Chapter 67: Black Dragon and General Black Dragon

  Originally, the Hei Long Zhai was inhabited by ordinary Qiang people of modern times, and not direct descendants of "Ancient Qiang". After thousands of years of intermarriage and union, the bloodline had long been lost.

  The name of their village is derived from the legend of "General Black Dragon". Yesterday's mudslide was seen as a sign that someone in the village had done something wrong, and heaven was angry. So they asked Master Long to perform a "sheep bone divination" - a Qiang ethnic minority divination ritual. The result of the divination was: "Although there is surprise, there is no danger!" Later, Master Long had a dream in which Monkey Head Ancestor told him that General Black Dragon would arrive soon to save the village from disaster, and they prepared wine and killed chickens to welcome him.

  They were eagerly awaiting the arrival of General Heilong, and then they held another prayer ceremony. Liu Yi and others happened to appear at this time, which made Long Dafashi feel mighty and majestic, with a clever and ingenious plan!

  ……

  Only then did Dragon Great Master stand up, his small hands clasped behind his back, pacing in small steps, shaking his head and saying:

  Here is the translation:

  "Speaking of General Heilong, we must first talk about Heilong. Legend has it that this black dragon was one of the twelve gods beside the Sun Goddess, ranked among the immortals. You say such a heavenly bureaucratic position isn't something mortals dream of? Mortals risk being struck by lightning and turned into mush to cross the heavenly bridge. And yet this black dragon not only didn't cherish its current job but also often transformed into a handsome young man to flirt with fairy maidens. This guy may not have had Sun Wukong's 72 transformations, but he still had 36 changes. It's said that he even transformed into the Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng to flirt with Chang'e. Although it didn't cause any evil consequences at the time, Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng might have been inspired by him. 'After a few years in heaven,' he also dared to flirt with Chang'e again. As a result, Chang'e couldn't bear it anymore and said, 'You flirt once, that's okay, I'll tolerate it, but you do it repeatedly, what's the matter?' She then reported Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng to the Jade Emperor, and as a result, he was demoted to the mortal world and became Zhu Bajie. If you ask me, all this was caused by that black dragon! As the saying goes, 'The heavenly net is loose but doesn't let anything escape.' This guy was finally discovered when he transformed into the Golden Jade Boy beside the Sun Goddess to flirt with the Jade Stone Fairy Maiden. The Queen Mother was furious and immediately fired him on the spot, ordering him to go to the mortal world's Black Dragon Pool to reflect... If this guy can reform and start anew, the Queen Mother will surely sense his sincerity and definitely re-sign a heavenly bureaucratic contract with him..."

  Liu Yi and others looked at each other, and three words rose in their hearts: "Nonsense!", but seeing that Dragon Great Master said it with great sincerity, yet not like a lie, they continued to listen with half-belief and half-doubt.

  Long Dafashi saw Zhou Bingbing's disbelieving face and suddenly became furious, shouting sharply: "You don't believe it? Can I make this up? If I could make it up, I wouldn't be a monk, I would definitely go write novels."

  Liu Yi smiled and said, "You go on, I believe!"

  The great monk Dragon finally showed a childlike smile and said happily: "If I must say, this black dragon is just in need of repair. You said you would move into the Black Dragon Pool to reflect on your mistakes, wouldn't that be enough? Such a big house is spacious enough for reflection, isn't it? It's like a huge 'Water Cube'. In such a good environment, not only does it not reflect on its own mistakes, but it also often climbs ashore to steal chickens and dogs, just short of pulling up a scallion. This has caused the surrounding masses to have many opinions. The common people don't have the ability to subdue dragons and tigers, so in order to prevent this guy from causing trouble, we agreed to send a few chickens and ducks as offerings to that bad guy on the tenth day of each month, to offer it a sacrifice..."

  Here is the translation:

  "Speaking of this, Dragon Great Master had an angry expression and shouted: 'Isn't there a saying that goes "if you don't seek death, death won't come to you"? This saying has indeed applied to this black dragon. In ancient times, Da Yu went on a private visit in plain clothes, looking for a place to refine the divine tripod. He passed by Black Dragon Pool and because he was low-key, he didn't bring any followers. The black dragon thought it could bully him, so when Da Yu was resting, it swallowed his horse whole! This enraged Da Yu, as that white horse was his beloved treasure. As a result, he had a great battle with the black dragon for 36 days and nights without either side emerging victorious. Seeing that he couldn't win, Da Yu used magic to escape and then spent 49 days in a cave on the mountain refining nine divine tripods with names: 'Ren', 'Yi', 'Li', 'Zhi', 'Xin', 'Zhong', 'Xiao', 'Lian' and 'Yong'. Afterwards, he used the power of these nine divine tripods to beat that black dragon until it was almost destroyed! That's why our Nine Peaks Mountain is also called Nine Tripod Mountain..."

  Liu Yi couldn't help but fall silent again, having talked for half a day without getting to the point. He interrupted him and asked: "So who is that legendary Black Dragon General?"

