"Hey, Brother Sha, don't say that. Didn't the Great Master say it himself? A prodigal who turns over a new leaf is worth more than gold. If you work hard to do good and build up merit, you'll surely attain enlightenment."
"Heh, then I'll take Little Ye's good wishes to heart."
After that, they split up and began searching for resources in different areas, each with a clear task.
Before long, Zhu Bajie came running over from a distance, panting. "Hey, Master! Master! There are people up ahead!" At those words, both Ye Chen and Tang Sanzang beamed with delight. The past half-month of trekking through the jungle had left them all thoroughly miserable. Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie had managed all right, but Tang Sanzang and Ye Chen had suffered terribly. As the saying went, all things had a spirit—except mosquitoes. At night, mosquitoes loved to bite people with delicate, tender skin. Every morning, Ye Chen woke up with bites all over his body. The instant he heard there were people nearby, he didn't even stop to think. He quickly helped Tang Sanzang onto White Horse, then led the horse and rushed ahead.
"Heh, looks like the mosquitoes have been giving Little Ye a rough time at night," Sun Wukong teased.
"Who are you telling? I want a vegetarian meal too. The fruit in these woods tastes good, but you can't make dried fruit out of it. It's a real headache."
"You glutton, all you ever think about is food."
After another short stretch of travel, wisps of smoke rose from the woods. Looking more closely, they saw hundreds of houses of all sizes scattered across a flat patch of land halfway up the wooded hillside. "Curling wisps of cooking smoke, a village nestled deep in the forest, far