The first thousand and forty-four chapters of Buddhism and Confucianism
After Chen Ping and others left, Lin Ze began to activate "Knowing the Destiny" to calculate the impact of the Jianmu Sacred Tree's revival on himself.
Strangely enough, when Lin Ze uses "Knowing the Destiny" to predict other things, no matter how much it costs or whether there will be backlash, the results will basically come out very quickly.
It was estimated that the cost of building the sacred tree was not high, and there was no backlash, but the progress was extremely slow.
It's like peeling an onion, layer after layer, but you can't see the final result.
Lin Ze was a little unsure whether it was the Taoist Saint who had secretly manipulated it, or whether the Jianmu Sacred Tree was too magical to be easily deduced.
But Lin Ze had a strange premonition that as long as he performed the deduction once a day, cleared away some of the fog that obscured the answer, and persisted, one day he would learn the hidden truth.
Lin Ze didn't know exactly how long it would take, but he estimated it wouldn't be too long.
So every day Lin Ze would take some time to make calculations.
It wasn't until noon that Lin Ze finished his calculations and stretched his muscles.
Suddenly, Lin Ze's expression changed slightly, and he sensed Zhuang Zhou's aura approaching quickly, and said loudly: "Senior brother, I have been late in returning. I wonder what the outcome of this trip will be?"
Zhuang Zhou showed his figure in front of Lin Ze and sighed: "It's not as good as I wanted."
Lin Ze frowned slightly and said, "What? Nowadays, the Taoist palace dominates the world, and my senior brother comes to give orders with the dignity of a saint. Is it possible that there are still people in the Buddhist Confucian and overseas Taoist sects who dare to openly disobey?"
Zhuang Zhou shook his head slightly and said: "This matter is not what my junior brother thought. There is something else going on, and it has little to do with the Dao Palace and me."
Lin Ze asked: "What happened? Please tell me frankly, senior brother."
Zhuang Zhou looked melancholy and replied neatly: "The Buddhist people are gone."
Lin Ze's first reaction was that it was impossible. Buddhism had been entrenched in southern Xinjiang for many years. Even though it had been surrounded and suppressed several times, there were still tens of thousands of disciples. How could they all disappear?
"Senior brother, are you sure that all the tens of thousands of Buddhist disciples have disappeared?"
Zhuang Zhou covered his forehead and said: "It's a slip of the tongue. It's not that the people of Buddhism have disappeared, but that all the Buddhist gods have disappeared. Now the huge Buddhist sect is leaderless and scattered. There is not even a person in charge."
"I originally thought that the Buddhist heavenly beings were hiding because they were afraid of being liquidated by the Taoist palace, so I used my magical power to search for traces of the Buddhist heavenly beings."
"However, things went against my expectations. No matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find any traces. Junior brother's plan to ask Buddhism to contribute, now it seems that it will come to nothing."
"Those remaining monks, although some of them are masters of the Soul Realm, have always been in their own sects. No one has the right to interfere with the other, so we can only let it go."
Lin Ze decisively used Zhi Tian Ming to calculate Maitreya's whereabouts. When the result came out, Lin Ze was stunned.
Maitreya has fallen. Maitreya, a powerful person in the third realm of Buddhism’s celestial beings and known as the future Buddha, is actually gone?
Lin Ze was unwilling to give up, and then calculated the whereabouts of Ksitigarbha, and the result was the same as Maitreya, showing that the person was gone.
Buddhism, which was very prosperous for a while, has declined like this, with not even a deity left to support it?
Who could be behind the scenes?
The foundation of Buddhism is there, even if Maitreya's hiding place is severely damaged, it is not something that ordinary heavenly beings can take down in the third realm.
The murderer is either a third-level celestial being with extremely terrifying cultivation, or he is inseparable from the saint level.
Taoist saint?
Buddha, Confucian sage, Tongtian Sword Master?
Or is it the Xuanwei Saint who has never shown up, but whose reputation spreads far and wide?
Or maybe there is someone in the third realm who is hidden in the darkness, unknown, and has never shown a trace?
After a little thought, Lin Ze first ruled out the Three Saints.
The seal is still there, so it is impossible for the Three Saints to kill Buddhist deities through the seal.
If the Three Saints really had such abilities, Lin Ze would not be able to imprison the three of them at all, and there was no way they would be willing to be locked up and "imprisoned" inside.
In this time of great conflict, the Xuanwei Saint and his disciples, except for some legends left in the past, have never shown up. There is no reason why they would attack people from the Buddhist sect without any reason.
Then the only people who are most likely to take action are Taoist Saints and unknown third-level deities.
It would not be surprising that the former would do this out of other considerations.
The latter is also reasonable.
Since the founding of Buddhism, its prosperity has not been smooth sailing. During this period, I have stepped on the bones of countless people and made enemies. This is normal.
For some reason, Lin Ze had a hunch that this matter was extremely important to him.
However, the information Lin Ze knew was limited, so he could only keep it in his mind for the time being.
"Have the Confucian gods also disappeared?"
Lin Ze suddenly asked, this question is very crucial.
Zhuang Zhou shook his head and said: "That's not true. Confucian Meng Ke and other heavenly beings in the third realm have indeed disappeared, but Fortune Tellers and others are still in charge of affairs. I told them the words taught by my junior brother."
"It won't be long before Confucianism will provide us with a huge batch of heavenly materials and earthly treasures, each one of which is above average quality."
Lin Ze's expression moved slightly, he did not hesitate to use his luck to calculate Meng Ke's whereabouts, and locked the position almost instantly.
Still alive and overseas.
After getting the answer, Lin Ze breathed a sigh of relief. If Confucianism and Buddhism were in similar situations, then the problem would be a big one.
Lin Ze then asked: "What do the Taoist branches overseas say?"
Zhuang Zhou's expression suddenly became a little unnatural.
Lin Ze suddenly had a bad premonition and said, "Senior brother, don't you want to tell me that you saw that the overseas Taoist branches were living in poverty and it was very difficult, so you made the decision to exempt them from paying tribute?"
Zhuang Zhou said in surprise: "Junior brother, how do you know?"
Lin Ze rolled his eyes and complained secretly: How do I know? I had expected this to happen when I asked you to go overseas alone.
As Lin Ze expected, there are many young novice monks with bright minds in overseas Taoist branches. When they hear that a large amount of heavenly materials and earthly treasures are to be enshrined, they will instinctively think of ways to avoid being squeezed.
As soon as Zhuang Zhou appeared this time, those overseas people immediately swarmed towards him as soon as they saw that the person who took action was the well-known, gentle and kind-hearted Yasheng from the Taoist palace.
One moment they were building relationships, and everyone was from the same family. They had been the same family for five hundred years, and they had to be merciful to others. The next moment they were complaining that they were too poor overseas, it was not easy to survive, and they couldn't make too many offerings.
In the end, it is said that we should come up with a "best of both worlds" plan. We will still pay tribute, but we will do it according to our ability.
Here, within one's ability means taking some of the heavenly materials and earthly treasures as tribute at will, and leaving the rest alone.
Lin Ze sighed slightly and said: "Senior brother, what you are doing is not right or wrong. As for whether you need to adjust it, I will ask the teacher later to decide."
"Besides, junior brother always feels that there is something fishy about Buddhism. Why don't we accompany me back to the Taoist palace to see if we can find out the murderer?"