Journey to the West: Starting with becoming an apprentice of the Nine Heavens Demon-Subduing Patriar

Above the clouds, the Turtle and Snake Generals were arguing fiercely, their black and yellow auras causing the sea of ​​clouds to buzz.

"cough."

Someone coughed softly.

The two generals were taken aback, their voices stopped abruptly, and even their arguing postures froze in mid-air.

The True Martial Emperor stood with his hands behind his back on the cloud, gazing with great interest at the dreamscape below. As he looked, he clapped his hands and smiled.

"Good tiger head."

Upon uttering those three words, the tortoise and snake exchanged a glance, both realizing something was amiss.

They have served the emperor for thousands of years and know his temperament all too well.

In ordinary times, when judging cases and appointing generals, the Emperor was extremely sparing with his words; a single "acceptable" was considered a rare compliment. This single phrase, "Good tiger head," carried more weight than an imperial edict.

What's even more deadly is that after the Emperor finished speaking, his fingertips twitched slightly.

"Your Majesty..." the snake general said, forcing himself to speak.

"You two."

The Emperor withdrew his gaze, looked at the Snake General, then at the Turtle General, and slowly shook his head. "One tested his 'benevolence,' the other tested his 'tranquility.' Both were good, but they forgot what the foundation of our True Martial lineage is."

The two generals, the tortoise and the snake, were taken aback.

"I am the Demon-Subduing Celestial Venerable."

The Emperor's voice fell upon the sea of ​​clouds, pressing down the thousands of miles of cloud waves without making them move, like a mirror of clouds.

"It's not a clay Buddha statue from a temple."

"To be benevolent yet unable to make decisive moves is the benevolence of a woman. To remain still yet unable to act is like a stagnant pool. Let us examine his true nature..."

The emperor raised his hand and pointed his fingers like a sword.

"Do you possess my sword energy?"

With a flick of his fingertip, a wisp of pure energy descended and landed between the brows of the figure in the lower realm.

Inside the main hall, Lu Shanjun slowly awoke.

My senses had only just begun to return when my eyelids drooped again, and an overwhelming drowsiness pressed down on me.

His heart skipped a beat.

Are you coming again?

Before the thought could even finish, the person had already fallen.

……

The third generation.

In this life, he was born in the northern part of the Southern Continent. On the day of the Awakening of Insects, when the grass was falling, his parents named him Lu Jingzhe.

When he was seven years old, his hometown was haunted by a demon, and the entire village was wiped out except for him. A passing Taoist priest pulled him out of the pile of corpses and took him up the mountain.

That mountain is called Yousheng Palace, the top sect in the north. The hall enshrines the True Martial Ancestor, who is depicted with disheveled hair and bare feet, wielding a sword and stepping on a tortoise and snake.

The disciples under his tutelage did not seek empty fame; each carried a sword and was dedicated to slaying demons down the mountain, earning them the title of demon hunters.

Lu Jingzhe studied swordsmanship on the mountain for fifteen years.

After descending the mountain, he killed a demon for another fifteen years.

The old dragon of Blackwater Marsh, the zombies of the mass grave, and the powerful spirits in the deep mountains—the number of those who died by his sword was too many to count on two hands.

When the people of the North mention the name "Senior Brother Lu," they all bow in the direction of Yousheng Palace.

At the age of thirty-seven, he was ordered by his sect to investigate a case.

In Linchuan County, more than 4,000 missing persons reports were filed over a period of ten years.

The official records state "mountain floods," "wild animal attacks," and "missing refugees," written in neat handwriting year after year.

Lu Jingzhe followed a secret passage used for transporting "live goods" and made his way into a valley in the north of the county.

Then, he saw the most orderly "ranch" he had ever seen in his life.

The iron bars circled around, but they didn't enclose pigs or sheep.

are people.

Men, women, and children lived in separate pens, fed with brown rice laced with medicine, and grew plump and healthy. Outside the pens stood stone tablets, clearly indicating which pen had been "released" and when.

The demons guarding the valley, far from being afraid of him, lazily raised their necks.

Around her neck, a golden bell necklace gleamed.

