I am a fairy in Journey to the West

Elder Yuantong stood before the furnace, his forehead covered in sweat from the heat, but his eyes still shone with a burning light.

"Keep adding firewood, don't stop. Those fanning the fire over there, put in some effort." Elder Yuantong instructed the monks while saying, "Don't complain about the hard work. When I attain enlightenment, I will ensure that you all become immortals together."

Elder Yuantong wiped the sweat from his face and was about to find a place to sit down when he turned around and saw Zhuang Yan walking in from the cave entrance.

Elder Yuantong was taken aback at first, then quickly realized what he meant. "Who are you? Who let you in?"

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, don't be afraid, I'm just here to save people."

"Oh," Elder Yuantong responded, then suddenly realized, "Save someone?!"

Once he came to his senses, Elder Yuantong quickly took off his prayer beads from around his neck, gave a soft shout, and struck at Zhuang Yan.

Zhuang Yan watched the rosary beads swirling towards him, then simply reached out and grabbed them firmly.

Elder Yuantong's pupils contracted, and he panicked, retreating hastily. Then, he took out a silver short pestle from his sleeve, channeled his magic power, and smashed it towards Zhuang Yan.

The silver pestle flew to Zhuang Yan's head in the blink of an eye and slammed down on his forehead with a 'whoosh'. Zhuang Yan simply threw the prayer beads in his hand upwards, and with a 'bang', the prayer beads collided with the silver pestle and shattered into pieces.

"Ah?" Elder Yuantong was shocked. This silver pestle was a spiritual treasure, while the prayer beads were just a real treasure. How could they be shattered at the same time?

Zhuang Yan's gaze fell on Elder Yuantong, and he immediately smiled and said, "Kneel down."

With a thud, Elder Yuantong knelt down, and the young monks around him were stunned by the sight.

Zhuang Yan said to the young monks, "If you realize your mistake and return to the right path, then leave on your own and never come back."

Upon hearing this, the young monks all looked towards Elder Yuantong, only to see him kneeling there motionless, appearing completely subdued.

Seeing this, the young monks dropped their firewood and palm-leaf fans, and either ran or walked away. Before long, they all left the Bone-Melting Cave.

Then Zhuang Yan turned to the bronze furnace and said, "Open it."

With a soft 'clang,' the lid of the bronze furnace opened instantly, and then Zhuang Yan said, 'Pour it out.'

Then there was another loud bang, and the bronze furnace fell to the ground. A moment later, Daoist Four Eyes and Daoist Thousand Cranes rolled out of the bronze furnace.

"Fellow Daoist Lingtai?!" Upon seeing Zhuang Yan, Daoist Simu and Daoist Qianhe exclaimed with delight.

Zhuang Yan stepped forward and untied the ropes binding the two men, then smiled and said, "Fellow Daoists, we meet again."

After being freed, the two immediately sat up cross-legged. The Taoist priest said, "I never expected to be rescued by you again, fellow Taoist. It's truly..."

Zhuang Yan smiled and waved his hand, saying, "It's nothing, I just happened to be passing by. You two should recover first."

The two nodded, then formed hand seals and sat in meditation, beginning to inhale and exhale spiritual energy to restore their magical power.

At the same time, the local deity of Zhaofeng carried Yan Fanglan in. "Immortal, how are things here? I saw many monks running out just now."

Upon entering the cave and seeing the scene inside, Zhaofeng Earth God laughed, "As expected of an immortal, you resolved it so quickly."

"Great Immortal Lingtai!" Yan Fanglan, inside the bamboo cage, hurriedly called out upon seeing Zhuang Yan, "Great Immortal, please help me."

"Eh? You two know each other?" Zhaofeng Tudi asked in surprise upon hearing Yan Fanglan's words.

Zhuang Yan shook his head and smiled, "I don't know him."

Zhaofeng Land God said "Oh" and then nodded slightly, while Yan Fanglan said again, "Great Immortal Lingtai, I am the fan you picked up at the foot of Yuchuan Mountain. You gave me to Daoist Simu. You can ask Daoist Simu if you don't believe me."

