Chapter 783: Imperially Decreed That You Are the Scripture-Fetcher

The monster suspected to be Benbo'erba died.

He didn't even have time for last words; Tang Luo couldn't be bothered to care what this guy wanted to say.

Listening to sermons is for listening to interesting stories.

"Grandpa Sun, spare me! Grandpa Tang, spare me!" He'd heard it too many times; his ears had grown calluses.

"Master, we are Buddhist disciples. Why is marrying a wife not forbidden? Besides that not being forbidden, are there any other rules?"

On the way home, Sun Wu couldn't help but ask.

"Wine and meat pass through the intestines; the Buddha remains in the heart," Tang Luo said. "We master and disciple have no taboos whatsoever."

"Anyway, no one can beat me. You do whatever you want. If trouble arises, Master will cover for you. What is there to fear?"

Before, you covered for me. Now it's Master's turn.

Sun Wu swallowed back the words "Is it because you need to temper your heart in the mortal world?"

This guy isn't a Buddhist. This guy isn't a Buddhist.

"That..."

"Speak."

"The path to immortality, is it very difficult?" Sun Wu asked.

"Not difficult. Very simple," Tang Luo said.

"Really?"

"Really. At least for you, it's definitely not difficult," Tang Luo nodded.

"Then what about other people?" Sun Wu pressed.

Tang Luo said: "That depends on the situation. It depends on aptitude, comprehension, and root bones. Some people cultivate for one day and it equals others' year; their cultivation advances a thousand li in a day."

"Some people, however, are 'cultivation progress units'."

Half a day later.

Tang Luo brought Sun Wu back to his doorstep.

Sun Wu was originally not from around that bustling city. As an outsider, his true home was not considered close to the city. At a normal person's pace, walking with stops and starts would take about half a year.

Sun Wu was different. His martial arts were high, his travel speed very fast, and he could travel day and night.

Only one month was needed.

As for why Sun Wu came to this bustling capital, naturally it was to earn money and make a living.

In these times, a single penny can stump a hero.

Things like robbing the rich to help the poor no longer existed long ago.

Wealthy families now all deposit money in money shops. Withdrawals require a token, account number, and password — all three must match. Report wrong three times, and you're seized on the spot.

And daring to rob a money shop means making an enemy of the entire court.

Unless you hide in deep mountains and old forests, you're dead for sure.

All sorts of martial arts masters, besides the major sects with land, the rest of the lone wanderers were starving, and flocked to serve the court as money shop guards.

Sun Wu couldn't. He needed a fair amount of money. Being a money shop guard wouldn't earn that much.

Most jobs that could earn that much are now written in the laws.

He could only run an arena stage, gamble on fights to earn money. Though not very harmonious, at least it wasn't written in the laws.

Additionally, he paid a thousand taels entry fee to Young Master Zhang of the Zhang family, the tyrant of the capital — that catfish monster — before he could set up his arena stage.

If Sun Wu could win a hundred consecutive matches, based on the situation these past days, he could earn fifteen hundred taels. One thousand taels would go back to Young Master Zhang to repay the entry fee debt.

The remaining five hundred should last half a year.

Unexpectedly, a fated one suddenly appeared, like a great demon king of a master. Sun Wu felt his fate had completely changed.

"So you earn money to treat your wife's illness?" Tang Luo asked.

Sun Wu nodded: "Master, you are an immortal..."

"Trivial matter. Can save her, but..." Tang Luo cut off Sun Wu's words, pushed open the small wooden hut's door, but didn't immediately enter.

Inside was a bit better than four bare walls. On the wooden bed lay half-reclining a woman with a pale face. One could tell she was a beauty.

Even with a strange illness, needing to stay in bed two-thirds of the day, body weak, face pale, she still maintained considerable looks.

A frail, sickly beauty.

"Husband, how... have you returned?" Sun Wu's wife saw Sun Wu return and spoke in surprise.

A single sentence was split into two segments to say.

Her body was very weak. Every day she needed precious medicinal herbs to sustain herself.

