Looking at the bedraggled Monkey King with a wound beneath its ribs, Chen Jin was rather speechless. Who knew whom this fellow had run off to fight this time? It truly loved fighting and competing to come out on top.
The problem was that it never won.
Last time, a weasel had nearly clawed its eyes out. This time, something had punched a hole through the flesh beneath its ribs.
It truly proved the old saying: a monkey that did not stir up trouble was no monkey at all.
The Monkey King gestured with its claws, looking dispirited.
After some communication, Chen Jin roughly understood the whole story and could not help pondering:
Could that toad be the one that took the peach tree's place as the sacrificial plum, taking a lightning tribulation strike for me last time?
Surviving a lightning tribulation was impressive indeed.
In that case, the feud had been sowed long ago.
The Monkey King knew nothing of these circumstances. It merely felt wronged. It had gone to the ferry landing without any ill intent, only to have a misunderstanding with the toad and end up in a fight for no apparent reason.
In the end, it had been wounded and defeated, its dignity swept into the dust.
It dared not conceal the matter and hurried up the tree to report it.
Of course, it had a little scheme of its own. It did not want Chen Jin to take action personally, but hoped he would teach it some skills so it could return to the ferry landing and settle who was stronger.
Although it had lost this time, the Monkey King refused to concede.
Chen Jin saw through its intentions. After a little thought, he immediately circulated his cultivation to draw down the moonlight and fed it two clumps.
The Monkey King had gained a blessing from misfortune and was overjoyed. It hurriedly kowtowed in thanks, then jumped down from the old banyan tree, returned to its own old pine, and entered meditation to refine and assimilate them.
After receiving two clumps of moonlight essence Qi, it was as though it had swallowed a powerful tonic. It soon became full of vigor.
This moonlight essence Qi not only refreshed the mind but also tempered the body and increased strength.
By the following evening, the fully recovered Monkey King went to the ferry landing again.
This time, it had not come to visit. It had come expressly to issue a challenge.
Seeing that it dared return, the toad immediately leaped out of the great river to meet it.
The two fought fiercely.
The Monkey King could leap and fight with ferocious strength, and its wrought-copper staff was like wings added to a tiger.
The toad had no weapon, relying instead on its copper skin and iron bones, particularly its cultivated long-tongue technique, which struck like a phantom and was exceedingly vicious.
This battle actually proved too close to call.
But the Monkey King grew bolder as it fought, while the toad increasingly felt something was wrong. It clearly remembered that the Monkey King had been nowhere near this fierce last night.
What exactly had happened overnight?
It was like an entirely different monkey.
"Croak!"
Left with no choice, the toad could only unleash its long-tongue finishing move again.
This time, the Monkey King was prepared. It sprang aside and, without lingering in battle, turned and bounded away.
Its retreating figure, wrought-copper staff over its shoulder, even had a certain dashing air.
Furious, the toad wanted to chase it down and kill it, but feared a trap. It hesitated, then finally leaped back into the river in vexation.
Rather than sinking straight to the riverbed, it hid amid the tangled grass along the bank and watched to see whether the Monkey King would double back for a surprise attack.
Yet it waited and waited without seeing any sign of its opponent. Only then did it confirm that the fellow really had fled.
It was deeply puzzled and found the whole thing inexplicable.
Although the toad had awakened its intelligence, it was not particularly fond of using its brain and clung stubbornly to its convictions. Since it had decided that the Monkey King was in league with the red-haired corpse monster, there had to be a conspiracy.
So until its internal injuries healed, it could not go ashore carelessly.
Glug, glug, glug!
With a headlong plunge, the toad performed its first water-entry move and hid in a rocky cave on the riverbed.
In previous years, it had also habitually hidden here when winter came, sleeping until spring.
Meanwhile, the Monkey King returned to the foot of Banyan Tree Slope in high spirits, even whistling as it went.
Although it had not won the second battle, the fight had given it confidence. After all, it had yet to fully refine and absorb the moonlight essence Qi in its belly.
In other words, over the next few days, it would grow stronger with each passing day.
Then, if it challenged the toad every day, sooner or later it would win a battle and sweep away its losing streak.
In the past, defeating this toad would have been almost unimaginable.
In excellent spirits, it returned to its "palace" to frolic with the female monkeys, opening a second battlefield.
Afterward, it suddenly found the whole thing tasteless, so it ran outside, climbed the old pine, and sat cross-legged in meditation, bathed in moonlight.
It looked up toward Banyan Tree Slope, but the angle and the screening branches and leaves kept Chen Jin out of sight.
Yet the Monkey King knew that the immortal master was there, diligently cultivating.
It ought to take him as its example and redouble its efforts.
Another day quickly passed. As soon as night fell, the Monkey King eagerly trotted to the ferry landing with its wrought-copper staff over its shoulder and stood there howling, calling the toad out.
Unexpectedly, the toad played dead tonight and made no response at all.
The Monkey King came up with a plan. It gathered nearby stones, mud, rotten wood, and other things and hurled them forcefully into the river.
It knew the toad had to be hiding in the water.
Sure enough, after a bout of commotion, the toad could no longer endure it. It bounded out, came ashore, and launched into a fierce battle with the Monkey King.
Crack! Bang! Clatter!
It was a hard-fought battle between evenly matched foes.
Once they had fought enough, the Monkey King deliberately left an opening, then dragged its wrought-copper staff away.
The toad had no intention of pursuing it, not because it feared a trick, but because the Monkey King had battered its head and face so thoroughly that even its copper skin and iron bones could barely endure it.
It actually felt some pain!
In other words, compared with last night, the Monkey King's strength had increased considerably. That wrought-copper staff was getting heavier and heavier.
Had this fellow eaten an immortal pill?
Unable to make sense of it no matter how hard it thought, the toad gloomily jumped into the river to recuperate.
On the third evening, the Monkey King came to the ferry landing to challenge it again.
The toad had originally resolved not to come out and fight, no matter what.
It could not win. There was no point; it was a waste of effort.
But the Monkey King's provocations grew ever more outrageous. Besides throwing miscellaneous debris, it actually stood on the ferry landing, lifted its long robe, and pissed three zhang into the river wind, sending a pattering stream into the water.
How could it tolerate that?
"Croak!"
The toad burst from the water in a rage and shot its long tongue forward the instant they met.
The Monkey King gave a strange laugh, swung its staff into position, and calmly met the attack.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After taking several staff blows head-on, the toad quickly realized something was wrong. Had this fellow changed weapons?
But on closer inspection, the copper staff was still the same one. It had grown neither thicker nor longer.
Then there was only one explanation: the force behind the Monkey King's blows had grown fiercer.
It changed with every passing day. There was no fighting it anymore...
Fear stirred in the toad's heart. It turned and jumped straight into the great river.
At the sight, the Monkey King held its staff in one hand, heroic spirit rising within it, and grinned broadly.
In a mere three days, it had turned the tables against the wind, going from loser to big winner. It was truly exhilarating.
From beginning to end, it had consumed only three clumps of moonlight essence Qi in total.
In that case, just how powerful was the immortal up in the treetop, constantly drawing in moonlight essence Qi?
It did not dare even imagine.
In the Monkey King's mind, Chen Jin was like a lofty mountain it could only gaze up at, forever beyond its reach.
Gurgle!
After the Monkey King left, ripples spread across the river's surface, and the toad that had fled poked its head out again, blinking its large eyes.
It remained unwilling to accept this and was filled with questions, so it decided to go ashore and follow the Monkey King to see what was really going on.