Next comes the most exciting part of this chapter in the original book: “Today your name is renowned, fortune comes your way. By fate you dwell here, sent by heaven into the immortal palace.” By a twist of fate, the Stone Monkey, in the “blessed land of Flower-Fruit Mountain, the cave heaven of Water Curtain Cave,” became the The Adams King.

Perhaps, no matter which world they’re from, all children have a strong yearning for adventure in their hearts. William Carter’s storytelling made all the little ones gathered around him so excited that they jumped and shouted, wishing they themselves could be the The Adams King.

The Adams King’s carefree happiness sparked a wave of envy.

Then, the story took a dramatic turn—

The Adams King enjoyed his innocent pleasures for three or five hundred years. One day, during a joyful feast with the other monkeys, he suddenly became troubled and shed tears. The monkeys hurriedly bowed and asked, “Great King, why are you troubled?” The Monkey King replied, “Though I am happy now, I have some distant worries, and that is why I am troubled.” The monkeys laughed and said, “Great King, you are so hard to please! We gather and rejoice every day, living in this immortal mountain and blessed land, this ancient cave and divine continent. We are not ruled by the qilin, not governed by the phoenix, nor constrained by the human king. We are free and unrestrained—what boundless happiness! Why worry about the distant future?” The Monkey King said, “Though today we are not subject to human laws, nor fear the power of beasts and birds, in the future, when we grow old and our blood weakens, the King of the Underworld will secretly control us. Once we die, wouldn’t our lives in this world be wasted, unable to remain long among the immortals?”

Naturally, here, the King of the Underworld was also replaced by William Carter as the “God of the Underworld”!

Perhaps they were already too excited to get any more excited—this time, Little Ivy and the others didn’t interrupt with questions, but instead opened their eyes wide, perked up their ears, and listened with rapt attention.

Then William Carter spoke of how, between heaven and earth, there are three kinds of people who transcend the ordinary: first, gods; second, buddhas; third, immortals.

At this moment, William Carter still didn’t know how much impact his theory of three transcendent beings would have on this world in the future!

Chapter 9: All Addicted!

After learning about those three extraordinary existences, The Adams King bid farewell to the other monkeys, journeyed to the ends of the earth, met a woodcutter, received guidance, and went to “Spirit Platform Mountain, Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars,” where he became a disciple of Patriarch Bodhi and was given the name “George Adams.”

“George Adams! George Adams!” The little ones were now completely immersed in the story. When they heard this, it was as if they themselves had been given the name, each of them blushing with excitement, raising their fists and shouting.

“And then?”

“Yeah, William Carter big brother, what happened next?”

But at this point, William Carter stopped. The little ones thought he was just pausing to catch his breath, so they all looked at him expectantly. But after quite a while, William Carter still said nothing.

They couldn’t hold back any longer and all started asking.

“And then…” William Carter laughed under their eager gazes, “Then it got dark, and you all have to go to bed!”

“No, William Carter big brother, keep telling the story!” Little Ivy, unable to resist, got up from her little wooden stool and came over to lean on William Carter’s shoulder, acting spoiled.

“Yeah, William Carter big brother, tell us more!” The others clamored, refusing to give in.

Even the little loli who liked to suck her fingers, only four or five years old, came over and lay on William Carter’s lap, not saying a word, just looking at him with big, pleading eyes.

“It’s already late today, I’ll tell you more tomorrow!” William Carter chuckled.

William Carter guessed that tonight, probably not many of these little ones would be able to sleep soundly.

Guessing is one thing, but the next morning, when William Carter opened his eyes after finishing his meditation, he was still startled.

Several little ones were gathered around his bed, and Little Ivy had even brought her little wooden stool over, squatting and waiting! Who knows when they had come over. By William Carter’s estimate, it was probably not even six in the morning yet.

“Why aren’t you all doing your morning exercises?” William Carter asked Little Dick and the others.

“Hehe!” The chubby boy scratched his head and giggled.

“That won’t do. Is listening to stories more important than practicing martial arts? What nonsense.” William Carter said, but he wasn’t scolding them with a stern face—he said it with a smile.

He could totally understand how they felt!

Not to mention these kids—even as an adult, in his previous life, when he was reading a novel with an exciting ongoing plot, didn’t he also wish time would pass faster? Sometimes he even wished he could grab the author and whip him to make him update faster—ideally a hundred chapters a day!

“Go on, hurry up and practice!” With that, William Carter ignored them and went off to the side yard to wash up and such.

In this place, in this era, there was no such thing as a “bathroom.”

The place William Carter went to, in ancient China, was called a “latrine.” Fortunately, this world also had things like grass paper. If he had to use wooden or clay tiles to solve the problem, like Xiang Shaolong in the TVB drama “A Step into the Past,” William Carter would really have lost it.

After finishing this most important business of life, William Carter went to the well in another small side yard to wash his face.

The towel was very rough, and shared by several people, and rather dirty. William Carter could hardly bring himself to let such a towel touch his face. So he usually just scooped up water with both hands to wash his face clean, then shook his head dry, and called it done.