CH 47

After saying this, Xin Hui realized that he had lost his composure and quickly made a Namaste, closed his eyes, and bowed towards the west.

“Amitabha, I have violated the precepts of anger. I will recite the sutras a hundred times as punishment to myself.”

After that, Xin Hui raised his head again, calmly looked at Li Huowang, and carefully examined him for a while, then he nodded slightly and said, “I understand what’s going on, Alms Giver Xuan Yang, please follow me.”

Li Huowang looked at the angry monks, then sheathed his sword on his back before following them. Xin Hui didn’t lead them anywhere else but brought them back to the yard where the carved statues was.

“Alms Giver Xuan Yang, did you see those impurities here just now?” Xin Hui asked.

Li Huowang was surrounded by the monks, he was stunned as he looked at everything in front of him. The flesh mounds had turned back into unfinished stone statues, reappearing before him as if playing a joke.

“How is this possible…” 

“Alms giver, please continue to follow me,” Xin Hui said.

With Xin Hui’s guidance, Li Huowang walked slowly forward and arrived at the place where he had seen various animals before. However, there were no animals here now, only unfinished stone qilins and lions arranged neatly, silently gazing ahead.

At that moment, Xin Hui drew the long sword on Li Huowang’s back and made a strong cut. The head of a small stone lion was chopped off.

Xin Hui picked up the stone lion’s head and placed it in Li Huowang’s hand. Li Huowang gently stroked the stone lion’s head with his fingers. The texture and weight of the stone indicated that it was indeed real!

“How……” Li Huowang was still confused. He walked over to the stone statues and carefully touched each one of them, only to realize that they were all genuine stones.

Finally, he stood at the entrance of the spacious hall and looked inside. He saw a imposing stone Buddha sitting on a lotus pedestal, holding a begging bowl in its left hand and pointing to the ground with its right hand.

“This is impossible! I saw it clearly just now. How can it be fake?”

Upon hearing his words, Xin Hui lightly sighed, “Amitabha, Alms Giver Xuan Yang, you are quite ill.”

Li Huowang turned his head to look at Xin Hui, bewildered said, “Am I getting sick again? Those were all my hallucinations just now?”

Xin Hui nodded lightly. “Alms giver, you should be more aware of your own illness than we are.”

“Is it because the Black Ganoderma I took can only support me for this long? Am I starting to have hallucinations again?” Li Huowang held his head in agony and muttered to himself.

Upon hearing Li Huowang’s words, the monks around them gathered together and whispered to each other.

“So he’s a psycho?”

“If there’s nothing else, we should ask him to leave as soon as possible.I don’t want him to go crazy again and cut us down one day.”

“Quiet!” Xin Hui’s words silenced all the monks.

Then Xin Hui walked into the hall, lit four incense sticks, turned around, and came to Li Huowang. “It’s not a big deal to trouble us Buddhist disciples, but disturbing the Buddha is not good. So please sincerely offer incenses to the Buddha,” he said.

“Incenses?” Li Huowang’s muscles tensed up as he looked at the Buddha statue, Xin Hui, and the four incense sticks.

“Alms giver, what are you waiting for? You were in the wrong first,” Xin Hui said, passing the four incense sticks to Li Huowang.

Li Huowang remembered the wriggling enormous  monster once again.

“Alms giver, what are you hesitating about?”

Xin Hui said, his face began to show a hint of displeasure.

Li Huowang touched the stone lion in his hand and feeling its reality, then looked up at the dazzling sun above his head. Finally, Li Huowang threw down the lion’s head and took the incense sticks, walking towards the Buddha statue in the hall.

He walked very slowly, his body and mind highly tense, and sweat started to appear on his forehead.

Finally, Li Huowang arrived under the Buddha statue. The statue remained a statue and did not transform into a disgusting monster.

Li Huowang held the incense sticks in both hands and stood in front of the incense burner. He looked up again and saw the Buddha statue looking at him with its eyes of neither joy nor sorrow, which made him feel reverent.

After bowing three times while holding the incenses, Li Huowang solemnly inserted the incenses sticks into the burner and turned around to leave the hall.

As the conflict was resolved, the group of monks gradually dispersed and returned to their places, picking up their tools and continuing to carve the statues.

Xin Hui and Li Huowang walked slowly along the stone brick road in the middle of the stone statues towards the outside.

“Alms Giver Xuan Yang, since your illness is so severe, don’t wander around anymore. Just wait for the Buddhist mass with peace of mind,” Xin Hui said while turning the beads in his hand.

“Although your disease is troublesome, compared to the danger of Dan Yang Tzu, your disease is less threatening,” Xin Hui added.

Li Huowang looked up again and gazed at the sunny sky above. Then, he stretched out and yawned. “Abbot, is there any way to cure my hysteria within the Zhengde Temple?”

“Well…I can let some disciples try, but it may not necessarily work. After all, we don’t have any medical tradition in Zhengde Temple,” Xin Hui replied.

“It’s okay, I’m just asking casually. I’ve been ill for so long that I’ve gotten used to it,” Li Huowang shrugged his shoulders with indifference. “By the way, Abbot, how did you manage to take the things out of my pocket earlier?”

“Hehe, it was just a small trick, nothing to fuss about.”

“Abbot, don’t be humble. If what you did was just a small trick, then what am I? I’m afraid I’m not even as good as a worm.” 

“Alms Giver Xuan Yang, things are not like that. Although Dan Yang Tzu is not as strong as me, he can still be considered as a mid-level in the world, but in the end he be killed by you.”

“Can someone like Dan Yang Tzu also be considered mid-level? Then how powerful are the top-level? Abbot, is there any distinction between high and low among masters like you?”

“There is, but those are just nonsense made up by idle people. We, as monks, do not pursue fame and do not care about these things.”

They walked for a long time on this short stone brick road and talked about many things. Li Huowang also obtained a lot of useful information about this world from Xin Hui.

When they left the yard, Li Huowang stopped and bowed to Xin Hui. “Thank you very much, Abbot, for clearing up my confusion.”

“Don’t mention it, it’s just a small favor I could do. Alms Giver Xuan Yang, you should go back and rest for now.”

After saying goodbye to the abbot, Li Huowang looked around but did not see the Monk’s figure. He then turned around and walked towards his residence.

He walked slowly and appeared to be very troubled, as if he was thinking about something important.

After walking for an hour, Li Huowang finally arrived at his residence. As soon as he closed the door, his expression suddenly became fierce. He clenched his fists and pounded the wall with all his strength.

Although he didn’t know how the monks had deceived his eyes, as a patient who had been alternating between reality and illusion for a long time, Li Huowang was very sensitive to such things.

The enormous Buddha statue just now gave him a feeling that something was off. It felt like the hospital in his hallucinations, with a strange sensation that he couldn’t quite describe.

“All those stone carvings are fake! The Buddha statue is also fake! It’s all deceptive tricks! “What I saw before was not my hallucination at all!”