Legend of the Great Sage

een enshrined.
Even these great cultivators that roamed the nine provinces fearlessly were unable to avoid the fate of being devoured in the Hungry Ghost realm, which was truly a frightening revelation.
This was why elder Ming would never choose to enter the Hungry Ghost realm unless he had absolutely no choice.
Even if he were to enter it, he would do so through ascension, just like what this third sect master had done.

The calls of the sand and wind grew louder and louder.
Elder Ming assumed a solemn expression, dropping to his knees and lowering his head.
His chants merged wondrously with the shrieks of the souls, gradually blocking the sounds of wind out of the hall.
Then he cast the live souls into the memorial tablet one by one, and a pitch-black figure suddenly sprung out of the tablet, twisting about into a humanoid shape.
It filled the entire hall in the blink of an eye.

“Greetings, sect master!” Elder Ming lowered his head deeply.
He felt a coldness that reached the depths of his bones.

“Why have you called for me? Have you found the successor of white bone?” The voice seemed to ring out from the depths of a cave, echoing through the darkness in a hollow manner.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to report on…”

Elder Ming began telling him about everything that had happened in the Umbral Yin sect in full detail.
He pushed all the blame onto the deceased sect master, saying he fell for the successor of white bone’s tricks, which led to the sect’s destruction.

The black figure fell silent for a moment as if it had not expected something like this either.
It suddenly approached elder Ming and said sinisterly, “So you escaped alone? Why didn’t you open the Gate of Hungry Ghosts!?”

“I did so in order to report this to you! The white flames are anything but ordinary.
Even an army of a million undead were set alight instantly.
Not even several dozen Ghost Kings were her opponent.
If I opened the Gate of Hungry Ghosts rashly, it’ll probably only provide her with resources, which will make her even more difficult to deal with!” Elder Ming prostrated himself even further.

“I know you’re afraid of death, but I forgive you.
Once you come to the Hungry Ghost realm, I’m even going to reward you, if… your soul hasn’t been destroyed… Long time no see… so you’re still alive, you old hunchback…”

The black figure gathered in the memorial tablet again, and the voice gradually drifted away, filled with a sinister sneer.
However, what he said at the end was not for elder Ming.

Elder Ming was stunned.
Suddenly, he turned around and saw a hunch-backed old man leaning against a cane, standing at the entrance and staring ahead blankly.
If it were not for the almost indiscernible daemon qi, he basically would have suspected him to be the statue from before.

“You’re…” A name suddenly flashed through elder Ming’s head. The White Camel Sand King!

One of the Ten Daemon Kings, the king of the Scarlet province daemons.

Unlike the Great Banyan Tree King and the Dragon King of Ink Sea who remained in the same place all the time, the White Camel Sand King regularly roamed through the sea of sand in the Scarlet province.
His tracks were a mystery, and very few people ever saw him.

It was rumored that he would turn into a white camel and guide lost people through sandstorms, even leading sandstorms away from oases where life gathered.
He was treated as an auspicious omen, but even fewer people had ever seen his human form.

Elder Ming had only heard about the name of the White Camel Sand King too.
Without any hesitation, he turned into a ghostly figure and flew away.
All of the Ghost Kings in his possession had been lost during the battle in the Umbral Yin sect, so he was currently in his most feeble state.
Even if he were in peak condition, he would struggle to hold his ground against one of the Ten Daemon Kings.
However, he was still reasonably confident about slipping away.

The White Camel Sand King stood blankly without budging.
He tapped the poplar cane in his hand gently, and the sandstorm immediately intensified by several hundred times, sweeping through the entire region and devouring everything.

……

On the other side of the Gate of Hungry Ghosts, an endless wave of gloomy figures descended.
Countless Corpse Kings and Ghost Kings lay in prostration.
There were even a few Corpse Emperors and Ghost Emperors that cast aside their dignity and went up to welcome him, calling out, “Welcome, sovereign Li!”

Sovereign Li ignored them, staring straight at the Gate of Hungry Ghosts as if he could see what was happening on the other end.
“Come, I know you’ll be opening this gate.
I know you feel the same greed and hunger!”

——————————————————————————————————-

This Lowly Monk Comes From Tang of the East~

I recently moved into a new environment, an environment that’s more suited for writing.
Although it’s also led to many new problems that I have to face, it still feels pretty great so far.

The journey I’ve been taking has been far too twisted the entire time, circling around and detouring, stopping and going, which makes people wonder whether I can actually make it to the end or not.
However, I actually understand how distant the end still is better than anyone.
The journey ahead is still very, very long.
You can only say I’m halfway so far, or not even that.

I’ve never written such a long novel before.
Every single step I take comes with unknown circumstances.
I don’t know what other hardships I’ll face.
The eighty-one tribulations are probably an allegory for endless!

TL: This is a reference to Journey to the West.
Tripitaka has to face eighty-one tribulations during the story.

The greatest problem with retrieving scriptures from the west is not the monsters blocking the journey, but why the fuck should we go in the first place?

Sun Wukong says, “You fool, I only need a single somersault, and I’ll have finished the journey!” Zhu Bajie says, “Let’s just break up.
Gao village is not a bad place to just settle down in!” Sha Seng says, “First senior brother, second senior brother, master has been abducted by a monster again!”

Only afterwards did I realise that elder Tang’s wholehearted devotion to buddhism isn’t that simple.
He said he has the protection of three great disciples, but protection my ass.
If the monsters didn’t suffer from perfectionism, procrastination, infatuation, and other sorts of mental disorders, he would have been turned into takeout a long time ago.

Monsters can be subdued, but if elder Tang decided to give up halfway through the journey, then even the buddha would be powerless.

Alright, let’s stop here with these boring parallels.
I originally wanted to announce loudly something along the line of “I, Dream Teller, am back.
From today onwards, two releases a day, one at 8 in the morning and one at 6 in the evening, a hundred thousand words a month”.
But when I think about it now, I always have such naive thoughts whenever I overcome a difficulty, so let’s just play it safe this time.

Anyway, I still have to keep going.
I’ll have to gamble that every single monster in my path suffers from mental disorders and that those three bastards will always be able to save me, and then I’ll continue forward.

Oh right, there’s going to be an auction in Shanghai in August.
They’re auctioning the game rights to Legend of the Great Sage.
I better move faster!