Chapter One: Great Thousand Zen Temple (1)

Can the Buddha do anything and everything?

The Buddha is not omnipotent.

He can empty all forms and attain the wisdom of all dharmas, yet he cannot at once erase fixed karma. He can know the nature of all beings and the events of countless ages, yet he cannot transform those without karmic affinity. He can deliver immeasurable sentient beings, yet he cannot exhaust the boundless realm of living creatures. These are called the three impossibilities.

The Buddha can see all and know all, yet the Buddha says: it cannot be spoken. It cannot be spoken.

The two youths leaped from the roof of Saint Pingning Hospital and fell into the abyss.

The only thing that accompanied them was a storm of manuscript pages, fluttering like snow. Hua Sheng watched those pages and cared not at all where he would be carried.

He did not even care whether he lived or died.

Rrrip!

A sound like paper tearing apart.

He passed through several shattered pages, and when he looked again, the hospital gown on his body was gone, replaced by the Taoist robe of the Arcane Path Academy. But that robe, already rent by the earlier battle with the Candle-Eye and the Heaven and Earth Guards, was in tatters.

"We're back!" Hua Sheng cried in delight. "Grand Master Jun! We're back! Back in Saint Pingning!"

But he heard no reply from Grand Master Jun. A flying manuscript page covered his eyes, and he desperately swept it away with his hand.

Before he knew it, he could no longer see Grand Master Jun among the whirling pages.

Hua Sheng shouted, "Grand Master Jun? Grand Master Jun!"

Beneath him stretched vast mountains carpeted in green plants, and the roar of the wind at his ears made him think of the days when he had ridden through the air with Wei Yu and Grand Master Jun on crane-back.

It was a mountaintop wrapped in dense mist, and below it stood a monastery.

The monastery was encircled by green trees and embraced by flowers and grasses. Like an ancient temple of a thousand years, it was majestic and solemn, with an air of antique elegance.

Glazed tiles of gold and jade, vermilion ancient walls, and a towering gatehouse all gave it a grave, dignified splendor.

A monastery? The image before Hua Sheng grew ever clearer, and the ground below felt like a train hurtling straight toward him.

He suddenly realized: if he kept falling like this, wouldn't he be smashed to death?

"By the decree of the law!"

He hastily cast his cloud-riding spell.

Clouds gathered instantly beneath his feet, but the fall was too swift. Just as Hua Sheng tried to ride the clouds, his footing slipped, and he tumbled off half a cloud.

There was no time left for thought. He could only cry out again: "Cloud-riding art! By the decree of the law!"

Too late, Hua Sheng still smashed headlong into the monastery's glazed roof tiles. The tiles shattered at once, fragments flying in all directions.

Those shattered tiles were dazzling beyond compare.

In the sunlight, the fragments flashed with rainbow brilliance. Their radiance reflected in his eyes, and Hua Sheng even had the illusion that he had already ascended to paradise.

Everything seemed to play back in slow motion. Suddenly, Hua Sheng felt that even if he were to be killed by the fall, he could accept it gladly.

At the very least, he was not plunging onto the concrete of "reality," but dying in this blaze of splendor.

With a thunderous bang, and after rebounding from the glazed roof, Hua Sheng crashed heavily onto the brick floor. Darkness swept over him, and he lost consciousness.

No one knew how long had passed before he heard someone calling in his ear:

"Almsgiver, little almsgiver!"

Opening his eyes, Hua Sheng saw that he was lying in a meditation chamber.

The wooden bed in the room was plain and understated, though to call it spartan would not be wrong. Above the headboard hung some thin, translucent white gauze mosquito netting.

Beside the bed stood a skin and bones old monk, wearing a bright yellow patched robe with wide lapels, broad sleeves, a round collar, and square front opening. Seeing Hua Sheng awake, he pressed his palms together and bowed.

Seeing the old man bow, Hua Sheng hurriedly tried to rise, but the instant he bent his body, a wave of pain and numbness shot through him, leaving him unable to move. He could only turn slightly and reply, "Master, y-you... hello!"

The old monk said, "Almsgiver, do not move about recklessly. You descended from the sky. Had you not been wearing the protection of the Arcane Path Academy's robe, you would likely have been shattered to pieces."

Hua Sheng asked, "Master, is this Saint Pingning?"

"Almsgiver, I do not know how to answer that. It is, and it is not."

Hua Sheng was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"The place into which you fell is the Great Thousand Zen Monastery."

"A Zen monastery?"

"Indeed."

"I... have never heard of it."

The old monk smiled. "Little almsgiver, from your attire, you must be a disciple of the Arcane Path Academy. In Saint Pingning, it is only natural that you have never heard of the Great Thousand Zen Monastery."

Hua Sheng did not understand. Before he could ask further, the old monk went on, "Little almsgiver, though your body is not seriously harmed, if you wish to recover as before, you had best rest more."

Hua Sheng clearly did not want to lie in bed. Before coming here, he had already spent far too many days bedridden, and his heart was set on returning to the Arcane Path Academy. He had no choice but to ask, "Master, do you have any medicine here? Something like the Nine-Revolving Elixir of Rebirth? Give me one pill and I can get up. I have to go back."

The old monk pressed his palms together and said, "The Great Thousand Zen Monastery has no such thing."

"Then what medicine do you have? Something that can have me up and running at once."

The old monk smiled. "We do have medicine. But I fear even after taking it, you will not be up and running immediately."

"What medicine is it?"

"Herbal medicine."

"What sort of medicine is herbal medicine?"

"Medicine made from herbs."

"Ordinary herbs?"

"Very ordinary."

"Then how many days until my body recovers?"

"It will recover on the day your body recovers."

Hearing this, Hua Sheng grew anxious. "No, Master, don't play word games with me. You have to tell me exactly how many days."

"It takes a hundred days for bones and muscles to mend after injury."

Hua Sheng nearly fell from the bed and said hurriedly, "Master, don't joke with me. Isn't that just ordinary mortal treatment? Your medical skill is far too backward."

"Backward is not necessarily bad," the old monk replied. "Little almsgiver, you have spent too long in the Arcane Path Academy. Perhaps you are too eager to achieve everything at once. But this is different. This is the Great Thousand Zen Monastery."

"The Great Thousand Zen Monastery is in Saint Pingning!"

"As I said before, it is within, and yet not within."

"Fine, fine, I get it! Master, your medicine is truly..."

Hua Sheng felt a headache coming on, but as soon as he said it, he realized he had spoken out of turn. After all, this man had saved his life; saying such a thing made him seem rude and reckless.

Yet the old monk showed not the slightest displeasure. Instead, he said, "Little almsgiver, your fall into the Great Thousand Zen Monastery is the fruit of karma you created in the past. Thus, you must repay your own karma here. When your injuries heal, that will be the settling of the debt, and then you may leave. Moreover... even if this humble monk were to open the door and release you now, you still would not be able to leave the monastery."