【Pearl Coast. The White Lotus is So Clean】(5)

page views:1 Publication date:2023-03-23

Author: Yang Yixing Published :
2015/10/26
First published on: sis001 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Word
count: 13520 　　The nun Zheng Han, whose Dharma name was Zheng Han, could overlook the ruins of the seaside city from the gate of her temple. She saw that the forest covering grew taller every year. Every year, Zheng Han would traverse this forest, walk across the Great Lake Plain to the capital of the Ba Kingdom, and then walk back. The temple she presided over was located on the western slope , at the foot of which lay the port of Bengcheng, which had been burned down by the Great Zhou Dynasty many years ago. 　　Times had changed, and this place was no longer inhabited by many people. If wanted to find her to seek enlightenment or ask about Buddhist teachings, they also had to travel long distances, traversing vast, uninhabited wilderness, and finally, they had to climb the mountain themselves. But they still did it with great enthusiasm. The king of the previous dynasty of the Ba Kingdom revered the teachings transmitted from India, and in the years that followed, a trend of Buddhist worship began to grow among all levels of society . Legend has it that the young nun from the Central Plains at Zhenghan Temple, though young, managed a monastery in Yue Province, part of the Zhou Dynasty, housing hundreds of nuns. Some even suspected she might be the illegitimate . Despite this, the Buddhist retreat Zhenghan built on the mountainside of Changshan consisted of only a shrine and two thatched huts behind it. Two Ba nuns followed her, likely widows , driven to desperation by family misfortunes, had taken refuge in the temple. Zhenghan and the two nuns eked out a living by cultivating cassava and vegetables beside the simple temple. 　　Zhenghan was perhaps not lacking in wealth. High-ranking officials and wealthy merchants who came to pay their , but Zhenghan always insisted they take the donations home for safekeeping, only retrieving them when needed. According to rumors circulating among officials and merchants in the Ba Kingdom, getting acquainted with Zheng Han was a direct way to establish good . However, the general public gradually came to believe that this young female monk from the Great Zhou was a bodhisattva capable of healing and saving lives. The monk's magic included brewing soup from various unidentifiable roots and leaves for people to drink, or pricking people's backs with tiny, sharp needles. And these magic spells were effective. Legend has it that she once pricked an old man who had been blind all his life with a small needle, and he immediately regained his sight. Another story involves a fisherman who had drowned in a storm at sea. When he was washed ashore, he had probably been dead for many days. People carried him to the entrance of Zheng Han Temple and laid him down, and then they saw him begin to vomit water from his mouth. 　　As Buddhism spread, some magnificent monasteries , and they always invited Zheng Han to participate in various important Buddhist activities. Spiritual practice is certainly important, and so is walking. The road from the seashore to the great lake is long, requiring a considerable amount of time on foot, yet Zheng Han has traversed it countless times without ever growing weary. The abbess of Zheng Han Temple would leave one nun to guard the temple while she and another nun would walk for a month. Many places along this road were devoid of human presence; instead , wild animals were frequently seen. The woman always carried a white ash wood staff. For Zheng Han, this staff allowed her to fight Princess Yi's most elite guards to ten rounds. There were could defeat her. In fact, this protective staff quickly became a distinctive symbol of the enlightened female monks of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Another peculiar aspect of Abbess Zheng Han was that she was always barefoot. Everyone knew she had a foot disability, but no one had ever seen her wear shoes. Even the local bandits who roamed the mountains knew they had stumbled upon a woman dressed like this. The bandits rushed out of their hiding place and blocked the road, only to kneel on the ground and beg the female bodhisattva to touch their heads, blessing them with greater success in their future robberies. 　　Zheng Han, carrying her staff, walked barefoot along the main road of the capital of Ba Kingdom. She went to visit those important figures who had traveled long distances to Zheng Han Temple to offer incense and pray. Zheng Han requested that they arrange donations at various temples throughout the city . The donations were only ordinary porridge and rice, but she hoped it could be done daily for a year, until she returned the following year and found someone else to take over. 　　Whether it was the king's civil and military officials or Buddhist monks, all sorts of people in the capital of Ba Kingdom greeted Zheng Han with respect and smiles, though they might not truly like her; perhaps they were just afraid of her. Ba Kingdom, considering itself a vassal state, had paid tribute to the Great Zhou for many years, but a fierce war had broken out, wiping out the entire population of an entire city. It was understandable that the people of Ba harbored resentment. Their current king encourages the spread of Buddhism, perhaps as a means of suppressing political enemies from the previous dynasty, and also to show submission to the Great Zhou. Years of war have left them impoverished and weak; they truly have no strength left to fight for supremacy. 　　Zheng Han attends Buddhist ceremonies at various temples in Ba City; they have even organized Dharma assemblies for her. Officials had invited Zheng Han to move to the capital, offering to build a grand temple for her to preside over, but she declined . However, she promised to come every year. For the rest of her life, she will make a journey to the Great Lake every year, a vow she once made. 　　If one knows that bears and tigers don't harm unless provoked, and if one becomes accustomed to snakes and scorpions after encountering them a few times, one might find the mountains, besides their tranquility and spiritual cultivation, to be quite safe. Zheng Han knows that for a renowned Zhou Dynasty nun, Ba City is a place fraught with danger. The bloody power struggle between the old and new royal families of Ba was far from over, and all sides harbored their own calculations regarding whether to utilize or resist the infiltration of the Great Zhou forces. Even disregarding the complex contradictions among these rulers, it wasn't impossible that some fanatical Indian believer might stab her in the back to defend their faith. However, these weren't the most important things. What mattered was that she had to go precisely because she might die. 　　Zheng Han felt that too many things still lived within her. She often felt a little too weak to live. Entering a place where death might befall her made her heart race, her breath grow longer and deeper, and whether she wanted to admit it , it might be a hidden kind of pleasure. Those hidden things might never have left; they helped her make decisions, pointed her in the direction that might kill her, and then she would obediently walk towards it. She followed the call, leaving the Central Plains to come to this land of Ba, which harbored hostility and even hatred, to preach and do good.

