Chapter 253 — The Monk's Heart Awakens
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
. " In his eyes Buddha-light flickered bright and dim. He said quietly: "It is the next Tathagata. The old Tathagata lacks the boldness of the Dark Demon Cult's founder — the boldness to choose a green boy and make him Hierarch. His heart still favors the Horse King God, whom he deems fittest to inherit his mantle.
A pity. . . " The other white-browed monks exchanged glances and sighed in one voice: "A pity.
" The little monk Chenghuai came over in a daze and said to the white-browed monk Jingming: "Master, I.
.
. " Seeing him so out of sorts, Jingming consoled him: "Good child, you have been bewitched by the words of the Demon Cult's Hierarch. Devils are best of all at bewitching men's hearts — and how much more so the Demon Cult's Hierarch?
" "But I felt there was sense in what he said.
. . " The white-browed monk Jingming laughed heartily.
"Good child, our temple's sutras contain many judgments on devils.
Go and see what the ancients said, and you will resolve it yourself, without any need of my guidance. " Chenghuai remained unsettled in mind. The white-browed monk Jingming frowned. He knew the shock Shen Mu had dealt this little monk was too great; better to give him something to do, to occupy his thoughts.
So he said: "First go tend to your elder brothers' wounds, then set the dragon pillars upright again. Broken as they are, they can still be glued.
" Chenghuai assented and hurried off to help his elder brothers of the Hall of Heavenly Dragons and to tend the injured. But the monks gave him no pleasant looks; one after another they flicked their sleeves and drove him off.
Chenghuai stood blank for a moment, then went to raise the fallen dragon pillars. Several monks came and shouldered him aside. He pushed his way back in, and someone's palm — he never knew whose — knocked him to the ground. Chenghuai sat there staring blankly at the crowd, then silently rose and went to the scripture library to read the sutras.
Yet the truths in those sutras would not enter his head, try as he might. The white-browed monk Jingming was also setting the Hall of Heavenly Dragons to rights when he suddenly caught sight of Chenghuai walking down the mountain with a small pack on his back. Something stirred in his heart, and he called out: "Chenghuai, have you brought the sutras?
" Chenghuai halted: "Master, I have brought a copy of the Heart Sutra.
" The white-browed monk Jingming nodded: "Go down the mountain, then. Turn back before it is too late.
The sea of suffering is boundless; turn your head and there is Mount Sumeru — there is the Great Thunderclap Temple.
" Chenghuai knelt, knocked his head twice to him, and turned and went. Behind him the bell of the Great Thunderclap Temple sounded.
The sun stood at the zenith; the sunlight cast the little monk's shadow down the mountain, drawing it long.