Chapter 598: Six-Eared Macaque?

A scorching white mist formed.

The river water flowing down from the upper reaches of the Heaven-Reaching River no longer needed Zhu Bajie to block it.

When those river waters rushed onto the sea of fire, water and fire being incompatible, they instantly vaporized into a large amount of white mist.

The scorching heat made the surrounding air twist and distort.

The Great King of Inspiration struggled incessantly in the sea of fire, and soon revealed his true form.

Compared to that carp spirit, the Great King of Inspiration's true form was much smaller, only three or four meters long, with golden scales; if a photo were taken and posted online, it would be shared millions of times.

The golden koi floated and sank in the sea of fire.

Soon, flakes of scales turned from golden to black, continuously shedding, revealing the red-and-white fish flesh underneath.

Then it turned pure white.

Some fragments fell from the sky—white bones; that carp spirit had been smashed by Sun Wukong and likewise fell into the sea of fire.

Tang Luo retracted his outstretched palm, and the great handprint vanished.

But the Great King of Inspiration had already exhausted his remaining strength to perform the "Water Splash Leap" and could not jump out of the sea of fire.

He gradually sank to the bottom of the sea of fire, and suddenly a burst of flame erupted on his body, then turned into a lump of black charcoal, which, like weathered stone, began to flake off bit by bit.

Tang Luo threw back to Zhu Bajie the banana fan, now full of cracks and estimated to be usable only one or two more times.

That burning, surging sea of fire began to gradually extinguish.

Left behind was a stretch of scorched earth formed by the burning ground, along with solid, unknown crystalline material emitting splendid colors.

The rushing river water from upstream flowed over, producing a hissing sound like a soldering iron entering water, and the heavenly river in the sky also fell down together.

After a moment, the entire Heaven-Reaching River returned to its original state.

It was just that the surrounding high-temperature white mist could not dissipate for a while.

"That, Master..." Zhu Wuneng recalled something and said softly, "We seem not to have asked how to remove the tight-fillet spell."

The tight-fillet on Sun Wukong's head was bestowed upon Tang Sanzang by the fake Guanyin, the Great King of Inspiration, who tricked Sun Wukong into wearing it.

As the direct perpetrator and the mastermind behind the scenes, the Great King of Inspiration might have a way to remove the tight-fillet spell.

"It doesn't matter," Tang Luo said. "These fellows like to use the tight-fillet spell as a threatening weapon; there's no need to give them an opportunity."

"But that..." Zhu Wuneng wanted to speak but hesitated.

That way, Sun Wukong would remain under someone's control.

"What's there to fear?" Sun Wukong shook his head, pointing at the tight-fillet on his head, "This thing can't kill this Old Monkey."

"The mastermind behind the scenes should still have some others; they'll be waiting for us at the Great Thunderclap Temple." Tang Luo said, "In the final curtain call, the lead actors and creators will all appear."

"By then, just kill them all."

"Without people, the tight-fillet spell will naturally lift; even if it doesn't lift, there'll be no one to 'drive' it."

Tang Luo spoke in a flat tone, as a matter of course.

Zhu Wuneng opened his mouth, feeling it made perfect sense, unable to refute.

Eliminating the person who causes trouble equals eliminating the trouble.

"Let's go," Tang Luo said, mounting the white dragon horse; the white dragon horse neighed and stepped into the river water, whose temperature was not low.

Ripples spread across the water surface, swallowed by the turbulent current.

The white dragon horse crossed the river by treading water, appearing extremely relaxed, after all, he had now merely turned into a white horse.

Not the kind that could only be a white horse from the beginning; the two are still different.

The former retains a certain combat capability, while the latter is merely a white horse with exaggerated endurance and recovery power.

Encountering some heavenly hazards, even advancing becomes very difficult.

Now, as long as the white dragon horse is willing, he can still fly; when he runs, his speed is also quite fast.

The party crossed the wide river surface; the white mist, together with the white water vapor enveloping the middle and upper reaches of the Heaven-Reaching River, gradually dissipated.

The turbulent river water of the Heaven-Reaching River also slowed down, becoming relatively normal.

At least one experienced old helmsman would be able to ferry across in a small boat.

The water flow in this section of the Heaven-Reaching River was originally the doing of the carp spirit and the Great King of Inspiration; with these two demons utterly dead,

everything would return to its original state.

Nearby those barren lands where crops could not be planted would also, within a few years, become fertile again.

After the Heaven-Reaching River, Tang Luo and his party continued westward, encountering many mountain-dwelling tyrants who wrought havoc in their regions; upon meeting them, they casually converted them.

They also encountered places suspected to have once been part of the eighty-one tribulations, though only suspected.

Having only a name, similar locations had only a few road-blocking little demons.

This should be the arrangement of the mastermind behind the scenes.

Those arranged were merely the lowest-level cannon fodder, clueless pawns.

Possibly to make the journey to the West for scriptures appear more normal, to avoid Sun Wukong and company developing suspicions.

It's not that they feared the suspicions.

Besides anything else, just discussing the mastermind's arrangement of the tight-fillet spell already presses Sun Wukong down so hard that he hardly sees any chance to turn the tables.

The reason for making it so realistic is all for the final pleasure.

Using an inappropriate analogy, before the gu poison succeeds, those who administer it definitely want to wear masks, so their flaws won't be seen.

If seen through, it becomes utterly meaningless.

No Bull Demon King, no Daughter Kingdom.

The Pipa Cave does have a scorpion spirit, though it's a male scorpion, weak in strength, and was beaten to death by Sun Wukong with a single staff blow.

It never caused even a ripple.

"Master, have you noticed..." On the road, Zhu Bajie opened his mouth to ask.

