Chapter 125: Setting Fire, Pushing the Tower

"The Lady's voice."

The main hall's incense hall was already close at hand, yet the old nun's face showed a look of suspicion.

The voice of the person before her was quite magnetic, obviously much rougher than that of a woman, and a world apart from the childish voice of a young girl like a modest daughter of a humble family earlier.

"Are you male or female?"

Seeing the other party give no response and only stride towards the main hall, the old nun instantly became alert; she hurried a few steps and reached out to block Xu Qing's path.

"What does this mean, Venerable One? Does your temple welcome incense guests only by distinguishing people?"

Saying this, Xu Qing bypassed the old nun before him and was about to continue walking inside.

The old nun had a guilty conscience and would not let Xu Qing enter no matter what.

"This temple is mostly filled with female nuns; since you are a man, you should know that men and women are separate. If you insist on refusing to leave, this poor monk will call for people!"

"Men and women are separate?" Xu Qing sneered, as if hearing the biggest joke in the world.

"When you were at Hongxing Nunnery, you were not seen to be so lofty."

"Who exactly are you?!"

The old nun, having been struck by past events, had her face change instantly.

"Who am I?" Xu Qing reached out to push aside the old nun blocking the way and stepped towards the main hall.

"This is a temple for granting children; naturally, I have come to seek a child."

Hearing these words, the old nun no longer blocked him, only frowning and saying: "You are a man; even if you dress as a woman, you cannot violate the natural order to bear offspring."

"I do not understand what the Venerable One says. Which person seeking a child does not come to violate the natural order? Speaking as you do, the children sought by those incense guests should be those destined for them; if so, why would they need to come and beg the gods?"

Candlelight illuminated the main hall; Xu Qing raised his head to look at the tall divine statue looking down on him with lowered brows, as if answering the old nun, or perhaps conversing with the statue.

The old nun dared not answer recklessly, but Xu Qing did not intend to let the other party off.

Why were those temples for granting children so prosperous with incense? Did the incense guests who came to seek children truly conceive only because they worshipped the gods and listened to these nuns?

Xu Qing integrated the information obtained over these two days and already had an answer.

"Venerable One, a person of the monastic path does not speak falsehoods; I ask you one thing, and you must answer truthfully."

Hearing the commotion inside the main hall, two other nuns on night duty adding lamps came looking.

"What matter does the layman wish to ask?"

Xu Qing patted Xuan Yu; the latter broke free from his embrace and ran lightly to the main hall entrance.

At this moment, the old nun and the two lamp-adding nuns stood between Xu Qing and Xuan Yu, while behind Xu Qing stood the cold statue that had always maintained a single expression.

That statue's eyes were cast downward, appearing to pity the world and its people.

"I have heard that incense guests seeking wishes and children in the temple need the Venerable Ones of the temple to go and deliver them; is this true?"

The old nun was frightened by Xu Qing's question and hesitated for a moment, daring not to reply lightly; instead, the half-old nun on night duty beside her answered Xu Qing's question.

"Since the offspring sought in my Temple for Granting Children, naturally they should be delivered by the disciples of my temple."

"But how have I heard that the children you deliver mostly die in the womb, and even worse, both mother and child perish?"

That nun laughed: "The Old Mother Who Saves Infants only cares for those who widely accumulate hidden virtue; dying in the womb means their accumulation of virtue is insufficient, causing the spiritual child to be unwilling to descend to the world; this has nothing to do with the disciples of my Temple for Granting Children who deliver, but is because their own hearts are not sincere enough."

Xu Qing fell silent for a moment and asked again: "Have all of you Venerable Ones delivered for incense guests seeking children?"

"That is natural; if the layman's heart is sincere and has conceived, perhaps the monks and nuns in our temple will even fight to deliver for the layman." The nun smiled playfully, her demeanor frivolous, and while speaking, she stared straight at Xu Qing's body.

They had truly never seen a style like this.

Facing the nun's teasing, Xu Qing paid no attention.

These nuns were also women, yet there was not a shred of motherliness in their hearts.

Those who are mothers lick their calves and cherish the young, swallow bitterness and spit out sweetness, possessing a natural desire to protect their children.

But the nuns of the Temple for Granting Children, let alone motherliness, one could not find even a trace of humanity.

Xu Qing chuckled softly and suddenly reached out to pinch the female nun's neck.

A crisp sound of bones dislocating rang out, accompanied by the nun's head tilting to the side and her body collapsing to the ground.

The other two nuns stood frozen in shock; before they could cry out, Xu Qing's figure flashed, and in the blink of an eye, two more sounds of bones shattering rang out.

Xuan Yu, standing guard at the entrance, turned his head to look and saw three people lying before the main hall's divine statue.

Seeing Xu Qing's expression was not very good, Xuan Yu walked close, raised his head, and asked: "Did they do something bad?"

At this time, Xu Qing was using the Sutra of Saving People to examine the past of these nuns.

