617 The Clouds Gathered Above Chaoyang City I (1/2)
The winds and snow were not piqued, and the roads were not blocked. An old monk wearing a bamboo hat walked out of the Wilderness slowly, holding a monk's staff in his hand. He entered the Yuelun Kingdom and walked up to the peak of a relatively low mountain.
The old monk walked extremely slowly. He was slower than the falling snowflakes, and seemed to be even slower than the snow melting. The grass slippers on his feet seemed to be stuck to the ground, and whenever he raised his feet it was as if he would raise the entire ground with it. That was why every step he took seemed arduous.
When he walked on the snow, he would raise the snow off the ground. When he walked on the mud, the black mud would be lifted off the ground. When he walked on the mountain path that was lined with pebbles, the surface of the path would be lifted. The mountain path that was covered in a light dusting of snow did not seem to have undergone any changes, but deep within the depths of the ground, a tugging ensued. A faint grumbling resounded; one that could not be heard by humans. The entire mountain groaned as the old monk continued forth.
Animals hibernating in the depths of the mountains were able to hear this sound. The wolf licking its matted fur raised its head up alertly. The magpie hidden in its nest looked to the distance in fear. The wildcat attempting to gnaw on a frozen deer yowled shrilly.
The old monk walked to the mountain's peak, looking toward the south.
The snow stopped a few dozen miles south from the mountain's peak. Most of the skies in the Yuelun Kingdom were devoid of any snow clouds. Meanwhile in Yuelun's capital, Chaoyang City which was a few thousand miles away, was covered by a thick layer of clouds. From a few thousand miles away, the thick clouds looked like a lonely stemless flower that bloomed from loneliness in the Buddhist country.
The old monk looked at the clouds a few thousand miles away. The shadow of his bamboo hat did nothing to hide the expression of distress that slowly appeared on his aged face. Then, he tightly clutched the staff in his hand, poking it into the stones beside him. He said to the far off distance, ”Man below clouds.”
The staff made contact with the stones on the peak like a hot knife slicking into a pile of snow. It was wedged deeply into the rock without any sound. The top of the monk's staff made a soft clear sound as the old monk spoke, and the sound drifted out in all directions.
The old monk looked at the distant Chaoyang City and said, ”Buddha left behind his chessboard, the peace bell, and other Dharma weapons before entering Nirvana. They were to point Buddhist disciples to the right path during the calamity that the world would face and the Dharma Ending Period that is about to come. However, Senior Brother, you have refused to walk on the path Buddha left behind and insist on walking your own path. Why is this so?”
After standing in silence on the peak for a long time, the old monk sighed and said, ”Senior Brother, you were called Qishan then. I did not understand why. I only knew that it means taking the other path after Qi Nian told me about it. However, the other path is difficult. Buddha is compassionate, how could he bear to watch the people take the risks of the alternate path?”
With that, the old monk pulled his staff from the snow covered rocks and slowly walked down the peak. He seemed to be walking in the direction of Chaoyang City. However, he walked slowly and with much difficulty. It had taken him over a hundred days to reach the edges of the Wilderness, coming from the Xuankong Temple. Then, how long would it take for him to get to the city below the clouds?
”Since you chose the alternate path, then I can only take the shortcut.”
As the old man walked out of the periphery of the peak, he stopped on the rough and muddy mountain path and stretched out his staff. It looked as if he was calling for a carriage, but where would a carriage come from while in such a remote place?
This winter, the capital city of Yuelun Kingdom, Chaoyang City, experienced a constant gloom. Even though there were two light snowfalls, the thick clouds above the city had not dispersed.
Good and bad weather were common in this world. It wasn't hard to imagine a hundred days of gloom, so in the beginning, the cloud did not attract anyone's attention.
It was not until deep into the winter when the second snowfall fell, as Chaoyang City remained gloomy while the countryside was enshrouded in sunlight, that people in the city grew confused.
Explanations would be sought for, should one encounter doubts. When purposeful observations first began, the imperial court of the Yuelun Kingdom and the ordinary citizens finally noticed that there was something weird about the thick clouds in the sky. Someone recalled that the cloud above them had not dispersed since late autumn. More people noticed that clouds in the clear skies outside the city kept floating and merging into the clouds above the city.
The clouds hung above Chaoyang City, unbudging and growing thicker and larger by the day. It was too strange. At the beginning of autumn, the Yuelun Kingdom had announced that the Daughter of Yama had come. The imperial court had also acknowledged that she was in the country by issuing an arrest warrant. These incidents, together with the thick clouds above Chaoyang City made the citizens uneasy and fearful.
Those in Chaoyang City made plenty of conjectures and were very uneasy. The cloud became everyone's focus and even the main topic of all conversations between the citizens of the Yuelun Kingdom.
”Did you see the cloud yesterday?”
”I can see it every day if I look up. Is there a need to look at it specifically?”
”I was talking about the new cloud that floated over yesterday. Haven't you realized that the cloud is much thicker today?”
”It doesn't look so. I went to rent a horse carriage yesterday. Was yesterday's new cloud large?”
”Extremely large. It was already very close when I saw it. It was a little bigger than the palace.”
”That's rather big. But I saw the new cloud that came from the east a few days ago. It looks so imposing, just like thousands of soldiers and horses of the Tang military.”