I am a fairy in Journey to the West

Chapter 18: Lan Caihe brings the jar back to heaven, the land god promises to show his merit

When Emperor Wenchang saw that Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva had returned to Taixuandu Province, he thought that he had come back to express his gratitude.

But before Emperor Wenchang could say anything, the Taixuan Envoy said, "Your Majesty, the Lingtai Mountain God refuses to let us go."

"Oh?" Emperor Wenchang asked in surprise, "Didn't you say you were following my orders?"

Taixuan Envoy said, "I have said it, but the god of Lingtai Mountain refused to obey." After saying that, Taixuan Envoy reported Zhuang Yan's words to Emperor Wenchang verbatim.

After hearing this, Emperor Wenchang laughed and said, "This Lingtai Mountain God is a man of integrity. Well, we shouldn't make things too difficult for him."

After that, Emperor Wenchang said to Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha: "Please sit down, Bodhisattva. I will personally issue a decree to the human world to bring Garuda to heaven and hand him over to Bodhisattva."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva bowed and said, "Thank you, Emperor."

Afterwards, Emperor Wenchang personally issued an edict and sent it to the human world. When Emperor Zifu Shaoyang, the Supreme Lord of the human world, received the edict, he immediately summoned Lan Caihe over.

"Master Lan, an imperial decree has come from the Taixuan Province of the Divine Jade Palace. I'd like to trouble you to go to the lower world for this matter." Emperor Shaoyang said as he delivered the imperial decree to Lan Caihe.

Lan Caihe took the decree and took a look at it. He was immediately surprised and said, "What does the Taixuan Governor mean by this? He is actually going to hand the demon over to the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha for punishment? Isn't this equivalent to pardoning the demon's crime?"

Emperor Shaoyang said: "Buddhism is in charge of the four continents. In the lower world, many things in the heavenly court need the help of Lingshan. It is understandable that Taixuan Province did this. We just do things according to the law."

Upon hearing this, Lan Caihe could only bow and say, "I will obey your order."

Then Lan Caihe turned around and walked out of the hall, and went straight to the mortal world.

Lan Caihe came to the mountain temple and met Zhuang Yan. He handed over the decree of Emperor Wenchang and said, "This is the decree of Emperor Wenchang, the chief envoy of Taixuan Province, asking me to bring Garuda to heaven."

Zhuang Yan was not surprised at all when he saw the decree. He said, "I worked so hard to catch the monster, but in the end, it was pardoned and released with just one word. So why did I go to all this trouble?"

Lan Caihe said: "The affairs of the Heavenly Court are mostly about human relationships. Mountain God, since Emperor Wenchang has personally issued an order, you should hand over the Garuda to me."

Zhuang Yan said, "No, if you want to take Garuda away, you have to get past me first."

Lan Caihe said with a smile: "Mountain God, you are too straightforward and inflexible. The emperor's decree cannot be easily resisted. Please give me the Garuda."

At this point, Lan Caihe added: "Give me the pottery jar as well."

Zhuang Yan reacted immediately. He glanced at Lan Caihe, then his expression eased a little. He took the pottery jar and handed it to Lan Caihe, saying, "You only have one stick of incense time to touch the pottery jar. After one stick of incense time, the pottery jar will automatically fall to the ground."

Lan Caihe immediately took the pottery jar and nodded, saying, "Okay, do you have confidence in the seal on this pottery jar?"

Zhuang Yan said calmly: "Of course I have confidence. Even if Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva does it himself, he can't remove the seal."

"That's good." Lan Caihe nodded, and then said: "Then I will go back to heaven first. By the way, aren't the land gods going to ask for credit for you? Now you can ask them to fulfill their promise."

After saying that, Lan Caihe flew back to the sky on a cloud. Zhuang Yan looked at Lan Caihe's departing figure, immediately took out the Thousand Light Cloud Talisman, and flew towards Xiaotian Village at the foot of Lingtai Mountain on the cloud.

When they arrived at the land temple in Xiaotian Village, Zhuang Yan summoned out the land god of Xiaotian Village.

When the God of Land of Xiaotian Village saw that it was Zhuang Yan, he was immediately shocked and said, "God of the Mountain, are you okay? That's great. Congratulations to you for returning safely."

In his opinion, if this Lingtai Mountain God dared to challenge the demon head on, he would definitely not be able to come back.

But he didn't expect that Zhuang Yan would appear in front of him safe and sound, which really surprised and delighted him.

Zhuang Yan said, "I have captured the demon. God of the Land, you promised to do me a great service. Can you fulfill your promise now?"

