Chapter 15: Demon Zen Monastery

The moonlight is bright, the autumn wind is bleak.

On a narrow, winding path through the woods of Heifeng Mountain, a swift figure is rapidly climbing toward the summit.

The figure is agile, keen, and swift.

Li Xiang's Qi and Blood are refined, a surge of heat lingers in his heart, and he exerts himself to hurry toward the direction of the Yaomo Chanyuan.

This is the furthest he has traveled since he was born; this place is already more than twenty li away from Shihe Village. Climbing all the way here, his Qi and Blood are boiling, and he has never felt his body so comfortable.

A Martial Artist should walk through mountains, rivers, and great waters, striking at the nine heavens above and battling surging waves below.

The feeling of traveling through the mountain forest makes his whole body feel incomparably comfortable.

If he were not afraid of alarming the Demon, he would have been unable to resist letting out a shout.

Half an hour later, near the mountainside of Heifeng Mountain, Li Xiang looks at the dense vines in front of him, his heart accelerating slightly.

According to the system's prompt, he knows that after pushing aside the vines, he will have officially entered the territory of the Yaomo Chanyuan, and what he will need to face then are those three Demons.

Recalling the sky-piercing demonic aura he saw at the time, although he had already prepared himself, he still cannot help but feel a bit uneasy.

Gently pushing aside the vines blocking his view, a secluded mountain path appears.

Looking forward along the path, not far away, a somewhat dilapidated Zen Monastery appears before him.

The Zen Monastery is not large; though called a Zen Monastery, it looks more like a courtyard house, with only a few crude wooden rooms.

"Hmm?!"

"Why is it different from what I expected?"

Li Xiang is somewhat surprised.

He had originally thought that after pushing through, what he would see would be a grand and eerie Zen Monastery, with demons standing in rows inside, human bones stretching out, demonic aura piercing the sky, and three Demons suppressing this place.

At the very least, it should be tiger and wolf monsters patrolling the mountain, leaving behind a cave of demons reeking of evil.

How...

How could it be such a shabby little wooden house?

With this setup, while it is called a Zen Monastery, it is actually not much bigger than Su Qin's little dilapidated schoolhouse; this Demon is truly shabby.

Li Xiang dares not be careless; he grips the sickle he swiped from the blacksmith shop, restrains his own Qi and Blood, and cautiously approaches the dilapidated wooden house.

The Zen Monastery is very small, with only four dilapidated wooden houses surrounding each other, leaving a side gate.

Li Xiang does not enter through the side gate, but instead leans lightly against the outer wall of the wooden house, relying on his small stature to try and scout the situation inside first.

Faint candlelight shines from within the wooden house; it seems these few Demons have not yet rested, though it is unknown what they are doing.

Bowing his body and moving forward, restraining his aura, Li Xiang first finds a side hall and approaches it.

Squatting under the eaves, leaning his ear against the wooden wall near the paper window, he vaguely hears human voices coming from inside.

Li Xiang cautiously dips his index finger in saliva, then gently pokes a small hole in the paper window to peer inside.

After carefully identifying what he sees, his expression becomes very strange.

Under the candlelight, an ugly-faced wolf demon is actually wearing a Daoist robe, sitting on a bamboo chair, holding a bamboo tube with a sorrowful expression, complaining in grief.

"Teacher, oh Teacher, I have already read this 'Dao De Jing' thousands of times."

"What exactly is the meaning of the Dao you spoke of?"

"The people down the mountain all say that this book is the inheritance of your Dao, but I have been reading it for ten years, read it thousands of times, why can I still not cultivate Immortal Light?"

The wolf demon's expression is sorrowful, and the bamboo tube in his hand looks like it has seen many years.

The candlelight flickers as he quietly holds the bamboo tube, constantly complaining in grief.

At times he blames the Great Dao for being heartless, at times he blames the Human Race for being powerful while the Demon Race lacks the method.

At times he knocks his head against the ground, kneeling and wailing like a madman, begging for the teacher's mercy to tell him what is meant by 'non-action', what is meant by the Dao, and why the Demon Race cannot cultivate the Great Dao.

"This..."

"He actually wants to peek at the Supreme Great Dao by relying on a copy of the 'Dao De Jing'..."

In the corner, Li Xiang watches the crazed wolf demon, his expression twitching slightly.

As an excellent transmigrator, he knows the name of the Three Pure Dao Ancestors; although he does not know if the Three Pure Ones exist in this world, seeing the wolf demon actually wanting to cultivate the Great Dao based on a 'Dao De Jing', Li Xiang still feels this guy is crazy.

