Journey to the West: The gods and Buddhas panicked when the monkey was trapped inside him.

Sun Wukong laughed heartily and opened his arms wide.

"Brother Tianpeng!"

"My dear brother! I've missed you so much!"

Tianpeng's voice was choked with sobs, and his arm around Sun Wukong trembled uncontrollably.

After more than six hundred years of loneliness and waiting, all the grievances and bitterness turned into tears of excitement upon seeing the old friend.

Sun Wukong felt a little uncomfortable being hugged by him, so he patted his back.

"Alright, alright, brother, let go. If you keep hugging me, I'm going to choke you to death."

Upon hearing this, Tianpeng finally let go and hastily wiped his face with his sleeve.

He looked Sun Wukong up and down, grinning widely.

"Brother, you've finally arrived! If you hadn't come, I would have been rotting away in these mountains."

Sun Wukong felt a little uncomfortable looking at his pig-like face, but he still teased him.

"Brother, you look much more 'prosperous' than when you were a marshal in Heaven."

Tianpeng blushed and touched his big belly embarrassedly.

"There's no way around it, with this body, I get hungry if I don't eat."

He took Sun Wukong's hand and led him into the cave.

"Come on, brother, come inside and sit down."

"These past few hundred years have really bored me, this old pig, to no end. I haven't even had anyone to talk to."

The two entered the Cloud Stack Cave.

The cave was clean and tidy, with stone tables and benches, but it felt somewhat empty and deserted.

With a casual wave of his hand, Sun Wukong conjured up a sealed wine jar and several fragrant fairy fruits on the stone table.

"Brother, I know you can't get much good food in the mortal world, so I, Old Sun, specially brought you some celestial wine and fruits."

Tianpeng stared wide-eyed at the wine jar.

He snatched the wine jar, broke the seal, and a rich, mellow aroma of wine instantly filled the air.

"It's...it's the Heavenly Osmanthus Wine!"

Tianpeng was so excited that his hands were trembling.

He didn't use a bowl; instead, he held the wine jar, tilted his head back, and gulped down several large mouthfuls.

"ha--!"

After downing a sip of wine, Tianpeng let out a long sigh of relief, his face filled with satisfaction and nostalgia.

"That felt great! That really felt great!"

"I, Old Pig, haven't tasted this in over six hundred years! I've been dreaming about it!"

Sun Wukong smiled, picked up a magical fruit, and handed it to him.

"Drink slowly, no one's going to take it from you. Have some fruit to tide you over."

Tianpeng took the fairy fruit, swallowed it in a few bites, and then drank from the wine jar.

The jar of celestial wine was quickly emptied.

Tianpeng let out a burp, his cheeks flushed, and he became more talkative.

"Brother, you're a true friend, knowing that I like this kind of thing."

"Unlike Guanyin, every time she sees me, she tells me to give up drinking and eat vegetarian food, and to recite that damn Buddhist scripture. It makes my head spin."

Sun Wukong smiled.

"Brother, you helped me a lot back in Heaven, and I, Old Sun, still remember that kindness."

The two sat on a stone bench, chatting about their experiences over the past few hundred years while eating a few magical fruits.

After several rounds of drinks, Sun Wukong finally asked the question that had been bothering him.

"Brother, there's something I don't understand."

"When you were banished to the mortal realm, didn't I secretly remind you to be careful when you were reincarnated, and not to be reborn into the wrong family?"

"How come you... still look like this?"

Upon hearing Sun Wukong's question, Tianpeng took another big gulp of wine, then rolled his eyes dramatically, his face full of helplessness.

"Brother, do you think everyone's as lucky as you?"

"You were only imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain for nine years back then. For the remaining hundreds of years, others suffered the punishment in your place while you lived a carefree life outside."

"Which of us chosen for the pilgrimage can escape the calamity?"

Tianpeng sighed.

"This journey to the West is a grand undertaking of heaven and earth. Every person who enters the pilgrimage must bear heavy calamities before they are qualified to receive the merits of heaven and earth."

"Look at Jin Chanzi, even as the second disciple of Buddha, he still has to endure the suffering of ten lifetimes of reincarnation."

"Look at that curtain again. It has been subjected to the torture of being pierced by a hundred swords every day in the Flowing Sand River for hundreds of years."

"Only that little white dragon in the West Sea, which only served as a mount, suffered the least."

Tianpeng pointed to his long beak and gave a wry smile.

"As for me, Old Pig, my situation is even more complicated than theirs."

"Back when I was cultivating in Heaven, my cultivation stagnated, and I couldn't make any progress for many years."

"In order to give me a chance to survive, my master went along with it and let me take advantage of the tribulations of the Journey to the West to rebuild my cultivation."

"Being reborn as a pig was originally a method set by our master to break through the past and establish a new one. Among all the tribulations, it was already considered to be relatively easy."

Sun Wukong scratched his cheek, looking puzzled.

"Isn't there any other way to undergo tribulation? Why make yourself look like this beast?"

Upon hearing this, Tianpeng's face showed a strange expression, as if he had recalled some unpleasant memories.

He coughed twice and said somewhat awkwardly.

"Brother, do you think other calamities are so easy to endure?"

"My master did indeed provide me with other options for undergoing tribulations."

"One of them is to go to the mortal world to experience a hundred lifetimes of love tribulations and taste all the pains of love, hate and separation in the human world."

"Brother, I've weighed my own abilities."

"I feel that my Dao heart cannot withstand the torment of emotional tribulations, and I might just die and my Dao will dissipate."

"So I decisively refused and finally chose this relatively easy reincarnation option."

Sun Wukong's eyes twitched as he listened.

A hundred lifetimes of unrequited love? That sounds chilling.

Sun Wukong couldn't help but laugh out loud after hearing this.

"A hundred lifetimes of love tribulations? How could Laozi even come up with that?"

Tianpeng touched his big ears, looking quite magnanimous.

"Brother, you don't need to feel sorry for me."

"This pig fetus isn't some incurable disease."

"When I join the pilgrimage team in the future, I will share in all the merits that fill the sky."

"As long as I can regain the realm of the Great Luo Golden Immortal, I can shed this pig-like body and reshape my true self."

Tianpeng raised his wine cup and toasted Sun Wukong.

"When that time comes, I will still be the majestic Marshal Tianpeng."

Sun Wukong raised his wine cup, clinked it against his, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Since you know what's going on, then I, Old Sun, won't bother with this."

"As long as you feel you're not losing out, that's fine."

"Come on, let's drink! We brothers are reunited after so long!"

"We won't leave until we're drunk!"

The aroma of wine filled the air inside the Cloud Stack Cave.

The two men toasted each other, their laughter echoing through the cave for a long time.

Centuries have not diminished the friendship between the two.

Having been cooped up in the mortal realm for so many years, Tianpeng finally rediscovered some of the joy he felt when he was the marshal of the Heavenly River Navy.

Outside the cave, the mountain wind howled, while inside, the aroma of wine filled the air.

As for Old Man Gao in Gao Village, who was eagerly awaiting good news about the demon's demise.

Sun Wukong had long forgotten about it.