Chapter 796: Unworthy

The news of the Green Ox Spirit and the others' deaths spread back, and the Heavenly Court did not find it particularly surprising.

As for the specific circumstances at the time, the Heavenly Court did not understand them all that well.

The main reason was that they dared not investigate; they did not even dare approach to observe, fearing they would be slapped to death by the Great Heavenly Demon.

The cautionary examples of Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Accompanying Ear were right there; they hadn't died, but they were crippled to such an extent that there was little difference from being dead.

But the Green Ox Spirit's few lines — "I am the Grand Supreme Lord's disciple," "I want to see the Demon Lord" — resounded through the heavens; even without Wind-Accompanying Ear, they could be heard.

This caused many immortals to sneer secretly.

They really take themselves for important figures; the Grand Supreme Lord isn't dead, yet the Great Heavenly Demon wouldn't give face, so how did the Tathagata achieve parinirvana?

Let alone the fact that the Grand Supreme Lord has been dead and his Dao extinguished for who knows how many years.

Do they truly believe the Grand Supreme Lord's lingering shade can shelter everything?

Pitiful the three Green Ox Spirits — they truly did not know of the Tathagata's parinirvana; when Tang Luo and the Tathagata fought fiercely, they were still hiding inside the Tushita Palace.

Later, the Tathagata achieved parinirvana, and the Great Thunderclap Temple and the Heavenly Court joined forces to seal the news.

The Green Ox Spirit and the others merely guessed the two might be evenly matched, or at worst both severely injured, which was why they reached a "scripture-fetching tacit understanding."

Who would have thought the situation was fundamentally not like that at all.

If they had known the Tathagata was beaten to parinirvana by the Great Heavenly Demon, even given the three Green Ox Spirits ten thousand courages, they would not have dared to put on airs and hesitate.

Either hide to death in the Tushita Palace, or simply descend to the mortal realm and defect directly.

Regardless, as cannon fodder, the three of them barely managed to play their due role.

Allowing the Heavenly Court to obtain a portion of information.

Only the information obtained made the Heavenly Court immortals frown deeply.

The Great Heavenly Demon — just what is he thinking?

Originally, according to everyone's tacit understanding, the Great Heavenly Demon should not have acted, but this time the Great Heavenly Demon acted.

He directly seized a nine-tailed demon fox, and this demon fox was not even one dispatched by their Heavenly Court.

So, just where are the Great Heavenly Demon's tacit understanding and bottom line for action?

In truth, this kind of probing by the Heavenly Court is completely useless effort.

Because Tang Luo fundamentally never thought about these things; he just wanted the scripture-fetching team to temper themselves, fighting and killing all the way.

Fighting along, fighting along, who knows when Sun Wukong recovered.

As for the rest, it was fundamentally not within the scope of consideration, completely as he pleased.

If he wanted to act, he acted.

The Heavenly Court's probing comes to a temporary halt here.

The Jade Emperor and the various immortals secretly cursed the Green Ox Spirit and the others as trash — possessing the Grand Supreme Lord's legacy (magic treasures), yet unable to kill even a single person — while anticipating how the Great Thunderclap Temple would move this time.

A named opponent encountered by the scripture-fetching team.

Actually originated from the Great Thunderclap Temple.

The Black Wind Monster under Guanyin's command.

Unfortunately, this Black Wind Monster was truly disappointing; the feeling he gave was more like Guanyin found him annoying and threw him out to die.

The Heavenly Court even dispatched the Twenty-Eight Mansions, and then the Grand Supreme Lord's disciples also moved; your Great Thunderclap Temple can't fall behind, right?

Like last time, sending out a purely probing cannon fodder like the Black Wind Monster definitely won't do.

At least knock down some members of the scripture-fetching team, extinguish some of the Heavenly Demon's prestige.

The Great Thunderclap Temple did not disappoint the Heavenly Court either, acting decisively.

Directly dispatching the Sky-Piercing Golden Carp, Green Lion, White Elephant, Golden-Winged Great Peng, and a novice monk under Maitreya who doesn't show off but possesses quite formidable strength.

The lineup can be called luxurious, even surpassing the Heavenly Court's Twenty-Eight Mansions.

