Journey to the West: Starting by taking Sun Wukong as my disciple!-Chapter 384: The Buddhas Start Eating

"You’re just pretending. Let me just say it now, the reason we came here is that we wanted to eat this dish. Even though we haven’t actually tasted it yet, I can see that each of you is struggling to hold back, aren’t you?"

"No, what’s gotten into you? Did Sun Wukong actually cast some incantation on this dish? It was him who changed you, right, junior brother?"

"What do I look like? I’m just telling the truth." The disciple took a small cup from in front of his senior brother, scooped up a mushroom, and held it to his mouth.

"Look at this mushroom, its shape and color must have been carefully selected. They’ve grown so well, isn’t it just for making into dishes for us to eat?"

"No, what are you doing!" The senior brother tried to turn his face away, but the junior disciple pinned his jaw in place.

"Stop struggling, senior brother, it’s okay. Just take a bite. Besides, this wouldn’t be breaking our precepts, right?"

The junior disciple held the spoon toward his senior brother’s mouth again, and the juice from the mushroom was already on his lips.

When the disciple spoke again, his voice seemed different from usual, enchanting, "It’s just a mushroom, after all. We have mushrooms in our vegetarian dishes too. Eating a single mushroom doesn’t count as breaking our precepts."

The other disciples present had looks of astonishment that turned into something else. Slowly, they too lifted their soup spoons.

Each disciple’s spoon held a single mushroom.

Turns out, not only the junior disciple, but each one of them was struggling between eating and not eating. The smallest burden on their conscience was this single vegetarian ingredient in the dish, a mushroom.

The junior disciple looked at his senior brother and laughed loudly again, "Haha, I told you, isn’t the purpose of our visit just to eat? Since we’ve come all this way, why trouble ourselves on an unjust journey?"

Then he said in that alluring voice, "It’s alright, senior brothers. Go ahead and eat. It’s only a mushroom. We’re just having a single vegetarian dish. It shouldn’t count as breaking our precepts."

Some disciples hesitated, while others had already put their spoons in their mouths.

Seeing others eating, those who still hesitated couldn’t resist the temptation and slowly put their spoons in their mouths as well.

The round and plump mushrooms were covered with delicious golden broth. Upon entering the mouth, all the flavors of various delicacies burst forth together.

The mushroom wasn’t just coated with the golden broth on the outside, but also had its own uniquely delicious juice that flowed out when bitten, making one unable to stop chewing, their cheeks continuously working.

The senior brother next to the junior disciple had been the one most eager to eat, but the drastic change in his junior brother’s temperament had been too much of a shock for him.

When the junior disciple let go of him, he happened to be the most lucid one among them.

As he was about to stop the other disciples, he turned to see his junior brother already eating other dishes, and urgently warned, "Junior brother, you mustn’t eat! You’re breaking the precepts. It must be Sun Wukong who has cast an incantation on this food. Wait for me; I am going to find the Buddha Ancestor to have Sun Wukong captured immediately."

As he spoke, he didn’t notice that his junior brother had already brought a spoon to his lips. Just as he finished his words, he suddenly tasted an exquisite flavor that shot straight to his crown, leaving him unsure of what to do next due to the impact of the flavor.

At that moment, a disciple he was on good terms with said, "Senior brother, there’s no incantation. You should try this dish, this mushroom; it is really delicious. I have never tasted food this good. If I could eat this every day, I would gladly give up being a monk."

"Is it really that tasty?" the disciple hesitated.

The junior disciple stopped his attempt to leave, slowly walked back to his original place, picked up the spoon, and wavered within.

But his hands did not stop moving, and eventually, the mushroom made its way into his mouth.

The praises from his fellow disciples had already had him drooling, but it wasn’t until he actually tasted the dish that he realized.

No amount of flowery language could describe the deliciousness of such a culinary delight, for truly delectable food can’t be articulated in words while indulging in the eating process.

From the moment he tasted the dish, he couldn’t stop himself and just kept chewing on the food before him.

How could there be such a scrumptious dish!

Even when he was only eating vegetarian dishes, they were already delicious—but this dish certainly lived up to Sun Wukong’s description as a treasure-level cuisine.

Once he started, he couldn’t stop as if, in this world, there was nothing more important than this dish—unless, of course, it was two dishes!

The Imperial Kitchen had been renovated by the Jade Emperor after Sun Wukong was appointed as the head chef. Originally, the immortals of the Heavenly Court didn’t need to eat, and the kitchen was only used during banquets.

After Sun Wukong took over as head chef, to give him a better cooking experience, the Imperial Kitchen was enlarged to twice its size.

From then on, with Sun Wukong in charge, the fires of the Imperial Kitchen never ceased—except, of course, for the days when he was away.

Now in this grand Imperial Kitchen, eight Buddhist disciples each held a small pot, enjoying the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

They should have stopped after finishing the mushrooms, considering that it was the only vegetarian ingredient in the dish. But no one ceased; having started on this path, it was now easier to justify the subsequent courses.

After mushrooms, it was scallop. That disciple thought, this thing is similar to mushrooms; if asked later, he would just say he didn’t realize, still thinking it was another variety of mushrooms.

Then came the sea cucumber, and he found another excuse: this creature looked so ugly, it was hard to tell it was a living being. If asked later, he would just say he thought it was a fungus from a tree, like wood ear mushrooms.

For each ingredient, they had preemptively concocted a reason to indulge and decided not to care about it later on. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

After all, they had liberated them in their way—so what if they ate them? They would understand and hopefully not become food ingredients in their next life.

While they were eating merrily, little did they know that someone had already arrived outside.

This magical restraint only enveloped the entire Imperial Kitchen. The inside couldn’t hear the outside, nor did the outside know what was happening inside.

But once these disciples entered the Imperial Kitchen, their attention was entirely on the food, neglecting this minor detail completely.

Since Sun Wukong was only afraid that the noise and scent of cooking would seep outside, why were there also restraints within? This meant that people outside did not know someone was inside, and those inside were unaware of anyone approaching from outside. Their guilt and gluttony prevented them from considering this.

Thus, the Buddhist disciples feasting heartily encountered Sun Wukong and a myriad of Immortal Officials.

Sun Wukong, of course, had known about this all along; he had intended to lure them here from the beginning.

He didn’t expect them to actually start eating the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, but this made things easier, sparing him the effort of coaxing them into eating it.

The Immortal Officials behind Sun Wukong were completely in the dark; they were stunned to see everyone inside halt in unison.

The Buddhist disciples had switched to garb similar to the Heavenly Court’s Immortal Attendants upon arrival, which is why the officials took a moment to realize what was happening.