Rather die going west
Crossing the eight hundred li of the Moheyan drifting sands, Xuanzang knocked over his water bag and went four nights and five days without a drop, man and horse collapsing in the sand. He had sworn an oath, "rather die going west than live going back east," and, murmuring to Guanyin in his delirium, on the fifth night his old horse walked of its own accord to a patch of grass and a spring, and he survived. The whole journey west had no magic powers and no disciples — only a monk who had crossed the border illegally and a lean horse that knew the way — the real version is harder than the novel.