Chapter 0

As Yuanjue departed, Dai Yingwei subconsciously pressed the shutter of his camera, capturing that scene. He looked at it and felt that this might be the best photo he had ever taken, one that could even compete for photography awards.

However, he ultimately did not publish such a photo, but kept it for himself.

He felt that he might never see this monk again.

And indeed, he never saw him again.

After that, he lived an ordinary life.

He married, had children, lived diligently, and worked earnestly.

In his old age, he became a kind and amiable old man.

One afternoon, while lying in a deck chair soaking up the sun, he quietly fell asleep and never woke up. His grandson found a yellowed photo in a book, depicting the monk flying across the sky, looking down, smiling and nodding goodbye.

Although it was an ordinary life, he had lived it with all his heart. He had brushed past brilliant light and could therefore hold his head high and say that he had no regrets. Such a story remained unknown until his grandson, or perhaps his grandson's child, inadvertently entered an ordinary museum one day.

There, he saw the dim, soft light and the museum curator reading a book.

This is the value of antiquities...

The story thus continues.

………………

After Yuanjue's debate on the Dharma at Tiantai Mountain, his words spread with unimaginable heat.

Leaving aside other matters for the moment, the monk's words were simply too shocking for most people who only knew how to chant scriptures and worship Buddha. And after he shattered the clay Buddha statue with his Nine-Ringed Tin Staff and flew away as a rainbow, the impact was even greater.

"Damn, awesome plus! That's too amazing!"

"Is the Buddhist Dharma this simple?!"

"Simple? If you can really just eat when you eat, walk when you walk, and sleep when you sleep for the rest of your life, then you're a big shot."

"Big shot, is that Newton's jurisdiction?"

"Well, maybe you can nail down old Newton's coffin a bit tighter."

"666, pour molten iron on the side to seal it up."

"Upstairs, are you a devil? Also, I suggest burying him more than ten meters underground."

"You're right. When I was suppressing the Guanxi region back then, my nickname was Satan."

"But, he even broke the Buddha statue."

"Yeah..."

Such discussions took place in many places.

Unlike the previous debates between the Daoist and Buddhist schools, which could be said to be the Daoists being one step higher, with differences in their sects, where the Daoists winning could be said to be due to their profound Daoist magic and vast supernatural powers, Yuanjue now directly used Buddhist Dharma to break the Buddhist school, which was directly digging out the rotten roots of that dilapidated place.

Sweeping away the soil on top, scraping off the extravagant gold powder, and exposing the decaying appearance.

In a word.

This isn't just killing someone.

This is striking at the heart!

While most people on the internet were celebrating, for those who chanted scriptures and worshiped Buddha, especially those who had developed a large chain of industries, these were extremely hateful words that struck at the heart. Cutting off people's financial paths was like killing their parents. Now, everyone was starting to look for that monk Yuanjue.

Those who wanted to meet a high-ranking Buddhist monk were looking for him.

Those with hatred in their hearts wanted to find him.

Some with active minds also wanted to find him. Doing business wasn't shameful. Who you do it with doesn't matter, right? Doing it with those masters also earns money, and doing it with this master also earns money. What's more, this one has even greater fame and popularity. In this era, traffic and popularity are real money.

Hey, in this world, who would go against money?

There were also people who had previously seen Yuanjue posting online. At first, perhaps some people wanted to use this to earn some popularity for themselves, but they soon discovered that there were too many smart people in this world, and that monk was too ordinary.

There were too many people who had come into contact with him, seen him, and received his help.

At this time, like bamboo shoots after a rain, they all came out.

It was hard to tell whether it was real or fake, and a search online turned up a lot of them.

Wei Yuan took his leave for the time being, left Longhu Mountain, and returned to the museum.

Guan Yunchang and Zhao Xuantan were still absorbing the power of incense offerings. This wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight; it took time. Wei Yuan returned to the museum along the way, and incidentally rinsed the rice, adding some water to soak it.

He also opened his phone to check the latest news. The matter of the Buddhist Dharma debate was very popular, no less than the Daoist Kunlun Yaochi event before. Wei Yuan sighed, not expecting that the monk he knew back then would have such great abilities.

He suddenly had a feeling of恍惚 (huanghu - being in a trance).

He was living in this era.

But if, if...

In the future, if his true spirit were to revive again in one of his lives, would he remember the things that were happening now?

He had discussed the precepts of the Buddhist Dharma with a descendant of Xuanzang, and had also given hangover soup to a Daoist Celestial Master. He had once stepped on the Huai River to send it into the East Sea. These seemed to be very magnificent things. History and time often had no sense of reality, but what was being experienced now, an ordinary and plain day, might feel like a thunderous shock to people a hundred years later when they looked back.

But this was still an ordinary day.

We ourselves are living in history.

