Chapter 1421: Each Man Schemes, and the Monkey Who Doesn't Play by the Rules (5/5, please subscribe)

Even the original Stone Monkey, Sun Wukong, born of Heaven and Earth, could hardly bear such karmic weight.

Yet Six-Ears took it for granted that he could take his place!

If Six-Ears were still an ordinary demon, the Substitute Monkey's way of thinking would seem rather lofty and out of touch with the world's suffering.

After all, without staying at the bottom, how would one know the bitterness of the bottom?

If Six-Ears were still at the bottom, striving upward with all his scheming, there'd be nothing wrong with that.

But Six-Ears is no ordinary demon now — he sits not at the bottom, but is a true and proper Taiyi Jin Xian.

A being of this rank, backed by his apprenticeship under Bodhi, would find few great-power cultivators willing to harm him unprovoked — so long as he stirred no trouble and avoided karmic entanglements.

In other words — ever since Six-Ears entered the Three Star Cave, he had in fact already escaped the fate of the original tale and gained most of his freedom.

Yet the result — he remained obsessed with scheming against Sun Wukong, longing to become a Buddha or an Ancestor, and willingly plunged himself into the layered karmic webs of the Three Realms.

A free man walking into a trap of his own accord — the watching Substitute Monkey could only stare, speechless.

"Great King, the Second Great King is so scary!" Suddenly, a little monkey scurried over, climbed onto the Substitute Monkey's leg. "The moment he came out, he tore a demon in half — blood and guts all over the ground. It scared me to death."

"Me too, me too."

The monkey laughed: "He's just worried you lot might get bullied. Here, have a peach to settle your nerves!"

"The peaches the Great King gives are the best!"

"The Great King is the best!"

The monkeys cheered.

They were merely fruit-eating macaques — naturally combative, yes, but not fond of blood.

That was also why they feared Six-Ears.

The Six-Eared Macaque seemed to them a different species entirely, as if he meant to swallow them whole.

……

Several months slipped by in a flash.

Six-Ears and the Substitute Monkey returned to Flower-Fruit Mountain, and the whole mountain had earned itself a great and fearsome reputation.

Of course, ninety-nine percent of that reputation had been won by Six-Ears.

The Substitute Monkey was thoroughly lazy — every day he just ate fruit with the monkeys, or played with the little ones, and never once joined in pondering Six-Ears' grand schemes.

Which, oddly enough, played right into Six-Ears' hands.

Now, he was about to do Sun Wukong's deeds.

So long as Sun Wukong didn't show his face, his plan could proceed smoothly.

Thus, the front slopes of Flower-Fruit Mountain became a chaotic gathering of demons — Six-Ears' place for mustering followers.

The back slopes of Flower-Fruit Mountain became the monkeys' paradise.

Fearing Sun Wukong, Six-Ears — however great his power — still dared not let the demons stir up trouble or provoke the monkey troop.

The two sides actually coexisted in peace.

"Greetings, Great King. Your divine powers are vast — why not come up with a renowned and illustrious title, so that fellow cultivators may witness it too?"

Among the mountains, demons roared.

Six-Ears sat upon the high platform, puffed with pride.

"A pillow arrives just as sleep comes — of course I need a title." Six-Ears' heart brimmed with joy. This was the life he pursued — the feeling of standing atop hundreds of millions of living beings was simply too intoxicating.

That dead monkey Sun Wukong — how could he ever know the wonder of such a flavor?

Gazing out at the demons on the mountains, he sneered inwardly: "The likes of you are nothing but my stepping stones — useful only for now. Once I become an immortal and a saint, you'll be reduced to flying ash."

In truth, in Six-Ears' heart, these demons didn't need to wait until he became an immortal and a saint — they would be swept clean by the Heavenly Soldiers during the Havoc in Tiangong, fulfilling their purpose as pawns.