The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

“The West?” Meng Qi found it strange. It seemed that he and the others were about to embark on their own Journey to the West. However, with their current strength, they would just end up as snacks for the demons.

At that point, Zhang Yuanshan and the others had completed their interrogation of the two small demons. They confirmed the statements that the other demon had made, and also managed to obtain information about the nearby monsters.

“There aren’t any monsters for 50 kilometers around. The nearest ones would be this bunch from Emerald Waves Mountain, so they rushed here first. Other than them, there should be several Monster Kings coming at us from various directions, as well as any other monsters farther away that saw the light rising high in the sky.” Zhang Yuanshan had not discovered monsters coming from every direction were weaker.

The Monster King they spoke of, according to the small demons, was unrelated to real big monsters and Monster Kings. After all, the “King of Emerald Waves”, Murky was unrivaled across the land. That filled Meng Qi with an inexplicable kind of feeling. Who knew that the small demon, which could be easily captured by humans, would be like this today. How dared it brag about battling the Great Sage for 800 rounds. Things really did change with time!

The vicissitudes of life were endless and timeless.

With regards to that, Luo Shengyi did not express much worry. He said, “Their target is this temple and the horizontal board of ‘Big Leiyin Temple’. As long as we suppress our breath and cover our tracks, we should be able to make it.”

So what if there were many monsters? They could not possibly take up all the space in heaven and earth. Nor could they cover every single inch of land.

Moreover, the monsters were not specifically targetting them and were unlikely to waste too much time along the way. Therefore, if they concealed themselves properly and made use of the monster blood and fur to cover their breath, they would be able to brush past them as they headed for the temple.

“I just don’t think the Death Task would be that easy.” Jiang Zhiwei muttered to herself under her breath. However, she did not speak further. She had decided that it’s their best plan at that moment, based on the current situation.

She squatted down to collect the small demons’ blood, fur and the like. They were the best at concealing human breath. Since they could be obtained in such a simple manner, none of them had bothered to exchange for them.

Ruan Yushu slightly knitted her brows together. She had a subconscious rejection towards the smelly demons and did not want to smear things like that on herself. However, she was not a pretentious junior, and understood the gravity of the issue. Hence, despite a bit of grumbling, she still smeared the blood on and stuck the fur on.

Meng Qi happened to stand near her, and heard her complaints loud and clear. “Stinky tofu smells bad too, but it’s actually very delicious… ”

Meng Qi wiped away some cold sweat and followed the girls to conceal his own breath.

A short while later, everyone was ready. They stared at the horizontal board of ‘Big Leiyin Temple’ on the ground long and hard, then turned to leave.

Even if that Buddha was not the same as the other, being a Buddha in the world of Journey to the West definitely meant that one had big powers. Otherwise, how could he have intimidated many Great Sages before he went extinct?

How could the horizontal board of his residence on Holy Mountain be ordinary? It could be exchanged for a huge amount of Karma points, which meant it was surely even more valuable when used!

However, even after the group had inspected the board for a long time, they failed to discover anything special about it. They could only sigh that they were at a too low level to detect anything and had no choice but to give up for the time being. After all, if they were to bring it with them, they just might attract monsters. If the horizontal board even intermittently shot beams of light into the sky then, they would become even easier targets for the demons.

If they encountered a demon at the level of Half-step Exterior Scenery, they could probably kill it easily with their strength and cooperation as a team. However, what if two or three of such demons came at them? What if Murky returned as time shifted? What if the rest of the Monster Venerables at the Exterior level continued to arrive one after another? What if Dharmakaya big monsters came riding over on clouds?

People die for money as birds die for food. Only those who could restrain their greed at appropriate times would get to live longer!

Upon departing from the temple, Meng Qi and the group headed west in a rush. Along the way, they exercised utmost caution in fear of encountering the demons who were heading in the opposite direction.

After around three hours, they had travelled a long distance from the temple. The group was afraid of walking further, lest they should meet with demons roaming the area or hunting for prey in the night. They found an unoccupied cave and hid inside. There was no need for them to search for a nearby water source, as Ruan Yushu had food and clean water in the jade ring , and Jiang Zhiwei and the rest also had other necessary items prepared.

