Strange Tales: The Seventy-Two Arts of the Earthly Fiends

Chapter 54 Light Shines in the Heart, the Evil Serpent Appears in the World

Huiming's face was ashen as he looked at Song Quyou and said:

"You've underestimated me."

Although Song Quyou's face was pale, he still held his sword, remained silent, and slowly walked towards Huiming.

Huiming had used all his Buddhist power to activate the magical artifacts, and now that the illusion had been broken, he was at the mercy of others.

He looked at Song Quyou, who was approaching with a sword, closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing, as if he had resigned himself to his fate.

But before the sword could move, Huiming felt the mirror being snatched from his hand.

He opened his eyes and looked at Song Quyou with a puzzled expression, asking, "Why didn't you kill me?"

"Killing you would be too much trouble, and besides, my home is right at the foot of Lingfo Temple Mountain, so I can't take you with me."

Song Quyou weighed the bronze mirror in his hand, then patted Huiming on the shoulder and said:

"Kid, you've got plenty of fancy moves, but you haven't really mastered the real skills. Go practice on the mountain."

Huiming looked down at his empty palm, then looked up at the bronze mirror that Song Quyou had tucked into his pocket. He pursed his lips, a half-smile playing on his lips, but ultimately said nothing.

Xiong Hai, who was watching closely from behind, shouted at the top of his lungs, "Brother, if you don't kill him, he might not remember your kindness later!"

Song Quyou didn't know why, but when he met Xiong Hai, he also started to enjoy teasing him.

This is probably what it means to go astray so easily.

"It's okay, I'm not a good person either. I just snatched a good treasure."

Upon hearing this, Xiong Hai grinned and laughed heartily, laughing so hard that blood seeped from the wound on his back, causing him to grimace in pain.

Song Quyou returned to Su Tang's side and bowed to the two men, saying, "I am Song Quyou, and this is my senior sister, Su Tang. The situation was urgent just now, so I didn't introduce myself. Please forgive me, brothers."

"No, no..."

At this moment, the greedy Fang Li reluctantly took out an ancient book and handed it to Song Quyou, and then took out several strings of agate Buddhist prayer beads and gave them to Su Tang.

"Master Song, Sister Su saved my brother and me. We have no way to repay her. If she ever needs our help in the future, please send someone to Xiongli Mountain in the south of the city to let us know."

Song Quyou waved his hand, but before he could speak, Su Tang spoke for him: "Keep your things. This place is not safe to stay for long. The commotion in the front yard can't be kept secret for long."

The four climbed over the temple wall and walked down the mountain, stepping on leafless, withered branches.

Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, Xiong Hai cupped his hands in greeting to Song Quyou and said:

"Brother, the green hills remain and the clear waters flow on forever. We'll meet again someday."

Until we meet again.

Su Tang looked in the direction where the two disappeared, shook her head gently, then turned to look at Song Quyou, whose face was still somewhat pale, and reached out to brush a withered leaf off his shoulder.

"Let's go home."

……

I walked along the cobblestone path back to the house at the foot of the mountain.

As soon as she entered, Su Tang yawned, shook her shoulders, and waved her hand, saying:

"Senior sister, go take a nap. Don't call me for meals."

Song Quyou was exhausted from performing too much magic, so he returned to his room and entered the Emerald Pine Heaven.

Inside the pot, the lark, who had returned long ago, busied itself around the jujube tree.

Song Quyou quietly walked up, completely unaware that the focused skylark was still diligently burying the pale golden beads according to the directions.

"What are you doing?"

The lark wasn't startled, but she was still a little guilty.

"Nothing."

Song Quyou stepped forward, picked up a bead that had not yet been buried in the ground, and looked at it in the light. The bead was the color of amber and as clear as glass.

It looks somewhat like a Buddha relic.

"You didn't steal the Buddha's relics enshrined in the Buddhist temple, did you?"

The lark seemed a little evasive, but still stood up confidently and said firmly, "No, these are beads I picked up. I thought they were pretty, so I brought them back and buried them under the tree."

