ATEG Chapter 90.2

Why should he keep waiting for others to light lamps for him? He could light lamps himself!

And when he lit this lamp, all the desolation left him. This was a method of salvation, and also a method of cultivation!

So after returning, he taught the other youying gongs in the temple to light this lamp. So they left the wooden statues they had endlessly fought over, holding lamps as they entered the forest. So despite his fear, he still came to glance at where Li Chi and the Dog King had confronted each other. So…

O deity, please protect this passing cultivator, just as You once protected us after our wrongful deaths, giving us this Wanying Gong Temple to shelter in.

……

Li Chi held a strand of prayer in his fingers. Many threads twisted into one line, like a lamp wick, burning with warm yet not harsh light in his hand.

And in those broken karmic threads, many similar lights appeared.

Before the great calamity, at the very beginning, when the now fierce and cruel Dog King was merely an ordinary wild dog. It lived in the nearby Xingfeng City, wagging its tail at people, looking at them with black, round eyes, begging for pity and food. Sometimes it would be driven away by people waving their arms, but sometimes it could also receive some leftover scraps, or even a freshly broken-open meat bun with fragrant, hot filling.

It remembered that taste—warm, soft. The person who handed it the bun reached out to try stroking its dirty, matted fur. It warily growled at that person. The person withdrew their hand but wasn’t angry, mouth saying something unknowable, smiling and breaking open another bun for it…

These lights extended along the karmic threads toward the Dog King. But when they shone upon the Dog King, they seemed to shine into a bottomless black hole, completely devoured, reflecting not the slightest glimmer.

The Dog King roared viciously, that ferociously, driving away all the goodwill that wished to connect with it.

Li Chi’s wrist turned, covering the lamplight in his palm. In this yin cold, many gray-dark colors climbed along the karmic threads.

Just as it would growl at the person who gave it buns—not because it didn’t know gratitude, but because fear’s power was stronger. Some would give it fresh food and wooden boxes to shelter from the cold, but others would raise heavy wooden clubs and poisoned water.

If it wanted to survive in Xingfeng City, it had to learn wariness, learn to crouch low and bare its teeth, using fierce growls to frighten away those who threw stones at it.

As a pitiful, filthy, wretched wild dog, it survived in Xingfeng City, rolling up a body full of worldly karma and human dust.

But when these resentful karmic threads reached out through the fierce malevolence, the Dog King’s gaze became cruel and cold. It allowed those karmic threads to touch its body, but those threads slipped off as if unable to catch hold.

“You no longer need goodwill, nor care about resentment anymore, is that it?” Li Chi’s voice lingered low in the fog.

“But karma is karma. It won’t change according to your will, nor according to anyone’s will.”

His palm suddenly lifted. All the karma extending toward the Dog King had already woven into a net, outlining all the causes it had planted in the past and all the effects it would reap in the future, forming the tightest cage and the most impartial protection in this world, ensnaring the Dog King within!

The Dog King suddenly burst out with a vicious howl. It couldn’t see karma, but its special aberrant nature allowed it to sense something. It bit and struggled in empty air. Aberrant power surged, shaking several strings loose from the woven karma.

Those were… karmic threads produced after the great calamity began.

At first, it was just three days of bitter rain. It didn’t understand what was happening, but didn’t sense great danger either. It still lived in Xingfeng City.

But when the famine arrived, it was no longer a pitiful, filthy, wretched wild dog. It was a piece of meat that could run and flee, that would release fragrance in pots and provide fullness and warmth in bellies.

It fled from the town to the wilds, but the wilds didn’t mean it could survive. The desolation brought by the great calamity was indiscriminate of location.

In the wilderness, it starved until its belly was flat, clanking beneath it like an empty cloth sack.

It should have died there, leaving an empty, shriveled hide. Its soul would be drawn away by the Yellow Springs, then enter the next life’s reincarnation. Or perhaps due to some attachment, it would become a ghost creature until time blurred its obsession, then once again be drawn by the Yellow Springs’ power into new reincarnation.

But it didn’t die. When it was about to starve to death, it encountered a person who was similarly about to starve to death.

