Moli didn’t wait for us to answer her before taking off on a path leading away from the Chamber of Mirrors. I quickly followed, with Ren, Ashley, and Jordan just behind.
“I hope we never see him again,” Ashley growled as we made our way through tangled vines and ducked under low-hanging branches.
“He’s our father, Ashley,” Jordan said quietly.
“So what? He can boil away in that nasty cauldron until the end of time for all I care. I can’t believe we’re related to a demon. A demon who didn’t even bother showing up in our lives until now!” Shaking her head, Ashley sped up her march through the forest.
“At least he’s a superpowerful demon,” Ren put in helpfully. “That’s pretty neat.”
“This is like Lord Voldemort telling me he’s my father! Blech!” Ashley continued as though Ren hadn’t spoken. Her voice grew progressively louder and more high-pitched.
“Shhhh.” Moli spun around with a warning look on her face, a finger raised to her lips. “Do you want more demons to find us?”
That got the siblings to shut up.
“We’re almost there,” Moli said after a long stretch of walking in silence. Thankfully, we hadn’t run into another demon yet.
“Are you sure about that?” Jordan asked skeptically.
I winced. Wrong move, buddy. I could see the regret cross Jordan’s face as Moli whirled on him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped.
“Well, you haven’t exactly been the most reliable guide to Diyu. Like, you didn’t even know that the Bull Demon King was back there …”
Splotches of bright red rose on Moli’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry I don’t know everything there is to know about the entirety of the Underworld, all eighteen levels that have been here for millennia after only working here for a couple of months.”
As Jordan hastily tried to backtrack, my attention was drawn to a huge shape that rose out of the darkness of the forest. “Um … guys?”
“And you know what? I rightfully spent the first several weeks in Diyu contemplating my mortal life and everything I was supposed to be. I was supposed to go to Harvard Medical School, okay? I was supposed to be a rich, smart, beautiful doctor and marry a rich, smart, handsome doctor prince.”
“What the heck is a doctor prince?” Ren murmured.
“I think it’s what all good Chinese sons are supposed to become,” Jordan whispered. “I dressed up as one for Career Day in fifth grade.”
Meanwhile, Moli ranted on. “Now I’m stuck in the Underworld, shepherding around idiots who question why I haven’t learned thousands of years’ worth of information in a matter of months—”
“Guys!” Ren shouted, startling a furious Moli and frightened Jordan. “I think we’re almost there.”
Moli pushed past us. “Of course,” she said smoothly. “Just as planned.”
“Planned, my butt,” I heard Ashley mutter.
We trekked onward, following Moli down the path. Soon, the trees and bushes disappeared. We entered a dark clearing, which led into a city surrounded by towering walls. This had to be Youdu. Its walls were much bigger than the ones built around the Jade Society. They were so tall, I had to crane my neck to try to see the tops.
“This is the last trial we have to pass before finding the Ruyi Jingu Bang,” Moli said. “The Last Glance to Home Tower. The Ruyi Jingu Bang should be inside.”
The tall tower loomed above the wall of the city. Only four spirit guards stood stationed directly outside the huge black doors.
“Four guards to protect the whole tower?” Ren sounded bemused.
“Well, you see, most of the dead are too busy trapped in eternal torment to try invading the Last Glance to Home Tower,” Moli said flatly. “And the majority of the spirit guards took the holiday off to spend time with their families on Earth during the Hungry Ghost Festival. Like I said—we offer great vacation benefits.”
“How’re we supposed to get inside that tower?” I asked. “I’m guessing those guards won’t let us just waltz in, grab the Ruyi Jingu Bang, and then peace.”
Moli stared at me like I’d sprouted a third, Erlang Shen–like eye. “Of course not. Even if most of the spirit guards are off duty, the Ruyi Jingu Bang is heavily guarded by magic. We have to carefully plan how we’re going to infiltrate the Last Glance to Home Tower. I’m talking power brainstorming sessions, prayers, sidewalk chalk maps—hey!”
“Last one to the tower is a rotten dumpling!” shouted Jordan gleefully as he tore past us down the path toward the walled city. He became a streak in the darkness as he zipped by at supersonic speed. Ashley followed suit, sprinting across the ground.
“Why do I even bother?” Moli groaned, dropping her head into her palms.
Ren and I chased after the siblings. By the time we reached them, they’d already stealthily taken down all four of the guards, leaving them sprawled out on the grass, unconscious.
“We’ll definitely be going to Diyu for this.” Ren sighed. “I mean, for real.”
I darted after Ashley and Jordan through the hole-shaped entrance the spirits had been guarding. We were in a courtyard filled with tall, moonlit grass. The Last Glance to Home Tower stood high above us, black as the night. The pagoda levels seemed to stretch upward into the sky.
When I entered the tower, a winding staircase that seemed to go on forever greeted me. There were no signs of life—or death, I guess—anywhere inside the Last Glance to Home Tower.
“It’s not normally this empty,” Moli explained. “Everything’s slower, since so many spirits have headed back to the living world for the Hungry Ghost Festival. But in our case, this works out well.”
Even without a bunch of spirit guards waiting to chase us out of the Last Glance to Home Tower, this place had some seriously nifty defense mechanisms against intruders. The huge staircase was a torture device itself.
“We’ve been climbing for at least an hour now, haven’t we?” I gasped.
“It’s only been five minutes,” called Jordan from somewhere above. “I’m checking my watch.”
“No way. That watch has gotta be broken.”
By the time we finally reached the top of the tower, my knees wobbled from the effort of climbing. “And this is where King Yama sends the good spirits?” I panted.
Nobody answered. I lifted my head. A golden light emanated from an object held up in the center of the room, glowing with the radiance of the sun.
We’d found it. The legendary weapon of the Monkey King. The Ruyi Jingu Bang.
CHAPTER
20
I didn’t really know what I’d expected the Ruyi Jingu Bang to look like. Something that would no doubt scream, “Ultra-super-mighty weapon of the Monkey King.”
When my eyes adjusted to the glow around Sun Wukong’s legendary staff, I saw that it looked pretty much as my grandfather had always described it. A red body, gold-capped on either end. The Ruyi Jingu Bang could supposedly expand to the heights of Heaven itself or shrink to the size of a toothpick. But now, at the top of the Last Glance to Home Tower, the staff was about the size of an average human man.