"Sigh, it's been hundreds of years since I've tasted mortal realm's corn since the Great Migration of the Immortal Realm. I really miss the days at Black Wind Mountain," a text from a WeChat contact named "Black Bear" left Wang Yue a little bewildered. He never imagined that he would add an immortal as a friend, especially one who had once fought to a draw with Sun Wukong and was later taken in by Guanyin to guard Mount Luojiashan as the Black Bear Spirit! This backstory needs to be explained from the beginning.
Half an hour ago, under the blazing sun, Wang Yue, wearing a large straw hat, was walking in his cornfield, planning to water the crops to alleviate the drought. Wang Yue's home was in a small mountain village at the foot of Mount Tai. Although this year saw heavy rain across China especially to the south, their area was suffering from severe drought. Not watering the fields daily would risk the sun baking the crops dry at midday.
Having returned home unemployed after graduation, Wang Yue took on the duty of watering the fields every day at noon, afraid that his parents would criticize him for eating without working. Unexpectedly, on his first day of watering, his phone fell into the water.
"Worse luck," thought Wang Yue, his phone was just a common domestic model, not resistant to water damage. After picking it up and checking it over, thankfully it was unharmed. Secretly relieved, but in his excitement, he unknowingly tapped something, and surprisingly, his WeChat application started updating.
"Damn, I can't afford the mobile data," thought Yue, wanting to halt the update. But before he could, WeChat had already completed updating.
Re-opening WeChat, nothing much had changed on the interface, except for a red dot notification in the contacts tab. Checking it, he found a friend request.
"Black Bear wants to add you as a friend."
"Method of contact: via address book."
In this day and age, there are all sorts of bizarre online nicknames. Wang Yue assumed it was an old middle school classmate who wanted to add him on WeChat, and thus, he accepted without hesitation. Little did he know, as soon as he accepted the request, he received the aforementioned message,
"Sigh, it's been hundreds of years since I've tasted mortal realm's corn since the Great Migration of the Immortal Realm. I really miss the days at Black Wind Mountain."
"Darn it, this message is so baffling, who the hell is this person?"
Wang Yue didn't respond immediately, instead, he clicked into the person’s photo album. He wanted to see which familiar old face was pretending to be someone else.
“I eat this fasting pill every day, but it is flavorless, I want to eat corn!”
“I envy Sudhana and Dragon Girl so much, every time they get to follow Guanyin and have fun everywhere.”
"Sometimes I think, I'm not even as good as Guanyin's mount, the golden-haired lion. It's so lonely staying behind on this hill."
Wang Yue looked at the posts, all were complaints from this black bear. Did this person consider themselves as some sort of a longtime fan of West Journey, thinking that they're the actual black bear?
Darn it, I don't seem to have a classmate like this.
Anyway, it’s kinda boring, Wang Yue glanced at his cornfield, chuckled, and replied with a voice message, "Do you want to eat corn? There's plenty in my yard."
The black bear demon, who was talking to himself on Luojia Mountain, was startled when he heard the voice from the sky. He anxiously looked around, but there was no other immortal in the desolate hill behind Luojia Mountain.
"May I ask which deity you are? Please don't joke around. Since the heavenly realm has sealed its border, apart from the annual Flat Peach Feast, isn't every deity living off the elixir of the Supreme Old Lord?" asked the confused black bear demon.
Hundreds of years ago, the barrier of the heavenly realm suddenly deteriorated, causing a large amount of celestial energy to leak out and severely disrupt the cultivation in the celestial world. The Jade Emperor, together with a group of deities and disciple of the Buddhist school such as Buddha, tried to fix the border, but the damage was too severe. After some discussions, they could only block the borders between the celestial world and other realms, set up a circulatory system, and this is how they managed to survive the crisis.
However, as a result, the celestial realm became isolated. Hundreds of years have passed, although they have lived in peace, the deities have been very bored. Plus they also felt that the entire celestial realm has been adrift irregularly since then, and it could drift to some unknown place at any time...
Listening to the other person's words, Wang Yue didn't refute, he casually took a picture of a corn cob and sent it.
But a surprising scene happened. The corn cob he just photographed disappeared into thin air!
The black bear at Luojia Mountain looked at the corn that suddenly appeared in his hand, and his bear eyes immediately lit up with green light. There really is corn!
But he dared not eat right away. This was precious. The black bear held the cob of corn in his trembling hand and looked up into the sky, "I do not know which mighty being can obtain such valuable items. Please appear, I, an old bear, would personally offer my thanks."
No freaking way!
This is actually for real!
Wang Yue watched the short video sent to him on his screen, only to see a massive creature with a bear's face and a humanoid body bowing and nodding at him. In its hand, was it not the cob of corn that he had taken a picture of just now?
Luckily, what he had photographed was a cob of corn, not an entire field of corn. Otherwise, all his corn would have disappeared and he would've suffered a great loss.
However, thinking about it, this matter was too abnormal. Wang Yue took another picture of a cob of corn and sent it. The cob in front of him once again ended up in the black bear's hand.
The black bear of the Luo Jia mountain, looking at the newly appeared cob of corn in his hands, was so moved that he was about to cry. This was the corn he had craved for hundreds of years!
"Please, show yourself great one, I, an old bear... what do you want? As long as I can do it, I will certainly help you," cried the bear.
Wang Yue struggled to restrain his excitement when he suddenly noticed something in the video. Wasn't that purple bamboo behind the black bear?
The legendary Guanyin purple bamboo!
Purple bamboo is not only aesthetically pleasing to the human eye, but it can also be made into musical instruments, walking sticks, furniture, etc., making it quite valuable. Plus, this is from the fairy realm. If sold, it would surely fetch a handsome price.
Wang Yue pressed the voice button and said, "Who I am is unimportant. I only saw you in need. If you really want to express gratitude, send me a few pieces of bamboo."
Upon hearing this, the black bear looked back at the bamboo and then up at the sky and hesitated, "This purple bamboo forest is under Guanyin's ban, I dare not take them lightly. Do you want anything else in exchange?"
Damn, when Wang Yue heard this, he thought Guanyin was being too stingy. Since the sealing of the fairy realm, resources were scarce they had to be managed.
The problem was, even if this black bear wanted to give him something, how would it do it? He had sent a photo, but the bear didn't have a camera.
Wang Yue rubbed his chin, pressed the voice button, "I originally didn't want anything from you, I passed by and saw your sad face and gifted you the corn. If delivering bamboo is a bit difficult, how about you scoop up a handful of soil for me as a keepsake?"
The black bear nodded, thinking to himself how peculiar this divine being's request was.