Journey to the West: Starting by taking Sun Wukong as my disciple!-Chapter 781 - 780: Release Tang Monk and Chen Nuo
Xuanzang was now tied up and could not help her even if he wanted to. He only said, "Princess, please stop kneeling. I promise, this monk promises you that. If you kneel, it wouldn’t be right for me to accept."
Hearing Xuanzang say this, the princess slowly rose to her feet. She quickly wrote a letter, sealed it, and placed her pearl hairpin with it, then untied Xuanzang and handed him the letter, "Elder, whether I can be rescued now depends entirely on you. You must save me."
"I will do my best," said Xuanzang, "Thank you for your grace in saving my life. You have freed me, and I will definitely deliver your letter to the king of the Treasure Elephant Kingdom. As for the rest, I dare not make promises, but I will surely try my hardest."
Baihua Xiu nodded, about to let Xuanzang leave when Chen Nuo suddenly spoke up, "Uh, it seems like you’ve forgotten there is another person here."
Both turned to look at Chen Nuo, who had been silent. Because they were discussing such pressing matters, they had forgotten there was another person. Baihua Xiu hurriedly began to untie Chen Nuo, "Mr. Chen, I apologize. The situation was so urgent that I completely forgot to untie you. Please don’t take offense." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
"It’s no matter, you saved me, and I should be the one thanking you," Chen Nuo said with a smile.
Baihua Xiu was somewhat stunned by Chen Nuo’s smile. It took her a few seconds to collect herself before she apologized softly, "I’m really sorry, Mr. Chen, and thank you for agreeing to deliver the letter. After I lead you out the back door later, you needn’t worry about the rest. I’ll take care of it."
"How will you handle it?" asked Xuanzang, "Princess, after you let us go, what will you do when the monster comes for you?"
Chen Nuo nearly rolled his eyes at Xuanzang. After all, they were a couple and the Kui Star Kuimu Wolf had originally kidnapped him because of Baihua Xiu. How could it possibly harm her for her actions?
"Elder, rest assured, he won’t harm me. You better leave quickly; otherwise, if he returns, you won’t be able to leave at all," Baihua Xiu said.
Upon hearing that they might not be able to leave, Xuanzang stopped asking questions and briskly prepared to depart with the letter in hand.
The two left from the back door and from a distance, greeted the Six-Eared Macaque.
Since Kuimu Wolf was facing away, he did not see them. The Six-Eared Macaque had a clear view and after noticing Xuanzang and Chen Nuo’s departure, he retracted his weapon and pointed at Kuimu Wolf, "You consider yourself formidable, but once I return with reinforcements, I will beat you till you’re down on your luck!"
The monster, unaware of what had occurred, assumed that the monkey simply couldn’t beat him and wanted to flee. He laughed and said, "Is that so? Well, then I’ll just wait for you to bring back reinforcements. But by that time, your master and that mortal may well be in our bellies, hahaha!"
The Six-Eared Macaque ignored his taunts and promptly left. Though he couldn’t fly, his speed was unmatched by ordinary folk, and he quickly caught up with Chen Nuo and Xuanzang.
"Master, Mr. Chen, I was just about to go in and rescue you when, to my surprise, you’ve escaped on your own, which is quite impressive," he said.
Xuanzang, having just escaped death, did not bother to blame the Six-Eared Macaque for not being powerful enough and replied, "We encountered the monster’s wife inside. She is a mortal, the Third Princess of the Treasure Elephant Kingdom. She let us go after asking me to deliver a letter to the king of her country."
"That’s very good. Even though she has become an accomplice to the monster, she still kept a kind heart, accumulating Merit Points for herself," the Six-Eared Macaque remarked.
"She is actually not an accomplice of the monster; she is a pitiable person," Xuanzang elaborated. "She was kidnapped by the monster and held in his cave abode. She asked me to deliver a letter to the king of the Treasure Elephant Kingdom, and then she set us free. So, we should deliver the princess’s letter first."
Having said this, Xuanzang took out the letter.
The Six-Eared Macaque smiled nonchalantly. "Ah, Master, since you’ve already set us free, it might not matter whether the letter is delivered or not, right? After all, that demon has abducted her for such a long time without harming her, which must mean true feelings are involved. Since it’s true love, they naturally won’t trouble her for releasing us. In short, whether I deliver this letter or not, it doesn’t really matter."
Xuanzang replied solemnly, "That is absolutely unacceptable. Since we’ve made a promise, no matter what, we must keep our word. How could we commit such a breach of faith? The letter must be delivered!"
Seeing his Master so resolute, the Six-Eared Macaque could only helplessly accompany Xuanzang and Chen Nuo towards the Treasure Elephant Kingdom.
Upon arrival, Xuanzang asked the guards at the gate to inform the king that they had encountered the Third Princess of the Treasure Elephant Kingdom on the road, and that she had entrusted them with a letter to deliver.
Initially, the guards were skeptical, for their Third Princess had vanished without a trace for thirteen years. How could there suddenly be a letter from her? However, when Xuanzang handed over the letter and the pearl hairpin, the guards finally believed his words.
Xuanzang followed the envoy into the grand hall to speak with the king, while Chen Nuo and the Six-Eared Macaque waited outside until the king summoned them to meet.
Chen Nuo reviewed the process with the system again, pondering how to resolve the situation at hand.
According to the original text, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing together were no match for the Kuimu Wolf, and that was because the Kuimu Wolf possessed a Magic Artifact, the Relic Linglong Inner Pill. When Sun Wukong defeated the Kuimu Wolf, he first tricked him out of his Exquisite Inner Alchemy, and then they fought.
Yes, tricked.
But Chen Nuo’s current persona didn’t quite match; he was supposed to be a mortal, so involving him in fighting demons was completely out of the picture. Yet if the Six-Eared Macaque took part, and he consumed the Exquisite Inner Alchemy, then the trip would have been for naught.
As Chen Nuo was thinking of a strategy, the envoy returned, stating that they were to be summoned. Chen Nuo and the Six-Eared Macaque thus followed the envoy to the grand hall.
Upon their arrival, all the ministers and attendants in the grand hall gasped in astonishment.
No wonder they were frightened; the Six-Eared Macaque was not very tall and covered in fur. Had it not been for his clothing and human-like demeanor, he would have been indistinguishable from a hairy monkey.
When they reached the grand hall, the king asked, "Elder, which one is your disciple?"
Xuanzang pointed to the Six-Eared Macaque. "This is my disciple, named Sun Wukong, also known as Sun the Pilgrim. And this is a good friend who accompanies us on our journey, named..."
He paused mid-sentence, realizing that although he had been calling him "Mr."’ he did not know Mr. Chen’s actual name.
"Chen Jiu," said Chen Nuo.
"Mr. Chen Jiu," the king of the Treasure Elephant Kingdom said with a smile.
The gentleman was tall and, while his features were not remarkably outstanding, he was certainly handsome. But what was even more prominent than his looks was his demeanor; there were no words to accurately describe his aura. It felt unjust that such an ordinary face was paired with such an exceptional demeanor.