If cut off for a few days, her limbs would have no strength. She could only lie in bed, a standard bottomless pit, a gold-devouring beast.

When the herbs weren't cut off, she could barely manage her own daily needs, allowing Sun Wu to go out and earn money.

"Wife, I met an immortal! Your illness can finally be cured!" Sun Wu was very excited.

The two's forms of address made Tang Luo feel a bit of tooth-ache.

Showing off affection like this is asking for retribution.

"Immortal?" Sun Wu's wife looked at Tang Luo. Suddenly her face changed. "He's not an immortal! He's not an immortal! He's a demon! A demon! Quick, drive him away! Drive him away!"

The reaction was extremely intense.

Intense enough that after shouting those two sentences, she directly shouted herself into a faint.

"Wife!" Sun Wu was greatly alarmed. He immediately transferred energy to his wife.

Not until her breathing in unconsciousness became steady did he gently set her down.

Covering his wife with the quilt, Sun Wu turned and walked outside. Passing Tang Luo, he said in a low voice, "Come out."

Tang Luo glanced at Sun Wu's wife, followed him out of the house, and even very kindly closed the door behind him.

"Why is my wife seeing you making you so excited! What do you mean by 'yaomo'!" Sun Wu himself was also quite excited.

"What's your wife called?" Tang Luo asked casually.

"Bai Gujing."

"That settles it." Tang Luo clapped his hands, his smile slightly strange.

"What settles it?"

"Your wife, she's actually a yaoguai, the White Bone Demon." Tang Luo said.

"Nonsense!" Sun Wu flatly denied it.

"It's true." Tang Luo pressed his palms together before him, "A monk does not speak falsehoods."

One look and you could tell he was an accomplished little high monk, extremely persuasive.

"Go away! I'm not taking you as master anymore!" Sun Wu was utterly unmoved, not even saying something like "how to prove it."

Directly wanting to sever the father-son — master-disciple relationship with Tang Luo.

"Come." Tang Luo took out the Golden Headband, "As long as you put this on, you'll recover your past memories and power, become the powerful Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sun Wukong, and also remember I'm your master. At that time, you'll clearly know Master hasn't been deceiving you."

"..."

Sun Wu didn't speak.

"But after putting on the Golden Headband, worldly loves, hates, passions, and grudges will have nothing to do with you. Once you're moved by emotion, the Golden Headband on your head will tighten, making you suffer unbearable pain."

Tang Luo was randomly making up Journey to the West settings.

Sun Wu fell silent, reached out his hand, and took the Golden Headband from Tang Luo's hand.

"Wait!" Tang Luo stopped him, "Before you put on the Golden Headband, do you have anything to say?"

Since he'd made up the settings, the words that should be said must be said in full.

If Sun Wu could come out with "love you for ten thousand years," then Tang Luo would rename him Zhi Zun Bao.

"I do." Sun Wu gripped the Golden Headband, took a deep breath, exerted his life's greatest strength, and violently threw the Golden Headband away, "Go pick up your trash!"

Sun Wu used all his strength, the Golden Headband flew out.

"Alas, Wukong, you must believe Master."

The imagined scene of the Golden Headband flying out over a thousand meters, making Tang Luo go find it to buy him time, did not happen.

Tang Luo merely casually waved a hand, and the Golden Headband in midair obediently flew back into his hand.

"I'm not Wukong!" Sun Wu rejected it, his expression gradually turning ferocious.

"This is your fat..." Tang Luo spoke halfway, suddenly stopped, "Forget it, since you're unwilling now, then so be it, we'll still have a day of meeting again."

Sun Wu watched Tang Luo tread the void, soar into the high sky, and soon vanish from sight.

He stood in place, silent, as if some sound was echoing in his mind and heart.

Telling him to roar, to tear apart the false reality, destroy everything before his eyes.

The ground beneath his feet, unknowingly, had already developed crack after crack, spreading outward.

Sun Wu's clothes and hair moved without wind, something was "breaking out of its shell."

Finally, the surging aura on him stabilized again, Sun Wukong turned and walked toward the small hut.

