Chapter 29 Lotus

"Are you going to say something or not?!" Wanli Fengdao really wanted to wring Li Ang's neck back and forth,

he found this genius type who concealed everything, told nobody, and just loved looking down on others from an intellectual high ground, extremely irritating.

"Heh heh."

Li Ang casually tossed aside the account book and stood up, running towards the Daxiong Bao Hall. The others hurried to follow.

As Li Ang rushed into the Daxiong Bao Hall, his gaze swept back and forth over the various Buddha statues, the Buddha Shakyamuni, seated in meditation at the very center,

the Medicine Buddha with a bowl in his left hand and a healing pill in his right,

and Amitabha Buddha with his two hands folded over his feet and a lotus platform in his palms,

these were the Buddhas of the Three Times.

Flanked by the eighteen Arhats on both sides of the main hall, and behind the central Buddha statues were the figures of Manjushri and Samantabhadra,

Strangely, there was an island built especially to the rear of the Daxiong Bao Hall, with a northern-facing statue of Guanyin. The sculpture of this Guanyin was elegant, with Sudhana to its left, Dragon Girl to its right, each covered in gold foil and lacquer, radiant with gem-like splendor, even appearing more stately and dignified than the Buddha Shakyamuni in the main hall.

"Indeed, as I suspected."

Li Ang sneered coldly, returned to the main hall, and meticulously tapped on the base of each Buddha statue.

Thud, thud, thud.

When he hit the wooden base under the Dragon Subduer Arhat, it made a particularly hollow sound. Li Ang lifted the wooden plank to reveal a dark and gloomy passageway underneath.

Li Ang pulled out a flashlight and crawled into the passage, with spiders scurrying and insects crawling all around.

Xing Hechou and the others followed Li Ang uncomfortably down through the passage, and after a while, they climbed out from another wooden door at the end of the tunnel.

The wooden door at the other end of the passageway was set in a secret wall inside the Monk's Zen Room.

Li Ang scanned the Monk's Zen Room and, without a word, crawled back through the passageway to return to the Daxiong Bao Hall. He then brushed the dust off a pillar inside the hall and examined each red-lacquered pillar.

On a pillar to the left of the Guanyin statue, Li Ang felt an almost imperceptible dent, which seemed to have been painted over with fresh red lacquer,

When he peeled away the outer layer of red lacquer, it revealed patchy old lacquer underneath with a spider-web of cracks, as if it had been struck,

and there were black bloodstains mixed in with the wood shavings inside the dent.

The objective to survive for seven days, to hand in the abnormal Dragon Gate accounts, the especially grand Guanyin statue, the pillar next to the Guanyin that had been struck, the ghost of a woman that appeared in the monk temple...

All these elements lingered and wandered in Li Ang's mind, finally weaving together into an immense interconnected network.

"The truth, it turns out, is like this."

Li Ang exhaled a breath of turbid air, his lips curving up in a mocking smile full of irony, which was incredibly irritating.

"...Xiao Li,"

just like nearly everyone else who had dealt with Li Ang, Xing Hechou couldn't help but display a deeply constipated expression on his square, honest face, "Can you tell us what you've figured out?"

"The real secret behind the desolation of the Solitary Cold Temple."

Li Ang laughed and said, "Do you want to know?"

Apart from Liu Wu Dai, the others subconsciously nodded.

"It's simple, the story starts thirteen years ago at the Solitary Cold Temple."

"Back then, the abbot of Solitary Cold Temple wasn't Master Taozhi, but Master Mingcheng, and the temple only had about twenty monks."

"Emperor Jiajing was a devout Taoist practitioner, obsessed with the pursuit of immortality. During his reign, he favored and supported Taoism, seeking eternal life through its practices. Compared to the prosperous Taoist Door, the Buddha Sect, which couldn't pursue high-level channels, suffered greatly, let alone the Solitary Cold Temple located in a remote area with dwindling personnel."

