Life is precious, freedom is priceless!
The Stone Monkey resolved to rebel; he would free himself from the chains of fate!
A few days later, the Stone Monkey had the monkey troop construct a bamboo raft, filled it with fruits, and then, seizing a bamboo pole, leapt aboard.
"Great King, do you really have to leave?"
"Can't you stay with us?"
The monkeys were reluctant to part with the Stone Monkey.
Although his reign had been brief, the knowledgeable Stone Monkey quickly earned the respect of the troop.
In a single year, the Monkey King taught them much, led them on romps through Huaguo Mountain, and sheltered them in Shuilian Cave; they spent springs gathering flowers and summers seeking all kinds of fruits. They were blissfully happy, yet how could it be that the Monkey King suddenly wished to embark on a quest for immortality?
"Time is precious; I must leave."
The Stone Monkey too was reluctant to leave the troop but remained steadfast in his resolve.
According to the Heavenly Book, Sun Wukong, a spirit monkey born from Heaven and Earth, had already spent several hundred years on Huaguo Mountain before he set out to learn new skills.
Knowing his destined future, how could the Stone Monkey wait for several hundred more years?
While he was still young, he decided to seek out the Three Star Cave as soon as possible.
"Everyone, I'm off!"
The Stone Monkey bade farewell to the troop, thrust the bamboo pole with force, and the bamboo raft drifted away, sliding directly toward the vast ocean.
The monkeys, watching his departing figure, covered their faces and wept bitterly.
Soon after the Stone Monkey set sail, he looked ahead to see the boundless sea, the misty and undulating waves, with no distinction between southeast and northwest.
"Old Turtle."
He tapped the sea with his bamboo pole: "That's the northwest over there, right?"
"Reporting to the Great King."
A sea turtle surfaced.
"That is indeed the northwest."
The sea turtle replied.
The Stone Monkey set sail on a day with a southeast wind, as recorded in the book, not knowing how long it would take to reach the Southern Continent.
The scenery out at sea stayed the same, and after several days, the Stone Monkey grew tired of it. On calm days, he would lie down on the bamboo raft to sleep, journeying in his dreams through books.
A sea turtle escorted the raft, and fortunately, they encountered no mishaps.
Along the way, a shrimp soldier spotted the raft.
"Old Turtle, what are you doing here?"
Clutching a long spear, the shrimp soldier swam over to the sea turtle: "Didn't you go to Huaguo Mountain?"
This was an acquaintance of the sea turtle.
"I am escorting the Great King to the Southern Continent."
The sea turtle said to the shrimp soldier.
"The Great King?"
The shrimp soldier popped out of the water and looked towards the raft: "Is that monkey your Great King?"
The sea turtle nodded: "He is the king of all monkeys on Huaguo Mountain, including macaques and gibbons."
"The Monkey King?"
The shrimp soldier was stunned for a moment and then burst into laughter: "Old Turtle, having cultivated for five hundred years, you've gone senile, not serving in the Dragon Palace but instead choosing to be a servant to a monkey."
"I'm not missed at the Dragon Palace."
The sea turtle seemed unperturbed and countered: "Aren't you serving in the Dragon Palace? How come you're out and about, not afraid of the Dragon King's blame?"
"Ah, let's not talk about that! The little Princess of the Dragon Palace ran out to play, and everyone is searching for her."
The shrimp soldier suddenly looked worried: "The Dragon King is furious. If we can't find her, who knows how many shrimp soldiers and crab generals might lose their heads."
"I can't loiter; I have to go find the Princess. Old Turtle, until next time."
After speaking, the shrimp soldier swam off with his long spear.
Watching his departing ripples, the old sea turtle shook his head.
"The Great King never takes human lives."
The sea turtle thought to himself.
Originally, he wanted to serve in the Dragon Palace, but the owners there didn't care for the life of a minor demon like him at all.
The Monkey King, however, was different. He had only been king for a year, but he was lively and adorable, fair in reward and punishment, and won the hearts and allegiance of many beasts of Huaguo Mountain.
The sea turtle had lived for five hundred years and seen many Great Demons, but none were quite as unique as the Monkey King.
Born with great strength and fearless of jackals, leopards, and tigers, once he finds a master, he is sure to shine and achieve greatness that rivals the progeny of dragons.
With confidence in the future, the sea turtle escorted the bamboo raft all the way to the Southern Continent.
"Finally arrived."
The Stone Monkey leaped from the bamboo raft to shore and, after bidding farewell to the old turtle, headed towards the seaside.
The raft approached the Southern Continent at night when the Stone Monkey expected no one to be at the seaside, yet he found some people fishing and clamming under the cover of darkness.
The Heavenly Book records that after Sun Wukong landed, he played a trick by pretending to be a tiger, which scared the humans into abandoning their baskets and nets and running away in all directions. Sun Wukong caught one who could not run and stripped his clothes to wear.
The Stone Monkey had anticipated the difficulties he would encounter and naturally did not have to pretend to be a tiger.
He had the monkeys weave a tiger-skin coat and, before going ashore, he even put on a tiger-skin hat, revealing only his round eyes.
The Stone Monkey asked a man by the sea for directions; the man noticed his attire, as tiger skins were not something ordinary people could afford.
Thinking the Stone Monkey to be the son of a wealthy family, the man dared not neglect him and answered all his questions.
Just when the Stone Monkey got the directions and was about to leave, he noticed many humans gathered in the distance, talking animatedly about something.
Led by his playful nature, the Stone Monkey went over and heard someone marveling and asking about the price.
It turned out that two fishermen had caught a stranded big fish on the beach, but the fish was so large that no one dared to rashly buy it.
When the Stone Monkey squeezed through the crowd to get in, he heard an old man with white beard say, "The fish is too big; you should cut it up and sell it in pieces."
Glancing downward, the Stone Monkey indeed saw a fish about one meter long lying on the ground, caught in a net and unable to move.
"It's crying."
The Stone Monkey saw two streams of bright tears in the eyes of the big fish and said, "Let it go."
"Let it go?"
The two fishermen were angry. "Impossible to let it go, if you are not buying, just get lost."
They swung their meat axes, ready to follow the old man's advice and chop up the fish.
"Wait..."
The Stone Monkey stopped them, then took out a pearl from his pocket: "I'll exchange this with you for the fish."
Seeing the pearl, the eyes of the two fishermen lit up.
"Okay, okay, we'll trade!"
They threw away their axes, ecstatically accepting the pearl.
To adapt to human society, the Stone Monkey had asked his monkeys to gather some pearls to use as expenses. These pearls were hardly scarce items in Huaguo Mountain.
The Stone Monkey then had the two fishermen release the big fish back into the sea.
As the big fish touched the water, its tail splashed, and after swimming a little distance, it turned around, looking gratefully at the Stone Monkey.
"Don't come ashore carelessly in the future."
The Stone Monkey waved at it, his pure eyes twinkling like stars under the moonlight.
The big fish watched the Stone Monkey for a while, as if committing his image to memory, then dove into the sea and disappeared.
Having done a good deed, the Stone Monkey walked towards town with a light heart.
Not long after he left, a young novice monk arrived by the sea.
"Strange."
The novice monk looked around: "The Bodhisattva asked me to save a fish, where has it gone?"
As a gust of wind blew by, the novice monk suddenly felt inspired. He opened his palm, and the silver pieces turned into a handful of ash that the wind carried away without a trace.
"Come back."
The Bodhisattva Guanyin's voice reached the ears of the novice monk.
"That Dragon Girl already has no fate with me."