boom-
It was as if thunder was passing through the sky. The divine power of Kongtong, the supreme Buddha's light, and the righteous way of heaven and earth were all mixed together in the next moment. The seal smashed down with the power of the Five Heavenly Emperors, breaking the Buddhist Dharma. The flesh bun, which was as big as a human head, was instantly flattened.
"Bold mortal!"
In the golden light of the mask, Tathagata's voice was filled with anger, and his huge body became blurred in an instant. The Buddha's palm that was swung out before turned halfway and grabbed towards the top of the head. Lu Liangsheng kicked the wisdom pearl in Tathagata's forehead with his foot, and turned around suddenly. He clenched the seal in his hand and rushed towards the giant palm.
Leng Che's murderous intent had never been so clear. His whole body went straight into the Buddha's palm. The moment his five fingers bent and closed together, the seal smashed fiercely on one of the fingers like a brick.
puff!
boom!
Lu Liangsheng's body hit the Buddha's palm hard and flew backwards. Almost at the same time, the index finger among the five fingers of the Buddha's palm was bent and fell down like a broken mountain.
"Lu Liangsheng!!"
The monkey was screaming wildly, and the whistling golden hoop swept the back of Tathagata's head. His body fell on his shoulder, and he rushed over quickly, caught the figure flying backwards, and turned around to rush down.
However, in a moment, the huge Buddha figure made a cracking sound, and the monkey's cloak fell to the ground and covered himself and the scholar he was holding. The next moment, a huge white light burst out from the cracks in the Dharma image, pushing open the sky and the earth.
Soon, the huge Buddha statue turned into spots of light, dragging the remaining Buddha's aura down, and then disappeared into the air. The white light that filled the vision gradually faded, and the daylight inspired by the Candle Dragon also dissipated.
Darkness surged in from all directions like a tide, enveloping a man and a monkey on the muddy road. Sun Wukong lowered his torn skin that was eroded by the white light and sat down on the ground. He looked at the unconscious scholar, then at the night sky where the Buddha's image had existed before. His shoulders began to tremble, and he grinned and hummed a few times, then slowly raised his furry hands to cover his face. His chuckles immediately turned into wild laughter.
“Hehe… hum hum hahaha… hahahaha!!!”
Like a hysterical wild animal, Sun Wukong clenched the stick and propped himself up, laughing wildly. His figure gradually faded into nothingness, until it disappeared and turned into a hair that slowly floated down and landed in Lu Liangsheng's hands.
The monkey's laughter still echoed in the darkness, startling the night birds to fly in panic. When the night passed and the sky in the east began to turn pale, it was a new day. The morning dew dripped from the tips of the leaves, and the insects crawling through the mud were knocked to the ground by the falling water droplets, struggling and kicking.
The clear sound of birds singing was heard in the woods, and the morning breeze, carrying the scent of earth, blew in through the window lattice, brushing against the bed opposite.
"Tathagata—"
Suddenly a loud shout rang out in the room. Lu Liangsheng opened his eyes and sat up from the bed.
A few beads of sweat were sliding down his forehead and cheeks. He hurriedly sat on the edge of the bed and glanced around. It was a room in the temple courtyard where he had lived before. There was a tattered little table, a crooked stool, and a small shrine. The incense in the broken incense burner had long burned out.
"Is it a dream?"
Lu Liangsheng stood on the ground, his legs felt weak and he nearly fell down. He held onto the head of the bed and stood for a while. He saw the Qilin Cloak and Yuelong Sword neatly stacked on the small table, no bookshelf, and the Toad Taoist priest curled up there, lazily basking in the sun.
“It’s not a dream.”
The soft murmur suddenly stopped, and the curtain hanging at the door was suddenly lifted. An old monk in an apricot-yellow robe came in with a medicine bowl. Seeing the scholar standing there with a vigilant look, he smiled and bowed his head: "It seems that Mr. Lu has woken up faster than I thought. You should drink this bowl of medicine. It can repair the injuries in your body."
The old monk came over, put the medicine bowl on the table, turned around, bowed toward the shrine hanging on the wall, and began to recite scriptures.
On the side, Lu Liangsheng looked at the steaming medicine on the table, and turned his eyes to the monk's back in confusion. Since the other party could save him, he obviously had no ill intentions, but last night...
