Dragon Canon

Two beams of golden light descended from the sky, and two warriors emerged from them. They were much bigger and taller than the average human being and clad from head to toe in heavy armor. One of them was wielding a big saber, and the other a heavy axe. The ground trembled with every footstep.

As soon as the two warriors appeared, they spotted the three corpses in front of the temple and flew into a rage. “You lot are the ones who killed the Great King’s only son? You even killed his two attendants as well! Do you know the gravity of the crime?”

The hunter San Kui stuck out his chin defiantly and said, “I killed a white wolf. Who knew it would turn into a human? Is your Great King a wolf?”

One of the warriors sneered coldly. “Our Great King, Yue Sheng[1], was originally a white wolf who took human form thirty thousand years ago. He once served as the Bodhisattva’s mount and guarded the lamps at the foot of the Spirit Mountain. He had long attained Buddhahood, which is why his only son was born a human!”

The hunter said, “I don’t care. I killed a wolf. The wolf ate my stuff, so it’s only natural that I killed it!”

Listening from the side, Wei Yuan quietly tugged at the girl’s sleeve and whispered, “Has Uncle San Kui always been this stubborn?”

“Yes, he’s the most stubborn of us all. Nothing anyone says will change his mind.”

Wei Yuan asked again, “But what if those two giants really do attack?”

“The Dharma master is here, so they won’t lay a hand on us. In this place, reason is the only thing that matters.”

At the moment, Wei Yuan was feeling an indescribable sense of uncanniness and unease. It was as if his consciousness had split into two parts: one part, like the villagers, believed all this to be perfectly natural, while the other found everything to be utterly unreasonable.

Sure enough, the two warriors flew into a rage and shouted, “Young Master transformed into a wolf purely to practice his shape-shifting abilities. Even if he’s harmed your village’s livestock, those are mindless beasts—how can they be compared to Young Master, who was born with a human form?”

“Shapeshift or not, in the end, he can only shapeshift into us humans, can he not?” San Kui taunted.

The two warriors grew even more furious. One of them retorted, “Young Master was born with a human form, and both his Ariya-phala and karma are far above you lot, who are still trapped in the sea of bitterness! You’ve been studying Buddhism for thousands of years, and for what? Have you fed all that learning to the pigs?”

The other warrior hurriedly interjected, “Watch your tongue! If Lord Yue Sheng hears this, he’ll have your skin flayed!”

San Kui spat on the ground and said, “No matter who comes, there’s no arguing with the truth! If a wolf kills my sheep, then I’ll kill it in return—it’s that simple!”

His spit landed squarely on the young master’s corpse, finally provoking the two warriors to breaking point. One of them swung his big saber and slashed at San Kui’s head!

The young monk voiced a Buddhist chant and sighed.

A golden glow suddenly enveloped San Kui, making him look as if he were coated in gold. The saber struck his body and sent him flying into the air. The warrior who swung the blade had given it his all, but all he got for his effort was the skin on the palm of his hands splitting open, and his blood staining the hilt red.

San Kui stuck his chin out at the warrior and sneered, “Well? Can’t kill me, can you? You actually thought that the likes of you can take me on? Your Great King could show up in person, and it still wouldn’t do any good!”

The other warrior held back his struggling comrade and said to the young monk, “Monk, how can sentient beings be equal to mindless beasts? If someone killed one of your chickens, would you go and kill the culprit?”

The injured warrior, furious, roared at the monk, “Exactly! If someone steps on your foot, does that mean you have the right to kill his whole family?”

At that moment, a tall, burly woman stepped forward from the villagers and pointed a finger at the two warriors, shouting, “Yes I do! That’s the price for stepping on my foot! What’s wrong with San Kui hunting a few wild animals? It’s your young master and his attendants’ fault for giving up being human and turning into beasts!”

Wei Yuan looked at the woman, whose presence was every bit as imposing as the hunter’s, and remembered that she was Uncle San Kui’s wife. She was the second most powerful figure in the village, inferior only to the village chief. No one dared to cross her.

One of the warriors ignored the woman and pressed the monk, “What do you say, monk?”

The young monk pressed his palms together and said, “It was an unintentional mistake....”

The warrior sneered, “An unintentional mistake. You say? So killing someone by accident doesn’t count as murder, is that it? To think that a monk would spout such nonsense! If he hadn’t been Greedy and Angry[2], how would my young master have died? We’re not smart enough to argue with you, so we can only ask the Great King to settle this.”

