Le Jing's fortune-telling business in Antique Street did not go smoothly at the beginning.
This is also normal.
For example, Mei Yingliang had to transform himself into a blind old man with a white beard before he could do business. Le Jing is just a child now, and judging from his appearance, he is only eight or nine years old at most. Of course, no one would ask a child to tell his fortune.
Even though Le Jing hung a white banner at his fortune-telling stall with the words "No omissions, ten times compensation if false" written on it, not many people believed him.
He sat there for a while, feeling bored, and thought that waiting like this was not a solution. Just as he was about to solicit customers, his vision suddenly went dark.
Amid the shrill barking of dogs, the boy lay on the ground, breathing steadily, and seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
…
Le Jing suddenly had a dream.
In the dream, there were iron horses and icy rivers, mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and foreign armies burning, killing, looting and plundering, like demons from hell passing through the human world in a mighty force.
This is absolute hell on earth.
This is also the end of the dynasty that the fool once saw.
Le Jing stared at the one-sided bloody massacre, and suddenly a childish and timid voice rang in his ears: "Save, save people."
Le Jing was silent for a moment, and now he understood everything. He sighed and asked, "Is this your wish?"
"Save people, don't die." The childish voice became much firmer.
So Le Jing laughed.
"As you wish."
"...Thank you." The voice was as faint as a breeze blowing on your face and disappeared in an instant.
Le Jing chuckled, with a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.
Everyone thinks you are a fool.
The world kisses you with pain, but you respond with song.
In the end, there was only one fool, who, even though only a remnant soul was left, was still obsessed with saving the country.
In Le Jing's opinion, fools are the real saints.
He will fulfill the fool's wish, not because he is moved by the fool, but because he wants to do so.
War is a meat grinder that only crushes interesting souls and destroys all beautiful things such as human civilization, architecture, art, etc. He hates war, which is an anti-human atrocity and the ugliest hell in the world.
As long as it is ugly, he will definitely oppose it.
So at some point in the future, he will do whatever it takes to stop this unjust war.
For a Brave New World.
Le Jing opened his eyes and met a pair of dark, anxious animal eyes. He then discovered that the stray dog had a pair of dark yellow animal eyes like a wolf.
Seeing Le Jing wake up, he immediately licked his face excitedly with his tongue.
Le Jing smiled and dodged, "Stop licking, stop licking. Sorry to make you worry. I'm fine."
He stood up from the ground, dusted himself off, and stretched.
"Kid, are you a fortune teller?" A young man stood in front of his fortune-telling stall with a questioning look in his eyes.
Le Jing immediately revealed an innocent smile, "Yes, big brother, do you want to have your fortune told? If it doesn't work, I can compensate you."
…
Beihuang City is located in the far north, covered with snow all year round. Deep in the vast snowfield, there is a bright yellow temple, with three large characters written in a flamboyant style on a black plaque: "Pure Land Sect".
Peaceful Buddhist music emanated from the temple and blended into the howling wind and snow. It seemed that even the north wind had become gentle, unwilling to be too harsh on the snowfield.
There is a sacred solemnity in the Pure Land Sect’s Buddhist temple.
A dozen young monks sat cross-legged in three rows in an orderly manner, listening attentively to the Buddhist music filling the room. From time to time, someone would show an expression of sudden enlightenment, and look up with even more reverence.
Sitting at the top was an old monk with white eyebrows and beard. He sat cross-legged on a cushion and explained the Dharma to the young disciples word by word. As he explained, golden light, white lotus and other strange images flashed from behind him from time to time. He sat leisurely with a peaceful look, just like a god or Buddha reappearing, which earned him even more respectful looks from the disciples below.
Just as the disciples were eagerly absorbing the elder's Buddhist teachings, the melodious and sacred Buddhist chanting suddenly stopped.
The Buddhist hall suddenly became quiet.
The disciples looked over in surprise and saw that the old monk above had quietly closed his eyes, remained silent, and seemed to have fallen asleep.
This was something that was impossible to happen, but it actually happened.
The old monk, Hui Tong, the abbot of the Pure Land Sect of this generation, actually fell asleep while chanting. Not only that, he also had a dream.
It really can't be called a sweet dream, it would be more appropriate to describe it as a nightmare.
He seemed to have arrived at a battlefield.
The war drums were loud, the weapons were pointed at each other, the swords were flashing, the flags were fluttering, and thousands of troops were rushing together with a terrifying momentum.
People keep falling and lives are lost. War is the cruelest meat grinder.
Hui Tong seldom dreams.
But once he dreams, it must mean something.
Before Hui Tong could ponder the deeper meaning behind this dream, he suddenly discovered another existence that was out of place here.
Just in front of him stood a little child.
He was wearing a bright yellow monk's robe, with his back to him, silently staring at the battlefield of blood and fire.
An inexplicable urge drove Hui Tong to get closer to the child. He wanted to see his face clearly!
As soon as Hui Tong took a step forward, the battlefield shattered like a mirror, and the boy disappeared. The bloody sun was in the sky, and the sky was filled with ferocious blood, and even the dark clouds had a few more bloody lights.
The ground beneath his feet felt soft and even a little warm. Of course it was. Because what Hui Tong was stepping on was not the road, but corpses. The corpses were piled up together, densely covering the ground. As far as the eye could see, there was no ground, only a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
The corpses included old and young, male and female. The only thing they had in common was that they died in a horrible way, obviously tragically.
