Chapter 9

The little fox cub found a good vantage point with their golden benefactor to watch the commotion, almost as if they were ready to munch on melon seeds and fan the flames.

The Ten Thousand Saints Princess dismissed the attending Fish Spirits and Crab Spirits far away, unaware that others were still in the room. When she argued, she was a far cry from her usual gentle and demure self.

As the cherished pearl of Wan Sheng Old Dragon, she had been pampered since childhood and was never the delicate type. If her quarrel hadn’t been with her husband, she wouldn’t have settled for mere words.

Nine-Headed Bug had a knack for coaxing people—otherwise, the princess wouldn’t have abandoned White Dragon for his embrace. With some humble apologies and flattery, he quickly soothed her temper.

In the capital of Jisai Kingdom stood the Golden Light Temple, where a sacred relic was enshrined within its pagoda. By day, it was shrouded in auspicious clouds; by night, it radiated brilliant light—a rare treasure indeed.

Because of this Buddha Relic, neighboring kingdoms regarded Jisai as a Heavenly Capital blessed by the Buddha, offering tribute and reverence year after year, considering it comparable to the distant Tang Empire in the East.

After learning about the relic in Golden Light Temple, he frequented the place to cultivate, finding that bathing in the Buddha’s light sped up his progress far more than staying in the pool. Why pass up such an advantage?

Thunderclap Mountain, Emerald Cloud Mountain, and Rocky Mountain all lay within Jisai’s borders, while Eagle Grief Stream was in Hamni Kingdom, separated by countless rivers and mountains.

Now married, he no longer roamed the four continents as before. His daily routine was split between Azure Wave Pool and Golden Light Temple—far from the princess’s accusation that he often visited Eagle Grief Stream.

That place was on the eastern border of the Tang Empire, tens of thousands of miles away. Though the distance meant little to them, it still counted as a journey. Why would he go there daily? This trip was strictly for business.

Once Nine-Headed Bug had placated the princess, he carefully explained.

He had assumed that after Guan Yin Bodhisattva rescued the unlucky White Dragon, all he had to do was wait at Eagle Grief Stream for the scripture pilgrim. Once the pilgrim arrived, his suffering would end.

Who could have guessed that meeting the pilgrim would mark the beginning of his torment? They say Buddhists are compassionate, but he saw none of it.

The Third Crown Prince of the West Sea, White Dragon, under Guan Yin’s orders, had his horns sawed off, scales removed, and the Pearl under his neck taken. With a horizontal bone in his mouth, he was transformed into a white horse, forced to carry the old monk all the way to Vulture Peak. The cruelty of it sent chills down even Nine-Headed Bug’s spine, the very instigator of this fate.

Honestly, he never expected things to turn out this way.

The princess had scorned White Dragon because of his mediocre cultivation and lack of ambition. As a dragon prince of the West Sea, he acted like an immature cub, playing around all day—utterly unreliable.

Nine-Headed Bug was different. If nothing else, among the demons of the four continents, those who could best him in combat could be counted on two hands. Whatever the princess wanted, he could accompany and protect her. If he feared trouble, he wouldn’t be called Nine-Headed Bug.

The demon realm lacked the rigid rules of humans. If a marriage didn’t work out, they could part ways and find someone more suitable—no need to cling to a lost cause.

White Dragon, as the West Sea’s prince, held a status unmatched among earthly demons, with looks that were one in a million. Aside from his weak cultivation, he had no other flaws.

The West Sea already had the highly skilled Prince Moang, so there was no rush for the second and third princes to engage in relentless cultivation. Dragons by nature love enjoyment and play, and at White Dragon’s age, it was perfectly normal for him to prefer fun and games over rigorous training.

If Ten Thousand Saints Princess looked down on White Dragon, that was just her having high standards. Across the four seas, White Dragon’s qualifications were actually quite sought after.

This was precisely why, when the two of them had gotten involved, they had done so without any reservations. White Dragon and Ten Thousand Saints Princess hadn’t yet married, and by ruining things on the wedding day, once the dust settled, the West Sea wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for Azure Wave Pool over this matter.

If the Dragon King of the West Sea hadn’t upheld justice at the cost of his own kin, the incident wouldn’t have caused much of a stir. The real problem was that the old Dragon King of the West Sea had lost his mind. Instead of keeping such a matter under wraps, he went to the Heavenly Palace to lodge a complaint—against his own son, no less.

So what if White Dragon lost his temper after his wedding night was ruined? The West Sea Dragon Palace had so many treasures—burning down one palace was hardly worth making such a big fuss over.

