“Master, I’m just a guest, you don’t have to explain so much to me, I can’t control what you do. Please leave, I want to sleep,” Li Huowang said.
Jian Dun made a Namaste and bowed to Li Huowang, then walked towards the door. As he passed by Li Huowang, he whispered softly.
“Don’t look down on Buddhism. Before I became a monk, I was a Taoist. Taoism is no better than Buddhism. You just don’t know it yet.”
After Jian Dun left, the room was empty with only Li Huowang in it. He turned his head to look at the darkened temple in the distance, and he no longer felt any dignity or solemnity.
Li Huowang let out a slow breath towards the darkness. “This place is really dirty. Isn’t there any clean place around here?”
Since that night, Li Huowang had been trying his best not to go out at night to avoid attracting attention from people.
Days passed and Li Huowang’s mental state improved day by day. He basically stopped having nightmares.
Just as he was about to ask the abbot when the ceremony would begin, a messenger sent by the abbot came to him in advance.
“Alms Giver Xuan Yang, the mass is about to begin. The ritual requires a lot of resources, so please refrain from going out in the coming days,” said the messenger.
“Alright, you can tell the abbot that I already know,” Li Huowang replied to the novice monk standing before him.
When the novice monk had just left, a familiar figure flashed in and said with surprise, “Little Taoist, so you live here. Why didn’t you tell me?”
That is the old beggar from before, but now he looks noticeably different from his previous ragged appearance.
He was wearing a brand new yellow Buddhist robe, and there was no stain on his face or body, making him look much fresher. Although Li Huowang and the monk had only met by chance, encountering such a familiar person in this unfamiliar place made Li Huowang feel very close to him.
“How are you doing here, Monk?”
“It’s okay. I have enough to eat and warm clothes every day, but it’s just a bit uncomfortable that I can’t do good deeds in the temple.”
As soon as the topic of good deeds came up, Li Huowang immediately thought of what had happened that night.
He looked at the old monk in front of him and sighed lightly, “Don’t worry too much about it. Just stay here well. Although this temple is a bit dirty, at least you won’t go hungry.”
“Come on, Little Taoist, let me take you to my workplace to have a look. The place is huge.” The enthusiastic old monk pulled Li Huowang towards the door.
“The sun is so hot, maybe another time,” Li Huowang wasn’t really interested, he didn’t have any desire to visit the temple.
“Come on! Come and have a look, you won’t regret it. There are many interesting things there!” Li Huowang was pulled out of the room by the old monk.
Following Monk’s twists and turns through the temple, Li Huowang arrived at a spacious outdoor courtyard in Zhengde Temple. It was there that he realized just how large the temple really was.
“Clang clang clang!”
Dust flew up in the air, some monks with cloth tied around their hands picked up chisels and hammers, carving Buddha statues. The statues lined up in two rows, extending towards the far end of the courtyard, one on the left and one on the right.
Under the sunshine, the bald heads of the monks shone brightly as they carved their works of art with sweat pouring down their faces.
“Is this what you do here? The environment doesn’t seem very pleasant,” Li Huowang said, frowning and covering his nose to avoid inhaling the dust.
“Yes, I’m in charge of moving useless rubble. But I also have a share in making these Buddha statues,” the old monk replied, seeming very proud of his position.
They walked along the path between the two rows of unfinished Buddha statues and observed the different shapes of the statues. The passing monks didn’t even prevent them, treating them as if they didn’t exist.
“Zhengde Temple is definitely not making these statues for their own use. It’s obvious that they’re meant to be sold to pilgrims. It seems that these monks are very good at making money,” Li Huowang commented sarcastically.
However, after what had happened before, Li Huowang wasn’t surprised by any of this anymore.
“There’s even more of these statues ahead!” the old monk said excitedly and started walking forward. Li Huowang followed him, but suddenly he felt dizzy and his body began to sway.
“Hey, Little Taoist, what’s wrong with you?” The old monk quickly ran back to support Li Huowang when he saw that something was amiss.
“What happened?” Li Huowang stood still and shook his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the strange feeling. Eventually, it subsided.
“Are you okay? Did you catch a cold? Do you want to go back and rest?” the old monk asked.
“I’m fine. Let’s continue walking,” Li Huowang declined the old monk’s good intentions.
“Okay, as long as you’re sure. Anyway if you did catch a cold, you should get some sun. Let’s keep moving forward then,” the old monk said.
Li Huowang looked up at the scorching sun above him, “Did I get heatstroke? But I don’t feel hot at all.”
After feeling that his body was normal again, Li Huowang lifted his foot to follow the old monk forward.
However, as he lifted his foot, he noticed that the sound around him had changed. The clanging of chisels against stone had been replaced by slapping sounds of flesh colliding with each other.
“Hmm?” Li Huowang turned his head in confusion and looked towards the statues on his right. Suddenly, his body stiffened.
The stone statues from earlier had disappeared and were replaced by a lump of white flesh, which turned out to be a pile of monks. The same monks who had been carving Buddha statues just moments ago were now huddled together with closed eyes, their bodies wriggling like maggots. Despite the sunlight shining down on them, their bald heads still shone brightly.
“What is this…?” Li Huowang’s eyes widened as he took a step back in shock.
Li Huowang slowly turned around to look at the statues behind him. As he expected, they had all changed too – dozens of flesh mounds now stood on either side, glistening in the bright winter sun.
“Taoist! Hurry up!” The old monk shouted excitedly in front of him, like a child eager to show off his toys to his friends.
Trembling, Li Huowang took a deep breath and lifted his foot to continue walking forward. They passed through a huge archway, and another spacious courtyard appeared before them.
There were still many flesh mounds here, but they were no longer just made up of human bodies. In some places, there were other things, like pigs, stuck inside the piles of flesh and writhing in pain.
“You see, the statues of the qilin and stone lions looks so real, I wish I had the skill to make something like this.”
Li Huowang mechanically followed the old monk forward, continuing to observe the “works” of the monks in Zhengde Temple. He saw dogs, horses, cows, and donkeys amongst the flesh mounds.
As he looked closer, he noticed more strangeness – the monks were all intersex!
Li Huowang’s mind was a jumbled mess!
Suddenly, the old monk grabbed Li Huowang’s arm and pulled him a few steps forward, entering a spacious hall.
Li Huowang stiffly turned his neck to look at the hall. As he looked up, his pupils suddenly contracted.
“Look!” The old monk pointed upwards with his hand, his face beaming with childlike joy, “What a huge Buddha!”
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