Journey to the West: Starting from Changing Sun Wukong’s fate
Chapter 236 - 237: Sun Wukong Doesn’t Take This Seriously At All

Chapter 236: Chapter 237: Sun Wukong Doesn’t Take This Seriously At All

Having left Five Villas, Sun Wukong sped across the surface of the sea, swift as a shooting star, and in a blink, arrived at Penglai Fairyland.

Sun Wukong landed in Penglai and walked inside.

He had only taken a few steps when he saw three old men playing Go under a pine tree outside the White Cloud Cave.

Watching the game was Shouxing, while Lucky Star and Green Star played against each other.

"What are you three old brothers up to here?"

Sun Wukong seemed interested and joined them to watch the game.

"Ah, it’s the Great Sage, long time no see!"

"What brings the Great Sage here?"

The three Immortals were a bit surprised, not expecting to encounter Sun Wukong here.

"I’ve specifically come to catch up with you guys!"

Sun Wukong waved his hand and said, "Carry on with your game, don’t mind me!"

These three Immortals had become divine beings after him, naturally, they were his younger brothers.

As for the task of finding the treasure, he would leave it to Buddhism to worry about. It would suffice for him to do just a little, or so his elder brother had said.

After all, whether the four of them on the Journey to the West valued their lives or not, Buddhism could not disregard them.

The three Immortals playing Go turned into a whole day’s affair. At first, Sun Wukong watched with great interest, but after a while, he grew bored and dozed off under the adjacent tree.

He acted as if he had nothing to do with the matter.

But for the Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity, it was rather frustrating—they had already received the decree.

While the Jade Emperor did not wish to put in too much effort for the sake of Buddhism, some effort was still needed to earn some merit.

Now, to give the monkey some treasures was, of course, unavoidable.

However, what they had not anticipated was that this monkey would not inquire at all; instead, he fell asleep.

Did he not care at all about the wellbeing of his master and brothers?

Or were they expected to proactively offer up the treasures?

What was this supposed to mean?

"Ahem!"

After they finished their game of Go, Lucky Star cleared his throat in the hope of waking Sun Wukong.

Yet Sun Wukong remained deep in sleep, seemingly dead to the world.

"We’re approaching two days now, isn’t it? How can this monkey be so carefree? Isn’t he, by all accounts, supposed to be the most anxious?"

Lucky Star glanced at Sun Wukong lying under the tree and couldn’t help feeling dejected.

Green Star also shook his head and said, "I reckon, this monkey never wanted to embark on the Journey to the West in the first place. If his master and brothers are dead, won’t he be free to return home without worry?"

"That’s not unreasonable. But in that case, what are we to do about the task the Emperor has entrusted to us?"

Shouxing also felt somewhat helpless.

If Sun Wukong didn’t speak up, were they expected to take the initiative?

All three were in low spirits, having awaited here upon receiving the Jade Emperor’s decree, and to their surprise, when Sun Wukong did show up, he ended up sound asleep beside them.

"Ahem!"

Shouxing coughed as well, then said, "No, we must fulfill his Majesty’s decree!"

The three of them conferred and decided they could delay no longer; if they did, Xuanzang and his companions might die.

"I say, Great Sage!"

"Great Sage Grandpa!"

...

The three began to call out to Sun Wukong, but sadly he slept like the dead, completely ignoring them.

Despite their calls, Sun Wukong gave no sign of waking.

"My Great Sage Grandfather!"

Shouxing forced a smile.

"Eh, why are you calling me grandpa?"

Sun Wukong opened his eyes and looked at the three of them.

He had noticed their calls long ago.

He just hadn’t responded, but now that they were even calling him grandpa, he felt a bit too embarrassed not to get up.

He then stretched lazily and looked toward Shouxing.

Shouxing wore a wry smile, thinking, ’I call you grandpa once, and you wake up. Have you no shame?’

But now that Sun Wukong was awake, they could continue their questioning.

"Great Sage, we’ve played Go for an entire day, don’t you have anything to say?"

Lucky Star asked the Great Sage.

"No issues at all, why do you ask?"

Sun Wukong shook his head.

The Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity grew vexed upon hearing Sun Wukong’s reply; they all knew that Xuanzang and his two followers were held in Five Villas, waiting for this monkey to rescue them, and yet Sun Wukong claimed there was no issue?

"Great Sage, you’re not concerned about Seeking Scriptures and even have time to visit us? Aren’t you afraid of your master’s punishment?"

Shouxing also spoke up.

Green Star nodded and said, "We’ve all heard about the Great Sage abandoning the path for Buddhism, valiantly risking your life to protect Xuanzang’s and thus proceeding to Western Heaven to worship Buddha and seek scriptures. Always on the go, when would you have the time to visit us, unless something has happened?"

Green Star’s words were meant to prompt Sun Wukong to speak further so that they could deliver the treasures.

And fulfill the Emperor’s trust.

"No, Old Sun protects Xuanzang for sure, but after many days of travel, we naturally should rest for a couple of days!"

Sun Wukong shook his head, his face indifferent, as if nothing at all had happened.

Seeing Sun Wukong’s demeanor, the Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity became even more convinced that Sun Wukong just didn’t want to protect Xuanzang on his Journey to the West, hence he came here, waiting for Xuanzang and his two companions to be in mortal peril before returning to Mount Huaguo.

