Meanwhile, Guangzhi descended the mountain and arrived at the city below. He had someone write a plaint for him and struck the Drum of Grievances.
The county magistrate ascended to the bench and asked,
"Little monk, what injustice have you suffered?"
Guangzhi cried out, "Your Excellency, this little monk is a monk of the Guanyin Temple on the mountain outside the city; my Dharma name is Guangzhi. The other day, our abbot kindly took in two itinerant monks. Who would have expected that upon seeing the wealth of our temple, the two harbored malicious intent, set fire to the temple in the night, burned it down, and looted the wealth accumulated over a century!"
The magistrate's eyebrows jumped, and he hurriedly asked,
"Is this the Guanyin Temple of Elder Jinchi?"
The Guanyin Temple was extremely famous within a hundred li, and even the magistrate had heard of it.
Guangzhi nodded his head like pounding garlic. "Precisely, precisely!"
The magistrate said, "Do you have a written plaint?"
Guangzhi handed up the plaint.
After reading it, the magistrate saw the words "wealth accumulated over a century" written on the plaint and couldn't help asking,
"How much wealth does your temple possess?"
Guangzhi reported truthfully, "The accumulation of a century—countless gold and silver. This little monk is not entirely clear. I only know there are over a hundred chests of snowflake silver, over a dozen chests of gold ingots, three large chests of jade and jewels, and one bundle each of white ivory and rhinoceros horns."
Upon hearing this, the magistrate's eyes went straight, and greed immediately arose in his heart. He said, "What audacious thief-monks! Someone, go arrest them at once!"
He immediately threw down his lot and ordered two teams of yamen runners to go apprehend them.
However, the Guanyin Temple was some distance from the city, and the yamen runners were mere mortals, so they could not reach the Guanyin Temple that night.
The next day, Tang Monk had eaten his vegetarian meal under the service of the monks and called for Sun Wukong, wishing to continue their journey.
Guangmou, in order to stall for time, took out the temple's gold and silver, saying he wished to gift it to Tang Monk.
Tang Monk refused to accept it.
Amid the tussle, Guangzhi arrived just in time, leading the yamen runners.
Guangzhi pointed at Tang Monk and Sun Wukong. "It's these two thief-monks!"
Hearing this, the yamen runners let out a shout, surrounding them from all sides and shouting, "What thief-monks! Now we have caught you with both the thieves and the stolen goods!"
They first seized Tang Monk and bound him. They then tried to bind Sun Wukong, but how could he submit? He pulled out his Ruyi Jingu Bang and said, "Who are you calling a thief!" He was about to teach these runners a lesson.
Seeing this, Tang Monk feared Sun Wukong would hurt someone and hurriedly said, "Wukong, do not act. These yamen runners have mistakenly arrested us. Once we reach the court, your master will explain everything clearly. You must not hurt anyone! Otherwise, your master will surely recite the Tight-Fillet Spell!"
Fearing that Tang Monk would truly recite the Tight-Fillet Spell, Sun Wukong could only allow himself to be captured.
The yamen runners bound Sun Wukong and Tang Monk, then asked Guangzhi and Guangmou to bring out the temple's treasures. Indeed, as Guangzhi had said, there were over a hundred chests of gold and silver—not only not less, but even more.
The yamen runners were overjoyed and said, "These are all stolen goods!" They prepared to carry all the silver back to the county yamen.
But there was too much silver and too few people; they couldn't carry it all at once. If they left first, they feared the silver might be lost, so they had to leave some to guard it while sending others to the county yamen to notify the magistrate to send more hands to transport the silver.
With all this back-and-forth, four or five days passed.
By the time Tang Monk and his disciple were brought to the court, the progress in Aotu's system had already reached the ninth day.
Entering the court, Tang Monk naturally cried out his injustice, explaining the ins and outs of the matter one by one, which was quite reasonable and well-supported.
However, the magistrate was unwilling to let the two of them go, because there was quite a lot of stolen silver, and he wanted to dip his own hands into it. Only by making this an ironclad case would it be convenient for him to reach in.
The magistrate then ordered torture to be applied, intending to extort a confession from Tang Monk.
