Chapter 127: You Can Make a Scene in the Heavenly Court, But You Can’t Date!
Qiu Ren and the Great Sage started a.n.a.lyzing the current situation at the motel just like that.
Risor and Suri also calmed down and listened to Qiu Ren’s a.n.a.lysis.
Since the Great Sage was the target the Army wanted to rope in, it would be much simpler for him to change sides and stop the Army’s invasion plan.
It seemed that the Great Sage was really turning his coat right now.
However…
“Resetting the personality and memory does save time and effort.”
Qiu Ren sat in the bed in the motel as he looked at the record the Great Sage gave him with a terrified feeling.
In the 40 years since the immortals of the Heavenly Court were created, many of their personalities and memories had been reset due to nightmare pollution.
Just like Erlang Shen, who had wanted to live a normal life, his memory and personality had been reset twice.
The first time he was reset was because he was severely injured after fighting with a mighty foreign devil. The erosion was so severe that he had no choice but to be reset.
The second time was because the erosion Erlang Shen suffered after his aunt was devoured by a foreign devil almost made him collapse.
The two Level A Nightmare Seeds produced after these two resets still hadn’t been purified completely until now.
Although Erlang Shen had lost his memory of these two resets, he could still sense the characters and relationships that had been deleted in the past.
So, the Dream Maker responsible for constructing the Heavenly Court directly deleted most of the family characters around Erlang Shen in the original version.
He turned him into this selfless, just, and emotionless immortal in the Heavenly Court.
This was just one example of what the immortals in the Heavenly Court had experienced. Even the Great Sage couldn’t remember clearly if he had been reset or not, but in his memory…
The tragic experience of the immortals in the Heavenly Court around him… The complicated feeling of getting to know his friends and comrades after they lost their memories.
The Great Sage had experienced them all.
The other dream consciousnesses, like the Flash, would probably have followed Supernova to rebel.
The Great Sage might be the most rebellious dream character in people’s knowledge, but he kept the utmost restraint on his emotions for such rules that made him angry all the time.
This was for the so-called “righteousness.”
Dream Makers reset the memory and personality of dream consciousness before because they had no other choice. And now, Qiu Ren offered a solution that seemed better in the Great Sage’s opinion.
But the research inst.i.tute worked with the other two parties to step up and try to stop him.
Even the Great Sage couldn’t just watch without doing anything. He decided to help Qiu Ren. He certainly wasn’t trying to rebel but to provide a.s.sistance for Qiu Ren.
“By the way, there’s something I really need to ask you.” Qiu Ren closed the file in his hands and asked, “Have you not made any trouble in the Heavenly Court?”
This was the part Qiu Ren cared most about when he watched the productions related to Journey to the West in this world.
Whether it was the original Journey to the West produced in the early years or the extended productions and games afterward… the scene where the Great Sage made trouble in the Heavenly Court was a bit unclear.
Qiu Ren watched… The Heavenly Court only yielded to this monkey and granted him the t.i.tle of the Great Sage, and he was then inexplicably dragged to go on a pilgrimage to Buddhist scriptures.
This gave Qiu Ren an intense sense of strangeness.
“Although I’ve had some conflicts with the Heavenly Court in the early days, we’ve never really gone into full-scale war,” the Great Sage said.
Qiu Ren was a bit dumbfounded. Was the original version of Journey to the West in this world… adapted?
“Then, where did your piercing eyes and immortal body come from?”
Qiu Ren remembered that if the Great Sage didn’t make trouble in the Heavenly Court, he wouldn’t be imprisoned in the alchemy furnace for refining.
“I fought with that old man, the Supreme Venerable Sovereign, and got them in the alchemy furnace at that time.”
He didn’t go into war with the Heavenly Court. Was this… because the memory of the Great Sage had been reset or because Journey to the West in this world had been adapted?
“So, Great Sage, how do you… want to make a scene?”
Qiu Ren asked about the most critical part.
The biggest reason why this Monkey King came to ask Qiu Ren for help was… Qiu Ren was a Dream Maker, a Dream Maker who could write stories for him and a Dream Maker who dared to write stories for him.