Song Quyou touched the bronze mirror in his bosom, thinking that he couldn't say anything to others in his current state. So he threw the relic in his hand and returned to the pine tree to study the bronze mirror.

The bronze mirror was covered in emerald green rust. The front had only mottled patterns and no mirror-like surface, while the back was covered with dense cloud patterns, making it intricate and mysterious.

For some reason, Song Quyou could understand the meaning of the cloud script on the Heavenly Book, but he couldn't understand the bronze mirror at all, even scratching his head.

He tried to channel his qi into this bronze mirror.

suddenly.

The bronze mirror seemed to resonate perfectly with the primordial energy within its body, emitting a hazy, mysterious light. Rust marks gradually fell off its surface, revealing a crystal-clear mirror surface.

The mirror, which should have been empty, now shone with a mysterious light that flowed along the mottled patterns, revealing a clear and bright mirror surface.

At the same time, a distant voice rang in Song Quyou's mind.

"The mind is the spirit of the body. When the mind is empty and without action, one will eventually understand the Way. When one understands the Way, one gains supernatural powers, and those with supernatural powers can understand everything."

After the sound subsided, Song Quyou felt a sudden boom in his mind, as if a long-sealed door hidden in his mind had been pushed open.

Behind that door, swirling clouds seemed to draw him inside, drawn by a gentle force.

Following his heart, Song Quyou stepped into the surging blue clouds and immediately felt a lightness in his body. His steps became several times faster and farther.

In the azure sky, he walked faster and faster, and the faster he walked, the more he ran.

Until.

He took flight like a gentle breeze.

After flying for an unknown amount of time, the blue clouds suddenly parted before him, and he saw a mountain. On the mountaintop sat a person, dressed in a blue robe with wide sleeves, barefoot and with his hair down, breathing in the sun, moon and stars. With each breath, the sea of ​​clouds surged and the Milky Way was reversed.

Song Quyou's body flew uncontrollably toward the person. When he got to the person, he found that the person's face was blurry and hard to recognize. Only his eyes were clear as a mirror, reflecting the sun, moon and stars.

The man seemed to see Song Quyou transformed into a gentle breeze, so he stopped breathing, straightened up, and laughed wildly.

He laughed.

But his gaze was like lightning, and he pointed with his hand.

Song Quyou felt a cool sensation between his brows, as if a clear spring had been poured into his mind.

As the clear spring flowed by, the indistinct-faced immortal disappeared, and Song Quyou found himself standing atop the mountain.

His appearance—a green robe with wide sleeves, bare feet, and disheveled hair—was exactly the same as that of the arrogant immortal.

Standing atop the mountain, Song Quyou felt that the world had never been so clear. He looked up at the sun, moon, and stars, and saw a bright, full moon with a cassia tree inside, its color as clear as glass, and below it a jade rabbit plucking leaves and pounding medicine, granting immortality.

Looking again at the blazing sun, its interior is a sea of ​​raging fire and towering waves, but within it grows a lingzhi mushroom, its color a bright red, its medicinal properties extremely genuine, named the Great True Red Lingzhi.

Song Quyou looked again at the starry sky, where a magnificent algae grew, truly extraordinary. Its entire body was azure, its leaves like flowing ribbons, swaying in the starry river, emitting specks of starlight, named the Starry River Algae.

All three herbs are elixirs of immortality recorded in ancient books. If one can obtain and consume even one of them, one can attain the supreme Dao fruit.

But just as he reached out to touch it, everything turned into fragmented shadows, like a mirage.

The moment the illusory image shattered, Song Quyou was suddenly filled with great fear.

He fell out of that illusion.

He opened his eyes in surprise and found himself still sitting under the pine tree, but the bronze mirror was no longer in his hand.

But Song Quyou was not surprised. With a flick of his right hand, the mirror fell into Song Quyou's hand. However, it could no longer be called a bronze mirror. It was round like the moon and had lost its shape.

"The Mirror of the Bright Mind of the Moon," Song Quyou murmured, as many previously unknown fragments of memory suddenly flooded his mind.

