Stranger Danger

Chapter 531: The Buddhist Hall of Joy

[1]

After Xue Hanshan was gone, Yi Pin caught up to Ye Qing and asked, “Why didn’t you kill Xue Hanshan and end the threat for sure, brother?”

The old Taoist hadn’t said a word until just now because Ye Qing had told him to stay quiet and leave it all to him, and as expected, the young man had dealt with the problem beautifully. However, Yi Pin didn’t understand why Ye Qing ultimately let Xue Hanshan go even though all the cards were in his hands. In fact, he would even go as far as to say that Ye Qing’s finish was poor and didn’t fit with his modus operandi.

Ye Qing looked up at the sky and said, “It’s complicated, and I don’t want to stay here all night. Let’s walk as we talk.”

“Sure,” Yi Pin responded, and the duo made their way down the mountain.

......

“If what you said is true, then the Life Leech must be responsible for the rumors of longevity behind Longevity Village as well.”

Ye Qing and Yi Pin were currently basking in the warm sun and enjoying a cup of tea at a tea stall just outside Bei You City.

It was midnight when they left the Longevity Mountain, and late morning by the time they finally got back to Bei You. At this time, the sunlight was warm and sleep-inducing.

Ye Qing was fine, but Yi Pin was tired after spending the whole night traveling. So, they decided to catch a small break.

“Yeah.” Ye Qing nodded in agreement. After they returned to Bei You, he immediately used the Annon Sutra to find out what was the invisible danger that kept him from killing Xue Hanshan and his goons. Although the vellum didn’t tell him what happened at the Longevity Village, he knew that the Life Leech must be the reason he hadn’t killed them back in the village.

Ye Qing was thankful that he hadn’t done something unnecessary like making Xue Hanshan swear his loyalty to him or something. Such an act would’ve formed a strong karmic bond between him and Xue Hanshan, and his lifespan would have been drained for no good reason.

“I can’t believe that the Life Leech actually exists.” Yi Pin sipped his tea to suppress his shock. He didn’t know how Ye Qing had found out about this, but he didn’t ask. Everyone had a secret they didn’t wish to divulge to anyone, and probing too deeply into it would turn friends into strangers, and strangers into foes.

As a veteran of the jianghu, he knew better than to break a cardinal rule like this.

“In that case, the way you handle the matter was excellent. Xue Hanshan nearly shat his pants after the scare you gave him, so I doubt he would dare to trouble us ever again.”

A sardonic, schadenfreude-filled smile flitted across his face. “A shame about his friends and family though. It is a curse to have a senior like Xue Hanshan.”

Ye Qing leaned lazily against a pillar and admired the clear, blue sky above their heads. “If you’re such a bleeding heart, you can try spreading the truth about the Life Leech and the fact that Xue Hanshan is sacrificing his relatives to increase his own lifespan in secret. With luck, his relatives or a righteous warrior might do us a favor and kill him.”

“Heh... It’s not a bad idea, but nah. We literally just put this behind us. I have no intentions of landing us in new trouble.”

Yi Pin shook his head. “Besides, I doubt that Xue Hanshan’s relatives are worth saving. Xue Hanshan was the infamous Mountain Bearing Raider before he went into hiding and gave himself a new identity, and I know for a fact that his descendants are scumbags just like him. I ain’t risking my hide to save people like that.”

“Karma is a bitch, but at least she’s a bitch to everyone. Her judgment may be delayed, but never escaped.”

Ye Qing snorted but said nothing. He knew that Yi Pin was going to say this because he was both weak and cowardly. The day he risked his hide to save someone’s life was the day hell froze over.

Besides, he was right that the Xue Clan wasn’t worth saving.

“The Bodhisattva guides all to the ultimate bliss...”

It was at this moment an obscene tune that one normally heard in the brothel resounded from a distance. Everyone who was resting their legs at the tea stall immediately felt a surge of lust and passion.

Strangely, the decadent tune also gave off a grand and noble feeling. It was an odd blend of feeling to say the least.

Several breaths later, a group of people emerged from the end of a marked road. The men were handsome and playing their instruments, while the women were sexy and tossing flower petals into the air.

Both men and women were wearing monk robes. Why were monks putting on such an obscene performance in public?

At the center of the group were eighteen men carrying a huge litter on their shoulders. Their upper bodies were bare, and their heads were clean shaven. Their bronze skin was marked with tattoos of sky dragons and divine tigers, and their breathing was as steady as their vigor was strong. They looked like Buddhist protectors.

The litter they were carrying was massive, exquisitely designed, and covered by white curtains. The top of the litter was adorned by intricate statues of Bodhisattvas and celestial women. All in all, the group gave off an atmosphere of auspiciousness, solemnity and serenity—if one pretended that sexual moans weren’t coming out of the litter, and there weren’t silhouettes of naked, conjoined bodies behind the curtains, that was.

