Bajie looked at him. "Rely on you?"
The Earth God shook his head.
Bajie asked again, "Rely on us?"
The Earth God shook his head again.
Bajie laughed. "Then who?"
The Earth God did not answer, remaining where he stood with his Dragon-Head Staff.
Bajie watched him for a while, then curled his lip. "Come on, Old Bull. Everyone's gone. Why keep up the act?"
The aged face did not change, but his aura did.
Bajie was about to speak again when Wukong cut in. "Big brother, we're brothers. Why let things come to this? There have been some misunderstandings. Let me explain."
The Bull Demon King turned toward him, as though he really was waiting to hear.
"Your wife and the others are all safe."
Wukong walked up to him. "Back at Hao Mountain, Red Boy attacked me first. Later, he was trapped deep in the Earth Veins, so I went to Green Cloud Mountain to ask your wife to save him. Both mother and son were rescued, and Guanyin Bodhisattva took Red Boy as her disciple, making him the Good Fortune Boy."
"Later, the Bodhisattva told him to travel on foot to the South Sea, visiting sacred places to accumulate enough merit to attain True Fruition. Seeing that your wife couldn't stop worrying, she let her accompany him. We were all there when they left. Mother and son were safe, with guardians escorting them."
The Bull Demon King asked, "What about Ruyi? Who killed him?"
Wukong scratched his cheek. "He did it himself. We couldn't talk him out of it. In Western Liang, he willingly relinquished his True Body and merged into a zither with his wife, Pipa. Guanyin Bodhisattva and the Dao Ancestor helped them. Both their true spirits are still there. They haven't dissipated."
"His disciple