Chapter 4: The Barefoot Immortal

  "I'm so scared, uncle, don't stare at me with that white eye of yours, my little heart is beating thump thump, hehehe..."

  A tender laugh, accompanied by a wisp of fragrant breeze, made even the wind drunk.

  Unfortunately, Sha Xin can no longer enjoy this beautiful scenery. He is also drunk now, but he is drunk under the powder fists and jade legs of the little fairy girls.

  Shaxin cowered down, covering his face that could no longer withstand any more pain. At this moment, the physical pain on Shaxin's body was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. He was still struggling with Zixia's previous words "Uncle", and he couldn't help but think: I'm not just a big beard, where does it look like an uncle!

  Thinking of this, Sha Xin's heart, which had been sealed for countless years, burst forth, and he let out a loud wail.

  "Halt! Jade Pool Fairy Palace, how dare you be so presumptuous!"

  Just as Sha Xin was about to think of a way to extricate himself from this awkward situation and attend to his official duties, a wonderfully elegant yet dignified voice rang out.

  Upon hearing this voice, all the fairies immediately stopped in their tracks, leaving only Sha Xin alone protecting his head, his immortal robes tattered and standing disheveled in the wind.

  "Queen Mother of the West!"

  All the female immortals shouted in unison, scaring Sha Xin's heart into his throat. He knew that Queen Mother's rule was strict and thought that he had gotten into trouble. He didn't dare to be slow, hastily got up, rolled his eyes around, half-kowtowed, and said: "Your humble servant Sha Xin, following the order of the Jade Emperor, came to pay respects to Queen Mother, but unexpectedly, as soon as I arrived at the palace gate, I was stopped by the immortal maidens inside."

  "What's going on here?" Queen Mother asked with a stern tone.

  Zi Xia heard the Queen Mother's question, and her eyes winked at her sisters before she spoke up in a delicate tone: "Reporting to Your Majesty, we were just playing with our sisters here when an insolent little rascal was hiding aside eavesdropping. Zi Xia feared that such a person would tarnish Your Majesty's reputation, so I was about to apprehend him and bring him back for questioning, only to discover it was General Sha."

  She turned to face Sha Xin and said, "Rumor has it that General Sha, the great general of the rolling curtain, is extraordinary in both martial prowess and character, a true gentleman. Just now, when I saw his appearance, tsk... if the general hadn't introduced himself in front of Her Highness, Zixia would have thought she had mistaken him for someone else."

  Zi Xia bowed and said, "I apologize for misunderstanding General Sha. Please forgive me!"

  "Cough... I don't dare, I don't dare..."

  Sha Xin couldn't help but want to scream at the sky when he heard this. He had originally wanted to ask Queen Mother Wang to preside over justice and retrieve his dignity, but unexpectedly Zi Xia Xianzi was a wicked person who accused him first, making him feel anxious afterwards. It turned out that being a general in the palace was not as easy as he thought, thinking he was a great hero with no place not being his territory, yet unexpectedly even a little servant girl could make him stumble everywhere.

  He forcibly swallowed a mouthful of immortal blood, but didn't dare to entangle himself further. He let Zixia Fairy continue speaking, fearing that if he intervened, not only would he fail to clear up the current situation, but he might also bring trouble upon himself.

  Fortunately, today Queen Mother seemed to have something on her mind, and she was distracted, not pursuing the matter further. Instead, she stared at the sunset in the distance with a dazed expression.

  Immortals, beauties, sunset glow, and holy light - this was a rare and precious scene. But Sha Xin didn't dare to appreciate it; he swallowed his tears and took advantage of the Queen Mother's momentary distraction to quickly convey the imperial edict that Zhang Youren had entrusted to him.

  "Oh..."

  The Queen Mother hummed softly, her delicate eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she clearly couldn't understand Zhang Youren's arrangement. After a moment of contemplation, she seemed to have encountered something that piqued her interest, and her phoenix eyes sparkled with a hint of thoughtfulness as she gazed towards the direction of the Taoyang Hall.

  "Go and serve His Majesty well."

  The Queen Mother pulled out a gilt invitation from the sleeve of her dress and floated it towards Sha Xin's palm, waving her hand at a group of bewildered palace maids.

