Offering Incense

Xin Hui had barely finished speaking when he seemed to realize his slip of the tongue. He quickly put his palms together, closed his eyes slightly, and bowed towards the West.

"Amitabha, forgive me, forgive me. This disciple has broken the Hatred Precept. Afterwards, I will Copy Scriptures a hundred times to show my repentance."

After saying these words, Xin Hui raised his head again and looked at Li Huowang calmly. After examining him carefully for a moment, he nodded slightly. "Old Monk knows why. Xuan Yang Benefactor, please come with me."

Looking at the group of monks eyeing him warily, Li Huowang had no choice but to follow. He inserted the Longsword in his hand back into its scabbard and turned to follow.

Xin Hui didn't go anywhere else, but led everyone back to the site where they had been carving Buddha Statues earlier. "Xuan Yang Benefactor, was it here that you saw those filthy things?"

Surrounded by monks, Li Huowang was stunned by what he saw. The unfinished stone statues that had turned into Mountains of Flesh, as if playing a joke on him, reappeared before him. "How could this—"

"Benefactor, please continue to follow Old Monk."

Accompanied by Xin Hui, Li Huowang walked forward slowly, past the area where the Buddha Statues were being sculpted, and arrived at the place where he had seen the livestock earlier.

Here, too, there were no animals to be seen. There were only the unfinished stone Qilins and Stone Lions, the large and small stone Auspicious Beasts neatly arranged, silently watching the front.

Just then, Xin Hui suddenly drew the Longsword from behind Li Huowang and slashed hard, cutting off a lion's head the size of a palm.

Xin Hui picked up the Stone Lion's head and placed it in Li Huowang's hand.

Li Huowang gently stroked the head of the Stone Lion with his fingers. The texture of the stone, and its heavy weight, it was clearly real!

"How could this be—" Still unwilling to believe it, Li Huowang walked over and touched each of the sculptures with his hands, discovering that they were indeed real.

Finally, he stood at the entrance of the main hall and looked inside. A majestic giant stone Buddha, with its legs crossed on a Lotus Throne, holding an Alms Bowl in its left hand and pointing to the ground with its right hand, was clearly presented in front of Li Huowang.

"This is impossible! I clearly saw it just now, I saw it clearly! How could it be fake?"

Hearing Li Huowang's words, Abbot Xin Hui sighed softly, "Amitabha, Benefactor, you are seriously ill."

Confused, Li Huowang turned to look at Xin Hui, and said in astonishment, "Could it be that I'm having an episode? Were those things I saw just now all hallucinations?"

Xin Hui nodded gently, "Benefactor, you probably know what kind of illness you have better than outsiders like us, right?"

"Could it be that the Black Tai Sui I ate can only last this long? Am I starting to hallucinate again?" Li Huowang hugged his head with both hands, muttering to himself in pain.

Hearing Li Huowang say this, the group of monks next to him, wearing expressions of repulsion, gathered together and whispered.

"So, after all this, he's just a Madman."

"If there's nothing else, we should quickly ask him to leave. What if he goes mad one day and accidentally hurts someone?"

"Hush!" Xin Hui's words silenced all the monks.

He walked into the hall and lit four Incense Sticks, then turned around and handed them to Li Huowang, "It's nothing to trouble us Buddhist Disciples, but it's not good to disturb the Buddha. Offer incense to the Buddha properly."

"Offer incense?" Li Huowang's body muscles instantly tensed as his gaze constantly shifted between the Buddha, Xin Hui, and the four Incense Sticks.

"Benefactor, what are you waiting for? You were in the wrong first." Xin Hui stretched out the four Incense Sticks in his hand.

In Li Huowang's mind, he once again recalled that mass of wriggling monsters, that mass covered in monks.

If that thing is real, wouldn't offering incense to it be like delivering himself to its mouth to be eaten?

"Benefactor, what are you hesitating about?"

Li Huowang looked at Xin Hui, who was speaking. At this moment, a hint of displeasure began to appear on his face.

