Chapter 348 Now My Name is Sun Wukong

Hearing that this old man clearly had a chance to become an immortal but was unable to cultivate because of mundane matters, the Monkey King felt somewhat emotional.

If it were him, those monkeys would be unable to eat, drink, defecate or urinate due to various reasons, and everything would have to depend on him. Would he still have time to practice and seek the truth?

Fortunately, he had not just one monkey, but hundreds of them. When one of them was unable to move, the other group just happened to go to help. So compared to this old man, he was still lucky.

“But if one day, all my monkeys and descendants die out, then I will be the only one left in this world, right?”

At the thought of this possibility, even though the Monkey King was born and raised, he couldn’t help but shudder, as if he saw the extremely lonely look.

He has long been accustomed to having these monkeys around him, playing happily together. Why would he want to go back to the time when he was alone and helpless?
If that day really comes, he will never be able to bear it.

When the Monkey King thought of this possibility, he became more determined to ask the old immortal for a recipe for immortality. Not only did he want immortality, but he also wanted immortality for all his monkeys and grandchildren so that they could all be together forever.

He couldn’t accept it even if one person was separated.

Seeing that the Monkey King had finally developed a firm and enterprising spirit in his pursuit of the truth, Maitreya Buddha felt delighted, thinking that his days of pretending to be a woodcutter and chopping wood were worth it.

But he finished the act by sighing several times in succession, lamenting that he had no way of practicing cultivation and could only watch himself grow old in pain.

Seeing this, the Monkey King could no longer bear it and tried to comfort him, “You are a filial man and will surely have good things in the future. But I only hope you can point me to the immortal residence so that I can go and visit it.”

Maitreya Buddha naturally wanted to guide him, so he pointed to the distance and said: “The place where we live is not far away. This mountain is called Lingtai Fangcun Mountain. There is a Xieyue Sanxing Cave in the mountain.

There is an old immortal in the cave, his name is Master Subhuti. I usually call him Master Bodhi. The master has countless disciples, but now there are still thirty or forty people practicing there.

If you walk south along this path for about seven or eight miles, you will reach the Xieyue Sanxin Cave. Be careful, brother, and don’t let wolves, tigers or leopards take you away.”

The Monkey King smiled happily and said, “You are from a good family, so you can go with me. If you find good things in the future, I will not forget your guidance today.”

After saying this, the Monkey King went up to him and tried to pull him. Of course, Maitreya Buddha would not go. Instead, he shouted, “How can you be so inflexible, man? If I go with you, who will take care of my old mother? Go by yourself, go by yourself.”

The Monkey King thought the same, so he smiled and said, “Then I will help you cut down a few trees first, so that you can be free for a few more days. If we have the chance to meet in the future, I will definitely repay you for your kindness today.”

The Monkey King was naturally happy to hear the news from the gods, but he was not one of those ungrateful people who would wipe his mouth and ignore people after eating and drinking.

So after failing to repay his gratitude, he did not leave in a hurry, but started to help Maitreya Buddha chop wood. Maitreya Buddha always likes to guide people to do good, so he also followed the Monkey King in this drama.

It was not until the Monkey King had chopped down seven or eight hundred trees and piled them up like a small hill that Maitreya Buddha hurriedly called a halt, saying with a smile that it was enough and that if he continued to chop down trees, no trees would grow here anymore.

The Monkey King was still not satisfied, so he sharpened the sickle in his hand again, put down most of the many spiritual fruits in the basket on his back, and wished this kind-hearted man a long and worry-free life before leaving.

Watching the Monkey King’s departing back, Maitreya Buddha quietly transformed into his true form and nodded, saying, “Yes, even though you are an orphan, you know how to be kind, and you can be crowned a Buddha in the future.”

Just as Maitreya Buddha was about to leave, he saw hundreds of pieces of wood on the ground, smiled slightly, and turned into a woodcutter again. He began to chop wood while chewing peaches.

He was addicted to pretending and actually kind of liked this feeling.

The Monkey King followed the path pointed out by Maitreya Buddha. After walking about seven or eight miles, he saw a cave. He stood up and took a look, and found that it was a wonderful place!

Here, there are colorful clouds and mists, the sun and the moon shining brightly, thousands of old cypresses, the green sky with rain, thousands of bamboos, and a valley filled with smoke, all of which are dark and grey. Outside the door, there are exotic flowers, and by the bridge, there are fragrant herbs. The stone cliffs are protruding and covered with moist moss, and the high cliffs are covered with long green moss.

