Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 4 Except for Wushan, there are no other clouds.

Chu Family Village is more than 100 miles away from Wu Family Ridge. This Spirit Bamboo Paper Hawk is only a mid-grade first-order hawk, and the magic array used to drive it only contains a dozen first-order spirit stones. It flies very slowly, and it took Chu Shanyun more than an hour to arrive.

At 9:00 AM, a busy time, in the orphanage on the mountainside of Wujialing, an ordinary woman was diligently washing clothes on a washboard.

When Chu Shanyun's paper kite flew over the courtyard, she was surprised to see a little child walking while holding onto the wall. The child's appearance was somewhat similar to Chen Jinghai's!

This is probably it.

"Is this baby named Cai Fei?" Chu Shan sat on the paper kite on the cloud, not getting down.

"Yes, Immortal Master."

When the celestial master descended, the mortal woman had already stood respectfully at attention. Upon hearing her question, she immediately nodded.

The orphanage has a defensive magic array, but the array is of a very low level and can only defend against ground attacks; there is no protective shield on top.

Chu Shanyun waved her hand, as if casting a hook, and with a "whoosh," pulled Xiao Caifei onto the kite, casually placing him in a small wicker basket. She then tossed a few spirit stones to the commoner woman and announced loudly:

"Please tell Grandpa Xu that the child's biological mother came by and that Cai Fei is temporarily borrowed. She will be returned this afternoon."

After saying that, without waiting for the old woman to react, he rode the paper kite and soared into the sky.

The little baby in the wicker basket crawled up, grabbed the edge, glanced at her, and made some incomprehensible sounds.

After all, he was her own flesh and blood. When she saw her son for the first time, and his appearance was somewhat similar to Chen Jinghai's, even the eccentric Chu Shanyun felt a strange tenderness in her heart.

Alright, it only consumes a little spiritual energy anyway. I'm still recovering from a serious injury, so casting third-tier spells is a bit tiring right now, but second-tier spells are fine.

Chu Shanyun reached out and pressed her hand on the baby's head, concentrated her mind and breath, and cast a second-tier Great Healing spell.

The baby, as if under hypnosis, slowly fell into the wicker basket.

Chu Shanyun paused to catch her breath, and when she withdrew her hand, her fingertips lightly brushed against that small face—she immediately pulled back as if burned.

She frowned, then mounted her paper kite and continued flying towards Chenjia Village, where she hadn't returned for three years.

The flight took another three hours, and they finally arrived at Chenjia Village at dusk.

Returning to the old place three years later, Chu Shanyun was in high spirits. She flew straight to the foot of the small hill where the village gate was located, jumped down with a small basket in her hand, and sent a sound transmission talisman into the protective formation.

A moment later, a male and a female cultivator came out to greet her. They didn't know what to say, and after hesitating for a moment, the female cultivator said, "Shanyun, your injuries have healed? Congratulations."

"Where's Jinghai?" Chu Shanyun, who was not good at social niceties, got straight to the point. "I've worked hard for several years, but I was born on May 5th. Since your family doesn't recognize me, the agreement isn't over. Anyway, the marriage is still in place, so let's start over."

After all that, do you still want to be tortured?

Both Chen family cultivators found it unbelievable, but they didn't have much to say. They simply told Chu Shanyun that Chen Jinghai had been expelled from the village by the Chen family a month ago for abusing the villagers and for his gambling addiction, and had become a wandering cultivator in Sushanfang.

"If you want to come back without this child, we will definitely welcome you. Jinghai's room is still empty—but Jinghai is no longer here; he is no longer a member of the Chen family."

The Chen family is indeed willing to accept Chu Shanyun. With such an unfilial son, the Chen family's reputation is currently ruined. If Chu Shanyun is willing to go back, it can at least salvage some of the reputation of Chen Family Village. Besides, cultivators are all treasures, and having one more cultivator is always a good thing.

But Chu Shanyun had come for Chen Jinghai's sake, so she immediately adopted a very humble attitude and pleaded for Chen Jinghai's life.

"Hitting someone once in a while isn't a big deal, right? You see, I've been hit by him a few times too. It was only when he was angry that he hit me. I, the person involved, don't even take it seriously."

"Sigh, you'd better leave soon. If the creditors hear you still want to stay with him, they'll come after you for your debts," the female cultivator from the Chen family finally said kindly, advising her to let go quickly. "Two hundred thousand spirit stones! Even selling your savage beast wouldn't be enough!"

Two hundred thousand spirit stones!

How could I owe so much!

"I've never heard of anyone betting this big in our market!" Chu Shanyun was shocked.

Gambling requires fairness, but the cultivation levels of cultivators vary greatly, and various secret techniques and divine arts are constantly emerging, making it difficult to achieve fairness. Therefore, gambling is unlikely to flourish in the cultivation world.

