Cyber Ghosts

“What’s the matter?” Hao Ning asked, “Why did something fly into my body again? Why did the body of the fake Manjusri vanish? Why did something fly to Liu Shuai’s body, too?”

“Because these are the three things that your Soul Cutter can’t kill.” Liu Shuai answered, “So he ran into the bodies of the three of us.”

“How did you know?” Xiao Hong asked.

“I…” Liu Shuai was stunned, “Right, how did I know? I don’t know how I know. I just know that I know it.”

“How can it be possible?” Hao Ning stretched out his finger and did not find anything strange, so he did not take care of it. He listened to Liu Shuai’s weird words and asked, “How can you possibly not know how did you know? If you know, you must know how you knew. No one doesn’t know how he knew something after he already knew it, nor can he know it without knowing how to know it. This is the basic logical definition.”

“Stop it! Are you Tang Sanzang or saying a tongue twister?” Liu Shuai said angrily, “You are talking about logic, but you should know that in some special cases, the human brain does not need to know how it knows something. This phenomenon is called, in psychology…”

Speaking of this, Liu Shuai was stunned, touched his eyebrows and murmured, “The intuition… of the inner self.”

“What?” Hao Ning and Zhou Yuan were somewhat confused. It seemed that Liu Shuai, the biology talented student, was talking in an academic way, “Speak the human language!”

“I know, I know!” Liu Shuai laughed and hit Hao Ning with a punch. He jumped up, “Although Doctor Xue made a false Manjusri in some secret ways, there are true elements in this fake Manjusri, which is the inner self of this Manjusri that contains the intuition I just mentioned. This intuition, under unconscious circumstances, built the Hui sword‒” Liu Shuai pointed to Zhou Yuan, “and because of chance, the Hui sword matched with Zhou Yuan and merged into his body. In other words, the Hui sword between Zhou Yuanmei’s eyebrows is the embodiment of the inner self of the Manjusri’s incense and wisdom. Also thanks to the magic of Doctor Xue, a Bodhisattva’s incense can produce things like this.”

“Then, how about me?” Hao Ning saw that Liu Shuai made his point and continued to ask.

“This fake Manjusri is just like the Northeast Tiger. It’s a treasure all over the body!” Liu Shuai cited a very inappropriate example, “In addition to the Hui sword, it is the Pandora metal on him!” Liu Shuai nodded and pointed to Hao Ning’s finger, “The Pandora metal is the thing that just flew into your body. This is a special metal, but I don’t know how it was made. It is characterized by being able to change weight, size, soft and hard attributes under the control of conscious, or soul. In its forging process, something similar to the Soul Cutter must be used, so it is very familiar with this kind of thing, which is why it came into your body!”

“How about you?” Hao Ning looked at Liu Shuai as if he had been looking at a crazy scientist, and touched his forehead, “Why are you talking nonsense like you are having a fever? And why does your nonsense seem to make sense to me?”

‘That’s because… Bullshit, you are the one who is having a fever!” Liu Shuai was just in enthusiasm and Hao Ning poured cold water on him. So, he looked at Hao Ning unhappily and continued, “Although you have broken the karma of these important things, the inner self unconsciously recorded some remnants, which are what just flew out into my body. These remnants into my mind, you can call them inspiration.

“Why you?” The rest of the people asked.

“Probably because I know the relationship between intuition and the inner self better, I won’t go mad because I suddenly know these inspirations that come from the outside world?” Liu Shuai was a little excited and hugged Hao Ning, “Thank you for asking me that just now. I just realized it.”

“What I asked?” Hao Ning seemed to be suffering from selective amnesia, “About the tongue twister?”

“How can a person know something without knowing how to know it?” Liu Shuai explained happily, “That’s instinct, in the case of the inner self and intuition, like a baby just born, who knows nothing, but also knows how to suck a pacifier. Some people call it congenital. Some people say it’s an instinct. Whatever it is, that’s why I know these things, and that’s why the karma of some things was not broken by you – because they are congenital, without karma. Or you can say that innate karma is the most tenacious. Of course, this record of Manjusri’s inner self, combined with my mind, is not only the intuition of my inner self but also a kind of mysterious existence close to inspiration.

