chapter 3

Leaving through the west gate of Chang’an City, I headed west.

My first stop was Hezhou Guard, at the border of the Tang Dynasty.

I remembered that it was at Twin Fork Ridge, west of Hezhou Guard, where Tang Sanzang encountered the first hardship on his journey west-a White Tiger Spirit.

That White Tiger Spirit devoured the two servants who had left Chang’an City with him, yet spared Tang Sanzang alone.

This is rather perplexing.

Wasn’t it said that all the monsters on the journey west were desperate to eat Tang Sanzang’s flesh?

Why, then, did the White Tiger Spirit not eat Tang Sanzang?

At Hezhou Guard, I asked the locals whether there were still monsters haunting Twin Fork Ridge.

But all the answers I received were negative.

Someone told me that there had never been any talk of monsters in that area; rather, at the foot of Twin Fork Ridge, there was a village where Han and Hu people lived together.

If I hurried, I should be able to reach there before sunset.

So I rode the white horse I had bought in Chang’an City, galloping all the way, and finally arrived at the village just before the sun set, safe and sound.

The village was small, and dressed in monk’s robes, I stood out immediately, attracting quite a crowd.

When they saw me, they all looked astonished, as if they were seeing some kind of demon or ghost.

But I soon understood the reason for their surprise.

It turned out that it had been almost forty years since a monk last appeared here.

Some people didn’t even recognize my attire.

Forty years?

Could it be that the last monk to come to this village was Tang Sanzang?

I hurried to find the village elders, hoping to ask about Tang Sanzang’s visit forty years ago.

But the answer I received was almost unbelievable.

They told me that the monk who came forty years ago died.

He and his servants all died together.

“Were they killed by monsters?” I asked.

“What monsters? They were killed by bandits. The bandit leader, I remember, was called White Tiger.”

An old man with a white beard said.

Then two other elders nodded in agreement.

“Elder, what was the name of the monk who was killed?”

As I asked, I felt a chill run through my body.

“Can’t remember, only that he was a monk from Chang’an City, saying he was going to India.”

“I personally buried the bodies of him and his servants. No mistake about it,” several elders chimed in.

Dead…

Tang Sanzang died at the very first hardship on his journey west?

Then who was it that went to fetch the scriptures later?