Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

"I just wanted to teach Indra a lesson, get some compensation for Shakuntala, and hopefully reunite them. But when I heard about the death of the second goddess, I got angry and lost my composure."

"I nailed Indra to the golden brick in front of the throne of the Palace of Victory. The celestial beings begged me to draw my sword. I took the opportunity to ask them to settle the remaining celestial beings. I then sent the 3,000 celestial beings who were willing to follow me to my fairy palace and handed them over to my head fairy for settlement."

"I ordered them to recover Ramba's body. She had turned to stone and could not be revived. I ordered the gods to honor her as the goddess of misfortune and to offer sacrifices to her at all times, and this should not cease until the seas run dry and the rocks crumble."

"I left after I sent Menaka's body to Elephanta. If I had been a little later, I would not have been able to face Shakuntala's eyes."

"...I always suspect that Minaga died because of me." Wen Jiao leaned her head on Yuan Tiangang's shoulder and spoke quietly.

Every move of an immortal is often entangled with countless causes and effects. No one knows how long Minaga could have lived without Wen Jiao's interference, and whether she would have lived happily or in torment. But without her, Minaga would not have committed suicide, no matter what the reason was.

She would never regret saving those ten thousand celestial maidens, but she could not help but feel sad and guilty for Minaga's death.

Yuan Tiangang stroked her cheek, feeling a drop of cold moisture on his touch: "You don't need to blame yourself too much."

He withdrew his hand, looked at the crystal drop in his palm, and sighed: "Although you didn't ask Naminaga's opinion, you decided to send her to reunite with her daughter. But if Naminaga doesn't want to reunite with her daughter, with her courage and wisdom to even calculate the friends and immortals and escape unscathed, she can come to see you with the other celestial maidens and plead with you in person. You allowed them to decide whether to stay or go, and when you know she doesn't want to, you will naturally not force her."

Wen Jiao was slightly startled: "You mean, she is willing? Then why would she..."

She couldn't bear to say the word suicide.

This was the first innocent person to die because of her since she became an immortal.

"I'm not her, so I don't know." Yuan Tiangang said frankly, "It's just a guess. Deep love always leads to suspicion. In her eyes, as long as the person she loves is living a happy and comfortable life, it doesn't matter whether she is there or not."

She loves her daughter, and therefore cannot face her daughter. Even a simple question like "Mom, why did you abandon me" would break the heart of a mother who loves her daughter deeply.

Moreover, Shakuntala's life story was unknown to the world. She was already the queen mother of Elephanta. Her status was based on her son Bharata, her ability to curse, and her noble virtues, not her powerful family. After Menaka passed away, Shakuntala's identity as an illegitimate daughter would immediately spread throughout the world. What use was this life story to add some boring and erotic gossip to this noble lady who was admired by the world?

An evil result caused by the foolish order and painstaking calculations of the Emperor of Heaven, an insignificant stain on the glorious life of a high and mighty immortal?

Yuan Tiangang was a clean person by nature. If he and Minaga were in different places, the relationship between mother and daughter would be very poor. If they didn't see each other, her daughter would still have some fantasies about her. But once they met, it would be better for her to never exist in her daughter's world, rather than facing all the unbearable things he had brought to her.

It is better not to meet each other than to see each other. It is nothing more than this.

No one knows what Menaka is thinking. What he said is just his own voice.

For some reason, Wen Jiao felt a palpitation when she heard this. She sat up suddenly and said, "Perhaps, she was loyal to Indra, and when she saw him being humiliated, she died in anger for her country. Perhaps she was content with the status quo and didn't want to change it. When she saw that the celestial maidens and their group were ruined by me, she felt at a loss and even committed suicide..."

Speculating on the thoughts of the dead souls who might have died because of her was undoubtedly a severe torture of her own inconsiderate behavior. Her voice could not help but stop abruptly. After a long while, she spoke hoarsely: "In short, everything is possible. I don't like your speculation."

Yuan Tiangang looked at her in confusion.

Wen Jiao glared at him: "I only love reunion, not incompleteness, only love harmony, not desolation. The nonsense of 'as long as you live well, I will bear all the sufferings' is the most annoying to me! Remember, if there are any shortcomings, just tell us openly, and we will correct them if we have any, and encourage each other if we don't! If you try to do the same, I will break up with you!"

