A ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the sprawling mountain range below.
Clara Heart, dressed in emerald green, walked step by step up the long stone stairway, guided by a Daoist disciple. Close behind her, Shirley Shi carried a tray holding three scripture scrolls.
The three of them proceeded to the grand hall of Five-Fruits Temple, only to find the doors tightly shut.
The Daoist disciple paused, thought for a moment, then turned and bowed to Clara: "It seems our master’s guest has yet to leave. Please wait here for a moment, both of you."
Clara nodded quietly and, bored, began pacing in front of the hall doors, glancing around.
Five-Fruits Temple was a vast Daoist complex perched atop Longevity Mountain, with towering walls, majestic halls, and broad plazas, radiating a sense of grandeur. To call it a palace would not be an exaggeration; in fact, among mortal palaces, only those of emperors could compare.
At the foot of Longevity Mountain lay a small city-state directly governed by Five-Fruits Temple. Most of its residents were disciples of Zhenyuan. In truth, their numbers reached ten thousand or more.
In earlier days, Longevity Mountain’s Five-Fruits Temple, Enlightenment Peak’s Crescent Star Cave, and Avalon Mountain were known as the three great Daoist sects of the mortal world.
In terms of cultivation depth, Avalon Mountain ranked first, Crescent Star Cave second, and Five-Fruits Temple third. But in disciples and influence, Avalon Mountain led, Five-Fruits Temple followed, and Crescent Star Cave came last.
Overall, Avalon Mountain held the top position. Though the other two were called the three great sects, their actual strength was far below Avalon Mountain’s and not widely known among mortals.
However, in the great war over six hundred years ago, the Nine Immortal Disciples of Enlightenment Peak perished, Crescent Star Cave’s lineage nearly vanished, and Avalon Mountain’s disciples suffered heavy casualties in battle with Heaven. Afterward, many were recruited to rebuild the devastated Heavenly Court, further weakening Avalon’s strength. Only Longevity Mountain’s Five-Fruits Temple remained mostly intact: though Zhenyuan was wounded and drained of spiritual power, and many disciples died seeking refuge in Heaven, its overall power survived. In the aftermath, Five-Fruits Temple rose to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Avalon Mountain as a leading sect.
After a while, the grand hall doors swung open. Out stepped Master Taiyi, holding his horsetail whisk, looking rather dejected. He caught sight of Clara, and both paused in surprise.
Clara quickly clasped her hands and bowed: "Clara Heart greets you, Master Taiyi."
"Clara Heart?" Master Taiyi hesitated, looked her up and down, stroked his long beard, and said, "You do seem familiar, but... when have we met?"
"Master Taiyi, you meet so many people you’re bound to forget some," Clara replied with a faint smile. "My master is Master Sage Subhuti. We met briefly at the Grand Peach Banquet."
"Master Sage Subhuti?" At this, Master Taiyi’s face turned a shade colder. He sighed lightly, "So you’re from Crescent Star Cave."
He glanced back into the hall, flicked his sleeve, and left without bidding Clara farewell, striding down the steps without looking back.
For a moment, Clara stood frozen in place.
"Why is Master Taiyi like that?" Shirley Shi whispered, watching his retreating figure. "Even if our master isn’t as famous as him, they’re equals. Shouldn’t he at least return the greeting?"
"Shh... He’ll hear you."
Shirley Shi covered her mouth, and only after Master Taiyi soared into the sky and vanished did she pout and murmur, "I said it for him to hear."
"Well said."
Suddenly, both girls covered their mouths and giggled, making the nearby Daoist disciple frown.
Turning to the disciple, Clara asked, "Why did Master Taiyi come here today?"
"I’m not sure," the disciple replied, shaking his head. "Master Taiyi came early this morning, saying he had urgent business with our master..."
"Oh?" Clara rolled her eyes. "Looks like his so-called urgent business didn’t get very far. Come, take me to see your master."
The disciple nodded and gestured for them to follow.
Entering the grand hall, the two girls saw Zhenyuan reclining in the seat of honor, holding a scripture scroll.
Approaching Zhenyuan, Clara casually glanced around the hall.
