Chapter 937
Another Type of Unattractiveness
"But if you give up halfway and stay here, you'll gain nothing. Not only will you not get Miss Cui'er, but you won't even get your freedom. You haven't completed the task Guanyin Bodhisattva gave you, and the Heavenly Court won't let you off the hook. You won't even be able to live like a pig then, let alone have a peaceful life."
Pigsy was startled.
He hadn't thought about that.
He only thought about how comfortable it would be to stay, but he forgot what Guanyin Bodhisattva had told him—to protect Tang Sanzang on his journey to the West to obtain the scriptures, and only after the mission was accomplished could he achieve enlightenment.
He was well aware of the consequences of giving up halfway.
"Besides..." Chu Yang added some more wine to his bowl, "Master and Monkey are both counting on you. Don't let Monkey's complaints fool you; when a fight breaks out, he'll struggle without your help."
"Not to mention Master. He's too weak to even kill a chicken; he needs someone to look after him during the day and someone to keep watch over him at night. Without you, this burden would fall entirely on Brother Monkey's shoulders."
Pigsy whispered, "And what about you...?"
Chu Yang shook his head: "You've seen my abilities. Against powerful monsters, I can't be of much help. I'm good at cooking, but not at fighting. The ones who can truly protect Master are you and Monkey King."
Pigsy picked up the wine bowl, but didn't drink it. He just stared blankly at the waning moon reflected in the bowl.
The moon shattered in the wine, swaying and never quite coming back together.
A silence spread between them, as gentle and lingering as the night fog.
The chirping of crickets came from afar, one chirp after another, unhurried and gentle, as if counting the heartbeats of the night.
Finally, Pigsy drank the wine in the bowl in one gulp and slammed the bowl down on the stone table.
“Brother Chu Yang,” he said.
"Um?"
"You're right."
He stood up, stretched his neck, and made cracking sounds.
"I am Marshal Tianpeng, not a farmer. I must complete this mission."
Chu Yang looked at him, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"Have you figured it out?"
Pigsy snorted and turned his face away.
"I've figured it out, my foot! I'm still not at peace with myself. But as much as I'm not at peace with myself, I still have to keep going."
He paused, then said, "But you have to promise me one thing."
"What's up?"
"Before I leave tomorrow, let me go to the silkworm house one last time to see Cui'er. Just one last time."
Chu Yang was silent for a moment, then nodded.
"it is good."
Pigsy chuckled, a smile that carried a hint of relief, a touch of reluctance, and a melancholy that even he couldn't quite explain.
"Brother Chu Yang, you know... your words are really unpleasant to hear. But every single one of them hits the nail on the head. I've lived all these years, and this is the first time I've ever met someone like you."
Chu Yang smiled and said, "That's because the people you've met before either spoiled you or beat you. No one has ever reasoned with you properly."
Pigsy thought about it and realized that it was indeed true.
He scratched his head, turned around, and walked into the house.
As he reached the door, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at Chu Yang.
"Thanks, Brother Chu Yang."
His voice was very soft, as if most of it had been blown away by the night wind, leaving only a faint trace of warmth.
Chu Yang nodded slightly, without saying a word.
Pigsy pushed open the door and entered the house, and soon the sound of snoring could be heard.
This pig is quite easygoing; once it figured things out, it could fall asleep immediately.
Chu Yang sat alone in the courtyard and drank another half bowl of wine.
The moonlight was like water, and the wind rustled through the treetops.
The distant mountains lay silently in the night, like a sleeping giant beast.
"Pigsy, oh Pigsy..." he murmured to himself, "Your journey is still long."
He drank the remaining wine in the bowl in one gulp, then got up and went back into the house.
……
The next morning, just as the first hint of dawn appeared on the horizon.
When Chu Yang woke up, he found that Zhu Bajie's bed was empty.
He walked out of the courtyard and stood on the stone bridge, gazing into the distance.
The morning mist had not completely dissipated, and a thin layer of water vapor lingered on the surface of the Liuxi River. The weeping willows on both banks appeared and disappeared in the mist, like a light ink watercolor painting.
In the direction of the silkworm rearing room, a burly figure stood by the bamboo grove, gazing at the window of the silkworm rearing room from afar.
Chen Cuier was feeding silkworms inside. Through the thin mist, only a blurry figure could be seen moving in front of the window.
Pigsy just stood there, motionless, like an old tree stump growing by the bamboo forest.
He didn't go over, nor did he say anything.
I just watched.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he turned around and walked towards the stone bridge.
