Magnetic Rotation: Ten Thousand Horsepower!

Magnetic Rotation: Ten Thousand Horsepower!

From the Tang to the Song, hundreds of years had passed since Tang Monk retrieved the true scriptures. Aside from the few prosperous regions that remained connected, the path the four disciples had traveled during their westward journey remained much as it was in the past: rugged roads of sheer cliffs and precipices, and treacherous mountains with overlapping ridges and layered peaks.

Lu Bian drove his donkey cart eastward, taking a new road rather than the abandoned old one. Although it still wound through the mountains, the journey was far smoother.

Yet, even on a clear road, there were still many obstacles to be found.

Wild beasts were easy enough to deal with, but encountering bandits was a bit more troublesome.

"Stop!"

"Hand over your donkey and your luggage, and we'll let you pass~!!"

"Huh?"

Seven men lunged out from the bushes and tall grass on both sides of the road, each brandishing a long blade and threatening Lu Bian.

Lu Bian: Brothers, I've run into bandits again.

Lu Bian stepped down from the donkey cart and took his willow wood staff into his hand.

"Oh, so you want to fight?"

"Damn it, you must be tired of living? I'll just hack you to death and be done with it."

"Good, good~! Killing him is perfect to offer to the Mountain Lord."

Lu Bian listened to the seven highwaymen talking, but he did not respond.

He still carried a sharp wood-chopping knife, so using a willow staff was already him showing mercy.

Dragging the willow staff, he walked toward the seven bandits and swung it down at one of them.

Shi Tianwu had taught Lu Bian that staff stances were generally divided into three categories: Splitting Staff Stance, Vertical Staff Stance, and Thrusting Staff Stance.

The staff was the most convenient weapon Lu Bian could find at hand, so he hadn't bothered to practice any blade or sword techniques, focusing solely on the staff.

"Do it!"

"Yeah!!"

"Gwah!~!"

"Ugh!!"

"Gah?"

In the blink of an eye, only one of the seven bandits remained standing.

Lu Bian pointed his willow staff at him with his right hand.

"Great hero!! Spare us~!!"

"Spare my life, great hero!"

The man fell to his knees with a thud, kowtowing violently toward Lu Bian.

"It was us small fry who were blind and didn't recognize a superior man! I have a seventy-year-old mother above and a one-year-old baby waiting to be fed below; I wouldn't do such things if it weren't for my family~!!"

"Screw your mother," Lu Bian said.

"There isn't a word of truth in the mouths of people like you."

"If it had been anyone else, they likely would have died on the road after being robbed by you."

"I didn't kill your brothers today; I only knocked them unconscious."

"..."

"You have hands and feet, why not be hunters instead of robbing people?" Lu Bian asked casually.

"Great hero! Great hero!"

"We were originally hunters from these nearby mountains!"

"It's just that a monster that gained sentience appeared in these mountains, making it impossible for us to continue hunting!"

"It told us to rob travelers on this road and use the goods to trade for wild game from the mountains."

"Is that all?" Lu Bian asked.

"Yes! We didn't kill anyone, we only robbed them of their wealth."

"Whatever."

Lu Bian didn't want to meddle in other people's business.

He wasn't some holy monk from the Eastern Lands, so he continued on his way with his donkey cart.

After traveling another three or four miles, Lu Bian faintly smelled a foul, fishy stench.

Suddenly, a large, mottled tiger leaped out, standing in a human-like posture, looking a full two heads taller than him.

"..."

Could this be the sentient monster the bandits were talking about?

"Roar~!!"

Black demonic aura swirled around the tiger demon, and with a single roar, it frightened the donkey into braying loudly.

Lu Bian climbed down from the donkey cart again, this time switching weapons and gripping a pitch-black firewood chopper in his right hand.

"You've got some guts, not wetting yourself in fear of this Mountain Lord," the tiger demon said in human speech.

"You think you can just walk up here with a firewood chopper?"

"Come on, come on, hack away at my head and see if you can even scratch me."

"Heh, if you're going to insist that I come over and chop your head off, I'll naturally oblige," Lu Bian said with a smile.

"Magnetic Rotation: Ten Thousand Horsepower!!"

"CLANG—!!!!"

Lu Bian raised the chopper high and brought it down fiercely onto the tiger demon's head, but the impact rang out like metal striking metal.

Lu Bian's powerful strike drove the tiger demon's head deep into the earth, but the chopper in his hand snapped into two pieces.

In that split second, the tiger demon had used a Copper Head Iron Brain spell to block Lu Bian's strike.

"Ugh, ugh..."

The tiger demon struggled to pull its head out of the ground, its face covered in blood and its head spinning. It stared wide-eyed at the formidable human before it.

"Whose techniques are you using? Such immense strength!" the tiger demon asked cautiously.

"You broke my blade," Lu Bian said, feeling a pang of heartache.

"Looks like I'll have to go empty-handed."

He fixed a sharp, piercing gaze on the tiger demon, making its heart tremble violently.

Lu Bian: "Ultimate Arhat Fist!!!"

Tiger Demon: "What? Arhat Fist?!"

It had never heard of it, but it knew what an "Arhat" was.

Was he a follower of the Buddha?

It hesitated for only a fleeting moment.

Before the tiger demon could react, it felt several heavy blows land on its chest in rapid succession. It couldn't even catch its breath before its body went limp and it collapsed at Lu Bian's feet.

The tiger demon's entire chest had caved in.

Lu Bian walked over and kicked the mottled tiger lying on the roadside a couple of times, but it had little breath left and was on the verge of death.

Lu Bian: [Brothers, I ran into a monster. It's a tiger demon.]

Lu Bian: [A_Roadside_Snapshot.JPG]

He took a photo of the tiger demon's miserable state and sent it to the Chat Group as a souvenir.

This tiger demon hadn't fully transformed; it still retained its tiger form, having only adjusted its limbs to exert force like a human.

Among tiger demons, this one was only of "small" stature.

Leaving the tiger demon on the side of the road, Lu Bian continued his journey with his head down.

Having set out from Gao Family Town and traveled east for two months, this was the first time Lu Bian had encountered a monster.

The Chat Group was no longer as lively as it had been in the beginning; most members were usually only online together before bed. Lu Bian posted everything he encountered daily to the group to keep it from feeling too desolate.

Shi Tianwu had been keeping a distracted eye on the Chat Group; for him, running his brain on multiple threads was an incredibly simple task. Because he needed to maintain his persona, Shi Tianwu, who was lurking every second, did not reply to Lu Bian's messages in the Chat Group in real-time.

Another month passed, and Lu Bian found himself with no road left to travel.

"Where am I?"

High mountains and water ravines blocked the path ahead.

Lu Bian found a stone tablet inscribed with the location name: "Snake Coil Mountain, Eagle Sorrow Stream."

"So this is where I am."

Eagle Sorrow Stream—eagles fly in the sky, and if even an eagle would feel sorrow at the sight of this place, it was enough to show how treacherous the terrain was.

Unless a deity intervened, no one could build a road here.

"What should I do?"

"How did Tang Monk and his disciples get across back then?" Lu Bian paced back and forth along the edge of the Eagle Sorrow Stream, looking for a place to wade across, but there wasn't a single shallow spot.

Little White Dragon had once made his home in Eagle Sorrow Stream; a place capable of housing a dragon was no mere ditch.

Lu Bian was troubled.

He could make it across by himself, but he still had his donkey cart, which held all of his worldly possessions.