The onlooking crowd had long since been overwhelmed beyond measure. They looked at the charcoal on the ground, looked at Suomei on the high platform beating the drum with the mallet — and one by one fell to their knees in prostration, silent as death. Everyone had been overawed.
Damuguo’s face had long since turned iron grey. Suomei now ceased beating the drum and said with a smile, “Damuguo, how is that?”
“Impressive!” Damuguo said through gritted teeth. “How did you ignite the flames within their bodies?”
“That is simple enough to explain,” Suomei said with a grin. “Do you want me to say it aloud?”
Damuguo gave a contemptuous snort and said no more. Xuanzang fixed his gaze on the pile of charcoal, brow furrowed in deep thought. He carefully reasoned through every step of the process, yet always found it beyond all rational explanation — certain key links he still could not think through clearly.
“Then, Your Majesty,” Suomei asked the King of Gandhara, “can it be determined that this old monk has won this contest?”
“Three contests, three victories,” the King of Gandhara said. “This king announces——”
“Hold!” Damuguo said in a sharp, harsh voice. “Your Majesty, the rules set at the outset stipulated three rounds of contest. We have produced three rounds of techniques, and we acknowledge that all have been broken by Suomei. Yet Suomei has not made a single move! If the three techniques he puts forward are also entirely broken by me, then this contest should be counted a draw!”
“Ah——” The King of Gandhara was taken aback and looked at Suomei. “Master, what do you say?”
The look with which the King of Gandhara now regarded Suomei was also different — filled with reverence and awe. This old monk’s methods were god-like and ghost-like, and left everyone shocked and fearful.
“That point is entirely correct,” Suomei actually nodded. “But there is no need for three moves — I need make only one. If Damuguo can break it, he may personally strike off this old monk’s head.”
Everyone on the platform was taken aback. The King of Gandhara looked questioningly toward Xuanzang, as if wishing to seek his opinion. Xuanzang, however, remained silent.
“Arrogant!” Damuguo laughed coldly. “Then so be it, as you wish!”
“It was you who said so,” Suomei said with a smile. “Once this old monk reveals the truth, do not come to regret it.”
Damuguo snorted, and gestured for him to proceed. Suomei fixed his gaze on Damuguo and spoke slowly: “Twenty-four years ago, in a distant eastern empire, a powerful empire collapsed, and another powerful empire rose. That rising empire was called the Great Tang. This old monk’s great move is to tell a story about the Great Tang Empire.”
Everyone was bewildered. His dharma technique was to tell a story?
“At that time, the Great Tang had just quelled the internal rebellions within the country, and looking out across the land, it was broken and desolate — corpses lay scattered among the weeds and brambles on the roads. It was in that very year that the Venerable Master Xuanzang traveled from Zhaozhou in the north to Chang’an. In the mountains and rivers at the confluence of the Yellow River and the Luo River, the Venerable Master Xuanzang spent the night in an ancient mountain temple, where he met a monk who had taken refuge in the mountains to escape the chaos. His name was Yuanguan…”
No one had anticipated that Suomei’s story would be connected to Xuanzang himself. They immediately all turned to look at Xuanzang. Xuanzang was taken aback and exchanged a glance with Nashun. Nashun said quietly, “He asked me about it last night, and I told him. Elder Brother, did I do wrong?”
“It is of no matter,” Xuanzang reassured him, and listened quietly, his expression undisturbed.
Suomei’s account was indeed the story of Yuanguan. This story was in truth quite strange and remarkable — full of the unknowable and the inconceivable. Particularly when Suomei recounted how, sixteen years later, Xuanzang had indeed encountered in the Kingdom of Gandhara the young boy who was Yuanguan’s reincarnated form — the young Nashun — everyone was moved, and they all turned to look at Nashun standing behind Xuanzang, their faces full of wonder and amazement. Nashun had never been looked at by so many people at once — especially since among them were an emperor and a king — which made him feel all the more awkward and self-conscious.
“Nashun,” Yazdegerd III asked with considerable interest, “is what Suomei has spoken the truth?”
“Mmm…” Nashun shrank and glanced at him, then lowered his head.
“The wonders of this world have reached such heights!” Yazdegerd III exclaimed with a sigh.
Xuanzang noticed Nashun’s unease and took his hand gently. “Nashun, come sit beside me.”
Nashun shuffled his way over and sat on Xuanzang’s chair, gripping his hand tightly, finding a measure of comfort in his heart. “Elder Brother, why is he speaking of my matters?”
Xuanzang was silent for a moment, then said, “Suomei does things in ways that are unrestrained and uncanny, beyond all anticipation. Pay him no mind. This humble monk will manage everything.”
“Mm,” Nashun said quietly. “I am counting on Elder Brother for everything.”
