socalfunplaces Chapter 794 Lu Xueqi and Biyao
Chapter 794 Lu Xueqi and Biyao
Su Han remained silent. At the time, he only wanted to survive and climb to the top; he hadn't thought about anything else.
“Your kindness is real, your wisdom is real, and your perseverance is real.” The old monk stood up and walked towards the center of the platform, where the green lamp was at his feet. “You have passed the three tests and can now go to see the Buddha.”
Su Han stood up, feeling that his body had recovered most of its strength, with the residual Buddhist power still flowing gently through his meridians. He followed the old monk to the center of the platform, where he discovered that at the end of the platform was a door, a very ordinary wooden door, unpainted, just the color of the raw wood. A string of wind chimes hung on the door frame, making a crisp tinkling sound when the wind blew.
"Push open this door, and you'll find the Great Thunderclap Temple," the old monk said. "Buddha is waiting for you there."
Su Han took a deep breath and pushed open the wooden door.
On the other side of the gate stood a massive temple. Its golden roof gleamed under the Buddha's light, and the plaza in front of the hall was paved with white jade bricks, moss growing in the cracks, making it soft and yielding underfoot. Two rows of monks stood on either side of the plaza, their heads bowed, hands clasped in prayer, as if conducting a Buddhist ceremony. As Su Han walked past them, he could hear the soft chanting of sutras, rising and falling like waves.
The doors of the main hall were wide open, and hundreds of eternal lamps burned within. In the flickering light, a colossal golden Buddha statue sat atop a lotus pedestal. The Buddha's face was compassionate and solemn, its eyes half-closed, a faint smile playing on its lips. But upon closer inspection, Su Han realized that what sat on the lotus pedestal was not a stone statue, but a living person. A bald, middle-aged monk, dressed in a simple gray robe, sat cross-legged on the lotus pedestal, a wooden fish placed before him.
"You've arrived." The middle-aged monk opened his eyes, looked at Su Han, and said in a voice as calm as a mountain stream, "You came from the Lingxiao Immortal Sect, crossed the Western Heavenly Gate, walked up the stone steps of the Spirit Mountain, and passed three trials. You've had a long journey."
Su Han knelt on one knee, clasped his hands, and said, "Su Han, disciple of Lingxiao Immortal Sect, pays respects to Buddha. I have come here to request the Pure World Buddha Light, because there is an evil being about to awaken in the human realm, and it needs the Buddha Light to completely eliminate it. I humbly beg Buddha to have mercy and grant me the Pure World Buddha Light to save the people of the human realm from suffering."
The Buddha remained silent. He picked up the wooden fish mallet and gently struck the fish. A clear, resonant sound, like a pebble thrown into water, ripples spreading outwards and filling the entire hall, echoed. Su Han felt the sound penetrate his body, reverberating in every corner of his consciousness, as if asking him something.
“Su Han,” the Buddha spoke, “the Pure World Buddha Light is not the same thing.”
Su Han looked up, a puzzled expression on her face.
"The light of Buddha is a state," the Buddha said. "It is the light emitted after a heart has been completely purified. It cannot be 'taken away,' it can only be 'realized.' I cannot give it to you, but I can let you see it."
The Buddha extended a finger and gently touched the air. A golden light shot from his fingertip and entered Su Han's brow. Su Han's vision went black, and when it brightened again, he found himself standing in a completely unfamiliar place. There was no golden sky of the Buddhist realm, no sandalwood incense of Mount Ling, nothing at all, only an endless white void. He stood there as if in the middle of a vast snowfield, surrounded by white on all sides, unable to distinguish up from down from left from right.
Then he saw a person. An old woman dressed in coarse cloth, carrying a bundle of firewood on her back, walked step by step in the snow. The firewood was heavy, bending her back like a shrimp, and she had to catch her breath with every step. Su Han wanted to go forward to help her, but found that he couldn't move his body. He was just an observer, a shadow trapped in this void.
The old woman walked for a long time before finally arriving at a thatched hut. She unloaded the firewood, pushed open the door, and heard a coughing sound coming from inside. A thin, bony boy lay on the bed, his face sallow and his lips cracked. The old woman went over, touched the boy's forehead, sighed, and turned to the stove to light a fire and brew medicine.
Seeing this scene, Su Han understood that it was an illusion shown to him by the Buddha. But he didn't understand what it had to do with the Pure Light of Buddha.
The scene shifts. The old woman has run out of firewood, so she goes to chop some more on a distant mountain. The snow falls heavier and heavier, the wind cutting like knives across her face. She trips and falls, her knee hitting a rock, blood seeping out and staining her trousers red. She gets up, brushes the snow off herself, and continues on. She walks for three days and three nights, chopping a bundle of firewood larger than herself, and staggers back to the thatched hut. The boy sits up, his complexion somewhat better, takes the hot soup she offers, and calls out, "Mother."
The old woman smiled. A smile bloomed on her face, rough and cracked by the wind and snow. In that instant, Su Han saw a faint golden light flash between her brows.
The scene shifts again. The boy has grown up and, carrying his bag, is about to leave for distant lands to study. The old woman stands at the door of the thatched hut, seeing him off all the way to the village entrance. The boy turns back and says, "Mother, I'll come back for you when I pass the imperial examinations." The old woman nods and waves, saying, "Go, go." The boy walks away, and the old woman stands alone under the old locust tree at the village entrance, standing there for a long time. The setting sun casts a long shadow over her, and a glimmer of light shines on her brow again, this time brighter than before.
The scene shifts again. The boy never returns. The villagers say he's become a high-ranking official in the capital, married the prime minister's daughter, and has long forgotten his elderly mother in the countryside. The old woman hears this but doesn't cry; she simply continues chopping wood, cooking, and sewing clothes for other children in the village. Some feel sorry for her, but she smiles and says, "He has his path to follow, and I'll follow mine." The golden light between her brows grows brighter and brighter, so bright that even through the illusion, Su Han finds it dazzling.
On the last day, the old woman, too old to walk, lay in bed. The villagers gathered around her bedside, and someone asked if she had any last wishes. She thought for a moment and said, "I want to see the locust tree at the village entrance one more time." The villagers carried her to the locust tree, where she sat leaning against the trunk, gazing into the distance at a road leading to the capital. No one came, but she smiled. She smiled and closed her eyes. In the instant she closed her eyes, a golden light shot up from between her brows, transforming into a golden lotus flower that bloomed in the void, illuminating the entire snowfield.
Su Han suddenly snapped out of her reverie and found herself still kneeling in the main hall of the Great Thunderclap Temple, with Buddha still seated on the lotus throne and the wooden fish still gently striking the strings. But Su Han's face was covered in tears.
"What did you see?" Buddha asked.
Su Han wiped his face with his sleeve, his voice slightly choked: "I saw an old woman. She had never recited a single Buddhist scripture in her life, nor had she ever bowed to Buddha, but the golden light between her brows... was brighter than any Buddha's light I had ever seen." (End of Chapter)