The hall stood three zhang high, ten zhang wide, and fifteen zhang long. Eight dragon-carved stone pillars, each four people around, lined the sides; the floor was polished brown wood, and above hung intricate wood carvings representing sun, moon, and stars.
Apart from a few meditation mats, twelve tall screens behind Zhenyuan, two black incense burners on either side, and several yellow-brown mats, the hall was almost empty—yet it radiated a sense of vastness and grandeur.
They walked up to Zhenyuan and bowed: "Clara Heart (Shirley Shi), greets Everlasting Sage."
Only then did Zhenyuan slowly set down the scripture, look up at them, and smile faintly. Gesturing to the mats, he said, "Sit. I was just speaking of Crescent Star Cave, and here you are."
"Speaking of Crescent Star Cave?" Clara paused, then asked softly, "Everlasting Sage, do you mean Master Taiyi’s business?"
Zhenyuan raised his eyes and replied, "Do you know why he came to see me?"
Clara shook her head. "I don’t know. I’m just here to deliver scripture scrolls on my master’s orders."
At this, Zhenyuan chuckled, glancing at the three scripture scrolls in Shirley Shi’s hands. He sighed, "I’d hoped your master would deliver them himself so we could talk. Instead, he sent you. Looks like the old fellow wants to stay out of things again."
Hearing this, Clara and Shirley Shi both froze, momentarily puzzled.
Zhenyuan beckoned to the disciple behind them, "Take the scrolls away."
The disciple nodded, took the tray of scrolls from Shirley Shi, and left the hall.
"Sit down, don’t just stand there," Zhenyuan said, gesturing to the mats again.
The two girls bowed in thanks and seated themselves on the mats.
Zhenyuan straightened and said slowly, "Master Taiyi came to ask me to deal with your senior brother."
"What?" Both girls widened their eyes in surprise, staring at Zhenyuan.
"I sought out old Subhuti for the same reason—because of your senior brother. But he, well, he trains a disciple who stirs up the world and then sits back to watch the show, waiting to step in only after everything is settled." As he spoke, Zhenyuan waved his hand, signaling another disciple by the door to bring tea.
"My... my senior brother?" Clara hesitated. "Everlasting Sage, do you mean my tenth senior brother?"
"Who else would it be? How many senior brothers do you have left?"
The two girls fell silent.
Others might not know Monkey has returned, but they did—the Jade Emperor sends people to Subhuti every few days. How could they not know?
At most, they just didn’t know the details.
Soon, a disciple brought tea, offering each of them a cup. "Please enjoy," he said, then quietly left the hall.
After a long hesitation, Clara asked softly, "Then, Everlasting Sage, how do you plan to handle my senior brother’s matter?"
Zhenyuan lowered his gaze and asked in return, "He’s shaking the foundations of our Daoist order. Tell me, what should I do?"
"It must be a misunderstanding," Clara replied awkwardly. "My senior brother is a Daoist himself—how could he threaten the foundation of the Daoist order?"
"Are you sure he still considers himself a Daoist?" Zhenyuan countered.
At that, Clara’s smile faded. She lowered her head, scalp tingling.
The atmosphere in the hall grew unbearably awkward.
Soon, a disciple hurried in, knelt, and reported, "Master, the demon monkey and his party have crossed Dragon Prison Beach and Quicksand River, and are approaching on foot. They should pass Longevity Mountain in about a month."
"Oh?" Zhenyuan was taken aback, glanced quietly at Clara, and said, "If there’s nothing else, you’d best return for now. I have matters to attend to and may not be able to host you properly. Please forgive me."
"You’re too kind, Everlasting Sage," Clara replied, rising and bowing respectfully. "I also have important business and shouldn’t linger."
"Then, give my regards to old Subhuti for me," Zhenyuan said.
"Understood," Clara replied.
After another silent bow, Clara led Shirley Shi out of the hall and headed toward the main gate of Wuzhuang Temple.
On the way, Clara asked quietly, "Do you know where Dragon Prison Beach is?"
"No, but we can ask around," Shirley Shi replied.
"Alright, let’s go meet our troublemaking senior brother."
"Huh?" Shirley Shi was stunned.
...