“So what?” Zhe was confused when listening to this, “What’s the use?”

“The use? Maybe without knowing why, we can know some secrets. If you don’t believe it, let’s try it.” Liu Shuai whispered to Zhou Yuan and Hao Ning, “You do that. Just like that. Try.”

“Boom!” With a loud noise, Hao Ning acted according to Liu Shuai’s words and became a giant bigger than the Pixiu just now. Hao Ning only saw the people under his feet getting smaller and smaller, and stepped on the other side in a hurry. Hao Ning saw that he had such ability and cried happily, “Hahaha, I didn’t expect me to have such ability!”

“Ewww~” The rest of the people looked up and nauseated one after another. Zhe quickly covered Ye’s eyes. Xiao Hong blushed and cried, “Brother Hao Ning, we can look up from your trouser legs…”

“D**n!” Hao Ning blushed and quickly stepped back. Unexpectedly, the retribution came so quickly. Just after teasing Xiao Hong, Hao Ning was teased. “This… This is not me. This is the image of Pandora metal. Trust me and see!”

Hao Ning was telling the truth. He was inside the head of the giant Hao Ning. Outside, all these were made of Pandora metal. Surprisingly, although it was metal, he can see the surrounding environment clearly, just like a holographic display.

As soon as Hao Ning came up with this idea, the giant outside immediately became Liu Shuai’s appearance, “Look, this is made of Pandora metal. Isn’t this Liu Shuai?”

Hao Ning just wanted to prove that this giant wasn’t himself, but he forgot that Liu Shuai was wearing shorts today. Others saw the huge Liu Shuai’s two thick legs that were covered with hair and became even closer to a breakdown. They laughed bitterly and said, “God of Hao Ning, take back the art! This art is disgusting!”

“Oh, not disgusting, not disgusting,” Hao Ning said happily when he saw Liu Shuai stamping his feet with anger, “What do you think of Liu Shuai’s long legs?”

“Don’t dare to think. Don’t dare to think,” other people said. Zhe grinned bitterly and said, “Why not become a beautiful woman. That kind of long thighs will look good – ow, ow, ouch!”

Before Zhe finished, Ye twisted his ear, “Which beautiful woman do you want to see with her long legs? Speak! Who’s on your mind?”

“Ah, my dear sister, it hurts,” Zhe said quickly. He didn’t expect that his words would make Ye jealous. He smiled obsequiously and said, “there is no other beautiful woman on my mind. The most beautiful beauty in the world is you. If you ask me to choose, I will choose to see you alone all my life!”

“Sure, since you said so. I will do as you like.” Hao Ning stamped his foot, and the giant immediately became Ye.

“Wow!” These people down there stared blankly, looking up at the thighs as bright as jade and surging breasts. With the sound “Pop”, Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan’s nosebleeds sprayed out.

“Ye looks so stunning from this angle!” Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan, while wiping their noses, kept exclaiming, “These are the longest of the longest thighs I’ve ever seen!”

“No, you are not allowed to see it!” Zhe saw that the giant version of his girlfriend had been seen all over by other people. Although the giant was not real, he was also very crushed. He stood in front of them and said, “No!”

Who knows that although Zhe was tall, he couldn’t stop people from looking at the giant Ye. Liu Shuai said shamelessly, “Zhe, that is not your girlfriend at all. Is your girlfriend here? You have to learn that Form is Emptiness!” While he was rubbing nosebleeds with Zhou Yuan, his neck went up vigorously for fear of missing any details. Liu Shuai also reminded him, “Well, Hao Ning, you bend the leg of this fake Ye a little, and then jump, right, yeah! Just like that. We need to train ourselves to understand that Form is Emptiness!” After saying this, with the sound “poop”, Zhou Yuan’s nose bleeds more.

Zhe knew Liu Shuai’s words were reasonable, but who can understand in this situation? After thinking for a long time, he had to shout to the giant sadly, “Brother Hao Ning, please become another beautiful woman!”

“Another beautiful woman?” Ye got angry the moment she heard it, and he twisted Zhe’s ears, “didn’t you say that there were no other beautiful women except me? It seems that you still like other people!”

