“So as not to waste everyone’s time, I think it’d be more efficient if you gave me a few more hints.” Yue Yang put on the air of a gentleman of the utmost humility — open-minded as an empty valley, ears washed clean and attentive, ready to hear out all the world.
“…” The three little girls were rendered utterly speechless.
What was a shameless rogue?
This was!
And when you ran into a rogue like this, what could you possibly do about him? Better to give him a few more hints — otherwise a rogue of this sort would fasten himself onto you and never, ever let go.
The clear-featured little girl in the middle smiled and said nothing. The one on the right, with the ear-length bob, gave an adorable little hmph, signaling she’d not be handing out hints so easily. But the pink, chubby-cheeked round-faced one on the left was especially kind-hearted — a good-tempered, soft-hearted little girl. She motioned for Yue Yang to look her way and, in her milky little voice, went further in clearing up his confusion:
“Creation, in truth, is everywhere. Not only the gods of boundless might — even the mortals you called good for nothing, ordinary people, can create. And creation takes many forms: there is creation of the mind, and creation of substance and matter; creation in the form of energy, and creation in the form of life; there can be creation that enlightens and pioneers, and creation that inscribes and imprints Law… Creation is inexhaustible and without end — as vast as galaxies and the universe, as small as a mote of dust, from the indescribably greater to the ineffably smaller. All of it, every last thing, exists within creation.”
“Creation can be swift or slow. There is creation that flashes past in an instant, and creation of a single thought that lasts forever; there is grand creation, magnificent and rare, and there is meager, humble, tiny creation; there is positive creation, kind and upright, and there is negative creation, malicious and vile. Creation without limit and without end has formed the world we see — and there are countless worlds we know of, and countless more we do not, forming a still greater world, layer upon layer, through a thousand autumns and ten thousand ages, from the beginning of antiquity into the future. All of it, every last thing, evolves within creation, and you and I are both inside it. You are at once the Creator, and one of the created things of this world. If you believe yourself a mortal, then a mortal is what you are. If you believe yourself the Creator, then you are a ‘god’ — transcendent, beyond all things, capable of anything.”
“This is only the creation I have comprehended; it does not represent the whole of it. Above me there is certainly something higher still. As for what realm of understanding you can reach — that depends on your insight and your effort. And that, too, is the difference between the realm and the might of one ‘god’ and another!” So the round-faced little girl named “Creation” enlightened Yue Yang in her milky little voice.
“The lollipop’s yours!” Yue Yang, beside himself with delight, stuffed the lollipop in his hand into little Creation’s.
“It’s a bit childish, really… but it is your true heart’s intent. Thank you. This is the first time I’ve ever received a gift like this.” The pink, chubby-cheeked round-faced Creation broke into a smile like a blossoming flower, and licked the rainbow-swirled lollipop adorably with the tip of her little tongue.
“I’ve got a feel for creation now. So what about destruction?” Yue Yang turned to face the bob-haired little Destruction.
“Destruction is creation. Creation is destruction.” The bob-haired little girl gave this answer, and it gave Yue Yang a considerable start.
“I don’t understand.” Yue Yang shook his head and waved a hand.
“Dummy.” The bob-haired little Destruction on the right criticized Yue Yang without the slightest courtesy; she was nowhere near as easy to talk to as Creation.
“Being a dummy is no problem — I can warm a bed. Please keep me!” Yue Yang grinned shamelessly.
“How did I ever end up talking to a person like this?” The bob-haired little Destruction rolled her eyes, wearing the adorable expression of one thoroughly defeated — so cute it was unbearable, and Yue Yang only just managed to suppress the urge to reach out and pinch her cheek. Little Destruction set her small face into a look of prim, deadly seriousness and raised a single jade-scallion finger. “I won’t lecture you on theory — comprehend that yourself. But I can point out an example or two from your own cultivation. Whether you can comprehend it is up to you.”
“Creation said just now that even a mortal like you can create. Take that stupid dog called Gray Wolf that you met. You created its future. It could never have reached the realm of a world-ending demon wolf, but because of you, its future changed. That is creation. And of course, because its future changed — because this stupid dog’s strength grew stronger through you by who knows how many times — in the course of following you it destroyed a great many created things, living and lifeless alike; it killed a great many lives that would have had lives of their own, and a great many war-beasts and animals of every form; it ate a great many things it could never otherwise have eaten, and devoured a great many energies it could never otherwise have assimilated… In short, it performed a great many acts beyond the original trajectory of its life. And those acts, you might say, are a new creation — your creation, its creation — and at the same time they are a destruction. Because of your appearance, Gray Wolf became a world-ending demon wolf. Mountains towering into the clouds it flattened one after another; forests it burned clean, one stretch after another; life after life passed away because of it. Are these not a destruction? They are destruction — and simultaneously, they are a wholly new creation belonging to your personal cultivation and to its growth. That is why I say destruction is creation, and creation is destruction!” So the bob-haired little girl summed it up.
“Then is that a bad thing or a good thing?” Yue Yang listened, dumbstruck. He’d truly never considered this question before.
“Destruction is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing.” Adorable little Destruction smiled.
“How so?” Yue Yang asked.
“Within the boundless, endless world of creation, if there is more positive energy, then that sphere becomes more beautiful, more wondrous. If a place has many good people and few evil ones, then the morality of that place is relatively high, and living there is especially peaceful and harmonious — no murder, no war, no scheming against one another, none of that negative business. Conversely, if a place has much negative energy, then that place becomes a rubbish heap, foul beyond bearing, where people struggle bitterly against one another, killing by any means for the tiniest scrap of profit, everyone plundering from others or from the earth itself with a hunger that never knows enough. In short, such a place is a filthy rubbish heap that anyone who saw it would think all the better for being destroyed. In regions that ceaselessly employ violence or cunning, that ceaselessly destroy the lives of others or the created things of the earth, cleansing and destruction become necessary measures — and viewed on the large scale, that is a good thing.”