He saw a monkey squatting by a mountain stream, gazing at the moon's reflection in the water, repeatedly reaching out its paw to scoop it up, but always ending up empty-handed. A celestial being passed by and, seeing the monkey's stubbornness, casually plucked a leaf and tossed it into the water. As the leaf floated and sank, the moonlight seemed to solidify and not dissipate, transforming into a bright mirror that fell into the monkey's paw.

The immortal laughed and said, "Foolish child, the moon is in the sky, not in the water. What you are trying to grasp is its reflection, but what you are seeking is the truth. I will give you this mirror to illuminate your heart and reveal the Way."

The Taiyin Mingxin Mirror was created by an immortal who saw a monkey in the mountains trying to retrieve the illusory reflection of the moon in the water. It can help people illuminate their hearts and understand the Way, and help them break through illusions and guard their minds.

When activated, it can trap a person in their own state of mind, just like Huiming.

……

The mirror-like light flowed erratically in Song Quyou's palm, and the coolness from his fingertips spread all the way to his heart, as if he had gained some enlightenment.

The image appeared in the clear mirror.

He saw the monkey by the mountain stream again, still reaching out its claws to try and catch the moon, again and again, the light shimmering but never reaching its goal.

The monkey scratched its ears and cheeks in frustration, bared its teeth, and whimpered.

suddenly.

It stopped trying to catch the moon's reflection, slowly lowered its head, and looked at its own reflection in the water. With a hairy face and a thunderous mouth, its body covered in wet, tangled fur, it looked both pathetic and comical.

The monkey stared blankly at the face in the water, and gradually calmed down.

Even the unreachable moon becomes a halo adorning itself.

Then it laughed.

That smile was simple and innocent, as if it were the first time he had ever seen himself.

The sound was faint and distant.

"What exists is for benefit, what does not exist is for use..."

Song Quyou heard it clearly and immediately felt a light emanating from within him.

The light emanated from the heart, like moonlight shining down, pervading the entire body, clear and transparent.

Song Quyou felt that his mind had never been so clear. All his past obsessions and delusions dissipated like dust on the ground.

The primordial energy flowing through the meridians and acupoints of the body is all enveloped in a layer of bright, clear light.

Song Quyou seemed to be deep in thought when suddenly a wisp of green smoke rose up, and the documents in front of him grew larger and larger, eventually becoming the size of a blade of grass.

The smoke rose again, and Song Quyou returned to normal.

A gentle breeze began to rise again, and her body floated up, lifted by the soft wind, her robes swaying lightly, allowing her to ascend nearly ten feet in height.

……

Suddenly remembering something, Song Quyou dispersed the gentle breeze, returned to the tree, and looked up towards the jujube tree.

The lark was still crouching under the tree, secretly pressing the last relic into the soil. Noticing the gaze, his hand froze, then he casually patted the soil off and stood up.

The jujube sapling was radiating a faint golden light, which was not merely superficial but emanated from within.

As Song Quyou approached, he saw that the jujube sapling had grown to about an inch taller, and the veins of its newly sprouted green leaves had turned golden, as if outlined by gold threads.

The lark, hands on her hips, said smugly, "This jujube tree will bear fruit in less than six months. Pretty impressive, right?"

……

After leaving the Emerald Pine Heaven, Song Quyou took the ancient Buddhist book that Fang Li had forced on him, went to the steps outside the house, basked in the sun, and planned to read it.

This ancient book is not some kind of secret manual; it talks about the eight guardian deities of Buddhism.

The Eight Legions, also known as the Eight Legions of Devas and Nagas, are eight guardian deities headed by celestial beings and dragons.

Song Quyou looked at it carefully, and when he turned to the page on the dragons, he tried to read it out: "Naga" has a human head and a snake body.

The young woman, who was cooking, suddenly ran out and asked Song Quyou, "What is Brother Song saying?"

Song Quyou looked up at Miss Jing and smiled, "It's nothing. I was just reading a detailed explanation of Buddhist guardian deities, and there's a guardian deity that belongs to the same category as you."

