Chapter 182 Chess Pieces
"This old bull is really cruel! He doesn't even let his own kind go!"
The monkey looked at the Bull Demon King charging forward with the iron stick raised high, killing those little monsters who were still confused in groups, especially those that belonged to the ox family. He couldn't help but gasp and smack his lips.
Nezha curled his lips and said, "What do you mean the same race? The Bull Demon King is a Kui Niu, and these bull demons are just blue cows, yaks and flat cows. How can they be the same race?"
Suddenly, he thought of something, raised his eyebrows and looked at the monkey, a little incredulous: "You don't regard your monkeys... No, you don't regard all the monkeys in the three realms as your own kind, do you?"
The monkey was a little confused: "Is there anything wrong with this?"
Nezha looked at the monkey for a few times and laughed: "Interesting! Very interesting!"
"What are you laughing at!" The monkey was a little annoyed and angry: "Nezha, explain your words to me clearly!"
Nezha said: "I laugh at you, a monkey, you are more human than a human! In these three realms, only humans regard everyone as their own race! You can ask around and see which monsters regard people of the same genus as their own race! At most, they only recognize blood ties."
The monkey was stunned and turned to look at Li Anran with a puzzled and questioning look.
Li Anran nodded, agreeing with what Nezha said.
In the Three Realms, apart from the human race, even the ancient clans such as the Qingqiu Fox Clan and the Four Seas Dragon Clan would only regard their direct bloodline as their own clan.
The rest will only be regarded as servants and cannon fodder.
The situation of Bull Demon King is somewhat special.
He was taken in as a mount by Master Tongtian very early on, and he only thought of himself as a disciple of the Three Pure Ones and an authentic follower of the Xuanmen sect. In his eyes, these monsters were no different from ants.
Those bull monsters are no exception.
Now that he had to redeem himself by making amends for his crime, he naturally used these monsters as a token of his allegiance without hesitation.
In comparison, monkeys are considered to be a relatively unique existence among monsters.
There is a reason for this.
One reason is that after leaving Huaguo Mountain, the monkeys entered the mortal society, and their thoughts and ideas were greatly influenced by mortals.
Later, they arrived at the Xieyue Sanxing Cave. Patriarch Bodhi was a practitioner of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and his fellow disciples were also human. He was further influenced by human concepts.
From this point of view, what Nezha said is very right. The monkey is not so much a monkey as it is a person with the body of a spiritual stone monkey!
Secondly, it is because the monkey was born in Huaguo Mountain and has lived with his fellow monkeys since childhood, so there is an extra sense of affection between them.
The monkey does not have the same kindness and patience towards other monsters.
When Li Jing led his troops to encircle and suppress the Flower-Fruit Mountain, the monkey's first reaction after learning that the 72 demon kings had been captured was "No one of my kind was hurt, why worry?"
I didn't even think about avenging them, let alone saving them.
Li Anran looked at the miserable situation on Cuiyun Mountain and had only one thought in his mind: "The treatment of those with backgrounds and those without backgrounds is really different!"
These monsters on Cuiyun Mountain were summoned by the Bull Demon King.
As a result, now, the rebel leader Bull Demon King is safe and sound and has been summoned by the Heavenly Court to become a god. These little demons have become his merits in atonement for his sins.
This is really ridiculous and cruel!
Yang Jian and Nezha disdained to take part in such a massacre, and led the Meishan brothers and the Grass-Headed God to stand aside, waiting for the matter to be over, and then return to heaven with Li Jing to report.
It’s not that they don’t want to leave directly, but Rāhula, Manjusri and Samantabhadra are only willing to hand over the golden-winged Roc to Li Jing. If they want to take these monsters back to heaven, they can only wait here.
"All soldiers, follow me and kill!"
Li Jing did not think these achievements were shabby. Wearing a golden helmet and golden armor, he led a group of heavenly soldiers and generals to sweep every corner of Cuiyun Mountain, not letting go of any monster.
From time to time, he would take action and beat the little monsters with a golden whip until their brains burst.
Just looking at his appearance, he does have some of the aura of the Heavenly Marshal who subdues demons.
Li Anran asked, "Monkey, now that things are over here, you have redeemed yourself. Where are you going next?"
"Huaguo Mountain!"
The monkey was beaming with joy and said, "I have just made an agreement with Sun Xingzhe that since he has decided to convert to Buddhism, he should give up his old name. From now on, I will be called Sun Wukong and he will be called Sun Xingzhe."
"After he achieves enlightenment, he will also stay in the Great Leiyin Temple on Lingshan Mountain. Huaguo Mountain will be under my control. From now on, we will settle our grievances and not disturb each other."
The monkey just followed Li Anran's instructions and went to rescue the Monkey King who was tied to the stone pillar.
The Monkey King's mood was extremely complicated, with shame, resentment, anger, and some guilt.
The monkey had already made preparations. He pulled the Monkey King aside and started discussing the conditions. After mumbling for more than ten minutes, they came up with this final plan.
The monkey gave up his identity as the pilgrim Sun Wukong and returned to Huaguo Mountain to continue being the Monkey King.
