Big Dog glanced back at Fang Jie and Shen Qingshan, who were chatting and laughing in the teahouse, then looked at Mu Xiaoyao and suddenly asked in a low voice, "Why do I feel like you're reeking of jealousy?"
"Jealousy?"
Mu Xiaoyao didn't react at first, but by the time she did, Big Dog had already run more than ten steps away, no longer looking at the goldfish in the fish tank at the roadside stall, but squatting down to watch an old man selling four puppies. Big Dog had excellent eyesight and immediately saw that the so-called Western Region Mastiff puppies the old man was talking about were just Shiba Inu dogs.
Mu Xiaoyao looked towards the teahouse, and couldn't help but ask herself this question.
"Would I really be jealous of that brat? I'm a full twelve years older than him!"
In the teahouse, Fang Jie idly counted the peanuts on his plate, seemingly casually asking, "How come you're suddenly here all alone? Where are Heng Gun and Qilin? And... what about that girl you stole from Dali City in Southern Yan?"
"She's a stunning beauty."
Shen Qingshan didn't answer Fang Jie's question, instead remarking, "Any normal man who saw her would be completely captivated."
"Such a strong, sour smell of vinegar."
Fang Jie teased.
Shen Qingshan rolled her eyes at him, then suddenly grabbed Fang Jie's hand and pressed his pulse point. Fang Jie was startled but didn't resist. After a moment, Shen Qingshan's expression suddenly changed.
"What methods did Senior Sister and Da Quan use to break what was inside your body?"
"What was it?"
Fang Jie immediately asked. Shen Qingshan then realized she had said something she shouldn't have, and shook her head, saying, "You should ask Senior Sister and Big Dog. I only joined the team temporarily when we escaped; they were the ones entrusted with this task. If you want to know, why don't you ask them?"
"If I could ask them, why would I ask you?"
Shen Qingshan's gaze towards Fang Jie gradually shifted from surprise to admiration, and then to intense curiosity: "Do you know how special your physique is? You should be crippled, but you're as strong as a cheetah! I really want to take you away, tie you to a table, and cut you open piece by piece to see what your meridians are like."
Fang Jie knew this crazy woman was capable of such a thing, so he immediately pulled his hand back: "Come find me." "So, you just want to see if I'm dead?"
"You won't die."
Chen Qingshan smiled, sat up straight, and said, "My visit this time was quite by chance. The girl I stole from Dali City has become a disciple of Master Xiao of the Yiqi Temple on Qingle Mountain, and accompanied Master Xiao to the Imperial Martial Arts Academy for the ceremony. That girl is truly remarkable... even Master Xiao praised her highly. A while ago, Master Xiao received a message by carrier pigeon, saying that a Taoist disciple was in trouble here. Master Xiao sent people to investigate, and when he instructed his disciples and followers, he mentioned your name, saying that after finding you, you should be properly protected and sent to the capital of the Great Sui Dynasty. I'm bored spending all day with a bunch of stinky Taoists, so I decided to come and see for myself."
"A cultivation prodigy?"
Fang Jie ignored the rest of her words, but was particularly interested in those four words. Shen Qingshan hummed in agreement and said, "Although you've opened two acupoints, you're still undoubtedly a complete waste in cultivation. That girl is different. She… all 128 acupoints are open."
Fang Jie's expression changed, his eyes filled with undisguised doubt and surprise.
"Do you know what it means to have all 128 acupoints open?"
Shen Qingshan smiled gently and said, "It means she might be the number one cultivation genius in the world. This physique is even called a divine body by Master Xiao. Under Master Xiao's tutelage, she could potentially advance to the fifth or even sixth rank in a very short time. If nothing unexpected happens, within ten years, the world will have another ninth-rank expert."
Seeing Fang Jie's shifting expression, Shen Qingshan asked with a smile, "Jealous?"
Fang Jie slowly shook his head, looking at Shen Qingshan earnestly… He said, "I'm used to being called trash, so I'm not jealous of the genius you speak of. But you… the sourness in your tone is almost murderous."
Shen Qingshan paused slightly, then smiled charmingly, "You're right, I really do want to kill her."