It felt like a destiny-ordained destination; she had no idea what else she could do.

When Zheng Han stayed in Ba City, she was staying at a nunnery. One night, a group of people dressed in gray
came to the nunnery looking for her. "So, I've finally gotten what I deserve?" Zheng Han wondered. "Will it be today?"

she thought. "Will they torture me?" The young woman's heart pounded, her breath quickened. But
she truly afraid. It was a strange feeling. The nun from Da Zhou calmly waited for
them to speak, or perhaps even act, trusting her serene eyes.

That day, the people who came were eunuchs from the Ba royal family. They very kindly reassured the young nun from Da Zhou
. The head eunuch told Zheng Han that the King of Ba admired the culture of the Central Plains, and that they had come on the king's orders,
with no intention of harming her. They were simply inviting her to a very important gathering. But Zheng
Han, of course, didn't believe him. Especially after they traveled a long way by carriage, she was led into a
courtyard surrounded by high walls, with layers of security gates along the way. Anyone could tell it was a place used for special affairs.

There was also an entrance leading underground. The eunuchs told her that their place was too small,
and any noise would disturb others. They suggested making it a secret room to avoid being overheard. Once the door was closed, any noise wouldn't easily
escape. The steps were high, and the nun descended carefully.

No need to listen to gossip anymore; Zheng Han could already smell the faint scent of blood rising up. Sticks
were unnecessary in this place. She simply went barefoot as usual, and once she reached the cave, her feet were not only
wet, but the stone slabs on the floor felt sticky. The first thing Zheng Han saw upon entering the open space was a large cellar,
with tunnels leading to even deeper, darker areas. There were some indistinct, fragmented sounds coming from inside, indicating that people still lived
there . Zheng Han was led inside later. On both sides of the corridor, rows of
low, brick kilns, each about a person's width and half a person's height, were locked behind iron gates. Inside were men and women, all
sitting hunched over on the floor, none of them clothed.

Zheng Han, a nun from the Great Zhou Dynasty, spent the entire night in this underground chamber. Eunuchs used
various , slowly torturing the young female prisoner. The room was filled with the sounds of blood and screams,
which continued all night. However, Zheng Han was truly just an observer that night.

The royal eunuchs, under orders from the King of Ba, were secretly investigating a special case. This underground cellar
was a torture chamber for interrogating prisoners. A long table and high-backed chairs were placed at the head of the hall for the presiding eunuchs
and the guest, Zheng Han, to sit on. Various torture instruments were displayed below. Located midway along the sea routes from the Abbasid Caliphate to the East, the Ba Kingdom
easily acquired exotic artifacts from the far west. The iron
chair alone was a form of torture rarely seen in the Central Plains. Its panel, backrest, and armrests were covered in spikes. A naked
woman was forced to sit on it, her hands and feet locked, and a burning charcoal brazier was placed underneath. Before any further torture could begin,
the woman would repeatedly sway and writhe her plump buttocks
and thighs on the gradually heating iron spikes, screaming and crying, tearing her own flesh and blood. Zheng Han had never seen such a
terrifying, pear-shaped iron device before. It was made of several converging iron plates. When used, it was inserted into the woman's body, and the tail was rotated,
causing the iron plates to extend deep within her.

Zheng Han closed her eyes and waited for that moment to pass. The sounds a woman could make at that time were, of course, very
unpleasant. Throughout the night, she was slowly subjected to several rounds of torture, repeatedly fainting and then being doused with cold water. Only after this process
was she finally brought to the platform, forced to kneel, and interrogated. What Zheng Han heard was the woman's secret plot with her royal father and brothers to
prepare for an attack on Qiongya, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty. She also confessed to
having spies planted in several places in Qiongzhou and Guangdong provinces, as well as bribing local officials. Each time her confession was recorded, the woman had to put her
fingerprint on it. Then, no matter how much she cried and begged for mercy, she was dragged away and tortured again. Everyone coldly watched as she
endured three or five more near-death experiences before being given another chance to speak.

