HLnovel Chapter 137 Pipa Cave, Scorpion Demon, Poisonous Horse-Dumping Technique
Chapter 137 Pipa Cave, Scorpion Demon, Poisonous Horse-Dumping Technique
On the high platform, the old Celestial Master Zhang Zhiwei looked at Zhang Lingyu, who had manifested the true form of the Scorpion Demon in the arena, and a look of understanding flashed in his eyes. Then he sighed helplessly.
"Love is a difficult hurdle to overcome, and your heart is not pure. To make matters worse, you, who cultivate the Yin Five Thunders, have encountered the Poison King, and Pigsy, who cultivates the Kidney Water, has run into the Horse-Dying Poison. It's tough!"
The old celestial master stroked his beard and shook his head. In his eyes, Zhang Lingyu's situation was both extremely simple and extremely complex.
The novel *Journey to the West*, a Tibetan Buddhist text, vividly elucidates the profound mysteries of Taoist alchemy. Among its trials, the Kingdom of Women in Xiliang and the Scorpion Demon in the Pipa Cave serve as warnings to practitioners of the dangers of lust.
Although the "Daughter Kingdom" and "Pipa Cave" episodes occur in different sequences, they should be viewed together as a fork in the road.
Only in this way can one grasp the essence of alchemical cultivation in these two chapters.
"The Kingdom of Women" and "Pipa Cave" can be seen as the "right path" and the "wrong path" in a fork in the road, respectively. The ordeal in "The Kingdom of Women" is the "right path", while the ordeal in "Pipa Cave" is the "wrong path".
The "True Path" of the Women's Kingdom refers to the cultivation path of "interaction of Yin and Yang".
The women in the Western Liang Women's Kingdom are "women of national beauty" and are virgins.
The journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures follows the righteous path, so one must obtain the Queen of the Women's Kingdom's seal and stamp the travel document before proceeding westward.
The imperial seal is a national treasure, used by the ruler of a country to govern the nation. It is both a symbol of power and a symbol of the king.
The Kingdom of Women in Xiliang is a kingdom of women, and its queen is naturally a virgin of unparalleled beauty, symbolizing the "primordial yin".
If one wants to follow the "righteous path," one must naturally be engaged to a virgin's primordial yin, so that the "yin and yang union" can be legitimate. However, Tang Sanzang is a "primordial spirit."
The primordial spirit cannot be bound by worldly ties, and therefore cannot truly marry, thus obscuring the primordial spirit and severing its path of cultivation.
Therefore, in the story, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, devised a plan to have Tang Sanzang (Tripitaka) fake a marriage to obtain the national treasure seal, which is the "Primordial Yin".
In other words, the primordial spirit can enter into a fake marriage without losing its primordial yang, while simultaneously obtaining the primordial yin of a virgin, thus enabling it to legitimately engage in yin-yang intercourse and continue on the path of cultivation.
The Pipa Cave, in its description of "going astray," teaches that "women's allure can be harmful," therefore one should not indulge in romantic relationships or become entangled in women's desires.
The place names "Poisonous Enemy Mountain" and "Pipa Cave" are quite meaningful, containing several layers of metaphor.
The term "poisonous enemy" refers to the fact that the venom of a woman can rival the venom of a scorpion.
The word "pipa" refers to the scorpion's shape, which resembles a pipa (a Chinese lute) held in its arms, with a hooked tail and barbs. Therefore, the pipa is used to describe female beauty.
As mentioned earlier in the "True Path," the women in the Women's Kingdom are "women of unparalleled beauty" and are virgins with their original yin essence.
The scorpion demon in the Poisonous Enemy Mountain and Pipa Cave symbolizes a "woman of the flesh," a promiscuous woman who has lost her virginity.
"Fengyue" refers to places of romance and pleasure, and the "promiscuous women" in it naturally refer to those unrestrained and dissolute women who have long lost their "original yin".
The Scorpion Demon, without going through the proper wedding ceremony, barged into someone else's wedding process, kidnapped the groom, and forced the man to engage in sexual intercourse in the mountains.
