I just became the Pirate King, and you're telling me I also time-traveled at the same time.

Chapter 1054 You can even coax a donkey?

As he said this, he seemed to suddenly remember something and turned to look at Su Wanwan: "You've never encountered anything like this before?"

Su Wanwan paused for a moment.

"I've encountered them before," she said calmly. "Of course I've. When I was young, my cultivation was shallow, and my transformation was unstable. What I feared most was not encountering powerful demons, but cultivators. Powerful demons might not even look at me, but cultivators are different. Some people get jealous when they see a fox demon, saying things like 'eliminating demons to accumulate merit,' or 'capturing it to guard the gate and refine pills.' In short, there's not a single good word for it."

"And then?" Chu Yang asked.

"Later I learned to hide," Su Wanwan said. "Hide your tail, hide your breath, hide your thoughts. After hiding for a long time, you even have to speak in a roundabout way to avoid letting people know your true nature."

She said this in a nonchalant tone, even downplaying it.

Chu Yang glanced at her, but didn't take it, and just kept walking forward.

Sun Wukong, unusually, didn't crack a joke, only clicking his tongue and saying, "Those guys are quite annoying."

"So," Su Wanwan smirked, "don't always think I'm good at beating around the bush. Many times, you can't survive without doing it."

As soon as these words were spoken, the path ahead suddenly fell silent.

The wind swept down from the slope, carrying a lingering morning coolness, causing the grass to ripple and sway in waves.

Chu Yang led the horse a few steps, then suddenly said, "I understand."

Su Wanwan was taken aback.

"I know you're not naturally inclined to take detours," Chu Yang said, "but you can try to be a little less convoluted in the future."

Why?

"Because it's not needed now."

He spoke so casually, as if he were just casually mentioning that the weather was nice today and the road was alright.

But as soon as Su Wanwan heard this, her feet inexplicably lightened.

She looked down at a clump of grass bent by the dew on the roadside, and after a while, she gave a very soft "hmm".

The first day of the northward journey went relatively smoothly.

At midday, they rested for a while in a mountain hollow. At the entrance of the hollow was a flat drying stone, still bearing the marks of old knives and axes, indicating that hunters used to frequent this place. Next to it was a wild pear tree, not large, but with many fruits, though not yet fully ripe, tinged with yellowish green.

Sun Wukong disliked the sour taste and refused to pick it.

Su Wanwan picked out two that looked good, wiped them clean, and started eating them, saying as she ate, "These are the tastiest, they're crispy."

Seeing her munching away so loudly, Chu Yang asked, "What happened to your old aunt later?"

Su Wanwan almost didn't react: "Who?"

"The one about Qiyue Ridge."

"Oh, her?" Su Wanwan bit into a pear, thought for a moment, and then said, "She left later."

"Gone?"

"Well, not many people stay in one place their whole lives. She had a bad temper and loved to drink, so she always got into arguments with people after staying there for a while. Then one day she just left without a word, leaving behind only an empty wine gourd and half a string of dried fish. After that, we never heard from her again."

"What's your name?" Chu Yang asked.

Su Wanwan paused for a moment: "Her name is Hu Sanniang."

"Such a simple ranking?"

"What's so simple about her?" Su Wanwan immediately objected. "Many of the scattered fox spirits are named like this. I don't know if there are first or second aunts before her, but everyone calls her Third Aunt. She doesn't care."

Sun Wukong sat on the rock, swinging his legs: "So, this Third Sister, has she ever taught you any proper skills?"

Su Wanwan thought about it seriously for a moment, and then surprisingly nodded: "Yes."

"What?"

"Don't get stuck when you're swearing," she said.

Sun Wukong was taken aback at first, then laughed so hard he almost dropped the stone: "What kind of skill is that!"

"How can it not count?" Su Wanwan argued vehemently. "She said that for a fox to cultivate, its heart must first be open. If its heart is open, its words will soften; if its words soften, its power will dissipate. Do you think I could have cursed so fluently in the forest out of thin air?"

After listening to this, Chu Yang actually nodded: "That does count as some skill."

"Right?" Su Wanwan said immediately, "I knew it."

Tang Sanzang, holding the water bag, sighed softly upon hearing this: "This Third Sister's teachings are... quite unique."

"She's always been quite unique," Su Wanwan said. "When she's drunk, she can stand on a rock and curse at the moon for half the night, saying that the most annoying thing in the world is pretentious people, and the second most annoying thing is people who think they know everything and then try to teach others how to live."

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong's eyes lit up: "I like that temperament too."

Chu Yang suddenly gave him a half-smile and said, "Brother Monkey, do you think I look like you?"

Sun Wukong was taken aback, then grinned: "She really does have a good eye."

Su Wanwan lowered her head, finished the last bite of the pear, tossed the core aside, and suddenly said, "Actually, she said something even stranger."

