Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 438: The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination

The spirit of the locust tree was silent for a moment, and the plants changed, trying to resist, but Shao Siming suppressed it with just a look.

After struggling to no avail, the spirit of the locust tree slowly said, "I am not sure of my identity either. Maybe I am her whose memory has been erased, or maybe I am her after reincarnation, or maybe I am a newborn spirit in this locust tree."

"You can't even tell who you are, and you're willing to practice Buddhism?"

The locust tree spirit said helplessly: "What can I do if I don't practice? Except for a small amount of my previous incarnation's magic power that was obtained by swallowing the moonlight of the moon, most of it was obtained by mixing the hot blood of people's hearts and the spiritual marrow of people's brains with the power of incense and wishes. The demonic energy is not only mixed, but also carries a lingering smell of blood."

"Keeping these powers is not good for me or anyone else. I practice Buddhism, which can purify the aura, purify the spiritual energy around me, educate the spirits around me, help the villagers in the mountains, and make up for some of the bad karma committed by my previous life. After all, no matter who I am, I have inherited the power and body of my previous life. Naturally, the big mess she did in the past should be attributed to me."

"After all, there is no such thing as taking advantage of others without taking responsibility for the consequences."

Shao Siming did not answer. The spirit of the locust tree also felt some changes in the other party's aura, which sometimes made her afraid and sometimes made her feel relieved. Her heart tightened and she continued to explain.

"And there is another benefit to practicing Buddhism for me. It allows me to gradually determine who I really am. This world has long been confused and confusing, with truth and falsehood, and cause and effect mixed up, making it difficult to distinguish between good and evil. While paying off some of the sins committed by my previous life, I am also finding out who I am in this process. I understand what I should do..."

“Self-improvement?”

Shao Siming didn't say anything more. She had learned about what had happened in the forest over the past seven days.

The mountain people's offering of blood and food and adopting godchildren are both ways for them to survive. The predecessor of the locust tree spirit may have been cruel, but it did not violate the agreement with the mountain people. It can be regarded as a transaction between humans and demons.

Therefore, Shao Siming would not take action against the spirit of the locust tree.

But if Shao Siming had arrived a little earlier, he would have killed the spirit of the locust tree naturally.

But the spirit of the locust tree is now a newborn elf.

In Shao Siming's eyes, or from the perspective of the change of "fate", the one who committed the sin earlier has already perished under the six-colored treasure wheel, and the new elf is not even a reincarnation relationship with its predecessor, but a new elf reborn from the locust tree.

Moreover, this newborn elf is willing to bear the sins of its predecessor and protect the land.

This move was in line with Shao Siming's philosophy, so she suppressed some extreme thoughts in her mind and simply asked about the other party's practice.

As an individual with countless years of accumulation of Jinhua Sect and who had observed part of the essence of heaven and earth during his descent into this world, Shao Siming, under intentional guidance, soon obtained some of the essence of the practice method from the mouth of the locust tree spirit and was given certain advice.

During this period, Shao Siming was also happy to instruct some elves in the mountains. After a while, he did accumulate some fame.

The story gradually spread among the surrounding mountain folks that the immortals from the locust trees in the mountains, who had originally enjoyed a diet of blood, gave up evil and turned to good under the guidance of a goddess, killing the evil beasts in the mountains and saving the mountain folks.

"absurd!"

A hundred miles east of the forest, in Changchun Temple, the scholar who had tried to go up the mountain earlier was furious. Just as he was about to leave, a burly, bearded middle-aged man hurriedly stopped him and said, "Yan Chixia, what do you want to do?"

"A monster has a reputation as an immortal. I want to go and take a look."

"No need to look. I have already watched from afar. The mountain is ablaze with spiritual light, Buddha's light is faintly visible, and all evil spirits have dissipated."

The bearded man hurriedly tried to stop him, but this only made Yan Chixia even angrier: "Since you knew, why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell you? What's the point of telling you? The newcomer to the mountain is a cultivator who has reached the realm of a land immortal, and there is also a tree demon who is no less than a land immortal. What can you use to fight? Are you looking for death?"

The bearded man retorted, and seeing that the other party still wanted to leave, he slapped the bamboo tube at his waist, then made some hand gestures and chanted a spell.

"The sky and the earth are boundless, Qiankun borrows the law! Spirit Talisman, trapped!"

He pointed his finger at Yan Chixia and a yellow talisman immediately flew out of the bamboo slip. It split into two, then four, and in a moment dozens of talismans appeared, flying up and down, forming a formation, trying to trap Yan Chixia in it.

"Xie Baliang, you want to stop me?"

Yan Chixia was furious. He slapped the sword bag and the snow-white sword light fell like flying frost, piercing through the yellow talismans around him one by one. He then jumped up, ready to leave.

The yellow talismans that were pierced turned black instantly and then burned to ashes and could no longer be used. The heartbroken bearded man screamed in pain.

