Having enjoyed a delicious meal, Amamiya Rin did not forget his main business. After putting down his bowl and chopsticks, he prepared to enter the practice of the Gate of Following once again.
However, Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa were far clingier than usual.
"Rin-kun~~"
"Relax a bit, Little Rin..."
Saeko Busujima hugged Amamiya Rin's arm, her purple eyes rippling with watery light, full of temptation.
Shizuka Marikawa's hands also started to get restless, slipping inside Amamiya Rin's trousers, her hot breath spraying against the shell of his ear.
Amamiya Rin's body suddenly stiffened.
"Wait... Shizuka, Saeko, I am currently..."
Shizuka's hand was cold and dexterous, while Saeko's gaze pulled at his heartstrings. Amamiya Rin tried to push them away, but the strength in his hands unconsciously weakened.
In the Long Dream that had lasted twenty-one years in the past, their bodies had been his only solace and relaxation; this tactile sensation had become almost an instinctive reaction.
"Rin-kun is too tense. Cultivation is important, but relaxation is also important. This is called striking a balance between tension and relaxation."
Saeko Busujima's soft lips pressed against his face. One of her hands had already deftly undone the buttons of his clothes. Her beautiful long purple hair fell down, the tips sweeping across his skin, bringing waves of ticklish numbness.
"Yes, yes, Little Rin, let us help you. Didn't you like this the most before?"
Shizuka Marikawa hung onto him like a koala. Relying on instinct, she pressed her most proud assets against Amamiya Rin's arm and side, emitting whimper-like sounds from her mouth like a cat in heat, while one hand continued to fumble clumsily inside his clothes.
"Wait..."
Amamiya Rin's breathing became heavy, and his struggling hands gradually turned weak and powerless.
Faced with such beauty, the body's reaction was far more honest than the will. A stream of heat gathered in his lower abdomen, and the dam of his reason tottered on the verge of collapse under the impact of desire.
Saeko Busujima sensed his resistance weakening. She lifted her eyelids; her eyes were brimming with watery light, carrying a longing that bordered on the bewitching.
Amamiya Rin's barely maintained self-control was about to completely crumble under this twofold gentle offensive.
"Just... just for a while..."
A thought popped up uncontrollably. Hadn't the Tomies already left?
They had caused a ruckus for so long and then gave up. Maybe... maybe he could relax a bit today? After all, one needs to balance work and rest. The taut string needs to be loosened, doesn't it? Cultivation isn't something that needs to be rushed right this moment...
As soon as this thought emerged, Amamiya Rin's heart immediately gave a "thump," and a strange sense of incongruity rose from within.
Given the paranoid nature of Tomie, who never rests until she achieves her goal, would they really give up so easily?
This was too abnormal.
Amamiya Rin's brows locked together tightly. A profound anxiety caused his desire to subside slightly. His gaze, deliberately moving away from Saeko Busujima's face, caught a glimpse of the wooden sword that had been casually tossed in the corner.
That wooden sword was the weapon Saeko cherished, and it was also the Kendo she was dedicated to.
In an instant, a thought poured over him like cold water.
Saeko, although she loved him deeply and was quite proactive between the sheets, was essentially a highly self-disciplined Yamato Nadeshiko. She would absolutely not behave in such an infatuated and impatient manner, like a puppet controlled by desire, when he had clearly stated he wanted to cultivate and while his body was so weak.
(Is this the malice of the Nightmare? Or is it my Attachment to Self taking form, which I must face while practicing the Breath Counting Meditation?)
Amamiya Rin's face turned pale.
Wasn't he practicing the White Skeleton Visualization to break his greedy attachment to the physical body? If he indulged himself in making love with Saeko and Shizuka, what kind of Zen meditation would he be practicing?
Looking at the beautiful faces close at hand, Amamiya Rin squeezed his eyes shut, trying to dispel the amorous thoughts in his brain and pull his attention back to his breathing—inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale...
Once his chaotic thoughts calmed slightly, Amamiya Rin pushed Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa away without hesitation.
"Rin?"
"Little Rin, what's wrong?"
A trace of astonishment flashed across the faces of the pushed-away Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa.
"I am currently learning Zen meditation. I cannot be near women. You should both go back."
Amamiya Rin's tone was calm to the point of being nearly cold.
He wasn't just speaking with his mouth; he was also driving them with his will. Saeko Busujima, Shizuka Marikawa, and the Abbot were all his safety mechanisms. As long as his willpower was strong enough, he could influence their actions.
However, Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa showed absolutely no intention of leaving.
"Rin-kun, cultivation must also proceed step-by-step. Do not go against your nature as a human being."