Clatter, there was a sound of drizzling rain outside. Autumn was a rainy season, especially as it entered late autumn. Wei Yuan put the rice in the rice cooker to cook, and slowly watched the news. Many people were starting to talk about the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra said that one reaches the other shore with the heart, and the Diamond Sutra said that if one sees me with form, and seeks me with sound, that person walks an evil path and cannot see the Tathagata.

They were all saying that one should not be attached to external appearances.

There were also people刷屏 (shuaping - spamming) in the comments section.

"Where exactly is Grandmaster Yuanjue?"

"Yes, I wonder which precious temple he is cultivating in?"

"The Consciousness-Only School, could it be in the Ci'en Temple in Chang'an?"

"Don't go. We locals have already been there to see it. No one's there."

Wei Yuan estimated the time and figured that Yuanjue wasn't planning to come.

Well, Yuanjue's personality didn't seem like the type to trouble others.

What's more, he had originally been worried that Yuanjue might have been injured in the Dharma debate and wouldn't be able to handle it well on his own, so he had invited him to stay temporarily. He hadn't expected that Yuanjue's cultivation would be so high that he managed to break through directly without suffering any injuries.

However, it was also possible that the Nine-Ringed Tin Staff had helped.

Wei Yuan thought of how he had relied on the Nine-Section Staff to confront the disciples of the Taiping Dao.

It also occupied a considerable advantage.

Based on Tang Xuanzang's legendary deeds, the crushing and oppressive feeling towards other Buddhist schools might have already been engraved in DNA.

Don't engrave everything in DNA, hey!

Wei Yuan joked in his heart.

The aroma of rice gradually filled the room, making people feel at ease. The rain gradually increased, and the raindrops struck the roof of the old street, from far to near, the sound sometimes light and sometimes heavy. In a flowing sound, raindrops fell from the eaves, forming strings of beads, landing on the ground and splashing up water, creating a misty vapor.

All kinds of sounds of raindrops falling, striking, and sliding were dense and gentle.

The aroma of rice also had a sense of everyday life.

Among a large number of弹幕 (danmu - scrolling comments), some inexperienced live-streaming bloggers gently tapped the wooden fish and recited the Diamond Sutra, and happened to recite the sentence 'All conditioned dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, like dew and lightning; thus should you contemplate them,' when footsteps stopped outside the door.

The sound of rain, the sound of wind, the sound of the wooden fish, the sound of reciting scriptures, the sense of everyday life.

The sound of a monk knocking on the door.

Wei Yuan was stunned for a moment, then turned around to open the door.

Outside the door, a monk in monastic robes, wearing a bamboo hat, stood in the rain, holding a Nine-Ringed Tin Staff in his hand.

Two sparrows were hidden under his monastic robes.

Yuanjue raised his bamboo hat slightly, revealing a smile on his face.

"Curator Wei, sorry to disturb you."

…………………………

At the same time, in Jiangnan Province, in an interrogation room of a special action team.

A young man with black hair and pupils, with slightly curly hair, was locked inside. This was a superior residence specially prepared for cultivators, with regular work and rest hours, a bed, a table, and a bathroom. Specially trained personnel provided 24-hour uninterrupted care services, with special meals every day, three meals a day of green vegetables, low in oil and salt, to ensure that you can stay healthy.

Moreover, because of the various strange powers of cultivators, the material of this interrogation room was quite solid.

He could only communicate with the outside through the iron window.

Xiang Hongbao's mouth twitched as he looked at the iron window and the iron bars on it. He almost shouted "Tears in Iron Bars." He shook it and said, "I said, I'm being framed!"

"Framed? That's not necessarily true."

Zhang Hao threw the cross he had searched out onto the table and said:

"What is this?"

Xiang Hongbao opened his mouth and said:

"I'm really being framed. This thing, this thing I bought."

Zhang Hao sat in the chair, holding a notebook in his hand, raised his chin, and said casually:

"You continue."

"I'm listening."

Xiang Hongbao's mouth twitched, and he wondered whether to just say it.

After a while, Zhang Hao frowned and said, "You're not going to say it, are you?"

He raised his wrist and looked at his watch and said, "Okay, there's something you'll like."

After a moment, while Xiang Hongbao was worried that he would encounter some inhumane treatment, a young man was brought in by Zhang Hao, along with a petite girl next to him. Xiang Hongbao's eyes were strange, and he heard that the young man was called Qin Yuan. He didn't pay much attention to what the girl next to him was called.

Qin Yuan, also Qin Yuan, looked at the young man who was locked up.

This was the Celestial Master's Mansion giving them... well, obligations.

Obligations to extend their human licenses.

The girl next to Qin Yuan was a strange beast from the mountains and seas who was naturally good at using sensory-based bewitchment techniques.

