Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

"Yes, Cave Master, this cliff is thirty or forty feet high. If you fall down accidentally, you will be dead." Xiaoxing said worriedly.

Xi Hechen and the others also looked at the cliff and shook their heads, lamenting that it was difficult to climb. Seeing this, Zhi said to Qiu: "Master, in terms of climbing ability, monkeys are the best. Based on my hunting experience of more than fifty years old, this cliff cave is so high and steep that other animals, except birds and monkeys, can't climb up."

Qiu nodded and said, "Well, since everyone says that a direct attack won't work, then let's stop here. Let's find a camp and then discuss whether there are other ways."

"Yes! Cave Master." So everyone stopped the attack, found an open area to set up camp, lit a bonfire, and started dinner. After dinner, Qiu gathered everyone to discuss how to attack the cliff cave.

Qiu stroked his white beard, looked around at everyone, and said first: "My fellow warriors, this cliff cave is steep and bright. The Monkey King brought the Nian beast to hide in this cave, which is more difficult to attack than the Sheep King's Upside-Down Mountain. In the end, I still say the same old saying: As long as your mind does not slip, there are always more solutions than problems. Now, please give us some advice and discuss together on how to attack the cliff cave tomorrow."

"Master, I have a solution." As soon as Qiu finished speaking, Dong said, "Although the Cliff Cave is too high to climb, we can take a ladder up to the cave entrance, and then defeat the Monkey King and eliminate the Nian Beast."

It turned out that when Dong saw the high cliff, he recalled the last time he tried to get fire and catch the firebird, and then he thought of building a ladder.

"Build a cloud ladder!" Qiu immediately clapped his hands in agreement: "Dong, this is a good idea. There are plenty of trees in Huaguo Mountain. We can definitely give it a try."

"Cave Master, the cliff cave is so high. Not only is it time-consuming and laborious to build a ladder, but it may be unstable at that height and there is a risk of collapse!" Xiaoxing expressed some concern when he heard it.

"Xing, as long as the ladder is tied firmly, how can it be unstable?" Dong asked unconvinced, "Are you just being reckless and deliberately picking on others?"

"Brother Dong, I'm just speaking the truth. How dare I find fault with you?" Xiaoxing waved his hands quickly.

"Hmph!" Dong snorted coldly and turned away.

Qiu asked Xiaoxing: "Xing, you are our wisdom star, so do you have any better ideas?"

"Not yet!" Xiaoxing shook his head and replied.

"Since you have no other options, then you can only try to build a ladder." Qiu's eyes were sharp as torches as he gave the order: "Every warrior, listen up: Tomorrow morning, everyone will cut wood and build ladders to attack the cliff cave."

"Yes, cave master." After receiving the order, everyone went to rest.

The next day, everyone got up at dawn, had a quick breakfast, and went into the mountains with knives and axes to cut wood. With the sound of "ding-dong-dong", big trees were cut down and transported to the bottom of the cliff. Qiu directed everyone to build the structure. Everyone built the wood into a square structure, tied it with rattan ropes, and then built it up layer by layer.

At the beginning, everything went smoothly. After a day of work, the ladder reached a height of more than 50 meters. Qiu looked at the ladder, stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Thank you for your hard work! If we continue at this speed, we will reach the height of the cliff cave in less than ten days. By then, we can defeat the Monkey King and destroy the Nian beast."

"The cave master is right. As long as the ladder is built, the Nian beast will have nowhere to escape." Dong continued.

"That's great! After we get rid of the Nian monster, we can go home! I miss my three children so much!" Xi said excitedly.

"Brother Xi, you miss your children, but I miss my wife." Bei said, covering his face.

Everyone followed suit and imagined the scene of defeating Emperor Nian and returning home, their excitement was beyond words.

The next day, Qiu led everyone to continue building the ladder. After a day of work, they reached a height of more than ten feet.

