191: Negotiation

Tang Ku and Shi Jingmo turned their heads and suddenly saw Ao Lie hugging Old Pig, crying like a tearful person.

“Second Senior Brother, you… I finally saw a relative… Hmm, right, I… my Soul was damaged, and it seemed like it would take a long time to recover, so why did it suddenly get better?”

Ao Lie finally came to his senses, released his hands, and patted himself all over.

Pigsy laughed proudly, “Haha, it still had to be me, your Senior Brother! If I hadn't found this pan tao tree, you would still be suffering!”

Little White Dragon Ao Lie chuckled, wiping away his tears, “Our Senior and Junior Brothers are finally reunited… Hmm, right, have you seen Master? He's become incredibly awesome now…”

Pigsy quickly nodded, “I've seen him, I've seen him! If it weren't for him, my fate would be even worse than yours now… Damn it, that monkey's Golden Cudgel had no sense of moderation; it almost really killed me, Old Pig!”

“Great Senior Brother was the one who did it? But… how could that be…” Little White Dragon still couldn't react, feeling that such a thing was simply impossible.

“He wasn't himself at that time!” Tang Ku suddenly walked closer and sighed.

“Hmm, I also don't think he was… Although Monkey Brother is a bit volatile, his eyes have always been dominated by arrogance and fierceness. He never had such a sinister expression!”

Old Pig shivered and said, “That guy was much scarier than Monkey Brother usually is!”

Ao Lie and the others fell silent, but now, Tang Ku’s core team was temporarily complete. The Master and Disciples greeted each other again, re-establishing their order of strength… After all, Ao Lie had previously called the three of them Senior Brothers. In fact, logically speaking, Little White Dragon joined the scripture-seeking team after Sun Wukong and should have been the Second Senior Brother, but he always appeared as a white horse mount as atonement, so his ranking was after Sha Wujing, followed by Shi Jingmo, and finally Wu Zhen.

Now that Ao Lie had also regained his consciousness, and it seemed his magical power had increased, Tang Ku didn't hide anything from them. He told everyone his conjectures and the purpose of sending Shi Jingmo. Everyone sat on the ground in the courtyard, and from time to time, servants would come with teapots, pouring a cup of tea for each person. Everyone took this opportunity to hold a small meeting.

“…The reason I said their attack at this time was a good thing is not actually referring to the event itself… To be honest, even though I tried my best to minimize the impact of this event, our battle still affected civilians… The losses caused by collapsing buildings were also considerable… So, this in itself is a major event that couldn't be worse… But…”

Tang Ku held up a finger and said, “But this precisely proves one thing from the side, and that is, they dare not launch a large-scale attack on the Great Tang, at least not now!”

“Oh, I, Old Pig, probably understand!”

Pigsy raised his hand and said, “This is the bottom line you mentioned, right… Hmm, they are hesitant about something and dare not directly attack the mortal imperial court…”

“Exactly, that's just as you said!”

Shi Jingmo said, “Their strength is so powerful; if all those Great Leaders were to act, and bring their subordinates, breaking through Chang'an City would be as easy as turning over one's hand. In other words, with such powerful forces, they did not choose to directly crush us with military might. Then there is only one possibility… they dare not!”

“Not only them, but even the Immortals and gods of the Heavenly Court dare not directly act against the Great Tang imperial family. All they do is infiltrate as foreign envoys to seize the imperial jade seal… Hmm, in that case, the imperial jade seal is a very important Magical Artifact to them, representing the Legacy of the entire Huaxia. In other words, countless Luck is concentrated in this He Shi Bi, and once this item is lost, the Great Tang’s Luck will wane, and the opposing side, having obtained the imperial jade seal, will have their Luck strengthened… From this perspective, as long as the Luck is present, they dare not launch a large-scale attack!”

Beside them, Wu Zhen rationally analyzed, “It can be seen from this that Luck is actually a very important thing, even though we currently don't know where its importance lies!”

Tang Ku smiled, “You're getting smarter and smarter… Hmm, that's right, so our primary task now is to find every possible way to guard this Luck, secretly accumulate strength until we have the power to fight them… No, we need to accumulate enough to completely crush them before we act, only then will we have a chance of winning, because we simply don't know the extent of their trump cards…”

“There’s also one more thing, and that’s about the Buddhist Reincarnation and Rebirth issue!”

Shi Jingmo suddenly said, “Master, you said that Buddhist Disciples are different from those Immortals who perform Possession; as long as they grow a little, they can return to the human world with their inherent magical power and wisdom… I think their threat is far greater than the previous two factions!”

Pigsy said, “Hmm, that makes sense… The Mahākāśyapa that Master and I dealt with in Gao Family Village, that kid was originally not even a third-rate character. After Reincarnation and cultivation, his magical power not only soared, but he also had Magic Treasures left by the Buddha as a foundation… The ambition of Buddhism is actually not small!”

“Alright, alright, we are now under attack from both sides, and there are too many powerful opponents. However, Buddhism is indeed a hidden danger. What I worry about is not how strong their magical power is, but that they have too many methods for spreading their religion!” Tang Ku said, “We must guard against this, and to prevent this, we must build our own Buddhist team… Hmm, you also know that I, your Master, have already fallen out with Buddhism and established my own sect. So, from now on, we must spread my Buddha Dharma and make the world believe in us. That is what we should do next. This is called ‘drawing the firewood from under the cauldron,’ completely suppressing the influence of Buddhism and preventing them from interfering!”

Pigsy couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh, “Hahaha, Master, your methods are truly superior… Hmm, but with just a few of us, if we talk about proselytizing, we're a bit short-handed, and none of us are as eloquent as you!”

Tang Ku pouted and smiled, “Therefore, I said we must build our own Buddhist team! At the very least, we must find my other two Disciples!”

“You mean Sha Shidi (Junior Brother Sha) and Great Senior Brother?”

Pigsy frowned slightly, “I can guess that Sha Shidi (Junior Brother Sha) returned to Liusha River, and his situation might be similar to mine, Old Pig, becoming muddled. But as for Monkey Brother… you probably don't even know where his Soul is!”

“Then let's go find Monk Sha first!” Tang Ku said in a deep voice, “As for that monkey… there will always be a way!”

At this moment, while the group was discussing enthusiastically, just outside the West Gate of Chang'an City, a tall figure dressed in a cloak and covered in yellow sand was slowly approaching the city gate…