"Xiahou Fenglei, if you don't take action, I won't help you!"

As the bearded man finished speaking, a loud laugh rang out: "That's what I've been waiting for!"

Then a saber flew out and slashed at Yan Chixia who wanted to leave.

Yan Chixia had sensed something was wrong as soon as the bearded man shouted, and was about to escape when he saw the flying saber. He made a sword gesture, and the sword light suddenly flew up, hitting the edge of the saber and knocking it away. Then he made a gesture and chanted a spell, preparing to leave.

"The sky and the earth are boundless, the universe borrows the law! Give me the order!"

The bearded man spoke again and broke Yan Chixia's magic, forcing Xiahou Fenglei, who arrived shortly after, to recall his saber and charge forward.

Yan Chixia had no way to avoid it and could only fight with it.

The two sides fought back and forth for more than ten rounds. In the end, Yan Chixia was more skilled and suppressed Xiahou Fenglei and Big Beard, but his own mana was almost exhausted and he could not leave for the time being.

Seeing this, the bearded man panted and asked, "Yan Chixia, you are so stubborn. Why do you have to fight with the tree demon on the Black Mountain? She is also an enlightened spirit. If the royal court had not sealed off the heaven and earth and suppressed the earth veins, she would not have embarked on the path of devouring blood and absorbing incense. Even so, she did not deceive mortals and protected the mountain people."

"Eating human hearts and brains, does she think she is right? We practice Taoism to protect the righteousness of the human world. If we see such evil spirits and don't try to drive them away, what kind of Taoism are we practicing? Xie Baliang, I think you have been in the human world for too long and have even forgotten the principle that good and evil cannot coexist!"

Yan Chixia glared at him, and the bearded man sighed, "Good and evil cannot coexist. Master Fahai didn't say much about it, so why are you saying that again? Let's not talk about whether you can defeat the tree demon. Even if you win, how are you going to deal with the mountain people?" But Yan Chixia, who looked unconvinced, scolded, "At most, I can stay there and teach them. After ten or twenty years, I can eventually teach a suitable elf."

The bearded man was also a little annoyed. After thinking it over, he said angrily, "Not to mention you, even if Master Fahai came in, he might not be able to suppress the problems in Black Mountain!"

"What do you mean?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Chixia immediately began to ask questions. He had long felt that something was wrong with Black Mountain and the tree monster, but neither the sect elders nor Xie Balian who was in charge were willing to tell him the truth. After finally getting some information out of Xie Balian's mouth, he naturally didn't want to let it go.

"Xie Baliang, don't try to deceive me. If you can't convince me, I will still go to Montenegro!"

"You have such a stubborn temper. Fine, fine, I will tell you that this is the place where the sky was missing in the past."

The bearded man's words did not elicit any rebuttal from Yan Chixia, but instead frightened Xiahou Fenglei.

"Thank you, Hu Zi, stop joking. The places with missing parts in the sky are all first-rate devil places. They are the places formed when the sky was broken in the past and many devil thoughts that infected all living beings flowed out and gathered together. The only confirmed places with missing parts in the sky between heaven and earth today are Yinshi Youquan and Chiyou Blood Spring. Where did the third place with missing parts in the sky come from?"

"I didn't lie to you. Unlike the Netherworld Spring and Chiyou Blood Spring, the Sky Crack in Black Mountain was originally in the underworld. When it cracked, it caused seven cultivators who had attained the status of Earthly Immortals to fall into the path of evil. It took the sacrifice of more than twenty Earthly Immortals to suppress it, three of whom were my ancestors!"

"Three hundred years ago, a great demon tried to use the repaired gap to observe the human world with his spiritual consciousness. It was only after several seniors who were staying in the human world and hoped to ascend to heaven worked together to force him back. But that great demon is invisible and has strange magical powers. He can make the false seem true, turn the real into the unreal, and hide the truth. His will has descended, causing demonic thoughts to flow throughout the mountain all year round. Practicing is very difficult, and new demons may be born at any time."

"It was precisely because of the existence of that unknown demon that Master Vipassana left a Buddhist treasure in the mountain three hundred years ago, trying to guide the Black Mountain God, who was showing signs of falling into the devil's way at the time, to become a Buddha, and to control the distracting thoughts flowing out of the underworld."

Yan Chixia frowned: "The mountain god you are talking about is the tree demon?"

"What else? Apart from that tree demon, who else in Black Mountain can be called a mountain god? And she did not understand the true meaning of the Buddhist treasure left by Master Vipassana, and tried to devour it. Naturally, she was attacked by the Buddhist treasure and ended up with her soul torn apart."

"The tree monster in the mountain is probably a newly born elf. The only thing we should be wary of is who the awakened female cultivator is. I know most of the immortals in the world today, but I have never heard of this one."

