Chapter 253: Fo Xin (1/2)
Chapter 253: Fo Xin
Translator: NinetalesEditor: DarkGem
When Monk Ming Xin came to Eternal Peace Empire, he could still see clouds in the sky. The influence of the snow disaster had yet to fade, and soldiers continued to send disaster relief everywhere. The victims were still escaping for their lives while many bandits were plundering houses. Starving people were fleeing all over the place, unable to find any way to get by.
”There's a white and tender monk here!” The starving people were delighted when they saw Monk Ming Xin. ”We can eat him without washing!”
He immediately ran away. The starving people, who've been lacking food for quite a long time, could only give up since they couldn't catch up to him. One of them said, ”I told you not to make a noise. When he was close, we could have just pounced on him and taken a bite; this way, that white and tender monk wouldn't have been able to run away.”
Monk Ming Xin's heart was alarmed, and he trembled in fear. After starving for two-three days, he still couldn't find anything to fill his stomach, yet, he had been chased over a dozen times by other starving people.
Great Thunderclap Monastery was serene, but the outside world was vicious, with famine everywhere. Such things were not written about in the buddhist scriptures, since only when one was full and warm could they think about buddhist scriptures.
The Heart Sutra that he had brought along was also useless; it couldn't solve his problem of having no food.
His current whereabouts were slightly farther away from civilization, so it was too far for the imperial court to help. There were many victims of the disaster and starving people, as well as many corpses of those who had died strewn across the roadside.
There were also wild wolves and dogs which had become demons by eating human corpses. They formed packs and went around hunting those that were still alive.
Dogs were normally tame, but when a disaster came, they did not scoff at human flesh. They reproduced fast, and were even fiercer than wolves!
”This is hell…” Monk Ming Xin shed tears when he saw demons and corpses everywhere.
”Monk, do you have a child?” A thin victim with a pale face grabbed onto his clothes while holding in her embrace a child. Her face was pale and bony, starved. ”Give your child to me, I'll give mine to you, you can eat my child and I'll eat yours…”
Monk Ming Xin screamed and broke free to escape.
”Rulai!” Monk Ming Xin ran countless miles until he could no longer run. He then knelt down onto the floor and shouted sorrowfully, ”Are you not seeing this human world in Great Thunderclap Monastery?”
He walked forward muddleheaded, stumbling with every other step. When he saw a monastery in front of him, he went inside and saw a couple of humans hanging from the roof. They were stripped of their skin from head to toe, and there were some monks that were squatting in the corner, holding a metal basin with meat. When they saw him, they immediately said in astonishment, ”Abbot, abbot, there's a monk that's been left on his own!”
The old abbot came out in a hurry. ”Where are you from, monk? There aren't a lot of rations left here and even the land has been gnawed a few times by the starving people. Yuan Ding, give him a bowl of food and let him leave. My buddha of compassion.”
A basin of human flesh was placed in front of Monk Ming Xin, stunning him. And he felt the buddha in his mind crumble and collapse.
He jumped up and frantically smashed the buddha statue nearby, pushing it down and smashing it into smithereens. The other monks came over in a hurry to stop him and said angrily, ”This monk is crazy, he's been possessed by the devil! To blaspheme against buddha, to deceive and destroy the ancestors!”
Monk Ming Xin let them beat him and didn't retaliate. Soon, he turned into a bloody mess. At that moment, a group of officers with men arrived and slew the monks in the monastery.
”The monks were eating human flesh, they are really becoming lawless… General, there's still a monk here who doesn't look human anymore from all the beatings. Eh, there's still breathing!”
The soldiers brought Mong Ming Xin for the general to take a look. ”He won't die. Monk, I see you have the ability, why didn't you retaliate when they beat you?”
Monk Mong Xin said with a stupefied expression, ”I have flaws all over me…”
The general smiled. ”It's good to have flaws, who doesn't have them? Only experts know that they have flaws. You have some ability, so follow me to protect the land. These immigrants even gnaw on the land to dig out the grains that were just planted. Come people, burn this monastery down!”
The soldiers came forward to set fire and soon the monastery started burning.
Monk Ming Xin nodded, but then he remembered something. He immediately ran toward the fire. ”My scripture!”
The general order his men to hold him back. ”What scripture do you have? How thick is it?”
”Only two pages.”
”Such a cold weather yet such a thin scripture, can't even be used for a fire.” The general raised a single finger, and sorrow could be seen in his eyes. ”We just need to have one season of harvest, and all the people in the world will have things to eat and no longer starve. This world will become human world once more and not hell. Therefore, protecting the land is of utmost importance; we can't let the immigrants ruin it! When the world is peaceful once more, you can go and read your buddhist scriptures. When that time comes, I'll give you bucketloads of them myself so you can read whichever you want!”
Monk Ming Xin was stunned. Only read scriptures in times of peace?
Then how could they save those that were suffering? How could they enlighten all living things?
If they could not be used during times of chaos, able only to save people from suffering during times of peace, what use did they have?”
'Cult Master Qin is right, those that write buddhist scriptures are not really rulais.'