20 The Son of the Foxes

After Sun Wukong disappears, Huian asks me: 'Shifu, since you are all-knowing, will Sun Wukong find the baby fox at the end?'

I browse my ability to see the world and say: 'Oh, he will not. Let's go. We shall not wait for him. Let's head back to Nanhai.'

I believe that after this monkey lost the baby fox and he cannot find it, he will be too shamed to cause me more troubles. I can enjoy the peace in my Nanhai for a while.

Yet, before I went deeper with my all-knowing ability, I would never know the truth. I thought this baby is a tiny one who cannot even open his eyes, but he is actually a clever one with lots of thoughts going on in his mind.

On that day, the mother fox brought her babies here and I thought she wasn't good with counting. I didn't know that this baby fox was hiding under the lotus seat and waited for until all his family members had left. He aimed to stay in my Nanhai.

Later, Sun Wukong was in too much of a hurry to find Huian that he just dropped the baby fox in the black bamboo grove. The baby fox saw that Sun Wukong had gone so he ran back to my lotus seat. My Nanhai has Xiandan gifted by Taishang Laojun, the elixir sent by Queen Mother of the West. All these were swallowed by him and he gained countless cultivation within one day.

He ate Xiandan and drank elixir so that he got the ability to transform to a human shape. This is not the end.

He washed himself in the lotus pond and picked a petal from the pond to attach it onto his face. From then on, he gained the ability to transform into any form with ten thousands of faces. No one can ever recognize him.

This son of the white foxes is so clever since a young age that I don't know whether I should praise him or curse him.

Yet, no matter how smart he is, he didn't make things perfect. If he just left like that, then I couldn't find him on Earth, in the six circles, on the sky or underground. I would have to let him go, but he is too greedy. He poured a drop of water from my Pure Bottle and thickened it to a pearl. He installed that pearl onto his ring and as long as he carries the ring with him, I will know where he is no matter where he goes.

Huian asks me: 'Should we catch this fox back?'

I say: 'We don't need to. He is too greedy and he will be killed one day by his greed. It is fine that he stole Xiandan and drank elixir, but he also stole the water from the Pure Bottle to be a pearl on his hand. He just wants to prove to himself how smart he is. Yet, wherever there is a treasure, there will be greed. In the future, everyone will be fighting for this pearl and this pearl will lead to his death.'

After this thing is put away, I take Huian back to Nanhai. The black bear yokai still wants to find more yokais to cause trouble in Nanhai and Huian thuds at his head and says: 'Do you know the son of the white foxes stole the Xiandan made by Taishang Laojun and drank the elixir sent by Queen Mother of the West?'

The black bear acts like a silly one. His black round eyes look at me and then Huian, and then at Shancai and Longnv who are busy with catching bird yokais who fly randomly in the air. He thinks it is his fault, but he doesn't want to take all the responsibility. He says: 'Shancai Tongzi is in charge of guarding the treasures. How could they be stolen this easily?'

Shancai is trying to calm down a violent bird in his arms and says to the black bear yokai angrily: 'It is so much for me to just catch those yokais flouncing about here brought by you. How could I have an extra eye to keep a look at other stuff?'

Longnv also says: 'Any ordinary yokai cannot enter the Treasure Storage. The Xian air in the black bamboo grove is enough to kill them. It is probably because that the little fox has been rubbed by bodhisattva that he has Xian air on him so that he could sneak into the Treasure Storage. To be honest, that baby fox is really smart. Once he achieves his cultivation, what will happen? In my point of view, all this white fox family are bad. Why not just banish them to hell and chain them there forever?'

The black bear is a loyal one and he begs me immediately after that he realizes his friends are incriminated by him: 'Bodhisattva, bodhisattva, the white fox lives on eating dreams. They only eat the greed and evil thoughts in human dreams. They never eat humans and they don't kill. How about we just catch them and punish them to be labors in Nanhai...'

They argue for a long time and I say: 'It cannot be caught.'