Turning back angrily, Ye was leaving.

“Please, my good girl. Stop that!” Zhe quickly grabbed her hand. How could he still have the energy to look at the giant fake Ye behind him? “I was wrong. Now, are we good?”

“What’s wrong?” Without looking back Ye asked the question.

“I…” Zhe became speechless and didn’t know how to answer.

“Zhou Yuan, don’t you act now?” Liu Shuai looked at the two fighting lovers and laughed. He patted Zhou Yuan on the shoulder and said, “We were just trying the magic weapon. Don’t turn that into family contradictions!”

“Well!” Seeing that Zhou Yuan wiped his nose and stretched out his hand, a Hui sword appeared between his eyebrows, flew to the sky and split into Hao Ning in the air. The fake Ye became smaller and smaller immediately. At last, the fake Ye was almost the same size as Liu Shuai’s several people. After a shake, it became Hao Ning himself. And the Pandora metal returned to Haoning’s ring without any weight.

“That’s the sword of wisdom,” Zhou Yuan said proudly, “which can break anything fake.”

“Immortal Zhou,” Zhe ignored these changes and said to Zhou Yuan secretly, “since the Bodhisattva of wisdom chose you, can you please tell me how I should apologize to Ye to make her not angry?”

“Well…” Zhou Yuan’s face changed. He scratched his head and laughed, “How can I know that? The girl’s anger can’t be solved by the wisdom of the Bodhisattva.”

Seeing Zhe’s sad face, Zhou Yuan gave a sly smile, “For this kind of thing, Bodhisattva can’t help you. You can only solve it by yourself.” Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan looked at the back of Ye and purposely shouted, “Because when the girl is angry, only the person who loves her can comfort her. No matter what he says, even if just with a hug, she will be all right!”

After that, he suddenly pushed Zhe. Zhe did not pay attention to it and was pushed forward to hug Ye. She laughed and poked at Zhe’s forehead, “Look at him, fool!”

“Haha…” Zhe stopped at the right time. He dared not speak anymore but secretly extended his thumb to Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan saw that Hao Ning was still looking at the two little enemies and laughing, and went forward to reach out his hand and ask, “Hey, it’s time to give it back to me, right?”

“What should I give back to you?” Hao Ning looked at himself strangely. “Do I owe you money?”

“Pretending to be naive?” Zhou Yuan scolded with anger, “You have this kind of weapon. Give me back my stick!”

Hao Ning was stunned and knew that the Monkey Under Boat came to dun.

On the way back, people were sitting in Wang Shi Ming’s car and Wang Shizhe’s car. Because Wang Shi Ming was not taken care of at that time, Zhe and Ye chose to accompany the brother who could only play games, while Liu Shuai, Zhou Yuan, Hao Ning and Xiao Hong were sitting in another car together.

As Liu Shuai drove, Xiao Hong sat quietly in the deputy driver. After a long time, he asked Liu Shuai, “In your opinion, is it right or wrong for I used Jade Goddess of Mercy to help the Pixiu?”

Liu Shuai was not a fool. He knew that Xiao Hong asked right or wrong on the surface, but, in fact, Xiao Hong was asking about his throbbing feelings towards the Pixiu. There was no perfect answer to such a question, so he dared not answer it.

Not only did they not dare, but the two men in the back seat were even more upsetting.

“Hao Ning, you’re too shameless,” Zhou Yuan muttered all the way. “You stuffed my Soul Sun Stick that can turn big or small, long or short into your body and didn’t even return it to me.”

“Hao Ning, what can you use the iron stick for?”

“Hao Ning, my stick that can turn long or short…”

“Hao Ning, in your body, my incomparably hard Soul Sun Stick…”

“Well…well, that’s enough!” Hao Ning hadn’t spoken yet, Liu Shuai took the lead and couldn’t stand it. He shouted, “Hao Ning, don’t you say anything? Let Zhou Yuan make lewd utterances all the way?”

“Make lewd utterances?” Hao Ning hadn’t spoken yet, and Zhou Yuan was stunned, “How can you say that?”

