tripitaka called her name in terror, and wujing said after gathering his bearings, “elder sister, we're done for, done for−−they were demons!”

The golden monkey only gave the fish demon a flat look, “and we aren’t? i don’t really see a problem here. After all, we’re very comfortable here under the pine trees, but I do wonder where that idiot of a brother is being punished."

“Who's being punished?" Tripitaka asked, confused by how strange the golden monkey is acting, “The woman and the girls last night were some Bodhisattvas or other appearing to us in disguise,” wukong replied with a grin as she stood up and looked around before jumping in the tree and returned with some pine seeds in her hands, and she preceded to snack on them as they continued, “and I suppose they went away in the middle of the night. I'm afraid bājie is being punished.”

Upon hearing this, Tripitaka put his hands together and worshipped, and then they saw a piece of paper hanging from a cypress tree, fluttering in the breeze. Wujing hurried over to fetch it and brought it over to their master, who saw that there were nine lines of verse on it that read, The Old Woman of Mount Li had no yearning for the world, But the Bodhisattva Guanyin persuaded her to come. Samantabhadra and Manjusri were both present, disguised as pretty girls among the trees. The holy monk was too virtuous to return to lay life, along with the monkey demoness with golden fur, who had only thought of home. But the unreligious pig demon was worse than worldly. From now on he must calm his mind and reform, for If he misbehaves again, the journey will be hard."

Wukong simply released a chuckle when all three had finished reading it, “I guess that ole pig demon of ours had royally pissed them off,” they stated, quite amused at this turn of events. It was only then they heard loud shouts from the depths of the woods, “MASTER!! they tied me up and left me to die. I'll never do it again if you save me!” The golden monkey only looked unimpressed as she continued listening to the boars shouts, not moving an inch, kinda feeling like bājie could stand to be trapped there for at least a couple more hours. “Is that bājie shouting, wujing?”

“Yes,” the fish demon replied, feeling just a tad disappointed in his boarish brother, “who else would be making that awful noise?” Wukong asked, “I would much rather hear the sounds of geese fighting over a single fish instead of this.”

“Although that bājie is quite obstinately ignorant in mind and nature," Tripitaka replied, “he is an honest fellow. Besides, he is very strong and can carry the luggage, and we should also remember that the Bodhisattva saved him and told him to come with us. I don't think he'll have the nerve to do it again." Wujing then rolled up the bedding and arranged the luggage, while wukong untied the horse and led it along as the golden monkey guided the Tang Priest into the woods to investigate, In the pursuit of righteousness you must be careful, for if you wish to have an easy life, you must sweep away desires in your return to the truth. The three of them went into the woods and found the pig demon tied up under a tree, yelling and howling in unbearable pain. Without an ounce of remorse or pity, Wukong went over to him and said with a laugh, "What a son−in−law! So late, and you still haven't got up to thank your mother−in−law or come to tell the good news to the master. Why are you still playing around here? Where's your mother−in−law? Where's your wife? You make a fine, strapped−up, well−beaten son−in−law~” the golden monkey said in a sing song voice.

Bājie, burning with humiliation at being mocked, gritted his teeth to stop himself howling in his agony, though the golden monkey was not much for showing pity when they knew in her heart that he rightfully deserved it. wujing was overcome with pity when he saw him, and putting down the luggage, he went over and untied him, much to wukong’s disappointment as she crossed her arms with a pout. bājie kowtowed to him in gratitude. For he was suffering terrible remorse. Sex is a sword that wounds the body, and whoever lusts for it will suffer. And for a man that doesn’t know right from wrong, A pretty girl of sixteen is far more dangerous than a yaksha demon.

Bājie used a pinch of earth to represent burning incense and bowed in worship to Heaven. “Did you recognize the Bodhisattva?" Wukong asked, wanting more then anything for quanyin of all beings to berate the pig demons behavior. maybe then he would then start to make good decisions in the future, but that’s just wishful thinking on my part. "I was lying here in a faint and my eyes were seeing stars, so I couldn't tell who it was.” Bājie replied, oh what a shame, wukong thought to themselves as she wordlessly handed him the piece of paper the group found upon waking up.

and when he saw the divine message, bājie was more ashamed then ever, “You're very lucky,” wujing said with a laugh, “you've got four Bodhisattvas as your relations now." The fish demon joked, wukong couldn’t help but laugh in response, “Please don't talk about it,” bājie muttered, “I really don't deserve to be human. I'll never misbehave again in the future, and even if the effort breaks my bones, I'll rub my shoulder and carry our master's luggage to the West."

“Well, that’s a start a suppose, but I’d suggest not breaking your back just for my sake, just you trying to behave would be more then enough as an apology.” Tripitaka replied. Wukong then led her master along the main road. And continued on their journey west.

Chapter Text

After they had been going for a long time, walking and resting, they saw a high mountain blocking their way. "Disciples," Tripitaka spoke, as he reined in the horse, "we must be very careful on that mountain. I'm afraid there may be fiends and demons on it who will not hesitate to attack us."

"With us three leading the way,” wukong said with a smile, “you needn't fear demons." With his worries vanquished for the time being, the monk pressed forward. The mountain was very high, and craggy was its majesty. Its roots joined the Kunlun range, as its summit touched the Milky Way. White crane came to perch in its locust and cypress trees, while dark apes hung upsidedown from its creepers. When the sun shone bright on its forests, It was enveloped in red haze, When winds sprang from dark valleys, coloured clouds scudded across the sky. Hidden birds called in the green bamboo, Pheasants fought among the wild flowers. Thousand−year peaks, Five−blessing peaks, Lotus peaks, Majestically reflecting a delicate light. Ten thousand year rocks, Tiger−tooth rocks, Three Heavens rocks, Wreathed in subtle and auspicious vapors. Luxuriant grass grew in front of the cliff, The scent of plum blossom on the ridge. Dense grew the jungle of thorns, Pure and pale were the orchids. Deep in the woods the birds gathered round the phoenix, A delightful stream in a gully twisted and turned as it wandered around Endless peaks coiled about in layer upon layer. Then there were the green locust trees, Mottled bamboo, And bluish pines, That had been competing in splendor for a thousand years. White plum blossom, along with red peaches, And emerald willows were brilliant as they vied in beauty during spring. Dragons called and tigers roared, Cranes danced and apes howled. Deer emerged from the flowers, and pheasants sang to the sun. This was a land of blessing, an Immortals' mountain, Just like Penglai or Langyuan. Flowers opened and withered on the mountain top, as clouds came and went above the peaks along the ridge.

“Disciples!” Tripitaka said with delight as he sat on his horse, "I've crossed many mountains on my journey West, and they were all steep and rocky, but none of them could be compared to the extraordinarily beautiful scenery here. If this isn't far from the Thunder Monastery, we had better put ourselves in a solemn and reverent mood to meet the Buddha."

“It’s still early in the day, master,” Wukong laughed, Tripitaka’s joy awfully contagious, “That's not an easy place to get to."

"How far are we from Thunder Monastery, elder sister?” Wujing asked,

"Thirty−six thousand miles," wukong replied, “and we haven't covered a tenth of it."

"How many years will it take us to get there?" Bājie asked, "You two younger brothers of mine could manage it in ten days or so, and I could go there fifty times over in a single day and still be back before sunset. But for our master it doesn't bear thinking about." This caused Tripitaka to grow upset, worried about how long it could take, and if he could even live that long. “Tell me wukong! How long will it take!?” He shouted desperately, gathering the attention of all three of them at once, who all gave the monk concerned looks, "If you went from childhood to old age,” wukong began, “and from old age back to childhood again, and you did it a thousand times over, you'd still find it hard to get there. But if you see your true nature, are determined to be sincere, and always remember to turn your head back to enlightenment, then you will have reached Vulture Peak." The monk nodded somberly.

"Even if this isn't the Thunder Monastery,” wujing said, trying to lighten the mood a bit, if only to cheer up his master, “good people must live amid such fine scenery as this.”

“Quite right,” Wukong agreed with a smile, “there couldn't be any evil creatures here. This must be the home of holy monks or immortals. Let's look around here and take our time over it." As it turned out, this mountain was called the Mountain of Infinite Longevity, and there was a Taoist temple on it called the Wuzhuang Temple. In this temple lived an Immortal whose Taoist name was Zhen Yuan Zi. He was also known as Conjoint Lord of the Age. The temple had a rare treasure, a miraculous tree that had been formed when primeval chaos was first being divided, before the separation of Heaven and Earth. In the four great continents of the world, only the Western Continent of Cattle−gift's Wuzhuang Temple had this treasure that was known as "Grass−returning Cinnabar" or "manfruit." It took three thousand years to blossom, three thousand years to form the fruit, and another three thousand years for the fruit to ripen, so that very nearly ten thousand years had to pass before the fruit could be eaten. Only thirty fruit were formed each ten thousand years, and they were shaped just like a newborn baby, complete with limbs and sense organs. Anyone whose destiny permitted someone to smell one, they would live for three hundred and sixty years, and if they ate one the person would live for forty−seven thousand years.

That day the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan had received an invitation from the Original Celestial Jade Pure One inviting him to the Miluo Palace in the Heaven of Supreme Purity to hear a lecture on the Product of Undifferentiated Unity. The Immortals who had studied under this great Immortal were too numerous to count, and he now had forty−eight disciples who had all attained to the full truth of the Way. That day, the Great Immortal took forty−six of them with him to hear the lecture in the upper world, leaving the two youngest, Pure Wind and Bright Moon, to look after the temple. Pure Wind was 1,320 years old, and Bright moon had just turned 1,200. The Great Immortal gave his instructions to the two boys, "As I must obey the summons of the Original Celestial Jade Pure One and go to the Miluo Palace to hear a lecture, you two will have to look after the temple carefully. An old friend of mine will be coming this way before long, and you must entertain him very well indeed. You can pick two manfruits for him as a token of our old friendship."

"Who is this old friend of yours, master?" the boys asked. "Please tell us who he is so that we can entertain him properly.”

"He is a priest sent by the Tang Emperor in the East," the Great Immortal replied, "and he is known as Tripitaka. He is the monk going to worship the Buddha and ask for the scriptures in the Western Heaven."

"Confucius said, 'Don't have anything to do with people of a different way,'" replied the boys with smiles. "Ours is the esoteric sect of the Great Monad, so why ever are you friends with that Buddhist monk?"

"You are not aware," the Great Immortal replied, "that he is a reincarnation of the Golden Cicada, the second disciple of the Tathagata Buddha, that ancient sage of the West. I made his acquaintance at an Ullambana assembly where he gave me tea with his own hands. As this disciple of the Buddha paid me such an honor, I regard him as an old friend." When the two Immortal boys heard this, they accepted their master's orders. Just as he was on the point of setting out, the Great Immortal gave them some more instructions: "oh and before i forget, there are a limited number of those manfruits. You must only give two, and not one more."

"When the garden was opened we all shared two," said the boys, "and there are twenty−eight now left on the tree. We won't use more than two."

"Although the Tang Priest is an old friend of mine," said the Great Immortal, "you must be on your guard against his ruffian disciples, and you mustn't let them know about the manfruit." The Great Immortal then flew up to Heaven with the rest of his disciples. The Tang Priest and his three disciples, meanwhile, were enjoying themselves strolling on the mountain when they noticed some tall buildings rising above a bamboo grove. "What do you think that is?" Tripitaka wondered aloud, and wukong replied with, “It's either a Taoist temple or a Buddhist one. Let's go over and find out." It did not take them long to reach the gate. A cool pine−covered slope, with a tranquil path through the bamboo. White cranes brought floating clouds, while monkeys and apes offered fruit. Before the gate was a wide pool, and the shadows of the trees were long, and in the cracks of the rocks grew moss. Many a purple hall was massed together, and a red aura enveloped the lofty towers. It certainly was a blessed place, like a cloud cave on Penglai. In its pure emptiness little happened, Its stillness gave birth to thoughts of the Way. Green birds often brought letters from the Queen Mother, and purple pheasants carried the classics of Lord Lao Zi. There was a majestic air of the Way and its Power, It was indeed a divine Immortal's home.

Tripitaka dismounted and saw that there was a stone tablet outside the gate on which was inscribed in large letters: BLESSED LAND OF THE MOUNTAIN OF INFINITE LONGEVITY, CAVE HEAVEN OF THE WUZHUANG TEMPLE. "You were right, Tripitaka said, “it is a Taoist temple."

"Good people must live in this temple,” wujing said, “set as it is in such fresh, light scenery. Let's go in and have a look round. When we go back to the East at the end of our journey, this will be one of the finest sights we'll have seen."

"Well spoken,” wukong agreed with a nod of her head, feeling a bittersweet feeling well up in her chest as the golden monkey looked at the temple, her thoughts drifting back to her time being taught under her former master, subhuti. though that was far off in the past, so they shouldn’t be thinking about him, imagining that subhuti wouldn’t be pleased about the golden monkey thinking about him. Even if it was just a passing thought. After that they all went in. On the next gate was pasted the couplet: Residence of Divine Immortals Who Never Grow Old, Home of Taoists as Ancient as Heaven. Wukong let out a laugh, “This Taoist tries to intimidate people by talking big, when I wrecked the Heavenly Palace five hundred years ago I never saw anything like that over the gate of the Supreme Lord Lao zi.”

“Nevermind him,” bājie spoke, “also, it’s not that good of an idea to boast about one of the greatest disasters in history, dear sister, Let's go in. This Taoist may well be quite a decent bloke."

As they went through the second gate they saw two boys come scurrying out. They had pure bones, lively spirits, and pretty faces, and hair tied in childish tufts. Kinda like nezha, wukong thought absently. Their Taoist robes were naturally wreathed in mist, The sleeves of their feather clothes were floating in the wind. Their jade belts were tied with dragon−head knots, Their grass sandals lightly fastened with silk. In their elegance they were unlike common mortals, for they were the Taoist boys Pure Wind and Bright Moon.

The two boys bowed and came out to greet them. "We are sorry we did not welcome you properly, venerable master," they said. "Please sit down.” Tripitaka was delighted, and he accompanied the two boys up to the main hall of the temple, leaving the other three behind, and Wukong sat down on the pristine clear floor in response with a huff, her bottom pushing out below her like a pillow. When the monk had been led though the hall facing South. There was a patterned lattice window that let through the light on top of the door that the boys pushed open. They asked the Tang Priest to come in, and he saw two huge words executed in many colors hanging on the wall−−Heaven and Earth. There was an incense table of red carved lacquer on which stood a pair of golden censers and a supply of incense. Tripitaka went over to the table and put a pinch of incense in the censers with his left hand while performing triple reverences. Then he turned round to the boys and said, "This temple is a home of Immortals in the Western Continent, so why don't you worship the Three Pure Ones, the Four Emperors, and all the ministers of Heaven? Why do you burn incense to the two words Heaven and Earth?"

"To be frank with you, venerable teacher," the boys replied with smiles, "it's quite right to worship the top word, 'Heaven,' but the bottom one, 'Earth,' gets no incense from us. Our teacher only put them up to ingratiate himself.”

"How does he ingratiate himself?" Tripitaka asked. "The Three Pure Ones and the Four Emperors are our teacher's friends," the boys replied, "the Nine Bright shiners are his juniors, and the Constellations are his underlings." When wukong heard this, who had followed them with her ear up to the main hall, not wanting to be left out, the golden monkey collapsed with laughter, much to the confusion of bājie, who asked, “What are you laughing at?”

Wukong wiped her eye of tears as she straightend up to face him, “heh, They say that I get up to no good, but these Taoist boys really tell whoppers!” this only left the poor pig demon even more confused, but chose not to question them. “Where is your teacher?" Tripitaka asked the two. "He had an invitation from the Original Celestial Jade Pure One and has gone to the Palace in the Heaven of Supreme Purity to hear a lecture on the Product of Undifferentiated Unity, so he's not at home at the moment."

At this wukong couldn’t help roaring out, jumping from behind the corner leading to the main hall, causing all three to jump, “Stinking Taoist boys, you don't know who you're talking to. You play your dirty tricks in front of our faces and pretend to be oh−so−innocent. What Heavenly Immortal of the Great Monad lives in the Miluo Palace? Who invited your cow's hoof of a master to a lecture?!"

Tripitaka, who was worried that now that the golden monkey demoness had lost her temper, the boys would answer back and spark off a disastrous fight, he said, “Don't quarrel with them, Wukong. We'll be going in a minute, so we obviously need to have nothing to do with them. Besides, as the saying goes, 'egrets don't eat egret flesh'. Their master isn't here anyway, so there would be no point in wrecking the place. Go and graze the horse outside the gate. Wujing, you look after the luggage, and tell bājie to take some rice from our bundles and use their kitchen to make our meal. When we go we shall give them a few coppers for the firewood. All do as I've told you and leave me here to rest. When we have eaten we shall be on our way again." The three of them went off to do their jobs. With the golden monkey quietly muttering to themselves as she led bi long outside. Bright Moon and Pure Wind were meanwhile quietly praising Tripitaka to each other, "What a splendid monk. He is indeed the beloved sage of the West in mortal form, and his true nature is not at all befuddled. The master told us to entertain him and give him some manfruit as a token of their old friendship, and he also warned us to be on our guard against those hooligans of his. They have murderous−looking faces and coarse natures. Thank goodness he sent them away, because if they were still with him, we wouldn't be able to give him the manfruit.”

"We don't yet know whether this monk is our master's old friend or not," said Pure Wind. "We'd better ask him to make sure." The two of them then went over to Tripitaka, who was quietly surveying wujing from the kitchen, and said, “May we ask you, venerable master, if you are the Tripitaka of the Great Tang who is going to the Western Heaven to fetch the scriptures?"

Tripitaka, surprised at the fact the two knew him, nodded his head as he bowed, How did you know who I was?"

"Our master told us before he went," they replied, "to go out to meet you long before you got here, but as you came faster than we expected we failed to do so. Please sit down, teacher, while we fetch you some tea."

“I’m honored,” Tripitaka said, Bright Moon hurried out and came back with a cup of fragrant tea for him. When Tripitaka had drunk the tea, Pure Wind said to Bright Moon, "We must do as our teacher told us and fetch the fruit.” The two boys left the monk to his tea and went to their room, where one of them picked up a golden rod and the other a red dish, on which he put many a silk handkerchief as cushioning. They went into the manfruit orchard, where Pure Wind climbed the tree and tapped the fruit with the golden rod while Bright Moon waited below to catch them in the dish. They only took a few moments to knock down and catch a couple, which they took to the front hall to offer to Tripitaka with the words, "This temple of ours is on a remote and desolate mountain, master Tripitaka, and there is no local delicacy we can offer you except these two pieces of fruit. We hope they will quench your thirst.” At the sight of the manfruit the monk recoiled some three feet, shaking with horror. "Goodness me!" he exclaimed. "How could you be so reduced to starvation in this year of plenty as to eat human flesh? And how could I possibly quench my thirst with a newborn baby?"

Upon seeing this reaction, the two holy boys looked at each other with uncertainty, “
This monk has developed eyes of flesh and a mortal body in the battlefield of mouths and tongues and the sea of disputation. thought Pure Wind, and he can't recognize the treasures of this home of Immortals. "Venerable master," said Bright Moon, "this is what is called 'manfruit,' and there is no reason why you shouldn’t eat one.”

"Nonsense, nonsense," Tripitaka said as he blocked the fruit from his gaze with his arms, not even being able to even look at the horrifying sight, “They were conceived by their fathers and mothers and had to go through no end of suffering before they were born. How can you treat them as fruit when they haven't been alive for three days yet?" He asked. "They really and truly grew on a tree!" said Pure Wind desperately, just wanting this monk to eat the damn fruit so they could follow their masters orders. "Stuff and rubbish!” Tripitaka exclaimed, turning to glare at the two, “Babies don't grow on trees. Take them away, you inhuman beasts!” As he refused to eat them, the two boys could only huff as they the dish away and went back to their room. This fruit was rather difficult to handle after all , and did not keep for long without becoming hard and inedible, so the boys decided to sit on their respective beds and eat one each, it wasn’t like the ungrateful monk was gonna eat them anyway.

Unfortunately for the two, There was only a wall separating their room from the kitchen, where their whispering could be clearly heard. Where bājie stood there cooking the rice when he heard them talk as they fetched the golden rod and the red dish. Later he heard them saying that the Tang Priest had not recognized the man fruit for what it was, and heard as they went back to their room. "I'd love to try one, but I don't know how," bājie thought aloud to himself in the empty kitchen, for in his greed the pig demon was unable to prevent his mouth from watering. He then decided to wait for Wukong to finish with whatever she was doing so he could talk it over with them. By this point he had lost all interest in stoking the stove as he stood in front of it, constantly poking his head outside the kitchen to look for the golden monkey. Before long he saw her appare leading the horse- supposedly one of the dragon kings sons, bi long, who had been transformed into a horse by bodhisattva quanyin herself, which he himself admittedly doubted- which she tethered to a locust tree. As she came round to the back, the blockhead waved frantically to her, saying In a hushed voice, “elder sister, come here, come here, I have to tell you something!”

The moment the golden monkey demoness turned to look at him, her face darkened as she instantly recognized a familiar glint in the pig demons eyes that only meant he was thinking of causing trouble. And preceded to stomp over to him, grabbed him by the collar of his clothing and stated with a sneer, “alright you idiot, what are you planning? What, is there not enough food for you in this place to fill the empty void that is your stomach? You should know by now to let Tripitaka get his fill, only then you can eat to your hearts content.” Bājie chuckled nervously as he slowly pulled the golden monkeys hands off him, before continuing, “it's not that. Do you know that there's a treasure in this temple?" This caused wukong to hult momentarily, raising an eyebrow, “a treasure? I can’t help but doubt that, dear brother,”

"I can't describe it because you've never seen it," bājie explained, “and if I gave it to you, you wouldn't know what it was.” This caused wukong to sigh as they brought a hand to her face in exasperation, “don’t try to make me out as a fool brother, When I studied the Way of Immortality five hundred years ago I traveled on my cloud to the comers of the ocean and the edge of the sky. So I’m pretty sure I’ve seen everything.” The golden monkey stated as they crossed their arms. Bājie, now annoyed by his elder sister’s attitude, asked with hands on his hips, “alright then smart ass, then have you heard of something called a manfruit?” He asked, wukong paused for a moment, taking the time before stating “manfruits? I’m sure I remember hearing something about them in passing, I've heard that those are Grass−returning Cinnabar, and that anyone who eats it gains the ability to live for a long time, where ever did you hear this from?”

“Those boys gave two to our master, but that monk didn't know what they were and thought they were newborn babies. So he wouldn't eat them. Those boys are disgraceful−−instead of giving them to us as they should have done they sneaked off into their room and had one each,” bājie then made a motion of eating something, then continued, “I was drooling when I heard all this! I wish I knew how I could try one. Surely you've got some dodge for getting into the orchard, since you did steal some immortal peaches some five hundred years ago prior to havoc in heaven.” Wukong crossed her arms as they looked down at him with an unimpressed look, “oh I get what’s going here. alright, so what if I have some experience in stealing? I don’t intend on wasting my talents in order to fill your gullet.”

Bājie released a groan as he slumped to the floor, “aw come on wukong! can’t you do this one thing for me? What if I said you could have some manfruit too? After all, I didn’t say I would be the only one to eat them. Food is best shared with your loved ones correct? Cone on please help me already, I’m begging!!” The golden monkey was openly ignoring the pig demon by this part, but when he mentioned the part about sharing the manfruit with them, her stomach emitted a loud growl, which caused the pig demon to look up at them in surprise, finally wukong huffed, feeling like she was gonna regret this, “alright fine! But I’m doing this only cause we are short on rations, and those are specifically for Tripitaka, so I’ll only help cause I’m admittedly hungry. And I highly doubt you are gonna cook in here knowing that there is some much greater ‘holy fruit’ hidden somewhere. Besides I’m sure snagging them would be a piece of rice cakes.” With that the golden monkey began to head out of the kitchen, only to stop when bājie spoke up, “I heard them saying in their room that they needed a golden rod to knock them down with. You must do this very carefully−−nobody must know about it."

Wukong snorted, “I know brother, you must have forgotten that you are talking to the demon that stole from heaven more than once.” Before bājie could reply, saying that she had still gotten caught, the great sage had already left, leaving a trail of dust in her wake. Making themselves invisible with help from one of their many prowess, wukong carefully snuck into the boys room, only to find that after eating the fruit they had gone to the front hall, where they were currently talking with Tripitaka, who by this point had forgotten about the whole ordeal. Wukong looked all around the room for the golden rod until they saw a two−foot length of gold hanging from the window lattice. It was about as thick as a finger. At the bottom was a lump like a bulb of garlic, and at the top was a hole through which was fastened a green silk tassel. "So this must be what they call the golden rod," wukong said to herself with a grin, feeling like this was in the bag, taking it down from its resting place, the golden monkey sneakily left the room the same way they came in.

Afterwards she wandered around a bit before she found a pair of gates at the back, which they pushed open, in which the golden monkey discovered a garden, with red, jeweled balconies and a twisting artificial hill. Where rare flowers tried to outshine the sun, while bamboo attempted to be bluer than the sky. Outside the floating cup pavilion a curve of willows hang like mist before the platform that was used to admire the moon, as clumps of lofty pines make splashes of indigo. Bright, bright red, where The pomegranate thicket, Deep, deep green, was the cushiony grass. Richly blue were the jade−coloured orchids, rushing and powerful was the water in the stream. Crimson cassia blazed beside golden wells and wutong trees. Brocade−rich locust trees flanked red balconies and steps with their petals of purity. There were peach blossom trees in both pink and white, while yellow and fragrant chrysanthemums stood tall, that have seen nine autumns. Trellises of raspberries flourish by the peony pavilion, as banks of hibiscus lead to beds of tree−peonies. There is no end of noble bamboos that have held out against frost beyond countless lifetimes. Or lordly pines that defy the snows simply by existing. Then there are nests of cranes and houses for deer, along with square ponds and round pools that house the most beautiful of fish that swim around without worry. Spring water like fragments of jade, Golden heaps of flowers. With the north wind bursts the white plum blossom open, causing the petals
to fly into the sky like small butterflys. When spring comes, it touches the crab−apple with red. It can be rightly called the most splendid view on Earth, for it was the finest garden in the west.

Looking at this amazing scenery, the golden monkey caught a glimpse of another gate up ahead. Upon pushing them open they saw vegetables for each of the four seasons, Spinach, celery, beetroot, ginger, and kelp, along with Bamboo shoots, sweet potato, melons, oblong gourd and wild rice stem, onions, garlic, coriander, scallion and shallots, Lettuce, artemisia, and bitter alisma, gourds and aubergines that must be planted, Rutabaga, turnips, docks, Red amaranth, green cabbage, and purple mustard−plants. So they're Taoists who grow their own food, wukong thought as she smiled to herself. Even if they are high and mighty like the rest of heaven, I gotta admire how they still find time to do some groundwork. When the golden monkey crossed the vegetable garden she saw yet another gate, and when they opened it there was a huge tree in front of them with fragrant branches and shade−giving green leaves shaped rather like those of plantains. The tree was about a thousand feet high, and its trunk was some seventy or eighty feet round. Wukong leant against it and looked up, and on a branch that was pointing South they saw a manfruit, which really did look just like a newborn child. The stem came from its bottom, and as it hung from the branch its hands and feet waved wildly around and it shook its head once it saw the golden monkey.

You gotta sometimes wonder if the universe likes playing tricks like this just to freak everyone out, wukong thought to herself, understanding why Tripitaka hadn’t wanted to eat it in the first place. Hell, wukong knows she doesn’t have the best morals, but she certainly wouldn’t eat a child, not to mention a fruit shaped like one. But they had already made the trip here, so they can’t just not eat them now. Besides, it’s not like it’s made from an actual human being or anything, it’s a fruit grown on a tree for crying out loud. She might have been born from a rock, but several something’s growing from a tree sounds plain ridiculous. And with that the golden monkey went shooting up the tree, afterall, there is nothing that monkeys are better at than climbing trees, especially if the thing they have in mind is to steal fruit, and one blow from the golden rod sent the manfruit tumbling down. She jumped down to fetch it, but it was nowhere to be seen, which greatly confused the golden monkey, cause that about breaks one of the main rules of physics. and it’s been said that wukong doesn’t like being tricked, especially by some kinda physics defying demon. “That’s odd,” they stated as she looked all around the base of the tree, but alas couldn’t find anything that looked vaguely manfruit shaped. “It must be able to use its feet−−but even then it won't be able to get past the wall. No, I've got it. The local deity of this garden has hidden it away to stop me from stealing it!"

Wukong then uttered some magic words, which forced the garden deity to come forward, bowed and said, “You summoned me, Great Sage. What are your orders?"

"Surely you know," wukong replied, “that I am the most famous criminal on earth. When I stole the sacred peaches, the imperial wine, and the elixir of immortality some five hundred years back, nobody dared to try and take a cut. How come that when I take some fruit today you pinch my very first one? This fruit grows on a tree, and the birds of the air must have their share of it, so what harm will be done if I eat one? Why did you snatch it?”

The deity looked confused for a moment, before a thought hit them and said, “great sage, you must be confused, These treasures belong to the Immortals of the Earth, and I am a ghost Immortal, so I would never dare take one. I've never even had the good fortune to smell one.” This only lead to wukong feeling even more confused, as she scratched the back of her head. “If you didn't take it, why did it disappear the moment I knocked it down from the tree?" The golden monkey asked, thankfully the deity seemed to have an answer for this one, "You may know that these treasures give eternal life, Great Sage," the deity replied, "but you don't know their origin.“

"Where do they come from, then?" Wukong asked, "These treasures," the deity replied, "take three thousand years to blossom, another three thousand to form, and three thousand more to ripen. In almost ten thousand years only thirty grow. Anyone lucky enough to smell one will live for three hundred and sixty years, and if you eat one you will live to be forty−seven thousand. These fruit fear only the Five Elements."

What do you mean by how they fear the five elements?” Wukong asked, having never heard of fruits of all things fearing the elements, "If they meet metal," the deity said, "they fall: if they meet wood they rot, if they meet water they dissolve, if they meet fire they are burnt, and if they meet earth they go into it. If you tap them you have to use a golden rod, otherwise they won't drop; and when you knock them down you must catch them in a bowl padded with silk handkerchiefs. If they come in contact with wooden utensils they rot, and even if you eat one it won't make you live any longer. When you eat them you must do so off porcelain, and they should be cooked in clear water. If they come in contact with fire they become charred and useless, and they go into any earth they touch. When you knocked one to the ground just now it went straight in, and as the earth here will now live for forty−seven thousand years you wouldn't be able to make any impression on it even with a steel drill: it's much harder than wrought iron. But if a man eats one he wins long life. Try hitting the ground if you don't believe me." And before the deity could finish, wukong brought out the golden ringed cudgel from her ear, grew it to the size of a rice bowl and brought it down on the ground multiple times, pieces of stone and dirt rising into the air from the impact, but even with this huge show of power, the ground itself was unmarked.

The golden monkey huffed and said, “So you're right, This cudgel of mine can smash rocks to powder and even leave its mark on wrought iron, but this time it did no damage on the ground at all. This means that I was wrong to blame you. You may go back now.” With a nod of thanks, the local deity went back to his shrine. The great sage now had a plan, they climbed the tree and held the rod in one hand while she held the bottom of her hanfu with the other, angling it towards the manfruit so she could easily catch it. After that they pushed the leaves and branches aside and knocked down three manfruits, which fall perfectly into her dress, completely unharmed. She then jumped out of the tree, went through the vegetable garden with her hands gripping tightly onto the hem of her hanfu so the magical fruit wouldn’t fall, and went straight to the kitchen, where a smiling bājie asked them if she had gotten any, and watched with surprise as the golden monkey loosed her hold on her hanfu with a grin, letting the pig demon see three manfruits, “This is the stuff, isn't it?" Wukong asked, “I was able to get some. Though we mustn't leave wujing out of this, for it would be pretty unfair if we got to eat these while he has nothing, you should go give him a shout.”

Bājie nodded his head and walked over to the entrance of the kitchen, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted wujing’s name. A few minutes later the fish demon appeared and asked why he had been called, "Do you know what these are?" Wukong asked, opening back up the fold of her hanfu so wujing could see, “those are manfruits,” he replied, “Good,” the golden monkey replied with a nod of her head, “so you know what they are. So does that mean you’ve eaten them before?" She asked, the fish demon shook his head, “nope, I've never eaten them before in my life,” wujing replied, “but when I was the Curtain−lifting General in the old days I used to escort the imperial carriage to the Peach Banquets, and I saw some that Immortals from over the seas brought as birthday presents for the Queen Mother. I've certainly seen them, but I've never tasted one. Please give me a bit to try."

Wukong smiled, already bringing one out, “no need to ask, dear brother, there’s a reason why I had gotten three instead of two, we’re having one of each.” So each of them thus made their way up to the top of the roof of the taost’s Monastery and had one manfruit to eat. Bājie was known to have both an enormous appetite and an enormous mouth, and had, moreover, been suffering pangs of hunger ever since he had heard the Taoist boys eating. So the moment he saw the fruit he grabbed one, opened his mouth, and gulped it down whole, starting by biting into the stomach first, then once done he put on an innocent expression and shamelessly asked what the two were eating, and if he could have some more. Which caused wukong to sigh, who was taking small and careful bites on the head of her manfruit, deciding to savor the taste cause the golden monkey demoness knew that they wouldn’t get another chance like this. Who instinctively tightened her grip on it when she heard her boarish brothers question, their tail fluffing up as it coiled around her body like a snake. Not wanting anyone to eat hers. “manfruit,” wujing replied simply, who was also taking careful bites of his as well, not willing to answer his second eldest brother’s question for fear it would rile up wukong further. “What does it taste like?” the pig demon asked, and before the fish demon could open his mouth, the golden monkey stated,”ignore him wujing, He's already eaten his, and he has no business asking you for yours.”

“Sister,” bājie stated, “I ate mine too fast. I didn't nibble it delicately and taste the flavor like you two. I don't even know if it had a stone or not as I gulped it straight down. You should finish what you've started: you've whetted my appetite, so you ought to get me another to eat slowly." This caused the golden monkey to growl in frustration as she said, “well that’s too bad, you are never satisfied. So what if I do go back there and get you another one, How will I know that you won’t wolf down the second one like you did the first? These things aren't like rice or flour−−you can't go stuffing yourself full of them. Only thirty grow in every ten thousand years, so we can think ourselves very lucky indeed to have a whole one each. Come off it, brother, you’ve had enough.” It was about time someone taught this pig demon some manners, and if hell she would let him ruin the only thing that’s given her any hope of lifting the curse the jade emperor put on her. After that, the golden monkey demoness got up, slipped through the Taoist boys room, with the golden rod, and put it back without letting herself be seen through the window. She paid no more mind to bājie, knowing that the conversation was finished, which left the pig demon grumbling. Before long the Taoist boys were back in their room, and they heard bājie moaning from up on the roof, “I didn't enjoy my manfruit; I wish I could have had another." Pure Wind's suspicions were aroused, and he said to Bright Moon, "Did you hear that long−snouted monk saying he wished he could have another manfruit? Our master told us when he went that we were to be careful of those gangsters and not let them steal our treasures."

"This is terrible, simply terrible," said Bright Moon. "What's the golden rod doing on the floor? We'd better go into the garden and take a look around." The two of them thus hurried out and found the garden gates open. Leaving them shocked, “We shut this gate," said Pure Wind with dread, "so why is it open?" They rushed round the flower garden, found the vegetable garden gate open too, and tore into the manfruit garden with haste. They leant on the tree and looked up into it to count the fruit, but however often they added the number up, it always came to twenty−two. “Can you do arithmetic?" Bright Moon asked, and Pure Wind replied, "Yes. Tell me the figures."

The Taoist boy took a breath, trying to keep himself from panicking, "There were originally thirty manfruits," said Bright Moon. "When our master opened the garden two were divided up and eaten, which left twenty−eight. Just now we knocked two down to give the Tang Priest, which left twenty−six. But there are only twenty−two now, which means that we're four short. It goes without saying that those heinous demons must have stolen them. Let's go and tell that Tang Priest what we think of him." The two of them went from the gardens to the front hall, where they pointed at Tripitaka and poured the most hateful words at him, calling him "baldy" this and "baldy" that. It was more than poor Tripitaka could take and said, “What are you making all this fuss about, Immortal boys? Please stop. I wouldn't mind you being a bit offhand with me, but you can't talk in this outrageous way."

"Are you deaf?" Pure Wind asked. "We're not talking a foreign language, and you can understand us perfectly well. You've stolen our manfruit, and you've no right to forbid us from mentioning it." This only led to the monk being confused, “I don’t understand, what does a manfruit look like?"

"It's what we offered you just now and you said it looked like babies." One of the Taoist boys replied, now having doubts that the monk had any hand in stealing it if he didn’t even remember what they looked like. “Amitabha Buddha!" Tripitaka exclaimed, “I shook with terror at the very sight of them−−I couldn't possibly steal one. Even if I were being racked by the most terrible greed, I could never commit the crime of eating one of those. What do you mean by making so unjust an accusation?"

"Although you didn't eat any," said Pure Wind, "those underlings of yours stole and ate some."

"Even if they did, you shouldn't shout like that. Wait till I've questioned them. If they stole some, I'll see that they make it up to you.” To this the two Taoist boys laughed bitterly, “Make it up?" Bright Moon replied. "They are things that money can't buy."

"Well then,” Tripitaka said, “if money won't buy them, 'decent behavior is worth a thousand pieces of gold,' as the saying goes. I'll make them apologize to you, and that will be that. Besides, we still don't know whether they had stolen them or not.”

"Of course they did!" retorted Bright Moon. "They're still quarreling in there because one of them says they were divided unfairly.” To this Tripitaka stood up from his chair, went forward towards the nearest staircase and yelled for his disciples. "We've had it," wujing replied with pure guilt and dread in his eyes, knowing that they were all caught upon hearing Tripitaka calling, “The game's up. Our master is calling us and the Taoist boys are swearing and cursing up a storm. The cat must be out of the bag."

The golden monkey cursed under her breath as she said, “How disgraceful, all that fuss about some food. But if we confess it, they'll say it was stealing food, the best thing to do is not to admit it at all." To this bājie nodded his head, “Quite right, quite right, we'll cover it up,” and thus the three of them went from the kitchen to the hall.

"The meal is cooked," the three disciples said as they entered the hall, "what did you call us for?" They asked with wide smiles, Tripitaka simply rose a brow, clearly seeing how fake it looked. It was then he realized that they really did steal those baby-looking fruit, and all he could feel was cold disappointment. “"I'm not asking about the meal, disciples,” he replied, “This temple has things called manfruit or something that look like babies. Now spill it: which of you stole and ate some?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips, looking more like a parent scolding his children. Bājie was quick to speak up, “"I don't know anything about it? honest I don't−−I never saw any," he replied meekly, "That grinning one did it," Pure Wind said, pointing right at wukong, "that grinning one."

To this the golden monkey shouted, “I've had a smile on my face all my life! Are you going to stop me smiling just because you can’t find some fruit or other? Cause let me tell you a little something: all you have to do is look up in a tree- any tree will do- and you’ll find it.”

"Don't lose your temper, disciple,” Tripitaka warned, “as people of religion we should control our tongues and not eat food that befuddles our minds. If you ate their fruit you should apologize to them, instead of trying to brazen it out like this." Seeing that his master was talking sense, the golden monkey decided to tell the truth. “I didn't start it, master," they replied, “it was bājie that did, he had heard the Taoist boys eating something called manfruit next door to him and wanted to try one himself. He made me go and get three so that we three disciples could have one each. But now they've been eaten, there's no point in waiting around here any longer.”

"How can these priests deny that they are criminals when they've stolen four of our manfruits?" said Bright moon angrily. “Amitabha Buddha!” Bājie exclaimed, “if she pinched four of them why did she only share out three? She must have been dirty on us." He continued to shout wildly in this vein. Now that they knew that the fruit really had been stolen, the two boys started to abuse them even more foully. The Great Sage grounded her teeth together in their fury, glaring with her fiery eyes and tightened their grip on the iron cudgel in her hand- having not noticed that she had taken it out while the two Taoist boys were yelling and shouting- Damn those Taoist boys. The golden monkey demon thought, when she could restrain herself no longer, if they'd hit us we could have taken it, but now they're insulting us to our faces like this, I'll finish their tree off, then none of them can have any more fruit.

With this in mind, wukong brought out a hair from the back of their head, uttered a spell in her head, then breathed on it and turned it into an imitation of themselves who stayed with the Tang Priest, bājie and wujing to endure the cursing and swearing of the Taoist boys, while the real wukong used her divine prowess to leap out of the hall whike summoning her cloud with a single breath. She then went straight to the garden and struck the manfruit tree with her golden banded cudgel as hard as they could. Then used her supernatural strength that she’d had sun birth and pushed the tree over with a single shove. The leaves fell, the branches splayed out, and the roots came out of the ground. The Taoists would have no more of their ‘Grass−returning Cinnabar.’ After pushing the tree over, Wukong searched through the branches for manfruit, but she could not find a single one. These treasures dropped at the touch of metal, and as The monkey demonesses cudgel was ringed with gold, while being made of iron, another of the five metals, one tap from it brought them all tumbling down, and when they hit the ground they went straight in, leaving none on the tree. "Great, great, great,” wukong uttered hatefully, “that'll make them all cool down.” With a sigh, wukong put the iron cudgel away, went back to the front of the temple, shook the magic hair, and put it back on their head. The others did not see what had happened for they had eyes of mortal flesh.

A long time later, when the two Taoist boys felt that they had railed at them for long enough, Pure Wind said to Bright Moon, "These monks will take anything we say. We've sworn at them as if we were swearing at chickens, but they haven't admitted anything. I don't think they can have stolen any, after all. The tree is so tall and the foliage is so dense that we may well have miscounted, and if we have, we shouldn't be cursing them so wildly. Let's go and check the number again." Bright Moon agreed, and the pair of them went back to the garden. When they saw that the tree was down with its branches bent out, the leaves fallen, and the fruit gone, they were horror−struck. Pure Wind's knees turned soft and he collapsed, while Bright Moon trembled and shook, Both of them passed out. When Tripitaka came to the Mountain of Infinite Longevity, wukong in her anger had killed the Grass−returning Cinnabar. The branches were splayed out, the leaves fallen, and the tree down. And both Bright Moon and Pure Wind's hearts had turned to ice. The two of them lay in the dirt mumbling deliriously and saying, "What are we to do, what are we to do? The elixir of our Wuzhuang Temple has been destroyed and our community of Immortals is
finished. Whatever are we going to say to the master when he comes back?"

"Stop moaning, brother," said Bright Moon with anger. "We must tidy ourselves up and not let those monks know anything's wrong. That hairy−faced sod who looks like a thunder goddess must have done it. She must have used magic to destroy our treasure. But it's useless to argue with her as the cursed demoness will likely deny everything, and if we start a quarrel with her and fighting breaks out, we two haven't a chance against the four of them. We'll have to fool them and say that no fruit is missing. We'll pretend we counted wrong before, and apologize to them. Their rice is cooked, and we can give them a few side dishes to eat with it. The moment they've each got a bowl of food you and I will stand on either side of the door, slam it shut, and lock it. After that we can lock all the gates, then they won't be able to get away. When our master comes back he can decide what to do with them. That old monk is a friend of his, so our master may want to forgive him as a favour. And if he doesn't feel forgiving, we've got the criminals under arrest and may possibly not get into trouble ourselves."

“You’re absolutely right,” pure wind replied with a nod. The two of them then pulled themselves together, forced themselves to look happy, and went back to the front hall. "Master," they said, bowing low to the tang priest, “we were extremely rude to you just now. Please forgive us." Tripitaka, briefly taken aback by the Taoist boy’s abrupt change in mood, asked, “what do you mean? didn’t you say that wukong stole some of your manfruits?” The boys shook their heads, leaving the monk surprised, “The fruit is all there," they replied. "We couldn't see it all before as the tree is so tall and the foliage is so very thick, but when we checked just now the number was right."

"You're far too young to know what you're doing," bājie stated with a shake of his head, “if that’s the case, the why did you swear and curse at us, and try to frame us up? You bastards." Meanwhile wukong, who was far from dumb, understood what the boys were up to, but said nothing and thought, Lies, lies. The fruit is all gone, they all had fallen into the ground when I smashed their ‘oh so precious tree’ down. Why ever are they saying this? Can it be that they know how to bring the tree back to life?

"Very well then,” Tripitaka replied, immensely relieved that the situation had been sorted out, though he was still rather confused, but if his other disciples hadn’t picked anything up, then it must not be that important. “bring our rice in and we'll be off after eating it." Bājie went off to fill their bowls and wujing arranged a table and chairs. The two boys hurried out and fetched some side dishes−−salted squash, salted eggplant, turnips in wine−lees, pickle bean, salted lettuce, and mustard plant, some seven or eight plates in all. These they gave to the pilgrims to eat with their rice, and then they waited on them with a pot of good tea and two cups. As soon as the four pilgrims had their ricebowls in their hands, the boys, who were on either side of the doorway, slammed the doors to and locked them with a double sprung bronze lock. "You shouldn't do that, boys,” bājie said with a smile, “Even if the people round here are a bit rough, there's no need to shut the doors while we eat." To this wukong glared, for she was eating her food slowly and without haste, even if she was starving, that manfruit did little to quench their appetite after all. Which made sense since it wasn’t a food that you could eat daily, and so was void of any nutrients that the mortal flesh desired, which explains why the pig demon hadn’t felt full after cobbling his up.

“Yes, yes," Bright Moon said with a roll of his eyes, “we'll open them after lunch." Pure Wind, however, was abusive. "I'll get you, you greedy, food−thief!" he said. "You ate our immortal fruit and deserve to be punished for the crime of stealing food from fields and gardens. On top of that you've pushed our tree over and ruined our temple's source of immortality. How dare you argue with us? Your only chance of reaching the Western Heaven and seeing the Buddha is to be reborn and be rocked in the cradle again!” When Tripitaka heard this he dropped his ricebowl, feeling as if a boulder was weighing down his heart. The two boys went and locked the main and the inner gates of the temple, then came back to the main hall to abuse them with filthy language and call them criminals and bandits till evening, when they went off to eat. The two of them returned to their rooms after supper.

Meanwhile Tripitaka pinched between his eyes, angry and exasperated with the golden monkey. “You're always causing trouble, you imbecile,” Tripitaka grumbled, turning to glare at wukong, “You stole their fruit, so it would be perfectly reasonable to let them lose their temper and swear at you, then that would have been the end of it. Why on earth did you push their tree over? If they took this to court you wouldn't be able to get off even if your own father were on the bench.” Wukong looked down at him with a scowl, “Tripitaka, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. I don’t have a mother nor a father that took part in creating me, so your statement is invalid. Those boys have gone to bed, and when they're asleep we can find a way to escape.”

"But all the gates have been locked,” wujing replied, “and they've been shut very firmly, so how can we possibly get away?" To this the golden furred monkey said, “Don't let it bother you, i have a way.”

"We weren't worried that you wouldn't have a way,” bājie replied, “You can turn yourself into an insect and fly out through the holes in the window lattice. But you'll be leaving poor ole us behind, who can't turn ourselves into something else, to stay here and carry the can for you."

“If she does a trick and doesn’t take us with them I’ll recite that old sutra. Then she won’t be able to escape scot free.” Upon hearing this wukong flinched, instinctively rising their hands up to the fillet on her head. Having temporarily forgotten about the cursed thing.

Bājie, both pleased and worried upon hearing this, asked, What do you mean, master?" he said. "I know that the Buddha's teachings include a Lankavatara Sutra, a lotus Sutra, a Peacock Sutra, an Avalokit esvara Sutra, and a Diamond Sutra, but I never heard of any Old Sutra." Unfortunately for wukong, it seemed she was left to explain to her younger brother the entrapment her ‘beloved’ master had put on them. “What you don't know, dear brother, is that the Bodhisattva Guanyin gave this band I have round my head to our master. He tricked me into wearing it, and now it's virtually rooted there and I can't take it off. The spell or sutra for tightening this band is what he meant by the 'old surra'. If he says it, my head aches. It's a way he has of making me suffer. Please don't recite it, master. I won't abandon you. I guarantee that we'll all get out.” The room was filled with silence as the two younger disciples took the time to process what they had heard, with wujing looking over to his master with hurt in his eyes, the fish demon feeling pity for his elder sister. He might not know the reason as to why the tang priest had decided to put that kinda curse on them, but whenever he imagined wukong being forced to be in excruciating pain fills him with dread. It was now dark, and the moon had risen in the East. "It's quiet now," wukong spoke, the three having lived in silence for the last few hours, having by now sat down in one of the many chairs in the room, which at this point felt like a jail cell. While they had been trapped here, both wukong and bājie had finished off the rest of the food, with the golden monkey eating her portion of the food while bājie had eaten everything else. But before that, wukong had asked Tripitaka if he still wanted to eat some food, in which the monk silently shook his head, not having the stomach to eat anything after finding out what had happened earlier. it was then wukong felt guilt for the first time after what she had done, not for the cursed little taost boys that were most likely sleeping soundly in their beds, but for their master, who after hearing about his eldest disciples misdeeds had decided not to eat. “and the moon is bright. This is the time to go."

Bājie spoke from his spot leaning against the wall with a huff, little spots of rice around his mouth from his binge, “stop fooling around, elder sister, as I had said previously, the gates are all locked, so where can we possibly go?"

"Watch this trick," wukong said with a grin, standing up from her chair, brought their cudgel from her ear, shook it till it was once again the size of a rice bowl and pointed at the doors and applied unlocking magic to them. There was a clanking sound, and the locks fell from all the doors and gates, which made it possible for the golden monkey to open them without any difficulty. "Not half clever,” bājie grumbled aloud, crossing his arms as he wondered to himself why the vain monkey hadn’t done that several hours ago, “A locksmith with his skeleton keys couldn't have done anything like that as fast."

To this the golden monkey replied, still with a grin on her face, “there’s nothing difficult about these doors, I can open the Southern Gates of Heaven just by pointing at them." She then turned around and asked her master to go out and mount the horse. Who still refused to look at them, causing the weight of guilt in the monkey demonesses chestto only intensify further, but she chose to ignore it. Tripitaka will feel a lot better about this once they’ve escaped. Bājie shouldered the luggage while wujing led the horse, and they headed West. "You carry on," wukong said, “while I go back to make sure that those boys stay asleep for a month, two months if I’m lucky.”

"Mind you don't kill them, disciple,” Tripitaka replied, having gone back to not using her name cause of his anger, which only led the golden furred monkey to growl lowly to herself, the pain in their chest not lessening a bit, “or you'll be on a charge of murder in the pursuit of theft as well.”

“ I know that!” Wukong couldn’t help but growl, and without another word from either of them, went back into the temple. Standing outside the door of the room where the boys were sleeping, she took a couple of sleep insects from deep in one of the pockets of her hanfu. These were the ones they had used when she had fooled the Heavenly King Virudhaka at the Eastern Gate of Heaven, and now they threw them them in through a gap in the window lattice. They landed straight on the boys' faces, and made them fall into a deeper sleep from which they would not wake up for a long time. Then the golden monkey streaked back by cloud and caught up with Tripitaka. They headed West along the main road.

That night bi long never stopped, having overheard about what had taken place in the temple, and was immensely disappointed in both wukong and bājie, wukong for stealing the manfruit in the first place, and bājie for encouraging the golden monkey. Weren’t they supposed to do better while on this journey? What’s the use in traveling to The western heaven to deliver the scriptures if none of them learn anything in the process? Even with these thoughts swirling around in the dragons head like a whirlpool, he kept quiet. Knowing that he hadn’t been tasked on this journey to talk sense into these three, instead he was tasked with carrying the tang priest to the western heaven in the form of a horse, these three just had to make peace themselves, thus the group kept going till dawn.

“I swear to the almighty Buddha wukong, that you'll be the death of me,” Tripitaka grumbled, deep bags were under his eyes for the monk hadn’t had a wink of sleep since they left, “Because of your greed I've had to stay awake all night." Wukong huffed from her place atop her cloud, her head cushioned by her breasts, having found out that Tripitaka’s mood wouldn’t have lightened the moment the sun came up, cause that would be too easy, and the universe just LOVES giving them the finger. “"Stop grumbling," she said, “Now that it's light you can rest in the forest beside the road and build your strength up before we move on." After a pause, Tripitaka reluctantly dismounted from the dragon horse and sat down on the roots of a pine tree, using it as a makeshift meditation platform. All the while never even giving the golden monkeys a passing glance, wujing decided to take his elder sister’s advice and, after putting down the luggage, the fish demon took a nap, while bājie pillowed his head on a rock and went to sleep. Meanwhile wukong, the mighty great sage, had her own ideas and amused themselves with leaping from tree to tree.

After the lecture in the palace of the Original Celestial Jade Pure One the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan led his junior Immortals down from the Tushita Heaven through the jade sky on auspicious clouds, and in a moment they were back at the gates of the Wuzhang Temple. The gates, he saw, were wide open, and the ground was clean. “So Pure Wind and Bright Moon aren't so useless after all," he said. "Usually they're still in bed when the sun is high in the sky. But now, with us away, they got up early, opened the gates, and swept the grounds." All the junior Immortals were delighted. Yet when they went into the hall of worship there was no incense burning and nobody to be seen.

Where were Bright Moon and Pure Wind, they wondered. "They probably thought that with us not here they could steal some stuff and clear out."

"What an outrageous idea!” the Great Immortal exclaimed, “As if men cultivating immortality could do anything so evil! I think they must have forgotten to shut the gates before they went to sleep last night and not have woken up yet." When the Immortals went to look in their room they found the doors closed and heard the boys snoring. They hammered on the doors and shouted for all they were worth, but the boys did not wake up. They forced the doors open and pulled the boys from their beds: the boys still did not wake up. "Fine Immortal boys you are," said the Great Immortal with a smile. "When you become an Immortal your divine spirit should be so full that you do not want to sleep. Why are they so tired? They must have been bewitched. Fetch some water at once." A boy hastily handed him half a bowl of water. He intoned a spell, took a mouthful of the water, and spurted it on their faces. This broke the enchantment. The two of them woke up, opened their eyes, rubbed their faces, looked around them, and saw the Great Immortal as well as all their Immortal brothers. Pure Wind bowed and Bright Moon kowtowed in their confusion, saying, "Master, that old friend from the East...a gang of bandits... murderous, murderous...." they uttered deliriously. "Don't be afraid," the great immortal said, “calm down and start from the beginning.”

"Master," said Pure Wind, "the Tang Priest from the East did come. It was quite soon after you had left. There were four monks and a horse−−five of them altogether. We did as you had ordered us and picked two manfruits to offer him, but the venerable gentleman was too vulgar and stupid to know what our treasures were. He said that they were newborn babies and refused to eat any, so we ate one each. Little did we imagine that one of his three disciples called sun wukong, would steal four manfruits for them to eat. We spoke to the monkey demoness very reasonably, but they denied it, and while we were distracted, she used her magical prowess. It’s terrible…” at this point the two boys could no longer hold back the tears that now streamed down their cheeks. "Did the monk strike you?” Asked the great immortal with concern, “"No," said Bright Moon, “but she did kill our manfruit tree.”

The Great Immortal did not lose his temper when he heard their story, "Don't cry," he said, "don't cry. What you don't realize is that this sun wukong is an Immortal of the Supreme Monad, and that they played tremendous havoc in the Heavenly Palace. She has vast magic powers. But they has knocked our tree over. Could you recognize the monks?”

"I could recognize all of them," replied Pure Wind. "In that case come with me," the great immortality said, “The rest of you are to prepare the instruments of torture and be ready to flog them when we come back." The other Immortals did as they were told while the Great Immortal, Bright Moon and Pure Wind pursued Tripitaka on a beam of auspicious light. It took them but an instant to cover three hundred miles. The Great Immortal stood on the edge of the clouds and gazed to the West, but he did not see the tang priest. then he turned round to look East and saw that he had left him over two hundred and fifty miles behind. Even riding all night that venerable gentleman had covered only forty miles, which was why the Great Immortal's cloud had overshot him by a great distance. "Master," said one of the Immortal boys, "there's the Tang Priest, sitting under a tree by the side of the road."

"Yes, I'd seen him myself," the Great Immortal replied. "You two go back and get some ropes ready, and I'll catch him myself.” With this pure Wind and Bright Moon went back. The Great Immortal landed his cloud, shook himself, and turned into an itinerant Taoist. He wore a patchwork gown, Tied with a Lu Dongbin sash, Waving a fly−whisk in his hand He tapped a musical drum. He had ongrass sandals on his feet, and his head was wrapped in a sun turban. As the wind filled his sleeves he sang The Moon Is High. “Greetings, venerable sir!” He called, raising his hand, This caused Tripitaka to jump in surprise from his spot against the tree. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't notice you before," he replied hastily. "Where are you from?" the Great Immortal asked. "And why are you in meditation during your journey?"

"I have been sent by the Great Tang in the East to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven,” Tripitaka replied, “and I'm taking a rest along the way." The great immortal in disguise nodded, “I You must have crossed my desolate mountain if you have come from the East."

"May I ask, Immortal sir, which mountain is yours?" The monk asked, “"My humble abode is the Wuzhuang Temple on the Mountain of Infinite Longevity." Wukong then suddenly sprung from out of the trees to the surprise of Tripitaka and the great immortal, landing between the two with her arms crossed, some leaves and twigs in their hair, “we didn’t come that way.” The golden monkey replied, having sensed the great immortals essence from miles away, knowing exactly what he was doing, “We've only just started out." The Great Immortal pointed at her and dared to laugh in her face, causing her to growl lowly and snap her jaws at him, but before the monkey demoness could even so much as bite the tip of his nose, he retreated while shouting “I'll show you, you damned demoness! Who do you think you're fooling? I know that you knocked our manfruit tree down and came here during the night. You had better confess: you won't get away with concealing anything. Stay where you are, and give me back that tree at once." Upon hearing this ‘great immortal’ order her around like some peasant, she released another growl as the fur on her body stood on end, and with no further discussion they brought out the iron clad cuddly from her ear and struck at the Great Immortal's head. The Great Immortal twisted away from the blow and went straight up into the sky on a beam of light, closely pursued by the golden monkey demoness by her own cloud. In mid−air the Great Immortal reverted to his true appearance, he wore a golden crown on his head, A No−worries cloak of crane's down on his body. A pair of turned−up sandals on his feet, And round his waist a belt of silk. His body was like a child's. A wispy beard floated down from his chin, And the hair on his temples was crow−black. So confident in his skills, he fought the monkey demoness unarmed, With only a jade−handled whisk in his hands.

Wukong struck wildly at him with her cudgel, only to be parried to left and right by the Great Immortal's whisk. After two or three rounds the Great Immortal did a "Wrapping Heaven and Earth in His Sleeve" trick, waving his sleeve gently in the breeze as he stood amid the clouds, then sweeping it across the ground and gathered up the four pilgrims and their horse in it. “Aw hell!” Bājie exclaimed, “We're all caught in a bag." Wukong growled from her spot squeezed between him and Wujing, “It isn't a bag, you idiot,” she growled, “he's caught us all in his sleeve."

"It doesn't matter, anyhow," bājie replied, “I can make a hole in it with a single blow of my rake that we can all get through. Then we'll be able to drop out when he relaxes his grip on us." But however desperately he struck at the fabric he could make no impression on it: although it was soft when held in the hand it was harder than iron when hit. “…you were saying?” Wukong said with a smirk, needing to find some humor in this situation, The pig demon just grumbled. The Great Immortal turned his cloud round, went straight back to the Wuzhuang Temple, landed, sat down, and told his disciples to fetch rope. Then, with all the junior Immortals in attendance, he took the Tang Priest out of his sleeve as if he were a puppet and had him tied to one of the pillars of the main hall. After that he took the other three out and tied each of them to a pillar. The dragon horse was taken out, tethered, and fed in the courtyard, who was immensely grateful that he wasn’t gonna be tortured as well, and their luggage he threw under the covered walk.

"Disciples," he said, "these priests are people of religion, so we cannot use swords, spears or axes on them. You'd better fetch a leather whip and give them a flogging for me−−that will make me feel better about the manfruit." The disciples immediately produced a whip−−not an oxhide, sheepskin, deerskin or calfskin whip, but a seven−starred dragon−skin one−−and were told to soak it in water. A brawny young Immortal was told to take a firm grip on it. "Master," he said, "which of them stall I flog first?"

Tripitaka is guilty of gross disrespect.” the Great Immortal replied, "flog him first." Upon hearing this wukong was shocked, in all her time of knowing the tang priest, he had only been the most kind to everyone he met, so the go,den monkey couldn’t imagine what kind of lies those two cursed taost boys had told him, cause there’s no way in all the three realms that Tripitaka would ever openly disrespect someone. This had to change. Now. That ole priest of ours couldn't stand a flogging, and if he died under the lash the fault would be entirely on me. Finding the thought of this unbearable, the golden monkey spoke up, “You're wrong, sir. I stole the fruit, I ate the fruit, and I pushed the tree over. Why flog him first when you ought to be flogged first?” If anyone should be punished for this crime, it should be me, for no one else can withstand this brutal punishment except for me.

"That damn monkey demoness has a point.” the Great Immortal said with a smile, "so you'd better flog them first.”

"How many strokes?" the junior Immortal asked. “Give her thirty.” the Great Immortal replied, "to match the number of fruits." The junior Immortal whirled the lash and started to bring it down. Wukong, frightened that the Immortal would have great magical powers, opened her eyes wide and looked carefully to see where they were going to be hit, and it turned out to be on her legs, the go,den monkey twisted at the waist, uttered a spell in her head and turned them into a pair of wrought−iron legs, and watched the blows fall. The junior Immortal gave the monkey demoness thirty lashes, one after the other, until it was almost noon.

“Tripitaka should be flogged too,” that damn ‘great immortal’ commanded, which caused wukong to growl, pure hatred at the fact that even when Tripitaka is practically innocent, he still wants to torture her master. All because of a stupid whetched tree. If she ever had the ability to kill any immortal of her choosing without consequence, the first one that would meet the wrath of their cudgel would be him, and him alone. “for training his wicked disciple so slackly and letting her run wild.” he continued.

THAT CURSED IMMORTAL IS GONNA PAY WITH HIS LIFE.

The junior Immortal whirled the lash again and was going to strike Tripitaka when wukong shouted, growing increasingly infuriated, “Sir, you're making another mistake. When I stole the fruit, my master knew nothing about it−” the golden monkey to a moment to breathe, the thought of the monk getting hurt cause of her outrageous plan causing her to shake in place as she panicked “−he was talking to those two boys of yours in the main hall of the temple. This plot was hatched by us three disciples. Anyhow, even if he were guilty of slackness in training me, I'm his disciple and should take the flogging for him. Flog me again.”

"That damn monkey may be cunning and vicious, but she does have some sense of obligation to their master. Very well then, flog her again.” The junior Immortal gave the golden monkey demoness another thirty strokes. Wukong looked down and watched as their legs being flogged till they shone like mirrors -for most of the hair on her legs had been stripped off- but she still felt no pain. It was now drawing towards evening, and the Great Immortal said, "Put the lash to soak. We can continue that flagging tomorrow.” The junior Immortal took the lash away to be soaked while everyone retired to their quarters, and after supper they all went to bed. “"It was because you three got me into this trouble that I was brought here to be punished,” Tripitaka muttered to his three disciples as tears streamed down his face. "Don't grumble," Monkey replied. Noticing that even after 40 flogging, her hanfu hadn’t suffered any rips or tears, I guess it being indestructible is why it’s called the battle hanfu. They thought to themselves, “I was the one to be flogged first, and you haven't felt the lash, so what have you got to groan about?"

"I may not have been flogged," Tripitaka replied, “but it's agony being tied up like this." It was then wujing piped up, hoping to cheer his master up, “if it makes you feel better, We're tied up too to keep you company,” wukong sighed, sagging in her restraints, “if all of you would stop shouting, we could get some rest so we can have enough energy to head off tomorrow.”

"You're showing off again, elder sister, “bājie replied, causing the monkey demoness to send him a glare, not in the mood to hear anything he has to say right now. “They've tied us up with hempen ropes and spurted water on them, so we're tightly bound. This isn't like the time we were shut in the hall of the temple and you unlocked the doors to let us out.” Wukong once again let out a huff, wanting bājie for once in his life to stop complaining about every little thing under the sun and moon. “I'm not boasting,” she uttered, her hands opening and closing with the intense need to strangers the damn pig demon, “frankly, I don't give a damn about their three hempen ropes sprayed with water. Even if they were coconut cables as thick as a ricebowl they would only be an autumn breeze." Apart from the golden monkey, all was quiet. Wukong then made herself as small as they could, easily able to slip out of her bounds. “Let’s go master.”

"Save us too, elder sister!” Cried a worried wujing, the fish demon had always been her favorite brother, “oh will you shut up already? I’m coming,” easily freeing Tripitaka, bājie and Wujing, she straightened her hanfu and tightened the sash around her waist, she went over and saddled the dragon horse, who was far from surprised at the fact that the group had escaped. Wujing collected their luggage from under the eaves, and went out through the temple gates with the others. "Go and cut down four of the willow−trees by that cliff,” she ordered bājie, who turned to the monkey demoness in confusion, “Whatever do you want them for?" He asked.

“I have a use for them,”was wukong’s ominous reply, “Bring them here immediately." Bājie, who had been gifted brute strength upon being reborn again, went over and tobbled some trees over with a single bite, and came back holding them all in his arms. Wukong stripped off their tops and branches and told her two fellow−disciples to take the trunks back in and tie them up with the ropes as they themselves had been tied up. Then the golden monkey recited a spell in her head, but the tip of her tongue, much to the others horror and disgust, and spat blood over the trees. Immediately upon contact, one of the trees turned into Tripitaka, one turned into a perfect likeness of themselves, and the other two became wujing and bājie. They were all perfect likenesses; when questioned they would reply, and when called by their names they responded. The three disciples then hurried back to their master, and once more they traveled all night without stopping as they fled from the Wuzhuang temple once more.

Chapter Text

By the time it was dawn poor Tripitaka was swaying to and fro as he dozed in the saddle. "Master," Wukong called, and sighed when she got the barest hint of a mumble back, “you're hopeless. You're a man of religion−−how can you be finding it so exhausting? I can do without sleep for a thousand nights not feeling a bit tired. You'd better dismount and spare yourself the humiliation of being laughed at by a passer−by. Take a rest in one of the places under this hill where the wind is stored and the vapors gather before we go any further."

As the group proceeded to rest beside the path, the great immortal got up at dawn, ate his meatless breakfast, and went to the hall. “Today Tripitaka, the brother of tang, is to be whipped.” he announced as he sent for the lash. The junior whirled it around and said to the Tang Priest, "I'm going to flog you."

The willow tree disguised as Tripitaka replied “flog away.” When he had given it thirty resounding lashes he whirled the whip around once more and said to the willow tree disguised as bājie and said the same thing, unsurprisingly getting the same response, When he came to flog wujing he too told him to go ahead. But when he went to flog the willow disguised as wukong, the real wukong on the road tensed and shuddered as she quickly fell to the ground in excruciating pain, causing the rest of the group to look at the golden demoness in concern. “What’s wrong wukong!?” exclaimed Tripitaka as he quickly stood up, wukong didn’t even have time to appreciate how the tang monk had called them by their actual name as she flinched once more with a hiss, "When I turned the four willow trees into the four of us I thought that as the junior immortal had me flogged twice yesterday he wouldn't flog me again today, but now he's lashing the magic body, my real body is feeling the pain. I'm putting an end to this magic." With that the golden monkey hastily uttered an incantation in her head to break the spell.

As the spell dispensed, the two taoist boys looked on in horror, throwing down their leather whips, and ran back to the great immortal terrified, their faces white as sheets, “Master, at first we were flogging the Priest from the Great Tang, but all we are flogging now are willow trunks.” The Great immortal, instead of being angry like the two expected, instead laughed bitterly upon hearing this and was full of admiration. “Sun wukong really is a splendid Monkey King. I had heard that when the monkey demoness turned the Heavenly Palace upside−down, she had turned into a monstrous three headed beast that couldn’t be caught with a Heaven and Earth Net, and now I see those stories must be true. I wouldn't mind you escaping, but why did you leave four willows tied up here to impersonate you? I say we go after them.” Upon saying this, the great immortal sprang up on a cloud and looked West to see the monks carrying their bundles as they went on their way. Bringing his cloud down he shouted, "Where are you going, you monkey beast? Give me back my manfruit tree!”

"We're done for,” Bājie exclaimed, “our enemy's come back!”

"Put all your piety away for now, master,” wukong said, “while we finish him off once and for all, then we'll be able to escape peacefully." Tripitaka shivered and shook upon hearing this, and before he could answer, the three disciples rushed forward, wujing wielding his staff, bājie with his rake held high, and the great golden monkey demoness with her golden rimmed cudgel. They surrounded the Great Immortal in mid−air and struck wildly at him. Unfortunately wukong was unaware that the Immortal Zhen Yuan, The Conjoint Lord of the Age, had even deeper powers. While the three magic weapons fiercely whirled, His deer−tail fly−whisk gently waved. Parrying to left and right, he moved to and fro, Blocking blows from front and back he let them rush around. When night gave way to dawn they still were locked in combat. For If they tarried here they would never reach the Western Heaven. The three of them went for him with their magic weapons, but the Great Immortal kept them at bay with his fly−whisk. After about an hour he opened wide his sleeve and caught up master, disciples, horse, and baggage in it once more. Then he turned his cloud around and went back to his temple, where all the Immortals greeted him. After taking his seat in the hall he took them out of his sleeve one by one. He had the Tang Priest tied to a stunted locust tree at the foot of the steps, and bājie and wujing tied to trees next to him. While wukong was tied upside down causing her long orange hair to touch the ground beneath them. Which made her think that she was to be tortured and interrogated. When wukong was tightly bound, the Great Immortal sent for ten long turban−cloths.

“What a kind gentleman, bājie, wukong said, “he's sent for some cloth to make sleeves for us−−with a bit less he could have made us cassocks." Wukong said, one of her main coping mechanisms being to joke about the situation. Even if no one there laughed, at least wukong was entertaining themselves, the junior Immortals fetched home−woven cloth, and on being told by the great immortal to wrap up bājie and wujing with it, they came forward to do so. Which only causes wukong to laugh humorlessly, “Excellent, excellent−−you're being encoffined alive." Within a few moments the three of them were wrapped up, and lacquer was then sent for. The Immortals quickly fetched some lacquer that they had tapped and dried themselves, with which they painted the three bandaged bodies all over except for the heads. The Great Immortal then sent for a huge cauldron, at which wukong said with a laugh, sweat beading down her face that wasn’t cause of the heat, “you’re in luck bājie, I think they must have brought the cauldron out to cook us some rice in." Even though both knew exactly what the cauldron was for, but wukong wasn’t one for pointing out the obvious. “Fine” bājie huffed, “I hope they give us some rice first−−we'll make much better−looking ghosts if we die with our bellies full”

…well, there goes that plan. wukong thought bitterly, The Immortals carried out the large cauldron and put it under the steps, and the Great Immortal called for dry wood to be stacked up round it and set ablaze. "Ladle it full of pure oil," he commanded, "and when it is hot enough to bubble, deep fry wukong in it to pay me back for my manfruit." Wukong was secretly delighted upon hearing this. This is exactly what I want, the golden monkey thought, I haven't had a bath for ages, and my skin's getting rather itchy. I'd thoroughly appreciate a hot bath. Very soon the oil was bubbling and wukong was having reservations, they were afraid that the Immortal's magic might be hard for her to fathom, and that at first they might be unable to use their legs in the cauldron. Hastily looking around them, she saw that there was a sundial to the East of the dais and a stone lion to the West. Wukong rolled towards it with a spring, bit off the end of her tongue, spurted blood all over the stone lion, uttered a incantation in their head, at which it turned into the perfect likeness of her, at which it turned into a bundle like they were. Then she extracted her spirit and went up into the clouds, where they looked down at the Taoists. It was just at this moment that the junior Immortals reported, "The oil's boiling hard."

“Carry wukong down to it.” the Great Immortal ordered, but when four of them tried to pick her up they could not. Eight then tried and failed, and four more made no difference. "This earth−infatuated ape is immovable," they said. “The demoness does look rather huge, but i couldn’t have imagined them being this heavy, it’s just as the jade emperor said: he had cursed the golden monkey demoness to gain multiple pounds, making her much heavier then they were before.” Twelve junior Immortals were then told to pick the monkey demoness up with the aid of carrying−poles, and when they threw them in, there was a loud crash as drops of oil splashed about, raising blisters all over the junior Immortals' faces. "There's a hole in the cauldron−−it's started leaking!” the scalded Immortals cried, but before the words were out of their mouths the oil had all run out through the broken bottom of the cauldron. It was then they realized that they had thrown a stone lion into it.

“Damn that ape for her insolence," growled the Great Immortal in a terrible rage. "How dare she play her tricks in my presence! I don't mind so much about you getting away, but how dare you wreck my cauldron? It's useless trying to catch that demoness, and even if you could it would be like grinding mercury out of sand, or trying to hold a shadow or the wind. Forget about them, let them go. Untie Tripitaka Instead and fetch another pot. We can fry him to avenge the destruction of the tree."

“OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!” Wukong shouted from above the clouds, dragging her hands down their face in deep aggravation. The junior Immortals set to and began to tear off Tripitaka’s lacquered bandages. Wukong could hear all this clearly from mid−air. "The master will be done for sure,” she thought, “If he goes into that cauldron it'll kill him. Then he'll be cooked, and after four or five fryings he'll be eaten as a really tender piece of monk. I must go back down and save him." The splendid Great Sage brought their cloud down to land, clasped her hands in front of herself and said, “Don't spoil the lacquered bands, and don't fry my master. Put me in the cauldron of oil instead."

I'll get you, you crazed demoness!!” The great immortal shouted in astonishment. "Why did you use one of your tricks to smash my cooking pot?"

"You must expect to be smashed up if you meet me−−and what business is it of mine anyhow? I was going to accept your kind offer of some hot oil, but I was desperate for a shit and a piss, and if I'd done them in your cauldron, I'd have spoiled your oil and your food wouldn't have tasted right. Now I've done my stuff I'm ready for the cauldron. Please fry me instead of my master." The Great Immortal laughed coldly, came out of the hall and grabbed ahold of her wrist and dragged her towards the cauldron.

The Great Immortal Zhen Yuan held wukong by the wrist and said, "I've heard about your powers and your fame, but this time you have gone too far. Even if you manage to remove yourself, you won't escape my clutches. You and I shall argue it out as far as the Western Heaven, and even if you see that Buddha of yours, you'll still have to give me back my manfruit tree first. Don't try any of your magic now."

Damn, kinda forgot all this was cause of one lousy tree, this guy needs better priorities, “What a small−minded bloke you are, sir,” wukong replied, “If you want your tree brought back to life, there's no problem. If you'd told me earlier we could have been spared all this quarreling."

“If you hadn't made trouble I'd have forgiven you,” the great immortal muttered,

“Would you agree to release my master if I gave you back the tree alive?" Wukong asked, “If your magic is strong enough to revive the tree," the Great Immortal replied, "I shall bow to you eight times and take you as my sister.” Well, that’s a lot better then being his wife, wukong thought to herself, "That's easy then,” wukong replied, “Release them and I guarantee to give you back your tree alive." Trusting the demoness not to escape, the Great Immortal ordered that Tripitaka, along with bājie and wujing to be sat free. “Master,” wujing said while turning to the tang monk, “whatever sort of trick do you think wukong is up to?”

“I'll tell you what sort of trick,” bājie retorted as he crossed his arms, glad to finally be free from being roped against a tree, it doesn’t do anything good to his back, “a pleading for favor trick. The tree's dead and can't possibly be revived. Finding a cure for the tree is an excuse for going off by herself without giving a damn for you or me.” Tripitaka frowned upon hearing this, balling his fists at his sides as he said, “she wouldn’t dare abandon us. Let’s instead ask her where she’s gonna find a cure for it. Wukong,” Tripitaka continued, turning to the golden monkey just as they walked towards them, “why did you fool the Immortal elder into untying us?"

“Every word I said was true," Wukong replied, “I wasn’t leading him on.”

"Where will you go to find a cure?" Tripitaka asked, “There's an old saying that 'cures come from over the sea'. I'll go to the Eastern Sea and travel round the Three Islands and Ten Continents visiting the venerable Immortals and sages to find a formula for bringing the dead back to life. I promise that I'll cure that tree."

“When will you come back?” The monk asked, not wanting to stay in place for two long, cause the longer they stay here the longer it’s gonna take to get to the western heaven. And if what the golden monkey demoness had said when they had first arrived at the temple was true, then Tripitaka really doesn’t want to waste much time. "I'll only need three days." Wukong replied. The tang monk nodded, “In that case I'll give you three days. If you are back within that time, that will be all right, but if you are late I will recite that spell.” To this wukong quickly bowed as she said, “I'll do as you say,”

And with that, wukong straighted her hanfu and went out through the door, and said to the Great Immortal, "Don't worry, sir, I'll soon be back. Mind you look after my master well. Give him tea three times a day and six meals, and don't leave any out. If you do, I'll settle that score when I come back, and I'll start by holing the bottoms of all your pans. If his clothes get dirty, wash them for him. I won't stand for it if he looks sallow, and if he loses weight you'll never see the back of me." The great immortal nodded, “you have my word, great sage, I certainly won't let him go hungry."

