Sword God? How Cheeky.
There was one lesson Sun Wukong had learned the hard way on his journey to the Western Heaven: the world's workings were so perversely strange that things always turned out more troublesome than expected.
He'd figured that once he reached the Namgung Clan Estate, everything would fall neatly into place. He hadn't counted on there being this many humans. Guanyin had pinpointed the location down to the last detail, so he'd assumed the whole affair would be over in no time.
But looking at how things were unfolding, this was going to be anything but easy. He knew exactly how rotten Guanyin's personality was. This was her assignment. His gut told him there was no chance it would be simple.
"What's the Namgung Clan Estate like?"
Sun Wukong decided it was time to take a more active hand in things.
"The Namgung Clan Estate? I thought you were headed there on business."
"I am. Why?"
"And you don't know what kind of place it is?"
"Does this Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, Teacher Sun — the one who holds the heavens in the palm of his hand — need to know about some mortal children's game?"
"Ah."
Sideburns squeezed his eyes shut in spite of himself. After only a few hours, he had already learned that reacting to every one of this man's remarks would only wear him down. So he let it go.
"The great Namgung Clan. Overlords of Anhui Province. Descendants of the dragon. Heroes of Murim. Or blood-mad sword demons, depending on who you ask. That about covers it."
Sun Wukong blinked.
"The absolute masters of Central Plains Murim? A Sword God? That's odd. I was told no gods had descended to the mortal world. They've got one down here too?"
"…It's the home of Namgung Jincheon. He's said to be the strongest man in Central Plains Murim — or close enough that people argue about it. They call him the Sword God because he reached a realm with the blade that touches the divine."
Sun Wukong stroked his chin.
"Oho. That brat's got some nerve. Well, I did name myself Great Sage, Heaven's Equal once upon a time. Kid's got confidence, I'll give him that."
Sword God, huh.
A little arrogant, sure — but a man ought to have that kind of gall.
The absolute master of the martial world. And the place where the strongest human alive makes his home.
Of all the places in the world, why had Sanzang been there?
Does that mean Sanzang was a martial artist too?
Sun Wukong cocked his head.
Sanzang had been a thoroughgoing believer in the principle of non-killing. The living embodiment of mercy and forgiveness. When Sun Wukong had butchered a demon that had been trying to eat the man, Sanzang had turned around and given him a savage dressing-down for it.
He had been so insufferably, impossibly frustrating that he had tested Sun Wukong's murderous impulses without rest. Without the Golden Tightening Fillet, Sanzang would have died by Sun Wukong's hand hundreds of times over.
Thanks to that, Wukong had been certain he'd die of sheer frustration. Truly.
And now that same man was a martial artist.
From what he'd gathered, even Shaolin Temple — home of the Buddhist monks — and the Emei Sect of the nuns were all part of Murim. Each claimed to pursue its own ideals, but to Sun Wukong, who had neither interest in nor expectations of humanity, and who leaned toward the cynical besides, it all looked the same no matter how he turned it over.
Just a bunch of people who got together to swing swords at each other and kill folks.
And then there was that inner energy of theirs. There was nothing ordinary about how sinister it was. Mere humans could wield power that rivaled a demon's — that matched a demon's — that even surpassed one.
Humans had always been creatures of greater desire than any demon. Sun Wukong remembered that clearly enough.
There were humans who tried to trick Sanzang and hand him over to demons.
How many mortals had there been who wanted to become a demon's thrall just to gain power and eternal life? When hands already matching any demon for greed were given monstrous strength, and then those hands split into factions — how could the world possibly stay quiet?
And Sanzang is one of those martial artists.
No matter how he pictured it, the two things refused to fit together. He couldn't even guess what form the man might have been reborn in. How was he supposed to find him?
It wasn't as if he had no method at all.
I wondered what Guanyin meant by that. I think I get it now.
She had said he would recognize Sanzang naturally.
Sun Wukong's gaze drifted, unbidden, to Sideburns.
"…"
In a realm invisible to human eyes — the landscape of the heart — a pure white thread stretched between Sideburns and himself.
The bond of which the Buddhists spoke. Fate. The thread that bound one life to another.
A faint smile touched Sun Wukong's lips.
That man's previous life.
Who had he been?
There was someone who came to mind, more or less. But he couldn't be sure.
If Sanzang's body was at the Namgung Clan Estate, that thread would show itself. The problem was that he couldn't be certain the person on the other end would actually be Sanzang.
Ah, well… as if I wouldn't recognize Sanzang.
Come on. No way.
One look and he'd know.
…He would. Surely.
While Sun Wukong drifted in thought, Sideburns and Sparrow-Eyes had put some distance between themselves and him and were talking in low voices.
"Boss, doesn't he seem completely off his rocker to you?"
"Not just off his rocker. I think he genuinely believes he's the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal. I mean it. He's dead serious."
"Aigoo. We really stepped in it this time. Why'd you have to pick that guy up, Boss? You weren't even actually going to sell him to some cut-sleeve."
"He just looked like a young lord, more or less, and that golden hair made me think he was some rich family's son. I figured we could squeeze a little money out of him. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he wouldn't have a single coin on him. And then he turns out to be a lunatic on top of it."
They had well and truly walked into this one. Worse, every conversation left them with a creeping sense that something was off. His looks were nothing like a typical man of the Central Plains, which they'd been willing to shrug off at first.
"It's like his whole sense of how the world works is broken, Boss."
"Tell me about it. Talking to him doesn't even feel like talking to a person."
"Look, if this keeps up we're going to be in real trouble. Are we actually going all the way to the Namgung Clan Estate with him?"
