Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Shangguan Ru took a sip of her tea and carefully savored it with her head slightly raised. Feeling a bit embarrassed and confused, she asked the monk opposite her, “I’m drinking tea but I feel like I’m drinking wine. Am I keeping or breaking the precept?”
“Breaking the precept.” The monk’s answer was quite straightforward.
“It’s really hard to be a monk. Fortunately, I’m not going to be a nun.” Shangguan Ru smiled. Then, she said to another nearby monk, “It’s hard to imagine you standing this.”
The rough-looking Lianqing blushed and put his palms together as he said, “Actually … I’m not a real monk.”
“What do you mean? Aren’t you Master Fayan’s disciple?” Shangguan Ru asked in surprise.
“That’s true. But I’m no better than young benefactress. I keep the precepts on the surface, but deep in my mind, I break them. When I practice kung fu, I tell myself I’m building my body. However, in my mind, I’m actually thinking about how to kill my enemy. I am a vegetarian, but I prefer savory food like mushrooms because they taste like meat. My Master used to say that I was a one-legged monk with one of my feet on the ground and the other resting in the air. In other words, I can’t stand stable. I can only be considered as a real monk when both feet land on the ground.”
“One-legged monk.” Shangguan Ru felt like this description was funny and turned to ask the other monk, “Master, didn’t the Buddha say that he would introduce a convenient method to enlighten people with? Then why is it so hard to cross the threshold? I heard that one could be enlightened by simply chanting Amitabha.”
The monk looked serious like a bald pedant and his answer to her questions was quick and simple, as if they were frequently asked questions that he had long memorized the answers to. “The most convenient method varies from person to person. Some people may shrink back from difficulties but others may rise to the challenge. Thus, the ways they become enlightened are naturally different.”
A little proud, Shangguan Ru said to Lianqing, “Did you hear that? The master said we are people who rise to the challenge.”
Lianqing nodded approvingly but then became frustrated again. “We shouldn’t be so happy about it. There is no difference in the Dharma, so there should also be no difference between the people learning it. If we don’t stop thinking about the ‘difference’, then it merely means we haven’t even crossed the threshold of Buddhism.”
“Then just stay at the threshold and be a receptionist or something. We can even sit down for a while if we are tired,” Shangguan Ru joked as she found the two monks more and more interesting.
Lianqing repeatedly shook his head and said, “I don’t want to sit on the threshold. I want to enter the hall.”
“If there’s no difference to anything, then what’s the difference between sitting on the threshold and sitting in the hall?”
Lianqing was speechless. After thinking for a long while, he had no choice but to turn to the other monk for help. “Please help me, master.”
“Young benefactress should be aware of falling into nothingness. One has to understand that everything is distinct before knowing that there’s no difference. All phenomena, near and far, have their own nature. Although each is distinctly different, they originate from the same pure essence. The threshold is the threshold; the hall is the hall; you are you, and I am myself. Thus all categories of phenomena have their own individual distinctions, but the true essence has no differences. You must bear this in mind before you can understand everything is one.”
Nobody knew how much Lianqing had really understood from his words. “Right!” He slapped his thigh and exclaimed before clasping his hands and bowed respectfully to the master.
Shangguan Ru also did not fully understand. “All categories of phenomena have their individual distinctions, but perceiving their essence has no differences.” Shangguan Ru muttered the phrase and seemed to have grasped something but couldn’t exactly put it into words.
The room fell silent. The two female soldiers guarding at the door exchanged a glance and smiled, thinking that the instructor had been possessed.
“The Dragon King is here,” someone announced outside.
Lianqing abruptly rose up from the futon, but then quickly sat down and chanted sutras with his head lowered after realizing that he had acted too rashly.
This was a public visit. The request had been made in the morning, and Gu Shenwei soon received a response. After some arrangements, he arrived at the Kun Society in the afternoon.
