Nightfall

Returning to the small courtyard, Ning Que sat under the tree and pondered for three days and three nights. Then he felt that his spirit had completely recovered and was ready to go out. Sangsang stopped him. “If you don’t understand, why bother to suffer?”

Ning Que didn’t look back and answered, “After all the sufferings I have been through, of course I have to figure it out.”

Arriving at the White Tower Temple, Ning Que began to read the Buddhist Scriptures and the notes taken by the previous generations of monks. As the evening fell, he lit the candle on the table. He was already familiar with these procedures and did them naturally.

The candle was lit and the shadow reappeared on the wall.

He walked to the wall and sat down with his legs crossed. After thinking for a while, he took out the iron sword and placed it on the ground beside him, and then he took out several Fu papers from the sleeve for later use.

In fact, he was very clear that the iron sword and the Fu papers couldn’t do any harm to the shadow on the wall and the two axes, for it was not the ordinary sense of disaster. But doing so could make him feel at ease.

It didn’t take long for the bell ringing in the White Tower Temple again. But Ning Que was still the only one who could hear it.

He looked at the shadow on the wall and said, “Come on.”

The shadow stood up and began to struggle wildly.

The large axe once again was being swinging wildly in Ning Que’s mind.

Ning Que suddenly turned pale, and the blue veins kept appearing on his forehead as the axe fell. His mouth began to ooze blood, but he still maintained the leg-crossed posture and refused to surrender.

At this point, he knew clearly that the shadow on the wall was his, but also Lian Sheng’s. The large axe in his mind was in fact the fragments of the consciousness of Lian Sheng trying to launch an attack.

When he couldn’t stand the pain three days ago, he wanted to suppress the fragments of Lian Sheng’s consciousness with his own Psyche Power, but the axe in the sky fell at that time.

Although he did not understand the truth of the matter on the first night, he instinctively tried to destroy the fragments of Lian Sheng’s consciousness. But the bell rang in the sky at that time.

He couldn’t resist two axes at the same time. He wanted to give it a try to resist the one in his head.

“If you keep struggling and twisting like this, people might think that you are going crazy. What do you really want to do?” Looking at the shadow which was struggling in pain on the wall, Ning Que asked with a pale face, “Just tell me what you want. I can’t just read your mind.”

The shadow still didn’t respond.

The axe was still chopping in his head. The sweat kept running down his nose and flowing into his mouth. Tasting saltyness, Ning Que couldn’t tell whether it was sweat or blood.

He stared at the shadow on the wall, and his body kept shaking. Enduring the terrible pain, Ning Que held his hands tightly and his nails even were digging into his palms.

“What the hell are you going to do?!” he shouted in pain and angrily.

The shadow suddenly stood still and spread around, eventually occupying the entire meditation room. The candlelight and the starlight outside the window became dark.

In this dark world, Ning Que saw the stone beams hanging in the air, the Wordless Tablet, the mountain piled up with human bones and the old monk who was as thin as a ghost in the mountain of Devil’s Doctrine.

The old monk was Buddha, but he was also the devil.

The old monk said, “If you want to cultivate Devil’s Doctrine, you must cultivate Buddha Dharma.”

Ning Que replied, “I have been cultivating Buddha Dharma.”

The old monk said, “You can never be Buddha if you are not crazy enough.”

Ning Que suddenly remembered that he had heard those words before. Then he realized that Lian Sheng was not answering his question, but retelling the past after death.

The old monk had deep eye sockets in which there seemed to be ghost fires. His face was distorted and looked extremely painful, and he yelled out, “These are all false! Buddha is false! Devil is false too.”

Ning Que woke up in cold sweat.

With a creaking sound, the door of the meditation room was pushed open. And the shadow that was scattering around the room suddenly converged together and turned into a leg-crossed shadow on the wall.

Walking to him, Sangsang looked at the shadow silently and then said, “He is not Lian Sheng.”

Ning Que’s head was still painful, so he asked dazedly, “Then who is that?”

Sangsang looked at him and answered, “You.”

Ning Que asked, “Why it is me? What about the bell from the sky?”

Sangsang replied, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

She was the Haotian, but she didn’t know the answers to these two questions.

…

…

In the days that followed, Ning Que would occasionally go to the White Tower Temple to question and curse the shadow on the wall. But he still could not find an answer.

The most painful thing for him was that if he did not go to the White Tower Temple, the axe in his head would not torture him, but no matter where he was, the bell in the sky just kept ringing, so the invisible large axe just kept torturing his body and mind. It seemed that the large axe would not stop until it could cut him into two pieces.

No one could hear the bell falling from the sky, just like no one could hear the bell coming from the White Tower Temple at night, and no one could see the large axe that descended from the sky. Not even Sangsang.

