Chapter 202: The First Battle with Tongbi Yuanhou

Inside the town's public hall, Zhu Bajie watched a group of villagers fighting tooth and nail to snatch the Little Skylark, and suddenly, unable to contain his rage, he spoke:

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you fighting for? We are immortals! This trip to fetch the scriptures will surely bring you benefits later on!"

He pointed at Ye Ming and said in a loud voice: "The one standing before you is the special envoy for the Buddha and the Jade Emperor to fetch the Western scriptures, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong of the Water Curtain Cave on Huaguoshan!"

"Do you think we would lie to you?"

"As the saying goes, those who worship the gods will be protected by them; he will certainly look after you."

Ye Ming watched Bajie from the side without stopping him.

If this world truly followed his hypothesis that the inner demon was related to Tongbi Yuanhou, then no matter what, he would have to have a confrontation with the other party first.

Only in this way could he further confirm what the mission within this Reincarnation Secret Realm actually was.

At this moment, under Zhu Bajie's glib tongue, the master and his three disciples successfully rescued the Little Skylark from the villagers' hands without spending a single cent of silver.

After the master and his three disciples rescued the Little Skylark, Ye Ming casually healed the injuries on her body and let her leave.

As for the group, they continued their journey west.

After everyone had left, those villagers who had been swindled by Zhu Bajie spontaneously gathered together and arrived at the Shenhou Jiangjun Ting outside the town.

"The Great Sage is the real immortal. I think if we replace the sculpture in the Shenhou Jiangjun Ting with the Great Sage's, he will definitely protect us!"

"Exactly, exactly!"

Those who came here all wanted to build a statue of the Great Sage while the master and his disciples had not yet left, just to butter them up.

These words at this moment were merely to comfort themselves.

After everyone finished speaking, they grabbed their tools and charged toward the statue of the God Monkey General, preparing to pry it off.

The statue of the God Monkey General was pried to the ground, and the crowd erected the already-prepared statue of the Great Sage in the original location of the Shenhou Jiangjun Ting.

These villagers even started fighting among themselves right there just to be the first to offer a stick of incense.

Just at this moment, the statue of the God Monkey General suddenly revealed the true form of Tongbi Yuanhou.

He turned his head abruptly, glared fiercely at the crowd of villagers below, and spoke: "Take a good look at who I am!"

"The God Monkey General!!"

After seeing the appearance of Tongbi Yuanhou, a look of terror flashed across the faces of the villagers, and they knelt on the ground one after another, kowtowing.

"You ungrateful wretches, I protected you so well alongside the Bird Immortal back then, and now you have actually smashed my statue to replace it with Sun Wukong!"

Tongbi Yuanhou stood atop the incense pavilion, looking down at the ignorant villagers below, and rebuked them.

"It's not like that, God Monkey General!"

"It was all the Great Sage who told us to do this!"

"He is an immortal; how could we commoners defy his will!"

"Please don't blame us!"

The crowd of commoners directly shifted the blame onto Sun Wukong, pushing the entire matter onto his head.

"A fine Sun Wukong, daring to break ground on the head of Tai Sui!" Tongbi Yuanhou's aura surged, his eyes shifting, "I will settle this account with you slowly!"

He performed a somersault down from the incense pavilion, jumped among the villagers, and pointed at them: "You ignorant villagers, you destroyed my statue; today I shall punish you properly!"

Just at this moment, he suddenly looked up at the sky, and the voice transmission of Maitreya Buddha rang in his ears.

"Master is calling me?" Tongbi Yuanhou glared at the villagers, "I'll come back to teach you a lesson later!"

He performed a somersault and flew toward the sky.

In an instant, he arrived at the Milefo Dian and saw Maitreya Buddha, who was holding a watermelon and patting it.

Tongbi Yuanhou performed a Buddhist salute and spoke respectfully to Maitreya Buddha: "Master, I do not know what instructions you have for calling your disciple here?"

"Your temper is too hot." Maitreya Buddha patted the watermelon in his hand, "I called you here just to have you eat a watermelon and cool your temper."

A look of helplessness flashed across Tongbi Yuanhou's face, "Master, those villagers are simply too presumptuous. I saved them like that back then, yet now they treat me this way!"

"They actually smashed the statues of me and the Bird Immortal, destroying our source of wish power!"

Speaking of this, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he even turned his head, preparing to go down and teach those villagers a good lesson.

Maitreya Buddha immediately called out to stop him and told him the principle of bestowing kindness without expecting a reward.

This caused dissatisfaction to rise in Tongbi Yuanhou's heart, "Master, is it wrong to seek justice for oneself?"

He stared straight at Maitreya Buddha, his eyes full of persistence.

"My fine General Pavilion has now turned into a Great Sage Pavilion."

"What has Sun Wukong done to be able to usurp the incense I traded my life for?"

"What is so great about Sun Wukong that he can act recklessly and still gain merit by fetching the scriptures!"

"I have performed so many meritorious deeds, yet my reputation is not as high as his!"

"Master, do you think this is fair?"

