It was a beautiful morning in the forest on the slopes of Jeng Hoa San Mountain (Mountain of a Thousand Flowers). The young sun spewed its golden yellow light onto the earth, reviving the grass that had been nearly paralyzed by the dew, the trees that had disappeared into the darkness of night, and the flowers that had suffered all night from the piercing cold. The golden yellow light bringing warmth, beauty, and life drove away the thick clouds, and the clouds fled from the light of the king of life, leaving behind dewdrops that now adorned the tips of leaves and grass, making the multicolored flowers look like young virgins after a bath, fresh and radiant.
The soft sunlight was deflected by the leaves and branches of the lush forest trees, but its softness allowed it to also break through the gaps between the leaves and branches so that the small elongated rays that were visible between the shadows of the trees slid down, meeting here and there with the reflection of the water to form the colors of a very beautiful rainbow, colors formed by all kinds of colors, especially by the basic colors of red, yellow and blue. Beautiful! To the eye that is free from all bonds, the beauty is even more pronounced, a beauty that is new and that will always appear new even if it is seen every day Before the first reddish light of the morning sun appeared, all was quiet.
What first woke the forest was the short, loud crow of the partridge, a sudden and startling crow that came from several directions. The crowing of this rooster stirred the birds that had been shrouded in the darkness of night, hiding their faces under the thick, warm blanket of their wings, and now there was a lively movement in every large tree and the sound of birdsong, a variety of voices, competing beautifully and loudly but all with a distinctive sonority.
It is hard for the ear to decide which is more beautiful because the sound is the unity of a set of musical instruments sounding together. It is only beautiful to the ear! It is hard to say which is more beautiful, the sound of the birds themselves or the empty silence that lies between them.
The boy was still very small. He couldn't have been more than seven years old. He stood like a statue, standing on a rather high flat spot in the forest of the Thousand Flower Mountain, facing east and for more than half an hour he had been standing like that, only his eyes moving, wide eyes full of sharpness and tenderness, the usual eyes of a child whose life is still free and clean, but between his eyes, the skin between the eyebrows was somewhat disturbed by straight lines.
It was strange to see such a small child with wrinkles between his eyebrows! The child was simply dressed, though he was as clean as his body, from his hair to his fingernails were well-groomed and clean, his face was ordinary, like other children with a handsome face, only his eyes and the wrinkles between his eyes were rare in children and made him a child who easily impressed the viewer as a strange child and certainly had something extraordinary.
The boy's eyes shone with life as he watched the huge red ball appear behind the eastern mountain peak, a huge red ball that was at first a sight to behold, but gradually became an object that his eyes could no longer bear to look at because of the yellowing and glittering light. So he turned his gaze away, now enjoying how that infinitely vast light brought everything to life, from the tops of the mountains to far away, down at the foot of the mountains.
The boy then stripped off his clothes, one by one with a patient and unhurried movements, without looking to either side because he knew that on such mornings no one but himself would be there. Completely naked he then approached a rock and sat cross-legged, facing the sun. He sat upright, his legs crossed and his breathing went in and out smoothly, unregulated, unforced like the breathing of a baby in deep sleep.
For several years he had done this every day, sitting in the sun for two or three hours until his whole body was drenched in sweat and he felt hot and then he stopped. Also on moonlit nights, he sat on the rock, completely naked, bathing in the light of the full moon for seven nights, sometimes forgetting himself and sitting cross-legged until he was half asleep, only stopping when his body was almost frozen and the moon had disappeared behind the western peak. What an extraordinary child! Indeed.
The people around the Jeng Hoa San Mountains called him Sin Tong (Miraculous Child), which was the name people knew him by. Miracle child, magical child, and other names. Because everyone called him Sin Tong and he himself never wanted to reveal his name, the boy had become accustomed to this title and thought his name was Sin Tong!
Why did the villagers, the residents of all the villages around the slopes and foothills of the Jeng Hoa San Mountains call him a child prodigy? There was a reason for this, and that was because the seven-year-old was very good at treating illnesses by giving leaves, fruits, and roots medicine that really worked! Almost all the people with illnesses came to the slopes of the Forest of a Thousand Flowers, which was the name of the forest where the boy lived because of all the forests in the Thousand Flower Mountains, this was the one that was truly called the Forest of a Thousand Flowers with colorful plants, full of beautiful flowers, especially in spring. And this child gave medicinal leaves or roots with an open heart, sincerely, willingly, and always refused to be given money!
So the villagers flocked to him and silently worshipped him as a miracle child, as a god transformed into a child who saved the villages from disaster. Even when there was an infectious disease, a severe fever that claimed many victims last year, it was this miracle boy who eradicated it by giving certain roots that had to be drunk after cooking the water. With these roots, those who were sick were helped and those who had not yet contracted the disease would not be infected. When the people of the village, especially the women, came with new clothes that had been neatly sewn, the boy could not refuse and expressed his gratitude with tears falling down both cheeks but no words coming out of his mouth. It was because of these people that the boy was always dressed in such simple, "country" clothes.