Immortal cranes and phoenixes fly together, the cries of cranes resound far into the sky, the phoenixes fly with their feathers shining like colorful clouds. Here, black monkeys and white deer appear and disappear, there, golden lions and jade elephants hide and roam freely. A closer look at this blessed land reveals that it is truly a paradise!
But the cave door was tightly closed, and there was no sign of anything. The Monkey King was also very nervous, fearing that he had come to the wrong place. Suddenly he turned around and saw a cliff in the distance with a stone tablet on it. There were ten big characters written on the tablet: “Lingtai Fangcun Mountain, Xieyue Sanxing Cave”.

Seeing these ten characters, the Monkey King was delighted and said, “The people here are really simple and honest. There really is such a mountain and such a cave.”

Originally he was looking forward to meeting the old immortal, but now that he had really arrived at the immortal realm, he felt a little shy. He did not dare to knock on the door. He could only jump onto the top of the pine branches and pick pine nuts to eat and play with.

But the Monkey King is now too shy to do anything, and the people inside will not wait any longer.

With a sound of “Ya”, the cave door opened and a fairy boy walked out. He was so handsome and had a unique appearance. He was very different from ordinary people and had an otherworldly aura.

Medicine King Buddha shouted, “Who is harassing us here?”

In order to help the Monkey King achieve enlightenment, the Western Church has made a desperate effort and sent out its two current leaders just to lead him to the West.

When the Monkey King saw someone coming out, he jumped down from the tree with a puff, stepped forward and bowed, saying, “My lord, I am just a boy who is visiting here to learn about immortality. How dare I come here to harass you? I really don’t deserve this.”

Medicine Buddha pretended to be surprised after hearing this and said, “Are you really a Taoist who came to visit? Are you trying to trick me?”

The Monkey King waved his hands and said, “How dare I? I really came here to seek the guidance of the immortal. How dare I deceive the immortal boy?”

When Medicine Buddha heard this, he clapped his hands and shouted, “Great, great, great! My master just got off the bed and was giving a sermon in the hall. I was still listening, but he suddenly stopped.

Before the master could explain the reason, he asked me to open the door and only said, “There is a cultivator outside, please go and receive him.” I guess it must be you.”

The Monkey King laughed and said, “It’s me, it’s me, it must be me. Besides me, there is only one other guy chopping wood around here. Look, he’s still chopping wood!”

Medicine King Buddha was originally pretending, but after hearing this he looked up doubtfully and found that as expected, Maitreya Buddha was still chopping wood there and had no intention of leaving. It was obvious that he was addicted.

But this was just a minor episode, and Medicine King Buddha didn’t care about it, so he said: “Since you are here to learn Taoism, then come with me.” When the Monkey King heard this, he immediately straightened his clothes and followed Medicine King Buddha into the blessed place in the cave.

There were layers of deep pavilions and towers, a string of pearl palaces and palaces, countless quiet rooms and secluded caves, all the way to a high platform, where an old man was sitting and preaching, with thirty disciples on each side listening.

When the Monkey King saw the old man, he immediately bowed down and kowtowed, saying, “Master! Master! I, your disciple, am devoted to the Tao, devoted to the Tao!”

The disciples who were able to follow Patriarch Bodhi to make the plan naturally had unusual origins. They were all great Hunyuan Buddhas in the Western Regions, and they also knew some clues, so everyone just watched with their eyes and their noses, pretending not to see anything.

Patriarch Bodhi cast his eyes towards him and asked, “Where are you from? Tell me your hometown and name before you bow.”

The Monkey King was still kneeling on the ground, bowing his head and saying, “My disciple is from the Water Curtain Cave in the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Aolai Country in Dongsheng Shenzhou.”

When Patriarch Bodhi heard this, he immediately shouted, “Get him out! He is a liar and troublemaker. How can he achieve any spiritual fruit? Get him out now!”

When the Monkey King heard this, he kowtowed repeatedly and said, “My disciple, this is the truth. I am not lying at all!”

Patriarch Bodhi asked again: “You say you are honest, but what about Dongsheng Shenzhou? Dongsheng Shenzhou is separated from me by two oceans, and there is Nanshanbuzhou in between. How can you come here?”

The Monkey King kowtowed again, with tears in his eyes, and said, “I have traveled across the oceans and have only just arrived here. I have heard of the master’s name for decades, and I have not lied.”

Seeing that the Monkey King had really spoken honestly, Patriarch Bodhi regained his original calmness and lowered his eyes and said, “Since you have come from a long journey, it’s fine, but what is your name?”

The Monkey King shook his head and said blankly: “I am asexual. If someone scolds me, I don’t get angry. If someone hits me, I don’t get angry. I am naturally asexual.”

Patriarch Bodhi was amused and said with a smile: “I am not talking about your personality, I am asking about your last name.”

The Monkey King continued, “I have no father or mother. I came out of a stone. The stone broke and I was born.”

