Dialectics

Li Huowang craned his neck to look up at the Buddhas. Backlit by the moon, he couldn’t make out their faces.

All he could see were their palms writhing behind them like tentacles, and the vast, dark shapes of their heads. And smell it—the strange blend of incense and blood that clung to their bodies.

He took a few steps back. A quick look around confirmed it: he was alone out here. He shook his head at the Buddha in front of him.

“No.”

Li Huowang’s hand thrust back and closed around the sword hilt.

With a creaking groan, the enormous Buddha bent down, blocking the moonlight above him. The pressure was immense, crushing.

Li Huowang could feel it—the Buddha’s eyes, the size of lanterns, watching him from inside the dark.

“Amitabha, benefactor. You should still go. This is for your own good.” Jian Dun didn’t attack. Unexpectedly, he kept his tone calm, reasoning.

“If it’s really for my good, then let me leave. Isn’t a monk supposed to be merciful? What’s one more act of letting me go?”

“It is precisely because we are merciful that we cannot allow you to depart, benefactor.”

Just as he said it, a stone flew through the air and cracked against the Buddha’s head with a clear clang.

Li Huowang and Jian Dun both turned to look. Bai Lingmiao and the others stood in the distance, holding up their glowing stones.

“Senior Li! Run!” More stones flew, thudding harmlessly against the Buddha’s body before dropping to the ground.

“Amitabha. The sea of suffering has no shore; turn your head and see the other side.” Jian Dun’s enormous hands pressed together in a heavy gesture of greeting. His slender legs bent slightly, then he shoved off the ground with explosive force.

BOOM. His towering form launched into the air and crashed down like a boulder, snapping a dozen trees as his massive body slammed into the earth behind Bai Lingmiao’s group.

Li Huowang saw Bai Lingmiao’s frail figure standing beside the Buddha, her body not even reaching its belly. His face twisted into a snarl, and he screamed, “STOP!”

BOOM. As if sensing something instantly, both the Buddha beside Li Huowang and the one in the distance took a synchronized step back.

“Benefactor Xuan Yang, we have no intention of harming them. Please calm down.” There was even a trace of tension in Jian Dun’s voice now, as if he was afraid of provoking Li Huowang.

“Huh?” This caught everyone off guard. One word from Li Huowang, and the other side had actually obeyed.

“They’re… nervous? What’s there to be nervous about? I’m just an ordinary person.”

“A monk takes no life. I only wished to quiet them down.” Jian Dun said this as he effortlessly snapped off the surrounding tree trunks with his giant hands, crossing them to form a crude wooden cage trapping everyone inside.

Having dealt with the distractions, Jian Dun swayed back over and stood before Li Huowang.

“Benefactor Xuan Yang, since you are unwilling to return with me, how about we conduct a dialectic?”

“Dialectics? You’re trying to talk me into going back?” Li Huowang stared at the palm that was larger than his own body, baffled by what the monk was trying to do.

“Indeed. Benefactor Xuan Yang is a man who understands reason. I believe I can convince you.”

“Huh?” Recalling what had happened at Zhengde Temple, Li Huowang suddenly noticed something deeply illogical.

Whether it was the abbot or this Jian Dun in front of him, even though they were far more powerful than him, they still refused to use violence against him. Instead, they kept trying to trap him through emotional means—trickery.

“If they could solve this easily with force, why go through all this trouble? Is there something special about me?” Astonished, Li Huowang opened his hands and stared at his own ordinary palms.

“Besides being a mental patient, what attribute do I have that’s worth their attention?” he pondered silently, completely ignoring Jian Dun’s words.

He needed to find out what they were afraid of. That might be his only chance to escape.

“Work backwards. If they threatened my life with force, what would happen?” Everything he had experienced in this world flashed through his mind like lightning.

It finally stopped at the moment the Joy Lord had been dragged into the dark. That was the only time his life had truly been on the line on this whole journey. And it had been resolved in the strangest way possible.

Li Huowang’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. “Danyangzi! They don’t dare use force on me because… as long as I’m in mortal danger, Danyangzi—whatever he’s become—will show up! Danyangzi has been protecting me all along!”

The realization hit him like a flood breaking through a dam. He had always assumed, out of sheer habit, that Danyangzi was following him to harm him. But now he saw it clearly.

He had killed Danyangzi himself. But from his master’s perspective, this final disciple of his had done nothing bad to him. On the contrary, he had helped him “attain immortality.”

“The monks at Zhengde Temple clearly figured this out a long time ago. But they didn’t tell me. They went out of their way to trick me, hoping to use the Grand Deliverance Feast to finish Danyangzi off for good.”

“If they take out Danyangzi, then I and my people will truly be meat on the butcher’s block.” The thought of what the Zhengde Temple monks would do sent a chill down his spine.

Comprehending this, Li Huowang looked back up at Jian Dun. This time, the corner of his mouth curled up. “You’re afraid of Danyangzi? If he’s already become a Buddha, why are you monks still scared of him?”

Jian Dun’s expression froze. “Benefactor Xuan Yang, this humble monk does not know what you are speaking of. A monk does not lie. I can swear to the Buddha that the Grand Deliverance Feast will do you no harm whatsoever, aside from eliminating Danyangzi.”

Those words only confirmed Li Huowang’s suspicion.

In this world, no good person would lay everything out for you. If you wanted something more valuable, you had to gather information yourself and make your own judgment.

“You know, I’m starting to think that keeping Danyangzi around isn’t so bad. He is my master, after all. It would be really unfilial to just have him scrubbed out like this.” Now that he understood everything, Li Huowang wasn’t panicked at all anymore.

“Amitabha. That absolutely will not do. Danyangzi concerns not only you alone, but the fate of all living beings under heaven.”

Li Huowang looked up at Jian Dun, his lips curling into a slight smile. “How about you talk it over with my master face to face?”

“What?”

With a clang, Li Huowang gripped the hilt with one hand and pulled hard. The sword that could cut through iron lay in his grasp.

Seeing this, Jian Dun’s face broke into a benevolent smile. “If you think you can break this humble monk’s Buddha-body with such a thing, Benefactor Xuan Yang, you are truly clinging to appearances.”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? I said you should talk it over with Danyangzi, face to face.”

The words had barely left his mouth when Li Huowang placed the long blade against his own neck and slashed.

The skin parted easily. Hot blood sprayed out, instantly staining the Daoist robe on his body a deep red.

“Heh.” His consciousness beginning to blur, Li Huowang pressed a hand to his throat and whispered, “Hear that? Sounds like… thunder.”