Suomei smiled mildly and continued speaking: “What this old monk has just recounted is only the beginning of the story. At that dusk outside the city of Purushapura, Nashun came before the Venerable Master Xuanzang singing a Tang man’s song, imploring him for a favor. For since his rebirth, Nashun had fallen in love with a woman as though through the working of fate. From the time he was three years old, this woman’s face appeared in his mind — as if some bond woven of causes and conditions, in the hidden workings of heaven, had linked their past lives and present existences together. Nashun set out to travel through every land, searching madly for this young woman. He once thought it was nothing but a dream, yet more than ten years later, he truly found this woman. This woman is right here in the royal city of Gandhara!”
Everyone was in an uproar. Since this matter was directly connected to both sides of the contest, while Suomei was speaking the King of Gandhara had arranged for a dedicated person to relay his words below, so that almost as soon as Suomei spoke a sentence the crowd of onlookers below could hear it. At this moment, all below were in shock. Hearing a story from a distant place is one thing, but hearing a story about someone right beside you in your own everyday life is a feeling of an entirely different kind. When the people of the royal city heard that the woman whose past lives and present existence were entangled with Nashun’s was right here among them, the entire crowd exploded like a boiling pot — people put their heads together, buzzing with talk from every direction.
The King of Gandhara jumped to his feet. “May this Master tell us — who is that woman?”
Nashun suddenly leapt to his feet and cried out hoarsely, “Her name must not be spoken aloud!”
Suomei looked at him with a smile. “Why not?”
“She…” Nashun was weeping. “Master, I beg you. You will harm her. You will make her into a monster in other people’s eyes!”
“Six paths of rebirth, the truth of heaven revealed — how would this make her into a monster? This old monk has his own plan — keep your mouth shut,” Suomei said.
“Master——”
Nashun was about to fall to his knees and beg, when Suomei chanted, “Within the Fragrance Throughout the Land, Lianhuaye — her price is five hundred gold for a single night.”
“Can it truly be her!” The King of Gandhara was greatly astonished.
Yazdegerd III did not understand, and asked urgently. The King of Gandhara explained to him at length, and even Yazdegerd III was moved to amazement. Lianhuaye’s reputation for beauty had spread throughout the western regions and India — five hundred gold for a night, her nightly fee so exorbitant that not only ordinary commoners harbored romantic longing, even kings had heard of her.
Nashun looked up in despair, his eyes blurry with tears, seeming to catch a glimpse of a woman with a light veil over her face quietly turning away and disappearing from view. Nashun jolted awake and immediately ran down from the high platform in pursuit. Xuanzang looked on in silence, did not open his mouth to stop him, and only released a long sigh.
“It is she,” Suomei nodded, turning to look at Damuguo with a smile. “The purpose of Nashun’s request to the Venerable Master Xuanzang was to help him investigate what causes and conditions lay between the two in their past lives that gave rise to the infatuation of this present life.”
Damuguo brooded. “You are telling this story — what does it have to do with the dharma technique you intend to demonstrate?”
“It has everything to do with it,” Suomei said with a smile. “This old monk’s great move is to compete with Damuguo to see which of us can unravel the past-life causes and conditions, and the present-life bond of fate, of these two people.”
Damuguo’s expression changed suddenly. His eyes blazed as he stared at Suomei. Suomei met his gaze with a smile. After a long silence, Damuguo gave a snort and turned toward Xuanzang. “Master, this old one wishes to ask — does everything that Suomei has said have even one false word in it?”
Xuanzang let out a sigh and shook his head. “No.”
“I do not trust this Suomei — but I trust you, Master!” Damuguo said decisively. “This wager, I accept!”
Suomei smiled. “Then the stakes of this wager are not merely this monk’s head.”
“Whatever you wish to wager, I accept it all!” Damuguo laughed coldly.
“Then this old monk will wager the Kingdom of Gandhara itself with you!” Suomei said evenly.
“Then wager it!” Damuguo said.
The King of Gandhara was feeling somewhat aggrieved and could not help saying, “Everyone — this Kingdom of Gandhara, it seems to me, is mine.”
Yazdegerd III gave a small smile. “Whoever wins, it is still yours. The only thing that will differ is who confers the title upon you, this king of Gandhara.”
The King of Gandhara was furious and humiliated all at once, yet there was absolutely nothing he could do. For a nation to be weak meant people would decide the fate of one’s country right before one’s eyes. He gave a cold snort, said not a single word more, and turned and left the high platform.
Along both sides of the roads to the north of the city stood walls built of clay mixed with rounded stones. Inside and outside the walls grew tall, straight eucalyptus trees, and beneath them wattles were in full bloom, their fragrance filling the road, blocking out the sunlight and the heat.
Lianhuaye was giving instructions to her maidservant: “Duo Na, once we are inside, I will engage the madam and the manager in conversation. You go to my room, move aside the Buddha image, lift the stone slab in the floor — inside are the gold coins I have saved up over these years. Take them out and slip quietly out of the city. We will meet tonight outside the city at the first well.”
“Miss, are you going to run away?” Duo Na’s color changed. “If they catch you, they will kill you.”