He didn't stop walking as he passed by Chu Yang.
“Let’s go,” he said, his voice as calm as the surface of the Willow Creek.
Chu Yang glanced at him and followed.
The two returned to Old Chen's house, where Sun Wukong was already urging them to hurry up.
"You two are dawdling; your master has been waiting for ages."
Tang Sanzang sat on his horse, holding his staff, and nodded slightly to them.
"Let's go."
Chu Yang thanked Old Chen and his wife, and Sun Wukong waved to them as well.
Pigsy carried the nine-toothed rake and walked at the very back.
As he passed the courtyard gate, he stopped, took out the bunch of wildflowers he had put in the vase yesterday, shook off the dew, and casually tucked them into his waistband.
Then he strode out of the courtyard gate and walked forward without looking back.
As the group passed through the village, several early-rising villagers greeted them from the roadside.
Pigsy returned the greetings to everyone with a grin, his steps unwavering.
As he crossed the stone bridge, his gaze unconsciously drifted toward the silkworm house.
The morning mist had mostly dissipated, and sunlight filtered through the bamboo grove, casting a soft golden glow on the roof of the silkworm house.
The window was open, but there was no one in sight.
Pigsy withdrew his gaze, took a deep breath, and quickened his pace.
"Brother Monkey, what's the name of that mountain over there?" he shouted.
Sun Wukong rolled his eyes: "Why are you asking that?" "I'm just killing time, so I thought I'd ask."
"If you have nothing to do, help your master lead the horse."
"Okay!"
Pigsy ran ahead in three quick steps, took the reins, and led the white dragon horse forward.
After leaving Liuxi Village, the group continued westward along the official road.
The weather grew hotter day by day. The sun overhead was like a blazing copper plate, hanging scorchingly in the sky, baking the earth until it was scalding hot. The pebbles on the road were bleached white by the sun, and even through the soles of your shoes, they felt burning hot under your feet.
The once dense woods along the official road gradually thinned out, replaced by patches of cracked yellow earth slopes and low thickets of thorns. Occasionally, a few crooked old locust trees could be seen standing alone by the roadside, their leaves curled up by the sun, drooping listlessly, and even the cicadas were too lazy to chirp.
Pigsy walked at the front, leading the horse. His clothes were soaked with sweat, clinging to his skin and outlining his round, chubby figure. He carried a rake in one hand and kept wiping the sweat from his forehead with the other, grumbling incessantly.
"What kind of weather is this? It's so hot it's killing me! I'd rather fight that Black Wind Monster again than walk under this blazing sun."
Sun Wukong floated lazily in mid-air on a somersault cloud, not feeling hot at all.
"Idiot, stop talking nonsense and hurry up. At this rate, it'll be ages before we reach the Western Paradise."
Pigsy looked up and glared at him: "Brother Monkey, it's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering. You're enjoying the cool breeze up in the sky, while I'm drying like a pig down here. Try it if you're in my shoes!"
Sun Wukong chuckled: "Serves you right for not knowing how to fly. You deserve it."
Pigsy was so angry he kept snorting, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Tang Sanzang rode on the white dragon horse, holding a tin staff, silently reciting scriptures, appearing quite composed. However, a fine layer of sweat had seeped from his forehead, and the collar of his cassock was stained with a dark ring of sweat.
Chu Yang walked at the very back of the group, carrying his storage bag on his back, his pace neither hurried nor slow. He used a damp cloth to shield his head from the sun, which worked reasonably well.
“The terrain in this area is becoming increasingly barren.” He looked up and around, his gaze sweeping over the distant, bare hills, and silently memorized the location.
According to his memory of the Journey to the West story, after passing Gao Village, the next section of the journey would pass through Yellow Wind Ridge. There lived a Yellow Wind Monster there, who was subdued by the Bodhisattva Lingji. However, before Yellow Wind Ridge, this section of the journey was not fraught with any major calamities.
The absence of major calamities does not mean the absence of minor troubles.
On the journey westward, besides the powerful demons with names and titles, there were countless scattered demons and monsters. Most of these lesser demons had low cultivation levels and could not amount to much, but they were still quite disgusting.
As he was thinking, a strange noise suddenly came from the official road ahead.
The sound was initially very soft, like something rubbing underground, a rustling sound mixed with the sound of pebbles rolling down.
Pigsy was the first to notice something was wrong. He stopped and listened carefully with his large, fan-like ears.
"No, there's movement underground."
