3 A Weird Disciple and an Ugly Yokai

I stand aside watching Huian and that yokai fighting to the degree that the sky has darkened the ground. I am a little worried.

On the surface, they have fought to a draw. Yet, my weird disciple is not stupid either. He definitely knows that this yokai is one disciple of the scriptures taker for sure. Huian needs to fight against him but he cannot kill this yokai. The best scenario will be that this yokai doesn't hold his grudge after the fight which is a hard task for Huian.

Beating up this yokai is not a problem at all, but Buddha has said that he wanted me to bring back a nice honest guy so that we can let him do all the work in Western Paradise. However, based on his appearance, this guy doesn't look nice or honest at all.

Being fallen is already his dark history. He even ate many humans after his fall from heaven. Among those victims eaten, some were important. His dark history will not bring him a bright future in Western Paradise.

I can only try to comfort myself by thinking that an honest nice guy will be an honest nice guy forever. There is no way that he will go evil after just a few whips.

...Oh, and the stabbing of flying swords.

...Oh, and his ruined looking and exile.

...Oh, and being exiled to this barren land with hunger, coldness, loneliness, helplessness, and nowhere to escape.

Aren't these already the preconditions of going evil?!

I cannot help doubting that if such a person can become a buddha after being treated like this, then I shall give my position as Guanyin bodhisattva up.

At this moment, my weird disciple and the ugly yokai have begun the necessary process of shouting to curse each other. I see that my weird disciple finally is going to speak. For a moment, I am impressed. You know, this dude has been acting like a log since he came to Nanhai. No wonder his original name is Muzha. If unnecessary, he doesn't speak when he fights. Even when it is necessary to speak, he will try to speak the least. As a result, for many years I have been doubting if the Pagoda Bearing Heavenly King tortured his second son to a man-made dumb son.

I sort of feel my real-life situation is different from the situations in books.

That ugly yokai asks: 'Who are you?'

Huian says: 'Huian.'

The ugly yokai asks again: 'Who is Huian?'

Huian says: 'Me.'

...Now you know why I always call him my weird disciple!

He is being weird in front of a yokai and I cannot tell this yokai how weird my disciple is. I can only watch them.

The ugly yokai shouts: 'What are you going to do!'

Huian: 'Beat you.'

The ugly yokai beats him away with his staff: 'Where are you heading to?'

Huian says: 'I go where my shifu goes.'

The ugly yokai is too mad to fight. He jabs his staff on the ground. He is not fighting anymore.

He shouts at Huian: 'Where is your shifu going!?'

Huian looks back at me and then he looks at the ugly yokai. After a while, he says: 'Shifu didn't say.'

...

Eventually, I have been watching from that yokai asking Huian about who, from where, and to where and getting no answers. I am waiting for Huian to explain why we are here.

Huian has been living with me for at least three-thousand years, so he understands what I mean basically. However, even if he didn't get it, he will not ask me anyway.

Finally, before Huian understands my meaning, that yokai suddenly recalls: 'Are you that son of Heavenly King Li? Are you the one with Guanyin in Nanhai?'

I feel strange when he says that as if Huian is not cultivating along my side but doing bad things with me.

Huian says: 'Yes.'

The ugly yokai has a good understanding, so he asks again: 'You didn't go after your shifu and you are here on flowing-sand river? Why?'

Huian stares at him for a moment and moves his hand, pointing at me on the shore.

At that moment by his pointing, I seem to be not a Goddess of Mercy Guan or his shifu. I seem to be a rock on the shore.

After he finishes pointing at me, he says stuffily: 'Isn't this my shifu?'

Huian never shows a good sense. He has already spoken a lot with this yokai. What matters if he asks the yokai to come to see me? He didn't. He picks up that yokai like picking up a little chick as he walks to me pesante.

That yokai didn't struggle and he just let Huian bring him to me.