The landowner of Xiaotian Village was startled when he heard this and asked, "The demon has been captured?"

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, "That's right. He has been escorted to heaven by Master Lan."

The God of Land heard this and said, "In that case, there is no need for us to commend you. The Human World will reward you according to your merits." Zhuang Yan said, "No, the Human World is its business. Now I want you to fulfill your promise and commend me to the Emperor Hou Tu."

Hearing this, the land god was a little embarrassed and said, "But now is not the end of the season, and the time for us to report to Hou Tu the Great Emperor has not yet come."

"I don't care." Zhuang Yan said, "Anyway, you land gods must immediately report your achievements to Hou Tu Dadi. Don't forget that I saved you."

Seeing the hesitation and embarrassment on the face of the land god, Zhuang Yan said unhappily, "Are you going to break your promise?"

“No, no, no.” The land god glanced at Zhuang Yan and thought to himself: Since this man has the ability to capture the monster, he must be no ordinary person. It is better not to offend him.

So the God of Land of Xiaotian Village immediately bowed and said, "Don't worry, God of the Mountain. I will never break my promise. I will contact the other Gods of Land right away, and then we will report together to praise the God of the Mountain."

"Okay." Zhuang Yan nodded and said, "Thank you very much, God of Land. Goodbye."

After saying this, Zhuang Yan said goodbye and flew back to Lingtai Mountain on the clouds.

Over there, Zhuang Yan found the land god to commend himself, while here, Lan Caihe had already returned to Taixuan Zhenfu with the pottery jar.

As soon as Lan Caihe entered the Dongzhen Hall, he said to the boy beside him, "Quick, bring the table over."

Emperor Zifu Shaoyang and the boys in the hall were stunned for a moment, not knowing what Lan Caihe meant.

Seeing that the boys did not move, Lan Caihe had to go forward and pull over a table. As soon as the table was pulled over, the pottery jar in Lan Caihe's hand went straight through his palm and fell onto the table, making a slight "bang" sound.

"Fortunately, we finally caught up." Lan Caihe said with a long sigh.

Emperor Shaoyang looked at Lan Caihe in confusion, and asked after a moment: "Master Lan, what is this? Where is Garuda?"

Lan Caihe immediately turned around and said, "Your Majesty, Garuda is sealed in this pottery jar."

"Oh?" When Emperor Shaoyang heard this, he raised his eyebrows, immediately stood up and walked down the palace steps to Lan Caihe, then looked into the pottery jar.

There was indeed a small golden-winged divine bird lying in the pottery jar, which was Nagaruda.

Emperor Shaoyang said: "You can let him out."

Lan Caihe immediately said in embarrassment: "I'm afraid it can't be released. The seal on it is the magic of the Lingtai Mountain God."

Emperor Shaoyang asked, "Didn't he tell you how to remove the seal?"

Lan Caihe said, "Your Majesty, you don't know that the Lingtai Mountain went through a lot of hardships to capture this monster. When they learned that Taixuan Province was going to hand it over directly to the Bodhisattva Xukongzang, they were very dissatisfied. I also had to spend a lot of time and effort to bring this pottery jar back from the Lingtai Mountain God."

Shaoyang Emperor was such a great man that he understood the meaning of Lan Caihe's words as soon as he heard them. He did not delve into it, but just nodded and smiled, "Bringing back this pottery jar is considered a mission accomplished. I will report to Taixuan Province and send this pottery jar to Taixuan Province."

"I'm afraid it won't work." Lan Caihe said, "This pottery jar is sealed by the Lingtai Mountain God. Without the power of the Lingtai Mountain God, no one can lift this pottery jar."

“So,” Lan Caihe said, “we can only ask Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha to come here and get it himself.”

Emperor Shaoyang was surprised and asked, "Is there such a wonderful sealing method?"

As he spoke, he activated his magic power and raised his hand to grab the pottery jar. However, the next moment, Emperor Shaoyang's hand missed the jar and passed through it.

"Huh?" Emperor Shaoyang raised his eyebrows and said in surprise, "It is indeed mysterious."

As he spoke, Emperor Shaoyang used magic and tried various methods to make the clay jar visible, but all of them failed without exception.

After all his attempts failed, the Golden Immortal Emperor Zifu Shaoyang exclaimed in admiration: "This is truly the mysterious method of heaven and earth. This Lingtai Mountain God is truly extraordinary. It seems that we have to let Xukongzang Bodhisattva take it himself."

Having said that, Emperor Zifu Shaoyang walked back to the steps of the palace calmly, and then wrote a letter to Taixuandu Province in reply.

(End of this chapter)