Jiang Cheng even heard the main doors creak open slightly, but the sound stopped the next second.
Several shadows were clearly cast on the paper doors by the candlelight. The Fatty swallowed with difficulty. Through the tears in the paper, he felt several sinister gazes peering inside.
"Let's go. Search somewhere else. They can't have gotten far." A moment later, the figures dispersed.
After being lured into a trap last time, Jiang Cheng didn't move this time, even after the figures had gone some distance away.
"It's all right now." The abbot's voice sounded again. It wasn't loud, but it carried a rare, weighty quality.
"You're Abbot Fújì?" Ye Qiutang didn't lose her nerve, but staying in the dark for so long, facing someone unknown, made her deeply uneasy. Instinctively, she started to light the candle in her hand.
"Amitabha. This humble monk is indeed Abbot Fújì." The abbot's voice drifted over from nearby. "Benefactor, please don't light the candle. Those people outside haven't gone far."
Ye Qiutang paused. "Can you see me moving my hand?"
Jiang Cheng had said earlier that the abbot was blind, that both his eyes had been gouged out. For a moment, Ye Qiutang didn't know who to believe.
"Heh. This night is all illusion. Having lost these eyes, this humble monk can see all the more clearly." The abbot slowly intoned a Buddhist invocation. "Amitabha."
"Master, Little Master Huiqing came to find us tonight. Unfortunately, we couldn't save him. After killing him, those monks laid out the three sacrificial animals and offered him to the Bodhisattva as a two-legged sheep." Jiang Cheng recounted their experience in the Hall of Merit as simply as he could.
"Alas..." The abbot sighed. "It is because this humble monk's understanding of the Dharma is so shallow that I