【Wine Ci】Ksitigarbha Statue

Chapter 21

When he came back, it happened that the mountain was covered by heavy snow.

There is very little snow in Jinjiang country. If you live in a house with the windows closed, you can hear the howling of the cold wind.At this time, even the caravan will not choose to go out on the road. Monsters are one aspect, but the more terrifying thing is still the insurmountable nature.It shocks you, subdues you, captures you, falls from the sky like doom.

He had received a letter. When the messenger left, it was still light snow, but when it arrived at Yanli Temple, the snow was already knee-high.The letter said that the abbot of Echigo Temple—his master has been a little unwell recently, lingering on the sick bed, stumbling when he was awake, and said that he wanted to see him.So he took the letter, led a horse and set off on the road.

Fortunately, he finally saw his master for the last time.

All the disciples of the abbot of Echigo Temple, big and small, knelt down on the ground.The old monk was lying on the bed, coughing, occasionally coughing up blood, Guan Zhen, who was kneeling beside him, lowered his head and gently wiped it away with a white cloth.The old monk rolled his eyelids, staring closely at a tightly closed hanging window.Guan Zhen didn't know what Master was looking at, but he neither dared to ask questions nor turned his head to follow Master's gaze.The old monk's lips moved slightly, but Guan Zhen didn't hear clearly, so he bent down to get closer.

This time he heard clearly.The old monk wriggled his lips and murmured, "Open the window."

"Master?"

"Open the window."

But it's snowing outside.Guan Zhen murmured to himself in a low voice, but he stood up obediently and opened the window.The moment the cold wind came in, everyone couldn't help tightening their necks; the sliding door was suddenly pushed open at this moment, and the cold wind rushed in mixed with snow.The figure of the young man stood at the entrance, wearing a bamboo hat, against the vast and cold sky, his whole body was dark.A few flakes of snow floated on the old monk's roof. The old monk touched it, his eyes stared blankly at the white and desolate sky outside the open window, a few black branches protruded abruptly, his throat rolled a few times, and the corners of his eyes scratched thin A little tear.

"You, Junior Brother!"

Time has passed and the East China Sea has raised dust, and the little monk can no longer be called a little monk.

He walked in silently, closed the sliding door, knelt down at the end, and fell silently on the ground with a bone-chilling chill from the long journey.The old monk seemed to have noticed something, slowly moved his eyes, tilted his head, and asked, "Guanzhen, your junior brother is back."

Guan Zhen whispered it should be.

The old monk called his name, just like calling him in the same heavy snow many years ago, saying, "Come here. I have something to tell you."

He walked over, Guanzhen stepped back, and knelt beside the old monk.

They looked at each other, and the old monk's vision was already blurred, and he looked at him with half-closed eyes, as if he was recognizing someone.He was about to die, and young people could almost see the vigorous death energy around him, but he held on to his breath, which was so thin that it would almost dissipate in the air, but still persisted in the biting cold wind with.

He whispered to the old monk, "Master, I'm back."

The old monk opened his mouth and murmured about the copied Buddhist scriptures, not the Lotus Sutra or the Golden Light Sutra, but the original vow of Ksitigarbha.He said he couldn't finish copying it, so he should burn it so that he can continue copying it underground.I also mentioned Vipassana, but my voice became hoarse halfway through.He was dying, coughing from the long nagging and the cold wind.In the end, the old monk stretched out his hand tremblingly. He saw the old monk's intention and put his hand on the old man's withered palm.

"You, you," he sighed, "you promised me—"

The old monk held him tightly, staring at him with cloudy eyes for a long time, but in the end, it seemed that no matter how many words he said, they all disappeared with a sigh.

The old monk said, "Forget it."

His hand that was tightly grasping the little monk's wrist slipped down feebly.The little monk looked back amid the sudden cries all around him, and outside the window where the snow was falling, a gray bird fluttered up from the bare tree branch and disappeared into the pale sky.

Echigo Temple is full of white flags.He was sitting on the roof, the snow was still falling, and the distant mountains and the vicinity were all white.He spread out his palm, looked at the old copper bell in his palm in the overwhelming whiteness, shook it hesitantly, and shook it again; the clear sound of the bell was blown far away by the wind, but it floated in unison with the falling snow to the ground.

Nothing happened, no one came.

It wasn't the first time he rang the bell.The first time was due to an accident. At that time, he was at the Enryaku Temple in Mount Hiei, and there was an eminent monk who debated law outside the door. He was afraid that if the bell rang, he would be injured if the monster really appeared.But in any case, no matter how much you rang the bell after that, the monster never appeared again. The memory becomes a shadow on the midsummer river pond, and it goes further and further away.He snorted coldly, and threw the copper bell high, and it still made a crisp sound when he threw it.On a certain occasion when he was so dull for a moment, the copper bell fell on the snow on the roof and rolled down.The boy hurriedly leaned forward and tried to pick him up. This sudden rush forward almost made him fall off the roof.