  If someone else interrupted, Dragon Great Master would definitely feel that his prestige had been challenged and would certainly explode again. However, Liu Wei was a rescue soldier sent by the Monkey Ancestor, and when he was interrupted, he didn't seem to be dissatisfied at all. Instead, he smiled and continued to say: "The Black Dragon's three souls and seven spirits were beaten away, leaving only the dragon spirit wanting to escape, but it was sealed in the Black Dragon Pool by Da Yu. It must have been that Da Yu had a kind thought towards the Black Dragon becoming a god, so he didn't kill him completely. A very long time has passed, so long that people have forgotten that there is still an ancient black dragon sleeping in the Black Dragon Pool. However, one person knew that there was a black dragon spirit here, and she also knew that this dragon spirit had boundless power. This person is the great Qiangmu Zhu, who led our ancient Qiang tribe to escape disaster..."

  Upon hearing this, Liu Yi was overjoyed and thought to himself: "Finally, I've gotten to the bottom of it!" Wang Dachuan and Zhou Bingbing, who were eating with their heads down, also simultaneously lifted their heads at this point. It was clear that they too were extremely concerned about Qiangmu Zhu's situation.

  The great master Long saw the three people fully focused, and suddenly became pleased, letting out a hearty laugh: "In those years, Lady Qiangmu led our ancient Qiang people to escape from the Kunlun Death Valley, and after a great battle with the rebellious Geji Qiang people at Qinghai Riyue Mountain, although we destroyed most of the remaining enemies, I almost died myself. Alas, under the pursuit of the Geji Qiang people's remaining troops, we continued to flee, until we reached this Jiuding Mountain, when suddenly I remembered that there was still a sleeping Black Dragon essence here. So she discussed with General Liu Heng, who helped our ancient Qiang people escape, about opening the seal and obtaining the remaining power of the Black Dragon..."

  He said, with a respectful glance at Liu Yi, and blinked his eyes, then continued: "I think that the black dragon's body is female, but inside the dragon's body there is a very strong yang energy, overall it is more yang than yin, otherwise it would not often transform into a handsome man to tease the fairy - so they decided to add the power of the black dragon's spirit to General Liu Heng's body, in order to achieve a perfect union, which would naturally be boundless! After gaining the power, General Liu Heng was truly majestic and overbearing, it is said that with just a simple movement of his fingers he could annihilate the pursuing enemy, our ancestors were very admiring, so they gave him the name Black Dragon General..."

  He sighed and said, "Alas, Liu Heng's success is also his downfall. General Heilong saved the clan, but in killing the enemy, he awakened the evil spirit of the dragon with the bloody aura, which backfired on him, making him go mad and lose all humanity, slaughtering half of the clan people... In the end, Bi Xiu had no choice but to kill him tearfully and seal him away..."

  Liu Yi was greatly shocked when he heard this. His ancestors were actually killed by Qiang Mu Zhu, which was beyond his expectation.

  "Actually, when we were obtaining the Black Dragon's residual power, Qiangmu Pearl and General Heilong predicted that this situation would arise. At that time, General Heilong told Qiangmu Pearl that if he was counterattacked by the Dragon's power, she should kill him and seal the Black Dragon's power within his body. So when we were obtaining the Black Dragon's power, Qiangmu Pearl had already secretly cast a mysterious spell on General Heilong with tears in her eyes. When General Heilong was counterattacked, this was able to hold him back; otherwise, it would have been a catastrophe for humanity..."

  He said with a clap of his hands: "To think that General Heilong, who is not one of our people, would sacrifice his life to save our people! This spirit of no distinction is truly admirable. Although he killed many of our ancestors, it was not his intention. If we are to blame anyone, it should be the Black Dragon - if General Heilong had not saved our people, our ancestors might have been wiped out from that time on. So we still owe him a debt of gratitude. In memory of him, the villages and stockades that later settled in this area were named Heilong Stockade."

  "What happened later?"

  Long Da Fashi said: "Later, Qiang Mu Zhu carried the body of Hei Long Jiang Jun and walked into the Black Pool. From then on, no one saw her again. However, legend has it that the sealing power will automatically open after an unknown number of thousands of years, and the dragon's spirit will revive to harm the world again. It is possible that now is the time for the dragon's spirit to revive, so the heavens sent the great Hei Long Jiang Jun to come and subdue the dragon's spirit!"

  He looked at Liu Yi and said, "You look exactly like General Heilong. You must be the reincarnation of General Heilong. Only you can lift the disaster that our village is about to face..."

  After listening to the story, Liu Yi was convinced of the yin-yang burial in the Tian Gong of Jiudingshan. Although he didn't dare to make a conclusion about the truth of this story, looking at Long Dafashi's deep and hopeful eyes, he unconsciously said: "Since we have come here by fate, I will definitely do my best until death!"

  Then he took out the map of Jiuding Mountain Tian Gong from his bosom and said, "My father mentioned earlier that carrying this map would take you to Jiuding Mountain Tian Gong. May I ask where did this map come from?"

  The Great Dragon looked at the map and smiled: "You must be Liu Shuqiang's son, right? This map is embroidered beautifully. I stitched it according to your father's description, one stitch at a time. It was me who brought him to Heilongtan back then, and before he left, we agreed that if someone came with this map, I would take care of them!"

  "So that's how it is, I didn't think Dragon Great Master was still such a skilled and clever person!" Liu Yi said: "Then do you know where my father went after leaving the Nine-Peak Mountain Heaven Palace? Do you understand that heaven palace?"