A World of Gods, Buddhas, Demons, and Monsters

A year ago, Kakashi Hatake retired from the Anbu. The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, arranged a new position for him, tasking him with becoming a jonin instructor responsible for training young ninjas.

Throughout this past year, however, Team Kakashi was never formed; not a single genin who graduated from the Ninja Academy managed to pass his assessment.

"How did it go? Is it resolved, Kakashi?"

As Kakashi Hatake stepped out of the Anbu secret chamber, Might Guy leaped in front of him and asked with concern.

"Yes, it's resolved."

"Thank you, this time," Kakashi said.

Glancing with his only visible eye, he saw Might Guy, Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Tenzō all standing guard for him.

Might Guy, that guy... the problem is "genjutsu," yet what can he, a taijutsu specialist, possibly do? He claims he can pin me down if I lose control, but could he really?

"I'll treat you all to barbecue tonight," Kakashi said.

"Oh? So generous? Then I won't stand on ceremony! Hahaha!" Might Guy laughed.

As the group walked outside, Kakashi trailed behind, walking alone.

In truth, Might Guy and the others had not let their guard down. "Genjutsu" was an incredibly troublesome thing, and they intended to continue observing Kakashi.

Kakashi Hatake's attention was currently partially focused on the Chat Group.

He was simultaneously watching the group owner Lu Bian's live stream of building a home and studying the functions of the Chat Group.

He downloaded a shared file from the group, but after glancing at it for a moment, he stopped reading. He could not comprehend this work titled Supreme World Shocking Era.

Kakashi attributed his inability to understand it to cultural differences between worlds. Different environments in different worlds fostered different cultures, and without the cultural foundation of another world, it was no simple matter to understand a foreign masterpiece born from an alien culture.

[Kakashi Hatake uploaded "300 Essential Common Sense Tips for Wilderness Survival"]

[Lu Bian downloaded "300 Essential Common Sense Tips for Wilderness Survival"]

Lu Bian: [Kakashi, you really are a good person.]

Kakashi Hatake: [Group Owner, why don't you go live in the town?]

Lu Bian: [That Gao Family Town let me know exactly where I've arrived.]

Kakashi Hatake: [What kind of place is it?]

Lu Bian: [The territory I'm in is called the Wusizang Kingdom, and that Gao Family Town had another name a few hundred years ago: Gao Village.]

Lu Bian: [The place I arrived at when I first transmigrated a few days ago was actually the Guanyin Zen Temple, which had been burned to the ground.]

Lu Bian: [This is a world after the events of Journey to the West. I intend to keep a low profile.]

Kakashi Hatake: [Journey to the West?]

Lu Bian: [Kakashi, you can download the Journey to the West uploaded by Shi Tianwu. It's a novel compiled by my second brother from my memories. You'll understand once you finish reading it.]

[Kakashi Hatake downloaded "Journey to the West"]

"..."

Lu Bian recalled his feelings when he first saw the bustling Gao Family Town; he couldn't even begin to describe how happy he was.

The desolate road he had traveled had been abandoned for hundreds of years, and he was the only living person to walk that path in recent times.

Lu Bian took a small piece of the gold Shi Tianwu had given him, pinched it into a small nugget, and bought himself a set of clothes in Gao Family Town. He told the shopkeeper that he had been robbed by bandits and left half-naked, and that the small piece of gold was the last of his valuables.

The clothing store owner measured him and altered the garments. While the clothes were being adjusted, Lu Bian inquired about the situation in Gao Family Town.

When the shopkeeper mentioned that no one in their town ate pork, Lu Bian didn't think much of it, but when he heard they worshipped the Altar Cleansing Envoy, he vaguely sensed something was wrong.

After putting on proper clothes and looking like a decent human being, Lu Bian began to wander around Gao Family Town to investigate.

On a stone tablet, he saw the history of what had happened at Gao Village several hundred years ago.

...The son-in-law of the Gao family, Zhu Ganglie, was originally Marshal Tianpeng descending to the mortal world...

Lu Bian learned some details about Gao Family Town. This Zhu Bajie, who had been titled the Altar Cleansing Envoy, was a sentimental person who would occasionally look after the folks of Gao Family Town, ensuring favorable weather and bountiful harvests for the locals.

Rumors circulated that someone had seen a very auspicious-looking monk on the peak of Fuling Mountain while gathering firewood, and that the monk had been gazing toward Gao Family Town.

Various rumors swirled, all pointing to the fact that the Altar Cleansing Envoy protected the people of Gao Family Town, and no petty villains dared to cause trouble in the town.

Lu Bian pondered: could he stay in Gao Family Town?

Most of the people in this town shared the surname Gao; they were all one family, and the locals surnamed Gao seemed to look down on outsiders, relying on their connection to Zhu Bajie...

In the end, Lu Bian decided to find an uninhabited place outside of Gao Family Town to settle down.

After searching high and low, he found that all the land around Gao Family Town already had owners. As it turned out, only the land on the edge of Fuling Mountain was unclaimed and available for him to develop.

Lu Bian began his real-life version of a wilderness survival building game.

For the first few days, he piled up a nest of weeds to get by. Afterward, he began to build a low wooden hut and set up a fence to create a yard that was clear at a glance. It took him two or three months of busy work to finally finish his makeshift home.

During those three months, Lu Bian didn't spend much time talking in the Chat Group; he mostly kept his perspective's video chat window open to live-stream the house construction to the others in the group.

Lu Bian discovered that he possessed an astonishing ability: he could "drink the northwest wind" and survive.

He did not need to eat every day; he only needed to breathe in the "spiritual energy" between heaven and earth to sustain all the needs of his body's activities.

Lu Bian guessed that this was the "cheat" his peculiar constitution had brought him.

In his original world, there was no such thing as spiritual energy, which caused his body to be plagued by illness and his immune system to attack itself frantically. After transmigrating, however, the abundant spiritual energy satisfied every need of his body, granting him a second life.

If he felt hungry, he would just take a few more breaths, and his stomach would be full in no time.

After finishing the construction of his simple home, Lu Bian's physical appearance also underwent a tremendous change. Building a house was a form of exercise in itself.

He had grown taller.

He had gone from being one meter seventy-five when he first transmigrated to a dashing man of seven feet. He had gone to town to have someone measure his height, though he did not know how many centimeters a "foot" in Gao Family Town equaled. Walking among the crowd, Lu Bian stood out like a crane in a flock of chickens.

He spent two hours every day practicing the Ultimate Boundless Qigong, and the effects on strengthening his physique were immediate.

When he clenched his fists and exerted force, his upper body was covered in knotted muscles. Even when he went to help the wealthy families in Gao Family Town hold down their oxen, he could do so with ease.

People in the villages near Gao Family Town all knew that a seven-foot-tall strongman lived by Fuling Mountain, and if there was any manual labor to be done, they could go to him, Lu Bian, to do it.

"Strongman Lu, are you home?"

"Hm? Who are you?"

"I am a servant of Grandfather Gao, my name is Gao Youlai. Strongman Lu, do you want a wife?"

Lu Bian was chopping firewood, and he looked up to size up the man standing outside the courtyard speaking to him.

With his head wrapped in a cotton cloth and wearing a blue jacket, he fit Lu Bian's impression of a servant from a wealthy household perfectly.

Could it be that Grandfather Gao was looking for a son-in-law again?

Do they take me for Marshal Tianpeng?