The Word of Heaven

Chapter 344 The Meaning of Living

The initial conversation took place at sunset, but now the stars are in the sky, and Chen Chi is already hundreds of miles away.

The night breeze, having traveled far, carries only a gentle scent, devoid of any remaining chill.

Chen Chi stopped in his tracks. In front of him lay a strangely shaped area resembling a wetland, a rare landscape in the wasteland that was undoubtedly comparable to an oasis.

Starlight spilled onto the shallow puddles, emitting a faint yet pleasing glow, like a dream.

He was probably feeling a bit tired, so he sat down in front of a puddle, looked down at the lush greenery hidden within, and realized once again that spring had arrived, bringing a warmth that shouldn't have been there in the past winter.

Upon regaining consciousness, he couldn't help but see his own features reflected in the water. His own haggard eyes were silently staring back at him. There was no sound nearby, yet he felt as if he heard everything.

Chen Chi knew that the oasis must have undergone a dramatic change and might no longer exist at this moment.

But he knew that with his level of understanding, he was simply not capable of getting involved, and to force himself to do so would be no different from suicide.

Just then, a piercing howl suddenly came from the southeast sky, and the air fluctuated violently, eventually forming a hurricane that swept across the sky and earth.

The puddles in the wetland were all blown apart, and the water droplets that flew into the air were torn into tiny pieces by the gale, burying Chen Chi who was in them.

Now he is a member of the Zhenbei Army, and in the past he worked in the Xuntian Division. How could he not recognize that the thing making the roaring sound was a flying boat?
In that instant of consciousness, Chen Chi unhesitatingly abandoned all his previous thoughts, and lay down as fast as he could, pressing his cheeks and limbs tightly against the wet mud.

A moment later, the blade of grass that had been hidden in the water suddenly appeared in his eyes, and together with him, it was blown flat by the gale. However, when the wind subsided, those that had been flattened straightened up again as usual, whether yearning for the starlight or the sunlight of tomorrow, he didn't know.

Only Chen Chi remained in the same posture, without any change.

This was certainly the right choice. There was only one reason why that airship appeared tonight—to kill Gu Zhuo, something he didn't want to do. Hiding it made sense and was the best way.

However, when the world before him was occupied by that single, no longer creeping, blade of grass... the thoughts that had been suppressed before surged into his soul like a waterfall flowing backward. They were the glories he had once had, the facts that made him proud, the high spirits of that summer festival, and the carefree joy of the three of them traveling the world together. In the end, all his thoughts became that one sentence.

Not long ago, Chen Chi heard those words.

—If you hadn't met me, you might still be the person you like now.

Chen Chi stood up.

Water droplets streamed down his cheeks, his soaked clothes and hair clung to his body, intertwined with his unkempt beard, making him look as disheveled as a beggar.

But his eyes seemed to have been washed clean, as bright as when he was a boy, as if all the hardships and troubles of the past years were nothing more than a downpour, and he had already weathered them all.

"Did I run into you...?"

Chen Chi smiled and murmured, "I can be whoever I want to be."

After saying this, he set off on his journey.

Yes, that battle was beyond his control, but he was not powerless to do anything about it.

Gu Zhuo's identity has long been made public.

Neither the Taoist school nor the Qingjing Temple offered any rebuttal.

Gu Zhuo remained the leader of the Taoist sect.

There is reason for all Taoist practitioners in the world to come out in droves.

There is only one problem.

The wilderness was remote, and no one knew what was going on there.

Thinking of this, Chen Chi was filled with emotion.

Is this the cause and effect?

He thought about how, in recent years, he had traveled thousands of miles back and forth because of Gu Zhuo, and had become a postman. He realized that only he could bring this message out of the wilderness.

Chen Chi took one last look at the northern sky, his gaze fixed on the end of the flying boat that was about to disappear. He believed that this would be the most important letter he would ever send in his life.

With a clear ringing sound, the sword was suddenly drawn from its sheath.

A sword light appeared in the wetlands, about a few feet off the ground, and sped southward.

Chen Chi moved with the sword, as if riding it, yet more like a rope wrapped around the sword.

In a short while, he had already traveled several miles away, leaving only his afterimage in the same spot.

……

……

On the flying boat.

Wang Jingshuo felt something and turned to look behind him.

The glint of sword light entered his eyes, and in a single thought, he was certain that the one who went there was Chen Chi.

A voice rang out from the side.

"Should we keep him here?"

"killed."

Wang Jingshuo withdrew his gaze and casually said, "I originally thought that even if he had no merit, he had still worked hard, and he was just an insignificant ant, so it wouldn't be a problem to keep him alive. But since he insists on courting death, then let him die."

