Yinshan Record

Chapter 72 Future Constellations
"What a monster!"

With a flick of his staff, Qin Ben unleashed a swift attack like a black dragon, his monstrous Yaksha form lunging forward, aimed directly at the ball of blue light.

With one eye fixed on Qin Ben, he moved and responded.

As the two crossed paths, the single eye seemed like a bubble, shattering into specks of dust.

What's going on with Qin Ben?

Su Che was anxious, for this single eye was the key to all the changes within the Xuan Mountain.

How did the old lion arrange things back then? What were the plans and schemes of the Black Mountain Monster? The answer to the problem may lie with the One-Eyed Monk. If this monk killed it with a single blow of his staff, then what's the difference between this trip and a wasted effort?
"Be careful."

Song Qi whispered something to Su Che.

Chu Yuan drew his long sword from behind.

"Brother Qin!"

A faint light rose from behind Qin Ben's head, and he muttered to himself.

"Is everything empty, yet everything is not empty? Is life and death empty, morality empty, and even spiritual ignorance empty?"

The Yaksha's form underwent another transformation, with two black hands emerging from behind Qin Ben. Qin Ben placed his hands on his knees, his entire body suspended in the air.

His eyes were glazed as he looked at the people in front of him.

"All of you sentient beings, are you willing to take refuge in the Buddha? To escape this evil world of five turbidities and enter the blissful realm of ultimate bliss?"

Su Che watched as Song Qi slowly took a step back.

"Is this the trouble you encountered here back then?"

Su Che asked in a low voice.

Song Qi nodded: "Back then, when I led people into the tomb, the others suddenly went mad for some reason, converted to Buddhism, and started fighting each other. But that all happened after we got to the inner chamber."

"Who knew there would be so many changes outside?"

As Qin Ben grew taller, his Yaksha form rose higher and higher, his entire body reaching nearly ten feet in length. He frowned and looked at the people in front of him.

He frowned as he looked at the long sword in Chu Yuan's hand.

"No fighting is allowed here."

Without a word, Chu Yuan watched in astonishment as he obediently returned the eight-sided ancient sword with a ring pommel to its sheath.

Yuan Caiyi frowned. This ability of Buddhist koans to manifest Dharma through words could not be achieved without a fourth-grade cultivation level.

The monk was just an unknown nobody, and the one-eyed wood demon was nothing special either. What strange thing was this?
Qin Ben looked at the group of people and said.

"They come, the security."

After speaking, Su Che and the others found that they couldn't even muster the slightest thought of escaping, and sat down obediently cross-legged like puppets.

"You, are you willing to take refuge in Buddha?"

He pointed to the old man in gray clothes that Song Qi had brought.

"Me?"

The old man in gray pointed to himself and realized that he had regained his ability to move.

"Yes, are you willing to take refuge in Buddhism?"

The old man in gray looked around and then, without hesitation, knelt down on the ground.

"This disciple is willing to take refuge."

"Okay, you're willing to convert, you're willing to convert, haha."

Qin Ben laughed loudly, the blue light behind his head making his distorted features look like a demon from hell.

"I ask you, if form is emptiness, is Buddhism empty or not?"

The demon chuckled, while the gray-robed old man looked at Song Qi, seemingly waiting for an answer.

Song Qi kept his eyes down, his nose closed, and no matter what tricks Song Qi used, his mouth remained tightly shut, unable to even open it.

The old man in gray looked around, but no one spoke. He frowned, unsure how to answer.

Buddhism experienced both rise and fall during the previous dynasty, but after so many years, it has long since withered away. Perhaps there are still people practicing Buddhist supernatural powers and techniques, but the underlying principles have long been lost to anyone.

Moreover, the old man in gray was born without any good deeds and loved to eat people's ears.

"Reporting to the Patriarch, the Buddha's teachings are empty."

Qin Ben frowned deeply, staring at the gray-robed old man with his red eyes for a long time.

“Emptiness? If there were no Dharma of the Great Void, where would heaven and earth and all things find their place? If there were no Dharma of movement and stillness, how would the stars be arranged? Namo Samanta, Buddhanam, Prajna Samaya, Bodhiruci…”

The Yaksha frowned and said, "Your aptitude is so dull, cultivating is a waste of time. You might as well be reborn as an animal and cultivate good fortune there!"

With a wave of his hand, the gray-robed old man's head exploded, and a ray of spiritual light rose from his head and fell into his hand, while the corpse fell to the ground.

The yaksha used its supernatural powers to extract the old man's soul and put it directly into its mouth to chew on.

Su Che swallowed hard as he looked at the old man's corpse.

