I just became the Pirate King, and you're telling me I also time-traveled at the same time.

Chapter 1056 Strange Demon

When Su Wanwan was looked at by those eyes, the hairs on the back of her head stood on end.

It's not because I'm afraid.

It's instinct.

Between fox demons, especially those with vastly different cultivation levels, eye contact is a form of probing. A single glance from the other can reveal almost everything about you.

Su Wanwan subconsciously tried to look away, but her body wouldn't obey her, and she just stared straight into those light-colored eyes.

After only two or three breaths, the woman in the green robe suddenly looked away, as if she had finished looking and had no interest in looking anymore.

"Not even six tails yet," she said calmly. "And your foundation isn't stable either. Did you not have a proper teacher when you transformed? The aura at the tips of your ears and tailbone is scattered. When you usually use your aura to hide, do you always have to spend half your attention suppressing your tailbone?"

Su Wanwan's heart skipped a beat.

Every word the other person said was correct.

Indeed, the most strenuous part of her breathing was her tailbone. Things other fox demons were born with, she had to figure out little by little on her own. And the methods she figured out weren't always smooth enough; they always felt a little awkward to use. She always thought only she knew, but she never expected that this person could know all her secrets after just a few glances.

"...Yes," Su Wanwan said in a low voice.

The woman in the blue robe didn't react much to the "yes" answer; her expression didn't even change. She simply shifted her gaze slowly from Su Wanwan to behind her.

It landed on Chu Yang.

He looked at her for longer than he looked at Su Wanwan.

It's much longer.

Su Wanwan noticed the difference and felt a mix of emotions—awkwardness and nervousness. She glanced at Chu Yang, whose expression remained unchanged. He even seemed to be able to meet her gaze without flinching.

The woman in the blue robe looked at him for a moment, then suddenly said, "There's something wrong with your aura."

Chu Yang remained silent.

"Not all of them are human." She glanced at them a few more times, her light-colored eyes narrowing slightly. "And not all of them are demons either. They blend in very cleanly, but their true nature is deeply hidden. Are you deliberately hiding it, or do you yourself not know what's beneath?"

Chu Yang then spoke, "I know."

"You knew it, yet you still placed the bet?"

"It's easier to keep it pressed down."

The woman in the green robe didn't press further; her lips merely twitched, it was impossible to tell whether she was smiling or something else. She then turned to look at Sun Wukong.

This time, she was taken aback for a moment.

It wasn't fear, but rather the unease of not being able to see through something at first glance. She frowned, looked at it a couple more times, and then said, "Did it spring from a rock?"

Sun Wukong, who had been watching the show from the sidelines while holding his golden cudgel, raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "Oh, you figured it out?"

"Your aura is too blazing; it doesn't seem to be nurtured by heaven and earth, nor born of flesh and blood," she said calmly. "I've seen few like you. But I have."

"Seen it?" Sun Wukong's interest was piqued. "Where?"

"I don't remember." She looked away, her tone flat. "I've lived too long; I don't remember many things."

Finally, she looked at Tang Sanzang.

This is the look I've been holding the longest.

So long that Su Wanwan began to feel uneasy.

The woman in the green robe looked at Tang Sanzang, and something beyond indifference finally surfaced in her light-colored eyes. It wasn't hostility, but rather a very complex expression, as if she had remembered something so distant that it was almost forgotten, or as if she had confirmed something she didn't really want to confirm.

Tang Sanzang clasped his hands together and bowed slightly: "This humble monk, Xuanzang, greets the benefactor."

"A monk," she said softly, her tone devoid of any judgment.

Then she completely withdrew her gaze and leaned back against the pile of old mattresses, as if she was tired of looking at them, or as if she had seen enough.

"Sanhu," she finally spoke again, this time addressing Su Wanwan, "You said you wanted to ask for a path that could be repaired."

Su Wanwan's palms were sweaty, but she tried her best to keep her voice steady: "Yes."

Do you know what "repair" means?

Su Wanwan was taken aback.

"You're not here to ask for skills," the woman in the blue robe said, looking at her. "You're here to ask for 'someone to teach you how to live.' These two things seem similar, but they're actually different."

Su Wanwan was stung by these words.

She wanted to deny it, but her lips moved a few times without uttering a rebuttal. She knew in her heart that the other person was right. She came to Qiyue Ridge ostensibly to find cultivation methods, but fundamentally, she wanted to know which path she should take. No one had taught her; she had figured everything out on her own, and after so long, she had almost forgotten what she should be cultivating.

