Chapter 15

Muge Sheng spoke fluently about Wu Nie's origins, yet Song Wentong appeared completely unaware, pulling Zhu Yinxiao back a step as he asked, "Who are you?"

"That's unimportant." Wu Nie's face was painted with greasepaint, making expressions unreadable—only a ghastly white smile remained. "If the little one has questions, he must first spar with this old one." With that, she flung aside her outer garment and struck forward with a palm strike.

This played right into Song Wentong's hands. As their palms clashed, a shockwave erupted, sending everyone nearby tumbling—even Mu Gesheng and his companion, who hadn't gotten far, were caught in the blast and plunged headfirst into the water. "That blind idiot Number Two only knows how to bring trouble on his own people," Mu Gesheng sputtered as he surfaced, spitting out a mouthful of water. "We need to get out of here fast. A fight between Mozi and the Year Beast is bound to stir up another ruckus in Fengdu."

Chai Shuxin grabbed hold of a boat and pushed the other man aboard. "The Astrologer is still over there. Aren't you going to help him?"

"Number Five is practically Liu Adou, and Number Two has Zhao Zilong's skills—charging through Changban Slope seven times wouldn't be a problem for him." Mu Gesheng pulled Chai Shuxin onto the boat. "The priority now is to find Number Three to mediate..."

Before he could finish, an unidentified object came flying through the air and landed squarely in Mu Gesheng's arms—Zhu Yinxiao, with his chicken feathers and human body, stared up at him before letting out a long belch.

This ancestor still couldn't speak—normally it either crowed or hiccuped.

Like Zhao Zilong throwing away Liu Adou, Muge Sheng instantly got a headache, "Midnight snack, how the hell do you manage to both vomit and hiccup at the same time?"

Chai Shuxin: "Indigestion. Perfectly normal."

"Hua Tuo, now's not the time for pulse diagnosis—keep being this conscientious and you'll get your head chopped off by that traitor Cao—holy shit speak of the devil!"

Wu Nie leaped into the air, landing precisely on their small boat. Song Wentong followed closely behind, paying no heed to the others onboard as he swung his blade downward. The vessel instantly shattered into pieces, the unrelenting force of the slash rebounding and sending everyone flying skyward like scattered petals.

This slash shook heaven and earth. Mu Gesheng held Zhu Yinxiao, who in turn clung to Chai Shuxin—the three of them like grasshoppers tied to a single string—sent flying tens of thousands of miles by the blade's gale. In the end, they crashed headlong into who-knows-what, landing flat as three pancakes.

Mu Gesheng grimaced in pain, "I shouldn't have mentioned the Three Kingdoms—I should've gone with Journey to the West—damn it, that second brother is really a reckless idiot like Zhu Bajie."

Chai Shuxin stood up and looked around, "Where is this place?"

Mu Gesheng was in too much pain to move, lying motionless on the ground. "Are there any landmarks nearby?"

"Yes, we're by a city gate," Chai Shuxin replied. "There are three characters carved on it: 'West City Pass.'"

"?!?!" Mu Gesheng instantly scrambled to his feet, scooping Zhu Yinxiao into his arms. "Let's go. Now."

Chai Shuxin followed closely behind. "What kind of place is this?"

"This is the West Gate of Fengdu, also known as the Western Pass. If you arrange the entire Fengdu according to the Eight Trigrams, you'll find that the Ghost Gate is the Gate of Life, while the Western Pass is the Gate of Death—a place of extreme malevolence, as ominous as it gets." Mu Gesheng quickened his pace. "Beyond this gate lies the Abysmal Land, an ancient battlefield teeming with vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts. Entering is like facing eighty-one trials—without the prowess of the Victorious Fighting Buddha, it's nearly impossible to come out alive."

As they walked, the fog grew thicker. Sensing something amiss, Mu Gesheng suddenly halted, only to see a ferocious ghost lunging at them with bared fangs and claws.

Chai Shuxin stopped in his tracks. "What is this?"

Mu Gesheng scattered a handful of ritual coins, forcibly suppressing the ghost. "...Three-Nine Days, are you certain you just saw 'Western Pass' written on the city gate?"

