“Hello there! Are you all out-of-towners?”
The one who spoke to us was a man on the wrong side of middle-age.
The well-mannered Shin Yu-Seung stepped forward first and offered up a greeting. “We were on our way to the Western Regions to visit Buddha-nim.”
“Hoh, Buddha, is it? Unlike how you look, I see that you are high priests of Buddhism!”
Yi Gil-Hyeong saw how the middle-aged man was impressed by the revelation and began standing tall with his hands behind his back while going “Ahem!”
The older man studied both children with unreadable eyes before finally shifting his gaze in my direction.
“In that case, the gentleman next to you is…. Hiiieeek?!”
His complexion paled instantly as he stared at the [Murim dumpling] on my shoulder.
“T-that, that’s a [Murim dumpling]….!!”
“Ah, this guy’s just a doll. I like dumplings, that’s why.”
“…I-is that so? You really surprised me there.”
The middle-aged man patted his chest down, still looking somewhat freaked out. Judging from the armband slung across his upper arm like that, he must’ve been the supervisor of this factory.
Thinking that this was a fortunate turn of events, we decided to ask this man some questions.
“What is this factory, exactly? Why are you making lots of dumplings like that?”
“….Could it be that you came here without knowing anything?” The middle-aged man studied us with a troubled look on his face, before carrying on as a lengthy sigh escaped from his lips. “This is all the fault of that scary Yogoe.”
“A Yogoe, you say?”
“Indeed. Originally, this place wasn’t a factory.”
According to the middle-aged man, this place used to be a peaceful little rural village.
But on a certain day, a tall, hulking swine-type Yogoe with jet-black skin suddenly made his appearance, kidnapped every female in the village, enslaved all the men, and created this very factory.
“That bastard took my daughter and wife as his concubines and locked us up in this place! I’m sure you can tell that there’s a strange supernatural power swirling around here and it prevents us slaves from leaving this factory. Not only that, that Yogoe devours so much, too…. We’re forced to make dumplings all day long, but it seems to never be enough, you see.”
[The factory’s manufacturing system is searching for the ‘Supervisor’!]
“D-damn it! I have to get going now.”
The middle-aged man hurriedly put on a pair of sanitary gloves and a face mask before rushing towards the conveyor belts.
Before I could step up and say something, Shin Yu-Seung reached out and grabbed the middle-aged man first. “It’s unfair for you ahjussis to perform slave labour like this. Not only that, you said that Yogoe even kidnapped females of the village too. We can’t overlook this.”
As expected of my Incarnation.
Sure, we had to do this in order to advance the plot, but still….
“We shall help you. Where can we find that Yogoe?”
“Even if it’s you monk-nims, that Yogoe is…. Will you really help us?”
“Of course we will.”
The middle-aged man kept rolling his eyes around for a bit but eventually told us the direction where we could find this Yogoe.
“We leave it all up to you! Please, defeat that Yogoe!”
We nodded our heads and walked in the direction pointed out to us.
(The Dumpling Yogoe was waiting at the end of this ⸢Dumpling Road.⸥)
We walked alongside the so-called Dumpling Road, created out of the conveyor belts.
As if he couldn’t hold it any longer, Yi Gil-Yeong began picking up and chowing down dumplings every couple of steps. “….Hey, this is really tasty!”
Of course they were. These were none other than [Murim dumplings], after all. However, it seemed that the foremost expert on all things [Murim dumpling] was thinking a bit differently than us.
– The aroma is a little off.
‘What?’
– Hand me a dumpling.
While walking behind the two kids, I cautiously picked up a dumpling and handed it over to, uh, the dumpling on my shoulder. And sure enough, watching one dumpling eat another one proved to be a rather grotesque sight.
– The combination of ingredients is wrong. It seems that he has not mastered the art of [Murim dumplings].
Murim dumpling number [999] formed a somewhat dissatisfied expression and began ordering me around out of the blue.
– Take half a spoon of the substance inside the green container and add that in.
Since we still had a long way to go anyway, I decided to follow this little guy’s orders and began adding the ingredients inside the dumpling skins.
– You must familiarise yourself with the flames of True Samadhi Fire. Place the steamer so that the yellow flames are touching it in the middle and then, heat it.
This had to be some kind of a dream.
