Xuanzang smiled and shook his head.
"You two."
"Wukong, stop fooling around."
Wukong's raised hand froze in midair.
Bajie hurriedly shuffled backward.
Xuanzang turned to Great King Si without looking at them again.
Great King Si still stood there.
Xuanzang said, "I have compared your two accounts against each other."
"And found another story within them."
As his words fell, a crack sounded.
The broken horn gave a sharp click.
The growth rings on its broken surface lit up one after another.
No scene of heaven's creation appeared around them.
Xuanzang's voice rang out.
"Heaven opened in the hour of Zi."
"Earth was formed in the hour of Chou."
"Humankind was born in the hour of Yin."
"Once heaven and earth were formed, all manner of beings arose within them."
"Generation after generation, they multiplied down to the present day."
Blue smoke sank downward.
Soil appeared beneath their feet.
A mountain breeze blew in from afar.
The wind carried the scents of damp earth, grass, and animal blood.
People were already running across the land.
Some had shoulders towering above low trees and could snap off thick branches with a raised hand.
Some were covered in fine scales, plunging into rushing streams and only surfacing far downstream after a long while.
Others had short horns on their heads and wings behind their shoulders whose feathers had yet to fill out.
They wore animal skins and wrapped themselves in leaves.
When hungry, they entered the mountains to gather fruit or went to the riverbanks to collect clams and snails.
Xuanzang said, "The people of that age were simple and honest, their forms varied."
"Though they had formed tribes, they had not yet cultivated the five grains."
A long rope hung in the center of the tribe.
Whenever a beast was brought