An Ill-Fated Fall into Pansi Cave (IX)

Meanwhile, Ao Tu followed Venus to see the Taibai Jinxing Jade Emperor.

This was not the first time Ao Tu had come to see the Jade Emperor. The reason why Taibai Jinxing accompanied him was because Ao Tu was showing his Original Form at this time. Without Taibai Jinxing by his side, he was afraid of disturbing the Palace Maids and causing some unnecessary trouble.

Upon arriving at the Jade Emperor's palace, they found the Celestial Worthy Jade Emperor quite relaxed, sitting idly watching a dance, with celestial maidens serving him Immortal Fruit. When he saw Ao Tu arrive, he was not surprised by Ao Tu's appearance, and even broke off a bunch of grapes in half and gave it to Ao Tu to eat.

Ao Tu ate some grapes, and then told the Jade Emperor what had happened.

After hearing this, the Celestial Worthy Jade Emperor stopped the music and dismissed the fairies, leaving only Ao Tu and Taibai Jinxing in the palace. He then spoke:

"I have enjoyed the Three Realms for a long time, and I know a little about that Formation. Its essence lies in the sun and moon; and the essence of the sun and moon lies in the sun. If the Formation is established, the one who breaks the formation must first break the sun. Do you have someone to guard the Great Sun? If not, I have tens of millions of Incarnation, and I can choose a good one to help you. You are an important minister of the Heavenly Realm. If someone breaks the Formation, I will be in a difficult position."

Upon hearing this, Ao Tu thought to himself, "What virtue or ability do I possess to dare to include the Jade Emperor in Formation and wield such power?"

This is different from the help from Ziwei and Gouchen, who only provided vital energy. The Jade Emperor, however, is mobilizing his own Incarnation to personally intervene. How can this be allowed?

Ao Tu hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, I have not yet Attainment of the Dao. This is merely a test, and I dare not trouble Your Majesty to take action personally."

Upon hearing this, the Celestial Worthy Jade Emperor realized that although Ao Tu was already Primordial Divine Saints, he had not yet Attainment of the Dao. He exclaimed in surprise, "I forgot that you are still only Golden Immortal." He then stopped mentioning the matter of him Incarnation to help him.

Afterwards, Ao Tu and the Jade Emperor discussed in detail how to send the gods Lower Realm.

The Celestial Worthy Jade Emperor smiled and said it was not difficult. He instructed Ao Tu to use several powerful Supernatural Ability on Wukong as usual, so that Wukong could go to heaven to invite people, and the gods could then descend to the mortal Lower Realm in a reasonable manner.

Ao Tu smiled and agreed.

Taibai Jinxing reminded him, "Great Sage is always shrewd; we can't use overly powerful Supernatural Ability, or he'll go directly to the Tathagata Buddha." The Celestial Worthy Jade Emperor nodded, "That makes sense." He then looked at Ao Tu and asked, "Do you have any suitable treasures Supernatural Ability? If not, I'll bestow two upon you to discipline Wukong in the Upper Realm."

Ao Tu laughed and said, "There are still some! Your Majesty, please rest assured!"

The three of them then discussed and agreed on the matter.

At that time, Tang Sanzang Lower Realm disciples had just left the border of the Kingdom of the Zhu Zi Kingdom and were traveling through mountains, plains and waterways, completely unaware of the dangers that lay ahead. When they were thirsty, they fetched water; when they were hungry, they begged for alms; when they were cold, they received scraps of cloth from kind believers to sew clothes for them; and when they were tired, the master and disciples supported each other. For Tang Sanzang, having not encountered Demon, these ordinary hardships were nothing to worry about.

On the other side, Ao Tu came out of the Jade Emperor's Palace, took the Many-Eyed Monster with him from the Dipper Department, and then went to the Thunder Department to meet the various Thunder Department Heavenly Lord. That Heavenly Lord Qin was an interesting person.

Upon seeing Ao Tu, he pretended not to know him and shouted, "Bold Demon Dragon!" The sound was like thunder, Awakening of Insects the Many-Eyed Monster so much that he turned to flee. Heavenly Lord Qin, seeing that he had truly frightened the man, couldn't help but laugh and apologize, saying that it was just a joke and should not be taken seriously.

Ao Tu didn't care, but the Many-Eyed Monster was still somewhat shaken.

The Many-Eyed Monster had just left the side of the Fire Virtue Star Lord, the Sun Star Lord, and the Star Lord Mao Ri, when Ao Tu brought him to the Thunder Department Heavenly Lords. These were all Immortal specifically designed to subdue him; how could he possibly remain calm and collected?

What's more, he was deliberately startled by Heavenly Lord Qin.

He was terrified.

Although the Many-Eyed Monster was deeply troubled, being introduced to so many Immortal by Ao Tu, even if it was just to become acquainted with them, was a tremendous opportunity for him.

After Ao Tu told the Thunder Department Heavenly Lords about the matter, he went to see the Nine Heavens Responding Origin Thunderclap Puhua Tianzun.

The relationship between the old Celestial Worthy and Ao Tu was not as close as that between the Host of Stars of the Dipper Department.

Ao Tu's friendship with the Dipper Department stemmed from the fact that he had gifted them a Minor Heavenly Cycle Formation Diagram in his early years, which led to their subsequent relationship and eventually brought him closer to the gods of the Dipper Department.

In comparison, Thunder Department was naturally somewhat inferior.

Moreover, the reason why the gods of the Dipper Department were willing to enter the formation was not only because they were on good terms with Ao Tu, but also because the Great Formation of Stars of the Celestial Cycle was of great benefit to them; while the Thunder Department did not control the Stars and could not obtain much benefit from it, so it was naturally different from the Dipper Department.

