Chapter 248 — Return to the Mortal World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Fill all twenty heavens, and you are a Tathagata?"
Shen Mu's eyes lit up. The Great Tingming Temple deserved its name as the highest holy ground of the Buddha Way, and the Tingming Mahayana Sutra deserved its name as the cult's supreme secret art, worthy to stand beside the Great Nourishing Dark Demon Sutra and the Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword.
Three great holy grounds — truly, not one of them was famed without cause.
The Kingdom of Jingping was in the grip of a snow disaster, yet here the four seasons were as mild as spring. Many refugees from Jingping had fled this way and taken shelter in temple after temple, and no few of them had converted to the Buddhist faith.
"Great Tingming Temple's doing here smacks of taking advantage of another's misfortune," Shen Mu said in a low voice, studying the temples that crowned peak after peak.
The Blind Elder shook his head. "Shen'er, never mind what their purpose is — look at what they do. The Great Tingming Temple saved these people's lives, and that is a good deed. Whether or not he means by it to swell the Buddhist order and spread the Buddhist doctrine, what he has done is good. If you pick at the Great Tingming Temple's intentions and never look at its deeds, you are no different from Fan Xuanshu."
Shen Mu felt a chill of awe, and nodded his assent.
A person's life is one long cultivation, and it is easy to be led astray by extreme thoughts. Any notion not carefully weighed, not put to the test, can bend one's own spirit out of true.
These days, keeping company with Fan Xuanshu, Shen Mu had been influenced by him without ever realizing it.
The former cult master of the Dark Demon Cult was steeped in demonic nature and his cast of mind was extreme, and yet he was a grand master besides, his words so full of reason that a moment's carelessness would have one unknowingly absorbing his ideas.
The dragon qilin came to the Golden Summit, its cloud of fire sinking lower and lower, and set down upon the ground. The Golden Summit stood above the clouds; mist flowed beneath their feet, and the ground was paved with white jade the very color of the clouds.
To arrive here was to walk into a fairyland.
Shen Mu looked all around and could not help but marvel inwardly. The Golden Palace of Loulan was extravagant, but it had about it the air of a parvenu; the Great Tingming Temple was extravagant too, yet far more solemn, displaying everywhere the gravity and the culture of the Buddhist order.
On the Golden Summit stood pagoda upon pagoda, and one tall tower was grandest of them all. Long-browed monks sat within it, and others sat upon its spire and upon its eaves, chanting sutras without cease, the Buddha's voice rolling and shaking.
"Can that be the Ten Thousand Aspects Pagoda?" Shen Mu wondered.
A bodhisattva maiden in white came forward, a pure vase in her hand, and bent in greeting. "Cult Master of the Dark Demon Cult, God of the Horse King, Madam Si, and this old fellow cultivator — the Tathagata has been awaiting you this long while. Please follow me."
"Thank you, sister," Shen Mu said.
"Sister?"
The bodhisattva maiden burst out laughing. "Cult Master Shen jests. This way, please."
Shen Mu and the others followed in her steps. All across the Golden Summit, eminent monk after eminent monk blazed with Buddha light, each seated upon a cloud, rings of golden radiance forming behind them, dazzling to the eye.
The old Tathagata was chief of all the monks, seated highest, his flesh body vast, venerables at his left and right. Below his seat were the bodhisattvas, arhats, vajras, and dharma protectors, and some who were the old Tathagata's junior fellow disciples, of exceedingly mighty cultivation. There were also monks of other kinds who had attained the Way, who did not look to be of the human race.
Shen Mu and the rest drew near. Shen Mu made his salute and said, "Senior Brother."
The old Tathagata hurriedly rose and returned the salute. "Senior Brother."