Sun sat down in front of the Monkey King. He had finally felt safe in his company and wasn’t worried about not being able to get out anymore.

  He looked around him in wonder, at the small birds flying around, and couldn’t help but notice how one of them got out of the narrow path that let him inside, and it didn’t come back, he assumed it must have been able to get out, so he asked the monkey king a question.

  The Monkey King repeated his question: “Why can the birds get out and you can’t, you ask me?”

  Sun nodded, and the king replied, “It’s because they have no purpose here, so they can come and go. While you have a purpose here that you need to get done before you leave; but don’t worry, you will be able to leave before long.”

  Sun relaxed more in his sitting position upon hearing this and asked the monkey king another question, and the monkey king repeated his question, “Did I find the cultivators you ask?” He smiled faintly and said, “Yes, I did, but we are skipping ahead, I sailed for a long time, and my food almost ran out, until I finally reached a land, I got out of my raft, and dressed in human disguise and mingled with the people. I walked all over that land in order to hear any information about the immortals, but I heard nothing. In the end, I prepared my raft again with fruits and water, and sailed once more into the ocean. After sailing through many oceans and visiting multiple lands to no avail, I finally reached this land and once I got out of my raft, I heard a woodcutter singing on top of a mountain, he sang of the immortals, I thought he must be an immortal, I finally found one!”

  Sun nodded eagerly and asked in monkey tongue, “And did he turn out to be an immortal?”

  The Monkey King said, “Hah, no sadly, he wasn’t after I found him on the mountain cutting down a tree; I kowtowed to him and said, ‘Master, please take me as your disciple and teach me cultivation.’ The woodcutter said, ‘I am sorry, but you mistake me for someone else; I am not an immortal.’ That’s when I got angry out of frustration and said, ‘But just now you were singing a song about immortals and cultivation and immortal caves, how do you know that stuff if you are not an immortal yourself?’ He said, ‘This song is known around these parts; it’s rumored that there is an immortal cave a little way on top of this very mountain. You should search there if you really want to learn cultivation.’”

  Sun asked him in monkey tongue, “And did you climb more in search of this immortal cave?”

  The Monkey King flashed him a toothy grin and said, “You bet your monkey ass I did!”

  Sun laughed so hard at that; he had never heard it before.

  The monkey king smiled and continued, “So, I climbed the mountain, until I reached a huge door, and I knocked on the door then sat down in respect for the immortal who would surely open the door for me, and then I heard a voice complain as he opened the door, ‘Who is knocking at this hour, what is this ruckus outside!’ Once I saw him, I thought he was young to be an immortal, but I kowtowed regardless, and said, ‘Master, I come to you from a far, please take me as your disciple and teach me cultivation.’ The person who opened the door then told me, ‘Hey, get up, I am not the master, he told me to open the door because someone will come to us at this hour, it’s fascinating how he knows this stuff before it even happens.’ I thought to myself, if he knew about me before I even found out about where he lived, he must then be a true immortal. I then followed his disciple inside, and this time I didn’t have to guess, in front of many other young disciples the master sat down and was teaching them a lesson, in something I didn’t care for as I only cared for cultivation.”

  Sun nodded his head affirmatively to tell him he too only cared for cultivation.

  King Wukong said, “Like master, like disciple, don’t worry. I didn’t learn any of the lessons that Master Subodhi offered anyway; I can only teach you cultivation.”

  Sun rubbed the back of his head as he gave the Monkey King his patented white-toothed grin.

  The monkey king continued, “So, I rushed to the master, and kowtowed in front of him and asked him to please take me as his apprentice, and he accepted me and asked me about where I come from and I told him from the water cavern on the Flower Fruit Mountain, and I officially became a disciple of an immortal. The master then asked me if I had a surname, to which I answered, ‘No.’ So he gave me the surname Sun. I was ecstatic since I finally got my very own surname, just like humans! I kowtowed to Patriarch Subodhi and danced around in happiness; I vowed that all the monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain would have the same surname as me. After that, the master asked me if I had a name, and I said no again, and he gave me the religious name Wukong, which means ‘wake to the void.’ I was ecstatic with my new name, Sun Wukong, and I danced happily and thanked the master profusely.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Sun got up and danced in circles in happiness too, because he knew how amazing that feeling was as well, and then he asked in monkey tongue, “Did he teach you cultivation?”

  The Monkey King said, “Not in the beginning; he kept offering to teach me all kinds of things except cultivation, and each time he mentioned one of them, I would ask, ‘Will this make me an immortal?’ to which he answers, ‘No.’ Then I would say, ‘Then, I don’t want to learn this.’ we kept repeating this over and over, until the master came and hit me with a ruler three times on my head, and said I am a bad student, before he excused himself from us for the night.”