He felt the genuine Stone Lion in his hand, then looked up at the dazzling sun overhead.

Li Huowang tossed the lion's head aside, took the incense sticks with both hands, stepped over the threshold, and slowly walked towards the stone statue.

He walked very, very slowly, his body and mind highly tense, cold sweat starting to bead on his forehead.

But no matter how slow he walked, Li Huowang finally reached the foot of the Great Buddha. The Buddha was still the Buddha, not transformed into that disgusting monster.

Li Huowang held the incense sticks in both hands, stood before the Incense Burner, and looked up again. From this angle, he could see the giant Buddha gazing at him with eyes that held neither joy nor sorrow, inspiring involuntary awe in his heart.

As Li Huowang raised the incense sticks above his head, the four sticks trembled slightly, and white smoke swirled in the air, drifting towards the top of the hall.

Li Huowang bowed three times with the incense sticks raised, then solemnly inserted them into the Incense Burner, turned around, and returned to the outside of the hall.

Seeing the conflict resolved, the Monks gradually dispersed, returning to their places and continuing to carve, the "clang clang" sounds ringing out incessantly.

Xin Hui and Li Huowang walked slowly along the stone-paved path in the middle of the statues, heading towards the outside.

"Xuan Yang Benefactor, since your illness is so serious, you should not run around. Just wait for the Pudu GrandFasting."

"Although your illness is troublesome, Danyangzi is undoubtedly more dangerous compared to your illness. Take things one step at a time, and do things one by one." Xin Hui said to Li Huowang beside him, while turning the Buddhist beads in his hand.

Li Huowang raised his head and looked again at the bright sun overhead, stretching his arms high and yawning forcefully. "Abbot, does Zhengde Temple have any way to treat my Hysteria?"

"Well, Old Monk can have a Disciple try, but whether it will succeed is another matter, after all, this temple has no Yellow Qi Arts inheritance."

"It's okay, I'm just asking. Anyway, I'm used to being crazy for so long." Li Huowang said with an indifferent expression, "By the way, Abbot, what did you just do? How did the thing in my arms suddenly end up in your hands?"

"Hehehe, just a little trick, not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning."

"Abbot, don't be so modest at this time. If you're not worth mentioning, then what am I? Not even as good as a bug."

"Xuan Yang Benefactor, things can't be calculated like that. You see, although Danyangzi's strength is not as good as mine, he can be considered mid-level outside, but in the end, wasn't he eliminated by you?"

"Danyangzi is mid-level? Then how strong are the top tiers? Abbot, among experts like you, are there distinctions of high and low?"

"There are, such as Heaven Earth Black Yellow and the like, but those are just random fabrications by bored people. Monks don't seek empty fame and don't care about these."

The two walked for a long time on this short road and said a lot. Li Huowang also obtained a lot of useful information about this world from Xin Hui.

After leaving the carving area, Li Huowang stopped and bowed to Xin Hui, "Thank you, Abbot, for clearing my doubts."

"You're welcome, just a small effort. Xuan Yang Benefactor is not feeling well, so go back and rest."

After exchanging polite words, Li Huowang looked around and, not finding the Old Monk's figure, turned and walked towards his residence.

He walked very slowly, looking preoccupied, as if he was thinking about something.

After walking for about half an hour, Li Huowang finally arrived at his residence. Just as he was about to close the door, Li Huowang's expression instantly turned ferocious. He clenched his fists and slammed them hard against the wall.

Although he didn't know what method those Monks used to confuse his senses, as a patient who had been alternating between hallucinations and reality for a long time, Li Huowang was not good at anything else, but he was extremely sensitive to these things.

The feeling that the Great Buddha gave him just now was obviously wrong. That feeling was the same as the hospital in his hallucinations, with an indescribable taste.

"Those stone carvings are fake! The Great Buddha is also fake! They are all illusions created by trickery!! What I saw before was not a hallucination at all!"