Let the true energy circulate for a while

……

The backstage area of ​​the Los Angeles Arena, the players' lounge.

Muay Thai champion Pongsu sat cross-legged on the floor next to the sofa, with a small cushion under his buttocks.

His meditation posture is the lotus position, and his broad shoulders and thick back make him look like a small mountain.

Peng Su had a fierce appearance; in his own words, he was like a wrathful Vajra. He was fiddling with a string of Bodhi seed beads, turning them round and round.

The door to the lounge was pushed open, and two men dressed in black Zhongshan suits walked in.

Pongsu's assistant followed him in and spoke with Pongsu in Thai for a while.

One of the special agents, Red Star, said expressionlessly, "Sawadika."

Peng Su put away her prayer beads and looked up at the two men in black.

His voice was deep and resonant, with a slight Thai accent and a slightly broken Mandarin: "I can speak Chinese."

Red Star: "That's great!"

Pongsu added, "Sawadika is a greeting women use to men. You're using it incorrectly."

Upon hearing this, Hongxing didn't seem to mind: "Oh, is that so? I'm sorry, I didn't do my homework."

After speaking, he took out a black-covered ID card from his inner pocket, with the national emblem and Secret Service logo embossed in gold.

"Hello, we are from the National Secret Service." Red Star stopped smiling. "You can call me Red Star. We apologize for disturbing you, but we need you to come back to our unit with us to cooperate with an investigation."

Peng Su was silent for a few seconds, then asked doubtfully, "I came to China on a valid business visa, and all the event procedures were officially reported. I did not do anything that violated your laws while in the country."

Hongxing forced himself to recite his prepared lines: "You're a Buddhist, right? In our workplace, there's a reincarnated Buddha, his Dharma name is: Jianglong!"

Peng Su said with a stern face, "Please leave! Don't joke about my faith."

Hongxing shrugged, turned his head and whispered to his colleague, "I knew Qin Lao had been infected by Chen Jianbin's mental illness. How could he even think of something like this?"

After speaking, Hongxing coughed and said seriously, "You really don't want to see the Arhat Subduing Dragon?"

Peng Su said, "I learn Chinese in order to better understand Buddhism."

This statement startled Hong Xing. "Huh? Isn't Buddhism from India?"

Peng Su’s tone was filled with heartfelt piety. “Buddhism originated in ancient India and flourished in China. When I was young, I was only focused on winning and losing when I was practicing boxing. My master said that I was too aggressive and had no place to call home. He told me to go to the classics of Chinese Buddhism to find the way to liberation.”

As he spoke, he took out a copy of the Diamond Sutra from his bag. "I studied Chinese so that I could understand these classics. When Bodhidharma came to China, he crossed the Yangtze River on a reed, went north to Mount Song, and spent nine years meditating facing a wall at Shaolin Temple, thus passing on the lineage of Zen Buddhism, which led to the later flourishing of Buddhism."

Hongxing smiled awkwardly, "Oh, you know so much."

Peng Su didn't care about Hong Xing's perfunctory attitude. He took out another copy of the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch and said, "In Chinese Buddhism, the person I respect the most is the Sixth Patriarch Huineng. He was illiterate, but he became enlightened just by hearing someone recite the line 'One should abide nowhere and yet give rise to the mind' from the Diamond Sutra."

After babbling on and on in a string of gibberish, Hongxing was completely overwhelmed and could only nod repeatedly.

"Yes, yes, Master Pengsu, please take a look at this."

Hongxing turned on his phone, which contained a video of Chen Ye leaping into the air, unleashing his true energy, and causing the grass to explode.

Peng Su's eyes widened in confusion, then turned to anger: "Is it fun for you to fool me with AI special effects?"

"Depend on!"

Red Star pulls out an arrest warrant: "Now, on behalf of the Secret Service, I formally invite you to our unit for a cup of coffee."

Peng Su: "?"

The three of them went to the underground parking garage and got into a black bulletproof van.

