Starting From A Fisherman To Cultivate Immortality And Live Forever

Chapter 89: Illusory Splendor

After a brief moment of losing composure, Master Yuan Ci of the Great Compassion Temple heard hurried footsteps outside the door.

He quickly adjusted his breathing to calm himself down.

In a tone that was no different from usual, Master Yuan Ci allowed the monks to enter the room and clean it up, as well as rearrange the bookshelves and other items.

The monks who had rushed over upon hearing the strange noise were intimidated by the authority of the abbot and did not dare to inquire about the reason. They simply assumed that the abbot had accidentally knocked over a vase and caused it to hit the bookshelf.

As long as the abbot did not mention it, they naturally did not dare to ask or even discuss the matter with others.

Master Yuan Ci watched as the monks finished cleaning and saw them off.

His expression then became solemn again, and he sat cross-legged on the couch in front of the mural, making an effort to recall every word and expression detail of his conversation with the mysterious ghost.

"Fuhua Ruomeng Temple... It seems to be a sacred place within our temple's lineage. Why have I never heard of such an ancient temple?"

"Is it because I, as the abbot of the Great Compassion Temple, am still not qualified enough?"

"No, the Great Compassion Temple also has a thousand years of history and is a well-known ancient temple in the South China Sea region. It should be qualified enough in terms of its long-standing origins."

"That strange presence coming to find me and being so surprised by my ordinary abilities should be evidence!"

"In that case, the problem lies with our own Great Compassion Temple?"

"Could it be that there was a problem in the transmission of our lineage?"

Master Yuan Ci's face changed slightly as he thought of this. It was also his greatest concern!

"It's impossible. Those fellow practitioners of mine, as well as those friends from the association..."

"Could it be that among them, there are truly accomplished practitioners with supernatural powers, but they have been hiding it from me all along?"

Images of faces, some gentle and modest, some compassionate, and some pretending to be mysterious, appeared in Master Yuan Ci's mind.

He quickly shook his head to dismiss this absurd idea.

All those fellow practitioners were nothing more than his subordinates who had been defeated in debates over the years.

If they really had the ability, how could they still not be able to defeat him?

Thinking of this, Master Yuan Ci became confident and leaned towards the idea that those high-ranking friends were just like him before, unaware of their own status as ordinary mortals.

"Right, the token!"

"That strange visitor mentioned the transmission token!"

"Could it be a certain transmission token left behind by my master or the ancestral master, which was not valued by later generations due to accidents?"

Master Yuan Ci was well-versed in classics and could recite the anecdotes of his sect by heart.

He remembered that the Great Compassion Temple had been relatively fortunate and had not encountered major disasters or human calamities that could destroy the temple.

The transmission of the lineage could generally be traced in an orderly manner.

However, there had indeed been several calamities, including a plague three hundred years ago, during which more than half of the senior monks, including the abbot at the time, died.

It was after that blow that the Great Compassion Temple fell into a period of decline.

It was only under the hands of Master Yuan Ci that it gradually showed signs of regaining its peak.

At the age of seventy, he had already achieved this.

After thinking about this, he became so excited that he couldn't sleep at all.

He had a vague feeling that the reason he, an ordinary mortal, became the abbot was related to the calamity three hundred years ago!

It was that calamity that caused the Great Compassion Temple to lose its extraordinary lineage.

And if he followed this line of thought deeper, it became even more terrifying. Perhaps, the reason why the world could be so peaceful and safe was because someone was shouldering the darkness for them.

Although Master Yuan Ci was old, deep in his heart, he still had the dream of being a compassionate protector who possessed supernatural powers.

Unable to wait any longer, he disregarded the fact that it was already dark outside and that it was almost his bedtime.

He hurriedly walked out of the room and headed to the temple's scripture repository.

Although it was called a scripture repository, in fact, besides the first floor, which had Buddhist stories for casual visitors to read, the second floor contained various collections of scriptures.

On the third and fourth floors, apart from the annotations of many senior monks collected over the centuries, there were mostly relics of the Great Compassion Temple itself, including those of the abbot.

The relics were mainly documented in written form.

And one thing that must be clarified is that most of the documents are not original copies.

Or, one could say that the conditions and manpower for preserving temples are simply unable to protect such a large number of relics.

The main method of preservation is to have monks transcribe and treat them as original works.

Master Yuan Ci had a clear goal in mind. He wanted to find opportunities within the relics left behind by the abbots and high-ranking monks from three hundred years ago!

Even if he couldn't find anything, he wouldn't give up.

Having seen the truth of the world, Master Yuan Ci had made up his mind. He had already dedicated enough of his life to the Great Compassion Temple!

He wanted to spend the rest of his life searching for the truth of the illusory Dreamlike Temple, searching for his true Buddhist destiny!

He, Master Yuan Ci, also wanted to become a true compassionate practitioner of the Buddhist path!