He suddenly sensed the familiar, presumptuous evil spirit.

"You've grown taller," the monster said to him. "How long has it been...?"

Memories come alive again.The monster looks like it was salvaged from that day.The boy bared his teeth, approached Ibaraki, and compared his height with him.The young man's height is always jumping fast, he is almost as tall as Ibaraki now.The boy raised his eyebrows and said, "How many years have you said that?"

"I'm sorry." Ibaraki apologized to him sincerely, "I don't know... the time is not equal between one time and one time."

The young man crossed his arms, looked at Ibaraki, and said critically after a long while, "I thought you were so tall before—are you going to fight?"

"fight?"

"Look at how strong you are." He hooked his finger at Ibaraki, turned around and walked into the depths of the woods, Ibaraki could only follow, and heard him say without turning his head, "I invite you to drink after the fight."

The fight was hard - but also fun.Compared with when he was a young monk, the way of the young man is much wilder, and his moves are more complicated. They are no longer purely Buddhist methods, and all three religions and nine streams are mixed.Ibaraki fought him, but he was practicing control; it was like changing positions with Shuten-doji. In the past, Ibaraki was the one who opened and closed, and the overall situation was left to Shuten to control.Now the boy's temper has come up, playing wantonly and leisurely.Ibaraki is a big ghost, and there is always a miasma in his moves, not to mention that in the past he made moves to kill people, but now he patiently restrained himself from confronting the boy.In comparison, young people are more like ghosts.

They leveled a small half of the woods.Ibaraki won, the boy lay in the snow and laughed loudly, heavy snow fell from the white sky into his eyes, and the blood that flowed out was about to stain the snow red.Ibaraki couldn't see that he was injured, and frowned and called him to get up. The boy turned over neatly, and with a strong right hand, he pushed back the dislocated left hand that was hanging limply by his side, and raised his left arm. The sound of human teeth sour.He smiled and said to Ibaraki, "It's done."

"Little friend is really heroic, unafraid of pain, mighty and domineering, and can still be alive and kicking when injured. He is really invincible, unstoppable, unrivaled, and powerful in vitality. If you don't make up with me, you will win every battle and you will not be afraid of death. It is worthy of praise. In the future, I will definitely achieve something. Fanzhao is as prosperous as the sun and the moon, and now he really deserves to be young and promising."

The boy rolled his eyes at him: "Why do I feel that your boasting is not a good thing."

Ibaraki said: "I praised my little friend, of course I used the best words." He also said, "Stretch out your hand and bandage you."

"I've seen it for so many years, and your dressing method hasn't improved much at all. Bring me the bandage."

Ibaraki only felt that this scene was familiar, but after thinking about it carefully, it dawned on him that it was when he first met Xiao Jiutun that he was also injured.Ibaraki thought about whether to seriously learn how to deal with the wound - although the ghost didn't need to be bandaged, what if?If Shuten Doji gets injured in the future, this predicament may happen again.

"Little friend...how have you been in Mount Hiei in recent years?"

"It's not good." The young man said lazily, "I don't have any knowledge and skills, and I steal and go down the mountain to drink and fight all day long. Up and down the mountain, in the secular world, Buddhists and gods, I live a boring and dull life. Yanli Temple almost tolerates me. At the end of the day, don’t you just drive me down the mountain.” He wrapped the bandage in a random way, and said, “I want to have some fun, but this time I had a good time fighting with you.” He was talking, and went to the ground I squeezed a snowball, and was about to stuff it into Ibaraki's neckline suddenly; Ibaraki was dressed tightly, and his coat and jacket were still wearing armor. He dodged so quickly that he didn't let the boy succeed.The snowball was pinched loosely, shattered back and forth, and a little stuck to Ibaraki's neck.The monster is highly resistant to the temperature, but maybe it was really a snowball, or maybe it was the boy's cold index finger that made Ibaraki shiver when it touched it.

The boy showed a nasty smile, ignored his injured hand, crossed his pillow behind his head, and lazily said: "Let's go, go back."

He didn't tell Ibaraki to turn into a human again, as if it didn't matter if Ibaraki was a human or a ghost and followed him back to Echigo Temple.Ibaraki thought for a while, but still concealed his evil spirit and turned into a human.

But as soon as they stepped into the gate of the temple, they were still surrounded by a large group of mages holding sticks.The boy took a staggered step and naturally blocked Ibaraki behind them, and the temple gate behind them also closed in response. Ibaraki looked back slightly, and several armored warriors had already silently blocked behind them.The snow is still falling, and it seems to be getting heavier.It just so happened that a gust of mountain wind blew up, and the ghost banners all over the courtyard and the vast snow were blown up with the wind, and the sky and the earth were scattered and isolated, making the Cangshan Temple and its imminent disputes seem extremely small.