Zhang Hao whispered a few words, and the girl was stunned, then nodded.

……………………

A moment later, Xiang Hongbao grabbed the iron bars on the iron window tightly, clenching his teeth.

His eyes stared straight ahead. His senses, especially the perception of his stomach, had been strengthened countless times, and then, in front of him, there was a bowl of instant noodles that had just been prepared. It was junk food among junk food, but for some reason, the aroma almost squeezed the juice out of his stomach acid.

Instant noodles were a magical food.

If you don't eat them for a while, you'll definitely miss them.

But after you eat them, you feel like that's it.

One pack isn't enough, and two packs are too filling.

Zhang Hao calmly used a small fan to blow the aroma over.

"Are you going to talk or not?"

He pressed the second gear.

The aroma was even stronger.

And the girl transformed from the strange beast from the mountains and seas also used her sensory enhancement magic to the extreme.

Accompanied by a burst of intense sounds from his stomach, Xiang Hongbao succumbed to his appetite.

He confessed everything. Of course, it was limited to the fact that he was one of their own from the Shenzhou Christian Church who had gone to infiltrate, and that he had all the procedures. He also called the old Father of the Christian Church, who was also an enthusiastic old man working in the neighborhood office. After being scolded, the old man decided to come and pick him up.

And Xiang Hongbao was also able to eat that bowl of instant noodles.

The first bite was a huge sense of satisfaction.

The sense of satisfaction rapidly weakened with the second bite.

He stared at Zhang Hao, pondered for a moment, and said, "Can you give me a sausage?"

"Add a braised egg too."

Zhang Hao looked at this guy who had suddenly become familiar with him, took out something from the cabinet next to him and handed it over. Xiang Hongbao looked at the ham sausage, 玉中玉 (yu zhong yu - jade in jade, a brand), and then looked at the braised egg, 乡巴老 (xiang ba lao - hick, a brand), his mouth twitched, and he turned over to look at the instant noodles, good guy, 康帅傅 (Kang Shuaifu - a knockoff brand of Kang Shifu).

Xiang Hongbao was silent for a moment, and sincerely sighed:

"You're really amazing to be able to find these things."

"Even Pinduoduo (a Chinese e-commerce platform known for cheap goods) can't get these together as well as you."

Zhang Hao was too lazy to pay attention. Sometimes he was really too busy to eat when he was busy.

After sending the two temporary staff members out, he made himself a bowl of noodles and slurped them up. Just as the two men were silently starting to compete to see who could slurp the noodles faster, Xiang Hongbao's phone, which he had just gotten back, suddenly rang.

The two of them were almost choked to death.

After finally catching his breath, Zhang Hao glanced at it and said, "Who is it?"

The corner of Xiang Hongbao's mouth twitched: "The Holy See."

"Answer it or not?"

"Answer it!"

Xiang Hongbao had no choice but to open his phone with a bitter face and replied, "Yes, that's me."

"Now?" Xiang Hongbao looked at Zhang Hao and said:

"There are people around me now."

Zhang Hao's eyes narrowed slightly.

Xiang Hongbao said, "Then I'll change places."

He was serious, stood up, stepped in place, turned left, turned right, stepped in place, breathed rapidly, and finally shook his sleeves heavily, fanning the heat of the instant noodles, and sat down with a straight face: "Okay, you can speak."

Zhang Hao: "........."

Indeed,

A priest's mouth is a liar's ghost.

The people on the other side were obviously a little anxious and didn't pursue it in detail. Even their voices were a little too loud.

So Zhang Hao also heard it, at least with his poor English, he could barely understand the general idea.

"Xiang, have you seen the others?"

"No, I haven't."

"No...no, this is real."

The person on the other side sighed and said with regret:

"You haven't seen them either, it seems that the church members from the New World and Australia who went to Shenzhou have really encountered misfortune."

"Church members?"

"Yes...right, Xiang, you don't know yet... After the members from the New World and Australia met, they chose to take a private yacht from the sea to Shenzhou, and also explore the power of the Garden of Eden, but they lost contact in the East Sea."

Zhang Hao frowned, with displeasure in his eyes.

These Christian guys are doing sneaky things again.

The corner of Xiang Hongbao's mouth twitched. Worried that a fist would fall on his face at any time, he held up his phone and said:

"Could it just be that they've simply lost contact?"

The Holy See side denied it decisively, and the old man said decisively:

"Impossible!"

"Inside, there are three neo-angels with divinity!"

"They have a natural connection with the Holy See, but now they are all lost in the East Sea."

The voice paused, and a kind of fearful bewilderment appeared in the voice:

"And it was, all contact was lost in an instant!"

"All of it."

ps: Today's second update... four thousand two hundred words...

Thank you to Li Bai for the 凉糕 (liang gao - cold cake, a type of dessert) ten thousand reward.