Wukong nodded happily.
"Mm! Master named me!"
Su Miao glanced up at Zhunti.
When Zhunti met Su Miao's gaze, he gave a slight shrug, looking utterly open and aboveboard without the slightest hint of guilt.
Su Miao sighed inwardly but did not press the matter. Lowering her head, she began teasing the soft little monkey by her feet.
This was very likely Monkey Bro.
Jieyin spoke at that moment.
He looked toward Zhunti and asked gently,
"Junior Brother, where did you find him?"
For his Junior Brother to treat this little monkey as a trump card, its origins had to be anything but simple.
Had today's events not happened, his Junior Brother would surely have kept this little monkey hidden so tightly that not even a whisper would escape.
Zhunti lightly tapped the tabletop with his fingertips, his gaze falling upon little Wukong, who was clinging to Su Miao's skirt and trying to climb up. A hint of pride curved his lips.
"When Miao Heng was Mending the Heavens all those years ago, a Farm Teachings Disciple overturned a bucket of Sky-Mending Paste made from five-colored stones.
"That bucket happened to roll to where Miao Heng had vomited blood, and the paste was soaked by that mouthful of Essence Blood.
"Combined with the power of the five-colored stones, her Essence Blood gradually nurtured a stone embryo within those Earth Veins."
He paused there and glanced at Wukong in Su Miao's arms.
"This stone embryo was hidden where underground Spiritual Veins converged.
"If I had not noticed the abnormal fluctuations in those Spiritual Veins,
"then even after hundreds or thousands more years, it might not have developed intelligence."
Su Miao lowered her head to look at the little golden snub-nosed monkey in her arms, its paws tugging at her collar. The