illed them, even though she felt uneasy, it was inconvenient for her to be critical of him. She said: ‘Zhao Qiansun is an accomplice in the murders of your parents, there’s… there’s nothing wrong with killing him.’

Qiao Feng shook his head and said: ‘I didn’t kill them’ A’Zhu let out a sigh and said: ‘If you didn’t kill them then that’s very good. I’ve always thought that Grandpa Tan and Granny Tan didn’t do anything that offended you so they could be spared. But who killed them?’

Qiao Feng shook his head and said: ‘I don’t know!’ He then counted on the fingers and said: ‘There’re only 3 people who know that prime criminal left in the world. We should act immediately and mustn’t let the enemy go ahead of us all the time. We’ve always been in a disadvantageous position already.’

A’Zhu said: ‘Correct. That Madam Ma hates you to the marrow, she’ll be unwilling to tell you in any case, let alone the fact that forcing and questioning a widow aren’t the deeds of a real man. Monk Zhiguang’s temple is in Jiangnan, which is far from here. So, let’s go to Tai’an in Shandong to find the Shan family!’

A trace of pity showed up in Qiao Feng’s eyes. He said: ‘A’Zhu, it’s been hard on you for the past few days.’ A’Zhu called out loudly: ‘Innkeeper, innkeeper, quickly bring us the bill.’ Surprised, Qiao Feng said: ‘It won’t be late to pay the bill tomorrow morning.’ A’Zhu said: ‘No, we must go quickly tonight. Don’t let the enemy be ahead of us at every step.’ Qiao Feng felt grateful to her and nodded.

In the dim twilight, they went out of Weihui city. On the way they already heard other people noisily spreading the news that the Khitan demon Qiao Feng somehow had suddenly laid his murderous hands on Grandpa Tan, Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun. When saying, these people looked around for fear that Qiao Feng would show up beside them at any time. They really did not know that Qiao Feng was right beside them, if he wanted to harm other people, these people truly would not be able to escape.

On the way they changed horses and went east quickly without stopping. Going to the 2nd day, even though A’Zhu had not said any ‘tired’ word, she sat on horseback with a drowsy look, and several times she almost fell down from the horse. Seeing that she was really unable to keep enduring, Qiao Feng abandoned the horses and switched to carriage. The 2 of them slept in the big carriage for 6 or 8 hours. After sleeping enough, they abandoned the carriage and used horses again, running at full speed. They kept going nonstop like this, A’Zhu happily said: ‘In any case, this time we’re gonna arrive ahead of that prime villain.’ Both she and Qiao Feng did not know who the enemy was, hence when they mentioned that man they always called him the ‘prime villain’.

But Qiao Feng was secretly worried because he felt that the ‘prime villain’ had always arrived earlier than himself at every single step, this man was not below himself in martial arts, his wits and schemes were far superior to those of his own, much less the fact that thus far he had only seen a dense fog before his own eyes, while the enemy could see clearly everything he did. All his life he had never met such a formidable enemy. However, the stronger the enemy was, the higher Qiao Feng’s mettle was, and he was not the least afraid.

Impartial Judge Shan Zheng resided outside the Eastern gate of Tai’an city in Shandong. He was widely known within Tai’an. When Qiao Feng and A’Zhu arrived in Tai’an, it was already at twilight. After asking clearly where the Shan family was, they immediately went there through the city. After they came out of the Eastern gate and went for 1 li (0.5 km), they saw thick smoke rising in the sky; there was a fire somewhere. After that, they heard ‘dang-dang’ sounds of gongs and the sounds of people shouting from afar: ‘Fire! Fire! Quickly fight fire.’

Qiao Feng did not pay attention to that and urged the horse on, getting closer and closer to the fire. He heard someone shouted: ‘Quickly fight fire, quickly fight fire! It’s the impartial Shan family!’