The other Dream Makers might have already been dragged out and shot to death if they dared to touch the Dream Seed of the Heavenly Court.
Perhaps only Qiu Ren, this Dream Maker who had the protection of several Lords of Nightmare, had the courage to do so.
“You’ll plan, and I’ll take action. I’ll bear your sins even though I’ll be given a bad name.”
The Great Sage had guarded the Celestial Empire for 40 years, and he would continue to keep people in the country safe for the rest of his life. However, the att.i.tude of the research inst.i.tute this time truly disappointed him.
This was the only time he acted wilfully towards the research inst.i.tute ever since he was born and also his only rebellion that matched his character settings. He did this for his old friends, the immortals in the Heavenly Court.
“I can think of two scripts. One is the script of creating a mess in the Heavenly Court… the other may be a bit disruptive.”
Qiu Ren’s ident.i.ty in this Nightmare Dungeon had already been exposed, and he didn’t hide it anymore.
Two script outlines were created in Qiu Ren’s hands.
In fact, Qiu Ren didn’t have high control over the Romantic Movie Universe. He just had part of the administrative authority, while most of it was in the consciousness of the Shadow Beasts.
Although the part of the administration authority couldn’t give Qiu Ren freedom, it gave him the ability to create under limited conditions.
The script outlines Qiu Ren created were the ones stored in his head.
The first script was about the well-known story in which the Great Sage made trouble in the Heavenly Court. Writing this part of the story was a piece of cake for Qiu Ren. He could already think of several versions from his memories. If he wanted to adapt to a new version, he could also write a different one.
Another one was a story he planned to write into the Romantic Movie Universe before.
It was just that the Great Sage, who was a great fit for the role, had never been dragged into the Romantic Movie Universe. As a result, Qiu Ren didn’t put this story inside.
Now that the Great Sage wanted to rebel, it seemed that there wouldn’t be any problem for Qiu Ren to provide him with the services of a resort.
The Great Sage took the two script outlines from Qiu Ren’s hands. The first outline was an ordinary scene where he made a mess in the Heavenly Court.
Qiu Ren didn’t know if the detailed description of this part in Journey to the West in this world was deleted on purpose or if it didn’t even exist. The outline Qiu Ren wrote added some details in the first part of Journey to the West.
“I’ve thought about doing this in my memory, but I had quite a close relationship with the immortals in the Heavenly Court that time. And now, there’s nothing to worry about anymore.”
The reason why the Great Sage in the world couldn’t quarrel with the Heavenly Court was that the immortals there were his old friends. This wasn’t a setting given to him by his Dream Maker.
After staying in a Dream Dungeon for a long time, the dream characters with self-consciousness inside would more or less become friends or… enemies?
Another script was a romantic story that might cause the fundamentalists to break Qiu Ren’s head.
There were quite a lot of fundamentalists in this world, especially on the side of the Nordic G.o.ds. After being controlled by religion, the fundamentalists became terrifying to the point that they established an extremely strict censorship organization.
The function of the censorship organization was to examine whether the movies and games related to the G.o.ds produced by its film and game companies harmed and distorted the image of the G.o.ds.
If there was the slightest sign of distortion, the production would directly be regarded as heresy and be canceled.
The Celestial Empire was quite tolerant in this regard, but the script Qiu Ren provided might be labeled “a messy adaptation and complete nonsense.”
“…”
The Great Sage went into silence in embarra.s.sment after reading this script.
“If you can’t play the role, it’s alright. The second script is only used to eliminate your nightmare erosion,” Qiu Ren said.
“That’s not it. It’s just that the plot seems familiar to me… I feel like I’m remembering something,” The Great Sage said.
“You mean the second script?”
Qiu Ren suddenly realized something strange as he listened to the Great Sage. Before he could think carefully, Risor, next to them, suddenly raised the gun in his hand.
The reason he raised the gun wasn’t that he wanted to abduct Qiu Ren again.
In fact, what Qiu Ren and the Great Sage were planning was something they wanted to see. Risor raised his gun only because he sensed another uninvited guest outside the door.
