Journey to the West: Tang Monk Conquers Everything

Ruyi True Immortal's words did make Jiang Liu nod in agreement silently.

Indeed, from the standpoint of cultivation level, Ruyi True Immortal had already reached the status of Taiyi True Immortal, and being the brother of Demon King Ox, it seemed unlikely that someone of Ruyi True Immortal's status would develop an affinity for such mundane treasures of gold and silver.

Could it be that he had other distresses?

"May I know what is the true immortal's distress?" Out of curiosity, Jiang Liu naturally asked, and Sun Wukong beside him also looked on, curious.

"Holy Monk, let me ask you a question. What is life?" Ruyi True Immortal asked, looking at Jiang Liu.

Despite framing it as a question, Ruyi True Immortal didn't actually expect an answer from Jiang Liu but went on to answer his own inquiry, "Holy Monk, you haven't seen it. When I first arrived in the Women's Kingdom, the water from the Abortion Spring was freely available to all women in the country. At that time, countless unborn babies were robbed of life before they could even be born!"

"Could it be that these unborn babies are not alive? How many lost souls in the Underworld have suffered greatly and hardly cleansed their sins, finally getting a chance for reincarnation to become human, yet they don't even get a chance to be born, leading to an overwhelming resentment engulfing the Women's Kingdom!"

"Therefore, I stayed here to collect these resentful ghosts and used my Taoist magic to resolve their grievances. I also forcefully took control of the Abortion Spring, setting high prices so that one can abort only after paying a hefty price, thus aiming to reduce the number of abortions!"

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"So that's how it is..." Upon hearing Ruyi True Immortal's explanation, Jiang Liu suddenly understood.

10 taels of silver was about two to three months' income for the common people, so ordinary people thinking of having an abortion would think twice unless there was a genuine need, thus being deterred by the price.

In this way, although it couldn't completely eliminate the number of abortions, at least it could fundamentally prevent casual abortions.

And seeing the female officer from the royal palace coming to ask for the Abortion Spring Water, noting her dignified status, Ruyi True Immortal raised the price to 100 taels of silver with the same idea in mind.

As for later raising it to the staggering amount of 10,000 taels of silver?

Perhaps it was because the female officer requested enough water for five people in one go, which displeased Ruyi True Immortal?

During the conversation, Ruyi True Immortal invited Jiang Liu and Sun Wukong to enter the Immortal Gathering Hermitage.

Within a large hall of the Immortal Gathering Hermitage, they saw countless Blank Spirit Tablets neatly arranged.

"Holy Monk, these Blank Spirit Tablets are for the unborn babies who were aborted. Since they were never born, they don't even have names. I've taken all their lost souls under my care here. Holy Monk, Holy Monk?" After showing Jiang Liu around the hall where these spirit tablets were enshrined, Ruyi True Immortal turned back, surprised to see Jiang Liu's reaction.

At that moment, Jiang Liu's eyes were glazed, staring blankly ahead.

Behind a column not far from the hall, a very small child with a semi-transparent body and a fierce expression peeked out, staring right at him.

In the dead of night, under the flickering candlelight, a chill crept up from the bottom of Jiang Liu's heart.

"Let's, let's continue our conversation outside," suggested Jiang Liu, his face turning pale after witnessing the scene.

Although he spoke as if discussing, he did not wait for Ruyi True Immortal to respond before turning and quickly exiting the hall.

"What is this about, Holy Monk?" Ruyi True Immortal wore a puzzled expression, turning to look at Sun Wukong for an answer.

Confronted with Ruyi True Immortal's inquisitive look, Sun Wukong just smiled and somewhat took pleasure in misfortune, "My master here, he's not afraid of anything but the ghosts of humans, hahaha..."

"Ah!?" Sun Wukong's explanation only made Ruyi True Immortal more baffled.

Leaving aside the fact that Jiang Liu is the Holy Monk of Great Tang, even an ordinary monk would typically perform rituals to transcend lost souls as part of their usual duties, right?

And yet, him being a monk and afraid of ghosts!?

It was as if catching mice is in a cat's nature, but a formidable Cat King is, conversely, afraid of mice?

If this were said out loud, it would certainly shock countless people!

Of course, Sun Wukong could mock Jiang Liu because they had a more relaxed teacher-disciple relationship, but Ruyi True Immortal, being a stranger, maintained a serious demeanor on the surface even though he chuckled inwardly.

Since it was indeed the Holy Monk and his companions who inadvertently drank from the Child-Mother River, Ruyi True Immortal naturally wouldn't say much more, directly fetching five person's portions of the spring water from the Abortion Spring and handing them over to Jiang Liu and Sun Wukong.

Without further ado, Jiang Liu and Sun Wukong each drank a portion of the Abortion Spring Water before bidding farewell to Ruyi True Immortal and turning to deliver the water to Bajie and the others.

However, after watching Jiang Liu and Sun Wukong depart, Ruyi True Immortal shook his head and sighed softly to himself.

Then, Ruyi True Immortal took two blank spirit tablets from his sleeves and entered the hall to enshrine them, lighting three sticks of incense for each.

