From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

"Exactly! Exactly!"

Liang Luzhen held the bowl, asked Zhong Meier to pour him another, drank it all in one gulp, wiped his lips, and laughed loudly, "Wine is meant to please the soul, drink to your heart's content."

If it had any other benefits, it would be superfluous, requiring one to be careful with their money.

Isn't this a step down from the best?

Not beautiful! Not beautiful!

After saying that, he asked Zhong Meier to pour him another bowl, gulped it down, and said loudly, "Good wine! Good wine! Since I followed my senior brother on the journey to the west, except in Baoxiang Kingdom, I have never drunk so heartily! Another bowl! Another bowl!"

Zhong Meier put down the wine jar and said with a smile, "I can't drink anymore, let's eat some vegetables instead."

What's the point of just eating food without drinking?

Liang Lu was truly dissatisfied. His eyes darted around, and he said, "I know, you're afraid I'll drink all your wine, that's why you won't."

Snapped!

He pulled a gold ingot from his pocket, slammed it on the table, and exclaimed, "I don't need your money."

“I’m not short of money, but what do you take this place for? An inn? Or a tavern?” Zhong Meier said angrily.

"Please don't be offended, young lady! My junior brother has just come of age and is not very worldly-wise. I hope you won't take it to heart." Ba Jing hurriedly stood up and apologized.

Zhong Meier's anger turned to joy, and she said, "You handsome young man know how to talk. It's not that I don't want him to drink, but my wine has two other elegant names besides 'Immortal's Intoxication'."

"What elegant name?"

Liang Luzhen put the gold back into his pocket and asked curiously.

Seeing his silly and cute appearance, Zhong Meier laughed and said, "One is called 'Tou Ping Xiang' (meaning 'fragrant wine that permeates the bottle'), which means that the wine in the bottle also has a fragrance that permeates out."

“Yes, I smelled the aroma of wine outside the door earlier.” Liang Luzhen swallowed and nodded repeatedly.

"The other one is called 'leaving the door open'."

Zhong Meier laughed and said, "Don't think you're fine now. But if you go out, the aroma of wine will permeate every part of your body, and you'll be unsteady and unable to get up again."

Drinking a bowl will do you good.

Eating two bowls is fine.

But by the third bowl, even a deity descended from heaven would stagger and sway after only a few steps.

At this point, Zhong Meier added, "Therefore, the mountain spirits gave this wine a nickname: 'Three bowls and you can't cross the hill.'"

Ba Jing suddenly realized the truth.

Lu Zhen, however, patted his chest and said, "Young lady, you look down on me too much. You don't know, I am—"

A gray wolf in the Azure Wolf Forest, a junior officer in the Black Wind Mountains. Humble and subservient, he patrolled the hills, once dreaming of becoming king. But a single thought gave rise to six thieves, drawing down destiny to condemn him.

Just because of me—

He doesn't crave blood food but prefers wine food; he follows his path of self-cultivation and stands tall with integrity.

Now I'm coming back to patrol the mountains to subdue the demons in the cave!

"Young lady, quickly pour me some wine. Only after drinking will I have the strength to subdue the demons of Flat-Top Mountain and Lotus Mountain."

Zhong Meier chuckled and didn't try to persuade him any further. She poured Liang Luzhen his fourth bowl of wine.

Seeing that Lu Zhen was drinking so heartily, Ba Jing also felt a craving and joined him in drinking and eating, which was also quite enjoyable.

A short while later.

Ba Jing drank about ten bowls and was already drunk.

Liang Luzhen drank more than thirty bowls, holding the wine jar with both hands, muttering, "Good wine! Truly good wine!"

Seeing that they were both drunk, Zhong Meier clapped her hands, summoned the mountain spirits hidden in the shadows, and ordered, "Set up a big pot at the door and boil these two monsters!"

Chapter 1458 Hanging that Lu Zhen outside

Inside the mountain valley.

The firelight flickered.

In the cauldron.

The water is warm.

Having been stripped naked, Ba Jing, who was hanging on the pole, was the first to wake up. Seeing that he was completely naked, he asked Zhong Meier, "What are you doing, young lady?"

"You are monsters, so you should be cooked and eaten. What else can you be used for?"

Zhong Meier rolled up her sleeves, grabbed a boning knife, and smiled broadly.

“Girl, we are not monsters, but cultivators. We do not eat people!” Bajing exclaimed in surprise.

“You can’t believe what foreign monsters say, and besides, my little spirits are starving.” Zhong Meier pointed to the spirits beside her.

There was an old man carrying a clam shell on his back, a middle-aged man with a withered tree branch growing on his head, and a ginseng baby who was naked, about the size of a human brain, with grass growing on his back and horns on his forehead.

They all coveted Liang Luzhen and Ba Jing.

"Is the water boiling?"

Seeing that Ba Jing was dumbfounded, Zhong Meier asked the spirit who was tending the fire.

"Not yet, it's still warm."

The person who looked like a black fish spirit scooped up a spoonful of soup, tasted it, and shook his head.

"Then hurry up and start a fire!"

