Her present “self”?

Was he referring to the female demon transformed from that segment of her past?

Since she had been discovered, Jian Chou no longer concealed her presence. She walked directly out of the darkness, staring straight at this thumb-sized little person, her gaze carrying some curiosity.

Probably having recognized her identity, the little person was no longer afraid of her. He flipped around and sat back on the edge of the lotus lamp, also looking at her with some curiosity: “Why don’t you speak? Did I guess wrong?”

“If the ‘she’ you speak of refers to my past, then you didn’t guess wrong. I am indeed her present.”

Jian Chou spoke with him, but since this lotus lamp was placed on the ground and was quite low, she felt it wasn’t very suitable. So she crouched down and sat cross-legged by the lotus pool, trying to maintain eye level with it.

“But what about you?”

“Me?”

The little person giggled, his eyes rolling around. His gaze flickered and suddenly fell on the burning lotus lamp beneath him, giving him an idea.

“Me? I am a boy under Dipankara Buddha’s seat. You can call me the Lamp-Lighting Boy.”

Lamp-Lighting Boy?

Jian Chou could tell at a glance that he was making things up, but she didn’t expose him. She only guessed he was a spirit born from this cinder pool, having taken form from some object, so she also looked toward that lotus lamp.

“So, Master Yichen lit this lamp for you?”

“Of course!”

The little person looked white all over, and illuminated by the warm yellow light, he seemed to glow all over. He proudly swung his arms and dangled his legs hanging from the edge of the lotus lamp.

“I’m afraid of the dark. If there’s no light, how scary would that be?”

“…”

Afraid of the dark.

Jian Chou suddenly felt speechless, but seeing this self-proclaimed “Lamp-Lighting Boy” looking completely serious, she didn’t think it was a joke.

The Lamp-Lighting Boy pouted: “You don’t believe me?”

“No, I was being impolite. It’s just that since entering the cultivation path, among all the various beings I’ve encountered, I’ve never seen anyone afraid of the dark. I was momentarily surprised.”

Jian Chou explained, then looked toward the Cinder Pool.

“So she emerged and took form from here…”

Under the illumination of the lotus lamp, the Cinder Pool no longer had the clarity of daylight but appeared somewhat blurred instead. Looking carefully, one could see that those things that looked like ashes were actually a special kind of gray-black dust particles, gathered into clusters and moving with the pool water.

On the water surface, myriad phantoms flickered.

Each stream of water brought different visions.

Some male, some female, some were spirits from the mountains, some were old monsters who had achieved cultivation, there were even evil cultivators from demonic paths, as well as some reclusive great cultivators.

What they had cast away and forgotten also varied greatly.

There was the exuberance of triumphant spring days, and the destitution of sleeping rough; there was the stubbornness of abandoning the entire world, and the diligence of studying by firefly light…

“Yes, when I first met her, she was different from others. Ah, saying it like that seems wrong too—it’s your past that was special. Anyway, within a few years, she could quietly talk to me and even listen to Master Yichen recite Buddhist scriptures.”

The Lamp-Lighting Boy didn’t know what Jian Chou was looking at and craned his head to look as well.

“Do you also like watching them?”

“Just very curious.”

Jian Chou shook her head but didn’t withdraw her gaze.

“In my view, this Cinder Pool contains not merely people’s pasts, but even more fragmented and scattered things. There are forgotten objects, forgotten experiences, and even certain qualities that have disappeared from their owners, whether good or bad…”

“Ah, the Master says the same thing!” The Lamp-Lighting Boy blinked, his eyes brightening. “And they’ve complained to me too, saying their masters no longer care about them, so they came here.”

Don’t care…

Yes, it was simply not caring.

Jian Chou’s mood at this moment was incredibly complex, so she couldn’t respond immediately. She just appeared to concentrate while actually being lost in thought, watching all the phantoms before her.

Seeing her ignore him, the Lamp-Lighting Boy was somewhat unhappy. He stretched out his short arms and barely managed to poke her knee: “What are you thinking about?”

