"Lianxin, what does it feel like to watch these people die right before your eyes? I haven't killed a single one of them. They did it all to themselves," Moon Sage said.
By this point, under Moon Sage's various commands, more than half of the villagers were dead. Only four or five remained alive. Apart from Uncle Sankui, who was completely unharmed, the surviving villagers had both their legs and left arms broken. However, their right hands had been left intact so that they could butcher one another with blades. Everyone now held a kitchen cleaver, also handed out by Moon Sage.
The cleavers had originally belonged to the village households; Moon Sage had not drawn his own blade.
The Buddha statue had turned completely pitch-black, covered all over with fractures, and a fissure across its crown nearly split the head in two. Blood poured from both of its eyes, and outside, the young monk was already struggling to stand.
At this point, the surviving villagers finally realized something and cried out, "The more of us die, the more he can hurt us! That demon king can't actually kill us! As long as we don't slaughter each other, the Master will find a way to protect us!"
Moon Sage was somewhat surprised, but he smiled. "Clever of you to figure that out. Sankui, go and kill them."
Uncle Sankui seemed in a daze and shook his head.
"What, you don't want to be village chief anymore?" Moon Sage asked.
"If everyone's dead, whom am I supposed to be chief for?" Uncle Sankui replied in self-mockery.
"You finally show a sliver of Buddhist nature, but it's too late! And besides, you aren't nearly as useful as you think. Cut him down!" Moon Sage waved a hand.
A warrior drew his saber and thrust it viciously through Uncle Sankui's back, piercing his heart so that the blade's tip burst through his chest.
Stunned, Uncle Sankui looked down at the blade, unable to comprehend for a moment how he could be dying. Could it be that, just as Moon Sage had said, he was actually of no use?
Moon Sage's face was full of sneering derision. "When you killed my only son, you had the Buddha in your heart. When you lied to escape blame, concealing that you actually saw my son turn back into human form, you had the Buddha in your heart then too. Even when you killed your own wife, you still had the Buddha in your heart. After all, put down the butcher's blade and achieve Buddhahood on the spot, right? But the moment you cursed the monk, you lost your Buddhist nature, and the Buddha realm stopped protecting you. Never expected such a Buddhist Dharma, did you?"
Uncle Sankui's eyes bulged wide. Even in death, he never understood what he had done wrong. And even if he had been wrong, he would never have admitted it.
With Uncle Sankui dead, the few surviving villagers panicked. They realized that without them noticing, the warriors had become able to kill people with their own hands!
Moon Sage glanced at them once and said, "Do it yourselves. Hack all the others to death. Only the last one left alive will survive."
The villagers looked at each other, then suddenly raised their cleavers toward the person beside them. One man raised his blade but hesitated to strike down, and so he was the first to be hacked to death.
By now, the young monk could stand no longer. He sank to the ground, sitting cross-legged, his head drooping just like the Buddha statue in the temple.
Moon Sage sat cross-legged before him; otherwise, it would have been difficult to speak to him face-to-face.
Reaching out, he lifted the monk's chin and carefully studied that young, serene face, then let out a sudden sigh.
"Look at you. If you were only willing to turn around, there would forever be a lotus pedestal waiting for you before the Buddha, and a vast clearing on Spirit Mountain has always been kept ready to erect your golden body. Why must you refuse? Look at me—I had to serve as a mount for so many years just to earn the chance to trim wicks and add oil at the foot of Spirit Mountain."
The young monk finally opened his eyes and said, "If I turned around, that lotus pedestal would no longer be mine."
Moon Sage was taken aback. He pondered this earnestly for a moment, then said, "Surely not?"
The monk sighed. "You served as a mount for so long, but how many times did you actually get to light the lamps?"
Moon Sage fell silent. After a long moment, he said, "A heavy burden rests on my shoulders; I came to pull you back."
The monk sighed. "You knew I could not turn back, and they knew I would not turn back. Yet they still sent you, and you still came."
Moon Sage said, "I simply do not understand why you insist on guarding these few people. What is so good about them? Every single one is ignorant and selfish. After all these years, barely any of them were even willing to learn to read. You chanted scriptures day in and day out, but do they have any idea what you were saying? You tried to reform them for a thousand years, yet the moment a tiny crack appeared, they were all used by me to turn around and shatter your golden body. Was it worth it?"