Qiao Feng and A’Zhu were frightened, they reined in and looked at each other. Both of them thought: ‘Could it be that the prime villain has arrived earlier than us again?’ A’Zhu consoled him: ‘Shan Zheng has very good martial arts, even if his house was burned, he definitely wouldn’t be burned to death inside.’

Qiao Feng shook his head. After he had killed the Shan Clan’s 2 Tigers, the Shan family had had a deep hatred towards him. Arriving in Tai’an this time, even though he had no intention of killing other people, he thought Shan Zheng and his descendants would definitely not forgive himself, therefore originally he had prepared to get into a big battle. Unexpectedly, when he had not yet arrived at the manor, the opponent had already met with a disaster. Therefore he could not help feeling sad and sympathetic to him.

The horses gradually came near the Shan manor. Qiao Feng and A’Zhu only felt the broiling heat and saw red flames dancing boisterously. This was really a big fire.

At this time, villagers all around had flocked to here to fight fire, some carrying water and some scattering sand. Fortunately, there were deep trenches around the Shan manor and no one lived in the vicinity of the manor therefore the fire did not spread.

Qiao Feng and A’Zhu galloped to the side of the scene and got off the horses. They heard 1 man sigh: ‘Old Master Shan was such a good person. He always helped the poor and disaster-stricken people in this region, for the past several decades he had so many meritorious and virtuous acts, why is it that not only was his house burned down but no one in his whole family of 30 something people could escape either?’ Another man said: ‘His enemies must’ve set fire to the manor then blocked the doors to prevent them from escaping. Otherwise, as even a 5 year old child in the Shan family knew martial arts, how come they couldn’t escape?’ The 1st man said: ‘I’ve heard that Great master Shan, 2nd master Shan and 5th master Shan were killed in Henan by a villain called Qiao Feng or something. This time someone came here to commit arson, could it be that it is this prime villain as well?’

When mentioning that enemy in their conversations A’Zhu and Qiao Feng had called him the ‘prime villain’, at this moment, hearing those 2 villagers also say ‘prime villain’, they could not refrain from looking at each other.

The man who was rather younger said: ‘Of course it’s Qiao Feng.’ When he said to here, he lowered his voice and continued: ‘He must’ve led a large number of subordinates and broken into the manor then ruthlessly slaughtered the Shan family. Oh, Heaven really doesn’t have eyes.’ The older man said: ‘This Qiao Feng guy has done many evils. In the future he’ll certainly die 100 times more miserably than the Shan family’s masters did.’

Hearing them cursing Qiao Feng, A’Zhu was annoyed. She stretched out her hand and slapped the horse on the side of its neck. Startled, the horse shot out its left hoof, which kicked that man right in his bottom. That man shouted ‘Ah’ and fell flat on his face. A’Zhu said: ‘What nonsense did you say?’ After receiving a kick by the horse, that man remembered that the ‘prime villain’ Qiao Feng had very many subordinates, hence he was so frightened that he did not dare to utter a word and hurriedly went away.

Qiao Feng smiled but his smiling expression carried 30% sadness. He and A’Zhu went to another side of the fire. They could hear everyone discussing in quick succession. All of them said the same that no one among the 30 something people of the Shan family was able to escape, irrespective of being male, female, old or young. When Qiao Feng smelled the foul-smelling air of burned corpses which was coming out gust after gust from the fire, he knew that what they said were not false; all the men, women, old people and young people in Shan Zheng’s whole family had really been buried in the fire.

A’Zhu said in a low voice: ‘This prime villain is really ruthless. He killed Shan Zheng and his sons; it couldn’t be helped. But why did he gotta kill his whole family? Why did he need to burn down even the house?’ Qiao Feng uttered a ‘humph’ sound and said: ‘This is called cutting the weeds and digging up the roots. If it had been me, I would’ve burned the house as well.’ A’Zhu was startled and asked: ‘What?’ Qiao Feng said: ‘That evening in the apricot forest Shan Zheng said some sentences, most prolly you heard them as well. He said: ‘There’re several letters by that leading big brother hidden in my house, I already compared this letter with the handwriting of them. This is really a genuine letter.’’ A’Zhu sighed and said: ‘That’s right. Even though he already killed Shan Zheng, he was afraid that you’d go into the Shan family’s manor and successfully find those letters, and then you’d still be able to know his name. But if he burned the manor to the ground with a handful of kindling, there wouldn’t be any letter left.’

