Chapter 38: I Possess a Method to "Illuminate" All Living Beings

Old Monk Liaochen watched Jiang Xiuyuan silently, his calm, lake-like eyes revealing a deep sense of inquiry for the first time. He could sense that at this moment, the "Layman Jiang" before him, a man from another world, had undergone a subtle yet firm transformation in his Daoist heart. It was not the intent to kill, nor was it anger, but a compassion and resolve born from the fundamental essence of "humanity."

"How does the benefactor intend to proceed?" Liaochen asked slowly.

Jiang Xiuyuan did not answer directly, instead asking in return, "Master, does the essence of Buddhism lie in saving others, or in saving oneself?"

Liaochen pondered for a moment before replying, "Only by saving oneself can one save others. If one is still in the sea of suffering, how can one ferry the sentient beings to the other shore? Yet, all sentient beings possess Buddha-nature; the Buddha does not save people—people save themselves."

"Well said! The Buddha does not save people; people save themselves!" A flash of brilliance sparked in Jiang Xiuyuan’s eyes, as if he had grasped a critical core. "The error of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion and their ilk lies in portraying the 'Buddha' as an exalted bestower, turning the believer's path of 'self-salvation' into a shortcut paved with spirit stones. They are not selling Buddhist artifacts; they are selling shackles that sever the connection between believers and their own Buddha-nature."

After debating the Dharma with Liaochen for decades, Jiang Xiuyuan’s understanding of Buddhism was no longer what it once was. With the clarity of an observer and the philosophical reasoning of Earth’s civilization, he had pierced through the essential flaws of this "merit business."

The Dao follows nature, and so does the Dharma. True power stems from heaven and earth, and from one's own heart. The "pseudo-Buddhist artifacts" of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion were "pseudo" precisely because they severed the link between the user and the source of power, forcing believers to pin their hopes on external objects rather than seeking it through inner devotion.

"In that case," a confident smile curled the corners of Jiang Xiuyuan's mouth, "I will create an object that provides no power of its own but acts as a bridge, an amplifier. I will let the believers light their own Buddha-lamps with their own hands."

With these words, he nodded slightly to Liaochen and turned to return to his guest courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, Jiang Yiyi and Jiang Xiaobai were cultivating. Feeling the unusual aura emanating from their father, they both stopped.

"Father?" Jiang Yiyi asked with concern.

"It is nothing," Jiang Xiuyuan said, patting his daughter's head with a gentle gaze. "Father simply wants to do something... interesting. Xiaobai, Yiyi, come with me."

With a thought, Jiang Yiyi and Jiang Xiaobai vanished from the spot, entering the Penglai Immortal Palace hidden within his sect leader's token.

Inside the palace, the air remained filled with immortal mist, vast and boundless. Without a moment's hesitation, Jiang Xiuyuan headed straight for the core of the palace—the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Scrolls.

This treasure house, which inherited the cultivation civilization of Penglai, was of immeasurable value. Jiang Xiuyuan searched rapidly through the sea of jade slips. He was not looking for earth-shattering combat techniques or heaven-defying alchemical recipes, but for basic yet incredibly ingenious principles of array formation.

He soon found his target: the "Miniature Spirit-Gathering Array." This was a foundational auxiliary array in the Penglai tradition, usually inscribed in caves or cultivation chambers to gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Its characteristics were its delicate structure and extremely low energy consumption, capable of being fine-tuned according to the attributes of the environmental energy.

"This is it," Jiang Xiuyuan’s eyes shone with wisdom.

But he was not satisfied yet. A spirit-gathering array could only gather the energy of heaven and earth, whereas the most abundant power in this Buddhist land was the "willpower" of the believers. He needed to fundamentally transform this array.

Over the next few months, Jiang Xiuyuan immersed his entire being in the deduction of the array. He cleared a massive drill ground within the Immortal Palace, using his divine sense as a pen and spiritual energy as ink, constantly sketching, modifying, and reorganizing the runic structures of the array in the void.

