Judged by her powerless steps, Master Jingxin was normal. Ding Ning frowned and overturned his previous conjecture.
“Who saved me on earth? Who’s that scarred man?”
Along the way, he met a few little nuns, who respectfully saluted Master Jingxin and stealthily looked at Ding Ning with curiosity.
Ding Ning returned a courteous smile, making several little nuns blush and trot away shyly.
Silently following Master Jingxin, he carefully examined the changes in his body.
In no time, Ding Ning had horror in his eyes. It was a shock, not joy.
His eight extra meridians were all channeled, and his plentiful True Qi had now diffused and begun running in his ever-expanding meridians.
This was not the most important thing. What surprised him the most was that his “God” had turned into a double-faced Buddha, with one side being golden compassionate and the other being black and evil?
“What on earth is going on here? Why did an injury become something like this?”
“Wait a minute…” Suddenly, he remembered that there seemed to be a bodhisattva-like fairy doing the adult thing with him in his dream. “Was that real or not?
“If it is fantasy, why did a long paragraph of the Great Happiness Zen’s formula appear inexplicably in his mind?
“But if it is true, is there a real bodhisattva in the world? How could she practice Zen with him in his dream?”
Ding Ning fell into a complete perplexity. It seemed real and unreal and was like fantasy and a dream. This gave him a unreal sense and more misgivings.
“Creak!”
Master Jingxin pushed open the door of a Buddhist room and walked in.
The room was poorly embellished: no sign of even a bed but a mattress and a bookshelf. On the bookshelf lay a variety of Buddhist sutras and ancient books with yellowish pages.
Master Jingxin, who remained in silence, went to the bookshelf, randomly pulled out an ancient book made of unknown materials and passed it on to Ding Ning.
Ding Ning, looking at her doubtfully, took the ancient book and opened it.
This ancient book had no name, but the characters in it were nothing like what Ding Ning had seen before. They were symbolic runes.
To his surprise, he did not recognize any of these runes but did understand them.
He was shocked by the content of the book. Every well-known but extremely ancient names appeared in this ancient book.
In ancient times, the living environment of uncivilized human beings was extremely harsh: giant, fearful wild beasts, terrible natural disasters, and epidemic plagues and diseases…
After a tenacious struggle, human beings finally learned to huddle together for warmth and lived in tribes.
Gradually there emerged some powerful men, such as Suiren, who drilled wood to make fires; Fuxi, who invented the yin-yang sign, created Chinese characters, knitted nets with ropes to teach people to go fishing and hunt, invented the zither, and composed music pieces; Mr. Shennong, who tried hundreds of kinds of herbs to test poisons and helped humans relieve the plague…
But these ancient saints in myths and legends were not protagonists in this ancient book. The real protagonist was Chiyou, one of the three great ancestors of mankind. He once competed for hegemony with Yan Emperor and Yellow Emperor, but he failed.
In the myths and legends that were passed down for thousands of years, Chiyou and Yan Emperor fought ferociously for the position of a tribal chief. After his defeat, Yan Emperor joined forces with Yellow Emperor and killed Chiyou.
However, in this ancient book, the statements were quite different from legends. Chiyou and Yan Emperor, descendants of the Shennong tribe, were two rising stars who got the essence of Shennong’s leechcraft.
They had been like brothers but went on separate ways for their different attitudes and concepts toward leechcraft development.
Yan Emperor was more traditional, believing that Shennong’s leechcraft inheritance was orthodox, and that inheritance and development were the canonical way; Chiyou was more radical, believing that the theory of the saints was not necessarily all correct and that human bodies were the greatest treasure, so people shouldn’t be constrained by the medical theory of the saints.
They went tit-for-tat in academic theory, and neither was convinced. Yan Emperor believed he was subverting tradition with false reasoning doctrine, a sign of disrespect to ancestors. Chiyou scoffed at it, believing constant evolvement was king as he tapped the potential of the human body on the basis of the saints’ theory.
