The Immortal’s Poison

The old monk looked at Chang Li as a shocked expression gradually grew on his face – his small mouth gaped wider and wider and the murderous look in his eyes was ultimately replaced by surprise. He smacked himself hard on the forehead and asked, “You’ve come out? It…it’s you? Cat…THAT fairy!”

Unmoved, Chang Li’s serious expression remained unchanged as she continued to glare at the monk with a murderous look.

The old monk had completely lost the grace of a divine monk, he bowed with obsequious smiled and said, “I won’t stare, I won’t stare anymore. I just didn’t recognize you, or else even in death I wouldn’t dare to cause trouble for you. You’re finally out, my dear Grandaunt! A while ago, a cave had appeared on Zhanyan Peak and I was worried that those brats would disturb you. So, I ordered my disciples to seal off the mountain and had a few tough fights with some ungrateful monsters and ghosts.” The old monk started to boast about his contribution to please Chang Li.

Wen Leyang was shocked to see that the old monk knew about Chang Li. She had been hiding in the cave for over two thousand years without seeing anyone, could the old monk be another two thousand years old demon as well? He inched a few steps closer to the witch and asked, “Do you know him?”

The existence of both Chang Li and the old monk was definitely a challenge to the country’s personal identity documentation system.

The attitude of the witch towards Wen Leyang was very different from others. She treated him like an inheritor who had taken over the mantle of Tuoxie. She put her hands on his shoulders and smiled radiantly as she explained, “I can’t remember which year it was but on the road outside the cave entrance that you had come in from. A rabbit had fallen off the cliff suddenly. In the past, I would have killed it instantly but I was still recovering from my injuries and when I thought of the words he had said to me before, it cheered me up. I was kind-hearted for once and let the rabbit into the cave with my magic arts.

The others could not hear a single word what Chang Li had said at all, they saw only the movement of Chang Li’s lips without any sound.

“That rabbit was no ordinary one. It had just eaten a mature Huang Jing and was chased by a serpent as a result. I had accidentally fallen off the cliff but with great luck, it fell exactly on the invisible path that he had left behind. It only ended up breaking both its legs.

As she saw the silly look on Wen Leyang’s face, Chang Li could not help but give him a whack on his forehead and continued with a smile, “Another silly boy, just like him! That rabbit had secretly eaten a thousand-year-old Huang Jing and fell off the cliff. Out of boredom, I helped to reconnect its leg bones and allowed it a few days’ rest before conveniently laying a foundation of immortality in it. Once it had fully recovered I put it back up onto the cliff. I would never have expected to see it again after so long and to observe that it had succeeded in its cultivation.

A small mouth and an obsession with carrots. Wen Leyang finally linked up the rabbit from the story to the baldy in front of him and stared dumbfounded at the old monk, completely speechless. He had very recently encountered and learned about cultivation, flying swords, the prestige of heaven, the awakening of the mountain’s innate power, and on top of that he has a two-thousand-year-old youthful looking Grandaunt. Wen Leyang’s nerves had been tempered after the series of surprising encounters but this new revelation that a rabbit had turned into an immortal had turned his worldview upside down again.

Wen Leyang pointed at the old monk, “It’s…him? How did you recognize him?”

As he couldn’t hear a single word of the conversation between Chang Li and Wen Leyang, the old monk only stood around and bowed with a smile.

Chang Li knew that Wen Leyang did not understand the situation so she explained patiently, “I was the one who laid his base for immortality so how could I not recognize him?”

Wen Leyang suddenly thought of a question and asked with an incredulous look on his face, “Then, are these monks all…”

Chang Li laughed out loud, “How could there be so many monsters turning into immortals? It’s only just the two of them.” She pointed her slender fingers at the heads of the two small mouthed monks while ignoring the little stuttering monk.

The old rabbit monk saw Chang Li pointing to him and suddenly seemed to recall something. He turned around and hit the head of the younger small mouthed monk, “Faster kowtow, kowtow! Meet your martial grandmother!”

The small-mouthed monk immediately acknowledged this, he knelt on the ground and began to kowtow. The small stuttering monk and the rest were all dumbfounded and simply did not understand what was going on.

Chang Li did not evade the greeting at all and accepted the kowtow of the small-mouthed monk without any qualms, “So, it was all your arrangement to keep everyone away from the cave on the peak?”

The old rabbit monk hesitated as he took a quick look at his surroundings. Both he and Chang Li were surrounded by curious looks but if such looks had carried any weight and even with his Heaven’s Cultivation, he would have been squashed by the burden of those stares. “Let’s talk somewhere else, somewhere else…there’s just too many people here,” he said before pointing to the yard. He then turned to the little stuttering monk and ordered, “Take good care of the guests, if the monks from the front yard come over, tell them to get lost!”

