The Beile, a Tool

By established custom, if the Beile wished to visit the Shaolin Temple, he had to send his calling card three months in advance, giving the temple time to prepare.

Yet the Beile had arrived without warning and kicked up a racket at the gates of Shaolin Temple. He had clearly come with hostile intentions.

Mo Wenjian could not help but frown.

"Eminent monks of the Xing generation, stay. The rest of you may leave for now!"

After becoming a Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmaster, Master Xingshan had been obliged to relinquish his position as abbot in accordance with the Shaolin Temple's rules. Clearly, this could not be concealed from the Manchu Qing court.

The other three Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmasters were the Shaolin Temple's hidden trump cards. The fewer people who knew about them, the better, so they should not show their faces before the Beile.

Mo Wenjian's words were the Buddha's decree, so naturally the Shaolin monks raised no objection.

Before long, the Bodhidharma Hall, which had held as many as three thousand monks, was down to just five hundred.

After a short wait, the Beile swaggered into the Bodhidharma Hall, surrounded by a group of generals.

"The Beile has arrived! You monks, why aren't you kneeling to welcome him?" The eunuch beside the Beile roared as though scolding servants.

"Shut up, you blind fool! The Shaolin monks are masters beyond the mundane world. How could they be bound by worldly etiquette?" The Beile casually slapped the eunuch across the face.

"Forgive me, Your Highness! This servant knows he was wrong!" The eunuch dropped to his knees with a thud, wagging his tail and begging the Beile for mercy.

"If the Shaolin Temple were not a Buddhist holy land, where needless killing would be unseemly, I would certainly cut off your head with one stroke to apologize to the eminent monks of Shaolin!" The Beile glared and bellowed at the eunuch.

"Thank you for your mercy, Your Highness! Your Highness has the heart of a bodhisattva and is truly a living Buddha! This servant cannot thank you enough!" The eunuch knocked his head against the ground three times before the Beile, then hid behind the generals.

The five hundred-odd monks frowned as one.

Inside the Shaolin Temple, right in front of Mo Wenjian, the reincarnated Buddha's Son, he had praised the Beile as a living Buddha.

Even a three-year-old would know there was a pointed meaning behind those words.

Some of the more hot-tempered warrior monks could not help assuming the wrathful aspect of Vajras.

Just as the Shaolin monks were seething with anger, the Beile cupped his fists in a gesture utterly devoid of sincerity.

"I'm sure the eminent monks saw what just happened quite clearly. I merely employed a small trick, and that ignorant eunuch praised me as a living Buddha. Had I harbored sinister intentions, I could easily have used the eunuch's mouth to pose as a god or a ghost. I hear the Shaolin Temple has a reincarnated Buddha's Son. Whether anyone else believes it or not, I certainly do not!" The Beile's words seemed well-intentioned, but were actually a provocation.

"Patron, if you have something to say, please speak plainly!" The sight of the Beile's money-rat-tail queue stirred a powerful feeling of disgust in Mo Wenjian.

"There are only two possible truths!" The Beile held up two fingers and spoke with utter certainty. "First, the Buddha's Son harbors sinister intentions and is posing as a god or a ghost, deceiving the eminent monks of Shaolin Temple. Second, the eminent monks of Shaolin Temple harbor sinister intentions and have put forward a Buddha's Son to bewitch the people. Please tell me frankly, Buddha's Son, which is the truth?"

"Which would you prefer, patron?" Mo Wenjian had lived two lives and was very mature of mind. Though furious, he showed nothing on his face.

"If the Buddha's Son harbors sinister intentions, then the Shaolin monks are ignorant fools who pose no threat to the Great Qing Dynasty. I can petition His Majesty to bestow imperial rewards on the Shaolin Temple. If the Shaolin monks harbor sinister intentions, however, then by fooling the populace and bewitching their hearts, I fear they mean to follow the White Lotus Sect's example and rebel. I will certainly report this to the court and nip the threat in the bud, making the Shaolin Temple vanish entirely into the long river of history and forging the fearsome reputation of the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry with the blood of the Shaolin monks!" The Beile raised his head high and looked down at Mo Wenjian, as though everything were in his grasp.

