Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 89 Spring 3 Maiden

Inside the Heart Monkey Chamber, Cai Fei lay down again on the huge futon, staring blankly at the stalactites on the cave ceiling.

After facing one desperate situation after another, he naturally couldn't rely on the Great Sage again this time. Fortunately, he still had a trump card.

Not long after Kong Fande left, he activated the seed of his soul in his sea of ​​consciousness and called upon Li Zhu.

However, there has been no response yet.

He could only wait quietly, but at this moment, he wasn't thinking about Li Zhu or Xu Ping'an, but about the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong.

As soon as I closed my eyes, that enormous face, as big as a mountain, floated up in the northern sky again—high cheekbones, sunken cheeks, protruding forehead, high brow bones, exposed fangs, and bristling hair.

It was ugly, it was fierce, yet it felt strangely familiar.

In fact, this face evoked many memories for him.

Another image flashed through my mind: on the editing table, a ferocious monkey face was frozen on the monitor, slamming his fist on the table and shouting, "Yes, this is it! Who the hell says it has to be handsome! I may not understand movies, but I can read—this is exactly how it's written in the original story, this is the real Monkey King!"

"Shaking the Mountain".

That was the movie he was willing to spend his entire fortune to make.

In the script he personally wrote, the Great Sage was imprisoned for five hundred years, and with his own power, he shattered the Five Finger Mountain and fought his way up to the Lingxiao Palace.

He's not some kind of Victorious Fighting Buddha, nor does he submit to any Buddha or Tang Sanzang; he's just a monkey who refuses to kneel even in death.

But his memory ends there; no matter how hard he tries to recall, the rest is just a blur.

Was the movie ever made? Was it ever released? What was the reaction after its release?

I have absolutely no idea.

But at least one thing is clear: the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong—he really did come for this reason!

But why is the face that "I" imagined exactly the same as the Great Sage of this world?

Or perhaps, in a dream, I, from that other world, saw the Great Sage of this world?

At midnight, the seed of the soul finally reacted.

Cai Fei immediately fell asleep and quickly drifted off to sleep.

"You said you came because of the monkeys?" In her lucid dream, Li Zhu frowned. "Then what am I? The monkeys' tool?"

"Could the monkey have foreseen that I would help it in the underworld?" Li Zhu shook his head. "Impossible! I set up this scheme 5800 years ago! If it had that ability, it wouldn't have been imprisoned by Laozi for a hundred years."

He paused, then asked, "You said your connection with monkeys stems from a movie—what about me? Did you perhaps make a movie about me?"

Cai Fei smiled wryly: "Whether that book, 'Shaking the Mountain,' was ever made into a film or not—I can't even remember."

Li Zhu remained silent for a moment, then stopped asking questions.

Cai Fei then recounted in detail how Chu Family Village had been besieged, how Wu Family Ridge had suffered heavy casualties, and how Cai Zhiyin had organized manpower. He smiled bitterly and said, "We were focused on defending against the Heavenly Court, but we didn't expect that the Star Moon, which is so close at hand, would be the biggest problem. Judging from this, I'm going to have a very difficult time getting through this."

"I underestimated that rabbit spirit."

Li Zhu frowned even more. The Heavenly Court was bound to be the ultimate enemy, but with Cai Fei's current strength, he was clearly still a long way from being able to confront the Heavenly Court.

Now that we've come to Aolai and become entangled in the karma of the monkey, we really need to consider the monkey's enemies.

Cai Fei asked, "I didn't expect the Great Sage to have such influence. He only showed his face, and the whole island went crazy for him. Everyone says there's a difference between humans and demons, so why do people in Aolai worship a demon monkey so much?"

"This is a long story, but it is related to Patriarch Bodhi. You can check the records when you have time," Li Zhu replied. "In short, many of the humans in this world are descendants of demons, especially in Aolai. Most of the mountain people are descendants of the Demon King. Back when the Great Sage was alive, humans and demons were one and there was no difference between them."

"I see..." Cai Fei pondered for a moment before saying, "Given the current situation, I have no choice but to go home and fight. However, the enemy is ruthless, and going there would almost certainly mean certain death. I can only ask you to save my life."

"Let me think about it..."

After five thousand years of planning, they finally found this soul that could be entrusted with important matters. They thought that with Cai Fei's two unique skills, the Concealing Qi Technique and the Cockroach Dance, survival should not be difficult. However, they did not expect to encounter one desperate situation after another. Li Zhu felt a headache coming on.

