tokyo creator

Chapter 351 Banhuan Road (覗)
Looking at Jack who was silent, Huiyuan seemed to want to say something embarrassing, but Arthur immediately gave him a wink to stop him.

But Hui Ren here doesn't care about that.He said with a look of disdain: "No, I figured it out. This is all her fault. Because of the lie that you are the son of Tengu, as a mother, she was even more trapped in the cult... Then why not What about telling the truth from the beginning?

"In that case... that child, that is, me, will be taken away by the shugenjas for 'impeding the practice'."

Hui Ren said loudly: "——So I said, wouldn't it be enough for her to leave too? Wouldn't it be nice to leave the group with you and go back to live a normal life?"

Jack shook his head: "There was no option to 'go back and live a normal life' from the beginning."

"——No, it should be said that, Hui Ren, our 'daily' is different from yours. For my mother and me, practicing in a group is our daily life." Jack looked at Hui Ren and said sincerely, "And the so-called 'normal society' is an unknown situation, and I can't imagine how to live it at all... Even now, without you, I don't know how to live a seemingly normal life. "

Hui Ren was silent for a moment and said awkwardly: "No, that's not the case. If you grew up outside, you wouldn't have been in this situation from the beginning. You would know how to live. So, so It’s all that woman’s fault. If it was for your own good, you should have done it from the beginning—"

Jack was silent.

"Actually, it's impossible to leave in the first place, right?" Arthur interrupted at the right time. He looked at Jack, as if to add to him what he didn't want to say for some reason: "...Shugendo There are many schools, some with various spectrums. The group to which Jack belongs is also famous for its extreme secrecy and inward-looking force. They live in seclusion in the mountains and forests and do not have any relations with outsiders. Although they do not harm outsiders, But it is extremely harsh on internal members, and once they join, they are absolutely not allowed to quit.”

Hui Ren was stunned and became even more angry: "So - isn't this woman just selfish?? She couldn't leave the group, so she lied to keep Jack trapped with her, making Jack unable to live a normal life. Isn't this Selfish??”

Jack was silent for a moment, then said helplessly: "...Okay, yes. I just said she did this because she was lonely."

"So that woman—" Huiren was almost furious.

But this time, before he could roar out, Jack frowned and interrupted him sternly: "Hui Ren! Listen to me."

Yu Shenghui Ren instinctively stopped talking.

So Jack continued: "I don't think she did anything wrong."

"Because if I was really sent outside... then my mother and I would actually have to live alone, right?"

"In comparison, although practicing is painful, it is just physical pain. Once you get used to it, it's no big deal and you can tolerate it..."

"During the most painful period of my practice, I was able to persevere... also because after every day of practice, I could sleep peacefully in her arms."

"She will never reject me and will always hold me tenderly." Jack seemed to be lost in memories and murmured to himself, "...even if she is still injured."

"Injured? Is it because of practice?" Hui Yuanchu interrupted at an inappropriate time.

Jack was silent for a moment, seemed to wake up, and shook his head: "No."

"Didn't I just say that? I have had abnormal powers since I was a child. This is one of the reasons why I am regarded as the son of Tengu."

"...So, several times, I woke up in the morning and found that I seemed to..." Jack didn't know when he made a false hug, looked at the blank space in his arms, and said blankly, "The hug is broken. Mother's ribs."

"..."

"So I am still very grateful to the practice itself. It is true that the hard practice helped me learn to control my power faster, and later it was less easy to hurt others." Jack seemed to have come to his senses, exhaled and put down "However, in my memory, even in the earliest period, my mother never blamed me for this matter, and she almost never complained in front of me."

Then, the atmosphere fell into silence again.

This time, Hui Ren finally had nothing to say and just turned away with a sullen expression.

Atmosphere Murderer Hui Yuanchu just sighed: "That is indeed a gentle person..."

"What happened next?" he asked.

"Later, my mother died." Jack's answer was concise.

But the degree of sudden change in mood was not even matched by Hui Yuanchu.

Hui Yuan was stunned on the spot for a while, and then asked: "...Is it because the shugenja did something bad?"

"That's not true, she just died of illness while practicing." Jack was indeed very calm.

"..." "Have you heard of the 'Thousand Days Journey to the Peak'?" Jack asked.

"No, no, no..."

"——'Thousand Days Return to the Peak' is the highest standard of practice in Shugendo." Arthur stood up again and took over the important task of explaining, "As the name suggests, it requires a full thousand days of 'Return to the Peak' practice .

"Furthermore, unlike the ordinary 'entering the peak' practice, the 'Thousand Days Return to the Peak Practice' has stricter regulations: the place of practice must be Mount Hiei or several other holy mountains. Taking the Mount Hiei Dojo as an example, practitioners must Every day, you have to hike from the top of the mountain at two o'clock in the middle of the night, walk down the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, and finally turn back. On the way, you encounter more than 300 temples or holy sites along the way, and you must go and pay homage to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and gods in them one by one as a token of appreciation. My respect. In total, I have to walk at least about thirty kilometers every day."

