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

Chapter 232 Wukong steals the divine weapon

The Master of Words braved the snow and cold and walked into the 800-li Liquan Mountain. After entering the mountain, they stopped and saw that there were some scenes in the mountain that were too numerous to see. It was really a mountain with "peaks and rocks overlapping, ravines and valleys winding around, thorns on the roadside, beautiful pines and cypresses on the ridges, ivy everywhere, fragrant grass stretching to the sky, shadows falling on the north of the sea, and clouds opening to the south of the handle of the dipper".

The immortal rode on the back of a white deer, watching from afar and using his magical powers, he saw black gas in the south of the mountain, and guessed that it must be the Green Bull Cave.

Sun Wukong also saw it, approached the immortal, and asked, "Big Brother, can I go and fight him and subdue him?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and smiled, "No hurry, no hurry. That Green Bull is very smart. If he knows we are coming, you won't be able to subdue him in a short time, and he will leave. It will be difficult to find him then."

Sun Wukong said: "What you said is reasonable, my eldest brother. The treasure of the blue bull is very valuable. If he takes my staff away, I will never be able to defeat him."

Jiang Yuan asked: "Do you have any way to subdue it?"

The Bull Demon King said, "Master, can that blue bull get away from fighting you, Master?"

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Don't underestimate that Qingniu. In the past, I had not yet achieved Taoism, and my mortal body had not yet been shed, and my turbid bones were hard to clear. At that time, Qingniu already had profound magical powers, and his abilities were amazing. Moreover, Qingniu escaped from the lower world, and Laojun has many treasures. It is hard to say what treasures Qingniu has in his hands. If he has some treasures that can help him escape, it is difficult for us to detect it."

Upon hearing this, Tieguai Li said, "What the Immortal said makes sense. I know that Qingniu has a diamond chisel, but I don't know if Qingniu has other treasures. There are many treasures in the Tushita Palace. If he takes one or two, we will be in danger if we don't notice it."

Sun Wukong looked over there and said, "That makes sense. When I was on my way west, the treasure in Laojun's hand caused me a lot of trouble."

Jiang Yuan asked again: "If this is the case, is there any way to subdue it safely?"

Sun Wukong pondered for a long time and said, "Big Brother, if you want to subdue it safely, you must guard every place in this mountain to prevent it from escaping. If you want to guard the mountain, you should go to the heaven and ask the Great Celestial Venerable for an order to mobilize troops to set up a net to guard every place. That way, the Green Ox will have nowhere to escape."

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "It's too much of a fuss."

Sun Wukong heard this and said, "If we don't mobilize a large army, then we have to use some skills that are not worthy of being shown on the stage."

Jiang Yuan asked: "How do you say that?"

Sun Wukong said with a smile: "Wait until I go into his house and see what treasure he has. If I can steal it, it will be easy to defeat him. If I can't steal it, I can also know his background."

When the Immortal and his companions heard this, they knew there was nothing they could do, so they had to agree and sent Sun Wukong to go and find out more about the Green Ox.

Sun Wukong took the order and went forward.

……

After a while, Sun Wukong jumped into the old forest in the mountains. He looked around and saw a little demon in the forest in front of him who was leading two or three followers and patrolling the mountain.

Seeing this, Sun Wukong thought to himself, "This Green Ox has really improved. When I fought him in the past, he had few soldiers under his command. But now that he has come down to the mortal world, he has soldiers patrolling the mountains. I guess he has many more soldiers under his command."

Think about it.

Sun Wukong transformed himself into a fly, which was really sleek. His wings were as thin as bamboo membranes, his body was as small as a flower heart, his hands and feet were thicker than hair, and his eyes were bright as stars. He flew towards the little demons.

As I got closer, I heard a few little demons talking.

The leader of the patrol said, "Why do you want to gather so many soldiers? I heard that you want more than 10,000 soldiers. Where can you gather so many soldiers?"

Xiao Yao and the others said, "More than 10,000 soldiers and horses, Your Majesty, are you planning to rebel? Otherwise, why would you need so many soldiers and horses?"

The demon patrolling the mountain said, "I heard from you, Your Majesty, that I am not rebelling against the Heaven, but am competing with a demon."

The little demon and the others said, "Are you comparing it to that demon?"

The patrolling monster said, "It is a comparison with the Bull Demon King of Cuiyun Mountain in Hezhou, West Niuzhou."

Xiao Yao and the others looked at each other in bewilderment, and then said, "I have never heard of it, I have never heard of it."

The patrolling monster said, "I've heard that Xiniu Hezhou is a very faraway place. It's not unusual that we haven't heard of it."

When the fly that Sun Wukong transformed into heard this, he thought to himself, "It really is this Green Ox, but I don't know how he can compare with my brother. My brother has more than 10,000 soldiers in Cuiyun Mountain, and this Green Ox wants to gather more than 10,000 soldiers. I don't know what he is thinking. Let me go into his house and take a look."

Sun Wukong stopped eavesdropping on the little demons' conversation and headed towards the place in the mountain where the black air was gathering, heading for Qingniu's mansion.

It didn't take long for Sun Wukong to reach the mansion and slip through the crack in the door. He saw the Green Ox sitting on the high platform, eating oranges. Below it, groups of monsters, big and small, were lined up on both sides, some dancing and some singing.

Sometimes monsters would offer fragrant goat cheese and coconut wine to the green ox.

Sun Wukong laughed secretly and said, "This green bull really knows how to enjoy himself. Let me see what treasures he has."

