Slaying Demons at Lion Camel Ridge (Twenty)

Meanwhile, Tang Sanzang asked the Old King to stamp the Passbook.

The Old King listened, but didn't put the lid back on; he simply smiled faintly.

Tang Sanzang said, "Please, Your Majesty, affix your Precious Seal."

The Old King said, "Let the Holy Monk perform the rituals for the unjustly deceased citizens of our country before affixing the Precious Seal."

Tang Sanzang asked, "Where are the people who died in Your Majesty's country?"

The Old King did not answer.

Tang Sanzang asked three more times, but the King and his ministers remained silent, and the midday sun made them feel an even more biting chill.

Tang Sanzang felt a chill run down his spine, a sudden fear gripping his heart. He quickly called out, "Wukong! Wukong!"

He called out several times, but Wukong was nowhere to be seen.

Just then, Tang Sanzang heard someone calling him.

"Tang Sanzang, Tang Sanzang!"

Tang Sanzang quickly looked over and saw Ao Tu walking towards him.

Tang Sanzang hurriedly asked, "Disciple begs Buddha to tell me, where are those souls that need to be delivered from suffering?"

Ao Tu smiled faintly, "Isn't it right here wherever you look?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang looked up.

In an instant, Black Fog filled the air, and Yin Wind howled. The Black Fog was the breath exhaled from the mouths of the common people, and the Yin Wind was the smoke rising from the orifices of the officials. Before and behind the city, all the people died unjustly; in the streets and alleys, all the travelers became souls seeking death.

A chilling aura, biting to the bone, filled the air; a foul stench assaulted the senses. Some had feet but no head, their hands dragging their heads; others had hands but no feet, they sat and walked. Everywhere one looked, there were the Vengeful Souls of those who had died unjustly, left unattended and uncared for; with each step, one was burdened by karmic obstacles, unable to be reborn.

Tang Sanzang was so frightened that he dared not look directly at the king. He turned around and saw that the Old King had long since lost his Crown, his head was empty, and he was smiling at him.

This terrified Tang Sanzang so much that he fell off the platform, not knowing which was his arm or which was his leg. He tumbled and crawled, crying, "You are the dead Monarch!" He then tumbled off the platform with a thud, but fortunately Ao Tu used magic to create a Precious Lotus that caught him. Otherwise, he would have been instantly transported to the Western Paradise, and all the efforts to stop the Journey to the West to the Western Heaven would have been in vain.

Tang Sanzang, however, was still in shock. He felt that the white petals of the Lotus Flower resembled white human hands, which terrified him.

Wukong rushed forward and asked, "Master, Master, what's wrong?"

Upon seeing Wukong, Tang Sanzang was finally relieved and cried out:

"Wukong, you don't know, this whole country is filled with the wronged Vengeful Souls of those who died unjustly! Just now, the King appeared in spirit, saying that he would only issue me Passbook if I performed rituals to help his people pass on. I didn't know he was dead, and I talked to him for a long time, which terrified me!"

Wukong said, "I've heard that those three Demon Heads devoured the people of an entire nation, but I've never seen it with my own eyes."

Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang couldn't stop shedding tears.

Manjushri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva each looked at the Green Lion and White Elephant.

The Green Lion and White Elephant hurriedly said, "This has nothing to do with us. We have lived in Lion Camel Ridge for a long time. The people of Lion Camel City were eaten by our Third Younger Brother Five Hundred Years Ago ago!"

Manjushri Samantabhadra looked at the Golden-Winged Great Peng.

Golden-Winged Great Peng said, "I ate them, so what? I was hungry, so it's only right that I eat people to satisfy my hunger. Even the Tathagata Buddha of the Western Heaven has to call me 'uncle,' so how dare you two interfere?"

Ao Tu laughed and said, "It's alright, let's eat. We can eat from several more countries without any problem. Didn't the Tathagata Monk already arrange for the reincarnation of Golden Cicada, with Reverend Monk from the Great Tang coming here to perform the ritual?"

Golden-Winged Great Peng laughed and said, "The Third Great King indeed the most sensible!"

Tang Sanzang remained silent, then chanted a Buddhist prayer, intending to go up to the platform to perform a ritual for the deceased, but his limbs were too weak to obey him, and he could barely stand.

