Chapter 71: Descent from the Heavens

Amidst the pitch-black night, a slender figure slowly stepped into the Heavenly Buddha Temple.

His movements were as light as a plant; with a gentle bound, he cleared the three-meter-high courtyard wall and drifted softly down into the temple grounds.

His footsteps were so light that not a single sound could be heard.

No, rather than walking, he seemed to be floating.

His shadow shifted bit by bit until, finally, he arrived at the inner courtyard.

He turned around and walked toward the monks' quarters.

He knew that new guests had arrived today, and he wanted to walk inside to properly greet someone.

"Screech—"

The door was pushed open.

That figure drifted slowly inside, and within a mere moment, he stood beside Mingxin's bed.

He leaned down. Moonlight streamed in through the doorway, illuminating his blood-stained fangs.

The figure lunged forward abruptly, opened his bloody maw, and bit straight into Mingxin's neck!

"Ah!"

Startled out of his wits, Mingxin jerked upright and patted his neck. Nothing had happened.

"Hah, hah..." He panted heavily, beads of sweat covering his forehead. The nightmare had given him a terrible fright.

"Mingxin, Mingxin, what on earth are you doing?"

His cries had clearly disturbed his master, who had already sat up and sharply questioned him.

Panting, Mingxin timidly replied, "Master, just now... I just had a nightmare."

"A nightmare? What did you dream of this time? Could it be that you haven't been diligently chanting the Buddhist scriptures lately, to be having nightmares?"

"It's not that, Master," Mingxin said with a wronged expression. "I, I don't know how... I dreamed of a withered corpse running over to suck my blood. He, he looked so terrifying, with a pair of fangs..."

"Oh?"

His master turned around and looked at Mingxin.

"Was it... like this?"

Mingxin looked up, and instantly, he saw that the person before him possessed a pair of sharp fangs. The moonlight shone directly upon his face, and that ferocious, terrifying visage was pressed right against his own!

"Aaaah!"

"What on earth are you screaming your head off for?!"

A crisp flick rang out as Yuanqing unceremoniously snapped the little novice monk on the forehead, glaring at him with a cold face.

Mingxin opened his eyes and, seeing his master glaring with wide-open eyes, immediately shrieked, "A ghost! A ghost! Don't eat me!"

...

Early the next morning, Mingxin rubbed the several red welts on his forehead, thinking to himself that his Master really didn't hold back.

While he was secretly grumbling inwardly, Yuanqing suddenly walked up to him.

"Ah, Master..."

Yuanqing stared with wide eyes and said in a huff, "Tell me about the dream you had last night in detail."

"Oh."

Mingxin hurriedly recounted the dream from the previous night. After listening to his description, Yuanqing instantly fell silent.

"Master, could this dream..."

Yuanqing had no intention of hiding anything from him. Instead, he nodded and said, "Normally, I have you chant the Vajra Sutra, the Heart Sutra, and other scriptures every day, and your mental cultivation has reached an exceptional level. Although Master always calls you lazy on ordinary days, given your innate talent, you have actually done all these things very well."

Hearing his master praise him, Mingxin immediately broke into a goofy, bashful smile.

Yuanqing paid it no mind and continued, "I asked you to integrate your spiritual practice into your daily life, and you succeeded in doing that. No talking while eating, no speaking while resting, doing whatever needs to be done at the right moment—you have executed all of this admirably. Without realizing it, you have accomplished something that more than half of the cultivators in this world cannot achieve: the complete mastery of your own mind and willpower."

"You have already taken the first step toward seeing your true nature and attaining Buddhahood. As long as you continue to hone and refine your state of mind, in just a few years, you will be able to bypass years of arduous cultivation and directly attain Arhatship."

Arhatship referred to the Celestial Realm.

The little novice monk Mingxin had never practiced formal cultivation up to this point precisely because Yuanqing intended to help him leap across the heavenly cycles in a single bound and step directly into the Celestial Realm.

At present, the little novice was only thirteen or fourteen years old; in a few years, he would be merely seventeen or eighteen. To step into the Celestial Realm at such a tender age could be called an unprecedented feat.

And entering the Celestial Realm at such a young age meant limitless potential. Achieving the status of an earthly immortal was by no means impossible.

"With your current innate talent, not to mention ordinary sleep being free of nightmares, even if a dream demon were to invade your dreams, it would only be seen through and shattered by your original mind."

"Th-That means..." The little novice monk widened his eyes as fear surged in his heart.

"Yes." The old monk sighed, speaking with a helpless tone. "The Buddha of the Heavenly Buddha Temple has indeed gone wrong."

...

There was a reason why the Heavenly Buddha Temple was called the Heavenly Buddha Temple.

Originally, this place was nothing more than a destitute, dilapidated temple, housing merely a crudely carved wooden Buddha.

The monks in the temple had to go out begging for alms every single day just to keep from starving to death.

One must understand that the Heavenly Buddha Temple back then was nothing like the spectacle it was today. At the time, this place was a region of barren mountains and treacherous waters; there wasn't a single plot of good land on the mountain, and even if there were, it would have long since been occupied by others.

The monks had no farmland whatsoever and could only pitifully go out begging. If others refused to give, they could only grit their teeth and endure on empty stomachs.

Ordinary people would never come here to burn incense. If someone came on rare occasions, they would at most offer a single cash or two.

The entire Heavenly Buddha Temple was in a state where it could go under at any moment.

Until a Buddha descended from the heavens.

According to the accounts of the monk on duty that day, a beam of golden light had shone directly into the Heavenly Buddha Temple, punching a huge hole right through the temple's roof.

Afterward, that wooden-carved Buddha seemed to come to life.

People who heard of this incident all came to pay their respects and offered incense. Moreover, many discovered that as long as their prayers weren't too preposterous, they actually came true.

Through this give and take, the Heavenly Buddha Temple gradually rose to prominence, becoming a large and renowned temple far and wide.

Following that, the Heavenly Buddha Temple actually attracted a high-ranking monk. This eminent monk joined the temple, and his mastery of the Dharma advanced by leaps and bounds. He even proclaimed that the great Buddha of the Heavenly Buddha Temple had come specifically to suppress evil beings.

He himself was a being of great divine powers. After joining the temple, he became the abbot, and subsequently personally constructed the Heavenly Buddha Pagoda, capturing countless wicked individuals and suppressing them beneath the pagoda.

With that, the Heavenly Buddha Temple became thoroughly famous.

Whether ordinary commoners, cultivators, or even the Great Qian Dynasty, all held an impression of this temple.

A temple blessed with a Buddha that fell from the heavens—that single point alone made people feel that the Heavenly Buddha Temple was unfathomably deep.

Over the years, this temple's incense offerings had never ceased, and the common folk for miles around considered it a supreme honor to be able to enter the temple and practice Buddhism.

It was just that... was the entity that descended from the heavens truly a Buddha?