Black Myth Wukong Part 6

Flame Mountain: a middle-aged cow, full of weaknesses

Chapter 5 Sunset in the world of mortals

In the “Shan Hai Jing,” there is a record of a strange beast named “Pingpeng.”

This monster looks like a pig, but it has two heads, one at each end. Whenever it encounters panic, one head wants to go that way and the other head wants to go this way, pulling back and forth, unable to move an inch.

The next stop after the Yellow Flower Temple is the Flame Mountain.

I originally thought this level would be hard to pass, after all, the Bull Demon King’s family had been thoroughly disrupted by the Great Sage and Zhu Bajie, and the Bull Demon King had also participated in the battle against the Great Sage. A formidable demon like him, who practiced both Buddhism and Daoism, would surely be a very tricky opponent.

Or perhaps this level will be exceptionally easy, after all, the Bull Demon King is the sworn brother of the Great Sage. The debts the Great Sage incurred on the journey to the West had long since perished along with his physical form. More importantly, I know that Game Science doesn’t have that much money, so the last two chapters surely won’t be too complicated.

However

I never thought that this stage would be so entangled and heart-wrenching, like someone poking hard at the lungs of an old cow, who can only endure.

When Uncle Baijie brought me, this destined person, to Flaming Mountain, the entire place was already in a chaotic mess.

To what extent is it chaotic?

I hadn’t made a move yet, but their own people started fighting among themselves, and even the ghostly messengers from the underworld joined in the commotion.

I even met an old friend, Father Stone (one of the mountain gods in Huangfeng Ridge, with Mother Stone guarding the mountain, and Father Stone and Stone Child having run away). It turns out he traveled a great distance to find Iron Fan Immortal to help resurrect a human woman. However, even Princess Iron Fan had no way to assist him; he could only wander here, clutching the girl’s corpse, unwilling to give up even as she turned into a skeleton.

However, I soon encountered the mountain-guarding vanguard of the Bull Demon King, the Haofan Warrior, which allowed me to understand the truth of the matter

It turned out that the Red Boy, who had returned from the South Sea, had rebelled. He imprisoned his father, the Bull Demon King, and reignited the Flame Mountain with the True Fire of Samadhi, while Princess Iron Fan was nowhere to be found.

Ah?

My son has imprisoned me, and my mother has gone missing. How did our originally harmonious and loving family suddenly become like this?

Throughout the ascent, the agonizing groans of the Bull Demon King on the brink of death echoed in my ears.

I just can’t understand how the Red Boy managed to defeat the Bull Demon King.

On the way, I also happened to rescue a little fox demon named Pingping, who claimed to be the daughter of the Jade-Faced Fox and the Bull Demon King.

She kept saying she wanted to take me up the mountain to rescue the Bull Demon King, shouting “Monkey Brother” from her lips

Actually, I had already sensed something was off from her unusual behavior, but what could I do? The map of Flame Mountain really only has one path; if I don’t follow her, who else can I follow?

When he saw the Bull Demon King, the old ox immediately saw through that this fox spirit, Pingping, was transformed from Red Boy.

It turns out that the Red Boy set this trap just to wait for me, the fated one, to meet with the old bull, so that he could use my hand to deceive the Bull Demon King and obtain the great Sage’s root artifact he has kept.

However, the Bull Demon King was not fooled. In his frustration, the Red Boy had no choice but to resort to brute force, but he ended up being defeated by Uncle Bajie and me working together.

However, the old ox was watching nearby, so I did not scatter the essence of the red boy. With his cultivation, he should be able to recover swiftly.

Taking advantage of this moment, the old cow quickly pulled out a tool.

He knew very well that this object was like a hot potato; whoever used it would meet their end. Therefore, he kept it sealed within his own stomach, too afraid to use it himself or to let his family use it.

Just then, the Red Boy suddenly woke up and snatched the weapon away.

He was actually just pretending to be dead.

He killed the land of Flaming Mountain and seized a breath-holding charm from him, using this trick to deceive me and Uncle Bajie.

Then, the Red Boy swallowed the Great Sage’s root essence in one gulp and instantly refined it with the true fire of Samādhi within his body.

During the days spent returning from Mount Luojia to Flame Mountain, the land of Flame Mountain had been teaching him to cultivate the inner fire, all for this very moment.

With the blessing of the root vessel, the Red Boy grew up overnight, but this person did not have the slightest resemblance to an ox

Instead, he became the Yaksha King who had already disappeared for hundreds of years!

When we defeat the Night Demon King

The Bull Demon King told us his story, a unique journey for scriptures.

Long before the Tang Monk set out for his journey to obtain the Buddhist scriptures, when the conflict between Buddhism and Daoism had not yet come to light, the Buddhist faith in the West conducted a major cleansing of all nations and peoples under its rule, eliminating anyone who did not revere Buddhism.