"Definitely, there's no mistake."

"Listen to me." Mu Geshen took a deep breath. "We might not have been in front of the city gate just now, but behind it. Lao Er's blade can cleave through anything—it wouldn't be strange if it broke the seal on the city wall and threw us inside."

Chai Shuxin: "..."

"So in our haste, we may have already ventured deep into the Abysmal Land." Mu Geshen continued, "What we desperately need now is a Great Sage. Do you know the Seventy-Two Transformations?"

"No monkey here." Chai Shuxin said expressionlessly. "Just a chicken."

Zhu Yinxiao cooperatively let out a crow.

The mist suddenly stilled, then wailing cries erupted from the ground, one call summoning a hundred responses, successfully drawing all manner of demons and monsters from every direction.

"...You've really outdone yourself with this rooster luck." Mu Gesheng's face turned green with dismay. Tearing a long strip from his robe, he used half to gag Zhu Yinxiao's mouth and the other half to tie the man securely to his back. After scanning their surroundings, he picked up two rust-covered ancient swords and tossed one to Chai Shuxin.

"I'm not as handy with these as I am with guns, but firearms won't work on these things. Any experience with swords?"

"I know a little." Chai Shuxin caught the weapon, eyeing the approaching horde of skeletons. "Are you confident about this?"

"These ghosts in the Abysmal Land slaughter each other—what remains are hollow shells after being devoured. We can handle them, but we must be extra careful..."

Before the words even finished, Chai Shuxin charged forward, his sword energy reducing the white bones to shattered snowflakes.

Mu Gesheng observed the situation for a moment, then patted behind him. "Fifth, stop fooling around. Behave, and I'll tell you a bedtime story."

"Eighty-one tribulations, the twentieth trial."

The youth raised his sword, its blade radiating icy cold.

"Three Strikes Against the White-Boned Demon."

A sinister wind howled as blades clashed in metallic fury.

The ground trembled faintly as a tide of skeletons surged forth, surrounding Chai Shuxin at the center where his sword aura stood formidable.

These skeletal zombies were mere hollow shells, which ironically made them even more troublesome to deal with. The only way to stop them was to sever their heads and chop off their limbs. Chai Shuxin wielded his sword with the precision of a master butcher, his blade's energy reducing every white bone in its path to fragments. Sidestepping an attack from behind, he thrust his sword straight into a zombie's chest, causing the skeleton to explode midair like a blossoming flower of bone.

The small sky lantern floated above Chai Shuxin's head, but its light had dimmed considerably—no longer strong enough to completely conceal his living aura. At this moment, he was nothing but a target. Wave after wave of zombies fell before surging forward again, seemingly endless in number.

Chai Shuxin knew he couldn't hold out much longer. The Chai family was never known for martial prowess, and his swordsmanship was far from peerless. Against ordinary flesh-and-blood opponents, he had hundreds of ways to bring them down in an instant. But here in the Abysmal Land, neither silver needles nor poisons were of any use. Fighting alone against such odds, he stood no chance of victory.

Dropping into a crouch, Chai Shuxin swept his right leg outward, his body pivoting in place as his sword carved a vast arc through the air.

He was now the center of the entire horde of corpses, while on the outermost edge, Wood dragged a heavy sword behind him, muttering as he ran: *"To be honest with you, Master, five hundred years ago, when this old Monkey was displaying his heroics at the Water Curtain Cave of the Flower-Fruit Mountain, he subdued seventy-two caves of demons and commanded forty-seven thousand fiends. He wore a purple-gold crown, a robe of ochre-yellow, a belt of Lantian jade, cloud-treading boots, and wielded the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod—truly, he was once a man of great renown..."*

The sword plunged a foot into the ground, carving and sketching as Wooden Lotus moved without the slightest hesitation. He sprinted in a wide circle around the entire horde of corpses, tracing a massive ring before leaping onto a skeleton and dashing across a path of white bones. "Three-Nine Days!"

Mu Gesheng pulled something from his sleeve and hurled it with all his might. Chai Shuxin leaped into the air, thrusting his sword downward—first piercing through a skeleton’s skull, then continuing its momentum until it struck something on the ground with a sharp *clang*.

