The wind and snow were not raging, and the road was not blocked. Accompanied by the slowly falling snowflakes, an old monk with a monk's staff and a bamboo hat slowly walked out of the Wilderness. He entered the Yuelun Kingdom and walked towards a low mountain peak.
The old monk walked very slowly, slower than the falling snowflakes, and even slower than the melting snow. The soles of his straw sandals seemed to be glued to the ground. When he lifted his feet, it seemed like he was pulling up the entire ground, so every step he took was very difficult.
When he walked on the snow, the layer of snow was pulled up. When he walked on the muddy ground, the black muddy ground was pulled up. When he walked on the bluestone mountain path, the stone surface was pulled up. The mountain path that was covered in light snow seemed unchanged, but in fact, the structure deep inside the snow was constantly tearing, making extremely faint rustling sounds that humans could not hear. Even the entire mountain peak was groaning along with the old monk's footsteps.
The animals hiding in the depths of the mountains to avoid the winter could hear the sound. The wolves licking their dirty fur raised their heads in alarm. The magpies hiding in their nests looked up in horror into the distance. The lynx that was trying to chew through the skin of a frozen deer let out a shrill scream.
The old monk walked to the top of the mountain and looked towards the south.
Ten miles south of the mountain peak, the snow stopped. Most of the sky in the Yuelun Kingdom was devoid of snow clouds. However, the capital of the Yuelun Kingdom, Chaoyang City, was covered by thick clouds. Looking at it from a thousand miles away, the thick cloud was like a lonely flower in the boundless Buddhist Kingdom.
The old monk looked at the cloud in silence. The shadow of the bamboo hat did not cover his aged face. A very complicated expression slowly appeared on his face. Then, he tightened his grip on the monk's staff and gently inserted it into the rock beside him. He looked into the distance and said, "Man is under the cloud."
When the staff came into contact with the rocks on the peak, it was like a hot knife stabbing into a pile of snow. Without a sound, it penetrated deep into the rocks. The head of the staff made a slight crisp sound. Accompanied by the old monk's words, it floated in all directions.
The old monk looked at the distant Chaoyang City and said, "Regarding the catastrophe of the human world and the coming of the Dharma Ending Age, the Buddha left many instruments such as the chessboard and bell before his Nirvana to point out the path for the Buddhist disciples. However, you refused to follow the path left by the Buddha and wanted to walk your own path. Why is that?"
After standing silently on the peak for a long time, the old monk sighed and said, "Senior Brother, I never understood why you called yourself Mount Qishan. After Qi Nian explained it to me, I realized that it was a divergent road. However, the divergent road is difficult to walk. Buddha is merciful. How can he bear to see the world take the risk of taking a divergent road?"
After saying this, the old monk pulled his staff out of the snow rock and slowly walked down the peak. It seemed that he was going to Chaoyang City. However, it took him more than a hundred days to reach the edge of the Wilderness from the Xuankong Temple in the Giant Sinkhole at such a slow and arduous way of walking. How long would it take for him to reach the cloud?
"You took the wrong path, so I have to take the shortcut."
The old monk walked out of the range of the peak and stopped in his tracks. He stretched out his staff on the side of the rugged and muddy mountain path. From his actions, he seemed to be calling for a carriage. However, how could there be a carriage in such a remote mountain where few people tread?
…
…
This winter, Chaoyang City, the capital of the Yuelun Kingdom, had continuous gloomy weather. Even after two light snowfalls, the thick clouds above the city did not disperse.
In the human world, wind and snow were common. Even a hundred days of gloomy weather was not difficult to imagine. Therefore, in the beginning, the clouds did not attract anyone's attention.
It was not until the winter deepened and the second snowfall dispersed that the countryside outside of Chaoyang City suddenly cleared up. It was clear and bright, but Chaoyang City was still covered with thick clouds. This puzzled the people in the city.
If there was something they did not understand, they had to find out. Once they started observing, the imperial court and ordinary citizens of the Yuelun Kingdom finally noticed the strangeness of the thick clouds in the sky. Some people remembered that the clouds above their heads had not dissipated since a certain day in late autumn. More people noticed that in the clear sky outside the city, there were still clouds floating over every day and gathering in the clouds above the city.
The clouds shrouded Chaoyang City and refused to disperse. They became thicker and larger every day. This situation was too strange. Since autumn, the Buddhist temples in the Yuelun Kingdom had announced the arrival of the Daughter of Yama. The imperial court's arrest warrant had proved that the Daughter of Yama was in the Yuelun Kingdom. All these things were connected to the thick clouds above Chaoyang City, which immediately deepened the uneasiness and fear in the hearts of the people.
The people of Chaoyang City naturally had many speculations and uneasiness. The clouds became the focus of everyone's attention. It even became the main topic of conversation between the citizens of the Yuelun Kingdom every day.
"Did you see the clouds yesterday?"
"I can see them every day when I look up. Why do I have to look?"
"I mean the new clouds that floated in from outside yesterday. Didn't you notice that the clouds are much thicker today?"
"I didn't notice it. I went to rent a carriage yesterday. The new clouds were quite big yesterday."
"Very big. When I saw it, it was already very close. It must be bigger than the imperial palace."