"Under Master Mingcheng's leadership, the twenty monks at Solitary Cold Temple survived on donations from devout Buddhists and profits from cultivating wasteland, planting food, and weaving clothes to sell."

"Barely managing to live on enough food and clothing, their diet was limited to simple vegetarian meals; luxurious foods like meat and fish were out of the question."

"It wasn't until five years ago that Master Mingcheng stepped down as the abbot—it's unclear whether he passed away or retired due to old age. Either way, Master Taozhi from another temple took over as the abbot of the Solitary Cold Temple."

"After Master Taozhi took charge, the temple's incense offerings suddenly flourished, with an endless stream of devotees and wealthy gentry generously donating money and goods, and even handing over deeds to fertile lands to Solitary Cold Temple, making it the monks' property."

"Suddenly wealthy, the number of monks at Solitary Cold Temple surged from about twenty to more than two hundred. With its substantial wealth, the temple immediately constructed the Longevity Warehouse to store money and valuables, and even had the excess funds to loan money to farmers, landlords, and merchants at a monthly interest rate of three percent."

"Loan sharking has a long history; at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the maximum interest rate for loans was set to six percent, and by the end of the Tang, it was four percent. The Song Dynasty followed the Tang's practices, and 'The Code of Ming Dynasty' stipulated that for all private money lending and pawn dealings, the monthly interest must not exceed three percent. Despite the years, it was only principal plus interest. Violators would be flogged forty times, calculating the surplus interest as illicit gains, and those with greater offenses would be prosecuted for corruption, receiving a hundred lashes."

"A monthly interest rate of three percent amounts to an annual rate of 36%, and charging more would constitute usury—this figure was even inherited by the real world."

"The Longevity Warehouse of Solitary Cold Temple usually extended loans at an annual interest rate of 36%, but for large loans, long-term borrowers, or those in urgent need, it would offer an exorbitant rate of 48%."

"Master Mingcheng of Solitary Cold Temple wasn't concerned about people defaulting on loans, for the lands of the Buddha Sect were always seen as pure and clean, making them an excellent place for laundering money—Solitary Cold Temple acted as a fundraising intermediary for the local government officials, lending money and charging interest on their behalf. Since they paid protection fees to the government, there was no fear of defaulting on the Buddha Sect's money!"

"At the same time, Solitary Cold Temple could also sponsor local gentry, using money to buy official positions. Those appointed would arrive in the morning, and debt collectors would follow by evening; this hardly seemed like sparing the common people, did it?"

"This is government-Buddha collusion!"

"After colluding with the government, the Buddha Sect paid even less tax and developed more rapidly,"

"With capital in hand, one thinks of making more money. Merchants seek profit, and so do monks. Solitary Cold Temple invested heavily, buying over ten businesses in the county town including gambling dens, brothels, dyeing workshops, printing houses, and Rouge-shops, growing wealthier and wealthier."

"Solitary Cold Temple already owned a number of fields donated by the local gentry. With a never-exhausting treasury, it naturally ventured down the path of land acquisition."

"Four years ago, continuous droughts and floods struck the area, causing severe crop damage; tenant farmers who owned crop lands had no choice but to pawn or even sell their land to Solitary Cold Temple. Small farmers, who had almost no resilience against unforeseen disasters, faced bankruptcy when confronted with marriages, funerals, poor yields, and other issues, and had to mortgage or sell their land to Solitary Cold Temple."

"In just half a year, Solitary Cold Temple came to own thousands of acres of good land in the area; all tenant farmers on the lands lost their right to self-cultivate and became the Buddha Sect's feudal serfs."

"Heh heh heh, being a serf to the Buddha Sect is still being a serf. The plight of serfs is far more miserable than that of tenant farmers depicted in movies and TV dramas."

