Chapter 116: Discussing Zen with the Tree Demon (Part Two)

The tree demon was bewildered. If a person does not act for their own benefit, then heaven and earth will not tolerate them. He had always believed this.

“But why? When the old monk asked me to save him back then, he didn’t say this,” the tree demon recalled the past.

Back then, he was still a young demon, nearly struck dead by heavenly thunder. A monk had saved him, vowing to use the monastery’s monks as a guarantee to reform the tree demon. The gods made a pact: if the monk failed to reform him, the tree demon would claim the life of one of the monks.

In the end, the monk succeeded.

“But before he died, he told me, ‘If a person does not act for themselves, heaven and earth will punish them. My own salvation was for the sake of becoming a Buddha.’” The tree demon admitted this truth, staring intently at Shen Shi. This was his inner torment.

After hearing this, Shen Shi understood why the tree demon had become the ancient tree spirit. That monk had trapped the world.

As Shen Shi had said earlier, this was the tragedy of a changing world.

Buddhism, as one of the ancient great teachings, had a profound understanding of the way heaven operates. Because of this understanding, they established eight hundred subsidiary sects and achieved sainthood.

However, these “subsidiary sects” represented shortcuts—special Buddhist teachings born from particular eras and circumstances. When the times changed, those old methods no longer worked. Focusing only on external practices without cultivating oneself internally, that monk could not have “become a Buddha,” nor even lived two more days.

The monk realized this before death and thus spoke kindly to the tree demon, hoping to guide him onto the right path.

Alas!

“Have you ever read the ‘Sutra on the Ten Wholesome Ways of Action’?” Shen Shi asked.

Of course, the abbot had not; this sutra was a lecture from a later master, inaccessible in this era. Without waiting for an answer, Shen Shi continued, “It is natural and righteous for a person to act for themselves. If one does not, heaven and earth will punish them. But what Buddhism means is this: not killing, not stealing, not committing sexual misconduct, not lying, not divisive speech, not harsh speech, not idle chatter, not covetousness, not anger, and not wrong views—that is truly ‘acting for oneself.’ Not creating new evil consequences for oneself, not bringing about new misfortunes—that is ‘acting for oneself.’ Only in this way will one avoid punishment from heaven and earth.

In the phrase ‘If a person does not act for themselves, heaven and earth will punish them,’ the ‘acting for oneself’ requires that one follows moral principles.

By this logic, the ‘self’ in ‘acting for oneself’ does not mean personal gain as commonly understood. Not only fame and profit are not ‘self,’ but neither are one’s wife or family. According to Buddhist teachings, those who truly act for ‘self’ are detached from fame and profit, transcending worldly desires, and conduct themselves with proper measure...”

“This... how could it be like this?” The tree demon’s expression changed drastically.

After thousands of years, his deepest torment was simply a misunderstanding?

Shen Shi didn’t give him a chance to dwell on it. Seizing the moment, he shared a Buddhist parable, pointing to a flag fluttering in the corner of the temple yard.

“The wind blows, the flag flaps. Do you say the wind moves or the flag moves?”

A young monk answered quickly, “Of course, the wind moves.”

Shen Shi shook his head slightly.

An old monk said, “Is it the flag moving?”

Shen Shi shook his head again.

Another monk ventured, “Then what is moving? The world?”

Shen Shi looked up and said, “It is your mind that moves.”

This Buddhist story was well known even in Shen Shi’s later modern era. Things change according to our will—not in their essence, but in how we subjectively judge their goodness or badness. Shen Shi used this Zen principle to tell the tree demon that “if a person does not act for themselves, heaven and earth will punish them” was not what he thought; the principle remained the same, only the mind that applies it changed.

Bao Zheng clapped his hands, “Well said!” He admired Shen Shi’s storytelling skill. Like the tragic love story of the ghost woman, it moved him deeply.

Wang Chao’s Ma Han laughed heartily, “Lord Shen is formidable!”

For a moment, their spirits soared like stars shining brightly.

But the abbot’s body flickered with an unclear Buddha light, dim and bright in turns, a demonic aura slowly emerging. It seemed something was about to appear.

Was this a moment of turning to demonhood?

Shen Shi had to remain vigilant.

Buddhism is boundless; besides its power to save, it also harbors the danger of “turning demonic with one thought.”

In this sense, Buddhism is truly compassionate, embracing all beings regardless of good or evil. But that same single thought can unleash darkness—often, the higher the Buddhist cultivation, the stronger the demonic transformation.

Judging by the demonic aura rising from the abbot, Shen Shi worried he might have to act.

Qi Sea stage? Spirit Transformation stage? Or Nascent Soul phase?

Human teachings record that any being who can illuminate qi can transform into a demon. Illuminating qi, gathering qi, refining qi, and establishing a foundation—these are the stages of cultivation. After establishing the foundation, the path truly begins.

Upon foundation establishment, the Purple Palace shines brightly, generating the Qi Sea. Once the Qi Sea forms, the primordial spirit emerges. Nurturing the primordial spirit, it takes the form of a Nascent Soul, the Nascent Soul phase.

Shen Shi was only in mid-foundation stage, but the tree demon’s primordial spirit could come and go freely—he was at least at the Spirit Transformation stage, possibly Nascent Soul phase old demon, no surprise. And once turned demonic, his combat power would be extraordinary.

Shen Shi hoped his own teachings would be powerful enough to truly vanquish demons across the world!

Unbeknownst to Shen Shi, his arrival marked him as the calamity demon of Lanruo Temple.

Before Shen Shi’s arrival, history followed its normal course: tonight, the temple would have forced the villagers into despair, leading them to die crashing into the thousand-year-old tree demon, cursing Lanruo Temple with their blood.

The monks at Lanruo Temple took this lightly. After all, the sacred tree was the abbot’s “cheat,” and they did not believe the tree would rebel.

But these gluttonous monks did not understand the weight of divine duties. The tree demon, empowered by the villagers’ will, had to act. Overnight, all the monks in the temple perished, and Lanruo Temple became a notorious haunted temple.

The “calamity” itself is one of heaven’s laws and would not cease simply because this world is small and unable to nurture the Way. On the contrary, without the Way, it operates autonomously.

Shen Shi’s arrival tonight at Lanruo Temple was not purely his own will; it was the workings of calamity.

After all, law is like mountains and flowing water—people walk uphill, water flows downward. At first glance, it seems people walk and water flows, but this is law itself.

The wind grew stronger, clouds thickened in the sky, obscuring stars and moon. It seemed the human calamity was insufficient, and thunder calamity was coming to assist.

Yet the abbot remained calm, unconcerned by the heavens’ thunder, quietly saying, “Buddha said, harsh words harm others and lead one to hell after death. I wonder, do you believe in heaven and hell, benefactor?”

Shen Shi understood the tree demon’s calm surface was struggling; it seemed that heaven and hell were the only things that could restrain his demonic transformation. Without hesitation, Shen Shi said, “I believe.”

The abbot asked eagerly, “Then where is heaven? And where is hell?”

He looked at Shen Shi intently. “A thousand years have passed. I have never seen heaven, nor hell. Can you tell me?”

The tree demon’s voice began to change, shifting into a female voice.

It seemed the ancient tree spirit was truly about to appear...