Never mind that the pearl in the hall was bestowed by the Jade Emperor. The old Jade Emperor was far away in the heavens, and as long as the Dragon King himself didn’t speak up, the Jade Emperor would never think to inquire about what happened in the Dragon Palace.

But now, things had taken a turn for the worse. White Dragon had his horns sawed off and his scales removed, his Dragon Pearl fell into Guanyin’s hands, and he couldn’t even keep his Dragon Body. After suffering so much, he still had to carry a fat monk who couldn’t lift a finger or shoulder a burden all the way to Vulture Peak.

From Eagle Grief Stream to Vulture Peak, flying through the clouds and riding the mist would get you there quickly. But without his Dragon Body, White Dragon could only walk on four hooves—how long would that take?

According to Guanyin, enduring hardship along the way was to repay his karmic debts.

Karmic debts? What karmic debts? With White Dragon’s simple-minded nature, what karmic debts could he possibly have?

If the Buddhists insisted on attributing these karmic debts to burning the pearl in the hall, they could—though it would be shameless. But since might makes right, even if Guanyin claimed White Dragon had committed too many killings by eating too much seafood in the sea, no one could argue.

So the question remained: what was the old Dragon King of the West Sea trying to achieve with all this? Surely White Dragon wasn’t actually his illegitimate son?

Nine-Headed Bug couldn’t figure it out. He deliberately went to Eagle Grief Stream to inquire about White Dragon’s current state, and after hearing the details, he was so horrified he didn’t stay long and immediately returned.

Ten Thousand Saints Princess couldn’t understand it either. Her father often dealt with the old Dragon King of the West Sea, and she frequently saw him as well. The Dragon King of the West Sea didn’t seem like such a ruthless dragon—he wouldn’t torment White Dragon to death for no reason.

Seeing White Dragon in such a pitiful state now made her feel quite guilty. Putting aside his lack of ambition and inability to defeat her, the Third Prince Jade Dragon’s appearance was truly exceptional.

His Dragon Body was as white as snow with Four-Clawed Auspicious Clouds, and his human form was elegant, refined, and extraordinarily handsome. Just having him sit there doing nothing would bring joy for a long time.

What a shame.

The couple exchanged glances, unsure what they saw in each other’s eyes, then awkwardly looked away. After a long pause, they resumed their discussion about the old Dragon King of the West Sea’s motives as if nothing had happened.

The Dragon Kings of the Four Seas had better sources of information than they did. The situation couldn’t be as simple as it appeared. If this were just an ordinary scripture-seeking pilgrim, Guanyin wouldn’t have personally intervened. Vulture Peak was surely planning something major.

While the young couple hid in their room whispering sweet nothings, they dared to say anything, making the little fox cub exclaim in delight, “Senior, what do you think Vulture Peak is up to?”

When he watched TV, he hadn’t paid much attention to the details, only recalling the names of some demons. As for the talk about the Buddhist sect and the Heavenly Court between Nine-Headed Bug and Ten Thousand Saints Princess, he could understand each word individually, but when strung together, it made no sense to him.

Yuan Feng curled her lips and ruffled the silly cub’s big ears as she explained, “Same old Western greed—never satisfied.”

From what Nine-Headed Bug and Ten Thousand Saints Princess were saying, it seemed Vulture Peak wanted to use the scripture-seeking monk as a means to spread their teachings to the Southern Jambudvīpa.

Each of the four great continents had its own deities and demons. The Northern Kuru Continent was overrun with fiends, making it a place few dared to venture. The Eastern God-Victory Continent was mostly home to immortals of the Daoist tradition, while the Western Ox-Horn Continent had already fallen under the sway of the Buddhist sect. That left the Southern Jambudvīpa as the last battleground between the two factions.

Immortals and buddhas weren’t supposed to interfere excessively in mortal affairs. But if the humans of Southern Jambudvīpa journeyed across mountains and rivers to Vulture Peak seeking scriptures to spread the Dharma, then it couldn’t be called Buddhist greed—it would simply be the will of heaven.

Fu Li tilted his head, his little face scrunched up in confusion. “But Nine-Headed Bug just said that the scripture-seeker was enlightened by Guan Yin Bodhisattva. Doesn’t that mean the Buddhist sect is already meddling?”

Yuan Feng scoffed. “The West has done plenty of shameless things—this is nothing.”

At least the Tathagata Buddha of Vulture Peak knew to use a mortal as a cover. When they had dealings with Jie Yin and Zhun Ti, those two shameless ones never hesitated to take by force.

