The Monkey King

Youquan Valley is surrounded by cliffs on all sides, and only a long and narrow mountain pass can communicate with the outside world.

Here, you can't see the sun all year round. Most of the seemingly lush vegetation are plants from the underworld, and there are very few mortal creatures in the woods.

This is a world that lives in the shadow of mountains. There are only a few hours of daylight in a day. And even during the day, it looks just like the dawn in other places. The only difference is that the sky above the head is always blue.

During the days when he was recovering from his injuries, the monkey always liked to sit in the yard and stare blankly up at the sky, staring at the rolling clouds.

Thinking back on it, since I learned somersault clouds, I have never flown freely once.

What would it feel like to travel freely among the clouds? he thinks.

When we arrived at Youquan Valley, six days passed in the blink of an eye.

During these six days, Lu Liuguai was as passionate as a young man in love, leaving early in the morning and returning late at night, planning his dream town of monsters. Yue Chao was not in such a good mood as him. He also left early and came back late, but he was exhausted trying to treat the wounded.

There is no shortage of all kinds of materials in Youquan Valley, but it is impossible to prepare so many healing elixirs. As Yue Chao is the second-generation chief disciple of Xianyue Sanxing Cave, his alchemy and medical skills are undoubtedly beyond doubt. It's a pity that strong alchemy skills and good medical skills do not mean fast speed. Facing as many as 700 wounded people, his scalp was also numb.

In this way, he was exhausted after only three days, and the success rate of alchemy dropped rapidly. For this reason, Yang Chan, who was responsible for caring for the monkeys, had to step in to help.

With this addition, Yue Chao discovered that Yang Chan's thousand-year military career was indeed not in vain. Although she may not be as good as Yue Chao who soaks in the alchemy room every day in terms of her alchemy accomplishments, she can refine ordinary elixirs. When it comes to medicine, Yang Chan is not only fast and has a high success rate, but the elixirs she makes are also of high quality.

It was not until this time that Yue Chao and Monkey realized that Yang Chan, who usually didn't like to take care of things, was in charge of the logistics of Yang Jian's Guanjiangkou army before worshiping under the gate of Xianyue Sanxing Cave. The number one military doctor.

This made Monkey, who was lying on his bed with nothing to do every day, start to dream about what the beautiful Yang Chan would look like wearing a battle armor, but unfortunately he could never imagine it.

Because Yang Chan joined the medical team, Dajiao was roped in to work as a helper, while Guanzui still hid in the room and remained silent. Monkey, who had gradually improved, suddenly became extremely lonely. When he opened his eyes every day, all he saw was nothing but the little fox demon. Heizi, or Lu Liuguai who came over to sell him all kinds of incredible political ideas.

The days go by day by day, simple and boring, with rare comfort. On the sixth day, the monkey, who was sitting in the yard enjoying the short daylight in the valley, suddenly heard a guzheng song.

"Among our bunch of monsters, is there anyone who can play the guzheng?" The monkey couldn't help but laugh.

With this large group of monsters and two more people, after all calculations, only Yang Chan and Yue Chao could play the guzheng.

Yue Chao probably doesn't have time. If he has time, why not quickly find a place to sleep? Even when the monkey asked him to go to see Youquanzi together, he only said: "Uncle Youquan said, we will meet you when it's time to meet." Even if he passed, let alone playing the guzheng?

As for Yang Chan, it wouldn't be weird for her to fight monkeys with blood drops, but I really can't imagine what it would be like for her to play the guzheng.

Close your eyes, the monkey lies leisurely on the chair in the yard and listens quietly.

When he first heard it, the monkey never caught the melody from the sound, and even thought it was playing randomly. After a long time, when I listened carefully, I found that the sound of the piano was as clear as running water, as refreshing as the breeze blowing on my face, and a kind of transcendental mood emerged spontaneously.

After listening blankly for a long time, the monkey opened his eyes, picked up his crutches and stepped forward to follow the sound.

Along the way, the monkey saw several monsters greeting him. He wanted to ask who was playing the piano, but upon closer inspection, he found that they could not hear any sound at all, which made the monkey surprised.

"Could it be that I entered the God Refining Realm and my hearing improved?" he thought.

Following the sound, he left the town, walked around the winding path, and walked through a small forest. He came to a bamboo forest.

In the bamboo forest swaying in the wind, there is a clear pool. By the pool, there is a bamboo hut with a pavilion in front of it.

In the pavilion, an old man with white hair closed his eyes and played the piano. His white clothes trembled slightly in the breeze.

"This must be the second senior brother Youquanzi." Monkey thought.

As I got closer, I found that the other person was still concentrating on playing the piano with his eyes closed tightly, without any intention of getting up to say hello.

