Chapter 224 Shaolin’s Misfortune (I)

June 19th is the day when Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva attained enlightenment.

Li Xian, the best philanthropist in Xuzhou, donated money to Shande Building and called together good men and women in the Xuzhou area to release animals and chant Buddhist scriptures together to increase merit.

At the invitation of Li Xian, Shaolin Master "Yuan Ji" came to Xuzhou to preach and save all living beings.

From sunrise to sunset, Yuanji, accompanied by his two disciples Wuguan and Wujian, made many friends in Deshan Building, answered questions, explained Buddhism, and expounded Zen, which benefited the Buddhist laymen and disciples in Xuzhou City.

After a day of hard work, the three of them, as arranged by Li Xian, made an exception and stayed in Shande Building to rest for one night, preparing to set off back to Shaolin the next day.

Deshan Building was originally the Li family ancestral hall. It was later expanded by Li Xian, who added a Buddhist building with two meditation rooms on it.

Since Deshan Building is not an inn, no one lives there on weekdays. After nightfall, all the believers leave, and the place becomes particularly deserted.

Late at night, Yuanji was reciting scriptures in the room, while Wujian was waiting beside him with a candlestick in his hand.

The light was as small as a bean and extremely dim.

Yuanji was over 70 years old, and his wrinkled face was full of fatigue. He squinted his eyes and read the scriptures, and asked in a low voice with deep meaning: "This morning, can you and Wuguan accept the gift from Mr. Li without permission?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Jian was stunned and couldn't help showing a trace of guilt on his face.

"Master uncle, benefactor Li thought we were tired from the journey, so he gave us some money as a token of his appreciation. We didn't want to accept it, but seeing that benefactor Li was sincere, we couldn't refuse his kindness, so we..."

"That's not allowed!" Yuanji taught, "The Buddhist rules and regulations should not only be followed in the temple, but also be kept in mind outside. We come here to preach and make good friends, not for fame and fortune. If you two accept money privately, won't that ruin the reputation of Shaolin?"

"Uncle Master, I know I was wrong."

"When Wuguan comes back, you two should go to Li's residence overnight and return the money to Mr. Li."

"Yes."

There was no conversation for a long while. Wu Guan went downstairs to fetch water for an hour, but he still hadn't returned.

Yuanji put down the sutra and asked in confusion, "Where did Wuguan go to get water? He hasn't come back for so long, is he lost?"

"There is a deep well in the courtyard." Wu Jian replied in bewilderment, "Donor Li also told us in the afternoon that if we need water, we can just get it from the well. It's really strange. After so long, Senior Brother Wu Guan should have returned long ago..."

"Go downstairs and take a look!"

A hint of suspicion flashed across Yuanji's eyes, and then he hurried downstairs with Wujian, walked through the empty Buddhist hall, and ran straight into the courtyard.

Tonight, the moon is bright and the stars are sparse. The soft moonlight pours down on the ground, casting a white halo.

At this time, there was a wooden barrel next to the well, but it was only half full of water.

"Strange!" Wu Jian scratched his head, "The bucket is here, where did Brother Wu Guan go?"

Yuanji looked around and saw the narrow courtyard at a glance, but he still couldn't find Wuguan. He looked again and saw that the gate was closed and the bolt was not opened, so it was obvious that Wuguan had not left.

"Master-uncle..."

"Shh!"

Before Wu Jian could speak, Yuan Ji suddenly waved his hand to stop him. His old eyes looked around the yard in confusion and caution. After scanning a few times, he finally cast his solemn gaze slowly into the bottomless well.

"Hurry up and pull the bucket up from the well."

Wu Jian seemed to have anticipated something, and he rushed to the well and started to turn the shaft desperately.

Strangely enough, the bucket of water seemed extremely heavy, so much so that Wu Jian had to use a lot of strength to slowly raise the bucket in the well.

The bucket gradually emerged from the well. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing unusual, but before he could breathe a sigh of relief, Wu Jian, who was struggling to lift the bucket out of the well, suddenly let out a scream full of fear.

"Ah! Grandmaster Uncle... look... there's... there's..."

Yuanji's heart sank suddenly, and he quickly stretched his head to look, and was shocked to find that there was a bloody human head soaking in the bucket.

That was Wu Guan’s head.

In an instant, Yuanji and Wujian felt a chill on their backs, and the blood in their bodies seemed to have run cold. In the quiet courtyard, a chilly wind suddenly blew, and the chill was bone-chilling.