"What?" Chu Yang asked.

"She said that if I ever really want to go to Qiyue Ridge, I shouldn't go alone." Su Wanwan frowned. "She said that place recognizes foxes, but it also doesn't. Going alone, you're likely to get lost. It's best to bring two people with strong malevolent energy, or one person with a very righteous heart. In short, you can't go alone."

Sun Wukong chuckled upon hearing this: "Two men with such fierce auras, isn't that just me joining my brother?"

Tang Sanzang coughed softly beside him.

Su Wanwan couldn't help but laugh: "There's also one whose heart is too upright."

Chu Yang said, "It seems that her calculations were quite accurate."

"Don't flatter yourself," Su Wanwan said. "She said you can't go alone, not specifically referring to the group of you."

"Okay," Chu Yang replied lazily. "Anyway, you're not going alone now."

Starting in the afternoon, the mountain road became really difficult to walk on.

The terrain gradually rose, and what was once a passable dirt road slowly turned into a jumble of rocks. Some rocks were as wide as a tabletop, while others were sharp and jagged. The white horse could still manage to walk, but the white donkey grew increasingly frustrated, trying several times to veer off to the side to graze, only to be pulled back by Chu Yang each time.

Su Wanwan walked ahead, looking for relatively safe places to step on while turning back to remind others: "Don't walk on the left side this time. The stones on the left are hollow underneath, and they'll collapse if you step on them."

"You seem quite familiar with it," Chu Yang said.

"It's not like this is my first time seeing mountains," Su Wanwan scoffed. "You can tell at a glance that this kind of terrain looks stable on the surface, but it's actually all loose underneath."

Sun Wukong darted among the tree branches above and suddenly said, "There's a weathered cliff ahead, and it looks like someone used to live down there."

"Is someone there?" Tang Sanzang looked up.

"Hmm, embers and broken pottery shards," Sun Wukong said. "It must have been some time ago."

Chu Yang said, "Let's go take a look."

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed a partially collapsed sheltered corner.

Below the cliff was an old hearth, its ashes completely cold. Beside it lay two broken pottery jars and a broken wooden staff. The staff was engraved with rough runes, unlike the work of a proper Taoist sect, more like the scribbles of some wandering martial arts master.

Sun Wukong picked it up, glanced at it, and threw it back with disdain: "He has no real skills, but he loves to put on airs."

Su Wanwan stared at a corner of the cliff for a while, then suddenly walked over and reached out to touch the stone surface.

"What's wrong?" Chu Yang asked.

"There are words written here," Su Wanwan said.

"What did you write?"

"Most of it has been worn away, leaving only a few traces." She pointed to the few remaining strokes on the stone, "like... 'under the moon,' 'fox lantern,' and the character 'do not.'"

Chu Yang also went over to take a look.

The writing was indeed old, worn down to just the edges by wind, sand and rain. If she hadn't been so observant, she wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"There might also be people who came from Chongqiyue Ridge," Su Wanwan said in a low voice.

"And then?" Sun Wukong asked.

"They either arrived or they didn't," Chu Yang said. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have only these things left."

Su Wanwan didn't reply, but glanced at the broken words again before turning around and continuing to walk forward.

That night, unable to find a decent flat place, they had to spend the night in a sheltered crevice in the rocks.

It was very windy at night.

The wind swept in from the ridge, making a long, whistling sound as it crashed into the cracks in the rocks, like someone talking from a great distance. Su Wanwan already remembered the place "Wind Returns to the Stream," and after lying down, she listened to the sound of the wind and couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

Chu Yang was not far from her, and he probably wasn't asleep either, because a soft voice suddenly came from the wind: "What are you thinking about?"

Su Wanwan turned to the side, resting her chin on her arm, gazing at the pale moon in the corner outside.

"I'm thinking about Qiyue Ridge," she said.

"Afraid?"

"A little," she admitted frankly. "After all, it's just hearsay. When we actually get there, we can't say for sure whether it's empty or full, good or bad."

"Anything else?"

"And..." Su Wanwan paused, "and something else is a little strange."

"What's so strange?"

"It's a shame you actually came with me like that," she said softly. "I thought that after you asked, you would just keep it in mind and bring it up later when you had the chance. I didn't expect you to change your plans that very day."

The wind blew through the cracks in the rocks, carrying the moonlight in with it, making Chu Yang's profile appear pale.

He didn't answer immediately.

After a while, he said, "I don't like to drag things out either."

"I know that."

"Besides, these things get boring if you drag them out," Chu Yang said. "You're thinking about going today, but in ten days or half a month, you might start thinking about other things again, feeling it's troublesome, not worth it, or that you shouldn't delay your journey for yourself."

Su Wanwan was immediately caught off guard and protested, "I'm not that bad—"

"You do have it," Chu Yang interrupted her, his tone flat.

