Chapter 210. Is Teacher Fan Buddhism Or Taoism Practitioner?

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To keep a close watch on Fan Jialuo, Chang Sheng had the Taoist people find a house in the capital for them to stay in temporarily, and then took Chang Zhen down the mountain first. Lin Nian’en and Lin Nianci stayed behind to take care of Jian Ya and the others, since they were the ones who caused the trouble, and they had to clean up the mess.

Following Bi Zetai and Wan Shishu, Luo Jiuyuan eliminated his bad karma on the twenty-second day of the ritual, leaving a large scar on his left cheek, but his mental state was very calm. He seemed to have enlightened, and instead of rushing down the mountain that day, he continued to stay at Longyin Temple to chant sutras.

Shi Yonghao and Ni Xinhai weren’t as lucky as him. They both didn’t complete the ritual until the forty-ninth day. Their appearances were ultimately ruined, their faces were covered in tumors and scars, and their features were distorted, making them look neither human nor ghost, quite terrifying. As soon as the ritual ended, they couldn’t wait to jump off the altar, ask the monk for a mirror, look at themselves from left to right, and then smash the mirror on the spot, crying uncontrollably.

Abbot Changjing could save the souls of the dead and those burdened by bad karma, but he could not save their hearts. He could only shake his head and sigh.

The unluckiest among them was Jian Ya. Forty-nine days had passed, and her face was still filled with bad karma, which was actually increasing instead of decreasing. If this continued, even if all the monks in the capital came to chant sutras for her salvation, they probably wouldn’t be able to eliminate her bad karma, because the resentment in her heart had become intertwined with her bad karma, mutually supplying each other——I exist because of your growth, and your existence fuels my growth. It would be entangled in her destiny for the rest of her life.

Abbot Changjing sighed and said, “Benefactor, even if we recite scriptures hundreds of times to help you eliminate bad karma, it is still not as good as you reciting them once with a sincere heart. If your heart is not sincere, this ritual will never be completed in a lifetime.”

Jian Ya couldn’t understand his words, but she shouted in a hoarse voice, “I have plenty of money. Can’t I hire you to chant sutras? Is 10,000 yuan a day enough? Forty-nine days is 490,000 yuan. Can’t that buy your piety? Then name your price.”

Abbot Changjing simply couldn’t communicate with her and could only shake his head and sigh.

Seeing her behavior, Lin Nian’en pulled his senior sister aside and whispered, “Forget it, let’s go down the mountain first and not wait for her. Judging from her stubbornness, her skull will rot before her bad karma is cleared up. Once her skull rots, even a great immortal can’t save her!”

“But she was harmed because of me.” Lin Nianci shook her head, her eyes reddening. Since becoming a disciple, she had saved many people, but this was the first time she had hurt someone, or even put someone on the verge of life and death. She felt terrible.

“ShiJie, you’re overthinking it. She wasn’t harmed by us, she harmed herself. If she hadn’t always wronged innocent people, would that karmic fire have burned your hands? I haven’t even settled accounts with her, so why should she blame you? How many spiritual medicines have I applied to her these past few days, and how much spiritual qi have you channeled into her? But look at her, has there been any change? Even someone whose whole body is charred should be healed and discharged by now after our tireless treatment, but her condition is getting worse. There’s no spiritual qi left in the world now, and your cultivation was built up little by little through daily meditation. In just over a month, she’s completely drained it. How do you expect to make up for it?”

Lin Nianci frowned as she thought about how little spiritual power she had left.

Lin Nian’en reached out and pulled her, “Let’s go, let’s go down the mountain first. We can always come back to see her often. I reckon she’ll stay in the temple for at least half a year, maybe even longer. She’s the kind of person who has absolutely no wisdom. She’ll choose the path to hell when there’s one, and she’ll squander her good fortune. Ai……”

Amidst her junior brother’s long sigh, Lin Nianci also gave up, nodding and saying, “Alright, let’s go. Just thinking about Fan Jialuo being down the mountain makes me uneasy.”

“What’s there to be worried about? No matter how high his cultivation is, can he compare to our Shizu? Our Shizu could kill him with a few strikes. Come on, let’s go back to our room and pack our things.” Lin Nian’en half-dragged, half-carried his senior sister back to the room, only to find that the door, which had been locked, had been pushed open by someone. On the round table facing the door was a black gift box, tied with a green ribbon, its packaging extremely exquisite and luxurious. Judging from the appearance, the contents of this box must be quite expensive.

“Who sent this?” Lin Nian’en was greatly surprised. The thing is, Jian Ya and other’s ritual of passage was held in the open space in front of the main hall, directly opposite the temple gate. If there were strangers coming and going at the gate, they would definitely see it.