Except Ge Huai’en and Fu Zhenzhen, Meng Qi, Qi Zhengyan and the others took turns to guard the group in teams of two overnight. When not on duty, the members took the chance to rest and recover physically and mentally.

Over that night, several powerful Demon Odors floated past, with some even brushing right past the cave. There were even more small demons. Thankfully, their target was the temple. They had no time to waste on other matters and thus did not discover Meng Qi and the group.

The next day, as the sun rose from the East, a ray of light filtered into the cave, bringing brightness and vitality.

“It’s the second day,” said Meng Qi, sighing with emotion. He turned to speak to Ge Huai’en. “Let’s augur our fate again. There could be changes.”

Ge Huai’en nodded and took out the old copper coins. He began auguring their fate at that time.

He tossed the copper coins out. They spun midair before hitting the ground with crisp tingles.

“Pa!”

One of the copper coins had broken!

“Oh no!” Ge Huai’en’s gaze froze as he called out.

The ground in the cave split all of a sudden and a snake-like creature crawled out from the gaps. It had no eyes. Its body was as thick as water buckets and was covered in a sticky film. Then, it opened its mouth and swallowed half of Ge Huai’en in a breath.

“Earthworm Demon!” Meng Qi cried. He rushed forward as his Eight Nine Mysteries and Golden Bell Shield began activating. His left hand went straight into the gigantic earthworm’s mouth. It stopped its swallowing motion and rotting from occuring, preventing Ge Huai’en from being eaten.

At the same time, his unsheathed “Whisper Sword” directly flew at the Earthworm Demon!

Jiang Zhiwei responded the quickliest. She drew her Long Sword and horizontally slashed, splitting the giant earthworm into two.

With a sickening sound, the earthworm’s lower half slumped to the ground. It jumped a bit, then grew a head and began moving towards the exit to escape. “Grand Great King, they’re here!” It hollered.

The half that was biting Ge Huai’en grew a new lower half instead. The creature had multiplied into two separate Earthworm Demons.

With a flash of his blade, the earthworm that had yet to escape was cleaved vertically. It twitched on the ground, unable to resurrect itself this time!

Grand Great King? They? Meng Qi did not have time to show off his literary skills. He felt his scalp had gone numb and his heart had tightened.

This Earthworm Demon had been tailing them from the temple, hadn’t it?

Although it hadn’t undergone Shape Transformation, it had the natural ability of Earth Escape. No wonder they hadn’t discovered it all this while!

Emerald Waves Lake might be far away, but Murky finished visiting his relatives a few days ago and was already on the way back.

If not for that, based on its strength, it was impossible for it to rush back in one night!

Or could it be another Monster King? It ranked the first, so it was probably a monster at the level of the Exterior!

Meng Qi did not think twice. He reached for the Purple Decease Sword.

It was not because he was unwilling to give it to Jiang Zhiwei to use, but for those who were not its owner it would take more than half a year to communicate with the sword to be able to use it. Even if he gave it to Jiang Zhiwei, she would not be able to use it.

Fu Zhenzhen and Qi Zhengyan dashed forth. One attempted to save Ge Huai’en while the other wielded the Golden Dragon Stripe Sword aslant. Ice and snow transformed into Sword Qi and chased after the escaping Earthworm Demon.

The intimidating aura of the dragon flooded the place, while the Earthworm Demon quivered and crawled along the ground. It was assailed all over by the Sword Qi and got cut into several segments, each section frozen into ice.

“Wah, how dare you kill the King of Emerald Waves’ brother!” The sound of waves crashing on the shore rang out throughout the cave. A fish-headed, human-bodied monster stood amidst lapping emerald waves.

Its skin was jet black and covered in scales. It did not have a lower lip and its head was extremely large, as big as three times that of a normal demon. A steel fork rested in both its hands, with a significant amount of ocean spray surrounding it.