Lianhuaye showed a trace of sadness. “Right now, I have become a wager. If I cannot escape from Gandhara, how can I escape from the cycle of rebirth? Duo Na, you must help me.”
Duo Na hesitated. “Miss, Gandhara is rife with bandits and thieves. Two women traveling with gold coins — I’m afraid we would find it impossible to take a single step.”
Lianhuaye smiled a bleak smile. “In this world, apart from that person, no one can kill me. Even a king and an army cannot break this fateful bond — what are bandits? If I could die at the hands of bandits, that would be the greatest blessing fate could grant me.”
The two walked along talking, and were just about to arrive at the entrance of the Fragrance Throughout the Land when suddenly Nashun came running from around the street corner and blocked their path.
“Lianhuaye!” Nashun looked at her with tenderness.
“You again?” Lianhuaye grew angry. “Have you not harmed me enough already? Why do you keep clinging to me without letting go?”
“Lianhuaye, you’ve misunderstood me,” Nashun explained. “Today’s harm to you was indeed caused by me — I am worried that Suomei and Damuguo may mean you ill, and so I wish to ask you to come to the Kanishka Royal Monastery. The Venerable Master Xuanzang is there. Even the King of Gandhara would not dare act recklessly — the Venerable Master Xuanzang will certainly be able to protect you.”
“You want a courtesan to live in the Kanishka Royal Monastery?” Lianhuaye said with a cold laugh. “Does that place have Persian rugs? Does it have western-region grape wine? Does it have roasted venison with honey glazed over it? Does it have all-night revelry with singing and dancing? Are you asking me to live below crumbling stone towers, in caves hung with cobwebs, surrounded by foxes and long serpents?”
“All of those things are there,” Nashun said with a smile. “I have five hundred gold pieces. I will build you a brand new house, lay it with Persian rugs and Great Tang silk, fill it with grape wine for you to drink without end, roast venison for you every day with sweet honey glazed on top. Every evening I will invite my Sogdian clanspeople to keep you company in revelry — we will be awake through the night. I will clean the Kanishka Royal Monastery until it gleams, daub it with fresh cow dung, scatter flowers all about it, and use herbs and hunting hounds to drive away the foxes and snakes and insects, so you can sleep at your ease. Lianhuaye, come with me. Everything you want, I can do.”
“Very well,” Lianhuaye asked mockingly. “And can I receive clients in the Kanishka Royal Monastery?”
Nashun’s smile froze.
Lianhuaye laughed until she nearly doubled over. “Nashun, I am a courtesan. I live in a magnificent house so that the clients’ five hundred gold pieces feel well spent. I drink grape wine every day because it makes clients spend more money. I revel all night because I want everyone who comes to visit me to leave satisfied. Nashun, the Fragrance Throughout the Land is the place best suited to me.”
Nashun looked at her with a trace of sorrow, yet still wore a smile on his face. “If that is so, Lianhuaye, let me come with you to the Fragrance Throughout the Land. I am willing to sell myself into servitude — so long as I can be with you.”
“You…” Lianhuaye was stunned. “You are a madman!”
“I am not a madman,” Nashun said seriously, his expression still gentle. “I am only a child who has found his home. We Sogdian people — our fate in this life is to walk through this heaven and earth. When I was six years old my mother died in childbirth with my younger sibling. When I was nine years old, bandits attacked us at the Great Salt Lake and my father was killed. From eleven years of age I began traveling as a merchant on my own, moving between the Great Tang, the western regions, Persia, the Byzantine Empire, and India. Yet I never felt lonely, and never felt weary. Because I knew I was looking for you. Lianhuaye, there is no one left in this world who is family to me — but I know there is one person, the closest person to me, waiting for me to find her. This is the companion for this life that heaven granted me in a past life. Lianhuaye, I am happy — because I am able to love the same person with both my past life and my present life. And you too are happy — because there is one person who will use up the entirety of his life to love you.”
Lianhuaye looked at him with a complicated expression and murmured, “You foolish person.”
“Perhaps so,” Nashun smiled slightly. “Come then — let me go with you to the Fragrance Throughout the Land. Perhaps I can fetch the price of forty-two camels.”
Lianhuaye looked at him with distaste and said coldly, “Don’t let me see you again!”
Lianhuaye took her maidservant and turned to leave. Nashun’s face instantly went pale. He murmured, “Lianhuaye…” He wanted to follow but tripped and sat down hard beneath the wattle tree, covering his face as he burst into helpless sobs.
“Nashun.” Xuanzang’s gentle voice sounded from behind.
Nashun looked up, eyes blurred with tears, looking at Xuanzang. “Elder Brother, you saw all of that?”
Xuanzang shook his head. “What this humble monk saw, and what you saw, are not the same.”
“How are they not the same?” Nashun was puzzled.
