He did not address her as "Tanyue" in the Buddhist fashion, nor as "Master Jun" when the distance between them dissolved in moments of urgency. Instead, he called her by her full name.
He had called her by her full name before.
In their first life, she had used her closeness to him to steal a Buddhist relic from the monastery. Later, unable to bear his persistent entreaties, she proposed a wager.
If he lost, he was to grant her a supreme Buddhist treasure. It was then, as he had called her name with a serious, disapproving expression, that he had shed the boundaries between the sacred and the mundane, his voice filled with emotion as he uttered her name.
"...I remember."
She glanced at him and nodded.
Chenghong had already entrusted the old abbot to other disciples. Over a dozen monks, clad in impeccable green robes, formed a protective circle around him in a defensive stance.
Qing Niu Gui looked at Chenghong, his vast, jade-like eyes speckled with stars, arranging themselves with the speed of a go game. Whatever he saw within them caused him to tremble.
After a brief pause, Qing Niu Gui composed himself and commanded the surrounding ghosts and monsters to clear a path for him.
Chenghong sat cross-legged on the ground.
A radiant Buddha-nature enveloped him, a ink-drawn green lotus rising from beneath him to support him. Chanting, gentle breezes, tranquil bamboos, and a bright moon, he seemed like a dancing petal, touched by the blush of the mortal world, stirring ripples as he slowly approached.
"I refused to grant it to you back then. Do you still want it now?"
Gu Junshi seemed momentarily struck, her expression freezing.
She paused, looking at him deeply, then slowly exhaled as if a blockage had formed in her throat, "Chenghong, I don't want it anymore."
"But I lost."
He smiled at her, a mixture of sorrow and joy, "When you lose, you must accept the consequences of the bet."
Gu Junshi listened quietly, her heart churning like a stormy sea.
She believed his mention of "losing" was not referring to their past wager, but she was certain about what the "supreme Buddhist treasure" was.
He gazed at the contours of her face, the lotus shadow sending forth affection. Before she awoke, his infatuation crowned her, the lotus dream bestowing its favor as the flowers awakened, a scene of blooming dreams.
He rarely smiled before, his demeanor solemn and dignified, his Zen heart contained. Yet, in this short while, he had smiled at Gu Junshi three times.
There was a gentle tenderness, like fallen blossoms.
There was the sentiment of a cool breeze awakening a dream from the night before.
Finally, a blessing for their reunion in the mortal world, wishing for her desires to be fulfilled.
The golden light on him blazed brighter than a torch, one sun in the sky, another in the clouds, dazzling the eyes until they blurred. In that fleeting moment, it seemed as if two figures overlapped upon Chenghong.
The demon god also turned his gaze slightly, his double pupils reflecting the unquenchable Buddha-light, as if scorched by its intense heat.
"The answer I owe you, I will repay you in this life."
He chose to compromise with himself, choosing honesty and liberation.
He closed his eyes, respectfully placing his palms together and silently reciting the Heart Sutra. His heart opened like a lotus, revealing the Buddha.
"Gu Junshi, I am willing."
Gu Junshi was still reeling from hearing these words. But seeing him poised as if to immolate himself or sacrifice himself for a righteous cause, she finally understood what he intended to do.
"Chenghong, you—"
Her eyes widened abruptly, and she tore through space, teleporting to his side.
Just as she reached out to stop him, her hand passed through him, his form already becoming ethereal and translucent.
She froze, rigid.
"In the old place, where the crimson was deep, you did not know that you had already ravaged my world. I compromise, surrender, and submit, placing you higher than my own faith."
He smiled faintly, whispering softly in her ear.
She turned back, meeting his eyes.
"If the heart is a Bodhi, purity resides in the human realm."
Those Buddha-like eyes, pale yet sacred, yet when looking at her, reflected the myriad states of human existence: pain, joy, carefreeness, longing...
As they gazed at each other, she dreamily reached out her hand, but the moment her fingers touched him, he dissolved into faint, scattered starlight in her palm, vanishing with a touch.
In memory, the young Buddha heard the woman opposite him teasing him with mock seriousness.
"As far as I know, there are three supreme Buddhist treasures, and the Maha Chan Monastery possesses two of them. If I'm not mistaken, one is the Buddha staff in the old abbot's hand, and the second is the monastery's treasure, the Buddha son. You lost, so which one do you intend to grant me?"
"This monk did not agree to your bet."
The Buddha son frowned.
However, the woman turned a deaf ear, instead comparing them earnestly, "Compared to the Buddha staff that is passed down through generations, I am more fond of a living Buddha son. I wonder if you would be willing to renounce the world and accompany me on a journey through the mortal realm?"
"This monk's ambition lies not here."
"Then where does your ambition lie?"
"Gu Junshi."
"Ah, so the Buddha son can also get angry. I thought you were just like your gilded, mud-sculpted Buddha statues."
The memory faded, and everything returned to the present.
In the last moment of his dissolving world, he couldn't resist reaching out, his touch lingering, exceptionally careful, as if stroking her resolute, cold, and clear eyebrows.
"I am not a gilded, mud-sculpted Buddha statue, but one who has fallen into the sea of suffering, enticed by the mortal world. I sacrifice, I fulfill, even if it means turning to dust..."
The echo of his words still lingered, but Gu Junshi could no longer find any trace of Chenghong in this world.
"Chenghong..."
He hadn't even left a wisp of his soul, completely and unreservedly... dedicating himself to her.
Gu Junshi stood stunned, lost in thought. In the next instant, a colossal pillar of golden light poured down from above. Virtual images of majestic Buddha manifestations arrayed in the Rosary, amidst Buddhist music and grand verses, all infused into her body.
Within the golden light, Gu Junshi's entire being was coated in gold leaf, resplendent and radiant. Her solemn face was gilded, her pupils instantly transformed into two pools of golden suns. After a moment, only one eye remained, dark and cold, ominously sinister.
At this point, almost everyone understood what had happened.
"Buddha son—"
The monks of the Maha Chan Monastery watched as Chenghong vanished into nothingness, all falling to their knees and weeping aloud.
"Brother—"
Rulan was on the verge of madness. She cried out, wanting to rush forward, but was tightly restrained by others.
The others also wore expressions of grief and bewilderment.
The golden light gradually faded, leaving only drifting stellar fragments floating around. Gu Junshi turned, feeling the surging warmth within her flowing through her icy blood.
It belonged to Chenghong; he had gifted her his entire innate Buddha bone and everything most precious to him.
Her eye sockets turned crimson, like a bizarrely beautiful red fish swaying in a serene lake, "I, Gu Junshi, never owe anyone anything, yet you insist on making me indebted to you!"
He sacrificed himself, for her, and for them.
The air was filled with a suffocating scent. The scenery instantly turned pale, then rapidly black. Everything within her vision seemed to silently disintegrate, blurred golden specks overlapping to form a colossal, towering shadow.
A clear whistle pierced the heavens and the universe, and Gu Junshi's avatars, situated in various parts of the twenty-eight heavens, simultaneously sensed the indignant emotions of her main body.
"When the heavens revolve, and countless kalpas transform into Jambudvipa.
The Buddha falls, the Buddha is born, the demon perishes!"
"I am the Netherworld Ghost, and I am the Buddha."