Chapter 306: The Buddha Statue

Divine Monk Dazhi spoke on the Nine Realms: that when greed arises in the heart, one becomes a hungry ghost, forever unsatisfied and constantly tormented, and in the end becomes a puppet of one’s own craving; that if anger enters the sea of consciousness without inquiry or reflection, one is always driven by others, without wisdom or knowledge, no different from a beast, suffering in all ways...

The Dharma was explained in a way that was deep yet easy to grasp, and so engaging that many believers and martial artists gained insight and began reflecting on their own mindsets.

Ding Songyan quietly took a couple of looks at the thin, short divine monk with the Candle-Star Pupils and the Celestial Heart state, and found no disguise or falsehood, and no Demon Seed in him.

Considering that his own realm might not be enough to see through a Supreme Master’s problems, Ding Songyan turned his head to Twelfth Madam Luo beside him and asked in a low voice, "How is it?"

Twelfth Madam Luo was listening to the Dharma with great enjoyment. She shook her head slightly.

"He lives up to his name."

He really is a highly virtuous monk... The worst case I’d imagined was that he was another identity, or another face, of the Demon Sovereign, and the better case was that he had some secret connection with the Demon Sovereign... Was Perfected Xiang deliberately misleading me, and was I overthinking? Ding Songyan’s eyes showed thought.

Since he hadn’t been able to find anything suspicious about Divine Monk Dazhi, all he could do was listen to the talk closely.

For him, it would help him draw parallels too.

Anyway, the trip couldn’t be a waste.

When Divine Monk Dazhi finished and left the platform, Ding Songyan, with a sword in one hand and two prayer cushions in the other arm, walked toward the dining hall with Twelfth Madam Luo.

"It seems the Xie Linshi matter has nothing to do with Divine Monk Dazhi," Twelfth Madam Luo said plainly as she walked slowly.

A truly virtuous monk was unlikely to collude with evil heretics.

"It may not be Divine Monk Dazhi, but possibly another monk," Ding Songyan said after thinking. "Divine Monk Dazhi has been in the capital only a short while, and may not even have met Third Old Master Xie."

Twelfth Madam Luo nodded lightly.

"It’s still early for lunch. Let’s wander around."

That meant observing Shilin Temple’s other monks, especially those with a reputation who could discuss the profound Dharma with Third Old Master Xie.

"Sure." Ding Songyan agreed first, then sighed. "If the problem with Third Old Master Xie isn’t at Shilin Temple, it’s actually worse."

Twelfth Madam Luo shot him a glance.

"Who do you suspect?"

"The Fang family," Ding Songyan said in a low voice. "On the surface, Third Old Master Xie’s last two outings were both to visit Yama’s Smile Fang Zhenhai, the Imperial Father-in-law."

"No reason for it," Twelfth Madam Luo gave her view.

That had been Ding Songyan’s first judgment too. The Jianwu Emperor had three sons and four daughters and no shortage of heirs, but Empress Fang had only two princesses. If something happened to the Jianwu Emperor, she could use her status as Empress Dowager plus the Fang family’s support to control the successor prince, but it would still be one step removed, and a concubine who rose by her son could also ally with other powers, such as the Hong’s main branch.

In the Great Wilderness, thanks to the Yin-Yang Order and the fertility-boosting immortal herbs and divine fruits, emperors through the ages rarely lacked heirs that required them to adopt from side branches.

Ding Songyan said with a self-mocking tone, "I think so too, but once you eliminate every impossibility, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

"I hope it doesn’t come to that."

The two fell silent at once and wandered around Shilin Temple, "returning" the prayer cushions along the way.

After a while, they stepped into the main Buddha hall.

The golden statue enshrined in the central hall was the Buddha, with a great Arhat on each side, but they weren’t the Ananda and Kasyapa that Ding Songyan was accustomed to.

"One is Arhat Shenhui, who founded the Nine Realms teaching. The Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect believes he sat in meditation to nirvana and entered the Pure Land and became a great Arhat. The other is Hongxin, the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect’s founding patriarch. He never actually entered the Spirit Platform Realm, only the Heaven-Man Realm, but as the founder, he has to be enshrined," Twelfth Madam Luo introduced to Ding Songyan amid the curling incense smoke.

Different Buddhist sects worship different buddhas and bodhisattvas, but they all raise their own patriarchs up there... That makes sense. Their own patriarchs really had martial arts and truly had supernatural powers... Ding Songyan handed his sword to Twelfth Madam.

"Hold this for me."

"What are you doing?" Twelfth Madam Luo took the sword with some curiosity.

"Offering incense and a bow." Ding Songyan bought a stick of incense with a few copper coins.

Twelfth Madam Luo looked him over.

"You believe in Buddhism?"

I can’t tell at all from how he usually acts.

"No." Ding Songyan shook his head. "If I have to say, the only one I believe in is the Celestial Thearch."

The Celestial Thearch really exists, and has even looked at me!

Before Twelfth Madam Luo could ask more, he explained with a smile, "Since we’re here anyway, bowing costs nothing. Better too much courtesy than too little, and the gods won’t mind."

He lit the incense, bowed three times to the golden Buddha statue, and placed it in the incense burner.

Twelfth Madam Luo watched coolly, and after returning the sword to Ding Songyan, went to buy a stick of incense as well.

"You’re bowing too?" Ding Songyan asked, amused.

Twelfth Madam Luo scoffed.

"You just said better too much courtesy than too little. If I skipped the courtesy, wouldn’t it look like I was badly brought up?"

She bowed properly and offered the incense and candles.

The duo then passed through the main Buddha hall and a courtyard to the rear hall, which also enshrined a golden Buddha statue, but its appearance differed from the one in the main hall.