Perhaps this person was the one who had once given it meat buns. Perhaps this person was the one who had once raised a club at it. Who knew? It no longer had the luxury to notice.

When too hungry, there is no rationality. It only wanted to eat, only wanted to survive.

Whether gazing with black, round eyes in supplication, or baring teeth in threatening growls—these were merely hoping others would provide it with survival guarantees. But if it could hunt for itself, why care about anything else?!

As long as there was food to eat, as long as it could survive. Karma? What karma!

Karma had long since become chaos!

In the Dog King’s fierce screams, the dark chaos upon it grew even deeper, even beginning to tear at the karma on its body.

“You want to live, but do you know how to live?”

The world is like ocean tides; karma is the anchor. When one’s nature has not yet matured, if there is no karmic binding, one is like a boat that has lost its anchor—destined to eventually capsize.

The Dog King turned a deaf ear, only tearing more fiercely.

Li Chi frowned and flipped his hand, striking that bright lamp into the Dog King’s body.

The youying gongs’ chanting came from afar:

“……

Criminals suffering punishment, long imprisoned in dungeons. Those who took lives for wealth, creditors and vengeful enemies. Suffering from evil diseases and natural disasters, those frozen and starved to death. Swiftly leave the Yellow Springs—come to the guiding light.

……”

Suffering was being dissolved, resentment was being soothed. Even the surrounding wild dogs and crow flocks had much malevolence dissipated by this sound and light, involuntarily turning to look toward where the chanting came from.

Past memories lit up with warm connections, drawing the karma that originally arose from it back into its body, also pulling it out from that patch of chaotic black hole.

It was warm, like the hot meat bun in memory. Perhaps if that person’s hand had fallen, it would also have been warm and soft.

But the Dog King suddenly struggled frantically. No one would keep giving it meat buns. It didn’t need this fullness that could only occasionally be tasted!

Though karma wasn’t visible, it seemed to go mad in the empty space, struggling until dark blood flowed from its mouth and nose, its claws tearing deep gashes. It didn’t need goodwill, nor was it grateful for goodwill. It didn’t care about resentment, nor was it attached to resentment, because everything could be food in its mouth, everything could be used to fill its hungry belly, to supply its delusion of living!

It had been an aberration for too long, had been submerged in accumulated resentful malevolence for too long. Those evil spirits were confused in their hearts by obsessive resentment, but in this forest, the Dog King was the one confused most deeply.

Like one falling into an abyss, mistaking the fall for flight.

“Since you’re unwilling to accept…” Li Chi’s right hand formed a circle, as if holding a brush.

In the distant Daqing Mountain range, the deity raised his palm. A brush gradually appeared at his fingertips.

All people are thus—only enjoying good effects while unwilling to receive bad effects. But if karma operated according to people’s will, how could it be called impartial?

That bone-white brush was about to fall, marking down the karma that originally belonged to the Dog King.

The Dog King seemed to sense this immovable power close at hand. It suddenly stopped struggling, its black, round eyes looking toward Li Chi.

It wanted to live.

It knew that when this brush stroke fell, it would surely die. Its destiny in this life had long since ended.

But was this really its originally destined fate? The karma of this world had already become chaotic. During the great calamity, this chaos had grown increasingly severe. Even the Divine Court sometimes gave up on sorting out the destinies of certain beings due to powerlessness.

Moreover, no one would care about the destiny of a filthy, wretched wild dog anyway.

It had survived on its own and lived until now. Why should it die according to some destiny whose correctness was unknown?!

The Dog King let out a final vicious howl. Before the brush tip could mark it, this body that had long lost its vitality suddenly collapsed into a pool of flesh and blood. The wild dogs and crow flocks were startled into scattering.

The overwhelming, gloomy malevolent fog gradually dispersed, once again revealing the forest clearing and the deity’s silent form.

Li Chi looked at where the Dog King had completely died.

No soul.

This obstinate being would rather completely transform into an aberration than accept the karma it had planted. But when it lacked the spiritual nature to bear being untouched by karma, its soul also collapsed into a mass of chaotic power, swallowed by that black hole, just as it had swallowed the power of other wild dogs.