The Monkey King gave up the name of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven Sun Wukong, followed Monk Tang to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures, and achieved enlightenment at the Great Leiyin Temple.
It's the best of both worlds.
The only thing that made the monkey a little upset was that there was no way to take off the golden hoop on his head. He could only wear it for now and think of a way later.
"Since you have already agreed, then there is no problem."
Li Anran reminded him again: "The Three Realms are in turmoil right now. After you return this time, don't come out for a short period of time. Don't violate the rules of heaven and cause trouble again."
"I, Old Sun, don't need to worry about that!"
The monkey nodded repeatedly, stepped forward and bowed three times to Li Anran and Yang Jian, with a serious face: "Second brother, Brother Li, I will not say anything more! In the future, if you have any orders, if I, Sun Wukong, say no, my soul will be scattered and I will never be reincarnated!"
If Yang Jian had not shown mercy, the monkeys in his Flower-Fruit Mountain would probably have suffered the same fate as the monsters in Cuiyun Mountain.
If it weren't for Li Anran's help, he would never have been able to escape from Buddhism and regain his freedom. He would still be a chess piece without any control over his own actions...
No, it is unclear whether he can continue to be a pawn!
The monkey glanced at the fake monkey who was also fighting and killing the demons, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.
The monkey was naturally intelligent, and even though he didn't know the inside story of the journey to the West due to his identity and background, he had already seen many clues.
This fake product couldn't even fool Li Anran, let alone Guanyin Tathagata.
But he was able to travel safely in Lingshan and became a "real" monkey certified by Tathagata and Guanyin.
It is obvious that this counterfeit is inseparable from Lingshan, and may even have been sent by Lingshan!
Why would Lingshan send out a fake who is almost exactly like him?
It could only be to replace him!
And after the replacement, killing to silence the witnesses is definitely necessary!
It can be said that Li Anran saved his life!
Needless to say, Monkey was grateful to Li Anran for saving his life and regaining his freedom. He only regretted that he could not repay him with his own death.
While a few people were talking here, Li Jing had already led his heavenly soldiers and generals to kill all the monsters in Cuiyun Mountain. Then he started a fire and burned the entire Cuiyun Mountain to the ground.
The Monkey King rescued Tang Monk from the Banana Cave and was about to travel west with Zhu Bajie and Sha Monk when Taibai Jinxing stopped them and said, "Wait a minute, holy monk."
"What does Star Lord want me to do for you?" Tang Seng asked respectfully.
Taibai Jinxing handed over the palm leaf fan he had just asked for from the Bull Demon King and said, "More than 300 miles southwest of this Cuiyun Mountain is a mountain of flames that stretches for 800 miles. It was formed by the bricks that fell when the Monkey King overturned the Eight Trigrams Furnace. The mountain fire is very strong, and only this palm leaf fan can extinguish it."
The Monkey King naturally knew about the Flaming Mountain. He rushed forward to take the fan, bowed and said, "Thank you very much!" His eyes rolled around, and he began to think about taking the fan for himself.
After the incident at Cuiyun Mountain, the Monkey King also realized the importance of magic weapons.
This palm-leaf fan is an innate spiritual treasure grown on Mount Kunlun. It can blow Yang Jian away with one fan. If he had such a treasure, his journey to the west would be much smoother.
Taibai Jinxing saw through the Monkey King's thoughts and said, "Great Sage, the most important thing in the journey to the West is sincerity. If you are not sincere and only use external things, you will not be able to achieve the right result. This palm leaf fan is a relic of the Bull Demon King's deceased wife. You must return it to him as soon as possible after using it."
"Got it! Got it!"
When the Monkey King heard this, he was immediately annoyed. He looked at the palm-leaf fan in his hand and it didn't smell good anymore. He waved his hand and shouted, "Give it back if you want! How can I, Sun Wukong, take his fan? You old man, you keep nagging me! It's really annoying!"
Taibai Jinxing smiled bitterly.
You monkey, I won't say a few words. Now that the thing is in your hands, you don't even bother to throw it out like a meat bun.
"Li Tianwang." After Taibai Jinxing explained these, he nodded slightly towards Li Jing.
Li Jing immediately returned to the capital with the heavenly soldiers and generals, as well as Dipankara, Samantabhadra, and Manjusri.
The Jade Emperor had already returned to the Lingxiao Palace with the civil and military officials when Taibai Jinxing conveyed the order to appease the Bull Demon King.
"Your Majesty, I have fulfilled my mission and have wiped out all the monsters in Cuiyun Mountain. I have killed 13 monster kings, including the Hundred-Eyed Demon King, the White-Eyed Wolf King, and the Asura Ghost King. There are countless monster soldiers and generals..."
As the commander-in-chief, Li Jing took the above-mentioned position.
He only talked about how many monsters he killed, without saying who killed them . He deliberately used these vague words to take all the credit on himself.
Nezha stood beside him with a look of contempt on his face, not trying to hide it at all, but he didn't say much.
He had no idea how many times this had happened to him.
