Chapter 775
Is the God of Hell joking?
As soon as she said those words, she realized something was off.
Just moments ago she was cursing Lin Zhu for being an inhuman son, for not being worthy of being the God of the Three Realms, and for cheating, swindling, and taking advantage of others' misfortunes. Now she's calling him "Big Boss God of the Prison."
The turn was a bit abrupt, so abrupt that even she felt a little embarrassed. But she couldn't help it, because Lin Zhu had agreed to let the White Dragon return to its place, which meant that the Journey to the West plan could continue, and that she, Guanyin Bodhisattva, hadn't failed in the first trial.
“But that saddle—” Guanyin Bodhisattva suddenly remembered a fatal problem.
Lin Zhu's gaze sharpened instantly, and her tone was resolute, leaving no room for negotiation. She interrupted her directly: "Don't even think about it."
Guanyin Bodhisattva's expression froze instantly.
The joyful smile hadn't yet faded from her face when stiff muscles tightened again, contorting her expression into a bizarre mix of laughter and tears. She opened her mouth, her voice dry and helpless: "Without that magic weapon, won't Little White Dragon be able to run away whenever he wants?"
She could even picture the scene—without the saddle seal, the little white dragon's dragon aura remained intact, the causal records in Heaven continued to function as usual, and the dragons always knew where he was and what he was doing.
Converted to Buddhism? No way. The White Dragon never converted; he was just following Lin Zhu's orders to cooperate with the Journey to the West.
When the journey to the West ends, the White Dragon will unleash his fury on Mount Ling, and the Dragon Clan's wrath will pour down, likely causing the Great Thunderclap Temple to be torn apart even more thoroughly than last time.
Good heavens, this is a ticking time bomb.
A powerful, unpredictable time bomb, the Dragon Clan's weapon, that could explode at any moment.
Lin Zhu stared at Guanyin Bodhisattva, his gaze calm and indifferent, as if looking at a fool still haggling. His voice was not loud, nor was his tone heavy, but every word carried an irresistible sense of pressure: "Are you still going to haggle?"
Guanyin Bodhisattva felt a chill run down her spine from his gaze.
"You're abandoning your journey west?"
Lin Zhu's voice was indifferent, as if he were casually asking what they wanted for dinner.
Guanyin Bodhisattva was stunned for a moment.
These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over her head, extinguishing all her hesitation and concerns.
Giving up the Journey to the West? How could we give up? The Journey to the West is a plan that Buddha Tathagata has been promoting for thousands of years. So much manpower and resources have been mobilized on Mount Ling. The preliminary preparations alone have taken hundreds of years.
If something goes wrong with her and her journey to the West ends prematurely, the Tathagata can remove her Bodhisattva status and send her to the cycle of reincarnation to experience what true despair is like.
She gritted her teeth, a determined look on her face.
Weighing the pros and cons, the risks and rewards, her mind raced. Although the magic weapon was gone, Lin Zhu had already promised to let the White Dragon return to its rightful place, which was the greatest show of sincerity. As for other issues, they could be dealt with later; first, they needed to get through this immediate challenge.
"it is good."
Guanyin Bodhisattva raised her head, looked directly at Lin Zhu, and said with a resolute tone, "I believe in the prestige of the Three Realms' Law Enforcement God. Little White Dragon, please return to your position immediately."
She had her own reasons for saying that.
Although the magic weapon is gone, judging from how respectful the White Dragon is to Lin Zhu, the White Dragon will surely cooperate perfectly with the arrangements of the Journey to the West with just a word from Lin Zhu.
With Lin Zhu supporting him, even the most unruly White Dragon wouldn't cause any trouble on the journey to the West, at least not before obtaining the scriptures.
Subduing the White Dragon was a matter for later.
After obtaining the scriptures and ascending Mount Ling, how to subdue the White Dragon is a matter for the Buddha. It is believed that the Buddha will have a good opportunity to resolve this issue then; with his abilities, it is impossible for him to be unable to deal with this underage dragon offspring.
Let Buddha worry about everything; as long as my part doesn't go wrong, everything will be perfect.
This is a typical "the leader has to take the blame" mentality. At this moment, Guanyin Bodhisattva brought her instinct to the extreme in shifting blame.
She turned to face Lin Zhu, her expression completely calm, a dignified smile returning to her lips, and her voice as gentle as ever: "Then I'll trouble you, Lord Prison God."
Lin Zhu sneered.
He looked at Guanyin Bodhisattva's face, which had regained its dignified composure, and recalled how she had scolded him for being an inhuman son when he had just crushed the saddle, but now that she had agreed to help, she addressed him as "Your Excellency, the Goddess of Hell." The change in address was too swift, faster than turning the pages of a book.
