Starting Today, I’ll Work as a City Lord - CH 96

“He was a stone monkey born from the nourishment of Heaven and Earth. His body was covered with golden fur, his eyes were shining brightly, and he could jump up more than a dozen meters. He used his natural talents and abilities to become the head of the Flowers and Fruit Mountain, the king of the mountain,” Liu Feng said slowly. The story of Journey to the West caught all of the kids’ attention and made their jaws drop and eyes shining with disbelief.

Weya, Mina, and Nicole weren’t much better. The three of them were like fangirls, with their eyes emitting curiosity, and their ears straightened.

“The stone monkey had been the king of the mountain for too long and his life was getting boring. Every day if he wasn’t catching fleas, he would be watching monkey girls- cough cough eating peaches. The stone monkey built a raft, with the goal to sail through the ocean to learn new things.”

“Cough cough…” Liu Feng coughed lightly and felt that his throat was dry. Suddenly, a bottle of water appeared in front of him.

“Young Master, quickly drink it and then continue telling the story, Nicole urged as she stared at him.

Liu Feng couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he took the water bottle and drank from it. If I didn’t continue telling the story now, would the listeners start sending me knife pieces? Yep, definitely will, no question about it, Liu Feng thought, quickly resuming his storytelling.

“The stone monkey went through thousands and thousands of hardships until he finally learned about the residence of an ancient god. The ancient god tapped the stone monkey’s head 3 times, and during the night, the stone monkey went to the backdoor…

“Because the stone monkey was born through the nourishment of Heaven and Earth, he named himself WuKong¹. He didn’t like to be bound and restrained by things like rules and laws…

“The Heavenly Court coaxed him and scammed him into being a small official to raise horses…”

Liu Feng slowly told the story of Journey to the West in a way that could be understood by the people in this world.

A large, magnificent world full of mysterious and special things was soon created in the listeners’ minds. It was as if they had opened a door to a new world. Of course, this world didn’t have a king of the pirates; only gods, goddesses, and demons.

As Liu Feng talked about how people, including both humans and beastkins, would be taken by Black and White Impermanence to the underworld to have their souls judged by Yama, the God of Death, for how good or evil they are, everyone shuddered as they all looked around, afraid that Black and White Impermanence would be around them waiting to take them to the underworld.

Heavenly Court was in charge of rain and thunder. Leigong, the God of Thunder, would drum a few times for thunder. The Dragon King of the Four Seas would sneeze- cough cough- do spells to create rain.

The Heavenly Court would watch over the ground and the mountains and had peaches could extend a person’s life by a few hundred years.

Mina, Nicole, Weya, and the kids were all amazed by the story. They would exclaim when they listened to the unbelievable and amazing parts while they would cover their eyes when they listened to the scary parts.

The story had already gotten to the climax, and everyone’s breathing became heavier. Mina was so nervous that she even had her military knife out.

“The Sun Wukong realized that he had been lied to and broke out of the Heavenly Court in anger and went back to the Flowers and Fruit Mountain. The Heavenly Court learned that Sun Wukong had ignored the heavenly rules, and they sent 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals to capture Sun Wukong.”

Liu Feng stopped right at the climax of the story and stopped talking because the sky had already darkened. Liu Feng had only been planning to tell a little of the story before lecturing and hadn’t expected to spend such a long time on storytelling.

However, he had gotten addicted to it as the gaze of the fangirls and fanboys made Liu Feng feel the accomplishment of storytelling.

“Okay, that’s all for today. If you want to know what happens next, then you must be good in class and finish your homework on time. If you do that, I will let Miss Weya tell you the rest of the story. If anyone is disobedient and disrupts the class, then we won’t tell the story.”

“We’ll be good.”

“Lord Liu Feng, I’ll listen and be good in the future.

Liu Feng nodded in satisfaction as he assigned the kids homework, which was reciting a small section from the Three Characters Classic.

Liu Feng ended the class and turned around to leave, but he was met with three pairs of eyes filled with resentment.

“What happened to the 3 of you?”

“Young Master, what happened next?” Mina asked anxiously.

Sun Wukong’s monkey image really lined up with the image of a beastkin, and Mina and Weya were both anxious to know what happened next. Nicole also wanted to know because she loved the story, and stories can naturally resonate with the audience.

It was like how Liu Feng felt when he watched the Monkey King fight the Heavenly Court.

“Lord Liu Feng, can you spoil a little about what happened to the monkeys?” Weya asked as she pulled on Liu Feng’s sleeve.

“Yeah! Young Master, did the monkeys of Flowers and Fruit Mountain get imprisoned in hell?” Nicole asked, frowning.

Although they knew the story was fake, it didn’t feel good to be stuck on the most exciting part of the story.

Liu Feng smiled bitterly and waved his hand. “Alright, alright, I wrote down some of the latter parts of the story and put it in the study. You can read it tomorrow.”

“Yay! We can read it tomorrow!” the three said happily.

Liu Feng shook his head in amusement. He knew this feeling. It was like when he was on Earth and reading novels. Just when he was reading the most critical part, he would click on “next chapter” only to find that there was no “next chapter”.

During those moments, he wanted to find out where the author lived and send him knife pieces. He even went as far as to search online to find the 108 ways to squeeze the author dry.

The group of people returned to the City Lord’s Mansion just in time for dinner. Anri didn’t come to the dining hall, and a maid told them that Anri had fallen asleep while holding lollipops.

Mina didn’t have anyone to fight without Anri there, so the dinner was pretty calm and relaxing- except for a certain rabbit girl making weird, erotic sounds whenever she ate delicious food.

It was another silent night. Because he had finished writing the teaching materials, Liu Feng had gone to bed early.

However, 2 people couldn’t fall asleep They quietly got out of their rooms and went towards the study. They were none other than Mina and Nicole. Under the moonlight, the two of them made eye contact before nodding and going back into the darkness of the night.

Not long after the 2 of them left their rooms, Anri opened the door of her room and walked out, carrying a backpack filled with lollipops. Her eyes glowed as she looked at the 2 shadows in the distance and beckoned Weya to get out, and the two of them also headed towards the study.

“The 2 of them are definitely sneaking into the study to read the book. I didn’t expect that I would miss Young Master’s story because I didn’t go out today. What a blunder,” Anri said as she pulled on her ears. If Weya hadn’t told her about it, she would most likely not have known about it until the next day.

Translator’s Notes:

¹ 悟空. Literally, comprehend air.

Going through with the place name changes:

Bei Feng City → North Wind City

Lie Ma City → Blazing Horse City

Xi Yang City → West Sun City

You Shui River → Ghostly Water River (Do y’all even remember this river?)