At Flower-Fruit Mountain, where green waters rushed by, a group of demon kings were toasting one another inside the Water Curtain Cave. The low-cultivation monkey demons hurriedly served monkey wine brewed from fruit.
A black-clad man with effeminate features had just taken a sip of wine when he could not help moving closer to Sun Wukong and saying mysteriously,
"Brother Sun, you truly are formidable. With all these Divine Abilities and Spells of yours, even after cultivating for thousands of years, this old brother can only feel ashamed of his own inadequacy!"
Hearing the flattery, Sun Wukong laughed heartily. "Brother Jiao, you flatter me. How could your little brother dare compare himself to you? I heard you used to make your living in the Northern Sea. Why did you come all the way to the East Sea?"
This man was known as Jiao Mowang. He had indeed once followed the legendary Demon Master Kunpeng in the Northern Sea, but he had now pledged himself to a new master. His reason for approaching Sun Wukong was also to fulfill a task assigned by his master.
"Brother Sun, stop making fun of your brother. The Northern Sea is not an easy place to get by, so I came to the East Sea. Who would have thought that Brother Sun and I would become acquainted through a fight? Let's not say anything else—the friendship is all in the wine!"
The master-servant relationship between Jiao Mowang and Xiao Zhen could not be concealed, though only a few great powers knew of it.
Xiao Zhen had also explained it to some of his colleagues in the Heavenly Court. Jiao Mowang was one of the tribulations he had arranged for the future Journey to the West, so that he could receive a share of Merit and