To think, I was learning how to make dumplings from a dumpling while walking on the Dumpling Road.
And so, how long did I walk on this dreamlike road?
At the end of this ‘road’, I was rewarded with a packet of appetising [Murim dumplings].
While looking at [999] nodding his head triumphantly, I began wondering what the hell I just did here.
“Looks like that’s our destination.”
I looked in the direction Shin Yu-Seong was pointing at.
There was a pathway at the end of the conveyor belt leading to large stone walls and a newly-built residential area. A handful of workers were delivering the packaged dumplings over there.
It seemed that we had arrived at where the dumplings’ consumer was.
We walked closer, prompting the security guard to approach us.
“Who are you people?”
Shin Yu-Seong grinned brightly and replied. “We are but humble monks on our way to the west to seek an audience with Buddha-nim and acquire the sacred texts. We coincidentally stumbled across this place during our journey. Will it be fine for us to enter?”
“Ah, are you by any chance the ‘party of the Tang Dynasty’s monks’?”
“That’s correct.”
I was dumbfounded by that conversation. It had been only a few days since this journey had begun, so there was no freaking way that the rumours of us would’ve arrived here already.
[You’ve learned of the Fable, ‘Words Swifter Than Feet’!]
Shin Yu-Seong whispered in my ear. “I heard that this is how it’s like in the original.”
….Ah, so that’s how it was?
[A portion of the judges are impressed by the Scenario Master’s high level of research.]
[10 additional points are awarded for the excellent reflection of the original work!]
To think that they would judge us imitating the improbable timing as seen in the original as research…. How shocking.
The gatekeeper spoke. “My apologies, but our village doesn’t permit entry to any outsiders. I’m sorry that you had to walk this far to get here, but I implore you to turn ba…. Kek?!”
Yi Gil-Yeong must’ve found the gatekeeper’s explanation long-winded, because the boy punched the poor man in the belly and knocked him out flat. As if he was making an excuse, he quickly spoke. “Let’s just rush inside and beat up that dumb Yogoe. Su-Yeong noona said that the audience members like speedy plot development.”
Han Su-Yeong, that idiot. She seemed to have taught these kids something reaaaally nice.
[A portion of the audience is satisfied by Tang Sanzang’s decision.]
[One additional point has been acquired!]
I looked at Shin Yu-Seung and Yi Gil-Yeong and spoke to them. “In that case, let’s go in.”
“Nope. Ahjussi, you stay here and relax.”
“Excuse me?”
“We told you, Sun Wukong is supposed to ride the bus and that’s it.”
“But….”
“Hah-ah…. I really didn’t want to do this but seriously now.”
Shin Yu-Seung held the rosary beads and began reciting something. “Prajna-paramita-hrdaya-KimDokJa. Don’t-try-anything-unnecessary-and-stay-put-sutra…..”
….Wha?
[Tang Sanzang has recited the ‘Constrictive Sutra (緊箍咒)’!]
[Item, ‘Constrictive Headband (緊箍兒)’ is reacting to it!]
I was immediately overcome with pain akin to my head shattering into pieces and blacked out on the spot.
*
….So, that must’ve been the ‘Constrictive Sutra’ that I had read about.
By the time I woke up, both Shin Yu-Seung and Yi Gil-Yeong had disappeared into the village. I looked to my side to discover a damn dumpling staring at me with a mocking leer.
– What will you do now?
‘….Go after them, obviously.’
Now normally, it should be fine to let those two kids be. They had become strong Incarnations that didn’t require my help, after all.
However, something felt off to me here.
(If Sun Wukong’s gut feeling was right, then it was pretty obvious which creature they would encounter here.)
I could think of someone when it came to all things Murim dumplings-related. But to think that idiot would use slaves to operate a factory, and even become a villain that kidnaps women…. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
(It was then, someone discovered Sun Wukong.)
“Kyahk! It’s a Yogoe!”
I turned my head to find several women standing over yonder.
(Ladies who saw Sun Wukong’s appearance were greatly shocked.)
They pointed to my pointy monkey-like ears peeking out from the golden hair and began backing away. But then, they spotted the dumpling on my shoulder and became rather chatty all of a sudden.
“He must like Murim dumplings….”
“….Does that mean he’s a good Yogoe?”
