Chapter 113 - 109: Hanging for 60 Years!

Chapter 113: Chapter 109: Hanging for 60 Years!

Inside White Cloud Temple, the monks and commoners were all dumbfounded. They watched as their old Zen Su Abbot—whom they usually revered like the Buddha himself—was held in the young, handsome Daoist’s grip like a little chick. The abbot thrashed his limbs, his face turning purplish-blue and the veins bulging on his forehead.

It was important to note that Zen Su Abbot was a Grandmaster Level figure, yet he was rendered utterly powerless.

In the distance, Supervisor Lotus and Grandmaster Ding Daolian—who had just been sent flying by Chen Sha’s mere words, crashing through and collapsing two pillars of the Great Hall—clutched their chests in excruciating pain. From the ruins, they watched this scene with terrified eyes.

"What exactly is this person’s background?!"

"Is our White Cloud Temple going to be annihilated?!"

A First-Grade Great Innate Level expert had descended upon them. They never dreamed that in their lifetimes they would offend such a master. Against an existence of this level, even if the more than a thousand monks of their entire temple risked their lives to charge at him simultaneously, the final result would likely leave the man completely unharmed. Instead, they would be slaughtered to the last man!

This was the terror of the Martial Arts’ highest realm—the First-Grade Great Innate.

Like a god.

Meanwhile, Zen Su Abbot, still held in Chen Sha’s grasp, turned pale as paper as he heard Chen Sha’s demand.

"You want this old monk to personally write the words ’Fake Buddha, Fake Monks’ on the plaque of White Cloud Zen Temple? You might as well kill me!"

Forcing him to write something that insulted himself and the Buddhist Sect was tantamount to slapping his own face, especially in front of so many Chunzhou commoners.

If he actually did it, White Cloud Zen Temple would never hold any status in Chunzhou again. Their influence in the hearts of the people would plummet. They would no longer be a Buddhist Holy Land; they would be worse than a dilapidated shrine.

The foundation he had spent half his life building would collapse completely.

"What you ask is impossible. Change your demand. Whether you want this old monk or White Cloud Temple to make amends or apologize, anything is fine..." Zen Su Abbot gritted his teeth, attempting to negotiate, "It has not been easy for this old monk and White Cloud Zen Temple to achieve our current status."

"Not easy?" Chen Sha’s expression was indifferent. "I don’t care if it was easy for you or not. I just think the words they wrote at your door a year ago were absolutely correct. Therefore, you must write those four words up there with your own hands..."

Zen Su Abbot’s voice trembled, "You are pushing things too far..."

Chen Sha said calmly, "Too far? A year ago, your White Cloud Temple wanted to forcefully ordain my two disciples—one as a monk, the other as a nun. I let that go. Now, a year later, we were merely passing by with no intention of causing further trouble with you. It was your White Cloud Temple that came looking for us, attempting to capture my disciples and me. Now, I am just asking you to admit your mistake and write a few words, yet you claim I am pushing things too far."

With a casual toss, he threw Zen Su Abbot to the ground with a heavy thud.

"COUGH..."

Given Chen Sha’s Power, even a casual toss carried terrifying, immense force. Zen Su Abbot immediately spat out a mouthful of blood. His internal organs twisted like they were being sliced by blades; it felt as if he had been thrown off a cliff and smashed into the ground.

"I haven’t even done anything that goes ’too far’ yet." Chen Sha clasped his hands behind his back. "It seems I will have to send you to see Sakyamuni first, and then level this White Cloud Temple to the ground. Only then would it truly be considered ’too far.’"

The moment his words fell, Chen Sha’s majestic Qi Power surged toward the heavens, wildly fluttering in the vast sky like a battle flag.

BOOM!

At this moment, several major halls of White Cloud Temple began to tremble. The Heart Spirits of numerous White Cloud Temple monks felt as though they were tearing apart. They stared in sheer terror at the man standing with his hands behind his back, resembling a Celestial God.