At his words, the Shaolin monks glared at him as one.

In the eyes of the Shaolin monks, Mo Wenjian was the reincarnation of the Buddha.

As they saw it, the Beile's provocation of Mo Wenjian was a desecration of their Buddhist faith.

To the Shaolin monks, the Beile was nothing less than a devil of the Outer Dao who had blasphemed the Buddha, a beast who deserved to be cut to pieces.

Seeing the Shaolin monks roused to fury and ready to lash out at any moment, Mo Wenjian suddenly burst into laughter.

"Patron, you've said so much, but I have only one question: what the hell do you think you are?"

A Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmaster was a human-shaped nuclear bomb, and the Shaolin Temple now had four of them.

As long as the Shaolin Temple flourished, the four Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmasters would remain there to guard it, posing no threat to the Great Qing Dynasty.

If the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry destroyed the Shaolin Temple, the four Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmasters would become beasts freed from their bonds and would surely exact bloody revenge on the Great Qing Dynasty.

The Beile's threat was pure horseshit.

The rulers of the Great Qing Dynasty were not brain-dead idiots. How could they possibly provoke four Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmasters for no reason?

"I am the son of the lord of the Bordered Blue Banner! How dare you show me such disrespect, Buddha's Son? Aren't you afraid the entire Eight Banners Iron Cavalry will pour out and raze the Shaolin Temple to the ground?" Confronted by Mo Wenjian's question, the Beile was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, instantly jumping up and down in agitation.

"Can you really command the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry, patron?" Mo Wenjian looked at the Beile as though he were a jumping clown.

"You..." The Beile pointed at Mo Wenjian's nose, instinctively about to unleash a torrent of abuse.

At that critical moment, a general suddenly grabbed the Beile's arm and quietly reminded him, "Your Highness, don't let anger cloud your mind. Don't forget the real purpose of our visit to the Shaolin Temple!"

"Silver-tongued as you are, Buddha's Son, it's no wonder you're a master swindler capable of deceiving every monk in Shaolin. I have no desire to trade clever words with you. If you have the guts, exchange a move or two with me!" Without giving Mo Wenjian a chance to refuse, the Beile rolled up his sleeves and charged at him.

"Stop!" Master Xingshan stepped forward, blocking Mo Wenjian, and revealed his Body-Protecting Gang Qi. "The Buddha has the wrathful glare of a Vajra, but also the smile with which he held up a flower. The Buddha's Son is compassionate and devotes himself to studying Buddhist teachings. He is not a crude warrior monk, but a virtuous scholar-monk. Please do not force him to do what he cannot, patron!"

"This..." When the Beile saw the Body-Protecting Gang Qi, he immediately realized that Master Xingshan was a Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmaster, and fear instinctively arose in his heart. After hesitating for a moment, however, he ultimately decided to follow this path to the bitter end. "I must defeat the Buddha's Son and prove that he is a swindler who deceives the world to steal a reputation. Please do not stop me from upholding justice, Master!"

"Patron, please leave!" Master Xingshan glared, and the oppressive pressure of a Gang Force National Martial Arts grandmaster erupted in an instant. Unable to withstand the immense mental pressure, the Beile fell to his knees with a thud.

Seeing this, Mo Wenjian suddenly seemed to understand something.

The Beile had vastly overestimated himself by coming to the Shaolin Temple to provoke them.

The Shaolin Temple needed only to show a little of its strength to send the Beile away in disgrace.

The simulator had not mentioned the Beile, evidently because he was insignificant and not worth paying attention to.

The Shaolin monks had never respected Mo Wenjian because of his strength, but because of their faith.

The Beile's reasoning had been flawed from the very beginning.

As Mo Wenjian looked at the Beile, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

The Beile's strength was only at the Middle Stage of Dark Force. He was clearly a tool who could be put to use...