In small places like Sushanfang, the situation is even worse. Every cultivator is poor, earning only ten or twenty thousand a year. After deducting their own expenses, they have very little left and have no spare money to spend on gambling.

As far as Chu Shanyun knew, although Chen Jinghai gambled fiercely, his daily wins and losses were only around a hundred spirit stones. Over the course of a year, he would usually only lose two or three thousand spirit stones. How could it suddenly reach two hundred thousand?

"They lost in the north." The female cultivator from the Chen family raised her chin slightly to the north.

The "north" mentioned by the Aolai cultivators refers to the Fangcun Mountain Range, which stretches across the junction between Aolai Island and the mainland.

On Fangcun Mountain lies a third-tier blessed land—the Three Stars Slanting Moon Cave Heaven, currently occupied by the Star Moon Sect. This sect boasts three Great Luo Golden Immortals, over ten Nascent Soul cultivators, and countless Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators, making it a dominant force in the vicinity of Aolai.

A hundred years ago, a group of demons rebelled. The stone monkey Sun Wukong led various demon kings in a series of battles against the Heavenly Court. At the height of their turmoil, they ravaged the Heavenly Palace and the Underworld, causing chaos for over a hundred years and affecting countless lives. This event is known in history as the "Rebellion of the Seven Demons".

Fangcun Mountain was one of the main battlefields.

A Buddhist magic weapon of the Six Paths of Reincarnation was struck and fell into Fangcun Mountain. It is unknown what kind of supernatural power it possessed. After it was shattered, it actually transformed into a miniature puppet world in a certain cave. After being modified by the Xingyue Sect cultivators, it became a famous casino. It is said that cultivators cannot use their spiritual energy inside, so the gambling is very fair.

If Chen Jinghai really lost 200,000, then this is the only place he can go. However, although the casino has a great reputation, very few cultivators on Aolai Island go there—because Aolai Island is currently under lockdown.

When the seven demons were defeated, the monkey was sealed away by Laozi and Buddha. The other six demons either died, fled, or were sealed away.

As the lair of monkeys, Aolai Island is also deeply sinful, and the Heavenly Court has sealed off the entire island.

The humans on the island who had been demons were demoted to slaves and sold to the Great Wilderness to cultivate the land; even the innocent were not allowed to leave, and this period of 100 years was known as the "Prohibition of the Remnants of the Seven Demons".

Now, before the hundred-year period has arrived, cultivators on the island need special permission from the Heavenly Court's management office to leave, and they can only leave once a year.

Moreover, the Star Moon Sect played the role of an internal traitor in Aolai during the Seven Demons Rebellion. During the war, they passed on countless secrets to the Heavenly Court, and after the war, they burned, killed, and looted in Aolai. They can be considered Aolai's number one mortal enemy!

The Chen and Chu families have an irreconcilable blood feud with the Star Moon Sect. The cultivators in the village would never have anything to do with the Star Moon Sect, let alone gamble in their hometown.

"Even Xingyue Sect will go?" Chu Shanyun was shameless, but when it came to Xingyue Sect, she had some bottom line. She scratched her head and could only remain speechless.

Fortunately, she was still thinking and realized there was indeed a risk. She quickly picked up her small basket, boarded the kite, and headed back to the village to avoid being chased by creditors.

"Sigh, it's not easy to marry a female cultivator. It was supposed to be a buy-one-get-one-free deal, but it's turned into this." The female cultivator from the Chen family sighed as she watched Chu Shanyun's hurried departure.

"Where did she get the money to buy it?" the male cultivator laughed. "She practically gave it away for free! She didn't ask for a dowry when she married into the family. Marrying a female cultivator for free is a first in Aolai!"

"She was a devoted person, but it's a pity that Jinghai ruined her life... Her child was abandoned in the wilderness after birth, and it's a miracle that he survived. It's a pity that he's an idiot—I visited him once two years ago and brought him some things. The little thing didn't speak or move, drooling from the corner of his mouth. He wouldn't even blink when his finger was wagging at the corner of his eye. He must have been kicked stupid by that bastard Jinghai." The female cultivator recalled.

"A disgrace to our family," the male cultivator sighed. "They really dare to do anything, even lend any amount of money! I can let others go, but that animal hide vendor in the market is incredibly ruthless. Luckily, I had some past connections with him, otherwise I would have been kidnapped and sent to the deep mountains to dig up spiritual plants long ago!"

Unbeknownst to the two Chen family cultivators, while they were sighing repeatedly, the little child whom the Chen family female cultivator had deemed an idiot had already scrambled to his feet in the small wicker basket on the paper kite.

At first glance, he looked towards the northern sky.

Then his eyes suddenly widened, and he froze.