"Found what?" Tang Luo asked.

"There've been a lot of bandits these past few days," Zhu Bajie said. "Counting the one just now, we've already run into thirteen bands of bandits. This isn't a bandit den we've stumbled into, so I feel..."

"Six-Eared Macaque?" Tang Luo raised an eyebrow slightly. "Surely not?"

Back during the journey to the West, Tang Luo had identified the Six-Eared Macaque using a fake sutra-recitation.

To avoid an awkward atmosphere, everyone gave one of the legendary Four Spiritual Monkeys a thorough beating.

In the Mountains and Seas World, the Six-Eared Macaque truly existed; he wasn't, as some say, actually a manifestation of Sun Wukong's "rebellious will."

Later there was no journey to the Western Heaven either; with the Buddha's help, the Six-Eared Macaque killed the real Sun Wukong with a single staff strike and took his place — that dark story didn't happen.

The Six-Eared Macaque beaten by Tang Luo and the others didn't die; they merely drove him away.

Later the Six-Eared Macaque appeared again, declaring "I'm definitely stronger than Sun Wukong, I'll take his place," and wanting to fight again.

The Six-Eared Macaque and Sun Wukong had exchanged blows many times; unfortunately he lost to Sun Wukong every time, fighting again after each defeat, just like Team Rocket.

Later still, after leaving the words "I'll be back," the Six-Eared Macaque never appeared again.

Don't know if he gave up or what.

Until the Mountains and Seas World shattered, Tang Luo never saw the Six-Eared Macaque again, nor heard any news of him.

In this world the "Eighty-One Tribulations, Golden Horn" and Silver Horn are playing themselves, the Spirit King impersonating Guanyin — they all act rather convincingly.

This kind of convincing acting means there's most likely a mastermind pulling strings behind the scenes.

And this "True and False Sun Wukong" business seems pretty convincing too?

Could it be they'll run into that Six-Eared Macaque from back then?

Was he beaten so many times he grew resentful?

"Would that monkey hate this much?" Tang Luo frowned slightly.

Truth be told, that Six-Eared Macaque was different from many monsters; he couldn't really be counted as Tang Luo and company's enemy.

The battles between him and Sun Wukong were quite fierce; the fact he could "fight again after each defeat" shows that.

Sun Wukong acknowledged him, admitting he was a pretty good, worthy-of-respect opponent.

The Six-Eared Macaque's "taking his place" meant treating Sun Wukong as a target to surpass: he can do it, so can I, and I can even do better than him — that kind of thinking.

Not the thought "I'll kill him, he dies, I become him."

Tang Luo didn't think there was that kind of hatred between the Six-Eared Macaque and Sun Wukong, requiring him to be in cahoots with Silver Horn, Silver Horn, the Spirit King and those types.

Even if he had designs on the "Sun Wukong" before them, the chance he'd act was very small.

Too weak; the Sun Wukong the Six-Eared Macaque wants to defeat isn't a Sun Wukong like this.

"Master, could it be..."

Zhu Bajie suddenly thought of a possibility. "This Sun Wukong — he IS the Six-Eared Macaque?"

One is the master, the other a martial brother.

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie had both concluded the Sun Wukong before them wasn't the real Sun Wukong from the Mountains and Seas World.

Although he does bear a strong resemblance.

But no — he just isn't.

They wouldn't mistake him like those undead monsters did.

The relationship between this Sun Wukong and the real Sun Wukong of the Mountains and Seas World remains a question mark to this day.

Why he's so similar — Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie can't figure that out either.

Now, because of the True and False Monkey King affair, Zhu Bajie thought of a possibility.

Maybe this Sun Wukong IS the Six-Eared Macaque!

The Four Spiritual Monkeys, also called the Four Monkeys of Chaos, are respectively the Spiritual Stone Monkey, Red-Buttock Horse Monkey, Through-Arm Gibbon, and Six-Eared Macaque.

All four monkeys are rare exotic species; though not of the same origin, they share quite a few commonalities.

If not for that, the Six-Eared Macaque couldn't have impersonated Sun Wukong.

Then could this Sun Wukong before them be a Six-Eared Macaque transformation — perhaps when the Mountains and Seas World shattered, the Six-Eared Macaque met with mishap and reincarnated with a remnant soul like the Howling Celestial Dog?

Or perhaps he was so severely wounded he forgot his past.

Yet the obsession in his heart remained, so he took himself for Sun Wukong.

Then he happened to run into a group of lucky "former monsters" who hadn't been hurt much, and thus the present journey to the West came about?

As for Wu Neng and the rest, they're just unwitting pawns, bit-player "actors" like those monsters.

The sole protagonist is Sun Wukong alone.

"Would it be Six-Ear? Stalking a star to this extent?" Tang Luo wasn't too sure. "Let's see if we run into a fake Wukong or something this time; we might find out."

They ran into another band of bandits who burned, killed, looted, and plundered; after Sun Wukong beat them to death with a single staff strike, Tang Luo flew into a rage and directly drove Sun Wukong away.

Sun Wukong didn't return to Flower-Fruit Mountain, much less go to Guanyin's dojo in the South Sea.

He followed the scripture-fetching party's rear without leaving a trace, waiting for the fake monkey Tang Luo said might appear.

He was also very curious in his heart — what exactly would the so-called fake monkey be...

Sure enough, on the third day after Tang Luo feigned driving Sun Wukong away, a "Sun Wukong" fell from the sky, bringing several other monkey monsters with him.

He claimed he'd go fetch the scriptures himself and told Tang Luo and the rest to scram.

"Not Six-Ear."

"Ordinary monkey monster."

Tang Luo and Zhu Bajie each gave their verdict.