They've all become top scholars in the imperial examinations, and you're telling me this i

Chapter 83 Pigsy, has he turned to dust?

Li Jing appeared mature and composed, but in reality, he was quick to anger. At this moment, he was determined to take Chen Guangrui to see that mischievous monkey; he no longer cared about the army's itinerary.

With a wave of his hand, he shouted to his deputy, "The army shall set up camp on the spot! I, the commander-in-chief, will take Commander Chen and return immediately. No one is to follow us!"

After saying that, before anyone could react, he grabbed Chen Guangrui's wrist and practically dragged him into the mountains of Liangjie Mountain.

Before them lay steep cliffs of gray and yellow hues, and beneath their feet, a rugged path strewn with loose stones. Li Jing clearly had a vague memory of the route from last time, and was pointing the way entirely out of anger.

He pulled Chen Guangrui as they darted left and right among the bare rocks, sometimes leaping over narrow crevices, sometimes climbing up a steep slope using both hands and feet.

Chen Guangrui felt the wind whistling in his ears, and the scene before him was repetitive and desolate, consisting of loess cliffs.

Two hours passed, and Li Jing's forehead was covered in sweat. His pace quickened, and his eyes grew increasingly anxious.

He led Chen Guangrui around another mountain pass filled with huge rocks, and finally stopped at the top of a hill, panting heavily.

Where is there any place where the monkey's head is only visible, buried under piles of stones?
"Impossible! How come I can't find it?"

Li Jing's eyes widened, his voice filled with disbelief and anxiety. He looked around and pointed to a cliff in front of him.
“I remember it all so clearly! That mischievous monkey was trapped under that giant rock that looked like five fingers! Those golden eyes… yes, and that lousy mouth of his! How… how did he just disappear?”

Like a stubborn old man, he ran back and forth along the route he remembered, beads of sweat even appearing on his temples.

Chen Guangrui saw him running around like a headless fly, but he knew perfectly well what was going on. The Five Elements Mountain was guarded by the Five Directions Protector and other gods and Buddhas, so ordinary people could not find the real master at all.

They've searched for so long today without finding a trace, so it's obvious the guards used magic to teleport them or bewilder them, preventing them from finding the monkey.

Seeing Li Jing's anxious and confused state, even his memories of what he had witnessed were beginning to waver, Chen Guangrui spoke up to comfort him, "General, please calm down. Perhaps too much time has passed, and some things are forgotten. Or perhaps..."

He paused, softening his tone, "The strange fog you encountered back then was like a dream, a reality hard to distinguish. Today you revisit this place, your footprints are there, and your heart is at peace. Whether that mischievous monkey is here or not is no longer important."

Li Jing was panting heavily, his eyes fixed on the barren mountain ridge.

Chen Guangrui's words were like a bucket of cold water, poured on the burning anger in his heart.
"Forget it...maybe Li...remembered it wrong! Damn it, what bad luck! Let's go back!"

He kept saying how unlucky it was, but his eyes were still fixed on the direction in his memory, turning back every few steps, filled with resentment and deep self-doubt.

The two returned to their encampment in silence. The bugle sounded, and the main force set off again, the dust rising obscuring the cold, hard figure of Liangjieshan.

Chen Guangrui stopped at this moment, cupped his hands to Li Jing, whose expression was uncertain, and said, "General Li, please go ahead. I have some personal business to attend to here, and I will catch up with the army as soon as possible."

At this moment, Li Jing was preoccupied with the question of whether he was dreaming or not, and he didn't bother to ask Chen Guangrui what private business he could have here. He simply thought Chen Guangrui was being a fussy scholar and waved his hand in agreement.

After the army thundered away and the dust settled, Chen Guangrui did not leave the area at the foot of the mountain.

He remembered it perfectly! At the post station in Chang'an, the postmaster recounted a detail with great enthusiasm:
The Two Realms Mountain peaches, so sweet they were practically divine, were bought from an old farmer at a nearby market. The old farmer went on and on, saying that his peach trees weren't far down the cliff, and that when he was a child, he had even fed a hairy-faced monkey trapped under the mountain a lot of fruit.

The key to finding the monkey's true form is to bypass the magic of the guarding deities and find the old farmer who has a connection with the monkey!
The market near Liangjie Mountain wasn't large, but it was close to the main road and bustling with people. The shouts of vendors, the sounds of bargaining, and the snorting of horses created a lively, everyday atmosphere.

