Nightfall

Stone Statues And Chicken Soup

Back then, Ning Que and Sangsang were besieged by the world of cultivation. They went through the Buddha’s chessboard to the West Wilderness, then to the Lanke Temple in the autumn rain, and suffered the wrath of the Academy. Jun Mo’s iron sword slashed the largest Buddha statue at the peak of Wa Mountain into pieces. The pieces of stones rolled down from the peak of mountain to the valley, milling over half of the old temple.

Fortunately, those huge rolling rocks did not cause a devastating disaster to the town. After being washed over daily by the sea rain and sea wind, it was covered by layers of moss and thus formed a picturesque scenery. With the end of Ghost Festival, the number of visitors to Lanke Temple fell drastically, and this had become the only way to attract tourists.

The current residents’ livelihood mainly depended on the stones from the Buddha statue. They broke the huge stones into pieces, then carved into statues and sold them to the tourists. Of course, it was very hard to break the stones. Even with the heaviest iron hammer and the sharpest iron blades, it could not be done easily by the residents. Most commonly, they tempered the stones with fire and water.

The fire came from the wildfire from the hays in the rural field, and the water was the seawater from the Wa Mountain. The quarry at the Southeast of the town was surrounded with smoke that hurt the eyes from morning until night, while vapour continued to steam. As the red hot rocks were suddenly cooled by the cold seawater, sizzles could be heard continuously. At some point, the hard rocks would clearly show some cracks, meaning it was the time to break it.

Ning Que stood at the hillside of the quarry, observing the process of residents breaking the rocks quietly for a long time. He observed how fire worked with water, how the rocks layered with moss cracked. He found out that when the cracks appear, it usually follows a pattern where two slanted cracks will meet somewhere.

The joining of the two cracks looked like a word. He remembered the sword mark on the stones at the bottom of Daming Lake deep into Tianqi Mountain. In those years, Youngest Uncle used the sword to carve many words outside of the Front Gate of Devil’s Doctrine, turning the barrier array left by Devil’s Doctrine founder, Great Divine Priest of Light into rubbish there.

The rocks were broken into smaller stones, then cracked with iron by the adults as the little children rushed to front and picked up stones they could carry. They carefully selected the stones, arranging the stones by size and appearance, then only the stones were delivered to the stoneman.

Of course, the craftsmen in town were half a monk, just like how Ning Que was half way into his cultivation before engaging in Buddha Dharma. As they carved day and night, they had mastered the art of carving. Within a dozen days, they could carve the small stones into intricate Buddha statue.

Ning Que looked at the stones, and observed the craftsmen at work. After three days, he started to learn how to carve a statue. After a short while, he became the best craftsman in Wa Mountain. During his last few years in Buddha’s chessboard, he carved a Buddha from a mountain, so what were mere stones to him?

But the way he used was different with the other craftsman, they had praised him and also gave him some opinions many times, but he just smiled and went on his own way.

Ning Que’s Buddha statues not only did not have wide forehead with big ears, but also lacked compassion. In fact, he carved a slightly chubby woman with hair on her temples, and an indifferent expression was clearly shown on her face.

One day, when it was raining in Lanke Temple. Ning Que was carving a stone outside the temple. Suddenly, a soft voice came from behind, “Did she lose weight?”

“Yeah, in the Chaoyang City of Buddha chessboard.”

Ning Que put aside the statue beside the rest, about a dozen, and put down the carving knife. Then, he swept away the dust on his body and stood up.