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墨書 Inktalez
"Senior, who exactly are you?"
Old Monkey refers to Sun Wukong as the Great King? Could it be that it was once a monkey that followed Sun Wukong? That would be something!
"Me?" Old Monkey looked up at a bare pole behind the throne. "I carried the flag for the Great King, the flag of Qi Da Sheng."
Wow, if it carried the banner for such a Deity like Sun Wukong, how old must it be?
"After the Great King left, Flower Fruit Mountain fell into decline. The elders who once accompanied the Great King have either died or disappeared, and I'm the only one still here."
Old Monkey gazed at the bare flagpole and pulled out a piece of tattered cloth from its pocket. The cloth flapped in the wind, revealing three large characters: "Qi Da."
The remaining character for "Sheng" was damaged, and the entire character had already vanished.
"How many years have you waited?" Xia Liyi asked cautiously.
"About five hundred years."
"But five hundred years doesn't add up. Sun Wukong has already been trapped under Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years. Tang Seng's Journey to the West is from the era of Li Shimin, right? Even if we consider the fall of the Tang Dynasty, it's been over a thousand years since then. The timeline doesn't match," Xia Liyi said to me.
"Are you implying that this Old Monkey is fake?"
"A bit. I just don't really believe what it's saying."
As expected from a history scholar, Sister quickly pointed out the loophole in Old Monkey's story. However, these matters cannot be understood by conventional reasoning.
"Has your Great King ever returned?" I asked.
"This..." Old Monkey hesitated. "He did come back once."
"Are you walking with a pig?"
"Yes," Old Monkey hesitated for a moment before responding.
"How do you know?" Xia Liyi asked me.
"During the incident with the White Bone Demon, wasn't Sun Wukong sent back by Tang Seng? Or was it Zhu Bajie who brought that monkey back? Don't you remember?" I said in surprise. Can it be that you haven't read Journey to the West?
"Ahem." Xia Liyi's face turned red. "It's just that it's a myth, and I've studied the Four Great Classical Novels in detail, especially Dream of the Red Chamber."
"Well, that's quite a coincidence."
"You've studied Dream of the Red Chamber too?"
"No, I can almost recite the other three from memory, but I've never read Dream of the Red Chamber." When the two of us come together, we are basically a set of the Four Great Classical Novels!
Xia Liyi: ""
"Ahem, let's get back on track." I coughed and said, "However, since we've come this far, it shouldn't just be for us to visit the Monkey King's former residence. There should be some trials awaiting us, right?"
I walked towards the throne, looking at the armor atop it.
Although the armor was quite old, it was originally a treasure and wouldn't easily be corroded by time. The entire set of armor showed no signs of damage and not a speck of dust could be seen. It was clear that Old Monkey often took care of this armor.
"This armor is pretty good. When are we going to have one made in the same style? This design is definitely valuable." I turned to Xia Liyi and said, "This whole set is at least at the level of Orange Equipment!"
Xia Liyi: ""
"As far as I know, isn't Monkey King supposed to have achieved enlightenment and ranked as Victorious Fighting Buddha? Why has he already passed away?"
“Victorious Fighting Buddha? Hmph!” Old Monkey said angrily, “That’s not my king. My king is called Monkey King! He is Qi Da Sheng! Not that monkey who sings those chaotic Sutras!”
“Qi Da Sheng! That’s a top-tier figure. My king dares to stir up the Underworld, dares to eat the elixir, dares to bring the Peach of Immortality down to us.”
“Great Havoc in the Palace, the one who commanded a hundred thousand Soldiers, that is Monkey King, that is Qi Da Sheng!”
“My king is called Sun Wukong, called Monkey King, called Qi Da Sheng! But he is not called Victorious Fighting Buddha!”
Old Monkey grew more and more agitated, gesturing wildly as if defending his dwindling dignity.
“Yes, yes, yes, senior, please don’t get worked up.” I quickly reassured him. “But senior, haven’t you been a demon for so many years? Why didn’t you take over the banner of Flower Fruit Mountain? If you had done that, Flower Fruit Mountain wouldn’t be left with just a single monkey!”
“Do you think I didn’t want to?” Old Monkey replied dejectedly upon hearing my words. “But it’s not that simple.”
“I’m not a demon, just an ordinary monkey. After all these years, I’ve only learned to talk. Back when the king stirred up the Underworld, he tore up the Death Register with my name on it, which is why I can live until now.”
“See? Technology changes lives. If Sun Wukong were to stir up the Underworld now, let’s see how he tears up the Death Register.” I complained to Xia Liyi.
