Volume 1, Chapter 489 – A Chance of Survival

Upon hearing the words heavenly punishment, Shi Lan, who had originally been thinking of opening a world passage to lend Wuya a hand, obediently put the idea away.

The heavens above Lingyang were still not something she could afford to provoke.

The vexing matter of being unable to leave Lingyang did not trouble Wuya for long. After two mouthfuls of wine and meat, a pleased look once again rose to his brows.

Tianbai was squatting beside Shi Lan, breathing heavily, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the roast meat before her. As for whatever Shi Lan and Wuya were saying, she had not heard a single word.

Shi Lan rose, preparing to take her leave. She did not have much time. After tempering the True Martial Undying Body to perfection, she intended to cross into another world once more and push her strength as close as possible to the true peak attainable in the Heaven-Man Realm, so that she could face the world-ending great tribulation.

Her trip to the Qiongluo Realm had been dangerous, but the rewards had been equally immense. If she stayed in the Lingyang Realm and cultivated step by step, she could only improve her cultivation little by little. The efficiency was far too low.

“Benefactor, please wait.”

Seeing that Shi Lan was about to leave, Wuya hurriedly got to his feet as well and somehow produced a tube of jade lots from who knew where.

“Since you have come to my door, it would not be right for this poor monk to let you leave empty-handed. Why not draw a lot?”

Looking at the jade lots, Shi Lan had originally intended to refuse, but after a second thought, she decided to treat it as a way to test her fortune and seek a bit of auspiciousness, so she agreed.

“Much obliged.”

She took the tube from Wuya’s hand and gave it two light shakes. A single jade lot flew out, and before it could hit the ground, Wuya caught it in his palm.

He stared at the jade lot for quite a while, his expression gradually turning grave.

“A bad lot?”

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Seeing that something was off with the little monk’s expression, Shi Lan’s brows twitched slightly.

“The worst kind.”

Wuya slowly shook his head, put away the jade lot in his hand, and lifted his head to meet Shi Lan’s gaze.

“To see your precise fortune in the days ahead, Benefactor, I will need to open the Buddha Eye. Forgive this poor monk’s discourtesy.”

As soon as the words fell, every trace of expression vanished from his face in an instant. Only compassion remained within his pupils, exactly like the Buddha statue enshrined inside the pagoda.

At the words Buddha Eye, astonishment was already hard to hide in Shi Lan’s eyes. In Zen Buddhism, there were five grades of vision between heaven and earth.

The first was ‘mortal.’ Such eyes could only see the light cast through heaven and earth by the sun, moon, and other sources of radiance. If that radiance dimmed, mortal eyes would lose their function and sink into darkness.

The second was ‘heavenly.’ One could see through the flow of spiritual qi in mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, perceive wandering souls and spirit bodies, and no matter the environment, clearly see the true scenery of heaven and earth. One could also roughly observe the waxing and waning of fortune and glimpse part of the future.

When she obtained Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight, Shi Lan had gained a pair of heavenly eyes. Later, even after fusing with the Candle Dragon Demonic Pupils, she still had not crossed the threshold of the heavenly eye and remained at this level.

The third was ‘wisdom.’ This level had already completely surpassed the limits of the heavenly eye and touched the realm of life, death, and reincarnation. One could vaguely see past and present lives and transcend the mundane world. Even in Zen Buddhism, only a handful of eminent monks, second only to fruition-level Bodhisattvas, could possess such Wisdom Eyes.

One step beyond the Wisdom Eye was the Dharma Eye. This Dharma Eye was vastly different from the “dharma eye” people commonly spoke of in the world. Only powerful beings in the realm of living Bodhisattvas had a chance to cultivate it.

One could see all sentient beings, observe the six paths of reincarnation, clearly reflect past and present lives, and in the end reach the state of emptiness, where nothing was unseen, there was no self and no form, and one was no longer troubled by life, death, and reincarnation.

The final grade was ‘Buddha.’

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To possess the Buddha Eye was equivalent to becoming a Buddha. Within the Buddha Eye, time and space no longer existed as concepts. Eternity was one and unchanging, and what one saw before one’s eyes was the future itself.

