Upon closer inspection, most of them were wives and young ladies from powerful, aristocratic families. Openly or discreetly, they pointed and whispered about an usher monk seated beside the Buddha statue.
The usher monk was about sixteen or seventeen, with a face as radiant as jade, red lips, and white teeth, possessing the elegant charm of a bright moon.
Strangely, there were no burn marks from the precepts on his scalp. It seemed he had not yet fully taken the tonsure and entered the Buddhist Sect. Yet that face alone was enough to attract swarms of admirers.
At that moment, the young usher monk was kneeling on a prayer cushion, his little head bobbing up and down. He was actually... asleep!
Outside the Hall of Great Strength, a tall, powerfully built young monk with thick brows and large eyes could no longer stand the sight. He was just about to charge into the hall.
But a tall, lean young monk with deep-set eyes blocked his path.
"Senior Brother Wuyou, don't stop me. This time, I'm going to smash Little Nameless's dog head! Sleeping right under Buddha's nose is simply... an affront to civility!" the thick-browed, large-eyed monk said.
"Junior Brother Wulü, 'an affront to civility' is a Confucian expression. We in the Buddhist Sect do not use such things. Little Nameless was born this way, so you cannot blame him," Wuyou said with a smile.
One of the pilgrims watched the scene with a faint smile, finding it rather amusing.
This pilgrim was seventeen or eighteen, his youthful innocence not yet faded. Yet now and then, a weathered, nostalgic glint flashed through his eyes, as though he had many stories to tell.
"Without realizing it, ten years have passed. From east to west, from south to north, it is time