Chapter 46: News That My Mother Was Trapped

Chapter 46: News That My Mother Was Trapped

This was my first time attempting to help someone with depression this way, and I had no idea what the effect would be.

I simply wanted to use my mental will to reinforce her and give her some measure of psychological comfort.

The method was something like brainwave stimulation. In the back of my mind, I was quietly drawing on the concept of electrotherapy as a reference.

I hoped it could help her synthesize more serotonin — or at the very least, reawaken her desire to live. I hadn’t expected it to work so astonishingly well.

About half an hour later, the woman’s state had essentially returned to normal. An inexplicable sense of happiness surfaced on her face. It was clear that, at least in the near term, she would not try to take her own life again.

The abbot had been watching me the entire time, his expression full of bewilderment. Everything I had just done was beyond him. He had raised Shiqing himself — Shiqing had no business knowing this kind of skill, let alone practicing anything like medicine.

But in that moment, saving the woman was all I could think about. There was no room for caution.

Seeing that the woman had improved, I kept my words brief. I simply told the three of them, “What I did just now will only have some short-term effect. For a lasting cure, the female benefactor should go to a professional hospital and work with professional medication. I wish the female benefactor an early recovery.”

When the man saw that the woman had genuinely improved, he reached for his wallet. I waved him off.

“Saving a life earns more merit than building a seven-story pagoda. I already have merit upon me. Benefactor, there is no need for this.”

The young woman, by now, had begun to realize just how close she had come to dying at the foot of that cliff, and fear settled over her quietly. Since I wouldn’t take money, she pulled the older woman by the arm and insisted on going into the temple to make a donation — for her child’s sake, she said, to accumulate some merit.

That was incense money for the temple. I couldn’t very well refuse.

After seeing off the three of them, who thanked us over and over, my master and I walked back inside.

The abbot praised everything I had done that day. Yet beneath his words, his confusion ran deep, and he could not put it to rest.

I had no choice but to offer an explanation: while wandering through Shuzhong, I had encountered a remarkable person, and that person had taught me.

My master actually followed up by asking what kind of extraordinary person he was.

I said his Dharma name was Xuanchen, from Mumen Temple in Shuzhong. I didn’t dare fabricate freely — I was afraid my master might one day actually encounter Master Shouye from Mumen Temple. Xuanchen was, after all, Master Shouye’s direct disciple, and a real person.

Back inside the temple, I kept quiet. Whoever I met, I said nothing about the rescue. Even when my master mentioned it to others, Shiqing only smiled mildly and said he had offered a little casual encouragement, nothing more.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back home, a thousand li away.

That consciousness journey to Yunding Temple had given me far more from Shiqing than I’d bargained for — most of all, news of my mother. This time, something had been confirmed.

She was still alive.

I had always thought of Shiqing as little more than a puppet — not an empty shell, perhaps, but nothing elaborate. I hadn’t imagined there would be so much depth in his design.

It brought Xuanhong to mind. He had also told me, once, that he was my backup — and I had never understood what he meant. Now I did.

Perhaps if I had parasitized him, and the two of us had formed a consciousness link, he might not have died.

It struck me then that leaving Shiqing at Yunding Temple might actually be the better arrangement — better than bringing him here to Pingdu City.

If I ever faced a danger I truly could not escape, Shiqing, a thousand li…