Li Miaoci forced a dry laugh, picked up the shell wine cup, and tilted her head back to down the clear wine in one gulp.
The wine tasted crisp and sweet upon entering her mouth. She was just about to praise it.
But before the words could leave her lips, she felt as if she had been drugged and fell headfirst into a deep sleep.
When she woke up, she felt as though she were lying on satin as soft as clouds, swaying gently.
The sound of horse hooves reached her ears, along with the increasingly loud noise of river water crashing against the shore rocks.
She sat up, stomped on the soft, fluffy surface beneath her feet, and suddenly felt a gust of wind. With a loud “clang,” she fell heavily to the ground.
Standing before her was a man leisurely straightening his sleeves.
Well, it turned out she had been sleeping inside Yang Jian’s sleeve.
“Wukong, look at how wide this river is. Without a ferry, what should we do?” Tang Sanzang was once again lamenting his fate.
Hearing his voice, Li Miaoci immediately turned to look.
Before her was a boundless river, lake, or sea.
Truly, the only body of water she had ever seen this vast in the real world was the ocean.
Truly worthy of being the eight-hundred-li Flowing Sands River.
Eight hundred li—half a province submerged in water!
Nearby, waves churned and rolled, while in the distance, the calm water surface merged with the sky.
Li Miaoci felt a surge of excitement. She was finally about to meet Tang Sanzang’s third disciple!
“Master, don’t worry. This old Sun will go scout ahead first,” the monk said before flying off, skimming the water’s surface toward the distance.
“Second Senior Brother?” Li Miaoci walked excitedly over to Yang Jian.
Yang Jian glanced at her indifferently. “No need to thank me.”
After all, he couldn’t just leave her in the wild mountains to be eaten by demons.
“That’s not what I wanted to ask. How did we get past Yellow Wind Ridge?”
“On foot,” he replied.
“What about the demons in the mountains?” What about the Yellow Wind King?
“What demons?” He seemed unconcerned.
Xiaotian Quan, lying at his feet, lifted its head as if letting out a burp. Seeing nothing of note, it curled up again and went back to sleep.
Li Miaoci kicked at the wildflowers and weeds on the ground, then quietly walked over to the White Dragon Horse.
“Brother Dragon? What happened to the demons at Yellow Wind Ridge?”
The White Dragon Horse ignored her, focusing only on lowering its head to graze.
The afternoon sun was bright and warm.
Sun Wukong had flown off somewhere and hadn’t returned for a long time.
Suddenly, the nearby water surface began to churn violently, and a young man appeared, standing on flaming wheels and holding a long spear!
He soared out of the water, sending waves splashing eight zhang high into the air around him.
Yang Jian, who had been standing by the shore admiring the scenery, instantly retreated dozens of meters the moment the water splashed.
Left on the shore were only the White Dragon Horse, still grazing.
Tang Sanzang, looking utterly terrified.
And Li Miaoci, who had nowhere to hide and was drenched head to toe by the splashing water.
“You’re Tang Sanzang?!”
The young man standing on the flaming rings spoke with a tone of bitter certainty.
Before Tang Sanzang could even utter “Amitabha,”
the young man thrust his spear forward, piercing Tang Sanzang straight through!
Li Miaoci wiped the water from her face and stared wide-eyed at the scene before her!
“Oh no! Master! You died so tragically…”
Before she could finish wailing, the young man turned and stabbed her with his spear.
The spear pierced through her body—too fast.
So fast that she didn’t feel much pain. She was just skewered on the spear, swung around a couple of times, and then slammed onto the ground.
Heh.
A sinister smile appeared on the young man’s face.
“Dare to send me on a journey to the Western Heaven? I’ll send all of you to the Western Heaven instead!”
Li Miaoci heard him clearly. She really wanted to say, “Aren’t Sun Wukong and Yang Jian still here?”
“Why don’t you kill them? Is it because you can’t beat them?”
Don’t just pick on the weak and kill people!
Before her consciousness faded, she saw her eldest senior brother riding the waves toward her.
Wah wah, eldest senior brother, coming back at this time, you’ll only make it in time for my seventh-day memorial, wah wah.
…
He was originally the Great God of the Three Altars and Seas, Third Prince Nezha.
That day, he was relaxing in the Celestial Palace… alright, he admitted it, he saw that the Heavenly King’s Hall was empty and wanted to sneak in to steal the pagoda.
But that was just a fleeting thought; he definitely didn’t have time to act on it.
Fine, he did act, but he didn’t succeed.
That pagoda pedestal scolded him harshly, saying he was incorrigible and so on.
In a fit of anger, he found himself in a river called the Flowing Sands River.
Even more terrifying was that someone, as if by fate, told him to wait here for the Scripture Seeker and to protect Tang Sanzang on his westward journey to retrieve the scriptures!
Him? The dignified Third Prince? Retrieving scriptures?
What was even more infuriating was that he seemed trapped here by an invisible force, repeating the same life day after day.
No matter how many travelers he killed or how many demons and monsters he defeated, everything would return to normal the next day.
Today was the one thousand three hundred and ninety-seventh day he surfaced, meaning he had already repeated the exact same life one thousand three hundred and ninety-six times.
The only difference was that today, a group of strangers appeared by the Flowing Sands River.
Among the strangers was a familiar figure—God Erlang.
But he was seething with anger and had no time for catching up first.
So, he went ahead and killed Tang Sanzang.
Just as he burst into laughter, thinking he had broken free from the bizarre cycle, the endlessly repeating life began again.
No matter how many times he killed Tang Sanzang, the monk would reappear on the riverbank as usual the next day.
He—gave in.
Retrieving scriptures, that’s all. With God Erlang here, and that rebellious monkey, the journey to retrieve the scriptures should be quite interesting.
So—
“I am here waiting for the Scripture Seeker,” he said reluctantly as he stepped ashore, addressing Tang Sanzang.
Li Miaoci stared at the aloof, elegant youth before her, dressed in lotus-patterned robes with a masculine body and feminine features, and stammered while clutching her chest, “You, you, you.”
“What’s wrong?”
He blinked his eyes innocently and asked.
Li Miaoci hid behind Yang Jian, not even daring to peek her head out. “Are you Nezha?”