This one sat high on a lotus platform, one hand raised in a flower-holding gesture, the other hanging down in the earth-touching mudra, subduing a Heavenly Demon.

The Heavenly Demon’s body was bluish-black, its features fierce, its black hair disheveled, its thick eyebrows slanting upward.

"The Heavenly Demon of the Paranirmita Heaven," Twelfth Madam Luo said briefly.

The Heavenly Demon who enjoys the pleasures of others... Earlier, when Tan Guanchan made his move from afar through Faxin’s heart demon, I almost thought he had broken through the heaven-earth severance and validated the Way of Paranirmita... He can plant Demon Seeds and harvest Demon Seeds, taking others’ sins and heart demons, which is no different in essence from the Demon King of the Paranirmita Heaven who enjoys others’ pleasures. It’s just that he’s limited by the heaven-earth severance and can’t reach divine heights, and has to painstakingly create and use Demon Seeds... Ding Songyan gazed thoughtfully at the golden Buddha statue subduing the Heavenly Demon for a while.

He had just turned to walk toward the rear hall door with Twelfth Madam Luo when a thought suddenly rose.

"Twelfth Madam." Ding Songyan stopped, turned back toward the golden Buddha statue, drew a breath, and said, "Does Buddhism have incense deities?"

"Whether Buddhist, Daoist, or Confucian, as long as the incense is plentiful enough and unbroken for a thousand years, an incense deity can be born," Twelfth Madam Luo thought and said. "Counting from when Dao’an gave his first Dharma talk, Buddhism has lasted only a bit over 1600 years, with several periods when believers were very few and incense insufficient. Mm, counting all six schools and seven sects of Buddhism plus the small sects, there are no more than three incense deities. The one widely known is mainly the Buddha’s incense deity, one of the few Spirit Platform Realm incense deities."

Ding Songyan’s gaze moved down from the golden Buddha statue to the statue of the Heavenly Demon.

He frowned slightly.

"When believers worship the Buddha, might they also mutter about the Heavenly Demon, feeling fear toward it, so that He too gets plenty of incense around it?"

Since incense deities needed a thousand years of worship to be born, a sect’s long history really could equal power. Yet most sects couldn’t produce enough incense from their own disciples alone. They needed myths spreading and large numbers of ordinary people worshipping daily for the objects of their worship to become incense deities.

Twelfth Madam Luo understood Ding Songyan’s thinking.

"You’re worried the Heavenly Demon has an incense deity and Tan Guanchan is eyeing it?"

The Demon Seed method seemed almost personally taught by the Heavenly Demon.

"Tan Guanchan might want one face to be Qiongqi and one to be the Heavenly Demon..." Ding Songyan nodded lightly.

Twelfth Madam Luo shook her head.

"Unless large numbers of believers have been worshipping the Heavenly Demon separately for a thousand years, being part of the Buddha’s legend wouldn’t give rise to an incense deity on its own."

"I see..." Ding Songyan breathed a sigh of relief.

The Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect had only a little over two hundred years of history, and besides those who cultivated the Nine Realms method, few sects would have made the Heavenly Demon part of a Buddha statue.

Ding Songyan instinctively recalled the only incense deity he had seen, Zhurong with His feet on two fire dragons.

His expression suddenly froze, and he asked again, "Could the Buddha’s incense deity have one aspect like the following? An aspect that the Heavenly Demon of the Paranirmita Heaven is subdued beneath the lotus platform?"

Twelfth Madam Luo paused a few breaths before saying,"Possibly."

"Would such a Heavenly Demon of the Paranirmita Heaven be the equivalent of a Demon Seed suppressed by the Buddha?" Ding Songyan pressed.

After a long silence, Twelfth Madam Luo said, "I don’t know much about Buddhist matters, so I can’t answer you."

Was using the Demon Seed method and the Heavenly Demon to target the Buddha’s incense deity Tan Guanchan’s main purpose in hiding at Shilin Temple? Were all the other things, hinting that Jiang Weichen was in the Yin-Yang Order or influencing the fallen monks in the temple, just covers for the main purpose, or incidental? Ding Songyan sucked in a breath and, using the barrier of Establishing the Six Directions, told Twelfth Madam his guess.

Twelfth Madam Luo’s eyes turned.

"Whether you’re right or wrong, I think it’s necessary to warn the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect. If the shoe fits, wear it; if not, take it as a reminder."

Before Ding Songyan could volunteer, the shopkeeper said on her own, "I’ll do it."

She was worried that Shilin Temple still had hidden dangers Ding Songyan couldn’t handle, and that she’d be needed then.

"Not just Divine Monk Dazhi. Monk Fumo needs to know too," Ding Songyan said after thinking. "It’s best to leave word with the Martial Prohibition Bureau as well."

That way it wouldn’t get suppressed.

Twelfth Madam Luo nodded lightly, looked at Ding Songyan, and teased, "For you to think that one aspect of the Buddha’s incense deity is subduing the Heavenly Demon, and that Tan Guanchan might exploit it, is no small thing. Your mind is a bit too nimble."

"I got it from Zhurong having His feet on two fire dragons," Ding Songyan said, pretending not to notice that Twelfth Madam was teasing him about having the manner of a Sage-Severing Way member.

He weighed his words and asked again, "Do name and reality match on this Buddha statue?"

Twelfth Madam Luo tersely acknowledged, meaning she saw nothing wrong.

The Buddha’s incense deity surely isn’t here, but if Tan Guanchan really did use the Heavenly Demon’s legend to do something sneaky, this statue might retain some trace, since Tan Guanchan had been hiding in Shilin Temple earlier... With Twelfth Madam backing him up, Ding Songyan said in a low voice, "I’ll take a look with the Candle-Star Pupils and the Celestial Heart state."

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