South Hill, Guangyi County.
The mountain was green and the forest was deep. In the evening, three riders rushed into the mountain, breaking the silence and startling the birds and beasts along the mountain road.
In the shade of the trees by the road, there was a small pavilion, sheltering a monument in the pavilion from wind and rain. The monument was engraved with the words' Nanshan Temple 'that had been eroded by time.
Song Yanqing, Xu Yitian, and Chen Guishuo stopped their horses and looked at the inscription on the monument to confirm that they were in the right place. They looked up at the winding stone steps leading up the mountain and saw a corner of the eaves in the dense forest. It should be where the temple was located.
Song Yanqing tilted his head and gestured. Xu Yitian kicked the horse's belly with his heel and rushed up the stone steps. Song Yanqing followed behind and Chen Guishuo followed at the end.
There was an antique temple at the top of the mountain. The environment was quiet. A little monk sweeping the floor in front of the door looked at the three people who jumped off the horse and bowed, "Benefactors, it's getting late, I wonder …"
Song Yanqing glanced at him coldly and arrogantly. He pushed him aside and strode into the courtyard. Xu Yitian and Chen Guishuo also led their horses and entered the temple from the main entrance. The monk quickly threw away the broom and ran back to report.
Soon, more than a dozen strong young monks rushed out. They stood in a row with sticks in their hands and stopped the three people in the courtyard. Their monk robes were washed white and looked a little shabby.
Song Yanqing grabbed a handful of money from the money bag at his waist and threw it out. The coins fell at the feet of the monks.
They were all golden coins. It was not a small amount of money. The monks looked at each other.
"Incense money! Prepare the wing room for us. The horses need to be fed with the best fodder. "Song Yanqing said lightly.
"Benefactors, you are pilgrims!" The monk in charge under the eaves of the main hall gasped and quickly walked over. He waved his hand to signal the group of staff-wielding monks to put down their weapons and personally greeted Song Yanqing. "These days, there are many bandits in the mountains. When I saw you leading your horses and barging in, I thought that you were villains. It's a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. Please come in, please come in." He extended his hand to invite them into the living room.
The three horses were taken care of, and the monks began to pick up the gold coins on the ground.
"Are you the host of this academy?" Song Yanqing asked as he walked along the corridor under the eaves with his hands behind his back.
"No, no, I'm Ruhui, the first seat of the East Courtyard." Ru Hui politely introduced herself. It seemed that she was fawning over Song Yanqing as a sugar daddy.
Song Yanqing gave him a sideways glance. "Ask your host to come see me."
Ru Hui shook her head and said, "Unfortunately, the abbot is out visiting a friend and will only be back tomorrow!"
That night, Song Yanqing and the other two stayed in the guest room.
Not long after the smoke from the kitchen in the temple was extinguished, two young monks came to deliver vegetarian meals.
After the vegetarian meals were served, the two young monks retreated. Xu Yitian walked to the table and took a look. It was just a pot of green vegetables with rice. It was simple enough.
Xu Yitian took out a small porcelain bottle and shook some white powder into the rice. He stirred it with a spoon and his expression quickly changed. He saw that the color of the rice was a little black. He turned around and called out softly, "Senior Brother!"
Song Yanqing and Chen Guishuo walked closer to take a look. Their expressions also changed. The vegetarian food was poisoned. Fortunately, they had checked it. Otherwise, they did not know what would have happened. Who would have thought that this seemingly proper temple would actually do such a thing?
"A bunch of thieving baldies!" Chen Guishuo gritted his teeth and turned to look at the group of monks.
However, Song Yanqing reached out and grabbed his arm. He beckoned the two of them to come closer and whispered to each other.
Looking back, Xu Yitian took the pot of vegetarian food and found a corner to dispose of it. After slightly decorating the table, the three of them nodded to each other and fell to the ground one after another, motionless.
Less than an hour later, a window in the corner was opened a crack. An eye peered into the room and disappeared again.
After a while, footsteps came from outside. The door was pushed open and two monks came in. Behind them was an old monk in a kasaya. He was not tall, thin, and slightly hunched. His skin was dark, he had a white beard, and his eyes were bright. He was the abbot of Nanshan Temple, Yuan Fang.
Several monks came in from outside. The head of the East Courtyard, Ru Hui, was on the left of the old monk, and the head of the West Courtyard, Ru Ming, was on the right.
A disciple carried an empty pot and showed it to them. He said, "It's all eaten."
Looking at the person lying at his feet, Ru Ming, the head of the West Courtyard, put his palms together and sighed. "We've sinned. Abbot, we've committed murder again!"
Abbot Fang Yuan sighed. "The world is so chaotic. The people have no way to make a living. They can't even take care of themselves, so who will come to donate incense money? Nanshan Temple is far away from the city and is deep in the mountains. If we don't think of a way, we won't be able to get any incense money. If we don't even have enough to eat, and if the people leave, we'll disband. How can we revive Nanshan Temple? Give me a few more years. When I have enough money, I'll build a big temple in the city to fulfill the abbot's last wish. By then, we'll have incense money coming in every day, and we won't have to do this anymore. "
"Sigh!" A few sighs came from the monks.
Ru Hui waved his hand and a few monks came forward to search the bodies of the three people on the ground.
"Ah!" A monk with a staff cried out in pain as he was sent flying by Xu Yitian's kick. He crashed into several people in a row.
Song Yanqing also suddenly stood up and grabbed a monk by the neck. He sneered. "What a bunch of thieves who murder for money!" As soon as he finished speaking, he twisted his hand and broke the throat of the monk who fell into his hand. Then, he grabbed at the void and unsheathed the precious sword behind him. He sucked it over and held it in his hand.
