Chapter Twenty-Four: Great Virtue and Merit, Iron Fan Gains Fame

  Just arrived home, and the second delivery is here!

  Merit and virtue are vague and elusive, just like the operation of qi. They all exist in legend, yet all saints covet merit and virtue, and all saints contend for the operation of qi.

  What exactly is merit, even the Heavenly Dao's saints may not be able to explain it clearly, they can only say that merit is a mysterious and profound thing bestowed by the Heavenly Dao. Whatever benefits the Heavenly Dao and the myriad creatures of the Primordial Chaos will be recorded by the Heavenly Dao and rewarded with heavenly merit.

  But what is the origin of Gong De? It has existed since ancient times. Legend has it that during the era of chaos, Pangu Tianwang killed 3,000 chaotic demons, opened up the vast expanse of heaven and earth, and transformed into all things. At that time, countless great Dao virtues descended upon the world. The number of virtues was too numerous to be spoken of, but they formed the Xuan Huang Linglong Pagoda and the Hongmeng Quantian Ruler, two treasures that rivaled the Pre-Heavenly Treasures. They gave rise to the Three Pure Ones among the heavenly saints and benefited all living things in the vast expanse of heaven and earth, giving rise to the powerful tribes of witches and demons.

  That is the merit of great virtue, the great Tao's merit. Now that the Honghuang has opened up and the Hundun has retreated, the great Tao's merit cannot be obtained. However, the Heavenly Way governs the Honghuang and there is also the Heavenly Way's merit descending into the world. Among the Heavenly Way's saints, Nüwa, the mother of humanity, Xi Fang Jiao Ying, and Zhu Ti, two saintly beings, were able to become saints because of the Heavenly Way's merit. Even the legendary Tian Dao Zhi Sheng Hong Jun Lao Zu was able to become a saint due to the Heavenly Way's merit.

  Therefore, in the vast wilderness, it has always been the case that merits move people's hearts. Whenever they hear that there are merits to be gained somewhere, they can attract countless cultivators like flies to a flame, and they will go there with joy. It is also for this reason that during the Great Tribulation of the Western Journey, both Taoist and Buddhist masters must descend into the mortal world to get involved, just to get a share of the spoils.

  In general, merit is also a kind of aura or a mysterious aura that assists in the growth of aura. Therefore, during the time of the witch and demon's calamity, the Three Pure Ones, due to Pangu's great merit in opening up the sky, had their sacred positions fixed, their aura was abundant, and they achieved enlightenment and became saints.

  While Nüwa, Jièyǐn and Zhǔntí are also saints of the Heavenly Way, they do not have the same aura as the Three Pure Ones, nor do they have such precious treasures. They also do not have the merit of opening up heaven to assist them. They can only seek help from the Heavenly Way, struggle hard for the merit of the Heavenly Way, and use it to achieve their sainthood.

  So, when Hong Haier spoke of merit and virtue, Yuanshi Tianzun was first startled, then his expression changed. Is merit and virtue really that good? In the vast wilderness, although it is a world where the strong prey on the weak, there is still balance; if one wants to gain something, how can they not make sacrifices? To seek merit and virtue, one cannot avoid going through a bloody storm, just like the battle with Baoxiang Kingdom the other day.

  "Haha!" Seeing his uncle's expression, Hong Haier couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Uncle is worrying too much. The merits I spoke of don't need to be fought for, they will naturally come knocking on our door."

  "Oh?" Yuanyang Zhenxian was startled again upon hearing this and looked at his nephew with a puzzled expression.

  "Ah!" Hong Haier saw this, shook his head and didn't say a word. He waved his hand to withdraw the seal and walked towards his own room. In his heart, he thought, "Good treasure, with such a treasure, I can actually escape the saint's calculation. From now on, I have another trump card."

  Waiting for the next text, the True Immortal saw that Hong Haier had stopped talking and was no longer speaking, but he seemed a bit depressed. However, in his heart, he remembered the merits of Hong Haier's words, since Hong Haier said there was no need to fight, it should be safe. But Hong Haier didn't say anything, and he couldn't guess either, so he regretted not studying the divination technique when his older brother taught him various magical powers.

  For a moment, looking at Hong Haier's back, it felt as if there were a hundred cat claws scratching in my heart...

  But it is said that the Flame Mountain in Western Liangzhou was a piece of brick from Lao Jun's palace, kicked down to the mortal world by the monkey who had escaped.

  It's only because this brick was used by Lao Jun to refine the elixir, and Lao Jun is a saint of the heavenly way, the ancestor of human teachings. Therefore, how can this brick be an ordinary object? Although this brick was created at will by Lao Jun, it has undergone countless cycles of refinement in the eight trigrams furnace under the purple fire of Mount Meru, and has long become a general treasure.

  So, as soon as the fire brick fell, it transformed into a massive mountain range that filled the sky. The most terrifying thing was that on top of the mountain, flames thousands of feet high were burning fiercely, displaying purple and blue colors, with an overwhelming power that scorched the western horizon to a deep red.

  Luckily, Li Laojun took pity on all living things and used a magical technique to weaken the flames, then moved them to a desolate area three hundred miles west of Cuicui Mountain, thus preventing a great disaster.

  But even so, with the advent of Huoyan Mountain, within a radius of hundreds of miles, it was also a vast expanse of barren land, with dry rivers and withered trees. The lush forests of the past had all withered and died, the ground cracked open in numerous fissures, just like the primordial chaos at the dawn of time, leaving no room for life to exist within hundreds of miles. Those demons, flying creatures, and beasts all fled, but it was a disaster for the human tribe that had lived there for generations, as the sudden change in temperature, lack of water, and scarcity of food led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

  Of course, these misfortunes will ultimately fall on the head of the culprit, but unfortunately, the deceased is already gone, how sad.

