Chapter 1: This Pure Land
Look closely, this man is named Xiaoshuai!
He was tying a rope tightly to a pure gold Lotus Lantern, swinging it above his head, aiming, and throwing it forcefully towards the hole above...
Ouyang Rong felt that if this was truly a prank played on him—filming ordinary people with hidden cameras—then soon, everyone would probably know him through this ridiculous opening line.
“I'm telling you, I don't care if this is a cheesy prank, sleep paralysis, a dream, or truly the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss… no one is going to stop me from going back to prepare for my postgraduate entrance exam!”
Ouyang Rong crouched at the edge of a Lotus Pedestal, head bowed, his dry lips mumbling. His eyes were fixed on the golden Lotus Lantern in his hand, meticulously tying the knot.
This was a confined underground palace. Faded murals were faintly visible on the four walls, and in the center of the floor stood a half-meter-tall Lotus Pedestal with a cinched waist.
Other than that, it was empty.
The only light source was a circular hole, about the size of a manhole cover, in the ceiling ten meters above.
This also seemed to be the only exit from the underground palace. A beam of dim moonlight slanted down from it, falling precisely on the young man who was crouching ungracefully on the Lotus Pedestal.
“I’ve been preparing for a year, working from four in the morning to ten at night. The battlefield is this weekend. Do you think falling into a well can trap me? Not even the Buddha’s well! I’m telling you, absolutely not!”
Ouyang Rong checked the knot one last time, licked his chapped lips, and 'whoosh'—sprang up from the Lotus Pedestal.
He clutched the rope tightly with one hand, cradling the heavy golden Lotus Lantern with the other, gazing up at the 'well opening' he had been longing for.
There are no well holes that cannot be climbed out of, only postgraduate candidates who climb!
However, after his burst of adrenaline, Ouyang Rong did not act immediately.
He suddenly turned back and called out to the darkness behind him: “Hey, you all come over and lend a hand. I’ll pull you up after I get out.”
He was not the only one in this confined underground palace.
In the pitch-black areas untouched by moonlight, three dark figures were vaguely scattered:
A Monk Kugao sat there, very tall, like a small mountain pile.
His gray monk's robe was tattered, his face emaciated, and his age was indiscernible.
An Old Daoist leaned against the wall, sitting on the ground with his legs spread like a dustpan.
He was entirely shrunken into a large black-feathered Crane Cloak like a water monkey, hugging himself tightly as if he was afraid of the cold.
Only a pointed head was exposed, with a youthful face and hair like a crane's, and a Daoist Hunyuan scarf pressed down on his silver hair.
And another was a girl with her knees hugged to her chest and her face buried. Her bone structure was already delicate, but wearing an ancient-style Hanfu dress made her appear even more fragile.
She was also the quietest one in the underground palace.
When Ouyang Rong first woke up and tried to talk to her, the girl didn't utter a single word, only a pair of eyes, like autumn water in a stream, flashed through the gap between her knees and slender arms.
Now, as Ouyang Rong busied himself in the moonlight, the slender girl's delicate eyes peeked out from between her arms, silently watching him.
Ouyang Rong swept his gaze over the three strangely dressed individuals again, finding it hard to believe they were also preparing for postgraduate exams, but he couldn't help but murmur, “Are you really not coming out?”
But he was met with three looks as if they were staring at an idiot.
“Cannot go out!”
Upon hearing the words 'go out', the Monk Kugao shivered uncontrollably, as if he had just been pulled from the icy waters of the North Sea.
“Why?”
The Monk Kugao pointed one hand to the ground and the other to the sky, “This place is the Lotus Pure Land, and above is the Infinite Hell!”
“If I don't get in, then it really is the Infinite Hell.” Ouyang Rong nodded and turned around.
The monk, still feeling pity, chanted a Buddha's name and warned, “amitabha, Benefactor, if you go up, you will immediately be eaten by evil creatures.”