Zheng Han now knew that the so-called "Iron Girl" was a heavy wooden mold sculpted according to the shape of a human body, with two doors that could be opened
, used to confine prisoners inside. She also learned that being imprisoned in the Iron Maiden didn't necessarily mean
death. Although the two halves of the module had many jagged iron nails standing upright, their lengths could be adjusted,
and they could be completely removed. The instrument of torture used to hold the naked woman that night had the nails removed from her head, face, chest, and abdomen .
The nails left on her shoulders, back, buttocks, and legs were limited to penetrating the muscle. The only place where sharp,
long nails was to enclose the hollows of her breasts. After the wooden sculpture of a human figure was closed,
the footrest at the bottom could be pulled out. The imprisoned woman was actually suspended in the darkness, hooked by the nails.
In the cramped and oppressive space, all she could hear was her
own .

Zheng Han saw streaks of blood slowly flowing from under the base of the Iron Maiden. Although the Iron
Maiden appeared sturdy and impenetrable on the surface, the sounds still leaked out in bits and pieces, initially
clear and loud struggles and cries. The eunuchs later respectfully invited the Great Zhou nun to tour the entire underground prison behind the courtroom.
As they escorted Zheng Han back to the surface, there seemed to be
some , though only a few weak sobs.

The eunuchs respectfully saw Zheng Han back to her quarters, leaving her a copy of the prisoners' confessions from that night.

Although Zheng Han refused to accept it, they didn't take it away either. Zheng Han hesitated for a moment, but ultimately didn't throw it
directly outside. Ships from the Central Plains sometimes passed by the coast of Chuangshi, and
the weren't strangers; perhaps someone would be willing to give her a ride, or perhaps someone in the country was waiting to catch a glimpse.

This was an unspoken understanding between the two sides. From then on, whenever Zheng Han went to the capital, besides lecturing on Buddhist scriptures, she
would inevitably be invited by the eunuchs to revisit that underground place. There, she also witnessed increasingly elaborate
methods of beating a woman, methods that could make her faint, then come back to life, and ultimately survive.
The woman she saw, though never truly dead, changed drastically every year. When Zheng Han visited her for the third time to witness the beatings
, she was probably just over thirty, but her body was already hunched over like a monkey, her thin face, hidden by disheveled
hair, wrinkled and creased, making her look like a monkey too. By then, the fathers-in-law had completely stopped interfering.
After a series of needle pricks and burning incense, she was dragged to a table and forced to press
her fingerprints —this was her confession. According to the common parlance in the Ba Kingdom, if the eunuchs
disliked someone, they would write a charge of treason against him for colluding with remnants of the previous dynasty, and take him to the underworld to have a woman put her fingerprints on it.

Two days later, the unfortunate man would sit naked on a chair studded with iron nails, confessing to a heinous crime deserving
a thousand cuts.

Zheng Han would sit in the underground torture chamber for an entire night each time. She sat quietly behind the table. Zheng Han
hardly uttered a word. Not only was she silent, but her empty eyes
seemed devoid of any expression; she appeared oblivious to everything happening before her. In fact
, even Zheng Han herself couldn't recall exactly what had happened. Zheng Han continued to sit quietly,
slowly thinking. Slowly, an image would appear before her eyes: the contorted, convulsing
face of a woman tormented by pain. Sometimes she would sit alone like this, listening to that woman's piercing cries and pleas over and over again. Zheng Han
knew that there were indeed some things she could always remember.

Zheng Han remembered hearing about the Pagoda Forest one year later. That was the third time she had walked to Ba City, and it was time to go
back. The monks who saw her off said that when the abbess came again next year, she would see the Pagoda Forest reopened
.

A day's walk from Ba City, one could see the edge of the great lake. During the dry season, the lake's edge was thin and perfunctory,
stretching endlessly into the muddy, shallow water, with water lilies and duckweed floating everywhere, interspersed with
lush wild ginger and water chestnuts. The dry season in Ba Kingdom was always sunny and clear, with a long
, blue stone dike separating the low grass growing in the muddy water, also stretching endlessly into
the distance of the vast, calm lake. At the end of the long causeway, the lake shimmers with mist, the water and sky a deep blue. Five
spires of varying heights rise and fall on the mirror-like surface, like a mystical illusion projected from the heavens.

At the end of the stone causeway lies the renowned Ba Kingdom Pagoda Forest. The forest's foundation is
a square platform built from large stones deep within the lake. On this platform rise tiered halls and corridors, their interiors adorned with
countless bas-reliefs depicting emperors, warriors, demons, monsters,
and . At each of the four corners of the three-story halls are four pointed towers, surrounding a fifth
main tower that soars over two hundred feet high, overlooking the low-lying clouds swirling around the lake. Travelers stroll along the lakeshore,
from morning till dusk, and when they look back, their sacred silhouettes still stand out against the crimson
sunset .

