“Do you think your sweetheart might have… kicked the bucket?” Li Miaoci whispered to Hu Qing while shaking the bottle.
Hu Qing, who had been bleary-eyed from drink, let out a wail at her words and began sobbing uncontrollably while clutching the Jade Vase.
She tipped it over—nothing came out.
“My husband!!”
The entire cavern abode, filled with Lesser Demons singing and dancing, suddenly fell silent. For a moment, there was dead quiet.
The Golden Horn King and Silver Horn King also looked over.
Li Miaoci sensed trouble—they were about to be discovered.
As she pondered whether to make a run for it (knowing she couldn’t outrun the Demons) or to recklessly fight them with the magical artifact Second Brother had given her (a futile effort), she realized either choice meant death. She just wanted to pick a more dignified way to go.
She was wrong. She never should have recklessly followed the Hu sisters into the Lotus Cave. Among all the humans and Demons in the cavern abode, her abilities were only slightly better than Tang Sanzang’s.
Hah, not even that.
Tang Sanzang could chant scriptures. If he encountered ordinary ghostly apparitions, a passage of scripture would send them away.
But she was different—meeting anyone meant certain death for her.
Sure enough, the Golden Horn King strode over. “You!”
“What are you doing, hugging that bottle and crying and laughing like that?”
Li Miaoci was ignored.
Hu Qing continued weeping bitterly. “It’s all my fault. I came too late. Who would have thought my fate with Erlang would be so fleeting? I thought we could become husband and wife, together for all eternity.”
The Golden Horn King gave the Silver Horn King a pained look, his already fierce brows knitting together.
She… heh, she said she wanted to be with God Erlang for all eternity?
Since when does God Erlang have an “eternity”?
Was she planning to marry him and then, upon divorce, take half his cultivation base and lifespan?
How did he end up with such a foolish sister?
Oh right, he remembered—she wasn’t blood-related.
Thank goodness, there was still some hope in this demonic life.
It was already annoying enough having two unoffendable lords in the cavern abode, and now three troublesome pests had shown up!
Hu Qing didn’t notice his exasperated expression at all. She just kept crying, babbling about how she was willing to marry him even if he was dead.
She also complained that her sworn brother didn’t care about her and that she would wait for her mother to come and settle things for her.
Li Miaoci quietly slipped back to her seat. The table was laden with exotic flowers and rare fruits from the mountains, and even the wine was fruit-brewed, carrying a rich, sweet aroma.
Though she wasn’t particularly clever, she didn’t believe her two senior brothers could have died so easily. The only possibility was that they wanted to use the Demons’ hands to kill Tang Sanzang.
Uh… She didn’t want Tang Sanzang to die. She still had to go home!
Just as she was holding her wine cup and pondering life, a Lesser Demon suddenly appeared beside her. Judging by the waist token on his belt, he was just an underling from the outer sect mountain patrol and hunting group.
But he boldly sat down next to Li Miaoci and even took the wine jug in front of her.
“What are you doing here?” the Lesser Demon asked.
Hearing the unfamiliar voice beside her, Li Miaoci felt no resistance at all, as if she and this Demon had some predestined connection from a past life.
“See that weeping female demon? She’s clamoring to marry God Erlang.”
The Lesser Demon’s eyes lit up, and he laughed. “Oh? What a fortunate fate.”
“So what are you doing? Are you planning to rescue that old monk all by yourself?”
“How could that be!” Li Miaoci immediately denied, “I have no relation to him, why would I think of saving him?”
She felt a sense of guilt, as if she had been seen through.
Seeing that the lesser demon seemed unconvinced, she added, “I’m just waiting to attend the feast.”
“Fool.” The lesser demon grinned and scolded her.
From across the mountain, he had seen this girl swaggering into the Lotus Cave with a few demons. Worried that Golden Horn and Silver Horn might make her a side dish, he had rushed over.
Who would have thought that upon entering the cave, he would find her sitting there stiffly, as if afraid no one would notice she was hiding something.
“Eldest Senior Brother?” She glanced sideways and cautiously called out.
The lesser demon nodded.
“Wuwu, what about Master? Has he already been rescued?” she asked excitedly.
The monk raised his head and drank some wine before replying, “The old monk is still tied up in the cave.”
Yang Jian and Nezha wanted the demons to do a good deed to the end by directly sending Tang Sanzang into the next cycle of reincarnation.
But these two great demons had descended from the heavens and were well aware of the importance of the journey to the west. They certainly wouldn’t truly oppose the Buddhist order.
As for Sun Wukong, although he was annoyed by the old monk’s timidity and constant nagging, he couldn’t bear to harm his stubborn determination to retrieve the scriptures and achieve the universal salvation of all living beings.
“Then let’s hurry and rescue Master.”
Li Miaoci couldn’t wait.
…
In another hidden cave, Golden Horn King and Silver Horn King were hiding and drinking.
The two hugged each other and wept bitterly.
“It was agreed that we would just capture the Tang monk and his disciples to temper their resolve for the journey to the west. Why has it now turned into tempering us?”
“Yes, why hasn’t the Patriarch come to save us yet!”
“Now our cavern abode has been taken over by the Tang monk and his disciples. God Erlang is easy to talk to, but Nezha is not someone to be trifled with. He’s forcing us to take action against the Tang monk—isn’t that clearly sending us brothers to our deaths?”
Silver Horn wiped away his tears. “I wonder if Godmother can save us when she arrives.”
After a moment of silence, they thought of their sister crying her heart out outside and felt that both their demon lives and immortal lives were hopeless.
“Things have come to this. We’ve captured them, but we can’t kill them, can’t release them, and can’t defeat them in a fight. We originally wanted to teach the monkey a lesson to avenge the loss of our Immortal Elixirs and spiritual medicines, but now we can’t even touch a single body hair of his… Revenge is out of the question.” Golden Horn King faced reality.
Silver Horn King nodded. “Brother is right. So, in your opinion, what should we do now?”
“How about we move out overnight and give the Lotus Cave to them? I refuse to believe they’ll stay behind to occupy the mountain and become demons.”
Silver Horn King’s eyes lit up. He slapped his thigh—that was right! If they couldn’t handle them, couldn’t they just avoid them?
If they escaped, at worst they’d be punished by the Patriarch later, which was still better than staying here to suffer.
“Good, brother is right.”
That night, the two of them quietly tied up the Hu sisters and brother and took them out of the Lotus Cave, while also rushing to Dragon-Suppressing Mountain to take away Godmother, who had just arrived.
They still had some conscience. After fleeing a thousand miles away, they used voice transmission to inform the lesser demons in the cave.
Seeing that dawn was approaching, the lesser demons didn’t even have time to pack their belongings and scattered like birds and beasts.
Li Miaoci drowsily felt someone pull away the fur blanket she was sleeping on and mumbled a question.
The demon said it was cold outside on night watch and borrowed it to use.
Li Miaoci suddenly jolted awake.
The senior brother who had been sitting not far from her had long since vanished without a trace.
She wandered around the cave for a long time before finally finding her way out.
At that moment, a thin mist began to rise, and the sky was faintly lit.
On a cliff not far away sat a slender and strikingly handsome Handsome Monkey King. He resembled a stone sculpture, yet also seemed like a deity born of heaven and earth.
The once lively Lotus Cave was now in complete chaos, and not a single Lesser Demon could be seen in sight.
Impressive!
She marveled inwardly—had he wiped them all out in a single night?