Fang Jie hummed in agreement, then turned to look at Mu Xiaoyao standing by the roadside outside the window, seemingly casually asking, "Shen Qingshan, do you want to kill anyone who threatens you?"
Shen Qingshan didn't answer, but looked at Mu Xiaoyao and said, "Don't worry, she's not qualified."
By the roadside.
The big dog looked at the four puppies, and couldn't help but curl his lip as the old man selling them boasted about how precious they were. In the old man's words, these four dogs, when they grew up, could fight lions and tigers one-on-one without being at a disadvantage, and could easily tear a Northwest wolf into a rough Western Region mastiff. Such lies couldn't fool anyone.
He gave the old man a disdainful look, then suddenly noticed that the old man's dog-feeding plate was somewhat unusual. He crouched down and examined it closely. Although the plate was filthy and covered in grime, Big Dog recognized it as something from the former Shang Dynasty palace. The Shang Dynasty had since fallen, and before Luo Yao burned down the palace, he loaded most of the valuable items onto carts and sent them back to Chang'an as a tribute to the Emperor of the Sui Dynasty. These items were hidden during the Sui Dynasty's conquest, and those still circulating in the world today are all rare treasures. Even something as simple as this plate, if seen by someone knowledgeable, would likely be bought immediately for a staggering sum of silver.
Big Dog looked at the plate, then at the old man selling dogs, thinking that the old man certainly didn't know its value and didn't know how he had acquired it.
So he decided to buy the plate, but then he thought that if he directly asked to buy this dog-feeding plate, the old man would become suspicious and might try to overcharge him.
The big dog, quick-witted, pointed at the four puppies and asked, "How much each?"
"Ten taels of silver, not a penny to be bargained," the old man replied seriously.
The big dog gritted its teeth, then smiled and said, "They're all purebred Western Region mastiffs, ten taels of silver is a fair price... How about this, I'll take all four, can you give me a discount?"
"I said no bargaining!"
The old man rolled his eyes at the big dog.
The big dog thought to itself, "Fine, that plate is worth at least several hundred taels of silver, maybe even a thousand if someone likes it. For this, forty taels it is." He paid the silver, packed the four puppies into a wooden box, and pretended to leave. Then, looking troubled, he said to the old man, "Old man, I need something to feed the dogs. Could you give me this tattered dish?"
The old man looked at the large dog as if it were an idiot, and said with a sneer, "Don't be ridiculous. I make a living selling dogs with this dish!"
...
...
Xiangshui River.
Fenglin Ferry.
The night before Fang Jie encountered Shen Qingshan on the street, a handsome young man in a moon-white scholar's robe rode a huge white tiger to Fenglin Ferry. It was late at night, so all the ferries at Fenglin Ferry had already docked. Fishermen and sailors alike were all fast asleep.
The man in white glanced at the fishing boats neatly moored on the bank under the moonlight and frowned slightly. He gently stroked the white tiger's forehead and whispered, "Subduing Demon, wouldn't it be a bit immoral to wake the boatman so late to ferry me across? And if I wake a ferryman and he starts making a fuss, won't everyone else get up and join in cursing me? You know Buddhist disciples aren't allowed to curse, so no matter how much they curse me, I can only listen and can't curse back, right?"
The enormous white tiger seemed to understand, nodding its head and letting out a very low hiss.
The man in white smiled, his eyes bright.
He was extremely beautiful; if he were dressed as a woman, even a close look would make it difficult to tell. He was more beautiful than a man, more beautiful than a woman, so whether he was male or female, he was a beauty rarely seen in the world.
"The Bright King said to always remember to do good… If I were to wake someone, that wouldn't be a good deed. While it's not a great evil, it would still ultimately make them feel disgusted. Back then, the Bright King bestowed upon me the Dharma name Chenya, telling me that even if there's only a speck of dust in my heart, I will ultimately be very close to Buddhahood. The Bright King said that when my heart is free of defilement, I can become the fifth Heavenly Venerable of Buddhism."
The White Tiger listened quietly, occasionally glancing fearfully at the man with the bright smile on his lips. This man seemed kind and refined; it was unimaginable how he had subdued this ferocious beast.