The Pagoda Forest was originally a place outside of Buddhism. Zheng Han never visited it. The previous king had begun
constructing . The project took over thirty years to complete, and it was only thanks to Princess Yi
's personal oversight and the use of royal carriages to transport stone and timber that it was finally finished. However, in
that same year the Kingdom of Ba experienced a period of political upheaval and generational change. The newly enthroned king arrested and imprisoned
the male and female priests who had performed the rituals for the previous dynasty on charges of treason. He then vowed to rebuild the stupa forest and glorify the great compassion and inconceivable
realm . The rulers of Ba began to construct a new ideology, and it was during this time that Zheng Han arrived in Ba and
built her Buddhist temple against the backdrop of Changshan Mountain.

The kingdom closed the stupa forest, prohibiting the people from visiting it to worship heretical demons. Tens of thousands of slaves and craftsmen toiled
day and night in the lake for another three years. One day, Zheng Han finally stood once more
at the entrance to the stone embankment that led into the great lake. She looked up and gazed into the distance, seeing that the old
outline . The tallest pagoda atop the hall has been transformed from base to top into a towering, slender human figure. She
is a dignified and graceful Guanyin Bodhisattva, holding a vase to deliver all sentient beings.

The Ba Kingdom's stupa forest, dedicated to Buddhism, existed for centuries before its eventual demise in the silted-up forests of the Great Lake.
The Buddha statue, faced with large blocks of marble, was pristine white when first built,
a stark contrast to the dark hall and surrounding sculptures. Although the new king had expressed
a grand ambition to renovate the entire stupa forest, whether due to the immense financial burden or a political decision to
postpone , construction nearly ceased after the main pagoda was transformed into a standing Buddha.
Some legends suggest that monks from the Great Zhou Dynasty participated in the reconstruction, bearing a significant portion of the construction
costs , perhaps concerned with the incense offerings and wanting to gauge their share of the profits.

Regardless of the truth behind the scenes, the stupas were finally able to reopen for worship, attracting a constant stream of visitors
daily . With its magnificent scale and profound meaning, the entire complex
undeniably became the largest Buddhist pilgrimage site in Pakistan, and perhaps even in all of Southeast Asia.
When Zheng Han returned to Pakistan the next time, she was invited to witness the newly reopened stupas, now reborn and bathed in Buddhist light. She remained silent throughout, as if
she were a dungeon. No matter which deity we worship,
ultimately we must return to the human world and first resolve the life-and-death issues we face. Gods can only
provide a reason for us to kill others, and perhaps even to kill ourselves. We love Buddhism because it allows us to find refuge after
mutual slaughter, preventing us from descending into utter madness.

Zheng Han wondered if the place she was entering was mad enough.
After , one will see the lotus pedestal stacked at the feet of the Guanyin statue. The body of this statue is now
the main hall of the Pagoda Forest, with a wide circumference and towering walls. Stone steps lead down from the large doorway on the lotus pedestal
, and the doorway is decorated with carved arches. Kneeling inside the thick, vermilion wooden threshold is a naked young woman with a rattan collar
around her neck . A small blue tin bell is threaded through her collar, and
a chain is attached to the back of the collar.

The collar is held by a yellow-robed monk. However, the monk only silently
greets the visitor with his hands clasped together, while the woman moves her knees forward two steps, prostrates herself at the feet of the statue, and loudly kowtows.

The woman with the blue bell then continues to drag her knees on the ground for support. Because besides being completely
naked, this naked woman also has no feet. Her calves are cut
flat , and two silver bowls cover the cut surfaces. The woman's severed limbs and remains were carefully contained within the silverware, along the rim of the bowl.
A ring of rivets protruded from the tail. The silver fittings that bound her ankles had rings, through
which a short, thick silver chain threaded, limiting the distance her legs could spread and increasing
the weight she had to bear when walking on her knees.

Zheng Han had already noticed that she had no hands. The woman's forearms were also embedded in silver fittings,
connected by short, thick chains. The woman with the severed limbs slightly bent her elbows,
gathering below her breasts, and a hairy animal tail,
seemingly made of fox or dog skin, protruded from behind her bare buttocks; it appeared to have been inserted directly into her anus.

The woman, who had pulled off her tail and severed limbs, introduced herself to the guests as a "dog servant." Because the sins of a dog servant were
even greater than those of animals, having a lowly name was already a great fortune for a dog servant. She said that the first
karmic retribution for a dog servant was to have her hands and feet severed with an iron saw, then have the silver fittings closed and sharp nails driven in horizontally. Every ten days, the coverings on these four areas were removed
, and then an inch of flesh and bone was cut from each of the dog servant's arms and legs. Boiling oil was poured over the wounds to seal them,
and then they were resealed. The silver coverings on the severed limbs were to prevent
the dog servant's wounds from rotting and smelling bad; of course… the woman forced a smile, and of course, the dog servant was in constant pain.