Of course, there is a way to save one's life—the reason why the seed of the soul is called a "seed" is that it can sprout and grow. After 18 years, this seed has already sprouted. It only needs to be attached to Zhu's consciousness to display its power.

However, this seed was originally planted to cure his destiny. As soon as the sprout emerged, it had to fight for his life. The 18 years of nurturing might be wasted in a single day. When Cai Fei's destiny was extinguished at the age of thirty, there might be no way to help him.

Furthermore, the opponent already has four or five Foundation Establishment cultivators on the surface, plus figures like the Thousand-Faced Beast and the Hundred-Loss Rat. If there are any other cards hidden underneath, even burning out the Seed of Divine Soul might not guarantee his safety.

What other way can be used to help Cai Fei?

Lost in thought, Li Zhu paced back and forth in the small courtyard atop Wujialing Mountain, a place he had been dreaming of. Suddenly, he noticed a spider the size of a millstone lying beside him and exclaimed in surprise, "How come you have Chun Sanshi Niang here?"

Chun Sanshi Niang?!

Cai Fei was stunned.

"A spider," Li Zhu explained, pointing to the spider. "This spider lays its eggs every spring, and it has a lifespan of 30 years, with a nest of 30 eggs, hence the name 'Spring Thirty Maidens.'"

Chun San Niang!

The moment the name entered Cai Fei's ears, it evoked a memory: the spider demon in the movie from his previous life was also called Chun San Niang.

He originally thought the name was chosen randomly by the screenwriter, but he never expected it to have such a hidden origin—the connection between this world and his past life was probably far deeper than he imagined.

In her astonishment, Cai Fei still offered an explanation—this was the spider demon bound to Chu Zhiyin by blood. It had been guarding the door these past few days, and when creating dreams, it had also created one.

Li Zhu's eyes lit up: "Although Chun Sanshi Niang is weak, she can control her offspring. Are any of her cubs sentient beings?"

"I don't know, I'll ask when I wake up," Cai Fei replied.

An hour after the battle ended at Chu Family Village, Chu Huihui, looking exhausted, suddenly arrived at Rotten Peach Peak.

She stood inside the old mountain lord's house, said nothing, clapped her hands, and said to the door, "Come, come, line up and come in one by one to see if your old mountain lord is still alive or not."

There was complete silence outside the door.

However, the people inside the door had already figured it out—someone was spreading rumors that Xu Ping'an had run away.

But this is such a small matter, it shouldn't require Chu Huihui to handle it personally, right?

Xu Ping'an was puzzled when he saw a line of people crawling in through the door, trembling. The first person in line was a cripple who had lost an arm. The people all kept their heads down and crawled all the way to Xu Ping'an's bedside. They knelt down in several rows, not saying a word, just prostrating themselves on the ground. More than a dozen faces were buried deep in their hands.

"The three of them secretly took their families to join the thirteen families. Surrendering is one thing, but even husbands and wives abandon each other when disaster strikes, let alone outsiders like you! People are dying on the mountain every minute. It's understandable that you want to leave."

Chu Huihui's words were sharp, completely devoid of her usual gentle and quiet demeanor: "What you shouldn't have done is, when you were clearly trying to survive, you kept accusing your uncle of running away! Whether your uncle ran away first or not, you fucking looked up and saw clearly!"

The few children kneeling behind looked up at the old mountain master, but no one spoke. Several people were crying, while the others kept their heads down and remained silent. In the silence, only the sound of a few people sobbing could be heard.

The three men leading the group—the one on the far left, the one-armed man—is the younger brother of the assassin Yu. Two years ago, when they went up the mountain, his whole family was injured, and he spent a lot of effort healing them; the one in the middle is from the Gu family. Hmm, that year, the Gu family and the Ge family fought over some spiritual medicine, and he was the instigator, but he pretended to be sick on the spot, which led to him being driven out of the village; the one on the right, I've almost forgotten—he's missing a large piece of his scalp. Hmm, he's the guy from the Yang family whose scalp was ripped off for having an affair in the village…

They are all pitiful people who come to me when they have nowhere else to turn, but pitiful people are not necessarily good people, nor are they necessarily honest people.

Fine, go if you want to leave, why are you all kneeling on the ground like dogs?

Ugh……

The old mountain lord sadly turned his head away, not wanting to see their ugly appearance.