"For the first ten years, I pondered what dust was... For the next ten years, I searched for the dust within my heart, but I never found it... Why?"
The man in white looked at the fishing boats and said, "It's not because my heart is without dust. If it were truly without dust, I might already be sitting in the Arhat Hall with my master. But I am not; my master can make me kneel with a single thought. When I searched for ten years and still couldn't find it, I grew increasingly anxious, and the more anxious I became, the less I could understand. But just now, looking at these ferries and hearing the fishermen's snores, I suddenly thought of a way."
He stroked the white tiger's forehead gently and said, "If I can't find the dust within my heart, then I'll put a grain of dust in myself. Then I'll take it out again. What do you say?"
The white tiger trembled slightly, seemingly afraid of something.
"The river is right before me, the boat is right before me... I need someone to ferry me, but no one is willing to ferry me? What should I do?"
He rolled off the white tiger, his spotless white robes fluttering gently in the night breeze. His steps were extremely slow, yet his pace was incredibly fast.
As he walked, he murmured to himself, "Others will not ferry me across, so I must ferry myself."
The young monk, whose Dharma name was Chenya, lightly leaped onto a ferry. When his feet touched the deck, the ferry, floating on the water, did not tremble in the slightest; no matter how the water rippled, the ferry swayed only slightly. Chenya boarding was as if a leaf had merely fallen onto the boat.
Standing on the boat, Chenya looked at the bright moon in the sky, clasped his hands together, and whispered, "The King of Heaven said that to save others, one must first save oneself; today, however, to save oneself, one must first save others. Today I borrow this boat, hoping that in the future, I can use it to ferry people across the river."
The next day, as the sun rose, the fisherman Luo Sanlaizi stretched and crawled out of the boat's awning. He took a deep breath of the damp, slightly fishy air by the river, turned to his wife, and called out, "Go to Fenglin Town and buy me a jug of wine. If there aren't many passengers today, I plan to go upstream to catch some fish and shrimp, and have a drink tonight."
His wife responded, straightened her clothes that her husband had messed up that morning, and felt the slight pleasure from the friction of her clothes against her already erect nipples. Her face still flushed slightly. "Then be careful," she said. "You drank with Song Er the other day, and he's been nagging you about it for two days. Let him drink with you tonight, so he won't accuse you of being stingy."
Luo Sanlaizi chuckled. "That lazybones Song Er, why isn't he up yet...wait, where's Song Er's boat? Did he take some passengers across the river this morning?"
His wife, sharp-eyed, looked across the river. "The boat's on the other side, but why didn't we hear a sound when he rowed it?"
Luo Sanlaizi chuckled. "It's because you were shouting too loudly. Even if it's thundering and raining outside, you probably wouldn't hear it!"
The woman blushed, turning her head away, not daring to meet her husband's teasing gaze. But as soon as she turned, she suddenly gasped.
Luo Sanlaizi was startled and quickly asked, "What's wrong?"
"Song...Song Er!"
The woman pointed to the side, her voice trembling. Luo Sanlaizi quickly looked over and saw the body of Song Er, a fisherman from his village, floating on the water. The body hadn't been swept away because it was near his boat, face up, eyes closed, with no expression of terror. It was as if he were still fast asleep, except… there was a small, round hole in his forehead. After being washed by the river all night, he wondered if his skull was empty…
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that not far from Song Er's body, entangled in the water plants, lay the body of his wife. In her arms… she was still tightly cradling her newborn infant. Like Song Er, both the woman and the infant had a small, round hole in their foreheads.
Thirty miles across the river, near a forest, Chen Ya gently plucked a leaf and dripped the dew onto it into his mouth. Then, he clasped his hands together, recited a rebirth mantra, and carefully picked a wild fruit and put it in his mouth.
"Subduing Demons, remember this."
Having eaten a few wild fruits, Chenya solemnly addressed the white tiger with a compassionate expression: "Flowers and grasses also have life, they also know pain and suffering. By picking the fruits, I have harmed them. The seeds that should have ripened and fallen to the ground to sprout the following year were eaten by me, which is also killing… Therefore, I must recite the Rebirth Mantra to help them find peace."
One wonders if the ghosts of Song Er's family would sneer behind his back.