Chapter 535: Xingdu Temple, Mage Huixin

Excruciating pain wracked Huixin’s body. He dazedly opened his eyes to a blurry figure, his mouth instantly feeling parched.

“Water…” he rasped instinctively, but quickly caught himself.

‘My condition is probably dire,’ he thought.

“Here. I don’t have much left,” a voice said, and a cool stream of water flowed into his mouth.

It wasn’t much water, but it was enough to revive him.

“Where… where is this?” Pushing through the pain and mustering his Spirit, Huixin finally managed to get a clear look at his surroundings.

His gaze finally landed on the middle-aged man before him. He looked like a farmer.

“We’re in the wilderness, about thirty li from Guiyun City. I’m not sure of the exact location,” Qi Suian said honestly.

He had seen the caravan’s map, but ancient maps differed greatly from modern ones, especially a map hand-drawn by the caravan members themselves.

This meant it was rife with potential problems.

“No wonder it looks familiar. Head north. Take me to Xingdu Temple; it’s only twenty li from here.” In truth, Huixin’s mind was full of doubts.

‘For one, how could an ordinary man possibly have carried me this far all by himself?’

He didn’t know the exact distance from Guiyun City, but he had a rough idea.

And he weighed at least three hundred jin. Without a mule or a cart, how could this man have so easily brought him all the way back to the vicinity of Guiyun City?

‘With a full caravan, maybe, but not one man.’

“Well… my mule was carrying you before, but a wolf dragged it off not long ago.” Qi Suian explained honestly that he no longer had transportation.

He had indeed owned a mule. How he’d come to own it was another story entirely.

With his means, acquiring a mule wasn’t a major issue.

He really had encountered wolves, and the mule really had been unlucky.

Huixin’s gaze swept over the area. Discovering tracks that matched the story, he felt a little more at ease.

‘But his heart sank at the thought. Twenty li! And through mountain paths and forest trails… How was he supposed to walk that?’

Before he was injured, with his strength, getting back would have been a trivial matter.

Now, however, the slightest movement sent searing pain through his organs. Traversing forests and climbing mountains was out of the question.

He couldn’t very well ask Qi Suian to carry him on his back all the way.

It might be fine for a couple of li, but over twenty, something could easily go wrong, especially on treacherous mountain paths.

“Help me up. We will go together.” Gritting his teeth, Huixin could only force himself to go.

As long as he could get back to Xingdu Temple, everything else could be dealt with.

No matter how severe his injuries, they could be healed with proper treatment.

He also realized his injuries seemed to have improved slightly. Logically, they should have worsened without prompt treatment.

Yet not only had they not worsened, they actually seemed to have been treated somehow.

It was clearly thanks to the man before him.

“That’s not a good idea. If you walk twenty li in your condition, you’ll have permanent complications even if you don’t die.”

“Let me go find you a horse or ox cart,” Qi Suian offered.

Huixin didn’t believe him for a second. “Where are you going to find a cart in this desolate wilderness? Besides, I’m not some delicate flower.”

“It’s possible. Before the wolves got the mule, I passed a caravan that had been killed by bandits. They had a cart,” Qi Suian explained.

At that, Huixin fell silent. ‘What kind of bizarre day is this?’

After a moment, he asked, “That mule… did you ‘find’ it too?”

“Of course. Look at me—do I look like I can afford a mule?” Qi Suian’s use of the word “find” was a little different from Huixin’s, a distinction best made with quotation marks.

“Fine. Go and bring the cart over,” Huixin said, sizing up Qi Suian.

‘This man has incredible luck. Perhaps he has an affinity with the Buddha.’

A single coincidence could be dismissed as his own good fortune, but this string of convenient turns of events forced him to see the man in a new light.

Before long, Qi Suian returned, leading a horse-drawn cart. After he helped Huixin into the carriage, the monk finally asked, “How did you get me here? Weren’t you caught by that rotten Confucian scholar on the road?”

“Great Monk, you’ve misunderstood. It wasn’t me who found you first. It was a caravan.”

“And then…” Qi Suian proceeded to recount a slightly altered version of events, embellished with a few reality-adjacent details.

By the time he finished, Huixin’s eyes were wide with disbelief.

To think he had escaped death by such a simple twist of fate, aided by one coincidence after another.

“May the Buddha be praised. May the Buddha be praised,” Huixin chanted, unable to stop himself.

The sequence of events was simple, yet fraught with peril. One wrong step, and he would have surely died.

‘This man must be deeply blessed. It is my destiny to guide him into our Buddhist order.’ Huixin knew that if he wanted to get back alive, he would have to rely on the man before him.

Besides his Xingdu Temple, Guiyun City was also home to the Zhu Huan Academy and the Pear Blossom Temple. If he wasn’t careful and they detected him, his death was certain.

The struggle over the Daoist Lineage between the three powers had grown increasingly vicious, even reaching the point of open warfare.

In the past, they would at least bother to find pretexts. Now, they fought openly.

However, the Imperial Court had begun to intervene to prevent the conflict from escalating.

If Xingdu Temple had such a blessed individual on their side, perhaps they could emerge as the final victors in Guiyun City.

“Is there really a Buddha?” Qi Suian asked.

“Of course there is. The Daoist Family has its Immortals, the Confucian Family has its Saints, and our Buddhist Family naturally has the Buddha.”

