Chapter 80: A Day

Having finished a meal of coarse tea and light rice that didn't contain a single shred of meat.

After spending some more time completing some cleaning and miscellaneous tasks in the Temple,

the group arrived at the place where the Abbot lectured on the scriptures.

"What you perceive with your eyes and desire with your hearts are all illusions." The Abbot sat on the lecture platform with one eye closed, his hands pressed together.

Under a sky so gloomy it seemed it would never clear, the monks listened quietly.

Ding Mo and his group sat among them as well.

"True nature cannot be seen, the fruit of Buddha cannot be imagined; only when the heart is still and unmoving can one seek it."

Ding Mo had no interest in the lecture, so when he was idle, he asked Jiang Liuxue beside him:

"You don't seem to look very well?"

Ever since she fell asleep during the Early Morning Lesson just now, she had seemed somewhat dejected along the way.

"I..." Jiang Liuxue hesitated to speak upon hearing this.

He was always thinking about the nightmare he had during the Early Morning Lesson just now.

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Liuxue took this opportunity to lower his voice and tell Ding Mo about it.

A nightmare? Amidst the Abbot's solemn lecture, Ding Mo said with some surprise:

"You... could it be that you have Precognitive Dreams?"

"Of course not." Jiang Liuxue shook his head gently:

"I rarely even have normal dreams."

Then...

However, the lecture was already nearing its end at this time.

The Abbot performed a bow and was about to stand up and leave. Seeing this, Zhu Dechang stood up hurriedly and seized the opportunity to stop him.

"Master, this disciple has some questions and would like to ask for your guidance."

Upon hearing this, the Abbot stopped, turned around, and swept his only open eye over him:

"Speak."

Zhu Dechang then asked about the Seven High Incense Sticks as they had previously agreed.

He received the following reply:

This was actually a tradition of the Temple—every five years, 7 days before the Double Ninth Festival, they would find 7 special High Incense Sticks and 7 Lay Disciples to undergo a 7-day purification fast and observe the Precepts, in order to comfort the wandering spirits of the world and cleanse the Temple of dust and karma.

Of course, according to the Abbot, this was just a tradition and special activity the Temple had always followed, and there was nothing to it.

He even admonished Zhu Dechang to believe in science.

Watching the Abbot walk away, Zhu Dechang turned back and shook his head slightly at the others who had gathered around.

Indeed, if it were just this, it would be impossible to confirm the connection... Ding Mo thought to himself, then turned his gaze toward Jiang Liuxue.

As for Jiang Liuxue's dream, he thought it was better to find an opportunity to tell the others. Any suspicious matter in a Task was worth paying attention to.

These seven days were destined to be seven days of walking on thin ice...

In the afternoon after lunch, they carried out some more daily activities.

Then, after eating dinner, the group arrived at the Daxiong Treasure Hall again amidst the sound of bells to conduct the evening lesson.

By this time, the sky had turned completely dark, and Ding Mo estimated the time to be around 21:00.

Dim yellow light seeped out from the hall doors, keeping the thick darkness at bay. The darkness lingered outside the hall like a prowling beast.

Inside the hall, several green lamps burned, and Buddhist chants rose one after another.

Whoosh—

The night wind blew in from the main entrance, causing the lamplight to flicker. At the altar where offerings were placed, the seven special High Incense Sticks seemed to burn eternally, with most showing no obvious change.

Only one of them seemed to be burning more fiercely, having become a tiny bit shorter.

In a corner, Ding Mo held the scriptures and chanted.

"Vajra Prajnaparamita... Tuo-ta-ye-a-li-dou-po-pi-tuo..."

The night was different from the day; the scriptures being chanted seemed to be related to delivering wandering souls.

The evening lesson was soon halfway through, but Ding Mo discovered something... unusual?

It seemed as if several more mouths had appeared out of thin air to chant!

The chanting sound inside the hall was clearly denser than before! It was even growing louder!

