Brother Broad Plans pulled the cord on the wall again, ringing the bell. The same young monk knocked on the door then entered, bowing his head.

Motioning the young monk forward, Brother Broad Plans bent over to speak quietly into the young monk’s ear. The young monk’s eyes widened, nodding and bowing deeply to Brother Broad Plans and the Abbot, before hurrying away.

Brother Broad Plans followed the young monk out the door, then walked in a different direction. Eventually, he entered a large room filled with dried herbs hanging from racks suspended from the ceiling. Along the walls were shelves filled with jars that contained a variety of mysterious substances. Some jars contained powders of different colours, seeds, and dried animal parts. Other jars contained a noxious looking liquid, in which baby snakes or rats were floating.

After rummaging through some cabinets and drawers, he finally found what he wanted. With a twisted smile, he gathered armfuls of incense sticks, then hurried out of the room towards the guest quarters.

***

Back at the guest quarters, the tranquility of the sand and stone garden was disrupted by a large group of monks that were slowly approaching. They were trying to be quiet and stealthy, like assassins. But since they had neither the training nor aptitude, they failed miserably. The massed whispers of a large crowd accompanied the clattering of wood, as the monks gathered a distance away from the wooden hut which Trip and Wukong were in. Some of the monks were carrying burning torches, while the rest brought great big bundles of firewood. After dumping the firewood in a pile, they hurried off for more, as silently as they could.

After a short while, Brother Broad Plans strode towards them with his arms full of bundles of incense sticks, which he passed to several monks who carried a bamboo pipe and a torch each. They moved to the wooden hut, taking up positions at the closed door and windows.

They lit up the bundles of incense, putting the burning incense inside the bamboo pipe. They then pressed their bamboo pipes against the slits in their assigned entryway, all the while gently blowing into the bamboo pipes. Thin wisps of smoke curled into the wooden hut.

Seeing this, the other monks who were waiting lifted the bundles of firewood and began to move forward, but they suddenly froze as Brother Broad Plans hissed, “Stop! Wait for another minute for the Knock-Out Incense to take effect!”.

All the monks nodded obediently and settled down, until a minute later, when Brother Broad Plans gave the signal to proceed. Almost as one, they silently rushed forward and began stacking the firewood all around the hut, as high as they could. Some monks held clay urns, splashing the firewood with distilled spirits to help it burn faster when it was finally ignited. Some other monks set up a relay, bringing more firewood from various storage piles.

The monks tried to work fast, but it would take quite some time before their labour-intensive case of arson could be completed.

***

Within the wooden hut, Trip had already been put into a deep sleep, due to inhaling the almost scentless smoke from the Knock-Out Incense.

Wukong, on the other hand, was completely unaffected. Two dimly glowing golden eyes blinked in the darkness of the hut, as he sniffed the air. With a movement that seemed almost unconscious, he plucked a gold-black hair from his head, and blew on it.

Immediately, the hair dissolved into a tiny cloud of golden motes of light, which quickly coalesced into a small round object with two wings that resembled that of a bumblebee. The bumblebee-like construct began to fly towards the roof. Before it could even get two feet away from Wukong, it burst into a cloud of black motes which flew back towards Wukong’s head, forming a completely black hair there.

For a moment, Wukong was stunned. With panicked movements, he tore two great handfuls of hair from his head, packed them tightly into a single mass in his hands, then blew on it.

The same thing happened, except that this time, the bumblebee-like construct flew up and out of the wooden hut, through a crack between the roof and the wall.

Satisfied, Wukong closed his eyes. Instead of darkness, he began to see through the eyes of the little bumblebee.

He saw the monks piling up firewood all around the hut. By now, the stacks of firewood were almost as high as the top of the door and windows. He saw a monk, who had just completed laying a trail of gunpowder. From the stacks of firewood around the hut, the gunpowder led all the way to where most of the monks were waiting. He saw Brother Broad Plans, an ugly smirk of satisfied victory on his face, a brightly burning torch in his hand, approaching the trail of gunpowder.

Emitting a low growl, Wukong mentally directed the little bumblebee to attack Brother Broad Plans. A metal stinger half the length of his little finger slid out the back of the little bumblebee, as it zoomed towards Brother Broad Plans, stabbing him in the eye.

“Ah?” Initially, Brother Broad Plans was more surprised than anything else, at having something suddenly obscuring half his vision.

“AHHHH!” Brother Broad Plans dropped to the floor, as he felt his eyeball explode, the pain spreading from his eye to his entire head. He slapped both hands to his face as he rolled around, while letting go of the burning torch.

Which, unfortunately, still landed on the trail of gunpowder.

Like a tiny snake of sparks and flame speedily crawling on the ground, the lit up portion on the trail of gunpowder reached the stacked-up firewood in a flash. Then, with a loud “FWOOOMP”, the stacks of firewood and the hut were covered in flames.

Within the hut, a pair of golden eyes glowed brightly, revealing the rest of Wukong’s snarling face. As small black particles reformed into black hairs on his head, he eyed the flames that were spreading around the walls of the hut.

These people DARED to attack his Mistress? They DARED to try claiming the life of his SAVIOUR? Over his dead body!

Wukong roared so loudly, the roof and windows shuddered.

“I’LL SMASH ALL OF YOU INTO MEAT PASTE!”

-- Chapter 14, End --