“Put your gun down. It’s not an intruder!” Suri recognized who that person was first. She yelled loudly at Risor.
“…”
Risor’s eyes turned cold. His anger of being beaten up by the Great Sage still hadn’t been suppressed, but he didn’t settle the scores with the Great Sage, considering the situation.
Yet, another unknown person came at this moment. Even more, that person wasn’t a member of the Army. Plus, for Matilda’s safety, he didn’t put down the gun in his hand.
The person who came to the door was a female high school senior whose outfit didn’t match the environment here at all. She looked a bit dumb.
It was the Queen Mother of the West.
“Suri, it’s so difficult for me to find you if you run so far away,” said the Queen Mother.
The moment Suri saw the Queen Mother of the West, she raised the gun like Risor and pointed it at this woman, who was talking to her with a tone that gave her gooseb.u.mps.
“Why are you here?” Suri wasn’t surprised that the Queen Mother of the West could come all the way here.
“I’m here to stop this monkey from messing around again.”
The Queen Mother of the West stopped acting cute like a female high school senior. She stared at the Great Sage, who didn’t even turn around, with sharp eyes.
“You mean making trouble in the Heavenly Court?”
Qiu Ren thought that it was very normal for the mother, the core of this dream consciousness, to have the ability to monitor her own dream characters. However, she should only have the ident.i.ty as the mother, not the power, like Alaina and Suri.
Just like Risor ignored what Suri said at the critical moment, the Great Sage certainly turned a deaf ear to what the Queen Mother said.
“It’s okay to make a mess in the Heavenly Court. I don’t mind even if you tear the Heavenly Court down in this way, but the monkey isn’t allowed to go to the mortal world and make trouble with any girl again. To put it in a way that you can understand…” The Queen Mother of the West pointed at the second script in the Great Sage’s hands and said, “You can make a scene in the Heavenly Court, but you can’t date!”
She… got that backward, didn’t she?
Qiu Ren was slightly startled as he listened to the Queen Mother’s persuasion. The Great Sage closed the second script Qiu Ren gave him in his hands and turned to the Queen Mother…
“Why? You said the word ‘again,’ and this script also seems familiar to me… Perhaps…”
The oldest character in the world of Journey to the West was definitely the Queen Mother of the West. As the core of the Dream Seed, she had already had self-consciousness before the Dream Maker used her to create all the cla.s.sic characters.
“You… have already forgotten your emotions and desires once a few years after you were born. After that, you’ve never had any contact with the mortal world. If it weren’t that the Dream Makers are going too far, I would have kept this secret for my Lord for my whole life.”
The Queen Mother of the West also knew that she couldn’t hide anything from this clever monkey.
Why didn’t they let the immortals in the Heavenly Court play other roles? This was a lesson the research inst.i.tute learned with their blood. The largest disaster the Dream Dungeon of Journey to the West had suffered was the debt of love of the Great Sage.
“The Lord? The… Primeval Lord?”
“The first creator of the immortal world, the first Dream Maker who made us. This happened 40 years ago. So, monkey, listen to me. You can make a scene in the Heavenly Court. The real Heavenly Court, those Dream Makers, will probably exert themselves to stop you, but I’ll stand by you this time. Just don’t touch… the relationships in the mortal world!”
The Queen Mother of the West seemed to have a very close relationship with the first Dream Maker who had constructed the Dream Dungeon of Journey to the West.
In Qiu Ren’s memory, that Dream Maker had already pa.s.sed away, but she still was still doing her duty entrusted by that Dream Maker—keep the Great Sage away from relationships in the mortal world.
“What if I say no?
“Hehe.” The Great Sage chuckled. With his personality, if he really listened to the immortals in the Heavenly Court, the Heavenly Court would have already cooperated with the Army to achieve the goal of exterminating mankind.
“Then, I can only use an extreme way…”
The Queen Mother of the West was different from Suri. She wasn’t just a character who was just eye candy. She had certain control over the immortals in the Heavenly Court.
This was like how Suri could control the Shadow Beasts to a small extent. Although the Queen Mother of the West couldn’t beat the Great Sage, who had the prayers from all the people in the Celestial Empire, she could still use some other means to control him.