"That's not small. But I saw a new cloud coming from the east a few days ago. Tsk, tsk. That formation, that spirit, it felt like thousands of Tang soldiers and horses."
"That's a good analogy. Isn't the Daughter of Yama a Tang?"
"Don't mention the Daughter of Yama to me. I'm a coward."
"You're not a coward. You're a careful person. You rented a carriage in advance of leaving, right?"
"I have to leave. The clouds are too strange. If one day they turn into stones and fall down, I won't be able to withstand it."
…
…
Snowy Clouds Ravage the City.
The people in the city would look up for a long time every day. There were fewer and fewer people suffering from cervical spondylosis. Many people began to pray. The streets were filled with the smell of incense. The temples received more and more incense money. Some people were already preparing to leave Chaoyang City and hide with relatives in the countryside for a few days. The business of the carriage house became more and more prosperous.
The uneasy atmosphere grew stronger as the incense burned. People panicked and began to pray to anything that they thought was effective. Whether it was a stone or a tree, the master in the temple was naturally the best choice. Thus, in just a few days, no one knew how many young ladies in their mansions had been harmed.
There were countless Buddhist temples in the Yuelun Kingdom, among which the most famous were the 72 temples in Misty Rain. The White Tower Temple in Chaoyang City had an unquestionable position among the 72 temples. In the current situation where people were in a state of panic, the White Tower Temple was naturally the most popular. Every day, the number of believers who came to pray to the Buddha almost overwhelmed the Buddhist temple.
All the halls in the White Tower Temple were filled with believers. Even outside the temple, there were countless people kneeling. Dozens of believers knelt respectfully in front of a stone step outside the temple. They kept kowtowing and looked especially pious.
The reason why the stone steps attracted so many Buddhist believers was because the abbot of the White Tower Temple had picked up a baby boy with a deep affinity with Buddha on the stone steps in the morning. The baby boy was the famous Master Dao Shi, so the believers believed that the stone steps still had the Buddha nature of Master Dao Shi, which could bring them good fortune.
Looking at this scene, Ning Que shook his head. Holding Sangsang's slightly cold hand, they squeezed through the crowd and walked into the White Tower Temple. He thought to himself that Quni Madi and Baoshu had an affair and gave birth to an illegitimate son, Daoshi. Naturally, he had to be sent to the White Tower Temple. What did it have to do with Buddhism?
Sangsang wore a light-colored cotton-padded jacket and a thick scarf that covered half of her face. Her hair had been cut very short and parted diagonally in front of her forehead. She looked very refreshing, like a playful little boy. Even those who had seen her in person would not be able to recognize her, let alone those who had only seen her portrait.
"Maybe that stone step can really bring blessings."
Sangsang's voice penetrated through the scarf and sounded a little muffled, as if she had caught a cold.
Ning Que smiled and said softly, "Even if there are blessings, they will not fall on us. Don't forget that in front of the bun shop in Chang 'an, I chopped off Dao Shi's head."
Sangsang said, "I don't know if it's because we have done too many bad things. If I had known that I was going to learn Buddhism, I would not have been so disrespectful to the Buddhist masters."
Ning Que smiled and said, "The day before I met Dao Shi, you ran away from home for the first time. I was in a very bad mood and was angry for the whole night by Yanming Lake. He still came to provoke me. Naturally, he was courting death. It's all your fault."
Sangsang said softly, "So it's my retribution."
"If there was really retribution, Xiahou would not have needed me to kill him. He would have been killed by Buddha long ago. Whether it is Haotian Taoism or the Buddhism Sect, when they talk about the Academy, they will always mention the term 'non-believer'. In their eyes, without faith and reverence, it is difficult to live a fulfilling life, and it is difficult to find true peace in one's heart. However, in the eyes of the Academy, faith and worship are not the same thing. The word 'fear' in reverence needs to be carefully studied. "
Ning Que thought of the believers who kept kowtowing outside the temple and the scene of the family next to the small courtyard burning incense and worshipping a tree every day. He said, "Countries like the Yuelun Kingdom naturally have faith. But there are too many things to believe in and too much fear of the unknown. What kind of faith is that?"
As they chatted in a low voice, the two had already walked to the main hall in the depths of the White Tower Temple. The hall was still crowded with hundreds of believers kneeling on futons, listening to an eminent monk preaching in front of them.
Ning Que led Sangsang into the hall and quietly found an empty futon. The believer whose futon had been stolen was listening attentively to the sutra a moment ago, but the next moment, he found himself standing behind a pillar. He was shocked and speechless, but he did not dare to shout, for fear that the eminent monks in the temple would think that he was not pious enough and ended up like this.
Sangsang knelt on the futon and put her hands together in front of her. She closed her eyes and began to listen to Buddhism. She looked quiet and pious. Her hair, which was slightly black because it was cut short, slowly swayed on her forehead.
She did not listen to the White Tower Temple's preaching, but only silently recited a passage in her heart. She was not learning the solemn golden Buddha in front of the hall, but the Buddha in her heart.
…
…
(I came back full of energy and aching all over! This is the first chapter of today, and also the first chapter of the fourth volume. The curtain slowly lowered, but in fact, the real curtain was slowly lifted! Let's finish it together! I will try to finish the next chapter before 10: 10!) (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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