With the plan settled, Miles Moon and Anna Yang took charge of overseeing the relocation.
The place they currently occupied was an abandoned mountain village. Normally, finding such a deserted village in the mountains was nothing unusual, but what was strange was that this one lay right at the mouth of Stillwater Valley.
In this world, villages are abandoned for no reason other than natural disasters or human calamity—yet for immortals, neither is truly a problem. Typically, immortals, over their long years of cultivation, establish some sort of special relationship with surrounding humans, occasionally descending the mountain to help solve minor issues or to 'educate' them a little.
In the mortal realm, villages nestled deep in the mountains alongside immortals often bear dreamlike names—like 'Peach Blossom Spring.' Many renowned earth immortals hail from such places. For example, before joining Crescent Star Cave, Master Sage Subhuti’s senior disciple Qingfeng was a cowherd at the foot of Enlightenment Peak.
Logically speaking, villages blessed by the presence of immortals are the least likely to be abandoned.
Yet right at the mouth of Stillwater Valley, a sizeable village had been deserted. This inevitably made the Monkey King wonder about Elder Stillwater’s unique approach to handling affairs.
Soon enough, after some quick arrangements—those with canes took up their canes, those carrying stretchers hefted their stretchers—the ragtag procession was assembled.
In the rain-washed sunset, the village was shrouded in a mass of monsters, yet there was no joy at having narrowly escaped death. Instead, gathering together brought a heavy, sorrowful atmosphere; in every pair of eyes, there was only desolation.
During the evacuation, the Monkey King had sent all the wounded onto warships. No one expected that, in the end, it was these seven hundred injured who survived best. Including the guards who escaped the pursuit of the Skyward Legionnaires, the group now numbered nine hundred in total. In their current condition, though, they had no fighting strength left to speak of.
If the Heavenly Army found them, they would be doomed.
As for the matter of treating the wounded...
Miles Moon, as the chief disciple of Crescent Star Cave’s second generation, possessed formidable medical skills—yet by this point, their supplies were utterly exhausted.
Even the cleverest cook cannot make a meal without rice.
Without medicine, even the best doctor is powerless. It was said that the elixirs used on the Monkey King were begged by Miles Moon from Elder Stillwater when he first entered Stillwater Valley.
As for the rest of the wounded, their injuries could only be crudely stabilized for now, with hopes of proper treatment once they reached safety.
According to Miles Moon’s arrangements, the Monkey King and the badly injured Shortbeak were lashed onto a frame carried on Rhino’s back. The scattered, downtrodden demons began to make their way along the narrow mountain pass.
It was a night so dark that you couldn’t see your own hand. The pass was pitch-black, and to avoid drawing attention, they dared not light torches. The wounded demons helped each other along, struggling through the rain-soaked mud, their journey utterly miserable.
All the way, the Monkey King and Shortbeak, sharing the same stretcher, did not exchange a single word.
Compared to the Monkey King’s wounds, Shortbeak’s looked even worse. One eye was blind, the bandages around his chest were stained with blood, and he coughed violently from time to time. His limbs and wings were covered in countless injuries.
That one remaining eye never once looked up at the Monkey King.
After hours of silent, arduous marching, the group finally took three full hours to traverse the narrow pass and enter Stillwater Valley.
As they reached the exit of the mountain pass, they spotted distant lights ahead. The already jumpy demons tensed up at once, whispering anxiously, afraid that the Heavenly Army’s pursuers were waiting for them with torches.
Seeing the sudden panic in the ranks, Miles Moon simply smiled with satisfaction and called out, “Don’t worry! What you’re about to see is something you won’t find in the daylight.”
Thanks to his reassurance, the demons calmed a little, though unease still lingered.
After a little further, the demons finally saw what the so-called lights were—and couldn’t help but gasp in awe.
A clump of ordinary wild grass had sprouted long stalks, each topped with a simple blossom. But the six petals glowed with pink light. Reaching out to touch them, they realized it wasn’t just a glow—the petals themselves were pure light, mere floating illusions with no substance at all!
