Chapter 27: Reward and Punishnt
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The cold wind ripped over the edge like a sharp steel knife was slashing across his body. ng Qi shuddered with cold, though he was wearing a thick frock and underpants. He had to operate the Shaolin Temple heart sutras to get warm, and inner force slowly flowed through his body, thus the coldness was expelled.
The road toward the back mountain was heavily guarded. There were even guard monks at the edges of the cliff where no one could pass through. ng Qi, Zhen Hui, and Zhen Yong were arranged at the front of a narrow road leading to the back mountain. On each side was cliff walls and the front had a large and dense forest.
“Senior Brother, are there the White Bone Woman and Spider-Woman in the back mountain?” Zhen Hui asked. He had not opened up his Elixir Field, thus his Inner Qi Force was in a slow growth. He was so cold that he skipped, staring sharply at the dark end of the narrow road. That was the back mountain.
“White Bone Woman? Spider-Woman?” Zhen Yong was montarily confused. By giving ng Qi an odd stare, Zhen Yong wondered what strange stories ng Qi had told Zhen Hui.
ng Qi laughed as between the hard practices of Kung Fu to cope with the life-or-death pressure in the World of Samsara, it was sowhat the only leisure for him. “Now that Senior Brother Zhen Miao has said there are demons and ghosts, then there must be so alluring won.”
He did not know well about the demons and ghosts, so he ntioned it on purpose to see if Zhen Yong could explain it.
Zhen Yong was watching the end of the road absent-mindedly, and it was like he was talking to himself. “The true demons and ghosts… How many people have ever seen them? Since the Demon ss ti has gone, the demonic cult has sunk without a trace. At least, we ordinary people can rarely find them. It only occurs sotis that a scholar ets a Fox Woman or a master faces down a Snake Spirit. Well, I haven’t seen one yet.”
ng Qi nodded his head and did not ask more questions, for Zhen Yong really seed to know little about it.
The night dragged on, the north wind getting colder. Zhen Hui had found a stone to sit on for ditation and Zhen Yong was walking about to drive out the chill.
With the quiet environnt and guard monks from Dharma and Bodhi guarding behind, ng Qi gradually put his mind on the last step of the Eight Divine Steps. Suddenly, a deadly cold wind ca past and ng Qi shivered. Then, he beca sober and had a flash of genius, and had all the passes figured out.
After figuring out the last key to the Eight Divine Steps, ng Qi could not help giving it a try.
Though Zhen Yong “knew” that he had a technique inherited from his family, ng Qi was still not accustod to using the steps directly. While the bladesmanship could cover it up, the movent was so big that Zhen Miao and other people who were patrolling would find out and, thus, he would be scolded.
Looking around, ng Qi said to Zhen Yong with his hands pressing his stomach, “Senior Brother, my stomach is aching. I have to go to the toilet. Sorry to give you trouble.”
Zhen Yong had a few similar experiences when they were in the Sutras Depository so he felt it was nothing weird. He smiled. “Go ahead! I’ll explain it if Senior Brother Zhen Miao cos.”
ng Qi carried his Buddhist Commandnt Blade and scuttled off into the forest ahead. He did not dare to walk away too far. So, at the side near the cliff wall, he started to practice the steps around the huge trees.
Eight Divine Steps was delicate and mysterious. As it was dark at night, ng Qi felt that he was like a ghost moving around in and out of the shadows.
“Good! That really is it!” ng Qi satisfactorily nodded his head after practicing several tis and decided to go back.
He suddenly heard a slight sound co from the wall when he was about to go, and all of a sudden, he felt fully tense. He slid and hid behind a big tree.
“I can’t be that unlucky! Aren’t there Uncle Masters and Senior Brothers guarding? And there is such a cliff here!” ng Qi thought that it was so monster or demon.
He peeped at that side and saw a big hole cracked into the cliff wall beside a big reddish stone. A figure warily darted out.
This figure touched sothing behind the big stone. The sound ca again, and then the stone wall slowly closed.
“Is it the escape exit for the demons and ghosts?” ng Qi made a guess sorrowfully. He regretted a little bit coming into the forest.