Zhuang Yan asked with a smile, "Then why did you turn into a fan?"

“I know that,” Zhaofeng Earth God immediately said. “Great Immortal, this person is a criminal official from the Western Mountain Divine Palace. In order to avoid punishment, he fled into the mortal world and used a magic weapon to transform into a fan to avoid being captured.”

At this point, the local earth god Zhaofeng said, "I was just about to capture her and send her back to the Western Mountain God's Palace to be brought to justice."

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, "Isn't this reasonable? What's the problem?"

Yan Fanglan: "."

At this moment, the local deity of Zhaofeng saw Elder Yuantong kneeling not far away. His eyes lit up and he quickly asked, "Great Immortal, is this person still alive?"

Zhuang Yan laughed and said, "Of course he's still alive."

Zhaofeng the Earth God's eyes darted around, and he said, "Great Immortal, could you also hand this person over to me for disposal?"

"Oh?" Zhuang Yan asked with a smile, "You also want to bring him to justice?"

Zhaofeng, the local deity, nodded and said, "Yes, this person is extremely wicked. If we can capture him and send him to the City God's Palace, it will be a great achievement."

Zhuang Yan laughed after hearing this, "Alright, since that's the case, how about I grant you this favor?"

After saying that, Zhuang Yan took out a pottery jar from his sleeve, waved it at Elder Yuantong, and Elder Yuantong was immediately put into the pottery jar.

Zhuang Yan tossed the Tao Guang to the Zhaofeng Earth God, who quickly caught it and curiously glanced inside. Sure enough, Elder Yuantong was trapped inside.

"Thank you, Great Immortal!" Zhaofeng Earth Deity hurriedly put away the pottery jar and bowed to Zhuang Yan in gratitude.

At this moment, Daoist Simu and Daoist Qianhe also opened their eyes and stood up. Their energy had recovered a little, but their magical power had not fully recovered. Although they were still injured, their complexion had improved a lot.

The two stepped forward to bow and thank Zhuang Yan. Zhuang Yan inquired about their injuries and then said to Daoist Qianhe, "I suggest you find a quiet place to refine the relic first. That way, you will have the ability to protect yourself. Xiniu Hezhou is in great chaos right now. It is not wise to wander around with a Bodhisattva relic."

Upon hearing this, Daoist Qianhe said, "After this incident, I am still shaken. I will go and open a cave to refine the relic before entering the world to do good deeds."

"Hmm." Zhuang Yan then looked at Master Four Eyes and asked, "And you?"

Master Four Eyes laughed and said, "Me? I've been traveling with Junior Brother Thousand Crane. Since he wants to refine the relic, I'll protect him."

"Alright." Zhuang Yan cupped his hands and said, "Then please take good care of yourselves, fellow Daoists."

Upon hearing this, Master Simu quickly said, "Fellow Daoist Lingtai, are you leaving so soon? Why don't we get together?"

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "The world is vast, and I still have many places to go. You two fellow Daoists should just focus on your cultivation, and there will be many more days to meet in the future."

Master Simu felt a little regretful upon hearing this, but he did not insist. He simply cupped his hands and said, "Alright, then Fellow Daoist Lingtai, please take good care of yourself."

Master Qianhe said, "Fellow Daoist Lingtai, please take good care of yourself. We hope to meet again someday."

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "Okay."

At this moment, the local deity Zhaofeng asked, "Great Immortal, would you like to sit in my humble temple or monastery for a while?"

"No, thank you." Zhuang Yan looked at Zhaofeng Tudi and said, "You should hurry up and claim your reward."

With a broad smile, Zhaofeng the Earth God bowed to Zhuang Yan and said, "Yes, this humble god wishes you a safe journey, Great Immortal. I will repay your kindness today in the future."

Zhuang Yan nodded and smiled, then bid farewell to everyone, turned around and transformed into a gentle breeze, flying out of the Bone-Melting Cave and disappearing into the clouds in an instant.