“Don’t touch it, let me sense it first.” Lin Nianci quickly grabbed her junior brother’s hand.

“ShiJie, you should be careful too!” Lin Nian’en stared intently at the box, sensing something was wrong.

Lin Nianci held her palm above the gift box, trying her best to sense it. Her already tense face gradually became serious. After five or six minutes, she shook her head and said, “I can’t sense anything. There is a powerful force blocking my magnetic field.”

“Let’s open it and see. They can’t possibly send us a bomb.” Lin Nian’en stuck a talisman on himself, quickly untied the ribbon, and lifted the lid of the box. Inside, he found something that looked very much like a broad bean, along with a beautifully crafted card.

He opened the card, and his breath caught in his throat.

Lin Nianci leaned closer to take a look, and her pupils dilated involuntarily.

On the card, written in a flamboyant style, was a line of text: 【If you wish to avenge your mother, then plant this seed in Fan Jialuo’s body. 】

Lin Nian’en immediately picked up the seed to examine it, and took a picture with his phone, preparing to send it to his two senior brothers so they could help identify it.

Lin Nianci stopped him, shaking her head and saying, “Don’t tell anyone about this. I need to think about it carefully.” She gently cupped her junior brother’s hand holding the seed with her soft, delicate hands and began sensing it once again.

Being so close to her, Lin Nian’en couldn’t think of anything else. He just stared at her blankly with a blush on his face, then snapped out of it and awkwardly turned his head away.

After a long while, Lin Nianci released her junior brother’s hand and shook her head, saying, “I can’t sense what it is, but its power is very strong. It seems to be full of vigorous vitality, yet it also exudes a wisp of decadent death energy.”

“Being both alive and dead, it’s definitely not a good thing. ShiJie, what are you going to do? Whatever you want to do, I will help you, but the premise is that you can’t go directly to seek revenge on Fan Jialuo. I’m afraid you’ll be in danger,” Lin Nian’en warned solemnly.

Lin Nianci held the seed and murmured, “I need to think this through. Of course, I want to take revenge myself, but I also know that my strength is not enough. How do you think this seed can be implanted into a person’s body without being detected?”

“I don’t know either. Why don’t we study it first?” Lin Nian’en knew that his senior sister was definitely tempted by the mysterious person’s suggestion. The seed also gave him an ominous feeling. If he gave it to his enemy, there might be an unexpected surprise.

“Okay, I’ll put it away first. Shidi, this is a secret between the two of us, you must not tell anyone.” Lin Nianci earnestly instructed.

“I absolutely won’t tell anyone.” Lin Nian’en mimed zipping up his mouth, secretly pleased with himself. With this secret, the distance between him and his senior sister seemed to shrink dramatically in an instant.

Lin Nianci smiled gratefully at her junior brother, then slowly withdrew her magnetic field. She discovered that the seed also gradually dissipated as the magnetic field disappeared, and the life force and death energy it contained flowed back into her meridians, gathering in her dantian. The seed’s aura was exactly the same as the human body’s own life force. If it hadn’t actively released some signals, Lin Nianci wouldn’t have been able to detect its intrusion at all. It actually possessed life and intelligence!

In a flash, Lin Nianci suddenly understood how the so-called implantation could be achieved. This seed could actually blend into the magnetic field of a spiritualist like air, quietly hide in their dantian, and then take root and sprout.

What will happen after it takes root and sprouts, Lin Nianci has no way of knowing, but she can guess a thing or two. Can a person still live if their dantian is parasitized by a foreign object? The answer is no.

She quickly released the returning magnetic field, and the seed solidified from its semi-transparent state. This bizarre sight stunned Lin Nian’en, and it also made him realize something.

“ShiJie, I understand! As long as it senses the magnetic field of a spiritual person, it can be implanted automatically.”

“It seems so. What should we do now?” Lin Nianci quickly put the seed back into the gift box, then frantically wiped her hands, her heart filled with lingering fear.

“Find someone to take this seed to Fan Jialuo for spiritual communication.” Lin Nian’en’s mind worked quickly.

“Who are you looking for?” Lin Nianci’s eyes lit up.

Lin Nian’en hesitated, repeatedly tapping his forehead, before finally saying decisively, “First, have the sect disciples investigate Fan Jialuo’s background and see who he usually associates with. Let’s go, let’s go down the mountain!”

The two quickly tidied up the things on the table, packed a few simple bags, and hurriedly went down the mountain. A week later, Fan Jialuo called Bai Mu and asked him to come and dispel the bad luck.

Bai Mu hesitated for a while before agreeing, his voice sounding a little hoarse.

