Chapter 17 So It Was Like This

"Why don't you say something?!" Wanli Fengdao really wanted to grab Li Ang's neck and shake him back and forth.

He really hated geniuses who kept things to themselves, never told others anything, and loved looking down on them from their intellectual high ground.

"Heh."

Li Ang casually dropped the ledger, straightened up, and ran towards the Great Hero Hall, the others hurriedly chasing after him.

Rushing into the Great Hero Hall, Li Ang scanned the various Buddha statues, the Sakyamuni Buddha sitting cross-legged in the very center,

The Medicine Buddha, holding a bowl in his left hand and a medicinal pill in his right,

The Amitabha Buddha, hands resting on his feet, a lotus platform in his palm,

These were the Buddhas of the Three Worlds.

On both sides of the main hall were enshrined the Ten Arhats, and behind the Buddha statues in the main hall were the statues of Manjusri and Samantabhadra.

Strangely, behind the Great Hero Hall, there was also a specially built island, with a Guanyin statue facing north. This Guanyin statue was elegantly carved, with Sudhana on the left and the Dragon Girl on the right, each covered with gold foil and gold paint, bejeweled and radiant, looking even more majestic and dignified than the Sakyamuni Buddha in the main hall.

"Just as I thought."

Li Ang sneered and returned to the main hall, carefully knocking on the base of each Buddha statue.

Dong, dong, dong.

The wooden base under the Arhat Taming Dragon emitted a more hollow sound. Li Ang lifted the wooden board, revealing a dark, gloomy passage inside.

Li Ang took out a flashlight and crawled into the passage, spiders crawling everywhere, insects scurrying about.

Xing Hechou and the others followed behind Li Ang, feeling uncomfortable all over. They walked down the passage for a while before crawling out of a wooden door at the other end.

The wooden door at the other end of the passage was installed on a hidden wall in the monks' meditation room.

Li Ang scanned the monks' meditation room and crawled back through the passage in silence, returning to the Great Hero Hall. He reached out to wipe away the dust on the pillars in the hall, checking each red-lacquered pillar.

On the pillar to the left of the Guanyin statue, Li Ang felt a barely perceptible depression, the indentation covered with what appeared to be new red paint.

Peeling away the outer red paint, he could see that the old red paint inside was mottled and cracked, resembling a spider web, as if it had been impacted.

Traces of black blood remained inside the wood chips in the indentation.

The task objective of surviving for seven days, the Longmen account for paying this abnormality, the particularly majestic Guanyin statue, the pillar next to the Guanyin statue that had been hit, the female ghost appearing in the monk's temple...

All the factors lingered and roamed in Li Ang's mind, finally weaving into a huge network of interconnected conspiracies.

"The truth, so that's how it is."

Li Ang exhaled a breath of stale air, the corners of his mouth rising, outlining a mocking smile full of taunts.

"... Little Li,"

Just like most people who had come into contact with Li Ang, Xing Hechou's upright, righteous face couldn't help but reveal a constipated expression, "Can you tell us, what did you figure out?"

"The real secret of Guhan Temple's desolation."

Li Ang smiled and said, "Do you want to know?"

Except for Liu Wudai, everyone else nodded subconsciously.

"It's very simple. The matter has to start with Guhan Temple thirteen years ago."

"At that time, the abbot of Guhan Temple was not Daozhi, but Mingcheng. There were only twenty-odd monks in the temple."

"The Jiajing Emperor was a Taoism-worshipping madman. During his reign, he promoted Taoism and supported the Taoist school in pursuit of immortality. Compared to the prosperous Taoist school, the Buddhist school, which couldn't take the high-level route, was quite uncomfortable, not to mention Guhan Temple, which was located in a remote area and had a small number of people."

"During Mingcheng's tenure as abbot, the twenty-odd monks in Guhan Temple relied on donations of money and goods from pious men and women, as well as cultivating wasteland to grow food and weaving clothes to sell.

They could barely live a life of being fed and clothed, but it was limited to simple meals. They didn't even dare to think about big fish and meat."

"Until five years ago, Mingcheng no longer served as abbot. Maybe he died, maybe he retired due to old age. In short, Daozhi, who came from other temples, became the abbot of Guhan Temple."

"After Daozhi took office, the temple's incense suddenly became prosperous. Pious men and women came in an endless stream, and local gentry donated money and goods, and even offered up real estate deeds with both hands, giving all the fertile fields to Guhan Temple to be used as monastic land."

"Guhan Temple suddenly became wealthy, and the number of monks in the temple also surged from twenty-odd to more than two hundred. The wealthy Guhan Temple immediately built a Changsheng Treasury to store money and valuables, and even had the surplus capacity to use the Changsheng Treasury to lend money to farmers, landlords, and merchants at a monthly interest rate of three percent."

"Lending and borrowing have existed since ancient times. In the early Tang Dynasty, the highest interest rate for loans was stipulated to be six percent, and in the late Tang Dynasty it was four percent. The Song Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty. The Great Ming Law stipulates that for private lending of money and mortgaging of property, the monthly interest rate shall not exceed three percent. No matter how many years pass, it shall not exceed one principal and one interest. Violators shall be whipped forty times, and the remaining interest shall be calculated as stolen goods. Serious offenders shall be punished according to the crime of stealing, with one hundred strokes of the cane."

