The Rotting Buddhas of Journey to the West - chapter 9

I never would have imagined that the strangeness of this river wasn’t caused by a monster, but was actually connected to our arrival.

I didn’t want to look at that river for another second and hurriedly left.

This river reminded me of a clue, one related to another river-one even more mysterious and uncanny.

In the Western Liang Women’s Kingdom, the Mother-Child River winds its way around the entire nation, wrapping it up as if a mother were embracing her child. This country is peculiar: it is made up entirely of women, with no men at all.

I sneered inwardly. Mother-Child River? It’s more like a Ghost Mother River. To this day, I still don’t know the secret between the Women’s Kingdom and the Mother-Child River.

On the riverbank, a small boat sat quietly, waiting for travelers to come and go. Back then, my Master, my senior brothers, and I took this very boat to reach the Women’s Kingdom.

At the time, the old boatwoman didn’t tell us that the river water was undrinkable. That’s what led them to mistakenly drink it and make fools of themselves.

Thinking back now, that old woman was truly wicked-she knew there was a problem, yet didn’t warn us.

But whether she was good or bad no longer matters, because she wasn’t even human.

I stepped onto the boat and greeted the old woman:

“Gu, we meet again.”

The old woman didn’t look at me, leaning against the wooden boat in her tattered clothes.

“You’re pretty quick. Found me again so soon.”

I sat down on the boat’s planks, lifting my robe. “I wonder if this time, you can answer a few more of my questions?”

“I can. Go ahead.”

At first, I thought Gu was a monster full of schemes, but after these two encounters, I found that in some ways, it was rather straightforward.

“Is the Black Water River connected to us disciples and our Master?”

Gu replied in the voice of an old woman: “Of course. It was your arrival that caused the mutation here.”

“But we didn’t do anything.”

“You don’t need to do anything. You’re like a pool of poison-wherever you go, you poison the place.”

“Impossible! Wasn’t it your doing?”

Gu didn’t answer. It slowly stood up, truly resembling an old woman, hunched over, gazing at the Mother-Child River.

“Do you know why I appeared at the Mother-Child River? Do you understand the secret here?”

“If you’re willing to tell me, I’d like to hear it.”

“In this world, where there is life, there is death; where there is yin, there is yang. But here, there are only women, no men.”

“So?”

“So, that’s my hint to you. In this world, there is something extra that shouldn’t exist. Or, to put it another way, something is missing.”

“That thing… is you?”

“Yes,” it admitted readily. “That’s why the balance of yin and yang is broken. This world is sick.”

“What is your origin, really?”

Gu was silent for a long time, then looked at me. To my surprise, I saw sadness in its eyes.

“Have you all forgotten my name so quickly?”

“I’ve never heard it.”

“No, the Three Realms all know this name. Think carefully.”

It and the boat vanished, leaving me floating alone on the water.

The Three Realms all know it-how could that be? Could it be even more renowned than the Jade Emperor, Buddha, and the Three Pure Ones…

I was instantly frozen, because at that moment, a name came to mind, one known throughout the Three Realms-

Pangu!