Tibbers, who only had eyes for eating those few Spider Demons, and the fourth Zhu sister, who spent all day thinking about her beloved, had no idea that not long after the monkey and spider had left, a young monk and an old Daoist had suddenly appeared on another cliff not far from where the two of them had met.
And who else could they be but Maitreya and the old Daoist Yuan Shoucheng?
At that moment, Maitreya held a string of prayer beads. Though he still looked like a young monk, an otherworldly air lingered between his brows.
"..."
He first looked in the direction Tibbers and the fourth Zhu sister had gone, confirming that the two of them had left and would not be coming back. Then he paced back and forth before finally turning his gaze toward Lanxi Village, his eyes gleaming with a complex, peculiar light.
"..."
Yuan Shoucheng stood to one side, dressed in a Daoist robe and holding a horsetail whisk, his expression calm.
Like Maitreya, his gaze was fixed on Lanxi Village. A glimmer of light shone in his murky eyes. They stood side by side without speaking in any hurry.
"Ahem—"
After pacing for a while longer, young Maitreya finally stopped and sighed. Then, with a hint of wistfulness in his voice, he said:
"Flame Immortal, the Primordial God, and the true cultivators of the Three Realms..."
"Outsider demons, are they?"
"I must admit, neither of us ever imagined she had such an identity!"
"We were so caught up in a single leaf that we failed to see the mountain!"
As he spoke wistfully, he made no effort to hide his shock and dismay at Annie's true identity.
He had imagined the little girl's true identity more than once, and come up