The monk shook his head. "You do not understand."
Growing frustrated, Moon Sage snapped angrily, "That is the only phrase you ever say! Fine, even if you wish to deliver souls, there are hundreds of millions of people out there waiting for your deliverance! Why do you not go and deliver them, instead of stubbornly clinging to these few dozen people?"
The monk finally spoke: "In my heart, hundreds of millions of people and several dozen people are no different. The moment you weigh the deliverance of hundreds of millions of people against that of several dozen, you have already placed a price on everyone. When spiritual beings harbor such distinctions, all living beings are no longer equal. Though these few dozen are few, they are like a single flicker of lamplight before the Buddha. Even if the Dharma-ending age descends and the Pure Land is laid waste, so long as this lamp remains, the final hope endures."
"Bullshit hope! These few dozen people drag you through endless cycles of reincarnation, and with every reincarnation, a portion of your karmic attainment and true spirit is ground away. With the height of the karmic attainment you once held, how many more reincarnations can you still endure? Besides, look around you! Where is there any light left?"
The monk looked around, but blood was pouring from his eyes, rendering him utterly blind.
"Indeed, there is no light," the monk sighed. Then, a point of crystal-clear light ignited between his brows. "If the Buddha's lamp has gone out, then by burning myself, I can still add a sliver of light to this boundless hell."
"And what good will that do? It can only illuminate a single instant! Are you doing all this for just one fleeting instant?"
"For just this one instant."
Moon Sage slowly wiped away the blood flowing from the monk's eyes, but the more he wiped, the more it bled. Suddenly turning his head, he roared fiercely, "Go! Kill every last one of them, and let the Dharma-ending age descend!"
The wolf demons scattered in all directions, while the warriors bowed respectfully to the monk before setting off to search as well.
The villagers could not run fast, and many had not gone far, hiding nearby to watch secretly and see if the Master could still turn the tide. With their keen sense of smell, the wolf demons quickly flushed out each of the hidden villagers and tore their throats open without mercy.
Meanwhile, on the back mountain, Wei Yuan was busy at work, having sent the young girl to keep watch on the village. After working for a while, he suddenly realized he could no longer hear any sound from her. Walking over to check, he saw her lying against a boulder, peering toward the village with tears streaming down her face. She held her mouth tightly shut, stifling her sobs.
Wei Yuan poked his head over and looked as well. From here, the entire small village was spread out before his eyes. After a look, Wei Yuan said, "Oh, the monk is going to die."
The girl glared at him furiously. "How can you say that?!"
"No matter what I say, he is still going to die." Wei Yuan resumed his work, his hands flying as if unaffected in the slightest.
The girl suddenly grabbed Wei Yuan, saying resolutely, "We have to go save the Master!"
"Not going." Wei Yuan shook her off.
The girl fumed, "Then I'll go by myself!"
"Oh." Wei Yuan kept working, his hands moving like lightning.
The girl ran two steps down the mountain, but at the sight of the blood pooling before the temple, her legs went weak. She ran back and said to Wei Yuan, "The Master has always treated us so well. We have to go save him together!"
Wei Yuan said coolly, "What, finally realized you'd just be throwing your life away?"
The girl stomped her foot. "Y-You, how can you be like this?!"
Burying his head in assembling a rather intricate device, Wei Yuan spoke without looking up: "If you're neither clever nor capable in a fight, you'd better learn to keep your mouth shut and do as you're told. Did the Master treat you all too well in the past, so much so that it gave you the illusion that no matter what you wanted to do, others were obliged to indulge you?"
"N-No, it wasn't like that..." Thinking back on the past, the girl suddenly felt a prick of guilt.
"I'm not the Master. Right now, I'm only thinking about how to stay alive. Bringing you along is already a burden. If you're dead set on throwing your life away, go ahead by yourself."
The girl was momentarily at a loss for words. In the past, though Little Stone had often bickered with her, calling her bloated and ugly, he had never been as cold as he was today.
Wei Yuan finally finished assembling the contraption in his hands. After inspecting it thoroughly, he gazed down toward the mountain.
Looking at the monk with his eyes closed and head bowed, Wei Yuan also sighed softly. "The Master is a lamp before the Buddha, wishing to illuminate all sentient beings. But what he perhaps does not know is that no matter how brilliant the sun may be, it can never illuminate a crow."
Chapter 266