After Jie told Monkey King about her deal with Iron Fan he took her to some room, which she never saw before.
For Jie this place was nothing different than a garbage. She understood that her master had been definitively too lazy to clean this mess up, but for a demoness who is really used to tidy places and have a sensitive smell that place was a real nightmare.
' The faster I find something the better'
So she started digging in.
" How about this?" Asked Monkey King showing her some mirror with the yin-yang symbol on the other side
" It' a demon revealing mirror, how do you think will she take it when I show it to her?" Jie answered picking something into her hand "Oh! That looks cool!" She said showing her master the golden spear
" Good, but not as powerful as your blade- how about the mystical vase?"
Jie looked at him and then at the vase.
" I've got a feeling like it's better to keep it" she stated and then something catch her attention " What is that?" She muttered to herself looking at the dark scroll
Before she realised Monkey King took the scroll away and throw it somewhere far away.
" That's nothing" he explained with bright smile on his face and continued searching as if nothing happened, Jie did the same
" Would be easier if most of the heaven artefacts weren't taken away from me" Wukong pondered
" I think you already have enough of them" Jie remarked while checking some rotten swords
" Tell me something about your weapon!"
" About the mirror blade?" Jie stopped everything to look at him " Now?"
" Why not?- I'm curious cause it's the first time I heard it's name"
" Alright... Well the mirror blade was actually my first booty of my first fight with a strong demon- who was the Fox Demon King. I didn't want it but the second it was in my reach... I heard it calling for me, as if I was the one it was searching for... and I guess I was. When I lost it it was my first defeat from a long time... at that time I lost everything- my tittle, my allies, my freedom, half of my powers and my weapon..." she stopped for a while feeling the painful memory in her mind, she hold tighter to the jade necklace" The mirror blade is the only thing that I can get back"
For a moment it was silent, Jie didn't expect herself to open up that much... she didn't like it. Every time she did that she felt as if she was crossing the line that she had drawn herself. Her master on the other hand seemed not to notice this line. For Jie that was something new and it was making her feel anxious.
" I remembered about something!" Monkey King shouted " Wait here"
She looked confused at her master who was trying to climb on the big stock of garbage, throwing many things in the process. When he was at the top, the stock started shaking which made Jie feel unsafe, but Wukong for sure knows what he is doing... right?
" Aha!" He shouted pointing something to the sky
Crack
Suddenly the stock started collapsing.
Everything: rusty swords, spears some scrolls and even more strange things started to fall to the place when Jie was standing, all she could do was trying to dodge them and she did it very well. When everything seemed to already fall she looked at her master (who got out of the ruins) and as she started heading towards him she felt something hitting her on the head.
" OUCH! Crumbles..." she murmured before collapsing on the ground
MK felt that something was wrong, first Pigsy was kind, he even get along with Tang! Sandy is also acting a little bit off and Mei... let's not talk about this. Even Monkey King acts strange... well there was only one more person to check!
MK was too far from her house so he looked around and started yelling:
" MISS JIEEEEE!"
He was repeating himself for a long time till he noticed something, the energy ball that Jie uses!
Not knowing what to do MK had tried to touch it but just before that the energy ball exploded into the cloud of smoke, from which a pair of fox ears could be seen.
" Crumbles, my head..." Jie muttered to herself while brushing the back of her head " Uhm... Monkey Boy?"
Jie looked confused at MK who was looking at her from behind of some metal box with a suspicious eyes.
" Say something what Jie would say!" He screamed waving his arm at her
" huh?"
Jie decided to stay calm.
" You think I have no other things to do?! What do you want, play with me in hide and seek?!"
Alright she was annoyed.
" Get off my tail!" She hissed ready to disappear but suddenly felt something squeezing her waist
" That's really you!" MK whimpered into her hanfu " Thanks noodles it's you!"
Before Jie was able to say anything she started to turn to dust in the places when MK touched her, with made the boy freak out.
" GAH! JIE YOU ARE A GHOST!" He screamed in terror
" NO- I'm not you monkey brain!" Jie scolded him by pitching his cheek " I'm just a spirit projection!"
" I'm ssowwwy" MK murmured to her 'but isn't that what the ghosts are?'
Jie let go of his face and started looking around.
" So... Where are we?" She asked flicking her fox ear
" That's right! Something is wrong with all my friends! They are acting just... too perfect?"
'That's bad?'
"Wait a minute" Jie stated with a serious look as she started sneezing the air
Her face turned to be so disturbing as if she just eaten the worst meal in her life. Her nose started to flinch as she covered it.
" Did you use your golden vision?"
"Oh!"
"..."
" What do you mean 'oh!'" She continued pitching his cheeks " You forgot again didn't you?!"
She let him go when his cheeks started to turn slightly red and swollen.
MK finally used his golden sight to see everything around him only to see...
" There is nothing here" he said turning his eyes back to normal "Nothing of this is real... just like the time when you used illusion on me!"
" That's right, when I started to smell the air I didn't smell anything from this environment 'only your smell', thanks to the illusion you can fool the eyes but not the rest of you senses... that's what master is trying to teach you right?"
