Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Yanying held her sword up high, a five-colored Halo circulated, and with a simple chop, Shan Jue’s head fell to the ground.
But when the head that fell from the neck rolled and turned, it reattached itself to Shan Jue’s headless body, seamless, it hardly looked as if the head was cut off in the first place.
Fang Yanying stepped back in shock, she did not expect the cultivation of this person to be so high. The head of person is the Point of Concentration for the Six Yang, once it is severed, death is sure to follow. But Shan Jue had a high cultivation, and could even reattach his decapitated head, without any trace of the decapitation.
If his head can be reattached, then it would surely not be of use to sever any of the limbs.
Shan Jue chuckled, “Daoist Shen, how about you make the move, poor monk moving unhindered between the heavens and earth, would not want to go back and take the walk of reincarnation again.”
Fang Yanying turned back to see Shen Lian, but the Uncle-Master only smiled lightly. She took the sword and abruptly delivered another chop, the head fell and reattached itself again.
But then the more times she chopped off his head, the more Shan Jue’s body looked withered. After countless times of repeating her actions, in the end Shan Jue fell to the floor and seated cross-legged, his body was like gold all over, his skeleton and skin the only visible remains. The gold light faintly emanated from within him, similar was the skull that lay just beside, motionless.
It was only now that Fan Yanying retracted her sword and walked towards the Uncle-Master. Shen Lian let out a breath, and the golden body immediately turned to dust, mixing with the soil of the netherworld. At the end there was spring water that flowed through, converging into a small lake, the golden dust became one with the soil and turned into golden sand. A single lotus flower blossomed in the middle of the pond, swaying with the wind, calm as the breeze, a distant feeling of Zen was present.
Shen Lian softly asked, “Is there any difference in your heart now that you’ve killed him?”
Fan Yanying replied, “There is none.”
Shen Lian looked at her with praise, and warmly said, “Where there is life, there is also death. One only fears that immortal Zhenren and Golden-Bodied Arhat are the same, there must be added cautiousness when one cultivates higher, yet one cannot lose the spirit of aggressive bravery. Just like riding against the current, your state of mind must be even more aware. Shan Jue is strong in chi, barring a calamity, whether he dies by your hand or mine is no different, only by my hand or by the laws of heaven, the trouble for it. Actually, I gave him the chance to lay out his conditions for a way back to life, but there was actually a meaning behind it. He still wanted to be calculative, it could be said that his last chance at life was vanished just like that. Both the lives he cultivated, it is all just a picture now. Such a pity.”
Fan Yanying replied, “According to your words, Shan Jue cultivated in both lives. But is it not true that when you are reincarnated, Daoist immortality becomes harder, could it be that nothing could bind him?
Shen Lian laughed, “In the 3 thousand years of Qing Xuan history, the only twice Daoist Immortal is my master, fairy Ziling. Therefore, to be twice the Daoist, is incredibly hard, and this is not an exaggeration. However, this is not applicable to Buddhists, for they have their own secret method of reincarnation, capable of bringing with them all the cultivation, start afresh, progress, become one, and finally break free of all restraints with the use of the their great technique; proof of an Arhat, Budhha. Only on this point, they are supreme, and can be considered better than those of the Profound School.”
Thoughtfully, Fan Yanying said, “Putting it that way, the Ultimate Indigenous Technique of Buddhism, could it be greater than Daoism?”
Shen Lian answered, “True obsession, the Way of Dao is there, even though there is no difference between those who are enlightened, one fears the long nights and many dreams, the Golden-Bodied Arhat can perhaps easily be proved, but for Buddha’s karma, thousands of years of cultivation is not necessarily enough, lingering in this word, in oneself only good and bad are born, born floating, karma floating, the more time passes, the more likely it is to encounter danger. One bit of carelessness, and the ending will not differ from Shan Jue today.”
He paused, then continued, “The Buddhist sect passed down a saying: a good man who passes the immeasurable trials, can then become Buddha. But these immeasurable trials take place over a long span of time, and whoever can guarantee nothing happens during that period? That is why people of my generation only cultivate today and ask nothing of the next life, treading lightly as if on thin ice, being able to stay content even in times of adversity.”
Shen Lian spoke with a certain spring, and gesticulated, one hand stretched out, with eerie-looking bones, but it was not the “ghostly” eerie, there was even a sort of easy-goingness about him that was indescribable.
Fan Yanying felt a bit of sadness, and asked Shen Lian, “Uncle-Master, can your hand ever heal?”
Calmly, Shen Lian told her, “There is a tree by the name of Dancing Tree, on it lies the Fruit of Immortality. As long as you find the tree and witness its subtlety, I would feel that tiny bit of success, and restoring this hand will be easier, and by that time I can have a showdown with Chen Beidou.”
Fan Yanying asked, “So do we still explore this netherworld?”
Leisurely was the reply, “We have the earthen jar of which Zhen Junyi left with the Dao meaning, now we shall not think too much, obtain some of the netherworld soil, and let us go.”
Fan Yanying looked again at the small lake and the lotus flower in it, obviously it is an extremely precious thing, and after all it came from a Golden-Bodied Arhat. But from the reaction of the Uncle-Master, clearly it was not needed.
She somehow felt that there was a deeper reason for leaving behind the golden lake, but could not figure out why. She wanted to ask, but felt that if she had done that, it would have been stooping below her level. In the end she kept her mouth shut.
Shen Lian took a handful of the netherworld soil with his skeleton hand, and immediately there was black smoke, and one bone disintegrated. His expression looked content, but not because he absorbed the power of the soil, but because he challenged the laws, and comprehended the fine truth, and gained a deeper understating of the soil. The Netherworld kept death and stored filth, but this can be described as a virtue, for it cleansed the soil and kept it fertile for the new growth. In the laws of heaven, in in its eyes nothing is higher or lower. Just like the virtuousness of water, carrying everything be it the upper or lower stream. This closely resembles Daoism.
Appreciating the significance, after a while, Shen Lian raised the Copper Gong and Heart Light, shouldering his robe, the Heart Light shone brightly, and in the void a long bridge appeared, carrying them out of the netherworld.
On the other side, the snow had already vanished, and what remained to be seen was a huge swirl, slowly moving, swallowing the surrounding heath, with no sign of shrinking. Shen Lian thought for a moment, and exclaimed, “The Jintu sect is not far from here, leave it to the rest of them to settle the endgame.”
Not long after Shen Lian and Fan Yanying left, two clouds appeared, a monk seated on the each of them. Both were full moon, eyes wide like a lotus flower, their monk clothes moved with the wind. Difficult to describe in words, the outward demeanour of the two monks, in the realm of the living, one would fear that they attract countless female followers, and also giving a male followers a sense of good feeling.
Bhudda used to build grand temples for the people to be in shock and awe, sent out treasures and venerable monks, converted sentient beings. The treasure of the two monks were enough to save the world, which was why they walked amongst the people. Therefore after noticing the irregularities, they came the earliest.
One of them muttered, “Under Great Snow Mountain is actually the netherworld, how unexpected.”
The other replied, “No wonder Monk Shan Jue visited the Temple of Light, because it still concealed and harboured this secret. The netherworld is home to many monsters. I think even cracking it down takes some merit, this can even be used as a pretext to evolve into Diyu Dao, creating a small karmic cycle, from the looks of it God wanted to encourage Jintu Dao.”
“Excellent, excellent, but for the demise of Great Snow Mountain and the emergence of the netherworld, there must be a reason. It is best we report to the Zen master first.”
“Good.”