The splendid Monkey King then left the Wuzhuang Temple with the help of their cloud and headed for the eastern sea. She went through the air as fast as a flash of lightning or a shooting star, and they were soon in the blessed land of Penglai. As the golden monkey landed her cloud and looked around they saw that it was indeed a wonderful place. A great and sacred land where the Immortal sages still the waves as they come and go. The shade of the jasper throne cools the heart of the sky, and the radiance of the great gate−pillars shimmers high above the sea. Hidden in the coloured mists are flutes of jade, The moon and the stars shine on the golden leviathan. The Queen Mother of the Western Pool often comes here to give her peaches to the Three Immortals.

Gazing at the enchanted land that spread out before her, the golden monkey demoness entered Penglai. As they were walking along, she noticed three old men sitting round a chess table under the shade of a pine tree outside a cloud−wreathed cave. The one watching the game was the Star of Longevity, and the players were the Star of blessings and the Star of Office.

"Greetings, respected younger brothers!” Wukong called out to them, and when they saw the monkey demoness, they swept the pieces away, returned her salutation, and said, "Why have you come here, Great Sage?"

"I've heard," said the Star of Longevity, "that you have given up the Way for the sake of the Buddha, and have thrown aside your life to protect the Tang Priest on his journey to fetch the scriptures from the Western heaven. How can you spare the time from your endless crossings of waters and mountains just to see us?"

“To tell you the truth,” wukong replied while scratching the back of her head, not really keen on telling them of their latest mistake, “I was on my way to the West until a spot of bother held us up. I wonder if you could do me a small favor."

"Where did this happen?" asked the Star of Blessings, "what has been holding you up? Please tell us and we'll deal with it." The golden monkey began to sweat, knowing that once she told them what had happened, they for sure would will be cursed out about it, the golden monkey had already heard enough from those Taoist brats. “We've been held up because we went via the Wuzhuang Temple on the Mountain of Infinite Longevity,” she replied, “But the Wuzhuang Temple is the palace of the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan!" exclaimed the three Immortals with alarm, knowing the tales of the monkey demoness to understand what had happened in an instant, “don't say that you've stolen some of his manfruit!"

Oh boy, they’re already on to me, and I haven’t even been here that long. Curse my wildly popular past cases of mischief! Wukong thought to themselves, “What if I had stolen and eaten some?" The golden monkey asked meekly, knowing from the enraged looks on the immortals faces that she was in a world of trouble, “You ignorant ape!” the three Immortals replied. "A mere whiff of that fruit makes a man live to be three hundred and sixty, and anyone who eats one will live forty−seven thousand years. They are called 'Grass−returning Cinnabar of Ten Thousand Longevities,' and our Way hasn't a patch on them. Manfruit makes you as immortal as Heaven with the greatest of ease, while it takes us goodness knows how long to nourish our essence, refine the spirit, preserve our soul, harmonize water and fire, capture the kan to fill out the li. How can you possibly ask whether it would matter? There is no other miraculous tree like it on earth."

Well that just made this already disastrous situation even worse, wukong thought bitterly, knowing full well that this was all her fault. Which unsurprisingly made her feel even worse, “Miraculous tree," wukong scoffed, angry that even after its death it continues to haunt her. She just wants this damn situation to be over with already, “I've put an end to that miraculous tree!”

"What? Put an end to it?" the three Immortals asked, struck with horror. “When I was in his temple the other day,” wukong began, crossing her arms, “the Great Immortal wasn't at home. There were only a couple of boys who received my master and gave him two manfruits. My master didn't know what they were and said that they were newborn babies, and thus refused to eat them. The boys took them away and ate them themselves instead of offering them to the rest of us, so I went and pinched three, one for each of us disciples. Those disrespectful boys swore and cursed at us to no end, which made me so angry that I knocked their tree over with a single blow. All the fruit disappeared, the leaves fell, the roots came out, and the branches were smashed up. The tree was dead. To our surprise the two boys locked us in, but I opened the lock and we escaped. When the Great Immortal came home the next day, he came after us and found us. Our conversation didn't go too smoothly and we started to fight him, but he dodged us, spread his sleeve out, and caught us all up in it. After being tied up then flogged and interrogated for a day, we escaped again, but he caught up with us and captured us once more. Although he had not an inch of steel on him, he fought us off with his whisk, and even with our three weapons we couldn't touch him. He caught us the same way as before. He had my master and two brothers wrapped up in bandages and lacquered, and was going to throw me into a cauldron of oil, but I used a trick to take my body away and escape, smashing that pan of his. Now that he has realized he can't catch me and keep me, he's getting a bit scared of me, and I had a good talk with him. I told him that if he released my master and my brothers I'd guarantee to cure the tree and bring it back to life, which would satisfy both parties. As it occurred to me that 'cures come from over the sea,' I came here specially to visit you three brothers of mine. If you have any cures that will bring a tree back to life, please tell me at once so that I can get the tang priest and my brothers out of trouble as quickly as possible."

You fool,” the Three Stars said gloomily when they heard this. "You don't know who you're up against. That Master Zhen Yuan is the Patriarch of the Immortals of the earth, and we are the chiefs of the divine Immortals. Although you have become a heavenly Immortal, you are still only one of the irregulars of the Great Monad, not one of the elite. You'll never be able to escape his clutches. If you'd killed some animal, bird, insect or reptile, Great Sage, we could have given you some pills made from sticky millet to bring it back to life, but that manfruit tree is a magic one and can't possibly be revived. There's no cure, none at all." When wukong heard that there was no cure, her brows furrowed and she pulled her lips back in a sneer, “Great Sage," the Star of Blessing said upon noticing the monkey demonesses distress, "even though we have no cure here, there may be one somewhere else. Why be so worried?"

"If there were anywhere else for me to go," wukong said gloomily, sitting down on the ground with a loud thud, which caused the remaining chips on the table to rattle from the movement, and the three immortal stars jumped in their seats, “it would be easy. It wouldn't even matter if I had to go to the furthest corner of the ocean, or to the cliff at the end of the sky, or if I had to penetrate the Thirty−sixth Heaven. But the trouble is that the Tang Patriarch is very strict and has given me a time−limit of three days. If I'm not back in three days he'll recite the Band−tightening Spell."

“Calm down, Great Sage," the Star of Longevity replied, “there's no need to worry. Although that Great Immortal is senior to us he is a friend of ours, and as we haven't visited him for a long time and would like to do you a favor we'll go and see him. We'll explain things for you and tell that Tang monk not to recite the Band−tightening Spell. We won't go away until you come back, however long you take, even if it's a lot longer than three to five days." This caused the golden monkey to smile as they looked up from her feet, quickly getting up and saying, “Thank you very much!” Wukong said with a bow, “May I ask you to set out now as I'm off?” With that, the golden monkey once again summoned her cloud. The Three Stars went off as well on beams of auspicious light to the Wuzhuang Temple, where all present heard cranes calling in the sky as the three of them arrived. The void was bathed in a blessed glow, the Milky Way was heavy with fragrance. A thousand wisps of coloured mist enveloped the feather−clad ones, a single cloud supported the immortal feet. Green and red phoenixes circled and soared, as the aroma in their sleeves wafted over the earth. These dragons leant on their staffs and smiled, and jade−white beards waved before their chests. Their youthful faces were untroubled by sorrow, Their majestic bodies were rich with blessing. They carried star−chips to count their age, and at their waists hung gourds and talismans.

Their life is infinitely long, and they live on the Ten Continents and Three Islands. They often come to bring blessings to mortals, spreading good things a hundred−fold among humans. The glory and blessings of the universe come now as happiness unlimited. As these three elders visit the Great Immortal on auspicious light, there is no end to good fortune and peace. “Master!” the immortal youths rushed to report when they saw them, "the Three Stars from the sea are here." The Great Immortal Zhen Yuan, who was talking with the Tang Priest, came down the steps to welcome them upon hearing this, when bājie saw the Star of Longevity he went up and tugged at his clothes. "I haven't seen you for ages, you meat−headed old fellow," he said with a grin. "You're getting very free and easy, turning up without a hat." With these words he thrust his own clerical hat on the star's head, clapped his hands, and roared with laughter. "Great, great. You've been 'capped and promoted' all right." Flinging the hat down, the Star of Longevity cursed him for being a disrespectful moron.

“I’m no moron,” bājie said, “but you're all slaves." Upon hearing this. The immortal crossed his arms with a deep frown, “You're most certainly a moron," the Star of Blessing replied, "so how dare you call us slaves?"

"If you aren't slaves” bājie retorted, “then why do people always ask you to 'bring us long life,' 'bring us blessings,' and 'bring us a good job?'" Upon hearing this bold disrespect, Tripitaka shouted at the pig demon to leave the holy men alone, then quickly tidied himself up and bowed to the Three Stars. The Three Stars greeted the Great Immortal as befitted members of a younger generation, after which they all sat down. "We have not seen your illustrious countenance for a long time," the Star of Office said, "which shows our great lack of respect. The reason we come to see you now is because the Great Sage Demoness monkey has made trouble in your immortal temple."

“Has wukong been to Penglai?" the Great Immortal asked. “Yes," replied the Star of Longevity. “She came to our place to ask for a formula to restore the elixir tree that she had killed. As we have no cure for it, they have had to go elsewhere in search of it. We are afraid that if the golden monkey demoness exceeds the three−day time−limit the holy priest has imposed, the Band−tightening Spell may be said. We have come in the first place to pay our respects and the second to ask for an extension of the limit."

Upon hearing this, the tang monk replied, “I won’t recite it, I promise.” As they were talking bājie came rushing in again to grab hold of the Star of Blessing and demand some fruit from him. He started to feel in the star's sleeves and rummage round his waist, pulling his clothes apart as he searched everywhere. “What sort of behavior is that?" Tripitaka asked with a strained smile, uncertain whether or not to reprehend the pig demon if he didn’t even know what he was doing. “I'm not misbehaving," bājie replied, “This is what's meant by the saying, 'blessings wherever you look.'" He lied, upon finding out that the pig demon was indeed lying, the monk stood up and shouted at him once more to go away and leave the poor immortal in peace, the pig demon withdrew slowly, glaring at the Star of Blessing with unwavering hatred in his eyes. "I wasn't angry with you, you moron," said the star, "so why do you hate me so?" The immortal asked, quiet perplexed by the bour demons behavior, “I don't hate you,” bājie replied, “This is what they call 'turning the head and seeing blessing.'" the pig demon looked to see a young boy came in with four tea ladles, looking for bowls in the abbot's cell in which to put fruit and serve tea. Bājie seized one of the ladles, ran to the main hall of the temple, snatched up a hand−bell, and started striking it wildly. He was enjoying himself enormously when the Great Immortal muttered, getting more infuriated with each passing second, “This monk gets more and more disrespectful." Which caused Tripitaka to frown at him in sympathy.

“I'm not being disrespectful,” bājie replied, “I'm 'ringing in happiness for the four seasons.'" While the pig demon was having his jokes and making trouble, wukong was actually doing something productive, having flown off from Penglai by auspicious cloud and came upon the magic mountain Fangzhang. The towering Fangzhang is another heaven, where gods and Immortals meet in the Palace of the Great Unity. The purple throne illuminates the road to the Three Pure Ones, The scent of flowers and trees drifts among the clouds. Many a golden phoenix comes to rejoice around its flowery portals, Many wonder what makes the fields of magical mushrooms glisten like jade, pale peaches and purple plums are newly ripened, Ready to give even longer life to the Immortals. As wukong looked at all the trees filled with fruit, she found herself gazing longingly at the purple plums, the fruit reminding her of a certain black furred, six eared mate of hers. And as the golden furred monkey brought her cloud down, they found that she was in no mood to enjoy the view. As the monkey demoness was walking along in silence they suddenly smelt a fragrance in the wind, heard the cry of the black stork, and saw an Immortal. The sky was filled with radiant light, as multicolored clouds shone and glowed. Red phoenixes looked brighter than the flowers in their beaks, sweetly sang green ones as they danced in flight. His blessings were as great as the Eastern Sea, his age that of a mountain, yet his face was as young as one of a child's and his body was strong. In a bottle he kept his pills of eternal youth, and a charm for everlasting life hung from his waist. He had often sent blessings down to mankind, several times saving mortals from difficulties. He once gave longer life to Emperor Wu, And always went to the Peach Banquets at the Jade Pool. He taught all monks to cast off worldly fates, his explanations of the great Way were as clear as lightning. He had crossed the seas to pay his respects, and had seen the Buddha on the Vulture Peak. His title was Lord Emperor of Eastern Glory, The highest−ranked Immortal of the mists and clouds.

When the golden monkey demoness saw him, she hailed him with the words, “I salute you, Lord Emperor!” The Lord Emperor hastened to return their greeting and said, “I should have welcomed you properly, Great Sage. May I ask you home for some tea?" He then led the monkey demoness by the hand to his palace of cowrie−shells, where there was no end of jasper pools and jade towers. They both sat down, with the golden monkeys chair creaking slightly from her added weight, her bum being ten times bigger then what the chair was used to, but thankfully it stayed standing, much to wukong’s immense relief. While waiting for their tea a boy appeared from behind an emerald screen. A Taoist robe that sparkled with color hung from his body, and light gleamed from the silken sash round his waist. On his head he wore a turban with the sign of the stars of the Dipper, and the grass sandals on his feet had climbed all the magical mountains. He was refining his True Being, shuffling off his shell, and when he had finished he would reach unbounded bliss. His understanding had broken through to the origins, and his master knew that he was free from mistakes. Avoiding fame and enjoying the present he had won long life and did not care about the passing of time. He had been along the crooked portico, climbed to the precious hall, and three times received the peaches of Heaven. Clouds of incense appeared to rise from behind the emerald screen, This young Immortal was Dongfang Shuo himself.

"So you're here, you young thief," Wukong replied when she saw him. “There are no peaches for you to steal here in the Lord Emperor's palace." Dongfang Shuo greeted the monkey demoness respectfully and replied, "What have you come for, you thief? My master doesn’t keep any pills of immortality here for you to pinch."

"Stop talking nonsense, Manqian," the Lord Emperor shouted, "and bring some tea." Manqian was Dongfang Shuo's Taoist name. He hurried inside and brought out two cups of tea. After the two had their tea in their hands, wukong said, “I came here to ask you to do something for me. Though i wonder if you’d be prepared to,”

"What is it?" the Lord Emperor asked. "Do tell me." He asked with clear understanding, though the golden monkey knew that he won’t be quite as understanding when he finds out what they did. “I have been escorting the Tang Priest on his journey to the West,” Wukong began, “and our route took us via the Wuzhuang Temple on the Mountain of Infinite Longevity. The youths there were so ill−mannered that I lost my temper and knocked their manfruit tree over. Though it’s only now that I regret my actions, for we’ve been held up for a while as a result, and the Tang Priest cannot get away, which is why I have come to ask you, sir, to give me a formula that will cure it. I do hope that you will be good enough to agree."

The lord emperor sighed upon hearing this, setting his bowl down to clasp his hands together in front of his face, “You thoughtless mongrel,” he replied, his voice laced with disappointment that made wukong flinch, causing the golden monkey to tighten her grip on her own bowl in turn, but was mindful not to break it. She kinda wanted the immortal to yell at them instead, cause the feel of disappointment on her skin felt much worse then being yelled at. “you make trouble wherever you go. Master Zhen Yuan of the Wuzhunang Temple has the sacred title Conjoint Lord of the Age, and he is the Patriarch of the Immortals of the Earth. Why ever did you clash with him? That manfruit tree of his is Grass−returning Cinnabar. It was criminal enough of you to steal some of the fruit, and knocking the tree over makes it impossible for him to ever make it up with you.” Wukong could only stare sightlessly into the jade liquid in her bowl, her reflection staring back at her as she replied, “True,” she then looked up to the lord immortal again, remembering that it’s proper to look people in the eyes when their talking, even if it was quiet difficult with the current subject matter. “When we escaped he caught up with us and swept us into his sleeve as if we were so many sweat−rags, which made me furious. However, he had to let me go and look for a formula that would cure it, which is why I've come to ask your help." The golden monkey dared to pray to the Buddha that the immortal actually had something they could use, for they can’t imagine going somewhere else only to get reprehended for the same mistake over and over that she already knows. Is this the punishment the great immortal wanted for them? she wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

"I have a nine−phased returning pill of the Great Monad, but it can only bring animate objects back to life, not trees. Trees are lives compounded of the Wood and Earth elements and nurtured by Heaven and Earth. If it were an ordinary mortal tree I could bring it back to life, but the Mountain of Infinite Longevity is the blessed land of a former heaven, the Wuzhuang Temple is the Cave Paradise of the Western Continent of Cattle−gift, and the manfruit tree is the life−root from the time when Heaven and Earth were separated. How could it possibly be revived? I have no formula, none at all." It seemed like wukong doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

“In that case I must take my leave,” wukong replied as she got up, her chair releasing a creak of protest as they got up, causing her to blush a deep red, and when the lord emperor saw the demonesses crestfallen expression, he tried to obtain them by asking if they wanted to finish her bowl of jade nectar, but wukong shook her head, the color only reminding her of a certain jade colored emperor. Saying, “This is too urgent to allow me to stay.” And with that the golden monkey rode her cloud back to the island of Yingzhou, another wonderful place, though wukong didn’t feel so wonderful themself. Trees of pearls glowed with a purple haze, The Yingzhou palaces led straight to the heavens. Blue hills, green rivers, and the beauty of exquisite flowers, Jade mountains as hard as iron. Pheasants called at the sunrise over the sea, Long−lived phoenixes breathe in the red clouds. Beyond the world of phenomena is an eternal spring. Upon reaching Yingzhou she saw a number of white−haired Immortals with the faces of children playing chess and drinking under a pearl tree at the foot of a cinnabar cliff. They were laughing and singing. Light−filled auspicious clouds, perfume floated in a blessed haze. Brilliant phoenixes sang at the mouth of a cave, black cranes danced on a mountain top. As pale green lotus−root and peaches helped their wine down, pears and fiery red dates gave them a thousand years of life. Neither of them had ever heard an imperial edict, but each was entered on the list of Immortals. They drifted and floated with the waves, free and easy in unsullied elegance. the passage of the days could not affect them, their freedom was guaranteed by Heaven and Earth. Black apes come in pairs, looking most charming as they present fruit, white deer, bowing two by two, thoughtfully offer flowers.

These old men were certainly living a free and happy life. "How about letting me play with you!?” Wukong spoke at the top of their voice, and when the Immortals saw the golden furred monkey they hurried over to welcome her. When the magic root of the manfruit tree was broken, The Great Sage visited the Immortals in search of a cure. Winding their way through the vermilion mist, the Nine Ancients came out of the precious forest to greet them. Wukong, who seemed to know the Nine Ancients, said with a smile, "You nine brothers seem to be doing very nicely."

"If you had stayed on straight and narrow in the old days, Great sage," they replied, "and not wrecked the Heavenly Palace you would be doing even better than we are. Now we hear that you have reformed and are going West to visit the Buddha. How did you manage the time off to come here?" The golden monkey wheezed, remembering why she came here in the first place. Well, all good times must come to an end I suppose, wukong then told them how they were searching for a formula to cure the tree. “What a terrible thing to do!” they exclaimed in horror, "what a terrible thing. We honestly have no cure at all.”

Wukong felt like she wanted to just lay down face first on the ground and let the land reclaim her bones, but alas she was an immortal monkey with a job to do, “In that case I must take my leave of you." Though the Nine Ancients tried to detain her with jasper wine and jade lotus−root, wukong was persistent and refused to sit down, and stayed on their feet while only drinking one bowl of wine- after all, if she was gonna go around asking a bunch of immortals for a cure for a rare tree, that had a very low chance of being revived, they felt like she deserves to be a little buzzed- and ate only one piece of lotus−root. Then they hurried away from Yingzhou and back to the Great Eastern Ocean. When wukong saw that Potaraka was not far away, she brought her cloud down to land on the Potara Crag, where they saw the Bodhisattva Guanyin expounding the scriptures and preaching the Buddha's Law to all the great gods of heaven, Moksa, and the dragon maiden in the Purple Bamboo Grove. Thick were the mists round the lofty city of the sea's mistress, with no end to the greater marvels to be seen. The Shaolin Temple really has the true flavor, with the scent of flowers and fruit and the trees all red. The Bodhisattva saw the monkey demoness arrive and ordered the Great Guardian God of the Mountain to go and welcome her. Who upon looking at the demoness had his eyes gleaming with recognition as he growled slightly, but nonetheless complied with his masters orders, The god emerged from the bamboo grove and shouted, "Where are you going, monkey demoness!?” Wukong’s head whipped around towards the direction of the voice and gasped in surprise. It was the black bear demon from black wind mountain cave, who was the one that stole Tripitaka’s cassock after the quanyin monastery burned down. And had then tried to woo her with a fancy feast of pastries and weapons, these memories caused the demoness to release a deep primal growl as they glared at him and shouted, “You. how dare you address me in that way!? If I hadn't spared your life that time at black wind mountain, you'd have been just a demon's corpse in the Black Wind Mountain. Now it seems you’ve changed your way and joined the Bodhisattva, accepted enlightenment, and came to live on this blessed island where you hear the Law being taught all the time. Shouldn't you address me as ma'am instead?”

It was indeed true that wukong had spared the black bear demon on black wind mountain all those years ago, who had tried to woo the monkey demoness by trying to lure her into bed with him. But unfortunately for him, wukong was far too quick witted to fall victim to that, and instead knocked him out and took the cassock back before he could regain consciousness. What the golden monkey didn’t know, is that several hours later when the black bear demon had woken up and saw that the monkey demoness was nowhere to be seen, with most of his valuables burnt to a crisp. he spent the next few months mourning the loss of both his beloved cassock and the chance of having a mate of his own. It was only when one day that he had a surprise visit by Bodhisattva quanyin herself and asked him if he wanted to become her disciple that his life changed for the better. And changed his ways and left his old life behind to go live on Potaraka Island as one of the great gods of heaven. Even if the bear demon was still bitter about what had happened, he forced a smile and said, "The ancients said, Great Sage, that a gentleman does not bear grudges. Why should you care about what you're called? Anyhow, the Bodhisattva has sent me to welcome you.” Wukong then became grave and serious as she went into the Purple Bamboo Grove with the Great God and did obeisance to the Bodhisattva.

“How far has the tang priest gotten, wukong?” She asked calmly, "He has reached the Mountain of Infinite Longevity in the Western Continent of Cattle−gift," wukong replied, "Have you met the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan who lives in the Wuzhuang Temple on that mountain?" she asked, it was then the golden monkey paused, knowing this is when people get mad at them, and so far the golden monkey has had the good fortune in avoiding angering the bodhisattva, but as she thought about the fact that, in their anger at being yelled and cursed at for committing a crime that was 100% her fault, they had killed the manfruit tree, one of the worlds most special holy trees, and knew without a doubt that quanyin will be most furious, and tensed up as she said, “As your disciple didn't meet the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan when I was in the Wuzhuang Temple,” wukong began, bowing down to the ground as to not look her in the eye, not wanting to see the face of anger on the bodhisattva's face. “I destroyed his manfruit tree and offended him. And as a result my master and my brothers are in a very difficult position and can make no progress."

There was silence as everything around them seemed to stand still, like they too were shocked upon what they had just heard, still the golden monkey kept her head bowed, even as tears brimmed in her eyes at the thought of quanyin, one of the most gentle and kindhearted of the bodhisattva’s looking down at them with hatred in her eyes. Then wukong heard a sigh filled with anger and annoyance come from in front of her, “you have made a grave mistake wukong. That manfruit tree of his is the life−root from the time when Heaven and Earth were separated, and Master Zhen Yuan is the Patriarch of the Earth's Immortals, which means even I have to show him a certain respect. Why ever did you think it would be a good idea to harm his tree?"

Wukong then finally lifted her head to look at her, the golden monkeys eyes blurry from her tears as they said, “I really didn't know! He was away that day and there were only two immortal youths to look after us. When bājie heard that they had this fruit he wanted to try one, so in my stupidity I had listened to him and stole three for him and we had one each. When the immortal youths had found out they swore at us to no end. And I lost my temper and knocked the tree over. When he came back the next day he chased us and caught us all up in his sleeve. We were tied up and flogged for a whole day. We got away that night but he caught up with us and put us in his sleeve again. All our escape attempts failed, so I promised him I'd find a way to revive it. Since then I’ve been searching for a formula all over the seas and been to all three islands of Immortals, but the gods and Immortals didn’t seem to have anything of use, which is why I decided to come and worship you, Bodhisattva, and tell you all about it. I beg you in your mercy to grant me a formula so that I can save the Tang Priest and have him on his way West again as soon as possible.”

This was it. If even quanyin doesn’t have anything that can revive the tree, then the golden monkey will be forced to go back to Tripitaka and tell him that they failed. And that because of their actions they were never gonna reach the western heaven, and that her life would be forever written down in history as the most forgettable demoness that’s ever lived. And the worst part is that they wouldn’t even have came close to finding a way to get rid of her curse. And it’s only now that they realize, in the place that can only be described as a paradise, that the golden monkey realizes with dread that they had deserved this fate all along. "Why didn't you come and see me earlier instead of searching the islands for it?" the Bodhisattva suddenly asked. Causing wukong to look up at her stunned, having thought that they must’ve misheard, “…huh?” She croaked out, looking much like a fish out of water with how her mouth hung open. After a moment the monkey demoness shook her head and asked her to repeat it again, "The 'sweet dew' in this pure vase of mine," she said, "is an excellent cure for magic trees and plants."

Wukong couldn’t believe it. She simply can’t believe that the thing to solve her most difficult problem was right under their nose this whole time, she couldn’t even be mad about how long it took, for all they could feel in that moment was relief. "Has it ever been tried out?" Wukong asked, “"Yes," she said. The golden monkey asked her how she had figured out such a thing, “Some years ago Lord Lao Zi beat me at gambling," she replied, watching in soft amusement as wukong cocked her head to the side, having never imagined the bodhisattva as much of a gambler, “and took my willow sprig away with him. He put it in his elixir−refining furnace and burnt it to a cinder before sending it back to me. I put it back in the vase, and a day and a night later it was as green and leafy as ever." Wukong let out a loud whistle upon hearing this tale, her confidence growing as their hope grew at the prospect that they could actually revive the tree and she and Tripitaka and the others can finally continue on their journey. I'm really in luck, Wukong thought, If it can bring a cinder back to life, something that has only been pushed over should be easy." The Bodhisattva instructed her subjects to look after the grove as she was going away for a while. Then she took up her vase, and her white parrot went in front singing while wukong followed behind with a wide grin on her face. The jade−haired golden one is hard to describe to mortals, she truly is a compassionate deliverer. Although in eons past she had known the spotless Buddha, It was only until recently that she had acquired a human form. After several lives in the sea of suffering she had purified the waves, And in her heart there was no speck of dust. The sweet dew that had long undergone the miraculous Law was bound to give the magic tree eternal life once more.

The Great Immortal and the Three Stars were still in lofty conversation when they saw wukong bring her cloud down and heard then shout, “the bodhesattva’s here!” The golden monkey proclaimed in the most joyous of voices, “Come and welcome her at once." The Three Stars and Master Zheng Yuan hurried out with Tripitaka and his disciples to greet her. On bringing her cloud to a stop, she first talked with Master Zhen Yuan and then greeted the Three Stars, after which she climbed to her seat once more. Wukong then led the Tang Priest, bājie and wujing out to do obeisance before the steps, and all the Immortals in the temple came to bow to her as well. "There's no need to dither about, Great Immortal," the golden monkey said, “Get an incense table ready at once and ask the Bodhisattva to cure that whatever−it−is tree of yours." The Great Immortal Zhen Yuan bowed to the Bodhisattva and thanked her. "How could I be so bold as to trouble the Bodhisattva with my affairs?"

"The Tang Priest is my disciple, and wukong has offended you, so it is only right that I should make up for the loss of your priceless tree." Quanyin said, "In that case there is no need for you to refuse," said the Three Stars. "May we invite you, Bodhisattva, to come into our orchard and take a look?" The Great Sage had an incense table set up and the orchard swept, then they asked the Bodhisattva to lead the way. The Three Stars followed behind. Tripitaka, along with his three disciples, and all the Immortals of the temple went into the orchard to look, and they saw the tree lying on the ground with the earth torn open, its roots laid bare, its leaves fallen and its branches withered. "Put your hand out, wukong.” The bodhesattva ordered, and Wukong obediently stretched out her left hand. The Bodhisattva dipped her willow spray into the sweet dew in her vase, then used it to write a spell to revive the dead on the palm of the monkey demonesses hand. Wukong then placed it on the roots of the tree until they saw water coming out. Wukong clenched her fist and tucked it under the roots, before long a spring of clear water began to form a pool. “That water must not be sullied by vessels made of any of the Five Elements, so you will have to scoop it out with a jade ladle. If you prop the tree up and pour the water on it from the very top, its bark and trunk will knit together, its leaves will sprout again, the branches will be green once more, and the fruit will reappear." The great immortal said, "Fetch a jade ladle this moment, young Taoists,'' Wukong ordered, happy to at least get to have the Taoist brats do her bidding for at least a moment. “We poor monks have no jade ladle in our destitute temple. We only have jade tea−bowls and wine−cups. Would they do?" Wukong sighed deeply, really not wanting this to stretch out as long as it had to. “As long as they are jade and can scoop out water they will do," the Bodhisattva replied. "Bring them out and try." The Great Immortal then told some boys to fetch the twenty or thirty teabowls and the forty or fifty wine−cups and ladle the clear water out from under the roots. Wukong, bājie and wujing put their shoulders under the tree, raised it upright, and banked it up with earth. Then they presented the sweet spring water cup by cup to the Bodhisattva, who sprinkled it lightly on the tree with her spray of willow and recited an incantation. A little later the water had all been sprinkled on the tree, the leaves really did become as dense and green as ever, and there were twenty−three manfruits growing there.

Pure Wind and Bright Moon, the two immortal boys, asked, "When the fruit disappeared the other day there were only twenty−two of them, so why is there an extra one now that it has come back to life?"

"'Time shows the truth about a man,'" wukong replied smugly, “I only stole three that day. The other one fell on the ground, and the local deity told me that this treasure always entered earth when it touched it. My dear brother bājie accused me of taking it as a bit of extra for myself and blackened my reputation, but at long last the truth has come out."

"The reason why I did not use vessels made from the Five Elements was because I knew that this kind of fruit is allergic to them," quanyin replied, the golden monkey still couldn’t make sense of the fact that plants can apparently be allergic to stuff, but it barely even mattered now. The Great Immortal, now extremely happy, had the golden rod fetched at once and knocked down ten of the fruits. He invited the Bodhisattva and the Three Stars to come to the main hall of the temple to take part in a Manfruit Feast to thank them for their labors. All the junior Immortals arranged tables, chairs, and cinnabar bowls, The Bodhisattva was asked to take the seat of honor with the Three Stars on her left, the Tang Priest on her right, and Master Zhen Yuan facing her as the host. In the ancient earthly paradise on the Mountain of Infinite Longevity The manfruit ripens once every nine thousand years. When the magic roots were bared and the branches dead, the sweet dew brought the leaves and fruit back to life. The happy meeting of the Three Stars was predestined, It was fated that the four monks would encounter one another. Now that they have eaten the manfruit at this feast, They will all enjoy everlasting youth.

The Bodhisattva and the Three Stars ate one each, as did the Tang Priest, who realized at last that this was an Immortal's treasure, to the utter grief and despair of one golden furred demoness, who knew that if her cursed master had realized this fact sooner, then none of this would’ve happened. and cried silently while bājie and wujing patted the monkey demonesses back in sympathy. Master Zhen Yuan had one to keep them company and the Immortals of the temple divided the last one between them. After they had recovered, Wukong thanked the Bodhisattva, who nodded and went back to Potaraka, and saw the Three Stars off on their journey home to the island of Penglai.

Master Zhen Yuan set out some non−alcoholic wine and made wukong his sworn sister, who only smiled nervously, feeling kinda weird being sworn brothers with the immortal that tried to kill them multiple times. This was a case of "if you don't fight you can't make friends," and their two households were now united. That night Tripitaka and his disciples went to bed feeling very happy and relieved, immensely glad that this whole shitstorm was finally over and done with. The venerable priest had now been lucky enough to eat the Grass−returning Cinnabar, gaining long life, and resistance to fiends and monsters.

Chapter Text

At dawn the next day Tripitaka and his three disciples packed their things before setting off. Now that Master Zhen Yuan had made wukong his sworn sister and was finding her so congenial, he did not want the monkey demoness to leave, much to wukong’s growing unease. So he entertained them for another five or six days. Meanwhile Tripitaka had really become a new man, and was livelier and healthier now that he had eaten the Grass−returning Cinnabar. His determination to fetch the scriptures was too strong to let him waste any more time, so there was nothing for it but to be on their way, much to the golden monkeys relief, There’s only so much attention they can take after all. Soon after they had set out again, master and disciples saw a high mountain in front of them. "I'm afraid that the mountain ahead may be too steep for the horse,” to this bi long simply huffed, as he swung his tail side to side, not saying yeah nor nyah to that assessment, “so we must think this over carefully." To this wukong spoke up, “don’t worry master, I seem to have an idea,” she then went ahead of the horse with their cudgel over her shoulder and cleared a path up to the top of the cliff. There they saw no end of row upon row of craggy peaks, twisting beds of torrents. Tigers and wolves were seen running in packs, as deer and muntjac moved in herds. Countless river−deer darted around. And the mountains were covered with fox and hare. Thousand−food pythons, along with Ten−thousand−fathom snakes coiled around the underbrush, the great pythons puffed out murky clouds, the enormous snakes breathed monstrous winds. Brambles and thorns spread beside the paths, as pines and cedars stood elegant on the ridge. There were wild fig−trees wherever the eye could see, and sweet−scented flowers as far as the horizon. The mountain's shadow fell North of the ocean, the clouds parted South of the handle of the Dipper. The towering cliffs were as ancient as the primal Essence, The majestic crags cold in the sunlight.

Tripitaka was immediately terrified so wukong resorted to some of their tricks. She whirled her cudgel and released a low deadly roar that thundered around the surrounding area, at which all the wolves, snakes, tigers and leopards fled. They then started up the mountain, and as they were crossing a high ridge Tripitaka said to the golden furred demoness, “Wukong, I've been hungry all day, so would you please go and beg some food for us somewhere?”

“You don’t seem to be very bright master,” wukong replied with a grin, “We're on a mountain with no village or inn for many miles around. Even if we had money there would be nowhere to buy food, so where am I to go and beg for it?" Tripitaka, upon hearing this felt very cross, his face lighting up red as he said, “You ape! don't you remember how you were trapped in that waterlogged pillar without so much of a breath of fresh air for over five hundred years near the border of double boundary valley? It was I who saved your life, administered the monastic vows to you, and made you my disciple. How DARE you be such a slacker? Why aren't you prepared to make an effort?" To this wukong growled while clenching her fists, not very fond of being yelled at again, “in case you don’t remember, master, it was I that decided to join you on this journey. You didn’t have any say in what I did, for it was my decision cause I knew that you wouldn’t last a day traveling alone. And as a matter of fact, I always make an effort, but sometimes there are days where things just don’t go your way, and that’s tough. If you’re whining now, you wouldn’t survive in the place where I was raised.”

"You may be right about that, but if you're such a hard worker, go and beg some food for us. I can't manage on an empty stomach. Besides, with the noxious vapors on this mountain we'll never reach the Thunder Monastery," to this wukong huffed, knowing that the tang monk was in one of his moods, "Please don't be angry, master, and stop talking. I know your obstinate character−−if I'm too disobedient you'll say that spell. You'd better dismount and sit here while I find somebody and beg for some food." Wukong then summoned her cloud and flew into the sky, and shading their yes with her hand they looked around. Unfortunately for the monk it seems she was right, for there was nothing in any direction except emptiness. There was no village or house or any other sign of human habitation among the countless trees. After looking for a long time the golden monkey made out a high mountain a way to the South. On its Southern slopes was a bright red patch. Wukong brought their cloud down and said, "Master, there's something to eat.” Tripitaka asked the monkey demoness what it was. “As I said earlier, there is no house around here where we could ask for food," she replied, “but there's a patch of red on a mountain to the South that I'm sure must be ripe wild peaches. I'll go and pick some−−they'll fill you up."

“A monk who has peaches to eat is a lucky man,” Tripitaka replied, wukong picked up their bowl and leapt off on a beam of light and rushed off on a whistling gust of cold air. Within a moment the monkey demoness was picking peaches on the Southern mountain. There is a saying that goes, "If the mountain is high it's bound to have fiends, if the ridge is steep spirits will live there." This mountain did indeed have an evil spirit who was startled by the golden demon monkeys appearance. It strode through the clouds on a negative wind, and on seeing the venerable Tripitaka on the ground below thought happily, "What luck, what luck. At home they've been talking for years about a Tang Monk from the East who's going to fetch the scriptures, he's a reincarnation of Golden Cicada, and has an Original Body that has been purified through ten lives. Anyone who eats a piece of his flesh will live forever. And today, at last, he's here." The evil spirit went forward to seize him, but the sight of the two great generals to Tripitaka’s left and right made it frightened enough that it couldn’t close in on him. Who, it wondered, were they? They were in fact bājie and wujing, and for all that their powers were nothing extraordinary, bājie was once Marshal Tian Peng while wujing was the Great Curtain−lifting General. It was because their former awe−inspiring qualities had not yet been dissipated that the fiend did not close in. "I'll try a trick on them and see what happens," the spirit said to herself.

The splendid evil spirit stopped her negative wind in a hollow and changed herself into a girl with a face as round as the moon and as pretty as a flower. Her brow was clear and her eyes beautiful, her teeth were white and her lips red. In her left hand she held a blue earthenware pot and in her right a green porcelain jar. She then headed East towards the Tang Priest. The holy monk rested his horse on the mountain, and suddenly noticed a pretty girl approaching. The green sleeves over her jade fingers lightly billowed, Golden lotus feet peeped under her trailing skirt. The beads of sweat on her powdered face were like dew on a flower, Her dusty brow was like a willow in a mist. Carefully and closely he watched her as she came right up to him. “Bājie, wujing,” Tripitaka said when he saw her, "don't you see somebody coming? Although wukong said that this was a desolate and uninhabited place?"

“You can have wujing stay sitting here while I go and take a look." Bājie stupidly laid down his rake, straightened his tunic, put on the airs of a gentleman, and stared at the girl as he greeted her. Although he had not been sure from a distance, he could now see clearly that the girl had bones of jade under skin as pure as ice, a creamy bosom revealed by her neckline. Her willow eyebrows were black and glossy, and silver stars shone from her almond eyes. She was as graceful as the moon, and looked as pure as the heavens. Her body was like a swallow in a willow−tree, Her voice like an oriole singing in the woods. She was a wild apple−blossom enmeshing the sun, an opening peony full of the spring.

When the pig demon saw how beautiful she was his earthly desires were aroused, and he could not hold back the reckless words that came to his lips. "Where are you going, Bodhisattva?" he asked, "and what's that you're holding?" Although she was obviously an evil fiend, bājie was too blinded by her beauty and his own desires to realize it. "Venerable sir," the girl replied at once, "this blue pot is full of tasty rice, and the green jar contains fried wheat−balls. I've come here specially to fulfill a vow to feed monks." Bājie was thoroughly delighted to hear this. And he came tumbling back at breakneck speed and said to Tripitaka, “Master, 'Heaven rewards the good'. When you sent my elder sister off begging because you felt hungry, that monkey demoness went fooling around somewhere picking peaches. Besides, too many peaches turn your stomach and give you the runs. Don't you see that this girl is coming to feed us monks?" To this the monk sighed, far from convinced, “you Insolent moron, we haven't met a single decent person in this direction, so where could anyone come from to feed monks?"

“What’s she then master?” Bājie asked, pointing in the direction of the disguised demoness, When Tripitaka saw her he sprang to his feet, put his hands together in front of his chest, and said, "Bodhisattva, where is your home? Who are you? What vow brings you here to feed monks?" Although she was obviously an evil spirit, the venerable Tripitaka was still merely a human mortal, so he was unable to see it either. Upon being asked about her background by the tang monk, the evil spirit immediately produced a fine−sounding story with which to fool him. “This mountain, which snakes and wild animals won't go near, is called White Tiger Ridge," she said. "Our home lies due West from here at the foot of it. My mother and father live there, and they are devout people who read the scriptures and feed monks from far and near. As they had no son, they asked Heaven to bless them. When I was born they wanted to marry me off to a good family, but then they decided to find me a husband who would live in our home to look after them in their old age and see them properly buried." To this Tripitaka replied, “Bodhisattva, what you say can't be right,” he began, “The Analects say, 'When father and mother are alive, do not go on long journeys; if you have to go out, have a definite aim.' As your parents are at home and have found you a husband, you should let him fulfill your vow for you. Why ever are you walking in the mountains all by yourself, without even a servant? This is no way for a lady to behave."

The girl smiled and produced a smooth reply at once, “My husband is hoeing with some of our retainers in a hollow in the North of the mountain, reverend sir, and I am taking them this food I've cooked. As it's July and all the crops are ripening nobody can be spared to run errands, and my parents are old, so I'm taking it there myself. Now that I have met you three monks from so far away, I would like to give you this food as my parents are so pious. I hope you won't refuse our paltry offering."

"It's very good of you," Tripitaka said, “but one of my disciples has gone to pick some fruit and will be back soon, so we couldn't eat any of your food. Besides, if we ate your food your husband might be angry with you when he found out, and we would get into trouble too." The monk then remembers the tragedy at the Wuzhuang Temple and shudders, he’d rather go through a whole mountain full of lions and leopards if it meant he’d never go through all that again. As the Tang Priest was refusing to eat the food, the girl put on her most charming expression and said, "My parents' charity to monks is nothing compared to my husband's, master. He is a religious man whose lifelong pleasure has been repairing bridges, mending roads, looking after the aged, and helping the poor. When he hears that I have given you this food, he'll love me more warmly than ever.” Though even after hearing all this, Tripitaka still declined to eat it. Meanwhile bājie was beside himself. Twisting his lips into a pout, he muttered indignantly, "Of all the monks on earth there can't be another as soft in the head as our master. He won't eat ready−cooked food when there are only three of us to share it between. He's waiting for that cursed monkey demoness to come back, and then we'll have to split it four ways.” Without allowing any more discussion he tipped the pot towards his mouth and was just about to eat.

But just at this moment wukong was flying back with her bowl full of peaches they had picked on the Southern mountain. When the monkey demoness saw with her golden fiery eyes that the human girl was actually an evil spirit did they put the bowl down, pulled her cudgel out of her ear and lifted it above her head, and was ready to hit her on the head when the horrified Tripitaka held them back by their waist and asked, “what do you think you’re doing wukong!? Who are you trying to hit?” The golden monkey sighed deeply, understanding that because her master was still mortal, he couldn’t very well see what was right in front of him like they can. “That girl in front of you is no good,” she replied, glaring at the evil demoness that dared to take the form of a harmless human female, it was absolutely disgusting. “She's an evil spirit trying to make a fool of you." The golden monkey replied. Unfortunately the monk didn’t seem to believe them, still blinded by the sight in front of him, for he couldn’t imagine with his mortal eyes and brain that had only been conditioned to see and think a certain way, that the girl in front of them could possibly be a demon, for he was unable to see the world beyond the thin vail that humanity wore from the moment of birth. “In the old days you had a very sharp eye, wukong, but this is nonsense. This veritable Bodhisattva is trying to feed us with the best of motives, so how can you possibly call her an evil spirit?"

"You wouldn't be able to tell, master,” Wukong replied with a grin, “When I ruled over in the Water Curtain Cave, there used to be humans that would stumble upon my territory. And humans are overly controlling by nature, so they would’ve for sure kicked me and my tribe out of our own land if I didn’t do anything about it. So what I used to do to keep them away was to turn myself into gold and silver, or a country mansion, or liquor, or a pretty girl. Whoever was foolish enough to be besotted with one of these would fall in love with me, and I would lure them into the cave, where I did what I wanted with them. Sometimes I ate them steamed and sometimes boiled, and what I couldn't finish I used to dry in the sun against a rainy day. That way any unassuming human that came around would see the corpse of their fellow humans and would for sure run with their metaphorical tail between their legs. If I'd been slower getting here, master, you'd have fallen into her snare and she'd have finished you off." Though unfortunately the tang priest still stubbornly refused to believe them and maintained the belief that she was a good person. Which caused the golden furred monkey to release a huff, getting increasingly infuriated with Tripitaka at this point. “I know you, master,” she replied, “Her pretty face must have made you feel randy. If that's the way you feel, tell bājie to chop down a few trees and send wujing off for some grass. I'll be the carpenter, and we'll build you a hut here that you and the girl can use as your bridal chamber. We can all go our own ways. Wouldn't marriage be a worthwhile way of living? Why bother plodding on to fetch some scriptures or other?" Wukong knew that Tripitaka was far from the kind of person to settle down when he had his whole life to travel to the western heaven and retrieve the scriptures. And that he wouldn’t be dumb enough to even try. Meanwhile Tripitaka, who had always been such a soft and virtuous man, was unable to take this. He was so embarrassed that he blushed from his shaven face to his ears, all the while the golden monkey gave him a smug smirk, knowing she was right on the money.

While Tripitaka was feeling so embarrassed, Wukong flared up again and turned around and struck at the evil spirit's face. The fiend, who knew a trick or two, used a magic way of abandoning her body, when she saw the monkey demonesses cudgel coming she braced herself and fled, leaving a false corpse lying dead on the ground. Tripitaka shook with terror and said to himself, "That monkey demoness is utterly outrageous. Despite all my good advice she still kills people for no reason at all.”

"Don't be angry, master,” Wukong huffed, having used most of her strength in that strike, “Come and see what's in her pot.” Wujing helped the tang monk over to look, and he saw that far from containing tasty rice it was full of centipedes with long tails. The jar had held not wheat−balls but frogs and toads, which were now jumping around on the ground. Tripitaka was now beginning to believe wukong. This was not enough, however, to prevent a furious bājie from deliberately making trouble by saying, "Master, that girl was a local countrywoman who happened to meet us while she was taking some food to the fields. There's no reason to think that she was an evil spirit. My elder sister was trying to use their cudgel on her, and she killed her by mistake. She’s deliberately trying to trick us by magicking the food into those things because their afraid you'll recite the Band−tightening spell. She’s dolled you into not saying it.” This brought the blindness back on Tripitaka, who unfortunately believed these trouble−making remarks, and in the process revealing his own ignorance for the world to see. and made the magic with his hand as he recited the spell. Causing the golden monkey to fall to the ground with a yelp of pain, "Stop, please stop! Tell me off if you like." Wukong hadn’t felt the pain of the circlet since the cursed monk had tricked them to put it on that day, so they had foolishly forgotten how painful it was. “I've nothing to say to you,” Tripitaka replied harshly, “a person of religion should always help others, and their thoughts should always be virtuous. When sweeping the floor you must be careful not to kill any ants, and to spare the moth you should put gauze round your lamp. Why do you keep murdering people? If you are going to continue to kill innocent people like that there is no point in your going to fetch the scriptures. Go back!"

Wukong, who had finally recovered from the pain of the circlet, got up from the ground and said, “but master, all I ever wanted to do was protect you, I’m not being dishonest when I say that that human women was actually a evil demon in disguise, who would’ve for sure killed and eaten you if I hadn’t intervened. But if I’m not welcome here, where am I supposed to go?”

“I don’t care what you thought was right, you still killed an innocent, and that is unacceptable, so I’m afraid I won't have you as my disciple any longer.” This caused the golden monkey to panic, having flashbacks to the time when her first master dismissed them as his disciple in a similar way. Even if what she had done was only a mistake carried out by his jealous students and her former spiritual brothers. And now it seems history has gone to repeat it’s judgment upon them by having her second master do the same thing. The golden demoness couldn’t understand it. Haven’t they been through enough suffering? “If you won't have me as your disciple,” Wukong replied, “I'm afraid you may never reach the Western Heaven." Cause if they aren’t here to save the monk from one measly demon, who’s to say other demons won’t try to have a try at killing the tang priest? If that is the case it wouldn’t surprise her if Tripitaka ends up dead barely a day after she leaves. “My destiny is in Heaven's hands,” Tripitaka replied stubbornly, completely unaware how much danger he had been in before the monkey demoness had arrived, “If some evil spirit is fated to cook me, they will, and there's no way of getting out of it. But if I'm not to be eaten, will you be able to extend my life? Be off with you.” If that’s the kind of way Tripitaka wants to play things, then the good of the west really is doomed to parish in blood and flames. Wukong thought bitterly, none of this whole ‘saving the good of humanity’ thing was ever something the golden furred demoness had planned, the only thing they care about. The only thing they ever cared about is ruling her kingdom so it and their subjects could be the best that they ever could be. None of that ever involved saving humanity from itself. If anything she could care less about what happened to them. “I'll go if I must,” wukong said resignedly, “but if I leave I'll have never repaid your kindness to me."

This caused Tripitaka to grow confused, enough time having passed that the tang monk had forgotten how he had saved the golden monkey demoness from her tome of suffering, “What kindness have I ever done you?" He asked, to this the great monkey demoness knelt down and kowtowed. "When I wrecked the Heavenly Palace,” they began, remembering the time up there as clear as day. How angry and furious she had been upon bashing her way up there and seeing the jade emperor up there on his little Thorne, most likely haven’t had thought about the kinds of suffering he had put her through, “I put myself in a very dangerous position, and the Buddha kicked me out of heaven and had trapped me in a waterlogged pillar in the once clear field of double boundary valley. And to my luck, after five hundred years of pain, you, master, had released me, so if I don't go with you to the Western Heaven I'll look like a 'scoundrel who doesn't return a kindness, with a name that will be cursed in all of history forever and ever.” That’s part of the reason anyway, the other being to find a cure to lift her curse, but she knew that wasn’t important right now. As Tripitaka was a compassionate and holy monk, this desperate plea from wukong persuaded him to relent. "In view of what you say I'll let you off this time, but don't behave so disgracefully again. If you are ever as wicked as that again I shall recite that spell twenty times over."

"Make it thirty if you must,” wukong replied, I shall not hit anyone else." With that the golden monkey helped Tripitaka mount the dragon horse and offered him some of the peaches she had picked. After eating a few the Tang Priest felt less hungry for the time being. The evil spirit rose up into the air when she had saved herself from being killed by the monkey demoneses cudgel. Gnashing her teeth in the clouds, she thought of the golden monkey with silent hatred, Now I know that those magical powers of hers that I've been hearing about for years are real. The Tang Priest didn't realize who I was and would have eaten the food. If he'd so much as leant forward to smell it I could have seized him, and he would have been mine. But that cursed monkey demoness turned up, wrecked my plan, and almost killed me with her cudgel. I spare that monk now I'll have gone to all that trouble for nothing, so I'll have another go at tricking him." The evil spirit landed her negative cloud, shook herself and changed into an old woman in her eighties who was weeping as she hobbled along leaning on a bamboo stick with a crooked handle. “This is terrible, master!” Bājie exclaimed with horror at the sight of her. “Her mother's come to look for her."

"For whom?" Tripitaka asked, even as wukong groaned loudly from on top her cloud, having known instantly what had happened, this day just went from bad to worse, the tired monkey demoness thought, “It must be her daughter that my elder sister killed,” I’m about to be the elder sister of three if you don’t shut your shiteating mouth, “This must be the girl's mother looking for her.” Wukong let out a razberry as they replied, “Don't talk nonsense, dear brother, That girl was eighteen and this old woman is eighty. How could she possibly have had a child when she was over sixty? She must be a fake. Let me go and take a look.” With that wukong hurried over to examine her and saw that the monster had turned into an old woman with temples as white as frozen snow. Slowly she stumbled along the road, making her way as she was in fear and trembling. Her body was weak and emaciated, Her face like a withered leaf of cabbage. Her cheekbones were twisted upwards, While the ends of her lips went down. Her face was as creased as a pleated bag. Realizing that she indeed was an evil spirit, wukong did not wait to argue about it, and raised her cudgel and struck at her head. Seeing the blow coming, the spirit braced herself again and extracted its true essence once more. The false corpse sprawled dead beside the path. Tripitaka was so horrified that he fell off the horse and lay beside the path, reciting the Band−tightening Spell twenty times over. The poor monkey demoness fell to the ground once more as they gripped her head that was squeezed so hard that it looked like a narrow−waisted gourd. The pain was so unbearable that tears began to run down her cheeks as they cried out in pain, rolling over to their master she pleaded, Stop, master. Say whatever you like, just please for the love of Buddha stop this endless torment!!”

“If a monk does good they will not fall into hell.” Tripitaka replied, clear disappointment in his eyes, “despite all my preaching you still commit murder. How can you? No sooner have you killed one person than you kill another. It's an outrage." The pain from her head finally lessening once more, wukong said, “She was an evil spirit," but unfortunately Tripitaka didn’t believe her as he shook his head, "Nonsense, you ape,” the tang priest replied, “as if there could be so many monsters! You haven't the least intention of reforming, and you are a deliberate murderer. Be off with you. Now.”

“Are you sending me away again, master?" Wukong asked, tears of pain, not from the band tighting spell this time, streamed down their face like an endless river, “I'll go if I must, but there's one thing I won't agree to.” The monk rose an eyebrow, “and what would that be?” Tripitaka asked, "Master,” bājie intervened once again, “she wants the baggage divided between you and her, they’ve been a monk with you for several years, and hasn't succeeded in winning a good reward. You can't in good conscience let her go away empty−handed. Better give them something like a tattered blanket or hat from the bundle.” This made wukong jump with fury, the fur on her body standing on end as they yelled, “I'll get you, you long−snouted moron! I’ve been a true Buddhist, and unlike you I have no trace of covetousness or greed. I certainly don't want a share of the baggage."

“If you're neither covetous nor greedy,” Tripitaka said, “why won't you go away?" Wukongs ears drooped upon hearing her master speak to them like she’s just a worthless pest, even though in reality they’ve done everything in her power to make this journey as painless as possible, so they don’t deserve this kind of treatment. “To be quite honest with you, master” she replied, “when I lived in the Water Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and knew all the great heroes, I won the submission of seventy−two other demon kings and had forty−seven thousand minor demons under me. I used to wear a crown of purple gold and a yellow robe with a belt of the finest jade. I had cloud−treading shoes on my feet and held my beloved cudgel in my hands. I really was somebody then. But when I attained enlightenment and repented, I couldn't face my old friends if I went back with this golden band round my head. So if you don't want me any longer, master, please say the Band−loosening Spell and I'll take it off and give it back to you. I'll gladly agree to you putting it round someone else's head. As I've been your disciple for so long, surely you can show me this kindness.” Tripitaka was deeply shocked. “Wukong, the Bodhisattva secretly taught me the Band−tightening Spell, but not a band−loosening spell.” There was complete silence as everyone there processed what the monk had just admitted, then the golden monkey sighed, “In that case you'll have to let me come with you," wukong said, determined to not return to flower fruit mountain until she gets this damn circlet off and find a cure. “Get up then," Tripitaka relented, feeling that he had no option, "I'll let you off again just this once. But you must never commit another murder. Understand?” Wukong nodded her head as they got up from off the ground, “understood master, I never will murder another soul.” The golden furred monkey then helped their master mount the horse and led the way forward.

The evil spirit, who had unfortunately not been killed the second time Wukong had hit her either, was full of admiration as she floated in mid−air. "What a splendid Monkey King," she thought, "and what sharp eyes. She saw who I was through both my transformations. Those monks are traveling fast, and once they're over the mountain and fifteen miles to the West they'll be out of my territory. And other fiends and monsters who catch them will be laughing till their mouths split, and I'll be heartbroken with sorrow. I'll have to have another go at tricking them." The evil spirit brought her negative wind down to the mountainside and with one shake turned herself into an old man. His hair was as white as Ancient Peng's, his temples were as hoary as the Star of Longevity. Jade rang in his ears, and his eyes swam with golden stars. He leant on a dragon−headed stick, And wore a cloak of crane feathers. In his hands he fingered prayer−beads while reciting Buddhist sutras. When Tripitaka saw him from the back of his horse he said with great delight, "Amitabha Buddha! The West is indeed a blessed land. That old man is forcing himself to recite scriptures although he can hardly walk."

“Master,” bājie said, “don't be so nice about him. He's certainly going to give us trouble." This caused the tang monk to grow confused, cocking his head to the side as he asked, “whatever do you mean?”

“It’s rather easy to understand, elder sister has killed the daughter and the old woman, and this is the old man coming to look for them. If we fall into his hands you'll have to pay with your life. It'll be the death penalty for you, and I'll get a long sentence for being your accomplice. And wujing will be exiled for giving the orders.” To this the fish demon looked at the pig demon in a mix of surprise and confusion, having been silently standing here this whole time. He’d rather be seen as a witness than anything else, so he thinks he wouldn’t get as harsh a sentence then bājie. “And elder sister will disappear by magic, and we three will have to carry the can." The golden monkey released a growl from her seat on their cloud, doesn’t that moron ever get tired of constantly looking for ways to get her in trouble? If anything they’ve only killed those disguised demons to protect her master from a very painful death. So he should keep his snout out of things that aren’t his business. “Don't talk such nonsense, you moron," wukong replied, “you aren’t doing anything but terrifying the master. Wait while I go and have another look." Hiding the cudgel about her person, they went up to the monster and asked with a smile lined with sharp canines, hoping it was big enough of a warning that the cursed demon will be scared enough to retreat. “Where are you going, venerable sir? And why are you reciting scriptures as you walk along?" The monster, failing to recognize her opponent, thought that the Great Sage monkey demoness was merely a passer−by and said, “holy madam, my family has lived here for generations, and all my life I have done good deeds, fed monks, read the scriptures, and repeated the Buddha's name. As fate has it I have no son, only a daughter, and she lives at home with her husband. She went off to the fields with food early this morning, and I'm afraid she may have been eaten by a tiger. My wife went out to look for her, and she hasn't come back either. I've no idea what's happened to them, so I've come to search for them. If they have died, I shall just have to gather their bones and take them back for a decent burial."

“I'm a master of disguise," Wukong replied, their grin of warning still in place, having not wavered an inch, “so don't try to pull the wool over my eyes. You can't fool me. I know that you're an evil spirit." The monster was speechless with fright. Enough so the golden monkey silently brandished her cudgel and thought, If I don't kill them they'll make a getaway, but if I do, my master will say that spell. As the golden monkey was deep in thought, they glared point blank at the disguised demon, who might as well been a block of ice with how all her limbs were frozen stock still. While Tripitaka and the others looked on with curiosity and dread. Yet if I don't kill him, the monkey demoness went on to reflect, it’ll take a lot of thought and effort to rescue the master when this monster seizes some other chance to carry him off. The best thing is to kill them. If I kill them with the cudgel the master will say the spell, but then 'even a vicious tiger doesn't eat her own cubs'. I'll be able to get round my master with my smooth tongue and some well chosen words. The great sage monkey demoness then raised her cudgel and struck down the monster. Breaking its skull right down the middle, causing riverlets of blood to slide down their face. Now, at last, it was dead.

The Tang Priest was shaking with terror on the back of his horse, unable to speak. While bājie stood beside him and said with a laugh, “that monkey demoness sure is marvelous isn’t she? Seems the great golden monkey has gone mad. For she’s killed three people in just a few hours!” The Tang Priest was just going to say the spell when wukong threw themselves in front of his horse and called out, “don’t say it master, don’t say it! Come and have a look at it." When the monk begrudgingly walked over to the corpse of the old man, all that was left was a pile of dried bones, with not even a hint of blood or skin. "He's only just been killed, Wukong,” Tripitaka said in astonishment, "so why has he turned into a skeleton?"

Wukong was delighted to explain, hoping that with this whole thing over and done with, they could all continue on the journey without thinking twice about the dead demon. “It was a demon corpse with magic powers that used to deceive people and destroy them. Now that I've killed them, they’ve reverted to their original form. The writing on her backbone says that she's called 'Lady White Bone.'" Tripitaka was convinced, but bājie, angry about being wrong, thought of a way to cause trouble. “Master," he said, "she’s afraid that you'll say those words because they killed him with a vicious blow from her cudgel, and so she’s made him look like this to fool you." The Tang Priest, who hadn’t seemed to be trained in the art of listening to his gut, unfortunately listened to the pig demon, and he started to recite the spell.

Wukong, unable to stop the spell no matter how hard they pried at the golden band, knelt beside the path and cried, "Stop, stop!! I promise to you master that this dead body lying here is the corpse of a demon! you have to believe me!!”

“I have nothing more to say to you.” Tripitaka said with a sneer that sent shivers down the monkey demonesses spine, “If a monk acts rightly they will grow daily but invisibly, like grass in a garden during the spring, whereas an evildoer will be imperceptibly worn away day by day like a stone. You have killed three people, one after the other, in this wild and desolate place, and there is nobody here to find you out or bring a case against you. But if you go to a city or some other crowded place and start laying about with that murderous cudgel, we'll be in big trouble and there will be no escape for us. Go back to where you came from, NOW!”

"You're wrong to hold it against me, master,” the golden monkey demoness said with a glare as she stood back up on their feet, “as that wretch was obviously an evil monster set on murdering you. But instead of being grateful that I've saved you by killing it, you would have to believe that idiot's tittle−tattle and keep sending me away. As the saying goes, you should never have to do anything more than three times. I'd be a low and shameless creature if I didn't go now. I'll go, I'll go all right, but who will you have left to look after you?" To this Tripitaka let out a world weary sigh, “you get ruder and ruder. You seem to think that you're the only one. What about bājie and wujing? They seem far more capable of protecting me and not killing anything then you.”

Upon wukong hearing the tang monk say that the two demons would be far more suitable protectors then them, the golden monkey grew hurt, “that’s a terrible thing to hear, master,” she said, brows furrowing as to not cry right then and there, though doing so didn’t stop her eyes from glistening like freshly shined pearls. “When you left Chang'an, Liu Boqin helped you on your way, and when you reached the Double Boundary valley you saved me from my watery fate and to show my gratitude I took you as my master. I've gone into ancient caves and deep forests capturing monsters and demons. I won bājie and wujing over, and I've had a very hard time of it. But today it seems you've turned stupid and you're sending me back. 'When the birds have all been shot the bow is put away, and when the rabbits are all killed the hounds are stewed.' Oh well! If only you hadn't gotten that band tightening spell, cause then maybe you would be more merciful to the one that’s actually trying to keep you alive and safe!”

“I won't recite it again," Tripitaka replied, not seeming to understand why the monkey demoness is making such a big deal out of this, they themselves had killed three lives, so why are they still here when she is obviously not wanted here? Wukong let out a humorless laugh upon hearing this, laughing for quite longer than was necessary. “Of course you say that now that I’m leaving, cause if I’m not here you wouldn’t have any reason to punish me.”

The Tang Priest grew angrier and angrier as wukong talked on, and tumbling off his horse he told wujing to take paper and brush from the pack. Then he fetched some water from a stream, rubbed the inkstick on a stone, wrote out a letter of dismissal, and handed it to the golden monkey, who held it in trembling hands, tied between anger and sorrow. "Here it is in writing,” Tripitaka said, “I don't want you as my disciple a moment longer. If I ever see you again, may I fall into the Avichi Hell." Tightening the document in her hands and pushing the paper to her chest, wukong swallowed as to lessen the tightness in their throat, before speaking, “There's no need to swear an oath, master. I'm off.” With that she folded up the paper and put it in one of the pockets of her hanfu near her heart, then tried once more to mollify Tripitaka, “Master, I've spent some time with you, and I've also been taught by the Bodhisattva. Now I'm being casted off in the middle of the journey, when I've achieved nothing. Please sit down and accept my homage, then I won't feel so bad about leaving anymore,” this was indeed a lie, for nothing in the world could lessen the soul crushing pain of having another one of her masters cast them away like their just some useless unforgiving monster. But she could at least try. But to the monkey demonesses horror, The Tang Priest turned away and would not look at her, muttering, "I am a good monk, and I won't accept the respects of bad people like you." Seeing that Tripitaka refused to face them, tears began to spring to her eyes before blinking then away and used magic to duplicate herself. They blew her breath on three hairs that she had plucked from the back of her head, muttered an incantation in their head and they all turned into perfect likenesses of herself, making a total of four with the real one, and surrounding the tang monk on all four sides, they kowtowed to him. Unable to avoid them by dodging to left or right, Tripitaka had no choice but to accept their respects.

Once that was done, wukong jumped up, shook herself and put the hairs back on her body, then walked up to wujing and gave him these instructions, “You are a good man, my brother, so mind you stop that imbecile pig demon from talking nonsense and be very careful on the journey. If at any time evil spirits capture our master, you tell them that I'm his elderist disciple, for all of the demons of the west have for sure heard about my powers and wouldn’t dare to hurt him if they think I’m nearby.” The sadded fish demon nodded, wiping stray tears from his eyes as the two hugged, with wujing being just a little taller then the monkey demoness herself, giving wukong the tightest hug he could, while whispering how much he loves and cares about her, and admits that he sees them as his own sister, which caused wukong to tear up as well. Before thanking him between her tears, Wishing they could say more. All the while the tang monk was still stubbornly turned away from the golden monkey demoness, trying desperately to rid the feelings of guilt in his chest upon hearing the heartbreaking conversation between wukong and wujing, “I am a good monk, and I'd never mention the name of a person as bad as you. Go back." Upon hearing her master muttering this over and over, Wukong frowned as she slowly let go of the fish demon, wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her hanfu. And with nothing else to say or do the monkey demoness summoned her cloud with shaking breaths and flew away, not even giving a passing glance at bājie.

Holding back their tears, Wukong bowed goodbye to Tripitaka, who only let out a huff, still refusing to face her, and turned around and flew off on her cloud. Heaven and earth spun round like a wheel, easily flying over mountains and seas, and within an instant no sign of the golden furred monkey demoness could be seen. For they had retraced her whole journey in a flash, wukong had never felt so alone. Holding back her anger and sorrow, wukong left their master and sworn brother behind and went straight back to the Water Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. She was feeling lonely and miserable, wanting nothing more then to cuddle up to macaque and forget anything related to the journey. When they heard the sound of water, she looked around. They noticed that they were in midair, and realized that the sound was coming from the waves of the Eastern Sea. The sight of it reminded the golden monkey demoness of The tang priest, her former master. And a second after this thought hit her did the floodgates behind their eyes open, and she couldn’t stop herself from crying, fat globes of tears ran down their face and landed on the skirt of her hanfu and down to the sea below, causing the creatures of the sea to rise up to the surface. And upon seeing the heart broken monkey demoness were they filled with such intense sorrow that they too couldn’t help but shed a tear or two. Feeling helpless as they could only watch as the golden furred demoness cried, her body shaking from how hard they were sobbing. Wukong stopped her cloud and stayed there and just let themself cry, having lost track of how long they had stayed there for. But at that moment she didn’t have the mental energy to care.

END OF CHAPTER

Chapter Text

After a few hours Wukong seemed to have finally run out of tears, and could only stare sadly at the eastern ocean, still feeling a mix of emotions at being driven away by the tang priest, feeling so overwhelmed with sadness, but was also righteously angry about it. Knowing the reason Tripitaka had gotten so far in the first place was cause of her. “I haven’t been this way in five hundred years,” Wukong thought aloud, their voice being the only sound for miles upon miles around, which just made her feel even more miserable, and gazed silently at the sea. The misty waters were quite vast, and the waves were strong and boundless in its strength. The tides came surging, and the waters swirled around. The surging tides roared like thunder in spring, and the swirling waters howled like a summer hurricane. The blessed ancients riding on top of dragons, surely must’ve frowned as they came and went, while immediately youths flying on cranes certainly felt anxious as they passed above.

There were no villages near the coast, and scarcely a fishing boat beside the sea. The waves crests were like immemorial snows, the wind made way for autumn in July, wild beasts roamed at will, as birds bobbed in the waves. And the only sound came from the screaming gulls. Though the fish at the bottom of the sea were happy, anxiety gripped the wild geese overhead. Having had enough of the sight seeing, wukong leaned forward and continued her way onward and soured over the eastern ocean and was soon back at her mountain paradise of flowers and fruit. But something was different, as was quickly apparent as the golden monkey demoness landed their cloud and landed atop the ash covered ground with a loud thud, causing a gust of dirt and ash to fill the air around the golden furred monkey that caused wukong to cough heavily until it subsided. Then opened their eyes and gazed at her surroundings and felt her heart drop into her stomach at the sight. All the vegetation on the mountain was gone, and in its place was a barren field full of leafless trees with bark that was as dark as the ground beneath them, and the peaks had seemingly collapsed in on themselves. The sight in front of wukong caused her knees to buckle as she fell to the ground with a strangled gasp, all the air in her body seeming to have been sucked straight out of her. The sight of her only home and place of birth caused them to feel even more miserable than ever thought possible.

I never would’ve thought something like this was possible, how could this have happened? I used to think that this place was safe from harm, I had tried my hardest to make this place indestructible. Like a base filled with blades and knives that were impossible to penetrate. but somehow all my efforts were in vain, for my mountain has been left in ruin in my absence. If only the Buddha hadn’t trapped me inside that pillar, then maybe then I could've saved this place and its inhabitants from a gruesome death. The mists in the sky were gone, for the once beautiful trees had been the ones to bring it into life, on the eastern ridge the tigers roars were silent. And the apes howled no more on the western mountain. There was no sign of hare or fox in the northern valley, and there were no shadows of deers near the northern ravine. The blue rocks around what once were crystalline rivers had now burnt to a thousand cinders, and the jade sands that lined the beach were now reduced to nothing but brown and black mud.

The lofty pines outside the entrance to the cave all leaned askew, and there was nothing but fragile twigs near the cliffs that used to hold mighty cypresses the color of aqua teal. Ceder, fir, locust, chestnut, juniper, and sandalwood were all burnt. Along with the peach, apricot, plum, pear, and jujube trees were all gone as well. How are the silkworms to be fed without oak and mulberry? The birds cannot nest with no willow or bamboo. The crags and boulders had been reduced to nothing but dust, the springs have dried up in the sudden heatwave that had hit the mountain, and weeds were the only thing that remained in the stream beds.

The earth was black in front of the cliff, and no orchids grew. creepers crawled in the brown mud by the path. Where did the birds of yesterday fly? To what other mountain did the animals go? Leopards and pythons dislike this ruined spot, and cranes and snakes avoid the desolation. My criminal thoughts of those days past. Brought on the death and disaster of today. The great sage, no longer wanting to see the destruction of her home anymore, sat on the ash covered ground, brought their knees to her chest and sobbed heavily, the golden monkeys body shaking in tandem with her sounds of sorrow. After what felt like an eternity wukong suddenly heard the sound of of tiny hands and feet against a thorny hollow in front of a grassy slope, and could only watch in silent awe as seven or eight little monkeys with soot covered fur leapt out and ran over to her and surrounded them in a tight hug, seeming not to care about proper etiquette as all began chirping frantically. Quickly snapping out of her daze, wukong began rocking the baby monkeys that were in her arms side to side while cooing gently, after a few minutes they had all seemed to calm down enough to speak as the golden monkey quietly asked them what had happened. “Why were you all hiding? It seemed like I was here for ages without seeing a sign of you, why is that?”

Even with the monkey kings gentle tone, tears poured from the eyes of the Bebe monkeys as they told them, “ever since you were taken up to heaven as a prisoner all those years ago, great sage, the hunters that had previously stayed away from our island of paradise took advantage of our lack of protection and invaded our territory! With their powerful bows and crossbows, their brown falcons and evil hounds, their nets, loops, hooks, and spears, we were all too afraid for our lives to come out to so much as eat or play. If it wasn’t for general macaque and commander ma and the gibbon scouts, we would all would have been done for in a few days time. we have to hide deep in our caves and keep away from our usual dens. When we’re hungry we flinch some grass from the hillside, and we drink the fresh spring water from the stream. We’ve only just now heard your heavy sobs of gloom and came to see you, your majesty, please, with your overwhelming compassion and strength, please help us!”

Upon hearing all this, Wukong felt cold all the way down to her toes, how could she have possibly let this happen for so long? they felt the overwhelming need to cry come over her in a wave, but pushed it down. Nevermind all that, I have to do my part and help the remainder of my home. “How many of you are there on the island?” Wukong asked, knowing from the looks of the place that the percentage must being deathly low, but she needed to know. “Only about a thousand of all ages,” one of the monkeys replied, it took everything in their power for wukong not to gasp aloud upon hearing this, and replied with a hopefully steady tone, “back before the war between heaven and I, there were forty seven thousand of all kinds of animals, both of my kind and other species included. Where have they all gone now?" They asked.

"After you went away, the god Erlang set fire to the mountain and most of us were killed in the blaze. Some of us squatted at the bottom of wells, or hid in gullies, or took cover under the iron bridge, and escaped with our lives. When the fire burnt itself out and the smoke cleared we came out to find that there were no more plants or fruit to feed us, making life almost impossible, so half of the survivors went away. The rest of us have been having a very bothersome time on this mountain, and half of those left have been caught by hunters in the past two years.”

Wukong took in a quick breath, trying not to sound like she was crying, for they had to be strong, but it was rather hard when hearing about all the bad stuff that has happened since she had been captured made her want to scream to the heavens as loud as they could. But she couldn’t do that, for they were still the monkey king, and no king she’s ever known or heard about would break under the pressure when things turned glum. Despite it all, they still felt worse and worse, all the poor souls here shouldn’t have to suffer for the golden monkeys' mistakes. For they were the one foolish enough to challenge heaven. She had failed her kingdom. “We hate the very name 'hunters,'" one of the younger monkeys mumbled while crossing their arms, “They shoot us with arrows, spear us, poison us, and beat us to death. They take us away to skin us and cut the flesh from our bones before boiling us in soy sauce, steaming us with vinegar, frying us in oil, or stir−cooking us with salt. Then they eat us to help their rice down. Those of us who are caught in nets or loops are taken away alive and made to dance in a ring, act, do somersaults, jump around, play drums and gongs in the street, and make fools of themselves in every possible way.”

Wukong’s fur stood on end, and their hackles raised in anger upon hearing this, “Who's in charge in the cave?" She asked, wanting to kill every single hunter in sight for harming their subjects. But in order for that to happen, wukong needs to make sure that her friends are still safe, they wouldn’t know what to do if any harm came to them. “Marshals Ma and Macaque and Generals Bang and Ba," they replied, "are still in command."

"Then tell them that I'm here,” wukong ordered, at once the baby monkeys rushed into flower curtain cave to report. When they arrived they saw all four monkeys standing around near the entrance, with macaque and bang busy sharpening their weapons with rocks, while ma and ba took stock of their inventory. "Her Majesty the Great Sage has finally returned!” They exclaimed, causing all of them to jump and turn around towards the noise. As soon as they processed what the little monkeys had said, macaque and ba dropped their weapons, with the black furred monkey rushing out of the cave as fast as he could, ma and ba trailing behind him.

The first one to reach the clearing was macaque, who upon seeing the golden furred monkey, stood still with shock. Wukong looked completely different then the last time he saw them, before the war with heaven, she was around four feet tall, making him slightly taller than them, which he had always teased her about when they were younger. But now she had grown to be nine feet tall, easily towering over him, but that wasn’t the only difference. for they had gained a ton of weight, her belly was big enough to dip slightly below her front, and their arms and legs had also gained fat as well, causing them to thicken up to the point that they looked massive, but plenty of muscles still remained in her arms and legs. She was wearing a maroon hanfu, that was long enough to fit her perfectly, showing off every angle of their body, as well as the ginormous breasts that sat proudly on her chest. The golden monkeys hair had also grown longer while she was away, reaching past their shoulders.

Seeing how beautiful wukong is, the black monkey blushed a deep red that covered his cheeks and the tips of his ears. Wow, she’s even more stunning than ever before, the black furred monkey thought in awe. How in the world did they change so drastically? Unfortunately for macaque, he was too deep in thought to notice where he was going, and accidentally stepped on a small branch, causing it to snap in half with a sharp CRACK! That caused both monkeys to jump, with wukong instinctively going into a defensive stance, teeth bared with their ears pinned down to the sides of her head. Bending down to scoop up the remaining baby monkeys in her arms with a deep growl that reverberated throughout the forest, they moved the baby monkeys onto her back and shoulders, leaving wukong easy access to summon their cudgel from her ear, and pointed the imposing weapon directly in the direction the noise came from with a warning growl. Realizing he had been caught, macaque slowly stepped out of the shadows the cluster of trees had provided him with, with arms raised, beads of sweat pouring down his face as he gave the golden furred demoness a guilty look.