Miss Jing smiled gently, waved the spatula, and went back to the kitchen.

Song Quyou didn't pay any attention and continued reading. The book recorded that dragons were in charge of bringing clouds and rain. Although they possessed supernatural powers, they were reborn as dragons due to the karmic retribution of anger and ignorance in their past lives.

Among them, benevolent dragons can bring favorable weather, while evil dragons can cause floods and plagues.

Upon reading this, Song Quyou unconsciously put the book down, looked towards the kitchen filled with the aroma of food, and towards the busy Jing girl. After a moment of silence, he interrupted his thoughts and murmured:

"Anger? Ignorance? Buddhist protectors? They're completely unrelated."

It seems that the Buddhist dragon and the dragon of the East Sea are not the same kind at all; they just share the same name.

…………

Far to the west, atop the high mountains, lies a vast, emerald lake.

A group of lamas drove cattle and sheep into the emerald lake on the mountain cliff. There, they saw a two-clawed black-scaled serpent writhing and devouring, stirring up the vast emerald lake into towering waves.

Upon seeing this, the group of lamas were not alarmed. Instead, they sat cross-legged on the edge of the cliff and began chanting scriptures.

For a moment, the sound of chanting filled the air, echoing across the emerald lake.

The black-scaled serpent thrashed more violently in the lake, devouring cattle and sheep, then its cold, vertical pupils turned to the lama on the cliff, its crimson forked tongue filled with longing for humans.

The chanting continued for about half an hour, and the waves on the lake gradually subsided. The serpent sank to the bottom of the lake, leaving only its two lantern-like eyes gleaming eerily underwater.

The lama stood up, looked at the giant snake's eye underwater, waved his hand, and threw several more corpses down.

The two-clawed serpent couldn't wait any longer. It leaped out of the water and swallowed the corpses that hadn't yet entered the water.

The lama smiled faintly and said, "The remains of the people who died over a thousand years ago have all entered the belly of you, you wicked beast. They have done you a favor. I hope you will carry their true spirits, bear their sins in life, and wait for the right time to enter the sea and transform into a dragon."

After devouring the corpse, the serpent fell into the emerald lake, its vertical pupils filled with anger and exhaustion.

What is infuriating is that, a thousand years ago, when it was still an egg in the Western Paradise, it was brought to this high mountain lake by an old lama, where it listened to his disciples chanting sutras day after day until it hatched and was forced to devour its own remains, becoming a tool to bear sins.

What's exhausting is that the bones and blood of countless dead over the past thousand years, countless sins and obsessions, are all buried in this black-scaled body, and it bears them all.

It had considered resisting, but after being forced to eat the first corpse, it couldn't stop. The naturally intelligent flesh was like a poison to it, making it crave it day and night.

At this moment, the serpent sank to the bottom of the lake, and fragments of memories of countless dead flashed through its body like a revolving lantern: a shepherd's dying concern for his flock, an old woman's final sigh for her distant children and grandchildren, a young man's unspoken love as he fell to his death from a cliff, a child's dying cry for his mother, and a monk's repentance as he was executed for breaking his vows...

A thousand obsessions and a thousand kinds of anger and delusion fermented and swelled within it, transforming into boundless resentment and poison.

Black mist seeped from the gaps in its scales; it was the suppressed anger and ignorance churning within.

Whenever the lamas chant sutras, these anger and delusion are suppressed to some extent, but with each corpse swallowed, anger and delusion increase to some extent. For thousands of years, a fragile balance has been maintained between suppression and increase.

However, things are different today.

Suddenly, the serpent felt a strange tremor coming from somewhere inside its body; it was a vast, wide, and distant blue call.

That call pierced through thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, like a silk thread gently plucking the long-silent strings of its heart.

It wanted to go there.

It's going there.

Once it got there, it was free.

But we must wait, wait for a torrential downpour, wait for a flood, wait for an opportunity to let ourselves run wild.

This opportunity is just around the corner, very soon...

……