Volume 1: Unsayable – Chapters 77 and 78: The One-Horned Ghost

Wu Zhiqi laughed and said, “Well said. If it weren’t for this use, what purpose would it serve for the Great Sage National Preceptor, King Bodhisattva, to imprison me? He would just use me as a Creation Furnace to aid his own cultivation. Yet his ignorance is unmatched in my life—he has only tapped a fraction of the Furnace’s power and still considers himself fortunate. Haha…” Wu Zhiqi laughed heartily; every time he thought of this, he felt immense joy.
Wukong looked solemn and said, “You may laugh, and I won’t stop you. But if this secret is known, it won’t end well.”
Tongfeng nodded and said, “An innocent man is blamed for possessing a precious treasure, but few people know this secret.”
Wukong suddenly asked, “Does your immensely powerful master know about it?”
Tongfeng replied, “My master certainly knows. But he loves me deeply, like a father, so he surely won’t harm me. Besides, his cultivation level is unmatched in the world—he would never resort to such tactics.”
Wukong then asked Wu Zhiqi, “Does the Great Sage National Preceptor, King Bodhisattva, know this secret?”
Wu Zhiqi’s expression darkened as he said, “Though he doesn’t know the exact method, he is aware that I absorb the essence of creation. This matter… is somewhat unclear to him.”
Tongfeng said, “If that’s the case, we should eradicate it completely to avoid future troubles.”
Wukong said to Tongfeng, “Thankfully, you’re meticulous. Otherwise, if this got out, it would truly become a serious problem for us brothers.”
Wu Zhiqi said, “Then let’s set off tomorrow to capture that Great Sage National Preceptor, King Bodhisattva!”
Wukong and Tongfeng both said, “Good, it’s settled!”
Wu Zhiqi continued, “Recalling the past, when the Creation Furnace first appeared in the world, it was filled to the brim with purest essence of creation, sparking countless battles between immortals and demons. Back then, we stayed out of it and merely watched. The Furnace changed hands no less than a hundred times until it fell into the hands of a nameless but cunning and ruthless Taoist priest. After that, it vanished without a trace.”
Wukong asked, “That Creation Furnace is truly strange—It can absorb formless creative power.，It’s truly impossible to find.。”
Tongfeng replied, “That’s precisely what makes the Furnace so mysterious. Later, some people imitated its design and created many fakes, but none compare to the real one, not even in a thousandth.”
Wu Zhiqi added, “Exactly. But the Furnace can only absorb creation within a certain range; it won’t work from too far away.”
Wukong laughed and said, “Thankfully. Otherwise, it would be too defying heaven.” After saying this, he suddenly asked, “Could it be that someone knows we’re about to fight here?”

Ventilation also realized this: “Surely, this Creation Furnace must have been waiting nearby all along. Otherwise, how could such a coincidental thing happen?”
The three fell silent. The master of this Creation Furnace was quite cunning, stirring up conflict between Flower Fruit Mountain and the Heavenly Court so that he could reap the benefits like a fisherman.
At that moment, Wukong had a sudden idea, which later filled him with a sense of chill. He said, “Could this Creation Furnace be in the Heavenly Court?”
In Wukong’s mind, he was well aware of Flower Fruit Mountain’s current situation.
If the world were compared to a martial arts realm, Flower Fruit Mountain would be a newly rising gang, with a few brave and fierce members who were strong but not yet powerful enough to control everything at will. In the eyes of those established and powerful bosses, it might not even be considered a threat.
After experiencing several battles, Wukong could sense from everyone’s attitudes and words that the arrogance of the Heavenly Court actually hid great dangers. Meanwhile, after years in the mortal world, he had seen no signs of activity from the mysterious Western world. Wukong firmly believed in a saying from his past life: “A dog that bites doesn’t show its fangs.” The more enigmatic and seemingly harmless someone seemed, the more dangerous they were—because by the time you saw their true nature, you might already be dead.
There was no doubt that the Golden Winged Roc came from the West. The Journey to the West described him as Buddha’s uncle, a relationship that could be considered close or distant depending on perspective.
Even Erlang Shen, who was the Jade Emperor’s nephew, harbored resentment toward this uncle. If not for the Jade Emperor’s high status and power, he would likely have been killed by Erlang Shen with an axe. As for Nezha and Li Jing, true father and son, they still had deep grudges and wanted to kill each other—so it showed that there wasn’t much difference between gods and mortals, and the saying “family ties are strong” didn’t always hold true.
Thanks to his status as the Golden Winged Roc, he must know the West very well. Even if he didn’t know the plans or ultimate goals for the West, he should at least be well-versed in its organizational structure and power distribution. Yet despite Wukong’s repeated attempts to probe him, the Golden Winged Roc remained evasive, claiming he spent his days wandering and paid no attention to such worldly matters. Wukong didn’t mind. For a demon as noble and capable as the Golden Winged Roc to join Flower Fruit Mountain was already rare. Perhaps he saw Wukong merely as a promising talent and wouldn’t fully commit until Wukong truly established his own domain.
Until the Buddhist realm in the West took action, Wukong could only treat him as non-existent, not even daring to probe him. He knew that the kind-faced Buddha was actually a ruthless man who had suppressed Wukong for five hundred years without hesitation upon their first meeting.