Originally the leaders of the Buddhist heavenly beings known as the Eightfold Path, the Yaksha clan, proud of their formidable strength and inherently fierce, feared no invading enemies. Gradually, this led to a rift with the Buddhist deities who ruled over them, and ultimately war broke out between the two sides. The Buddhists dispatched a large number of arhats and bodhisattvas, nearly annihilating the Yaksha clan. The mighty general of the Yaksha nation, Mi Yan, was beheaded by an arhat, severing the bloodline of the Yaksha royal family. The few surviving remnants of the Yaksha clan could only scatter and flee, struggling to make a living under various demon kings.

The Rakshasa Kingdom, having shared life and death with the Yaksha Kingdom, also suffered the consequences; only the Rakshasa princess, who usually adhered to Buddhism, led a portion of the people to escape to Flame Mountain.

Subsequently, the Rakshasa princess was utterly disillusioned with the Buddhist rule, and thus she sought another ally, eventually becoming a disciple under the Taoist Taishang Laojun.

Little did they know, the Daoists of the Eastern Heaven had already been planning to counter the Western Buddhist teachings.

On the day of the destruction of the Yasha Kingdom, Taishang Laojun sought out the Yasha King in order to preserve the evidence of Buddhism’s massacre of the kingdom and also to recruit allies for himself. Under the pretext of preserving the royal bloodline, he deceived the Yasha King into transforming the essence from his son’s corpse into a blood lotus.

Then, mixed with the waters of the Mother and Child River, they forced the Rakshasi princess to drink it.

Subsequently, in order to protect this Yaksha royal family so that he could use him to fight against Western Buddhism when he grew up, Taishang Laojun not only gave the magical treasure, the Banana Fan, to the Raksha Princess but also found her a great demon, Bull Demon King, as a match.

As for this marriage arranged by the Heavenly Court, the Bull Demon King had no choice but to agree.

In the past, when he had just transformed into a great demon, he bumped heads with Sun Wukong and became sworn brothers. Together, the two young demons, brimming with power and ambition, valiantly resisted the rule of heaven.

At that time, he even had the illusion that he was invincible, which is why he feared neither the heavens nor the earth.

Until that monkey was ultimately suppressed by the united forces of heaven and earth, trapped under the Five Elements Mountain for over 500 years, the Bull Demon King finally realized that he truly could not resist the heavens. Thus, he accepted his fate and honestly returned to the human realm to continue being a monster.

He knew fear, a fear so deep that even after Sun Wukong had been imprisoned for 500 years, he didn’t dare to go and see him even once.

Afraid that the Supreme Old Lord would throw him a wife, he didn’t dare not to marry.

Fortunately, the Rakshasa princess is not bad; although her son does not resemble her at all, this family has remained relatively harmonious all along. What is there to be dissatisfied with in such a warm and cozy life with a wife and children?

The Bull Demon King knew that the child born to Princess Iron Fan was destined for the heavens and had to come into being, but he still couldn’t get over this mental hurdle. At that moment, the old bull was a bit temperamental, so he went outside to find a jade-faced fox as a lover. Princess Iron Fan, feeling even more dejected, naturally didn’t show any good grace to the monkey who came to borrow the banana fan.

Yes, the arrival of the journey to the West team made the Bull Demon King realize that his former brothers had become the enforcers of the Buddhist teachings in the West in order to gain power. Furthermore, his son was captured by Guanyin Bodhisattva, his brother Ruyi Zhenxian’s property was destroyed by the Monkey King, and even his concubine, the Jade-Faced Fox, was killed by Zhu Bajie, who stripped her of her clothes and left her body to decay in the wilderness.

It was said to be borrowing a fan, but where was there even a little bit of the semblance of borrowing something? This was clearly robbery!

You Buddhists can’t bully people like this!

So the old ox became angry again, and he started to fight with Sun Wukong, as if he wanted to prove something to himself.

Unfortunately, in the world of adults, anger has no purpose.

Nezha, with a Buddhist background, and his father Li Jing arrived at the battlefield, and during the duel of spells between the two sides, Nezha repeatedly cut off the old cow’s head.

Does this isolated and unsupported rebellion have any value?

This time, along with the closing of the old cow’s eyes, also closed was its heart that had fought so hard.

From then on, the old ox understood that the deities of the Eastern Heaven deserved respect, and the Buddha of the Western Heaven could not be neglected either.

Thus, he began to study Buddhist philosophy again.

What can a wild demon like me, without any master or backing, do when my wife is bullied and my concubine is beaten to death in public?

The Bull Demon King lived a few years like a walking corpse until he heard that the Monkey King was going to revolt again after obtaining the scriptures.

At this age, still wanting to return to Flower Fruit Mountain; a monkey is still a monkey, never grows up.

The struggle between the East and the West has intensified, and at this moment, the monkey resigning from its position as Buddha serves as a sensitive signal for both sides.