“It is Will-following Golden-banded Staff. That is inside Hao Ning’s body.” Liu Shuai complained as he drove, “But you called it the Soul Sun Stick that can turn long or short, big or small. Soul Sun Stick? What a nickname! Aren’t you making lewd utterances?”

“Uh…” Hao Ning grinned bitterly. “Liu Shuai, do you only understand theology as Zhang Quan taught you? Have you read the whole book of Journey to the West?”

“Well… I’ve read something similar, “Liu Shuai blushed a little, “A Book Finishes 50 Classics, which contains the story of Journey to the West. It’s very long. There are thousands of words. I read them for a long time.”

“Po-” Hao Ning could not help laughing, “Thousands of words of Journey to the West? I’m afraid it didn’t even mention the Hong Hai’er in it, did it? It’s hard for you to recognize that the god on the passenger side is the character in Journey to the West.”

“Speaking of this, what does Journey to the West talk about?” Xiao Hong listened to Hao Ning and turned back curiously and asked, “is there any interesting story?”

“Why don’t you know either?” Hao Ning stared at Xiao Hong with an incredible look. “You came out of it!”

“Because of the low level of education, narrow vision…” Zhou Yuan laughed and said, “He is the mountain king inside the book. He just manages his own land well, and who can see the whole western world once.” Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan looked out of the window. “We always thought that the person who knows the content of the book best is the one who lives in the book. In fact, on the contrary, the person who reads the book outside knows more…”

“The true face of Lushan is lost to my sight, for it is right in this mountain that I reside.” Xiao Hong was not angry at Zhou Yuan’s saying that he was “low educated” and said frankly, “I did know very little at that time, but after all, did the people of the real world know the truth of their world? They can’t even accept the fact that their faith can produce God. Unless our world is also a book, and someone happens to read it, no one will know the whole picture of our world, will they?”

“Make sense,” Zhou Yuan nodded as he looked at Xiao Hong’s back. “This is called – Once upon a time, there was a mountain, with a temple on the mountain and an old monk in the temple telling a story. What story was he telling? Once upon a time, there was a mountain, with a temple on the mountain and an old monk in the temple telling a story. What story was he telling…”

“Well, you stopped making lewd utterances to chatter!” Liu Shuai laughed and held the steering wheel. “Can’t you just be normal?”

“I am being normal. Let me ask you,” Zhou Yuan murmured in his heart why this bald guy was aimed at him, “In the words I just said, if there really is a world of the storytelling old monk, how can the old monk know whether he is an old monk in the real world or just a character in the story?”

“Well…” Liu Shuai was stunned. He never thought about this question. When asked, he was left speechless. He had to look around and say, “You don’t tangle this problem. Tell me. Why do you want to make lewd utterances all the way?”

“Please, would you please read?” Who was Zhou Yuan? He read Journey to the West so many times. He proudly boasted, “Soul Sun Stick is the original name of Will-following Golden-banded Staff and Will-following Golden-banded Staff is just what people often call it. As for why the author named it? Haha, how can I know!?”

“You… Fine, you have knowledge!” Liu Shuai said with a laugh, intending to learn Hao Ning’s dealing with a man as he dealt with you, “Then how could that old monk distinguish?”

“You’re wrong to ask me this question. You have to ask this old monk – oh no, we have to ask our Sudhana!” Zhou Yuan patted Zhou Yuan, who was listening to the story. “Xiao Hong, how do you realize that you are the characters in the book, not the people in the real world?”

“What a question Zhou Yuan asked.” Hao Ning did not speak but understood. “After such a big circle, he began to ask Xiao Hong such a deep question!”

“Well…” Xiao Hong was stunned. He didn’t realize that the question had run over to him. He didn’t seem to want to answer this question. “Why do you ask this?”

“Because it has a lot to do with what happened today – don’t you think it’s strange?” Zhou Yuan continued to analyze, “How could the Manjusri, known as the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, be so easily stuffed with private goods, and these private goods is so special that in the end, he didn’t know whether he was in the book or in the world, or whether he was the Manjusri or not. Is this something Doctor Xue could do?”

“Wait!” Hao Ning found a problem and hurried to say, “the Manjusri didn’t know whether he was in the world or in the book? Why do you say that?”

