Estranged

le, and they could now see Zhou Keyi’s agonized expression.

There were stone lotuses clustered around his feet.
But these lotuses were grey all over, and seemed relaxed and unhurried, as if they were slowly drawing nutrients from Zhou Keyi’s body.

Zhou Keyi’s expression was as pale as death, as if he was one step away from losing his life.

There was despair and weakness showing in his eyes.
He seemed to be looking at them, but at the same time seeing purely imaginary, distant places.

To save him or not to save him?

If they moved, they could very easily fall into a similar situation.
Before they had the matter figured out, even though they had high cultivation levels, they would never dare to underestimate the capabilities of the Buddha’s Drum of Kui Pattern.

While the two of them were hesitating, the scene slowly changed once again.

This time, it was Xu Jingxian.

She was encircled by countless shining slivers of light.
They seemed exceedingly beautiful, but she looked as if she was confronting a mortal enemy.
She was brandishing her thin silk repeatedly to dispel the vivid lights.

The lights flew off, and the two of them saw that those were not lights, but the eyes of poisonous snakes.

These creatures had a quicker reaction than ordinary snakes, and were way more resilient.
Under the attack of Xu Jingxian’s spiritual powers, many of them dropped to the ground, but did not die.
They swarmed towards her slowly, and charged at her suddenly when she was caught off guard.
Their fangs even broke through her protection barrier, and bit her back, making her shed a stream of blood.

“These are not ordinary snakes, but rather evil spirits.
Buddhists call them ‘unrelenting wrath’.
Rumors have it that in the third layer of Eighteen Hells, the Binding Iron Tree, people who have gone against one of certain precepts of Buddhism, who have fallen into wrath or debauchery, are being tortured there.
But the last unrelenting wrath in this world was taken down by Fozun Xu Tiancang, the founder of Buddhist sects.”

Wrath: one of ‘the three poisons’ in Buddhism, that is, one of the three things that cause sufferings

Why would one appear here?

Could it be that even nonexistent creatures could appear as illusions in these Eighteen Hells inside the Buddha’s Drum of Kui Pattern?

No, this was not a world of illusions!

Sun Buku quickly rejected his own guess.

Sun Buku was not an ordinary disciple of a Buddhist sect.
His sect used to possess a Buddha’s Drum of Kui Pattern, and he was the only great talent of the Qingyun School.
He had seen and touched it himself, and even felt a natural connection with the Buddha’s Drum of Kui Pattern.
He knew that this place was not an illusion, but reality.

Then where did these unrelenting wraths come from? Or was everything written in Buddhist scriptures a lie?

Without thinking much, Yun Weisi lowered his hand.
However, he was half a step too late, and the Xu Jingxian from the mirror stand had already disappeared.

And was replaced by the previous grey stone surface of the mirror.

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Yun Weisi had decided that mere strategy would be useless when confronted with an absolute force, so he called for his Chinzhao Sword.
The sword appeared right above the mirror stand, ready to thrust into it.

“Wait!”

Sun Buku stopped him.

“It seems that there’s something going on underneath, listen!”

Knock, knock-knock.

Knock-knock-knock, knock-knock.

Regularly accented beats were heard, as if someone was knocking from the other side of the mirror stand.

“Who is there?” Sun Buku asked.

The knocking sound stopped, but soon started again.

Knock-knock-knock, knock-knock.
Knock.

This time, it seemed as if it was trying to convey a message.

Yun Weisi’s expression froze.
The sword light that was about to bear down on the mirror swiftly retreated.

It’s Shizun.

Knock-knock-knock, knock-knock.
Knock.

This had happened many years ago.

The exact time it happened was during the second year of his apprenticeship at the Yuhuang Temple.

Shizun had told him to meditate in the yard to attempt to gain insight into the matters of this world.

Yun Weisi had still been very impulsive at that time.
He had closed his eyes, and every sound he had heard would turn into noise that made him anxious, and he had been stretched like a bow, unable to relax.

After he had spent half a day fruitlessly, his shizun finally came out, and sat across from him.

Knock-knock-knock, knock-knock.
Knock.

Shizun had tapped on the wooden corridor under the eaves.

Do you know what that means? Shizun had asked him.

Naturally, Yun Weisi shook his head.

Think about it carefully.

Shizun had said this one line, clapped his hands and left.

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Yun Weisi had spent countless days and nights, imitating the rhythm of Shizun’s knocking, and trying to figure out the mysterious meaning of the sound.

But he had lost hope.

Even if he put his ear against the slabs, he could only hear ants crawling underneath, raindrops trickling down the eaves and falling onto the steps, and wildflowers blooming slowly.
Little by little, Yun Weisi had stopped torturing himself by trying to guess Shizun’s profound meaning, and had gotten carried away with listening to the living creatures of the yard.
Gradually, his mind had settled down as well, and, contrary to his expectations, he had managed to break through the barriers in many techniques he had been failing to understand previously for a month.

Afterwards, he had asked Shizun about the actual meaning of those knocks.

Shizun had answered, The Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets the universe.

The Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets the universe: from Dao De Jing, 42, the transformations of the Dao.
There exist different explanations of this statement.
For example, ‘one is the Void, two are Yin and Yang, three are Heaven, Earth, and Man’.

This rhythm made Yun Weisi recall these memories in a split-second.

The tip of his sword fell, following his will, and entered the mirror stand!

Boom!

The mirror stand burst into small pieces!

But the one standing beneath it was not the person Yun Weisi had wanted to see the most.

The two of them fell right into an ice-cold sea.
A salty wave surged up towards them, and the water entered their mouths and noses, submerging them underneath!

Amidst this total chaos, several slim hands slowly reached them from behind, following the surging waves, and touched Yun Weisi’s shoulders.

Serene, weak and amourous music reached their ears, making them sink into fond dreams.

Obviously, it was Changming underneath the mirror stand—except for him, who could play this rhythm!

But why…

Before Yun Weisi could think it through, the hands on his shoulders suddenly pierced his skin, and his fresh blood permeated the water, slowly dissolving away.

The author has something to say:

How do you think Sun Buku will react after he sees Shifu who has “come back to life”?

P.S.
The Eighteen Hells were altered for this story, they’re not the same as the real ones, there’s no need to compare them.

Tn:

At the price of my Weibo account getting deleted, I acquired the following information:

1.
Lamei, Jiang Li’s teacher (please don’t ask me how I choose whether the name should be written in one word or separately) should actually be Luomei (confirmed by MXS), I’m changing it.
Sorry for this, I have no idea why on earth I chose the least common pronunciation for 落, La, it’s an especially stupid mistake ;;

2.
There was also a mistake in c64.
MXS originally wrote that the one who mentioned Luomei was Changming, but it should actually be Princess Linglong.
I’ve changed it already.