On the next morning, two figures stood on a stone peak at Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture in northeast Japan.
Chiba Yoshiko stood next to Ye Chen respectfully. She introduced slowly while looking at the scenery around her, “Master, this is Mount Koya!”
Ye Chen stood with his hands behind his back. He looked into the distance and saw mountains surrounded by lush trees. The terrain looked like a lotus blooming.
He could not help but praise, “The scenery isn’t too shabby, it’s a place worth visiting.”
“Master, Mount Koya has a history of 1,200 years. More than ten years ago, it was classified as the World Cultural Heritage by the United Nations. It’s one of the three sacred mountains of Japan!”
Chiba Yoshiko continued, “To be precise, Mount Koya is one of the two major Buddhism towns in Japan because it’s the main mountain of Japan’s Buddhism branch.”
“A holy land of Buddhism?”
Ye Chen could not help but look at her.
“That’s right!”
Chiba Yoshiko nodded and said, “The Japanese Buddhism is divided into Dongmi and Tangmi. Dongmi was created by the Japanese Kobo Daishi Kukai who asked Emperor Saga to grant Mount Koya.
The corresponding Tangmi is Mount Hiei in Kyoto. Mount Hiei was created by Master Chuanfa after he returned from Tiantai Sect from the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, Mount Hiei and Mount Koya are known as the two great Buddhism towns of Japan.
These two important towns have inherited the Buddhist teachings, vanquished demons and devils, as well as saving the world. They are called mana monks!”
She could not help but look at Ye Chen carefully when she said, “Why did master ask me to bring you to Mount Koya? Could it be that master believes in Buddhism too?”
She was really confused. Ye Chen had asked her to bring him around early in the morning. Eventually, he went to Reigao. To her, Ye Chen was the master of killing all living things. It was completely in conflict with Buddhism’s philosophy of not killing.
“I’m here to look for an old friend of mine.”
Ye Chen’s eyes revealed a trace of reminiscence.
Instead of saying that Demon Blade Muramasa escaped, it was better to say that he let them go on purpose because only the three gods knew where Night Demon was. If he killed all of them, the clues would be cut off.
However, Ye Chen was confused!
The mark he left on the Demon Blade Muramasa had disappeared, so there were only two outcomes. The first was that a mighty figure had helped Demon Blade Muramasa remove the Divine Consciousness mark he had left behind, or Demon Blade Muramasa was dead.
Ye Chen would rather believe that it was the latter.
However, he was sure that the Divine Consciousness mark that he left on Demon Blade Muramasa’s body had disappeared in Mount Koya.
Just as he was deep in thought, Chiba Yoshiko became even more curious.
‘Looking for an old friend?
Could master’s friend have become a monk in Mount Koya?’
“Let’s go!”
Ye Chen lifted his feet and walked slowly towards the Kongobuji in the mountain.
Half an hour later, the two of them reached the temple on the mountain. Instead of calling it a temple, it was more like a small mountain town where countless temples were gathered. As far as the eye could see, it was filled with temples.
Ye Chen stood before the largest temple. He lifted his head and looked at the two stone tablets before him. It was written, “The Shingon Buddhism of Mount Koya, the Kongobuji’s main mountain!”
It was written in Chinese characters with strong strokes.
“This is strange. It has always been visited by countless people from all over the world. Why isn’t there anyone here today?”
Chiba Yoshiko looked around and saw that the temple and the various courtyards were silent, “I didn’t even see a single monk.”
“It’s simple, because someone is waiting for us!”
A playful smile flashed through Ye Chen’s eyes. He then took a step forward and said calmly, “Mad Southern Ye of China is passing by this temple. I’m here to pay my respect!”
His voice contained a mysterious intent. When he said the word ‘Chi’, Chiba Yoshiko, who was beside him, heard it very normally. However, when the word ‘na’ came out, it turned into a thunderous sound that exploded in her ears.
Every sound that followed was like thunder.
Pu!
In the end, even though she used her hands to cover her ears, she could still hear a loud boom. She could not help but spit a mouthful of blood, and her face was filled with shock.
Boom!
The fallen leaves and thunder roared as they danced in the air. It was as if a strong gust of wind had swept past them, as if countless locusts were entrenched in the sky.
When the thunderclap fell, a series of footsteps came from the end of the stone steps. Following that, two monks wearing white robe and bamboo hats walked down with monk staff in their hands.
The leading monk stopped slowly when he was less than five steps away from Ye Chen. He bowed and said, “Greetings to the China No. 1 and East Asia No. 1, Mad Southern Ye. Our temple’s abbot, Wisdom King, has been waiting for you!
Please come with us!”
The two of them nodded and turned around to leave.
Ye Chen followed them like he was taking a stroll. They went up the stone steps and passed through the long corridor. Eventually, they stopped at the entrance of a slightly solemn hall.
The two monks said, “Your Excellency Mad Southern Ye, the abbot is inside. You may go in. However, this lady can’t. She’s against the temple’s rules.”
“Wait for me here!”
Ye Chen glanced at Chiba Yoshiko. He pushed open the door to the main hall and stepped out. At the same time, the door closed slowly.
The hall was about 200 square meters wide, and there was a golden pillar in each of the four directions. There were all kinds of birds, beasts, insects, and fish carved on the pillars, and there were all kinds of altars and Buddha statues placed around it.
In front of the hall stood a Buddha statue that was over nine meters tall. The Buddha statue was solemn like a Buddha that took pity on the world.
And on the mat beneath the Buddha statue, there was a white-browed old monk dressed in white robe.
Almost when Ye Chen looked at the old man, the white-browed old monk turned around and said while smiling, “Esteemed guest, you’ve come from afar. Please take a seat!”
The moment he finished speaking, a meditation cushion moved without any wind as it dashed straight at Ye Chen.
After Ye Chen sat down with his legs crossed, another table hovered over. There was a tea set on the table that emitted the fragrance of tea.
“This is Mount Koya’s unique fragrant tea. Please try it!”
Ye Chen did not reject it. He picked up the cup of tea and drank it after taking a sniff. He said while smiling, “It’s bitter but not astringent. It gladdens my heart. This is good tea!”
“My Dharma name is Wisdom King. I’m the abbot of the Kongobuji in Mount Koya!”
The white-browed old monk had a calm expression as he spoke in extremely pure Mandarin, “I didn’t expect the most popular person in East Asia to come to Mount Koya!”
Ye Chen said with a faint smile when he saw him reveal his identity, “Haven’t you monks been living in the mountains for a long time? Aren’t you otherworldly? Why would you pay attention to the current affairs of the world?”
“No, no!”
Wisdom King shook his head slightly. His intelligent eyes seemed to be able to see through the entire world, “What we cultivate is the heart. What’s the heart? In this penniless monk’s view, the heart is the world. Since we cultivate the world, why don’t we pay attention to the world? Get close to the world?”
“Since you’re paying attention to the world, you must know what I’ve been doing recently!”
Ye Chen lifted his eyes and looked at him fixedly, “Logically speaking, I’ve killed countless people since I came to Japan. You guys should hate me and resent me. Why did you invite me here and treat me with affection?”