Chapter 9: Fortune Worth Ten Thousand Karma
It’s hard to understand the pain of ‘from surplus to scarcity’ if you’re not living in an era where horse-drawn carriages move so slowly.
In the days since Ouyang Rong woke up, he had been living an extremely ‘disciplined’ life:
After dinner in the evening, he would sit in his room in a daze, pondering the Gongde Tower. Aside from a few Buddhist scriptures borrowed from Xiufa, there was nothing else in the room.
Pushing open the west window, outside was the pitch-black wind, with only a few Buddhist lamps on the distant stupa.
There was only one clear thing to do: sleep.
He almost couldn't resist calling Ban Xi over again to challenge his soft spot.
At this hour, if it were in his previous life, the exciting nightlife would have just begun, and the Gentleman group of postgraduate friends wouldn't even have started their 'racing' yet.
Of course, if one were in Luoyang or Chang'an, the heart of the Great Zhou Empire, life might be richer.
If one could empathize with these feelings, then one could understand one percent of the reasons behind Ouyang Rong’s homesickness.
So, at this moment, in the middle of the night, Ouyang Rong couldn’t sleep, so he went out…
Ouyang Rong first went to the right wing room, found a string of ropes and a fire starter, and even took some pastries and fruits, carrying them in a cloth bag.
However, when he followed his memory back to Beitian Jiyang Hospital and groped his way to the well, he found the rope somewhat redundant.
Because there was a pile of soft rope ladders by the wellhead.
Ouyang Rong put down the rope ladder and entered the underground palace again.
It was the familiar location, the familiar time, and the familiar moonlight.
Only, the Mute Girl and the Old Daoist in Crane Cloak were no longer in the underground palace. But it was not surprising; those two should have been patients of the Beitian Jiyang Hospital, rescued and taken back, and he was not here to reminisce.
Tonight's moonlight was a bit dim.
Hiss~
A spark suddenly appeared out of nowhere, illuminating Ouyang Rong’s gaunt face.
“Good evening, Master Bu Zhi.”
The withered monk, dozing and nodding in the darkness, was startled awake, chanted a Buddhist prayer, and sincerely said: “Benefactor, this place is the Lotus Pure Land, and above is Infinite Hell!”
The monk again assumed the familiar compassionate posture, one hand pointing to the ground, the other to the sky.
Ouyang Rong thought for a moment, then nodded, “Master is the one who always speaks the truth. I misunderstood you before.”
He walked over, placed the pastries and fruits in front of Monk Xiuzhen, then, holding the fire starter, walked around the underground palace, beginning to carefully examine the place.
This underground palace was a square-like space, roughly half the size of a football field. The circular Lotus Pedestal in the center of the underground palace, and the well opening directly above it, perhaps represented the builder's concept of a round heaven and square earth.
Ouyang Rong walked around the walls of the underground palace, and this time he finally saw the murals he had previously overlooked.
The four walls were painted with rich, vibrant pigments, but due to years of disrepair and constant darkness in the underground palace, many parts of the murals had peeled off, yet Ouyang Rong could still generally recognize them.
The four murals corresponded to four Jataka tales: “sattva prince sacrifices himself to feed the tiger,” “King Sibi Sacrifices Flesh for a Dove,” “kuaimu king giving up eyes,” and “King Moonlight Giving His Head.”
The so-called Jataka tales actually all tell the stories of Sakyamuni's good deeds and Karma in his previous lives before becoming a Buddha. The most well-known among them should be the first one, “Sacrifices Himself to Feed the Tiger,” and the other three fables also convey the same message, emphasizing the Buddha's compassion, his endurance of humiliation and sacrifice over countless past lives to save the world and people, ultimately leading to his enlightenment.
Ouyang Rong pondered, then turned and walked towards the waisted, inverted lotus seat in the center of the underground palace.
If Master Shandao hadn't lied to him, then Master Zhong Ma, who achieved Buddhahood in the flesh, sat in this very spot… ascending to the Pure Land.
“After accumulating Karma, can one truly ascend to the Pure Land here? If I cure the flood, or do other great deeds of Karma, can I also ascend to the Pure Land?”
“Also, what exactly is the Pure Land? Is it truly going to the Western Paradise, or does everyone go to a different place, and if I wish it, can I return to my hometown?”
Ouyang Rong murmured, lowering his head in contemplation.
“Furthermore, since the body became Buddha and the soul ascended, what about the lifelike physical body that was left behind? I’d like to see it… uh.” Halfway through, Lord seemed to remember something, and with a slightly guilty look, he glanced at the half-broken lotus golden lamp not far away, and the strange oval beads scattered on the ground.
Initially, Ouyang Rong had taken this lotus golden lamp from an eight-layered treasure casket, which had been placed on the Lotus Pedestal. He found it beside him when he woke up.
And that eight-layered treasure casket was very large, like a Russian nesting doll, containing eight layers of boxes, and inside the innermost one was this lotus golden lamp.
It’s just that when he threw it as a handy object, he didn't expect that even this lotus golden lamp was just a storage container, and inside it were more precious Buddhist treasures. Later, he was in a hurry to leave, so he didn't pay attention to the beads on the ground.