“……

Drinking blood and eating raw meat, growing up in barbarian lands. Indebted laborers, servants and slaves. Mute, blind, and deaf, disabled with no one to rely on. Suffering wronged souls, come…”

The youying gongs’ chanting drifted distantly through the forest. The chanting carried no sorrow or joy, no favor or dislike—it only called to all lonely souls in the world, not to sink ever deeper in resentment and suffering.

“What are you hiding there for?” Li Chi suddenly said.

The youying gong who had earlier boldly spoken to Li Chi poked his head out from behind a tree. Seeing that the surroundings were indeed safe, he gave an awkward laugh and drifted over. “Well, we’ve about finished guiding all the souls in the forest, so I came to take a look.”

He carefully glanced at the pool of flesh and blood on the ground, probing, “That Dog King…?”

“Already perished,” Li Chi said.

The youying gong first showed joy, then alarm. He still retained living habits, gasping like a living person.

Seeing this tiger-sized dog king that could even control evil spirits had already been frightening enough. But look now—this formidable Dog King had been beaten into mincemeat by this passing cultivator!

He must be even more vicious than the Dog King!

Li Chi didn’t even need to look to know where his thoughts had gone. Too lazy to explain, he simply said, “The remaining wild dogs and crows can’t amount to anything. Go back.”

“Ah!” The youying gong responded and turned to drift back. Just as he started, he noticed Li Chi hadn’t moved, so he stopped.

He seemed to realize something and asked carefully, “Are you leaving?”

Li Chi made a sound of acknowledgment.

The youying gong suddenly felt reluctant but didn’t know what to say. He could only say, “Well, well, those people you rescued have woken up. Won’t you go see them?”

Li Chi said, “What? Must I properly comfort them and send them home too?”

The youying gong was utterly stumped. After choking for a moment, he said, “They should thank you. …And those three people from before—both children have been woken up and are comforting those rescued people. They’re all from Xingfeng City. Don’t know how they got confused. I heard them say…”

Li Chi just watched him ramble through various topics until he slowly quieted down.

“Anything else?”

The youying gong slowly shook his head, only feeling his chest burning hot. He didn’t know if it was because he had hidden a lamp inside. Uneasy in his heart, he had come to check on the situation, but feared being discovered. Reluctant to extinguish the lamp and relight it, he had hidden it in his chest.

Li Chi’s gaze fell on his chest. “This is a good method. Cultivate it earnestly.”

With that, he turned to leave.

A shout came from behind. “Where are you going? Can you take me with you? I’m willing to serve you!”

By the time he finished shouting, Li Chi’s figure had already disappeared.

The youying gong drifted there in a daze, waiting foolishly for a long while. He felt as though he had vaguely caught a sentence from the wind.

“When you’ve finished cultivating, we’ll talk.”

He blinked, took out the lamp from his chest, and holding it, slowly drifted back to Wanying Gong Temple.

……

Li Chi had already drifted far away. He looked into another strand of karma.

The method by which the youying gong lit the bright lamp for cultivation was the same method the old man used to carve wooden statues. Though what the old man knew was only part of it and not comprehensive, one could still see that this was a proper method that cultivated the heart. Moreover, there was something even more profound within it—merely by having once sheltered in these wooden statues, these souls could learn this method, saving themselves and also saving others.

This method was never meant for carving wooden statues. It had been deliberately integrated into the wood-carving technique to make it easier for the old man to learn.

According to the old man, he had learned this craft from a ghost he had encountered by chance. He had accompanied that ghost for part of the journey, and in return, the ghost had taught him this craft along with some other things.

When teaching him, this ghost had specially modified and integrated the carving method for him. To be able to do this, the ghost must have already understood this cultivation method very deeply and thoroughly. Yet such a cultivator had died wrongfully on the road, trapped in the wilderness, forced to borrow the old man’s vital energy to find a temple to shelter in. This matter became particularly interesting.

Li Chi had already looked into the old man’s karma and from it found the origin of the soul who had taught him this method. It came from a sect.

And what drew Li Chi’s attention even more was that just moments ago, from the prayers Ding Qin had offered him, he had heard this name—the Mingdeng Sect.

(TL: literally Bright Lamp Sect)