Journey to the West: Cultivation Begins at Jindou Mountain

Chapter 265 Longevity Incense
Wave Moon Cave, a room with carved beams and painted rafters, filled with flowers.

Princess Baihuaxiu sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the two boys eating not far away, her eyes filled with complicated emotions.

She carried these two children for ten months and raised them single-handedly. Although she didn't usually take care of them much, how could she not have feelings for them?

But she was a princess of the Kingdom of Baoxiang, yet she was abducted by demons and gave birth to these two children.

Unable to be by her parents' side to repay their kindness in raising her, she was already filled with sorrow and longing day and night. If outsiders were to find out that she had borne two children for a demon, it would truly disgrace the royal family and cause a great uproar throughout the city.

If her father knew her current situation, and that she had two children born to a demon, one wonders how he would view these two children.
On the other side, the Yellow-Robed Monster paced back and forth anxiously, and finally knelt down in front of Venus, looking at Venus with pleading eyes.

"Lord Xing! No matter what, these two children are my and the princess's offspring. If you have a way, please do me a favor and save them!"

Venus looked at Kui Mulang before him and said slowly:

"Actually, this matter is both difficult and simple."

"If you want to protect these two children, have them become disciples of a famous master as soon as possible and send them away from Wave Moon Cave. In this way, this disaster will not affect these two children."

"This star lord, if not..."

Venus shook his head as he looked at Kui Mulang, whose eyes were filled with hope.

“I am not qualified to be the teacher of these two children, but in my Qiming Hall there is a man named Guangshan who is the best in terms of both virtue and ability.”

Upon hearing this, Kui Mulang frowned. He had never even heard of Guang Shan; how could he so easily entrust his child to him?
Seeing Kui Mulang's expression, Taibai Jinxing knew perfectly well that Kui Mulang was not satisfied with the choice of his master. However, he was not in a hurry and simply said meaningfully:
"Speaking of this Guang Shan, he now holds a rather high position in my Qiming Hall, and he also has a very deep and long-standing relationship with the Divine Physician Daojun."

Upon hearing this, Kui Mulang's brows gradually relaxed.

After all, he's his child, and he'll naturally pass on his skills to him in the future. What Venus meant was that Guangshan has deep roots and, with the support of both the Dao Lord and the Star Lord, is a good backer for the two children.
Kui Mulang solemnly cupped his hands and said:

"Very well then, please ask the Immortal Guangshan if he is willing to take on disciples. If he is, I will prepare a generous apprenticeship gift for these two children!"

"Alright, alright~ You wait here, I'll go ask around."

Venus smiled and nodded, then with a flick of his whisk, he rode away on a cloud.

Half a day later, on Mount Jindu.

Niu Yi sat cross-legged in front of the Hunyuan Furnace, his hands forming a series of hand seals, causing the Hunyuan Qi Fire to rise within the furnace. At the same time, he completely locked the Qi of creation from the three ginseng fruits into the furnace, where it swirled and merged with the spiritual essence refined from various rare and precious materials.

Niu Yi's collection of these rare treasures in Heaven went surprisingly smoothly this time. Perhaps it was because his seat was so close to the front at the Peach Banquet that most of the gods in Heaven were willing to associate with him.

After he released all the types and quantities of the spiritual materials needed to refine the precious incense, many immortals soon came to his door to trade with Daojun. With the help of Lü Dongbin and the four celestial masters of Tongming Palace, he quickly gathered all the materials.

With the spiritual materials he currently possesses, that's more than enough.

Afterwards, Niu Yi performed a divination for Na Kui Mulang, and then started a furnace to refine incense at the top of Jindu Mountain.

This incense refining process will take eighty-one days to complete. By the time the precious incense is finished, Tang Sanzang and his party will likely still be some distance from the Tongtian River, giving them ample time.

Just then, a golden talisman suddenly shot from the sky toward Jindu Mountain, flying toward Niu Yi, but was caught by a broad hand midway.

Looking at the talisman in his hand, Qingniu scanned it with his divine sense and received all the information it contained, revealing a look of sudden realization.

"Heh~ So it turns out my virtuous brother has gained two more junior disciples. It's not a big deal."

Qingniu put away the communication talisman with a backhand, having no intention of disturbing Niu Yi, who was focused on refining incense.

Before Niu Yi started making incense, he had told him that he would have to take care of everything on Jindu Mountain.

