"He became a Buddha." Hearing the abbot say this so calmly, Li Huowang instantly felt a chill run down his spine.
He abruptly raised his head and looked at the five enormous golden Buddhas around him. The solemn, dignified figures from moments ago seemed to have changed their faces in an instant.
Just as Li Huowang was about to rise, he glanced at the bright sun outside the door, then looked back at the abbot before him.
The Old Abbot still sat there as steadily as before, neither pleased nor sorrowful, as if those words had not come from his mouth.
"Wait, don't scare yourself. It might not be what I think it is."
After pondering for a while, Li Huowang spoke again. "Abbot, Zhengde Temple must have had a grudge against Danyangzi, right?"
"Indeed. He previously abducted and killed people everywhere, throwing the world into such chaos that even chickens and dogs could not live in peace. I once sent the martial monks of this temple's Damo Academy to capture him, but he escaped time and time again."
"If you can find a way to eliminate him, that would count as a meritorious deed."
"Then may I ask, Master, how could such a heinous villain, guilty of every evil under heaven, become a Buddha? How could he possibly become a Buddha?"
"Amitabha. What he is now does not depend on what he himself is. This old monk has Buddha in his heart; in my heart, he is a Buddha."
Hearing that, Li Huowang immediately grew irritated. This old monk would not speak plainly—he was talking in riddles.
"Benefactor, Danyangzi has now fled into the myriad realms. What I think he is does not matter. What matters is what you think he is. Whatever you think he is, that is what he is. After all, his karma now rests upon you, not this old monk."
Xin Hui's voice remained calm and even, but this time Li Huowang understood what he meant.
"You mean Danyangzi has become some shapeless thing that can change according to people's thoughts? Something like Lord You?"
"Precisely."
"But why? How did he become that kind of ghostly thing? I made up all those cultivation methods for becoming immortal! With so many highly poisonous things, he should have died outright after swallowing them!"
Li Huowang racked his brains but could not figure it out.
"This old monk does not know."
The other man's frank answer caught Li Huowang completely off guard. "You don't know?"
"This old monk is not the Future Buddha and cannot be omniscient or omnipotent. Those who have left the household do not speak falsehoods. Not knowing means not knowing."
After thinking for a while longer, Li Huowang asked another crucial question.
"Abbot, is there a way to completely get rid of Danyangzi? Since he is our enemy, we can't just leave him hanging over us forever."
He had gone to such lengths and traveled so far precisely to solve this matter.
No matter what Danyangzi had become, he had to deal with him.
This time, Xin Hui did not answer immediately. After pondering for a while, he raised his right hand. "Come here. I need to take another look."
Looking at that wrinkled white hand, Li Huowang hesitated.
"Benefactor Xuan Yang, if you still suspect that I mean to harm you, then you should not have stepped through the temple gates just now."
After considering it for a moment, Li Huowang pressed his forehead against his palm.
With a buzz, Li Huowang felt all the colors around him instantly become several times more vivid, while his whole body turned light and weightless.
The strange sensation came quickly and vanished just as fast. When everything returned to normal, Li Huowang somehow felt an emptiness in his heart.
He understood that, whatever else the Old Abbot might be, he definitely possessed some special Buddhist divine power.
"Mm... This matter is of great importance. This old monk must discuss countermeasures with the other elders. Stay at the temple for now. I will give you an answer tomorrow."
At the mention of staying behind, Li Huowang immediately grew nervous. "My friends are outside the temple. If I don't return, they'll worry."
Seeing Li Huowang refuse, the abbot's tone remained neither hurried nor slow.
"Whether you stay or leave is up to you. Zhengde Temple opens its gates tomorrow at the Chen Hour. Benefactor Xuan Yang, please do not break your word. You also know that if this trouble is not removed, it will remain a great hidden danger, whether to you or to all living beings under heaven."
When Li Huowang stepped outside the hall and stood beneath the sunlight, he looked back inside and found that the abbot had already turned around again, facing the enormous golden Buddha and resuming his chanting.
Li Huowang raised his head to look at the blazing midday sun overhead, then glanced at the tranquil, peaceful Buddhist temple around him. No matter how he looked at it, nothing seemed to be happening.
Just as Li Huowang turned and walked a few steps away, the bald back of the chanting abbot's head began to wriggle.
Before long, the smooth skin beneath the Five Buddha Hat slowly split open, and a massive vertical eye the size of a fist pushed out, staring fixedly at Li Huowang.
The abbot's chanting suddenly rose by a whole level. "Form is not self... If form were self, form should not fall ill or suffer affliction. One should be able to say of form: Let my form be thus, let my form not be thus, according to my wishes. Therefore, one should know..."
After winding through twists and turns along the narrow paths between the temple buildings, Li Huowang returned to the bustling main gate, packed with incense-bearing pilgrims. He felt as though he had returned to the human world once more.
Standing amid the crowd, he looked toward the alley he had just emerged from. Should I trust him? Li Huowang felt uncertain.
"Hey! Daoist! I'm over here!" Hearing someone call him, Li Huowang turned and saw the old beggar a short distance away on the road, waving excitedly at him.
"You came to Zhengde Temple? They were willing to take you in?"
The old beggar nodded excitedly. "Yes. That monk just said he pitied me and would let me stay at the temple to work."
"That's good too. Work hard here. At least it's better than digging wild vegetables outside and eating offerings for the dead. I still have things to do, so I'll be leaving first. Oh, right, I haven't asked your name yet."
"Just call me Monk. I like being called Monk. Come sit around the temple sometime when you're free."
"Hehe, according to your Buddhist way of speaking, let fate decide."
After bidding farewell to the old monk, Li Huowang left Zhengde Temple.
When he arrived at the inn where they had agreed to meet, the others immediately swarmed around him like a hive of bees.
Li Huowang raised a hand to stop them from asking further questions and said, "I have something for everyone to do. Split up and ask the locals about Zhengde Temple."
Although his interactions with those monks today had seemed entirely normal, he still intended to hear what the locals thought of Zhengde Temple before making any plans.
The others asked nothing more. After nodding, they turned and headed out of the inn.
Time passed bit by bit. Once the sun had set, the seven people who had gone out gradually returned and began reporting what they had learned to Li Huowang.
"They said Zhengde Temple is the largest temple in all of West Capital City, and its incense offerings are the most flourishing."
"I heard those monks are all very devout and strictly observe the pure rules and precepts. Last time, a monk secretly ate meat, and they directly expelled him from the temple."
"I heard the Emperor in the palace also goes to that temple to worship Buddha. If you're lucky and get a good spot, you might even see the Emperor!"
"What I found out was about the same. Senior Brother, why did you have us ask about Zhengde Temple?"
Li Huowang did not answer. He did not want to tell them the terrifying possibility that Danyangzi might still exist, lest they become anxious and afraid.
After carefully mulling over what they had learned, Li Huowang thought it over from every angle, yet found that he had no reason to refuse.
If he did not trust these monks, then he could only face Danyangzi, who had become a "Buddha," head-on by himself. That choice was undoubtedly courting death.
After weighing the gains and losses, Li Huowang made up his mind to return to Zhengde Temple tomorrow.
Thanks to Morgenrote for the reward of 100,000 Qidian Coins.
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