"When grains flourish in the fields, there are those looking forward to collecting rent and loan repayments, eagerly pacing through the acres, waiting; as soon as the tenants appear, those ready to unpack bags and shoulder burdens fill the room with noise."

"Owning countless fields and in an excellent financial state, how did Solitary Cold Temple suddenly become destitute three years ago?"

"This goes back to the initial fortune of Solitary Cold Temple."

Pointing to the luxuriously decorated statue of Guanyin, Li Ang laughed and said, "Three months after Master Taozhi took office, the incense offerings from devotees and local gentry skyrocketed, and the accounts were marked as 'child-giving money'."

"It turned out that after devoutly praying to the statue of Guanyin in Solitary Cold Temple for children, the female devotees miraculously became pregnant en masse. The reputation of the Guanyin statue's miraculous powers spread far and wide."

"The local people offered up their grain and produce, and the local gentry, to demonstrate their devotion and wish for their families to be blessed with many children and happiness, made donations of money, goods, and land to Solitary Cold Temple."

"However, having a child wasn't so easily achieved. Women desiring to conceive needed to kneel devoutly in front of the Guanyin statue within Daxiong Bao Hall for an entire night, without any disturbance, or else the miracle would not occur."

"The reputation of the Guanyin statue in the Solitary Cold Temple for granting children continued to spread, and more and more pious female devotees came to pray for offspring, until an accident occurred three years ago."

Li Ang pointed to the indentation on the red pillar next to the Guanyin statue and said, "A female devotee was kneeling in sincere prayer on the prayer mat when, in the dead of night, a group of monks emerged in a line from a secret wooden door beneath the Dragon Subduer Arhat, their faces wearing lewd smiles."

"It turned out that behind the apparent miraculous power of the Guanyin statue to grant children in the Solitary Cold Temple was a group of monks who would enter the Daxiong Bao Hall in the middle of the night, and forcibly defile the lone female pilgrims."

"In the strictly moralistic society of the Ming Dynasty, the female pilgrims who lost their chastity dared not reveal the truth to their families or husbands and had to return home, only to find out months later that they were pregnant."

"These lecherous monks thought they could succeed again tonight, as they had before, and uphold the renown of the Solitary Cold Temple's Guanyin statue for granting children, but they did not anticipate that this female devotee was exceptionally chaste and resolute, choosing death over dishonor, eventually smashing her head against this column."

"When someone died, the matter couldn't be glossed over. The panicked monks had no choice but to claim the female devotee had accidentally disappeared, but this explanation was naturally not accepted by her family, which caused a commotion in front of the local government."

"Presumably, the female devotee's family had some influence as well and put certain pressure on the authorities, prompting a thorough investigation and severe interrogation, which eventually revealed the biggest secret of the Solitary Cold Temple from the mouths of the monks."

"With the scandal exposed, the local populace was in an uproar, and the wealthy gentry who had once donated money were naturally unwilling to let the matter rest. They joined forces with the officials to have all the monks inside the temple executed and confiscated the temple's land and deeds."

"Regrettably, although the lecherous monks were put to death, the soul of that chaste and unyielding female devotee remains trapped here."

Li Ang took a deep breath, "If I am not mistaken, the female ghost we have seen in the Solitary Cold Temple should be her."

After concluding his lengthy explanation, Xing Hechou and Wanli Fengdao were stunned into silence, speechless,

Despite racking their brains, they could not have imagined that the plot of the mission involved not just fighting and killing, but also such a clever and insightful approach."

Before Xing Hechou could express any exclamation, Li Ang stepped out of the Daxiong Bao Hall, out of the Solitary Cold Temple, and came to the front of the dense forest.

This was the boundary of the 500-meter range specified by the mission.

In the flickering shadows of the trees, it seemed as if specters were stirring. undaunted, Li Ang pulled out an ax and started digging like it was a hoe.

"What are you doing?" asked the others who followed suit.

"Digging."

