CHAPTER 279: CHAPTER 279: ARGUING OVER DIFFICULTIES

"The monk said that while traversing the forest, he once tried to persuade the wolves on the snowland to switch to eating berries, but during a heavy snowstorm, he also witnessed a mother wolf tear open a young reindeer’s belly to feed her pups.

He once thought to emulate the Buddha by cutting his flesh to feed an eagle or sacrificing himself to nourish a tiger, yet he did not possess such spiritual cultivation. At that moment, he recalled your talk about the food chain. Subsequently, as he journeyed across various lands, he saw brown bears voraciously devouring salmon before hibernation and prairie falcons swooping down without a care for their karma.

All living beings indeed possess Buddha nature, but only humans hold the lamp of wisdom. If we allow murderous intent to run rampant just because wild beasts eat meat, how is that different from casting the flame of civilization into an icy river?"

Jiang Xiao finished speaking, her bright eyes fixing on Nezha. This time she wasn’t here for money, and without the lure of silver, no matter how charming Nezha was, she wouldn’t invite him into her private quarters.

She was here to convey a message for the monk.

Nezha had already thought of how to respond to Wu Xiang Monk’s question. He said, "Just as the prairie has both sheep and predators, if there were no carnivores to control their numbers, the entire grassland would be grazed down to a desert by the sheep, which would then rapidly decrease in number. Compassion doesn’t mean making everything a saint, but ensuring that carnivores eat meat and herbivores eat grass."

"Say that again."

"What?"

Jiang Xiao smiled, "I didn’t remember it."

So Nezha repeated his words slowly. After Jiang Xiao had memorized them, she ran off to relay the message to the monk. When she returned, Nezha was waiting, ready to listen.

"Don’t you see, the sheep and pigs raised by humans live their entire lives in mud, never seeing sunlight. The purpose of their existence from the moment they emerge from their mothers’ wombs is to become food. These good creatures are turned into breathing chunks of meat. Is this natural law? It is clearly a hell on earth nourished by greed, hatred, and ignorance."

Nezha replied, "I once knew a hunter who told me that while hunting in the mountains, a wild boar went berserk and broke two of his ribs. When he stabbed it in the heart in return, do you think he recited the Rebirth Mantra first or looked for a herb to stop his bleeding? Monk, the world you wish for is undoubtedly beautiful, but it doesn’t exist now and won’t in the future. Given that, our compassion must be as sharp and precise as a hunter’s knife, so that we can survive."

Jiang Xiao came and went, and by midnight, she didn’t return this time. It wasn’t that one had convinced the other, but she was simply too tired and decided to go to bed out of boredom.

The next day, Nezha and Wu Xiang jointly helped the Little Dragon Girl stand as protector. Thunder roared over Sanshan Pass, and from that day on, the number of Golden Immortal Realm cultivators increased by one.

Wu Xiang Monk remained in the Golden Core Realm.

Over the years, he seemed to have made no progress and had even weakened a lot.

To Nezha’s questioning, Wu Xiang Monk just smiled and said, "I’ve been too busy observing the world to have time for cultivation. But there’s no need to worry, the path is long and there’s no rush in a few years."

So Nezha asked again, "Seize the day, my friend. What are your plans next?"

"I plan to take you back to Spirit Mountain," the monk replied.

At this, Nezha looked at him in shock. When he saw that the monk was serious, he asked, "You mean..."

Wu Xiang Monk nodded, "That’s right. You’re the Outer Heaven Demon, precisely the person born with innate knowledge that I’ve been searching for. I want to take you back to Spirit Mountain to cultivate Buddhism."

Nezha said, "Monk, it’s not that I don’t want to go with you, but I still have a lot of things to deal with in the mortal world, and my child is about to be born—"

He stopped mid-sentence, not for any other reason but because he saw a hint of pity in the monk’s eyes, and an inexplicable sense of fear rose in his heart.

"I won’t force you to go. I’ll wait until the day you voluntarily join me in Spirit Mountain."

"Thank you, monk. When there’s no place in this world that’ll have me, I might really go to Spirit Mountain to seek refuge," he smiled, "but before that, I have to meet an old friend of ours."

...

Deng Chanyu was now sixteen years old.

As the most notable figure in Sanshan Pass, although she was a woman, she had already become a leader among the new generation of generals.

Years ago, the girl who had sparingly sought the way of cultivation within the army had chanced upon the Fire Eye Mountain Secret Realm. It was unknown what fortuitous encounter she experienced there, but it opened the door for her cultivation, propelling her to the Golden Core Realm swiftly.

Later, she had numerous lucky encounters, and although she was still in the Golden Core Realm, she mastered the ability of the soul out of body, leaving many higher-ranking cultivators in awe.

Most remarkably, she had an exclusive technique of throwing stones, which she used on the battlefield to slay two Golden Immortal Realm cultivators with her Golden Core Realm prowess.

Such a stellar record, although partly due to her opponents’ underestimation, was something even hailed as the top third-generation disciple of the Chan Sect, Yang Jian, had never achieved.

Many suitors came knocking at her door, only to be turned away by her family’s elders. Today, the young girl, having removed her armor after much effort, stole half a day of leisure. While the pine smoke dyed the window lattice, the copper armor on her wrist scraped across the rings of a zelkova tree.

She propped a three-foot-long raw log against the old elm stump, her back curving into the shape of a new moon. The ax blade’s trajectory was cleaner than the icicles hanging from the eaves. Chips flew like snow onto her lapel, and her exposed white forearm, showing faint blue veins from constant exertion, looked like the wavy patterns of a tempered ancient sword.

Deer tendons soaked in a clay pot for three cycles of ten days was now wound around the bow frame, producing a metallic hum.

The teeth marks where she bit off the hemp thread were deep like arrow notches, and her joints turned white from exertion, with fresh burn scars from the splashing hot resin when she rendered fish glue the day before.

Pine sap mixed with sweat rolled into an amber-colored shallow pool at the dip of her collarbone.

At that moment, a lady who had once run wild with the lady warriors, now a highborn wife expecting a child, pushed the door open with her belly protruding. Seeing Deng Chanyu pressing one knee on the trembling bow frame, her damp hair clinging to her neck, the lady sensibly kept silent.

The pregnant woman knew that Deng Chanyu knew she had arrived.

Sweat dripped from her nose onto the cowhorn inlays of the bowstring.

As the last piece of golden nanmu inlay clicked into its groove, thunder burst out from the bowstring taut between her fingers, imprinting crimson marks on her tiger-mouth grip.

The girl stood up straight, stepped into the courtyard, and suddenly drew the bow.

As the sound of the pine trees swelled past her arm bent like a full moon, a copper bell two hundred paces away was pierced through its core by the white birch arrow, its fletching still trembling like a startled cicada.

"What a strong bow."

"Thank you for the compliment," Deng Chanyu chuckled, "It’s still no match for the Qiankun Bow left in Chentang Pass, but once I switch to armor-piercing arrows and have Master Xu carve some wind-boosting runes on it, its power shouldn’t be too far off."

The pregnant woman said, "I heard the Qiankun Bow is in Nezha’s hands. He’s a great general of Xiqi, currently opposing Master Wen. But given Master Wen’s abilities, it’s only a matter of time before he levels Xiqi. If you like the Qiankun Bow, you could have General fetch it for you."

"You’re kidding, Xiqi isn’t that easy to conquer," Deng Chanyu picked up a bucket of cold well water and poured it over her head, washing away the sweat. "Leng An, didn’t you say your scholarly husband is strict and forbade you from visiting me? How come you’re here with your big belly?"