#I will say that Pigsy's 'sink to the bottom' joke

[pompomqt]

Journey to the West Chapter 48

Traders: The ice is totally thick enough to walk on. *Wink Wink*

The Pilgrims:

In this chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest we get to find out how Pigsy and Monkey's sacrifice gambit turns out. So let's get into it shall we?

So Pigsy and Monkey are disguised as the young children of the Chen family to be sacrificed to the 'Great King of Numinous Power'. The villagers set everything up as they usually do, before leaving Pigsy and Monkey to deal with the situation. Pigsy is all for leaving with the villagers, but Monkey reminds them why they are here. Turns out Pigsy though Monkey was joking about the whole being sacrificed in the kid's place thing.' Monkey however is determined to see this through to the end.

Before the two of them can argue more, the Demon of the Week shows up, and Monkey tells Pigsy to let him do all the talking. Which turns out to be a mistake on Pigsy's part as Monkey is so nonchalant about the whole being sacrificed and eaten thing, that he freaks the demon out enough that he decides to eat the girl first instead. Pigsy of course freaks out about this. And as soon as the demon starts to reach for him, he returns to his true form and gives him a wack with his rake, and manages to knock some fish scales off the demon.

The demon didn't come here expecting a fight, so he quickly decides to exit stage left pursued by Monkey and Pig. The Demon demands to know why these two are chasing him around and robbing him of his offerings. And Monkey brazenly answers by saying they are the Disciples of the Great Tang Monk, here to punish the demon for all his wrongdoings. This simply solidifies the Demon's decision to bail, so before Pigsy can get in one last hit with his rake, the demon turns into a gust of wind and returns to the river. Monkey's never cared to follow a foe into a body of water, so they decide to head back to the village and tell everyone the good news.

So Monkey gives Tripitaka the recap of what happens, and the old men are thrilled that their children are safe, and offer to host the pilgrims for another night. Meanwhile the demon's homecoming wasn't as nice. The other demon's notice that he's in a bit of a mood, which is strange since he usually loves the yearly sacrifice! The Demon King explains that while he's usually able to bring them all back some left overs, he didn't even get anything himself this time! Since the disciples of the Tang Monk disguised themselves as his sacrifices and chased him off. And while he'd love to eat the Tang Monk he's heard so much about, he has no idea how he could do that with Monkey and Pigsy guarding him.

Luckily one of his demon entourage has an idea on how to go about this, all she asks is that he share in the bounty if the plan succeeds. The Demon King agrees and says he'll even become her bond brother. So the demoness asks if the Demon King can summon snow like he does other type of weather, and if he can create ice and freeze things. The Demon King confirms that that is all included in his power set. So the Demoness suggests that they freeze over the river, and have some of their fellow demon's disguise themselves as humans and walk across it to show Tripitaka that it is safe to cross. And once the Pilgrims get to the middle of the river, they can bust through the ice and grab him. The Demon King gives his thumbs up to this plan and starts the snow storm.

Meanwhile the pilgrims are having a very cold night at the Chen's house, and wake up to find the village has transformed into a winter wonderland. Tripitaka asks the Chen's about the unusual weather, but they assure him that snow isn't to uncommon here at this time of year. Tripitaka begins to cry because this journey is taking forever, he had hoped to be back like- four years ago. And he had been hoping to borrow a boat from them to cross the river, but now they are going to be delayed on their journey even further. The Chen's try and assure him that a few more days isn't going to make or break the journey and that they'll help him get across once the ice melts.

So the pilgrims spend a nice day with the Chen's with lots of warm tea and wine while they wax poetics about the beauty of snow. By the end of the day however they start hearing rumors that the river has frozen over and people are now walking across it. Tripitaka immediately wants to investigate but the Chen's persuade him that it can wait until morning.

So the next morning they investigate the river as promised and see that people are indeed crossing it. So Tripitaka asks Chen where those people are going, and Chen explains that they must be traders heading for Western Kingdom of Women. Which definitely sounds like the kind of place our Pilgrims are going to end up later. Anyways since boats are limited the traders must be taking this opportunity to cross all at once. Tripitaka also wants to take this opportunity to cross, but Sandy and the Chen's try and persuade him not to risk it, and just stay here until the ice melts instead. Pigsy then buts in and say's that he'll just test the ice, so he gives it a good wack with his rake. Seeing that it didn't break, Pigsy gives Tripitaka the go ahead and say's it's safe to walk on.

