12dz Chapter 66 I told you your skills weren't up to par!
Chapter 66 I told you your skills weren't up to par!
At midnight, all was quiet in Xin'an County.
"Dry weather! Be careful with fire!"
The night watchman strolled by leisurely.
Xin'an County is nothing like bustling cities like Lin'an and Luoyang. There's hardly a night market, and the streets are practically deserted at night. Everyone goes to bed early after blowing out their candles.
Not long after the night watchman left, a dark figure suddenly leaped down from the roof and silently disappeared into the alley.
He walked along the corner of the wall to Li Xun's house, and with a slight movement of his foot, he flipped over into the yard.
The courtyard was equally quiet, and the man entered the back hall without pausing, proceeding to the door of Li Xun's son's room, then gently pushed the door open and went inside.
By the moonlight, he saw Li Xun's son lying on the bed with his eyes closed, and he walked over with a sinister grin.
The next moment, the candlelight was lit, and a gentle voice chuckled as it sounded from behind, "I told you this monk's skills were lacking, now you two believe me, don't you?"
Standing beside Wu Cheng, Li Xun and his wife stared in disbelief at the bald figure dressed in black. "Master Yuankong? It really is you! Why are you doing this?!"
Yuan Kong remained silent with a gloomy face. Wu Cheng answered Li Xun instead, saying, "Because this monk wants to kill you and your husband to silence you, and also to devour your family's last remaining property. If the authorities investigate, it can be said that your fate has come true. Besides, the authorities may not even investigate."
The monk, however, sneered as if he were utterly emboldened, "Don't pretend to be a hero just because you're from out of town. Do you think you can provoke the Buddhist sect?"
He quietly observed the group.
The swordsman carrying the sword looked somewhat skilled, but probably not very strong.
The two women are exceptionally beautiful; they must be incredibly powerful!
This smiling boy is still young, with red lips and white teeth. He looks weak, but at such a young age he is the leader, so his strength must be extraordinary!
The Tibetan monk was physically imposing and appeared to be the strongest among them, but in reality, he was all bark and no bite!
And his cassock!
Yuan Kong's eyes widened with greed as he stared intently at the brocade robe on Bodhidharma's body.
Such a treasure should rightfully belong to the Iron Buddha Temple!
Seeing the greed in his eyes as he stared intently at the robe on Bodhidharma's body, Wu Cheng snapped his fingers. "Master, this is your karmic burden in Buddhism, I'm leaving it to you."
Bodhidharma stepped forward with a grim expression. "Rest assured, this humble monk will certainly blast him down!"
Bodhidharma nodded slightly and then leaned in.
At this moment, all that was on Yuan Kong's mind was the brocade robe on Bodhidharma's body; all the caution he had shown earlier had long since vanished.
Life and death can be decided in an instant!
Yuan Kong struck out with a palm towards Bodhidharma's chest, but Bodhidharma neither dodged nor evaded, taking the blow head-on. Then, Bodhidharma unleashed a fist the size of a sandbag, slamming it into Yuan Kong's heart, while shouting, "Bodhidharma Explosive Fist!"
After delivering a punch in mid-air, he coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, then collapsed to the ground, kicked his legs, and died.
Wu Cheng almost spat out his water.
Looking down at Yuan Kong's gruesome death on the ground, Wu Cheng smirked. "Master, do you still call out the names of your moves when you fight?"
Bodhidharma nodded solemnly, "This can increase one's imposing presence; it's a technique I learned from books."
"Books?" Wu Cheng asked curiously. "What books?"
"A wondrous book that traveled from the East to the West." Bodhidharma didn't elaborate on the book itself, but pointed to the hollow corpse on the ground. "Young Master Wu, how should this matter be resolved?"
Wu Cheng turned and glanced at Li Xun and his wife, whose faces were deathly pale. Li Xun smiled bitterly and said, "Please don't worry about us. This is trouble caused by our family. You should leave quickly."