“Before you fight, let me ask something.”
Qiu Ren spoke and stopped the immortal battle that was about to start in this small motel.
“What’s the problem if the Great Sage really dates in the mortal world? Will the extended character take away his power?”
Qiu Ren asked a question the Great Sage didn’t really want to ask.
“It’s fine if that were the case…” said the Queen Mother of the West.
“So, it’s a human being?” When Qiu Ren asked this, he glanced at the expression underneath the Great Sage’s mask.
He was someone who was tough on the outside but shy on the inside. When he read the second script Qiu Ren wrote, Qiu Ren was certain that his expression under the mask was like “old-man-using-cell-phone-on-the-subway.jpg.”
He was probably thinking, “What the h.e.l.l is this? Do young people nowadays write such terrifying stories? Hm? It’s a bit exciting. Let me have another look.”
So, there was no way the Great Sage would ask the Queen Mother what happened before.
Considering the monkey’s dignity, Qiu Ren directly pulled the Queen Mother, who was dressed as a female high school senior, to the side and asked softly, “Can you tell me who the lover of the first Great Sage is?”
The Queen Mother said without a trace of emotion, “A Shadow Beast.”
“…” Qiu Ren almost spat out his saliva.
Suri, who was eavesdropping, almost choked on her own saliva.
“The creatures you call the Shadow Beasts are foreign devils, without self-consciousness and have only cruelty, in our minds. Qiu Ren, you still don’t understand what I’m saying?” The Queen Mother of the West thought that she had already made it clear enough.
The lover of the first Great Sage ended up becoming a Shadow Beast.
“Even though it’ll make the Great Sage remember the past, he’ll only feel sad?” Qiu Ren felt that there should be no big problem if the Great Sage wanted to film the drama series.
“That… ill-fated relation still hasn’t been cut off!” After remaining silent for a while, the Queen Mother said, “The enchantress is still alive even after turning into a foreign devil, hiding in the outland. You can ask these two people from the outland what it’s like in the outside world.”
The Queen Mother of the West was talking about Suri and Risor. She meant that… the ex-lover of the Great Sage wasn’t in this real world.
“There are two mothers in the Army and also two mothers in the Prehistoric World. She’s been banished to the outland, and there’s no way she can come back again, but w.a.n.g Teng, do you know that Dream Seeds have the ability to attract each other?” the Queen Mother of the West said.
“I’ve experienced it at the Advent Film Festival in Europe.”
Qiu Ren knew that Dream Seeds attracted each other. He had lured the Lord of Nightmare of Dead by Daylight using the chaotic tendency of the Joker in Batman.
Then, this time…
“If the story you created is truly shown in front of the audience, it’ll be like a bright light for that enchantress! She can follow the light and come again anytime. This isn’t a good thing for the Heavenly Court and the mortal world!”
Suri’s chuckle came after the Queen Mother’s words. “Who gave you the illusion.. that you can resist the erosion of the Shadow Beasts without doing anything?”
In the battle against nightmare erosion, perhaps n.o.body had more say than the Army.
“Nightmares that are supposed to come to this world will come eventually. It’s just a matter of time. If I were you, I’d lure that woman here first, then… in the way you speak…” Suri intersected her index fingers and said, “Split and destroy her.”
“So, can you explain to me what the outland is? And how many Lords of Nightmare exactly are watching the real world?” Qiu Ren interrupted their talk.
However, the Queen Mother and Suri both remained silent on this issue at the same time.
Qiu Ren could only put his focus back on the Great Sage.
“So, Great Sage, do you still want to play the role?” Qiu Ren asked.
“Why not? In the past, I thought n.o.body could lie to me my entire life. I never expected that… I’ve been deceived by that old man since I was born until now.”
The Great Sage seemed to be trying to find his original memory through this drama series, even though this would leave him injured all over his body.
“Then, let’s start from the mess in the Heavenly Court.”
Qiu Ren also hoped that the enchantress that the Queen Mother talked about could be a little kinder. The Army was already difficult enough for him to deal with.