While the Cloudwatch Harbor project blazed ahead, rattling nerves across Heaven and Earth, on Blossom Mountain, an utterly unremarkable monkey demon was absorbed in another monumental undertaking.
In fact, this project was countless times grander than Cloudwatch Harbor itself.
It had now been three months since the Monkey King returned to Blossom Mountain.
In these three smooth months, under the Monkey King's direction, the demons built a suspension bridge, moved into the more hidden and spacious Cascade Cave, and crafted all sorts of wooden furniture from local materials. With these additions, Cascade Cave began to look truly livable—so comfortable it was almost easy to forget their troubles.
Once the resettlement was complete, he quickly dismantled the conspicuous warship with Anna Yang's help, and the demons, after exhausting themselves, hauled all the salvaged metal into Cascade Cave.
As for keeping the metal, the Monkey King's reasoning was simple: Blossom Mountain had no metal ores, so the metal from the warship would be invaluable in the future.
"You mean to smelt metal on Blossom Mountain?" Anna Yang was dubious, but did not voice any opposition.
Meanwhile, the school run by Louis Quickpaw and the cultivation method promoted by Anna Yang had already begun. The demons were ravenous for new techniques, but utterly uninterested in literacy.
Even Louis Quickpaw, the teacher, was half-hearted; usually, the demons only entered the classroom under the Monkey King's orders, and Louis would drone through the lesson without caring if anyone understood, dismissing them as soon as time was up. After half a month, the Monkey King spot-checked their work—most had handed in blank sheets.
Clearly, the big, rough demons had no interest in these squiggly symbols; after a while, some even developed a real aversion. One demon even declared he'd rather battle the Celestial Army than be forced to study.
That might sound harsh, but it was the honest truth of how most demons felt about reading and writing.
Because of this, the Monkey King had to give Louis Quickpaw a fierce scolding—so severe that Louis still shivers whenever he remembers it.
Afterwards, exam results were linked to resource distribution, and only then did the demons reluctantly buckle down and start learning.
A month after arriving on Blossom Mountain, the Monkey King began formalizing the organization and selecting a core leadership. To everyone’s shock, his first criterion for selection was the exam—specifically, writing an essay.
Of course, if you couldn't write an essay, a complete sentence would suffice.
This made Anna Yang even more scornful; she simply couldn’t understand what the Monkey King was plotting.
"Are you planning to have a bunch of demons stand there lecturing the Heavenly soldiers with bamboo slips?" Of course, she never said this out loud.
To all the demons, Anna Yang had always appeared to be the Monkey King’s staunch supporter.
It seems that, in any group or race, holding office is something everyone aspires to. Once the rules for selecting the core were announced, the demons’ enthusiasm for study soared to unprecedented heights.
And so, Blossom Mountain’s first whirlwind cultural Great Leap Forward began.
During that period, whenever exams approached, Cascade Cave was filled with demons burning the midnight oil. The Monkey King even told the story of 'tying hair to a beam and stabbing thighs with an awl' as an example of diligence. All over Blossom Mountain, you could see hulking, hideous demons crouched together in corners, scratching their heads, poring over bamboo slips barely the size of their palms, and occasionally blurting out lines from the Book of Songs.
Of course, they didn’t necessarily understand what those lines meant, but that didn’t matter—the Monkey King’s tests only required basic reading and writing.
Exam-oriented education isn’t tragic; the real tragedy is having no education at all.
After three months of grinding study, aside from a few truly slow learners, most demons could now read and write simply. Their dictation sheets were still full of circles and crosses, but at least they weren’t blank—a small miracle.
On the cultivation side, after switching methods—since most demons practiced the Traveler’s Path and had struggled before—in just three months, more than thirty demons broke through from the Spirit-Focusing Realm to Spirit-Absorption, and three reached the peak of Spirit-Absorption, almost ready for the Spirit Channeling Stage.
When he heard these results, the Monkey King was all smiles, while Anna Yang muttered, 'If you hadn’t made them study reading and writing, it would’ve gone even faster.'
When it was just the two of them, Anna Yang didn’t hesitate to say such things.
The Monkey King glanced at her and asked, 'Is high cultivation alone enough? Can Erik Yang write?'
'Of course he can!' Anna Yang shot him a glare.
'Exactly. I’ve never heard of a disciple from any Cloud Monastery being illiterate. So why should my demons be different? Just because they’re demons? Or because they walk the Traveler’s Path?'
Anna Yang blinked thoughtfully.
"Once upon a time, there was a monkey of boundless power, commanding a hundred thousand monkey soldiers in grand style. But he never asked his followers to learn to read or write. So when he made havoc in the Celestial Palace and was crushed beneath a mountain by the Buddha, not a soul came to rescue him. Not even a single person brought him food. Tsk, tsk, tsk—how pitiful." The Monkey King shook his head, sighed, and walked away with a grin.
"Are you already thinking about what happens if you lose?" Anna Yang called after him.
"Of course. Everyone needs a backup plan. Even the Monkey King." He turned back, answering cheerfully.
"A boundlessly powerful monkey causing havoc in the Celestial Palace, then getting crushed by the Buddha? Hey, did you just make that story up?"
The Monkey King didn’t answer.
Anna Yang’s brow furrowed even tighter.
Of course, Anna Yang didn’t believe these tall tales. If that were really his plan, she’d have left on the spot. From what she knew of the Monkey King, he’d never truly think that way.
But if it wasn’t that, then what was it? After three months here, she found the Monkey King harder and harder to understand.
When it came to decisions, the Monkey King never explained himself—not to anyone, not even Anna Yang. Because there was no way to explain.
Many things simply can’t be explained in a single conversation. Luckily, the Monkey King held absolute power on Blossom Mountain. Even Anna Yang, who wasn’t absolutely obedient, did her best to cooperate on the surface. So everything moved forward in good order. Still, what kind of force Blossom Mountain would become under this model—no one, not even Anna Yang, could guess.
......
Crescent Star Cave, Hall of Silent Meditation.
"Teaching demons to read and write? After three months on Blossom Mountain, he’s spent most of his energy on this?" Master Sage Subhuti stroked his long beard, clicking his tongue with a smile.
Turning slightly, he glanced at Elder Gale, kneeling nearby. "What do you make of this, Gale?"
Elder Gale was startled for a moment, then slowly shook his head and bowed. "When I first heard, I thought Wukong was just grasping at straws, treating a dead horse as if it were alive. But seeing your reaction, Master, I now suspect there’s something deeper here. Yet what that might be—I truly don’t understand."
Master Sage Subhuti chuckled, rubbing the bamboo slip in his hands, then gazed out at the wind-tossed branches. "It’s normal that you don’t understand. Even Elder Skyreach, skilled at calculation, probably wouldn’t get it either. Now it seems your tenth junior brother truly is the most gifted of all my Crescent Star Cave disciples—not just on the Traveler’s Path, but even on the Sage’s Path, aside from his stubborn, stone-like temperament."
With that, he smiled and took a sip of tea.
Elder Gale hesitated. "Master, I truly don’t understand."
"Do you know why humans are human, and demons are demons?"