On a desolate mountain in Jinping Prefecture, hunter Chen Zhao carried his prey, which he had caught that day, and slowly descended the mountain in the twilight.

A gentle breeze blows, the setting sun casts its glow, mist hangs over the mountains, and wisps of smoke rise from the chimneys below.

However, Chen Zhao had seen this beautiful scenery many times before, so he didn't pay too much attention to it.

However, although he paid no attention to the scenery in front of him, a pair of piercing eyes were watching Chen Zhao from among the trees in the mountains.

The next moment, those luminous eyes disappeared into the jungle. Soon after, the gentle breeze in the mountains suddenly became noisy, and a gale suddenly swept through the forest, causing the trees to bend and sway.

Chen Zhao stopped, pressing his left hand tightly against the prey on his back, and covering his eyes with his right hand to prevent the sand from getting into them.

But the gust of wind quickly subsided, and when Chen Zhao removed his hands from his eyes, he suddenly saw a white fox on the mountain path in front of him.

The fox had a pair of bright eyes, with a human-like glint in them. It squatted in the middle of the road, blocking Chen Zhao's way.

The sun had already set, and the forest quickly grew dark, but the fox emitted a faint glow in the darkness.

Chen Zhao frowned, took the bow off his shoulder, and shouted at the fox, "I've had enough prey for today. If you know what's good for you, don't block my way and get out of the way."

But the white fox was not scared away by Chen Zhao. Instead, it suddenly straightened its upper body, opened its mouth and spoke in a human voice: "Do I look more like a human or a fairy?"

When Chen Zhao heard the fox in front of him speak human language, he was instantly terrified and broke out in a cold sweat.

But he wasn't too frightened; instead, he immediately shouted sternly, "You look like a ghost to me!"

After saying that, Chen Zhao drew his bow and nocked an arrow with lightning speed, and with a 'whoosh,' the white fox fell to the ground.

Soon the white fox lay on the ground convulsing, and blood quickly stained the ground red.

Chen Zhao stepped forward and saw that the spiritual light on the white fox quickly dissipated, and his arrow had hit the white fox directly between the eyebrows.

The white fox gave Chen Zhao a venomous look, as if trying to imprint his face into its memory.

Then a large amount of blood flowed from the white fox's mouth, and it died.

Seeing this, Chen Zhao sneered, pulled out a butcher's knife from his waist, skinned the fox on the spot, and carried it back home. From then on, every night Chen Zhao's house could hear the fox's screams, and sometimes at night, a white fox with eerie eyes could be seen running around the house, hissing and pouncing at anyone it encountered.

Chen Zhao was not afraid at all, but his wife and children lived in constant fear.

As time went on, Chen Zhao's wife and children fell ill, and their condition did not improve despite taking medicine.

On this day, Chen Zhao was on his way to the county town to see a doctor for his wife and children when he encountered a Taoist priest dressed in blue. The priest greeted Chen Zhao as soon as he saw him.

"Wait a moment, benefactor." The Taoist priest stopped Chen Zhao.

Upon seeing this, Chen Zhao quickly bowed respectfully and asked, "What advice do you have for me, sir?"

Zhuang Yan pointed to the pale-faced woman and child on the oxcart behind Chen Zhao and asked, "Are they the benefactor's wife and children?"

Chen Zhao nodded quickly and said, "That's right."

Zhuang Yan said, "I see that they have a very heavy yin aura, and there are ghosts haunting your home."

Upon hearing this, the woman in the carriage widened her eyes instantly, while Chen Zhao was taken aback at first, and then quickly bowed and said, "What you say is very true, sir. Recently, my house has been haunted by ghosts, and my wife and children have not been able to have peace, which has led to them falling seriously ill and not recovering for a long time. I was just about to take them to the city to see a doctor."

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "There's no need to worry so much. The reason your wife and children have been sick for so long is because yin energy has entered their bodies and yang energy has dissipated. Medicine won't cure them."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhao immediately bowed and said, "I beg you, sir, to save my wife and children. I, Chen Zhao, am willing to offer all the wealth in my household to repay you."