“Don't go out there to die, you fool.” The Old Daoist in Crane Cloak also sneered, then paused, “If you're going to die, don't drag us with you.”
“… …” Ouyang Rong.
Are you all crazy?
He held back, swallowed his words, and shook his head.
Sure enough, those who still believed in religion in this era were a bit eccentric, not even as normal as those girls in the Hanfu circle.
After glancing at the slender girl who remained silent, Ouyang Rong decisively turned around and began throwing the golden Lotus Lantern towards the round hole above.
Not long ago, he had tried shouting for help, but whether the underground palace was too deep or it was late at night with no one around, there was no response from outside.
“I can't drag this out any longer.” He still hadn't finished memorizing his vocabulary.
Ouyang Rong remembered watching a wilderness survival video while eating before, where someone who fell into a deep pit tied a heavy object to one end of a long rope, then threw it out of the pit to entangle it around a tree trunk, successfully rescuing themselves.
“I remember before I fell, there were two incense burners nearby that cheated people out of coins.” The postgraduate candidate calmly analyzed.
The Lotus Lantern he had picked up, whether it was real gold or just painted gold, felt quite valuable when he weighed it.
But… who cared? Even if it was an artifact, it was useless. The lives of the people and the postgraduate entrance exam were more important. 'The people' had commandeered it!
Just watch.
First time, missed, hit the ground.
Second time, hit, it was thrown out!
But when he pulled, it slid back from outside the hole.
Third time, changed direction, missed…
At this moment, the Monk Kugao pressed his palms together, his face filled with sorrow:
“Benefactor, why are you so determined to go your own way? You have finally ascended to this Pure Land, do not fall back into that Avici Hell.”
“Above, all kinds of evil creatures abound, and all kinds of evil Karma proliferate. There are waves that drown mountains and fields, raging fires that fill the ten directions, poisonous gases that choke the heavens and earth, and evil winds that destroy all things…”
“Stop babbling.” The Old Daoist in Crane Cloak changed his sitting posture to cross-legged meditation, while also moving further away from Ouyang Rong. He said impatiently, “Good advice is hard to give to those who are destined to die, and great compassion does not save those who destroy themselves.”
The postgraduate candidate, who was about to throw again, suddenly stiffened. He lowered his eyes and silently looked at the unfamiliar Confucian robe he was wearing, which he had been deliberately ignoring.
This was not the clothes he had been wearing before he fell.
Rumble—
A faint rumble of thunder suddenly came from outside the underground palace, and before he could react, the night rain began to fall.
Ouyang Rong looked up, raindrops hitting his greenish eyelids.
The more he looked, the more he felt that this perfectly round hole resembled a manhole cover—the very manhole he had stumbled into.
The story was a bit convoluted.
Ouyang Rong was a postgraduate candidate taking the exam for the second time. As the exam approached, while lurking in a small group called “Gentleman Postgraduate Group (No Girls Allowed)”, he heard group members say that there was a Donglin Temple in the suburbs that was very skilled in two services: helping people pass their postgraduate exams and praying for good marriages. Every year, many people came from all over the country to fulfill their vows…
Upon further inquiry, he learned that there was a century-old Wish Tower in the temple, which also contained a fortune bell. After accumulating enough Karma, ringing it would bring good fortune and make wishes come true.
Ouyang Rong was actually skeptical of this from a materialistic perspective, but who knew, perhaps the anxiety of young people nowadays was so great that even the Buddha knew about it? And the Buddha actually took on this business…
Moreover, he really needed both of these services; they truly hit the mark.
He decided to treat it as 'sincerity makes it happen'.
So, early that morning, Ouyang Rong, with a critical and sharp gaze, took a taxi to Donglin Temple. When he arrived, he saw a long queue for entry, stretching all the way to the foot of the mountain. In front of him were people of his age, all looking down at their phones in the cold wind.
