Outside the Wind Cave, curses shook heaven and earth.
Sun Wukong had smashed the mountain gate with one blow of his staff. Now he and Zhu Bajie stood atop the rubble, pointing at the cave entrance and hurling abuse. Their voices carried through the thick mountain rock into the cave dwelling, making the veins on Great King Yellow Wind's forehead throb.
"Too far! They've gone too far!"
Great King Yellow Wind shoved aside the lesser demon attending him, strode to the weapon rack, and grabbed the three-pronged Steel Fork, its cold edge gleaming.
"They killed my vanguard, smashed my home, and now they're cursing me at my own door! Do they think this king is molded from clay?"
Demonic energy surged around him, savage light blazing in his eyes. He turned, ready to muster his troops and charge out of the cave.
"Wait, Your Majesty."
A clear, calm voice abruptly rang out through the cave dwelling, cutting through its murderous atmosphere.
Great King Yellow Wind stopped short and whipped his head around.
Xuanzang, surrounded by lesser demons at the entrance to the rear garden, had somehow taken several steps forward. Though imprisoned, he showed none of a captive's dishevelment. Instead, he straightened his robes and gazed with clear eyes at the enraged demon king.
"Are you begging for mercy?" Great King Yellow Wind sneered. The Steel Fork trembled in his hand, humming. "Or buying time for those two disciples of yours?"
Xuanzang shook his head, his expression composed. "This humble monk seeks neither mercy nor delay. There is merely something I do not understand, and I wish to ask Your Majesty about it."
"You're at death's door, and you still have questions?" Great King Yellow Wind barked impatiently.
Rather than shrink before his fury, Xuanzang stepped forward, his gaze burning:
"I have heard of a kingdom in the west called Sihali. That kingdom once suffered a plague brought by a 'strange insect.' At every sunset, it burrowed out of the ground and killed the city's children with its tremors. The people suffered beyond words."
At the words "Sihali" and "strange insect," Great King Yellow Wind's furious expression suddenly froze. His golden pupils contracted slightly as he stared hard at Xuanzang.
Xuanzang continued, speaking at an even pace:
"Your Majesty stepped forward out of righteousness. With the power of the Sunset Drum, you lured out the strange insect and slew it, saving an entire kingdom's people. This was a deed of great merit, and for it, you were honored as the kingdom's preceptor."
"Since you possessed such a compassionate heart and saved the people from fire and flood..."
Xuanzang's voice abruptly sharpened as he looked straight into Great King Yellow Wind's eyes:
"Why, then, did you issue the Mouse Reverence Decree, forcing that kingdom's people to live alongside mice, half human and half demon? Why claim to be the world-saving 'Great Sage Yellow Wind' while committing the deeds of a demon who brings ruin upon it?"
Deathly silence filled the cave dwelling. The lesser demons scarcely dared breathe.
Great King Yellow Wind fell silent for a moment, then suddenly threw back his head and laughed. Yet his laughter carried a chilling coldness and wild arrogance.
"You're quite well informed, monk."
Great King Yellow Wind abruptly closed in on Xuanzang. His hideous face was barely a foot away, and a twisted flame burned in his golden pupils:
"But why should I tell you?"
"The king of Sihali Kingdom was a fool. He revered the Buddha and believed in him, but what came of it? When the calamity of Fuban struck, did Spirit Mountain intervene? Could a city full of golden Buddhas withstand a single bite from that strange insect? No!"
Great King Yellow Wind slammed the Steel Fork against the ground, scattering sparks:
"I saved them! Those Spirit Mountain would not deliver, I delivered! Those Spirit Mountain would not save, I saved!"
"As for the Mouse Reverence Decree?" A mocking smile curled Great King Yellow Wind's lips. "Since I saved this kingdom, isn't it only right and proper that its people should sustain my kind? Their very survival is a blessing bestowed by this king!"
"Your Majesty, that is no blessing. It is a bargain. You saved their lives, but robbed them of their dignity as human beings, penning them beneath your Mouse Reverence Decree."
"So what?!"
