“Awake?”
Sun Wukong sensed movement behind him and flew down from the cliff.
“Senior Brother, where are the demons and Master?” she asked, steeling herself.
“The demons… moved away.”
As for the master, he was still in the cave.
When he went out in the middle of the night, he had specifically checked on the old monk. The demons had untied him, but the old monk didn’t know the way. After wandering around the cave a few times without finding an escape, he simply found a random spot to chant scriptures.
“Moved away?” Li Miaoci felt a headache coming on and wished she could grow a brain.
“Moved away!” came an even more ear-splitting voice from behind.
Nezha strode out. He and Yang Jian had only stayed in the demons’ cavern abode for a few extra days, and these immature demons couldn’t handle even a little pressure—they actually moved away to escape!
“You… you’re here too?” Li Miaoci looked at Nezha and God Erlang emerging from the cave.
“In this desolate wilderness, what if we encountered Malevolent Demons if we didn’t stay here?” Nezha spread his hands, speaking as if it were the most natural thing.
So, to avoid Malevolent Demons, they chose to directly move into the cavern abode of the most powerful demons in the Three Mountains and Five Ridges.
“Tang… Master?” Yang Jian spoke up.
“Inside.”
The group rescued Tang Sanzang, who was deeply moved. Seeing them arrive was like seeing a savior.
He gratefully said how hard his disciples had worked.
He knew his disciples had shielded him from wind and rain, for without them, he might not have made it this far on his journey to the west alone.
But he had no idea where that wind and rain had come from.
If not for Nezha pressuring the demons, he would have been released long ago.
The demons had fled, but Tang Sanzang remained, forcing Yang Jian and Nezha to continue protecting him on his westward journey for scripture retrieval.
Along the way, Nezha grew angrier with each step. He thought of those two demons, who were actually deities from the heavens—utterly disappointing.
So, taking advantage of a late-night rest the next day, he traveled thousands of miles to track down the fleeing Golden Horn King and Silver Horn King and gave them a severe beating.
And that male fox who wanted to marry a wife was beaten even worse.
Silver Horn King covered his face, pointing at Hu Qi’s nose and cursing furiously, “You and your obsession with a wife! See now? That stunning beauty you fell for is Nezha, the Three Realms’ God of Slaughter, the Marshal of the Central Altar of the Seas!”
Hu Qi cowered to the side, not daring to reply.
Something wasn’t right. That day, he had glimpsed through the dense forest—Tang Sanzang’s female disciple wasn’t this arrogant and domineering figure.
That beauty was gentle, with a sweet and lovely smile.
Though he was somewhat face-blind, his fox clan wasn’t so bad at distinguishing male from female, was it?
But his face, head, and body hurt too much—so much that he was starting to lose his memory.
The master and disciples continued westward.
Having come this far, Yang Jian no longer worried about Tang Sanzang coming to harm. If they just quickened their pace, they could reach Spiritual Mountain a day earlier.
Though Nezha spoke tough, he secretly agreed with Yang Jian’s idea.
Many more days passed, the journey dusty and exhausting.
Tang Sanzang considered himself capable of enduring hardship, but the relentless day-and-night travel nearly made him fall ill.
Finally, they arrived at a monastery, its sign reading “Precious Forest Temple.”
Tang Sanzang intended to seek lodging, but the monks inside were worldly and snobbish, unwilling to host these outsiders.
Moreover, these people were neither proper monks nor proper Taoists, and they even traveled with a woman.
They clearly weren’t respectable folk.
The abbot sneered and drove the lodging-seeking Tang Sanzang out, declaring that theirs was a royal treasure temple, not a place just anyone could casually set foot in.
He also insinuated that Li Miaoci, as a woman, should not be showing her face in public and so on.
Li Miaoci found it amusing, and even more amusing was that she remembered this part.
When the master sought lodging, they refused, but once the eldest brother struck with his staff, all three hundred monks in the temple came out to kneel and welcome them at the mountain gate.
Sure enough, seeing Tang Sanzang looking downcast and aggrieved, Sun Wukong angrily went to “reason” with them.
He liked reasoning, and Nezha liked it even more.
Nezha leaped into the air, landing on the upturned eaves of the temple roof, and pointed at the monks inside, shouting that they lacked Buddhist understanding.
Then he jumped down and kicked the stone lion in front of the mountain gate, sending it flying into a side hall.
With a loud crash, the abbot immediately put on a humble and benevolent face, calling the temple’s disciples to personally welcome the eminent monk from the Tang dynasty.
Baolin Temple was nestled against a mountain and faced a body of water, with a large lake on its side.
It was already winter, but the lake’s surface had not yet frozen.
Along the shore were withered, yellow trees, and the deep, emerald-green lake water was bottomless.
The temple’s abbot trembled as he explained that their temple housed only male monks, making it inconvenient to accommodate female guests.
He meant he didn’t want Li Miaoci to enter.
Li Miaoci rolled her eyes inwardly, privately thinking that a monk with such prejudice would never achieve enlightenment in his lifetime.
But she didn’t say much more, after all, the temple wasn’t a celestial palace—why should she beg to stay there?
Since she wasn’t going in, Nezha also stopped in his tracks.
By now, it was late in the day. She had originally planned to stay on a small boat moored by the lake. After all, she had consumed plenty of Immortal Elixirs and wouldn’t freeze to death in the winter night wind.
Nezha saw through her intention and reached out to stop her.
“That place is cramped and narrow—how could anyone stay there?”
“Actually, you could go in and stay. If he dares to say another word of nonsense, I’ll make him a mute right away.”
Li Miaoci jumped onto the small boat. At that moment, moonlight reflected on the lake’s surface, shimmering like silk, with ripples glistening.
Her expression was calm, completely indifferent to the abbot’s words. “I know, but I don’t want to stay there either.”
After all, this Baolin Temple was haunted.