As the Diamond Sutra says, “All that has form is illusion. If one sees that all forms are no forms, one sees the Tathagata.”

That was precisely what it meant.

The Buddha Eye simply should not have appeared on a little monk.

At this moment, beneath Wuya’s gaze, Shi Lan felt a faint chill in her heart, and a trace of cold sweat seeped out across her back. It was as though she were facing gods and Buddhas directly, with every thought in the depths of her heart completely seen through, leaving no secrets at all.

“It has only been a short while since we last met, yet the golden merit light on you has grown even denser…”

The feeling came quickly and vanished just as fast. In only a few breaths, the compassion in Wuya’s eyes disappeared without a trace, and he returned to normal, his brows slowly knitting together.

“What did you see?”

Seeing Wuya’s expression, Shi Lan calmed the ripples in her heart and asked with focused attention.

“Benefactor, you are in danger of death.”

The little monk scratched the back of his head, his brow tightly furrowed.

“It is not a man-made disaster, but a natural calamity. This world does not allow you.”

“Is there a solution?”

Hearing the words natural calamity, Shi Lan was not surprised. When she entered the Heaven-Man Realm and underwent tribulation, she had already sensed that Lingyang had never intended to leave her a path to survival.

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The so-called danger of death was, in all likelihood, the world-ending great tribulation.

“In the far south of the Vast Land of Shenzhou, there is a slim chance of survival. As for what that chance is, even the Buddha Eye cannot see through it.”

Wuya looked somewhat dejected. His Buddha Eye had been with him since birth and had never failed him before. He had never encountered such a situation.

It was not just that slim chance of survival. He could not see through Shi Lan’s past, and he could not see through her previous and present lives either. All of it was obscured by an invisible force.

In his eyes, Shi Lan’s future was nothing but a field of blood-red, with a faint sliver of life mixed into the death qi filling the sky.

Her previous and present lives were even more chaotic, a complete blur in which nothing could be seen.

Even when it came to Zen Buddhism’s current strongest figure, Yongyuan Bodhisattva, who stood only one step away from entering the Arhat realm, he could clearly see that person’s past.

This was far too bizarre.

“The far south of Shenzhou…”

Hearing that location, Shi Lan fell into thought. The place where she had last undergone tribulation had also been in that direction. Was that slim chance of survival referring to that streak of immortal light?

“This poor monk’s Buddhist Dharma is shallow. I had hoped to offer you a bit of fortune, Benefactor, but instead I made matters worse and disturbed your Dao heart. That is truly a sin.”

Wuya even began to regret asking Shi Lan to stay and draw a lot. It had originally been an unintentional act, yet now it might have a considerable impact on the future.

That chance of survival had originally belonged to Shi Lan in the first place. Now that she had learned of it in advance, if she deliberately went searching for it, she might instead miss it in the future.

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“How could my Dao heart be so easily shaken?”

Seeing the little monk’s guilt, Shi Lan shook her head with a smile and waved it off without much concern.

“Now that the lot has been interpreted, I will not stay any longer. Farewell for now. We shall meet again another day.”

She had drawn a lot only for a bit of auspiciousness. From beginning to end, the only one she believed in was herself.

If a few casual words were enough to throw her into disarray, she would never have made it this far.

This visit to the Buddhist sect left Shi Lan with several more doubts in her heart and cast another layer of shadow over her thoughts. The road beneath her feet suddenly became somewhat obscure and difficult to discern.

The higher her cultivation grew, the more unknowns there seemed to be.

“Tianbai, it is time to go.”

Hearing Shi Lan call her, Tianbai, whose mind had been wandering in another world the whole time, suddenly snapped back to herself. Somewhat reluctant, she pulled her eyes away from the roast meat and stood up. Clearly, she still had not heard a word of what Wuya and Shi Lan had just said.

“Give me half the roast meat.”

Shi Lan glanced at Tianbai. Before Wuya could respond, she directly reached out, tore off most of the roast meat, stuffed it into Tianbai’s storage ring, and then turned and left without another word.

Looking at it now, there was nothing so bad about seeing a simpler world. At the very least, there would be far fewer troubles.

If Tianbai could remain this innocent forever, perhaps that would not be such a bad thing either.