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Chapter 185 - Chapter 185: Seventy Two Transformations, the Peach Tree and the Mount Tai Prefecture

Chapter 185: Seventy Two Transformations, the Peach Tree and the Mount Tai Prefecture

The Stone Monkey born from the East Sea divine stone naturally had no name yet. Ereshkigal, still unfamiliar with this Divine Land, had not named her either.

Ereshkigal had always been reserved and careful.

Even if she occasionally misfired in ways that left Rowe with a headache.

Rowe studied the red haired girl hovering over the moonlit sea, tail swaying as if the world were a toy she had finally been allowed to touch.

"Then I will give you one," he said. "How does that sound?"

"You, just you…" The Stone Monkey scratched her hair, thinking hard. "Hmm. It does not seem impossible?"

She narrowed her eyes.

"First question. Are you really Sister of Mount Li's lover?"

"Yes."

The Stone Monkey crossed her arms. Her legs drifted apart in the air, pale feet hanging loosely as if gravity had to negotiate with her.

"If you are Sister of Mount Li's lover, then you can barely count as my elder brother. Letting you name me is not impossible."

Rowe's smile was thin.

"Then another question. Do you want to learn magecraft?"

"Magecraft?" She scratched her hair again, making it worse. "What is magecraft?"

"It is a set of mysteries," Rowe said, voice even. "The kind that lets you cross sky and earth, move where you wish, and keep moving when others would stop."

"And it can let you live longer. Long enough that death becomes a choice someone else makes for you."

"Immortality?" The Stone Monkey blinked. "What is death?"

Rowe answered without ornament.

"Not hearing. Not seeing. Not feeling anything. Not touching anything."

The Stone Monkey went still, then jolted.

"Eh? That sounds like when I was inside the stone… no, it is worse than being inside the stone, is it not?"

Even trapped, she had felt the wind on the stone's surface. She had heard leaves brushing together on the island.

Not free, but not empty.

Rowe's description was emptiness with the door locked from the outside.

"I do not want to die." She shook her head so hard her ears twitched. "I want to learn magecraft. I want divine abilities."

Rowe gave a short nod, as if approving a contract.

"Then you need a name first."

He paused, and for a fraction of a second, something distant flickered behind his eyes. A private amusement, sharp and nostalgic.

"Let us call you Gudako… cough, wrong. Sun Wukong."

The Stone Monkey froze.

Rowe continued before she could interrupt.

"Sun as in husun, the monkey. Wukong as in awakening through stubborn emptiness."

"You were born from a divine stone. Stone should be empty. You broke the stone's stubborn emptiness, so Wukong fits."

"Sun Wukong!" The girl's face lit up. "Hooray!"

It was strange how joy could arrive like a tide.

She had been born into the world in two steps. First, a body. Second, a name. Only then did she truly exist in the present, not as a possibility sealed in rock.

Her fluffy tail whipped back and forth. In her red dress, she spun in a circle around Rowe as if orbiting him were the natural order of things. Legs dangling, arms thrown wide, she looked like she wanted to hug the whole world and drag it into her chest.

Rowe let himself smile.

"From now on, you will call me Master."

"Master?" Her monkey ears twitched. "What does that mean?"

"One who guides." Rowe kept it simple. "If you learn from me, you call me Master."

"Good, good, good, Master!" Sun Wukong said immediately, no resistance at all.

Born of heaven and earth, she had no built in respect for hierarchy. That did not make her rude. It made her clean. She could be defiant and humble in the same breath because she did not treat either as a posture.

Rowe acknowledged her with a nod.

Naming her and teaching her was not about collecting disciples, even if he had taught many as a Sage.

His reason was colder, and more practical.

The Stone Monkey, a creation shaped jointly by nature and the planet, was not just unique. She was an answer built into the world.

Rowe did not know whether the Four Great Spirit Monkeys existed here, or whether this Sun Wukong belonged to that category. But he could see one thing clearly.

In a timeline where Rowe never arrived, the Heavens Ancient Ghosts would have been cleared by Sun Wukong alone.

That was the weapon the old gods had left behind.

A future written like a procedure.

A Stone Monkey would raise a staff and sweep the Celestial Court clean. She would become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. She would gather chaos onto herself, then be pressed under Five Finger Mountain by a western Venerable One. Five hundred years, grinding the chaos down until it became bearable.

Rowe could see that path with the distant sight of the chaos core that rested above the thirty six heavens.

But Rowe had arrived.

