Nightfall

In the field under Xuankong Temple, the monks there were being punished by the Commandment Hall, thus they treated the followers very impatiently. They were even crueler than the nobles in the tribes.

The monk at the lakeside allowed the followers to get close to him and didn’t frown because of their unpleasant smell. He seemed very calm and natural.

The monk was so extraordinary. It was no doubt that he was Jun Mo.

Ning Que couldn’t hear clearly what his Second Brother said since there was a lake between them and the wind was heavy. He held the little girl and walked toward Jun Mo, gradually quickening the pace.

At this moment, a rush of hoofbeats came from the side of the meadow, and more than a dozen robust men rode to the crowd. The headman in fur waved his whip and shouted at the herdsmen kneeling on the ground, probably asking them to leave.

The herdsmen were frightened, then getting up and trying to avoid the men on the horses. However, they worried that the Guru who the tribe had invited would be hurt by the whip. They were waving their hands anxiously and explaining to the nobleman on the horseback.

“Lord Ba Yi, this is…”

The whip was waved down and fell on the shoulder of an old herdsman before they could finish the sentence. A bloodstain appeared on the old herdsman’s shoulder, which was lucky for him because the nobleman sat unsteadily on the horseback. The old herdsman must have lost flesh on the shoulder if the headman got the chance to use all his strength. What a diabolic man the nobleman was.

The men who followed the nobleman all took out the their swords from the saddles and shouted at the herdsmen by the lake. Not only did they threaten the herdsmen by waving the swords, but they also lashed the horses to drive the crowd away.

The nobleman looked at Jun Mo, who was surrounded by herdsmen and shouted, “Living Buddha had declared him a heretic. He is no Guru. Get out the fucking way!”

The herdsmen looked at the nobleman in horror, but they did not step aside, which was not because they were brave enough to defy the order of Lord Ba Yi, but because they believed firmly that Jun Mo was indeed a Guru, otherwise he wouldn’t be so compassionate to them. So they were afraid Lord Ba Yi would hurt the Guru and be punished by Buddha.

Knowing that he couldn’t talk sense to these pariahs, the nobleman raised the whip in his hand and pointed to Jun Mo, “Tie the cripple up. Living Buddha ordered to burn him to death.”

The robust men answered in unison and kicked the horses’ abdomen, rushing over to the lake.The swords in their hands reflected the sun and looked extremely sharp. The herdsmen were frightened and ran in all directions.

Seeing that the monk in yellow was about to be knocked down, the nobleman revealed cruelty in his eyes. Living Buddha indeed ordered to capture the heretic alive and then burn him to death. But this wicked man dared to incite these slaves to revolt. I must make him suffer before burning him. Should I cut off his ears, chop off his right arm or peel off the skin of his face? While thinking of this, the nobleman suddenly felt a cold wind coming from behind his head, but there was not enough time for him to dodge. He felt that his ears were cold, his left shoulder was lighter, and then his face was somehow wet.

Waves appeared on the surface of the blue lake, as if there was a rare beast coming out of it. Then a black shadow broke through the waves and fell in the hand of the monk in yellow.

It was an iron sword.

Jun Mo swayed the sword. More than a dozen human heads sprang into the air, and more than a dozen blood flowers were squirted into the sky from these men’s necks as if it was to wash the sinful sky.

The person who held the iron sword was not lenient at all, for all he wanted was justice.

The battle was not fierce at all. Jun Mo just swayed his sword, and everything was over.

Seeing what had happened, the nobleman turned pale and couldn’t make a sound for quite a while. Then he gradually felt the pain and found out that his face was full of blood.

While breaking out of the lake and flying to Jun Mo, the iron sword passed by the nobleman, cutting off his left ear, his left arm and flesh on his face.

With his face covered in blood and his one left ear and left arm gone, the nobleman looked extremely miserable. When he realized what had happened to him, he was in more pain and so frightened that he almost fainted.

The nobleman clearly had lived in such a harsh environment for many years. He was strong enough to not fall off the horse, but his eyes were full of fear instead of cruelty at this point.

The nobleman never considered that the heretic could be so powerful. He pulled the reins with his right hand without any hesitation and rushed back to his tribe.

He dared not look back or threaten him with vengeance. But of course he would come back and seek revenge. I will kill all the people here.

…

…

The herdsmen who had fled in all directions gradually came back, and they looked puzzled while seeing the dozen bodies and the bewildered horses by the lake.

Living in such a cruel underground world, they had seen too many bloody scenes, some of which were even more horrible than what happened today. But they had never imagined that Lord Ba Yi’s strongest butchers would end up dead in such a simple way.

