"Master..."
After circling through the air several times, the black-furred monkey lowered his cloud again. Then, as though presenting a treasure, he came before a small tower deep in the mountain forest and shouted, "What do you think of this Divine Ability of mine? Have I practiced it well?"
No sooner had his words fallen than a rebuking voice came from the side. "You monkey, you have no manners at all! Sir sits quietly within this tower—perhaps sleeping, perhaps reading or writing—and yet you shout and holler like this, loud enough for everyone above and below the mountain to hear! You have long disturbed the peace of everyone in these mountains, and now that you have learned a little Divine Ability, you have come to bother Sir again!"
The voice sounded young. The black-furred monkey did not even need to turn around to know who was speaking—
Sure enough, as the voice faded, a young-looking boy sprang out from the side. He was the very page who had stood beside Qiu Yan when the black-furred monkey had knelt before the mountain gate and begged Qiu Yan to take him as a disciple.
Yet more than a year had passed, and the boy had not changed in the slightest. He still looked exactly as before, his brow carrying a childish air. But within his eyes flickered the light of wisdom.
In the past, the black-furred monkey might have thought that this boy only acted so imposing because he was close to his master. But after more than a year of study, he had learned that though the boy appeared ordinary, he was in truth a spirit by nature, born with seven wheels, standing between deity and mortal as a demigod. It was said that his mother was a deity of the