He sees me. At first, he was going to bend down his back and kneel to me, but he looks up at me for a while. He didn't kneel.

This red-headed long tusk unlucky looking yokai stands in front of me. His kitchen light-like eyes shine once at first, and then darken back. He looks down and says: 'I didn't know you were Guanyin bodhisattva. I apologize for my rudeness. Fighting against your disciple is my fault. Let me apologize to you. I know that when I see Guanyin bodhisattva, I should kowtow to you, but I have sworn that I will never kneel to any gods or buddhas in the sky.'

'Originally, I was that Curtain Lifting General in Lingxiao Palace. For thousands of years, I did the same thing over and over. Just because I broke one glass vase, Jade Emperor whipped me eight-hundred times and exiled me to this place and transformed me to be looking like this.' That ugly yokai suddenly smiles. He points at his chest to me: 'Every seven days, my heart in the chest is stabbed through by flying swords. This pain never goes numb for hundreds of years.'

'I know I should not eat humans, but flowing-sand river is cold and starving. What else can I do except for eating humans? I was a good guy in heaven. I was reluctant to kill any living beings. At first when I was exiled, I knew I did something bad. I shouldn't have broken the treasure of Jade Emperor, but a murderer only dies once after being condemned. The pain will go away in their next life. What about me?'

His emotion is getting stronger and stronger. He is dragging the corner of his top outfit and pointing at the countless bruises on his chest. He shouts angrily one word after another: 'I have to die once every seven days! I can never be freed in all my lives!'

The ugly yokai's lips tremble: 'I don't want to believe that I can get a pardon now. Guanyin bodhisattva helps people among sufferings. I heard that you know the history and the future. Why don't you tell me whether or not I have done something off limits?'

I think, this honest nice man, is not the honest nice man in my definition.

Even the best tolerant person will have a time when he bursts.

What can I tell him? He just wants to ask me who did more wrongs, he or Jade Emperor but Jade Emperor is Jade Emperor. Even if Jade Emperor is wrong, he cannot bear others saying he is wrong. If Jade Emperor is wrong, I can backtalk about him secretly. If he hears me backtalking about him, he will do the same thing to me. He will not exile me and stab my heart with flying swords.

Our Western Paradise keeps distance with heaven usually. My words don't count in heaven. Moreover, is there a thing which has been defined as wrong and never happens again after?

So I tell him: 'No, you are not wrong. That glass vase is wrong. Any breakable glass vase is not a good glass vase.'

The yokai: '...'

He has been accumulating grievances for many years. He takes his chance of venting them out when he sees me. He has still not lost all his self-control. After my words, he finds he cannot shout anything out now.

He stares at me silently, and then at my weird disciple.

Huian says: 'Yeah, that was a celestial glass vase. It just broke easily, it must have a poor quality. If a celestial glass vase is the same as a glass vase in the mortal world, then heaven will lose its face. This was the fault of their purchasing office.'

My weird disciple sure enough understands me. He elaborates my words without any stiffness.

This is his first time speaking this many words since he became my disciple, and he is speaking to ease this embarrassing situation. I am so impressed.

That yokai murmurs: 'Is it, is it really that glass vase's fault?'

Huian gives the final word: 'That is the glass vase's fault.'

Then, I speak logically: 'Yes! You are not wrong, and you have contributed! I shall talk to Jade Emperor and ask him to take back those flying swords. I have looked at your bones and you have a promising future. Don't you want to join our Buddhism?'

My words sound like something from a pyramid selling organization. Even I myself am doubting if I have been infected by those in the Propaganda Committee.

When I wasn't speaking, this yokai thinks he is not wrong. After my words, he doubts and thinks he is wrong. He feels like he is in a dream and he looks up at me as if he cannot believe what just happened: 'But, but I have guilt. Guanyin bodhisattva can plead mercy for me but how dare I bring disgrace to Buddhism with my guilt?'

His words actually fit in with my plan well. I can continue my next lines now.

