Chapter 1 Sunlight Through the Porthole

Sunlight streamed in through the porthole.

Lü Wenliang slowly woke up.

Ali lay beside him, seemingly startled by his movement, also waking up. She habitually reached out her arm intimately, wanting a "good morning kiss."

Lü Wenliang smiled and kissed Ali on the cheek, gently pushing the female secretary away, ready to get out of bed.

The fact was, even if you brushed your teeth at night and even if you were pure and fragrant like the Fragrant Concubine,

When you woke up in the morning, your mouth would still have noticeable bad breath.

So, Lü Wenliang sometimes watched TV dramas where the male and female protagonists started making out as soon as they woke up.

This unrealistic scene was truly cringeworthy.

The yacht's bedroom wasn't very big, a bit like a small room in a chain hotel, but after all, it was at sea, and this condition was already pretty good.

Washing up,

Shaving,

Taking a new set of clothes from the suitcase,

Lü Wenliang tidied himself up and walked out of the room.

He felt like he had forgotten something.

Was it something at work?

Was it the division of property with his wife?

Or was it something else?

He was a person who liked to get to the bottom of things, with a strong desire for control, but for some reason, now he just wanted to avoid thinking about this question.

This was a kind of self-preservation instinct, even if it was only separated by a layer of paper, as long as you were willing, this paper could become the hardest steel plate.

He walked up the gangway to the deck.

Blue sky, white clouds, the blue sea like a huge piece of pure amber.

Breathing in the humid, salty air gave a feeling of open-mindedness.

Such a good environment, such fresh air,

Not smoking a cigarette,

Would be too inappropriate.

Lü Wenliang touched his pocket and found that his cigarettes and lighter weren't on him. He walked to the other side of the deck, wanting to ask the staff for a cigarette.

But at the corner,

He saw a person wearing a mask leaning against the side of the ship, looking at the sea.

In an instant,

The memories of last night began to flood back,

Replaying like a slideshow,

Finally,

Freezing on the huge snake head next to the yacht's hull.

Lü Wenliang's pupils began to dilate,

The frequency of his heartbeat began to change,

Until the masked person glanced at him.

It was this one glance,

That calmed Lü Wenliang down,

As if at this moment,

He had gained great peace.

Marriage,

Property,

The business world,

Mistresses,

Custody rights,

These things were no longer important.

Only the peace of this moment,

Was what he should pursue in his life.

One glance, and you enter the gate of emptiness.

No need for flowery descriptions, no need for too many words, just one glance, and you can experience true Buddhist peace.

Like an addictive drug.

At this moment,

A thin man walked over from the other side. When he saw Lü Wenliang, he put his hands together:

"Amitabha, benefactor, did you rest well last night?"

"Good, good, very good."

Lü Wenliang also put his hands together, not very standard, but his current trepidation was real.

"That's good." The thin man was relieved.

"Have you had breakfast?" Lü Wenliang asked, "Come and have breakfast."

"Thank you, benefactor."

The thin man thanked him sincerely.

"You're too kind, Master, please."

They entered the small dining room, where the staff had already prepared breakfast on time.

Lü Wenliang glanced at the table and said anxiously, "I'll arrange for someone to see if there's anything vegetarian, this..."

Who knew that before Lü Wenliang could finish speaking,

The thin man and the masked person had already sat down,

Picking up the food with a very pious attitude, and eating it slowly and deliberately.

"Master, don't you eat vegetarian?" Lü Wenliang asked.

"We eat vegetarian." The thin man replied.

"Then..."

"What is given is fate, the benefactor gives us what we eat, this is destiny.

Seeking alms is this very intention, fate does not distinguish between meat and vegetarian, emphasizing meat and vegetarian is a kind of attachment to appearances."

"I am not being hospitable enough."

"Benefactor is too serious, the Buddha is in the heart, the faith is in the heart, I have never liked the saying 'wine and meat pass through the intestines,' but it has its own logic.

Vegetarianism, asceticism, precepts, are to make you closer to yourself, closer to the Buddha;

As for what can be eaten, what cannot be eaten, what should not be eaten, what is sinful to eat, being too attached to this is truly entering the devil's way.

The Buddha is for the equality of all beings, not to isolate all beings."

"Yes, I was being presumptuous, thank you for your guidance, Master, I am enlightened, I am enlightened."

Lü Wenliang also sat down and ate breakfast together.

The masked man ate very little, the thin man ate quite a lot.

As breakfast was coming to an end,

The thin man put down his cutlery and asked:

"Benefactor, how much longer before we go ashore?"

"About three more hours, it'll be soon."

The thin man looked at the masked man, wanting to say something, but before he could open his mouth, the masked man stood up and walked out of the restaurant alone, onto the deck.

He was looking at the sea again;

He loved looking at the sea, just like he loved looking at the sky.

