Day and night tour

Chapter 165 Sheep Monk
"Who is this?" Zhou Xuan pointed at the monk in robes and asked.

"Oh, he is Dexin, the monk in charge of reception at our Qiye Temple." Dehai introduced.

The monk in charge of reception holds a very high position in the temple. He is mainly responsible for receiving guests and sometimes also for the temple's liaison with the outside world.

If we compare it to the Zhou family,
The status of the monk who receives guests is similar to that of Yu Jia, the fourth senior brother of the Zhou family.

At the same time, the monk in charge of receiving guests is one of the eight deacons and can be regarded as a senior executive of the temple.

"The abbot is also one of the eight great deacons."

Zhou Xuan thought of the abbot monk whom he had used for a tattoo.

The status of the abbot is higher than that of the receptionist, and second only to the temple master and the chief monk. In some temples, the abbot is called the "head monk", which shows how high his status is.

The soul of the abbot was made into a tattoo, showing a human body with a goat's head.

The monks who received guests and the abbot all had the appearance of a goat, but the lowly temple master did not.
Does this mean that in Qiye Temple, only monks of high status have the "goat appearance"?
"Brother, it is my job to receive distinguished guests. Let me accompany the guests."

"This guest is a friend of the hall master, so it would be better if I personally accompany him."

Dehai waved his robe sleeves to drive away the monk in charge of reception, and continued to explain to Zhou Xuan: "Why can the Buddha statue of the monk who cooks wine stand in the main hall? There is an anecdote."

He started to speak, saying that the monk who cooked wine was a Taoist priest since he was a child.

But he was a very lazy Taoist priest. Every day he either drank or slept. When he was awake, he liked to paint and draw.

One day, he got drunk and scribbled on the walls of the Taoist temple, making the temple a mess.

So the abbot kicked him out.

When the wine-cooking monk left the Taoist temple, he was already an adult, but he had not worked for many years. He could not carry anything on his shoulders or with his hands. Ordinary work was quite difficult for him.
So he became a monk again and came to Qiye Temple.

After entering the temple, he stopped drinking alcohol and loved to cook wine for pilgrims. He was no longer lazy and studied Buddhism diligently. He actually became an eminent monk with a Buddhist aura. If a pilgrim sat in front of him, he could hear the sound of a Buddhist bell ringing from his body.

"The wine-cooking monk is also a free and easy person. He never accepts titles such as master or eminent monk. He only wants others to call him a monk. In his words, a monk is a monk. If not a monk, what else can he be called?
In his later years, before he passed away, the monk Zhujiu took a brush, dipped it in chicken blood, and wrote the word "death" on the chests of all the Buddha statues in Qiye Temple. He also drew a bright red horizontal line on the mouths of these Buddhas, as if he had sewn their mouths shut.

The monks in the temple asked why he used red thread to sew his mouth.
He said - a dead Buddha cannot speak, so what is the use of having a mouth? "

Master Dehai said this and then said: "The wine-cooking monk also said that all Buddhas in the world are dead, and only he, the wine-cooking monk, is the only true Buddha in the world. After he finished speaking, he passed away."

"So, you agree with the monk Zhujiu's words, believing that all the Buddhas have died, but Zhujiu will live forever, and that's why you placed his statue in the main hall?"

"That's the truth."

Master Dehai did not shy away from Zhou Xuan's answer.

"This wine-cooking monk is really crazy."

Zhou Xuan likes this kind of madman, as long as he is truly crazy and not "fake and artificial".

Zhou Xuan came to Qiye Temple to clear the name of "the wine-cooking monk", but Dehai and Siming both said that Zhujiu had died long ago.

Since he's already dead, how can I clear my name?

Could it be that his death two hundred years ago was unjust?

Can the talisman for cleansing wrongs go back to two hundred years ago?
Considering the time and space gap characteristics of Zhou Xuan's previous use of the Cleansing Wrongs Talisman, it seems a bit difficult to just go back to a few days ago.

Two hundred years, such a long time span, it is not realistic to think about it.

"Look inside the temple."

Zhou Xuan thought of this and said to Master Dehai, "Now that we have finished looking at the Mahavira Hall, let's go somewhere else."

"Easy to say, easy to say."

Master Dehai led Zhou Xuan and the other two out from the side door of the Main Hall and entered the Thousand Buddha Forest.

The Buddhist forest is made up of hundreds of small pagodas. When you walk into the forest, you can hear the sound of chanting from all directions.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that in front of each pagoda, there were three or two novice monks sitting on the ground chanting scriptures.

Zhou Xuan felt that this novice monk was too hardworking. In the afternoon, he was reciting scriptures in the pagoda forest under the scorching sun.

"They do this every day. The Qiye Temple has produced a great Buddha, and the Buddhist spirit is abundant. The disciples are influenced by it and naturally work hard."

"is it?"