“All forms and appearances are illusion. Nashun, you are fixated on the romantic love between yourself and Lianhuaye. Every day you cannot obtain her, this world — as you yourself have said — is like a millstone grinding out your pain and resentment. Yet in this humble monk’s view, this great world of countless phenomena has treated you well,” Xuanzang said. “In the six paths of rebirth — the realms of heavenly beings, humans, asuras, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings — you were not born into the realm of heavenly beings and thus separated from her forever by the divide of immortal and mortal; nor were you born into the realm of animals, such that even if you met you would not recognize each other. That you were able to enter this present life, and among the countless multitudes as numerous as the sands of the Ganges find her, hear her voice, see her face, and guard her from an unseen corner where she cannot see you — having this blessing of fate, this humble monk rejoices for you.”
Nashun was a highly perceptive person by nature. He sat in a daze for a moment, looking at the fragrant flowers blanketing the hillside, and nodded quietly. “The peach blossoms bloom on the mountain — from where have these blossoms come? Elder Brother, when I look at these hillsides ablaze with peach blossoms, and I think that these flowers have been transplanted here from a past life and bloom before my eyes now, my heart is filled with gratitude.”
“And yet…” Nashun said with a mournful face, “I really do want to build a thatched cottage among these hillside peach blossoms.”
Xuanzang smiled ruefully. “Separation from those we love, inability to obtain what we seek — it seems that of the eight sufferings of human existence, these truly do have their own particular way of causing pain.”
Lianhuaye, having already made up her mind to flee, immediately made careful arrangements. Duo Na easily retrieved the gold coins and went outside the city to wait. It was less easy for Lianhuaye to get away — the hour when night fell was the Fragrance Throughout the Land’s busiest time, voices and noise in constant commotion, with everyone occupied to the full. Lianhuaye waited for her opportunity and, taking nothing with her, slipped quietly away from the Fragrance Throughout the Land.
The city gates had already been closed by this time, but on the hillside to the south of the city there were several sections of collapsed city wall. If one lowered a rope from above, one could manage to jump down outside the wall. Lianhuaye immediately headed toward the south of the city. After walking two or three li, as she was passing through a crossroads, suddenly torches blazed all around — countless soldiers and horses appeared without a sound, sealing off the main street in both directions.
Lianhuaye was greatly shocked. At first she thought it was the pleasure house come to seize her, but looking carefully she saw that it was soldiers of Gandhara. Her face immediately changed color. At this moment Suomei and Damuguo walked out together. The two exchanged a glance, and Damuguo nodded. “Old monk, your foresight is uncanny indeed — she truly was attempting to flee.”
Suomei smiled faintly and waved his hand. “Seize her.”
The soldiers of Gandhara stepped forward and took hold of Lianhuaye, binding her tightly. Lianhuaye struggled without stop. “Why are you seizing me?”
Suomei shook his head. “Now that you have become a wager deciding the fate of two nations, how can you escape? This old monk means you no harm — come with us for now. Once we have unraveled the mystery of your past lives and present existence and determined the winner, you will naturally be set free.”
“What does your wager have to do with me?” Lianhuaye said in fury. “I do not want to be a wager!”
“You have no say in the matter.” Suomei walked over and lightly passed a finger beneath her nose. Lianhuaye immediately fell unconscious.
A cavalry rider beside them gave way to free up a horse, and everyone placed Lianhuaye on the horse’s back and made their way toward the royal palace of Gandhara. Since both sides were wagering, in the interest of fairness the King of Gandhara’s royal palace was chosen as the site of the final contest. The King of Gandhara was displeased but had no choice but to agree, setting aside a specific courtyard within the royal palace for their use.
The two drew lots to determine the order. Suomei drew the longer lot and so went first. Yazdegerd III was spending the night in the royal palace as well. Curious about Suomei’s methods, he came to watch in the company of the King of Gandhara.
Suomei roused Lianhuaye and had her sit in the center of the palace chamber. Damuguo, the King of Gandhara, and Yazdegerd III all sat to the side, watching intently.
“Who were you in your past life?” Suomei asked with a smile, seated cross-legged on the lion throne.
Lianhuaye sat on the floor mat of the palace chamber, her long skirt trailing on the ground, like a lotus flower in bloom. Fine frankincense burned in the chamber, fragrant blue smoke curling upward. Lianhuaye’s expression was cool and indifferent, and she did not answer Suomei’s question. Suomei sighed. “Since you will not answer, do not blame this old monk for using certain methods.”
“Who was I in my past life — how would I know?” Lianhuaye said coldly. “Ordinary people go through the cycle of rebirth and forget all memories of their past lives. Why do you not ask Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, and instead ask me?”
“This old monk’s powers are meager — how could he converse with a Bodhisattva?” Suomei shook his head. “Does this mean, then, that you have no memory of your past life?”
Lianhuaye shook her head with a bleak expression. “Naturally I have none. People come into this world clean and pure. To live is to be as a fresh layer of white snow, a blank sheet of white paper — to start again from the beginning. Since the world of suffering is already so filled with pain, wiping away memories of past lives is a blessing the Creator grants us. Could I really have so little of that blessing?”
