"You!"
Ka Shentong nearly spat blood, if he had any.
He had sought out Xuanzang not because he thought he and Ning Wanren were already strong enough to take down Xu Yi, but because he trusted Xuanzang's wisdom.
He had originally been formed from Xuanzang's corpse. No matter how much he stirred up trouble or how highly he thought of himself, deep down he still harbored a profound fear of Xuanzang.
Now that Xuanzang refused to budge, Ka Shentong had no confidence in capturing Xu Yi.
Ning Wanren said, "All right, then. We'll do as Brother Xuanzang says. Old Ka, let's wait a little longer. Well, you two don't get to meet often, and I'm sure you have private matters to discuss. I won't hang around and be a nuisance. You talk; I'll be off."
With that, Ning Wanren's body turned insubstantial, and in the blink of an eye, he was a hundred li away.
Suspended in the open sky, gazing at the bright moon, Ning Wanren's placid expression vanished. His eyes glinted with madness as he muttered to himself, "I've been trapped here for more than five hundred years. Even a lump of stubborn iron should have kindled a fire by now. Damn that bald donkey. The fool is no fit partner. He's letting a golden opportunity slip away. If you won't act, then I'll do it myself. Once this succeeds, you won't have a choice but to cooperate."
Just as Ka Shentong and Ning Wanren were meeting with Xuanzang, a middle-aged man in white stood inside the Void Hall atop Ten Thousand Buddhas Peak, the highest mountain in the Barren Frontier. His face was as round as the full moon, his eyes like gray crystal, and his bearing cold.
Not far from him, a young man in