A formidable foe!

Zhiguang returned in a panic, like a dog that had lost its home. Although Elder Mingli had not said when he was to receive his flogging, Zhiguang knew he had best kneel in the square outside the Discipline Hall first thing tomorrow morning, have someone give him ten vicious lashes with a water-soaked cowhide whip, then pay a one-nine fine.

One-nine referred to a fine-or, more precisely, a livestock penalty: two horses, two bullocks, two dairy cows, two three-year-old cattle, and one two-year-old.

That was one-nine.

Above one-nine were two-nine and three-nine.

For the Endless White Pagoda Temple, and for Zhiguang.

One-nine was no great problem. The real trouble lay in the higher livestock penalties.

Two-nine.

Three-nine.

Two-nine meant eighteen head of livestock.

Three-nine, naturally, meant twenty-seven.

These livestock penalties did not merely multiply in number.

More importantly, the kinds required also changed. By three-nine, the penalty would involve extremely rare beasts of the Secret Dharma Region. Some lived only deep within the sacred mountains of the uninhabited lands, in the depths of those deserted regions.

Those were truly places where the living must not enter.

At that point, even great monks sentenced to livestock penalties would tremble with fear.

If they did not go and failed to fulfill the livestock penalty, they faced flogging or even crueler punishments: being stripped of their status and power, or worse still, being shut in a dungeon, never to see the sun again.

If they went, they marched into an uncertain fate. Some strange beasts of the Secret Dharma Region lived in the uninhabited lands, where outer gods, "Great Excellences," and "great terrors" roamed. If they were careless and encountered these "Great Excellences," "Great terrors," or wandering Malevolent Ghosts...

The entire hunting party might never return.

So when Zhiguang heard that the livestock penalty was only one-nine, he had actually breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Even if he had not been a great monk born into a Tusi Lineage, even if he had merely been a red-robed monk, he would still have been able to acquire plenty of slaves, estates, and pastures over the years. After all, he had received an empowerment and could recite secret mantras and practice secret dharmas.

What made him grit his teeth was the ten lashes Elder Mingli had decreed. With Elder Mingli giving the order, the red-robed monk administering the punishment would have cultivation at least as high as his. More frightening still, he specialized in this very practice. After ten lashes, the victim would be unable to get out of bed, bloody fluid trickling from the wounds on his back.

Even the finest white medicine could not stem the loss of blood.

Some had bled to death that way.

More importantly, if the red-robed monk administering the punishment employed any other methods, offerings would be needed to invite a physician monk to treat the injuries.

Though their temple had physician monks, those monks were not skilled in this field. They knew only rudimentary treatments for bone injuries, sweating, and fevers.

Injuries inflicted through mantra recitation still had to be treated by people like themselves.

At the thought, Zhiguang hunched his neck, feeling a chill rise there and spread through his whole body.

This time, he truly had taken the road to his own death.

He returned to that monastic room looking utterly bedraggled, timidity seeping from head to toe. He shrank into himself, his courage cowed, his soul and wits stolen away.

Seeing him like this, Elder Mingfa narrowed his eyes and asked, "Zhiguang, what happened to you?"

"Elder Mingli was there. I couldn't get past him. Even the Dharma protector god was subdued by Elder Mingli."

Lama Zhiguang said.

A frown.

Once Mingfa heard that Mingli was outside the courtyard, he said no more.

An intense aura of malice spread from him, pressing even the lamplight down low. His wrathful Yidam was raging.

Elder Mingfa practiced the Vajra Bodhi Mahā Mahāmudrā, through which one could attain fruition in their temple. Advancing through its stages, he had already reached the point where he could subdue the protectors under his command, visualize a radiant Yidam, illuminate the six consciousnesses with the Great Luminosity of his navel chakra, and grant others empowerment and an added consciousness.

