Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 47
>Chapter Title: Offering Incense
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Xin Hui had just finished speaking when he seemed to immediately realize his slip-up. He quickly pressed his palms together, closed his eyes slightly, and bowed toward the west.
"Amitabha, sin, sin. This disciple has broken the precept against anger. I shall copy the scriptures a hundred times afterward as punishment."
After saying this, Xin Hui raised his head again, looking calmly at Li Huowang. He examined him carefully for a moment before nodding lightly.
"This poor monk knows what's going on. Benefactor Xuanyang, come with me."
With that group of glaring monks watching him intently, Li Huowang had no choice but to follow. He sheathed the longsword on his back and turned to trail after him.
Xin Hui didn't lead them anywhere else. Instead, he brought everyone back to the site where the Buddha statues were being carved.
"Benefactor Xuanyang, were those filthy sights you saw just now right here?"
Surrounded by the monks, Li Huowang stared in stunned silence at the scene before him. The unfinished stone statues that had previously turned into mounds of flesh now stood there as if mocking him, perfectly restored.
"How is this—"
"Benefactor, follow me a bit further."
Under Xin Hui's guidance, Li Huowang slowly moved forward, passing the Buddha statue carving area and arriving at the spot where he had seen the livestock earlier.
Here too, not a single animal remained. All that was left were those unfinished stone qilins and stone lions of various sizes, their stone auspicious beasts arranged neatly in rows, silently gazing ahead.
At that moment, Xin Hui suddenly drew the longsword from behind Li Huowang and slashed down hard. A lion's head the size of a palm tumbled to the ground.
Xin Hui picked up the stone lion head and placed it in Li Huowang's hand.
Li Huowang gently ran his fingers over the lion's head. The texture of the stone, the substantial weight—it was unmistakably real!
"How could this—" Still not convinced, Li Huowang walked over and touched the sculptures one by one with both hands, confirming they were all genuine.
Finally, he stood at the entrance of the grand hall and peered inside. There, a majestic stone Buddha sat cross-legged on a lotus pedestal, left hand holding a begging bowl, right hand touching the earth in a gesture of resolve, towering imposingly before him.
"This is impossible! I clearly saw it just now, saw it as plain as day! How could it be fake?"
Hearing Li Huowang's words, Abbot Xin Hui let out a soft sigh.
"Amitabha. Benefactor, your illness is quite severe."
Li Huowang turned to Xin Hui in confusion, speaking in astonishment.
"Was it my episode? Were all those things I saw just my own hallucinations?"
Xin Hui nodded gently.
"Benefactor, you must know your own condition better than we outsiders do."
"Could all that Black Tai Sui I consumed only hold out this long? Am I starting to hallucinate again?"
Li Huowang clutched his head with both hands, murmuring in agony to himself.
Hearing this, the nearby monks, their faces filled with disdain, huddled together and whispered among themselves.
"After all that, turns out he's just a lunatic."
"If there's nothing else, we should send him packing. What if he snaps one day and hurts someone?"
"Quiet!" Xin Hui's single word silenced all the monks.
He stepped into the hall, lit four sticks of incense, then turned around and offered them to Li Huowang.
"It's no trouble that you disturbed us disciples of the Buddha, but disturbing the Buddha himself is another matter. Go on and offer incense properly to the Buddha.
"Offering incense?"
Li Huowang's muscles tensed instantly as his gaze darted frantically between the giant Buddha, Xin Hui, and the four sticks of incense.
"Benefactor, what are you waiting for? You were the one in the wrong first."
Xin Hui extended the incense sticks toward him a little further.
Li Huowang's mind flashed back to that writhing pile of flesh, that monster draped in monks' bodies.
If that thing was real, going over to offer it incense would be like serving himself up on a platter for it to devour.
"Benefactor, what are you hesitating for?"
Li Huowang looked at Xin Hui, whose face now showed a hint of displeasure.
He felt the genuine stone lion head in his hand, then tilted his head up to the blinding sun overhead.
Li Huowang tossed the lion head aside, took the incense with both hands, stepped over the threshold, and slowly approached the stone statue.
He moved very, very slowly, his body and mind wound tight as a spring, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
No matter how slowly he went, Li Huowang eventually reached the base of the great Buddha. It was still just the Buddha—no transformation into that nauseating pile of flesh.
Li Huowang held the incense in both hands and stood before the censer. He looked up once more. From this angle, he could clearly see the giant Buddha gazing down at him with eyes neither joyful nor sorrowful, inspiring an involuntary awe in his heart.
As Li Huowang raised the incense high above his head, the four sticks trembled slightly. White smoke swirled in the air before drifting toward the hall's ceiling.
After bowing three times with the incense raised, Li Huowang solemnly inserted them into the censer. Then he turned and walked back out of the hall.
With the conflict resolved, the monks gradually dispersed, returning to their positions, picking up their tools, and resuming their carving. The clanging sounds filled the air once more.
Xin Hui and Li Huowang walked slowly along the stone-paved path between the statues, heading outward.
"Benefactor Xuanyang, since your illness is so severe, you'd best not wander around anymore. Just rest easy and wait for the Universal Salvation Grand Ritual."
"Though your condition is troublesome, compared to it, Danyangzi is undoubtedly far more dangerous. Eat one bite at a time, handle one matter at a time."
Xin Hui said to Li Huowang beside him while turning the Buddhist beads in his hand.
Li Huowang looked up at the bright sun overhead once more, raised his hands high, and stretched lazily.
"Abbot, for a hysteria like mine, does Zhengde Temple have any way to treat it?"
"Mm, this poor monk can have a disciple give it a try, though success isn't guaranteed. After all, our temple has no lineage in the Huangji arts."
"No worries, I was just asking casually. I've been mad for so long, I'm used to it."
Li Huowang shrugged indifferently.
"By the way, Abbot, what trick did you just pull? How did the thing in my arms end up in your hands all of a sudden?"
"Heh heh heh, just a little sleight of hand, nothing worth mentioning."
"Abbot, no need for modesty now. If that's nothing worth mentioning, then what am I? Less than a bug?"
"Benefactor Xuanyang, it's not like that. Look at Danyangzi—even though his strength is below mine, he's mid-tier out in the world, and yet you still took him down in the end."
"Danyangzi was mid-tier? How terrifying must the top tier be? Abbot, among experts like yourselves, is there a ranking?"
"There is, things like Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow rankings or whatnot, but those are just bored folks making things up. Us monks of the Way don't chase empty fame; we don't care for such things."
The short path took them a long time to walk as they talked extensively. Li Huowang gleaned much useful information about this world from Xin Hui's words.
Once they left the carving area, Li Huowang stopped, bowed to Xin Hui, and said,
"Thank you, Abbot, for clearing things up."
"Not at all, not at all. Just a small favor. Benefactor Xuanyang, since you're unwell, go back and rest."
After exchanging polite farewells, Li Huowang glanced around. Seeing no sign of that old monk, he turned and headed back to his quarters.
He walked slowly, appearing lost in heavy thought, pondering something deeply.
After walking for nearly half an hour, Li Huowang finally reached his lodging. The moment he shut the door behind him, his expression twisted into a savage grimace. He clenched his fists and slammed them against the wall.
He didn't know what method those monks had used to deceive his senses, but as someone long accustomed to switching between hallucinations and reality, Li Huowang was acutely sensitive to such things.
That great Buddha had given him a distinctly wrong feeling, just like the hospital in his hallucinations—some indescribable flavor to it.
"Those stone carvings are fake! The great Buddha is fake! All illusions conjured by some smokescreen!! What I saw before wasn't a hallucination at all!"
(This chapter ends)