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

Chapter 1069 Conditions with Restrictions

Chu Yang raised an eyebrow slightly.

"It's safer here than the outer ring of light," the Wolf King said, raising a front paw and pointing to the warm yellow stones on the dome. "These stones are made from wolf bones. They contain the power of successive Wolf Kings. Anything that seeps out from the seal will be suppressed here."

Sun Wukong looked up at the luminous stones, then at the Wolf King, a hint of respect in his eyes unlike anything he'd seen before. It wasn't because the Wolf King was strong—he'd seen far too many strong beings—but because this old wolf had ground the bones of its ancestors into stones and hung them on the ceiling, all to maintain the stability of this place. He'd seen this kind of responsibility towards its race before; it was rare.

"Su Wanwan is outside," Chu Yang said.

"She's inside the halo, she'll be fine," the Wolf King said. "That halo is supported by Yuehua's remains. Yuehua has been dead for so many years, her bones are more reliable than her descendants."

Chu Yang remained silent for a few moments before standing up.

"I still have to go out," he said. "I'm not used to leaving my teammates alone when I'm not around."

The wolf king looked at him, and that faint smile reappeared in his golden eyes. This time, the smile was a little deeper than before; it wasn't mockery, but a kind of approval.

"Then you can go out," the wolf king said. "When you want to come back, just go all the way to the bottom of the stone steps. The passage won't be closed."

After saying that, it closed its eyes.

Chu Yang and Sun Wukong exchanged a glance, then turned and walked back.

As I reached the entrance to the passage, I heard the wolf king's voice behind me. It was very low, so low that it sounded like it was talking to me.

"The moon...it's truly unforgettable."

Chu Yang paused for a moment. He didn't turn around.

Sun Wukong turned back. He stood at the entrance of the passage, looked at the old brown wolf with its eyes closed on the platform for a moment, then shouldered his golden cudgel and walked away.

When they returned to the inner sanctum hall, everything seemed normal.

Su Wanwan was still sitting beside the dried wolf blood, the silvery-white aura around her even stronger than before they left. The white donkey lay beside her, its ears twitching at the sound of footsteps. Seeing it was Chu Yang, it lay back down, its tail tip wagging gently.

Tang Sanzang sat inside the halo, an open scripture in front of him, but his eyes weren't on the scripture; they were fixed on the direction of the passage. Seeing Chu Yang and Sun Wukong return, he visibly relaxed, closed the scripture, and stood up.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Chu Yang said.

"What did they say?"

Chu Yang sat down next to Su Wanwan, leaned against the stone wall behind her, closed his eyes for a while, and then spoke.

"I want to go out."

Tang Sanzang was taken aback for a moment, then slowly realized what "wanting to go out" meant. His expression changed, and he flicked a bead on his rosary, then another, stopping on the third.

"What did you reply?"

"I said we can't make the decision," Chu Yang opened his eyes, "but I'll help pass on the message. There are conditions. They have to accept the restrictions."

Tang Sanzang stopped moving his prayer beads. He looked at Chu Yang, his lips moved a few times, and finally he sighed, his voice low: "A restriction...that's feasible. But will the wolf clan agree to it?"

"He agreed," Sun Wukong chimed in from the side, squatting down and drawing circles on the bluestone slab with the tip of his golden cudgel. "That old wolf is pretty decisive. Much more decisive than I, Old Sun, thought."

Tang Sanzang paused again. He looked at Chu Yang, then at Sun Wukong, and finally at the depths of the passage. The depths of the passage were pitch black, and he could see nothing, but he seemed to be able to see the old wolf with golden eyes, and he stared at it for a long time.

"Amitabha," he murmured, his voice devoid of joy or sorrow, only a complex emotion that was hard to describe, like a sigh or a sense of relief.

Chu Yang leaned against the stone wall, closed his eyes, and his breathing gradually became even.

He appeared to be asleep, but his mind was constantly racing. He was thinking about the restrictions. Who would place them, how, where, what methods, how long would it take, how to verify them afterward, and who would be responsible if anything went wrong. These details unfolded like a net in his mind, each node requiring someone to fill in the gaps.

He thought of Bai tide.

