Chapter 109: A Day Trip to Xinzheng Temple

The nineteenth day of the first lunar month.

A thick fog in the early morning, the orange sun rising in the east.

Chen Shu stood by the window brushing his teeth, glancing at the street below as he brushed.

The difference between Yujing and Bai City was truly visible at a glance; just yesterday afternoon he had been enjoying the weather in Bai City, and today he was back in the cold of Yujing, where most of the pedestrians below were bundled in thick winter clothes, walking clumsily.

A ride-hailing car drove over.

Behind him, Chen Banxia was complaining incessantly in the living room: "I was saving those Dumplings for my breakfast, you two finished them all in one meal, what am I supposed to eat..."

This sentence was very domestic.

Last night, Chen Shu had dreamed of Shengzu, and also dreamed of the current Emperor of Yiguo and the Tribulation-Response Bodhisattva; the feeling in the dream was extremely surreal, so much so that upon waking, he felt a sense of unreality detached from actual life, but a single sentence from Chen Banxia pulled him back.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz~~"

The electric toothbrush vibrated incessantly.

Chen Shu glanced at Chen Banxia but ignored her; it is common knowledge that one cannot talk while brushing one's teeth.

He walked back to the bathroom and spat out the foam.

He heard Chen Banxia complaining again: "You guys didn't even tell me you were going to Xinzheng Temple to play; if I had known, I would have started work tomorrow. Now I've already promised the teacher..."

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

"Spit!"

While cleaning the cup and the toothbrush head, Chen Shu turned his head and said to her: "Study well, be serious, and strive to produce results soon. If you really find a substitute material for that potion, can make it, and the effect is good, remember to tell me; I have a great use for it."

"What use do you have for it?"

"Use it to soak my feet."

"Pah!"

"Remember now!"

"Hmph..."

The water in the kitchen boiled, and a knock at the door came as well.

Qingqing wasn't cutting it close today.

Chen Shu began to drop the Dumplings into the pot.

While the Dumplings tumbled in the pot, he mixed a sour soup base, added the dumpling water, let the lard melt, and then scooped the Dumplings into a bowl; a bowl of steaming, simple, and appetizing sour soup Dumplings was finished.

Ning Qing liked this flavor very much.

After breakfast, they each went out.

Chen Banxia went to the laboratory, and Chen Shu, the two of them, and Taozi hailed a taxi to the foot of Xinzheng Temple.

Over half an hour later.

The three people and one cat arrived at the foot of the mountain.

"Haa~~"

Chen Shu breathed out a puff of air, cupped his hands to rub them together, and looked up.

Before him were long, straight bluestone steps, soaked by the years into a deep dark green; the steps seemed endless in the mountain fog, yet deep within that mountain fog appeared a few branches of pink peach blossoms. Faint, ancient bell tolls drifted down from above.

"Dong, dong..."

The sound seemed to have traveled from ancient times.

"Let's go!"

Chen Shu led them and began to walk up.

Xinzheng Temple and Yuan'an Temple were of the same ilk; they didn't charge for tickets, but there were no cable cars either. If you wanted to go, you had to sincerely tread every single step.

There were many peach trees on the mountain, and they had just happened to bloom.

There were also many monkeys.

However, the monkeys here were quite polite and were not of the macaque genus; they were very small and had quiet temperaments. Seeing pilgrims arrive, some monkeys would run over and squat on both sides of the stone steps, looking at people with wide eyes, hoping for a kind person to feed them, yet they were too embarrassed to actively beg.

Clearly, Chen Shu was not a kind person.

This person not only didn't bring any food, but he also kept pretending he had food in his hands, offering them empty air.

The little monkeys were very sad.

After climbing for two hours, they reached the temple gate.

Xinzheng Temple was large in scale; the upper half of this high mountain was entirely covered by palaces. Currently, this was the front mountain; tourists could only go up the mountain and enter the temple from here, and their range of activity was also very limited.

Flying was not allowed.

Spirit Power and Spell were prohibited.

A Drone couldn't fly either.

The prestige of the Buddhist Sect ancestral court was still quite high.

When they arrived, there were already quite a few tourists visiting, and a young novice monk was sweeping the floor with headphones hanging over his ears.

Don't be Surprise; it was standard procedure.

Just keeping pace with the times.

Perhaps they were listening to Buddhist scriptures.

Coming to Xinzheng Temple, Chen Shu had listed three things to do.

The first was to burn incense and worship Buddha.