This torture continued until, after three months, the dog servant had lost all four limbs. At that time, the dog servant would be placed
in a glass basin to experience another karmic retribution. In short, seeing is believing; you, dear guests, will
see the truth once you enter the hall and ascend to the top. The

dog servant then bowed down and kowtowed three more times on the stone floor. The dog servant said, "Now, please follow me to visit this magnificent Buddhist realm 　　with its myriad wondrous images. To achieve the true meaning of righteousness, one must always be lofty and upright." Walking on the ground floor of the hall and looking up, one sees no windows on the walls, which rise hundreds of feet vertically from bottom to top. Apart from the sunlight slanting in from the main entrance, only a few scattered candle flames . The entire space is shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to discern the location of the dome. The ground floor, spanning ten zhang in circumference, possesses another ingenious layout. In the center of the hall's floor is a walkway. Holding onto the railings on either side and looking down, one sees pools of water extending several feet underground on either side—dark lakes formed by sediment accumulating on the stone foundation and connected to the large lake surrounding the pagoda forest. A gurgling cable rises vertically from beneath the water, leading to the dark sky. Tied to the cable are rows of tilted bamboo tubes, resembling a waterwheel drawing water from the ground. One can hear the rushing water and a continuous rumbling . 　　The severed-limbed woman, dragging a long-haired tail along her bare buttocks, guided the guests to the wall opposite the gate. Her knees thudded against the stone floor, almost drowning out the jingling of the small tin bells around her neck. Along the opposite wall, a series of stone steps, leaning against the cliff face, ascended. These steps circled the hall, gradually rising like a plank road on a mountain cliff. Each circle led to a higher level, each with a platform extending outwards, like a thatched pavilion for resting. Guests ascending the steps would stop at the platform to look around. The small platforms, supported by iron and wood supports, suspended in mid-air , offered some sightseeing pleasure. However, there was something else truly worth seeing: the naked slave women chained to the platforms, endlessly treading on rollers and waterwheels. 　　Nine suspended platforms extend from the two-hundred-foot-high walls of the main hall, each equipped with a wooden waterwheel, on which a woman is chained to tread water. The waterwheels, powered by their legs, are simple in construction: a allows the woman to rest her arms for support, while a horizontally nailed wooden roller sits beneath. The woman walks step by step on the roller, which rotates, driving a cableway connecting the platform. Bamboo tubes tied to the cables initially fill with water, but as they turn around and descend, a jet of water gushes out, pouring into a trough beside the platform. The waterwheels and troughs work in relays, continuously supplying water to the dome. Each woman treads water, positioned between a pole and a tube, her bare feet moving endlessly, her path through the wooden tube never ending . She is also forever surrounded by onlookers. 　　The reopening of the Pagoda Forest was a major event for the Kingdom of Ba, drawing a constant stream of pilgrims and tourists day and night. Climbing to the highest hall for a panoramic view was a must-do experience. Upon entering the Buddhist site, the first thing they encountered a dog-like servant with severed limbs wriggled its tail and moved towards them, and everyone quickly made way for her. Although the dog-like servant was always leashed , the monk remained silent; his responsibility was likely only to prevent the dog-like woman from doing anything unexpected , such as suddenly wanting to jump after reaching a high point. 　　Zheng Han could now discern a hazy shadow in the crowd— a candle . The candlelight illuminated a naked woman's body, supporting herself as she moved along the frame. The woman's arms were crossed and flat on the crossbar in front of her. Her forearms and the wooden bar were bound together by two locked iron rings, and her feet were also shackled with thick iron rings. Where there was labor, there was supervision. A man in charge stood guard beside the waterwheel; he wore monk's robes but carried a leather whip. Whenever a crowd gathered, the whip-wielding monk would raise his hand and lash the woman's buttocks. The onlookers were forced back a circle by the whistling whip, and after two lashes, a shout rang out: "You beast, look up!" 　　Zheng Han, of course, already knew she would recognize the face that had been raised. The head, which had been hunched over and looking down, slowly rose to a level position. The waterwheel slave woman's eyes stared blankly. Her disheveled hair revealed a chin, cheeks, ears, and a nose, but there was no mouth beneath her nose. 　　A woman without a mouth could truly be unforgettable; one glance, and one might remember her for the rest of their life. The woman's mouth was wide open, a blood-red hole. If it were a human mouth, it would be because her upper and lower lips had been cut off, and all her teeth had been pulled out. Two jagged strips of flesh inside were probably her gums, and drool dripped uncontrollably from her chin. Pei Qingling's servant had already crawled to the woman's feet. She turned around from in front of the rollers and wooden frame: "Now, please, distinguished guests, take a close look at this beast's face."

"Look closely at the animal's milk and cunt."

"She and the dog maid are both animals suffering karmic retribution in hell. If we strictly follow Buddhist principles,
they cannot be considered slaves. Animals are not slaves, but things like pigs and dogs. Animals have no
shame and cannot be taught, so they and the dog maid must be naked and must be driven by severe punishments such as whipping and branding
."

Although the monk leading the green-belled dog maid did not carry a whip, the maid was indeed covered in wounds.

