Li Ye, who entered the Buddhist hall with a large bowl of spring water, looked at Master Minghui and said, "Where is Senior Brother Mingjue? Wasn't he still here just now?"
Minghui cleared the table and signaled Li Ye to put down the bowl in his hand.
He said calmly: "He had something to do and walked away."
Li Ye carefully placed the iron bowl on the table and sat down against the edge of the table.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a smile: "Senior brother, I guess you are looking at my nephew Wu Xin."
Minghui didn't reply to his words, she just held the teapot and poured him a cup of herbal tea. "Drink tea."
"It's as simple as just drinking tea?"
Li Ye picked up the cup and drank it in one gulp. It took him a while before he realized the taste: "It's so bitter!"
Minghui ignored him, turned around and lit a sinking pillar on the incense burner on the Buddhist altar.
Holding the beads in his hand, he pointed at the iron bowl and asked softly: "Lower your head and see what's inside?"
Li Ye was stunned, lowered his head to look into the bowl, then looked up at Minghui and said, "An iron bowl and a basin of spring water!"
Upon hearing this, Minghui calmly threw the black stone on the table into the water.
The stone fell into the water, causing ripples.
"Look again, look more carefully."
Minghui said quietly on the side, her voice seemed to have an irresistible magic power.
Li Ye was startled, wondering what kind of mystery this senior brother was playing, and made him look at Ziyibo Qingshui again and again.
"A bowl of clear water has a black stone in it and a circle of ripples on the water."
Li Ye stared for a while and replied seriously. But I don't understand in my heart, I don't know what weird things my senior brother is doing.
"What else?" Just as Li Ye was wondering, Minghui stretched out her skinny fingers and gently drew a circle on the water.
"There are two circles of ripples on the black water surface." Li Ye said lightly.
"Look carefully again, and then talk after you see clearly." Minghui did not rush, but gently reminded him to look more carefully.
"There are two ripples like fish patterns!" Li Ye frowned. Such a thing was really weird.
"Look carefully!" Minghui's voice and speed slowed down a bit.
Li Ye felt Minghui's voice and said slowly: "There is a black fish, a white fish..."
"Then, what else?" Minghui had no intention of stopping.
"And... there are ponds, there are willow trees... there are mountains, there are water, and there are people..."
At this time, Li Ye's expression was already a little confused, as if he had fallen into a boundless dream.
"What are people doing?" Minghui asked.
"He is..." Li Ye fell silent and did not answer his words.
In an instant, he closed his eyes.
...
The century-old agarwood on the Buddhist altar is burning slowly, and a mysterious atmosphere spreads throughout the Buddhist hall.
The aroma that goes straight through the three realms penetrates the Buddhist hall, and also penetrates time and space...
Li Ye, who was sitting at the table, closed his eyes and fell into an inexplicable state.
Ming Hui nodded, stood up, and gently closed the wooden door of the Buddhist hall.
He whispered softly: "After drinking the enlightenment tea for a thousand years, smelling the agarwood for a hundred years, and seeing the three life stones in Buddhism, I wonder what you can see?"
...
At this moment, Li Ye didn't hear Ming Hui talking to himself.
He felt like he was walking through the night.
The night is endless, there is a road under your feet, and there are stars in the distance.
Standing on a strange river bank, apricot blossoms blooming in the spring breeze.
Calmly looking at the scenery in front of him, the stars on the night sky gradually faded away, and a red sun slowly rose up in the distant sky, gradually illuminating the scenery around him.
This is not Fengyun City.
This is not the Five Realms either.
He glanced back in the direction he came from, but couldn't see anything.
There are only a tree of apricot blossoms waking up from their dreams, and the fleeting morning light and flowing clouds.
Could it be that I traveled through time and space and came to a foreign land? Li Yexin said.
I wasn't in Brother Minghui's Buddhist hall, so why did I suddenly come to this strange riverside, next to the apricot grove in full bloom...
Just as I was wondering, there were early-rising pedestrians passing by carrying burdens, about to go to the ferry by the river to take a boat.