Zhong Meier put her hands on her hips and ordered, "These two monsters are top-notch. After drinking my brewed Immortal's Intoxication, the aroma of the wine will permeate their hearts and minds. Once cooked, their meat will be exceptionally delicious!"

"Once it's cooked, the best brain marrow will be reserved for my brother!"

Ba Jing's lips trembled as he listened, his limbs struggled, and he shook the bamboo pole supporting him.

"Don't waste your energy."

Hearing the noise, Zhong Meier glanced over and sneered, "That rope is the Golden Rope, a treasure bestowed upon my brother by Laozi to subdue demons."

My elder brother saw that I had nothing of value, so he gave it to me.

"Once bound, even a celestial being would have all their magical powers sealed, rendering them unable to use magic. How much less would a mere demon like you?"

Ba Jing ignored him, circulated his Qi throughout his body, and with a "whoosh," his body transformed into a cloud of mist, breaking free from the constraints of the Golden Rope.

How could that be?

Looking at the Eight Immortals riding the clouds in mid-air, Zhong Meier was horrified.

Was the golden rope that Laozi gave to his elder brother a fake?

But she had clearly tested it on other spirits, and none of the bound spirits could cast spells!

Could it be that this pretty boy knows a spell?

But Ba Jing didn't care what Zhong Meier thought. He chanted the incantation, retrieved the clothes that had been stripped off, dressed her properly, and retrieved three dragon pearls.

One of them was his own, and the other two were obtained from the Red-Bearded Dragon of Black Wind Mountain and the Little Black Dragon of Yellow Wind Ridge, respectively, and have now become his magical artifacts.

"go with!"

Ba Jing threw out the dragon pearl, which transformed into three thunderballs and smashed towards Zhong Meier.

Just as they were about to kill her, they heard a "Om" sound coming from afar.

Jiang Liu followed Zhong Kui and chanted a spell, causing the three dragon balls to stop three inches in front of Zhong Meier's forehead.

Snapped!

Zhong Meier was so frightened that she collapsed to the ground, her face pale and panting. When she saw Zhong Kui, she rushed over and said, "Brother, this monster is ferocious!"

Ba Jing landed and clasped his hands in a fist salute to Jiang Liu, saying, "Senior Brother, this demoness is rude! We only drank a little more of her wine, and she wants to strip us of our clothes and boil us in a pot. She's not human!"

"It's a misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding!"

Zhong Kui was covered in sweat. He first comforted his sister and then apologized to Ba Jing.

After a while.

With the misunderstanding cleared up, Zhong Meier blushed and hurriedly ordered someone to untie Liang Luzhen, but Jiang Liu stopped her, saying, "No need to trouble yourself, just let him hang there for a while longer until he sobers up."

And the soup in this pot also needs to be boiled, so that he'll be startled when he wakes up.

How can one learn from a mistake?

So, Liang Luzhen, who was still drunk, remained hanging on the pole. Jiang Liu and the others were invited into the living room by Zhong Kui and Zhong Meier, and a banquet was arranged for them.

The aroma of the sturgeon, the tender meat of the sea cucumber, the crisp green leaves of the ginseng baby, and the intoxicating brew made with mountain spring water—it all whets the appetite.

The group on their westward journey ate heartily, but compared to Liang Luzhen, who had been drinking and eating heartily before, Bajie, Hu Yuan, Hu Jue, and Jiang Liu were much more refined.

"Great Sage, please!"

Zhong Kui raised his glass in invitation.

Jiang Liu also raised his glass, but introduced himself again: "Brother Zhong Kui, my name is Gu Yue Yuan Jue, not Sun Wukong, so please don't call me the Great Sage."

“If you don’t mind, we can call each other brothers. I’ll call you Brother Zhong Kui, and you can call me Yuanjue. We can each call each other by our own names.”

Before Zhong Kui could respond, Zhong Meier covered her mouth and laughed, "You monkey are quite a character, but why do you want to go on a pilgrimage to the West?"

"Don't be rude!"

Zhong Kui glared at him, then stood up and bowed to Jiang Liu, saying, "My sister spends most of her time with mountain spirits, monsters, and wandering ghosts, and has forgotten the manners she had in the human world. She's become quite wild, so I hope the Great Sage won't mind."

Hearing him still call him "Great Sage", Jiang Liu was not annoyed. He simply gestured for him to sit down and said, "Brother, why be like this? I have neither the official title of Great Sage Equaling Heaven nor the Buddhist position of Victorious Fighting Buddha. I am just a traveler on the journey to the West. You and I are just like-minded people now, and we have no interests to gain. There is no need to be so careful."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Kui was finally relieved.

Zhong Meier, however, rolled her eyes, more shrewd than Zhong Kui, and asked, "Are you really the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong?"

"In terms of my current status, I can only be considered his descendant, but in terms of our original nature, he is my past, and I am his future."

Jiang Liu said something profound.

Upon hearing this, Pigsy frowned, then relaxed and continued eating and drinking—because he had already attained the Great Dao, and although he still missed his senior brother, he knew that Gu Yue Yuanjue and Sun Wukong were the same person at their core, only their intentions were different.

In essence, it's just a matter of past and present lives.