"The dog maid is whipped and branded every night," she said. "Buddha has hell, and she and the dog maid are both
animals suffering in hell."

Now the maid twisted her body with difficulty and thudded towards the other side of the platform. "I know the guests
are probably curious about the purpose of locking this other body to the platform."

"She's a pig-dog that's been salted alive," said Qingling, "and her purpose is to feed other pig-dogs."

The platform, like a viewing terrace, extends into the main hall space, surrounded by iron railings on three sides. A waterwheel sits at one corner of the
platform , with a gap beside it. Near the walkway, there's a wooden frame. This frame is just
a simple doorway, and inside it, another woman is suspended.

Needless to say, the woman is naked, and she's not dead. At her feet is an earthenware urn and a porcelain bowl
filled with coarse, white salt. Her entire body is covered in salt stains. The woman's limbs are stretched out to
the four corners of the frame, all four limbs secured with chains. To keep her facing the onlookers with her face tilted upwards,
her hair is also bound with rope and pulled to the side of the doorway. The woman's eyes, bloodshot and
bulging like two hawthorn berries, stared straight ahead. She had been surrounded and stared at for most of the day,
yet she seemed never to have blinked.

"Livestock preserved in salt cannot close their eyes," the maid Qingling calmly continued her explanation. "Her upper and lower eyelids
were cut off with a sharp blade."

"Drawing water naked is one karmic retribution, but dismemberment is another. No one can escape it. Animals
are rationed for drawing water by treading on waterwheels. If, under whipping and urging, they still cannot walk five thousand steps a day, they will be taken out of the waterwheel the next day and
locked on this door frame to be used as livestock."

"As for the various scenes of being cut alive and pickled, it is nothing more than cutting up the skin and flesh and then rubbing salt all over it. In order to prolong their
pain , they always start with the breasts, buttocks, shoulders, arms and other places with thick skin. Often, the flesh on the limbs
is already withered and yellow like rotten wood, and the bitter salt penetrates to the bone and marrow, but the animal still has bright eyes and is still alive. Its appearance, its spirit,
all kinds of miserable horrors cannot be fully described in words. Please, guests, see for yourselves."

The woman that the guests saw for themselves, in fact, may only be considered half a woman. Apart from the
fact that she no longer has breasts, she may not even have arms anymore. Her two arms, stretched out and
locked to the edge of the wooden frame, were actually just two long, hinged arm bones.
Around the exposed joints were some broken tendons, but the skin and flesh had been completely scraped away. Her two lower legs were similarly reduced
to bone; the chains binding her hands and feet were simply binding four sections
of dry bone. As for her two fleshy feet still on the ground, they had also been gouged out with many wounds.
However, the claws of ordinary creatures are usually more bone than flesh, with strong connective tissue, and the tendons, difficult to remove, were still embedded in
the gaps between the toe bones, helping them maintain a shape that was still somewhat connected.

"Even if limbs are severed, as long as they continue to be fed and watered, it's not necessarily a death sentence," the blue-bellied dog servant, prostrate on the ground,
looked up at the tourists' waist-high, horrified expressions, and waited a moment before continuing.

"Usually, they only cut away the flesh from the thighs before they start salting the body from the waist, back, and abdomen. By then, the animal is in great
pain, and the brine has seeped into its heart, lungs, liver, and gallbladder. It will die within two or three days."

The dog servant smiled slightly at the end and raised her voice: "She still has thighs to offer. Now, please,
esteemed guests, watch the animal devour itself."

The salted meat is meant to be eaten. The steward monk guarding the platform untied the woman who had been having her lips and teeth cut off from the waterwheel.

Although the woman was no longer on the waterwheel, her hands were still clasped together and held above her chin and chest, because
her wrists were still shackled to her collar. Just as Zheng Han had seen in the underground chamber, the woman
's gait was unsteady, her body hunched. Her two thin, bare feet, like the claws of a female monkey, twitched and staggered on the stone floor
, dragging a long row of thick, ringed shackles in turn. The chains bobbed and crawled out a section, then
another , never reaching a finish line. It turned out that the chains binding her feet were connected to iron railings.
It was quite a hardship for her to wear these things and still have to tirelessly pedal the wooden wheels all day.

The supervising monk simply followed behind the woman without saying a word. The woman herself knelt down
under the hanging carcass of salted meat. The woman presented her bare shoulders and back, a patch of bloody, indistinct flesh, to the audience behind her
— the place where she had been beaten the most during her day of working the waterwheel. Under the wooden frame, besides
knives for cutting flesh, there was also an iron whip that wasn't used normally. The supervising monk picked up the whip and
showed rumbling metal barbs on its shaft.

A lash of the whip sent a trail of blood and flesh flying. The waterwheel woman cried out in pain and fell forward, her hands
bound to her neck, unable to support herself. She was pulled up from the ground by her neck ring, her face
stained crimson with blood from her mouth and nose. With her neck still held,
she was kicked : "Kneel straight! Kneel properly!"

