the sage who transcended samsara
Translator: Christina Editor: Rundi
“The Sutras Depository?” Zhen Yong raised his brows, and then grinned broadly. “Brother Zhen Ding, coincidently, the Warrior-monk Yard won’t start practicing fist techniques until this afternoon. How about I go to the Depository with you, and help you with the sweeping? Hehe, to be honest, I am curious about that place too.”
“But…” Meng Qi worried that this would be against the rules.
Zhen Yong said with a bright smile, “Don’t worry. Every monk in Shaolin has access to the lower two floors of the Sutras Depository. The only reason that I didn’t go earlier was because I didn’t have the time. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Uncle Xuan Xin about it.”
Even before the sound of his voice died away, in less than a second Zhen Hui disappeared into Xuan Xin’s room, which stupefied Zhen Yong.
Meng Qi gave a hollow laugh. “That’s him. He takes everything seriously.”
“Well, that usually is the right thing to do.” Zhen Yong uncontrollably laughed.
These days he had frequently visited Meng Qi to learn about reading and writing, and at the same time he often helped Meng Qi and Zhen Hui with their chores. He was a straightforward and generous guy, and was also very eloquent.
“Uncle Xuan Xin said that Brother Zhen Yong was right,” Zhen Hui ran out from the room and yelled.
“Haha, let’s go then.” Zhen Yong laughed.
The Sutras Depository was located on a cliff on the same mountain as Shaolin Temple. It was a standalone four-floor building that conveyed a proud loneliness. Because there was nothing around it, a few flying birds immediately drew people’s attention.
After entering the Depository, the first thing Meng Qi did was pour himself a cup of water and drank it at once. The distance between the Chores Yard and the Depository was so far, and the autumn weather was so dry. He was way too thirsty.
On the other hand, Zhen Hui walked towards the bookshelf and started to read through every sutra earnestly.
“Hey, Brother Zhen Hui, what are you doing? You like to read sutras?” Zhen Yong found it both funny and confusing.
Meng Qi didn’t understand Zhen Hui’s behavior either. He looked to Zhen Hui and poured himself another cup of water.
Zhen Hui seemed very serious and said somewhat hopefully, “There might be an ultimate Kungfu hidden in these sutras.”
Meng Qi uncontrollably spat the water that he just drank all over Zhen Yong’s face. Is this kid poisoned by Wuxia stories? Or is it just that he believed in me too much and whatever I said was facts and the truth?
Zhen Yong wiped his face confusedly and looked at Meng Qi. “Brother Zhen Ding, what is so funny? What Brother Zhen Ding said is not impossible.”
“Yeah! And this is what big brother secretly told me!” Zhen Hui continued to flip through the pages earnestly.
“…” Meng Qi didn’t know what to say. Even though he found it ridiculous, he said calmly, “Little brother, no need to rush. We will visit here every day anyways; let’s do the cleaning first so that we won’t be punished.”
Hearing these words from his most respected big brother, Zhen Hui put down the sutras immediately and began to sweep the Depository with Meng Qi and Zhen Yong.
They were almost done cleaning when it was around 12:45 pm. Meng Qi was about to start “reading” the sutras when Zhen Yong, clutching his stomach, suddenly yelled anxiously, “Eh, my two brothers, there are three necessities for a human being. I need to go to the washroom.”
As he spoke, he swiftly ran to the stairs and disappeared.
Meng Qi didn’t care that much, and asked Zhen Hui to pay close attention to how the sutras were classified and arranged, and see if there were any noticeable trends.
After about 15 minutes, Zhen Yong returned with an extremely pale face.
“Brother Zhen Yong, are you alright?” Meng Qi asked with concern.
Zhen Yong shook his head. “I think I ate something bad.”
Like Meng Qi and Zhen Hui, he began to browse the names of the books. Suddenly, he chuckled. “I didn’t expect that they would have Arhat Fists here.”
“Arhat Fists? Isn’t that the fist technique that brother you practice daily?” Meng Qi promptly looked over.
Zhen Yong pulled out the book from the shelf and handed it over to Meng Qi. “Yes. I actually thought it would be somewhere upstairs.”
Meng Qi greedily flipped through the pages. He wanted to memorize everything he saw.
“Hehe, Brother Zhen Ding, I can help you with it if you want.” Zhen Yong smiled broadly.
Meng Qi was delighted but also worried, “Is-is that allowed?”
It was against the rules to learn Kungfu without permission!
Zhen Hui also had his big eyes wide-opened, and looked at Zhen Yong with a hidden excitement.
Zhen Yong pointed at the book and said, “Since this book is in a place where everyone has access to it, I believe it is a basic Kungfu that everyone can learn, and it won’t be against the rules.”
“Ok.” Meng Qi still felt worried. With the book in hand, he went back to the main floor to ask the depository librarian about it.
The old librarian monk had withered and yellowish brows. He had deep wrinkles all over his face and it seemed like he would immediately die in the next second. Now, he was napping with his eyes half closed.
“Hello great granduncle, this book isn’t placed on the wrong floor, is it?” Meng Qi asked cautiously.
According to Xuan Xin, the Dharma name of this old monk was “Kong Hui”, and he was in the same generation as His Abbotship Kong Wen. This meant that he was three generations above Meng Qi. In Shaolin, there was the order of “Xin Kong Wu Xuan Zhen, Qing Jing Zhi Hui Shen”.
Kong Hui opened his blurry eyes and looked Meng Qi over. He replied leisurely, “Arhat Fists is spread widely in Jianghu. There is nothing special about it.”
This means that I can learn it! Meng Qi thought with rapture. Even though there was nothing special about this Kungfu, it was better than nothing.
