The autumn wind is blowing, leaves are falling, it is deep autumn again.

The hustle and bustle in Baicheng diluted the cold atmosphere of late autumn.

In a teahouse on the street, several traveling merchants were taking a break.

A young merchant casually asked, "Brother, how much did you get for the ginseng you bought in Beihuang City this time?"

The middle-aged merchant sighed: "Oh, don't mention it, ten-year-old red ginseng, one tael each."

"Oh my god! Why is it so expensive?"

The middle-aged merchant smiled bitterly and said, "It's the price now. In a few days, the price can be doubled!"

Everyone else sighed, and someone said, "The barbarians are charging different prices every day. If you don't buy, they'll force you to buy with a knife. Anyway, after this trip, I'm never going there again."

The young merchant was shocked and then angry: "The court doesn't care?"

The middle-aged merchant sneered, took a big gulp of tea, and then answered angrily: "Care? What can I do? The soldiers on the border have been fed by the barbarians a long time ago. Let alone fighting people, they can't even catch a rabbit!"

Someone else, under the influence of alcohol, continued, "Oh, even if the imperial court knew about this, they would most likely not dare to intervene!" He pointed to the sky with a sneer, "If the barbarians are upset, the emperor will not be able to sleep well!"

"Shh! Shut up! You're asking for your life! How dare you say anything!"

The merchants were just chatting and talking nonsense when they had nothing to do, but when they saw someone doing something stupid after drinking, they didn't dare to stay any longer and left one after another.

The young man at the next table, who had his back to the traveling merchants, put down his teacup. Most of his face was hidden by his bamboo hat and could not be seen clearly. One could only see that his lips were tightly pursed, as sharp as a knife.

"It looks like the mortal world is going to be in chaos again."

The boy raised his eyes and looked across. A young man with a high ponytail calmly poured him a cup of tea with a cold look in his eyes. "But this has nothing to do with us."

The boy remained silent.

The young man glanced at him and warned him, "You and I are no longer mortals. What happens in the mortal world has nothing to do with us. Don't be confused!"

The young man lowered his hat and uttered a low "hmm".

The young man breathed a sigh of relief and turned to other topics, "After Zhan Chenyuan returns to the sect, you should be able to break through the foundation-building stage, right?"

"perhaps."

"As expected of a natural seed of the Tao, your progress is rapid." The young man sneered, "In comparison, the Buddha's disciple that the Buddhist sect has been waiting for a hundred years is nothing more than this."

"…Why do you say that?"

"Have you heard any news about him outside in the past ten years? If he had made any progress, how could the Pure Land Sect have kept it secret? It must be that he is not talented enough, and the Pure Land Sect wants to lock him up for the sake of their own reputation and not let him come out to embarrass himself."

The boy remained silent. The young man also knew his taciturn personality, so he did not take it as a problem and continued to express his own views: "Buddhism has been in decline for a hundred years. It originally wanted to rely on Buddhist disciples to make a comeback, but now it seems that it is also doomed. Let's see what Buddhism can use to compete with us in the future!"

The young man put down his teacup and asked concisely, "Brother, can we go now?"

"Let's go!" The young man hurriedly drank the tea in the cup, wiped his lips, picked up the sword, and put the money on the table. The two stood up and walked out of the teahouse, like two drops of water blending into the crowd, without attracting any attention.

The waiter of the teahouse passed by an empty table and was surprised to find two strings of tea money on the table. He wondered, "That's strange. Was there anyone sitting at this table just now?"

…

The two brothers walked out of the city gate, and when there was no one around, the young man took off the cloth bag on his back and pulled out a long sword. The next moment, the two long swords were unsheathed, and the two men stepped on the swords at the same time and disappeared in an instant.

In front of the Linqing Sect's mountain gate, several little Taoist children were cleaning. Suddenly, a sword flashed, and a young man wearing a bamboo hat stepped on a long sword and flew quickly over the mountain gate.

The little Taoist children looked up at the black shadow flying by in the distance, their eyes full of envy, and began to discuss in twos and threes:

"Senior Brother Su is back! And so is Senior Brother Teng!"

"I don't know what the two brothers are doing outside."

"Maybe he's going to cut off his mortal bond?"

"I heard that Senior Brother Su has already reached the late stage of foundation building."

"Yeah! Doesn't that mean we'll reach the heartbeat stage soon?"

"Senior Brother Su has only been here for ten years, right?"

"Senior Brother Su is a natural born Dao Seed, so it's normal for his realm to improve so quickly."