Sun Wukong descended from the clouds, pressed his ear to the ground and listened for a moment, then stood up with a solemn expression.
"There are things burrowing underground. At least seven or eight of them, and they're heading this way."
Tang Sanzang quickly reined in his horse: "Wukong, what is that?"
Before Sun Wukong could answer, the ground suddenly shook violently.
Immediately afterwards, about three or four zhang ahead on the official road, the soil began to churn and bubble, like a pot of boiling porridge.
"Here it comes!" Sun Wukong pulled the golden cudgel from his ear, and in a flash, he stood in front of Tang Sanzang.
The soil cracked open, and one figure after another emerged from the ground.
There are nine in total.
Those creatures were no more than four feet tall, with grayish skin as if they hadn't bathed in the mud for hundreds of years. They had pointed heads, a pair of small, green eyes set in sunken sockets, and long, narrow mouths with two rows of fine, sharp teeth showing through them.
They were covered in "clothes" made of animal skins and leaves, and held all sorts of weapons in their hands—stone spears, bone knives, wooden sticks, and one holding a half-rusted iron shovel.
Judging from their appearance, they are a group of cave-dwelling earth spirits.
"Tang Monk's flesh! Tang Monk's flesh!"
The leader of the earth demons screamed in a high-pitched, shrill voice, like metal scraping against glass.
"Brothers, that's Tang Sanzang! Eating his flesh will grant you immortality! Charge!"
Nine earth demons brandished their weapons and charged toward them, howling.
Tang Sanzang was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he gripped his staff tightly, his knuckles turning blue.
"Amitabha……"
Pigsy shoved the horse reins into Chu Yang's hand, grabbed the Nine-Toothed Rake, and charged forward.
"Where did this little brat come from, daring to lay a finger on my master? Take this!"
He swept his rake across, sending the two earth demons charging at the front flying. They tumbled several times in mid-air before crashing heavily into the roadside brambles, screaming in agony.
Sun Wukong was equally formidable, swinging his golden cudgel with tremendous force.
He was much faster than Pigsy, his figure weaving between the earth demons like a golden lightning bolt. Each strike of his staff brought forth a cloud of blood and screams of agony.
In less than ten breaths, seven of the nine earth demons had fallen.
Seeing that things were not going well, the remaining two turned around and ran away, plunging into a dirt hole by the roadside.
"Trying to run away?" Sun Wukong sneered, leaped up, and slammed his golden cudgel down on the entrance of the earthen cave.
With a loud bang, the entrance to the earthen cave, along with the ground within a radius of three or four zhang (approximately 10-12 meters), collapsed, sending up dust and flying debris.
The two earth spirits that fled into the cave were buried by the landslide and died without even a groan.
After the smoke and dust cleared, only a shallow pit and seven haphazardly laid earth demon corpses remained on the ground.
Sun Wukong dusted off his hands, shrunk the golden cudgel, and put it back into his ear.
"A few blind fools dare to come and die."
Pigsy put away his rake and shook his head: "With this level of skill, you think you can eat Tang Sanzang's flesh? You probably can't even chew my old pig's toes."
Chu Yang stood still, leading the white dragon horse, without making a move. This level of minor demon was not worth his time to interfere.
He turned to look at Tang Sanzang and found that Tang Sanzang's expression was not good.
It wasn't that I was scared—although I was indeed scared—but rather that it was a different kind of unpleasantness.
Tang Sanzang stared blankly at the seven corpses of earth demons on the ground, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
Although those earth demons were ugly and ferocious, they were now lying on the ground, their wounds still oozing dark red blood, their limbs twisted at strange angles, and they were no longer alive.
One of the earth demons was still tightly clutching the half-rusty shovel in its hand, and it didn't let go even after it died.
The flies had already smelled the blood and were buzzing around the corpse.
Tang Sanzang closed his eyes, put his hands together, and chanted a Buddhist prayer.
"Amitabha……"
His voice was soft, but it carried a tremor that was hard to hide.
Sun Wukong keenly sensed that something was wrong and turned around.
"Master, what's wrong?"
Tang Sanzang opened his eyes, looked at the corpses, and slowly said, "Wukong, you... killed them?"
Sun Wukong was taken aback: "Master, these are monsters, they want to eat you. If I, Old Sun, don't kill them, they'll eat you."
Tang Sanzang remained silent for a moment, then sighed.
"This humble monk knows they are demons. But they... are also living beings."
His gaze swept over the twisted corpses, finally settling on the hand still clutching the shovel. (End of Chapter)