Bathed in golden light, the two warriors shot off into the sky after saying this.

Wei Yuan felt a twinge of worry and quietly asked the girl, “Is their Great King very powerful?”

“I don’t know. The Great King is different every time. Some are powerful, and some are just average.”

Wei Yuan found the girl’s answer to be quite strange, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was odd about it.

Seeing that the warriors had left, the villagers prepared to disperse. The hunter San Kui wanted to say something to the young monk, but the woman yanked him away while muttering incessantly, “The Dharma master will protect us. Why else did we pay him enough offerings to feed several growing boys each year?”

Wei Yuan had assumed the Great King wouldn’t return until tomorrow at the earliest, but before the villagers had even dispersed, a thick beam of golden light suddenly fell from the sky. The next moment, a man with long limbs and silver hair stepped out of the light. He was two zhang tall and had to bend down just to look at the monk.

This was just the beginning. More golden lights descended from the sky and transforming into warriors, surrounding the small temple. Surprisingly, these warriors were all humanoid in shape and possessed no traces of demonic features whatsoever—though some were exceptionally tall and burly, while others had flushed faces and bulging, angry eyes like that of the Vajrapanis inside the temple.

Great King Yue Sheng looked at the young monk and said, “Lian Xin[3], we had debated Buddhist sutras for seven days back then, and I had thought we were friends. I never imagined that the people you protect would actually kill my only son. Haha.”

The monk sighed and said, “The mind of a mortal is clouded; it is inevitable that they may act unwisely....”

“Let’s leave the debate for later. Right now, I want to check how much Dharma power[4] you still have left!”

Great King Yue Sheng suddenly drew his long saber. A flash of blade sliced through the world like a bolt of lightning, appearing and vanishing in an instant!

Hunter San Kui let out a piercing scream. The golden light surrounding him had appeared a split second too late, allowing a gash to suddenly appear on his face, and a jet of blood to spurt from his left eye!

Great King Yue Sheng sheathed his saber and shook his head, sighing. “What a pity. I was this close to avenging my son.”

Seeing San Kui clutching his face and collapsing to the ground, the fierce woman flew into a frenzy. She screamed and charged at Great King Yue Sheng, determined to fight him to the death.

Saber light flashed from the great king’s hands once more, but this time it failed to cut through the golden light surrounding the woman. He stopped striking and instead ordered two of his warriors to block her path.

A golden light was shielding the woman’s body, protecting her from even Yue Sheng’s strike, let alone the two warriors. However, the woman was really just a mortal, so she could not possibly harm the two warriors. Thus, a stalemate ensued, though the woman’s shouts and curses only grew louder as if she would never tire.

Yue Sheng looked at the monk and said, “The more you protect them, the more evil they commit, yet you alone must bear the consequences of all their misdeeds. How much longer can you bear this burden, I wonder? Oh wait, that’s not right. Your descendants will have to bear it with you as well. Speaking of which, I’m curious: are your descendants even aware of their fates? Are they truly willing to share this karmic burden with you? Or have you never told them the truth?”

Yue Sheng continued, “Mortals are ignorant; they’ll say something like, ‘This is a sin worth eight lifetimes of misfortune!’ But you and I both know that eight lifetimes is nowhere enough for your descendants to absolve yours, haha.”

After that, Yue Sheng looked at each villager in turn, as if they were pieces of meat on a chopping block. The villagers finally felt fear and instinctively took a few steps back. As his gaze swept over them, Yue Sheng spotted Wei Yuan and the girl.

“This pair looks quite well-matched, but I can’t stand seeing anyone’s marital bliss fulfilled. I’ll start by cutting you two down first!”

No sooner had Yue Sheng finished speaking than a dazzling flash of saber shot from his hand, slashing down on Wei Yuan’s head!

There was a clang. Wei Yuan blocked the blow by holding up a golden cauldron with both hands.

1. Literally meaning Moon Sage. ☜

2. I capitalized these because they specifically refer to two of the Three Poisons of Buddhism. Greedy in this case would be Attachment, and Angry would be Aversion. The last poison would Delusion. ☜

3. literally meaning “Lotus Heart.” ☜

4. This is the Buddhist equivalent of mystic energy/power. ☜