At this moment, there were more and more people gathering to fight fire, but the fire was being intense, when pailfuls of water were splashed on the fire, they instantly changed into white air, but they was not able to hold back the fire. Flames and heat were spurted out gust after gust, making everyone repeatedly go backwards. The crowd on the one hand lamented, and on the other hand they severely cursed Qiao Feng. The offensive language of the peasants was certainly extremely unpleasant to hear.

A’Zhu feared that after hearing these irrational words of abuse Qiao Feng would get furious and start another massacre, and then these peasants would really be wretched. She stole a look at him and saw a strange expression on his face; he seemed to be sad and also seemed to be regretful, but above all, he looked sympathetic; it seemed he was thinking that these peasants were very silly and not worth killing. She heard him let out a deep sigh and say dejectedly: ‘Let’s go to Mt Tiantai!’

He really had no alternative but to mention Mt Tiantai. Even though Zhiguang dashi (great monk) had taken part in the battle that killed his parents that year; afterward, he had developed a strong ambition to go to remote or alien places to gather tree bark to cure people in the region consisting of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi of malaria and illnesses caused by miasma; countless people had been saved, but for that reason he himself had had a serious illness and after recovering he had lost all of his martial arts. There was no one in jianghu who did not respect Zhiguang dashi for this deed of saving the common people; when mentioning him, everyone called him the ‘Living Buddha of 10,000 Families’. Were it not because Qiao Feng had no other choice, he definitely would be unwilling to make things difficult for Zhiguang dashi.

The 2 of them left Tai’an and chose ways to go south. But this time Qiao Feng did not go quickly as if his life was at risk. He thought that if he himself handled pressing matters leisurely, maybe he would be able to protect Zhiguang dashi’s life; and that if he went at double speed as before, when he arrived at Mt Tiantai, probably he would also see the corpse of Zhiguang dashi, and maybe even the temple where the monk lived would already be burned to the ground; furthermore, Zhiguang usually roamed everywhere, hence he might not be staying at the temple on Mt Tiantai.

Mt Tiantai was in Zhedong. This time, on the way going south from Tai’an, Qiao Feng and A’Zhu went slowly as if they went sightseeing and talked about strange things and anecdotes in jianghu. If their minds were not full of worries, this would have been a joyful sightseeing trip.

That day, after arriving in Zhenjiang, the 2 of them went to Jinshan temple to get a view of the river (this is Yangzi River). While watching the water of the river rapidly rolling east unceasingly, Qiao Feng suddenly remembered a matter and said: ‘Maybe the ‘leading big brother’ and the ‘prime villain’ are the same person.’ A’Zhu clapped her hands and said: ‘That’s right. Why have we never thought of this before?’ Qiao Feng said: ‘Of course they may be 2 different people as well, but these 2 people must have a close relationship, otherwise that prime villain wouldn’t go as far as using every possible means to hide that leading big brother’s identity. But when even people such as Chief Wang were willing to follow that ‘leading big brother’, he must be an extraordinary person. That ‘prime villain’ must be extraordinary like this too. How come there’re such 2 extraordinary people in the world without me knowing even 1 of them? So my guess is that these 2 people are most likely the same man. If I kill that ‘prime villain’, I’d get revenge for the murders of my parents.’

A’Zhu nodded in approval and said: ‘Great master Qiao, in the apricot forest that evening, those people related what had happened that year, I’m afraid… I’m afraid…’ Saying to here, her voice could not help getting somewhat shaky.

