Chapter 181 — The Wordless Jade Wall
劍問蒼天 · Page 7 of 9
There before him, behind that little stone platform and beneath the broken cliff, a sheer wall hung like a mirror, dropping straight down, more than seven zhang high and four zhang wide. Its substance seemed jade and yet not jade, its surface incomparably smooth, mirroring the fair sights of sky and earth, the ranges near and far—all of it held within that jade wall. And Ming Li and the monks of Brahma Voice Temple beneath that precipice were no more than ants, utterly insignificant.
Beside the handiwork of heaven and earth, how small a thing is man!
Ming Li was silent. After a long while he let out a slow breath, said not a word, walked onto the platform, and sat cross-legged. He did not look at the others around him again, only drew a deep breath, closed his eyes, and sat there without moving.
Master Pu Cheng studied Ming Li for a long time, then turned and glanced at the monks behind him, and nodded.
Several dozen monks of Brahma Voice Temple—Master Pu Cheng among them, the divine monk Pu Fang, the mysterious old monk at Master Pu Cheng's side, and Fa Cheng, Fa Jing, and the rest—joined their palms and chanted the Buddha's name.
Several dozen threads of pale golden light slowly welled up, and faintly the sound of Sanskrit chanting seemed to come drifting from the edge of heaven.
Suddenly the golden light blazed forth. Within the strange formation where the monks sat, golden radiance coursed and the air was solemn with Buddha-power; the golden light streaming from the monks grew ever fiercer and more dazzling. After a moment came a deafening roar, and a great golden character—Buddha—appeared above the formation in all its glorious brilliance, rising slowly.
The chanting grew louder and louder, and all between heaven and earth was hushed and reverent. The golden Buddha character climbed higher and higher, slowly reaching midair, where it stood upright. Under the sunlight of the sky's edge it grew ever more impossible to look upon.
As though roused by the Buddha's true word, upon that sheer cliff the once-smooth jade wall slowly revealed a reflection of the Buddha character—yet not as an ordinary mirror would show it. From a tiny point it slowly grew larger, little by little giving off golden light, little by little taking on the shape of the character. And as the image upon the Wordless Jade Wall grew, the Buddha's true word in midair seemed to dim somewhat.
Quickly the Buddha character within the Wordless Jade Wall grew until it had well-nigh surpassed the true Buddha character in midair. Now the whole Wordless Jade Wall shone with golden brilliance, radiant and glowing, accompanied by ceaseless Sanskrit chanting. Suddenly a thread of pale golden Buddha-light shone out from the jade wall, slowly streaming forth to envelop Ming Li where he sat in peace.
Ming Li's body stirred; a trace of pain showed dimly on his face, but he did not open his eyes—he endured it. Soon the pain faded from his face, and he sat still and motionless.
The Buddha-light cast from the Wordless Jade Wall was pale and unchanging; the golden glow flickered slowly with an inexpressible solemnity. The monks of Brahma Voice Temple about him likewise showed no change of countenance, softly chanting the Buddha's name; the radiance above their formation turned in its slow course, sustaining that Buddha's true word in the sky.
Time flowed on, and so passed quietly away...
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Three days later, the Buddha character upon the Wordless Jade Wall showed not the slightest sign of weakening, and the pale Buddha-light it cast still enveloped Ming Li. His face was calm, as though these three days had wrought no change in him at all, as though he were still as he had been when he first arrived. But around him, from Master Pu Cheng down, though the formation the monks of Brahma Voice Temple upheld was unchanged, signs of weariness had begun to show on every face.