  "You still don't return to the palace, all day long you just know how to cause trouble, let's see how I'll deal with you!"

  When the palace maidens all returned to the palace, the Queen Mother looked eastward and murmured somewhat dejectedly: "Foolish child, after so many years have passed, don't you still understand the heart of this palace? Can't you trust this palace and discuss everything with this palace?"

  ……

  With a heart full of joy and relief, he clutched the invitation letter tightly and rushed to the Imperial Stables in a flurry.

  "Bad luck, I was looking forward to checking out the little fairy, but ended up running into that little devil. Might as well hurry and hand over the post to that monkey head and get back to treating my wounds. These little girls, they seem so gentle normally, but who knew they'd be like tigresses when fighting? Ouch, it hurts!"

  Sha Xing is a stylish man, although he looks a bit arrogant, but who doesn't have some fantasies in their heart, and some wonderful springs. No matter how stylish, it's impossible to spend one's whole life with the five brothers on his right hand. Not everyone can be like the Jade Emperor, giving orders in front and having a harem of palace wives behind him.

  Just as Sha Xin was thinking this way, a fairy cloud floated over like a flash of light and quickly flew to his front and stopped.

  "Hey, isn't this General Sha? How come you have time to come out and stroll around today? Ah, how did the majestic Rolling Curtain General end up in such a sorry state? In the heavenly realm, who is so bold as to make you look like this?"

  It's really "whichever pot is not opened, lift whichever one"!

  "Who's there? This is."

  Sha Xin's mood was already bad, and when he saw the big immortal standing in front of him, blocking his way, his voice became even coarser.

  "Sha Xin, when I'm in a good mood, I'll call you General Sha. But don't put on airs when I'm not happy! Just because you came from the palace doesn't mean you can act like you're worth 25 million taels of silver. Who do you think you are?!"

  Sha Xin heard this familiar voice and slightly rude tone, looked up and took a glance, her heart sank with a thud.

  "Damn it, bad luck is upon me, how did I run into this person. Lately, I've been having a streak of bad luck, so I went to the Temple of Fortune and asked Lord Lao to help me turn my luck around, let's calculate my fortune."

  The newcomer was the famous Barefoot Immortal. In fact, the Barefoot Immortal was a kind and gentle soul in the immortal realm, with many friends and acquaintances. He even got along well with Sun Wukong, the mischievous Monkey King, who was disliked by many immortals. Logically speaking, someone like him shouldn't be feared at all.

  However, it wasn't until Xiaxin's last encounter with Chijiao Daxian that he realized what he usually understood was only the tip of the iceberg. The more someone laughs openly and appears harmless in front of you, the more terrifying they actually are.

  "Sha Xin, tell me, what are you preparing to do? Speak up and let me hear it. If there's anything useful I can help with, don't hesitate to say so. I'd be happy to lend a hand to my brother."

  The barefooted great immortal's refreshing appearance made Sha Xin feel an unspeakable chill in his heart.

  "If it weren't for last time... Hmph, you're going to regret this. But let's get back to the point, I'm a majestic Rolling Curtain General, a dignified and refined deity, so how could I be controlled by a lowly, unranked loose immortal like you?"

  "But last time this thing, ah, it's hard to recover what's been spilled!"

  With a bitter face, he looked at the fat-headed and big-eared barefoot immortal and thought that this time it was just sending an invitation letter, which wasn't a big deal, so why not tell him and get rid of this fatty quickly to complete the task.

  "Great Immortal, don't make things difficult for me." Sha Xin showed some weakness and said: "I will convey the imperial edict to Sun Wukong on behalf of Your Majesty, letting him attend the Queen Mother's Peach Banquet."

  "Let Sun Wukong attend the Peach Garden Party?"

  The Barefoot Immortal sank into thought and remained silent.

  As soon as he heard it, he thought he had misheard, and even the usual cheerful expression on his face was somewhat frozen, clearly unable to adapt to the shock brought by this matter, and couldn't keep up with Jade Emperor's thoughts. He just didn't understand why all the immortals in Heaven would suddenly change their minds and specially invite him to participate in the Peach Banquet when it was clear that the one sitting on top of Lingxiao Treasure Hall disliked that monkey.

  "Could it be that something has happened that Ben Da Xian doesn't know about?"