"You called me a scoundrel when you crushed the magic weapon just now," Lin Zhu said with a hint of mockery, his eyebrows slightly raised, his tone full of mischief. "Now that you've agreed to help, just say it's Lord Prison God."
"Bodhisattva, you've certainly mastered the art of using people when you need them and discarding them when you don't."
Guanyin Bodhisattva's expression stiffened slightly, but she quickly returned to normal, pretending not to understand Lin Zhu's sarcasm.
"Don't be too happy yet," Lin Zhu took two steps forward, lowered his voice, and said in a tone only Guanyin Bodhisattva and the White Dragon could hear, "I have a lot of bad ideas. From now on, I'll turn a blind eye to whatever I do, understand?"
Lin Zhu really doesn't hide his bad intentions at all.
He is the prison god of the Nine-Layered Heavenly Prison, and also a commercial spy planted by the Heavenly Court in Journey to the West.
This dual identity meant that he could never honestly cooperate with the Western Paradise in advancing the Journey to the West. He had to plant spies, prepare backup plans, and manipulate events to maximize the benefits for the Heavenly Court. Guanyin Bodhisattva's idea that he would cooperate without any effort was a pipe dream.
But his words were so blunt that Guanyin Bodhisattva was unable to respond.
Guanyin Bodhisattva pretended not to hear.
Her gaze shifted slightly to the treetops beside her, her face displaying an expression that said, "I didn't hear anything."
She had a clear idea in her mind—she couldn't stop Lin Zhu from doing whatever he wanted anyway, so instead of arguing with him here, she might as well pretend not to know and let Rulai have a headache when something happened.
Anyway, she's the one executing the decisions; the leaders make the decisions, so if something goes wrong, she won't be the one affected.
"Let's go back first, no matter what."
Guanyin Bodhisattva changed the subject with lightning speed, her face regaining its dignified smile, her tone as warm as if chatting with an old friend, "Don't keep them waiting."
The "they" she was referring to were naturally Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong.
"As for the saddle," Guanyin Bodhisattva pondered for a moment, then casually said, "Just make one with magic to fool him for now." It was just to fool Tang Sanzang anyway; he couldn't tell the difference. A mortal monk, with only Buddha and scriptures in his eyes, how could he distinguish which was a genuine Buddhist artifact and which was a fake made with magic? As long as it looked exactly the same, Tang Sanzang wouldn't suspect anything.
Lin Zhu suddenly remembered something, pointed a finger to his temple, and a faint smile appeared on his lips: "I almost forgot—a young man who betrayed the Heavenly Court."
Upon hearing this, the mountain god of Mount Luojia, who was standing nearby, felt the hairs on his body stand on end.
He had been kneeling and trembling since Lin Zhu entered the room, and he had been kneeling until now, his knees were numb. He had originally thought that he could save his life by confessing everything, but Lin Zhu's words made his heart jump into his throat.
Betraying the Heavenly Court—these four words are enough to sentence any deity to death.
He stared at Lin Zhu in terror, his lips trembling violently, unable to utter a single word as he tried to plead for mercy. Large drops of sweat rolled down his forehead, slapping against the floor tiles, and his face was contorted with fear.
Lin Zhu glanced at him indifferently.
Just one glance. There was no anger, no murderous intent, not even a flicker of the eyelids. That sweep was as if it were a roadside stone, a weed in a corner, something not worth paying much attention to.
With just that one glance, the mountain god of Mount Luojia froze, his pupils dilated rapidly, and his mouth opened as if to shout something but no sound came out.
His body began to transform into specks of light from his limbs, and countless tiny specks of light detached from his skin, floated into the air, and merged into the world.
A moment later, he vanished from the spot without leaving a trace, not even a scrap of clothing behind.
Although threatened by Guanyin Bodhisattva, violating the heavenly rules is still violating the heavenly rules.
The mountain god accepted a bribe from Guanyin Bodhisattva and helped her secretly deliver magical treasures to Tang Sanzang without the Heavenly Court's knowledge. This constitutes disloyalty to the Heavenly Court. Regardless of his grievances or whether he was forced into it, there is no room for excusable actions before the Heavenly Laws.
Not annihilating his true spirit was already the greatest act of kindness from Lin Zhu.
Taking a journey through the cycle of reincarnation, erasing memories of the previous life and being reborn, means starting cultivation anew, but at least one has a life left. Compared to complete annihilation of body and soul, this outcome is already quite good.
Lin Zhu withdrew his gaze, no longer looking at the spot where the mountain god had disappeared, and turned to smile at the little white dragon: "Then you'll have to make do for now."
The little white dragon smiled happily.
