Little Black Bear, heartbroken, prepared to leave the Zen Temple, knowing that the monk before him was not the Golden Cicada of yore.
However, as he passed by the room of the Golden Pond Elder, he saw the greedy old monk holding a kasaya, utterly lost in admiration of it.
The old monk’s eyes glowed with an unusual radiance as he obsessively examined the kasaya in his hands, gently caressing it with his old, withered hands, and incessantly mumbling, "Buddha Ancestor, why does such a treasure exist in the world, and why isn’t it mine!"
Little Black Bear then noticed the extraordinariness of the kasaya in the old monk’s hands; each treasure bead hanging on it was of superior quality. The entire kasaya emitted a dazzling light in the night that somewhat dizzied Little Black Bear.
"Psh, look at what you are, and you think you deserve such a treasure," Little Black Bear scoffed to himself.
Just then, the sobbing of the Golden Pond Elder began, arising from his grief at the thought of losing such a treasure, which brought him to actual tears.
This crying drew the other monks of the temple, and upon learning the reason, they started giving the old monk various suggestions.
Some suggested asking Tang Monk to stay longer, while others consoled him to let go. However, none of these suggestions could stop the old monk’s crying; by this time, his eyes had been blinded by greed, and murderous thoughts surfaced in his heart, but he, caring about his reputation, did not want to act dishonorably and so kept crying, hoping his monks could relieve his troubles.
The ordinary monks could hardly guess at the old man’s real intentions, and each suggestion failed to satisfy him until among them, a monk named Guangzhi spoke up, "If the Elder is willing, there might be another way."
Golden Pond Elder stopped crying and turned his head, asking, "What way is that, say it quickly, this treasure is the apple of my eye."
"Tang Monk and his companion are travelers who are exhausted from walking and have already fallen asleep.
If several of our strong monks take up arms, break into the Zen Hall, kill them, and bury their corpses in the backyard, only we will know, and then we can take his white horse and his belongings, and keep that kasaya as a treasure to pass down through our lineage, wouldn’t that benefit our descendants immensely?"
Upon hearing this, the Golden Pond Elder secretly rejoiced, but he still pretended to be distressed and said, "We are monks, using weapons is not good, and seeing blood is difficult to justify to the Buddha Ancestor. Moreover, that hairy-faced Thunder Lord of a monk doesn’t seem easy to deal with; disturbing him might actually backfire."
"That won’t be a problem; we have the advantage of numbers. In a moment, we could gather up some firewood, place it outside their room, set it on fire, and burn both master and disciple to death. Firstly, we don’t use weapons or see any bloodshed, and secondly, if anyone asks, we could say they carelessly caused a fire, even implicating us with losses.
Then, we possess the treasure without anyone knowing, without any blame upon us."
This proposal made the Golden Pond Elder beam with joy, his wrinkled face suddenly flowering like a blooming chrysanthemum, as he repeatedly praised, "That’s a good plan, a very good plan, let’s do that."
Upon the Golden Pond Elder’s command, the monks immediately began moving firewood, preparing to burn Tang Monk and his disciple to death.
Little Black Bear, hidden on the side, saw the entire situation and couldn’t help but admire the brutal resolve of these bald monks. Thinking that Tang Monk was indeed the reincarnation of Golden Cicada and that he was here, Little Black Bear resolved not to let these men endanger his life and thus stayed hidden on the side, ready to intervene if Tang Monk’s life was threatened.
However, these monks, being worldly and ignorant, could not comprehend the Immortal’s methods. The Monkey seemed to be sleeping but was actually cultivating. The noise from moving firewood was quite loud, yet Tang Monk, whose True Spirit was obscured by Human Path’s Fortune and Destiny, would not awaken once he fell asleep, no matter the noise. The Monkey, however, had already awoken.
Seeing the intentions of the monks of Guanyin Zen Temple, the Monkey almost entirely guessed their plan. He didn’t intervene right away; instead, he calmly watched the monks flurry about with their tasks.
When the fire started, the Monkey first borrowed a Fire Resistant Cloak from Viruḍhaka to protect Tang Monk and then used his Divine Skills to whip up a strong wind. The wind actually helped spread the flames, burning down the rest of the rooms in the Zen Temple.
Little Black Bear, witnessing this scene, rolled around laughing and said, "It serves them right, these greedy fellows. They tried to steal but ended up losing more, yet this Monkey, isn’t he the Protector of the Horse that Golden Cicada spoke of? I thought he was some immensely powerful being, yet he’s just a scrawny Monkey. Golden Cicada really made him sound more formidable than he seems."
Little Black Bear scoffed, and since Tang Monk was unharmed, he naturally prepared to leave. Since he couldn’t see Golden Cicada anymore, there was no point in lingering.
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As he passed the room of Golden Pond Elder, he suddenly noticed a kasaya glowing splendidly on the table, an idea instantly sparking in his mind, his small eyes nearly disappearing as he squinted.
Picking up the kasaya, he chuckled and muttered to himself, "Hmm! For all the times you bullied me, for abandoning me, for making me unable to find Sister Xiao Yao, today I’ll take your treasure, and you will never find it."
Having said this, he strode off, turning towards Dongshan, leaving the people of Guanyin Zen Temple wailing in despair as they fought the fire.
In Black Wind Cave, White-Robed Scholar and Ling Xuzi, two demons with some reputation in the area, had been waiting for a while.
These two demons had become friends with Little Black Bear after he took over Black Wind Mountain. Knowing the extent of Little Black Bear’s power, they had intentionally befriended him. Although Little Black Bear was aware of their intentions, he never exposed them, and thus they continued their friendship.
They learned today that Black Wind King had gone out on business. Just as they were about to leave, Little Black Bear entered the cave holding the kasaya, already transformed into Black Wind King.
The moment the kasaya appeared in the cave, it immediately drew the attention of the two demons. It was clearly a superior quality treasure, with each pearl embedded in it being a treasure itself, not to mention the material of the kasaya and the blessings it had received from various Buddhas.
"My goodness, where did the Great King get such a treasure? It’s dazzling enough to blind someone," said the White-Robed Scholar admiringly. Continue reading at freewebnovel
Though a wild demon, his knowledge was not superficial; he recognized the rarity of the kasaya at once, gazing in amazement at Black Wind King. Such artifacts were not easily obtained, and without sufficient fortune and destiny, even a desolate place like Black Wind Mountain could not offer such treasures.
At that moment, the kasaya shone brilliantly inside the cave, each pearl emitting its own radiance, transforming the entire cave into a mystic realm, enchanting all the little demons witnessing it.