nyslfriends Chapter 5: Returning to Flower Fruit Mountain
Chapter 5: Returning to Flower Fruit Mountain
Sun Wukong rode his somersault cloud, with Chen Fan standing beside him. The two transformed into a golden light and sped off towards the direction of Dongsheng Shenzhou.
Meanwhile, in the Heavenly Court, at the Lingxiao Palace.
The Jade Emperor sat on his throne, listening to the celestial officials below report on trivial matters of the Three Realms, looking utterly bored.
Just then, two divine generals tumbled and crawled into the hall.
It is precisely the ability to see a thousand miles and hear the wind.
"Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened!"
The Jade Emperor frowned: "What's the matter with this panic? What kind of behavior is this!"
The all-seeing eye pointed towards the lower realm, its voice trembling: "Your Majesty, that...that Five Finger Mountain...it's collapsed!"
The person with the keen hearing also shouted, "That demon monkey Sun Wukong has escaped!"
"What?!"
The Jade Emperor suddenly stood up from his throne, flicked his dragon robe, and looked utterly shocked.
All the immortals in the entire Lingxiao Palace were in an uproar.
"How could that be? That was a seal personally set by Buddha!"
"Yes, five hundred years have passed, how could they suddenly reappear?"
"Who did this?!"
The Jade Emperor's face was so dark it seemed to drip water. He looked at the Thousand-Mile Eye and asked, "Did you see clearly? Who let that demon monkey go?"
The all-seeing eye quickly replied, "Your Majesty, I saw it! The Five Fingers Mountain shook violently, and the Buddha's light dissipated, but the person who made the move... I couldn't see their origins!"
"The local mountain gods and earth gods say that a mysterious master passing by found the Buddha's decree an eyesore and exposed it with a single finger!"
"A mysterious master?" The Jade Emperor's knuckles turned white from clenching his fists.
In the Three Realms, how many dare to disrespect the Buddha and even puncture the Six-Syllable Mantra sutra with a single finger?
He ran his mind through it, but still couldn't figure out who it was.
"And what about the demon monkey?" the Jade Emperor asked again.
"He was taken away by that master, and his whereabouts are unknown!" Clairvoyant replied.
"Oh, right," he added, as if remembering something, "According to the local deity, there was also a mortal named Chen Fan who had been feeding the demon monkey for a hundred years. He was caught in the crossfire of the battle and... he has already been completely wiped out."
"Chen Fan?" The Jade Emperor murmured the name, assuming he was just an unlucky mortal and not taking him seriously.
He's now obsessed with that "mysterious master".
"Outrageous!" The Jade Emperor slammed his hand on the dragon throne, causing the entire Lingxiao Palace to tremble. "Openly defying the Buddha's majesty and disregarding the laws of my Heavenly Court! This is utterly lawless!"
Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. The most urgent task is to find out the truth as soon as possible and bring that demon monkey to justice. Otherwise, we will have difficulty explaining ourselves to Buddha."
The Third Prince Nezha, standing beside him, wielding his Fire-Tipped Spear, also looked determined to fight: "Father is right! Your Majesty, please grant me three thousand heavenly soldiers, and I will surely capture that demon monkey!"
The Jade Emperor took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed his anger.
"Li Jing, Nezha, heed my command!"
"Your subject is here!"
"I order you two to immediately gather 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals and descend to the mortal realm to investigate! You must find out the identity of that mysterious master."
"As you command!"
Li Jing and Nezha received the imperial decree and immediately went to muster their troops.
The entire Heavenly Court was in complete motion because of Sun Wukong's early escape.
The way home is just a stone's throw away.
Sun Wukong became visibly excited, and his mouth never stopped moving the whole way.
"Brother, once we get back to Flower Fruit Mountain, I, Old Sun, will show you what a paradise on earth really is!"
"My Water Curtain Cave is warm in winter and cool in summer, with flowers and fruits blooming all year round, and the monkey wine from the mountains is the best in the three realms!"
"When the time comes, I'll have the boys prepare a feast, and the two of us brothers will drink until we're completely drunk!"
Chen Fan listened to his description, nodding with a smile, but his heart was heavy.
He knew that what awaited Sun Wukong was definitely not some fairyland.
It was a broken home.
Soon, a familiar coastline came into view.
"We're here! Ahead lies Aolai Kingdom, and beyond Aolai Kingdom lies our Flower Fruit Mountain!" Sun Wukong exclaimed excitedly.
The speed of the somersault cloud increased again, and before long, a beautiful fairy mountain came into view in the distance.
However, the closer they got, the more stiff the smile on Sun Wukong's face became.
The Flower and Fruit Mountain before him bore no resemblance what he remembered as a blessed land of immortals.
The whole mountain exuded a deathly atmosphere.
The once lush forest is now charred black in large patches, as if it had been burned by heavenly fire.
The once clear stream had become murky and turbid, and there were ruins and jagged rocks everywhere.
The once magnificent waterfall, which resembled an inverted Milky Way, has become much smaller, losing its former grandeur.
"How...how could this be?" Sun Wukong's body trembled, his voice filled with disbelief.
He landed on the mountaintop, his sharp eyes scanning the entire Flower and Fruit Mountain, only to find it desolate and barren.
"Where are my monkeys? What happened to Flower Fruit Mountain?!"
Sun Wukong looked up at the sky and let out a mournful roar, his voice filled with pain and anger.
Chen Fan followed behind him, patted him on the shoulder, and said nothing.
At times like these, any words of comfort are futile.
Just then, several skinny monkeys poked their heads out from a pile of rocks not far away.
