Chapter 942
You want to fight a monster?
Within the light, a hunched figure was tiptoeing toward Tang Sanzang's room.
It is Elder Jinchi.
He was wearing a black nightgown, without a cane, his steps unsteady yet deliberately light. In his right hand he clutched something that reflected a metallic glint in the moonlight—a key, a spare key to the guest room.
Chu Yang's heart sank.
Sure enough.
The words spoken during the day ultimately failed to completely dispel Elder Jinchi's greed.
He tossed and turned in his meditation room for most of the night, but finally couldn't resist and quietly got up.
He might not have intended to steal it—perhaps he just wanted to take another look, touch it again, and smell the incense on the robe one last time.
Regardless of whether he wanted to steal or just look, Chu Yang couldn't let him open that door.
Because once he opened that door, everything would be out of control.
Chu Yang took a deep breath and walked out of the room.
He didn't try to lower his footsteps; the soles of his shoes made a clear clattering sound as they stepped on the wooden floor of the corridor.
Elder Jinchi froze and turned his head sharply.
Under the moonlight, the two people looked at each other from a distance of five or six steps.
Elder Jinchi's old face seemed frozen in shock, panic, shame, and the embarrassment of being caught red-handed.
His hand gripping the keys began to tremble, his lips quivered, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Chu Yang neither questioned him nor exposed him.
He simply walked over calmly, stopping two steps away from Elder Jinchi.
Then he said something softly.
"Elder, it's late, and the mountain air is chilly. Please take care of yourself. Let me help you back to rest."
Elder Jinchi stared at him blankly.
In those cloudy old eyes, all greed and wishful thinking receded like the tide.
Instead, there was a deep-seated shame.
He lowered his head and slowly released the key from his hand.
The key slipped from between his withered fingers and fell onto the wooden board with a soft clink.
The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet night.
“This old monk…” his voice was so hoarse it was almost incoherent, “This old monk has failed Buddha…”
Chu Yang bent down, picked up the key, and put it in his pocket.
Then he reached out and gently supported Elder Jinchi's arm.
"Elder, there's no need to blame yourself. No one is perfect; everyone makes mistakes sometimes. The key is that you stopped."
Elder Jinchi's body was trembling slightly, whether from the chill of the night or something else, it was unclear.
Chu Yang helped him along the corridor slowly toward the abbot's meditation room.
The two footsteps echoed softly in the empty corridor, one after the other.
Moonlight streamed in through the window lattice, casting long and short shadows of the two people.
When they reached the door of the meditation room, Elder Jinchi stopped.
He didn't turn around, but said in a weary, aged voice, "Benefactor, regarding tonight's events, this old monk..."
Chu Yang released his arm, took a step back, and bowed respectfully.
"Nothing happened tonight. The elder just couldn't sleep and went for a walk. I also couldn't sleep and happened to run into the elder in the corridor."
Elder Jinchi paused for a moment.
Then he slowly pushed open the door to the meditation room and went inside.
The door closed softly behind him, accompanied by a barely audible sigh.
Chu Yang stood in the corridor for a moment, and only after confirming that there was no more movement in Elder Jinchi's room did he turn around and return to his own room.
He sat on the edge of the bed, placed the key on the small table by the bedside, and gazed at the moonlight outside the window.
The moon had already begun to set in the west, and the light was no longer as bright as it was at midnight. Instead, it was tinged with a faint leaden gray, as if shrouded in a thin veil.
In the old pine tree in the courtyard, Sun Wukong sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, clutching his golden cudgel. His ears twitched slightly—he had probably heard everything. But he neither jumped down nor made a sound.
Chu Yang nodded slightly in that direction, then lay down and closed his eyes.
Nothing else happened that night.
……
The next morning, the sound of the bell from Guanyin Temple echoed through the valley.
The distant chimes spread out in waves, startling the birds roosting in the forest, which fluttered and flew towards the distant horizon.
Chu Yang got up very early and went to the square in front of the temple.
As the morning mist spread, the outline of the stone Guanyin statue appeared and disappeared in the fog, like a silent guardian.
Several young monks were already sweeping the square, their bamboo brooms rustling on the stone slabs.
Chu Yang took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air, stretched his limbs, and then sat down by the stone railing at the edge of the square.
After about half an incense stick's time, Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie also came out one after another.
Tang Sanzang looks well; he must have slept soundly last night.