So Tripitaka gives his goodbye's the Chen's and they offer him some rations. They also try and give him a tray full of gold and silver as thanks for saving their children, but Tripitaka refuses it since he's a monk and all. The two old men however are so insistent about it that eventually Monkey takes a single silver piece just so the old men won't feel bad about it. Pigsy also gets some straw from the family to winter proof their horse's hooves. And it seems that Pigsy actually has some knowledge about how to transverse ice. Since he also suggests that Tripitaka carry his staff across his lap, while the rest of them carry their weapons on their shoulders. This way if they fall through the ice, their weapons will catch the sides of the ice and prevent them from falling all the way through.

So the pilgrim spends their day and night trekking across the frozen river without issue. However the next day they start to hear a rending sound from the ice, which greatly startles the horse. Tripitaka asks what that sound was, but Pigsy assures him it was probably just the ice grating the river bed and they continue on their way. Ignoring this sound however turns out to be a mistake since they don't get much further before the ice breaks apart- dumping Tripitaka, Sandy, Pigsy, and their horse into the freezing river. Monkey just sort of... flies to avoid it. With that the demon's successfully kidnap Tripitaka and brings him back to their base.

The Demon King is all jazzed to feast of Tripitaka with his new bond sister. Said sister however says they should probably hold off on the party until they are sure Tripitaka's disciples aren't going to break down their door and ruin their party. So for now Tripitaka is just shoved into a stone box to await his rescue.

Meanwhile Sandy and Pigsy have managed to get themselves as well as the horse and luggage out of the river, without a problem, after all Pigsy used to be a marshal stationed on a river, and Sandy is literally a river demon. Anyways when Monkey asks where Tripitaka is, Pigsy says that he's changed his family name to 'Sink' and his given name to 'To-the-Bottom'. Well that's one way to break the news. So the three of them decide to go back to the Chen's place for now in order to figure out a game plan.

The Chen's make sure to say 'I told you so' when they see the disciples back here dripping wet and missing their master. Monkey assures them that Tripitaka isn't dead yet, since when has any demon ever tried to eat him right away, and they even have a good idea on who took him this time. So the pilgrims have a quick meal with the Chen's before telling them to watch their horse while they rescue their master and deal with their local demon problem once and for all.

Current Sun Wukong Stats: Names/Titles: Monkey, The Stone Monkey, The Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Monkey awakened to the void), Bimawen (Banhorseplague), The Great Sage Equal To Heaven and Pilgrim Sun. Immortality: 5 + 94,000 years Weapon: The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod Abilities: 72 Transformations, Cloud-Somersault, Ability to transform his individual hairs, super strength, Ability to Summon Wind, Water restriction charm, and the ability to change into a huge war form, ability to duplicate his staff, ability to immobilize others, the ability to put others to sleep, and the Fiery eyes and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, object transformation, distance reduction, vanishing in a flash of light, super healing and transforming others. Demon Kill Count: 9+ Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 1009 God's Defeated: 22 + Unknown number Defeats: 5 Crime List: Robbery, Murder, Mass Murder, Arson, Theft, Coercion, Threatening a Government Official, Resisting Arrest, Assault, Forgery, Employee Theft, False Imprisonment, Impersonating a Government Official, Treason, attempted murder, failure to control or report a dangerous fire, desecrating a corpse, breaking and entering, trespassing, violating Tree Law, looting corpses, trading counterfeit goods, criminal threat, animal abuse, Assisting or Instigating Escape, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption and Identity Fraud. Cry Count: 7 + 3 fake cries Mountains Trapped Under: 4

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka and the Tang Monk Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization, Heart Sutra and Meditation. Cry Count: 24 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 31 Paralyzed by fear: 5 Bandit Problems: 2 Kidnapped by demons: 7 Falling Off Horses: 8

Current Bai Long Ma Stats: Names/Titles: Bai Long Ma (White Dragon Horse), Prince of the Western Ocean, and third prince jade dragon of the dragon king Aorun Abilities: Transforming into a human, a water snake, and a horse, eating a horse in one bite, flight, Magic of Water Restriction, Singing, and Sword Dancing. Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 2

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater, cloud soaring, size enhancement and CPR Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 2 Kidnapped by Demons: 3 Human Kill Count: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 3 Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping, arson, defamation, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption and Identity Fraud

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater and Cloud soaring. Demon Kill Count: Unknown number of minions. Kidnapped by Demons: 2 Human Kill Count: 1 Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, desecration of a human corpse, Damage to Religious Property and contaminating a substance for human consumption

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