Xiangguo Temple (7)

"Since you and I were born in Hell, it means that we had committed heinous crimes in our past lives. It is only natural that we are punished now." Understanding aside, Tan Yangzi still had to capture it and take it back. After all, it was his duty, and he could not allow these malicious ghosts to wreak havoc in the mortal realm.

"No matter how heinous the crimes, five hundred years should be enough! Besides, who is to judge what crimes I actually committed?! Who in this world is truly innocent?! Why should gods, humans, and Asuras get to have all of this?! I refuse to accept this! I refuse!" The Thorn-Heart Ghost's heart-wrenching howls in his mind sent chills down his spine. The burning frostbite had already crept up to his throat.

But right at this moment, the Thorn-Heart Ghost suddenly let out another scream mixed with anger and terror. The light of the Utpala Flower flickered a few times and unexpectedly went out. The thorny hands that had been imprisoning Tan Yangzi's waist also loosened one after another. Where the Karma-Severing Sword had pierced, the azure hellfire reignited, instantly spreading all over the Thorn-Heart Ghost's entire body.

Tan Yangzi felt a wave of relief. It seemed Yan Fei had successfully awakened Master Guan Yi.

Sensation gradually returned to his right arm. Tan Yangzi pulled out the Karma-Severing Sword and watched the Thorn-Heart Ghost, completely engulfed in flames, thrash madly in the darkest curtain of night just before dawn. Of the two smaller Thorn-Heart Ghosts next to it, one was bumped by the large Thorn-Heart Ghost and instantly caught fire, while the other tried to escape. Tan Yangzi spun around and threw the Karma-Severing Sword in his hand, stabbing it precisely into the small Thorn-Heart Ghost. Azure flames shot up into the sky again, instantly swallowing the little ghost.

Three massive azure pillars thrashed madly in the dark night, though their originally solid forms became somewhat transparent and shrank rapidly. Thus, they did not cause too severe damage to the surrounding buildings, only knocking down a bell and drum tower. Presumably, because Guan Yi had escaped from the roots of the large Thorn-Heart Ghost, losing the shelter of a human body and being heavily injured by Tan Yangzi, these Thorn-Heart Ghosts could not survive for long in the mortal realm at all.

Finally, the three Thorn-Heart Ghosts turned into three small clusters of azure flame, darting back and forth in the air like will-o'-the-wisps, seemingly waiting for an opportunity to escape.

Tan Yangzi formed hand seals in front of his chest. He opened his mouth and spat out a bright pearl, holding it between his lips and teeth. As soon as the pearl appeared, the three ghostly shadows seemed to be sucked in by something. Letting out high-pitched screams, they were swiftly sucked into the pearl. In an instant, the color of the pearl began to show a faint hint of gray. Tan Yangzi flicked his tongue and swallowed the pearl again.

This Soul-Capturing Pearl was also a treasure carried by the Green Impermanence. It could be used to temporarily imprison weakened malicious ghosts, and if swallowed into the stomach by a Green Impermanence, they could be suppressed for an even longer time. For every ghost captured, it would turn a shade blacker. When the pearl became pure black, the Green Impermanences would have to return to Hell and send those ghosts to be judged.

After the ghostly shadows completely dissipated, a peculiar azure-blue flower shaped like a lotus fluttered down. It was about the size of a palm, and every petal looked as if it were carved from jade, bone-chillingly cold to the touch. Tan Yangzi picked up the flower, using his sleeve as a pad, and examined it closely before his eyes.

Deep in the heart of the flower flowed a trace of mournful cold light, like a fleeting gleam deep within an eyeball.

He tore off a piece of his hem, carefully wrapped up this Utpala Flower, and tucked it into his sleeve pocket.

A flash of red appeared before his eyes. For a moment, Tan Yangzi almost thought that person had returned... But soon he saw clearly the panic and worry eroding the face of the youth who was grabbing his right hand and pulling up his sleeve. "What happened to your arm? And your neck!"

Tan Yangzi withdrew his arm from the youth's grasp and pulled down his sleeve to cover the faint azure lines that had not yet faded away. "It's nothing, just a minor injury. I'll be fine after a night's rest." He then carefully looked Yan Fei up and down. Aside from some messy hair, Yan Fei seemed completely unharmed and in good spirits, indicating that he hadn't met too much resistance in Guan Yi's dream. Tan Yangzi's hanging heart finally settled down, and his cold, stern face softened slightly. "Where's Guan Yi?"