Even though Hui Tong had already calmed down, he was still a little stunned by the situation.
Is this hell?
He blinked in confusion and found himself on another battlefield.
It was more of a one-sided massacre than a battlefield.
The soldiers raised their spears and swords, pointed them at the unarmed civilians, and began round after round of inhumane killing competition. Hui Tong heard their excited, inhuman howls amid the blood.
The wild wolves followed closely behind their fellow brethren in human skins, hoping to pick up some "leftovers" to fill their stomachs.
This is the never-ending killing in the mortal world, and it is a fate that cannot be changed like the cycle of cause and effect.
Huitong has long been commonplace.
He sighed and silently recited the Sutra of Rebirth to pray for the souls of those who died tragically.
It was under such circumstances that the boy suddenly appeared beside him.
Hui Tong was caught off guard and met the pair of glass eyes that were flowing with light and mist.
The boy's gaze passed through Hui Tong and met the sea of corpses and blood behind him. His glass pupils flickered, and Hui Tong seemed to hear the roar of thunder.
"I asked 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?"
The boy asked softly, as if talking to himself, or as if questioning Hui Tong.
Hui Tong was stunned. He opened his mouth but didn't know how to answer the boy's question.
He wanted to say that they, the monks, had already escaped the cycle of reincarnation and their six senses were pure, so why should they be involved in the cause and effect of worldly affairs?
He wanted to say that where there is light, there is darkness. As long as the light does not go out, the shadow will exist forever, and evil cannot be eradicated.
He wanted to say that birth, aging, sickness and death are the destiny of mortals, and they, the cultivators, should not interfere. Doing so would go against natural order and might even give rise to evil in their hearts.
Before he could organize his words, the boy seemed to have found the answer: "The Buddha said that the Vajra's eyes are angry, so it can subdue the four demons; the Bodhisattva's eyebrows are lowered, so it can be compassionate to the six realms."
The boy's eyes were clear and calm, and he lowered his eyes and smiled, just like the Buddha in the past who smiled at a flower: "Thunder, rain and dew are all the mercy of my Buddha."
Hui Tong was confused.
It’s not that the boy’s words were so unique, but because he heard the fearlessness and the boy’s truth in these words.
The boy is walking on a road that is destined to be long and rugged, and he may not be able to see the end in his entire life.
That road, made of corpses, blood and bones, leads to the Pure Land.
Then the next moment, just as he had expected, the boy moved.
He sat cross-legged, chanting solemn Buddhist names. His body floated in the air, and white lotuses appeared beneath him with a faint fragrance. A huge golden Buddha statue appeared behind him. The Buddha statue raised its huge palms and slapped the brutal soldiers one by one with earth-shaking momentum.
The boy closed his eyes and smiled, like a god or Buddha sitting high on a lotus throne, and said with compassion: "Buddha has mercy on us."
Hui Tong suddenly understood.
Like a bolt of thunder hitting his sea of consciousness, he suddenly understood the identity of the strange boy in front of him.
I also understand why I had this dream.
This is the future that is destined to happen.
This is also the guidance given to them by the Buddha.
…
Hui Tong opened his eyes and saw the anxious and worried faces of his fellow disciples.
Junior fellow student Hui Jue asked with concern: "Brother, I just heard that you fell asleep while giving a lecture. Are you feeling unwell?"
Hui Tong was in a trance for a moment, and the pair of glass eyes seemed to flash before his eyes again.
"…I had a prophetic dream."
The brothers had already guessed this in their hearts, so they were not surprised at all. They asked repeatedly: "Brother, what did you dream about?"
"But what about the movements of the demons?"
Hui Tong shook his head, and his cloudy old eyes suddenly sparkled with infinite brilliance, which seemed to contain a burning tomorrow, "The Buddha's son is born."
"Buddha's son?!"
The fellow disciples were all shocked. They never thought that Hui Tong had seen such an important thing.
Since the last Buddhist passed away, no Buddhist has been born in their Buddhist sect for nearly a hundred years.
Taoism has the natural Taoist seeds, while they in Buddhism are the children of Buddha.
Both those born as Taoists and those born as Buddhists have the top qualifications for cultivation. The former are destined to be the leaders of Taoism, and the latter are destined to be the leaders of Buddhism.
Ever since the entire Daxiangguo Temple was destroyed a hundred years ago and the previous generation of Buddhists passed away and turned into relics, their Buddhist sect has fallen into a period of decline. The younger generation is leaderless and there is a lack of successors. In time, the decline of Buddhism is inevitable.
Now the return of the Buddhist disciple undoubtedly made Huijue and others overjoyed and excited.
"Brother, where is the Buddha?"
Hui Tong shook his head. "I don't know where he is, but one thing is certain..." The old monk smiled with a look of compassion and admiration: "He has chosen a long and rugged road, and he will keep going."
"So, we must find him."
"Find him, protect him...support him."
Hui Tong looked at his bewildered fellow disciples, smiled, and without further explanation, ordered: "Immediately notify all Buddhist sects and tell them that the Buddha's son has appeared in the world. Ask them to stop all their affairs and make sure to find the Buddha's son."
The author has something to say:
Chapter 96 was my mistake. The saved drafts in it are meaningless. I really didn't have any saved drafts. I just set it up for fun, but now I can't delete it. Ugh... I'll see if I can replace that chapter with a special chapter or something like that_(:з」∠)_
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