Chen Guangrui had been wandering around the market for a while, asking around for a long time, but he hadn't heard of anyone whose peaches were the sweetest.

This made him somewhat doubtful whether what the post station manager had said was true.

At that moment, he stopped. He saw two children, not quite grown up, crowding around a small stall selling candied hawthorns on the street corner. One of them, dressed in a brightly colored Taoist robe with gold trim, held a string of candied hawthorns he had just bought, but instead of eating them, he looked around furtively, his little face full of disdain and impatience.

Another person, dressed in an equally eye-catching Taoist robe with silver trim and a string of small golden balls radiating spiritual energy hanging from his wrist, was engrossed in eating wontons at a stall, slurping loudly, oblivious to the soup splashing onto his sleeves.

These were the two attendants, Jinlu and Yinlu, who had just descended from the Tushita Palace to search for Marshal Tianpeng.

Chen Guangrui's heart skipped a beat. He stopped and looked into the distance at the two small figures who were clearly out of place in the mortal world.

Weren't they going to Yunzhan Cave on Fuling Mountain? Why did they end up here at the foot of Wuxing Mountain to join in the fun?

Seeing the two teenagers standing out awkwardly in the crowd, Chen Guangrui was puzzled.

"Weren't you going to Fuling Mountain to find Marshal Tianpeng? How did you end up here in the middle of nowhere, Liangjie Mountain?"

He thought for a moment and decided to keep quiet and follow at a distance to see what the two dolls from the Tushita Palace were up to.

The two boys showed no interest in buying anything else, and simply strolled around the market. They seemed aimless, but asked everyone they met a question.

"Hey, old man, do you know where the Dragon-Suppressing Immortal is?"

"The Dragon-Suppressing Immortal? Never heard of him." The old man shook his head blankly.

"Ma'am, how do I get to Yalong Mountain?"

"What Yalong Mountain? I've never heard of it. We only have Liangjie Mountain here." The woman pushed him away, bewildered.

"Little child, which direction is the Daoist temple of the Great Immortal Yalong?" Jin Lu stopped another child who was playing.

The child was so frightened that he burst into tears and ran away.

After asking around, the answers were either "I don't know" or "I've never heard of it," with the occasional "This is Liangjie Mountain."

The two boys' faces grew increasingly grim, especially Jinlu, whose little face was stern. Although he maintained his "majesty," his eyes clearly revealed anxiety and confusion.

Chen Guangrui grew increasingly curious as he listened: "The Great Immortal Who Suppresses Dragons? Who is this deity?"

He tried hard to recall, but unfortunately, when he watched Journey to the West back then, he focused more on the monkey and couldn't remember this person for a moment.

The two boys walked to a slightly secluded shady spot in the market. Silver Furnace Boy finally couldn't hold back any longer; his little mouth pouted, and he grabbed Golden Furnace Boy's sleeve and shook it violently.
"Jinlu, Jinlu! Do you even remember the way? You clearly remembered it perfectly well in heaven, saying it was a big mountain in the north, but now that we're down on earth, everything looks like a mountain! We've asked all the way here, but nobody knows about Yalong Mountain, and nobody knows any Yalong Immortal. Are you sure you've got the place right?"

The Golden Furnace Boy, annoyed by his shaking, pulled back his sleeve and, forcing himself to remain calm, shouted...
"What's all the noise about! Of course I remember clearly! My godmother lives in Yalong Cave on Yalong Mountain! I... I was just confirming which direction it was."

He paced back and forth under the tree with his hands behind his back and a serious expression on his face, as if trying hard to recall, but his brows were tightly furrowed, clearly indicating that he had no confidence at all.

"But..." Yinlu Tongzi's voice trembled with tears as he pointed to the sky, his voice filled with anxiety and grievance. "Look, the sun is already setting! We've been down here for almost...almost half an hour, haven't we? The Ancestor said that the treasure would only take effect in a short while, but now Zhu Ganglie isn't moving at all in the bottle. Once the time limit is up, he...he'll turn into pus!"

As he thought about it, he became increasingly frightened, and burst into tears, blaming the Golden Furnace Boy between sobs, "Waaah... It's all your fault for not remembering the way! Pigsy is going to turn into pus, then... then our plans will be completely ruined! Waaah..."

Chen Guangrui's mind went blank!
You want to reinstate him to his original position, but you want to destroy him?
(End of this chapter)