Seeing the humans' ladders getting higher and higher, Emperor Nian began to get restless and said to the Monkey King, "Stupid monkey, didn't you say this cliff cave was safe? Now the cunning humans have built wooden ladders and will soon attack us. What should we do?"

"Emperor Nian, this, this human is too cunning. This is completely unexpected!" The Monkey King replied helplessly.

"Monkey King, once humans attack us, we will have nowhere to escape. Before the humans build the ladder, you lead the monkeys to attack and push down the ladder. Then we will be fine." The dog-headed military advisor suggested.

"What? You want me to go to war with humans? I dare not do that. Human swords, guns, bows and arrows are so powerful, won't I be dead?" The Monkey King was shaking with shock.

"Humph!" Emperor Nian said angrily, "You stupid monkey, you are afraid of humans, but you are not afraid of me? If you don't go down to stop the humans' attack tomorrow, I will eat you alive."

"Yes, yes. Tomorrow I will try to stop the human attack." The Monkey King wiped the sweat off his forehead and quickly agreed. You know, the cruel demon Emperor Nian is much more terrifying than humans.

On the third day, as the ladder was being built higher and higher, it suddenly began to shake. Dong shouted to Xi, Bei, Zhong, Wu, and Hao who were helping to build the ladder, "Brothers, stand firm and stop shaking."

"Brother Dong, I'm not shaking around." Xi replied, holding on to a pillar.

"Brother Dong, we didn't move! It's the ladder that is shaking." Bei, Zhong, Wu and Hao denied it.

"Since no one was shaking, why did the ladder move by itself?" Dong scratched his head in confusion and thought to himself, "Could it be that what Xing said was right again? If it's too high, it will be unstable?"

Just when everyone was confused, the Monkey King led thousands of monkey spirits on the cliff and shouted: "Listen, cunning humans below: Stop attacking quickly, otherwise don't blame me for being rude!"

"You stupid monkey, your threats and intimidation won't scare us. If you're smart, quickly hand over the Nian beast and surrender." Dong replied sternly.

"You humans are not only cunning, but also as stubborn as a cow. I will let you eat some chestnuts for free." The Monkey King said angrily.

"My king, are you afraid that they are hungry, so you give them chestnuts?" asked the monkey spirit.

"You fool, I'm talking about this stone chestnut." The monkey king picked up a pebble and said to the monkeys, "My people, everyone, take some stones and throw them down. Together with me, defeat the humans and stop their attack."

There were many rocks on the cliff, and the monkeys, receiving the order, grabbed rocks one by one and threw them down. Suddenly, rocks fell from the sky like rain.

The six people on the top of the ladder, East, West, North, Central, Wu, and Haze, saw the rocks falling down and quickly covered their heads to avoid them, becoming a mess. The ladder, which was already shaky, shook even more violently. Suddenly, there was a loud "bang" and the tall wooden ladder collapsed as a whole.

It turned out that as the height of the ladder continued to increase, the upper part became shaky and very unstable. It had just been attacked by the monkeys, and the people were in chaos, which exacerbated the shaking of the ladder, causing it to collapse completely.

"Dong, Xi, how are you?" Qiu shouted when he saw the ladder fall down, and hurriedly directed everyone: "Everyone come here quickly and help rescue people."

Everyone below was stunned by the sudden accident, then they quickly rushed over and dug up the wood to save people.

"Ouch! Ouch—help me!" Dong, who was trapped under the wood, cried for help.

"Dong, we are here to rescue you." Zhi heard this and immediately called everyone: "Everyone, move these woods away and rescue Dong."

Soon, the wood on Dong was cleared away, and everyone hurriedly carried Dong out. At this time, cries for help came from below: Xi, Bei, Zhong, Wu, and Hao.

"That's great! You are all still alive." Qiu felt relieved and ordered everyone to rescue people quickly.

After a while of effort, five people were rescued from the rubble.