Amid innumerable arguments and the time for the tribal chief election, they finally agreed on working on their separate leechcraft with their own supporters, and the more skilled would become the tribal chief.
Unexpectedly, Chiyou was a rare genius. He took a new approach to tap the potential of the human body. He experimented on himself and transformed himself into an Achillean body monster with eight feet, three heads, six arms, a bronze head, and an iron forehead.
The 81 brothers who followed him were also transformed into the monsters with animal bodies, bronze heads and iron foreheads that spoke the human language and ate sand. Their combating capabilities, however, were incredible.
On the day of the tribal chief election, when Chiyou appeared with his brothers, they were regarded as demons by the tribal people.
Quite contented, Chiyou told Yan Emperor that his research had been very fruitful and that he was now in the most powerful form of human fighting strength.
Competed with him on leechcraft, Yan Emperor was finally lost. Angry from embarrassment, he severely scolded Chiyou as an oddity, puissance, turmoil, and ghost-and-deity-related stuff, which were disrespectful to the divine of creation, and called on the tribal people to slay him.
Incited by Yan Emperor, the Shennong tribe surrounded and suppressed Chiyou and his brothers as demons.
Unexpectedly, Chiyou and his 81 brothers fought like gods after the transformation. Yan Emperor was routed and fled with his remnant soldiers.
Chiyou established his Jiuli Tribe and proclaimed himself Divine of Wizard. He also conferred titles to Divine Generals of Five Elements and Four Guardians of Wind, Mist, Thunder, Darkness, or the Nine Great Wizard Generals by their joint name.
The Shennong tribe collapsed, leaving the tribes in ancient central China constantly battling each other. Xuanyuan, or Yellow Emperor, took the chance to conquer different tribes. Tribal chiefs surrendered and joined him in succession.
Yellow Emperor fought nine battles with Chiyou in three years and won none, thus forming tripartite confrontation of Yan Emperor, Yellow Emperor, and Chiyou.
Not satisfied as a regional king, Yan Emperor eventually allied with Yellow Emperor’s tribe to jointly fight against demon Chiyou.
Yan Emperor’s and Huang Emperor’s tribe assembled troops in Zhuolu for the final battle with Jiuli. Chiyou, skilled in fighting with knives, axes, and goads, was relentless and unrivaled in bravery. Yellow Emperor couldn’t outmatch him and had to ask for the help of the Xuannv Tribe.
The battle ended in devastation and bloodbath. Finally, Jiutian Xuannv, chief of the Xuannv Tribe constrained Chiyou when Yellow Emperor delivered the fatal strike.
After the war, Yellow Emperor, out of his respect to Chiyou, conferred him the title of “God of War”. His brave image was so fearful that Yellow Emperor drew it on his army flags to raise morale. At the sight of his image, tribal chiefs would surrender without fighting.
If the records in this ancient book was just a story, Ding Ning would at most regard it as a myth or legend.
This part, however, mentioned that the reason why Jiutian Xuannv was willing to help Yellow Emperor. She would be awarded the Nine Orifice Stone Man made by Chiyou out of the Rainbow Stones.
Although it didn’t mention whether Jiutian Xuannv really got the Nine Orifice Stone Man or not, it did mention Chiyou had sealed his lifetime research achievements in the Nine Orifice Stone Man.
This story struck Ding Ning like lightning. His hands and feet became icy cold because the Nine Orifice Stone Man was his biggest secret. Master Jingxin clearly knew the stone man’s origin and existence since she let him read the ancient book.
Ding Ning showed unease on his face, and his eyes shone ferocious light. He even had the idea of killing her to keep her mouth shut for good. After several rounds of internal conflicts, he finally restored his calm face.
He had a bottom line, and killing a powerless elder woman who was most likely to be his savior, he just couldn’t do it.
Jingxin remained peaceful. Even when Ding Ning’s eyes showed ferocious light, her face had no trace of fear.
Seeing that he finally curbed his homicidal intent, she had a gratified smile, saying kindly, “Son, do you know the origin of the stone man now?”
