That black bear yokai knows he is going to die soon and he reacts fast to evade Sun Wukong’s cudgel. He rolls at a thunder speed and runs to his companion. The ditzy Daoist looks at me and looks at the black bear yokai and then looks at the cudgel-raising Sun Wukong. He immediately stands in front of his friend and says: ‘Don’t fight. Let’s be friends……’

Sun Wukong: ‘……’

He was going to land his cudgel on them but he freezes after the Daoist’s words.

The little Daoist hurries to say to his black bear yokai: ‘How did you come to fight?’

The black bear yokai takes out his weapon and points at Sun Wukong angrily: ‘This vixenish monkey is going to harm me. He took back the kasaya and then tries to beat me!’

I thought there was no way to help this situation get better and we could only fight and kill those who shall not live and lame those who shall not communicate.

Sun Wukong, what a sinful being you are!

Who expected that this ditzy Daoist says: ‘No, don’t misunderstand bodhisattva. Their beating will enlighten you!’

……???

This ditzy person is not a usual ditzy person. He is absolutely different from those other ditzy people!

The little Daoist points at the bump on his head and says: ‘I was in a Buddhist conversation with Huian, the first disciple of Guanyin bodhisattva. He has told me all: when a buddha is beating you, he is enlightening you. After a beating, you will not fall to the nether world ever! Look at me, I have endured every hit and he said he had finished enlightening me. Now if I die, I will not fall to the nether world.’

……

No wonder he is freed by Huian so early. It must be that Huian is mad at him not fighting back no matter how hard he hit him, so he drove him away.

The black bear yokai opens his round black eyes to look at me and his ditzy dear friend and the cudgel-raising Sun Wukong. He seems to have put some trust in his dear friend’s words: ‘Really?’

The ditzy Daoist says confidently: ‘Really! Bodhisattva is nice. They will not cheat me.’

……

I cannot comment on this, because our atmosphere in Western Paradise has gone the wrong way which makes us look like a pyramid selling organization.

That black bear looks at us one after one with his big round eyes. He thinks for a while and says: ‘Okay! Beat me and I will not fight back!’

For a guy like Sun Wukong, if you beg him to not beat you, he may not listen, but if you sit here and wait for his hits, he will not beat you.

If he beats you after you ask him to, he will feel face-losing.

The black bear sees that Sun Wukong is annoyed and asks the little Daoist: ‘Why doesn’t he beat me now? Did I miss the chance to be enlightened?’

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The little Daoist says regretfully: ‘That is so unfortunate!’

At this time, Huian enters the cave with a despondent face. He is not in a good mood. Those small yokais who dared to stop him have been hit away by his rod.

Huian sees me and says stuffily: ‘Shifu.’

I ask: ‘How was your talk with Xingxu Daoren?’

Huian says with a long face: ‘Hehe.’

He is not happy because there was no yokai for him to beat.

The black bear yokai gets angry again since he lost the kasaya and Sun Wukong doesn’t beat him, and two of his friends just died and he couldn’t think normally: ‘No! No! This is unfair! No one can leave here today!’

Huian sees that he can beat a yokai now and his eyes shine. He picks up his rod and goes into the fight with that black bear.

Once they start the fight, they go up in the air. They are fighting in the air.

The little Daoist is on the ground and looking up anxiously: ‘Ah! What can I do? If Big Black offends the disciple of bodhisattva, no one is going to release him!’

I remind him kindly: ‘We release souls who have died. We use the word “enlighten” when we are dealing with living beings.’

The little Daoist nods bookishly: ‘Bodhisattva, you must not have known that my brain used to work excellently when I wasn’t a Xian. I could memorize everything after I read them once. But now my brain is not working that well because I was too old when I finally became a Xian. My brain is already rusted.’

After that, he carefreely comforts himself: ‘I finally have become a Xian. Otherwise, I would have died.’

……

This is why we should cultivate when we were little. *Sigh*.

I look at his face. He looks nice and his skin is young like a youth. Since he has mastered how to control his appearance, he shouldn’t have a low cultivation.

It is probably that smart people cannot become Xian easily. After they become silly and let go of things, they can be a Xian.

It has been a whole morning in which my disciple Huian has been fighting the black bear. Sun Wukong has brought back the kasaya to his shifu already. These two are still fighting in the air.

As they are fighting, the black bear yokai suddenly cries out: ‘It is time to eat! I am going to eat!’

Then, he tumbles from the clouds and he is not fighting Huian. He swaggers to eat in the cave.

Huian hasn’t exercised his power for a long time. He scarcely got this chance and he doesn’t want to let it go; he still wants to fight. However, the black bear doesn’t fight back no matter how hard he hits him.

This chagrins my disciple and he looks up at me eagerly.

He finally meets some yokais who he can beat but they don’t fight him.

I feel insecure when he looks at me. I feel pity for a while and ask that black bear: ‘What do you want?’

The black bear waves his hand and says angrily: ‘I don’t believe your words. You are all here to bully me and my dear friend because our brains don’t work well!’

……

Is that my fault?

The ditzy Daoist misunderstood us first.

Who let you have a useless brain?

The black bear yokai stares at Sun Wukong and then at me. He reaches his arms out and points at the golden headband on top of Sun Wukong’s head: ‘Unless you give one of that on his head! Let me wear a Buddhist treasure on my head or I will not believe your words!’

……Wait a minute. What did you say you wanted to wear?

Sun Wukong didn’t get it at first. He was in a daze. He touches the life-threatening golden headband unconsciously and says: ‘What did you want?’

The black bear yokai says loudly: ‘The treasure on your head! If Guanyin bodhisattva puts one of them on me as well, I will listen to his words no matter what!’

Sun Wukong unbelievably asks again: ‘You want this tight headband? The tight headband on my head?’

The black bear yokai raises his head and akimbo with his furry palms. He snorts: ‘Now you are loath? Buddhists are so stingy! You just don’t want to enlighten me!’

……

I hear Sun Wukong is tittering there. He doesn’t even hide his laugh.

These yokais in the mountains are terrific.

I have seen yokais, demons, ghosts, monsters, deities, and buddhas who want to own Qitian Dasheng’s golden cudgel; you are the first one to seek the life-threatening headband on his head. To be honest, I truly admire you.

The black bear glares his black shiny eyes big and opens his bear palms in front of me. He is not giving me a way back and he shouts to press me for an answer: ‘Guanyin bodhisattva, just tell me. Do you give me this shiny treasure or not!?’

‘If you don’t give me, I will call all my yokai friends and we will march to Western Paradise to beat Tathagata!’