If it's about the journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures, and Venus or Guanyin Bodhisattva send a message, then it depends on the situation. If it's a major matter, then you should inform them. For other minor matters, the Green Ox can reply on their behalf.

"hu~hu~"

The green ox looked at the mountain god Dou Dou, who was lounging on the back of the Yin Qilin, squinting and swaying his tail, comfortably basking in the sun. Meanwhile, the little Qilin was lying in front of a lit stick of black incense, greedily inhaling the extremely yin energy slowly emanating from the incense.

This incense is the Earthly Blessing Incense, which is of great benefit to cultivators and spirit beasts who practice the 'Ultimate Yin' technique.

This precious incense was crafted by Niu Yi for the little Qilin, and it is the most suitable food for the Yin Qilin. It uses many ten-thousand-year-old Yin-gathering wood cores. However, although they are both precious incense, the one that Niu Yi is currently refining is much more difficult than this pitch-black precious incense.

Seeing that the two little ones were very comfortable, Qingniu smiled, stretched, and walked towards the orange grove, ready to take a good nap.

According to his brother, once this matter is over, the Dao Ancestor will come to take him back to Heaven.

His days on Golden Gourd Mountain are numbered, so naturally he wants to cherish every remaining day there.
"Gao Qiulan was from Majiazhuang in the Tongtianjiang area. Her parents died when she was young. Her uncle's family seized her land and house and drove her out. She wandered to another village and was targeted by Liu, a local ruffian. Liu followed her and committed indecent acts against her. She was later killed and her body was dumped in the mountains."

A bearded man, dressed in a long robe with black and red lotus patterns, wearing a black jade crown, and surrounded by yin energy, was holding a pen in one hand and a book in the other, staring at the unseeing, resentful corpse of a woman lying in the pit.

What the man was just reciting was the life of the woman before him, as recorded in the "Record of Wronged Souls".

Around the man and the corpse, jackals with glowing green eyes were staring at the scene. Clearly, if the man hadn't been there, they would have pounced on the woman's body and devoured it long ago.

The man remained calm. He raised a blood-red brush and drew a crimson talisman in the air. The complex and eerie talisman, once formed, quickly fell, leaving a mark on the woman's forehead. "Ah!!!"

As the mark formed, a massive, dark aura of resentment, accompanied by a roar, suddenly soared into the sky. The jackals that had been eyeing the area with predatory intent showed expressions of terror, whimpering softly as they hurriedly scurried into the jungle, fleeing the area.

The black-robed figure smiled upon seeing this scene. The "Record of Wronged Souls" in his hand emitted a faint green light, enveloping Gao Qiulan's corpse. In the blink of an eye, the corpse completely disappeared.

In the "Records of Wrongful Souls," there is an additional woman who is quite beautiful but has a livid face and fierce eyes.

The man in black robes nodded in satisfaction.

“Indeed, Gao Qiulan is full of resentment throughout her life. For the Lord’s sect, she is truly a ‘good seed’. Don’t worry, meeting me is a blessing in disguise for you. Soon you will be able to take revenge yourself.”

"Including Gao Qiulan, I have taken in a total of sixteen fellow soldiers this time. It's a pity that if I hadn't been hiding from those underworld officials and people from the Divine Physician Daojun Palace, my gains would have been far more than this!"

"This Tongtianjiang region is truly a vast treasure trove."

The man in black licked his lips, looking excited, but suddenly frowned and looked towards the east.

"Hmph! The lackeys of the Ten Kings of Hell, you've arrived quite quickly! Unfortunately, you're still a step too late."

As the man in black robes spoke, a blood lotus bloomed beneath his feet, instantly swallowing him up and disappearing from sight.

A moment later, two beams of light, one red and one blue, appeared swiftly on the spot, accompanied by a chilling wind. One was red-faced with fangs and wearing a red embroidered robe, while the other was green-faced with fangs and wearing a blue robe. They were none other than the two generals from the underworld, the one with the golden shackles and the one with the silver chains.

"It seems that the thief has already left this place."

"Hmph! This rat is fast!"

"We can't continue like this. Judging from the news from the many underworld messengers on both sides of the Tongtian River, this rat has already taken away more than ten wandering souls. We should go to Daojun Mountain to see Daojun and ask him to help us deal with this matter."

"Our status is insufficient, and that Dao Lord may not be willing to see us. We should send a message back to the Senluo Palace and ask the Ten Kings of Hell to decide on this matter. As for Dao Lord Mountain, this place is, after all, the faith fiefdom of the Divine Physician Dao Lord. We can go and inform him."

