Chapter 330 — A Vast Sea of Blood

The Great Thunderpeal Temple.

The bell tolled long and loud, clanging on and on without cease — the bell of welcome.

Shen Mu climbed the mountain with the village head on his back, and saw a great Tathagata Buddha of solemn and gracious aspect leading the company of monks out to meet them. In that moment the youth felt a pang of melancholy: the Horse King God, cold of face and warm of heart, had in the end become the Tathagata of the Great Thunderpeal Temple, had become a Buddha. He could not let go of the place where he had grown up.

True, the monks of the Great Thunderpeal Temple had killed his wife and child, but that had not been the doing of the old Tathagata; it was the doing of the monks beneath him. He was a disciple of the old Tathagata; the old Tathagata knew him deeply, and he knew the old Tathagata just as deeply.

The old Tathagata had grown old and could no longer keep the monks beneath him in hand. The arhats of the Arhat Hall and the monks of the other halls had gone down the mountain, and for that his wife and child had lost their lives. The old Tathagata had cut off his own arm and given it back to him.

It had not dissolved the hatred in his heart, yet he too must inherit his master's mantle, and could not let the Great Thunderpeal Temple vanish in smoke and ashes. And when he returned to his old home and took his seat upon the Tathagata's throne, wind rolled the gray clouds past him; amid that scattering of mist and smoke he was suddenly granted the Suchness, broke through the final realm of the Thunderpeal Mahayana Sutra, and cultivated the Great Brahma Heaven. From the Sakra Heaven to the Great Brahma Heaven was a sudden awakening, a perfect enlightenment.

On the golden summit of the Great Thunderpeal Temple, Shen Mu looked at Old Master Huo, who had raised him and taught him to manhood, and a hundred flavors rose in his heart; in the end he addressed him as senior brother. This Tathagata of the Great Thunderpeal Temple had cultivated the supreme realm, the Great Brahma Heaven, his flesh, his spirit-sense and his Suchness all perfected; behind him the twenty-fold heavens of the realm unfolded, the Great Brahma King seated cross-legged, gods and buddhas great and small encircling him, light in eternal day, holy and compassionate. "Senior Brother," Old Master Huo returned his salute.

Shen Mu's heart darkened.

Once Old Master Huo sat in that seat, he was no longer the old Huo of former days, but the Tathagata. He must set down his worldly affairs, the four great elements all void.

The Lame Elder was there as well; in name he had come to witness the ceremony, but in truth he feared for Master Huo's safety, lest the monks of the Great Thunderpeal Temple do him harm. But Master Huo had now reached the highest realm of the Thunderpeal Mahayana Sutra and had no need of his protection, and so the Lame Elder could no longer sit still. The Great Thunderpeal Temple was treasures on every side; the Buddhist temple was strewn with rare wonders and precious things, and the old thief grew so restless he could not keep his seat.

He wanted to steal them, yet his conscience pricked him; and when he saw Shen Mu and the village head arrive, he could not help but suggest they leave as soon as might be.

Shen Mu would gladly have stayed a few more days, but when night came he saw the north ablaze with lights — that was Qingmen Pass. Such a blaze of light meant that the fighting at Qingmen Pass was fierce.

Beside Qingmen Pass lay the Nether Valley, where the two white bats made their home, not so very far from the Great Thunderpeal Temple. Early the next morning Shen Mu rose and took his leave, departing with the village head, Xiong Xiyu, the Lame Elder and the rest.

"When I first met Old Master Huo, he was the most famous constable under heaven, known as the Horse Divine Constable. He nearly caught me. " The Lame Elder looked back. From the golden summit of Mount Sumeru poured ten thousand fathoms of golden light, and the voice of the Buddha rolled vast and mighty; the Buddha's voice turned to substance, became script, became lotuses, became image after image of buddhas in the void, encircling that holy ground. The Lame Elder was lost in thought.

"He caught me many times," he said softly. "We matched wits many times.

The one I feared most, and revered most, was him.

In my early years I was an orphan with nothing at all, begging my food from place to place; when the hunger grew unbearable I stole.

I dared not rob, because I was small and thin. Then an old constable caught me.

He did not send me to the magistrate; he only forbade me to steal, and taught me a trade, like a father. I followed him, dreaming that one day I too might be a constable. Old Master Huo reminds me of him.

When Old Master Huo puts on that stern look, he is so like him. . . " Shen Mu sat on the back of the Dragon Qilin and said nothing, listening with the village head and the others as the Lame Elder told of the past. "I had no father. I felt the old constable was my father. In the years I followed him I worked harder than ever, and was happier than ever. Then one day, the old constable died.

" The Lame Elder's eyes went wide, and his voice was terribly calm.

"At midnight his enemies came for him. I was still asleep.

I heard killing cries outside, and he burst in, and at the risk of his life got me out, and said to me: Child, be a good man. . . Run! I had nothing on my body. I ran bare-bottomed, ran and ran, and my speed grew and grew, faster and faster.

I wept and begged people to help, but no one came out, no one.

. . " A thin, weak boy running naked and helpless, helplessly begging for help — and no one helped him.

The Lame Elder ran from night into day, ran ten thousand li. When he came to his senses he went back to the old constable's dwelling; it had been burned to bare earth, and all he could dig out were the old constable's charred bones.

"He told me to be a good man. He spent his whole life being a good man, and what did it come to? I won't be a good man! He forbade me to steal — so I stole. " Desolate, the Lame Elder said, "I stole and I ran. Stealing and running, running and stealing, my name grew greater and greater, and men called me the Shadow Thief. What shit sealing arts, what shit forbidden spells — I held them all in contempt. I outran the wind, outran the clouds, outran the lightning; I stole my way across the whole world. Whatever sect, whatever holy ground, I went and stole from them all.

At last I found his enemies, and stole their heads. When I made offerings to the old constable, I wanted to be a good man — but by then I had caught the habit of stealing, and could never break it.

Then I met Old Master Huo, and he reminded me of the old constable.

It is not that I fear him; I revere him.

And now he has become the Tathagata, with that compassionate and precious aspect, and it makes me wonder whether the old constable, too, became a Buddha. . .

" The village head poked his head out of the medicine basket.

"Old Master Huo will not become a Buddha. One day, when a new Tathagata comes, he will take off his cassock, and be the old Master Huo again.

" The Lame Elder looked up at the sky. "Let us hope so.

" Shen Mu let out a breath of turbid air and said in a low voice, "Master Huo will come back.

.

. " Along the way he had refined the poison from Xiong Xiyu's body completely, and compounded several spirit elixirs to nourish her vital essence; at last they came to the Nether Valley, and the two white bats flew into the gorge, hung upside down from a tree, and took their leave of Shen Mu and the others. "Come and visit us when you have time, Sect Master — we won't eat you! " said Fu Yuqiu.