I am a fairy in Journey to the West

Chapter 173: Secretly Created Divine Thunder
It was freezing cold, snowing heavily, and all things were withering.

Hu Lailai and Hu Ququ carried a bundle of dry firewood and built a firewood pile in an open space in the peach forest.

Hu Ququ was sweeping the snow with a broom, while Hu Lailai was lighting the firewood pile. A cloud of black smoke immediately rose above Danchi Ridge.

"Brother, go and get the meat." After Hu Lailai lit the fire, he looked up and said to Hu Ququ.

Hu Ququ nodded, then turned and went into the mansion. Soon he carried out a skinned and cleaned deer.

Hu Ququ put the venison on a straight wooden stick and placed it on the rack that had been set up next to the campfire.

Hu Lailai looked up at the meat and said, "You watch over it while I get the spices."

"Okay." Hu Ququ replied.

Hu Lailai stood up and walked into the mansion. About an incense stick of time later, Hu Lailai came out with a tray of spices and placed it on the stone table beside him.

Hu Ququ said, "There is still wine."

"I know." Hu Lai said, then went back to the mansion to move the wine. Soon he moved three jars of wine to the Eight Immortals Pavilion on the top of the mountain.

The two brothers worked hard for most of the day and finally roasted the venison. Looking at the venison that was coated with spices, golden in color, and oozing with oil, the two brothers took a deep breath, smelled it, and then swallowed their saliva.

"Let's go." Hu Lailai took the roasted venison and placed it on a large wooden plate. Then he and Hu Ququ carried the wooden plate and flew to the Eight Immortals Pavilion in the breeze.

The wind was freezing cold in the Eight Immortals Pavilion, but Zhuang Yan was still wearing his light blue Taoist robe as usual, with his hair tied up with a jade belt. He sat cross-legged in front of a small square table with a calm expression, looking at the chessboard in front of him with gentle eyes.

Opposite Zhuang Yan, the Immortal Huo Ling was wearing an official robe and a jade crown. He had a graceful and elegant temperament, bright eyes, and was gentle and dignified.

Hu Lailai and Hu Ququ carried the wooden tray into the Eight Immortals Pavilion, placed the meat on the long table beside them, and said, "Master, Prime Minister, the meat is ready."

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "You guys eat first, this plate will be finished soon."

Hearing this, the Fire Spirit Immortal on the opposite side smiled slightly, put the chess piece in his hand back into the chess box, and then gently pushed the chessboard in front of Zhuang Yan with his hand, and said with a smile: "True Lord, you are so good, I admit defeat."

Zhuang Yan laughed and said, "It seems that you are greedy."

The Fire Spirit Immortal smiled and said, "The roasted meat smells so good, it's hard not to be greedy."

"Okay, let's eat meat." Zhuang Yan stood up, then walked to the cushion at the head of the long table and sat down cross-legged.

Immortal Huo Ling followed closely behind him, and after sitting cross-legged on the lower left side of Zhuang Yan, he said to the two brothers Hu Lailai, "Sit down."

The two brothers took their seats and poured wine for Zhuang Yan and Fire Spirit Immortal. Fire Spirit Immortal picked up the meat-cutting knife, cut off a piece of the steaming, golden venison and placed it in front of Zhuang Yan.

Zhuang Yan nodded slightly, then picked up the dagger to cut the meat and eat it. The meat was browned and crispy, full of juice, and the fragrance lingered on his lips and teeth. He then took a sip of the fruit wine brewed from Lingtao. The aroma of the wine was clear and the venison was crispy. The collision made his taste buds bloom, which was really unforgettable.

The Fire Spirit Immortal ate a piece of crispy meat skin gracefully, then took a sip of the fruit wine beside him, wiped his lips with a white handkerchief, and then asked Zhuang Yan: "True Lord, Tiger Vanguard has been blocking the pilgrims at Ziluo Mountain for more than two months. Should we call him back?"

