lcionline Chapter 265 World of Famous Works 54
Chapter 265 World of Famous Works 54
In the chaotic space, time is immeasurable. By the time Tathagata returned to Mount Ling, Tang Sanzang and his disciples were already almost at the foot of the mountain.
Tang Sanzang was admiring the ethereal pavilions and towers before him when a voice called out to him.
"Are you pilgrims from the East, seeking scriptures?"
Tang Sanzang looked up and saw a Taoist priest holding a whisk.
Sun Wukong knew the man's identity and introduced him, "This is the Golden Peak Immortal of Yuzhen Temple at the foot of Mount Ling."
This Golden Peak Immortal was pitiful. Guanyin tricked him into waiting for the pilgrim to come here for two or three years, but unexpectedly, three years followed by another three years, and then another three years, and after almost ten years, Tang Sanzang finally arrived.
Upon hearing this, Tang Sanzang immediately greeted the Golden Peak Immortal. When the Golden Peak Immortal said that he had come to guide him to Mount Ling, he quickly changed into the brocade cassock.
Following the immortal through a Taoist temple, we saw a five-colored divine light behind the temple. No one expected that a Buddhist holy site would be located behind a Taoist temple.
Afterwards, Tang Sanzang boarded the bottomless boat of the Buddha of Guidance, shed his mortal body, and after crossing the river, the four of them, along with the white dragon horse, finally arrived at Mount Ling.
The scene before them was rather strange; not far away lay a large expanse of dark, broken walls and ruins, surrounded by numerous pits of varying sizes.
Tang Sanzang asked Sun Wukong curiously, "Wukong, is this really Mount Ling? Why is it all so dark? And why is there such a big pit over there?"
Sun Wukong was also a little puzzled. He had been to Mount Ling several times, but he had never seen so many pits before. Moreover, the pagodas looked unfamiliar, as if they were newly built.
"Master, I don't know either. Let's go in first; the journey to the West is the most important thing."
Upon meeting the Buddha, Tang Sanzang was extremely excited. He was finally going to obtain the scriptures, and he could finally return to his hometown.
Tang Sanzang knelt and bowed sincerely to all the Buddhas, requesting the Tathagata to bestow the true scriptures.
He thought that having reached the Buddha, the journey to obtain the scriptures would be easy, but to his surprise, the Buddha spoke to Tang Sanzang with extreme arrogance, leaving him no chance to interrupt.
The Buddha first criticized the people of the East as worthless, saying all sorts of harsh things.
People from the East are said to be greedy, murderous, lewd, deceitful, fraudulent, disrespectful of Buddhism, unkind, disloyal, unfilial, unrighteous, and full of sins, and are said to bring calamities to the region.
Then he boasted that their Buddhist Tripitaka consisted of 35 works, totaling 15,144 volumes. He originally intended to let Tang Sanzang take them all, but since the people of the East were foolish and ignorant, slandering the true teachings and not believing in the profound doctrines of the Buddhist community, he decided to just pick a few volumes from each work and take them back.
Hearing this, Tang Sanzang felt a little strange, but he didn't think too much about it. He just thought that he had come all this way to fetch the scriptures, and no matter how many he could bring back, as long as he could take some scriptures with him, it wouldn't have been a wasted trip.
Sun Wukong, who was standing nearby, felt very uncomfortable when he heard this. Had Buddha taken the wrong medicine today? His words were so rude. He was just rambling on and on, and all he did was scold the Tang Dynasty.
Leaving aside Tang Sanzang, his good friend and junior sister Lin Xiaoqian was a Tang Dynasty person. How could he accept such insults? Just as he was about to step forward to argue with the Buddha, he heard the Buddha instruct the two Venerables Ananda and Kasyapa to take Tang Sanzang and his disciples to have a meal, and after the meal, to go to the Treasure Pavilion to receive the scriptures.
Sun Wukong thought about it and decided that it was more important for Tang Sanzang to get the scriptures first, so he kept quiet about it.
After reading the title of the sutra, Ananda and Kasyapa, the leaders of Tang Sanzang and his disciples, began to ask Tang Sanzang if he had any good gifts for them.