It was wearing a pair of silk Cloud-walking boots, a Golden Chain Mail Shirt and a Phoenix-feathered Cap on its head. Evidently, it had learned a lot from Great Sage Equal to Heaven, dressing just like him. However, its skin was too dark and its head was too big. It looked horribly out of place and therefore comical.

Murky was like a God from the heaven. It did not disperse the waves around it but hurled its steel fork straight down. A rush of emerald waves then turned into the form of steel forks and surged towards them.

The emerald waves were as heavy as 500 kilograms. They caused the surrounding airflow to collapse and pitted the ground, targetting the group from afar.

His genuine Qi running, Meng Qi swung his Purple Decease Sword down with full power.

The mauve Sword Qi spread throughout the air as the ground cracked in response. Countless leaves drifted from several trees nearby, all neatly severed from their branches.

“Puff!”

Seafoam sprayed everywhere and the mauve color dispersed, as the Sword Qi sliced apart the emerald waves and damaged the front of the “steel fork”. However, since it had been dispersed itself, it was unable to stop the oncoming waves.

A brilliant sword light flashed bright and stole all its surrounding light. Between heaven and earth, there only existed the sword. It seemed to unravel across the sky, like an otherworldly rainbow.

“Pa!”

Jiang Zhiwei struck the emerald waves. Time seemed to stop at that moment.

The waves completely dispersed, but Jiang Zhiwei flew backward. Blood spewed from her mouth, signifying her severe injury.

Seeing that Murky was about to unleash its next steel fork, Fu Zhenzhen could not care about saving Ge Huai’en anymore. She turned the Demon-revealing Mirror in her hand to Murky.

Its image was reflected in the mirror. Murky maintained the steel fork in a position, where it was on the verge of falling. It resembled a stone statue. Even the emerald waves at its feet drooped lower.

At that height, Zhang Yuanshan and the others were unable to attack Murky, and the ordinary concealed weapon would definitely be useless against it. Hence, Ruan Yushu did not hesitate. She whipped out her Demon-defeating Arrow and launched it at the demon.

A streak of fiery red followed the smell of Demon Odor towards Murky. Then, before the Demon-revealing Mirror’s effect wore off, it hit Murky.

The waves of Demon Odor around it quickly began burning. They transformed into tiny droplets of fire and fell to the ground, setting the weeds and stream ablaze.

The Golden Chain Mail Shirt was busted and Murky’s black scales were pierced. A large hole of flesh and blood appeared on Murky’s chest, revealing the organs inside.

Murky shrieked in pain. Its body was still sluggish from the Demon-revealing Mirror’s effect.

Meng Qi poured all his mental energy into the Purple Decease Sword. His head throbbed and blood flowed from his eyes and mouth, as he swung his sword once more.

The mauve Sword Qi leaped into the sky, splitting countless white clouds above and dissipating the howls of the wind.

“Clang!”

The sound of metal colliding exploded. The mauve Sword Qi followed the path of the large hole and penetrated the inside of Murky’s body, while the remaining Sword Qi attacked his internal organs.

“Ahh!” Murky yelled. The pain was intolerable. Its shrill voice entered everyone’s ears, giving them all a splitting headache.

Waves began surging again as Murky rode them into the sky, escaping in embarrassment.

Even after all that, they still could not kill it.

Monstersat the Exterior level were truly horrifying!

Meng Qi and the rest had exhausted all tricks, but had only managed to severely injure Murky. If it had recovery elixirs, it could easily come after them again in two or three days!

“Let’s get out of here first!” Their tracks had been uncovered, so they could not stay any longer. Meng Qi helped the heavily injured Jiang Zhiwei up and carried her on his back. Then, he did his best to tolerate his throbbing headache and continued to go west with the others.

Zhang Yuanshan carried Ge Huai’en on his back, while Qi Zhengyan, Ruan Yushu and the others followed closely behind.

Ge Huai’en and Jiang Zhiwei had suffered quite heavy blows. Fu Zhenzhen’s “Man-saving Sutra” genuine Qi could only stabilize their current conditions. They still had to consume the Recover Pill to heal themselves. Otherwise, when they encountered a perilous situation, they would probably perish.