Volume 3: A Long Journey – Chapter 242: Mysterious Affairs

The mountain path was rugged and uneven. After walking just a mile, the woman twisted her ankle and sat down on the ground, crying out in pain. Wuhui, who was close by, could not tell whether it was genuine or not. Wukong naturally knew she was pretending, but without evidence, it was hard to expose her.

Tang Seng said, “Hurry and help her up!”
Wuhui helped the woman to her feet. Seeing her sweating profusely from the pain, Tang Seng quickly dismounted and said, “Help her onto the horse.” Wukong stopped him and said, “Master, the White Dragon Horse isn’t something ordinary people can ride. Let Bajie carry her instead!”

Bajie replied, “What kind of idea is that, brother? I have to carry luggage and also carry a person—how can I still move?”
Tang Seng agreed, “That’s right. She should ride the horse.”
Tang Seng told Wuhui to bring the woman over. When the woman saw Tang Seng up close, excitement flashed in her eyes, but upon noticing Wukong’s sharp gaze fixed on her, she quickly lowered her head to hide her feelings.

The White Dragon Horse was extremely intelligent and kept stepping back to avoid her. Wukong laughed and said, “Master, I told you the White Dragon Horse didn’t want to carry her. Look!” Tang Seng replied, “As a monk traveling abroad, we should help others for our own convenience. This woman is in the wilderness; if we don’t save her, she’ll surely be eaten by poisonous insects! Wukong, I urge you to come up with a solution.”

Wukong joked, “Master, do you expect me to carry her?”
Tang Seng’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! Wukong, with your great powers, you can surely carry her!”
Wukong said, “Alright, then I’ll carry her! Master, you get on the horse first! Wuhui, protect the master carefully—don’t be careless at all!”

Tang Seng mounted the horse, and Wukong used his telepathy skill. The White Dragon Horse kicked off its hooves and galloped through the mountains. As a transformed jade dragon, it found any mountain or river path easy to traverse. Though somewhat frightened, Tang Seng had grown used to it.

Seeing Tang Seng move away, Wukong went up to the woman and said fiercely, “I know what you really are. If you dare harm my master, be careful—I’ll grind you to dust!”
Realizing there was only Wukong and her around, the woman panicked and said, “Elder, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
Wukong didn’t waste words on her. He just wanted to subdue her and safely send her down the mountain.

Being short in stature, he didn’t even need to bend down. He simply lifted the woman and slung her over his shoulder. To him, she was as light as nothing. Wukong strode forward at a fast pace.

After taking just two steps, he felt a sudden increase in weight on his shoulders. Huh? He remembered that the White Bone Spirit could only transform and never used any spells, let alone fight directly. Yet now, the woman on his shoulders seemed to be using some kind of technique that could move mountains. Wukong sneered. Whatever strange methods she used, with his own cultivation, it would be truly remarkable if he couldn’t control the White Bone Spirit.

Just as he was about to exert force, he felt even more weight on his shoulders. Wukong quickly straightened his back. As he did so, there was a crackling sound beneath his feet—the stones beneath him shattered, sinking him seven or eight inches deep.

Wukong quickly pulled his feet out, took a step, and sank again. He had no idea how heavy the woman on his shoulders was. He could lift tens of thousands of pounds effortlessly, yet now he found it difficult to move. Wukong was shocked—this White Bone Spirit actually had such power! He had underestimated her!

Among his thirty-six transformations was one that allowed him to lift mountains and cross seas. Using this ability, he felt much lighter and could move swiftly once more. With this technique, he could firmly hold the White Bone Spirit in place. Desperate, the spirit unleashed all her strength to trap Wukong.

As Wukong continued walking, the rocks beneath his feet turned as soft as tofu, reaching up to his knees. It wasn’t that the stones had softened, but rather the pressure on his shoulders had increased. Wukong chuckled and said, “What a fierce demon! Do you really expect to crush Grandpa Sun to death?”

In desperation, Wukong used a technique to move mountains and stones, grabbing the White Bone Spirit’s legs and flinging her away. He was on a mountain ridge with steep slopes and broken rocks on both sides. The woman lost her magic and flew forward, still shouting, “Help!” before crashing into the rocks and having her brain splattered.

Wukong knew she couldn’t die from such a fall. Fearing she might use some trick to escape, he rushed forward to find Tang Seng. Not far ahead, he saw Tang Seng holding back his horse and looking back. Seeing Wukong flying toward him, Tang Seng asked anxiously, “Wukong, where has that woman gone?”

Wukong was stunned—despite all his precautions, he had still fallen for her trick. Seeing Wukong silent, Tang Seng asked again, “I heard her shouting ‘Help’ just now. What happened?”

With no choice, Wukong replied, “Master, that person isn’t a woman at all—she’s a demon. With your ordinary eyes, you naturally can’t see it.”

Tang Seng said, “A demon? In your eyes, she’s a demon, but in mine, she’s just an ordinary woman!”

Spoken with anger, these words sounded quite philosophical in Wukong’s ears. Indeed, with his great powers and mastery of the Xuan Kong Fa secrets, it was extremely rare for any demon to escape his gaze. But Tang Seng was after all an ordinary man; he could never see through a demon’s true form until it revealed itself.

Tang Seng was right. When he first read Journey to the West, he would often scold Tang Seng after reading the episode of fighting the White Bone Spirit three times. Now, he realized Tang Seng was simply relying on what he saw—with that, what fault could there be? It seemed Tang Seng wasn’t unreasonable after all. His three disciples all possessed powerful magic, while he himself had no strength at all. From this perspective, though he was revered as the master, he was the weakest. How could he not feel lonely?

