In his previous life, he was Tenzin Dorje, the Living Buddha revered by countless people atop the snowy mountains. After more than a decade of ascetic practice, he sacrificed his life to suppress a demon and manifested as a rainbow body. But before he could reach the Pure Land of the Buddhas, a sword came crashing down from the sky and sent him tumbling back into the mortal world.
When he awoke reborn, he was in a Buddhist temple in the Han lands, stripped of all his cultivation. The temple took him in and gave him the name Shi Yuan. He became a volunteer, chopping wood, carrying water, sweeping floors, and cooking meals. Life was hard, and the old monks sometimes took advantage of him, but he was content. He no longer had to bear the burden of being a Living Buddha or lie awake at night listening to demons howl beneath their seals.
Until the little monk named Ming Xin was tormented by evil spirits and tearfully called him "Brother Yuan."
Until a strand of Manjushri Bodhisattva's blue hair fell into his palm, burning deep into his heart.
Until Samye Monastery shook violently, its seven layers of seals nearing collapse, while the thousand-year-old fiend imprisoned beneath the temple stirred.
Only then did he understand that some things could not be avoided.
He had no golden body or manifested Dharma form, no countless followers, and no esoteric incantations to empower him. With a little monk at his side, he walked beneath the neon lights of the city, crossed the mass graves of deserted villages, and climbed through the fierce winds of the snowy mountains. He hunted vengeful ghosts, broke evil formations, and subdued demons, retracing step by step the path he had once strayed from.
Meanwhile, Shen Meng, who saw him as a brother, was steadily ascending to godhood. Every time he risked his life for him, another layer of the seal on his body broke, and a little more of his divinity awakened.
But the stronger his divinity grew, the thinner his humanity became. One day, he would sever all love and feeling, and forget the mortal world.
What Shi Yuan had to save was never just the dead.
Vengeful ghosts are easy to catch, but inner demons are hard to subdue. To save people and ghosts is, in the end, to save oneself.