Terrifying air currents expanded outward with him at the epicenter, forming cloud-like Qi Power that swept toward everyone present. In that instant, thousands of people were so suppressed by the pressure that they couldn’t even lift their heads!

"Abbot, just agree to his terms!"

"Abbot, he is going to annihilate the temple!"

"Abbot, we want to live!"

In an instant, the terrified roars of hundreds and thousands of monks echoed throughout the temple. "Abbot, quickly make a decision..."

Under the terrifying Qi Power Chen Sha swept across White Cloud Temple, Zen Su Abbot—who had collapsed at his feet—faced the most lethal suppression. He felt as though he was about to be crushed to death!

His face flushed crimson as he felt the very sky collapsing down upon him.

Then, a finger entered his line of sight. It slowly extended from the sleeve of the tall man standing above him, aiming directly at the center of his brow.

In this moment, Zen Su Abbot’s Heart Spirit trembled. Endless fear of death welled up in his eyes, and his life began to flash before his eyes like a Carousel.

"This old monk doesn’t want to die either..." he thought.

In this world, those with the heaviest desires were the ones who clung most greedily to the beauty of life. The more overwhelming one’s power and the more staggering one’s wealth, the more terrified they were of death.

Zen Su Abbot had managed White Cloud Temple to its current prosperity. He wore Jin and silver; his basic necessities were more luxurious than those of the Royal Family. His Kasaya was inlaid with Gemstones, and his rosary beads were crafted according to Buddhist Scripture from materials like Jin, silver, colored glaze, crystal, amber, fine jade, and agate.

One could easily imagine how a Buddhist Sect abbot so adept at enjoying luxury could ever be indifferent to life and death.

"I! Will! Write!"

Watching that life-claiming finger slowly approach, Zen Su Abbot felt as if his soul was about to fly out of his body. He roared in a hoarse voice, "Spare my life! I will write! I am willing to write!"

The Chunzhou commoners were all stunned. They couldn’t believe Zen Su Abbot would actually agree to such a thing. Writing a mark of eternal infamy on his own temple gates... if he truly wrote it, would anyone ever visit White Cloud Temple again? Would anyone still hold faith in it?

But at this moment, in Zen Su’s heart, nothing was more important than his own survival.

Following his hoarse roar, Chen Sha raised an eyebrow. "I thought you truly possessed unyielding integrity, that you had seen through the four elements, and had the mercy to descend into Hell."

Zen Su Abbot’s plea for mercy didn’t surprise him at all. Chen Sha retracted his aura.

Zen Su Abbot felt the chill of death recede like retreating winter, replaced once again by the touch of warm air. However, he knew this was only temporary. He truly had to comply with Chen Sha’s demands if he wanted to live.

He immediately gritted his teeth and ordered, "Bring brush and ink! Take down the plaque as well!"

Before long, pale-faced monks of White Cloud Temple climbed up the door lintel to take down the plaque. They brought the brush and ink and placed them in front of Zen Su Abbot.

He looked at the four large gilded characters "White Cloud Zen Temple" in front of him. He was just preparing to lift his brush and write a few small words in the lower right corner when a faint voice reached his ear.

"They must be the same size."

Zen Su Abbot’s face flushed crimson, then turned pale. Ultimately, with trembling fingers, he gripped the brush and wrote four equally large characters directly below the words "White Cloud Zen Temple".

"Fake Monks, Fake Buddha."

At this moment, White Cloud Temple was dead silent. All the monks lowered their heads in shame and anger. They dared not lash out, nor did they dare leave. They could only watch helplessly as their abbot personally delivered a massive slap to their own temple’s face.

After Zen Su Abbot finished writing, he looked up at Chen Sha, his voice trembling. "Are you satisfied? Now, can you let me... and White Cloud Temple go?"

"It’s acceptable. With these four words, plus your life, preserving White Cloud Temple’s thousand-year foundation will not be difficult." Chen Sha spoke slowly, "One person protecting a whole temple... I imagine that when you meet Sakyamuni, you will have earned some merit."