He saw the devout kneeling forms of the couples seeking children, and saw how some women, even after becoming pregnant, still frequently came to kneel and thank the gods.

But when they were about to give birth, these nuns responsible for delivery acted like gatekeeping death gods, squeezing the newborn infants to death alive and sending them through the Ghost Gate.

After ten months of pregnancy, the infant had not yet opened its eyes to look at its birth mother, and the birth mother had not yet had time to look at her own child; they were separated by yin and yang, with no more mother-child fate.

Even so, the mothers still believed it was their own virtue that was flawed, that Heaven would not allow it, and that they had harmed their own children.

But what they did not know was that even if they did not go to the Temple for Granting Children to worship the Old Mother Who Saves Infants, they could still conceive a fetus.

Xu Qing looked at Xuan Yu who had asked him.

"They killed many people, both adults and children; those children had just been born, and some adults had just become mothers."

"And there are some living adults; if they knew their children would have lived well, learned to speak, walk, marry and have children, and serve their parents, their hearts would probably be more painful than death."

It is easy to save beasts, but difficult to save humans; I would rather save beasts than save humans.

A brief moment of a life review, yet Xu Qing's mood remained difficult to calm for a long time.

Xuan Yu did not know what Xu Qing had seen; he raised his head, lost in thought.

Immediately, Xuan Yu used his head to gently rub against the young man's leg.

Xu Qing smiled and reached out to pick up the cat that wanted to comfort him.

While walking towards the temple entrance, he said: "But it does not matter; once our Cat Immortal Hall levels this place to the ground, such things will never happen here again."

A cold wind swept through the hall; red candles fell on the incense table, tongues of fire climbed the curtains, the huge divine statue was cut into pieces by blood-red needles and threads, the huge statue's head fell to the ground, the hall's beams and pillars ignited with eerie green flames, and smoldering fire seeds rolled up the scriptures scattered all over the ground.

Late at night, a fire broke out, and the Temple of the Child-Bestower became utterly chaotic.

The temple keeper, a woman in her forties, rushed to the main hall; the nuns around her were in disarray, while only a few elderly incense attendants carried buckets forward to fight the flames.

Above the blaze, crows circled and watched.

When a sharp whistle sounded from below, the crows dove, swooping toward a figure in red robes amidst the night.

"Uncle Crow, I must inform you of something beforehand."

Xu Qing briefly recounted the evil deeds committed by the people of the Temple of the Child-Bestower to the black crow.

"The fetuses those women sought were not bestowed by the divine power of the Old Mother Who Saves Infants; rather, they already had such a karmic connection."

"They were merely tricked by the Temple of the Child-Bestower, yet remained unaware."

"Now that the chief villain is revealed, I beg you, Uncle Crow, not to feel pity for these people and let them escape."

The firelight reflected in the black crow's eyes. After hearing Xu Qing's words, it resolutely agreed: "I have long heard of the affairs of the Temple of the Child-Bestower. The first time I saw these nuns, I knew they were no good. Rest assured, I will guard all the roads; not a single nun shall escape this temple."

The main hall of the Temple of the Child-Bestower stored many incense sticks and oils; now that the fire had taken hold, even with everyone carrying water to extinguish it, it was but a drop in the bucket.

Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger.

Although Xuan Yu was a cat, he knew certain methods to command and ride the wind.

In the night illuminated by firelight, wherever the black cat passed, gray mist enveloped it, and a sinister wind howled.

The raging flames were drawn by the strange wind; the tongues of fire quickly spread to other buildings.

The temple keeper possessed some cultivation; upon seeing this scene, she immediately understood the cause of the temple's fire.

With a sorrowful face and wearing the robes of a head nun, the temple keeper patrolled all around.

When she saw the figure in red emerging from the night nearby, the temple keeper suddenly spoke up to question: "Who are you? The temple is on fire; could this be your doing?"

The person before her made no response, merely moving faster and faster; the temple keeper could only see the figure darting through the temple courtyard, and with each person passed, a monk or nun fell.

"Impudent!" The temple keeper tightly gripped her prayer beads, chanting the Ghost Mother Mantra; instantly, the cries of a crowd of infants abruptly rang out.

Purple sinister qi gushed from the prayer beads, and the foul, chilling mist coalesced into the form of ghost infants; their eyes tightly shut, mouths wide open, their faces twisted and distorted by the sinister qi.

The prayer beads held twelve mother-and-child beads; now that these sinister ghost qi had coalesced into ghost infants, they obeyed the temple keeper's command and all lunged at the red-robed villain.

The youth clad in a bright red wedding gown merely glanced in her direction, then resumed slaughtering the nuns within the Mother-and-Child Temple.

The red-robed youth moved with swift, elusive grace; those infant-faced ghosts pursued for a long while but could not even touch the hem of his robes.

Seeing she could not capture the red-robed villain, the temple keeper shifted her target to the cat demon fanning the flames.

