Princess Zhao’an had a private, standalone meditation courtyard at Huguo Temple where she stayed for extended periods. Since she had become pregnant, that courtyard had never again been opened to outsiders, and every month the Princess’s estate would send generous lamp oil donations — which also served as the rent for the courtyard’s use.
And so, even when every meditation courtyard in Huguo Temple was filled to capacity, this particular one would not be given to anyone else.
No one had anticipated that, after Gong Qi set things in motion, this most ordinary-looking of courtyards would actually yield something.
It was a small Buddhist prayer hall, which enshrined a statue of the Future Buddha. At the Buddha’s feet were several charmingly naive small child-figures. Before the Buddha, long-burning incense and an eternal flame lamp had been set out, along with fresh fruits and offerings, while the prayer hall’s walls were hung with solemn dharma portraits of the Buddha.
Before the eternal flame lamp stood a sandalwood casket that had been opened, which was said to have been kept all along in a hidden compartment beneath the Future Buddha’s seat. Inside the casket was a small infant figurine dressed in a tiny garment, accompanied by a birth date and hour inscription, as well as a roll of yellow silk.
“What is this?” Gong Qi first picked up the infant figurine and examined it. Upon seeing the birth date and hour inscription, his expression changed with surprise.
These — these were a future birth date and hour.
Wait, this time…
Was this not tomorrow at the hour of Zi — midnight?
Gong Qi then picked up the roll of yellow silk. The moment he unrolled it, his brows knitted tightly together. Written upon it in blood was a petition addressed to the Bodhisattva — written with one’s own essence blood — a willing offering of the mother’s soul as a sacrifice, beseeching all the Bodhisattvas and the Buddhas to bless the child to come into the world at the appointed time.
“What a confused and wretched mess.” Gong Qi’s face showed open disgust.
Even in the face of the terror of childbirth, what mother would willingly exchange her own soul for her child to be born safely? A mother is a person first, and a mother second — how could anyone seek to give their life for the child’s entry into the world…
Wait.
A petition was one thing — but this petition, upon closer inspection, seemed wrong somehow. It was not merely a petition — it looked more like it was substituting for something.
“Come look at this quickly — I feel something is off.” Gong Qi beckoned Lang Jiuchuan over.
Lang Jiuchuan had already circled once around the room. She now looked at the objects within the sandalwood casket. Looking at the small clay infant figure, she sniffed faintly — a faint smell of blood, the same as the clay figure Cong Bian had installed at the Earth God’s temple. It had been kneaded with blood. And the birth date and hour inscription pointed to the night of the full moon — the very hour when the corpse-puppet would shed its yin essence and complete its reincarnation.
Looking again at the petition letter, she felt more and more certain of her suspicions.
Lang Jiuchuan set these items down, picked up the sandalwood casket, and ran her hands over every surface inside and out. Then she suddenly flipped up the bottom — as though a mechanism had been triggered, the entire casket unfolded and spread flat, revealing its other face: a surface covered in talisman runes, with a wafer-thin crimson gold shield affixed upon it.
Gong Qi sucked in a sharp, hissing breath.
The casket had yet another layer of ingenuity hidden within?
Lang Jiuchuan picked up the talisman-inscribed shield, sensing the Dao-intent within this magical implement, and let out a quiet sigh: “What a brilliant mind. If Cong Bian had walked the orthodox path of the righteous way, perhaps this world would have gained one more truly accomplished Daoist master.”
What a pity that fate had been unkind to someone of such talent — it had caused him to meet with misfortune at the height of his success, sending him tumbling from the heights of the clouds into the mire of the world below. From that point on, his mind warped, and he turned down a different road entirely.
Decisive he was — but he had taken a wrong turn. He did not know that the road’s end was a cliff with no return.
Such is the way of time and fate — nothing more!
“Stop keeping me in suspense — what on earth is all of this?” Gong Qi was growing somewhat anxious.
Lang Jiuchuan tapped the casket and said: “The prayer hall is cleverly devised — a protective formation has been arranged within it, both to shield from harm and to deflect tribulations. As for the protective shield within this sandalwood casket — unless I’m mistaken, this should be the Crimson Sun Shield.”
Gong Qi’s mind suddenly blazed with recognition, recalling something he had once read in a catalog of magical implements, and he exclaimed in shock: “The Crimson Sun Shield — the Crimson Sun Shield that can block one entire heavenly tribulation?”
“Yes.” Lang Jiuchuan took the opportunity to tuck the Crimson Sun Shield into her own chest pocket.