The more Tongbi Yuanhou spoke, the angrier he became, his eyes filled with malevolence.

Maitreya Buddha held the watermelon and looked at Tongbi Yuanhou with some emotion, a look of heartache flashing in his eyes.

But in an instant, this look vanished.

He put down the watermelon in his hand and spoke slowly: "There are four great divine monkeys between heaven and earth, jumping outside the San Jie, not within the Five Elements."

"Lingming Stone Monkey, Six-Eared Macaque, Chijiu Mahou, and Tongbi Yuanhou."

"You four monkeys are of the same kind, and each possesses innate divine abilities."

"That Chijiu Mahou has cultivation levels not much different from yours, yet he has already attained Nirvana and become a Buddha."

"The Six-Eared Macaque has also escaped into the Buddhist gate, practicing wholeheartedly under Guanyin."

"The Lingming Stone Monkey's journey to fetch the scriptures is his own path."

Maitreya Buddha looked at Tongbi Yuanhou and said with emotion, "And the reason you have not yet become a Buddha is because you have not yet passed the hurdle of name and form."

"I don't care about that!" Tongbi Yuanhou swung his arm violently, his face full of resentment, "I just feel it is unfair, and I only want to seek justice!"

Seeing that Tongbi Yuanhou was still so restless, a flash of anger rose in Maitreya Buddha's heart.

"I see your heart is not yet pure; go copy the Heart-Purifying Golden Sutra thirty thousand times. I hope you can achieve peace of mind."

Tongbi Yuanhou sighed and walked silently toward the Cangjing Ge.

He found the thick Heart-Purifying Golden Sutra and began to copy it on the desk.

Just as he was copying the scriptures, he saw the head of Sun Wukong appear on the scripture in his hand, spinning and mocking, "Tongbi Yuanhou, it's me. You really are useless, being punished to copy scriptures here."

"I am different; I have an imperial decree to retrieve the Western scriptures and fight demons. You couldn't envy that even if you wanted to, bleh bleh bleh bleh..."

Seeing that monkey head on the scripture sticking its tongue out at him in mockery, a surge of rage rose in Tongbi Yuanhou's heart, and he threw the scripture in his hand to the ground in a fit of pique.

"Who dares to be so presumptuous in the Milefo Dian!"

As soon as Tongbi Yuanhou's voice fell, Huangmei Laozu, with his yellow hair and yellow eyebrows, jumped out from the scripture and said with a chuckle, "Junior Brother, it is I."

"Senior Brother, why have you come?" Tongbi Yuanhou's face revealed a look of joy upon seeing Huangmei Laozu.

Ever since he arrived at the Milefo Dian, he had spent a long time cultivating together with Huangmei Laozu, and the bond between them as senior and junior brothers was extremely deep. "Sigh!" Huangmei Laozu sighed, "I just feel it is unfair to you!"

"He, Sun Wukong, caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace and insulted the Buddha, yet even after committing such a monstrous sin, he gets to go retrieve the Western scriptures."

"This is simply too absurd!"

"In terms of cultivation and merit, if anyone is to retrieve the Western scriptures, it should be you, Junior Brother!"

Tongbi Yuanhou gazed toward the lower realm, his heart already somewhat stirred.

He had originally harbored such thoughts, and now, hearing Huangmei Laozu say this, he became restless and eager to act.

"If you ask me, you should compete with him and see who is stronger!"

At this moment, Huangmei Laozu was still standing to the side, speaking with a completely earnest face.

"Good!!"

Tongbi Yuanhou shouted, threw off his battle armor, spun around, and a flash of determination crossed his eyes.

"I will go down and meet Sun Wukong to see just how much ability he really has!"

Several days later, Ye Ming and the others had already left the town and traveled quite a distance toward the west.

Along this journey, they had not encountered any other demons, and everything appeared calm and peaceful.

But the more it was like this, the more Ye Ming knew in his heart that the storm was brewing all the larger.

In the original plot, if the Arm-Armed Ape hadn't been killed by the plot, eaten the Ten Thousand Demon Golden Pill, swallowed the Truth-Listening Beast, and refined the Qilin foot that carried Dao wounds, he would never have ended so rashly.

That Tongbi Yuanhou in the plot could be said to have crushed the Chen Haoming version of Sun Wukong in every aspect! He even nearly shattered his Dao heart!

It was precisely because of this that a trace of fighting spirit rose in Ye Ming's heart.

His strength had grown for so long now, and he hadn't had a proper fight to test his own power.

The combat power in the Journey to the West world could definitely be considered top-tier among the Reincarnation Secret Realms he had experienced before.

The appearance of the power of laws pointed directly to the origin of the Dao, allowing him to benefit greatly.

Just as Ye Ming was thinking, Zhu Bajie suddenly pointed at a straight, towering mountain peak in the distance and said to Tang Sanzang with some excitement, "Master, Master! Look, is that Spirit Mountain?"

"Have we reached the end?"

When Tang Sanzang looked up and saw that mountain peak, a feeling of familiarity rose in his heart.

