Putian Shaolin.
The first day of the Bon Dharma Ceremony is over.
In a simple and elegant Zen room.
An old monk with kind eyebrows and good intentions meditated and fell into concentration.
A young monk who was responsible for cleaning the Zen room today was squatting by the wall, about to replace the red candle that was about to burn out.
Perhaps because of the day's hard work and lack of concentration, the young monk accidentally used too much force when inserting the new candle into the candle holder, spilling the candle liquid in the candle holder that had not completely cooled and solidified all over the floor.
The young monk suddenly broke into a cold sweat.
Although he didn't scream in surprise or make much noise, he still subconsciously glanced in the direction of the old monk.
Full of guilt, afraid of being blamed by the old monk.
The old monk with his eyes closed obviously noticed something strange here, and said softly, "It's okay, just don't burn your hands."
The young monk said gratefully: "It's not hot or hot. The young monk will clean it up immediately."
After saying that, the young monk got up and quickly left the Zen room to get tools to deal with the candle liquid adhering to the ground.
The old monk slowly opened his eyes and couldn't help but look at the pool of blood-red liquid on the ground.
Recalling an almost identical scene two or three months ago, as well as a conversation with a fellow student.
"Brother, if the red candles are spilled on the ground, just clean them up. It's not a big deal. But if blood is spilled on the ground, Shaolin..."
"Then what did Junior Brother tell Donor Luo and Donor Ji at that time?"
"...I still can't hide it from my senior brother."
"Although Junior Brother has been silent, as time goes by, we can still slowly see some clues from the changes in the situation in the world."
"Junior brother is ashamed of my Buddha..."
"Junior brother is willing to be a red candle, burning himself and illuminating others. How should he be worthy of the Buddha?"
"Senior brother...hehe, in terms of martial arts, my senior brother is not as good as me, but in terms of the profoundness of Buddhism, my senior brother is far inferior to me, so I won't argue with my senior brother."
"That's why the abbot always asked you to meditate more, read more scriptures, and practice Zen."
"It's a pity that after spending more than ten years in the Sutra Pavilion, my junior brother still hasn't made much progress. I really feel like I have failed my teacher."
"Senior brother, why not? When I was most confused, I would feel resentment in my heart from time to time. I blamed my master and uncles for leaving too early and too cleanly. Even if one or two people were left behind, just like Wudang Xu Like Master Chen, I can give the younger generation a heads-up when they do make a mistake, even if it means fixing the problem. However, there are no ifs. If I make a mistake, no one will ever come out to question it. Only when it is a foregone conclusion and the result is unsatisfactory, can I act accordingly. Reflect on the consequences. However, many things are still too superficial, and after many mistakes have been made, there is no room for recovery. After batch after batch of people left indifferently, Shaolin became worse day by day. .”
"Senior brother hastily taken over and has been able to maintain the dignity of my famous family. Qingku thinks it is very difficult, so don't belittle yourself. If you are wrong, Qingku and others are not wrong. We will all bear the heavy responsibility on him. Senior brother, I didn’t help share my worries and solve my problems, otherwise why would this be the case?”
"Oh, how come they have admitted their mistakes to each other? There is no way to change the fait accompli. This time I also agree with my junior brother's approach. Although I, Shaolin, are Buddhists, I have little to do with the righteousness of the family and the country. But if the skin is not left, the hair will be attached. ?Twenty years ago, as a leader in martial arts, Shaolin could be at the forefront of the fight against foreign barbarians, but now, why not just be a pawn?"
"What senior brother said is true, but some of Donor Luo's ideas are indeed contrary to our Buddha's path. Can senior brother really convince himself?"
"This is also the reason why I hesitated for a long time before I came to my junior brother to talk to him. There are naturally many truths to be said about Buddhism, but I found that the mistakes I made in the past were that I talked too much about the principles. Maybe my understanding of Buddhism was not good. It is so transparent, so the result is often completely opposite to the original intention. This time, senior brother, I will not talk about so many truths and only look at one obvious fact."
