Chapter 40: The Buddha Has No Form, the Tao Resides in the Heart

The appearance of the old monk, Liao Chen, was like a bucket of cold water poured over Manager Liu’s boiling rage.

"Master Liao Chen?" Manager Liu’s brow furrowed, his tone laced with a hint of trepidation.

He could afford to look down on the rogue cultivators at the foot of the mountain, but he could not ignore this "living fossil" of the Little Leiyin Temple. Although Liao Chen held no real power, his seniority was immense; even the Abbot of the Little Leiyin Temple had to respectfully address him as "Grand Uncle-Master." More importantly, his reputation among the grassroots believers was unrivaled.

"Master, this man is an adherent of a heretical path, using sorcery to bewitch people here. The Myriad Treasures Pavilion is acting according to the law; I ask that you do not interfere." Manager Liu attempted to label him with the charge of "obstructing official business."

Upon hearing this, the old monk Liao Chen merely smiled faintly. Ignoring the manager, he walked to Jiang Xiuyuan’s stall, picked up a rough stone talisman, and examined it carefully.

Jiang Xiuyuan gave him a slight nod in greeting. There was a tacit understanding between the two that required no words.

"Heretic? Sorcery?" Liao Chen set the talisman down and turned slowly to face all the gathered cultivators. His aged voice carried a peculiar, piercing resonance. "I have swept these grounds for eight hundred years, seeing both true Buddhas and false demons. What is Buddha? What is demon? It does not lie in the exquisiteness of objects or the eloquence of words, but in the heart."

He extended a withered finger, pointing toward the cultivators who had received the "Buddha of Original Heart" from Jiang Xiuyuan.

"Ask this man here: he prayed for his sick wife—is this heart demonic?"

"Ask that old woman: she prayed for her young grandson—is this heart demonic?"

"And ask yourselves: those of you who broke through bottlenecks and strengthened your path by seeking within and realizing your true nature—is this act demonic?"

Under these three questions, the crowd’s emotions surged.

"No!"

"This is the true Dharma!"

"The Master is right!"

Old monk Liao Chen nodded, his gaze finally falling upon the ashen-faced Manager Liu and the monk Ming Li. The chief manager of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion had, at some point, made his way through the crowd to stand behind the guard unit, his eyes watching the scene with icy coldness.

"Donor Ming Li," Liao Chen’s voice remained calm. "A single 'Golden Lotus of Merit' from the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, which can protect a family for a century, sells for a million high-grade spirit stones. I would like to ask: if a destitute, filial son whose devotion moves heaven and earth were to come, could he obtain even a single petal of that lotus?"

Monk Ming Li sneered, "Everything is clearly priced, and we treat all customers honestly. If you have no money, how can you speak of merit?"

"What a fine 'if you have no money, how can you speak of merit'!" The old monk Liao Chen laughed, though there was no joy in it, only a trace of pity. "When the Buddha offered his flesh to feed the eagle, did he ask what merit the eagle possessed? When Ksitigarbha made his great vow, 'If hell is not empty, I shall not become a Buddha,' did he ask the evil spirits how many spirit stones they could pay?"

"If the Dharma becomes a transaction, compassion becomes mere business. How, then, is this any different from a demon?"

The old monk’s words struck like heavy hammers against the heart of Monk Ming Li, and even more so against the hearts of all the believers. Many cultivators who had previously believed in the Myriad Treasures Pavilion now showed signs of contemplation and wavering.

Monk Ming Li’s expression shifted repeatedly. He knew that, morally, he had suffered a crushing defeat. But he cultivated profit, not morality.

"Liao Chen! Stop your bewitching nonsense!" Ming Li finally tore off his mask and shouted sternly, "My Myriad Treasures Pavilion is a branch of the Golden Lotus Chamber of Commerce under the Buddha Lord himself, recognized by the Buddha Lord! You, a dying old monk, dare to question the will of the Buddha Lord? This man’s origins are unknown, and he subverts the faith of the Buddha Kingdom—his crime is punishable by death! Today, no one can save him!"

With that, a powerful aura belonging to the late Nascent Soul stage erupted from him. The pressure, heavy as a mountain, instantly enveloped the entire scene. The lower-level cultivators were forced back, their faces drained of color.

"The Myriad Treasures Pavilion is conducting business; all bystanders, stand back!" Ming Li’s voice rolled like thunder.

However, the moment his aura reached its peak, another pressure—far more vast, pure, and seemingly originating from the heavens and earth themselves—descended silently.

This pressure was not targeted at anyone; it simply existed, yet it caused Monk Ming Li’s overbearing aura to melt away like snow under a scorching sun, vanishing without a trace.

Everyone looked on in horror as Jiang Xiuyuan, who had been sitting on the ground, slowly stood up.

His coarse linen clothes remained the same, as did his appearance, but his entire aura had undergone an earth-shattering transformation. If he had previously been an uncut jade hidden in the mud, he was now a peerless divine sword, stripped of its grime and concealing its sharpness.

