A gift from an elder

After the "Great Offering," it was nearly noon, approaching the hottest part of the day.

Elder Mingli brought him to the Discipline Hall. This was Elder Mingzhi and Elder Mingli's domain.

Lifting the curtain, Mingli led Zhiyun and Lu Feng inside.

The entire room was filled with the fragrance of butter tea. Cooked beef and mutton and poured bowls of butter tea sat on the desk, while a young monk beside the Monastic Official handling registration attended to his food and drink.

Just then, the door curtain lifted. The young monk was about to rebuke these monks who did not know the rules, but when he saw Elder Mingli, he immediately dropped to his knees, even knocking over the copper teapot beside his hand.

Butter tea spilled all over the floor, its fragrance filling their nostrils.

Seeing this, the Monastic Official immediately knelt as well.

Looking at the butter tea spilled on the floor, Lu Feng felt a pang of heartache.

It was all food.

When life and death hung in the balance, food could be abandoned, but at a time like this, seeing all that butter tea "offered" to the Land God still pained Lu Feng.

When he had been desperately poor, even having a sip of butter tea once a month had been a wild ambition. Now these Monastic Officials drank it every single day. Their status really was something else.

Zhiyun remained silent. The Monastic Official kneeling on the floor had been scalded by the piping-hot butter tea, but still dared not say a word. He merely kept kowtowing like a pestle pounding garlic, striking the floor again and again with dull thuds.

Elder Mingli said, "Yongli, it seems you have forgotten what the monastery's precepts say."

Hearing this, Monk Yongli turned ashen. Trembling, he tried to speak, but his body went weak, and he collapsed onto the floor.

He no longer even had the strength to kowtow.

The young monk beside him was so frightened he nearly lost control of his bowels and bladder.

From beginning to end, Lu Feng had not sensed any Ghost Resonance from Elder Mingli. In other words, the two monks before him were this terrified simply because of that one sentence from Elder Mingli.

From all this, Lu Feng gleaned a great deal of information.

Mingli's power.

The monastery's structure.

And the application of its precepts.

Zhiyun was accustomed to such sights.

Elder Mingli sat down on the rug beside them and said, "Proceed with the registration."

Monk Yongli bit his lip hard enough to draw blood before he finally found the strength to climb up from the floor. Kneeling, he picked up his brush with trembling hands, knelt before the desk, and began writing shakily.

The young monk attending him knelt on the floor, not daring to move at all. Zhiyun and Lu Feng stood, and Mingli stood.

Inside the fortified tower where registration was handled, the Monastic Official looked tremblingly at the people before him. Still holding his brush, he wanted to ask this junior brother for his heavenly stem and earthly branch.

Unexpectedly, Elder Mingli pressed one hand down on the register and said, "Write that I am Yongzhen's Yidam Lama. You need not write the rest. I will write it myself."

"Ah?"

It was not that the Monastic Official did not know how formidable Elder Mingli was, but at those words, he still unconsciously let out an "Ah." Yet upon seeing Elder Mingli's expression, he immediately complied, writing Mingli's and Yongzhen's names in the register.

As for which yidam Yongzhen would cultivate, he did not even ask.

Although Lu Feng had anticipated this before coming-Mingli intended to become his Yidam Lama, or he would not have brought Lu Feng here personally-he had not expected Zhiyun beside him to remain silent as well, as though tacitly accepting the arrangement.

Having finished what he was supposed to write, Monk Yongli presented his brush with both hands, asking Elder Mingli to write the rest himself.

After Elder Mingli finished writing and completed the registration, he said, "Yongli, take your attendant monk and leave the monastery this afternoon. Head southwest. After traveling by packhorse for one day and two nights, you will see a village called Bayang Village.

"There is a temple in the village, and inside it is a red-robed monk, grossly fat and large. Go inside and tell that monk you have come to replace him.

"His sentence is over, and he may return from there. Once he returns, he is to report to me immediately. You will guard that place in his stead.

