Chapter 9: The Monk of Appreciation of Truth
AD 703, Daming Temple, Jiangyang, Yangzhou. (Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty was vast and included several provinces today, so it was close to the sea.)
"Jianzhen, go to Uncle Lin's house on the beach and give him this 'Buddha Seal Scarf.'" A middle-aged monk walked out of the temple and said to a young monk who was sweeping the floor outside. "Yes, Uncle Zhirong." The young monk Jianzhen replied respectfully. He put down his broom, took the "Buddha Seal Scarf" and ran out of the temple.
The "Buddha Seal Scarf" is actually a yellow silk scarf with the Buddhist "swastika" mark printed on it. It is an object that people enshrine at home to ward off evil spirits. Buddhism flourished in the Tang Dynasty. This kind of household item was also very popular and was used in temples. A great source of income. Jianzhen ran to Lin Bo's house on the beach. After giving him the "Buddha Seal Scarf", he picked up conches on the beach and wanted to choose some suitable ones to make conchs.
Jianzhen was searching around on the beach and suddenly found a white object on the beach in the distance. He was curious and ran to check it out. When he got closer, he saw that it was a small silver-white object, more than two feet long, with purple and gold stripes on its back. The snake had scars all over its body. It looked very seriously injured. Its eyes were lifeless. It lay on the beach and twitched from time to time, showing great pain.
Jianzhen is kind-hearted by nature and a Buddhist practitioner. He is deeply attuned to the compassionate heart of Buddhism. Seeing that the little snake looks cute, he feels pity for it in his heart. Without much hesitation, he gently picks up the little snake and carefully puts it into his arms. , and walked slowly towards the temple, he was going to treat the little snake.
After returning to the temple, Jianzhen applied wound healing medicine to the wound on the little snake and fed it some water. He was afraid that the little snake would freeze, so he kept it in his arms even during evening classes.
At night, Jianzhen was meditating when he suddenly felt a chill on his neck, and then he couldn't breathe. As his neck was tightened tighter and tighter, Jianzhen's eyes became blurry, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Buddha, it seems This time this disciple will go to the Paradise of Paradise to pay homage to you without knowing anything." Then his vision went dark and he didn't know anything anymore.
After an unknown amount of time, Jianzhen woke up slowly and asked, "Am I still alive?" He pinched his thigh. He felt real pain. He was not dreaming. Jianzhen was doubting that he had been attacked inexplicably. Suddenly he noticed something moving on the ground in front of him. He looked through the candlelight and saw that it was the little snake he had picked up at the beach during the day. He suddenly realized it.
It turned out that after the little snake woke up and found itself in a person's arms, it reflexively used snake self-defense actions and wrapped itself around Jianzhen's neck. However, the injury was not healed after all, so Jianzhen was not strangled to death. As for why it didn't continue to hurt itself later, it was probably because it found out that he was its savior, Jianzhen comforted himself like this.
After Jianzhen regained his breath, he began to look at the little snake seriously. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that the little snake was cute and very spiritual. The eyes were very deep and lively, and seemed to contain countless secrets. It was very attractive. Jianzhen It was so scary that he even forgot that he was almost strangled to death. He actually extended his right hand to the little snake and said, "Snake, we are destined to meet each other. Do you want to be my friend?"
Unexpectedly, the little snake seemed to really understand what he said. It actually nodded, crawled into Jianzhen's hand along his fingers, coiled it into a small ball, and kept shaking its head towards him, as if it was very happy.
Jianzhen didn't expect the little snake to be so spiritual. He was stunned and then became extremely happy. Now he would have a companion in his life from now on.
Why is this little snake so spiritual? Because, it is Yun Canghai!
As for why Yun Canghai appeared in the shape of a wounded snake on the beach, we have to start when it entered the deep sea.
The sea is the place where natural life first emerged. In this body of water, which accounts for seven to eight tenths of the earth, there are countless lives and magic. There are many species in the ocean, hundreds of times more than on land. The aura of heaven and earth is abundant and pure, and there is abundant food. In addition, marine creatures generally have strong vitality, so there are many creatures that have become spiritual beings.
The ocean is vast in area and has strong resistance to destruction. It has gone through many wars in ancient times without being seriously damaged. It has also attracted many strange people, hermits, trolls and true immortals. They have opened caves on islands in the sea or on the bottom of the sea and passed down the Taoism; The rich materials and treasures of the earth have also attracted many Taoist priests who like to make alchemy; the sea is vast, and the descendants of many ancient giant monsters, relics of the prehistoric times, and fairy spirits and beasts have multiplied and lived in the sea. After hundreds of millions of years of hybridization, There are countless weird varieties produced, and their abilities are also diverse, making it difficult to guard against.
The enemies Yun Canghai encountered this time were a magic-patterned tiger shark and a cold-water cuttlefish. In terms of strength, Yun Canghai was a head higher than them, but just as Yun Canghai collected the two beasts, they were dying. He was thinking about whether to collect them. While he was still absorbing essence and blood to increase his cultivation, an accident happened.
Although the magic-patterned tiger shark and the cold-water cuttlefish are not the top ferocious beasts in this vast sea, they are characters who have been accustomed to being domineering in this sea area for many years. They have never been educated and have a very strong innate murderous and violent temperament. Today, they actually Being defeated by a small snake whose size could only be regarded as a "loach" compared to them. Although this small snake was powerful and had a variety of moves (Yun Canghai used them to practice his moves), it was also a great shame and humiliation. With his desperate heart, he ignored All of them used secret methods to detonate the demon pill that cost their lives.
Originally, as long as Yun Canghai paid attention, he could avoid it, but after all, it had no actual combat experience, and it did not expect that the two monsters here could self-destruct after being restrained by it, and were hit by the explosion without taking any defensive measures for themselves. It was affected, so I suffered a big loss. These were the inner elixirs of two high-level monsters that self-destructed. The power was equivalent to a blow from a master in the Void Return Stage. How terrifying! Yun Canghai lost a lot of body-protecting essence in the explosion and also lost consciousness.
Fortunately, it was transformed into a magic weapon. It has a strong body and dragon blood. It has amazing recovery power, so the body quickly repaired the damaged parts on its own (wounds outside the body are just skin injuries and are not within the scope of automatic repair). , but his own real energy was excessively consumed, so he shrunk in size, transformed into the appearance of an ordinary snake, and entered a dormant state to accumulate real energy.
The original overlords of this sea area were the magic pattern tiger shark and the cold water cuttlefish. The other less powerful creatures had been defeated and expelled, so Yuncanghai was not threatened by other threats. Moreover, it was also very lucky, and was actually washed up by the waves. On the beach, it happened to be picked up by Jianzhen who was passing by. Although Jianzhen had also practiced Buddhism, his cultivation was still shallow, and the evil spirit in its body was not found. If the person who found it was a cultivator in the transformation stage, , the consequences would be serious.
