Chapter 45: Buddha (again)

Chapter 45: The Buddha

"Master, there's no need to explain so much to a mere guest like me. I have no say in your affairs anyway. Please leave, I'm going to sleep."

Jiandun pressed his palms together, bowed to Li Huowang, and walked toward the door. Just as he brushed past Li Huowang, a faint, drifting whisper floated over.

"Don't look down on the Buddhist order. Before I took the vows, I was a Daoist priest. The Mystic Gate is exactly the same, it's just that you don't know it."

Jiandun left, leaving Li Huowang alone in the room. He turned his head to gaze at the distant temple shrouded in darkness, no longer feeling any sense of majesty or solemnity.

Li Huowang exhaled slowly into the darkness. "This wretched place is truly filthy. Is there not a single clean spot to be found?"

Ever since the incident that night, Li Huowang had avoided going out after dark as much as possible, lest he ruin the monks' endeavors and incur their resentment.

As the days passed one by one, Li Huowang's mental state grew steadily better, and he barely suffered from nightmares anymore.

Just as he was planning to ask the abbot when it would begin, a messenger was sent to him in advance.

"Benefactor Xuanyang, preparations for the Grand Universal Fasting are about to commence. The arrangements for this dharma assembly are immensely costly, so please refrain from wandering about in the coming days."

"Very well, go back and tell the old abbot that I understand," Li Huowang said to the young novice monk before him.

Hardly had the novice left when a familiar figure slipped inside, his face lighting up with pleasant surprise as he said, "Little Daoist, so this is where you've been staying! Why didn't you tell me?"

It was the old beggar from before, though he now looked markedly different from his previous wretched state.

Clad in a brand-new yellow monastic robe, his face and body free of any grime, he appeared far more spirited.

Though his acquaintance with this monk was but a fleeting encounter, meeting someone familiar in such an alien place still gave Li Huowang a sense of closeness.

"Monk, how are you faring here?"

"Not bad at all. I eat my fill and stay warm every day. It's just that there's no chance to do good deeds in the temple, which feels a bit unsettling."

At the mention of good deeds, Li Huowang immediately recalled the events of that night. He looked at the old monk before him and sighed softly. "Don't mind it too much. Just stay put. This temple may be a bit filthy, but at least you won't starve."

"Come, little Daoist, let me show you where I work. It's a massive place." Brimming with enthusiasm, the old monk pulled Li Huowang toward the door.

"The sun is too harsh, let's leave it for next time." Li Huowang was rather unenthusiastic, having no interest in sightseeing around the temple.

"Come on!! You absolutely won't regret taking a look! There are so many fascinating things!" Under the old monk's relentless tugging, Li Huowang stepped out of the room.

Following the monk through a maze of winding paths, Li Huowang arrived at a spacious, open-air courtyard in the Zhengde Temple.

Only upon arriving here did he realize just how vast the Zhengde Temple truly was.

"Clang, clang, clang!" Dust billowed through the courtyard as monks with bandaged hands hoisted stone chisels and hammers, sculpting Buddha statues.

The statues stood in two rows, extending far into the distance on the left and right sides of the courtyard.

Bathed in sunlight, the monks' shaved heads gleamed as they poured their sweat into carving their artworks with utter devotion.

"Is this where you work? The conditions aren't exactly pleasant." Frowning slightly, Li Huowang covered his nose with his hand to keep the dust out.

"Indeed. I'm in charge of hauling away the useless rubble, so I've contributed my share to these Buddha statues." The old monk seemed immensely proud of his post.

The two walked down the path between the two rows of unfinished statues, observing the diverse forms of the works.

Monks passing by from time to time made no move to stop them, treating them as if they didn't exist at all.

"The Zhengde Temple surely isn't carving these for their own use; it's obvious they're meant to be sold to pilgrims. It seems these monks are quite adept at generating revenue," Li Huowang mocked inwardly.

Yet, after what had happened before, Li Huowang found himself not the least bit surprised by such matters.

"And this isn't even all of it! There's more up ahead!" the old monk said excitedly, heading toward the gatehouse in front.

Seeing him move forward, Li Huowang followed suit, but suddenly his mind grew hazy, and his body swayed unsteadily.

"Hey, hey, hey, little Daoist, what's wrong?" Sensing something amiss, the old monk hurried back to support him.

"What's going on?" Once Li Huowang regained his footing, he shook his head vigorously, and that strange sensation gradually faded.

"Are you alright? Caught a chill? Perhaps you should go back and rest first?"

Li Huowang declined the old monk's kindness. "I'm fine, perfectly fine. Let's keep going."

"Alright then. Even if you did catch a chill, you'd need to soak up some sun anyway, so let's continue looking ahead."

Hearing this, Li Huowang looked up at the blazing sun overhead. "Could it be heatstroke? But it's barely been any time since the New Year, and I don't even feel hot."

Feeling no further abnormality in his body, Li Huowang lifted his foot to follow the old monk forward.

But the moment his foot rose, he noticed a change in the surrounding sounds; the clanging of chisels striking stone had vanished, replaced by the slapping sound of flesh colliding with flesh.

"Hm?" Li Huowang turned his head in confusion, looking toward the stone carvings on the right, and his body instantly froze.

The stone carvings from just a moment ago had vanished, replaced by a heap of pale, fleshy mounds—those were monks.

The very monks who had been carving the Buddha statues now had their eyes piously shut, crammed tightly together, their bodies writhing incessantly like white maggots.

"What is... what is this?" Eyes wide, Li Huowang took a step back.

Li Huowang slowly raised his head, squinting at the blinding sun above, confirming that his eyes were not playing tricks on him.

He slowly turned around to look at the statues behind him, and unsurprisingly, they had all changed; under the bright winter sun, dozens of mountains of flesh had appeared.

"Daoist! Hurry up and walk!" the old monk shouted excitedly from ahead, like a child eager to show off his treasures to a companion.

Trembling, Li Huowang took a deep breath and continued walking, passing through the massive gate archway, and another spacious courtyard appeared before them.

Here, too, mountains of flesh piled high, but these mounds were no longer made solely of humans; other things had been added, such as pigs.

They shrieked in agony, yet this mountain of flesh formed by pious-faced monks swallowed them up like a quagmire.

"Look, how lifelike these carved qilins and stone lions are. If only I had such craftsmanship."

Li Huowang followed the old monk forward mechanically, continuing to observe the "artworks" of the Zhengde Temple monks. He saw dogs, horses, oxen, and donkeys.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered yet another anomaly: these monks were all hermaphrodites!!

Li Huowang's mind was a tangled, buzzing mess when suddenly the old monk reached out, grabbed him, and hurried him into a vast, empty hall.

Yet the slapping sound did not fade; instead, it grew louder, echoing through the hollow hall.

Li Huowang stared stiffly into the hall, and as he tilted his head higher and higher, the pupils in his eyes shrank smaller and smaller.

"Look!" The old monk pointed upward, a childlike smile spreading across his face as he said with deep emotion, "What a colossal Buddha!"

(End of Chapter)