Xingtie: My silly online friend is actually a raccoon!

Night falls at the inn.

Lu Ze sat cross-legged on the bed, with a hand-drawn map of the westward journey spread out in front of him.

He drew this from memory; the lines are rough, like a primary school student's scribbles, but the key details are clearly marked.

Five Elements Mountain, Eagle Sorrow Stream, Gao Laozhuang, Flowing Sand River, Wuzhuang Temple, White Tiger Ridge, Flaming Mountain, Daughter Kingdom—each place name is accompanied by a few crooked little icons.

Beside the Five Elements Mountain is a small palm, and beside the Flaming Mountain is a messy ball of flames.

Xing and Huohua were enjoying the various snacks they had bought from street vendors during the day.

On the table were oil paper packages containing candied hawthorn, osmanthus cake, and candied fruit—all kinds of nostalgic snacks.

Hoshimi Ryuzawa was looking at the map with a worried expression, so I came over and shoved the candied hawthorn in my hand to his mouth.

"Your drawing skills... are quite abstract."

"As long as you can understand it, that's fine." Lu Ze leaned back slightly, and then felt a sweet taste on his lips. He took a bite of the candied hawthorn that Xing handed him.

Hmm... tastes just like the kebab skewers.

While chewing on a hawthorn covered in rock sugar, he used the tip of his pen to mark the location of Five Elements Mountain.

"Our first stop is here. Sun Wukong is still imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain. We need to intercept him before he meets Tang Sanzang."

"Intercepting?" Spark peered down from the roof beam.

No one knows when she climbed up there; her twin ponytails hung down, but her pink sunglasses were still firmly perched on her head.

"You mean, we rescued Sun Wukong before Tang Sanzang did?"

"I think it's difficult." Lu Ze shook his head, and the tip of his pen poked several ink dots at the location of the Five Elements Mountain.

"Only Tang Sanzang himself can open that six-syllable mantra scroll. In the original story, it was actually Guanyin who first found Sun Wukong and promised to protect Tang Sanzang on his journey to the West, thus freeing him from his predicament. If we can give him a better reason, he might not necessarily have to follow Tang Sanzang."

"What reason?" Xing asked.

Lu Ze was silent for a moment, then slowly uttered two words: "Freedom."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the two faces. "Sun Wukong was imprisoned for five hundred years. He hated Buddha, hated the Heavenly Court, and hated that mountain."

"But Guanyin gave him a hope—as long as he protected Tang Sanzang on his journey to the West, he could escape the sea of ​​suffering and attain enlightenment. So he agreed, because he had no other choice."

"But we can give him another option. He can not practice Buddhism, he can not attain enlightenment, and he can be free from anyone's constraints—the world is vast, and he can go wherever he wants. He helped us complete the journey to the West, and we will help him break free from the control of Buddhism."

Spark tumbled down from the roof beam, landed lightly, and tilted her head to look at him: "Do you think he'll believe us?"

"He will," Lu Ze said, "because he is the Monkey King."

The room was quiet for a moment.

Xing broke the silence first, "Okay, I'll do it with you."

Spark raised her hand: "I'm joining too! This script is way more exciting than my livestream!"

Lu Ze smiled, picked up the map that was covered with drawings, and then tore it in half.

The crisp sound of the paper tearing startled both Xing and Huohua.

"Do you think I would carry out such a naive plan?" Lu Ze tossed the fragments onto the table, dusted off the scraps of paper from his hands, and said, "Unfortunately, it's impossible. Why would Sun Wukong trust us? So I don't intend to follow the plan."

"Are you kidding us?" Xing's eyes widened.

"No, I just suddenly figured some things out." Lu Ze shook his head in denial, then looked at Huo Hua, "I plan to hand over this play to Director Hua."

Upon hearing this, Spark's eyes lit up instantly.

She had long wanted to criticize Lu Ze's flawed plan—piecing together empty promises of freedom for Sun Wukong?

Who are you?!

But she deliberately didn't offer any reminders, because watching others struggle and agonize over their plans was itself quite entertaining.

She just didn't expect that Lu Ze would react so quickly and even take the initiative to give her the director's position.

"Oh...you're planning to let Director Hua direct? Aren't you afraid I'll turn the world upside down?"

Spark put the sunglasses back on her nose, her wine-red eyes behind the pink lenses gleaming with eager anticipation.

She's only been in this world for half a day and she's already about to burst with boredom. Now that Lu Ze has handed the stage over to her, no fewer than ten scripts have popped into her head.