"Uncle Master, Senior Brother Wu Guan..." Wu Jian was so scared that he collapsed to the ground. He kept moving backwards while tremblingly pointing at the bucket in the distance and asked tremblingly, "How did he die?"

“It’s not a good time to stay here, let’s leave quickly!”

Yuanji acted decisively, called out to Wujian, who was in a state of panic, and rushed to the gate of the courtyard. But when they were about to rush out, they were surprised to find that the gate had been locked from the outside.

"This……"

"Climb over the wall!"

Yuanji straightened his eyes, stretched out his hand and lifted Wujian's shoulder, and the two of them immediately flew into the sky and leaped out of the courtyard wall together.

"bass!"

Before the two of them could climb over the courtyard wall, a cold light suddenly flashed from the air. Yuanji's face changed and he hurriedly waved his arms to block it.

In an instant, Yuanji felt his arm go cold, followed by a sharp pain in his mind.

Without time to think, Yuanji turned around, picked up Wujian and fell back into the yard.

“Uncle-master, your arm... is injured…” Wu Jian frantically grabbed Yuanji’s right arm, which was bleeding profusely. Due to his inner fear, his face was pale and his body was shaking like a sieve.

Although Yuanji is of a high generation, he has been adept at Zen for many years and is not good at martial arts. Therefore, when faced with the sudden attack, he was inevitably a little panicked for a moment.

"Who is it?"

Yuanji looked up at the night sky and asked in a deep voice, "Did the donor misunderstand something? Why don't you show up and explain it to me face to face?"

"Master is worthy of being a master. He still remembers his dignity even when he is about to die."

With a playful grin, a dark figure suddenly fell into the courtyard from mid-air like a ghost. The person was wearing night clothes and a black scarf covering his face, so his face could not be seen clearly.

"I wonder who the donor is?"

"Who is it? Haha, I am the one who sent the master to paradise!"

Hearing this, Yuanji's face suddenly changed, but before he could speak again, the man in black suddenly took out a steel knife, and his figure moved a few times, and in the blink of an eye he had rushed in front of Yuanji and Wujian.

"Master, uncle, be careful!"

In an instant, Wu Jian's fear turned into endless anger, and he rushed towards the man in black with a low roar. However, the man in black dodged flexibly, and Wu Jian's fist immediately missed. Before he could come to his senses, the man in black suddenly turned his waist and swung a whip kick cleanly, hitting Wu Jian's head hard, and instantly kicked him high up.

Wujian's body fell like a sandbag, seven or eight meters away, lying on the ground motionless, his life or death unknown.

"Now it's your turn, Master."

The man in black flipped the steel knife in his hand and rushed towards Yuanji without mercy.

Yuanji's eyes fixed, and he quickly pulled back, but he didn't expect the man in black to move as fast as lightning and catch up with him in the blink of an eye. Yuanji saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly swung out his left palm. The man in black did not retreat but advanced. When Yuanji's palm was about to hit his chest, his body suddenly turned sideways, causing Yuanji's left palm to fly past his chest.

The man in black took advantage of the situation and swung his knife down with a slight "click" sound. Yuanji suddenly felt his left arm lighten. When he was about to retract his left palm in panic, he suddenly found that his left arm below the elbow had been chopped off by the man in black.

The white broken bones were exposed in front of Yuanji in a mess of blood and flesh, in a shocking manner.

"Forehead!"

I don't know how long it was before the heart-wrenching pain penetrated my heart. I wailed in pain and my whole body was instantly soaked in sweat.

"Master Yuanji, the head of Shaolin Lecture Hall, a great monk in the eyes of Buddhist disciples, a living Buddha in the hearts of good men and women. A first-class good man." The man in black said with a joking smile, "Little did you know that you are a monk who changed your career. You have been ignorant since childhood and have achieved nothing when you grew up. In poverty, you went to Xingjiazhuang in Shaozhou to steal money, but you were discovered. You were worried that they would report to the police, so you killed a family of six in a rage. The oldest was over 70 years old, and the youngest... was less than two years old."

When the man in black said this, a look of horror flashed across Yuanji's face. At the same time, a deep sense of guilt also appeared in his eyes.

"Later, the truth was revealed and the government was looking for your whereabouts. You were left with nowhere to go and had no choice but to become a monk to avoid punishment." The man in black sneered, "It's really hard to predict what will happen in this world. Decades later, the former murderer has turned into an enlightened monk. Now you are spreading Buddhism to others and chanting 'Amitabha' all the time. Don't you feel ashamed? Do you think that after decades, no one will remember what you did? Even you yourself, I'm afraid you have forgotten what kind of person you were supposed to be?"