Xian Yishu did not respond to that sentence. He nocked an arrow, casually drew the bow, and released it.

The distance between the sky thousands of feet high and the wetlands in the wilderness is considerable.

However, this vast distance was connected by an extremely thin white light after the string was struck, and there was no longer any barrier between them.

When the white light disappeared, the earth trembled, countless clods of earth were turned over, and a deep pit was dug out of the wetlands.

Smoke and dust rose up, obscuring the starlight.

Just as Xian Yishu was preparing to regulate his breathing, the sword light suddenly broke through the dust and noise, winding and tumbling, carrying the wisps of broken grass and trees, still moving forward, southward!

The flying sword is still there.

Xian Yishu frowned, preparing to draw his bow again, when Wang Jingshuo's voice rang out.

"forget it."

"He can't possibly take another arrow from me; he's doomed."

"As I said before, Chen Chi is nothing but an ant. Since he is an ant, he has no chance of interfering with what follows."

Wang Jingshuo smiled, his smile tinged with disdain, and said, "Just consider it a good deed, why go to such lengths to kill them all?"

……

……

Be compassionate.

Saving one life is better than building a seven-level pagoda.

Lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot.

These words are always on the lips of monks, from a thousand years to ten thousand years ago; many believe them, but even more do not.

Those who are truly powerful and have made progress on the path of cultivation, in particular, despise or even scorn this.

For practitioners, what is truly worthy of respect is always one's realm of attainment, such as Daoxiu, an unparalleled master who, despite having killed countless people, was hailed as a master by Zen Buddhism.

The monks of Cihang Temple were fully aware of this.

At the summit, the main hall was dimly lit and silent.

The Immaculate Monk stood before the Buddha statue in the hall, gazing into the distance; he was not much different from Daoxiu back then.

After the conversation in the rain, he left Southern Qi, carrying the fragments of the Mirror of Destruction to Cihang Temple, where he spoke frankly with the old abbot, echoing Gu Zhuo's words.

Unable to hide it any longer, the old abbot, after a long silence, told him everything.

The more the Immaculate Monk heard, the more he realized that Gu Zhuo in those two conversations had no selfish motives.

He never doubted it, but the same fact spoken by different people ultimately evoked two different feelings.

That was pure goodwill.

"Feel sorry."

A smile crept across the lips of the Immaculate Monk, a smile tinged with self-mockery: "It seems we can no longer meet amicably."

He walked to the back of the hall and said to the long-waiting abbot, "Let's go."

After a long silence, the old abbot sighed inwardly, his eyes filled with helplessness and pity.

Before long, the two climbed onto the thick branches of the ancient tree.

Ancient trees are not only trees, but also relics left by the Buddha when he passed away, representing the final and most powerful means of Zen Buddhism.

It's raining in the southeast tonight, but the lights on the trees haven't gone out. They reflect the raindrops like silk threads, and the warm glow is full of Zen.

At the top of the ancient tree, the Immaculate Monk retrieved a fragment of the Mirror of Destiny.

—When the monk Kuzhou split the fragments of the Mirror of Destiny into three pieces and sent them out, the White Emperor and Gu Zhuo each gained something, but the most important part always remained with the Zen sect, all for this very moment. "I want to talk to you one last time."

Amidst the patter of rain, the old abbot's voice seemed to drift into the distance.

But no matter how tactful the voice, it could not conceal the meaning of those words: that the monk Wugou was leaving behind his last words.

When that wisp of Buddha's Zen thought awakens, he will die just as Gu Zhuo said, without any chance of reversal.

The Immaculate Monk remained silent for a moment, then laughed in the rain, shook his head, and said, "I am a person without friends, so what is there for me to say to you?"

There is only one thing that needs to be done.

He didn't say these words aloud, but silently recited the true scriptures of Zen in his heart.

As the scriptures played silently, the most crucial fragment of the Mirror of Demise floated up and ascended.

When the mirror reaches the top of the ancient tree, the lights covering the entire tree are reflected in the mirror in that instant.

next moment.

A radiant light emanated from the mirror, descending upon the Immaculate Monk and then continuously gathering until it perfectly merged with the young monk.

His body began to glow with a golden hue, a sign that a golden body was being forged, a sign that the Buddha was returning from his slumber.

The world as seen through the eyes of the Immaculate Monk is no longer the same as what happened before his life.

The entire Cihang Temple appeared in his eyes, or rather, in his perception, from a peculiar angle.

He could look down on every corner of the temple at any time, whether it was the sacred pagoda forest, the monks gambling in their meditation rooms, or even an insect in a corner.

