Zhu Xian

Chapter 3 Wish A

Shaw Danon’s eyes had never witnessed a night such as this; the clouds had never hung so close to the ground as the darkness of this night. The thunder had never roared so loudly; lightning had never flashed so harshly, making it almost difficult for him to see.

It was as though the sky was falling down.

He stood there, watching the old monk and the man in the black glare at each other, as if it were a battle of wits.

Suddenly, he heard a loud clap of thunder, so loud the shock made his ears buzz, before bearing witness to a streak of lightning race across the sky; coming down into the earth and falling on top of the man’s sword.

At that moment, the man in black clothes body swelled, his eyes wide open as though it were about to burst apart. Meanwhile, all of Grasstemple was lit by strong light as bright as the dawn.

Lightning dancing upon the tip of the sword in the night is so beautiful that Shaw Danon lost his breath; and, in the eyes of Puzhi, he appeared to be excited.

“Is this the true power of the Taoists?”

The man only released a loud shout; his left hand pointed at Puzhi, thunder roared and the sword dashed toward Puzhi leaving a dark trail of scorched earth on the ground behind it.

Puzhi took three steps backward, removed the mark, clasped his palms together; cheeky, solemn, his whole body lit up with faint golden light. Puzhi whispered: “my Buddha of compassion!”

“Pop,” all the remaining seven jade beads shatter in front of Puzhi; they took the huge form of the word “Buddha”; so bright that it could not be seen.

The next moment, lightning and the word Buddha, clashed together.

Suddenly, Shaw Danon felt his heart begin to race; it was as though all of his body’s blood flowed in reverse in an instant. His limbs grew soft and he choked for breath; in this moment, the wind stopped, the thunder stopped, the entire world stopped.

Then, he flew backward involuntarily; without even a chance to feel afraid he witnessed bright white light, even brighter than the sun in the sky. Then, the Grasstemple fell apart.

His heart felt empty, all he could hear was fierce wind sweeping in his ear.

He felt terrified, subconsciously he wished to curl up; but, feeling powerless, he had flown to the unknown.

In his head, the idea arose: “Am I dying?”

Intense fear, sudden palpitations in his heart, his body broken into a cold sweat; trembling, slightly.

When standing in front of death, how to face it?

He passed out, unconscious.

※ ※ ※

Puzhi slowly walked over; shambling, carrying Baye and Shaw Danon to a slightly cleaner area. Placing the two children on the ground he felt a pain in his body, it almost split; no longer able to cope, he collapsed.

He inspected his chest; through the burned cassock, faintly visible, he could see a surge of black gas has gradually encircled the chest leaving only a small place uninvaded.

A smile slowly arose on his face as his arms reached into his clothes. His hand trembling, moving shakily and slowly, drew out a red pill; about the size of a fingertip.

Puzhi sigh and whispered: “Hard to believe Dr. Gho was right; I still need to take his ‘Three Days Death Pill’ at the end.”

He hesitated then finally nodded and swallowed the pill.

Then, he looked up to see the mountains.

Finally it begin to rain.

Mount Jadeon stands in the wind and rain, hazy mystery.

“Taoist surgical precision in its method is truly wonderful, it contains godly power. If used together with my Fuwa teachings, accenting each other, it may be possible to discern the secret of immorality. It is a pity that Master Doyel Shen is far stronger than me; like the three of my shixiongs, cannot relinquish faction differences and positions. Alas!”

Puzhi gave a long sigh; looking back, his sight fell on the two children. The rain, growing stronger, wet their hair and faces. Grasstemple was destroyed, there is no nearby place around to block the wind and rain.

His mind suddenly grew tight, he could not help but worry for the two children. He had been forced to use his spirit to form the “Fawin Wisdom” and relied on the Buddhist treasure “Jade Prayer Beads” to create a strong anti-Felkin power in order to block the strength of that man’s “Thunderblade”; the backlash having hit him caused him to run away. However, Puzhi is badly injured and poisoned; even his last chances of survival vanished. His only option, to use the “Three Days Death Pill” he received from Dr. Gho, extended his life by three days only.

