Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Moon Ritual
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Nangong Clan's stage and the Spirit Moon Festival's stage were on opposite banks of the river.
It seemed only the three of them—Wi Sowol included—could sense the energy waves spreading from across the river.
[Sowol.]
[Little Moon.]
Telepathic messages from Seon Woo Hyun and Hwangbo Yun reached her almost simultaneously.
Those two wouldn't miss the energy waves, even from a fair distance.
Wi Sowol responded matter-of-factly.
[Leave the Nangong Clan to you.]
Just as in her past life, the Nangong Clan would hold out on their own.
Their forces ranked among the top of the Eight Great Clans.
Even in the worst case, they could buy time.
Wi Sowol looked down at the crowd gazing up at her from the stage.
She saw their fervent prayers resonating with the energies of heaven and earth.
All of them longed for something from her.
The dance linking the moon and the land.
The rite lifting their prayers to the moon in the sky.
To soothe the moon goddess who had lost her husband and beauty.
And to pray that her blessings would descend upon the earth, bringing abundance and fertility.
They prayed toward Wi Sowol.
Toward Hantara.
Even as Wi Sowol received their prayers, she didn't let Baek Ha at the back of the stage slip from her senses.
There were still no unusual movements from Baek Ha.
Not just Baek Ha—Seon Woo Hyun and Hwangbo Yun, guarding opposite sides away from Wi Sowol, reported nothing as well.
They probably saw her as just an ordinary physician, waiting patiently for their turn.
In that case, she should continue the flow for now.
'...Please make your move already.'
Anyone—Baek Ha or whoever—as long as these Mijinhyang rabble revealed their fangs sooner.
Wi Sowol's prayer mingled with the crowd's, and her body began to move slowly.
Her deeply exhaled breath shattered in the moonlight.
Mysteriously, though the night wasn't cold yet, her breath turned to ice and scattered.
Awe filled the crowd's eyes.
Thoughts that Hantara was truly here filled their hearts.
Wi Sowol's arms rose in a graceful arc.
Her wide sleeves flowed softly with the motion.
Her wrists peeked out, moonlight gleaming on her snow-white skin.
The twelve silk layers of her Moon Flower Brocade fluttered, scattering their enchanting hues.
A light more moonlit than moonlight enveloped Wi Sowol's body.
The people no longer looked up at the moon.
There was no need to raise their heads.
The moon had descended to earth.
Though she'd only seen it once, every motion of Wi Sowol perfectly matched the dance of the woman she'd witnessed at Ryu Yeonseo's home.
All that remained was the Ascension.
Wi Sowol would step back, and Baek Ha, prepared in advance, would appear and rise to the heavens.
But Wi Sowol had no intention of yielding the stage to Baek Ha.
If they weren't going to move, then just watch.
It didn't matter that her inner energy was limited.
Even with her scant inner energy, the Green Shadow Step made her body feather-light as it lifted her upward.
The moment Wi Sowol's foot touched the silken threads prepped by the Nangong Clan—
The winds of change finally blew.
The energies transformed by the people's thoughts began twisting under some will.
"Bright King descends upon the world, Eternal Mother without birth, return to the origin."
⟨ White Lotus Secret Chant ⟩
With Baek Ha's incantation, the form of the wishes within the energies warped.
The energies, made far more malleable by each person's differing desires, were kneaded effortlessly by someone's hand.
Mind is principle, principle is energy.
Conversely, energy could become principle, and principle, mind.
The White Lotus Cult's secret heart mantra.
Heart, nature, energy, essence, witchcraft—all conjoined.
As the incantation was recited, the energies reversed flow, stripping the will from those fervently praying in an instant.
At the same time, telepathic messages pierced Wi Sowol's ears from both sides.
[Sowol, they're here!]
[Little Moon, we'll wrap up quickly and join you.]
As expected.
Was all this just her overreaction?
Wi Sowol let out a hollow chuckle.
With power like this, how had they failed to annihilate the Nangong Clan?
More than frustration, that absurd question arose first.
One person emerged leisurely from behind the stage.
The culprit of this chaos, Baek Ha.
She looked at those who had lost their will and fallen unconscious at her few words, then spoke.
"The common folk are so pitiable. They have no lives of their own, merely swayed by misguided rulers."
Baek Ha's eyes swept the crowd with poignant sorrow.
Within them lay pure compassion.
And the sense of duty that she must save them.
"This world is flawed. They live in it, accumulating sins they never wanted, suffering endlessly. Guiding them to the Pure Land is our role."
Wi Sowol's immediate assessment spilled from her lips.
"Arrogant."
What gave her the right?
How grand could the White Lotus teachings be?
They presumed to judge others' lives, pity them, and claim to end their suffering with salvation.
