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

Chapter 268: The Evil of Xuanming Mother, Sun Wukong Enters the Underworld

Time flies, and before I knew it, two months have gone by.

The group of immortals were traveling in Beijuluzhou. There were no four seasons here, the weather was not good, and the north wind blew all year round. It was a bitterly cold place.

The group walked for a long time, crossing many mountains. No monsters dared to block their way along the way. The Bull Demon King and Sun Wukong led the way in front, Zuo Liang led the deer, with the Immortal sitting on it, and the Green Bull and Zhu Bajie followed behind him.

Compared to when Zhu Bajie followed with empty hands, today he followed with a load on his shoulder. On the load were two baskets of oranges.

This was because the Immortal personally ordered Zhu Bajie to carry the load. The reason was that Zhu Bajie complained of being tired after walking for only one or two days. The Immortal then ordered the blue ox to pick a basket of oranges and asked Zhu Bajie to carry it and follow him.

Whenever Zhu Bajie complained of being tired, the immortal would ask the blue ox to pick a basket of oranges for Zhu Bajie to carry.

Zhu Bajie called out twice in total, so now he is carrying two baskets of oranges.

Qingniu walked forward with the group, and from time to time he would take an orange from Zhu Bajie's burden to enjoy, feeling very comfortable.

Zhu Bajie shouted, "Old Cow, eat faster and take more. This will make it easier for me."

The Green Ox pointed at Zhu Bajie and said, "Don't make any more noise. If you do, I will definitely pick another basket of oranges and teach you how to carry them."

After hearing this, Zhu Bajie dared not say anything more.

Jiang Yuan, riding on a white deer, watched this and smiled without saying a word. He had been a Taoist for a long time, so how could he not know how to deal with the Wood Mother? No matter how Zhu Bajie's Wood Mother acted, it was useless in his eyes, unless Zhu Bajie escaped and returned to Fuling Mountain.

If that is the case, no matter what he does it will be useless. You must know that if you do not move forward after hearing the truth, the true man will never look down upon you.

The Bull Demon King suddenly turned around and walked in front of the deer, saying, "Master, I am not far from where the Xuanming Mother is. I saw evil spirits rising to the sky in the west, and I guessed that was where the Xuanming Mother was."

Upon hearing this, the Immortal asked, "How long will it take?"

The Bull Demon King said, "Master, with our speed, we should arrive in three or four days."

Jiang Yuan said, "Niu'er, use your ability to exorcise spirits to find out the details of the Xuanming Old Mother."

The Bull Demon King said with a smile: "Master, please stay here for a while. I will go find a ghost from the underworld to find out the origins of the Xuanming Mother."

Say it.

The Bull Demon King held the Black Dragon Piyue Spear and rode on a cloud to go forward.

The Immortal asked Zuo Liang to stop and wait for the Bull Demon King to return.

Seeing that the Immortal had stopped moving, Zhu Bajie put down his burden, panted, and said, "Immortal, you can finally take a break, but you make me tired."

Jiang Yuan smiled and asked, "Zhu Bajie, you are a cultivator no matter what, why do you complain so much just carrying two loads of fruit?"

Zhu Bajie said: "Master, you don't know, although this load is not heavy, it is very slippery and it takes a lot of effort to lift it."

Zhu Bajie just finished speaking.

Sun Wukong suddenly came over, grabbed Zhu Bajie's palm-leaf fan by the ear, and said, "You fool, you are obviously lazy. It was OK when you were traveling west in the past, but now that you are practicing with my elder brother, how dare you be lazy? Now extend your crutch and let me beat you a hundred times to vent my anger."

Sun Wukong pulled out the golden cudgel from between his ears and wanted to hit Zhu Bajie.

When Zhu Bajie saw this, he was terrified and he circled the load to fend for himself, fearing that he would be caught by Sun Wukong. He kept saying, "Brother, I won't dare to do it again, I won't dare to do it again! Please forgive me."

Sun Wukong scolded him, "You have been talking like this for a long time, how can you repent? I will stop beating you with a hundred sticks to relieve my boredom."

Sun Wukong jumped up and hit Zhu Bajie with a stick.

Zhu Bajie was so panicked that he ran to the immortal and said, "Imperial, save me! Imperial, save me!"

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "Wukong, don't scare Zhu Bajie."

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong put away his golden cudgel and said, "Brother, why are you trying to stop me? If you don't, I will definitely teach this fool a lesson today."

Jiang Yuan said with a smile: "Wukong, you have been trying to scare Bajie, but it is useless. Next time he does it again, I will allow you to beat him twice with a stick."

Sun Wukong replied with a smile.

This made Zhu Bajie panic and he said, "Master, absolutely not! Absolutely not! That monkey brother's iron rod is very heavy. If he hits me twice, I will die."

Jiang Yuan said, "You know his iron rod is heavy, so don't be lazy again. But if you do it again next time, Wukong will hit you twice. Then I will let the Bull King and the Si King catch you together, and you will have nowhere to escape. But if you don't get lazy, wait until you finish your journey to Beijuluzhou, and I will grant you a wish."