Chang Li pulled Wen Leyang over and followed behind the old rabbit monk. Just when the elders of the Wen were about to stop them, Wen Leyang quickly waved them off, “First Grandpa, I’ll be right back so please wait here for a moment…”

The rabbit demon also took along his small mouthed relative and walked to the far end of the yard before he stopped, “A thousand and nine hundred years ago, I was granted an opportunity by the Great Immortal to cultivate Heaven’s path and to get out of the reincarnation of the six realms…”

Wen Leyang breathed a sigh of relief, he was glad that the monk had finally spoken normally.

Chang Li shook her head in realization as her mouth pursed and pouted, “It’s been so many years. How did you end up…becoming a monk?”

The rabbit demon replied obediently, “After I left the cave, I cultivated wholeheartedly for four hundred years and achieved my human form. But…the world was vast and I didn’t know where to go…At that time, this temple had just been newly set up. It was only an ordinary temple on Mount Emei. When I was free, I’d come here to chat with the monks and after some time, I started to appreciate the Buddhist teachings and decided to shave and take up the mantle of being a monk espousing the principles of Bu Le (not happy). The old ordained Zen Master at that time helped me tonsure and also praised the root of my wisdom.

Wen Leyang smiled and shook his head. The Holy Land of Buddhism had somehow unknowingly let a demon into their ranks. He guessed that the Bu Le monk would definitely be sentenced to the Avici Hell after his death due to serious malfeasance.

Chang Li too, found it ironic. Though she did not know much about the monks, she understood it was a human religion and commented casually, “The magic art of Buddhism is about neutrality and peace which has some merit to it. If you could really cultivate deep into it, there’s some serious power to it!”

Bu Le, the demon monk nodded his head enthusiastically, “Indeed! Indeed!”

To which, Chang Li rebuked, “Speak properly!”

“…At the beginning, I didn’t take this group of baldies seriously. But then came a wandering monk who stayed at the temple for more than half a year and discussed the teachings of Buddha with me every day. At first, I didn’t think too much of it and thought that having someone to bicker with every day was not a bad way to pass the time. Never in my wildest dream would I expect the monk to laughingly say to me before he left – rabbit, I’ll spare you since there’s still some Buddhist-like nature in you. The merciful Buddha had left behind a pathway for divine intervention, if you can really erase the evil-natured spirit in you, it will be a virtue in itself! Opportunities like this don’t come easily, it only takes one false step to go beyond redemption so you better take care of it!”

Chang Li curled her lip, “What nonsense! I feel like twisting his head off to see it’s made of flesh.”

Bu Le rubbed his hands with a mirthless smile, “There’s something you don’t understand. The Zen in Buddhism is really something…”

Wen Leyang saw that Chang Li’s face was full of disdain and hurriedly interrupted Bu Le, “That wild monk could identify the rabbit’s…Bu Le Monk’s true identity while Bu Le Monk thought he was just an ordinary human. There must be a vast difference in cultivation level between you two.”

Not taking the comment seriously, Bu Le laughed, “The monk’s words were wasted somehow as I didn’t think of stepping into the outside world in the first place, else I wouldn’t have become a monk in the temple. Later on, the old Abbott handed down his position to me before he passed away. As there were many unusual talents in the Buddhist world, I kept as low a profile as possible and lived a simple and disciplined life. I was born a demon but with the cultivation base that you had granted to me, the process of cultivation became easier. I also gathered some good disciples and the Great Mercy Temple was gradually transformed from an ordinary temple to the Holy Land of Buddhism that you see today.”

Chang Li waited for him to finish and said in a mocking tone, “That little-mouthed monk is also your apprentice? You’ve got a pair of good eyes, that little monk will achieve something big in the future!”

Bu Le smiled happily while nodding his head, “Nominally he’s not my apprentice but I’m the one who is teaching him!” He pointed to the small-mouthed monk behind him as he said this. The old rabbit demon had been alive for over a thousand years and his greatest hobby was to gather talented disciples. In this manner, Hope Sense and the other monks were the inheritors of the rabbit demon’s legacy.

Wen Leyang smiled politely while in his head he thought that since this Bu Le Monk was originally a rabbit demon yet he had secretly raised this temple to become the Holy Land of Buddhism, revered by all Buddhist cultivators. Could this be regarded as the limitless potential of the Buddha’s teachings?

The rabbit demon Bu Le Monk saw Wen Leyang’s polite smile and, feeling slightly embarrassed, he defended himself, “This little…little brother, though I cultivated Buddhism as a demon, for over a thousand years, I’ve been redeeming myself with purity and kindness, doing things with only Zen in my heart. The Buddha has no form and all living things have no form, if you were to focus on the Buddha wholeheartedly…”

Wen Leyang turned to Chang Li suddenly and asked, “Is the…life of a demon very long?”

Chang Li lifted her slightly pointy chin, her long eyelashes almost touched the eyes of Wen Leyang as she asked with a faint smile, “Little boy, what’re you trying to ask?”

Wen Leyang smiled good-naturedly and said, “I was just curious, that’s all.”