Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Yanying clearly felt that, with a thought of it, she could refine the power of merit. Instantly, her mana could reach the peak, just below immortality, and she would be closer to being an immortal Zhenren.
However, she gave up on this thought because she did not cultivate this mana by herself, it would be difficult to climb to an even higher state in the future. Although to many people, the peak of mana in Powang state was already something that was beyond reach.
She actually got trapped in an awkward situation right now because her achievement on Shapeless Sword incantation was already at level ten. Moreover, through Shen Lian’s imperceptible influence along the entire journey, it stabilized her fundamental which was shaken due to sudden improvement. Nonetheless, she still had not achieved Huandan and enter the path of Daoism.
In other words, now her strength could not be measured simply using the nine states of cultivation. She did not get out of this cultivation hierarchy, thus she still had to reach the final step to break away from whims, which was Powang, and attain Primordial Spirit to be an immortal Zhenren.
She did not enter the path of Daoism and Huandan was not due to her insufficient state, but due to the fact that Shapeless Sword incantation was already somehow not suitable for her. She needed to be like her master to get out of the boundaries of Shapeless Sword incantation and create a new swordcraft. This process could either be done easily or it would never be achieved at all in one’s entire life.
However, despite the blood and tears, she would still continue this journey without any second thought. It was not to inherit her honored master’s glory, but the fact that she was really willing to sacrifice everything for swordcraft.
Fang Yanying’s heart was indecisive. In the end, she decided to infuse part of her merit’s power into the Five Elements Magical Sword as means of repaying her uncle-master. However, the Five Elements Magical Sword only took in a small part of the merit’s power, it did not accept Fang Yanying’s merit.
Shen Lian pointed out his finger, endless Qi of Dao was released from his translucent, jade-like finger. Instantly, it took away Fang Yanying’s power of merit which condensed into a dark golden hairpin that flew to Fang Yanying’s hand in the end.
“This golden hairpin can save you when you face danger. Remember that you can only use this for three times, be cautious while using it,” Shen Lian clasped his hands behind his back and said while looking at somewhere far away.
Fang Yanying did not reject it and softly inserted this golden hairpin into her bun. Her silky hair was like the clouds and waterfall, it was difficult to see the golden hairpin from outside and it was unnoticeable.
However, Fang Yanying felt that her mind became clearer after wearing this hairpin. This could be another function of merit.
She took a bow with respect to her uncle-master and asked, “Are we going to continue our journey, uncle-master?”
Shen Lian said, “Let’s go.”
Fang Yanying was about to speak but she said nothing in the end. She wanted to ask her uncle-master where their next destination was because she already understood that coming to this place was not a coincidence.
Shen Lian could figure out her thought, he smiled and said, “Do you still remember what the senior monk said before he died?”
Fang Yanying said without hesitation, “He said he couldn’t see the udumbara flowers blossom.”
Shen Lian said leisurely, “The world has udumbara but there were only fruits and no flower. When Buddha visits the mortal world, only will it blossom.” He paused for a while and continued saying, “This was what Buddha told his disciple, Ah Nan. This is also the extraordinary thing about this udumbara. The place we’re going has an udumbara. The tree will only blossom with flowers when Buddha is present in the mortal world. Otherwise, it’d only bear fruits, there’d be no flowers.”
Fang Yanying muttered, “There’s actually such an extraordinary tree in this world. Udumbara must be something special. Will we be able to see it when we are there?”
Shen Lian said, “When you see it, this world would then have Buddha.”
Actually, there was more to it. Aside from Buddha, there were still the legendary primitive six Buddhas, one of them was Kanakamuni who attained enlightenment under the udumbara. That period of time, the flowers blossomed and showered in all directions of the world which proved the Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, the enlightenment in Buddhism.
Although the legendary primitive six Buddhas were not comparable to Buddha, their abilities were not far from each other. They might even be better than Founding Master Zhu Yuanqing. If Shen Lian wanted to go to the place where the udumbara grow, it would be the place where Kanakamuni had appeared before, the Jinji Country.
At that moment, in the capital of Jinji Country, there was an enormous tree which the leaves were as big as pears. There were a lot of fruits growing on the tree branches. The big ones were as big as a fist, the small ones were as small as a thumb. That was exactly the udumbara.
Below the tree was a palace. Inside the palace lived the monarch of Jinji Country named Golden Wheel King. He had the same Dharma as Golden Luohan. Even the Zen master of the eight sects of Buddhism had to be courteous to him.
There were originally two monarchs in Jinji Country because, at that period of time when Kanakamuni manifested as an incarnation, he accepted two disciples. One named Shu Panna, and another one named Yu Duolou.
These two who came from the same sect vowed that their descendants would never betray each other. Jinji Country would be under the control of these two families at the same time. The two families would take turns to choose one candidate to be the monarch, and each chosen one could hold the position for one hundred years.
However, one of Shu Panna’s generation had disobeyed their ancestors’ vow and massacred all Yu Duolou’s descendants, one, fortunately, managed to escape, that was the senior monk that Shen Lian and Fang Yanying met.
To commemorate their ancestors’ achievement, every descendant who had the achievement of Golden Luohan would be crowned with the ancestors’ name.
Hence, at that time, the monarch of Jinji Country, Golden Wheel King, was named ‘Shu Panna’.
Perhaps because Yu Duolou’s family was massacred by Shu Panna, there was resentment lingering that would not disappear. Thus, all these years in Shu Panna’s family, their descendants died one after another. Except for their monarch, there was no descendant left in Shu Panna’s family.
Upon the death of his family members, Shu Panna became reserved and surreptitious. He was very strict in ruling the civilians of Jinji Country. He even announced an act that if one were to be a Jinji Country’s government official, he must have castrated and he must be a loner.
Due to the fact that all government officials in Jinji Country were perverted, incomplete beings, their minds were twisted and it had worsened the exploitation of their civilians. Although, everywhere in the north was freezing cold, because Jinji Country used to have traces of Buddhism, it contributed to these three thousand miles of habitable land.
The monarch had mastered all the advanced Dharma in his hands. The civilians without Dharma that depended on their own were unable to cross the wilderness to find a new habitable land. They could only endure the exploitation by their monarch and the government officials.
It was pathetic that the civilians had sacrificed everything to live such torturous life. They did not even have proper clothing and sufficient food to survive. The fruits from udumbara in the palace were left to rot instead of being given out to the civilians that were considered as having lower status in the eyes of their monarch and government officials.
In the beginning, Jinji Country encountered drought for a few years, there were no clouds and no rain. That time, the monarch had given the fruits from udumbara to the civilians because for every fruit they took, they would not feel hungry for the next three months.
Now, the corpses of people who died of starvation could be seen everywhere in Jinji Country. You could even trade a young girl for an udumbara fruit. Thus, to be able to survive, all poor people could do was to keep reproducing offspring. If the child was a son, they would give it up.
Young ladies were the most delicious. They were sacrificed to the Golden Wheel King and the supporting officials to feed on to maintain their youth. That was the way they maintained immortality.