“Master, is this really the Nine Orifice Stone Man of Chiyou?”
Ding Ning asked with an unbelievable tone.
“Ancient times were so far away that no one knew for sure, but most likely this is.”
Master Jingxin’s eyes were blazing like torches, dull but calm.
Ding Ning had mixed feelings on his face. “The ancient book says that Emperor Huang offered to reward Jiutian Xuannv with the Nine Orifice Stone Man for her help. Did he give her or not?
“That I don’t know. As a matter of fact, the Nine Orifice Stone Man appeared countless times in the history of ancient China. Legend has it that it was made from the last piece of the rainbow stone once used by Nvwa to patch the sky. This rare stone encompassed the essence of heaven and earth and its every reappearance would cause bloody competition and killing. Its ownership changed many times, but no one was able to obtain Chiyou’s inheritance from the stone man. It contained nothing but Chiyou’s lifetime research achievements, but it was finally regarded as an ominous stone because of the contamination by too much blood.”
Master Jingxin sighed slightly, her eyes turning complex.
Ding Ning scratched his head. “It’s not logical. Didn’t the last rainbow stone turn into the Monkey King?”
“Puff!”
Though she was indifferent to joy and sadness, Master Jingxin was amused by Ding Ning’s words. “Son, Monkey King is a fictional figure. Do you really think a monkey will jump out of a stone crack?”
Ding Ning sneered. “If Chiyou and Jiutian Xuannv are real, then who can deny Monkey King’s existence?”
“Not as mysterious as you think, those legendary figures of the three emperors, five sovereigns, Chiyou and Jiutian Xuannv did exist and were deliberately exaggerated by the suspicion and imagination of later generations before they became myths and legends. In my opinion, they were not gods but highly-trained warriors. To put it more plainly, they were just tribal chiefs with great martial arts skills.
Master Jingxin’s words got the point and enlightened Ding Ning. But even so, he still admired the ancient times so much because that period was absolutely a world of much advanced martial arts powers far beyond the modern world.
“The Nine Orifice Stone Man should have seven colors, but has become black as it was stained and wrapped by layers of blood.”
Master Jingxin’s words came as a great shock. Ding Ning was startled and stared at the stone man on his chest in horror. “F*ck, the black color is blood, is it true?”
“No doubt this is absolutely plasma, but only the essential blood from top masters that wraps the rainbow stone can dye it black after countless years of precipitation.”
Master Jingxin seemed to see through Ding Ning’s doubts, and without waiting for his question, she offered the explanation, “The Nine Orifice Stone Man changed ownership several times in history, and all of the owners were super strong, their power beyond the cognition of modern people. Every owner would draw their essential blood for the recognition of the stone. Unfortunately, no one ever made it except you. You are the only one who got the recognition.”
Ding Ning was dumbstruck and awed the old nun immediately. His lips trembled and he said, “How did you know that?”
“Because you are the descendant of Chiyou’s bloodline.”
The reply of Master Jingxin was like a thunderbolt from the cloudless sky that stroke Ding Ning and made him speechless.
“Chiyou had tens of thousands of wives and children in his life. After his defeat and death, a large part of them was assimilated into the Yanhuang Tribe, while a small part fled into the barren land and had lost contacts ever since. The Nine Orifice Stone Man is the key to Chiyou’s lifetime achievements. Only his descendants, or more precisely his atavistic line, can open the seal. This is only my guess, but I believe it’s infinitely close to the truth.”
The light of wisdom shone in the eyes of Master Jingxin, who stared at Ding Ning quietly and said, “To be the Buddha or a demon, it’s all up to you. Chiyou’s lifetime heritage could change the structure of the world. It is a double-edged sword. Used properly, it can bring blessings, otherwise, disasters to the mortal world. How do you want to use it?”
“I am a doctor. It is my duty to save lives and heal the injured. I will do my best to benefit the world.”
After the initial shock and panic, Ding Ning replied firmly.