"West, north, center, fog, haze, how are you doing? Are you okay?" Qiu asked nervously.

"Cave Master, although I feel pain all over my body, I don't seem to have suffered any serious injuries. I should be fine." Xi replied.

"Cave Master, we are not in any serious trouble." Bei Hezhong said.

"Fog and haze, what about you two? How are you?" Qiu asked hurriedly.

"Cave Master, my left leg can't move. It seems to be crushed and broken." Wu cried out in pain.

"Cave Master, one of my arms and legs are injured. I think they are crushed and broken." Haze replied.

"Damn monkey, you actually threw stones down." Qiu looked up at the cave entrance and cursed with gnashing teeth: "When we defeat you, we will peel off your skin and pull out your tendons."

"Cave Master, actually the collapse of the ladder cannot be entirely blamed on the monkey. The main reason is that it was built too high, resulting in an unstable center of gravity." Xiaoxing said, analyzing the cause of the accident.

"Xing is right. The higher the ladder is, the more shaky it will be. It might even collapse if blown by the wind." Bei Hezhong nodded in agreement.

"Cave Master, it looks like this plan of building a cloud ladder has to fail." Zhi shook his head with regret.

"Yes." Qiu stroked his white beard and nodded, then looked around and asked, "Warriors, since this plan doesn't work, what other methods do you have?"

Everyone was scratching their heads, Chen looked up at the cave on the cliff and muttered, "It's so high and so steep, I think you can only climb it if you can fly."

"Fly? How can we fly if we don't have wings?" Qiu frowned and thought hard.

"Cave Master, I think we should change the route and see if there's some other way to get up. Or we can get to the top of the mountain and then attack downwards." Dong habitually grabbed the wine gourd and drank it all in one gulp.

"I'm against changing the route!" Xiao Xing shook her head and said, "Let's not talk about whether we can successfully go up the mountain. Even if we reach the top of the mountain, what will happen? The top of the mountain is steep and sharp, and it's also slippery. It will be even more difficult to attack from the bottom."

"Xing is right, it is more appropriate to attack from the ground upwards." Qiu also expressed his disagreement with changing route to the top of the mountain.

Everyone was at a loss, so Qiu took out the wooden statue of Nuwa, placed it in front of him, and knelt down to pray devoutly in front of the statue: "Nuwa Goddess, White Angel, Emperor Nian and his entourage are now hiding in the Monkey King's cave on the cliff. This high and steep cliff cave makes it difficult for us to escape. I beg Nuwa Goddess, White Angel to show up and show us a clear way out."

After praying again and again, Bai Ling still did not appear, so Qiu had to put away the statue in disappointment.

"Cave Master, what should we do now? Is it possible for us to just give up?" Dong asked anxiously.

"Brother Dong, how can we give up? Even if we have to dig it up, we must dig it down to avenge the injuries caused by the fog and haze." Bei stood up in opposition when he heard this.

"Yes, we must dig a way up the cliff even if we have to." Qiu's eyes lit up and he came up with a solution.

"Cave Master, are we really going to dig down the cliff?" Dong opened his mouth in disbelief when he heard that.

"Dong, isn't this cliff too steep? I have come up with a feasible solution: we can carve a climbable stone staircase on the cliff, so that we can ensure that we can climb up steadily." Qiu laid out his ideas.

"Cave Master, although it is feasible to carve a path through the cliff, the stone wall is very hard and it may not be done overnight." Xiaoxing sighed.

"Xing, as the old people often say: Determination is greater than the sky, and you can dig a mountain into a river. As long as everyone unites as one and perseveres, it is only a matter of time before we can dig a stone staircase, or even dig down the mountain." Qiu encouraged everyone.

"I understand what the cave master said." Xiao Xing suddenly understood and said, "This is the real-life version of Yugong moving the mountains."

"Yugong moved the mountain?" Qiu asked in confusion, "Who is Yugong? How did he move the mountain?"