Chapter 252: Advent of the Divine Dragon (8)

In Buddhism, there are many ways to accumulate merit, but among them the easiest is reciting sutras, the act of reading scriptures.

According to Mahayana teachings, reciting any scripture aloud to fill the space and expound it to others has limitless merit, meaning it is infinitely good.

Meanwhile, scriptures are also called the light of wisdom, meaning they are a great lighthouse (light) guiding to enlightenment (wisdom).

Therefore, the act of reading scriptures aloud becomes an action of finding direction by looking at that lone shining light in the secular world of pitch darkness where not even an inch ahead can be seen due to all sorts of delusions.

So reciting sutras has no greater merit than understanding the meaning and voicing it sincerely.

But even without understanding the meaning, who would not know brightness when seeing the sun?

Therefore, just properly reading according to the Dharma method automatically accumulates merit leading to nirvana when reciting sutras.

In other words, it’s a practice method that’s completely effortless!

Wuxue had no intention of passing on martial arts to Qing.

Since he already had a disciple, even if Qing was much lacking compared to Wolbong, he didn’t despair about destiny, nor did he covet her brilliance.

Moreover, forcibly giving something the person says they don’t particularly need would also be excessive greed.

So his intention was to have her memorize bright phrases to add even one finger to suppressing the Heavenly Slaughter Star held in her heart.

Thus, very strange language came out of Wuxue Dashi’s mouth. It was incomprehensible words where subtle differences in pronunciation while exhaling became completely different characters and meanings.

This was Sanskrit, the language used in the land where Buddhism originated.

However, Wuxue didn’t know that Qing was equipped with an all-purpose translator.

As soon as she heard the mantra, her martial arts window sparkled brightly, and when Qing checked, ta-da, one martial art was registered in standby status.

And it even had a purple border.

Dragon-Elephant Prajna Protective Heart Art?

Hmm. It’s purple so it must be good?

“Now. That’s once. It’s a bit long, but if you slowly recite it internally while circulating qi, there will surely be good things. Then, I’ll recite it again. Omdeum-“

“Ah. Master? Are you perhaps going to repeat until I memorize it all?”

“Of course. Reciting sutras is merit in itself. This is wisdom I directly inherited from a high monk of India, so just the act of reciting during qi circulation is a miraculous Dharma method that imbues Buddhism’s profound spirituality. And as I said, you should memorize it while your head is still soft when young.”

Originally, Sanskrit is quite long.

To be precise, the Chinese characters used in the Central Plains are extremely short. This is because Chinese characters are the most primitive and foolish picture memorization across all universes of past, present and future.

It has its advantages in being short.

However, because it’s short, annotations are added to the phrases, and because the annotations are short, annotations to the annotations must be added, so it ends up doubling or tripling the work.

If you really try to learn it all with your brain, it’s not enough even if you listen all day today, listen again, and listen again.

Qing bowed her head deeply, closed her eyes tightly, gritted her teeth, and raised the martial art waiting in standby registration in her martial arts window to 1 star.

When alone, she would freely express the terrible brain violation by rolling her eyes back, shaking her body, and drooling while groaning “urgh”, but she couldn’t show that in front of the monk, so this was her countermeasure to avoid showing it as much as possible.

Since he said to memorize it right away, shouldn’t she stamp 1 star and put it in her head first?

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“Ugh, I, I memorized it.”

Her pronunciation slipped due to the aftereffects of brain kneading.

“What? You memorized it all after hearing it twice? Does that make any sense? Even I barely memorized it after half a day of meditation while being hit with a bamboo stick.”

“Well, I’ll recite it once, so please tell me if there are any mistakes.”

At this, Qing recited the Dharma words she had memorized through trickery.

The Sanskrit flowing from a woman’s beautiful voice gave a truly strange and mysterious feeling.

By the way. But she really memorized it all!

“This can’t be. Again, do it again.”

“Yes. So…”

“Again.”

“Again.”

“Again.”

After finally completing ten times like that, Wuxue muttered dejectedly:

“If she had set her mind on scholarship instead of martial arts, the world’s greatest sage might have been born, but she was unfortunately born as a woman, so Heaven’s will falls short.”

