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Chapter 39 Please, benefactor, become a Buddha

Where is the Buddha in this place?

The old monk was genuinely taken aback upon hearing those words.

"What are you talking about, benefactor? The Buddha statue is right there, where else could it be?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou You turned his head away again.

The Buddhist hall has pillars, an altar, prayer cushions, and lotus seats.

The Buddha statue above has completely disappeared without a trace.

No, it shouldn't be said that it disappeared without a trace.

Below the Buddha altar lay countless fragments of stone statues. Judging from the marks, these should have been the Buddha statues that originally sat on lotus thrones, but now they looked as if they had been violently demolished. Although the paint on them was still fresh, only large patches of broken remains remained.

Zhou You didn't bother with formalities at this moment. He put down the incense and pulled the old monk over.

"Monk, look for yourself!"

The old monk touched it with his only remaining hand, and the next second, he froze like a statue.

"Wait, no, this shouldn't be happening! These Buddha statues shouldn't be damaged at all. Normally, anyone connected to that Ghost Mother Bodhisattva through karma would never touch these Buddha statues. The only option would be to seal them with ghost blood. How could they have smashed them? Unless..."

Suddenly, the old monk seemed to remember something. His blind and skeletal face trembled violently, and soon became as ferocious as a demon.

"Unless it was done by one of our own people."

The next moment, a deafening roar rang out.

The old monk disregarded Buddhist precepts of anger and resentment, and began to curse loudly into the darkness. "These damned bald monks, the scum of Buddhism! They've already amassed so much wealth from devout men and women, yet they're still not satisfied. For money, they even smashed their own Buddha statue! I curse your ancestors for eighteen generations! You will all be condemned to the deepest hell after you die, never to be reborn!"

Seeing that the old monk was getting more and more agitated, Zhou You frowned and interrupted his roar.

"What should we do now, monk?"

The old monk twitched his lips but didn't reply. Instead, he suddenly realized something, pressed his face hard, and rubbed it desperately.

After a while, the evil spirit's appearance slowly disappeared.

"I'm sorry, benefactor, the hungry ghost realm almost got out of control—as for a solution, to be honest, there is none left now."

The old monk sighed, fumbled for the incense sticks, and handed them to Zhou You.

"You should escape quickly, benefactor. I'll stay here to draw attention to these temples. The Bodhisattva will only target these temples. If you can hold out until daytime, you can escape. Then, as I said before, hurry to Qingjing Temple to pick up my fellow disciples."

The old monk's words were filled with sorrow. But Zhou You didn't accept it; instead, he briefly pondered.

—This is not right.

Or rather, the plot doesn't follow the usual logic.

First of all, although this old monk exudes an evil aura, judging from the traces and subtle behaviors, he doesn't seem like a traitor to humanity. So, following him should indeed be the final plot of this story.

Secondly, as far as he knew, although this ghost game was rotten to the core, it would never give tasks that were impossible to complete. The previous Building No. 4, the two side quests in this instance, and even the two cursed items that persuaded the old monk—as long as there were clues, there would inevitably be an ending related to those clues.

So there must be something he hasn't discovered yet.

As for the old monk's advice to run away quickly, he never took it to heart from the beginning. After all, he had enough resurrection coins, and at worst, he could just start over. So, let alone the Ghost Mother Bodhisattva, even if he guessed wrong and the old monk betrayed him on the spot, he could still face it calmly.

After all, what does fate matter?
It was just a consumable. So Zhou You resolutely pushed the incense back, ignoring the old monk's increasingly anxious expression, and began to carefully search the temple.

There were only broken walls and ruins all around. Nothing at all.

The prayer mat cabinet in the temple was completely empty.

Those leftover pieces of trash are just pure trash.

Just as Zhou You was about to climb to the top of the temple to take a look, he suddenly discovered something strange.

But at this moment, even the old monk could not hold back any longer.

"Benefactor, what are you doing?! Don't tell me you intend to die here with this humble monk—you are not just carrying your own life on your shoulders, but the lives of thousands upon thousands of people in this city—"

"Alright, alright, it's too late for you to try any moral blackmail now." Zhou You interrupted the other person, then squatted down and carefully scraped the broken Buddha statue.

Accompanied by the harsh sound of fingernails rubbing against clay, the painted designs on the clay body fluttered off, but what came between the fingers was not the touch of powder, but a sticky, slippery feeling, like liquid.

This is definitely unusual.

He had a vague feeling that something was wrong from the beginning—these three temples were in such a dilapidated state that they had clearly not been maintained for a long time, so how could the paint on the Buddha's body be so shiny and new?

"Monk, come and see what this is?"

Upon hearing this, the old monk reached out and pressed down on Zhou You's fingers. His expression first showed confusion, then turned into ecstasy.

"This is... the incense and prayers condensed on the Buddha statue? Those bald thieves didn't even manage to scrape it off? Could it be... Oh well, whatever, there's hope now!!"

The old monk was about to set up the Buddha statue, but when he touched the pile of rubble, his smile suddenly stopped.

Afterwards, Zhou You sighed and gave him an answer.

“Monk, the two of us definitely can’t put this together. And even if we could, we don’t even have a bottle of craft glue on hand right now, so there’s no way we can stick it together.”

The old monk remained half-squatting for a long time before suddenly raising his head.

"No, there is still a chance."

"Benefactor, let me ask you, just now I saw you cut off your own flesh without batting an eye, so let me ask you, can you endure the pain?"

Zhou You didn't answer immediately. After thinking for a while, he said, "That depends on the severity. I can usually tolerate it, and I've even gotten somewhat used to it, but I probably couldn't withstand torture or anything like that."

"It's alright, benefactor. You only need to persevere through the first half; I will take care of the rest."

Then, the old monk took off his outer robe and spread it on the ground. He then stretched out his arm and used only one hand to sweep away the dust and dirt covering the lotus platform.

Then, he turned around and 'looked' at Zhou You with his dark, hollow eyes.

"Although the Buddha statues were destroyed, the incense and vows still remain, and the Buddha can still perform the task of suppression."

"Now all that's missing is a clay statue of a deity."

"Therefore, this humble monk humbly requests your help, benefactor."

"Please sit down and be a Buddha for a while."

(End of this chapter)