Now that you're here, you can't just leave without saying hello, right? It seemed inappropriate to interrupt.

Taking a deep breath, the monkey sat down on a rock that was half out of the ground nearby, put the crutch in his hand aside, and listened quietly with his body bent.

The breeze blew, the bamboo leaves rustled, and the pond rippled. Under the sound of the piano, which is as light as clear water, there are strange birds and beasts in the forest stopping to listen.

The clouds in the sky flow slowly.

Everything here is extremely quiet and isolated from the world.

Just listening quietly, an hour passed without realizing it.

After playing the last note, Youquanzi quietly put his hands on the piano, with an expression as if he was still thinking about it.

The monkey woke up suddenly and hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "Wukong pays homage to the second senior brother."

"Have you been sitting for a long time?" Youquanzi smiled faintly, took out a roll of linen cloth from his wide sleeves and spread it on the guzheng. Then he shook his sleeves and stood up. From beginning to end, he didn't open his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, he sighed and said: "My brothers and sisters all say that you have a wild temper, but after seeing you today, I don't think so. Anyone who can sit down quietly and listen to my music is a wild man, but he also has a sense of moderation. At least, Third Junior Brother, he doesn’t have this kind of character.”

"Senior brother, it's funny." The monkey grinned and kept staring at Youquanzi's eyes.

This second senior brother had almost never been mentioned by Feng Ling, and it seemed that she had never even met him. Monkey knew very little about Youquanzi.

Youquanzi, who closed his eyes tightly, seemed to have discovered something. He pursed his lips and smiled, walked to the side of the monkey step by step, and sat down slowly.

Along the way, the monkey discovered that Youquanzi never made a wrong step even though his eyes were closed.

Reaching out and patting the monkey on the shoulder, Youquanzi said: "This is the first time you come to my Youquan Valley. Are you getting used to it these days?"

"It's just a habit. I'm just annoying senior brother."

Youquanzi waved his hand: "Why are we talking about this among fellow disciples? In Youquan Valley, it's just me and my disciple Xiuyun. You guys are here, so you might as well be more angry."

The monkey scratched his head in embarrassment.

According to Yue Chao, this second senior brother probably likes to be quiet rather than making trouble.

Pulling open his sleeves, Youquanzi took out a roll of bamboo slips and handed it to the monkey, saying: "This is the first time we meet, as a senior brother, I should give you a generous gift. It's just that you practice the Way of the Practitioner, and senior brother, I practice the Way of the Enlightenment. I'm afraid the alchemy classics and precious medicinal materials in this valley will be of no use to you. As for weapons and armor, I don't have them here. After thinking about it, you should be able to use this copy of "Everyone in the Underworld" Yes, I’ll give it to you as a meeting gift.”

Holding the bamboo slip in his hand and weighing it, the monkey blinked and couldn't help but feel a little confused.

This second senior brother was so different from what I expected.

Thinking about it, he quickly cupped his hands and said, "Wukong thanks Second Senior Brother."

Patting the monkey's shoulder, Youquanzi stroked his long beard and said with a smile: "Just now, junior brother, you were so absorbed in listening to the piano. Could it be that junior brother also likes music? I wonder what kind of instrument you are playing?"

Looking at the slightly swaying grass beside the pond, the monkey smiled slightly and said: "It's not really a hobby, and I don't know how to play it. I just heard it from time to time before, but I haven't listened to it for many years."

"Why don't you listen?"

"I don't have that condition." The monkey lowered his head and pursed his lips, stroking the bamboo slips in his hand.

That was all before coming to this world. Now that we are in this world, even if we have the leisure, who will be able to perform?

"Oh." Youquanzi nodded knowingly.

"Senior brother, you keep your eyes closed. How do you know that I am listening intently and not sleeping?"

Youquanzi took a deep breath, raised his head and said, "Senior brother, although I can't see your face, I can hear your heart. Naturally, I know that you are listening intently."

"Senior brother, what's wrong with your eyes?"

"I have been blind since childhood." Youquanzi replied calmly.

"Then..." Monkey asked hesitantly: "Master didn't help you... cure it?"

Youquanzi burst out laughing: "To cure blindness, why does the master need to take action? Among all the brothers, except for you and the third junior brother Dantongzi, who has cultivated the Tao of the Practitioner, who can't cure it?"

"Then why not treat it?"

Youquanzi lowered his head and smiled slightly, and said: "Everything you lose must be gained. If my eyes were clear, it would be hard to tell whether you were sleeping or listening just now. Besides, if it weren't for these eyes, I would have I can’t be your senior brother.”

The monkey turned his face slightly and wondered: "How do you say this?"

