noffsinger Chapter 52 The Mirror of the Bright Mind
Chapter 52 The Mirror of the Bright Mind
The four were locked in fierce combat, the clanging of metal on metal sounding like a sudden downpour.
The square-faced man not only swung his two broad axes with incredible force, but he also kept his mouth shut:
"Damn it, why are there more and more prayer beads the more I hit them?"
Song Quyou frowned, feeling increasingly uneasy as he fought. The Buddhist beads would heal themselves after being cut; they would shatter and new ones would appear, endlessly, with a total of eight beads.
Huiming, with a smile on his face, quietly watched the four of them, like a puppet.
Song Quyou had no intention of sitting idly by and waiting to die. Since he couldn't escape, he would kill!
But then he kicked off with all his might, leaving afterimages behind him, aiming straight for Huiming's throat as he sat cross-legged in mid-air.
Huiming remained still, and the eight rays of Buddha light recoiled and returned, all striking Song Quyou, who was breaking through the air.
Song Quyou paid no heed, his hand gripping the green sword with a chilling intent.
Instantly, a sharp blade pierced through his body, and warm rain sprayed out.
The long sword pierced Huiming's throat.
The Buddha's light that Song Quyou ignored and pierced through the air to strike his back was blocked by Su Tang, who was following closely behind, and turned into charred remains by lightning.
Upon seeing Huiming killed, the square-faced man slapped himself to the ground, secretly relieved.
Song Quyou twisted the sword sharply, pulling it from Huiming's throat and flicking the warm blood from the blade onto the bluestone ground.
Huiming's expression remained unchanged. Despite the bloody hole in his throat, he was still able to speak, compassionately saying:
"Your bloodlust is so strong, you are indeed most suited to be saved by Buddha."
Before he finished speaking, Huiming's body began to sway like a reflection in water, causing ripples to spread throughout the entire Summer Zen Temple.
In an instant, the lotus pond, the green trees, the eaves, and the cicadas chirped, everything was twisted and deformed, like a crumpled painting.
The four of them suddenly felt their feet sink into the ground, and their ears rang. When they opened their eyes again, they were back in that secluded summer Zen temple.
Everyone was startled.
Huiming remained seated in mid-air, perfectly unharmed, floating in the center of the Zen temple.
This time, however, only seven rays of Buddhist light remained around him.
The square-faced man sprang up from the ground, touched the two axes at his waist, and clearly saw the nicks on the blades from the collision with the prayer beads. But the fierce battle just now felt like a dream.
"Damn you, you bald monk! You don't dare to fight head-on, all you do is use weird tricks and gimmicks. Aren't you just bullying us honest people?!"
"If you're so capable, take down all this fancy stuff!" The man scratched his head, walked behind his fourth sister who was counting money, and patted her shoulder, saying:
"Take your things away, and I won't bully you. Let my fourth sister fight you. If she wins, I'll give you back your things; if she loses, she'll let us leave."
Huiming sat cross-legged in mid-air, with seven rays of Buddhist light swirling around his body like seven golden snakes. He did not answer the square-faced man's question, but simply smiled.
"Brother, when we escaped once, the monk lost one of his prayer beads; when we killed him once, he lost another one."
Let's kill him a few more times and see what he does without his prayer beads.
The square-faced man pondered for a moment, then nodded emphatically, drew his axe from his waist, swung it a few times in the air, and said angrily, "I'm going to chop this bastard up."
Before he finished speaking, he charged out like a bull, his two axes whistling through the air as he aimed straight for Huiming's face.
Huiming remained motionless as the seven rays of Buddha light suddenly converged, transforming into a golden halo that blocked his path.
The axe struck the halo, sparks flying, the shock making the square-faced man's hand go numb, and he staggered back three steps.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, the female thief approached from the side, her short knife flashing like a venomous snake, aiming straight for Huiming's ribs. Huiming didn't even lift his eyelids; two beams of Buddhist light attacked from both sides, forcing her to turn and retreat hastily.
Song Quyou and Su Tang exchanged a glance, and then attacked simultaneously.
