Chapter 27 Monk's Field

Another task prompt arrived.

The Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Heavenly King Hall, Sutra Depository, monk quarters, and dining hall—Li Ang led everyone to take a quick survey of the Solitary Cold Temple, where no Spiritual Energy Response could be seen in any corner,

Li Ang closed the Cat's Eye, and as he restored his spiritual power, he returned to the main entrance courtyard and calmly said to the others, "I couldn't find the source of the crying, but there's a high chance that the sobbing isn't just someone pretending to be a god or a ghost.

This temple was likely abandoned for some special reason, and we need to prepare for the possibility of encountering monsters."

Wanli Fengdao frowned and asked, "How do you know that?"

Xing Hechou didn't speak, but he harbored the same doubt.

"Observe carefully, speculate boldly, verify cautiously."

With a rather punchable tone, Li Ang said nonchalantly, "From the area of the monk quarters, the number of beds, the number of bowls and utensils in the dining hall, and the quantity of straw mats and cotton quilts, it can be known that before its decline, the Solitary Cold Temple was at least a large temple with two hundred monks.

In ancient times, monks studying Buddhist scriptures couldn't be like the villagers working all day; their main economic sources for maintaining the temple were primarily four:

One, by farming the land bestowed by the royal family.

Two, by reclaiming wasteland, printing and papermaking, and being self-sufficient.

Three, by donations of money or surrounding lands from devout believers and wealthy merchants.

Four, by engaging in financial lending activities with agricultural income and donations from believers—yes, lending.

This Solitary Cold Temple is located in a remote place, with only one medium-sized city wall in the distance, and the roads are poor; it doesn't seem to be near the capital, or to have received imperial favor.

Although there are reclaimed wastelands on either side of the Solitary Cold Temple, the area is quite small, and the land output could not possibly support a temple with hundreds of monks; similarly, the output from printing Buddhist scriptures is also negligible compared to the needs of the temple.

Just now, in the village we saw to the east, the houses were still made of mud and tile, the villagers wore tattered clothes, yet there were so many oxen in the fields, and the production equipment was much more luxurious compared to that of farmers of the same era.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the economic source of the Solitary Cold Temple mainly came from the donations of devout believers and the contributions from wealthy merchants.

The well-operated Solitary Cold Temple had even established the 'Longevity Warehouse', a storage room specifically for piling up wealth and conducting financial lending.

Combining the slightly luxurious number of oxen in that village, it can even be speculated that the vast tracts of fertile land we saw with the drone earlier were once formed by the Solitary Cold Temple's land consolidation of monk-owned Buddha fields!"

When they first arrived, Li Ang had not offered any constructive suggestions, but had stood by, goofing around and cracking jokes—partly to observe the action styles of seasoned investigators with possible official backing,

and also because Xing Hechou, in accordance with the Operation Guide of the Special Affairs Bureau, was doing quite a good job easing the atmosphere and forming a temporary team, which left Li Ang happy to slack off.

Now, having heard an anonymous cry and not been able to find its source, feeling an implicit threat, Li Ang started actively analyzing information to prevent his team from leading him into a ditch.

Wanli Fengdao opened his mouth, unsure of what to say—he did not think of himself as dumb, but he certainly could not reach conclusions based on just two or three pieces of information.

He furrowed his brows and asked, "The Solitary Cold Temple used to be in good operating condition, so what does it have to do with us trying to survive here for seven days?"

Li Ang chuckled, "Of course there's a connection. Just imagine, how could a luxurious temple with two hundred monks, countless devout male and female believers, and acres upon acres of fertile land be abandoned in just a short span of three years?

By the way, I inferred this 'three year' period of abandonment from the growth conditions of ivy and other climbing plants on the red brick walls," he added.

Wanli Fengdao didn't like this kind of test of his intelligence. He glared at Li Ang and said, "Can you stop beating around the bush and just get to the point?"

"Hehehe."

Li Ang didn't take offense at Wanli Fengdao, and with a smile, he continued, "There could be many possible reasons.

Could there have been a military disaster that caused these monks to flee in disarray? Impossible, because the villages on the plains show no sign of any military disaster tranquility prevails.