Great King Yellow Wind swept his broad sleeve. A demonic wind rose, setting Xuanzang's robes snapping.
"Can dignity fill their bellies? Can dignity stop Fuban from swallowing them in one bite?"
Great King Yellow Wind's gaze grew dark and unfathomable. He lowered his voice, filling it with a malice that made the skin crawl:
"Monk, you know only that the strange insect harmed people. But do you know where it came from?"
Xuanzang's gaze tightened slightly. "I would hear the details."
Great King Yellow Wind raised a finger, pointed overhead, then toward the west. His voice turned sinister and eerie:
"The king of Sihali Kingdom originally revered the Buddha and honored monks. Countless golden statues stood throughout his realm. But later, he decided the Buddhist order was insatiably greedy, demanding incense offerings while giving the people no protection. So he ordered Buddhism abolished, changed the kingdom's name, and expelled the monks."
"The day after he toppled the last Buddha statue, that strange insect crawled out of the earth."
A mocking curve lifted the corner of Great King Yellow Wind's mouth:
"Monk, can you guess what that insect looked like?"
Xuanzang remained silent. Only the fingers turning his prayer beads paused slightly.
"What it carried on its back was no shell."
Great King Yellow Wind enunciated each word, his voice piercing as ice:
"It was an enormous, kindly, benevolent... Buddha's head."
Xuanzang's pupils abruptly contracted.
"A Buddha's head..."
"Exactly! The very kind of Buddha you kneel before every day!" A crazed light flickered in Great King Yellow Wind's eyes.
"At every sunset, that Buddha-Head Insect emerged to the sound of Buddhist chants. Wherever it passed, villages were destroyed, and neither people nor livestock survived!"
Great King Yellow Wind seized Xuanzang by the collar and demanded harshly:
"Tell me! Was that a demon's doing, or punishment from Spirit Mountain?!"
"Merely because that king refused to revere the Buddha, Spirit Mountain sent down such a monster to wipe out his entire kingdom?!"
"Is that your compassion? Is that the true scripture you seek?!"
Xuanzang's heart clenched violently.
A strange insect with a Buddha's head... an entire kingdom destroyed for failing to revere the Buddha... It ran counter to everything he understood of Buddhist teachings.
Xuanzang lowered his head and looked at the furry, sharp-clawed hand clutching his collar. He gripped his prayer beads so tightly that his palm ached. Drawing a deep breath, he spoke softly, yet his voice echoed clearly between the stone walls:
"If it is truly as Your Majesty says, and that Buddha-Head Insect arose because of 'irreverence,' then you saved Sihali Kingdom in defiance of heaven. Since you dared defy heaven to save its people, why are you now mired here on Yellow Wind Ridge, trampling such great merit underfoot?"
Great King Yellow Wind let go with a cold snort, shoving Xuanzang aside as though discarding a piece of rubbish.
He slowly turned away and walked toward the cave entrance, dragging the three-pronged Steel Fork behind him. The heavy metal scraped across the ground with a piercing screech.
"You monks always love making a fuss over things as empty and elusive as mist."
Great King Yellow Wind kept his back to Xuanzang.
"You ask why I changed? Ha!"
He stopped abruptly and turned his head. A flicker of cunning and cruelty crossed his golden eyes:
"Monk, there are things in this world that hurt worse to hear than death itself. Once I've taken your disciple's bones apart, one by one, and laid them on the offering table, perhaps I'll show you great compassion and let you die knowing the truth."
"You say I encourage the mouse plague and harm the people. But without this swarm of mice of mine, other Buddha-Head Insects would have devoured everyone in that kingdom long ago!"
"I am saving them! By making them half human and half demon, I am keeping them alive!"
Boom-!
Those words struck Xuanzang's heart like a bolt of thunder.
"Monk, stop seeking the scriptures."
Seeing Xuanzang remain silent, Great King Yellow Wind leaned close to his ear, his voice like a devil's whisper:
"There is no ultimate bliss in the Western Heaven, only rules that devour people. Your so-called true scripture is nothing but another Mouse Reverence Decree. Only instead of mice, it bears a lotus."
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