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

Chapter 192: The Immortal Returns to Lingshan
However, Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun came in person and told Zhenren and others about the escape of Jiuling Yuansheng.

The Monkey King heard that it was the Great Lord Lao's 'Reincarnation Elixir' that made the lion slave sleep for three days, which led to the Nine Spirits Primordial Saint's escape. He said, "How could the Lord Lao be so careless? First there was the Bodhisattva who lent people, then there was the cow that got away, and now there is the wine that made the lion slave sleep, which led to the lion beast's escape."

Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun said, "It is my fault for not keeping a close watch on the lion, which led to its behavior. I will punish it when I return. I hope the Immortal and the Great Sage will do me a favor and allow me to take the lion back and punish it."

The traveler said no more and walked behind the immortal, taking the immortal as his leader.

Jiang Yuan stepped forward and said, "This lion beast has never done evil and has cultivated the right path. Heavenly Lord, just take it back. It should have been returned to Miaoyan Palace. Since you are here today, just take this lion beast away."

Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun smiled and said, "If my beast dares to do evil, even if the real person is willing to forgive him, I will not forgive him."

He then walked to Jiuling Yuansheng, but saw that Jiuling Yuansheng was trapped in the "immobilization technique". He waved his sleeves and the immobilization technique was released.

Tianzun said: "Yuan Sheng'er, I am here."

When the Nine Spirits Primordial Saint saw that it was the Great Master of Rescue, he was startled and said, "Master, please accept my greeting. I know I am wrong."

Tianzun shouted, "Why don't you thank the Immortal for sparing your life? You are committing a great sin by offending the Immortal."

Jiuling Yuansheng bowed to the Immortal and said, "Thank you, Immortal. Thank you, Immortal."

Jiang Yuan smiled but said nothing.

The Monkey King said, "My Lord, please show me this fellow's true form."

Tianzun said: "Yuan Sheng'er, why don't you show your true form!"

Jiuling Yuansheng crawled on the ground, his body shook, and his true form was revealed, which was a nine-headed lion.

When the lion slave saw this, he rushed forward and punched him more than a hundred times, cursing, "How dare you sneak into the lower world and make me suffer, you beast!"

The nine-headed lion dared not move at all and allowed the lion slave to beat it. After it had vented its anger for a long time, the lion slave finally stopped. The Lord of Heaven took the brocade rein and placed it on his back, then invited the Lord of Heaven to take a seat.

Tianzun turned on his back and said, "Master, Great Sage, I will leave now."

The traveler said, "Go slowly, my Lord."

Jiang Yuan also bid farewell to Tianzun.

Before leaving, Tianzun looked at Jiang Yuan and said, "I have long admired you, Immortal. If you are free in the future, you can come to my place and sit for a while. I will certainly prepare a bed for you."

Jiang Yuan said: "If I have time, I will definitely go to Miaoyan Palace to meet Tianzun."

After hearing this, Tianzun left happily.

Jiang Yuan and Monkey watched Tianzun go away. Monkey was just about to say something else when he came over to express his gratitude.

Jiang Yuan waved his hand and said, "No need to thank me. When you succeed, you can come back to thank me. And return quickly, and continue on the west road. Success will come soon, and you can enter Lingshan Mountain."

The traveler was filled with gratitude and said, "Big Brother, when I succeed, I will definitely go find you to express my gratitude. Then I will be in your presence every day to listen to your teachings."

Jiang Yuan asked Monkey to leave, and he went to the Bull Demon King, but saw that the Bull Demon King had captured the six lions and the other demon grandchildren of Jiuling Yuansheng.

Jiang Yuan never made things difficult for these demon grandchildren of Jiuling Yuansheng. He only asked them to do good deeds as a punishment and had no intention of beating or killing them.

Upon hearing this, the demons trembled with fear and knelt on the ground, saying, "We have never done anything evil. Even if we took cattle and sheep for food, we bought them with money, which was a good deed. Thank you, Immortal, for sparing our lives!"