He smiled at his disciples and said, "Since we have arrived here, let us go and pay our respects!"

Ye Ming thought for a moment, then turned his head to remind him, "Master, we have not yet experienced the Sanyuan Sanzhi Jie and the eighty-one tribulations."

"I fear this place is a trap."

He did not expect Tang Sanzang to follow his advice.

Sure enough, even though he spoke this way, Tang Sanzang still insisted on going up to investigate.

Seeing the excitement in the eyes of Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng, Ye Ming did not stop them further and continued walking toward the mountain peak that looked just like Spirit Mountain.

In his heart, he was also looking forward to that formal battle with Tongbi Yuanhou!

Therefore, even though he knew this was the Small Western Heaven set up by Tongbi Yuanhou and Huangmei Laozu, he had to go through with it.

Walking up this straight mountain peak, the moment Ye Ming looked up and saw the characters "Xiao Leiyin Si," he was even more certain of his guess.

Tang Sanzang was preoccupied with the scriptures and did not care whether it was Xiao Leiyin Si or not, insisting on going inside to take a look.

Seeing this, Ye Ming did not stop him; under Tang Sanzang's helpless gaze, he kicked open the gates of Xiao Leiyin Si and walked in first.

As soon as the four of them entered Xiao Leiyin Si, they saw that Buddha sitting upright on the Lotus Platform, his face full of Buddhist aura.

Seeing this, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Seng knelt directly on the ground and bowed to the Buddha above.

"Wukong, since you have seen the original, why do you not bow?"

The fake Buddha's voice echoed in the main hall of Xiao Leiyin Si, and Tang Sanzang and the others hurriedly signaled Ye Ming to pay his respects.

However, at this moment, Ye Ming looked up with disdain, stared at Tongbi Yuanhou who was playing the Buddha above, and said, "Tongbi, if Maitreya Buddha knew that you came to the lower realm and were still here impersonating the Buddha in front of us, what do you think he would do?"

"Would he make you copy scriptures tens of thousands of times to calm your heart and mind?"

"What did you say!!"

On the Lotus Platform, the Buddha, who had originally been solemn and dignified, suddenly stood up and changed back into the appearance of Tongbi Yuanhou.

He stared straight at Ye Ming below, his eyes full of ferocity.

These few words of Ye Ming's truly struck the weak point in his heart, which made him even more irritable.

The surrounding scene turned into a dilapidated temple; seeing this, Tang Sanzang and the others hurriedly stood up, looking at Tongbi Yuanhou and Huangmei Laozu standing on the high platform with full vigilance.

"Are your ears that bad?" Ye Ming picked his ear, "Do you want me to say it again?"

"Sun Wukong, you are too arrogant!" Tongbi Yuanhou's eyes were full of anger, "Do you know why I came to the lower realm?"

"This is all because of you!"

"I have three major grievances against you!"

"Huh? What are the three dissatisfactions?" Sha Seng, standing to the side, spoke up subconsciously.

Tongbi Yuanhou cast an appreciative glance at Sha Seng, then glared fiercely at Ye Ming, lifting his foot to step onto the high platform.

Zhu Bajie and Ye Ming looked at Sha Seng at the same time, causing an awkward expression to appear on Sha Seng's face as he subconsciously retreated two steps.

At this moment, Tongbi Yuanhou spoke up: "First, you told the villagers to tear down my Shenhou Jiangjun Ting and build your Great Saint Temple!"

"Second, when it comes to performing demonic deeds or doing good, you are not as good as me, and you cannot even catch up to me in merit! You have absolutely no qualifications to go and retrieve the Western Scriptures!"

He pulled out his golden thin whip, paced on the high platform, and said with great dominance, "Third, in terms of divine powers, you are simply not my equal. You can be the Keeper of the Heavenly Horses, and I can do the same!"

Upon hearing this third point, a look of surprise and astonishment flashed in Zhu Bajie's eyes.

He said helplessly to Tang Sanzang and Sha Seng beside him: "This monkey is so jealous of Senior Brother that he's gone mad. Look, he's even fighting to be the Keeper of the Heavenly Horses!"

After listening to Tongbi Yuanhou finish his three points, Ye Ming picked his ear with a look of disdain, and incidentally pulled out his Ruyi Golden Cudgel.

He stepped forward two paces, gripped the Golden Cudgel in his hand, and a look of arrogance appeared on his face, "First, you cannot beat me!"

"Second, you still cannot beat me!"

"Third, you still cannot beat me!"

"Today I will capture you and hand you over to Maitreya Buddha!"

"If you want to fight, just say so. What's the point of all this yapping!"

The moment their gazes met, fighting spirit surged forth instantly, and surging spiritual power began to circulate around both of them.

Bang!!

The entire temple was shattered in an instant by the spiritual energy erupting from the two of them! Seeing this, Zhu Bajie hurriedly cast a Universe Shield to protect his master.

In that instant, as if by mutual agreement, Ye Ming and Tongbi Yuanhou both charged toward the sky.

The weapons in their hands were also simultaneously smashed toward each other!

(End of this chapter)