A gentle breeze swept by, pressing the wild grass flat.
Watching Anna Yang, Erik Yang took a deep breath and sighed, "Well? How about coming to the Guang River Estuary first, and then setting out with me to Peach Mountain?"
Anna Yang slowly lowered her head, hesitated for a long time, and said, "He—that Monkey—owes me a promise. That's all there is between us now."
"He owes you a promise? What kind of promise?"
"I helped him break through in cultivation, and he had to agree to one thing for me, no matter what it was. That was our deal. At first, that's how I put it. Later... later, it became that he would protect me completely. Then he said we'd go back to the original terms, that he'd promise me one thing..." As she spoke, Anna Yang rested her head on her knees, her long hair cascading down like a waterfall, hiding her face as she fell silent.
"I don't get it." Erik Yang frowned and asked, "So is your deal now 'protect you completely' or 'promise you one thing'?"
"I don't know either. Maybe... it's both."
"Is he really willing to promise you... 'anything at all'? That's a bottomless condition."
"I don't know..."
"He's probably already broken through in cultivation, right? Since that's the case, you've done your part—so why are you still at Blossom Mountain?"
......
No answer.
In the darkness, Anna Yang sat with her head bowed, dazed, a hint of confusion in her eyes.
At this moment, perhaps even Anna Yang herself couldn't tell what state her agreement with Monkey was really in.
Can the current situation even be summed up as an 'agreement' anymore?
Anna Yang couldn't say, nor did she want to.
Erik Yang watched Anna Yang quietly and said in a low voice, "Alright, I won't ask anymore. Be careful. It's fine to help Blossom Mountain, but don't throw yourself in as well."
With that, he turned and transformed into a streak of golden light, disappearing into the sky in an instant.
Anna Yang took out the Linked Bamboo Scroll from her sleeve and examined it carefully by moonlight.
On it, Monkey's boastful reports of his 'battle achievements' filled the surface—he had played every trick, driving the Queen Mother to fury.
Watching, Anna Yang couldn't help but smile in spite of herself.
If she told him now that the souls sent to the Netherworld had met trouble... what would happen?
She raised her hand and hesitated for a long time, but in the end only wrote: "The Heavenly Fleet in the mortal realm along the Milky Way is tightening its patrols—there may be movement. Be careful in Heaven, whatever you do."
The night in the wilderness was bitterly cold.
Putting away the Linked Bamboo Scroll, she moved closer to the campfire, warming herself.
Many, many years ago, she had wandered the wilderness with her brother too.
Back then, they were still young, thinking only of surviving, of saving their mother.
At that time, they had nothing, but relied on each other to survive.
Many, many years passed—rescue turned into revenge. What once was two people's resolve became one person's lonely persistence, and right or wrong blurred long ago...
"If only he could be by my side."
Thinking of this, her eyes reddened.
......
High above, on the Ninth Heaven, at the Immortal Peach Orchard.
In a room piled high with bamboo slips, Monkey sat with his legs crossed at the desk, flipping through the slips over and over. After a long look, he pointed at a character on one slip and frowned, "I don't recognize this character."
"Sir, that's the character 'ti.'" Standing to the side, Warden Joel Chow said helplessly, "You just asked me about this character a moment ago."
"I already asked about it just now?"
"You already asked." Warden Joel Chow nodded firmly.
The two stared at each other for a while. Monkey spread the bamboo slip on the desk and said, "Where did I ask about it? Bring it here, let me see."
Warden Joel Chow was completely speechless, but could only turn and rummage through the pile of bamboo slips. After searching for a long time, he finally found the one in question, handed it to Monkey, and pointed at the character, "Sir, look, here is another 'ti.' You just read through this one from the beginning and asked me what this character was..."
Monkey squinted and carefully compared the two characters, "These two are written differently."
"Different people wrote them—how could the handwriting be the same?"
"Oh!" Monkey exclaimed, suddenly understanding. "So different people wrote them? No wonder the same character looks different. Hey, you can't blame me for this, right? Look at this character—it's obviously sloppy. You all can read it, but for a half-illiterate like me, how am I supposed to tell? From now on, make sure all records are written neatly, got it?"
"Understood." Warden Joel Chow smiled on the surface, but inwardly cursed Monkey's ancestors for eighteen generations.
In just a few days, Monkey had already turned the entire Immortal Peach Orchard upside down—and it was only a simple handover.
Normally, a post handover just means checking the accounts and taking the seal. But Monkey refused—he insisted on a meticulous handover, calling it 'doing things seriously.' He forced me to serve him day and night, even investigating who signed off on already picked peaches and whether anyone ghostwrote the records.
He was making things hell for everyone.
Meanwhile, secret orders from the Jade Pool kept coming, urging me to hurry and get Monkey to finish the handover.
With Monkey's shamelessness, what could I do? Even if I had a way, I'd be afraid to use it. With his personality, he'd probably drag me down with him.
I heard Grandmaster White has been locked out by the Queen Mother—she won't even see him.
Thinking of this, Joel Chow couldn't help but wipe his sweat and keep up his forced smile.
In a flash, it was already Monkey's eighty-fifth day as a Heavenly official.
