The Monkey King

  When the sun shines on the stone monkey's eyes again, the tip of his thirsty tongue touches some tiny, hard objects.

   "Sand?" He forced his head up.

   This is a beach where the sea regularly beats the reefs on the shore, and the edge is a whole coniferous forest.

   "We... we are saved!" He opened his eyes suddenly, hoping to get back on his body again!

   struggled to stand up, only to find the canary beside him who was already in a coma.

   Holding her carefully in the palm of his hand, the stone monkey walked towards the taiga.

  The environment makes people grow up. The stone monkey at this time is no longer the stone monkey when he first came to this world. As a monkey, he has no shortage of survival skills.

  This is not Huaguo Mountain, both the climate and the species show this.

  There is not a lot of fruit here either, but even so, you can find something like pine cones and walnuts to satisfy your hunger.

   This is not difficult for the stone monkey, but the most pressing problem he faces now is not hunger, but thirst.

   "Hold on, be sure to hold on, and wait. I'll find the water soon. Don't die, there'll be water soon."

   The gradually weak Canary's breath made Stone Monkey startle. He was already in a trance, and he kept repeating those words in his mouth as he stumbled through the forest.

   Pick off the leaves and chew them directly in the mouth, trying to absorb a little juice from them to maintain physical fitness.

   After struggling in the coniferous forest all morning, he finally found the water source, which was a small mountain spring that slowly flowed down from the mountain.

   Although it is small, it is enough for this monkey and one bird.

   Since the canary was already in a complete coma, the stone monkey had to feed her mouth to mouth.

   "We must come back to life," he said.

   After a long time, Canary's eyes moved slightly and swallowed the water.

  I also found some coniferous specialties such as walnuts and pine cones. The stone monkeys crushed them and mixed them with water to feed the canaries little by little.

   Finally, Canary's state seemed to stabilize, she opened her eyes and asked, "How did we get saved?"

"I don't know, I seem to have seen a golden carp. It should be a fairy or a monster." The stone monkey smashed the walnut with a stone and sent it to the canary's mouth, with relish. eat up.

   "How do you know it's a fairy or a monster?"

   "Are there carp in the sea? I don't remember them, let alone golden ones. But I know that dragons like to turn into carp."

   "You know so much...Like a human, not like a monkey." Canary said enviously, but her eyes were full of worry,

After   , Canary fell into a deep sleep.

   They spent that night in this unfamiliar forest, with the monkey squatting on an old tree guarding the canary.

   This is a night without the moon, and the howls of beasts can be heard from time to time in the darkness. There seems to be something struggling in the grass under the tree, and the air is filled with the smell of blood.

  Monkey held his breath. He had no idea what dangerous animals were in the dark forest, for fear that a breath would lead to death.

   He was half asleep all night long.

   The monkey didn't breathe a sigh of relief until the sun came up, but soon he found a half-blooded deer skeleton under the tree...

   "What's next?" Canary asked in a low voice with her head lowered.

  The stone monkey squatted on the stone with the cracked walnut in his hand, and bit by bit he picked out the kernel from the broken shell and stuffed it into his mouth. The mouth moved quickly, but there was no answer.

   He was trying to keep himself from remembering the fear of last night, but the more he did, the more he could not get rid of it.

   There are no monkeys here, he is alone, or rather, a lone monkey.

   For a long time, Canary's head was buried lower, but she didn't ask any more questions.

   After all the walnuts in the stone monkey's hand were eaten, he blinked and looked at the mountain behind him: "I will continue to go west. If you don't want to, go back to Huaguo Mountain and wait for me to come back."

   "Monkey, is immortality really that important? More important than life?"

  Monkey did not answer.

  Canary said nothing more.

   The stone monkey, who had just recovered from his fear, had not had time to rest, and then took the canary, which was still in a weak state, and started to climb the mountain in the west.

  Although the mountain is not particularly high, it is still a bit difficult for the monkeys who have not fully recovered.

   And it wasn't until the stone monkey reached the top of the mountain in front of him that he finally understood why the canary asked that - going down is no easier than staying here.

   In many respects the stone monkey knows far more than the canary, but there are also some aspects in which the canary is better than the stone monkey—especially in terms of geography.

Behind the    Mountain is an endless Gobi.

   It was a place where the ground was cracked, and there was almost no life in sight. There were only a few dead old trees and three or two fighting mice in the vast desert.

   separated by a mountain, one side is lush and green, while the other side is barren.

  The ocean is dangerous, and the land turns out to be no less, especially for a monkey.

   "Do you still want to go?" The canary struggled to stand up on the shoulders of the stone monkey and sighed: "I am a bird, I have been flying all the time. I have always been insensitive to the distance of the land until..."

   "Until this accident at sea?"

"Um."

  The stone monkey was silent, he crouched on the top of the mountain and stared reluctantly at the Gobi in the west for a long time.

   "Canary, you've been here before, right? This is Nanzhanbuzhou, that's right."

"Um."

   "If I want to cross this Gobi, how long will it take?"

"It took me about six days to fly." Canary lowered her head, hesitated for a long time, and then said: "There are wolves in this Gobi... After passing through the Gobi, it is a human town, although there is a forest. , but there are hunters in the forest...and later..."

  Canary did not go on, but the meaning was already obvious.

  There are almost no safe places for stone monkeys in this land. This road is connected by such places - hunters, beasts, deserts...

  The lingering wind swept the sand and stones past the stone monkey, brushing the fluff on his body.

   He had already thought about the road he was going to take, but he was still too naive.

  Tang Sanzang went to the west to learn scriptures and went through ninety-nine-eighty-one hardships. The stone monkey is not as popular as him, at least not so many monsters covet his meat.

But…

   On this journey, let’s not talk about whether we can cultivate into immortals, and whether we can reach them alive, which is a huge problem.

go back?

   The last time I was lucky enough to cross the sea, is there such a fate this time?

   At this moment, he only felt that his mind was in chaos, and the thousands of words finally condensed into a national curse that the canary could not understand: "Male Gobi!"