Jiang Yuan sighed, "This should not have happened. You must remember, how can there be so many treasures in the world that are ownerless for you to take? Even if there are treasures without owners, you don't have the ability to protect them. If you take them by force, you will be killed. There is a saying that goes, 'A man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure.'"

The goblins all bowed and said, "Master, we know everything."

Jiang Yuan didn’t know how much these goblins listened to him, but he had said everything he could. It was up to them whether they listened or not.

He then ordered the Bull Demon King to let the goblins leave.

When the goblins saw that the Bull Demon King let them go, they fled away in panic.

The Bull Demon King was somewhat indignant and said, "Master, you spoke the truth to them, but they didn't listen. It's true that there is no affinity between you and them."

Jiang Yuan said, "Niu'er, don't worry about whether you listen or not, just say it. Let's go, we will go to Lingshan."

Say it.

Jiang Yuan rode on the auspicious cloud and was about to leave.

The Bull Demon King was guarding beside them, and together with the Immortal, the two of them went to Lingshan.

……

The Monkey King returned to Yuhua Prefecture and met Tang Monk, Zhu Bajie and others in the main hall.

Tang Monk stepped forward and took Monkey's hand, saying, "My worthy disciple has returned. Has your mission been accomplished?"

The traveler smiled and said, "It is a success, it is a success. Now that the Nine Spirits Saint has been subdued, we can set off now."

After hearing this, Tang Seng felt relieved and said, "In this case, let's gather together one side and then continue on the west road, hoping to reach Lingshan and obtain the true scriptures as soon as possible." The Monkey King replied that he wanted to gather together with Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing.

Before the three of them could gather themselves, the three princes came over and bowed, saying, "Master, we have not yet mastered all the martial arts, nor have we forged our weapons. But please stay for a few days and teach us all the martial arts before you leave."

The traveler said, "You don't know, my master is determined to travel west, and is now in Yuhuazhou City. He has some time to go."

Upon hearing this, the three princes bowed before Tang Seng and said, "Grandmaster, there is a saying that goes 'complete from beginning to end'. This is also the principle for you to obtain the scriptures, and it is also the same for us to learn the skills. I hope you can help me and stay for a few more days so that you can teach me all the skills. By then, I will have the skills to benefit the people and protect their peace. The people will definitely sing praises to you for your kindness."

Tang Seng said, "Forget it. My disciples will continue to teach here. When you have taught the three princes all the skills, we will then set out on our journey westward."

The three princes were overjoyed upon hearing the news.

Upon hearing this, the travelers had no choice but to agree.

At that time, a craftsman came to report that the weapons of the three princes had been successfully made.

They immediately asked the craftsman to fetch these three weapons, which were imitations of the ones used by Monkey and his three companions. There was a golden hoop stick, weighing a thousand pounds, a nine-toothed rake, and a demon-subduing staff, each weighing eight hundred pounds.

Under normal circumstances, the three princes would not be able to wield such heavy weapons. Fortunately, the traveler passed on his magical powers to them, allowing them to use such weapons.

Seeing this, the three monks began to teach martial arts, each teaching the 72 moves, and told the three princes to memorize and practice more. The three princes had never seen such martial arts before, and they memorized them one by one, but it was very difficult to use them. It was not possible to use them without practicing them wholeheartedly for several years.

When the old king saw the abilities of the three travelers, he was overjoyed and offered them countless gold, silver and jewels.

Tang Seng and the other two travelers did not dare to accept it, so they stayed in the city for a few days and then left, heading west again, determined to obtain the true scriptures and not to have any second thoughts.

……

It is said that Jiang Yuan rode a cloud and arrived at the scenic spot of Lingshan Mountain with Bull Demon King. They landed on the cloud in front of the Great Leiyin Temple. The Eight Vajras knew that someone was approaching and came forward to stop them.

The Eight Vajra asked, "Who is coming?"

The Bull Demon King swung his iron rod and shouted, "Master Guangxin is here!"