Qiao Feng continued: ‘You’re afraid that the prime villain was present in the apricot forest?’ A’Zhu said in a trembling voice: ‘Yes. In the apricot forest, that Impartial Judge Shan Zheng guy said that there were letters written by the leading big brother hidden in his house. His whole family was then burned to the ground… Oh, when thinking about this matter, I’m very scared.’ She slightly shivered and leaned on one side of Qiao Feng.

Qiao Feng said: ‘This man is extremely cruel and merciless. People like him are rare in the world. Zhao Qiansun’d rather lose all reputation than reveal his identity, and Shan Zheng was also on friendly terms with him. Who could’ve expected that he would murder these 2 people? There wasn’t any such formidable person in the apricot forest that evening, was there?’ After pondering for a long time, he continued: ‘There’s another matter that I find strange.’ A’Zhu asked: ‘What is it?’

Qiao Feng looked at a sailboat on the river and said: ‘This prime villain’s intelligence and planning skill are better than mine in all respects. In terms of martial arts, it seems he’s not below me either. If he wants to take my life, I’m afraid he wouldn’t have any difficulties. Why does he need to be afraid that I’ll find out who my enemy is like this?’

A’Zhu said: ‘Great master Qiao, you’re just too modest. Even though that prime villain is formidable, he’s in fact extremely afraid of you. I guess in these days he’s been shaking with the fear that you’ll find out who he is. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have to murder the 2 old masters Qiao, Xuan Ku dashi, Zhao Qiansun, Granny Tan and the whole family of Impartial Judge.’

Qiao Feng nodded and said: ‘That may be true as well.’ He then smiled at her and said: ‘As he doesn’t dare to come to attack me, he certainly wouldn’t dare to approach you. You don’t need to be afraid.’ After a long while, he sighed and said: ‘This person is really good at scheming. It’s a shame that I, Qiao Feng, am called a hero when I’ve been a toy in other people’s hands without any power to strike back.’

After crossing Changjiang River (aka Yangzi River), one day they crossed Qiantang River and arrived in Tiantai county seat. Qiao Feng and A’Zhu rested at an inn for 1 night. In the morning of the next day, just as they wanted to ask people in the inn about the way to go to Mt Tiantai, the innkeeper hurriedly came in, saying: ‘Great master Qiao, a master from Zhiguan Temple on Mt Tiantai comes to pay you a visit.’

Qiao Feng was frightened because when checking in he had conveniently said that his surname had been Guan. So he asked: ‘Why do you call me Great master Qiao?’ The innkeeper replied: ‘The master from Zhiguan Temple told me about Great master Qiao’s appearance. There’s not the least bit of inaccuracy.’ Qiao Feng and A’Zhu looked at each other and both of them were amazed. They had already disguised themselves; moreover, they looked rather different as compared to when they had been in Tai’an, Shandong; yet unexpectedly, as soon as they arrived in Tiantai, they were recognized by other people. Qiao Feng said: ‘Okay, invite him to come here.’

The innkeeper turned around and went out. Before long, he conducted back a short and stout monk who was around 30 years of age. The monk put his palms together to Qiao Feng in salute, saying: ‘My master Zhiguang has ordered my little self Pozhe to invite Great master Qiao and Miss Ruan to visit our humble temple.’ Seeing that the monk even knew A’Zhu’s surname was Ruan, Qiao Feng was more astonished, so he asked: ‘How could you know my surname, master?’

Monk Pozhe said: ‘My master told me that there are a hero surnamed Qiao and a lady surnamed Ruan staying at Qinggai inn in Tiantai county seat and ordered my little self to welcome and conduct you up the mountain. This is Great master Qiao. Where is Miss Ruan then?’ A’Zhu had disguised herself as a middle-aged man therefore monk Pozhe was unable to recognize her and thought that Miss Ruan was not here.

Qiao Feng asked again: ‘We arrived at here yesterday evening. How could your honorable master know about it? Could it be that he really has divination skill?’