The bearded man's words calmed Yan Chixia down a lot. He looked in the direction of Black Mountain and whispered, "Shouldn't we go take a look? Shall we go, Xiahou Fenglei?"

"How can I be missing from such an interesting event?"

Xiahou Fenglei agreed immediately, and the angry bearded man said hastily: "Xiahou Fenglei, we have a deal. I will help you stop him, and you help me..."

"Don't listen to him. If you help me this time, I will fight you three times! You can decide the time and place!"

Yan Chixia looked at Xiahou Fenglei and spoke very firmly, completely cutting off the bearded man's remaining words.

Looking at the two people going away, the bearded man took out a thousand paper cranes and gave them to them, then hurriedly followed them.

And after the initial test, the spirit of the locust tree in the Black Mountain told Shao Siming its origins and the past of the Black Mountain when it suddenly became alert today.

Moreover, the spirit of the locust tree took out the Buddhist treasure and let Shao Siming see it.

The treasure is unique, with six colors and twelve Sanskrit characters, namely ignorance, action, consciousness, name and form, six sense organs, contact, feeling, love, attachment, existence, birth, old age and death.

"The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination?"

Shao Siming instantly understood the origin of this treasure and the rules of its operation.

"Using the twelve causes and conditions to turn the six realms of reincarnation? That's a good idea. I think your previous life fell into ignorance when you were observing the twelve causes and conditions in reverse, and you couldn't transcend it."

What Shao Siming said was not false. The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination begin with ignorance and follow the order of cause and condition. They are mutually cause and effect. Therefore, they are born and die, like an endless circle, and falsehood continues, establishing an illusory journey of life and world.

Therefore, most of the time, the practice of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination is a reverse view, starting from old age and death, tracing all the way back to ignorance, trying to seek the true meaning of Buddhism from ignorance.

However, this method is also prone to problems, and many Mahayana Buddhists do not agree with it.

The Six Paths of Reincarnation Wheel and the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination in the hands of the locust tree spirit provide excellent assistance. As long as the practitioner has enough merit, he can make the compass turn and return to the flow at the moment of falling into ignorance.

At the same time, combined with the special environment of Montenegro, once a practitioner changes and is disturbed by distracting thoughts, he can also look back at ignorance, use the characteristics of all the troubles of ignorance to carry them, and then reincarnate again with the help of the six realms.

Theoretically speaking, the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, the Six Paths of Reincarnation and the unique practice environment of Black Mountain form a virtuous circle, and it is a heaven-ordained place for practice.

But the problem with this method is also very obvious. The rotation of the wheel of reincarnation requires merit and virtue. If the practitioner cannot do good deeds and accumulate virtue, he will not be able to obtain blessings in ignorance. If he is determined to do good deeds, the merit and virtue will inevitably turn into blessings. Over time, it is very likely that distracting thoughts will enter his mind and he will fall into the wrong path.

The spirit of the locust tree didn't know the problem. When it heard Shao Siming's praise, it couldn't help feeling a little proud. But it also felt that it was not good for it to keep such a thing. Thinking of the help that Shao Siming would provide after her arrival, it invited her to practice the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination together.

"Haven't you reached a certain level in your practice? Practicing the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination should allow you to draw inferences from one instance to another, and suddenly get inspiration to take a step further?"

Shao Siming heard this and said with a smile, "My cultivation is not as simple as you think. Learning literature, one of the orthodox ways of cultivation in the world, requires learning secret texts. Most of these secret texts are true texts intercepted from the world by immortals. Some people call them dragon seals and phoenix seals, some call them bird scripts and worm scripts, and some regard them as cloud scrolls and lightning patterns. Each of them contains the essence of the great Dao. One word can have a hundred or a thousand meanings. When it is formed into a sentence or a paragraph, it is even more profound. It is already very difficult for ordinary people to read through it, let alone understand it."

"But once you have learned the text, you can try introspection. This process is somewhat similar to your contemplation of the twelve links of dependent origination, which is to contemplate the changes of dependent origination. The only difference is that the monks contemplate the secret text, while you contemplate the changes of the twelve links of dependent origination."

"Once you have made some progress in inner meditation, you can try to practice magic. Most of these magics are made up of secret texts. The best ones have a system and can be practiced steadily to seek the wonderful method of Tao. The middle ones are chapters that can steadily seek the method and the magic is connected. The worst ones are just sentences or a few secret texts, which are magic."

“But at this point, you can be called a sorcerer, and you have achieved success in your studies.”

"One step further is to imprint many secret texts on the soul, forming a fairy robe and Dharma body, which can protect oneself during night and day travel, and even rely on the power of the soul to drive external objects. This is considered to be entering the fairy gate of cultivation, and can be called a magician."

"After that, you need to go through the Refining Master and the Three Caves Immortal to enter the realm of the land immortal, which is the realm you and I are in now. At this stage, the practice method can no longer help. We need to understand and choose by ourselves."

(End of this chapter)