Chapter 116: The Stone Buddha dug into his internal organs
"My boss, master, why did these villagers turn into wooden figures?"
Sun Zhengde lifted up the quilt on the bed and knocked on the sole of the village elder's foot, making a unique bang-bang sound. Over there, Zhenhai frowned, holding a Buddhist bead and using his power to inspect it from beginning to end, and shook his head.
.
"It's just ordinary wood, you can't see it being mixed with anything else."
"Perhaps it really has something to do with the incense burner. Do you remember that when the ghost was chasing Sun Zhengde, he seemed to be saying, 'Have you seen it?' He should be looking for something. That's why he was wandering around the village after his death.
Activity."
Hearing Chen Yuan pick up the message he heard, Zhenhai also nodded slightly: "Then he is looking for the incense burner and returns it to the temple."
The fat Taoist looked at them and then at the crazy old man.
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
The crazy old man spread his hands, "I'm crazy, how can I know what to say?!"
While talking, Chen Yuan and the monk walked out of the room in tacit agreement. They each used their magic to find objects and walked around the village. Sure enough, at the corner of a field at the end of the village, they dug up the soil and revealed a bronze incense burner and three bronze incense burners.
The feet are engraved with Dharma seals.
Chen Yuan always felt that they looked familiar. When he fumbled with these carvings with his fingertips, he suddenly remembered that the runes on the huge stone tablet in Yongxiang Cave were similar to these.
"It seems that we need to go to that temple. Maybe the cave in Hengyan Mountain is over there."
After meeting up with Zhenhai, they showed the incense burner to the other party, and then discussed going to the temple. However, the villagers turned into wooden figures, which made them feel a little strange, so they decided to wait until dawn before going over to take a look.
After arranging for the master to go to bed, Chen Yuan, Sun Zhengde, and Zhenhai stood guard at the door of the village's home.
There was a hint of fish belly white in the sky, and the roosters in the yard jumped on the fence and crowed towards the sun. The moment the sun pushed the darkness to shine, a cough suddenly sounded in the house, the door opened with a creak, and the village elder came out with a cane and wearing obscene clothes.
When he was about to fetch water and wash up, he saw three people and they also looked at him.
"What are you... Hey, Taoist priest, what are you doing?!"
Sun Zhengde was so surprised that he groped the old man's body. The village elder was so frightened that he quickly retreated to the door with his clothes in his arms, glared at the fat Taoist priest and shouted: "I am a serious person, the Taoist priest has really insulted the face of a monk!"
With that said, the door closed with a bang.
"Old man, no, you misunderstood!"
Sun Zhengde knocked on the door a few times, then Chen Yuan pulled him back and whispered: "Don't tell them."
Immediately, he left with the fat Taoist. Outside, smoke was rising from the village. Young men were squatting by the door with bowls in their hands, digging for food. There were also farmers who had eaten early, carrying hoes and walking into the fields at the entrance of the village.
They were working and saying hello to the group of them; the smaller children were swaying their braids and were feeding a few hens at home.
Everything was as usual, it was hard to imagine that they were lifeless wooden figures last night.
"It's really scary..." This is a picture of ordinary life. After experiencing last night, Sun Zhengde felt a chill in his heart when he looked at the villagers who were smiling and saying hello. When he turned around and was about to speak, he found that Chen Yuan and Monk Zhenhai had disappeared.
He walked towards the outside of the village, quickly grabbed his spell book and followed.
"Master, where are we going?"
After walking for several miles, they had basically passed the village, and the ox cart was still going forward. However, Chen Yuan did not answer, but just raised his chin and motioned for him to look ahead.
In the distance, behind a forest, there is an old temple standing on a barren hillside.
After walking through a gentle slope overgrown with weeds, the ox cart stopped. The four of them could see the old temple, which was mottled with traces of wind and rain, but it could also be seen that people were taking care of it from time to time. The stone steps at the temple door were clean and there were few fallen leaves. Even
There are no weeds or moss in the gaps.
Walking along the road and entering the temple gate, you will see the grand courtyard, the stone lanterns are new and not old, the towering hall has green tiles and cornices, and the eaves and columns are carved with colorful rare animals.
Under the main hall, there are three golden characters "Yunzhen Temple" engraved on the door plaque.
Through the bright morning sun, you can vaguely see incense burning slowly floating out of the open hall, as if there are pilgrims worshiping the Buddha.
"Feihe once told me that old trees are accompanied by ghosts, and desolate temples breed evil spirits. The brighter the surface, the more powerful the things inside are unknown."
Thinking of the evil things in the village, the fat Taoist became a little scared this time.
"Are we really going there?"
Chen Yuanli ignored him and stepped up the stone steps in front of the hall with Monk Zhenhai. They crossed the calf-high threshold. The altar was surrounded by lotus and Buddha lanterns. There was a giant Buddha dressed in colorful clothes, wearing gold beads and jade, and holding a
Wuweiyin's eyes were kind and he faced the four people who came in.