'The white fox stole a petal from the lotus pond and from then on even Gao Ming or Gao Jue (Watcher Deities) cannot see him. I wonder how such a yokai will know these secrets. Forget it, and let it pass. This thing is over. Later the white fox shall receive what it deserves. Now all back to your job.'

I am the biggest boss in Nanhai. I ask them to go back to their work and as expected no one dares to talk more. They all run to their positions. The black bear goes to the back of the hill to repent. Shancai and Longnv are driving those wild yokais away from Nanhai. Huian disappears again. After a few days of chaos in Nanhai, I finally get my peace back.

To be honest, my Nanhai wouldn't change twice in ten thousands of years. Since Sun Wukong made havoc in Heaven, I don't have many peaceful days. This time he offended me, so he doesn't come anymore. We are even a little not used to it.

I even ask Huian in one day for several times: "Did Sun Wukong come? Did anyone crying our Guanyin goddess? No? Not even one?"

This is a miracle.

One day, Longnv and Shancai have nothing to do so they lie on front by the lotus pond to watch how Sun Wukong is protecting the Tang monk to receive the scriptures. They are enjoying it like watching a drama.

I say to Longnv: 'Don't peep at others always. This is not a good habit. You know that I am all-knowing, but I respect your privacy as well. I don't look at what you have done everyday. If you guys just keep peeping at Sun Wukong like this, you will have a lot of beatings to endure if he finds it out one day.'

Longnv says: 'I am not gossiping but bodhisattva, please look at what Huian fellow is doing all day long. No one knows what he is doing secretly. What will happen if he brings fire onto himself?'

I was going to say but I hear Shancai crying out: 'So bloody! So scary!'

He covers his eyes and runs to me. He almost falls into my lotus pond: 'The Golden Cicada is caught away by a yokai again!'

I lean myself forward to see in the pond. A tiger stands up on the ground and shows his sharp paws. He rips his own skin apart and harnesses his skin onto a rock and transforms the rock to a substitute of himself. Then he runs like a wind and catches the solitary Tang monk.

I say: 'What a sin it is. This Jiang Liuer (The child who flows on the river, the child name of the Tang monk) has never seen any blood. Now he is caught by this bloody tiger yokai. He could have been half-dead due to this shock.'

Shancai covers his eyes and says: 'Bodhisattva, Sun Wukong must be on his way here to find you.'

I say: 'Impossible. He lost the baby white fox and he must want to avoid me. He will not have the face to beg for my help.'

Who knows that before I could finish my words, Sun Wukong's voice is coming from a far distance: 'Guanyin bodhisattva, Old Sun is returning the little fox!'

What?

Impossible. This white fox has transformed to a human shape with a lot more cultivation. He has many transformations and you can never find him.

I see that this monkey is sweaty all over and he is giving me a claptrap smile carrying a little white fox by picking its tail: 'Bodhisattva, I am sorry for my offense. My shifu likes this little white fox so he kept it for a few days.' After that, he hands the furry white ball to me. This little fox is obviously shocked, and it is shaking like a sieve. As soon as Sun Wukong loosens his hand, this little fox is coming to bite me.

...

I watch this wild baby fox. This is not even a yokai. This is just a baby animal.

Although before the son of the white foxes could transform to a human shape, he was just like this, a furry ball, he was intelligent and knew how to speak human language or fox language. It even knew a few other languages such as monkey language.

Sun Wukong, are you underestimating me, or do you think I the Guanyin bodhisattva am blind?

Even Shancai and Longnv have sensed that this is just a wild baby animal which he just caught in the wild. They look at this silly monkey embarrassed and no one talks in this situation.

I ask: 'Wukong, is this the one the right one?'

Sun Wukong keeps rolling his eyes and he seems flustered, but he still says: 'Yes yes! Old Sun will not lie! If you don't believe in this, I can swear to you with the head of Jade Emperor! If I lied, then the Jade Emperor shall be struck by the thunders from Heaven and he shall die with his limbs apart!'

...

This monkey must have said it on purpose.