"Taking three percent interest per month is an annual rate of 36%, and anything exceeding that is considered gaolidai (usury)—this value has also been inherited by the laws and regulations of the Republic in the real world."

"The Changsheng Treasury of Guhan Temple usually lends money at an annual interest rate of 36%, and those who encounter large loans, long-term loans, or urgent loans will be charged a high interest rate of 48%."

"The Mingcheng Abbot of Guhan Temple is not afraid that others will not repay the loan, because Buddhist properties have always been a pure land, a good place to launder money—Guhan Temple acts as a donor for the local government, acting as a lender for the local county magistrate, and since they have given protection money to the government, they are not afraid that anyone will dare not repay the Buddhist money!"

"At the same time, Guhan Temple can also fund local gentry, spend money to buy official positions. Those who take office come in the morning, and those who demand repayment arrive in the evening. Isn't this taking from the people without taking from the people?"

"This is collusion between officials and Buddhists!"

"After colluding with the government, the taxes paid by the Buddhist school are even less, and its development is faster,"

"With capital, they will think about making more money. Merchants pursue profits, and monks also pursue profits. Guhan Temple invested heavily and bought more than a dozen shops in the county town, including gambling dens, brothels, dyeing workshops, printing houses, and rouge shops, becoming more and more wealthy."

"Guhan Temple originally had a batch of land donated by local gentry. After having an inexhaustible and inexhaustible treasury, it naturally embarked on the road of land annexation."

"Four years ago, there were continuous droughts and floods in this area, and the crops suffered severely. The surrounding tenant farmers who owned the field skins and field bones had to mortgage or even sell the field bones to Guhan Temple, and the small farmers had almost no resistance to accidental disasters. Once they encountered marriage, funerals, or poor harvests, they faced the crisis of bankruptcy and had to mortgage and sell the field skins to Guhan Temple together."

"Within half a year, Guhan Temple owned the field skins and field bones of tens of thousands of acres of fertile land in the surrounding area. All the tenant farmers on the land no longer had the right to cultivate and plant themselves, but became Buddhist serfs."

"Hehehe, being a serf for the Buddhist school is still a serf. The miserable situation of serfs is much more tragic than that of tenant farmers in movies and TV series."

"When the grain is growing in the field, there are tax collectors and creditors waiting expectantly, walking the fields; when it is time to harvest, the sound of people opening bags and carrying burdens fills the room."

"How could Guhan Temple, which had countless fertile fields and extremely good financial conditions, suddenly become desolate three years ago?"

"This has to start with the initial rise of Guhan Temple."

Li Ang pointed to the particularly luxurious Guanyin statue and smiled, "In the three months after Daozhi took office, the incense donations from pious men and women and local gentry suddenly increased sharply, and the notation on the accounts was 'child-giving money'."

"It turned out that after the believers devoutly visited the Guanyin statue in Guhan Temple to pray for children, the female believers became pregnant one after another, and the name of Guhan Temple's Guanyin statue's efficacy immediately spread widely."

"The common people in the countryside offered grain and agricultural products, and the local gentry, in order to show their piety, to expand their families and have more children and blessings, donated money, goods, and land to Guhan Temple."

"It's just that praying for children is not so easy. Female believers who want to become pregnant need to kneel devoutly in front of the Guanyin statue in the Great Hero Hall for a whole night, and no one can disturb them during this period, otherwise it will not be effective."

"The name of Guhan Temple's Guanyin statue's efficacy became more and more widespread, and more and more female believers came to pray for children, until three years ago, an accident

Happened."

Li Ang pointed to the depression on the red pillar next to the Guanyin statue and said, "One female believer was kneeling devoutly on the futon. In the middle of the night, a group of monks walked out of the secret wooden door under the Arhat Taming Dragon one after another, with lewd smiles on their faces."

"It turned out that behind the efficacy of Guhan Temple's Guanyin statue in praying for children, the monks in the temple sneaked into the Great Hero Hall in the middle of the night and forcibly defiled the female pilgrims who were alone."

"The Ming Dynasty had strict etiquette. The female pilgrims who had lost their purity did not dare to reveal it to their families and husbands, so they had to return home. Only after a few months did they learn that they were pregnant."

"These lewd monks thought that they could succeed tonight as they had done before, and defend the reputation of Guhan Temple's Guanyin statue's efficacy in praying for children, but they did not expect that this female pilgrim was exceptionally chaste and unyielding, preferring death to dishonor, and finally crashed her head into this pillar."

"When someone dies, it's no longer acceptable. The flustered monks could only lie that the female pilgrim had accidentally disappeared, but this explanation was naturally not accepted by her family, and the matter was brought to the government."

"Presumably, the female pilgrim's family also had some influence, putting some pressure on the government to thoroughly investigate and search, and severely torture the monks, obtaining the greatest secret of Guhan Temple from their mouths."

"The scandal was exposed, and the local people were in an uproar. The powerful gentry who had donated money and goods naturally could not swallow this anger, colluding with the government to kill all the monks in the temple and seize the temple's land deeds."

