"This is what makes the Great Lingyin Temple so terrifying. If you follow a Buddhist tradition, it will keep bolstering your cultivation and strengthening your Buddhist arts, making you ever more powerful. But if you follow any other tradition, it will keep twisting your understanding and influencing your soul until you gradually convert to the Buddhist Sect and become that one's devotee."
"In truth, we've considered giving up and joining the Great Lingyin Temple completely. But once our understanding and souls have both been twisted, would we still be ourselves?"
Bodhisattva Zhenjiu spoke in a distant voice, as though his soul had left his body. He let his disciples and their descendants groom his feathers while he gazed up at the Dharma Hall's vaulted ceiling and its magnificent, jewel-bright splendor.
Zhenmi Arhat, already drunk, opened his mouth and muttered, "In the Great Lingyin Temple, 'changing your face' isn't just a figure of speech. They really will replace everything, from your head to your face, from your soul to your heart."
"Am I me? Am I not me? Am I still myself? Is he still himself?"
Azure Dragon looked at the drunken Zhenmi Arhat, the silent Chaste Lion Arhat, and Bodhisattva Zhenjiu, who seemed to be wandering somewhere beyond the heavens. For a moment, he felt danger lurking in every corner of the vast, magnificent Great Lingyin Temple. Everywhere he looked, sacred figures stood solemn and dignified; lamps shone brightly, incense offerings flourished, and novices, temple guardians, and vajra protectors filled its halls. It bustled with life. Yet the feeling of thorns pricking at his back followed him like a shadow, making it clear that the Great Lingyin Temple was nothing like the thriving place it appeared to be.
Azure Dragon shuddered. Then, as if realizing something, he lowered his head