Chen Shu led the two toward the Spiritual Luck Treasure Hall, which was the main hall enshrining the Buddha statue; "Spiritual Luck" was the virtuous title of the Buddha currently worshipped in all temples, and once the Tribulation-Response Bodhisattva attained Buddhahood in the future, the name would have to be changed again.

What was the virtuous title of the Tribulation-Response Bodhisattva again?

Chen Shu didn't seem to have an impression.

On the left and right of the treasure hall entrance, a monk sat cross-legged, eyes closed in cultivation, with red incense placed beside them, free for the taking.

Chen Shu took nine sticks, divided them between the two sisters, and then stepped into the main hall.

A monk opened his eyes, caught sight of the long-haired white cat following the three of them as it struggled to cross the high threshold, but he paid it no mind and quickly closed his eyes again.

The precious hall was very tall, with eight Golden Bodies inside.

These Golden Bodies were not the Buddhist Golden Bodies with wide bodies and round features commonly perceived in past lives; instead, they were very realistic, varying in height and weight. The position of the Golden Body in the very center was slightly further forward, while the Golden Bodies to the left and right were slightly further back.

That one was the Zhengguang Buddha, the Zhengguang Tathagata.

The year before the founding of Yiguo, he attained Buddhahood through sitting meditation in Yuanzhou, and immediately, the Buddhist Sects across the world cast Golden Bodies for him simultaneously, and according to tradition, he took the center position.

All the other Golden Bodies were moved to the rear.

Chen Shu stood at the entrance of the main hall; there were people currently worshipping at every prayer mat in front, and they needed to wait in line.

Facing the several cold Buddha statues, he felt an extremely strong sense of oppression.

Even Taozi was somewhat cowering, sticking tightly to Ning Qing's feet and repeatedly looking up at her owner to gain a sense of security.

Chen Shu had once explored the deities of this world; he had used many methods to investigate them, and in the end, he was surprised to discover that he could find the same common point in all the suspected deity existences he had screened from Yiguo's history—

They were all worshipped by people.

Especially when they were all born from various well-known Cultivation Systems, more common points could be found.

The various Buddhas of the Buddhist Sect.

The successive Heavenly Venerables of the Daoist Sect.

The Sword God of the Sword Sect had also changed several times.

Et cetera, et cetera...

Yes—

They not only changed generations, but each had its own cycle.

The Daoist Sect Heavenly Venerables basically changed every thousand years.

They were more direct than the Buddhist Sect; at least the Buddhist Sect still said every Buddha was a Buddha, watching over and guiding the world from the Western Paradise, while the Daoist Sect simply said the Heavenly Venerable had changed, and if you wanted to, through diligent cultivation, perhaps the next Heavenly Venerable would be you.

The cycle of the Buddhist Sect Buddhas was slightly shorter; except for one who was removed after a hundred years, the others were about every eight hundred years or so.

As for the Sword Sect's Sword God, it was unknown.

Perhaps they didn't record it at all.

Furthermore, the center position of the Buddha statues in the Buddhist Sect's main hall was not always occupied by only one; in history, there were two occasions where two Buddhas occupied the center position together.

The Daoist Sect currently still had two Heavenly Venerables coexisting, and besides that, they also had one time in history where it was even more impressive, with a total of three Heavenly Venerables. What was even more interesting was that if you read history in detail, you would find that when the Daoist Sect's three Heavenly Venerables and the Buddhist Sect's two Buddhas coexisted, the Imperial Family was much more respectful when speaking to them.

Combining these things made the issue very easy to explain.

Therefore, those before his eyes were all those above the Ninth Stage who had existed in history, and among them, the one in the center perhaps had not yet fallen.

It was just, where were these deities? Why did they never appear in the world?

Chen Shu had always wanted to know.

He had also checked many materials and heard many theories, but as someone who knew history well, ordinary lies naturally could not fool him.

Just as he was thinking, a prayer mat finally became vacant.

Chen Shu did not insist on being unconventional; instead, he held the incense and walked over in a proper manner, knelt on the prayer mat, leaned forward, lit the incense in his hand, and after a faint flame rose from the tip of the incense, he shook it out. Immediately, green smoke rose, and he found an empty spot in the huge, low incense burner in front to insert it.

He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and sincerely asked.

Where have you all gone?

"!"

Chen Shu suddenly opened his eyes.

Looking left, looking right, he inexplicably had a strange feeling.

That feeling... was as if the light in the main hall had inexplicably brightened a bit, but his reason told him it hadn't.