“The Buddha is supreme, perfect enlightenment, the revered progenitor of all living beings.”

“The power he wields…” Huixin launched into a flowery, exaggerated speech.

When he finally finished, Qi Suian asked, “Have you ever seen him?”

“Well… I haven’t. I’m only a Mage. But the Abbot, being a High Monk, has seen the Buddha.” Huixin was not yet qualified to see the Buddha.

“What’s the difference between a Mage and a High Monk?” Qi Suian had finally gotten something out of him. ‘These are probably not job titles, but Extraordinary ranks.’

“Of course there’s a difference. The Buddhist Family cultivates the Buddhist Teachings passed down from the Buddha. One can attain the six levels of Righteous Fruit: Novice Monk, Bhikkhu, Mage, High Monk, Arhat, and Bodhisattva.”

“I have already attained the Righteous Fruit of a Mage, and possess the ability of Lapis Lazuli Purity.”

With that, he began to give Qi Suian a general explanation of the Buddhist Family’s orthodox teachings.

The more Qi Suian listened, the stranger he felt. There was an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

When Huixin finished, he finally understood why it felt familiar.

‘Isn’t this just a sequence-based Extraordinary system? One undergoes a qualitative change through rituals and accumulation.’

“So the Buddha is the source of the Buddhist Family, and the Immortals and Saints are the creators of the Confucian and Daoist Families?” Qi Suian continued.

“But of course. How else could they have earned such revered titles?” Huixin saw no issue with this.

But for Qi Suian, the problem was huge.

‘If you truly follow the Buddhist Family’s sequence, the highest you can reach is the Righteous Fruit of a Bodhisattva, and the Buddha is a singular, unique being.’

‘More importantly, I can tell from his words that this sequence is extremely rigid and codified. There’s no flexibility.’

‘As for changing between sequences? Impossible.’

The three sequences—Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist—were as incompatible as fire and water. Their struggles were to the death.

The Daoist Lineage struggle wasn’t a bottom-up conflict. It stemmed from ideological disagreements between the progenitor Immortals, Buddha, and Saints. What began as scholarly debates had gradually escalated into armed conflict.

According to Huixin, this wasn’t the first time the Daoist Lineage struggle had grown so severe.

The last time, it nearly destroyed the world. In the end, the founding Emperor of the Jade Dragon Dynasty restored order and forged a pact with the three Taoist Lords.

The conflict was temporarily quelled, but as time passed, the tensions grew ever larger.

The current Emperor lacked the abilities of the founder, and the situation was spiraling out of control.

In reality, smaller powers like Xingdu Temple, Zhu Huan Academy, and the Pear Blossom Temple had no desire to fight.

But they were caught in the tide, with the Imperial Court fanning the flames. The consequences for remaining neutral wouldn’t be much better.

“What? You want to see the Buddha, too? Then you’ll have to cultivate to the level of High Monk as quickly as possible,” Huixin said, thinking Qi Suian was getting impatient.

“Master Huixin, you are a peerless talent. After so many years of arduous cultivation, you’ve reached the rank of Mage,” Qi Suian said. “As for me, I’m afraid I’d be lucky to even become a Novice Monk in my entire lifetime.”

Of course, Qi Suian couldn’t refuse outright. The monk’s attitude made it clear he intended to impart the Buddhist Teachings to him.

So he decided to first see what these Buddhist Teachings were all about. If they wouldn’t work for him, forging his own path was always an option.

After all, he was a world unto himself; what was so difficult about customizing a new sequence for his incarnated survivor?

But before that, he needed to access detailed data. Otherwise, based only on Huixin’s brief explanations and his incarnated survivor’s observations, he wouldn’t be able to discern much of anything.

He wasn’t completely blind, but it was always best to mitigate risks when possible.

“My aptitude is lacking; Mage is the limit of what I can achieve in this lifetime. But you, you’re different… you…” Huixin trailed off, realizing he had spoken too hastily.

Qi Suian was already middle-aged, older than Huixin himself.

“You have your own destiny. Perhaps you can attain the High Monk’s Righteous Fruit.” Huixin, unable to pinpoint any other specific virtue, could only fall back on his good luck.

What else could he say?

If the man had been a lad in his teens, Huixin would have declared he had the potential to be an Arhat.

As it was, Huixin felt that even reaching the rank of Mage would be an impressive feat.

But a Mage was already part of the core strength of Xingdu Temple.

Including himself, there were only twelve Mages in all of Xingdu Temple.

And there was only one High Monk: the Abbot.

Even becoming a Bhikkhu would add to Xingdu Temple’s strength.

“Master Huixin, you jest. I admire the Buddhist Teachings; I would be content to simply be a Novice Monk,” Qi Suian said humbly.

He wasn’t entirely lying. After all, once he obtained the relevant Extraordinary knowledge, he was fully capable of editing, modifying, and creating an entirely new sequence for himself.

“You must at least become a Bhikkhu. You have an affinity with the Buddha.” ‘He’s certainly pious enough,’ Huixin thought. ‘A good prospect, truly. A pity he’s a bit too old.’

As the two conversed, with the cart bearing them along, they soon spotted a temple perched on the mountainside in the distance.

It was none other than Huixin’s home, Xingdu Temple. It wasn’t far, but reaching it would still take some time.

After all, mountain roads are never easy to travel.