Chapter 41: The Third Princess of the West Sea

In the East Sea, a massive shoal of various fish drifted up from the deep blue abyss. Hidden among these mindless creatures was a single red carp, its scales shimmering with a haughty arrogance. It looked down upon its companions with disdain, deliberately maintaining a distance to ensure these common, mortal fish would not touch its noble body.

The light from the surface began to pierce through the water. Almost there... it was nearly out.

Above, countless Yakshas stood guard across the surface of the sea, shouting, "The Third Princess of the East Sea has escaped! The Dragon King has ordered her capture and return to the water prison. Search the surface strictly; she must not be allowed to escape the East Sea!"

The red carp had not expected her escape to be discovered so quickly. Seeing the other fish swimming obliviously toward the Yakshas, she was desperate. Suddenly, a gargantuan shadow loomed over her—a massive sea turtle, greedily devouring the small fish nearby. An idea struck her. She shrank her true form to the size of a fry, cast a protective barrier around herself, and slipped silently into the giant turtle's mouth.

Sea turtles must periodically surface to bask in the sun. Even with the East Sea under martial law, after confirming the turtle was not the transformed Third Princess, the Yakshas allowed it to climb ashore.

The giant turtle crawled until it reached a massive sand dune far from the water. Suddenly, with a loud "Bang!" its hard shell was blown to pieces, and chunks of turtle meat splattered across the sand. The creature lay on its back, dead, with a gaping hole in its belly from which a brilliant golden light erupted. The light touched the ground, transforming into a beautiful woman with arched brows and a regal air. She frowned, eyeing the turtle’s remains with disgust, feeling that emerging from the belly of a lowly creature was beneath the dignity of the Third Princess of the East Sea.

She smoothed her slightly wrinkled collar and dress, then stepped onto a cloud and soared into the sky, disappearing into the distance.

That day, Teacher Xing told me that the Taoist temple had been attacked.

In a dream, he saw the seven statues worshipped in the temple, each mysteriously missing an arm. These statues held the fragments of the souls of seven great deities from the divine realm; such a thing could not happen without cause. He woke with a start and relayed this to Teacher Yang.

Lately, everything had been going wrong, as if an unseen energy was obstructing them. Both realized something was amiss, and simultaneously, in their mental space, they saw the Third Princess of the East Sea escaping from the water prison, joining forces with the Third Princess of the West Sea and Li Qingqing. The three of them intended to strike at both the temple and me.

The Third Princess of the East Sea’s heavenly soul incarnation in the mortal realm was Teacher Zhao. The incarnation was unaware of the original soul's actions, but the original soul knew everything the incarnation did, including the magical battles against the temple and how Teachers Xing and Yang had repeatedly helped me break the evil spells cast by others.

As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The three of them—the East Sea Princess, the West Sea Princess, and Li Qingqing—were all infatuated with Yang Jian. They decided to join forces to eliminate their common rival: me. Once I was removed, they would compete for Yang Jian fairly.

Hearing this, I spat and said indignantly, "Do they really think Yang Jian would fancy any of them without me? They should look in a mirror! I’ve seen the Third Princess of the East Sea; she’s not even as fresh and pretty as the two maids by Yang Jian’s side. Only someone like Zhu Bajie, who has no standards, would go for her!"

Compared to her, the Third Princess of the West Sea and Li Qingqing were slightly better looking, but only marginally. Back then, the West Sea Princess had been so insecure that she forced her own brother, the Dragon Prince of the West Sea, to check out what Yang Jian’s bride-to-be actually looked like. I had asked the Dragon Prince, puzzled, "Why didn't the Third Princess come herself?"

The Dragon Prince of the West Sea had only smiled helplessly and shaken his head.

That night, Little Round Cake cried incessantly, his delicate skin covered in strange, red, protruding lumps. Sensing something was wrong, I turned to Zhong Yang, hoping to use her divine eyes to investigate.

Each person in the divine realm cultivated a different path; Zhong Yang had focused entirely on her vision. Her eyes glowed with a brilliant green light, moving like a scanner over Little Round Cake. "Someone has placed fish-like and shell-like entities on him. Those fish are gnawing at his skin, and the bumps are those shells寄居 (parasitizing) within his flesh. This must be the work of the West Sea Princess!"