Zhu Bajie was terrified when he heard that he was going to ask Bull Demon King and Green Ox to catch him. But when he heard that if he didn't get lazy, he could get his wish, he couldn't help asking, "Master, what's your wish?"

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Whatever your wish is, I can answer it to the best of my ability."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Bajie smiled happily, stopped complaining of being tired, and sat down nearby.

Sun Wukong said, "Big Brother, why do you answer him like that?"

Jiang Yuan said: "Zhu Bajie is haunted by the Wood Mother. Even if he is beaten with a stick a hundred times, the Wood Mother still has some strength left. If you want to subdue the Wood Mother, you must set an example yourself. Therefore, only he can pass this level. I say this in the hope that he can cultivate his mind and be firm, and subdue the Wood Mother."

Sun Wukong bowed and said, "Big Brother, please be merciful."

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "It's not compassion."

Sun Wukong shook his head and said, "If you can't say you are compassionate, then no one can say you are compassionate. Zhu Bajie has nothing to do with you. You are compassionate for him to practice for you."

Jiang Yuan said, "I will not ferry one or two people over. It is because they have heard the truth that I ferry them over. But if I ignore those who have not heard the truth, I cannot call this compassionate."

Sun Wukong said: "This is not compassion?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head and said, "Not even close."

Sun Wukong asked: "If this is the case, how can it be called compassion?"

Jiang Yuan replied: "If you are like Master, like the Jade Emperor, like the Supreme Lord Lao, like the Purple Star Emperor, then you are truly compassionate."

Sun Wukong laughed and said, "Master is truly compassionate, but Big Brother is also truly compassionate."

When Jiang Yuan heard Sun Wukong say this, he smiled and said no more.

The group waited there. Jiang Yuan looked around. Now they were in a mountain. This mountain was dangerous. He looked carefully and saw that this mountain was really "Jagged and rugged as if it was carved by ghosts. Black rocks piled up into a skull platform. Poisonous moss grew on the cliffs thousands of feet high. Dark haze surged in the deep ravines thousands of feet deep. Human bones were hung on the twisted old pines. Soul-catching hairpins were hung upside down on thorns. Jackdaws cried bloody tears, and mandrills cried at night to attract corpses."

If this mountain were in Xiniuhezhou, it would definitely be an incomparable evil place, but if it were in Beijuluzhou, it would be just an ordinary place.

Jiang Yuan saw many such evil mountains along the way, but he did not see many demons and evil spirits. This was because the real person had an immortal appearance. Wherever the real person passed by, the demons and evil spirits in this area would have known to flee for their lives, so how could they dare to stay and murder the real person.

Zuo Liang sighed when he saw this evil mountain, and said, "Master, Uncle Master, this place was once used by Emperor Xuan to exorcise demons, but it is still so evil. Is it true that the demons in Beijuluzhou are endless?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuan pondered for a long time and said, "Difficult, difficult, difficult. Heaven and earth have their own destiny. If Beiku Luzhou was allowed to be destroyed so easily, it would have ceased to exist long ago." Zuo Liang seemed to be thinking about something.

……

The story goes that the Bull Demon King rode a cloud to find a local god to ask for advice. He landed when he reached the top of a mountain. Looking at the many tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves around him, the Bull Demon King swung his Pi Yue Spear, threw away his airs, and used all his strength to scare the tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves away. They dared not approach the Bull King.

When the Bull King saw the tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves retreat, he chanted an incantation and used a magic spell to "drive away the gods", intending to send the surrounding land gods and mountain gods to come.

But no matter how he chanted the spell, no land god of mountain responded to his orders. This made him a little angry. He was about to sense the location of the land god of mountain and drive it over. However, after sensing for a long time, he did not sense any land god of mountain.

The Bull Demon King was a little puzzled. He sensed that there was not a single land or mountain god within a hundred miles around him.

He looked around and finally found a wolf monster in a cave.

When the hiding wolf demon saw the Bull King, he was horrified and was about to attack, but the Bull King subdued him in one move.

The Bull Demon King knocked the wolf demon to the ground and asked him where the local land god was.

The wolf demon said tremblingly: "My lord, my lord! How come there are land gods and mountain gods here? They would have been eaten up long ago."

The Bull Demon King asked, "Who ate it?"

The wolf demon pointed to the west and said, "It's the Xuanming Mother! Xuanming Mother ate all the surrounding land gods and mountain gods in her early years."

Upon hearing this, Bull Demon King thought to himself that this was not good. If this was the case, he would not be able to find a local mountain god.

The Bull King killed the wolf demon with one strike of his spear, then got up and rode on a cloud to go outside, intending to find a local god of the mountains a hundred miles away.

The Bull Demon King was tormented for half a day. After more than half a day, he finally found a piece of land two hundred miles away. After finding the land, he got up and returned to look for the real person.

……

The group waited there for more than half a day, and then the Bull Demon King came back with a strong wind, holding an old land man in his hand.

When the Bull Demon King returned, he walked up to the Immortal, bowed deeply, and said, "Master, I have finally found a ghost in the ground."