When Pozhe had not yet replied, the innkeeper interposed: ‘The old divine monk at Zhiguan Temple has great magical powers, just by performing a quick calculation on his fingers, he already knew that Great master Qiao was gonna come. Needless to say, he can see clearly what are going to happen in 1 day or 2. The old master can predict even the matters of 500 years later with the accuracy as high as 60% or 70% as well.’

Qiao Feng knew that Zhiguang dashi had a resounding reputation and the ordinary and ignorant people worshiped him, hence he did not talk much, saying: ‘Miss Ruan will come later. Please take the 2 of us to your honorable master so that we can pay our respects to him.’ Monk Pozhe said: ‘Yes.’ When Qiao Feng wanted to pay the bill for the room and the food, the innkeeper hastily said: ‘Great master, you’re a guest of Zhiguan Temple, it’s a great honor for us to have you in this small inn. No matter what, we don’t dare to accept these several Qian (~ 0.4 g) of silver for the rent and food.’

Qiao Feng said: ‘We thank you for your hospitality then.’ Inwardly, he thought: ‘Monk Zhiguang is kind to the people so I’ve written off the grudge concerning his murders of my parents. I only hope he’ll agree to reveal the identities of the ‘leading big brother’ and the prime villain. Then I’ll be perfectly satisfied.’ Without losing any time, he followed Pozhe to come out of the county seat and go towards Mt Tiantai.

Mt Tiantai had a beautiful and tranquil landscape but the mountain paths were rather steep, rugged and hard to go along. According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao went into Mt Tiantai by accident and met celestial maidens. Thus it was clear that the landscape here had to be extremely beautiful; but the mountain paths were winding and tortuous, and very hard to recognize. Going behind monk Pozhe, Qiao Feng saw that his footwork was very good, but he obviously did not know martial arts. However, in spite of that, Qiao Feng did not loosen up his caution at all, thinking: ‘The opponents already know it’s me, how can they not be on strict guard? Even though monk Zhiguang is a person of high virtue, other people may not think the same as him.’

Unexpectedly, he had a pleasant and uneventful journey to Zhiguan Temple. Among the cloisters on Mt Tiantai, Guoqing Temple was very famous in the world; in the Sui Dynasty, Zhizhe dashi, an eminent monk, used to stay at this temple and made the Tiantai school of Buddhism greatly flourish; hence it had been an important place of Buddhism for the past several hundred years. However, in wulin, Zhiguan Temple had a more resounding name. At first sight, Qiao Feng noticed that it was merely a common small temple, and most of the plaster and the paint on the outside of the temple had already peeled off. Had it not been for monk Pozhe’s leading, had Qiao Feng and A’Zhu come here by themselves, they would not have believed that this ordinary temple was the famous Zhiguan Temple.

Monk Pozhe pushed the door of the temple open and said loudly: ‘Master, great master Qiao has arrived.’

There was the voice of Zhiguang, saying: ‘Honored guests from afar, this old monk is sorry for being late in welcoming you.’ As he finished, he walked to the door and put his palms together in salute.

Before seeing Zhiguang, Qiao Feng had always been worried that the prime villain would go ahead of himself and kill the monk. Now seeing Zhiguang with his own eyes, Qiao Feng was at ease. Without delay, he and A’Zhu removed their disguises and met the monk with their real faces. Qiao Feng made a deep bow and said: ‘Dashi, I’m deeply sorry for disturbing your serene ascetic life.’

Zhiguang said: ‘That’s fine, that’s fine! Qiao shizhu (almsgiver), originally you’re surnamed Xiao, do you know about it?’

Qiao Feng’s body trembled. Even though he knew that he himself was a Khitan, he had never known the surname of his father. In this moment, hearing Zhiguang say that his surname was ‘Xiao’, he could not help having a cold sweat because he knew that his origin was becoming clear step by step. He immediately bowed, saying: ‘My humble self is unfilial, so I come here to entreat dashi (great monk) to advise me.’

Zhiguang nodded and said: ‘Pray be seated.’