Zhou Xuan always felt that these novice monks did not seem to be really working hard. They were too focused, like machines. Even when someone spoke, they would not move at all and would not even lift their eyelids, which was against human nature.

He quietly walked to a pagoda, holding the bone tooth in his hand, with only the tip of the tooth exposed, and gently stabbed the shoulder of the novice monk beside him.

The tip of the tooth pierced the novice monk's skin, but the novice monk did not move, did not look, did not hear, and did not even press the wound with his hands. He just sat there and chanted scriptures.

"The novice monk also has his own quirks."

When Zhou Xuan was thinking about this, he suddenly heard a sheep bleating.

"Bah!"

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a sheep deep in the tower forest, sticking its head out to look at Zhou Xuan.

"Master Dehai, if I'm not mistaken, that's a sheep, right?"

Zhou Xuan pointed at the sheep with a round belly and said.

"Yes! We also have sheep monks in Qiye Temple."

Host Dehai said with a smile.

Siming explained for Zhou Xuan, saying, "It is said that the Qiye Temple is so prosperous that it attracts many animals to come and pay homage to the Buddha, including cows, horses, and sheep. Sheep are the most numerous, so over time, they are called Sheep Monks."

"These sheep can imitate human meditation and rub their heads against the pagoda, which is considered to be spiritual."

When Dehai reached this point, he clasped his hands together and said, "These sheep have become intelligent and are no different from humans. The temple has specially vacated a room for the sheep monks to rest."

"Where is the courtyard where the sheep monks rest? I would like to take a look." Zhou Xuan asked.

"Please come with me."

Dehai led the three people, walked around a relatively flat dirt road, walked out from the southeast of Tallinn, and stopped in front of a huge Zen room.

"Brother Dezhong, please open the door of the sheep shed."

A monk in a cassock opened the wooden door of the meditation room after hearing the instructions of the abbot Dehai.
As soon as the door opened, Zhou Xuan saw a room full of sheep, at least hundreds of them.

Most of the sheep lowered their heads, so their faces could not be seen clearly, but Zhou Xuan could see the faces of a few of them clearly.

That's not a sheep, it's clearly a human!

Zhou Xuan wanted to go forward and take a good look at the sheep, but De Hai stopped him and said, "Donor Zhou, the sheep monks don't want to be disturbed. They are monks too and need to concentrate on chanting sutras."

Zhou Xuan listened to the advice and did not move forward. At this time, another shepherd, leading two old sheep from a distance, walked towards the Zen room. Seeing that there were people in the Zen room, he led the sheep and waited there, not daring to move forward rashly.

"Since the sheep monk has spirits, why does he need someone to lead him?" Zhou Xuan pointed at the shepherd in the distance and the two sheep beside him.

"That's not the sheep monk, that's the nearby shepherd."

"I seem to recognize those two sheep." When Zhou Xuan looked at the two sheep beside the shepherd, he "saw" the appearance of the two sheep.

Those are not two old sheep, but two old men!

Zhou Xuan really knew these two people. They were the old couple who had chatted with him not long ago.

"Each of these sheep is pretty much the same. Maybe Mr. Zhou has made a mistake." Dehai smiled awkwardly.

"Master Dehai is right. I was indeed wrong."

Zhou Xuan turned his head away from the sheep and pointed to a tall tower in the southwest direction and asked De Hai: "Master, what tower is that?"

"That tower is called the True Buddha Tower. The great Buddha that once appeared in our Qiye Temple was the one who attained enlightenment in that tower."

"Can you take me for a tour?"

"I'm afraid it's inconvenient."

Dehai smiled and said, "Since the Buddha disappeared, the pagoda has become a forbidden area in this temple. Not to mention people outside the temple, even I am not allowed to enter. Only twice a year on the Buddha Festival will the pagoda gate be opened to clean and repair the ancient pagoda. Even on those two days, only the eight deacons and the craftsmen in the temple can enter the pagoda."

"In that case, we have almost finished touring Qiye Temple. I will go to Tianwang Temple to burn some incense and then go back."

Zhou Xuan felt that he had investigated enough and didn't have time to continue messing around with De Hai, so he suggested leaving the temple.

"I will accompany the distinguished guest out of the temple."

Dehai felt more and more relaxed. He accompanied Zhou Xuan and the other two all the way to the junction of Tianwang Temple and the mountain gate road. He then watched the three of them go down the mountain road before he smiled.

"Oh, I was always afraid that these knowledgeable masters would come to hang out in the temple, but fortunately they were sent away."

Dehai looked at the backs of the three people, especially Zhou Xuan's back, and felt uncomfortable.

He always felt that the young man had noticed something, but the young man didn't show much.

"I always feel that Donor Zhou is more difficult to deal with than Siming." Dehai hated Zhou Xuan so much that his teeth itched.

……

After walking down the mountain gate and going down a few steps, Zhou Xuan, Si Ming and Si Yuer left the temple.

