With a thunderous roar, the South Heaven Gate swung open once more.
Clouds and mist drifted in the air.
Monkey King looked up. Standing inside the gate were still the same three: General Lee, Nathan Young, and Clara Heart. His brow furrowed in annoyance.
General Lee quietly signaled Clara Heart with a glance.
Clara Heart nodded slightly, stepped forward, and slowly walked toward Monkey King.
Behind her, General Lee and his son followed closely.
Monkey King leaned on his Golden Staff, laughing from afar: "Didn't I say I didn't want this Imperial Envoy? General Lee, are you getting old and hard of hearing, or what?"
General Lee forced an awkward smile.
When the three reached Monkey King, they stopped. General Lee and Nathan Young bowed in greeting, but Clara Heart simply stood there, her gaze wandering, hands awkward no matter where she placed them.
Monkey King glanced at them and sighed, "What, have you all gone mute?"
Clara Heart bowed her head slightly, coughed twice, and said, "My continued appointment as Imperial Envoy is by my master's will. If you have any objections, take it up with him."
"So you're using the old man to pressure me?" Monkey King was taken aback, then waved his hand. "Fine, I won't argue with you about that. Where's my grain? And don't bring up any more of your conditions. I'm here to demand supplies, not to bargain."
General Lee quietly nodded to Clara Heart.
Seeing this, Clara Heart took a deep breath and said, "Food will be given, but I'm afraid it can't be in the quantity you requested, nor in the manner you want. I hope you understand—Heaven has its own difficulties."
Monkey King slowly raised his head, looked at General Lee, then at Clara Heart. "So what do you plan to do? Let's hear it."
At this, Clara Heart glanced at General Lee again. This time, General Lee simply stepped back.
Helpless, Clara Heart braced herself and said, "His Majesty's will is that grain cannot be granted directly. That would violate Heaven's rules of governance. Originally, since this is a man-made disaster, the plan was to let it run its course as a lesson for mortals. But since you've brought it up, they don't want to ignore your face. Relief can be offered, but not in the way you asked."
Monkey King nodded, "Go on, go on."
"His Majesty means that if grain is bestowed directly, it will give mortals the idea of getting something for nothing. No one can predict what will happen next. So, the disaster can be eased through other means."
"What means, exactly?"
"By stocking the forests with livestock, and releasing fish into ponds, rivers, and lakes..."
Monkey King's brows drew together in a frown. "So you mean the Jade Emperor plans to send a hundred thousand troops to help me do this?"
Clara Heart blinked and said, "In short, there are ways. The disaster can certainly be eased, but to provide enough for every citizen of Black Rooster Kingdom to eat their fill as you asked—that's impossible."
Monkey King thought for a moment and replied, "What if there's still not enough food when the time comes?"
"There definitely won't be enough. Basically, it'll just prevent a massive famine. There's not much time left. You asked for a year's worth of food—if we keep dragging this out, with the difference in time between Heaven and the mortal world, a whole year might have passed down there by the time we act. If you're still worried, I can go as a hostage and accompany you."
"You? As a hostage?"
Clara Heart nodded slightly, looking at Monkey King with some anxiety.
For a moment, their eyes met.
After a long silence, Monkey King suddenly burst out laughing. "Thanks for the offer, but no. If I need a hostage, I'd rather have General Lee."
As he spoke, Monkey King had already walked over to General Lee and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Instantly, General Lee stiffened, cold sweat breaking out all over him.
Monkey King grinned, "Heaven can be pretty dull sometimes. Why not come with me for a trip to the mortal realm?"
"G—Great Sage, I still have important duties in Heaven to attend to..."
"Important duties? So you're saying my business is just a 'trivial matter'?"
General Lee was startled, quickly shaking his head and waving his hands. "No, no! Great Sage, I meant no such thing! It's just..."
"Just unwilling to give me face?" Monkey King's eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at General Lee.
In that instant, General Lee's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly wiped his sweat and said solemnly, "I understand, Great Sage. I will go down to the mortal realm with you at once!"
"That's more like it." Monkey King cheerfully slapped General Lee on the back, threw Clara Heart a mocking glance, and dragged Lee toward South Heaven Gate.
Clara Heart's brows knitted so tightly it seemed her teeth might crack.
She truly couldn't understand what was so good about this Monkey King—why Que'er and Belle could fall for him, not just fall, but love him so recklessly, to the point of throwing away their own lives without regret...
She truly wanted to stay far away from this Monkey King, to never see him again, to have never shared that past at all. Yet two lifetimes of memory weighed on her.
That feeling seeped into her blood, into her bones—whether she hated it or tried to reject it, she could never escape. Maybe... this was real love: not because of any virtue, not for any benefit, just the purest feeling, unforgettable and inescapable.