Fan Jialuo’s eyes flickered slightly, as if he sensed something, but he didn’t delve into it. He carried an earthenware jar, a canvas bag on his back, and a skull-shaped cane, and climbed up the back mountain with Dr. Song.

The once perpetually gloomy mountain forest was now clear of clouds and mist, its waters and trees sparkling. Everywhere—in the woods, on the paths, and among the rocks—fallen branches and leaves of early winter, yet everywhere were also bathed in warm, yellow sunlight, carrying a strange vitality and vibrant energy. A waterfall cascading from the mountaintop roars, but not deafeningly, rather, it sounded like a free-flowing symphony.

The mountain, the neighborhood at its foot, and even the lake within the neighborhood, were all vastly different from what they used to be, as if a black and white photograph had suddenly been filled with vibrant colors.

Standing on a boulder beside the waterfall, Song Rui looked down at the scenery below and said confidently, “The Moon Bay residential complex will definitely be a big seller in the future.”

“It’s not yet at the point of being a big seller, it’s just livable for now. However, if Bai Mu could level the garden over there and build a gate, with a landscaped pond and a row of fountains in front of it, changing the stagnant terrain into a winding, meandering water feature, the houses in this community would sell out in less than half a month.” Fan Jialuo pointed out all the problematic feng shui layouts.

Song Rui raised an eyebrow and said, “You understand feng shui, and you’ve practiced Taoism?”

“Yes.” Fan Jialuo nodded in agreement.

Song Rui smiled contentedly, then pointed to the earthenware jar on the ground and asked, “What should we do? Just scatter it? I thought you had already disposed of their ashes.” The jar contained the ashes of Xiao Yanling and her parents, which had been sitting in Fan Jialuo’s place for almost two months.

“Let’s recite a sutra for them first. The feng shui of the neighborhood wasn’t very good back then, so it wasn’t suitable for settling them down.” Fan Jialuo took out a copy of the 《Ksitigarbha Sutra》 and a wooden fish from his bag.

Song Rui took the scripture, glanced through it quickly, and asked, “Can I just read it aloud?”

“Sit down and recite, sincerity is enough.” Fan Jialuo patted the grass beside him.

“Weren’t their souls already scattered? Chanting scriptures to help them pass on is useless now, isn’t it?”

“I just want peace of mind.”

“Alright, just seek peace of mind.” Song Rui obediently sat down cross-legged, opened the scripture, and began to recite it word by word. He never imagined that he, who only revered darkness and death, would one day sit in the mountains, chanting sutras for the salvation of three unrelated people. Sincerity? What constitutes sincerity?

He glanced at the young man beside him, his eyes lowered and his expression serene, and suddenly understood how to be truly sincere. If he transferred even a fraction of his sincerity towards the young man into his chanting, wouldn’t that be enough? Thinking this, his eyes darkened, his heart calmed, and his chanting even carried a hint of aspiration.

Fan Jialuo glanced at Dr. Song, surprised by his piety, then smiled with joy before lowering his eyelids to continue striking the wooden fish. His chanting was unhurried and varied in pitch, seemingly plain, yet it contained a pure power that gave people a feeling like the sky—vast, free, and boundless.

Unbeknownst to him, the wind around him stopped, and the roar of the waterfall faded away. Only the chanting lingered in his ears and mind. When it dissipated from high to low, Song Rui, who opened his eyes, felt as if he had been transported to another world.  

He looked at Fan Jialuo, his eyes flashing with a dark light, as if he wanted to ask something but held back. Fan Jialuo didn’t notice his doubt, he simply picked up the pottery jar, walked to the misty waterfall, and opened the lid.

Without him needing to scatter the ashes, a wisp of winter wind entered the earthenware jar, stirring up wisps of white dust that were carried into the air. The howling wind blew from all directions, carrying away the last traces left by the family of three in the world, along with their resentment and hatred.

With his thin lips slightly parted, Fan Jialuo prayed, word by word, “By the power and truth of this practice, may all beings be filled with happiness and its causes, may all beings be free from suffering and its causes, may all beings never be separated from the great bliss free from suffering, may all beings be free from attachment and aversion, and abide in the mind of equality and non-duality.”

As his voice faded into the wind, the swirling white dust also vanished completely, and even the souls struggling in hell found eternal peace.

Song Rui looked at the young man with a glint in his eyes and said with certainty, “You’ve also practiced Buddhism, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” Fan Jialuo nodded frankly.

“Cultivating Taoism and Buddhism at the same time, aren’t you chaotic?” Song Rui felt that the more he learned about this person, the more of an unsolvable mystery he became.

“If the heart is not in turmoil, how can the principles of the universe be in chaos?” Fan Jialuo smiled slightly, his eyes filled with pure tranquility and peace.

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