Chapter 84: Confusion

Chapter 84: Bewilderment

Jingxin was unlike anyone he had ever met; though her visage was terrifying, her manner of speech was remarkably amiable.

Yet at this moment, Li Huowang would rather face this colossal, corpulent woman tearing into him alongside the rest, for at least then his mind might feel somewhat at ease.

Instead, she was smiling at him, as if everything she spoke of were the absolute truth.

"Could it truly be real?" Li Huowang began to panic, his thoughts spiraling into chaos, his expression twisting into sheer agony.

The air around him pressed in as though it were solid, suffocating him until even breathing became a struggle.

Various scenes flashed ceaselessly through his mind, but when the rolls of toilet paper Yang Na had given him that day surfaced in his thoughts, Li Huowang felt as though he had finally grasped an anchor.

"No! That's still wrong! A person might hallucinate an entire, complete world, but they could absolutely never hallucinate knowledge!"

All the knowledge he had acquired in high school began to flash rapidly through Li Huowang's mind.

Watching the young man before her clutch his head and mutter to himself.

A trace of pity surfaced on Abbess Jingxin's face. "Poor soul."

Yet regardless of what the other might think, Li Huowang quickly recovered; though his face bore the marks of exhaustion, his gaze had regained its resolve.

"I am Li Huowang! I have traveled across worlds, and that is beyond any doubt! I am not some delusional lunatic of this world, I am a transmigrator!! Absolutely!"

"It seems you have figured it out yourself? Do you believe what I say, or do you not?"

"Abbess Jingxin, let us not speak of your son any longer. To cut a long story short, just tell me exactly what a Xinsu is." Li Huowang began attempting to seize control of the conversation.

A fat finger with a cracked nail trembled as it pointed at Li Huowang's chest. "The Xinsu is you, encompassing the bewilderment in your heart, the karmic obstacles in your mind, and the karma upon your body."

"Judging by the scent of the things you carry on your back, you have killed quite a few people, haven't you? Then you are no longer an outsider, and you should know something about cultivating the formless arts. For any sect, apart from external objects, the most crucial aspect is one's own state of mind."

"The bewilderment and other karmic obstacles upon a Xinsu are far purer and more stable than those of ordinary people. Some sects require the bewilderment of a Xinsu to stabilize their state of mind, and even if they do not, selling a Xinsu to those who do can fetch a handsome fortune."

"State of mind? Emotions?"

Li Huowang immediately thought of the red bamboo slips demanding intense pain, and the monks of Zhengde Temple, with their obsession over beasts, flesh monsters, and illicit affairs between men.

It turned out everything they did followed a certain logic; for the first time, Li Huowang gained a preliminary understanding of the other supernatural abilities in this world.

"Some capture you for other things, but the vast majority capture you for the bewilderment within you, for only the heart of a Xinsu harbors constant bewilderment, something ordinary people simply cannot achieve."

Through these words, Li Huowang finally realized that human emotions in this world were not ethereal illusions, but things that could influence reality.

Human emotions could even be used as currency.

"My emotions of bewilderment can actually help others cultivate? But I am not bewildered at all right now. I am absolutely certain that the other side is an illusion and this place is reality. Even if I fall into an illusion again, I will never mistake that side for reality," Li Huowang declared resolutely.

Jingxin looked at Li Huowang, a faint, indifferent smile appearing on her face. "Really? Well then, if you think so, so be it. This old nun is too lazy to argue with you. You may leave."

"Leave?" Hearing the dismissal, Li Huowang immediately realized he had not yet attended to his main business; he had not come here merely to learn about the Xinsu.

"Abbess Jingxin, I came this time to ask you to exorcise an evil spirit."

Compared to the trouble the other spoke of, Danyang Zi was clearly far more dangerous, and his very purpose in coming was to eliminate him.

One had to survive first before worrying about going mad; if Danyang Zi took over his body, there would be no future to worry about anyway.

"Ah? So you did not come to ask me for a solution regarding the Xinsu? Then what were you chatting about just now? Could you not just ask about the real business directly?" Abbess Jingxin's face fell, looking somewhat displeased.

After offering his apologies, Li Huowang began to meticulously recount the entire sequence of events to Jingxin.

"Ascended to immortality? Someone actually ascended to immortality in these times?"

Murmuring to herself, Jingxin then pulled two ox-horn-shaped divination blocks from beneath her nun's cap and began muttering as she cast them.

After staring at them for a long while, she continued to scrutinize Li Huowang's face with her two eyeless, pitch-black sockets.

Just as Li Huowang began to feel deeply uncomfortable under her gaze, Abbess Jingxin suddenly spoke. "On the day he ascended, you didn't eat your master, did you?"

"Huh?" Li Huowang was completely baffled by the question.

"How could I possibly eat him? If I had a way to deal with Danyang Zi, would I have bothered perishing together with him back then?"

"Mm..." Jingxin offered no rebuttal, but simply nodded quietly.

With a flick of her right hand, Li Huowang instantly felt his entire body become unbearably greasy and uncomfortable, and he could feel something moving beneath his skin.

"Do not wipe it off. Endure it."

Maintaining this for the time it took two incense sticks to burn, Jingxin finally spoke.

"I have a method to eliminate your master, but it will cause a massive depletion of merit and my dharma instruments. So, why should I help you?"

Li Huowang was taken aback for a moment, then immediately realized she was asking for a reward.

Yet with such straightforward demands, he actually found her more credible than the abbot of Zhengde Temple with his grand speeches about saving all sentient beings.

He quickly laid the Heavenly Book, the gourd containing his lifespan, and the red bamboo slips on the ground.

"As long as it can get rid of Danyang Zi, you may choose whatever you like from these."

After Li Huowang brought out these items, he never expected to be met with extreme disdain from Jingxin.

"What kind of junk is this? Take it away! Especially that Record of the Great Thousand, take it as far away as possible, lest it defile the grounds of our Anci Nunnery!"

She seemed utterly repulsed by the red bamboo slips, and Li Huowang learned the name of the slips for the first time.

After saying this, an expression of extreme greed actually surfaced on her aged face. "I smell the scent of gold on you."

Hearing this, Li Huowang immediately caught on. "No problem. I will supply that gold to the Bodhisattvas of Anci Nunnery shortly, to gild their golden bodies."

The moment money was mentioned, Jingxin's demeanor seemed to change into that of an entirely different person; all her previous amiability vanished, replaced by a highly calculating nature.

"Oh, and there is silver too. I also smell the scent of silver, and I want that as well. Besides these worldly possessions, I also need you to find something for me."

(End of Chapter)