The courtyard of the Kun Society was crowded with young people with the oldest being no more than seventeen years old. The entire place exuded the distinctive style of Shangguan Ru — informality. Some young boys practiced kung fu while others chatted. They all looked very happy. The female soldiers who hadn’t brought their arms with them bossed the teenagers around like a group of stern nannies. Well, they were indeed quite qualified for this job considering their ages.
But from a killer’s point of view, this place was almost undefended.
Shangguan Ru had not been good at such things when she was a child. The Kun Society back then had been truly operated by killer disciples like Servant Huan, Lotus, and Wild Horse. Now she seemed to have simply let it all go.
Gu Shenwei’s conviction was shaken before he even entered the room.
Han Fen had brought a message for Lotus, claiming that the assassin who killed the Central Plains envoy was probably a teenager of the Kun Society. Gu Shenwei thought that this was a clue but what he saw here made him doubt whether the teenagers of the Kun Society still retained their killer’s ability.
Training as a killer was like sailing against the current; one either kept forging ahead or one kept falling behind. Once they started slacking, they would soon lose the instinctive vigilance and killing desire that was vital to a killer. However, this seemed to be Shangguan Ru’s exact goal.
There were actually two monks in the room. Gu Shenwei felt surprised but also not so. He had merely thought that the monk wouldn’t intervene so early.
Wild Horse and the disciple of the Essence Pavilion seemed hostile to the appearance of the monks. They stood at the door and refused to move further in.
Shangguan Ru smilingly stood up to greet them with an easy grace as if she were merely a common friend of the Dragon King’s. “The Dragon King is really punctual. Hello, Wild Horse, and this … Senior of the Essence Pavilion. Allow me to introduce these two. They are Fachong and Lianqing, eminent monks of the Four Noble Truths Temple.”
Fachong, the old monk, rose to silently greet the guests with his palms clasped. Lianqing corrected her, saying, “I’m not an eminent monk. I’m just a monk, a one-legged monk.”
Gu Shenwei returned the salute. ‘Immortal Peng’ didn’t bow to greet the other side. Wild Horse looked down slightly when he faced Shangguan Ru, showing his last memory and respect to his former master.
“My purpose here is very simple.” Gu Shenwei went straight to the point. “In fact, you could have replied to me in a letter.”
“I think it’s better to answer you face to face. But before that, I hope that you can do me a favor.”
Gu Shenwei paused. He was already doing the Kun Society a favor by clearing the suspicion so he reluctantly said, “Please go ahead.”
“Master Fachong is Master Fayan’s senior brother. He heard that the Dragon King has mastered both the Daoless Divine Power and the Sumeru Mustard Divine Power. He was very curious, so …”
Gu Shenwei was quite annoyed because Shangguan Ru still had not abandoned her obsession of removing his killing desire. “So what?”
Shangguan Ru turned to look at Fachong.
Fachong raised his head, showing no sign of curiosity at all. “Buddhism and Daoism are two different religions. I’m wondering how the Dragon King can cultivate the internal energy manuals of different two religions in harmony.”
The disciple of the Essence Pavilion at the door suddenly opened his mouth. “Buddhism originates from Daoism. The Dao of Nothingness includes every internal energy manuals in the world within it, including the internal energy manuals of Buddhism.
Lianqing glared at him and refuted, “Don’t get so cocky. Is the Essence Pavilion really a Daoist sect? I’m afraid that even the Daoists won’t accept it.
“The Dao is the Dao. The Daoists can cultivate Daoism, the mortals can also cultivate Daoism, and so can the Essence Pavilion. We are one big family. Outside the great Dao, everything is crooked.” The disciple of the Essence Pavilion seemed to dislike the monks very much.
Shangguan Ru forced out a smile and said, “Do not rush to argue about who’s superior. Let the Dragon King speak first.”
Gu Shenwei walked up to Fachong and asked, “You want to know why the two different sets of martial arts manuals work in peace with each other?”
“Yes.”
“Then take this.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Shenwei slapped Fachong in the chest. Both Lianqing and Shangguan Ru were shocked. They didn’t expect that the Dragon King would suddenly make a move, and it was already too late for them to stop him.
