Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Nothing special happened on Wednesday.
Classes and homework passed in an ordinary, uneventful fashion.
The only unusual thing was that on the way home from evening study, groups of students seemed both excited and anxious.
The results of our first monthly exam would be announced tomorrow. For students in that era, this was an extremely important event.
Even delinquents who had no interest in school and spoiled children from rich families felt at least a little anticipation. They might not avoid the bottom of the rankings altogether, but surely they could place fifth from last instead of dead last?
Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin both thought that way.
But I warned them that our class had sixty students. If they ranked below fiftieth, they could no longer call themselves my underlings!
Wang Dachun immediately pulled a long face and said he would ask his parents’ workplace to send a car so he could burn incense and make a wish at Golden Buddha Temple outside the county seat that very night.
Zeng Jin said he might as well make a wish to Brother Wu. Could those clay statues possibly possess more arcane power than Brother Wu?
My expression turned solemn. I spoke to him very seriously.
“Little Jin, the gods are watching from three feet above us. You can’t speak carelessly about such things! We’re not near a Daoist or Buddhist temple now, so a casual remark won’t matter. But you absolutely must not spout such nonsense inside one–especially a temple like Golden Buddha Temple, where worship has flourished for centuries. Something clearly exists there.”
“What?!”
Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin stared at me in shock after hearing my serious warning.
After a long while, Wang Dachun carefully asked, “Boss, do you mean… immortals really exist in this world? Like in myths or immortal-hero novels? Gods and Buddhas filling the heavens? The Jade Emperor and Sun Wukong?”
Speechless, I rolled my eyes. “What are you imagining? Real life isn’t a novel or television show. What sort of nonsense is that? The kind of immortals you’re imagining don’t exist at all!”
“Oh…”
Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin nodded repeatedly.
But Zeng Jin pressed, “Then if immortals don’t exist, what did you mean just now, Boss?”
After hesitating, I explained. “Normally, there’s no reason to tell ordinary people like you about this. But we’re good friends, and it isn’t a particularly forbidden subject. Besides, Dachun encountered an evil being like the Dry Immortal, so he has some connection to these matters. I’ll give you a general explanation.”
They looked at me with curiosity and awe. No matter how precocious or calculating I was, I remained a middle school boy and possessed some youthful vanity. So I gave them a broad account of what Master had told me…
Immortals definitely did not exist in this world.
There were only exceptionally powerful practitioners of the esoteric arts and all kinds of demons, evil beings, and ghosts.
The Netherworld naturally existed as well, but forget ordinary people–even practitioners might never see it or learn the truth about it.
Beyond those, there was another very special existence: the faith power permeating Daoist and Buddhist temples whose prayers truly proved effective.
Even cultivators considered faith power mysterious and elusive.
It was the power of belief!
Clay bodhisattvas and wooden deity statues possessed no power themselves.
But as generations worshiped them day and night and offered incense, a mysterious, powerful aggregation of arcane power gradually came into being.
This concentrated power was called faith power.
Naturally, clay and carved statues did not become living beings. That immense power merely existed within Daoist and Buddhist temples in an unconscious, free-floating state.
In essence, it was arcane power like a cultivator’s qi. Under certain circumstances and by chance, it really could protect someone who offered incense and made a wish.
It was as though a tiny portion of the immense power enveloping the temple separated and attached itself to a specific person.
Thus, the greater a temple’s faith power, the more likely it was that special circumstances might accidentally trigger this separation of arcane power–what people called a divine manifestation!
Anyone who experienced such a manifestation naturally grew more reverent and spread the story, bringing the temple more incense and offerings. Its unconscious, free-floating power then became even greater.
It formed a virtuous cycle!
That was why the Daoist and Buddhist temples with the most flourishing worship had seemed the most effective since antiquity. In turn, they endured longer and received wider recognition.
Golden Buddha Temple outside the Fubei County seat was one such temple, with a history stretching several hundred or nearly a thousand years!
I had visited once as a child.
I was not an esoteric practitioner then and naturally sensed little. Yet upon entering, I had clearly felt a faint oppressive grandeur and majesty.
Since taking Master and entering the esoteric arts nearly half a year ago, I had not visited Golden Buddha Temple again. The county seat was over ten kilometers from Lianghe Town, after all.
And I genuinely had no time.
But Master had told me Golden Buddha Temple was an ancient monastery nearly a thousand years old, with some renown throughout eastern Sichuan and western Yu. The incense-born faith power accumulated across centuries was unimaginably vast!
Heaven alone knew how tremendous the arcane power enveloping the temple had become.
The bodhisattva statues inside had also acquired unusual power. Master herself had marveled especially at the unfathomable golden Buddha statue…
Of course, this power existed in an unconscious, chaotic state. It had no thoughts or intentions and was not a living being.
But it responded to external qi and intangible stimuli.
If a fool like Wang Dachun or Zeng Jin truly entered Golden Buddha Temple and questioned whether its prayers worked, or whether its power could even compare with a novice like me…
They would almost certainly suffer terrible luck!
They might even cause something bad to happen to me by association. I was not afraid, but it would be an unnecessary complication.
When I finished, Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin stared with wide eyes and gaping mouths, looking exactly like two goldfish.
It took them a long time to recover.
Wang Dachun lowered his voice and said in shock, “So Golden Buddha Temple… really is effective? And those bodhisattva statues truly possess arcane power? Then I really need to find a way to worship there tonight.”
I raised a leg and kicked him in the rear, rolling my eyes wordlessly.
“You idiot, did you listen to anything I said? I told you the enormous arcane power formed from incense-born faith power is an unconscious energy that envelops the temple.”
“There is a certain chance that it might accidentally activate and attach to a particular individual. But in my view, that probability is extremely low! It’s only because one person receives it and tells ten people, then those ten tell a hundred, that a cycle forms.”
“If you really want better exam results, you’re far better off studying honestly than burning incense and making wishes at Golden Buddha Temple. You’re far more likely to earn a good score through study than by trying your luck there! Ultimately, people must rely on themselves. Understand?”
As I spoke, I patted his shoulder firmly again.