Magnetic Rotation, Ten Thousand Horsepower!

From the Tang dynasty to the Song, centuries had passed since Tang Xuanzang returned with the scriptures. As for the westward road traveled by Tang Monk and his four disciples, it had changed only in a few prosperous regions where routes connected. Everywhere else remained as it had been of old: a rugged road between sheer cliffs and precipitous slopes, with steep mountains stacked one behind another.

Lu Bian drove his donkey cart eastward along the new road, not the abandoned old one. Though the route still wound through the mountains, it was much easier to travel.

But even on a smooth road, plenty of obstacles remained.

Wild beasts were manageable enough, but bandits were a little harder to deal with.

"Stop!"

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

"Huh?"

Seven men sprang from the bushes and grass on either side of the road. Each held a long saber, and they threatened Lu Bian.

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

Lu Bian climbed down from the cart and took his willow staff in hand.

"Oh, so we're going to have a fight?"

"Damn you, do you have a death wish? I'll cut you down with one stroke!"

"Yeah, yeah~! We can kill him and offer him to the Mountain Lord."

Lu Bian listened to the seven roadside bandits talk without answering.

He still had a sharp woodcutter's knife with him. By using only a willow staff, Lu Bian was already going easy on them.

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

Shi Tianwu had taught Lu Bian that staff techniques could be divided into three broad categories: Splitting Staff Stance, Vertical Staff Stance, and Thrusting Staff Stance.

A staff was the most convenient weapon Lu Bian could find, so he hadn't bothered learning any saber or sword styles. He focused solely on staff techniques.

"Attack!"

"Yah!!"

"Gah!~!"

"Ugh!!"

"Gak?"

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

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

"Hero!! Spare us~!!"

"Have mercy, hero!"

With a thump, the man fell to his knees and kowtowed frantically to Lu Bian.

"We little men failed to recognize Mount Tai! I have a seventy-year-old mother at home and a one-year-old baby crying for milk. I wouldn't do such a thing if not for my family~!!"

"Go to hell," Lu Bian said.

"There isn't a single true word out of people like you."

"If you robbed someone else, they'd probably die on the road."

"I haven't killed your brothers today, either. I only knocked them unconscious."

"..."

"You've got all your limbs. Why not become hunters instead of robbing people?" Lu Bian asked casually.

"Hero! Hero!"

"We were hunters in these mountains to begin with!"

"But a demon came to haunt the mountains, and now we can't make a living as hunters!"

"It told us to rob travelers by the roadside and trade their belongings for wild game from the mountains."

"Is that all?" Lu Bian asked.

"Yes! We haven't killed anyone. We only take their money."

"Whatever."

Lu Bian didn't feel like getting involved.

He wasn't some holy monk from the Eastern Land, after all. He continued on his way in the donkey cart.

He traveled another three or four li before catching a faint whiff of something foul and fishy.

Suddenly, a huge striped tiger leaped out. It stood like a man and looked two heads taller than Lu Bian.

"..."

Could this be the demon the bandits had mentioned?

"Roar~!!"

Black demonic aura swirled around the Tiger Demon. Its roar frightened the donkey into braying loudly.

Lu Bian climbed down from the cart again. This time, he changed weapons, taking the blackened woodcutter's knife in his right hand.

"You've got some nerve. You didn't piss yourself when this Mountain Lord tried to scare you," the Tiger Demon said in human speech.

"You dare come at me with nothing but a woodcutter's knife?"

"Come on, swing at my head. Let's see if you can even hurt me!"

"Heh, you're the one who told me to come chop your head. Naturally, I'll do as you wish," Lu Bian said with a grin.

"Magnetic Rotation · Ten Thousand Horsepower!!"

"Clang—!!!!"

Lu Bian raised the woodcutter's knife high and brought it down hard on the Tiger Demon's head. But when they collided, the sound of metal striking metal rang out.

The blow drove the Tiger Demon's head deep into the ground, but the woodcutter's knife in Lu Bian's hand snapped in two.

In that instant, 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 was covered in blood, and its head was spinning. It stared wide-eyed at the powerful man before it.

"What kind of technique was that? Where did you learn it? You're incredibly strong!" the Tiger Demon asked warily.

"You broke my knife," Lu Bian said, feeling a pang of regret.

"Guess I'll have to go in barehanded."

He fixed the Tiger Demon with a fierce glare, and its heart gave a sudden tremor.

Lu Bian: "Ultimate Arhat Fist~~~!!"

Tiger Demon: "What? Arhat Fist?!"

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

Was he a Buddhist?

It hesitated for just a moment.

Before the Tiger Demon could react, it felt several heavy blows land in quick succession on its chest. It could no longer catch its breath, and its body went limp as it fell beside Lu Bian.

The Tiger Demon's entire chest had caved in.

Lu Bian went over and kicked the striped tiger lying by the roadside twice. It was already barely breathing, on the verge of death.

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

Lu Bian: [A roadside scene.JPG]

He took a photo of the Tiger Demon's miserable state and posted it in the Chat Group as a keepsake.

The Tiger Demon had not fully transformed. It was still a tiger, though it had adjusted its limbs to move with humanlike force.

Among the Tiger Demons, it was only "small."

Leaving the Tiger Demon by the roadside, Lu Bian continued trudging along.

It had been two months since he left Gao Family Town and headed east, and this was the first demon he had encountered.

The Chat Group was no longer as lively as it had been at the beginning. Several members were usually online at the same time only before bed. Lu Bian posted everything he encountered each day to the group, so it wouldn't seem too quiet.

Shi Tianwu had always kept part of his attention on what was happening in the Chat Group. Running multiple threads of thought in his mind was an incredibly simple matter for him. Because he needed to maintain his persona, Shi Tianwu—who was always lurking—didn't immediately reply to Lu Bian's messages in the Chat Group.

Another month passed, and Lu Bian had nowhere left to go.

"Where am I?"

Tall mountains and rushing streams blocked the way ahead.

Lu Bian found a stone stele carved with the place name "Snake Coil Mountain, Eagle Sorrow Stream."

"So this is the place."

Eagles flew through the sky, yet even they would dread this place. That alone showed how treacherous the terrain was.

Anyone who could build a road here would have to be an immortal.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"How did Tang Monk and his disciples get across back then?" Lu Bian paced along the stream at Eagle Sorrow Stream, looking for a place shallow enough to wade across. But there wasn't a single shallow stretch.

Little White Dragon had once lived in Eagle Sorrow Stream. A place that could accommodate a dragon was no little ditch.

Lu Bian was troubled.

He could cross by himself, but he still had a donkey cart, and all his belongings were on it.