Journey to the West: I Am the Golden Cicada Reborn Nine Times, and I Grow Stronger by Skipping the Pilgrimage

[The plot requires some timeline inconsistencies in this book. If that bothers you, please don’t click.] My name is Chen Xuanjing. I am the ninth reincarnation of Jin Chanzi, the second disciple under the Tathagata... According to the script, I should set out at once, cross 108,000 li, and then be eaten at the Flowing Sand River by a demon named Sha Wujing. He would hang my skull around his neck, thereby completing the merits of the tenth reincarnation, Tang Sanzang. Why should I? Why should my flesh and blood be a stepping stone for someone else? Why should I be sacrificed nine times? This time, it is the thirteenth year of the Daye era. When Guanyin Bodhisattva appeared at the temple entrance holding the Brocade Kasaya, I shut the door. “This humble monk is frail and cannot bear the cold. These scriptures... I can do without them.”