Journey to the West: Cultivation Begins at Jindou Mountain

Chapter 295 Nine-Headed Insect

On Mount Jindu, Niu Yi sat in a stone pavilion, looking at the golden talisman in his hand, while the voice of Venus constantly echoed in his ears.

A moment later, as the golden talisman dissipated, Niu Yi looked thoughtfully toward Mount Ling.

Time flies in the mountains. Since Sun Wukong fought with the Six-Eared Macaque to Mount Ling and asked the Buddha to determine the truth, and the Buddha helped Sun Wukong subdue the monkey, several years have passed.

Along the way, Venus and Guanyin Bodhisattva were mostly in charge of the westward journey, so he didn't need to pay much attention to it. The closer he got to the road leading to Mount Ling, the weaker his faith in the Divine Physician Daoist became.

The various hardships along this journey were mostly resolved with the help of Lingshan.

During the years that Niu Yi spent on the mountain, Tang Sanzang and his companions had already traveled more than half of their journey.

He borrowed the Banana Leaf Fan from Princess Iron Fan to extinguish the Flaming Mountain, and with the help of Erlang Shen and the Six Sages of Meishan, he eliminated the Nine-Headed Insect that stole the national treasure of Jisaguo.

Subsequently, Tang Sanzang and his companions defeated a group of tree spirits in the Thorn Ridge, passed the Little Thunder Temple of the Yellow-Eyebrowed Boy, and the Camel Village with the giant snake demon.

After that, they went to the Kingdom of Zhu Zi, where Guanyin Bodhisattva's mount Sai Tai Sui was located, and then they eliminated seven spider demons in the Spider Cave. With the help of Bodhisattva Pilanpo, they subdued the Hundred-Eyed Demon King of Huanghua Temple.

According to Venus's message, this group is about to pass through Lion Camel Ridge, and Venus is planning to give these people a warning in a few days.

Niu Yi gazed westward and pondered for a moment before taking out a gold-inlaid jade talisman from his sleeve. This was the very talisman that the Jade Emperor had given him a few years ago.

All he had to do was crush this jade talisman, and the Jade Emperor would help him fend off the Buddhas and their retinue from Mount Ling, allowing him to deal with the Golden-Winged Roc as he saw fit.

"Ah!!!! Let me go!!! Let me go!!!"

Upon hearing the voice beside him, Niu Yi smiled, put away the jade talisman, and looked in the direction from which screams of agony were coming from not far away.

A fat yet agile cat was seen leaping and bounding between the fruit trees, its mouth holding a strange little black snake with nine heads.

At this moment, the little black snake had a talisman on each of its other eight heads, its eyes were closed and loose.

Only the head at the very center remained awake, its eyes filled with terror, emitting continuous, pitiful howls.

Behind DouDou, a black light was following closely, about to bite DouDou's tail.

DouDou nimbly dodged, and with a flick of his head, he tossed the black snake high into the air. The black shadow following behind him immediately changed direction and lunged at the snake!

The black snake looked at the Yin Qilin rushing towards it with excited eyes, and the holes on its body that had been bitten and had just healed were starting to hurt again.

He tried to twist his body in terror, but having all his magic power sealed, he was no different from a small mountain snake.

The Yin Qilin pounced forward and bit the black snake! The black snake immediately let out a fierce scream.

"what!!!!!"

Yin Qilin ignored all of this, and excitedly leaped back to the ground, wagging its tail as it came to Niu Yi's side, then flung the black snake to the ground again.

Niu Yi patted the Yin Qilin's head approvingly, and then, under the pleading gaze of the nine-headed black snake, he put it into a white jade jar that he conjured up at will.

The moment the nine-headed black snake was put into the jar, the pleading in its eyes instantly turned into resentment.

Niu Yi tossed the white jade jar aside and laughed:

"It seems this nine-headed worm hasn't learned its lesson. You can play together again tomorrow. Such a good test snake shouldn't be ruined so easily."

Yin Qilin nodded with some regret, then turned and strode off to chase after Dou Dou, who was not far away.

Of all the things Niu Yi has done in the Journey to the West series over the years, the only one was stealing the relics from the Golden Light Temple Pagoda in the Kingdom of Sacrifice by the Nine-Headed Insect.

At that time, Sun Wukong invited Erlang Shen Yang Jian and the six brothers of Meishan to help him. Yang Jian severely injured the nine-headed insect. However, the insect had nine heads, which meant it had nine lives. It was not very powerful, but its vitality was extremely strong.

However, just as the hydra was about to escape, it was captured by Niu Yi, who had gone to Bibo Pool with Yang Jian and had been hiding nearby.

Of all the monsters on the journey to the West, most had some redeeming qualities, but the Nine-Headed Serpent was evil in every way.

This nine-headed serpent was originally the son-in-law of the Dragon King of Ten Thousand Saints in the Green Wave Pool of Luanshi Mountain.

But later, he instigated the Dragon King of Ten Thousand Saints to steal the national treasure of Jisa Kingdom, the Relic, and also instigated Princess Ten Thousand Saints to steal the Queen Mother's Lingzhi Grass.

This family was actually successfully instigated by Hydra. Their wishful thinking got the better of them, and they were blinded by greed. Now they have ended up with their family destroyed and their lives ruined.

Of the entire Wansheng Dragon King family, only the Dragon Mother remains alive; the rest have all perished. Even the Dragon Mother will have to guard the relics day and night in the Golden Light Temple.