But no one else had entered the hall, and it was impossible for anyone to be let in at this time.

Ding Mo felt a faint sense of heart-pounding dread!

What was going on?

This scene was far too obvious; Zhu Dechang, Xiao Yong, and the others in the hall noticed it too. They seemed to become somewhat restless.

On the contrary, the original monks had no reaction to this and only focused on their chanting.

Seeing this, Ding Mo did not act rashly and only scanned his surroundings with the corner of his eye.

Should he report this to the Abbot? The "Precepts" didn't mention this rule...

However, the Abbot suddenly stood up at this moment,

and then actually picked up a disciplinary ruler and began to patrol the hall. It seemed he was checking to see if any disciples were slacking off on their chanting!

And miraculously, as he patrolled, the inexplicably extra chanting sounds in the surroundings began to decrease!

Before long, after he had patrolled a few times, the sense of abnormality disappeared completely.

Watching the Abbot sit down, Ding Mo breathed a sigh of relief, and a sense of security even rose faintly in his heart.

These natives seemed to have extremely rich experience in dealing with anomalies. There was no need for them to think of ways to crack it themselves.

Although they were all veterans who had survived 2 Tasks, this Task didn't seem as difficult as he had imagined?

"Is it our good luck..." Ding Mo whispered.

Soon, the evening lesson ended.

During this time, other than Xiong Lihui rushing forward to drink a cup of "Offering Tea," nothing else happened.

The night grew deep, and everyone returned to their guest rooms.

Before going to sleep, Zhu Dechang gathered everyone in his room again.

Beside the slightly dim oil lamp, he seemed to be in a good mood, rubbing his Ear Stud with his fingers, and smiled:

"Today went quite smoothly."

Hearing this, everyone nodded slightly.

Today, basically no danger had occurred, so it could already be considered "smooth."

"This is only the first day, after all." Zhou Lan, however, poured a bucket of cold water on that.

"... That is also true; we cannot lower our guard."

"Xiong Lihui, how are you? What was going on just now?" Zhu Dechang first nodded, then asked as if he had remembered something.

Xiong Lihui sat in the corner of the room and shook his head upon hearing this:

"It was nothing much; just now, while reading the scriptures, the characters on the scripture book suddenly began to connect head-to-tail, as if they were about to turn into other 'things'."

"I didn't dare look closely, so I hurriedly followed what was written in the 'Precepts' and, after drinking the Offering Tea, reported it to the Abbot."

In fact, there was no need to report to the Abbot when the scriptures showed abnormalities. But Xiong Lihui felt that this provided an extra layer of insurance, so he did so.

The facts proved that there was no problem either.

That the scriptures would show abnormalities was something everyone knew when they saw the Precepts earlier, so naturally, they were not very surprised at this moment.

Next, the group discussed for a while some of the problems they encountered today, such as what the Seven High Incense Sticks, the seven-day period of keeping the Precepts, and the seven of them meant to the Temple.

Or, for instance, why was Qin Yifei suddenly found by Senior Brother Qingshi when he went missing last night?

However, most of these could not be answered with certainty.

Woo-woo!

The wind tonight seemed exceptionally strong, blowing through the darkness outside the window and bringing with it bursts of "ghostly wailing and wolf howling."

Just as everyone had finished discussing and was about to return to their rooms to rest, Ding Mo called them to stop.

Under their puzzled gazes, he glanced at Jiang Liuxue before saying:

"I... I and Sister Liuxue encountered a strange thing."

Jiang Liuxue then told everyone about her nightmare today.

When they heard that Zhou Lan had pulled out her own intestines to hang Xiao Yong, everyone frowned.

Setting aside how this groundless nightmare came about, the mere fact of dreaming about someone dying was already unlucky enough.

Xiao Yong was even more directly dissatisfied as he said:

"Hey, you wouldn't be doing this on purpose just to scare people, would you?"