"Who are you?" The muscles on Yuanji's face trembled slightly. "I know that I have committed serious sins and will be punished sooner or later. If you kill me for the innocent people who died in Xingjiazhuang, I will have no regrets."

The man in black sneered and shook his head, saying, "I'm not interested in revenge. The people of Xingjiazhuang died in your hands because they were incapable of resisting. And you were able to transform yourself into a sanctimonious Buddhist 'master', which is also your own ability. I came to you not because of your past dirty deeds, but for the 'Xuanshui Xiajuan' that you have hidden away."

After that, the man in black pressed the blade tightly against Yuanji's neck and said quietly, "Yuanji, you did all kinds of bad things in the first half of your life, and you saved all living beings in the second half. I'm curious, will people like you go to paradise after death? Or will you definitely fall into hell?"

"Xuan Shui Xia Juan?" Yuan Ji's face was covered with sweat. He stared at the black-clothed man's evil eyes while panting and asked anxiously, "You used a knife, and you came here for Xuan Shui Xia Juan... Could it be that you are from the Hexi Qin family?"

Faced with Yuan Ji's speculation, a cold light flashed in the black-clothed man's eyes, but he did not answer.

"You are indeed from the Hexi Qin family." Yuanji said in surprise, "I didn't expect that Qin Ming would actually dare to attack Shaolin. I thought he still had a trace of rationality and would not make such a stupid decision..."

"If you don't kill the Shaolin Temple, do you really think that everyone in the world is afraid of you?" The man in black laughed grimly, "Don't think that Shaolin is a big tree with deep roots, so you can do whatever you want in the world without any scruples. I hate people who claim to be virtuous and respected the most. Especially fake monks like you, who are full of benevolence and morality, but in fact they are full of evil intentions. You keep advising others to be pure and desireless, but you are obsessed with power and greed. Master, do you think you should be killed? There is a saying that goes, 'There are many monks in front of the gate of hell', I guess it refers to monks like you, right?"

"Since ancient times, every sect has its bad elements, but not everyone is bad. The misunderstanding between us and the Hexi Qin Clan is an unnecessary one. Why do you have to make the same mistake over and over again? Turn the misunderstanding into hatred? Or even turn it into an uncontrollable fight... Do you know that killing me today is a small matter, but it will inevitably provoke a conflict between Shaolin and the Hexi Qin Clan, which will undoubtedly set off a bloody storm in the martial arts world. I don't know how many innocent people will die. As the saying goes, it is better to resolve a feud than to create one. Why don't you..."

"nonsense!"

The man in black shook his head impatiently and sneered, "You killed a family of six, and you can lay down your butcher knife and become a Buddha right away. What qualifications do you have to tell me now that 'it's better to resolve a feud than to create one'?"

"Karma is a cycle, good deeds will be rewarded and evil deeds will be punished! Today I am suffering this calamity, which is also destined by fate. I know that I cannot escape the calamity, I just hope that my death will not implicate innocent people again." Yuanji looked calm and ready to die, and said in a deep voice, "Please do it, benefactor!"

After saying that, Yuanji slowly closed his eyes, no longer paid attention to the man in black, and silently recited scriptures.

"Master, have a safe journey!"

The man in black's eyes moved, and he stared at Yuanji with bloodthirstiness. The blade in his hand suddenly turned, instantly cutting Yuanji's throat, killing him on the spot.

With a cry, Yuanji's body fell straight to the ground. The man in black stared at the corpse with eyes wide open, hesitated for a moment, then suddenly his eyes turned fierce, and he swung his blade and slashed at the corpse.

In about an incense stick of time, the man in black had cut Yuanji's body into eight pieces. The scattered body parts were horrifically scattered in a pool of deep red blood.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Suddenly, there was a rapid knock on the door. Then, Li Xian's angry voice suddenly rang out: "Who locked the door? Don't you know that Master Yuanji lives in there? Hurry up and find the key to open the lock!"

Facing the noise outside the courtyard, the man in black remained calm. He slowly fiddled with the broken flesh with his hands. After a while, he pinched a bloody ear with his fingers, and a greedy look flashed in his eyes.

"Master, I am different from you. You believe in past lives, reincarnation, and the retribution of good and evil. But I don't believe that. I only believe in myself!"

After saying that, the man in black glanced at Wujian, who was lying motionless in the distance. Suddenly, he stepped on the ground, flew up, and jumped directly onto the roof. After a few ups and downs, he quickly disappeared into the night sky of Xuzhou City.

……

(End of this chapter)