This outflanking formation almost instantly ignited Ibaraki's desire for war.The young man leaned back and approached him, and said with a low laugh, "Don't move, don't move. Let's watch a play."

Across most of the courtyard, Guanzhen stood outside the gate hall.Around him are monks from all directions, probably because he knows that he is dealing with people and not ghosts, and there are more people with knives and weapons everywhere, throwing away the Zen sticks, Taoist robes, Buddhist beads and Magical weapon, except for a slightly human-like face, these monks look no different from ghosts from a distance.Ibaraki looked at Guanzhen, the leader. There was always something wrong with this human being, and he still remembered him. When he entered Echigo Temple, he heard two monks maliciously mention the young monk. One was Guanzen. , another flatterer is Guanzhen.

Time is a terrible thing for human beings.At that time, Guanzhen was like a shadow, an echo of Guanzhen, but at that time he still looked like a human being.Now he showed a kind of honorable old age, which almost blurred his face.

"Junior brother!" Guan Zhen shouted sharply, "Do you know your mistake?!"

Lazily, the young man sneered and said, "You surrounded me involuntarily, do you want me to do something wrong?"

"In the demon attack at Echigo Temple five years ago, we lost several prestigious mages, and even mages from other sects who came to our temple to debate the law. Our son of God—you, was also involved in this attack Injured."

The boy spread his hands.Ibaraki stared at the boy standing in front of him - even though he was much weaker than a big ghost, the fight just now proved this, the boy still stood in front of the monster with some stubbornness; Five years have passed, Ibaraki thought, this is not surprising at all, the boy has grown so tall in five years, and he can continue to grow even after that.

Guan Zhen continued: "But we have not been able to capture the monster that attacked the temple so far. Who is he? But suddenly, we found a person." He took a small step to the side, and a person behind him appeared Come.This man was thin and ordinary, with one leg missing, leaning on a cane, and bowing his head obsequiously. "He is a survivor from back then. I think you may not know him, Junior Brother. After all, he was just a small guard at the time, but he still recognized you. He came to us recently and identified you. There are no monsters. From the beginning to the end There are no monsters."

The teenager laughed softly, "Wow."

"So everything can be sorted out. If there are really monsters, how could Echigo Temple not find out. It can only be you." Guan Zhen couldn't help licking his lips, showing a heartbroken expression, "Because you are afraid of arguing There were monks who were more outstanding than you at the Dharma conference, and you brutally killed them all. Junior brother, the testimonies are all here, do you know your mistake?!"

The boy stared at Guanzhen's face, and then a weird smile appeared on his face.He put his hands behind his back, Ibaraki thought it was a signal to attack, but the boy just held him in a soothing manner.As if taking the initiative to take part in the Noh stage, he said, "So it's no wonder you can mobilize so many samurai and monks. I'm afraid there are nobles from the mountain and other sects mobilized here out of righteous indignation."

"You can't escape—! Why are you still trying to quibble?!"

"A few routine quibbles are fine." The young man said loudly, "Something bit their throats off. How do you explain this?"

"Dog." Guan Zhen said decisively, "It was bitten by a dog. Don't try to fool it, you cruel murderer."

The boy could hardly help laughing out loud.It was as if he had heard all the hilarious jokes in the world, and the smile could not be restrained from showing out from every detail of his body.In such a serious identification scene, when the bones of the old monk are still cold and the sky is covered with snow, and in the temple where the soul-inducing flags are hunting, it is too unnatural to laugh out loud.But the boy couldn't restrain himself, he had heard and seen so many jokes, and this wasn't the funniest one.

All the people present at the scene took this kind of laughter as madness and acquiescence.

Guanzhen took a step forward, and concluded the identification with a sense of ceremony: "Junior Brother, you are born to be a 'God's Son', and you should have a promising future and great achievements. I hold everyone's expectations for you, but you are so vicious and vicious at such a young age, how can you be my Buddhist disciple. The master is not here now, no matter how you look at it, I, a senior brother, should clean up the house for the master—I should have killed you on the spot. I am going to sue my fellow disciple Zaitian, but since you are still a disciple of Enryaku Temple in Mount Hiei, we will follow the rules and sue you for the crime. Are you still going to arrest him?!"

The monks with knives and sticks swarmed forward angrily.

The boy patted Ibaraki's shoulder reassuringly.In the noisy and noisy snow, only Ibaraki heard his light voice: "Then I will give you a reward for making mistakes."——He is like a light feather, like thousands of feathers The falling snowflakes were lightly drawn into the vast expanse of whiteness.