Jiang Yuan dismounted the white deer and helped Bull Demon King up, but seeing that he was exhausted, he asked, "Niu Er, where did you go to invite the Earth God?"

The Bull Demon King pointed at the land god and said, "Master, you don't know that most of the land gods here were killed by the Xuanming Old Mother. Therefore, I can't find the land god. I have to go 200 miles away to find this land god. This land god is very hidden. If I don't know the art of driving away gods and can sense him, I can't find him."

Jiang Yuan said: "It's tiring for you."

The Bull Demon King said, "I don't deserve it. I don't deserve it."

Jiang Yuan then looked towards the land.

The land god hurriedly bowed and said, "The land god of the evil mountain pays homage to the true god."

Jiang Yuan helped the land god up and said, "There is no need to be polite, God of Earth. I am sending the Dharma Protector to call you now because I have something important to ask you. Please forgive me for my rudeness."

The land god said in panic, "I dare not. But please ask me, I will tell you everything I know."

Jiang Yuan said, "To be honest with you, Earth God, I am here to subdue the Xuanming Mother, but I don't know who she is, so I ask the Earth God to tell me. If you know who she is, I can use my magic to subdue her."

The land god bowed and said, "Please forgive me, Immortal. If you are talking about the origin of the Xuanming Mother, I don't know. Even if I knew, I would tell you, Immortal."

Jiang Yuan hasn't answered yet.

Sun Wukong stepped forward and asked, "Land God, how come you don't know the origin of Xuanming Mother? You are the local land god, you should know everything about the surrounding area."

The land god said tremblingly, "Great Sage, you don't know that the Xuanming Mother ate all the surrounding land gods and mountain gods, but the land gods and mountain gods who knew about the situation all killed them. I was able to survive. Firstly, I have some ability to hide, and secondly, I am ignorant, so the Xuanming Mother never hunted me down."

Sun Wukong said: "You are guilty of dereliction of duty."

The land god said, "Great Sage, it is indeed the Dark Mother who is vicious. If I had known about this, I would have been killed by her long ago. I also wanted to ask the heavenly soldiers for help, but if I were to go out, the Dark Mother's minions would definitely find me, so I could not do anything."

Sun Wukong said: "If you say so, it will make you suffer."

The land said, "Not worthy of it, not worthy of it."

Sun Wukong then looked at the Immortal and said, "What should we do if you follow this, my eldest brother? The Xuanming Old Mother seemed to have known that there would be these underground ghosts who knew his ways, so she killed them early on. Now we don't know where they came from."

Jiang Yuan said: "Good old Xuanming mother, she is quite wise and knows how to get rid of the land and mountain gods, so that others will not know where they came from. There is a saying that 'all things are mutually generated and restrained', if the origin is unknown to others, it can avoid the way of restraint."

Sun Wukong said: "The Xuanming Mother harmed the land god and mountain god, so that people don't know where he came from. Big brother, but I have a way to find out where he came from!"

Jiang Yuan asked, "Wukong, what do you say?"

Sun Wukong replied, "Brother, I know there is a Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in the underworld. Under his scripture desk lies a beast called 'Di Ting'. When one of them lies underground, it can hear everything in the four continents, mountains and rivers, and the paradise. If you go find him, you will know the origin of this Mysterious Mother."

Jiang Yuan said, "In that case, let Wukong go to the underworld to ask, and see if Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva can tell the origin of Xuanming Mother."

Sun Wukong said, "Please stay here for a while, Big Brother. I will be back soon."

Say it.

Sun Wukong rode his somersault cloud and headed towards the underworld.

The road was covered with clouds and it didn't take long for Sun Wukong to enter the underworld. Ten generations of Yama Kings came to greet him and said, "Great Sage, how come you have the leisure to come to my Senluo Palace at this time? You must have come to us to reminisce about the past. If you want to reminisce about the past, we must prepare a feast for you."

Sun Wukong waved his hand and said, "I am not here to reminisce about the past, but I have something to ask of you."

The Tenth Generation Yama King bowed and said, "Please tell us, Great Sage. We will definitely help you."

Sun Wukong then recounted the previous events, talked about the incident in Beijuluzhou, and explained that he was following the orders of Master Guangxin and asked Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva for help.

When the Tenth King of Hell heard about this, he sent someone to report it to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

Not long after, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva arrived at the Senluo Palace and said, "Fighting Victory Buddha, I already know your intention. Please let me listen carefully and you can tell the real person."

Sun Wukong bowed and said, "Thank you very much, Bodhisattva. Thank you very much, Bodhisattva."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva smiled and said, "You are my Lingshan Buddha, no need to thank me. In terms of attainment, you are higher than me."

Sun Wukong said: "Why do you say that? I know that you, Bodhisattva, have given up your own fruition and are willing to save sentient beings with great compassion, but you do not want to be a Buddha. I cannot compare to you."

Upon hearing this, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva smiled slightly, and said nothing more. He only asked Di Ting and Sun Wukong to listen to the whereabouts of the Mysterious Mother.

(End of this chapter)