He looked into the distance and found that the world had become incredibly flat. If he became tall enough, he could see all living beings in this way and take control of everything under heaven.

At this moment, he finally understood why Master Daoxiu called his supernatural powers "the power to control heaven and earth," because this was the highest and most profound state that only the Buddha had reached since the beginning of Zen Buddhism.

Thoughts pass in an instant, and feelings vanish in the blink of an eye.

The Immaculate Monk never forgot his decision.

He sacrificed himself for Zen Buddhism.

But before that, there was something extremely important that was unrelated to this.

The Immaculate Monk looked towards the Central Plains.

His gaze fell upon Mount Baidi.

Staring at the fragments of the destroyed mirror.

……

……

The White Emperor turned his head and looked southeast.

The scene in Cihang Temple came into his view: the thousands of lights of the ancient tree that was transformed from the Buddha's remains, and the little monks who were becoming Buddhas.

His gaze remained calm, showing no surprise at the sudden turn of events, and even a hint of amusement flickered in his eyes.

Even if, in the very next moment, the Immaculate Monk utters those two words to him.

"Feel sorry."

As soon as he finished speaking, the fragments of the Mirror of Annihilation surrounding the White Emperor shattered once more.

boom!
The cracks, like the barren land, covered the entire mirror almost instantly.

Immediately afterwards, flames, just like those on the ancient tree, burst forth from even smaller fragments, displaying dazzling colors.

It was like a firework display, shrunk countless times, blooming in front of the White Emperor.

The fragments of the Mirror of Destruction vanished in an instant.

The Immaculate Monk's voice disappeared, and his gaze vanished.

The White Emperor suddenly laughed.

"How interesting. You, a person whose hands are covered in the blood of monks, can receive such assistance from the reincarnation of Buddha."

He stopped looking at Cihang Temple and his gaze returned to the wasteland.

The sound of the bell on Baidi Mountain is distant and lingering, yet its whereabouts are hard to find.

……

……

Cihang Temple, on that ancient tree.

Before the old abbot could speak, the Immaculate Monk opened his eyes amidst the radiant Buddha light.

The young monk turned to look at the old monk, whose expression was extremely serious, grinned, and said reassuringly, "Don't worry, I'll only do this one thing. Next, I'll become a Buddha..."

Before he could finish speaking, a mouthful of blood spurted from his mouth, and even the Buddha's light could not hide the paleness on his face.

……

……

wilderness.

On that once-green oasis, Gu Zhuo was all alone.

The distant roar did not reach his ears, but the changes on Baidi Mountain could not be concealed, so he knew that the fragile balance had been temporarily preserved.

But this is far from the end.

Gu Zhuo looked towards the southern sky.

Several black dots, like specks of lacquer, appeared at the edge of his vision and were rapidly growing larger.

That means the distance is decreasing.

Those were the flying boats of the Qin Dynasty.

This was naturally also seen by Pei Jingge, who had never left.

However, at this moment, she and Gu Zhuo were already thousands of feet apart, maintaining a standoff with Zhao Qi that did not necessarily lead to a life-or-death battle.

She didn't dwell on the words she had heard not long ago.

Like or dislike, like or dislike, dislike or like... she didn't care about any of these things at all.

There was only one thing that mattered to her tonight.

How can I let Gu Zhuo hear that she doesn't like it?

That's what Pei Jingge told herself.

Dozens of feet away, Zhao Qi watched her quietly, waiting for the moment to stop her from making a move.

……

……

The war has begun.

Without the sound of bugles, without pre-war declarations, without even a single word of peace talks, it all came to an end.

The first thing to arrive was an arrow.

The arrows flew like meteors, carrying high fighting spirit, breaking through the clouds and swirling in the wind.

If Chen Chi were present at this moment, he would surely recognize that this was the arrow that had almost killed him, and then discover that this arrow was more than ten times stronger.

If he had faced that iron arrow back then, he would not have survived at all; his flesh and blood would have become one with the soil.

There was a loud bang!
A white mist swirled around the iron arrow, which was halfway through its flight, forming a peculiar void from which thunder roared!
This was undoubtedly a blow powerful enough to kill even a master at the Immaculate Realm.

Gu Zhuo's response was very direct.

He did nothing, still gazing at the leading airship and looking at Wang Jingshuo.

Arrows fell like stars.

Then... the iron arrow inexplicably stopped in front of his chest, unable to go any further.

Immediately afterwards, the earth began to tremble, its sound like a mournful wail.

Countless rocks and boulders began to collapse around Gu Zhuo, until they coalesced into a solid platform about several tens of feet wide. The platform then left the ground, flew into the sky, and accompanied the wispy clouds.

The scene was spectacular.

(End of this chapter)