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

Chapter 183: Xisheng Temple, the Scholar is Ruthless
At dawn the next day, Jiang Yuan and his companions walked out of the deserted temple and continued on their way. The incident with the old Dragon King yesterday did not have any impact on them, so they just kept on moving forward.

Jiang Yuan rode on a white deer and looked ahead. He could vaguely see a city ahead. He asked, "Which county are we from?"

The Bull Demon King swung his iron rod to clear the way and said, "Master, this is Wei County."

Jiang Yuan said, "Since the old Dragon King brought rain here yesterday, the person adopted by the old Dragon King should be here. Let's go into the city and take a look."

The Bull Demon King said, "Master, we have to find that person and teach him a lesson?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "It's just a look. This matter has nothing to do with us, so how can we teach a lesson?"

Zuo Liang stepped forward and said with a smile: "Before I followed you, I thought that practitioners would be like knights, helping others when they see injustice. Later I realized that this is not the case."

Jiang Yuan smiled and asked, "How do you feel now?"

Zuo Liang shook his head and said, "After walking with you for a long time, I realized that it is difficult to save yourself, let alone save others. If you want to get out of the sea of ​​suffering, you must save yourself."

Jiang Yuan asked again: "How can I save myself?"

Zuo Liang said, "Sir, I don't know."

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Just follow me. Although the journey is hard and tiring, you will know it sooner or later."

Zuo Liang said: "Yes, sir, I am not afraid of hard work."

Jiang Yuan said, "Let's go forward and take a walk into Wei County."

The group walked forward, and soon they reached the city gate, but a soldier stopped them and asked, "Who is coming?"

The Bull Demon King stepped forward and said, "We came from the west to practice cultivation. Now we have come to your place and would like to enter the city to rest. I hope you will let us pass."

The soldier asked, "You are from the west? Are you from Yongzhou? If you are a cultivator, show me your certificate of ordination."

The Bull Demon King shook his head and said, "We don't have a certificate of ordination. We came from outside Yongzhou."

The soldier asked again: "Foreign barbarians?"

The Bull Demon King was a little annoyed and asked, "How can you say that foreigners are barbarians?"

The soldier said: "They are not the people of the Tang Dynasty, they are all barbarians."

The Bull Demon King said, "Forget it, forget it, forget it. You say I am a barbarian, so I won't argue with you. Can we enter?"

The soldier said, "Foreigners are not allowed to enter. But if you look friendly, you can enter after paying twenty coins."

The Bull Demon King opened his eyes wide and asked, "Why do you need money to enter?"

The soldier said, "This is the rule."

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "In that case, we won't go in. We didn't intend to come here, we just wanted to take a peek. Now that you've said that, Niu'er, we'll go somewhere else."

The Bull Demon King had no choice but to respond and leave.

When the soldiers saw Jiang Yuan and others leaving, they cursed in a low voice.

The Bull Demon King was a little indignant, but seeing that Jiang Yuan was unmoved, he had to control his temper and follow Jiang Yuan.

As they were far away from the city, Bull Demon King said, "Master, he is just insulting me, why don't you teach him a lesson?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "There's no need to argue with him."

Zuo Liang saw this and seemed to be thinking about something. He asked, "Sir, as an immortal, one's heart does not get angry, so when verbally abused, one remains unmoved. But is this the case?"

Jiang Yuan said: "I was not angry, because I knew it was useless to argue with him, but it is not that an immortal god should be verbally insulted. If I were a real lord of the heavenly palace or a bodhisattva of the Buddhist sect, I would be different if I was insulted like this."

Zuo Liang seemed to understand, but not quite, and followed Bai Lu.

The Bull Demon King asked, "Master, we cannot enter here now, where should we go?"

Jiang Yuan said: "Just let the deer walk."

The Bull Demon King nodded deeply, then followed the white deer and walked forward together.

The group followed the white deer and walked forward aimlessly. After walking for a while, they suddenly saw a man dressed as a scholar in front of them, arguing with an old Taoist on the side of the road.

The Bull Demon King asked, "Master, there is a quarrel ahead. Do we need to avoid it?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "Let's go closer and take a look."

The Bull Demon King took the order and led the white deer closer. The scholar and the old Taoist were all shocked when they saw the real person.

The scholar asked, "Who are you and why are you here?"

The Bull Demon King replied, "We are here to practice cultivation. We passed by here and saw you two arguing on the road, so we came to ask if there is anything we can help you with."

The scholar said, "Since you asked, I might as well tell you something. It is because this old Taoist priest did not keep his word that we are arguing here."

Upon hearing this, the old Taoist blushed and said, "How can you say that I am not trustworthy? You did not explain it to me before sending me here. Now you are accusing me of being untrustworthy. How rude! How rude!"

The Bull Demon King stopped the Taoist priest and said, "How do you say that? Explain it clearly."

The old Taoist replied, "I am the master of the Xisheng Temple outside Wei County. This man came to the temple and asked me to subdue a demon. He offered me a gold horse hoof. I came. He told me that I was a small demon. Now I am in Wei County. He asked me to subdue the Dragon King of a river. I didn't know how to subdue the Dragon King, so I wanted to leave. But this guy stopped me and wouldn't let me leave. He said that I was not trustworthy."

The scholar said anxiously, "Since you promised me, you must do it. I also have some tricks. If we join forces, how can we not conquer the Dragon King?"

The old Taoist pointed at the scholar and cursed, "That's the Dragon King. Even if I told you to surrender the Dragon King, do you know what kind of disaster will happen? Conquering the Dragon King privately is a crime of deceiving the heaven!"

The scholar said, "Just conquer the dragon. I have my own way to escape. I just need to go to Chang'an and I will be safe. I will be safe!"

