Chapter 763
You have absolutely no guts!
Upon hearing this, everyone present was stunned. The smile on Jin Tou Jie Di's face hadn't even faded before he froze, staring at Tang Sanzang in disbelief.
Tang Sanzang didn't give him a chance to explain. He grabbed Sun Wukong's sleeve, his voice urgent and rapid: "It's this beast! He's the one who killed my brothers! On Shuangcha Ridge! Those monsters wanted to eat me, and my two brothers-in-arms were killed by the monsters... killed by the monsters..."
He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, his eyes reddening. "He was watching from heaven! Watching me die! Tearing chicken apart! I haven't forgotten that scene! It was him! He was that beast who watched me from heaven every day, watching me die at the hands of monsters without lifting a finger!"
Tang Sanzang grew increasingly agitated, his finger almost poking the nose of the Golden-Headed Demon, his voice hoarse as if it were being ground from his throat: "Do you know how many years those two attendants have followed me? They followed me from Chang'an, serving me water and tea, leading my horse and carrying my load, utterly loyal to me! And what happened? A demon came, captured them, and devoured them alive! You were watching from heaven, you could have saved them, but you didn't! Are you even a god? Do you deserve to be called a god?!"
The Golden-Headed Jiedi was stunned by Tang Sanzang's sudden accusation. He opened his mouth, wanting to explain that the demon was a calamity arranged by his superiors and he couldn't act recklessly, that it was the rule of the pilgrimage and not that he was abandoning someone to die. But Tang Sanzang didn't give him a chance to speak, turning directly to Sun Wukong, his voice resolute: "Wukong, avenge your master! Kill him!"
Sun Wukong's eyes lit up instantly. That light wasn't the light of anger, nor the light of curiosity, but rather the joy of finally finding an outlet to release something long suppressed.
Finding your horse is difficult, causing trouble for you is also difficult, but dealing with Gan Jiedi—that's too easy.
Furthermore, he already disliked the group of young men monitoring him, and taking action without provocation could easily lead to trouble. However, since Tang Sanzang had requested it, it wasn't his problem anymore. Following his master's orders was his duty, and who would dare utter a single word of dissent?
Sun Wukong chuckled, his golden cudgel suddenly swinging out, the murderous aura emanating from him sweeping across the entire ravine like a whirlwind. He grinned, his fangs gleaming coldly, and gave the Golden-Headed Jiedi a chilling smile, his voice filled with undisguised glee: "I, Old Sun, have come to kill you! Don't blame me, I can't disobey my master's orders!"
Before the words had even finished, Sun Wukong's figure had already transformed into a golden light and pounced towards the Golden-Headed Jiedi.
The golden cudgel, imbued with immense power, traced a sharp arc in the air, tearing through the air with a piercing whistling sound, before smashing down towards the head of the Golden-Headed Jiedi.
Jin Tou Jie Di was stunned as he watched the golden light rush towards him. His mind went blank, with only one thought racing through his mind—no, no, this isn't how the story is written.
The script arranged by Guanyin Bodhisattva was clearly for them to deliver a message, telling them about the White Dragon's origins, and then for Tang Sanzang to ask the Bodhisattva for help. There was never a part where Sun Wukong wanted to kill him! How did the plot turn out like this?
The moment Sun Wukong's golden light rushed towards him, the hairs on the Golden-Headed Jiedi's body stood on end.
He had lived for thousands of years, running errands between the Heavenly Court and the Western Paradise, and had seen countless gods and monsters, but he had never felt the threat of death so closely as he did now.
The killing intent emanating from Sun Wukong's golden cudgel was pure and violent. There were no fancy moves; it was just a simple chop. Yet, the force of the blow caused the ground beneath his feet to crack, and gravel was swept up by the shockwave and flew everywhere.
"run!"
Only this one word remained in Jin Tou Jie Di's mind. His body reacted faster than his brain; he pushed off the ground with both feet and transformed into a golden light, shooting off diagonally backward.
He dodged in a very awkward manner, the wind from the golden cudgel grazing his back and tearing a long gash in his robe, leaving a burning stinging sensation on his skin.
Sun Wukong's staff missed its mark and crashed to the ground with a deafening roar. A three-foot-deep crater was smashed into the rocks on the ravine bank, sending rubble flying and dust billowing everywhere.
He raised his head, a sinister smile appearing on his monkey face. His fangs gleamed coldly in the dust, and his fiery eyes were fixed on the figure of the Golden-Headed Jiedi, like a falcon eyeing a rabbit in the grass.
"You run pretty fast."
