They landed near the group below them, and the delegate climbed down the dragon.

Alex blinked, and suddenly, a large 'man' was directly in front of him.

​​

He had as much hair on his body like an ape, yet, a golden crown sat stably on his head.

His face was hairless and looked rather human, but his expressions were exaggerated and somewhat unnatural.

"Say, brother, have you got any good food?" The monkey man had a deep voice.

Alex instantly backed down with a backflip and established some distance between them.

The monkey man's nostrils twitched, and he had an expression of disappointment, "You don't seem to have any food..."

"Sun, behave," A monk-like man ordered the monkey man.

Unexpectedly, a humanoid pig jumped next to the monkey and whispered quite loudly, "Hey, is that a pretty foreign woman with them?"

He pointed at Hermes, who had his back facing the opposite side and his wings hid the upper half of his body.

"Li'l piggy, you only think about women, don't you?" The monkey man asked him.

Alex witnessed their humorous exchange and gave side glances to the relaxed and indifferent Hermes.

The pig-like man replied, "Li'l monkey king, you only think of food and fighting, don't you?"

'Monkey King? Sun...Wukong?!' Alex received a sudden realization.

The ape-like body hair, the crown, the iron staff in his right hand, and his behavior.

It couldn't be anyone other than the iconic Monkey King.

'This is a nice change of pace from the overly serious gods I usually meet..' Alex's eyes glowed with admiration.

Sun Wukong reminded him of Dionysus.

"Hermes, say, where is Dionysus? I didn't see him at the divine council," Alex inquired with Hermes.

Hermes turned around, and immediately, the pig-like man jumped back and exclaimed, "The foreign pretty woman is....a man....!"

Hermes ignored the piggy and replied, "That troublemaker? Last time I heard, I think he was in Northern Europa, deep into Aesir territory."

Alex nodded, but he saw that someone charged at Hermes.

The piggy was sluggishly running towards Hermes, and kept screaming, "How dare you confuse me with those pretty angel wings?!"

Hermes frowned, but Sun Wukong's staff already did their job and flattened the piggy's heavy body to the ground.

"Did flirting with the moon goddess not teach you anything, Li'l piggy? Don't Hou Yi's arrows still hurt you?" Sun Wukong chuckled.

Then, the monk Xuanzang and the heavenly delegate entered the scene, and the two troublemakers immediately stood straight.

Xuanzang laughed and said, "Don't cause any more trouble or I'll have to call Sir Gautama?"

When he heard the name 'Gautama', Sun Wukong's hair was unnaturally erected and his body stiffened up.

Alex laughed because he knew why Sun Wukong was scared.

In Journey to the west, after stealing and eating all of the peaches of immortality of the heavenly domain, Sun Wukong fought and easily defeated a Bodhissatva.

However, he soon confronted the Buddha, and he instantly lost.

Xuanzang nodded when he saw their fear, and stated, "We are going to spend the night with our friends right here before moving on westwards, shall we?"

"I don't approve, their group doesn't have any women," Of course, the piggy complained about a particular aspect of their set-up

"Xiao Bajie, if you continue indulging in lust, I will make you forcefully read mantras again," Xuanzang whistled in innocence.

The piggy immediately kowtowed to the monk and apologized.

"Is there any town nearby?" The delegate asked Xuanzang.

Xuanzang nodded, but he remarked, "There was, but I had a strange intuition regarding the town, so we did not enter it."

'Uh-oh...' Alex thought to himself.

The delegate waved his hand and embarrassingly replied, "Well, you see, we don't exactly have any food or water-

"Us too! Xunzang is starving us of food in the desert!"

"I could starve for the rest of my life if I could feel Nuwa's slap again..."

Alex did not need to look to see who spoke.

"What a funny group Yudi sent you with, Xuanzang."

The monk giggled and replied, "I hope to teach them the seven virtues when we reach India, and moderation from food, the drink is one of them."

"It's getting dark, let's go to the town," Hermes folded his arms and proposed.

The two troublemakers were unnaturally excited to go to the town, for different reasons, respectively.

Following that, they ended up going to the nearby village.

_______________

"Why is there no one?" Alex commented as he observed their surroundings.

There were fresh footprints on the eroded path, but there was not a single person in the town.

They reached a well, and Xuanzang said, "Look at the moisture on the bucket, they've used it quite recently."

"I smell fresh food too," Sun Wukong added.

"Let's stock on supplies like water and leave this town immediately," The delegate shivered.

Alex suddenly got goosebumps.

It was like there was a creature observing them.

He activated Link, and other than the group, the only sentient beings around them were...

'The sand?' A patch of wet sand attracted his attention.

"Hermes, let's leave very soon."

"I agree."

They found an empty food stall and stuffed some foodstuffs into their storage.

Obviously, they left an appropriate amount of money in the stall.

Suddenly, a roar took them by surprise.

Alex looked behind him, and the sights were nothing short of eerie.

The patch of wet sand that he took notice of earlier, started moving inwards and climbed higher and higher until it formed into a sand golem the size of a two-story building.

Unlike the rest of the group, Sun Wukong smiled from ear to ear.

He joyfully said, "Xuanzang, give me some dry noodle soup, I'll fight this thing after eating-

However, his expression took a turn for the worse.

Behind the golem, slime-like creatures wriggled around and approached them.

'Ghost generals!' Alex immediately recognized them.

If there were ghost generals around, that meant...

'There is a ghost king around here!'

Sun Wukong, who fearlessly challenged the golem earlier, was shivering and hiding behind Xuanzang.

"Xuanzang, did I say something about fighting earlier?"

Xuanzang sighed, and said, "For someone who's been to the Underworld, you're too scared of some ghosts..."