Is this the same one-eyed being whose physical body I easily shattered back in the Kulin Zen Temple?

Qin Ben could never possess such supernatural powers. This is most likely a work left behind by the old lion.

But where should we begin to break this deadlock?

The yaksha chewed on the old man's soul, its crimson eyes sweeping over the group.

A large black hand pointed from behind him, directly at Yuan Caiyi.

"You, are you willing to take refuge in Buddha?"

Yuan Caiyi, however, gave a cold and arrogant smile.

"I've come to love your mother's little bib with mandarin ducks playing in the water, I've come to love your sister's delicate, white, soft buttocks, and I've come to love you, you little turtle cake."

The Yaksha looked sorrowful.

“Stubborn people are difficult to tame and subdue.”

Then, with another wave of his hand, Yuan Caiyi's head exploded, and a white light leaped out from her head, falling into the Yaksha's mouth and being devoured.

The Yaksha grew even longer, and two more black arms extended from its back, each forming a hand seal.

The demon turned to look at Su Che.

"And you? Are you willing to take refuge in Buddhism?"

Su Che looked around and felt that his language ability had finally been restored.

"Although I am not a Buddhist, am I not a Buddha or Bodhisattva?"

Su Che made up a story off the cuff.

The yaksha was momentarily stunned, frowning as he pondered deeply, a blue light flickering behind his head.

"Even without entering the Buddhist order, one can still be a Buddha or Bodhisattva?"

Yaksha looked at Su Che: "What is the meaning of this?"

"May I ask, sir, is the Buddha's teachings complete?"

As Su Che asked the question, he was also thinking about how to answer it.

"The nine grades of Buddhism are like pagodas and towers, each one higher than the last. They encompass the six realms of reincarnation, cause and effect, karma, and the entire ten directions. Since our teacher, Vairocana Buddha, attained enlightenment, Buddhism can be said to be perfect."

Yaksha clasped his hands together, feeling a surge of emotion.

There will be no further changes.

The arrangement here must be Buddhist method, Su Che thought to himself. The old lion's method of leaving this place here didn't seem to be testing magical power, but rather eloquence.

"May I ask you again, sir, can Buddhism liberate all sentient beings?"

"The Buddha's teachings are all-encompassing and all-encompassing, and can naturally liberate all sentient beings."

Su Che seemed to have grasped the gist of it and boldly answered.

"If this path can ultimately liberate all sentient beings, I will become a Buddha or Bodhisattva sooner or later. The past mind is unattainable, the present mind is unattainable, and the future mind is unattainable. What difference does it make whether I become a Buddha now or a Buddha in countless eons later, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges?"

Upon hearing this, Yaksha trembled and muttered to himself.

The future mind is unattainable, the future mind is unattainable, the future mind is unattainable...

The demon continued to stare at Su Che.

"May I ask, sir, is Buddhism empty or not empty?"

Su Che had no idea about the intricacies of these senior monks; it seemed this was the most crucial question.

Now, I will talk about the supreme and wonderful Dharma of Namo Debridei Buddha, Namo Planck Bodhisattva, and Namo Heisenberg Bodhisattva.

"What is emptiness? What is non-emptiness? Emptiness and non-emptiness are originally one. If we take emptiness, then all earth, water, fire, and wind can be empty; if we take non-emptiness, then all earth, water, fire, and wind are not empty. This is what is meant by 'neither arising nor ceasing, neither permanent nor impermanent.'"

"If you look at it with emptiness today, it will naturally be empty everywhere. If you look at it with non-emptiness today, it will be real and non-empty everywhere. You should know that this emptiness and non-emptiness are your own discrimination, not that their nature is completely two separate things. Emptiness and non-emptiness are originally one."

"It is neither on this shore, nor on the other shore, nor in between. But where is it not?"

What the hell did I say? Can you even call this wave-particle duality a valid explanation?

"It is not everywhere, yet it is everywhere."

Yaksha smiled, and a golden pine flower suddenly appeared on his right hand. He flicked his finger.

“Excellent, excellent! Today we have encountered a dragon and an elephant, who can continue my lineage.”

A flash of light, and Qin Ben fell to the ground, blood gushing from his seven orifices. His single eye transformed into a ball of blue light and also fell to the ground.

Su Che looked at the Golden Flower in his hand, which had now transformed into a page of golden book, and a new meaning of inheritance had been added to his heart.

"Unexpectedly, it was you who ultimately resolved the World Honored One's doubts."

The one-eyed creature looked like it was on its last breath.

The World Honored One is another name for the Buddha.

The World Honored One that the one-eyed man spoke of was likely referring to that old lion.

(End of this chapter)