The Monkey King

   In the quiet courtyard, the breeze passed by slowly, raising the gray temples.

Youquanzi stretched out a hand towards the stone chair next to him and smiled slightly: "Sit down. Today, it's rare for two junior brothers to come to my quiet spring valley, so I called you as a senior brother. It's good for the brothers and sisters to get together."

   On crutches, the monkey stood in the elegant courtyard and bowed slightly: "Hello, three brothers."

   "Well." Dan Tongzi yawned lazily, held his chin, and pointed at the stone chair, "Sit down, don't stand."

   "Sit down." Qing Yunzi also said.

  The monkey walked over step by step with a cane and sat on the stone chair.

  You Quanzi opened his sleeves, made a cup of tea and pushed it over, and said softly, "We Xieyue Sanxingdong, maybe it's been a long time since so many brothers and sisters got together."

  Monkey held the teacup in both hands and blew away the steaming hot mist with a light sigh. From time to time, a pair of eyes turned to Qingyunzi and Dantongzi.

  Dan Tongzi gave You Quanzi a side-by-side look: "It's not that I didn't get together, it's that I didn't get together with you. Hey, I said you haven't gone back to Guanli for fifty or sixty years, right? Is it time to go back?"

   "I went back more than ten years ago, and you just happened to be absent." Youquanzi said lightly.

"Ten years? Hey." Dan Tongzi raised his head and swallowed a large cup of tea, wiped his mouth and pushed the cup in front of Youquanzi: "Although Dan Tong, my practitioner, is a rough person, but This person who respects the teacher and respects the Tao, never dares to forget. I, at most three or four years, will definitely go back to see the master and his old man. "

  You Quanzi smiled, lifted the teapot to fill his teacup, and pushed it back: "I can't see the master even when I go back, it's the same whether I go back or not, just contact Yujian."

   "Tsk!" Dan Tongzi frowned immediately: "That's because you didn't heal yourself. Even if you can't see it, you should let the master see you, anyway, let the master know that he still has an apprentice like you."

   said, he glanced at the monkey and said, "How about you? How often do you plan to go back?"

  Monkey smiled awkwardly, his eyes drooping, holding a teacup, but did not answer.

   "When it's time to go back, I will naturally go back." Youquanzi interjected with a long beard on the side.

  Qing Yunzi took a deep breath, grabbed the long stick wrapped in sackcloth leaning on the side of the pillar, and handed it to the monkey: "Master asked me to give it to you."

   took over the hand, untied the rope and spread it out numbly. Inside was a brand new cloud stick, which felt much heavier than the previous one.

   "Thank you master for me." The monkey cupped his hands and said, "Did the master say anything else?"

   "The master said that Taishang Laojun has left. If you want to go back to Guanli to practice, you can do it at any time."

   "Any... anything else?"

   Qing Yunzi slowly shook his head.

  Monkey blinked, holding the stick in his palm and holding it in his arms: "Then, thank the master for me."

  Qing Yunzi sighed lightly and said, "It's better if you don't go back, to save the senior brother from worrying about his little apprentice Feng Chi all day long."

   "Are the wind chimes okay?" the monkey asked with his head lowered.

   "It's pretty good, I've practiced hard, and I've made great progress. But she still doesn't know about you, and now she's always running over to ask me if I'm in the moonlight, and whether your reply has arrived."

  Monkey nodded slightly, pursed his lips and said with a wink, "It's good, it's good."

   After being silent for a while, Qing Yunzi stared at the monkey and asked, "I'm afraid it's going to be difficult for you to be outside here, right? You really don't want to go back?"

  Monkey lowered his head, raised his head again, and repeated this several times, but did not speak. Holding the Xingyun stick, he blinked, and his eyes were slightly red.

   "I understand." Qing Yunzi laughed dryly, picked up the teacup and took a sip.

   After hesitating for a long time, the monkey said, "Senior Brother Fifth, Brother Brother wants to ask a question."

   "Tell me."

   "Why, I didn't do anything, Taishang Laojun will stare at me."

  The small pavilion suddenly became quiet.

  Dantongzi and Qingyunzi looked at the monkey indifferently, while Youquanzi still closed his eyes and said nothing.

   After a long time, Qing Yunzi sighed softly, "You did it."

   Turning his head, he glanced at You Quanzi and said, "You came three hundred years early, right?"

  Monkey's heart trembled slightly, and the cloud-walking stick in his hand could not help clenching even tighter.

After a long sigh, Qing Yunzi said slowly: "My practice is still shallow, so I guess I can't do things like the Dao of Heaven. But the second senior brother can. Previously, several of our senior brothers were very puzzled, why the master wanted to accept you. Accepting it so decisively, but then accepting it again. Your character... is actually not very suitable for cultivating immortals. This does not seem to be the style of a master."