So both sides prepared to unite and take down the monkey first.

The Bull Demon King, under the leadership of the deities in the heavens, killed Sun Wukong alongside five other great demons and obtained the root essence that transformed from his body.

As he watched Sun Wukong’s body slowly fall, the Bull Demon King finally realized he had grown old. For hundreds of years, fighting and struggling, he had never truly won.

This time, the Bull Demon King finally became an old bull.

He began to return to the Mountain of Flames and live a good life with his wife, Princess Iron Fan, and also brought over the daughter of the Jade-Faced Fox, Ping Ping.

Not long after, the Red Boy was also granted leave by Guanyin Bodhisattva to return home for a visit.

The family happily spent some days like this.

The more stable and happy his life became, the more he feared losing it.

I’m getting older and can’t fight anymore, not even when I was young did I ever win a fight.

The present self only wants to take good care of this small family, but he knows that the gods and Buddha will not let him have it so easy.

He knew that Sun Wukong’s root was a disaster, so he never dared to use it, only able to secretly hide it in his stomach, but this root also caused his body to gradually wither away.

The return of the Red Boy filled him with even greater concern.

Why did Guanyin Bodhisattva let him return at this time? Wasn’t it still for the monkey’s fundamental nature?

But that is his son, what else could he say?

The new land of Flame Mountain is the former disciple of the Supreme Elder Lord, and how could he not know?

This land has a secret crush on Princess Iron Fan and is secretly helping the Red Boy to build an army.

The old cow doesn’t want to take responsibility, nor can it, so it can only choose to escape.

Until one day, when the East and the West were about to go to war, my little life would come to an end.

Someone revealed the true identity of the Red Boy. In the midst of his teenage rebellion, just like the Bull Demon King of his time, he sought to storm the Western Paradise to avenge the Yaksha clan.

For this, he would even go so far as to stand against his father.

The Bull Demon King didn’t want his son to become someone else’s pawn; he insisted on not handing over the Great Sage’s root vessel, and even drove away the loyal Water Avoiding Golden Eye Beast to avoid accidentally harming his son.

Princess Iron Fan sought help everywhere, from the demon kings she knew in the mortal realm, to the immortals she had met in the heavens, to the underworld and the fairy islands overseas, but there was not a single one willing to lend a hand. Ordinary gods and demons did not dare to interfere in the disputes concerning the Great Sage’s root treasure, while the top players were simply unwilling to engage directly in the fray.

She even found her master, the Supreme Old Lord, but the Lord told her, “You are told to raise a child, but that doesn’t mean you must truly be a mother. Let him cause a commotion; as long as you and your husband don’t get involved, you can ensure peace.”

Iron Fan knew there was no hope here in the East Sky.

So she went to the Western Paradise again as a former disciple of Buddhism to seek the Tathāgata. After all, if she could unexpectedly avenge the Yaksha clan, then the Red Boy would no longer have to be enemies with the Spirit Mountain.

How could the Tathagata be such a shrewd person and not know the little schemes of Princess Iron Fan?

After meeting with the Tathagata, Princess Iron Fan ultimately did not dare to take out the banana fan. After all, once this layer of surface was torn, there would be no turning back for Buddhism to take action against her.

Moreover, with her cultivation, how could she possibly defeat someone like Tathāgata?

With no other choice, she could only return to Flame Mountain with her head hung low.

Just as Bajie was about to deliver the final blow to the King of the Night Demons, a gust of fresh wind swept through, sending Uncle Bajie tumbling.

Princess Iron Fan has returned, but now her eyes are vacant and her appearance disheveled, completely different from the heroic and spirited Princess Iron Fan that one remembers.

Seeing the banana fan in her hand, I instinctively tightened my grip on the handle; it seemed that a fierce battle was unavoidable today.

It was utterly unexpected

She lowered her head like a maid who had done something wrong, raising the fan above her head with both hands

Willingly offering up the banana fan, I and the Great Strength King shall eternally reside on Flaming Mountain

I only hope that this “immortal” of mine can spare her son’s life.

Indeed

Once a person has a weakness, they fear everything.

When I was in a dilemma

The Red Boy beside him struggled to stand up

The landmine he had buried with Daoism ultimately did not shake Buddhism in the slightest; not even I, a chosen one, could overpower it, let alone talk about ascending to Mount Spirit

But acting on one’s own impulses led to the complete destruction of the family

Unable to take revenge, he ended his life in the desperate smoke of Fire Mountain

Looking at his corpse

I thought maybe he finally grew up this time

After his commotion, neither the Spirit Mountain nor the Heavenly Court would let the Bull Demon King and his family off the hook

His suicide perfectly silenced the mouth of the Eastern Heaven from its very roots

Protect your parents’ well-being.

The fifth root of the Great Sage slowly rose from the corpse of the Red Boy

I clearly saw a “screened pavilion” among them.