When the eight Vajras heard that it was the Master Guang Xin, they all greeted him and said, "We are here to see the Master! Would you like to meet the Master?"

Jiang Yuan responded, "I will meet with the Venerable. I hope you can ask Vajra to convey it to me."

When the eight great Vajras heard the voice, they were about to go inside to report, when they suddenly saw Venerable Kashyapa and Venerable Ananda approaching.

The second venerable said: "The Buddha has ordered that the True Man be invited in."

When the Eight Vajras saw the two venerables coming, they opened the mountain gate and allowed the immortals to enter.

Jiang Yuan and Bull Demon King walked inside.

The two venerables led Jiang Yuan to the main hall.

Jiang Yuan asked Bull Demon King to wait outside the palace, and he walked into the palace with the two venerables.

Tathagata was in the palace, sitting on a lotus platform.

The second venerable bowed and said, "The real person has been brought here."

Tathagata nodded and smiled, "I came here a while ago because of the incident at Lion Camel Mountain. Now that time has passed, I have entered Lingshan again. I wonder why I came here?"

Jiang Yuan stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Venerable, I have come here today to ask about my junior brother. I was traveling in the Southern Continent when I suddenly felt something in my heart. I knew that my junior brother had really entered the Holy Mountain. I wonder how my junior brother is doing?"

Upon hearing this, Tathagata exclaimed in praise, "I never thought that the True Man's ability has reached such a level until now, and that he has such magical powers, it is truly amazing."

He then replied, "Master, please rest assured. Master Zhenjian is fine. I was pleased with his practice a while ago and wanted to invite him to Lingshan Mountain to sit on the lotus platform. So I sent Manjusri Bodhisattva to invite Zhenjian. Master Zhenjian did not abandon me and came to Lingshan Mountain. He is compassionate and is willing to sit on the lotus platform to save the world."

When Jiang Yuan heard this, he immediately knew what Tathagata meant. His junior brother Zhenjian had entered Lingshan and sat on the lotus platform, and had become a Buddha. He knew this and was happy. Zhenjian was always waiting for him in the mansion, and said that he would accompany him. But how could he want to see his junior brother Zhenjian stay in the mansion all the time? If he could become a Buddha and become an official in the heavenly court, that would be great.

He asked, "I never thought that my junior brother would enter Lingshan. It was my fault that I didn't say goodbye to him."

Tathagata smiled and said, "I knew that the Immortal was coming, so I had already sent a monk to invite him to come. It won't take long for the Immortal to meet your junior brother."

Jiang Yuan praised the Tathagata and asked, "Venerable, I still don't know what rank my junior fellow apprentice holds?"

Tathagata replied, "It is for the 'Buddha of Meditation and Wisdom'. I originally wanted to find a famous mountain for him to practice, but the Buddha of Wisdom wanted to return to Fangcun Mountain to practice. I didn't know whether Fangcun Mountain was willing to allow the Buddha of Wisdom to practice, so I put it off for a while. Now that the real person is here, whether he is willing to teach the Buddha of Wisdom to practice in Fangcun Mountain can be asked."

Jiang Yuan said: "Zhenjian was originally a disciple of Fangcun Mountain. It is fine for him to return to Fangcun Mountain to practice."

Tathagata said: "Since this is the case, we can rest assured and let the Buddha of Wisdom go to Lingtai Fangcun Mountain to practice."

Jiang Yuan said: "Speaking of which, Venerable, in the near future there will be another junior fellow disciple in my sect, who will enter Lingshan to become a Buddha."

Tathagata nodded and said, "Sun Wukong and his companions have now entered the Kingdom of India. It will take some time for them to reach Mount Lingshan. Would you like to stay at Mount Lingshan and wait with me for the pilgrims to arrive? If you are willing to wait at Mount Lingshan, I will have someone take the lotus platform and sit cross-legged with you to wait."

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "No need. When the mission is accomplished, we will meet each other. This time I am only here to see the real one."

(End of this chapter)