125 The Scripture (1/2)

Jade City was the capital of sins and conspiracies within the whole Western Region. As a result, every resident believed in The Gods. All sorts of temples lay inside and outside the city, and people consecrated all kinds of aboriginal gods from every corner of the world there.

Those hazy Gods, who set themselves high above the masses, were like cinereous vultures feasting on a colossal rotten corpse. The residents of Jade City had a saying, ”The more misdeeds he committed, the larger statues he donates,” which led to another conclusion, ”No sin, no belief.” To those monks' and Taoist priests' comfort, there were no sinless people in this city.

Among numerous temples, Four Truths Temple deserved to be their leader. It had to be located outside the city due to its vast coverage area. Thousands of statues of Buddha and over 3,000 monks were there. Without surprise, the major benefactors were Golden Roc Fort and the Meng family in North City.

Four Truths Temple was beyond the mundane affairs and seldom involved in mortal trifles. The reason why Gu Shenwei remembered it was that it once made an exception and sent monks to escort an Avenger onto the mountain.

When Marshal Yang was avenging the Gu family, two monks followed him all the way and disappeared after Marshal Yang died. Gu Shenwei once thought there was animosity between Four Truths Temple and Golden Roc Fort. However, he later realized that this move was to sentence Marshal Yang to death rather than ”save” him.

In Four Truths Temple, Marshal Yang took an oath that if he could not go up the mountain to seek vengeance, he would bathe the Jade City in blood. To protect the innocent and rid the fiends, the monks agreed to escort him onto the mountain armed with weapons.

In Gu Shenwei's point of view, this was an extremely sophisticated move to ”take care of it.”

The fussing affair of ”possessed” had eventually come to an end. Lady Meng not only managed to shift the focus of Stone Castle onto her daughter's treatment but also saved the four brown-belt assassins. ”They have shared joys and sorrows with my daughter. Thus, they're not guilty and deserve to be rewarded.”

Lady Meng personally went to Four Truths Temple in the name of praying. Her team was too vast and mighty to stay in the temple. Therefore, they camped outside.

According to Doctor Sun, he could not cure the Tenth Young Master whereas the Exorcism Manuscript might have an extraordinary efficacy. Tie Hanfeng had always been fighting for a treatment for his apprentice, and it turned out he could do nothing when the opportunity came.

The six youngsters were summoned to the gloomy main hall. Facing many monks and civilians and vague Buddhist statues, Mister Guo from the Whiterobe Academy started pouring out words, proving Shangguan Ru and the others were not killers from Golden Roc Fort, and their entrance did not violate The Agreement.

”These two are the Misses from the Shangguan family. The four teenagers in Daizi Pavilion are still apprentices and have not achieved the killer title yet. According to The Agreement—” Mister Guo showed a piece of white paper with the words printed from the inscriptions on it, 'Killers from Golden Roc Fort shall never enter the desert.' Take a look at 'killers,' which means the others from Golden Roc Fort can enter at will. However, it was New Moon Hall that raided the two Misses, and this apprentice named Slave Huan thought they had to engage in this battle since New Moon Hall were the first to violate the agreement of peace...”

When Mister Guo vehemently spoke, the two masters—now Misses—from the Shangguan family did not feel right, because for the first time they don women's clothes for this affair today. They were uneasy and irritated under the crowds' eyes.

They had to be the Miss as the result of a multi-party consideration. Golden Roc Fort needed outside supports in this war among the killers.

The other four youngsters had prominent brown belts, showing that they were not formal killers.

Slave Huan even had a chance to speak. He described the hazily mysterious woman he had seen and observed the audience, hoping to figure out the complicated relationships among the forces in the Western Region. However, he was asked to leave before he found out anything.

The six youngsters quickly completed their tasks and left the main hall. They heard later that Mister Guo acquired remarkable supports from the crowd. Hence the Supreme King favored him quite a lot.

While the counselors of Golden Roc Fort were arguing strongly on just grounds to convince the crowd, the youngsters were climbing the mountain to visit a key witness.

Master Tiger Monk was famous for the vegetarian tiger that always followed him and was called ”Tiger Monk.” His religious name was Lianxin, which on the contrary was seldom mentioned.

Also, he kept the Exorcism Manuscript. The most important mission of their trip was to visit this legendary monk.

Master Tiger Monk did not live in the temple. He built several thatched cottages called ”Leftslope Vihara” on the left slope and practiced Buddhism there all the time. He wanted peace and quiet. Therefore, a receptionist led them to the cottages on foot.

Shangguan Ru kept pulling her clothes all along. She was distraught due to her ridiculous female dress and her upcoming possibly-ruined 13th birthday. To tell the public that the ”Tenth Young Master” was only a joke, she could not acquire the ”Young Master” title, not to mention setting up an academy to raise killers.

Seeing her brother Shangguan Fei having all these, she became even more upset and began to smash trees and grasses, killing all those innocent insects. Shangguan Yushi could not make her happy either until she thought about seeing the vegetarian tiger.

The youngsters thought that this eminent monk had to be an old one with a solemn face and a withering body. After meeting him, they found him a handsome middle-aged monk. The only mark left by his penance was his almost transparent pale skin. He modestly treated people neither pedantically nor arrogantly, as if he had small talks with them, regarding every person equally. Usually, he personally handed over six bowls of fresh water to his guests and amiably talked about the latest news.

Master Tiger Monk was quite interested in the giant roc which troubled Stone Castle months ago and seemingly wanted to tame it. Gu Shenwei doubted that the giant red-crowned roc would be into him.

The youngsters saw the well-known tiger lying on its stomach beside the monk. It breathed through a big scary mouth, with the ups and downs of its belly like a bellow, and it seemed bored.