He translated the descriptions of "faith" and "resonance" from Buddhist scriptures into the language of arrays. He referenced the flow of "willpower" as described by Jiang Yiyi to adjust the energy guidance of the array. He even integrated principles of physics—specifically "resonance" from Earth—to try and make the array vibrate in harmony with the specific mental frequency of the wearer.

Countless failures, countless times starting over. Complex array diagrams lit up and flickered out in the air, consuming a massive amount of Jiang Xiuyuan’s mental energy. Beside him, Jiang Xiaobai remained in its original form, lying quietly. It could feel the intense focus radiating from its father and dared not disturb him in the slightest.

Finally, one day, a brand-new miniature array diagram—a hundred times more complex than the Spirit-Gathering Array, yet radiating a strange and harmonious beauty—hovered steadily in the air, emitting a soft, restrained glow.

It was no longer merely for "gathering spirits," but for "gathering will." It could not actively draw energy from heaven and earth; its sole function was to resonate with a soul possessed of sincere faith, then gather, purify, and amplify the passively received, faint power of prayer through its mysterious structure, ultimately feeding it back to the wearer in the form of "Buddha-light."

The more devout the wearer and the more focused the prayer, the purer and more powerful the "Buddha-light" returned by the array would be.

"Success." Jiang Xiuyuan let out a long breath, a satisfied smile on his face. He named this array the "Heart’s Origin Will-Gathering Array."

Next came the crafting of the vessels to house the arrays.

Jiang Xiuyuan chose no precious materials. He knew well that if he used rare treasures, he would fall back into the old ways of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, losing the original intention of "benefiting all beings." He sent Jiang Xiaobai to the back mountain of the Little Leiyin Temple to find the most ordinary mountain rocks and pick up fallen Bodhi wood strewn about by the wind and rain.

In the crafting room of the Immortal Palace, Jiang Xiuyuan lit the furnace. Using supreme fire-control techniques, he melted the mountain rocks into simple, unadorned amulets and polished the Bodhi wood into smooth, round prayer beads. These objects themselves carried not a shred of spiritual energy, indistinguishable from mundane items.

The true essence lay in the final step: implanting the array.

Jiang Xiuyuan held his fingers like a sword, a thread of highly condensed divine sense swirling at his fingertips. He began to carve the "Heart’s Origin Will-Gathering Array" onto the amulets and beads with lightning speed. His movements were fluid and natural, every rune precise and perfectly measured. As the final stroke landed, the internal structure of the simple stone charms and wooden beads had undergone a sea change.

Outwardly, they remained plain, even somewhat rough. But as long as a person of destiny held them and prayed with a sincere heart, they could light up their own inner glow.

Jiang Xiuyuan named these freshly minted artifacts "Heart-Origin Buddhas."

The meaning was self-evident—the Buddha is in the heart; seeking others is not as good as seeking oneself.

Jiang Xiuyuan called Jiang Xiaobai over and handed her a large bag of "Heart-Origin Buddhas." "Let’s go to the marketplace at the foot of the mountain, find a corner, and set up a small stall. Let’s... give these away."

"Give them away?" Jiang Xiaobai asked, puzzled.

"Yes, give them away," Jiang Xiuyuan smiled. "Of course, not entirely for free. To make people cherish them, and so as not to appear too unusual, we can charge a symbolic fee—perhaps a single copper coin, or the cost of the materials, one or two spirit stones. Remember, our mission is not to make money, but to ensure that those who truly need them can obtain them."

He added a warning: "If anyone asks about the origin of these items, just say they were gifted by a wandering old craftsman. If anyone makes trouble, do not fight them head-on; protect yourself, and as for the rest, I have my own arrangements."

Jiang Xiaobai nodded, half-understanding.

And so, in the bustling, noisy marketplace at the foot of the Little Leiyin Temple—a place shrouded in the golden light of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion—a new stall appeared in an inconspicuous corner.

The vendor laid out a piece of coarse cloth, upon which were scattered some stone-carved amulets and wooden prayer beads. There was no miraculous glow, no strange omens; they looked like nothing more than children's toys.

A wooden sign stood crookedly to the side, with a few large characters written upon it:

"Heart-Origin Buddha, take as fate dictates, one copper coin."