In the high sky, Tang Luo rotated the Golden Headband, took a deep look, and left.

"Ha!"

The large iron hammer smashed down, shattering a stone slab, Tang Seng stood up, patted his chest, indicating he was fine.

The surrounding onlookers cheered, throwing out one or two pitiful reward coins.

Performing the iron shirt / stone-breaking-on-chest act alone felt somewhat bleak, coupled with those scattered few reward coins, it instantly became even more bleak.

Sun Wukong was doing poorly, Tang Seng wasn't doing much better either.

The saying of tribulations was not false.

"Anyone want to give it a try!" Tang Seng lay back on the ground, picked up a stone slab and placed it on his chest, "Just ten wen, and you can come smash!"

Immediately a curious onlooker stepped forward, two seconds later, retreated amid roars of laughter.

That hammer was too heavy, barely able to be lifted, yet couldn't be raised!

Directly couldn't get it up, what's the point of smashing then.

"I'll do it."

Tang Luo pushed through the crowd, casually setting down a silver ingot.

"Too much." Tang Seng revealed a smile, only his appearance was fierce, like Lu Zhishen, not only unable to bring people closer, but could stop children crying at night.

"No matter." Tang Luo waved his hand, picked up the hammer and swung it in one strike.

"Hiss!"

Tang Seng's eyes widened, he sucked in a cold breath.

Pain, too painful.

"Not bad." Tang Luo tossed away the hammer, "This lay patron — no, this junior fellow disciple, I observe your forehead is full, your bones extraordinary, one look and you know you're a one-in-ten-thousand cultivation genius, the mission of going to the Western Heaven to fetch scriptures relies on you, I have a 'Xuanzang Divine Palm' here, destined for you, cheap, ten taels of silver sold to you."

Tang Seng lying on the ground had a face full of bewilderment.

What situation, ran into a fellow practitioner?

He struggled to rise: "Senior... brother, what do your words mean?"

Everyone are Buddhist disciples, as long as the status gap isn't too large, generally they address each other as "senior brother, junior brother" based on age.

From appearance, Tang Luo is definitely the junior brother.

But Tang Luo previously called Tang Seng "junior brother" in one step, and displayed powerful strength.

So Tang Seng could only call Tang Luo senior brother.

Originally Tang Seng still planned to argue based on reason, saying he entered the sect early — he entered the Buddhist sect during his orphan period, grew up in a temple from childhood.

But the other party's iron hammer really hurt too much.

"Amitabha." Tang Luo pressed his palms together and proclaimed a Buddha's name.

His body suddenly shot up in height, a Merit Jade Lotus manifested beneath him, he sat cross-legged, and golden light flickered behind his head.

Even more, an illusory golden body of a Buddha emerged, standing upright between heaven and earth, fully displaying the bearing of an immortal Buddha.

The surrounding onlookers knelt without a second word, calling out "Immortal."

Regardless of whether they usually believed or not, at this moment they converted on the spot, becoming believers.

"I am the Victory Fighting Buddha of the Western Heaven."

Resounding heavenly sound issued from Tang Luo's mouth.

"In this realm, heaven is high and earth is thick, resources are vast and people numerous; there is much greed and much killing, much lust and much deceit, much fraud and much cheating; they do not turn toward good karma, do not revere the three luminaries, do not value the five grains; they are disloyal and unfilial, unrighteous and unbenevolent, deceiving their own hearts, using large measures to buy and small measures to sell, harming lives and slaughtering livestock. They create boundless karma, their sins fill up and evil overflows, bringing the calamity of hell, so they forever sink into the netherworld, suffering those many pounding and grinding torments, transforming into beasts. There are those many furred and horned forms, repaying debts with their bodies, feeding people with their flesh. Those who forever fall into Avici, unable to transcend, are all due to this."

This speech made Tang Seng break out in a cold sweat.

"Fortunately, Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life, and has decreed that you go to the Western Heaven to obtain the true 'Tripitaka' scriptures, spread the Dharma to the world, and save all beings."