…

The young man, Su Jian, said goodbye to his fellow brothers and stopped in front of his cave halfway up Lingyun Peak on his sword.

He took off his bamboo hat and finally revealed his face. His eyes were bright and determined, his mouth was tight, and he looked like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath, full of vigor and aura. Ten years of monastic life had transformed him completely, from a lazy and impetuous young man to a calm and steady person.

Su Jian untied the restriction in front of the door, walked into the cave, hurriedly spread out the letter paper, and wrote down in the letter all the experiences he had seen and heard in the mortal world during the two years when he had cut off his worldly ties.

When Su Jian picked up the pen and wrote the last word, he was a little absent-minded.

This letter is written to Le Jing.

He has sent many such letters over the past decade.

He and Le Jing haven't seen each other for more than ten years.

The last time he saw Le Jing was when he was ordained. Because he and the Buddhist disciple had a pre-existing friendship, he was able to go to the Pure Land Sect with the abbot to watch the ceremony.

Even though more than ten years have passed, he can still clearly remember what Le Jing looked like at that time.

As the gods and Buddhas in the room gazed at him in silence, the little boy sat upright on a cushion, with the incense smoke curling up, the sound of Sanskrit chanting coming out, and the low chanting of Buddha's name constantly ringing in his ears. The old monk stood behind him, cutting off his hair piece by piece with a razor, revealing his light blue scalp.

The boy's eyebrows were lowered, his expression was calm, his body was straight and motionless, the golden candlelight pressed on his body, the divine light was hidden, and he looked like a small Buddha statue.

There is no time in cultivation, and twelve years have passed in a flash. The boy back then must have grown into a teenager now.

The Pure Land Sect and the Linqing Sect are located in the south and north, respectively, and almost span the entire Daliang. Therefore, he and Le Jing have not met each other for many years and have only been communicating through letters.

Le Jing has been in seclusion for many years, so he had to write letters to inform him of news from the outside world.

Thinking of all that he had seen and heard in the mortal world over the past two years, Su Jian frowned deeply and a sigh escaped from his chest.

Things are going to change.

He blew dry the ink and took out a lotus lamp from his storage bag. The blue candlelight was dim in the pistil, and the letter paper passed through the flame and disappeared immediately.

…

The breeze was blowing gently and the bamboo forest was rustling. Deep among the bamboo leaves stood a thatched cottage from which came the dull sound of a wooden fish.

A young man sat upright in a thatched hut with his eyes closed. There was a red mole on his forehead that looked as charming as blood. He was counting beads with one hand and slowly tapping a wooden fish with the other.

After an unknown amount of time, the young man opened his eyes, his eyes were filled with golden light, flowing with the solemnity of ancient gold. His eyebrows and eyes were calm, and the light golden Buddha light emanated from the red lotus under him. His yellow monk's robe moved without wind, shining slightly under the Buddha light. From a distance, he looked like a god descending to the world.

After a few breaths, the golden light on the young man's body disappeared, the hem of his monk's robe fell down, and the wind in the bamboo forest stopped.

The flame on the white lotus lamp holder trembled, and a letter came out from it.

Le Jing stretched out his hand and the letter flew into his hand accurately.

Le Jing opened the letter and saw Su Jian's familiar handwriting.

Because he had been in seclusion these years, Su Jian could only write to him to inform him of information about the outside world.

This time, Su Jian's letter told him something very important.

The situation at the border is becoming increasingly chaotic.

Beihuang City is located in the extreme north of Daliang, adjacent to the grassland tribes. It has been a place of war and conflict since ancient times.

Especially when Daliang's national strength was gradually weakening and the army had lost its bloodiness after a long period of peace, every autumn and winter, the grassland tribes would run to the border cities to take advantage of the situation, committing evil deeds such as robbery, rape of women, and massacre of civilians.

Therefore, the people of Daliang called them barbarians with hatred and fear.

But the disputes in the mortal world cannot avoid the purity of Buddhism.

Pure Land Buddhist monks chant sutras day after day to liberate the souls of the dead.

Especially after the war between humans and demons a hundred years ago, Beihuang City was one of the main battlefields, with hundreds of thousands of demon corpses buried underground. The war between humans and demons ended with the human race winning, and the demon race retreated to Xueyuan.

Beihuang City has completely become a dead city, with vengeful ghosts wandering around the city all year round.

If it weren't for the Pure Land Sect's purification and salvation efforts over the years, I'm afraid the souls of everyone in the city would have been captured by vengeful ghosts.