Su Wanwan opened her mouth, but couldn't come up with a rebuttal.

Because those thoughts did indeed cross her mind.

Once people calm down, they tend to look for a way out. She's not the type to act impulsively without thinking, and saying "I want to go" in front of everyone was already unusually straightforward. If she delays for a few more days, she might start fighting with herself first.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but let out a muffled "Oh".

Chu Yang seemed to smile slightly.

"So now is the perfect time to go."

"You..." Su Wanwan buried her face in her arms, her voice muffled, "Sometimes you're so annoying, and sometimes you are..."

"What again?"

"It's not that annoying."

Chu Yang clicked his tongue in the darkness: "Such a stingy evaluation."

"Then how much better do you want it to sound?"

"At least say 'You're so nice'?"

"You're dreaming."

"Then let's go to sleep."

Su Wanwan tried to hold back, but couldn't help herself and managed a slight smile in the darkness.

The next day, they crossed the first ridge.

On the third day, near noon, we finally saw Feng Huijian in the distance.

That place was even stranger than Su Wanwan had heard of it.

On both sides were towering, dark stone walls, leaving only a narrow path in the middle, so narrow that even the White Dragon Horse had to squeeze through sideways. Even more troublesome was the wind. It didn't come from one direction, but swirled wildly from all sides. One moment it was blowing in from the front, the next it was whipping up from below, pulling clothes and hair in the opposite direction.

Before she even got close, Su Wanwan tied her hair up tighter again.

Sun Wukong stood atop the stone wall, glanced inside, and frowned, saying, "The wind here is a bit eerie."

"Like an array," Chu Yang said.

"Who laid this?" Su Wanwan asked.

"It's not a man-made formation." Chu Yang glanced at the naturally eroded holes and cracks on the stone walls on both sides. "It's more like the terrain itself has created them. Over time, it's become almost like a formation."

Tang Sanzang held onto his monk's robe to prevent it from being blown up by the wind, and said in a low voice, "In that case, we can only proceed slowly."

"But we can't go too slowly," Su Wanwan said. "I've heard that the wind in Feng Hui Jian gets more turbulent as evening approaches, so it's best to go now."

Chu Yang nodded: "Then let's do it now."

The white horse was alright; though it wasn't used to the turbulent wind, it managed to stay steady. The most difficult one was the white donkey. As soon as it reached the entrance, it stubbornly refused to go in, its four legs spread apart, ears turned back, the whole donkey displaying resistance.

Sun Wukong chuckled, "This thing does have a real will to survive."

Chu Yang tugged at the reins twice, but couldn't budge them, so he simply let go and walked up to it: "Walk by yourself, or should I fly you there?"

The white donkey stared at him, snorting.

"I'll count to three," Chu Yang said. "One."

The white donkey remained still.

"two."

The white donkey remained motionless.

"three--"

"Hey, hey, don't actually lift it." Su Wanwan quickly came over, "It's afraid of the wind anyway."

As she spoke, she actually walked up to the white donkey's ear, raised her hand and touched its forehead: "Be good, I'll go find you some tender grass. If you act stubborn here now, no one will praise you for being brave."

The white donkey's ears twitched, and surprisingly, they weren't as irritated as before.

Sun Wukong looked on in surprise: "You can even coax a donkey?"

"Why can't you coax a fox?" Su Wanwan said matter-of-factly. "It's just that I'm usually too lazy to coax it."

Chu Yang said from the side, "Then you hold it."

"I'll hold your hand, then."

As it turned out, she was leading the white donkey at the front, and although the donkey was reluctant the whole way, it eventually followed.

The path through Feng Huijian is terribly difficult to traverse.

Not only was her footing uneven, but the wind kept swirling around her ears and feet. Several times, Su Wanwan felt as if a gust of wind was deliberately trying to blow against her knees, attempting to lift her off the ground. But each time she was about to lose her balance, a gentle breeze would support her from behind, not strong, but just enough to steady her back on her feet.

She knew who it was without even turning around.

When they reached the narrowest point, the stone walls on both sides almost pressed against their shoulders, leaving only a sliver of sky overhead. The wind howled down from above. Su Wanwan subconsciously looked up, only to suddenly notice a half-worn yellow talisman pasted in a recess in the left stone wall.

"Wait." She stopped abruptly.

Chu Yang asked from behind, "What's wrong?"

"There's something over there," Su Wanwan pointed.

Almost simultaneously, Sun Wukong leaped onto the stone wall, pinched the yellow talisman between two fingers, and tore it off. But as soon as the talisman left the wall, the stone surface it had been attached to cracked open with a "crack," and a dark, murky thing rolled out from inside.

The thing landed, shook, and instantly unfolded into a grotesque bird, so thin it was nothing but skin and bones, with extremely long wings, a beak as thin as a needle, and bloodshot eyes. (End of Chapter)