If it had happened to someone else, she would have laughed at them. To a cultivator, love was always considered a distraction from the proper path.
But now, she couldn't laugh at all. Suddenly, she felt she herself was the joke—a girl who 'liked' someone because of memories that weren't truly her own, or perhaps because of a past life. How absurd that feeling was.
Faintly, she even began to dislike herself.
At the gate of South Heaven, General Lee ordered preparations. Soon, the high-ranking advance troops were ready to depart.
Watching the South Heaven Gate troops and Monkey King soar away, Clara Heart hesitated for a long, long time. In the end, she followed after them.
At that moment, far away and unnoticed, Master Sage Subhuti watched silently from the clouds. After a long while, he let out a quiet sigh, turned, and left.
......
By now, a full month had passed since Monkey King left Black Rooster Kingdom.
The entire disaster has clearly worsened since before.
Yet the crisis General Curtain faces is no longer simply a matter of worsening famine.
A flood of refugees has turned the capital into a sprawling camp. With food growing scarcer, constant brawls erupt and the troops—already worn thin by endless complaints—rush from one fight to the next.
At first, although uprisings had broken out across the country and years of turmoil led to famine, the capital’s problems still seemed manageable. General Curtain’s authority in the capital was higher than elsewhere, and his decrees were enforced more faithfully. The city was under his watchful eye; if anything happened, he knew at once.
After all, as a Celestial Sage, these troubles were not beyond his ability.
So, even as the nation teetered on the brink of collapse, the capital remained relatively stable. Conflicts accumulated, but hadn’t yet reached a breaking point.
These people were, in truth, General Curtain’s last supporters.
But now, everything has changed.
The influx of refugees and constant fighting meant that every resident, upon opening their doors at dawn, was greeted by the stench of rot. The streets were lined with refugees, and even corpses.
As the refugees multiplied, General Curtain’s already limited control grew weaker. Break-ins and looting became commonplace, and the capital felt more and more like a vast refugee camp. His popularity plummeted.
Soon, the court’s political situation shifted.
The first to rebel were the Left Army garrisoned at the South Gate.
With the treasury nearly emptied of grain, General Curtain had no choice but to cut army rations. The half-starved soldiers mutinied; under pressure, the officers led their men to seize a granary, took what little food was left, and withdrew from the city, declaring they would no longer obey the king.
This move presented General Curtain with a serious dilemma.
First, this was a bottom-up mutiny, not something that could be solved by simply arresting the ringleader. Second, how should he handle it?
If Curtain sent troops to suppress them, how many forces did he still have left? With the South Gate garrison gone, his remaining troops were stretched to the limit just trying to contain the chaos in the city.
If he did nothing, every other unit would quickly follow suit. Most crucially, he had already set a dangerous precedent by cutting rations. Everyone was watching: if the South Gate mutineers were allowed to get away with it, why wouldn’t the rest seize the last grain and run?
So Thomas Tripitaka had no choice but to steel himself and go to the camps, hoping his words could persuade the rebellious soldiers.
But who wants to listen to sermons on an empty stomach? After several fruitless attempts, Tripitaka had to give up.
Soon, other units also announced they would no longer follow Curtain’s orders and withdrew from the city. With the army gone, there was no order left; even the court officials dragged their families into the palace compound to cling to its last defenses.
No one knew where the rumor started: that Black Rooster Kingdom only appeared to lack grain because it was all hoarded inside the royal palace. The story was absurd, but the desperate refugees believed it.
They gathered into a rebel host, surrounded the palace, and shouted day and night, giving General Curtain three days: either he brings out the grain to share with the people, or they will storm the palace and kill everyone inside.
At this moment, General Curtain felt as if the sky had collapsed, and could only weep without tears.
His range of movement shrank to the palace alone. At this point, all he could do was pray that Monkey King would bring grain soon—he had no other cards left to play.
For those three days, General Curtain wandered the palace half-dazed, sighing wherever he went. Whenever someone called to him, his first question was always, “Has the grain arrived? Has the grain arrived?”
On the third morning, the ragged rebels gathered early outside the palace gates, preparing to assault.
Standing atop the battlements, looking down at the thin, disorderly lines of insurgents, General Curtain was silent for a long time. Then he spoke softly, as if to Marshal Silver: “Marshal, I finally understand. A nation can be ruined not only by traitors; even a loyal minister, acting with the best intentions, can destroy a country—and perhaps more thoroughly. I once despised General Lee, but now I see that some of his ways were right, that Heaven needs men like him. If he had been entrusted with Black Rooster’s governance, things would not have ended like this.”
He smiled faintly and said, “When the time comes, take Master Tripitaka and leave. My sins are heavy—it’s time for me to atone. Seeing you safe is already enough for me.”