Wukong nodded, letting out a sigh. "It must be fate."

Nobita suddenly seemed to recall something and asked, "Wait a moment, Great Sage, if this is a place where you can do as you please—soar through the heavens and dive into the earth—then how could you possibly be trapped here?"

"Trapped?" Wukong threw back his head and laughed. "I am not trapped here. I was waiting for you, because you summoned me. Otherwise, this mere little haunted building could never stop me."

His words made me feel rather awkward. I rubbed the back of my head. "My apologies, Great Sage. We actually didn't have a specific purpose in summoning you. We saw Zhu Bajie and Bull Demon King on the floor below. When we came up to this floor, we saw a figure seated in the center of the attic and thought, 'That must be a hermit master.' The first hermit master we could think of was you."

The Monkey King burst into laughter again, scratched his head, and said, "Well, that works out just as well. Even if you weren't looking for me specifically, since you summoned me, I must lend you a hand. I've been rather bored lately."

Three dark lines appeared across my forehead. I wasn't sure if having the famous Great Sage Equal to Heaven trailing us was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Ah, I haven't seen your faces yet. Could you remove those cloaks?" Wukong said, hefting the Ruyi Jingu Bang onto his shoulder.

"So, you couldn't actually see us the whole time, yet you knew we were here?" Nobita inquired.

Wukong smiled. "I could sense you."

Perhaps the Fiery Golden Eyes weren't about enhancing sight, but a form of perception. Could it be the same kind of sense as my ability to see Nian?

Thinking this, I pulled down my hood. The other two followed suit.

Wukong looked us over and asked, "You two look like twins, don't you?"

Nie Chuan and I exchanged glances, momentarily unsure how to answer.

"No! We're actually the same person," Nie Chuan stated very earnestly.

I was startled by his words, and my expression instantly darkened. Has he found out the truth?

But then Nie Chuan chuckled again. "Just kidding. He's only disguised as me to protect me."

Wukong laughed heartily, scratched his cheek, and spun around, suddenly transforming into Nobita's appearance.

"Now we have two sets of twins," Wukong announced.

Seeing his Seventy-Two Transformations brought back childhood memories, and we were filled with a rush of nostalgia.

"This... isn't quite right, is it?" Nobita said, his face a mixture of excitement and embarrassment. "You are, after all, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven."

Wukong waved a hand in front of his nose. "Hah, don't mention the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Though I live in the world of your imagination, being some kind of Buddha is incredibly dull."

He paused. "I didn't transform just to play around. Because the Creator’s mind is quite chaotic, there are unstable elements appearing in this tower. When these elements materialize, they become demons. Most of them recognize me, and if I stroll by openly, it will scare them off, which ruins the fun."

We were all thoroughly chastened; Wukong actually considered encountering monsters a form of entertainment.

Seeing our strange expressions, Wukong said, "Don't look so surprised. I'm not doing this solely to train you."

"Train us?" I asked.

"Exactly. I sense an energy in you that is similar to mine. You must also be cultivators using the Xiuzhen method. However, the energy in you is too weak; it needs improvement. Don't be fooled by how powerful I seem. When I first joined Patriarch Subodhi’s disciples, I was just like you. Some of my fellow disciples studied their entire lives and still never mastered any powerful spells. To improve quickly, you need more practical combat experience."

Hearing this, we all became very excited. With the Monkey King as our teacher, we were certain we could rapidly enhance our abilities.

The Monkey King shrunk the Ruyi Jingu Bang and tucked it into his ear. "Enough idle chatter. We should press forward now. You won't believe where we're headed next."

With that, the Monkey King bounced ahead.

We trotted to keep up behind him and soon saw a door glowing with white light ahead.

Wukong stopped before the door, waiting for us to catch up, breathless.

As soon as we approached, he zipped through the doorway in a flash.

We immediately followed, but when we saw the scene before our eyes, we were all stunned into silence.

I had assumed we were still inside some bizarre building, yet we were suddenly looking out over an incredibly dense forest.

We stood on a cliff edge. A small river flowed past our feet, forming a waterfall not far ahead of us.

The cascade plummeted from the cliff, roaring with a deafening sound.

Countless droplets were flung down from the heights, nourishing a vast expanse of woods beneath the falls.

That forest stretched for over ten kilometers, receding into the distance until we could no longer see its edge.

"What do you think? Aren't you impressed by the person who created this haunted tower? To conjure such a vast forest using just one person's Nian power? Every tree here is unique, and over a thousand kinds of animals, found both inside and outside this world, live here," Wukong explained.