When Zhuang Yan heard this, he smiled and said, "Let's talk about it after we finish the New Year's Eve dinner."

Upon hearing this, Fire Spirit Immortal nodded and said, "Yes."

At this moment, a ray of fairy light fell down and landed directly in front of the Lingtai Zhenjun Palace below.

Upon seeing this, Fire Spirit Immortal immediately stood up and turned into a beam of fiery red light and flew down.

Soon after, True Immortal Huo Ling brought an immortal dressed in the robes of a fifth-rank immortal official into the Eight Immortals Pavilion. After entering, the immortal immediately bowed to Zhuang Yan and said, "Your humble servant, Lu Xiujing, the head of the Court of the Supreme Court, pays homage to True Lord Lingtai."

Zhuang Yan bowed and smiled, "It turns out to be Dean Lu. Huo Ling, please set up a seat for Dean Lu."

"Yes." The True Immortal Fire Spirit responded, then set up a seat for Lu Xiujing at the lower right side of Zhuang Yan, while the two brothers Hu Lailai and Hu Ququ moved to the lower side.

"Master Lu, please take a seat." True Immortal Huo Ling invited him.

Lu Xiujing bowed and said, "Thank you, Master, for the seat." Then he stepped forward and sat down.

Fire Spirit Immortal poured wine and tea for Lu Xiujing, cut off a piece of venison and brought it to Lu Xiujing. Lu Xiujing smiled and thanked Fire Spirit Immortal, then bowed to Zhuang Yan and said, "Master Lingtai, Happy New Year."

Zhuang Yan returned the greeting with a smile: "Happy New Year."

Then Zhuang Yan said, "Master Lu, this is freshly roasted venison and this year's brewed peach wine. Please enjoy it slowly."

"Haha, OK, thank you for the hospitality, Master." Lu Xiujing smiled, then ate a piece of venison, drank a sip of fruit wine, and then smacked his lips happily and said, "OK, it tastes really good. Master is living a carefree life."

Zhuang Yan laughed and said, "If I can't be free and unrestrained, what's the point of being a god?"

As he spoke, Zhuang Yan asked Lu Xiujing, "I wonder what important matter has brought you here today, Dean Lu?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiujing immediately took out a white jade token and presented it to Zhuang Yan, saying, "Lord Lingtai, my court is in charge of all matters concerning the righteous laws of the human world. After you were conferred the title of 'Lord Lingtai Xianmiao Yuji', you have not been able to create any 'secrets'. This is why I came here today."

"Oh?" Zhuang Yan heard this and asked, "Is this urgent?"

Lu Xiujing nodded and said, "It wasn't urgent before, but recently someone in the lower realm opened a mountain and built a temple to worship the Lingtai Xianmiao Yuji Zhenjun, so we need to create the secret taboo as soon as possible."

"You mean, someone opened a Taoist temple in the human world and enshrined my deity?" Zhuang Yan asked.

Lu Xiujing nodded and said, "Yes."

Zhuang Yan asked, "What is the name of that Taoist temple?"

Lu Xiujing said: "Just call it 'Lingtai Temple', and the main deity is Lingtai Xianmiao Yuji Zhenjun, which is you."

Zhuang Yan: “.”

Fire Spirit Immortal asked, "Could it be Chi Ling?"

Before Zhuang Yan could say anything, Lu Xiujing shook his head and said, "No, the abbot is called 'Jiu Ling Zhenren' and the dean is called 'Liu Jin Fairy'."

When Huo Ling Zhenxian heard these two names, his face was full of confusion. On the contrary, Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "How did the two of them get together and build a Taoist temple to worship me?"

The Fire Spirit Immortal asked, "True Lord, who are these two people?"