Upon seeing him, wukong’s eyes widened, a look of recognition washing over her before their shoulders slumped in relief, leaving the baby monkeys to jump down to the ground and into macaques arms instead with a small chirp, deeply relieved that they weren’t being attacked again. Macaque looked away from the adorable sight to look at wukong, who was looking at the monkeys with a fond look in her eyes, but were also mixed with guilt, and the moment the golden monkeys eyes landed on him, that soft look seemed to deepen as she smiled softly at him “hey there mango, sorry I took so long, I seemed to have lost track of time.”

Nodding silently, macaque took wukongs free hand in his and guided them deeper into the forest in the direction of water curtain cave, coming across ma and ba along the way, who upon seeing wukong had tackled her to the ground with a mixture of crying and laughter, demanding to know where they had been all this time. And with a laugh wukong announced that she was gonna explain everything once they get everyone together in water curtain cave. No one made any complaints, and the four monkeys (along with the baby monkeys that had somehow dodged the tackle hug just in time) made it safely inside, where bang stood with a crowd of all the monkeys of the mountain, comprised of all ages sitting and lounging against every corner and crevice in the cave.

Wukong’s heart twisted upon seeing how small the crowd was compared to before the war.

With a sigh, Wukong sat in the center of the cave, and looked around at all the little faces of the baby monkeys that looked up to her expectedly, probably wondering how their king would save their land from ruin. And they would be lying if she said the thought alone didn’t make her feel like something was crushing her heart. “I don’t mean to be rude, my king, but Why haven’t you returned to the mountain sooner? If you were here you could’ve saved our mountain from burning down and having our people be slaughtered,” ba asked, wukong took in a shuddering breath before replying, “well, as much as I would have liked to have been with you all to protect you from whoever was foolish enough to harm you, the fight against heaven five hundred years ago didn’t exactly….go well.” This caused macaque to lift his head and look at them with intrigue, having never thought about the possibility of wukong losing the battle against the heavenly army.

One of the baby monkeys at the front of the crowd rose her hand and asked “but my king, in all of your time of ruling this land, you haven’t lost a single fight against anyone! So what makes anyone from heaven tough enough to win a battle against you?”

Wukong chuckled nervously, realizing that they had to reveal some pretty unfortunate stuff that had happened before she had been trapped by the Buddha, “well…it actually has to do with why I look different, you see, about five hundred years ago I was fighting against one of the Demi-gods by the name of nehza, but it wasn’t that much of a serious match, it was more of a friendly duel between two people with equal powers- but back to the point, in the middle of battle the jade emperor suddenly showed up out of nowhere!” The crowd of monkeys gasped, having only vaguely heard about the tale of the jade emperor, but knew that he was a powerful being.

“Now normally this wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but a few minutes before the jade emperor arrived, my buddy nahza had said something rather untrue, so I was still a bit peeved when I saw him. Then to make matters worse, the emperor had the gale to say that we needed to stop fighting, even though I had just started to get amped up. So in my anger I miiiiiiight have insulted him.” There was another round of gasps, but unlike last time it was accompanied by a familiar voice as wukong watched as ma quickly stood up from her spot next to ba and marched over to her. “WUKONG! you can’t just insult the jade emperor! He's one of the most powerful celestial’s in the universe! how in the world did you survive!?

The golden monkey raised their hands in a placating gesture, giving the angry monkey a nervous smile “I know i know. I know it sounds bad, and it is! but at the time I was just so angry that it just came out,” unfortunately that didn’t seem to deter the woolen monkey as she crossed her arms and said “that’s no excuse! The jade emperor is a very dangerous being, and there’s no telling what kinds of wicked tricks he has up his sleeves, did he happen to do anything else that day?” even as ma was very angry, wukong could still sense her concern.

Wukong nodded, continuing her story, “yes, after I had accidentally insulted him, he got so mad that he gathered up all his energy into a giant ball full of green electricity, and before i could dodge out of the way, he threw it at me. Causing me to feel the greatest pain that I’ve ever felt in my life,” ma covered her mouth in shock and horror, and watched as macaque, ba and bang wore similar expressions, “it felt like thousands of needles were being jabbed into every cell in my body, it wasn’t until I woke up later back in dbk’s estate that I realized that I had fallen unconscious. Thankfully dbk was fast enough to catch me and brought me back there to heal, upon waking up dbk told me that I had been unconscious for almost a month, and it’s now I realize that the reason it had taken so long is cause the jade emperor had put a curse on me.”

Instantly the cavern was full of the sound of murmuring and soft whispers as everyone tried to process everything that was said, macaque quickly stood up from his spot near the entrance to the cavern and raced to the golden monkey’s side and frantically looked them over for any injuries, wukong gently grabbed the black monkeys arms, causing him to look at her “calm down plum, I’m okay, any injuries I had sustained that day have long since healed, the curse is….different.” Loosening their grip, macaque stood to his full height and asked, “what kinda curse did he give you?” Wukong frowned deeply as she thought about how to phrase their next words, “well, I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that I look a little different,” ma then took the time to really look at her king and best friend, and noticed that she indeed did look different, for the golden monkey had gained a bit of weight since the last time she had seen her. The rolls of fat easily took up space around her waist and thighs, their arms and legs were also very plump. Reality began to dawn on her as she realized what had happened. “Wait- are you saying that the emperor had cursed you to gain weight!?” Macaque’s eyes widened upon hearing this, having came to the same conclusion himself, wukong silently nodded her head, this left all monkeys dumbfounded, as ma found herself at a loss for words, “wha- Why???”

Wukong shrugged, “if I have to guess, I assume he gave me this curse cause of my recent hunger for power, as well as a punishment for me stealing the heavenly peaches and holy wine from the peach banquet five hundred years ago. but thankfully since I was born from stone, this newfound weight doesn’t slow me down in the slightest,” Ma and macaque both let out a sigh of relief, along with everyone else in the cavern. “Well that’s a relief, but I have a question for you,” ma said, wukong raised her head, giving the woolen monkey their full attention, “you said that you had been unconscious for almost a month after the emperor had attacked you, if that’s the case, why didn’t you return after you had recovered?”

Wukong wheezed, remembering the frankly exhausting morning she had upon waking up with their new body, and the events leading up to her fight against the Buddha that got her trapped underneath a mountain, knowing that no one in this room will approve of their deeds, “the moment I found out that the jade emperor had cursed me, I was so full of rage that I gathered up my demon ally’s along with dbk and began fighting against the heavenly army. Though I was the only one that managed to make it to the jade palace, for dbk and the others were still stuck fighting against more of heavens forces.” As the golden monkey continued her story, every monkey from the highest and lowest part of the cavern leaned in as it unfolded, the ones especially interested were commander ma and macaque.

“-it was after I had arrived at the jade palace that things suddenly took a turn for the worse. The moment the jade emperor saw me, he got so frightened that he called out for erlang, who came rushing in with nezha at his side. And both promptly threw me out of the palace. After a bit of fighting I ended up being captured by seven celestial scouts who carted me away to be executed, which didn’t end up working cause I’m immortal. So after I escaped I once again made it to the doors leading to where the emperor resided. But to my surprise none other than the Buddha himself showed up, and with some fancy trickery on his part, he ended up using his powers to trap me in a stone pillar for five hundred years. I had only recently escaped by the help of a tang monk that had made it his mission to go all the way to the western heaven to speak with the Buddha himself to gather these supposedly ‘sacred scriptures’ and carry them back to the east.”

With the golden monkey’s story over, one of the monkeys at the front of the crowd raised their hand and asked, “but your majesty, if you were tasked to aid this monk to the western heaven, why aren’t you with him right now?” Upon hearing this, Wukong let out an earth shattering sigh, having seen this question coming “well the story to this is very long winded and very, VERY tedious. while on the journey west, the monk and I, along with two other disciples he had converted, came into contact with an evil demoness that i later found out was called lady white bone, who had chosen violence by trying to kill the tang monk by trying to disguise herself as different humans three times, though I saw though all of them, and after the third time of trying to kill them with my cudgel, the demonic spirit was finally dead. Though unfortunately my master was so horrified by my show of violence that he disowned me as his disciple on the spot.”

Immediately another round of gasps filled the room, and then all the monkeys began to yell in protest, bad mouthing the monk and his utter disrespect towards their king, and even as all the commanding monkeys rushed over in a panic, it was all they could do to control the upset monkeys enough for wukong to continue speaking. Several minutes later all the monkeys had finally settled down enough that they no longer felt the need to rush out of the cave to track down the treacherous monk themselves, “I understand your distress and anger, and believe me, I am too,” wukong began, happy to have regained all the monkeys attention, “but there’s more important matters to talk about then what some random monk did, like those hunters that have been coming to our mountain and stealing and killing our kin. Tell me, how often do the hunters come to our mountain?"

"Great Sage," ma replied, “they come here in all seasons and harass us for days on end."

"Then why haven't they come today?" Wukong asked, feeling quite angry that some lonesome human hunters would dare step foot onto her land, if they had been here when they had first arrived, she would’ve done everything in their power in ridding the stain of them off the land.

"They'll be here soon enough” bang replied soberly, keeping watch at the entrance of the cave, being armed to the teeth in armor, while holding a heavy battle axe in his hands. It hurts the golden monkey deeply to see her friend so serious, for before the events of the war, the gibbon had only been full of laughter and joy. But now it seemed like all of that had been washed away, and had been replaced by a stone cold expression that didn’t leave any room for cracks.

Wukong quickly shook their head, it wouldn’t do any of them any good for their leader and king to start acting so spacey, if bang is right, then they only have so much time until the hunters return. “Little ones,” Wukong ordered, “I must ask for you to go out and gather broken cinders that were burnt brittle in the fire, and pile them up. I want twenty to thirty or fifty to sixty in a pile. I have a use for them." Like a swarm of bees, the little monkeys rushed around making piles all over the place. When wukong saw them finish she said, “Go and hide in the caves little ones, you did a wonderful job, while I do some magic.” Instantly the monkeys big and small saluted and ran back to the safety of the caves. Only when wukong was certain every single one was hidden, the great sage went up to the mountain peak to look around, they saw over a thousand men with horses approaching from the South. They were beating drums and gongs, and they all had falcons, hounds, swords and spears.

Examining them closely, the Monkey King saw that they were most menacing, they wore fox skins over their shoulders, And brocade covered their chests. Their quivers were full of wolf−fanged arrows, And carved bows hung by their legs. The men were like tigers that comb the hills, The horses like ravine−leaping dragons. They came in hordes, leading their hounds, And their arms were packed with falcons. In thornwood baskets they carried muskets, And powerful eagles were fastened to their belts. They had sticky poles by the hundred, and hare forks by the thousand. Bull−headed fiends blocked the paths with nets, demon kings were handling knotted ropes. As they all Uproared their ferocious cries, They swarmed over the hill like the stars in the sky.

The Great Sage was furious at the sight of them spreading all over HER mountain, they had no right to be here, not to mention the lack of respect for the ground and what was left of the flora as they kicked up dirt and stones, and cut down branches in their wake, which easily snapped in two like the most fragile of bones. The golden furred monkey made a spell with their fist and muttered the words that went with it, and opened her eyes wide, revealing glowing red eyes, much like a raging fire, and released the air in their lungs in a gust of wind, causing it to grow to the size of a dragon, It was now a hurricane, a splendid hurricane. Picking up the dust and earth, blowing down trees and whole forests. Waves reared up as high as mountains, And crashed down against the sand in thousands upon the shore. Heaven and Earth were thrown into gloom, as the sun and the moon were cast in darkness, leaving the fiery inferno known as king to glow brightly in the darkness. One gust shook the barren pines with a tiger's roar, Howling like a dragon as it rushed through the bamboo. Heaven belched angrily through all its orifices, As flying dirt and stones brought injury and death to the many hunters that had foolishly attempted to rain their destruction on her land. The hurricane that the Great Sage had called up made the piles of broken stone whirl wildly around, and the thousand men with their horses were reduced to a pathetic state, Nothing but unmoving carcasses.

But the hunters weren’t the only ones that had fallen against the golden haired monkeys' destructive anger. The aconite was smashed to pieces by the stones, While the flying dirt injured all the seahorses surrounding the coast of the island. Ginseng and cassia were in panic by the ridge, and blood stained the cinnabar ground. The aconite was stranded away from home, the betel−nut could not return to its own town. Corpses lay scattered like powder on the mountainside, leaving the red lady waiting anxiously at home.

Bringing their cloud down, the Great Sage clapped her hands and laughed in triumph, “this is rather funny, I must admit, Ever since I submitted to the Tang Priest and became a monk, he was always telling me 'if you do good for a thousand days you still won't have done enough, but if you do ill for one day that will be too much.' How true it was. I killed a few evil spirits when I was with him and he regarded me as a murderer; and now I've come home I've wiped out all these hunters. So I guess great good came from me being kicked out of his lousy group of do-gooders.” Turning around to face the direction of water curtain cave, they called out, “Come out, everyone! the hunters are gone now!” and now that the hurricane was over and the Great Sage had called them, the monkeys came bounding out one after the other. "Go and strip the clothes off the dead hunters at the foot of the Southern mountain," she ordered the eldest monkeys, watching sadly as the baby monkeys looked around at the destroyed land with wide innocent eyes.

Turning back to the older monkeys that were standing at attention, the golden monkey demoness continued, “bring them back here, and wash the bloodstains out. Then you can wear them to keep warm. Push all the corpses into the pool that's ten thousand fathoms deep, and when you've dragged all the dead horses here, strip off their hides to make into boots, and pickle their flesh−−it'll feed us for a long time. I'll give you all those bows, arrows, spears and swords for you to practice your military skills with. And bring me back all those many coloured flags and banners for us to use.” The monkeys all accepted Wukong's order.

The Great Sage had the banners unstitched and washed, then put them all together as one multicolored banner which bore the legend, Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Restorer of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, Recreator of the Water Curtain Cave. They hung the banner from a pole outside the cave, and for days on end she invited demons and held gatherings of the wild beasts. They accumulated provisions, and the word "monk" was never mentioned. As she was so generous and their power so great they were able to go and borrow some sweet magic waters from the dragon kings of the four seas with which to bathe the mountain and make it green again. In front of it she planted elms and willows, and behind it pines and cedars, they also put in peaches,greengages, jujubes, and plums. Much to macaque’s immense glee. Thus the island home finally returned to normal, and all monkeys on the mountain celebrated the return of their great king.
—————————————————————

Meanwhile, as wukong was busy taking care of her fragmented home, the pilgrims were having some difficulties with the journey, with bājie being ordered by bi long to fetch wukong so that Tripitaka could be saved. Who upon arriving at the island, landed his cloud just as the sun rose in the distance without his notice as the pig demon made his way into the mountains. As he was going along he suddenly heard voices. He looked carefully and saw wukong in a mountain hollow with hordes of demons. The golden monkey demoness was perched on a rock wearing a lovely red henfu the colors of the forest and fields, and standing on each side of her were two monkeys, one female and one male, the male on the right was a black furred monkey with six ears that twitched occasionally, while the female on the left was a cotton top tamarin that had long white hair that reached past her shoulders, and wore a long green hanfu and a pale blue pearl necklace around her neck. and in front of them stood over twelve hundred monkeys who were drawn up in ranks and chanting, "Long live Her Majesty the Great Sage!” The pig demon watched with mixed emotions as his elder sister laughed joyfully at all the praises, face painted a deep shade of red, while the six eared monkey smiled at her tenderly from beside her.

She seems to be doing very nicely, bājie thought, very nicely indeed. No wonder they wanted to come home instead of staying a monk. She has it really nice here, with a big place like this and all those little monkeys at their back and call. If I'd had a mountain like this I'd never have become a monk. But what am I to do now that I'm here? I must go and see her. As he was rather overawed, bājie did not dare walk boldly over to see the monkey demoness, Instead he made his way round a grassy cliff, slipped in among the twelve hundred monkeys, and started to kowtow with them. Little did he expect that the sharp−eyed wukong, along with her two marshals would see him from her high throne and say “there seems to be a foreigner bowing all wrong among the ranks. Where's he from? Bring him here." The golden monkey ordered. The words were hardly out of their mouth before some junior monkeys swarmed round him, shoved him forward, and threw him to the ground. “Where are you from, foreigner, and how dare you trespass on my land?” Wukong asked, having summoned her cudgel and was holding it threateningly above his head.

The pig demon gulped in fear, his throat feeling awfully dry, “If I may be permitted to argue,” bājie spoke, head bowed, “I'm no foreigner, I'm an old friend of yours." To this wukong squinted their yes in suspicion, clearly not buying it, “apart from my two marshals and generals, All my monkey hordes look exactly the same,” the great sage replied, “but from the look of your stupid face you must be an evil demon from somewhere else. Never mind though. If, as an outsider, you want to join my ranks you must first hand in a curriculum vitae and tell us your name before we can put you on the books. If I don't take you on, you've no business to be bowing to me like a madman."

Bājie put his arms round his head, which he still kept low, and replied, "I'm sorry. It's an ugly mug. But you and I were bond siblings for several years! you can't pretend not to recognize me and say that I'm a foreigner."

“Wukong,” a voice spoke up, both turned their heads to see both macaque and ma giving wukong a curious look, “do you know this demon from somewhere?” Ma asked, Wukong chose not to answer and instead looked down at the pig demon, seeming to want to hear it from him. “Raise your head,” the golden haired monkey ordered, the pig demon did so and said, “Look, even if you won't recognize the rest of me, you'll remember my face-“

“BĀJIE!” Wukong exclaimed with a grin, all thoughts of murder leaving her head as soon as they recognized him, she hid their cudgel back into their ear, much to bājie’s relief as he leaped to his feet and said, “yes, yes, I’m bājie,” thinking that wukong would be easier to deal with now that she had recognized him. "Why have you come here instead of going to fetch the scriptures with the Tang Priest?" Wukong asked, causing both marshall's eyes to widen in surprise, having finally understood who the mysterious demon was. "Have you offended the master and been sent back too? Show me your letter of dismissal."

"I haven't offended him,” bājie replied with a shake of his head, “He hasn't given me a letter of dismissal, or driven me away." Confused, the golden furred monkey cocked their head to the side, “Then why have you come here?” She asked, “The master sent me here to ask you back as he's missing you,” bājie answered, remembering what bi long had told him, and for the first time in his life, he was willing to listen to a talking horse. Upon hearing this, wukong’s eyes nerrowed and turned their back to him with a huff, “He hasn't asked me back,” she said defiantly, “and he doesn't miss me. He swore an oath by Heaven and wrote a letter of dismissal, so he couldn't possibly miss me or have sent you all this way to ask me back. Becides, it wouldn’t be right for me to leave my home and subjects behind a second time.” Wukong said with a trance of guilt.

"He's really missing you!” Bājie said, lying desperately, “he really is."

“…..why?” The golden monkey asked, back still facing him, “He called out 'disciple' when he was riding along. I didn't hear, and wujing seemed deaf, so he started missing you and saying that we two were hopeless. He said that you were intelligent and clever, and that you always answered whenever he called. This made him miss you so badly that he sent me over here specially to ask you to come back. Please, please come back with me. You'll save him from disappointment and me from a long, wasted journey.”

Finally turning around, wukong jumped down from their rock, lifted the pig demon to his feet and said, “Dear brother, it's been good of you to come so far. Won't you come and take a look round with me?"

"It's been a long journey," bājie replied with a nervous smile, “and I'm afraid that the master would miss me, so I'd better not."

"Now that you're here," Wukong continued, heedless to the pig demon’s worry, “you really should have a look at my mountain." Not wanting to insist too hard in fear he would anger the demoness, the pig demon reluctantly agreed.

The two of them walked across the open land, with the monkey horde following behind, along with macaque and ma, as they climbed to the summit of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. It was a beautiful mountain. In the few days since they had been back, wukong had made it as neat as it ever had been. It was as green as flakes of malachite, the great mountains were so high it touched the clouds. All around it tigers crouched and dragons coiled, amid the calls of apes and cranes. In the morning the peak was covered with clouds, the evening sun would set between the trees. The streams splashed like a tinkle of jade, waterfalls tumbled with the sound of lutes. In the front of the mountain were cliffs and rock−faces, and at the back were luxuriant plants and trees. Above it reached to the Jade Girl's washing bowl, and below it jointed the watershed of the River of Heaven. In its combination of Earth and Heaven it rivaled the Penglai paradise.

Its blend of pure and solid made it a true cave palace. It defied a painter's brush and colors, for even a master could not have drawn it. Intricate were the strange−shaped boulders, adorning the mountain peak. In the sun's shadow shimmered a purple light, A magical glow shone red throughout the sea of clouds. Cave−heavens and paradises do exist on Earth, Where the whole mountainside is covered with fresh trees and new blossoms. As bājie gazed at it he said with delight, "What a wonderful place, elder sister. It's the finest mountain in the world.” Wukong smiled at the compliment and asked, “Could you get by here?"

"What a question," bājie shook his head with a grin, “This mountain of yours is an earthly paradise, so how could you talk about ‘getting by?’

Wukong laughed loudly, trying not to think about how only a few days ago, this island paradise had fallen into ruin in the five hundred years they had been gone, and it was all her fault for starting that stupid war in the first place. Macaque and ma keep telling them that what had happened to flower fruit wasn’t her fault, that the hunters would have found them eventually, but it still doesn’t make what happened any better.

The two talked and joked for a while until they went back down. They saw some young monkeys kneeling beside the path and holding huge, purple grapes, fragrant dates and pears, deep golden loquats, and rich, red strawberries, "Please take some breakfast, Your Majesty," they said.

“Brother bājie,” wukong said with a smile, “Your big appetite won't be satisfied with fruit. Even so, if you don't think it too poor you can eat a little as a snack." The generous monkey demoness offered, “Although I do have a big appetite,” bājie began, a bit taken aback by his elder sisters change in mood- did returning home really have had such an impact on her?- he could hardly complain, “I always eat the local food. Bring me a few to taste."

As the pair of them ate the fruit the sun continued to rise further into the sky, which made the pig demon worry that he might be too late to save the Tang Priest. “Elder sister,” he said, trying to hurry Wukong up. Even though the golden monkey in question looked far more comfortable laying in the grass, having eaten their fill of fruit. “The master is waiting for us. He wants us back as soon as possible."

Trying desperately to hide the nervous look on her face at the prospect of returning to Tripitaka, wukong sat up and pointed in the direction of a certain cave, "Come and look round the Water Curtain Cave," wukong offered, causing bājie to grow suspicious, sure the view of the island was the best thing the pig demon has ever seen, and the fruit was very appeasing, having wukong offer another thing immediately after he told her about Tripitaka caused the gears in his head to turn. “It's very good of you to offer," bājie admitted, “but I mustn't keep the master waiting, so I'm afraid I can't visit the cave.”

"Then I won't waste your time,” Wukong replied, “goodbye.” Bājie rose an eyebrow at the sad tinge to the monkey demonesses voice, but decided not to think about it too hard, for he had more pressing matters, “…"Aren't you coming?" He asked, "Where to?" Wukong asked innocently with their arms behind her back, watching as a group of baby monkeys played in a nearby forest. “There's nobody to interfere with me here, and I'm free to do just as I like. Why should I stop having fun and be a monk? I'm not going. You can go and tell the Tang Priest that as he's driven me away he can just forget about me." The golden furred demoness said this in such a casual way that they might as well be talking about the weather. which greatly angered the pig demon. But luckily bājie had mind not to press wukong harder in case she lost her temper and hit him a couple of blows with their cudgel, for he knew first hand how fast she could summon that thing, so all he could do was mumble a farewell and be on his way.

As wukong watched him go, she noticed as two of the baby monkeys that were playing earlier came over to them and climbed her back until they reached their shoulders, watching bājie’s retreating back intently, wukong couldn’t help but smile as one of the baby monkeys looked back at her and let out a few chirps, “yeah, I don’t trust him either, I bet he’s up to something. Whatcha say, wanna go scout him out and report any suspicious things from him?” Instantly both monkeys began chirping
enthusiastically, which caused the king to laugh, like wind chimes flowing against the wind on a calm spring morning, and agreed to their pleas, watching in amusement as the two baby monkeys jumped off her shoulders and jumped up into the trees above and raced after the pig demon like little ferrets on a mission.

Back to bājie, the pig demon had hardly made it a mile down the mountainside when he turned round, pointed towards wukong and started to rant, "That ape," he began, “she’d rather be a monster than a monk. The baboon. I asked them multiple times in all good faith and she still turned me down. Well, if you won't come, that's that." Every few paces he cursed the golden furred demoness some more. The two young monkeys, who were hidden in a nearby tree, rushed back to their king to report, “Your Majesty, that Pig is a disgrace. He's walking along cursing you."

Wukong sighed deeply, not even surprised by these turn of events, even if she admittedly felt a bit hurt by this, they had been nothing but hospitable to him, from showing him one of her favorite peaks, revealing the view of their island, and letting him eat some of the greatest tasting fruits this land has to offer. And this is how she’s repaid? “Arrest him.” Wukong growled out, both in anger and hurt. The monkey hordes went after bājie, caught him, turned him upside−down, grabbed his bristles, pulled his ears, tugged his tail, twisted his hair, and thus brought him back.

No one hurts their king.

As he was being dragged and carried back by the crowd of monkeys, bājie’s tunic torn to shreds, “I'm done for," he grumbled to himself, "done for. She’ll for sure kill me now.” Before long he was back at the mount of the cave, where wukong sat on top of a rock−face, with arms and legs crossed, and shouted at him in a fury that would give the sun itself a run for its money. “You chaff−guzzling idiot. I let you go, so why swear at me?!"

"I never did, elder sister!” Bājie said on his knees, “May I bite off my tongue if ever I did. All I said was that as you weren't coming I'd have to go and tell the master. I'd never have dared to swear at you." Wukong’s eyes nerrowed, even at her mercy the disgraceful pig demon continued to lie to them. “You can't fool me," the monkey demoness replied in a hiss that caused bājie to flinch, “If I prick my left ear up I can hear what they're saying in the Thirty−third Heaven, and if I point my right ear down I can know what the Ten Kings of Hell and their judges are discussing. So of course I could hear you swearing at me as you walked along."

"Now I see," bājie said as he nodded his head, seeming to have understood something, but that something in question wukong didn’t care to guess, “With that devilish head of yours you must have changed yourself into something or other to listen to what I said."

“Little ones!” Wukong loudly ordered, “bring some heavy rods. Give him twelve on the face, then twelve on the back. After that I'll finish him off with my iron cudgel." To make her point, she brought out her golden clud cudgel from out their ear and hit it against the palm of her hand. This greatly terrified the pig demon, “Elder sister!” Bājie pleaded as he kowtowed desperately, "I beg you to spare me for our master's sake."

The monkey king just rose an eyebrow, not phased by his plea, “that ole monk? never in a thousand years!”

"If he won't do,” bājie begged, “then spare me for the bodhisattva's sake,” The mention of the Bodhisattva made wukong relent slightly. "Now you've said that I won't have you flogged,” she said, “But you must tell me straight and without lying where the Tang Priest is in trouble−−which is presumably why he sent you to try and trick me."

"He isn't in trouble!” bājie protested, “he's honestly missing you-" He jumped as the golden furred monkey rammed their cudgel into a nearby boulder, rendering it into nothing but dust. She then looked back at him with a steely glare, “You really deserve a beating,” Wukong growled lowly, “for still trying to hood−wink me, you moron. Although I've been back in the Water Curtain Cave, I've stayed with the pilgrim in my mind. The master must have been in trouble at every step he has taken. Tell me about it at once if you don't want that flogging."

Bājie kowtowed again and said, "Yes, I did try to trick you into coming back. I didn't realize that you would see through it so easily. Please spare me a flogging and let me go, then I'll tell you."

"Very well then,” Wukong replied with a huff, “get up and tell me." The junior monkeys untied his hands. He leapt to his feet and began looking around wildly. "What are you looking at?" Wukong asked in suspicion, “I'm looking at that wide empty path for me to run away along,"

The golden monkey would have laughed if she was in the mood.

“That wouldn't get you anywhere,” Wukong said. “Even if I gave you three days' start I'd still be able to catch you. Now start talking before I change my mind about the flogging, for if I lose my temper, that’ll be the end of your sorry little life.”

"I'll tell you the truth,” bājie said, wukong crossed their arms, looking at him expectedly, “After you came back here wujing and I escorted the master. When we saw a dark pine forest the master dismounted and told me to beg for some food. When I'd gone a very long way without finding anyone I was so tired that I took a snooze in the grass.” Upon hearing this, Wukong rolled her eyes and placed their face in her palm, already knowing where this was going. “I didn't realize that the master would send wujing after me. You know how impatient the master is, he went off for a stroll by himself, and when he came out of the woods he saw a gleaming golden pagoda. He took it for a monastery, but an evil spirit called the Yellow−robed Monster who lived there captured him. When I and wujing came back to find him, all we saw was the white horse and the baggage. The master had gone. We searched for him as far as the entrance to the cave and fought the monster. Luckily the master found someone to save him in the cave. She was the third daughter of the king of Elephantia and she'd been carried off by the monster. She gave the master a letter to deliver to her family and persuaded the ogre to let him go. When we reached the capital and delivered the letter the king asked our master to subdue the monster and bring the princess home. I ask you, dear sister, could the master catch a monster? We two went off to fight him, but his powers were too much for us. He captured wujing and made me run away. I hid in the undergrowth. The monster turned himself into a handsome scholar and went to court, where he introduced himself to the king and turned the master into a tiger. The white horse changed himself back into a dragon in the middle of the night and went to look for the master. He didn't find him, but he did see the monster drinking in the Hall of Silvery Peace, so he turned himself into a Palace Beauty. He poured wine and did a sword dance for the ogre in the hope of finding a chance to cut him down, but the ogre wounded his hind leg with a lantern, it was the white horse who sent me here to fetch you. 'Our eldest sister is a good and honorable gentleman,' he said, 'and gentlemen don't bear grudges. He's sure to come and rescue the master.' Please, please remember that 'if a man has been your teacher for a day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life'. I beg you to save him."

"Idiot," wukong said, “I told you over and over again before leaving that if any evil monsters captured the master you were to tell them I am his senior disciple. Why didn't you mention me?" Bājie reflected that to a warrior a challenge was more effective than an invitation and said, "It would have been fine if we hadn't used your name. It was only when I mentioned you that he went wild." The pig demon lied.

“What did you say?" Wukong asked, Bājie suppressed the urge to grin, hook, line and sinker, “I said, 'Behave yourself, kind monster, and don't harm our master. I have an elder sister called sun wukong who is an expert demon−subduer with tremendous magic powers. If she comes they’ll kill you. and you won't even get a funeral.' This made the ogre angrier than ever, and he said, 'I'm not scared of sun wukong, if she comes here I’ll skin her, tear their sinews out, gnaw her bones, and eat their heart. Although monkeys are on the skinny side, I can mince her flesh up and deep fry it.” This so enraged wukong that she leapt around in a wild fury, while all the monkeys, along with macaque and ma, stared at the pig demon in horror, the vast majority of baby monkeys hid behind the bigger monkeys, shaking all over. even though the two marshals knew that bājie was just lying again, it still deeply horrifies them that someone could think up something so morbid.

“Did he have the gall to say that about me?” Wukong asked upon turning around to face the pig demon again, "Calm down, sister,” bājie said, surprised that his plan actually worked, he usually doesn’t get this far, “I specially remembered all his insults so as to tell you.”

“”Up you get then,” wukong said, walking over to the pig demon, grabbed ahold of his arm and dragged him up to his feet effortlessly like he weighed nothing. “I didn’t have time before, but now that he has insulted me I must capture him. Let’s be off. When I wrecked the heavenly palace in my rage five hundred years ago, all the generals of heaven bowed low at the sight of me and called me ‘great sage’ . How DARE that fiend have the nerve to insult me behind my back! that is one of the most cowardly things someone can do, I’m going to catch him and tear his corpse to shreds to make him pay for it. When I’ve done that I’ll come back here.”

“Quite right,” bājie said, “when you’ve captured the monster and got your own back on him, It’ll be up to you whether you come with us or not.” The great sage then jumped down from off the cliff, rushed into the cave, and took off her colorful forest hanfu, and put back on their ole battle hanfu, summoned her iron cudgel, and came out again, long hair a bit disheveled from the rush. The great sage equal to heaven was ready for battle and bloodshed. Unfortunately this caused her monkey subjects to panic, who rushed over to the golden furred demoness and said, “where are you going, your majesty? Surely you aren’t thinking of going off again, who knows what kinds of sick twisted monsters are hiding out to ambush us? Wouldn’t it be better for you to stay here to rule for another few years?”

Wukong smiled sadly as they bent down and ruffled one of the baby monkeys heads. “I’m terribly sorry little ones, but it seems I have an important task that needs my utmost attention. I promise you all that I won’t disappear for another five hundred years, you have my word as king. besides, everyone in Heaven and Earth knows that I am the Tang Priest's disciple. He didn't really drive me away. He just wanted me to take a trip home and have a little relaxation. Now I've got to attend to this. You must all take good care of our household. Plant willow and pine cuttings at the right season, and don't let things go to pieces. I must escort the Tang Priest while he fetches the scriptures and returns to the East. When my mission is over I'll come back to this happy life with you here." This seemed to do the trick, as the baby monkeys smiled, and with hugs from each one of them, they scampered off to go play. Standing back up to her full height, Wukong looked over to their two marshals and said, “I suppose I can trust you two to help keep the fort down while I’m away? I’m not quite sure how long I will be gone.” Macaque and ma nodded their heads.

“Now why would you ask such a thing, your majesty?” Ma said, planting a hand on her hip, “of course, we will do everything in our power to keep flower fruit mountain and our subjects safe and happy, you just worry about keeping that monk of yours safe.” Wukong nodded her head in acknowledgement, once more very grateful they had such wonderful friends. Turning to macaque, she noticed that while he stood tall like always, the golden monkey could tell the black furred monkey was sad, for his six ears were drooped down slightly, and his shoulders were filled with tension. Smiling sadly, the great sage walked over to him and gently grabbed hold of his hands, causing him to look up to her in surprise, “my dearest plum, I’m deeply sorry that we have to part so soon, but I promise that I’ll be back.” They stated softly in such a soft whisper that it felt like cool wind flowing against macaque’s fur.

Macaque looked up at the golden monkey with an awestruck expression, face dusted a deep red as his mouth laid open, trying in vain to release a single syllable, but this only made him look like a fish out of water. In the end the flustered monkey simply looked down at the ground and nodded silently. Wukong smiled softly at this adorable display and raised their hand and leaned macaque’s chin up to look at her. Once the great sage had the black furred monkey's attention, they leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, causing him to tense for a moment, his tail fluffing up momentarily before he leaned into the kiss, hand raising up to grab the side of her head. Meanwhile bājie, seeing that this was a private moment, quickly looked in the opposite direction as all the monkeys big and small awed and cooed at the beautiful display of love.

After a moment though, the pig demon loudly cleared his throat, gathering the attention of the two monkeys, “I’m terribly sorry for interrupting whatever….you two are doing, but shouldn’t we be going now, elder sister?” The golden monkey stared at him for a moment before a lantern seemed to flash above her head, causing their eyes to widen in realization, “OOOOH RIGHT, THE MASTER!” Turning back to macaque, she gave him one last kiss, leaving the lovesick monkey in a daze, before summoning their cloud and zipping off in the direction bājie came from, leaving the poor pig demon to squeak in surprise, quickly summoning his own and zipping off after the monkey demoness.

Once they had crossed the Eastern Sea though, wukong stooped at the Western shore and said, "You carry on at your own speed while I take a bath in the sea." Which caused bājie to huff in exasperation, already worried sick that they’ve both been gone for far too long for his comfort, “We're in a terrible hurry,” bājie said, crossing his arms in a pout, “You can't possibly take a bath now,"

"You wouldn't understand,” wukong replied, “while I was at flower fruit, I was so focused on fixing up my home that I didn’t have any time to do anything in between, like bathing, and so have developed rather an odd smell, and I'm afraid that with his passion for cleanliness the master would surely object.” After a moment the pig demon realized that the golden haired demon had a point. After wukong’s dip, making sure to clean both her body and clothes to the best of her ability, while bājie sat on his cloud, his back facing her. Knowing that it was in his best interests to give the golden furred demoness her privacy. They were back on their clouds and continued heading West again. When they saw the gleam of the golden pagoda, Bājie pointed at it and said, "That's where the Yellow−robed Monster lives. Wujing should still be there.”

"You wait for me up here," Wukong ordered, “while I take a look around the entrance before fighting the evil spirit.” But to her surprise the pig demon shook his head, “No need, for he's not at home."

To this wukong simply replied with an “I know," landed their gleaming cloud and looked around outside the entrance. All she could see were two children, one of about ten and the other of eight or nine, hitting a feather−stuffed ball with curved sticks. Without bothering to find out whose children they were, wukong rushed up at them as they played, grabbed them by the tufts of hair that grew on the top of their heads, and flew off with them. The sobs and curses of the terrified boys alarmed the junior devils of the Moon Waters Cave, who rushed in to tell the princess that someone, they did not know who, had carried her sons off. It was here it was revealed that these boys were the children of the princess and the ogre.

The princess ran out of the cave to see a monkey demoness with long orange hair holding her sons on the top of a cliff, and was about ready to hurl them over. "Hey, you, I've never done you any harm!” she screamed desperately, "so why are you kidnapping my sons? Their father won't let you get away with it if anything happens to them, and he's a killer."

“Don’t you know who I am?” The mysterious monkey demoness asked, turning their head to look at her, causing the woman to shudder in horror upon seeing blood red eyes that belonged to the demoness in front of her, her gaze seeming to pierce straight though her soul. “My name is Sun Wukong, the elderst disciple of the Tang Priest. If you release my brother wujing from your cave, I'll give you your sons back. You'll be getting a good bargain−−two for one." The princess hurried back into the cave, told the junior demons who were at the door to get out of her way, and untied the fish demon with her own hands, Much to his horror, “Don't let me go, lady," wujing pleaded, “or I'll be letting you in for trouble with that monster when he comes back and asked about me.”

To this the woman smiled, "Venerable sir," the princess replied, "what you said about the letter saved my life, so I was going to let you go anyhow. And now your elder sister Sun Wukong has come here and told me to release you." Upon hearing that familiar name, Wujing felt as though the oil of enlightenment had been poured on his head and the sweet dew had enriched his heart. His face was all happiness and his chest filled with spring. He looked more like someone who had found a piece of gold or jade than someone who had just been told that a friend had arrived. He brushed his clothes down with his hands, went out, and bowed to the monkey demoness, who was greatly relieved to see him unharmed, and said, “dear sister, you’ve dropped right out of the blue. I beg you to save my life!"

"Did you say one word to help me, younger brother, when the master said the Band−tightening Spell?" Wukong asked, not unkindly with a grin, “Talk, talk, talk. If you want to rescue your master you should be heading West instead of squatting here." Upon hearing this, the fish demons face fell, remembering back during the lady white bone incident that he hadn’t done anything when the three pilgrims had started fighting, in fear that if he stepped out of line he would be thrown out too. “Please don't bring that up, dear sister,” Wujing muttered guiltily, “A gentleman doesn't bear a grudge. We've been beaten, and we've lost the right to talk about courage. Please rescue me."

With a sigh, Wukong said, “fine then, come up here, we don’t have all day.” And wujing sprung up on the cliff with a bound. When bājie saw from up in the air that wujing had come out of the cave, he brought his cloud down and said, “forgive me, forgive me, brother wujing.”

“And where have you been?” Wujing asked with a raised brow, having not forgotten how the cowardly pig demon had ran off when they were fighting against the demon ogre a second time. “After I was beaten yesterday-" bājie began, but stopped as he noticed wujing and wukong share a look, seeming to be having a silent conversation, then wukong looked back at the pig demon and shook her head in disapproval “must you always run and hide when things get the slightest bit difficult bājie?” This only caused the pig demon to huff in annoyance, continuing on like he didn’t hear, which caused both demons to roll their eyes, “I went back to the capital last night and met the white horse, who told me that the master was in trouble. The monster has magicked him into a tiger. The horse and I talked it over and we decided to ask our eldest sister back.”

"Stop chattering, idiot," Wukong snapped, "Each of you take one of these children to the city. Use them to provoke the monster into coming back here to fight me." They explained.

“How are we to do that?" Wujing asked, "You two ride your clouds, stop above the palace," wukong replied, “harden your hearts, and drop the children on the palace steps. When you're asked, say they're the sons of the Yellow−robed Monster, and that you two brought them there. The ogre is bound to come back when he hears that, which will save me the trouble of going into town to fight him. If we fought in the city, the fogs and dust storms we stirred up would alarm the court, the officials and the common people, which as you could imagine wouldn’t do us any good.”

"But dear sister, these two kids have already been scared out of their wits," bājie replied, “They've cried themselves hoarse, and they're going to be killed at any moment. Do you think the monster will let us get away after we've smashed them to mince? He'll want our necks. You're still crooked, aren't you? He won't even see you, so it's obvious you're tricking us.”

"If he goes for you," wukong replied, getting increasingly tired of this back-and-forth, when they could be busy capturing the demon and saving their master. “fight your way back here, where there's plenty of room for me to have it out with him.”

“That’s right!” Wujing exclaimed, “what our eldest sister says is right. Let’s go.” The pair of them then summoned their clouds, grabbed each child by the scruff of their clothes and went off.

Wukong then jumped down from the cliff to the ground in front of the pagoda's gates, where the princess said to him, "You faithless demoness. You said you'd give me back my children if I released your brother. Now I've let him go, but you still have the boys. What have you come back for?”

"Don't be angry, princess," wukong said, forcing a smile, “As you've been here so long, we've taken your sons to meet their grandfather.” But the stubborn woman only shook her head, “Don't try any nonsense, demoness,” said the princess. "My husband Yellow Robe is no ordinary man. If you've frightened those children, you'd better calm them down."

“Princess,” Wukong said with a smile, “do you know what the worst crime on earth you can commit is?" To this the woman nodded her head, “I was educated by my parents in the palace ever since I was a child," she said, "and I remember what the ancient book said: 'There are three thousand crimes, and the greatest is unfilial behavior.' "

"But you're unfilial," wukong pointed out, "My father begot me, my mother raised me. Alas for my parents. What an effort it was to bring me up.' Filial piety is the basis of all conduct and the root of all goodness, so why did you marry an evil spirit and forget your parents? Surely this is the crime of unfilial behavior." At this the princesses face grew red in shame.

"What you say, ma’am, is quite right,” she said. "Of course I haven't forgotten my parents. But the monster forced me to come here, and he is so strict that I can hardly move a step. Besides, it's a long journey and nobody could deliver a message. I was going to kill myself until I thought that my parents would never discover that I hadn't run away deliberately. So I had nothing for it but to drag out my wretched life. I must be the wickedest person on earth!” As she spoke, her tears fell like water droplets on a window pane, wukong’s face grew glum as they felt a rush of guilt for hurting the poor woman so, along with anger at the cursed monster that dared to treat an innocent woman like this. That demon is going down, “I don’t think that’s the case, princess,” wukong said, causing her to look at them in confusion, “my brother bājie has told me how you saved my master's life and wrote a letter, which showed you hadn't forgotten your parents. I promise that I'll catch the monster, take you back to see your father, and find you a good husband. Then you can look after your parents for the rest of their lives. What do you say to that?”

The poor women was left speechless at the golden furred demoness’s words, feeling beyond grateful, but still felt worry and dread curn in her gut that has stayed a common companion ever since she had been captured all those years ago. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she said, “I really do appreciate it, but I’m afraid if you try to fight him, you’ll only end up getting killed.” She said, “Your two fine brothers couldn't beat Yellow Robe, so how can you talk about such a thing? I mean no offense, but you look more like you could be a housewife then a fighter, you don’t even have a weapon on you.”

To this wukong only laughed, “What a poor judge of people you are,” she said, “what you don’t know, is that I’m actually the king and protector of a island paradise far away, where I easily defeat any and all demons that dare trespass on my land and hurt my subjects. You would do well to remember that, princess.”

"Have you really got magic powers?" the princess asked. Wukong nodded, glad that the human woman was starting to catch on, “You've never seen such magic as I have,” they stated proudly, puffing out her chest in an instinctive show of dominance, “I have no rival when it comes to subduing monsters and demons.”

“Are you sure you won’t let me down?” The princess asked, the golden furred demoness nodded their head, “yes, I’ll do everything in my power to save you.”

"As you're so good at putting down demons, how are you going to catch this one?" She asked, to this wukong said, “Hide yourself away and keep out of my sight, Otherwise I may not be able to deal with him properly when he comes back. I'm afraid you may feel more friendly towards him and want to keep him."

To this the woman gasped in shock, “Of course I won't want to keep him!” She protested, “I've only stayed here under duress."

"You've been his wife for thirteen years,” wukong stated, not amused in the slightest, “so you must have some affection for him. When I meet him it won't be for a child's game. I shall have to kill him with my cudgel and my fists before you can be taken back to court."

The princess did as she had been told and went off to hide in a quiet place. As her marriage was fated to end she had met the Great Sage. Now that the princess was out of the way the Monkey King turned herself with a shake of their body into the very image of the princess, much like what she had done to capture bājie, and went back into the cave to wait for the ogre.
—————————————————

When Wukong saw the monster coming back to the cave she thought of a way to trick him. They blinked till the tears came down like rain, started to wail for the children, and jumped and beat her chest as if in grief, filling the cave with the sound of their sobbing. The monster failed to recognize who wukong really was and put his arms around them, the golden monkey fought back the urge to shiver at the touch of unfamiliar skin against her. “What makes you so miserable, wife?" The monster asked.

"Husband!” Wukong cried, weeping as she concocted a lie, “How true it is that 'A man without a wife has no one to look after his property; a woman who loses her husband is bound to fall'. Why didn't you come back yesterday after going to the city to meet your father−in−law? That lonesome pig demon seized that fish demon this morning, and then they grabbed our sons and refused to spare them despite all my pleas. They said they were taking them to the palace to meet their grandfather, but I haven't seen them all day. I don't know what's become of them, and you were away. I've been so miserable at losing them that I can't stop crying." The monster was furious.

“My sons?” He asked. The disguised wukong nodded, “yes, the pig demon carried them off.” The monster, now jumping with rage, said, "Right, that's it. He's killed my sons. He'll die for this. I'll make that monk pay for it with his life. Don't cry, wife. How are you feeling now? Let me make you better."

"But there’s nothing wrong with me,” Wukong said in confusion, “except that I've cried so much my heart aches.”

"Never mind," the monster replied. "Come over here. I've got a treasure here that you just have to rub on your pain to stop it hurting. But be very careful with it and don't flick it with your thumb, because if you do you'll be able to see my real body."

Welp, guess I found someone more gullible than bājie and Tripitaka combined, wukong thought, giving that away without even being tortured. When he gives me the treasure I'll flick it to see what kind of monster he really is. The ogre then led them to a remote and secluded part of the cave and spat out a treasure about the size of a hen's egg. It was a magic pill skillfully fashioned from a piece of a conglomeration of internal secretion. "What a splendid thing!" Wukong exclaimed in surprise, having forgotten what kinda things demons can hide in their stomachs. Goodness knows how many times it had to be worked, refined and mated before becoming such a magic relic. Today it seems it was fated to meet me.

The disguised golden monkey took it in her hands, rubbed it over their pretended pain on their chest, and was just about to flick it with their thumb when the monster took fright and tried to grab it from them. And in an instant wukong’s plan changed course, leaving wukong to pop it into her mouth and swallow it whole. The monster clenched his fists and hit at them, but Wukong was too fast and parried the blow, rubbed her face, and reverted to their real form with a shout of “BEHAVE YOURSELF OGRE! take a look and see who I am.”

“Wife,” stuttered out the shocked monster, “however did you turn into a monkey demoness??” To this wukong rolled her eyes, already quite done with this demons lack of brain cells, “I’m not your wife, I’m sure if you search though those memories of yours, you are bound to recognize me.”

"I know you by sight," the monster said, "but I can't remember your name. Who are you? Where are you from? Where have you hidden my wife? Why did you swindle me out of my treasure? This is a disgusting way to behave.”

"As it seems you don't know who I am,” wukong said, “let me tell you that I am Sun Wukong, sister wukong, and the tang priests eldest disciple.”

But to the golden monkeys surprise, the demon shook his head, like he had any right to disagree with something like this. "Nonsense," the ogre replied, "nonsense. I know that the Tang Priest only had two disciples when I captured him. They were called bājie and wujing. Nobody mentioned anyone by the name of sun wukong. you must be a fiend from somewhere or other who has come to trick me."

“I didn't come here with the other two," Wukong said, crossing her arms, “because my master is a kind and merciful man who sent me back home for killing too many evil spirits. Are you sure you don’t recognize me? I’d like to think of myself as pretty recognizable.”

“What sort of demoness are you?” The monster asked, “how can you have the face to come back after your master has sent you away?" To this the golden monkey huffed, “You wouldn't understand, you damned monster, but when man has been your teacher for a single day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life, and that father and child should never let the sun set on a quarrel. You've harmed my master, so of course I've come to rescue him. Even if I could ignore that, it's quite outrageous that you insulted me behind my back."

"I never insulted you,” the monster said in confusion, “bājie told me you did.” Wukong replied back, to this the monster shook his head with a grin, seeming to find the irony that the golden monkey demoness had been tricked just like he was. “You shouldn't believe that sharp−tongued old gossip," the monster said. wukong’s eyes narrowed, “let’s stop beating around the bush,” wukong said, “You've treated me very shabbily for a guest from far away. You may not have any wine or fine delicacies to feed me but you do have a head, so stretch it out and let me hit it with my cudgel, that should do it instead of tea.”

The mention of hitting made the monster bellow with laughter. "You've got it all wrong this time, demoness,” he said. “You shouldn't have come in if you wanted to fight me. I have a thousand devils of all sizes in here. Even if you were covered with arms you'd never be able to fight your way out."

Wukong huffed out a laugh, giving the monster a grin, “Nonsense,” they said, “Never mind one thousand−−if you had thousands or tens of thousands of them I'd only need to see them clearly for my every blow to strike home. I'll wipe the lot of you out."

The monster at once ordered all the fiends and ogres in and around the cave to muster with their weapons and put a close blockade on all the doors. Wukong was delighted to see them, who had long since brought out her gold clod cudgel, and was looking at each and everyone of them with a wide sharp toothed grin. And with a single chant in their head the golden monkey suddenly had six arms and three heads. Though this form wasn’t as large compared to the Colossal beast that struck at heavens gates five hundred years ago, it was still pretty big, standing at around twenty feet tall. Then the golden monkey shook her gold banded cudgel and it multiplied into three cudgels. They went into action with her six arms and three cudgels. The golden furred demoness was a tiger in a sheepfold, a hawk in a chicken run. The poor little demons had their heads smashed to a pulp, while their blood flowed like water. She rushed to and fro as if there was nobody else there until only the old ogre was left. Who rushed after the monkey demoness as they ran outside, “Insolent ape. How dare you come here and bully us?!”

The golden furred demoness laughed at the absurdity of the demons claim, turning around to face him, they beckoned him, and said, “Come here, come here. Let me win the credit for killing you!” And could only laugh once more as the monster tried to strike at their head, dodging out of the way at the last second. Mighty was the magic of the Great Sage, awful was the monster's power. One of them wielded an iron cudgel. The other, a sword of tempered steel. When the sword was raised it shone with a bright aura, while the parrying cudgel was wreathed in cloud. They leapt to and fro whilst protecting their heads, Turning and somersaulting over and over. One of them changed their face with every breeze, while the other stood still and shook their body. One glared with fiery eyes as she stretched out their simian arm, the other's golden pupils flashed as he twisted his tigerish waist. They were locked in mortal combat as sword and cudgel struck without mercy. The Monkey King wielded her iron cudgel according to the martial classic, and the monster's swordplay followed the ancient manuals. The other used magical powers to protect the Tang Priest. The ferocious Monkey King became fiercer than ever, The heroic monster unknowingly grew an even greater hero. All because the Tang Priest wants to see the Buddha.

They had fought fifty or sixty rounds without issue when wukong thought, That bloody monster's sword is as good as my cudgel. I'll pretend to give him an opening and see if he can tell it's a trick. The Monkey King raised their cudgel and did a "Reaching Up to a Tall Horse" movement. The monster, not realizing that this was a trick, and imagining that he saw a real opening, took a tremendous swipe at the golden monkey demoness with his sword. Wukong at once did a high swing to avoid the blow, then struck at the monster's head, and knocked him so hard he vanished without a trace. Wukong put her cudgel away and looked for him but without success.

“WOW!!” Wukong exclaimed in astonishment, “I didn't just hit him−−I knocked him out of existence! But if I really killed him there ought at least be some blood, and there's no sign of any. Perhaps he got away." They leapt up on her cloud, but nothing was moving. My eyes can see everything at a glance, the golden monkey thought, so how can he have gotten away so mysteriously? …Now I see. He said he seemed to recognize me, so he can’t be an ordinary monster. He must be some spirit from heaven.

This seemed to be too much for Wukong, who lost their temper, flew around the sky, bit a nearby cloud, and flew up to the southern gate of heaven with her cudgel in their hands. The startled Heavenly Generals Pang, Liu, Gou, Bi, Zhang, Tao, Deng, and Xin bowed low on either side of the gateway, not daring to block the angered demoness’s way. They let her fight their way through the gates and straight on to the Hall of Universal Brightness, where the four great Heavenly Teachers Zhang, Ge, Xu and Qiu asked, "What have you come for, Great Sage?"

“As I was escorting the Tang Priest to Elephantia, an evil monster abducted a princess and harmed the master. I had to fight him, and in the middle of our battle he disappeared. I thought that he couldn't be an ordinary monster and was probably a spirit from Heaven, so I've come to check up if any wicked deities have left their posts." Upon hearing this, the Heavenly Teachers went and reported it to the Jade Emperor in the Hall of Miraculous Mist. He ordered an investigation. They found that nobody was missing among the Nine Bright Shiners, the Gods of the Twelve Branches, the five Dippers of North, South, East, West and Centre, the hosts of the Milky Way, the Five Peaks, the Four Rivers, and all the other gods of Heaven. Then they investigated outside the Palace of the Dipper and the Bull, and found that one of the Twenty−eight Constellations, the Strider, was missing.

"Strider, the Wooden Wolf, has gone down to Earth," they reported to the throne.

"How long has he been away from Heaven?" the Jade Emperor asked. "He has missed four roll−calls," they replied, "and with one roll−call every three days that makes thirteen days.”

"Thirteen days in Heaven would be thirteen years down on Earth," said the Emperor, and he ordered the Strider's fellow stars to go down and bring him back to Heaven. On receiving this edict the twenty−seven other constellations went out through the gates of Heaven and startled the Strider as each chanted his own spell. It turns out He had been one of the heavenly generals who was beaten when wukong had sacked the Heavenly Palace, and he had lain low in a mountain stream that masked his demonic cloud and kept him out of sight. Only when he heard the other constellations shouting their spells did he dare to emerge from the water and go back to Heaven with them. The Great Sage was blocking the gates of Heaven, her tail fluffed up and was grinding their teeth in anger, and would have killed him but for the pleas of the other constellations, the monkey demoness decided not to, and the spirit was escorted to see the Jade Emperor. The monster now produced his golden tablet of office from his belt and kowtowed on the floor of the palace, admitting his guilt.

“Strider the Wooden Wolf," the jade emperor said, his voice booming out in and around the hall, “why did you go off by yourself instead of being content with the infinite beauty of Heaven?"

"I deserve to die, Your Majesty," the Strider replied. There was the sound of something falling over, then a faint voice called out from outside the hall, “I can help with that,” nobody responded. The spirit continued, “That daughter of the king of Elephantia was no ordinary mortal. She was a Jade Maiden in the Hall of Incense who wanted to have an affair with me. As we did not want to defile the Heavenly Palace she decided to become a mortal first and was reborn in a king's palace. Then I became an evil monster and occupied a mountain in order to not let her down. I carried her off to my cave, and we were man and wife for thirteen years. 'Every bite and every sip is preordained,' as the saying goes, and now the Great Sage has succeeded in bringing me here." The Jade Emperor withdrew his tablet of office and degraded him to be a menial helping Lord Lao Zi stoke his fires in the Tushita Palace. If he did well he would be restored to his previous post; if not, his sentence would be made heavier. Wukong was delighted to see how the Jade Emperor dealt with him, who was watching from a nearby window outside the hall. and chanting in respect, said to the assembled gods with a wave, “Gentlemen, I'm off!" Summoned their cloud and zipped back down to the earth below.

"That monkey is as ill−mannered as ever," chuckled the Heavenly Teachers, "just chanting and going without thanking Your Majesty for your celestial kindness in catching the monster for her.”

"We can consider ourselves fortunate,” the jade emperor reasoned, “if they leave without disturbing the peace of heaven.” Down below The Great Sage brought their shining cloud straight down to the Moon Waters Cave on Bowl Mountain, found the princess, and told her off for becoming a mortal and marrying a fiend. As they were doing this she heard bājie and wujing shouting in mid−air, "Leave us a few demons to polish off, sister!” Which caused the golden furred demoness to laugh good naturally.

“I've already wiped them out,” wukong replied. as bājie sat there pouting, Wujing said, “All that doesn’t matter now, Let's take the princess back to the palace. Don't stare at her, bājie. We’d better do some distance−shortening magic."

The princess heard a rush of wind in her ears, and in a moment she was back in the city. The three disciples took her to the throne hall, where she bowed to her royal parents and met her sisters again. All the officials came to bow to greet her. Then she reported, "We are indebted to the infinite powers of the venerable sun wukong for the defeat of the Yellow−robed Monster and my rescue."

“What type of monster was he?" the king asked.

“Your Majesty's son−in−law,” wukong replied, “is the Strider constellation from Heaven, and your daughter was a Jade Maiden who held the incense until she decided to become a mortal and came down to this world. This marriage was predestined. When I went up to the Heavenly Palace and submitted a memorial to him, the Jade Emperor found that the monster had missed four roll−calls and had been away from Heaven for thirteen days, which is thirteen years down here on earth. The Emperor sent his fellow stars down to fetch him, then banished him to the Tushita Heaven, where he is to redeem his sins. That's how I rescued your daughter and brought her here." The king thanked the golden furred monkey demoness and told them to go and see her master.

The three disciples left the throne hall and went with all the courtiers to the antechamber, where the iron cage was carried in and the false tiger unchained. Wukong was the only one who could see that he was human, all the others thought he was really a tiger. As Tripitaka was under the demon's spell he could not move, and although he was clear in his mind, he was unable to open his mouth or his eyes.

"What a fine monk you are, master," wukong said with a grin, mildly surprised her master had been turned into a tiger, of all the animals in the world, tigers did not fit him, armadillos would be more his style. “getting yourself into this strange shape. You accused me of being a murderer and sent me home for it, but you wouldn't be in such an awful state if your heart had been set on goodness."

“Save him wukong, don’t tell him off!” Bājie protested, to this, Wukong looked to him with an angry look in their eyes, like boiling water in a particularly troublesome sea, “if memory serves me right, -and it does, cause I have fantastic memory- It was you who put him up to it all, you were his favorite disciple. Why didn't you save him instead of sending for me? Besides, I told you that I'd go back when I'd defeated the monster for insulting me, even though he said he had no recollection of that.” It was then wujing went over and knelt down before her.

"As the old saying goes," he pleaded, "'If you won't do it for the monk's sake, do it for the Buddha's sake.' I beg you to save him now that you're here. I wouldn't have gone all that way to ask you to come if we'd been able to save him ourselves."

"I couldn't bear not to save him," Wukong admitted, raising the fish demon to his feet. “Even if he hurt me by sending me away, he unknowingly did me a good favor cause when i returned back to my home, I found the land and it’s flora destroyed, and had arrived just in time to save my people from monstrous hunters, and in a few days time, I restored my land back to how it was before. And for that I owe my utmost gratitude.”

The three pilgrims sat there in silence for a moment before the golden furred demoness ordered bājie to fetch them some water, the pig demon flew back to the hostel, fetched the horse and luggage, took the golden begging bowl from it, half−filled it with water, and handed it to her, wukong poured the water in their hand, said the words of a spell, and spurted it at the tiger's head. The evil magic was dissolved, and the tiger−aura was dispersed.

Tripitaka was seen in his true form once more. Once he had gathered himself together and opened his eyes he saw wukong, took hold of them, and said, “Wukong, where have you come from??” Wujing, who was standing in attendance, told him all about how Wukong had been asked back, defeated the monster, rescued the princess, dispersed the tiger−aura, and came back to the palace. "Worthy disciple," Tripitaka said, full of gratitude, "thank you, thank you. When we return to the East from our journey to the West I shall report to the Tang Emperor that you have won the greatest distinction."

"Don't mention it,” Wukong said, having gotten a bit flustered by the compliment, not quite used to getting them from people that weren't on flower fruit mountain. “don't mention it. The best way you can show your gratitude is by not saying that spell." When the king heard about all this he thanked the four of them and gave a great vegetarian banquet for them in the Eastern wing. After this expression of the king's kindness, master and disciples took their leave of him and set out for the West. The king and his courtiers came a long way to see them off.

END OF CHAPTER

Chapter Text

After Wukong had rejoined the Tang Priest, the four of them headed West, united in their shared determination. The king of Elephantia had escorted them beyond his capital to thank them for bringing back his daughter. From there they traveled on, eating when hungry and drinking when thirsty, moving by day and resting by night. By this time it was spring. A light breeze ruffled the silky green catkins of willows, and the view was splendid. The season encouraged the birds to sing, and the flowers bloomed in the warm sun, making the whole world fragrant. A pair of swallows came to the tree in the courtyard, for now was the time to enjoy the spring. Amid the world's red dust and the city's streets, light silks were worn to the sound of lute and pipe, as lower vied and the cup was passed around.

No one was more pleased with the sights and smells of spring then a certain golden monkey demoness, who flew on her cloud as they rushed to and foe, smelling all the lovely flowers and lying in the grass, much to the quiet contentment of Tripitaka, and the annoyance of bājie, who didn’t see why wukong was acting in such a way. Wujing was just happy for the quiet, as bai long walked briskly along the trail. Wukong made another loop de loop as she laughed joyfully, “MAN is this great, i hadn’t felt this good in ages! Not since I left flower fruit mountain behind,”

Tripitaka raised his head to look at the monkey demoness, a question on his mind, “is that why you are in such a good mood, wukong? The scents and beauty of spring remind you of home?” To this wukong nodded, “uh huh! On my island there’s only two seasons, spring and summer, it’s neither too cold nor too hot, just perfect weather all around! Not once did any of the flowers on my island not bloom or wilt, and the fruit was always ripe and juicy all year around. I really should bring you there once this journey is over so I can show all of you around. I'd feel like you’d enjoy what it has to offer, master.”

Tripitaka nodded his head with a smile, filled with deep gratitude that the golden monkey demoness would consider inviting him to their home. Though the scene was interrupted when bājie let out a huff, “if you don’t remember, dear sister, I payed a visit to your island not that long ago, and I didn’t see anything that different from the fields out here,” to this wukong just grinned and said, “well yeah, you probably would think that, considering you only saw the outskirts of the island, and not the small places that truly make flower fruit mountain special. Like water curtain cave for example, I did offer to show you around there back then. if you remember, that is.” Wukong replied with a grin.

Bājie just huffed and crossed his arms in response, much to the amusement of the four pilgrims. In the mist of their laughter, they suddenly saw a mountain blocking their way. "Be careful, disciples," Tripitaka cautioned, “I'm worried that tigers and wolves may prevent us from crossing that high mountain ahead."

“As a man of religion,” Wukong spoke up, hoping to quell her masters fright, “you shouldn't say that sort of thing. Don't you remember what the Heart Sutra the Rook's Nest Hermit taught you says−−'If one relies on the prajna−paramita, he is free in his mind, he has no fear, is rid of dreamlike thoughts of unreality and enjoys ultimate Nirvana.' All you have to do is ‘Wipe the dust off your mind, Wash out the dirt from your ear. For without the most terrible suffering, You cannot be a great man.' There's no need to be so glum. With me here you'll come to no harm even if the sky falls down, so why be scared of wolves and tigers?" Tripitaka reined in his horse and replied, “When I left Chang'an on imperial orders, I was determined to worship the Buddha in the West, Where his golden image shines in the sacred land, And the jade hair gleams in the pagoda."

The tang monk continued, “I shall search the nameless rivers of the world, And climb all unknown mountain ranges. I long to cross the mighty, misty waves, But when, oh when, will I find my rest?" When wukong heard this, they chuckled and said, "You'll have no difficulty in that. When you've completed your mission all your destinies will be over and all your dharmas will be empty, so of course you'll be able to rest then." This cheered up Tripitaka, who gave his dragon−horse the rein and urged it forward. As they climbed the mountain they found it truly craggy and precipitous. Towering peaks, along with tapering pinnacles. beside the soilary cliff. Down in the deep and winding stream, you can hear the serpents playing and splashing in the water. Beside the solitary cliff, amid the trees on the precipice, tigers whisk their tails.

Look up, and the blue sky is high above the peaks, turn around and the valleys stretch on for miles upon miles, creating a sea of green as far as the eye can see. Climbing it is like ascending a ladder, and descending feels like falling into a bottomless pit. This is indeed a wild and craggy ridge, a wall of tapering cliffs. On the craggy ridge, the medicine gathering moves in fear. And on the sheer rock face the fire wood collector cannot take a step. Wild goats and horses all run free, and there are many heres and mountain oxen. The mountain is so high it bloats out the stars with its sheer magnitude. One often meets gray wolves on the dark and dangerous paths. The path in question is hard to follow and could be difficult for the horse.

As Tripitaka reined in his horse to look at the mountain he saw that they had reached a most difficult spot. There was a wood gatherer standing on the green, grassy slope, on his head the man wore a battered blue felt hat, and on his upper body he wore a thick woolen tunic. The battered blue felt hat, kept off rays of the sun and was a strange sight. In his black woolen tunic the man was amazingly happy and carefree. The steel axe in his hand looked as if it had been sharpened till it shone, he cut dry wood and made it into bundles to use as fuel, and to throw in the fire to keep warm on cold nights.

Spring hung from his carrying pole, and he was happy throughout the four seasons. His appearance was relaxed, and his mind was free of any and all anxiety. He had accepted his lot throughout his life, thus fame and disgrace never bothered him on the mountain. The wood gatherer was cutting down dead wood upon the slope when he saw the monk approaching from the East. Giving his axe a rest, he came out of the trees, and climbing fast, the man soon scaled the rock face. “Stop here on your journey west, weary travelers!” He shouted, gathering the attention of the four pilgrims, wukong giving the wood gatherer a quizzical look, “I must warn you that there is a peak of vishous ogres and fierce wolves on this mountain. They eat travelers from the east that make their way across the west.”

This news terrified poor Tripitaka out of his wits, while the golden monkey gave the man a heated glare, mad that he had scared the poor monk just when she had calmed him down, the tang monk trembled in his saddle, he turned around and called out to his disciples, who were not far behind him, “did you here what the woodman said?” He asked, “there are ogres and wolves on this mountain. Could any one of you ask for more details?”

“Don’t worry master!” Wukong spoke, sliding off their cloud and desummoning it, “I’ll find out from him,” the golden monkey demoness hurried up the mountain, and addressing the woodsman as elder brother, she asked all about it, “why have you come here, venerable madam?” Asked the woodsman, returning their greeting, the man leaned his head back to look her in the eyes, noting how big and strong the monkey demoness in front of him was, who easily towered over him. and thanked all of heaven that the demoness was kind this day. “To tell you the truth, elder brother,” Wukong began, putting on the most pleading expression, much like a worried wife afraid for her husband and or child. “We have come from the east and are heading west to fetch the scriptures. Behind me, the one you had just met, that’s my master on the horse. He’s a bit timid, you see? so when you told him about the ogres and wolves he sent me to ask you about them. Now tell me, how long have they been here? Are they experts or just beginners? Please do tell me about them, then I can make the gods of the mountain and local deities match them off.”

Upon hearing this, the man threw back his head and laughed, much to the golden monkey demoness’s surprise and eventual anger, crossing their arms across her chest as they frowned down at the woodsman, “you really are one mad demoness!”

To this wukong replied, completely stoned faced, not taking kindly to being mocked, and the only reason she doesn’t plan on one shotting the man right here and now is cause Tripitaka is behind them. So, reining in her anger, she replied, “I’m not mad. I’m talking sense, and you’d do well to remember that.”

“If you’re talking sense,” the man replied, not quite believing the wild demoness’s claim, decided to humor her, “then how can you say you’ll have them marched off?”

“If you’re so insistent to know what I’m planning, you must be related to them,” wukong replied, causing the woodsman to step back in surprise, wondering how on earth the monkey demoness could come to that conclusion, “putting on those airs and blocking our way to talk that nonsense to us. And if you're not related to them like I assume, you’re either a neighbor or a friend of theirs.”

Several minutes passed in silence before the man quickly recovered from his shock and straightened up, clearing his throat as he replied, “This is too much, mad demoness,” he laughed, “the warning I’ve come specially to give you is meant well. I tell you to be on your guard as you travel along, but it seems you’re holding me responsible for all those demons. Nevermind whether I happen to know what these demons do. How could you possibly have them matched off even if I did know. Where would you send them?”

“If they were sky monsters,” Wukong replied calmly, having it up to here with this woodsman’s attitude, thinking that he knows everything just cause he makes a living chopping down trees. This guy has some nerve, “I would simply send them to the jade emperor, so they can get the proper sentence for anything they’ve done down here. And if they were earthen monsters, I’d send them to the earth palace. Western ones would go to the Buddha, and eastern ones to the sage. I’d send southerners to the fire god. Dragon spirits would go to the lord of the seas and demons to king Yama down in the underworld. They all have somewhere to go. I know the people in all those places, so I’d only need to write out an order for the monsters to be sent there at the double the very same night. Any questions?”

“You mad monkey demoness,” the man said with a mocking laugh, not seeming to realize that wukong is indeed serious, and that the woodsman is at least 1,5 seconds away from meeting a very painful death. And that’s just sugar coating it. “You may have traveled on the clouds and learned a little magic, but even if you expel evil spirits and bind demons, you’ve never come up against such vicious fiends.”

The golden monkey tightened her grip on their arms, trying so desperately to not smack this wretched man with her cudgel to the ends of the earth and back, and asked through clenched teeth, “How…So. What could be so vicious about them?”

“This mountain is about two hundred miles across,” the woodsman explained, “and it’s called flat top mountain. There is a cave in it called the lotus flower cave where two demon chieftains live. They are so determined to capture monks that that they’ve drawn pictures of them and found out the name of the man they want to eat, the tang priest, you’ll be alright provided you come from anywhere but tang. But if you’re from there, don’t carry on.”

…Welp, call me a forgotten mistress and call me fucked, cause I happen to be traveling with a tang monk myself, the golden monkey thought with distrain.

The land of tang,” Wukong replied, “is precisely where we’re from.” The golden monkey demoness admitted, knowing from past experiences that things weren’t gonna be easy for them from here on out. But then again when has it ever?

“Then you and your master should get away from this place as quickly as you can,” the woodcutter said, “Those monsters have five treasures that they carry about with them, and their magic powers are enormous. Even if you're one of the jade pillars of the heavens or one of the golden beams that support the sea, you may well have to pass out in order to get the Tang Priest through."

“How often?” Wukong asked,

“Three or four times,” the woodcutter replied, to this the golden monkey demoness grinned, “Oh that's nothing, nothing at all. We all pass out seven or eight hundred times a year, so it will be easy to pass out three or four times more and then we'll be able to get through." The fearless Great Sage, whose one thought was to protect the Tang Priest, left the woodcutter and hurried back. When they reached the horse standing on the mountainside she said, “It's nothing much, Master. It's true that there are a few evil spirits here, but the local people only worry about them because they are timid. With me here there's no need for you to be afraid of them, so let's be on our way again." Tripitaka was relieved to hear this, and he followed wukong without protest.

As they traveled along they soon noticed that the woodcutter had disappeared. Which was a bit strange, since none of them had heard the tall tale sound of feet walking upon grass, non were as confused by this then the tang monk, who looked to his disciples and asked, hoping at least one of them would have an idea as to where the woodcutter had gotten off to. “Why is it that I can’t see the woodcutter that had given us that message?” Bājie let out a puff of air as he sighed, “what lousy luck we would meet a ghost in broad daylight?” The thought of the woodcutter being a ghost frightened Tripitaka so that he was prone to order them to find another way around when wukong butted in, “he must have gone into the forest to look for more firewood.” The monkey demoness reasoned, “if it’ll make you feel better master, I’ll take a look.”

Opening wide their fiery golden pupils, wukong searched the length of the mountain. But could not find any sign of the woodcutter. Taking a chance, the golden monkey demoness looked up into the clouds above and saw the duty god of the day there. Upon finding them, wukong grumbled under her breath, summoned their cloud and flew up there and cursed them several times before saying, “why didn’t you just tell me straight instead of transforming putting on such an act for me?”

The duty gd bowed to the angry monkey demoness anxiously and replied hastily, “please forgive me for being so late with the warning. Those monsters really have enormous magic powers and can perform all kinds of transformations. Thus you’ll need all your skill and cunning to protect your master. If not, the chances of you reaching the western heaven will be very slim.”

Quickly thanking them, Wukong dismissed the duty god. She was feeling rather worried as they landed their cloud and went up the mountainside until she found Tripitaka, bājie and wujing pressing ahead, and was struck with a dilemma. If I tell Tripitaka straight what the duty god said, the monkey demoness thought, he would most definitely be too frightened to face up to it. But if I don’t tell him and keep the monk in the dark, he won’t know how things stand, and I’ll be in great trouble if he gets captured by the monsters. I’d better go see bājie, then I can send him ahead to fight the monster, if he wins, that will be something to his credit, and the master will trust him more. But if he can’t do it and gets captured instead, I can go rescue him myself, which will give me the chance to show what I can do. As wukong thought up this plan, she wondered whether bājie would try to slip out of it and be protected by Tripitaka. If that were the case, they would just have to force him to do it.

The great sage thus resorted to one of her tricks, they focused hard on all the bad things that could happen on this journey until her eyes misted over with tears, then went to her master. When bājie saw the monkey demoness, he came up with a plan of his own, turning his head, he said to wujing, “put your carrying pole down and unpack the luggage, brother. We two will split it.” Unsurprisingly the fish demon was shocked upon hearing this, openly gaping at bājie, “what do you mean split it!? we need all this so that our travel to the western heaven is as painless as possible for our master, are you saying you don’t want that?”

To this Bājie simply shook his head, “forget about the journey, dear brother, just simply divide the luggage and you can return to the river of flowing sands to be a monster once more, and I’ll go back to gao village to see my wife. We can sell the white horse to buy the wood for the masters coffin the master will be needing when he grows old. Then we can break up instead of going to the western heaven.” Wujing had be stunned into silence, having a clue as to why the pig demon would want to do such a thing, and out of the blue no less!

But before he could say anything, Tripitaka, who had overheard everything the cowardly pig demon had said, was understandably angry, “how can you talk of such nonsense in the middle of the journey!?” Again bājie shook his head, I’m not talking nonsense, the reason I bring this up is cause wukong is coming back in tears, and you should know by now that the monkey demoness is not someone to be deterred so easily, having been though torture that would have killed anyone else a thousand times over. So if wukong is indeed coming back so full of gloom, it could only mean bad news for us all.”

Tripitaka, who only held the highest respect for the monkey demoness, pinched the bridge of his nose with a scowl, “enough of this nonsense bājie! I’ll ask her what they have to say. Then we will know for sure what is going on.”

“Tell me straight. The monk ordered wukong once she made it to the group, who looked at their master with the utmost attention, “what is it that is bothering you my friend? and why are you crying? I’ve known you for long enough to know that you don’t just burst into tears out of nowhere.”

“The person who gave us the message just now,” Wukong replied, “was the duty god of the day. They said that the evil spirits here are so ferocious that it will be most difficult to get through. Besides, we’ll never be able to make our way across these steep mountains, so I propose we go another day.”

As wukong expected, Tripitaka trembled in fear upon hearing this, the monk then tugged on the skirt of the monkey demoness’s hanfu and said, “why these thoughts of turning back when we’ve already done half the journey, are you saying that your determination is weavering?”

Wukong shook her head, “it’s not that I’m weavering, it’s that there’s a chance that the monsters on this mountain may overpower us, and you would be whisked away to become a meal for some unsavory foes.” Seeing that his disciple had a point, Tripitaka nodded his head, “I suppose you’re right, it would be very difficult for yourself. As the military classic says, few are no match for many, but don’t forget that you also have bājie and wujing are here to help you fight any monsters that come your way. Make a joint effort to clear the path and take me over the mountain. Then you will receive your reward.”

As wukong’s little show had so moved her master to say those words, they wiped away her tears and said, “bājie will have to do two things I tell him to if you’re to have even one chance of crossing the mountain as you want to, master. If he won’t do these two things for me you’ll have no hope at all.”

“Sister,” bājie said, “if we can’t cross the mountain, let’s disband. Leave me out of this.”