A giant trumpet flower slowly opened and closed, as if breathing in and out tiny motes of starlight, like dancing fireflies.
A dandelion with three glowing leaves spun overhead as it drifted by; seahorses with dragonfly wings huddled inside tree hollows, peering out warily; an eight-tailed lizard, like an octopus, coiled lazily around a trunk, occasionally flicking out its glowing tongue to catch insects; and three-eyed rabbits nibbled plants in the corners, their ears twitching.
The Monkey King looked up and saw two butterflies with strange, luminous stripes on their wings chasing each other among the branches.
“What are these...?”
“These are the plants and animals of the Netherworld. In daylight, you wouldn’t notice anything unusual,” Miles Moon explained cheerfully from the front. “Elder Stillwater transplanted all of these here, so his only rule for entering the valley is not to touch any of the flora or fauna. They’re the result of years of effort. Among all the elders, Elder Stillwater is most skilled in yin-yang arts and has the closest ties to the Netherworld. The legends of Old Stillwater and the Stillwater Immortal all refer to him. Even our master consults Elder Stillwater on many matters concerning the Netherworld, and ghostly immortals often visit here.”
Passing through the forest aglow with every color, the demons were dazzled by the sights.
“In the human world, you’d rarely see these creatures, and they shy away from sunlight. That’s why Elder Stillwater chose a valley that sunlight never reaches for his residence. Some of these rare plants and animals appear in alchemical recipes, and when we’re short on ingredients, we come to Elder Stillwater to collect them.”
“Hey, you there—don’t touch that! That’s a Homesick Blossom, a wildflower found everywhere along the Road of Yellow Springs. Spirits instinctively avoid it, but living people who smell it will fall into powerful illusions of homesickness and longing. Only spiritual power can steady the heart and awaken them.”
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“That’s a Gold-Blood Butterfly. Its larvae live underground, feeding on Netherworld plants for a hundred years before emerging to form a chrysalis. In daylight it hardens, at dusk it becomes a butterfly, its wings patterned like sunflowers and its blood pure gold—a rare catalyst for higher-grade spirit-awakening elixirs, though few use it now because the ingredients are so scarce. Gold-Blood Butterflies always exist in pairs; if one dies, the other soon follows. They’re said to be the embodiment of unresolved love debts that fell into the Yellow Springs, leaving behind no soul or spirit to reincarnate.”
“This one is a Bone-Melt Serpent. It’s poisonous and thrives on yin energy, but it doesn’t actually dissolve bones. Its venom harms souls but is harmless to the living. In fact, if it bites a living creature, the yang energy will kill it. Properly prepared, it can be used in medicines to repair damaged souls.”
Miles Moon continued introducing each specimen as they walked, and the demons listened with fascination—except for Anna Yang, who yawned, clearly unfazed by it all.
Shortbeak, sitting beside the Monkey King, still kept his head down, lost in thought.
Soon, the group passed through the strange forest and saw, in the distance, a cluster of brightly lit homes.
At the entrance, a purple-robed Daoist acolyte with two topknots stood waiting.
Seeing the group, he hurried forward and saluted. "Disciple Shawn Cloud, here on my master’s orders to welcome Uncle Samson, Senior Brother Miles Moon, and Senior Sister Anna Yang."
Staring at the cluster of homes, Miles Moon was momentarily stunned. “This is... I didn’t see any of this when I came earlier today...”
“My master prepared these in advance. He said that with so many rare medicinal herbs in the valley, it would be hard for guests to build their own houses without disturbing them. So he set them up ahead of time to save trouble. The space is a bit cramped, so please don’t mind if it’s crowded.”
From where they stood, the houses looked more like a small town than a mere cluster of homes.
"Brother Shawn Cloud, please thank Uncle Stillwater on my behalf," Miles Moon said.
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