Chapter 43: The Buddha

Chapter 43: The Buddha

“He has become a Buddha.” When the abbot uttered this flatly, Li Huowang felt a chill race down his spine.

He jerked his head up, looking at the five massive golden Buddha statues surrounding them. They had seemed solemn and majestic just moments ago; now, their faces appeared to have shifted into something else entirely.

Li Huowang, who had been about to rise, glanced at the bright sun outside the door, then back at the abbot before him.

The old abbot remained exactly as before, sitting with unwavering composure, neither joyful nor sorrowful, as if those words had not come from his mouth.

“Wait. Don’t scare yourself. It might not be what I think.”

After mulling it over for a moment, Li Huowang spoke again. “Venerable Abbot, Zhengde Temple and Danyangzi had a grudge, right?”

“Indeed. He was abducting and killing people everywhere, stirring up chaos. I once sent martial monks from our Arhat Hall to apprehend him, but he escaped every time.”

“Being able to rid the world of such a man is a meritorious deed in itself.”

“Then let me ask you, Venerable Master: how could a man guilty of such heinous evil become a Buddha? How is that even possible?”

“Amitabha. What he is now has nothing to do with what he was before. In this old monk’s heart, there is the Buddha. In my heart, he is the Buddha.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a surge of irritation. This old monk wasn’t speaking plainly—he was talking in riddles.

“Benefactor, Danyangzi has now vanished into the Great Thousand. What I believe he is matters little. What matters is what you believe he is. What you believe he is, he will be. After all, his karmic bonds now rest with you, not with this old monk.”

Xin Hui’s voice remained calm and even, but this time, Li Huowang understood what he was driving at.

“You’re saying Danyangzi has turned into something formless, something that can change according to a person’s thoughts? Like the Wandering Lord?”

“Precisely.”

“But why? How did he turn into that kind of ghastly thing? The ascension methods—I made all of that up! So many toxic things—if he ate them, he should have just dropped dead!”

Li Huowang racked his brains, unable to figure it out.

“This old monk does not know.”

The other’s frank admission caught Li Huowang off guard. “You don’t know?”

“This old monk is not the Buddha of the Future; I cannot be omniscient and omnipotent. A man of the cloth does not speak falsely. If I do not know, then I do not know.”

Li Huowang thought it over again, then asked another critical question.

“Venerable Abbot, is there a way to get rid of Danyangzi completely? If he’s my enemy, I can’t just leave him hanging like this.”

He had traveled this far, exhausting every scheme, precisely to solve this problem. Whatever Danyangzi had become, he had to be dealt with.

This time, Xin Hui did not answer so quickly. He pondered for a moment, then raised his right hand. “Come closer. I need to see again.”

Li Huowang hesitated, looking at that wrinkled, pale hand.

“Benefactor Xuan Yang, if you still suspect I mean you harm, then you should never have set foot through the temple gates.”

After a moment’s thought, Li Huowang pressed his forehead against the abbot’s palm.

Hum. Li Huowang felt all the colors around him instantly become several times more vivid, and his body felt strangely light and airy.

This strange sensation came and went quickly. When everything returned to normal, Li Huowang couldn’t explain why, but his heart felt oddly empty. He understood that this old abbot, whatever else, definitely possessed some kind of special Buddhist power.

“Hmm… This is a matter of great importance. This old monk needs to discuss countermeasures with the other elders. You may stay at the temple for now. I will give you an answer tomorrow.”

The moment staying was mentioned, Li Huowang tensed up. “I still have friends outside the temple. If I don’t come back, they’ll worry.”

Seeing Li Huowang’s refusal, the abbot’s tone remained unhurried.

“Stay or go, it is up to you. Zhengde Temple opens its gates at the Chen hour tomorrow. Benefactor Xuan Yang, I hope you will not break your word. You understand that if this trouble is not eliminated, it will be a great hidden calamity, both for you and for the world.”

When Li Huowang walked out of the hall and stood in the sunlight, he looked back inside. The abbot had already turned around again, facing the enormous golden Buddha, resuming his chanting.

Li Huowang looked up at the blazing noonday sun, then surveyed the quiet, peaceful Buddhist temple around him. Nothing seemed out of place.

Just as Li Huowang turned and took a few steps, the bald back of the chanting abbot’s head began to writhe.

After a moment, a slit slowly opened on the smooth skin beneath his Five-Buddha Crown. A vertical eye, as large as a fist, pushed its way out and stared fixedly at Li Huowang’s back.

The old abbot’s chanting suddenly swelled in volume. “Form is not the self... If it were the self, form should not be subject to sickness and suffering... If I desire it, form is as I desire it; if I desire not, form is as I do not desire it, following the mind’s whims. Therefore, one should know…”

After winding through the alleys between the temple buildings and returning to the main gate, bustling with the clamor of countless incense-burners, Li Huowang felt as if he had returned to the world of men.

Standing in the crowd, he looked back at the alley he had just come from. “Should I trust him?” He felt a pang of hesitation.

“Hey! Daoist! I’m over here!” Hearing someone call out to him, Li Huowang turned his head and saw the old beggar he had met on the road not far away, waving excitedly at him.

“You came to Zhengde Temple? They took you in?”

The old beggar nodded excitedly. “Yeah! That monk just now said, seeing as how pitiful I am, I can stay here and work.”

“That’s good. Do your best here. It’s better than digging up wild veggies and eating dead people’s offerings outside. I have things to do, I have to go. Oh, right, I never asked your name.”

“Just call me Monk. I like being called Monk. Come visit sometime when you’re free, huh?”

“Heh. In the words of you Buddhists, let fate decide.”

Having bid farewell to this new monk, Li Huowang left Zhengde Temple.

When he arrived at the inn they had agreed upon, the others swarmed him immediately.

Li Huowang raised a hand to stop their questions. “I’ve got a job for all of you. Split up and ask the locals about Zhengde Temple.”

Even though his contact with the monks today had seemed perfectly normal, he still wanted to hear what the locals had to say before making up his mind.

Without asking any further questions, the others just nodded and filed out of the inn.

Time passed. When the sun set, the seven who had gone out drifted back one by one and began to report their findings to Li Huowang.

“From what they say, Zhengde Temple is the biggest temple in the entire Western Capital. The incense offering there is the most prosperous.”

“I heard those monks are all very devout, strictly following the precepts. Last time a monk was caught secretly eating meat, they kicked him right out of the temple.”

“I heard even the Emperor in the palace goes there to worship the Buddha. If you’re lucky enough to get a good spot, you might even see the Emperor!”

“What I found out is pretty much the same, Senior Brother. What are you asking about Zhengde Temple for?”

Li Huowang didn’t answer. He didn’t want to tell them the terrifying truth—that Danyangzi might still exist—and put them in fear.

He mulled over their reports. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had no reason to refuse.

If he couldn’t trust these monks, then he would have to go head-to-head with the “Buddha” Danyangzi had become all by himself. That choice was undoubtedly suicide.

Weighing the pros and cons, Li Huowang made up his mind. Tomorrow, he would return to Zhengde Temple.