Chapter 905 — Don't Even Think About Taking My Life
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 6
I want to return to Jingping. " He also saluted the Xuanliao Demon Ape and Chenghuai, and they returned his salute. "Shen'er truly means to return to Jingping? " Ma Rulai suddenly took off his kasaya and removed his prayer beads, saying with a smile: "In those years I promised my benefactor-master that I would transmit the dharma in his stead and keep Great Thunderclap Temple from perishing. Now, in Buddhist dharma, Zhankong and Chenghuai have both surpassed me by far.
I have accomplished the transmission of dharma and the passing of the lamp; it is time for me to return to my original self.
From this day on, I am once again the Lord Huo I was before, Constable Ma. Chenghuai, you come and drape the kasaya upon your senior brother and hang the prayer beads upon him. " The Xuanliao Demon Ape bowed in worship.
Chenghuai spread the kasaya and draped it over him, and hung the prayer beads about his neck.
Lord Huo said with a smile: "Chenghuai sees the nature; the fighting monkey mind.
Chenghuai, you help him subdue the monkey of the mind.
Zhankong, from now on you are Rulai. You two great monks, stay your steps here; our Buddhist affinity is at an end. " The Xuanliao Demon Ape rose and, palms pressed together, said: "Seeing off the benefactor.
" Lord Huo returned the salute, then followed the Lame Old Man, Shen Mu, and the others down the mountain.
The capital of Jingping. More and more of Jingping's people were escorted in from every quarter, and there were even remnants of the Chiming clan.
The camps around the capital were packed full of people, and the two hundred-odd deities of Jingping anxiously guarded these people of Jingping. But there were too many people, and the food supply became an enormous problem.
Among the scholars of the various academies and schools, those proficient in the art of creation opened up good fields and used the way of creation to make crops grow swiftly, then harvested and milled the grain. Yet the good fields could sustain only three or four harvests before their fertility was spent and they became poor fields, and so they had no choice but to keep opening new farmland.
Outside, soldiers ravaged and horses trampled; the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court came and went like ghosts.
To open fields outside was to easily lose one's life, and so no few scholars died. Inside and outside the capital, all was anxiety and gloom. On this day, one after another tower-ship of the Heavenly Court sailed in through the sky.
Countless gods wreathed in golden light, majestic and solemn, stood upon the ships, their divine weapons gleaming, their divine might overshadowing the world, pressing down upon the people of Jingping until they could scarcely breathe. Though the great army of gods and demons of the Heavenly Court had come, it did not attack. Instead it restrained the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court scattered throughout the land, keeping them from striking at Jingping's people, and their discipline was strict indeed.
Inside and outside the capital, many common folk again burned incense and bowed to these high and exalted deities, praying for peace.
"When people are in the midst of suffering, their baser nature is reborn.
" The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping stood atop the city wall, gazing up at the Heavenly Court's great army, then looking down at the countless common folk below bowing and praying to that army. A bitter smile appeared on his face as he said: "Your Majesty, I fear that in this life of ours we may never be able to change all this. " Emperor Yanfeng stood behind him, breathing with difficulty, and said in a hoarse voice: "Since ancient times, every age's revolution and reform has been attended without exception by bloodshed.