Journey to the West: Beginning with the Apprenticeship of Bodhi Patriarch

Chapter 144: Master Jiang goes to heaven, and the bull walks in Tushita Palace (additional chapter, asking for monthly tickets)

The words show the Lingtai Fangcun Mountain and the Xieyue Sanxing Cave.

One day.

Jiang Yuan received instructions from the master again and entered the quiet room to pay homage to the master.

Jiang Yuan entered and saw the master sitting cross-legged on a cushion. He bowed and said, "Disciple greets Master."

The master waved his hand, telling him not to be polite, and then asked the immortal to sit down, saying, "Boy, there is something here that you need to go through."

Jiang Yuan said: "It's up to the master's orders."

The master said, "I had invited Laojun to come earlier. He had been scheduled to come the day before yesterday. I don't know why, but Laojun did not come. I am afraid that he was delayed by something. It would be impolite to send someone else to deliver the message. You can go to the heaven to ask. If Laojun is delayed by something, you can help if you can. If Laojun cannot come, you can come and talk to me again."

Jiang Yuan said: "Yes, Master."

The master said, "In that case, you may go ahead. If any heavenly generals block your way, just say that you are following my orders and are heading to Tushita Palace."

Jiang Yuan bowed again and again before leaving the quiet room. After leaving the room, he turned back to get his whisk and ruler, put on a purple robe, a seven-star crown on his head, and adorned himself with all kinds of treasures before heading out of the mansion.

When they reached the road outside the palace, Red Boy appeared and bowed, saying, "Master, Master!"

Jiang Yuan stopped and helped him up, saying, "Red Boy, why are you stopping me if you are not practicing in your room?"

Red Boy said, "Master, if you are going out, could you take me with you?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "If I go out someday, I will take you with me. This time I am going to the heaven without receiving the talisman, which is already impolite. It is only thanks to Master that I can go. If I bring someone else with me, it would be an overstep."

Red Boy said, "I didn't know that the master had gone to heaven, otherwise I would not have dared to make such a request."

Jiang Yuan gently stroked Red Boy's forehead and said with a smile: "Just concentrate on your cultivation in the mansion. When I go out one day, you can come with me. I will allow you to be a guardian deity."

Red Boy was overjoyed and said, "Master, I will practice hard and will not make any mistakes."

Jiang Yuan smiled and nodded, and Red Boy bowed and then retreated.

The immortal then left the cave, used the Qingyun spell, and rode the auspicious cloud to go to the heaven. When his cloud-flying technique was activated, he could reach a distance of 240,000 miles. In a moment, he reached the outside of the South Heaven Gate and dispersed the auspicious cloud.

But then Guangmu Tianwang led the horses, the four marshals Zhao, Wen and Guan, and the heavenly soldiers stopped the immortal.

The king asked, "Who is coming?"

Jiang Yuan came forward and bowed, saying, "I am in the Lingtai Fangcun Mountain of Xiniu Hezhou in the lower world. I am here to pay my respects to the Heavenly King in the Three Stars Cave. Now I am following the order of my master, Patriarch Bodhi, to go to the Tushita Palace to meet the Taoist Patriarch. I hope you will let me go. I will be very grateful."

Upon hearing this, the Heavenly King hurriedly returned the greeting and said, "It is Master Guangxin who is here in person. I am so sorry, so sorry. Since Master has received the master's order, please go to Tushita Palace. Please enter the Heavenly Gate."

Jiang Yuan said, "I have never received an immortal certificate. It would be impolite to enter the Heavenly Gate. Please ask the Heavenly King to send a Heavenly Guard to escort me to the Tushita Palace."

The Heavenly King was filled with admiration and said no more, and sent a general to accompany the Immortal.

Jiang Yuan greeted the Heavenly General, who did not dare to be arrogant and returned the greeting. Then the two of them rode on the cloud and headed for the Tushita Palace.

Jiang Yuan had just entered the Heavenly Gate. Not long after he rode on the cloud, he suddenly saw a cloud of light coming from outside the Heavenly Gate. He stumbled and almost crashed into the South Heavenly Gate. Fortunately, he was stopped by the Heavenly King Guangmu.

Jiang Yuan took a closer look and saw that the person coming was none other than the Monkey King.