His whiskers swayed gently in the wind, and his scales shimmered with a bluish-white luster in the sunlight. His entire dragon body exuded an aura of composure and joy, and his dragon eyes were full of smiles: "Great God of Hell, you flatter me. This was originally something that my dragon clan and the Western Paradise had agreed upon."
That's the truth. The Dragon Clan and the Western Paradise had already agreed on the terms: he would escort Tang Sanzang to the Western Paradise to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures, and he would receive every penny of the merit he was due after the mission was accomplished.
So even without a saddle, he would still walk the entire way steadily, because it was something the dragons had promised.
“If it weren’t for the fact that the big boss saw through the shamelessness of the Western Paradise long ago,” the White Dragon’s voice was full of gratitude and lingering fear, and his tone became serious, “and used this to thwart the Western Paradise’s conspiracy and save me from my suffering, I would probably have lost myself and become a lackey of the Western Paradise long ago.”
As he said this, a cold glint flashed in his dragon eyes, but he quickly concealed it.
"I will definitely tell the elders of my clan about this," the little white dragon said solemnly, his voice filled with the pride and determination unique to the dragon race. "My dragon clan will never forget your kindness."
"If the Heavenly Court needs anything from the Dragon Clan in the future, just ask, and the entire Dragon Clan will accept it without hesitation."
Lin Zhu smiled awkwardly.
He opened his mouth, his voice dry and slurred: "Ahahaha, no... it's really true..."
He didn't know how to explain it.
Should I tell him that he didn't see any conspiracy at all, and that he was just wandering around and taking a nap the whole time? Or should I tell him that all that so-called strategic planning was just something the White Dragon imagined?
Seeing Lin Zhu's expression, the white dragon smiled even more brightly. He shook his head, his whiskers drawing a circle in the air, his tone full of matter-of-fact understanding: "The big boss is being modest again."
I knew you'd say that. It's always the same; you do something incredibly good but never admit it.
Lin Zhu remained silent.
He stood there, his lips moved, but in the end he didn't say anything and just silently closed his mouth.
Seeing Lin Zhu's helpless expression, the little white dragon swung its tail even more enthusiastically.
Lin Zhu walked at the front, his pace neither hurried nor slow, the hem of his robes fluttering gently behind him. His expression was calm, with a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips, suggesting he was in a good mood.
The jade gourd he carried in his arms was heavy, and the 100,000 merits of divine water swayed slightly inside, making an extremely subtle water sound, which sounded to him better than any celestial music.
The little white dragon followed behind him, having already transformed into the form of a white dragon horse.
Its mane was as white as silver threads, shimmering softly in the sunlight. Its limbs were long and powerful, and its hooves made a crisp clattering sound as they stepped on the rocks.
The saddle on the back was temporarily created by Guanyin Bodhisattva using magic. Its appearance was exactly the same as the original one, with a dark brown saddle and silver decorations. It looked quite decent, but it lacked the layers of talismans that blessed it. To put it bluntly, it was just an empty shell with no practical use whatsoever.
But that's enough to fool Tang Sanzang.
Guanyin Bodhisattva walked at the very back, her face as black as the bottom of a pot, her lips pressed tightly together, and her eyes revealing an indescribable sense of frustration. Looking at the composed figure ahead of her, she felt waves of anger rising within her, but she could only forcefully suppress it.
The Divine Water of Merit is gone, the magic weapon is destroyed, and the White Dragon is completely devoted to Lin Zhu. She has lost everything on this trip, but she still has to maintain a dignified smile and continue to play her part.
Each of the three had their own thoughts as they walked back along the mountain path. The journey from Mount Luojia to Eagle's Sorrow Gorge wasn't too far; after about half an hour, the mountain gradually descended, the forest became sparse, and the rushing sound of Eagle's Sorrow Gorge could be heard in the distance.
After rounding the last bend in the mountain, the entire view of Yingchoujian comes into view.
The stream cascaded down from the heights, crashing against the jagged rocks, splashing up large white sprays of water, and creating a deafening roar.
Two figures stood on the rocky beach by the stream. One, dressed in a gray monk's robe, sat cross-legged on the ground, chanting Buddhist prayers with his eyes closed. The other, dressed in a tiger-skin skirt, squatted on a rock, idly fiddling with his golden cudgel. It was none other than Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong.
Lin Zhu saw Tang Sanzang in the distance, and his smile deepened. He cleared his throat, raised his voice, and called out, "Tang Sanzang, you're here!"
The sound echoed through the valley, drowning out the roar of the stream, and reached Tang Sanzang's ears clearly.
Tang Sanzang suddenly opened his eyes.
He had just been sitting cross-legged on a rock chanting scriptures, his face still bearing a sorrowful expression, muttering "Amitabha" while inwardly cursing. (End of Chapter)