Buddhist Pagoda Ghost Tomb

Chapter 29

Caesar's eyes flickered again, and he turned and walked out of the basement: "The moonlight is beautiful tonight."

"Stop beating around the bush!" Qin Wen chased after him. "Hand it over right now, or I'll never forgive you!"

"Wen, I remember you seemed to have promised me that you would grant me a wish."

How do you want to raise it?

"This courtyard looks nice; it must be very comfortable to live here, right?"

"..."

The sound of their footsteps faded into the distance. Yin Li clutched the pottery bottle, tears falling one by one onto the string of Khotanese characters, the surrounding red spider lily patterns vibrant and beautiful. In the quiet night of this Jiangnan town, only her soft sobs remained.

This pottery bottle is, in fact, the only evidence of his existence.

That was a message he brought from the distant ancient times.

The Buddha said that the other shore is a blissful world where there is no birth or death, no suffering or sorrow, no desire or want, and where one forgets all sorrow and suffering.

Xiang, have you reached the other side yet?

extra

(I) The First Life - Origin

I don't remember how long ago it was. At that time, there was no Buddha yet. The Western Paradise was still the domain of Brahma. Later, the Eight Legions of Devas and Asuras were still the noble deities who ruled the Western Pure Land.

She was born at that time.

When a deity is born, there are always extraordinary signs, but her birth was only accompanied by a tender cry. Her mother said that she didn't seem like a god, but more like a human.

She was a princess of the Kinnara tribe, the sole heir. Her mother named her 'Li'.

The Kinnara clan are the music gods of Brahma. Li Tian was born with a sweet singing voice, but she did not like to sing. Brahma's banquets and the magnificent world were nothing but illusions. While the heavens were filled with singing and dancing, the people of the mortal world were struggling to make ends meet. Brahma, Indra, and those high and mighty gods remained deaf to her pleas.

Without divine intervention, they had lost the faith of mortals. Gods exist because of human faith, and when faith disappears, destruction will ensue.

She discovered it, but she was just a little girl with a lifespan of only a few hundred years, so who would believe her?

Every night, when she was alone facing the sky, she seemed to hear some kind of calling; perhaps her birth was ordained by Heaven.

The encounter with the Garuda princess occurred after a banquet. The Garuda race had fed on venomous dragons for generations, and the dragon's poison accumulated in their bodies until one day it would ignite, causing them excruciating pain and self-immolation. On that day, after she finished singing her last song at the banquet, the Garuda King suddenly revealed his true form. In an instant, bluish-gray flames engulfed his body, and like a giant fireball, he flew out of the heavenly palace.

The banquet continued, and the gods turned a deaf ear. This was the calamity of the Garuda race, and no one could save them. But the little girl who had been sitting quietly on her lotus throne chased after them. The moment she revealed her true form, Li felt a wave of dizziness. It was the most beautiful Garuda she had ever seen.

After the banquet ended, Li used his spiritual sense to search the Three Realms and Nine Heavens, and finally found her on the top of a snow mountain. She was kneeling in the snow, building a lotus city made of snow. Below the city was her father, who had turned to ashes. Her delicate white hands were frozen red, and her beautiful face was full of stubbornness.

She didn't cry at all.

Li walked over silently without saying a word, picked up the snow, and after an unknown amount of time, the city was finally completed. The two of them looked up with joy and saw each other's eyes, so clear, like the water of the Milky Way, reflecting the human heart.

"What's your name?" Li asked.

“My name is Wen,” she said. “Now, I am the queen of the Garuda tribe.”

They never saw each other again after that. Li continued to live in her palace, watching the sky and the clouds drift by every day.

Countless years have passed, and the mortal world has seen several dynasties rise and fall. One day, upon waking, Li suddenly felt an even stronger sense of calling, as if the most important moment of her life was about to arrive.

As if unaware of her surroundings, she walked out of the Kinnara palace and wandered in the mortal world, which was like hell and could no longer be called a pure land.

Amidst the bloodshed and carnage, she saw a green mark, like a green lotus blooming in Lumbini Garden. She descended slowly on a cloud, and the green mark turned out to be a thousand-year-old Ashoka tree, with a beautiful and noble woman leaning against it, her expression serene, like a deity.

Beside her stood a waiter, a handsome young man with slightly curly black hair and a face that already possessed the dignity of a warrior.

"Who are you?" The young man drew his sword and stood in front of his master. Li looked at him and gave him a smile that was as radiant as the clouds in the sky and as gentle as the spring water. She was so beautiful that he was mesmerized.

Sometimes, a smile in one lifetime can forge a bond that lasts for countless lifetimes.

She suddenly began to sing, her voice melodious and beautiful, more so than any song she had sung before. At that moment, time seemed to stand still, and the sun and moon seemed to forget their cycle.

That was the first time she sang a pilgrimage song in front of someone other than Brahma, and she suddenly felt that the song gave meaning to her life.

Just then, the woman's child emerged from her side, more majestic than Brahma. He took seven steps, each step creating a lotus flower, then surveyed the four directions, pointing one finger to the sky and one to the earth, and said as casually as floating clouds: "Above and below heaven, I alone am supreme."

At this moment, two dragons appeared, one spouting warm water and the other spouting cold water, to bathe him.

Li stopped singing. She knew that the era of Brahma had passed, and in the future, this child would rule the world.

She did not return to her palace, but instead fled to an unknown mountain and sank into an ancient icy pool. When dynasties change on earth, the paths of pilgrimage are inevitably strewn with the bones of millions; even the celestial realm is not exempt.

She didn't want to see the sky and the earth turn blood red.

She didn't know how many years she had slept, but in a daze, it seemed as if someone was tapping on the ice. She slowly woke up and saw a familiar yet unfamiliar face.

Wen? Or should we call her Garuda King?

"Come with me," said the beautiful girl with wings on her back, "Buddha Shakyamuni wants to see you."

It turns out, the world has changed.

Several years ago, the boy born from the woman's right side had already attained Buddhahood under the Bodhi tree. He had subdued all the gods in the heavens, making them his guardian deities, collectively known as the Eight Legions of Devas and Nagas.

When she saw Prince Siddhartha again, he was already seated on a lotus throne, even more majestic than Brahma had been. Li gazed at him quietly, her eyes as still as water.

I have been waiting for you to come back. Buddha said that many years ago, you should not have fled to that icy pool and used Buddha to replace Heaven. It was a calamity for the gods, an irreversible and inescapable calamity. You fled then, and today you can only go to the mortal world to experience the calamity.

Li listened quietly, her heart remaining completely unmoved.

The Buddha sighed deeply. "You were kind to me by guiding me to my birth with your Buddhist music. So I sent my guardian deity to accompany you through the kalpa. When you return, you will still be the king of the Garuda clan."

A ripple finally appeared in Li's eyes. She searched among the gods for a long, long time, but still could not find her mother's figure.

Many years later, she learned that her mother had already passed away.

Wen flapped her wings and came to her, took her hand and said, "Li, you helped me build Snow Lotus City back then, today is the day I repay your kindness."

The two deities descended into the cycle of reincarnation and were reborn as a pair of dancers. Their first tribulation was in the desert of the Sea of Death, in the only oasis.

Norma Kingdom.

Every cause has its effect.

The young man who heard her Buddhist music and felt her smile that day was destined to be born for her and die for her for all eternity.

Until the tribulation is complete.