Li Ang gave a simple word, "We'll dig up the ground within a 500-meter radius around the Solitary Cold Temple, from the outside in."

His teammates looked at each other, hesitant at the sight of the dark sky and the eerie forest.

Li Ang, who was digging, raised his head and said helplessly, "Since the female ghost is bound to this place, her bones must not be far away. Just dig up her remains, burn them, and all troubles will be gone."

Xing Hechou and the others didn't know what to say,

The System had issued a mission to survive for seven days, evidently intending for them to be haunted by the female ghost, to tremble in endless fear as they watched each teammate die one by one, and to barely survive the seven days.

How did it come to Li Ang who turned it into a rapid decryption, taking the initiative, and even resolving problems ahead of time, completing the mission?

Brother, why won't you play by the rules?

Feeling as if a thousand alpacas were racing through their minds, Xing Hechou and the rest glanced at each other and gathered around Li Ang, silently starting to dig.

Hands,

Feet,

Heads,

Arm,

Shoulder,

Several hours later, within a five-hundred-meter radius of land, pieces of white bone had been unearthed, eventually pieced together to form a human figure.

"Judging from the bone age, she has been dead for three years, and from the skeletal structure, it's a female, and moreover, her figure is quite good; probably was quite pretty too."

Seeing the bones of the arm, I was reminded of the thigh bones, then the rib cage, and then the chest,

Li Ang's imagination could only leap so far at this level.

He gazed at the female skeleton laid out on the ground and sighed, "The perpetrator has a head, and debt has a master. Vengeance for the wronged, and payback for the grudge. Miss, rest in peace."

Having said that, he took out a Molotov cocktail from his backpack, preparing to cremate the skeleton,

Xing Hechou, Wanli Fengdao, Hui Bin, Liu Wu Dai, and others drew their weapons and gathered around Li Ang.

Just as the skeleton was about to be incinerated, it was estimated that this would be the best moment for the female ghost to strike, if she intended to attack.

Whoosh—

The Molotov cocktail fell downwards, only an instant before it would smash on the bones, a delicate jade-like hand stretched out from underground.

Xing Hechou and the others, who were ready to unleash their thunderbolt, were about to shred the arm into pieces when they were stopped by Li Ang's waving hand.

"Wait a minute."

"What's there to hesitate about, just kill it!" Wanli Fengdao roared impatiently.

If it were at the beginning of the plot quest, he would not heed Li Ang, a mere Lv3 newbie, but since just now till present, everything had been within Li Ang's calculations, leaving Wanli Fengdao without a temper.

Li Ang shook his head indifferently, expressionlessly watching the hand holding the Molotov cocktail emerge from the ground.

Arm, shoulder, torso,

A young woman dressed in a goose-yellow dress "rose" from the ground, like a mud-version "emerging lotus."

She appeared to be in her early twenties, wearing a goose-yellow dress, skin pale as ivory, her pretty face slightly marred by dirt; her eyebrows were long and painterly, her eyes contained a hint of sorrow, and her tightly closed lips evoked pity.

She was a quite pretty beauty, definitively would be a TikTok sensation chased by thousands in modern society.

Too bad she's already dead, reduced to white bones, unable to take advantage of the heat.

Li Ang stepped forward and soberly said, "Hello, may I ask if you're GG or MM?"

"?"

The ghost holding the Molotov cocktail tilted her head in confusion, her eerie and ominous figure, combined with this cute pose, truly moved Li Ang.

Xing Hechou and the others, on high alert, never anticipated Li Ang's thought process to begin imagining something happening with the female ghost, not daring to relax in the slightest, aiming various weapons at the ghost. If she made any strange moves, she would be met with the thunderbolt strikes from four players!

"Don't understand?" Li Ang straightened his CQB tactical suit and cleared his throat before saying to the female ghost, "I am Li Rising. May I have the honor of knowing Miss's name?"

Meow meow meow?! Is this really the time to be hitting on someone?!