Standing beside the Self-Reflection Stone, Belle gaped in astonishment at the object gripped in the Monkey King's hand.
"This is... this is..."
"Help me take a look." The Monkey King spread the bamboo slip on the ground. "I can't read. Can you tell me what it says?"
"Monkey King! You stole something!" Belle cried out in alarm.
"Shh..." The Monkey King quickly covered Belle's mouth. "It's not stealing! Not stealing! I'm just borrowing!"
"Mmm—mmm..." Belle struggled free from the Monkey King, picked up the bamboo slip from the ground, and exclaimed, "You went to the Scripture Tower? This has Master Sage Subhuti's seal! This is a scripture from the Scripture Tower!"
The Monkey King scratched his head awkwardly and grinned.
Belle glared at the Monkey King and shouted angrily, "I'm going to tell Master Sage Subhuti!"
She turned to leave with the bamboo slip, but the Monkey King quickly blocked her way. "Even if you don't tell him, he'll know."
"What?"
The Monkey King grinned mischievously and looked at Belle, speaking slowly: "Do you think there's anything in this monastery that escapes Master Sage Subhuti's eyes?"
Belle squinted at the Monkey King, then glanced at the bamboo slip in her hand, deep in thought.
The Monkey King continued, "Why do you think Master Sage Subhuti told me this morning that I no longer need to attend morning greetings?"
Belle pondered for a moment and unconsciously nodded.
"But what you did was wrong! Even if Master Sage Subhuti doesn't blame you, you shouldn't..." Belle protested stubbornly. "If you truly needed to read, Master Sage Subhuti would have given it to you directly! Stealing is not the way of a cultivator!"
Seizing the opportunity, the Monkey King snatched the bamboo slip from Belle's hand and stuffed it into his sleeve, then leapt onto the Self-Reflection Stone. "Who knows what he's thinking? Maybe he's worried that if I cause trouble in the future, people will say he's my master. If that's the case, he can always claim I sneaked into the Scripture Tower to learn on my own, and it had nothing to do with him."
"Nonsense! Master Sage Subhuti would never do that!" Belle shouted.
"You can't be sure. Otherwise, why would he, knowing I want to learn the Seventy-Two Transformations and the Cloud Somersault, only have me cultivate the Sage's Path—which takes a hundred years of meditation to achieve—rather than let me choose the Traveler's Path, which can be mastered in just a few years?"
"That's... that's just my guess! Master Sage Subhuti never said he'd only teach you the Sage's Path!"
"Really? Hahaha." The Monkey King stood atop the rock, spreading out the scroll in his hand. "If I follow his method and meditate here for ten years, who knows what I'll achieve? Whether it's true or not doesn't matter. All you need to know is, yesterday I stood before him with this intention, and he didn't rebuke me; today I stole a book, and he didn't punish me. This is tacit approval. Since Master Sage Subhuti has tacitly approved, teaching me to read is just doing me a favor."