However, if Xuanzang and his two companions indeed perished, the mission of the Journey to the West would be completely severed, and though it had nothing to do with them, the Western Direction certainly wouldn’t let it rest easily.

"Really? Great Saint, you must have reached the Five Villas by now, haven’t you? Did anything happen there?"

Lucky Star asked with a forced smile.

"Oh, nothing serious, just some minor hindrances, hardly worth mentioning!"

Sun Wukong said nonchalantly.

The Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity exchanged glances; why did they feel like they were taking things more seriously than Sun Wukong, who seemed to not care at all?

It was really frustrating.

"What sort of hindrances? Great Saint, please speak freely, if there’s any way we can be of help, we would certainly spare no effort!"

Shouxing hastily said, afraid of losing the chance to aid Sun Wukong.

Sun Wukong shrugged and said, "We just passed by Wanshou Mountain’s Five Villas, where we met with some obstructions, nothing serious."

The Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity feigned surprise, "The Five Villas is Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi’s dojo, and his most treasured possession there is the Ginseng Fruit. You didn’t steal and eat his Ginseng Fruits, did you?"

The Three Stars coveted the Ginseng Fruit immensely, they just never had the chance to taste one.

Unbelievably, this monkey not only stole the fruits but also wrecked the Ginseng Fruit Tree, completely oblivious of the consequences.

Now, it was perfectly reasonable for Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi to want to kill the group of four disciples.

The worrying thing was that this monkey didn’t seem to take it to heart at all, much less seriously than they did.

Upon hearing this, Sun Sui laughed and said, "I didn’t steal any, don’t talk nonsense!"

But even now, the Jade Emperor had already issued a decree stating they had stolen the Ginseng Fruits and smashed the Ginseng Fruit Tree, and that some treasures were needed to offer an apology to Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi.

Sun Wukong still seemed to want to quibble.

"You monkey clearly did steal them; otherwise, why would Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi block your way!"

"I heard smelling the fruit grants three hundred and sixty years of life, and eating one yields forty-seven thousand years, it’s practically on par with the Nine-turn Golden Pill!"

"Even we cultivators don’t have it as easy as this fruit, which grants immortality in one go, whereas we must nourish our essence, refine our qi, preserve our spirit, not to mention the immense effort involved."

"Great Saint, how can you treat it as trivial? Only such a Spirit Root in the world could have this effect!"

The Three Stars of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity lusted after the Ginseng Fruit, who wouldn’t want to live a little longer?

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have devoted themselves to cultivation.

"What a pity that the roots of the Ginseng Fruit are broken!"

Sun Wukong could not help but shake his head.

"What? How did the roots break?"

The Three Stars knew about it already but still felt some shock upon hearing the news.

It was a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root, and it had been destroyed just like that.

Such a waste.

Sun Wukong ambiguously repeated what had happened.

"Now, Guanyin Bodhisattva and I can only try to find solutions separately, Guanyin to find a way to save the tree, and I to look for treasures to apologize to Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi!"

"So my three brothers, do you have any treasures? If not, I’ll be on my way!"

But by the look of it, Sun Wukong didn’t really seem set on actually finding any treasures.

The Three Stars grew exasperated, Sun Wukong apparently wasn’t afraid of Xuanzang being killed at all, first taking a nap at their place, and then behaving as if he would just look elsewhere if they had nothing.

They showed not the slightest concern for Xuanzang’s welfare.

Shouxing said with a bitter smile, "Great Saint, it seems you really don’t know who Zhen Yuanzi is!"

"Oh? Isn’t Zhen Yuanzi just an Earth Immortal from that place?"

Sun Wukong’s knowledge of Zhen Yuanzi was indeed limited.

In his view, even though Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi was powerful, he had not yet ascended to the Celestial Court, so he didn’t matter much.

Lucky Star explained, "Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi is self-sufficient, he is our ancestor among immortals, not comparable to average Earth Immortals, he is a peer of the Six Great Saints, with abundant merit, beyond our reach!"

"Indeed, I fear that even the Jade Emperor himself, if he truly fought with Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi, would likely end up defeated!"

"That powerful?"

Sun Wukong truly began to grasp the strength of Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi for the first time.

"Exactly that powerful!"

The Three Stars nodded in agreement.

Sun Wukong thought to himself no wonder both Daoist Sects and Buddhism want to covertly deal with Zhen Yuanzi; now he completely understood.

But as for the pettiness of immortals and Buddhas.

Seeing someone formidable, they resorted to underhanded tricks.

"Alright, Great Saint, since the matter is so important, you really should hurry to find treasures now. Although we have some, I’m afraid they might not be sufficient!"

"Exactly, since the Great Saint feels it’s not enough, considering the time constraint, let’s see if we can persuade Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi to give you a few more days, to allow you more time to find treasures!"

Sun Wukong upon hearing this couldn’t help but show a look of joy and said gratefully, "Then I thank you all very much, for giving me more time to seek treasures."

"We just hope the Great Saint doesn’t take such matters lightly again!"

The Three Stars couldn’t help but smile bitterly; judging by Sun Wukong’s casual attitude, even adding a dozen more days would likely not be enough!

"My three brothers, rest assured, I truly appreciate it this time, and I’ll immediately head to other places to look for treasures."

Sun Wukong took a few items from them and then hurried towards the distance—after getting away from the Three Stars, he found another place to sleep.

Meanwhile, the Three Stars faithfully went to the Five Villas, hoping they could persuade Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi to grant a few more days of grace.