"I……"

"What?" the woman in the blue robe interrupted her. "You don't need to answer me. Just answer yourself."

Su Wanwan bit her lower lip.

The stone slab was so quiet that only the faint whistling of the wind passing through the mist could be heard. On the distant stone wall, the silvery-white patterns shimmered slightly in the sunlight, like water flowing very slowly across an entire wall.

After a long while, Su Wanwan finally spoke.

The voice wasn't loud, but every word was pronounced clearly.

"I want to know, how exactly should a fox demon cultivate?" she said. "I don't want to spend my whole life just hiding, dodging, and copying other people's methods. I don't want to always be standing behind others whenever something happens."

She paused, then added, "I want to be able to stand on my own two feet."

The woman in the blue robe listened without much change in expression, only saying calmly, "That sounds plausible. But there's a huge difference between 'thinking' and 'being able.'"

"I know," Su Wanwan said.

"Good to know."

As the woman in the blue dress spoke, she suddenly raised her hand and lightly flicked her fingertips through the air.

Without any warning, the fog on the stone platform instantly thickened tenfold.

The fog didn't come in from outside; it arose from the ground, the stone walls, and even from the air itself. The thick fog came so fast and fiercely that even Sun Wukong's golden cudgel only had time to make half a circle in front of him before it had already separated everyone.

Su Wanwan felt a blur before her eyes, and when she regained her senses, Chu Yang, Sun Wukong, Tang Seng, the White Dragon Horse, and the White Donkey had all vanished.

All that remained was a grayish-white fog.

It was as thick as a wall.

"Your companions can't get out for now." The woman in the green robe's voice came from the fog, her location shifting, sometimes appearing on the left, sometimes on the right. "This fog is something I created; it won't harm anyone, it just keeps people at bay. If you want to enter Qiyue Ridge, you'll have to walk through this fog yourself first."

Su Wanwan's heart pounded like a drum, but her voice remained steady: "Let's go? Where to?"

"You can't even find your way, and you're asking me where to go?" The voice carried a hint of mockery. "Random Fox, didn't you want to learn the proper fox clan techniques? The first skill of the fox clan is finding your way without relying on your eyes. You don't even know that, so what are you talking about cultivation?"

Su Wanwan took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

She tried to sense the direction of the wind, but the wind in the fog was chaotic, blowing from all directions, each gust carrying a damp and cold chill. She tried to listen to sounds, but the thick fog swallowed them all, even her own footsteps became muffled and indistinct.

She tried to release a wisp of her aura to probe the way.

The moment the breath left the body, it was immediately dispersed by the mist, like ink drops into muddy water, leaving no trace.

Su Wanwan's forehead was beaded with sweat.

She groped her way through the fog for a dozen steps when her foot slipped, and she nearly stepped into a crevice. She stumbled, barely managing to steady herself, her palms already drenched in cold sweat.

"That's it?" the voice rang out again, this time so close it seemed to be right next to her ear. "After all this time out there, is this all you've got?"

Su Wanwan gritted her teeth.

She didn't reply.

It wasn't that she didn't want to, it was that she didn't have the time. Right now, she had only one thought in her mind—she had to get out of there. Not to show this person, but because she herself didn't want to collapse here.

She squatted down and placed her palms on the ground.

The ground was cold, the stones rough, and fine sand slipped through her fingers. She closed her eyes, ignoring the wind and the sounds, focusing only on the slight vibrations emanating from the ground in her palm.

There was no vibration.

It's too quiet.

wrong.

A little bit.

Extremely light and subtle, as if something is moving in a very, very far place. It's not footsteps, not the wind, but... it's the faint silvery aura slowly flowing deep within the stone wall.

Su Wanwan didn't know if this counted as a road, but she had no other clues.

She stood up and took a step toward the faint silver aura.

The fog hadn't dissipated, but the feeling under her feet had changed. Before, she'd been stepping on loose sand and gravel; this step made the ground smoother, like a familiar path someone had walked many times before.

She took another step.

The ground is flatter now.

Take another step.

The sound of the wind in my ears suddenly softened, not disappeared, but became rhythmic. The wind came from the left, blew on my face, and then went to the right, as if guided by something.

A thought suddenly occurred to Su Wanwan—this fog is not an obstacle; the fog itself is the path. It's just that the path isn't where the eyes can see it, but where the scent can be recognized.

She slowed her breathing, drawing her attention away from her facial features and focusing entirely on her breath.

She stopped thinking about "where to go" and started thinking about "the right way to go". It wasn't about finding direction, but about finding that feeling of "rightness".

This feeling is very unfamiliar.

