The sun and moon are both wrong; who made him seek the Dharma?

Chapter 11 The Year Scam

Let's go back half an hour.

In the dim bamboo forest, sunlight is cut into tiny, fragmented spots.

Bai Xiaoxiao stared blankly at the tall and robust young man in front of her, tears streaming down her face.

Her knees buckled, and she knelt down with a thud on the muddy ground covered with withered leaves.

"Kill me."

Her thin shoulders heaved violently: "This little one was born with this sin on her shoulders, she deserves to die."

"You saved Xiaoxiao, and Xiaoxiao dares to call you her benefactor."

Bai Xiaoxiao slammed her forehead heavily against the ground, her voice trembling but resolute:

"Please, my benefactor, see me on my way."

Gao Haoguang stood aside, looking at the girl kneeling and begging for death, and then at his senior brother who looked normal. He felt his mind was in turmoil.

Grey's still immature moral compass is currently undergoing a severe shock.

According to Bai Xiaoxiao, her parents were offered as sacrifices to the Nirvana Corpse by the villagers, and now it was her turn.

All of this is because of the blood debt their ancestor, a medicine maker, owed by using the lives of an entire village to test medicine.

Should Bai Xiaoxiao repay this debt?

If it is due, Bai Xiaoxiao herself is unarmed and has never done anything wrong.

Her parents died tragically because of this, and her family of three was almost wiped out. Wasn't the price she paid enough to fill the abyss from a thousand years ago?

If it shouldn't be returned, then who can the innocent people who were turned into blood and died tragically back then seek justice from?

Now, Bai Xiaoxiao's life hangs in the balance between the two of them.

Gao Haoguang's young mind completely shut down. He couldn't untangle this tangled mess spanning thousands of years, and could only look at Xia Chuan with pleading eyes.

Xia Chuan looked down at Bai Xiaoxiao from his high vantage point.

"I won't lay a hand on him."

Xia Chuan spoke slowly, his voice steady and powerful.

Bai Xiaoxiao stared in disbelief, tears streaming down her pale face. "Why is this happening?"

Xia Chuan did not answer directly, but instead shifted his gaze slightly and threw out a completely unrelated topic.

"Far from here, there once lived a group of greedy merchants."

"They were selling something printed from waste paper called 'indulgences' everywhere."

"They told the world that as long as you spend money to buy this ticket, your sins will be wiped clean, and you will be innocent after death."

Xia Chuan turned his head to look at his junior brother:

"Haoguang, if it were you, would you buy it?"

Gao Haoguang was taken aback, and subconsciously answered:

"Isn't this a scam? Only a fool would buy it!"

Xia Chuan nodded:

"Yes, it's a scam."

But at the time, everyone there flocked to it.

Gao Haoguang looked utterly astonished: "Why is that?"

Xia Chuan's gaze returned to Bai Xiaoxiao:

"Because they believe deep down that they are guilty."

"But what crime have they committed?"

Most of them were just unfortunate people who toiled in the fields.

"It is only because those in high positions tell them they are guilty that they truly believe they were born filthy."

He took a step forward, his tall figure blocking out the sunlight and enveloping Bai Xiaoxiao in shadow.

"Therefore, those people gave up all their possessions and sold the land on which they depended for survival."

It even burdens future generations with a contract of servitude, for generations to come.

"Lost their family fortune, their home destroyed, and their lives ruined."

All for the sake of exchanging that worthless piece of paper, a mere consolation to myself!

Xia Chuan grabbed Bai Xiaoxiao's arm and effortlessly pulled her up from the ground.

"Look me in the eyes now and answer me!"

Xia Chuan's voice suddenly rose, as if a great bell had exploded in her ears:

"Your one-sided self-sacrifice, your so-called repayment of debts to your ancestors."

Do you really just want to buy that worthless piece of paper that's just self-deception?!

Bai Xiaoxiao was stunned by the deafening question, her mind went blank, and she stood there dumbfounded, her lips trembling:

"This...this...that's what everyone in the village is saying..."

"I don't care what others say!"

Xia Chuan waved his hand impatiently, interrupting her.

"I'll just watch what you do!"

Your parents risked their lives to buy worthless paper, and it wasn't enough for you; you still insisted on rushing to your death to buy another one.

Is that what you mean?!

Bai Xiaoxiao stammered, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time. Her huge psychological defenses began to crumble under Xia Chuan's domineering logic.

She instinctively wanted to escape, so she bent her knees and was about to kneel down again.

"No kneeling allowed!"

Xia Chuan flicked his wrist, and the powerful force completely stopped her from falling, pinning her firmly to the spot.

"I ask you, you say your family is guilty."

Who told you about this?

Bai Xiaoxiao's eyes filled with tears, and she trembled helplessly:

"It's...it's the village chief, it's everyone."

The whole village has been saying this for generations…

"Were they eyewitnesses from a thousand years ago?"

Xia Chuan sneered:

"According to them, they should have all died back then!"

"If a village is so sick that it can't even be moved, it's on the verge of dying out."

Then how come you're still here?

"If you say that, then everyone in the village now has four limbs."

"Then let me ask you, how were their ancestors' illnesses cured?"

Bai Xiaoxiao's eyes widened suddenly, as if struck by lightning:

"This...this..."

"That doesn't make sense, does it?"

Xia Chuan pressed on relentlessly, his words like knives: "There are only two truths."