Jian Chou glanced back at him and said lightly: “Thinking about her, thinking about myself, thinking about people, and thinking about this Cinder Pool.”

“What’s there to think about in all that?”

The Lamp-Lighting Boy still didn’t understand.

The dim yellow flame burned behind him.

The full lamp oil had shallowed somewhat but still soaked that section of wick. After being lit by that flame and burning completely, it turned into a wisp of black smoke, drifting toward the deep black night sky.

It was as if this heavy night curtain had been blackened by this single lamp.

“Because I don’t understand, I need to think.”

Jian Chou’s gaze followed this wisp of black smoke as it gradually disappeared into the void, then slowly returned, and she faintly gained some understanding.

“Lamp-lighting, Cinder Pool…”

Cinder meant ashes.

Jian Chou slightly narrowed her eyes, her gaze returning to the pool water, staring for a long time.

The moon reached its zenith, bright stars were sparse.

She spoke no more, and the Lamp-Lighting Boy seemed to find her boring, so he didn’t disturb her either, only continuing to curiously observe her expression and demeanor.

Though she sat by the pool, she had no aura whatsoever.

Jian Chou’s entire being seemed to have entered meditation, like the vegetation and rocks of this mountain, completely merging with the surrounding environment, achieving a state of unity between heaven and humanity.

If he hadn’t been watching her all along, the Lamp-Lighting Boy would almost have thought no one was there.

He was also another kind of strange existence in this world, and his origins were truly extraordinary, so his spiritual intelligence was naturally extremely high. However, the other existences in this Cinder Pool weren’t so clever.

About half an hour later, when the mountain’s spiritual energy was at its densest, they emerged one after another.

Stream after stream of ash-laden water from this Cinder Pool, some thin as butterfly wings, some light and agile as snakes, all flew up from the pool and actually began moving about on the water surface. Some even directly circled around Jian Chou.

“Tonight’s lamp is warm too.”

“Boy, how’s the evening?”

“Little brat isn’t sitting properly again, hehe, be careful or Master Xuelang will come hit you in the morning.”

“What is this thing? A new statue? How come it looks just like our Boss Jian Chou?”

“Yeah, yeah, exactly the same.”

“Tch, what boss? She’s gone, now this general is your leader!”

…

Tiny voices, dense and numerous, buzzing noisily, quickly weaving together above the pool water and completely surrounding Jian Chou.

The Lamp-Lighting Boy rolled his eyes, delighted to watch these cinder spirits court death.

He was just waiting for Jian Chou to suddenly open her eyes and scare them to death.

But unexpectedly, after waiting left and right for quite some time, Jian Chou sitting there didn’t move at all, truly like a statue.

The Lamp-Lighting Boy immediately became somewhat puzzled.

He carefully approached and poked her, but Jian Chou still didn’t move.

Huh, she didn’t suddenly die, did she?

Startled by his own thought, if he weren’t afraid of the dark and didn’t dare leave this lamp now, he would probably immediately rush down the mountain to grab Master Xuelang’s legs and call him to come look.

The Lamp-Lighting Boy withdrew his hand, somehow becoming afraid.

If Jian Chou opened her eyes now and saw his timid and fearful expression, she probably couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Fortunately, she still had her eyes closed.

Not responding to him wasn’t because she couldn’t sense anything.

But because at this moment, what she knew and felt was too much, too vast, and too complex!

Almost the instant she had concentrated her mind to gaze at the Cinder Pool, all the various phantoms floating, intersecting, and constantly changing in the pool had surged into her mind!

How could she spare any mental energy to attend to other matters?

Countless scenes unfolded in her consciousness—some like small, glittering fragments, others long segments like brilliant light bands…

Everything was some detail, some passage from other people’s lives.

There was the prosperous long road of the capital.

Jade carriages crisscrossed, golden whips in endless succession; dragons bore jeweled canopies, phoenixes exhaled flowing tassels.

Pampered sons of wealthy families sat high in painted towers by the street, beauties in their arms, drinking wine and singing drunkenly. Golden steps and jade halls, silver candles burning bright—a scene of luxury and waste.