If Ximen Surin heard this, it would be a statement deserving a carpet bombing of nuclear noogies.

But since women’s scholarship is not recognized in the primitive Central Plains, it wasn’t wrong either.

Originally, the Central Plains’ ruling view is summed up in eight characters: “All merit belongs to the Son of Heaven, all sin belongs to women.”

When a country falls, it’s because women committed sins, so all sins are pushed onto Daji or Yang Guifei, which is why they’re called nation-toppling beauties.

“Well. You memorized it all. If you recite it ten times when you wake up in the morning, recite it internally each time you circulate qi, and recite it ten times before sleeping, there will surely be good things. Especially for you who holds the ominous starlight of the Heavenly Slaughter Star, it’s a very precious study.”

“Yes, I understa- Ah, you knew?”

Qing asked back in surprise.

Suddenly coming at me like this.

At this, Wuxue snorted.

“When you’re the world’s greatest expert, you can just see it at a glance. It will be a great help in suppressing the Heavenly Slaughter Star, so don’t take my words lightly and recite it morning, noon and night. Understand?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Then, you should be grateful.”

“Huh?”

Isn’t this where “Thank you” usually comes out?

Then Wuxue Dashi laughed “Kuhaha” and said again:

“Gratitude is the feeling of being moved by grace. Wouldn’t I also feel grateful that you readily offered to return the divine art? It’s not like nothing happened just because we exchanged virtues. Rather, we grow merit by being grateful to each other, this is what’s called dependent origination.”

Qing looked at Wuxue with that expression.

What are you saying? Why is smoke coming out? Do you mean to act grateful?

At this, Wuxue burst into hearty laughter again and stood up.

“Kuhu. Well. When the secret manual is complete, bring it to Wuming Temple. Should an old monk have to come looking for it? You should go around a bit while you’re young.”

At night, Cheon Yuhak thrust out a pair of shoes.

“Here. These are shoes for your training. From now on, wear these when you go around.”

“Huh? What kind of shoes are these?”

“They’re called half-shoes.”

It was questionable whether the object Cheon Yuhak presented could be defined as shoes.

The sole was only attached to the front part of the foot, and the back was just silk wrapping around the back of the foot and hanging down loosely.

And the arch and heel of the foot were completely open so that when standing straight, bare ground would touch directly.

“This way I have to walk only on my toes.”

“That’s why they’re made like that.”

“The fluttering part here will get dirty dragging on the ground if I don’t lift my heels.”

“You have to lift your heels so it doesn’t drag.”

“And what are these bells for? I’m not a child, do I have to jingle and announce my presence?”

Qing shook the half-shoes.

Fortunately, since the bells were quite heavy, they didn’t make a frivolous jingling sound, but made a clanking noise like a coin purse shaking.

“So when you step, use only your toes, ah, the sole is also double-layered so if you step hard it makes a clacking wooden sound, right? So step lightly so neither the sole sound nor bell sound comes out, and walk softly moving each step one by one.”

When you get used to this, no sound comes from your footsteps at all.

This was the secret to why no sound at all came from Cheon Yuhak’s footsteps.

“Can’t I just walk around comfortably for walking…”

“Think differently. Just walking around wearing those while being careful not to make sound is training. Isn’t it almost free training?”

“Oh?”

Qing’s eyes widened at this unexpected change in perspective.

Come to think of it, huh? That’s right?

“That’s stage one. When you get used to it, we’ll change to heels that make more sound and replace the bells with lighter ones. If you can walk without sound up to stage three, from then on you’ll be able to walk on fallen leaves without making any sound.”

“Ooh.”

At this, Qing was completely won over.

And as a result.

“Aish…”

Where in the world is there free training?

Originally, training is hard and difficult.

Saying it’s training just by walking around means the very act of walking around is hard and difficult.

The front heel of the half-shoes was like the sound iron used for the strange dance called tap dancing in Qing’s homeland, so just lightly stepping made a very cheerful “clack!” sound.

The clanking sound like silver coins colliding came from the bells hidden inside the silk hanging from the heel.

So taking one step went, clack, clank.

Another step, clack, clank.

Moreover, since there was no sole on the heel, she had to walk on tiptoes the whole time, and to keep the hanging silk from dragging on the ground, she had to lift her heels much higher than expected, almost flashing them.

