Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

Even on the barren grassland, when the spring breeze comes, it will be covered with flowers like splendid stars. Young girls in bright clothes shuttle among them, picking their favorite flowers to weave wreaths. It is hard to tell whether people are like flowers or flowers are like people, which is pleasing to the heart and eye.

In the garden of the palace, exotic flowers and plants transplanted from the Majing Kingdom at the foot of the mountain bloomed. Proud peacocks walked among the flowers with their long tail feathers, which were so blue that they seemed to be made of gems.

Wen Jiao came out of the secret room and looked at the bright and exotic spring scenery, which cheered her up. She stopped in front of a wild peony the size of a tea bowl. The delicate yellow wild peony shook heavily for a few times, as if nodding to her.

"This flower is blooming in an interesting way." Wen Jiao couldn't help but smile slightly, she climbed up the branch and put it close to her nose to take a sniff.

"Don't move! Who are you? How can you pick flowers casually?" A maid was walking by with a bouquet of flowers. Seeing this, she hurriedly stopped them.

Wen Jiao let go of the blossoming branch and looked over. She saw that the maid was only about fifteen or sixteen years old, very young. It was obvious that she had just entered the palace to serve in recent years. She didn't know that there was a queen living in seclusion in the palace.

"The flowers are in full bloom. Why should I pick them? I just want to smell the fragrance of youth." Wen Jiao explained good-temperedly.

The maid was relieved and said with a smile, "That's right. Princess Zhuowasam said that everything has its own destiny. This flower also has a life. It has not withered yet. You can't harm it for your own selfish reasons. Therefore, the flowers in the palace cannot be damaged at will."

Buddhism is about compassion, Taoism is about cherishing life, and they are both in agreement on cherishing life. Wen Jiao agreed with Princess Wencheng's idea, but...

She looked at the flowers in the maid's arms. It was a big bunch. At a quick glance, there were probably hundreds of them. "Were these flowers damaged on purpose?"

The maidservant said as a matter of course: "Today is the birthday of the little princess and the little prince. The princess asked me to collect flowers to offer to the guardian gods of the prince and princess. It is a blessing for these flowers to be chosen to offer to the gods."

"That makes sense." Wen Jiao rubbed her clever head, "You should go quickly. You won't want to delay the auspicious time for offering sacrifices."

"I'm just about to leave." The little maid was about to leave in a hurry, holding the flower.

"By the way, please give the princess a message for me." Wen Jiao said.

The maid kept walking and asked loudly, "What are you talking about?"

“Just say that Queen Ha Xiang didn’t know that the princess had given birth to a child, and she didn’t know that today was the princess and prince’s birthday. She accidentally violated the princess’s flower-loving order. It was really not intentional. Later, she will bring valuable gifts to celebrate the princess and prince’s birthdays, and apologize to the princess at the same time.” Wen Jiao picked up the wild peony again, sniffed it, and smiled.

The little maid tripped and was caught by a gentle breeze from Wen Jiao, thus avoiding falling flat on her face.

"This child is not careful when walking." Wen Jiao sighed.

The little maid ran even faster, as if she was being chased by a tiger and bitten on the buttocks.

Wen Jiao looked at her two legs under her long skirt running like mosquito coils, and couldn't help but praise: "It's great to be young!" She patted her face and teased herself, "You are not old, youth is just right, isn't it?"

She flashed and flew back to her own palace. She was so fast that not even a trace of her shadow was left. In the past few years of seclusion, she had figured out the rules of this ghost fog world.

When she does or says something that doesn't fit in with this world, this place will immediately crash like a computer infected with a virus. But if she follows the common sense of this world, she can explore as much as she wants, such as doing it in the past few years, draining the knowledge here.

Over the past five years, although she could not use the abilities of Wen Jiao, she had mastered all the Yaksha tribe's spells and abilities, and could fly, call the wind and rain, and even had the strength to lift ten people. She also learned all the plateau spells and curses she could find, and knew the mountains and rivers here by heart.

When she was sure that she could not learn more, she came out of retreat. Although she could have been lazy for a while, the position of "Mother of the Nation" had been handed over to Princess Wencheng, so she was very relaxed. But Guo was not happy, and the nobles whose power was restricted were not happy. Most importantly, she was even more unhappy because of the nameless anger in her chest.

"Go out of seclusion now and teach them a lesson! Damn King Galwangbu, he broke his wedding vows and favored another woman! Damn Zhuowasam, she stole my husband and gave birth to a pair of children. Why do all the good things belong to her? Dig out their hearts and livers and eat them raw. Only in this way can I calm the anger in my heart!" She was driven by evil fire.

Five years ago, when the king married a concubine, this evil fire burned Wen Jiao for three days and three nights, and she insisted on poisoning the new concubine. How could Wen Jiao listen to her? Not to mention that the new concubine was Princess Wencheng, even if she was not, human life was precious, and it was not something that could be killed at will.

Therefore, Wen Jiao recited the "Calm and Tranquility Sutra" a few times and the world was blocked. She kept nagging, reciting, and blocking again, and finally she lost her temper and the matter was left unresolved.

Naturally, the king was not idle during these five years. He not only worked diligently and loved his people, but he even corrected his bad habits of drinking and hunting excessively. Everyone who saw him would praise him for his return as a prodigal son, and would further praise the virtuous concubine Zhuowasam for her advice.

Only Queen Ha Xiang became the background board that everyone wished had never existed.

Frankly speaking, if Wen Jiao was a citizen of this country, she would have risen up in rebellion when Queen Ha Xiang started eating people and beaten this witch to death. How could she bear to see her being replaced by a new woman and slowly hidden away?

But now, she is the man-eating queen.

Life is not easy, Wen Jiao sighed.

She dug out two seven-foot-tall coral trees from her private vault, one as red as the brightest flower in spring, the other as white as the most polished ivory. She also found two large necklaces, all strung with thumb-sized turquoise, red agate, and beeswax.

Sister Huo was so jealous when she saw it. She thought about it and ordered, "That's it."

While Ranguo ordered the female servant to move the coral tree out, she cried bitterly: "Queen, when have you ever suffered such an injustice?"

The fire in her chest was burning again. Wen Jiao put her hands on her hips and sneered bitterly, "Sooner or later, I will let them know how powerful I am!"

Holding Rang Guo's hand, and followed by two rows of female slaves, Wen Jiao walked out without recognizing any relatives and headed for Princess Wencheng's bedroom: "Such a grand celebration, how can I be absent? Don't you think so, Your Majesty?"

The king was sitting with Princess Wencheng, feeding them tsampa with his son on his left and his daughter on his right. When he saw Wen Jiao striding in, he jumped up from his seat in surprise: "Ha Xiang!"

Princess Wencheng was like an old hen protecting her cubs, subconsciously hugging her two children in her arms. But the girl broke free from her and walked towards Wen Jiao with a sweet smile: "Are you the eldest mother? Father and mother were just talking about you, and you are as heroic as the rumors say!"

Wen Jiao stared at the miniature version of Wu Meiniang's face: "Mingcheng?"

Wu Meiniang looked at her in confusion.

Well, it seems that except for her who took the initiative to enter, the other two who were pulled in have forgotten their identities.

Wen Jiao had a premonition that this big show was about to begin.