Although the former few are not Arhats or Bodhisattvas, they are all "companion monsters" by Bodhisattvas' sides.

All kinds of personal instruction — even Arhats cannot compare, especially the Golden-Winged Great Peng, whose strength is even more not to be underestimated.

That unheard-of little novice monk is also someone by Maitreya Buddha's side.

Absolutely not comparable to ordinary Arhats.

Only the Golden Carp subdued by Guanyin is somewhat inferior, but since the other excels in water warfare, if they can drag the scripture-fetching team into the water, for the scripture-fetching team it is also a strong enemy no less than the Green Lion and White Elephant.

The lineup dispatched by the Great Thunderclap Temple is so luxurious.

It instead caused the Heavenly Court side some surprise.

This bunch of bald donkeys — shouldn't they still be thinking of subduing Sun Wukong, "reclaiming" Golden Cicada?

Could it be precisely because of this that they must dispatch these powerful figures to capture them alive?

You must know, the Great Thunderclap Temple's original numbers are far fewer than the Heavenly Court's.

If they truly dispatched people stronger than these "mounts," it could only be the Bodhisattvas personally acting.

That would be tantamount to tearing off all pretense.

The Great Thunderclap Temple would not take such a risk.

These fellows, each appears to be a mount, novice monk, or such roles, but in reality they are already the strongest force the Great Thunderclap Temple can dispatch under the current surface peace.

Making the Heavenly Court also somewhat sigh at the Great Thunderclap Temple's decisiveness.

In this respect, the Heavenly Court side is far inferior.

The Heavenly Court has many people; wanting unity of purpose is not that simple a matter; the Investiture of the Gods List is merely a guarantee.

The Great Thunderclap Temple is in motion.

The scripture-fetching team is unaware.

They journey on; at the start there were also yaomo guiguai who heard some news and wanted to defect.

Result: the scripture-fetching team didn't even acknowledge them; if they were those with thick bloody qi, they were directly killed on the spot.

Don't forget, the party still has a Tang Sanzang — a Buddhist disciple.

Acting on Heaven's behalf is standard procedure.

Over time, no demons thought of surrendering anymore.

Others didn't even acknowledge them, killing demons like slaughtering dogs. A warm face pressed against a cold butt was bad enough; worse, you might end up dead.

There couldn't possibly be demons that stupid still lining up to throw themselves at them.

This resulted in the pilgrimage party having absolutely no intelligence sources, and no idea what the Heavenly Court or Great Thunderclap Temple were up to.

They followed only one principle: meet soldiers with generals, meet water with earth.

Whoever blocks the way gets killed — simple and brutal to the extreme, very much in Tang Luo's style.

"What's going on with this place?" Tang Sanzang frowned. "So deathly still, feels like within a hundred li there isn't a single living thing."

"Heaven knows." Sun Wu shrugged; his strength had grown even more formidable.

But he was still Sun Wu, hadn't turned back into Sun Wukong — might need a suitable opportunity.

Perhaps the True and False Monkey King?

Maybe the so-called Six-Eared Macaque is a part of Sun Wukong, and only their combination is the true Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sun Wukong.

Regarding this brainstorm, Tang Luo noted there are piles of them in the real world.

"It seems..." Zhu Bajie said in a low voice, wanting to speak but stopping.

"Seems what? Spit it out!" Ao Yu said, "Hemming and hawing, not decisive at all."

Zhu Bajie sighed: "Hope I guessed wrong. I suspect someone blood-sacrificed all living things within a hundred li."

"What?" Tang Sanzang halted, looking at Zhu Bajie.

"There are faint traces of a formation array left here..."

"Worthy of Marshal Tianpeng, perception is sharp." A voice rang out. In the void, blood-colored waves emerged, forming a great blood river that encircled everyone.

A massive carp, gold tinged with blood, rose and sank in the blood river.

The speaker, however, was not the giant carp.

Blood mist permeated. A tall figure appeared — human body, elephant head. Beside him, a green lion with a human body and lion head.

Behind them, a monk in monastic robes, but the color was red, a pair of long yellow eyebrows extremely conspicuous.

The speaker was precisely this monk.

"You... it's actually you. What have you done?" Zhu Bajie recognized the three.