It is just like a primary school student holding a book on 'Quantum Mechanics', complaining about why they cannot understand the worldview within it and cannot comprehend what the legendary Theory of Everything is about.

One is that the academic level is insufficient, yet you insist on skipping grades to study.

The other is that this Daoist canon itself has been passed down for who knows how many years, and compared to the original version, it has long since been changed into who knows what; yet you actually harbor the delusion of cultivating the Great Dao from this?!

Good heavens, if you really managed to cultivate the Great Dao, it wouldn't just be you doubting your life; even the Dao Ancestor would be confused.

"Ah! Tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow I will go down the mountain and grab a scholar!"

"No! Grab ten!"

"I know, this is all a test from the teacher for me!"

"How difficult is the Great Dao! If the Dao heart is not firm, how can one attain the Dao?!"

"Teacher, I! I must read until I achieve something; the Demon Race is weak, I must read until I achieve something and find the future for this race!"

The wolf demon continues to rave, his demonic aura running wild.

Li Xiang dares not linger, fearing he will be sensed by the wolf demon in a moment, so he turns and heads toward another side hall.

He follows the same method, poking a small hole in the window to peer inside.

It would have been fine not to look, but looking makes Li Xiang feel even more surprised.

In the room, surrounded by candlelight, a beautiful woman is holding a small knife, carving a bamboo tube, but for some reason, her eyes reveal an indescribable exhaustion.

It is as if she might fall into a deep sleep at any moment.

A hemp rope hangs down from the air, tangling her beautiful hair; whenever the woman feels lost or sleepy, it startles her awake, and then she reflexively uses the small knife in her hand to stab her leg, leaving it dripping with blood.

Hanging her head from the beam, piercing her thigh with an awl!

Using blood as ink, using a blade as a pen!

Beside her, thick bamboo tubes were piled up, all covered in works she had engraved; a faint trace of Haoran Righteous Qi circled the room, yet it was incredibly thin, as if mocking her.

"Why!"

"Why have I already written so many books, why have I already written so many insights!"

"Why does Heaven refuse to acknowledge me! Why will it not grant me Haoran Righteous Qi!"

"Just because I am of the Demon Race, just because I have a snake's body, does Heaven and Earth refuse to acknowledge my Dao?"

"On what grounds! On what grounds!"

Accompanied by the woman's heart-rending roar, terrifying demonic Qi pierced through, pressing down so hard that Li Xiang could not even catch his breath.

In her fury, she rose like a madwoman, dancing wildly about the room, her beautiful hair snapping off in large clumps where it was bound by hemp rope.

The demonic Qi was terrifying; Li Xiang dared not move.

A quarter of an hour later, she kicked over the bamboo tubes as if insane, picked up a few at random, and hurled them toward the window, smashing the paper screen and throwing them out.

With a casual glance, Li Xiang vaguely saw a few words written upon them.

"Unity of knowledge and action, extending innate knowledge..."

Upon the blood-stained characters, a faint trace of Haoran Righteous Qi was entwined, but it was mostly suppressed by the Demon Qi.

This is?!

Learning of the Mind?!

Wang Yangming's Learning of the Mind?!

A Demon, actually writing Wang Yangming's Learning of the Mind deep in the mountains?!

Li Xiang was astonished, yet he dared not make a sound; he suddenly felt that these few Demons on the mountain did not seem simple.

After a long while, the sound of the woman's weeping suddenly came from the room; peeking in, he saw that the woman had sat back down, and while crying, she was holding a small knife and writing.

"I..."

"I will prove myself, I will prove everything..."

"Ah hahaha, I will..."

The woman had fallen into madness once again.

Li Xiang took a deep breath and slowly left that place.

A wolf demon who wanted to understand the *Dao De Jing*.

A snake demon who wanted to write clearly about *Learning of the Mind*.

What kind of monsters are all in this Zen Monastery?

He knew these few Demons had taken the wrong path in their cultivation, but he did not know that the path of these Demons could be this absurd.

It was as if he had thought these Demons were just getting one plus one wrong, when in reality, these Demons were fretting because they could not figure out the engineering process for nuclear weapons.

Absurd...

He turned his gaze toward the main hall; that should be the location where the Black Bear Spirit was.

Slowly approaching, he was very curious: what on earth was this blind bear pondering?

Just as he drew near, he heard a Buddhist chant coming from the room.

"Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing the deep Banruo Boluomiduo, perceived that the five skandhas are all empty, and overcame all suffering and distress."

"Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form..."

Li Xiang: "..."

(End of chapter)