Journey to the West: Cultivation Begins at Jindou Mountain

Chapter 299 Zhong Kui
North of Yuhua Prefecture City, in the Tiger Mouth Cave of Leopard Head Mountain.

At this moment, the Yellow Lion Demon was drinking and making merry with many lesser demons in the cave. He was so pleased by the little demons that he even wanted to talk about some mysterious methods passed down from his ancestor.

"Wonderful! Wonderful! Your Majesty's method is truly wondrous!"

The Yellow Lion Demon shook his head and laughed loudly:
"Hahaha, what's this! The Ancestral Master's abilities are beyond the comprehension of you little demons."

"You all need to perform well. If you can receive even a word or two of guidance from the Ancestor in the future, it will be enough to benefit you for the rest of your lives!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The Yellow Lion Spirit nodded in satisfaction and raised his wine cup to the little demon holding the wine jar beside him. The little demon understood and quickly tilted the wine jar to fill the Yellow Lion Spirit's cup.

The Yellow Lion Demon was laughing heartily at the pair of somewhat comical little demons below, completely unaware that a golden pill with nine stripes had appeared in his wine cup. When he felt the wine cup was full, he tilted his head back and drank it down in one gulp!

"Ok?"

Halfway through his drink, Huang Shijing clearly felt something slide down his throat with the wine. He put down his glass and looked at the slightly cloudy wine with a puzzled expression.

"Who bought this wine?! How come there are stones in it?!"

Upon hearing the words of the Yellow Lion Spirit, the many demons looked at each other in bewilderment. The little demon next to him, who was holding a wine jar, also quickly craned his neck to look inside the wine jar, but he did not see anything.

In the sky outside Tiger's Mouth Cave, Niu Yi stood on a cloud, his eyes flashing with golden light, watching as the Yellow Lion Demon swallowed the pill he had cast a spell on.

"This Nine-Turn Rejuvenation Pill will come in handy when necessary. As for the rest..."

Niu Yi turned his head to look in the direction of Zhujie Mountain.

He didn't have that many Nine-Turn Rejuvenation Pills, so he could only give face for the rest.
In the Great Tang Dynasty of the East, in the Zhongnan region of Yongzhou.

In the pitch-black night, accompanied by thunder, a torrential downpour continued.

At that moment, a figure braved the wind and rain, heading towards the Temple of the Divine Physician Daojun, which stood atop the mountain.

Soon, the figure arrived in front of the Daojun Temple and opened the temple door.

"Boom————"

As a bolt of lightning struck, the light fell upon the figure, revealing its form in the darkness.

This was a tall, imposing man with an iron face, bushy beard, and unusual features, dressed in a bright red official robe.

As soon as the burly man entered the Taoist temple, he went to the statue of the Taoist Lord at the head of the table. His face was solemn. He took out three sticks of incense from his robe, lit them, and placed them in the incense burner on the altar in front of him. He bowed and said in a rough and loud voice:

"Zhong Kui of Zhongnan Mountain! I request an audience with the Divine Physician Daoist!"

Not long after Zhong Kui's voice faded, a beam of light appeared from the statue of Daojun, revealing Daojun's figure.

"Zhong Kui, you came to the Daojun Temple to find me on this rainy night. Is there anything important you need?"

Daojun looked at the big man in front of him with some surprise. He naturally knew Zhong Kui of Zhongnan. Before Tang Sanzang went to the west, he had come to Zhongnan Fuquan and asked Zhong Kui to bestow a protective exorcism technique.

Zhong Kui was very generous and immediately gave him a protective talisman, a cup of blessed spring water, and three dishes of Zhong Kui cuisine. All of this was observed by the Daoist.

But this person had never interacted with him before, so he wondered what the purpose of this sudden visit was.
Upon seeing Daojun appear, Zhong Kui once again bowed respectfully.

"I have come to disturb you on this rainy night because I have a favor to ask of you. I hope you will grant my request."

"What's going on?"

Upon hearing this, Zhong Kui felt reassured and quickly recounted the recent events that had transpired to Dao Jun.

After hearing this, Daojun's expression turned somewhat strange.

It turns out that last night a woman appeared in Zhong Kui's dream, crying and telling him that when she went up the mountain to gather herbs, she was spotted by an old mountain demon who used magic to forcibly abduct her back to the mountain and wanted to marry her.

Zhong Kui was an upright and incorruptible man who was not afraid of evil spirits. He was also honest and loyal to others. When he heard that such a thing had happened in his Zhongnan area, he was furious. Following the woman's guidance, he found the old demon's cave.

However, the monster was a weasel spirit that had already grown in strength and possessed considerable basic magical abilities. Although it was no match for Zhong Kui, it still managed to escape. Before leaving, it angrily spewed a breath of demonic energy at the woman.

Zhong Kui sighed:
"That weasel spirit may have practiced some evil plague magic. That demonic aura was more like a plague aura than an evil aura."

“If it were just pure demonic energy, I would have my own way of exorcising it. But I have no way to deal with this plague energy. The woman surnamed Bai is currently unconscious and shows no signs of waking up.”

"I cultivated Taoism in Zhongnan Mountain and had a very good relationship with several Taoist masters and disciples. I even tried to contact them during the day using a sound transmission talisman, but none of them could do anything about it."

"Therefore, I can only come here to beg Senior Daojun to save that woman."

As Zhong Kui spoke, he bowed deeply to the Daoist Lord once again.

A divine light flashed in Daojun's eyes, and lines of cause and effect appeared and disappeared. Soon he had taken in the whole story.