He thought at first that there were just so wild beasts here. And they would not co out on such cold winter days. It should have been a definitely safe place, while he did not expect that he would et this thing.
The figure turned around and was going to run into another side of the forest.
At this mont, ng Qi saw his face clearly against the hazy moonlight.
“Him?” ng Qi was so surprised and shocked that he almost scread out. He finally bit his lips to stop himself.
“The person out from the back mountain is Zhen Guan!
“The person who attacked and suffered from no hope for revenge. It is Zhen Guan!”
“Hasn’t he been expelled from Buddhism?” ng Qi thought doubtfully. He believed that Xuan Xin did not lie about it because his friend in the Chores Yard, Zhen Yan, said he had never seen Zhen Guan since that day.
ng Qi stood still and saw Zhen Guan go away. He knew his own power was not good enough to get involved with such stuff as demons and ghosts.
“n should have self-knowledge. Not everyone is a hero…” ng Qi said to himself.
“If I go and open that exit, what waits for might not be so beast’s elixir or so kind of demonic cult Divine Skill. I might be just killed and devoured or beco a puppet. After all, the forr belongs to ‘heroes’ and I may not have a halo of a ‘hero’.”
He quietly left the forest and decided to seek a more capable person to handle it. Though he had long determined to resu his secular life, he was in the Shaolin Temple right now. He might be implicated into trouble if there would be conflicts in Shaolin.
“Junior Brother Zhen Ding, are you having the runs?” Zhen Yong teased ng Qi for his late arrival.
ng Qi said seriously, “Senior Brother Zhen Yong, I encountered a strange thing when I was having the runs, and I think I should report it to our Uncle Master!”
“Oh! Quick! Shoot off the fireworks!” Zhen Yong was taken back. He thought it over and let ng Qi send an ergency signal right away without asking him what thing was.
ng Qi’s mouth twitched a little. “This Senior Brother Zhen Yong, enthusiastic, hearty, and generous in normal tis, is quite a slippery fellow at critical tis. He doesn’t even ask anything and tries to keep himself out of it.”
He did not care much about Zhen Yong’s little thoughts but inwardly made a decision to be wary of him. At that ti, Zhen Hui took out a bamboo tube in front of him, aid it into the sky, and pulled its lid off.
With a swish, a red glow shot up, bursting into a bright sight in the sky.
“Junior Brother is really a man of action. You didn’t ask anything, but just fired it…” ng Qi wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and walked ahead of Zhen Hui with his blade, alert to a possible attack.
After two or three breaths, ng Qi felt dizzy and then saw a handso, while lancholy, middle-aged monk. He wore a yellow frock and a red cassock, and in his right hand, he had a string of black beads carved with Buddha images.
“Yellow frock, red cassock… Which yard is he the head or Elder of?” ng Qi was about to greet him, but hesitated as the words were just on his lips. “Should I call him Uncle Master, Grand Uncle Master, or Great Grand Uncle Master? I don’t know him at all. The rank is too complicated.”
However, ng Qi felt relieved when he saw a high-ranking master monk arrive.
The monk ca with a grim face. But having seen that this place was peaceful, he beca relaxed as well. He found that ng Qi was hesitating and understood the reason for it. Then he said with a smile, “My title is Xuan Bei. What’s this ergency firework for?”
“Is the ‘Xuan’ already a title of a yard President or an Uncle Master?” ng Qi was in complete surprise. But he still put down his desire for speaking out. After thinking it over, he said, “Uncle Master Xuan Bei, just now I went into the forest to urinate and I saw a secret door on the cliff wall…”
Xuan Bei listened to ng Qi calmly. Then he slightly nodded his head. “You did a good job. No offense and no cover-up. But, are you sure that figure is Zhen Guan, the one who has been expelled?”
“I know what he looks like, but I’m not sure if it’s a monster’s transformation,” ng Qi answered honestly.
After learning about the exact place of the door and so signs there, Xuan Bei instructed them. “You all follow Xuan Chi back to the Warrior-monk Yard later, and leave this matter to .”
