The dharma assembly at Jianfu Temple was an enormous success. That Buddha statue standing three zhang tall stood under the blue sky and bright sun. People standing at its feet appeared so insignificant. The Buddha’s wise eyes looked compassionately upon the world, as if pitying them, yet also with some reluctance. Believers used willow branches dipped in clear water to bathe the Buddha statue. The water that had washed the Buddha statue flowed down from it. Yun Ye watched those people opening their mouths trying hard to catch the water that had washed the Buddha statue, feeling extremely depressed.
Monk Fayan pressed his palms together, loudly chanting Buddha’s name, receiving Yun Ye’s arrival with high spirits. Today was the last day of Jianfu Temple’s dharma assembly. Come tomorrow, this great Buddha statue would be covered with curtains, awaiting the construction of the Great Hero’s Treasure Hall.
There is always Buddha first, then the hall. This Great Sun Tathagata Buddha statue already had spiritual power and naturally needed to be enshrined quickly, so that under the curling incense smoke, it could receive offerings from all directions. The hall could not be neglected under any circumstances. Looking at the craftsmen around preparing to measure the land, many were from the Yun family estate. A young man from the Gongshu family was holding a huge ink fountain, snapping chalk lines everywhere. At the temple’s back gate, horse carts continuously came and went, loaded with various building materials—even glazed tiles. It looked like the specifications for this hall construction were not low.
Following Fayan into the deepest part of the temple, he saw Xuanzang wearing a moon-white monk’s robe, sitting on a cushion smiling and nodding at Yun Ye. Behind him were still those two strange-looking people. The monkey-shaped Peacock King wearing a Vairocana cap was actually sitting dumbly on the frost-covered stone floor. Yun Ye could even see the long leg hair on his legs.
“Marquis Yun, do not be surprised. He is originally an ascetic monk. Heaven is his canopy, earth his bed, the sun, moon and stars naturally are his room’s decorations. Without pushing open windows, green mountains enter his embrace. Drinking a mouthful of water is cause, eating a mouthful of rice is desire. Not taking a single blade of grass or tree from the world—that is great freedom. This poor monk greatly envies him.”
Xuanzang’s eyes were full of warm smiles. One could see no worries, nor any trace of suffering. The entire person just sat there—he resembled the Buddha more than that Buddha statue.
Until now, Yun Ye believed this distant journey was a kind of cultivation for him, whose effects must be better than those Buddhist scriptures he brought back. Actually, he only needed to walk to Tianzhu to complete his cultivation—no need to bring back these tree leaves. These palm-leaf scriptures were the greatest failure of his distant cultivation journey.
“Great monk, cultivation is cultivation—why bring back these useless things, and bring back three detestable objects too? Do you think the Central Plains’ faith isn’t chaotic enough?”
Xuanzang still smiled and said, “You are not me—how can you know my joy? What you see as useless things, I see as supreme wonderful sounds. What you call detestable objects are all great virtuous eminent monks who have already achieved merit.”
“I heard you’ve already fallen into the mortal world, your spiritual roots extinguished, daily running about for wife and family, creating boundless killing karma. This poor monk can see the karmic entanglements covering your entire body. Why not cast them off and follow me into the mountains to cultivate? Eventually you can cross the Red Lotus River and observe the other shore.”
“Don’t try to fool me. How can being with you every day with ancient Buddha lamps compare to the pleasure of fish and water with my wife? How can vegetables and tofu compare to the meat and fish I love? Red Lotus River? Where is it? As long as you find it, I can cross it. If you can’t find it, then you’re lying. I heard that in Buddhism, speaking false words means going to the tongue-pulling hell.”
“Marquis Yun, you are the person with the most spiritual roots this poor monk has ever seen. You have already opened your innate six consciousnesses. Doing anything achieves twice the result with half the effort. Abandoning great peace and great freedom, coveting that bit of pleasure in the mortal world—how foolish!”
“Xuanzang, you became a monk as a youth and simply don’t know the extreme pleasure of the mortal world. Why don’t I take you to Yanlai Tower, roll around in the mortal world, taste the flavor of ten zhang of soft red, then talk about how the Buddhist Pure Land compares?”
The expression on Xuanzang’s face didn’t change at all. Even though Yun Ye spoke such almost blasphemous language, not even his eyes showed any change. He still looked at Yun Ye with pity, as if seeing someone who could clearly eat exquisite delicacies but insisted on running to eat dog excrement.
“Everyone talks of conversion, everyone talks of refuge. If this poor monk can convert Marquis Yun in a brothel, what does it matter if this stinking skin is defiled? Brothels are places where human sorrow and suffering converge. My Buddha is compassionate—why don’t we go to Yanlai Tower tomorrow?”
Yun Ye was speechless. This fellow had long ago seen all people and all places as no different from himself and his places. Brothels were no different from his meditation room; prostitutes and Yun Ye had no difference either. Thinking of this, Yun Ye became somewhat angry and said loudly, “I once saw a virtual illusion. In that illusion there was an eminent monk who planned to save a nine-lifetime evildoer, a nine-lifetime beggar, and a nine-lifetime prostitute. He tried every method without success because their souls were captured by a powerful demon king. The eminent monk went to find that demon king, planning to get back the souls. The demon king said one sentence that I think makes a lot of sense.”
Xuanzang asked with a smile, “I wonder what that demon king said that makes Marquis Yun unable to forget this illusion?”
Yun Ye looked into Xuanzang’s eyes and said word by word, “The demon king said: ‘Let Shakyamuni come talk to me!’ That demon king only killed a million people and became a great demon king. I killed no less than one hundred thousand people in Liaodong. I can’t be a great demon king, but a small demon king is still no problem. Xuanzang, let the Buddha come talk to me about refuge.”
