Chapter 68: The Immortal Child Leads the Way, Sun Yuan Loses His Path

  "I think that small path must be somewhat different!" Sun Yuan wiped the sweat, and it wasn't until now that his body had regained some sensation. He replied somewhat absent-mindedly.

  "Ah! You rest here for a while, I'll go take a look over there!" Sun Wukong immediately became enthusiastic, hastily scrambling to his feet and heading straight down the small path. After a good long while, he finally had enough fun playing on the path. However, just as he returned to the mountain slope, after a short while, he set his sights on a pine tree on the slope. He quietly sighed to himself, then climbed up to pick and eat some pine seeds.

  During this time, Sun Yuan's body had recovered, and when he was able to move again, he crawled up from the ground and sat down on a stone platform next to the cave entrance, watching Monkey King play with his children, quietly waiting for the appearance of the immortal child in the Three-Star Cave. According to his estimate, the time for the immortal child's appearance should be about now.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, after a moment, the monkey was playing energetically on the branch, from time to time sending ripe pine nuts into its mouth, making crunching sounds like chewing roasted beans. At this time, the tightly closed stone gate suddenly rumbled and opened, and a white mist burst out of it.

  Sun Yuan was taken aback and hastily stood up from the stone pedestal, looking around cautiously.

  Only the white mist gradually dispersed, and the stone gate at the entrance of the cave appeared in shape. Under the faint mist, a person with simple clothes, holding a dustpan, with two temples white, but with a childlike face, emerged from it. Having read Journey to the West, Sun Wukong knew who this was, it was the immortal boy from the Xie Yue San Xing Cave.

  Xian Tong stepped out of the cave, looked around with his eyes, and shouted loudly, "Who is making a disturbance here, disturbing the tranquility of my cave? Don't you know that this is the mountain gate of Bodhi Patriarch?"

  Although he shouted like that, he didn't see Sun Yuan standing beside him, but instead fixed his gaze on the monkey king in the tree. Sun Yuan saw this and couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth. He had expected to be treated unfairly, but hadn't thought it would be so blatant. It was clear that this immortal child had come specifically to find the beautiful Monkey King, and didn't care about him at all!

  Sun Yuan, who was originally full of enthusiasm and wanted to step forward to answer, saw this situation and withdrew his footstep. A person values self-awareness, looking at the situation, it's better for him to honestly stay aside, otherwise, if he were to offend the one in the mountain cave, Sun Yuan's attempt to become a disciple would be thoroughly failed.

  As expected, when the Monkey King jumped down from the pine tree, the immortal boy immediately stepped forward and said, "Who are you? Why have you come to make a disturbance here? Aren't you afraid of being blamed by our ancestors?"

  Wukong was quite clever and saw that the immortal boy had an extraordinary appearance, so he went forward and bowed his hands, saying "I have come here to pay respects and learn from you, but since the mountain gate has not been opened, I have been waiting here. I didn't dare make a disturbance, so I hope you will inform the master that there are two people outside who have come to visit and seek enlightenment, and I hope the master will accept them!"

  "It's okay, this guy still remembers me!" Upon hearing Sun Wukong's words, Sun Yuan's mouth involuntarily curled up into a wry smile. He thought to himself that the Monkey King was indeed loyal, but the Immortal Youth was expressionless. The Immortal Youth didn't even bat an eyelid and directly said, "The Ancestor said there is someone outside the gate who has come seeking immortals and asking about the Tao, is it you?"

  "Yes, yes, I hope the immortal child will lead the way." Sun Wukong hastily replied.

  "My master was just about to start his lecture, but before he could even begin, I was told to come out and open the door. And it turns out it's you, this hairy monkey." The immortal child looked him up and down, saying "Alright, follow me inside then! Our ancestor is waiting for you in there." After that, the immortal child moved his feet and lightly floated past Sun Yuan's side, heading straight into the cave without paying any attention to him, as if Sun Yuan didn't exist.

  "Alright! It seems that becoming a disciple isn't an easy thing to do." Sun Yuan muttered to himself, gritting his teeth as he followed closely behind. As the saying goes, "If one doesn't care about losing face, they will be invincible." Today, he was willing to throw away all his dignity and pride in order to successfully become a disciple, after all, he had been waiting for this day for a very long time.

  "Hey, Monkey King, hurry up!" Sun Wukong was also a cultivator of spiritual intelligence for over 300 years and wasn't inferior to others in terms of IQ. Through the immortal child's actions, he immediately saw through the trick and sensed the awkward position Sun Yuan was in, so before leaving, he didn't forget to remind Sun Yuan.

  "Alright." Sun Yuan responded with a single word, closely following behind Sun Wukong. The immortal child leading the way in front saw this scene and slightly furrowed his brow, but quickly revealed an ambiguous smile. For the first time, he truly glanced at Sun Yuan, but this glance made Sun Yuan feel extremely uncomfortable; he would rather have never been noticed at all!

  What a gaze! From this glance, Sun Yuan read out many things, including pity for his lack of self-awareness, ridicule for his absurd ambitions, and more of a desire to watch the excitement. In an instant, Sun Yuan thought of many things and gradually formed his own speculations. When he saw the eighteen light circles flashing at the entrance of the cave, this speculation took shape.

  Only beside the ancient and simple cave entrance, on the ground was carved a string of light circles, these light circles had eighteen in total, their color was deep purple. The eighteen purple light circles were nested one inside another, gradually going deeper into the depths of the cave. These eighteen light circles faintly flickered with purple light, just looking at them made it clear they weren't anything ordinary. Combined with the mocking gaze of the immortal child, Sun Yuan could almost be certain that these eighteen light circles would absolutely not be easy to pass through.

  Thinking back to the 108 steps on the mountain, Sun Yuan couldn't help but feel a bad premonition in his heart. This light circle seemed to only work for people like himself who had no background and no connections, relying solely on their passion to get this far. Its purpose was the same as those 108 levels of stairs - to keep unrelated people out.

  Watching Sun Wukong step into the first light circle without any reaction, and then cross over it very calmly, Sun Yuan couldn't help but feel a hint of luck in his heart. Maybe, just maybe, he had misunderstood the gaze of the immortal child. Maybe the other person had only glanced at him unintentionally, or maybe these light circles were just decorations for the cave, like the white mist that emerged when the cave door was opened.

  No matter what, Sun Yuan had to make a choice. Perhaps it wasn't a choice, but he had to face his own destiny. Seeing Sun Wukong and the immortal child walking forward step by step, Sun Yuan's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and with a determined look, he gritted his teeth and stepped into the first ring of light.

  As soon as he took this step, Sun Yuan suddenly felt the sky spinning and the earth turning. When he opened his eyes again, even though he had been mentally prepared, his face still changed color greatly.

  It's hard to describe the scene in front of him, to put it simply, Sun Yuan is currently lining up! Yes, that's right, lining up, just like queuing up to buy train tickets in his previous life. At this moment, in front of him was a long queue, a group of naked creatures, neatly lined up and constantly moving forward. Sun Yuan violently shook his head, somewhat unclear about the situation. He remembered that the last moment he was still in the Xiemeng Sanxing Cave Mansion, how did he end up here?