Wandering Gods of Day and Night

"Naturally."

Boba moved his hand closer to the charcoal fire not far away, and said in a long, drawn-out tone, "History, you see, is like a little girl at others’ mercy for dressing up; when the years stretch too far back, there are far too many fabricated passages."

"For example?" Ning Jin Longba asked.

"Lord Longba, let me ask you: in this Genesis of the Snowfield, the body of the Tianpeng became Cuomu Peak of the Great Snow Mountain—then what of the Tianpeng’s soul?"

Boba asked.

Ning Jin Longba didn’t even think before saying, "Naturally it entered the human world of reincarnation, undying and indestructible. This is what’s recorded in the Buddha Mother Chapter of the Snow Mountain Reincarnation Scripture."

"That record is correct, but also not quite," the Boba Golden Buddha shook his head and said. "The soul of the Tianpeng did indeed enter reincarnation, repeatedly being reborn in the human world. However, it did not begin its cycle of reincarnation at that point in time."

Ning Jin Longba grew interested as well. Could the historical accounts he had heard since childhood actually be wrong?

He heard Boba say, "When the Ancient Buddha split open the belly of the Heavenly Peng Divine Bird, the Divine Soul of the Tianpeng Bird had, in fact, already merged with the Ancient Buddha.

From a certain perspective, the Tianpeng Bird is the Ancient Buddha, and the Ancient Buddha is the Tianpeng Bird."

"Hiss..." Longba drew in a long, cold breath and said, "With such a lineage, the Six Great Families would all the more not dare show disrespect to the reincarnation of the Tianpeng Bird."

Boba pressed down on Longba’s hand and said softly, "Be not impatient; listen to me in detail."

He continued, "Boba, the life of the Ancient Buddha was not pure goodness; he too had evil thoughts, and those evil thoughts were immense.

Once, when the Ancient Buddha went mad, he devoured ninety thousand people in a single day. Whence came such boundless evil intent?

It was precisely the Desire of that Tianpeng Bird at work.

The Tianpeng Bird is the evil thought of the Ancient Buddha—in plain terms, it is the festering sore clinging to the bones within the Ancient Buddha’s Divine Soul,

and only when the Ancient Buddha split himself into the Twenty-one Zen did the soul of that Tianpeng Bird finally separate completely and enter the cycle of all beings’ reincarnation."

"So there is such a past?"

Ning Jin Longba hurriedly asked.

"Of course there is."

Boba said, "Zhao Wuya is the reincarnation of the soul of the Tianpeng Bird. We regard Zhao Wuya as a sacrifice offered up to Will; this is precisely to truly remove that festering sore clinging to the Ancient Buddha’s bones.

This is a great deed, is it not?"

Ning Jin Longba nodded at this point and said, "This indeed counts as a good deed. I also trust that the golden Buddha does not speak lies; the truth about the Tianpeng he tells must be real.

It’s just that my believing alone is useless. The Six Great Families are many, and tongues are restless; how is the golden Buddha to make them believe—that the Tianpeng Bird is the Heart Demon of the Ancient Buddha?"

Boba said, "Return to your manor first. In a few days, I will send over a Heavenly Spirit. This Heavenly Spirit is the handiwork of the Ancient Buddha. Once you see it, you will know whether my words are false."

"Very well, very well."

Ning Jin Longba could no longer sit still. He rose to take his leave and said, "I find the golden Buddha’s plan to eliminate Zhou Xuan feasible.

As for the soul of the Tianpeng Bird, so long as solid evidence appears that the Tianpeng Bird is the Heart Demon of the Ancient Buddha, I will certainly persuade the Six Great Families to join in the action to annihilate Zhou Xuan,

and treat Zhao Wuya, the reincarnation of the Tianpeng Bird, as an offering of sacrifice."

"Walk slowly, Lord Longba. The wind outside is strong—take care."

"Thank you for your concern, golden Buddha."

Ning Jin Longba put on his fur hat, drew back the door bolt, and stepped into the wind and snow.

Inside the room, there were only three people left: Zhou Xuan, Boba, and the tea-serving female slave.

This female slave, as far as Zhou Xuan had observed—she was a mute, and at the same time a deaf person.

She had no sense of hearing.

This was also why Boba had not waved her away, even while discussing such secret matters.

Boba said to Zhou Xuan, "Ning Yu, go wait outside the room first. When I call you in, then come in."

"I respectfully follow Senior Brother’s decree."

Zhou Xuan withdrew to the outer room. Just as she was about to close the door, the female slave moved first to shut it. In their struggle over the door, it ended up catching the female slave’s fingers.

The Ten Fingers are linked to the Heart; the female slave hurt so much that she involuntarily opened her mouth and cried out.

At that moment, as she opened her mouth, Zhou Xuan finally saw clearly—the female slave’s tongue was extremely short, but this shortness was not some innate deformity. Judging from the neat, smooth break at the tip of the tongue,

this female slave’s tongue had actually been cut off by someone.

"Her muteness is not innate; then one can surmise that her deafness is not innate either."

Whether deaf or mute, both had been artificially created, so she could serve as Boba’s secret-keeping handmaid.

"This Reincarnation Temple has already fallen into the hands of the Buddha Country. This temple—how is it still a temple? It is simply a Hell."

Zhou Xuan said to himself in his heart,

but just as he finished saying this thought to himself, he felt something was off.

The Reincarnation Temple being this cruel was likely not something that only began after the Buddha Country arrived.

The people of the Buddha Country had only been here three hundred years, yet even before the Green Robed Buddha attained the Way, he had already witnessed the Life Temple Blood Sacrifice of the Reincarnation Temple.

"Evil-doing monks have existed since ancient times; it is not entirely the responsibility of the Buddha Country."

After the female slave finished screaming, she endured the pain and still slid the door bolt into place,

then Zhou Xuan only heard the faint sound of the female slave’s footsteps, and after that came the sound of bones being chewed, along with rough, hurried breathing.

"Hiss... that female slave is both deaf and mute—has she been killed by that Boba as well?"

Upon hearing this sound, two thoughts immediately arose in Zhou Xuan’s mind.

The first was to rush into the room and cut Boba down; this was his own subconscious impulse.

And the second thought came from Ning Yu. One must know that the Hundred Human Phenomena is not only a crude imitation of outward appearance; it also allows Zhou Xuan to merge into the true inner state of the person being imitated.