There was the military camp in ice and snow.

Beacon fires burning long, iron armor cold with light; white snow covering banners completely, wind sounds stirring drum beats!

The scholar and literati sitting solemnly in the tent, hearing the cries from the world outside, finally threw down his brush, consigned those five cartloads of books to flames, bowed toward the emperor at the head seat, and resolutely requested orders!

There was the passenger boat moored on the cold river at night.

The pale moon sinking, black magpies flying south; fishing fires reflecting worried faces, and in the silence, the bell sounds from distant temples had struck into his heart.

The traveler drifting away from home, completely restless, looked at the moon in the sky and at the fishing fires broken by water waves on the river surface, sighing softly but unable to release the travel sorrow filling his heart.

There was also the lonely, towering snowy mountain.

Layered clouds for ten thousand li, white waves in nine channels; peaks and ridges spread out like nine-fold cloud screens, yet their majestic shadows fell into the clear lake below, reflecting slate-like bright beauty.

The great cultivator holding a green jade staff, riding colorful clouds upward, reached out from the snowy peak’s summit to pluck—the sky suddenly turned to night. Countless starlight actually gathered at his fingertips, forming a brilliant starfire that illuminated all directions!

…

Thousands upon thousands of varieties, seemingly endless.

The frivolity of youth ignorant of worldly affairs, the melancholy of a lady in her chamber missing her husband, the hot blood of battling someone in the dark night, the perseverance of quiet closed-door bitter cultivation…

But these were all existences forgotten and abandoned by their former masters.

Under the lotus lamp’s illumination, what floated throughout this pool was the hundred states of human life, was all the different choices of saints and ordinary people, was those causes and effects entangled in rights and wrongs, was those emotions and desires that floated and sank, bright or dim—was—

The ashes remaining after the lamp burned!

Dipankara Buddha, the Past Buddha.

Cinder Pool.

Lamp-Lighting Sword.

All the fog, the moment these three connected together, had thunderously dispersed!

Jian Chou’s heart was completely clear and bright.

No longer was there the hesitation she’d felt about her past choices, nor the lingering over the current unresolved difficult situation. Even this once-confused original heart seemed to have all dust wiped away, clean and transparent.

My heart is like a lamp!

All past things are but ashes.

If they are not swept away completely, how can the lamp be bright, how can the heart be bright? I need only take what I cannot abandon and abandon what I cannot take.

At this moment, her tightly closed eyes finally opened.

Night was half over.

The cinder spirits had originally taken her for a clay or wooden puppet, leisurely dancing around the Cinder Pool in the vicinity. None expected her to suddenly open her eyes, and they all froze simultaneously as if frightened.

Then strange howls erupted from the mountain!

This group of strange existences who had been swaggering in front of Jian Chou earlier almost simultaneously let out piercing screams. Whether on the water surface or in mid-air, they turned direction and tried to scatter in all directions.

But Jian Chou’s movements were more than ten times faster than theirs!

She raised her head and pointed once at the void—the entire heaven and earth seemed to freeze at this moment!

She gazed at them, her eyes carrying complete benevolence, only sighing gently: “I have a heart lamp I wish to light. Please, all of you, lend me a spark of starfire!”

As her words fell, the entire pool’s wave-light stirred!

From the pool surface to the pool bottom, whether it was those with deep resentment who had become cinder spirits, or those who had lost consciousness and sunk down—all the ashes surged upward!

In the dimness, point after point of dust-like light began to shine from their bodies…

These were all the grudges and disputes that had been abandoned by their former masters, and also the emotions and desires they themselves were unwilling to abandon; these were obsessions one had let go, and aspirations another had picked up!

Their former masters had achieved their present selves through “abandoning”;

While they themselves had achieved their current selves through “not abandoning,” and being unable to abandon.

People could abandon their past, but if the past itself had spirit, how could it abandon its past, abandon itself?

Borrow.

