Journey to the West: Tang Monk Conquers Everything

"Wukong, step back, let your teacher handle this!"

With a loud shout, Jiang Liu immediately conjured a huge fireball in his hands and hurled it at a large tiger not far away.

The demon, which had only about a quarter of its health bar remaining, was struck by Jiang Liu's Swift Fire Bead, let out a scream, and its health bar was instantly emptied.

Notification: Gained experience points 220, money 20, profession change mission completion 100/100.

Notification: There is a new update to your mission. Please check the mission list.

Sun Wukong plucked a hair, transformed it into a dozen exterior selves, and swept through with his Jingu Bang like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. Who among the demons on Returning Wind Mountain could stand against him?

Wherever the Jingu Bang swept, it truly meant instant death on contact, injury on a mere brush. In moments, the hundreds of demons lay scattered dead.

Jiang Liu watched with distress—if all these demons had died by his hand, that would have been tens of thousands of experience points.

Unfortunately, these demons, including demon generals and demon marshals among them, were overwhelming and he could not have taken them on alone.

Fortunately, he had just turned over the body of the Blood Tiger King, not in a hurry to check -- he had scooped everything under the body of the Blood Tiger King into his backpack in one go, and at the last moment snatched a demon from under Wukong's exterior selves' hands.

Otherwise, missing the last demon required to complete the profession change mission would have truly been frustrating.

After snatching a demon from Sun Wukong, the first phase of the profession change mission was completed. Jiang Liu silently recited 'mission list' and focused on the profession change mission.

Indeed, the profession change mission had undergone a new change.

Profession Change Mission (2/3): Use healing skills to deliver a healing effect to 200 injured targets, current task completion 0/200.

Seeing this second phase of the profession change mission, Jiang Liu's expression turned slightly strange.

Since monk professions tend to be supportive, this profession change mission seems quite reasonable, right?

Is it really just about delivering a healing effect to 200 injured targets?

Looking around, there were not many demon creatures left on Returning Wind Mountain, all either dead or injured. Jiang Liu spotted one injured demon general, and with a thought, he cast the Guanyin Mantra skill on it.

A greenish light entered the body of the demon general. Visibly, its injuries healed significantly, and its health bar also recovered somewhat.

Notification: Current mission completion 1/200.

Indeed, after receiving the system's notification, Jiang Liu felt secretly pleased. So any injured target would do?

Looking at it this way, this task seemed not so difficult to complete after all and might even be easier than the first phase?

Boom!

Jiang Liu was quietly rejoicing when a Jingu Bang fell, and the demon general that had just received the healing effect from the Guanyin Mantra was struck. Its head burst open, twitched on the ground for a few moments, and then reverted to its original form.

Although the effects of the Guanyin Mantra were quite good, the cooldown time was a full 600 seconds. Given the situation, by the time his next Guanyin Mantra was ready, wouldn't all these demon creatures be finished off by Sun Wukong?

"Wukong, cough cough, teacher thinks we may be being too cruel. How about letting your teacher first heal their injuries?"

Although he felt a bit awkward saying it, this was also to complete the mission as quickly as possible and enhance his own strength, so Jiang Liu cleared his throat and spoke to Sun Wukong.

"Ah? Master, are you thinking of letting these demons off the hook?" Sun Wukong, the real one, rested the Jingu Bang on his shoulder, watching the scene unfold, and was taken aback by Jiang Liu's words.

Immediately afterward, he said strangely, "Master, wasn't it you who always said to eradicate evil thoroughly, to totally exterminate these harmful demons so they can't harm the people?"

"No, the teacher was just saying to first heal them, not to let them go," Jiang Liu shook his head and corrected.

"So you heal first, then kill? I didn't expect you to be this kind of master, you're even harsher than I, Old Sun"

"Monkey, stop goofing around and talk properly."

...

In the end, all the demon creatures were still killed by Sun Wukong, and Jiang Liu didn't wait for the Guanyin Mantra's skill to cool down.

Though unintended, Sun Wukong's words did stir something in Jiang Liu's heart.

The journey to Western Heaven was 108,000 miles—a wild gamble, betting their own lives and Gaoyang's, and now, even Sun Wukong had been dragged onto this pirate ship. Throughout these 108,000 miles, Jiang Liu indeed wanted to become as strong as possible.

But to become stronger, does one really need to be unscrupulous and abandon all principles?

These demon creatures indeed deserved to die, but having killed them, did he really need to keep them to farm a Guanyin Mantra before finishing them off?

Isn't that mocking life itself?

It's like people slaughtering a pig for meat—killing and butchering it is fine, but is it necessary to cut off an ear today and a leg tomorrow?

Such actions seemed even crueller than what demons would do, right?

Recalling the cup of wine given by Emperor of Tang Li Shimin when he left Chang'an, symbolizing not to forget his original intentions on his journey to the Western Heaven,

Therefore, the idea of waiting for the skill to cool down and consecutively using the Guanyin Mantra before killing came instinctively, but it quickly faded away.

After all the demon creatures had been defeated by Sun Wukong, Jiang Liu and Sun Wukong continued up the mountain to search around Returning Wind Mountain and see if they could find the villagers from Xiaotian Village.

He had promised the old man in the village to come to Returning Wind Mountain and rescue people from the demon's lair.

However, after searching the demon's lair, they found no living persons, just some limbs and severed bodies.

With hundreds of demons and only twenty to thirty households in Xiaotian Village, it seemed the villagers had all perished.

Having found no survivors after searching, Jiang Liu didn't know how he would break this tragic news to the old grandfather back in Xiaotian Village.

Yet, he couldn't just not tell him—the old man was still waiting for good news.

"Wukong, let's go..."

Imagining the old grandfather's reaction to this tragic news made Jiang Liu feel somewhat distressed, so he called on Sun Wukong and they began descending the mountain toward Xiaotian Village.

Along the way, Jiang Liu pondered for a moment and decided to tell the truth, and as for how to handle the situation afterward, he would see how the old grandfather reacted.

A human tragedy—one can only do his best.

At the same time, as he walked, Jiang Liu also considered whether he should stay in a town and offer healing for free?

If he operated in this manner, it seemed that completing the second phase of the profession advancement mission wouldn't be too difficult.

Of course, while he was thinking, Jiang Liu also opened his inventory to check what items had dropped from the Blood Tiger King's death...

Alert: Mission "Exterminate Demon Horde" completed, 12,000 Experience Points acquired, Green Lotus Staff obtained.

But before Jiang Liu could take a closer look at what dropped from the Blood Tiger King, almost at the same time, a system alert sounded.

Before his eyes, in the small grid of the inventory space, a Zen Staff mysteriously appeared.