ILSITM Chapter 73

Upon entering the vegetable market, “Mother” bought several live fish, saying she wanted to take them to Mount Wutai to release them.

“Mom, which temple on Mount Wutai are you taking these live fish to release them at?” I asked, looking at “Mother.”

“Last time, I went to Guanghua Temple to pray to the Bodhisattva for you, and I saw a pond by the roadside. Let’s release these fish there,” “Mother” said with a kind and benevolent expression, making her look more and more like a female Bodhisattva.

When “Mother” mentioned the pond near Guanghua Temple, I hesitated to speak.

Arriving at Mount Wutai, “Mother” and I first went to the pond to release the fish.

The fish for release were in plastic bags.

The plastic bags contained some water. I poured the fish into the pond along with the water.

After entering the pond, the four live fish swam directly into the depths, disappearing without a trace in an instant.

Guanghua Temple faces south and is arranged along a north-south central axis, with the Shanmen (main gate), Heavenly King Hall, Wenshu Hall, Great Hero Hall, and Sutra Depository successively.

Inside the temple, there was a gathering of worshippers, the incense was flourishing, smoke swirled, and prayer flags fluttered.

“Mother” led me towards the Wenshu Hall in the temple, where the Wenshu Bodhisattva (Manjusri) is enshrined.

After worshipping the Wenshu Bodhisattva, “Mother” divided 80,000 yuan in cash into eight installments of 10,000 each, and put them into the donation box.

After leaving Guanghua Temple, “Mother” said that she had come to Guanghua Temple that day to pray to the Bodhisattva to save me, and had promised to donate money to expand the temple and become a nun, so this time she was here to fulfill her promise.

“Mother” also said that I was a premature baby, weighing only three catties and three taels when I was born. She had asked a blind fortune teller to read my fortune. The fortune teller said that my life was full of misfortunes and that I would experience three life-and-death tests.

“No wonder I’m called Chen Sanming, so I have three lives,” I suddenly realized.

“Mother” chose to become a nun at Jifu Temple, which is a Bhikkhuni (nunnery) temple.

Bhikkhuni is a Buddhist term for a female who has received the complete precepts (ordination) after the age of twenty.

The upper age limit for becoming a nun at this Bhikkhuni temple is sixty years old. “Mother” is fifty-nine years old this year, which meets the age requirement.

“Mother” and I entered the temple, and we heard the wonderful sound of the Prajna (wisdom). The Bhikkhunis behaved with decorum, appearing otherworldly.

After settling “Mother” in, I wandered around the temple alone and came to the Great Hero Hall.

To the left of this Great Hero Hall is the Dharma Protector Hall, and to the right is the Wu Lang Hall.

I entered the Wu Lang Hall and saw a statue of Yang Wu Lang enshrined inside.

Who is Yang Wu Lang?

Yang Wu Lang’s name was Yang Yande, the fifth of the seven brothers, also known as Yang Wu Lang.

His father was the famous Northern Song general Yang Ye, and his mother was the loyal and devoted She Taijun who protected the Song Dynasty. Anyone who has read novels or watched TV series knows that the Yang family, old and young, went to the front one after another, bravely resisting the Liao and defending the border, “a family of loyalty, all died in service.”

In the Battle of Jinshatan between the Song and Liao dynasties, only Yang Wu Lang was left to fight alone. He did not choose to die on the battlefield, but instead avoided the pursuers and went to Mount Wutai to become a monk.

Yang Wu Lang, who became a monk, began to devote himself to studying martial arts. He created the famous Wu Lang Eight Trigram Staff, and his disciples were all over the world.

Yang Wu Lang had risked his life to save two emperors of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizong and Emperor Zhenzong. The rewards from several generations of Song emperors were all rejected by Yang Wu Lang in his capacity as a monk.

After Yang Wu Lang passed away, Emperor Renzong of Song ordered a gilded bronze statue to be sculpted to show his rebirth in golden form, fulfilling the wishes of the Song Dynasty royal family.

At this time, the hall was empty.

I saw Yang Wu Lang wearing armor, with a yellow robe draped over it, squatting on the altar.

He was burly, with a square face, a slightly raised bald head, and piercing eyes.

I felt that there was a magic power in his eyes, which made me involuntarily walk towards him.

The closer I got to him, the more it felt like I was walking out of my own body, and then walking into the statue of Yang Wu Lang.

In the blink of an eye, I found myself standing in front of a person.

This person was short and thin, wearing a wrinkled security guard uniform.

He had a buzz cut, a thin face, a pair of eyes that were neither too big nor too small, a high nose, and sparse whiskers above his clearly defined lips.

Isn’t this “me”? Didn’t I possess this little security guard? Where am I now? I saw my figure in the pupils of the little security guard’s eyes.

I was wearing armor, with a robe draped over it, holding a wooden staff, and squatting on the altar.

I don’t know what happened just now. It seemed that in an instant, I possessed this statue of Yang Wu Lang.

The little security guard stared blankly at the statue of Yang Wu Lang, bowed in worship, and then walked out of the hall door.

After the little security guard turned and walked out of the hall door, I tried to turn my head, and my head could actually move.

Then I bent my waist, and after my waist bent down, it could straighten up again.

I also moved my legs and lifted my feet. There were no problems, so I tried to walk down from the altar.

I felt that it was inappropriate for me to walk down from the altar. After all, I am a statue, meant to be worshipped, and I should return to the altar.

Standing in the main hall, I suddenly heard a “sound,” a “sound” that was strangely quiet.

After walking down from the altar, I turned around to look back at the altar, and there was no statue of Yang Wu Lang on the altar.

I couldn’t help but walk towards the outside of the hall.

Outside the hall was a vast expanse.

“This is strange. Jifu Temple covers nearly ten acres and is not a small scale. The temple has the Heavenly King Hall, the Great Hero Hall, the Wenshu Hall, the Ksitigarbha Hall, the Wu Lang Hall, meditation rooms, and monks’ quarters. How come now only this Wu Lang Hall is left?” I said to myself.

I walked outside the hall and walked around the Wu Lang Hall.

When I walked back to the main entrance of the Wu Lang Hall again, I found that the three characters “Wu Lang Hall” on the hall door had become five characters: “Taiping Xingguo Temple.”

I walked inside again and found that the furnishings and the Bodhisattvas enshrined had also changed.

The hall was very quiet, and I didn’t see a single monk.

At this moment, I heard a burst of footsteps outside.

Just as I was about to go out to see what was going on, a hand suddenly rested on my right shoulder.

“Wu Lang, don’t go out,” a slightly old voice sounded behind me.

I turned around and saw that it was an old monk.

The old monk motioned for me to hide, and then walked straight out of the temple.

“Amitabha, I don’t know why everyone has come to our temple to gather. What can I teach you? This poor monk, Ruijian, is being polite,” I heard the old monk say outside the hall.

“Are you Abbot Ruijian? We just saw a strong man walk into the temple. Please hand him over,” a somewhat hoarse voice shouted.

“Please forgive us for the embarrassment. No outsiders have entered our temple. Why don’t you come into the temple and search? Is that okay?” the old monk said.

“Is this true?” the hoarse voice said loudly.

“It’s true! As long as you get past this poor monk, you can tear down this small temple as you please,” the old monk became a little tougher.

“Why is this old monk protecting me?” I wondered to myself.

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