“Disciple” Tripitaka warned bājie as he glared at him, “ask your sister what she wants you to do.” Taking a breath, bājie sighed as he turned back to the monkey demoness who used all their willpower to not grin smugly down at him, and instead just looked at the pig demon with a calm smile as bājie spoke. “What do you want me to do, dear sister?”

Like line and sinker! Wukong thought as she chuckled internally, “look after the master and petrol the mountain.” The monkey demoness replied, “but looking after the master means staying put.” Bājie tried to reason, “and patrolling means moving. You can’t ask me to stay put then move for a bit. I can’t do both at once.”

“I’m not asking you to do them both,” wukong sighed, crossing her arms, having not thought about the possibility of bājie being stubborn and fighting against them, he couldn’t make this easier for them did he? “I just want you to do one of them.”

“That much easier!” Bājie replied with a smile, “though I don’t know what you mean by looking after the master or by patrolling the mountains. Tell me what you want, then I can do the one that suits me.”

“Looking after the master,” wukong said, “means that if he wants to go for a stroll you must support him, and if he wants to eat you must beg some food for him. If he’s hungry you’ll be beaten. And if he looks at all shallow you’ll be beaten. If he’s any thinner you’ll be beaten.”

“That sounds very difficult!” Bājie said with alarm, his eyes blown wide. “There’s nothing to looking after him or holding him up, even carrying him would be easy enough. But if he sends me to beg some food in a village, the people on this path to the west won’t realize that I’m a monk going to fetch the scriptures. They’ll instead think I’m a growing wild boar come down from the mountains. A crowd of men with forks, rakes and brooms will surround me, capture me, slaughter me, and salt me down for the New Year celebrations. That would certainly be the end of me, wouldn’t it?”

Wukong nodded her head, understanding the pig demons' fear, it was no secret that demons and humans have no reason to trust one another, for demons are far stronger than any single human, so their hatred is fueled by fear. “Then you can patrol the mountain, that way you won’t have to worry about being slaughtered by any humans while trying to beg for food.”

“What would that involve?” Bājie asked, the monkey demoness creaked an eye open to give him a look, seriously doubting the pig demon had what it took if he doesn’t even know that basics of patrolling. Back at their home, she had been the one to train the monkeys how to patrol, so if there were a demon or human causing trouble, they would be the first to know. So thinking that Bājie might not know the basics of patrol filled the monkey demoness with a mix of anger and pity. But chose not to let their emotions show, in favor of focusing on the current situation, “you would have to go into these mountains,” wukong replied calmly, “to find out how many demons there are, and all around the mountains, and find out what the demons caves are like, so that we can go across it.”

“Nothing to it!” Bājie replied, “I’ll patrol the mountains.” The pig demon hitched his tunic, grasped his rake tightly, and proudly marched his way deep into the mountain. The moment bājie was out of ear sight, wukong let out a unkind laugh, which gathered the attention of Tripitaka and wujing and bi long, who looked (in the monks case up, since he was a few feet shorter than them) with confusion and slight unease, wondering what the giantess monkey demoness could find so funny. “Wukong my eldest child, what seems to have you in such a curious mood? It can’t possibly have anything to do with why you tasked your younger brother to scout the premises of the mountain.” Tripitaka gently asked, remembering from the teachings back when he was young, about how he should show as much respect to everyone he came across, no matter the person's gender, race, or color. Sure, He’s sure his shifu most likely hadn’t thought about his teachings being directed towards demons, being told countless times that demons were only made of evil magic or twisted intentions. But apart from the terrifying demons he’s encountered thus far on his journey, wukong has only shown the best of intentions for him, sure, sometimes the monkey demoness has made some mistakes sometimes, but they always managed to bounce back onto the right path before she could stray too far.

Upon hearing her masters worry, Wukong chuckled lightly, the sound like wind chimes on a windy spring day. “It’s nothing you should worry about trip, it’s just that I know just from looking at him that bājie won’t simply patrol the mountain like I had instructed. The pig demon is too hard headed for that, not to mention he certainly won’t dare to visit any demons lairs, for even though bājie had great power, he is still scared stiff and encountering any such demons that may have a chance of overpowering him. So what I expect him to do is hide somewhere safe and secluded for awhile. Then once it’s been long enough, he’ll return back with some half baked excuses, or even a story in hopes of fooling us.”

This only caused the monk even more confusion, who shared a look with the fish demon, who looked equally dumbfounded and puzzled, having not a thought about what the great sage could be going on about. Turning back to wukong, Tripitaka asked, “how do you know so much about what he’ll do? it didn’t seem like he wasn’t thinking of tricking us from where I’m standing.”

Wukong just smiled knowingly, “it’s just a guess about what I reckon he’ll do,” the monkey demoness replied, “but if you’re having trouble believing me I’ll go take a long ahead, so I can help subdue any wayward demons that he may stumble across. All the while finding out if bājie is indeed genuine about wanting to patrol and continuing on this journey.”

“Very good,” Tripitaka replied as he nodded his head, wujing smiling wide at his elder sister’s wise words, even bi long seemed to have grown more appreciative towards the golden monkey demoness. “But don’t you go making a fool out of him just because I am unable to see you.” Wukong nodded in acknowledgement, summoning their cloud and ascended into the sky above, and as she hurried up the mountain side in search of their youngest brother, she transformed themselves into the tiniest of insects with a shake of her body. On their delicate wings she could dance in the breeze, their pudgey waist bouncing with every flap of her wings, and despite the added weight, the newly turned insect didn’t seem bothered about it. As they darted through the blades of grass that stuck out of the mountain path and wall, and passed under flowers, the transformed monkey was faster than a shooting star. Bright were her eyes that shone like freshly polished topaz. Of all the insects in the world, they were the smallest, pudgy and elegant, but deeply clever. If she was resting in the woods on a day off, you would never see them. And a thousand eyes would be unable to find her.

Wukong flew off, soon catching up with bājie, and gently perched on a bristle of fur behind his ear. And the pig demon continued on, completely oblivious that he had an extra passenger with him. After two or three miles, Bājie dropped his rake, turned back to look in the direction of Tripitaka and the others, and began to curse at the monk, much to the disguised monkey’s shock and anger, gesturing widely.

“Soft headed old monk.” He grumbled, “vicious monkey demoness, and weak minded wujing. They’re all enjoying themselves back there while they fool me into walking off here. We’re all going to fetch the scriptures and we all want our reward, so why should I be the one to reconnoiter these mountains? Hm! If they know there are demons around we should instead hide up for awhile. But that’s not even half good enough for them. They have to send me off by myself to find them. What lousy luck. I’ll go and take a nap somewhere. And when I go back I can give the monk some kind of vague answer and say I’ve reconnoitered the mountain. That will sure pay them back!”

Feeling pleased with himself for the moment, Bājie grasped his rake and set off. And when the pig demon saw a reddish grassy slope in a mountain hollow he went straight to it, made a bed for himself with the help of his rake, and laid down to sleep, saying as he stretched himself out, “yeah, this is the life, not even wukong can be as comfortable as I am.” Meanwhile wukong, the bonafide monkey KING, who had experienced the very best luxury their home had to offer, of course had heard every word the incompetent pig demon had said from behind his ear. And growled deeply, and if the monkey demoness wasn’t a tiny insect at the moment, the growl she let out would have rivaled a mountain lion. But instead wukong decided to teach him a lesson not to talk to people behind their backs. Quickly transforming themselves into a woodpecker.

Her sharp iron beak was colored a deep red that reflected off the sun like a polished ruby, their green and blue feathers glistened brightly, their steel claws were as sharp as nails, and when hungry, she broke the silence of the forest with a great and powerful noise like a tiny hammer. Dry and rotten tender was what they loved, she hated lone and sturdy old trees. Her deep and round eyes the color of brightly shining hazelnuts and flicking tail made them a lively creature indeed. And the steady tapping of her beak against wood was one of the most recognizable.

This bird was neither too big nor too small, and normally would have weighed only two or three ounces, but if this certain woodpecker would hang on someone’s arm or sit on their head, the person in question would instantly fall to the ground, shocked speechless by how much it weighed. This fact, along with the knowledge that it still had its fast speed, made it so that it would be almost impossible to catch. With only the threatening glint of its bright red beak, its legs iron black, much like the monkey demoness’s staff, it came flying down with a swish of its wings.

When it pecked at the lip of the pig demon, who was sleeping with his head down, bājie scrambled to his feet and shouted, “a monster, a monster! It jabbed me with its spear. My mouth hurts terribly.” As he felt it with his hand he felt tiny drops of blood on his fingers. “Dammit!” The pig demon exclaimed, “nothing especially good has happened to me, so what’s this lucky red on my lips?” At the sight of his bloody hand, he began to look wildly about himself, muttering all the while, and when he saw nothing, he said, “there doesn’t seem to be any monster here, so how in the world did I get jabbed??” Then he looked up and saw a woodpecker flying above him.

“…the wrench.” Bājie growled lowly, gnashing his teeth together, “it’s bad enough being put upon by wukong, but now I’m having trouble with a woodpecker of all things. I suppose you didn’t realize I was once human, and thought my snout was a black, rotten old tree full of insects. So you pecked me in order to find some, I suppose I’ll have to tuck my snout into my clothes.” With that the pig demon went back to sleep. Unimpressed by this, Wukong flew back down and pecked him behind the ear, right where they had once sat when she had been but an insect. In which bājie instantly leapt up again and said, “this damned bird is really going after me. It must have a nest full of eggs or chicks here and is attacking me to stop me from taking them. If that’s the case, I suppose I won’t sleep here.” He picked up his rake and left the red grassy slope to continue on his way.

Wukong sighed in relief, greatly relieved and delighted that the stubborn hog had finally listened, though it’s kinda funny, for someone that used to be a heavenly guard, he didn’t even seem to recognize me in this form. Perhaps his time on earth has greatly blinded him, and thus he’s unable to look past illusions. With a shake, wukong turned themselves back into the insect from before and perched herself once more behind the pig demons ear. Another mile or so deeper there were three square granite boulders the size of tables in a hollow. Bājie put down his rake and chanted at them, which greatly confused the disguised monkey demoness. “Whatever is that hardhead doing? These rocks aren’t even sentient, so it’s but a waste to chant at them.”

Unknown to the golden monkey demoness, bājie was actually pretending that they were Tripitaka, wujing and wukong, and was practicing what he’d say to them when he returned. “When I go back,” he began, “if the master asks me about any demons about, I’ll say that there are some here. When he asks what sort of mountain this is
I’ll say it’s made of stone. What about the gates? I’ll say they’re iron-plated and studded. And when he asks how deep the cave is I’ll say there are three sections, one behind the another. If he really interrogates me and wants to know how many studs there are in front of the gates I’ll say I was too excited to notice. Now I’ve got my story off pat I’ll be able to make a fool out of wukong!”

His story now concocted, the pig demon headed back along the path, dragging his rake behind him, completely unaware that wukong had heard everything from behind his ear, and flew off ahead when he began making his way back. All the while thinking to themselves how incompetent bājie really was.

Once close enough to the group, wukong transformed back into her real form to see their master, who said, “ah, here you are! why hasn’t bājie returned yet?”

“He’s still cooking up his ‘story’.” Wukong replied as she crossed her arms, feeling really peeved that the walnut headed pig couldn’t even be decent enough to actually patrol at least part of the mountain, it’s not even that much to ask for Buddha’s sake. “Why ever would bājie ever make up a story? We aren’t even halfway across the mountain, so why would he make a story now when nothing of value has happened?” Tripitaka asked.

“It’s true master, I heard it all from his own mouth.” It’s then the monkey demoness told Tripitaka, along with wujing and bi long, about how bājie had been sleeping in the grass when he had been woken up by a woodpecker’s peck, how he had expressed his thoughts his thoughts to a bunch of boulders that he had pretended was them, and made up a story about the mountains being made of rock with a stone cave that had iron-plated gates and demons living in it. It was not long until the pig demon in question approached the group once more, he was going through his story again, his head bowed low, to make sure that he did not forget it when wukong shouted, “HEY IDIOT, WHAT ARE YOU RECITING!?”

Upon being asked, bājie pricked up his ears, looked around and said, “I’m back!”

He then fell to his knees dramatically, like he had been stuck in a desert for several hours, and wukong could only roll their eyes as Tripitaka picked him up and said, “you look exhausted, disciple.” Which the monkey demoness feared would only encourage the pig demons reckless behavior, “I am.” Bājie replied, “with all that walking and climbing I’m completely wrecked.” This caused wukong to scoff, knowing only one of those were true, with wujing patting their shoulder in sympathy.

“Are there demons?” Tripitaka asked. “Yes.” Bājie replied, “there certainly are, there’s a whole army of them.”

“What sort of send off did they give you?” Tripitaka asked, after hearing what his eldest disciple had told him, it seemed only right that he’d change up his answers a bit in hopes of throwing him off. “They called me ancestor bājie and grandfather bājie respectively, gave me noodle soup and vegetarian dishes, talked to me, and sent me back over the mountain with drums and banners.” Wukong resisted the urge to facepalm, the total ridiculousness of the mental image of bājie of all people being shown such hospitality only showed how immature and egotistical the pig demon really was.

“This must be from some dream you had while you were asleep in the grass.” Hearing this so frightened the pig demon that he shrank in on himself. “Dear sister, however did you know I had went to sleep?”

Not bothering to answer the others query, wukong went up to him, grabbed hold of him by the ears, causing the pig demon to squeak in both pain and fear, leaned in close enough so that bājie could clearly see the monkey demoness’s glowing red eyes, and said, “come here, little piglet. I have something to ask of you.”

Gulping nervously, bājie responded “ask me if you must, who was now shaking with fright, “but why did you have to grab my ears like that?” The pig demon whined, rubbing his sore ears. “What sort of mountain was it?” Wukong asked, heedless of the pig demons' pain or discomfort, “a mountain of rock.” Bājie replied, learning quickly that he wouldn’t get any sympathy from the golden monkey demoness like with Tripitaka.

“What sort of cave?” Wukong asked, “stone.”

What kind of gates?” Wukong asked, “iron-plated.”

“How deep?” Wukong asked, raising a scrutinizing eyebrow, “there were three sec-“ the golden monkey put their hand atop the pigs snout to shut him up, “No need to say more, dear brother,” wukong interrupted, “I remember the rest, I’ll say the rest for you to make sure that the master believes it.”

“Cheek!” Bājie retorted, “you’ve not been there, so you can’t possibly know what I had been doing up ahead!” The golden monkey only sent him a smug smirk that had the pig demons blood boil, before beginning what bājie would soon realize was the true story. “If he wants to know how many studs there are in front of the gates, I’ll say I was too excited to notice, isn’t that right?” Wukong stated, the panic stricken pig demon fell to his knees again as wukong continued, “you chanted homage to those boulders and talked to them as if they were us three, Then you said, now I’ve got this story off pat, I’ll be able to make a fool of wukong, didn’t you?”

“Sister,” the pig demon pleaded, who was now kowtowing desperately, “you couldn’t have heard all of that while I was patrolling the mountains.”

The golden furred demoness growled lowly, “You chaff guzzling moron!” Wukong exclaimed, “how dare you sleep when you were told to patrol the mountains!? If that woodpecker hadn’t pecked you awake you’d still be asleep now. And none of us would be none the wiser! When you’d been woken up you concocted this foolish that could have ruined our entire journey! I can’t believe you could be so incompetent as to try to jeopardize that cause you didn’t want to do the hard work that would even give you the chance to even be qualified to go to the western heaven in the first place. I swear I might as well hit you with my cudgel only so tjat it might knock some sense into that boiled brain of yours!”

Instantly the pig demon cowarded away from the monkey demoness with a scream, “NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!! A mere touch from that murderous torture device you call a weapon would break my skin like paper, and the feel of it would render my bones into dust, five blows of that thing could very well kill me before the pain could even register.”

“If you didn’t want to be beaten,” Wukong said, having already brought out the staff, making it obvious that she was serious, “then why did you lie? You should have known doing that would only have dire consequences.”

“I only did it once,” bājie pleaded, “I’ll never do it again!” Wukongs gaze hardened as their eyes turned to slits, like that of a snakes, “I sure hope you don’t. Even so, since it was only once I’ll only give you three.” Bājie frantically shook his head so fast that if it were possible his head would have flown off his shoulders, “My dearest sister! Half a blow would be the death of me,” bājie’s only option at that moment was to crawl towards Tripitaka, cling to him and beg him to put in a good word for him. This only caused wukong to growl once more, seeing the pig demon as only a coward. A real man would have faced any beating if it meant they were spared from death, so seeing bājie hide behind her master was the most cowardly thing they’ve ever witnessed in all her years of living.

“When wukong had told me you were concocting lies just so you could get out of doing your share of work,” Tripitaka said, “I had not believed them at first, cause I only hoped the best for you, my dear disciple, yet now you clearly deserve a beating, even if I myself do not believe in the act of violence. Alas, as there are only so few of you to serve me as we cross these countless mountains and rivers and seas, you had better let him off wukong, until we are on the other side.”

With a sigh, the golden monkey demoness releanted, de-summoning her cudgel and placing it back into their ear, “as the old saying goes ‘to obey parental instructions is the most moral sound thing you can do.’ Even as a do not have any parents of my own, for I have only known of being encased in a womb of stone, as the master tells me not to beat you, I’ll let him off. Now go and reconnoiter again. I’ll show no mercy if you try to lie to me or us or mess things up again.”

The pig demon rose to his feet and went off again, leaving one peeved off monkey demoness, a tired monk, and a fish demon and dragon horse to their lonesome. As he hurried the path, he suspected at every step that wukong was following him in some form or other, so he thought that everything he saw had to be the monkey demoness. When after two or three miles a tiger came bounding up the mountain side he raised his rake and said, “come to see whether I’m lying, dear sister? Well, this time I’m not.”

Further along a strong mountain wind blew a dead tree down and sent it tumbling towards him, at which he stomped, beat his chest and said, “what a way to treat me, sister. I said I wouldn't lie, but you go and turn yourself into a tree to attack me. That was so seventy chapters ago, get over it.”

A little later he saw a white necked crow cawing in front of him, in which he sighed in annoyance, “you’re shameless, sister,” he said, glaring at the bird, “shameless. I meant it when I said I wouldn't lie, so why have you turned into a crow? Come to listen to me?”

It turns out that Wukong was in fact not following him this time. So bājie’s crazed suspension that the golden monkey demness was there was a byproduct of his own imagination.

In this flattop mountain there was a lotus flower cave where in which housed two demon brothers, the senior king gold horn and silver horn, otherwise known as jin and yin. Jin was in his chair of office, who was rather bored, and said to yin, “say, it’s been a long time since we’ve patrolled the mountains.”

“A fortnight.” Yin replied, “we should make a patrol today!” Jin exclaimed, causing yin to look at his brother in confusion, “why today?” Yin asked.

Jin scoffed, “don’t tell me you haven’t heard this ole rumor that’s been floating around? There’s this tang priest guy, said to be the younger brother of the tang emperor in the east, who has been sent to worship the Buddha to the west of here. It’s said he has three followers already, one called sun wukong, bājie and wujing. Also a horse that has been rumored to be bi long ma in disguise, the third son of the dragon king of the west sea, who had been exiled from his home after breaking a pearl or something. So with that horse there are five of them in all, do me a favor and bring them to me.

“If we want to eat some humans,” yin replied, adjusting himself in his own chair to better face him, “can’t we just catch them anywhere? Afterall, humans aren’t that uncommon of a delicacy, so why not let this monk go wherever he’s going?”

To this Jin shook his head, “it seems you really do not know the specifics of this rumor,” the golden horned demon replied, “for this ain’t just some normal mortal. You see, when I had left heaven a few years back I had heard that the tang priest was the mortal incarnation of the venerable golden cicada, and a holy man who had pursued goodness for ten lives and had not lost a drop of his original essence. It’s said that whoever is lucky enough to eats his flesh will live forever!”

This caused yin to lean back in his seat in shock, and grinned widely, “if you can live forever by eating his flesh,” yin replied, “we won’t have to bother with meditation, winning merit, refinish elixirs, or matching the male and females. Cause all we need to do is him. I’m off to fetch him.” The silver demon said, stumbling out of his chair and racing towards the entrance to the cave, but was stopped by jin calling him back.

“You’re too impatient brother,” Jin replied with a shake of his head, “don’t be in such a hurry. It would be wrong to rush out and catch some monk that’s not the tang priest. I remember what he looks like and I once drew pictures of him and his disciples. Take them with you and check any monks you meet that may look like him.” Jin went on to tell his steel colored brother all their names, and when yin had their pictures and knew their names he made his way out of the cave, mustered thirty underlings, and left to patrol the mountains.

Back with bājie, it seems the pig demons luck had ran out. For he had the misfortune of walking straight into a gang of demons who blocked his way, who said, “who are you, where are you from?” The pig demon looked up towards the towering figures, and saw to his horror that they looked most frightening. That’s when his mind went into overdrive, as he frantically thought about how to go about the situation. If I say I’m a pilgrim, they’ll for sure capture me and send me to their master. If that’s the case, I’ll say I’m just a traveler. Upon saying this, the junior demon reported to yin what the pig demon said. Among the thirty junior demons there were some who had recognized the pig demon from the wanted poster that had been handed out, and some that did not, and one of these demons who had recognized him remembered master yin being given his instructions. He said, “master yin, this monk looks like that bājie fellow in the picture.”

Right away yin had the poster brought forth, which filled bājie with horror and dread, his ears drooping upon seeing that these demons somehow had a painted poster with his face on it. As the junior demons held the poster up with their spears, yin pointed at it and said, “this one here on the white horse is the tang priest, and this Majestic looking monkey demoness here must be sun wukong. Which I find a bit odd, for what I remember, the golden monkey looked a lot different from what I heard up in heaven. But that’s not important right now.”

Meanwhile bājie was quietly muttering prayers as the iron clad demon continued, “the tall scaled fish demon must be wujing, and that’s bājie with that long snout of his and big ears.” Upon hearing himself being mentioned, he instantly hid his snout in his tunic. At this, one of the junior demons looked at him and said, “you, bring your snout out, you can’t possibly think that we hadn’t seen it before you hid it.” To this bājie replied, “I was born like this,” he lied, “so I can’t possibly bring something out that I don’t have.” Fed up with this, yin ordered the junior demons to bring it out with hooks, at which bājie’s eyes widened in terror as he hastily brought it out before the junior demons could even move a muscle. Saying, “I’m just shy about it, it’s not easy being born into something that is as unflattering as this. Here it is, you can look at it, but please don’t hook it like I’m just some common fish.”

Recognizing the pig demon, Yin raised his sword and hacked at him. Bājie parried him with his rake and said, “behave yourself, you fiend, I haven’t done anything to warrant such aggression!”

In response yin said, “you took your vows quite late my fellow demon.” The steel clad demon replied with a sharp toothed smirk. “Clever man,” bājie replied with a smirk of his own, beads of sweat running down his face, “but how did you know? I thought I had made myself quite inconspicuous.”

From the way you handle that rake of yours,” yin replied, not missing a beat, “you use it to level up the ground in a vegetable garden. Which means you must have stolen it from somewhere.” To this bājie chuckled sinisterly while grinning, “you don’t know this rake, my boy,” the pig demon replied, which caused yin to give him a weird look, having a decent amount of knowledge about how a rake works, what’s so special about the one he has now? “This rake of mine isn’t used to level the ground. For its teeth are as sharp as a dragon's claws, flecked with gold in tigerish shapes. Against a foe it blows forth a freezing wind, and in a battle it shoots out flame. It has the power to brush away obstacles in the tang priest's path, capturing wayward demons on the way to the western heavens. When whirled, it unleashes vapors that obscure the sun and moon, and it’s dark clouds darken the stars above. When it flattens mount tail the tigers tremble, dragons are frightened when it overturns the ocean. Even if you have some tricks, you wicked demon, one blow from this rake will leave nine bloody holes.”

Upon hearing all this, yin was more determined then ever to capture the tang monk, for if someone like this demon was protecting him with such a weapon, then he must be mighty important. And with his seven-starred sword he battled through twenty inconclusive rounds with bājie on the mountain. The pig demon fought back with deadly fury, and at the sight of him pricking up his ears, spewing out saliva, and waving his rake with grunts and shouts, the frightened silver demon turned around and to bring all his underlings into the battle beside him.

Had he been fighting only the steel clad demon, bājie would have done fine. But when all the demon underlings rushed him with sinister grins and laughter he lost focus, and thus could no longer put up such resistance, and fled in defeat. As he was not paying attention to the uneven path, he tripped over a creeper and fell over onto his snout. He was just picking himself up and starting off again with a low grumble when a junior demon who was lying nearby tugged at his ankle and brought him tumbling down like a rock among muck. Instantly a crowd of demons seized him and carried him back to the cave, holding him by the bristles, ears, legs, and tail.

This certainly wasn’t bājie’s day.

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Chapter Text

Taking bājie into the cave, yin exclaimed, “Jin Jin! I’ve caught one brother!” The steel clad demon chirped, “let me have a look at him.” Jin stated, crouching down to be at eye level with the terrified pig demon, who by this point was sweating bullets, with a scrutinizing look. “Isn’t this the monk we were looking for?” Yin asked, having already forgotten what the tang monk had looked like in the painted poster. “No,” Jin said, shaking his head as he straightened back up to his full height, “you’ve caught the wrong one brother, this one is not the tang monk, for the monk is a human and not a pig. Which means that the pig is useless.” 

“Your majesty!” Pig yelled, gathering the two demons' attention, “you're completely right, I’m just a useless monk, so please let me go. I may not look it, but I’m only scarcely human, there’s nothing special about me.” 

“No, don’t let him go, brother,” yin stated, causing bājie’s mouth to fly open like a door to a drawbridge. “It’s true he may not be of any use himself, but do remember that he’s with the tang priest. Bājie's his name. We can soak him in the drinking water pool at the back till his bristles come out, salt him and dry him to eat with our wine on some rainy day.” 

“Dammit!” Bājie muttered to himself, “I just HAD to be captured by some demon who’s favored dish is salted pork.” After being ordered said instructions, the junior demons dragged bājie to the back of the cave and threw him into the pool.

Meanwhile, back with the group, Tripitaka was sitting with his legs crossed, in a traditional mediation pose, but oddly enough the monk was not meditating. Instead Tripitaka stared into the distance, in the same direction bājie went off to with a worried frown, having a bad feeling deep in his gut that something had gone horribly wrong. “Wukong.” He spoke, “bājie has been gone an awfully long time patrolling the mountains, why hasn’t he come back yet?” 

To this, Wukong chuckled lightly while drawing figures in the dirt with a long wooden stick she had found a few hours ago while scavenging for food. “Don’t you understand dear bājie’s mentality yet, master?” The golden monkey asked, drawing intricate designs into the surrounding landscape. finding the repetitive motions soothing, “if there were any demons in those mountains, I’d bet he’d be completely helpless, after all, a soldier can wield the strongest of weapons, but the strongest weapon that you can have is bravery. And unfortunately for him, bājie doesn’t seem to have that.” After a moment of silence passed as Tripitaka and the others processed this, Wukong continued, “I have full confidence that the moment things don’t go to plan, he’d make a tremendous fuss and come rushing back for backup. Although I doubt there would be any demons just walking around aimlessly, all demons have rules they have to follow so that they don’t get hurt themselves. So most demons usually stay in their dens, and only come out if they were invited somewhere or sent some of their underlings to go on patrol. But the chances of bājie bumping into demons on patrol are slim to none! I wadger the ole pig fiend found the path easy and went straight ahead.” 

“If he has indeed gone ahead,” Tripitaka replied, “then where shall we meet him? This is a vast wilderness afterall, it wouldn’t be so easy to find him like in a town or market place.” 

The golden furred monkey took time to think, standing up and dropping the stick to raise her hand to their chin in thought, “I suppose you have a good point master, it wouldn’t seem like a good idea to stay in one place for so long, especially if brother bājie has indeed gone on ahead without us, …the fool.” Wukong replied, muttering the last part to herself, “so stop your worrying and mount the horse, even if that pig demon indeed has already gotten a head start, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not walking fast. So we’d best get a move on so that we can catch up with him in record time. We’re bound to find him eventually, and then we can continue with our journey together.” Tripitaka nodded and did as told, and wukong led the way into the mountains as wujing carried the baggage from behind.

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“Brother,” Jin said as he turned to Yin, “as you’ve captured the pig demon we can be sure that the tang priest must be on his way. I’d do us some good to make another search. And be sure that you don’t get the wrong one this time.” 

“Right away Jin!” The steel clad demon announced as he immediately assembled fifty junior demons and set out on patrol. As he and his gang of misfits went along one of the junior demons immediately saw an auspicious cloud off in the distance drifting and circling around. “The tang priest is here.”  the junior demon said to yin.

“Where?” The other Junior demons asked, frantically looking around, having not spotted the auspicious cloud as of yet, “an auspicious cloud always shines above a good man’s head, as a forbidding aura cloaks around a man that has done nefarious deeds.” Yin explained to his subjects, “as had been previously stated, the tang priest is the reincarnation of the venerable golden cicada. He’s a holy man who has cultivated his conduct for ten lives. For that reason is why he has that auspicious cloud.” 

When the other junior demons still couldn’t see it, the first junior demon sighed and pointed once more and said, “it’s right over there!” Like a light had gone off in their heads, all the Junior demons followed the direction the junior demon was pointing. 

Meanwhile, Tripitaka shuddered in his saddle, having felt a disturbing presence just a moment ago, only to shudder once more when the junior demon pointed at him once again. “Why did I shudder just now, disciples?” Tripitaka asked, frantically looking around the surrounding path, now having been put on edge, “it’s probably indigestion.” wujing tried to reason, only for Wukong to shake her head, “I’m afraid what your speaking is nonsense, brother,” the golden monkey demoness replied, “it must be because these mountains are making the master nervous, there’s no reason to be frightened. You’ll feel better for sure once I’ve cleared a path with my cudgel.” The simian grinned widely as they brought out said cudgel and swang it up and down and all around in front of bi long, who could only follow the weapon with his eyes with deep unease. The Tang priest watched as the monkey demoness displayed such divine powers not seen on earth. 

At the sight of this terrifying monkey demoness hacking her way forward though all the vegetation surrounding the group with such power, the demon army almost about fainted right there, but just barely held themselves back from doing so, as they all looked over to their master to ask what they should do, only to be struck into silence as they saw master yin looking utterly captivated by the demoness’s powerful display. How her arms twisted and turned to hack away at nearby vines with their cudgel, her muscles flexing with every movement, and even going so far as to roundhouse kick an unsuspecting tree that was in her way. The demoness’s strong, thick legs completely uprooting it from the ground with sheer strength alone. 

“Wow….” Yin breathed, “what a woman.” The demon stated, having no ounce of will to look away from the sight in front of him, “that demoness there is the strongest, most powerful demon I have ever seen. Once we capture the tang monk, I’ll have that monkey demoness as my wife.” The junior demons looked at each other in confusion, having never seen their master act like this before. At once the demon troop tried to get his attention by calling out his name, which thankfully had done the trick, as master yin jumped in place in surprise, looking over to the junior demons in confusion, only to see them giving him a weird look. Realizing that he had been caught staring, the steel clad demon blushed deeply as he brought his hand to his mouth to clear his throat. “Well, it’s obvious that what I had heard about the monkey demoness was indeed true.” 

“Your Majesty?” One of the junior demons asked, coming up to stand in front of him, “I may have misheard you just now, but didn’t you just say that you wanted sun wukong to be your wife? Why are you standing here boosting her skills in combat, aren’t we here only to capture the tang monk? Forgive me for being so direct, but shouldn’t we focus on the task at hand, instead of thinking about one powerful demoness?” 

“You have a very good point, I should reevaluate myself and focus on the task at hand, but unfortunately we may still have a problem on our hands.” Master yin stated, “you see, because sun wukong is so powerful, it would be nigh impossible to capture the tang monk, for with such powers and skills at combat at her disposal, we wouldn’t even stand a chance against her.” 

“If you’re not up to confronting her, your majesty,” the junior demon replied, “you could send some of us to ask your brother to send in some reinforcements and send them into battle. If we can’t defeat the monkey demoness with skill, we could most likely do it with brute force.” 

“In that case,” another junior demon replied, “we may never be able to eat the tang priest. There was no point in capturing the pig demon in the first place, I say let’s free him.” 

 “We were right to capture him and thus shouldn’t let him go.” Master yin ordered, stopping this argument before it got out of hand, “we may not be able to eat the tang priest yet, but sooner or later we will, we just need to have some patience. After all, a lion doesn’t hide in tall grass just to jump out before the right time.” 

“How many years would that take?” One of the junior demons asked, to this master yin replied, “it won’t be a matter of years,” the silver clad demon replied, “in my opinion we must capture him by cunning, not by grabbing him by force and risk being killed in one swing by that demoness. But if we try to make friends with him, and seem to be nonthreatening, we may just get ahold of him by the art of trickery.” 

“Please find a place in your plan, your majesty.” One of the junior demons piped up.

“Go back to the camp.” Yin ordered, “but don’t continue on to my brother, if he gets alarmed by the fact that we haven’t yet captured the tang monk, he will give the game away and any plans of ours will be ruined. I can catch the tang priest by magical transformation.” As the junior demons went off to camp as instructed, yin leaped down the mountainside to the path, shook himself and turned himself into the likeness of an aged taost. He wore a gleaming hat covered with stars atop unkempt white hair, an embroidered belt sat around his waist cloaked in feathers, along with cloud sandals that were tied with yellow coir. Clear of spirit and bright eyed as an immortal, strong and light like one whose life force is everlasting. He could be compared to the Taoist riding a buffalo, but is more like the master of the white scroll.

Now fully transformed, the disguised demon king fell to his bum, holding his leg that he had smeared red berries on to make it look like blood, it rolled down to his feet. And he began to shout for help just as Tripitaka was happily walking along the path, guided by wukong and wujing. The monkey demoness had her cudgel out, looking around in preparation for any wayward demons to strike out and attack, unaware of the real danger nearby. 

The monk’s head perked up upon hearing the faint sound of yelling and instantly felt on edge, frantically looking around with the words “whoever could be shouting in these wild and uninhabited mountains? It could be the sound of someone being frightened by wayward tigers, leopards or wolves!” Before his two disciples could respond, Tripitaka reained in his horse and called out, “WHO’S THAT IN TROUBLE? COME OUT IF YOU CAN!” The disguised steel clad demon crawled out from the undergrowth and kowtowed noisily for all he was worth before the tang priest, who looked on in shocked horror at the man’s disheveled state. Not only that, he was also a Taoist, and looked to be of such advanced years. upon realizing this, Tripitaka practically leaped off his horse and spared no time helping the old man up, the poor taost’s knees shook as they could barely sustain the body above them. Which made the poor monk all the more worried. All while Wukong looked on with a scrutinizing look, feeling something was terribly off about the old taost. 

“It’s agony!” The old man exclaimed, “pure agony I say!” When Tripitaka had released his hand, he looked down and saw that the blood was pouring out from the old man’s foot. When in reality the red berry juice had slid down from his knee to his foot when he stood up, making it look like he had been stabbed. “Where have you come from sir?” The monk asked, directing his attention from the open wound to the old taost’s face, feeling quite queasy, “and however did you end up injuring your foot?” 

“West of this mountain, great monk,” the disguised demon lied, “there is a pure and quiet taost temple, with which I reside.” 

“What were you doing, wandering around here without someone to aid you, instead of looking after the incense and reciting the scriptures and the law in your temple?” Tripitaka asked, luckily the disguised demon king had a story cooked up that would totally fool the naïve monk. “The other day a benefactor of ours from south of the mountain invited all us priests to perform a service for his natal star and spread blessings for him. I was about halfway there with my disciple -we were late- when a ferocious and strongly patterned tiger suddenly snatched my faved disciple by the leg, and carried him off. As I staggered along shaking with terror and without an ounce of where to go, I lost my balance against a small outcropping of rock and injured my foot. And I can’t find my way back, thank the heavens above you lot were in the area or i would’ve most definitely been doomed. Great monk, i beg of you in your great mercy to save me, for I don’t think I could stand much longer out here. If we find our way back to the temple, I’d even go as far as to sell myself to slavery to repay your kindness.” 

“Sir.” Tripitaka replied, unshed tears shining in his eyes, completely taken in by the disguised demons story, poor wujing not faring much better, the fish demon looking about ready to burst into tears. The only one who was not affected by this being wukong. Who did not believe the words of the supposed taost’s little sob story like her other two companions, staring at the old man with arms crossed. “You and I share a common destiny. I as a Buddhist priest and you as a taost. And although we wear different robes, we cultivate our conduct according to the same principles. As such, if I was to fail to save you i would not be a true monk. But help you though I most certainly would, you can’t walk.” The tang monk admitted as he bowed his head in shame, the monkey demoness watching this display with a raise of a brow. 

“That is true my friend, I can barely even stand, let alone walk. Perhaps this was not meant to be.” The disguised demon wallowed, bowing his head in turn. Shaking his head, Tripitaka raised his head as he suddenly thought of something, “Nevermind about that, I can walk, so you can ride my horse for awhile until we reach the temple.” Wukong looked at Tripitaka in shock, not seeming to have thought they would actually be taking the old taost with them. To her it seemed keeping the taost with them would only serve to distract them from their main mission, which would be traveling to the western heaven. 

“You are most generous and very kind,” the disguised demon king replied. Yeah, a little too kind sometimes… wukong thought, “but not only have I hurt my foot, but also my thigh, thus I cannot ride.” Puzzled by this, being the tallest in the group, the golden demoness looked down to the taost thighs to look for any discoloration, but other then some dried blood, they couldn’t see anything that looked like a bruise, which immediately rose wukongs suspicions. “Indeed.” Tripitaka nodded, not even looking down to see if this fact was indeed true, and instead took the taost at his word, which made wukong want to simultaneously slap their forehead and scream to the heavens, knowing for certain that something was wrong here. Finally fed up with this, wukong closed her eyes and focused all the magic in their body into their eyes, opening them to reveal them glowing brightly, as the eyes of truth stared at the taost. Immediately it became clear why the taost was acting so strange, for the old man was actually a demon in disguise.

Unaware of his eldist disciples discovery, the tang monk instructed wujing to put the luggage on the horse and carry the old taost over his shoulder, wujing assented. The disguised demon king took a look at the fish demon, “dearest monk,” he said, “I must tell you something,” said the old taost, redirecting his attention to Tripitaka, “when I was but a child, years before I worked at the temple, my village had been ravaged by vicious river demons that tore apart my home for decades. So even looking at a river demon strikes fear into my very soul.” Upon hearing this, Wujing slumped his shoulders in profound sadness, the fins near his head dropping. Upon seeing this, a burning flame of hatred lit up in wukongs chest as she whipped their head around to glare at the cursed demon who dared to hurt her younger brother so deeply. But surprisingly the disguised demon barely even spared the monkey demoness a glance, which only caused the flame in her chest to burn hotter. 

“Hmmmm…that is indeed unfortunate, then that only leaves wukong to aid in carrying you.” Tripitaka replied, wukong’s fur bristled as they held back a growl, her fists tightening to the point their knuckles turned white. But put on a wide grin when her master looked her way, “most definitely!” Wukong replied, the disguised demon king inwardly grinned, having planned for the gorgeous monkey demoness to carry him from the start. One of the reasons being to have a chance to look and feel the demoness’s back muscles move from underneath him. With a deep blush adorning his face, the taost humbly allowed himself to be carried by her, not saying a word more.

“That old taost doesn’t know what he’s doing,'' Wujing huffed out a humorless chuckle, having seen how red the old timers face had been when he briskly walked past, it was quite uncommon for a human to grow a crush on a demon, but it wasn’t unheard of. having heard stories from traveling folk back when he had lived in flowing sands river. He can only guess the reasons as to why a human would get the hots for a demon in the first place was either cause the woman in their village didn’t live up to their satisfaction. Or the human male wanted the taste of something different, and decided to live on the dangerous side of life, which as a demon himself he can respect, but he also thinks such thoughts are foolish. “not knowing that elder sister already has a mate. No one in their right mind would even dare concoct a plan like this if they didn’t have something up their sleeve. But I'm certain wukong isn’t the one to be worried about here.” 

As wukong carried the disguised demon on her back they couldn’t keep themselves from muttering to herself with amusement, finding the fact that the demon had chosen her to be his ride quite befuddling to say the least. “it’s quite funny how a little guy like you thought you could get away with trying to provoke me, cause I’m anything but a mere child. You may have fooled my master and my younger brother, but your devilish nonsense ain’t enough to fool me. You see, I have a special little ability of mine that helps aid me to detect any unwanted foes that may be hidden from the human eye, and it’s thorough that I found out that you are one of those mountain demons. I reckon if you went to all this trouble to get into our good graces, that you want to get to my master somehow, in which case you can quickly forget it. Cause I’m the one looking after this monk throughout this entire journey, and I won’t let something like you, or anyone else rock headed enough to get the chance to touch him.” 

Upon hearing the monkey demoness’s mutterings, the disguised demon replied, beads of sweat running down his face in riverlets, “but young demoness, I’m only but a taost monk from a decent family who was unlucky enough to meet that vicious tiger today. I’m no evil spirit.” 

“Hmmm…that’s a funny story,'' Wukong replied, giving the taost a sharp fanged smirk, watching in glee as he saw the disguised demon shiver. “Cause if you indeed were afraid of the tiger as you said, then why didn’t you recite the great bear scripture? Cause I’m sure if you are indeed a true taost, you should have no problem remembering that.” 

Tripitaka, upon overhearing the demoness’s mutterings just as he was mounting his horse, sighed heavily and spoke, turning around to give wukong a look, “Oh for the grace of the Buddha, wukong, ‘better to save a humans life then build a seven storied pagoda.’ If you’re carrying him you better get on with it, and stop talking about great bear scriptures and little bear scriptures.” To this wukong released a deep growl from the depths of her being, sending the imposter taost a heated glare, “your in luck, damn you.” Wukong responded harshly, “merciful and pious my master may be, he’s a bit rough under his kindly manner. So he’d be angry at me if I don’t carry your sorry boney ass all the way to your supposed ‘temple’. So I’ll do it if I must, but let it be known that you must warn me if you plan on pissing or shitting anytime soon. Cause if not and I smell something truly wretched and unholy I’ll not hesitate to throw you off the nearest cliff, and I’ll do it even if my master is in view. and besides, there’s nowhere to wash my hanfu, so I’d have to live with the stink of it until we arrive to a natural water source or village.” 

To which the disguised demon replied, “but of course. I’m old enough to understand that.” At last wukong straightend up to her full height, grabbed onto the taost’s legs so he wouldn’t slip, and made their way westwards with the tang priest and her fellow sworn brother. When the going became very uneven in the mountains, the golden monkey demoness slowed their pace to let Tripitaka go ahead as to not accidentally leave him behind. 

Before they had even gone a couple miles, Tripitaka and Wujing suddenly dropped out of wukongs sight into the hollow on the mountainside. Which caused her to sigh in frustration, “the master doesn’t have any sense on how things should be done despite his age.” They grumbled to themselves. “On this long journey I’d fear I’d be overloaded even if I was empty handed. I wish I’d smash the vile demon on my back before those three chose to get themselves lost.” 

Realizing that the monkey demoness was thinking of killing him, he used his power to shift mountains to move one onto her back. Reciting the words of the spell silently, he brought mount sumeru flying through the air to come crashing down on wukong’s head. Thinking fast, the demoness quickly tilted their head to one side so that the edge of the mountain landed on her shoulder instead, which still hurt quite a lot. 

Growling once more, wukong asked, “tell me, you foul demon, what kind of magic did you use to make yourself so heavy? For when I began carrying you, you weighed nothing more than a bundle of bones. But now you seem to have doubled in size in seconds. I don’t mind the weight, mind you, since I’m pretty hefty myself. But a badly balanced carrying pole is much harder to maintain then one that is balanced.” 

A single mountain isn’t enough to crush her. The demon thought to himself in a combination of horror and arousement, knowing even more now that the monkey demoness would make a perfect mate for him. And recited another spell to bring mount emei hurtling down through the air onto wukong’s head, only to watch as the monkey demoness tilted her head once again, causing the mountain to land on their right shoulder. The two mountains were so heavy that the poor monkey demoness had to spread her legs apart just to keep her balance, grunting their teeth in deep concentration as their whole body shook from the strain. But even with the sheer weight of two entire mountains on each shoulder, the monkey demoness proceeded to race forward like a shooting star after their master. Not about to let a little pain stop them from protecting him. Leaving the demon king to stare in a cold sweat all over at how strong wukong truly was. He’d hate to have to fight against a beast like that…

Pulling himself together, the silver demon king recited yet another spell and brought mount tai down from the sky on the monkey demoness’s head, causing her tail to shoot straight up in agitation. By this point the great golden monkey demoness was so exhausted that when mount tai landed on their head, it was the final contender that caused her to fall to the ground, with all three mountains landing on top of them. Wukong was only able to release a loud squeak as the air was all but punched out of her by the weight on their back. Having never once felt such overwhelming pain in her long life.

When the silver demon king had successfully pinned wukong down with his magic powers, he mounted a strong and fast wind and easily caught up with Tripitaka. Leaving wukong there gasping for air. The silver demon king reached down from his cloud and made a grab for the tang priest as he rode his horse, Completely unaware of the frightening demon behind him. Upon seeing such a horrible demon reaching for his master, Wujing threw down the luggage and rushed forward wielding his demon subduing staff to stop him. In turn yin raised his seven starred sword to face the fish demon.

A sword of seven stars, against a demon quilling staff that flashed and glammed with golden light. While the other has glaring eyes that shone from the stars within, it was known as the black demon of death. The iron horned one is indeed the general and king of the curtain, and before the mountain he displays his powers. Determined to capture Tripitaka, wujing fights hard to save the worthy priest, almost like he was fighting for his own life, never wanting to go back to being a bloodthirsty monster in the depths of the flowing sands river, he instead wants to dedicate his life to protecting the one he calls master, cause without him there would be no reason to keep on going forward. He would even go as far to risk his life for the monk's sake. 

As the two fought, smog bloomed that was thick enough to hide the heavenly palace above, and kick up clouds that bloated out the stars. The red sun pales before their battle, the sheer heat imitating from the battleground enough to burn the most tough skinned of demons in the surrounding area, causing both heaven and earth to bulk in confusion. But when nine slashes yielded no results, wujing fell in battle against the mighty silver horned king.

Wujing tried with all his might to defend against king yin, but alas the ferocious demon wielded his sword like it was but an extension of his own arm. And fought against the fish demon until he was exhausted and could fight no more, having no other option, wujing tried to flee but yin parried against his staff and brought his free hand wheeling around to grab him by the neck. Watching in grim satisfaction as wujing gasped for breath, for the silver horned demon had his hand over his gills. Sheathing the nine starred sword, yin grabbed onto the now terrified Tripitaka from his horse with his now free hand, hooked the luggage with his feet that he had shapeshifted into one of that of a hawks, opened his mouth and sank his teeth into bai longs mane, causing the dragon horse to neigh in fright, and used his magic to levitate them and carried them in a puff of wind back to the lotus flower cave.

“ELDER BROTHER!!” Yin called out, depositing bai long onto the floor in the process, the poor dragon horse letting out a sad little neigh. “I’VE GOT ALL THE MONK’S!!” 

Jin was delighted, seeing that it was sundown and his younger brother had done his job before the days end. “Splendid!! bring them here so I can see them.” He said.

Dropping Tripitaka and wujing on the ground near bi long, yin looked at the stolen companions and back to jin with a puzzled look “these are the ones, aren’t they?” 

Jin slapped a hand across his face with a sigh, “brother.”

“Yes elder brother?” Yin piped up, not understanding why Jin was upset, he got the tang priest like he’d asked. “You’ve gotten the wrong ones again.” The golden horned demon responded, feeling like he was on the edge of a migraine. This greatly confused yin, who responded with “but you told me to get the tang priest. And,” the silver horned demon pointed to Tripitaka, who at this point was greatly worried about what these strange and frightening demons would do with him, while wujing just stared into space, not seeming to be listening to the twos conversation “here he is! I even went to the trouble of kidnapping the fish demon and their horse as well.” 

“This is the tang priest alright,” Jin nodded as he looked at the frightened monk, who upon locking eyes with him, instantly shrank against the phone form of wujing, with the fish demon not moving an inch. “But you still haven’t captured the very powerful sun wukong the novice. We can’t possibly eat the tang priest before we get her for ourselves, don’t you agree younger brother? Until we have her in our custody, we must on no account touch any of any of her companions. That monkey demoness is known as the monkey king for a good reason. Wukong has enormous magical powers at her disposal, and has the ability to transform into all sorts of things. There’s no way she’ll let us eat or even so much as injure her master. If that demoness comes to our door looking for a fight you can forget about living a quiet life.”

Greatly worried for his and his brothers safety, yin thought back to how wukong had balanced two entire mountains on her shoulders, having trouble coming to terms with the possibly that he may have to fight her, laughing nervously he said, “elder brother, I think you maaaaay be overestimating them a bit. I mean sure that monkey demoness is for sure a very strong threat against us, you got to give me some credit. I mean from how you are going on at how marvelous she is, anyone would think there would be no way to ever defeat them.”

“…did you end up capturing her” Jin asked skeptically, seeing how nervous jin currently was, there was a strong possibility that he had indeed not captured the monkey demoness. “I mean…depends on what you mean by ‘captured’. But to answer your question, she can’t move an inch,” yin replied, “she’s currently crushed under three different mountains i dropped on her. It was only when I’d done that to her I collected the tang priest, wujing, the horse and the luggage and brought them all here.” The silver demon finished, feeling quite proud of himself.

Thankfully this news filled Jin’s heart with pleasure, “what luck! What luck! Now that you’ve dealt with that frightening monkey demoness the tang priest is as good as ours!!” Upon hearing this, Tripitaka’s face went as pale as a sheet, so terrified that he couldn’t even speak, Jin then ordered the young devils “bring wine at once, and give the junior king a drink to celebrate his success!” 

To this yin shook his head, “no, I won’t have a drink,” replied the silver horned demon, “tell them to pull bājie out of the water and hang him up instead.” It wasn’t long till bājie was hung up in the Eastern part of the cave, while wujing to the west, and the tang priest in the middle. And bi long was sent to the stables, the gold and silver demons deeming the dragon horse as a bonus prize for all their hard work. And lastly the luggage was stored away for safekeeping. The pig demon looked as pale as a sheet, similarly to the monk, but was also soaked to the bone from being in water for so long. The moment he and Tripitaka locked eyes though he perked up, his vision clearing to reveal the monk looking at him with a mixture of shock and anger, it was at this moment that Tripitaka finally found his voice, “IS THIS WHERE YOU’VE BEEN ALL THIS TIME!?” He shouted, gathering the attention of nearby junior demons, who took one look at them and walked off. Bājie chuckled nervously as the tang monk leveled him with a heated glare “hahaha, uhhhhh surprise???” 

“You have great powers, my brother,” Jin said with a hearty laugh, not taking mind to the twos bickering, none of that will matter in time, “you’ve caught the three monks twice. But even though the monkey demoness is crushed under three mountains, it doesn’t seem much fair that a demon of that stature and power could rot away, when instead she could instead become our wife for all eternity.” 

Yin, greatly relieved by the fact that he may just get the demoness of his dreams after all, grinned as he said, “sit down, elder brother. I can easily get that demoness without lifting a finger. I just need to send two of my junior demons with a couple of treasures to bring her in.”

“What sort of treasures do you have in mind, yin?” Jin asked, having some ideas of what his younger brother could be planning, and was quickly filled to the brim with excitement. “Well, what else but my gold and red gourd and your vase of mutton fat jade?” The silver horned demon replied with a grin of his own. Jin wasted no time fetching the two treasures, handed them to his younger brother, and asked which members of their demonic troop should go with him. “Send dexterous ghost and skillful beast.” Yin replied, he then instructed the two to take the two treasures straight to the top of a high mountain, position it upside down and call out to wukong. If she responds she’ll go straight inside.” The two junior demons kowtowed and went off , said treasures in hand to capture the famed monkey demoness.

——————————————

As she lay crushed under the three mountains, even with the amount of pain they were in, Wukong could only think about the well-being of Tripitaka, knowing that the fowl demon had long since captured him by now. All while she lies here useless without any way to save him and her younger brother wujing. 

“Master..” Wukong spoke, tears glistening in her eyes, “I remember how you had freed me from that wretched waterlogged pillar in double boundary valley so many years back, removing the paper that sealed me inside and releasing me from the agony I had been in. Even as the Bodhisattva had ordered me to stay with you to improve myself, I would have done it regardless. For your great kindness that day is something I’ll always cherish for the rest of my days. I never would have thought i would have such trouble with some lowly demon and subsequently be crushed by three mountains, trapped surrounded by rock and stone once more. Oh great Buddha above, I do hope you are alright master, as well as wujing, Bājie, who we still haven’t found quite yet, and dear little bi long who’s still rightfully a dragon prince that should not be kept in stables in a form of a horse for the rest of his days.”

The saddened demoness heaved a heavy sigh, loose tears streaming down her face. All this had greatly alarmed the mountain spirits, the local gods and the protectors of the four quarters and the center. “Who’s mountains are these?” The golden headed protector asked, stunned at the vast amount of mountains piled around what was once a clear pathway. “Those are ours.” The local gods replied.

“And it does seem like something or someone is pinned under all that rock and stone. Do you have any idea on who that could be?” 

“We haven’t a single clue.” The local gods replied, too high up to get a clear view. “You lot certainly wouldn’t from way up here.” The golden protector muttered 

“It’s seems to be sun wukong, the monkey demoness who calls herself the great sage equal to heaven, who over five hundred years ago had made havoc in the palaces in heaven after the jade emperor had put a wicked curse on them. It is unknown as to what kind of curse it was, no one but the higher ups would know about that. And it seems now she has turned over a new leaf and has become the tang priest’s most trusted disciple. Why ever could you let that wicked demon of the silver horned variety use your mountains to crush them? It seems you lot have quickly ran out of luck. For when wukong finds out what has transpired, she’ll certainly not spare you if they ever get free. And even if she does let you off lightly it’ll be exile for you local gods and hard labor for the mountain spirits, and I’ll get a serious reprimand for letting such a thing happen on my watch.” 

“We didn’t know! Seriously we didn’t!” The gods and spirits exclaimed, now fearing for their lives at the prospect of such harsh punishments, “when the silver horned demon recited the mountain moving spell, we had moved it here without question, the thought of it trapping someone like the great monkey demoness never once crossing our minds.” 

“Don’t be afraid,” the golden headed protector replied, seeing as the local gods and spirits were clearly overcome with grief over what had transpired. “Luckily the legal code states that you cannot be punished for something that you are not aware of. But that only leaves us with how to plan to release the great sage without her using us as targets for their rage.” 

“It would be very unfair of her to harm us if we sat them free.” The local gods agreed, “there’s something else you don’t know,” the golden protector replied, “that monkey demoness has a very lethal weapon known as the gold banded cudgel. So if they get the chance to hit you -and believe me that she will- you will be reduced to nothing but red paste on the ground, and not a touch of you will be found for miles.”

The terrified local gods and mountain spirits then conferred with the protectors, cautiously approached the crack between the three mountains where wukong lay, and called out, “great sage, us the mountain spirits, local gods and protectors of the four quarters and the center have come to see you.” 

Wukong in response glared up from her spot on the ground and simply stated, “yeah? So what?” 

“We have deduced a plan that is sure to give us both what we want, without any of us being harmed or deterred in any way,” the deities said in renewed nervousness, having not expected the wild monkey demoness to give them such disrespect, but were far too afraid to be mad at them. “To forgive us and ask for you to not go back on your demonic impulses and not to harm us when we lift the mountains that are harming you greatly?” 

“Move these mountains,” Wukong calmly spoke, “and I promise I won’t hit you.” And like a whirlwind she shouted, “ GET UP. ” Causing the deities to swiftly and without hesitation reversed the spell and like magic all three mountains went back to where they came from with a great tremor that shook the earth, causing all nearby animals to run away from the loud noise. The great monkey demoness was now free, and were covered with bruises of all colors and cuts on her arms and legs from the sharp ends of the mountains that had dug into them. and once the heavy burden had been lifted, wukong jumped up and shook the dirt that had stuck to her fur, wiped any lingering dirt from their hanfu and whipped out her cudgel from in their ear with a well practiced motion that caused all the deities to freeze in place in fear. “Now if you wouldn’t mind sticking out your legs, I’ll give all of you a well deserved wrack and be on my way.” 

The deities were shocked, “b- but great sage, you promised just a moment ago to forgive us and to not harm us if we freed you. How can you possibly go back on your word like that?” To this wukong let out a chuckle, acting like they had only told a joke, instead of being terrified greatly like they were now. “My dear local gods and mountain spirits,” they began, sounding like a mother that was reminding her children of something that should be obvious, “you're more afraid of that demon than of me.” 

“But great sage, you must understand that that demon has great and powerful magic and strength that can not possibly be outranked! When he says his spells he forces us to take it in turn to be on duty in his cave everyday.” 

Wukong was stunned upon hearing that the mountain spirits were forced to be on duty for such a vile demon. Looking up to the skies, the monkey demoness shouted, causing the deities to jump in place in fright, “HEAVEN, HEAVEN!! When the primal chaos was first differentiated and heaven was divided from the earth, I was born on the mountains of flowers and fruit. Once I reached age I visited many a wise teacher and eventually learned the secrets of eternal life. And once I mastered all seventy two transformations I could change as swiftly as the wind, subduing tigers and dragons, along with the occasional wicked demon that dared to step out of line. And when the jade emperor had chosen to curse me with a body as heavy as the sea is vast, I made my way to heaven and created havoc in the palaces, just so I could find a way to give him a reason to be afraid of me. But during that time I had never once bullied any mountain spirits and local gods or made them run my errands. What a disgrace, when these wicked and cruel demons have the gall to treat mountain spirits and local gods as nothing but slaves. HEAVEN! IF YOU CREATED ME, THEN WHY DID YOU CREATE THEM!?”

Just as the golden monkey demoness was getting rounded out over the silver horned demon, her eyes flashing a brilliant red. a rosey light not unlike the one originating from them began to shine in the mountain hollow, which caused wukong to take pause, the light in her eyes slowly fading back to their normal shade. “Mountain spirits, local gods,” Wukong asked, “you say that you serve in the cave, so what is that light that is shining out from that there hollow?

“It must be the demons treasures,” the local gods replied, “some of the demons must have brought them out to capture you.” 

“That just gave me a marvelous idea!” Wukong replied, grinning widely, “tell me, what comes to see them in the cave?” 

“What they’re interested in is refilling elixirs of immortality, and their most closest allies are taost masters of the quanzhen school.” The local gods replied. 

“Then it’s no wonder that demon had turned himself into an old taost priest to trick my master,” wukong thought aloud, “very well then, I suppose I can let you off for now, I guess exchanging information is better then giving out punishment without any reward. Back you go, I’ll get them myself.” The spirits all rose into the air and flew off.

The golden monkey demoness then shook herself and turned themselves into a female taost master with long raven black hair that reached past her waist, some of the hair pulled into two twin buns that rested cleanly atop their head. Wukong was also outfitted with a light aqua hanfu with long sleeves and a skirt that reached the ground, unfortunately the curse once again spread to this form as well, so the form of the taost was a lot plumper then what is traditionally appropriate, her belly big enough to poke out slightly, the same could be said for her chest, which had filled out like that of an expecting mother, the pair of breasts setting against the surface of her belly. and her arms and legs were wide and doughy, that were hidden beneath the long sleeves of the hanfu. A strap sat comfortably above her shoulder that connected to a drum that the disguised monkey demoness tapped in a steady rhythm, and a lord Lu sash sat wrapped around her waist that looked a bit snug from how their belly was pushing against it. And wukong leaned against the path, waiting for the junior demons to arrive to be pray to the monkey kings tricks.

Damn this stupid curse of mine, wukong thought irritably, knowing full well that she currently didn’t look much like a classic taost master with how plump their frame is. But hopefully it will be enough to fool the junior demons.

Though it was quite obvious that the monkey demoness showed great resentment towards her present body, they were unaware that she still radiated a beautiful golden light that highlighted her form like that of a goddess. Making it quite obvious that Wukong was still quite beautiful, even if her body had changed. But unfortunately wukong was too filled with shame and embarrassment to realize this. It wasn’t long before the two little junior demons arrived. The two looked like a cross between a couppray ox, and a human, with brown shaggy hair and hooved feet, With a pair of fluffy ears on both sides of their heads, and long curved horns atop. Wukong stood ramrod straight with a fake calm smile on her face, before the two demons could process who was in front of them the monkey demoness quickly whipped out their cudgel and tripped them up, who were taken off guard. Once the two were on the ground, a wide grin spread across her face, but quickly reverted back to a calm smile when the two picked themselves up. Who looked up to what they thought was a plump female taost master with a glare. “You villain. If our great kings weren’t such an admirers of the likes of you we’d soon sort you out.” 

“Oh, whatever do you mean by ‘sort me out’?” Wukong asked, raising a hand near her face in a show of shock, but inside they were grinning, yeah, I’d like to see you try you wretched little shits. “We’re all Taoists—which only makes us a big happy family.”

“Why are you lying here, and why ever did you feel the need to trip us up?” The little ox demons asked.

“A little fall isn’t that much of an issue, and besides, it’s only natural to kowtow to show respect to a taost master like me.” Wukong replied.

“Our great kings only demand a few ounces of silver when people first meet them.” The little ox demons replied, “so why do you expect us to fall over for you? That’s not the custom here. You must be from somewhere else.” 

“Indeed I am,” Wukong replied, “I’m from Mount Penglai.” 

“But that’s an island in the sea where immortals live,” the demons spoke in shock, “well, if I’m not an immortal,” Wukong replied with a smile, “then I don’t know who is.” By now the little demon's anger had given away to delight. 

“Venerable Bodhisattva!” They spoke hastily, “venerable bodhisattva! Please don’t take offense at our rudeness. It was only because our common mortal eyes failed to recognize you.” 

“I don’t hold it against you.” Wukong replied, “as the saying goes, ‘an immortal body does not trend the common ground’, you couldn’t have expected to know. I’ve come to your mountain today to bring over a virtuous man who has recently became an immortal and completed the way. Anyone want to come with me?” 

“I’ll go with you, bodhisattva,” dexterous ghost said, His eyes shining like polished diamonds

“Me too!” Skillful ghost replied, His eyes shining like polished emeralds. 

“Where have you two gentlemen come from?” Wukong asked, pretending that she didn’t know already. “From the lotus flower cave,” they replied, “where are you going?” Wukong asked. 

“We are under orders from kings Jin and Yin to capture sun wukong the monkey demoness.” The demon twins replied.

“Who?” Wukong asked, cocking her head to the side to convey their confusion, “sun wukong the monkey demoness.” The two ox demons repeated.

“The same sun wukong who is going with the tang priest to fetch the scriptures, that one?” Wukong asked, playing up the act so as to not raise suspicion. “Yes, that one. Do you know her?”

“That demoness is outrageous!” Wukong exclaimed, “I certainly know them, and I’m angry with her too. Let me come along with you two and help you capture them.” 

“Thank you, bodhisattva,” they replied, “but we won’t need your help. Our junior king used his magic abilities to bring three mountains here to crush her. Now she can’t move an inch. We two have been sent here with treasures to pick her up.”

“What treasures?” Wukong asked, knowing she was so close to getting the treasures from them, they just had to be patient. “I’ve got the red gourd,” dexterous ghost, said, lift8ng up said gourd with hooved hands “and he has the jade vase.” 

“How are you going to fit her into them? Those look awfully small to capture a demoness of her size.” 

“We’ll set them upside down,” the little demons said, “and call to her. If she responds we’ll put her inside and stick on a label addressing it to supreme lord lao to be dealt with urgently in accordance with the statues and ordinances.” This news shocked wukong, who thought to themselves that this was certainly a crafty plan. The Duty God of the Day told me that there were five treasures altogether, the demoness thought, these are two of them, which means that the others should be hidden away somewhere. 

“Gentlemen!” Wukong announced, gathering the attention of the two ox demons, “would you let me have a look at your treasures?” Not realizing that this was indeed a trick, and unconsciously attracted to the disguised monkey demonesses beauty, the two produced them from their sleeves and offered them respectively with both hands to the goddess in front of them. The monkey demoness was delighted, though she did not show it outwardly. These are quite splendid things, she thought to herself with joy, I could just as easily waltz off with these in hand now that I’ve got what I’ve needed from them. But then wukong began to have second thoughts and shook their head inwardly. no, that’s no good. Stealing from them would be easy enough, but it would also destroy the holy essence that I have tricked these two with, and if they saw me rushing off with these treasures, they could easily run after me with reinforcements in toe, which means I may need to change up my plan a bit. So the disguised monkey demoness handed them back with the words, “those are indeed incredible treasures fit for kings of the mountain, but you haven’t seen my treasure quite yet.” 

The two little ox demons blinked back at the goddess with awestruck looks, having never once thought that she could have a treasure of her own. “Pray tell, what treasure do you have in your possession, venerable bodhisattva? It could possibly bring us great fortune if we would be lucky enough to see it.” 

In response, the splendid golden monkey demoness reached her hand down near the edge of her waist, slightly opened the edge of the skirt of their hanfu, and plucked a thin piece of fur from their tail and swiftly transformed it into a big gold and red gourd, and produced it from around their waist in such a way that to anyone else it looked like wukong had extracted it from the depths of the pockets of her henfu. -wukong once again took the time to thank bodhisattva guanyin for gifting them such a fantastic article of clothing- 

With a calm smile, Wukong reached her hand out with the artifact in hand and asked, “would you like to see my gourd?” With such gentleness and sincerity that it sounded like they were asking for something as simple as a cup of tea. After a moment, Skillful beast took it and inspected every inch to look for any imperfections, and said “it’s indeed a mighty fine gourd, venerable bodhisattva, very shapely and very fine to look at, but I’m afraid it’s useless.” 

Wukong felt like the ground had fallen from underneath her. As she tried her best not to lose their balance and risk destabilizing her disguised form in the process. Ending up somehow standing as still as a statue, silently taking a series of calming breaths as wukong inwardly went ballistic I DIDN’T GO TO LEARN THE SECRETS OF IMMORTALITY FOR THREE YEARS ONLY TO HAVE ONE OF MY TRICKS CALLED USELESS!! “What do you mean by useless?” The monkey demoness asked calmly.

“Well, it’s just the fact that each of our treasures can fit a thousand people,” one of the ox demons replied, “what’s so special about being able to capture a thousand people? I’m sure a ton of artifacts can do that, so by that logic I wouldn’t think your artifact isn’t that special either. Mine on the other hand can capture more than just some humans and demons, but the sky itself!” Wukong explained, grinning widely at the shocked looks on the ox demon's faces, knowing that she had just hooked them.

“THE SKY!?” The two exclaimed, looking at the monkey demoness’s prized gourd in a new light, then looked back at wukong, most likely yarning to know if what they had said was in fact true. In response Wukong nodded her head, their long raven black hair swaying back and forth with the movement, “yes, it certainly can, little ones.”

After a moment, dexterous ghost frowned and proceeded to glare at the disguised monkey demoness, causing skillful beast to stare at his brother in shocked disbelief, “well, I don’t believe you. And I frankly don’t believe that something could trap the sky like that of a lamp filled with lightning bugs. If you are indeed being truthful, we will only be able to believe you if you gave us a demonstration. But if you can’t, then we will call you a fool and move on.” 

“DEXTEROUS!” Skillful beast exclaimed in newfound fright upon noticing the once calm bodhisattva looking straight at dexterous with shocked fury in their eyes, like that of a god, but even with the obvious danger in front of them, the foolish imp stood his ground. In response skillful beast quickly fell to the ground and began kowtowing to the disguised monkey demoness feverishly, “MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES MY DEAR AND FAITHFUL BODHISATTVA! FOR MY SWORN BROTHER OF MINE DOESN’T SEEM TO BE OF RIGHT MIND AT THE MOMENT-“ but before the imp could go on, wukong calmly rose her arm, angling her palm to facing him, forcing skillful beast to bite his tongue as the words perished in his mouth. But thankfully the bodhisattva didn’t look angry, but instead looked ...impressed?

“It's quite alright my dear faithful oxian, I’m not the least bit mad at your brother, I’m more impressed at the fact that dexterous was brave enough to stand his ground against a bodhisattva like myself. But even if you don’t believe me I must warn you that this gourd of mine is indeed very powerful, for if the sky annoys me for being too bright early in the morning, I can just simply pack it in here for however long I want, doesn’t matter what time of the day it is either.”

Walking over to skillful beast, dexterous leaned over to whisper “I wonder if the bodhisattva could swap her sky-holding gourd with us,” only for skillful beast to whip his head around to give his brother a look. “ARE YOU INSANE!? AFTER THE SHIT YOU PULLED WE WOULD BE LUCKY TO EVEN SEE THEIR TREASURE IN ACTION AT ALL!!” The ox hissed in the others ear, causing dexterous to cringe as he stepped away from him. Unaware that wukong, with her heightened hearing, easily heard what dexterous had said, and could barely contain their delight, a gourd for a gourd and a vase too is a two for one, I’d be a fool not to agree to that.

Going up to the two junior demons, who had begun bickering at this point, wukong cleared her throat to gain the twos attention, who immediately silenced themselves and straightened their postures upon noticing them, “I couldn’t help but overhear what you two were conversing about, and I’d love to swap my sky-holding gourd with yours, but only if it can hold the sky.” 

Upon hearing this, both demons nodded their heads, “it would be our pleasure to swap our treasure with yours, and you don’t need to worry about us tricking you, as this gourd of ours can hold more than a mere thousand people, but the sky itself as well. And if it somehow doesn’t, I vow that we’ll forget about our current mission and become your disciples.”

Wukong had been grinning internally up until that point, but upon hearing from dexterous that he and his brother vowed to become her disciples if they lost, they felt her stomach twist into knots at that. It’s not that anything was wrong with the two ox twins -if anything the two sorta reminded her of the baby monkeys back home- it was more the fact of having disciples that made them nervous. Cause as one herself, she couldn’t imagine being in charge of two little demons that she knew nothing about. And sure it may sound a bit strange that The Great And Glorious Monkey Demoness was afraid of commitment, but to her being the king and protector of her monkeys was one thing, since that’s something they’ve had in their life since she was young. And having two disciples that were far weaker than her…

It was a bit too much to wrap their head around. But thinking back about the very real possibility of Tripitaka being in danger caused her to make up their mind. Cause in the end it doesn’t matter what she wanted at the moment, cause whatever it took to save her master and sworn brothers, they would do it.

“Very well then,” wukong replied, putting on a convincing smile, “if that’s what you want, then I’m sure I have enough time to show you my sky-holding trick for you two, but be warned of what you two have signed up for if you do end up being wrong.” 

The splendid great and glorious monkey demoness bowed her head to make the spell to silently utter the words. The monkey demoness called on the patroller of the sky, the patrollor of the night together with the protector of the four quarters and the center, “report on my behalf of the jade emperor that I have now found the true faith, and am escorting the tang priest to the western heaven in order to fetch the scriptures. We are now held up on a high mountain with my master in dire distress. I want to trick the two junior demons that I have crossed paths with to swap their treasures with me, so even though it pains me dearly to admit, I must humbly beg that I be lent the sky to be put away for an hour. And doing so will enable me to succeed. I know that the event up in heaven five hundred years ago may very well still leave a bad taste in your mouth, and no amount of praying and pleading would possibly be enough to be forgiven for what I’ve done. But I know now that the universe doesn’t revolve around me, and that it never had. And that for how long this journey lasts I intend on keeping the tang monk and my sworn brothers safe from harm.” 

With the message complete, the patroller of the day bowed and went straight in through the southern gate of heaven and onwards to the hall of miraculous mist, where he reported everything to the jade emperor himself. And upon hearing the report from the monkey demones, the emperor simply sighed, leaning his head against his hand, having expected that he would hear something from the monkey demoness sage sooner or later, “well, it was about time that ape reached out to me, I’m actually surprised that it took this long. But knowing first hand how strong wukong is, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.” Another thing that surprised the emperor was that it seemed Wukong had learned her lesson after being imprisoned in that waterlogged chamber for five hundred years, and seemed to hold great respect for the monk they had been traveling with, which the man hadn’t thought was possible up till that point. In truth when bodhisattva guanyin had come to him a few years back to persuade him to free the monkey demoness from her imprisonment, admitting that the punishment itself had far outrun its course, and that it would be cruel to let it continue any further.

Back then, the jade emperor had, and still does hold much resentment for the cursed golden monkey demoness, and had believed that wukong couldn’t change, and that setting them free would only cause more chaos. But upon hearing Guanyin explain about how the reincarnation of the golden cicada was destined to journey from the east and off to the west to deliver holy scriptures to the western heaven, and that doing so would only be possible if the tang monk had a powerful disciple by his side to protect him from harm did he finally agree. And he certainly wouldn’t admit it aloud, but it seems that the goddess of mercy had been right, and that it seems the great sage had begun to change their ways. It still doesn’t change the fact that what she was asking was the most outrageous thing he had heard in far over a millenia “bit asking for permission to put the sky away??? I’m certain that I’m not the only one who thinks this is absolute rubbish, correct? Cause as far as I’m aware there’s no feasible way to ever put away, or even trap it inside something. For ever since the very creation of this heavenly plain and the earth, the sky has always existed as an unmovable force that should, and cannot be taken away.”

Upon these words leaving his mouth, a certain someone who had been chilling in the hall prior to the patrollor of day arriving, prince nezha stepped forward in such a way that the jade emperor could see in clearly, and asked, with such calmness and grace fit for someone belonging to the heavenly lotus family, “your majesty, do you think it’s possible to contain the sky?” Even asking such a thing caused a small uproar as the members of the court found this very inquiry completely baffling and senseless, whispering to each other about it, some wondering about the possibility that the third lotus prince had gone mad, and others wondering the same thing, about if it was indeed possible to contain, or capture the sky, and if so would the heavenly realm itself be in danger of being imprisoned as well? 

Nehza overheard all of this, and even as beads of sweat rained down from his brow, he continued to maintain his composure, even if the whispering was beginning to rattle his nerves. The jade emperor was taken aback by this question as well, as he took time to think about it, scratching his short raven beard before replacing, “I don’t think it’s quite possible to do that, prince nezha, since the sky has existed far before we have, so there would be no way to figure out a way to capture it in some way. What prompted you to ask such a question?”

“When the primal chaos was first differentiated,” nezha began, remembering what The Great One’s had taught him when he was small, about how the universe had came to be, “the light and pure essence became the sky, being comprised of nothing and everything at the same time, and the heaviness that was not fit for the sky became the ground. The sky is composed of viper that is strong enough to hold up the palaces of heaven without worry of ever failing, for it does not live and breathe like everything else, and so does not rot. Cause it does not contain a living vessel. And by that logic it should be impossible to contain something that does not live. But now that sun wukong is escorting the tang priest to fetch the scriptures from the western heaven, these scriptures will for certain be a great source of blessings as great as mount tai, a good deed that is as profound and deep as the ocean. So today I vow we help the monkey demoness succeed.”

“I appreciate your great and profound words, prince nezha, but how will we help her?” The jade emperor asked, to this the lotus prince replied, “I may have a plan that could work, but I’ll need to beg for the issue of an imperial edict to the northern gate of heaven asking the true martial god to lend us his black vulture banner to spread outside the northern gate and block out the sun, moon and stars. That way, to anyone down there in the north, they will be unable to see each other and will be unable to distinguish black from white. That will certainly fool the junior demons that have intercepted Wukong's path into thinking that the sky had been packed away inside the gourd, and thus enable the monkey demoness to succeed.”

The jade emperor was left positively stunned by this plan, as well the members of the court, after a minute of silence, the jade emperor ordered that this suggestion be implemented. Bearing the imperial command, prince nezha went to see the true martial god at the north gate of heaven to tell him what had happened. Afterwards the true martial god handed the lotus prince the banner.

By now a patroller had hurried down to whisper in Wukong's ear, “prince nezha is on his way to help you.” Only to get slapped in the face for their troubles. As the monkey demoness glared at them for whispering in her ear, the action itself having caused the hairs on the back of their neck to stand up, wukong looked up just in time to see swirling clouds of good omen, a sure sign of the presence of a god, then turned to the two ox demons while smiling and said, “then we’ll put the sky away then!” 

“Put it away then,” dexterous ghost said, still harboring suspicions that the bodhisattva really didn’t have a sky sealing gourd, “but what’s all this act of playing for time? You do remember how we still have a monkey demoness to capture, right?” 

“I was just saying the spell and calling up the magic powers.” Wukong replied, dexterous was still not convinced, giving the bodhisattva a flat look. But the same couldn’t be said for skillful beast, who upon hearing this jumped up from his spot on the ground and stared wide eyed at them, wondering how the bodhisattva will put the sky away. Wukong threw her imitation gourd up into the sky, it was only comprised of a single hair after all, so it was pretty light. As the winds round the mountain peak caught it, it floated on the air for a bit before landing. Meanwhile prince nezha was busy noisily spreading the black vultures banner out on the southern gate of heaven, obscuring the sun, moon and stars. In its wake heaven and earth were dyed as black as ink, as well as the cosmos, which seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye. 

