Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Shangguan Ru felt more and more that this wasn’t something Lotus would do. Kidnapping and espionage weren’t at all a part of the killer’s style. Yes, the Waning Moon Hall was well-versed in all kinds of fantastic secret arts and knockout drugs, and they made full use of them to kill, sometimes even outdoing the Golden Roc Castle. But it was exactly because of this that they rarely wasted them on anything other than killing.
Shangguan Ru’s impression of Lotus was that of a person with a bottom-line. Everyone said that the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall were all crazy, but throughout all the tough times Shangguan Ru had spent with her in the Land of Fragrance, she hadn’t found anything unusual.
In spite of the repeated betrayals she had suffered and the fact that those closest to her kept secrets from her, Shangguan Ru still persisted in trusting her own judgment.
But this was not the most urgent problem at hand.
There were already twenty or so monks who were on the verge of losing control, each acting as a catalyst for the others. Everyone had the same idea in mind: Why can’t I do it if he can?
Most of the nuns on the other side were very old and therefore could still keep their composure, but there were two younger nuns whose hearts were beginning to beat faster and their bodies heating up. They couldn’t help but look up at the monks near the door. Though they didn’t get up, their eyes said everything implicitly.
But most of the monks were still focused on Xiao Fengchai. These people were disciples of the famous temples and had little contact with the mundane world. Just the word ‘prostitute’ was enough to make them blush and their hearts beat fast, not to mention the one in front of them who was a real courtesan and looked more gorgeous than the enchantress that occasionally entered their dreams.
Xiao Fengchai’s face turned pale. Although she was a prostitute, she wasn’t humble, and she was even more reserved than many high-born maidens. “Tenth Gongzi, your kung fu is very good, isn’t it?”
Shangguan Ru comforted her, saying, “Don’t worry. I won’t let them lay a finger on you.”
Having said that, she was actually unsure about if she could keep her promise. If there were only one to two monks, or even three to four, she was sure she could handle it even if she had no internal energy left. But with so many people grouping up, it was hard to protect herself, let alone others.
The best course of action would have been to rush out of the tent as the courtyard had more room to maneuver, but the monks happened to have barricaded the door.
“Masters, it’s time to get up and help.” Shangguan Ru could only ask the senior monks of the Four Noble Truths Temple for help. But she was taken aback at what she saw when she looked down.
Fayan was all right. Though his smile was a little stiff, he looked normal with his eyes closed, still meditating. Lianqing, however, was staring at Xiao Fengchai and Shangguan Ru with his eyes wide open and a posture of a hungry tiger, whose eyes roved over their bodies as he whispered to himself with a low voice, “She’s a prostitute, there’s nothing I can’t touch. This is not the Retention Alley, and there’s no need to worry it about even if I don’t have money…”
The monks looked at each other. When one person took a step forward, those next to him would take a step as well and half-like a multi-footed monster, the group slowly pressed forward towards the two women who were in the innermost of the room.
Perhaps feeling that Shangguan Ru was also trembling in fear, Xiao Fengchai knew that this ‘Tenth Gongzi’ might not be able to protect her, so she steeled her heart and stood out in front of Shangguan Ru instead. She held her head high and asked, “Who’s in charge here?”
Xiao Fengchai, who had just arrived, hadn’t exchanged much more than a few cursory words with Shangguan Ru and didn’t know what was going on, so she thought that as long as there was someone in charge here she could subdue him.
No one answered her question. The monks were engaged in a fierce struggle. Like normal people, they had to find a suitable excuse before breaking their precepts and doing evil. The servant monk of Kumie straightened his justifications first, and he pointed to Xiao Fengchai and loudly said, “She’s a whore, a demon that has come to bewitch the world, and we are going to subdue the demon.”
“Subdue the demon, subdue the demon…” The other monks echoed and shuffled forward a little.
“If even the Buddha was seduced by the enchantress, then how can we persist? We don’t have the Buddha’s composure, and we are thus forced to break the precept.”
“We are forced, forced…” The monks were eager to try, leaving only a thin layer of obstacles in their hearts.
“Women are all demons!” Nobody knew who yelled this out, but it was the signal for the monks to rush up in a crowd, falling over one another. Only Lianqing who was sitting besides the two had a favorable position, and therefore wasn’t affected. He jumped to his feet, shouting, “That’s what prostitutes do!” Then he stretched out his arms though he tried to grab both Xiao Fengchai and Shangguan Ru at the same time.
“Amitabha!” A thunderous chant rang out, which rumbled in everyone’s ears. The crowd tottered and almost fell. Lianqing’s kung fu, however, was very good and therefore, he was hurt the most, falling to the ground and fainting after a short yelp.
Shangguan Ru and Xiao Fengchai supported each other and therefore were the ones who stood the firmest in the tent.
Fayan’s smile wilted, and he began reciting a sutra that all the monks and nuns were unfamiliar with. Its pronunciation was strange and the tone equally dull, but it had the power to directly reach a person’s heart. It was like thunder, successive and endless, and also like the ocean, wave upon wave, reaching for the sky.
The monks had never heard of the scripture but Shangguan Ru was very familiar with it. It was precisely the Essay of Severing Obsession that she had learned from Master Lianhua and recited every day. But Fayan’s pronunciation of it was very different from what she had heard before and the effect was also quite different. She could only use it to remove her murderous heart but the old skinny monk could influence others with it, and he could also remove more than just killing desire.
Shangguan Ru involuntarily followed along in reciting it in a soft voice and gradually calmed down and was no longer disturbed no matter how Fayan’s voice changed.