"Why don't you worship this big Buddha?" Chen Yuan looked at the monk next to him.
Zhenhai stared closely at the big Buddha sitting cross-legged on the lotus platform opposite: "In the wilderness temple, no matter what kind of Buddha is enshrined, I will not worship it. However, do you think this Buddha statue is a bit weird?"
Perhaps his cultivation level was lower than that of the monks. Except for the luxurious decoration of the Buddha statue, Chen Yuan could not see anything else. In his eyes, it was just an ordinary clay statue.
The master on the side was stroking his beard and was eager to climb up when a Buddha's name was heard.
"My Buddha is compassionate!"
This chant of the Buddha was not heard from Zhenhai, but came from one side of the main hall. A thin old monk with a white beard and a cassock appeared out of nowhere and bowed to Chen Yuan, Zhenhai and Sun Zhengde.
You know, Chen Yuan and Zhenhai cannot be unaware of the slightest disturbance. No matter how hidden it is, the crazy old man over there can detect it immediately.
Over there, Zhenhai sealed the seal and returned the gift. He looked at the old monk who was slowly coming over and said softly: "Old abbot, why is there a solitary Buddha in the temple?"
"There is a temple on an isolated mountain, and there is naturally a Buddha in the temple." The old monk replied.
Sun Zhengde came to Chen Yuan's side and asked in a low voice: "My boss, what are they talking about?"
"I don't know." Chen Yuan shook his head. He came here because of the cave matter. It took a lot of effort to guess the riddles like this. When he saw the two of them looking at each other, he simply went over to interrupt and took the bronze incense burner from the fat Taoist's hand.
In front of the offering table.
"Old abbot, is this incense burner from the temple?"
The old monk looked away from Zhenhai, looked at the incense burner on the ground, and bowed to Chen Yuan with a smile.
"Exactly!"
"But... I don't think so." Chen Yuan grasped and sucked the incense burner back into his hand, "As far as I know, the runes on it are not Buddhist inscriptions, but are inscribed in a cave somewhere.
, Old abbot, I wonder if you can tell me how the incense burner came from, how the poor man from the village outside died, whether he was looking for this incense burner after his death, and why the villagers turned into wooden figures in the middle of the night?!"
The old monk seemed to know the purpose of everyone's visit and was not in a hurry. He smiled slightly and walked slowly.
"The evil people in the village were lazy and stole the stove in order to sell it for money. However, the Buddha in the temple did not want to kill any living beings and only went to sleep to persuade him. The poor man just fell into the water and died in an accident. The Buddha punished him to find the incense burner and then go to the underworld."
Zhenhai turned back with an expressionless face: "It seems that the Buddha in this temple values this incense burner more than anyone else." He suddenly turned around and formed the Demon Subduing Seal, and raised his voice: "You are a bold monster, and you dare to pretend to be a god! Show yourself!"
The moment the Buddha's light hit his face, a burst of white smoke suddenly appeared around the old monk, which frightened Sun Zhengde into hiding behind Chen Yuan.
When the smoke dissipated, the old monk was still standing there, but inside the monk's robes and cassocks were cracked rocks with human facial features, body shape, and limbs.
"Is it really a monster, or a stone monster?" Sun Zhengde shouted.
The old monk over there did not panic, but bowed to Zhenhai indifferently, "This master's Buddhist teachings are profound, and the poor monk admires him, but I am not the one who killed Lai Zi, nor did I cast spells to turn the people in the village into
Wooden man.”
"you say!"
Chen Yuan walked to the middle and stood in front of Zhenhai. Afraid of the bad-tempered monk from Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, Chen Yuan directly went up and slapped the Demon Subduing Seal with his palm. After a moment, he asked the old monk opposite: "If it's not you, do you know who it is?"
"he!"
The old monk raised his head and looked at the majestic stone Buddha, "Do you know why this place is called Yunzhen Temple?"
Without waiting for anyone to answer, the old monk put down the incense burner and put it on the altar devoutly. He put his palms together and bowed to the Buddha. His voice echoed softly in the main hall.
"More than a hundred years ago, this place was nothing more than a rocky slope with huge rocks rolling down everywhere, endangering the village below. Then one time, rocks fell into the village and killed people. Not long after, a young man came
Man, he cried and cursed at the mountain, and left. Two years later, he came back from outside with carving tools. On this slope, he carved stones into bricks and paved stone steps.
, built a simple Buddhist temple on the courtyard wall, and he carved the largest piece into a stone Buddha and enshrined it in the temple, hoping to protect the village down the mountain from being troubled by falling rocks."