After a slight pause, he stroked his long beard, and then Qing Yunzi continued: "Later, Taishang Laojun sent someone to follow Xieyue Sanxingdong, and you had another accident in Kunlun Mountain. Immediately realized that there was a problem here. But the master kept his mouth shut, and the senior brother clearly knew but refused to say it. Therefore, we let the second senior brother waste some cultivation base to explore the inner world."

   After saying that, he lowered his head and smiled, then looked up at Youquanzi again.

Youquanzi smiled faintly, clasped his hands in front of the table, and sighed: "After a few calculations, I realized that you were three hundred years early to apprentice. Besides, the one who came here is not the one who should have come. I'm afraid you are yourself. It should be clearer than us."

   The cloud-walking stick in the monkey's hand clenched even tighter, and nodded dumbly.

  You Quanzi smiled helplessly: "So there is a problem. Do you know what the Dao of Heaven is?"

  Monkey looked up at him and shook his head.

"The Dao of Heaven is the law of the world's operation. All that cannot be changed are collectively called the Dao of Heaven. Therefore, the fifth level is called the Dao of Heaven. Taishang Laojun and Tathagata Buddha are the Dao of Heaven. They are the closest to heaven and earth. The person of the law, the Supreme Laojun masters the law of 'inaction' and understands the core of heaven. The Buddha masters the law of 'no-self' and turns into nothingness."

"But the Tao of Heaven is not just 'inaction' and 'no-self', it also includes everything that must happen and things that shouldn't happen. Buddhists say that there is a cause and a fault. The cause has come true, and the effect is inevitable. You Quanzi shook his sleeves and stood up. A leaf fell in the courtyard, just caught between his two fingers: "Just like when this leaf grows and when it falls, it is already doomed. For the way of heaven. Even your apprenticeship time is included in the way of heaven."

   "You mean, because I apprenticed to my teacher early, that's why..."

   "Accurately speaking, it's not just about apprenticeship. Let me give an example. If the Tao of Heaven is destined to not die, but he dies, do you know what will happen?"

  Monkey stared at him silently.

Youquanzi smiled slightly and said: "If he dies, then his descendants will be gone. Assuming that each of his descendants gave birth to two descendants, then his life and death will change after dozens of generations. The existence of human beings. Similarly, if a person deserves to die, but is alive, he should not have offspring, but he gives birth to offspring, and the result will be changed by the bloodline of countless people after dozens of generations. This is just an extreme example. For example, what I want to say is that in the trajectory of heaven, as long as there is a slight change, even if I reach out and pick a leaf that should not have fallen at this time, thousands of years later, it can still affect the pattern of heaven and earth."

After speaking, he laughed dryly again: "However, there are many people who want to change the way of heaven, and there are also many people who can measure the way of heaven to a certain extent, but no matter how hard they try, it is impossible. Because they themselves are people in the way of heaven, Even if they figured out the way of heaven, the way of heaven itself is already doomed. In the end, it's just a meaningless act."

  Monkey narrowed his eyes slightly and asked slowly, "But I'm not a man of heaven, so everything I do will change, right?"

"right."

   "The way of heaven can't be changed at all?"

"No." Youquanzi rubbed the dead leaves in his hands and waved his hand: "The way of heaven is allowed to change, and the way of heaven is constantly self-correcting. However, the person who masters the way of heaven does not allow the way of heaven to change, because the way of heaven changes, it is not in his hands. The way of heaven. In other words, he can't grasp the way of heaven. So, do you understand?"

   Holding the Xingyun stick tightly in his arms, the monkey slowly lowered his head, pursed his lips, and thought for a long time: "So, he must let everything return to its original position?"

"It's not completely in situ. The heavens are layered on top of each other. There are several established trajectories, but the rest of the people except Taishang can only calculate one of them. Therefore, he has many ways to deal with it. It's just for you, he has to deal with it carefully. Because you are involved in a major event three hundred years later, the entire impact is unimaginable. Moreover, you are the source, and you can cause the greatest damage to the Dao of Heaven. Every move , can lead to disaster. What he needs to do is to stop your destruction, destroy all factors that can cause you to drift, and then reset the trajectory.”

   In the quiet courtyard, the wind swept the monkey's cheeks and stroked the fur.

  He lowered his head and rubbed the complicated patterns on the cloud walking stick with his hands. For a long time, he was absorbed in it.

After a while, he raised his head, took a deep breath, pursed his lips, and asked, "The master already knew about this, right? He didn't accept me at first, because he was afraid of contaminating the cause and effect. Later, he accepted me because he wanted to fuel the flames. , let me break the way of heaven. This should be the master's plan, right?"