Three flashes of sword light appeared. A group of monks waved their wooden sticks to block the attack, but how could they block it? In an instant, they were killed. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, and screams rang out. The rest retreated in fear. Only Abbot Yuan Fang was left to block the attack with his staff. He covered the retreat of the monks, and a faint demonic aura appeared on his body.
"So you're a demon!" Song Yanqing sneered and slashed down with his sword. Yuan Fang blocked it with his staff, and the impact made Song Yanqing's arm numb.
Yuan Fang was obviously not a match for Song Yanqing and the others. Any one of them could beat him to the point that he could not fight back. Other than his shocking brute force, his cultivation level was indeed not that great.
However, what surprised the three of them was that even though Yuan Fang's clothes had been torn to shreds, the blades of the swords were unable to harm his body. It was as if he was wearing some kind of protective armor. Otherwise, Yuan Fang would have been dead a long time ago. From the gaps in his clothes, they could see something furry peeking out. The blades of the swords actually made the sound of metal scraping against each other.
However, the three of them soon discovered Yuan Fang's weakness. It was useless to slash with swords. Only by stabbing could they pierce through Yuan Fang's flesh. Even though Yuan Fang's skin was thick, and he repeatedly avoided being hit in the vital parts, he could not take it anymore. Blood dripped from his body as he dodged.
When they reached the courtyard, Song Yanqing raised his hand slightly and signaled Xu Yitian and Chen Guishuo to stop attacking. The three of them surrounded Yuan Fang, who was in a sorry state and had a terrified expression on his face.
All the monks in the temple seemed to have appeared. Other than the dozen people who had died in the hands of Song Yanqing and the others, there were still about twenty monks at the scene. They held weapons in their hands and looked terrified. They had seen how powerful Song Yanqing and the others were. They did not dare to approach them, but they also did not want to abandon Yuan Fang and run away.
Yuan Fang panted heavily as blood dripped from his body. He held his staff horizontally and slowly spun it in a circle.
"Do you want to live or die?" Song Yanqing asked calmly.
Yuan Fang clenched his teeth and said, "Will you let me go if I say I want to live?"
Song Yanqing said, "Of course not. If you want to live, then work for me. As long as you listen to me, I can help you fulfill your wish of building a temple in the city. I can even get the imperial court to give you an official identity. Otherwise, your life will be in danger no matter where you go. Those demon-slaying cultivators will not let you go so easily!" He flipped his hand and flashed a token.
Yuan Fang's pupils shrank when he saw the word 'Xing' on the token …
After a while, the monks started to clean up the corpses of their own people. Song Yanqing and the others went to another clean guest room.
In the guest room, Yuan Fang, who had finished bandaging his wounds, asked his disciple to leave in front of Song Yanqing and the others. However, Song Yanqing and the others could tell that Yuan Fang's golden hair was an immature demon who could not completely transform into a human.
Watching Yuan Fang put on his clothes again, Song Yanqing asked curiously, "As far as I know, this Nanshan Temple seems to be quite old. Why would a group of monks let a demon like you be the abbot?" He could tell that the other monks were real humans when he fought with them, but the abbot was a demon. How could he not be curious?
Yuan Fang, who was putting on his clothes slowly to avoid pulling his wounds open, smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, I'm not Abbot Yuan Fang …"
After he told them the truth, Song Yanqing and the others finally understood that the real Abbot Yuan Fang had already passed away two years ago. He was a bear that the monks of Nanshan Temple adopted from the mountains two hundred years ago. Perhaps it was because he often listened to the teachings of Buddhism, he gradually gained spirituality and figured out a method to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Slowly, he began to cultivate in the mountains. When he had a certain level of cultivation and began to transform, the reference object for his transformation was Abbot Yuan Fang, so he took on the appearance of Yuan Fang. However, his cultivation was not enough, so his transformation was not complete and he still needed to improve.
Just as he said, the world was too chaotic, and it was very difficult to maintain Nanshan Temple. When Abbot Yuan Fang was still alive, it was him who constantly brought in money and supplies from the outside to barely keep Nanshan Temple from collapsing. When Abbot Yuan Fang passed away, he did not want Nanshan Temple to collapse, so he entrusted Nanshan Temple to him. However, in order to fulfill Abbot Yuan Fang's last wish, Yuan Fang began to lead a group of monks to do shady business. Not only did they murder people in the temple, but they also led the monks of Nanshan Temple to the roadside to ambush and rob people. However, some of the monks were able to quietly accept the money he brought in to support them, but they could not bear to do it themselves. What was the deal with the Buddhist disciples robbing people? After he left, less than half of the hundreds of people were left. In the end, the murder fell into the hands of Song Yanqing.
"Actually, I've done a lot of good things. There are a few groups of bandits in the nearby forest that have become bandits. I secretly led the disciples of Nanshan Temple to eliminate them. Whenever a group came, we wiped them out. Those bandits are too despicable. They rob people on sight and kidnap women back to the mountain stronghold. We're different. We only rob rich people and never offend the poor. When we have a good harvest, we occasionally go to the nearby villages to donate some food. If you don't believe me, you can ask around. Ever since I became the abbot, the nearby villages no longer have to worry about bandits. They don't even have to close their doors at night. Even if they don't know that it was Nanshan Temple who helped them solve their problems, they will only say good things about Nanshan Temple and not bad things. Nanshan Temple's reputation in the surrounding area is definitely not a problem! "Yuan Fang emphasized this point, trying to prove that he was actually a good person.
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