The year before last, he had even passed the fifth-stage "Kalyāṇamitra" scriptural debate at Zajuben Temple, the First in the North. He had refuted three great red-robed monks until their Buddha-nature shattered, turning them into Malevolent Ghosts and outer gods on the spot. They were then subdued by Zajuben Temple and made into Dharma protector gods.

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However, subduing a Dharma protector god recently had taken a considerable toll on him, and various strange manifestations often appeared around him. These manifestations might have arisen because he had enshrined another secret Yidam, but the excessive drain on his energy had caused the Dharma protector god's aura to leak out.

Everyone understood these matters without saying them aloud, pretending to have seen nothing, and everything went on as usual. Yet however usual things might be, none of the other monks dared speak again, and the entire monastic room began to fall silent.

After a long while, Elder Mingfa suddenly said, "Forget it, forget it.

Enough, enough."

He raised his head and glanced at Master Zhiguang.

Then he sat down again, closed his eyes, recited secret mantras, and formed secret mudras with his hands to increase his boundless wisdom.

Something seemed to writhe behind him, but it vanished in a flash.

He had just tried to send a message outside, but nothing could get through. At that moment, Elder Mingfa knew the dust had settled. There was no turning things around.

The only time they could keep the abbot under their thumb was before he had fully taken control of the temple. Once the Abbot Venerable had complete control, they would have no chance of reversing the situation. They could only behave themselves for as long as the Abbot Venerable held the Dharma lineage.

Until the next power vacuum.

After thinking it over repeatedly and confirming that there was no chance of turning things around, Elder Mingfa suddenly stood up and said, "Forget it, forget it. All of you, go back. Having the family yak stolen is heartbreaking enough.

But if even the calves at home starve to death, it won't simply be a matter of heartbreak. Our families won't survive the winter."

The dratsang elder of the Granary Courtyard, who had stood to one side and rarely spoken, also rose. At these words, he immediately left the monastic room without a word. Before leaving, however, he saw Elder Mingfa beckon Zhiguang over. At that sight, wind seemed to spring beneath his feet, and he walked so quickly that within a few moments he was far away.

Monk Zhiguang approached timidly. Looking at the fool who had lost every scrap of courage, Elder Mingfa formed the inner lion mudra and uttered a true mantra!

"Oṃ!"

It was only a single-syllable secret mantra, yet the Lamas still in the room seemed to see a great golden lion charge into their Dharma treasuries with irresistible force, stunning them where they stood. As for the tables, chairs, and bricks on the floor, that roar reduced them all to dust!

Even the eerie aura around him was suppressed in an instant!

The logistics elder of the Granary College, who had already left the monastic room, heard the sound and shook his head, unsurprised. He walked alone through the night. As he walked, a naked woman appeared beneath him, her body arched backward as she lay on the ground, every joint in her four limbs smashed.

She lay on the ground like a mount, carrying the logistics elder swiftly away.

This female body was not a living person, but a Dharma protector he had subdued. She had not originally looked this way; she did only because the Yidam he worshipped took this form. There were other manifestations as well, but unfortunately he could not bring them forth.

Having this Malevolent Ghost as his mount signified that he already possessed "awe-inspiring virtue" and had conquered "death."

He swiftly left the place. Elder Mingfa emerged with a displeased expression, glanced in the direction the old fox Mingchu had gone, and snorted.

He did not believe Elder Mingchu had failed to notice Zhiguang's condition. Zhiguang had been robbed of his wits and courage. If this continued, it would not take long: a single flogging would leave him dazed, plagued by nightmares all night, until he was frightened into a living corpse, incapable of feeling anything.

He did not believe Elder Mingchu was unaware of this. Yet Mingchu, as cunning as a wild wolf on the grasslands, had offered no sign at all in the end, leaving him to act himself.

Walking through the darkness, he did not summon his Dharma protector god, but returned to his courtyard alone.

He naturally had his own calculations: to express his dissatisfaction to the Abbot Venerable!

Tweaked the paragraph breaks a bit.