In an instant, chaos erupted on the scene.
“Don’t panic! What’s there to panic about? Draw your bows, draw your blades! So what if it’s a demon?” The official’s loud reprimand had its effect, and the frightened soldiers quickly formed ranks.
“You… are you the Great Sage Equaling Heaven?” The boy looked up and recognized Sun Wukong’s face, but the next moment, his father scooped him up and held him close.
“Dad, I know him, I…” His words were stifled as his father covered his mouth, afraid the child might draw the demon’s harm, and he simply hugged him and retreated to a corner.
Sun Wukong suddenly made a funny face at him, then slowly turned to look at the soldiers standing ready.
“Hey, scripture seeker, you tell me—when you run into something like this, should you get involved or not?” Sun Wukong suddenly asked.
Only then did people notice that not far away stood a young monk, his robe half-draped, seemingly embroidered with flowers.
Fang Zhiyi answered without a second thought: “Forcing the common folk, treating lives like dirt—of course you step in!”
Sun Wukong grinned. “You really don’t act like a monk. So tell me, how do we handle it?”
Fang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow and cracked his wrists. “Do to them what they did to the people. As the saying goes, pay them back in their own coin.”
He gestured toward the two men beaten bloody, and the villagers who had tried to reason with the soldiers only to be ruthlessly struck down.
Sun Wukong was about to nod.
“Kill them. Out of sight, out of mind. Amitabha.”
Fang Zhiyi froze, slowly turning his head. Sun Wukong also looked in that direction. Tripitaka still wore an icy expression, a gash across his neck.
“Bro, are you sure you’re not a fake?” Fang Zhiyi couldn’t hold back.
But a sudden volley of arrows cut off his question. Fang Zhiyi tumbled and dodged several times, scrambling out of the way. He looked up to see Sun Wukong already charging into the midst of the enemy formation.
He quickly followed, snatching a weapon from the nearest soldier and began hacking away.
As he fought, he stole glances at the Great Sage’s fighting style. The more he watched, the more confused he became.
The Great Sage was still strong, striking fiercely and unafraid of blades, but somehow he lacked the presence of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven that Fang Zhiyi had witnessed in other worlds.
Despite his thoughts, the Great Sage had already carved a path straight through the ranks of soldiers.
Fang Zhiyi had no time to dwell on it. He sidestepped a swinging blade, killed that enemy soldier with a reverse stroke, then spotted the official trying to flee on horseback. He hurled his blade, and it struck the official square in the back.
He turned back to see the field littered with fallen soldiers. Some were already dead, but many others were clutching their wounds and groaning in pain.
Sun Wukong looked at the boy. The child’s eyes were full of terror; maybe he had never imagined that the Great Sage Equaling Heaven could be so ruthless. He wanted to run forward, but his father gripped him tightly.
Seeing the fear in the villagers’ eyes, Sun Wukong said nothing. He simply strode toward the village exit.
“You know, you might want to move… head toward the capital,” Fang Zhiyi said. “Once you’re out of Wuzhou territory, life will be peaceful.” He wasn’t lying; Yang Jian did make a decent emperor.
The villagers still stared at him with dread. Fang Zhiyi gave an awkward laugh and hurried to catch up with Sun Wukong.
And so they walked in silence—a man, a monkey, and a ghost, trailed by a horse.
Suddenly, Sun Wukong spun around, clearly annoyed. “Hey, you’re the one who said we’re going to fetch the scriptures. If you don’t lead the way, are you expecting me to do it?”
Fang Zhiyi’s eyes went wide. “Oh, oh! Right, got it!”
This Great Sage had a bit of a tsundere streak, didn’t he?
But what had happened just now? It felt like the Great Sage’s power had shrunk quite a bit… And wait, that ghost spoke, didn’t it?
Thinking this, Fang Zhiyi asked, “Great Sage, did you just hear…”
Sun Wukong nodded. “I heard him. That monk is crueler than both of us put together.”
Tripitaka acted as if he hadn’t heard this, trailing silently behind Fang Zhiyi.
Sun Wukong, however, seemed lost in thought. After a long pause, he shook his head. “Who the hell is this monk? Why is he following you?”
Fang Zhiyi wryly recounted the story of Tripitaka’s death. Sun Wukong stared at Tripitaka in disbelief. “What an idiot—walking right into a blade like that?”
Tripitaka didn’t even look at him.
“Great Sage, do you feel anything off?” Fang Zhiyi finally asked.
Sun Wukong shook his head. “Old Sun feels perfectly fine.”
Fang Zhiyi pursed his lips. “I meant…”
Sun Wukong laughed. “You’re wondering why my fighting just now didn’t live up to the name ‘Great Sage Equaling Heaven,’ aren’t you?”
“I never said that.”
“No harm in saying it.” Sun Wukong shook his head. “No matter who it is, power gets crushed down a notch when they’re in the mortal world. Those bastards call it… the Heavenly Way or something. Hmph.”
Thinking of them rankled him.
Fang Zhiyi suddenly understood. That explained everything.
“Then Great Sage, can you still manage that somersault that covers 108,000 miles?”
“Obviously.”
“Then why are we walking to fetch the scriptures?” Fang Zhiyi brightened up. Right now, the main goal was to get rid of this vengeful ghost and find Little Black.
Sun Wukong blinked. That actually made sense.
But the voice rang out again.
“Without sincerity in the heart, the scriptures cannot be obtained.”
The man and the monkey both looked at the ghost.
“Seriously, what in the world do you want?” Fang Zhiyi groaned in frustration.
This time, Tripitaka didn’t stay silent. Instead, he said, “Fetching the scriptures is meant to be a trial. They love trials. Only through countless tribulations can one achieve Buddhahood. Go straight to the West, and the true scriptures won’t be given to you.”
Fang Zhiyi stared at him in surprise. “The thing that was following me—where did you put it?”
Tripitaka met his gaze. “Don’t worry. It’s still there, but I can’t let you two meet for now.”
“We’re going to get the scriptures from Buddha?” Sun Wukong finally caught on. “Good, good! That old Buddha mocked me—perfect time to settle that score!” He was about to leap into the sky.
But Tripitaka’s words doused him like ice water.
“Heaven and earth are clear now. To see Buddha, you must walk the scripture path. Only by enduring trials can you reach Mount Ling. With your current strength, even if you went straight there, you couldn’t find the gates of the Spirit Mountain.”
Sun Wukong grew irritated. “Listen here, monk, just who are you…”
Tripitaka fell silent again.
Sun Wukong seemed to realize he couldn’t force the issue. Grumbling a few curses under his breath, he urged Fang Zhiyi to keep moving.
“So we really have to rack up all eighty-one hardships? That’s pure bureaucratic routine,” Fang Zhiyi muttered.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