  However, it has been almost a year since the descent of Huoyan Mountain. A name that has spread throughout the surrounding area within a hundred miles, with its reputation growing daily. Some people even regard it as Guanyin Bodhisattva, who observes the three realms and is greatly compassionate and merciful, namely Tie Shan Xian from Qingyun Mountain's Ba Jiao Cave.

  It turned out that the Iron Fan Immortal had a treasure in her hand, called the Banana Fan. It was taken from a spiritual root that grew on Mount Buzhou at the time of the creation of heaven and earth, which is one of the ten pre-heavenly spiritual roots - the banana tree.

  On this banana tree, there were once four leaves with ordinary shapes but extraordinary effects. They contained innate talismans, arranged according to earth, water, fire, and wind. When the four leaves unfolded, they would have a chaotic aura flowing down, comparable to the most precious pre-heavenly treasures, extremely formidable and boundless.

  Later, due to a coincidence, Lao Jun passed by the tree again, and there was also Yu Ming Blood Sea Ming River teaching ancestor who came here, seeing the banana tree's uniqueness, each took two leaves, refined into two pre-heavenly spiritual treasure banana fans. This fan is placed, auspicious light shines in all directions, auspicious energy is everywhere, it is a top-grade pre-heavenly spiritual treasure. Among them, Lao Jun obtained two fans as fire fan and earth fan, Ming River obtained water fan and wind fan.

  However, these two each have their own treasures. Lao Jun has the Pre-Heavenly Treasure of the Taiji Diagram, the Post-Heavenly Treasure of the Tower of Heaven and Earth's Mysterious Yellow Jade, as well as the Wind-Fire Lotus Seat and the Sacred Object of the Human Teachings - the Flat Hammer. This Banana Fan is an extreme quality spiritual treasure, but it isn't valued highly either, just like that Purple Golden Gourd, being used for refining elixirs, to fan the flames and refine the medicine.

  With Lao Jun, the Ancestor of Minghe had already possessed two ruthless swords, A Nai and Yuan Tu, which were not much different from the Four Swords of Execution. They could also kill people without being stained by cause and effect. There were also twelve precious defensive treasures, Hong Lian and Xuan Yuan's water-controlling flag, so the two banana fans were useless, and they were given to the Ashura clan as a treasure to suppress the tribe.

  The mother of the Red Boy, Iron Fan Immortal, also known as Raksha Woman, was originally a princess of the Asura tribe, with extraordinary talents. Unlike other Asura women, Iron Fan Immortal was exceptionally sacred, and thus deeply favored by the Old Ancestor of the Underworld, allowing her to wield the Banana Leaf Fan.

  Later, the founder of the Nether River sect wanted to join forces with the Heavenly Master, so he arranged for Raksha to marry the Ox Demon King, and the two became in-laws. This was done to mutually support and protect their own Taoist lineage. The banana fan naturally followed Raksha as her dowry and changed its surname to Niu (Ox).

  The banana fan in the hands of the Raksha woman was the Wind and Water Banana Fan. With one wave of the wind fan, she could summon the Three Calamity God Wind and the Nine Heaven Gale Wind. Even Sun Wukong, with his boundless magical powers and indestructible golden body, would be blown away by a single wave of the fan for 54,000 miles. It was also this fan that put Monkey at a disadvantage when he tried to extinguish the fire, as using the wind fan to fan the flames only made them stronger. On the other hand, the water fan was different; with one wave of the fan, it could create nine heavens of weak water, which were the primordial water essence. Even the chaotic fire of the primordial chaos could be extinguished by this water. In Journey to the West, Iron Fan Princess used this fan to put out the fire.

  But to get back to the point, in recent days, around the eight hundred li of Flame Mountain, the name Iron Fan Immortal has been getting more and more attention.

  It was only because they didn't know who the person was that they informed the ordinary people near Flame Mountain, saying that in the emerald cloud mountain's banana cave there was a sacred being named "Iron Fan Immortal". The Iron Fan Immortal had a precious treasure called the Banana Fan, which could extinguish the flames of Flame Mountain. They asked the Zhou Duan people to bathe and purify themselves, hold a grand ceremony to worship heaven, lay out incense tables, kill chickens and sheep, complete the three sacrifices, and pray for this sacred being.

  Ordinary people heard about it, but they were holding a dead horse as if it were alive. They tried anyway. Unexpectedly, the Iron Fan Immortal really descended from the sky with a banana fan in hand, extinguished the flames and brought down sweet rain to help ordinary people plant crops. In this way, the Iron Fan Immortal did not take any offerings at all.

  Therefore, all the people around Huoyan Mountain were grateful to Tie Shan Xian for her kindness. The reputation of Tie Shan Xian spread far and wide. Some even compared her to Guanyin, and later, with her great magical power, she shocked the heavenly court, which granted a divine title to Princess Tie Shan. This is another story, not to be told now.

  Of course, all of this was the result of Hong Haier secretly planning for his mother, which made Ruyi Zhenxian extremely pleased. He thought that since his own nephew had spoken of great merits, he would have a share in it, but as it turned out, he could only watch from afar, unable to partake in it himself. This made him feel stifled and resentful, so he returned to his Luotai Spring Broken Cave and became its master once again.