Chapter 65

Jin Wuya didn't know when he had regained consciousness.

Or perhaps, he had actually never truly lost consciousness!

At this moment, he tightly gripped the red rope in my hand with both hands, holding me steady in midair.

Master Yin Xuan gave a cold laugh, no longer hiding himself: "I have lived ninety-six years; do you know what I regret most to this day?"

No one answered him.

He didn't need anyone's answer, and continued: "What I regret most is that, over twenty years ago, on that mountaintop, the very mountaintop where I buried Jin Chengyang, I felt pity for the child who wore mourning clothes for him."

That child……was none other than the sixteen-year-old Jin Wuya!

As it turned out, when Jin Wuya was attending the funeral back then, Master Yin Xuan had been watching him from not far away!

He brushed past the Grim Reaper.

"I underestimated you," said Master Yin Xuan. "A mere brat in his teens, without the master you depended on, what storm could you raise? Ha, who would have thought that twenty-odd years later you would appear before my eyes like this, Jin Wuya? You brought this on yourself, so I bear no blame."

He turned the prayer beads in his hand, paced to the former abbot's corporeal form, and gazed at that patch of Golden Scale.

"You're just as self-righteous as your master!"

"Do you really think I don't know the difference between albino loach skin and a century-old snake shed?"

"One is extremely yin, the other extremely yang—worlds apart—but what does it matter?"

"Anyone who dares to scheme against me must pay the due price for their actions!"

I only felt the grip on the red rope around my ankle tighten suddenly, and Jin Wuya roared: "So back then, what exactly did you do to my master!"

"What did I do to him?" said Master Yin Xuan. "Naturally, I used his yang fire to fill the yin deficiency of the albino loach skin! Don't worry, your turn is coming soon."

So that's how it was!

Every person has three yang fires, two on the shoulders and one on the crown.

Yang fire is practically synonymous with yang lifespan.

Using yang lifespan to suppress that bit of yin in the albino loach skin… Master Yin Xuan's method is not merely vicious.

No wonder Jin Chengyang fell gravely ill after returning from Jiyu Si and soon passed away.

He was destined not to survive!

Jin Wuya finally learned the true cause of his master's death; his whole body trembled with rage as he shouted hoarsely: "Old bald donkey, how dare you! As a Buddhist, you actually commit such wanton slaughter—aren't you afraid the Buddha will blame you and cast you into the eighteen levels of hell?"

"Buddha's blame? Hah!"

Master Yin Xuan laughed as if he'd heard the funniest joke, bursting into maniacal laughter.

He pointed at the former abbot's corpse and said: "If the Buddha truly protects those who devote themselves to Buddhism, why did he die?"

"If it weren't for me turning the tide, do you think Jiyu Si would still exist today?"

"Oh, I forgot—originally this place wasn't called Jiyu Si; do you know what it was called?"

"It was called Flame Spirit Temple!"

Master Yin Xuan paused, his eyes gradually turning angry: "Three years! This region has been drought-stricken for three years!"

"The fields yielded no grain for three years, the people suffered beyond words, Flame Spirit Temple gave out its last bit of vegetarian rations to relieve the populace, and what did we get in return?"

"They claimed the persistent drought was because Flame Spirit Temple's name contains 'fire', which suppresses the Dragon Vein beneath the temple, disrupting the local feng shui, so they wanted to smash Flame Spirit Temple, bind us monks, and offer us to Heaven! Hahaha, offering to Heaven!"

"What Heaven are they offering to? They're just eyeing the temple's hot spring!"

"Hot spring?"

"I suddenly understood."

"The temple indeed has a hot spring; its water comes from the mountains, and we had soaked in it before."

"With years of drought and no food anywhere, why did the then-obscure Flame Spirit Temple still have vegetarian provisions?"

"It seems this hot spring in the temple has never dried up."

"And this flowing spring source was regarded by the populace as the Dragon Vein."

"If the Flame Spirit Temple had closed its doors and lived off its own stores, not distributing rations to the surrounding villagers, it would not have invited such calamity!"

"Human hearts—truly the most unfathomable thing."

"This is my senior brother, who was also the abbot at the time; he showed signs of great accomplishment, yet he met his demise when villagers swarmed Flame Spirit Temple to burn, kill, and loot!"

"Hahaha, he just died like that—don't you find it laughable?"

"Tell me, where was the Buddha then!"

Master Yin Xuan said, slamming his prayer beads hard against the former abbot's corpse, his visage turning ferocious: "What do you want me to do? Die like him?"

"No, I must preserve myself, I must survive!"

"I haven't yet become a Buddha or a god—how could I die?"

"The villagers will kill for a few bowls of rice, yet I can summon a sweet rain with just six girls, saving thousands—my merit outweighs my fault; I act for the people, for all beings, don't I?"

"The Buddha said, 'If I do not go to hell, who will?' Since he is already dead and already in hell, why can't I use him once more?"

"Hearing this, my worldview was utterly overturned: 'So you exploited my deceased senior brother, fabricating a colossal lie!'"

You changed the temple's name, invented a gimmick of a 'top fortune slip', picked six girls as sacrifices, and directed and staged a grand play where the abbot, unable to bear the people's suffering, sat in flesh on the altar to sacrifice to heaven to pray for rain.

So, at the start of that rain‑prayer ceremony, your senior brother, the former abbot, had already been dead for at least over half a month, right!

"Wrong! It's been one month!" Master Yin Xuan laughed, "Do you know how much effort I've put in to keep his flesh from rotting?"

"The flesh body you see is merely an empty shell!"

"I personally dug out his viscera, filling it bit by bit with the temple's incense ash, which both ensured he wouldn't rot so quickly and let his whole body emit a rich incense smell, making that group of foolish commoners believe it was truly the Buddha's manifestation, sincerely kneeling and offering worship; I am practically a genius!"

"You're just a lunatic!" Jin Wuya snarled, gritting his teeth.

"A lunatic?" Master Yin Xuan's smile suddenly froze, "Being crazy is great—being crazy means you won't be bound by those etiquette rules, and you can freely do whatever you want!"

As he spoke, his right hand suddenly twitched, and a Buddhist bead shot out from his palm, flying straight toward the center of my brow.

At the same time, the six‑petaled lotus beneath the former abbot began to rotate counter‑clockwise; as it turned, the other five girls kept twisting their bodies, twitching all over and emitting painful, shrill screams.

That was the most desperate cry when the Soul Body tore free from the flesh.

Yīnfēng surged forth, and the surrounding air gradually grew dim and hazy.

Dark clouds roiled overhead, and in the distance a low thunder rumbled.

By the Altar, the wooden fish and sutra chanting sounded without cease.

The Autumn Sacrifice officially began...