Chapter 116 — A Heart of Pure Innocence
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu committed it to memory with all his attention, fixing in his mind the diagram of the Six Harmonies Realm of the Arcane Body Three Elixirs Art carved upon the pillar. He had obtained the fragmentary Five Luminaries Realm diagram of that same art in the Palace of Averting Calamity, and now, with the Six Harmonies Realm diagram added to it, the parts of the fragment he had never been able to comprehend gradually grew clear — though to complete the fragment remained all but impossible. The Youthful Patriarch had, after all, seen the cultivation diagrams of the Arcane Body Three Elixirs Art; perhaps he still possessed the fragmentary Five Luminaries Realm diagram. Even if it were incomplete, it might, joined with the fragments Shen Mu already knew, serve to complete the Five Luminaries Realm.
This concerned his own cultivation; he must give it his whole heart. Suddenly a monk came walking from behind the hall and said in a deep voice, "Which of you are the scholars of Jiangling? Scholars of Jiangling, step forward.
You need not pass this trial; go and wait at the next.
" Wei Yong was stunned for a moment, then stepped out with the other two scholars and walked toward the inner hall, turning his head to say, "Brother Shen. .
.
" "No noise!
" The monk said in a deep voice, "The scholars of Jiangling have suffered grievous casualties; those who follow need not be examined further. The rest of you remain here and await your trial.
" Shen Mu was astonished beyond measure — there were monks in the Grand Academy as well!
Having seen so many Daoists, he had assumed that this place, though it bore the name of the Grand Academy, was in truth a domain of the Daoist school; he had never expected to meet monks here too. "Monks and Daoists mingling at the Grand Academy — I wonder what the Great Thunderclap Temple makes of it?
" Scarcely had the thought crossed his mind when another monk came from behind the hall, robed in yellow, with high, prominent browbones and long, flowing eyebrows, a register in his hand.
He swept his gaze around the hall once, and the snow-bright look in his eyes silenced the scholars within, and he said, "This trial tests the nature of your hearts. " His voice boomed and rang like a great bell and a mighty pitch-pipe, so that the eardrums of all in the hall hummed and their minds went blank. He sat cross-legged, his brows and eyes lowered, and said, "The sutra I shall recite holds true words within it.
If you cannot bear it, withdraw from the hall.
Those who can withstand this sutra of mine may go on to the next trial. " He pressed his palms together, turned the prayer beads in his hand, and recited, unhurried, "The Buddha told Subhuti: all Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas should thus subdue their minds.
All living beings whatsoever — whether born of eggs, born of wombs, born of moisture, or born by transformation; whether with form or without form; whether with thought or without thought; whether neither with thought nor without thought — I cause them all to enter Nirvana without residue and be extinguished. And yet, though immeasurable, countless, boundless living beings are thus extinguished, in truth no living being has been extinguished. And why? . . .
"① The Buddha-voice surged and quaked; every phrase of the true words was as a Tathagata descending, crashing from the sound into the minds of every scholar in the hall, into their bodies, into their vital essence, their Primordial Fetus spirit treasury, their Five Luminaries spirit treasury! Even within their thoughts appeared one great Buddha Tathagata after another, radiant with light. The quaking grew stronger and stronger, until it was past bearing; the reverberation set their blood and breath churning, scattered their vital essence, and made their spirit treasuries hard to hold.