The old Celestial Worthy ultimately only agreed to instruct the Gods of the Thunder Department to act according to the situation during the formation Formation, without directly agreeing to let Gods of the Thunder Department enter the formation. Ao Tu had anticipated this; after all, they were not related and there was no significant benefit to be gained. The old Celestial Worthy's agreement to act according to the situation was already quite generous. After leaving the Thunder Department, Ao Tu's original plan was to visit some other Immortal. Even if he couldn't persuade them to enter the formation, he would at least inform them in advance to avoid them being affected by the Formation and thus to do them a favor beforehand.

But Ao Tu thought again, if he sold this favor now, some Immortal might not think it was a good thing; it would be better to wait until they were affected by the Formation before taking care of them, so that he could sell even more favors that way.

Therefore, Ao Tu did not inform the other Immortal, and his evil intentions deepened.

As for Nezha, there's even less to say.

When a real fight breaks out, the two sides will know what to do with just a glance.

Thus, Ao Tu led the Many-Eyed Monster down from the Heavenly Realm and said to him:

"I am going to seek out the Blood Sea and summon the demons. Please, Abbot, return to Yellow Flower Temple first."

Upon hearing this, the Many-Eyed Monster hurriedly said:

"Your Great King, what do you mean by that? It is said that all Demon under heaven are one family, and I myself am of Demon origin, how can I be exempt from this custom? Let me go with you! Otherwise, if Your Great King goes alone, without a single person by your side, people will laugh at Your Great King for being all alone!"

Ao Tu laughed heartily upon hearing this, and said to the Many-Eyed Monster:

"Abbot, there's no need for that. I too have cultivated since childhood and know that you are different from those man-eating Demon. My intention in having you return to Yellow Flower Temple is not for any other reason than to encourage you to expand the temple and build new buildings."

The Many-Eyed Monster asked in confusion, "Expand the Daoist temple?"

Ao Tu said, "That's right. My Formation has one yin and one yang, and the moon and the sun as its two fundamental elements. I intend to make Pansi Ridge the yin element, representing the moon, and Yellow Flower Temple the yang element, representing the sun. The demons will reside in Pansi Ridge, and the gods will live in Yellow Flower Temple, so that they will not be at odds or have disputes. Therefore, I ask the abbot to first expand the temple, so that when the gods descend to the mortal Lower Realm, they will have nowhere to live."

The Many-Eyed Monster was overjoyed and readily agreed.

So the two parted ways.

The Many-Eyed Monster went to the Yellow Flower Temple.

Ao Tu then went to Green Cloud Mountain.

Green Cloud Mountain was originally the Cave Abode of the Bull Demon King. After the Bull Demon King ascended to heaven and handed over his legacy to the Blood Sea King, the Blood Sea King combined the Flaming Mountain, Accumulated Thunder Mountain, and Jade Wave Pool surrounding Green Cloud Mountain Green Cloud Mountain, creating a Demon Kingdom and beginning to raise Demon Soldier. Ao Tu arrived on a cloud and saw demonic energy soaring into the sky, covered by a thick layer of black clouds. Looking down, he saw a Demon City.

Calling it a city isn't entirely accurate, because there are no complete city walls, only clusters of houses of varying sizes and strange, unusual styles, unlike the shapes of China houses. Gathered together, they cover an area of two to three hundred li in circumference.

However, the walls don't seem to matter much to the Demon.

Ao Tu entered the city and saw countless Demon walking around, of different sizes and shapes. Some had long legs, some had no legs, some flew with wings, and some crawled on the ground. Perhaps this was why the houses were all different in style.

The city has many shops, most of which are run by spirits such as Fox Spirit, Weasel Spirit, dog spirits, and Monkey Demon. Because these spirits are naturally more cunning than other spirits.

Ao Tu was surprised to find that there were some shops where humans were the owners and hired Demon as employees. These shops were actually more prosperous than those run by Demon.

Ao Tu couldn't help but sigh, no matter how clever Demon is, it's not as good at business as a human.

As we walked, we came across a noisy restaurant.

Ao Tu pushed through the demon horde and looked ahead, only to see a bull demon making a ruckus in front of the restaurant.

Listening to what was happening, it turned out that the bull demon had ordered ten catties of braised Beef, but after finishing it, he claimed he didn't eat Beef and refused to pay, leading to the commotion and argument. The onlookers all said that the bull demon was in a sorry state.

Ao Tu asked curiously, "What happened? It's terrible!"

The Demon Daoist, "Brother, you don't know, this restaurant is run by people."

Ao Tu asked, "What happened to the person who drove it?"

The Demon Daoist, "Do you know what a powerful backer is?"

Little Demon watching the commotion asked curiously, "What kind of mountain is 'backing mountain'?"

The demon explained, "A 'backer' isn't a mountain, it's a powerful backer, like the Great King we used to worship! The Employer of this restaurant's backer is the Eagle Commander in the city! Do you know the Eagle Commander? He's the adopted son of Tiger Great General King! He was personally slapped by our Blood Sea King back then! With a background like that, how could that bull demon cause trouble? In Human Race cities, this is called... called..."

Ao Tu said, "Officials and merchants collude, forming cliques to commit evil!"

The Demon Daoist exclaimed, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Ao Tu shook his head, no longer interested in watching the spectacle, and turned to leave.

That bull demon's fate was already sealed.

In this situation, it doesn't matter whether he's a cow, a horse, or a human.

Ao Tu walked all the way to the city lord's mansion and went straight inside, because he didn't want to be seen, so the guarding Little Demon couldn't see him. As he walked into the mansion, Blood Sea was inside.