Ahem, could these be the sarira of Master Zhong Ma or other eminent monks? That would be equivalent to ashes. So the lotus golden lamp was their urn… Ugh, what a sin, I see your Karma is being deducted like this.
Ouyang Rong sighed, looking down at the sarira on the ground again:
There were about seventeen of them, the smallest no bigger than a marble, the largest like a pigeon's egg, in various colors, and there was even one perfectly round and translucent, like a white diamond… Didn't they say sarira are actually kidney stones? You call this a kidney stone?
As expected of eminent monks, put them in a furnace and anything can be burned out, like opening a blind box… No, stop, can't laugh.
Ouyang Rong displayed the skill of a master of expression management, casually bending down to pick up the sarira on the ground one by one, but doing this did not increase his Karma.
However, Ouyang Rong now had a clearer understanding of some of the rules of the Gongde Tower: being a fun-seeker was allowed, but only in “thought,” not in “action.” A Gentleman judges by deeds, not by heart.
Listening to dark jokes and smiling about them on your face is a form of “action,” and the Buddha will deduct your Karma like crazy.
However, when he picked up the perfectly round and translucent sarira, he noticed that this sarira could glow faintly under the moonlight, like a night-luminous pearl. He immediately found it somewhat peculiar, and after a moment's thought, he sighed and put it into his sleeve. It couldn't be left to gather dust in this underground palace; he would keep it safe for the eminent monks.
Perhaps Lord was sincere, or perhaps these sarira were truly forgotten, ownerless objects at this moment, for no Karma was deducted from him…
Then Ouyang Rong caught sight of a line of text.
It was discovered when the fire starter illuminated the sarira.
It was located at the foot of this stone, waisted, inverted lotus seat, on the Southeast side, obscured by the shadow of the Lotus Pedestal. It was incised into the floor tile, which explained why it hadn't been discovered before—it was always in the blind spot of the sunlight and moonlight from the well opening.
“Returning Home?”
Ouyang Rong squatted down to look, and immediately remembered something.
Wasn't this the inscription Master Shandao mentioned, left by his grand-uncle-master before he “ascended to the Pure Land”? So it was still here… He had thought it was ink or blood writing, long since washed away.
As for the meaning of these four characters, it was very simple: Go back!
Ouyang Rong's eyes narrowed slightly. The marble tiles underfoot were already cold and hard, but the four regular script characters of “Returning Home” were deeply carved, as if etched with a sharp awl that could cut through iron like mud.
Subconsciously reaching out to touch the incised characters, in that instant, his whole body trembled, not from an electric shock to his fingertips, but from the faint sound of a resounding bell ringing in his ears.
This sudden change happened so quickly that Ouyang Rong’s brain didn’t have time to react before his consciousness was violently pulled into the Gongde Tower, located amidst the clouds ten thousand miles away.
“This is…”
Ouyang Rong stumbled to the ground, seeing the fortune bell above, which had been eternally silent, now faintly vibrating, with purple energy overflowing from its body.
It was like an old man in a bamboo hat, fishing alone in a cold river, standing up and shaking off a layer of snow.
It was as if a car had been ignited and started.
At the same time, the line of cyan-gold characters on the small wooden fish, which recorded the Karma value, shone brightly, finally transforming into a cluster of light, like a living creature, shaped like a “swimming carp” in a pond.
It suddenly rushed towards the fortune bell!
Then… it bounced back, returning to the small wooden fish, transforming into a line of cyan-gold characters: 【Karma: One Hundred】
And the fortune bell still trembled slightly, “shaking snow,” unharmed and unchanged, as if the “swimming carp” just now was too weak to move it in the slightest, let alone ring it.
Witnessing this scene, Ouyang Rong stared blankly, slowly processing the shock, “Not enough Karma…”
The “swimming carp” that Ouyang Rong’s accumulated Karma value had transformed into seemed to have some mysterious connection with him, and after being bounced back to its original state, a profound piece of information appeared in his mind and was processed.
“It actually takes ten thousand Karma to ring the bronze bell and obtain the true fortune… And I only have one hundred points now, still ninety-nine hundred points short, damn it.”
Ouyang Rong fell into deep thought.
In reality, because his hand had been removed from the four-character inscription, the fortune bell had already returned to silence, and the Gongde Tower had once again hidden itself in the clouds.
Without a doubt, this four-character inscription and the Lotus Pedestal concealed a secret fortune.
And this fortune was clearly not small, requiring such a huge Karma value. This roughly… would be enough for him to watch dark jokes for a lifetime.
Ouyang Rong looked down at the four-character inscription in the shadows.
“Jingtu Underground Palace… Jataka tales… enlightened monks… Returning Home fortune… Are these all coincidences, or is it truly… the way home?”
The light and shadow on his face flickered erratically.
…
Thanks to “The Impermanence of the World_Obsessed and Unenlightened,” “Searching for Dragons but Seeing No Shadow,” and “Syfct” for the generous tips! Thanks to my brothers for their monthly votes!