It was but a faint sound, yet it stretched endlessly, then surged like a tide, carrying with it some distant resonance, swelling into a mighty roar. Yet the sound did not travel far—it halted at the sword mark drawn by Wood, then flowed along the mark like water, forming an unbroken circle that enveloped the entire horde of corpses.

The walking corpses ceased their movements one after another, their skeletal limbs disintegrating and returning to the earth.

Mu Gesheng tossed aside his heavy sword and plopped down on the ground with a long exhale. Picking up a white bone to use as a storyteller's clapper, he smacked it against the ground and declared, "He was a spirit-possessed zombie causing mischief here, deluding people and ruining their roots. When I struck him down, his true form was revealed. There was a line of characters on his spine that read 'Lady White Bone.'"

Zhu Yinxiao peered over his shoulder, blinking rapidly, though it was unclear whether he understood any of it.

"Not too long, not too short—just enough to finish one act. Good teamwork." Mu Gesheng threw away the bone. "Good work. You didn't get hurt, did you?"

Chai Shuxin walked over with his sword and handed something to Mu Gesheng, "Your money."

Mu Gesheng took it and tossed it backhanded, "Thanks."

Neither of them was formally trained in martial arts, so brute force was out of the question. Chai Shuxin focused on drawing the enemy's fire, while Mu Gesheng drew a large formation around them, using the Shan Gui Hua Qian as the formation's core to channel its power. Only then did they manage to subdue the horde of walking corpses.

"The Shan Gui Hua Qian is said to have been crafted by Fuxi, embodying the principles of heaven and earth—impervious to blades and untouched by gods or demons. That strike of yours merely unleashed some residual energy, but it was more than enough to deal with these small fry." Mu Gesheng dusted himself off. "I'll calculate our next move. Let's head back to the city gate first, then figure out how to get out."

The Abysmal Land was a place where great evils gathered and yin energy coalesced, with foul winds howling and ghostly blue flames littering the ground. "This place also serves as a penal colony," he explained. "Unresolved cases that even the Ten Yama Kings couldn't adjudicate, vengeful spirits too burdened by obsession to enter reincarnation, or particularly formidable fiends even the Punishment Bureau couldn't subdue—most end up imprisoned here, locked in endless slaughter with one another."

Mu Gesheng cradled Zhu Yinxiao in his arms again, plucking at the fur on his tail as he spoke. Zhu Yinxiao had never dared make too much of a fuss with him, so he could only squirm incessantly like a garishly colored maggot.

Chai Shuxin couldn't bear to watch any longer. "Let me hold him."

"No need, your hands are too precious—if he bites you, I couldn't possibly compensate for that." Mu Gesheng waved him off. "Besides, my old man always said you shouldn't spoil children."

...Children shouldn't be spoiled, but they shouldn't be toyed with either.

Chai Shuxin watched Zhu Yinxiao suffering under his hands but ultimately said nothing. "How far is it from here to the city gate?"

"Not too far, but the journey is quite perilous." Mu Gesheng rubbed a mountain spirit coin between his fingers. "The walking corpses we encountered earlier were manageable—we could still fight our way through. But if we run into something truly formidable, we're in trouble. Without the Yin-Yang School's abilities or the Mohist School's divine weapons, the creatures here won't care about fortune-telling or healing. If we meet something dangerous, there's only one word—run."

"Your stamina is severely depleted."

"Same here." Mu Gesheng chuckled, "There are forty-nine Mountain Ghost Coins in total. So far, I've inherited seventeen from my master. They're fine for divination, but if we're talking about fighting for our lives, the immense power contained within them is probably still beyond my control. So let's avoid trouble as much as possible on this journey. If I use the Mountain Ghost Coins one more time, you'll likely have to drag me out of here during the coldest days of winter."

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Chai Shuxin swiftly drew his sword.

"So ruthless?" Mu Gesheng was startled. "You're already treating me as dead weight to be disposed of on the spot? Well, if I'm going to die, I'd rather die with a full stomach. Before our final showdown, can we at least cook Old Five first?"

"Shut up."

