Peach Blossom Village.
The village chief looked in surprise at the three who had returned.
Chu Xingchen wore a pure white kasaya, tossing a śarīra in his left hand and twirling the Willow-Jade Branch in his right.
Li Yingling held back her laughter as she looked at her master's strange attire.
Only Yuankong looked dejected as he followed behind them.
For a moment, the village chief felt dazed.
Had he really mistaken who the Buddhist Child was?
But as the three returned, the village chief sighed. Without thinking further, he rose and went forward to greet them.
The village chief cupped his hands. "Congratulations."
Chu Xingchen nodded lightly without saying much. He merely tapped Yuankong's little head with the Willow-Jade Branch, then leisurely left with Li Yingling.
At this point, everything here could be considered finished for now. All that remained was for Yuankong to remove the Buddha Heart from the village chief's chest.
Whether Yuankong took it was his business, and whether he saved the abbot was his decision too.
By this point, Chu Xingchen had done all that kindness and duty required of him.
Yuankong naturally understood Chu Xingchen's hint. He stopped and sighed as he looked at Peach Blossom Village's chief.
The burial clothes on the village chief had now turned into ordinary coarse hemp garments.
Yuankong pressed his palms together, looking as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.
This entire world rested upon the Buddha Heart within the village chief. Once the Buddha Heart was taken away, this world would collapse.
Yuankong had known this from the beginning, but now that the moment had truly arrived, he still hesitated.
Yuankong could not see the evil that Chu Xingchen and Li Yingling saw.
All he saw were pitiful common folk, forced by Chu Xingchen to work