In the astonished gazes of the monks, Master Yuan Ci knocked on the door of the scripture repository and instructed them not to disturb him before heading straight to the fourth floor.

The accompanying monks were confused.

However, one clever person muttered quietly, perhaps the abbot was not satisfied with the upcoming ceremony and wanted to find inspiration from the relics of the patriarch.

This immediately received nods of agreement.

They had followed Master Yuan Ci for many years and keenly felt the abbot's sense of urgency.

This made them inexplicably uneasy, and thus they immediately accepted this explanation to put their minds at ease.

The fourth floor of the scripture repository.

After modernization, it was brightly lit and had good air quality.

However, surveillance cameras were only installed at the entrance and exit.

Only temple staff could come here.

Preventing a few incidents was enough.

As a result, the security personnel in the surveillance room were unaware that an hour ago, two mice, one white and one gray, had quietly entered and secretly added something.

Master Yuan Ci arrived at the area where the patriarch's relics were kept and respectfully bowed and chanted a mantra in front of each wooden cabinet.

Then he approached a cabinet and began to examine it through the glass.

Following some memories he had seen before.

Master Yuan Ci found the deceased abbot mentioned in the records.

With a slight tremor, he opened the cabinet and carefully examined it.

This time, as Master Yuan Ci looked at the many cultivation stories that had previously seemed like self-praise in the records, he no longer felt that way.

For example, the patriarch recorded that in a certain year and month, he felt something during his cultivation and went to a certain peach grove to absorb the essence of the wood.

As a result, he angered the peach wood fairy in the grove, and the patriarch chose to apologize to resolve the matter.

There was another story where the patriarch had a meal with a fellow practitioner at a wooden pavilion under the moon, and the other person raised a water bottle and borrowed some hot, high-quality Longjing tea.

The patriarch then took out a fishing hook and directly caught the vegetarian dishes from a temple in the South China Sea.

Such stories were not lacking in the records.

Master Yuan Ci looked at these and no longer thought that the patriarch was just bragging.

Because when they drank tea together, they would also boast like this...

Now, Master Yuan Ci gradually felt... perhaps these records were all true?

It's just that they, the unworthy descendants, had lost the extraordinary inheritance of the patriarchs and had ultimately declined, becoming ordinary and worldly!

No, no, that's not it!

Master Yuan Ci finished reading the documents of the deceased abbot and several other high-ranking monks.

But he couldn't find the slightest hint related to the Dreamlike Temple.

"Inheritance... relics! Right, relics!"

Unable to find any useful information, Master Yuan Ci placed his hope on the relics. He hoped that the patriarchs would have pity on them and not take the tokens to the underworld.

He opened a cabinet that contained physical objects.

Skipping over the ones that had been repaired by later generations.

Master Yuan Ci's gaze fell on a wooden box.

It contained the relics of a high-ranking monk from three hundred years ago.

He remembered that there was a scripture personally annotated by the monk inside.

It was a rare and well-preserved original manuscript.

In addition, the venerable monk is one of the most respected monks in the Great Compassion Temple for thousands of years.

This sutra can be stored separately.

Master Yuan Ci has read this sutra before and gained insights into the thoughts of the ancestors across time.

Now, thinking about how the venerable monk was so fond of this sutra in the records.

Master Yuan Ci felt a slight desire in his heart and opened the box, put on gloves, and carefully used tools to flip through the pages.

The scripture hall was incredibly quiet.

Only the faint sound of flipping pages remained for a moment.

Master Yuan Ci looked at the annotations of the scripture but still did not find what he wanted to see.

Until he turned to the last page of the scripture!

Master Yuan Ci's body suddenly shook as he saw the last page of the scripture, where a pale red Sanskrit appeared.

Master Yuan Ci was certain that he had not seen this Sanskrit before when he read it earlier.

It was never mentioned in the annual reports before.

And such an obvious mark, if it had existed before, the monks in charge of this place would not have failed to report it!

"It should have appeared recently... perhaps it is related to the summoning of the Illusory Dream Temple?"

"My Great Compassion Temple must obey... "

Master Yuan Ci looked at the Sanskrit and found no changes or further information.

After reciting several classic scriptures, there was still no response.

Master Yuan Ci took off the glove on his right hand and tried to touch the Sanskrit.

As soon as he touched it.

Master Yuan Ci's body tensed, and an additional message appeared before his eyes.

"Amitabha, thank you, Ancestor, for enlightening me!"

Withdrawing his finger, Master Yuan Ci bowed deeply to the scripture.

Just now, he once again felt the power of mystery.

It was still the mysterious power left to him by his Ancestor, giving him a clue!

Although Master Yuan Ci had a fleeting thought at that moment: perhaps this is a trap?

But he quickly dismissed this thought.

This was his Great Compassion Temple, and what he encountered here was extraordinary and beyond anything he had ever seen in his life!