"In the first three years, practitioners must spend one hundred days per year to perform the 'Thousand-Day Return to the Peak.' In the fourth and fifth years, the practice time will increase to two hundred days per year. In the sixth year, although the time was shortened back to 84 days per year, the training location was changed to Chishan, and the daily distance suddenly increased to [-] kilometers; in the seventh year, the route will be around Kyoto again The total daily distance increased to [-] kilometers."

"...It seems simple, right? Just spread out a thousand days of mountain climbing over seven years... But in fact, it is extremely difficult to truly complete this challenge. First, the journey itself is very difficult; second, According to regulations, the time for practice is strictly limited to night. And in the mountains and forests at night... wild animals are already a second-level danger. The real life-threatening danger is actually the terrain. I don’t know how many practitioners can’t see clearly at night. , and fell into a deep valley."

"The biggest enemy of a practitioner... is actually the injuries that will inevitably occur during the process of practice. However, no matter how serious the injury is, once the 'Thousand Days Journey to the Peak' begins, it cannot be stopped. of."

"So those who participate in the 'Thousand Days Return to the Peak' will wear all-white attire, which means the mourning clothes prepared for themselves, as well as the life and death ropes and daggers - because during this journey, no matter whether it is due to force majeure, The reason is still illness or they can't hold on anymore and want to give up. Practitioners have to choose to commit suicide by disembowelment with a short knife to express their apology." Arthur added, "... Of course, if you can't complete the practice now, you must Suicide is no longer mandatory.”

"In short, according to records, since Ennin founded the 'Thousand-Day Return to the Peak' for thousands of years, there are only 51 people who have completed this practice once. And only 3 people have completed it twice, right?"

"Of course, the above number of people recorded only includes the monks who have practiced asceticism at the Buddhist temple on Mount Hiei. And among the ascetics of the hermit sect of Shugendo, there are more unknown practitioners. The location will also be chosen at other holy mountain dojos that are more steep and difficult to climb... Just through the example of Mount Hiei above, I think it should be enough to make you understand how arduous it is to practice."

When Arthur said this, he stopped talking.

Jack had been listening silently, and now nodded towards Arthur, as if thanking him.

Then he continued: "For the group of practitioners I belong to, the 'Thousand-Day Return to the Peak' is a practice that its members 'must complete'."

"So, when I was 16 years old, my mother finally decided to start her spiritual practice."

"But she is not a person who is physically strong enough. Or...because of me, she has always had some old illnesses. So she barely completed the first three years of practice, and finally fell ill during the fourth year of the Hundred Days Peak trip. .”

"I don't know what kind of disease it is... It shouldn't be a specific disease. Cracked nails, blood in the urine, high fever and abdominal pain, suppuration of hands and feet, edema all over the body... These are actually things that every practitioner of the 'Thousand Days Return to Peak Journey' will encounter. It’s a common symptom. It’s just that the body consumes too much, and at the same time there is not enough nutrition and rest.”

"It's just that the others held on, but mom... couldn't hold on any longer." Jack said lightly, "It's useless just to hold on mentally, but if the flesh and blood body is going to collapse, then no one can. There is no way..."

Hui Yuanchu asked again knowingly: "Aren't you going to send me to the hospital?"

Jack shook his head: "I was not with her at the time. I have my own practice. And other practitioners... would not do that. Because according to the rules of the 'Thousand Days Return to the Peak', no matter what happens during practice, No human intervention is allowed, no matter what kind of injury it is, and it can only be allowed to heal naturally.”

"So, they watched her crawl with her last strength, and finally couldn't crawl anymore. Then they took her back to the temple and watched her gradually die while chanting sutras for her."

"After all, in their view, death is not a bad thing... That is not a bad thing. If there is no hope of becoming a Buddha in this life, it is better to reincarnate early. In comparison, don't break the rules of this practice. It is the most important thing, so that after reincarnation, we can still keep the merits accumulated in this life."

"Anyway, when I was brought to my mother, it was already close to the last moment."

"My mother only said a few words. She said, let me not be sad and endure the loneliness for a while. She will be reincarnated as soon as possible. I want to find her so that she can continue to be by my side."

"In the end, she hugged me with her last strength. She said, let me recognize her by the feeling of this hug in the future." Jack lowered his head, and involuntarily made a gesture of embracing her, "... Then she passed out."

He remained frozen in that position for who knows how long before he put down his hand.

"And I was kicked out by the shugenjas, and I was only allowed to wait outside for the final notice." Jack said with a light breath.

Then, everyone at the scene fell silent.

But suddenly, Hui Ren stood up from the ground.

The expression on his face was one of unknown anger.He was filled with rage that was almost on the verge of breaking out, but he could manage to maintain the last trace of rationality.Under the surprised gazes of Hui Yuanchu and Arthur, Hui Ren stood on the spot and swayed a few times. Finally, with a livid face, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "I...I'm going to smoke a cigarette and get some air."

Then, he quickly left as if fleeing alone.

(End of this chapter)