798: Chapter 798 Lu Xueqi and Biyao (177)

"They came early this morning! The Sect Head Grandmaster had people bring in cushions for them to sit and wait. The tea has already been changed several times!"

"Have they caused any trouble?"

"No, no! They've been very polite! It's just that there are too many people; the main hall couldn't hold them all, so some have to stand in the courtyard."

When Su Han reached the square in front of the mountain gate, he saw a sea of heads from afar.

The main hall of the Lingxiao Immortal Sect was already spacious, capable of holding three hundred people for discussions, but at this moment, it was packed, with several layers of people standing even outside the threshold.

The Sect Master sat in the main seat, drinking tea with a calm expression. Seeing Su Han enter from the side door, he nodded slightly, his eyes conveying a sense of "deal with this yourself."

Everyone's gaze turned in unison.

It was a strange feeling. Hundreds of eyes falling on one person at the same time was like hundreds of lamps shining at once; it was warm, but it also carried a scorching heat.

Su Han stood under the pillar on the side of the main hall, feeling somewhat at a loss for a moment.

He didn't know what to say, nor did he know what expression to wear.

Having walked through three lifetimes in the illusions of the Buddhist Realm, he thought he had long since seen through the ways of the world, but facing these real, warm gazes, he still felt his ears burning slightly.

The first to speak was an old man with white hair and beard, wearing gray-blue Daoist robes and leaning on a coiled-dragon cane, standing up tremblingly from his cushion.

He walked to Su Han and bowed deeply: "This poor Daoist is Xuanjizi, the forty-seventh generation Sect Head of the North Sea Sword Sect. I have come to visit uninvited today, only to ask Fellow Daoist Su one question—was that item used to destroy the Evil Creature that day truly just Buddha Light?"

Su Han looked at his graying crown and slightly stooped back, and an indescribable feeling welled up in his heart.

This old man's cultivation was at least at the Soul Transformation Late Stage; he was a lofty figure in the North Sea Sword Sect, yet at this moment, he was bowing before a Junior, his posture so humble it made one's heart ache.

"Senior, there is no need for such formalities." Su Han reached out to help him up, "I did use the Purifying Buddha Light that day, but strictly speaking..."

He paused, remembering the words of the Buddha, the Old Woman carrying firewood in the snow, and the flickering lights in the ruins.

"Strictly speaking, that was not my power."

"Oh?" Xuanjizi raised his head, a flash of light in his turbid old eyes, "How so?"

Su Han thought for a moment, then extended his hand, palm facing up.

Hundreds of eyes in the main hall stared at his palm, but those hands were clean; there was nothing there.

"Three months ago, I went to the Buddhist Realm to seek the Purifying Buddha Light. The Buddha gave me no Magic Treasure, nor did he teach me any Divine Ability." Su Han said slowly, "He only let me go through three illusions."

"The first was a battlefield where I killed ten thousand people; the second was as a novice monk, where I swept the steps of Mount Ling for ten years; the third... was an Old Woman carrying firewood in the snow, walking for three days and three nights to bring it home to keep her grandson warm."

The main hall was quiet, with only the occasional chime of wind bells under the eaves.

"I cried once in the illusion. After I finished crying, the Buddha said—when you no longer think about 'gaining,' the light will shine." Su Han retracted his hand into his sleeve, "Later, when I returned to the Human Realm and saw the lights still shining in the ruins, I thought of the Old Woman walking in the snow, and my heart suddenly felt warm. When that warmth reached my hands, the light shone."

When he said these words, he relived that moment again.

The warmth in his chest was still there, like a piece of charcoal that was forever warm, buried deep in the ashes, neither burning out nor extinguishing.

Xuanjizi was silent for a long time.

He let go of his cane, pressed his hands together, and bowed deeply again, this time even more respectfully than before: "This old man has practiced the Dao for over three hundred years, refining swords, refining Qi, and refining the heart, but in the end, I haven't even grasped the meaning of 'my heart felt warm.' I am ashamed, truly ashamed."

He straightened up and looked into Su Han's eyes: "Fellow Daoist Su, this old man dares to ask—can the thing you called 'my heart felt warm' be taught to others?"

Su Han looked at him. There was a near-imploring light in the old man's eyes, a light he had seen before—in the eyes of the general weeping among the piles of corpses in the Buddhist Realm illusion, in the eyes of the pilgrim kowtowing one step at a time at the foot of Mount Ling, and in the eyes of the Old Woman trudging through the snow.

That was the common expression of all those walking on the path—wanting to know the answer, wanting to grasp something, wanting to find a lamp in the vast darkness.

"I cannot teach it." Su Han said honestly, "But if you are willing, you can find it yourself."

Xuanjizi did not press further. He nodded, returned to his cushion, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes, as if pondering something.

Once the first person spoke, the others swarmed up.

The Red-Robed Elder from Fire Cloud Valley in the Southern Border asked if the Buddha Light could suppress fire poison; the Fairy in green from Penglai Island in the East Sea asked about the method for the Heaven-Opening Eye; and several Loose Cultivators asked Su Han in a hubbub whether he was willing to take Disciples, if they could borrow the Bodhi Seed to touch it, or if he could record the posture of his palm strike so they could copy it.

Su Han was surrounded in the middle, feeling both amused and helpless.

He didn't feel annoyed, but these questions left him not knowing where to begin—he truly didn't know how he had done it, let alone how to "teach" others to do it.

It was just like how you couldn't teach a fish how to swim; it was born knowing how. You couldn't teach a tree how to grow; it knew to reach toward the light on its own.

The Sect Master finally had his fill of the spectacle, cleared his throat, and stood up: "Fellow Daoists, it is true that Su Han is a Disciple of my Lingxiao Immortal Sect, but he has been cultivating for a short time, and even he is still pondering some of these insights himself. If you all wish to deliberate, why not stay at our sect for a few days and exchange ideas slowly? It is getting late, so why not have some vegetarian meals first?"

With the Sect Master speaking, it was naturally inappropriate for everyone to surround Su Han anymore.

Su Han took the opportunity to squeeze out of the crowd and slipped out of the main hall.

He stood under the corridor and took a deep breath, the scent of peach blossoms from the back mountain mixed with the smell of cooking smoke filling his lungs, and his whole body finally relaxed.

But he didn't expect that after leaving the main hall, there was still someone waiting for him in the courtyard.

...

Under the phoenix tree in the courtyard stood a young woman.

She was wearing plain white clothes, with a jade-green short sword hanging at her waist. Her long hair was loosely tied with a wooden hairpin, and a few stray hairs hung by her cheeks.

She was looking up at the new buds on the tree, and the sunlight leaked through the leaves, casting mottled light and shadows on her face.

Su Han recognized her. In that great battle in the Human Realm, she stood at the very front of the defensive line, her jade-green short sword dancing into a screen of swords, blocking at least three waves of poison spray for the Cultivators behind her.

Later, when the Evil Creature scattered, she was helped away by her companions, her left arm hanging limply; she must have broken a bone.

She heard footsteps, turned her head, her gaze resting on Su Han's face for a moment, and then she curled her eyes and smiled: "Senior Brother Su."