However, the barbarians have been making frequent small moves in recent years and are becoming more and more restless.

Although they were collectively called barbarians, there were more than a dozen large and small grassland tribes entrenched on the grassland. Originally, they were busy fighting among themselves and posed limited harm to Daliang, so the emperor of Daliang could sleep peacefully.

But now it's different.

Under the leadership of a powerful leader, the grassland tribes were united into one, and their ambitions grew.

In addition, since the battle between humans and demons a hundred years ago, the demons have been living on the grasslands since their defeat, mingling with the barbarians, becoming a major concern for the world of cultivation.

Daliang is weak now, and there will inevitably be a war between the barbarians and Daliang.

The future war may have come true here.

Since joining the Pure Land Sect, Le Jing has been in seclusion for ten years.

The people are in trouble, it's time to break through the barrier and go down the mountain.

Le Jing stood up, smoothed the wrinkles on his monk's robe, and walked out of the thatched hut slowly.

The bamboo forest is quiet and peaceful, with yellow-robed monks strolling among them, adding a lot of Zen to the scene.

When walking out of the bamboo forest, Le Jing saw the familiar monk's robes.

The familiar old man was holding a rosary and looking at him with a smile.

Le Jing bowed slightly and put his hands together, "Master."

Hui Tong asked, "Where are you going?"

Le Jing answered respectfully: "Go to where I should go."

Hui Tong looked at his most trusted and beloved disciple, his eyes slowly filled with a hint of regret and sorrow, "At the Lengyan Conference, Sakyamuni Buddha asked the great bodhisattvas about the methods of entering meditation and attaining enlightenment. Do you still remember the answer given by Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva?"

The young monk lowered his eyes and replied, "When the Buddha asked about perfect enlightenment, I had no choice. I gathered all six senses, and kept pure thoughts. I achieved Samadhi, and this is the best."

"How can we control the six senses and keep pure thoughts?"

"The six senses are pure, free of distracting thoughts, and the Buddha's name is constantly chanted."

Hui Tong stared at him, "Are you still going to where you are supposed to go?"

"I am not a talented disciple. I only remember the twelve great vows made by Medicine Buddha."

Hui Tong's cheeks trembled, and a rare look of dejection appeared on his face.

He advised in vain: "The road you are on is full of karmic obstacles, and the karma of the world will be imposed on you. You will receive a lot of retribution, but it is difficult to get good results. Even so, do you still want to go?"

In the sunlight, the young monk's clear eyes were bright inside and out, pure and flawless, his cheeks were as white as jade, elegant and gentle, just like the white jade offered before the Buddha, his every move was imbued with the sacred Buddha nature.

He raised his head and looked up. The red mole on his forehead became more and more vivid. His glass pupils were filled with golden mist. His voice was loud and solemn: "May I, in my next life, attain Bodhi. My body will be like glass, clear inside and out, pure without any blemish, and bright and vast. My merits will be great, my body will be well settled, and my spirit will be solemn and majestic. It will be brighter than the sun and the moon. All sentient beings in the netherworld will be enlightened, and can do whatever they want."

"May I, in the next life, when I attain Bodhi, help all sentient beings escape from the clutches of demons and free themselves from all the entanglements of the heterodox ways. If they fall into the thick forest of various evil views, I will lead them to right views and gradually help them practice the Bodhisattva practices, so that they can attain the unsurpassed perfect Bodhi."

These are the second and ninth vows of the Twelve Vows of Medicine Buddha. The young man used these two wishes to express his aspirations.

Save all living beings and drive away evil spirits.

Hui Tong once again recalled the words of the young man he heard in the vision that day: "I ask the Buddha, if killing one person can save thousands of people, is it a sin or a merit?"

"I asked the Buddha, if you can save a country by slaughtering a city, will you be struck by lightning or become a Buddha instantly?"

From then on, Hui Tong understood that their Buddhist disciples were following the Asura path of attaining Buddhahood through killing, and if they were not careful, they might fall from Buddhahood and become demons.

Hui Tong looked at the boy with eyes full of struggle and reluctance. Finally, he sighed and his eyes returned to calmness: "Go."

Le Jing bowed his head: "Thank you, Master, for your help."

Hui Tong continued, "If there really comes a day like that... I will kill you myself, and fulfill our relationship as master and disciple."

The author has something to say:

Well... all the foreshadowing has been laid, and now we are about to enter the climax of the plot!