After the 3 of them had sat firmly on the chairs, Pozhe brought tea out. Seeing that the appearances of the 2 had changed and that A’Zhu had turned into a girl, he was exceedingly surprised. However, he did not dare to ask anything due to his master’s presence.

Zhiguang continued: ‘On the stone wall outside of Yanmen Pass, your father left behind a piece of writing, calling himself Xiao Yuanshan. In the writing he called you ‘Feng’er.’ We retained your name, but because we entrusted you to Qiao Sanhuai for nurture, you had to go with his surname.’

Tears streamed down Qiao Feng’s face. He stood up, saying: ‘I’ve never known my father’s surname until today. It’s all thanks to dashi’s favor that I know it. Please accept a bow of mine.’ As he finished saying, he bowed down. A’Zhu also stood up.

Zhiguang put his palms together to return the salute and said: ‘How can it be called a favor?’

The national surname of the Liao Empire was Yelu, and the surname of the empresses of successive Liao dynasties had always been Xiao. Because the Xiao clan had been the clan of empresses from generation to generation, it had had a lot of generals and officials in the imperial courts, and in the Liao Empire it enjoyed great ascendancy. At times, when a Liao emperor was too young, a Xiao empress dowager would assume power and make the clan even more powerful and influential. When Qiao Feng suddenly knew that he himself was from a great Khitan clan, for a period of time all sorts of feelings welled up in his heart, and he was in a trance for a long time. Then he turned to A’Zhu, sighed and said: ‘From now on, I’m Xiao Feng, and not Qiao Feng.’ A’Zhu said: ‘Yes, Great master Xiao.’

Zhiguang said: ‘Hero Xiao, you’ve most probably seen the words left behind on the stone wall outside of Yanmen Pass, haven’t you?’ Xiao Feng shook his head, saying: ‘No, I haven’t. When I arrived at the outside of Yanmen Pass, the words on the stone wall had already been scraped off completely by someone. There was no trace left.’

Zhiguang gently let out a sigh and said: ‘The matter was well in the past, the words on the cliff could be scraped off, but how could these several tens of people be brought back to life?’ He took out from his sleeve a very large piece of cloth, saying: ‘Xiao shizhu, this is a rubbing of the writing left behind on the cliff.’

Xiao Feng trembled with fear, received the large cloth and opened it. He saw that it was made of many rags of clothes stitched together. All the words on the cloth were white hollow ones, the strokes were strange, they looked very similar to Han characters but he did not know a single word. Qiao Feng knew that it was the Khitan language. However, the strokes were powerful and sturdy, looking like saber chops and axe hacks. That day, Zhiguang had said that this piece of writing had been engraved on the rock by his father just before his death. Qiao Feng’s vision could not help getting blurred, and his tears streamed down and fell onto the cloth drop by drop. He said: ‘Dashi, could you interpret it please?’

Zhiguang dashi said: ‘At that time, after we had made a rubbing, we asked people who knew the Khitan language inside of Yanmen Pass to explain it. Several people all said the same, so most probably they were correct. Xiao shizhu, this line of words says: ‘Feng’er is exactly 1 year old. I and my wife were going to my mother-in-law’s house to attend a banquet. On the way suddenly we encountered the Southern Dynasty’s bandits…’’ Hearing to here, Xiao Feng felt an ache in his heart. He heard Zhiguang continue: ‘‘Things happened quickly, my wife was killed by the bandits, making me lose the desire to live on in the world. My master in martial arts is a Han in the Southern Dynasty, I once took a vow in front of him that I would never kill Han people, but today unexpectedly I’ve killed more than 10 of them. I’m both ashamed and sorrowful; after my death, I won’t have the face to meet my enshi (kind master). – Xiao Yuanshan’s last words.’’

After Zhiguang finished, Xiao Feng respectfully received the large cloth which had the rubbing, saying: ‘These are the last words left behind by my predecessor. Dashi, please bestow it on me.’ Zhiguang said: ‘I should respectfully give it to you.’

