CHAPTER 440: 341, FORTY-NINE HEAVENS_2

Chen Ji chuckled and said, "You’re the Bodhisattva from Yunzhou, do you want to be like them too?"

The little monk murmured with his head down, "I said the same thing, but every time I say that, the old monk talks about equality of all beings, and I can’t argue with them... how about you go and debate with the old monk for me? He surely can’t out-argue you."

Chen Ji laughed heartily, "I’m afraid if I go to their territory, and they can’t out-argue me, they might end up hitting me."

"That’s true," the little monk muttered, "But Buddhist teaching emphasizes sudden enlightenment, and at 3 AM, I’m not even fully awake yet, so how can I achieve enlightenment? Besides, at Yuanjue Temple, I have no friends, not even anyone to talk to."

Chen Ji was curious, "Because your telepathy can see the evil in their hearts, you can’t befriend them?"

The little monk shook his head, "No, it’s because they are afraid of me, so they don’t want to be friends with me."

Chen Ji understood.

The little monk looked at the moon above and sighed, "How many people can withstand being looked at directly in their hearts? In Yuanjue Temple, the monks desire positions. The temple supervisor wants to be the temple supervisor, the temple supervisor wants to be the chief, and the chief wants to be the Fang Zhang. The Fang Zhang guards against the chief, and the chief guards against the temple supervisor... A while ago, an official came with his family to Yuanjue Temple to offer incense. The official hoped his wife would die early, and the wife hoped the official would die early too. Don’t you think this couple is strange? The monks in the temple have hearts seeking wealth, and those who have killed countless times come to the temple to pray for the Bodhisattva’s blessing."

Chen Ji stopped talking and just stood by the bamboo forest under the moonlight, quietly listening to the little monk’s complaints. He turned his head to look at the innocent little monk beside him and only felt that the monk was in a purgatory of mud.

Being able to see into others’ hearts is a kind of trouble too.

The little monk softly lamented, "I wish I didn’t have telepathy."

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Little monk, what evil lies in my heart?"

The little monk looked at him, "What lies in your heart is not evil but suffering."

Chen Ji was stunned.

For some reason, when the little monk mentioned what was in Chen Ji’s heart, his innocence seemed to fade away, as if he had suddenly grown up.

He gazed off into the distance, lost in thought, "You just told Wuzhai to let go, yet you carry a mountain as large as Mount Kailash on your back. Patron, if the mountain is too high, not even eagles will fly to its peak. There are only gods on the mountain, no people."

Chen Ji didn’t speak for a long time.

The little monk turned to look at him, "Why not let go?"

Chen Ji replied calmly, "If I could let go, I would have become a monk already."

The little monk shook his head, "Many people become monks precisely because they can’t let go. If letting go were truly easy, why would one need to become a monk?"

Chen Ji pondered, "Should I really go and become a monk?"

The little monk thought for a moment, "Then come to Yuanjue Temple; you’re brave and can sneak me out to play at midnight."

The two exchanged a glance and then suddenly burst into laughter, laughing uncontrollably, not even knowing why they were laughing.

However, the little monk gradually calmed his smile, seriously pointing to Chen Ji’s heart, "Patron, but that’s not all about love."

Listening to the rustling of the bamboo forest, Chen Ji softly said after a long pause, "I know."

He sat down on a patch of grass by the bamboo forest and looked up at the little monk, changing the subject, "Why don’t you move out of Yuanjue Temple? The west wing of my courtyard is empty."

The little monk’s eyes lit up, then dimmed again.

Ignoring the moon white kasaya he was wearing, he sat on the grass like Chen Ji, "No, I am the hostage of the Esoteric Sect in the Ning Dynasty; I don’t get to decide where I live. If the temple supervisor can’t find me one day, they might even request the court to issue an arrest warrant to capture me. After coming to the Imperial Capital, I’ve longed every day to return to Luocheng City, but before I could, I heard some bad news... it’s hard for you."

Chen Ji looked up at the moon in the sky, "It’s not that unbearable."

