Lao Tzu is Ji Gong

The Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva, transformed from Li Xiuyuan's benevolent corpse, had been following the stone monkey, hiding behind it. Upon seeing the stone monkey's mischievous side, he immediately shook his head.

Chapter 428: A monkey in a human costume

Fortunately, the old man was only frightened unconscious by the stone monkey and would wake up soon without any serious consequences. Otherwise, he might have become the first person the stone monkey killed.

After seeing that the old man was frightened by him, the stone monkey scratched his head in confusion. He couldn't understand why the old man had fainted so suddenly. He had only wanted to ask the old man if there were any immortals there.

The stone monkey hadn't expected that, although it could walk upright, it was still a monkey after all, with a hairy face, a thunder god's mouth, and golden fur all over its body. It was clearly not human, and on top of that, it could talk. It would be strange if people didn't be terrified when they saw it.

The stone monkey looked at the blue clothes on the unconscious old man and suddenly had an idea. He took the old man's clothes off and put them on himself.

On Flower Fruit Mountain, none of the monkeys in the troop wore clothes. Therefore, when the stone monkey saw the old man's clothes, it was very curious, not understanding their purpose, and eagerly wanted to try them on to see.

Previously, the stone monkey had never worn clothes, and this was the first time he had to. Fortunately, he had already carefully memorized where each part of the old man's clothes should be worn.

In this way, the stone monkey's clothes weren't disheveled. However, because of his short stature, barely five feet tall, he was considerably shorter than the old man. The old man's clothes looked very loose on him.

After putting on the old man's clothes, the stone monkey swaggered into the city.

The Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva followed behind the stone monkey, secretly protecting it.

Seeing the stone monkey wearing the stolen earth-blue clothes and swaggering into the city, the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva couldn't help but shake his head, thinking to himself, "What a monkey! How dare he walk into the city wearing just that? If anyone sees him, they'll surely shout 'Catch the monster!'"

"It seems I still need to help you."

The Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva looked at the stone monkey, and suddenly, his mouth moved, and he began to chant incantations. Immediately afterward, the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva made a hand seal and pointed at the back of the stone monkey.

Suddenly, a golden light pierced into the stone monkey's body.

The golden light was quite magical. It looked very dazzling and extremely bright, but the people around it didn't react at all, as if they hadn't seen anything.

This is the mystery of the Great Sun Dragon Bodhisattva's spellcasting. Ordinary mortals with mortal eyes have no chance of seeing his magic.

"With my illusionary trick, I will conceal your monkey body and conjure a human face on your face. In this world, you can now walk freely."

The golden light that just entered the stone monkey was a veil cast by the Great Sun Dragon Bodhisattva, who feared that the stone monkey would cause trouble in the human world because of his demonic nature.

That illusion could completely conceal his identity as a monkey, allowing him to appear as a human.

In this way, even if the monkey doesn't change its nature and still does some monkey-like things, jumping around and making people feel annoyed, they won't suspect that it's a monster.

However, precisely because this was merely an illusion, not a profound spell, it could deceive ordinary people but not cultivators. If any cultivator saw the stone monkey, they would immediately see through the illusion set up by the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva.

The stone monkey itself was unaware of the illusion that the Great Sun Dragon Bodhisattva had cast on it. The stone monkey, wearing an oversized, dark blue robe that was far too large for its body, swaggered into the city, appearing quite out of place.

Although people pointed and talked about the stone monkey along the way, they were only discussing its strange behavior and no one saw through its true identity.

The stone monkey swaggered into the city and saw that it was bustling with activity, with all sorts of vendors calling out their wares and pedestrians coming and going like a dense woven fabric. It was truly a place of great activity and hustle and bustle.

Along the way, the stone monkey found these things strange and couldn't help but want to touch them.

If he happens to meet someone with a good temper, they will smile at him and let him touch them a couple of times. When he sees that they are polite to him, he will use the etiquette he has learned to give them a nod and then turn and leave.

If he encountered someone with a bad temper who started cursing and was about to hit him, his temper would flare up immediately, and he would go up and overturn the person's stall. After overturning it, he would turn around and leave.

He possesses the cultivation of a celestial being, and even if he couldn't use even one-tenth of his full power, he was still someone that ordinary people couldn't deal with.

And so, the stone monkey traveled from state to state, learning human manners and speech in the marketplace. He ate breakfast and slept at night, his mind preoccupied with seeking the ways of Buddhas, immortals, and saints, hoping to find the elixir of immortality.