Upon hearing this, the other Hunyuan Buddhas immediately pretended to be surprised and shouted, “How can anyone in this world be born from stone? Isn’t he born by his father and raised by his mother?”

“Master, I think this monkey is lying to us. He said he was born from a stone, but he didn’t say he flew down from the sky.”

“Even in heaven, no one is born from stone. Truth keeps turning into lies. It lied once before, and now it’s lying again.”

Surrounded by these people and told them it was fake, the Monkey King didn’t know how to refute him, so he just lowered his head and said nothing.

Patriarch Bodhi knew all of this very well, and now it was just a process, so he smiled and said: “There are all kinds of wonders in the world, not to mention those born from stones, I have even seen those born from flowers.”

After saying this, Patriarch Bodhi groaned for a moment and said, “Although you are the spirit of a stone, you were born in the form of a monkey. It is fate after all. So you should follow your body name and be called a monkey.

But if we remove the character “猢” from the character “猢”, we will only have “古月”. “古” means old; “月” means yin. Old yin is difficult to nurture and is not good for spiritual practice. Therefore, it is better to use the character “狲”.

Without the character “狲”, the character “狲” becomes “子” (Zi), “son” (Zi) means a boy, and “xi” (Xi) means an infant. As the saying goes, a heart is like a baby, and a baby is like a baby. Now you may have the surname Sun.”

The Monkey King was overjoyed when he heard this. He kowtowed and said, “Good! Good! Good! Now I know what a surname is. I just hope that Master will be merciful. Since I already have a surname, why not give me a name so that I can call you by it in the future!”

Patriarch Bodhi nodded and smiled, saying: “This is easy to say. There are twelve characters among us, but you are the tenth generation disciple. These twelve characters are vast wisdom, true nature sea, and brilliant enlightenment.

It is said that you come empty-handed and go empty-handed, you come empty-handed and go empty-handed, with nothing but the hustle and bustle of the world in between, so I will add another word “empty” to you, and from now on you will be called Sun Wukong, okay?”

When Sun Wukong heard this, he cheered and laughed, “I have a name now! I have a name now! Now I am called Sun Wukong!”

After hearing this, the others all laughed and said, “Brother Sun Wukong, how are you?”

The joy on Sun Wukong’s face was beyond words, and he also bowed in return, saying, “Sun Wukong greets all the brothers!”

Looking at Sun Wukong who was so excited just because he got a name, a smile appeared on Bodhi Patriarch’s face. He finally understood why Yuanshi Tianzun loved Guangchengzi so much.

Not long after Guangchengzi transformed into a human form, he followed Yuanshi Tianzun, which meant that he was raised by Yuanshi Tianzun. Although they were said to be master and disciple, they were actually more like father and son.

Watching him cry, watching him laugh, watching him experience everything in the world, I couldn’t help but worry whether he would be bullied, whether he would make mistakes in his cultivation, and if I wasn’t around, would someone give him a hard time?

With this kind of experience, one would be afraid that Guangchengzi would suffer some pain, and Yuanshi Tianzun would be heartbroken a hundred times more. How could anyone tolerate that the treasure he brought up with his own hands was bullied by outsiders like this?

For Tongtian Jiaozhu, the same is true for Duobao. Duobao simply transformed next to Tongtian Jiaozhu and watched Duobao grow slowly. How could Tongtian Jiaozhu punish him?
I’m afraid that before he could be very cruel and Duobao didn’t even feel anything, Tongtian Jiaozhu himself would be dying of pain first.

When the Taoist Zhunti accepted Maitreya as his disciple, Maitreya had already been born for a long time and his mind was mature, so he did not need the Taoist Zhunti to interfere.

At first, the Taoist Zhunti thought this was much more convenient and was secretly glad for it. But it was not until he accepted Sun Wukong as his disciple that he realized that these things were truly precious and even a saint would find it difficult to forget them.

After Sun Wukong finally calmed down, Patriarch Bodhi said calmly: “Okay, Wukong, don’t be naughty. Now that you have accepted me as your master, you must listen to my instructions and practice with peace of mind.

But before you start practicing, you already have the spirit of a monkey in your heart. You are naughty and playful, and it is difficult for you to calm your mind. This is the so-called unruly mind. If you don’t tame your mind, how can you practice the great way?
You should first learn the etiquette of sweeping and cleaning, the rules of advancing and retreating, and at the same time consult with the brothers to subdue your mind and desires. Otherwise, there is no need to learn from me.”

When Sun Wukong heard this, he immediately became anxious and started squeaking, looking just like a monkey. Apart from the fact that he was wearing human clothes, he didn’t look like a calm person at all.

But after all, he was a divine fetus born from an immortal stone, so Sun Wukong quickly regained his composure and nodded to indicate that he understood.

(End of this chapter)