Zhuang Yan said, "Take me to your home. Tonight I will help you get rid of that ghost, and your wife and children's illness will naturally be cured."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhao turned his gaze to his wife, who naturally knew that her husband was asking for her opinion.

So she nodded and said, "Since you have a solution, sir, then let me take a look."

Chen Zhao nodded and invited Zhuang Yan to his home. After arriving home, Chen Zhao immediately offered Zhuang Yan water and tea, but Zhuang Yan stopped him and said, "Give me your hand."

Chen Zhao asked, "Which hand?"

"Either is fine," Zhuang Yan said with a smile.

Chen Zhao then stretched out his left hand, and Zhuang Yan grabbed Chen Zhao's left hand, pinched his middle finger, and then said to Chen Zhao's wife and children beside him, "You two come to me."

So Chen Zhao's wife came over with her son. It was only a short three or five steps, but the mother and son were panting and sweating profusely.

Then Zhuang Yan glanced at Chen Zhao's left middle finger, and Chen Zhao immediately hissed, and a drop of blood quickly gushed from the tip of his middle finger.

This blood was extremely yang in nature. Zhuang Yan pinched Chen Zhao's middle finger and touched the forehead of both his wife and son.

A bright red finger mark immediately appeared between the mother and son's eyebrows. In that instant, their complexions improved at a visible speed, no longer as pale as before.

Chen Zhao was overjoyed to see this and, ignoring the pain in his fingertip, quickly thanked Zhuang Yan.

Zhuang Yan said, "Right now, we are only using your yang energy to dispel the yin energy in your wife and children's bodies, but to completely eradicate it, we still need to capture that ghost."

Chen Zhao's wife felt warm and relaxed, and quickly got up, saying, "Sir, have you not eaten yet? I'll go and cook for you."

Seeing that his wife's complexion had improved, Chen Zhao said, "Wife, do you still have the venison I hunted the other day? Let me cook it for the master to try."

"Okay," Chen's wife replied, and then went to cook.

Soon after the meal was prepared, Chen Zhao brought out some homemade rice wine and said to Zhuang Yan, "Sir, my family had a bumper harvest this year and some surplus grain, so my wife brewed some rice wine. Why don't you try some?"

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "Okay."

Then he noticed that Chen's wife and son had not come to the table, so he said, "I am a man outside the world, not bound by worldly etiquette. Please let your wife and son come to the table and eat together."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhao immediately said to his wife, "Wife, why don't you and the child eat together?"

"Mm." Mrs. Chen nodded, then sat down at the table with her son to eat.

After a quick and satisfying meal, Zhuang Yan said to Chen Zhao, "I'll go to my room to meditate first. The ghost will appear after sunset tonight. You just need to protect your wife and children, and I will take care of the ghost myself."

Chen Zhao quickly got up and led Zhuang Yan to a side room. Zhuang Yan sat cross-legged on the bed, then formed a mudra with his hands and closed his eyes to enter meditation.

Chen Zhao tiptoed out of the side room, closed the door, and went about his own business.

Time flew by, and soon it was evening. As soon as the sun set, a thick, yin energy rose up in Chen Zhao's courtyard.

Then a series of cold winds blew, swirling around Chen Zhao's courtyard and not going anywhere else.

Inside the house, Chen Zhao shielded his wife and children, but his gaze kept drifting outside.

Just then, a shrill scream suddenly came from the courtyard outside, which then turned into wailing. Chen Zhao's wife and children trembled with fear and hid tightly behind Chen Zhao.

Chen Zhao looked up again and peered out through the crack in the window. He saw a gust of cold wind blow through the courtyard, and then a white fox with an eerie glow appeared in the courtyard.

Just as it was about to enter Chen Zhao's house, a clear shout came from outside the side room: "You wicked creature!"

The fox was startled and quickly turned its head to look, only to see a Taoist priest radiating divine light walking towards it.

