On the desk placed thirty silver coins . He knew it was his remuneration for betraying his master . And he realized at that moment that he was blinded all along by that serpent . All the jealousy and hatred made him the perfect decoy to lure his master into the sinister trap . He limped toward the desk and in fury swept all the coins off the desk . He looked at the puddle of water on the ground , wherein he found the reflection of an empty-headed creature controlled by temerity and vanity .
He knew where his master and his brothers would be in — the stone table , on which prisoners on death row would be executed . They would force him to eat the humble pie before eating him themselves by pushing this dignified monk , who was appointed to bust the power of the evil through learning the sacred text in India , onto that ominous table .
He had never run any faster in his life . The only thing revolving around his head was to save his master from the jaws of the devil as well as repent from his collusion with those beings . If his master would like to wash his filthy feet , he would also like to forgive his obnoxious acts .
When he got there , in his retrospect , his master was already headless . Bits of his body were distributed among those beings . The gore and blood might have benumbed his fellowmen , so much so that they could only stand there dumbfounded and ossified . The serpent was now in human form . Biting off a part of his master ’ s heart gave him some pleasure . As he was laughing out loud in frenzy , he spotted Wujing .
‘ Thanks so much , Jing ,’ he said with blood dripping from his mouth . ‘ You are now half as hypocritical as your master .’
His sonorous laughter brought about Wujing ’ s breakdown . He sat on the ground hugging his knees . Between his knees he could only hear his own heartbeat and outcry . Only if he could completely silence the world , he could find peace . But then a deafening screech interrupted him .
He looked up . The serpent looked heavenward and started scratching his throat . His minions started to do likewise . In a few minutes the serpent ’ s face turned purple and with the eyes gouged out . He let out his final breath and fell onto the ground . Like domino the others fell on the ground one by one . And then all the revelry died down .
The stone table was bloodstained to save the world through the sacrifice of an innocent soul . Wujing would give up everything to be dying on his master ’ s behalf . He would rather to be betrayed by his loved ones instead of betraying his loved ones .
The regional authority arrived soon after . It dawned on Wujing that his master was the greatest decoy . Xangzhang was the bait leading the serpent to Wujing , and ultimately making it run headlong to its own destruction . As the perfect poison , Xangzhang assassinated the father of all killers and of all guiles . All along Wujing and his fellowmen were told by the master to look for the sacred text in the west so that the power of the evil would be busted forever and all people could be in peace . It turned out he was the word itself . He busted the power of the evil and brought ultimate peace to the whole world .
After that Wujing went back to the hut and picked up all thirty silver coins , before turning himself in to the regional authority . He confessed how he had not resisted the temptation of the evil but instead colluded with them for only thirty silver coins . His betrayal against his beloved master only earned him thirty cold coins . What an irony .
Was death his due penalty ? For him it was not . In the final moment he was still plotting to blot out his master , who would like to empty himself to cleanse his defiled feet and corrupt soul . He deserved to be thrashed in hell for the rest of his life along with all those evil beings .
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