Chapter 28 – Enacting Justice on Behalf of Heaven
“Heaven Beyond Heavens?”
Monk Budu, satisfied to see looks of astonishment on all three faces, nodded with a sense of accomplishment. “That’s right. The reason the Hundred Clans dare to launch a southern expedition against the Witch Clan without fear of the Immortal Sects joining forces to stop them is because they have the support of Heaven Beyond Heavens.”
“Incomplete Mountain broke, separating the upper and lower realms. Heaven and earth were severed, and then came the world beyond.” Chou Bodeng frowned. “Doesn’t Heaven Beyond Heavens love to put on a high and mighty act, staying out of worldly affairs? Why are they getting involved this time?”
“Eh?!” Zuo Yuesheng looked at Chou Bodeng in confusion. “Incomplete Mountain broke, separating the upper and lower… isn’t that a line from the Records of Ancient Stone Steles? You just borrowed that book from me the day before yesterday. Did you just happen to read that part, or did you finish the whole thing? Fuck, no way, Young Master Chou, you read that fast?”
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Chou Bodeng said modestly. “I just read ten lines at a glance and have a photographic memory, that’s all.”
Lu Jing gave Chou Bodeng a dark look, his tone as sour as it could be. “A fine ‘read ten lines at a glance and have a photographic memory, that’s all’! If I had your ability, why would I have had my ears pulled by my elder brothers for being a good-for-nothing for so many years… No, wait, what does ‘Incomplete Mountain broke, separating the upper and lower realms. Heaven and earth were severed, and then came the world beyond’ mean? Can you guys say something I can understand?”
As he spoke, Lu Jing was overcome with grief.
Damn you, Chou Bodeng! The three of them had clearly been eating, drinking, and playing together most of the time these past few days. It made him think everyone was the same, but he never expected this guy to be secretly reading books…
What happened to being fellow unlearned profligates?!
“And you, Fatty!” Lu Jing felt betrayed. “How do you know it too!”
“Basically all the most valuable heavenly weapons and most secret treasures are recorded in the Records of Ancient Stone Steles,” Zuo Yuesheng looked at Lu Jing strangely. “You’ve listened to so many stories, don’t you ever fantasize about encountering a divine weapon falling from the sky, and from then on, killing gods and Buddhas who stand in your way?”
Lu Jing, who had only ever paid attention to the romance in those stories: …
He resolutely wiped his face and looked at Chou Bodeng. “You’d better explain what that sentence means.”
Chou Bodeng felt a little reluctant to acknowledge this “bosom buddy.”
So stupid.
“Heaven Beyond Heavens, the mortal realm, and the Great Wilderness—the division of the three realms didn’t exist from the beginning.”
As Chou Bodeng spoke, he habitually went to tap his fingers on the chair. Zuo Yuesheng, quick as a flash, handed him a gavel. Chou Bodeng couldn’t be bothered to act up. With a tap of the gavel, he lowered his voice and began to recount the history recorded in the ancient heavenly scripture, just like a storyteller.
“In the very beginning, Heaven Beyond Heavens was just a city of clouds on Incomplete Mountain, and the High Gods did not always reside high above in the heavens.”
“Back then, there was no distinction between ‘High Gods’ and ‘mortals’.”
“It was a chaotic mix. Most of them lived on the Twelve Continents of the Central Lands. The Records of Ancient Stone Steles describe it as ‘people and gods intermingled, beyond description.’ It is said that ‘in the beginning, the world was connected, heaven and earth were connected; one could ascend to heaven at dawn and descend at dusk, there were words between heaven and earth, words at dawn, words at dusk.’ Even when they returned to the heavens, the distance between heaven and earth was still very close.”
Chou Bodeng’s voice was very clear. He usually spoke with a proud and flamboyant air, but when he lowered it slightly, it flowed like still water from under black ice, seeming to meander from the primeval era to the present.
It was a time of countless millennia ago, the Primeval Era.
Mountains and rivers stretched on, and gods and humans walked hand in hand between heaven and earth, as friends and neighbors. There was a mountain called “Incomplete,” which was the link between the upper and lower realms. To leave the ground and return to the city of clouds, one would climb the ladder to visit. The relationship between gods and humans was so good that during the day, they would speak their thoughts to the clouds, and at night, the wind would carry the gods’ responses from the high heavens to the ground…
Words at dawn and dusk, never apart.
