Stone Chamber

Beneath the Glazed Pagoda, Xin Ji wore a serene, untroubled smile as he looked at Du'er Cha, who appeared like a fiend from hell. He spoke calmly. "Benefactor, your injuries are not light."

"So what? Killing you will be a piece of cake!" Du'er Cha said coldly. Then he lunged forward, his fists wrapped in gale-force winds, lightning illuminating the sky. He was savage and utterly overbearing!

Xin Ji's smile grew even more serene, his voice ethereal and peaceful:

"All conditioned things are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like dew and lightning. Thus should you meditate upon them."

His voice was not loud, yet it echoed all around. Xin Ji raised his right hand and made a gesture as if plucking a flower.

Behind him, the Glazed Pagoda shone with a gentle radiance, spilling forth rays of Buddha-light. Faint Zen Chants drifted through the air:

"All conditioned things are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like dew and lightning. Thus should you meditate upon them."

Specks of Buddha-light shimmered, as though arhats, vajra warriors, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas were all intoning solemn, ethereal chants together.

Du'er Cha's gaze sharpened. For the first time, astonishment appeared on his face. "You can actually use Self-Sacrifice?"

"This old monk has merely gained a little understanding in recent years." Xin Ji's figure gradually faded, dissolving bit by bit into the Buddha-light until he vanished between heaven and earth.

"Damn it!" Du'er Cha's black robe billowed. Gale after gale swept in, making him seem like a human storm, with threads of lightning coiling around him.

Xin Ji's body disintegrated completely, leaving behind only a faint silhouette. His right hand, raised in the flower-plucking gesture, swept gently outward. He smiled with pure, unblemished serenity, untouched by even a speck of dust.

The Buddhas and bodhisattvas filling the sky vanished. All the Buddha-light gathered into that single finger. The surroundings grew tranquil and peaceful, with only the Zen Chants still echoing:

"All conditioned things are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows; like dew and lightning. Thus should you meditate upon them."

With a creak, Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan entered the Secret Passage. They felt along the inner wall for a while and finally found the mechanism that closed it.

"Du'er Cha shouldn't be able to find us now..." Meng Qi filled the silence with the obvious, trying to cover the storm raging in his heart.

Qi Zhengyan took a flint and a Fire Fold from his clothes. He lit it, driving back the darkness and illuminating the area around them.

The passage was wide enough for two people. Uneven stones formed the ceiling, while the rough walls on either side were covered in moss.

"This doesn't look like a passage carved entirely by human hands. It was probably adapted from a natural tunnel." Qi Zhengyan examined it carefully, then hurried a few steps ahead and laid Zhang Yuanshan down on a level, spacious patch of ground.

Suppressing his emotions, Meng Qi followed Qi Zhengyan's example, chose a relatively even spot, and set Jiang Zhiwei down. Then he said solemnly, "Senior Brother Qi, I'll go scout ahead, just in case there are enemies hiding farther in."

Even an ordinary young monk could enter the Back Mountain. Meng Qi was certain that this place held nothing but the Sarira Pagoda, with no demons or monsters lurking within. So, summoning his courage, he decided to explore the Secret Passage. Since the terrain of the Shaolin Temples in the two worlds was so similar, the passage's far end might reveal the secrets of the Secret Passage in his own Shaolin Temple—and perhaps bring him a handsome reward.

Moreover, Meng Qi, who knew a little about "infinite-flow" stories, had started making guesses about this after learning of "mission evaluations" at the end of the last reincarnation. Exploring hidden secrets might be an important criterion for evaluating a mission.

Qi Zhengyan glanced at Meng Qi without changing expression. He took out another Fire Fold, lit it, and handed it to him. "Junior Brother Zhending, sorry for the trouble. I need to stay here and watch over Senior Brother Zhang and the others, in case venomous insects or snakes disturb them."

Huh? Meng Qi had prepared a whole bellyful of arguments to keep Qi Zhengyan from exploring with him. After all, no one knew what lay inside, and if Qi Zhengyan grew greedy because of it, things could get troublesome. But to his surprise, Qi Zhengyan was so considerate that he'd volunteered to stay behind and keep watch before Meng Qi had even said a word!

"Then I'll leave them in your hands, Senior Brother Qi." Meng Qi didn't dwell on it. After lighting the Fire Fold, he headed deeper into the Secret Passage, watching for enemies that might lurk in the darkness ahead and staying alert for a possible ambush from behind.