Gong Qi, who had just been about to reach over and examine it carefully: “!”
The smoothness of that move — how extraordinarily practiced it seemed, as if she had refined this motion through a thousand repetitions.
Lang Jiuchuan appeared not to notice the greenish cast that had come over his face. She picked up the small clay infant figurine and said: “In order for his great plan to succeed, Cong Bian made every possible preparation — he had even arranged to have a substitute take the blow from any heavenly tribulation that might occur.”
“The substitute is this?” Gong Qi’s attention was redirected, and he pointed at the clay figure: “It’s just a clay figurine.”
“Do you know how curses work? You knead a figurine and attach a birth date inscription along with essence blood, or fingernail clippings, or hair — then you can cast spells upon it. You should understand this.” Lang Jiuchuan pointed at the small infant figurine: “This figurine smells of blood, which means it must have been kneaded with essence blood. The child has not yet been born, so it could only be the parents’ essence blood — but as blood of the same bloodline, it amounts to the same thing.”
Gong Qi was still somewhat bewildered: “If this figurine was made to help deflect the tribulation, why wasn’t it kept on the child’s person? Why hide it here?”
Lang Jiuchuan turned and looked at Abbot Xuanneng — whose complexion could not be described as good — and said: “This brings us back again to their greed and their coveting of something else. Abbot — in the Buddha’s eyes, how does he regard all living beings?”
“Amitabha.” Abbot Xuanneng pressed his palms together and recited a Buddhist invocation, then said with something like resignation: “In the Buddha’s eyes, all living beings are as a single child — and so all living beings are equal.”
Gong Qi started slightly, beginning to sense where this was going.
“You see — the Buddha regards all living beings as a single child; all living beings are equal. All living beings encompasses everything. In his eyes, every living being is equal — which means that when a soul is reincarnated and comes into the world, regardless of whether they become demon or evil, they are still a living being and deserving of blessing. This statue is the Future Buddha — also known as the Maitreya, the Buddha Who Bestows Children. To enshrine him here is also to pray for blessings. Consider: when something is born with the blessing of the Bodhisattvas and the Buddha, how could its coming into the world be considered a transgression against Heaven’s will? And if Heaven is unwilling, one begs for the Buddha’s compassion to protect the child’s life.” Lang Jiuchuan picked up the yellow silk petition letter: “And for this, the mother was willing to sacrifice her own soul in exchange for the child’s life — was that not enough?”
Gong Qi’s heart shook with a tremendous jolt. He stared at the small clay figurine and the petition letter, and felt as though a new door had been opened before his eyes.
What is a perfect, all-encompassing strategy — could this be it?
If it was truly as she had described, then Cong Bian — it was right to say of him that he had been deep-scheming and calculating to the very end.
What a pity. No matter how deep one schemed, he had still ended up falling into her hands. So after all, she had come out ahead — even if it was by the narrowest of margins, a victory was still a victory.
Heaven’s will — truly, it cannot be foreseen!
Gong Qi looked at Lang Jiuchuan again. Such a razor-sharp mind — who had taught her?
Abbot Xuanneng likewise sighed in quiet reverence. Truly formidable. Yet his eyes also carried a trace of worry. Extreme brilliance often brings suffering; what is overly rigid breaks easily. She was both brilliant and unyielding — prone to fading early.
Amitabha, may the Buddha protect her.
Lang Jiuchuan wrapped up the yellow silk and the small clay figurine, then said: “Of course, all of this is only my conjecture. Perhaps I’ve been over-reading into things — perhaps they only set up this formation to stabilize the pregnancy, since the Princess’s pregnancy instability is indeed real. So whether things are truly as I’ve described, we can no longer ask Cong Bian for confirmation. But the birth date and hour inscribed on this small figurine does give us a reminder — the true time of this creature’s birth.”
“Wait — did they have the ability to foretell the future? To know with certainty it would be born at exactly this hour?” Gong Qi asked, puzzled.
Lang Jiuchuan finally couldn’t hold back and rolled her eyes at him: “How old are you — what exactly have you been studying? Is giving birth something that only happens naturally on its own? There’s also inducing labor for an auspicious hour, and even cutting open the abdomen to take the child directly — have you forgotten what I showed you?”
In Gong Qi’s mind, the image suddenly rushed back — that monstrous infant, crawling out from the woman’s abdomen, the belly split open and pulled apart on either side.
A cesarean birth — it all fits!