Xuan Yu looked at the infant-faced ghosts chasing him from the air; his gaze was as if looking at a fool.

This old nun knew absolutely nothing about a cat's speed.

Xuan Yu stood motionless; before those ghost-faced infant spirits could pounce, he simply transformed into a puff of black demonic qi and vanished without a trace.

When he reappeared, he was already before the old nun.

Without any warning, without any signal, a slap landed on the temple keeper's face.

The temple keeper clutched her face in pain; when she came to her senses, the black cat had vanished once more.

Her fingers lightly touched her cheek, deep enough to see the bone; demonic qi swirled there, eroding her flesh and blood.

The old nun gritted her teeth and looked around; she saw the cat had already reached the side of the red-robed youth, squatting on the ground, licking its paw while casting a indifferent glance at her.

The fire in the temple's front courtyard had become uncontrollable; Xu Qing's Art of Observing Qi had never been lowered. Those who had committed the evil acts of abortion and infanticide all had the aura of wronged, dead souls entangling above their heads; for anyone displaying such signs, Xu Qing spared not a single one.

In the end, among the thirty-plus people drawn by the night fire, only a few incense attendants and two nuns survived.

However, these survivors were also knocked unconscious by Xu Qing and dumped in an area unaffected by the flames.

After this matter, disciples of the Chuma school would come to interrogate them.

Watching the vast foundation she had built reduced to ashes in an instant, the temple keeper's hateful gaze seemed ready to swallow the person and the cat before her alive.

"I have no feud with you; why do you destroy my livelihood!"

Xu Qing looked at the trembling old nun and suddenly spoke: "The child you bore with the evil spirit is in that Infant-Locking Pagoda, isn't it?"

"What do you intend to do?"

Xu Qing drew the Si Nan Sword, spun a few sword flowers, then, using the firelight, lightly stroked the blade with one hand, as if admiring the long sword in his grasp.

"He who sows the cause must reap the fruit; when you aborted and killed infants, did you never think that one day someone would kill your child before your very eyes?"

"Almost forgot, your child seems to have been a stillborn?" Xu Qing looked at the increasingly unstable old nun and said in a chilling tone: "But it doesn't matter; I will just kill him once more."

Having said this, Xu Qing held the precious sword, turned, and walked toward the pagoda-shaped building behind the temple.

In the air, the cry of a crow sounded.

Xu Qing, proficient in bird speech, knew what that crow's cry meant.

The black crow said he would keep watch on that old witch.

But there was no need for it to watch; the temple keeper, called the old witch, had already chased after Xu Qing.

In the next instant, a shadow of a crow flashed, claws piercing the monk's robe.

The pursuing old nun's leg tendons snapped, and she fell to the ground.

The old nun still refused to give up; she reached out and snapped the string of her prayer bead bracelet; the twelve beads scattered across the ground, and the infant ghosts sealed within, driven by the Ghost Mother, all rushed to attack Xu Qing.

Seeing those sinister ghost infants crash one by one into Xu Qing's body, the old nun immediately showed joy on her face.

However, moments later, the youth, whose steps had not stopped, merely let out a burp, spat out a mouthful of thick sinister qi, and showed no further reaction.

The old nun refused to believe in the supernatural; she chanted the Ghost Infant Mantra, but there was no response.

She chanted the Ghost Mother Mantra, yet it was as if stones had sunk into the sea.

The old nun finally panicked; she stumbled and screamed: "You cannot kill my child! My husband is a deity descended from heaven; my child has the fate of an immortal; you cannot kill him!"

Xu Qing paid no heed.

That so-called deity might have deceived the old nuns in the temple, but it could not deceive his Art of Observing Qi.

The sinister, gloomy qi filling this temple left no possibility other than an evil spirit.

Even if it were a deity, it would still be an evil spirit!

Arriving before the Infant-Locking Pagoda, Xu Qing looked up.

The pagoda was not tall, roughly three zhang in height; its body was built of bricks, stones, and tiles, yet covered with many eerie runes painted in human blood. Getting close, a choking, fishy stench wafted over.

Xuan Yu couldn't help but retch. After hesitating for a long while, it finally pressed its nose shut and followed Xu Qing to the pagoda.

"Immortal Xu, do you intend to go in?"

"Does Xuan Yu wish to go in?" Xu Qing looked down at the cat following closely behind.

"I will do as Immortal Xu says." Xuan Yu raised its head, displaying a spirit of sacrificing its life to accompany a gentleman.

"I certainly do not wish to enter such a place."

If even this corpse of his found the place filthy, it must have become thoroughly riddled with filth.

"I do not wish to enter either; it smells so bad and is so dirty inside."

Xu Qing looked down and met Xuan Yu's gaze, then suddenly proposed: "Since neither of us wishes to enter, why not topple this broken pagoda? What do you think?"

Xuan Yu's eyes lit up: "Immortal Xu is indeed clever."

(End of this chapter)