Outside the temple, Siming asked Zhou Xuan if he could see why the Qiye Temple was so eerie.

Zhou Xuan answered the question irrelevantly: "Master Si, I just want to ask you, can you make the decision about the affairs of Qiye Temple?"

"I am the God of Wealth of Qiye Temple, of course I have the final say." Siming said.

"you sure?"

"Of course." Siming said.

"I want to tell you that Qiye Temple has problems from top to bottom. The whole temple is like sores on the top and pus on the soles of the feet. It is rotten."

Zhou Xuan said: "At this point, do you still dare to intervene?"

"...Uh..." Siming hesitated a little and asked, "Is it that serious?"

"Let me be frank. The most problematic thing about the entire temple is the Sheep Monks! Those so-called Sheep Monks are not sheep, but living people. Remember the two sheep led by the shepherd? They are the old couple who chatted with us in the Heavenly King Hall.

The Qiye Temple turns human lives into sheep lives, and the fate of sheep lives may be death. "

"Is this true!?" Siming never thought of himself as a good person, but compared with Qiye Temple, his sins were nothing.

"The abbot, the receptionist monk, and the supervisor monk all have the appearance of goats. They are obviously human beings, but they all show the appearance of goats. They are inseparable from those goat monks.

Those novice monks chanting in front of the Thousand-Buddha Pagoda Forest are not normal people either. I poked one of them with a bone tooth, but that person didn't react!
The entire Qiye Temple, from top to bottom, is full of weirdness."

Zhou Xuan said this and asked Siming again: "Old Si, tell me honestly how you got the soul of the abbot monk!"

"That is... find the abbot of Qiye Temple and give him..."

"Why did the host agree?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"Because I threatened him that if he didn't do what I said, I would tell the secret of Qiye Temple." Siming said.

Zhou Xuan felt that he had hit the point, so he asked to the end: "What secrets do you know about Qiye Temple?"

"Oh, the monks of Qiye Temple do not abide by the rules and regulations. They eat meat and drink alcohol in private. By the way, they also go to brothels. People in my hall have seen them. Two of their deacons have killed people." Siming said.

Zhou Xuan immediately sighed, as expected, when it comes to the art of speaking, less is more.

Siming used secrets to threaten Dehai, but in fact he didn't know too many secrets, at least he couldn't threaten Dehai.
However, De Hai of Qiye Temple felt guilty and thought that the secret Siming mentioned was the real "secret" of the temple.
He was afraid of being exposed, and he also felt that Siming had status and was well-known, and might have really known something, so he killed the abbot.

This wave was an accidental success and was purely a fraud.

"No wonder I went into the temple with you. They treated me like a formidable foe, and the abbot was watching me the whole time."

Zhou Xuan said to Siming, "The mysterious aura of the Seven Leaves Temple should be related to the Buddhist monks chanting sutras and the sheep monks in the pagoda forest. If we continue to investigate, I'm afraid we'll make a big mistake... Hundreds of lives, fake Buddhas, and even the reputation of the Seven Leaves Temple may collapse... Are you willing to investigate?"

Siming lit a cigarette and started smoking. He finished the whole cigarette in a few puffs, then smashed the cigarette butt until sparks flew, and cursed, "Investigate, or my clan will not be able to swallow this anger!"

A huge amount of money spent every year, isn't it just for the sake of some good luck? But the good luck is fake, which is equivalent to spending a million dollars every year in vain!
According to the "order" between the gangs, Qiye Temple, as a temple with a strong Buddhist atmosphere, is counted in the "order". From a certain perspective, it is considered one of the territories of the thieves' gang!

I thought Qiye Temple was a large and well-run company, but it turned out to be a shell company!
Thinking of this, Siming, who had always been domineering, became completely furious.

"You can check it if you want! I need a reward for helping your gang solve such a big problem... Oh, and sign this."

Zhou Xuan took out a notebook and wrote a four-word title - "Waiver of Liability".

"I am responsible for investigating the matter. If nothing goes wrong, that's fine. If something goes wrong, someone will be held accountable and you will take the blame."

Zhou Xuan felt that Siming could bear the blame. He was the master of the thieves hall, and his wife was a member of the Bone Elders Society...

"Don't worry. If anything happens, I, Siming, will take full responsibility..." Siming picked up the pen, wrote the main content of the document, and signed his name.

Si Yuer was a middle school student with a chivalrous spirit, so she signed her name without saying anything.

The documents exchanged between gods in seclusion are extremely effective because of the existence of rituals.

Zhou Xuan used his bone tooth to stab his own fingertips, and then stabbed Si Ming and Si Yuer's respectively.

The three people's blood dripped onto the document, and the document quickly caught fire.

The three of them formed a pact.

"Old Si, if we want to investigate Qiye Temple, we should start with that shepherd..."

ps: Thank you brothers for your support, I love you, muah.

(End of this chapter)