The sword reached his throat, the thunder struck his back.
Huiming's figure swayed again like a reflection in the water, causing the entire monastery to twist, and the four of them lost their footing once more.
When he came to his senses, only six rays of Buddhist light remained on Huiming's body.
The square-faced man paused for a moment, then grinned, "Damn, it actually works!"
In an instant, Huiming was in trouble.
Slashing in the face, slitting the throat, beheading, striking with lightning, piercing the heart, disemboweling.
The Zen temple seemed to reappear again and again. After six repetitions, the prayer beads vanished without a trace, and Huiming was nowhere to be seen either.
The surrounding Zen temples have also changed. The cicadas chirping in the height of summer, the lotus flowers exuding fragrance, and the shady green trees are all gone.
Instead, there were forests of corpses and pools of blood, ghostly temples, and ruins all around. The beams were rotten and eaten by insects, the bones were piled up like trees, the human skin rotted into leaves, and the human sinews gleamed silver, becoming the ropes for binding.
The lotus pond, which had been fragrant just moments before, now reeked of a foul stench. Thick, dark blood rippled as a bony hand, masquerading as a lotus flower, extended from the surface.
Listen again, and the noisy cicada chirping is gone; it has long since turned into the howling of the wind and the wailing of ghosts, a mournful sound that makes one tremble with fear.
The four men's faces turned pale and then flushed, and the greedy female thief vomited up all the meat and wine she had eaten sometime during the night.
It's a bargain for the white maggots hiding in the cracks between the bricks.
Her face turned bitter. After vomiting up the wine and meat, she vomited up yellow bile, which then turned into green bile.
……
Outside the boundary.
Huiming looked at the nine Buddhist prayer beads in his right hand. Eight of them were broken, and the last one was also full of cracks and barely intact.
The bronze mirror in the left hand, which had been clear and transparent, turned yellowish, like muddy soup with too much mud mixed in.
Huiming sighed softly: "Indeed, without mastering the Taiyin Mingxin Mirror, forcibly activating it with the Nirvana Zen Beads is still too much of a stretch, and it always leaves many loopholes when trapping people."
I had intended to convert these four to my religion, but now it seems that to prevent the secret from being leaked, I have no choice but to let them die in the mortuary within the mirror.
……
The four looked around at the eerie temple, filled with surprise and doubt. Just then, the square-faced man patted the fourth sister's back lightly and spat out a curse:
"Damn it, this Lingfo Temple looks quite impressive, yet it hides such a terrifying place."
"Once we get out, we'll make those bald monks show their ugly faces."
As soon as he finished speaking, a chilling wind swept through the forest of corpses, carrying a pungent stench.
The human skins hanging on the bone tree swayed in the wind, as if they had a voice, making a sound like paper banners fluttering.
As they swayed, the human skins revealed holes pierced all over their bodies, looking at Song Quyou and his companions, sending a chill down one's spine.
Deeper into the Zen temple, a faint yellow miasma still churned, with countless flies and insects wrapped in it, buzzing in the cold wind, making the hairs on one's body tremble.
"Damn it, this place is alive!" The square-faced man shielded his fourth sister behind him, crossing two battle axes in front of his chest.
Before he finished speaking, the nearest skeletal tree suddenly trembled, and more than a dozen human skins slid off its branches as if they were being undressed.
Upon landing, it swelled up, stretching out to resemble limbs and a head. Unfortunately, the swollen skin was covered in holes, making it impossible to distinguish between the mouth and the eyes.
The skeletal hands disguised as lotus flowers in the blood pool also moved, their five fingers opening and closing as they climbed up the edge of the pool. The viscous blood water stretched into long, crystalline threads, dripping onto the ground and emitting wisps of blue smoke. This frightened the maggots in the cracks between the bricks, who all avoided touching it.
The square-faced man spat, twirling his two battle axes in his hands.
"We siblings have traveled all over the country over the years, what kind of demons and monsters haven't we seen? They're just a few tattered skins, we'll chop them up!"