"After the temple was completed, there were indeed fewer falling rocks on the mountain. Occasionally, a few were blocked by the Buddhist temple. Seeing its magic, the surrounding villages came to worship it. After many years, someone found that there was no one in the temple.
Take care of it and it’s still spotless..."
Chen Yuan frowned and looked up at the stone Buddha: "Why?"
"...the people who worshiped the Buddha were also confused and even a little scared. They asked the young man and found out that when carving the stone Buddha, he first carved the skeleton for the stone Buddha, and then carved the internal organs, using what he learned from outside.
With his skill, he combined the outer rock with the stone Buddha bit by bit. He worshiped it all the year round, burned incense and prayed, and the stone Buddha had already become spiritual. Unfortunately, the people didn't know it, and they were just panicked. One day, they overthrew him and came here.
A young man tried to stop him, but he was accidentally beaten to death in the chaos..."
The old monk straightened up, with a sharp look in his stone eyes: "... Since then, the temple has been deserted. I don't know if the stone Buddha has any magical power. Every night when people are quiet, he will dig out his internal organs and repair his body. After a few years, he will be restored again.
He sat back on the lotus platform, but the young man was missing. He thought of that person's kindness and wishes, and still protected the place. Unfortunately, the magic power was still not enough. One year, people began to die in several surrounding villages, and he could only
After watching them die in front of his eyes, at the last village he arrived at, Shi Buddha felt that he had practiced Taoism enough, so he quietly moved the fields of that village to form a magic circle to prevent the villagers from being disturbed."
"The people in those villages were killed by underground monsters?"
"An invisible moon or sun, one village after another died in a few years. The stone Buddha thought about the original wish of the young man named Yun Zhen, so he appeared in the form of Dharma and went to the mountain to meet him.
The monsters fought with each other, but unfortunately their vitality was severely damaged, so they only brought back such an incense burner. Later, he sank into the stone statue. Before falling into silence, he still cast a spell to make the villagers turn into wooden figures at night, so as not to be angered by the monster.
.”
When the main hall fell silent, Chen Yuan once thought that there would be such a long and tortuous story in a deserted mountain temple. He looked at the old monk for a while, and then whispered: "You must be Yun Zhen."
"Almsgiver has a keen eye." The old monk smiled. The stone face was no longer so weird at this time, and gradually returned to the appearance of human skin. "Actually, I was accidentally beaten to death, and my soul did not leave. It is inhabiting the temple.
, I can see it, but I can’t hear it, I can’t touch it. I watched helplessly as the temple I built with my own hands went from prosperity to ruin, and then recovered bit by bit. Perhaps influenced by this stone Buddha, I discovered that I can be resurrected through the stone spirit. This
It’s only now, but it’s only been decades ago.”
Chen Yuan looked at Zhenhai. The seriousness on the latter's face had disappeared, and he no longer had any thoughts of subduing demons.
"Old abbot, where is the cave in Hengyan Mountain?"
The old monk looked at them and tried to persuade them, but he also knew that the two of them were determined. He sighed and said after a moment: "Enter the mountain and go southwest, and you will reach a pool. There is half a stone tablet in the southeast of the pool. There is a stone tablet there, but there is no
At the entrance, the stone Buddha can enter only because the Dharma can pass through the mountain and enter the earth."
When he said these words, the old monk looked serious. He suddenly took off his cassock, folded it, and handed it to Zhenhai: "Master, take it. This cassock was given to me by a wandering old monk who took pity on me and told the story of the stone Buddha. The poor monk can feel it.
There are great Buddhist teachings, but unfortunately they are of no great use to me."
Zhenhai looked at the cassock held by the old monk, silently took it and shouted the Buddha's name.
"My Buddha is compassionate!"
The two of them bowed together, Zhenhai tossed his cassock, draped it on his body, turned around and walked out of the temple gate with a long stride. Chen Yuan followed him and said with a smile: "You look more like an eminent monk now."
"..." Zhenhai looked at the small villages in the distance and suddenly said: "That old monk is not Yun Zhen, actually..."
"Actually, it's the stone Buddha."
Chen Yuan smiled. After hearing the story, he deliberately asked the other party's identity. When he got the answer, he had actually guessed it. Chen Yuan also looked calmly into the distance, with leaves falling across his eyes.
He whispered to the monk next to him: "Sometimes it's actually a good thing not to expose it and let the story pass on like this, right?!"
Zhenhai pursed his lips and smiled, then strode forward.
The sun was shining brightly, and the Hengyan Mountain in the distance, where demons lurked, seemed to be full of life.
…
'My Buddha is compassionate!'
In the Yunzhen Temple in the mountains, the bells echoed, and the bright sunshine remained unchanged for years, decades, and hundreds of years. The old monk stood in the bell tower, looking at the figures of several people retreating in the sun, feeling grateful.
chant the name of the Buddha.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I wonder if this story without fighting or killing would be unpalatable?