Sideburns swallowed a groan. If it had been anywhere else, he would have shown the man the way and been done with it. But just as Sparrow-Eyes feared…
"That's the Namgung Clan Estate we're talking about. The place where those sword-crazed ghosts live. Descendants of the dragon? Yeah — and that dragon was a rabid one, wasn't it?"
"Hrm."
"You look at what the Namgung did in the last Great War and I start wanting to root for the Sama Order, that's how far off the rails those people are. And you want to go there?"
"Haa. Who in their right mind would want to go anywhere near that place? One wrong step and you're dead."
"And that gentleman over there? He doesn't even know what the Namgung Clan Estate is. Just look at that personality."
Sun Wukong's personality, was it.
"A man like that walks into the Namgung Clan Estate and it looks, to anyone with eyes, like a fight waiting to happen. Doesn't it?"
"True enough. If that lunacy of his goes off the deep end at the Namgung estate… aigoo."
"So let's run. Whatever happens to him once he gets there isn't our problem, is it?"
"And how do you propose we do that? That bastard keeps watching me. Quietly, but he doesn't stop."
Sideburns was more sensitive than he looked. Every time he felt Sun Wukong's gaze trailing after him, a chill ran down his spine. For reasons he couldn't name, that man was paying attention to him. Run? From here?
"We take a boat."
"Huh?"
"The fastest way to Anhui Province is by water anyway, isn't it?"
"That's true. The waterways connect all the way there."
"And then at night, when nobody's looking, we hop off the boat."
"You want to swim for it?"
"Boss. Before we took to the mountains, you and I both did time as river pirates. I'm a decent swimmer, and you? You're the best there is."
"Oho!"
Sideburns nodded. It was a surprisingly solid plan. Slip into the water at night and swim away, and there was no chance the man would notice.
Was he really going to turn a boat around mid-voyage just to chase them? The man's goal was the Namgung Clan Estate either way.
"Good. First we head to the docks."
"Yes, Boss. I'm starting to miss Mount Hayeon."
"This way, Great Hero! Take a boat and you'll be there in three days!"
Sideburns and Sparrow-Eyes led Sun Wukong toward the docks, putting on a great show of enthusiasm.
The roads in this region had never been particularly well developed, but the town had grown into a respectable city largely thanks to river commerce. A tributary branching from the Yangtze cut through the settlement and served as a hub of traffic — which was another way of saying that a great many people crowded through it.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"You're suddenly full of energy."
"I'm a positive person in all things."
Sun Wukong folded his arms and regarded the two bandits in silence.
"…"
Sideburns swallowed hard. It was deeply strange.
He doesn't look like anything special.
He wasn't glaring like some neighborhood thug trying to look tough. No vast inner energy rolled off him the way it did from a Murim master. There was none of the murderous aura that clung to men of the unorthodox path.
He was simply looking at them.
And yet.
It feels like I'm being peeled apart, layer by layer.
Was this what it felt like to stand naked? As if every shameful thing he wanted to hide was being laid bare. Those eyes looked as though they already knew everything.
The golden pupils did not seem like a human being's eyes at all.
For a brief instant, Sideburns found himself half-convinced that this raving madman might actually be what he claimed — the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal. The profound light in those eyes simply did not belong to anyone of this world.
A cold sweat began to creep down Sideburns's back under that pressure — and then Sun Wukong's eyes curved into crescents. There it was: that familiar glint of mischief. As if it had never existed, the crushing weight vanished. All he had done was smile with his eyes.
"What're you so scared for? Where'd all that guts go — the ones you had when you swung a fist at my head?"
"Ah, th-that was, I, I committed an unforgivable—"
Sideburns startled so badly that Sun Wukong burst out cackling.
"Forget it. You said we've got time before the boat. Let's eat."
"F-food, right, of course. We should eat."
"Uh, that, Brother? I mean, Great Hero? D-do you have any money? Back in the forest I, ah, took the liberty of checking your robes, and there wasn't a single coin."
At Sparrow-Eyes's words, Sun Wukong tilted his head.
"You need money for that?"
"Pardon?"
Sideburns and Sparrow-Eyes blinked at him. What kind of nonsense was this now?
Sun Wukong looked back at them as if they were the ones who didn't make sense.
"Can't you just go to some house, say you're a traveler passing through, and ask for a meal?"
Whenever Sanzang had said he was hungry, people had all but emptied their pantries to feed him.
"What are you, a beggar? A monk? You don't just go around asking people for food."
"A beggar? A monk?"
"Ahem. W-well, times are hard these days, you understand."
"Hah. What the hell is that bastard Sanzang even doing? He reincarnates to civilize humanity and look — they've only gotten worse. Humans."
"…"
There he went again.
Does this man actually think he's the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal?
He was a lunatic, plain and simple. He had built an entire world inside his own head and moved in.
The problem was that the lunatic also happened to possess terrifying power.
"Then just use your money."
"Our money?"
Sideburns and Sparrow-Eyes let out hollow laughs. Now he was shaking down bandits.
"W-well, the thing is, we don't have any money either."
"You're bandits and you're telling me you don't have money? Does that make any sense?"
"There are, ah, various circumstances—"
"Hss. You two can't even lie without—"
That was when it happened.
"Hey! You lot! Finally found you!"
A great cry split the air, ringing through the atmosphere until the very space around them seemed to tremble.
Since descending to the mortal world, Sun Wukong had seen little more than Sideburns. He turned toward the unfamiliar presence with a gleam of curiosity in his eyes.
A band of sword-bearing humans stood there, radiating a murderous aura.
"You've got some nerve crawling out here in your right mind. You really have gone mad."
Huh?
Why were they pointing this way?
Who were these people?
"Today we take your lives — and we will not miss!"
…No, seriously. Why?