You're Saying I Have Buddha-Nature?
For three days Yi Yeok and his companions pressed on without rest, until at last a small village showed itself in the distance, crouched at the edge of a desert where yellow sandstorms tore across the wastes.
The village was packed to bursting. It looked as though people had flooded in not only from the place itself, but from every settlement for miles around.
"What's going on?" Hwan Do muttered.
"Don't tell me they've picked up our trail," Yi Yeok said, sweeping a look around them. "The net's spread pretty wide. Seems they knew we'd come in this way."
Heukmok spoke up. "I do not believe they are after any of you."
"And how would you know that?" Yi Yeok asked, puzzled.
"There are far too many of them, and not a capable one among the lot."
"Then why's a crowd like this gathered?" Hwan Rang demanded, unable to make sense of it.
"For the preaching of the faith, I should think."
"Preaching?"
"Yes. Missionary monks will likely arrive before long, to convert those who are not yet disciples of the Buddha and to drive the devotion of those who already are still deeper."
Hwan Mong nodded. "Then we clear out before they get here. Move."
In that instant a tremendous bell-peal rolled down out of the sky, and more than ten monks came flying through the air with it. Hwan Mong clicked her tongue.
"Too late."
The monks touched down without a sound. They were of another order entirely from the ones Yi Yeok's party had clashed with before. The Buddhist aura pouring off them was far thicker, and their strength looked every bit as formidable.
"They appear to be of the higher Buddhist order," Heukmok said quietly.
"Not the sort we can afford to take lightly," Hwan Do said, his face gone grave.
There were thirteen of them in all. Twelve wore crimson monastic robes. A single old monk in yellow seemed to lead them.
Heukmok slid from Yi Yeok's shoulder and burrowed into the fold of his robes, plainly unwilling to catch their eyes.
All around, people dropped flat and offered devout salutations.
"Namu Amitabha."
The old monk pressed his palms together, inclined his body, and intoned scripture. His voice spread in every direction like the stroke of a great bell.
A crease cut itself between Yi Yeok's brows. The power was staggering. For a moment even he felt a peace and a mercy in it, as though a man might pass his whole life in quiet safety at that old monk's side.
When the monk lowered his head, Yi Yeok saw nine precepts set above it. If what Hwan Do had explained before was true, the man was a powerhouse nearly the match of one who had received twelve.
Interesting. Yi Yeok drew his focus in tight.
Everyone who had gathered went to their knees and paid their respects. In the end only Yi Yeok's party was left standing.
Blood-qi churned through Hwan Rang's body, as if he were ready to spring into a fight at any instant.
"Well. This is awkward," Yi Yeok said under his breath.
The monks' eyes flashed as they fixed on the group. Only the old monk kept his gaze mild. A faint smile touched his mouth, and he settled it on Yi Yeok.
"You come from the Daoist way of the East."
"That's right," Yi Yeok answered curtly. Hwan Mong and the others drew tight, ready either to fight or to run.
But what the old monk said next was nothing any of them had expected.
Yi Yeok was briefly thrown. Had the old man sensed the aura of the sarira he carried?
"And if I don't take refuge?"
"Every affair of this world is suffering, and all of it is empty dust. You share a karmic bond with the Buddhist path. Stubbornness will not let you slip free of it."
Yi Yeok was silent a moment. "And if I were some vicious heretic—could I still take refuge?"
Hae Rim answered with a smile. "Of course. All things are fate, and the Buddhist path saves those bound to it by karma. If you repent with a sincere heart, what does it matter that you lived a vicious life through the first half of your years?"
"You'd take me even if I were a murderer? What if I'd harmed hundreds of innocent people?"
"That is no obstacle. You need only repent sincerely."
The smile had a way of disarming a person, gentle as a kindly grandfather's. Yi Yeok, however, went on in a tone that grew steadily more mocking.
"So if I repent sincerely to your order, the hundreds of innocents who died by my hand will forgive me too?"
"They will."
"Even if I'd harmed your daughter?"
A faint line appeared between Hae Rim's brows. He shook his head. "This humble monk has lived for the Buddhist path alone, and has no family."
"Fine. Then say I've taken refuge, and a worldly desire stirs in me. What then?"
For the first time, something flustered crossed Hae Rim's face. "I do not take your meaning."
"You take it."
"I said I do not."
"I know. You know. And I know that you know."
Hae Rim's face set hard.
"The old saying has it that once food and clothing are seen to, what comes next is the pleasure of yin and yang. Eat the finest food, wear the finest robes—without that particular joy, how is a man supposed to go on living?"
"Guard your tongue!"
"I truly am curious. How do the people of the Buddhist order handle urges like that? It's not as if you're cutting the thing off."
By now the mockery was plain to anyone with ears. Color climbed hot into Hae Rim's face.
"Silence! I'll tear that insolent mouth of yours apart!"
"Do you see to it yourselves? Or do you lend one another a hand? What about you? You don't look particularly young—wouldn't either way be a little shameful? Or do you slip off and relieve yourself where no one can see? Do the Buddhist lands of the Western Regions keep brothels?"
Hae Rim's lips trembled, and the hand clenched around his staff went white.
"You spew sophistry. So you wish to die!"
The merciful air vanished in an instant. Hae Rim's face twisted into that of a malicious ghost.
Yi Yeok did not stop. "Sophistry? Is there anything in this world more certain than the principle of yin and yang? Your order claims to save people, and yet you'd kill a man for speaking the truth?"
"Silence!"
Hae Rim raised his staff high.
"Heretics deserve to die!"
Yi Yeok's party broke apart at once. Even as they scattered, Hwan Mong and the others could not hold back their laughter. None of them had imagined that Yi Yeok's mouth could rattle even a powerhouse of the higher Buddhist order.
Light converged behind Hae Rim, burst like a sun, and crashed down over Yi Yeok. The force of it was so vast that a mere graze would have shattered a body to pieces.