Just one sentence made Xiao Die'er feel a little happier.
Just as the master said, last time she followed her junior sister and Crow back home to play, this time she thought she was going to another place to play with Pianpian and Peacock.
When Huajiao turned around, Li Xiuyuan stepped across the long deck and stood on the bow of Xianling Island.
Along with Xiaodie and Crow, Huajiao waved his hand and said, "Just treat it as a practice and wait for me to come back."
Huajiao waved her hand vigorously: "Sir, take care."
Xiao Die'er shook her head and shouted: "Master, don't abandon Xiao Die'er."
The peacock also shouted: "Sir...Sir..."
Amidst a blast of horns, the two large ships gradually separated and headed in two different directions.
Because of Lao Gui, the shopkeeper of Dahai Ship arranged a room with a view of the sea for Li Xiuyuan and the old woman, and asked the waiter to bring tea.
However, Li Xiuyuan felt a bit of inexplicable meaning from the waiter's expression... It should be said that it was a kind of gloating.
Holding a cup of coarse tea, Li Xiuyuan said calmly to the old woman in front of him: "Senior, why do I feel like a sheep falling into a tiger's mouth?"
The old woman sighed and replied quietly: "Do you feel like you have been sold by me and you still have to count the money for me?"
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan thought of the golden body made for Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in Yunqi Temple, and of his own experience of transforming into Ksitigarbha and cultivating Buddhism under the abyss.
In his opinion, what could be more difficult and painful than that?
Thinking of this, he frowned and replied in a solemn voice: "This junior once practiced Buddhism under the abyss, and this time I have my mother-in-law to accompany me... At most, I think of it as returning to the abyss."
The old woman nodded gently, with a satisfied smile on her face.
The two of them sat quietly in front of the window. The old woman looked at the vast sea and said, "In half a day, we will arrive at Fairy Island."
"Mother-in-law has been here?" Li Xiuyuan asked.
"If I say I've never been here, would you believe me?"
The old woman sighed and said quietly: "Let me tell you this, if the place where Old Turtle and Xiao Die'er go is compared to light, the place we are going to is darkness."
"So my mother-in-law wants to go to the dark place in the world to save all living beings in the sea of suffering?" Li Xiuyuan said with a smile.
The old woman shook her head: "I am old and have more ambition than strength. I can only leave this matter to you to try... You are not afraid anymore, are you?"
Li Xiuyuan was stunned, and the past flashed before his eyes one after another, starting from his hometown Tianshan, to the foot of Luoxia Mountain, to the wild Ding'an City...
I am clearly not a Bodhisattva or a god.
They are just eating the most common food in the world, but they are worrying about the hearts of Bodhisattvas and gods. No, it should be said that they are hearts that even Bodhisattvas will not bother with.
Thinking of this, he suddenly became angry.
I feel like a seabird looking for food behind a ship in the sea, with no hope in sight on the vast sea.
I don’t know how long it took before I said softly: “Mother-in-law, why does God always like to tease me and make me do things that only a Bodhisattva can do again and again?”
The old woman shook her head with a look of compassion on her face.
Zhengse replied: "Speaking of this matter, your realm has surpassed that of a Bodhisattva. There are some things that a Bodhisattva can only look at and cannot worry about."
When Li Xiuyuan heard this, he felt speechless. He thought that he had not reached that stage yet. If he wanted to be on par with the sky, how could he hope for it at the moment?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh: "Mother-in-law, you look too high on me. I'm just a blind passerby, not the way of heaven in this world."
Unexpectedly, the old woman smiled faintly: "If you were the way of heaven in this world, I wouldn't bother you."
"Junior has seen the darkness." Li Xiuyuan thought for a while and tried to correct his current position. If he is not in the right place according to the law of heaven, he should not worry about it.
The old woman looked at him and smiled: "Anyway, you have no worries about your debts, so just look at it again. Isn't this the reason why you practice with two disciples?"
"Dang, Dang, Dang!" sounded like a bell.
Ringing in Li Xiuyuan's ears reminded him that his master and disciple were currently on the road to heaven.
Every step you take, every choice you make, is experiencing various tests.
If you think about it carefully, it's okay. At least it's better to suffer alone than to let Xiaodie'er, Huajiao, and Crow suffer with you.
After understanding this truth, Li Xiuyuan no longer struggled at the moment.
He also wanted to see who was the woman who failed to pursue her brother-in-law and poisoned the wine. As a result, she poisoned her sister and her brother's sister-in-law's son.
I also practiced for a winter on Penglai Island in the Tang Dynasty. At most, I would go back to the Penglai practice that year.
Quietly, Li Xiuyuan murmured: "They say there are fairy mountains overseas. It seems that the monks and coolies who boarded the ship before me couldn't even dream of it, right?"
The old woman smiled and said, "Didn't Little Crow hear people say on the pier that the island is full of elixirs and treasures?"
...
There is still a little while before Youshi, and there is still a hint of sunset in the sky over the East China Sea.
Standing on the bow of the boat, the old woman looked at the silent young man and thought that if she were the most beautiful woman on the island, she would be disgusted when she saw this young man with a piece of black cloth covering his face.
Perhaps, in the entire Central Plains, there is no more suitable candidate to come to this island than this young man.
From a distance, Li Xiuyuan saw the unfinished or only half-built palace on the high island not far ahead.
There was no emotion on his face, but he was thinking that it was the other end of the island, and that a certain rocky mountain had been half hollowed out, right?
Unexpectedly, the scene he experienced in Penglai would really show up before his eyes again.
