Chapter 357: Child-endowing Buddha
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
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Jingtan Temple!
Located under Jilei Mountain, this small temple had been operating for about half a year. During this period, more and more people came to worship the Buddhas in the temple.
One word could be used to describe the secret for the mass of worshippers to the temple: efficacious.
Yes, the temple had a reputation for being efficacious, especially in granting the wishes of worshippers who wanted to have children. The Child-endowing Buddha was worshipped by all in the temple. He had a large head and big ears. The Buddha wore a perpetual smile on his face and held a baby in his arms.
Regardless if you were praying for a boy or a girl, your prayers would definitely come true.
“Are you serious?”
After hearing Jiang Xiao’s report, Zhou Bao had a strange expression on his face. “You’re saying that Yunfei was going to…!”
“Your Excellency, you have been married for more than half a year already, but the Princess has not conceived yet. It’s only natural for her to think in this way!” Jiang Xiao felt a little awkward. This was, after all, Zhou Bao’s personal affair.
As a subordinate, he felt embarrassed to have this discussion with him.
“Fine. I see. Does this temple have anything special, except for praying for children?”
“Nothing else. Since there have been so many people continuously coming to worship the Buddha, I thought there might be something fishy going on, so I investigated it personally. There is nothing exceptional about it. There are about 10 monks in the temple.”
The abbot’s dharma name is De Ling. He’s about 50 years old. I’ve heard that he is from Lingzhou, a place in the south. He was once a senior monk in a particular temple, but that temple was destroyed during the wars between the Sect of Flame and the officers and soldiers of Great Jin during the insurrection of the Sect of Flame.
When the temple was destroyed De Ling was forced to follow those soldiers to Wuyang Region and there he met up with several monks. Since then, they’ve built Jingtan Temple, and it gradually developed into this large scale.
“In the beginning, it was just a shack built of earth. But because of its efficacy, more and more people have been going there, and thus it became bigger.”
“Although it’s not that big at present, it’s still famous enough!”
“Since you’ve already investigated it, I guess there’s nothing to worry about!” Zhou Bao nodded in agreement. “However, we’d better keep an eye on it. You ask Zhu Ba to go with them, as well as those from the powerhouses of Tian Long Taoism.”
“After all, they need to earn their keep!”
“Yes, I see!” Jiang Xiao answered and bowed his way out of the house.
“I have a feeling that there must be something going on at this Jingtan Temple!” Although he did not receive any untoward information about it from Jiang Xiao, he still preferred to trust his gut feeling.
“Jingtan Temple? I seemed to have heard of that name before!” Flying in, Green Spirit flew around Zhou Bao and transformed into a spirit of a silver fox.
“Oh, now I remember. There was an affiliated temple belonging to the Mandkesvara Sect also called Jingtan Temple!”
“Mandkesvara Sect?” Zhou Bao’s expression suddenly changed. As soon as he heard this name, he could just imagine what kind of place it was! Child-endowing Buddha?!
Firstly, there was no such type of God that had the ability to endow the gift of child to any human being. Furthermore, God surely did not want to be involved in such affairs.
“I wonder if Yan Yunyan is aware about the details about this temple. If she knows and still insists on going there with Yunfei, I will assume there’s something serious going on.”
“Does she really want to go against me?”
Zhou Bao stood up and with a face that showed no mercy, declared, “Hum. I’ll go there tomorrow and see what Yan Yunyan is up to.
“If she has any ulterior motives, I will teach her a lesson she will not forget!”
After he had spoken, he looked up and found Green Spirit lying on the ground, apparently in deep thought.
“Hey, Green Spirit, what’s up?”
“I’m thinking about Mandkesvara Sect!”
Green Spirit said, “If Jingtan Temple is the affiliated temple of Mandkesvara Sect, perhaps Monk De Ling has gained the inheritance of Jingtan Temple of Mandkesvara Sect in those days!”
“Is there any problem with the inheritance of Jingtan Temple?”
You’re well known for your ferocious behavior. If an intelligent person knows this, he will not be such a fool as to challenge you on your home ground, let alone gaining the inheritance of Jingtan Temple.
“Even though he has gained the inheritance of Jingtan Temple or the entire Mandkesvara Sect, he won’t dare to stir up any trouble in broad daylight, right?”
“Maybe, but there are some people who might be fearless but incredibly stupid at the same time.”
“Besides, perhaps De Ling really has no idea about the happenings in the martial arts world, and is not aware of my reputation. So if he has never heard of my notoriety, he will not think twice about going against me!” What do you think about that?”
“No way!” Green Spirit looked doubtful. “You’re already so famous that everyone should have heard about you!”
“What if he really knows nothing about me!”
“That is only a small possibility!” Green Spirit said. “Others may not know about your fight with White Tiger and your robbing of the Pure Yang Celestial Devices in Taiyuan Heaven, but they definitely would have known about what you’ve done in Mingyi School.”
“It’s become a widespread event in this world. Even though he is not a martial arts practitioner and knows nothing about martial arts, he should at least have heard about your great feat.”
