Chapter 110 I am

It’s no wonder we exclaimed, because not long ago, we had seen him before, and he was the one who brought us here and guided us into this new city.

Yes, it was the ferryman. I had always suspected that he was a great monk, but I never thought that he was really a high monk. Although his appearance now is different from his appearance outside, without the beard and the robe full of patches, it is still unmistakable.

“How did you end up here?” asked Huigen. He obviously couldn’t connect the two images: one was cold and indifferent, the other was compassionate and full of sympathy.

As to why he didn’t tell us when we were crossing the river, how he got here, and whether he was really the same person, was not the point of Hui Gen’er’s question. He just wanted to prove once again whether these two people were the same person.

In the face of Hui Gen’er’s question, Master Hong Ren only smiled at Hui Gen’er, with a deep meaning in his eyes, but how could Hui Gen’er know? He was only more and more confused, scratching his head in a hurry. I, however, noticed a slight difference in the smile. The ferryman outside had a scar on the corner of his eye, like a serious wound, but Master Hong Ren did not.

The scar was not big, just the size of a small fingernail, and I would not have noticed it if I hadn’t seen it by chance. I didn’t expect it to give me an answer now, and I blurted out, “You’re not the ferryman outside because you don’t have that scar!”

Excited, I pointed at the corner of my eye, perhaps only I noticed this detail, so after I said it, everyone looked at me in a strange way.

Master Hongren smiled again and said, “Amitabha, you’ve finally figured it out. My brother is the ferryman outside, and he is also my guardian monk. He is Hongye, and I am Hongren.”

“Ah…” Hui Gen suddenly reacted violently, and without thinking about being polite, he pointed at Master Hong Ren. In addition to the shocked sound of “ah” from his throat, he was unable to speak.

Seeing that Hui Gen was suffering, I gently patted his back a few times to help him catch his breath.

Master Hongren seemed to have a childlike heart. Seeing Hui Gen’er in this state, he smiled. Unlike the somewhat cold smile of the ferryman, Master Hongye, his smile had a hint of childlike innocence. He said, “It’s a big dream. I don’t know if it’s a pain to be in a dream. A real soul would never feel choked by words like a living body. Do you agree?”

It was a big dream…

But Hui Gen didn’t care about that. He bowed to Master Hong Ren, and it looked like he was about to kowtow, but Master Hong Ren stopped him and asked in a low voice, “Is the little monk Hui Jue okay?”

Master Hui? It was Master Hui who was mentioned, and now it wasn’t just Hui Gen who was excited, but all of us except for Lushan and Taobai. I was so excited that I couldn’t help trembling all over, because Master Hui was always with my master. Now that someone was calling Master Hui “Little Monk,” I felt like I was seeing a relative. How could I not be excited?

After Master Hongren pulled Hui Gen up, he was about to cry. It was only a spiritual state. Unless he suddenly had a great feeling like Jueyuan, it was impossible for him to really shed tears. However, this did not prevent Hui Gen from saying in a crying voice, “I haven’t seen my master for many years, seven or eight years.”

Hui Gen did not say the specific reason. Perhaps at this time, when there are a thousand words but no way to say them, he did not expect Master Hong Ren to sigh and say, “He must have gone to find Kunlun with that idiot Li Chun’er. Kunlun is Li Chun’er’s obsession, and Hui Jue and his friendship are also Hui Jue’s obsession. Everyone has obsessions. Just like me, wanting to convert this place is also an obsession. I will not stop until I die.”

After saying this, Master Hongren sang a Buddhist chant, and finally said in a low voice, “Whether or not there is a fixation in the heart is the difference between a mortal and a Buddha.”

I don’t understand this concept of obsession. Just as I don’t understand how the pursuit of goodness can become an obsession, perhaps I haven’t reached that level of understanding. In Master Hongren’s lament, I only noticed one sentence: “I will not stop until I die?” Could it be…

Master Hongren sensed my thoughts and said to me, “I died ten years ago, but my soul remains here to continue to save the souls of the millions of people who are suffering.