The fox's pupils contracted, and it turned to run away, but Zhuang Yan reached out and grabbed at the air, instantly capturing the surrounding yin wind and yin energy with one hand.

Then, these yin winds and yin energy transformed into a ball cage in Zhuang Yan's hand. The ball cage then flashed with a divine light and instantly absorbed the fox's soul.

The white fox's soul was trapped in the cage and could not escape, so it knelt down and pleaded with Zhuang Yan, "Immortal, it was not my intention to harm people, it was Chen Zhao who killed me first, I only came to seek revenge."

Zhuang Yan laughed and said, "You wretched creature, of all people to ask for a title, you had to go to a hunter. It's just your fate to suffer this calamity."

Hearing this, the white fox was very indignant and said, "I have cultivated for more than three hundred years, and it ruined me with one arrow. I am really unwilling, and the resentment in my heart is hard to dispel. Even if I cannot take revenge in this life, I will take revenge in the next life."

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "I know you are unwilling to accept this, so I have come to enlighten you."

Upon hearing this, the white fox looked at Zhuang Yan with a puzzled expression.

Zhuang Yan said, "If you can resolve the enmity, I will give you a chance to be a decent human being."

The white fox said, "Immortal, as long as I can successfully obtain a title in this life, I will have the opportunity to transform into a human."

Zhuang Yan smiled and said, "It's not just an opportunity to be a person, but also a tremendous stroke of luck."

"Oh?" the white fox asked, "What opportunity?"

Zhuang Yan asked, "Do you think it's good or bad to marry a goddess?"

"What? Marry a goddess wife?" the white fox exclaimed in surprise. "Such a good thing is possible?"

Zhuang Yan nodded and said, "Of course, with my cultivation, would I lie to you? As long as you agree to resolve the enmity, I will send you to be reincarnated. How about it?"

The white fox's eyes darted around. If he could not only be reborn as a human in his next life, but also marry a goddess wife, wouldn't that mean he could also become an immortal?

So it immediately said, "Okay, I agree, but you must also make an oath, Immortal."

"What oath do you want me to make?" Zhuang Yan asked with a smile.

The white fox said, "You swear to reincarnate me as a human, and that I will marry a goddess in my next life."

Zhuang Yan laughed heartily, and then swore an oath to the heavens without hesitation, which finally put the white fox at ease.

At that moment, the resentment on its body instantly dissipated. Zhuang Yan nodded upon seeing this, glanced into the house, and then turned into a gentle breeze and left.

When Chen Zhao and his family stepped outside, they found that the outside world was no longer as gloomy and cold as before, but had returned to its usual calm and warmth.

"Where is that gentleman?" Mrs. Chen asked after searching for a long time without finding Zhuang Yan.

Chen Zhao didn't speak, but bowed in all directions before saying, "That gentleman is a deity, so he naturally left after capturing the fox spirit's soul."

After leaving Jinping Prefecture, Zhuang Yan brought the soul of the white fox to a temple in Fengxian County.

Inside the Guanyin Hall of the temple, a young and beautiful woman was kneeling beneath the Guanyin statue, praying devoutly, and then burning her prayer text.

Zhuang Yan concealed himself and stood on the altar, watching. The white fox's spirit, squatting in the ball cage, said, "That looks like a prayer for a child."

At this point, the white fox suddenly realized, "Immortal, do you mean you want me to be reincarnated into her womb?"

"Yes," Zhuang Yan said with a smile, "Are you ready?"

The white fox was stunned when it heard this, and it took it a long time to react before it slowly said, "I'm ready. Thank you, Immortal."

Zhuang Yan tossed the ball cage aside, and it instantly vanished in a gust of wind, while the white fox's soul entered the woman's abdomen.

Then Zhuang Yan turned to the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva and smiled, "Sorry, I stole your business."

After saying this, Zhuang Yan stepped out of the temple and his figure disappeared into the mortal world.

Ten months later, Lady Liu of Fengxian County gave birth to a son. Master Liu was overjoyed and immediately named his son 'Liu Yanchang'. (End of this chapter)