Youquanzi took a deep breath and said eloquently: "At that time, I knew that the master was setting up a temple in Lingtai Fangcun Mountain to accept disciples. There were all seekers in the world who wanted to worship him, so there was an endless stream of disciples. It's just that the master At that time, he didn't want to accept so many apprentices, and those who came felt that they were not qualified, so he sent them away. As time passed, the master was too lazy to receive those seekers one by one, and only set up a maze at the foot of the mountain. The saying was: 'If you can Once you get rid of your inner demons and reach the mountain, you will take him as your disciple.'"

Lowering his head, Youquanzi chuckled, and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes became more obvious: "But the master never thought that a blind man would come to seek enlightenment. Those mazes are useless to a person without eyes."

Having said this, Youquanzi's face was filled with a smile, as if he was immersed in the past: "After meeting me, the master also said that I was not qualified and wanted to drive me away. So I told the master, if he drives me I left, and when I came down from the mountain, I told the world: 'Master Subhuti does not keep his word!'"

The monkey chuckled: "So, the master finally had to accept you?"

Youquanzi nodded with a smile, smiling like an old naughty boy: "Seeking immortality requires some chance after all. God took away a pair of my eyes, but showed me the way to go. Why not?"

After thinking about it, the monkey asked again: "Senior Brother Youquan, the time when you bowed to the disciple is quite different from the time when Senior Brother Dantong bowed to the disciple?"

"It's been...a few years. What?"

"Since one has to pass the maze to become a disciple of the master, how did Senior Brother Dantong pass the test?" Dantong's character... Monkey really can't say anything. Compared with himself, he is only half as good.

"That's him. Hahahaha, do you know what he did before entering the temple?"

"I heard he was a general." The monkey replied hesitantly.

Youquanzi pursed his lips, nodded and said: "Exactly. Other seekers of the Tao are all alone, but he did not come to seek the Tao alone, but came with an army to seek the Tao. What he was seeking was the method of defeating the enemy. Go to the foot of the mountain , seeing that he couldn’t walk through the maze of formations for a month, he simply set fire to the mountain.”

"Set...set fire?" The monkey couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Are there still people in this world who seek the truth like this?

"Yes, set fire." Youquanzi pursed his lips, nodded and continued: "He set fire to the mountain, but the master refused, so he immediately cast a spell to cause continuous rain. This drizzle lasted for three months. No matter how he lit it, he couldn't be lit, but he wouldn't leave. He led his troops to block the roads in all directions, saying that he couldn't worship him as his master, and no one could worship him. So, the master cast another spell to make him that one. All the soldiers were dissatisfied with the climate. He had no choice but to break camp and cross the sea. Unexpectedly, when he arrived home, he found that the city had been captured, the soldiers around him were scattered, and he was homeless. In the end, he had no choice but to run back to the foot of Lingtai Fangcun Mountain. He refused to leave. The master still ignored him, so he became a hunter there, and after a year of hunting, he took advantage of the decline of the spiritual power of the Tengu Eclipse Sun Array to climb the mountain."

"Ha, is there still this past incident? Then he and Fifth Senior Brother said that I was stubborn, but he himself was not very open-minded."

"Hehehehe, don't tell me that I told you about this. He should be unhappy. By the way, I heard that you had a conflict with him when you were in the observation center?"

Monkey nodded silently and said, "Later, we were reconciled."

Sighing lightly, Youquanzi said: "Junior brother, don't blame him. Practitioners say that it is inevitable that excessive absorption of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth will leave residual hostility in the body. He is no better than you. He has experienced several battles since he first became an immortal. The hostility will naturally be completely eliminated. Too much remaining hostility will naturally interfere with the mind. At the beginning... he also thought about heaven as his general, but the master has never liked heaven, so how could he dare to disobey? In the end, the traveler is determined. It’s hard to move forward.”

The monkey smiled and said, "What's so strange? I want to sneak into the Scripture-Depository Pavilion. If you really think about it, I'm still wrong."

Youquanzi laughed: "Third Junior Brother has a bit of a temper, but he is not a bad person. When something happened to Sixth Junior Brother and Seventh Junior Sister that year, he was the first to be angry. Later, because of this incident, he was ordered to shut up and think about it. Year."

At this time, the light coming from the cliff tops around the valley has gradually become scarce. Although it is still daytime, it is already like night.

Lowering his head and pursed his lips, the monkey held the bamboo slip in his hand, took a deep breath, and asked slowly: "Senior brother gave me "Everyone in charge of the underworld". I must have heard something from the master or the eighth brother. Alright?"

"Well, more or less, I heard something. Although this matter is a small matter, it has very wide implications, and the master's attitude is unclear. I'm afraid you will have to rely on yourself in the end, and it is inconvenient for us to directly help."