" He said something about trusting my instincts... wait! If it's illusion then how am I going to break free?!" He started to panic again
" Firstly calm down" Jie navigated him " You know when the illusion stops being illusion?"
" When I do some magic stuff to make it disappear?"
" No. When you realise that all you see is fake"
" Okay..." MK calmed down a little " What should I do next?"
" It's easy. You just need to-
PUFF
The image of Jie disappeared.
" Jie?"
"JIE?!"
"WHAT SHOULD I DO?!"
Jie started to slowly receive her vision, though everything was still blurry to her. She felt something wet on her cheek and a warm breath.
" Gou..." she murmured trying to see her pet more clearly
After a while she came back to her senses but was still to weak to get up, she looked up into the light with was blinding her, until some shadow covered it.
" Good morning!" Monkey looked at her from above with a smirk on his face
'I want to punch him for some reason'
" I fainted didn't I?" She muttered trying to stand, Wukong reached a hand to her and helped her stand
" Yeah, I thought you died" he answered casually
She just give him a furrowed look as the answer.
" You found something?" She asked him still feeling a little dizzy
" Huh?"
" When you run on this stock, you said you found something"
" Ah, right!"
Monkey King had dived in the garbage to then come back with a ceramic jar.
" What is inside?" Jie asked ready for some big reveal
" That's " Monkey King had slowly opened the jar " THE BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER EATEN IN CENTURIES!" He shouted while showing Jie the snack, which then ended in Wukong's mouth
Jie glared with unbelief at her master who was eating all happy and carefree.
" I wonder what MK jumped in again..." she whispered to herself
" Hm?"
" While I was unconscious MK called me out, so my spiritual form have transported to him, looks like someone trapped him in illusion or something"
" Wait, you can become a ghost?"
" ... No- it's a- you know what, never mind" she sighed " I'm just surprised because normally I could smell the scent from the real environment, but then I couldn't as if he was..."
" trapped" Monkey King stated with a serious tone, which attracted Jie's attention "I once saw something like that, it's called the calabash. It's an old, powerful artefact with can trap anyone who-
" WAIT!" Jie interrupted him " Did you say that it's OLD and POWERFUL?"
" Yeah, pretty much" spoke Wukong while leaning for more cookies " Would you like one?"
But when he offered her the cookie all that was left was just a pink dust.
Bark!
... aaaand Gou
"..."
" I won't share with you"
Jie had teleported to MK as soon as she could, when she finally found the house she bumped into the building to see MK standing before a pair of demons. What mattered to her was that MK was now out of calabash.
" Ah! Miss Jie!" MK waved to her
" ha ha... seem like we have more audience..."
" Let's introduce ourselves again..."
The two twins demons smirked to each other.
" We are your worst nightmare Jin..." Started the orange demon
" And Yin..." Added the blue one
" THE GOLDEN SILVER- WOAH!- HEY!"
The brothers yelled as Jie pushed them away and walked between them.
" HEY AT LEAST LET AS FINISH!" Jin screamed at her, but Jie didn't seem to care at all
In fact Jie only cared about the calabash... or rather it's pieces...
" Look like it can't be undone, huh?" Suddenly some dark aura started to cover her, but no one noticed since the twins were too busy with MK.
When MK was ready to fight them Jin and Yin seemed not to be so confident anymore so they used some smoke bombs to create the occasion to escape.
Unlucky for them...
When the smoke had cleaned MK could still see them- standing in the same place but being carried by their collars by no one other than Jie.
Only now everyone felt the dark atmosphere in the room, yeah... Jie was not happy...
" MK... go back to your friends" Jie stated "I'll take care of these two" she added with her red eyes burning with anger
"O- okay so... THANK YOU BYEE!" MK run away as fast as possible feeling as if something was about to chase him
Meanwhile the brothers... were scared to death.
Jie let them sit on their own before her freely, but they didn't dare to move even a finger.
" So... you are the ones who caught the apprentice of my master, huh?" She asked calmly
" W-well we... we just-
" IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
" THAT'S THE WORST THING YOU COULD COME UP WITH!"
" AND WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO SAY?!"
"Be quiet"
The moment Jie spoke both of them calmed down. While Jie sighed loudly.
" For once I wanted to do something in the fair way... Crumbles..." she muttered to herself
" You two, are you related to huli jings?"
At this moment brothers looked at her with their eyes wide open, Jin then pointed to his brother in the direction of the fox tale behind Jie.
" Y- you are the Huli Jing! Same as mother!" Yin almost shouted
" You know for what you did I should already drag your souls into the underworld, right?" Jie.'s glare became more sharp
The twins started to shake in fear and hug themselves.
"... But I guess this auntie can make one exception!" She said with a completely different mood!
Before the air around Jie was cold and heavy, but it turned to be, warm and sparking!
The twins looked at her with tears flowing from their eyes.
" THANKS AUNTIE!" They we're about to hug her when Jie have stopped them with her hands
" one more moment..." the red light had slowly came back in her eyes, her warm smile turned into mischievous smirk" You need to do something for me first..."
*Early Happy New Year! 🥳🍾🎆