Niu Yi felt no liking for this guy at all, except for his incredibly vigorous vitality. Among the many strange creatures of heaven and earth, the nine-headed serpent's vitality was the most vigorous.

This guy is perfect as a medicinal snake, used by him to test medicine. This culprit who should have died in the great calamity of Bibo Pool is being put to good use.

With the Hydra's limited abilities, it couldn't cause any trouble in his hands. In recent days, it has been carried away by DouDou and his friends to play with as a toy.

Niu Yi casually put away the white jade jar containing the nine-headed insect, slowly stood up, and began to calculate with his hands.

"If you do the math, time is indeed running out. Tang Sanzang and his disciples should only have seven days to reach Lion Camel Ridge." "Once we pass Lion Camel Ridge, we won't be far from Senior Yuansheng's Nine-Bend Panheng Cave. We might as well take care of these matters together on this trip."

Niu Yi pondered for a moment, then looked at Ao Xuan, who was sitting cross-legged on a lotus leaf not far away, meditating with his eyes closed, and said:

"Xuan'er, I will be going out for a while. If anything happens at home, please send a message to Daojun Mountain."

Upon hearing this, Ao Xuan immediately opened his eyes, stood up, and bowed to Niu Yi, saying:
"Don't worry, sir, I will guard Jindu Mountain well."

Niu Yi nodded with a smile, picked up the jade talisman in his hand, and solemnly crushed it.

"Bam—"

With a loud bang, the jade talisman vanished into specks of light, and at the same time, a voice reached Niu Yi's ears.

"I am aware of this matter. I will stop Lingshan for you. The rest is up to you. Don't embarrass me."

Niu Yi nodded and solemnly bowed towards the sky.

Immediately, Niu Yi used his Golden Light Transformation Technique, transforming into a golden light and flying straight towards the Southern Continent.

The Scorpion Demon cannot appear in the open on this trip. If the Jade Emperor stops the Buddha, Niu Yi cannot guarantee that the Bodhisattvas Manjushri and Samantabhadra will take the initiative to come forward.

It would be best if he went on this trip to find another helper, and together with his junior brother Wukong, they could stop the Yellow-Toothed Elephant and the Green-Haired Lion, so that he could concentrate on dealing with the Golden-Winged Roc.

Of course, if Manjushri and Samantabhadra do not appear, it means that these two are dispensable to these two mounts.

Once he has a free hand, he wouldn't mind taking the other two along with him.

Speaking of which, Manjushri Bodhisattva seems to have a particular fondness for blue-haired lions. There's the lion-like beast in Wuji Kingdom, and the blue-haired lion in Lion Camel Ridge. There are already two of his lions causing trouble.

I wonder how many green-haired lions this man has on Mount Wutai. He must choose one every time he goes out. I'm quite curious about that.

Guanjiang Estuary, Meishan.

Wearing a loose black and gold robe, Yang Jian, who was enjoying tea with the six brothers of Meishan, suddenly looked up at the sky and chuckled softly.

"Today is a good day."

Upon hearing what the Second Master said, the six Meishan brothers looked on with curiosity. Following Yang Jian's gaze, they saw a golden light streaking across the boundless sky.

In the blink of an eye, the golden light fell upon the plum blossom grove, and the familiar figures revealed within came into the view of Yang Jian and the six Meishan brothers.

"Brother Guangyi!"

Upon seeing the newcomer, these people excitedly stood up and greeted Niu Yi.

Yang Jian stepped forward and said with a smile:

"Brother Guangyi, did you come to Meishan because of that matter we discussed at Bibo Pool? Is the opportunity here now?"

"That's right. The reason I've come here is to invite Brother Yang and the other brothers to come and lend a hand."

Upon hearing this, the six Meishan brothers were all eager to fight. The tall, burly, and menacing second brother, Zhang Boshi, laughed loudly:

"Brother Guangyi, don't worry. Back then, when that Golden-Winged Roc bullied us on Golden Toad Mountain, my brothers and I were also holding back our anger. This time, we'll definitely teach that thieving bird a lesson!"

Meishan's leader, Kang Anyu, said solemnly:

“Brother Guangyi, we are aware of the Golden-Winged Roc’s abilities and know that we are no match for him. However, if his little demons from the Lion Camel Kingdom attack, we will do our best to stop them and will not allow anything else to interfere with you, brother.”

Yang Jian nodded and smiled:

"At that time, I will take care of the yellow-toothed elephant, and the green-maned lion can be given to Sun Wukong. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace is not the same as before, and he is quite reliable."

"As for the remaining minor demons, I will leave them to my three thousand grass-root gods. My brothers are all extremely reliable, and I will show them to Brother Guangyi this time."

Niu Yi nodded with a smile. He could also see that ever since he met these brothers at Bibo Pool, they had all been holding back their anger, just waiting for Lion Camel Ridge to have a showdown with these three old demons.

After all, back on Golden Toad Mountain, the Golden-Winged Roc almost swallowed the eldest and second eldest Meishan brothers whole.

As for his junior brother, it's clear that his reputation has changed significantly over the years.

Not long after Sun Wukong emerged from the Five Elements Mountain, he passed by the Guanyin Temple and went to the Heavenly King Guangmu to borrow a fire-resistant cover to protect his master. Guangmu was naturally extremely unwilling, after all, he was facing a notorious thief with great skills.

After Guangmu Tianwang lent out the cover, he was prepared for Sun Wukong not to return it, but to his surprise, Sun Wukong actually returned it.

Perhaps it was after that that Sun Wukong's reputation among the gods and immortals began to improve.

(End of this chapter)