I wasn’t sure how these ladies got to that illogical-sounding conclusion, but I figured that, what with things developing like this, I might as well exploit the situation a bit.
“By any chance, are you the kidnapped villagers?”
My question caused the ladies to stare at each other, evidently confused about something.
“….Kidnap? We’ve never been kidnapped, though?”
“But, I heard that a pitch-black-coloured swine-like Yogoe has kidnapped you all?”
“A swine….? No way… Are you perhaps talking about Zhu Bajie-nim?”
…..Zhu Bajie “-nim”??
“Sure, our Bajie-nim’s skin is somewhat tan, but it’s not to the point of calling it pitch black…..”
“But, he does resemble a swine in some aspect, doesn’t he? Like, his thick biceps, or those tough, strong thighs. But, that’s not the same as being a swine….”
Something was definitely going down the wrong direction here.
With an excellent timing, a huge commotion broke out in the middle of the village so I quickly ran over there. It was pretty obvious who was behind that disturbance.
“Stop right there!”
A boy’s voice loudly resounded out. I pushed my way past the wall of women until I came face to face with the village’s large plaza, a large litter in its middle, and the two children standing in front of it.
There was no need to mention that they were Yi Gil-Yeong and Shin Yu-Seung, of course.
The boy stepped forward like a kid general and shouted out. “You’re the Yogoe that kidnapped many of the village’s women and constructed a dumpling factory to satisfy your selfish interests and desires, aren’t you!”
[A portion of the audience is singing praises of Tang Sanzang’s adorableness!]
[Judge, ‘Successor of Sakyamuni’ has added 5 additional points.]
…..Right, he was really adorable.
Didn’t matter who was inside that litter, there was no way anyone would be able to fight this kid after hearing…. No, hang on, if it was that bastard, yeah, he might actually.
And like clockwork, an incredible level of Status whipped up into a frenzy from inside litter currently covered in screens.
“Lower the litter.”
A heavy-sounding tone of voice came out from inside the carrier. It seemed to contain this surprising power to change the mood of the surrounding atmosphere with just a single word.
I swallowed my saliva and walked up to the kids.
“….We told you to stay back because it might get dangerous!”
“Leaving me behind like that is actually even more dangerous.”
Soon, the screen of the litter slowly rose up, and the problematic Yogoe finally made its appearance.
(Sun Wukong knew who that was.)
(Marshal Canopy/天蓬元帥, Zhu Bajie.)
Shin Yu-Seung’s jaw dropped in dumbfoundedness. “That’s… the Pigsy?”
(Sun Wukong thought that something was definitely wrong here.)
(Because, what he saw was not the ‘Zhu Bajie’ he remembered.)
For a moment there, I had this feeling that this world’s balance of beauty had tilted to one side. A nonsensical amount of cheering erupted out all around us next.
“Oh, ooooh! Dear Zhu Bajie-nim!”
For sure, calling a face like that ‘Yogoe’ didn’t seem all that out of place. Because, well, it was inconceivable that a normal human would be blessed with such looks, after all.
Eyebrows seemingly drawn by a single, uninterrupted stroke of a famed artist’s brush; a nose and a chin shaped in perfect angles that defied attempts to measure them through mere devices of men; a pair of deep eyes seemingly carved out of a beautiful jewel containing all the misfortunes found in this world.
If someone saw those features and not get immediately drawn in by them, then there must be something wrong with that person.
And sure enough, the villagers, regardless of gender or age, were pouring out their praises towards this ‘Zhu Bajie’.
“Zhu Bajie-nim, hooray!”
“The creator of [Murim dumplings], hooray!”
The so-called ‘Pigsy’, half of his black-coloured vest unbuttoned and wearing a pair of black jeans, climbed down from the litter.
“Finally, the day we decide the victor has arrived! You sooty bastard!”
Yi Gil-Yeong triumphantly roared out as if he was expecting this. He began swinging his small fists around as if he was playing ‘Jwibulnori’ and dashed towards Zhu Bajie. Of course, there was no way such a thing was going to work.
“Let me go! You pig!!”
Zhu Bajie easily picked the boy up by the scruff of his neck, glanced at Shin Yu-Seung briefly, and strode over to where we were.
“….You bastard must be Sun Wukong.”
<Episode 81. A dumpling’s reminiscence (1)> Fin.
