Tang Sanzang lowered his head and remained silent, but his slowly trembling hands clearly showed that his heart was far from calm.
To him, this was a complete denial of his faith, a rejection of himself. Naturally, it was difficult to accept.
Seeing this, Wang Yuan said nothing.
Because he understood: without destruction, there could be no rebuilding!
Only by shattering all of Tang Sanzang's beliefs about the Buddhist School could he make him completely turn away from it.
Of course, this was something that had to be done gradually. There was no rushing it.
For now, this was merely the first step of the plan.
"Do the monks of Wonderful Dharma Temple truly mistreat the common people so cruelly? Then why don't you resist?"
"Resist?" The old village headman sighed again. "Grandmaster, you are a monk. You have never known the hardships of us poor commoners, so naturally you do not understand the crux of the matter."
"Our fields, estates, and homes all belong to the lords of Wonderful Dharma Temple. We simply cannot resist."
"If resistance worked, we would have resisted long ago."
"But the truth is, if we resist, then even if we want to hand over sixty percent of our earnings, they will not allow it."
"Old Man, what do you mean by that?"
The old village headman said, "Our homes and fields all belong to Wonderful Dharma Temple. The temple keeps many martial monks. If we dare resist, they will bring those martial monks to our doors and take back our lands."
"These lands are our only means of survival. If we truly lose them, forget supporting the lords of Wonderful Dharma Temple—we will not even be able to feed ourselves. We will starve to death in the streets!"
"This..."
Tang Sanzang's face was filled