Chapter 81: Anci Temple

Chapter 81: The Nunnery of Peace and Compassion

"Haa... haa..." Li Huowang, drenched in sweat, braced his hands against his knees and gasped for air.

He had been climbing for two double-hours, yet he still hadn't reached the top.

That nunnery was much higher up than he had imagined.

Struggling to raise his head, he found the winding dirt path stretching endlessly upward.

Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang grabbed a nearby vine and resumed his arduous climb.

When his legs were aching unbearably, he finally saw the mountain gate of the Nunnery of Peace and Compassion.

Wiping the sweat from his chin with the back of his hand, Li Huowang instinctively glanced at the couplets on both sides of the gate.

To his great surprise, he couldn't understand a single word of the nunnery's couplets.

It wasn't that Li Huowang had forgotten how to read these characters because of Danyangzi; rather, the characters themselves looked exceedingly strange.

The characters were elongated and diamond-shaped, slanting high on the upper right and low on the lower left. Slender and tilted, they resembled oracle bone script at first glance, yet bore traces of many familiar Han characters.

"Are these... characters? Or something else entirely?" Puzzled, Li Huowang stepped closer and touched them with his hand.

After examining them carefully for a while, he stepped forward and walked into the nunnery.

But upon entering, Li Huowang found no one to address the words he had prepared in his mind.

The overgrown plaza before him was completely devoid of human figures, a stark contrast to the crowded scene at Zhengde Temple.

"Is anyone there?" Li Huowang's voice echoed back and forth across the plaza, yet no one appeared.

Looking left and right, Li Huowang walked toward the main hall ahead. There was no incense burning inside, yet it wasn't dark at all, for the roof was simply full of holes, letting slanting sunlight illuminate everything within.

The Bodhisattva statue in the center of the hall was covered in dust and gray cobwebs.

If not for the lotus-shaped pedestal, Li Huowang would hardly have recognized it as a Bodhisattva.

"Did I get the wrong place? This nunnery looks completely abandoned."

Just as Li Huowang was thinking this, a faint snoring sound caught his attention.

Following the sound, he slowly walked over and, behind the Bodhisattva statue, saw a large mound of flesh rising and falling.

Stepping closer, he realized it wasn't a mound of flesh, but the belly of a fat nun protruding from her robes.

With her upturned nose, she lay sprawled on the cold ground, mouth agape and snoring, a sour stench wafting toward him.

Black robes, obese, filthy—all the details matched; the person before him was indeed a nun from the Nunnery of Peace and Compassion.

Frowning slightly, Li Huowang scrutinized the good person Li Zhi had spoken of. Whether she was truly good or not, he couldn't tell yet, but looking at her current state, even a villain wouldn't want to have much to do with her.

"Master. Xuan Yang of the Clear Wind Temple has urgent matters to request an audience." Li Huowang raised his voice and performed a Daoist salute toward the mound of flesh.

Yet the fat nun's snoring showed no sign of stopping. She wasn't awake at all.

"Is she pretending to be asleep just to mess with me?"

Li Huowang took a step forward and raised his voice even more. "Master! Xuan Yang of the Clear Wind Temple has urgent matters to request an audience!!" Yet there was still no response.

Li Huowang was just about to lean in and shout in her ear, but the overwhelming stench emanating from her body forced him back.

The ultimate stench, like a fermented concoction of stinky socks, durian, and sweat, was simply too much for him to bear.

Before Li Huowang could think of another trick, the fat nun shivered and actually sat up on her own.

Using her short, stubby fingers, she picked at the yellow crusts in the corners of her eyes. Without even opening them fully, she swayed unsteadily toward the side door. "Oh, it's time to eat, time to eat."

"Master. Xuan Yang of the Clear Wind Temple has urgent matters to request an audience!"

This time, Li Huowang was finally not ignored. The fat nun was startled, her three layers of greasy chins trembling along with her.

"You scared me to death! How do you walk without making a sound?"

Li Huowang stood there with a conflicted expression. He was no longer considering whether the people here harbored ill intentions; instead, he began to worry whether the nuns here truly had a way to get rid of Danyangzi.

"If you want to worship the Buddha, go burn incense yourself! Don't delay my meal!" the fat nun said coldly, continuing to stride inward on her two elephant-like legs.

Li Huowang didn't say anything else this time, simply following right behind her as she walked in.

The entire nunnery was vast, but equally dilapidated; if the Bodhisattva in the main hall was in bad shape, those in the side halls were even worse.

Some characters were still inscribed at the entrances of the halls, but they were exactly the same as the ones at the gate.

"Master, what kind of characters are these?" Li Huowang asked.

"Nüshu. Of course you can't read it. This script is passed down only from women to women."

Although she answered the question, the nun seemed extremely impatient and walked straight ahead.

Watching the increasingly unfamiliar surroundings, Li Huowang followed without hesitation. Everything here felt real, lacking that peculiar sensation of the hospital.

Perhaps it was from eating too much black tai sui, or from being trapped in hallucinations for so many years, but other hallucinations were of little use to him; even if they took effect, he could easily tell them apart.

After wandering around for a while, Li Huowang followed the fat nun to an earthen house with a chimney.

The noises coming from inside proved there were others present, and the strong stench alone told him the place was full of nuns.

Watching the fat nun rush in with gleaming eyes, Li Huowang frowned, took a deep breath, pinched his nose, and braved the eye-watering stench to rush in after her.

The moment he stepped inside, the sounds of smacking lips, gulping, and chewing quickly filled his ears.

Li Huowang nearly thought he had stumbled into a pigsty.

A group of fat nuns in black robes were gathered around a large black pot, eating with loud, sloppy noises. They didn't even use chopsticks or bowls, simply grabbing the food with their hands around the pot.

They ate with such relish that they didn't even react to Li Huowang, a living, breathing man, standing right there.

As for what they were eating, Li Huowang could barely make out that it was some sort of oily fried rice with vegetable leaves.

Holding his breath until his face turned red, Li Huowang felt that even breathing through his mouth made the air in the room burn his throat.

This movement finally caught someone's attention. A fat nun who had finished eating, while sucking on her fingers, gestured for Li Huowang to take her spot.

"Want some vegetarian food? Two hundred copper coins per person."

Hearing her ask for money, Li Huowang felt not anger but delight. "No need, but I have a matter that requires the Master's help." He tossed over a gold bean.

"Gold!" The fat nun excitedly stuffed the gold beans into her mouth, chewed them with her yellow teeth, and after confirming they were real, spat them back into her palm, mixed with vegetable leaves and saliva.

"Are you looking to buy pigs? How many do you want? Tell me! Our nunnery's pigs are the fattest."

Seeing her lean in, Li Huowang took a slight step back.

"No, I have heard that the masters of the Nunnery of Peace and Compassion are profoundly mysterious, so I have come to seek the masters' help in exorcising an evil spirit."

"Hahaha! Aren't you a Daoist yourself? You're asking nuns to help you exorcise an evil spirit? Hahahaha~"

As if laughter were contagious, the other nuns in the room burst into laughter, until in the end, even Li Huowang couldn't help but chuckle.

"Hahaha~!!"

(End of Chapter)