891 Restrain (1/2)
Shangguan Ru took a sip of her tea and carefully savored it with her head slightly raised. Feeling a bit embarrassed and confused, she asked the monk opposite her, ”I'm drinking tea but I feel like I'm drinking wine. Am I keeping or breaking the precept?”
”Breaking the precept.” The monk's answer was quite straightforward.
”It's really hard to be a monk. Fortunately, I'm not going to be a nun.” Shangguan Ru smiled. Then, she said to another nearby monk, ”It's hard to imagine you standing this.”
The rough-looking Lianqing blushed and put his palms together as he said, ”Actually … I'm not a real monk.”
”What do you mean? Aren't you Master Fayan's disciple?” Shangguan Ru asked in surprise.
”That's true. But I'm no better than young benefactress. I keep the precepts on the surface, but deep in my mind, I break them. When I practice kung fu, I tell myself I'm building my body. However, in my mind, I'm actually thinking about how to kill my enemy. I am a vegetarian, but I prefer savory food like mushrooms because they taste like meat. My Master used to say that I was a one-legged monk with one of my feet on the ground and the other resting in the air. In other words, I can't stand stable. I can only be considered as a real monk when both feet land on the ground.”
”One-legged monk.” Shangguan Ru felt like this description was funny and turned to ask the other monk, ”Master, didn't the Buddha say that he would introduce a convenient method to enlighten people with? Then why is it so hard to cross the threshold? I heard that one could be enlightened by simply chanting Amitabha.”
The monk looked serious like a bald pedant and his answer to her questions was quick and simple, as if they were frequently asked questions that he had long memorized the answers to. ”The most convenient method varies from person to person. Some people may shrink back from difficulties but others may rise to the challenge. Thus, the ways they become enlightened are naturally different.”
A little proud, Shangguan Ru said to Lianqing, ”Did you hear that? The master said we are people who rise to the challenge.”
Lianqing nodded approvingly but then became frustrated again. ”We shouldn't be so happy about it. There is no difference in the Dharma, so there should also be no difference between the people learning it. If we don't stop thinking about the 'difference', then it merely means we haven't even crossed the threshold of Buddhism.”
”Then just stay at the threshold and be a receptionist or something. We can even sit down for a while if we are tired,” Shangguan Ru joked as she found the two monks more and more interesting.
Lianqing repeatedly shook his head and said, ”I don't want to sit on the threshold. I want to enter the hall.”
”If there's no difference to anything, then what's the difference between sitting on the threshold and sitting in the hall?”
Lianqing was speechless. After thinking for a long while, he had no choice but to turn to the other monk for help. ”Please help me, master.”
”Young benefactress should be aware of falling into nothingness. One has to understand that everything is distinct before knowing that there's no difference. All phenomena, near and far, have their own nature. Although each is distinctly different, they originate from the same pure essence. The threshold is the threshold; the hall is the hall; you are you, and I am myself. Thus all categories of phenomena have their own individual distinctions, but the true essence has no differences. You must bear this in mind before you can understand everything is one.”
Nobody knew how much Lianqing had really understood from his words. ”Right!” He slapped his thigh and exclaimed before clasping his hands and bowed respectfully to the master.
Shangguan Ru also did not fully understand. ”All categories of phenomena have their individual distinctions, but perceiving their essence has no differences.” Shangguan Ru muttered the phrase and seemed to have grasped something but couldn't exactly put it into words.
The room fell silent. The two female soldiers guarding at the door exchanged a glance and smiled, thinking that the instructor had been possessed.
”The Dragon King is here,” someone announced outside.
Lianqing abruptly rose up from the futon, but then quickly sat down and chanted sutras with his head lowered after realizing that he had acted too rashly.
This was a public visit. The request had been made in the morning, and Gu Shenwei soon received a response. After some arrangements, he arrived at the Kun Society in the afternoon.
The courtyard of the Kun Society was crowded with young people with the oldest being no more than seventeen years old. The entire place exuded the distinctive style of Shangguan Ru — informality. Some young boys practiced kung fu while others chatted. They all looked very happy. The female soldiers who hadn't brought their arms with them bossed the teenagers around like a group of stern nannies. Well, they were indeed quite qualified for this job considering their ages.
But from a killer's point of view, this place was almost undefended.
Shangguan Ru had not been good at such things when she was a child. The Kun Society back then had been truly operated by killer disciples like Servant Huan, Lotus, and Wild Horse. Now she seemed to have simply let it all go.
Gu Shenwei's conviction was shaken before he even entered the room.
Han Fen had brought a message for Lotus, claiming that the assassin who killed the Central Plains envoy was probably a teenager of the Kun Society. Gu Shenwei thought that this was a clue but what he saw here made him doubt whether the teenagers of the Kun Society still retained their killer's ability.
Training as a killer was like sailing against the current; one either kept forging ahead or one kept falling behind. Once they started slacking, they would soon lose the instinctive vigilance and killing desire that was vital to a killer. However, this seemed to be Shangguan Ru's exact goal.
There were actually two monks in the room. Gu Shenwei felt surprised but also not so. He had merely thought that the monk wouldn't intervene so early.
Wild Horse and the disciple of the Essence Pavilion seemed hostile to the appearance of the monks. They stood at the door and refused to move further in.
Shangguan Ru smilingly stood up to greet them with an easy grace as if she were merely a common friend of the Dragon King's. ”The Dragon King is really punctual. Hello, Wild Horse, and this … Senior of the Essence Pavilion. Allow me to introduce these two. They are Fachong and Lianqing, eminent monks of the Four Noble Truths Temple.”
Fachong, the old monk, rose to silently greet the guests with his palms clasped. Lianqing corrected her, saying, ”I'm not an eminent monk. I'm just a monk, a one-legged monk.”
Gu Shenwei returned the salute. 'Immortal Peng' didn't bow to greet the other side. Wild Horse looked down slightly when he faced Shangguan Ru, showing his last memory and respect to his former master.
”My purpose here is very simple.” Gu Shenwei went straight to the point. ”In fact, you could have replied to me in a letter.”
”I think it's better to answer you face to face. But before that, I hope that you can do me a favor.”
Gu Shenwei paused. He was already doing the Kun Society a favor by clearing the suspicion so he reluctantly said, ”Please go ahead.”