Beyond the seas lay a solitary island, upon which stood a perilous peak, and atop that peak rested an unremarkable stone.
Mists drifted, waves crashed, surging in endless waves.
Time flowed quietly, a thousand years, ten thousand years... vanishing like water.
The barren island, once devoid of any plant or tree, gradually turned green, covered in grass and trees. Hundreds of birds flew in from the sea, all things thrived here, and monkeys leaped among the peach groves.
All this changed silently, slowly and steadily. The desolate island had transformed completely, becoming a mountain of flowers and fruits, where birds sang and flowers bloomed.
And that stone, standing on the nameless peak, absorbing the essence of heaven, earth, sun, and moon, weathered by countless years of wind and rain, gradually gave birth to a hazy consciousness.
It had no eyes, no nose, no ears... yet it possessed an innate spirituality that perceived this strange and endlessly novel world. Within its heart arose a question about itself.
Who am I?
Like a gentle breeze brushing across a still lake, it stirred faint ripples that spread outward, lingering endlessly.
Its spirit stirred to life, gaining vitality.
It knew no answer, only silently watching the sky, the sea, the earth, quietly searching for one.
Countless more years passed. A flash of insight struck its heart, and it asked itself a second question.
Where am I?
Winds and clouds gathered, heaven and earth reversed, as if sunlight broke through dark clouds, illuminating the path ahead.
The insight in its heart grew richer, the myriad things of heaven and earth became clearer, all within its perception.
This time, it did not waste long ages.
Only a few thousand years passed.
It asked its third and final question: Where do I come from?
It recalled its past.
Because it saw flowers sprouting from the ground, birds emerging from eggs, monkeys growing strong in their mothers' arms...
It pondered its own origin.
Divine thunder roared, splitting chaos, separating the pure from the turbid, dividing heaven and earth, and all things became distinct.
From those three fateful questions, life seemed to gain meaning.
The stone developed a heartbeat, nurturing an immortal fetus within, gaining nine orifices and eight apertures, enabling it to truly perceive all things.
So this is how gentle the wind is, how joyful the birds' songs, how fragrant the flowers' scent...
Before, it was only a vague sensation; now, it was genuine sensory experience.
A heart of stone came alive, blood flowed into it, beating strongly, and a brand-new life was born.
It was so curious, endlessly experiencing this new world.
But who knows how long passed? Time was too vast; it only remembered sunrises and sunsets, cycling endlessly, until even time itself was forgotten.
It saw the island, the sea, the clouds, the sky...
But a thick stone shell confined it. Countless years passed, and it never moved an inch.
Sand and soil accumulated, the mountain grew taller, inch by inch each year, lifting its body slowly upward.
It saw farther and farther.
It found itself atop a solitary, steep peak, surrounded by cliffs.
The mountain was the island, and the island was the mountain.
Beyond the island stretched an endless ocean, where whales leaped and seabirds sang joyfully...
But it could never move!
Watching the myriad beings of heaven and earth move freely, a deep anger rose within it.
Why?
It too wanted to run across the vast world, free and unbound.
It felt it had never truly lived; it wanted to live!
But its simple consciousness could never find a way.
Only the anger gradually settled, turning into a fierce resentment that filled its chest, longing to shatter the damned stone shell and overturn everything.
Its heart always harbored this resentment, yet it remained trapped in its cage.
Until, countless years later, one day, a monkey came to the foot of the mountain.
This monkey was very, very old, its fur all white, its beard dragging on the ground, decrepit with age.
From this old monkey, it sensed a thick aura of death, yet the vitality within it pulsed strongly, giving it a deeply contradictory feeling.
This was a creature called a monkey, which it often saw, living in the peach grove, eating peaches daily, usually with a lifespan of only a dozen years.
But this old monkey was vastly different, so incredibly old that it felt the next moment it would breathe its last, yet it persisted.
It had never seen such an old monkey; it felt this one had lived at least a hundred years.
How had it done it?
A strong curiosity arose toward this old monkey.
How had it broken its own fate, surpassing the limits of life?
Instinctively, it felt that if it could uncover the old monkey's secret, it might break the stone shell and become a true life.
And the next moment, its eyes widened.
The moon was bright, the stars sparse.
The old monkey suddenly raised its head and howled at the sky, standing on the solitary peak, bathing in the starlight.
Starlight converged like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, entering the old monkey's body through its white fur, enhancing its life force.
For a moment, the old monkey became a black hole, devouring all the moonlight around, draining the world of color.
Devouring the essence of sun and moon!