"That's good. Fan Wujiu and Xie Bi'an are on their way. We must catch that rat this time!"

The golden shackles and silver chains disappeared quickly with a gust of cold wind, clearly chasing after the 'rat'.

Not far from where he walked, two golden lights landed, revealing their figures: Zhu Dayou, who had just returned to the mountain, and Niu Li, who was carrying a giant axe.

"The guys from the underworld have been causing trouble on both sides of the Tongtian River. Their purpose is probably not that simple. After all, the black-robed figure earlier was quite capable. If you and I were to make a move, we would probably only manage a draw."

Niu Li shook his head and said:
"This person has attracted the attention of the Dao Lord, so he must be extraordinary."

The two of them actually arrived earlier than the one with the golden shackles and silver chains, but they had been watching from the clouds without making a sound or taking any action.

In fact, this person's identity had already been exposed long ago, but his actions had elicited different opinions in Daojun Palace. One opinion was that these were all pitiful people, and it was only right for them to take revenge on those beasts. As long as no trouble was caused and innocent people were harmed, there was no need to pay much attention to them.

The second type is like Zhu Dayou, who always insists that whether it is the Heavenly Court, the Human World, or the Underworld, each has its own laws and regulations. If no one acts in accordance with the laws and regulations and things go wrong, sooner or later there will be big problems.

Before becoming a god, Zhu Dayou was the most influential figure on both sides of the Tongtian River. For decades, he ruled this area.

Therefore, Zhu Dayou valued the importance of laws and regulations immensely. Without laws and regulations, there would only be chaos, and he would not have been able to bring the Tongtianjiang region back on track back then.

As for Daojun, when he first entered Shangtang Village back in Jindu Mountain, he felt pity for Shi Cui's plight. Since the matter had nothing to do with him, he simply pretended not to have seen it.

But now the situation is different. The banks of the Tongtian River are now his place of faith. Having received offerings from the people here, he is now to protect all living beings in this area.

Although he also felt that those wicked bastards who had committed countless evil deeds deserved to die, once they were dead, the underworld would have its eighteen levels of hell and the laws of the netherworld waiting for them, and none of them could escape.

Besides, those so-called people from Black Valley, who seemed to be standing up for justice and did not harm any innocent people, were doing what appeared to be a 'good deed', but one can never be too careful about what might happen.

Wandering spirits and vengeful ghosts are the most difficult to manipulate and control. If even one vengeful ghost succeeds in taking revenge, it will only intensify its resentment and cause it to lose its reason and harm innocent people. If this happens, even if only one person is harmed, it is still the fault of the Dao Lord.

At that time, the people from Kurotani won't care about the deaths of a few innocent people, because they are filled with resentment. Even if they don't intentionally attack others, it's hard for them to have any empathy.

The reason why Daojun had Zhu Dayou, Fang Cheng, Niu Li, Niu Feng and the others follow the people from Black Valley and let them cause trouble until now was twofold: firstly, this way, he could keep these people under his control; secondly, he also intended to play the long game and catch bigger fish.
The land on both sides of the Tongtian River had been peaceful for hundreds of years, but the Black Valley's hand suddenly reached out again, which really made Daojun somewhat concerned.
Last time, he tested the other party with the Great Dao of Cause and Effect, but the other party also blocked him with the Great Dao of Cause and Effect. Therefore, Daojun had no intention of deducing the other party's movements again, in order to avoid alerting the enemy.

Besides, he is not alone and helpless.
Eighty-one days later, a burst of celestial energy rapidly rose from the summit of Jindu Mountain, spreading outwards! It made the entire Jindu Mountain area seem to be cleansed of dust, and even outside Jindu Mountain, Ganoderma lucidum began to appear.

As Niu Yi watched the nine sticks of azure incense with golden child patterns slowly wafting from the Hunyuan Furnace, a smile appeared on his face. With a wave of his hand, he made the nine sticks of incense fly over quickly and land in front of him.

"Nine sticks of longevity incense are an unexpected delight."

He originally thought that he could only refine eight sticks of this precious incense this time, but he never expected that he could refine nine sticks of the Longevity Incense.

This Longevity Incense is a top-tier incense in the world. Inhaling just one stick of its fragrance can add 20,000 years to one's lifespan, and two sticks are equivalent to more than half a ginseng fruit.

This is a wonderful thing; whether you use it to trade for treasures later or keep it for your own family, it's excellent.

(End of this chapter)