By now, Monkey had been working on the handover of the Immortal Peach Orchard for twenty-two days, with no end in sight.
During this time, Blossom Mountain and the Heavenly Fleet had clashed countless times in the mortal world, and even in Heaven, no one had any peace.
The worst off were Grandmaster White and General Curtain.
Grandmaster White was powerless against Monkey's delaying tactics. His credibility with the Queen Mother was ruined, and she would summon him to scold him from time to time. Worse, the 'hundred-thousand-man army' he scraped together...
Those 'hundred-thousand-man armies' were all gathered under the pretext of training, but how long could the training last? Three to five days, ten at most. When time was up, they all had to return to their posts.
Originally, Grandmaster White didn't mind—Monkey hadn't finished the handover, so if they left, they left. But the Queen Mother didn't see it that way. Whenever she opened her eyes and didn't see the army, she felt uneasy.
So Grandmaster White got scolded several more times, scraped together another 'hundred-thousand-man army,' and brought them back. But he had no real command—those officers only listened to him because of bribes of Gold Essence. After all this, he was nearly bankrupt, complaining bitterly all the while.
As for General Curtain, his situation was no better.
First was how to deal with Monkey's stalling tactics—he couldn't come up with a solution. Meanwhile, urgent memorials from the Heavenly Fleet kept arriving, and the Jade Emperor chased him for answers every day.
Originally, it was just this one problem, but unfortunately, not long after, word came from the Netherworld that the Heavenly General sent to investigate the Blossom Mountain demon souls had been assassinated, and the Jade Emperor was furious.
The imperial envoys were completely baffled—how could this happen?
General Curtain himself had handled the case, but after such a huge incident, all he could determine was that the killer was a female demon. As for how a Spirit-Refinement-Stage demon could pull this off, and where she was hiding now, he had no clue. How could the Jade Emperor not be furious at him?
By the afternoon of Monkey's eighty-fifth day as a Heavenly official, things finally took a turn.
That day, General Curtain entered the imperial study and respectfully presented a memorial to the Jade Emperor.
The Jade Emperor glanced at the memorial and asked, "What is this?"
"Your Majesty, the Netherworld investigation has yielded conclusive evidence," General Curtain replied respectfully.
"Oh? Have you found the female demon who killed the Heavenly General?" The Jade Emperor put down the memorial in his hand and reached for the one General Curtain had just offered.
General Curtain hesitated slightly, bowed, and said, "Not the matter of the murdered Heavenly General. I mean the Blossom Mountain border incident."
He nodded slightly, took a sip of tea, and continued, "Those Blossom Mountain demons who have already reincarnated—their earth-souls have been extracted and are no longer reliable as evidence. Altogether, we found 120 souls who had not yet reincarnated. After interrogation, two were willing to testify that the Blossom Mountain demons disguised themselves as wandering wild demons, crossed the border, and committed atrocities. They also testified that five famous Demon Kings—King Bullhorn, King Roc, King Liontusk, King Macaque, and King Gloomape—have long resided in Blossom Mountain and have frequently clashed with the Heavenly Fleet, killing countless Skyward Legionnaires."
"Oh?" The Jade Emperor smiled faintly. "That's good news. With their testimony, we now have sufficient grounds for a punitive campaign against Blossom Mountain."
"There's also this." General Curtain produced another memorial from his sleeve and handed it over. "This is a roster of Blossom Mountain's key demons. Among them are many notorious figures from the wanted list, including the Nine-Headed Wyrm Nigel Wyrm, the Azurewave Dragon King, Princess Marina Azurewave, and one named Yang Chan, suspected to be the Holy Mother of Mount Hua."
"Suspected?" The Jade Emperor's eyes narrowed into a slit.
"Only 'suspected'... These two demons hold low status in Blossom Mountain and had no chance to interact with that woman, so it's not very certain." After thinking a moment, General Curtain added, "Most likely it's just a shared name."
He laid the memorial on the table. The Jade Emperor pondered for a while, then asked in a low voice, "Yang Chan still hasn't gone to Mount Hua to take up her post as Mountain Goddess?"
"Your Majesty, Yang Chan indeed has not taken up her post. She has formally entered Master Sage Subhuti's sect. We previously sent people to investigate, and according to Skylar Loft, her newly acknowledged master, she has been quietly cultivating with him in the Cloud Monastery. Whether that's true or not, we do not know."
The Jade Emperor lightly stroked the table, thinking for a long while, then said, "Whatever the truth about Yang Chan, do not publicize it for now. We must not draw unnecessary attention while dealing with Blossom Mountain."
"From beginning to end, our real target has never been the Monkey, but Blossom Mountain. Blossom Mountain has violated the border, but the Monkey has been in Heaven for a long time. Legally, we can treat the two as separate. Therefore, we must handle them separately: the evidence for a campaign against Blossom Mountain is sufficient, so we should proceed. As for any connection between the Monkey and Blossom Mountain, let us keep the Monkey docile in Heaven for now. Once Blossom Mountain is destroyed, we will deal with him afterward!"
"Of course, we must guard against him making trouble." The Jade Emperor thought for a moment and said, "Send word immediately—order the Twenty-Eight Mansions to garrison near the Immortal Peach Orchard."
"Understood!"