Wukong was in a hurry and did not talk much with King Guangmu. He went straight into the Heavenly Gate. Judging from the path he was taking, it seemed that he was heading towards the Lingxiao Palace.

The path leading to the Tushita Palace is not the same as the path leading to the Lingxiao Palace, so Wukong never saw the real person.

Jiang Yuan saw Wukong leaving and thought to himself, "This monkey is in a hurry. Maybe he has run into some monsters in the lower world and is asking for help."

The heavenly general beside him said, "Great Sage often comes to the heaven to ask for help, so I was a little reckless and disturbed the real person. Don't blame me, don't blame me."

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "No problem."

The two of them set off again, heading towards the Tushita Palace.

……

But Monkey King’s golden hoop was caught by the diamond chisel of the Green Bull, and he was at a loss as to what to do. He thought that the Green Bull was not a mortal monster, so he went to Heaven and asked the Jade Emperor to investigate thoroughly. If anyone wanted to descend to the mortal world, he would ask the heavenly soldiers to subdue and capture him.

The traveler was surrounded by clouds all the way and did not see his eldest senior brother. When he reached the outside of Lingxiao Palace, he met the four heavenly masters. He recounted what had happened and asked them whether there was any evil star from the sky that had descended to earth.

The four celestial masters entered the palace to report, and the Jade Emperor showed mercy and allowed the travelers to enter the palace.

The Monkey King entered the Lingxiao Palace, bowed deeply, and recounted what had happened before. He then said, "That fellow seemed to be an evil star from the sky. He recognized me. His magical powers were so great that he was able to trap my golden hoop. I beg the Heavenly Venerable to show mercy and issue an order to investigate thoroughly. Let me know."

Say it.

The traveler bowed deeply and showed great courtesy.

Xu Jingyang laughed and said, "How can a monkey be so arrogant at first and respectful later?"

The traveler shook his head and said, "At this time the stick is not even in existence, and I must ask for a favor, so how dare I say it is evil."

The four heavenly masters laughed.

When the Heavenly Venerable heard the report, he issued an order to investigate the matter thoroughly. Immediately, the gods received the order and thoroughly investigated all the departments in the Heavenly Court, including all the gods, both big and small. All of them were found out, and there was no one who had lost his way to the lower world among the stars in the sky. When the traveler heard this, he knew that it was not an evil star in the sky, so he did not dare to make a mistake and went to the lower world.

The Heavenly Venerable showed great mercy and allowed the traveler to choose a few divine generals to go down to the human world with him to capture the evil spirits.

The Monkey King ordered the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, Nezha and other princes' heavenly soldiers, as well as the two generals Deng Hua and Zhang Fan, to go down to the mortal world to capture the monster with him. We will not talk about this matter for the time being.

……

Jiang Yuan and the celestial general traveled to the top of the Thirty-three Heavens, to the Tushita Palace in the Heaven of Lihende. The celestial general bowed and withdrew, and the immortal then went into the Tushita Palace.

When they arrived in front of the Tushita Palace, two immortal children blocked the way. Benjiao asked them questions, looked up and carefully, then bowed and said, "Master Guangxin."

Jiang Yuan responded, "My two junior brothers, I am here on the orders of my master to see Lao Jun. I hope you two junior brothers will come in and report."

The fairy boy followed the instructions and went to the Tushita Palace to inform Laojun. Not long after, the fairy boy came back and invited Jiang Yuan in.

Jiang Yuan entered the Tushita Palace, and a fairy boy led him to the central hall. When he entered the central hall, he saw Laojun sitting in it, and a fairy boy was kneeling on the ground in the hall, trembling with fear.

The Immortal recognized the kneeling immortal boy as the cow-watching boy. He stepped forward to pay his respects and said, "Laojun, I am ready to start."

Laojun raised his head, waved and said, "Guangxin, come here, just take a seat."

Upon hearing this, the Immortal sat down on the cushion and said, "Laojun, my master sent me to ask Laojun if he was delayed by external affairs and has not kept his appointment for a long time. If there is any external affairs, I can help Laojun."

Laojun said: "I was worried about this matter. I was invited by Bodhi to go down to the mortal world, but something happened in the palace."

The real person asked, "How do you say that?"