Looking at Li Ye who was standing under the apricot tree, he smiled and said hello: "Master Changsheng, you are not doing morning classes today. Are you coming back to see your parents?"
Li Ye was stunned and looked down at his clothes. He was still wearing a coarse monk's robe.
But his body has grown taller, and he is about seventeen or eighteen years old.
Boundless memories came to mind. Looking at the greeting pedestrian Li Ye smiled and replied: "It's too boring in the temple, come back and have a look."
Before he could recover, the pedestrians passing by had already left his side and headed towards the ferry not far away.
Am I Li Changsheng? Is this Beiju Luzhou? A dream of traveling through time for a thousand years? Li Ye was dumbfounded.
After carefully combing through the memory fragments in my mind, I knew that this place was Baiyun Town in Qingfeng County at the foot of Xumi Mountain in Luzhou, Beiju.
A Qingjiang River flows outside the town, twisting and turning.
Some of the people who came to Mount Sumeru to worship did not want to return to their homeland but settled at the foot of the mountain. Thousands of years later, the current Baiyun Town was formed.
The largest merchant in the town is a person named Li who was the first to settle here. It has a history of 1,200 years.
It is said that the ancestors of the Li family settled at the foot of the mountain after encountering the guidance of an immortal in Mount Xumi. This has continued for dozens of generations to this day.
Some of the people who stayed in the town went out to do business to make a living, while others farmed at home and sold their harvests to temples on the mountains and pilgrims who came to worship.
The old man of the Li family has three children. The eldest, Li Changfeng, is a good businessman. In recent years, he has specialized in harvesting grain from the village. Old man Li opened a grocery store.
After a few years, although there is not a lot of money, there is still a lot of surplus.
The second daughter, Li Xiuer, is married and living in the town.
My husband's family is a water transport merchant, and his surname is Wu. The Wu family's business has been transporting cloth, oil and salt from Qingfeng County back to Baiyun Town for many years, and they are considered a wealthy family in the town.
Only the youngest son, Li Changsheng, went to the Bu Kong Temple on Mount Xumi with Mr. Li when he was seven years old, and then stayed on the mountain to practice.
Two years later, he became a monk, also known as Changsheng, and practiced with his master Jingdao Master.
The family has made money, and while the old man is happy, he also cares about Li Changsheng, who is a monk on the mountain. Although one person becomes a monk and the whole family accumulates merit, after all, he is connected with his own flesh and blood. How can he really lose everything just because he becomes a monk?
In his free time on weekdays, Mr. Li often goes up the mountain to burn incense and worship Buddha. He also visits Li Changsheng and brings him some worldly supplies and cakes.
When Li Changsheng first arrived at Bukong Temple, he showed his talent for intelligence. It took him seven days to recite the Shurangama Sutra fluently, which is said to be the most difficult to memorize among Buddhist scriptures.
Shunzhi is an old monk who has been practicing in the temple for many years. When reading this sutra, he often gets stuck on a certain chapter.
He also spent only seven days studying the Ksitigarbha Sutra, and no longer had to look at the scriptures and read verses. Even the elders in the temple praised him for his natural affinity with Buddhism.
He is so happy that his master, Jingdao, is smiling all day long, which makes people who follow the master's precepts and practice Buddhism should not have their minds attached to all things.
Li Changsheng was only serious about Buddhism and had no interest in martial arts practice. His master was so anxious that he pestered him all day long saying that if he wanted to live forever, he needed to practice many Buddhist techniques first.
For example, the indestructible body of Vajra, the Great Prajna Palm, cultivating the state to at least the state of distraction, etc.
The speaker is intentional, but the listener is unintentional. No matter how brilliant the master's words are, Li Changsheng just doesn't learn.
What kind of gods fly into the sky and escape from the earth, walking through the clouds and mist, coming and going.
As a result, Li Changsheng stopped going to the main hall to do his morning lessons and hid in the Sutra Pavilion copying scriptures.
Monk Jingdao saw this and was very anxious. He went down the mountain to discuss with Mr. Li whether his grandson was stupid and unwilling to practice Buddhist magic even though he entered the sacred mountain.