Another lash followed.

Each time she was knocked down, she was dragged up again. Finally, the monk released the woman to pick up his
knife. He struggled to cut and slice, finally slicing a small strip of salted meat from the woman's thigh hanging from the rack.
The strip was held up and displayed, the crimson lean meat slightly tinged with milky white fat, all covered
in salt. The waterwheel woman, kneeling on the ground, tilted her head back to receive it, her wide-open mouth revealing
a deep well encased in writhing flesh, and then she greedily stretched out her tongue.

It looked more like feeding an animal. The monk shook the pickled bait in his hand a few times in front of the woman's face,
then threw it down her throat. The woman couldn't chew; she just stretched her neck and tried to swallow it whole, her
throat spasming and gurgling as she made sobbing and hiccuping sounds.

"Animalistic creatures are irrational, knowing only fear and pain. No matter what resistance they show, a
good beating will surely subdue them. She was forced to eat an entire carcass of her own kind under various forms of torture. That
thing had once shared a boat with her, which was her karma, hence she had to bear the burden alone. Perhaps she has now
realized what true animalistic wisdom is."

The maid Qingling added, "Animalistic creatures that toil all day actually like to eat salt, and then they will
excrete."

The clanging sound of iron chains descending came from the high darkness of the hall's dome. A
glass , gradually lowered and slowly came to rest at the edge of the platform. In the glass basin was a
naked female body without upper or lower limbs, the woman's face upturned, a crystal funnel inserted into her mouth.

The head monk opened a small door on the railing, grabbed the chain, and dragged the basin and the woman onto the platform.

The candlelight on the stage illuminated the woman's white, bald head and naked body, but her cheeks were swollen and red.
A transparent collar tightly encircled the basin woman's neck; she wore it as she relentlessly twisted
her body , trying to stretch her neck higher, her nostrils flaring and
hissing as she inhaled deeply from her chest. She seemed to be struggling to breathe.

The waterwheel woman kneeling on the ground finally swallowed four or five pieces of dried meat, only able
to rise after finishing her meal. The large glass basin had now been added to the path back to the waterwheel; the waterwheeling woman turned around beside
it , spreading her legs, assuming a crouching posture for the audience, straddling the basin woman's upturned face as she
began to urinate.

Climbing the steps, one had to pass nine terraces; operating the waterwheel from such a high vantage point naturally required
infrequent movement. According to the maid's explanation, once the livestock in the temple were led onto the platform, they
were not allowed to leave until death. Their sleeping, resting, eating, drinking, and relieving themselves were all confined to this two-zhang-square platform. Feeding
was done with porridge brought up by the monks in charge, and another daily necessity was a portable chamber pot. After
the temple doors closed at night, they could perhaps fetch more water to clean the platform and wash themselves.

The maid continued her detailed explanation: this glass basin woman was a mysterious gift from the Great Zhou Dynasty of the Central Plains. Its meaning, of course,
was to warn all beings that greed for food and drink is futile and illusory. Moreover, mortal life is a suffocating suffering.

The crystal ring around the basin woman's neck was sourced from the deep sea of the South Seas. Normally, it was placed in two semicircles,
but when the ring was placed on a living creature with body temperature, it would lock itself in place. Legend has it that the crystal ring was formed from
the purest, clearest ice
water from the deepest abyss of the ocean , condensed under immense pressure over thousands of generations. Once solidified, it is indestructible, but it undergoes a peculiar transformation: the collar must be frequently immersed in water to maintain
its original circumference.

If the woman wearing the collar doesn't wash, doesn't get it wet, and remains isolated from water, the crystal ring will gradually
wrinkle and shrink. Although the shrinkage is subtle and imperceptible to the naked eye, the increasing pressure on her
neck will be felt bit by bit, impacting the throat and heart of the person
wearing it. If the crystal ring is allowed to continue changing, it will completely block her breathing after about one or two months. The most terrifying part is in
those final days, when air seems to be escaping her throat, her entire body contorting and convulsing for what feels like half an incense stick's time, from her mouth and nose to her throat,
before she can inhale even a small breath. By then, her
face had turned a deep liver color from suffocation, her lips were bluish-purple, and her eyes were white.
She might not even be aware of the filth gushing from her lower body. Since she was about to die, those
things were insignificant. The only thought she could muster was to desperately
exhale even a tiny breath.

She would reverse the process, going back to the beginning and repeating it. She would expend just as
much effort to expel what she had inhaled. This reversal wasn't just once or twice, nor was it thirty or fifty times; it was something
she would do ten thousand times a day, without stopping. She didn't know if she would die on the second or
tenth day; she only knew that as long as she survived,
she dull saw pulling at her neck.

At this point, the servant girl prepared to demonstrate. First, two monks present would hold down the
girl's arms and force her body down onto the platform. Although the glass basin had some weight, its
smooth edges allowed it to roll forward naturally. The clear, translucent glass offered an added advantage: onlookers
could see the rarely exposed bottom of the basin, where two severed thighs were completely lodged.
The servant dog's task was to drag the severed limbs and its tail over the basin-dwelling woman's bald head. With some difficulty, she spread
her legs, gripping the back of the woman's neck. The servant dog shuddered a few times, and her urine sprayed
out .

