Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

The upper class circles in Xiangcheng were in a state of panic.

First, amid the little queen's screams, everyone discovered that King Doushantuo had fainted on the bed, with one side of his cheek swollen and a clear black fingerprint on it, which looked very ominous. The court doctor took a long time to revive him. He was still in a daze for a long time, with a severe headache, and from time to time it seemed as if there were gongs and drums beating in his ears.

Soon after, people found that many ministers fainted at home with the same symptoms. The famous doctor in Xiangcheng went from one doctor to another all day, and his legs became thicker.

Some careful palace servants discovered that these people were the ones who insulted Shakuntala in the palace yesterday. Could it be that the curse...

Soon, a rumor spread. It was said that King Dusyanta, who always spread the seeds of love, had abandoned Shakuntala, the adopted daughter of the sage Gandharva, seven years ago. Shakuntala came with her son to recognize her, but Dusyanta did not recognize her and insulted her. Shakuntala was the daughter of the sage and had extraordinary magical powers. In anger, she cursed everyone present.

What? You don't believe it? If you don't believe it, look at the black handprint on half of our king's face. Isn't that proof that he is cursed?

When Dou Shantuo was taking a nap with half his face covered, he heard his servants talking about something. He was so angry that he was about to order the servant who had said bad things about him to be dragged out and beaten to death, but suddenly his head started buzzing and he fainted again.

This time, he woke up in the middle of the night because of the pain, and felt that the other half of his face was also in so much pain that it was about to burst. When he touched it with his hand, he felt that every inch of skin he touched was painful, and the half of his face that was originally intact was also bulging. When he touched it carefully, there were five thinner marks.

Dou Shantuo vaguely realized something and ordered the palace servant to bring a mirror. When he looked in the mirror, he saw that his cheeks were swollen and purple, with a black palm print on each side, which was very symmetrical.

The second palm seal appeared at the same time, naturally, also from the group of ministers who were present the day before.

The rumor spread even more. Everyone sighed: Shakuntala's magical power is really deep, which shows how blind and low-minded the king who abandoned her after having sex with her was. They would never do such a thing.

At this time, Doushantuo no longer cared about the rumors. He was busy sending people to invite practitioners to remove the curse.

He didn't dare to invite the Ganpo Immortal who was closest to Xiangcheng. His clever behavior of refusing to acknowledge his wife that day was simply humiliating the Ganpo Immortal. It was already a good temper of the old immortal not to give him more strength, so how could he remove the curse?

As for the more famous immortals, they were either traveling around or far away, and distant water could not quench one's thirst. In the end, they only hired two famous magicians with a large sum of money. They studied the two palm prints on his face for a long time, with confusion in their eyes: "Is this a curse? It doesn't look like it..." After discussing for a while, they bowed to Dou Shantuo together, "Please allow us to stay by your side after nightfall and observe the changes on the third night."

Doushantuo naturally had no choice but to agree.

That night, Dou Shantuo, who was pretending to be asleep, and the two wizards waited until the moon was at its zenith, and finally they saw the "uninvited guest" summoned by the curse.

I saw that he was a huge man, about ten feet tall, wearing armor that was covered with marks from swords and knives, with rust and blood mixed together, looking both majestic and terrifying.

With such a majestic appearance, one can tell at a glance that he is a Kshatriya king, and an outstanding Kshatriya king at that.

Doushantuo was so frightened that he fell limp on the bed. The two practitioners mustered up their courage, holding their staffs tightly in one hand and throwing spell-cast wheat grains at the ghost with the other.

The ghost rolled his eyes, and no one knew how he did it, but he suddenly passed through their obstruction and came to Dou Shantuo's bed. His body shrank to the size of an ordinary person, and then he raised his big hand like a cattail leaf fan.

Snapped!

With a heavy slap, Doushantuo was hit on the left side of his face where he was injured the first time.

Doushantuo fell backwards, fainting with a mouth full of blood foam. When he woke up the next day, the two wizards were no longer beside him. He leaned over and spat out three teeth, shouting impatiently: "Where are the wizards? Did they defeat the monster?"

The palace slaves looked at each other and said boldly, "The two wizards left last night. They piled the treasures given by the king on the ground. The people who just served them said that the monsters summoned by this curse were too powerful and they were powerless to do anything."

Doushantuo felt dizzy and dazed: "They just left like that?"

The palace servant said, "They also said that the king should either seek help from someone else or simply give in to the person who cast the curse..."

The one who cast the curse, Shakuntala?

Dushantuo hesitated for a moment. He had said something too harsh that day, and he suddenly gave in, as if he was afraid of her curse. Moreover, he had stated in front of all his subjects that Bharata was not his son. If he went to recognize his wife and son now, wouldn't it be like weaving a green scarf for himself?

The palace servant said, "Your Majesty, that lady cursed your head to turn into a hundred pieces."

Doushantuo gritted his teeth, grimacing in pain from his severely injured teeth: "Help me up."

He has only been punished three times, and he is already so useless. When he thinks that he will have to suffer this crime ninety-seven times, and then die after that, he would rather lose his dignity as a man!

"Guards, go find Queen Shakuntala and Prince Bharata! I want to go and ask them to come back to the palace in person!"

When a goose flies by, it leaves its voice behind; when a person passes by, he leaves his mark behind. A beautiful woman like Shagong will be a sight that cannot be ignored wherever she goes. The guards only looked around and found out that she and her son were now living in a house in the east of the city. The owner of this house was a Vaishya merchant with a wealthy family, so his house was very spacious. He rented a house to the caravan from the Kingdom of Women to discuss the business of mare's milk wine and carpets. After Shagong joined the caravan, she naturally lived with them.

She had been used to working since she was a child, and she was not idle. She could do all the cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, and helping out. Bharata had great strength and could move any kind of box. The mother and son had only been here for two days and they quickly won everyone's love. The caravan leader Yin Ruohua even negotiated wages for them. Seeing that Shagong was now helpless and had a half-grown child who was eating up his mother's money, and was in urgent need of money, she specially advanced them two months' wages.

Sha Gong had been helping her adoptive father with his monastery work since she was little, and this was the first time she had seen money. She took the silver coin with both hands, looked at it again and again like a baby seeing something new for the first time, and finally closed her eyes to hold back her tears.

Although she herself didn't know why she was crying, she just suddenly felt sad about her life over the past twenty years.

Suddenly there was a commotion outside the door. Fazhu and her friend Yunzhu opened the door and came back with a look as if they had eaten a fly. They said to Shakuntala who was washing dishes, "Shakuntala, that dog... The king is outside and wants to invite him back to be the queen. Do you want to go?"