Even though the people in Beiju Luzhou have a long lifespan, when it finally comes to an end, only immortality and Buddhahood through immortality can lead to immortality.
Old Mrs. Li is also anxious. His son has changed since he became a monk and practiced Buddhism. He used to be well-behaved.
Now in the temple, things have changed. He only knows how to recite sutras all day long, but he doesn't even want to practice the immortal magic in Buddhism.
The round trip from the town to the Bukong Temple in Mount Sumeru is only thirty miles, and it takes less than two hours to get there.
Along the way, Monk Jingdao and Mr. Li were planning how to persuade Li Changsheng to practice the supreme Buddha Dharma and enter the path of immortal Buddha.
For his future planning, knowing that the road ahead is bleak, I can only convince him step by step.
However, no matter how hard Monk Jingdao and Mrs. Li tried, Li Changsheng refused to practice. In the end, he had no choice but to agree to learn the supreme Buddhist method "Four Mudras" from his master.
He started learning at the age of nine, and it took Li Changsheng eight years until he was seventeen now, and he only learned the "fearlessness and meditation" among the four mudras.
However, no matter how hard he practiced the two mudras of "subduing demons and eliminating thoughts", he could never get the right method.
Today, he was troubled by his practice, so he asked for leave from his master and went down the mountain to see Mr. Li and his mother.
After practicing Buddhism for eight years, I only mastered two of the four major mudras.
However, under the supervision of his master, Monk Jingdao, he broke through to the middle stage of Nascent Soul.
Although he is at the bottom of the Fuku Temple, he is considered a great practitioner in the small town.
As I walked, I was thinking about my thoughts, and before I knew it, I had arrived at the door of my house in the town.
I saw my eldest brother Li Changfeng getting ready to go out and get on the carriage, while my mother Liu stood at the entrance of the avenue and kept nagging.
Li Changsheng came up to say hello to his eldest brother, took his mother's hand and said, "Brother, if you want me to take you with me wherever you go, it's windy outside. Let's go inside."
Mrs. Liu felt happy that her youngest son suddenly appeared next to her. She greeted her eldest son and took Li Changsheng's hand towards the courtyard.
As he walked, he nagged: "I finally hope you are back. This time you have to stay at home for a few days to accompany me. Your father is also here."
Li Changsheng patted his mother's hand and said with a smile, "Okay, then we'll stay for two more days."
"Two days won't do it. I don't know how many days it will take for your brother to leave. You have to stay with me at home. You haven't seen anyone for a few days since you left. If you don't come back, I will even think about going to the mountains to find you."
Pulling her son, Mrs. Liu kept nagging.
Li Changsheng looked at her and laughed, and said: "The mountain is not far from my home. It's not convenient for my mother to come here. How can I care about other people's feelings? You don't have to worry about it anymore at home, right?"
"That's not possible. As a big family, we can't just leave at will. We have to arrange things properly before we can leave with peace of mind.
Mrs. Liu was filled with joy that her son finally remembered his mother and did not become a monk because he became a monk and had to focus on practicing cultivation.
Li Changsheng took her hand, and the mother and son walked toward the gate.
After cultivating Buddhism in the mountains for eight years, she spent less time with her mother and more time away from her. Today, Mrs. Liu could not be happy to see her son suddenly come home.
Being pulled in by his mother, Li Changsheng thought of a lot of the past in an instant.
I thought of the many years I spent practicing in Fu Kong Temple, and how I, who refused to practice even to death, actually broke through to the realm of Nascent Soul.
However, these emotions turned into the most terrifying words when he saw Mr. Li.
Looking at his father who was still full of energy despite his age, Li Changsheng laughed, and Mrs. Li also laughed.
His body was shaking wildly, and his laughing voice was trembling. Then he pointed at Li Changsheng, who was being pulled by Mrs. Liu, and said seriously: "Son, it's time for you to return to secular life!"
Li Changsheng turned to look at Mrs. Liu who was holding her hand, and saw her covering her mouth with one hand, smiling silently.
"I am cultivating freely, why should I return to secular life?" Li Changsheng frowned slightly and looked at his father who was full of joy.