Still, Cheon Yuhak’s words were somewhat comforting.

“Hiya. Even a maggot has the talent to roll, you’re quite skilled from the start. You’ll move on to the next stage soon.”

Since Qing’s body was extraordinary, she didn’t get sore or tired just from walking on her heels. It was just uncomfortable, so she walked very well.

Then, bang!

Qing sat down from the surprise nuclear attack and rubbed her head sha sha sha.

It was almost like a primitive human starting a fire, at this rate sparks might rise from her head.

“Ow!”

“How can a girl walk around so frivolously swaying her hips? Already carrying around something as big as a basin, where did you learn such a bad habit?”

When the heels are lifted, the angle of the pelvis naturally bends backwards and the buttocks rise.

Meanwhile, as the center of gravity moves up, the pelvis moves greatly left and right to maintain balance.

Thanks to this, a completely different texture from the Ximen Surin-style beauty act emphasizing modest walking comes out – the seductive posture of a succubus bewitching men.

“That’s not it, actually, this is- Aak!!!”

Thwack!!!!

Qing tried to show one shoe she took off, but unable to withstand another nuclear explosion, she finally rolled on the floor.

Originally, nuclear launches always require a second strike because you can’t come to your senses with just one hit.

“You bitch! How dare you show bare feet in broad daylight! Cover them up immediately!”

“Ugh, Master, it hurts, it hurts so much. My head, my head feels like it’s splitting…”

“Hmph. Your head needs to split a bit for you to come to your senses. Get up and cover your feet immediately.”

Since even exaggeration didn’t work, Qing quickly put her shoes back on.

Then she explained the whole story, and Ximen Surin clicked her tongue loudly as if displeased and said:

“Since it’s training, it can’t be helped. Hearing it, it seems to be quite an excellent method apart from being embarrassing. So disciple, learn it quickly and stop that embarrassing walk.”

“Yes…”

Qing answered dejectedly.

Then remembering she had something to say after meeting her master-

“Ah. Master. Do you know something called the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Protective Heart Art?”

“Hm? You mean the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Art? Isn’t that the divine art of Lama monks? They say it originally came from India’s Dalai Lama Temple. Why, oh. Did you pick up and learn it from somewhere again? You picked up an excellent divine art this time.”

Ximen Surin no longer even pretended not to know.

“That’s not it, Wuxue Dashi taught it to me.”

“That monk? That can’t be. Why would he pass on another study when my disciple already has the Zhu Xiang’s Heart Cleanse Mirror? Unless he doesn’t know about my disciple’s strange constitution.”

“I said I’d return the Buddha’s Palm and he recited a mantra for me. He just had me memorize the mantra, so it doesn’t seem like he meant to teach the martial art itself,”

“Ha. If he meant to teach it he would do it properly. Well, just reciting the Dharma words can suppress the Heavenly Slaughter Star- wait, did that monk recognize the Heavenly Slaughter Star? Did you let him take your pulse?”

“He said he could just see it at a glance…”

Ximen Surin felt the difference in realms.

In fact, the higher the realm, the more each step becomes a cliff to the end of the world.

Those mere three or four steps that Wuxue had advanced, in terms of height, were actually an unfathomable difference.

“Haah. This master was careless.”

Meanwhile, the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Protective Heart Art means a study that protects the body and mind with the wisdom of dragons and elephants.

Here, “protective heart” doesn’t mean protecting the mind, but the heart, and this was a characteristic unique to supreme divine arts that connect body and mind as one.

For general martial arts, heart protection techniques are for inner force, while body protection techniques are for external training, but only these peerless divine arts bind internal and external together.

But what is the wisdom of dragons and elephants?

When dragons and elephants face adversity, they break through and push forward, so the study also includes protecting the mind with that unwavering will to push ahead.

However, more than that, it’s great power!

Aren’t dragons and elephants synonymous with power!

It was renowned as a divine art that grants divine strength like dragons and elephants when learned and mastered.

They say at the Grand Star, it exerts the strength of ten dragons and ten elephants.

Of course, martial arts mantras are exaggerated boasts that are 90% hot air. But they do clearly convey that one effect.