Upon noticing how dark everything had gotten all of a sudden, both dextorous and skillful beast were terrified, dexterous now fully believing that the sky had indeed been trapped inside the gourd, even though he had thought it impossible. “When we were talking a moment ago,” dexterous stuttered out, staring listlessly in one direction, for he couldn’t see a thing, “it was midday, so how could it have possibly gotten dark so quickly!?

“When the sky is put away,” wukong replied calmly, walking over to where the gourd had fallen, it indeed was true that she couldn’t see anything the same as the other two, and by extension everyone else in the north, they still had heard the telltale sound of the gourd falling to the ground. “Distinctions of time disappear, so it would only make sense that you two wouldn’t be able to see anything.” 

“But why’s it so dark now? I don’t understand.” Dexterous always detested riddles, “the sun and the moon and the stars have all been put inside. So there’s no light, and where there is no light, there is no possible way you can see.”

“….master,” skillful ghost spoke, causing the demoness’s head to perk up, having not realized that one of the oxtion demons would see her as their master so quickly, but they suppose it’s only natural, since she had technically won, “where is your voice coming from?” 

“I’m just in front of you, aren’t I?” They should know, cause the monkey demoness hadn’t moved an inch since picking up the gourd, and she can’t imagine it falling too far from where they are. Wukong was startled out of her thoughts when two hands reached out and gripped onto the monkey demoness’s arm, tight enough that they knew it was there, but not tight enough to hurt. “We can hear you and feel you master, but we still can’t see you. Where are we, master?” 

“Don’t fidget,” wukong replied, not doing anything to let them go, but wasn’t really comfortable with the unseen contact regardless, “we are currently on the coast of the bohai sea, one slip and you’d fall for seven or eight days before reaching the bottom.” 

Both ox demons were struck with terror, “enough, enough! Let the sky out again, now that we know how it’s put away. If you go on a moment longer and we fall into the sea, we’ll never get home!” 

Sensing that the two had had enough, and fully believed that she had indeed trapped the sky, wukong sent off another spell in the form of bright golden light that shone brightly in the darkness, lighting up the sky for the briefest of moments. The two little ox demons hadn’t seen it since their eyes were closed tightly shut in fear. The golden light reached above the clouds to reach prince nezha, who upon seeing it began rolling up the banner up again, revealing the sun once more, “fantastic!” Both demons exclaimed in delight after getting used to the light again, letting go of the disguised monkey demoness with sheepish grins. “Fantastic! If we don’t do a swap for the treasure we won’t be looking after our family’s interest.” 

That said, dexterous ghost handed over the magical gourd, while skillful beast produced the vase. When the two had given them both, wukong handed over the imitation gourd, and while doing so, when the monkey demoness’s hands brushed against the other imp’s hands, wukong silently placed a magic incantation on the two. One of the side effects being that the two would not come to harm, for now that she had won, the two would be under her protection. All this happening in the span of a second. The Exchange had now been made, but wukong wanted it to be final, so plucking a hair from their tail once more and turning it into a copper coin, she said “Boys.” The monkey demoness stated, “take this as a thank you for giving me your gourd and vase, try to buy a sheet of paper.” 

“Why ever would we do that for?” 

“With the paper, we will write a legal contract for the exchange of your two man— holding treasures for my sky—holder.” She replied, “we each need a written agreement to prevent any lingering regrets we may have in the future.” 

“But there’s no brush or ink here to write a contract with.” Dexterous ghost pointed out, “so let’s swear an oath instead.” 

“What sort of oath?” Wukong asked. 

“We exchange our two man—holding treasures for your sky—-holder,” dexterous said, “and if we ever have any regrets may we be struck with pestilence in all four seasons.” 

“I certainly won’t have any regrets,” wukong chuckled lightly, “but if I do, then I shall be struck on all four seasons as well.” Saying this was rather funny, since with the fact of being immortal, the monkey demoness knew that even if she had any lingering regrets, they certainly wouldn’t be struck down by anything. With the oath sealed, Wukong leapt up, her tail in the air, and landed in front of the southern gate of heaven, where she thanked prince nezha for helping them with the banner. Afterwards the third lotus prince reported back to the palace and returned the banner to the true martial god, leaving wukong standing amid the stars and clouds while staring at the ox demons.

With the imitation gourd in hand, the two little demons were quarreling over who should examine first when they looked up and noticed that the bodhisattva had disappeared. “Brother.” Skillful beast said, “even immortals can tell lies sometimes. I had hoped that when we swapped our treasures she would’ve made us immortal. But how come the bodhisattva has vanished without a word?”

 “We got ourselves a very good bargain,” skillful beast pointed out, “so it would only make sense that she could have went back to her place of residence, or even continue on her journey to fetch the man that had recently completed the way. So the bodhisattva must be very busy.” 

“You are indeed voicing words of truth, my brother. And since we’ve been left to our own devices, it only makes sense to take a closer look at what we had gotten in the trade, hand that gourd over and I’ll say the words of the spell she had uttered under her breath and we’ll put the sky inside—just to try it out ourselves.” 

Nodding his head, skillful beast threw the gourd in the air, but unfortunately it came crashing down almost immediately, much to the distress of skillful beast, who cried out in alarm, “Why won’t it take to the sky!? Did we do something wrong?” 

Dexterous ghost quickly shook his head, placing a comforting hand on his brother’s shoulder, “relax, dear brother, I’m sure we hadn’t done anything wrong. Hand over the gourd and let me try, perhaps I had said the words of the spell wrong, I’ll just have to try again, and this time I’m certain that it’ll work.” The ox demon then threw the gourd in the air, much like his brother had done a moment ago, and said the incantation once more. But unfortunately the gourd hit the ground once more before he could even finish. Causing both demons to look down at it in shock.

“The sky hasn’t gone in.” Dexterous uttered, looking over to skillful beasts with growing unease, who did the same, “…which could only mean that this must be a fake.” Skillful finished, looking equally as uncomfortable. 

Up in the sky, the golden monkey demoness, now having transformed back into her original form, could hear every word the two said and could see everything that happened during all this commotion. For fear that it would go on for too long, wukong quickly deconstructed the form of the intimation gourd with a silent puff of air, reverting it back into a single strand of hair once more, being tiny enough that it easily blended into the ground. Leaving both demons completely empty handed.

Just as the two brothers were beginning to wonder if they had been tricked, the two looked over and almost collapsed in shock upon realizing that the gourd that had been lying on the ground had vanished into thin air, “Oh heavens! The gourd has disappeared!” Skillful beast exclaimed. They both began to search frantically on the ground and the grass, putting their hands in their sleeves and tunics to see if one of them had accidentally stored it there by mistake, but alas it was nowhere to be found.” 

Pure dread sinking into their very bones, the two ox demons began to pace around, “WHAT SHALL WE DO WHAT SHALL WE DO!?” The two little demons exclaimed in utter distress, having frustrated themselves close to tears, “his supreme majesty had entrusted those treasures to us to capture sun wukong the monkey demoness!” Skillful beast ranted, placing shaking hands on his brothers shoulders, “i have also overheard from the majesty’s that king yin is planning on having the monkey demoness as his bride. So not only have we lost the very thing to capture sun wukong with, but we have for certain destroyed any hope of true love!!” 

Wukong’s brows rose up to the top of her head upon hearing this, having never thought any demon with a good head on their shoulders would have even thought about having them as a bride. But I guess she should have known this demon wasn’t like the others when one of them had tried to trick them into giving them a ride on her back. That privilege is only meant for the baby monkeys back on flower fruit, and wukong plans on keeping it that way. 

The monkey demoness’s thoughts were cut short when one of the ox demons continued, dexterous ghost having begun gripping onto his hair as he paced, skillful beast not doing any better, having resorted to curling up into a ball and hyperventilating, “we can’t possibly report this to the kings, or they will have us killed for sure, and there’s no way to capture the demoness without our treasures so-“ the demon suddenly stopped in his tracks, having thought of something so crazy and foolhardy that it about left him breathless. Skillful beast looked up from the ground upon noticing his brother had stopped ranting, “uhhhhh. B-brother? Are you-“

“Let’s run away.” Dexterous stated, sounding like he was light years away, skillful beast slowly began to uncurl as his mind tried to process what he had just heard, and when he did, skillful looked up to his brother in shock, neither of them having ever thought of out right leaving their home. And why would they? Before this point the two had everything they could possibly need: a nice place to stay that could protect them from all the elements, all the food and water they could ever need for years upon years around, and great jobs that had good pay that brought food to the table without fail. And the thought of throwing that all away sounds unthinkable, he would never leave his home!

But thinking back to what they had just lost just a few minutes ago, skillful shuddered at the thought of reporting back to the mountain kings empty handed, and worse without either their prized treasures or sun wukong on a silver platter, they would certainly be goners for sure. “B-but where?? The mountain is the only home we’ve ever known, the mountain kings for the first and only ones to bring us in after the death of our father. So it would be unthinkable to running way. Hell, we even have friends here! It deeply pains me that we may be forced to flee for our safety, but I can’t think of any place where we could be safe. The world is big and dangerous, and wouldn’t hesitate to chew us up and spit us out.” 

“Anywhere is preferable then going back there where we could be killed,” dexterous replied, having began to stare at the ground below his feet, thinking about how their father had sacrificed his life all those years ago so they and their mother could flee. Studying the cracks in the rock where loose weeds swayed gently in the wind, “cause if we go back and admit that we had lost the most valuable of treasures, that would be the end of us, plain and simple.” 

Complete and utter silence began to build after the ox demon’s admittance, the silence was so thick that it felt like it couldn’t be cut by the sharpest of blades. But after what felt like forever, skillful spoke, his voice sounding like that of a foghorn with how deathly quiet things had gotten. “No. Don’t just say ‘let’s run away’ like the common coward. We have to go back, both their majesty’s are usually very fond of you, and I’ll make sure to put in a good word for you. And if they aren’t prepared to make allowances they’ll spare your life. Even if we can’t beg them not to kill us, at least they’ll do it there, and we won’t be caught between two stools.” Taking in a shaky breath, dexterous nodded, knowing that his brother was right. If the two left they would certainly not live peacefully, but instead live in fear that king Jin and yin would come find them some day and kill both of them in their sleep, so the only way that they even had even the slightest hope of survival till the next sunrise would be to head back, and head back they did, as the two little demons shakily made their way back to the mountain cave.

                                                                      END OF CHAPTER

Chapter Text

Wukong, watching the two head back towards the mountain cave from her place in the sky, shook themselves and transformed into a fly and flew down and followed them, with the treasures in her possession having shrank with them. Buzzing along after the ox twins without pause. And before long she was inside the cave, where the two demon horned kings were sitting around and drinking.

The two ox twins went up and knelt down, trying their best not to outwardly show how nervous they were. Wukong perched on the doorframe, listening in on the conversation, “your majesties,” dexterous spoke up.

“So you’re back,” yin said, putting his cup of wine down, “yes,” the demon twins said in unison.

“Have you captured sun wukong, the monkey demoness like we had ordered?” King yin asked, only for the two oxton demons to bang their heads on the ground, not willing to respond, king yin asked once more, having suspicions that something had gone wrong. But even as the younger demon king kept on asking, the two ox twins kept on banging their heads on the ground. Only when he had asked them several times did they prostrate themselves and say, tears streaming down their faces, “forgive us, your majesties. We deserve to die a thousand times. Please forgive us. We were on our way to where you had said the monkey demoness had been trapped with treasures in hand when we had met a wondrous bodhisattva from Mount penglai. She had asked us where we were going, and since the bodhisattva was an immortal, we told them that we were off to capture sun wukong the monkey demoness. When the immortal bodhisattva heard about the monkey demoness she said that she was angry with them too and wanted to come along to help. Keep in mind that we never asked her too, but we told them about how we were going to put the monkey demoness into the treasure. And it turns out the bodhisattva had a gourd as well that had the power to capture the entire sky within itself. Because we were greedy to do our family a good turn we swapped our man—holder for her sky—holder. At first we had offered the gourd for a gourd, but then skillful beast had put in the vase for extra measure. But to our utter misfortune the immortals treasure was not for the mortal likes of us. We were fixing on trying it out when both the gourd and the immortal bodhisattva had disappeared. We beg you to spare us the deaths we deserve.”

At this Jin growled as he slapped his forehead, having figured out what had happened and thundered out, “DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!! THAT WAS OBVIOUSLY SUN WUKONG DISGUISED AS A BODHISATTVA TO TRICK THEM OUT OF YOU!! THAT MONKEY DEMONESS HAD ENORMOUS MAGICAL POWERS AND HAS KNOWN PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. What sort of god had been the one responsible for letting her out to con our treasures out of us?”

“Please calm yourself brother.” Yin placated, not wanting him to unleash his anger on two innocent ox demons, for the monkey demoness was known for her wicked tricks that have the potential to trick the most intelligent men, be them demon or human. “That ape is the bloody limit. With all that power from the mountain gods it should have been impossible for her to escape. Why did that demoness have to trick us out of our treasures? If I don’t have the powers to capture them then we’ll never be known as the most powerful of demons in the west again.”

“How are we possibly gonna capture her now?” Yin asked, being greatly disappointed in his chance of having the love of his life being whisked away from him, but knew that the protection of his and his brother’s kingdom was the number one priority.

“We had five treasures.” Jin said, “so even after losing two we still have three left with which we can and must capture her.”

“What three treasures?” Yin asked, his hope of the monkey demoness being his slowly being restored. “The seven starred sword you had used to fight against wujing, and the plantain fan that I carry with me.” Jin replied, “and the dazzling golden cord that’s kept at our old mothers place in the crushed dragon cave in crushed dragon mountain.” Wukong squinted her eyes and scrunched up their nose in confusion upon hearing this, thinking that having both the mountain and cave having the same name sounded a little overkill. Cause they would remember if the stone pillar she had been trapped within was called the stone pillar of double boundary valley, cause of the fact that it was located in double boundary valley, although, wukong reminded herself, that was back in the south, so the naming system may be a little different compared to the south. “Now, we should think about a couple of little demons to invite our mother to eat the tang priest’s flesh and ask her to bring the dazzling golden cord to catch that sun wukong.”

“Which ones should we send?” Yin asked.

“Not rubbish like those two.” Jin replied as he glared daggers at the two ox twins that were still sitting in front of the two kings with the patience of two little celestial children. Upon noticing they were still there, Jin faced the two and shouted for the two to stand, which they did immediately with a flinch, plastering on fake grins as they both said, “Oh what luck! We weren’t beaten and we weren’t sworn at—-which means we’ve been let off!” And with not a seconds hesitation, the two sprinted out of the cave, and the moment the two ox demons reached the threshold of the cave, the two were suddenly incased in a golden light by wukong who silently uttered an incantation that caused both demons to vanish in a blink of an eye, being sent off all the way to flower fruit mountain. landing on the beach just as macaque and ma were out patrolling. And were quite shocked upon seeing two young ox demons sitting stunned on the sand, looking all around with confused eyes. Macaque’s six ears perked up as he heard something falling from the sky, looking up just in time to catch a small parchment of paper with the initials of his king and lover, sun wukong on it. Hey macaque and ma! Sorry to drop these demons off unannounced, on my way across the west I found these two ox demons that were unfortunate enough to be underlings of two demon kings that had kidnapped (monknapped???) both my master and companions. And not wanting to kill two innocent demons that were only following orders, I decided to plant a spell on them that would transport them here once they were out of danger. So enjoy the newest members of our troop! and don’t worry about them being dangerous, from what i could tell, these two can’t be much older then 200 years old, which as you know in demon years would be equal to around 13 - 17, which means that there’s a small chance that they might not have a good grasp on their powers yet, and also makes them underage. Anyway I’m beginning to run out of room on the paper so just remember to feed them healthy food and the cleanest water there and-

The words were suddenly cut off as the monkey demoness had indeed ran out of room on the paper. The six eared monkey sighed, looking both grumpy and unphased by this, looking over to ma who also were a similar expression, before walking over to the two demons and helping them up off the ground and leading them off to the nearby village, while explaining what had happened the best she could, as dexterous and skillful beast could only nod dumbly, still having trouble wrapping their minds on what had happened. Macaque shook his head in a mix of exasperation and amusement, before gently folding up the letter and tucking it in the band around his waist.

Back at the mountain, king Jin and yin hadn’t even noticed the two ox demons sudden disappearance, being too focused on planning out which demons to send out. “Hmmm… I’d say we should send our regular attendants, mountain tiger and ocean dragon.” Jin ordered, within minutes the two said demons sat kneeling in front of the two horned kings, with mountain tiger fitting his namesake to a T, while on the other hand the other demon looked slightly different, being a blue scaled lizard with the power to swim through water with the speed and elegance of a dragon.

The two stayed kneeling with heads bowed as Jin gave them the instructions, “you must be very cautious.” He warned the two, knowing that there was a lot on the line, cause if the two even made the slightest mistake, the monkey demoness could potentially steal another one of their treasures, which would be unthinkable, for he and his brother have the most powerful of warriors on the mountain at their back and call. But since they weren’t facing off against any ordinary demon, Jin wanted to make sure that there wasn’t a single thing out of place. “We’ll be cautious.” The demon repeated, knowing from the steely determination in theirs eyes that the two would do everything in their power to make sure that the kings mother would make it here safe and sound, or would die trying.

“And careful.” Yin voiced, his normal calm voice as hard as iron, wanting this to go as smoothly and without any hiccups like his brother. “We will be careful.” The two demons replied. “Do you two know the way to our mothers home?” Yin continued. The two demons nodded their heads, “we do.”

“In that case go as soon as you can. When you get to our mothers place you must bow to her very respectfully, then invite her to a meal of the tang priest's flesh, and to bring the dazzling golden cord to catch sun wukong the monkey demoness.”

The two demons obediently hurried off, unaware that wukong had heard every single word. Spreading her wings and flying till she caught up with mountain tiger and settled down on the crown of his head. After about a mile the disguised monkey demoness was thinking of killing them until they realized that killing them would certainly be no problem for them, but doing so would only leave her with no directions on where the king's mother kept her dazzling golden cord. So it would be best to question them before just outright killing them on the spot.

With this plan in mind, wukong once again spread her wings, leapt off the head of the mountain tiger and flew away from the two demons to let them to get a good head hundred paces ahead. And once they were far enough away, wukong changed themselves into a giant king cobra that was colored from head to tail in a darkish gold brown, with its underbelly a light shade of brown, and their eyes were a dark crimson like that of freshly spilt blood, with their battle henfu worn on top, which created quite a ridiculous display to any travelers that passed by, but wukong was not one to care about such things, and slithered over to the two demons and called out, “wait a moment, travelersssss!” Wukong exclaimed, and like most snake demons, the end of her sentence ended with a slight hiss, which did the trick of scaring the mountain tiger demon, who’s tail puffed up and his eyes blowing wide upon seeing the venomous snake. Though ocean dragon did not have such a reaction, being a reptile herself, Who looked at the king cobra with a sharp fanged smile.

“Where are you from?” Ocean dragon asked.

“My dear siiiiiiister.” Wukong replied, feeling immensely relieved the moment the words left their mouth, having not uttered that in quite a while. Granted she didn’t have a problem with being the only demoness in her group, it still felt a little isolating sometimes. “Don’t you even recognize members of your own species?”

“You’re not one of us.” Ocean dragon replied with a shake of her head, “you may be a reptile like myself, but the difference between you and me is that I’m a lizard iguana hybrid while you are a king cobra: we look similar, but we do not share the same ancestors.”

Wukong nodded her head, admitting that the reptilian demoness had a point. “That may be true, but you have to recognize me from one of the troops on this mountain at least!” Again the reptilian Demoness shook her head, “nope! I don’t pay much attention to other troops on this mountain unless instructed by their majesty’s king Jin and yin. So you are nothing more than a stranger to me.”

To this wukong gasped, covering her mouth with their tail in a false sense of shock, looking like they had just remembered something, “Oh, that’s right! You couldn’t have known of me since I’m one of the outside staff, my deepest apologies for the confusion.”

Luckily this had seemed to do the trick, as ocean dragon lifted her scaled brows that had been previously sat in a scrutinizing stare to a look of calm indifference. “Well then,” the reptilian replied evenly, “we would have never met you, madam, where are you going?”

“His majesty told me,” Wukong began, inwardly shuddering at being called madam, much preferring to be addressed as king. “That they had sent you two gentleman to invite their old mother to a meal of the tang priest’s flesh.” The golden demoness paused to cover her mouth with the end of their tail in a show of a yawn, when in reality they were covering their mouth cause saying those words made her stomach bunch up in knots. Even though she had no trouble speaking about this sort of thing when wayward human hunters had invaded their mountain. and uncovered her mouth to reveal a beaming grin full of razor sharp fangs, “you were to ask her to bring the dazzling golden cord along to catch a demon known as sun wukong the monkey demoness. But now it seems they are worried that you two would dawdle and misbehave yourselves and mess things up, so they sent me along too to hurry you up.” As they knew all the details the two demons were not at all suspicious, and believed the kind king cobra was really one of them, even if the tiger demon still looked tense, having a deep feeling of dread in his stomach that the king cobra was not what she seemed. And this thought was only fueled by his fear of snakes. But didn’t say a word when ocean dragon turned to him with a sharp fanged grin of her own. The three soon rushed off in a great hurry for about three miles.

“This is indeed a long way from the cavern,” wukong said, “how far have you gone?” The disguised demoness asked as she turned to face ocean dragon, who was keeping a steady but fast pace with them, rushing alongside her as they slithered along. Mountain tiger lingering slightly behind them from how fast the two were going. “About five miles.” Ocean dragon replied.

“And how much further is there to go?” Wukong asked, wanting to rush back to the mountain cave as fast as possible so that she could save her master and sworn brothers in time, but knew that they had to keep playing the long game for now. “Just to the black woods over there,” ocean dragon replied, gesturing with her head at a nearby landscape that was beginning to come into view. Wukong looked up to see a dark stretch of woodlands dotted with deep brown oak trees not far away. The old demoness must live somewhere nearby, Wukong thought, so they stopped to let the two demons get ahead. All the while the mountain tiger's tail puffed up in agitation. and pulled out her cudgel with the end of their tail, rushed after them and swiped their weapon against their legs. Unfortunately the impact was a bit too powerful and wukong ended up completely shattering the legs of the tiger and the reptilian demoness’s tail, causing both of them to fall to the ground with screams of pain that echoed throughout the forest for miles around. Wukong stood there completely stunned as she watched the two demon’s cry out in agony, before tightening their grip over her cudgel and walked over to them, just as mountain tiger glared up at her from his place on the ground, his eyes glossy from the pain, and growled up at them with hatred in his eyes “I knew it. I knew you weren’t meant to be trusted. You're not one of us at all, are you?” That caused the monkey demoness to freeze in place, looking over to ocean dragon who was looking up at her with a mixture of anger and betrayal in her eyes.

Eyes weavering, wukong looked from mountain tiger back over to ocean dragon, closed her eyes, lifted up their cudgel and slammed it down on their heads with a loud CRUNCH. opening her eyes to see a giant puddle of blood pouring out of their heads like the most gruesome of waterfalls, originating from the deceased demons heads, the weapon having shattered their skulls on impact.

That seemed to do it. Wukong took a step back from the bloody scene with an overwhelming sense of guilt churning in her stomach like something vile was eating at them from the inside out, quickly reverting back to their original form. She bent over, the monkey demon loosened her hold over the cudgel, it falling down to the grass below, and wrapped their arms around themselves as they puked into the nearest bush, her knees buckling and sending her to the ground as she dry heaved, tears running down her face as the realization of what she had just done hit her.

Why am I acting like this? I’ve killed tons of demons before, so why is this time different? Wukong thought, but then remembered Tripitaka and how he always disapproved of harming the innocent, even if they were doing bad. Wukong thought back on the argument the monkey demoness and the monk had shortly after she had killed some bandits that were about to rob them, “It was precisely because you acted with such tyrannical cruelty among mortals and committed the most desperate crimes against Heaven that you got into trouble five hundred years ago!” The monk had retorted, “but now you have entered the faith by helping me through this journey, you'll never reach the Western Heaven and never become a monk if you don't give up your taste for murder. You're too evil, too evil!” Those words had ignited a flame of hatred inside their chest at the time, but now that fire had been extinguished, being replaced with a deep pit of sorrow that clogged up the airways inside her chest and sent her heart sinking like a stone caught inside a downward current. Cause as much as it pains them to admit it, tripataka had been right. She had been cruel back then, not taking heed of any destruction they had left in their wake. The first memory that resurfaced being her visit to one of the dragon kings' kingdoms. And how instead of being polite and fair towards the old dragon, she had instead practically raided his weapons supply and stole the pillar that had been holding up the ocean.

It’s only now that they had gotten a second chance that wukong realizes how reckless she had been, and realizes that they can no longer do whatever she pleases. Wukong thought back on why she had been so reckless in the first place, and was quickly reminded about the demon that had attacked and monkey-napped her subjects while she had been gone, miles away from their home, being taught about the secrets of immortality, and remembered how angry she had been, and full of grief that she hadn’t saved them sooner. Standing up from the ground, Wukong wiped the tears from her eyes and picked up their cudgel that had dug itself into the ground. There’s nothing else they can do about what had happened in the past. But even if her master may not approve of murder, it’s sometimes the only way, after all, to kill one life you have the potential to save thousands. Looking down at the ground, wukong frowned, but sometimes you have the tendency to kill the wrong people, and for that I’m sorry. With that the monkey demoness plucked out a hair off her head, blew on it, and transformed it into a steel shovel, which wukong used to dig two graves for the deceased demons, after depositing the bodies she covered the makeshift tombs in dirt and soil and kneeled down on the ground and prayed for their spirits to find true peace, even if she would understand if they would not want someone such as them, their executioner, to do so.

Afterwards wukong was struck with an idea, and after de-summoning the shovel with a poof, the monkey demoness jumped up and dashed into the underbrush, being mindful of the puke on the side of the path, pulled out another one of her hairs and transformed it into an exact replica of mountain tiger. Once that was done, Wukong stepped out and transformed themselves into the likeness of ocean dragon, complete with her pale blue scales that shone in the light of the sun. And much like with their other disguises, her reptilian form was very plump, their scaly chest and belly were as rotund and plush soft as can be, her belly sat heavily against their thighs, but were not heavy enough to restrict movement. their legs, that were once long and slender, were now pudgy and soft, much like her chest and belly. Fat had gathered in their upper and lower thighs, but the monkey demoness’s strength still remained. Stepping in line with the false mountain lion, Wukong glanced at it, only to see a stone faced expression staring back at her. Nothing like the skittish lion she had met a few miles ago. Shuddering, Wukong quickly averted her disguised clone’s gaze, a new wave of nausea creeping up her throat, but kept it down as she, along with her clone raced for crushed dragon cave to deliver to the horned king’s mother.

With no time to waste, wukong and her clone leaped and bounded everywhere, looking over cliffs and the tops of mountains in search of the old lady’s cavern, until finally the disguised monkey demoness and their clone stumbled upon a pair of stone doors standing ajar. Not daring to charge in, Wukong cupped her hands around their snout and shouted for the people inside to open the doors, the deep and demanding authority of the great sage seeping into her tone.

The little demoness’s watching over the gate were so startled by this that they hastily opened up the doors wide, with one of them peeking out and meekly asked, “where are you two from?”

“We’ve been sent here by the lotus flower cave on flat-top mountain with an invitation for the mother of the two kings Jin and yin.” Wukong replied, the little demonesses nodded and invited both of them in, not seeming to see anything strange with how the mountain lion and ocean colored reptilian demoness moved in unison like a unit, thinking the two had been trained together. And not even heeding the possibility that the two demons could be the same demoness in disguise. When wukong had reached the inner doors she took a peek behind them and saw an aged vixen demoness sitting in the middle of the cave, she had long white hair that was pulled back into a neat bun, a pair of shining golden eyes the color of the most radiant of golds, along with a long white snout with razor sharp teeth, having not once changed in her thousand lives of living. A white silken scarf was wrapped around her head, not at all hiding the pure white ears that twitched and turned at every sound, that were decorated with golden earrings shrouded in jewels.

Politely walking into the room, wukong and her disguised clone briefly froze at the realization that they had to kowtow to the vixen to stay true to the play she was performing so that they could snatch the third treasure, but hesitated at the thought of kowtowing to a demoness that she hadn’t known about til this point. Wukong has a rule that they have followed for as long as they can remember, and it’s that the monkey demoness would not dare kowtow to anyone unless she held some respect for them or other. The only exception to this rule being the Buddha, the reasoning behind that being pretty self explanatory. But if wukong didn’t kowtow to the vixen demoness it could throw a wrench into their plans and the demoness will grow suspicious. So without any other choice, the disguised demoness and her clone deeply kowtowed to the vixen demoness.

Get up, my children,” the vixen demoness said, face beet red at being called a child, wukong and her clone rose up to sit neatly in front of her with a calm smile, but inside the golden furred monkey was screaming. “Where are you from?” The vixen demoness asked, “I have been sent at the command of the two kings of lotus flower cave in flat-top mountain to invite you, ma’am, to a meal of the tang priest’s flesh.” Wukong almost about vomited again right then and there, this rescue mission couldn’t be over soon enough. “They also ask you to bring your dazzling golden cord to capture sun wukong the monkey demoness with, who has been a real terror for them.” Fuck yeah I’ve been a real terror for them, and I’ll do it again. Wukong thought to themself.

“What good, dutiful boys.” She said. while Wukong wanted to rip her face off, the vixen demoness sent for her carrying chair, which caused the monkey demoness to inwardly snort. Fancy seeing a demoness being carried in a chair, Wukong thought in amusement, never having felt any need for fancy stuff like that back home when their legs worked just fine. Two little demonesses soon brought in a chair made of fragrant ratten, while wukong just thought it was a waste of resources. The two demoness’s then sat it outside the doors, lifting the green gauze curtain, which just made the monkey demoness’s anger grow at the fact that the vixen demoness couldn’t even be bothered to walk a bit outside, The old demoness left the cave and got into the chair. Some young demoness’s followed her with comb boxes, mirrors and stands, towels and a soapbox. All while wukong looked around at all the fancy items, suddenly being reminded of how much princess iron fan packed anytime she left dbk’s residence for an extended amount of time, which caused the monkey demoness to frown as she briefly wondered how their sworn brother and sister are doing these past five hundred years.

Thankfully it seems the eldest vixen seemed to take offense to these offerings, for she said, opening up the silken curtain to give them a confused glance, “what are you all here for? I’m only going to see my own sons, not go on a weeks trip to the empire of women, so there’ll be no shortage of people to look after me there. So I won’t need you lot to fuss over me and natter. So go back in, shut the doors, and look after the place like your lives depend on it, cause if anything is out of way when I get back, the lot of you are gonna pay dearly.”

After this announcement was uttered did the little demoness’s depart from the chair-porters and be sent back inside. Leaving the disguised monkey demoness impressed. Gotta say, I may not understand the way this woman travels, but I must admit that she has a way of withholding the attention and loyalty of her servants. Though I would never act such a way with my subjects. For they are more family then anything.

Wukong was brought out from her thoughts when the vixen demoness turned to them and asked, “what are your names, messagers?”

Immediately wukong straightened up rimroid straight, as so did her clone disguised in the flesh of the mountain tiger, which they tried not to make eye contact with as she spoke, “he’s called mountain tiger,. Wukong replied, pointing to the clone, their eyes not once wavering from the demoness lest she lose her cool. “And I’m ocean dragon.”

“You two take the lead and clear the way for me.” The demoness ordered. Frantically nodding her heads, wukong made their way to the front of the carrying chair, but once out of ear and eye shot did the monkey demoness growl in anger, not being pleased with being used as a slave. She’s known ever since she was young that they were destined for greatness, and that every single person will and should know and fear her. So being used as nothing more than a slave angers her almost more than the thought of someone touching her island home. The only thing stopping the monkey demoness from ripping the old cruin in half is the fact that the demoness doesn’t know of her identity. And with a sigh, Wukong admitted to themself that if she didn’t get the vixen to her sons in time then she won’t get to save her master and brothers. So even if it kills her pride a little, she’ll just have to deal.

With a call to lift the chair, they were off. When they had covered a couple of miles or thereabouts she sat down on the edge of a precipice. Turning to the other small demoness’s that had been tasked with carrying the chair, wukong spoke, “your shoulders must be aching from carrying this weight for such a long span of time.” Not realizing what the disguised monkey demoness was up to, the little demoness’s nodded their heads and put the chair down. While they were doing that, Wukong snuck behind them, raising their arm and reached in past her glamor and pulled a hair out from their head and transformed it into a sesame bun that she quickly ate without haist.

Turning their heads at the sound, one of the demoness’s asked, “what are you eating, ma’am?” To which Wukong replied, “if it puts you at ease, we came a long way to invite her highness that I was given no food, so I’m hungry. So after I’m done eating these dry rations I happened to have on me, we’ll be on our way.”

After a moments pause the demoness’s were heard gathering amongst each other and whispering, and after a minute more, one finally spoke up, “would you mind giving us some? You see, this visit was quite unplanned on our parts, so we hadn’t been able to prepare any food for ourselves either. So it would do all of us a great service if you let us have a pinch.”

With a grin wukong replied, “Then why don’t you lot come over here then? The foods not gonna eat itself.”

Unaware of what was up, the little demoness’s crowded around the disguised golden monkey for a share of her dry rations, whereupon wukong’s grin widened large enough to show off her razor sharp fangs, and before anyone could even bring themselves to shout, the monkey demoness leapt up, summoned their cudgel and made quick work of the poor demoness’s, blood splattering the once clean ground a dark crimson, with large chunks of limbs and heads flying every which way like the most gruesome of piñatas. The only sound that had been uttered across the surrounding land for miles around was the loud and shrill screams of the demoness’s, filled with nothing but terror and pain. Enough so that it sent the shooken vixen tumbling straight out of the carrying chair in her haste to see what was going on, only to freeze upon seeing the massacre in front of her. And the dark and bloodied figure crouched down on the ground, having reverted back to her true form once she had killed all of the demonness’s servants. blood red eyes and pointed teeth staring straight at her.

Seeing her chance to strike, wukong leapt up once more and rushed towards the elder vixen with their cudgel raised above their head, bringing the full strength of herself into the hardened steel known as their weapon of choice, cracking her skull open like a walnut, causing blood and brain matter to spray across the ground along with herself. Wukong’s shoulders rose and fell in time with their breathing, blood trailing down her arms and face like raindrops on a rooftop. Raising their head to look around at the carnage around her, she grinned to herself, relieved to see that they still have her touch.

The monkey demoness than turned back to the fallen vixen to get a good look at her, having planned beforehand that in order to get in touch with the demon kings without having more danger being put on her teammates, they thought the best course of action was to quickly get rid of every one of the servants, along with the vixen demoness herself and continue on in the false guise of the demoness. Which is exactly what the monkey demoness did. Cocking their head to the side, wukong said to herself “huh, I honestly don’t see the family resemblance at all, the mountain kings are horned demons, while their ‘mother’ is a vixen demoness. I’ve heard of some wild demon cross breeding in my time, but this is by far the most trickiest to figure out.” Lifting her head, the monkey demoness preceded to sit down on top of the corpse to ponder on this further, “perhaps their father is a horned demon? But if that’s the case than why don't either of the horned demon kings have any resemblance to canines?”

Seeming to have lingered here long enough, wukong stood and ventured for a water spot to wash off all the blood and grime, managing to find the golden cord along the way, and grinned smugly, tucking the treasure into the pocket of her hanfu, knowing full well that no one was around for miles to hear them, she couldn’t help but gloat, “those lousy demons may have their powers contained in these little trinkets of theirs, but unknown to them I have three of four of their treasures.” They then pulled out two more hairs and produced two more clones in the perfect likeness of ocean dragon and mountain tiger, as well as two more that took the form of the demoness’s responsible for carrying the chair. And without anything more to do, wukong changed her form into the likeness of the elder vixen, the vixens long white hair draped down past her shoulders with the grace and elegance of a goddess, and since the vixen demoness had long since found the secrets of eternal youth, her body was as beautiful and without wrinkles to spare. For this was indeed the great monkey demoness, the vixens body has changed slightly. her breasts had grown big enough to stretch out the top of the long purple hanfu she was wearing, the belly wasn’t as big as the breasts, but were still big and round. Making sure that their breasts were nice and covered up with the help of the dark purple coat that the vixen demoness already had on hand.

Afterwards wukong sat on the chair and they were once more on the move, with only one demoness being transported instead of one demoness and two servants. It wasn’t long before she was at the entrance to the lotus flower cave and the clones of ocean dragon and mountain tiger were already clamoring for the doors to be open with the energy of men who haven’t eaten in days, the little demons near the door asked weather mountain tiger or ocean dragon were back, in which both clones replied in response.

“Did you persuade her highness to come?” The demon asked, “can’t you see her in the chair?” Ocean dragon replied with a flat look, pointing to the carrying chair where the disguised monkey demoness sat, who upon being called gently waved.

“Wait a moment while I report inside.” The demon replied once they got a good look at her, turning around and went in to announce, “your majesties, her highness is here. Upon hearing this, the two horned demons were delighted, and ordered for a table of incense-sticks to be sat out to greet her. Wukong meanwhile was delighted to hear this.

Their plan was working flawlessly so far.

END CHAPTER

Chapter Text

The golden monkey demoness got out of the carrying chair, straightened her clothes and made sure their chest was well covered, and de-summoned her clones in a golden flash of light. The little demon by the door carried the empty chair inside while Wukong walked in behind them. As she walked in, demons big and small knelt in greeting, a drum and fife band began to play, and clouds of incense rose from the boston burners. Upon reaching the main hall they sat down facing regally, while the two demon kings kowtowed to her with the words, “mother, your children kowtow to you.”

“Get up, my children,” Wukong replied, saying the same thing that the real vixen demoness had said to them.

Meanwhile, bājie, still from a roof beam, having been there for hours at this point, quickly noticed a familiar monkey tail peeking out from under the elder vixen’s skirt, and couldn’t help the loud snort that escaped him as he realized who this mysterious demoness really was. Though the pig demon couldn’t help but wonder where his elder sister had been all this time, cause there’s no way in HELL wukong had spent all this time trapped, he knows them too well for that to be the case. “What a thing to witness, seeing elder sister reduced to using tricks of illusion to trick these demons, this’ll sure be a sight.” Hearing this Wujing, who sat on the ground tied up in rope, simply rolled his eyes upon hearing this, having expected his second eldest brother to make fun of their sister instead of being grateful for her trying to save them at all. And that’s even putting into question if wukong even knew bājie was here at all. “Gee, you’re sure one to talk, you being disrespectful to our elder sister while being rendered defenseless by being hung up.”

To this the pig demon shook his head, his long ears swinging with his movement, “I know what I’m doing, brother.” That seemed to leave the fish demon confused, who cocked his head to the side and asked, “okay, then what are you doing? Cause I don’t see anything good that could come from you making fun of wukong.”

“I was at first afraid upon seeing that vicious looking vixen demoness strolling in with her intimidating eura, we’d be cooked and eaten in no time flat. But upon looking closer I realized that it’s not her, but in fact wukong in disguise.”

Wujing nodded, having guessed that’d be the case. It would certainly explain why it’s taken them so long to get here, “that does explain some things, but i still don’t know why you would be laughing about it, shouldn’t you be overjoyed?”

“When the vixen demoness leant forward to say “get up children,” a monkey’s tail suddenly sprung out from beneath her, and we only know one monkey around these parts. As to how I saw this, I have a better vantage point cause I’m hung up here while you’re tied up down there on the ground-”

“Stop talking brother.” Wujing interrupted, causing the pig demon to glare down at him, “let’s listen to what they have to say.” After a moments pause bālje nodded his head In resignation and angled his head towards the scene nearby.

“Well, boys, why have you asked me here?” Wukong asked as she sat across from the two demon kings, noticing that upon being closer the two horned demons were a lot shorter than they expected, even with her illusion magic having shrunken their height down to match the height of the actual vixen. If anything they look a lot younger, looking between the ages of teens to early adulthood. This thought suddenly brought an unfortunate deep ache in the center of her being at the thought that they could have killed off two young children’s mother.

Wukong tried to reign on their emotions as she tried to focus on the situation at hand, “mother,” yin replied, unknowingly sending a joint of pain to the monkey demoness’s core, “we’ve been most discourteous to you for many days and not done our duty by you. But this morning we happened to capture the tang priest from the east, and we wouldn’t have dreamed of eating him by ourselves. So we invited you over to present to you live. Then we will cook him and offer him to you to eat, and doing so will prolong your life just as much as the other celestial and otherworldly beings you’ve consumed in your lifetime.”

To this wukong replied, feeling rather queasy at the thought of eating the flesh of her dead master, and would much rather prefer to eat anything else they had “I won’t eat the tang monks flesh, dear boys,” wukong replied, “but they do say that pig’s ears are delicious any time of the year,” the monkey demoness continued, having noticed bāije hanging off from a roof beam a few meters away upon walking in to the entrance hall, having quickly put two and two together as to where her cursed younger brother had been all this time, and was currently thinking up a million ways to beat his ass black and blue once this whole situation is over and dealt with. But for now scaring him shitless will have to suffice for now. “Could you cut them off and have them prepared?”

“OH SHAME ON YOU, YOU CURSED BAG OF FAT AND FUR!! SOMEONE GET ME DOWN FROM HERE SO I CAN WALLOP THAT COLD SON OF A BITCH!!! Bājie squealed in anger as he kicked and screamed while everyone looked on in shock, everyone except for one certain fish demon who was openly glaring at the pig demon for making such a scene. Wishing more than anything that he wasn’t tied up at the moment so he could bury his face in his hands in exasperation.

Unfortunately the situation seemed to get worse as in a span of a second a crowd of little demons burst into the entrance hall in a panic, including mountain rangers and door keepers, “DISASTER, YOUR MAJESTIES!! SUN WUKONG THE MONKEY DEMONESS HAS KILLED YOUR MOTHER THE CELESTIAL VIXEN!!!”

The moment the demon kings heard this, the horned demons were filled with righteous anger and sorrow, and before anyone could blink, yin brought out the seven star sword with an anger filled yell, swinging it down straight towards wukong’s face, in which the monkey demoness was quick to move out of the way so that they didn’t lose an eye. The cave was temporarily filled with a yellowish red light and she was gone. Having used one of their many powers to revert from physical form to vapor, something that couldn’t be penetrated from any kind of weapon. At once yin was struck with ice cold terror as he frantically looked around for even a glance of the golden monkey demoness. And if even king yin didn’t know what to make of this, there’s no hope any of the little demons stood a chance at understanding what had happened, and soon enough the entire cave was full of frightened screams, nothing but blurred figures could be seen running everywhere in a panic, some jumping out of windows and doors, and some even trying to find the monkey demoness themselves, but none were successful.

After a while of this, yin rushed over to his older brother and said, breathing heavily and completely out of breath, “brother. We should just give the tang priest, and his other followers to her already, cause there’s no chance in any of the realms that we stand even a fraction of a chance between them.”

“What a thing to say, younger brother!” Jin replied with a laugh, full of a mix of arrogance and shock, surprised that his brother would even suggest cutting off the battle between the monkey demoness before it had even begun, cause things were different now that she’s in their territory now. “Goodness only knows how much trouble we went to in order to even get the tang priest in the first place, and now that the demoness responsible for killing our one and only mother is here, you just want to hand them away on a silver planter just because you’re a little scared??? Brother, do you have no shame or dignity!? If you’re so afraid of them then you might as well sit down and let me get some much needed revenge for our poor mothers death, cause now things have been made personal, and I won’t let this foul demoness leave this cave alive after what she had done. I may have heard stories about how strong and fearsome this demoness is, but I still haven’t had a chance to test my skill against them until now. Bring me my armor, I’m gonna try my hand at finding her and fight them one on one. And if she can’t defeat me then the tang priest will be ours to eat.”

With a nod, yin ordered his older brother's armor to be sent, in which the remaining junior demons who had not lost their heads bowed deeply and went to retrieve it. When Jin was fully accurered, he took his sword in his hand and went outside to call out, “SUN WUKONG, I CHALLENGE YOU TO FIGHT ME FOR THE LIFE OF THE TANG PRIEST, SO STOP HIDING LIKE A COWARD AND GET OUT HERE!!”

The moment these words escaped his mouth, a deep sound that sounded much like a mix between a chuckle and a growl resounded from an unknown source in the surrounding area, which caused the angered horned copper demon to frantically look around in search of the monkey demoness in question. This gave wukong ample opportunity to appear above the clouds in her physical form and land towards the ground with a earth shattering boom that created a huge crater in their wake, causing Jin to jump and whip around to look on in shock as the monkey demoness emerged from the crater with a sinister grin and glowing red eyes that sent a cold shiver down his spine.

“Sun wukong.” Yin spoke once he regained his composure, “give back our treasures and face the consequences of killing me and my brother’s mother, and if you manage to beat me in battle I’ll give the tang priest back to you.” To this, Wukong's grin turned into a deep scowl as she tightened their grip over her cudgel, “what a revolting demon you are, demanding anything from me when you don’t even know what you’re up against. Instead of acting like you’re anything remotely above me, I suggest you give me the tang priest along with my brothers, some traveling expenses for our journey west and I won't need to break every bone you have and leave you defenseless on the ground. And if you even think about disrespecting me by refusing to do as I say you’d better begin praying to the Buddha above that you may end up in front of the gates of heaven, cause I’ll make sure to put you through the most excruciating pain imaginable that will leave you begging for me to end your life.”

Upon hearing these chilling words, Jin summoned a cloud underneath himself and flew into the air and straight towards them, sword ready to cut the monkey demoness through the middle, who upon seeing him coming, met his strike with her cudgel, creating a loud explosion that spread through the area, flattening the grass and shattering nearby boulders.

A general against a worthy foe, a well matched demoness who knew her way around a battlefield. Only against a worthy foe may the general win glory. When these devine warriors clash it was much like two tigers over a prime piece of meat, neither one of them intending on letting the other win. Or dragons struggling against the mighty current of the sea, fighting for land or food. Where dragons struggle, their scales glisten against the light of the sun and moon. And when tigers fight claws and teeth wreak havoc upon any stretch of skin they can find.

One twists and turns, creating strong gusts of wind in their wake as they make a thousand maneuvers in an attempt to get the upper hand, while the other moves to and fro, neither relaxing for an instant, cause that’s all the time it takes for one to land a devastating blow. The golden banded cudgel comes within inches of the horned demons skull, while the seven star sword strives for a thrust to the heart. One strikes fear into anyone unfortunate enough to witness its power, while the other’s wrath is more terrible than lightning.

The two of them fought thirty rounds while the copper kings younger brother and all the junior demons stood and watched on in fright, but neither managed to make it on top. Wukong was delighted, pleasantly surprised that the horned demon could stand up against them. So this vicious demon seems to be a match for me in the art of fighting, wukong thought to herself. I’ve already got his three treasures, so I’m only wasting my time slogging it out with him like this. So it’d be much better to pop him in the gourd I have on hand or the vase, but that would do no good, cause there’s always the chance that he could find a way to escape somehow. Wukong reflected further, as the saying goes, “a possession is at its owners disposal” if they don’t do what I tell them, everything I’ve worked for will be ruined. I’ll have to lasso him with the dazzling golden cord.

Using one hand to parry the sword with their cudgel, the golden monkey demoness dug in the pocket of her hanfu, pulled it out and raised the rope with the other and sent it whistling through the air to lasso king yin. Unfortunately yin recognized the dazzling golden cord as one of his own family’s treasures and quickly said the loosening spell that he had been taught when he was young. At once the rope slickened around his waist and king yin grabbed ahold of it and threw it back at wukong, catching them. And before she could gather up some magic to escape, the eldest horned demon recited the tightening spell that caused the golden rope to tighten around wukong’s waist and arms, causing them to yell out in pain. Not wasting a moment more, king yin tugged at the rope and pulled her over, then struck seven blows at their head with his blade, and though this had hurt like a motherfucker, it did not manage to cut through the skin, leaving only bruises and bumps to blossom on the top of the monkey demoness’s head. Leaving wukong to glare daggers at king yin, wishing more than anything to kill him then and there.

Upon seeing this, yin growled and threw down his sword with a sigh, “if your head’s that hard, it wouldn’t do me any good to hack at you any longer.” The copper horned demon said, “I’ll just take you back and figure out how to kill you later. Now give me my two treasures back at once.”

“I haven’t got any treasures of yours,” Wukong lied with a growl, “so why ask me? If anything you probably lost it somewhere or gave it to the wrong person.” Not saying a word, the mountain king searched the pockets of the monkey demoness’s hanfu very carefully, causing wukong’s face to flash red in both anger and embarrassment at the closeness, found both the gourd and vase and dragged wukong back into the cave by the rope, her weight not seeming to bother him.

“Who?” Yin asked, too busy making sure none of their valuables had been stolen in the confusion after the golden monkey had arrived. To this yin rolled his eyes, “sun wukong the monkey demoness, who else?” He replied, causing the silver horned demon to whip his head around with a resounding crack. “Come and see.”

In a moment's notice, king yin was beside his brother, openly gawking at the trapped demoness, then looked back at his elder brother with a wide grin, “it’s her.” He said, “it’s her. Tie them to a pillar and once we are done eating the tang monk, we can plan an event to wed her as my wife.” Upon hearing this, Wukong's face twisted up into a grimace, not liking the idea of being married off to a demon like some living trophy. At once the monkey demoness was tied up while the two demon brothers went off to get a drink.

Once the two demons were out of earshot, Wukong began grumbling up a storm, cursing every single person she could think of that was responsible for getting them into this mess in the first place. This grumbling was the thing to disturb bājie, who happened to be hanging above the monkey demoness, and upon seeing who had been tied up below him, he let out a snort, “you’re quite shameless, elder sister, all this time of planning to save us and the master and you end up getting captured yourself. I’ve had enough, so we might as well die along with the master when those demons inevitably come back to finish us off.”

Wukong let out a growl of annoyance upon hearing her younger brother complain, “stop talking such nonsense, bājie,” they replied, “things aren’t as hopeless as you may think, cause I’m gonna escape.”

The pig demon looked at the monkey demoness like she had grown another head. thinking his elder sister had finally lost it, “how?” Wukong explained that they were keeping a keen eye on the two demon kings, who were feasting inside while little demons, most likely their servants, brought them dishes of food and jugs of wine. As such the two horned demons were staggering all over the place and security was very relaxed, thinking that now that the golden monkey demoness was contained, they could all relax and let their guards down, this was seen as a reckless mistake in wukong’s eyes, knowing that you should still be on guard if your enemies are still alive, cause something could go wrong at any moment. It’s quite frankly pathetic.

And since security was practically nonexistent, there was no one in front of her to keep guard, wukong used this chance to gather up enough magic from their core to give her enough strength to move their arms to slide her cudgel from behind their back which changed into a steel file. The monkey demoness then used her new found tool to cut the golden rope around their waist, and after a few minutes of this it fell limp across her legs, much to bājie’s surprise. Getting up from off the floor, Wukong plucked a hair from their head and created a clone of themselves and tied it up like she had been previously. Then in a flash wukong turned into another one of the little demons and stood beside it.

Up by the roof beam, bāije began to demand for them to cut him down as well, being a little too loud for comfort, as was obvious as Jin sat his wine bowl down to ask, “why is the pig demon yelling?” Wukong, now guised as one of the demon servants, came in to report, “the pig demon was just making a racket cause he had noticed lots of dishes being sent to you, so his gluttony caused him to start yelling.”

“Who said that pig demons were well behaved?” Yin replied with a too wide grin, “he must be hit twenty times on the snout for his behavior.” Wukong grinned as she was quick to fetch a rod to hit him with, in which bāije begged, “don’t hit me hard, cause if you do I’ll just yell even louder, cause I know who you are.” The pig demon said with a glare.

Wow, this bastard is making it really difficult to want to save his ass and instead leave him here to rot, wukong thought to themselves with a growl, leveling bājie with a glare of her own, “it's only for your sakes that I’m doing all this in the first place.” Wukong replied with a hiss, “So it doesn’t make sense that you would try so hard to give the game away when I could just as easily walk on out of here without rescuing any of you. So I’d suggest you keep that big mouth of yours good and shut, cause believe it or not I actually know what I’m doing, which is a lot more than I can say about you, who i could only guess was the first one to be captured in the first place,”

“You may have altered your face,” bājie replied, “but you can’t change your backside, what with that tail of yours sticking out all in the open. I don’t even need to do anything in that case, cause you are gonna be found out either way.” In response wukong took said tail and wrapped it around her waist, making it look more like a belt made of fur than an actual tail. And stood in front of them, still trying to steal their treasures, thinking that she had gotten this far, might as well finish what they had started. She entered the main hall and tugged at one of the horned demons legs and said, “your majesty, sun wukong is fidgeting around where they are tied against the pillar, trying to wear their way through the golden rope. I think it would be best to change it out with a thicker one.”

“You’re right,” Jin replied, taking off the lion hide he wore around his waist and handed it to wukong, who used it to tie up their clone, who seemed unbothered by this. She then tucked the golden rope once more into the pocket of her hanfu that was hidden behind their illusion before plucking out a hair from her head and turned it into an exact replica of the golden cord, which they respectively returned to king Jin. Who was too preoccupied with drinking his wine to look at it carefully as he accepted it.

Now that the monkey demoness had the treasure, she snuck their way out of the main hall, and once the coast was clear made a break for the exit of the cave, turned back into their original form and shouted for the demon kings to come out, in which the little demons at the door demanded as to why she was shouting, in which wukong said, “go inside at once and announce to your lousy kings demon kings that sun wukong the monkey demoness is here.” When the little demons passed on the message king Jin was greatly shocked.

“But that’s impossible,” Jin spoke, shaking his head in denial, “we already have the monkey demoness captured near our throne room, there wouldn’t even be a chance she could have escaped, cause I had entrapped them in the golden cord rope, which is made from the toughest materials in the celestial realm. I refuse to believe she could have escaped, it could be another monkey demoness we haven’t seen before.” The golden horned demon replied stubbornly, folding his arms in triumph, yin placed down his own wine bowl as he spoke, “whatever the case, you shouldn’t let yourself get so frightened, elder brother, besides the fact that you’re one of the strongest demons I know, we have all three of our treasures back! Maybe you should use one of them to trap the other demon in too.”

Jin nodded, “I do believe you have a point, younger brother. If that’s the case I’ll use the gourd and entrap that mysterious demon, and the effects of it will reduce them to putty.” With a warning of “be careful” from king yin, the golden horned demon fetched the gourd and bravely went outside, just to see someone who looked exactly like sun wukong the monkey demoness, complete with her entrancing chubby figure and strong arms and legs, the main difference is that this monkey demoness’s hair was a lot shorter, but still framed her face perfectly. Jin gulped as he felt his face grow hot, trying desperately to make his voice work, his vocal cords having grown lax and mouth having ran dry like he had been under the sun all day. “Where….” He cleared his throat in a desperate attempt to clear his throat, not noticing the monkey demoness looking down at him with a ghost of a smirk, but was quickly wiped away when he looked back up, “where are you from, madam?”

“I’m sun wukong the monkey demoness’s……cousin!” Wukong replied cleverly, lowering her voice down a few octaves to the point they were almost growling, noticing a shiver run down the demons spine, grinning inwardly, thinking that the golden horned demon was afraid of her, when in reality jin was extremely aroused, which caused a shiver of pleasure to run down his spine, his groin having grown hard as steel. “and I’ve recently heard that you have captured my dear sweet cousin, so I’ve come all this way to challenge you to a battle in exchange for sun wukong!”

This did not help the poor demons arousal, cause one of the main ways some demons try to win over potential mates is to challenge the demon to a battle, and unknown to wukong, yin and yin were one of those demons, so he about almost shouted in agreement upon hearing this false declaration of love, regaining his composure at the last second as he replied evenly, if a bit shakily, “yes, we’ve got her, he replied as he crossed his arms, “she’s tied up in the cave, as you’re here to challenge me to a fight it would be quite difficult for me to turn down such a fair madam such as yourself.” This last bit caused wukong to blink rapidly, not quite understanding that the golden horned demon was trying to woo her, “-but i can’t fight someone if I don’t even know their name, so before we cross swords in the battle it would be my honor to call out your name?”

“If you call my name a thousand times,” Wukong replied, “I’ll answer a thousand times more.”

In response king Jin leapt into the air with his treasure in hand, which he held upside down as he shouted “cousin of sun wukong!” While said monkey demoness didn’t dare to reply. Which filled the golden horned demon with uncertainty as he shouted, “WHY WON’T YOU ANSWER ME!?”

“Oh I’m sorry,” Wukong replied as she absentmindedly cleaned out their ear, “I’m a bit deaf, could you yell that a bit louder? Cause from my vantage point the only thing I can hear is the faint voice of a coward.” The monkey demoness replied with a sly smirk.

This only led to anger king yin, who shouted again, louder this time, “COUSIN OF SUN WUKONG THE MONKEY DEMONESS!!” Wukong continued to stand there with an unwavering grin as she thought, my real name is sun wukong, the monkey demoness is only an add-on to my name, much like a title, with a title not being the same thing as a name. As with my real name I would be put into the gourd for good, and as no one knows that I mainly go by sun wukong I can’t be sent into the gourd.

But unfortunately for wukong, even if a demon only says half of a demons name, it still counts, as wukong soon found out as they were forced to reply, much to her horror. With a roaring of wind the monkey demoness was sucked into the gourd, with the label inscribed with their name appearing on it.

The golden monkey demoness could feel themselves fall for what felt like days, seeing nothing but pitch darkness everywhere she looked, just when wukong was thinking of bringing out their cudgel to slow her decent, they suddenly felt the walls of the gourd slowly closing in on around her, growing smaller and smaller, feeling the edges of their plump stomach brushing up against the walls until suddenly she felt herself stop. Having gotten wedged in the middle of the gourd.

Wukong felt an intense mixture of emotions about this, feeling relief, embarrassment and anxiety well up in their chest. Feeling relieved that she would no longer be sent hurtling down to the bottom of the gourd, not knowing what lay down there, and was not only feeling immensely embarrassed, but was also mortified that her body had changed so drastically by the curse to the point that their body could be caught in such an unsightly manner such as this. The monkey demoness’s ears pinned back to the sides of her head as she covered their face in shame, her pudgy arms bunching up against each other and the walls of the gourd, which felt more stone-like by the minute. Her only saving grace in that moment being that no one outside knew of their predicament, which she was very grateful for. But that only led anxiety to well up inside as they caught flashes in the corner of their eyes of their time trapped inside the waterlogged pillar that the powerful Buddha had trapped them in after they had tried to overthrow the jade emperor all those years ago. Feeling the phantom sensation of water leaking in from between gaps of the pillar, the water filling up the small space until it was above her waist, and soon enough had reached their chest, only the monkey demoness’s head and forearms peeking out.

Wukong began breathing erratically as her brain tricked them into thinking she was still trapped, but in reality they were only trapped inside the gourd, unfortunately the similarities between the gourd and the waterlogged pillar was still too much for wukong to bare. As she continued on breathing erratically, her chest heaving up in down in time with their breathing, her stomach slowly began to fill up the already small space up even more, the ever growing tightness around them only leading for wukong to panic even more, leading to an agonizing cycle of panic and fear.

Unknown to the golden monkey demoness, the increasing pressure against the walls of the gourd began to cause it to slowly crack open like a walnut, causing air from within the gourd to escape from inside, this air being the thing leaving wukong trapped and preventing her from escaping. Thankfully even with panic tightening up her chest and forcing them to relive her worst nightmare, the golden monkey demoness wasn’t actually in any harm. Even with the knowledge that anyone that was put inside the gourd would be reduced to putty in three and a half hours in mind, wukong was the exception to this, having survived being placed in Lord lao zi’s furnace in hopes of being burnt alive for forty nine days, this had given them a heart and liver of gold, lungs of silver, a brazen head and eyes of fire with golden pupils. Making it impossible for something as simple as a magic gourd to turn them into putty, no matter how long she stayed there.

Meanwhile outside, Jin leisurely made his way inside the cave, much to Yin's amusement and confusion, having not seen what had taken place, “I’ve got her brother!” Jin exclaimed, causing the silver horned demon to cock his head to the side with a smile, “who did you catch, brother?”

I’ve got the cousin of that sun wukong trapped inside this here gourd of ours.” Yin replied, lifting said gourd in one hand and gesturing towards it with the other, both not noticing a faint spiderweb of cracks appearing on the surface.

A big grin split the silver demons face wide open as he let out a sinister cackle, “do sit down, dear brother,” king yin replied, “and don’t move. We must shake the gourd till we hear them sloshing around inside before taking the label off.”

Inside the gourd, wukong was still trapped in a panic until they suddenly felt the pillar around her shake around, which reminded them of when Tripitaka had released her from the confines of the waterlogged pillar. And with the memory of Tripitaka in mind, the monkey demoness’s mind cleared in an instant, feeling a sense of clarity like she was looking through a crystalline window. Finally remembering where they were just as Jin began shaking the gourd around, unknowingly putting even more pressure on wukongs stomach, but this time the golden monkey demoness had a plan. Since wukong was wearing a hanfu, it covered the entire top and lower half of their body. The only spot that was uncovered was the space between their legs, since the monkey demon didn’t think it necessary to cover that up cause there’s no way in hell she would let any creep look under there, and even if they tried they would quickly be sent to the doors of the underworld.

Looking down to the darkness below, wukong leaned over their belly, lifted up the edge of her hanfu up slightly, and a few seconds later a thin trial of piss spurted out like a pistol into the darkness below, wukong grinned wildly as she imagined how horrified Tripitaka would be if he ever found out about this.

A few minutes passed in silence as the shaking lessened to a stop, which took the golden monkey off guard, and looked around as if glancing around would somehow solve this. Turns out the horned demons were too tipsy off their wine to shake the gourd enough, figuring this was the case, wukong huffed as they thought of another plan, this one not as fun as the other one, but whatever gets me out of here I suppose…

“OH HEAVENS!!” Wukong exclaimed, bringing her hands up to their face is false horror, even if she knew no one could see it, they were always told she was always one for the dramatics. “MY KNUCKLES HAVE TURNED TO MUSH!! How ever am I supposed to punch the lights out of my enemies now!?” The golden monkey continued.

Unfortunately even after hearing this faint declaration from the gourd, neither demon shook it, not deeming it necessary yet. Wukong inwardly groaned as she slapped a hand to their face, and tried again, “OH MOTHER BODHISATTVA!! My waist has disintegrated now!!” This seemed to get a reaction out of them, as both horned demons visibly slumped over in immense disappointment, having unconsciously thought they could have a round with the demoness somehow, but hearing that her waist had disintegrated had thrown a wrench in that plan for good. “I guess if she has turned to paddy as far as the waist they don’t have any hopes of having a fighting chance, take the label off and let’s have a look.”

When the golden monkey demoness heard this, Wukong plucked out a hair and transformed it into the decayed half of their body, with spots of flesh peeking out from holes of their legs and stomach, like it had been sprinkled with spots of acid, and threw it down into the depths of the gourd along with her puddle of piss, as like a little present. And then transformed into an insect that perched near the mouth of the gourd, and as soon as king yin took the paper cover off she flew off out of there as fast as their little wings could take them, rolled their body in midair and transformed into ocean dragon. In this guise she stood in the far corner of the doorway leading into the dining room while king yin removed the stopper from the gourd, craned his neck and saw the decayed form at the bottom still moving around, like a lizard tail that had been recently decapitated. Not realizing that it was a fake, jin exclaimed in panic, “SHUT IT AGAIN BROTHER, SHUT IT THIS INSTANT, SHE HASN’T ROTTED DOWN YET!!” Turns out the golden horned demon was more horrified at the possibility that the monkey demoness could still escape even as he saw the rotting half of their body. Not gonna lie, I don't know if it’s my time traveling with tripataka, but I’m honestly kinda horrified by how little demonkind has changed. Wukong thought to herself.

Heeding his elder brother's warning, yin placed the cover back on. King yin took the gourd, filled a bowl to the brim with liquor, and handed it with both hands to his youngest brother, saying “please accept this drink from me.”

“Elder brother,” king yin said with a small smile “I’ve drunk a great deal of liquor already, I don’t think it would be best to have any more.”

To this king Jin replied, “but younger brother, don’t you see? You were the one that captured the tang priest, the pig demon and fish demon, sure it was nothing special, but I insist on offering you some more drinks to congratulate you on your achievement in tying up sun wukong the monkey demoness and putting in the cousin of the monkey demoness into your gourd.” As his elder brother was showing him so much honor and respect, king yin thought it would be quite rude to refuse a second time. But as he was still holding the magic gourd, and as it would be much ruder to hold the bowl with only one hand he passed off the gourd to ocean dragon who had just walked into the room as the two were talking, and as such would not have any knowledge of what she had been handed. Completely unaware that ocean dragon was actually wukong in disguise. And there they stood, holding the gourd respectfully as she stands in attendance. When king yin had drank the liquor they wanted to return the courtesy.

But stopped when king yin held up a hand, “no need, I’ll drink one with you.” They were both unexpectedly modest tonight it seems, Wukong thought in surprise. But still held the gourd and fixed their gaze on the two of them. And there the monkey demoness stayed and stood as the two horned demon brothers preceded to lose count of how many drinks they were giving each other with a straight face, but inside she was inwardly groaning at how easily the two demons had let their guards down once they were ‘defeated’. It was bad enough that she didn’t even need to hide it as she tucked the gourd up their sleeve, pulled out a hair and turned it into the exact replica of the gourd that she offered to the two kings. After giving each other so many drinks the two kings didn’t even check if it was fake or not and simply took their treasure, went to their places, sat down and continued on drinking. All while wukong
Gave the two a look bordering on murderous, having lost every shred of respect for the two in that moment. And walked out of the cave with magic, pissed filled gourd in toll.

————————————

As the monkey demoness had won the horned demon king’s treasure once again, having it tucked into the sleeve of her hanfu, they thought with delight, the damned demon went to such a lot of trouble to capture me, but as it was, its like trying to fish the moon out of water, it just can’t be done.

Once wukong was outside the cave, she reverted back to their original form, turned around with a grin, and shouted at the top of her lungs to be let in, startling the little demons that were guarding the gate with a start, It was around midnight after all, so most of the demons had fallen asleep. Once regaining their composure and seeing the monkey demoness in front of them, the little demons demanded to know why they were trying to get inside the cave, and at such a late hour at that.

“Tell your damned demon kings that sun wukong demoness is here.” Wukong replied, with a quick stretch, the little demons went into to report, though since they had just woken up, their response was very sluggish and wobbly. Once king Jin heard this he gasped in horror, “this is terrible brother! Truly terrible!” He said, turning back to his younger brother who was nursing one of his latest drinks of liquor, “it seems that after fighting and capturing and killing two of their kind, we’ve stirred up a whole colony of monkey demoness’s!! Sun wukong is tied up with the dazzling golden cord, and the other monkey demoness is inside the gourd. It just doesn’t make sense that there would be so many monkey demoness’s around here.”

“Don’t worry, brother,” king yin replied, “I can put a thousand people into my gourd, and at present I currently only have the second monkey demoness inside. So there’s no need to be afforded anymore of them, and if it will help quell your fear I’ll go out there myself and take a look, and capture them in my gourd too.”

“Do be careful, my brother,” Jin replied meekly, “I’d hate for anything bad to happen to you.”

With a grin and a wave of dismissal, the younger king went outside with his gourd, looking as carefree and lax as the wind.

“WHERE ARE YOU FROM!?” He shouted at the top of his voice, “AND HOW DARE YOU COME UPON OUR LAND AND YELL AND ROAR AT US, ESPECIALLY AT THIS LATE AT NIGHT!?”

“Don’t you know who I am?” Wukong replied with a cheeky grin, “my home is on the Mountain of flowers and fruit, long have I lived in water curtain cave. Having gone out of my way to grow more and even more powerful to protect my subjects. And unfortunately the jade emperor had caught wind of how powerful I was getting, and so cursed me with the hopes of breaking me down, but what he didn’t know was that the effects of the curse only made me stronger. And I caused havoc in heaven in hopes of seeking my revenge, but was stopped by the hand of the great Buddha.”

“For ages did I sit and agonize in the prison he had put me in, having been doomed to forever be surrounded by rocks and water, until I was released by a monk who I now serve on this long journey of ours. For our long journey leads us to the west to visit the thunder shrine to seek the scriptures and remit back to the south. And now that I’ve been unfortunate enough to meet you damn fiends, I’ve been forced to use all my most power spells and magic in order to fool all of you. So I’ll ask this one and final time, release the tang priest along with my brothers, so all of us can continue our travels west. I’ve seen enough savagery this past day to know that the world would be better off knowing the scriptures from the west. And even if I myself have doubts that retrieving the scriptures and bringing it back to the south will do human and demon kind any good, if my master thinks so then I might as well take him at his word. Now please for once listen to me before I lose my temper, for if I do you and everyone here will surely be wiped out before the nights end.”

“Come here,” Jin stuttered, his shaking grip on his gourd tightening as the terrifying thought that sun wukong had actually escaped from the golden cord rope hit him, but was quickly dismissed as impossible, knowing that his family’s treasures were the most powerful that existed. “I won’t hit you. I’ll only call out your name. Will you answer?”

“If you call my name,” Wukong replied, “I’ll reply. But will you answer if I call your name?”

Wait. What. Jin thought in shock, no, no it can’t be possible. Does this demoness have a gourd as well? I thought my family was the only ones that had the only magical gourd that existed? After all it was stolen from heaven, so there’s no way another one could exist here, she must be bluffing. “If I call you,” the copper horned demon said, “I have a miraculous gourd that humans and demons alike can be packed up in. So if you call me, what do you have to offer to compete with that?” King Jin replied with a smirk.

To this Wukong replied, sounding casual, “I have a gourd too!” The golden monkey demoness replied with a sharp toothed grin. This admittance shook king Jin to his core, but he had to remind himself that all they are saying are words, and she doesn’t have any proof for their words. “If you have a gourd like mine, then do me.” He demanded.

Wukong then produced the magical gourd from the sleeve of her hanfu, the sight alone filling the copper horned demon with terror, “look, you damned demon!” They shouted, flourishing it around like the prized relic it was, and once the eldest demon king had gotten a good enough look, she put it back up their sleeve in case he tried to snatch it.

Meanwhile king Jin was in a state of shock, having frozen in place the moment he saw the magical gourd, not only did it emit the same magic as his own, but the intellect designs were the same as well, being covered with colors of every flower from every shade of the season. Where did that monkey demoness get that gourd? He wondered, why does it look just like mine? I’ve seen some fake gourds in my time, but those were usually pretty easy to distinguish from each other, some being bigger and others smaller. But this one looked identical. So by that logic it can’t be a fake, nothing with that level of craftsmanship could ever be a fake. Filled with anger and confusion the horned demon shouted, “YOU!! MEMBER OF SUN WUKONG THE MONKEY DEMONESS’S CLAN OF MISFITS, WHERE IN BLAZES DOD YOU GET THIS GOURD!?”

As Wukong didn’t know where the magical gourd had come from, she asked a question with question of their own, “where did you get yours?”

Not realizing that this was a trick, king yin told the tale of the gourd from the beginning, “when chaos was divided and heaven separated from earth there was this lord lao zi who took the name of goddess nuwa to smelt a stone to mend the heavens and save the continent of jambu. When he put in the missing part of the heavenly palace he noticed a magic vine at the foot of Mount kunlun on which this gold and red gourd was growing. It has been handed down by lord lao zi to this day.”

Hearing this, Wukong carried on, “that’s where my gourd came from too!” She replied with that same sharp toothed grin, “how can you tell?” King yin asked.

“When the pure and the course were first divided,” wukong began, “heaven was incomplete in the northwest corner, and part of the earth was missing in the southeast. So the great taost patriarch turned himself into nuwa to mend the sky. And as he passed by mount kunlun there was a magic vine with two gourds growing on it.”

“Nevermind about the specifics about where it was found,” king yin replied with a shake of his head, “the only thing that makes it a magical treasure is if it can capture people inside.”

“Quite right,” Wukong replied with a nod, “in that case I’ll let you try to capture me inside first.” Finally seeing his chance to strike, the silver horned demon sprung into the air with a bound, holding out his gourd he called out “YE GOLDEN MONKEY, FROM THE CLAN THAT WHICH BEGAN WITH SUN WUKONG THE MONKEY DEMONESS, COME INSIDE MY GOURD AND BE SENTENCED TO YOUR DEMISE!!!” Without hesitation and without fear, Wukong replied eight times, but she was not sucked inside like king yin had hoped. The younger demon king bounded back down to the ground, stomped his feet down on the ground in anger, and exclaimed, “Curses! Who says the world never changes? This treasure of mind must have sprung a leak or something, for this has never happened before!”

“Put your gourd away now,” Wukong said, grinning smugly with a dismissive wave, “it’s my turn to say your name now. Oh, and by the way, you didn’t even say my name, so who’s to say that treasure of yours is truly broken?” The golden monkey continued as they inspected their claws, very much aware of the demon king’s horrified expression as the weight of his mistake set in.

With a quick summersalt, the golden monkey demoness leapt up in the sky, turned her gourd upside down with its mouth facing the horror struck demon king, too terrified to move, and called out, “GREAT KING SILVER HORN!!” And even as king yin had tightly clasped his hands around in a vain attempt to prevent himself from being captured, it was all for nought, for the power of the gourd was too strong, and his hands were quickly stripped away from his mouth as he was forced to reply, feeling like his voice wasn’t his. It was the most terrifying thing he has ever experienced, is this how all his enemies felt when being sucked into his gourd?

Shortly after, the silver horned demon’s form was surrounded by strong wind that dug into his skin as he was dragged into the confines of the gourd. In which Wukong attached a label addressing it to lord lao zi, to be quickly dealt with in accordance with the statues and ordinances, much like she would have been if the two demon brothers hadn’t gone drinking themselves dumb over their victory.

“Well, my boy,” wukong said, addressing the silver horned demon, even though she knew he couldn’t respond, “it seems you’ve tried something new today, instead of capturing demons inside your gourd, you have been tricked into being captured inside your own gourd.”

Landing their cloud, still carrying the gourd, Wukong's only thoughts was about finally rescuing his master and brothers as she headed for the lotus flower cave. The mountain's path was most uneven, so the golden monkey demoness thought it best to jump across the deep gorges in the path, which would have otherwise tripped or crippled any other human or demon who did not watch their surroundings. And as she made great leaps and bounds the gourd around their waist was shaken, making a continuous sloshing sound. Since the golden monkey demoness’s body had been so thoroughly tampered, it made it greatly impossible for anything to putrefy her. The silver horned demon, on the other hand, had not gone through the same feats that wukong had gone through to make them as indestructible. So even though king yin had the ability to fly across the land on his own cloud and had magic powers of his own, his body was still comprised of mortal flesh and bone, and thus he had quickly decomposed upon entering the gourd, much like someone being thrown into a cauldron full of acid.

Though unfortunately wukong didn’t know about this, and so still believed that the silver horned demoness was still in there, and was just giving her the silent treatment, which wukong thought was fair since they wouldn’t be much for small talk either if she had been tricked like he had. “I don’t know if that is piss or saliva, my lord, but I’ve played that game too. I won’t take the cover off for another seven or eight days, by when you would have turned into liquid. What color liquid would you be anyway, since you are called the silver horned king, and was thus colored silver as your name suggests, I’d assume you’d turned into a silvery liquid. So what’s the hurry? What’s so urgent that you want to escape so badly? When I think back about how easily I had escaped I would have thought you’d be out by now. Though just between yoy and me, being trapped in such a tight and confined space had brought back memories of a time that’s best left forgotten, so I’m thinking I’d leave you in there for a thousand years.” As she was carrying the gourd and talking like this for most of the journey back, they were back at the doors of the cave before she realized it. They shook the gourd, and it kept making that noise, how peculiar.

Thinking that the silver horned demon was playing a game with her, wukong continued shaking it, again and again. Much to the great horror of the little demons that stood guard in front of the doors, who rushed inside with the words, disaster, your majesty! That golden monkey demoness that belong to the clan of suns has junior king yin inside the gourd and is shaking it like a wicked madwoman!”

This news sent all the other little demons souls flying, and turned their bones and muscles soft. Meanwhile king Jin sat there stock still, having frozen in in place upon hearing that his younger brother had died. Collapsing to the ground with a broken sob and howled aloud, his voice full of grief, “you and I had sneaked out of the world above to be reborn among mortals, brother. Our hope had been to share glory forever as rulers of this cave. I would have never have expected a demon such as one of Sun Wukong’s clan would have killed you and separated you from me.” All the little demons wept and willed with their king.