Tang Sanzang was taken aback. He had never heard of having to bring anything on his journey to fetch the scriptures. Besides, he was already trekking through mountains and rivers, so he couldn't possibly bring anything with him.
Upon hearing this, Ananda and Kasyapa mocked, "Very well! If we pass on the scriptures from scratch, our descendants will starve to death!"
Basically, the gist of it is that they won't give money or pass on their teachings.
Wukong learned from Lin Xiaoqian that if these two people weren't given any benefits, they would give Tang Sanzang a blank scripture, making their efforts futile.
Even if they complained to the Buddha, it wouldn't do any good; the Buddha would still think that the two of them sold the scriptures too cheaply.
After thinking it over, Sun Wukong quickly spoke up: "Who said we didn't bring anything good?"
Tang Sanzang looked puzzled and was about to speak when Sun Wukong winked at him.
"This treasure we brought can travel a thousand miles a day without consuming magical power. Have the two Venerable Ones seen it?"
Ananda and Kasyapa exchanged a glance, wondering what kind of treasure could allow them to travel a thousand miles a day without consuming magical power.
"Take it out and let us see."
Sun Wukong didn't hide anything. He walked to an open space and took out the off-road vehicle.
"This is the treasure."
Ananda and Kasyapa circled the off-road vehicle. This big iron box had four wheels and several seats inside that looked like they could be used by people. It looked nice, but how could it be driven?
"Hey, you monkey, show us how to use this thing?"
Sun Wukong's eyes darted around, and he said, "Why don't you two come up with me? I'll take you for a ride, okay?"
After hesitating for a moment, Ananda and Kasyapa could not suppress their curiosity and followed Sun Wukong into the off-road vehicle.
Seeing them get into the car, Sun Wukong rolled his eyes, deliberately stepped on the gas, and the car shot off like an arrow with a "whoosh," kicking up a cloud of dust.
Ananda and Jiaye were so frightened by the sudden speed that they screamed and gripped the handrails inside the carriage tightly, shouting, "Slow down, slow down!"
Sun Wukong smiled and said, "Is this fast? It's not even half the car's top speed yet."
Sun Wukong deliberately drove the off-road vehicle recklessly on Mount Ling, sometimes accelerating suddenly and sometimes braking abruptly. Ananda and Kasyapa felt as if their internal organs were about to be shaken out, and cries of surprise rose and fell along the way.
Fortunately, fearing that the two might develop a phobia of off-road vehicles and be unwilling to exchange the car for the scriptures, Sun Wukong drove steadily for a while. After a leisurely drive, Sun Wukong brought the car to a safe stop.
Ananda, Jiaye got off the carriage with unsteady steps, her legs weak and she almost collapsed to the ground.
They glanced at the SUV with lingering fear. It was going very fast, and they hadn't seen the monkey use any magic. It was indeed a rare treasure, but sitting in it made them feel nauseous.
Sun Wukong, however, looked smug and patted the body of the SUV, saying, "Two Venerable Ones, how is this treasure?"
Ananda, Kasyapa suppressed his nausea and said weakly, "It's barely acceptable."
“In that case,” Sun Wukong changed the subject, “we would like to ask the two Venerable Ones to quickly give us the true scriptures, and this treasure will be yours.”
Ananda and Kasyapa exchanged a glance. They did want this treasure, but they couldn't let Tang Sanzang and the others get away with it too easily. So they just gave them a few scrolls and sent them on their way.
Ananda and Kasyapa led Tang Sanzang and his disciples to the Treasure Pavilion. They casually pulled out a few scrolls of scriptures from a nearby bookshelf, threw them to Tang Sanzang and his disciples, and said with a look of disgust, "Here you go, take them and leave quickly."
Sun Wukong, being cautious, snatched the scriptures and carefully opened them to check if there were any words on them. He saw that although the pages of these scriptures were yellowed and somewhat worn, there were indeed words on them, so he was relieved and told Tang Sanzang and Pigsy to quickly pack the books.