Sun Wukong chuckled, hoisted his golden cudgel onto his shoulder, and said with a teasing tone, like a cat playing with a mouse, "But I, Old Sun, want to see where you can run to."
Upon hearing this, the Golden-Headed Jiedi felt as if his heart had been squeezed tightly. He disregarded any semblance of divine decorum and shouted at the top of his lungs to the other gods, "Run in different directions! Run in different directions! Don't stay together!"
The Five Directions Protectors were veterans who had been monitoring Sun Wukong at the Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years, and their tacit understanding was ingrained in their very bones.
As soon as the Golden-Headed Jiedi shouted, the other four Jiedi did not hesitate at all, and without even glancing at each other, they transformed into four golden beams and shot out in four different directions.
The five golden rays, like fireworks exploding, drew five completely different trajectories in the air: one each in the east, west, south, and north, and one shooting straight up into the sky.
The speed of their reaction and the decisiveness with which they split up and fled even surprised Sun Wukong slightly. He squinted as he watched the five golden lights scatter and fly away, a smile playing on his lips, his expression a mixture of admiration and the aura of watching a group of prey struggling for their lives.
The six Ding and six Jia, the four duty officers, and the eighteen guardian deities were still standing there, their faces showing expressions as if they had been hit on the back with a club. They had no idea what had happened.
They were clearly following Guanyin Bodhisattva's instructions to come down and inform Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang about the origins of the White Dragon, and then guide Tang Sanzang to ask Guanyin Bodhisattva for help.
They had memorized the script several times, knowing exactly what to say and what expressions to make at each step. The Golden-Headed Guardian had even rehearsed it twice in the heavens. But who could have imagined that before they could even exchange two sentences, Tang Sanzang would immediately shout for battle, and Sun Wukong would swing his golden cudgel without a word?
What kind of situation is this?
The Jiazi God General among the Six Ding and Six Jia opened his mouth, turned his head to look at the Dingmao God General beside him, and found that the other party's expression was exactly the same as his own, both filled with confusion and bewilderment.
Although they were immortals with considerable cultivation, they were as if they had been suddenly thrown into a play without a script, completely unaware of what to do.
Tang Sanzang didn't care what these gods were thinking.
He stood behind Sun Wukong, his bald head gleaming in the sunlight, his eyes wide and fixed on the direction where the Golden-Headed Jiedi had fled. The ferocious expression on his face was a stark contrast to his usual kind and gentle demeanor when chanting scriptures. He raised his fist, his voice sharp and piercing with excitement, shouting hoarsely in Sun Wukong's direction, "Wukong! Don't let him get away! It's that beast! He's the one who killed my two brothers!"
His voice bounced back and forth between the mountain walls on both sides of Eagle's Sorrow Stream, layering up one after another, causing the surface of the stream to ripple.
The little white dragon Ao Lie, who had been coiled on the rock watching the commotion at the bottom of the ravine, was so shocked by the sound that his eardrums went numb, and he subconsciously shrank back into the depths of the water. His dragon whiskers swayed gently in the ripples, and he cursed inwardly, "This monk looks cowardly to death, but he's not cowardly at all when it comes to cursing."
Tang Sanzang had no intention of stopping. The anger and pain he had suppressed for years seemed to have found an outlet all at once. He took a step forward, standing beside the large crater created by his golden cudgel, pointing to the sky, his voice filled with a long-accumulated ferocity: "Back then on Shuangcha Ridge, this humble monk witnessed those two followers being captured by a demon! Torn apart like chickens! I will never forget that scene! He was standing in the sky watching! He could have saved them, but he didn't! Can such a person be a god? Does such a person deserve to receive incense offerings?"
He turned his head, the veins on his bald head throbbing, his expression twisted in a frightening way, and his voice seemed to be forced out of his throat: "If I don't avenge this grudge, I'm not Tang Sanzang!"
He paused, then gritted his teeth and said, word by word, "My Buddhist name is Sanzang!"
Sun Wukong turned and glanced at Tang Sanzang, a meaningful smile appearing on his monkey face. He had always thought that his master was nothing but a crybaby and a nagging old woman, lacking any spirit and as easily molded as dough.
But at this moment, looking at Tang Sanzang's distorted face and listening to those words laced with murderous intent, he suddenly felt that this monk was not entirely without merit.
Although he was a bit weak, at least he knew how to hold grudges and knew who deserved to die. He wasn't as hypocritical as those other bald monks who kept talking about compassion.
"Three burials?"