“Friend, stay a moment—this treasure has a connection with our Western paradise.”

Tch. The nerve of them.

Yuan Feng yawned lazily and led the little fox cub, who seemed to have endless questions, away from the back hall.

Fu Li cast a reluctant glance at Nine-Headed Bug and Ten Thousand Saints Princess, still whispering to each other, and as he reached the main hall, he happened to run into Bull Demon King emerging from within. His temper flared immediately.

He’d been so engrossed in the juicy gossip that he’d forgotten about that bastard Bull Demon King!

The little fox cub gritted his teeth, then suddenly had a brilliant idea. He urged the three seniors to leave Wansheng Dragon Palace before Bull Demon King could. “Seniors, let’s go to Plantain Cave on Emerald Cloud Mountain. It’s just north of Thunderclap Mountain—easy to find.”

The old bull had said that Princess Iron Fan wouldn’t let him marry into Cloud-Touching Cave. That made things much simpler.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. As long as they united all forces that could be united, every obstacle would prove to be a paper tiger.

Just wait and see—he’d make sure Bull Demon King’s legs turned to jelly at the mere mention of Thunderclap Mountain.

The little fox cub brimmed with fighting spirit. Though Zu Long and the others didn’t understand his plan, they didn’t question it. They stirred the spiritual energy of Azure Wave Pool, shaking the lakebed until the earth trembled, then whisked the cub straight to Plantain Cave on Emerald Cloud Mountain.

Fu Li couldn’t contain himself, his beautiful eyes blinking rapidly as if filled with twinkling stars. “Seniors, aren’t you going to ask why we’re going to Emerald Cloud Mountain?”

Zu Long deliberately teased the cub. “Well, we’ll find out soon enough without asking. Why bother?”

“Then just wait, Senior. You’ll know once we reach Plantain Cave.” The little fox cub huffed and eagerly went to boast about his plan to the other two seniors, leaving poor Senior She She—a lone ghost—feeling abandoned and cold.

Zu Long: “…”

He could actually hear them whispering anyway.

Emerald Cloud Mountain wasn’t far from Azure Wave Pool, and soon the ghosts landed with the fox cub at the entrance of Plantain Cave.

The little white fox rolled on the ground, transforming from a clean little cub into a dust-covered mess in an instant.  

At the entrance of Plantain Cave, a maid carrying a flower basket had just returned when she spotted the disheveled fox and gasped in surprise. “Little one, who are you? What brings you to Plantain Cave?”  

The dust-covered fox cub shifted into a dust-covered fox-eared boy, his eyes brimming with tears yet stubbornly refusing to let them fall. “I want to see Tie Shan Gongzhu (Princess Iron Fan) and ask her—if Bull Demon King is misbehaving outside, is she going to do anything about it or not?!”  

The maid froze for a moment before quickly realizing the little fox’s identity and hurriedly replied, “Young Prince, please wait a moment. Let me go inside and announce your presence.”  

Yet before she could finish speaking, the aggrieved young prince of Thunderclap Mountain had already wiped his tears and rushed past her to find their princess. “Bull Demon King—Bull Demon King is trying to force his way into my family as a live-in son-in-law! Is no one going to stop him?!”  

The boy’s clothes were strewn with grass, tear stains marked his face, and his reddened eyes still tried to maintain a fearless expression—clearly putting on a brave front.  

Barging into someone’s cave uninvited was usually a rude act, but the pitiful sight of this little fox made it impossible for Tie Shan Gongzhu (Princess Iron Fan) to stay angry.  

Red Boy had just left Plantain Cave to live independently, and she was in no mood to see a young one suffer. Hearing the cub’s tearful accusation, fury rose in her heart—though she couldn’t show it in front of the distressed little fox. Instead, she softened her voice and coaxed, “Young Prince, go have some water first. This elder sister will definitely stand up for you and your sister.”  

“Really?” The fox cub sniffled, his large ears trembling—trembling so much that Tie Shan Gongzhu’s heart melted.  

“Really. Don’t worry. When that old bull returns, this sister will teach him a proper lesson.” Tie Shan Gongzhu gently urged the little fox to rest in the back. Only after he had gone far enough did her expression darken. She slammed her palm onto the stone table in rage, shattering the massive slab into powder with a single strike. “That damned old bull! Girl, fetch my armor and weapons!”  

Zu Long: “…”  

Yuan Feng: “…”  

Shi Qilin: “…”  

Suddenly, they felt that even without them, this little fox cub could still wrap Bull Demon King around his finger.  

Author’s Note: Fu Li: Mission accomplished~