Bai tide is a fox spirit; he wondered if she would be willing to place a restriction on the wolf clan. Or perhaps, he could ask someone else. He didn't know what kind of people he would encounter on his journey west, but he knew one thing—he had promised to do this, and he would see it through to the end.

He opened his eyes and glanced at Su Wanwan beside him.

Her eyes were still closed, her eyelashes motionless, and her breathing was so light it was almost imperceptible. Her complexion was better than before she entered meditation; it was no longer the paleness of someone who hadn't seen sunlight for a long time, but had a faint rosy hue, like the pink light shining through the sky after a snowfall in winter.

The moonlight circulated around her, circle after circle, each circle fainter than the last, but more stable.

It seems like she's grown a little bit of a tail.

Chu Yang counted them—five.

He remembered there were four things before he entered meditation.

Now there are five.

He closed his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

The white donkey lay down next to Su Wanwan's knees, yawned, rested its chin on her feet, and closed its eyes.

In the inner sanctum hall, the silvery-white moon and the warm yellow light stones on the dome, unseen by anyone, flashed simultaneously. Like two stars of different colors, separated by thousands of miles, they winked at each other.

Su Wanwan woke up on the morning of the fifth day.

Without warning, without transition, she suddenly opened her eyes. It was as if someone had flipped a switch in her brain; the lights came on, and consciousness returned. She blinked and found herself still sitting next to the long-dried wolf blood, the white donkey's head resting on her feet, drool dripping onto her shoes.

She looked down at her hands.

Her hands were still the same, with long, slender fingers and rounded nails, exactly the same as before she entered meditation. But something was different. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, like someone who had lived in a house for many years suddenly waking up one day to find all the windows spotless—the house was still the same, but the light had changed, the position of everything was clearer, and even the dust in the corners that she had never noticed before was now perfectly visible.

She tried moving her fingers.

As her fingertips traced the air, a very thin, silvery-white mark was left behind, like a brush tip gliding across rice paper, the ink slowly spreading and then dissipating. The mark faded much more slowly than she had expected—before, when she used her lunar energy, it would dissipate after leaving her body for a maximum of two or three breaths; now, this mark lingered in the air for seven or eight breaths before finally dissipating like a wisp of smoke.

Five tails.

She didn't need to look back to know. The five tails were like five fingers, each controllable independently, each with its own senses. She could feel a small tuft of hair sticking up at the tip of the fifth tail, unlike the smooth tips of the other four. She used her mind to press that tuft of hair down.

"Awake?" Chu Yang's voice came from the side.

Su Wanwan turned her head. Chu Yang leaned against the stone platform, holding a bowl of hot water he had somehow gotten his hands on. Steam rose gently in the silvery-white light of the moon, like a transparent thread. His expression was calm, as if she had only been gone for a short while, not five days. But Su Wanwan noticed that his fingers were holding the bowl a little tighter than usual.

"Mmm," she said, her voice a little hoarse. She hadn't spoken for five days, and her throat felt like it had been sanded.

Chu Yang handed her the bowl. She took it and drank a sip; the water was warm, with a slightly sweet taste, like honey. After a couple more sips, her throat felt better, and she asked, "You waited five days?"

"Five and a half days," Chu Yang corrected her.

Su Wanwan held the bowl, remaining silent for a few moments. She wanted to say, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long," but the words caught in her throat. She wasn't apologizing; she was cultivating, and cultivation didn't require apologies. But what should she say if not an apology? Unable to think of anything, she took another sip of water.

Sun Wukong stepped out of the halo, squatted down in front of her, and tilted his head to look at her. After a few moments, he suddenly exclaimed, "Eh!"

"What's wrong?" Su Wanwan felt uneasy under his gaze.

"You've changed," Sun Wukong said.

"What has changed?"

"I can't quite put my finger on it." Sun Wukong scratched his head. "You used to be like a... a thin bamboo stalk, swaying in the wind. Now you're still a thin bamboo stalk, but your roots have taken hold. No matter how strong the wind is, it's the leaves that sway, not the roots."

Su Wanwan was stunned. She hadn't expected Sun Wukong to say something like that. She thought he would say something like "You've become stronger" or "You have more tails," things she could tell for herself. But he was talking about roots.

He was right.

