Chapter 60

Chapter 60

There was so much information that I had to take a moment to organize it in my mind before everything clicked into place.

Over sixty years ago, Jiyu Temple asked Master Jin’s master to help embed a Golden Scale into that Bell.

Over twenty years ago, the Golden Scale began to peel off slightly, so Jiyu Temple sought out Master Jin again.

After Master Jin returned from Jiyu Temple, he fell gravely ill and passed away.

On his deathbed, he kept muttering the words “Supreme Lot.”

And yesterday, in front of the Bell at Jiyu Temple, the Red Dress Girl drew a Supreme Lot!

“I suspect that sixty years ago, the Abbot of Jiyu Temple offering his physical body at the altar to the heavens to pray for rain for the people was a complete and utter sham,” Jin Wuya said, his teeth clenched in anger.

I was startled.

I had looked it up on my phone; Jiyu Temple’s rise to fame began with that very ritual for rain.

I asked, “Are you doubting that the Abbot at the time offered his body at the altar, or…”

“That rain might not have been brought by the Abbot at all!” Jin Wuya’s eyes were bloodshot. “On the path of Yin-Yang, there are many ways to pray for rain. But to achieve results as effective as those at Jiyu Temple, ordinary methods likely wouldn’t work.”

I immediately understood what Jin Wuya meant.

The Abbot’s decision to offer his body at the altar was made after three months of fruitless prayers.

Three months… that was long enough to try every conventional method available.

Since none of them worked, he had to take a desperate risk.

If he offered a body at the altar, whose body was it really?

Was the Abbot’s body truly an offering to the heavens, or was it meant to suppress something?

Jin Wuya continued, “If the Abbot really sacrificed his own body, it would be considered a form of spiritual cultivation. If it was cultivation, why would they need my master to embed that Golden Scale later?”

A Golden Scale is an object of Pure Yang, containing a certain amount of Merit and dharma power.

As Jin Wuya said, if it were a matter of cultivation, why would external forces be needed to bolster it?

So, was that Golden Scale embedded to provide a blessing of Merit? Or was it for suppression?

If it was for suppression, what exactly was being suppressed?

At this thought, my entire body tensed up.

Recalling the scene from last night where the girl’s mouth was skewered by the Supreme Lot, a chill surged from the base of my spine to my head. “So, the Sacrificial Offerings for Jiyu Temple’s rain ritual weren’t the Abbot’s body, but the girls who drew the Supreme Lot?

And the Abbot sitting at the altar wasn’t for the sake of the heavens at all, but to suppress the girls’ vengeful spirits?”

Following this logic, everything seemed to fall into place.

Jin Wuya had clearly reached the same conclusion. “Perhaps the girl’s resentment was too strong, and the Abbot’s body alone couldn’t fully suppress it. That’s why Jiyu Temple obtained that Golden Scale and asked my master to help embed it into the Bell.”

My heart wrenched painfully, and the hand holding my teacup felt ice-cold.

“I knew my master’s temperament better than anyone; he hated evil and was upright to a fault,” Jin Wuya said. “Sixty years ago, he might not have noticed anything amiss. But twenty years ago, he discovered the truth. That was what caused him to fall ill and never recover.”

I couldn’t imagine how Jin Wuya had endured this night.

The truth he had been chasing for over twenty years turned out to be this!

How could anyone not break down?

“Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, I want to ask a favor of you.” Jin Wuya looked at me as if he had made a monumental decision. “I want you to help me dig up my master’s grave and open the coffin so I can examine his body.”

My hand shook violently, splashing tea everywhere.

Digging up a grave and performing an autopsy… this… this was indeed asking a lot.

I stammered, “This… you could do this yourself.”

“I don’t trust anyone else with this,” Jin Wuya replied. “If I dig up my own master’s grave, wouldn’t that be considered betraying my master and destroying my lineage?”
No… it didn’t count as that, did it?

Still, I understood how Jin Wuya felt.

The bond between him and Master Jin was the same as the one between me and Granny.

Since they were each other’s only family, how could he bear to dig up the man’s grave with his own hands?

Things had already come to this. I gritted my teeth and agreed. “Fine, I’ll help you.”

After all, only by resolving the matters at Jiyu Temple could I find a way to get that Golden Scale back.

That afternoon, Jin Wuya led Li Qingying and me to the hill where his master was buried. He pointed out the direction, and Li Qingying and I went up to exhume the grave.

As we dug, I felt a sense of unease, but Li Qingying was more carefree and physically stronger. In less than forty minutes, we had the grave open.

The sun was at its peak as Li Qingying used her tools to pry out the Coffin Nails one by one.

When it was time to lift the lid, I called Jin Wuya up the hill.

The moment the lid was removed, the three of us gasped in unison.

Master Jin lay quietly inside the coffin. His expression was peaceful, and he looked lifelike.

Despite being buried for over twenty years, his body showed no signs of decay whatsoever.

However, his mouth had been pierced through by a small, red, sword-like Wooden Lot!

That Wooden Lot was almost identical to the Supreme Lot I had received the night before.

The only difference was that the words ‘Supreme Lot’ were missing from the body of the stick.

Jin Wuya fell to his knees before the coffin with a heavy thud, slapping himself across the face repeatedly. “Master, your disciple has failed you! I was so foolish that I didn’t realize for twenty years that someone had tampered with your body… I deserve to die…”

So, when Master Jin was originally buried, that Wooden Lot hadn’t been in his mouth.

Someone must have dug up the grave and opened the coffin after the burial to stab it in!

Why would someone do that?

It was clearly because they were afraid Master Jin would go to the underworld to seek justice!

Obviously, this was also the handiwork of Jiyu Temple.

Jin Wuya reached out to pull the Wooden Lot from Master Jin’s mouth, but I grabbed his arm. “Don’t pull it out!”

Jin Wuya looked at me, bewildered.

“Boss Jin, your concern is clouding your judgment,” I explained. “Think about it carefully. Is this Wooden Lot only sealing your master’s mouth?”

No, absolutely not.

Anyone capable of sacrificing a young girl’s body to the heavens to pray for rain must have significant spiritual cultivation.

Since they had already gone to the trouble of exhuming the grave to silence him, they might as well have gone all the way. Recalling Master Jin’s Souls and sealing them at the same time would have been a simple task.

Otherwise, why would Master Jin’s body remain uncorrupted for over twenty years?

If Jin Wuya pulled out that Wooden Lot, Master Jin’s Souls would likely dissipate just like that girl’s did last night, ending in total annihilation.

Jin Wuya retracted his hand. He thought for a long time before finally replacing the coffin lid himself and reburying the grave.

On the way back, Jin Wuya and I talked a lot.

We went over the information we currently had, and I suddenly found a breakthrough. I asked, “Boss Jin, how old were you when your master passed away?”

“Sixteen,” Jin Wuya said casually. “Why?”

I continued, “At sixteen, you were still young. Not many people knew your identity, right?”

Jin Wuya nodded. “I’ve kept to myself all these years and never used my master’s name. That’s why I’m not very well-known.”

“That’s it,” I analyzed. “The Supreme Lot of Jiyu Temple has reappeared after several decades. What does that tell us?”

Jin Wuya replied, “It means some aspect of the Rain-Seeking Formation has run into a problem again…”

At that point, Jin Wuya stopped abruptly. A light finally flickered in his eyes as he looked at me. “Are you saying… we should lure the Snake out of its hole?”