We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 564: Like a Dream, an Illusion, a Bubble, a Shadow; Like Wind Brushing Empty Blossoms; Like Clouds and Smoke Scattered by the Wind

“It has indeed been a long time.”

“Husband...”

Tushan Meng looked at the old monk before her, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly in a gentle smile, yet that smile carried a kind of hatred too, as if she wanted to carve him apart with a thousand cuts.

“It has indeed been a long time.”

Yuankong looked at the woman in front of him, his expression calm.

“Benefactor has come from afar, so you must be somewhat weary. Would Benefactor like to enter the temple and drink a cup of warm tea, so this old monk may fulfill the duties of a host?”

Tushan Meng’s fox eyes narrowed slightly. She stared heavily at the old monk, and only after a long while did she nod.

“In that case, I’ll impose on you.”

“Benefactor, please.”

The old monk made a gesture of invitation and led Tushan Meng into the temple.

Tushan Meng walked into Sikong Temple, looking left and right.

The monks inside the temple all watched this beautiful demon woman warily, their eyes filled with hostility.

Xujing held his broom and timidly hid behind one of his senior brothers, carefully peeking his head out.

Tushan Meng glanced in Xujing’s direction and met his eyes.

Xujing shuddered hard and shrank behind his senior brother again.

Before long, Abbot Yuankong brought Tushan Meng into the rear courtyard.

And above Sikong Temple, the thousands upon thousands of demons hovered like bows drawn taut but not yet loosed, as if they would go to war with Sikong Temple in the very next instant.

In the courtyard Sikong Temple used to receive guests, Tushan Meng sat on a stone stool.

Yuankong brewed a pot of tea, rolled back his sleeve, and with his aged arm steady, poured Tushan Meng a cup.

“These tea leaves were planted by the monks of Sikong Temple with their own hands. They sell fairly well in the nearby towns. If Benefactor does not mind, you may try it.”

Without another word, Tushan Meng lifted the teacup and drained it in one gulp. She frowned.

“Astringent and bitter. Husband still has no taste, just as before.”

Hearing Tushan Meng’s judgment, Xujing merely smiled faintly and said nothing more.

Tushan Meng gave Xujing a flat glance, then changed the subject.

“That proud disciple of yours left?”

“I wonder which disciple the female benefactor is asking about?” Yuankong replied, as if he knew nothing at all.

“Husband, don’t play dumb with me.” Tushan Meng’s fingertips toyed with the rough teacup, and her tone carried the faintest smile. “Xiao Mo. He left?”

“He left.” Yuankong nodded. “He only left a few days ago.”

“That is truly a pity.”

Tushan Meng sighed, as though she truly felt regret for Xiao Mo.

“In his previous life, Xiao Mo made no small contribution to my Tushan. This time, after finally finding Xiao Mo’s reincarnation, we wanted to bring him back to Tushan and properly nurture him.”

“We would have given him rare cultivation treasures beyond measure. We had even prepared a cultivation residence and a dao companion for him.”

“In the end, I never expected that by the time we of Tushan invited him back, he had already left.”

Listening to Tushan Meng, Yuankong only smiled calmly.

“Benefactor says you were inviting that disciple of mine back. Was it truly to let him enjoy good fortune? I fear that if that disciple of mine had gone back, within a few days, even his bones would no longer remain.”

“So what if that’s true?”

Tushan Meng did not bother concealing anything.

“If he came back with me, he would die. But how do you know that if he does not come back with me, he will be able to live well from now on?”

Tushan Meng poured herself another cup of tea and took another drink, as if the tea were wine, loosening her tongue.

“Most people in this world now think I, Tushan Meng, am ruthless, vicious, heartless, and without loyalty. I have never denied it. But compared to you men, what does Tushan Meng even amount to?”

Tushan Meng turned her head, gripping the teacup in her hand so tightly it seemed that with just a little more force, she would crush it to powder.

“Back then, I gave my heart to you. I trusted you wholeheartedly. I became dao companions with you. I wanted to grow old with you. But what about you?”

Blood streaked Tushan Meng’s eyes.

“I never expected that every feeling you showed me was false. You approached me, and every sentence, every word you said to me was all for the sake of gaining my trust!”

“You entered Tushan on your family’s orders and married me so you could be their inside agent, so you could divide up Tushan!”

“All that so-called ‘growing old together’ and ‘until the seas run dry and the stones crumble’—all of it was bullshit. That is what you men are!”

The teacup in Tushan Meng’s hand instantly turned to powder and scattered from her palm.

“You men are all rotten things!”

“Amitabha...” Yuankong pressed his palms together, closed his eyes, and recited the Buddha’s name. “The wrongs of that time were all mine. I wronged Benefactor.”