Yan Fei pointed his umbrella at the lonely figure sitting in the corner by the wall near the meditation room not far away, and sighed sympathetically. "He's probably not in a very good mood."

However, this sympathy seemed to carry a hint of schadenfreude-like minor wickedness.

Tan Yangzi frowned slightly. "How did you wake him up?"

Yan Fei put on an innocent expression and said, "I just reasoned with him and moved him."

Tan Yangzi raised an eyebrow. If converting people was that easy, what would be the need for gods and Buddhas... This kid was clearly brushing him off. Looking at Guan Yi's agonized and hollow expression at the moment, what he did was definitely not as simple as just 'reasoning with him'...

He walked over to Guan Yi, only to see that the man's originally compassionate and benevolent face was now completely dull and vacant. He was huddled by the wall, hugging his knees, rocking his body back and forth unconsciously. He mumbled words like "I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to... I was wrong... I was wrong..."

Tan Yangzi slowly squatted down in front of him and called his name in a deep voice. But Guan Yi didn't react at all; he kept rocking back and forth, seemingly terrified.

Tan Yangzi sighed, turned his head, and stared at Yan Fei. "How exactly did you wake him up?!"

Hearing Tan Yangzi's tone become stern, Yan Fei looked down and played with the Soul-Guiding Bell on the umbrella handle. He spoke somewhat cautiously, "He refused to face his own heart. In his dream, he still put on the facade of a Bodhisattva saving all sentient beings, and even called me an inner demon disrupting his cultivation. So, I dug a little deeper and turned his Eighth Consciousness inside out to show him, and he kind of broke down. I trapped him inside his Eighth Consciousness for about a year, and he came out looking like this..."

Tan Yangzi was somewhat dumbfounded. Over the years, traveling alone, he had learned a little about the spells used by Red Impermanence to manipulate human minds and consciousnesses in order to catch them. He knew that a highly skilled Red Impermanence could control the dreams or illusions of anyone they invaded, including the passage of time within their minds. In other words, one second in reality could equate to ten years in their illusion, or several years in reality might just be a snap of the fingers in the illusion. The Eighth Consciousness stored the karmic hindrances accumulated over countless lifetimes; while there was good karma, there was inevitably more bad karma. It was like a deep pit where rotting garbage was dumped—the truest and ugliest version of oneself that people never wanted to face. Under the effect of the Corpse Candle's array, a Green Impermanence or Red Impermanence like Tan Yangzi might briefly catch a glimpse of the materialized form of a person's Eighth Consciousness, but the actual Eighth Consciousness was an existence as vast as a small world, the most primitive building material of Hell.

In other words, Yan Fei had trapped Guan Yi in Hell—a Hell tailored specifically for him—for a whole year. Inside, it was filled with the suffering, resentment, grievances, fears, and sorrows accumulated over his past lives, filled with the memories and nightmares he least wanted to recall. No wonder the man came out out of his mind.

He hadn't expected Yan Fei to be able to directly dig out a person's Eighth Consciousness within a dream. One must know that even a Red Impermanence freshly recruited by Fengdu usually took ten to thirty years to master this move. This child had actually reached such a level just by teaching himself.

But now was not the time to praise him. Tan Yangzi's face darkened. "You were way too ruthless! Usually, such a heavy-handed method of forcing someone to face their Eighth Consciousness is only used when all other methods have failed. And even if you lock someone inside, it rarely exceeds three days. You actually locked him in for a year?! It would be a miracle if he didn't wake up insane!"

Yan Fei seemed a bit wronged, muttering in a low voice, "I was just worried that you would get hurt, so I was anxious... And he refused to face himself. His resentment had clearly attracted the Thorn-Heart Ghost, yet he still thought he was a magnanimous and open-minded living Bodhisattva, giving sermons to others in his dream. For someone like that, if you want him to see clearly just how much he envies and hates his junior martial brother, what other way is there but to show him his true self..."

Tan Yangzi glared fiercely at him, just about to say there were plenty of other ways. But on second thought, he was also at fault. Knowing full well that Yan Fei was still too young and hadn't received proper training, he still let him handle such an important task. So he had to swallow his retorts and reprimands. "You... Forget it, we'll settle this when we get back." Right now, it was more important to recall Guan Yi's sanity.