Meanwhile, inside the hall, Zhenyuan frowned slightly and muttered to himself, "That old Subhuti, asked to handle the demon monkey, sends this girl to me instead."
"Master, is this..."
"It’s nothing," Zhenyuan said, stroking his beard. "I had you come in to reveal the demon monkey’s whereabouts, just going with the flow."
"Going with the flow?" The disciple hesitated. "I don’t understand."
Looking at the disciple, Zhenyuan sighed softly. "You don’t need to understand—at least not yet."
...
Outside Wuzhuang Temple, Shirley Shi tucked the jade slip into her sleeve and pointed to a spot on the map where Western Ox Continent and Southern Jambu Continent met. "Dragon Prison Beach is the narrowest part of Quicksand River."
After a pause, she continued, "But the disciple said they’ve already passed Dragon Prison Beach and are heading this way, not that they’re still at the beach. It’s such a large area—how do we find them? Master said not to wander off... Maybe we should ask him before deciding?"
"What’s so hard about that? They’re traveling on foot—they’ll need to stop somewhere. We’ll just wait for them on the main road." Clara folded up the map, smiling. "If we ask Master, when has he ever let me do anything?"
"What if we run into monsters..."
"If we run into monsters and they dare attack, we’ll fight back. Who’s afraid of who?" Clara replied.
"But is that really okay?" Shirley Shi’s frown deepened.
"It’s rare to get away from the old man—I never planned to go straight home after delivering the scriptures. Besides, do I need anyone’s permission to see my own senior brother?"
With that, Clara soared into the sky, heading southeast.
Shirley Shi could only follow.
This junior aunt of hers, in fact, was more than four hundred years younger, but her cultivation far surpassed Shirley Shi’s. What was even more remarkable was that her rapid progress wasn’t due to innate talent, but because she had excellent teachers.
With a master like Subhuti, the foremost teacher in heaven and earth, most disciples would consider it a blessing just to become his in-room disciple.
But she had two such masters.
One was Subhuti, the other was the famed Taishang Laojun. And this ‘fortune’ was hers from birth.
Shirley Shi remembered the day Subhuti suddenly returned to the temple carrying a month-old baby girl, announcing to all disciples that she would be his eleventh in-room disciple—and their new junior aunt.
Before he finished speaking, Taishang Laojun arrived and wanted to take her as his disciple too.
The two argued, and in the end, the baby girl became the in-room disciple of both great masters, leaving all the disciples of Crescent Star Cave dumbfounded.
As she grew up, she shuttled between the Thirty-Three Heavens and Crescent Star Cave, spending days at each before moving again...
She could treat Subhuti’s study as her own, take as many of Taishang Laojun’s elixirs as she liked, and even tug on Taishang Laojun’s beard only to be praised, "Good strength!"—a privilege no other disciple ever enjoyed.
‘Showered with endless love’—this phrase perfectly described her.
If she ever displayed her treasure vault, even Nezha, a heavenly general famous for his magical weapons, would be envious.
What virtue had she accumulated in her past life to be favored by two great masters in this one?
Shirley Shi simply couldn’t understand.
...
At that moment, on a hillside a thousand li away, Li Jing handed the Nine-toothed Rake to Monkey, then had his generals present a box of peaches to Black Bear Spirit.
Monkey opened the box and glanced inside, then said languidly, "It’s been almost half a year. I thought you weren’t going to deliver them. I was about to find time to visit the Celestial Palace and have a word with the new Jade Emperor about how to conduct himself."
"You’re too kind, Great Sage," Li Jing replied, wiping sweat from his brow and bowing quickly. "Official duties delayed things, and with messages passing between the mortal world and Heaven, it took some time. Only when the Jade Emperor gave the order could I deliver the peaches and the Nine-toothed Rake. Please forgive me, Great Sage."
"Never mind, as long as you brought them," Monkey said, turning to toss the Nine-toothed Rake to Marshal Tianpeng, who was standing nearby.
Marshal Tianpeng caught the rake, swung it twice, then stood quietly without a word.
"And who’s this...?"
"That’s none of your business," Monkey replied, taking a deep breath. "By the way, I have something I need you to look into. The General Curtain you once pursued—help me find out where he is now."