“That devil was injured; however, I did not hurt him on the inside. After I have departed, he will turn back to kill the witnesses. At that time it will not be only the two children; I am afraid that all of the village people’s lives will be at risk. This…this…this…What should I do?”

Puzhi’s mind was growing confused; although his knowledge was very high, one day he must die. Also, he found himself worrying about the lives of innocent people; however, that man seems to have a high status in Jadeon, if Puzhi rushed up the mountain for help his fears would be of no benefit.

In his mind the situation is most regrettable; however, there is something else that is a major wish in his life. A task he wishes to see completed. As he stands today as one of four Skysong’s Divine Monks, admired by the world, honored by others; but for him, more important was, the riddle behind life and death, untying the knot of immortality. However, fifty years ago, he had already come to realize however long he had practiced Fuwa teachings he could only enhance the skill of his practice; he could not solve the riddle of life and death.

He pondered over a few decades; the developments in his thinking have been unprecedented. Today, the Fuwa, Dagos and Felkin reign as the most prosperous three religions, deeply seated in magic. Felkin has developed a bad reputation, having done things in many cruel ways that people could not take; however, Dagos, intensive training with wonderful skills combined with Fuwa teachings, each having their strength, joined in learning; they will be able to break the dead-knot.

But such a prospect had never been pursued; he had always been against by his open-minded shixiongs. They were saying it is evil thinking. He visited many different Dagos factions, Jadeon alone he had visited several times; however, every time Master Doyal Shen refused.

Thinking of this, he let out a smile; quite self-deprecating the thought arose: there is only three-days left to live now, what use is there to wanting to live forever?

Although he is open-minded, seeing the two children laying on the ground and, unable to think of any good way, he looked instead to the left. Seeing, in the distance, there is a pine tree which can still block a little wind and rain; better than nothing, he picked up the two children and managed to walk there.

Unable, that is, until he came to stand under the tree; carefully putting the two children down Puzhi, exhausted, suddenly sat down and gasped for breath.

天地不仁, 以万物为诌狗!

This is a Daoist saying, with a sort of mournful rage, come from the mouth of Puzhi.

Chapter 3 Wish B

The sky is dark as ink, covering the world. Dark clouds grow lower to the earth, the rain comes down from the sky; cold wind blows, every raindrop on the face brings coldness into the heart.

He looked at the sky, slowly recoiling at the sight; looks at the two children and whispers, “two young donors, old monk wants to help, but does not have the strength. Everything happened because of me, but the harm came to you two; sin!” He lets out a sigh, “if you two were Jadeon disciples, now at Mount Jadeon, among all those people; it should be more safe, but now…”

Suddenly, Puzhi’s mouth dropped open shocked; he kept repeating, “Jadeon disciple, Jadeon disciple” his mind racing, seemed to think of something and had gone blank of the eyes. After a few moments, his whole body began to sweat.

Then, within his eyes, for an unknown reason the excitement began to appear again.

He laughed, traces of madness could be heard within the laughter

“Amazing, amazing! Although I am not able to live for long, if I pass one of them Fuwa practice, then put him in Jadeon to practice Dagos; isn’t it like two birds with one stone, able to save both their lives and still complete my wish!”

His mind settled on the task, his whole existence was very excited, cheeks flushed, eyes bloodshot, subconsciously he looked at Baye and stretched his hands out. But once they were half out he stopped, thought within his mind: “This is very important, today the difference of faction is very important; especially learning secret teachings behind a master, if people find out he will die certainly. Baye is excellent quality, if he is in Jadeon the masters will pay a lot of attention to him. At his young age I am afraid that he cannot hide this big secret!”

Once he thought of this, his mind began to turn; his eyes followed, turning to Shaw Danon, remembering the day he would rather to die than give up by his stubborn temper. Puzhi nodded his head and said: “Quality is not that good, but that does not matter; your future is dependent upon yourself.”

Finished thinking, he did not hesitate; he reached out and hit Shaw Danon a few times, using the last of his strength to wake him up.

※ ※ ※

Shaw Danon woke up, eyes blurred and ears ringing. It took a while before they returned to normal and could see things in front of himself; suddenly, his jaw dropped in shock.