As Green and Red Impermanences, they caught ghosts, and they were supposed to do so while minimizing disruption to the mortal realm's order; punishing humans was not within their jurisdiction. Driving a man insane for no reason would definitely cause trouble if the higher-ups found out.

He gently patted Guan Yi's face, then lifted the master's chin, forcing the other to meet his gaze. When those vacant eyes finally focused on his face, Tan Yangzi spoke in a rarely used, deep, and gentle voice. "It's alright now, you are out."

Guan Yi's lips trembled, and tears suddenly welled up. Despite being a fifty-year-old man, the terror in his eyes was like that of a child, making one's heart ache to see. "I am guilty... My sins are so heavy... I harmed people... I will go to Hell..."

"You didn't harm anyone. The ghost harmed people, not you." Tan Yangzi patiently comforted him. His sharp eyes stared intently at the other man, unexpectedly giving Guan Yi a sense of reassurance. "A person cannot control what they think. Having some sinful or dark thoughts is perfectly normal. As long as you don't actually put them into action, you are not guilty."

"But... but it's my fault that Guan Yun's health has been getting worse lately!" Guan Yi clutched Tan Yangzi's sleeve as if grasping at a lifeline. "I... I've always hated him in my heart, which is why those ghosts took advantage of me. They always whispered in my ears at night that they could make Guan Yun disappear, and then I could become the abbot or even the State Preceptor, making Xiangguo Temple even more prosperous. So I let them in... It was my vanity and jealousy that nearly killed everyone in the temple... I am guilty! I am guilty!"

Tan Yangzi was actually terrible at comforting people. Three hundred years ago, this kind of work was always done by his partner, a Red Impermanence... For these three hundred years, even though he was left alone, he merely collected the ghosts and left, rarely interacting with the possessed individuals. Now, listening to Guan Yi's blubbering and crying, he only felt irritable, not knowing how to console him.

He glared fiercely at Yan Fei again, meaning: 'This is all your doing!'

Yan Fei stood there feeling wronged, not daring to speak up either.

Right at this moment, the originally quiet and silent monks' quarters on both sides gradually began to light up. A few scattered doors opened, and some monks walked out hesitantly one after another, their faces full of confusion, bearing expressions as if they didn't know why they were here. Presumably, because the Thorn-Heart Ghost wanted to deal with Tan Yangzi, it had actually trapped all these monks in their respective dreams. Moreover, most of the monks in the temple had already been controlled by the Thorn-Heart Ghost. Now that the control was lifted, they naturally had no idea where they were.

Seeing Master Guan Yi slumped on the ground with a pale face, they immediately crowded around. Yuan Heng was among them. Calling out to his master a few times and receiving no response, he was so anxious that tears were about to fall. He then knelt down before Tan Yangzi and pleaded with a sobbing voice, "Living Bodhisattva, since you can exorcise ghosts, please save our master!"

Tan Yangzi's usual habit was to silently slip away after capturing ghosts. When had he ever been surrounded and stared at like this? He grew increasingly irritable but couldn't get away for the moment.

At this time, the crowd of monks quieted down and silently parted. It turned out that Master Guan Yun had arrived. The abbot was still wearing the kasaya from the evening service, his appearance as solemn and dignified as always. He came to Tan Yangzi and Guan Yi's side, lowered his eyes to look at his senior martial brother, then slowly squatted down. Reaching out a hand, he actually embraced Guan Yi, who was still muttering to himself about his guilt.

Guan Yi froze instantly, his whole body turning into a clay statue, motionless.

Guan Yun patted Guan Yi lightly on the back, speaking in a gentle tone that was completely different from his usual impartial and strict image. "Senior Brother, it's alright now."

Guan Yi remained in a daze, unresponsive.

Guan Yun continued, "Senior Brother, I know your thoughts. I don't blame you, because I am also at fault."

Guan Yi shivered, seemingly unable to believe what he heard. "You... You know?"

"Senior Brother, none of us are truly devoid of all worldly desires. You only know that you have an inner demon in your heart, but do you think I don't?" Guan Yun said softly, sighing. "You hold jealousy towards me in your heart, but haven't I also been jealous of you? You are naturally compassionate and kind, treating everyone so well. This is something I could never learn, no matter what. I knew I lacked your benevolence, so I wanted to surpass you in other areas. I never expected that Master would actually pass his mantle to me in the end. I suppose this must have been Master's test for the two of us."