But in that bustling world, there are many who are driven by selfishness and self-interest, and not a single one who cares about their own life. Even after making numerous inquiries and asking about the immortals in famous mountains and rivers, he received no information whatsoever about immortality.

Time flies like water; in the blink of an eye, eight or nine months have already passed.

The stone monkey sought out immortals in the Southern Continent, hoping to find the secret to longevity and immortality. However, for eight or nine months, he received no news whatsoever.

On this day, he was traveling through various prefectures and cities when suddenly he saw a person walking towards him.

The man looked very old; his head was almost entirely white, with only a few strands of hair remaining. His face was covered in wrinkles that formed deep creases. His back was so hunched that his chin was almost touching the ground.

Chapter 429 Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death

The old man walked very slowly. The stone monkey took seven or eight steps, while the old man had only just taken a step with his left leg. By the time the stone monkey reached the old man's side, the old man had only taken one step.

Just as the stone monkey brushed past the old man, the old man suddenly slipped and fell to the ground.

The stone monkey was taken aback for a moment, then realized what was happening and quickly helped the old man up from the ground.

The stone monkey was originally a spirit born from a five-colored stone left over from the goddess Nuwa's patching of the sky. It was unfamiliar with worldly etiquette and manners. However, in the seven or eight months since it abandoned its raft and landed on this Southern Continent, it had been learning human language and manners. It had managed to learn a little bit of human etiquette and manners.

Moreover, the stone monkey saw that the old man was so old that he must know more, perhaps even knowing that there were immortals there. That's why it reached out and helped the old man up.

"Good boy, thank you for helping me. What's your name? Cough cough!"

The old man looked really old; he coughed and took a deep breath every time he spoke, and his chest heaved like ocean waves.

The stone monkey said, "I have no name or surname, and I don't know what my name is. I don't know what your name is, old man?"

The old man said, "It's good to be nameless and surnameless, so that we don't know where we came from or where we're going."

After saying this, the old man lowered his head and pondered for a while, as if recalling his own name. After thinking for a long time, he sighed and said, "It seems I am truly old. I have even forgotten my own name. I remember when I was young, I could walk a hundred miles a day without any problem. Now, I stumble and fall with just one step. It seems I am truly old, truly old!"

Upon hearing the old man mention the word "old," the stone monkey was startled and quickly asked, "Uncle, do you know how to make someone grow old?"

"If I knew a way to prevent aging, would I ever grow old?" The old man chuckled, revealing a mouth full of gums. All his teeth had fallen out.

The old man was so old it was worrying; one worried that he might suddenly pass away. He merely chuckled, then choked on his breath and began coughing violently.

After coughing, the old man looked at the stone monkey and said, "Child, birth, aging, sickness, and death are things that everyone has to go through in their lifetime, and you cannot avoid them."

As he spoke, the old man stared intently at the stone monkey with his dim, yellow eyes. In the distance, a glint of light seemed to shoot out from the old man's eyes.

"Am I destined to die? No! I don't want to grow old, I want to live forever!"

The thought that he would one day become like that old man terrified the stone monkey. Shaking and yelling, it hopped and skipped away from the old man.

After the stone monkey had fled far away, a golden light suddenly appeared from the old man who looked very old.

After the golden light passed, a kind-faced, peaceful, and dignified figure appeared there, radiating golden light.

The figure was none other than the benevolent corpse of the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva, which Li Xiuyuan had slain, and the old man was also an incarnation of the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva.

"Now that you know the meaning of 'old' in the world, next, I will show you the meaning of 'illness' and 'death' so that your Dao heart can be strengthened." Looking in the direction the stone monkey left, Li Xiuyuan's benevolent corpse, the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva, thought to himself.

The reason why Li Xiuyuan's benevolent corpse, the Great Sun Dragon Bodhisattva, conjured an old man to deceive the stone monkey was to let the stone monkey see what a person looks like when they are old, so that he would be filled with fear of aging and his desire for immortality would be strengthened.

Only in this way will the stone monkey feel grateful when he meets someone willing to teach him the secret to immortality.

The person willing to teach the stone monkey the art of immortality was naturally his original form, Li Xiuyuan!

Besides the word "old," Li Xiuyuan's benevolent corpse, the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva, also planned to display the words "sickness and death" from the human world's birth, aging, sickness, and death to the stone monkey, thereby strengthening his Daoist resolve.

Seeing the stone monkey, who was already somewhat frightened and staggering away, the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva did not linger. He leaped up and transformed into a golden light, following behind the stone monkey.