The old Taoist said, "You are ignorant. How can I have the ability to subdue a dragon? Besides, you regard the laws of heaven as nothing. How can you let me risk the life of an ordinary person to deceive heaven with you? Even if you say that I am not trustworthy, I will leave." After that,

The old Taoist was about to leave.

The scholar stopped him and said, "You accepted my gold and silver. If you don't come with me, I will go to the government and report you for being dishonest and taking money but not doing anything."

The old Taoist shouted, "Even if you call the present emperor here, I will not do such a thing that defies heaven."

The scholar replied, "You must go with me now."

The old Taoist was unwilling.

The two started arguing again.

Jiang Yuan dismounted the white deer and waved his sleeves. A gentle breeze blew and separated the two people.

When the scholar saw him, he knew that Jiang Yuan was a man with magical powers. He was delighted and stepped forward and asked, "Excuse me, where are you from?"

Jiang Yuan replied: "A cultivator from the West."

The scholar smiled and said, "In that case, you come with me to subdue the dragon, and I will give you two horseshoe golds, how about that?"

Jiang Yuan asked: "Why do you want to subdue the dragon?"

The scholar's eyes rolled and he said, "You don't know that the dragon has some grudge against me, so I want to subdue him."

Jiang Yuan asked: "What's the grudge?"

The scholar said, "Because it was a vicious dragon that ate my parents, so I came to avenge it."

When the old Taoist heard this, his original impatience disappeared and he asked, "Are you telling the truth?"

The scholar said, "Why would I lie to you? I am telling the truth."

The old Taoist was about to agree to go with the scholar to subdue the demon.

Jiang Yuan stopped him and said, "To be honest, I saw a dragon before. I don't know if it was the evil dragon you mentioned. The dragon told me that he had adopted a child from the city for 20 years, but when the child grew up, he turned his kindness into hatred and wanted to pull out his dragon tendons. I was very angry when I heard this. I don't know if this dragon is the same evil dragon you mentioned?"

Upon hearing this, the scholar panicked and dared not say anything more. He just said that there was no need for him to wait to subdue the demon, and then he got up and went to Wei County.

The old Taoist wanted to catch up and ask for clarification, but was stopped by Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan said, "Let him go. He is guilty as a thief. If I tell you, how dare I keep him here?"

He looked at the Bull Demon King again and said, "Niu'er, you go to Wei County and explain what happened to the City God. Ask the City God to investigate thoroughly and reward the good and the evil."

After receiving the order, Bull Demon King headed towards Wei County. When he entered the forest, he rode on a cloud and flew into the city.

When the old Taoist heard that the Immortal had taught Bull Demon King to tell the City God, his eyes widened and he said, "Where did you come from? How could you be so familiar with the ghosts and gods of Wei County?"

Jiang Yuan said: "It's just cultivation."

The old Taoist wanted to say something else, but suddenly he saw that Jiang Yuan looked very familiar. He approached and took a closer look. Suddenly he knelt down and asked in shock, "Are you the Western Saint?"

Jiang Yuan saw the old Taoist kneeling down, not understanding what he meant, and asked, "What is the Western Saint?"

The old Taoist bowed and said, "The Western Saint is the Supreme Saint. His appearance is exactly the same as the Western Saint's statue. He must be the Western Saint. But please forgive me, Western Saint, for not welcoming you."

Jiang Yuan asked, "What do you mean by that? Tell me in detail."

The old Taoist priest explained to Jiang Yuan what the "Western Saint" was, but he did not mention it for the time being.

……

The story goes that in Weijun City, the Bull Demon King descended from the clouds and arrived here. He walked into the City God Temple, and a ghost judge came forward to stop him, and an official came to stop him.

The ghosts shouted, "Who is that coming?"

The Bull Demon King swung his iron rod with great power, and the ghosts dared not approach him. He shouted, "I am the Dharma Protector of Guangxin Zhenren in the Three Stars Cave of the Slanting Moon on the Fangcun Mountain of Lingtai, Hezhou, Xiniu. I have come here today on the orders of Guangxin Zhenren. Why don't you quickly inform the City God?"

Upon hearing this, the ghosts rushed into the palace to report. The City God came down from the palace to greet them and bowed, saying, "I am here to see you, the Immortal. Please give me your instructions so that I can know what you want me to do."

The Bull Demon King then recounted the previous events and told him about the Dragon King and the scholar. When he had finished, he said, "Master, please investigate this matter thoroughly. Good deeds will be rewarded and evil deeds will be punished."

The City God accepted the order and said, "Please report back to the Immortal. I will investigate this matter thoroughly and make sure that no one is wronged. I will summon the scholar today and invite the Dragon King tomorrow to get to the bottom of it."

The Bull Demon King said, "In this case, I will report this to you, Master. I hope you will take it to heart."

The City God stopped the Bull Demon King and said with an apologetic smile, "Sir, the Immortal has sent you here. Is the Immortal around? I wonder if I have the honor to see the Immortal's true appearance?"

The Bull Demon King laughed and said, "The master has left Weijun and wanted to enter the city, but the soldiers stopped him and did not allow him to enter. Now he wants to go somewhere else."

When the City God heard this, he sighed and said that he had no blessings.

The Bull Demon King said no more and left on a cloud.

When the City God saw the Bull Demon King leaving, he was still sighing.

The ghosts came forward and asked, "Master, what should we do?"

The City God said, "What else can we do? We must obey the Immortal's order and thoroughly investigate this matter. Good deeds will be rewarded and evil deeds will be punished. We will judge that person tonight and get to the bottom of this matter. We will then find an opportunity to report back to the Immortal."

All the ghost judges obeyed the order.

(End of this chapter)