Past of the Ancient Temple

The woman's beautiful eyes darted around, and the once charming young widow revealed a hint of mischievousness:

"I'm Tao Tao."

Her tone was light and lively, almost incongruous.

But Shen Yi didn't speak, just looked at Tao Tao, waiting for her to continue.

"Longshu Temple is a newly established temple near Xiaoqing Town in recent years. It is said to be very effective in praying for children, of course, the incense money is also high."

"I was traveling jianghu and came here."

"As soon as I heard about it, I felt something was fishy, so I disguised myself as a resentful woman seeking a child, heh, like a lamb entering a tiger's mouth."

"During the day, I went to the main hall to pray to the gods and Buddhas, and the receptionist monk asked me to stay overnight in the monks' quarters and copy scriptures to show my sincerity."

"When we ignorant women were copying scriptures late at night, the anesthetic, which had been hidden in the lamp oil and mixed with aphrodisiac, began to take effect."

"After a short while, the women would fall unconscious."

"These hard-laboring monks would then use secret passages that had been opened in the rooms in advance to transport us one by one to the secret chamber beneath the main hall."

"Finally, it would be like what you just saw, the abbot and elders of Longshu Temple waiting in turn to 'deliver children' to us."

"Fortunately, this lady has profound cultivation."

"And I came prepared, so I wasn't caught."

Tao Tao shrugged:

"The only thing that surprised me was that I thought anyone who dared to bewitch people like this would definitely be a martial artist."

"I was ready for a hard fight, but I didn't expect it to be just a few lecherous ordinary people."

She looked at the three naked monks.

A clear look of disgust flashed in her eyes.

Shen Yi stroked his chin:

"Maybe there are hidden figures behind them, we'll know if we wake one up and ask."

He walked to the wall.

Reaching out, he grabbed a monk's arm, exerted a little force, and dragged him out of the wall, throwing him casually onto the bed.

Shen Yi then used the scabbard to pick up the clothes scattered on the ground.

Covering the monk's lower body.

Finally, with a snap, the scabbard struck the monk's face, and a surge of internal energy flowed into his body along his swollen cheek.

The monk immediately felt a burning pain.

He regained consciousness.

The pain helped him to quickly wake up.

And recall what had happened.

He opened his eyes and saw Tao Tao's enchanting figure standing before the bed, immediately scaring him into retreating repeatedly, falling off the bed.

Approaching to sense.

The monk indeed had no internal energy fluctuations.

His figure was clumsy, and his steps were unsteady, he certainly didn't seem to have practiced martial arts.

"If you don't want to die."

"I ask, you answer."

"Confess honestly."

Shen Yi said straightforwardly.

The grim tone, coupled with a fleeting hint of killing intent, was like a blade resting on the monk's neck.

The monk was immediately stunned.

He didn't know where Shen Yi had come from, but he must be an accomplice of the woman in front of him.

He nodded obsequiously and said quickly:

"This young hero, this female hero."

"We have been blind and offended you two, please be generous and spare us."

Shen Yi said lightly:

"You guys!"

"Where did you get the gall to use the temple to do such dirty things, tell the truth!"

The monk kowtowed to Shen Yi and Tao Tao several times in a row, and stammered the whole story.

The monk and his brothers were originally villagers from a neighboring county. The world was chaotic, and bandits were rampant. Their village was destroyed by the Black Wind Stronghold, and most of the villagers died, leaving only a few as refugees. They wandered east all the way to the vicinity of Xiaoqing Town.

They had originally planned to find some work in Xiaoqing Town, but they accidentally stumbled into this dilapidated Longshu Temple at night.

At the time, Longshu Temple only had one old, decrepit monk left. He took in the three starving men and gave them food.

The three men were grateful to the old monk, so they stayed to take care of him. As time passed, they simply shaved their heads and became his disciples.

The three of them weren't the type to sit around and do nothing. After a discussion, they decided that since they had a temple and had become monks, they should manage the temple properly.

They remembered a temple near their village that had been very popular, able to sustain itself on incense money alone.

And Longshu Temple was adjacent to Xiaoqing Town, which had so many people that it could definitely support them, the four monks of the temple.

The monk swallowed, glanced at Shen Yi's expressionless face and Tao Tao's scrutinizing gaze, and continued in a low voice:

"At the time, the three of us thought it was a promising venture, so we immediately started working on it. First, we joined forces to renovate Longshu Temple, and then we tricked a few villagers from nearby villages who were too poor to afford food into becoming monks at the temple."

"Next was spreading the word about Longshu Temple in Xiaoqing Town. We spread rumors in the tea houses around Xiaoqing Town, saying that Longshu Temple in the suburbs was very effective."

"News spread like wildfire, and with enough people talking about it, some would believe it. Longshu Temple gradually began to attract pilgrims."

And with the old monk, a real monk, in charge, the three fake monks weren't afraid of being exposed.

Some greeted visitors at the entrance.

Others guided them.

As for explaining the scriptures and preaching the Dharma, naturally the real Buddha, who understood Buddhism, would come forward. Longshu Temple's reputation gradually became genuine.

One day, a woman came to the temple.

She had heard that Longshu Temple was very effective, and she had come to pray for a child.

At the time, the monks weren't so depraved, and hadn't even considered that praying for a child could involve the strong monks in the temple, in addition to praying to the clay statues on the altar.

The woman pleaded with the three of them.

She cried and said that she only needed one night to conceive a child, and if she couldn't have a child, she would be kicked out of her husband's family by her in-laws.

The monk sighed:

"Such a request."

"How could we refuse?"

"Of course, we accepted it gladly."

From then on, the three men's world seemed to open a new door. They realized that being a monk had such benefits.

They began to look forward to people asking them for children.

Gradually, one after another.

More and more people came to pray for children, and they became increasingly dissatisfied with waiting for opportunities. They wanted to take the initiative.

They spent a large sum of money renovating the temple.

While renovating the temple, they secretly built an underground chamber under the main hall, without the old monk's knowledge.

They also dug an underground passage leading directly to the meditation room, and added a super-dose of calming incense and aphrodisiac powder prepared by the pharmacy.

Then they began to deceive guests.

Engaging in acts that sullied people's reputations.

The amazing thing was that for more than a year, the three had never been discovered, and more and more people came to pray for children.

The three were overjoyed.

Until tonight.

The three met Tao Tao, the heroine.

And Shen Yi, the star of death.

Their business was completely forcibly interrupted.

Shen Yi said:

"What about your master?"

"He's dead."

The monk explained:

"A year ago, Master felt that his time was approaching, so he gathered us and warned us to read more Buddhist scriptures and do good deeds."

"Unfortunately, we were all blinded by lust, and after Master left, we lost all restraint and became even worse."

The monk sighed repeatedly:

"Too late to regret, too late to regret..."

Shen Yi and Tao Tao exchanged a glance, then looked at the monk who was constantly kowtowing and begging for mercy. Tao Tao couldn't help but sigh:

"This is the situation that makes people..."

Shen Yi said indifferently:

"I'm more inclined to believe that their nature is evil."