Zhuang Yan said, "The Jiuling Immortal was originally an old immortal from the Ten Continents and Three Islands. Later, she was captured by me for breaking the Heavenly Law. The Heavenly Court stripped her of her official position and took back the Taoist temples on the Ten Continents and Three Islands. The Liujin Fairy was a disciple of another old immortal, Yang Mei. However, her Taoist temple on the Ten Continents and Three Islands was not taken back. I don't know why she also came to the human world." The Huoling Immortal suddenly realized, and Lu Xiujing smiled and said, "I know a little about this Liujin Fairy. She took the initiative to return the Taoist temple on Liuzhou Island to the Heavenly Court a month ago, and she went to the mortal world of the four major continents to practice."

Zhuang Yan nodded slightly and said, "No matter what they think, since my Taoist temple already exists in the world, let's build a secret place first."

The so-called secret taboo is a unique kind of writing that is different from normal writing. The secret taboo consists of only one character, and this one character represents the entire name of a deity.

Zhuang Yan closed his eyes slightly and sat in meditation for a whole hour.

An hour later, Zhuang Yan opened his eyes, then raised his hand and wrote a word on the jade plate in front of him. The word was divided into three parts: the top part was the radical of the character "Ling", the middle part was the character "Hong", and the bottom part was the character "Qing".

After Zhuang Yan finished writing, he injected his immortal official jade seal and divine consciousness into it, and the taboo word immediately radiated golden light.

Although this taboo character with '霊' on top, '鸿' in the middle and '青' on the bottom is only one character, its pronunciation is '灵台显妙玉极真君'. If you draw a talisman or write it, you only need to write this character to represent '灵台显妙玉极真君'.

After the taboo was completed, Lu Xiujing took back the jade tablet, then stood up and bowed, saying, "I really shouldn't bother you, Master. Now that the taboo has been created, I will take my leave and send it to the Divine Thunder Jade Palace to be recorded in the Heavenly Book."

Zhuang Yan nodded and said with a smile, "Okay, Huo Ling, send Dean Lu off for me."

"Yes." Fire Spirit Immortal stood up and sent Lu Xiujing out of the Eight Immortals Pavilion. He returned only after seeing Lu Xiujing flying up to the sky on a cloud.

"How come there are still people who offer sacrifices without the original owner's consent?" The Fire Spirit Immortal said speechlessly after returning.

Zhuang Yan laughed and said, "What can we do? Lingtai Zhenjun is such a great deity there. Are you going to stop people from worshipping him?"

Fire Spirit Immortal nodded and said, "Your Excellency is right, but I still find it a little strange."

Zhuang Yan smiled calmly, looking at the venison that was still steaming hot under the cover of magic power, and said, "Okay, okay, let's eat the meat first, and we can talk about other things later."

At the same time, in the Tiger Spirit Cave in Ziluo Mountain, thousands of monsters were singing and dancing, eating, drinking, jumping and dancing, making the atmosphere of the entire cave very lively.

Zhu Bajie occupied three seats by himself and ate and drank voraciously from the delicious food on the table.

Sha Seng sat aside. Although he was also eating, his eating manners were normal. He looked at Zhu Bajie with disdain from time to time.

Tang Seng, who was standing opposite him, saw Zhu Bajie eating in such an ugly way and said helplessly, "Bajie, be more polite."

Zhu Bajie was so busy eating that he didn't even bother to talk. After a long while, he looked up and said, "Master, this is how pigs eat. You just need to get used to it."

Tang Seng sighed, and Samantabhadra laughed, looking at Zhu Bajie and said, "A fat head and big ears is a sign of good fortune."

Zhu Bajie laughed when he heard this and said, "The Bodhisattva is indeed very wise. I am very lucky."

Little White Dragon said: "This is such a great blessing. We can ask Tiger Spirit King to stew it with venison and make a blessing feast."

Sha Monk said: "Second Brother, this is very wise."

When Zhu Bajie heard this, he waved his hand and said, "Go away, old pig is very lucky, but the meat is not tasty."

The New Year’s Eve dinner at Huling Cave lasts until the early morning of the first day of the new year, after which various entertainment activities begin in the cave.