“This is common knowledge to all of us. As a monk, can he be so ignorant as to think that he can contend with Mingyi School?”
“Maybe he thinks that I won’t meddle with it?” Zhou Bao laughed coldly.
“The main purpose of a monk building a small temple is to cheat those devout men and women of their money. Perhaps to him it means nothing at all.”
“Your explanation sounds rather far-fetched!”
“But seriously, there must be something wrong with Jingtan Temple?”
Zhou Bao asked him coldly, “What else do you know about Mandkesvara Sect and Jingtan Temple?”
“I don’t know much about them. You should know that though Buddhism is the natural enemy of the Demon tribe, they have too many schools. My main opponents were the Large and Small Thunder Temple, who worships Tathāgata.”
“However, Mandkesvara belongs to Vajrayāna, which is far from us. Therefore, I’ve only heard about it, but don’t know much about it.”
“I see. I’ll go there in person tomorrow and find out if there’s anything odd about this Jingtan Temple!” Zhou Bao said coldly.
Early the next morning, accompanied by Zhu Ba and the powerhouses experts of Tian Long Taoism, Yunfei, and Yan Yunyan headed towards Jingtan Temple.
The temple was located under Jilei Mountain and was not far away from the town. Zhou Bao did not follow Yan Yunfei’s entourage, instead, he had arrived at Jingtan Temple way before them.
“Madam, come this way, please. Our temple is simple and very ordinary. Please forgive us if we are lacking in hospitality!” While speaking, De Ling led them to the main hall.
“Master, you don’t have to be so modest. I’m only here to worship Buddha with my sister. This temple is small, but it’s the first temple in the Wuyang Region. You’ve really worked hard and performed an outstanding service!”
Yunfei smiled and made gestured to her maid. The maid behind her walked forward and put a small ingot of silver in De Ling’s hands.
Feeling the weight of the ingot, De Ling sparse eyebrows shot up. He put his palms together and said, “Thank you very much. This is the main hall. Please come in!”
Yan Yunyan and Yan Yunfei walked into the main hall together, but Zhu Ba and the rest of the entourage were stopped at the door, an occurrence which did not seem to matter at that time.
This temple was very small and had only one main hall. The Child-endowing Buddha’s effigy was about 20 to 30 feet away from the door. In front of the Buddha was a long altar with incense burners. Two cattail hassocks that were used for the Buddha worship ceremony were placed under the altar.
The front door was wide open. Standing in front of the door, one had a clear view of the inside of the hall.
If anything should happen, these guards could easily get into the hall in a flash.
Moreover, there was no space to accommodate the whole entourage as the main hall was too small.
After entering the main hall, Yan Yunfei and Yan Yunyan held a bunch of burning incense sticks and starting their prayers to the Buddha.
Although Zhou Bao was powerful, he was not an Immortal. If these two ladies had uttered their wishes out loud, he would have been able to hear them clearly. However, they prayed silently in their hearts, and thus, he could not hear anything.
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While watching them pray in front of the Buhdda, Zhou Bao felt extremely bored. But just as he was going to leave, his expression suddenly changed.
A faint wisp of odd-smelling pneuma was coming out from the Child-endowing Buddha.
In fact, he had arrived here early in the morning and had checked out the temple thoroughly. There was nothing out of the ordinary to be found at the temple. As for Monk De Ling, he was just an ordinary monk who did not have any martial arts skill at all.
Frankly speaking, he was just an old monk whose eyesight was failing. Besides him, there were nine other monks in the temple.
Zhou Bao had observed them carefully, but they were just ordinary people just like that old monk. Among them, there were two monks who were physically well-built but everything else appeared to be normal.
“Damn it. Am I getting paranoid?” After doing a thorough search of the entire temple, Zhou Bao felt embarrassed.
He thought he had been over sensitive after heeding Green Spirit’s words. And luckily for him, he had not brought his men here, otherwise, he would have been quite humiliated.
“Hey, Green Spirit. Are you sure that the affiliated temple of Mandkesvara Sect is called Jingtan Temple?”
“Of course. The affiliated temple of Mandkesvara Sect is called Jingtan Temple. However, too many temples have the same name in the world. Don’t you know a monk called Happy Monk?”
Green Spirit added on and said, “What’s more, Jingtan is a title used in Buddhism. Both Mandkesvara Sect and all other temples are using it. It’s very easy to make a mistake!”
“Damned!” Zhou Bao swore under his breath. Since Green Spirit had said that, there was nothing he could do but to accept this explanation.
It was already past dawn. Just when Zhou Bao was about to return home, the escorts and carriages from the Lord Mansion arrived.
“Alright. Since I am already here, I’d better find out what kind of wish Yunfei is asking for. If she really wants a child, I’ll work hard to fulfill her request!”
Watching his carriages stop in front of the temple, and seeing Yan Yunfei and Yan Yunyan walking together from the carriage, Zhou Bao felt his mood rise.
Both Yan Yunfei and Yan Yunyan were princesses. Besides, the former was the hostess of the Wuyang Region, so Monk De Ling, the abbot of Jingtan Temple, had to personally receive them. He had been waiting for some time to lead them into the temple.