In the hall, beneath the wavering candlelight and curling incense smoke, two more resentful spirits were added…

Once dead, souls return to the Underworld, where many lost souls endure harsh trials to cleanse their sins before they can join the cycle of reincarnation.

Those who perform well can be reborn in the Human Path, while those with heavy sins may be cast into the Path of Beasts and similar fates.

In the Underworld, having gone through tribulations and finally granted a chance to be reborn as humans, they nonetheless have no chance at birth.

This is like in reality, where many people toil and study hard for years, finally getting admitted to a prestigious university during the college entrance exams, and rejoicing at the achievement.

Suddenly, they receive news that they've been refused admission for no apparent reason at all.

"No matter who it is, it must be hard to accept, right? Full of grievances!"

...

Let's not mention that at the Immortal Gathering Hermitage, two more lost souls were added. After Jiang Liu and Sun Wukong drank the water from the Abortion Spring, they quickly flew through the air and landed in the Eastern Hall of the Royal Palace.

Naturally, the water from the Abortion Spring had been distributed to Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and the White Dragon Horse.

After the three of them drank the water, Sha Wujing and the White Dragon Horse's bellies deflated like punctured balls, visibly shrinking—the Abortion Spring water had clearly taken effect.

"Master, why isn't my belly reacting!?" Seeing Sha Wujing and the White Dragon Horse's bellies shrink, Zhu Bajie touched his own belly and asked in confusion.

"You expect your belly to shrink? You need to do hundreds of sit-ups every day and only eat half a bowl of rice for each meal. That way, it won't just be your belly, but your whole body will slim down..." Jiang Liu turned to glance at Zhu Bajie's still round belly as he spoke.

"What!? Only half a bowl of rice per meal? Forget it!"

For Zhu Bajie, eating and sleeping were the most important things. Hearing Jiang Liu's words, Zhu Bajie waved his hand dismissively, clearly uninterested.

"Alas..." In reality, looking at Zhu Bajie's corpulent figure, Jiang Liu let out a long sigh.

Leaving aside this particular life for now, the existence of Jiang Liu had surely brought a tremendous change to the world of "Journey to the West."

In the original story, Zhu Bajie was like poison chicken soup for the diet industry! He never seemed to lose weight despite the considerable amount of exercise he did, walking the eighty-one thousand miles and frequently getting into high-exertion fights.

Especially considering Zhu Bajie often went hungry on the Journey to the West and he was a vegetarian! With all that, Zhu Bajie still never slimmed down, so in the past life, many people used Zhu Bajie as an excuse when faced with the challenge of dieting.

What, exercise to lose weight? Dieting to lose weight? All lies! Get out of here...

"Alright, it's already late into the night. Everybody, rest well!" After everyone had drunk the water from the Abortion Spring, and estimating the time—it was already past midnight—Jiang Liu spoke up.

Everyone went back to their rooms to rest, and Jiang Liu too sat cross-legged and continued to cultivate his Green Lotus Taoist Scripture.

Knock knock knock...

But, was it destined to be a sleepless night tonight? Jiang Liu had barely been meditating for fifteen minutes when suddenly, someone knocked on his window.

Although the sound was not loud, it was incredibly clear in the quiet of the night.

"Holy Monk, are you there?" Along with the knocking, a woman's voice came from outside the window.

"Who is it? What's the matter?" It was the middle of the night, and a woman was knocking on his window? Jiang Liu felt slightly startled.

What's going on? If there was really something important, why not knock on the door? Why tap on the window so sneakily?

"I am the female officer in charge of His Majesty's palace affairs. His Majesty fainted after crying today, and I have come specially to ask you to see her!" The voice outside the window spoke up, addressing Jiang Liu.

What's this situation? In the middle of the night, secretly knocking on my window, asking me to visit the King of Women's Kingdom?

On an emotional level, Jiang Liu naturally wanted to go. After all, at such a time, being summoned in this manner was like a girl asking you to come up for a coffee in the middle of the night in a previous life—the hint couldn't be more obvious.

But rationally, Jiang Liu didn't dare to go. The Sanzang Monk of Tang in the original "Journey to the West" was a pure monk and couldn't resist the advances of the King of Women's Kingdom.

If I recall correctly, in the '86 version of "Journey to the West", just being alone with her at night nearly resulted in Sanzang's downfall. If I went now, who knows what the consequences might be?

After struggling between reason and emotion for a moment, since he had already refused the King of Women's Kingdom, he naturally shouldn't go, so Jiang Liu replied, "The night is deep. It's better for this humble monk to visit her Highness early tomorrow morning!"

Creak!

However, as Jiang Liu finished speaking, to his surprise, the window was pushed open, and a young woman in her early twenties jumped in directly from the window.

"If the Holy Monk is unwilling to go, then I have no choice but to resort to kidnapping!" The woman's gaze, burning with intensity, was fixed on Jiang Liu.

As her words fell and she waved her hand, Jiang Liu's surroundings spun, and he instantly lost consciousness.

...

The next morning, Sha Wujing let out a cry of alarm.

"Big Brother, Second Brother, it's terrible, Master is gone!"

(PS: It was a close call, today I saw our rank on the Qidian sales list, hanging precariously at 10th. It was truly dangerous to the extreme, but we finally made it...)