Volume 2: The Path That Can Be Told, Chapter 138: Invite You In

In the depths of the Eastern Ocean, within the realm of the primal self, Wukong posed question after question, leaving Kunpeng utterly overwhelmed. At first, Kunpeng could cope and remained patient. But as the questions grew more bizarre—such as “Who is stronger, Laojun or Tathagata?” “Who can unify the immortal realm, the Heavenly Court or the Western Paradise?” “Do you know Tang Seng?”—Kunpeng had no choice but to reply, “Though I live a long life, I neither concern myself with celestial secrets nor human affairs. Your trivial questions are a waste of effort.”

Unfazed, Wukong persisted. Seeing that Kunpeng, though fearsome in appearance, seemed calm and unemotional, he gradually lost his fear. He began to use cunning tactics to probe for secrets, not realizing that to Kunpeng, all the great events in the world were like ants moving—nothing worth his attention.

Unlike Pangu, Kunpeng, and the Chaos-Ape, these two focused only on the changes of heaven and earth without interfering in human affairs. The Seven Divine Apes, however, were born with the mission to disrupt the world, thus experiencing countless trials in human society and knowing far more about the struggles between immortals and Buddhas, as well as the shifting fortunes of the world.

Wukong’s questions sparked strange thoughts in Kunpeng. This monkey was rather annoying; he was fed up with him. If he wanted to know more, why not give him a chance? He could figure out the answers on his own.

Wukong then asked, “Brother Kunpeng, do you know where creation comes from? And why does it only increase and never decrease? Is it because there’s too much creation that heaven and earth are stretched apart?” At this point, he even began to address Kunpeng as a brother, trying to get close to him.

For the first time in tens of thousands of years, Kunpeng felt irritation. This monkey was truly detestable. If he knew the reason behind the rise and fall of heaven and earth, why would he have to cycle through rebirths, at the mercy of life and death?

He stopped answering. His two long whiskers stretched out and tightly wrapped around Wukong, coiling thirty or forty times. Seeing that Kunpeng wouldn’t respond, Wukong sensed something was wrong and realized Kunpeng was displeased. He tried to speak again, but was immediately suppressed by Kunpeng’s power. Another whisker trapped him, its toughness sealing his mouth shut.

Wukong was alarmed. What was Kunpeng planning? Was he going to harm him? After thinking it over, he concluded it couldn’t be. After all, in terms of origin, Kunpeng and the Divine Apes shared the same roots—they were both creations of creation itself. Moreover, Kunpeng had said he would never get involved in the conflicts of heaven and earth. With his status and power, it would be presumptuous of him to deliberately trouble Wukong.

The long beard of the Kunpeng gradually retracted, heading straight for its sharp beak. Wukong was terrified—was it about to eat him? Sure enough, a huge mouth slightly opened; though it was called slightly open, it revealed a gap several miles wide, which swallowed Wukong’s beard and pulled him into that massive mouth.

Wukong could neither move nor speak, only his eyes could still see. He saw countless giant teeth densely packed around the mouth in a chaotic arrangement. From the outside, the size of the mouth hadn’t seemed quite apparent, but once inside, it seemed like an entire sea. A fiery red tongue flickered, stirring up countless waves, as if there were wild snow lions and white horses galloping everywhere. In this sea, many sea beasts swam, and flocks of birds flew above the surface like dark clouds, none of them harmed.

Once inside the Kunpeng’s mouth, Wukong’s beard loosened on its own, allowing him to move freely again. He calmed himself down slightly—since the Kunpeng had thrown him in, there must be a reason.

There was no need to waste effort trying to escape now. If the Kunpeng didn’t allow it, not even if he were ten times stronger, he would never be able to get out.

Wukong used the Water Avoidance Technique to swim through the seawater, growing more and more amazed as he went.

Earlier, while searching for the Kunpeng, not a single living creature could be seen within thousands of miles—likely because all sea creatures feared the Kunpeng’s might and stayed far away. Yet inside the Kunpeng’s mouth, countless sea beasts and strange birds walked and flew, many with peculiar appearances he had never seen before.

What a Kunpeng! Just this mouth seemed like its own little world.