Now the Death Register exists like a tablet computer; this is the result of technology changing the world over the years. In the past, the Death Register was recorded by hand.
“After the king was trapped under Five Elements Mountain, all those great demons who used to call him brother disappeared. For us, them not coming to seize this Water Curtain Cave is already showing some old friendship towards the king.”
“See? These are Drinking Buddies; they eat and drink with you but run away at the first sign of trouble.” I scoffed.
“Moreover, the court also targeted us. Soon, Flower Fruit Mountain lost its Spiritual Energy, and the monkey group scattered, leaving only a few Old Monkeys without names on the Death Register.”
“Those without names on the Death Register cannot reproduce.” I said to Xia Liyi. “Can you make money using this method of contraception?”
Xia Liyi remained silent.
"Those old brothers who accompanied me, some have gone mad, completely lost their souls, and some have left, with no trace. Only I remain, only I am still waiting for the king."
"If only there was one, just one, the king misses home, can't be that damn Victorious Fighting Buddha without armor, and can't be without a flag."
"As long as the king is here, Flower Fruit Mountain will come back to life immediately," Old Monkey said, and suddenly began to slowly disappear from the spot.
Along with him disappeared the throne, the armor on the throne, and the flagpole behind the throne.
"What the hell, what's going on?" I was caught off guard by Old Monkey's sudden disappearance.
"Yin Zheng'an, did you do something?" Xia Liyi looked at me in confusion.
"No," I replied. "I don't have such great powers."
Suddenly, the entire scene of Water Curtain Cave began to darken slowly, and before long, we returned to the place where Wudao Chess was set up.
"This," I looked around; it was no different from before. "This ancient tomb is really strange; it inexplicably teleported us away and then inexplicably brought us back."
"Yin Zheng'an," Xia Liyi said, "it seems like a door has been opened ahead."
I looked in the direction Xia Liyi pointed; that direction was not where Shaoming and I came from, nor was it the exit.
"Shall we take a look?" I suggested. "This ancient tomb is too strange; it might teleport us again as soon as we enter."
"Xia Liyi" hesitated. "Should we wait for Zhang Fan and the others?"
"No need." Before Xia Liyi could finish her sentence, Shaoming's voice sounded behind us.
"We've already come out." It was Zhang Fan, who seemed to have been waiting for us outside.
"Master, what did you do inside? Why do I feel an unusual heat? And as soon as that feeling appeared, our trial space collapsed."
"Your space collapsed?" I asked in surprise. "Did you enter a place called the Water Curtain Cave?"
"No," Shaoming shook his head.
"No? That's so strange." I was increasingly unable to see through this ancient tomb.
"How about we make the next move in the game?" Xia Liyi suggested.
"Alright."
Let's first get through this round of Wudao Chess. We have already passed two rounds, and there are four more to go.
"Um, boss," Zhang Fan suddenly said, "Wudao Chess might not need to continue."
"Why?"
"Wudao Chess has already collapsed," Shaoming explained simply. "It must have collapsed after bearing more power than it could handle."
"Collapsed? Then what should we do next?"
"We don't know either," Zhang Fan replied. "That's why we're waiting for you here."
His response left me speechless.
"By the way, Master, come look at this." Shaoming pulled me back to the original Chessboard. "After the Chessboard disappeared, it turned into this pattern."
The original Chessboard had vanished, replaced by a complex pattern made up of individual dots.
“Dry Earth Formation?” As soon as I saw this pattern, I screamed.
Isn't this the Dry Earth Branch? How could it appear here?
“Indeed.” Shaoming nodded and said, “I thought it looked particularly similar to the pattern on your Daoist Robe.”
The Dry Earth Formation that was previously used to subdue Zombie Ba had exhausted its energy and was now attached to my Azure Flower Robe. I had covered Shaoming with it when she was injured before.
“We were transferred in the tomb passage earlier; it must have been this great formation at work,” Shaoming said.
“Yeah.” I nodded, “That makes sense. The Dry Earth Branch, with its twelve star points intertwined, can indeed achieve mutual transfer, albeit in a seemingly chaotic manner.”
I had speculated before why the transfers became so irregular, and it seems my previous guesses were quite close.
It’s not that there is no pattern at all; rather, the pattern is very difficult to detect.
The number of steps taken and turning back simultaneously triggers the transfer, and the location of the transfer appears to be determined by the number of steps taken.
For example, if I start at Star Point, after taking three steps and then turning back, calculations would place me at Bing Position. If I take three steps from Bing Position and turn back, I should land at Chen Position.
Without this formation diagram to explain it, how could I have guessed the rules of this transfer? This tomb is truly deceptive.
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