From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

Bajing reprimanded Liang Luzhen, "How can you act like a cultivator? You're no different from a robber!"

After saying that, he said to the woman, "I hope you won't take it to heart. My junior brother did indeed act as a monster in the forest, but he likes to drink alcohol, doesn't like blood food, and has never eaten a person."

"Turns out he's just a little wolf begging for drinks."

The woman chuckled, no longer calling him a wolf demon, but simply referring to him as Little Wolf, then licked her lips, "If he only loves drinking, then his flesh and blood must smell of wine..."

Wolves and dogs are related; dog meat paired with wine makes for a delicious and satisfying meal!

Wolf meat must be pretty much the same!

Especially since this little wolf smells of wine, there's no need to remove the stench later. Just slit its throat to bleed it, scald its fur with hot water, gut it, boil it for an hour, add some scallions, ginger, and garlic, and it'll be incredibly fragrant.

Upon hearing this, Liang Luzhen was so frightened that his hair stood on end. He quickly hid behind Ba Jing and cried out, "My God!"

Reversing the Heavenly Gang!

It's always been demons that eat people; who would dare to eat a demon?

The world has truly changed!

Like Bajie, Bajing also once traveled the journey to the West.

Although he was content to be a white horse at the time, he also knew about the customs and cultures of the various countries along the westward journey. However, it was truly rare to find someone as "clever" as this woman. So he said, "Miss, don't frighten my junior brother. We are not such bad people. We have come here on the orders of our senior brother to patrol the mountain and see what demons are in it."

My eldest brother is still in the Pingdingshan area... The young lady lives in Yalong Mountain and probably wants to know the topographical map between these two mountains. Please let me know.

If there are any demons, we will help you get rid of them.

If they are wild spirits, harmless and merely causing disturbance, we will help you drive them deep into the mountains and forests to ensure your family's safety.

The woman just laughed and said, "We don't need you. My brother is a ghost immortal who can subdue demons and ghosts. All the demons and monsters in Yalong Mountain and Pingding Mountain are afraid of him."

"Oh? May I ask what your elder brother's name is?"

Ba Jing was slightly puzzled—

The mountains are filled with malevolent energy. There may be no great demons causing trouble, but there must be many mountain spirits, monsters, and wandering ghosts. Even most of the gods in heaven dare not come here to subdue demons and monsters, not to mention that two of Laozi's attendants were reincarnated as demons in this area.

Whether it's the Heavenly Court or Mount Ling, anyone with a modicum of sense wouldn't dare come here to invite trouble.

Unless this family has some connection with Laozi!

"My elder brother is named Zhong Kui, but he was born during the Tang Dynasty."

Zhong Kui?

Ba Jing frowned, having never heard of such a deity in the Heavenly Court.

From Lingshan?

It doesn't seem like it either.

Then Bajing asked again, "May I ask what your name is, young lady?"

My name is Zhong Meier.

Zhong Meier revealed her true identity and invited the two of them, "Why don't you two come in for a chat? You've come from afar, so I'd like to offer you a cup of tea and show you my hospitality."

Do you have any wine?

Liang Luzhen was no longer afraid. She shook the empty gourd in her hand, and her cravings returned.

"It certainly exists."

Zhong Meier smiled and led the two through the courtyard, down the corridor, to the living room, where she served them tea and invited them to stay for a meal...

···

"Senior Brother, if you ask me, we should send Hu Yuan and Hu Jue to patrol the mountain."

On the flat-topped mountain, Bajie muttered, "That Lu is really useless. We should just teach him to carry the luggage. As for the White Dragon... Bajie used to be just a mount, used to being led around. He doesn't seem like he can make his own decisions at all."

"All cultivators are one; this is merely a metaphor for refining Qi and attaining enlightenment."

Jiang Liu said leisurely, “I am Gu Yue Yuan Jue, not Xin Yuan; you are Ba Jie, not Mu Mu; these two brothers are Hu Yuan and Hu Jue, not Jin Gong; the white dragon is Ba Jing, which cannot be completely equated with Yi Ma; the one who loves to drink is Liang Lu Zhen, which cannot be truly equated with Huang Po.”

We are all one, which is called the proof of the principle of cultivation.

But since you, me, and everyone else all have independent consciousness, how can we truly be classified as one?

I don't want Liang Luzhen to be my follower for the rest of his life, taking orders from me, nor do I want Ba Jing to be led by the nose for the rest of his life.

They certainly have their own opinions!

This also reflects our expectations for Bajie, Hu Yuan, and Hu Jue.

Having said that, Jiang Liu then said to Bajie, Hu Yuan, and Hu Jue, "I won't advise the three of you to be as harmonious as one family. I just hope that when you encounter demons in the future, you won't trip each other up."

"Senior Brother, you're really underestimating me. Do you think I'm such a petty person?"

Bajie understood the hidden meaning in Jiang Liu's words. He grumbled and said that if he were really stingy, even if Hu Yuan and Hu Jue had knelt down and begged him, he would not have left Mao Erzhuang.

The brothers Hu Yuan and Hu Jue said in unison, "Eldest brother, we do not like this second brother, but for the sake of our journey to the West and our cultivation, we would never harm him!"

The three men were making solemn vows when they felt the earth tremble. Looking westward, they saw the woods ahead swaying, and two men dressed as farmers stumbled out…

Chapter 1449 Ambitious yet Narrow-minded

The two farmers were similar in build, except one was slightly overweight, and each had a topknot on their head, making them look like two Taoist priests who had returned to secular life.