“Heh heh heh... And one °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° apology is useful?”

Tushan Meng sneered.

“Do you know how desperate I was when I learned you had betrayed me?”

“Did you think that by dying in front of me back then, by letting me dig out your demon core, you could make up for everything you did?”

“...”

Yuankong kept his eyes closed and gave no answer.

“Forget it. What use is there in saying these things to you?”

Tushan Meng stood.

“Although I do not know why, after your soul escaped, you seized the body of an old monk in the Jade Pith Realm.”

“And although I do not know what exactly you spend every day chanting to the Buddha and reciting scripture for!”

“But you care very much about the ordinary people in those nearby villages and towns, don’t you?”

As Tushan Meng’s words fell, Yuankong opened his eyes and sighed softly.

“Benefactor, all karma begins with me. Whether Benefactor wishes to kill me or carve me apart, this old monk will accept it. But the common people nearby are innocent. I ask Benefactor to show mercy and not recklessly create slaughter karma.”

“Benefactor... Benefactor... Heh heh heh... Benefactor...”

Tushan Meng sneered as she repeated the word Yuankong kept using.

In the next instant, a streak of sword light swept past Yuankong. The stone table was instantly cut in two and collapsed thunderously to either side.

Her voice was like a black blade biting into stone, carving out every word stroke by stroke.

“My name is Tushan Meng! Not some damned ‘Benefactor’!”

“Back then, when you seven great sects slaughtered countless Tushan clanswomen, were they not people I cared about?”

“Since you care so much about these common people now, then I’ll slaughter them for you to see!”

Tushan Meng gripped the long sword in her hand, and a vicious gleam flashed through her fox eyes.

“And Xiao Mo was raised by you from childhood in this life. You have the grace of raising him. He should care very much about you too, shouldn’t he? Those common people often come to your Sikong Temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha. Xiao Mo should have feelings for them too, shouldn’t he?”

“Tell me. If my demon race destroys your Sikong Temple and slaughters these common people to the last, how will Xiao Mo, as a human, view the demon race?”

“And Jingci, as my Tushan holy daughter—what positions will the two of them stand in then?”

“Ah...” Yuankong sighed heavily. “Why go so far?”

“In this world, the most useless words of all are ‘why go so far’!”

With a sweep of her hand, Tushan Meng turned and walked out of the courtyard.

...

“Master...”

Half an incense stick later, when Xujing saw his master emerge from the rear courtyard, he hurriedly ran up to him.

“Master, w-what exactly is going on? Who was that female benefactor just now? Did you offend someone, Master?”

“You could say that.”

Yuankong nodded, then crouched down and looked at this final disciple of his.

“That female benefactor just now is someone your master made hate him a very, very long time ago. Now she has come to make trouble for your master.”

“Then, Master... what should we do?”

Xujing was so anxious he was about to cry. He was not even ten years old; how could he ever have seen such a scene?

“Xujing...”

Yuankong reached out and stroked his bald head.

“In truth, the two things your master is proudest of in this life are taking you and your senior brother as disciples.”

“Your master also knows that you have always taken your senior brother as your example. Whenever something happens, you first think, ‘If it were Senior Brother, what would Senior Brother do?’ That is very good. But it is also not entirely good.”

“When you encounter something in the future, you should ask yourself, ‘If Senior Brother does this, must I definitely do it the same way Senior Brother does?’ You are you, and not anyone else. Do you understand?”

“Master...” Tears glittered in Xujing’s eyes. “Why does this disciple feel like you’re leaving your last words before passing into death?”

“Heh heh heh... You little fellow...”

Yuankong did not know whether to laugh or cry as he rapped Xujing on the head. Then he stood and raised his head, gazing at the densely packed demons covering the firmament.

He lifted his hand and pointed in one direction.

“Xujing... From now on, no matter what happens, you must keep walking toward the southeast, toward a place called the Western Region. There are many Buddhist temples there.”

“There, perhaps, you can recite scripture in peace.”

“And one day, if you hear that your senior brother is going to do something bad, you must advise him. Advise him many times...”

“Do you understand?”

“Master...”

Xujing wiped his tears. He still wanted to say something, but in the next instant, over a thousand demons poured down and charged toward Sikong Temple.

“Go...”

With a sweep of Yuankong’s hand, golden lotus after golden lotus bloomed from thin air.

Golden Buddhist lotuses spread for a hundred li.

The common people in the villages and towns near Mount Sikong all raised their heads, puzzled as they looked at those Buddhist lotuses.

In the next instant, the lotuses suddenly shattered, turning into petal after golden petal that fell upon each person.

Before the ordinary people could even react, they turned into streaks of golden light and flew toward the southeast.