As Wukong wandered around, he suddenly sensed a giant beast approaching rapidly from afar. Upon closer inspection, it was a huge octopus, six or seven zhang long, with its eight arms spread out, covering an area of dozens of zhang.

There was no living creature nearby, and it seemed the octopus was heading straight for him.

Wukong thought, “This octopus must know I just arrived and is trying to take advantage of me.” With a thought, he silently recited the Tian Gang Transformation Technique and transformed into an octopus, several times larger than the one ahead.

Wukong had forgotten that he couldn’t transform in his original world. Now that he had become an octopus, he remembered again and was surprised—turns out, the Kunpeng’s body wasn’t restricted by such rules.

The octopus across from him, seeing Wukong as one of its kind, suddenly stopped. Its eyes widened in disbelief. Octopuses were always suspicious. After pondering for a moment, it spoke, its voice like metal grinding together, extremely unpleasant: “You must have come from inside!”

Wukong was stunned. What did it mean, inside or outside? He imitated the octopus and replied in a hoarse voice, “Why, is it not possible?”

Hearing Wukong admit it, the octopus seemed utterly astonished, its mouth gaping in shock before it turned and ran away, shouting, “Shameless! Coming here to bully others!” How could that be? Clearly, you were the one who rushed over to bully me—how did it become that I’m the one bullying? Now that Wukong had revealed his true form, he felt more confident. His ability to transform into various forms was indeed a great trick to deceive others. With such powers, he dared to venture even into the most dangerous places. From the octopus’s words, it seemed this was the territory of some formidable being. At this moment, he was at the mercy of others—Kunpeng had thrown him in here, surely for a reason! He wondered what fate awaited him inside Kunpeng’s belly. Kunpeng’s mouth must be at least a thousand li wide. Wukong swam deeper, encountering many sea beasts along the way, but their powers were not high. Even that giant octopus, which had just reached the level of an immortal, could rule here. The deeper he went, the more monstrous creatures there were, leaving Wukong dazzled. He wondered where these beasts came from. Kunpeng’s oppressive aura made it difficult to enter from the outside—could they all have been spat out from his belly? His single mouth was already so huge; his entire body must be tens of thousands of li long. The vast sea passage grew narrower, and the current became stronger. Ordinary sea beasts could hardly stay here, yet many kept trying to swim upstream, persevering even after being swept back by the strong currents time and again. Ahead lay Kunpeng’s throat. From this throat, no wider than a hundred zhang, fierce currents surged out. In the turbulent water, many young sea beasts could be seen, seemingly just born. Many of them fell into the mouths of those swimming upstream as soon as they emerged from the throat, their lives ending tragically. At this moment, Wukong could only sigh at such cycles of life and death. All were passengers on the boat of suffering—who could save whom? Estimating the size of the throat, he remembered the day he first saw Kunpeng at sea. Back then, even just a few hundred zhang of Kunpeng’s body had left him in awe. Now he realized that was merely the tip of Kunpeng’s beak. Wukong had become skilled in the Water Avoidance Technique and the Water Control Art. The Water Avoidance Technique worked best in calm water, allowing him to move slowly with the water waves parting around him as if walking on solid ground. But in fast currents, moving quickly made it impossible to avoid the water, and he would end up submerged. Thus, here, the Water Control Art, which made use of the water’s momentum, was exactly what was needed.

The Water Control Divine Art is the innate ability of the water-manipulating divine ape Wu Zhiqi. He sacrificed his own powers to pass on the secrets of water control to Wukong. Although Wukong is far from as skilled as Wu Zhiqi in using this art to control rivers and seas and move freely in water, he can still handle it with ease.
It wasn’t long before Wukong reached the entrance of the Throat Cave. Walking this way was naturally less efficient than flying directly from the air, but considering that the Kunpeng’s body was likely filled with water, mastering this Water Control Divine Art a bit better couldn’t hurt.
The water flow here was even faster, and no sea beasts could reach this place from the outside. The newborn sea beasts rushing toward him were fierce, and Wukong could only dodge them.
Once inside the Throat Cave, a chilling aura greeted him—even ice water couldn’t be this cold. Wukong proceeded cautiously, holding his Golden Cudgel in hand. After taking a few more steps, indeed, a monster blocked his path.