Wukong quickly helped his master up and told Tang Sanzang to rest for a few days before performing the ritual.

Tang Sanzang was indeed greatly Fright and exhausted. After apologizing to Ao Tu, he went to rest.

It took Tang Sanzang about half a month to recover. This was only because he had become accustomed to the Mountains of Corpses and Blood Sea in Lion Camel Ridge and had developed some composure. If it were an ordinary person, they would either be driven mad by fear or suffer from mental illness.

Tang Sanzang began the ritual of deliverance.

The Vengeful Souls in that city are countless, and they are all old souls from Five Hundred Years Ago, remaining to this day with deep resentment, making them extremely difficult to be exorcised.

Tang Sanzang estimated that it would take at least ten years to complete the task.

However, even as time went on, he did not complain.

How could he, as Buddhist Sect Disciple, stand idly by and watch these sins committed by the Golden-Winged Great Peng?

Several months passed in the blink of an eye.

The Great Thunderclap Temple in the Western Heaven.

Kasyapa said, "World-Honored One, the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons have been gone for most of the day and have not returned."

The Tathagata Buddha asked, "Why haven't you returned?"

Kasyapa said, "This... perhaps the mortal realm has many novelties, and those Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons lacked the willpower to remain there, thus lingering there and not returning."

The Tathagata Buddha nodded and said, "Select some more people to search."

The Great Brahma King is the head of the Twenty Heavenly Deities and the chief Devas among the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons, and he commands many gods.

Upon hearing this, Kasyapa selected twenty or thirty of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons under the command of Great Brahma King and sent them down the mountain to investigate the situation.

The Great Brahma King sensed something was amiss and asked, "Kasyapa, why have you chosen only the gods under my command?"

Kasyapa said, "The gods under Great Brahma King have strong Faith and are not tempted by worldly things, therefore they were chosen to descend the mountain."

The Great Brahma King listened and nodded, without doubting it.

The twenty or Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons descended the mountain and soon arrived near Lion Camel City.

Upon seeing this, Ao Tu summoned Golden-Winged Great Peng and said, "Go eat!"

Upon hearing this, the Golden-Winged Great Peng spread its wings and flew away, devouring the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons one by one, just like an eagle catching a long snake.

Six months later, the Tathagata Buddha again sent Kasyapa to dispatch forty or fifty of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons to investigate.

Ao Tu then told Golden-Winged Great Peng to eat.

Golden-Winged Great Peng was overjoyed, thinking to himself that although he had eaten them in previous years, he had always done Tathagata secretly behind Buddha's back. How could he eat over a hundred of them in a year, indulging to his heart's content, without keeping it a secret from anyone?

Everyone says the Demon Dragon is powerful, and it's true.

Golden-Winged Great Peng then devoured the forty or fifty members of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons.

How come forty or fifty gods were all eaten, and none of them managed to escape?

Because the Golden-Winged Great Peng flaps its wings extremely fast and has sharp eyes, it can grab a person with its Steel Claws, making it impossible to break free, and then kill them with a single peck. It doesn't even bother to eat properly, and immediately goes to grab a second one.

Those forty or fifty members of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons had nowhere to escape or hide, and were naturally devoured by the Golden-Winged Great Peng, not one of them remaining.

Another six months passed, and the Tathagata Buddha instructed Kasyapa to send someone to investigate.

Kasyapa then arranged for about a hundred of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons.

This time, Great Brahma King couldn't sit still any longer, because he was running out of men. So after the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons came down the mountain, he secretly followed them to see what was going on and why none of them had returned.

Before long, the group of Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons arrived Lion Camel City.

There were several corpses scattered outside the city.

The Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons went down to investigate and found the remains of many Great Python Deity, the snake corpses of Nagas, the bones of Asura, and the scales of Yaksha.

The gods were greatly alarmed, their fear beyond words.

On the other side, Ao Tu had already seen the arrival of the Eight Divisions of Heavenly Dragons. He thought to Tathagata Monk really can sit still. He deliberately arranged for the Golden-Winged Great Peng to eat so many Western Heaven gods, Tathagata the Buddha still hasn't come down the mountain."

So Ao Tu called over Golden-Winged Great Peng and said, "Go eat!"