Once Meng Qi disappeared around a bend and his footsteps faded into the distance, Zhang Yuanshan suddenly opened his eyes. Though weak, his voice was steady. "Junior Brother Qi, I didn't expect you to choose to stay behind so readily."

"I've suffered a backlash, and my strength has fallen greatly. I'm no match for Junior Brother Zhending." Qi Zhengyan leaned against the wall and sat cross-legged, answering in an even tone. "If I followed him and we came across a secret or treasure that only one person could know about, would you want Junior Brother Zhending to kill me or spare me? Everyone has desires. I won't risk 'testing' Junior Brother Zhending's Buddhist heart, so I might as well stay."

Zhang Yuanshan nodded slightly, then suddenly smiled. "After your serious injuries, you really have become more talkative."

Qi Zhengyan's face darkened at once, and he turned to look away.

Zhang Yuanshan smiled, then closed his eyes again and continued treating his wounds. Jiang Zhiwei remained fully focused, as though completely unaware of everything around her.

Meng Qi walked along the Secret Passage for a while, feeling that he had ventured deep into the Back Mountain.

The fire flickered, its dim yellow light staining the passage with a gloomy, dull hue. An indescribable pressure weighed on Meng Qi. It seemed the Fire Fold might go out at any moment, the world might plunge back into darkness at any moment, and demons and monsters might pour out of the shadows to devour him alive.

After walking farther, Meng Qi stopped in puzzlement, because he seemed to have reached the end of the Secret Passage. The rock wall curved in a semicircle around what appeared to be an open Stone Chamber.

There was a rotting meditation cushion, along with a stone bed and a stone table.

"Could this have been the secluded dwelling of some expert?" Meng Qi wondered to himself. He warily examined his surroundings once more, then stepped forward.

As he drew closer, the firelight fell upon the wall, and Meng Qi made out several rows of writing.

"Hm, it's Sanskrit." Meng Qi was, after all, a "top student" of the Sutra Lecture Hall, and Sanskrit was familiar to him. He narrowed his eyes and tried hard to decipher it.

"If you do not enter the mortal world, experience the Sea of Suffering, or break the precepts, how can you understand the true meaning of discipline? How can you see through the illusion of worldly affairs, perceive your own Buddha-nature, and attain the wondrous existence of emptiness?"

Meng Qi's Sanskrit was not particularly advanced. He struggled to piece the words together, and could not guarantee that his translation was free of mistakes or omissions. Still, he had grasped the general meaning.

"These words do have a certain depth..." Meng Qi murmured. He lowered the torch and shone it on the signature.

"A... Nan... Ananda?" Meng Qi was so astonished that his mouth fell open. Wasn't that the venerable disciple who had sat before Buddha?

Wait, wasn't there a Buddhist tale about him breaking the precepts and leaving?

The name "Ananda" was written in Sanskrit with flowing, vigorous strokes, as though carved by blade and axe. A hint of sharpness lay within it, yet a faint, peaceful Zen Intent was hidden beneath. Meng Qi's gaze was drawn to it. He reached out with his right hand, intending to touch it.

The moment his palm made contact, Meng Qi suddenly felt a bone-deep chill. A blade-light burst into view before him, like a true dragon entering the sea or a fierce tiger returning to the mountain. Every obstacle was cleaved apart by that single strike.

The blade-light was terrifying. Meng Qi could not react at all. He could only watch helplessly as it closed in, unfolding countless transformations and conjuring the vast, teeming mortal world.

The living suffered, the old suffered, the sick suffered, and the dying suffered. The blade-light unfolded endless mysteries, then gathered them all into a single strike, severing the Shackles around him!

Amid the radiance, Meng Qi vaguely saw a monk. He could not tell whether the man was old or young, handsome or ugly. He could only faintly sense the sorrow etched across his face and the weight of his grim resolve.

The firelight dimmed. The Sanskrit on the wall crumbled to dust and fluttered down.

Only then did Meng Qi come back to himself. He stared blankly at what lay before him. What had just happened? The transformations of that blade-light and the sorrow of the mortal world seemed to be deeply imprinted in his mind.