Unfortunately the sound of all this howling and crying was too much for bāije to handle, who was still hanging from a hook attached to a roof beam. “STOP HOWLING, YOU DEMONS!” He exclaimed in anger as he covered his long ears with his hands, catching the attention of wujing, who was tied up with strong rope below the pig demon, who looked at the bāijie like he had gone mad, knowing that angering the demons while in such a state would only make them kill them faster. And even though he suspected his younger brother didn’t have much up there to think about something like consequences, he knew the pig demon would not want to be killed, especially if their escape was so close at hand like he hoped, especially if the news that wukong had killed one of the demon kings was true. Though he kinda hoped it wasn’t, since it would create bad blood between her and the master once again, and he deeply wished to not experience something like that again, parting from his eldest and only sister was bad enough the first time.

“-AND LISTEN TO ME!! ” Bājie continued, “Sun wukong who came first, the monkey demoness that came second, and the monkey demoness who came last our all the same person! She came in here by shapeshifting, stole your treasure and put your brother inside it. Now that he’s dead there doesn’t seem to be much need for all this crying and misery. Have your cooking pots scrubbed clean and cook some grill mushrooms and button mushrooms, tea shoots, bamboo shoots, beancurd, gluten, tree fungus, and vegetables. Then you can invite my master, my elder sister and brothers down to say a life sutra for your brother.”

There was a long span of silence that ensued after bājie had spoke, like every demon in the cave was Individually processing what the pig demon had said, until king Jin spoke, chuckling humorlessly, “i thought that pig demon there had learned to be wall behaved, but I suppose that’s not the case,” the copper horned demon growled, “mocking me like that, after I had just learned of my younger brothers death.” King Jin then called on the little demons, “stop wailing and cut the pig demon down, cook him until he’s nice and tender, and when I’ve had a good meal of him I’ll go out and take my revenge on sun wukong the monkey demoness, the REAL one this time.”

Hearing this had quite frightened bājie, who let out a loud squeal while wujing, who was sitting below openly glared at him, knowing full well that this was all his doing. A little demon standing near the two said, “but your majesty, the pig demon will certainly be hard to cook, what with all the fat he has on him.”

Thank heavens, bājie thought as he sighed in relief, “it’s true that i would not cook well. Hell, I’m sure if you tried to cook me right now, I wouldn’t be done until the sun rises above the mountain. Meaning that sun wukong would be far away from here by then.”

But before king Jin could think of this further, another little demon spoke, “it’s true that the pig demon would be difficult to cook with all that fat on him, but what if we skinned him first? I’m sure if we did that then it would be no small feat to cook him and dine on him before the nights end.”

“NO!” Bājie shouted in horror, “I’m done for! I’m done for!” He exclaimed as he gripped onto his ears. Before the pig demon could panic further a third demon came in from outside to report that sun wukong the monkey demoness was still outside the doors, yelling harsh profanities, and didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving any time soon.

“Damn her. That monkey demoness thinks we’re completely useless!” King Jin exclaimed with horror. “Hang the pig demon up again,” he told the two little demons who were in the middle of dragging a frightened bāljie to the kitchen, with one of them nodding and running off to fetch another rope. “And check what treasures we have left.”

“We still have three in the cave,” the third demon reported.

“Which three?” King Jin asked. “The seven star sword, the plantain fan, and the pure vase.” The third demon replied.

“The vase is useless,” the copper horned king said, “it has the same abilities of the gourd, which I suspect sun wukong had somehow gotten ahold of in order to trap and kill my brother. And since that cruel demoness has learned how to use the gourd, going out with the vase would be a death sentence. I’ll not use it, fetch me the sword and fan at once.”

The third demon immediately fetched them for their king, who tucked the fan inside the back of his collar and took the sword in his hand. He then mustered all three hundred of his demon army and drilled them in the use of spear, staff, rope, and sword. The silver horned demon then put on his helmet and breastplate, pulled over a cloak of fiery red silk. The demons fell into battle formation, ready to capture the golden monkey demoness in any way necessary.

Meanwhile wukong, who had slowly realized that the silver horned demon had rotted down inside the gourd, was in a mix of terror and guilt, having not meant to kill the younger king, but quickly mustered up her courage as she heard the sound of thousands of demons making their way to the double doors. Tied up the gourd around their waist and fastened it with thick rope they had found in the surrounding area, and prepared to fight. Her gold banded cudgel quickly materializing is their hand just as king Jin, his red battle flag unfurled behind him, leapt out through the doors of the cave and landed right in front of her with a thunderous sound.

Dazzling bright were the tassels on his helmet, brilliantly colored was the belt around his waist. The armor he wore was made of dragon scales that were covered with a cloak of burning fire.

Lightning seemed to flash in his glaring eyes, as smoke curled up from his bristles or steel. Lightly he lifted the seven starred sword, his shoulders covered by the plantain fan. He moved like clouds drifting from an island, his steps sounding like thunder bolts striking down on the mountains. His mighty prowess would oppress heaven’s warriors as he wrathfully led his demon army from the cave.

King jin ordered his demon army to battle positions, and once he set his eyes on the cursed monkey demoness, who still held the gourd that contained his brother’s essence around her waist, he began hurling insults like strikes from his sword. “YOU ILL MANNERED APE, YOU MURDERED MY BROTHER AND DESTROYED THE LIFE WE HAD MADE FOR OURSELVES HERE. YOU’RE UTTERLY LOATHSOME!!”

Wukong’s brows furrowed as they tightened her grip around their weapon, knowing that even if the youngest kings death was a mistake, there would be no worth trying to apologize. And spoke, “you desire to hang onto your cruel life for all your worth, even while knowing that countless people have died by your hands. So how do you expect me to stand idly by while my master and my brothers are all hung up in your cave to be eaten? It’s intolerable. Hand them over to me this instant, and while your at it you may as well throw in some generous traveling expenses for all you’ve put me, and my master and my brothers through, it’s only fair. Then I’ll cheerfully be on my way, with you and your demon armies bones and muscles nice and intact in your bodies.”

With a growl, the copper horned demon lifted his sword and struck at the golden monkey demoness, who returned his strike with one of her own. The gold banded cudgel and the seven starred sword flashed like lightning as they met. The strong wind from the impact stunned everyone I. The surrounding area, strong enough to cut down trees. One, powered by the grief and sorrow of one who had lost both his mother and brother on the same day, wanted to be rid of the demoness who was responsible. While the other’s actions were fueled by the need to rescue their master and brothers, and had unfortunately slain the lives of countless demons in the process. Their actions may have not been good, but the reasons for doing so were.

The two sides seethed with hatred for one another, each of them sharing equal loathing for each other. They fought so hard that heaven and earth were thrown into darkness, leaving both gods and demons terrified, one’s that were not in the general vicinity completely unaware of what had transpired. And the gods stumbled around in a great panic while one certain god made his way down to the earth below.

And as the sun was covered by great and powerful clouds dragons and tigers were left terrified, the dragons having hidden themselves away in their castles and tigers leapt into their burrows and dens. One gnashed his teeth, while the other glared with eyes full of fire and gold.

Moving to and fro the two showed off their valor, stuck in an endless play of sword and cudgel. When the two had fought twenty rounds and neither emerged the victor, king Jin waved the scabbard of his sword and called for all his demons forward. Over three hundred of them rushed up and surrounded wukong, with the golden monkey demoness, quite unperturbed, used her cudgel to strike and parry to either side, before and behind. The little demons had great skill, and fought their way closer to them, tying her up as if in a tangle of silk floss as they tugged at her waist and legs. They would not retreat, realizing that fighting like this wasn’t quite working, wukong closed their eyes tight and focused their eternal magic to create multiple copies of herself, every last one welding cudgels of their own, and were quick to attack the surrounding demons.

The little demons were so alarmed by this as they all reported, “YOUR MAJESTY!!” They yelled, “IT’S GOING ALL WRONG. WE’RE IN GREAT TROUBLE. THE WHOLE MOUNTAIN AND EVERYWHERE ELSE IS SWARMING WITH COUNTLESS CLONES OF THE MONKEY DEMONESS!!” Now that his little demons had been thrown back by the monkey demoness’s extra corporeal magic, the silver horned demon king was hard pressed, no matter how much he rushed around there was no escape from her.

In his alarm king Jin took his precious sword in his left hand and reached behind his neck his right hand to bring out the plantain fan. And then he turned towards the fire gods of the southeast and the constellation ligong and waved the fan. At once flames shout out of the ground, for such was the power of this treasure. The silver horned demon was truly at his limit, he waved the fan seven times setting great fires growing higher and higher that it reached towards the heavens to burn, and scorched the earth below.

It was not a heavenly fire, nor was it one from a furnace. It did not belong on a mountain in the form of a campfire that gently warms the tired and cold bodies of weary travelers, nor did it come from under a pot. But the miraculous fire that comes from the five elements. For the fan was no ordinary object, it was not fashioned by human hand, it is instead a treasure made when chaos was first parted, much like the magical gourd. The fire caused by this fan shines and dazzles like lightning made of red silk. Burns and blazes like crimson sunsets, not a wisp of smoke, only a mountain enveloped in flames, turning the pines on its ridges into trees of fire, and the cypresses by its craig’s into lanterns.

The beasts that had hidden in their dens and burrows upon seeing the sky turn black as the night, rushed hither and thither to escape with their lives. The birds in the woods, to save their feathers, flew high far and high. The magic fire that roars up to the sky, destroys the rocks, dries up the streams, and makes the surrounding land red.

The monkey demoness stepped back in fear at the sight of all the destruction the fire has caused, being brought back to those awful memories of returning back to flower fruit mountain to see everyth8ng destroyed and covered in ash. Shuddering at the possibility that this mountain is experiencing that same exact thing. It’s true that since her time in the furnace it has made it impossible for fire to harm them, unfortunately this same thing doesn’t apply to her clones, who are made of hair and nothing else.

So Wukong dematerialized their clones with a shake of her body, leaving only one behind. Then, to avoid from the silver horned king from spotting them, the real them, wukong summoned her cloud and flew above the flames, heading in the direction of lotus flower cave to rescue their master and brothers, glancing back with a forlorn look at the forest that was slowly being collapsed on themselves by the force of the fire.

Rushing to the cave doors, she brought her cloud down to land, and found over four hundred little demons there with smashed heads, broken legs and open wounds. Turns out they had all been wounded by all their clones, and the ones whose heads were not smashed were howling in agony, either on the ground or standing, at the gruesome sight of their messed up limbs.

Wukong brought out their cudgel and laid into them, swinging it around. The poor demons that were still alive, who had suffered the fruit of so much hard work to acquire human-esc forms, became so many pieces of worn and hairy hide once more.

After ridding themselves of the little demons that were blocking her way from the inside, the golden monkey demoness stormed into the cave with the flexibility and agility of a cheetah, in search of her master. Though skeeded to a stop upon seeing more flames had found its way inside the cave, filling them with panic, worrying for all their worth about the possibility that her master and brothers are among the flames. Trying desperately to focus on calming their breathing so as not to have a full on panic attack, Wukong looked around more carefully and saw, but to her great relief that the fire wasn’t fire at all, but was actually a golden glow. Calmed by the fact that her master and brothers weren’t in any immediate danger, the monkey demoness followed the light to see that it was coming from a vase of mutton jade.

“What a beauty,” wukong said, admiring how the translucent vase simmered and shined no matter which way she looked, remembering how this was the same vase that gave off the same glow that guided her to the bovine twins that they had tricked and stolen from a few days ago. Wait, wasn’t it one day or two? Wukong thought to themself, slowly coming to the realization that this ‘rescue mission’ of hers was taking a lot longer than they expected. Getting back on topic, wukong said, “one of the horned demon kings must’ve taken it off me when I was first captured the first time around, and now I see that it also shines when when it’s not used as a weapon, how nifty!” Having completely forgotten about saving her master and brothers for the time being, wukong quickly scooped up the magic vase into her arms and made a run for it out of the cave entrance with a cheeky grin stretching from ear to ear.

Unfortunately for the monkey demoness, upon making their way out of said cave, she was suddenly met with king jin, who had just appeared from the south, still brandishing his sword and fan. And before Wukong could even think to dodge, having been caught by surprise by the demons sudden reappearance, the copper horned demon king raised his sword and aimed it towards the monkey demoness’s face. But just as the tip of the blade was inches away from touching them, Wukong quickly flipped backwards, summoned her cloud and rushed away as quickly as a humming birds wings, leaving the elder kings sword to instead stab into the head of one of the corpses of his little demon minions.

Realizing what he had done, the copper demons hands began to shake as he slowly loosened his hold on the helt of his weapon, being overcome with remorse as he looked around at all the slain demons that had once been a part of his army and sobbed. He thought that things could not have been worse after he had heard about his brothers death, but now that all the members of his demon army had been slain…. He has never felt quite so lonely.

By the battle of the golden horned demon king and the powerful monkey demoness, all had been forgotten but the fight between foe. But now that the clouds of battle have dispersed, the only thing left in its place is a mournful swan who had lost its flock. Overcome with remorse, king Jin sobbed at every step he took as he made his way into the cave. Although all the objects and furniture were still in the cave, it was completely silent and deserted, for there was no one alive to enjoy such lapse of luxury with, now that it’s just himself. This only made jin feel even more lonely and depressed. With nothing else to do, king Jin sat down on his designated throne, trying his best not to look at the throne next to him that had once belonged to his younger brother, he slumped down on the table that were still cluttered with countless bowls from when he and yin had been drinking only a few hours prior, how could something so cruel happen so fast? He wondered to himself absently. He leaned his blooded sword against it, it feeling much more heavier than usual, and the fan tucked into the back of his collar of his neck and slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
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Back with our reckless and powerful protagonist, when wukong had zipped off atop her cloud, they had clocked themselves among the clouds above, much like an animal camouflages themselves to hide from predators, and brought it to a stop before she could get too far away from the cave. Still insistent on rescuing their master and sworn brothers, she fastened the vase she had found in the cave securely around their waist and went back inside the cave, only to find the doors wide open and the stiff silence that blanketed the surrounding space had been left unbroken. So the monkey demoness slowly crept stealthily inside, only to find the golden horned demon king slumped against the stone table, fast asleep. The plantain fan stuck out from his clothes around his collar, it was big enough to cover half of his head, looking much like a strange looking accessory then a weapon. And the seven star sword had been sat down leaning against one of the legs of the table. Seeing her chance, wukong slowly made their way forward very quietly, pulled the fan out, and, seeing that she had already a pretty good grip on the handle of the fan, turned her body in the direction of the exit and quickly pulled the rest of the fan out with a great whoosh, unfortunately by doing this, the edges of the fan had briefly brushed up against yin’s neck, waking him up, quickly shooting up in his seat, king yin looked up into the wide eyed face of his foe. As soon as he realized that the monkey demoness had stolen the plantain fan while he was asleep, king yin grabbed ahold of his sword and went after them, who had quickly made her way out of the cave the moment they realized the golden horned demon king had woken up, thankfully having the foresight to fasten the fan safely around her wrist, much like they did with the vase, now with her hands free, wukong quickly brought out their iron cudgel just in time to met the blade of the furious golden horned demon king.

The angry demon king was beside himself with fury. Not only had this insufferable monkey demoness have the gule to kill his one and only brother with his own treasure, slathered all of the members of his demon army, leaving him almost defenseless, but she had shamelessly stolen another one of his treasures without his knowledge. Suffice to say, king yin was mad enough to swallow Wukong whole.

Unable to let go of his rage, king yin viciously cursed the golden monkey demoness out while trying his darndest to leave a land an hit on them, but was left unsuccessful. “You foul demon have no shame. No shame at all, why do you continue on making a fool of me when I’m already down!? You killed my dear brother and demon army, leaving me with nothing to defend against. And to make things worse you’ve been stealing all my treasures, one who belonged to my dear mother, who you also slaughtered in cold blood. And for such heinous acts, you’ll be given no mercy in this fight. For you have never shown any mercy against me.”

To this, wukong scoffed, not feeling at all threatened by the golden horned demon king’s tough act, “you haven’t a link of sense, it’s quite sad that you think you are strong enough to fight against me. You might as well be a beginner compared to me would be like a newborn deer fighting against a strong buffaloe. I’ve mastered arts that your funny little head hasn’t even heard about, cause you and your brother have been huddled up in your cave drinking your days away, kidnapping any stray travelers that could satisfy your hunger and power, not even wondering what life could be like outside the borders of your home.”

Growling furiously, stream begin to flow from king yins nose like a angry bull, this damned monkey demoness has NO IDEA what me and my brother have been through, king yin thought to himself as he brought out his seven star sword once more, and she still DARES to assume we are nothing but lowly demons, when in fact my brother and i were assistants to lord lao zi, but after realizing we didn’t enjoy that kinda life, we snuck out and escaped down here to live our lives the way WE want to, and not being ordered around by anyone thinking they are above us.

In seconds the sword clashed harshly against the mighty cudgel belonging to the powerful monkey demoness, who stood firm against the immense force of the seven starred sword, the weapon doing surprisingly well against her prized weapon. Wukong's body stood as still as a statue, gritting their teeth together in anger and determination, while keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground, dirt and stone gathering under their feet as wukong was pushed back by the power and strength of the angered demon king. Wukong still stood firm, she’s not planning on backing down anytime soon, especially as they were just one more battle away from finally rescuing their master and brothers.

As the battle continued on, clash after clash resounded throughout the deserted land around them as each side struggled for mastery, the sounds of fighting and screaming having scared away all the animals and birds that would have been grazing around the greenery, along with the forest fire that had most of them fleeing for their lives, while the ones unfortunate enough to be caught against the crossfire ended up losing their lives among the flames. leaving the sounds of cudgel and sword as the only sounds for miles around.

Both demons twisted and turned to show their skill in arms. To rescue the pilgrim priest and her dear brothers and journey such a far distance to visit the Buddha at vulture peak, metal and fire would not yield to each other. And the chaos of the elements, used to create each weapon and even themselves was strong enough to destroy the land around them. And if this power remains untamed, it has the power to destroy everything they hold dear.

As the two continued fighting for the next several hours, neither one of them even showing a hint of being tired, they sent stones and sand flying with each and every swing and clash they made. And as the hours ticked on with neither one seeming to want to stop in fear the other would pull a fast one on them, the sun began to set, coloring the sky in hues of reds blues and pinks and oranges, the low point of the sun coloring the leaves with its soft soothing light. Wukong would have gladly taken immense joy in the sight if they weren’t in the middle of battle, seeing that the day had almost reached its end, the frighted golden horned demon was the first to retreat.

After thirty rounds of fighting against wukong, by this point the sun had almost dipped into the surrounding mountains and hills, the golden horned demon king could hold out no longer and broke away and fled for the southwest, grading towards the crushed dragon cave, planning to hide out there to lick his wounds.

Seeing that the supposed ‘grand powerful golden horned king’ was nothing more than a cowardly wench, wukong brought her cloud down and rushed straight back into the lotus flower cave, where they finally located her master and brothers, freeing all three of them, the moment he was free, tripataka fell to his knees, much to Wukong’s surprise and discomfort, and thanked the golden monkey demoness from the bottom of his heart for saving them, with wujing doing the same, the only one that didn’t feel the need to show such compassion was bājie, who stood to the side with his arms crossed and scoffed, “I wouldn’t be thanking that wench so honorably if you knew just what she did to get here in the first place.”

Tripitaka stood up and looked at the pig demon with confusion, having been left in a daze the moment he and wujing were caught, and so hadn’t known of anything that had happened outside of where he was tied up, while Wukong avoided all eye contact with a guilty expression, fiddling with the hem of their dress in nervousness. The monk asked “What on earth are you talking about, bālje? I’m sure that Wukong had done the best she could in order to get here.”

To this bāljie shook his head, being briefly hit in the face with the tips of his ears in the process, “by ‘the best she could’ do you mean doing something like killing the mother the the silver and golden horned demon kings, or killing the silver king with his own weapon?”

The moment he heard this, all color seemed to wash clean off the monk's face, his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates while his jaw feel open like a drawbridge. All the while the poor monkey demoness felt so very small, wujing looking for all the world like a middle child caught in an argument between two siblings and his mother. He just didn’t know which was which.

The small room was blanketed on a thin cloud of tense silence. No one in the room wanted to break it, for they didn’t know what would happen if they did. Eventually tripataka seemed to have had enough. drawing in a deep breath, he released it in the form of a deep sigh, he admittedly felt very disappointed in wukong for once again resorting to violence, knowing that doing so went against his and his people’s beliefs. But he also knew that his eldest disciple may not have had much of a choice, and he didn’t know the whole story.

Glancing over to wukong, his heart was instantly filled with a deep sense of guilt when he saw how tense the monkey demoness was, wukong stood hunched in on herself with their arms tightly wrapped around herself in the form of a hug, trying desperately to make herself look as small as possible. Their face was scrunched up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Shoulders slumping in defeat, tripataka made his way over to his eldest disciple and, with the utmost care, gently placed his hand on wukong’s arm, briefly noticing how small his hand was compared to the rest of the monkey demoness’s arm. The moment Wukong registered the touch though they quickly flinched away from him like she had been burned, looking down at him with the same wide eyed stare of a deer. Stepping back, tripataka spoke, “look…wukong, I’m not exactly happy that you had killed people again, and I definitely don’t want you to do it again, but I’ll admit that I do not know the circumstances in which that made you want to do such things. But as long as you try not to be so reckless as to cause harm again, you can continue aiding us on our journey west.”

Wukong looked down at him, with a mix of puzzlement and awe, being rendered speechless, having honestly thought that she would have been kicked out again. But before they could speak, there was an enraged growl that was accompanied by loud stomping. The tang priest turned around just as bālje stomped up to him with a face as red as fresh velvet, “WHY IN THE THREE REALMS ARE YOU MAKING EXCUSES FOR THEM AGAIN!? DID YOU HEAR ME SAY THAT SHE HAD KILLED AN EMPRESS AND A DEMON KING!? YOU SHOULD BE MORE ANGRY ABOUT THAT!!”

Taken aback by this, tripataka rose his hands in a show of surrender, just as wujing stepped in front of him with his arms raised, “that’s enough bālje! We all know that you don’t have herbor the best of feelings towards our elder sister, but that doesn’t give you the right to take it out on our master. Step down or I’ll be forced to restrain you.”

The pig demons eyes widened as he looked up at the fish demon with shock, which quickly turned to anger, then resignation, shoulders slumping as he huffed as he made his way towards the exit, “fine, but just because you two chose to favor the one who had caused the most harm doesn’t mean I will.”

“I wouldn’t expect you would.” Wujing replied, wearing a stern expression, only to hide the sadness hidden within.

Desperate to change the subject, tripataka turned back to wukong and asked about the whereabouts of the last remaining demon king, to this wukong replied, glad for the subject change, “the junior demon king is inside this here gourd strapped to my waist, and I suppose he must have dissolved by now,” the monkey demoness replied, gesturing to the gourd, tripataka paled at the thought of wukong keeping ahold of essentially the personification of a corpse, but said nothing. “And as for the other one, I had actually beaten him shortly before finding all of you, and I saw him rushing back to this place called the crushed dragon cave. Also I know you won’t like me saying this, so…sorry in advance- I had killed the little junior demons surrounding the place outside, just so you all don’t have to worry about dodging a bunch of demons right after you got rescued.” Tripitaka nodded in understanding, again not liking the idea of violence, but understanding that the action wasn’t done with pure malice.

“Nonetheless, I am still very grateful for your great efforts at finding and saving us all from endless peril, wukong.” To this wukong grinned, quickly brushing off his praise with a wave of their hand, slowly coming back to herself,“oh please, you don’t have to thank me so, it was no effort for someone as strong as me, I’m the great sage equal to heaven after all, there’s barely anything or anyone alive that can hurt me!”

“Yeah, apart from the Buddha after you had tried to dethrone the jade emperor” bālje muttered to himself from his spot leaning against the wall adjacent to the exit. Wukong rolled her eyes, deciding not to dignify that with a response, “point being, you all only had to put up with the pain of being hung up here for three days at most, meanwhile I wasn’t allowed to stand still for a moment! Let me tell you, there were A LOT more demons I had to deal with than the ones ole grouchy over there had mentioned. I was rushed more than a postal courier tasked with an urgent message, having to charge around all over the place without stopping. I was only able to down two demons, who for your information I actually spared, because I wanted their treasures, so it would have been pointless to kill them just for that. I have standards after all.”

The pig demon snorted, kicking off from the wall and walking back over to the group, “hand over the gourd, elder sister,” even while he said this, he tried to make a grab I captured the younger for the gourd strapped around the monkey demoness’s waist. But cause wukong was such an efficient fighter, they easily dodged away from bāljie’s hands easily, standing in front of him so that her back wasn’t facing him, “i wouldn’t try looking inside there brother, I captured the younger demon king a few hours ago, so he must have dissolved by now. Even so, I wouldn’t be so foolish as to look inside when you don’t even know how it works, so don’t. Back when he had captured me in there the first time we fought, I tricked him to take the lid off so I could get away. How I had managed that is a very long and complicated story that we don’t have time to get into right now. Point being, we absolutely mustn’t take the lid off in case he is actually still alive, and is trying to trick us like I did him.” Nodding their heads in understanding, wukong, along with tripataka and the others fanned out into the rest of the cave and found rice, noodles, and vegetables inside the kitchen near the throne room, ecstatic by this, wukong, aided by the help of wujing, cleaned up the stove and cooking pots, and made a huge vegetarian meal fit for a king, there was enough food to feed every one of them, including tripataka.

Wukong was too exhausted by the grueling events of the last few days to worry about the huge amount of food she had given themself, having already checked and triple checked that everyone had enough food for their meals, and enough leftovers to last them until they reach a town before she had made a plate for themselves.

Afterwards, with full bellies and pleased smiles on their faces, the group gathered around a makeshift bonfire wukong had made from the remains of the charred remains of the chairs and tables from the dining room and fell asleep, thankfully there was no demons inside the cave for any nefarious reasons, leaving the group to sleep through the night.

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King Jin, meanwhile had gone straight to the crushed dragon mountain, not stopping once, until he arrived during the early hours of the morning, where he practically banged of the double doors of the cave that once belonged to his deceased mother, and called together all the demoness’s that had worked under her and told them about how his mother had been murdered the day before, his brother put into the death trap of his own making, the junior demons that had made up his demon army had been slaughtered, and all his treasures stolen. All by the same monkey demoness.

After hearing of such an atrocity, all of the demoness’s wept, turns out that they had all been waiting for their mother to return, but after hours and hours of waiting without hearing anything, they had been overcome with worry. But after hearing of what had happened, they all felt guilty that they couldn’t have helped prevent her demise. “Try not to worry yourselves like that, I still have my seven star sword, and after I make sure all of you are hidden safe and sound inside this cave, I’ll borrow some troops from my relatives. My mind is made up, if that good for nothing monkey demoness think she can kill everyone I hold dear and escape without any consequence, she’ll have another th8ng coming, cause I’ll make sure that I’ll seek my revenge and kill her before she can even think of leaving this mountain.

After such a declaration, all demoness’s looked on at him in a mixture of awe and worry, extremely grateful that he would go so far to seek revenge on the one who had murdered his family, but was also scared out of their wits that the same fate that had befallen them would happen to him as well. But before they could voice such a concern, a demoness that stood guard in front of the doors reported, “your majesty, you’re lord uncle from the other side of the mountain has arrived armed with soldiers.” Upon hearing this, king Jin quickly put on white mourning garments and went out to meet him in person.

This lord uncle was king septimus fox, the younger brother of the golden horned demons mother, who had come after hearing about the news of his sister’s passing by one of the members of his demon troop who had been out patrolling the mountains when they had witnessed the murder of not just his sister, but all the junior demoness’s that had aided her, by a monkey demoness who, after killing her had transformed into the exact likeness of the vixen, and then continued on her way towards the direction of the demon brothers cave. Septimus Fox had been bringing over two hundred of his own demon troop in response to kill her when he had heard word of his nephew arriving at the crushed dragon mountain on the way, and had changed course.

As soon as he had stepped inside and saw his nephew in mourning for his mother, the Façade of the brave tough warrior that shattered completely, and in its place was the grief stricken face of a brother had had lost his sister, and had quickly embraced king yin in a tight hug, both weeping aloud.

After composing themselves, king Jin bowed to his uncle and explained what had happened and why he was in mourning, with septimus responding about how he had heard of the news himself. He then ordered him to change out of his mourning clothes, pick up his sword, call for the assistance of the junior demoness’s and join forces with him. Afterwards both septimus and yin set out with their respective armies atop clouds of wind and mist towards the northwest.

Back with the others, wukong had just told wujing to get breakfast ready, and then gather their belongs along with ao lie, who had meanwhile been thankfully been left unharmed throughout all of these events, the fact of them being in the form of a horse being more of a blessing during this time, cause the monkey demoness wanted to set off onward to the west before anything else happens. Unfortunately these thoughts were sent souring after hearing the sound of wind. The contents of wukongs stomach seemed to plummet to the ground as she realized what this meant, going outside to look, Wukong’s suspicions were correct, as they saw a host of demon soldiers approaching from the southwest. Greatly alarmed by this, he want back inside in a hurry and shouted at bāljie, who had previously begun to slowly doze off into his plate of breakfast, jerked awake, “BROTHER!! That demon king has returned with reinforcements!!”

Tripitaka went pale with fright as he had quickly dropped the bite of food midway to his mouth. Bājie turned to wukong with a glare, “ARE YOU SERIOUS!? see, this is why you shouldn’t have killed so many people before getting to us, cause now we have to fight more demons then we did before!” By this point the monkey demoness had begun fidgeting with the cuffs of their hanfu in nervousness as they replied, sweat dripping down her brow, “don’t worry! Don’t worry!” Wukong chuckled, “fetch me all their treasures, and I’ll make sure to make quick work of them before they can kidnap you all again.”

After bājie had reluctantly gathered all of the treasures with the help of wujing, wukong strapped both the vase and gourd and vase around her waist once more, put the dazzling golden cord in their sleeve, stuck the plantain fan behind her shoulder, and whirled their cudgel around in both her hands in preparation for what she hoped would be the last battle against these fiends. The golden furred demoness ordered wujing to stay inside the cave to guard tripataka, while she ordered bājie to come outside with her with his rake to help them fight against the enemy.

When the demon’s line of battle was drawn up, king septimus fox took command. He had a face that was set firm like jade, with long whiskers, a brow of silver and long ears like swords, Bo’s helmet was made from refined gold, he wore chainmail armor and was armed with a heaven square halberd. And once he saw the golden furred monkey demoness step out of the cave that had once belonged to his nephews, he felt a red hot boiling hatred flow through his veins as he growled out, “so you’ve decided to show yourself, you cold hearted fiend. Tell me, whatever gave you the right to destroy the life my nephews had made for themselves? You’ve stolen my family's treasures, wounded my relations, killed my sister in cold blood, along with my younger nephew with whom I cannot even find his body to properly bury. And to top it all off, it seems you’ve decided to make this cave that had once belonged to my nephews into a home of your own. It’s enough to drive me crazy!”

“What assumptions you seem to be making, you old man,” wukong replied with a shake of her head, “you don’t seem to realize that those ‘nephews’ of yours have made quite the mess for me already, so they are far from innocent. But since you don’t seem to want to believe me, I’ll just have to knock some sense into you.” Wukong summoned their cudgel out of her ear, the golden monkey demoness sprinting towards him, wukong readied her weapon to slam against the fox king, and just when it looked like septimus was about to meet his death, he twisted around to avoid the blow, just as the golden rimmed cudgel slammed into the ground, creating a small crater with its impact. Once he was out of range, the fox king tightened his hold on his halberd and made a strike at the monkey demoness’s skull, but the action was deemed worthless as Wukong dodged away from the blow with practiced ease.

The two of them fought a few rounds on the mountain top until king septimus was too weak to continue, realizing that he was outmatched, the fox demon fled from the battlefield followed by wukong, who had barely broken a sweat in the fight and was ready for more. The monkey demoness was then blocked by one copper horned demon king, who went on to battle her for four more rounds until septimus returned to the battle once he realized his nephew had joined him in battle, so now it was two against one, a very unfair advantage for anyone else, but wukong seemed to be enjoying the extra challenge, and did not back down for a second, which surprised both demons, having never seen a women with such determination and resilience.

Meanwhile, seeing this scene unfold from the edges of the battlefield, bājie thought it best to join the battle as well, brandishing his rake with a high pitched battle cry, making the battle even. The battle went undecided for a long time, it lasted long past sunset and into the night once more. With each fighter blocked by another until one of the demon kings called up all the demon troops to surround bājie, thinking that if the pig demon dies, then the monkey demoness would be not too long after.

Elsewhere tripataka, back in the cave was sitting with his back against the wall, having no choice but to listen to all the shouting and fighting going on outside, while wujing stood with his back to him, focused on making sure no wayward demons made their way in, for if they did he would cut them down. All the while the fish demon hoped that the battle was almost over so that they could finally continue onward. Being stuck in this place for this long only seemed to remind him of his time living in the sands river, and how he had been stuck there for countless generations. The solitude was enough to drive him mad.

The monk was downright terrified of the possibility that wukong and bājie may not survive this, and after that the demon king would go on to kill him and wujing- tripataka quickly shook away these terrible thoughts before it could freak him out further, and after a moment he asked the fish demon to go out to check to see if either his disciples were winning. Wujing, glad for something to do, and perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the whole situation, raised his staff and charged out with a roar. Causing the demons that had surrounded the entrance of the cave to fight as well.

Seeing that things were going badly, septimus fox turned to flee, only to be struck in the back by bāije’s rake as the pig demon came after him. Once struck, nine jets of blood gushed out of the wounded fox demon like a morbid fountain. And the spirits true form carried on from the now dead corpse, having been nothing more than a mask. But simtimus fox wasn’t out of the woods yet, for bāije, as quick as a whip, dropped the corpse and caught him before he could reach the ground, it was then the pig demon discovered simtimus was nothing more than a fox spirit.

At the sight of his uncle being wounded, and having his true form being discovered, the golden horned demon king broke away from wukong and raised his sword to strike at bāije. Who parried with his rake. While at the same time the pig demon loosened his grip on the fox spirit, who quickly leapt outta his hand and fled into the forest, never to be seen again. While the two of them were fighting it out, wujing came up and struck at the golden honed demon king with his staff. This was more than jin could cope with, it seems, as he set off on his cloud of wind, fleeing south with baijie and wujing close on his heels. Seeing this, the golden monkey demoness at once went souring up in the sky on their own cloud, they brought out the vase from its place slung around her waist to capture the demon king in.

“YIN, GO,FEN HORNED DEMON KING!!!” Wukong shouted at the top of their lungs, tightening her grip over the vase so as to not drop it. Yin, in his panic, imagined in his delirium that one of his defeated junior demons was calling for him from beyond the grave, turned to reply, only to get sucked into the vase. Once inside Wukong slapped on a label addressed to lord lao, to be dealt with urgently.

The seven star sword fell to the ground, only to be picked up by wukong, who grinned in triumph at finally having recovered the last treasure. “You’ve got the sword, elder sister.” Bāije said as he walked towards her, with wujing at his side, “but where’s the demon king?”

“He’s done for!” Wukong replied with a laugh as they lifted the vase with a flourish, “I’ve got him in this vase.” Like bāije, wujing was both delighted and relieved upon hearing this.

Now that all the malicious demons had been wiped out, wukong, along with bājie and wujing went back into the cave to tell the good news to tripataka. “The mountains have been cleared and all the demons have been defeated. Please mount, master, and we’ll be on our way.” Tripitaka was beside himself with joy and relief, extremely glad that this whole situation was over. Thus master and dis disciples ate their breakfast without interruption, gathered their baggage with help from wujing and wukong, retrieved ao lie from the stables, and hurried their way onward west.

Unfortunately it seems the universe wasn’t done with them quite yet, for as they were walking along a blind man suddenly appeared from beside the path, almost like he had appeared out of thin air, went up to them and seized bi long by the reigns. “And where are you off to in such a rush, monk?” He asked, “give me my treasures back.”

“Oh gods!” Bājie exclaimed in horror, “it’s one of the demons we had killed to demand their treasures back!” Upon hearing this, wukong had half a mind to bury her face in their hands in exhaustion when she took the chance to look carefully at the old man before them with her golden vision, and it was here they saw that it was lord lao zi in disguise and rushed towards him with a sigh of relief, “what brings you here, old fellow?” All while tripataka and the others looked at the monkey demoness with odd looks.

At once the venerable elder rose to his throne in the realm of jade, drew himself upright amid the nine mists and called, “sun wukong, give me back my treasures.” Now understanding why he was here, Wukong’s shoulders slumped in defeat, having thought she could keep the treasures for a while longer. Summoned a cloud beneath their feet and rose up in the air to be at eye level with him. Deciding to play dumb, they asked, “what treasures?” Wukong even cocked her head for good measure.

“I use the gourd to keep cinnabar and the vase to hold water.” Lord lao replied, giving the monkey demoness a flat look, easily looking past their trickery. “The precious sword I use for refining demons, the fan for fanning the fire for my furnace, one I’m sure you’re well familiar with, and the golden cord for thing around my gown. One of those two demons was a servant boy who had looked after my go,dem furnace, and the other that looked after my silver furnace. It appears that they had stolen my treasures while I was distracted and came down here to the mortal world. By the time I had noticed they were gone, I had looked everywhere for them, and had not known where they were until I heard from one of the many spirits kept guard over tripataka about the situation. Suffice to say you’ve dobe a good deed at capturing them.”

Wukong massaged her temples, growing a slight headache upon hearing all this. “So, let me get this straight. These WEAPONS that i, my master and brothers have been dealing with, we’re in the hands of demons that had been working for you?? Of I had even an ounce of order over any section of heaven, I would have charged you for allowing these fowl demons to run a monk for this long. All this would have been prevented if you had just kept a closer eye on them.”

“Don’t go blaming the wrong person,” lord lao zi replied with a shake of his head. “This situation had nothing to do with me. If anything it was the bodhisattva from the sea who had asked to loan them three times. And had sent them here to be turned into monsters to test whether or not you and your master and your brothers had what it took to venture to the west.”

Upon hearing this, Wukong released a low growl between their lips as they clenched and unclenched her fists and puffed up her cheeks in anger. Thinking about how that bodhisattva is quite terrible for planning something like this. When I had been tasked on this journey to protect tripataka, I knew from the start that the journey west wasn’t gonna be easy. So when she had promised she would come and help whenever things got too hard to handle I was ecstatic. to have someone on my side, and in my ignorance I had never thought she would be the one to bring danger to us. If lord lao zi hadn’t come here himself i most certainly wouldn’t have given them back to him. Cause if someone as powerful as the bodhisattva wouldn’t hesitate to turn her back on me, I’d need all the help i could get.

After reluctantly handing over all five treasures, lord lao zi took the stoppers out of the gourd and vase and tipped out two wisps of immortal vipor, which quickly reverted back into the forms of his servants of silver and gold. And after kowtowing on their knees, apologizing and begging for their lives, in the end they stood on either side of him. Then a myriad of colored lights appeared and they floated back to the tushita palace and drifted straight on up to the dialup heaven.

Witnessing all this had left everyone in a state of shock, with tripataka having already fallen off his horse and began kowtowing the moment lord lao zi had revealed his true form. Descending down on their cloud, Wukong silently helped the monk back onto his feet, helped him atop ao lie, and ordered everyone to keep moving, all while bājie and Wujing exchanged confused and worried looks.

And with that, Tripitaka, wukong and her brothers continue to live another day. With dangers lurking around every corner, there's no telling how long it’ll be till the pilgrims reach the western heaven. But with the steely resilience of wukong, the fiery spirit of bājie, and the brash and brave power of wujing, they just might stand a chance.

END OF CHAPTER

Chapter Text

After heading west through great storms and frost, into warm skies and meadows, the group once again came across a big mountain in their way, and after the events that had transpired a few months back, everyone felt a bit uneasy around another such mountain. Thankfully Wukong didn’t sense any wayward demons on the mountain, and so was about to tell as such when tripataka gasped at the sight of the big towering mountain, “disciples!” The monk shouted from the back of the dragon horse, tightening his grip over the reigns in fright. “Just look at how high and craggy that mountain is! You must be very careful and on your guard. If a similar thing happened last time we came across such a mountain, I don’t think I could take it.”

Upon hearing this talk of paranoia from her master, the golden monkey put on a calm grin as they face him “stop your paranoid filled nonsense, Tripitaka,” wukong spoke, “and calm yourself. I don’t sense any such demons on that mountain, so I’m sure nothing bad will happen.”

“Even if that’d be the case, why is this journey to the western heaven so hard, wukong?” Tripitaka asked, if the man had hair the golden furred demoness is sure he would have dug his hands in it at this point, but since he doesn’t, the monk decided to cross his arms over his chest instead. “As I recall, I have been through four or five years of springs, summers, autumns and winters since leaving the city of Chang’an. Why haven’t we arrived yet? Or at the very least come across some holy grounds relating to the western heaven?”

Upon hearing this, wukong let out a chuckle, a bit surprised how their master hadn’t asked such a question before till this point. She would have expected from how much the man wanted to venture there that he would have asked plenty of times before this point. But perhaps that is for the best, cause wukong can’t imagine keeping her anger in check long enough through the journey if Tripitaka had kept asking the same question over and over. “It’s still quite early in our journey yet, we’re not even past the boundaries of Asia or India yet.”

“Stop lying, elder sister!” bājie shouted, having trouble coming to terms with the fact that even after all they had gone through, they weren’t even half way into their journey yet. It made the pig demon want to either pass out on the ground or turn on his heel and make his way back to gao village and beg for forgiveness. Anything would be better than experiencing any more of this. “You can’t seriously expect us to believe that we aren’t even half way in our journey, this must be one of your ploys, and I won’t stand for it.”

Wukong blinked at the pig demon owlishly, before regaining their grin as she continued, not expecting her younger brother to know what they knew. Back when she had talked with guanyin a few months back after dealing with the silver and gold demon twins, she had looked over the surrounding land, and with their eyes that can scan through thousands of acres of land, she came to the conclusion that they were still in the continent of china. So anything wukong hears otherwise they will see as false information, cause unlike them she knows the truth. “I’m not lying bājie, we really aren’t that far away from where we started, it may look like a lot from where you’re standing, but for someone that has lived long enough to journey further then this and back, the journey so far, excluding the demon kidnapping and rescuing, has been like a cake walk.”

“Don’t try to intimidate us by talking so big” wujing spoke up, feeling nervous by the news the same as the pig demon, “it can’t possibly be true that we haven’t even made a dent in our venture to the western heaven, you must have miscalculated or something.”

“If you two would look at it my way,” wukong continued, “the blue sky would most likely look quite different if we were as close as you’d want us to be, especially at night where there would be vastly different constellations compared to the ones we have now. The sun and the moon wouldn’t change that much, but they would probably look more mythical and holy, since they would be gathering up the excess energy from the western heaven that must be naturally abundant, and the mountain and peaks would be free of any malevolent spirits or beings. For such wouldn’t be able to reach a place so close to heavenly planes. But since none of what I’ve described is seen anywhere nearby, we are still in dangerous territory.”

“That’s enough of that” bājie mumbled with a shake of his head, not wanting to hear any more of this, “why don’t we just stroll around for a while then go back? Cause by my logic if we aren’t even half way to our destination, why risk our lives anymore then we already have?”

Wukong openly glared at him for making such a qrip, “don’t talk nonsense, dear brother,” the golden monkey reprehended, “we keep going until this journey is done.” The golden furred demoness shouldered her iron cudgel, tried their best to calm tripataka down, and stomped forward to clear their way through the mountain, all while not chancing a glance at the pig demon once. As Tripitaka gazed at the surroundings from his magical stead, he saw that it was a splendid Mountain View.

The towering peak reached high enough to touch the dippers handle, and the tops of the trees seemed to touch the clouds with how high it reached from the ground, from his vantage point on the ground, the monk couldn’t see the top of the trees. From banked up mists of blue came the shout of apes in the valleys, deep in the turquoise shadows crane’s could be heard calling among the pines. As the wind howled mountain spirits appeared in the gullies, playing tricks on the wood critters. Crafty foxes sit at the edge of rock faces, to the terror of hunters. A splendid mountain for those that crave the sense for adventure. Its every face towering and sheer, strange shaped pines spread their bright green canopies, from withered old trees hang vines of wisteria. As spring waters fly through the air, the cold breeze cuts through and chills anyone that didn’t have the foresight to gather warm clothing to the bone. Where the creg towers aloft, a pure wind strikes the air and startles the dreaming soul. Sometimes through the brief silence of the surrounding forest a roar of a tiger is heard, and often the song of mountain bird’s hidden in the treetops. Herds of deer and muntjac make their way through the brambles, leaping and jumping. River deer and roebucks look for their food, rushing and scurrying. Standing on the grassy slope, no traveler can see, walking deep in the hollows, all around are jackals and wolves. This is no place for a Buddha’s self-cultivation, but a haunt of birds and beasts. Tripataka trembled as he advanced his way deep into these mountains, his heart gripped with terror. Reining in his horse, he called out.

“After I grew in wisdom and took my vows, his majesty escorted me from the capital. On my journey I met three wayward ones to help me along as I rode in my saddle. Over the many hillsides and gullies I seek the scriptures. Climbing many mountains to worship the Buddha. I guard myself as if I lay behind a fence, as I keep asking myself the question that keeps me awake: when will I return to my palace?”

Upon hearing this odd statement from their master, bājie and wujing glanced at each other in confusion, not exactly sure what to make of it. While wukong briefly paused in her movements to glance over to tripataka and bark out a booming laugh, the noise loud enough to startle nearby birds from a nearby tree. “Why are you worrying so much, trip? You shouldn’t be so anxious with so many warriors at your back and call. Instead you should take it easy and relax, that’s what I’d do! Besides, you’re bound to succeed where others would have lost their lives in your stand.”

Upon hearing this, master and younger disciples had no choice but to take the monkey demoness at her word- they had lived far longer than any of them after all, they seemed to forget this fact sometimes- they strode forward and enjoyed the beauty of the mountain that had once been masked in the feeling of fear and terror. And before they realized it the sun had began to make its descent in the west.

From the ten mile pavilion no travelers leave, in the ninefold heavens the stars slowly blinked into existence in the span of seconds, the sky now dark enough to be seen without use of any such Extraordinary prowess. On the eight streams the boats are all in harbor. And in seven thousand city’s the gates have since been shut. The people inside going inside their respective houses to reunite with their families after a long day of working, among other things. while at the gates the guards gather themselves and get ready for another long night at watch.

From the six palaces and five departments the officials have gone, in the four seas and three rivers the fishing lines rest. In the two towers the drum and bell sound as one bright moon shone down on the land and sky. Once again beginning their own watch upon the land.

Looking into the distance the venerable elder saw many lines of towers and great hills, one behind the other, “disciples,” tripataka spoke up, at once dissipating the quiet lull of the surrounding land, “it's getting late now. I would have been worried we would have been forced to sleep out here on the ground as we have done since our journey has begun. But luckily for my aging back, there seems to be towers among those hills nearby. If my predictions are to be correct- and I pray to the Buddha above they are- they must belong to a Buddhist or Taoist monastery or convert. Let’s spread the night there and be on our way again in the morning.”

Taking a glance in the distance, wukong nodded her head in confirmation once they saw said building in the far distance, once again glad that their master seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, “you seem to be correct in your assumption, master, but do be patient in your willingness to stay somewhere warm for the night, let me examine the surrounding area to make sure there isn’t any unwanted demons around.”

With a nod of understanding from the monk, wukong quickly summoned her golden cloud and leapt up and rose above the surrounding vegetation of the forest to examine the land laid out before them very closely. Thankfully for the group it was indeed a Buddhist monastery that stood in the distance. A tilted wall plastered with red, with golden studs on both sides of the gate. Line behind line of towers stood tall among the hills, hall upon hall was concealed within the many mountains.

The building of ten thousand Buddhas faces the tathagata hall, the sunshine terrace opposite the hero gate. The seven storied pagoda gathers the night mists, the three Buddha statues show their glory. The manjusri tower next to the monks dormitory, the maitreya pavilion beside the hall of mercy. Outside the mountain tower the green lights dance, purple clouds rise from the void pacing hall. The green of the pines joined the green of the bamboo, all is purity in the abbot’s meditation hall. In quiet elegance the music is performed, and all the streams rejoice as they return. In the place of meditation dharma monks teach: many instruments play in the music room. On the terrace of wonder the epiphyllum flower falls, before the preaching hall the palm of scripture grows. The place of the three treasures is shaded by the woods: the mountains guard the Indian prince’s palace. Along the walls the lamps shine a golden light; the air so thick with smoke from incense sticks.

Wukong sighed in relief upon seeing such a peaceful building, having worried that they may have come across a dangerous place. The group had just barely begun to come to grips with what had happened a few months ago. So to say the monastery was a welcome sight to see would be an understatement. Bringing her cloud down to land, wukong reported with a wide grin, “well, it’s seems to be our lucky day!- er, in this case night, cause this is in fact a Buddhist monastery! And from what I saw it seems to be a great place to spend the night. Let’s go there.” The venerable elder let ao lie go forward again with a relieved grin, and the group went straight on till they were outside the monastery gate. “Tripitaka,” wukong spoke up as she once again glanced around, looking around at all the lively plants and trees and flowers surrounding the estate, “if you don’t mind me asking, what type of monastery is this? Even though I’ve been on this journey with you for so long, I’ve not been familiar with any of the monasteries that we’ve come across. So what’s the story behind this one?”

“It seems most unreasonable to ask this when I’ve only just now seen it,” the monk reprehended not unkindly, causing the golden monkey demoness to grin sheepishly, reaching to scratch behind their head in embarrassment, “but you’ve explained that you have been a monk since childhood, were you not?” Wukong asked, continuing, “you were taught Confucian books before you studied the sutras and the dharma. You’re very wildly educated, and on top of that you’ve been shown great kindness by the tang emperor himself. So how come you can’t read the big litters above the gate?” It’s while saying this that the poor monkey demoness was being given increasingly agitated looks from bājie, the pig demon thinking about how dumb she sounded right now, while wujing looked on with uncertainty and sad understanding, being the only one other than the master to understand how uneducated they really were. Wukong was unaware of both of these looks since she had her full attention on the monk in front of her. With said monk gently massaging his temples in aggravation.

“Ugh, I cannot believe this…” Tripitaka muttered to himself, not looking up at the confused demoness in front of him. “It’s obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about, I was urging the horse along, along with the fact that I don’t have the night vision you have. Besides, the letters are hidden by the dust, so that’s why I didn't see them.” At this wukong chuckled nervously as they turned around and stepped up to the sign to see that the words were indeed covered with dust. And since said sign was only an inch taller than the monkey demoness, wukong simply lifted her hand and wiped it off, turning back to Tripitaka with a grin, they invited him to read them.

With a deep sigh filled with frustration and resignation, the monk read it. On it were the words IMPRESSIVELY FOUNDED PRECIOUS WOOD MONASTERY in bold letters. Once read, wukong asked which one of them would be the ones to go inside to announce their presence.

“I will.” Tripataka announced, quickly being given looks of surprise from wukong and disappointment from bājie, both having hoped to be the one to go inside to announce their presence. He continued, “I know it may sound a bit harsh, but you all aren’t the best….well spoken bunch, and I wouldn’t want any of you to startle anyone inside with your intimidating presence enough so that they won’t let us inside, that wouldn’t be good at all.”

There was a loud intake of breath as bājie rose a sharped digit in the air, before quickly releasing it in a sigh upon realizing the master had a point. “…okay, fair.”

Wukong released a breath of air in anger, also realizing tripataka had a point, “if that’s what you think is best. We’ve been standing here long enough, so let’s go in.”

Tripitaka laid down his monastic staff, removed his cape that had been keeping in warm all this time, brushed his hands across his clothes to dispense any winkles, put his hands together and went in through monastery gates. Behind red lacquered railings on either side stood two vajrapani guardian gods that sat high. These statues both looked majestic and hideous.

One’s iron face and steel whiskers seemed to be alive, while the other’s scorched brow and bulging eyes were exquisitely carved. On the left were fists that were knobby like pig iron, while to the right were hands as rough as copper ore. Their golden chainmail gleamed in the light of the moon, helmet and embroidered sash floated in the loose wind that swept through the area. Many worship the Buddha in the west, red glows from the incense in stone tripods.

When Tripitaka saw these imposing statues he nodded, sighed and said, “if we had people in the east who could make big statues like these to burn incense to and worship I’d never have needed to go on this journey to the western heaven.” Upon saying this he realized how pointless thinking about how things should’ve been is, the reason why he agreed to go on this journey in the first place was to set things right. And after a brief moment of respite he continued on through the inner gates of the monastery. Where he could see statues of four heavenly kings, Dhrtarastra, vaisravana, virudhaka and yirupaka, sat the the east, north, south, and west to ensure the proper amounts of wind and rain. Once inside the inner gates he saw four lofty pines, each with a spreading canopy shaped like a parasol. He suddenly looked up to see the main Buddha hall. Placing his hands together in homage he prostrated himself before the images, then rose, walked around the platform on which the Buddha statues sat, and went out by the back door. He saw that at the back of them was one of which depicted bodhisattva guanyin saving all beings in the southern sea. The craftsmen was superb: there were figures of shrimp, fish, crabs, and turtles with heads and tails emerging from the composition as they leapt and played among the ocean waves.

Tripataka smiled sadly at such glorious artwork, being glad that such was displayed on this plane. Causing him to feel the possibility of this sorta stuff being displayed in the east that much more possible.

As his thoughts continued to run away from him, a monk came out through the innermost gate. Seeing Tripitaka’s remarkable and distinguished appearance he hurried up to him, greeted him courteously, and said “where are you from, reverend sir?”

“I have been sent by he majesty the tang emperor.” Tripitaka replied, “to worship the Buddha in the western heaven and to fetch the scriptures. As we have reached your illustrious monastery just as evening approaches, i must humbly request that we be allowed to spend the night here.”

“Reverend sir,” the monk said, “please don’t be angry with me, but I fear it’s not up to lme to decide. I’m just a lay brother who sweeps and strikes the bell and does menial duties. We have a reverend abbot inside who is in charge that I’ll have to report to. If he allows you to stay I’ll come out again with an invitation, but if he doesn’t I’m afraid you’ll have to look somewhere else to stay.”

Tripitaka nodded his head in understanding, “I understand, thanks for the trouble.”

With that, the lay brother turned and hurried inside to report to the abbot, who was also the superintendent of ecclesiastical affairs, “there’s someone outside, sir.” The abbot rose, dressed himself in his miter and his vestments, and quickly opened the doors to let him in. “Where is he?” The abbot asked.

“Can’t you see him, behind the main hall?” The lay brother replied.

Tripitaka, who was leaning against the gateway, was bareheaded and wore a monastic habit made of twenty five stripes of cloth and a pair of dirty, water stained bodhisattva sandals. At the sight of him the abbot said to the lay brother “you seem to need more of a beating yet, brother. Don’t you realize that I hold high office in this monastery and only receive the gentry who come from town to burn incense here? How could you be so empty headed as to ask me to receive a monk like that? Just look at his face. You can see he isn’t honest. He’s probably a wandering mendicant monk asking for lounging here because it’s late. Our lodgings are not to be disturbed by the likes of him. Rather he should instead be spending the night in the caves. Why tell me about him?” With that he walked away.

Tripitaka, having heard all of this, was struck with a deep sense of sorrow, tears brimming in his eyes and he fought back the urge to sob. He had been a monk since he was just a boy, all his life he had never thought of doing anything that would paint himself in unsatisfactory colors. He couldn’t think of a justifiable reason as to why the abbot had to say such disgraceful things, his only relief in this moment was the thought that Wukong wasn’t here to overhear all this, cause he knew that the golden furred monkey demoness would take this sitting down, and would definitely give the abbot what for.

Taking a moment to compose himself, Tripitaka took a few deep breaths to clear his head and thought to himself that he should just walk in there and ask him himself,thinking that if I try to explain myself and where I came from I could change his mind. With his mind made up, Tripitaka walked in through the gate to the abbot’s lodgings, where he saw the abbot sitting with his outer rubes and seething, his body tense with his shoulders hiked up to his ears, seething with fury. Tripitaka didn’t know from the pile of paperwork on his table whether he was reading scriptures or writing out Buddhist persons for somebody.

Not venturing to go in any further, having the distinct feeling he was already pushing it as is, Tripitaka stood on the courtyard, bowed and called aloud, “my lord abbot, your disciple pays your respects.”

The monk, very irritated by the fact he had came in without permission, barely acknowledged his greeting and asked, “where are you from, monk?”

To this Tripitaka grinned, not thinking he was gonna respond, “I have been sent by his majesty the great tang emperor to worship the living Buddha in the western heaven and fetch the scriptures. It was because I had reached your illustrious monastery at nightfall that I had come to ask for lodging. I'll leave before first light tomorrow. I beg, venerable abbot, that you will show me kindness in my time of need.”

Only then after the abbot slight bow and ask, “are you Tripitaka?”

“Yes, I am.” Tripitaka isn’t gonna ask how the abbot knew who he was, but that didn’t stop the spike of curiosity to rear its head, but kept that part quiet. “If you are going to the western heaven to fetch the scriptures, how is it you don’t know the way?”

This caused tripataka to raise a brow, having not been asked this before, tonight has a lot of firsts it seems, the monk thought to himself, before replying, “I’ve never been there before.”

About a mile and a half to the west is ten mile inn,” the abbot said, “that is where they sell food and you can put up for the night. It would not be convenient for you monks from far away to stay here.”

Thinking about this for a moment, tripataka spoke, “there is a saying, abbot, that Buddhist and taoist monasteries and convents are all rest houses for us monks, the sight of the temple gate is worth a big helping of rice. This can only mean that you can’t refuse us, what do you make of it?”

“YOU WANDERING MONKS!” The abbot roared in fury, startling tripataka quite a bit, enough so that he had to hold onto the frame of the entrance for support, “YOU’VE ALL GOT THE GIFT OF THE GAB, HAVEN’T YOU!?”

“Why do you say that?” Tripitaka asked, at a loss for words, to which the abbot replied, “there’s an old saying that goes, ‘when the tiger came to town, every household shut its door. Although he’d bitten no one yet, tiger’s name was bad before.’

“What do you mean by that last sentence, ‘the tiger's name was bad before’? Tripitaka asked, having a bad feeling in his gut that this ‘tiger’ may be a metaphor for monks. He just hoped that wasn’t the case. “Some years ago,” the abbot replied, “a group of itinerant monks came and sat down at our gates. Seeing how wretched they were—-their clothes all torn, barefoot and bareheaded—-I felt sorry for them being so ragged. So I asked them into my quarters, gave them the best places to sit, provided them with a meal, lent each of them an old habit, and let them stay for a few days. Little did I imagine that the free food and clothing would put all thought of leaving out of their minds. They stayed for seven to eight years. Staying wasn’t so bad, but it was all the terrible things they did.”

Tripataka’s stomach plummeted the more he heard this, and gasped when he heard about how long the so called ‘monks’ had stayed, he would never even think of staying anywhere more than a single night. The thought of staying for two nights turned his stomach to knots. He would never want to disrespect someone’s kindness so much as to stay somewhere for years. Even as his voice shook, he asked, “what terrible things?”

The abbot hunched in on himself as he recalled what had happened, looking more worn than he explained the tale. Desperately wanting to take back his actions of the past. “When idle or bored they would throw rocks around, or would tear out the studs from the walls of the monastery walls. On cold days they would burn all the window frames up, slept outside in summer on dismantled doors. “They ripped up all the banners to make themselves cloths for their feet, something they called “sowsks” traded our incense and ivory for turnips, stole oil from the lamp that never goes out, and gambled away all our cauldrons and dishes.”

“Oh dear!” Tripataka exclaimed in shock and horror, thinking that they sounded nothing like monks and more like demons, “I’m not a spineless ‘monk’ like them.” He said, almost in a whisper, on the brink of tears for the second time that night, but this time for a different reason, since now he knew why the abbot was so adamant on not letting him, a monk, stay the night. The poor man had his trust torn to shreds, and he could no longer bring himself to beg to stay the night. Continuing on for a mile and half sounded a lot better than butting the abbot through that torture again, even if he would never do something like that.

Standing up from his spot on the floor, having not realized he had sat down, he deeply bowed to the abbot, apologizing profusely about what had happened, and hurried out to see his three disciples.

At the sight of Tripitaka’s red face, wukong’s first thought was that her master was angry, asking, “trip, did the monks in there beat you up? Cause if so I can go in there and give them a reason not to hurt you again.” The golden monkey demoness rose her hands and clutched them into fists and made to punch the air. Causing tripataka to laugh at the action, the redness on his face lessening a bit.

“No, they didn’t hurt me.” Tripitaka replied.

“They must have,” Wukong continued, “why else did I hear sobbing? Did they tell you off? Just give the word master and I’ll take care of them for you.”

“No, they did not tell me off.” Tripataka replied, feeling a warmth in his chest at the thought that wukong would go so far to protect him, but he knew that such actions were unnecessary at the moment.

Unfortunately this only led to confuse wukong even more, who cocked their head to the side, looking almost like an oversized canine, “if they didn’t beat you or reproach you, why do you look so upset?”

“This is not a good place, is all” Tripitaka said, just wanting to get on the road already. Hopefully if they started walking now, they could make it to the inn before sunbreak. “There must be Taoists here then,” wukong said with a grin, having thought she had finally cracked it.

Tripataka shook his head, “you only get Taoists in Taoist temples, wukong,” Tripataka replied, trying to keep his tone level, knowing that Wukong didn’t deserve to be yelled at for being curious. “In a Buddhist monastery there are Buddhist monks.”

“UGH THIS IS HOPELESS!!” Wukong exclaimed, startling the other three disciples, two of which that had been snoozing on the ground, with ao lie laying sprawled out on the ground with bājie leaned up against him, using his abdomen as a pillow, while wujing leaned up against the sign post, having self assigned himself for watch duty.

“Wha???” Bājie mumbled sleepily, still half asleep, “yes, I’d like some more rice…” before falling asleep seconds later, a trail of drool slipping from his mouth and onto ao lie’s coat, who only chanced a glance at the pig demon before laying back down, too tired for this. “If they’re Buddhist monks then their like us, as the saying goes, ‘all in the Buddhist community are friends’ you sit here while I take a look around.”

Tripataka’s eyes widened in horror, not wanting to think how the abbot would react upon seeing wukong. He knew the monkey demoness wasn’t the most friendly looking demon on good days, but if she thinks that the abbot had somehow hurt him, they would not hesitate to resort to violence, and that’s not something he wants on his conscience. But before he could grab onto the sleeve of wukong’s hanfu, she was gone.

Not listening to the loud hushed whispers from tripataka, Wukong went straight into the main shrine hall, pointed at the three Buddha statues and said, “You may only imitations of gilded clay, but you must have some feeling inside. I’m here this evening to ask for a night’s lodging because I’m escorting the one and only the holy tang tang priest to worship the Buddha and fetch the scriptures in the western heaven. Announce us this instant.” Wukong reached up and, their eyes not wavering from the statue’s a smudge, brought out the cudgel from her ear and gripped it tightly in her hands “and if you don’t I’ll smash your glided bodies with one crack of this here cudgel and show you up for the dirt you really are.”

While the monkey demoness was letting out their frustrations on one of the golden statues, a lay brother responsible for burning the evening incense had lit several sticks and was putting them into the burner in front of the Buddha’s. An angry shout from a certain golden furred monkey demoness gave him such a fright that he fell over. Picking himself up he saw the figure of wukong towering over him, at which he collapsed again, then rolled and staggered to the abbots cell, not hearing a quiet “shit.” As he ran. Where he reported, “reverend sir! There’s a strange monk outside!”

“You lay brothers really need a beating of you keep making mistakes like this,” the abbot replied, already past the point of caring after spilling his soul to that other monk half an hour ago, “I’ve already said they can stand in the caves for the night, so why report again?”

“But reverend sir” the lay brother mumbled, “this is a different monk, she- I think it’s a she- looks thoroughly vicious! She’s extremely tall, enough so that their head reaches the top of the sign of the monastery!”

Raising an eyebrow at what he thought was an exaggerated explanation, the abbot, against his better judgment, having a feeling that the way this night is going he’s not be able to get any work done, asks, “what’s this supposed ‘vicious monk’ like?”

“Round eyes, the color of fresh spilt blood, pointed ears, golden brownish hair all over their body, long hair the same shade as their body, and looks as terrifying as a thunder god.” The lay brother said, breaking out into a sweat upon remembering what he had seen a moment ago, “she’s got a cudgel in her hand and she’s gnashing her teeth in fury like an animal. She looks like she’s looking for someone to kill.”

Sighing heavily, the abbot massaged his temples, not believing a word the lay brother was saying, “I’ll go out and see her.” The abbot said, thinking that if he goes out there and either sees the monk out there again, he’s gonna boot him out without warning, and if he sees nothing he’s gonna go back inside his room and lock his quarters until sunrise, and if it’s an animal that had somehow gotten into the monastery, he can easily get rid of it.

But no sooner had he opened the door wukong charged in, causing the abbot to stumble behind him and almost knocked his head on the edge of his desk, only saving himself by gripping ahold of the edge of it with an ironclad grip, staring stunned at what was before him. It was exactly as the lay brother had described, it looked human-esc with a few notable differences, one of those differences being the fact the being had golden like fur all over their body, with long golden hair the same shade as its fur. It was also EXTREMELY tall, enough so that the being had to hunch a little just so they didn’t knock their head against the frame of the door of the monastery.

What in the name of Buddha was this thing?

The old monk was so frightened that he fastened the doors of his quarters with speed he didn’t know he had. Wukong, who at this point was very short on patience, smashed through the doors like it was made of paper and said, in a growl that sounded both feminine and demonic, “hurry up and sweep out a thousand nice clean rooms for me. I want to go to sleep.”

The abbot, hiding in his room, said to the lay brother, who was also hiding with him, both trembling like leafs, said, “cleaning up that many rooms is impossible, since we only have three hundred rooms in the whole monastery, even counting my lodgings the Buddha hall, the drum and bell towers, and the cloisters, but she’s asking for a thousand to sleep in. We can’t possibly do that.”

“Reverend sir,” the lay brother whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible in case she- the demon came back, “I’m terrified. I think it would be best if you answer her, however you will.”

Swallowing, his mouth having ran dry, the abbot called out, his voice shaky, his whole body shaking, “venerable si- er ma’am! You ask for Lodging, correct? But our little monastery would be most inconvenient, so we won’t be able to entertain you. Please spend the night somewhere else!”

Wukong grew her cudgel as thick as a rice bowl and stood it on its end outside the abbots cell, “if it would be inconvenient, monk,” wukong said, spiting the last word out like poison on their tongue, “you’d better move out.”

There was a stunned silence as both humans tried to process what the demoness had just proposed, “but- but I’ve lived here since I was a boy.” The abbot spoke, coming out almost a whisper, “my master’s master passed the monastery onto my master, who passed it on to my generation, and we’ll hand it on in turn to our successor and our successor’s successor’s.” Goddess only knows what that demoness is up to, charging in here and trying to move us out.

“No problem at all reverend sir,” the lay brother said, “she’s already brought her weapon into the yard. I really don’t want to see what my chances are at surviving a bash from that.”

“Stop talking nonsense!” The abbot yelled, half out of anger and half out of fear, he really didn’t want to lose his home cause of an angered demoness. “There are five hundred of us, old and young, so where could we go?”

“If there’s nowhere you can move to” Wukong said, actively leaning against her cudgel, which at this point was half as long as the golden monkey demoness is tall. “Then you’ll have to send someone out to take me on in a quarterstaff fight.” She said with a grin.

“Go out and fight her for me.” The abbot ordered the lay brother, who looked at him open mouthed in shock, “reverend sir!” The lay brother protested, “you can’t ask me to fight with a staff against that. ... .….THING!”

The abbot shook his head, “you must.” He replied, adding, “an army is built up for many years to be used in a single battle.”

“Never mind her hitting you with that weapon of hers,” the lay brother said, “she would squash you flat if she just fell on you.”

“And even if it didn’t fall on you and squash you,” the abbot said, “with her standing out there in the yard, you might be walking around at night, forget she was there cause of the fact we don’t know how sneaky that demoness can be, you would be dead long before we found you the next morning.”

“Now that you realize how dangerous that demoness can be, reverend sir, how can you expect me to fight her with my staff?” The lay brother asked. And thus both abbot and lay brother quarreled with themselves, all while wukong stood outside, leaning on their staff, sometimes leaning back and forth on it, and half heartedly listening to the sounds of crickets in the distance. “Yes,” Wukong said once the hushed argument was beginning to grate on their nerves, “you’re certainly no match for me. But if I were to kill just one of you with this cudgel of mine, my master would be very angry with me.” If he isn’t already angry with me already, Wukong thought absently. “For committing murder again.” Even if MOST of my murders were justified. “I should find something better and non consequential to hit as a demonstration for you.” Finally standing on her own two feet again, wukong looked around and saw a stone lion outside the doors to the abbots room, she raised their cudgel and smashed it to smithereens with a single resounding blow. When the abbot saw this through the window his fright felt as if it turned his bones and muscles to jelly. He dived under the bed.

The lay brother climbed into the cooking—-stove and kept saying, still in a hushed whisper, “sir, sir, that cudgel’s too heavy, I’m no match for them, I beg you I beg you!”

“I won’t hit you monk.” Wukong said, “I’ve just got a question for you, how many monks are there in the monastery?”

“We have two hundred and eighty five,” the abbot replied, shaking with fear, not knowing why the demon would want to know this information, but it couldn’t be good. “And five hundred monks holding official ordination licenses.”

“Wukong nodded her head, even though she had a feeling neither could see it, “perfect! I want you to draw those five hundred monks up on parade,"Wukong said, “get them dressed in long habits, and receive my master. Then I won’t hit you.” I wasn’t gonna hit them in the first place, but whatever gets the job done.

“If you won’t hit me, ma’am, I’ll gladly carry him in,” Wukong grinned at this.

“Well, then what are you sitting around for? Hurry up then!”

“I don’t care if the fright breaks your gallbladder, or even if it breaks your heart, “the abbot said to the lay brother, who was looking at him with a tear stained face, having already cried several times tonight, “get out and tell them all to come here and welcome his grace the tang priest.”

Nodding, the lay brother had no choice but to take his own life into his hands. wiping his face with the sleeve of his habit, he wouldn’t dare go through the front door unless the demoness changes or mind, he instead squirmed out through a gap in the back wall and went straight to the main hall, where he struck the drum that was to the east and the bell that was to the west. The sound of the two together startled all the monks young and old in the dormitories on both sides.

They came rushing to the main hall and asked about why the drum and bell is sounding, for its way too early, to which he replied, “go and change at once, then get yourselves into your groups under the senior monk and go outside the main gates to welcome his grace from the land of tang.” All the monks then went out through the gates in a most orderly procession to greet him. Some wore full cassocks, while some wore tunics, those who had neither wore a kind of sleeveless smock, and the poorest of all who had no proper garment draped the two ends of their loincloths over their shoulders.

Seeing all this, bājie, who had since woken up after hearing the sound of the drum and bell, along with ao lie, who when everyone was distracted had wiped off the drool with a dragon-like hand, but was back to hooves when bājie turned back. “Master, how come when you went inside you came out with tears streaming down your face. So how come wukong knows how to make them welcome us with kowtows?”

Both Tripitaka and wujing glared at him at this, it being pretty obvious how the pig demon didn’t know what was so wrong about all of this, “everyone knows that fear is one of the strongest motivations, wukong obviously had scared them quite a bit with her vicious aura and terrifying weapon. It’s obviously not the correct thing to do, as is obvious by how tense and uncomfortable all of them look, I would much rather have slept on the cold hard grass than watch all these people fear for their lives.” Tripataka was very uncomfortable at the sight of them all kowtowing and bowing at him, knowing that he did nothing to deserve such praise, so he stepped forward and invited them all to rise. They all kowtowed again and said, “your grace, if you would ask your disciple to show some mercy and not hit is with that weapon of hers we’ll gladly kneel here for a month.”

Upon hearing this, triptataka whipped his head around and openly glared at the monkey demoness, who stood with her cudgel out, which thankfully didn’t have any blood on it, so hopefully that meant no one has been harmed yet. “Wukong, you shall not hit them, they haven’t done anything to you to warrant such action.”

“But I haven’t hit them!” wukong replied, lifting their weapon to show off how clear and prislin it was, with no speck of blood anywhere on the surface, unfortunately the sight of the monkey demoness lifting the weapon only caused the surrounding humans to flinch backwards with a cry of alarm. Wukong looked back at them with clear confusion on her face, then looked back at Tripitaka as they continued, “if I had, I’d have wiped the lot of them out.” Only then after hearing this did all the monks rise to their feet, cause even if they hadn’t been hit, they hadn’t known if that was gonna change, but hearing from the demoness’s master that she can’t hit them relieved them quite a bit.

Tripitaka massaged his temples, growing increasingly aggravated by this whole situation. But relea breath upon realizing explaining such matters would take quite a bit of time, and with the fact of it being as late as it was, the monk just wanted to go to sleep. Leading the dragon horse, shouldering the poles that were attached to the luggage, carrying the tang priest, they all went In through the main gates to the abbot’s lodgings, where they took their seats in due order.

The monks are began kowtowing again, “please rise, lord abbot,” tripataka said, “there is no need for any more kowtows, especially since I don’t deserve it. You all would have been better off if I hadn’t come upon your monastery in the first place. If only cause my eldest disciple had given you such grief.”

“But your grace is an imperial commissioner,” the abbot said, “regardless of how terrifying your eldest disciple was, i had failed to greet you properly, and that decision had done us in a lot of trouble, so it should be me who should be apologizing to you.”

There was a beat of silence that lingered for an uncomfortable amount of time before the abbot cleared his throat, “if I may venture to ask, your grace, are you eating a vegetarian meal or a meat diet on your journey? We would like to prepare a meal for you, it would be unwise for us to send you all to bed without food.”

“Vegetarian food.” Tripataka replied, having thought that would have been obvious, but he supposes that hanging with demons on his journey would surely change some things. As is plain to see when the abbot said, gesturing to wukong, bājie and wujing, “and I’d imagine that these reverend ... .er, gentlemen, like to eat meat.” The man had spoken without judgment, but it was plain to see to the golden monkey demoness that the man, along with the rest of the humans here, still thought of them as bloodthirsty demons. Wukong’s brows furrowed to the point her eyes her almost hidden, crossing their arms if only to raine herself in and to not cause a scene, instead wukong dug their fingers in her arms, trying desperately to keep a growl out of her voice as she replied, “no. We are vegetarian just like our master, of course we haven’t been vegetarian all our lives like him, but we still thought it best about changing our ways when this journey of ours began.”

Of course, the golden furred monkey demoness was right on the money as a chorus of gasps rang out throughout the room, the monks never having thought demons would even think of becoming vegetarian, they probably thought that all demons were too stubborn and cruel to ever do something like that, this thought only made Wukong even angrier. “Good heavens!” The abbot exclaimed in shock, it was like no one in this monastery had any manners, none at all, “even creatures like these can be vegetarian!?”

Before Wukong could even think to reply, a very bold monk came forward to ask, “sirs and madam, as you eat vegetarian food, how much rice should we cook for you?”

To this bājie blew a raspberry, thinking this question a bit redundant, even though these monks have never seen demons like them before, “what do you think? Cook us a bushel, and make sure to cook enough for both me and my elder sister over here, she definitely needs way more than me though for the sort of powerhouse she is, and also plenty for my second eldest brother.” As the monks moved as fast to clean the stoves and cauldrons, wukong sent the pig demon a seething look, red in the face in both anger and embarrassment, internally wanting to find somewhere to hide, but knew that that wasn’t an option at the moment. leaning over the table to whisper in his ear, “WHY IN BUDDHA’S NAME WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT!? they already hate us enough as is cause of us being demons, they certainly don’t need to think I’m a slub on top of it!”

Bājie rubbed his ear absently as he shrugged, not thinking of it as a big deal, “I don't see what the problem is, it’s not like we’re gonna see these monks again, why does it matter so much what they think of you? You already soured your reputation with them by having them abide by your rules the second you got inside, I don’t think they could think any worse of you than they do now.”

Wukong leaned back in her seat, brows creasing together in newfound confliction, having thought what she had done to welcome their master in was for his own good. But thinking back on how angry tripataka had been once they met up, it was obvious he didn’t think the same. “That’s- that’s different, we would have certainly been left outside in the dark with no food if I didn’t do anything.” Even as they said this, she couldn’t stop thinking about how afraid the monks were of her as she passed by them, even if they didn’t have their weapon out. They thought if she hadn’t killed any of them they would be less scared of her and more willing to help her master.

As the minutes ticked on in silence, the monks came back in with bowls full of rice that they set down two at a time in front of wukong and bājie, and one for wujing and tripataka respectively, which they both thanked them gracefully for, while wukong sat in her seat in silence and watched as Bājie began digging into his. Going back inside, the monks came back out with bowls of stir-fried string beans with tofu, along with vegan mapo tofu. Only when the monks dispersed from the room did Wukong begin to eat, a bit hesitant at first before gradually eating at a somewhat normal pace once she realized how hungry they were.

