Chapter 151: Golden Toad Lays Eggs, Wealth God Manifests

Xu Jia pointed at this basin and said, "You understand the Flower Adornment Sutra; can you discern the true nature of this object?"

Jingchi looked at it and said, "This looks like a vessel for sealing demons, only this demon is far too powerful; it can penetrate the seal and influence others from the outside."

Xu Jia said, "It must be a demon from the Desire Realm. Poxun, the Lord of the Desire Realm, loves to do such things. Under his command are the six desire demon kings of Greed, Joy, Love, Scent, Touch, and Consciousness. These demon kings govern countless heavenly demons. Perhaps some demonic monk followed a method, set up a ritual, and sealed a Heavenly Demon of Greed inside."

Many Buddhist secret arts can summon Heavenly Demons of the Desire Realm. Some are for tempering one's Dharma, while others are purely to borrow the Dharma Power of the Heavenly Demons to help one's wishes come true. These Heavenly Demons of the Desire Realm always possess various mysterious powers that can fulfill a person's wishes, but their essence is similar to evil gods; one must constantly please the Heavenly Demon for it to work for you. In many heretical places, they even worship Heavenly Demons as Buddha or Bodhisattva.

"Can you tell what kind of Heavenly Demon it is?"

Jingchi shook his head: "I have only studied the Flower Adornment Sutra. If one seeks to be foremost in subduing demons, it should be the Lankavatara Sutra. Perhaps opening the Lankavatara Sutra would allow us to identify what kind of demon it is. If it cannot be identified, reciting the Shurangama Mantra should also be able to subdue the external demon."

Xu Jia nodded. He knew the Lankavatara Sutra himself and had previously taught the little foxes a short passage of the Shurangama Mantra.

However, although Xu Jia practiced the Three Teachings as one and used them without restraint, his research into Buddhist matters was still quite shallow.

He immediately recalled the scriptures he had read. These scriptures were arranged like a library within his sea of consciousness; whichever book Xu Jia wanted to see, it would automatically reveal itself.

The Lankavatara Sutra is the foremost Buddhist scripture for subduing demons. When the Buddha spoke of the Sutra of the Total Extinction of the Dharma, he said that among all scriptures, this one would be the first to be extinguished. In fact, this is true; it is said that the Lankavatara Sutra has been tampered with over ten thousand times, so even Xu Jia did not know if what he was reading was correct.

This scripture begins with breaking demons and also concludes with breaking demons.

Xu Jia searched carefully and roughly determined what kind of demon this was; it was of the "Fifty Skandha-Demons" variety, centered on greed for attachment, greed for conditions, greed for taking, greed for dwelling, greed for memory, and greed for thought.

The Fifty Skandha-Demons, also known as the Five Skandha Kalpas, have ten types per kalpa, hence the fifty skandha-demons. They govern the Five Turbidities: Kalpa Turbidity, View Turbidity, Affliction Turbidity, Sentient Being Turbidity, and Life Turbidity.

To see through the Five Turbidities is to attain Samadhi, which corresponds to "Diamond Indestructible" in Buddhism—ultimate, firm, and immovable.

The final state is the realm of perfect fusion and completeness, which is very similar to the cultivation methods of Taoism.

If someone were to seal their own Five Skandha-Demons in this Treasure Basin, it would be equivalent to the "Evil Sword Immortal" in the Immortal Sword legends.

However, Buddhist scriptures say that breaking the five skandhas is an internal observation of internal demons, not external demons. Xu Jia could only use what was said in the Lankavatara Sutra as a reference.

"The wealth inside here is not virtuous wealth, but evil wealth," Jingchi said. "Buddhism emphasizes virtuous wealth, which is pure wealth and compassionate wealth. The more good deeds done, the more vast the wealth energy becomes. This basin, however, is the opposite."

"The Lankavatara Sutra is Outer Zen Inner Esoteric. Many things in Esoteric Buddhism fit this tone—seemingly evil yet not righteous. Let me think about how Esoteric Buddhism resolves this situation!"

"Can we just smash this basin?" Xu Mu had listened for a long time and roughly understood the situation with the double-fish basin.

"It cannot be smashed. This basin is a vessel for sealing demons; if it is broken, won't it be released?"