He didn't look back, but said calmly to the old woman behind him: "The Tang Dynasty was also in the East China Sea, and there was such an island. There was also a little Taoist priest who erected a towering statue for himself..."
"Maybe the island owner here also thinks of himself as a Buddha."
The old woman looked at the island getting closer and closer, without any trace of compassion on her face.
Under the setting sun on the horizon, there is no one in the mountains. It must be time for the coolies to go down the mountain to rest.
"From today on, you have to think that you are a mortal..." the old lady reminded.
After saying this, the horn was blown on the ship amidst the whine, as if to tell the island owner, master, that the ship was returning home.
With a crash, the tall sail was lowered, leaving only the last shorter branch, which maintained its inertia and slowly headed towards the island's pier.
In an instant, a huge island pressed towards Li Xiuyuan. In his consciousness, what came face to face was not an island with birds singing and flowers fragrant, but a demon with a terrifying mouth.
Sighing softly, Li Xiuyuan smiled: "This junior is just a mortal."
Compared with the mountain at the back of Furong Town, the mountain at Yunqi Temple is like an inconspicuous hill.
The crew on the boat was preparing to dock. Li Xiuyuan's face showed no emotion at all. Instead, he embraced the abyss reflected in the sun with the simplest attitude and the calmest state of mind.
The last sail also slowly fell, falling to the deck amid a gust of wind, making a muffled sound.
The big ship slowly docked, and a man had already thrown a thick rope and tied it to the stone pillar next to the pier.
A few guys moved the deck and set it up on the stone steps beside the pier, and then some guys moved the goods up. In the eyes of the old woman, this prosperous pier was also a beautiful island.
It wasn't until the guys finished their work that the dock finally calmed down, and the ship's shopkeeper, who was said to be the island's steward, came over.
After whispering softly to her mother-in-law for a while, the old woman looked at the back of the young man who had stepped onto the shore and was walking on the pier, and replied calmly: "I know this matter will not embarrass you."
The butler then handed over his hand and replied: "That's good. After all, you are from that ship. In this way, let the young man follow Zhang San... What do you think?"
The old woman nodded: "Find someone to take us to see Zhang San. Since we are here..."
As if she had already forgotten all these things, the old woman sighed softly, with a helpless look on her face: "Didn't I say that there are gods on this island and there are elixirs everywhere?"
The old butler dressed in black and with gray hair shook his head: "Those are all imagined by the coolies in Haiyun Town."
The old woman looked at the unfinished palace in the distance and asked, "Is it possible that our mother-in-law and grandson can't leave until the palace is completed?"
The old housekeeper smiled and said: "It's coming soon, next spring at the most."
After saying that, he shouted to a waiter not far away: "Lao Liu, take this mother-in-law and Xiaonian to the mason Zhang Laosan down the mountain. He knows the rules..."
"Here you two come with me."
Not far away, a middle-aged man in a black shirt with a short collar ran over. A man as tanned as charcoal hair, waved to the old woman: "Follow me."
...
The two of them followed the charcoal-headed Lao Liu and left the dock, heading towards the woods at the foot of the mountain.
Although Li Xiuyuan was walking on the shore, he listened carefully to the conversation between the housekeeper of Xianling Island and the old woman, and couldn't help but sigh.
Sure enough, here is an island that looks bright and beautiful, but is like an abyss.
Lao Liu talked to the old woman all the way, and did not dare to walk too fast, because he also saw the explanation between Lao Gui and the housekeeper on the boat. The two people in front of him were probably not ordinary people.
It was not easy to scold them at the moment, so I had to patiently lead the old and the young around for more than half an hour, until they came to the edge of a forest when it was almost dark.
With Li Xiuyuan's consciousness locked on, he saw a tall stone wall not far from the woods.
Just as he expected, the three of them turned around and arrived at the other corner of Fairy Island, which seemed to be the quarry of the island's palace.
From a distance, the man shouted: "Zhang San, come out quickly, I have sent you two guests..."
"Where are the guests coming from these days?"
After a while, a man with almost black hair emerged from the woods. A middle-aged man about forty years old, but already had gray hair.
Apparently it was because of the heavy hardship, or because of the strong wind on the island.
Hei Tantou Lao Liu quickly stepped forward, murmured for a while with Zhang San who came out, and finally said: "No matter who the guest is, you also know the rules... none of us can make the decision... ..”
Zhang San, who looked shocked, stared blankly at Li Xiuyuan, who was also wearing a black shirt, and couldn't help shouting: "If you find me a blind boy and an old woman, what can he do?"
Hei Tantou Lao Liu shook his head: "I didn't know that they came off the boat on the island halfway and followed our boat... You can find some easy work for this boy, and the old lady will help you cook. ."
"It's okay, I'm leaving. Remember not to cause trouble, otherwise everyone's life will be difficult."
Just like making a business trip, the black-headed Liu Liu turned around and cupped his hands with the old woman, looked at Li Xiuyuan, shook his head, and walked quickly to the island.
Zhang San also knew that this could only be the case, so he had no choice but to step forward and say to the old woman: "Mother-in-law, I still have an empty wooden house here, so I have wronged you and my grandson."
The old woman replied calmly: "As long as it can protect you from the wind and rain."
Zhang San looked at Li Xiuyuan and sighed, complaining: "Little brother, you all got on the boat on Xianyun Island, why are you here again?"
Li Xiuyuan sighed and replied: "I was deceived by the coolies at the dock in that town, saying that there are gods on this island."
...
