Chapter 49
Why did this monkey become a demon? There is actually a reason for this.
During the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court strictly controlled silver mining and prohibited private mining, leaving miners with no means of survival. Coupled with widespread banditry, ordinary people suffered terribly. Local officials, disregarding the lives of ordinary people, exploited the miners instead.
In Qingyuan County, Zhejiang Province, now known as Lishui, there lived a man named Ye Zongliu. Born into a peasant family, he made his living mining and became well-versed in mining techniques. He mined for the government, but the officials' exploitation made it difficult for him and his fellow miners to make ends meet. So, he took the lead in turning to private mining.
The government was furious with his actions and started extorting money from them in the name of suppressing bandits. Seeing that the conditions were harsh and that they would not give them a chance to survive, Ye Zongliu and the other miners rose up in rebellion.
In Zhejiang at the time, Ye Zongliu commanded a vast army, quickly defeating the government forces. They journeyed through Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, and other regions. While capturing Zhenghe County in Fujian, they plundered the local silver mines. With silver to use as military pay, his followers grew, and he proclaimed himself the Great King. The common people, having previously worked as a silver miner, nicknamed him the "Silver Mountain King."
Two or three years later, the rebel army broke through Qianshan in Jiangxi, Jinhua in Zhejiang and other places. At that time, he had tens of thousands of troops under his command. Finally, he echoed each other with Deng Maoqi in Sha County, Fujian, and they were called the "Twin Peaks of the Orthodox Civil Rebellion."
When the imperial court heard the news, it was extremely angry and immediately ordered Wang Shouren, who was suppressing bandits in southern Jiangxi, also known as Wang Yangming, to rush to Qianshan to suppress the bandits.
In recent years, he personally participated in every battle with the imperial court, defeating the imperial court in a disgrace, which made him increasingly arrogant. However, in Qianshan, his opponent was Wang Shouren. When the two armies faced each other, he was not paying attention and was shot off his horse by the imperial army, dying in regret.
His remaining men, Tao De'er and Ye Xiba, fled to southern Zhejiang and continued fighting. Under Tao De'er's command, Li Quan, a native of Qianshan, took a small group of his men and hid in Tongbi Mountain.
Tongbian Mountain is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the vegetation is dense, so if such a small number of people hide there, the government officials will not be able to find them at all.
Just when the magistrate was at his wit's end, his legal advisor recommended a man named Hou Zhongli. Hou Zhongli was a remarkable man, his family having been monkey trainers for three generations. The reason the legal advisor recommended him to the magistrate was because one of Hou Zhongli's monkeys had once entered Tongba Mountain and rescued a government official.
The monkey had a knack for finding people. After the lawyer reported this to the county magistrate, he ordered him to lead the monkey to Tongcymbal Mountain. The monkey led the way, with Hou Zhongli and a group of yamen runners following behind. The monkey was far more perceptive than a human in the forests. Within a day, he had located Li Quan and his men's stronghold.
The two groups immediately started fighting.
Li Quan and his men were trapped on the mountain and had already lost their fighting spirit. As a result, the yamen runners captured them all without suffering many casualties.
Li Quan knew that if it weren't for the monkey, they would not have been found so quickly, so before he died, he tried his best to chop the monkey to death.
Speaking of that monkey, it was raised by three generations of the Li Quan family and became spiritual. This isn't limited to monkeys. In folk culture, chickens, geese, dogs, and other poultry and livestock, after being raised for a long time, often become capable of understanding human speech. Therefore, in some special areas, they aren't kept for very long, being slaughtered after only three or four years. They're afraid they might acquire human nature and become spirits, potentially harming their families.
The monkey had already possessed demonic energy and would soon become a demon, but Li Quan chopped it down with a single blow. It was said that the power of heaven was unpredictable; this was its fate.
The monkey was full of resentment, and the evil energy in his body turned into ghost energy, and he became a demon ghost.
It has been five or six hundred years since then, so this demon has been cultivating for five or six hundred years. I said how could it resist my black energy, because its cultivation is too high.
After realizing this, I immediately cast the Five Thunder Curse and hit it.
No matter whether it is a demon or a ghost, the Five Thunder Curse will work.
But it was extremely fast and easily avoided the lightning and pounced on me.
I couldn't dodge in time and it grabbed my arm. It opened its mouth, revealing four fangs, and bit me down.
The severe pain spread from my arm to my brain. It actually bit off a piece of flesh from my arm.
I immediately swung my arms, and the black flames on my fingers shot quickly towards it. It had suffered under my flames and jumped away.
I covered my bleeding arm and broke out in a cold sweat due to the pain.
Zhang Song and Mao Jianming reacted quickly and put me behind them. The monkey screamed and jumped onto Mao Jianming again.
I endured the severe pain, pinched my sword finger, and struck the demon. It bit down again, and Mao Jianming let out a heart-wrenching cry, and a piece of flesh was torn off his arm.
He was really difficult to deal with. In the blink of an eye, Mao Jianming and I were injured by him.
I immediately used my finger to draw a formation beneath the three of us. It was called the Three Element Ghost-Slaying Formation. My blood dripped down my arm onto the formation, and it instantly activated, a dark light emanating along its edges. This Three Element Ghost-Slaying Formation was a modified version of the Three Element Demon-Sealing Formation used by the seniors at the Tianshi Mansion when Liu Danchen and I had dealt with the evil spirit. Ghosts, demons, ghosts, are ultimately ghosts. This Three Element Ghost-Slaying Formation was just the right weapon to deal with them.
It seemed to sense the power of the formation and was lingering in the distance, not daring to approach. This was detrimental to us, as maintaining the formation required energy, and once that energy was depleted, it could pounce directly upon us.
I must lure it into the formation.
So I jumped out of the black light under my feet, pointed at it and said, "A monkey is a monkey. Even if you wear human clothes, you are still a monkey. Oh, right, how do you say that?"
Mao Jianming's brain worked quickly. He knew I was trying to lure the enemy, so he opened his mouth and shouted, "A monkey wearing a crown, with a pointed face and monkey cheeks, a monkey head and a monkey brain. When there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey will be king!"
"Hahaha." My laughter reached its ears, and it immediately became angry, kicking its hind legs and pounced on me.
I was already prepared. The moment it made a move, I jumped back to Mao Jianming and Zhang Song. It was afraid of the black light and didn't dare touch us. It just stared at us, hissing angrily.
I smiled, crossed my hands, showing the index finger of my right hand and the ring finger of my left, and chanted aloud: "The mountains and rivers change, the constellations shift, the Three Yuans slay ghosts, and the underworld captures souls!"
I saw the Three Elements Demon-Slaying Formation under my feet instantly reflected like a mirror, reflecting the ground under its feet.
By the time it reacted, it had already been trapped by the formation.
It panicked, darting left and right, but unable to escape the formation's control. Its ankles were grasped by two hands, and no matter how it struggled, it was futile. In the end, they dragged it into the earth, and the Soul Catcher dragged it into the underworld.
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