The car door closed, and Peng Su maintained an upright posture, took out her Buddhist prayer beads, and looked out the window at the passing night view of Los Angeles.

"Your Han Chinese Buddhism teaches Mahayana, aiming to save all sentient beings, while our Thai Theravada Buddhism teaches Hinayana, focusing on self-liberation first," Pongsu suddenly said, breaking the silence in the car.

As Hongxing drove, he asked, "Aren't you worried about us summoning you?"

Peng Su remained calm, turning to look out the window, his tone serene: "All the evil deeds I have committed in the past, all born of beginningless greed, anger, and ignorance, arising from body, speech, and mind, I now repent of them all. What do I have to worry about?"

Hongxing twitched the corner of his mouth and remained silent. This Thai guy's mentality is really stable. Is this faith? Or has he been completely brainwashed?

The Los Angeles nightscape outside the car window rushed past, the warm glow of the streetlights sweeping in through the window, flickering on Peng Su's bronze face.

Hongxing gripped the steering wheel. In all his years as a special agent, he had arrested all sorts of people, but this was the first time he had ever seen someone so calm and collected when formally summoned. He wondered if it was the calming power of Buddhism or if the person was just stubborn.

Hongxing said, "You've believed in Buddhism your whole life, but have you ever seen a real Buddha?"

With a distinctively Thai accent, Peng Su was about to begin his sermon: "The Buddha has three bodies: the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya, and the Nirmanakaya. Which body are you referring to when you say you see it?"

Hongxing was taken aback by the question, and subconsciously clicked his tongue: "Don't give me all that technical jargon. Have you ever seen a living, talking, and capable Buddha?"

"I have never seen one," Peng Su answered readily. "The manifestation body Buddha, like Shakyamuni Buddha, descends to earth to preach the Dharma. After entering Nirvana, he no longer comes to this Saha world. We ordinary people, with our mortal eyes, cannot see the reward body Buddha, let alone touch the Dharma body Buddha."

"So you're just saying you've never seen it?" Red Star scoffed. "So you've believed it your whole life, and you've never even seen what the thing you believe in looks like?"

"Buddha is an enlightened being, a person who has eradicated all afflictions and attained perfect wisdom." Peng Su showed no anger at being offended.

Hongxing was exasperated and asked directly, "Fine, I won't argue with you about Buddhism. But what about supernatural powers? You study Buddhism every day, but have you ever seen real supernatural powers? You mean, the kind where you can shatter rocks from a distance without touching anything, or jump dozens of meters high and emit energy waves?"

Upon hearing this, the special agent who had remained silent in the passenger seat covered his mouth, almost bursting into laughter.

Peng Su's eyes showed pity: "Sir, you've been brainwashed by movies."

Hongxing raised an eyebrow. "Don't your Buddhist scriptures describe many stories of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas displaying supernatural powers? Wasn't Bodhidharma crossing the river on a reed a supernatural feat?"

"That is the supernatural power of the Buddha, not the supernatural power of ordinary people." Peng Su shook his head. "The Buddhist scriptures say that we are now in the Dharma-ending Age."

He paused, then added, "Only Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats, those who have attained enlightenment, possess supernatural powers."

Hongxing gritted his teeth and said, "Fine! That's exactly what I've been waiting to hear!"

"You mean, ordinary believers don't have supernatural powers, right?"

Peng Su nodded: "How could an ordinary person possibly attain supernatural powers? Those who claim to have supernatural powers are all liars. Like the special effects you just showed me, you wouldn't have asked me to identify that liar, would you?"

Hongxing clicked her tongue and continued to argue: "In Thailand, aren't there many high-ranking monks who claim to be able to give people magical tattoos, and those amulets around their necks? Isn't that what they're asking for?"

"That's belief, not supernatural power."

"You're a Buddhist, yet you still participate in boxing matches. Doesn't Buddhism emphasize compassion?"

Peng Su lost his composure and glared, saying, "I've fought 127 matches, won 109, and knocked out 78 opponents. Actually, every time, I treated my opponent as myself; I was always fighting against myself."