The Heavens Ancient Ghosts had already been refined into righteous gods. They now resided in the Heavenly Court upon the Pan, taking their posts like gears set back into place.

And yet the Stone Monkey still emerged.

That alone proved how special her design was.

She was both something like an immortal and something like a god. Even if her path of immortality lacked the pure clarity Consort Yu possessed, that was only because Consort Yu was abnormal by definition. On the path of divinity, Sun Wukong would not lose to other gods.

She was born with a quality close to spiritual awareness. A natural understanding of terrain and transformation, the timing of stars, the advantages of a place.

A power that looked like instinct, but was closer to Authority.

Rowe intended to teach her. And while he did, he would also take what he needed.

His body had become chaos, but that chaos was still an embryo. Digestion was incomplete. He was still bound to the planet. Not yet primordial in the fullest sense.

His path forward was simple.

Absorb.

Integrate.

Turn borrowed qualities into his own engine.

If nature demanded an ordeal of assimilation, or the planet pressed a conceptual correction onto his existence, that might terrify others.

Rowe did not care.

Either he grew stronger, or he died.

Neither outcome offended him.

"The arts I can teach you have different uses," Rowe said. "The first is a Heavenly Dipper art. It lets you read celestial patterns, grasp nature's motion, and shift the rhythm of stars."

"The second is an Earthly Fiend transformation. It lets you understand the advantage of land, comprehend change, and manifest countless forms."

These were abilities Sun Wukong could eventually awaken on her own.

Rowe could already sense them in her essence, the way a blueprint reveals itself to someone who knows what to look for.

But without help, it would take her thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years to dig them out.

So yes, Rowe was taking something.

He was also accelerating her toward what she was built to become.

"Reading stars and controlling nature?" Sun Wukong waved a hand dismissively. "Boring. No fun."

"If I learn, I learn the freest one."

She twisted in the air, waist turning, legs lifting with effortless strength. Her teeth flashed.

"Myriad transformations. Knowing the land. Then nobody can trap me ever again. Hee."

Rowe's smile deepened, unsurprised.

Even across timelines, the Great Sage in front of him still made the same choice. Perhaps it was simply her nature.

"Then I will teach you the Seventy Two Earthly Fiend Transformations," Rowe said.

"In ancient times, there were beings who could transform seventy two times in a single day. This is not cosmetic change. It is replication of essence and origin."

Changing the outer shell meant nothing.

The Stone Monkey's transformation, once awakened, reached the core. Become a plant and you drink the sun and moon. Become livestock and you graze and give milk as naturally as breathing. Become a divine beast and you inherit its power.

To become something was to be it, inside and out.

"Good. This is good." Sun Wukong's excitement rose like a spark hitting oil. "Hee. I want this. I want to learn this!"

What she did not know was that Rowe was learning too.

Chaos was formless, qualityless.

But if he could grasp transformation, then chaos could manifest any form he required.

Seventy two changes in a day.

For her, it was freedom.

For him, it was a tool to stabilize the embryo of chaos and push it toward completion.

Rowe turned his gaze westward.

"Come. We go to the Divine Land."

"If you want transformations, you must travel. You must see. Only then can you simulate, replicate, and become."

Sun Wukong nodded instantly.

"Hooray!"

"Let us go, Master!"

They departed over the moonlit sea.

Rowe rode a thin blade like streak of light above the water. Sun Wukong followed through the air as if swimming, body drifting with casual grace.

Ahead and behind, master and disciple, they headed toward the mainland.

It was said later.

The Monkey King was born, took the form of a red haired girl, met a noble lady who called herself Mount Li, and then saw a Sage traveling the sea, whom she took as Master. She wandered mountains and rivers, sun and moon, and eventually came to understand human nature and the transformations of all things.

A poem praised:

The mortal world is vast and paths are few

Transformations are free and follow the heart

The Ancestor's powers are truly great

A sincere heart can subdue the heart ape

Yuan Zaji

And a Yuan opera praised:

In the land of Xisha there is a god

White Tiger made divine, beautiful and sacred

She presides over the yin of Greater Yin

And is known as Queen Mother of the West

"Greater Yin… Greater Yin…"

In Qin, within the East Flower Palace, Consort Yu sat behind drifting curtains of light that softened the falling sun. She frowned in thought, irritation and focus mixing in equal measure.

As White Emperor of the West, as Queen Mother of the West, as Heavenly Empress acknowledged by the new Heavenly Realm, she could see changes in this world at a glance.

Seeing did not mean using.

Knowing did not mean understanding.