After understanding this, Wukong naturally understood Tang Seng’s stubbornness. He said, “Master, this matter is indeed suspicious. Let your disciple explain it to you slowly.”

Tang Seng didn’t even listen to Wukong’s explanation. He asked, “Where did you take that woman?”

Wukong stretched out his legs for Tang Seng to see. “Master, that woman used a mountain to crush me, tearing my pants to shreds. How could this be fake?”

Tang Seng looked at Wukong’s pants, which were indeed torn into strips. It turned out Wukong had been trapped under a bluestone. His muscles, bones, and flesh were harder than that stone, so he was unharmed. But his ordinary clothes naturally got torn.

Seeing Tang Seng still skeptical, Wukong seized the opportunity to continue, “I threw that woman away. By now, she must have fled long ago. With her abilities, how could she possibly die from such a fall? She cried for help to make you come back and scold me. Once there’s disagreement between us, it will be easier for her to capture you!”

Wuhui added, “The eldest brother is right. That woman had an evil aura about her as soon as I saw her. If not for Master protecting us, I would have shot her already.”

Bajie opened his mouth but didn’t dare speak.

Hearing Wuhui agree, Tang Seng believed nine-tenths of it. He said, “We must never wrong an innocent person!”

Wukong replied, “Master, that’s wrong. Who am I, Old Sun? Even if there were hundreds of ordinary people here, it wouldn’t take any effort for me to save them and get them off the mountain. If that woman wasn’t a demon, I would have sent her home long ago. Why go to the trouble only to be scolded by you?”

Tang Seng said, “Enough, enough. I can’t tell whether she’s a demon or not. But with a heart devoted to Buddhism, we must not break the precepts if we want to reach the Western Heaven.”

Wukong said, “Of course. I would never break the precepts. But I wanted to warn you in advance that this demon will definitely come back, so we must stay vigilant.”

Tang Seng said, “Since it’s a demon, then leave everything to you to handle; I won’t interfere anymore.” These words filled Wukong with joy. Tang Seng trusted him greatly, so he had fewer concerns when subduing demons and monsters, eliminating much unnecessary hassle.

The four continued on their journey, with Wukong and Wuhui protecting Tang Seng on either side, ensuring absolute safety.

As they walked, Wukong pondered that this ghost was truly strange. Ordinary wandering spirits were mere illusions in the world, but this ghost not only had a tangible form but could also cast spells—making it extremely difficult to defend against.

From the story of “Three Attacks on the White Bone Spirit,” it was clear that this ghost was determined to get hold of Tang Seng. But why wasn’t it seen again after the third attack in “Journey to the West”? With Wukong’s status as a Taiyi Golden Immortal, it was impossible for him to kill this ghost using only his Ruyi Jingu Bang. So, had the ghost retreated out of fear, or was there another reason?

After much thought, Wukong finally came up with a third possibility: the ghost was acting on someone else’s orders, sent to sow discord among the pilgrims and make them distrust one another.

Although such ghosts were strange and hard to control, they weren’t entirely imaginary. How many demons that strutted around the world didn’t have some origin? If this ghost truly had a mastermind behind it, Lingbao Daozun was the most likely candidate. It had been he who confined the ghost within the three realms, allowing it to slaughter cultivators in the desert of the Realm of Calamity to form a physical body. Later, when the three realms were destroyed, Lingbao Daozun set it free.

This reasoning seemed logical, but Wukong couldn’t understand why, if Lingbao really did this, it would be an outright attempt to sabotage the pilgrimage and a sign of distrust toward him. Based on his understanding of the Three Pure Ones, and given that the pilgrimage was not even halfway complete, Wukong could almost be certain that, given their cunning ways, they wouldn’t do such a thing!

The Old Lord had previously discussed the pilgrimage with him and seen through Buddha’s plan to use it to eliminate rivals. How could he possibly get involved recklessly? The biggest difference between Wukong’s current pilgrimage and those in “Journey to the West” was that he had formed an alliance with the Three Pure Ones. With Wukong, who was clever and highly skilled, in the pilgrimage group, the Three Pure Ones didn’t need to send anyone to obstruct them—Wukong could handle everything on his own.

Therefore, this quest is very likely to turn into an internal struggle within Buddhism. The Yellow Wind Monster earlier had already shown that at least Lingji Bodhisattva and the Tathagata were not on the same side; moreover, the old man with the bottle was actually a turtle raised by Guanyin Bodhisattva. Could this also indicate that Guanyin was indecisive? Although Guanyin appeared in time to take away the turtle, the Tathagata might still harbor suspicions. Then there was Zhenyuanzi, the unlucky man who lost both his wife and his troops. Though it’s unclear who instigated him, it surely couldn’t be the Three Pure Ones.

Wukong was wrong this time—he could never have imagined that it was actually Laojun who had instructed Zhenyuanzi to block his path. Laojun also had an excellent eye for people; he immediately realized that with Wukong’s skills and connections, Zhenyuanzi had no chance of defeating him. By provoking Wukong for no reason, how could Wukong not make him pay a price?

As Wukong was pondering the origin of those spirits, he suddenly saw a mass of black mist rising on the road ahead. Looking closely, he saw those spirits slowly casting spells, and a pale skeleton instantly transformed into an old woman who walked toward them.