The sun was setting.
After school, students streamed out, and A Cheng bid farewell to A-Zhi.
A-Zhi still had to go to the mountains to gather firewood; his Father had left him a message, telling him to hurry because Wolf Packs would start appearing after dark.
Some children in the village were flying paper kites. The sky was dim, wisps of smoke rose from distant chimneys, and the clouds were blown by strong high-altitude winds, constantly shifting like a rustling river. A Cheng stood on a shrub-covered hillside, watching the scenery for a while before heading home.
His dad had already started eating, with no intention of waiting for him.
A Cheng silently went to the stove to get his meal.
Three meals a day. Breakfast was alone, lunch was with a group, and dinner was with two people.
Every day was the same: home, academy, home, no rest, no holidays, until he graduated.
Father didn't speak while eating, and A Cheng felt stifled. He didn't eat much. After Father finished, he collected the dishes and went to the river to wash them.
The porcelain bowls were in the water, and the ripples on the surface swayed gently, blurring the dishes at the bottom. For now, he let the running water rinse them.
A Cheng found an empty, secluded spot and began to practice his martial arts.
His master had said to practice fists and feet first, then weapons. Practicing martial arts was also body tempering; once the body was strong, learning weapons would yield twice the results with half the effort.
A Cheng was practicing the Seventh-Tier Paramita Palm, the highest he could learn at the academy. Once he mastered the Paramita Palm, he could learn weapons. A Cheng planned to learn the Odd-Gate Cudgel Method because he thought carrying a sword around was too silly.
The Paramita Palm had only ten forms, said to correspond to the Bodhisattva's 'Ten Victorious Practices.' A Cheng liked this explanation; it gave him a lot of motivation.
Among the students of his generation, his meditation skills were the deepest, so he couldn't help but feel self-satisfied with his Zen studies, and he felt great joy whenever he saw martial arts with Zen meaning.
While he was diligently practicing, a few monkeys retrieved his family's dishes. These furry thieves chattered and scurried into the woods. It was only because A Cheng wasn't far away that he noticed the monkeys holding his rice bowls.
"Hey! Don't run!"
A Cheng frantically chased after them. Entering the forest, the deep shade enveloped the night, making him almost half-blind. Only after he gathered his inner energy and focused it around the acupoints of his eyes could he see as if it were day. Unfortunately, his inner energy was shallow, and achieving this took him quite some time. The monkeys were already gone, only their faint chirping echoing.
A Cheng followed the monkeys' cries, constantly cursing the furry beasts. He heard the mournful birdsong in the forest and the rustling of insects and snakes crushing fallen leaves. This uninhabited place was surprisingly vibrant. A Cheng had always been obedient, never venturing into the wilderness after sunset, precisely because Father had told him that daytime belonged to the human world, and nighttime should be left to other sentient beings.
This forest wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either. It connected to the hillside, and going upward would lead to a vast mountain range, which was truly uninhabited wilderness.
A Cheng was a little scared. The darkness of the deep forest gave him a terrifying feeling. He tightened his clothes and realized that the hairs on his arms were standing straight up.
The epiphyllum between his eyebrows flickered; his Father was sending him a message. A Cheng was truly a bit panicked, unsure how to explain losing the dishes to Father, so he ignored the message and focused only on chasing.
The roots of old trees were massive, often with parts exposed above ground, hidden in a pile of rotting leaves, making them extremely concealed. A Cheng ran two or three steps, stumbled, and almost fell hard.
"These monkeys run in the trees, and I'm chasing on the ground. How can I catch them? I have to climb the trees!"
When it came to lightness skill, the Xuan Nu Sect's lightness skill was considered the best under heaven. The Vajra lineage's internal energy was inherently stable and didn't have any impressive lightness skills. A Cheng had learned the Seventh-Tier Vajra Seat Method, was familiar with the Middle-Eighth-Tier Great Stability Foot, and had mastered the Lower-Ninth-Tier Stone-Trapping Foot. As their names suggested, none were suitable for long-distance pursuit. Fortunately, the academy laid a foundation and taught plum blossom piles, so A Cheng's basic skills in agile movement were still good.
Immediately, he leaped onto a tree, then chose a thick branch as a foothold, and ran along.
Initially, he was unaccustomed to the distribution of branches, but gradually, his speed picked up. A Cheng got excited as he ran, hearing the wind whistle past his ears, and soon caught up with the monkeys.
Now, however, he found himself in a monkey den. These wild monkeys had made their home in a clearing in the forest. A Cheng was surprised to find many wooden houses there, but they were all old and dilapidated, covered in moss, looking very rundown.
Many monkeys went in and out of the houses, carrying pots, bowls, and ladles, filled with fresh vegetables and fruits. Some even wore human clothes, looking both strange and comical.
A Cheng's arrival startled the monkey troop into loud cries. These monkeys grabbed whatever was at hand and threw it at him. Stones, fruits, and porcelain bowls flew through the air. The wind howled, scaring A Cheng into scurrying away with his head covered, retreating rapidly. However, as he leaped in mid-air, he was hit on the back by a hard object. He immediately panicked, lost his footing, slipped on a branch, did a split, and fell, his crotch hitting the tough branch of the old tree with a solid thud.
"Ow-ow-hoo—!"
A Cheng was in so much pain that he saw stars. He felt his internal organs convulse, and he curled up into a ball, falling from the tree.
The monkeys didn't pursue him. It was enough to scare away this unwelcome guest. They went back to their peaceful activities, playing and eating fruit as usual.
After a while, A Cheng sat up, still trembling. His left hand covered his crotch, and his right hand fumbled around blindly beside him. His heart was filled with hatred now, vowing to repay them in kind.
His palm scraped against the dirt, causing a rough, dull pain, which made A Cheng even angrier. He then grabbed a hard object, seemingly a stone, but its feel was very complex.
A Cheng brought the object closer and saw it was a statue.
Although crude, it appeared to be a manifestation of Bodhisattva Lu Yuan.
A Cheng was immediately startled. Was that what hit him just now? He jumped, placed the statue in front of him, and then respectfully knelt down and kowtowed three times.
"Bodhisattva, oh Bodhisattva, these monkeys used You to hit me. This shows that I have a connection to Buddha. So, I won't bother with them; in fact, I'm grateful they brought You to me. The dishes are lost, so be it. Bringing You home is a great merit."
A Cheng picked up the Bodhisattva statue and happily ran home. However, he only cared about going downhill and didn't realize he was going in the wrong direction.
After he wandered aimlessly in the forest for nearly half an hour, he finally realized he was lost. He walked in one direction for less than three quarters of an hour when he suddenly saw light flickering between the trees. He then ran two steps and burst out of the forest.
What met his eyes was not the village he had hoped to see.
Instead, it was a small lake.
A Cheng turned his head and saw a small hill.
His home was on the other side of that mountain.
"I'm an idiot!"
A Cheng stared blankly at the dark mountain in the night, shocked.
At that moment, the small lake behind him suddenly glowed with boundless starlight, like large swarms of fireflies flying out of the water.
A Cheng saw his own shadow constantly flickering and looked back.
Above the lake, a divine maiden floated on the waves.
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