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"Do you understand?"

With one word, he could decide the exile of a Monastic Official of the Sixth-Stage Order. Hearing this, Zhiyun opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, he said nothing and closed it again.

Yongli had been at fault first, and the deputy to the disciplinary monk and Judicial Monk had caught him out. Even Zhiyun could not save him. He was a Sutra Master, not a Dharma Protector Lama. He was one of the Abbot Venerable's men, not the Abbot Venerable himself.

More importantly, the mantra Mingli cultivated was the King Mingzhu Dharma Protector Mantra.

Nor was he Yongli's Yidam Lama, so he had no need to find a way to save this Monastic Official. Quite the opposite: if something happened to him, the position of registration Monastic Official here would become vacant. Even if someone were promoted to fill it, a vacancy would open up below.

Who knew how many red-robed monks had their eyes on that vacancy?

Though they all wore red robes, a red-robed monk with Monastic Official status was vastly different from one without.

Hearing Elder Mingli's punishment, Yongli felt not despair but unexpected delight, for under the precepts, "a Monastic Official eating, drinking, and making a disturbance in the workplace" was punishable by ten lashes.

Not just he, but even his Yidam Lama would face the same punishment, with no grounds for exemption.

If Elder Mingli truly wanted his life, then with those ten lashes, a single instruction to "strike carefully and thoroughly" would leave him no chance of survival.

Thus, being merely banished from the monastery already delighted Yongli beyond expectation. Sometimes, leaving the monastery was not necessarily a bad thing.

"I understand, I understand!"

Yongli kept kowtowing and kowtowing. Having finished speaking, Elder Mingli waved a hand and said, "Since you understand, all of you leave for now. Yongzhen, stay."

"Yes, yes, yes."

But halfway through those words, Lu Feng felt his close-cropped hair about to rise.

An indescribable sensation swept through his entire body, so much so that he immediately picked up the Prayer Wheel beside him and began reciting the Six-Syllable Great Brightness Mantra.

Wave after wave of Ghost Resonance spread around him, interweaving with his Six-Syllable Great Brightness Mantra.

Zhiyun did the same. He opened his mouth to recite a mantra, but no sound emerged.

Only Monk Yongli, who had been delighted without understanding what was happening, abruptly showed an expression of extreme terror.

He clutched his throat with both hands, as though trying to tear his windpipe out from within. He opened his mouth, but no matter what he did, he could not spit out a single pearl of speech.

The young monk beside him simply widened his eyes, his pupils dilating enormously, and fell to the floor.

By the look of him, he was beyond saving.

Lu Feng closed his eyes, so he did not see countless strands of Ghost Resonance turn into great hands and pour down Monk Yongli's throat, turning into webs that tightly enveloped him.

They sealed Yongli's mouth, finally becoming a Secret Mantra hidden beneath his tongue.

Elder Mingli took it in stride and said, "Hah! This is merely your punishment. There is no need to speak. You need only reach Bayang Village and meet that monk, and the prohibition on your speech will be lifted.

"King Mingzhu will then forgive your transgressions and pardon your sins.

"Zhiyun, take Yongli outside."

Zhiyun seemed to let out an extraordinarily long breath. He could not spare any attention for the foul smell here-the young monk had been frightened to death, even spilling his bile and losing control of his bowels and bladder. Mixed with the scent of butter tea, the smell here could hardly be pleasant.

Zhiyun dragged away the man and the corpse, leaving master and disciple alone.

Lu Feng knew that from now on, Elder Mingli would be his Abhisheka Lama and Yidam Lama.

Elder Mingli said, "Now, Yongzhen, does this position of registration clerk appeal to you?

"If you like it, you will henceforth be the clerk here, responsible each time for registering the monks' Yidam Lamas.

"It is an undemanding job.

"You need only work once a year to receive an entire year's offerings. Are you willing to serve as this clerk?"