“In the course of your cultivation and your growth, you have killed no small number of people, and no small number of living things; you have plundered many treasures and resources. You wouldn’t dare claim every single act was done with a clear conscience. But viewed on the whole, the destruction you have carried out has fallen far short of exceeding your creation. On the large scale, you have used created things and used the power of destruction alike to bring a kind of balance, and an environment of stability more favorable to others’ creation. So, strictly reckoned — or judged by certain standards — you don’t actually count as a very bad man after all… And if you can hold to your true self all along, bringing others more joy through your creation and more peace through your destruction, then you will never ‘fall’!”
“And if a warrior falls, he faces a terrible sealing away — is that right?” Hearing this, Yue Yang felt a prickle of unease.
“Utter and complete fall — that is the final destruction. Erasure. Every existence connected to that life’s creation is destroyed, all of it, as though that life had never once appeared, and no one will ever remember it again. If there remains a shred of salvage, then it is a sealing instead. Of course, the degrees differ, and so the degrees of destruction differ too. That standard has something above even me, and I cannot speak of destruction any greater or any higher.” So the bob-haired little Destruction told Yue Yang: above her, there was destruction higher and higher still.
“And what is the standard by which one must wield this power of destruction?” Yue Yang asked, poised between comprehension and non-comprehension.
“Use your heart. Judge by your true self.”
“And if I judge wrongly?”
“Then you have not yet truly discovered your true self, have not truly manifested that heart of yours which is at once the most primal and the most pure…”
Hearing this, Yue Yang drew a deep, deep breath. He felt an impulse to seize enlightenment then and there, and understand — but he forcibly held it in check, because the moment had not yet come. There was still one more, the more profound and more abstruse little Eternity, whom he had not yet asked!
This “Eternity,” quietly smiling, was the leader of the three.
To fail to obtain her guidance would be the single greatest regret of his life.
His mind and spirit surging, Yue Yang looked to the clear-featured little girl in the middle, gentle as still water: “So what, then, is eternity?”
The clear-featured little girl who called herself Eternity tilted her small face upward and gazed quietly at Yue Yang: “The finest creation is eternity. The finest destruction is also eternity.”
Yue Yang was taken aback. Once again, the answer had exceeded anything he’d imagined.
The little girl looking up at him smiled: “In this world there are always some created things that cannot be effaced, and some destructions that cannot be forgotten. Only the mortal who can truly comprehend eternity can transcend and become a god. A mortal may know what eternity is, but a mortal cannot grasp eternity… Mortals are forever drifting with the current between creation and destruction. In one moment they are born, wailing as they hit the ground; while you and I are speaking, they have grown up, high-spirited and full of vigor, and with the least bit of ability they think themselves extraordinary, prideful beyond measure. But in the span of this same conversation of ours, they have grown old — hair gone white, teeth fallen out, once-robust bodies frail and powerless, wrinkles and the air of death crowding in upon their frames. It is the same for women: the peerlessly lovely face withers, becomes at last a skull and dry bones, and the outwardly splendid husk exists no more. Such are pitiful mortals — feeble lives who ceaselessly take their pleasure or ceaselessly struggle between creation and destruction, and can find no way to escape from it. Their will is exceedingly poor: at the least scrap of happiness they indulge, giving free rein to desire, carousing till dawn; at the least scrap of pain they weep in sorrow, unable to bear a blow and unwilling to strengthen themselves, to elevate themselves, to surpass themselves… If you wish to leap free of this limitation, you must surpass them.”
“Only when you have completely surpassed that limitation can you obtain your true self, and truly live within eternity. Because you possess eternity, you will possess a body that never decays, knowledge that never errs, and a will that never wavers. Then, in the long span of your life, you may create anything and everything for yourself, obtain supreme happiness and joy, and stand far apart from all the suffering in which mortals are steeped… Reach that realm, and only then do you count as truly strong, and count as truly real — rather than a life of illusion and emptiness, vanishing like a wisp of smoke. This, this is eternity!”
“And if I cannot comprehend eternity, then I am no more than a dream?” Yue Yang’s mind and spirit shook violently.
“If you are not within eternity, then in the blink of an eye you perish into the vast sea of humanity. In the boundless, endless great world, you are not even a single mote of dust. A million years hence, who will remember your existence? Who will know you ever existed? And what meaning will your existence have brought to anyone at all? However brilliant a person’s life may be, in the long river of hundreds of millions of years, he does not amount to so much as one point of light in the galaxy. Conversely, if you are eternal, then you are the master of time, and the master of creation, and the master of destruction besides. Your existence grants to every life within your life a most fundamental meaning of existing, and from that extend more and ever more intersections. All created by you, all arranged by you, all commanded by you… Could such a you still be a dream?” The little Eternity standing in the middle smiled, and her small face was shining — shining with the light of inexhaustible, unending wisdom.
Yue Yang slowly closed his eyes.
He spread wide his arms.
His body, unfurled and at ease, toppled backward as it pleased — like an embrace, and like a peaceful sleep, as though body and heart had long since merged into one with heaven and earth, without a single barrier remaining between them.
The next second, his body burst into ten million billion beams of light, and like a sun, it illuminated the entire boundless world.
The entire boundless world, at some point unknown, had become a single heart — Yue Yang’s heart.
Shining, and full of light.
(End of Chapter)