Borrow your joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; borrow your grief, joy, separation, and reunion;

Borrow your gray-haired reading without regretting the lateness, borrow your throwing down the brush to take up the sword without disdaining tardiness;

Borrow Zhuangzi’s morning dream of being confused with a butterfly, borrow Emperor Wang’s spring heart entrusted to the cuckoo;

Borrow that singing when awake, sleeping when drunk, gathering then scattering, full then lacking…

Borrow a wisp of your black hair under the lamp, lend me three parts of the years between my brows!

Thousands upon thousands, countless lights.

Though small as specks of dust, even blurred and dim, at this moment they seemed drawn by some strange attraction, forming a hazy star-stream that flowed toward Jian Chou’s fingertips.

Thus in an instant they gathered, condensing at her fingertip and burning into a starfire!

The Lamp-Lighting Sword that she had originally restrained had already emerged virtually when Jian Chou extended her finger toward the Cinder Pool, floating straight above her head with its tip pointing down, only three inches from her crown.

At this moment, the starfire at her fingertip transformed into a waterfall.

It instantly flew up, falling from the high hilt of the Lamp-Lighting Sword like boiling, red-hot lava, covering downward!

The twenty-one treasure-phase flower patterns on the sword body seemed instantly ignited by this starfire or heart-fire, and as this firelight covered them, they lit up one by one, turning bright red!

When it flowed down, even the pattern at the sword tip was completely illuminated.

The entire Lamp-Lighting Sword was renewed as if reforged, and between the gentle smoky atmosphere, it had faintly gained several traces of transcendent refinement.

The starfire fell to the sword tip and, like stream water droplets, was gathered together again in one place.

Much smaller, but also much gentler.

It was just like the lotus lamp flame in front of Jian Chou that lit up and dispelled the surrounding darkness. Following the sword tip with a “drip,” it fell to her crown, entered through her heavenly spirit, appeared between her brows, and illuminated her entire body!

The sword named Lamp-Lighting had reached the second level;

The fire named Heart Lamp could penetrate past and present!

When that “heart lamp” lit up between her brows, countless dust and dirt within her heart and body had been removed. Jian Chou could completely feel the shock she received at that moment.

The realm that had originally been firmly suppressed by her at the Nascent Soul peak great perfection…

Actually showed faint signs of loosening!

However, her reaction was ultimately swift.

With a hand seal and spirit settled like fixed meditation, she only made that heart lamp gradually dim. That realm that had been faintly about to break through its limits finally slowly pressed down again and stopped shaking.

Though her heart realm had surged dramatically, her body realm remained at Nascent Soul!

When everything stabilized, she withdrew her hand seals. With a gesture, the Lamp-Lighting Sword automatically flew into her palm, feeling as warm and cool as warm jade to the touch.

On the pitch-black sword body, twenty-one treasure-phase flower patterns were filled with flame colors.

The Lamp-Lighting Sword, the Past Buddha, was originally meant for people to see through the past.

She let out a long breath.

At this time, the many cinder spirits in the pool who had lent her starfire had long since been scared back into the pool and didn’t dare appear. Only by the lotus lamp at the pool’s edge, the Lamp-Lighting Boy boldly and quietly stuck out his tiny head, blinking his eyes with intense curiosity in them.

“What did you just do?”

“I understood some things.”

Jian Chou sheathed her sword, but the emotions from her recent enlightenment hadn’t yet dispersed, and her voice still carried several traces of sighing haziness and vagueness.

The Lamp-Lighting Boy was confused: “The her you were thinking about before, yourself, and people?”

Jian Chou smiled and nodded: “Exactly.”

Now the Lamp-Lighting Boy was even more confused.

He raised both arms and rested them on the lamp’s edge, just right to cushion his chin, mumbling: “So what do all these ‘people’ and ‘you’ and ‘her’ actually mean?”

What did they mean?

Jian Chou’s eyes held some distance, and those insights from moments before surged into her heart.

“People are lamps. A human life is lighting a single lamp.”

Her gaze moved from the Lamp-Lighting Boy to rest on the lotus lamp he was leaning against. The wick flame flickered slightly, green smoke and gray ashes curled upward, and she smiled lightly while sighing gently.

“In the end, I am such flame, she is such ash.”