As soon as Zhong Yang mentioned the West Sea Princess, the screen of my phone flickered, and a shadow like a gathering storm swept across it with shocking speed.

What was that?

Before I could react, a black shadow streaked across the screen like a ghost. This time, I saw it clearly: a vivid silhouette of a black dragon, reminiscent of an ancient shadow puppet, flashed for a brief moment. Immediately after, as if my phone had been infected with a virus, seven characters popped up on the screen: "I, AM, THE, WEST, SEA, PRINCESS."

Zhong Yang, seeing this on her end, gasped in shock. "Xiao Qian, your original soul's face is gone! It has turned completely blank."

I was furious. Why did everyone want to steal my face? I cursed, "West Sea Princess, I know you’re ugly. What, do you think Yang Jian will love you just because you’re wearing my face? Keep dreaming!"

The West Sea Princess seemed incensed. The phone screen flickered again, and a line of text appeared: "In the eyes of those mortals, I am Yang Jian's wife. I am." The last three words were bolded and enlarged, as if to emphasize them.

I scoffed. "I’ve been in love with Yang Jian for over a hundred thousand years. Where did you pop out from, you homewrecker? Don't think I don't know that the legends circulating among mortals claiming Yang Jian married the West Sea Princess were just rumors you spread yourself. You’ve lied so much you’ve started believing it yourself. It’s pathetic, and your shamelessness is truly breathtaking."

The West Sea Princess was stung. "So what if you’ve been together for a hundred thousand years? Yang Jian still didn't marry you for all that time, and almost married someone else. Didn't you even get your position stolen by your own 'good sister,' Xiao Yue? Haha! The bowl of Meng Po soup from the Jade Emperor was truly powerful; it really made you forget everything."

Her words ignited a long-dormant suspicion of Yang Jian. Although the incident at Guanjiang Prefecture had ended, my anger toward him had not subsided. Even thinking of him made me regret signing that marriage contract so easily.

Finally, I contacted Teacher Xing. With a thought, his golden Binding Immortal Rope shot out of the screen like a bolt of lightning, wrapping around the invisible West Sea Princess hiding in the corner, forcing her to manifest and binding her tightly as she struggled.

Teacher Xing summoned the Dragon King of the West Sea. He was a middle-aged man wearing a crown embedded with pearls and a white robe embroidered with gold thread. He bowed fawningly to Teacher Xing, who sat on a dragon throne. "This humble deity greets the Master of Kunlun Mountain!"

As the second-in-command of the Heavenly Court, ranked only below the Jade Emperor, the Master of Kunlun had such status that the Dragon King wasn't even fit to carry his shoes. Teacher Xing reached out, plucked one of the three flowers from the Dragon King's head, and gave him a cold, stern look. "The Dragon King of the West Sea has failed to discipline his daughter. I take one of the three flowers as punishment."

"It is deserved, it is deserved," the Dragon King said with a fawning, oily smile.

"Take your daughter back and keep her under strict guard!"

"My daughter is willful. I shall lock her in the water prison to be punished at once." With that, the Dragon King grabbed the West Sea Princess, who was bundled like a rice dumpling, offered his obsequious farewells, and transformed into a giant white dragon, soaring into the sky.

As for Li Qingqing, Teacher Xing summoned the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, Li Jing, to take his daughter back and keep her in check.

The Third Princess of the East Sea, having learned from her past mistakes, had the other two perform the dark arts while she remained in hiding. Eventually, Teacher Xing projected his soul and captured her where she had been lurking at the bottom of a well near my home. This time, even the Dragon King of the East Sea dared not protect her; he nodded submissively and ordered his men to lock her in the water prison with extended sentencing.

Teacher Yang sighed. "No wonder the Jade Emperor didn't keep Yang Jian under his own nose. Looking at this, he had foresight. Yang Jian is a total disaster; who knows how many love-struck fools will fight over him every day."

Hearing this, I remained uncharacteristically silent.

Teacher Yang found my silence strange. Usually, whenever Yang Jian was mentioned, my eyes would sparkle, and I would talk endlessly. This was the first time I had been this quiet.

Just then, fragmented memories of love, betrayal, and pain from the divine realm flooded my mind.

How could I have forgotten? Before I descended, I had explicitly told Yang Jian that we were finished!