“No matter, no matter,” Suomei said. “As you say, when sentient beings are reborn, they naturally have the memories of their past lives wiped away. However, this old monk has already attained the knowledge of past lives, and is able to know the three temporal realms of past, present, and future — only a few methods are needed. Young lady, this old monk’s methods cause some pain — you must endure it.”
Suomei rose and took a rat-tail brush from his attendant’s hand, dipping it into a tin canister. The tip of the brush was the color of fresh blood. Yazdegerd III, the King of Gandhara, and Damuguo all watched without blinking. Suomei walked to stand before Lianhuaye and had her pull her robes down, baring her snow-white, silken smooth shoulders. He then drew a strange talismanic character on her forehead and on each of her shoulders.
“Lie down — it will hurt somewhat,” Suomei said gently.
Lianhuaye obediently lay down on the ground. Suomei had his attendants hold down her four limbs and her head separately, then took a box from an attendant’s hands, opened it — inside were three long, slender silver nails.
“These nails are called the Six-Entry Nails,” Suomei said. “The first nail seals the six consciousnesses — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mental. The second nail seals the six sense faculties — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.” Suomei drove a silver nail forcefully into the talismanic character on Lianhuaye’s forehead. Lianhuaye cried out a piercing scream, struggling desperately — but was pinned down and could not move at all. “The second nail seals the six sense faculties — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.” Suomei drove another silver nail into her left shoulder. Lianhuaye screamed with all her strength, a soul-tearing, lung-rending cry. Everyone watching felt unable to bear it — yet Suomei’s expression was completely unmoved. “The third nail seals the six sense objects — form, sound, scent, taste, touch, and phenomena. When the six sense objects are extinguished, when the six sense faculties are severed, when the six consciousnesses are cut off — the river of life and death returns to pure stillness.”
The third silver nail was driven into her right shoulder.
Suomei sat cross-legged at the top of Lianhuaye’s head, reciting incantations under his breath. His palms rubbed against each other, alternating more and more rapidly, until wisps of blue smoke began to rise from the center of his palms. With a sharp crack, Suomei slapped the blue smoke onto Lianhuaye’s face. Lianhuaye’s eyes suddenly flew wide open, her body stiffened, and she went completely still. Her two eyes, black as the night, remained wide open — yet had lost all their light. The blue smoke continued to linger over her face for a long while before dispersing.
“How dare you!” Yazdegerd III erupted in fury. “You have actually killed her!”
“Your Majesty, please do not be hasty,” Damuguo said, restraining him — showing that he had some understanding of what was happening.
Suomei smiled faintly, softly blew a breath to dispel the blue smoke from her face, then asked, “What is your name?”
“Lianhuaye.”
“Where are you now?”
“In the dream of the afterlife, within the cycle of rebirth.”
At these words, the three onlookers were struck with a chill that made their hearts and backs go cold. Suomei’s technique was truly beyond all reason and strangeness — he had actually reached in and drawn out Lianhuaye’s past life.
“Who were you in your past life?” Suomei asked with a grin.
“I am——” Lianhuaye suddenly convulsed in violent twisting and struggling. From her mouth came a string of obscure and incomprehensible speech — resembling Sanskrit, and also resembling Sogdian, with Tibetan and Turkic languages mingled in as well. The languages were not unfamiliar to those seated there, yet what she spoke differed from each of these modern national languages in its own way. Everyone strained to listen, finding themselves entirely bewildered — barely able to make out a single sentence.
Suomei was also somewhat taken aback. Just as everyone was exchanging bewildered looks, suddenly Lianhuaye murmured, “May I in the next life receive a dignified and stately form of appearance, as beautiful in color and fragrance as the blue lotus, radiant and enchanting. May I in the next life obtain a person of deep and unwavering love — one who remains at my side like the passage of time, breath aligned with breath, never abandoning me until death.”
Then her mouth sprayed out fresh blood, and she fell unconscious. Suomei was stunned. “How can this be?”
“Venerable one, if this person dies under your torment, does that count as your defeat?” Damuguo said with a cold laugh.
“Then you do it!” Suomei said with blazing eyes.
Damuguo strode out proudly. “Rouse her first!”
Suomei’s face showed some embarrassment. Blue smoke rose from his palm and he passed it over Lianhuaye’s face, then pulled out the silver nails and called out sternly, “Lianhuaye — enter the cycle of rebirth at once!”
Lianhuaye suddenly sprayed out a mouthful of blood, and her eyes gradually regained their light. By now, the attendants had already released her hands and feet. Yet Lianhuaye did not rise. She remained lying on the ground, looking up at the vault of the palace chamber, tears flowing from the corners of her eyes.
Damuguo ordered a large water urn to be set up in the courtyard. Several heavyset attendants seized Lianhuaye by both arms and by her hair, and plunged her head violently into the water urn. Lianhuaye’s hands and feet thrashed — air bubbles rose in clusters from inside the urn. Several attendants pressed her down firmly. Lianhuaye gradually suffocated; her hands and feet ceased struggling.
