Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Deaf Granny’s face was utterly solemn.
“This old woman doesn’t want your lives. All I ask is that from this day forward, you, Zhao Aiguo, become a good official and bring blessings to the people of this land!”
Zhao Aiguo froze at first. Then shame flooded his face. Finally, he looked at Deaf Granny with the utmost respect and dropped to his knees with a thud.
“Madam, you truly are a Living Bodhisattva!”
“I, Zhao Aiguo, swear to the heavens: if I fail to do what you just said, I won’t even need divine lightning to strike me down. I’ll go find somewhere to smash my own head in, just so I don’t keep embarrassing myself!”
Elder Monk Kongchan was also filled with admiration. Pressing his palms together, he bowed to Deaf Granny.
“Namo Amitabha. Benefactress, your compassion is boundless. The people here are blessed indeed!”
In the years that followed, Zhao Aiguo did exactly as he had sworn, carrying out countless practical measures and good deeds for the common people.
He even gave up several chances at promotion, choosing instead to remain in the county seat and continue overseeing local affairs.
Naturally, the people of the entire county loved and respected him deeply. In public and in private, they called him Zhao Qingtian.
After lunch, the young Daoist priest, worried about his master, left together with Deputy Team Leader Niu.
“My abilities are too meager. Staying here won’t be of any help.”
“Granny, after you save Zhao Fei, please go help my master as soon as possible.”
Leaving with them were the people who had come with Zhao Aiguo.
The living and the dead each had their own path. Matters like this were never meant for ordinary people to get involved in.
Before Elder Monk Kongchan left, he spoke respectfully to Deaf Granny.
“Namo Amitabha. If the demon suppressed in our humble temple breaks free of its seal, we will still need you, benefactress, to call upon the Immortal Spirits to subdue it.”
Deaf Granny nodded in agreement.
“Don’t you worry, monk. As long as he dares come out and harm the people, this old woman will fight him with everything she’s got!”
After seeing everyone off and settling Zhao Fei’s family, Hua Jiunan and Hu Fei’er helped Deaf Granny back to the rattan chair to rest.
As Hu Fei’er gently massaged the old woman’s legs, she said softly, “Grandma, I’ve heard the elders discuss it before. The ‘Ghost Buddha Faceless’ suppressed inside Jinguang Temple is far from simple.”
Chen Daji had never lacked a gossiping spirit. He hurriedly asked, “Fei’er, what’s a Ghost Buddha? What do you know? Hurry and tell me.”
Hu Fei’er looked toward Hua Jiunan. Seeing that he was listening as well, she began to tell the story.
It began in the Tang dynasty. Back then, the world had not yet entered the Age of Dharma’s Decline, and cultivation was widespread.
Ghost Buddha Faceless was an abandoned infant. From childhood, he lived with his master at Jinguang Temple on Cuifeng Mountain.
His master not only raised him as if he were his own child, but also clearly stated that the position of abbot would be passed down to him in the future.
His senior brothers cared for him greatly. They never let him do any of the dirty or tiring chores.
From childhood to adulthood, Ghost Buddha Faceless never disappointed anyone.
His attainment in Buddhist doctrine was profound, and while still young, he could already recite most of the sutras.
Even more rare was his compassionate nature. He could truly be described as someone who “swept the floor without harming an ant, and shielded the lamp to spare a moth.”
The tragedy began when Ghost Buddha Faceless was eighteen years old.
His master, the old abbot, was about to pass into nirvana. Before his departure, he summoned several disciples to his side.
“Fajie, you are this humble monk’s eldest disciple. The position of abbot of Jinguang Temple will be passed to you.”
“Farong, you are the most kindhearted and generous of men…”
The moment Ghost Buddha Faceless heard that his eldest senior brother Fajie would take over as abbot, he could no longer hear anything else his master said.
In his heart, he had long since regarded himself as the successor.
All of his fellow disciples, when they joked and laughed with him on ordinary days, had called him Little Abbot.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined this would be the final outcome.
In a daze, he completed his master’s funeral rites alongside his fellow disciples. Then Ghost Buddha Faceless locked himself in his room and did not step outside for three months.
Because he could not understand it.
Everyone else thought Ghost Buddha Faceless was simply overcome with grief, and they all tried to comfort him.
Then, one night, Ghost Buddha Faceless, who had always felt he had been toyed with, finally let his evil side erupt.
Taking advantage of everyone else’s lack of vigilance, he used a poisoned dagger to brutally murder them one by one.
Ghost Buddha Faceless saved his eldest senior brother, the man who had taken the abbot’s seat from him, for last.
Because he did not only want to kill him. Ghost Buddha also wanted to use every means possible to torment him.
At that moment, Fajie had no idea Ghost Buddha had come to kill him.
He was kneeling before the Buddha statue, chanting sutras, utterly unguarded against Ghost Buddha behind him.
“Namo Amitabha. Junior Brother, you’ve come? What is-”
Fajie held a letter in his hand. The moment he turned around, what greeted him was a dagger gleaming with black light.
Struck by the bone-softening poison, Fajie’s mind remained completely clear, but he could not move, nor could he speak.
With a savage expression, Ghost Buddha carved him down, slice by slice, until only a skeleton remained.
Even before his death, Fajie’s eyes were still wide open, and the shape of his mouth clearly formed the words: “Why?!”
More than a hundred people in Jinguang Temple were slaughtered by the ghost monk in a single night. He sat amid the pile of corpses and laughed viciously until dawn.
“Gah, gah, gah! This is what you get for making a fool of me!”
For the next three months, Ghost Buddha Faceless sat just like that before the ancient Buddha in the center of the main hall, eating the fellow disciples he had personally killed, one after another.
He did not care in the slightest that the corpses had already rotted and spoiled, that they were crawling with maggots and giving off a stench that reached the heavens.
During that time, dozens of nearby villagers who came to the temple to burn incense and pray for blessings also fell victim to his poisonous hand.
When he finished eating the final corpse, lightning flashed and thunder roared.
The ancient Buddha shed tears!