Next, under the deliberate arrangement of the Great Sun Dragon Bodhisattva, the stone monkey experienced two more events: illness and death.

After these two events, the stone monkey's desire to find immortals and achieve immortality became even stronger. Almost every time he went to a new place, he would inquire about whether there were any immortals there and how to achieve immortality.

The stone monkey traveled through prefectures and counties, and one day, it suddenly arrived at the Western Ocean.

Looking at the vast blue sea, with its rolling waves and roaring roar, the stone monkey suddenly thought, "In the seven or eight years I've been traveling in the human world, I've always heard people say that there are immortals overseas. Why don't I go back to the ocean today and go see for myself, to see if there are any immortals there?"

With this in mind, the stone monkey stole a small fishing boat from someone on the beach, dragged it into the sea, took a bamboo pole and pushed hard, and sailed the small boat back into the vast ocean.

The stone monkey set sail again, with the Great Sun Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva, the transformed form of Li Xiuyuan's benevolent corpse, closely following behind. Watching the stone monkey steer its small boat across the ocean once more, the Bodhisattva nodded, thinking to himself, "It shouldn't be long before this stone monkey becomes an apprentice. I wonder how my true form is doing?"

Since he arranged for his benevolent self, the Great Sun Dragon Bodhisattva, to guide the stone monkey to become his disciple and learn skills.

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Chapter 430 Establishing a Dojo

Li Xiuyuan had been wandering around famous mountains and rivers, trying to find a place with abundant spiritual energy to establish a training ground for teaching the stone monkey.

After all, the stone monkey will soon come to him to become his apprentice. If he hasn't even established a training ground by then, he won't have anywhere to teach the stone monkey.

Li Xiuyuan rode on auspicious clouds, flying slowly through the Immortal Realm. He flew very low and at a slow speed, appearing somewhat leisurely. In half a day, he had only flown a few hundred miles.

With his mastery of spatial laws, he could easily have covered ten thousand miles in an instant.

This time, however, he wasn't fleeing for his life, nor was he rushing; rather, he wanted to find a suitable place to establish a training ground. He searched carefully along the way, so his flight was naturally somewhat slow.

"The original text says that Bodhi, the incarnation of the saint Zhunti, taught the stone monkey martial arts in the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars on Lingtai Fangcun Mountain. I wonder where exactly Lingtai Fangcun Mountain and the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars are?"

Li Xiuyuan rode on a cloud, searching throughout the Earthly Immortal Realm. However, after searching for a long time, he still could not find a suitable place.

"When the two saints, Zhunti and Jieying, entrusted me with teaching the stone monkey, they didn't tell me where I was to teach him. It seems they wanted me to arrange everything myself. If it were an ordinary person, I could just find any place to teach him. But these are the fighting protectors of Buddhism! How can I just find any place?"

"However, since you have asked me to teach the stone monkey, then don't blame me for taking the stone monkey for myself when the time comes."

When Zhunti received the two saints and asked Li Xiuyuan to teach the stone monkey, Li Xiuyuan already had the idea of ​​bringing the stone monkey to his own lineage.

After all, within the entire Buddhist system, his lineage's influence was still quite weak; apart from him, there were almost no others, and no experts.

Although Li Xiuyuan had already planned to place Bodhidharma at the top of the Eighteen Arhats in the future, even if Bodhidharma could control the Eighteen Arhats, it would only add a few more mid-level combatants, which would be incomparable to the future achievements of the Stone Monkey.

Among Li Xiuyuan's disciples, Bodhidharma was considered quite good, and could be regarded as exceptionally talented, but compared to the stone monkey, there was still a considerable gap. That stone monkey was born with the cultivation of a celestial being.

Moreover, Li Xiuyuan, who had read the original work, knew just how high the stone monkey's final achievements were. By the end of Journey to the West, the stone monkey had already cultivated to the level of a quasi-saint.

It can be said that the stone monkey was, besides him, the most powerful being in his lineage.

With that thought in mind, Li Xiuyuan rode the clouds and flew slowly and leisurely all the way. When he looked down, he saw a beautiful mountain peak appear in front of him.

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The mountain peak rises high, like a silver spear or halberd, piercing the clouds and connecting with the sky, its imposing presence magnificent. A large portion of the peak is shrouded in white clouds, misty and indistinct.

The mountain peaks rise and fall dramatically, imposing and menacing, like a soaring dragon. Atop those peaks, ancient trees, each as thick as a person's embrace, provide ample shade, covering the earth. The entire mountain surface is painted a vibrant emerald green.