He had no idea what happened in the middle of the night.
Chu Yang didn't intend to tell him either.
Sometimes it's better not to know than to know.
After the morning prayers, Elder Jinchi personally came to see him off.
He didn't look well; his eyes were sunken, and his face was ashen, as if he hadn't slept all night. But his demeanor was much calmer than yesterday; the greed and anxiety that had been surging in his eyes were gone, replaced by a settled weariness.
"Master, benefactor, take care on your journey." He stood in front of the mountain gate, clasped his hands together, and bowed deeply to the crowd.
Tang Sanzang returned the greeting: "Thank you for your hospitality, Elder. I am deeply grateful."
Elder Jinchi's gaze swept across Chu Yang's face, pausing for a moment.
For a brief moment, their eyes met.
Elder Jinchi's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only nodded slightly.
Chu Yang responded with a slight nod in return.
No language is required.
Everything that needed to be said was said last night.
The group walked down the stone steps.
When Chu Yang reached the stone archway, he looked back.
Elder Jinchi still stood in front of the mountain gate, his hunched figure appearing particularly small and lonely in the morning mist.
There was no one beside him, and behind him was the empty Guanyin Temple.
A mountain breeze blew by, lifting a corner of his pale yellow cassock. Chu Yang turned his head and continued walking forward.
Sun Wukong landed beside him at some point and lowered his voice.
"I, Old Sun, heard everything that happened last night."
Chu Yang did not deny it.
Sun Wukong chuckled, but there was no mockery in his laughter; instead, it carried a hint of emotion.
"You're quite shrewd, aren't you? You were already on guard against that old monk, weren't you?"
Chu Yang said, "It's not really about prevention. It's just that people are more prone to making mistakes at night, so it's always good to be extra careful."
Sun Wukong glanced at him and scratched his head.
"But you handled it better than I, Old Sun. If it were me, I would have smashed that door down with a stick and settled the score with him on the spot."
Chu Yang shook his head slightly: "That would escalate the situation. Elder Jinchi is highly respected among the Buddhist communities in this area. Publicly exposing his theft of the robe would not only ruin his 270-year-old reputation but also bring unnecessary trouble to Master."
“Besides…” he paused, “he didn’t actually steal it. He just walked to the door.”
Sun Wukong remained silent for a moment.
"You mean, anything he hasn't done yet doesn't count?"
Chu Yang said, "It's not that it doesn't count. It's giving him a chance to pull back from the brink. I stopped him at the door, and he knew he almost made a terrible mistake. This lesson is more effective than any punishment."
"If I expose him in public, he'll lose face and might even become enraged and do something even worse."
Sun Wukong thought for a moment, then tilted his head and looked at Chu Yang for quite a while.
"Brother Chu Yang, I've noticed that spending time with you has made me a bit sharper. Before, I'd just solve problems with a single blow, but now I'm actually starting to think things through."
Chu Yang laughed and said, "That's because Brother Monkey was always smart; he just wasn't too lazy to think before."
Sun Wukong chuckled: "Stop flattering me. But you're quite capable, kid. If you hadn't been watching over me last night, that cassock would most likely have been stolen by that old monk."
"If the old monk loses his temper again and sets fire to cover up the crime, it won't be as simple as just stealing a robe."
Chu Yang's eyes flickered slightly.
set fire.
Sun Wukong was unaware that the words he casually uttered were actually something that had actually happened in the original story.
In the original story, Elder Jinchi did indeed have the idea of setting fire to Tang Sanzang and his disciples to kill them and taking the cassock for himself. Moreover, he not only had the idea, but he actually put it into action.
If Chu Yang hadn't stopped him last night, would things have turned out that way?
he does not know.
But he was glad he hadn't taken that risk.
"Let's go." Chu Yang pulled himself together and quickened his pace. "The road ahead is still long."
Sun Wukong somersaulted to the treetop in front of him and glanced into the distance.
"Ahead lies a plain, devoid of any signs of monsters. However, if we travel another hundred li or so to the west, there seems to be a large, yellowish-brown mountain that looks rather odd."
Chu Yang felt a chill run down his spine.
On the fourth day after leaving Guanyin Temple, the weather suddenly changed.
The once clear sky was now covered by a layer of gray clouds, preventing sunlight from penetrating. The entire earth looked as if it were covered with a dirty gray cloth, making everything appear dull and dark.