Could the imperial court have been dissatisfied with the non-productive Buddha Sect and the emperor decided to eradicate Buddhism? Also impossible, because before fleeing, the monks would have at least transferred all the temple's magic artifacts, property, and scriptures. And if the monks didn't move them, the government would have.

Could local tyrants have banded together and wiped out the entire temple overnight? Let's not mention the fact that there are no traces of fire, sword cuts, or marks of combat within the Solitary Cold Temple. Even if the temple had been destroyed overnight, the farmers around here would have taken advantage of these three years to sneak up the mountain and remove all the valuable pots, pans, tables, and stools from the temple.

After eliminating all the impossibilities, the only possibility left is the truth."

Li Ang's gaze suddenly turned cold, and he said eerily, "Three years ago, a very serious accident occurred Within the Lonely Cold Temple. This accident not only deterred the local male and female believers from worshiping at the temple,

but also discouraged monks from other regions from coming here to restore it,

and even made the poor local farmers, Buddha Sect slaves, and even the government keep their distance from the Solitary Cold Temple. They didn't even dare to steal from it to subsidize their household needs."

"The system wouldn't assign us a task that guarantees death. Since it stipulates that we can't leave the Solitary Cold Temple by more than five hundred meters, it means that the secret to solving all this lies within the temple itself.

Finding out what accident happened here three years ago will unveil the source of the eerie crying we heard earlier. That's the key to our seven-day survival challenge," he concluded.

Li Ang's analysis came to an end. Wanli Fengdao was completely baffled, the monk Hui Bin looked at Li Ang with admiration, Xing Hechou appeared thoughtful, and Liu Wu Dai still wore his expressionless iceberg face.

In fact, Li Ang had another hypothesis which he hadn't voiced yet: the woman's arm that extended from the plaque and the plaintive crying heard outside the temple just now were probably related to the truth of the incident.

Unfortunately, among all present, only he possessed the Spiritual Sense. Moreover, since the Spiritual Body had concealed itself, he couldn't find any trace of it no matter how he searched.

He also didn't know whether any Spiritual Body harbored any malice...

Li Ang's thoughts whirled rapidly, yet his face remained as calm as still water. Hesitant, Xing Hechou said, "Brother Li..."

"Don't mention it," Li Ang glanced at Xing Hechou's square and upright face, his eye twitching, and said, "Just call me Xiao Li."

"Alright, Xiao Li, may I ask what you do for a living in the real world?"

Although Xing Hechou posed it as a question, he had no doubt that Li Ang would answer with something like "Private Detective" or "Historian."

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"...Actually, I'm a chef," Li Ang sighed, and answered seriously, "They call me the youngest top chef in history."

The self-proclaimed post-'90s Wanli Fengdao nearly choked on his saliva, "Are you the legendary chef Xiao Liangxin from the tales, who began searching for the legendary kitchenware to counter the dark cuisine world?"

Li Ang expressed his surprise, "Oh? I didn't expect you to have heard of the legend I left in the martial arts world."

"Legend my ass!" Wanli Fengdao's eye twitched, "Brother, if you do not want to reveal real-world information, can't you come up with a better excuse?"

"Eh, didn't fool you?" Li Ang was quite disappointed.

"Only an idiot would have been fooled!" Wanli Fengdao was speechless. The square-faced, brawny man Xing Hechou suppressed the urge to wipe away sweat—this middle-aged dude really hadn't seen "China First" and almost wrote 'search for young top chef in the civilian database' in his notes.

Li Ang nodded and said, "Actually, I'm a robot, one that walks on two legs—a Chinese Gattling."

Wanli Fengdao's eye twitched fiercely, "That's quite a leap, from human to non-human. And who would remember a gag from 2001? I'm really feeling a sleazy, frivolous vibe here!"

"Yo, that's some spot-on criticism, huh?"

Li Ang's eyes widened as he looked at Wanli Fengdao, "To catch my references, I really didn't expect you to be a post-'90s for real."

Wanli Fengdao said with empty eyes, "Like I said, I just look a bit more mature, that's all."

"Hmm..." Li Ang started thinking about what kind of more reasonable origin story to make up, "See the mask on my face? I'm actually Sun Wukong, the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven."

"Just like the Chinese Gattling, not a human at all," Wanli Fengdao continued to tease.

