In the End, It Is Never Complete

“This sort of thing... this sort of thing...”

On the cliffside, wind and snow raged. Huiming snatched up the plum blossom, gritted his teeth, and flung it to the ground. Pointing at Ye Shu, he scolded, “How could something like this possibly be Buddha?”

“You bastard! Don’t profane the word ‘Buddha’!”

“It can’t even move. It’s nothing but a lifeless object, so how could it be Buddha? Buddha possesses a spirit and great wisdom!”

Huiming glared furiously, his heart filled with anger. This bastard was always playing clever word games and trying to muddle him with sophistry. If someone like this could become a Buddha, then wouldn’t the seventeen years he had spent reciting the scriptures have been wasted?

“Look at you, getting worked up again.”

Ye Shu shook his head, picked up the purple plum, brushed off the snowflakes, and placed it before him once more. “You keep saying that you love Buddha, but when your Buddha truly stands before you, you become blind to it and fail to recognize it.”

Huiming stared at the purple plum, an image of Buddha forming in his mind.

Buddha should be seated upon the clouds, his golden body solemn and majestic, lotuses blooming beneath him as radiant light shone forth—sacred and inviolable. How could Buddha possibly be a plum blossom hiding in the wind and snow, something that could be casually trampled beneath one’s feet?

“You say this is Buddha, but I don’t accept it.”

He turned his head away, refusing to look at that irritating plum blossom again.

Seeing this, Ye Shu did not insist. He silently picked up the plum blossom and put it away, intending to take it back and admire it in his room.

“Since there’s nothing else, let’s go back.”

Seeing that Huiming had no desire to speak either, Ye Shu did not force the matter. He said this softly, then turned and walked back the way they had come, with Huiming following close behind.

They had only walked a few dozen paces when the shadow of the wall disappeared from sight.

All they could see were drifting snowflakes and vast stretches of white. In the snowdrifts, two small white creatures were running about.

“What’s that?”

Huiming narrowed his eyes and focused his gaze.

Looking closely, he saw that it was a snow-white fox chasing a snow-white rabbit. One fox and one rabbit raced through the snow, scattering the pristine drifts into disarray.

Before long, the rabbit began to run out of strength.

The snow fox seized its opportunity, lunging forward and biting down on the rabbit’s neck. Its sharp fangs pierced through instantly. Bright red blood trickled from the corners of its mouth, staining the two creatures’ white fur and creating a shockingly vivid splash of red against the pure white world.

The rabbit kicked wildly, but it was powerless to change its fate.

Just as the light was fading from its eyes and its life was about to end, a thread of golden radiance slowly appeared in its empty pupils. The next moment, a large hand pressed gently against its fur.

Huiming crouched halfway down, his right hand resting on the snow rabbit.

With his cultivation, saving a dying little creature was well within his abilities.

The snow fox warily watched Huiming, who had suddenly appeared before it. It crouched low on all fours, instinctively sensing danger, yet it was unwilling to give up the prey that was already within reach. It could only bare its teeth repeatedly, trying to frighten away the unexpected intruder.

“Beast! How dare you act so ferociously?”

Huiming’s brows knitted together as he glared, his eyes blazing. “You were born beside a Buddhist temple, yet you possess not the slightest trace of Buddha-nature. Your wild instincts are truly untamable!”

The snow fox trembled from fright and no longer dared to bare its teeth.

Huiming picked up the snow rabbit and was just about to bring it back to the temple to raise it properly when Ye Shu suddenly extended a hand and stopped him.

“Put it down,” he said.

“Put it down?”

Huiming froze and looked at him in confusion.

Ye Shu turned to him and pointed toward the cowering snow fox nearby. “You saw the rabbit dying and, unable to bear it, chose to save it. That was your kindness. But because of you, the snow fox has lost the food it needed to fill its stomach. In this blizzard, it may have great difficulty finding its next meal. And even if it does find one, you may once again be unable to bear watching and save the prey. If this cycle continues, the fox may eventually starve to death. Then who will save the snow fox’s life?”

“I...”

Huiming held the snow rabbit in his arms, rendered speechless.

“Are you saying I should put the rabbit down and watch it be bitten to death with my own eyes before I can be considered compassionate?”

“...”

Ye Shu was silent for a moment. Then he crouched down and approached the snow fox.

As he drew near, the snow fox instinctively arched its back, a low whimper rumbling in its throat.

“Give me a knife.”

Ye Shu suddenly held out his hand toward Huiming.

“What do you need a knife for?”

Huiming did not understand, but he still extended his hand instinctively. With a slight pinch in the air, a blade of ice condensed from the surrounding wind and snow appeared in his grasp. He handed it to Ye Shu.

Ye Shu took the knife and then swung it down without hesitation.

Slice!

Blood sprayed in all directions.

A bloody chunk of flesh was carved from Ye Shu’s left arm and fell to the ground. The exposed flesh still steamed with heat.

“Have you gone mad?!”

Huiming’s pupils contracted. His face was filled with disbelief.

