Chapter 330 — A Vast Sea of Blood
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
"When I first met Old Master Huo, he was the most famous constable under heaven, known as the Horse Divine Constable. He nearly caught me. " The Lame Elder looked back. From the golden summit of Mount Sumeru poured ten thousand fathoms of golden light, and the voice of the Buddha rolled vast and mighty; the Buddha's voice turned to substance, became script, became lotuses, became image after image of buddhas in the void, encircling that holy ground. The Lame Elder was lost in thought.
"He caught me many times," he said softly. "We matched wits many times.
The one I feared most, and revered most, was him.
In my early years I was an orphan with nothing at all, begging my food from place to place; when the hunger grew unbearable I stole.
I dared not rob, because I was small and thin. Then an old constable caught me.
He did not send me to the magistrate; he only forbade me to steal, and taught me a trade, like a father. I followed him, dreaming that one day I too might be a constable. Old Master Huo reminds me of him.
When Old Master Huo puts on that stern look, he is so like him. . . " Shen Mu sat on the back of the Dragon Qilin and said nothing, listening with the village head and the others as the Lame Elder told of the past. "I had no father. I felt the old constable was my father. In the years I followed him I worked harder than ever, and was happier than ever. Then one day, the old constable died.
" The Lame Elder's eyes went wide, and his voice was terribly calm.
"At midnight his enemies came for him. I was still asleep.
I heard killing cries outside, and he burst in, and at the risk of his life got me out, and said to me: Child, be a good man. . . Run! I had nothing on my body. I ran bare-bottomed, ran and ran, and my speed grew and grew, faster and faster.
I wept and begged people to help, but no one came out, no one.
. . " A thin, weak boy running naked and helpless, helplessly begging for help — and no one helped him.
The Lame Elder ran from night into day, ran ten thousand li. When he came to his senses he went back to the old constable's dwelling; it had been burned to bare earth, and all he could dig out were the old constable's charred bones.
"He told me to be a good man. He spent his whole life being a good man, and what did it come to? I won't be a good man! He forbade me to steal — so I stole. " Desolate, the Lame Elder said, "I stole and I ran. Stealing and running, running and stealing, my name grew greater and greater, and men called me the Shadow Thief. What shit sealing arts, what shit forbidden spells — I held them all in contempt. I outran the wind, outran the clouds, outran the lightning; I stole my way across the whole world. Whatever sect, whatever holy ground, I went and stole from them all.
At last I found his enemies, and stole their heads. When I made offerings to the old constable, I wanted to be a good man — but by then I had caught the habit of stealing, and could never break it.
Then I met Old Master Huo, and he reminded me of the old constable.
It is not that I fear him; I revere him.
And now he has become the Tathagata, with that compassionate and precious aspect, and it makes me wonder whether the old constable, too, became a Buddha. . .
" The village head poked his head out of the medicine basket.
"Old Master Huo will not become a Buddha. One day, when a new Tathagata comes, he will take off his cassock, and be the old Master Huo again.
" The Lame Elder looked up at the sky. "Let us hope so.
" Shen Mu let out a breath of turbid air and said in a low voice, "Master Huo will come back.
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