Sun Wukong transformed himself into a fly, flying around. After flying a circle around the mansion, he saw that there were not many treasures in the mansion. Most of them were ordinary weapons used by little demons.

The only treasure that had some divine light was a crutch placed in the back hall.

Sun Wukong looked around and knew that the Green Ox's treasure was most likely the white ring on its hand and the crutch in the back hall.

The circle was put on Qingniu's hand, so it was difficult for him to take it off, but he could take the crutch away.

Thinking of this, Sun Wukong flew to the back hall, revealed his true form, and stretched out his hand to pick up the Panlong crutch.

Unexpectedly, the Panlong crutch was extremely heavy, like Mount Tai, and no matter how hard Sun Wukong tried, he was unable to lift it.

Sun Wukong struggled, holding the cane with both hands, and used all his strength to lift it, but he only managed to lift the cane a fraction of an inch, and then he couldn't lift it any further. The cane fell to the ground, making a noise.

The blue ox heard the noise, stood up, and shouted, "Who is that person in the back hall? Who allowed you to enter the back hall? Come, bring the person in the back hall to me."

Seeing that the situation was not good, Sun Wukong transformed himself into a fly and went out along the old path.

The monsters, big and small, rushed in, but did not notice anything unusual, so they could only report back to Qingniu, saying that there was no one in the back hall.

Qingniu didn't understand what he meant and asked, "No one? Did you really see no one in the back hall?"

A little demon answered, "My lord, there really is no one here."

Qingniu asked, "Where is my walking stick?"

The little demon replied: "I don't know why, but it fell to the ground."

Qingniu did not understand what he meant and said, "My walking stick is as heavy as a mountain. It is impossible to move it without a spell. I suppose you want to move it, but you do not have the magic power to do so. So why did my walking stick fall to the ground?"

The little demon and the others all answered that they didn’t know.

Qingniu pondered for a long time and said, "This scene reminds me of a thief."

A little demon asked, "My lord, which thief stole it?"

Qingniu said, "He is a famous thief in the three realms, his name is Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, the Fighting and Victory Buddha."

Upon hearing this, the little demon was startled and said, "I have heard of it before. I have heard of it before. He is the most famous demon in history."

Qingniu said, "How can you be the number one demon in front of me? But Sun Wukong shouldn't be here. I heard that he was named Fighting Buddha. He should be practicing in Xi Niu Hezhou. He shouldn't be here with me. Maybe I am worrying too much."

The green ox put away the thought and had fun playing with the monsters, big and small.

……

But Sun Wukong came out of the cave, revealed his true form, flew away on a cloud, and returned to where the immortals were.

Sun Wukong said: "Big Brother, here I come."

Jiang Yuan dismounted the white deer and asked, "Wukong, what happened?"

Sun Wukong then recounted what had happened before and told Jiang Yuan what had happened in the Green Ox's mansion.

The Immortal asked: "A walking stick, a diamond chisel, nothing else?"

Sun Wukong replied: "Big Brother, there are really only these two things in the mansion, nothing else."

The Immortal looked at Tieguai Li and asked, "Brother, do you know where that walking stick is?"

Tieguai Li said, "But what about the Panlong crutch? If it is that thing, I have some impression that it is something that Laojun uses for fun. It has some weight and can fight, but it definitely cannot help the creature escape."

Jiang Yuan said: "If that's the case, we just need to be on guard against his diamond chisel."

Sun Wukong asked: "Big Brother, how do we deal with him?"

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Since he has no treasures that can escape, let's set up our battle formation and confront him, and teach him to surrender."

Sun Wukong asked, "Big Brother, do you want me to challenge you?"

The Bull Demon King stepped forward and said, "Master, there is no need for you to go. I can go and challenge you."

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "Let Wukong go. We will hide in the clouds and wait for the blue bull to come out. Then we will appear and meet him."

Everyone responded and obeyed the order.

Jiang Yuan ordered Bai Lu to guard Zuo Liang here, while he, Bull Demon King, and Li Tieguai went away in the clouds.

Sun Wukong obeyed the order, pulled out the golden hoop from his ear, and leaped forward. When he reached the Green Bull Cave in the mountain, he shouted, "Little demon, hurry up and tell them that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, is here to visit. Tell your king to come out quickly! If he doesn't come out, don't blame me for being merciless with your stick."

The two little demons guarding the door were frightened by the majestic power of Sun Wukong and hurried inside to report.

The Blue Ox was sitting high on the platform. When he heard the report from the little demon, he was furious and said, "I was wondering how the cane fell to the ground. I was wondering if it was Bi Ma Wen who did it. I have no grudge against him. Why did he come to trouble me again? And now he is not in Xiniu Hezhou. I will never tolerate him! Someone, take my armor and treasures. Watch me defeat him and bring him to the palace to vent my anger!"

A little demon said in fear: "My lord, is it really the Monkey King who has come? It is hard to resist him, it is hard to resist him!"

Qingniu cursed, "Why should I be afraid of him? He should be afraid of me! Bring me your armor!"

At that time, a little demon brought armor, and the Green Ox put it on. He walked to the front of the Panlong crook in the back hall, chanting an incantation. Then the Green Ox took out a note from his waist, and on the note was written "Taishang Laojun, please give your order as soon as possible."

Qingniu pasted the note on the Panlong crutch, and saw the crutch emitting thousands of divine lights and auspicious mists.

Qing Niu took off the Panlong crutch, held it in his hand, and weighed the diamond chisel on his arm. He then gathered his troops and went out of the mansion to fight with Sun Wukong.

(End of this chapter)