"Emm..."

He closed his eyes again.

It's fine if you don't want to say...

Sorry to bother you, sorry to bother you...

Chen Shu hurriedly stood up, walked to the side to wait, and gave this prayer mat to the young girl.

Qingqing knelt on the prayer mat next to where he had just been to worship, while Taozi shrunk tightly beside her feet, looking up blankly at the Buddha statues above; these huge, golden, shiny people made it feel that it was very tiny.

The worship was completed.

The bell outside rang again.

A full thirty-six rings.

The bell sound was incessant.

Chen Shu had seen other people's comments on the review site and knew this was the meal bell, meaning it was time to eat.

The second thing—

Eating the five-piece-per-person vegetarian meal.

"Let's go!"

Chen Shu no longer cared about the previous matter and hurriedly ran to the Five Views Hall of Xinzheng Temple, which was the dining hall, the cafeteria.

This was the dining hall of the outer courtyard on the front mountain, where the main diners were Outer Sect Disciples and tourists; among them, tourists were charged five yuan per person, which was very cheap. Some elderly people living near the foot of the mountain even had the habit of coming to climb Xinzheng Temple every day, starting to climb in the morning, exercising their bodies, petting the monkeys, eating a meal at noon, and going home in the afternoon; not only did they kill a day, but they also ate a cheap lunch.

But Chen Shu was not even willing to pay this five yuan.

He was seen walking to the entrance of the dining hall, fumbling in his pocket for a moment before taking out three certificates and handing them to the novice monk at the door to look at.

Conversion Certificates!

Chen Shu had taken the two sisters to get them processed before.

Both the Buddhist Sect and the Daoist Sect had been processed.

This thing doesn't cost money; you can get one just by using your ID card. After getting it, you can eat and stay at major temples and Daoist shrines across the country.

Not many people know about it, but it is truly effective.

Relying on the two certificates of refuge in their hands, whenever Chen Shu took the two sisters out traveling in the past, while others climbed to the mountaintop and complained that the lodging on the mountain was too expensive, only they could not only stay in the temples and Daoist shrines but also mooch a meal.

Are you not going to fleece this wool?

The novice monk at the entrance revealed a smile and bowed slightly to the three of Chen Shu: "The three fellow practitioners should take only what you need and be frugal with food; please remember to keep your pets under control and do not use the tableware provided for people for your pets."

"Understood, thank you very much."

The three of them entered the vegetarian dining hall.

It was very large inside, and there were already tourists dining; these tourists were mainly middle-aged and elderly people.

The meals, bowls, and chopsticks were all self-service.

Chen Shu went over to take a look; there was neither too much nor too little variety in the dishes.

The staples included mung bean rice, corn rice, vegetable leaf porridge, and white flour steamed buns; the dishes included stir-fried shredded potatoes, pan-fried tofu, braised tofu, braised beans, stir-fried cabbage, and a dish of eggplant that looked very light, as well as a side of pickles, which were diced sour cowpeas, and a vegetable soup.

The three of them first each got a bowl of rice.

The little girl scooped a spoonful of shredded potatoes.

Ning Qing scooped a spoonful of sour cowpeas.

Chen Shu, however, scooped a little bit of every dish.

They sat down and started eating.

These vegetarian meals looked very simple, all being vegetarian food, and the seasonings used were also limited, but they felt exceptionally comfortable when eaten.

The rice was fragrant and soft, the dishes were seasoned just right, and they were all very flavorful and appetizing.

If Chen Shu were to give a rating, the shredded potatoes, the two tofu dishes, the cabbage, and the sour cowpeas would all get good reviews. Especially the sour cowpeas, which were neither too salty nor too bland, and were crisp, refreshing, and appetizing when bitten into.

After finishing, drinking a bowl of vegetable soup was very satisfying.

After eating and drinking their fill, when they walked out of the vegetarian dining hall, the mountain mist had just completely dispersed, the warm winter sun shining on them felt very comfortable, and the view suddenly became extremely expansive.

Chen Shu saw Yujing in the distance.

The city, which occupied a huge area on the flat ground, looked extremely spectacular; there were few high-rise buildings, and the Imperial City and Imperial Palace in the center could be vaguely seen.

Chen Shu saw the road they had come by.

There were still people walking on the long stairs, and peach blossoms were blooming all over the mountain.

Chen Shu saw the Buddha statue inside the main hall.

Daylight shone in from the top, and the Buddha's solemn appearance and Golden Body were shining brilliantly.