Chapter 220 — Thieves' Shadows Never Cease

"This cloud is large enough, yet not large enough. The cloud over the Kingdom of Jingping, and this snow — they are more like a warning.

" On Western Mount Sumeru, the Golden Summit Great Thunderpeal Monastery crowned a towering majestic peak, the golden summit itself seated above the sea of clouds. The Old Tathagata cast his gaze over the whole of the Kingdom of Jingping and saw the sun blazing with golden splendor, making the sea of clouds shine with extraordinary brilliance. "In the long history of our Great Thunderpeal Monastery, we too have witnessed celestial attacks of this kind.

" Before the Old Tathagata stood a host of Bodhisattvas, Venerables, and Arhats, and they heard the Old Tathagata say: "That celestial attack was far more vast than the present one.

There too was great snow, there too were dark clouds, so that the people had no means of life, and natural disasters followed year after year — none can say how many died. Venerable Ku, go to the Sutra Pavilion and bring the Scripture of the Lamenting Emperor's Empty Chronicle, and turn to page one thousand three hundred and sixty-seven. " A monk with a sorrowful brow rose and went. After a moment, this Venerable Ku returned bearing a thick scripture in both hands, turned to the page the Old Tathagata had named, and read: "Empty Chronicle, year six thousand four hundred and twenty of the Lamenting Emperor: the heavens changed, snow fell for thirty days, clouds locked eight hundred thousand li, and neither sun nor sky could be seen. The starving dead filled the fields, and bandits rose on every side; the Lamenting Emperor commanded the gods and the dragon kings to destroy them.

Year six thousand four hundred and thirty of the Lamenting Emperor: fire meteors fell from heaven, star-rain like a tide, volcanoes erupted — ten thousand volcanoes — the great earth quaked, the ground split into chasms a thousand zhang deep and ten thousand ravines, rivers dried up, the seas emptied. And when the next year came, the sun vanished, and sun and moon alike lost their light. . . " Behind the Old Tathagata, the Poor Master and the others were shaken to the core and cried out involuntarily: "Tathagata, this is. . . " "The Wasteland.

" The Old Tathagata turned and looked toward the vast, boundless wilds behind Mount Sumeru, and said: "What this scripture records is the final history of the divine kingdom in the Wasteland.

The great snow and the dark clouds were only the first warning.

But this warning has come earlier than I imagined — many years earlier, and far lighter as well. It seems the deeds of the Kingdom of Jingping have made those above take notice. " The Poor Master, True Lord Tian, and the others felt their minds thunder and murmured: "The Wasteland. . .

" "If the Emperor wishes to quell this disaster, there is only one way: he must immediately halt the reforms, issue an edict of self-blame, beg forgiveness of Heaven, and beg forgiveness of the common people.

" The Old Tathagata's gaze was deep. "Otherwise this snow disaster is only the beginning.

Afterwards there will come celestial phenomena even more terrible — not merely snow and cloud, but star-rain, volcanoes, rivers and lakes running dry, the sea evaporating, and the sun and moon vanishing altogether. This is Heaven's chastisement. That Heaven in its wrath should make the common people bear it — that is going too far. . .

" "Report to the Tathagata: the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Jingping has sent a messenger, requesting an audience.

" The Old Tathagata was briefly startled, then smiled: "So His Highness has come to find this old monk after all.

Invite him up.

" "As your holiness commands. " The Old Tathagata said to the monks all around, smiling: "His Highness the Crown Prince is quite extraordinary. Perhaps he will be the lord who saves the world.

The Emperor is set on going his own way, but the Crown Prince will not be so.

His envoy is well worth seeing. " The Daoist Sect, Kunlun Jade Void Mountain.

This place is called the Jade Void Grotto-Heaven, as if it were a world unto itself; within the mountain it is spring all year round, like a holy land of immortals, not a whit inferior to Mount Sumeru. "The cloud sealing Jingping is only a warning of no great weight, far lighter than the warning that preceded the Wasteland's destruction.

" The Old Daoist Lord said unhurriedly to the many cultivators of the Daoist Sect: "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping pushes his reforms, and my Daoist Sect opposes him — not for private interest, but for the sake of the Dao. This reform has already broken many rules and broken many principles, and it is doomed to fail. It is a pity that the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping is too shallow in his vision; he does not know what kind of ending will come when the great terror arrives. " His gaze was deep, but his bearing was utterly calm, and he said slowly: "In those days, when the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping was young, he came to the Daoist Sect to see me. I saw that he was extraordinary, and I held great hopes for him, and so I permitted him to read the canonical scripture that guards our sect, expecting that he would one day achieve great things.

As for sectarian prejudice, I cast it to the back of my mind — such a fine talent naturally deserved to be nurtured without regard for the barriers between sects. Later he became the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, and my hopes for him turned to disappointment. Why? Because the Dao follows nature. " The many masters of the Daoist Sect listened in silence. "What is meant by 'the Dao follows nature'? It means the Dao and its methods arise from nature.

We who cultivate the Dao may summon wind and rain, yet we do not alter wind and rain — that is, we do not alter nature, and do not alter the Great Dao.

I bear no prejudice against the Dark Demon Cult; on the contrary, there are certain ways and deeds of the Dark Demon Cult that I rather admire. But our paths differ. Why? " The Daoist Lord shook his head: "The Dao arises from nature, yet the Dark Demon Cult would use the Dao to alter nature.

This is the greatest difference between my Daoist Sect and the Dark Demon Cult, and it is the very reason the Dark Demon Cult is called demonic. " The many Daoists of the sect felt a tremor in their hearts, and Danyangzi said: "I have observed the disciples of the Dark Demon Cult — some use arts of moving clouds and dispensing rain, bringing rain in times of drought and collecting money from the farming folk. Others use tunneling arts to bore wells in the earth and solve drinking-water problems.

Still others use true fire to smelt ores, extract dark gold, and make it into farming tools for sale. There are even cult disciples who have the farmers pay them to go hunting demonic beasts. The Dark Demon Cult truly violates the principle that the Dao follows nature — it is altering nature. " The Daoist Lord said: "To put the divine arts of the Dao to the daily use of common people is to alter nature, to damage nature. To alter nature and damage nature is to alter the Great Dao, to damage the Great Dao. The doctrine of the Dark Demon Cult is wrong, and could only develop into a demonic path.

Add to that the line in the general outline of their doctrine — 'act as one's nature dictates, purely follow nature' — and this becomes indulging one's own desires, doing whatever one pleases, acting without restraint. If this is not demonic, then what is demonic? " He sighed and said: "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has been too deeply influenced by the Dark Demon Cult, so much so that he governs the state and orders the world by its ideas. And so the disasters the Wasteland once suffered will also come to the Kingdom of Jingping. This is Heaven's punishment, a heavenly tribulation, a calamity sent down from Heaven. Even so, the common people are innocent.