Damuguo’s eyes had turned blood red. He stood to the side, watching and observing. Yazdegerd III and the King of Gandhara too watched anxiously. But Suomei simply sat on the chair with his eyes closed in concentration, his face showing nothing but contempt.
After observing for a moment, Damuguo said, “Good. Enough.”
The attendants hauled Lianhuaye back up. Her face was drained of all color — she had already stopped breathing. The attendants laid her flat on the ground. Damuguo extended his index finger, and at the fingertip a tongue of flame suddenly appeared. He applied his finger to Lianhuaye’s body and burned her for a moment; Lianhuaye showed no response. Damuguo struck a sudden hard blow with his fist directly to Lianhuaye’s chest. Lianhuaye abruptly sprayed out a gush of water and broke into violent coughing, gradually resuming breathing — but she was still unconscious.
“Lianhuaye, have you seen the flame between life and death? Have you seen the fire of judgment burning beneath your feet?” Damuguo murmured his incantations, then asked.
Lianhuaye lay with her eyes closed and gave no reply. Damuguo’s brow furrowed. Yazdegerd III asked anxiously, “What is happening?”
“Perhaps she came too close to death,” Damuguo was not entirely certain. “The consciousness is somewhat blurred — it has not been able to connect the memories of past and present lives in one thread.”
Yazdegerd III grew anxious. “Damuguo, we must win!”
“I will now call her soul back, then try once more,” Damuguo said. His expression was also very troubled, his eyes shot through with threads of blood — clearly his own pressure was immense. Damuguo used the flame at his fingertip to apply heat to Lianhuaye’s face. Lianhuaye woke in acute pain.
Under such torment, Lianhuaye was haggard beyond recognition — eyes sunken deep, hair in wild disarray. The woman of matchless beauty was now barely holding herself together as a recognizable person. Lianhuaye looked at Damuguo with hatred. “There is no need to burn me anymore. I am awake.”
“Since you are awake, let us continue,” Damuguo said, somewhat wearied.
“For the sake of personal ambition, tormenting an innocent person like this — do you feel no shame?” Lianhuaye said coldly.
“What innocent person are you?” Damuguo said placidly. “You are connected to the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of my Persian people — connected to the continuation of my Sasanian Persia. As long as this wager can be won, even if I lose every shred of my conscience, I will find it all the more glorious.”
“Pfah!” Lianhuaye spat at him. Damuguo calmly wiped it away and instructed, “Push her down!”
Several attendants dragged Lianhuaye upright, clutched her hair, and pushed her head down into the water urn. Lianhuaye struggled with all her might but was pressed down firmly, unable to move.
Just then, there was a sudden commotion outside the door. Damuguo erupted in fury. “Any further noise and you will be executed on the spot!”
Suddenly, with a tremendous crash, the courtyard door was shattered apart into several pieces, and two or three palace guards came tumbling in. Immediately after, a figure burst inside. It was Nashun!
He was seen charging through the doorway with a two-handed longsword used by heavy infantry, his whole body drenched in blood, and in one glance spotted Lianhuaye with her head submerged in the water urn. He let out a grief-stricken cry, brought the longsword down in a slash, and the attendants screamed and collapsed to the ground. Nashun frantically pulled Lianhuaye out and laid her flat on the ground. Lianhuaye coughed violently, spraying out gush after gush of water from her mouth.
“Lianhuaye, Lianhuaye…” Nashun called to her quietly.
Lianhuaye moaned and regained consciousness. She opened her eyes and saw Nashun looking at her. A smile spread across her face. “Am I finally dead?”
“No,” Nashun held Lianhuaye in his arms, smiling. “You are not dead. I’ve come to rescue you! With me here, there is nothing to fear. I will take you out of this royal palace right now — out of this Gandhara!”
“Seize him!” Damuguo instructed.
The surrounding Persian guards were moving forward, when Nashun let out a great shout and hurled the longsword in his hand directly at Yazdegerd III. The Persian guards were thrown into a panic and quickly converged around the emperor, raising their blades to deflect. Meanwhile Nashun scooped up Lianhuaye and turned and ran.
“Pursue them!” Damuguo said in frantic fury. The surrounding Persian guards and Gandhara soldiers all gave chase.
Nashun carried Lianhuaye and ran through the royal palace. Passing a cavalry post, he caught the cavalry off guard and seized a war horse, hoisted Lianhuaye onto the horse’s back, pulled out a cavalry lance, and drove the horse in a furious gallop. The pursuing soldiers also mounted their horses and gave chase. More soldiers of the royal palace guard sounded their horns, and instantly the entire palace was in an uproar, the royal garrison troops mustering from all directions.