Xiao Fengchai was probably the only person in the room who was not influenced by the old monk. She found the chanting of the sutra to be dull and toneless and worst of all, it was incredibly loud. So she was amazed when Shangguan Ru actually began chanting along with the monk. Although she had experienced countless hardships and obstacles in her life, never once had she been so bewildered as now, not even knowing who her enemy was.
The chanting lasted for a quarter of an hour and didn’t stop until the officer burst in with several soldiers. “It’s fxxking noisy, shut up!”
Fayan stopped. Over forty monks and nuns, except for the unconscious Lianqing, all sat upright as if they had been enlightened and became Buddha.
The officer, who had come with the intention of seeing something unsightly, didn’t expect it to end up like this. “I have to bring more women. I guess these two are not enough.”
The officer left. The monks and nuns started meditating again, none of them thanking Fayan. Shangguan Ru admired the senior monk very much and kneeled respectfully while facing him, trying to say something several times but stopped every time she opened her mouth.
Fayan slowly opened his eyes and smiled again. “The early deaths of Lianhua and Lianxin really was a great loss to Buddhism.”
Thinking of the Tiger Monk who had helped cure her disease and Lianhua who had taught her the Essay of Severing Obsession, Shangguan Ru suddenly felt sadness well up in her heart and almost burst into tears.
Xiao Fengchai, who didn’t understand what the monk had said, interjected, “Many thanks to the old monk who knows magic. I’ve seen monks visit the Retention Alley before but I’ve never seen any monks as impatient and lustful as they are.”
“Someone drugged the rice,” Shangguan Ru explained in a soft voice.
“I see. I didn’t know the tricks of the Retention Alley are also popular in the Royal Court.” Xiao Fengchai who looked solemn continued sitting on her knees side by side with Shangguan Ru, ready to listen to the eminent monk’s speech. She had already taken Fayan to be the one in charge of the tent.
“Master has such an amazing technique; why don’t you use it to enlighten the world?” Well-versed in the Essay of Severing Obsession, Shangguan Ru was immediately intrigued after finding that it had such a magical effect. It was like someone who had practiced a set of sword techniques for decades and suddenly heard that it had another set of formidable moves, and was naturally overjoyed at the news.
The unconscious Lianqing happened to wake up at the moment. Hearing this, he was so ashamed that he hid behind his Master and dared not even look at the two women.
Fayan smiled and shook his head. “People’s mind are always complicated and unpredictable. Each influences may bring unexpected results, and today’s cleansing may become tomorrow’s evil thoughts. And as you’ve just heard, people can still find an excuse to break their precepts even after years of studying Buddhism.”
Xiao Fengchai was more experienced than Shangguan Ru and therefore, was deeply touched by the senior monk’s words. She sighed and said, “It’s not just the monks. This kind of thing happens every day in the Retention Alley. The more sanctimonious they look, the more vicious they are to our sisters. And they often act under the banner of benevolence and righteousness and morality, as if them going out whoring with prostitutes is a great act of benevolence. They always treat us as nothing good or sometimes don’t even treat us as humans at all so that they can justify treating us inhumanly. He who does evil to prostitutes thinks he’s performing righteous acts on behalf of Heaven.”
Fayan nodded. “Benefactress is quite right.”
Spellbound by what the other two were saying, though Lianqing was too embarrassed to turn his head, he could not refrain from interjecting, saying, “There are plenty of people everywhere doing evil deeds with good cause. Just look at those emperors. They obviously want to satisfy their own desires of conquering new land but always list several serious crimes of the other side and call their opponents worse than pigs and dogs. Alas, even bandits are the same. Back then, my brothers and I always said that the rich people were heartless and we had to rob them to feed the poor. But in fact, no matter if they were kind or unkind, we would rob them as long as they were rich but powerless. We would hide far away if the ones we met were from Golden Roc Castle or the Meng family. As for assisting the poor, that was a joke. If we gave a beggar a few pieces of silver, we would keep mentioning it for a lifetime.”
Shangguan Ru was shocked to the core upon hearing these words because what the three had just said were strangely similar to that of Old Man Mu, and she had never taken Old Man Mu’s crooked heretical ideas seriously. “There’s a… devil who told me once that there were four levels of villainy in the world. The lowest villains make up reasons for doing evil like what you’ve just said; the average villains are forced by reasons provided by others to justify their actions. For example… revenge; the advanced villains create their own reasons; and the top villains don’t need reasons at all, so these devils commit all manners of evil…”
Lianqing let out a long sigh. “It turns out I used to be the lowest of the evildoers.”
Fayan actually didn’t think this theory was all nonsense and praised instead. “The benefactor who said this is a man of great comprehension, but it’s a pity that the conclusion he drew is completely wrong.”
“What else can be concluded from these words?” Xiao Fengchai couldn’t believe it. She felt that her level was a bit higher than Lianqing’s but hadn’t yet reached the level of needing no reason at all.
“That benefactor saw that good and evil are inseparably interconnected and therefore believed that doing evil was the root of the world. But what I see is that good will always exist just like how the shadows always follow behind you. Everything has the heart of the Buddha, and that’s what the saying ‘laying down the butcher knife and becoming Buddha’ means. If needing no reason is the reason, then what’s the difference between the top villains and the lowest villains?”
Shangguan Ru suddenly understood. She had never thought about Old Man Mu’s words seriously. Now after thinking it carefully, Old Man Mu was actually ‘making up’ excuses to do evil deeds. It was just that his excuses were more complicated and more reasonable but essentially they were no different from the lowly villains he had despised.
“Can the evildoer ever change into a well-doer?” Shangguan Ru’s voice was trembling. This was the long haunting secret and expectation of her: ‘If the Dragon King could get rid of his evil thoughts…’