Zen Su froze, then spoke in absolute horror, "W-What did you say...? You still want to take my life?! You... you..."

He abruptly leapt up, attempting to flee as fast as possible. However, Chen Sha’s finger had already pressed forward.

"You’ve never practiced Buddhism earnestly as a True Cultivator your entire life. At the very end, allowing you to sacrifice yourself to save the lives of the entire temple is a great enlightenment freely given to you. How could you refuse such an achievement?"

SQUELCH!

With just a light point, his Finger Power—fierce, domineering, and akin to a Celestial Sword—shot out. Even though Zen Su Abbot had already leapt thirty feet into the air and was about to flip over the crowd to escape, the strike hit him square in the center of his back with lightning speed.

BANG!

The Sword Qi pierced straight through his heart, causing him to plummet from mid-air into the crowd.

"Someone died!"

"Zen Su Abbot has been killed!"

In the crowd, most people’s minds buzzed blankly. They all looked in sheer terror at Chen Sha—this handsome Daoist whose actions were not the least bit merciful.

Witnessing his own abbot ultimately fail to escape death, Lotus Supervisor, who had just crawled out of the ruins of the Great Hall, saw that after making the kill, Chen Sha truly seemed to have no intention of harming anyone else.

Instead, Chen Sha casually picked up the plaque and walked toward the mountain gate. After crossing the threshold, he casually hurled it...

The plaque bearing the eight characters "White Cloud Zen Temple" and "Fake Buddha, Fake Monks" wedged itself firmly above the gatehouse, embedding so deeply that it looked as though it had grown into the original temple gate.

After finishing all this, Chen Sha turned to the crowd of White Cloud Temple monks and said:

"Now that these words are hung up, you are only permitted to take them down after sixty years. If you secretly remove them during this period, I will have you completely erased from the Jianghu."

Hearing this, the monks of White Cloud Temple turned pale. Hatred burned in their eyes as they gnashed their teeth.

They looked up at the "Fake Monks, Fake Buddha" plaque. To think they were being forced to hang this thing for sixty long years. Most crucially, it had been personally written by their abbot.

If this hung on their mountain gate for sixty years, several generations of White Cloud Temple would never be able to lift their heads in public. But recalling Chen Sha’s warning—"Dare to take it down, and White Cloud Temple will be erased"...

Lotus Supervisor was both furious and terrified. Watching Chen Sha’s departing figure, he roared in anger, "After doing all this, do you not even dare leave your name and identity?!"

The crowd of White Cloud monks wore complex, fearful expressions. Until now, they still had no idea what this young man’s background was.

Chen Sha turned his head, his hands clasped behind his back. "Why wouldn’t I dare? I am the Daoist Chen Sha, the sixty-fifth Sect Leader of the Dao Yi Sect."

With that, he turned and headed down the mountain, leaving behind one last sentence:

"Within the next sixty years, if anyone from your White Cloud Temple wishes to seek revenge for today, you are more than welcome to come find me on Dao Yi Mountain. We can reason it out again and see who is right and who is wrong."

At this moment, after hearing Chen Sha reveal his identity, the monks of White Cloud Temple were all utterly shocked and horrified.

"Who is he? Dao Yi Sect Leader...?"

Lotus Supervisor was equally incredulous, his face paling in terror. "The sixty-fifth Dao Yi Sect Leader!!!"

Was it the Dao Yi Sect of the invincible Chen Canxuan?!

It could only be *that* Dao Yi Sect! There wasn’t another Dao Yi Sect in the world.

That meant... this person who had nearly annihilated their White Cloud Temple was actually the new Sect Leader of the number one Major Sect in the world?!

Upon learning Chen Sha’s identity, Lotus Supervisor looked again at the abbot’s corpse in the courtyard, and at the hanging plaque that read "Fake Buddha, Fake Monks."

Looking up at the sky, he let out a miserable laugh. "Hang it for sixty years... hang it for sixty years..."

Later.

This plaque indeed hung there obediently for sixty years. The more time passed, the more absolutely no one in White Cloud Temple dared to take it down...