Ning Que sometimes felt that these were all hallucinations, but the pain constantly reminded him that the axe really existed and someone was really chopping him.

He couldn’t bear the extreme pain caused by the large axe, and his body became weaker and weaker and his mind was easily distracted. He would rush to the yard and curse the sky when he couldn’t stand the pain, but only finding that what he did was pointless.

Sangsang spent all of her time taking care of him, wiping the sweat from his forehead, dispelling the shadow of nightmares and the summer flies for him, hand holding his hand and looking up the sky occasionally.

Three years just passed, and Ning Que had been tortured by the axe for three years. The time became so long in the unbearable torture. He had thought about killing himself, but he hated to part with Sangsang.

One day in late autumn, Ning Que got up from bed, walked to the table, stretched out the trembling fingers, and took the tea bowl. He used a lot of strength to not let the bowl drop.

The real pain would make human body react instinctively. The endless pain was definitely a great torture to the spirit and a great harm to the body.

He pushed the door open and walked out the room. Seeing that Sangsang was preparing lunch in the kitchen, he suggested, “I have no appetite. Just prepare something casual.”

Sangsang stood up and looked at him quietly. All of a sudden, she smiled.

Ning Que thought that there were something on his face. He reached out to touch his face, but only finding that he had lost a lot of weight.

Suddenly, his expression changed slightly, for he remembered that he had not been suffering for a long time.

He looked up at the autumn sky and muttered, “Are you done striking?”

Sangsang asked, “Would you like to go for a walk?”

In the past three years, Ning Que rarely left the small courtyard to take a walk. The last thing he wanted was to fall to the ground while he was holding Sangsang’s hands and walking by the river. He would be so embarrassed.

Since the axe in the sky had stopped torturing me, maybe I can go out for a walk? But why do I feel a little lost now that the axe had stopped striking? “Okay,” he said with a smile, but his smile was a little stiff for he had not smiled for a long time due to the endless pain.

Sangsang dried her hands with the apron and asked, “Where?”

Ning Que thought for a while and answered, “The White Tower Temple.”

…

…

Walking into the meditation room, Ning Que closed the door and sat before the wall.

Sangsang looked at the sky silently outside the meditation room.

The candle had been lit, and the shadow appeared on the wall.

“It has been a long time.”

Ning Que looked at the shadow and said, “I don’t know if you are Lian Sheng or me, but I think that you will not harm me. Then what do you want to tell me?”

The shadow remained silent, just like what it had been in the past three years.

Ning Que said, “No matter what is going on, I don’t want to endure anymore. I come here to ask you for the last time before the axe in the sky drops down and when I am still conscious.”

The shadow stood up slowly and looked up.

“If you still refuse to answer me, then maybe I will die.” Ning Que smiled wanly and said, “I really can’t stand the pain anymore.”

The shadow suddenly looked toward him. Although the shadow had no eyes, Ning Que knew that it was looking at him.

Ning Que stared at it and said, “If I die, you will die too.”

The shadow suddenly bent down and kept trembling. It seemed that it was laughing to tears.

Ning Que was about to say something, but the shadow suddenly straightened up and slapped his head!

A bell once again came from the White Tower Temple!

The large axe in Ning Que’s head was violently striking his head! It was the most powerful strike in three years!

Meanwhile, an extremely violent voice came from the sky! An invisible and sharp large axe came from the sky and fell on Ning Que instantly!

The two axes met above Ning Que’s head.

A loud noise!

Ning Que felt that his body and heart were really cut into pieces.

The severe pain made his eyes shrink and the root of his tongue numb.

Even though he wanted to kill himself by biting off his tongue, he couldn’t do it at this point.

But the pain gradually disappeared like the ebb tide.

He felt like his head was split open and had a big slit.

His eyes could see through the big slit.

He looked at the wall and the sky at the same time.

He felt he could see things that he couldn’t see before and could understand things that he couldn’t understand before. Was this Buddha eye?

…

…

Earlier at the Back Hill of Academy, there was a crowd under the pear tree. Sixth Brother held an iron hammer and kept smashing the chessboard, and others were cheering for him.

They had been smashing the chessboard. As long as Ning Que was trapped in it, they hadn’t stopped smashing it, and they believed that they could destroy the chessboard one day.

The autumn wind blew slightly. Eldest Brother came to the peer tree, and everyone went forward to greet him.

Eldest Brother took over the iron hammer and said, “You take a rest. Let me try.”

The iron hammer fell, causing countless dust and sounded like a thunder.

Ximen Buhuo appraised, “Eldest Brother is so powerful. What a loud sound.”

Beigong Weiyang looked at the chessboard and said with disappointment, “But the chessboard is still intact.”

Eldest Brother smiled sheepishly and handed the iron hammer out.

…