“Later, ‘Incomplete Mountain broke, heaven and earth were divided.’ The ‘heaven and earth’ here probably doesn’t refer to the sky and the land, but to gods and humans. Because from this sentence onward, the Records of Ancient Stone Steles no longer mention the ‘city of clouds.’ The city of clouds became Heaven Beyond Heavens, and those who used to live in the city became the ‘High Gods’ of today.”
“And that is ‘Incomplete Mountain broke to separate the upper and lower, heaven and earth were severed, and then came the world beyond’.”
And so, there were no more thoughts entrusted to the white clouds, no more responses hidden in the night wind.
Heaven and earth were severed, vast and empty.
“How could that happen?” Lu Jing couldn’t help but cry out. “How… how did Incomplete Mountain break, and how were heaven and earth severed?”
They had been living together in a jumble, speaking at dawn and dusk.
“Who knows?”
Chou Bodeng tossed the gavel back to Zuo Yuesheng and casually answered Lu Jing.
Compared to how Incomplete Mountain broke and how gods and humans fell out, Chou Bodeng was more concerned about something else.
Modern scholars and folklorists, when studying prehistoric beliefs, often found that civilizations in various places had this kind of narrative of “gods and humans moving from cohabitation to separation.” One of the explanations proposed by academia was that humans have an instinct to explore the origin of the world. Different ethnic groups would create different gods based on their observations of natural phenomena, endowing them with the ability to create the world. But gods do not exist, so primitive peoples would invariably imagine stories of “separation” to explain their departure.
The ancient records of Incomplete Mountain’s breaking mirrored this hypothesis of separation.
When he read the book, the plot’s development revolved around the protagonist, Ye Cang, leveling up and fighting monsters. But the real world was an iceberg. What he had read in the novel was only the tip, while the part hidden beneath the water was as vast as a dark cloud.
Just like…
Clap, clap, clap!
“Benefactor Chou is so knowledgeable!” Monk Budu clapped his hands, his voice filled with passion. “So, you three benefactors, aren’t you curious about who Heaven Beyond Heavens wants to kill! For just ten thousand gold, you can take home this shocking inside story! This offer is for a limited time only, don’t miss this opportunity!”
The little bit of sadness Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing felt was instantly washed away by the ridiculous monk.
“Isn’t it just Shi Wuluo?” Zuo Yuesheng rolled his eyes. “Buy your head. Ten thousand gold, my ass!”
“What?” Monk Budu was shocked. “How could this be? This is a secret!”
Lu Jing found a bit of confidence from “so I’m not the dumbest one,” and snickered. “Bald donkey, are you stupid or what? If you had said, ‘Want to know why the Hundred Clans are attacking the Witch Clan,’ you might have been able to sell it for some money. But you yourself blurted out the biggest mystery, ‘Heaven Beyond Heavens’… Hey, isn’t the most famous person in the Witch Clan known as ‘enemy of gods and ghosts’? Tsk, with your skill level, no one would even listen to you if you were a storyteller in a teahouse.”
Monk Budu looked like he was full of regret. “This humble monk fell into a trap! This humble monk fell into a trap!”
“Don’t ‘fall into a trap’ anymore,” Chou Bodeng said with a smile. “You should first tell us what else you observed besides the Kui Dragon Bracelet, the Three Lives Flower, and the Nine Dragons Cauldron. While we still have some spare cash on us, just say it all at once. Don’t be so wishy-washy, it makes it hard for us to pay you.”
“Benefactor Chou is truly worthy of being at the top of the list, so generous!” Monk Budu’s face lit up with joy, but then he wrung his hands and sighed. “Aiya! To be honest, this humble monk’s cultivation of ‘Observing All Beings’ is not very good… Right now, I can only see your most recent pasts. Why don’t… we benefactors keep in touch? Next time I observe other pasts, I’ll come again…”
As he spoke, Monk Budu gave a “you know what I mean” smile.
Zuo Yuesheng almost wanted to curse him directly.
—Dead bald donkey, you’re planning on long-term blackmail?
However, Zuo Yuesheng still believed what Monk Budu said.
Although Observing All Beings was an extremely profound and mysterious Buddhist divine art, it was actually a bit of a chicken rib…
It was a divine art developed by that group of bald donkeys in the Buddhist Sect to spread Buddhism. It was generally used to look at the past of mortals to understand their attachments and prescribe the right remedy to convert them.
