Chapter 248 — Return to the Mortal World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Shen Mu stepped forward and cut lightly. Granny Zhu's skin split open, and within it stood a woman of peerless beauty, black hair like a waterfall, slowly raising her head, her bright eyes glancing about, her gaze passing from one high monk's face to the next.
Upon the Golden Summit, not a crow or a sparrow made a sound.
Even the sutras and the Buddha-voices in the Ten Thousand Aspects Pagoda halted at that moment. High monk after high monk went dry in the mouth, their hearts thumping wildly, the prayer beads in their hands spinning faster and faster.
Suddenly a bodhisattva's halo of Buddha light scattered, and he fell from midair, tumbling into the valley below the clouds.
A long while passed. Then came the thud of a heavy body striking the ground.
Thud. Thud. Several more thuds followed — arhats and vajras who had fallen one after another.
The old Tathagata's expression shifted slightly, and he hurriedly looked around. The monks' eyes had gone straight, fixed and staring upon that peerless beauty, the beads in their hands spinning faster and faster, clattering aloud.
"Ho!"
The old Tathagata was about to shout, when suddenly a bellow rang out — an arhat rushed at Granny Zhu in fury, crying harshly, "This is a demon spawn that confounds all beings, a heavenly demon! One look at her and demons breed in my heart. She must be beaten to death!"
"I shall slay this demon for the world!" Another vajra, brandishing his demon-subduing pestle, charged out, revealing three heads and six arms, hurtling at Granny Zhu.
Suddenly an old monk rushed out, blocked the arhat and the vajra, tore his own monk's robe, snapped his prayer beads, and, mad as a man possessed, laughed aloud. "I've always been one for killing and burning, never for attaining the fruit of the Way. All these years I've eaten vegetarian and chanted the Buddha, and felt only that the first half of my life was wasted! Now I have seen this beauty and I know my whole life has been wasted! I'm leaving the order!"
Several more arhats charged in, and for a time the Golden Summit was in chaos.
The old Tathagata's yellow robe shook, and suddenly the Buddha-voices in the Ten Thousand Aspects Pagoda rose in a great chorus, a thousand Buddhas chanting together, so that the monks brawling upon the Golden Summit woke as from a dream, each returned to his seat, and each said inwardly, For shame.
"What good are vegetarian food and chanting the Buddha? Attain the fruit of the Way — and then what? You die all the same. Better to take your pleasure while you can! I am leaving the order!" Suddenly a white-browed monk leaped up, sprang down from the Golden Summit, and fled far away.