On the pitch-black dirt road, Li Huowang held a torch and led the others forward. The sky was still dark, but they were too frightened to feel any sleepiness. After all they had been through, no one could think of sleeping.
On the donkey carts was piled some horse meat that they had cut off, and apart from the few pieces of silver on the brigands’ bodies, this was Li Huowang’s only spoils of fight.
“Almost there, let’s rest here until dawn. It’s not safe to travel at night,” Li Huowang ordered, and soon the torches were stacked together to form a new bonfire.
“Even if you can’t sleep, you should try to rest for a while. We have to continue traveling tomorrow, so we need to conserve our energy. I’ll keep watch.”
As the sound of donkey hooves and footsteps faded away, the entire dirt road fell quiet once again.
Sitting by the bonfire, Li Huowang turned his head to look back at the road they had come from. It was pitch black there. It seemed that the old beggar wouldn’t follow them until he finished burying all the dead bodies.
Recalling everything that had just happened, Li Huowang sighed with emotional. This place was really chaotic. There were not only dangerous evil spirits and strange things, but also people killing each other.
He poked the dying bonfire with his long sword, then grabbed some firewood next to him and threw it in.
As time passed, the people who had scattered in the woods gradually gathered around Li Huowang. Soon, several smaller bonfires were lit around the main one.
There was no sign of the Lv Family among those who returned, but Li Huowang was not worried at all. When the brigands appeared earlier, they had run the fastest.
The fact that Lv Zhuangyuan, who was so stingy, chose horses to pull the cart indicated that he had already anticipated such a situation.
As time passed and dawn approached, the others began to wake up and started roasting horse meat for breakfast to prepare for the new journey.
Regardless of whether the horse meat was tasty or not, at least it was meat, which could provide them with good energy to continue on their journey.
While they were eating, a trembling figure approached them from behind. Li Huowang’s guard was slightly lowered when he saw the appearance of the newcomer. It was the old beggar, who looked like he had spent the night burying the dead.
The morning dew had dampened his tattered monk robe and he was shivering with cold. He walked to a spot closer to the bonfire and crouched down to warm himself. Seeing Li Huowang looking at him, the beggar grinned foolishly.
Thinking back to the old beggar’s selfless act of saving others last night, Li Huowang’s hostility towards him diminished a lot. He might have thought that such a kind old beggar would difficult to survive in this dangerous world, but he did not reject the idea of associating with a good person.
When Li Huowang handed him a steamed bun, the old beggar eagerly took it and muttered while chewing, “May Buddha bless you.”
When he heard the old beggar’s words, Li Huowang became interested. “Which Buddha are you talking about?”
“Huh? Isn’t Buddha just Buddha? What do you mean which one?” The old beggar looked a little confused.
“Ah, never mind. Just eat. People like you are rare in this world. I hope you’re not deceiving me.”
“How could I deceive you? I’m a monk, and monks cannot deceive people,” the old beggar said firmly.
“You can’t even recite sutras, you only repeat ‘Amitabha,’ and you don’t even know which Buddha you believe in. How can you be considered a monk?”
“Scholar Sun said that monks are all bald, so I shaved my head; Tailor Wang said that monks cannot marry, so I didn’t get married; Constable Liu said that monks cannot eat meat, so I didn’t eat meat. And when I saw other monks saying ‘Amitabha,’ I started to do the same. I’ve done all these things, so why am I not a monk?”
It seemed that he cared a lot about this issue, and he staunchly argued.
Li Huowang chuckled when he heard the old beggar’s words. This monk was even more fake than he as a Taoist. “But just because you’ve done those things doesn’t mean you’re a monk,” he said.
The old beggar looked startled and held the half steamed bun in his hand, looking at Li Huowang seriously. “So what do you think a monk should be like?”
Li Huowang opened his mouth,want to answer, but found that he couldn’t. The old beggar’s words seemed to hold some truth in foolishness.
Li Huowang saw a shadow of Dan Yang Tzu in the old beggar for no apparent reason. They both had a kind of persistence in foolishness.
“I guess you can’t read, can you?”
“How did you know? Do all you Taoists have the ability to predict and calculate?”
“Ah…Why are you so persistent on being a monk?”
“I would have died a long time ago if it weren’t for a monk who saved me. Since that day, I swore to become a monk and to be a good one!”
As he was speaking, Li Huowang saw the Lv Family Troupe approaching from a distance. He stood up and patted his bottom before walking towards them.
Nothing unexpected happened on their following journey, and the old beggar continued to follow them along the way. Sometimes, Li Huowang would give him a steamed bun to eat, otherwise, he could only subsist on wild vegetables.
After more than ten days of travel, a city even more magnificent and grand than Jianye Town appeared before Li Huowang’s eyes, they arrived the Xijing City.
The towering and majestic walls of the city oppressed him with their immense size and power as he stood at the city gates and looked up in awe.
“Finally arrived.”
Li Huowang let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the city gates. Though he had been anxious and fearful throughout the journey, fortunately the scenes from his nightmares had not occurred.
Regardless of what became of Dan Yangzi or whether the voice he heard was a hallucination, the time had come to uncover the answers.
“Little Taoist Master, the inns in Xijing City are very overpriced. Let me take you to a cheaper one. I know this place well,” Lv Zhuangyuan said as he started to walk towards the city gates, but Li Huowang stopped him.
“Wait a minute, where is the Buddhist temple you mentioned earlier?” asked Li Huowang eagerly. This was his main purpose for coming to this place.
Under Lv Zhuangyuan’s guidance, Li Huowang headed towards the Zhengde Temple, which had the most flourishing incenses in Xijing City.
Even before reaching the temple, Li Huowang could smell the distinct scent of sandalwood that was typical of Buddhist holy sites. The spacious streets also began to fill with people – old men, women, adults, and children.
Observing the incenses in their hands, Li Huowang immediately understood that these people were all here to worship Buddha.
“Has this temple always been this prosperous?”
Hearing Li Huowang’s question addressed to Lv Zhuangyuan, a nearby pilgrim came over and said, “Of course! The Bodhisattvas of the Zhengde Temple are very effective. My daughter-in-law became pregnant after praying here once.”
“And the monks of Zhengde Temple are kind-hearted people who often distribute porridge to the poor.”
“Yes, yes, it’s our blessing to have such a good temple in Xijing City.”
RECENTLY UPDATES
