I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 588 Tang Sanzang is going south

"Waaaaah! Where did you go?! What kind of place is this?! Fake monks, zombies, and an old witch! This isn't the journey to the West at all! This part isn't in Journey to the West! And Lanzhou doesn't have any of these things! You lied to me! You've been lying to me all along! Waaaaah..."

Feng Xue picked at her ear, looking at Chen Xuan, whose face was covered in snot and tears from crying, with a look of disgust. She tapped the twisted bone on the ground with an iron rod and curled her lip.
"Who lied to you? This isn't in Journey to the West! This is clearly 'The Three Battles with the White Bone Demon'!"

"???" Chen Xuan's face turned green as he pointed at the witch's corpse on the ground, which was emitting a foul stench.

"You call this the White Bone Demon? What White Bone Demon has flesh?! Even if I'm not well-educated, I've still heard the storytelling of Journey to the West!"

"Superficial!" Feng Xue's eyes narrowed, but Chen Xuan exploded:

"How is it superficial? Explain yourself clearly, or else, or else I'm lying here and won't get up!"

"...Why do I feel like you're more like a monkey than me?" Feng Xue rolled her eyes, pulled out a 100-chapter edition of Journey to the West published by a reputable publishing house, and handed it to Chen Xuan.
"Look for yourself, this is the original... Sigh, you people only read the simplified and folk-style versions from storytellers, opera singers, and comic books. But Journey to the West itself contains a lot of metaphors about officialdom and cultivation. Otherwise, do you think it's a classic just because it's all fighting and killing? It's just that most modern people can't understand the poetry and parallelism in it, so they created the illiterate version based on the vernacular version. The original text doesn't even have the term 'White Bone Demon'. The correct name should be 'Corpse Demon,' but the Corpse Demon's name is 'Lady White Bone.' Later, for the sake of popularization, it was called White Bone Demon. The so-called 'Three Battles with the White Bone Demon' actually alludes to the subjugation of the 'Three Corpses'!"

"Ah, this..." Chen Xuan was slightly taken aback. He was actually somewhat educated, but how should I put it, it was limited to what was in textbooks. After all, you can't expect a poor, unlucky guy who works part-time to afford extracurricular books outside of compulsory education.

Picking up the 100-chapter version of Journey to the West, Chen Xuan glanced at the table of contents and knew that the statement was probably true, since it clearly stated "The Corpse Demon Plays Tricks on Tang Sanzang Three Times".

Thinking about it again, it seems that I did indeed encounter three corpses?

but……

Although Chen Xuan was somewhat hesitant, he still gritted his teeth and said:
"But you shouldn't have lied to me! This isn't Lanzhou! Who lives in Lanzhou and has zombies? Aren't zombies a specialty of western Hunan?"

"Whose specialty is this zombie?" Feng Xue thought to herself, but still stubbornly insisted:

"You're so ignorant! Do you know why Gansu has been suffering from drought and little rain for years?"

"Uh..." Chen Xuan's emotions were disjointed after being asked by Feng Xue. But thinking about it carefully, it seemed that Gansu was indeed a drought-stricken area. But wasn't that a geographical factor?

Thinking to himself, Feng Xue didn't wait for his answer and said directly:
"Do you know what the ultimate zombie is? It's the drought demon! Do you know why it's called a drought demon? Because droughts occur wherever it appears!"

"..." Chen Xuan grinned, glanced at the snow around him, and seemed to think Feng Xue was teasing him, but still went along with it and said:

"So, you mean there are drought demons in Gansu?"

"No, what I mean is that the environment in Gansu is prone to producing the fate of a drought demon! You should understand that while the formation of a fate has natural factors, it is also closely related to the living environment. It's not that drought demons cause the drought in Gansu, but rather that the arid environment in Gansu causes some individuals who might acquire the fate to become drought demons! And the lower form of a drought demon is a zombie. Those who intend to become drought demons, or those who fail to advance to the level of drought demon, if they die, the remaining fate in their bodies will turn them into zombies. So it's quite reasonable for zombies to appear in Gansu!"

"Is this... right?" Feng Xue's words were reasonable and perfectly aligned with Chen Xuan's understanding of destiny. For a moment, he was somewhat confused, but he still shook his head vigorously. It wasn't a question of whether he was lying or not; he simply didn't want to go on the pilgrimage anymore. He just wanted to go back to Chang'an to collect scraps, where at least there wouldn't be any witches tricking him into drinking meat soup!
Sensing Chen Xuan's intention to retreat, Feng Xue knew that what had happened earlier was too exciting. But who would have thought that this young man could be so frightened by a few overloaded robots, and actually run hundreds of kilometers? That's even more amazing than a thoroughbred horse!

Thinking of this, his tone suddenly softened:
"Fine, since you think the way I'm leading you is wrong, then I'll listen to you from now on. Whichever way you say, we'll go. Is that alright? Here, this is the map, and this is the compass..." "Really?" Chen Xuan's eyes lit up immediately, while Feng Xue nodded.
"of course it's true!"

"Then we..." Chen Xuan said, taking the map, when suddenly everything went black—

"You're just traveling around looking at this thing?"

"Otherwise what?" Feng Xue pointed to the stars in the sky, then to the motorcycle's odometer—

"A compass confirms direction, a map confirms route, and stars can determine latitude and longitude. This is already quite comprehensive, isn't it?"

"..." Holding the world map in his hand, Chen Xuan quickly found the location of Qinghai and became more and more certain that the two of them had run into the Kunlun Mountains or similar areas.

However, at this moment he no longer wanted to argue with Feng Xue, and simply said:

"No matter what, it's too cold here. Let's head south first and at least rest for a bit, otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to keep going like this."

Feng Xue's eyes darted around, and she nodded reluctantly, saying:
"Although going south is a bit of a backtracking route, since I said I'd listen to you, then you can lead the way!"

"Really?" Chen Xuan had only tentatively suggested it, but he didn't expect Feng Xue to actually agree. Her eyes lit up immediately, and she turned to get on her motorcycle.

"Then let's set off now!"

"It's already dark, why are we leaving? Aren't you hungry? Go eat something and get some sleep, we'll leave tomorrow!"

Upon hearing Feng Xue's words, Chen Xuan suddenly remembered that he had been hungry all day. The hunger and exhaustion that he had temporarily forgotten due to fear surged up instantly. As the effects of adrenaline slowly subsided, he collapsed to the ground, almost burying his face in Baba Yaga's (Note ①) corpse.

Feng Xue grabbed him and casually cast a cleansing spell, clearing away everything in the house that he considered "filth" before turning around to prepare dinner.

Chen Xuan leaned against the wall, looking at Feng Xue, but he was also making his own plans.

He knew very well that even if this place was indeed a snow-capped mountain in Qinghai as he imagined, this journey to the West was still the correct one. After all, according to Journey to the West, the Weak Water Flowing Sand River where Sha Wujing lived flowed out of the Kunlun Mountains, so Kunlun was the correct route.

So why did he head south?
Of course, it's to find a populated place!

He was really tired now. Although his desire to change his fate had not faded, he still wanted to find a populated place to replenish his living energy. Otherwise, if things continued like this, Chen Xuan was worried that he would not be able to distinguish between real people and fake people at any time!

(End of this chapter)