Sun Wukong tilted his head, murmured the two words to himself, and suddenly grinned, "Good name. Today, I, Old Sun, will help you bury that Golden-Headed Jiedi!"
Before he could finish speaking, a burst of golden light suddenly erupted beneath Sun Wukong's feet, and he shot off like a cannonball in the direction where the Golden-Headed Jiedi had fled.
His speed was astonishing; the air behind him exploded into a white sonic boom cloud, and the pebbles on the bank of the stream were swept up by the air currents and flew everywhere. Tang Sanzang was caught off guard and his face was covered with sand, so he spat it out several times.
Golden-Headed Jiedi was desperately fleeing eastward. He dared not look back, for he knew that Sun Wukong's fiery eyes could lock onto his aura, and if he slowed down even slightly, that deadly golden cudgel would strike the back of his head.
He pushed all his magical power to the limit, and a long tail of golden light trailed behind him, moving so fast that it tore the surrounding clouds to shreds.
But he still underestimated Sun Wukong's speed.
Back when Sun Wukong wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace, 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals besieged Flower Fruit Mountain. He moved freely, charging through the encirclement. What kind of speed battle hadn't he fought? In his eyes, a mere Golden-Headed Jiedi was slower than the sparrows he caught in the Peach Garden back then.
In just a few breaths, Sun Wukong had already caught up to within three hundred feet of the Golden-Headed Jiedi.
The golden figure drew closer and closer in the air, and the oppressive feeling made Golden Headed Jiedi feel as if an invisible hand was pressing down on his back, making it incredibly difficult to fly forward even a zhang.
"Death!"
With a roar, Sun Wukong's golden cudgel suddenly extended, its shaft drawing a straight golden line in the air. The tip of the cudgel, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound, pierced towards the back of the Golden-Headed Jiedi like a spear.
This thrust was executed with absolutely no unnecessary movements; it was incredibly fast. So fast that the Golden-Headed Jiedi had no time to dodge, only feeling an incomparably sharp killing intent bite at him from behind like a venomous snake.
The pain in Jin Tou Jie Di's heart felt like a wet rag stuck in his throat.
He flew forward desperately, but one thought kept flashing through his mind—it was just the death of one mortal, wasn't it? Two mortals, and he hadn't even killed them with his own hands; he just hadn't intervened to save them. Tang Sanzang was a monk, after all; hadn't he read the Buddhist scriptures? The scriptures clearly stated that letting go of hatred was the only way to improve one's Buddhist practice. When would the cycle of revenge end? He was a pilgrim on his journey to the West, about to become a Buddha; why was he fixated on such a trivial matter?
The more he thought about it, the more wronged he felt, and the more unreasonable Tang Sanzang seemed. But he also knew that it was impossible to reason with Tang Sanzang now, and even more impossible to reason with Sun Wukong.
All he could do was say something, and perhaps that one sentence would make Sun Wukong hesitate for a moment, and that moment would be enough for him to create distance.
"When will this cycle of revenge end!"
As the Golden-Headed Jiedi flew desperately, he turned back and shouted, his voice filled with earnest admonition, "Tang Sanzang! You are a monk, how can you be so stubborn! Let go of hatred, only then can you attain enlightenment!"
His words only made things worse. The moment they left his mouth, Tang Sanzang on the shore jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. The veins on his bald head bulged even more violently than before, his fair face flushed crimson, and he clenched his fists and waved them wildly in the air, his voice hoarse as if howling: "Put down your ancestors! This humble monk will make you pay with your life today!"
He turned to look at Sun Wukong, his eyes burning with a fire that seemed to leap from their sockets, his voice as resolute as a knife striking stone: "Wukong! Kill him! Leave no survivors!"
Sun Wukong's smile deepened, and a violent killing intent overflowed from his golden pupils.
He was never a kind person to begin with; killing was as commonplace for him as drinking water. What's more, the person he was killing now was a lackey sent by the Western Paradise to monitor him, and he even had Tang Sanzang, his master, backing him up. Such a good thing was hard to find even with a lantern.
"okay!"
Sun Wukong's figure suddenly accelerated through the air, transforming into a straight golden streak, instantly closing the distance to within fifty feet. The golden cudgel spun in his hand, its shaft humming, its sharp killing intent locking down the Golden-Headed Jiedi's entire aura. He swung the cudgel, smashing it down hard on the back of the Golden-Headed Jiedi's head, roaring, "Die!"
The robes on the back of the Golden-Headed Jiedi were completely torn apart by the force of the blow, revealing skin underneath that was slashed with countless fine, bloody cuts by the sharp energy. (End of Chapter)