When master and disciples had eaten their fill, (wukong having gone through four bowls of rice and two bowls of the stir-fry green beans and mapo tofu, much to her surprise) the monks cleared the dishes away. Tripataka thanked the abbot while wukong and Bājie stumbled out of their seats, wukong trying their best to resist the urge to collapse on the floor in a food coma, resulting in the monkey demoness leaning against the wall near tripataka. “Lord abbot, we once again thank you for the food, even after the great amount of trouble we’ve caused you,”

“No, No,” the abbot protested, having heard the monk apologize profusely for most of the meal, the monk having only taken his fair share and left the rest to his disciples, one of whom that had noticed being wukong, who had silently kept an eye on him throughout the whole meal with an intense look in their eye to make sure he also got his fill much like a mother would, it was only after he finished off his bowl that they finally relaxed and went back to her own food. “It feels like we have entertained you quite poorly, if I am to be honest.”

“I know that we’ve already asked enough of you, but can I and my disciples spend the night here?” Tripataka asked timidly, glancing over behind him to see wukong swraying on their feet, looking seconds away from collapsing on the floor, the abbot glanced to where the monk’s eyes had lingered and understood what he was thinking, “don’t worry, your grace,” the abbot replied, turning back to him, “we will arrange things.” Then he called out, startling wukong awake in the process, who had started falling asleep standing up, “are there any lay brothers on duty over there?”

“Yes, reverend sir!” A lay brother replied in the distance.

“Then I ask you to send a couple of them to see that the horse that belongs to his grace gets fed some fodder,” the abbot instructed, “and have some sweep out and clean up the front meditation hall. Put beds in there for these veneration gentleman to sleep in.” The lay brothers did as they had been told and arranged everything, then invited Tripitaka to go to bed. The master and disciples led the dragon horse and carried their baggage out of the abbots quarters and to the meditation hall. Looking in through the sliding doors they saw a lamp burning brightly with four rattan beds set up at the ends of the room. Wukong, who was thankfully still awake and fully alert, told the lay brother who was looking over the fodder to carry it inside, lay it on the meditation hall and tie up their dragon horse, afterwards the lay brothers were all dismissed. Tripataka sat in the middle, right under the lamp, while the five hundred monks stood in their two divisions wait upon him, not daring to leave.

“You may now leave now, gentlemen,” Tripitaka replied, smiling awkwardly as he bowed to them from his place on the floor, “as we would like to sleep.” Nodding in understanding, they finally dispersed, leaving the room quiet. Which was disrupted by a sigh of relief from wukong, who laid down on her back, leaving their belly to stick out from within her hanfu, “and here i thought they would never leave.”

There was a moment of silence as both master and elder disciple rested in silence, listening to the distant sounds of crickets from outside, a few minutes later the sound of quiet snoring from bājie could be heard from across the room, everyone having taken their respective spots in the meditation hall, leaving tripataka and wukong to sleep near each other next to the lamp. Wukong having thought it next to sleep near the monk in case any demon or other thought about sneaking up and kidnapping him. Tripataka having agreed to this in the past.

Now that all was quiet, tripataka thought it best to think back on the days events, sure, things hadn’t gone well, and wukong had once again terrorized an entire monastery, but this time she had done it cause, in a weird wukong way, they were trying help, but had done it the wrong way. As much as the monk couldn’t help but be mad at the demoness, he couldn’t just because ignore the good she had done. The wukong he had met shortly after releasing them from the pillar wouldn’t have even thought twice about killing some monks, so even if the monks were terrified beyond belief upon being escorted into the monastery, he can at least sleep well knowing no one had been harmed.

Hearing rustling near him, tripataka turned his head to see Wukong staring up at the ceiling of the meditation hall, which surprised the monk, having thought the monkey Demoness would have been fast asleep by this point, “wukong?” He spoke, his feeling oddly loud in the quiet, wukong turned her head to look at him with an inquisitive look, not looking like they had even slept, “yeah, what is it trip?”

“I know that a lot has happened today, and you’ve again done some…unsavory stuff, including scaring all those monks.” Wukong averted her eyes with a guilty expression, her pointy ears having lowered a bit, for as many times as Tripitaka has seen it, he still doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to it, getting back on task, he continued, “even as that is true, I’m still glad that you hadn’t killed or harmed anyone, cause I know you would have done so in the past. So you deciding not to is something to be proud of. Sure I certainly have not wanted you to scare any monks, but honestly I think they would have been scared of you regardless of whether you had a weapon or not.”

Wukong “humphed” to herself as she thought back to how the monks had reacted to her and their brothers being vegetarian, them having never once thought doing something without harm would be possible for demons, “trip? Do you think it’s possible for humans and demons to get along?” Wukong had almost immediately regretted letting such a thing leave their mouth when he saw the monk giving him a look of surprise, which morphed into a look of sadness, as he turned back to look at the ceiling of the meditation hall with a sigh, “that’s…quite the question there, if I’m being honest I don’t know the answer to that, but I do you that you and I get along sometimes.”

“Yeah, but I still end up getting you mad and you end up hating me,” wukong muttered to herself, causing Tripitaka to almost sit up in his bed in shock, only to move his body to look at the monkey demoness instead, “what? I don’t hate you, what would give you a reason to think so?”

To this wukong averted their eyes, extremely grateful that with the lamp having been turned off an hour ago, tripataka couldn’t see the slight shimmer of tears in her eyes, “I don’t know, I just think that with all I’ve done it would only make sense for you to hate me.”

There was the sound of shuffling as Tripitaka got out from under the sheets of his bed and crawled over to the demoness, for once being the one towering of her as he looked at them with determination in his eyes, “alright wukong, I’ll stop you right there. I don’t know where these thoughts are coming from, but I don’t hate you, neither will I ever hate you. Sure you make me mad sometimes, enough so that sometimes I would wonder how I ever got into such a situation, but never did the thought cross my mind that I hated you.”

Now wukong was crying freely now, tears streaming down their face and onto her pillow and hair, with a sniff she said, “but what if in the future I do something that you can’t forgive me for? You would most certainly hate me then.”

Tripataka shook his head as he leaned down and wiped away some stray tears from the monkey demoness’s cheeks, “That’s something only you know the answer to. I know you know the difference between right and wrong. I’m sure that when the time comes, you’ll make the right decision.” Sitting up, the monk crawled back to his bed and under the covers, “now let’s go to sleep now, we all have a long day tomorrow.”

Wukong sniffed again as she wiped the tears from her eyes, a bit embarrassed they had let themselves cry in front of her master, and quietly agreed and lied back down, a few minutes later both master and eldest disciple were fast asleep.

———————————————

A few hours later, tripataka got up again, but this time he went outside to take a piss, and once done he looked up to the sky and saw the brilliance of the moon, and saw how the light of the moon streamed down below and colored everything in a blue hue. Inspired by this, he recited a poem quietly as to not wake up his disciples, “a white soul hangs adrift, like a mirror in the sky, reflected whole in the mountain stream and oceans around the world. Pure light fills the towers of jade, as cool air swirls around the silver bowls. That same pure light shines on a thousand miles, for this is the clearest night of the year. It rises from the sea like a frosty disk, hang in the heavens like a wheel of ice.”

He takes a moment to breathe in the cool air of the night, just taking a moment to be one with the silence for a moment, with everything that has been happening on the journey thus far, it feels like a dream to have a moment of respite, he listened to the sounds of the crickets outside, along with the hoots of owls in the trees above, before continuing.

“Yu liang’s lines on the moon are recorded in history, yuan hong lay sleepless under the moon in a river boat. The light that floats in the cup is cold and weightless, the purity shining in the court is strong and full of magic. At every window are chanted poems to the snow, in every courtyard the icy crescent is described. Tonight we share quiet pleasure in the cloister. When shall we ever go home together?”

In the quiet of the night and monastery, it would only make sense that the quiet tone of poetry could wake the most light sleepers, which is how one certain monkey demoness cocked an ear at the sound of talking, and slowly lifted her head to see the spot where the monk had once been was absent, which did the trick of waking them up fully. quietly emerging from underneath the covers of their bed, Wukong stood up and followed the sound of the voice that had roused her. Which led them out the meditation hall, where she saw tripataka leaning up against the wall adjacent to the meditation hall, having just finished his poem about the moon. “Tripataka?”

The monk jumped upon hearing a voice, and instantly relaxed upon realizing it was only wukong, “oh, hello wukong, why aren’t you in bed?”

Quickly looking the monk over, wukong was relieved to see that their master was unharmed, “I came outside when I was roused from sleep and didn’t see you, so I freaked out a little and followed your voice, now it’s time for me to ask you a question: what are you doing up? You know it’s dangerous to be outside at night without any of us with you.”

Tripataka laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck as he replied, “oh, I had initially got up to take a piss, but got sidetracked upon looking up at the moon.”

“The moon?” wukong asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion before directing their sights skyward and saw that the moon was full, glowing brilliantly all around them, feeling like the midnight sun with how its rays spread upon the ground and filled their body with a sense of tranquility. “I heard you speaking, were you talking to the moon?”

Taken aback by this, Tripitaka barked out a laugh, but covered his mouth as to make sure he didn’t wake up anyone else, “no, no, I wasn’t talking to the moon, I was chanting about a poem about the moon though.”

“The moon?” Wukong asked, “Now that I think about it, when I first came out here I think I heard the end of a poem, it went like this, ‘Tonight we share quiet pleasure in the cloister. When shall we ever go home together?’ Was that right?”

Tripataka nodded.

“If you don’t mind me giving my two cents, it sounds like you may feel homesick, is that true?”

Tripataka sighed, not surprised the monkey demoness had found him out, “that would be correct. it’s not that I’m having doubts about the journey, but it’s just been so havoc since the start, before I met you I had left the safety of the tang empire with a horse and two monks by my side, but when the those two monks had been eaten by demons in a cave, I knew that my journey was gonna be filled with hardships and misfortune. And now all I want to do is finish this journey and go home.”

Wukong took a moment to take this in, having never thought what Tripataka’s journey was like before they met. She just had a feeling in their gut when she saw him that without anyone protecting him he wouldn’t get far. What they didn’t know was just how much the monk had been through prior to that, “hey, I’m sorry for what you lost, but on the subject of the moon, I have a poem of my own, ‘after the first quarter and before the the third, medicines taste bland, with all plasma signs complete. When it is gathered and refined in the furnace, the achievement of the will is the western heaven.’

Upon hearing this, tripataka grinned instantly delighted and as he thanked wukong his heart was filled with gratitude. “That certainly will do, but getting back to the matter at hand, you’ve had a hard journey just as much as I’ve had, so it would be in your best interests to go back to bed, I have to read this sutra before i go to bed myself.”

“trip, you confuse me,” wukong said in confusion, “you’ve said that you became a monk when you were very young and know all the sutras from your childhood by heart. Now you are going to the western heaven on the orders of the Tang emperor to fetch the true scriptures of the great vehicle, but you haven’t succeeded yet. You haven’t seen the Buddha or got the scriptures yet, so what sutra do you plan on reading?”

“Ever since leaving chang’an,” tripataka replied, “I have been traveling in such a rush every day that I have forgotten the scriptures of my youth, and as I have some free time tonight, I’ll take this time to relearn.”

In that case if you are only out here near the meditation hall I’ll go back to bed and let you read.” With that wukong turned and went back inside and laid back down in her bed while Tripitaka closed the door, turned up the silver lamp and opened out the scroll of scripture and read silently, while the sounds of the night echoed in the distance.

Chapter Text

Tripataka sat in front of the screen doors leading to the meditation hall, reading the litany of Emperor Wu Of Liang and the Peacock sutra till the third watch, while listening to the sounds of crickets chiming from outside and the soft and loud snoring from his disciples from inside the meditation hall, feeling a sense of calm wash over him as he, for once since the journey had begun, finally felt protected and safe.

When he finally put the scriptures back into their bags, he was just beginning to get up to finally retire for the night when he heard a rushing noise, combined with the sound of a supernatural wind. Fearing that it would blow out his lamp, tripataka shielded the lamp with his sleeve as quickly as he could. To his consternation the lamp kept flickering on and off, almost as if with a mind of its own. By now the monk was more tired than afraid at this point that he pillowed his head on the padded floor of the hallway and closed his eyes. Although he was now in the process of dozing, something in him prodded at him to stay awake as he listened to the howling of the wind outside the window. Soughs and whistles, much scudding away. It soughs and whistles, carrying the fallen leaves, blows the clouds drifting along the sky that had once obscured the full moon from view.

But just then all the stars seemed to blink out of existence, and the earth was covered with flying dust as it mingled with the wind. Something fierce, something gentle. When it blows gently, pine and bamboo sound clear. And when it blows fiercely, the leaves of the pine rustle with great distress, and the waves in the ocean and seas turn into tidal waves. The mountain birds grieve, unable to find shelter, the fish swim restlessly in the ocean, surprised at such a sudden change in the currents. Doors and windows swing open on their own accord.

All the vases in the Buddha hall crash to the ground, the glass lamp is shaken loose and the flame blows out. Incense ash scatters as the burner tilts, the candles flare when their stands lean over. All the banners and hangings are torn off the wall and fall to the ground in a pile of color, as bells and drum towers are shaken to their roots.

As the wind died down for a moment, the elder monk in his dozy state heard a muffled call of “master” from around the outskirts of the meditation hall. Looking up, in his dream he saw a man standing there soaked to the bone, who was weeping as he repeatedly said master over and over again. Feeling a sense of sadness well inside him as he saw the man, tripataka bowed towards him from his seat and said, “I don’t know what you are, or how you managed to seep into my dreams, but I’m not one to slip into temptations. I’m an upright monk on a pilgrimage to the west at the command of the tang emperor of the east to worship the Buddha and fetch the scriptures. I have three disciples who are all demons, who protect me on this long journey. If they see you as a malicious spirit they wouldn’t hasten to smash your body and bones to bits and pulverize whatever remains. But I am full of great compassion and will do what is expedient for you. If you wish to make yourself scarce this moment I can prevent my disciples from finding you.”

The person stayed there, processing what the monk had said, and replied, “master, I’m not a demon or a ghost nor a fiend of any kind.”

“If you’re none of these,” tripataka retorted, recalling quietly that if he wasn’t so tired he would probably be more patient with this person, but for now, all that had been tossed to the wayside to be replaced by anger and annoyance. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” If he was gonna be prevented from sleeping into the morn, he could at least ask some questions.

“Take a good look at me, master,” he said. When tripataka tentatively took a closer look, he saw to his surprise that on the man’s head he wore a hat that looked as if it was touched by the heavens itself, and round his waist he wore a belt made of jade. Dragons and phoenixes danced In carefully stitched patterns along his outer robe, his no-worry shoes were embroidered with clouds. The white jade scepter he held was arrayed in constellations. His face resembles the eternal emperor of mount tai, his form like wenchang, god of officialdom.

At the sight of him Tripataka’s face turned pale in shock, he quickly bowed and called out, raising his voice enough that the man in front of him could hear, but low enough so that he didn’t actually wake up all the people in the monastery, including his disciples, “which Monarch are you, your majesty? I’m terribly sorry for accusing you of being a demon or evil spirit, please be seated.” He hurried over to support the monark, only for his hand to phase through the man’s shoulder, much to his shock and growing fright.

Shaking his head, the monk pressed on, deciding that he must be more tired than he first thought, “your majesty,” Tripataka spoke, “which king are you? Which country do you rule? I suppose you must have fled here in the middle of the night cause your country could be in chaos, or perhaps you are being put upon by malicious ministers, please tell me your story.” Tripataka knew he was rambling at this point, but he couldn’t find a way to stop.

Much to his relief, the man proceeded to tell the monk what had happened, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks, and his forehead creased with frowns. “Young monk,” he began, “I live only some fifteen miles to the west from here, the walled city where my dynasty was founded.”

“What is it called?” tripataka asked, frowning in worry at the man’s sudden change in demeanor. “I’m telling the truth, young monk,” he replied in desperation, the wind steadily growing stronger as the man’s mood worsened, “when I established my regime I had changed the name of the state to wuji.”

“But why is your majesty in such terrible distress?” Tripataka asked, deciding to try to get to the root of the matter. “Young monk,” he replied, “there was a drought here five years ago that was so bad there was no moisture for any vegetation to grow, which made it impossible for anyone to eat, and thus my people were slowly dying from starvation. It was very difficult to see my once prosperous land be reduced to such cruelty by the hands of nature.”

Hearing this, tripataka was indeed deeply saddened by the devastation that was wrought on the man’s city, and nodded with a sad smile as he spoke,”your majesty, there’s an old saying that heaven favors a wall governed country. I would much rather not speak so lowly of you since we’ve just met, but I suspect that you were not merciful towards your subjects and people. Even if there is a famine you have no business in fleeing from your city. I kindly ask you to go back, open up your granaries, and give your people relief. Repent of your past sins and be good for now on. Pardon all those who have been wrongly condemned. Heaven's heart will of itself be moved in harmony, and wind and rains will come as they should.”

“But our grantries were empty,” the man said, “we had no money or grain left. The salaries of the officials and the military were in default, and we were eating no meat with our royal meals. We followed the example of yu the great when he brought the waters under control, sharing weal and woe with our subjects, taking baths to purify ourself, fasting, burning incense and praying day and night. This went on for three years, but the drought continued to be so bad that the rivers and wells dried up. Just when the crisis was desperate a quanzhen taoist came from the Zhongshan mountains. He could summon wind and rain, and turn stones to gold with only a touch. First he went to see our civil and military officials, and then he came to see us. We invited him to come to the altar to pray, and he got results. Wherever he pointed his staff there would be a torrential downpour. We thought that three feet of rain would be sufficient, but he said that it would not be enough to restore fertility after such a long span of time and gave an extra two inches of rain. Seeing how generous he was, we kowtowed to him and took him as our sworn brother.”

“Then it seems your majesty is very fortunate,” tripataka replied, but frowned as he continued, “but that still doesn’t answer why you are standing here when you could be busy making sure your city is safe and protected.”

“I’d only eaten at the same table and slept in the same room for two years. Then one spring day, when the red apricot and the peach tree were In blossom. all the gentlemen, ladies and princes went out to enjoy the beauty of the season. After the civil and military officials had returned to their stations and the royal spouses and concubines went back to their quarters, I was strolling hand in hand with the taoist in the palace garden.

But when we reached an eight sided wall with a glazed tile top, he threw something into the wall— I wasn’t quite sure what it was, since the man had thrown it so quickly that I couldn't get a clear look at it—but whatever it was made it shine with golden light. Luring me to the edge to look at such treasure. I was such a fool that was simply curious, not heeding the thought that something might be wrong, in was in the trusted company of an ally after all. That’s when the taoist suddenly had the murderous notion of pushing me in with a splash and placing a flagstone over the top of the well. He then, much to my horror, piled dirt and gravel over this and then placed a plantain on top of it. So now I’ve been dead for over three years, alas. I’m the ghost of one who was wickedly murdered by being pushed down a well by someone I was foolish enough to trust.”

Upon learning that the man in front of him was a ghost, tripataka stumbled back with a muffled shout as he covered his mouth, his eyes the size of saucers, the hairs on his arms and legs standing on end. But despite wanting to flee, he forced himself to continue his questioning, knowing that other monks like him would not act so foolish as to be scared of a harmless spirit. “Your majesty, what you say doesn’t line up with me, if you’ve been dead for three years, why didn’t the civil and military officials or your queens go looking for you when they attended court for audiences with your majesty?”

“Young monk, you must understand!” The deceased monarch pleaded, “his powers are one’s that have rarely been seen in this world. As soon as he had killed me he transformed into an identical likeness of myself, with nothing out of place, it would be impossible for anyone to suspect it wasn’t me. Now he is the master of my country, the secret thief of my territory. My civil and military officials, the four hundred countries, the three queens and the consorts and concubines of the six compounds now belong to him.”

The monk took a moment to take all this in, he had been feed so much info in only a few short minutes, the man had been murdered by a taoist for which he had trusted, having someone that strong and capable by his side would have caused his land to flourish in no time at all. But cause said taost had gotten greedy with power, he had taken the life of the monarch and stood in his place. But something still wasn’t adding up, even after being wrongfully killed, he still had other options to take care of such a menace. Looking up, tripataka looked the man straight in the eyes and said,

“You are a coward, your majesty.” His voice was steady with conviction.

The monarch stumbled back in surprise as if he had slapped, looking at the monk with wide eyes, “my heavens, why in the world would you call me a coward. Young monk?” The deceased monarch replied.

“Even if the monster has the magic powers to turn into your double and steal your kingdom, undetected by your civil and military officials or by your queens and consorts, so that only you know the truth about your untimely demise, why have you not brought a case against him in the underworld court of King Yama? There you could lodge a complaint and explain about the wrongs you have suffered.”

“I’m afraid that is impossible,” the deceased monarch replied with a shake of his head, “indeed I have thought about it after coming in contact with other spirits that had been wronged just as I had, and found out that his magic powers are so extensive and he is so well in with all the relevant officials,” he replied, his immense remorse deepening as he recalled how hopeless his situation was. “He’s always drinking with the city god, and he’s connected with all the dragon kings. The heaven equaling god of mount tai is a friend of his and all the ten kings of the underworld are his sworn brothers. I have nowhere to turn if we want to bring a case about him.”

“Your majesty,” tripataka replied, “if you are so powerless to bring against him in the underworld then why come to the world of the living?”

“As a ghost of a man unjustly killed I would have never dared call upon you. Put outside the monastery gates are the heavenly officials who protect the law, the six dings and the six jias, the protector of the four quarters and the center, the four duty gods and the eighteen guardians of the faith, all with their celestial horses saddled up. It was only by a magical wind created by the patrollor of the night that brought me here. He said that that my three years of suffering were due to end and sent me to pay respects to you, young monk, he told me that your eldest disciple is the great sage equal to heaven, also known as the golden furred monkey demoness, and that she is a very powerful killer of demons and subduer of demons alike. I am here tonight to plead with you and to beg with you to come to my country, capture the malicious monster, and expose his wickedness. In doing so I’ll be deeply grateful and repay you in any way I know how for your great kindness.”

“….your majesty,” tripataka replied, expression flat, “are you saying that you’ve come here to ask for aid of my eldest disciple to get rid of the fiend who had killed you?” He asked, knowing that if asked, wukong would be more than happy to dispose of the malicious taost.

“Yes, that would be correct.” The deceased monarch replied with a small smile.

“It is true that my eldest disciple is known for her strength and power, and I have no doubt that if I ask her to defeat the taost, they would be all for it, no questions asked. But even with how powerful wukong is, I’m afraid subducing this fiend of yours just might be more difficult, even for them.”

“Why is that?” The monarch ghost asked, the smile slowly falling from his face.

“Well,” tripataka began, knowing that if wukong was awake right now, she would not be happy with what he was about to say, “that fiend must have marvelous magical powers if he can make himself so much like you that all the civil and military officials at court are happy with him, and every one of the consorts and concubines in your harem is fond of him. Even though my disciple indeed has some magical powers unlike any I’ve seen, she should most certainly not resort to violence lightly. And if they are captured and charged with high treason, she and I, along with the rest of my group will be thrown into jail. Then everything I’ve been through since I began this journey will be for naught.”

The two sat in silence for a bit, both wallowing in their respective thought’s until the deceased monarch suddenly remembered something, “things might not be so hopeless after all, I still have someone I can trust in court that can help you.”

Tripataka looked up with a look of surprise, “you do? Well that’s great!” The monk replied with a smile as he continued, “we can use all the help we can get, so who is this person? No doubt they could be a prince or a high official, someone that can help us from inside who was sent off to command a garrison somewhere.”

“Not quite, young monk, but you were close,” the deceased monarch replied with a shake of a head, “it’s my son the crown prince, who resides in my own palace.”

“Oh? Has he been banished there by that fiend?” Tripataka asked with a cocktail of his head, the monarch shook his head once more, “no, he hasn’t been, thankfully,” the monarch replied, “he spends his time in the throne hall and the tower of five phoenixes studying with learned scholars or sitting beside that bastard by the throne. For the last three years my son has been banned from the queen’s palace and prevented from seeing her majesty.”

“But why? Why would someone want to separate someone from their mother?” Tripataka asked, feeling bad for the crowned prince.

“It has all been planned by that fiend,” the monarch replied with a growl, glaring at the ground beneath them as if they were responsible for his situation. “If the prince and his mother were to meet and start talking about things, the truth could get out. Thus he can only keep that throne if the two don’t meet.”

“Your troubles, like mine, must have been sent from heaven,” tripataka replied, quiet moved by the man’s plight, when the monarch gave him a confused look, he explained, “you see, my father had been murdered by pirates, one of them seized my mother. Three months later I was born. I escaped with my life on the river and was rescued by a benefactor, the abbot of the jinshan monastery, who brought me up. I remember what it was like to be an orphan child, so I feel quite sorry for the crown who has left both parents, but even though you still have your son in the palace, how ever am I supposed to see him?”

“What’s stopping you?” The monarch asked.

“If he is under such close control from that fiend,” tripataka replied, “that he can’t even see his own mother, how would a mere monk like me be able to see him?”

“He will be going out tomorrow,” the monarch replied.

“Why?” Tripataka asked, feeling this was straight out of left field.

“After tomorrow’s dawn audience,” the monarch said, “he will lead three thousand people riding out of the city with falcons and hounds to go hunting. In doing so, you will definitely be able to see him. When you do, tell him everything that I’ve just told you and he’ll trust you.”

“But he’s only a mortal!” Tripataka protested, knowing that if he told anyone else of this encounter without any proof, they would deem him as crazy. “The fiend has him fooled in the palace, and he calls him father several times a day, why should he believe anything I say?”

“In case he doesn’t, I’ll give you something that will be visible proof,” the monarch replied.

“Like what?” Tripataka asked, truly at a loss.

In response the deceased monarch sat down the gold-bordered jade scepter he had been holding ever since he had appeared in front of the monk, and said, “this will be proof.” He said with such finality that made tripataka nod dumbly, he still felt oh so confused. “Why?” He asked.

“When the taost made himself look like me,” the monarch replied, “there was one treasure he had failed to copy. After he went back to the palace he said that the taost had stolen it, and for the past three years it had been missing. If my son sees it he’ll be reminded of me, and with his help I shall finally be able to seek my revenge over the cretin that had taken my life from me.”

“Very well then.” Tripataka nodded, having finally understood the mission he and his disciple had been tasked with. “I shall keep it and send my disciple to sort things out for you. But tell me, will you wait for the crown prince there?”

“I dare not stay there myself,” the deceased monarch replied solemnly, “I shall have to ask the patrollor of the night to send another magic wind so I can appear into the palace harem to appear in the dream to my queen to tell her about our situation, and what will take place, and to cooperate with you and your disciples.”

Tripataka nodded in understanding, “then you’d best be on your way then, your majesty.” With this the murdered monarch kowtowed as he took his leave. Tripataka was just stepping forward to see the man out when he suddenly felt as if his feet had landed on solid air and stumbled, becoming so startled that he woke up. His head lifted from against the wall of the hallway leading to the mediation hall, briefly noting the creak in his neck from having slept against a wall, and realized that it had all been a dream. In the dim lamplight he called out for his disciples in alarm.

There was the sound of a loud thud, then brief scrambling before the screen door of the mediation hall was practically pried open by a very dazed and confused monkey demoness, hair a mess that looked as if it had been caught in a wild tornado. The monkey demoness already had her cudgel out as they frantically looked around the hallway in search of any wayward demons, upon realizing the hallway was clear of danger, wukong turned to the monk with a glare, but with a hint of concern in her eyes, “Master! Don’t yell like that, I thought you were in danger!” The monkey demoness whisper shouted, even wukong knowing the importance of keeping quiet when other people are asleep. Before the monk could respond, bājie stumbled out of the room, but at a much slower pace compared to his elder sibling, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he said, “what are you going on about ‘trifles’ ‘trifles’ for?” The pig demon muttered, still half asleep as he practically slumped against the rim of the screen door. “I remember how happy I had been in the old days. I was a real tough guy. I lived on nothing but human flesh and had always ate my fill of it. But no, you just HAD to make me a monk to protect your sorry arse on this journey. You had told me that I’d be a monk, but instead you treat me more as a slave. I have to carry your baggage and lead the horse all day. You never let me get any sleep, why are you calling for me now?”

The pig demon was quickly given a harsh slap on the head by a very angry and peeved monkey demoness, looking down at him with deep scorn, her teeth bared as she growled, “you insolent, selfish, hard headed fool! Don’t forget that if it wasn’t for our master keeping you as his disciple that I would have killed you, and you’d be nothing more than a rotting corpse on the ground whose only purpose would be to feed the earth and animals. Don’t forget that.”

Bājie rubbed his head as he averted the monkey demoness’s gaze with a pout as wukong turned back to tripataka, their expression quickly morphing from anger to quiet concern as they directed their attention to tripataka, just as wujing walked into the hallway himself, “disciples,” tripataka said, already feeling his panic ebb away as they came forward, not for the first time ignoring the complaints of his boarish follower as he explained, “I had a strange dream just as I had been dosing off in this here hallway.”

“Trip,” Wukong replied, ignoring how the pig demon groaned in annoyance beside them as they sat down to be at eye level with the monk, “you don’t have anything to be afraid of, dreams are only fueled by our imagination. Thus you can get easily frightened by such dreams if they become sour, especially if such dreams involve you never reaching the thunder monastery as it’s so far away, or you miss chang’an and wonder how you’d ever get back there. Hell, I’ve had such dreams full of anxieties and fears as well, some even about things that had happened in my past, these things are just natural things that happen when you’re asleep.”

Tripataka shook his head with a sigh, greatly appreciating wukongs comforting words, but knew that now wasn’t the time, “wukong,” tripataka said, brushing his hand against the fabric of his tunic, “this dream of mine was not about any such dream of home. No sooner had I closed my eyes than a great wind had blown up and what I had later learned as a king appeared right in front of me. He explained how he was a monarch of the land of wuji. He was soaking wet and was crying heavily-“ the monk was already getting quite antsy recounting the dream, so wukong quickly held up a hand and said, “no need to tell me any more,” wukong said, “it’s obvious this man you speak of in your dreams was in great need if he went to the trouble of speaking to you about his troubles, if I’d had to guess, I’d say that he’s probably a poor soul that had been usurped from his throne by some wicked fiend. I’ll for sure have it out with the fiend. I’m sure I’ll succeed the moment my cudgel hits him.” The monkey demoness replied with a chuckle, already looking forward to the possibility of combat, tripataka rolled his eyes good naturally, having expected her to act this way, as he continued.

“But the monarch told me that the fiend has tremendous magical powers-“

“Tremendous my arse!” Wukong said with a scoff, folding their arms across her chest with a huff, “trip, you should know me better than to think I’d go down by any such being, the only one capable of defeating me being the Buddha himself. as soon as that fiend realizes who I am he’ll soon regret ever having done such heinous deeds!”

Shaking his head, knowing he couldn’t get through the stubborn monkey demoness when she was like this, he continued, “I remember that the king had given me a treasure as proof,”

To this bājie rolled his eyes, already over all of this, and just wanting to go back to bed, “alright there master, stop talking such nonsense. If you had a dream, regardless what it was about, that’s that. Why are the chitchat about somebody that may not even be real?”

To this wukong gave the pig demon another glare, “it seems abundantly clear that if the ghost of this monarch had invaded your mind instead, we wouldn’t have heard about it cause you would have just deemed it as nonsense and would have went back to sleep, to hell with the person who had been wrongfully killed. I’m glad the monarch had enough sense to go to trip than anyone else.” Once again bājie turned away with a huff, tripataka cleared his throat to gather everyone’s attention again, “wukong, I appreciate you trying to defend me from the likes of bājie, but I promise I can defend myself just as well,” the monk said unkindly, watching as the monkey demoness’s face grew hot with embarrassment, while bājie smirked from the corner of his eye, surprising everyone, wujing was the one to speak up next, having been silent till this point, looking down at his younger brother not unkindly, “don’t trust what seems straighter than straight, and beware that kindness is not really unkindness” the fish demon stated as he turned to look at wukong expectantly, “it’d be wise for us to strike a light, and open to doors to see what we can see.”

With a nod, the golden furred monkey demoness got up from her knees and went over to the doors to open it, while bājie looked around slick jawed as he watched tripataka get up from the floor as well, “wait- are we actually leaving??? but it’s around midnight! Can’t we just wait until sunrise at least?!”

Not taking heed of bājie’s words, wukong opened the doors, and when they all looked out they saw with the light of the moon that a gold bordered white jade scepter was lying by the side of the steps.

With a frown, bājie went out and picked it up, raising it up and down to test its weight before turning around, “alright, what’s this beauty doing out here? There couldn’t have been some merchant or traveler out here, cause at the very least one of his would have heard it. So where do you all think this came from?”

“Well, if you must know,” wukong replied as she stepped out of the monastery, “it’s a treasure called a jade scepter that a monarch holds in his hands.” The golden furred monkey demoness explained, “I had heard about it in my travels back before my fight with heaven five hundred years ago, having only seen pictures of it here and there. This is the first time I’ve seen it up close. Seeing that this scepter was laying out here that’s identical to the scepter master had told in his dream makes me believe that the story in his dream is true.” Wukong looked back towards the entrance to the monastery with a grin, seeing both tripataka and wujing standing in the entryway, the moment the monk saw the smile directed at him, he sent a smile back.

“I’ll take full responsibility for taking down the fiend tomorrow.” Wukong stated

Bājie slumped his shoulders in relief, extremely glad that they wouldn’t continue their journey at this time. With both monkey demoness and pig demon walking back inside, Wukong stopped his two younger siblings from going back into the meditation hall with a hand, “now wait just a moment, before you two return to your slumber, I need to tell all of you a plan I have concocted for tomorrow,” in response both sworn brother responded in very different ways, with wujing simply nodding and leaning against the wall, while bājie letting out a loud groan at once again being prevented from going back to sleep. But despite his complaints, the pig demon stood where he was and crossed his arms, “alright then get on with it.”

With both standing at attention, wukong reached up and plucked a hair from their head, receiving weird looks from everyone in the room, blew on it with a magic breath and watched as it changed into a box of red and gold lacquer that the monkey demoness placed the white jade scepter in. “Master,” wukong said, directing his attention to the now perplexed monk, “at dawn tomorrow you must put on your golden cassock and sit in the main hall of the monastery reciting scriptures with the box in your hands while I go and give that city a once over. If the man responsible for killing the real monarch is indeed there I’ll kill him, and that will be that, and if he isn’t, and trips dream was only that, a dream, then we won’t have to get ourselves into trouble.”

“Excellent, excellent!” Tripataka said with a clap of his hands, a wide grin on his face.

“If the prince doesn’t ride out of the city, that will be that,” Wukong continued, “and if he does leave the city as your dream predicted, I’ll definitely bring him here to see you.”

“But there seems to be a problem with that,” tripataka said as he bit his lip, “if he does come to see me as predicted, what will I say to him? I don’t recall the deceased monarch ever telling me what to say to him, only that I should talk to him.”

In response Wukong replied, “don’t worry yourself, trip, I’ll give you a tip off just before he comes. I want you to open the lid of that box a little while I turn myself into a tiny human monk, then take me into your arms with the scepter. When the prince comes into the monastery he’s bound to worship the Buddha. No matter how much he prostrates himself to you, you shall not pay any attention to him whatsoever, at the sight of you sitting there without moving he’ll certainly have you arrested, in which case you must allow him to arrest you.”

“Goodness!” Tripaka exclaimed, “I wouldn’t want to be arrested for something as untamed as that, and if I would be arrested that would be terrible,” while all of of this going on, bājie abd wujing give each other baffled looks, with the pig demon gesturing for the fish demon to lean down as he whispered in his ear, “do you really think there is a possibly this plan of hers is gonna work? I’m afraid if the master gets arrested that’s gonna be it for this journey, and everything we’ve done would have been for nought.”

Wujing nodded in understanding as he whispered back, “I understand your concern, younger brother, but I trust that there’s a method to elder sister’s madness. We just have to trust that they know what they're doing.” With that both demons stood straight once more as the conversation in front of them continued.

“No problem!” Wukong said with a grin, as if she’s not concocting a plan that has the potential for her master to be imprisoned, “I’ll be there, if things get sticky I’ll look after you. If he questions you, tell him you’re whole spiel about needing to travel to the west to worship the Buddha and fetch the scriptures and offer some treasures. When he asks what treasures, tell him about the golden cassock and say how this is my third grade treasure, I also have very fine treasures of the first and second grade. When he asks you about them tell him that in this box,” wukong gestures to the red and gold box tripataka has in his lap, “you have a treasure that knows everything has happened and will happen for five thousand years in the past, five hundred years in the present era, and another five hundred years after that—fifteen hundred years in all. Then let me out of the box and I’ll tell him everything that you were told in your dream. If he believes me I’ll go to capture the fiend masquerading as the king. That will avenge his father and do our representation a lot of good. But if he still doesn’t believe you, show him the jade scepter. My only worry is that he may be too young to remember it.”

Tripataka was delighted at his elder disciples detailed plan, while both wujing and bājie looked on in bafflement, “wukong,” he said, “this is indeed a superb plan. When I talk about my three treasures I can call one of them my golden cassock and another the white jade scepter. But what shall I call the one you turn into?”

“Call it the king maker” Wuking replied with a grin, tripataka committed the golden monkeys instructions to memory. There was no way the group was gonna be able to sleep that night, (much to bājie’s growing irritation) so they all decided to wait till dawn in the meditation hall.

Tomorrow was gonna be a long day for all of them, and even with such a thought out plan by wukong, no one was certain what events would happen, they just had to hope all of them came out of it unscathed.

Chapter Text

Before long the eastern sky gradually grew lighter as the moon and stars vanished from sight to be replaced by the bright sun, it’s rays of warmth streaming down on all the houses and land that it could touch. Inside the monastery the golden monkey demoness was up making sure everything was packed and accounted for in the luggage with the help of wujing, while bājie leaned against the wall yawning every once in awhile, not used to having to get up this early. The final member of the group was sat cross legged in front of the screen door leading outside, the sunlight seeping in through the cracks doing wonders for his meditation.

Once wukong double checked, triple checked and quadruple checked that all of their luggage was accounted for, she clapped her hands, successfully snapping their piggish brother from his light douse and tripataka out of his meditation. Both got up once they realized they were about to leave. Chancing a look at both bājie and wujing, she stated, voice steady but stern, “now, before we depart, I must remind you two that once we arrive you mustn’t disturb the monks or go rushing off about the place, you two are adults, so it’s about time one of you acts like it,” to this wukong turned her attention to bājie, who avoided their eyes with a silent huff, wujing nodded in understanding, “as soon as we’ve succeeded in our mission we’ll continue on the journey with tripataka just as we’ve done numerous times.”

Satisfied, wukong went outside the monastery and leapt up onto their cloud and looked about the surroundings. As the golden monkey demoness gazed due west with her fiery eyes they did indeed see the city in the distance. Going in for a closer look, she saw thick clouds of demoniacal fog hanging over it, as well as an abundance of suspicious winds and vapors of injustice. Up in the air, Wukong sighed, not surprised at the sight, since it was clear from what the tang monk had said that there was a being of awful mischief in that city. “If what had transpired three years ago did not come to pass, auspicious light would have shone all around, covering every inch of the land in brilliant light, but unfortunately, with the true monarch dead and buried, black vapors hang around the gates of the palace instead, now that a fiend sits on the throne and made the kingdom his own.”

As wukong sat there in the air, her ears perked up upon hearing the clear sound of a cannon, focusing their gaze once more, the golden monkey demoness saw the eastern gate of the city open, and out poured a column of people and horses. It was a hunting party. Wukong frowed their brows in distaste upon this realization.

Leaving the city at dawn they fan out into the bush, their colored flags bright on the sun, white horses galloping in the wind. Alligator-skin drums pound with rhythm of the sounds of the footfalls of both man and beasts as fencing spears clash together ferocious were the corps of falconers, martial the masters of the bounds. Canons shake in place as their hefty weight were continuously pushed forward, while sticky-poles gleam red in the sun.

Each man carried a crossbow; everyone had a crossbow strapped to their waist. The nets were spread at the foot of the hills, and snares were set along the paths. Wukongs eyes narrowed as the group of hunters made their way into the forest, knowing that these hunters- obviously not these with how their equipment were far more advanced than the ones that she had encountered all those years ago, shared the same vibe as the ones that had attacked their home and tribe.

Watching with silent judgment and horror as, with a sound that to animals were more frightening than thunder, a thousand horsemen surrounded a bear. And blocked her gaze when the sharp spears pierced their fur with a thunderous roar as its only plea. The cunning hare couldn’t find a way to save itself, and the crafty river deer were at its wits end, splashing into the waters in their rush to escape their deadly fate, while the foxes were fated to meet their doom.

The wild hunters have claimed the mountain as their hunting grounds, and the golden monkey demoness sneered as she hid among the leaves of the trees as the humans destroyed the forest in their aim to shoot the birds out of the sky.

After they all left the city, they ambled through the eastern through the eastern outskirts, and before long they were on high ground some six miles away where there was a military encampment. there was a very short general wearing a helmet, a breastplate, a sash around his waist, and eighteen metal plates. He held a blue edged sword and sat astride a yellow charger. At their waist hung a ready—strung bow.

He was an image of a monarch, with an emperor’s noble visage. It was quite obvious that his manners were not that of a petty man, he moved like a true dragon.

As the golden furred monkey looked down from her place on their cloud, they were delighted at finding the prince. “It goes without saying that that man must be the crown prince. I think I’ll play a trick on him.” With this the golden monkey demoness brought her cloud down to land and charged straight through the crowd of soldiers till they were before the crown prince's horse. Then she quickly transformed herself into a chubby white hare that was a bit bigger than a normal white one. And began running around frantically in front of the man’s horse to the delight of the crown prince at seeing such a big hare right for the taking, fastening an arrow to his bow, he drew it and hit it with his first shot.

The disguised golden monkey demoness had deliberately let the prince hit them, and with the quickness of his hand and eye she caught the arrowhead, dropped its feathered corpse on the ground and made a run for it. Seeing his arrow hit the rabbit the crown prince whilst riding his horse galloped ahead of the field in pursuit. He had not noticed that when his horse began to gallop the disguised monkey turned hare, despite her weight and how hefty she was, went like the wind, and when the horse slowed down they did as well, keeping only a little distance ahead. Letting the prince get a clear glimpse of her but not close enough to be caught. The disguised monkey demoness continued to lead them for mile upon mile until they had successfully lured them to the entrance of the precious wood monastery. Here wukong turned back into her true form, thus the hare was nowhere to be seen, there was only an arrow stuck through a lintel. Wukong rushed inside to tell tripataka “he’s here master, he’s here!” Without waiting for a response the golden monkey demoness once again transformed, this time into a tiny monk only two inches tall and squeezed into the red box that was set nearby on the ground.

Back with the crowned prince, having chased the hare as far as the monastery entrance the prince was most surprised that it had suddenly up and disappeared, with the only thing to be seen being a lone arrow fletched with vulture feathers struck in the lintel.

“That’s odd…”he muttered to himself, “very odd indeed. I’m quite sure I had hit the hare. It can’t have disappeared, leaving only my arrow here. I suppose the only logical explanation is that the hare I was chasing had been a spirit, and that’s how it disappeared.” Pulling his arrow out he saw the words ROYALLY FOUNDED PRECIOUS WOOD MONASTERY written in large letters over the entrance.

“I remember.” The man said to himself, “some years ago when my father was in the palace’s throne hall he had sent officials with gifts of money and silk for the monks here to build a Buddha hall with Buddha statues. I didn’t expect to come here today, but as they say ‘to hear the monks words when you pass a shrine is half a days rest from the vanity of life.”

With this the crown prince dismounted and was just on the point of going inside when his personal guards and the three thousand horsemen galloped up in a great crowd, all pushing and shoving to get into the monastery. Deeply alarmed, the monks all came out to kowtow in greeting and led the prince into the monastery’s main hall where he worshiped the statues of Buddhas. When he raised his head to look around before taking a stroll along the cloisters to see the sights, he noticed a monk sitting right in the middle of the hall. “WHAT EFFRONTERY!!” He exclaimed, “I, the crown prince, have come to visit this monastery in person today, and although the monks did not have to travel to meet me as they were not notified by royal decree, this monk should at least have got up when I arrived with my army. How dare he carry on sitting there!?” He then ordered that the monk be arrested.

At the word “arrest” the officers standing to either side of the prince all seized tripataka at once and got ropes ready to tie him up. Wukong was now silently praying in her box, “heavenly kings who protect the dharma, six dings and six jias, I have a plan to subdue a demon, but this prince doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he’s going to have my master tied up. You must protect him at once, if you allow him to be tied up you’ll all be in great trouble.” Not wanting to disobey the golden monkey demoness’s secret instructions, they did indeed protect tripataka. The officers couldn’t even touch the monk's shaven pate: it was as if he was surrounded by a wall, and thus they could go nowhere near him.

“Where are you from and how dare you insult me with this self protection magic?” The crown prince asked, wukong rolled their eyes from their place inside the box, thinking that if it wasn’t for this guy being royalty and thus an important part in this plan, she would have no qualms in striking him atop the head for showing such disrespect, royalty or not. Unaware of the silent outrage by his companion, tripataka went up to him, greeted him respectfully and said, “I have no self protection magic. I am the tang priest from the east going to worship the Buddha. Fetch scriptures and offer treasures in the thunder monastery.”

“Your eastern lands may be in the central plains.” The crown prince replied, not impressed by the monks' story, much to Wukong's anger, “but they are extraordinarily poor. What treasures could you possibly have, tell me.”

“The cassock I am wearing,” Tripataka replied calmly, “is the third grade treasure. I also have treasures from the first and second grade that are much better things.”

“But that cassock only half covers you!” The spoiled prince objected, “it can’t possibly be worth enough to deserve being called a treasure.”

To this he replied calmly, not noticing the slow invisible trail of steam coming from the depths of the box in his hands from one such disguised monkey demoness that was holding onto her finale ounce of patience for the crown prince, “the cassock may not cover both shoulders, but there is a poem about it that goes as so, ‘of course a monks habit only leaves one shoulder bare, but it covers a true Buddhist from worldly dust. This was the true achievement of thousand needles: nine pearls and eight treasures formed its spirit. Fairies and holy women sawed it reverently as a gift to a dhyana monk to purify his body: failure to greet your highness may be overlooked, but what use is a man who avenges not his father?”

Hearing this put the crown prince into a fury. “YOU’RE TALKING NONSENSE, YOU IMPUDENT MONK!” He shouted, “you can use your gift of the gab to overpraise your tatty little garment if you like, but you have to tell me what wrongs to my father I’ve failed to avenge.”

In response, Tripataka took a step forward, joined his hands in front of his chest, and said, “your highness, how many great kindnesses do a man receive on earth?”

“Four.” The prince replied, “what are they?” Tripataka asked. “There is a kindness that heaven and earth show by covering and supporting him.” Said the prince. “There is a kindness of the sun and moon in giving him light. There is the kindness of his monarch in giving him land and water. And there is the kindness of his parents who rear him.”

“Your highness is mistaken.” Tripitaka said with a smile, “people are only covered and supported by heaven and earth. Lit by sun and moon, and pervaded with land and water by their monarchs. They are not brought up by by fathers and mothers.”

“MONK!!” Roared the crown prince in anger, “YOU SHAVEN HEADED FOOD SCROUNGING TRAMP! YOU REBEL, WHERE WOULD PEOPLE COME FROM IF THEY DID NOT HAVE PARENTS TO REAR THEM!?”

“That is something, your highness,” Tripataka said with a sad smile, “that I do not know. But I have in this box here a treasure called the king-maker who knows everything that has happened or will happen for five hundred years long ago, five hundred years in the present era, and five hundred years in the future after that, making fifteen hundred years in all. She will be able to tell us all about not knowing the kindness of being reared by parents. It is she who has had me wait here for such a long time.”

“Bring her out and let me see her,” the crown prince ordered. As tripataka opened the lid of the box, the golden furred monkey demoness jumped out and began rushing on both sides of it. “A tiny speck of a woman like that couldn’t possibly know anything.” The prince said.”

As soon as wukong heard this objection to her size she used their magic powers to stretch themselves till she was three feet four inches, about a foot shorter than she was prior to being cursed, to the amazement of the soldiers that stood by, who said, “if that little lady went on growing at that rate it would only be a day or two before she smashed through the roof and not the sky.”

Satisfied at having her powers being known, wukong grew taller, back to their nine foot stature. Only then did the prince address them. “King-maker, this monk tells me that you know all the good and bad things of the past, present and future. Do you use tortoise shell or milfoil for your divinations?” To this Tripitaka tilted his head in confusion, having never heard of such things.

“I don’t use anything,” Wukong replied with a smile, soaking up the attention like a flower in a stream of sunlight, “all I need is my great intellect and silver tongue to know everything about everything.”

“You’re talking nonsense again,” the prince said, “even since the olden days the book of changes has been the best book for predicting the good and bad things that will happen in the world. It tells you what to avoid. That’s why predictions can be made with tortoise shell or yerrow. Why should I believe a word you say? You’ll be making unfounded predictions of blessings and disasters to stir up trouble.”

Wukong fought off the urge to roll her eyes at this so-called prince’s lack of respect and stubbornness, this conversation having lasted for too long for the golden monkey's taste. “Be patient, your highness.” They said, “until you’ve heard what I have to say. You are the eldest son of the monarch of wuji. Five years ago there was a disastrous drought in your county that caused your people terrible suffering. The king, your father and his ministers had prayed devoutly for rain, but not a drop fell until a taoist came from the zhongnan mountain who could summon up winds and rain, and turn stone into gold. Because the monarch was so fond of the taoist he took the man as his sworn brother. Is this true so far?”

“Yes, yes,” the crown prince said in awe, “go on.”

When the taoist disappeared three years later, who was the one on the throne?”

“You’re quite right that there was a taoist,” the prince said, “and that his majesty, my father, took him as his sworn brother. They slept in the same room and ate from the same table. three years ago they were enjoying the beauty of the palace gardens when he used a gust of wind to seize the gold bordered white jade scepter and carried it back with him back to the zhongnan mountain. My father still misses him. Without him my father has no interest in any relaxation, and the palace gardens have been completely shut for the last three years. If the king isn’t my father I’d like to know whoever he might be.”

Wukong smiled, and kept on smiling without answering any of the prince’s other questions. “Damn you!” The prince exclaimed in anger, “what do you mean with your continuous grinning?”

“I have a great deal more I have to say,” wukong finally replied, “but this is hardly the place to talk with so many people around that wouldn’t resist prying on a conversation.” After saying this the monkey demoness angled her head around in the direction of the soldiers and the three thousand houseman who still stood nearby, and sent all of them a steely glance that sent a cold shiver throughout all of them. Unaware of this, the crown prince realized that there must be more to the monkey demoness’s remark, and dismissed his soldiers with a wave of his hand, in which the monastery hall was quickly emptied in their haste to get as far away from the demoness as possible, pitching camp outside the monastery gates. Now that there was nobody else in the monastery hall except the three, the prince sat down. Tripitaka stood beside the prince with wukong standing next to her master, all the monks withdrew.

Wukong stopped smiling as they stepped forward and said, “your highness, it was in fact your very own parent that was carried away by the wind, and it is now the rain-making taoist who now sits on the throne.”

The crown prince’s face blanked as the words fell over him, blinking twice before laughing it away, “nonsense! Nonsense. Ever since the taoist went away my father has kept the weather well regulated, the country strong and the people contented. But you say he isn’t my father. But as I’m of such tender years I’ll spare you; but if his majesty, my father heard you uttering such treason he’d have you arrested and hacked into ten thousand pieces.” He then ordered for Wukong to go away, acting like he was nothing more than a hallucination.

Wukong sighed as she locked eyes with Tripitaka, “what did I say?” The monkey demoness spoke in a hushed tone, though that didn’t seem to be necessary since the prince was currently tuning out their existence. “I said he wouldn’t believe me. Oh well, the only thing I can do now is to give him that treasure in the hope of obtaining a passport so that we can carry on towards the western heaven.” Tripataka silently handed her the red box, who took it, and shook it in their hands until it transformed back into a bunch of hairs. She then presented the white jade scepter with both hands to the priest.

“A splendid monk you are, I must say!” The crown prince exclaimed upon seeing it, causing master and disciple to send each other flat looks- guess it doesn’t take much for this guy to change his tune. Though both seemed to have a change of their own as he continued, “five years ago you came here as a quanzhen taoist to trick my family out of its treasure, and now you’ve come back as a Buddhist monk to present it to me.” Both Wukong and Tripitaka were frozen stiff at these words, only for him to shout the words both were dreading. “ARREST THEM!!” The prince shouted.

And as the order was passed onto tripataka pointed at the golden monkey demoness with a combination of anger, terror and panic as he shouted “YOU WRETCHED PROTECTOR OF THE HORSES- ALL YOU CAN DO IS CAUSE GRATUITOUS TROUBLE!! AND NOW YOU’VE GOTTEN ME INVOLVED!!”

Wukong’s eyes widened in horror and hurt upon hearing these words, those thoughts from last night coming back with full force, and quickly covered her ears as she screamed. “SHUT UP SHUT UP!!” It wasn’t clear who they were shouting at, but everyone in the hall froze all the same, wukong looked up and stared at the crown prince and continued, “what if I tell you that my name isn’t king maker?”

The crowned prince raised an eyebrow, but still stood with a guarded expression, “COME HERE!” He shouted, “I WANT YOUR REAL NAME SO I CAN HAND YOU OVER TO THE LEGAL AUTHORITIES FOR SENTENCE.”

Wukong glanced over to Tripitaka, only to feel like her heart had been crushed as the monk avoided their gaze, his face darkened, having already had his arms tied behind his back, “I’m my master’s eldest disciple,” wukong spoke as she turned back, “my name is sun wukong. As I’m going with my master on his way to fetch the scriptures from the western heaven, we took shelter around here last night. My master was reading sutras late last night when he had a dream on the third watch. In this dream his majesty, your father appeared and told him my master the thoist had murdered him by pushing him into the eight sided well with glazed tiles in the palace garden. The thoist then transformed himself into such a good likeness of your father that none of the officials at court could tell the difference. You were too young to know any better and banned from the harem. The garden was closed. This was because he was afraid the truth would get out. His majesty, your father, came last night specifically to ask me to put this fiend down.”

I was worried in case the present king wasn’t really an imposter, but when I had taken a look in the air earlier this morning I could tell that he definitely is. I was just thinking I could grab him when you rode out of the city to go hunting. The white hare you hit with your arrow was me. I led you to this monastery to meet my master. Every word I have told you is the truth. You can recognize the white jade scepter, so why don’t you bow in gratitude to the father that reared you and avenge him?”

At these words the crown prince was deeply distressed, and he muttered to himself in his grief, “perhaps i shouldn’t believe what this demoness says… she’s a demon for heavens sake, their KNOWN for not being truthful, but what if what she’s saying is true? That would mean I’ve been living with someone for three years that isn’t even my father, I can’t face him if that’s the case.”

Caught upon the horns of a dilemma, the crowned prince wondered what on earth he should do. The hall having fallen silent for the last few minutes, wukong saw how he was having trouble making up his mind and decided to bite the bullet, walking up to him, the golden monkey demoness crouched down to their level, but still kept a respectable distance, plastering on their best softest smiles- one’s used primarily to soothe distressed baby monkeys, and said, “hey, no need for all these doubts, your highness. Why don’t you rise back to the capital and ask her majesty the queen how the love between her and your father has been compared to three years ago, that’s the only question that will prove that I’m telling the truth.”

The crown prince accepted these instructions with great respect, then went outside the monastery gates to give these orders to his officers, “stay encamped here and do not move. I have some business to attend to. Wait till I come back and then we shall return back to the capital together.”

Giving his orders to the army to encamp, he rides back to the city as if on wings.

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Helping untie the rope from around her master’s hands once the prince departed, Tripitaka spoke up, having not spoken since he left, “how did you know that was gonna work? You telling him to ask the queen, for all he knew he could have ignored you and continued on with arresting me.”

Finally finished with untying his hands, wukong stepped back in front of him with a small smile, “he may be the crowned prince with the city’s army at his back and call, but he’s still a son, i could guess he would be more worried about the safety of his parents than some potential criminal. I would advise you to stay here until all this blows over those, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

Tripataka nodded his head in understanding, “oh, and wukong?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for calling you the protector of the horses, I know you don’t like it when people use that title, I was just so angry and afraid tha-“ the monk stopped as the golden monkey placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “hey, it’s okay trip, I know the situation was tense and everything was terrible, so I don’t blame you for lashing out.”

Chapter Text

It was only a few hours later in the late evening that the prince returned upon his horse galloping back towards the monastery once more and dismounted amid the greetings of his army, looking worse for wear in the eyes and face, his eyes puffy like he had been crying. Upon noticing the prince’s disheveled state, the cheerful greetings soon turned into words of concern. But all of this was cut short when jiahao raised his hand in the sign of silence as he ordered his army to not make any unnecessary movements. And without any more prompting the prince then went back into the monastery, neated up his clothes and went to pay his respects to the monkey demoness who had so graciously told him about the fate of his father.

It was just at this moment wukong was making her way through the hall, having made sure the monks here had made Tripitaka a bowl of rice and tea while they were waiting for the prince to return. And was just making their rounds around the monastery for the twentieth time when the prince suddenly kowtowed in front of them, completely stopping the monkey demoness in their tracks.

“Master, I’m back.” The prince simply said, not bothering to stand back up. Wukong stood there frozen in place, having not realized the prince had returned, never mind expecting the prince to kowtow at her feet like he wasn’t royalty himself. Despite being the great sage equal to heaven and having a kingdom of her own, she was still left unprepared when other demons that weren’t their sworn brothers showed them such respect, it made her feel really uncomfortable.

Eventually snapping out of it, Wukong leaned down to raise the prince back to his feet with a nervous smile on her face, “please get up, I’m not much to kowtow over, especially since I’m just a demon to you. Who did you end up questioning?”

Happily accepting the demoness’s help, the prince spoke, “I questioned my mother as you had suggested.” He then went in to explain what his mother had told him.

Wukong frowned upon hearing how his father had visited his mother in her dreams the same as he did with Tripitaka, “as much as I’d love to go into town and confront the false king, it’s getting quite late, it would be best for you to go back to the palace and wait till I’ll come there tomorrow.”

The prince knelt down once more, kowtowed again and said, “let me stay here to be at your back and call till I go in with you tomorrow.” Wukong shook their head, once again feeling uncomfortable with the prince kowtowing to her, “no, that simply won’t do. If we both went into town together it would undoubtedly create disruption and chaos, and would cause the fiend to grow alarmed. He would grow suspicious and wouldn’t think that you had met me by chance. He’d probably think that you’d ask me to come, and would be angry at you in response for being reckless as to bring a demon to town.” Wukong explained, thinking about how she or her other sworn brothers had been scorned by simply visiting a human village all those years ago.

“But—he’s gonna be angry with me anyhow I go back to the city now with it being minutes before dark,” the prince pleaded.

“Why would you be so scared about returning home so late? You're a man of your own now, surely you shouldn’t be wary of getting home late cause of that.” The golden monkey replied

“It’s not because of that,” the prince replied, “I don’t want to come home having to face the fiend who I had thought was my father for three whole years, especially since I haven’t caught a single thing on my hunting trip after being gone for so long. If he decides to punish me for such incompetence I’ll be thrown into jail regardless of me being the prince and you’ll have nobody to help you when you inevitably go into town tomorrow.”

“Oh, is that all?” Wukong replied, “if you’d told me this earlier i would have had a big bag ready for you by now.” With this the golden monkey demoness used her powers in front of the prince, leapt out of one of the open windows and flew up into the clouds above on their own cloud while the prince could only look out from the window in shock.

Once in the space above the clouds, Wukong yelled out, “Om ram pure dharma world!” And in seconds all of the mountain gods appeared and bowed to the monkey demoness, “great sage, what orders do you have for us humble deities?” One of them asked.

To this Wukong replied, “I’ve escorted the tang priest this far and now I need to capture a wicked man. The trouble here is that the crown prince has caught nothing on his hunt, so he doesn’t want to return to the palace empty handed. I’d like to ask a favor of you all. Will you fetch some river deer, antelopes, hares, other birds to send him back with?”

The mountain deities rose their eyebrows at such a high order, then asked how many of each the demoness wanted, to which wukong replied, waving her hand dismissively, “it doesn’t matter how many you get, just get them.”

The gods then mustered their invisible soldiers and sent orders to kill as many animals on the mountain as possible. They ended up capturing hundreds upon thousands of deer, antelopes, river deer, foxes, badgers, raccoon dogs, haers, tigers, leopards, and wolves, which they presented to wukong.

“I don’t want them,” she said with a shake of her head, their long hair blowing in the breeze, “I’d like you to hamstring them and set them out on both sides of the fifteen miles of the road so that the hunters can take them back to the capital without having to use their falcons or hounds. Wukong then paused as she looked at all the animals presented to them with a hungry look, barely restraining herself from lounging at one of the dead tigers and ripping them apart with their teeth, having just realized that she hadn’t eaten anything all day, having been too preoccupied with the current situation. Shoving their hunger down, Wukong continued, raising their voice as to drown out the sound of the deep rumble from her stomach. “That will redound your credit.”

The gods did as they were told, going down in their invisible robes and setting down all the animals they had caught out beside the road. Only then did Wukong bring her cloud down to the land below and say to the prince, who was looking at the monkey demoness expectantly, thinking back about how the demoness had been gone for only a few minutes. “You may go back now, your highness. Your bag is set out by the road for you to collect.” Upon hearing about this, the prince let out a gasp and immediately howtowed and took his leave. He then went out of the monastery and ordered the soldiers back to the city. There was indeed no end to the amount of wild animals by the road that the soldiers could catch with their bare hands, not needing the falcons or dogs, since all of the animals were already dead. They all cheered the prince and said how this was due to his good luck. Not realizing that all this was possible cause of the help of a certain monkey demoness.

Meanwhile, back with wukong, after seeing the prince off and making sure the prince had made it home safely, she stepped off her cloud once more and made their way back to the monastery, opening the doors and stepping inside only to feel a wave of extreme dizziness hit them that caused the monkey demoness to lose her footing and trip over their own feet and fell to the ground on their stomach with a loud THUMP! That caused a huge shockwave to go through the entire building, causing things to crash to the ground that weren’t otherwise stuck to the wall and floors.

Upon hearing such a sound, the door to the entrance of the monastery bust open, with both tripataka and the monks of the temple on his heels, upon seeing the fallen monkey on the ground, the tang monk gasped and fall on his knees in front of wukong, desperately shaking her shoulders. Immensely relieved to hear a tired groan as she slowly opened her eyes, Wukong's gaze blurred until the silhouette of Tripataka slowly took form, eventually being met with a look of concern and fear, not afraid of her, but For her.

Groaning once more, wukong moved their arms from underneath her and slowly sat up into a sitting position, her head still feeling dizzy as she placed their hand on their head to make sure she hadn’t started bleeding somewhere, thankfully she felt nothing.

Snapping back to reality upon feeling something on their shoulder, wukong looked up back into the concerned eyes of her master, having not realized that he had been talking, “uuu- uuuuh, what did you say master?” Wukong croaked out, feeling like all the air in her lungs had been sucked out of her “-I said, are you okay?” Tripataka said, the demoness soon realizing it was his hand on her shoulder.

Quickly looking around, they were shocked to find out that she was sitting down on the floor, with a crowd of monks surrounding the right entrance to the monastery, some looking scared, while some looked concerned. Wukong could only guess how it must look to see a giant monkey demoness sitting on the floor of their holy temple. Wukong quickly snapped back into focus when she realized they hadn’t answered tripataka yet, “OH- i um…I don’t know. The last thing I remember was walking inside, and the next thing I know I’m on the floor.”

Tripitaka exchanged a look with one of the monks of the temple, before standing up and holding out his hand, making sure to keep their legs steady from under her, wukong grabbed the offered hand and was hefted up onto their feet, the poor monk looking winded from the action alone. But Wukong wasn’t out of the woods yet, cause just as she was starting to feel steady on her feet again, another dizzy spell hit them that almost caused their knees to buckle. Only prevented from being greeted by the floor once more by the quick thinking of some of the monks from the temple rushing up to her and holding the demoness up with their arms from all around her. The group of monks then slowly escorted the demoness to a nearby cot in a empty room near the exit, gently depositing wukong down onto the cushioney surface.

A few hours later, wukong began to stir, slowly opening their eyes to be met with the ceiling of the monastery, confused, the monkey demoness slowly lifted their head from the soft pillow beneath her when she was struck with a bought of dizziness, causing them to intake a quick breath as their head suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

Hearing movement from nearby, Wukong was ready to fight whoever was dumb enough to sneak up on them until she realized it was Tripitaka, who leaned over and repositioned the pillows from under them so she could see better. Once done, wukong was sent a steely glare from her master that caused them to flinch back, upon seeing this, the monks face softened “wukong, what happened? I have never seen you like that before. Were you somehow jumped prior to coming back here?”

Wukong shook her head, the heaviness lifting from their head enough they could think, “no, I don’t think it was anything like that. Before coming here I had been seeing the prince off when I suddenly fainted in the doorway of the monastery, i don’t think it was from any injury I could have sustained, I just felt extremely sluggish and out of breath, which are two things that don’t suit me at all.”

Tripitaka sat there a moment, thinking deeply until his eyes blew wide, “wukong, do you remember how a few hours after the prince first left you had ordered for the monks to prepare a meal for me?”

Wukong nodded, not knowing what this had to do about her sudden lack of energy, “well, I hadn’t thought about this beforehand, but after recent events I have to ask; when was the last time you’ve eaten?”

Wukong sat there confused, thinking back to the last time they had ate, and a cold feeling washed over her as she realized that the last time they had eaten was back at the other monastery the night before.

Physically sweating now, wukong avoided looking with the monk as they plastered on a nervous grin, “hehehe, soooooo, I miiiiiiiight have not eaten since last night?”

Silence filled the air for several minutes, lasting so long that wukong nearly thought he wasn’t there until the monkey demoness saw movement out of the corner of their eyes, glancing to the side just as they saw the monk leaving the room. “UH- Where are you going master?” Wukong asked with panic in her voice.

“I’m going to the monks of the temple to ask to make another meal for you.” Was his only response before the monkey demoness was left alone, feeling stunned.

A few minutes later Tripitaka returned, holding out his hand for the monkey to take, he led wukong to the dinning hall of the monastery, where countless plates of vegetarian dishes were laid out on the table, stir-fried string bean tofu sat in a big bowl with a medium sized bowl next to it, filled to the brim with vegan mapo tofu, and sesame seed noodles on the side, along with three bowls of rice in the side.

Wukong looked on in awe at all the food, her belly letting out a deep growl upon the smell of the food reached her nose. Looking over to their master with an inquisitive look, tripataka smiled, “I thought that since you hadn’t eaten all day, I’d ask to monk’s here to cook you something to get your strength back.”

Wukong’s eyes widened as she looked around the room and spotted six of the monks close to the entrance of the kitchen walk towards them, but unlike earlier they didn’t show any sign of fear, just gave the monkey demoness calm easy smiles as they all bowed low at the waist, “it was an honor to cook for you, your grace. We heard from your monk here that the reason you had fainted was not cause you had been injured by a mysterious foe, but that your body was empty of food and nutrients. So it was only natural we helped the best we can. We hope you enjoy your meal,”

Wukong could only hang her mouth open in shock at how kind these monks were towards them the fact that they had cooked all that food for her astounded them beyond belief, didn’t they know she was a highly dangerous demoness? But one kind look from their master told them that the monks' actions were sincere. Finally letting a small smile grace her face, she made her way over to the table, and was just about to dig In until she noticed tripataka standing a ways away from the table, making quiet conversation with the monks, which confused them. Wasn’t he gonna get too?

“Master, aren’t you hungry as well? Come down and sit down, there’s plenty of room to sit for the two of us.” To their surprise the tang monk shook his head, “I appreciate the offer, but to tell you the truth, I had already eaten my evening meal a few minutes ago. All that food is yours.” Pausing briefly, Wukong reluctantly turned back to their table and dug in.

A few minutes later, all three bowls were empty, having been licked of sauces and food, stumbling out of her chair with a full belly, the monkey demoness walked towards the surrounding monks and kowtowed in gratitude, thanking them for the meal. Later that night, after the sun had finally set and welcomed the moon and the stars for another watch, wukong was doing a watch of her own.

With all of the inhabitants having retired to their rooms for the night, wukong stood on the edge of the meditation hall where tripataka was resting, or they thought he was resting, glancing behind them, the monkey demoness saw the tang monk sitting rimroid straight in his usual meditative pose, looking more like a statue than an actual person. But wukong has been traveling with the man long enough to know that such things were normal, and so turned back around to continue watch, trying to bask in the quiet of the monastery while she could.

About 2 hours later Tripataka opened an eye to see wukong was still standing there, looking like she hadn’t moved an inch since he entered the room a few hours ago. Clearing his throat to get their attention, Wukong jumped, snapping her head towards the noise, but upon noticing it was only Tripitaka she relaxed. “Wukong, why are you still up at this hour? It would be in your best interest to go to sleep like all the monks had.” Wukong shook their head, “my apologies if my rigidness had awakened you, master, my mind is too scattered right now to think about sleeping.”

“What is it you could be worried about? You know we are both safe here in this monastery, you had checked and double checked the premidaters of the building earlier this evening.”

“It’s not about that,” wukong replied, finally letting themselves lay down against the doorway, letting out a sigh, “when I had been boasting to the prince yesterday about how I was stronger than mountains and deeper than the sea, I had said that i could catch that fiend as easily as taking something out of a bag. But thinking about it, I realize this could be more difficult than I thought.”

The tang monk was silent, having put much thought into the actual plan far enough after talking to the prince, Wukong continued, “all you know is your life as a monk, reciting sutras, worshiping the Buddha, sitting in contemplation and seeking religious enlightenment. While my life has been quiet different. From the moment I was born I was free to be who I was and do as I pleased. It was only after becoming the king of my island and thereby my clan that I realized how much I had to protect. The fiend as been king for three years, and for all that time I haven’t heard of any misdeeds he has committed other than the murder of the king. And we don’t even have evidence of that! There’s a saying that goes, ‘you can’t arrest someone for theft without the loot as evidence.’ He sleeps with the consorts and concubines in the harem, and shares the pleasures of the civil and military officials at court. It is true I have the power to catch him regardless of time of day, but I’ll be hard to make charges against him stick.”

The tang priest sat there in silence, knowing wukong had a point, “what do you suggest we do then? We can’t possibly give up when we've gotten so far already.”

Wukong shook her head, “don’t even let those thoughts linger, master,” the monkey demoness replied, their face hardening into a look of determination, “cause I don’t wish to give up, since that’d be the cowardly way out. Even if this man normally kept his mouth as shut as an unopened gourd, he’ll certainly be brazen enough to let things slip with what you do or say, ‘I’m the monarch of wuji. What crime have I committed against heaven that you should come to arrest me? What written documentation have you got to lock me up?’ Wukong said, lowering her voice in a surely false impression of the Taoist in question, causing Tripitaka to let out a snort of amusement, a wobbly smile on his face, but still decided to answer the monkey demoness with a response.

“How could you cope?” He asked, trying to keep his voice level, while wukong tried to keep their face straight with varying results. “My plans already made.” The monkey demoness replied with a airlily laugh, “the only thing left to do is pick who would be best to tag along with me. Seeing as you still need someone here to guard you from any wayward demons, I’d advise wujing to stay here, and I’ll bring bājie with me to the capital of wuji, find the palace gardens and fish out the corpse of the dead king and wrap him up in a carrying cloth. Then when we go into town tomorrow don’t you worry about the travel documents—the moment I see that fiend I’ll have it out with him, and if he tries to argue show him the corpse along with the clothes and say ‘this is the man that you murdered.’ Then bring the crown prince in to mourn his father and the queen to identify her husband. Then all the civil and military officials see their true lord. And only then will bājie and I be set to. And if all of that plays out perfectly, we won’t have to worry about being arrested, and the true king would have been avenged.”

Upon hearing this, tripataka grinned softly, not letting himself think about the possibility of touching a corpse, and asked, “that all sounds great and all, but I’m afraid bājie may not be up for fighting a powerful taoist.”

“He will if he wants to eat tonight.” Wukong muttered, knowing in truth that she wouldn’t wish for his younger sworn brother to go to bed hungry. But she’s certain the thought alone would strike fear in the pig demon. Tripataka knew this as well, and nodded his head, “very well, you may call him if you’d like.”

Wukong then took her leave of her master and went straight to the monastery on their cloud where their sworn brothers were still stationed. Stood in front of bājie’s bed and called his name, trying in vain to wake him up. The pig demon was sound asleep, with his head half way leaning off the edge of the bed and his legs stuck up in the air in odd directions, snoring loud enough that the sound could be heard all throughout the monastery. Wukong sighed when simply calling his name barely got a twitch out of him, it was obvious simply calling his name wouldn’t wake him up. Grabbing him by the ears and pulling him up, the monkey demoness yelled his name as loud as she could in front of his face, only for him to snore louder, causing her to growl in annoyance.

Suddenly getting an idea, wukong let go of the pigs ears, causing him to slump back down on the bed and went out on the wall and retrieved a bucket and filled it with water up to the rim and walked back in where his youngest brother lay, and without hesitation poured the ice cold water all over him, causing bājie to shoot up in the now soaked bed with a shriek. After recovering from the feeling of drowning, the pig demon whipped his head around and glared daggers at his culprit, who didn’t look guilty in the least, and was looking down at him with a small smirk, the wooden bucket held on her hip.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?” Bājie bellowed, steam beginning to flow out of his ears.

“A wake up call, you weren’t responding when I called your name.”

“AND YOU THOUGHT SPLASHING ME WITH ICE COLD WATER WAS BETTER!? I COULD HAVE DIED YOU BITCH!!”

Wukong rolled her eyes, knowing he was being dramatic, “oh grow up you big baby, you weren’t even close to dying. All that happened when the water hit was jump started your heart into wakefulness.”

Bājie released a huff, “whatever, why did you wake me up anyway?”

“We have serious business to attend to in the capital of wuji not far from here.”

“What sort of business?” Bājie asked with a raised brow.

“The prince of wuji told me that the fiend we are tasked to fight has a treasure that makes him a match in a fight,” wukong began, putting down the bucket near the bed and leaning against the wall with arms crossed, “when we go into town we’ll have to fight him, and if he has that treasure he’ll beat us. That would not be good for continuing on our journey. That being the case, wouldn’t it be better for us to steal it so he doesn’t get the chance?”

“It sounds an awful lot like you're tricking me into thieving, elder sister,” bājie replied, rubbing water from his eyes, “I’ll come on this bit of business and I’ll certainly be useful to you too, but first I want to make one thing clear with you.” To this wukong rose a brow of their own, wondering what on earth the pig demon could be thinking about. “When we’ve stolen the treasure and captured the villainous foe, I won’t stand for any mean, small minded sharing of the treasure. I want the lot.”

“Why?” Wukong asked, “shouldn’t the reason for doing this be simply to rid the earth of evil by only a little bit? Simply doing it just to get treasure makes you look a lot worse then the most greedy of rulers in the lands. But if that will get you out of bed then I suppose acquiring such treasure will have to suffice.” Hearing this, the pig demon was so happy at the prospect of truth that, headless of the fact he’s still soaking wet, rolled out of bed and onto his feet, pulled his tunic over his head, and briskly walked out of the room, with Wukong following shortly after him.

Opening the door quietly so as to not disturb Tripitaka who was meditating nearby, climbed on their respective clouds and headed off straight to the city. They were soon there, and as they brought their clouds down to land they heard the drum on the tower be beaten twice. “It’s the second watch, brother,” Wukong said.

“Well that works out right for us, now does it? Everyone is fast asleep.” Nodding her head in understanding. Wukong and bājie avoided the main gate and went around to the back gate of the palace, where clappers and bells were being sounded. “Brother,” Wukong spoke, turning to bājie, “it seems as though there is an alarm system at both the front and back gates, how do you suggest we should proceed?” The golden monkey could easily come up with a solution to this, but they wanted their younger brother to ponder it instead, call it a good exercise on her part.

“Bājie only thought about this for a few seconds, looking around the surrounding area yo scope out the area when he glanced at the wall surrounding the garden and snapped his fingers, “I got it! Have you ever heard of buglers going through the front gate? That just seems foolish, even for me,” so he admits to being foolish, wukong thought in amusement, this night seems to be going swimmingly already. Unaware of the golden monkeys' present thoughts, he continued, “we should go over the wall instead so that nobody sees us.” Wukong accepted this suggestion, seeing no faults in this plan, and walking over to the wall, she examined how tall the wall was to the ground, bent down and jumped over the wall, or well, was supposed to. Unfortunately midway across, Wukong felt gravity traitorously pulling down on her body, causing their belly to catch on the edge of the wall, leaving the monkey’s front half in the garden, with their legs hanging over the edge on the outer wall.