It was a given, but nearly everyone at the stall was staring at the litter with varying degrees of lust and desire. Some of them looked like they were barely holding themselves back from pouncing toward the group.

“Who are those people, brother?” Ye Qing asked with a frown. For someone of his strength, the white curtains blocking the view might as well not exist. He could clearly sense that a gorgeous woman was having her way with five handsome men.

Public sex in broad daylight? The nerve! If you’re a woman, you would let go of those men and come at me!

Yi Pin tsked as he stared intently at the group. “You really are one lucky sonuvabitch, aren’t you brother? It hasn’t even been a week since you arrived at Bei You City, and you somehow managed to stumble upon the Dana[2] Day. The Buddhist Hall of Joy only holds this once a year, you know.”

“The Buddhist Hall of Joy?” Ye Qing inquired.

Yi Pin asked a question instead of answering, “Have you heard of this saying, brother? ‘Yellow dragon, cornucopia and endless sand; joy, mistress, and the strange warrior’.”

“No at all. What on earth does it mean?” Ye Qing shook his head.

“It’s a famous quote everyone in Bei You knows about, and it’s a direct reference to the greatest factions and champions of Bei You.”

Yi Pin explained slowly, “The yellow dragon refers to the Yellow Dragon Brigand, one of the Thirteen Brigands of Chu. The cornucopia refers to the Tower of Cornucopia, a faction that claims that they own all the treasures in the northern lands. Endless sand refers to Endless Sand, the number one gang where all the warriors of the northern lands are supposedly gathered.”

“By the way, did you know that Zhang Jun—you know, the guy you killed back in the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin—is a member of the Endless Sand?”

“Really now? What a coincidence,” Ye Qing replied in a tone that made it clear he didn’t give a shit one bit. “Anyway, what does joy, mistress and the strange warrior refer to?”

“Joy refers to the Joy Bodhisattva, the head of the Buddhist Hall of Joy. Mistress refers to Mistress Bai, the head of the Shade of Scents. And finally, the strange warrior refers to Ouyang De, a wandering warrior who loves doing good and slaying heretics but has a very, very peculiar way of doing things.”

Yi Pin sipped his tea to soothe his dry throat. “Endless Sand and the strange warrior Ouyang De are the so-called ‘lawful good’ forces—relatively speaking, of course. The Tower of Cornucopia and Shade of Scents are neutral forces who appear to be mere merchants on the outside, but do all sorts of things on the insides.”

“Finally, the Yellow Dragon Brigand and the Buddhist Hall of Joy are heretics through and through. They care nothing for laws and customs, and they would do anything to see their goals through. They are the factions you want to stay as far away as possible.”

“But of course, there is no such thing as absolute good or evil in the jianghu. Some factions obey the rules more so than the others, but in the end, self-interest drives all of them. Always be on your toes if you are in their line of sight, brother.”

Yi Pin paused for a second before shaking his head. “Wait, what nonsense am I talking about? Apologies, brother. They’re the ones who should be on their toes, not you.”

Ye Qing: “...” A subtle and completely unnecessary jab, you did.

Ye Qing decided to be the bigger man and asked, “What is this Dana Day?”

“The Buddhist Hall of Joy practices the Buddhist Way of Joy,” Yi Pin started. “The Buddhist Way of Joy is a Vajrayana lineage of Buddhism, and its worshipers worship Nandikeshvara, the Buddha of Pleasure. The symbol of Nandikeshvara is a man—which represents law—and a woman—which represents wisdom—hugging each other tightly. The union of man and woman, law and wisdom symbolizes infinite wisdom and power.”

“The Buddhist Way of Joy teaches the way of controlling desire with desire, and attaining the wisdom of the Buddha through desire. However, it is easy to create desire, but difficult to suppress it. That was why the Buddhist Way of Joy splintered into two different factions some time after its conception.”

“The first faction stayed true to their teachings and used desire to suppress and void their desires. They are the orthodox faction and Vajrayana lineage of the Buddhist Way of Joy. The second faction seeks to attain ultimate bliss by diving into the deep end of the pleasures of the flesh. To put it in simpler terms, they strive to attain Buddhahood via indulgence. This faction also gave birth to many smaller factions that focus on dual cultivation, which is why they are denounced as pagan by the orthodox faction.”

“The Buddhist Hall of Joy is a sect that practices the unorthodox branch of Buddhist Way of Joy. They strive to attain Buddhahood by indulging in the ultimate pleasure of man.”

[3]

1. And now we arrive at the mini arc that made me decide to translate Wuhuan as Joyless. ☜

2. Buddhist practice of giving. ☜

3. Nandikeshvara is a real person, and there is such a thing as the “Buddhist Way of Joy”—or more accurately, Pleasure in history, but uh, obviously don’t take the author’s words as gospel. Reality may be stranger than fiction, but fiction is definitely fictional. ☜