Every time Li Jing took him to the mortal world to subdue demons, he put in a lot of effort, but all the credit went to Li Jing, the commander-in-chief.
This time is no exception.
It was the first time that Monkey had encountered such a situation. He was stunned and couldn't help but wanted to step forward to argue, but was stopped by Li Anran.
The Jade Emperor's reward was nothing more than some gold, pearls, and treasures, and an increase in his salary and rank, but he did not take it seriously.
More importantly, he was afraid that the Jade Emperor might go crazy and want to promote him and transfer him out of the Heavenly Prison. He and Yang Jian would have to find a reason to refuse, which would not only be troublesome but might also expose his secrets. It was really unnecessary.
Yang Jian didn't care about these things at all.
His power is second only to one person and above millions of people.
Over the years, she has continued to receive rewards, and all kinds of rare treasures have filled up the Huashan Villa of the Three Holy Mothers.
What he cared about most was how to deal with the golden-winged Peng eagle, the yellow-tusked old elephant and Sai Taisui.
Yang Jian slightly side-glanced and looked at the three golden-winged Roc monsters in the center of the hall.
On the way back to heaven, Manjusri and Samantabhadra also helped the Yellow-toothed Old Elephant and Sai Taisui to treat their injuries.
Although the two demons still looked pale and their breath was weak, they had already regained consciousness.
Now, he and the golden-winged Roc have transformed into human form, are tied up, and are kneeling in the center of the hall.
The three demons did not know the inside story of the journey to the West, and they really thought that they had sneaked down to the mortal world while their master was not paying attention.
At this time, he was taken to Lingxiao Palace to be questioned.
Both the Yellow-fanged Old Elephant and Sai Taisui were trembling with fear. They twisted their bodies from side to side, with fear and anxiety evident on their faces.
The golden-winged Roc still looked unruly and was struggling to stand up, but after being glared at by Randang, it had no choice but to stop in anger.
Not far in front of them, kneeling was the Bull Demon King.
After Li Jing finished speaking, the Bull Demon King stepped forward and bowed, saying, "The Bull Demon King from the lower world pays homage to the Lord of Heaven."
For the sake of Red Boy, the Bull Demon King completely suppressed his temper, surrendered, and was extremely respectful.
The Jade Emperor knew that the Bull Demon King was the mount of the Master Tongtian, so he did not make things difficult for the Bull Demon King. He simply reprimanded the Bull Demon King and then pardoned the Bull Demon King and Red Boy on the grounds that "they love their sons dearly and their situation is pitiful."
He then summoned the God of Wu Qu to come forward and said, "I remember that the Thunder Department is still short of a Thunder and Fire General. I will appoint him as a 'Thunder and Fire General' and let him follow the orders of Li Tianwang together with Red Boy, so as to make up for his crime and make up for his crime."
The Bull Demon King came for Red Boy in the first place, and was overjoyed. He kowtowed repeatedly: "Thank you, Your Majesty! I and your son will do our best to assist Heavenly King Li and repay Your Majesty's great kindness!"
The monkey was furious when he heard this.
When I, Sun Wukong, ascended to heaven, why didn’t you directly appoint a general?
Instead, he asked those immortal officials who selected civil and military officials for a long time, and in the end, they only gave me the position of Bi Ma Wen?
Is it because I, Old Sun, didn’t make enough noise?
The monkey stared and became angrier the more he thought about it.
At the beginning, he sincerely wanted to be an official in heaven. If the Jade Emperor had given him a high-ranking official position instead of a humiliating and low-ranking official like Bimawen, perhaps he would not have rebelled against heaven later!
But soon, the monkey realized that something was wrong.
If the Jade Emperor really thought he was not powerful, why did he send Taibai Jinxing to earth to summon him?
The monkey suddenly had an idea and an idea flashed through his head.
Could it be that he just wants me, Sun, to come down to earth and rebel?
The monkey shuddered all over.
In the five hundred years he had been under the Five Elements Mountain, he had never thought about this.
What he regretted most was that he should not have believed Tathagata's lies, and secondly that he should not have stolen the Immortal Peach Pills and should not have listened to Taibai Jinxing's words and went to heaven to serve as an official.
However, after experiencing the journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures and witnessing the various calculations and layouts of Lingshan, he began to think more.
What if everything that happened before was not a coincidence, but a trap set against him by Lingshan and the Jade Emperor?
The monkey's pupils suddenly shrank, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
The matter of Bimawen is fine, as it can be explained that there was really no vacancy in heaven at that time, but what about the Peach Garden?
How out of his mind did the Jade Emperor have to be to send a monkey to look after the Peach Garden?
Isn't this deliberately leading him to violate the laws of heaven?
The monkey thought again that there were so many powerful beings and so many powerful magic weapons in the Heavenly Palace, but when he made a riot in the Heavenly Palace, none of them appeared.
Could it be that my previous rampage in Heaven was really a result of their calculations, and I was just a pawn in their hands from the beginning to the end?
The monkey felt a chill rising from the bottom of his heart, and the hairs on his body stood up.
