劍問蒼天 - 第231章 困惑 - 翰墨軒

Zhou Yixuan looked at him, and suddenly a look of sorrow came over his face—though it passed in an instant. Then he sighed softly and reached out to pat Ming Li on the shoulder.

At this moment Ming Li could hardly be called shaken to the core, yet his mind was certainly disturbed, and his cultivation reacted at once: almost instinctively he made to turn and evade Zhou Yixuan's palm. But then something uncanny happened. This Zhou Yixuan, ever the mountebank, ever so ordinary and unremarkable—that seemingly weightless, drifting palm—for all Ming Li's cultivation and attainment, he stood rooted where he was and failed to dodge it, and was thus lightly patted by Zhou Yixuan.

Ming Li's heart jolted, but before he could react, words far more startling issued from Zhou Yixuan's mouth: "And moreover—you are the only person in this world to have cultivated all four volumes of the Heavenly Book. How could you be the same as anyone else?"

At these words Ming Li's whole body shook. That he had cultivated the four volumes of the Heavenly Book was a matter he had always kept secret. Indeed, the third volume, obtained from the Heavenly Emperor's Treasury, and the fourth, obtained from the wordless jade wall of the Fanyin Temple—even Lu Xueling and the monks of Fanyin Temple did not know that those wondrous texts were all of one lineage, the Heavenly Book. Only he, having cultivated them from first to last, understood that these were the four volumes of the Heavenly Book.

And yet now Zhou Yixuan, to his face, had clearly and plainly exposed this secret. How could he not be shaken? For a time his face was full of disbelief as he stared at Zhou Yixuan.

Zhou Yixuan smiled faintly. "You are surprised, but there is no need for this."

Ming Li studied the old man before him carefully, up and down. After a long while he suddenly smiled, stepped back, straightened his robes, and made a respectful bow. "This junior has been rude, and has slighted you in times past, Senior. But there is a perplexity in my heart that I cannot resolve—will you resolve it for me?"

Zhou Yixuan's expression was composed. That this figure of world renown should show him such respect seemed to cause him not the slightest embarrassment. He only said, "The doubts and perplexities in your heart—if another could tell you the answers, then with your understanding and the profundity of the Heavenly Book, how could you fail to grasp them yourself?"

Ming Li fell silent, then said slowly, "Does Senior mean to say that the perplexity in my heart is, in truth, beyond resolving?"

Zhou Yixuan smiled and shook his head. "Wrong. The very thing that confounds you is meant to be resolved by you alone. The wondrous teachings of the Heavenly Book that you cultivate—surely among them there is something about drawing near to and awakening to one's own true nature."

Ming Li pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. Awakening to one's own true nature—the Buddha dwells within the heart, not outside the body. That is where the Heavenly Book comes closest to the Buddhist way."

"Just so," said Zhou Yixuan. "What is a man born into this world for? That is precisely what you must awaken to yourself. I may offer you a hint or two, but I cannot put it into words for you."

With that, he smiled, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked off to one side.

Ming Li fell silent again. After a long while, the bewilderment on his face had not faded in the least. "Birth, death, parting, separation—these four words are all I have seen of human life. May I ask you, Senior, is human nature suffering from the very root?"

Zhou Yixuan laughed. "Wrong, wrong. Your life has been full of hardship, and so you take it that all men suffer. But that is not so. Let me ask you—do you think your own lot is bitter?"