His gaze rested calmly on Monk Ming Li as he said faintly, "I said I have a method to 'illuminate' all sentient beings. It seems it is also necessary to 'illuminate' you people whose minds have been blinded by money."

"Who... who exactly are you?" Monk Ming Li was terrified to the core. His late-stage Nascent Soul cultivation felt like an ant looking up at the sky before the man, unable to muster even a thought of resistance. This was at least the Transformation Deity stage, or perhaps even the legendary Void Refinement stage!

Jiang Xiuyuan did not answer him.

He simply extended his hand, palm upward. A crystal-clear gemstone, shaped like an eye and as deep and pure as the stars of the universe, floated quietly in his palm.

It was the "Eye of Brahma," purified by the nameless old monk with his own life. Jiang Xiuyuan had kept it carefully; today, it would finally settle a small part of the karma owed to that nameless monk.

The moment it appeared, all the "willpower" within the entire Little Leiyin Temple, and indeed within a thousand miles, seemed to respond to an imperial summons, converging crazily upon this spot!

Holding the Eye of Brahma, Jiang Xiuyuan walked slowly toward the old monk Liao Chen.

"Master, you once said that the Buddha does not save people; people save themselves," Jiang Xiuyuan’s voice was gentle yet powerful. "But today, I wish to borrow your hand to perform a true 'Buddhist salvation'."

He handed the Eye of Brahma to Liao Chen.

As the old monk looked at this perfectly pure "Buddha Eye" and felt the compassion within it—compassion that shared the same origin as the old monk on Earth—two lines of clear tears flowed from his clouded eyes for the first time.

"Amitabha... the path is not lonely; the path is truly not lonely!"

Trembling, he reached out and took the Eye of Brahma.

The instant he touched the Buddha Eye, the old monk’s withered body erupted with a brilliance of ten thousand golden rays! His hunched back straightened, his white hair turned black at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his shriveled skin regained its luster. He was not reverting to youth, but rather, the eight hundred years of accumulated, purest Buddhist nature and willpower were being ignited by the Eye of Brahma!

"Today, I, this old monk, use the treasure of Donor Jiang to reopen the gates of the Buddha for the Golden Lotus Buddha Kingdom!"

Holding the Buddha Eye, the old monk Liao Chen possessed a solemn and magnificent air, his voice sounding like a divine decree.

The endless golden Buddhist light, centered on him, shone like a sun, instantly "illuminating" the entire market and spreading toward the Little Leiyin Temple at the summit!

Under this Buddhist light:

The fake Buddhist artifacts of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, which had been shimmering with the luster of spirit stones, instantly dimmed and reverted to mundane objects.

Monk Ming Li, Manager Liu, and their cohorts felt the greed, anger, and jealousy in their hearts rendered inescapable by the light. They clutched their heads and screamed in agony as their cultivation levels began to plummet.

As for the pious believers, whether human or demon, bathing in the Buddhist light, they felt their minds clear and their hearts unburdened. Many who had been trapped by bottlenecks for years found them loosening and breaking through on the spot!

In that moment, the entire Little Leiyin Temple seemed to be thoroughly cleansed.

At the summit, within the Great Hall of the Little Leiyin Temple, the Abbot and the elders rose in shock. Gazing at the pure Buddhist light surging from below and feeling that supreme compassion, their faces were filled with awe and shame.

They knew it must be their Grand Uncle-Master, who had been sweeping the floors for eight hundred years.

Yet they, who held such high positions, had long ago lost their true nature amidst the pursuit of merit and profit.

Jiang Xiuyuan watched all of this quietly, a gratified smile on his face. He remembered the old monk on Earth who had sacrificed himself.

"Old monk, I have passed on your path for you. From this day forward, this Buddha Kingdom will have a new beginning."

He withdrew his gaze, looked at the dazed Monk Ming Li, and flicked his finger. An invisible force of energy shattered the man's entire cultivation. For a person like this, killing him would be far less effective than letting him live as a mortal, experiencing firsthand the suffering of the lower-class believers he had once despised.

Having finished, Jiang Xiuyuan’s figure faded away, disappearing before anyone could recover from their shock.

He had come to repay a debt of karma and to correct the name of the Buddha.

Now, his task complete, he brushed off his sleeves and left, hiding his identity and his name.

From that day on, a new legend spread throughout the Golden Lotus Buddha Kingdom.

It was said that a nameless great power had manifested as a mortal to preach in the marketplace. With a "Buddha of Original Heart," he questioned the hearts of men, ultimately leading the sweeping monk Liao Chen to sudden enlightenment. With supreme Buddhist light, he cleansed the Buddha Kingdom and purged its corruption.

The Myriad Treasures Pavilion never recovered, its business of selling "merit" going completely bankrupt. The Little Leiyin Temple underwent sweeping reforms, reopening its gates to all and practicing true charity, finally returning to the original intent of the Dharma: to save all sentient beings.

And while the miraculous "Buddha of Original Heart" never appeared again, its philosophy—"The Buddha is in the heart; the path is in the hearts of men"—took root like an undying seed in the hearts of every living soul in the Golden Lotus Buddha Kingdom, passed down from generation to generation.