While questioning, he sent a voice transmission to the other pilgrimage members, explaining the three's identities.

Manjushri Bodhisattva's mount, the Green Lion; Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's mount, the White Elephant; that carp is most likely a koi from Guanyin's lotus pond.

As for that yellow-browed, blood-robed monk, Zhu Bajie couldn't recognize him at the moment.

But one thing was certain — he came from Mount Ling, Great Thunderclap Temple!

"Amitabha." The Yellow-Browed Monk didn't conceal his monk identity, intoning a Buddha's name. "Benefactors, you have committed boundless killing karma. Why not surrender and come with us to Mount Ling to repent?"

"What are you talking about?" Sun Wu pointed his staff. "What boundless killing karma?"

Just a few hundred god-and-Buddha lackeys — where's the boundlessness?

Honestly, not even as many as Zhu Bajie killed at Gao Laozhuang.

"What's this blood sacrifice about?" Tang Sanzang stepped forward.

"All living beings within a hundred li died because of you. Isn't that you committing boundless killing karma?" the Yellow-Browed Monk said.

"???"

Sun Wu's face was full of question marks; he felt this Yellow-Browed freak had a screw loose.

"Because of us they died?" Tang Sanzang's brows locked tight, knitted into a 川 character.

"Benefactors' strength is extraordinary. Without blood sacrifice, we'd have no confidence in capturing you," the Yellow-Browed Monk said. "All living beings within a hundred li died because of you; the killing karma and guilt naturally fall on you."

The anger on Tang Sanzang's face froze. Moments later, his kasaya robes were shredded by a violent aura.

Golden radiance enveloped his whole body.

His already tall frame swelled further.

Vajra wrath, golden body formed!

"Heh, unrepentant, obstinate." The Yellow-Browed Monk laughed. His blood robes unfurled and expanded; a wave of his sleeve sent a stretch of blood color enveloping Tang Sanzang.

Endless wronged souls wailed miserably, rising and sinking in this sea of blood.

Tang Sanzang's expression changed. In a trance, he seemed to be in hell; those wronged souls coiled around him, trying to drag him into a bottomless abyss, eternally sunk.

"Do you see your sins now?" the Yellow-Browed Monk asked.

Everyone and everything around vanished.

Only the blood hell remained. Tang Sanzang struggled painfully to support himself, and did not answer.

"Still not awakening? Fine, let me help you a bit more..." The Yellow-Browed Monk chuckled lightly, about to increase the pressure.

A palm phantom descended from the sky, crashing down with a boom.

The Yellow-Browed Monk's face changed drastically. He abruptly thrust both palms upward; the boundless blood hell formed a pair of blood-colored palms, carrying boundless resentment and blood fiend qi to oppose the palm phantom falling from the sky.

Three palms met.

The blood-colored palms shattered like foam in an instant, unable to block even a sliver, intercepting for a mere split second.

The palm phantom landed on the Yellow-Browed Monk's crown — seemingly just a light pat.

The earth shook. The Yellow-Browed Monk knelt, kneeling out a large pit, gold-red blood flowing from his seven orifices.

"Posturing, disgusting." Tang Luo's voice came from the sky.

The Yellow-Browed Monk's body burst into a cloud of blood mist, body and spirit both destroyed, not even bones remaining.

"Heavenly Demon, you actually made a move?"

The Green Lion and White Elephant were shocked beyond measure, blurting out involuntarily.

"You don't play by the rules!"

"Why can't this seat make a move?" Tang Luo still did not appear, only his voice was heard, "Could it be that you idiots think this seat was truly playing chess and matching magic with you dog-shit gods, and that there was some unspoken understanding about what couldn't be said?"

"However, if it weren't for this guy's disgusting mouth, you evil beasts wouldn't even be worthy of this seat lifting a hand."

A sharp bird cry rang out — the Golden-Winged Great Peng descended from the heavens; to be precise, it was the Golden-Winged Great Peng hovering at high altitude in the center, surveying the entire scene, who instantly fled upon realizing the situation was bad.

Caught by Tang Luo, he was thrown back onto the field.

"Kill them all."

As Tang Luo's order rang out.

Endless golden furious fists magnified before their eyes, and the Green Lion and White Elephant faced Tang Monk's wrath.