The hunter stood up, gently wiping his hand along the blade.
When he turned around, the Monkey King understood.
The moment of death had finally arrived, and he began to struggle with all his might.
"Run... run... Birdie, run!"
From behind came Birdie's equally tense voice: "Just a little more, just a little more."
Snap—! The rope broke!
"Run!" Birdie suddenly flapped her wings and soared into the air.
Breaking free from the rope, the Monkey King endured the stabbing pain in his abdomen and dashed madly into the forest.
The hunter watched in astonishment, grabbing the bow and arrow that lay nearby. He drew the bow, aiming at the Monkey King's back, but hesitated—then turned his aim toward the panicked Birdie!
Whoosh—
A piercing whistle split the air—the arrow missed Birdie, but grazed her chest!
Blood gushed forth instantly!
Birdie seemed to be drained of all strength in an instant, tumbling down—only to be caught securely by the Monkey King.
He clutched Birdie to his chest, running desperately and dodging behind trees for cover.
The hunter, bow in hand, fired three more arrows from behind, but missed each time. He immediately switched to a dagger and hurried after them.
"Birdie, Birdie! It's okay! We can escape! You have to hold on!"
He dashed straight through the woods, not stopping until the footsteps behind faded away. Only then did the Monkey King halt, trembling as he glanced down at Birdie.
Warm blood had already soaked the fur on his chest—Birdie was barely clinging to life!
His eyes widened in terror, and the Monkey King's heart ached as if stabbed by needles.
Frantically, he tried to cover the wound with his hand to stop the bleeding, but blood still seeped through his fingers, dripping onto the earth.
"Birdie! Don't die!"
"Monkey King..." Birdie stretched her neck slightly, her pain written all over her face.
She opened her beak wide, as if trying to say something, but her voice was barely audible.
The Monkey King quickly lowered himself, putting his ear close to her beak.
"Monkey King... If you ever achieve enlightenment... remember to come back for me at Blossom Mountain... I don't want... to be... too far... from you..."
Her voice faded away...
In the cold night, silence reigned...
The Monkey King trembled as he stood, only to collapse to the ground, slowly scooting backward a few steps.
Staring at Birdie, now utterly still, tears streamed from the corners of his eyes.
"Birdie! Birdie! Don't die!" he wailed, his cries tearing through the night.
But the little canary would never speak again, never utter her endless chatter.
Her warmth slowly faded from her tiny body.
The Monkey King clutched his head, tugging at his fur. "Impossible... It can't be..."
At that moment, a hand suddenly grabbed him from behind!
He spun around, and once again saw those predatory eyes!
He didn't know where the strength came from, but he lashed out wildly, his foot raking across the hunter's cheek! Sharp claws slashed, and blood spattered instantly!
"Aaargh—"
With a cry of pain, the hunter let go.
Once again, the Monkey King fled in panic. By the time the hunter recovered, he was already hiding behind a nearby rock.
The Monkey King didn't want to die, but he couldn't leave—Birdie was still here!
Yet what happened next shattered him completely.
The hunter, clutching his wound, glanced around, about to leave—when he spotted Birdie's body on the ground.
Right before the Monkey King's eyes, he crouched down, picked up Birdie, and gave a hard tug—
Orange-yellow feathers drifted to the ground, mingled with blood, as the starving hunter fed her flesh to his mouth piece by piece!
In that instant, the Monkey King's heart was ground to dust.
Tears burst forth like a breached dam, mingling with the blood from his torn abdomen, soaking the earth!
......
He collapsed to his knees, bleeding from his abdomen, wracked with pain—but it was nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
Tears streamed down his cheeks like floodwaters, soaking his fur.
Clutching his mouth, his wide eyes blurred by tears, the Monkey King saw nothing but a haze.
In the ghastly moonlight, the hunter's body trembled as he tore flesh and bone, separating them from feathers and chewing them piece by piece.
The Monkey King could do nothing; he could barely protect himself, forced to crouch behind the rock and watch helplessly.
He watched everything the hunter did to Birdie, watched him leave, watched the blood and shattered bones strewn across the ground.
"Bir...die..." Just uttering those two syllables, he lost his voice.
He knelt there, clutching his wounded abdomen, letting the tears flow—on and on, unable to say another word.
Days passed, sunrise to sunset, until three days later, the Monkey King finally stood again.
No one knew how he survived. He buried Birdie's remains, but instead of heading west, he went toward the hunter's camp.
Half a month later, on a dark and windy night, he crept to the hunter's bedside and smashed his head to pulp with the hunter's own axe.
The hunter, deep in sleep, didn't even have time to scream.
Blow after blow, brain matter splattered, spraying across the Monkey King's face.
The first time he killed, killing someone who was once just like himself, he felt no fear—only madness, a wild, animalistic frenzy.
In that moment, perhaps he no longer saw himself as human; he felt that he and Birdie were the same kind, and the one before him was nothing but a beast that wanted to devour them.
He didn't treat the hunter as he did the tiger—he simply killed.
Nothing else mattered anymore.
He took the hunter's dagger back to Birdie's grave and carved a gravestone from a piece of wood.
Staring at the crooked inscription—'Grave of Lady Stone'—tears once again streamed from the Monkey King's eyes.
Wiping away his tears, the Monkey King choked out, "I will keep heading west. I will come back. Birdie, wait for me. Do you remember what I told you about the Grand Supreme Elder Lord? He doesn't just have pills that make you immortal—he also has Resurrection Pills. No matter how many years, no matter how far, I will return. You must wait for me. Wait for me to marry you."
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Ten years. A full ten years. At first it was out of defiance, then desperation, and finally, it became an unyielding obsession.
Ten years later, when the Monkey King reached Enlightenment Peak, even he couldn't recall how he had made it through.