Waking up so early, they must be seasoned postgraduate candidates, even in line they didn't forget to study… Ouyang Rong sighed. Just as he was about to take out his phone, a young monk, holding a QR code between two fingers, poked it in front of his nose and told him to scan it.
Ouyang Rong looked and found that it was to scan and download an APP called 'Gongde Tower'.
Donglin Temple was quite considerate, allowing benefactors who didn't have time to queue to ring the bell online without leaving their homes. It truly put them at the forefront of all temples in the country in terms of benefactor care.
At that time, Ouyang Rong didn't waste any words. After downloading it, he immediately turned and left; a postgraduate candidate's time was precious.
On the way back, he studied it briefly and quickly understood the small application.
Clicking into the Gongde Tower, it mainly contained an electronic wooden fish and a fortune bell.
The electronic wooden fish could be tapped manually, and each tap would add 1 Karma, with a warm counter displayed above.
As for the most important fortune bell, which could grant wishes, it required accumulating ten thousand Karma points to ring it once.
The rather devilish part was that the APP even came with 《Great Compassion Mantra》 as background music, which couldn't be turned off…
“Tap electronic wooden fish, accumulate cyber Karma, receive mechanical fortune, ascend to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, and meet the Mecha Buddha, right? I'm familiar with this.” Ouyang Rong was quite confident.
Oh, by the way, there was also a 'limited-time donation for Karma' option in the bottom right corner of the app, but Ouyang Rong ignored it directly. Maybe next time… Actually, probably not even next time.
Non-paying benefactors could only grind hard. Even though Ouyang Rong was still struggling with the word 'abandon' in his postgraduate vocabulary, his hands-on ability had been maxed out since childhood.
As a child, if he found a relatively straight stick, no flower or plant within a ten-mile radius of his home would be taller than his waist; every dog he passed would get two whacks; if he was given a string, not even a tadpole would survive in the pond.
So that night, Ouyang Rong cobbled together a physical auto-clicker using a motor, gears, chopsticks, and rubber. He placed it and his phone on his bedside table, furiously grinding Karma, while he leisurely finished memorizing vocabulary and then fell asleep to the Great Compassion Mantra.
As a result, he was banned the next day.
“… …” Are you not playing fair?
Ouyang never expected that this small outsourced APP would even have an anti-cheat mechanism.
Early the next morning, indignant, he went to Donglin Temple again, wanting to argue with them… Well, actually, he wanted to feign innocence and see if he could get unbanned.
But when he arrived, there was the familiar long queue, so he directly took a detour up the mountain, wanting to see if there were any other entrances.
While walking halfway, the postgraduate group he used to lurk in, whose name was very righteous, had another dog-group-member post a picture of awe-inspiring righteousness.
Posting during the day too? Ouyang Rong subconsciously double-clicked to zoom in and take a look. But it was this greedy glance that made him miss a step when he turned a corner, his foot slipped, and his vision went black…
… …
Ouyang Rong stood on the Lotus Pedestal, vigorously wiping the rain from his face.
From the last few frames of his memory, he surmised that he must have stumbled and fallen into a lidless well in the temple.
However, what was very strange was that when Ouyang Rong slowly woke up, he found himself lying on this cold, hard Lotus Pedestal beneath his feet.
His phone and down jacket were all gone, and he couldn't find them anywhere in the underground palace. Instead, he was wearing an unfamiliar white scholar's robe.
Moreover, a white gauze bandage was wrapped around his forehead like a forehead-band, covering a not-small bump from an impact, which still throbbed faintly at this moment.
But fortunately, he only hit his forehead, not his face.
And he was very familiar with his own face. Although the underground palace was pitch black and he couldn't find a mirror, after roughly feeling it, he found that it was probably his own face, unless he had been reborn as Hu Ge or Edison Chen.
If it weren't for this solid proof, he would have almost believed the nonsense of the Monk Kugao and the Old Daoist in Crane Cloak.
