Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 43
>Chapter Title: Buddha
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“He’s become a Buddha.”
Hearing the abbot state this so plainly, Li Huowang instantly felt a chill run down his spine.
He jerked his head up to look at the five massive golden Buddhas surrounding them. The figures that had seemed so solemn and majestic moments ago now appeared to have instantly changed faces.
Li Huowang, just about to stand, glanced at the bright sun shining through the door, then back at the abbot before him.
The old abbot remained seated with unwavering composure, neither pleased nor displeased, as if those words hadn’t come from his mouth at all.
“Wait, don’t scare yourself. It might not be what you think.”
After pondering carefully for a moment, Li Huowang spoke up again.
“Abbot, Zhengde Temple must have some history with Danyangzi, right?”
“Indeed. He was abducting and killing people everywhere before, causing chaos far and wide. I once sent martial monks from our temple’s Dharma Hall to capture him, but he escaped every time.”
“If you can find a way to deal with him, that would be a meritorious deed.”
“Then may I ask, Master, how could a villain as irredeemable as him become a Buddha? How is that even possible?”
“Amitabha. What he is now has nothing to do with what he was. This old monk has Buddha in his heart, so to me, he is Buddha.”
Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a surge of irritation. The old monk wasn’t speaking plainly; he was talking in riddles.
“Patron, Danyangzi has now merged with the vast world. It doesn’t matter what I think he is—what matters is what you think he is. If you think he is that, then he is. After all, his karma is tied to you now, not to this old monk.”
Xin Hui’s voice remained even and calm, but this time, Li Huowang understood what he meant.
“You’re saying Danyangzi has turned into some formless mass that shifts with people’s thoughts? Something like the Wandering Lord?”
“Exactly.”
“But why? How did he become that kind of monstrous thing? The cultivation methods for becoming an immortal were all made up by me! All those deadly poisons—he should’ve dropped dead the moment he swallowed them!”
No matter how hard Li Huowang racked his brains, he couldn’t figure it out.
“This old monk does not know.”
The abbot’s frank admission caught Li Huowang off guard.
“You don’t know?”
“This old monk is not the Buddha of the Future; I cannot know all things. Monks do not lie. If I do not know, I do not know.”
After thinking for another moment, Li Huowang posed another crucial question.
“Abbot, is there a way to completely eliminate Danyangzi? Since he’s our common enemy, leaving him hanging like this isn’t good for anyone.”
He’d gone to such great lengths and traveled so far precisely to resolve this.
No matter what Danyangzi had become, Li Huowang had to deal with him.
This time, Xin Hui didn’t answer immediately. He pondered for a while before raising his right hand.
“Come closer. I need to take another look.”
Li Huowang hesitated as he eyed that wrinkled, pale hand.
“Patron Xuanyang, if you still suspect me of harming you, then you never should have stepped through the temple gates.”
After a moment’s thought, Li Huowang pressed his forehead against the abbot’s palm.
With a hum, Li Huowang felt all the colors around him intensify several times over, his body turning light and floaty.
The strange sensation came quickly and faded just as fast. When everything returned to normal, Li Huowang felt an inexplicable emptiness in his chest for reasons he couldn’t pinpoint.
He knew this: the old abbot might not be much else, but he definitely possessed some special Buddhist abilities.
“Hmm… This matter is grave. This old monk must consult with the other elders on a countermeasure. Stay in the temple for now, and I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.”
At the mention of staying, Li Huowang grew tense.
“I have friends outside the temple. If I don’t go back, they’ll worry.”
Seeing Li Huowang refuse, the abbot’s tone remained unhurried.
“Go or stay as you wish. Zhengde Temple opens at the Hour of Chen tomorrow. Patron Xuanyang, please do not break your word. You know full well that until this threat is removed, it remains a great danger to you and all the world’s people.”
When Li Huowang stepped out into the sunlight and looked back into the hall, he saw that the abbot had already turned around again and resumed chanting sutras to the massive golden Buddha.
Li Huowang tilted his head up at the noonday sun overhead and glanced at the serene, peaceful Buddhist temple around him. Nothing about it suggested anything was amiss.
Just as Li Huowang turned and took a few steps, the abbot’s bald scalp, in the midst of his sutra chanting, began to writhe.
Moments later, the smooth skin beneath his five-Buddha cap slowly split open. A fist-sized vertical eye emerged, glaring fixedly at Li Huowang.
At that moment, the volume of the sutra chanting from the old abbot’s mouth suddenly amplified.
“Form is not me… If it were me, form would not sicken or suffer pain. I desire form thus, and reject form thus, bending to desire as it wills. Thus you should know…”
After winding through seven turns and eight bends along the temple paths, Li Huowang emerged at the main gate, bustling with pilgrims and incense smoke. He felt like he’d returned to the human world.
Standing amid the crowd, he glanced back toward the alley he’d just exited.
“Should I trust him?” Li Huowang felt a twinge of hesitation.
“Hey! Daoist! Over here!” Hearing the shout, Li Huowang turned to see the Old Beggar on the road nearby, waving excitedly at him.
“You came to Zhengde Temple? They’d take someone like you?”
The Old Beggar nodded eagerly.
“Yeah, that monk just now said he pitied me and let me stay in the temple to do some work.”
“That’s good. Work hard here. It’s better than scavenging wild veggies or eating from the dead outside. I’ve got things to do—oh, right, I never asked your name.”
“Just call me Monk. I like being called that. Come sit at the temple sometime when you have free time.”
“Heh, by your Buddhist saying, it’ll happen when the affinities align.”
After bidding farewell to the old monk, Li Huowang left Zhengde Temple.
When he reached the inn they’d agreed on beforehand, the others swarmed him at once.
Li Huowang raised a hand to stop their questions and spoke.
“I’ve got a task for everyone. Split up and ask the locals about Zhengde Temple.”
Though his interactions with the monks today had seemed perfectly normal, he still planned to gauge the locals’ views on Zhengde Temple before deciding.
The others didn’t ask why. They simply nodded and headed out of the inn.
Time passed bit by bit. As the sun set, the seven who’d scattered returned one by one and began reporting what they’d learned to Li Huowang.
“They say Zhengde Temple is the biggest temple in all of West Capital, with the most prosperous incense offerings.”
“I heard those monks are all super devout, strictly following the precepts. Once, a monk stole some meat, and they straight-up expelled him from the temple.”
“I heard even the emperor in the palace goes there to worship Buddha. If you’re lucky and get a good spot, you might even see him!”
“What I heard is about the same, Senior Brother. Why’d you want us asking about Zhengde Temple?”
Li Huowang didn’t answer. He had no intention of telling them the terrifying truth that Danyangzi might still exist, lest they live in fear.
After carefully mulling over their reports, Li Huowang found he had no reason to refuse.
If he didn’t trust these monks, he’d have to face the “Buddha”-become Danyangzi alone. That choice was suicide.
After weighing the pros and cons, Li Huowang made up his mind: he’d return to Zhengde Temple tomorrow.