A unicorn yawned and spoke in human language: "New here? Did you get any instructions from above? If not, you can't touch a single hair of the prey in this valley."

Lu Jingzhe's sword was half-drawn from its sheath when it was firmly pressed back down.

The one holding the sword was a senior member of the sect who had rushed over upon hearing the news.

The old man pulled him out of the valley, his voice low.

"Awakening of Insects, sheathe your sword."

"None of the demons in this valley are wild demons. The one with the golden bell is the mount of the Bodhisattva of the Western Paradise. The one with a single horn is the servant of a celestial star official. Even the golden-eyed beast in the Supreme Alchemy Room draws its monthly blood from here."

Lu Jingzhe was startled. "Grandmaster Uncle, you know about this too?"

"All the gods and Buddhas know this."

The old man sighed deeply, "Incense needs people to burn, fields need people to cultivate, but even the celestial mounts and attendants need to eat. Four thousand lives are lost in ten years on earth, in exchange for thirty years of favorable weather in the north. The Awakening of Insects—this is the will of Heaven, and the way of human nature."

"Close your eyes. Your name has been recorded in the register of immortals. Tomorrow you will ascend to the ranks of the immortals."

"Open your eyes... You won't even know how you died."

That night, Lu Jingzhe returned to the mountain.

The main hall was pitch black, with only one ever-burning lamp. He knelt before the statue of Zhenwu, asking questions from midnight until dawn.

"Master. Demons that eat people, shouldn't they be killed?"

The statue remained silent.

"Should a demon adorned with jewels who eats people be killed?"

The statue remained silent.

"Should the deities behind them...be killed?"

The flame of the ever-burning lamp flickered.

The statue remained silent. Only the stone sword in the patriarch's hand pointed diagonally at the sky outside the hall.

Lu Jingzhe knelt all night, then suddenly laughed.

He kowtowed three times to the statue, then stood up and drew his sword.

"Disciple understands."

"The patriarch remained silent so that his disciples would answer for themselves."

"Who cares who's behind them... those burdened with heavy karma, kill them!"

That night, in the northern valley of Linchuan County, the iron railings were completely shattered.

Of the 437 guardian demons of the valley, some had bells and some didn't; not a single one remained.

Three days later, a celestial official from the lower realm, who was protecting his own, descended on a cloud and was cut down from the cloud by his sword.

Seven days later, Lu Jingzhe, sword in hand, stormed the South Heavenly Gate.

The thunder and fury of countless gods and Buddhas descended upon him, and he fought and advanced through the sea of ​​lightning, his white clothes burned black and his black hair burned white.

He fought his way to the "True Lord" who received offerings from people and fed beasts to humans, and asked with a smile:

"When they were eating people, did they ever imagine this day would come?"

Where the sword flashed, the god's head fell to the ground.

Divine thunder from the nine heavens descended simultaneously.

The sky and earth turned white, and Lu Jingzhe shattered inch by inch in the lightning. In the end, only a laugh remained.

His unrestrained and arrogant behavior caused the glazed tiles outside the Lingxiao Palace to rattle loudly.

The third life, the end.

……

On the throne, Lu Shanjun suddenly opened his eyes.

He was covered in cold sweat, which soaked half of the throne.

He gasped for breath, and it took him a long time to remember who he was and where he was. Three lifetimes of dreams, one as a healer, one as a savior, one as a killer—each and every one of them was still burning in his soul.

Inside the hall, it had been lit at some point.

To the left is the snake general from before.

To his right, a divine general in a tortoise-shell robe was standing with his arms crossed, scrutinizing him.

Right in the center stood a middle-aged man.

He wore a black robe, was barefoot, had long hair that was loose and unbound, and casually carried an ancient sword on his shoulder.

He simply stood there casually, yet the hall felt as if an entire northern sky had pressed in, its stars gleaming, vast and boundless.

Lu Shanjun's body stiffened.

With disheveled hair and bare feet, carrying a sword, he was accompanied by a tortoise and a snake.

Who else in this world could it be?

The Great Emperor Zhenwu of the North Pole, the Heavenly Venerable Who Subdues Demons, has personally arrived.