“When I asked him the question of Vimalaki,” laughed Zhou Yuan, “What was his first sentence?”

“The first sentence?” Hao Ning was still thinking, Xiao Hong responded, “He said, this is what I said, how can I not know? What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s a big problem‒because that’s not what he said,” Zhou Yuan laughed. “Or should we say that it’s not what the Manjusri said in the world. If the Manjusri knew he was in the real world, he should never say, ‘this is what I said.’ Let me ask you. Did Mr. Zhang ever say something like ‘I said it before’ when he was lecturing sutra to you in the real world?”

“It seems…” Xiao Hong flushed. He had fallen asleep several times during Zhang Chi Hang’s lectures, so he did not remember much. He recalled for a while and said, “It seems that if he wanted to say what the sutra said, even if he said it himself, he would say that the Bodhisattva said so in sutra.”

“That’s right. When he talked to me about something seriously before, he would make it very clear that what a certain Bodhisattva once said in a certain sutra. Even if it is for Avalokitesvara, he would say that Avalokitesvara once said in a certain sutra, and he would not say anything about what he had said,” Zhou Yuan nodded, “After all, it is a Bodhisattva who knows the debate between the book and the real world, so when he lectures, or when it comes to the keen words, if these foundations are wrong, the karma is enormous – and that’s what he explained to me.”

“What do you mean?” The more Hao Ning listened, the more confused he became. “What is wrong with the debate between the book and the real world? The karma is enormous? Is because of anything right or wrong with what he said?”

“The sutra is for people to read,” Zhou Yuan explained patiently. “So, the Bodhisattvas in the sutra have to say so much. But in the real world, if the Bodhisattvas still do things according to the sutra, it will be cumbersome. When did you see Mr. Zhang going in for pomp? Saying Amitabha first and reading out a large passage of Scripture before crossing people in the real world? It is impossible for the Manjusri to not know this, so his correct answer at that time should be: This is what I, the Manjusri, once said in the XX Sutra, don’t I know?”

“I see,” Hao Ning thought about all kinds of peculiar performances of Zhang Chi Hang before, because he knew that he was Avalokitesvara and felt strange, but in ordinary people’s view, he shouted at the woman who deliberately provoked on the ground in front of the hospital gate, argued with Qili who scolded himself to enter the ward, it seemed that he was losing his attitude, but it was the most acceptable form for normal people. With that in mind Hao Ning couldn’t help laughing. It seemed that Bodhisattva who saved people also paid attention to “dive into the night with the wind, moistening things silently”.

“Maybe the Manjusri said so because he neglected that?” Liu Shuai guessed, “didn’t you just say it was cumbersome? To save a few words, ‘the Manjusri once said in the Vimalaki sutra’. Is that OK?”

“This can’t be saved,” Zhou Yuan said seriously. “It’s a serious matter that Bodhisattvas can’t neglect when hitting the keen words and lecturing. There will be huge karma if the real world and the book are mistaken. And this karma will be too heavy to bear.”

“I don’t think so…” Hao Ning recalled, “I remember that Nezha didn’t seem to care so much when he was telling the details about how he pulled out dragon’s tendon?”

“Different occasions, different opportunities, different purposes,” Zhou Yuan continued. “Of course, the degree of rigor of speaking is different. Let alone other people and other occasions, such things as lecturing and hitting keen words are definitely different from ordinary chat.”

As soon as Zhou Yuan said so, people suddenly realized that no wonder Zhou Yuan dare to be so rude to Manjusri Bodhisattva at that time. According to Liu Shuai’s later admission, that Yunzhongzi hated Manjusri Guangfa Primus for changing his job and he had to ask Liu Shuai three questions and so on was all a story that Zhou Yuan instigated Liu Shuai to make up at that time.

This analysis was Zhou Yuan’s first proud work. When he came across Avalokitesvara, he mentioned it in front of people. Unexpectedly, Avalokitesvara was looking at people with a smile and said, “That’s the story. You could have found it earlier.” When Zhou Yuan continued to ask, Avalokitesvara only smiled, not mentioning it again.