Chapter 198: Soul Shedding
After Chen Chang'an's departure.
On the back mountain of the Gale Pavilion, pines and cypresses stood dense, a cold mist swirling around.
Several disciples carried a wooden coffin, walking silently on the mountain path.
Inside the coffin, Wang Shouzhi's body had been tidied up, dressed in a clean Gale Pavilion disciple's robe. The sword mark on his brow had been concealed with an illusion technique. If one did not look closely, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
Feng Wuheng walked at the front, his face grim. He stood with his hands behind his back, his steps heavy, each one seeming to press upon his heart.
"Pavilion Master, are we truly burying him on the back mountain?" an elder asked in a low voice, "After all, he is one who killed his own kin. If this gets out..."
Feng Wuheng gave him a cold glance: "No matter how unworthy he was, he was still a disciple of my Gale Pavilion. Over these years, he has been without shame to the sect."
The elder fell silent, not daring to speak further.
The coffin was slowly lowered into the already-dug pit. Several disciples held shovels, covering it with soil, one scoop at a time. The yellow earth gradually buried the ice-jade coffin, also burying Wang Shouzhi's short and twisted life.
Feng Wuheng stood before the grave, silent for a long time, before finally waving a hand: "Erect a blank tombstone."
The disciples looked at each other, but still followed his command. A smooth, bluestone tablet was erected before the grave, devoid of any inscription, as if to silently declare—this person's life was not worth remembering.
"Today's events, no one is to speak of them outside." Feng Wuheng surveyed the crowd, his voice cold and hard, "If even a half-whisper of rumor spreads, do not blame this seat for being merciless!"
The disciples bowed their heads in agreement, though each had their own thoughts.
In a corner, Li Wanrou's slender frame trembled. Her fair fingers twisted the corner of her clothes, and tears "pattered" onto the green bricks.
Feng Wuheng glanced at this usually popular female disciple within the sect. How could the events of the past two days be hidden from him, especially since he had been pleased to see them.
In the end, he still spoke to Li Wanrou in the capacity of an elder, softly saying, "My condolences."
Then he turned and left.
Li Wanrou bowed her head in response, her neck bent in a fragile arc.
Several female disciples with red-rimmed eyes helped her up, but they did not see the corner of her mouth slowly curving upwards behind her falling hair.
The mountain wind wailed, sweeping up a few withered leaves, letting them land on the blank tombstone, and then silently blowing them away.
...
That night, the candlelight flickered.
Just after the midnight watch's water clock struck, a strange "creaking" sound suddenly came from within Li Wanrou's boudoir.
Before a bronze mirror, a young maiden was removing her hairpin.
Halfway through pulling out the jade pin, her movements suddenly froze.
At the corner of the right eye of her reflection in the mirror, a thin crack appeared without any warning.
"Puchi—"
A viscous liquid seeped out from the crack, but it was not blood, rather a semi-transparent, gelatinous substance.
Li Wanrou's skin began to swell like soaked Xuan paper, her facial contours writhing bizarrely.
"Ho..."
A non-human gasp escaped her throat, her hands gripping the edge of the dressing table. Her fingernails "cracked" as they lengthened, digging into the sandalwood.
As her spine arched unnaturally, the skin on the back of her neck "ripped" with a tear, revealing another pale face beneath—
It was Wang Shouzhi, who should have been lying in the coffin!
"Wonderful."
A withered monk floated out from the shadows.
He wore a golden-threaded kasaya adorned with Sanskrit characters, his right hand holding a glass bottle. Inside the bottle, a crimson pill floated, its pill patterns writhing like living creatures.
"This 'Soul Shedding Pill' was personally refined by the World Honored One." The monk's voice was like a dull knife scraping bone. "Let alone a Heavenly Human Realm, even if a Great Power of the Saint Realm came in person, they would not be able to see through it within three days."
Wang Shouzhi was tearing off the remaining "skin" from his face.
Hearing this, he sharply raised his head, his new pupils shrinking to pinpoints: "Master, why did you save me?"
"Save?" The monk chuckled lowly. "It was that Pavilion Master who cast you aside like a worn-out shoe, yet the Buddhist sect sees you as a treasure."
He suddenly flicked his finger, and the pill in the glass bottle exploded into a cloud of blood mist.
Wang Shouzhi remained silent.
"Are you accustomed to this body yet?"
From the shadows, the monk's voice sounded again.
Wang Shouzhi did not answer, only staring intently at his own reflection in the mirror, his knuckles clenched white.
"What are you still clinging to?"
"Guess..." The monk slowly approached, his withered fingers gently resting on his shoulder. "After you died, did the people of the Gale Pavilion show even the slightest bit of concern for you?"
Wang Shouzhi's breath slightly hitched.
The monk chuckled lowly, his voice like a bone-afflicting tumor, drilling bit by bit into his ear: "Feng Wuheng ordered a gag order, not even willing to carve a word on your tombstone... They fear not your crime of killing your kin, but fear that your stained reputation would dirty the Gale Pavilion's name."
Wang Shouzhi's pupils contracted slightly.
"You obtained an opportunity and wanted to repay the sect, but what about them?" The monk's voice grew softer, yet every word was like a knife. "You died, and they didn't even dare to mention your name..."
"Shut up!" Wang Shouzhi suddenly turned around, but his voice was still Li Wanrou's delicate and gentle tone, making it seem particularly bizarre.
The monk was unhurried. He took out a recording stone from his sleeve and lightly tapped it with his fingertip—
Light and shadow flickered, revealing Feng Wuheng's cold voice: "Good that he's dead! A beast who kills his own kin, keeping him around would only be a disaster!"
"The sect is a prison." The monk sighed, yet a strange light glinted in his eyes. "You risked your life for the Gale Pavilion, but did they ever truly care about you? When a powerful enemy arrived, not only did Feng Wuheng not protect you, he viewed you as a discardable item, and your fellow disciples treated you as a stranger... Is such a sect worth your attachment?"
Wang Shouzhi's breathing gradually grew rapid, the red veins in his eyes spreading.
"True compassion lies not in the sect, but in all living beings." The monk's voice suddenly became solemn, as if Sanskrit chants were pouring into his ears. "Only by letting go of your attachment to the sect can you save the world."
"But if not for the sect's nurturing, I..." Wang Shouzhi's voice was hoarse.
"Nurturing?" The monk sneered. "They nurtured you because you have talent, to exploit your value! If you were just a talentless waste, who would give you a second glance?"
"Foolish child." The monk suddenly reached out, his claw-like five fingers pressing on his crown. "You are trapped by the sect, how can you see the suffering of all beings? Only by severing your worldly ties can you attain great liberation."
A wisp of black energy seeped in along the monk's fingertip. Wang Shouzhi's pupils shrank violently, and a vision suddenly appeared before his eyes—
He saw himself sitting high on a lotus throne, with countless devout commoners kneeling at his feet; he saw the Gale Pavilion collapsing in a sea of fire, Feng Wuheng wailing in the karmic fire; he saw himself lightly pointing his finger, and all the mortals in the city were freed from their sea of suffering...
"This is..."
"This is your destiny." The monk's voice was both demonic and buddhist. "Killing your kin is a tribulation, destroying the sect is fate. When you have severed all your shackles, you shall achieve Buddhahood on the spot."
Wang Shouzhi's gaze gradually grew unfocused. He slowly raised his hand, looking at the compassionate expression on the monk's face before him, and suddenly broke into a maniacal laugh.
"So that's how it is... so that's how it is!"
...
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