The wind is also acting strangely.
It wasn't the pleasant mountain breeze, but rather a strange gust of wind carrying fine sand and withered leaves. The wind blew from the west, sneaking into my collar and brushing against my face, carrying a dry, earthy smell and an indescribable stench of decay.
The vegetation along the official road is also decreasing rapidly. What was once a vast expanse of pine forest and shrubs has been reduced to just a few scattered, crooked, withered trees and large swaths of cracked yellow earth by this afternoon.
The ground was covered with cracks of varying depths, like a riverbed that had dried up for a hundred years. The cracks were filled with withered grass stubble and small pebbles, which were occasionally swept up by the wind and hit my ankles, causing a stinging pain.
"What kind of place is this?" Pigsy, carrying his rake, looked around at the desolate landscape with disgust. "Why does it get more and more desolate? I, Old Pig, have a feeling this place has an eerie atmosphere."
Sun Wukong walked at the front, his golden cudgel held horizontally on his shoulder, his fiery eyes constantly scanning the hillsides on both sides.
"That idiot actually said something reliable. Something's definitely wrong with this place. Smell the wind—"
He sniffed and frowned.
"There's a demonic aura. A very strong one. And it's not just one or two, it's a large area."
Tang Sanzang reined in his horse, his expression turning serious.
"Wukong, what's ahead?"
Sun Wukong leaped to the top of the tallest withered tree by the roadside, shading his eyes with his hand as he looked westward.
He stared for a while before jumping down, his expression turning serious.
"Master, about ten miles ahead, there's a large mountain. It's entirely yellowish-brown, completely barren, not even a blade of grass grows on it, and a cloud of black mist hangs over its summit. The demonic energy emanates from that mountain."
Chu Yang stepped forward and asked, "Brother Monkey, what shape is that mountain?"
Sun Wukong gestured: "It runs east-west, like a lying centipede, low at both ends and high in the middle. There seem to be a few cave entrances on the mountainside, but they're dark and I can't see what's inside."
Chu Yang was now completely certain.
Huangfengling.
The Yellow Wind Monster's lair is in that mountain. Originally, he was a sable spirit who had attained enlightenment at the foot of Mount Ling. He stole the clear oil from the glass lamp and fled here to become a bandit king. His most powerful ability is his Samadhi Divine Wind, which even Sun Wukong has suffered from.
Under Huang Fengguai's command was another great general—Tiger Vanguard.
It was a magnificent tiger that had cultivated itself into a spirit. Although its strength was not as great as the Yellow Wind Monster, it was still considered a formidable opponent among ordinary monsters.
In the original novel, Tiger Vanguard was the first enemy to appear. He transformed into a gust of demonic wind and abducted Tang Sanzang, but was later caught up by Sun Wukong and killed with a single blow.
Chu Yang looked up at the faintly visible yellow mountain in the distance, and a thought suddenly came to mind.
He had followed the pilgrimage team for so long, watching all the battles, big and small, but had never personally taken action.
It wasn't that he didn't want to, but the opponents he had encountered before were either too weak—like those nine earth demons—so he didn't need to take action; or they were too strong, and if he went up, he would just be feeding them.
But Tiger Vanguard is different.
Tiger Vanguard's strength is neither high nor low; he is much stronger than those scattered demons and monsters, but he is far from being at the level of Sun Wukong.
With Chu Yang's current Qi Refining stage cultivation, he definitely can't defeat the Tiger-Slaying Vanguard. But if they only exchange a few blows and he gains some practical experience, he shouldn't be in any danger—especially with Sun Wukong there to cover for him.
During his cultivation of the Taiyi Nourishing Qi Technique, he lacked real combat experience.
He can smoothly circulate his Qi during regular meditation and practice, but when it comes to responding to situations and fighting in actual combat, he is a complete novice.
This weakness will need to be addressed sooner or later.
Rather than finding out you can't even fight when you encounter a stronger opponent in the future, it's better to find a suitable opponent now to practice against.
Tiger Vanguard, just right.
"Brother Monkey." Chu Yang walked to Sun Wukong's side and lowered his voice.
Sun Wukong turned his head: "What's wrong?"
Chu Yang said, "If there are any monsters in that mountain ahead that aren't too strong, I'd like to give them a try."
Sun Wukong was taken aback for a moment, then looked him up and down.
"You want to fight a monster?"
"Hmm." (End of Chapter)