"If you're going to help someone, help them all the way. If you're going to help someone, help them all the way to the end." Wu Cheng comforted them for a moment, then turned to Bodhidharma, "Master, I'm sure you already have an idea."
Bodhidharma countered, "Young hero, why do you think this wretched creature would do such a thing?"
Xue Jianren interjected, "It's to fulfill his prophecy. If this child really dies today, it will prove that he has boundless magical power, and more devout men and women will come to him in the future, which will bring him more wealth."
Wu Cheng was confident. "It's not that simple. If it were just for this, why would he have waited eight years? Brother Li and his wife have already had a child, and most of the believers who go to Tiefo Temple to burn incense are asking for a child."
"Now that it has come to pass, it means the child has successfully survived tonight. He can say that he avoided disaster by chanting scriptures and praying every day. Brother Li, will you and your wife believe that?"
Li Xun nodded, his face pale. "I'll definitely believe it."
Xue Jianren scratched his head. "What's going on? Is it about the rest of your family's wealth?"
Li Xun smiled bitterly, "Most of my family's wealth already belongs to Zen Master Yuankong... to Tiefo Temple. All that's left is this dilapidated courtyard."
Xue Jianren was bewildered. "Then what exactly does he want to do?"
Wu Cheng pointed to the still-sleepy child, "He did it for this child."
Xue Jianren nodded, "I know, it's to fulfill the prophecy by killing this child."
"No, his goal wasn't to kill the child. Otherwise, even though we were prepared, he should have tried to capture the child as a hostage to blackmail us," Wu Cheng laughed. "What he wanted to do was kill us to silence us and then take the child away."
Xue Jianren was even more confused. "Then why did he take the child away? Nowadays, Buddhism is very popular in our Great Yu. Besides, Buddhist monks don't engage in production or pay taxes. Many people want to become monks but can't. Do they need a novice monk?"
"What they lack may not be young novices." Wu Cheng turned to look at Bodhidharma. "Master, you deliberately lured me here, didn't you? So you've actually been waiting for me all along."
Bodhidharma simply put his palms together and chanted the Buddha's name in a low voice.
Wu Cheng's expression was playful. "Master, who told you to come find me?"
He pondered for a moment, realizing that the person he knew was probably either Li Anchan or Shen Yeshu, though he didn't know which one of them it was.
"A monk does not lie." Bodhidharma said with a gentle expression, "After I saw that book, I longed for the Central Plains. So I wrote a letter to the author. Three years later, she replied, saying that Buddhism in the Central Plains was flourishing, but the positions had been occupied by Mara's disciples. She then invited me to come and see for myself."
"That day, I was also in Luoyang."
Wu Cheng sighed, "I see... I suppose you also know something about the Iron Buddha Temple incident."
Bodhidharma smiled but said nothing.
In short, Bodhidharma was indeed a great Buddhist monk. He wanted to see if the Buddhist community in the Central Plains was truly a den of filth, and upon arrival, he found that it was indeed so.
So he wanted to solve the problem, but as a foreign monk, he could only treat the symptoms, not the root cause, and he would also isolate himself from the Great Yu.
Therefore, he wanted to change the status quo by using his own hands, and the best way to do that was to let himself see the evil deeds committed by the Iron Buddha Temple.
"The Iron Buddha Temple has colluded with the late Luoyang Magistrate Yuan Hao, and regularly sends him young children. This is the real reason why the Iron Buddha Temple wants to silence Mr. and Mrs. Li," Bodhidharma said with his palms together. "If Young Master Wu does not wish to cause trouble, he can head south to Lin'an immediately."
Wu Cheng laughed, "Monk, what do you take me for? Now that I know about this, I can't just ignore it."
He turned to look at the pale-faced Li Xun and his wife, "Please rest assured, the Iron Buddha Temple will not retaliate against you, because after tonight... they will cease to exist."