Atop this high mountain, facing the fierce wind from the east, a woman with tears in her eyes looked eagerly towards the east, murmuring to herself, "A whole week has passed, how come he still hasn''t arrived?"

    Gurgle gurgle...

    Her stomach cooperated by letting out a loud growl.

    The skeletal landowner popped his head out and said, "Ma''am, why don''t you sleep a bit more?"

    The bone lady stubbornly shook her head, "I won''t sleep! If I oversleep, how can I attain immortality? This opportunity is rare, once in a thousand years, I must seize it! Keep a close watch!"

    The skeletal landowner scratched his head, "Ma''am, how about making do with some animal blood?"

    The bone lady waved her hand, "Scram!"

    A gust of wind blew by, and another three days passed.

    There was still no sign of the monk in the east...

    A python passed by at the foot of the mountain...

    The skeletal landowner asked again, "Ma''am, if you really can''t hold out, just have a bite. Although it''s not as delicious as human blood, being hungry is really no solution..."

    The bone lady said, "Drinking the blood of beasts is an insult to me!"

    The skeletal landowner left once more.

    Another three days...

    The bone lady was so hungry she felt her chest sticking to her back. She touched her chest, which had gone from a D to almost an A, looked up to the sky with anger, and said, "The baldies from Mount Spirit are really too unpunctual, aren''t they? This is such bullshit!"

    "Ma''am..." the skeletal landowner just started to speak.

    Suddenly, the bone lady turned her head towards a large python that was passing by, then revealed a fierce smile and said, "You, come insult me!"

    The large python looked bewildered at the bone lady.

    Although the bald one was alright with his food intake, he had been idle for far too long.

    Now, seeing this mountain dense with woods and shrouded in miasma, he had relapsed into his act of playing the pig to eat the tiger. Consequently, everyone collectively rolled their eyes and ignored him, heading straight down the mountain.

    Sun Wukong arrived in front of White Tiger Ridge, and without wasting words, he took out Jingu Bang and slammed it to the ground with a heavy thud. The ground shook and the mountains trembled with a boom!

    Sun Wukong roared, "Get lost, all of you, for your Grandpa Sun!"

    With his roar, the tigers, leopards, wolves, and bears in the mountain ran away in fear. The large snakes retracted their heads, and the giant pythons returned to their caves, shivering in terror, no longer looking ferocious as before.

    Sun Wukong swung Jingu Bang again, smashing it towards the front, and all the shrubs and thorny bushes were flattened, forging a road on the mountain.

    After all was done, Sun Wukong turned back and told Tang Sanzang with a look of seeking credit, "Master, the path is clear; we can proceed now."

    Tang Sanzang replied with a grievous expression, "Wukong, why make such a commotion? What if it attracts the mountain demons? Next time, keep it down. Let''s sneak in silently, sneak out, and make sure not to be discovered."

    After speaking, Tang Sanzang spurred his horse toward the mountain, all the while shouting, "Is anyone there? I''m a soft, tender, and juicy monk from Great Tang in the Eastern Land. My flesh is fresh and succulent, perfect for steaming after a water wash!"

    A collective series of dark lines formed on the foreheads of Sun Wukong, Zhu Ganglie, Sha Wujing, and the others...

    Sha Wujing mumbled, "Master hasn''t been short of good meat on this trip, how can he still be such a pitfall?"

    Zhu Ganglie said, "Master must be longing for a free bathhouse since it''s been so long since he had a bath."

    Sha Wujing replied, "Actually, I could give him a good scrubbing..."

    Zhu Ganglie shot him a disdainful glance, "If you were a beautiful fairy, he''d let you scrub him every day. Sadly, you''re just a shabby fellow!!"

    Meanwhile, as Tang Sanzang kept shouting and got no response from any mountain spirits or wild demons, he sighed and said, "Ah, I''ve been calling for so long and no demons have come. There must be no demons on this mountain... Now, I can rest assured."

    Zhu Ganglie asked, "Master, what are you so relieved about?"

    Tang Sanzang replied seriously, "As your master, I have no power to truss a chicken; it has all been up to you, especially your big brother, to protect me on our journey westward. Now, I''m hungry and have been afraid to say anything, worrying that if your big brother went out to beg for alms, demons might come knocking. Having tested the waters for so long with no demon in sight, it seems there are none. Wukong, you can go beg for alms with ease now. Remember, choose the fattest one!"

    Hearing this, everyone was once again speechless. This guy''s acting skills were improving by leaps and bounds. If they didn''t know him better, just by the way he appeared weak and defenseless, they might have believed his fairy tales.