Their fur was dry and yellow, and they were all wounded. When they saw Sun Wukong and Chen Fan, their eyes were full of fear and terror, as if they had seen some terrifying monster.
"Don't be afraid, we're not bad people." Chen Fan tried his best to make his voice sound gentle.
When Sun Wukong saw these monkeys, his eyes instantly turned red.
He walked over step by step, his voice trembling: "Children...it's me...I'm your king..."
The monkeys stared at him blankly, seemingly unable to believe it.
Suddenly, an old monkey with a missing arm, who looked very old, shuddered.
He walked forward shakily, carefully examining Sun Wukong, his cloudy eyes slowly filling with tears.
"Great... King?"
"Is that you? You're really back?!"
The old monkey knelt down with a thud and burst into tears.
"Your Majesty! You're finally back! We...we thought we'd never see you again!"
Seeing this, the other monkeys also realized what was happening and rushed over, surrounding Sun Wukong and crying and shouting.
"Your Majesty!"
"It really is the King!"
"Waaaaah... The King is back!"
Looking at his pitiful monkey followers, Sun Wukong's tiger eyes filled with tears as he helped the old monkey up.
"It's me, I'm back!"
"You've all suffered these past years!"
His voice choked with emotion; the mighty Monkey King was now crying like a child.
After a while of calming them down, the monkeys' emotions gradually stabilized.
Sun Wukong grabbed the old monkey and asked anxiously, "What happened? How did Flower Fruit Mountain become like this? Where is everyone else?"
The old monkey wiped away his tears, his face showing grief, indignation, and fear.
"Your Majesty, ever since you were... imprisoned under the mountain, the Heavenly Court has sent heavenly soldiers and generals to set fire to our Flower Fruit Mountain."
"We lost many brothers in that battle..."
"Later, the heavenly soldiers left, but our hard times had only just begun."
The old monkey's teeth were grinding as he spoke.
"A monster has come from nearby, calling himself the 'Demon King of Mischief.' He's taken over our Water Curtain Cave and enslaved the rest of us monkeys!"
"He forced us to find food for him every day, and if we didn't, we'd get a beating!"
"He also...he also stole a lot of our newborn monkeys, saying he wanted to use them to make medicine!"
Upon hearing this, a mother monkey could no longer hold back and collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, "My child... he stole my child!"
"You little devil!"
Upon hearing this name, Sun Wukong's murderous aura erupted like a volcano, soaring into the sky.
Its golden fur stood on end, and its fiery eyes burned with raging fury.
A terrifying demonic aura swept across the area, causing the entire Flower Fruit Mountain to tremble.
The surrounding monkeys were so frightened by this imposing aura that they retreated one after another, looking at their king in terror.
"He dares?!"
"How dare he humiliate my monkey grandson like this?!"
"Where is he?! Tell me, Old Sun! I'll go and skin him alive and tear his tendons out right now!"
Sun Wukong went completely berserk. Five hundred years of imprisonment, the destruction of his homeland, and the miserable state of his monkey followers—all his anger was ignited at this moment.
He had only one thought in his mind right now: to kill!
Kill that damned devil!
The old monkey trembled at his murderous aura, pointing in a shaky direction: "He...he lives in the Water Curtain Cave..."
"good!"
Sun Wukong roared, grabbed the imitation iron rod from the ground, and somersaulted into the sky, heading straight for the Water Curtain Cave.
Just as Chen Fan was about to follow, a system notification sounded:
[Ding! The key plot character "The Mischievous Demon King" has been detected. The second main quest, "Famous Throughout the Three Realms," has begun!]
[Side Quest: Establish Authority.]
[Mission Description: Assist Sun Wukong in swiftly and decisively defeating the Demon King of Chaos and reclaiming Flower Fruit Mountain. This battle is not only a war of revenge, but also the first battle in which the Great Sage Equaling Heaven returns to the Three Realms. It must be fought brilliantly and with overwhelming force!]
[Task Rewards: 2000 Journey to the West Points, a fragment of the "Eight-Nine Arcane Arts" (Celestial Scroll)!]
[Punishment for mission failure: Host's cultivation level will regress by one major realm.]
Celestial Scroll!
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat!
This reward is incredibly generous!
He is currently an Earth Immortal, and the next level up is a Celestial Immortal! The Celestial Immortal Scroll of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts is exactly what he needs right now!
Seeing that Sun Wukong had already transformed into a golden light and was about to rush out, Chen Fan immediately shouted loudly.
"Great Sage, wait!"
The golden light abruptly stopped in mid-air.
Sun Wukong turned his head, his fiery eyes bloodshot, staring fiercely at Chen Fan, his voice hoarse.
"Brother, don't stop me!"
"Anyone who dares to bully my monkey grandson will die!"
"I know." Chen Fan flew to his side, his expression serious. "Great Sage, killing a demon king is easier for you than crushing an ant."
"But have you considered that killing him like this would be too easy on him!"
Sun Wukong was taken aback, and his furious mind calmed down a little.
"What do you mean by that?"
Chen Fan looked at the trembling monkeys below, then at the devastated Flower Fruit Mountain, and said, word by word.
"This battle is not just about killing him, but also about showing the Three Realms what to do!"
"Let everyone know that you, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, have returned!"
"We will use the blood of this scoundrel to announce your return and to deter all villains!"
As Sun Wukong listened to Chen Fan's words, the madness in his eyes slowly faded, replaced by an even colder and deeper killing intent.
He understood what Chen Fan meant.
Simply killing someone is not enough to vent anger, much less to establish authority.
He looked at Chen Fan and asked, "Brother, what do you think we should do?"