Such dissolute behavior naturally qualifies her as a "promiscuous woman," and thus she has lost her "original yin," making it impossible for her to be legitimate; in other words, she has gone astray!
This path, a "wrong turn," is one where lust leads to harm, as depicted in the story. The "Scorpion Demon's" "Horse-Diving Poison" is a poison born from lust!
The Buddha of the Western Paradise attained a "sixteen-foot golden body," impervious to external demons and internal evils, yet he was stung by a scorpion demon and suffered excruciating pain.
[The Monkey King] Sun Wukong, with his copper head and iron brain, became dizzy and disoriented after being stung, and couldn't even lift his iron rod.
[Kidney Water] Pigsy has thick skin and flesh, but after being stung, his face swelled up and he was unrecognizable.
All three possessed great supernatural powers and profound cultivation, but after being stung by the "Horse-Diving Poison," a poison of lust, their supernatural powers and cultivation seemed to vanish into thin air, easily harmed by the poison of lust.
This shows that the poison of female allure is particularly potent, and the consequences of harming someone are even more severe.
In addition, in the original work, the Pipa Cave is bottomless, which also symbolizes the unknowable and unexplorable nature of female beauty.
Faced with the bottomless Pipa Cave, even Guanyin Bodhisattva dared not go down to explore. Only the Mind Monkey and the Kidney Water were able to find out, but in the end, they were stung by the Scorpion Demon's Horse-Slaying Poison.
In the story, Sanzang's spirit was forcibly taken away by the Scorpion Demon, which means that his spirit was turned from the righteous path of the Women's Kingdom to the wrong path of Poisonous Enemy Mountain.
In the end, it seems that it was [Mao Ri Xing Jun] who solved this problem, but in reality, the [Yuan Shen] who adhered to its true nature also deserves much credit.
The true form of the Pleiades Star Lord is a rooster that crows at dawn, symbolizing Yang, which naturally restrains the "licentious woman" Scorpion Demon who has lost her Yin essence.
[Primordial Spirit] Tang Sanzang remained true to himself in the Pipa Cave and was not bewitched or frightened by the Scorpion Demon, which allowed him to endure until the arrival of the [Pleiades Star Lord], who symbolizes [Yang].
In other words, if one does not attain enlightenment and awareness of one's true nature through the [Primordial Spirit] and loses one's [Primordial Yang] early on, then even if the [Pleiades Star Lord] arrives later, it will be of no use.
【The Pleiades Star Lord】brings 【Yang】, and together with the 【Primordial Spirit】who understands the mind and nature and guards the 【Primordial Yang】, only in this way can they escape the poisonous enemy and go astray, allowing the four of them to return to the 【righteous path】 of the Women's Kingdom.
Zhang Lingyu is currently deeply entangled in the poison of women, the "poison of the horse," and his love is impure, thus naturally manifesting the three-corpse form of the "Poison King" Scorpion Demon.
"Ugh!"
The old celestial master looked down at Zhang Lingyu and couldn't help but sigh.
Zhang Lingyu's situation is simple to explain and simple to implement: just like Tang Sanzang, he should guard his original mind and not let the poison of lust harm him, then the "poison of the fallen horse" can naturally be cured.
After cultivating to the point where Yin gives rise to Yang, Zhang Lingyu was able to welcome his own [Mao Ri Xing Jun], using the [Kidney Water] of [Yin Wu Lei] to balance the five internal organs, forming a transformation and balance between Yin and Yang, thus achieving enlightenment.
All of this sounds easy, but for Zhang Lingyu, the stubborn and inflexible person involved, it was extremely difficult.
"Hey, this old man has never encountered anything like love in his life, I really don't know what to do."
As he spoke, the old master frowned and looked at Lü Qian beside him, "Now we can only see if this Wudang kid can help him break free of his shackles."
"But it's still difficult. If Lingyu can't let go of this, then he's just in a different cage."
The old Celestial Master looked up at the sky with a mixture of grief and indignation, and asked in a low voice, "Master, is this retribution you've given me?"
"No, no, no! This monkey really is here to collect a debt!"