A Misunderstanding

"This world sure was full of demons and monsters."

Lu Bian's eyes flashed with lightning as he peered into the depths of the lake. A demon was churning the water, trying to drag a small boat beneath the surface.

Lu Bian looked toward the lakeshore, where a group was performing a sacrifice. Their clothes were unlike those of the Han people; they belonged to a small ethnic group. They were offering a young child to the demon, and not one of them looked sad.

"Ah..."

Lu Bian knew he was about to meddle in someone else's business again.

He couldn't just stand by and watch the demon in the lake snatch the child from the boat and eat him. It went against his nature.

Lightning coursed over his body as Lu Bian controlled the magnetic field and lifted himself into the air.

At the fiftieth level of Magnetic Rotation, one could hover and fly without expending energy. But Lu Bian was only at the twentieth level, so flying took effort.

The calm lake erupted. Water sprayed everywhere as a lightning-wreathed immortal shot across the surface at high speed, heading for the middle of the lake.

"Demon! Get your ass out here!!"

Lu Bian shoved the small boat toward the opposite shore.

Then he raised a hand toward the lake and parted the water, hauling the demon out.

"Gaaah~!!"

A demon covered in long green hair thrashed in the air. Water plants and green algae clung to its body, and it gave off a foul, fishy stench.

"Eek~!!"

"Die!!"

The Ultimate Arhat's force manifested behind Lu Bian. The lake churned, and the Ultimate Arhat pressed his palms together as Lu Bian unleashed the Ultimate Arhat Fist against the demon in the water.

It was only a minor monster, after all. Under the force of Magnetic Rotation at the twentieth level, Lu Bian battered it to death with a few punches.

The colossal Ultimate Arhat's force dissipated, and Lu Bian descended toward the boat.

He stood at the bow, and the boat glided toward the shore on its own.

"Kid, where's your home?" Lu Bian asked the little boy who'd been offered as a sacrifice.

"I don't have a home anymore."

"Do you have any relatives?" Lu Bian asked again.

"I-I do, but that relative is the reason my family was destroyed! Boohoo..."

The little boy covered his face and began to cry.

"So you have no one to rely on, and that's why they sent you to be a sacrifice?"

"Boohoo..."

The little boy was too busy crying to answer Lu Bian.

Lu Bian looked out over the lake again. Now that he'd killed the water monster, there weren't any other demons around.

"Kid, stop crying."

"..."

The crying stopped.

The boy was pretty obedient. Lu Bian told him to stop, and he did.

"Immortal, can I become your disciple!? I want to avenge my parents!!"

"..." Lu Bian looked at the boy.

"No," he told him.

"I don't teach people on a whim."

"If I teach you, and you cause trouble someday, won't that drag me into it too?" Lu Bian said.

The boy fell silent.

"If you won't teach me, then I'll find someone else who will!"

"Hm?"

The little boy bolted away, his face set with grim determination.

One moment, Lu Bian was wondering what to do with the homeless child. The next, the boy had run off on his own.

"Ah..."

Lu Bian went to fetch his donkey, then followed in the direction the boy had run.

He couldn't turn his back on someone who needed help.

Lu Bian had meant to tell the boy that he'd help him get justice, but the child hadn't had the patience to wait for him to finish.

It wasn't right to let a child spend every day consumed by thoughts of revenge. If he grew up with hatred in his heart, his mind would become twisted.

Lu Bian had already memorized the boy's magnetic-field signature. Unless the boy could instantly travel a thousand li away, Lu Bian would be able to find him.

He followed right behind the boy, curious to see who he'd find to teach him how to take revenge.

The kid at least knew to stick to the main road. He just didn't understand how cruel people could be.

The little boy followed the road for several days. When he got hungry, he went into the woods to find fruit; when he got thirsty, he drank from streams. Eventually, he arrived at a bustling little city.

"Knows what happened five hundred years ago and what will happen five hundred years from now?"

The kid could read, too. He stood before a fortune-teller's stall, watching the wandering Taoist tell someone's fortune.

"What are you looking at, kid? Don't stand there and get in my way."

"Y-you really know everything that happened in the past thousand years?" the boy asked timidly.

"Oh, you want your fortune told?"

The Taoist held out his hand. "Pay up."

The boy pulled a gold leaf from his clothes. He'd fished it out of the boat when he was being taken to be sacrificed.

"Hey! Is this for real?"

"Fine! I'll take a look. Tell me your birth date and time."

"You don't know? Then give me your hand. I'll read your palm and face..."

"Hm?"

"What does this mean?"

"..."

"I can't make heads or tails of it!"

"Kid, get lost, get lost, get lost!!"

"Why won't you read my fortune!?" the boy shouted, but the Taoist hurriedly packed up his stall and ran off without paying him any mind.

"Wait!"

The boy chased after him, with the Taoist running ahead.

When he looked back and saw the boy still chasing him, the Taoist formed a hand seal and vanished in an instant.

"What!!"

The little boy was startled, then suddenly delighted.

This was exactly the kind of capable person he'd been looking for. He was going to ask the Taoist to take him on as a disciple!

The Taoist hurried out of the city.

A seven-foot-tall young man stood in his way, with an extraordinary donkey beside him.

The Taoist knew how to read faces. The moment he looked at Lu Bian, he froze.

This man was handsome and striking...

Could he be another immortal descended to the mortal world?

"Don't go. Think carefully about what you did today," Lu Bian said to the Taoist.

"Huh? Oh!!"

That child he'd met today wasn't ordinary, and this man must have been secretly protecting him.

"Ahaha~!"

The Taoist honestly took out the gold leaf.

"Sorry, sorry. I let greed get the better of me for a moment, hehe."

"I'll be off now. Won't bother you, hahaha."

The Taoist turned and hurried away, forming another hand seal as he vanished.

Holding the gold leaf, Lu Bian found the boy in the city.

"Hey."

Lu Bian stood behind the little boy.

"Huh?"

The boy turned around, surprised that Lu Bian had managed to find him.

"Here."

Lu Bian handed the gold leaf back.

"Huh?"

"What's with the 'huh'? Have you forgotten how to talk?" Lu Bian said.

"Thank you, Thunderbolt Immortal," the boy said gratefully.

Thunderbolt Immortal, huh? This kid sure was good at coming up with nicknames, Lu Bian thought.

"I didn't finish what I was saying the other day."

"I wanted to tell you that I won't teach you. Instead, I'll help you get justice."

"You're just a child. Revenge is a heavy burden, and you shouldn't have to carry it."

Lu Bian crouched down to meet the boy's gaze and earnestly explained an adult's reasoning to him.

"But, but can you really do it?"

"I want to learn how to fight, because I'm sure I'll become stronger than my master," the boy said earnestly.

"Why wouldn't I be able to?" Lu Bian asked.

"Who do you imagine your ideal master to be?" Lu Bian asked.

"Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sun Wukong," the boy said earnestly.

"Ha! You think that if you become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven's disciple, you'll become stronger than the Great Sage himself?" Lu Bian burst out laughing.

"What kind of relative do you have that only the Great Sage Equal to Heaven could deal with?" Lu Bian joked.

"My uncle is Erlang Shen. He pressed my mother beneath Mount Hua. Someone told me that only by learning the abilities of Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sun Wukong can I save her," the boy said.

"..."

Lu Bian fell silent.

Damn it, this is Chenxiang!

I got it wrong!

Lu Bian had thought this was about what happened with the small ethnic group by the lake!

He'd misunderstood...