Ao Tu made his way up the pagoda.
Seeing this, Wukong said, "Master, I'll go up the pagoda too and have a look. I'll find out just how the treasure was stolen and who was behind it. Once we know what happened, we can save the monks of this temple."
Tang Sanzang cautioned him, "Wukong, remember to come back quickly, or those soldiers might return!"
"Understood!" Wukong said. "Bajie, Junior Brother Sha, stay here and protect Master. I'll be right back."
Bajie and Sha Wujing agreed.
Wukong sprang up, riding mist and cloud, and flew toward the top of the pagoda.
The pagoda had thirteen stories, and the Golden Light Temple had been built around it. Its Buddhist finials and bracketed eaves rose as steeply as mountain peaks.
Ao Tu reached the top a few steps ahead. Wukong followed close behind and landed behind him, smiling as he bowed. "May I ask which Bodhisattva stands before me?"
Ao Tu said, "This humble monk's Dharma name is Buzheng. I am no Bodhisattva, just a rustic from the east."
"These eyes of mine can see perfectly well," Wukong said. "The Buddha-Light about you is boundless, in thousands upon thousands of rays. Even if you aren't a Bodhisattva, you must be a great immortal from the Western Heaven. How could you be a rustic from the east?"
Ao Tu smiled. "I told you the truth, yet you don't believe me. The mountains and wilds of our east are full of rustics like me, dwelling in forests and hiding in valleys, living at leisure and concealing our tracks. I suppose once we reach your Western Heaven, we all become some sort of Bodhisattva. As the saying goes, an orange grown south of the Huai River is an orange, but grown north of it, it