White Dragon Horse snorted, turned, and walked behind a wind-sheltered rock by the roadside. He lay down, burying his head between his forelegs, leaving only his upright ears exposed.
Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie had already landed ahead of them.
Sun Wukong crouched atop a jutting boulder, pinched a small tuft of monkey fur between two fingers, and sniffed it beneath his nose. Then he pointed toward the mountainside.
"The cave entrance is over there, a little above the middle of the mountain. The Demon Qi is strongest in that direction."
Chu Yang looked where he pointed. Nothing could be seen in the darkness, but he could vaguely make out a faint flickering fire somewhere on the mountainside, like a half-open eye in the night.
"That's a torch at the cave entrance," Zhu Bajie said. "A demon's lair usually has torches lit. They're afraid of the dark."
Sun Wukong snorted. "Demons are afraid of the dark?"
"They are." Zhu Bajie spoke with perfect confidence. "Back when I was in Gao Village, I had to light a lamp even when I got up in the middle of the night to use the latrine."
"You call that being afraid of the dark? That's called being blind."
"Brother Monkey, you—"
"Enough." Chu Yang cut off their bickering. "Brother Monkey, how do we do this? You decide."
Sun Wukong jumped down from the rock, spinning the Golden Staff twice in his hand.
"Simple. I'll charge in from the front and draw out Great King Yellow Wind. Idiot, you sneak in from the side and find Master. Brother Chu Yang—"
He looked at Chu Yang's right arm hanging before his chest and frowned.
"You go with the idiot and focus on finding him. Stay out of the fight. One more hit on that arm and