Chapter 387: Buddhist Sect Lies Come Easily

Suddenly, for some unknown reason, inspiration struck, and he immediately replied: "It's like this. Although I admire you, I'm still working in your residence, so I fundamentally have no opportunity to learn cooking. Therefore, I truly cannot cook. You should let the Food God handle it."

"Is that so? Which residence are you from?"

Sun Wukong asked, "I'll go to your superior right now and bring you over. Following me, you can also learn to cook."

Telling one lie requires a hundred more to cover it up, and this Buddhist sect disciple today thoroughly understood this saying. He wanted to refuse, but didn't know how.

"Great Chef Sun Wukong, we're here to help the Buddhist sect people find their Buddhist beads. Why not wait until we find the beads before discussing this?"

Seeing his senior brother unable to answer, his companion hurriedly smoothed things over.

"Oh, indeed not, and there are still the Buddhist beads."

Sun Wukong wore a suddenly enlightened expression, "Finding Buddhist beads isn't a small matter, so you should hurry and look for them."

"Alright, then please wait a moment, Great Chef Sun Wukong and all the celestial officials. We'll start searching for the Buddhist beads right now."

Several Buddhist sect disciples thought they had stalled long enough, all breathed a sigh of relief, and began pretending to search for Buddhist beads.

Sun Wukong watched them flustered but actually doing nothing, found it somewhat amusing, waited until he'd seen enough, then called out to stop them: "Wait a moment."

Those few people were startled, and cautiously asked, "What's wrong? Great Chef Sun Wukong? Is there some problem?"

"You're looking for Buddhist beads, right?"

"Yes, is there some problem?"

That disciple stared at Sun Wukong, inwardly wondering if Sun Wukong had noticed something.

"You're searching for Buddhist beads, yet you're all flipping through this dish? This dish contains meat, so how could Buddhist beads possibly be in this meat dish?"

"Exactly, Great Chef Sun Wukong, you're right. We were searching for things and got confused."

The Buddhist sect disciples smiled sheepishly, then placed the small cups in their hands on the table, preparing to search elsewhere.

"No, that's not right."

The Food God watched from afar.

This sentence again made the atmosphere over there tense: "What's wrong, Food God? Is there still some problem?"

"Hey, this problem is truly too big."

The Food God pointed at the small cups inside, "Look, has this dish been moved? I've been watching, and it seems like some is missing. Are you really searching for Buddhist beads?"

"We are indeed searching for Buddhist beads, but perhaps our search was too vigorous and some spilled out?"

"Is that so?"

The Food God looked around, "But I haven't seen any vegetable soup on this ground at all. You're stealing food."

"No, no, no, we wouldn't dare steal this. We're truly only here to search for Buddhist beads."

As soon as the Food God finished speaking, the Buddhist sect disciples on this side hurriedly denied it.

"Exactly, if the Food God hadn't spoken, it would have been fine, but now that he has, I really feel something is strange. You say you're here to help that Buddhist sect find their Buddhist beads, so why aren't you searching other dishes, but only staring at this one that the Buddhist sect has never even touched?"

The other celestial officials stepped forward, looked at the small cup with less than half the dish remaining, and immediately understood.

"No, we, we merely..."

Now the evidence was conclusive, and the Buddhist sect disciples didn't know how to explain.

"Well, since the food has been eaten, let it be. It's not a big deal."

Sun Wukong suddenly spoke up.

The Buddhist sect disciples stared at each other, then instantly realized how to proceed: "Sorry, Great Chef Sun Wukong, it's our greed. Please punish us."

"Great Chef Sun Wukong, you previously said this dish is a precious treasure, so we can't just let them ruin it like this."

"Exactly, and besides, they're just a bunch of servants, daring to steal food in the Imperial Kitchen. If you don't punish them, aren't you being too lenient toward them?"

"It's our fault. Originally, we were just passing by the Imperial Kitchen, smelled the wonderful fragrance, couldn't resist, and thus stole the dishes. Please punish us."

The Buddhist sect disciples were also clever, because being punished for the food is better than being caught by the Heavenly Court.

Sun Wukong pretended to be deep in thought, as if truly heeding these celestial officials' words.

"Hmm, stealing food is a minor offense, but lax discipline is serious. Let's do this: although I don't really want to punish you, since everyone else says so, I'll go through the motions."

The Buddhist sect disciples secretly laughed, realizing this trick really fooled Sun Wukong. If it's just making them clean the Imperial Kitchen or similar tasks, that would be best.

Such things are relatively easy to deceive with,

and the Buddhist sect and Heavenly Court basically don't interact except for major affairs. By then, no one will know if they stole the dishes.

"You violated the Imperial Kitchen's ordinance, stole dishes. Although they're leftovers, it's still unauthorized theft without permission. So, produce your residence's Divine Edict Token. I won't make things difficult for you, but you must have your residence's superior properly discipline you."

After Sun Wukong finished speaking, everyone present was stunned.

The celestial officials thought Sun Wukong's punishment was too light—shouldn't they be whipped a few times? In the end, this minor matter was just dropped.

The Buddhist sect side was truly stunned—they had just been making things up, and where would they get their own superior? Besides, they'd have to produce their own tokens.

Where could they produce a token for him right now? And besides, claiming to be someone's servant would be worse than a few lashes.

Seeing no one move, Sun Wukong feigned dissatisfaction: "What? Just this little matter is still giving you trouble? Who are your residence's superiors? Why don't I, Old Grandson, personally call them out?"

"This..."

The Buddhist sect disciples here fell into difficulty; this situation can only be left to their own fate—no one can help them.

If they fail this hurdle, being expelled from the Buddhist sect for breaking precepts would be minor. The main issue is that it's reached the Heavenly Court. If the Buddha truly blames them, they might vanish completely, never to be reborn.

"It seems I, Old Grandson, have been too lenient with you, actually letting you publicly slap my face in front of everyone. Enough, no need to call your residence's superiors—I, Old Grandson, will personally punish you."

All celestial officials: Excellent, we've been waiting for this. Otherwise, it would be too cheap for these little thieves.

All Buddhist sect disciples: Excellent, we've been waiting for this. Otherwise, how would we end this? No one would even collect their corpses.

"I, Old Grandson, will punish you by making you run around the Imperial Kitchen several hundred times, and then gather all the ingredients I need for this dish in tenfold quantity. If you accomplish this, I won't punish you."

After Sun Wukong finished speaking, everyone present was stunned again. What?!

Just this simple? The Buddhist sect disciples all breathed a sigh of relief, but those with quick minds felt something was off. As for what exactly was off, no one could guess.

Sun Wukong has always been arrogant and domineering—even if someone steps on his foot outside, he can run to their residence and smash their table to vent. So why, for stealing food, is the punishment this mild? What's the reason? "It's not me saying, but Great Chef Sun Wukong, you're being this kind—really too kind. Why exactly?"

Some celestial officials were indignant.

As for why they were so indignant, it was naturally because they were thinking of the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall that the Buddhist Side had nothing to eat.

To put it bluntly, this thing is leftovers, and yet his esteemed celestial official would actually eat leftovers, but who let Sun Wukong's cooking skills be so superb.