How could this be a trap! If it were, he would still go, and he even wished that this trap had appeared decades earlier!

Master Yuan Ci closed his eyes for a while and settled his mood.

Then he turned around and went straight to the place indicated by the Sanskrit clue.

Little did he know that the clever mice had set up multiple locations to ensure that at least one would be discovered!

As he left, the mice quickly moved to cover up any traces.

Under the moonlight, with the help of the moonlight.

Master Yuan Ci refused the company of the monks and entered the main hall.

After paying respects to the Buddha enshrined in the main hall.

He came to the stone slab below the lotus platform of the Buddha. Following the Sanskrit clue, he gently pressed it with both hands and discovered that the stone slab was actually a mechanism!

Immediately, a hollow space appeared inside, and an object that seemed unreal, like a wooden plaque, appeared!

Trembling, Master Yuan Ci picked up the wooden plaque with both hands and realized that it was as thin as nothingness, as if it didn't exist at all.

Master Yuan Ci quickly placed the wooden plaque close to his body and hurriedly restored the stone slab.

If at this time, Master Yuan Ci had brought in an expert for identification, they would have surely discovered that the mechanism marks on the stone slab were obviously new.

But Master Yuan Ci, who believed that he had discovered the greatest secret of the Great Compassion Temple, would never think of such things!

He always believed that finding the token relied solely on his own efforts and the blessings of his ancestors!

When he obtained the wooden plaque, he already sensed new information.

With firm belief that this was the token left by his Ancestor, Master Yuan Ci regarded the wooden plaque as his greatest secret!

In the distance, Su Ping, who was trying his luck at a fishing spot, sensed that Master Yuan Ci had taken the bait.

He smiled and didn't rush to summon the host to the Pot Paradise.

Su Ping deliberately waited until dawn.

Only then did he send the ghost to appear in Master Yuan Ci's bedroom again.

"You actually have a token!"

The ghost, who appeared half-bodied from the wall again, didn't frighten Master Yuan Ci this time.

He looked at the ghost, nodded slightly, and then clasped his hands together, wanting to seek guidance.

But he saw the impatient ghost shake its head directly and refuse, saying,

"Alright, alright, having a token is enough, wait for tonight's orders."

"By the way, among the mortals with tokens, you're the only one!"

"It seems that this time, you may have to go alone to receive the orders."

"After all, each batch that goes to receive orders is arranged according to their cultivation level."

After saying these words, the ghost didn't explain further and disappeared directly into the wall.

Master Yuan Ci, having learned from his previous experience, didn't dare to stop the departure of this ghost messenger.

Thinking that tonight might be the most important day to change his remaining life.

Master Yuan Ci refused all discussions and invitations.

Apart from three meals a day and necessary exercises, he didn't neglect anything.

During the remaining time, Master Yuan Ci allowed himself to enter a subtle state of rest to restore his vitality and spirit.

Finally, in a half-dream and half-awake state, Master Yuan Ci suddenly opened his eyes.

He sensed a certain kind of calling.

Without hesitation, he chose to agree.

So!

In the blink of an eye, Master Yuan Ci, who should have been meditating in his bedroom, appeared in a golden fairy boat amidst a sea of clouds.

"Is this really flying in the air?"

"This is... a real fairy boat!"

Excited, Master Yuan Ci quickly stood up and curiously looked around.

He could feel the wind blowing on his cheeks, feel the fairy boat under his feet flying rapidly.

He could also vaguely see the rolling clouds in the sunlight, occasionally catching sight of towering floating peaks.

And after a crisp chirp, he saw blue birds and cranes flying past the side of the fairy boat.

Master Yuan Ci walked to the edge of the deck and suddenly the ghost messenger who had notified him appeared behind him and stopped him, saying,

"You don't want to be blown off the fairy boat by a sudden gust of wind, mortal host."

"Gust of wind?"

Upon hearing this, Master Yuan Ci quickly obediently retreated to the middle of the deck and greeted the ghost messenger.

Master Yuan Ci also saw the lower half of the ghost messenger for the first time, discovering that it was a burning blue flame.

The ghost messenger was a creature that didn't like to communicate.

Master Yuan Ci closed his mouth and just kept looking around, seemingly never getting tired of it.

With the help of the formation, the fairy boat circled above the sea of clouds again and again.

Su Ping felt that it was about time, so he had a thought.

The fairy boat slowly began to descend.

The mist in front of them gradually dissipated.

Accompanied by the sunlight shining through the sea of clouds, a circular halo suddenly appeared and illuminated the Floating Dream Temple.

Everything was so sacred and majestic.

Amitabha!

Master Yuan Ci stood on the deck of the already landed fairy boat, looking at the magnificent Floating Dream Temple, and suddenly became emotional. After performing a grand ceremony with clasped hands, he closed his eyes and tears flowed uncontrollably.

"May the Buddha be compassionate, allowing me to... see the Buddha."

(End of this chapter)