A year ago, Kakashi Hatake had left the Anbu. The Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had arranged a new job for him: serving as a Jonin responsible for training young ninja.
But Team Kakashi still hadn't been formed in the year since. Not a single Genin fresh out of the Ninja Academy had passed his test.
"How's it going? Is it taken care of, Kakashi?"
Kakashi Hatake emerged from the Anbu's secret chamber, and Might Guy jumped in front of him, asking anxiously.
"Yeah, it's taken care of."
"Thanks for this," Kakashi said.
Looking out through his only exposed right eye, he saw Might Guy, Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Tenzō all standing guard over him.
Guy, of all people. My problem is with genjutsu—what can a taijutsu ninja do about it? He says he'll hold me down if I lose control, but can he really manage that?
"I'll treat you all to barbecue tonight," Kakashi said.
"Wow, how generous! Then I won't hold back! Hahaha!" Might Guy laughed.
The group headed outside, with Kakashi walking alone at the rear.
In truth, Might Guy and the others hadn't let their guard down. Genjutsu was a tricky thing to deal with, so they planned to keep monitoring Kakashi.
Part of Kakashi Hatake's attention was on the Chat Group.
He was watching the group owner, Lu Bian, livestream a video of him building a home, while also studying the Chat Group's functions.
He downloaded one of the shared files and glanced through it before giving up. He couldn't make heads or tails of this thing called Supreme World Shocking Era.
Kakashi chalked up his inability to understand it to cultural differences between worlds. Different worlds had developed different cultures in different environments, and without a foundation in another world's culture, understanding a work born from an alien culture wasn't easy.
[Hata ke Kakashi uploaded "300 Essential Tips for Surviving in the Wild"]
[Lu Bian downloaded "300 Essential Tips for Surviving in the Wild"]
Lu Bian: [Kakashi, you're a good guy.]
Kakashi Hatake: [Group owner, why don't you settle down in town?]
Lu Bian: [Gao Family Town has made me realize what kind of place I've ended up in.]
Kakashi Hatake: [What kind of place?]
Lu Bian: [The land I'm in is called the Wusizang Kingdom, and Gao Family Town had another name a few hundred years ago: Gao Village.]
Lu Bian: [The other day, I arrived in a place that had been burned to the ground—the Guanyin Zen Temple.]
Lu Bian: [This is a world set after Journey to the West. I'm planning to keep a low profile.]
Kakashi Hatake: [Journey to the West?]
Lu Bian: [Kakashi, you can download Journey to the West, which Shi Tianwu uploaded. Second Brother put it together as a novel from my memories. Read it and you'll understand.]
[Kakashi Hatake downloaded "Journey to the West"]
"..."
Lu Bian recalled how happy he'd been when he first saw Gao Family Town bustling with people.
The Desolate Road he'd taken had been abandoned for hundreds of years. He was the only living person to have traveled it in recent times.
Lu Bian chipped off a tiny piece of the gold coins Shi Tianwu had given him and molded it into a small gold nugget. He bought himself some clothes in Gao Family Town and put them on. He told the shopkeeper that bandits had robbed him and left him half naked, and that the little piece of gold he'd given the shopkeeper was the last thing of value he had.
The shop owner took Lu Bian's measurements and altered the clothes for him. While the shopkeeper worked, Lu Bian asked about Gao Family Town.
When the shopkeeper said the people in town didn't eat pork, Lu Bian hadn't thought much of it. But when he heard they worshipped the Altar Cleansing Envoy, he began to sense something was off.
Once he was dressed properly and looked like a person again, Lu Bian started wandering around Gao Family Town, investigating.
He saw a stone tablet recounting what had happened at Gao Village hundreds of years ago.
...Gao Village's son-in-law, Zhu Ganglie, had once been Marshal Tianpeng, descended to the mortal world...
Lu Bian learned a little about Gao Family Town. Zhu Bajie, who had been granted the title of Altar Cleansing Envoy, was a sentimental sort. Every so often, he came to look after the townsfolk, blessing them with favorable weather and abundant harvests.
Some people claimed that while gathering firewood on Fuling Mountain, they'd spotted a very fortunate-looking monk on the summit, gazing down at Gao Family Town.
All the rumors amounted to the same thing: the Altar Cleansing Envoy protected the people of Gao Family Town, and no petty crook had better cause trouble there.
Lu Bian wondered whether he could stay in Gao Family Town.
Most of the town's residents were surnamed Gao, all members of one family. The local Gaos seemed to look down on outsiders, as if their connection to Zhu Bajie gave them the right...
In the end, Lu Bian decided to find an uninhabited spot outside Gao Family Town and settle there.
But after searching high and low, he found that all the land around Gao Family Town already belonged to someone. The only unclaimed land he could develop was on the edge of Fuling Mountain.
Lu Bian began the real-life version of a wilderness survival and home-building game.
For the first few days, he made do with a pile of weeds. Then he began building a low wooden hut, and put up a fence around a wide-open yard. It took two or three months of hard work to finish his new home.
Over those three months, Lu Bian didn't spend much time chatting in the group each day. Most of the time, he livestreamed himself building his house through the video chat window, using his own point of view.
Lu Bian discovered that he had an astonishing ability: he could "live on air."
He didn't need to eat every day. Just breathing in the "spiritual energy" between heaven and earth was enough to meet all his body's needs.
Lu Bian guessed this was the "cheat" his peculiar constitution had given him.
His original world had no such thing as spiritual energy, which had left him plagued by illness as his immune system attacked his own body with a frenzy. But after he crossed over, the abundant spiritual energy met all his body's needs and gave him a second life.
Whenever he felt hungry, he just took a few more breaths, and soon his stomach was full.
By the time he'd finished building his humble home, Lu Bian's physique had changed dramatically. Building a house was exercise, too.
He'd grown taller.
He'd gone from 1.75 meters when he first crossed over to a strapping, seven-foot-tall man. Someone in town had measured him at seven feet, though Lu Bian had no idea how many centimeters a foot was in Gao Family Town. Among the crowd, he stood out like a crane among chickens.
He spent two shichen every day practicing Ultimate Boundless Qigong, and its effects on his physique were immediate.
When he clenched his fist and flexed, his upper body was knotted with muscle. He'd even found it easy to hold down an ox for a wealthy family in Gao Family Town.
People in the nearby villages had all heard that a seven-foot-tall strongman lived on the edge of Fuling Mountain. If they had any heavy work, they could ask Lu Bian for help.
"Strongman Lu, are you home?"
"Hm? Who are you?"
"I'm from Elder Gao's household. My name's Gao Youlai. Strongman Lu, are you looking for a wife?"
Lu Bian was chopping firewood. He raised his head and looked over the person standing outside his yard, speaking to him.
With a cotton cloth wrapped around his head and a blue jacket on, the man looked just like one of the servants from a wealthy household, as Lu Bian had imagined.
Was Elder Gao looking for another son-in-law?
Did they think I was Marshal Tianpeng?
Before you continue