Yuan Tiangang looked at her wide-open eyes and felt that she looked like a leopard with its fur standing on end. He couldn't help laughing and shook his head, saying, "I see."

He touched her cold hair and changed the subject: "Then let's talk about something else. You caused a big disturbance in Shanjian City, severely injured Indra, and slapped the gods in the face. This matter is difficult to settle peacefully. It is said that in the land of India, there are three gods above the gods..."

When Wen Jiao heard this, she suddenly remembered something and slapped her forehead, "Got it. It's the nectar that was extorted from Indra and sent by Sun Dasheng the day before yesterday! Drinking a drop of this nectar can make you immortal..." As she spoke, she took out a jasper bottle and poured a drop into the jade cup. She looked sternly and said, "Be good, drink it yourself."

Yuan Tiangang: ...

When the abundant rains of the rainy season accompanied by black rain clouds once again visited the land of India, Wen Jiao and Huo Ling'er toured along the route of "Tang Dynasty - Wuliang Plateau - Xiliang Women's Kingdom - India" and stopped by the bank of the Ganges.

The river water full of mud and sand washed the land that was originally the river bank. A stone pillar was deeply embedded in the ground like a cone, standing silently in the back and forth beating of the waves, like a silent but indelible witness.

That was the stone pillar that Wang Xuance had engraved on the bank of the Ganges to commemorate his achievements before he withdrew his troops.

Perhaps Wang Xuance himself never expected that his achievement of borrowing troops to destroy India in his middle age would still be talked about by later generations thousands of years later?

Oh, and there was the unfortunate Ganpo Immortal. After he presided over the succession ceremony of Bharata, he was caught by Wang Xuance again. Because Jiang Shiren heard that he was an old practitioner, he decisively took him to Chang'an to make medicine for our Holy Emperor Li Shimin. Ganpo Immortal was a cowardly person, and because Wen Jiao supported them, he couldn't even move his hands with them, so he became a part of Wang Xuance's gift unwillingly.

Therefore, people in Chang'an began to know the reputation of Yin Wenjiao, the demon-subduing goddess.

People seeking talismans and elixirs flooded into the mansion of the Duke of Yun. Unable to bear the annoyance, Yin Kaishan and his wife simply kicked their legs and fled. They are now living in seclusion in Wudang Mountain, and are neighbors with Yao Jian's family who have become monks. Yin Yuan and his wife, Madam Chen, are the ones who know nothing when asked. If asked again, they will start crying with a sad face. Even Li Shimin was embarrassed to ask Yin Yuan, who was in mourning for three years, anything.

As a result, a large number of people came to Xuantian Temple to seek medicine. Wu Meiniang had already made some achievements in Taoism, and she was good at dancing with long sleeves and had extraordinary energy. With her continuous perfunctory work, not only did she not reveal the truth, but she also made Xuantian Temple more famous than before.

Now, almost everyone in the Tang Dynasty knows that the previous Taoist Master Yin Wenjiao has ascended to heaven and has become famous outside the country. Her former best friends Princess Xiangyang and Princess Han each donated 100,000 strings of money to build a palace and a golden statue for her in Chang'an. On the day when the Qingmiao Yuanjun Palace was completed, men and women burning incense almost broke the palace gate.

In the outside world, in addition to the incense of the Kingdom of Hol, the Kingdom of Ling, the Kingdom of Jiadi, the Kingdom of Jiang, the Kingdom of Baoxiang, and the Kingdom of Xiliang Women, Yuan Tiangang also recently conquered the Kingdom of Kachi and promoted the belief in the Demon-Subduing Goddess in the country.

In Xiangcheng, under the leadership of Queen Mother Shakuntala, almost all women in the country became followers of Wen Jiao. The reason is simple: believing in the Dharma, they were displaced; believing in the demon-conquering goddess, they became queen mothers. Shakuntala herself is the best advertisement. And those seven thousand goddesses also secretly worshipped Wen Jiao in order to seek protection.

The spark of a star quietly ignites and grows under the long night sky.

"The king's army conquers the barbarians, suppresses the evil and cuts off the enemies from overseas. It is so far away that it stretches across the earth. It builds a long wall at the Fengshen Hill. The Xi Emperor will rule for thousands of years..." Wen Jiao stretched out her fingertips, touched the inscription on the stone pillar through the air, and recited silently.

Time flies so fast, but fortunately, she did not waste it.