Who exactly was this magical little boy who inhabited the Thousand Flower Forest alone? Was he really a god who had come down from heaven as a child to help a human being, as the Tibetans believe so many Lamas are regarded as the Buddha himself "transforming" into children and becoming future Lamas. Actually, of course, this is not the kind of superstition believed by people who like superstition and the miraculous.
The child was once the only child of the Kwa Family in Kun-Leng, a small town east of the Jeng-hoa-san Mountains. He was named Kwa Sin Liong, and the name Sin Liong was given to him because when he was pregnant, his mother dreamed of seeing a name flying in the sky among the clouds. Sin Liong's father was a wealthy medicine merchant in the city of Kun-leng.
But disaster befell the family when three thieves entered their home at night. The three criminals were about to commit theft against this wealthy family, but when they entered the room Sin Liong's father and mother caught them. Worried about being recognized, the three killed Sin Liong's mother and father with slashes of their machetes. Sin Liong was only five years old at the time and in that dimly lit place saw how his father and mother were rained down with machetes and collapsed, bathed in blood, dead without even screaming.
Sin Liong was so horrified and frightened that he was rendered speechless, his eyes bulging and he couldn't make a sound. Because of this, the three thieves did not see the little boy in the dark room. They were mainly busy collecting valuables and they were also panicking, wanting to leave quickly because they had been forced to kill the master and mistress of the house. Only after the criminals had left the room was Sin Liong able to scream, screaming so loudly that the night was torn apart by the child's screams. The neighbors were shocked and all the doors were opened, all the men ran out and saw three unknown people coming out of the Kwa house carrying large bundles, immediately there were shouts of "Thief...thief!" and the men locked up the three criminals.
Several people ran into the Kwa house and you can imagine their shock at seeing the husband and wife dead and bathed in blood, while Sin Liong wept for his parents, hugging them so that his face, hands, and clothes were covered in the blood of his parents.
"Murderers! They killed the Kwa family!" People who saw the corpses of the two men immediately ran out and shouted "Cruel humans! Arrest them!" "No! Just kill them!" "They chopped up the bodies of Kwa's husband and wife!" "Kill!" "Charge...!" And there was a one-sided struggle or match. The three men were forced to fight back in self-defense, but how could they, common thieves, withstand the onslaught of tens or even hundreds of angry, bloodthirsty men?
The boy, while the beating outside his house was going on, came out from inside, his face covered in blood, his hands and clothes as well. He stepped out as if in a dream, his face deathly pale and his wide eyes wide with horror. He stood at the door of his house, his eyes wide with horror at what was happening in front of his house. It was clear to him how the neighbors, like a pack of savage wolves, were attacking and beating the three thieves, the murderers of his father and mother. He heard the thieves groaning and whimpering, begging for mercy, and heard the sound of a bak-bik-buk as fists and weapons struck them. The three of them collapsed and continued to be beaten, hacked, smashed and blood spurted, their bodies twitching, strange sounds coming from their throats.
But those angry, bloodthirsty men, who thought that what they were doing was good and just, continued to pound on those three unlucky humans until their bodies were shattered and didn't look like human bodies anymore, but rather just a pile of crushed flesh and broken bones! When everyone was satisfied, as well as horrified at the results of their deeds, they stopped beating the three corpses and entered the Kwa family home, Sin Liong was not there!
Presumably, this boy, who had just been shaken to his soul, scratched to the bone by seeing his father and mother hacked and killed, when he saw the three murderers being ganged up on and tortured, his soul was even more crushed, the wounds in his heart more numerous and he could not bear it any longer.
He saw that the faces of these people were all like the faces of demons, with blazing eyes full of hatred and vengeance, full of lust for killing, with mouths agape as if they looked like fangs and pointed teeth, ready to bite the opponent and suck his blood. He was horrified, feeling as though he had fangs and pointed teeth, ready to bite his opponent and suck his blood. He was horrified, feeling as if he was among a pack of demons, so sobbing, Sin Liong ran away from that place, left his home, left Kun-leng city, and ran toward the mountains that looked from afar like a man lying down, a powerful god-man, who would protect him from the demon's pursuit! Like a man out of his mind, that night Sin Liong kept running until the next day, so exhausted was he, he scrambled at the foot of the Jeng-hoa-san Mountains, occasionally tripping over his feet and falling flat on his face, getting up again and running in the morning, staggering and finally, on the next morning, early in the morning he rolled over and collapsed in a forest on the lower slopes of the Jeng-hoa-san Mountains.
After regaining consciousness, the five-year-old child continued his journey, and a few days later he arrived at a forest full of flowers because it happened to be springtime. Along the way up the mountains, when his stomach began to get hungry, the child picked fruits and ate leaves, choosing those that tasted fresh and not bitter so that he would not starve. In the forest of a thousand flowers Sin Liong was mesmerized, feeling like he was living in another realm, in another world. A place that was quiet and clean, with not a single human being.
When he thought of humans, he shuddered and cried with fear and horror. He had witnessed great atrocities. Not only the cruelty of the people who took the lives of his father and mother, who forced his father and mother to separate from him and die leaving him behind, but also seeing the cruelty of dozens of neighbors who tortured the three people to death and ruined their bodies, He shuddered and was terrified when he thought about it.