But before it could figure things out, the monk before it suddenly roared, "Demon! How dare you attack me!"
As those words were spoken, the scriptures left by Ghost Tripitaka on Fang Zhiyi's body came alive, flowing and shifting across his skin.
"I..." the Inspiration King barely opened its mouth before a fierce fist slammed into its lips.
The force of that punch exceeded its imagination; it could feel its mouth had been completely caved in.
"Blessings be. The sea of suffering is endless, but turning back is the shore. Since you, good sir, cannot comprehend the Greater Vehicle of Buddhism, this humble monk also knows a little of fists and feet."
The Inspiration King was nearly in tears—when had the monk ever preached half a sentence of Buddhist teachings?
Hadn't he come right out swinging?
But this bare-chested monk wasted no time on idle words. With three blows, he forced the Inspiration King's true form to emerge and slammed its fish head deep into the ground.
"Kill it!" Ghost Tripitaka's voice rang out again, blunt and direct.
Watching the veins bulge suddenly across Fang Zhiyi's body, Eight-Tails clicked its tongue twice.
"Good thing I never provoked him… He's fiercer than the Great Sage."
Sun Wukong watched silently, his gaze suddenly sharp as he looked up.
A figure descended from the sky, accompanied by two attendants.
"Blessings be… this demon is a golden fish from my lotus pond. It surfaced daily to hear my scriptures, became enlightened, and—taking advantage of lax oversight—fled to plague this mortal world. I thank you all for subduing it today."
Guanyin's face was kind and merciful as she beckoned to the golden fish, now in its true form: "Wretched creature, will you not return with me?"
Eight-Tails trembled in fear. The Bodhisattva? The real Bodhisattva!
Sha Wujing still stood there dully, staring at Guanyin in confusion.
Sun Wukong's eyes were nothing but cold indifference.
As Guanyin waved her hand, the fish shrank and began to float upward.
But at that moment, a hand shot out and grabbed the golden fish tightly.
Guanyin was taken aback: "Good sir, what are you doing…"
"What’s this? Your golden fish escapes your care, feasts on people for years, and you think you can just take it away?" Fang Zhiyi stared directly at Guanyin, showing no fear.
Guanyin frowned slightly: "I will take it back and punish it properly…"
"No need." Fang Zhiyi smiled. "In principle, it provoked me. In practice, I’ve taken fifty taels of silver from the villagers here, and I keep my promises."
"The client said he wants its life."
With those words, Fang Zhiyi's hand clamped down hard.
The golden fish instantly turned into a pulp of flesh.
Guanyin’s face darkened with anger: "How dare you!"
Her attendants moved to act, but Fang Zhiyi stood still. A staff and a moon-shaped spade rose simultaneously, pointing at the sky. Sun Wukong’s face was full of scorn; Sha Wujing steadied his breath.
"Killed is killed!" Eight-Tails muttered, then suddenly revealed its true form—a massive fox, baring its fangs, glaring fiercely at Guanyin.
"You lot…" Guanyin began, but her gaze stopped on Fang Zhiyi’s side.
Her expression shifted from confusion to shock.
"You will not obtain the true scriptures." With those words, she turned and flew off with her attendants, seemingly in a hurry.
Fang Zhiyi shook the meat pulp off his hand: "We’ll see about that."
"Damn! That scared me to death!" Eight-Tails shrank back into human form, trembling. "That was the Bodhisattva! Guanyin herself! Are you guys out of your minds?!"
Sun Wukong snorted coldly. He, of course, knew Guanyin, but he thought Fang Zhiyi was in the right. What kind of justice lets a creature run amok and then just be taken away? What about the people who died?
Sha Wujing suddenly went, "Oh," and said, "That was Guanyin?"
Eight-Tails slapped its own face. "You didn’t even know who that was, and you still dared to attack?"
Sha Wujing looked bewildered.
Fang Zhiyi turned and laughed, patting Sha Wujing on the shoulder. By now, he understood: the one he’d always thought was the former Curtain-Lifting General was clearly a fake.
In other words, in this scripture-fetching team, only Sun Wukong was authentic.
Fang Zhiyi’s gaze lingered on Tripitaka’s face. Tripitaka wasn’t looking at him now; his eyes were fixed on the sky where Guanyin had vanished, a complex emotion flickering in them.
If it were just him and the dark-haired one, he would have backed down then and there. But now, the situation was clear: this Ghost Tripitaka also had issues, and if he didn’t follow his lead, maybe the dark-haired one really would disappear.
The immortals in Journey to the West really did have the power to destroy systems—just think of those systems that had been hunted down. Fang Zhiyi was glad of that.
Not far away, Eight-Tails—now back in human form—had its arm around the elderly village chief’s shoulders, looking utterly mercenary.
"Chief! The job’s done! Hand over the final payment!"
The chief gestured and muttered something.
"What? What monster? Fox demon? What fox demon?" Eight-Tails’ shamelessness earned the grudging admiration of everyone else.
"You must have seen things. Where’s there a fox that big?"
"Enough talk, pay up now! Or I’ll call some demons to block your village entrance every day!"
"Your Majesty—er, Master! I squeezed out an extra twenty taels! A full twenty!"
As Eight-Tails ran over triumphantly, Sun Wukong immediately leaped ten meters away: "Don’t say I know him."
Sha Wujing nodded too.
Fang Zhiyi turned and fled.
"Hey? Why are you all running? I also ordered a feast! Wait for me!"
Fang Zhiyi sighed in exasperation. If this guy were in another world, he’d be nothing but a thug. Only in this Journey to the West world, where he feared other celestial beings and Buddhas, did he hold back somewhat.
Fang Zhiyi glanced back. Ghost Tripitaka still followed closely, deep in thought.
So now he was haunted by a ghost too. Hmph…
It seemed that ghost also knew that after the Flaming Mountains, they’d enter the territory of Mount Spirit. That was why he gave him the power of reincarnation, wasn’t it?
But what came later? The ghost couldn’t really want him to storm Mount Spirit and seize the scriptures by force, could he?
How many lives would that take?
"Is this true?" Lord Lao looked at Yang Jian before him.
Yang Jian smiled: "Have I ever deceived you, Lord Lao?"
"That’s debatable. Remember the time you tricked me into giving you elixir for your dog?"
"Ahem…"
"But if that’s really the case," Lord Lao’s eyes narrowed, "this is no small matter. The great Erlang Shen himself went down to the mortal world to watch the show, and quite a show it was."
"I went on orders," Yang Jian said with a wry smile. "Since Guanyin herself descended, we had to keep an eye on things too. I originally thought it was the Monkey’s opportunity, but now it seems the Monkey is just a side note."
"Not necessarily." Lord Lao grinned mysteriously and pointed upward. "All karma, from the first thought to the final act, already has its conclusion."
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?!
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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!