Saeko Busujima leaned in a step closer, the watery light flowing in her eyes.
"Exactly, Little Rin! We aren't here to cause trouble, we just want to keep you company. You're all alone here, how could we rest assured leaving you?"
Shizuka Marikawa also leaned over, entwining herself around his body.
This was a big problem!
Amamiya Rin's heart sank.
In the past twenty-one years, Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa would never disobey his orders regarding serious matters. For such a reaction to occur now... was it the influence of the Nightmare's will?
Just as his thoughts spun like lightning, trying to make sense of this anomaly, his gaze inadvertently swept over Saeko Busujima's face, which was close at hand.
That familiar face, which originally combined heroism and gentleness, seemed to be... different somewhere.
Suddenly, Amamiya Rin's vision froze below Saeko Busujima's left eye.
A small beauty mark lay quietly on the edge of her lower eyelid, exuding a bewitching aesthetic.
In a flash, an icy chill shot from his tailbone to the top of his head, making Amamiya Rin's scalp tingle.
He turned his neck stiffly to look at Shizuka Marikawa, who was still clinging to his side.
Below those eyes of hers that always carried a dazed smile, in the exact same position, an identical beauty mark had shockingly appeared!
Cold sweat instantly soaked the shirt on his back, sticky and freezing.
An unspeakable sense of horror seized Amamiya Rin's throat, making it difficult for him to even breathe.
"Even my safety mechanisms have been eroded?"
Amamiya Rin's eye twitched.
He knew that Tomie's charm could affect men's memories, but he hadn't expected that even the safety mechanisms formed through his own self-suggestion would be eroded.
Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa might still be their original selves, but they had been infected by the concept of Tomie; that beauty mark was clear proof.
"Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not born or extinguished, not defiled or pure, not increasing or decreasing."
Amamiya Rin took a deep breath, closed his eyes again, and chanted the sutra in a low voice, forcibly gathering his consciousness which was nearly scattering.
The scripture flowed through his heart like a clear spring, attempting to douse the restless flames.
However, the demonic barrier had already arisen; how could it be easily removed?
Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa did not retreat because of his rejection; instead, they intensified their efforts.
Their touches were no longer just gentle caresses but carried a certain urgent and barbaric demand. The rustling sound of friction between clothes, the tactile sensation of roving lips, mixed with sweet, bone-penetrating panting, eroded Amamiya Rin's soul and scorched his reason.
Worse still, that familiar and noisy feminine laughter rang out again from outside the courtyard.
The Tomies who had left earlier had returned. Like sharks smelling blood, they gathered once more.
"Hehe, didn't expect that, did you? We're back again!"
"Idiot! Dummy! You really fell for it!"
"Look at your ugly state, you're enduring so hard~~"
"Come on, enjoy ultimate bliss with us. We'll let you know what the true Land of Ultimate Bliss is~~"
The twittering of swallows and orioles, a fragrant wind rushing to the face.
Dozens of Kawakami Tomies swarmed in, giggling. Their faces bore the smugness of a successful scheme and an even more blazing possessiveness. The narrow tea room was filled with beauty symbolizing lust.
The Abbot, who served as another safety mechanism, had vanished after Amamiya Rin allowed Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa to enter the tea room. No one was left to block the Tomies' violation. When it came to resisting the Tomies' temptation, Amamiya Rin was truly left to his own efforts.
Unknowingly, the tea room was no longer a tea room. The surrounding scenery began to distort.
The walls faded away, turning into hazy gauze curtains. The tatami mats under the futon became soft as a cushion, and the air was filled with an increasingly sweet and warm fragrance.
Once Amamiya Rin showed a flaw, the Tomies actually used their collective willpower to change the environment of the Dream World! They turned this place of cultivation into a boudoir filled with temptation and depravity.
The Tomies surrounded Amamiya Rin in the center. They lightly loosened their silk robes, their graceful figures faintly visible behind the thin gauze. Their eyes were blurred with desire, their jade-like arms stretched out, and their slender hands wound around his body like vines. Identical, stunningly beautiful faces leaned in close, exhaling breath like orchids, licking Amamiya Rin's body.
Decadent sounds surrounded him endlessly. Amamiya Rin's vision, hearing, touch, smell... all his senses were drowned by Tomie's aura.
Tomie was like the Demoness of the Desire Realm, setting up a demonic barrier here, swearing to disturb the cultivator's Zen mind.
Amamiya Rin felt a blazing fire rise from his lower abdomen, spreading rapidly throughout his body.
His body trembled violently, like a bowstring drawn to its limit. The defense line of his consciousness was already in imminent danger. The thought of giving up hissed at the bottom of his heart like a seductive viper.