Guan Yi stared blankly at Guan Yun, his lips trembling, seemingly at a loss for words. "I... But I..."

"Senior Brother, to be born human is to carry karmic hindrances and inner demons. We became monks to cultivate our minds; isn't it precisely to find a way to overcome them?" Guan Yun unexpectedly revealed a slight smile. "If we were truly flawless, we would have become Buddhas long ago. Why would we still linger in this mortal realm? Going through this tribulation allowed you and I to open up to each other honestly. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise."

The tears in Guan Yi's eyes flowed even more. Boundless shame made him cry like a child, but finally, a hint of vitality returned to his expression.

Guan Yun silently reflected on his previous stubbornness; he hadn't listened to advice, refusing to believe there were ghosts in his temple, and nearly caused a catastrophe. He owed his gratitude to that green-robed Daoist and ought to thank him. However, when he looked up to find Tan Yangzi, he realized the Daoist and the young man in red had already disappeared.

By now, the sky was fully bright. On the chilly early morning streets, there were already quite a few early-rising porters and pedestrians. Many breakfast stalls on both sides of Maxing Street had opened. Steaming hot spicy vegetable pancakes were being picked out from the bamboo steamers, wrapped in oiled paper, and handed to hurrying customers.

Tan Yangzi took a spicy vegetable pancake and immediately handed it to Yan Fei. Seeing that there was only one, Yan Fei asked him, "Master, aren't you eating?"

Tan Yangzi replied, "I'm not hungry."

Yan Fei said, "How can you not be hungry? You haven't eaten anything since you returned from Hell the day before yesterday!"

Tan Yangzi said as he walked, "Don't worry about me. Eat."

Yan Fei seemed even more unable to eat, asking worriedly, "Master, are we out of money, and that's why you only bought one?"

Tan Yangzi was so annoyed by him that he wanted to lash out, but seeing Yan Fei's sensible, worried look, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He took a few deep breaths before saying, "If you're not hungry, I'll give it to the beggar over there."

Seeing Tan Yangzi's clouded expression and the chilling aura spreading three feet around him, Yan Fei knew that Tan Yangzi was not far from being pissed off. So he quickly and obediently took a bite of the pancake in his hand. Seeing him looking as if he didn't even dare to breathe too loudly, Tan Yangzi's heart softened a little again.

He knew Yan Fei was waiting for a scolding...

"As for Guan Yi's matter, it's not your fault," Tan Yangzi said in a neutral tone. "I shouldn't have let you get involved in the first place."

Hearing this, Yan Fei became even more anxious. "Master, I'll definitely be more careful next time! You're not going back on your word, are you? You promised to let me catch ghosts with you!"

Tan Yangzi glanced at him. "I barely said anything, and you fire off a whole string of words. Who said anything about going back on their word?"

Yan Fei was stunned. "Oh..."

"What I meant is that you haven't undergone proper training, which is why you don't know how to hold back. Starting today, I will begin teaching you the spells of a Red Impermanence."

Yan Fei's beautiful phoenix eyes instantly widened, seemingly unable to believe his ears.

"Really?"

Tan Yangzi gave a faint "Mm," glanced at him, then frowned. He raised his hand and used his sleeve to gently wipe away a piece of shepherd's purse leaf stuck to Yan Fei's cheek, while saying coldly, "I don't know too many Red Impermanence spells, but it's enough to teach you for now. Don't expect me to go easy on you. My requirements will only be stricter than those of the Underworld Judges in Fengdu. If you can't endure it, you are never allowed to mention catching ghosts again."

As Yan Fei listened, his eyes lit up, and his smile became even more enchanting. It drew frequent backward glances from the passing pedestrians and porters, and even caused some people walking toward them to accidentally bump into each other.

Seeing him so happy, Tan Yangzi felt a faint warmth in his heart. Thanks to him last night, otherwise he didn't know how long he would have been trapped in that illusion. Regardless, he ought to reward him.

With this thought, he turned toward the direction of Cao Gate. Yan Fei, still in his excitement, saw him suddenly change direction and asked, "Aren't we going home?"

"Didn't I promise to buy you milk pudding yesterday?" Tan Yangzi replied without looking back.