Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Golden Wheel King was enjoying his meals and drinks with his courtiers. It was very lively and there was melodious music being played consistently using traditional Chinese instruments. There were four-gill sea bass, bear’s paw from North Sea, Mount Zhong’s cocklebur, Great Snow Mountain’s snow lotus and so on. These were rarely seen in outside world but in Golden Wheel King’s national treasury, it was something ordinary.
As for now, the food that Golden Wheel King loved the most was still the young ladies’ breast meat. It would firstly be reared with spiritual materials, cleansed with top quality wine, trained with yoga to give it soulful aura. It was so delicious because it had to go through ninety-nine stages of procedures.
Golden Wheel King always felt that even if at the Western Paradise, they like the Mahasattva might not even have such pleasure like what he was having.
The Mahasattva he was referring to was Big Bodhisattva who was close to being a Buddha.
When Golden Wheel King was satisfyingly enjoying his meal, suddenly there was a strong wind at the entrance of the palace, followed by a black smoke that dashed in directly and hit his body. It made him lose his stability and from then on, he started to fall sick.
People in the palace said that was a curse from Yu Duolou which finally arrived and attacked the monarch.
Ever since Shu Panna the Golden Wheel King stayed in his chamber, he rarely got out to meet anybody. It was said that there was a courtier who went to meet the monarch was beaten to death because he accidentally saw the scarlet spots on his arms.
Sometimes when the monarch fell sick, it did not affect him ruling the Jinji Country. The civilians would still have to pray for their monarch, hoping that Buddha would cure their monarch’s illness with a mighty force.
Ever since the monarch fell sick, there had been ten days of continuous heavy snow. The entire country became a city of ice. Majority of the people did not have warm clothes for winter, not even food. All they could do was to hide in the corners.
If one were to fall sick, he would not survive.
Originally, that snow would cause the death of many people. Luckily, three days before, there were two strange people that entered the country.
They were one male and one female, both looked like they were below the age of twenty.
The woman looked as beautiful as a princess. Most probably the civilians did not have the right to, or had never seen a princess, but they thought that only the monarch’s woman could look so beautiful. There were people who attempted to take liberty on her, but upon looking into her eyes, they were shocked and did not dare to move.
They said that the woman’s eyes were even sharper than the fastest sword in Jinji Country.
There was no man in Jinji Country that could compare to this man’s delicate appearance. His skin was fairer than the Great Snow Mountain, finer than the snow lotus flowers on top of the Great Snow Mountain. His eyes were equally special. According to the old folks, his eyes were even deeper than the last profound scholar and it was filled with the glow of wisdom. The profound scholar also came from another town. He used to say a lot of meaningful things which convinced both the poor and rich people and even some of the government officials. In the end, he was nailed on the wooden donkey and he died after suffering three days and three nights of pain.
From then onwards, there was no knowledgeable profound scholar in Jinji Country anymore. The civilians of Jinji Country also realized that they should not trespass against the monarch’s authority.
However, even if the amount of civilians who had castrated themselves were ten times more than the government officials, since then, there was nobody who could replace the vacancy of the government official who was executed by the monarch.
Upon observing the bones of the dead people with incomplete body parts that were abandoned outside of the palace walls because they did not have any family or descendants to bury them, the civilians accepted the fact that they were being treated like animals.
“This is already a hopeless world,” these were the profound scholar’s last words before he died. Even until now, this sentence was recognized by all the civilians and even the wealthy ones.
A man similar to the profound scholar that self-claimed he was a Daoist from the east had bought a house using gold. Every day, he would boil a big pot water outside of his house. Anybody who could get to his place to drink a bowl of hot water could not only get rid of all their illnesses, but they would also not feel hungry for a long time and their bodies will be filled with energy.
A lot of poor people could finally survive by depending on the water boiled by the Daoist.
The method of boiling water that could save people’s life was very easy. Firstly, the Daoist would take out a talisman and burn it. The ashes from burning would drop in the boiling hot water. He called this the holy water that could treat all kinds of diseases, even the disease of starving could be treated.
Everybody could only get a bowl of holy water, there was no second time. The Daoist’s wisdom could remember all the stars in the sky. Hence, no matter who came to attempt to take the second time, it would be discovered by him. His energy was definitely able to move nine cows. Therefore, those that were slightly pushed by him would fly out to somewhere far away.
Every day, he would only boil one pot of water, no more nor less.
After distributing the holy water, the Daoist would sit on his rooftop for story-telling. He would tell a lot of stories. The civilians barely had any entertainment usually, thus no matter how simple the story might seem, it would attract their interest. Even later there were many wealthy people and government officials who came over to listen to storytelling.
The Daoist was no doubt Shen Lian. The stories he told were also from the Buddhist scriptures that were so full of wit and humor that it took people’s minds off other things. If it was not because he had long hair and self-claimed that he was a Daoist, the others thought that he was the reincarnation of an eminent monk.
When the night approached, people were driven away by the cold wind and snow, and there were only Shen Lian and Fang Yanying left.
Fang Yanying asked, “Uncle-master, we’ve been in this city for three days and we realized that the people here lead terrible lives. Regardless of status, whether it’s the government officials, wealthy ones or the civilians, their eyes are filled with hopelessness. This is all caused by the monarch. He was eviler than a demon. He’s done a lot of bad things. Why do people like this still have such profound Dharma?”
Shen Lian said, “Tell me why you think he can’t have profound Dharma.”
“Disciple had seen a lot of monks in Xi Huang. They cultivate Dharma and they’re merciful, they rarely kill,” Fang Yanying spoke with honesty. The influence of Buddhism was so significant in Xi Huang that even she was influenced by what she saw and heard about Buddhism.
“How sure are you that the mercy you’ve seen is real? The monks enjoy worships from their believers but they don’t do anything productive for them. The monks use the excuse that they help to eliminate the demons to occupy spiritual vigor fortune lands to build majestic temples everywhere. You’d see luxurious temples everywhere in Xi Huang regardless of whether the land is fertile or infertile. Meanwhile, how many lives are buried beneath the temples?” Shen Lian scoffed.
Fang Yanying startled. She did not know there were so many hidden stories. Nevertheless, she still said, “But the senior monks lead very simple lives, they even used ascetic practices for self-improvements. They’re also very willing to help the civilians. They have both profound Dharma and a merciful heart.”
Shen Lian said, “Do you think the civilians in Westfall are living good lives?”
Fang Yanying was speechless. She was born in an elite family in Yuelun Kingdom. She was only accepted by Chen Jianmei as a disciple later. She had a tough diamond sutra heart since young and thus, she could have such extraordinary improvement in swordcraft. However, after all, she used to have knowledge about Buddhism which only surfaced after she came to this place and witnessed the sufferings of the Jinji Country’s civilians.
This also aroused her doubt in her understanding that one with a merciful heart must have profound Dharma.
Because Golden Wheel King was an exception, but he had Dharma way better than the senior monks and even comparable to the Golden Luohan.
The civilians in Jinji Country suffered but the civilians in Xi Huang was nowhere better. They were all the targets of exploitation.
Then Shen Lian chanted softly and said, “Since their Dharma is profound, they must have the power to change the plight of the civilians of lowest status. However, the sufferings they must have were no lesser. While the benefit that majority of the civilians get from Buddhism delivered by the monks was merely ‘learning how to endure’.”