Rising from his heart was not only lust and possessiveness but also killing intent—an incomparably vigorous killing intent, urging him to kill these witches immediately, to cut them into a thousand pieces, to crush their bones and scatter their ashes, to brew them into wine, to roast them into meat...
(No... I cannot sink...)
(Once I yield, I will be damned beyond redemption...)
(These are all illusions, they are demonic barriers!)
(All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like dew or like a flash of lightning; thus should one view them...)
(Mind and breath rely on each other; deluded thoughts cease of themselves...)
Amamiya Rin bit the tip of his tongue hard. Sharp pain mixed with the rusty taste of blood exploded in his mouth, bringing a moment of clarity.
The various Buddhist principles about calming the Mind Ape, which the Abbot had explained, flashed through his mind like lightning.
"Mind and breath are both forgotten, entering into Dhyana. Break the attachment to the breath as the object of focus, enter the state of One-Pointedness of Mind. At this time, body and mind vanish, like the Great Void containing clouds..."
A flash of insight appeared, like moonlight breaking through dark clouds, illuminating Amamiya Rin's chaotic heart.
He "looked" at Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa, who were clinging greedily to his body.
The two women were creations of his subconscious, projections of his sense of security. Yet at this moment, they were eroded by the "concept" of Tomie, becoming the embodiment of his inner demons. Their beauty, their love, were all phantoms born from his Attachment to Self.
He "listened" to the endless sounds of temptation from the Tomies.
These voices were nothing more than the echoes of his own desire for beauty and greed, magnified and distorted by external demons.
The demon is not outside, but inside the heart. The witch is not a physical entity but a manifestation of one's own ignorance and afflictions; it is the Attachment to Self.
Clinging to the breath, clinging to resistance—all of this is Attachment to Self.
He had been trying too hard to resist these demonic barriers, and instead, he had poured all his mental energy into them, effectively reminding himself of their existence and power at every moment.
(Mind and breath both forgotten... body and mind vanish...)
Amamiya Rin no longer tried to fight those temptations, nor did he forcibly lock his mind onto his breathing.
He relaxed his tense body and let go of the resistance he had been holding onto so tightly, guarding only the last speck of clarity in his spiritual center.
However, the temptation did not disappear; instead, because of his non-resistance, the torment doubled.
Amamiya Rin felt as if he were being roasted over a raging fire, then plunged into an ice cave to freeze. A tragic tug-of-war unfolded between the greedy attachment of the physical body and the reason of survival.
Time passed slowly amidst the suffering.
The sun rose and the moon set; the scenery of the temple changed, but the struggle never ceased for a moment.
Amamiya Rin's heart, in this endless tempering, was like a rough stone being polished over and over again.
At first, there were sharp edges and intense pain. Gradually, the pain remained, but that heart strangely became more enduring.
Unknown how much time passed—perhaps months, perhaps years.
His breathing, after countless struggles and returns, became long and even.
Mind and breath relied on each other, gradually entering a fine state.
Amamiya Rin's thoughts no longer flowed with the external environment but settled thoroughly in the unity of observation and breath.
When a thought arose, he was aware of it; once aware, it vanished. Deluded thoughts were like floating clouds passing across a clear sky, leaving no trace.
Amamiya Rin opened his eyes. His expression was peaceful, and his whole body radiated a tranquil aura, like a stone pagoda in an ancient temple that had weathered wind and rain for a thousand years, standing silent and unmoving.
"All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow."
The clear spirituality flowing from the depths of his spiritual center was like a clear spring washing away dust, like the dawn breaking the morning.
In an instant, the sweet and warm fragrance winding around his body vanished without a trace, replaced by the crisp air unique to a mountain morning, carrying the scent of grass and earth.
The decadent sounds came to an abrupt halt, as if the Tomies had their throats choked by invisible hands.
The distorted, swaying scene of the gauze-curtained boudoir faded rapidly like stains washed away by water, restoring the simple and old original appearance of the tea room.
It was as if that bone-eroding, soul-destroying demonic barrier was just an overly realistic hallucination. Only the dozens of Kawakami Tomies remained, surrounding Amamiya Rin.
They revealed a moment of astonishment due to the sudden change in the environment. However, seeing that Amamiya Rin had finally opened his eyes, that bit of confusion was immediately replaced by an even stronger desire for conquest.
"Hehe, finally willing to look at us?"
A Tomie spread her legs and sat on Amamiya Rin's lap, laughing coquettishly. She extended a slender jade finger and gently stroked his cheek.
Amamiya Rin's gaze calmly met the eyes of this Tomie. His eyes were like clear deep pools, without the slightest ripple, nor did they dodge or hide.
____
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