Qu Zan found an unnoticed corner and hid in the dense woods.
He took out the dzi bead and held it in his hand.
Sure enough, a prompt appeared on the panel.
[You have touched Fortune Essence. Absorb it?]
"This Fortune Essence sounds like something good."
Without another word, Qu Zan chose to absorb it.
"Nothing else feels unusual, either."
When he checked the panel.
[Name: Qu Zan] [Body: 2.1] [Consciousness: 1.9] [Available points: 0.2] [Talents: Extensive Learning lv2 progress 0% Patience lv1 progress 32%]
"My available points increased! So this Fortune Essence can increase available points."
0.3
0.6
In the end, his available points settled at 0.6.
A line of small text also appeared after it: [Can be used to enhance body, consciousness, or talents.]
"These available points really are good stuff."
As for which to increase first, Qu Zan had yet to decide.
His own safety was his current priority, so body and consciousness naturally came first.
As for his talents, attending morning prayers and studying scriptures every day could advance their progress.
Body or consciousness? He still had not decided which.
Body was naturally a good choice, but since consciousness was an option, it surely had a great use.
"No rush. I'll have to keep an eye out for ritual implements and treasures from now on, and see which ones have Fortune Essence."
Qu Zan lowered his head to examine the dzi bead.
The dzi bead whose essence he had absorbed looked no different from before; he could see no change.
Although he could see no change, he would still have to be careful in the future. He could not absorb essence in front of anyone with profound cultivation.
There doesn't seem to be any change on the surface. It should still sell for money, Qu Zan thought.
In Mìdì, dzi beads were no less valuable than gemstones. Selling a One-Eyed Dzi Bead could fetch forty or fifty taels of secret silver.
Of course, he certainly would not sell it now.
Selling a treasure the Lama had just bestowed on him would not sound good if word got out.
The food at home was enough to last a while, too. Still, holding a valuable dzi bead gave even a poor Attendant Monk like him a little more backbone.
After evening prayers, the Attendant Monks still had at least three hours of work to do.
Today, it was his turn to wash clothes.
He and the other Attendant Monks had hundreds of garments to wash. The clothes and bedsheets of all the monastery's middle- and upper-ranking monks were sent to them for cleaning.
Back at the Servants' Courtyard, he began washing the clothes.
The thick woolen cloth became extraordinarily heavy once soaked.
Because these were monks' robes, they could not be trodden on.
He mixed water with plant-ash lye and rubbed them clean bit by bit.
Once the washing was done, Qu Zan's back and waist ached.
The arduous work of washing monks' robes also exercised his body.
He noticed that the muscles in his arms had grown a little firmer, but the improvement was too slight for the attribute panel's values to change.
"Senior Brother, what's with that look?" Qu Zan asked. He had noticed Doje stealing glances at him while they were washing the robes.
"Gyatso, stop calling me Senior Brother. I should be calling you Senior Brother," Doje said. "How did you memorize the Praise to the Thirty-Six Taras?" Questions had been clogging his mind ever since evening prayers.
"We clearly studied together, and you even started later than those noble children. How could you recite it so fluently?"
"My memory's a little better. I just memorized it by rote," Qu Zan said offhandedly.
"You're really something!" Doje said.
"Those noble children usually strut around with their noses in the air. Today, you put them firmly in their place," Doje said with a smile.
Jealousy? When the gap between two people was too vast, the one below would feel no jealousy at all. There would only be anticipation and curiosity about the other's future.
Perhaps a true Buddha would one day emerge from this filthy, disorderly Servants' Courtyard.
Muddy water pooled on the ground, reflecting the bright moon, white as snow in the sky.
Doje stared, a little dazed.
Qu Zan picked up the basin full of clean clothes and walked beneath the clothesline. He spread out the wrung-out garments and shook them, scattering droplets like silver beads.
"Senior Brother, come help me hold up this blanket," Qu Zan said.
"Ah, oh..."
"Junior Brother."
"What?"
"Could you teach me to read and memorize scriptures from now on?"
"Sure. We can learn from each other..."
Before dawn, the Dharma Conch sounded, and the Attendant Monks rose for morning prayers.
Today, Qu Zan and Doje were assigned to carry water.
This could be called the most exhausting job in the monastery.
After drawing water from the well, they carried it to the vats in the various courtyards.
The wooden buckets filled with water weighed heavily as they walked, and soon sweat poured off them like rain.
[Your body has improved, +0.1]
"Sure enough, it improved."
Seeing the prompt in his field of vision, Qu Zan wiped the sweat from his forehead, thoroughly satisfied.
"Junior Brother, aren't you tired?" Doje asked, panting heavily.
"Of course I am."
"Then why do you still look so delighted while carrying water?" Doje was so exhausted he could barely catch his breath.
"Didn't the Lama say that carrying water and chopping wood are both cultivation?" Qu Zan said with a smile.
By evening prayers that afternoon, Qu Zan felt his body beginning to react, and it hurt a little.
Today, he did not have to study with the others. Instead, as Huo De Lama had said, he was taken to the Small Room to begin reciting and studying the Sutra of the Excellent Lion's Roar and the Treatise on Weighing the Twenty Actions...
Both scriptures were extremely thick. The writing inside was so densely packed that merely looking at it made his scalp prickle.
Simply reading through both scriptures once took Qu Zan seven days, and left his head feeling somewhat swollen.
Fortunately, his [Extensive Learning] ability had improved. Otherwise, it might originally have taken around a month.
The Treatise on Weighing the Twenty Actions specifically weighed and calculated the blessings and severity of karmic sins arising from twenty kinds of good and evil actions of body and speech. It was a treatise used for scriptural debates at religious assemblies.
The Sutra of the Excellent Lion's Roar was effective in suppressing evil influences and ailments of the mind, and in dispelling obstacles at religious assemblies.
"Lama, what are evil influences? What are ailments of the mind? What are obstacles?" Qu Zan asked Huo De Lama.
"Evil influences arise from ill fortune, evil baleful intent, evil curses, and the foulness upon the dead. Ailments of the mind arise when fear, hurt, worry, and brooding in the heart bring confusion to body and mind. Miasma is the noxious vapor found in mountain forests and marshes, which renders people unconscious..."
"When confronted with such things, burning incense in a Sang Offering, burning white mustard seeds for smoke, scattering highland barley, and reciting the Lion's Roar Heart Mantra can have remarkable effects.
"But that will only work after you have practiced the Sutra of the Excellent Lion's Roar for at least five years and comprehended the Lion's Roar Heart Mantra, or even received an empowerment from a saint of great virtue."
"Don't worry. The religious assembly will only test your familiarity with the scripture." Huode smiled kindly.
"Then can this Sutra of the Excellent Lion's Roar kill ghosts?" Qu Zan looked at Huo De Lama with a somewhat uncomprehending gaze.
A cold gust swept past, making the butter-lamp flame flicker.
"Have you encountered a ghost?" Huode asked in return.
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