Hongxing shook his head. "Damn, the Buddhists really are big scoundrels. They say whatever they want."

"I just saw you eating beef. Are Thai monks allowed to eat meat?"

Peng Su Mian remained unfazed: "I'm not eating beef, I'm eating myself."

"You son of a bitch—" Be civilized, have manners. Hongxing was so speechless that he couldn't catch his breath.

With a devout expression, Peng Su said:

"From beginningless time, we have been in the cycle of birth and death. We float and sink in the six realms, each with our own karmic connection. A father becomes a son, and a son becomes a mother. Sheep eat human bones, and humans devour the souls of sheep. One body, a hundred bodies, a thousand bodies, ten thousand bodies. Throughout the entire void, all are part of oneself. To eat others is to eat oneself, to harm others is to harm oneself..."

Hongxing quickly interrupted, "Pause! I'll play a song to ease the tension."

"Damn, you need a membership to listen to music now? Leopard, scan the code to pay."

The agent in the co-pilot's seat said, "No need for a membership, you can listen to it for free just by watching a video."

"What song should I play?"

"Play 'I Will Save Her, But Not Her'!"

A catchy melody started playing inside the car, and the special agents in the passenger seat began swaying to the rhythm.

The work pressure used to be too great. Since following Teacher Qin and assisting Chen Ye, Chen Jianbin, and Lao Kui, the world seems to have come alive. Many special agents have become more cheerful, some even voluntarily working overtime, and some have even had arguments! Their married life has become much more harmonious.

When Pompeo discovered that his ideas were not being accepted, he explained:

"This is the true nature of reincarnation as described by the Buddha in the Surangama Sutra. If you eat a cow in this life, you will be reborn as a cow in the next life, and the cow will become a human and eat you. Therefore, what I am eating is not a cow, but myself."

"Besides, I am a novice monk in Thai Theravada Buddhism, not a Han Chinese monk. Do you know Japanese monks? They can marry, and it's legal."

Hongxing said, "Yes, Japanese monks marry themselves, right?"

Peng Su clasped his hands together and said, "Excellent!"

Hongxing said, "So, according to you, killing someone is also killing yourself?"

Peng Su shook his head. "Killing someone is killing your past self and harming your future self."

Hongxing was completely speechless. After a moment of silence, he found this Thai guy quite interesting and asked again:

"There's another problem. Many temples in China nowadays have monks who don't practice Buddhism; all they do is amass wealth. A single stick of incense costs thousands, a prayer ceremony hundreds of thousands, and some monks drive luxury cars, live in mansions, and even swindle money and sexually exploit others. Don't you think Buddha should do something about these people?"

Upon hearing this, Pongsu sighed softly, "There are people like that in Thailand too."

"Oh? You have that too?" Hongxing became interested.

"Yes." Pongsu nodded. "More than 90% of the people in Thailand are Buddhists, and many of them use Buddhism as a pretext to make money. On the streets of Bangkok, there are many people wearing monks' robes who don't beg for alms but ask tourists for money. Some of them sell so-called blessed amulets, selling one for tens or hundreds of thousands of baht, claiming that they can bring peace, wealth, and love. These people are all fake monks."

"Doesn't the local government do anything about it?"

"Well, after all, they have to pay taxes."

Hongxing smiled knowingly, "Master, you're quite an interesting person, though I can't quite put my finger on it."

Peng Su gives people a sense of sober awareness, yet an unwillingness to admit it.

"The Buddha said in the Surangama Sutra that in the Dharma-ending Age, the disciples of Mara, the king of demons, will wear monks' robes, live in temples, and corrupt the Dharma."

At this moment, the car stopped in front of the Los Angeles Secret Service. Red Star's smile faded, and he became serious.

Peng Su glanced at the office gate, sighed, and confessed, "Sir, are you arresting me because of the fight at the stadium yesterday? Let me tell you, that Frenchman touched my assistant's thigh. My assistant just had surgery, and his hormones haven't adjusted yet! I couldn't help but punch him!"

