Chapter 568: The Senior Brothers Who Worry Themselves Sick (23)

Ren Yidao's brows twitched slightly as he watched, with some surprise, as Mingxin rose under the glare of the wicked monks, straightened his robes, and walked out of the temple after bowing to them.

"What happened?"

After Mingxin walked back, he asked curiously: "Didn't you say your master and the Abbot here were close friends? How did it end up like this, with them not giving you any face at all?"

He did not ask if Mingxin felt humiliated, or if he needed his help to take revenge and vent his anger, because that was simply unnecessary.

Although the Mingxin before him was in a sorry state, with dirt stained on his monk's robes, his expression remained as gentle as ever, unperturbed by favor or humiliation, ignoring the looks of disdain or surprise from those around him.

"Abbot Lingxin, my master's friend, passed away half a year ago. The current Abbot Lingxin is another one sent by Spirit Mountain." Mingxin shook his head, smiled at the somewhat worried Minghui, and continued: "The current Abbot Lingxin has quite a few grievances against my master; they had some conflicts in their early years."

"I see..." After hearing this, everyone felt a bit of melancholy and sighed in their hearts.

When people leave, the tea goes cold; it is the same everywhere, and even this pure land of Buddhism cannot avoid such customs.

It was not just for the two brothers, Mingxin and Minghui, who had lost their master, but also for Lingxin Temple itself; after the previous Abbot passed away, the new replaced the old, and all traces of what once existed disappeared.

Even Ren Yidao felt a bit of emotion, as Divine Path Sect had once shown signs of this as well.

At that time, the sect issued an order that Luoyue Peak must achieve results, otherwise the peak would be reclaimed. It sounded very cruel and heartless; it was the greatest crisis in the history of Luoyue Peak since their master went missing hundreds of years ago.

However, looking back now, the voices of opposition had long been suppressed by Sikong Yu alone. Damn it, it had been hundreds of years; if there were really a problem, it would have erupted long ago, so why would it have to wait until that time?

And the reason Sikong Yu orchestrated that whole scene was mainly to find a different way to stimulate Jing Yueqin, who had been staying in Luoyue Peak like a lazy dog...

It was just that the final result might have exceeded the Sect Leader's expectations.

One may plant flowers with intent, but they fail to bloom; one may plant a willow without intent, but it grows into shade.

What he stimulated was not Jing Yueqin, but Ren Yidao.

And it was from that moment on that the little fox, who had endured for seventy years, stopped suppressing himself and stepped onto a path of wild acceleration.

Regarding Mingxin's recent encounter, Mingxin himself could let it go, Ren Yidao did not care, and Yaoyue had no interest in others, but two young girls could not stand it.

Li Lingling frowned as she glanced at the two smug wicked monks, and asked Mingxin with a furrowed brow: "Master Mingxin, with your strength, you could have dodged that just now, right?"

In her view, those two gatekeeping monks had not even stepped into the Earth Realm and could not possibly be Mingxin's match.

"Naturally, I could."

"Then why didn't you avoid it? Because you weren't afraid? Why let them humiliate you like that?" Li Lingling did not understand; she felt it was too stifling and simply could not comprehend it.

Yet, compared to the girl who was angry for someone else's sake, the novice monk's expression remained unchanged as he smiled and pressed his palms together: "This matter is something I am requesting of others. If they are unwilling, I should not force them to be willing."

"Although my master had ties with the previous Abbot Lingxin and had done favors for Lingxin Temple, this cannot be an excuse for me to force them."

"Even if I succeeded in forcing them, and they agreed falsely, it would be bad if they went back on their word in the future or did something behind my back."

"The little monk naturally does not care about these petty tricks, but Minghui has not yet cultivated and cannot be on guard at all times."

"This..." Mingxin's explanation left Li Lingling at a loss for words. Although she felt there was some logic to it, this approach really made her feel quite stifled.

In her understanding, people of the pugilistic world should not be so repressed; that is not how it is written in storybooks!

"At least, at least you should tell everyone the truth!"

At this moment, no matter what, Mingxin should have caused a scene at the villainous temple, proclaimed their actions to the world, and finally fought his way out, taking his junior brother away and leaving behind a glorious reputation for resisting evil.

Mingxin blinked, smiled slightly, looked at Ren Yidao on the side, and nodded.

Benefactor, it is your turn to step in.

"Lingling, your approach is not wrong, but have you ever thought about one thing: in the eyes of others, are we good? Or evil?"

Ren Yidao saw that the timing was about right, so he spoke at this moment, asking with a light laugh: "Do you think that for these, um, believers who have dedicated their entire lives to Lingxin Temple, they would believe what we strangers say? Or would they believe the temple they have worshipped their whole lives?"

It can only be said that Li Lingling is worthy of being related to Shi Xue; their thought processes are exactly the same.

Thinking too naively.

"Not only will they not believe you, they will actively fight for the temple, even sacrificing themselves. In that case, what should we do about these innocent but blind mortals? Should we kill them all?"

"... No, can't we?"

Li Lingling was stunned by what was said, and without thinking, she subconsciously answered weakly. Only after she finished speaking did she realize she seemed to have said something quite extraordinary.

"Uh... no." Ren Yidao's expression turned cold, his mouth twitched, and he irritably spread his hands and flicked her on the head.

*Pop! *

Damn it, you Li Family slaughter-freak!

What kind of blood is flowing in your family's veins!?

Are you some kind of Khorne champion?

All you know is kill, kill, kill, kill, kill...

"In short, although your idea just now isn't wrong, it requires sufficient prerequisites. You need enough strength to allow you to retreat unscathed under the siege of the crowd! You also need enough power to flatten Lingxin Temple without harming other innocent mortals."

