Chapter 53: Great God, I Understand!
He Hongyi pondered deeply.
He wasn’t exactly a good person.
The establishment of the Qiankun Pavilion was built on a series of rather unsavory acts of strongarming, gradually growing to its current scale.
During this process, He Hongyi had opportunistically taken shortcuts more than once, just as he did today, all to expand his power.
But he had one soft spot.
That was his old man who took care of him from the ground up.
Before stepping into the cultivation world, he was just a wild child from a small mountain village. His mother left early, so early that he couldn’t even remember her.
It was just his dad, planting crops and working for the local gentry to support him.
His dad wasn’t known for his temper.
When tired from a long day, he would vent his frustration, and one bad word could lead to “The father takes out his anger on the son!”
Because of this, He Hongyi both revered and feared his dad.
Later, he got a bit lucky. At the big household where his dad worked, a cultivator friend happened to visit and noticed the little He Hongyi playing.
Seeing his decent talent, the cultivator took him back to train.
Once He Hongyi became a somewhat famous cultivator, he brought his dad to the celestial mountain to enjoy life.
Both he and his dad came from poor backgrounds, and having been poor all their lives, they feared it deeply.
So, once their fortunes turned, his dad quickly drowned himself in a life of debauchery.
And He Hongyi, being filial, turned a blind eye to his dad’s antics.
As a result…
His dad, over seventy, ended up in a brothel battling it out with eight women all night.
Then he died on one of their bellies.
After hearing the news, He Hongyi was heartbroken, and the Qiankun Pavilion mourned with him for three years before reopening.
But that was years ago.
Now, hearing a familiar lecturing voice in his ears, He Hongyi’s first reaction was to tear up.
“Dad… it’s really you…”
“You brat!”
An old voice instantly yelled, “Do you even know that your mischief has made me suffer in hell as well!”
“N-No way?”
He Hongyi stuttered, befuddled: “But every cultivator does what I do?”
“The cultivation world is all about trickery, right? Everyone does what they must for opportunities!”
“Not everyone has family.” The old voice said seriously. “Just consider those people’s families as already taken by me.”
He Hongyi: “?”
“B-But, son burns paper money for you every year, tons of it! You should be well off down there…”
“How dare you say that?”
Bringing it up made the old voice even angrier, roaring: “Do you even know what inflation is!”
“Everyone burns millions of ghost money casually, and the scraps you burn for me can’t even buy a cup of soy milk down there!”
He Hongyi was dumbfounded.
As a cultivator with no background in economics, he never thought about such matters.
But he understood one thing.
That was, his old man was indeed having a rough time down there.
It hit him like a bolt from the blue.
“Dad!”
He Hongyi suddenly knelt on the ground, tears and snot flying as he wailed, “I’m an unfilial son! I thought after all your hard work you’d enjoy some peace!”
“I didn’t expect you to suffer down there…”
Hearing this, the old voice cleared his throat and said slowly:
“Son, recognizing one’s mistakes and wanting to change is a good thing.”
“Buddha Ksitigarbha is right. In this life, one must always hold good intentions and do good deeds.”
“If you keep doing unjust things, you’ll pay for it in hell!”
Sobbing, he continued, “You don’t know what kind of life your dad leads down here!”
“Waking up at six, rushing for the subway, with no time for breakfast. Monthly earnings are a mere three to four thousand! Rent and bills gone, I’m left with just enough for a pack of smokes that lasts a week…”
“Working overtime until nightfall, and there’s that tyrannical boss adding extra tasks! After a year of hard work, I can’t even afford a partner!”
“Son!” he cried, “I might as well go back to farming! At least that’s not half as hard!”
“This is the 18th layer of hell! It’s worse than being an animal!”
He Hongyi: “…?”
He still couldn’t grasp what his old man was talking about.
But it sounded like things were pretty miserable in the underworld.
“So, what can I do?”
He got anxious, turning to the apparition and repeatedly bowing: “Great Ksitigarbha… please spare my dad!”
“If it comes to that, punish me instead, let me take my dad’s place!”
“All sins are mine! I stole the widow’s underwear, peeked at Senior Sister while bathing, mess with the master’s wife while he was in secluded meditation, even poisoned my master with her help…”
He poured his heart out while crying at the same time.
On the other side, Young Master Sang listened in, increasingly horrified.
…Oh boy.
You really are a heavyweight.
“…I also have secret affairs with female disciples, and during the sect conference, I’ve opened the silver box to silence a fellow disciple just to pocket a set of techniques…”
“It’s my fault! It’s all my fault!”
“Great Ksitigarbha, please punish me instead! Don’t torment my dad! He’s just a humble farmer, a good person; I’m the one who deserves it!”
Facing this heartfelt appeal, the mysterious voice of Ksitigarbha slowly rang out:
“I, Buddha, am merciful.”
“All sentient beings who have yet to escape, their nature is unsteady, with bad habits bearing fruit and good habits leading to results.”
“Since you have realized, you should rectify your ways and start doing good now.”
“No matter how severe the sins, as long as you sincerely repent and take responsibility for your sins, once you have redeemed your mistakes, both you and your dad will find salvation.”
He Hongyi was overjoyed: “How long do I need to atone?”
“Um, let me calculate… about one thousand one hundred forty-five years, a month, and four days.”
He Hongyi: “?”
So precise?!
But, bad habits bearing fruit… good habits bearing results…
His sinful life played out before his eyes like a panorama.
After musing a bit, He Hongyi’s confusion gradually faded, even beginning to shine with clarity.
“So that’s it… so that’s it…”
“Do good and accumulate virtue! Do good and accumulate virtue!”
Suddenly, he put his hands together, sincerely bowing, then got up and laughed to the skies.
“Hahaha, now I know!”
“When the tides of the Qiantang River rush in, today I finally understand who I am!”
“Only by grasping this true meaning can I transcend and be free!”
“Great God, I… understand!”
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