When he said this, Master Hongren looked calm, as if he was talking about his own life and death, as if he was talking about something as simple as whether he had eaten today. No matter what the Taoist or Buddhist say, a soul like Master Hongren’s is completely free, and it is not even necessary to escape the suffering of reincarnation.

But Master Hongren didn’t want to talk about this, just as he didn’t want to comment on the actions of my master and Uncle Hui. But Hui Gen’er finally shed tears and, despite Master Hongren’s objections, knelt down again, bowed his head, and gave three resounding kowtows. He then clasped his hands together and said, “Master is in front of me, and I didn’t even recognize him. Now that I have my great-uncle in front of me, I have to kneel and bow first, and then I’ll go back and bow to Master.”

Uncle Grandmaster? Grandmaster? The shock these two titles caused in my heart was like a tsunami. According to Huigen’er, the ferryman we saw was actually Master Hui’s master, and the one in front of us was…

As soon as Hui Gen’er finished speaking, Jue Yuan also knelt down and was about to bow, but was stopped by Master Hong Ren, who said, “It’s understandable that he would bow to me, but you can’t bow to me because strictly speaking, I’m not from the same lineage as my junior brother (younger brother). I don’t belong to your lineage, so you can’t bow to me.”

Jueyuan was speechless and didn’t know what to say. He could only sigh, stand up, and perform a Buddhist ritual to Master Hongren, saying, “Although the master does not belong to our lineage, he is the most outstanding person in the way we have practiced for a hundred years. Jueyuan cannot kneel before you now, but the respect in his heart cannot be expressed by three bows and nine kowtows.”

Master Hongren shook his head and laughed, saying, “Having lived to this point, all the rituals of the world are no longer important. Respect in the heart is true respect. If you don’t respect in your heart, what’s the point of doing the full set of rituals at the last minute? Well, I can’t be the best person either. Is Fa Zhao doing well? He was the first person back then, and coming here with Taoist Old Li was really a great thing to do.

I heard the news about my master again. It turned out that Jueyuan, the great master who entered the Lake of a Thousand Demons, was called Fazhao. He was the one who entered the Lake of a Thousand Demons with my master?

In response to Master Hongren’s question, Jueyuan quickly and respectfully replied, “After entering the Lake of a Thousand Demons, my great-uncle’s mind and body were exhausted, and he passed away shortly thereafter.”

Master Hongren sighed and said, “He has achieved perfection. He and Old Li have accomplished a great deed. I can only follow in his footsteps and come here with my junior brother to guard everything for him. When you arrived, the opportunity also arrived.”

At this point, he suddenly added, “Back then, I thought it would be the young monk Lixun and Huizhuo who would trigger this opportunity. I never thought it would be the grandchildren who would come. Hehe…”

Master Hongren smiled like a child again.

But I was thinking, shouldn’t it have been my master and his friends who came? It seems that there are still many secrets in between, but Master Hongren seemed to be in a hurry and didn’t want to explain too much. Under my puzzled gaze, he only said one sentence: “But it shouldn’t have been them either, because after I came here, I learned about an old saying of Lao Li’s, saying that his generation of disciples could not trigger this opportunity, and that they would have to wait for the younger generation.”

So it turns out that fate has brought us here, while Master and the others have deliberately avoided this place. Does Master Hui know that his master is here? In fact, Master Hui has never mentioned his master to me once…

Master Hongren’s words made my thoughts turn over and over in my head, but none of them had an answer. Everything pointed to my god-like master, who had arranged everything and calculated every point of fate…

“I don’t have much time left. This time I came out of exception, and it cost me a lot. Which one of you is Li Chun’er’s disciple?” Master Hongren suddenly asked.

It turns out that time is really running out. This confirms my guess. Master Hong Ren can do all this here. Who says he hasn’t paid a price? I have doubts in my heart, but when Master Hong Ren asks, how dare I be rude? I quickly stepped forward and said, “I am!”