A starry night at Mount Hua.
Inside the main hall of the courtyard, the Jade Cauldron Immortal sat quietly. Beside him, Warren Wu the centipede spirit brewed cup after cup of tea.
Gavin the Goat Sage stepped in from outside, saw Jade Cauldron, and silently sighed, kneeling down on a meditation cushion across from him.
"Did you give her the Jade Tablet?"
"I did. I told her it was left for her by you before you departed, and that the other half will go to the Monkey." Gavin took a sip of the hot tea Warren Wu handed him and sighed softly, "Just now, the Third Saintess was asking if you'd returned yet."
Jade Cauldron quickly shook his head and waved his hands, saying, "Don't let her know I'm back yet. Let me think a bit more—think about how to explain things. Her master already asked, so I can't very well refuse to put in a good word, can I?"
Both Warren Wu and Gavin looked up at Jade Cauldron in silence.
Jade Cauldron sighed faintly and muttered to himself, "That Monkey... truly is thick-headed. He insists on shouldering every responsibility himself. By his logic, he’ll come for Anna only after the Scripture Quest is finished and everything is settled—and that does make sense. But in this world, how many things can really be perfectly 'right'? Some things, you just have to let be; drag them out too long and they change."
"Whether he comes now or later, it doesn’t make much difference. She’s already waited over six centuries—what’s another year or two?" Gavin lifted his head slightly. "What the Third Saintess truly cares about is that wind-chime. After all... it was for that wind-chime that the groom abandoned her at the wedding."
Jade Cauldron froze for a moment at Gavin’s words, slapped his forehead, and exclaimed, "Oh no! I got so caught up talking about when Monkey would come, I forgot to ask how he plans to handle Clara Heart’s knot. That’s something that needs a proper answer!"
With that, Jade Cauldron stood up to leave, but after a moment’s thought, sat back down and muttered to himself, "Forget it, I’ll just have a few more cups of tea. If I rush over now, with how flustered Monkey is, he probably wouldn’t have any answers anyway. Better to drink a few more cups, go sound out the situation at Kunlun in a few days, and then find him. That’ll give him some time to think it through. Ideally, he’ll figure it out, contact Anna himself, and spare this old man the trouble."
Gavin and Warren Wu exchanged glances.
At that very moment, Jade Cauldron had no idea that Kunlun Mountain—the place he planned to visit—was facing utter catastrophe...
...
A spear of force punched down from the sky, piercing the roof of Goldlight Cave’s main hall. In the next instant, a violent shockwave swept outward, and the surrounding high walls collapsed like brittle twigs. Amid the chaos of shattered tiles and splintered wood, several junior Daoist disciples were flung out into the darkness, vanishing without a trace.
It all happened so suddenly that no one had the slightest chance to react.
Under the moonlight, the Daoist temple that had stood for over a thousand years was destroyed in an instant, reduced to drifting clouds of dust.
The seven Golden Immortals standing before the temple whipped around, their eyes wide with shock.
Right before their eyes, the swirling dust slowly parted, and a figure began to emerge.
"Heh heh heh... You’ve all grown so weak—it was easy to find you."
A gust of wind swept by, and in the swirling sand there appeared a ferocious monkey face.
"Is that... the Six-Eared Macaque?" Master Taiyi’s eye twitched slightly.
The other six Golden Immortals beside him quietly gathered their spiritual power. But having just suffered a crushing defeat in the Dharma-Quest Kingdom, how much strength did they have left?
"I am not the Six-Eared Macaque." The Six-Eared Macaque slowly bared his fangs in a savage grin. "I am the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong. Isn’t that what you all believe?"
"No Golden Staff. He must be the Six-Eared Macaque." Master Golden Dragon, standing beside Taiyi, murmured, "His cultivation seems to be fully on par with the real Monkey... but that shouldn’t be possible."
"Possible or not, he’s here now—what’s the point in debating?" A bead of cold sweat slid down Master Taiyi’s forehead as he gripped his Divine Wand and took a battle stance, murmuring, "The lock-life pearl has already been crushed. All we have to do is hold out until Master arrives... It’s just a pity about our 'two tigers on one mountain' strategy!"
"Alright!"
"Understood!"
"Got it!"
With a chorus of replies, the other Golden Immortals also readied themselves for battle.
In the next instant, the Six-Eared Macaque became a streak of golden light, charging at them as a barrage of multicolored spiritual power shot forth from the other side!
...
"Report—! The Six-Eared Macaque himself is leading a host of demons in a direct assault on Kunlun Mountain!"
A frantic shout rang out as the monk delivering the message fell to his knees in the center of the great hall.
At these words, the Buddhas in the hall erupted in an uproar.
"The Twelve Golden Immortals of the Celestial Sect have dwindled to just eight after all these years. Aside from Jade Cauldron, the rest were severely wounded in their battle with Monkey—even their life-bound artifacts were destroyed. The Six-Eared Macaque is choosing the right moment to strike; this could be an opportunity."
"That may be, but don’t forget—the Celestial Sect stands behind Lord Genesis, and behind him is Lord Skygate. If Lord Genesis intervenes, Lord Skygate may well join in. What then?"
"If it were the real Monkey from the Dharma-Quest Kingdom, even he would struggle against both at once. The Six-Eared Macaque isn’t yet at full strength—charging Kunlun now, he’s likely doomed."
"Exactly. This time, he’s surely doomed."
"Attacking Kunlun is a foolish move. If it were the real Monkey, he’d never do this. It just proves that without his memories, Sun Wukong is nothing but a reckless beast. We must have overestimated him before."
After a flurry of debate, nearly everyone agreed that the Six-Eared Macaque was sure to lose, and many felt sorry for this monkey who would die before his campaign even began.
Just then, the Earth-Store King suddenly laughed aloud.
At once, every eye in the hall turned to him.
Lord Buddha sat with eyes closed and said softly, "Since King Earth-Store personally brought the Six-Eared Macaque back and forged his body, let’s have him give the next judgment."
The entire hall fell silent as everyone waited.
After a long pause, King Earth-Store only sighed softly: "Victory or defeat—cannot yet be known."
"Cannot yet be known?" The assembled Arhats and Buddhas stared in astonishment.
...
High above, Lord Skygate caught up to Lord Genesis at incredible speed and asked in a low voice, "What’s happened? Someone is attacking Kunlun Mountain?"
Lord Genesis glanced back, his face dark. "The Kunlun lock-life pearl has shattered. It’s a signal we haven’t used in nearly two thousand years. Someone is attacking Avalon Mountain itself—I must hurry."