She truly felt that her roots had taken hold. Not just in the bluestone slabs of the inner tomb, but in a deeper, more essential place. Before, her spiritual practice was like building a house on the beach; once built, it would collapse with a single wave. Now, she had finally found a reef and built her house on it. The waves were still crashing, but the house wouldn't collapse.

Tang Sanzang also stepped out of the halo and stood in front of Su Wanwan, his hands clasped together. He didn't speak, but just smiled slightly. That smile contained satisfaction, and also a touch of emotion that only an elder would have when seeing a junior make progress.

Surrounded by the three of them, Su Wanwan suddenly felt a little embarrassed. She lowered her head, pretending to be busy, and moved the white donkey's head off her feet. She stood up, stretched her numb legs, and then returned the bowl to Chu Yang.

"I'm going somewhere," she said.

Chu Yang took the bowl without asking where she was going.

he knows.

As she descended the stone steps, the stone walls on either side of the passage were different from when she last visited. Last time, the walls were black, cold, and slippery, and the air was filled with the scent of wolves. This time, the walls were still black, but there were silvery-white patterns on the surface—not runes, but moonlight seeping into the cracks of the stone, like water seeping into parched land, slowly and irreversibly changing the stone's texture.

When they reached the end of the stone steps, the two white wolves were already waiting at the entrance of the passage.

When they saw Su Wanwan, a hint of surprise flashed in their gray eyes simultaneously. The white wolf on the left tilted its ears forward, as if sniffing her scent; the white wolf on the right raised its tail slightly, not in welcome, but out of alertness.

As Su Wanwan walked past them, the two white wolves simultaneously took a half step back.

It wasn't intentional. It was an instinctive bodily reaction, like a hand instinctively pulling back when it touches a scalding hot pot lid. Their bodies automatically reacted by retreating when she approached, and only then did they realize they had backed away. The white wolf on the left awkwardly twitched its ears, while the white wolf on the right tucked its raised tail back inside.

Su Wanwan didn't turn around to look at them, but she sensed it. Her five tails swayed gently behind her, each one capturing the subtle changes in the air—the two white wolves' hearts were racing, their breathing was labored, and their pupils were slightly dilated. It wasn't fear, but a sense of unease. She carried the scent of moonlight, the very essence of the wolf clan sealed away for countless years, their nightmare, the memory etched into their very bones.

When she entered the underground space, the wolf king was lying on the platform, its chin resting on its front paws, its golden eyes half-open and half-closed. It looked like it was sleeping, but the moment Su Wanwan walked in, its ears twitched.

It wasn't heading in Su Wanwan's direction—its ears already knew where she was. Its ears were listening to her footsteps. One step, two steps, three steps. Each step on the stone slab sounded different; the first heavy, the second light, the third heavy again. This wasn't instability; it was a test. This little fox was testing its new body, testing its new strength, testing how far it could go in this new world.

The wolf king opened his eyes.

The golden eyes looked at Su Wanwan, from top to bottom, from bottom to top, from front to back, and from back to front. The gaze swept over her five tails, over the layer of moonlight around her that was fainter but more stable than before, and over her face—the tension and unease of five days ago were gone, replaced by a very quiet, deep-water-like certainty.

"It's five tails now," the Wolf King said.

Su Wanwan stood three zhang in front of the platform, looking at the wolf king. This was the first time she had seen this old wolf. Five days ago, she had been in meditation, without consciousness or memory. Now, looking at it, she felt its powerful, complete, and non-aggressive aura. Her first reaction was not fear, but confirmation.

Her aura was confirming the wolf's level of power.

She was many levels above him. Like an ant at the foot of a mountain, looking up at the summit, shrouded in clouds and mist, she couldn't see where the top was at all. But she didn't back down. Her five tails were slightly spread behind her, like five antennae, capturing every detail of the wolf king's aura. It wasn't a provocation, but learning. She was using her aura to learn how a creature far more powerful than herself operated its body.

The wolf king sensed her studying.

The smile in his golden eyes deepened a little more.

"Are you here to take on the challenge?" it asked.

Su Wanwan was taken aback. She had come to express her gratitude—thank you to the Wolf King for not disturbing her during her meditation, thank you to the two white wolves for bringing Chu Yang and the others to talk, and thank you to the old wolf for accepting the condition with its restrictions. (End of Chapter)