Xu Jia could not think of a better way, so he poured clear water directly into the basin and tore off the Five-Route God of Wealth Talisman. The carp on it began to move again. Before they could act, Xu Jia placed the Xiao Jinchan into the basin. Seeing the two golden carp, the Xiao Jinchan casually hugged one of them.

The hugged carp struggled desperately. At the same time, because the Xiao Jinchan was essentially gold, it was affected by the Dharma Power of the Treasure Basin. Since the Treasure Basin could not manifest the "object spirit" of the Jinchan itself, one by one, vengeful ghosts crawled out from the carp's body like parasites, climbed onto the Jinchan, burrowed into the bumps on its back, and then formed pupae and eggs, turning into black bumps that kept moving.

The Jinchan also possessed the nature of a Wealth God and could strengthen the power of the Treasure Basin, so the Yin Debt demon sealed in the basin wanted to assimilate it.

In just a short while, the bumps on the Jinchan's back were stretched large, and Jinchan eggs developed one after another, soon filling the entire basin.

Seeing this, Xu Jia was not alarmed but delighted; these Jinchan eggs corresponded perfectly to the individual vengeful ghosts greedy for wealth.

Before long, these eggs hatched into little Jinchan tadpoles, only their bodies radiated black energy and evil aura.

These little Jinchan tadpoles went "pop, pop" and were about to surge out of the Treasure Basin.

Xu Jia poured them directly into the two large vats he had previously refined.

He saw the Jinchan in the basin hugging the carp, its mouth wide open, sucking strands of black energy into its mouth. Its body grew large and bloated, becoming even uglier, and the bumps on its back were still producing eggs continuously.

It looked extremely disgusting.

But this was the Jinchan eating the "wealth energy" inside the Treasure Basin while being polluted by it.

This scene made everyone's scalp tingle.

Soon, the hugged carp stopped moving and floated on the water's surface. The Jinchan loosened its claws, rolled its tongue, and pulled the fish into its belly. The various vengeful ghosts originally inside the fish's belly had all turned into Jinchan eggs. The Jinchan and the golden carp embraced Yin and carried Yang, and combined with the evil Dharma Power of the Treasure Basin, they produced these "Ghost Jin Chan."

Xu Jia looked at these tadpoles; he feared there were thousands of them. They were all swimming in the large vats, their mouths opening and closing, greedily swallowing wealth energy from all directions.

The Jinchan in the basin continued to hug the second carp. Before long, thousands more Jinchan eggs were born, and this carp also floated up.

After swallowing it into its belly, the Jinchan sat in the basin. The next moment, it turned into the appearance of pure gold and remained motionless, but Xu Jia and the others could clearly see the Jinchan breathing in and out.

"What is the principle behind this?" Jingchi asked. "Perhaps it acted as a scapegoat; the Treasure Basin prefers this Jinchan over the two golden carp?" Xu Jia said uncertainly. At the same time, he had a headache: "These little Jinchan will grow up, jumping around. Each one is transformed from a Debt Ghost and will inevitably scatter, snatching wealth from all directions to throw into the basin. We must pay off the debts of these Debt Ghost little Jinchan. It's a good thing we didn't break the basin just now; otherwise, with nearly ten thousand Debt Ghosts, if they all went to be reincarnated as debt-collecting ghosts, who knows how many people would have their families ruined."

Xu Jia said, "I will first try water-fire refining to refine away the Yin essence of these Jinchan, then try to resolve the debts. However, since this is a ghostly matter, it should be managed by the City God. Jingchi, you go to Jinsha Creek and speak with the Creek God Qiu Jinsha, and ask him to find the Yushan City God for me."

Xu Jia still remembered that the Yushan City God had said he would solve the problem of Xu Jia's official position and had promised him a benefit after resolving the evil aura of Yushan, but there had been no news to this day. Even the Night Wandering God hadn't come to report; he couldn't be trying to get something for nothing from Master Xu, could he! Xu Fu ran over at this moment: "Guardian Deity, our family's gold is gone! It was suddenly gnawed by something and just vanished."

Xu Jia sighed: "It is because I was greedy for the gold and silver treasures of Dizang An. The Dizang Bodhisattva is too petty; he actually immediately conjured such a greed-for-wealth kalpa for me."

"Not only did I gain nothing, but I also lost quite a bit. These Jinchan only eat gold, and when they are hungry, they will run out!" Xu Jia pointed at the golden tadpoles in the large vat that were emitting evil energy. Some had already grown legs, and their mouths were opening and closing—they were eating the wealth energy of Xu Fu. That gold was being eaten into their bellies to help them develop along with the wealth energy.

