Chapter 1069.1: Ancestors Were Wise - Part 1

The Qingshan Prefecture where Danxiao City is located has long been privately referred to by daoist cultivators as the Land of Myriad Techniques. The reason is simple: with the Infatuation Daoist Temple, the leader of Daoism, stationed here, there is a saying that the world's daoist techniques originate from this place.

This has resulted in daoist temples being scattered throughout Qingshan Prefecture like stars, with daoists as numerous as clouds. In the past, the common people naturally both respected and feared these daoists.

But things were much better now. When facing these daoists, most of the people of Qingshan Prefecture could remain neither servile nor overbearing, at most putting on a smile. As for bowing and scraping, that was simply impossible.

The more daoist temples there were, the fewer Buddhist monasteries there were in Qingshan Prefecture.

The reason had been simple. As early as when Infatuation Daoist Temple had been established, daoist sages had frequently appeared in the world. The first place to bear the brunt of this had naturally been Qingshan Prefecture. Since daoists had often appeared and occasionally performed acts to aid the world, the common people had naturally come to believe in them more. As one side had waxed and the other waned, most of the monasteries in the prefecture had found it difficult to survive, with few worshipers, and the monasteries had consequently found it extremely difficult to remain in existence.

After all, those so-called eminent monks who had not entered cultivation still needed to eat.

By then, throughout Qingshan Prefecture, there had only been three or five temples that could still be found within its borders.

One of those temples had been in Bluestone Commandery, and its name had also been ordinary: Stone Well.

Its origin had been simple as well. It was said that back then, Bluestone Commandery had suffered a drought, and the common people had been unable to get water to drink. As it happened, an ascetic monk had come to this place. After surveying several locations, he had dug a well here, relieving the local drought. Later, when the local people had learned that this monk had no monastery, they had contributed money to build a monastery for him, and this had become Stone Well Monastery.

The monastery had not been large. At first, there had only been that one ascetic monk in the monastery, and only several years later had it taken in a few wandering monks.

However, in Qingshan Prefecture, where daoist temples had been everywhere, whether a monastery could continue to exist in the world for so long had naturally been something that made people somewhat doubtful.

Yet Stone Well Monastery had continued to exist. The reason had also been simple: this monastery had not held itself above others. During the busy farming seasons, the monks in the monastery had often stopped their morning and evening chanting, instead appearing in the fields of the common people to help them harvest their crops.

Besides that, they had also grown their own vegetables and fruits, achieving self-sufficiency to a considerable extent.

Thus, the surrounding common people had actually stopped treating the monks of Stone Well Monastery as monks, instead regarding them as their neighbors. Whenever there had been something major or minor, they would come here to ask for help.

Therefore, Stone Well Monastery had not faced a situation where it could no longer survive over these years. However, the number of monks in the monastery had always been kept under excellent control, and had not increased much.

Otherwise, once their numbers had grown, where they would eventually head was difficult to say.

After the Kuchai Festival, it had actually only been two or three days before it was already the Buddhist Ullambana Festival. Had this been in another prefecture, naturally every monastery would have held grand celebrations for it, but in Qingshan Prefecture, although the few monasteries would also have held this festival, the scale had been much smaller.

After all, there had not been many worshippers. Making a grand show of it when no one was willing to pay attention would only have added to the ridicule.

However, although the Ullambana Festival at Stone Well Monastery had not been large in scale, there had been quite a few worshippers. The nearby common people had not forgotten that today was the Ullambana Festival simply because the Kuchai Festival had been held a few days earlier. Most of them had gone out early and headed to Stone Well Monastery.

However, besides offering incense, they had something else to do.

The monastery had existed for too many years, and many places had become damaged. They had come to help repair it.

There had been two men. The older one had looked to be around forty, right in the prime of his strength, while the younger one had probably not yet reached thirty.

When the two passed by this place and saw the monastery, they did not hurry to leave, but instead went inside and walked around. Seeing that the atmosphere at the monastery was quite good, they both took out some silver, then sat beneath the corridor and chatted idly. The monastery even sent a monk over with two bowls of tea.

The two held their tea and had only chatted for a short while when a young monk came over again, looking somewhat troubled as he glanced at them. “Two benefactors, there is a huge rock behind the courtyard. It has been there for many years and has always been somewhat in the way. The villagers now say it should be moved aside a little, but a group of people tied ropes around it and spent half a day trying without managing to move it. Could two benefactors help us as well?”

The young man smiled and said it was nothing, and then the middle-aged man put down his tea bowl and rose to go to the rear courtyard.

The young monk glanced at the young man, who smiled and said, “This elder brother of mine has quite a lot of strength. Just him alone will be enough.”

Although the young monk was unwilling to believe it, he could not say much more and could only follow the middle-aged man away. Yet, after just several minutes, the middle-aged man returned and sat back beneath the corridor.

The young man asked, “How heavy was it?”

The middle-aged man took a sip of tea and smiled. “More than eight hundred pounds, it really wasn't light. Somehow, that stone looks like a statue of Buddha, but the monks of the monastery seem not to care about it and have simply left it in the courtyard to be exposed to wind and rain.”

The young man pointed around them. “Having come here once, haven't you figured it out yet? If this were an ordinary monastery, it would have long since been unable to survive. These monks don't regard themselves as monks, nor are they waiting for the common people to make offerings to them. They support themselves. Otherwise, in this Qingshan Prefecture, how could they survive?”

The word “survive” nearly made the tea in the middle-aged man's mouth spray out.

However, just as his cheeks had puffed up, the young man opposite him said sternly, “If you spit it out, half your salary next month will be deducted.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the middle-aged man forcibly swallowed all the tea back down, his expression becoming somewhat unnatural. After a while, he instead said, “Sanxu Mountain has already sent people to keep an eye on them. How about we just eliminate them first and deal with the rest afterward? I think keeping them around is only inviting trouble.”

The young man said helplessly, “Old Song, how the hell is it that you don't have some title like Yama King Song in the outside world? They are just thinking about it, and you want to wipe out their entire sect. You're much more ruthless than me.”

These two people were none other than Chen Chao and Song Lian.

Song Lian said calmly, “This kind of thing shouldn't even be thought about. It's only because your temper is good. If you left it to me, I'd send him to the Western Paradise with one punch.”

Chen Chao nodded and smiled. “I agree that your temper is good, but if it were really you, one punch wouldn't kill him. After all, one of his feet has already stepped into Fuyun, while you're still one step away from the end of Nepenthe. How are you supposed to fight him?”

Song Lian said nothing. In martial dao cultivation, his speed was already not slow, but compared with these people, he truly looked like a turtle crawling.

“But just because I won't wipe them out now doesn't mean I don't want to. The moment Sanxu Mountain makes any move, I'll make sure their dao lineage has no successor.”

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes. When it came time to kill people, he had never been soft-hearted.

Song Lian nodded and prepared to get up and go over to the main hall.

Chen Chao asked, “What are you going to do?”

Song Lian said, “Go offer worship and pray for the Northern Frontier to proceed smoothly.”

Chen Chao smiled. “If that were useful, those ordinary common people wouldn't even be able to enter this monastery's gates.”

Song Lian thought about it and felt there was some truth to that.

However, Chen Chao smiled and said, “You can also pray for peace of mind.”

Song Lian said, “With you around, it is easier to put one's mind at ease than by praying to Buddha.”

Chen Chao laughed it off.

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