"What fact?"
"If Zhongzhou Lu is destroyed, who will inherit Zhongzhou Buddhism?"
…
…
Zhejiang.
On a small village.
It was dinner time.
However, there was not a single sound of children talking back and crying because of naughty children and not eating honestly, husbands and wives bickering over discipline, or old people pampering and scolding.
There is no longer a hint of the fragrance of the dishes.
The thick smell of blood covered all the smoke and smoke in the village.
Blood trickled out slowly from every house and accumulated, no less viscous than candle liquid.
The faint wails of those who had not stopped living could be heard faintly from the three or two doors, but unexpectedly they were clearly audible.
There are hundreds of households in a village, old and young, men and women, not even a chicken or a dog can escape the killing tonight!
It seemed that an evil spirit crawling out of the eighteenth level of hell had caused this bloody massacre.
Those who died happily may have been penetrated by the evil ghost with one hand, and one or two internal organs were randomly removed.
Or they may be slapped by evil spirits until their flesh and blood are bruised, or their legs may be kicked until their bones are broken.
Those who died in great pain were mostly affected by the residual force, which shocked all the internal organs in the body, and it took a long time before they died.
Or if a whole family was covered by a huge boulder at the same time, one or two ends would bear less force, and luckily they would not be killed on the spot.
That's where the four or five sparse gasping sounds came from.
If they cannot be rescued within half an hour, these four or five people will undoubtedly die the most painful and helpless deaths in the entire small village.
But even if they are saved, will they have the courage to face the fact that their relatives have been killed, their hometown is destroyed, and they will probably be a useless person in the future?
Probably because the thief God especially likes to watch this kind of drama.
There was a rapid sound of horse hooves coming from far away.
The two teams arrived in front of the village one after another, and those few people also had hope of survival.
There was a group of about fifteen or sixteen people, dressed like officials, and they were the inspection department of the local town.
The other team was vaguely divided into two groups, with a total of ten people. Their clothes were much simpler and rougher. It was not difficult to tell that they were from the Jianghu.
Furthermore, from the fact that nine of the ten people had bare arms, showing off their strong muscles, it was easy to guess that these two groups of people were both escort masters.
The small village is not located in a remote area, so when the terrifying laughter resounded in the night sky tonight, at least three passers-by heard loud or small horrifying screams coming one after another from the direction of the village. Wails.
There was even a brave, careful and nimble guy who sneaked into half a mile of the village, stretched his neck and looked around with all his strength.
Until I saw a grotesque and huge figure effortlessly knocking down the house, pounced on the fleeing people again and again, and then living people flew high into the air, and then fell heavily and died. He was finally frightened out of his wits, but fortunately his hands and feet were more afraid of death than him, so he dug around on the ground randomly and crawled away in a hurry.
Whether it was out of fear of ghosts and gods, or concern for their own lives, the three of them spread the word about this incident in unison.
Such fatal things always spread quickly.
In less than a moment of burning incense, two teams of people came upon hearing the news.
Before and after arriving at the village, dozens of eyes easily saw the tragic situation in the village.
Many people looked away in fear, and some were so nauseated that they almost vomited out everything they had eaten in the next moment.
For a while no one thought whether there were any survivors.
A group of official men and horses, a group of arrogant people, couldn't help feeling chilly, so they looked at each other in silence.
Although the smell of blood was strong, there was still a faint smell of alcohol between the two groups. Fortunately, everyone remained calm.
Both groups have their own reasons for drinking tonight.
The two groups of escorts come from the North and South Escort Agency, which is the most famous in the world.
The North and South Escort Bureau is just as its name suggests. It was originally composed of two escort bureaus, one in the south and one in the north.
The headquarters of the Southern Escort Bureau is in Zhejiang.