Xu Fu also developed trypophobia from these tadpoles, and just looking at them, there were thousands of voices in his ears, all saying, "Lend me some money! Lend me some money! I know you have money, why won't you lend it? Are you going to stand by and watch me die?"

Xu Jia shouted "Wake up," and Xu Fu finally broke free from the entanglement of the Debt Ghost Jin Chan.

Xu Fu stepped back a few paces and scolded: "Why do you bring everything home!"

Xu Jia said: "I can't help it. Father, go quickly and write a sacrificial text to the Wealth God. I will see if I can get the Wealth God's approval to resolve the Yin Debt."

Xu Fu nodded hurriedly: "Good, I'll go right now." He then returned to the study.

Xu Mu asked: "Is there anything I can help with?"

Xu Jia said: "Mother, just continue reciting the Heart Sutra."

Xu Jia then began to open the altar and perform rituals, folding paper spirit tablets and writing the three tablets for the Jade Emperor, the Wealth God, and the Savior of Suffering.

He then offered incense, took two copper coins, and cast a divination: "The disciple today uses the Jade Emperor Precious Proclamation and the Wealth God Precious Repentance as the front and back of a Yin bond to resolve the debt. Each recitation of the Precious Proclamation shall count as ten thousand taels of gold. I ask the High Gods and High Sages to manifest and preside!"

He threw the copper coins.

One heads, one tails.

It was agreed.

He threw again; it was still one heads, one tails.

The third time was the same.

Three holy divinations, great auspiciousness.

Xu Jia directly cut the yellow paper, writing the Jade Emperor Precious Proclamation on the front and the Wealth God Precious Repentance on the back. As he wrote, he recited, and without needing a Talisman, there was spiritual light, golden and bright.

Xu Jia's speed in writing the proclamations was not fast. By the time Xu Fu's sacrificial text to the Wealth God was finished, Xu Jia had only written eight sheets, which was eighty thousand taels of gold.

Xu Fu asked: "How do I use it?"

Xu Jia said, "The Jin Chan is the mount of the Wealth God; Father, you just need to recite this aloud, then burn it into that vat."

By this time, the Jin Chan in the vat had already developed somewhat, each one hopping about; fortunately, the large vat was sturdy and quite tall, so they could not hop out.

Father Xu recited the sacrificial text to the Wealth God in a loud voice: "O Wealth God, high as the heavens and deep as the earth, master of yellow and white treasures, brilliant and resplendent. You hold the wealth of the universe and govern the prosperity of the mortal world. The green copper coins flutter, the God of Prosperity looks on, bestowing grace upon all living beings, boundless and vast. In the past, the wealth of Fan Li surpassed that of nations; with a benevolent heart and the way of commerce, wealth came from all four directions. With the wisdom of Bai Gui and the strategies of Fan Li, all look up to your divine grace, silently blessed and peerless. Now we, who labor with heart and strength, with sincerity as our foundation, only wish for your divine compassion, that our businesses may flourish and profits be vast. The sacrificial rites are now complete; we humbly pray to the honored Wealth God to protect the nation and bless the people, not only for abundance and prosperity, but may you enjoy these offerings!"

He immediately ignited the fire to burn this sacrificial text, offering sacrifice to the Wealth God.

In an instant, the Jin Chan all became restless.

Xiao Hong had just prepared the various offerings for the Wealth God: fragrant fruits, sugar, pastries, and the gold and silver ingots that had just been bought.

Xu Jia also took the Precious Proclamation Gold Note he had just written and burned it.

He thought to himself, "Wealth God, with so many Jin Chan, one could build a Jin Chan Miao for you. After I establish my sect, besides the Three Pure Ones and the Jade Emperor, you shall rank third; I will build you a grand temple, and the Incense Fire shall burn brightly!"

Just as he finished reciting and visualizing the Wealth God in his heart, ten thousand rays of golden light appeared; looking closely at these golden rays, they were actually densely packed gold ingots.

The Wealth God had performed a God Descent.

Xu Jia felt at ease, burned the Precious Proclamation Gold Note, and simultaneously began to perform the ritual of refinement.

"Gold is the essence of Sun True Fire; only by refining with fire can I help you shed yin and attain yang!"

(End of chapter)