Chapter 116 — A Heart of Pure Innocence
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
To contend against the sound of the recitation was likewise unspeakably difficult; their thoughts could not withstand it at all, as though every notion were lit up clear and plain, with not the least secret left.
At last one scholar could bear it no longer; he rose and dashed out of the hall! If he kept listening to the yellow-robed monk's recitation, he feared his vital essence would simply collapse, his spirit treasury be occupied by the Buddha-voice, and perhaps even his flesh, skin, bones, and meridians be shaken apart.
Scarcely had this scholar run out of the hall when several more could endure no longer; they rose and ran for the door, and before they had even left the hall they were vomiting violently, as though they wished to spew out their very heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. The yellow-robed monk was unmoved and went on reciting the true sutra; the Buddha's true words thundered on without cease, the sound growing heavier and heavier, and more scholars fled the hall in wretched disarray.
Before anyone knew it, only some twenty-odd men remained in the hall.
Shen Mu sat within it as the Buddha-voice came surging and crashing, shaking everything in him; the youth was unmoved, silently reciting the demonic tongue, locked in a deadlock with the Buddha-voice — now one attacking while the other defended, now one defending while the other attacked — and he was enjoying the fight immensely. The Buddha-voice affected him least of all; it could not disturb his consciousness in the slightest.
After a while Shen Mu switched to the divine tongue he had learned and pitted it against the Buddha-voice, and the two contended fiercely. After a long while more, the yellow-robed monk frowned, opened his eyes, and looked toward Shen Mu. He saw Shen Mu sitting there perfectly at ease, head raised to study the murals on the pillars, seemingly without the least reaction to his recitation — and by now only a dozen or so men were left in the hall.
"Strange. His assessment clearly reads 'of a wicked nature, to be watched closely.
' If he were truly evil at heart, how could he hold out so long beneath my Buddha-voice? " The yellow-robed monk was greatly perplexed, and his recitation slowed without his noticing. He thought, "There is not a trace of wickedness in him now.
If I deliberately make him retreat before the difficulty, I fear every scholar in this hall would be driven out, and none would pass.
" He stopped, rose, and said, "You have passed.
Leave by the rear hall and go on to the next trial. " Everyone felt as though a great weight had lifted; they rose one after another, and only then realized they were drenched in sweat, their clothes soaked through. Only Shen Mu seemed to have felt nothing at all, without a single drop of sweat.
The yellow-robed monk studied him a few more times, then took out the register and made notes after each man's name. When he came to Shen Mu, he hesitated a moment, then lifted his brush and wrote: "A heart of pure innocence, unmoved by outward things.
" The monk walked out through the rear hall and tossed the register into the air; a crane flew down from midair, caught up the book in its beak, and soared upward, while the yellow-robed monk returned to the hall. The crane flew to the mountainside and alighted before a great hall; holding the register in its beak, it delivered it to a boy attendant who came forward. The boy hurried into the hall and presented the book to a middle-aged Daoist within: "Reverend Master Lingyun, the register has come.
" The Daoist Lingyun opened the register and said with a smile, "Every year the Grand Academy grants ten places, selecting the outstanding among the scholars of the Spirit Fetus Realm and the Five Luminaries Realm.
I wonder what talents there are this year. " He read through them one by one and nodded slightly.