All kinds of female demons were dressed up beautifully, singing and dancing, while the little demons were laughing and playing, chasing and playing.

As for the male monsters, they gathered in twos and threes, playing chess, wrestling, practicing martial arts, or drinking and playing finger-guessing games.

The cave was decorated with lights and looked very bright, making Tang Seng's handsome face look red. He had drunk a lot of vegetarian wine today, and looking at this joyous scene in front of him, he felt a little drunk.

What he didn't know at the moment was that in the long journey to obtain Buddhist scriptures in the future, he would recall the time he spent in the Tiger Spirit Cave and the New Year's Eve he spent here countless times.

This will be the best New Year he has ever had on his long journey to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

"Bodhisattva, I am a little drunk. I would like to go and have a rest first." Tang Seng felt a little drunk and sleepy, so he said to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.

Samantabhadra nodded and said with a smile, "Okay, go ahead."

After Tang Seng returned to his cave, he lay down on the couch and fell asleep. At this time, a tender and clear sound of chanting in Sanskrit came from the hall outside. Tang Seng smiled. This was a passage of Theravada Buddhism that he had just told the monsters in the cave five days ago.

Samantabhadra Bodhisattva was sitting in the hall, while Little White Dragon, Sha Seng and Zhu Bajie were sitting together drinking, and all three of them were a little drunk.

Sun Wukong, Tiger Vanguard and Nezha were sitting at the same table. At the moment, they were in high spirits, playing finger-guessing games and drinking, forgetting everything else.

As for the center of the cave hall, a group of little demons were sitting together, chanting Buddhist scriptures. The tender and clear Buddhist sounds resounded throughout the cave hall.

In the blink of an eye, another three hours passed, and it was five o'clock in the morning. Outside the Tiger Spirit Cave, in the dark, windy and freezing night in the ice and snow, a ray of divine light fell in the sky outside the Tiger Spirit Cave.

As a figure walked out of the divine light, the heavenly generals who had set up the net hurriedly came forward and bowed, saying, "Greetings to Master Lingtai."

Zhuang Yan nodded slightly and said with a smile: "You can remove the dragnet."

Hearing this, a celestial general said, "True Lord, if we remove the heavenly net and the earthly net, what will we do if the monster escapes?"

Zhuang Yan said, "He can't escape while I'm here. Let's retreat."

"Yes." The heavenly generals nodded in response, then withdrew their nets, and under Zhuang Yan's command, they led 10,000 heavenly soldiers and generals to the camp outside the Tiger Spirit Cave and set up their battle formation.

At this time, two more beams of fairy light flew up from the bottom of the mountain. They were Granny Li and Granny Guan. They flew straight in front of Zhuang Yan.

Zhuang Yan looked at the Mother of Mount Li and the Bodhisattva Guanyin, bowed and said with a smile: "Zi Yuanjun, Bodhisattva, Happy New Year."

Lishan Old Mother bowed and smiled, "Hello, Master Lingtai."

Guanyin Bodhisattva smiled and said, "The Taoism of Lingtai Zhenjun is indeed extraordinary. I admire you."

Zhuang Yan knew she was talking about Tiger Vanguard, so he smiled and said, "Bodhisattva, you are praising me too much."

After saying that, Zhuang Yan cast his gaze towards the Tiger Spirit Cave below and said with a smile, "The Tiger Vanguard has stopped the pilgrims for more than two months. This difficulty is over. We can just wait for them to have a good New Year and then part ways in peace."

Guanyin Bodhisattva nodded, and then Zhuang Yan raised his hand and pointed towards the Tiger Spirit Cave below. A mysterious light flashed above the Tiger Spirit Cave, and the powerful barrier that protected the Tiger Spirit Cave immediately dissipated into thin air.

Although they had guessed this long ago, when they saw with their own eyes that Zhuang Yan had taken over the great power that protected the Tiger Spirit Cave, Lishan Laomu and Guanyin Bodhisattva still looked at each other with a little surprise.

(End of this chapter)