  Sun asked in monkey tongue, “What did you do after that?”

  The monkey king answered, “I went into our sleeping quarters, and I acted like I fell asleep, then at 3 am in the dead of night, I got up and sneaked into the master’s quarters, as I got in he rolled in his bed, and found me sitting next to his bed, he said, ‘Why did you come at this late hour?’ I answered, ‘Master gave me a signal to meet him at 3 am and here I am.’ Master laughed, and said, ‘You are a smart monkey, you picked up on my signal, anyway, I wanted only you to hear this from me, I will teach you perpetual rejuvenation, I’ll even teach you the art of the 72 transformations also known as the art of earthly multitudes, and the art of cloud soaring too, but you are to keep our lessons a secret from everyone else.”

  Sun asked eagerly in monkey tongue, “Will you teach me all these arts too?”

  The Monkey King smiled sadly and said, “Right now, my soul sliver here is very weak; it’s just an impression that I left on this place that got triggered by your presence and turned this place into your own fortuitous encounter. Though with the help of this water spring, I’ll be able to train you in cultivation.”

  The little monkey eagerly asked in his tongue again, “What’s so special about this water spring?”

  The monkey king answered, “The water here is of a high spiritual quality, it’s rich in Qi energy, just by drinking this and doing the right breathing exercise you will be able to make it into the first stage of Qi condensation, and maybe even the second stage of Qi condensation.”

  Sun looked at the water greedily and ran towards it to drink, only to be stopped by the monkey king’s voice, “Not so fast, I want you to learn from me the right breathing exercise first before you drink this water, so that you can immediately make the best use of the rich Qi energy inside the water.”

  Sun held his head low in defeat as he came to the monkey king and sat in front of him in a lotus position, the monkey king then said, “Good, now for the exercise, I want you to take three breaths in, and hold and then let out one long breath before repeating this over and over.”

  Sun tried to do so, but he found it confusing at first how to inhale three times, but he kept at it anyway, until he was finally able to do exactly what the monkey king had asked of him, there was still room for improvement but this was the best form he could get to in such a short time.

  The monkey king nodded his head in appreciation of Sun’s breathing technique before he said, “Okay, now you need to drink your fill of the spring water, don’t do it until your stomach is bloated, I want you to still have room for breathing inside your body.”

  Sun bowed to his teacher, albeit very late, since he had already learned the breathing technique, he didn’t need to ingratiate himself to the monkey king to become his apprentice, and the monkey king didn’t need ingratiation either as he had attained Buddhahood at the end of his journey with the monk Tripitaka/Tang Sanzang.

  Sun went over to the spring and drank his fill, and felt energized by the water. He came back to the Monkey King and sat again in the lotus position awaiting further instructions.

  The monkey king said, “Now I want you to do the breathing exercise again, only this time, you will feel the spiritual energy you consumed with the water go through your body, you are to keep repeating the breathing exercise until you have consumed all the energy in the water and then you will have to repeat this process over and over again. Cultivation, after all, is nothing if not repetitive.”

  Sun sat down in the lotus position, and exercised the new breathing technique; before long he started feeling the Qi energy seep into his entire body. It was refreshing and energizing; he continued doing the exercise as he circled the energy around his body.

  The more the energy grew in his body, the stronger he felt.

  He kept doing that until he had consumed all the water. He opened his eyes and found that the enclosure with the secret spring had become quieter, and that night had descended; he thought there was a lot of time left for night.

  He looked confused as he saw nocturnal animals skittering around him; he looked at the Monkey King and asked him in monkey tongue, “How long have I been practicing cultivation?”

  The Monkey King said, “I estimate that with each time you drink, you will spend 6 hours to consume the energy.”

  Sun felt worried for his friend Seph, this meant he was going to leave him for a long time, and he voiced his worry to the monkey king, to which he replied, “Don’t worry about Seph, he will surely understand why you didn’t go back immediately when you return to him stronger than ever.”

  Sun’s eyes lit up with the promise of becoming stronger, and he thought not to waste any more time, as he went back to the water spring and drank his fill again, then sat down to cultivate once more.

  Cultivation was the only sure path to immortality, anybody who heard of it in story books wanted to practice it, but cultivation wasn’t just about knowing the technique, it was also about cultivating in locations that are rich in Qi energy around the world, or consuming the right pills that will give you enough of that energy to breakthrough each stage.

  Sun for the first time had a perfect opportunity to do just that, he had a spring that was rich in Qi energy, if he left this place before he depleted the spring, he would be extremely stupid, and that’s why he resolved to do just that, his master would just have to wait until he finished his fortuitous encounter.