Chapter 178 — An Ill-Fated Bond
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 6
"That day, Uncle-Master Pu Zhao stood at the end of his road: he must die, and there were others entangled with him; and the great vow of his life—to join Buddha and Dao in one understanding—seemed about to come to nothing. His heart was shaken and he grieved bitterly. Then, in what seemed utter hopelessness, the old master—he actually... in a flight of wild fancy he thought of another road, another way to fulfil his vow."
Ming Li's breathing slowly quickened.
Fa Cheng paused, then said slowly, "Uncle-Master Pu Zhao conceived the thought of secretly teaching a boy the Brahma Sound Temple's supreme true Dharma, the Great Brahma Prajna, and then having that boy find a way to be taken into Qingyun—and so his lifelong vow might be fulfilled. At the time his mind was wholly possessed by the matter of joining Buddha and Dao; the thought came to him like a drowning man catching at a straw, and he would not let it go. Weighing all, he chose that boy whose life he had saved, taught him the true formulae of the Great Brahma Prajna, charged him to breathe no word of it to any other, and laid the whole hope of his life upon that boy."
"Heh, heh heh... heh heh heh heh..." Ming Li's laughter, crushed down to the utmost, trickled from his bowed face and lips, carrying a note of desolation, a note of bitterness, and more than a little of choking grief.
Who could say whether he mocked Pu Zhao, in wrath that would not be appeased, or railed at heaven, and grieved over his own fate?
When Fa Cheng's laughter had died away, a shadow of sorrow crossed his face, and he went on: "When all was arranged, Uncle Pu Zhao used his arts to put the boy back to sleep. By then the effects of the Three-Day Death Pill had begun to wear off, and his strength was gradually returning. Pu Zhao had meant to leave at once, to hurry back to the Brahma Sound Monastery within those three days and set his affairs in order. But just then it struck him that the Canglan Sect took disciples only under the strictest scrutiny, and the boy he had chosen—chosen so as to keep his great design secret—was no once-in-a-millennium prodigy. Thinking it over carefully, he realized the Canglan Sect might not even accept the boy at all."
"Seeing the greatest wish of his life about to slip through his fingers once more, with his own death so near, Uncle Pu Zhao's mind was thrown into utter confusion. And his severe injuries had badly damaged his cultivation in the Dharma—he was far from his usual self. The murderous qi within him, gnawed at by the Blood-Devouring Pearl, erupted at that very moment, and at last he committed an irredeemable sin."
"In that turmoil of mind, assailed by the murderous qi, his thoughts in chaos, he knew only that he must think of some way to fulfill his wish. And in his wild, tangled thinking, it came to him that if the boy were made an orphan—and by some great calamity, which, being at the foot of Canglan Mountain, would surely draw the Canglan Sect's attention, for they could not simply stand by..."
Master Pu Cheng's face suddenly showed a look of grief; the prayer beads in his hand spun faster and faster, and the Buddha's name came unceasing from his lips.
"And so..." Fa Cheng's voice now trembled, "Uncle Pu Zhao actually began to think of how—how—how to make that child an orphan, so that he might be taken into the Canglan Sect. By then his spirit had wholly lost its true nature, completely controlled by the demonic power and murderous qi of the Blood-Devouring Pearl. At last he walked slowly into Willow Temple Village and began... began to kill. And after he saw the first blood, he could no longer restrain himself; his ferocity burst forth, and he slaughtered more than two hundred people in Willow Temple Village—every last one of them—committing that crime that cries to heaven!..."
"Enough—say no more!" Ming Li suddenly cried out loud, springing to his feet. His face was already streaming with tears.