Laojun appointed the boy to look after the cows, saying, "I originally asked this useless boy to look after the cows. He was not able to look after them normally, so the cows wandered around the palace. But I didn't expect that this boy would find a 'Seven Return Fire Pill' in my alchemy room and eat it. After eating one pill of the fire pill, one should sleep for seven days, and if one were in the lower world, it would be seven years. The green cow saw that the boy was asleep, so it escaped to the lower world."

When Jiang Yuan heard this, he knew why the monkey was in such a hurry. He was sure that Green Ox would be defeated and he would come to Heaven for help.

Laojun continued, "I wanted to find the blue bull and go to the lower world to keep an appointment. I just found out about this and I am in a dilemma. If I go to the lower world to find the bull, I am afraid I will miss the appointment. If I go to the appointment, I am afraid that the bull will cause trouble in the lower world. This is why I did not go."

Jiang Yuan said: "So that's the case. Laojun's cow should be completely natural and kind-hearted. It would never dare to stir up trouble."

Laojun said: "The cow has no intention of harming anyone, but I am afraid that it may accidentally do something bad while playing."

Jiang Yuan pondered for a long time and said, "If Laojun does not forsake me, I can find the cow for Laojun and bring it back. Laojun can keep the appointment and not keep my master waiting for a long time."

Laojun asked, "Really?"

Jiang Yuan said: "Please rest assured, old man."

Laojun said: "If Guangxin goes there personally, how can I not feel at ease?"

Jiang Yuan said, "Please tell me about the magic weapon in the cow's body."

When Laojun heard this, he replied, "I checked the magic weapons in the palace and found that the cow had only a diamond cutter in its body. That thing has a magical power that no weapon, water or fire can get close to it."

Jiang Yuan said: "If this is the treasure, it will be no problem for me. Laojun, there is a saying that 'one thing can conquer another thing', but I don't know what the green ox has that can conquer it."

Laojun said: "The bull is in the five elements, nothing can subdue him, except by profound magic power, he cannot be subdued."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuan was amazed in his heart: "It is indeed the mount of the Taoist ancestor. Most things in the world are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining. The green bull responds to nature and nothing can subdue it."

He said again: "Please keep the appointment, I will find the blue ox for you."

Laojun said: "In this case, I will go to Sanxing Cave. I am afraid that Bodhi will keep waiting for a long time and blame me."

Jiang Yuan then saw Laojun off from the Tushita Palace.

……

But Monkey King was helped by heaven. He gathered his soldiers and went down to the mortal world to the Golden Gourd Mountain and captured the Green Ox.

However, the Green Bull was very powerful and took away the Third Prince Nezha's sword, demon-slaying knife, demon-binding rope, demon-subduing pestle, embroidered ball, and fire wheel. If Generals Deng and Zhang had not escaped quickly, their weapons would have been taken away as well. The heavenly soldiers dispersed, not daring to make any mistakes for fear that their weapons would be taken away by the Green Bull.

With the strength of Qingniu alone, Xingzhe and the heavenly soldiers and generals were helpless.

The Monkey King had no choice but to ask the God of Fire and the God of Water for help. They only said that "fire and water are merciless". He thought that no matter how powerful the Green Ox was, he could not do anything to fire and water.

Unexpectedly, the Green Ox was thrown out of the circle, and allowed to be taken away by the Water and Fire Sects. Then the Fire Deity Star God's Fire Dragon, Fire Horse, Fire Crow, Fire Rat, Fire Gun and others were captured, and the Water Deity Star God's White Jade Bowl was taken away.

The Monkey King saw that the gods and immortals in the sky were unable to catch the blue ox. He was confused as to where this monster came from and how it had such a skill that it could catch any weapon it was thrown at it. If someone had such a skill, he must be an evil star in heaven. But when the heavenly court investigated, they said that this monster was not an evil star.

Nezha approached and asked, "Great Sage, what should we do now?"

The Monkey King held a grudge but pretended to be happy, saying, "In terms of martial arts, the monster does have some skills, but it is not as good as me. It is the ring that is most powerful. Wait until night, when the monster is fast asleep. I will go and get the ring, and the monster will surely surrender."

When the gods heard this, they were all delighted and said, "We have heard that the Great Sage is very familiar with this. If the Great Sage tries to steal, please remember to take out our weapons. Then he will be out of the loop and we will have the weapons to defeat him."

The traveler replied.

(End of this chapter)