When used to observe cultivators, it was quite limited. First, one could not observe those with higher cultivation. Second, when observing those with lower cultivation, unless one’s own cultivation of Observing All Beings was at its peak, one could only see fragmented parts. If one were to delve deeper, it could be said that because cultivators defy life and death and reverse aging, their fate is already intertwined with heaven and earth, making it difficult to determine.
Zuo Yuesheng remembered that when old bald donkey Xingkong mentioned Observing All Beings, he had once said, “All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like dew or a flash of lightning; thus should you view them.”
As his thoughts turned, Zuo Yuesheng, with his hand behind his back, secretly poked Chou Bodeng.
“Can’t you also see the future?” Chou Bodeng’s smile didn’t change. “What kind of calamity of bloodshed is it? Tell us in detail. As for the money… a mere ten thousand gold, what’s that to talk about!”
As he spoke, he waved his hand with a flourish, and a real rain of gold suddenly clattered down from the air.
Gold ingots piled up into a mountain.
“Ahem, ahem.” Monk Budu’s eyes went wide. In an instant, he felt that this Benefactor Chou’s karmic bond with Buddha was deeper than deep. “But, if you benefactors are not willing to let this humble monk accept some alms, this humble monk will send out a letter… I heard that the Medicine Valley Master and a Taiyi elder have already set off for the Mountain Sea Pavilion. The three of you benefactors will go to Ru City to take the teleportation formation back to the Mountain Sea Pavilion… isn’t that a calamity of bloodshed?”
“Fuck!” Zuo Yuesheng couldn’t hold back this time and cursed directly. “You bastard, you really are just a scammer!”
“Benefactor, that’s not right,” Monk Budu said righteously. “How can asking for alms be called a scam?”
“That’s not right!” Chou Bodeng said thoughtfully. “You can’t see the future, so how did you know we were going to Ru City, and how did you squat there specifically for us? Monk, if you’re lying, forget ten thousand gold, I won’t even give you a single copper coin.”
“If I had cultivated to the point where I could see the future, I would have long been telling fortunes and divining fates. Why would I need to resort to blackmail?” Monk Budu, hearing that the gold was about to fly away, hurriedly revealed his heart. “From the founding of the Buddhist Sect until now, not a single person who could see the future has appeared! Benefactor Chou! Every word this humble monk says is true!”
“Then how did you squat there in advance?” Chou Bodeng asked patiently.
“It was a guy who called himself a disciple of Gui Guzi who did a divination for me, pah!” Monk Budu suddenly became indignant. “The next time this humble monk sees him, I’ll smash his stall! What kind of crappy divination was that! It almost starved me to death in the miasma!”
“I see,” Chou Bodeng clapped his hands. “Alright, we understand.”
“Then the gold, this humble monk will just…”
Monk Budu shyly reached for the gold ingots beside him.
“Take it,” Chou Bodeng said with a grin, making a gesture. “Please!”
“How virtuous, how virtuous!”
Monk Budu was overjoyed and bent down to collect the gold.
Just as he bent over, the sheathed Taiyi Sword, which had been hovering in mid-air, shot down, aiming for the back of the monk’s neck. Monk Budu, maintaining his palms-together posture, slid forward on his knees in a bow, and the Taiyi Sword grazed past his neck. Chou Bodeng caught the sword in mid-air.
“Benefactors! This isn’t right!” Monk Budu waved his robe sleeve, not forgetting to tuck the gold into it. “Killing is a great sin!”
“Dead bald donkey!” Zuo Yuesheng threw three Spirit-Containing Pearls. “Trying to blackmail your grandpa! Didn’t you ask who’s the daddy in all of Qing Province!”
“I told you, for a monk, can it be called blackmail?”
Monk Budu leaped up, dodging the saber that swept towards him from Lu Jing. His tattered monk’s robe burst with a brilliant golden light, blocking the light from the three exploding Spirit-Containing Pearls.
“It’s called asking for alms!”
“Then teaching a scammer a lesson, how can that be called killing?” Chou Bodeng’s voice had not yet faded when he had already arrived, the Taiyi Sword sweeping out to strike Monk Budu. “It’s called enacting justice on behalf of Heaven!”