"Roar!"
A world-shaking roar exploded from the clouds,
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You've got quite a few tricks." Ye Chen looked up at the towering, ten-thousand-meter-tall Heaven and Earth Dharma Aspect without a trace of surprise. He slowly rose into the air until he was level with Sun Wukong.
Huh? This Dharma Aspect looked familiar.
"Judging by your Dharma Appearance Heaven and Earth, if I'm not mistaken, you must be the Intelligent Stone Monkey, one of the Four Great Spirit Monkeys."
Ye Chen didn't attack as soon as he faced Sun Wukong. Instead, he said something that left Sun Wukong utterly bewildered.
"What? Four Great Spirit Monkeys? What nonsense are you talking about?"
Sun Wukong naturally didn't know that he wasn't the only monkey born like him in this world. So far, people knew of no fewer than four.
They were the Crimson-tailed Horse Monkey, who understood yin and yang, knew human affairs, was adept at coming and going, and could evade death and prolong life;
the Six-Eared Macaque, who understood human nature and knew how to transform;
the Intelligent Stone Monkey, who grasped the seasons and geography and could shift the stars and change the constellations;
and the fourth, known as the Back-through Ape Monkey. A spirit beyond the Six Paths, the Back-through Ape Monkey was immensely powerful. He could seize the sun and moon, shrink a thousand mountains, discern good and ill fortune, and manipulate the universe. He was said to be Sun Wukong's equal in strength.
Sun Wukong would naturally encounter the Six-Eared Macaque during one of the trials Tang Sanzang faced later on, but that was a story for another time.
The reason this Demon Seed was so interested in Sun Wukong was that his deputy was the Back-through Ape Monkey, one of the Four Great Spirit