Chai Shuxin flung his sword forward, then swiftly grabbed Mu Gesheng by the arm and dragged him away at lightning speed. Only then did Mu Gesheng turn his head to look back—a monstrous creature was chasing them, its countless arms and heads impossible to tally, its myriad eyes fixed unblinkingly on the two of them, a sight so ghastly it defied description.

But the most bizarre thing was that despite its enormous upper body, its lower half consisted of just a single pair of legs, walking upright like a human's. And those were unmistakably a woman's legs—slender calves bound in the tiny, delicate curves of three-inch golden lotus feet.

Chai Shuxin's sword had struck one of the faces at the center of the monstrosity, and now every one of its mouths was shrieking, the sound scraping against their eardrums like knives.

"I'm going to have nightmares about the Thousand-Faced Buddha of Baishui Temple," Mu Gesheng yelled, clapping his hands over Zhu Yinxiao's ears as he sprinted. "Same thousand hands and eyes, but why does this thing have to be so damn ugly? Lao Wu, learn some restraint! Stop disturbing everyone's peace every morning—your crowing sounds even worse than this thing!"

Zhu Yinxiao's gag was jostled loose, drool dripping everywhere.

Though the creature had tiny feet, its speed was astonishingly fast—the distance between them was rapidly shrinking. "We'll be caught before reaching the city gates, and this route will alert more creatures." Mu Gesheng tossed a coin charm to Chai Shuxin, "Split up."

Chai Shuxin grabbed him, "What do you mean?"

"Throw the coin into your little sky lantern—it'll guide you. Hold onto it, I'll want it back later." Mu Gesheng pried his hand loose, "Running together means we'll both be caught. At least one of us needs to get help."

"Then give me the Star Child," Chai Shuxin said decisively.

"This is my fifth brother—don't think you can take advantage of the situation to abduct a child," Mu Gesheng retorted. "Besides, you can't handle him. This kid bites."

"You won't be able to run fast while carrying him!"

"And you think you can?"

The two of them argued as they ran, Mu Gesheng too lazy to continue persuading Chai Shuxin. With a sudden turn of his feet, he tried to bolt in another direction. Chai Shuxin reacted swiftly and lunged after him, but in his haste, he accidentally tripped Mu Gesheng. With both hands covering Zhu Yinxiao’s ears, Mu Gesheng was already off-balance—stumbling, he fell, and the person in his arms went flying.

It landed squarely in front of the monster.

Both of their expressions changed instantly, and they immediately tried to scramble to their feet to fight for their lives. But their legs tangled together, sending them sprawling in a tangled heap once more.

Chai Shuxin felt like chopping off his own leg in despair, watching helplessly as the monster halted before Zhu Yinxiao, its limbs flailing wildly as if it would devour him whole the next second—

But Zhu Yinxiao opened his mouth and let out a resounding cry.

The sound alone gave Mu Gesheng a nervous stomachache—perhaps due to Zhuque's extraordinary lung capacity. Every day at the study, Zhu Yinxiao would crow continuously for a full quarter-hour without pausing for breath. Rumor had it that the roosters at Baishui Temple, tasked with heralding dawn, were so provoked by him that they strained their voices competing with him, ultimately choking themselves to death.

Zhu Yinxiao's cry continued unabated, and something unbelievable happened—the monster gradually dissipated and shrank amidst the sound, like a deflating rubber raft, until only a female form remained, floating in midair like a wisp of smoke.

Zhu Yinxiao opened his mouth and swallowed her in a few gulps.

Chai Shuxin: "..."

Mu Gesheng: "..."

It took the two of them a long moment to snap out of their daze. Muge Sheng’s expression was indescribable. "I knew Zhuque had divine bloodline to suppress evil, but I never expected it to work like this... No wonder Lao Wu’s been picky with food lately. Probably nearing his transformation, needing spiritual nourishment—what he craves isn’t ordinary food at all."

Zhu Yinxiao sat on the ground and let out a burp, then turned to look at Muge Sheng, stretching out his arms toward him.

Muge Sheng: "You wanna fight me or something?"

Chai Shuxin: "...Ling Shuzi seems to want you to hold him."

Author's note:

The segment about Three Times Beating the White Bone Demon is the original text from "Journey to the West"