Chapter 139 — The Green Ox in the Vegetable Plot
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
"That cast-off carries rare arts in him; whether in combat skill or in spellcraft or swordplay, he is far from weak. Could it be him? " Shen Wanyun hesitated, then shook his head: "To speak frankly, it was seeing him go without sleep, training bitterly, that spurred me on; so I cultivated in anguish, hoping to defeat Daoist Son Lin Xuan.
He trained no less long than I did, and by now he is probably still snoring away, and must likewise have missed the contest with Daoist Son Lin Xuan. " A scholar said in anger: "That fellow led even our Eldest Senior Brother astray!
When the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping was transmitting the dharma, he was shouting and hollering that he had refined a vital-qi thread — he had only just refined it; how could he possibly defeat the Daoist sect's Daoist Son? " The scholars all nodded, laughing: "He made a thorough fool of himself before the whole Academy at the Academy Hall; that pleased us no end — we even felt better in the very places he had struck us!
" Just then a great clamor rose suddenly from below the mountain, and someone cried out: "A white-browed monk has come to the mountain, with a little monk beside him, and he has sat down in front of the mountain gate! " The scholars looked at one another.
Shen Wanyun's eyes flickered, and he said in a low, grave voice: "The Daoist sect's master has just gone, and now the monks of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery have come! Of these two monks, I fear the small one is the Monastery's Buddha's Son! Since I never got to cross swords with Daoist Son Lin Xuan, then I must certainly have a meeting with the Buddha's Son of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery!
Junior brothers and sisters, I need half a day's rest to gather my strength.
" The scholars took their leave one after another.
Shen Wanyun lay down without undressing and was soon sound asleep. When the next day came and Shen Wanyun woke, full of vigor, he washed and combed himself, filled his belly, and at once went down the mountain; only there did he learn that this Buddha's Son of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery had defeated many masters of the Academy.
This Buddha's Son was of the Tathagata Mahayana, his body warded by the vajra, deeply practiced in the Buddhist Battle-Victory Dharma; when he roused his spells his body swelled several times its size and his strength was boundless; Buddha-light flowed over him, now becoming a great bell, now a pagoda to press down upon his foes; he raised a golden almsbowl in his hand and gathered men into it, and turned his hand over and a Mount Sumeru came crushing down. Shen Wanyun went up to face him and fought more than a dozen rounds, breaking the Buddha's Son's vajra ward with the Piercing Sword Form and wounding this Buddha-Heart, the Buddha's Son; but Buddha-Heart's strength was after all overbearing, and he beat Shen Wanyun until he fell back in defeat. Many scholars of the Divine Power Lodge and the Princes' Garden could not help but regard him with new eyes.
Most scholars of the Scholars' Lodge were of the Five Luminaries stage, of low cultivation, and that Shen Wanyun could trade blows with the Buddha's Son of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery a dozen times before losing was a record that would place him among the first-rate masters of either the Divine Power Lodge or the Princes' Garden, fit for the top ten. At once princes and princesses of the Princes' Garden came forward with evident intent to court him; Shen Wanyun neither agreed nor declined, lest he offend too many, thinking to himself: "It seems my record is not bad, or no one would come courting.
I wonder how my junior brother Shen fared against this monk? How many moves did he last under the Buddha's Son? " "That green ox the young master spoke of, I have seen it several times.