"If your White Lotus cult bases itself on Buddhist teachings, you should know this: True Thusness Realm. No other, no self."
The realm of truth is thus, neither you nor I.
But this doesn't mean true absence of self and other.
Even with self and other, it's the boundless realm born of not clinging to self.
Conversely, in this Saha world outside that realm, we each have our own domains.
All begins with one's own existence.
Thus, everything starts from the appearance of self.
My thoughts measure the world.
What I feel is the world's right and wrong.
No one has the right to define me.
Even before studying sutras, as Wi Soil in her past life, Wi Sowol had instinctively believed this.
Even a life aimless as duckweed was hers.
So on that day, facing the heavens asking if she regretted it, Wi Sowol had cried out without hesitation: I do not regret.
It was she, not heaven, who decided if that life was regrettable.
Yet this woman dared to judge others' lives at will.
Denying the moments they'd lived fiercely, deeming them meaningless acts.
Belittling them as pitiable and worthless, pitying them arbitrarily, deciding for them, wielding them as she pleased.
Nausea welled up.
She could deal with evil sect folk.
But not these.
Heterodox path.
Straying from the way.
At least, Wi Sowol was not of their kind.
"And yet you truly believe that is true benevolence?"
Her final question.
With this, Wi Sowol had no intention of conversing further with this heretic.
Baek Ha, unaware of her inner thoughts, nodded calmly.
"Indeed. Salvation leads to the Pure Land free of pain, coercion, or threat. You qualify. When I saw you, I felt it—you're like me. One who glimpses the world's laws and constantly questions this flawed realm."
For the first time, light flickered in Wi Sowol's eyes at her words.
Were they true?
Had this woman truly glimpsed the secret within Wi Sowol?
"You are worthy of the Pure Land. Infinite goodness. Home of truth. Eternal womb. Join us to punish those upholding this flawed world and save the ignorant and pitiable."
Baek Ha spread her arms wide, as if to embrace Wi Sowol.
Expressing joy at welcoming a spiritual comrade.
Wi Sowol cast the doubt her words aroused into her own heart.
Had Baek Ha truly seen something in her?
Or was it mere drivel to achieve her goal?
She had to know.
The truth of those words.
What Baek Ha claimed to see in her.
But the time for questions had ended.
Wi Sowol had no desire to hear more from Baek Ha.
So she would verify it herself.
See it herself.
For all standards were her own.
Enlightenment was already prepared.
Thoughts on her changed self and world while lying on the bed in the Weird Physician's safehouse.
Realizing, through meeting countless people, that each was utterly unique.
Hwangbo Yun's discerning gaze and others' ways of seeing her.
All that remained was to thread them together.
The final piece needed was a single thread to bind them.
Now, Wi Sowol grasped it.
Faith.
Fierce faith and will toward herself became the thread, linking the accumulated pearls of insight.
A wondrous veil, like transparent water, covered Wi Sowol's eyes.
The world is seen only through one's own two eyes.
If the self doesn't change, what those eyes see doesn't change.
To see what she hadn't before, the eyes themselves must change.
In Wi Sowol's eyes, things unseen until now began faintly shimmering like moonlight.
The ripples of formless emotions.
Thoughts unformed by words.
And she reversed the gaze others cast upon her back onto themselves.
'Clouds scatter, empty sky clears, solitary moon revealed in purity (雲散空淨 獨露嬋娟), flawless and round, self-complete (皎潔無瑕體自圓).'
As the essentials aligned, the core image of the eye technique stood clear.
Non-Self Observing World.
Not I observing the world.
World Manifesting in Me.
'Unshaken, surveying all heavens, piercing boundless ends, heart encompassing great thousand worlds (不動歷周天 照徹無邊 心意兼大千).'
Like the water surface reflecting the heavens above.
From now on, her eyes would hold the world like water.
Imbuing that intent fully, she named it.
'Bright Dew Mirror.'
Illuminating with clear droplets.
Through the essentials, infusing intent into energy, the Great White Light True Qi responded to its master's heart, reshaping the body's structure for perceiving and receiving the world beyond the face.
Man cannot see where there is no light.
But illuminating even lightless places, nothing could hide from Wi Sowol's eyes now.
And with it.
Wi Sowol pierced the truth of Baek Ha's words.
"As expected, it was a lie."
A sense of emptiness that she'd known it, and self-mockery for harboring faint expectations.
And simultaneously, Wi Sowol's sword slashed toward Baek Ha's chest.
It was a flash like a beam of light.
Baek Ha couldn't dodge the blade entering her wide-open arms.
And what burst forth was not a spray of red blood.
Instead, white, red, and yellow powders scattered wildly, disrupting the moonlight.
"A lime-burner, huh."