Journey to the West: Tang Monk Conquers Everything

Dressed in coarse cloth with short sleeves and wearing a felt hat on his head, Jiang Liu trudged along the footpath beside the fields, one foot deep and the other shallow, with a hoe slung over his shoulder and his feet bare.

The rain yesterday had made the ridges between fields muddy, so it was necessary to go barefoot.

Looking up, he saw a small mountain village hundreds of meters away with smoke curling from the chimneys, accompanied by the crowing of roosters and barking of dogs, a scene of tranquility and peace.

Glancing back, he noticed the sun setting and flocks of geese returning to their nests; the bucolic landscape was picturesque, instilling a sense of calm.

Perhaps it would be quite nice to live a simple and plain life like this for one's whole life?

Stepping into a nearby ditch, Jiang Liu washed the mud off his feet and put on his hemp shoes, quickly returning to the village and spotting from a distance a thatched cottage with smoke also rising from it.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Liu's expression involuntarily changed; he quickened his pace and just then saw Gaoyang running out, coughing continuously, with her exquisite face slightly blackened from the smoke.

"What's happened? Is the house on fire?" Looking at the smoky room, Jiang Liu asked.

In the midst of speaking, he rushed in, hurried to extinguish the fire, and opened the pot to check. Good heavens, it was full of rice that had solidified into a block.

"Auntie Wang next door said that as a woman, you must do things like laundry and cooking. Every day it's you, a man, doing the cooking; people will laugh at you," said Gaoyang, looking at the charred mess in the pot and feeling a bit embarrassed as she lowered her head.

"So, when you cook rice, don't you add water?" Seeing that the pot contained only rice, the corner of Jiang Liu's mouth twitched slightly.

"Ah? You need to add water when cooking rice?" Gaoyang asked with a surprised look on her face.

"Ah! Murder!"

However, before Jiang Liu had a chance to share some cooking tips with Gaoyang, suddenly, there was chaos outside, accompanied by loud shouting.

An incident had occurred!

On hearing this commotion, Jiang Liu and Gaoyang paused and then ran outside, only to see that in the small mountain village of just a few dozen families, several fierce-looking bandits, armed with knives, were slaughtering villagers and plundering their belongings.

Even two younger girls were being seized and prepared for abduction.

A man with a pale, somewhat sickly complexion and a treasure sword at his waist sat quietly on a jujube-red horse, obviously the leader of these bandits.

As Jiang Liu and Gaoyang emerged, two of the bandits were immediately drawn to Gaoyang, their eyes shining, "Who would have thought such a beautiful woman could be found in this tiny mountain village?"

Even though Gaoyang was dressed in simple work clothes, she was, after all, born a Princess of Great Tang and her appearance and aura were completely different from those of the village women; seeing Gaoyang, the two bandits hastily charged over, reaching out to take her.

But then, screams rang out. Gaoyang lifted her foot, one kick per bandit, sending them flying away.

Each bandit, having received a kick, was sent flying more than half a zhang away.

"Oh? There are actually people trained in martial arts in this little mountain village?" The young man with the white face sitting on the jujube-red horse noticed the scene here and raised an eyebrow; he spurred his horse and rushed over, his sword ringing as he drew it from the scabbard.

Jiang Liu stepped forward, golden light shining in his hand, and threw a punch at the head of the jujube-red horse.

With a thud, the punch, like a hammer, landed on the jujube-red horse's head, causing the horse to neigh in agony and collapse to the ground.

Of course, the young man with the pale face who was sitting on the horseback also rolled off the horse along with him.

Although he lived in seclusion in a small mountain village, not wanting to be involved in worldly affairs, content with a simple life, how could Jiang Liu stand by when bandits attacked the village, committing mass murder, and even looked to kidnap Gaoyang?

"What a formidable guy!", the pale-faced young man rolled on the ground twice, dissipating the force of the fall, and stood up, staring at Jiang Liu in astonishment. He hadn't expected that such a small mountain village would hide such an expert.

Now that he had made his move, he would show no mercy to these cruel bandits.

Jiang Liu leaped into the air and pounced towards the pale-faced young man again, his palm lifting at the same time to retrieve the Demon Subduing Staff from his storage space and smashed it down.

The world blurred before his eyes, and upon seeing the Demon Subduing Staff suddenly appear in Jiang Liu's hands, the young man stepped back in horror, his sword pointing towards Jiang Liu.

With a clang, the powerful strike broke the sword in the pale-faced young man's hand, and the unabated momentum of the Demon Subduing Staff crashed onto his shoulder. The sound of a crack echoed alongside a scream as his shoulder blade was clearly broken.

However, amidst his injury, the young man raised his palm, and a streak of blue light flashed towards Jiang Liu's head.

"Hidden weapons?", with only a faint blue afterimage visible in his eyes, Jiang Liu hastily raised the Demon Subduing Staff horizontally in defense against the suspected hidden weapon attack.

But the blue shadow made an extremely agile turn in mid-air, bypassing the Demon Subduing Staff, and in the blink of an eye, it was in front of Jiang Liu's forehead.

Startled in his heart, Jiang Liu reflexively contracted his head.

Although he successfully dodged the strike, his head felt cold as the little felt hat that had been sitting on top of his head flew off.

Turning his head to see, it turned out that what flew towards him wasn't any hidden weapon, but a blue mantis with wings.

"A demon creature?", A mantis that could move at such speed must certainly be a demon creature, Jiang Liu realized.

"A monk!?", with his felt hat knocked off by his own flying mantis, the pale-faced young man took in Jiang Liu's bald head and was visibly taken aback.

However, when the young man took a closer look at the large Incense Scar Initiation marks on Jiang Liu's head, he widened his eyes, full of disbelief: one... two... three...

"Ten... twelve incense scars... you, you're Master Xuanzang!?" His voice trailed off as the sword fell from the pale-faced young man's hands, and he stared at Jiang Liu with terror, muttering to himself.

"Sigh...", caught off guard, his hat fell off, revealing his identity. Jiang Liu sighed inwardly, raised his palm, and a hot burst of flame followed his motion, exploding directly upon the pale-faced young man.

In just a moment, all six or seven bandits were killed by Jiang Liu.

"Thank you, Master Xuanzang, for your rescue, thank you, Mage!", the remaining villagers all knelt down and bowed to Jiang Liu in gratitude.

"Auntie Wang, Uncle Zhang, please get up!", Having lived in the small mountain village for two months, Gaoyang was familiar with these villagers and hurriedly helped them to their feet.

"Gaoyang, let's go, let's leave this place, the farther the better...", Now that his identity was exposed, he could kill these bandits to silence them, but murdering these villagers? Jiang Liu couldn't bring himself to do such a thing. He could only take Gaoyang, swiftly pack up some belongings at home, and leave quickly.

"Caw caw caw...", However, above the small mountain village, a black crow let out an unpleasant screech and flew away into the distance.

"Xuanzang, Xuanzang has been found, he's not dead. I must hurry and report to the Great King, there'll surely be a great reward, a great reward".