A look of surprise flashed across Daojun's eyes, and he laughed: "That weasel spirit once overheard an immortal preaching on Zhongnan Mountain a thousand years ago, so it has some skills, but it didn't hear the whole thing, so it can't be considered a heretical sect."

"Over the past thousand years, he has cultivated a method of treating epidemics using his own inner alchemy, and has also committed many acts of killing elsewhere in order to nourish himself."

Speaking of which, this weasel spirit was actually eavesdropping on the White Crane Taoist's sermon about the three demons of Chechi Kingdom. Little did it know that it had such a connection with those three.

Unfortunately, this weasel spirit cultivated the Tao but not the mind, so he couldn't even fully understand the Taoist teachings. In contrast, the three from Chechi Kingdom not only cultivated their skills but also knew how to do good deeds and accumulate merit.

This weasel spirit, however, was entirely of demonic nature.

Upon hearing this, Zhong Kui's eyes revealed a hint of surprise. Although he knew that this was an ancient demon with a history of thousands of years, he did not know that this weasel spirit had actually eavesdropped on the immortal's sermon.

Zhong Kui saw the Daoist in front of him flip his hand, and a small porcelain bottle appeared in the Daoist's hand, which was handed to him.

"That plague is, after all, the demonic plague cultivated by the weasel spirit for a thousand years. It is extremely stubborn and cannot be cured by ordinary herbs or common spiritual herbs."

"This Hundred Flower Pill is made from celestial flowers and carries a pure energy. If you give this pill to that woman, it will cure all her ailments."

Zhong Kui's face lit up with joy, and he quickly reached out to take it.

"Thank you for the medicine, Senior Daojun."

Zhong Kui bowed respectfully and was about to leave with the pills when Daojun called him back again.

"Wait a minute."

Seeing Zhong Kui's confusion, the Daoist took off the tiger-shaped brace from his waist, handed it to Zhong Kui, and said with a smile:
"I suspect that weasel spirit is also vengeful. Since you injured it, it must be looking for an opportunity to take revenge on you."

"Although you have the ability to subdue demons, you will have difficulty stopping this weasel spirit if it is determined to escape."

"I will lend you this tiger-shaped support to help you get rid of that demon and prevent future troubles. This will be a good deed for you."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Kui was overjoyed. He respectfully accepted the tiger-shaped support, thanked him again, and then left the Daojun Temple in the rain.

Daojun watched Zhong Kui leave, a thoughtful expression on his face.

The White Crane Taoist? He couldn't even find out the Taoist's background. Perhaps he could be connected to the Supreme Taoist Ancestor in this beautiful and spiritual place of Zhongnan Mountain?
Daojun shook his head, and his figure transformed into a beam of light and disappeared from Daojun Temple, restoring peace to the temple once again.

On the other side, Zhong Kui flew through the sky on clouds, heading home. After all, they were both in the Zhongnan region, and Daojun Temple was not far from his home.

Just then, a stench-filled demonic wind suddenly swept in from behind. Zhong Kui, however, seemed to have anticipated this. He waved his red robe, drew his demon-slaying sword from his waist, and slashed behind him without hesitation!

"clang!!!"

The demon-slaying sword, shimmering with demon-suppressing runes, was being blocked by a steel fork that emerged from the demonic wind. The owner of the steel fork was a yellow-haired rat demon with shifty eyes and wearing armor.

"Hmph! You wretched beast, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find you anywhere, but just as Daojun predicted, you delivered yourself to my doorstep!"

Seeing that its sneak attack had failed, the weasel spirit was about to flee back into the demonic wind when it saw the tiger-shaped bell that had appeared on Zhong Kui's waist suddenly shake, emitting a clear and melodious sound.

Before the weasel spirit could react, a golden sound wave passed through his body in an instant and spread outwards.

"What the hell is this?!"

The weasel was terrified. The melodious bell sounded like a death knell to him. His body was frozen in place by the sound of the bell, and he could not move!
Zhong Kui looked at the weasel spirit before him, a cold smile appearing on his usually stern face.

"You blind beast! You don't recognize this divine treasure!"

"Do you know that this treasure was bestowed by the Divine Physician Daojun, precisely to subdue you, this wicked beast who has committed so many evil deeds!"

As Zhong Kui spoke, ignoring the weasel spirit's reaction, he thrust out his demon-slaying sword once more! The sword pierced through the weasel spirit's immobile body!

"what----"

The shrill scream contained endless terror and despair. A dazzling golden light burst forth from the demon-slaying sword, and the weasel spirit's body was quickly enveloped by the golden light and turned into ashes!

Zhong Kui sheathed his demon-slaying sword and looked at the tiger-shaped bell at his waist. An undisguised look of amazement appeared on his face. The majestic and righteous divine power that had just come from him made him feel insignificant.

Compared to this Daoist Master, he is still far inferior.
In a mountain forest in Chechi, a burly man sat cross-legged on a boulder atop a mountain, facing the bright moon, absorbing its light to cultivate. A yellow tiger was hovering around him.

After an unknown amount of time, the burly man slowly opened his eyes, reached out to stroke the yellow tiger beside him, and looked westward.

“I can sense that my second and third junior brothers are in that position. It seems that they have also regained their human form and reunited.”

"Daojun has been very kind to us. Once we have reunited with our two junior brothers, we should go to Daojun Mountain to pay our respects to Daojun."

"However, the King of Chechi Kingdom is currently seriously ill, and for several years he has ordered his followers to offer sacrifices to my two fellow disciples, praying to Heaven for our wealth and peace in our next life."

The burly man's eyes flickered, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
(End of this chapter)