The two men, one carrying a red gourd at his waist and the other clutching a jade bottle, looked flustered and, without thinking, bumped into the brothers Hu Yuan and Hu Jue.

"Ouch!"

The slightly overweight man tripped and fell, dropping the porcelain bottle in his hand with a "clink" sound—though it was porcelain, it was quite sturdy and did not break.

The other person also fell to the ground, and the gourd at his waist fell off and rolled to Pigsy's feet.

"Stop! That's my precious child!"

Seeing Pigsy reach out to grab it, the man panicked and rushed over.

Bajie scoffed, kicked the man so hard he tumbled backward twice, then ran to the slightly fatter man, snatched the jade bottle from him, and laughed, "What a stroke of luck! What a stroke of luck!"

Seeing his terrifying appearance, robbing pedestrians and engaging in demonic acts, Hu Yuan was somewhat frightened and hurriedly said to Jiang Liu, "Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother is probably not cultivating well enough, has gone astray, suffered a qi deviation, and gone mad! He's now robbing passersby!"

Jiang Liu: "..."

How could he not know that Hu Yuan was kicking him while he was down?

But he still asked Pigsy, knowing the answer already, "Pigsy, what are you doing? In broad daylight, without any warning, why are you robbing people of their property?"

"Senior Brother, you don't know, this..."

"I always do it under the cover of darkness."

Before Bajie could finish speaking, Jiang Liu added a sentence, leaving his explanation stuck in his throat.

Hu Yuan was speechless, and Hu Jue was also speechless, suspecting that their senior brother had been corrupted by that damned pig, Bajie.

This is precisely:

One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black!

The two men whose jade bottles and gourds had been robbed fell into self-doubt. Then, they came to their senses, got up, and shouted, "Where did you monsters come from? How dare you come to Pingdingshan to rob us? Don't you know this is the territory of us, the Fine-Hearted Ghost and the Clever Insect?"

The cunning ghost stretched out his left hand, arrogantly declaring, "Give me back that gourd!"

The clever insect stretched out its right hand, its attitude defiant: "Give me that jade bottle!"

"Brother Monkey, you don't know, these two are not human, they are monsters."

Seeing that the two of them couldn't distinguish between the two kings, Pigsy spat, caught his breath, and cursed, "You two ungrateful demons, how dare you show off in front of your Grandpa Pig? You're not human, take this!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Pigsy tied the gourd and the jade bottle to his waist, raised the rake with both hands, and swung it toward the head of the clever demon.

With a loud "crack," the rake missed its mark and struck the rock, instantly shattering it into several pieces.

The clever ghost reacted quickly, managing to dodge at the last second. However, he was covered in sweat and his face was pale, clearly frightened by Pigsy's sudden attack.

"Senior Brother! Come quickly and help me! These two little demons were subordinates of the Golden Horn King and the Silver Horn King back then. They wanted to use these two treasures to turn you into pus, but you tricked them with the gourd they transformed from hairs..."

As Bajie shouted, he swung his rake and struck the clever insect again.

The clever insect also jumped away in a panic, his face pale. He looked at Jiang Liu and then noticed that he was a monkey, and that his appearance was still fresh in his memory.

It was none other than Sun Wukong, who tricked him and the Jinggui out of the gourd and the jade bottle five hundred years ago!

"It's you!"

The exquisite ghost also recognized Jiang Liu's appearance. Its already pale face turned even paler, as if it had just come out of an ice cellar, completely bloodless. It exchanged a glance with the clever insect, dared not ask for the treasure again, and hurriedly ran eastward.

"live!"

Jiang Liu uttered a single word, and his body circulated a stream of energy without any visible fluctuation of magical power. The Qi of the Fine Ghost and the Clever Insect split into Yin and Yang, resisting each other, and they stood there dumbfounded, unable to move.

Seeing that they were immobilized by the spell, Bajie raised his rake to strike without saying a word, but Jiang Liu grabbed the rake with one hand and said, "Bajie, hold your murderous intent."

I once heard someone say that back then... the Great Sage had already returned the gourd, the jade bottle, along with the golden rope, the Seven-Star Sword, and the banana leaf fan, to Laozi...

And ask them how they acquired these two treasures?

Upon hearing this, Pigsy indeed put down his rake, took out a rope from his luggage, tied the two of them tightly, and then used a hook to pierce their collarbones, so that they could no longer use magic.

Afterwards, Jiang Liu broke free of the immobilization spell.

With their collarbones pierced, the exquisite ghost wailed and the clever insect cried out; for them, it would have been better to remain frozen in place.

The brothers Hu Yuan and Hu Jue then understood the situation and realized that the two were monsters, so they temporarily acted as interrogators: "Speak! How did you obtain these two treasures?"

"Let us go first!"

The cunning ghost, enduring the pain, presented his conditions.

"Otherwise, we won't tell you."

The clever insect bared its teeth and grinned.

"Oh ho! Looks like you won't learn your lesson until you see the coffin. Watch me give you two slaps, then you'll know the consequences!"

Pigsy chuckled coldly, rolled up his sleeves, revealing a human hand—having obtained the Great Dao as told by Jiang Chuan, and having returned to Mao Er Village to solidify his foundation, his human body and aura became increasingly perfect, naturally becoming more and more like a human. The five fingers were not merely a transformation, but a genuine evolution into a human hand.

With perseverance, even recreating the appearance of Marshal Tianpeng from his previous life would be a piece of cake.

Just as the slap was about to fall, a commotion came from the forest, and a murderous aura blew out, vast and stretching for miles.