He happily returned to the second floor, and bowed solemnly to Zhen Yong. “Brother, please instruct me.”
After this, they learned Kungfu until late afternoon, and Meng Qi felt that all the strength in his body converged into one single stream of energy.
Because he needed to go back to the Warrior-monk Yard to practice Kungfu, Zhen Yong left in a hurry. On the other hand Meng Qi and Zhen Hui rambled on the mountain with great satisfaction.
As they walked, Meng Qi suddenly realized that there was something weird about Zhen Hui- he was always staring at the abyss below the cliff.
“Little brother, what are you looking at?” Meng Qi found it suspicious.
Zhen Hui answered with a frown, “Big brother, if I jump off the cliff, will I find super strong Kungfu records and godlike weapons? Wait no; I didn’t see a deity sword-dancing down there…”
Meng Qi’s face froze. “This is bad… I have led the kid onto a wrong path…”
“No, I must make him turn back!” Meng Qi thought about it, and recalled that Zhen Hui had so much trust in him, so he said in way that was half trying to “save” Zhen Hui and half wanting to prank him, “Little brother, let’s change to a different story tonight.”
“What story?” Zhen Hui asked very excitedly.
Meng Qi smirked. “It is a story about Xia Yu He from the lakeside of Lake Ming.”
“Oh, is she a Kungfu master?” Zhen Hui asked curiously and happily.
“…” Meng Qi was speechless.
…
The moon was hidden by black clouds, and the cold wind blew fiercely. The paper windows of the Chores Yard squeaked as wind blew, and the char monks had to put on an extra layer of quilt. However, Zhen Ying and Zhen Guan still curled up in their beds out of coldness.
Meng Qi didn’t even notice the coldness. He sat cross-legged and was peacefully in Ding. The only feeling he had was that genuine Qi was climbing through his body, converging into “sweet dew”, and filling into acupuncture points.
As soon as the Qi was filled in, Meng Qi immediately felt that all the 365 major acupuncture points in his body were swelling. When the genuine Qi flushed out, the major Qi vessels were being washed out by a flood, and opened up respectively. It felt exactly like what had been said- when filled with Qi, vessels open naturally.
Normally, ordinary people would need to spend quite some time on this step. However, since Meng Qi’s body had already finished “Hundred-day Foundation” previously, there weren’t any obstacles in his vessels, and he easily freed up his Qi vessels.
Meng Qi slowly opened his eyes and felt completely refreshed, as if he had unlimited strength. He understood that he had already finished the first step on the path of Kungfu.
He repressed his desire to jump off the bed and practice Arhat Fists, and gave a long sigh. There wasn’t much happiness in his heart. First, it was because “Hundred-day foundation” was relatively easy and didn’t require any technique, and second it was because it had been another few months and he had pretty much mastered Arhat Fists. However, there still didn’t seem to be any hope for him to leave the Chores Yard.
Also, if he didn’t leave the Chores Yard, he would never have the chance to learn more advanced Kungfu! No need to mention the ultimate Kungfu which would make him stronger than everyone else.
Sigh… The millions of worries and anxiety in Meng Qi’s mind expressed themselves through a long moan.
…
“Zhen Ding, for these two days there will be no lessons in the Sutras Yard. You will be responsible for cleaning the Meditation Yard. Don’t ever offend our respected guests,” This morning after breakfast, Xuan Xin called Meng Qi to find him.
“Respected guests? Uncle Xuan Xin, I wonder which sects are these masters from?” Meng Qi wanted to know clearly about the details so that he wouldn’t offend any of them.
Xuan Xin smiled and said, “Zhen Wu, Xuan Tian, Xi Jian, Huan Hua, Qing Chen, Da Jiang and other sects from the Great Jin Dynasty are invited by Shaolin to this meeting. The masters in these sects will bring young disciples together and discuss and practice Kungfu. It is a platform for the most talented young disciples from each sect to compete, improve, and widen their horizons.”
Meng Qi felt a chill. These were among the largest Kungfu sects in the world! For example, Zhen Wu Sect and Xuan Tian Sect were two of the Three Taoist Sects, Xi Jian and Huan Hua both belonged to the Six Sword Sects, and Qing Chen and Da Jia were among the Six Powerful Societies.
“The most talented young disciples?” Meng Qi asked subconsciously. After all, he was a young Shaolin disciple, too, and it was inevitable that he wanted to compare himself to these other disciples.
Xuan Xin stroked his round and fat belly and laughed. “Why are you asking this? You don’t think you can compete with them, do you? You are only a char monk who just finished ‘Hundred-day Foundation’. Compared to them, you would be a toad in the mud, and they would be phoenixes up high in the sky. Not to say compete, you aren’t even qualified to stand together with them in the same room!”
His bitter taunt made Meng Qi both ashamed and outraged, and Meng Qi’s face flushed red. Even though mentally speaking he was already over 20 years old and had sufficient social experiences, he was still an impulsive young man who wanted to feel prideful about himself. Now that he was faced with such contempt from Xuan Xin, and thinking about the difference between him and the chosen ones, he just couldn’t control his emotions.
Xuan Xin seemed to have not noticed his emotional fluctuations, and continued on, “I heard that among the young disciples, many have attained enlightenment before 20. These people will very likely enter the power ranking in the future. How about you? What kind of Kungfu do you have? What kind of ultimate arts do you know? Well, we Shaolin still have many talented people; Zhen Chang, Zhen Ben, and Zhen Miao from this generation are also perfectly talented and strong.”
As he spoke, he squinted at Meng Qi, “Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be sweeping the Meditation Yard?”
Meng Qi tried his best to suppress his anger, and walked towards the Meditation Yard with his broom.
Staring at Meng Qi’s back, the smile on Xuan Xin’s face gradually faded away.