“For the sake of these antlike mortals, you’re actually willing to burn your blood essence. Since when did you become so compassionate?”

Tushan Meng’s voice spread across the wilderness.

“Cut down every last one of these ants! Do not let a single one escape!”

As Tushan Meng’s words fell, thousands of demons tried to stop those golden streams of light.

But the monks of Sikong Temple all leaped up and fought the demon cultivators, guarding the common people as they fled.

“Amitabha...”

Yuankong pressed his palms together and recited the Buddha’s name.

A golden Buddha statue taller than the mountains rose from the earth. Golden Buddha light shone like a blazing sun, covering a hundred li.

“All of you go as well. Do not remain here.”

Yuankong transmitted his voice to his disciples.

“Abbot...” All the monks looked toward the abbot, their hearts filled with reluctance.

“Go,” Yuankong said again. “All karma begins with me, and all karma will end with me.”

As his words fell, Yuankong swept his broad sleeve. Buddha light enveloped the monks and sent them fleeing in every direction.

Yuankong closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, and sat cross-legged.

The mountain-like golden Buddha statue likewise sat cross-legged in the air.

Whenever the monks of Sikong Temple or the common people were harmed, the injury was transferred onto Yuankong.

Before even half an incense stick had passed, blood spilled from the corner of Yuankong’s mouth, and cracks appeared across the golden Buddha statue as well.

Yet the old monk still did not move, towering like a mountain as he recited Buddhist scripture.

“In the Buddha land grow five-colored stems; one flower, one world; one leaf, one Tathagata.”

“It is like a lamp entering a dark chamber. Darkness accumulated over hundreds and thousands of years can be entirely broken by it. The lamp of the bodhi mind of a bodhisattva mahasattva is also like this. When it enters the chamber of sentient beings’ hearts, all the dark barriers of affliction and karma accumulated over hundreds, thousands, millions, and billions of unspeakable kalpas can be entirely removed.”

“If one wishes to understand all Buddhas of the three times, one should contemplate the nature of the dharma realm: all is created by the mind.”

...

“In the Buddha land grow five-colored stems; one flower, one world; one leaf, one Tathagata. It is like a lamp entering a dark chamber; darkness accumulated over hundreds and thousands of years can be entirely broken...”

After the battle in which the seven sects besieged Tushan, a man’s physical body had been destroyed, his demon core gone. Only a remnant soul drifted aimlessly.

He did not know where he had come. With his soul on the verge of dispersing, he faintly heard the sound of scripture being recited in the mountain forest.

He followed the chanting.

In a dilapidated temple, the man saw an old monk.

The man walked forward and sat down before the old monk.

The old monk opened his eyes, looked at the man before him, and smiled.

“Benefactor appears to be in rather miserable straits.”

“Heh heh heh... Nothing more than what I deserve.” The man smiled. “They all say that you human monks keep compassion in your hearts. My remnant soul is about to fade. Master, do you have any scripture that can deliver me from suffering?”

“I do.” The old monk nodded. “But from what I see, Benefactor still has a little lingering attachment.”

“I suppose so.”

The man sighed softly.

“I obeyed my parents’ orders and approached a woman. But I fell in love with her. In the end, I betrayed her too. I caused the deaths of too many people, and I killed too many people.”

“Although I know it is too late now, if I could, I would like to atone.”

“Anything else?” the old monk asked with a faint smile.

“Also...”

...

He still remembered that night, when the man met the old monk whose life span was nearing its end.

He still remembered that night, when after the old monk passed into death, he took the initiative to open every spiritual aperture and spiritual vein, allowing the man to seize his body.

He still remembered that night, and the last words the man spoke.

“Also...”

“After a person dies, there’s no telling what the next life will be like. I’m afraid... I’ll forget her.”

In Sikong Temple, he slowly opened his aged eyes, looked toward the woman in the sky, and smiled softly.

When the last golden stream of light vanished into the distant horizon,

Yuankong closed his eyes for the last time.

“All of you, stop!”

Tushan Meng suddenly shouted sharply at all the demons.

The demons attacking the golden Buddha statue all stopped.

But in the next instant, that towering golden Buddha statue abruptly collapsed with a thunderous crash, turning into golden motes of light that drifted and scattered through the sky.

Tushan Meng took a step and flew down from the air.

“All things in this world are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like wind brushing empty blossoms; like clouds and smoke scattered by the wind.”

The old monk wore a compassionate smile as he softly recited the Buddha’s name.

“Amitabha.”

Tushan Meng landed, quickly ran to the old monk’s side, and reached out with a fierce grab.

But he had already turned into specks of light, quietly slipping away between her fingers.

She could not grasp him.

She could not keep him.

In the empty temple, only the woman stood alone.

Her hands held nothing at all.