"The maidservant's urine, straddling her neck, will moisten the crystal ring around her neck. The ring will loosen slightly with water,
prolonging her life for a few more days. However, every ten days or so, a section of each of the maidservant's legs will be amputated. One day, the lowly maidservant's
legs will be too short to cross her body. At that time, everything will be natural; she will strangle herself within the ring within a few months
. That will be the time when the maidservant is dismembered, placed in a basin, and suffers her next karmic retribution." "

The maidservant is destined to use her tongue to collect excrement and urine for all the evil karma and sins punished in the palace."

The maidservant, Qingling, swayed her buttocks and the black dog's tail inserted into her anus, backing away from
the woman in the basin. She said the crystal ring closes when heated and tightens itself without water, but will split
in two . Then, it can be soaked in water to restore its original size and can be used again on the lowly maidservant's neck.

By this time, the woman tending the water had been re-locked onto the handrails and rollers. She was given a couple of lashes to rouse her and get back to
treading the water. The monk guarding the servant dog also tugged at her collar a few times, leading the naked, bell-adorned, tail-pulling
tour guide up the stairs that continued to circle the main hall. Having just witnessed the first level of the spectacle,
the tourists, full of exclamations of wonder, followed her up. Legend has it that on the other eight high platforms along the way were various hells of metal, wood, water, and fire, where women were branded, had
their breasts pierced, and had wooden stakes inserted into their anuses—the various forms of torture inflicted on the women tending the water were countless. In this light, the ten taels of silver donated at
the entrance truly well spent; if one hadn't personally witnessed and experienced it all...
How could we, ordinary mortals, know that good and evil arise from causes and conditions, and that only by wielding thunderous power can one reveal the compassion of a Bodhisattva?

Above the nine-tiered platform, the dome of the main hall loomed higher, and looking down from there, the path below
appeared as a dark abyss. But the ascending steps continued. After passing through a narrow
staircase exit, people suddenly found themselves surrounded by light. They had climbed from within the Buddha statue to
its head, where a partitioned hall stretched from the statue's chin to its crown. Her eyes and hair
ornaments were made of translucent glass, and between her smiling lips were openwork railings.

From this height, the sound of water could be heard below. Looking down from the railings, one could see the Bodhisattva's wide robes
and the vase she held, from which a fountain gushed forth from its tilted spout. This was
the water continuously drawn from the lake by the nine waterwheels within the Buddha statue, tracing a high arc in the air before
splashing onto the surface of the large lake before the stone base of the stupa. The dispersing mist even displayed the colors of a rainbow.

Everything we did in the vast darkness was for this rainbow returning to its flowing course. Looking down upon our daily home from such a
height is a peculiar experience. The green lakeshore ten miles away becomes a
delicate ribbon, and beyond that, at the edge of a vast plain, the inhabited city of Ba appears as tiny as an anthill
. We may always know that life is a mundane affair, but when it is viewed from such a perspective
, what is perhaps more shocking is the overwhelming sense of despair. No matter how much pain, resentment, and separation has occurred within it
, it still displays a serene and tranquil exterior. Pain, resentment, and separation are
not themselves; they are merely a aimless bewilderment, a boundless
compassion and mercy without distinction or difference.

A maidservant adorned with small blue bells, trailing silver chains connecting her severed hands and feet, guides guests up nine
high platforms, all the way to the highest observation deck. She falls silent as she accompanies them back to the ground,
for there is nothing more to explain. She simply kneels at the exit of the main hall, bows, and bids
farewell to the visitors. After returning to Bacheng, Zhenghan found an opportune moment to inquire about the Pagoda Forest. The Pagoda Forest was
now considered a place of Buddhist worship, and she wanted to know if those sent there had any chance of
returning. For example, if Zhenghan Temple wanted to take the woman with the bell to serve in its own temple,
would such a request be approved by any high-ranking official?

Zhenghan was already a name not to be underestimated in Bacheng. She later received a response.
Firstly , according to the sequential karma, those beings experiencing hellish suffering in the temple were offerings from the king to the Buddha,
and their fate of never leaving the Pagoda Forest was unchangeable. However, if Zhenghan, through her wisdom and enlightenment,
made a vow regarding one of them, she would receive her good fortune.

This meant that if Zhenghan wished to relieve the woman with the bell's suffering, an exception could be made:
killing her. The messenger specifically mentioned that it would be by strangulation; although it might take three or four strangulations to
kill her, it was certainly better than having all four limbs amputated before being forced to sit on the lotus throne. The question now is,
has the abbot confirmed that this is what you want?

"Yes," Zhenghan answered calmly. Zhenghan knew that after enlightenment, all we had to do was
return to the world and resolve the mundane cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

So she said, "That is indeed what I want."

(The End)

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