Immediately, he raised his hands and clasped them towards the old monk: "Master Faxian, may I ask why you saved me? You are not..."
"Amitabha!"
Faxian, who was chanting the sutra over there, stood up straight, chanted the Buddha's name, put his hands together in front of his chest, and bowed slightly towards Lu Liangsheng.
"Master Lu, you are so young that you can become the Imperial Master of the Great Sui Dynasty. You are indeed extraordinary. A fight last night destroyed my Buddhist temple. I can only move to the side room and chant scriptures and worship Buddha in front of this shrine."
Lu Liangsheng frowned and looked at the shrine behind the old monk.
"I am asking you, Master Faxian did not say the same thing about yesterday's incident as he does now."
The monk Faxian understood the meaning of the words, so he just smiled and invited the scholar to sit down at the table: "The Buddha is the Buddha, and I am the poor monk."
"Then I broke your Buddha's head yesterday, and you avenged him and saved me. Aren't you afraid that you will kick me out of the house?"
"I am only a poor monk."
Faxian smiled and gently pushed the pill in front of him over. "How can a monk have so many blood feuds? Saving a person is a good deed, saving a bug is also a good deed. When practicing Buddhism and Zen, everything you see is a Buddha. A flower or a blade of grass is a Buddha. A stone sunk in the mud may also be a Buddha. The tree standing in the yard outside is also a Buddha. Donor Lu may not be a Buddha in my eyes, so why bother with the things in the temple?"
"I have been taught, and it has a lot in common with enlightenment."
"The myriad dharmas all lead to the same destination."
Seeing that the old monk in front of him really didn't seem to care, Lu Liangsheng now had some good feelings towards this monk. He picked up the bowl of medicine, blew away the floating residue on it, tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp, feeling the warm medicine flowing through his stomach, and put the bowl on the table comfortably.
"Master, did Tathagata use you to come to the world last night?"
"It cannot be said explicitly." The old monk shook his head, stood up and walked to the window to look at the messy yard outside. "Since you have entered the Buddhist world, I don't want to ask too much about worldly affairs and the affairs of gods and Buddhas. Donor Lu, your future is bumpy, so you should encourage yourself."
Lu Liangsheng clasped his hands and said, "I understand."
Following the old monk's gaze towards the courtyard outside, he remembered that his master and the scholar had left last night. He didn't know what to do with them, so he quickly said goodbye to Monk Faxian and walked outside.
"Master, your Buddhist teachings are profound. Why don't you go back to the Central Plains? Any temple here is worse than this..."
The old monk who came out to see him off smiled and shook his head, rejecting the scholar's kindness. He looked at the mountains and rivers and said, "Practice is not about where you are, but about your heart. It doesn't matter if it's a shabby house or a magnificent palace. As long as you can shelter from the wind and rain and have a simple meal, that's enough. Donor Lu, please come in."
After hearing this, Lu Liangsheng said no more. He put on the Qilin cloak, hung the Yuelong sword on his waist, walked to the road ahead, turned to the old monk standing in the middle of the road, and bowed his hand: "Goodbye!"
"Sir, take care."
The sun shone all over the mountains and forests. Lu Liangsheng walked through the light spots in the forest. When he reached a distance, he turned around and bowed to the monk who was seeing him off. Unfortunately, the old monk went to repair the temple, holding the scattered wood chips on the ground.
Lu Liangsheng smiled and followed the route he had asked Wang Feng and others to take yesterday. Less than two miles away, he felt a familiar atmosphere. Under a big tree, four scholars were squatting on the ground, writing and drawing with branches. It seemed that they had written something wrong. After a while, the four of them were pushing and wrestling with each other.
At one side, Taoist Toad lay on his side on a small recliner with his eyes squinted, and from time to time he stretched out his webbed feet to pat the head of the mermaid next to him, urging her to swing her tail to fan herself.
Squeak~~Squeak~~~
The chirping of cicadas was annoying. The old donkey crawling beside the stone shook its long ears. It heard the sound of footsteps trampling fallen leaves. It opened its eyes and saw a figure in a black cloak walking through the sky. It excitedly propped up its hooves, wagging its tongue and running over, shaking the bookshelf on its back and jumping around Lu Liangsheng happily.
Ah ah ah ~~~
The cheerful braying of the donkey echoed in the sunshine and among the foothills for a long time.