Chapter Three: The White Phantom

After enduring countless trials and tribulations over some seventeen years, the True Scriptures were at last obtained.

Seventeen years is a long time for ordinary people, but for a divine monkey like Sun Wukong, it is brief.

Compared with more than three hundred years, seventeen years is short indeed.

And compared with those seventeen years spent weathering countless ordeals, seeing every aspect of human life, treading over mountains and rivers, tasting every joy and sorrow, remaining as steadfast as ever through endless grind and blows, unshaken by winds from every direction, and sifting through a thousand washings before the gold appears, those three hundred years may well have been far too simple, far too plain.

Those three hundred years were almost entirely made of repetition, of simple things done day after day: the little fox watched the sunrise with him, watched the sunset with him, counted the stars with him, ate fruit with him, and even endured heavenly lightning with him...

He who endured hardship and suffering would ultimately become a Buddha...

Perhaps it was because he had been through so much complexity that he forgot that happy, beautiful time. Or perhaps, because on the road to Buddhahood, he had too many attachments. Once he had attained Buddhahood, he forgot those days long ago. He forgot that a little fox was still waiting for him at the Fruit Mountain.

In the blink of an eye, the mortal world had drifted far away.

When he met the little fox again, she was no longer the cub who could not yet take human form; she had already cultivated herself into a woman.

Even Sun Wukong, who had never cared much for human beauty, could tell that the little fox’s human form was breathtakingly lovely. Many fairies in the Heavenly Palace were not as beautiful as she was.

Her hands were soft as spring shoots, her skin smooth as cream, her neck graceful as a young silkworm’s neck, her teeth white as melon seeds, her face delicate, her brows arched like moth antennae, her smile enchanting, her eyes bright and alluring.

She possessed a beauty on par with the Moon Goddess, a slender figure, and the especially alluring charm of a fox.

It was a pity that Sun Wukong was a monkey, and still a stone monkey at that...

“You’re back?” The little fox pressed her lips together lightly, stunning beyond compare.

“Yes.” Sun Wukong did not know what to say. He scratched his head, a little embarrassed.

“Five hundred years. You finally came back. At last we can be together again.” The little fox raised a finger and gently wiped away her tears, speaking with joy. She looked as delighted as a cute, mischievous little girl.

“But I...” Sun Wukong was about to say that he was now a monk and could not be intimate with women.

“What is it? Don’t you want to be my friend anymore?” Tears welled up again in the little fox’s eyes.

“Friends? Yes, we can still be friends.” Sun Wukong thought about it and decided that being friends should certainly be fine.

At that, the little fox became thrilled and ran to Sun Wukong’s side, pulling him along as they headed inside.

“Huh? There weren’t any banana trees here before.” Sun Wukong blinked, patted the trunk of a banana tree, and a whole bunch of bananas fell down.

He handed one to the little fox, then peeled several more all at once and ate them one after another. In less than a minute, the bunch had been entirely devoured.

“I planted them. I knew you liked bananas, and Fruit Mountain already had many fruit trees but none of those, so I transplanted a few banana trees here. After so many years, they’ve grown into a whole grove.” Smiling, the little fox peeled the banana in her hand and took a small bite with her pink lips.

“Monkeys, my monkey grandchildren, I’m back!” Sun Wukong leaped onto a small hillside in two bounds and shouted toward the Water Curtain Cave.

A few monkeys outside the cave jumped onto the rocks and looked at him strangely, with no warmth at all, as though seeing a stranger.

“It’s me, I’m your king.” Sun Wukong waved at them.

Several little monkeys hid behind the larger ones, peeking out fearfully. The big monkeys scratched their heads too, their round eyes blank with confusion.

“Little Fox, Little Fox, what’s wrong with them? Why do they all seem not to know me?” Sun Wukong jumped down from the hillside and returned to the little fox’s side, blinking anxiously.

“You left for hundreds of years. They are many generations beyond your monkey descendants now, so of course they don’t recognize you.” The little fox shook her head and explained.

“And the ones from before...” Sun Wukong did not finish.

The little fox nodded.

The snow of mourning

“Look, there is a small mound under every peach tree. I buried them beneath the fruit trees they loved most when they were alive.” The little fox pointed to the little mounds beneath the trees, her voice tinged with sorrow.

“Life and death are both fixed by fate.”

By now, Sun Wukong understood many things.

A monkey’s life is merely one journey, and death is the beginning of the next.

“Little monkeys, come here. Your king has returned!” the little fox called toward the Water Curtain Cave.

Thump, thump, thump.