She had slept too long before this. That long confusion had taught her nothing and given her no practice.

She understood the symmetry between Greater Yang and Greater Yin in theory. She could recite it cleanly.

She still did not know how to take the step.

At that moment, Consort Yu's eyes snapped open.

"Who is it?"

"It, it is me!"

A head peeked in from beyond the hazy curtain. A rhomboid hat wobbled. An oversized robe hid a petite body that trembled slightly.

Consort Yu snorted.

"Oh. Xu Fu."

"Lady Consort Yu," Xu Fu asked cautiously, "where is the Emperor?"

"He is busy. Not here." Consort Yu had no better excuse. She had left the East Sea to claim a long term victory, so short term absence was the price.

"Not here?" Disappointment flashed across Xu Fu's face. "I wanted to give the Emperor a gift…"

Consort Yu's interest stirred despite herself.

"What gift?"

Xu Fu's eyes brightened.

"Lady, do you know Kunlun Mountain?"

Consort Yu pouted.

"Of course."

Kunlun was the ancestral mountain of immortals, once the abode of the Celestial Lord of Primordial Beginning among the Three Pure Ones, and the western gate that mirrored Penglai. Even Consort Yu, lazy as she could be, was not ignorant of Kunlun.

Xu Fu straightened, excitement overcoming her usual trembling.

"On Kunlun there was a divine tree called Jianmu. One of the four great divine trees that once connected to the gates of the Heavenly Realm, alongside Fusang, Xunmu, and Ruomu."

"But after the divine era faded, the four divine trees vanished one after another. Jianmu withered and disappeared."

"During my travels through ancient divine mountains, I found something else."

Her cheeks flushed. She swayed with barely contained pride.

"From the remains of Kunlun Jianmu, nourished by yin, a peach tree grew. Nine thousand years old."

"If mortals eat its fruit, they extend their lifespan and gain an immortal body while still human."

Yin nourishing. A nine thousand year peach tree.

Consort Yu's eyes lit up.

"Good. Since you are sincere, I will accept your gift."

Xu Fu froze.

"Eh?"

"What do you mean, eh?" Consort Yu said, entirely serious. "I am the Heavenly Empress, consort of your Imperial Lord. Giving it to me is giving it to him."

She waved her hand, then added in a more measured tone.

"Come here. I will tell you something."

Xu Fu swallowed and approached cautiously.

Then, in the next second, she broke into a radiant smile.

"Th, thank you."

Xu Fu bowed deeply.

Consort Yu's own smile turned sharp and pleased.

"No need to thank me. This is what I should do."

What did Consort Yu promise?

In the name of the Heavenly Empress, she promised Xu Fu an immortal seat.

A seat that would allow Xu Fu to meet the Heavenly Emperor at any time.

Compensation, yes.

But also leverage.

Consort Yu saw it clearly. Xu Fu revered Rowe deeply and obeyed Consort Yu without much resistance.

Then Consort Yu would build her own strength as well.

Only then could she secure the upper hand later.

"Pan Peach Tree… Pan Peach Tree…"

Consort Yu's fur cloak shifted as she rose, smile brightening.

Peach wood carried yang nature, yet this tree had been nourished by yin drawn from Jianmu's remains.

Was that not the yang within Greater Yin?

She hummed to herself, satisfied.

"Mount Li, Mount Li. In the end, I was still one step faster."

"That is not necessarily true."

High above Mount Li, in the same Qin sphere of observation, Ereshkigal opened her eyes.

She held the spear that blazed with divine brilliance, the Heating Shrine. The crown of a deep god rested on her brow. Her gaze glowed with Authority.

"I am the Goddess of Mount Li."

"Today, here, I open the Underworld."

"Starting from Mount Li, I connect north and south, and link to the Mount Tai Underworld in the north."

Mount Li was a gathering place for tombs, but it was not the ideal foundation for a complete Underworld.

Ereshkigal knew that.

Her purpose was not convenience. It was coverage.

She wanted an Underworld that could encompass the entire Divine Land.

So she began at Mount Li and extended north.

Yin generating from yin.

The yin of Greater Yin.

The Authority of the God of Earth's Rebirth.

The Lord of Mount Tai Prefecture.

The manifestation was vast. The shroud fell like a quiet night across the world.

Rowe, watching from afar, felt something stir in him.

Not jealousy.

Not fear.

Recognition.

He had never been the only one making progress.

Across a long river of time, everyone was changing, growing, becoming sharper.

"They really are extraordinary," Rowe said softly, and meant it.

.....

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