She had never walked like this before. She always relied on her eyes, ears, quick wit, and reflexes, and had never tried to completely entrust her breath to an unfamiliar place to guide her.

But she's trying it now.

Because she had no choice.

step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

The fog gradually thinned out; not that it dissipated, but rather that she seemed to have entered a specific passage within the fog. The fog on both sides of the passage was still as thick as walls, but the middle section was clearer, and she could vaguely see the stone path beneath her feet.

There are carvings on the stone slab.

It's not a character, it's a pattern.

The lines were very fine and dense, as if something had repeatedly scratched them, or as if they had grown out of the stone itself. The direction of the lines was exactly the same as the direction of the flow of silver energy she had just sensed.

Su Wanwan followed the lines.

The further you walk, the more intact the stone slabs become, and the clearer their patterns. Eventually, the patterns even begin to gleam slightly, as if someone had crushed moonlight and gradually embedded it into the cracks between the stones.

She didn't know how long she had been walking.

It could be half an incense stick's time, or it could be an hour. In the mist, there is no time, only footsteps and breath.

Finally, the fog ahead completely thinned out.

She saw a door.

It wasn't a real door. It was a narrow gap between two towering, upright stones, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. Light shone through the gap—not sunlight, but a soft, silvery-white light, like the brightest moment of a full moon frozen in time.

Su Wanwan stood in front of the gap, then suddenly hesitated.

She glanced back.

Behind her was a thick, impenetrable fog, obscuring the way she had come from and making her unable to see anyone. Chu Yang, Sun Wukong, and Tang Sanzang were all separated on the other side of the fog. She was now all alone, standing before a crevice in the rock that led to an unknown destination.

She took a deep breath.

I squeezed in by turning sideways.

The crevice was narrower than she had imagined. The rough, cold stones on either side brushed against her shoulders and back, making a soft rustling sound as they scraped against her blue robe. She held her breath and moved in little by little. At the narrowest part of the crevice, she had to exhale completely to barely squeeze through.

Just when she thought she might get stuck, the space in front of her suddenly opened up.

She fell out of the crevice in the rocks.

It wasn't a fall, but rather the kind of gentle push from some force that made me stumble a couple of times before I regained my balance.

Then she saw it.

Behind the crevice in the rock was a small valley.

The valley was surrounded by stone walls, covered with creeping branches of the *Pterocarya stenoptera* tree. The tiny, round leaves densely covered the stone surface, each leaf shimmering silver on its underside. In the center of the valley stood an old tree, not thick, but very old. Its bark was cracked like an old man's hand, yet its branches were incredibly supple, drooping down like a half-open umbrella. Beneath the tree was a stone platform, on which sat a lamp.

The lights are off.

But the stone surface surrounding the lamp base was covered with densely packed characters and runes. Some of the runes Su Wanwan recognized, some she had never seen before, and some didn't even resemble any script she knew.

She walked toward the lamp without even realizing it.

I walked very lightly, afraid of disturbing anything.

But she had only taken two steps when a voice suddenly came from behind her.

"The fact that you made it this far means you're not as stupid as I thought."

Su Wanwan turned around abruptly.

The woman in the green robe appeared less than three feet behind her without her noticing. She didn't come in from the crack in the rock, nor did she emerge from the mist; it was as if she had always been standing there, only Su Wanwan hadn't seen her before.

"This..." Su Wanwan subconsciously took half a step back.

"This is called a concealment technique," the woman in the blue robe said calmly. "It's the most basic type of illusion magic used by the fox clan. You don't know it."

Su Wanwan: "..."

"You don't even know the most basic things, yet you dare to venture into Qiyue Ridge." The woman in the green robe looked at her. "I really don't know whether to say you're brave or not."

Su Wanwan was provoked by her tone and finally couldn't help but retort, "If I knew everything, would I be asking you to teach me?"

She was stunned for a moment after saying that.

She rarely acted so aggressively towards unfamiliar demons.

The woman in the blue dress was also taken aback.

Then, she actually laughed.

It wasn't the ambiguous smile from before; instead, the corners of her mouth genuinely curved upwards. Although the curve wasn't large, a hint of warmth finally appeared in her light-colored eyes.

"She does have a bit of a temper," she said.

Su Wanwan didn't know whether she should be happy or not.

"You used your aura to find your way in the fog just now." The woman in the green robe walked to the old tree and casually sat down on the stone platform. "The method was clumsy, but the direction was right. You sensed the moonlight in the stone wall, which means that although your foundation is scattered, your roots are good." (End of this chapter)