We were stunned by the numbers he quoted. But thinking it over, human creativity and imagination truly are terrifying. For instance, I myself am prone to vivid dreaming; seeing a forest conjured by the mind in a dream shouldn't be difficult.

I had even experienced more complex and grander dreamscapes. The difference was that dreams usually lasted half a night, whereas maintaining such a massive forest required a level of Nian power that few people possessed.

"Look, toward the center of the forest," Wukong pointed into the distance.

We looked up and saw something white winding through the trees in the far center of the woods.

Wukong continued, "That is the carcass of a six-legged dragon. That's why this forest is called the Dragon Bone Forest. You must be careful; the old fellow who created this haunted tower left a trace of incredibly powerful lingering resentment here."

I shrugged. "That's a problem for later. The real issue now is how we get down from this cliff."

Wukong didn't answer my question directly. Instead, he spread his hand. "What do you see here?"

We looked down at his palm and saw a fluffy, white object floating above his hairy hand, resembling a piece of cotton candy.

"Is that... the Somersault Cloud?" I asked.

Wukong nodded. "Indeed, it is the Somersault Cloud. Do you three want some?"

"Yes!" The three of us nodded almost simultaneously.

Although Wukong was a legendary God of War, and even a Buddha, he didn't exhibit the commanding presence one might expect of a teacher.

Seeing our eagerness, he laughed, fell onto the ground, kicked his feet for a moment, then got up. "Alright, alright, teachable, all of you! Do you see that waterfall?"

We all nodded that we did.

Wukong nodded, then turned to Nobita. "Come here, Nobita, and touch this piece of Somersault Cloud in my hand."

Nobita grinned slyly and bit his lower lip as he reached out to pinch a bit.

"Idiot! Can't you take a little less!" Wukong lightly smacked Nobita's hand.

Nobita chuckled sheepishly, then said, "Huh? Why is this Somersault Cloud wet? It doesn't feel like cotton candy at all."

Wukong smiled. "Actually, this Old Sun doesn't actually possess a Somersault Cloud. Look at that waterfall. Because it flows ceaselessly, it releases a lot of vapor. If you collect this vapor using your Nian power and condense it, it becomes a Somersault Cloud. Not just water—dust and sand can also form one."

He paused. "So what we need to do now is try to manipulate the faint water droplets in the air with our Nian so that they gather into a cloud."

Hearing this, I sighed. "Great Sage, I fear you underestimate their skill level. Right now, only I can manipulate objects using Nian; they haven't learned that stage yet."

"Oh?" A flash of golden light crossed Wukong's eyes as he looked at Nobita and Nie Chuan. "Very well, then you go first. We need at least two Somersault Clouds to get down safely," Wukong stated.

I nodded, then used my Nian to draw the mist rising from the churning water toward me.

Then I tried to twist them into a single mass.

To my surprise, the entire process went smoothly. My precise control over Nian power was already quite good.

However, the vapor I slowly drew closer, once finally condensed, collided and merged, turning into a single drop of water rather than a ball of mist.

Wukong scratched his cheek anxiously when he saw this. "No, no, no. You can't dedicate all your Nian power to manipulating the mist. You need some of it to act as a barrier between them, so they don't fuse into a lump. Besides, if the mist has no Nian within it, how will you control it to fly? Moving objects purely with Nian is too slow. You must use your heart."

"Use my heart? How do I do that?" I scratched my head.

Wukong scratched his cheek again. "Do you have a cigarette?"

I froze, then asked him slowly, word by word, "You... want... to smoke?"

Wukong couldn't be bothered to waste words. He plucked a monkey hair from the back of his neck, blew on it, and it transformed into a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes. He pulled one out, placed it in his mouth, and the tip immediately lit itself.

Nobita, the old chain-smoker, saw the cigarette and, heedless of whether the other party was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, snatched one and stuck it in his mouth too. His cigarette also lit automatically. I then remembered: the guy was utilizing his fire-attribute Nian power.

"Don't be stingy, give one to him," Wukong told Nobita.

Nobita handed one to me, and once I had it in my mouth, the tip ignited on its own.

Seeing this supernatural ability, I gave him a thumbs-up. "As expected of Superman Nobita; skilled at using his superpowers for both passing gas and lighting cigarettes."

Nobita ignored me, just giving me a dirty look.

Wukong took a drag of his cigarette, then exhaled a plume of smoke that miraculously formed the shape of a boat, leaving us utterly dumbfounded.