After leaving Mu Ka's laboratory, Qingmu headed up the mountain.
He wasn't walking blindly, but following a mysterious guide.
There was always something like a soap bubble surrounding him, a little larger than a person but a little smaller than a house. If you took a step forward, it would roll forward a little too, always keeping you out of reach of its edge. But if you didn't move, it would drift forward automatically, guiding you to where it wanted you to go.
This is a fleeting dream.
It doesn't appear in the air. It appears in people's consciousness. You can't touch it, you can't see it, but it's there, enveloping you. Its edge is right in front of you, yet you can never reach it.
It creates a membrane in your consciousness, allowing you to enter a dream state at any time.
Qingmu was naturally unafraid of hypnosis, as he was a dreamless person. However, this dream bubble did indeed affect his consciousness; this technique was more sophisticated and harder to defend against than hypnosis.
However, Qingmu was not in a hurry to remove this bubble of consciousness, because he sensed that this dreamlike bubble did not have much malice; it was merely guiding him.
To be able to influence his consciousness from such a distance in this way was truly remarkable. Qingmu began to develop a slight interest in this woman named Duwa.
There is a temple on the mountain. The temple gate and the front hall have been newly renovated, but you can still see some of its ancient charm, which shows that a lot of thought was put into the renovation.
The moment Qingmu stepped through the temple gate, the soap bubble burst with a pop, creating ripples in the surrounding space.
The waves crashed against his brain in circles, like a CT scanner in a hospital, seemingly trying to find something wrong with his brain.
"So you are a person without dreams." Duwa's voice echoed from the temple, still peaceful, but no longer as ethereal as before.
Holding Yu Meiren, Qingmu stepped over the high threshold and shuffled inside.
Passing through the courtyard, you enter the main hall of the temple. Of course, the so-called main hall is not as grand as those famous temples; it is just a large square room with a Buddha statue more than three meters tall enshrined in the center.
A woman, around thirty years old, knelt on a prayer mat in front of the Buddha statue. She had delicate features and smooth, jade-like skin. Her hands were also in a delicate, orchid-like gesture, just like the image in the Medicine Granny's Medicine Granny, only with more elegance and nobility.
"Are you Duwa?" Qingmu asked as he walked in.
Duwa nodded, pointed to the low couch in the corner of the hall, and said, "Put the child there."
Yu Meiren fell asleep on Qingmu's shoulder, her little face rosy and a smile on her lips, showing that she was sleeping peacefully.
Qingmu did as instructed, placing the Beauty on the low couch, then returned and sat down on the futon next to Duwa.
"This small temple has no food or wine, only water. If you're thirsty, just drink it," Duwa said, pointing to a water vat next to him.
Qingmu wasn't thirsty, but he was craving a cigarette. However, he checked his pockets and found he was out of cigarettes. He had rushed to Masuba to rescue people and hadn't had time to buy any. He looked up at the Buddha statue, scratched his head, and gave up on asking Duwa if he had any cigarettes.
"You seem like a master, but your apprentices are really not that great!" Qingmu said.
Duwa smiled slightly, " The Medicine Granny's father was kind to me, so I casually passed on some things about enlightenment to her, but she was naturally ignorant, and I was afraid she would go astray, so I pretended to be practicing Buddhism. I didn't expect that she would still go astray."
"No wonder she kept talking about magic, you were the one lying to her!" Qingmu laughed. "She went astray, and you, as her master, didn't even try to stop her?"
Everyone has their own destiny, and meeting you is her destiny; I don't need to stop it.
"And what about Mu Ka? Meeting me was also Mu Ka's misfortune, yet you just wanted to save him."
Duwa sighed, " Mu Ka is a naturally gifted individual. If he were willing to learn properly from me, his potential would be limitless. In my seventy-plus years of life, I've rarely encountered such an outstanding young man, so of course I'd like to take him as my disciple to carry on my lineage's teachings and fulfill the mission I failed to complete. Unfortunately, he's completely absorbed in his worldly affairs and has no interest in spiritual cultivation. Otherwise, killing him today wouldn't have been so easy. I saved him only out of hope that he might awaken after escaping death, though of course, that hope will most likely be dashed."
Qingmu said, "If he agrees to become your apprentice, will you spare his life no matter how many crimes he has committed in the past?"
"Put down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot. Isn't that better?"
"Can one truly become a Buddha simply by laying down the butcher's knife? Who can those who died under the butcher's knife seek redress from? You? Or Buddha?" Qingmu countered.
Duwa said, "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows, dew, and lightning; thus should they be viewed."
Qingmu, however, disagreed, saying, "Do you think a single verse from the Diamond Sutra can erase all evil? Even if someone commits a crime in a dream, it's still a crime. The crime originates from the heart; if the heart is not virtuous, then most of the subsequent evils are caused by your indulgence."
Duwa smiled slightly, ceasing his argument with Qingmu, and said, "Speaking of which, I only have one true disciple, Du Juan. She is not a bad person at heart, nor does she have any worldly desires for fame or fortune. However, after meeting Situ, she became obsessed, often acting without distinguishing between good and evil, and doing things arbitrarily. Meeting you was naturally her calamity, and I suppose she can no longer come back, can she?"
Qingmu carefully observed Duwa's expression and noticed that she didn't seem particularly angry or sad when she talked about the Du Juan. Instead, he admired her composure and nonchalance.
" Du Juan is indeed not coming back, but I didn't kill him, and I had no intention of killing him." Qingmu then gave a brief account of what happened in the Japanese army's Zhulong Mountain Cave.
Duwa listened quietly, sighed, and recited the verse from the Diamond Sutra again. "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows, dew, and lightning; thus should they be contemplated."
"You knew about that cave all along, so why didn't you destroy it sooner, or even warn your apprentice Du Juan?"
Duwa shook his head and said, "That cave is just a broken old dream, preserved only by the terrain. I'm not entirely sure how Situ reactivated it. I went to see it later, but I didn't find anything special. It must have been your powerful Mental Power that affected the stability of that space, triggering something that activated the residual consciousness from decades ago. If this isn't a natural coincidence, but rather something the designer intentionally did, then Kitano Masatake's abilities are truly unbelievable!"
Qingmu couldn't help but ask, "Do you know Kitano Masatake?"
Duwa closed his eyes slightly, seemingly deep in thought. After a moment of silence, he said, "I know. My mother once mentioned this person to me. He was once the world's greatest Awakened and a respected Great Dream Mentor. Unfortunately, war broke out, and he lost his mind in that war in which no one could escape."