Amid the routed troops, the talisman cultivator from the Hu Prefecture Daoist Grounds tumbled from his saddle and scrambled over. Several yards before the Blind Monk, he fell to his knees with a thud, his face flushed with excitement and his lips trembling. "Master... forgive this junior's audacity, but might you be Faxian, the divine monk who once journeyed west to obtain the scriptures, then translated them and spread the Dharma?"
The elderly sword cultivator staggered after him. Though covered in dust, his eyes burned with an unprecedented fervor-the hope of someone who had glimpsed a guiding light in the depths of despair.
Ever since the Blind Monk had revealed his Buddhist radiance, the two had held their breath in rapt attention, not daring to show the slightest disrespect. They knew full well how terrifying this seemingly withered old monk was.
He was like a wish-fulfilling jewel reflecting all creation, dispelling countless arrows without so much as a change in expression. Such a divine ability had clearly reached the Buddhist Sect's flawless state of "bright emptiness and bare exposure, the body radiant as crystal." His cultivation had long transcended the bounds of ordinary practitioners, reaching a realm they could never hope to attain in their lifetimes.
Someone with such transcendent, saintly powers could not possibly be unknown. After racking their brains for a long while, they finally recalled a legendary figure-Faxian, the divine monk!
This truly enlightened monk had entered Drepung Monastery as a child. By the time he received full ordination at twenty, he had already shown an extraordinary Buddha-nature. At thirty, he rose to prominence within the Buddhist Sect for "observing the precepts with utmost rigor, understanding the meaning of the Dharma, and mastering the Three Baskets."
By forty, he had perfected the three disciplines of precepts, concentration,