The dust settled, forming words:

"Obtained the True Intent Inheritance of the 'Ananda Breaking Precepts Saber Art.' Comprehended the fragmentary form of the first saber move, 'Severing Purity,' from the 'Ananda Breaking Precepts Saber Art.'"

It took a long while for Meng Qi to close his mouth. At last, he understood what had happened. As Jiang Zhiwei had said before, divine techniques and moves of the Dharmakaya and some at the peak of the Exterior realm were not written down. Instead, they were passed on through True Intent Inheritance. The objects that held the true intent sometimes could only pass it on once, while others could preserve it for years. How much one understood from the true intent, or whether one understood anything at all, depended on the individual. Once someone had fully mastered such a divine technique or move, they could leave behind a True Intent Inheritance of their own.

That was why Jiang Zhiwei had managed to comprehend the rudiments of "Sword Comes Without Self." If what she had comprehended were turned into a manual, it would be worth at most eight or nine hundred Merit Points—less than a tenth of the original.

"I remember that the 'Ananda Breaking Precepts Saber Art' in the temple wasn't passed down through True Intent Inheritance..." Meng Qi thought in confusion. Since Vajra Temple excelled at saber techniques, Xuan Xin had once specifically mentioned that Shaolin possessed an "Ananda Breaking Precepts Saber Art" that could rival theirs. It was at the peak of the Exterior realm, and when mastered, it could touch the laws of heaven and earth. He had also mentioned that a senior monk of a previous generation had borrowed the manual and mastered the art, becoming a renowned saber expert.

So Meng Qi knew that this saber art had been passed down as a manual within Shaolin Temple.

He knew too little about the temple's history to guess what was going on. Besides, he had no time to speculate. He quickly closed his eyes and concentrated on recalling what he had just learned, turning the transformations of the fragmentary form of "Severing Purity" over and over in his mind.

After all, the "Ananda Breaking Precepts Saber Art" cost nine thousand Merit Points to exchange for: three thousand for the general principles, and twelve hundred for each move. Forgetting it would be a huge loss!

Now that he had obtained the True Intent Inheritance, it was as if he had obtained the general principles—only these would take time and effort to study and understand. And unlike the general principles, the True Intent Inheritance could also directly impart five saber moves.

Of course, this demanded exceptional comprehension. Take Meng Qi, for instance: even after receiving the inheritance directly, he had only comprehended a fragment of the first move.

"How can it be only a fragment..." Meng Qi opened his eyes, somewhat disappointed. A fragment meant he still couldn't practice it.

To truly unleash the power of the "Ananda Breaking Precepts Saber Art," one had to reach the Exterior realm and draw upon changes in the Outer World. But if he could grasp even a little of it now, he would have a trump card of his own. It might not be as powerful as Jiang Zhiwei's "Sword Comes Without Self," but it would surely be a marvelously intricate and terrifying move.

Meng Qi took a light breath and put the matter aside for the moment. He continued searching the Stone Chamber for anything else of interest.

After circling halfway around the chamber, Meng Qi spotted something that looked like a stone door in the firelight.

Only faint traces of it remained in the rock wall. The words carved around it were in the familiar script he used every day.

"Those who lack loyalty, affection, kindness, and benevolence, do not enter."

As Meng Qi read the words, he instinctively pressed his right hand lightly against the stone door, intending to feel it, not to push it open.

The moment his hand touched it, an indescribable chill and terror invaded Meng Qi's heart. Corpses, rotting limbs, evil spirits, and fiends appeared before his eyes one after another.

Then a flame ignited amid the darkness that filled the sky, burning everything away as it shot straight toward Meng Qi.

Meng Qi's face went pale. He stumbled backward, breaking contact with the stone door, and the visions before him slowly faded.

After catching his breath, Meng Qi found his back covered in countless beads of cold sweat. His whole body felt weak, as though he had suffered serious injuries.

"Truly bizarre..." Meng Qi adjusted his breathing and recovered. He didn't dare touch the stone door again.

Then he noticed a bottomless little hole beneath it. Inside, a nameless flame seemed to be burning. Beside it were several tiny characters.

"Those who are faithless and fickle—die!"

What in the world was all that supposed to mean...? Meng Qi thought helplessly.

At the edge of the forest, Du'er Cha stood motionless, gazing at the traces left behind.

His left shoulder and left hand had vanished completely. His whole body trembled uncontrollably, yet he still stood ramrod straight.