“One grain of sand, one world. Worlds are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. The Buddhas of the nine heavens and ten earths are innumerable. I am Buddha, Buddha is me. You are also Buddha, he is also Buddha. Mountains are Buddha, water is Buddha, plants and trees are Buddha, autumn insects are also Buddha. Buddha is everywhere. Marquis Yun is also a person of great wisdom—why be constrained by Buddha’s external appearance?”
“Forget it, I won’t trouble you. Tomorrow I’ll catch a cold cicada Buddha to raise and let it slowly convert me. In a hundred or eighty years there should be some effect. If the cold cicada Buddha doesn’t work, I’ll just switch to another Buddha—as long as it’s not that fake Buddha in the courtyard outside. I heard today there’s a Buddha who emits light coming to wreck the place. You’d better deal with him first.”
Xuanzang laughed heartily, pointing at Yun Ye and saying, “Mischievous!” Then he took out a book from his bosom and handed it to Yun Ye, continuing, “Past causes bear today’s fruit. This ‘Records of the Western Regions’ was written by me on my return journey. The fifty-six kingdoms of the Western Regions are all recorded. Settling your cause and effect—this poor monk can also achieve enlightenment earlier.”
“Heh heh heh, Xuanzang, this cause and effect of yours is tied rather large. The reason I want your ‘Records of the Western Regions’ is precisely to make it more convenient for the Great Tang to march into the Western Regions’ fifty-six kingdoms. Now our dynasty’s great army is at the frontier sharpening weapons and waiting. Once they have your ‘Records of the Western Regions’ to lead the way, hundreds of thousands of cavalry will sweep across the entire Western Region like locusts. At that time, the Western Regions’ cities will be smoking everywhere, crying everywhere, heads flying all over, burning, killing, and plundering without restraint. What Zhaowu Nine Surnames, what Kucha and Khotan—even the vanished Loulan, our dynasty’s great army will go find it, confirming the last Loulan person is dead before we’ll be at ease.”
“So you see, Xuanzang, I feel the possibility of us two becoming demon kings together in hell in the future is greater. I’ll go back first to deploy troops and arrange formations. You stay here and chant sutras properly. When we meet in hell in the future and find hell’s environment unsatisfactory, we can discuss putting down the butcher’s knife and immediately becoming Buddha.”
Xuanzang chanted Buddha’s name and wasn’t angered. Instead he said with a smile, “In the past, Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha made a great vow saying: ‘Until hell is empty, I vow not to become Buddha.’ He said this vow three times, and heaven and earth shook three times. Never mind—the karma that should be mine, this poor monk naturally should bear. I can always achieve enlightenment before Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha becomes Buddha—that’s also a good thing.”
Perhaps those who became eminent monks were like this—their hearts already trained to be impervious to weapons and fire. Even if huge noisy sounds came from outside, it couldn’t move him in the slightest.
Yun Ye pointed outside and said to Xuanzang, “Listen, it’s chaos outside. Someone must be disrupting the dharma assembly. Won’t you go stop them? With your status, probably no one would dare act presumptuously.”
Xuanzang rose and slowly walked toward the meditation room. While walking, he said to Yun Ye, “What’s false cannot become true, what’s true cannot become false. Dead people will come back to life—we had such encounters back then, so having seen it often, it’s not strange. The causes one creates, one enjoys the fruits oneself. Whether bodhi fruit or bitter fruit, in the end one must eat it oneself. This poor monk will not bewitch people’s hearts with evil ways and heresies, nor disdains to. The Faxiang-Weishi School has no teaching of telling lies for others.”
Seeing Xuanzang enter the room, Yun Ye asked the Peacock Wisdom King, “How does the Buddha taste? Would swallowing it whole be hard to get down?”
The Tianzhu ascetic monk darted out like a ghost, grabbed Yun Ye’s arm and was about to exert force. But a sharp pain came from his palm. Even risking injury to both hands, he still heavily pushed Yun Ye out. Looking at his own hands again, they were full of dense small holes, blood constantly flowing out. Most strange was that besides hurting a bit at first, now both hands had no feeling at all. Greatly shocked, he looked toward Yun Ye.
The prepared Liu Jinbao caught his own marquis just as Yun Ye flew up, rolled on the ground, dissipating the force, and helped the marquis stand up.
Yun Ye dusted off the dirt on his body, lifted his wide robe sleeves, and removed a pair of arm guards from inside. These arm guards were covered with extremely sharp steel spikes, presenting a strange blue color.
The Tianzhu monk stepped forward, about to attack, but discovered he was surrounded by Yun family guards, each holding a crossbow. Just from Yun Ye’s ill-intentioned gaze, he knew that if he dared move again, his fate would be no better than a hedgehog’s.
“I most hate people grabbing my arm. I just wanted to test whether you could speak the Central Plains language. I didn’t expect you really could. Now it’s fine—Yetuo is dead, Tian Xiangzi is also dead. You came all the way to the Central Plains—for what? You should be Yetuo’s younger brother, right? I can tell from the tattoo on your thigh. You actually weren’t eaten by insects. Tell me, what did you come to the Central Plains to do?”
“How did you know?” the Peacock Wisdom King asked hoarsely.
“The monk told me. Yetuo is dead—I saw the head. Dead people come back to life. If a subordinate came back to life, the significance isn’t great, so it must be Yetuo’s brother whose head was bitten off by insects that revived. Didn’t you notice the monk talked to me about nonsense for a long time?”