Since he had now clashed with the Heavenly Court and the path to surrender had been cut off, his next task was to wait for the Heavenly Court’s next move. As for launching a counterattack, it would be like a moth flying into a flame. If even Wang Lingguan could fight evenly with Wukong, who knows how many skilled warriors hidden within the Heavenly Court were reluctant to put in effort? The story of Wukong’s rebellion in Journey to the West was essentially about the fearless ignorance of those who knew nothing; most likely, countless people wanted to see the Heavenly Court humiliated, which made the Great Sage Equal to Heaven appear invincible. In this world, now that Wukong knew the true strength of the Heavenly Court was unfathomable, he naturally wouldn’t rush in recklessly. Those five hundred years of hardship were truly unbearable, and the journey to the Western Heaven resembled a standard RPG game—far less carefree than living independently on his own mountain. At present, the biggest problem was the lack of information. There were so many gods and bodhisattvas in this world—who was loyal to whom, who was their mortal enemy, who was willing to serve the Heavenly Court, who was secretly working for others, who had secret dealings with whom, and who seemed kind but was actually ruthless… Wukong knew nothing about any of this. What exactly was the relationship between the Three Pure Ones, the Four Elders, and the Heavenly Court? Would the Heavenly Court invite bodhisattvas or Buddhas next? Was the Jade Emperor truly as incompetent as described in Journey to the West? Thinking about these things gave Wukong a headache. Enough—better to take things step by step. At least he had gone from a newborn stone monkey to where he was now in just a few years; his foundation was no worse than that of the original Monkey King. The only difference was that he hadn’t had the chance to rebel against the Heavenly Court and interact with the gods and masters of Taoism. But he couldn’t rush this. Right now, Flower Fruit Mountain was at war with the Heavenly Court—which god would dare to risk offending them by associating with the demons of Flower Fruit Mountain? He could only proceed cautiously. Wukong bid farewell to Wu Zhiqi and Feng Tong and took a short nap in Water Curtain Cave. Early the next morning, Wu Zhiqi, Feng Tong, and Wang Yu came to find him. Only the four of them needed to know about the plan to assassinate King Bodhisattva, the Grand Sage’s advisor; others should not be involved. Just as they stepped out of Water Curtain Cave, a Golden-Winged Roc flew down from the sky, grabbing two men and throwing them to the ground. The two men were ugly, with a single horn on each head, both crookedly placed—one on the left, one on the right. Together, they looked quite matching. Wukong asked, “Third brother, are these two spies?” The Golden-Winged Roc replied, “I don’t know where they’re from. I found them sneaking around at the foot of the mountain. They said they wanted to see the mountain master, so I captured them and brought them up.”

Wukong pretended to be displeased and said, “After we became sworn brothers yesterday, Brother Yuan Sheng is now our elder. Why not let him decide first?” The Golden-Winged Roc laughed and said, “Wukong is truly meticulous. I’ve already informed him. Our elder said you may handle this matter.” Wukong thought to himself that this Roc was certainly not someone easy to deal with; even the Bull Demon King might not have thought of this.

Just as Wukong was about to ask those two, Fengtong stepped forward and said, “Looking at their cunning expressions, it’s better to kill them right away. What’s the point?” Wukong was slightly surprised. Since they had met, Fengtong had always been very cautious and rarely spoke first.

Wukong then said, “Good! Then let’s kill them!”

The two monsters knelt on the ground and begged, “Great King, spare our lives!” The Golden-Winged Roc only stood by, laughing coldly without saying a word.

At that moment, someone flew in from afar—it was the Nine-Spirit Yuan Sheng. He came over and said, “These two have just arrived at Flower-Fruit Mountain and have committed no crimes. Why kill them?” Seeing the Nine-Spirit Yuan Sheng blocking them, Fengtong didn’t reply. With a hehe laugh, he stepped back two steps.