No longer dwelling on the clothes he wore, Ouyang Rong hesitated for a moment in the rain, then continued to throw.
Midway, he changed direction twice more.
Finally!
On the tenth throw, the Lotus Golden Lantern thrown out of the hole was no longer pulled back by him. A steady resistance traveled from the straight rope to Ouyang Rong's abraded tiger's mouth.
His face lit up with joy. He fiercely wiped his face, 'Ptooey, ptooey' spitting out two mouthfuls of muddy water, and began to grasp the rope, climbing up ungracefully.
Behind him, the Monk Kugao, the Old Daoist in Crane Cloak, and the slender girl were all staring at him intently.
At a height of about ten meters, Lord was like a small earthworm climbing a wall, 'wriggling' upwards with a shrug.
His posture was a bit undignified, making him blush slightly in front of everyone, especially the Hanfu girl.
But his life was more important; whether he was handsome or not could be discussed after he reached safety.
Soon, Ouyang Rong, enduring the rain, had climbed most of the way up. At this point, he could reach out and touch the rocks of the well opening, and his nose suddenly caught a familiar scent of sandalwood.
Indeed, he was still in the temple! Ouyang Rong breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then, he suddenly noticed that the moon, half-obscured by dark clouds above, began to tremble.
Does the moon also shiver? This was Ouyang Rong's first reaction in the initial three seconds.
However, he quickly realized it wasn't.
What was trembling… was the entire underground palace, and him.
Ouyang Rong was startled and quickly clutched the rope in his arms tightly.
The sound of rain above his head suddenly grew louder, and the wind became fiercer. The raindrops falling from top to bottom turned into a slanted fall from left to right.
Next came the sound of water from outside, different from the lapping waves of the sea's ebb and flow. In Ouyang Rong's ears, this sound of water was like the roar of a distant, approaching train. It seemed to come from the end of the horizon, sweeping away everything in its path—flowers, birds, beasts, mountains, and forests—causing the entire world to tremble.
Ouyang Rong finally understood the true meaning of the words 'earth-shattering' and 'heaven and earth changing color'.
Unfortunately, he learned it by landing hard on his backside.
The Lotus Golden Lantern that had been thrown out 'untied' and slid back, bringing the temporarily deaf Ouyang Rong with it, plunging him back into reality…
After an unknown period, all the sudden commotion subsided into silence.
The rain, which had been falling from left to right, returned to falling from top to bottom.
Ouyang Rong sat on the cold, hard floor of the underground palace, soaking wet.
On the ground beside him lay half of the broken Lotus Lantern, the other half having flown to the corner of the wall, with various colored beads scattered from it.
Ouyang Rong's upper body still maintained the posture of tightly clutching the rope; he hadn't let go. He looked up blankly at the round hole that greatly resembled a manhole cover.
Just now, at the closest point to the hole, he had not only heard the roar of mountain floods and the howling of strong winds, but also faintly… the wailing of many people.
Outside was a great flood, at least a mountain flood roaring for hundreds of miles, or perhaps even a world-destroying flood similar to the one in the Old Testament.
A weak individual was insignificant in the face of such immense power… and so was the postgraduate entrance exam.
After a long silence.
“Um, what did you just say?”
Ouyang Rong, looking up, suddenly spoke without turning around.
Not far behind him, the Monk Kugao, whose expression had remained calm, once again made the gesture of pointing one hand to the ground and the other to the sky.
“Benefactor, this place is the Lotus Pure Land, and above is the Infinite Hell!”
Ouyang Rong hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back.
He was actually asking about the line, “There are waves that drown mountains and fields… and evil winds that destroy all things,” but, never mind…
The materialistic postgraduate candidate turned around seriously and sincerely asked, “High Monk, what is your esteemed surname?”
“… …” Monk Kugao.
“… …” Old Daoist in Crane Cloak.
“… …” Slender girl.