"Huh, there was an unexpected bonus?" Red Star said seriously.

"Master Pengsu, what you are about to see will overturn your understanding of Buddhism. The video I just showed you is only a small part of it."

Peng Su was somewhat suspicious. He noticed that the two men didn't seem to be joking, and besides, this place should belong to a special Chinese institution.

"Is there really someone with supernatural powers?"

Hongxing said half-jokingly, "The person you want to meet is the Arhat who subdues dragons. This time, the old man has descended to the mortal world and wants to travel to your country, ride an elephant or something, and investigate your believers. He needs a guide."

Peng Su smiled wryly and said, "Sir, please stop joking. What you're saying is even more absurd than me eating myself."

"Absurd? Hmm, your Chinese is excellent. How come I didn't think of such a precise word?"

"Come on, Luohan is waiting for you."

Helpless, Peng Su could only follow. He guessed that the foreigner had come here to report him.

After the sentry checked their identification, the three passed through the gatehouse and entered the Secret Service compound.

The office buildings on both sides were bright and clean, and occasionally staff members dressed in black Zhongshan suits would walk by quickly, nodding to Hong Xing when they saw him.

Peng Su's heart pounded as she walked. Turning a corner through a corridor, she was greeted by the aroma of hot pot and the sounds of lively laughter.

This is the Secret Service's main canteen.

There were only five people at one table, sitting together eating hot pot.

Chen Ye and his family of three, along with Qin Shifan and Lao Kui, accompanied them.

The group chatted and laughed, creating a lively and cheerful atmosphere, a stark contrast to the solemn and serious atmosphere outside.

Hongxing strode to the round table and whispered, "Teacher Qin, the Thai guy is here. Just like the information the information team gave us, he's a devout and perverted Buddhist."

Qin Shifan nodded to Peng Su at the door as a greeting.

"Chen Ye, Yu Hua is in the temple that this Thai guy invested in. According to the plan, we need to take him down. In your father's words, this is called 'the best strategy is to subdue the enemy without fighting,' or 'winning hearts and minds.'"

Upon hearing this, Chen Ye put down his chopsticks, finished the last bowl of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and wiped his mouth.

Peng Su was full of questions and was about to ask, "Which one of you is the Arhat who subdues dragons? In Buddhist stories, the Arhat who subdues dragons seems to love to eat."

Suddenly the long-haired young man jumped up, and then a look of confusion appeared in the Thai man's eyes.

Chen Ye lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his whole body rose into the air. The ceiling of the cafeteria was very high, and he was suspended in mid-air, his body appearing both real and ethereal, like a ghostly dragon.

His body moved swiftly to the left and right, leaving a clear afterimage with each shift.

He moved step by step, his body appearing three meters away as he walked from inside the cafeteria to the door, leaving behind seven afterimages.

Chen Ye arrived in front of Peng Su in the blink of an eye and stood there calmly.

Seven afterimages merged one after another into the true form in the center, becoming one.

Peng Su rubbed his eyes, looking a little confused.

Chen Ye slowly uttered four words: "Amitabha."

Pongsu clasped his hands together and respectfully said in standard Thai, "Satou~"

With the back arched and palms facing each other, raised from the chest to the top of the head with arms taut, this is the highest level of Buddhist greeting in Thailand. This grand gesture is only performed when facing a Buddha statue, a highly respected monk, or a recognized saint.

Peng Su bent his knees and bowed deeply.

Chen Ye raised his hand and flicked him on the forehead: "Let's talk about life."

Peng Su waited for three seconds, then slowly straightened up, keeping her hands clasped together above her head.

He opened his eyes, his gaze lowered, not daring to look directly at the face. His lips moved slightly, and he uttered again in Pali, his voice trembling yet incredibly clear: "Satu...pay homage to the Arhat who subdues dragons."

Chen Ye looked helpless and cleared his throat: "Swipe my card, that's all."

Pongsu, with his head down, suddenly widened his eyes and replied, "Sawasdee ka."

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P.S.: Happy New Year to everyone, may you always be smiling!

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