“Yes, Uncle Master Xuan Bei.” ng Qi could not wait to leave there. Now he was worried that so demons and ghosts would whip out from the dark.
Xuan Bei stood still, and all of a sudden, he vanished from where he was. He flashed on the edge of the forest, and around him was faint Buddhist singing and Buddha Aura dimly shining. It was solemn and holy like Arhats and Bodhisattvas were landing in this world.
“That is the strength of the Exterior…” Zhen Yong said to himself while watching in the direction Xuan Bei was heading.
ng Qi said with surprise, “Senior Brother Zhen Yong, you know this Uncle Master?”
Zhen Yong turned back to him and said with a sigh, “I don’t know other Uncle Masters except for Xuan Chi and Xuan Ku, who we usually see. But this Uncle Master Xuan Bei has a solid reputation. I have often heard of him from Senior Brother Zhen Chang.”
“Zhen Chang, the head of the first three ‘Zhen’ Disciples?” ng Qi knew Zhen Chang, and it was said that he was superior to Zhen Miao and Zhen Ben.
Zhen Yong continued, saying, “Uncle Master Xuan Bei was a Peerless Master Pro traveling through the world, and he had the title, ‘Seven Deadly Hand’. But later, he suffered a sudden misfortune, and his whole family was killed. Though he had gotten his revenge, the killer had a strong background. So grandmaster ca for him. And adding to this, he was disheartened at that ti, so he finally decided to escape into our Shaolin Temple. He buried himself in Buddhism and cut all connections of secular life, accompanied by the Old Buddha with the Altar Lamp.
“As he was talented and faithful to Buddhism, His Abbotship valued him and took him as his disciple, which is actually an exception. Then he learned about Mo-Ke Exorcism Punch. He was so spectacular that he had a breakthrough in a short ti and beca a grandmaster. Later, he even beca the first one of the ‘Xuan’ title who stepped into the Eight-fold Heaven of the Exterior. There is only one more step for him to reach the summit.”
“This kind of person is always a legend…” ng Qi thought quietly, while Zhen Hui was listening with thirsty ears.
Later, Zhen Miao and his group arrived. Many yellow-clothed monks that ng Qi did not know also ca. The three went back to the Warrior-monk Yard with Xuan Chi.
The next morning, when ng Qi was going to practice writing and find out the result of that matter (he did not have to wake up early to carry water because of the mountain guarding last night), the door was pushed open. The evil-eyed Commandnt Monk, Xuan Kong, walked in, and the dejected Zhen Yong followed him.
“Yesterday, your findings made so conspiracy fail, so Bodhi Yard will give you a reward. But it may be in a few days.” Xuan Kong smirked. “But Commandnt Yard must punish you for your desertion when you were guarding. Combined with your contribution, you’ll be isolated in the ditation room for three days.”
“Only isolated for three days?” ng Qi answered him with a “yes”. He cared little about this punishnt, for it was too light. He could settle down and practice his inner force.
He was looking forward to the reward of Bodhi Yard. “Will it be one of the 72 Ultimate Arts?”
Three days later, ng Qi ate up the dinner that was sent to him and finished his isolation, then he opened the door happily.
“Well, Junior Brother, why are you not happy?” ng Qi t Zhen Hui when he just went out the door.
Zhen Hui angrily said, “Today, Uncle Masters ca to choose their disciples, but you were isolated and couldn’t go out.”
ng Qi’s face suddenly got gloomy. “So this was the reason!
“Was it the disrespect earlier or the elder brother of Zhen Liang in the Commandnt Yard?”
He squinted his eyes and said to Zhen Hui in a peaceful voice, “Let’s go to the Kung Fu Acting Hall.”
Although ng Qi did not want to be a disciple of a Master, as it would be difficult to leave the Shaolin Temple if he did so, still, facing this situation, he was not satisfied at all.
As his voice faded, ng Qi suddenly noticed that there were two lines of words on the light snow in the yard:
“The second Samsara begins!”
“Please be ntally prepared. The next ti it’s open, you won’t be inford and will be pulled in directly.”
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