Looking at the monk in yellow by the lake, the herdsmen kneeled down again and their faces were filled with awe, fear, and anxiety. They didn’t know what to do next.

The old herdsman walked up to Jun Mo and kneeled in front of him. Then he killed the land in front of Jun Mo’s shoes and begged in a trembling voice, “Great and mercy Guru, please hurry and leave.”

Jun Mo looked at his head with no expression and asked, “Are you afraid I will get you into trouble?”

“No!” The old herdsman looked up, and his dark face was full of wrinkles with painful tears kept falling down, “You will be the most powerful Guru or even a Living Buddha someday, but now you are not powerful enough to fight against the tribe. Please don’t worry about us since Lord Ba Yi will kill us all anyway.”

The expression of Jun Mo gradually became gentler and said, “That man will definitely come back with countless helpers and even the Living Buddhas you talked about. I must stay here and wait for them.”

The old herdsman quavered, “Even though you can kill all of Lord Ba Yi’s warriors and even defeat the Living Buddhas, you will anger Buddha on the sacred mountain…”

“Buddha?”

Looking at the high mountain peaks in the distance, Jun Mo said with a blank expression, “You all think that the sacred mountain is very high, but you will know it was actually very low if you ever get the chance to go to the ground. If you were to stand on the ground, the sacred mountain would appear as nothing more than a hummock.”

Hearing this, the herdsmen suddenly became extremely quiet and seemed very confused.

They had never heard such a thing. They even didn’t know what the ground was. Isn’t the field we stand on the ground? Is there another ground? Then where is the other ground? Why would the sacred mountain be like a hummock if we were to stand on the other ground? No way! How could the sacred mountain be a hummock?

A childish voice broke the silence.

The little girl that Ning Que held asked curiously, “Guru, where is the ground you mentioned?”

The herdsmen on the lakeside looked particularly frightened. In their opinion, the little girl shouldn’t have asked the question, for it meant the blasphemy against the sacred mountain and Buddha.

A middle-aged woman who was probably the little girl’s mother turned pale due to fear, and she wanted to drag her daughter back and discipline her. But she was too afraid to go forward after noticing that a strange man was holding her daughter.

Seeing Ning Que and Sangsang, Jun Mo was stunned for a while and then ignored them. He turned to the little girl and answered, “We are underground now, the ground is above.”

He pointed to the cliff behind him and said, “Climb up the cliff and you will reach the real ground.”

Behind him was the extremely steep cliff which had imprisoned innumerable generations of serfs and herdsmen for many years. Sangsang said it was the walls of a well, but actually it was the wall of a prison.

The herdsmen looked toward the cliff following his finger, but they couldn’t see the end of the cliff which was surrounded by clouds and mists. The cliff is almost as high as the sacred mountain, how could we climb up?

No one had ever climbed up the cliff in countless years. In the teachings of Xuankong Temple, thinking of climbing the cliff had gradually become the blasphemy against Buddha. Who dared to try?

Looking at the cliff, the herdsmen suddenly woke up and found that they really wanted to see what the ground above the cliff was. They couldn’t help but feel guilty and began to kowtow repeatedly.

Jun Mo looked at these herders and asked, “Don’t you want to know what it is like above?”

No one answered him. Then the old herdsman asked sincerely, “Guru, that is the divine kingdom of Buddha, how could the sinful people like us ever go there?”

Jun Mo ignored him and hoped others could give him a different answer. But nobody said another word for a while.

He looked a little tired and disappointed.

At this moment, the little girl Ning Que held lifted her voice.

Maybe the warm hand of Ning Que gave the little girl great courage. She said in her clear voice, “I want to see it.”

All eyes landed on the little girl, and her mother even passed out.

The little girl looked down and seemed a little uneasy and frightened.

Ning Que squeezed her hand gently and comforted her, “Don’t be afraid.”

The little girl raised her head with courage. Pointing to somewhere in the middle of the cliff, she said, “Not only do I want to see it, but I actually went up there. Although I didn’t climb too high, I was able to reach there.” She continued, “I can see farther from there. I even saw the lamb that ran to Gelan Lake. Then I saw a snow lotus on the cliff.” She was looking at the crowd.

The herdsmen on the lakeside looked up in shock and looked toward the cliff following the little girl’s thin finger. It is indeed not too high. We can climb there. Is there really a snow lotus?

“If you have the courage, you can climb to the top no matter how high the cliff is. But if you never dare to try, then you will never see the snow lotus even though it is close,” Jun Mo said calmly while staring at the cliff.

…