Qiao Feng’s mind was in chaos. Thinking of his father’s sorrow at that time, he understood that his father had jumped off the cliff to commit suicide not only because of being grieved at the miserable death of his mother, but also because he had broken a vow by killing many Han people and felt ashamed of it before his school.

Zhiguang slowly uttered a sigh and said: ‘At first we only thought that your father was leading Khitan warriors to Shaolin Monastery to rob sutras. Only after we studied the writing on the stone wall did we know that it was a misunderstanding, a huge mistake. Your father was already determined to commit suicide so there was no reason for him to leave false words to deceive other people before his death. If he had been going to Shaolin Monastery to rob sutras, why was he taking along a lady who didn’t know the least bit of martial arts and was embracing a baby of just over 1 year of age? After the incident, we investigated the source of this news about a Shaolin sutra robbery, it turned out that it came from the mouth of an ignorant absurd person. This person deliberately played a trick on the leading big brother and wanted him to rush thousands of li (1 li = 0.5 km) about to make fun of him.’

Xiao Feng said: ‘Oh, so it was only to play a joke. What happened to this absurd person?’

Zhiguang said: ‘After finding out about the truth, the leading big brother was very angry, but that absurd person had already run away. No one knew his whereabouts. From then on, he has disappeared into thin air. It’s been 30 years since that incident, perhaps he is no more in the world.’

Qiao Feng said: ‘Dashi, thank you very much for letting me know about the cause and the aftermath of this incident, making Xiao Feng become a new man. I only want to ask you about another matter.’ Zhiguang asked: ‘Xiao shizhu (almsgiver), what do you want to ask?’ Qiao Feng said: ‘Who is this leading big brother after all?’

Zhiguang said: ‘I’ve heard that Xiao shizhu has killed 4 people, Elder Xu of the Beggar Society, Grandpa Tan, Granny Tan and Zhao Qiansun, to investigate this matter, and you’ve killed the whole family of Impartial Judge Shan Zheng then burned the Shan family’s manor to the ground as well. I expected that sooner or later you would come to this place. Please wait for a little while; this old monk is going to show you 1 object.’ As he finished saying he stood up.

When Qiao Feng was about to explain that he had not killed Elder Xu and the other people, Zhiguang had already turned around then walked into the rear hall.

After a while, monk Pozhe walked into the parlor and said: ‘My master invites the 2 of you to the meditation room to talk.’ Following him, Qiao Feng and A’Zhu passed through an alley which ran in the shade of dense bamboos to arrive at the front of a small house. Monk Pozhe pushed the door open, saying: ‘Please!’ Qiao Feng and A’Zhu walked in.

They saw Zhiguang sitting cross-legged on a bulrush mat. He smiled at Xiao Feng, extended his finger and wrote on the floor. The floor of this small house had not been swept for a long time hence there was a thick layer of dust on it. They saw him write on the dust:

‘All things are the same; all creatures are equal.

Sages and animals are treated evenly.

Han or Khitan is reality and also fantasy.

Kindness, enmity, honor and disgrace all are mere dust.’

As he finished writing, he slightly smiled and closed his eyes.

Looking at the 8 sentences on the floor, Qiao Feng was entranced, thinking: ‘From a Buddhist’s viewpoint, not only are humanitarians and villains the same, but there is also no difference between animals, hungry ghosts, emperors and generals, so whether I’m a Han or a Khitan is really not worth mentioning. But I’m not a Buddhist, how can I be detached like this?’ So he said: ‘Dashi, in the end who is that leading big brother? Please tell me.’ He asked several times but Zhiguang only smiled without replying.

When Qiao Feng fixed his eyes on Zhiguang, he could not help but jump out of his skin because he saw that despite having a smiling expression, the monk seemed to be stiff and motionless.

Qiao Feng called out ‘Zhiguang dashi’ a few times but still the monk did not make any move