I say: 'How about this: you ask that scriptures taker from China who is going to India for scriptures to be his disciple. You protect him on his way to India. By the time you guys arrive in India, your guilt will be pardoned. You said that you will never kneel to any gods or buddhas now, but that scriptures taker is just a mortal human. He is going to India for Buddhist scriptures with his human body even if he knows there are many difficulties on his way. Don't you want to kneel to such a person? Since you want to join our Buddhism, why don't you have a Buddhist name? Let me name you, Sha Wujing.'

He looks at me with shock as he cannot believe. He opens his mouth and wants to speak. Yet he fails to speak any words. After a while, he suddenly kneels to the ground and cries: 'Sha Wujing kneels and appreciates bodhisattva!'

I am like: what use does you kneeling to me have? Even if I pardon you, I cannot change Jade Emperor this old dude to be a better god. You are a lucky guy, so I pardon you. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of unlucky dudes wanting to go to heaven. Although I am the Goddess of Mercy, I am not able to help any of those unlucky dudes.

I say to him: 'Things in this world do not have a simple right or wrong. Why don't you look at that scriptures taker? He just wants to get scriptures from India. His way is full of sweat. He was eaten by you once. The next life of his came to you again. He is the real brave person. You cannot let your heart die just because your heart is stabbed by flying swords. You are the kind of person who will have a bright future. You will become a buddha and help every living being out of the sufferings. Don't give up here.'

I have learned after Buddha. Now I can bullshit better at my improvisation.

Sha Wujing is crying and saying: 'I will not forget the kindness that Guanyin bodhisattva brought me in Buddhism and go to my grave remembering the kindness of Guanyin bodhisattva! Without bodhisattva's kindness, I would have rotted here with all the grievances in my heart! Even if I die, I will not...'

I don't know why but this feeling similar to "I will not let you off even if I die" has made me flustered.

I: '...Okay okay. Don't cry and take care of these skulls of the scriptures taker. They will be useful in the future.'

Sha Wujing is wiping his tears as he walks into the flowing-sand river. I am finally relieved.

At this moment, Huian standing next to me suddenly calls me: 'Shifu.'

He is silent after he called me.

I know Huian this dude. If he decides to swallow his next words, he will not say them even if he is beaten.

So, I am waiting for his next words patiently.

After a long period of time, he is looking at the water in flowing-sand river and the darkened gloomy sky. He says stuffily: 'Where is a coincidence in this world?'

Yeah. Where is a coincidence in this world? There is never a lucky coincidence of that I passed by here and helped out a wronged soul. Everything of everything has been written down by the upper beings.

I watch his face. He seems to realize something, but he is afraid of something that he didn't say it aloud.

I have been living with him for a long time. I know him just like he knows me.

I say to him: 'Now you know why your father paid so much to send you to me instead of keeping you in heaven.'

He glances at me and looks back to looking at the back of Sha Wujing: 'Yes.'

I watch his face and suddenly I feel his next words are too dangerous to be spoken.

As a result, before he says it, I warn him: 'No, you are never allowed to think like this. If you think like this, you will not be my disciple anymore.'

Although a weird disciple is weird, he is my disciple. After a moment of silence, he holds back and asks: 'Why?'

I say: 'Even if your thoughts are right, Sun Wukong is the biggest troublemaker in the world. If he says he is the No.2 biggest troublemaker, no one dares to claim as the No.1 biggest troublemaker. If you want to call a troublemaker a hero, then you go to be a small troublemaker under him!'

After that, I swing my arms angrily and leave, leaving Huian alone standing on the shore of flowing-sand river thinking about the truth of his life.

Huian calls behind me: 'So what!? This troublemaker will be under shifu now! Even if he is a troublemaker, he is shifu's, troublemaker!'

You're a traitorous disciple!

Now I begin to consider kicking him out of my teaching which I have been postponing for a long time.