劍問蒼天 - 第181章 無字玉壁 - 翰墨軒

Mingli frowned, not understanding what this had to do with the malevolence of the Blood-Devouring Bead, when Pucheng went on, "Thus that place is the spot within all the Sumeru Mountains where the Buddha's aura is most solemn and auspicious. The young benefactor need only sit quietly there for a time, and this old monk will lead a company of monks to form the Vajra Ring dharma array about the jade wall. Then the auspicious aura will swell greatly, and perhaps it may suppress the malevolence of the Blood-Devouring Bead that invades the young benefactor's body. Who can say?"

Mingli's body gave a start; he had not expected Master Pucheng's eye to be so penetrating, nor known when the Abbot had perceived the disorder of his meridians. He considered a moment, then said with resolve, "This humble one knows the Abbot's good intent. If so, I shall sit beneath that Wordless Jade Wall for a few days. But after that, I shall take my leave."

Master Pucheng pressed his palms together and nodded, smiling. "Rest assured, benefactor; our temple would never dare stand in your way."

Mingli nodded and turned to go out. Master Pucheng watched his back until it vanished, sighed, and murmured to himself, "Junior Brother, if your spirit lives on high, you ought to watch over this child..."

********

The Wordless Jade Wall, as Master Pucheng had described it, lay in the rear mountains of Sumeru. Mingli had supposed it would be easy enough to find; yet when, after making ready that day, he followed Fa Cheng and Fa Jing, the two brother-disciples sent to guide him, into the rear mountains, they walked for the better part of an hour and still saw no sign of it.

Mingli felt some surprise, though he did not voice it. Fa Cheng, however, was ever careful and considerate; seeing a faint look of wonder on Mingli's face, he guessed at it and said with a smile, "Benefactor Zhang, are you wondering why the Wordless Jade Wall should be so far?"

Since he was asked, Mingli saw no reason to hide it, and said, "May I ask, senior brother, just where this Wordless Jade Wall is, and how it came to be?"

Fa Cheng laughed as he walked. "That is a long tale. When the Wordless Jade Wall first appeared, naturally no one knows; all that is known is that a thousand years ago, when the founding patriarch of Brahma Voice Temple was still a wandering monk, he roamed the four quarters. One day, somehow, he strayed among the towering peaks and steep ridges of Sumeru and lost his way, and could find no road out again. With no other choice, the patriarch wandered at random through the mountain forests, and being born with a Buddhist affinity, he came upon a stone wall smooth as jade. By then the patriarch was famished and parched and worn out with fatigue, so he rested beneath that jade wall."

Fa Cheng paused there, and Mingli could not help pressing, "Oh? And then what?"

At that moment the mountain path before Fa Cheng forked; he turned them to the left, leading Mingli down a sloping road, and said as he went, "Legend says that the patriarch sat beneath that Wordless Jade Wall for three days and three nights, and somehow, from his first state of hunger and thirst, he gradually entered meditation, his heart at peace and his spirit settled, and came into the great perfection of our Buddhist gate. After three days, there beneath the Wordless Jade Wall, he awoke to the Buddhist truth. And more than that, it is said—" Fa Cheng turned his head and gave Mingli a mysterious smile. "It is said, moreover, that it was there beneath that Wordless Jade Wall that the patriarch came to comprehend the supreme true dharma handed down through the generations of our Brahma Voice Temple, the Great Brahma Prajna, and thereby established the standing of the Brahma Voice lineage in the world of cultivation."