The little monk was puzzled, "When I first met you, I thought you had already cut off greed and anger. My master said, it’s impressive for an ordinary person in the world to cut off just one. But now, looking carefully, I find that you are incomplete, as if born without greed and anger, leaving only foolishness. Foolishness is attachment, and what Wuzhai avoids most is the word ’attachment,’ yet you carry only ’attachment’ in your fate... no matter how much you can’t cut it off."

Chen Ji laughed heartily, "If it can’t be cut, then let it be. If everything was cut, wouldn’t it lose the human touch? By the way, can you tell me what Prince Jing was thinking when he was alive?"

The little monk shook his head, "I can’t say. My master said, even with past life karma, you can’t disclose others’ thoughts by name to a third party; otherwise, it will attract karma. Simply hiding the name isn’t enough; if saying it would make you know who it is, then it creates causality. There was a monk from the Western Regions who abused his telepathy and was poisoned to death, which was karmic retribution."

Chen Ji straightforwardly said, "Then I won’t ask anymore."

The little monk laughed happily, "You’re different from the big monks at Yuanjue Temple. Every time officials come to burn incense and offer prayers, they want me to hide in the side hall of the Great Hall to secretly see what these officials are thinking. It was like that when Official Xu came, and the same when Official Chen came, but officials have purple aura surrounding them, and I can’t see anything. They were not reconciled and wanted me to look at lesser officials. When I refused to say, they deliberately forced me to attend morning classes and copy scriptures, saying that if I was willing to help them read people’s hearts, I could be exempt from these trifles."

Chen Ji frowned, "I’ll think of a way to help you leave Yuanjue Temple."

The little monk’s eyes lit up, "Really?"

Then, the little monk’s gaze dimmed again, "Forget it, you’re already shouldering enough; don’t worry about me. I’m not being polite with you; I’m a hostage, and I can only practice at Yuanjue Temple."

Chen Ji glanced at the little monk and didn’t dwell on it: "You’re from the Forty-nine Heavens; can you tell me about the Forty-nine Heavens?"

This was the closest moment Chen Ji had to the Forty-nine Heavens, and he couldn’t ask anyone else, so he could only ask this little monk.

Since arriving in this world, the Forty-nine Heavens had been like a spell entangling him day and night, but the place he came from was clearly unlike the Forty-nine Heavens people talked about.

The little monk touched his bald head and began to tell Chen Ji, "Everyone says I came from Douluo Heaven, but I have not yet awakened and can’t remember where I came from, why I came, or where I’m going. I asked my master, and he sent me to the Central Plains to find the reason myself."

Chen Ji was surprised, and he randomly picked a weed from the ground and twisted it in his hand, "In the vast sea of people, how do you search when you know nothing?"

The little monk was embarrassed, "I thought the same, but my master said that if I can’t find it in this life, I should continue in the next life until I find it. He also said I’ve searched for three lifetimes, and if in this third life I still can’t find it, then the fourth, fifth... or even the tenth life, I will eventually find it."

Chen Ji found it strange, "Strange, how long will such a search take, and does everyone coming down from the Forty-nine Heavens lose their past memories?"

The little monk hurriedly corrected, "No, no, only a reincarnated Bodhisattva would have this happen; Brother Xu Shu doesn’t. He remembers clearly. The old monks at Yuanjue Temple urge him daily to cultivate well and return to the Forty-nine Heavens as soon as possible. He says ’yes, yes,’ but there’s just a bit... almost slipped; I can’t say that. Anyway, not only does he not want to go back, but he also advises me not to go back."

Chen Ji couldn’t help but smile, "Wait a minute, in the future, you can’t call him brother; you need to call him uncle, or else you’ll be a generation above me."

The little monk made an ’oh’ sound, "Alright."

He was quite amenable.

Chen Ji puzzlingly asked, "Both you and he came down from the Forty-nine Heavens, why can he have memories, and you don’t?"

The little monk candidly said, "I envy him too and asked him about this. But he said this world is quite fair: although he has memories, he doesn’t have innate supernatural abilities; though I have no memory, I have supernatural abilities, so no need to envy him."

Chen Ji bowed his head in thought, Xu Shu had already pointed out the ’difference’ between the two of them. The counterpart seemed to have indicated it as well. Why didn’t he want to go back himself, and why did he persuade the little monk not to go back?