The clip-clop of hoofbeats shattered the stillness of the dark night, shattered the porcelain-clear moonlight. Nashun galloped through the royal palace. The palace gates were now in sight ahead — but they were closed. Nashun did not slow. He drove the horse at full speed, seemingly intent on ramming straight through the gates. Lianhuaye cried out in alarm, clutching his waist tightly and not daring to look. Suddenly on both sides of the road torches blazed bright, and a cavalry force blocked the path ahead — densely packed, at least three or four hundred men.
“Dismount and surrender!” the cavalry commander called out.
“Kill——” Nashun bellowed, squeezed his heels hard into the horse’s flanks, and the warhorse gave a long neigh, opened up its four hooves, and came charging forward like the wind. The Gandhara cavalry commander called out an order, and the entire cavalry formation arrayed itself into a wedge formation for the charge — like a roaring dragon, they came hurtling to intercept head-on.
Nashun gave a great shout, drove a dagger hard into the horse’s rump, and the warhorse gave a long neigh as its speed erupted. On the horse’s back, Nashun lowered his head, bent his waist, lance leveled horizontally, and charged straight into the military formation without yielding an inch. Lianhuaye clutched his waist with both arms and closed her eyes.
“Kill——” Nashun charged into the military formation, screaming as he went, and ran a cavalryman through with his lance, knocking him from his horse. Then he pulled the lance back and thrust it out again like lightning — straight through another man’s throat. That cavalryman cried out and fell from his warhorse. Nashun, seizing the moment of confusion among the Gandhara cavalry, thrust deep into wave after wave of the military formation, using the momentum of the horse’s charge to drive left and break right, moving as if through empty ground. In an instant, five or six men had died at the tip of his lance.
By now Suomei, Yazdegerd III, the King of Gandhara, and Damuguo had also come running over. Yazdegerd III exclaimed in astonishment, “This young man is so valiant and fierce!”
Suomei nodded. “The Sogdian people travel as merchants and often encounter bandits. This boy has been traveling as a merchant since the age of six — over more than ten years he has probably fought bandits no fewer than dozens of times. He has long since become a fierce and brave warrior.”
“Form a battle formation — kill him!” That cavalry commander, seeing the king watching from the side, was filled with burning shame and rage, and bellowed the order.
“Take him alive!” Suomei hastily instructed.
The cavalry commander glared at him with resentment but did not dare offend him, and gave the order: “Knock him off his horse!”
The cavalry massed into a dense formation and came thundering toward Nashun. By now Nashun had already broken through the vanguard and was charging at high speed back toward them. Neither side was willing to give way — in an instant they crashed together. At the same moment that Nashun’s lance pierced through one man’s chest, he himself was pierced by several lances. Before either side could react, the violent collision of the warhorses sent everyone flying through the air. Lianhuaye cried out in fright. Nashun quickly threw away the lance and in mid-air wrapped his arms around Lianhuaye’s waist, and they crashed heavily to the ground together. Dust and earth billowed up around them, obscuring everything.
The cavalry commander ordered men to surround the area. When the chaos subsided, they saw Nashun — his hair fallen loose and wild, his whole body drenched in blood — still holding Lianhuaye with one arm, while with his other hand he groped across the ground until he found a curved blade. Using the curved blade to prop himself up, he struggled to his feet. His chest and back were wounded in multiple places, blood flowing freely — yet he paid it no heed. In the light of the moon and the torches, Nashun’s eyes blazed like a wolf’s, staring fixedly at the cavalry surrounding him on all sides.
“Surrender, Nashun,” Damuguo called out. “You know that, out of respect for the Venerable Master Xuanzang, this old one has no wish to kill you.”
Nashun spat out the blood in his mouth and said coldly, “If I cannot take her away from here, what reason do I have to live in this world!”
Lianhuaye glanced around at her surroundings and already knew that breaking through tonight was hopeless. Surrounded by several hundred cavalry, even if she grew wings she could not escape. She smiled a bleak smile. “Nashun — let it be like this. I hope that in our next lives we will not meet again.”
“I want only this life — not a next life!” Nashun screamed with desperate fury, waving the curved blade and charging forward.
“Seize him!” the cavalry commander bellowed.
More than a hundred cavalry dismounted, holding long lances to surround Nashun on all sides. Nashun, his hair wild and disheveled, slashed and hacked in a frenzy. But his blade was too short — it simply could not reach the enemy — while the long lances stabbed him with wound after wound across his body, until he was drenched from head to toe in blood.
“Nashun — go!” Lianhuaye wept with streaming tears.
Nashun smiled with desolate calm, fighting like a cornered beast — yet already at the end of his road. Several lances stabbed into his arms and legs simultaneously. The curved blade fell from Nashun’s hand. His entire body could no longer stand. He sank to his knees on the ground. The scene fell into sudden stillness. Nashun knelt there quietly, blood pouring freely from his wounds. In the moonlight, the blood seemed to gleam with a faint luminescence. Nashun, heedless of everything else, stared blankly at Lianhuaye not far away, his face streaked with blood and tears.