One little monkey after another sprang out of the cave and ran toward her.

Squirrels, rabbits, birds, and other creatures living on Fruit Mountain heard the commotion and came gathering as well.

“This is the king I have always told you about—the one who can do anything, who could ascend to the heavens or descend to the earth. He has returned now.” The little fox introduced Sun Wukong gently, admiration shining in her eyes.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! The king! The king has returned!” Hearing this, the monkeys surged forward and surrounded Sun Wukong as though welcoming a hero. The rabbits, squirrels, and birds gathered around him too.

What a dramatic change, all because of a single sentence from the little fox...

“Don’t look at me like that. I only told them the story you once told me.” The little fox covered her mouth and giggled.

“King, King, show us your Staff of Gold!”

“King, King, perform your martial arts for us!”

“King, King, can you really fly to heaven and travel the earth?”

Fruit Mountain had once again become the Fruit Mountain of old, with Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, upon it.

To keep his promise and remain with his monkey descendants, Sun Wukong decided to stay for good. After all, his title of Victorious Fighting Buddha was only that—a title, not some office of the Heavenly Court that required him to do anything.

One day, the weather was hot, and Sun Wukong and the monkey troop sought shade. They played beneath the trees, leaping from branch to branch, gathering fruit, tossing pebbles, racing through the sand pits, stacking pagodas, chasing dragonflies, swatting at bees, praying to Heaven, bowing to the Bodhisattvas, pulling at vines, catching lice, nibbling and pinching, grooming their fur, trimming their nails, leaning on one another, rubbing against each other, pushing, pressing, tugging, and pulling...

Beneath the pine forest they were free to romp, and by the green stream they washed as they pleased.

The little fox sat beneath a patch of shade, watching the monkeys play. She raised her slender jade hand and gently wiped the sweat from her white neck, adjusted the collar of her dress, and revealed a stretch of snowy skin.

Lifting her head to gaze at the sunlight spilling through the leaves, the little fox slowly stood and walked alone toward the flowing water in the mountain stream.

“Satellite lock successful. Prepare for transfer.”

In the secret research base of the Free Alliance Army, dozens of authoritative experts had successfully locked the exact coordinates of the S bombs and had already sent people to evacuate the nearby residents, waiting only for the order.

“General, there’s no time left. Make the decision.” A scientist approached the still-hesitant Li Tianlong.

Li Tianlong nodded. He had always believed this time machine still had flaws: it could only transfer objects into another point in time. The immediate crisis could be resolved, but would the history of the past be altered by these missiles?

That was why he had hesitated all along.

But when faced with the tragedy of watching a city destroyed and tens of millions left homeless, he still chose to carry out the order.

“Space-time transfer, activate,” the scientist shouted.

“Begin countdown.”

In orbit beyond Earth, five satellites began to shine at once, and a white beam of light converged into a single point.

Five

At a certain stream beneath a waterfall, an exquisitely beautiful woman was swimming in the water. Her arms lifted like lotus roots, and clear water trickled from her palms along her forearms, sparkling in the sunlight.

The boundless springtime beauty was in perfect harmony with the scenery nearby.

Ahhh—

The little fox was startled by the “big thing” that had suddenly appeared beside the stream.

“Huh? What is this? When did it get here?” She looked at the strange white object before her, immediately crouched down, hid her body in the water, and watched the great monster warily.

Beep, beep, beep.

The “great monster” emitted a steady beeping sound, while its pointed front flashed red.

“What is that noise? What are you, exactly? Where did you come from? Why are you secretly watching me bathe?” the little fox said, both羞 and angry.

“Little Fox, what’s wrong? What happened?” Hearing the little fox’s scream, Sun Wukong, who had been playing with the monkey children, grew alarmed. He sent the little monkeys off to play by themselves and followed the sound to her location, arriving at the stream with a few nimble leaps.

“That, that thing... a monster suddenly appeared,” the little fox said, extending an arm from the water and pointing at the giant object.

“Hm? A monster? I don’t sense any demonic aura.” Following where she pointed, Sun Wukong saw the so-called monster.

“Hey! Which demon are you, daring to come stir up trouble on my Fruit Mountain?”

Sun Wukong pulled the Staff of Gold from his ear and pointed it at the creature making those beeping sounds.

Beep, beep. Beep.

The monster did not answer. Instead, the beeping grew more urgent and more piercing.

With his years of battle experience, Sun Wukong sensed an ominous premonition. Gripping the Staff of Gold tightly, he swung it straight at the white monster emitting the beeps.

Boom—