It instinctively understood this, falling into a wondrous state, unable to extricate itself for a long time, not even noticing when the old monkey left at dawn.
Though the old monkey never returned, it deeply remembered that figure, etched into its bones, unforgettable.
It imitated the old monkey's movements and began to devour the essence of sun and moon.
The sun blazed, the moon was cool.
The two lights shone upon it, transforming into mysterious energy that flowed through its body.
It rejoiced, clearly feeling its power grow stronger, its wisdom brighter. If this continued, one day it would break this damned cage.
A rare opportunity gave it new life.
Tides rose and fell, suns rose and set.
Another ten million years passed.
The white-bearded old monkey had long turned to dust.
It still breathed the essence of sun and moon daily, never ceasing, its heart gradually calming, gathering strength, waiting for the day it would break out of the stone.
But one day, panicked screams rose from the foot of the mountain—monkey calls, tiger roars, bird cries... the vast mountain island fell into chaos, filled with terrified sounds.
It looked in surprise and saw a red light shooting into the sky.
From the distant horizon, a red tide rose, surging toward the sky, sweeping in with overwhelming force, as if to drown heaven and earth completely.
Heaven and earth reversed, all turned red, filling the sky like doomsday.
Where the red tide passed, life perished, plants withered, and the vibrant world became a dead land.
On the mountain island, birds and beasts fled in all directions.
But this was a solitary island—where could they flee?
Soon the red tide reached the shore, and wherever it went, birds and beasts struggled helplessly, submerged, leaving only white bones.
In an instant, a paradise on earth turned into a hell!
And the red tide was relentless, seemingly aimed solely at the stone on the perilous peak, wave after wave, tide after tide, without end.
Within it, a domineering will invaded, seeking to wash away its consciousness and completely replace it.
Its heart ached fiercely, and it erupted in rage. The boundless resentment suppressed in its heart surged forth.
Damn it all!
Couldn't break the stone shell, and now this damned thing disturbed my spirit?
It raged, it fumed, it obsessed... it wished it could shatter the stone shell with its fists and overturn the heaven and earth that bound it.
Resentment soared, bursting from its body like an invisible iron rod piercing the sky, stirring the winds and clouds.
The red tide seemed terrified, sensing its nemesis, and began to retreat rapidly.
But the resentment in its heart had already risen—how could it let it go easily?
It clenched its fists and slammed them fiercely against the hard stone shell before it.
I want the sky to no longer block my sight.
I want the earth to no longer bury my heart.
...
Boom!
Heaven and earth shattered.
A golden pillar of light shot straight into the clouds, a vast spiritual force filling heaven and earth, shaking the three realms.
In the hearts of all beings, a wild and arrogant voice rang out—the joy of new life, the cry of existence.
Heaven!
Earth!
Life!
I!
Sun!
Wu!
Kong!
A thin stone monkey broke free from its cage, glaring at the retreating red tide, baring its teeth, and suddenly opened its mouth to inhale.
Boundless suction turned the red tide into a red thread, quickly swallowed into its body.
Then the wind and smoke cleared, and heaven and earth returned to calm.
Burp!
The stone monkey patted its round belly, full!
But inexplicably, it lowered its head, puzzled.
Why do I have a name? Why do I call myself Sun Wukong?
It sank into deep memories, as if recalling something, as if recalling nothing.
For a moment, the vast world was left with only its solitary figure standing there, lost in endless melancholy.
Whoosh~~~
The wind blew, and the world grew cold.
The world...
froze!
...
Bang!
Feng Lin's eyes snapped open, like lightning flashing across the sky, cutting through the darkness.
The stone shell on his body shattered piece by piece.
He rose to his full height, freed from the cage, utterly transformed.
Energy surged within him like erupting magma, wave after wave, unstoppable, distorting the air around him, ripples spreading outward.
Where Feng Lin stood, a massive vortex churned the void.
He himself underwent earth-shaking changes, his body growing taller, reaching 1.98 meters.
Genes flickered within him.
Stone Monkey Gene +1, +1, +1.
Telekinetic Gene awakened, +1, +1, +1...
Spiritual Gene awakened, +1, +1, +1...
And finally, Feng Lin's life attributes became:
"Name: Feng Lin Vitality: 88.9 Original Gene: Stone Monkey Gene: 10 Basic Genes: Ape Gene: 10; Stone Fetus Gene: 10; Adrenaline Gene: 1; Spiritual Gene: 9; Telekinetic Gene: 4; Spiritual Gene: 3 Gene Potential: 18%"