"Or, you are all outsiders."

Whether they were relatives of the original inhabitants or people who moved from other villages, they were all outsiders.

"Then why are they coming to your house to collect debts?"

"Or, this story, please?"

Xia Chuan slammed down his conclusion, word by word:

"It's all made up from beginning to end!"

The bamboo grove was deathly silent, with only the rustling of the wind through the bamboo leaves.

Xia Chuan's gaze was intense, fixed on the swaying girl before him:

"Bai Xiaoxiao!"

"Answer me one more time, do you still want to buy that atonement ticket?!"

Bai Xiaoxiao was struck dumb, speechless.

Her world, which had been shrouded in guilt and remorse for over a decade, was now crumbling inch by inch.

Seeing her like this, Xia Chuan changed the subject:

"Actually, instead of listening to those sanctimonious villagers say that you were born guilty, you should just go directly to the person involved and ask them for clarification."

Gao Haoguang, standing to the side, was completely bewildered, scratching his gray hair:

"Senior brother, where did this party come from?"

"More than a thousand years have passed; the ashes have all been scattered."

"Of course."

Xia Chuan spoke calmly, "That corpse."

"As long as they can continue to gain life, the lifespan of a Nirvana Corpse is almost infinite."

Since it has taken up residence here to receive offerings, it must know the details of this village.

Xia Chuan released his grip, looked at Bai Xiaoxiao who was a full head shorter than him, and softened his tone:

"Once that Nirvana Corpse appears, we can ask it a couple of questions, and the truth will naturally come to light."

Listening to Xia Chuan's meticulous analysis, Bai Xiaoxiao was already 80% convinced.

But what if this benefactor's guess is correct...?

Then what about my parents... what about the suffering I've endured over the past ten years...?

Bai Xiaoxiao's face instantly lost all color, turning as pale as a sheet of paper.

"What are you thinking about?"

Xia Chuan keenly noticed the change in her eyes.

"I'm wondering... how could the people in the village...?"

"Shut up."

Xia Chuan interrupted her mercilessly, his gaze piercing straight into the depths of her heart.

"I'm not asking what those villagers are thinking! What they think is none of my business."

"I'm asking about Bai Xiaoxiao."

You are standing here right now.

What was Bai Xiaoxiao thinking, watching helplessly as her parents were sent up the mountain and she lost everything?!

Bai Xiaoxiao was shocked.

What am I thinking?

Memories, suppressed deep within the soul, surged into the mind like a flood bursting its banks.

In the beginning, it was my father.

The kind and honest man patted her head and said with a smile that he was going on a long trip.

But Xiaoxiao, hiding behind the door, witnessed her fellow villagers, with ferocious expressions, pinning her father to the ground and beating him until his face was covered in blood.

They were hurling vicious curses at each other:

"This is a debt your ancestors owed us! You must repay it with your life!"

Xiao Xiao didn't understand at first why her father would lie to her with a smile.

Later she understood.

Because the father believed that as long as he obediently died, he could quell the villagers' anger and save his wife and children.

But he failed.

Those people's greed and cruelty have no bottom line.

The second person to be taken away was my mother.

The day my mother's hands were bound with hemp rope, the sunset was as red as blood, so red it was blinding.

Her mother didn't cry, but looked at her intently and said softly:

"Little one, if you have the chance... go and see what's outside the mountains. Don't die here."

Bai Xiaoxiao couldn't remember her mother's face that day; she only remembered that she cried for a long time.

The sun shone into the room.

Like blood.

Blood was everywhere.

Since then, Bai Xiaoxiao has never felt pain again.

Others insulted her, hit her, and threw stones at her.

She didn't feel any pain.

Whether she was alive or dead, she felt nothing but emptiness and numbness in her heart, like a piece of rusty iron.

So when she was chosen as the next sacrifice, she neither ran away nor resisted.

Rather, it's better to live without dignity than to be mired in this quagmire of despair.

She longed to see her parents again in another world.

"I……"

Bai Xiaoxiao slowly raised her hand and tightly gripped the collar of her clothes.

"I...it hurts so much."

She gasped for breath, tears streaming down her face like broken beads.

"This is so strange... it really hurts here."

Xia Chuan looked at her and sighed, "Why do you find it strange?"

You are a human being.

"Of course it hurts when someone takes away your parents, a person of flesh and blood."

Bai Xiaoxiao was completely stunned.

So, I can feel pain too.

I am just like them; I am a human being with flesh and blood.

I am not some sacrifice born to atone for sins; I am a living, breathing human being.

In that extreme pain, she finally heard the voice that had been suppressed deep within her soul for more than a decade.

Xia Chuan took half a step forward, his imposing figure like an insurmountable mountain, and once again asked that soul-searching question.

Tell me, what are you thinking right now?

Bai Xiaoxiao suddenly raised her head. "I...I was thinking..."

She gritted her teeth, tears streaming down her face.

"I don't want my father to die!"

"I want to see my mother!"

"I don't want to be a sacrifice!"

I want to listen to my mother and go see the outside world!

The girl looked up, her voice trembling: "I want to live!"

"That's exactly what I've been waiting to hear!"

Xia Chuan turned around, his bones cracking like firecrackers, his smooth muscles radiating a dangerous aura in the sunlight.

He gazed at the faint outline of the village in the distance:

"I have a plan."