"It's a pity that although the lewd monks died, the soul of the chaste and unyielding female pilgrim was still trapped here."

Li Ang sighed, "If I'm not mistaken, the female ghost we saw in Guhan Temple should be her."

The long speech finally came to an end, Xing Hechou and Wanli Fengdao were dumbfounded, speechless,

No matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn't have imagined that the plot task could have such a showy operation of knowing the autumn by looking at a leaf and knowing the big by seeing the small, in addition to fighting and killing.

Before Xing Hechou could express any emotion, Li Ang stepped out of the Great Hero Hall, out of Guhan Temple, and came to the dense forest.

This was the boundary of the 500-meter radius designated by the task.

In the swaying shadows of the trees, there seemed to be ghosts moving. Li Ang was not afraid, took out an axe and used it as a hoe, and began to dig the ground.

"What are you doing?" Wanli Fengdao and the others who had followed asked.

"Digging."

Li Ang gave a simple word, "From the outside to the inside, dig all the land within a 500-meter radius outside Guhan Temple."

The teammates looked at each other, glanced at the dark sky and the dim forest, and hesitated.

Li Ang, who was digging the ground, raised his head and said helplessly, "Since the female ghost is bound to this place, then her bones are probably not far away. Dig out the bones and burn them in a fire, and there will be no more trouble."

Xing Hechou and the others didn't know what to say,

The system released the task of surviving for seven days, wanting them to suffer from the female ghost's attacks, watch their teammates die one by one in endless fear, tremble and shake, and luckily survive for seven days.

How did it become quickly deciphering the mystery, taking the initiative to attack, and even solving the hidden danger in advance and completing the task when it came to Li Ang?

Brother, why don't you play by the rules?

Xing Hechou and the others, with ten thousand alpacas galloping through their minds, looked at each other, surrounded Li Ang, and began to dig the ground silently, each using their own methods.

Hands,

Feet,

Head,

Arms,

Shoulders,

A few hours later, under the ground within a five-hundred-meter radius, pieces of white bone were turned out, and finally pieced together into a human shape.

"Judging from the bone age, she died three years ago. Judging from the bone structure, she is a female, and she has a good figure. I guess she was pretty beautiful."

Seeing the white bone arm, he thought of the white bone thigh, he thought of the white bone ribs and chest, he thought of the breasts,

Li Ang's imagination was able to leap forward so much only on this level.

He looked at the female bones placed on the ground and sighed, "The wronged have their avengers, the indebted have their debtors. Miss, go in peace."

Having said that, he took out a ranshaoping (cremation implement - pinyin explanation) from the backpack bar and prepared to cremate the bones.

Xing Hechou, Wanli Fengdao, Huibing, Liu Wudai and others drew their weapons and surrounded Li Ang.

Seeing that the bones were about to be cremated, if the female ghost wanted to attack, the best opportunity would probably be now.

Swish—

The ranshaoping fell down, and just as it was about to hit the white bones, a slender jade hand stretched out from the ground.

Xing Hechou and the others, who had been ready to strike, were about to use thunderous methods to crush the arm into slag, but were stopped by Li Ang's wave.

"Wait."

"What are you still hesitating about? Just kill her!" Wanli Fengdao shouted anxiously.

If it was when he had just entered the plot task, he would not have paid attention to Li Ang, a mere Lv3 newbie, but from just now until now, the development of everything had been within Li Ang's calculations, leaving Wanli Fengdao speechless.

Li Ang shook his head indifferently, watching the palm holding the ranshaoping emerge from the ground with a blank expression.

Arm, shoulder, body,

A young woman wearing a goose-yellow dress "rose" from the ground, like a "lotus emerging from water" in a mud version.

She was probably in her early twenties, wearing a goose-yellow dress, her skin was pale like snow, her beautiful face was stained with a little mud, her eyebrows were long and delicate, her eyes contained a trace of sorrow, and her tightly pursed mouth was pitiful.

She was a very beautiful woman, definitely a Douyin (Chinese Tiktok) influencer that would be sought after by thousands in modern society.

And her breasts were very big, very big.

It was a pity she was dead, and her bones had turned to ash, so he couldn't take advantage of the warmth.

Li Ang took a step forward and said sternly, "Hello, may I ask if you are gg (older brother) or mm (younger sister)?"

"?"

The female ghost holding the ranshaoping tilted her head in confusion. That strange and eerie shape, combined with this cute shape, made Li Ang's heart beat faster.

So fierce, so chesty, very much in line with my, Zeng Aniu's, aesthetics.

Xing Hechou and the others, who were facing a formidable enemy, never expected that Li Ang's brain circuit had already begun to imagine having something happen with the female ghost. They did not dare to relax at all, holding up various weapons and aiming at the ghost. If the other party had any strange movements, it would attract a thunderous blow from the four players!

"Can't you understand?" Li Ang straightened his cqb (close quarters battle) tactical suit, cleared his throat, and said to the female ghost, "My name is Li Risheng, may I ask for your name, miss?"

Meow meow meow?! Is this the time to flirt?!