He could see the old monk, wounded everywhere on his body, sitting in front of him. The left side of his body was burned, blackened and ugly; his face had a heavy, dark air about him. He looked as though he was about to die. He could not tell why, but the old monk appeared to be excited; smiling. In addition to this Shaw Danon could also see his friend Baye laying on the ground to the side, unconcious.

“What are you, you doing?” Shaw Danon froze for a long while before asking.

Puzhi did not answer, instead he looked at him and asked: “young donor, it’s raining here; you are a child, why come to this remote place?”

Shaw Danon was slightly startled and responded: “I saw you standing in the temple at dusk, then I saw it’s going to rain and knew the temple is in poor repair; I thought it will be cold, so I came to give you something to eat.”

Puzhi’s lip moved a little, placing his palms together he said: “Good, good. All things are fated, destined to be, my Buddha of compassion.”

Shaw Danon curiously responded: “What did you say?”

Puzhi smiled, “old monk is saying that it seems young donor and I have been meant to meet each other. If that is so, old monk practices a special set of incantations; perhaps, young donor would be willing to learn them?”

Shaw Danon responded: “What is an incantation?”

Puzhi was surprised, then laughed; he stretched out bony hands, touched Shaw Danon’s head and said: “it is nothing complicated, just teaching you some breathing methods. After you learn them, I also need for you to promise me a few things, okay?”

Shaw Danon seemed to understand, simultaneously, seemed not to but still responded: “Say it.”

Puzhi said: “You never talk about this to anyone else, even to your closest relatives you can not speak of this, can you do that?”

Shaw Danon nodded his head and replied: “I know, I will not say even under threat of death.”

Puzhi’s heart was startled, seeing his young age but his face marked by perseverance; the rain bearing down like blade and sword wet his small face, looking slightly wan and shallow.

Puzhi suddenly took a deep breath and dropped his eyes, no longer able to see him the mouth continued: “In addition, you must practice this everyday, you cannot practice in front of people, only do it in the middle of the night when no one is near by. Finally, if it is not related to life and death you cannot use this practice; otherwise, there will be trouble.”

Here, he again opened his eyes; staring at Shaw Danon he said: “can you do that?”

Shaw Danon hesitated, tilted his head to one side and scratched it. He looked confused, but eventually gave a heavy nod.

Puzhi smiled, and then did not say much; he began to pass Shaw Danon a set of words.

The words are not really long, only about a thousand in total; however, they are difficult to comprehend and steeped in meaning. Shaw Danon used all of his effort and, after about six hours, he had memorized everything.

Puzhi waited until he memorized everything, then gave a sigh of relief and looked extremely tired. He looked at Shaw Danon with deep compassion in his eyes and said: “old monk has spent his whole life practicing Fuwa skills but has never thought to have a disciple; now, at the edge of death, it is destined for you to be my disciple. Say, you should know my name.” He paused and said: “I am known as Puzhi, a Skysong monk. Uh, child, do you know what Skysong Temple is?”

Shaw Danon thought, shook his head.

Puzhi laughed, said: “what a child.” Then, he remembered something; he took out a deep purple bead, looked at it a few more times then gave it to Shaw Danon and said: “You take this bead and hide it. Do no allow outsiders to see. Once you settle down, find a cliff and throw it away; then, all will be fine. Also, the name I just revealed to you; you must not talk to anyone about it.”

Shaw Danon took the bead and replied: “understood.”

Puzhi touched his head, saying “You and I have fated bond, perhaps in the next life we will meet at the end? Child, you bow to me three times, call me master!”

Shaw Danon looked at Puzhi, he was surprised to find that his smile had withdrawn in place of a solemn look. He nodded, called out “Master.” Then fell to his knees in prostration, knocking his head on the floor three times. He had just finished knocking and was about to rise when he hear Puzhi give a whispered laugh, laughter symbolizing a deep grief.

When Shaw Danon lifted his head he felt the back get hit, his eyes blacked out and he fell unconscious again.

Note:

Shixiong mean older disciple brother,

Shi mean master, disciple related,

xiong mean older brother.