Bajie leaped into the water and dived to the bottom.
Beneath the water stood a mansion with towers and terraces, bearing the words "Abode of the Water Turtle."
At the sight, Bajie thought, This must be that demon's lair!
"Demon, come out!" Bajie called. "Come out at once!"
Inside the Aquatic Palace, the Blood Sea King reclined on his throne.
The White Bone Spirit attended him at his side.
At his feet was an old turtle with a white shell, also called the White Softshell Turtle.
On the White Softshell Turtle's shell rested a fishbowl, with a goldfish inside.
Ao Tu had sent the Soul-Scattering Gourd into the air, directing its soul-scattering, spirit-seizing energy to strike the goldfish continuously; at the same time, he carefully controlled its strength to keep the goldfish from dying.
This goldfish was, of course, Great King Linggan.
Wukong had been right about one thing: he had indeed not eaten Great King Linggan, but had kept him instead.
To him, Great King Linggan still had some use later on.
Ao Tu was now using the Soul-Scattering Gourd to extract the refined souls from Great King Linggan's body.
Great King Linggan had eaten young boys and girls and enjoyed the offerings in order to refine them for his cultivation; those children's souls had not entered the cycle of reincarnation, but had been swallowed and refined by Great King Linggan.
What Ao Tu needed to do now was separate these souls, which Great King Linggan had already refined, from his body.
This step was actually not too difficult, because Great King Linggan's mastery was poor. He had only refined their souls, leaving many remnants of their true spirits, far from the thoroughness with which Ao Tu had refined the Bhikshu Monk back then.
The only difficulty was that