Wukong’s cheeks heated up when she heard the tall tale sound of bājie cackling lowly from behind her. “Oh quit goofing off and help me you damn fool, you’re gonna get us caught!” The monkey demon hissed, moving her head to look behind her the best her body could allow to level the pig demon with a glare, unfortunately bājie kept on cackling as he walked closer to the wall where the monkey had been stuck, “it seems the only one who would be caught in this situation would be you, dear sister. What with you looking like a whale stuck on land.” If possible wukong’s face heated up further at this insult, clenching her fists as she growled out, “IF YOU VALUE YOUR HIDE YOU WILL HELP ME OVER THIS WALL THIS INSTANT OR I SWEAR TO THE BUDDHA I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET YOUR HANDS ON THAT TREASURE AND WON’T BE EATING TOMORROW.”

Quickly sobering up upon hearing this, bājie cleared his throat and made his way behind her, reaching up he began to push on the monkey demoness’s butt with all his strength, while wukong tried her best to push themselves over the edge of the wall with her pudgy arms. and eventually with a slide Wukong began her descent to the ground, having only moments to react till she face planted into a nearby flowerbed, the flowers having already wilted as the ground was disturbed. Picking herself up off the ground, Wukong looked behind them just in time to see bājie hop over the wall easily, giving her a smug look from her place on the ground, they narrowed their eyes, “not. a. word.”

With that, the two of them proceeded to look around the surrounding area, trying to find something of note. As they walked along they soon saw another gate-tower in front of them with triple eves and white ornaments. On it were two huge words, gleaming bright, ROYAL GARDENS. Going up to get a closer look, Wukong saw that layer after layer of sealing paper had been pasted over the gates, and the locks on them had been rusted hard. She then told bājie to keep moving, thinking to herself that they might have just found what they were looking for.

The pig demon raised his iron rake and brought it down with all his might on the gates, smashing them to splinters, eyes widening, wukong looked at bājie with a glare, “what happened to being quiet?” Bājie simply shrugged his shoulders, with a sigh, the golden monkey was just about to step inside when she froze with a gasp. Bājie was confused about this as he walked closer, but was surprised when she grabbed his face and angled it to look through the gates.

Carved and painted balustrades were all a mess, precious pavilions we’re leaning astray, looking as if one strong gust of wind would topple them over. The sedge and nutweed in the bank were buried. The peonies and raspberries have been ruined. Gone is the fragrance of rose and jasmine; tree peonies and wild lilies were in vain. Hibiscus and rose of Sharon are overgrown, their leaves and vines growing up the wall, almost like they wanted to escape. And all the precious flowers were choked.

The hillocks built from strange rocks have collapsed. The fish are long dead in the dried up ponds. The pine and bamboo are as dry as tinder. Mugwort and wormwood carpet the paths. Broken branches of peach and osmanthus twisted around the trunks of pomegranate and kerria. Moss grows on the way up the bridge. It was indeed a desolate scene.

Wukong’s heart was filled with sorrow as they looked around the destroyed landscape, only able to think back about how her own island had been in such disrepair. Unfortunately bājie didn’t seem to have much regard for it, letting out a scoff, “what are you getting so upset over?” He asked with a roll of his eyes, causing Wukong’s fur to bristle in agitation at his blunt disregard of the situation. “Let’s just get on with our bit of business.” Despite her obvious distress, Wukong remembered how in his dream Tripitaka had been told that the well was under a plantain tree, As they went further she did indeed see a plantain tree that was most luxuriant, unlike all the flowers and trees.

It was a divine shoot, born with an empty nature. Papery stripes were on every branch, and all the leaves smelled of a deep fragrance. A thousand fine strands of emerald green, with a touch of red at the heart. It grieved in the cold autumn rain; it withered in fear of the autumn winds. It was grown through the efforts of the gardener. Raised through the creator’s work. Wonderful its value as writing paper, as is its marvelous use for dripping water from its emerald leaves. The tree was lightly wreathed in mist. On a frosty day it would look withered, it was dim in the moonlight. It could only refresh in the summer heat, and offer some shelter from the blazing sun. It lacked the beauty of peach or plum, standing lonely to the east of the whitewashed wall.

“Set to it, bājie,” wukong spoke, “the treasure’s buried under the plantain.” Without a moment’s hesitation the pig demon raised his rake in both hands and sent the tree crashing down, wukong inwardly felt bad for said tree for being in the way of her brother’s stupidity. Then unexpectedly leaned down and pushed his snout three then four feet deep, revealing a stone cover.

“We’re in luck, elder sister!” Bājie exclaimed in delight, only to quickly lower his voice when he saw the monkey demoness narrow her eyes, “there really is a treasure here under this stone cover. I wonder if it's inside a jar or box.”

Now it was wukongs turn to roll their eyes good naturedly, “lift the cover and we’ll see.” In truth the monkey demoness isn’t quite sure if there’s a treasure down there, but didn’t say anything since it seems to be a good motivator for the pig demon thus far. With another root around with his snout the pig demon pried it open. Instantly there was a glow of multicolored light that spilled out, along with a bright white vapor.

Bājie laughed in delight, “the treasures shining!” He exclaimed, only to realize after going nearer for a closer look that it was just light from the moon reflecting off the water’s surface of a well. Wukong snorted in amusement at the pig demon’s gobsmacked look, “elder sister,” bājie muttered in an uncharacteristically low voice, grabbing her attention, “you ought to think ahead.”

“What do you mean think ahead?” Wukong asked with a cock of her head, not quite sure what he was going on about. “This is a well,” bājie stated, pointing down at the well like it was the culprit for arrest, “if you’d told me back at the monastery that the treasure was hidden in a well I’d have brought a couple of the luggage’s ropes along with me and we could have worked out a way of letting me down the well. So how am I supposed to fetch the thing empty handed?”

“Are you willing to go down?” Wukong asked with a blank expression, causing a shiver to run down his back, unbeknownst to him the monkey demoness had a plan brewing in her head, “I would if I could, but there’s no rope.”

“Take that garment off, I know what to do,” wukong replied with a grin, leaving bājie even more confused, “I’ve got nothing good enough to be called a garment,” bājie said, “the only thing i could take off would be this tunic. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want to see me naked.”

Shaking their head, wukong brought out her golden tipped cudgel from their ear, moved her hands to either side of the weapon, and bājie watched with widened eyes as the cudgel grew in length, stopping at around seventy or eighty feet long. “You hold one end, and I’ll lower you in.” Wukong explained casually like they were simply talking about the weather, and not talking about lowering him down into a seemingly endless well, with the only thing keeping him tethered to the surface would being a weapon that could easily pulverize him into dust. Bājie could only nod dumbly as he grabbed on tightly to the opposite end of the cudgel.

“Let me down until I reach the water, elder sister.” Bājie ordered as he was slowly being lowered down into the well, his insides screaming at him to bolt. Wukong nodded her head, their long hair covering half her face like a curtain, “understood.”

Before long bājie knew he had reached the water. As soon as Wukong heard him call out that he was there, Wukong thrust the cudgel, causing him to let go with a squeak, falling to the rest of the way down with a loud splash. Wukong chuckled to herself as she could hear their brother mumbling to himself from his spot at the bottom of the well. Thinking it was time for some well deserved payback from all the times the pig demon had gotten her in trouble in the past. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET ME GO UNTIL I GOT TO THE WATER, BUT YOU PUSHED ME IN!!”

Wukong pulled their cudgel out with a laugh, “And I upheld my end of the deal, did I not? You're at the bottom of the well unharmed. Now, can you see the treasure anywhere?”

Bājie shook his head, only to think that wukong couldn’t see it—she in fact can— and voiced it instead, “nope, I don’t see anything except a well full of water.”

“The treasure’s at the bottom,” Wukong said, leaning her head in their hand as she spoke, “so go down and have a look around.” Bājie, who was actually a pretty skilled swimmer, did a surface dive and plunged down. The pig demon was surprised to find out that the well was extremely deep, so he thrust himself down further down, and was suddenly gazing in astonishment at an ornamental arch on which were written the words WATER CRYSTAL PALACE.

That’s enough of this, bājie thought in horror, I’ve taken the wrong turn and must’ve blundered into the sea. There were water crystal palaces in the sea, but there couldn’t be one in a well. As bājie was thinking to himself a patrolling yaksha opened the gates and shot back in again upon seeing the pig demon to report, “a disaster you’re majesty. A pig demon has just fallen into the well, he’s just floating there with a ten mile stare, I’m afraid of what this could mean for us.” This news was quite a shock to the dragon king of wuji, who thought to himself, having recently been in contact with the patroller of the nights yesterday evening with an edict to order him to send the soul of the king of wuji to visit this tang priest who was traveling west and ask that he bring the great sage equaling heaven be sent to capture the fiend who had been impersonating the deceased king. He had been greatly confused by this, since he had heard of a rumor that the monkey demon had perished in the fight with heaven little more than five thousand years ago. But nevertheless it seems one of the tang priest’s other disciples was here now. I must be very polite to him and go straight out to welcome him.

The dragon king neated up his clothes and went on out through the gates at the head of his watery tribe, “please come in and take a seat, marshal tian peng.” Hespime to the startled pig demon. Hearing this caused bājie to feel a great deal happier, and would have sighed in relief if it wasn’t for the fact he was underwater, greatly relieved that the king wasn’t here to fight him. Without any further thought the pig demon went straight into the water crystal palace, and after having a temporary spell be cast on him for him to be able to speak underwater, he sat with his legs propped up on the table in the guest of honor.

“Marshal.” The dragon king spoke, deciding not to focus on the demon’s improper manners, knowing there was more important matters to talk about, “I have heard that you have been given a new life, been converted to the Buddhist faith, and are current escorting this tang priest on his journey west to fetch the scriptures. So what brings you here?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, you’re majesty, my elder sister sun wukong sends her respects and has told me to come here to ask you for some kind of treasure that should be around these parts.”

“Oh dear.” So the monkey demon IS alive, but this brings up the question of why the great sage has changed gender, alas it is none of my business, the dragon king thought, “we don’t have any treasure here. I’m no match for the dragon kings of Yangtze, yellow or ji rivers, who can fly around, do transformations, and get treasure that way. I’ve been stuck here for ages, and have not been able to broaden my horizons for many a long month, so how could I have possibly gotten ahold of a treasure?”

Bājie growled, sitting up and slamming his hands down on the table, causing silverware and bowls to clatter on top and for the dragon king to stiffen up in his seat, “oh cut the act you old cod! Bring out whatever you’ve got.”

The poor dragon king was shaken to his core by the pig demon’s abrupt change in mood, thinking hard if he had anything of use that he could give him, he wasn’t lying when he said that he didn’t have much to offer. “I guess I do have one treasure,” the dragon king admitted, “but I can’t move it. You are free to come see it for yourself, marshal.”

It was like a switch was flipped in the pig demon, and he was back to smiling again, like nothing had even happened, “oh splendid!” Bājie exclaimed, clapping his hooved hands together, producing a soft clicking sound, “I really must have a look.”

The pig demon got up and followed the dragon king as he led the way. As they left the halls of the water crystal palace they saw a body six feet long lying in an open corridor. “There’s the treasure.” The dragon king said, pointing at it. When bājie looked closer he realized to his astonishment and horror that it was the body of a king stretched ramrod straight and wearing a heaven—touching crown, a rope of yellow ochre, no worry shoes— though the name doesn’t seem to fit in this circumstance— and a belt of lantian jade.

“This is no good at all,” bājie chuckled nervously, looking at the strangely not decomposing body of the king, “no good at all. There’s no way you can call that a treasure, I may be a demon—that is a curse that had been placed on me long ago—I remember back before I was converted by the tang priest and was just a demon in the mountains, I’d often used to make a meal out of bodies like these. Nevermind how many of them I’d seen—this would motor or less look like a snack for me in the past. So there’s no way you can call that a treasure.”

“There are some things you don’t know, marshal,” the dragon king said, shaking his head, “this is the body of the king of wuji, when he had fallen into the well three years ago I had put a face preserving pearl on him and he has not decomposed. If you were to carry the body to see the great sage, and if the body could be brought back to life, then you’d get anything you could ask for.”

“If what you say is true and I carry him up there, tell me how much you’ll pay me to arrange his funeral.” Bājie deadpanned.

“I’m afraid I have no money to give you.” The dragon king replied with a shake of his head. The pig demon narrowed his eyes, “so you like having people work for nothing, do you?”

“If you won’t, then please be on your way. I’d have thought saving someone’s life would be payment enough, but perhaps that’s too much to expect from an ex-marshal.” The dragon king growled, his bushy brows lowering over his eyes. Finally letting himself be angry at the pig demon. Bājie left with two hefty yakshas who carried the body outside the palace gates, where they put it down and removed the water—repelling pearl.

At once there was a watery noise, at once bājie turned back to look, only to realize the water crystal palace had disappeared from view. After trying to pick up the king’s corpse to the best of his ability and failing, he floundered about until he was weak from exhaustion, only realizing that the moment he had left the palace the spell allowing him to speak underwater was no longer there, making him even more desperate to get to the surface. A few tense couple moments passed before the pig demon finally surfaced at the bottom of the well, coughing up water. “SISTER!!” He bellowed, “YOU’VE GOT SOME DAMN EXPLAINING TO DO!!

“Oh! So you found the king! That’s one problem solved.” Wukong replied, having perked up from their spot resting against the well, having fallen into a daze, not fully asleep. bājie growled, having not heard her from his spot at the bottom of the well “I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU'RE SAYING UP THERE, JUST LOWER YOUR CUDGEL AND GET ME OUT OF HERE!!”

“Did you find the treasure?” Wukong asked, angling their head so he could hear them, she heard the pig demon huff, “no way,” bājie replied, still a bit miffed that he didn’t end up finding some treasure like he’d hoped, “all I found down there was this dragon king who had somehow set up a palace at the bottom of the well who wanted me to carry a corpse up. When I refused—cause what the hell— he essentially kicked me out and the next thing I knew the water crystal palace had disappeared! I could only grasp at the corpse before I had to resurface cause—lo and behold— I NEED FUCKING AIR TO LIVE DUMDASS! Sister, for goodness sake just get me out of here.”

“But that was the treasure,” wukong replied, thinking dumbfounded that so much had happened while she was stuck up here, thinking it was just great that the one fucking time they come across a dragon king on this journey who didn’t try to kill them bājie had to fuck it up. “why didn’t you bring him up here?”

“Like I said, I was panicking and running out of air. Besides that king has been dead for ages, I wasn’t about to carry literal dead weight. So what would have been the point?”

Wukong let out a heavy sigh, having foolishly thought that their sworn brother could do such a simple task like this, but apparently that’s too much to hope for, “welp, if you won’t bring him up I’m going back.” Wukong said, standing up from her leaning position against the well, the pig demon paled, hoping the monkey demoness wasn’t thinking of doing what he thought she was gonna do. “Where to?” He asked.

“Back to the monastery with the master to go back to bed,” wukong replied casually, “you’re welcome to join if you can climb out, but if you can’t, then tough luck.” This threw bājie into a panic as his fears that his sworn sister would leave him here. In reality the monkey demoness had no intention of leaving him, cause if she did they would no doubt get chewed out for abandoning their brother, but Bājie didn’t need to know this, since hopefully fear would be a good motivation for him.

“Just think!” Bājie spoke, trying in vain to get the monkey demoness to stay, “a city wall is hard enough to climb, while this well narrows near the top. It’s got round overhanging walls, all overgrown with slippery moss cause nothing nobody has drawn water from it in years. How do ya expect me to climb it? Dear sister, don’t forget that we’re sworn siblings. I’m going back down to get it.” Wukong rolled her eyes at this pathetic display, having never seen such a display of dramatics since she had watched one of their plums shadowplays back on flower fruit mountain, at least her mate’s was entertaining, this is just sad.

“Good. better get to it then, we are running out of moonlight the more time you waste blabbering your mouth.” Bājie nodded and dived underwater once more and plunged straight down. He groped around till he found the body, dragged it over his shoulder and carried it up till he surfaced again. “I’ve brought the body up sister!” Bājie called as he supported himself at the side of the well. When wukong took a good look into the well and saw that bājie really had brought the body up, she lowered the gold banded cudgel back into the well. Bājie was so angry by this that he stubbornly bit down on the tip of the cudgel as Wukong pulled him out. Looking more like an angry piranha than a pig demon, wukong couldn’t help but snort at this in amusement upon seeing this. Really?

Bājie put the body down on the ground the first chance he could while wukong crotched down to examined the kings face to see that he was exactly as it would’ve looked in life, “brother,” wukong spoke up, gathering the pig demon was busy squeezing water out of his tunic, “this man has been dead for over three years, so why is his face so well preserved? Could the water in the well have some magic properties that I’m not aware of?”

“From what I was told down under,” bājie replied, “the dragon king of the well had used a face preserving pearl on his person to hult the body from decomposing. I have a feeling he somehow knew someone was going to fetch him.”

“Well that’s good for us, since that means we have a better chance to succeed. Put him over your shoulder again, brother.”

“Where shall I take him?” Bājie asked, picking up the kings body and slinging him on his shoulder, cringing at feeling the wetness seep into the fabric of his tunic, “take him to see the master,” wukong replied.

“What a way to treat me,” Bājie grumbled, “what a way. I was fast asleep when that cursed ape had flung cold water on me and tricked me with the talk of treasure. Now that I’ve done this for her I’ve got to carry this dead body. All this dirty water is dripping down on me and making my tunic filthy. There’s nobody to wash it for me. The patches on the shoulders will get damp and I won’t be able to wear it.”

Wukong, who was misfortunate enough to overhear this, seeing as they were only a few feet away from him, sighed heavily as she bunched up the skin between her eyes with their fingers, “Oh for Buddha’s sake-“ the monkey demoness hissed lowly, stomping over to this stubborn pig demon, gripped his shoulders with enough strength to break them if she wanted to, leaned down to be on eye level with him and said, “you WILL carry him to the monastery, and in exchange I will find some clean clothes for you to wear. What you’re doing right now might not be pretty, but in this day and age you will have to get your hands dirty in order to get things done. Am I understood?”

Bājie, frozen solid from the murderous look directed at him, could barely speak, but with his pride on the line he sneered, “you’re shameless, sister.” Wukong’s brows rose in aggravation, about ready to clabber him, “all this talk of me carrying this dead bastard and you won’t even be willing to do the rest of the heavy lifting and carry him to the monastery yourself.”

“If you’re gonna continue to act like this then don’t carry him.” Wukong warned, tightening her hold over their cudgel from behind her back, “I won’t.” With narrowed eyes the monkey demoness brought out their cudgel from behind her back, causing the pig demon to quickly back up with wide eyes, “then you might as well and make yourself useful and put your ankles out for twenty strokes of my cudgel.” Wukong growled.

“But, sister!” Bājie spoke, his mouth becoming dry as sweat ran down his face, “your cudgel hits very hard!” He protested in panic as he continued to back up, “twenty strokes and I might end up like this king.”

“Unlike you I have restraint, you will not die on my watch, but you WILL learn to listen, I’m not asking much of you at all. She spoke, “So if you don’t want a beating I’d be in your best interest to get on with carrying him.” Really not wanting to get a beating, bājie made sure the king's body was still on his shoulder and walked out of the palace gardens with a grimace.

Not wanting to try climbing over the royal garden’s wall again, wukong summoned her cloud, climbed on it and flew towards bājie right as he was debating how he was supposed to climb the wall with an extra passenger when he was suddenly grabbed around the collar of his tunic with a shrill squeak before being pulled up on a familiar golden cloud. It barely took any time at all for them to cross the garden palace’s walls, lowering down again and dissipating on the ground, having the two continue on the way. Unfortunately, with his lesson not yet learned, bājie began to think about how to get back at his elder sister, like telling Tripitaka how she can revive the dead king’s body. And when that fails the tang monk will undoubtedly use the band tightening spell on them, which will put the monkey demoness into a world of hurt.

While the dastardly pig demon continued to think about his revenge, the two soon made it back to the monastery gates. Marching straight in, he flung the corpse on the ground with a loud thud in front of the meditation hall and shouted, “master! Come see what I’ve got!” Tripataka, having been unable to sleep, was talking with Wujing about how wukong had roped bājie into going with her and wasn’t sure how long they would be gone when he heard bājie’s shout. The tang prist got straight out of bed and said, “see what?”

“I found elder sister’s grampa!” Bājie replied childishly, causing wukong to send him a seething look, “and I’ve had to carry him back.”

“You damn idiot…” Wukong muttered, having had enough of the pig demon at this point, “I have no grampa! He doesn’t even look anything like me.”

“Well, sister,” bājie replied, “if he’s not your grampa, then why did you have me carry him? It was damned hard work.”

“You needed the hard work, you ain’t have done anything around here but slouch around and meaning grumpy, if anyone would be the grandpa around here it would be you!” Bājie gasped dramatically at this, placing a hand atop his chest like he had been stabbed, “HOW DARE YOU-“

Tripitaka and Wujing opened the doors to the meditation hall, the tang priest looking far more tired than he’d ought to be, “alright alright you two, quit it! Now what’s this thing you wanted me to see?” Looking down both tripataka and wujing saw the king’s corpse on the ground, his face had remained unchanged from what it had looked like in his dream the night before. “Your majesty…” tripataka said sorrowfully as he bent down to a crouch, “who knows what earlier life you had lived to earn that Taoist’s hatred?” Tears began to roll down his face as he silently cried.

“What’s his death to you?” Bājie asked, laughing at tripataka, effectively cutting the tense silence like a knife, “it’s not like he’s your father or grandfather, so why weep for him-OW!!” Bājie exclaimed as Wukong smacked him upside the head, “it’s called having empathy you moron!” She yelled, glaring down at him.

“Bājie,” tripataka sighed as he dried his tears with his sleeves, “compassion is a fundamental quality for a monk, and not just for monks either, but for other people around the world as well. Though the feeling isn’t so much charished enough as it should. And helping others in just a good thing to do, it matters not if you get anything out of it or not, so how could you be so heartless?”

“I’m not heartless!” Bājie exclaimed in offense, “anyways that doesn’t matter right now, for wukong had just told me that she can bring this body back to life. Otherwise I wouldn’t have carried it all the way here.” Tripataka, oblivious to how wukong glared at bājie slick jawed such a blatant lie, the venerable monk far too trusting not to perceive such a lie, and thus believed Bājie easily.

“Wukong!” The monkey demoness stiffed upon hearing her voice, “if you have the power to bring this king back to life, it would be a case of saving one single life being almost better than saving one thousand lives, so if you could do that it would mean the world.”

“Don’t believe that bājie’s nonsense, master,” Wukong replied, “I had told him no such thing. And besides, by the time someone has been dead for three weeks, five weeks, and seven hundred days, it’s safe to say they’ve paid for all their sins in this life and has had their soul sent off to be reborn. Which means that if the king has crossed that threshold then there’s no saving him.”

At this explanation Tripitaka sighed, shoulders slumped as he looked back down to the perhaps dead king mournfully, “I suppose you have a point there wukong. If there really isn’t much in saving him if he’s really moved on, then that’s that.” Unfortunately bājie was still burning with rage at the injustice inflicted on himself, so he foolishly open his mouth and said, “but master,” Bājie spoke, gathering the threes attention—wujing having been silent all this time, just watching this all unfold from the sidelines—wukong turned to glare at him, know the pig demon still wanted to get them in trouble, “don’t be taken in by her words, she’s talking rubbish. You just recite that spell your spell and I guarantee she’ll bring the king back to life.”

Tense silence filled the room as Tripitaka pondered on what he should do, looking up to meet the pleading eyes of Wukong, his first and most trusted disciple and friend, who was at this moment frantically shaking their head. And knew what he had to do. “No.” He spoke, leaving bājie stunned, his eyes widening, “wh-what?” He spoke, having not expected his plan to backfire on him.

“You heard me,” Tripitaka spoke as he stood up, “I’m not gonna punish Wukong just to get answers out of her that she might not even have! That does seem like a very monk thing to do. If there’s a way to revive the king, then we will find another way, but I’m not gonna put anyone through pain just to get answers, that’s just barbaric!”

Bājie huffed out in anger, stream blowing out of his nose as he turned on his heel and headed out of the monastery with a loud slam of a door.

E N D O F C H A P T E R

Chapter Text

Once bājie had exited the monastery, the three got to work figuring out how to revive the king, since after going through all that in the palace garden, wukong thought it was the best possible option. “One way I could inquire his soul is to go down to the underworld to find out which one of the kings knows where his soul could reside.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Tripitaka thought aloud, “if his soul resides in the underworld, how could he have appeared in my dream? Should souls confined to the underworld be unable to traverse freely beyond the realms?”

Wukong nodded, understanding dawning on them, “you’re right, in that case i can travel up to heaven and through the gates and up straight to tushita palace in the lihen heaven above the thirty-third heaven to see the supreme lord lao zi, I’ll ask him for one of his nine-cycle soul-returning pills. And that, I guarantee, will bring him back to life.”

“Well, if that’s all it takes, then off you go then,” Tripataka said with a relieved smile, “and be as quick as you can, I’m not to sure how long it will take until the king’s body will start to rot, and I’d rather not find out what rotting flesh smells like.” Even mentioning such a thing caused the monk's nose to wrinkle up in disgust, wuking nodded in understanding.

“It’s just after the third watch now, it’ll be after dawn by the time I get back.” Wukong replied, walking over to the door to the monastery, Wukong opened the door only for a certain pig demon to fall to the floor, having been leaning against the door to eavesdrop. The golden monkey demoness grinned, “glad you could finally join us dear brother! I actually have a job for you,” picking himself off the floor, bājie gave her a funny look, “and what would that be?”

Wukong stepped back and pointed to where Tripitaka and wujing stood next to the still corpse of the king, “I’d like you to come over here and watch over both the master and king, make sure that nothing bad happens to them while I’m gone.”

Bājie looked between the two people gathered in the monastery and back to the monkey demoness, “where are you going in such a hurry elder sister? Aren’t you supposed to revive the king?” He asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to do, my plan is to go up to heaven and acquire something that will revive the king. Now go along and stand guard until I’m back, I shouldn't be long.” Bājie nodded and reluctantly walked over to stand over the dead king, noticing that Tripitaka was beginning to tear up again, right as wujing came back into the room with incense sticks and lit them close by as an offering.

With that taken care of for the time being, Wukong went outside and gently closed the door to the monastery, summoned her cloud from underneath them and flew straight up to the heavens, determined to succeed in this endeavor. The monkey demoness went in through the southern gate of heaven, and was good on her word, she did not go to the hall of miraculous mist or the palace of the dipper and bull, and instead took their shining golden cloud straight up to the tushita palace in the lihen heaven. As soon as the monkey demoness she saw the lord lao zi sitting in his elixir laboratory, where immortal demon brothers Jin and yin were using a plantain fan to fan the furnace where elixir was refined.

When lord lao zi spotted wukong he told the boys sternly, “be very careful, that elixir thief is back.”

Wukong fought the urge to roll their eyes, and instead forced a smile, “how dreary of you, old man. Luckily for you you don’t have to worry anymore, since I have no use for your elixirs anymore.”

“Cursed simian,” lord lao zi growled as the man leered down on them, “you stole a lot of my immortality cranting pills just five hundred years ago when you had raveneged amongst heaven in your haste to kill our great lord the jade emperor. For such disorder you had caused, -little sage erlang, as he was referred to during that time- captured you and brought you to be refined for forty nine days in my elixir furnace. Goodness knows how much charcoal we used up- since you’ve been lucky enough to survive and escape, and to be converted to Buddhism, you’ve been tasked with escorting the tang priest on his journey to the western heaven to fetch the scriptures. When you subdued those monsters on flat top mountain the other day you were very wicked; you had refused to give me back my treasures. And now you have the gull to visit me now?”

By this point wukong, who had grown used to all the gods speaking sentences that would rival ten or twenty rolls of scriptures, had zoned out and only blinked back into awareness when the man’s jabberings had stopped, having only heard the last ends of the speal. Looking up at the god with the pretense of someone who looked worried about whatever he had just said.

“Look, I really wasn’t being late with them,” Wukong protested, “when the time came I gave you back your five treasures. I don’t know why you’re being so suspicious of me, just because I hadn’t acted in a way you expected any other otherworldly being to act doesn’t mean I was being “disrespectful”,” the monkey demoness put quotation marks at the last part, not looking thrilled that she’d gotten into another spat with these guys. Crossing their arms with a small pout.

“Why have you come sneaking into my palace when you are supposed to be on your journey with the monk? Don’t tell me you're slacking off on your job already.” Lao zi responded, leering down at her with a crooked grin. Wukong wanted very mych to clock him in the jaw, but held herself back, not wanting to get into a fight with a celestial when they’re supposed to be here for business, “since last I saw you,” Wukong growled out, tightening her arms around her chest as their hands into fists, “we’ve come to the country further west called wuji, this is where a wicked demon disguised as a taost had called up wind and rain, murdered the king and had turned himself into the kings double. Now this imposter is in the palace.”

By this point ao zi was not listening intently, since it’s been awhile since he’s heard of anything interesting going on down below on the earthly plane, yin and jin had even temporarily quelled their job at heating up the furnace to listen in with twin looks of intrigue. “Now I wouldn’t have known any of this was happening if it wasn’t for the ghost of the king appearing in my master's dream late last night while he was reading sutras in this nearby monastery we had stopped at for the night. Who had begged me to subdue the fiend in the act of vengeance. And you know how much I aspire to wreak vengeance on any unlucky souls who would dare cross me, so I of course agreed without any hesitation! Although at first I hadn’t believed my master, since the dead king had appeared in a dream after all, and humans have the tendency to have dreams of all sorts in their life, so I went with my fellow sworn brother bālji into the palace garden that night. Smashing our way in we found out that he had been buried in an eight sided well with glazed tiles walls. When we fished up his body it was in perfect condition, when going back to the monastery my master had ordered me to bring the king back to life. But he ordered me to not venture into the underworld to ask for his soul for whatever reason- perhaps he thinks that I would grow wicked in my stay there- to make a long story short, I need to find a way to save the king’s life without disobeying my master’s orders, and to make matters worse I need to find a way to revive him in the world of the living.”

Taking a moment to regain her breath, Wukong continued, “The reason I’ve come here is cause there is no other place I can possibly revive him. I beg you, great patriarch, in your mercy to lend me a thousand of your nine cycle soul returning pills to save him with.”

“What outrageous nonsense, you ape!” Lord lao zi growled, the monkey demoness not phased by this since they had a feeling this would happen, and so stood with her arms crossed instead. “a thousand? Two thousand?? Do you want to make a meal out of them for your greedy belly” to emphasize his point, he bent down and poked a finger into wukong’s bulging belly, which was slapped away a second later by said monkey demoness, growling up at the deity, “they’re not just pellets of dirt that I can just give away all Willy nilly. Clear off! I’ve none left.”

“What about a hundred or thereabouts?” Wukong asked, forcing their voice to level out so she wasn’t full on growling. Not wanting to end up picking a fight with Lao zi when they had more important things to do. Like trying to revive this darn king, which shouldn’t even be her problem in the first place.

“Not even that,” lord lao zi shook his head. “Ten or so??” Wukong pleaded, now beginning to become desperate, they’re wasting precious time here- “STOP PESTERING ME YOU LOATHSOME APE!!” Shouted the deity, his voice booming all throughout the room, causing every item in the room to shake and fall over from the force, while both yin and jin bolted out of the room in fear.

After a bit of silence, wukong sighed, “if you really haven’t got any,” wukong said with a laugh, hiding her trembling fists in the folds of their hanfu, “I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

It then occurred to lord lao zi that the sun wukong he knew was so mischievous that even after they would have announced their departure and gone, they certainly would return undetected and steal some. So he ordered his two immortal boys to call wukong back, who looked up at him with a puzzled look, uncertain why she had been called back. Lao zi sighed, hardly believing he was doing this, “it has occurred to me that, since that time before you had become the tang priest’s personal pet-“ Wukong’s brows furrowed in distaste, but didn’t say anything- you had been so light fingered, tjat it would be in my best interests to give you a soul returning pill.”

Wukong responded, deciding to bring back her old brevedo since that’s what Lao zi was expecting, “since you know of my power, old man, bring out all your golden elixir and split it forty sixty with me.” Without a word the petrarch produced a gourds d turned it upside down. A solitary golden pill fell out, revealing that lord Lao zi really was telling the truth. “It’s the only one I have,” he said, handing it to the monkey demoness, “take it. I’m giving it to you only so you can revive the king, since this is a part of your trial on the journey with the monk.”

Just a moment, Wukong thought, staring down at the golden pill cupped in her hands, watching as it shimmered and shined in the light of the room. It looked identical to the immortality pills they had stolen all those years ago. But Wukong didn’t know if this was a fake or not. So without thinking, the monkey demoness popped it in their mouth, causing the deity to yell in distress and anger, grabbing wukong by the head with one hand like one would do to a dog with something in its mouth and seized her hand with the other.” DAMNED APE!!” Lao zi roared, “IF YOU’VE SWALLOWED THAT I’LL HAVE YOU KILLED.”

“What a face,” Wukong chuckled, grinning as wide as they could with how tightly the deity’s grip was, pretending that the panic she’s currently feeling was adrenaline instead, “how petty you look. I wouldn’t want to eat your pill, doing so would have made my venture up here worthless. Here it is” wukong revealed a pouch under her chin in which the pill recided. Lord Lao zi felt it to make sure, and said, “then clear off, and never come back here to pester me again.”

Wasn’t planning on it, Wukong didn’t say, but decided to thank the Petrarch anyway and away she left on their cloud out of the tushita palace.

————————————————

Wukong traveled through the jade gates in a thousand beams of light and came down to earth, in an instant she was out through the southern gate of heaven and back to the land in the east, where the sun was seen rising. They brought their cloud straight down to land outside the gate of the precious wooden monastery, where Bājie could still be heard wailing. She approached and called out for tripataka.

“You’re back, wukong!” Tripataka said with delight, “have you got the pill?” To this wukong nodded. Gathering the attention of bājie, who had quilled his crying the moment he heard the monkey demoness show up, “of course she would. Even if they had to steal it.”

Wukong leveled the pig demon with a flat look and said, “brother, you can go away now. We don’t need you to do that anymore. Dry your tears or go and weep somewhere else. I spotted on my way back some bushes nearby that you could use.” With a gesture that would’ve been seen as offensive if it weren’t for his limited dexterity, wukong asked wujing to fetch him some water. The fish demon hurried to a well at the back where there was a bucket and filled a bowl up halfway. Wukong took the water, spit the pill out, much to everyone’s disgust, and placed it between the kings lips. When she noticed nothing was happening, the monkey demoness placed down the bowl of water with the pill and forcefully pried the body’s teeth apart with both hands and poured the pill with clean water down into the king’s stomach. For the next hour wild noises could be heard from the stomach, and all the group could do was stare. But still the body did not move. “Master,” wukong spoke, having grown nervous, “not even fetching the golden elixir seems to be able to save him. Please don’t tell me you’re gonna try to torture me to death.”

“Of course he will come back to life,” tripataka replied optimistically, “how else could a body that has been dead so long swallow water? This shows the miraculous power of the golden elixir. Once it is in the stomach, the stomach starts singing; and when the stomach sings the blood pulses move in harmony with it. The only thing that could be wrong in this instance is that the vital breath is cut off and thus cannot extend its reach throughout the rest of the body. It’s like a once flowing river getting clogged; you have to remove the culprit that has it clogged so it can flow freely once more. iron would rust if left in a well for three years—so logically the body should react the same way. Now that his own vital breath has gone, someone has to give him a mouthful of air.”

The room eclipsed into silence as the three demons looked at the monk horrified, and within a second wukong shot her finger towards bājie, who had also pointed an equally accusatory finger in the demoness’s direction “HE/SHE SHOULD BE THE ONE TO DO IT!!” They both shouted, only to glare towards each other heatedly, “WHAT!? Why should I be the one to do it!? I don’t want to be known as someone who had kissed a corpse!!” they continued, only for tripataka to clear his throat to gather their attention. “If you two are done with your scrabbling, I’d prefer this to be done quickly. I would suggest wukong to do it, Since in all fairness I don’t trust bājie to do it properly.” To this bājie looked on with a mixture of pride and offense, while wukong stared at the monk in horror, “what? Why do I have to do it!?”

“Because unlike you bājie has lived a life of a vicious man eater since he has been placed in this earthly form after being kicked out of heaven, and other than the fact that would obviously make his breath smell like death. Meanwhile you, even though you have slain millions in your life as great sage, I don’t recall you have ever having eaten anyone. So your breath would smell much like that of tropical fruits and nuts. And with the problem of kissing a corpse, please keep in mind that, though the body looks as still as a statue, it doesn’t have any signs of decay.”

With a nod, Wukong hesitantly crept forward, leaned down to be level with the king, and put their mouth to the kings lips and blew in. And with a noisy rush of air the king’s vital breath came together and his spirit was finally sent back to his body.

and without warning the king set up with his eyes blown wide, having been seconds away from meeting heads with wukong, who had quickly leaned back at the first sign of movement, eyes also having grown wide.

With the king now fully alive, he flexed his hands and feet and spoke, turning his head to tripataka, “master” and quickly maneuvering his body so he was kneeling down on the floor of the monastery, “I remember having visiting you the night before as a ghost, but I had never expected to be returned to the living today.”

Tripataka hastened to raise him to his feet, and said with a nervous smile, “your majesty, it was none of my doing. I may have been the one to relay your message, but I was not the one to save you, that honor would go to my disciple over here,” with a quick gesture the king turned his head to see a nine foot tall monkey demoness, with long light auburn hair and red and gold eyes, and froze momentarily. Wukong on the other hand looked on hesitantly, having seen that familiar look of shock before from humans, having had seen it many times on this journey and in the past, and so was preparing for the worst.

With a few long blinks, the king looked back at tripataka again, who gave a nod of encouragement, and the king looked back at wukong with a ghost of a smile, “well, then I shall thank you as well, miss…?”

“Names sun wukong, your majesty” wukong replied, straightening up to her full height, “and I’m the great sage equal to heaven!” She announced with a grin, the king bowed to them in respect, “it’s a pleasure to meet you sun wukong,” straightening back up, tripataka took his hand to help him up and led him to the meditation hall where wujing and bājie were and bowed in greeting to them as well before taking his seat, by now the monks of the monastery had prepared breakfast, and were about to bring it in when they saw the sopping wet king to their general alarm and suspicion.

Seeing that things were about to get messy, Wukong ran in front of the king to say, “don’t worry monks. This is the king of wuji, your true sovereign, and not some stranger like you might think. Three years ago he was murdered by his power hungry taoist, and I brought him back to life just a few minutes ago in the grand hall. Today we plan on heading to the chapel to sort this mess out. If you have any food, it would be in your best interest to bring it in. We’ll eat and then be on our way.” Wukong paused for breath, and watched in relief as the monks nodded in understanding and brought in some hot water for the king to wash with and a clean change of clothes.

They took off the kings yellow ochre robe and gave him two of the abbots' cloth habits, with a yellow silk cord to tie around his waist in place of the belt of lantian jade. Then they slipped off his water soaked no-worry shoes and gave him a pair of old monastic sandals to wear instead. Then they all ate breakfast while having pleasant conversation and soon the dragon horse was saddled up.

While wukong was surveying the amount of luggage they have to make sure nothing was missing or misplaced, they noticed that they had twice as much luggage than they had a few months ago, and looked down at bājie who had bent down for the luggage, “how heavy is the luggage, bājie?” Wukong asked casually, the pig demon looked up at her, released an agitated snort and said, “I’ve been carrying the stuff for so long that I frankly don't know anymore.”

“Well, since you seem to be mighty miserable, and you did take part in bringing the king of wuji back to life, I thought I would lift your burden by having you divide the luggage into two loads,” wukong said, pointedly not looking at him as they saw from the corner of her eye bājie lift his head and look at the monkey demoness with wide eyes as she continued, “and give one for the king to carry just as long as it’s nothing to heavy. We need to be in town early so we can complete this mission without haste.”

Quickly bowing to his elder sister in thanks, bājie ran back to the monastery to ask for another carrying pole and divided the luggage, he was about to put the heaviest luggage on the king’s carrying pole when he suddenly felt wukong growler down at him with utter malice, and hastily moved all the heavy luggage to his carrying pole and the lightweight stuff to the kings. Wukong stayed near him as the pig demon gave the lightweight carrying pole to the king.

Wukong only lessened her glare when they were walking away, “what’s the point of dividing the luggage if i can’t give him most of the load? Now I still have to carry just as much!” He complained, wukong only shook their head, “me asking you to divide the luggage was not just so you could move all the heavy stuff to someone else, it was just so you could be carrying less. Since even the small stuff we have in the luggage has the potential to combine into something heavy if given enough time, so you still end up carrying less, even if it doesn’t feel like it at first”

Bājie averted their gaze with a snort, but didn’t say anything more. “Now enough of this nonsense brother” Wukong said as she walked over next to ao lie who was carrying tripataka on his back, “hurry out and lead the way.” And bājie did just that, although reluctantly. Leading the way forward side by side with the king while Wujing walked on the side opposite ao lie. The five hundred monks of the monastery drew themselves up in an orderly procession to see them off with the accompaniment of music. After a few miles wukong spoke, “there’s no need for you all to see us off any further,” wukong said with a smile, genuinely appreciating the monks seeing them off this far, it reminded them of the feeling she had of going into battle with her troops of monkeys of the mountain, and eventual with the sworn brotherhood during the cusp of the war against heaven. But knew that times were different now, and that they no longer were surrounded by powerful demons ready to rage war, and instead were surrounded by mortal humans that were only accompanying them fifteen miles to the town of wujing. She can’t have the past repeat itself. “It would be disastrous if any official heard about it and news about what we’re about to do leaked out. Please go straight back. I’d only like you to get his majesty’s clothes clean and tidy then send them into the capital this evening or tomorrow morning, depending on how long it takes to take down the taoist. I’ll see to it that you’re properly rewarded.” The monk’s obediently returned, and wukong hastened their pace to catch up to her master and everyone else as they pressed ahead.

END OF CHAPTER

Chapter Text

It took them all less than a morning to make their journey, and they were soon near the city. “You know, if the circumstances were different, i would have been thrilled at seeing a city,” Tripataka spoke, wringing his hands together nervously, “but now I can't stop thinking about how everything could go wrong if we aren’t careful.”

“I understand what you mean master, but the thing about being brave is doing stuff that scares you,” wukong spoke, keeping her sights set on the city in front of them before looking back to tripataka with a grin, “and hey, even if something bad does happen, I can just kick it in the face like I always do, no sweat.”

Tripataka looked at wukong with a sheepish grin, “that…doesn’t sound as comforting as you may think wukong, but thanks.”

As the group entered the city they noticed that all the people in the streets were well dressed, and that there was an air of busy prosperity; the phoenix pavilions and dragon towers of the palace looked most magnificent. The palaces and buildings resembled those of a great state, the singing and dancing was like that of the city of tang.

Robes shine emerald in the sun while the peacock gates open with clouds of incense, colored flags fly over the clouds of pearl. It looked like a truly admirable picture of prosperity, the officials stand silent with nothing to report.

Tripataka dismounted and said, “wukong, I think it would be best that we go to the palace and submit our travel document so as to avoid trouble with the law.”

“You’re right,” Wukong said, standing confidently even as people passing by began to stare, having probably never seen a monkey demoness before. She’s not gonna linger on that, “my brothers and I will go in together. It will be much easier to manage if there are several of us.”

Heaving a sigh, knowing just how easily things could escalate, he said, “if you all go in,” tripataka spoke, trying his best to sound stern, “make sure not to talk too rough, pay your respects to the people in there like a subject would to their sovereign before you say anything.”

“Does that mean I’ll have to kowtow?” Wukong asked, not feeling great about kowtowing to a group of people that she doesn’t even know won’t throw their weapons at her at a moment's notice. “Yes,” Tripataka replied without pause, “the full obeisance, with five bows and three kowtows.”

After a moment of hesitation, Wukong nodded their head and lead her two sworn brothers to the palace gates and, bending down to be eye level to the official on duty there, who looked up at the monkey demoness’s red and yellow eyes with fear, “greetings, we are pilgrims sent by the great tang emperor in the east to worship the Buddha and fetch the scriptures from the western heaven. Today we have come to you with no intention of hurting you or anyone in this city, but instead to present our credentials, and in doing so me and my group will be quite glad.” The monkey demoness finished with a grin, revealing her sharp canines to the human, whose face instantly drained of color in terror.

Upon getting this order, the official rushed through the southern gate like devils were on his heels and into the palace, leaving wukong looking on in confusion, straightening back up with a puzzled look on their face, “I think you might have spooked him, elder sister,” wujing spoke worriedly, while bājie covered his snout to quill his laughter, though that did little from preventing snorts from escaping.

“Well I didn’t mean to scare him!” Wukong exclaimed as she turned to them, “It’s just this tall body of mine is far more intimidating than I’m used to, which comes in handy when I’m in company with other demons, but the downside is I’m far too frightening for any human being to ever imagine being calm around.”

“What do you mean by you not being used to this ‘tall body’ of yours?” Bājie asked, having assumed that wukong had always looked this way, Wujing stroked his beard in thought, “don’t you mean when you were younger?” The fish demon asked, “I’ve heard of younger demons talking about how they had trouble coming to terms with their new size after a growth spurt, so perhaps your situation is similar to that?”

Well…I wouldn’t say similar, wukong thought as she recalled how their ‘growth spurt’ wasn’t exactly normal. “I guess you could say that,” Wukong replied nervously, wujing and bājie only gave her confused looks, but dropped it once it was apparent the monkey demoness wasn’t gonna elaborate.

————————————

Back in the palace, the official knelt on the steps of the throne room and reported, “there are three monks outside the gate who say they are pilgrims sent by the great tang, and are intending on traveling to the western heaven to worship the Buddha and fetch these scriptures that seem mighty important. They are now here to present their credentials, rather than intrude uninvited. The monks are now waiting for your royal summon outside the gate.”

The taoist monarch sent for them at once. As the king went in through the palace gates with tripataka, his eyes glistened with unshed tears as he rambled on about how awful it was that his kingdom, that was as strong as iron and bronze, could have been invaded so easily. Tripataka patted his back in sympathy. “Don’t worry about it too much, your majesty. If everything goes to plan, wukong should be rid of the taoist that has stolen your life by the end of the day.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself!” A familiar voice boomed from nearby, causing the two humans to jump and turn around, spotting Wukong walking beside them with their cudgel out by their side, while bājie and wujing walked from behind. “My cudgel of mine is made of one of the strongest materials in the universe, I guarantee that I’ll kill the fiend and sweep away his remains into whatever your people deposit your garbage. Your kingdom will soon be yours again, this I promise you.” Wukong grinned widely, and instead of being filled with fear like the other human, the king saw the genuine warmth in the monkey demoness’s smile and smiled at them in return, wiping away the tears that had begun to fall with his sleeves, steeled his resolve and followed them as they went into the main audience hall of the palace.

The moment the group stepped into the room they were greeted with the civil and military officials and four hundred courtiers, all towering over them in majestic silence. Or it would have been if Wukong hadn’t been seen leading tripataka to the foot of the jade steps, the tang priest not looking the least bit afraid of the hulking mammoth of a monkey demoness standing beside him. This sight alone left every high standing person in the room trembling in fear, not knowing that the fearsome demoness they saw before them did not wish them any harm. But unfortunately the fear of demons had been hardwired into humanity for millennia, so the thought hadn’t once crossed their minds.

Even still, quiet murmurs began to spread through the room, some of the intendants there were brazen enough to dare gossip, even at the possibility of harm, “what a stupid monk.” One member of the crowd said, looking down at tripataka with clear disdain, having come to the conclusion that if the monk seemed all buddy buddy with the demoness, then he should be seen as the enemy as well. “Fancy seeing our king without even bowing to him or even saying anything polite. He hasn’t even made a respectable chant. What brazen effrontery.”

Now Wukong is familiar with being greeted by all kinds of reprimands and insults from humans in the past, enough so that the words easily slide off her now. But it’s completely different when those same words and scorn is directed at their human master and friend. A growl had begun rumbling from her throat when the fiend-king raised his hand to command silence to the room, and asked, “where is this monk from?”

Before anyone else could speak, Wukong boldly replied, still standing next to tripataka, who seemed rooted to the spot, “he is a pilgrim sent by imperial command from the land of tang in the east of the southern jambu continent. To go to the thunder monastery in India in the west in order to worship the living Buddha and fetch the true scriptures. Now that he is here, he does not wish to pass through your country without reporting his presence, which is why he has come today to submit his credentials.”

Hearing this, the vengeful taoist thought angrily about what would be so special about the monk’s eastern land, “I don’t pay tribute to your court or have any dealings with your monarch. So how dare you be rude to me and not bow to me!?”

Wukong forced herself not to roll their eyes as they thought, gee, maybe cause you’re a false ruler and only got to your position by deceit and murder? But replied instead, “we in the east have long had a heavenly dynasty,” wukong replied with a smile, knowing the thoist was spitting nothing but lies. As evidenced by how the real kings eyes had widened in horror at his reply, having most likely had a very peaceful reign with longstanding friendships with any nearby countries and kings when he had still ruled. “And has been regarded as a superior country, while yours is….well, safe to say, yours is thought of as the inferior frontier state. As one saying goes; the emperor of a greater land is the father and superior, while the ruler of a lesser state is the son and the inferior. Oh, and for the record, I think it’s very unbecoming of a ruler to not come out to meet us. So how dare you complain about us not bowing to you when you hadn’t even done the barebones amount of etiquette.”

In a raging fury the fiend-king ordered his civil and military officials, “arrest that uncouth monk.” At the word arrest, the officials were all too glad to rush at wukong, even though they were all at a clear disadvantage, as was made clear when the monkey demoness gave a shout, pointed at them with the tip of their cudgel and ordered them to keep back. Which they immediately did, in fear of having their skulls shattered by the brunt of the monkey demoness’s weapon.

But the officials weren’t the only ones to have frozen, as the colonels before the steps froze in place as if they were nothing but wooden figures, while the generals in the hall were still like statues of clay. All of them terrified of being the first victims of the slaughter.

Seeing that all his civil and military officials were standing around unmoving, the fiend-king leapt down from his dragon throne and was just about to seize wukong, who thought gleefully, eyes flicking in the Taoist’s direction with blood red eyes, knowing that she had the man right where she wanted him. Even if his head was made of iron, one touch of my cudgel will be enough to create a hole in it. But as the taoist continued to move, thinking that if he would simply grip the demoness’s wrist, then she would be forced to corroborate. While wukong knew that the moment he made a move towards her then their cudgel would be through his head before he could blink, when a rescuer came from beside the taoist.

This person in question being the prince of wuji, who rushed forward, having most likely came in through the entrance while everyone was distracted, and grabbed his court robes, causing wukong to pause in her movements, having been seconds away from ramming their weapon through the man’s skull, and watched as the prince kneeled beside him and said, “please don’t be angry, you’re majesty.”

“And why’s that, my boy?” The taoist asked, face softening as he put up a front of pretending to act like a father to the prince, which just caused wukong to grow even angrier. But stayed put, knowing the prince had a plan.

And that he did, “let me tell you father. Three years ago I heard tale of a monk who had been sent by the tang emperor to worship the Buddha and fetch the scriptures from the western heaven. Just as this kind demoness here had said.”

Both wukong and the Taoist’s faces turned in confusion, but in different ways, the taoist was confused and mortified by the fact the prince had called the monkey demoness “kind” while wukong felt conflicting emotions, knowing that this was just another part of the princes plan, and that he certainly didn’t think of her as kind. While another part of her, the part of themself that was still naive enough to think that the prince could be honest, recalled how the prince had bowed to her prior to coming here, even as he is of much higher status than her. Being of demon royalty or not, when the human had looked at them, she saw nothing but genuine compassion in his eyes, with no signs of deceit. Wukong didn’t know of any human that ever thought of her as anything less than a monster, aside from tripataka.

Unaware of the monkey demoness’s swirling thoughts, and ignoring the taost’s expression, the prince continued on, “but I never thought he would be here in our country today.” The prince sent a kind smile Tripataka’s way, which he returned gratefully, before the prince turned to face the man once more. “Your majesty has a fiery temper, and I’m afraid that if things continue like this, you will have the poor monk beheaded. I’ve heard of your trials in the past of innocent people that only wanted to cross the border of our kingdom, only for them to get beheaded for speaking out of turn once. And if you would have this monk beheaded, then the great tang emperor will be most furious when he eventually hears the news.”

The Taoist’s eyes widened in horror upon hearing this, not wanting to get on the bad side of an emperor on the other side of the world, but even so took comfort in the fact that he was so far away. While wukong looked on with a pleased expression, having been well taught in the ways of weaponizing fear in the past, and knew that this kid was going places.

“Since making himself ruler the tang emperor Li Shimin has unified the country, but he isn’t satisfied yet. He has sent military expeditions overseas already. So if he learns, sir, that you have killed the holy priest who is his sworn brother, he’s bound to raise an army to wage war on you. Our forces are much too weak for such heavy combat against such a strong foe, but by then it will be much too late for regrets. If your majesty will accept your sons suggestion, you should have these four monks arrested and thoroughly questioned before you make any decisions you can’t take back. Hold them on the charge of not paying obeisances to the royal presence, sentence can be passed later.”

All these suggestions had been made to hold the taoist back were made cause the crown prince was worried would harm the tang priest, and in doing so would surely cause the monkey demoness and her two underlings to attack the people here unheeded, and bloodshed would certainly be a casualty. But he was unaware that it was because of wukong that the taoist had acted out like he had, though they certainly had her reasons at being angry at him.

In the end the taoist accepted the prince’s advice with a blank sheet face, stood back on his throne, cleared his throat and roared at tripataka, “monk, when did you leave the east? Why did the tang monarch send you to fetch scripture!?”

Before Tripataka could even open his mouth, wukong spoke, “as has been stated previously, my master is the tang emperor’s sworn brother, and thus his name is sanzang, but goes by tripataka.” Wukong then went into great detail in describing what had happened in the past with Wei Zheng and the beheading of the dragon of the jing river because heaven had ordered him to. To the tang emperor coming back to life after being sent on the tour of the underworld. She went on to tell how the tang emperor had held a great water and land mass to save the souls of all those who had been unjustly slain. “Because my master had preached on the scriptures with such compassion the one and only bodhisattva guanyin instructed him to travel west. My master had made a solemn vow and volunteered gladly to do this in order to express his full loyalty to his country, and was given a letter of credence from the tang emperor. Ths was three days before the full moon in the ninth month of the thirteenth year of the reign-period tien guan. After leaving the land of the east he came to a fielded area called double boundary valley, where he broke me free from a waterlogged stone pillar and asked me to accompany him on his journey west as his disciple. My name is sun wukong, also known as the great sage monkey demoness. Some time later we came to gao village in the land of stubet, where my master took on his second disciple known as zhu bājie.” Wukong gestures behind them as she spoke, revealing the pig demon in question, who upon being spoken to, snapped out of his doze and waved half-heartedly.

“Then at the flowing sand’s river we met what would become my master’s third disciple, sha wujing,” wukong then gestured to wujing, who flinched slightly at being spoken to, and waved shyly with a faint blush on his cheeks. “Then the day before yesterday my master took on a lay brother at the precious wood monastery as his porter.”

Upon hearing all this, the taoist, who had no way of searching the tang priest or using a crafty approach to question the monkey demoness, glared angrily and said, “when your master left the east, he was traveling alone. Of the four followers he picked up, three regular monks would have no problem. But he had decided to take three demons as his disciples, which certainly would have made traveling bothersome. But besides all that, he decided to take on a lay brother. What’s he called? Does he have an official ordination license? Bring him forward to make a statement.”

At this the king, who was the lay brother he was referring to, began to tremble as he turned to wukong and asked, “master, what shall I say? You make all this look so easy.”

To this Wukong replied with a soft smile, “don’t be afraid,” wukong said while patting the man on the shoulder, “I’ll speak for you.”

Wukong then angled her head to make sure the whole room could hear them as she spoke, “your majesty, this is unfortunate, but the lay brother appears to be mute, so I’m hoping I can speak for him instead. When this man was young he once went to the western heaven, so he knows the way. I’m very familiar with his background, so I beg your majesty in your mercy to allow me to speak on his behalf.”

“Unless you want to be punished severely, you better make a full and frank statement at once.” The taoist ordered, glaring down at the monkey demoness from his lotus throne with arms crossed.

Wukong nodded, beads of sweat raining down to her neck as she cleared her throat, knowing that things are getting tense, and it’s not just their life on the line this time. “The brother now confessing is getting on in years, with no voice to speak about and being bankrupt too. Long has his family lived in this region till five years ago when catastrophe struck. No rain fell and the people there suffered drought; monarch and commoners alike all kept and fast. Incense was burned amid their prayers to heaven, but unfortunately for hundreds of milles no clouds could be seen.”

The kings eyes widened upon hearing such a familiar tale, having lived it himself, what’s that monkey demoness planning? He thought as he continued to wring his sleeves in anxiety.

“When all of the people were in agonies of hunger and thirst,” wukong continued, “a mysterious taoist from zhongnan suddenly arrived. He showed his great powers to bring the wind and the rain, but once he got the trust of the monarch and people, he secretly murdered the ruler of the country, pushed him down the well in the palace’s garden, and took the throne for himself, disguised in the kings own likeness. Luckily some otherworldly monkey demoness came to settle the score, raising the dead and restoring him to life. Only then did he volunteer to act as our porter and to the west together with us monks. The false king is indeed actually a very malevolent taoist while the lay brother is in fact the true king in disguise.”

Hearing this as he sat in the throne hall filled with many civil and military officials, his heart leapt in his throat, quickly got up outta his seat to flee but realized that he was unarmed. He turned around to see that one of the nearby officers of the palace guard was standing stock still. Almost like they were in a trance. With no other options the taoist grabbed the sword from around the guard’s waist and rose into the air on a cloud, and just like that zipped out of the building, much to the thunderous fury of wujing and loud complaints from bājie about Wukong’s impatience, who just shrugged, “hey, it was just getting a little boring spitting lots of info around, when getting into the action is much more fun!” She exclaimed.

Wujing pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh, “even if that’s the case, it still would have been beneficial if you had taken it more gently and not having alarmed him like you did. If he gets away on his cloud, it’s gonna be far more difficult to catch him.”

Wukong simply rolled their eyes, “oh stop worrying, let’s ask the prince to come down and pay his respects to his father, and invite the queen so she can finally reunite with her husband after so long.” Wukong then recited the command to release the immobilizing spell, causing everyone that had been frozen to fall to the floor simultaneously, unconscious. After looking over everyone and making sure none were injured, wukong said, “Once the officials come to, tell them all to come pay homage to their sovereign. Then it will finally be known who the real king is. Tell everyone what has happened so that the truth can be known. I’m off to find that wicked taoist now!” And with that, the monkey demoness gave bājie and wujing her parting instructions, who were still quite miffed at them, “make sure to look after them all—king and ministers, father and son, queen and consorts, and of course our master. He still hasn’t gotten kidnapped yet, and I’d like it to stay that way.”

With one last farewell, Wukong summoned her cloud from underneath their feet and zipped off into the sky, in search of the taoist. And just as it happened, she was already up in the ninth layer of clouds looking all around for them. Only to realize that the coward was fleeing back to the east. Rolling their eyes, Wukong was soon right behind him in the blink of an eye, shouting at him “AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING IN SUCH A HURRY!?” Causing the fiend to jump and almost lose purchase on his cloud, spinning around and pointing a sword at her, like that would do anything to them, wukong gave the man a flat look as the man shouted, “YOU SCOUNDREL YOU APE. It was none of your business that i was sitting on someone else’s throne. Why did you have to come here righting wrongs and giving my secret away?”

Wukong leaned back on her cloud like she was lounging on a sofa and not floating miles in the air, pretending to think. “Hmmmmm….I don’t know, it probably has to do with you murdering a king in order to gain power- super messed up by the way- while ALSO destroying the relationships between the kings son and wife. Dunno, I just think that’s pretty shitty.” By the time wukong was done, she was laying on their stomach whilst leveling the taoist with a heated glare.

“Can’t imagine you ever becoming a king again with your track record, as you must’ve known the moment i showed up you should’ve made yourself scarce instead of giving my master a bad time and thinking of killing him. What sort of confession were you even trying to extort from him? Cause I’ll let you know right here that tjat man is just about the purest damn human you will ever come across. And you trying to convict him of a crime is just laughable. Now that I’ve found you, I’ll make you wish you never stepped foot into this country.”

Fierce was the monkey king when she finds out about any wrongdoings involving family, and strong was their will and spirit against such a foe as the false monarch. As cudgel parried against such a flimsy thing such as a sword forged by mortal hands, both monkey demoness and foe fought against each other.

For one whole day the three worlds were covered by thick mist, all because a monarch had recovered his throne.

After a few rounds the taoist soon realized that he was no match for wukong, and fled back to the city the same way he came. He rushed through the two lines of civil and military officials before the white jade steps, turned himself into the likeness tripataka and stood holding his hands together before the steps of the throne hall.

Once wukong had caught up with the taoist, she was too caught up on beating the man up till next Tuesday, they had raised their cudgel up above her head with glowing red eyes, till they heard a familiar voice shout, “DISCIPLE IT’S ME, DON’T HIT ME!!” That was when the murderous glow went out like a oil lamp, looking down at the false tripataka with wide eyes. Wukong knew that the tang priest under them wasn’t the real tang priest cause it doesn’t smell like him. The real tripataka smells like incense smoke and green tea, while the false tripataka smells like none of that. Which had wukong narrowing her eyes, causing the false tang priests eyes to widen in fear.

Movement out of the corner of their eyes caused both of them to look over and standing there, perplexed as could be, was the real tripataka. There was a moment of silence before the false tripataka jumped up and tackled the real one to the ground, and before long the two man were rolling around on the ground, one of the Tripataka’s trying desperately to get free, while the other was actively keeping the other man on the ground. All the while wukong looked on with wide eyes, having trouble figuring out who the right one was. It got to the point where Wukong eventually dropped her cudgel and physically pulled the two apart, one looked greatly relieved while the other looked mildly irritated. But wukong could still not figure out
Which one was the real tripataka.

It was then she remembered something, and soon uttered the words of a familiar spell, and called on all the devas who guard the dharma, the six dings, the six jias, the protector of the four quarters and the center, the four duty gods, and the eighteen guardians of the faith. As well as the local deities and mountain gods: I’m here to subdue a malevolent taoist, but he has transformed into my master. They are so alike in appearance that it’s messing with my brain. As you have secret understanding, please help me spot the fake.

There was a brief silence till wukong suddenly felt an inch in their eyes that caused them to blink. But when she reopened her eyes, both Tripataka’s were enveloped in two differently colored auras, one was that of a bright golden color that reminded them of winter jasmine, while the other aura was a deep black color, with hints of violet and maroon. Gotcha.

The moment the false tang priest knew he had been found out, he used his divine powers to leap across clouds as if they were lily pads till he was on top of the roof of the throne hall. Blinking her eyes back to normal, Wukong didn’t waste any time rushing after the taoist, but the moment they were on the roof the taoist jumped back down, grabbed tripataka, who let out a yelp of surprise, and dragged the two of them amongst the crowd. This caused Wukong to growl angrily, since now she has to find the two of them again. Things were made even worse when the monkey demoness heard bājie’s mocking laugh and turned around to glare at him, who was standing next to wujing in the entryway of the throne hall, wujing looked unamused. “What’s wrong with you!? The taoist has tripataka now, and there’s no telling where they could be. So don’t be foolish.”

“You know what? I actually have an idea,” bājie said with a smug grin, as wujing looked down at the pig demon worriedly knowing nothing good would come from bājie having an idea. “If you can bear the headache, ask our master to recite the band tightening spell-“

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?” Wukong bellowed, cutting bājie off, “are you still on about trying to have me punished for your amusement!? I can’t tell if you’ve noticed, but we’ve actually got a situation that needs to be dealt with here.”

“If you will let me finish…” bājie said irritably, “wujing and I will each stand near the crowd and listen. The one that doesn’t know the incarnation is the taoist.”

“THAT’S…..actually not that bad of an idea…” wukong admitted, crossing her arms whilst looking off to the side.

“What was that?” Bājie said with a grin, raising his hand to his ear to hear better. Knowing damn well he heard the monkey demoness the first time.

“I SAID THAT’S STUPID BUT I’LL DO IT!!!” Wukong yelled, “that would make sense though, since there’s only three people who know the spell, the Buddha, which he then taught to bodhisattva guanyin, who passed that knowledge down to tripataka. Very well then, since it seems like we don’t have many options left, I’ll alert our master of the plan.”

Walking towards the front of the crowd, wukong cupped their hands around her mouth and yelled out, unheeded by the many eyes that looked their way, “master!! I need you to recite the spell!!” From within the crowd, tripataka, who had been trying to get out of the headlock the false priest had put him in, looked up upon hearing this, and was left confused, “BUT YOU DON’T LIKE THAT SPELL!! Why would you want me to do that anyway!?” He yelled back, beginning to create a large circle in the crowd as the people began to move away from the yelling.

“JUST TRUST ME MASTER, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!!” Wukong called back. With this, the tang priest began to recite it, much to the confusion of the disguised taoist, who could only look down in confusion while mumbling random words of gibberish.

“That one that’s mumbling is most certainly the fiend,” bājie muttered, trying to keep his voice low. While the taoist was distracted, the pig demon raised his rake to strike the man, who expectantly leapt in the air and flew away on his cloud.

With a shout bājie leapt onto his own cloud and went after him. Leaving wukong curled up on the ground, clutching her head while tripataka kneeled beside them, rubbing soothing circles in her hair while mumbling apologies. Wujing looked on in great sadness, before long wukong slowly rose up off the ground, still looking in a great deal of pain. grabbed their cudgel from her ear and summoned their respective cloud and rushed after the two, while wujing did the same, branding his staff.

Before long all three demons had surrounded the taoist. As the fiend was held in check by bājie’s rake, wujing’s staff. Wukong laughed triumphantly and said, “well, it seems like you’re at the end of the line. There’s nowhere you can go, no one you can trick or manipulate, it’s time for you to face your punishment that’s been held off since you became king.”

With this, the great monkey demoness leapt up to the ninth layer of clouds, had her cudgel raised and was about ready to pummel the Taoists body with such severe wounds that even his ghost would feel them, when a multi colored cloud suddenly appeared to the northwest, and a voice boomed, “don’t hit him, sun wukong.” Wukong turned around to see the bodhisattva manjusri blocked her blow and then proceeded to bow deeply towards the monkey demoness.

Why are you here, bodhisattva?” Wukong inquired, not having a clue why a Bodhisattva would appear right when they were about to give the taoist his comeuppance.

“I’m here to collect that fiend for you,” manjusri replied, upon hearing this, Wukong suppressed a heavy sigh at having another one of her kills taken from them, and reluctantly thanked him for the trouble. Manjusri produced the demon—revealing mirror from his sleeve to reveal the Taoist’s true form, successfully dissipating the Taoist’s royal disguise, reverting him back to his true form. At once wukong called both bājie and wujing to come look in the mirror the Bodhisattva was holding, when they all looked in the mirror they saw the ‘Taoist’ looked quite different than what they imagined.

He wasn’t even human as they had all suspected. With glazed eyes like dishes and a head resembling a lion that looked hard as a steel cauldron. His whole body was covered in blue fur as indigo In summer, and his claws as white as winter frost.
With two floppy ears the same color as his body, and a tail as long as a broom.
Blue hairs bristled with barely held back fear, and red eyes shining with gold.
The demon had sharp teeth like jade flagstones, white whiskers sticking out like spears.

When his true image was shown in the mirror

He was revealed to be the demon lion known as azure.

“Bodhisattva” wukong spoke after having glanced at the lion, “he’s the blue furred lion from under your throne. Why did he run away here to wreck this land, and why haven’t you subdued him before?”

The blue lion, azure, released a sound resembling a growl and a scoff, crossing his arms and refusing to look wukong and her sworn brothers in the eye, and instead looked towards his master, seemingly like he was waiting for an answer as well.

With a sigh, the Bodhisattva replied, “wukong, he didn’t run away, he was sent here by the lord Bodhisattva.”

This seemed to be news to wukong, who released a gasp of shock as she looked back towards azure, just to see the lion looking at them with a smug grin, like he was in some joke that Wukong wasn’t privy to knowing. The monkey demoness looked back towards manjusri so as to not blow a gasket in front of the Bodhisattva. “But- how could the lord Bodhisattva possibly have sent this beast here just to usurp a throne? He could have instead aided me in my journey to escort the tang priest, thus making the trip much easier on all of us.”

The Bodhisattva paused, as if he was debating on what to say next, seemingly as if he knew something wukong didn’t. A feeling of dread washed over wukong at this, having learned that being kept in the dark is the most dangerous thing. Before Wukong could speak, the bodhisattva replied, looking them straight in the eye as he said, “there are some things that you don’t know,” manjusri said, wukong looked at him with tense suspicion, the bodhisattva carried on, as if he couldn’t feel the monkey demoness’s glare, “that king of wuji was a benevolent man and used to throw a feast for monks, the lord Buddha sent me here to bring him to the west, where he might become a golden arhat. Because of the fact I couldn’t appear to him in my real form–humans have gone crazy at the sight of otherworldly celestial bodies before– I transformed into an ordinary monk and asked him for some vegetarian food. When he was unable to answer some questions I asked he took me as an evildoer, had me tied up, and immersed me in the palace moat for three days.” Wukong smacked her head in disbelief upon hearing this, knowing that doing something like that to a celestial is essentially like opening the maw of the underworld yourself and jumping in. But also knew that the king hadn’t known the Bodhisattva to not be of celestial nature. “Luckily since I’m no human that would have been doomed by being imprisoned as such, I only had to wait till the six jias appeared and saved me with their golden bodies, and took me back to the west, where I reported to the tathagata Buddha. It was he who had ordered that the king be pushed into the well and soaked for three years as punishment for my three day soaking. By coming here you have now won a great merit.”

Even upon hearing this Wukong didn’t feel right being rewarded something grand when a whole entire land had unknowingly been without their king for three years cause of some divine interference. “You may have repaid your private gauge,” wukong spoke, trying not to be angry at the bodhisattva, as his reasons for doing so were not out of malice, “but goodness only knows how many people that demon has murdered during his reign.”

“He never killed anyone,” manjusri replied as he shook his head, “in the three years since his arrival, the winds and rain have come regularly, the state has stood strong even without their original ruler. And the people have known peace. He did nobody any harm.”

“Even if all that is granted,” Wukong said, “he’s still been sleeping with the queen and the consorts in the harem. Surely this has sullied them and been an affront to mortality.”

“He has not sullied them at all,” manjusri replied, “he’s a gelded lion.”

Wukong’s eyes widened as she looked at azure, who was busy swiping at bājie who was trying to get a feel of the lions supposed missing parts with a growl, while wujing was trying to pull him away, though it's difficult to say how successful it was. “this demon’s got a bad reputation he doesn’t deserve.” He chuckled as he was pulled away from a swipe that was seconds away from cutting his nose off, as he looked back at wukong with a grin, “like a teetotaler with a red nose.”

“In that case,” wukong continued as they looked back at the Bodhisattva, who had barely given the scuffle any mind, “take him with you. If you hadn’t come when you had, bodhisattva, I wouldn’t have spared his life.”

Manjusri then looked at azure as he chanted a spell and shouted, “return to the truth, beast. What are you waiting for?” The blue lion quickly went to attention, ignoring bāije and wujing. and much to their surprise, azure bent down to be on all fours as the bodhisattva placed a lotus blossom on him to keep him tame, sat on his back and traveled through golden light. Much like a shooting star. Leaving wukong and bāije and wujing standing there in shock, “I don’t know how to feel about that guy using azure like a pet.” Bāije spoke as the group turned tail and flew back the way they came.

Wukong simply shrugged, “as long as I don’t end up becoming up like that, I don’t really think about it. It’s been known that celestial’s and humans only seem capable of seeing us demons as either something to fear or control, and nothing else.” The pig and fish demon stayed silent as the three made their way back to the palace.

Landing their clouds down near the entrance hall, the three went straight inside the palace. Here the monarch, ministers, queen and prince bowed to them in thanks, one group at a time. And wukong told everyone how manjusri had recovered the demon. They all knelt and bowed to the ground repeatedly in response.

Amidst all the congratulations the gatekeeper came to report, “my lord, there are four more monks at the gates.” This news threw bāije into a panic.

“Elder sister,” he said as he turned to the monkey demoness, who had just been in the middle of a conversation with the queen and her consorts prior to the announcement, “has the demon used his illusionary powers to create a false manjusri to fool us? Perhaps he’s turned himself into another monk now for another battle of wits.” To this wukong only rolled her eyes, thinking this was just another situation where the pigs paranoia was acting up.

“Nonsense, dear brother,” Wukong replied, ordering for them to be let in, while bājie stood stiff.

The civil and military officials passed on the order and the monks were sent on. Wukong saw they were monks from the precious wood monastery, bringing the kings crow, jade belt, yellow ochre robe, and no-worry shoes.

Splendid!” Wukong grinned with delight, “truly splendid!” She then asked the lay brothers to step forward and made the king take off his monastic head cloth and put on his crown, remove his cotton habit and don his robe of yellow ochre. Replace his silk belt with one of jade, and kick off his monastic sandals in favor for his no-worry shoes. Wukong then told the prince to retrieve the white jade scepter for his father to hold, and invited the king to rule once more.

As the old saying hasit, “the court cannot be without a monarch for a single day.” The king refused to sit on the throne, but knelt in the middle of the steps weeping and saying, “now that you have brought me back to life after having been dead for three years, master” the king said, looking straight at wukong, “I cannot possibly go on acting as king. Please ask if you’d be willing to become king in my stand. It will be enough for me to take my wives and children to live as a commoner outside the city.

Wukong’s eyes widened as the whole palace became silent in shock, while wukong stared in disbelief, before saying with a laugh, “I tell you frankly, gentlemen, if I’d have the power to king here, in ths human city, I would have gladly become king of as many countries as i could manage. But to tell you the truth, I have a whole kingdom of my own waiting for me to come back once this journey of ours is over. But for now I’m happy staying as a monk for the time being. It may not be an easy life, with battling every once in a while. Sure, if I became a king here I’d be able to do lots of things that I’m unable to do now, like have a large meal three times a day and sleep soundly without worrying about listening to any potential threats. But I’d fear I’d never get used to the beats of the drum after every hour, having to not only worry for the Health of tens of thousands of humans, who look and act completely differently compared to the monkeys in my kingdom, I wouldn’t even know how to care for ones who are experiencing famine or disease. I couldn’t get used to it.”

“No, I’d be best if you return to your throne, as you know this country better than I. And I’ll continue on with my journey till we reach the western heaven. No matter how hard the king tried to refuse, he finally refuted and reluctantly entered the throne hall. Sit facing south on the throne, and call himself king once more. He issued a general amnesty, sent the monks of the precious wood monastery back with rich presents, and opened up the eastern hall of the palace to give a banquet for tripataka and his three disciples. He also sent for painters to paint portraits of the tang monk and wukong, bāije and wujing to hang in the throne hall. Wukong worried about having to stand in one place for so long while bājie and wujing were ecstatic at having portraits being made for them.

Now that they restored the country to peace, tripataka and his three disciples sat at a long table where an array of food was presented to them, these dishes consisted of roasted nuts, steamed cakes, steamed mountain yam, steamed wheat cakes, along with a variety of steamed vegetables with rice. the king saying they could have as much as they want. Which they all gladly indulged in, while tripataka meekly took a generous portion, wukong and bājie piled their plates high with the delicious delicacies, while wujing did his best to copy Tripataka’s portions.

Once done, the group went to get themselves painted for the portraits. And as expected, it became extremely difficult for wukong to stay still, but despite it all the monkey demoness managed, bājie and wujing’s experiences were similar. Tripataka meanwhile didn’t have any difficulty, mostly cause he took that time to focus on meditation.

Once everything was settled, tripataka and his three disciples were quick to leave, not wanting to stay longer than they had, they were eager to continue their journey west. The king, his queen and consorts, the crown prince and the ministers presented them the country’s greatest treasures as well as gold, silver, silk and satin to the patriarch as tokens of their thanks.

Tripitaka accepted none of those gifts but only the return of his passport and urged wukong to saddle the dragon horse up and be on their way as soon as possible. The king was most upset. He ordered the state carriage to be brought out and invited tripataka to ride in it. The two groups of civil and military officials led the way, while the king, his queen and consorts and the crowned prince pushed the wheels of the carriage while wukong, bājie and wujing walked by the carriage’s sides. Only when they had passed through the outer walls of the city did tripataka get down from the dragon carriage to take his leave of them all.

“Dearest tang priest,” the king said, “please visit our country on your way back after collecting the scriptures in the western heaven.”

“I hear and obey.” Tripataka replied. The king then returned with his ministers. Tripataka and his three disciples made their way along a twisting road, single minded in their determination in to worship at the vulture peak.