Ye Shu’s brows were tightly furrowed, cold sweat streaming down his forehead, but he still held the lump of flesh out toward the snow fox with a smile.

“Come on. Take it.”

“Yip?”

The snow fox stared at the man before it in confusion. After hesitating for a moment, it finally bit down on the severed flesh. In three quick strides, it darted ten paces away, carrying the meat in its mouth. It looked back at the two men once, then turned and vanished into the swirling snow.

“You...”

Huiming was utterly stunned. He hurriedly formed a hand seal to stop the bleeding from Ye Shu’s arm and prevent him from losing too much blood. “You asked me for a knife just for this?”

“That’s right.”

Once the bleeding had stopped, some color returned to Ye Shu’s face.

He looked at Huiming and smiled. “We cannot force all living beings to live according to our wishes, nor can we compel them to act according to our standards. As for kindness, it should stop with oneself. Seek it within yourself, and do not demand it of others.”

“...”

Huiming lowered the snow rabbit. For a moment, he fell silent.

Then he looked at Ye Shu again and asked, “Even if you feed the fox a piece of meat and fill its stomach, it will still hunt rabbits in the future. How many times can you feed it?”

Ye Shu’s answer to that question was:

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Huiming froze. “Even Buddha has things he doesn’t know?”

“...”

Ye Shu stood where he was and thought for a long time before speaking.

“Yes. I don’t know.”

“There is kindness and there is evil; there is fullness and there is incompleteness. Nothing in this world can ever be perfectly complete. So long as your conscience is clear, that is enough.”

...................

At the same time, in the far northern reaches of the world, where wind and snow raged without end—

The young man stationed beside the Heavenly Spring suddenly saw a brilliant golden light bloom from the water, radiant and dazzling.

“Master! Master!”

Startled, he leapt to his feet and rolled and crawled out of the snow cave. He shouted toward the Slovenly Taoist, who was relieving himself into the wind halfway up the mountain, “He’s alive! He’s alive!”

“Alive? What’s alive?”

The Slovenly Taoist was so startled that he nearly splashed himself. He glared irritably at his disciple. “Why are you making such a fuss? What’s the hurry?”

Only then did the young man manage to suppress his excitement before shouting at the top of his lungs:

“Master! Junior Brother is alive!”

“What did you say? Alive?!”

The Slovenly Taoist’s pupils contracted. In an instant, he sucked himself dry, didn’t even pull up his trousers, and transformed into a gust of wind that swept into the snow cave.

As soon as he entered, he saw Ye Shu rising from the Heavenly Spring, his expression dazed as he stared at him.

“Who are you?”

“I am Xie Gubai,” the Slovenly Taoist declared. He stroked his beard, clasped one hand behind his back, and lifted his chin with an arrogant air. “I am your master.”

“Master?”

Ye Shu was dumbfounded. Wasn’t his master a woman?

How had she turned into a disheveled old Taoist who spent his free time walking birds around? Could he still be dreaming?

Just as he was about to go back to sleep, a delighted voice suddenly rang out from the snow cave at the entrance.

“Little Junior Brother! Little Junior Brother, you’re finally awake!”

Hearing that familiar voice, Ye Shu froze as well.

“Senior Brother Chu?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Heh heh, that’s a long story.” Chu Jinghong scratched his head and stepped forward. “When the Qingxuan Sect was destroyed, I survived by hiding in the concealment formation Senior Brother left behind. When I came out, I happened to run into our master, so I went to the Mo Clan with him to avenge you all. Who would’ve thought our master was so useless that he got beaten into fleeing?”

“So we had no choice but to wander into this frozen wasteland.”

“Then, by sheer coincidence, I saw you battling several major clans. After you died, I fished you out and soaked you in the water to see whether it would work.”

“Looks like it was all Heaven’s will.”

As he spoke, Chu Jinghong looked Ye Shu up and down before asking with concern, “Junior Brother, you’ve been asleep for almost a year. Is anything bothering you?”

“A year? You mean I’ve been asleep for a year?”

Ye Shu abruptly stood up from the water, his expression frantic. “What about Medusa and the others?”

“They’re fine.”

With both hands clasped behind his back, Xie Gubai spoke calmly. “With your master taking action, naturally everything was settled with ease.”

“Where are they now?”

Ye Shu hurriedly asked.

“Uh…”

Xie Gubai’s expression stiffened. He couldn’t exactly tell Ye Shu that he had fled too quickly and hadn’t paid the slightest attention to where they had ended up, could he?

He coughed and forced himself to remain composed. “Ao Kun, that cur, is protecting them. Nothing will happen to them.”

“That’s good.”

Only then did Ye Shu let out a sigh of relief.

“Little Junior Brother, now that you’re awake, shouldn’t we go look for your wives?” Chu Jinghong asked eagerly. He had been cooped up in this frozen wasteland for far too long and desperately wanted to reconnect with the outside world.

Ye Shu pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.

“Not yet.”

“We need to go to the Demon Cult first.”