Several cavalrymen moved to go and apprehend him. Nashun let out a savage laugh, baring the white of his teeth. The cavalrymen’s scalps went numb and they did not dare approach. Nashun tried to move toward Lianhuaye’s side but pitched forward and fell to the ground. He could not make his limbs respond. Just like that, using only his head and his elbows to prop himself up, biting his teeth together, he inched toward Lianhuaye one inch at a time — leaving a long trail of blood behind him. Lianhuaye was also weeping now. She stumbled forward and ran to him, threw her arms around Nashun and took him into her embrace. “Nashun — why are you so foolish? Was it worth it, for a woman like me?”
“For you, everything is worth it,” Nashun said, lying in her embrace, smiling. “Even if it were only for this one moment of being held, I would not regret it even in death.”
“And yet — I cannot accept you,” Lianhuaye wept.
“It does not matter. I love you — you walk your path.” Nashun looked up at Lianhuaye’s face of unparalleled beauty. His gaze passed through the strands of black hair and found the vast, boundless night sky. The starry sky and the bright moon, the immensity of the cosmos — yet none of it could dissolve the sorrow within Nashun’s heart. “Lianhuaye, do you know — perhaps across countless cycles of rebirth, we are like two stars gazing at each other from far away, yet unable to draw near, unable to embrace. Perhaps when one of those stars falls it will pass by your side — brush past you — and then forget everything once more and sink back into the cycle of rebirth. But I know: as long as you are there beneath this starry sky, I would be willing to live this wretched life again. This life — it was good. I held you in my arms, didn’t I… The night sky here is so lonely. I want to take you to see the fireworks of the Great Tang — brilliant, beautiful — like me burning for you, with you smiling at me…”
Nashun murmured on and on, until he fell unconscious. Lianhuaye broke down sobbing.
“All right — bind them both and take them away,” Damuguo instructed.
“No!” Lianhuaye clutched Nashun tightly, as if afraid of losing him — but she was forcibly dragged away from him, and he was hauled over, bound hand and foot in tight knots.
“Damuguo — shall we continue?” Suomei asked with a smile.
“You go!” Damuguo said in fury.
“That is what you said,” Suomei smiled. “Once this old monk has found the truth, do not come to regret it.”
Damuguo snorted coldly and made a gesture for him to proceed. Suomei picked up a longsword from the ground and drove it into the earth with a thud. The blade’s edge was less than an inch from Nashun’s neck. Lianhuaye cried out in alarm.
“Lianhuaye,” Suomei said gravely, “this old monk knows that you remember your past lives. I will no longer use methods to force you. I ask you only one question — answer it or not, and if you will not answer, this sword will sever Nashun’s neck!”
“You——” Lianhuaye was both terrified and furious.
“This old monk does not take life.” Suomei summoned an attendant, handed him the longsword, and instructed, “Kill him.”
The attendant raised the longsword and brought it down toward Nashun. Lianhuaye cried out, “Do not kill him! I will speak!”
“How can this be permitted?!” Both Damuguo and Yazdegerd III were stunned.
“Why not?” Suomei turned to look at them with raised eyebrows. Both men were speechless — when the wager had been made, there had been no stipulation about what methods could be used.
“Speak then. Once you have spoken, I will let you both go,” Suomei said gently.
Lianhuaye stared blankly at Nashun, who lay unconscious before her, and asked Suomei to treat and tend his wounds first. Suomei said not a word to the contrary and ordered his attendants to bandage and treat Nashun. A bleak smile spread across Lianhuaye’s face, and she murmured, “Venerable one, you were not wrong. I do indeed remember my past lives — all of them, every single one, every person, every event, clear before my eyes, precise to the last detail, not a hair’s breadth missing.”
“All of your past lives?” Suomei was taken aback. “What do you mean?”
Terror suddenly appeared in Lianhuaye’s expression. She seemed afraid to open her mouth — as if once she spoke the words aloud, she would disturb the workings of the unseen fate: “Because I have not cycled through rebirth once, but thirty-three times!”
Everyone present was stunned. Even Suomei was frozen in place.
“In each of my lives I repeat the same fate — at first I gather ten thousand forms of love and adoration in a single being; then I fall into a life of being a courtesan; then by some turn of circumstance I become a queen; and in the end someone smashes my skull and kills me, and I cycle through rebirth again. Life after life I repeat this fate — regardless of the era into which I am born, regardless of the nation into which I am born, I cannot escape it, I cannot change it. This is a ring of rebirth, a prison of destiny. I am the pitiable prisoner within that prison of rebirth.”
Everyone present felt their souls tremble and shake. For a long while no one spoke. Even in Suomei’s expression there lurked a faint and hidden terror — he had spent many years in deep meditation, his mind as firm as bedrock and as still as a dried well, yet even he could not prevent his fingers from trembling slightly.
“Why is this?” Suomei murmured. “What is the origin of your being? Why have you fallen into this kind of cycle?”
“In my first life,” Lianhuaye said with an expression of mockery, “my name was Upalamasya.”