Sun Wukong cast a spell, taking Tang Monk's place in receiving punishment.
He possessed a copper head and iron skull, a Vajra indestructible body—whether it was wooden clamps, clubs, or iron needle beds, all were useless.
Helpless, the magistrate had no choice but to temporarily imprison Tang Monk and his disciple.
When night fell, Sun Wukong transformed into a small insect, flew out of the prison, and landed in the magistrate's home. Disguised as the Night-Wandering God, he frightened the magistrate, saying that Tang Monk was a Buddha's son from the Western Heaven, a holy monk from the Eastern Land. He should release him quickly, or else divine spirits would bring punishment, and the entire city would know no peace.
After speaking, he conjured a giant foot out of thin air from the sky. It landed on the ground, stomping out a pit three feet and three inches deep. Seeing this, the magistrate was terrified out of his wits—how could he dare disobey?
Sun Wukong left with a smile.
By now, the progress in Aotu's system was at nine days. Even if it reached tomorrow, it would only be ten days—still five days short of the half-month interception reward.
But Aotu was not worried; he had his own methods.
After Sun Wukong left, some time passed, and Aotu entered the magistrate's home, transforming into the likeness of Ananda.
The magistrate had just been frightened by Sun Wukong, and now seeing Aotu descend in this form, he immediately kowtowed and bowed without cease, speaking incoherently: "Buddha, Bodhisattva, this official knows his wrongs, knows his wrongs! I will release the holy monk at once; I dare not do this again!"
Aotu said, "I am Venerable Ananda, seated at the side of Tathagata Buddha in the Western Heaven. The Buddha says that in your prison, you tortured the Buddha's son who is fetching scriptures, disturbing the peace of the gods of the Three Realms. He sent me to take you down to Avici Hell to suffer the punishment of rolling on knives and boiling in oil cauldrons."
The magistrate asked tremblingly, "Venerable one, what... what is this punishment of knife-rolling and oil cauldron?"
Aotu said, "It means rolling a person on blades, cutting the flesh into slices that hang from the body, then throwing them into an oil cauldron to fry."
Upon hearing this, the magistrate was terrified out of his wits, urine flowing out, and he couldn't stop kowtowing:
"This official knows his wrongs, this official knows his wrongs! I will never dare again! I beg the Venerable One to show mercy, show mercy! If the Venerable One can save this official's life, this official shall mobilize the entire city's resources to build a temple for the Venerable One, offering worship day and night without the slightest negligence!"
Aotu laughed inwardly. He hadn't expected the magistrate to be so timid. Originally, he had only prepared to delay five days, but seeing this situation, he simply aimed higher. In any case, the extra days wouldn't go to waste—if it didn't reach thirty days, they could still count toward the next tribulation.
Aotu said, "Very well. Seeing your sincerity, this Venerable One shall give you a chance to repent and start anew."
The magistrate was overjoyed upon hearing this and hurriedly bowed his head to listen.
Aotu said,
"Because of your greedy heart, you tortured the holy monk fetching scriptures, committing boundless sins. You should have suffered thirty-three years of punishment in Avici Hell to dissipate your sins. But seeing your sincere repentance, this Venerable One shall give you a method to reform.
Use your own wealth to set up a thousand tables of continuous feasts in the city, and invite that holy monk of the Tang Dynasty to perform thirty-three days of Buddhist rites to deliver the souls of the dead and universally aid the common people.
For each day you invite the holy monk to perform rites and hold a feast, one year of sin will be dissolved. Complete thirty-three days, and all sins will be erased. Do you understand?"
The magistrate hurriedly kowtowed. "Understood, understood!"
Aotu added, "This Venerable One has no desires and seeks nothing. I do not want your incense offerings. If you truly build a temple to worship me, and I learn of it, I will definitely cast you into boundless hell, never to reincarnate for eternity."
Hearing this, the magistrate believed even more in Aotu's identity and hurriedly agreed, expressing that he would not erect a temple.
Aotu concealed his form. Before leaving, he instructed,
"Remember, you must not speak of this matter to outsiders. If you leak the secrets of heaven, it will no longer be efficacious."
The magistrate kowtowed again. "Yes, yes, yes, this official understands."