He had been waiting for a year, and the genius of hell had changed, but what he really wanted had not truly appeared.

To be precise, he didn't really know what he wanted, couldn't say it, couldn't describe it, but at least he could be sure what he didn't want.

The thin man walked behind the Bodhisattva,

And said:

"Bodhisattva, should I carry you ashore first? This ship is certainly much faster than the boats of a thousand years ago, but it is still too slow."

The Bodhisattva shook his head and said:

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since you have come to the human world, you must abide by the rules of the human world. You broke the precept last night."

The thin man lowered his head, his expression pious.

"The more you feel that there are not many things that can bind you, the more you must be careful, because this is also when it is easier to make mistakes. Don't think that this yang world has always been calm, but it has its reasons for being calm."

"Hasn't the yin and yang changed?"

"But the time has not yet come for it to be revealed."

After the Bodhisattva finished speaking, he turned around, facing away from the sea, looking at the cabin.

"I dreamed again last night."

The thin man's expression changed upon hearing this.

"Haven't you already heard? The xiezhi (a mythical unicorn), is dead."

The thin man immediately said, "But it..."

"There are no buts.

The xiezhi is dead and has merged into the rules;

Ordinary people die, their corpses rot and return to the earth;

What is the difference between the two?

You insist that the xiezhi is dead, but still alive;

But this yang world is also like this, some people are dead, but still alive."

"Bodhisattva..."

"I always thought I knew him well, and I always thought I looked up to him, but in the end I found that I still didn't understand him, I still underestimated him.

I said, 'I will not become a Buddha until hell is empty';

He just left and left the whole hell to me.

In the end, this is the result."

"Bodhisattva, I will help you find him."

"You can't find him, unless I die in his place, otherwise he won't let you find him."

"Then what should we do now..."

"Just wander around, like seeking alms, eat what you get;

Look at what you see, meet what you encounter."

Since you can't calculate his hiding place,

Then let fate,

Try,

See if you can run into him.

The Bodhisattva's gaze looked towards the front of the ship,

The eyes under the mask rippled with a sense of fatigue, and hidden deep in the fatigue was a touch of profoundness.

"Bodhisattva, if we find him, we can find a way, right? Do we still have to catch him?"

The Bodhisattva smiled,

And said:

"In recent years, the ghosts from the underworld like to say a word, 'Heaven has eyes.'"

The Bodhisattva raised his head,

Looking at the sky,

"I didn't feel anything below before, and the sky below is different from the sky in the yang world."

"I am foolish."

"Just think of that Xuanyuan Sword as hanging in the sky now."

"Yes."

Diting raised his head,

And began to imagine a sky-covering Xuanyuan Sword in the sky.

"If I find him and confirm him, it means that he has failed, and he cannot escape the eyes of this sky.

Therefore, I don't like the Yellow Emperor's approach very much. He himself didn't want to walk that path, didn't want to become an immortal;

That's all;

But he directly cut off the path to immortality for everyone after him with one sword.

He was not even at ease after he died as a human being, leaving behind this rule, leaving behind that sword.

As long as this sword is still in the world for one day, this world will never have true immortals again.

He is too domineering, and too unreasonable.

Just because he himself doesn't want to become an immortal, others must not be able to become immortals.

This makes later generations, no matter how excellent, how much they see through the Great Dao, in essence, they are just ordinary people who live longer.

They will still die, even if you don't die, he will help you die.

Ordinary people in the yang world have accidents, old age, illness, and too many possibilities that will end their lives.

And he, and that sword,

Are what he gave us - birth, old age, sickness, and death.

If you are seen, you cannot escape."

"So, as long as we find the Last Generation, the problem will be solved?"

The Bodhisattva nodded.

"By the way, Bodhisattva, there is one thing I have always wanted to ask."

"Ask, while I'm still conscious."

When Diting heard this sentence, the scene of the Bodhisattva's madness in the small temple on the top of Mount Tai that day seemed to reappear in his mind, and he felt a chill in his heart.

On that day, his blood almost dyed the entire Mount Tai in the underworld red.

Fortunately, Diting was still Diting, and he immediately stabilized his mind and asked:

"That one, in theory, should have been under the sword, right?"

"Definitely."

"That one is also clear, right?"

"In this world, even the hanba (a drought demon) dares not say that he knows the Yellow Emperor better than him."

"Since this is the case, the Last Generation has hidden himself very tightly, but why did that one go to hell twice, as if he was afraid that others would not know that he was still there, and that he had not fallen?

Isn't this clearly telling the sword in the sky,

That he is still alive?

Is he actively seeking death?"

The Bodhisattva was silent.

Diting dared not speak anymore.

For a long time,

Until the coastline appeared in front of them,

The Bodhisattva slowly opened his mouth and said:

"In fact, he is the best hidden."