"Do I have to be human?" Li Ang nodded, "Agumon."

"That thing doesn't even have a basic human shape, does it?!" Wanli Fengdao strongly criticized, "And isn't the Agumon-owner Tai a Japanese person?"

"Not the Japanese Tai, but Donghuang Taiyi from Hua Country."

"Even changing the nationality doesn't change the fact that it's non-human," Wanli Fengdao's face showed a painfully awkward expression,

Clearly, the Lv3 newbie player in front of him, although smart, had a thought process that was clearly different from ordinary people, which made him feel powerless.

Seeing the banter between the two, Hui Bin, the Mage who was witnessing such an interesting situation for the first time, couldn't help but stretch out her slender jade-green fingers, covering her mouth and laughing softly,

Between her red lips and white teeth, the inadvertently sketched charm and beauty caused Wanli Fengdao to shiver all over.

"No worries, Xiao Li, if you don't want to answer, you don't have to,"

Xing Hechou broke the awkward silence, "It was just a casual question, the primary issue right now is completing the mission."

Having a smart person in the team capable of analyzing intelligence was definitely a good thing, but Xing Hechou, who had a fieldwork background from the Special Affairs Bureau, was not planning to give up command of the team so easily.

After all, he was the highest level player in the team, Lv6, and he had the intelligence manuals compiled by the think tank. In dealing with emergencies, Xing Hechou was somewhat confident.

"I suggest that tonight, we light a bonfire in the temple courtyard and no one should act alone. We should take turns keeping watch through the night. We can search the temple tomorrow."

Xing Hechou said, "Xiao Li, what do you think?"

"I think it's OK."

Li Ang nodded and glanced at the distant sunset, "There's still some time before dark, and I estimate that more changes will occur after nightfall. We should take advantage of these hours before dark to gather some items as much as possible.

If you don't mind, Old Xing, I suggest that you, being the highest level here, and Hui Bin, the Mage, go to the Sutra Depository to search for Buddhist scriptures on the shelves.

If Hui Bin the Mage is professional enough, he should be able to determine the era of the storyline mission through the cutoff dates of all the Buddhist scriptures.

If Hui Bin the Mage doesn't recognize any of the scriptures, that would likewise prove that the background of this mission is not ancient Hua Country, but a fictional fantasy world.

By the way, after collecting the scriptures, remember to pack them and bring them to this courtyard; those sacred texts might also be supernatural items."

Hui Bin, the Mage, nodded, "This monk grew up in a temple from a young age and is well versed in the scriptures, so identifying the era won't be a problem."

"That's for the best." Li Ang looked at Wanli Fengdao and Liu Wu Dai, "With the entire temple empty, the most likely clue would be in the abbot's meditation room. I'm going into the abbot's meditation room to search for his personal belongings, ideally finding an account book relating to the temple's financial transactions.

It's just that my level is somewhat low, and it's not very safe for me to act alone, so which of you two will accompany me?"

"I will," said Liu Wu Dai, expressionless.

Wanli Fengdao was taken aback, scratched his head, and quickly added, "Hey, then what should I do?"

Li Ang curled his lip, "Collect firewood and build the bonfire in the courtyard."

"I'm at least Lv5, and you're asking me to start a bonfire?" Wanli Fengdao looked at Li Ang who was two levels behind him and said with dissatisfaction, "Besides, doesn't splitting up in a horror movie mean getting picked off one by one?"

Li Ang laughed, "The mission we received is to survive for seven consecutive days, and generally, the level of danger will increase gradually. The first few days might actually be the safest.

You're a Lv5 player after all; your self-preservation abilities are among the best in the team. It won't be a problem for you to act alone.

I trust your judgment."

With that, Li Ang left without paying attention to the standing Wanli Fengdao. He headed straight for the abbot's meditation room, closely followed by Liu Wu Dai in his Night Clothes, bearing his black composite bow.

Xing Hechou patted Wanli Fengdao on the shoulder and headed towards the Sutra Depository with Monk Hui Bin.

After all four teammates had left, Wanli Fengdao finally came to his senses. He glanced at the eerily quiet courtyard, gnashed his teeth, picked up the branches on the courtyard floor with one hand, and held his longsword with the other, muttering,

"Just a mere Lv3..."

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