“Please show mercy,” Shangguan Ru cried out.
“My Uncle Master doesn’t know any kung fu …” Lianqing rushed to say.
Wild Horse and the disciple of the Essence Pavilion looked excited, but their excitement quickly turned into surprise.
Fachong took the blow without dodging, but he neither vomited blood nor did he tremble. Instead, he nodded. “Good. The Dragon King does have those two sets of divine power.”
Gu Shenwei pulled back his palms without saying anything as if he had expected this response. Shangguan Ru’s heart, however, thumped as she clearly understood that this was a sign that the Dragon King’s killing desire had been stirred.
“So Master Fachong also knows kung fu,” Shangguan Ru said with deceptive ease.
Lianqing scratched his bald head while puzzledly asking, “Uncle Master, when did you … Have you been always a kung fu practitioner? I don’t remember hearing that from my Master.”
“Kung fu is what the Central Plains and the Western Regions calls it. In Buddhism, it’s just another form of meditation.” Fachong then turned to the Dragon King, his serious face changing slightly before he said in a respectful yet sympathetic tone. “Does the Dragon King feel he was deceived by junior brother Fayan?”
“He was a liar, wasn’t he?”
Lianqing roared, “Do not insult my Master. He kindly passed the Sumeru Mustard Divine Power to you…”
“So that one day I wouldn’t be a threat to the Four Noble Truths Temple.” Gu Shenwei interrupted Lianqing, his strong killing intent indeed aroused. “He passed me the Sumeru Mustard Divine Power but didn’t tell me the Four Noble Truths Temple had a special method for restraining it.”
Lianqing became more and more confused. “A method to restrain the Sumeru Mustard Divine Power? Why haven’t I heard of it?”
Gu Shenwei ignored him. Lianqing had become a monk late in life and there were too many things that he had never heard of.
Fachong shook his head and said, “Why has the wise Dragon King also become confused? You have thousands of men under your command and can easily destroy the Four Noble Truths Temple. What’s the use of worrying about your Sumeru Mustard Divine Power being restrained?”
Gu Shenwei was stunned again. His trust and dependence on his martial arts skills had always been greater than the importance he attached to his army; only now had he become keenly aware of this.
Fachong continued. “The Sumeru Mustard Divine Power is also a method for meditation. What I’ve learned is no different from that of the Dragon King. As for the restraining method, the Dragon King’s internal energy isn’t pure. There’s devil Qi mingling with your internal Qi. However, not only has the Dragon King not exorcised it, but you even regard it as an offensive weapon and use it by transferring it into other people’s bodies. The result can only be you being bogged down deeper and deeper in the wrong way.”
Eyes lit up, Shangguan Ru couldn’t help but take a step forward and look at the Dragon King. “The master is right.”
Gu Shenwei’s internal energy was very complicated as it contained two different types of internal Qi: the Daoless Divine Power and the Sumeru Mustard Divine Power. He had used his family-inherited internal energy manual, the Balanced Power, to divide the two into yin and yang energy so that they would not conflict. Then, he had been able to use the yin and yang energy to drive the frosty Qi to attack the enemy.
Fachong said he was becoming bogged down deeper and deeper in the wrong way, but Gu Shenwei did not think so. Ever since he created this unique martial arts skill, his Qi deviation had greatly decreased, and had not broken out for more than half a year. This was a much better sign compared to before.
But he understood why he couldn’t injure the old monk. The martial arts of the Buddhists were created to subdue the demon. The frosty Qi was devilish so it was no wonder that it had been restrained.
“Please take my second blow, master.” Gu Shenwei said with even more respect and launched a second blow. This time he didn’t use any techniques, not even the Sumeru Mustard Divine Power which was considered to be yang energy. Instead, his blow was infused purely with the Daoless Divine Power. He wanted to know how powerful this old monk’s internal energy was.
His palms hit Fachong’s chest. The elderly monk spat out a mouthful of blood while the Dragon King himself fell straight to the ground. The onlookers were all shocked.