"If both of these are insufficient, then you need to endure for the time being. A gentleman's revenge is not too late even after ten years; a moment of forbearance is not a disgrace."

Li Lingling was lectured, pouted aggrievedly, and pulled Yu Yu from the side to use as a pillow.

*Whimper, whimper. *

Leaning against Senior Sister's soft and fragrant body to recover some of her mood, Li Lingling asked again: "Then what would you do, Senior Brother?"

Ren Yidao did not hesitate and said casually: "Me? I would naturally just tear this temple down. Never mind the monks, I would smash every single Buddha head for you."

Everyone:?

"Ahem!"

Mingxin coughed and said helplessly: "Daoist, you cannot say such things recklessly. Disrespecting the Buddha is something this little monk cannot pretend not to hear."

"Oh fine, then I won't smash them all. I'll smash half and leave half. If you don't look at the monk's face, you look at the Buddha's face, right?" Ren Yidao compromised and took a step back on his own initiative.

Of course, this was only him feeling he had taken a step back; in the eyes of others, this was still very excessive.

"... Then why did you lecture me." Li Lingling muttered aggrievedly; I clearly had the same idea as you.

"Nonsense, I can do this because I have the strength. What do you have? Relying on your family background? Do you actually think the Li Family name has any use in the Western Desert?" Ren Yidao put on a villainous, ugly face, constantly hammering this little troublemaker of the Li Family.

"... Hmph, I'm ignoring you." Li Lingling knew she was in the wrong, and finally stopped paying attention to this bad Senior Brother who was getting more and more excessive, and dragged Senior Sister over to the side of their master, Yaoyue.

Then, she was hugged as well.

"Heehee! I've got you now~"

"With Master here, we aren't afraid of him!"

Li Lingling hugged Yu Yu from behind, and Huhu hugged Li Lingling from behind, the three of them posing like a large school emblem.

With Master backing her up, Li Lingling regained her confidence and stuck her tongue out at Ren Yidao in provocation.

"... Still too naive, just a child."

Ren Yidao chuckled, turned his head to ignore her, and turned to nod in thanks to Mingxin: "I hope you won't take offense at the rude words my Junior Sister just said."

"Benefactor Li also had good intentions; this monk understands." Mingxin shook his head, patted his Junior Brother's head, and said softly: "The Daoist is also worn out from worrying about his Junior Sisters."

"Likewise." The conversation between the two just now had both sincerity and play-acting, all to guide Li Lingling.

Ren Yidao's goal was to give Li Lingling a lesson, neither too big nor too small, to properly temper her so her temperament wouldn't be so impetuous.

This was also why Ren Yidao insisted on bringing Li Lingling and the others out to travel together instead of speeding through the Western Desert; these two Junior Sisters still had too little experience in the world and needed to be properly cultivated and corrected.

Li Lingling is naive, Yu Yu is weak; such personalities aren't necessarily bad, but when walking the world, they still need to be slightly corrected.

At the very least, don't let them be deceived by anyone other than me, Huhu.

The only one who can deceive them... oh no, the only one who can teach them, is me, Huhu, in my capacity as Senior Brother!

Senior Brother will not deceive you!

"Senior Brother..."

Minghui tugged at his Senior Brother's monk robe at this moment, seeing the dust and sand on it, "Senior Brother, do they hate us? Did we do something wrong? Is it because I'm not obedient?"

Minghui lowered his head uneasily, a faint blood-red light flashing in his only remaining eye, his body trembling slightly.

"It's fine, don't worry."

But just as the blood-red color was about to surge in his eyes, Mingxin's voice sounded as usual, and his peaceful mood also infected Minghui, calming his uneasy heart, "You didn't do anything wrong, and no one hates you."

"... Mm." Minghui replied softly after a moment of silence, the blood-red color in the depths of his eyes gradually fading.

He raised his head and was about to speak, but felt a pair of eyes lingering on him; he turned his head and found Zhang Mang looking at him, so he subconsciously revealed a smile.

Minghui smiled, and so Zhang Mang smiled too.

Mingxin noticed this, patted Minghui's head, and told him to go play with Zhang Mang.

Then he turned to Ren Yidao and said: "Daoist, would you like to take a look inside the temple?"

"Oh?"

"Although the monks here have lost their Buddha Heart, the Buddha statues have not yet lost their Buddha nature; it is still worth a look, and perhaps it might give you some gains."

"... Very well." Ren Yidao hadn't originally intended to go, but now that he said this, he became somewhat interested.

"You all wait a moment, I will return shortly."

After making up his mind, Ren Yidao left as soon as he spoke, leaving the others behind to walk up to the mountain gate alone.

He walked up the stairs with his hands behind his back, passing the ordinary Believers who were kowtowing every step of the way, stepping directly over them.

But strangely, no Believer glared at him, and no one criticized his rude behavior.

Everyone ignored him, and even the two evil monks at the entrance did not stop him, letting him drive straight in through the main gate.

Because in the eyes of these people, they didn't see a person at all.

If it were elsewhere, Ren Yidao might still need to use some other means, but after entering this scene of flourishing Incense, he was truly like a fish in water.

Ren Yidao didn't even use any Dao Technique, but instead directly merged himself into the thick Incense surrounding him.

Although this Incense did not belong to him, if he wanted it, he could easily steal it.

It was just that he didn't think much of it.

Ren Yidao passed through the monks, paused briefly before the incense burner, and then continued forward, entering directly into the main hall.

And the moment he stepped into the main hall, a gust of wind suddenly blew through the hall without warning.

Whoosh—

The next instant, all the candles in the hall were extinguished!