The two groups of escorts were not picking up any big business on this trip, they were just small escorts in Zhejiang.
Just as they all finished their work, they made an appointment to treat each other to the five internal organs temples.
As for the imperial court's military restriction order, it is clear that the emperor is far away and the mountain is high, and they have not committed any transgression, so they don't need to pay attention to it.
Unexpectedly, after just two glasses of wine, I heard that something bad might happen here. Out of the chivalrous heart of Jianghu people, I came here to find out.
Compared to the righteous deeds of the North and South Escort Bureaus, this trip by the Inspection Department was more of a business affair.
The Zhongzhou Inspection Department is a permanent institution.
Just because after the war with foreign barbarians, the imperial court's jurisdiction over Fujian was not as strong as before, and bandits became the norm.
In order to prevent nearby areas from being affected by this bad trend, an inspection department was added to this town.
Responsible for inspecting pedestrians, combating smuggling, arresting thieves and other matters to maintain peace.
However, the Inspection Department is under-staffed. With only twenty people covering an area of nearly hundreds of households, the commission cannot meet its expectations.
Secondly, in order to activate the economy among various states and regions, the imperial court adopted loose policies on the movement of people.
If the serious murders in the town have nothing to do with Jianghu people, the inspection department can get involved.
Once they get involved with Jianghu people, the Inspection Department will cover their ears and pretend that nothing happened.
Gradually, the people also formed a tacit understanding with the inspection department.
If you know something, you can go to the Inspection Department to help you seek justice. If you know anything, it's better to go to the Jianghu people to settle it.
In fact, the existence of the Inspection Department has long become dispensable, and it has gradually become an agency that eats free money.
The change came after the Hundred Flowers Conference a few months ago. The Inspection Department began to add people, expanding to nearly forty people.
The deputy inspector named Song who led the team this time didn't know where these people appeared out of thin air.
If it weren't for his really good skills, the position of deputy inspector would have been replaced.
Although there are more people under his command, life is not as comfortable as before.
Now every ten days he leads three groups of men and horses diligently running up and down the town to perform their duties.
My life is more than four times more than before, but my salary is only less than twice as much as before.
It's just that the whole Zhongzhou is in such a situation, and Deputy Inspector Song, who has a whole family pointing to him for living, can only comfort himself, thinking that he has enjoyed happiness for so long in his early years, and now it's time to pay off the debt.
Tonight happened to be when he and his men had finished their official duties and were about to go back to deliver their duties.
It was getting late, so I wanted to have food and clothing on the way back.
It was easy to get some free time, but trouble came unexpectedly.
A gust of wind blew.
Blow away the smell of alcohol from everyone.
The overwhelming smell of blood assaulted his nostrils.
The group of people who were not very drunk to begin with suddenly became a little more sober.
It's just that no one is frowning and their face is dull.
Deputy Inspector Song, who had knives on his eyebrows and thin cheeks, calmed down and looked for the leader of the two groups in the escort agency.
At this moment, he naturally doesn't mind whether the other party violates the imperial ban, and he wishes more people would come to embolden him.
Deputy Inspector Song opened his lips slightly, wanting to ask the other party's opinion, but since he had not dealt with people in the world for a long time, he didn't know how to speak.
The starry night is dim, but the eyesight of anyone who frequents escorts is not too bad.
Seeing that the people in the government did not show much hostility, among the ten members of the North and South Escort Bureau, a middle-aged man with a square face and a broadsword on his back rode out on horseback. He bowed respectfully and said, "But Deputy Inspector Song?"
Deputy Inspector Song did not put on any airs, and returned the courtesy politely, saying: "Exactly."
The middle-aged Da Dao generously announced his family name and said: "We are from the North and South Escort Bureau, and I want to pay the money."
After all, he had been working in the local area for more than ten years. Deputy Inspector Song was no stranger to this name. He knew that the other party was one of the top ten escorts of the North and South Escort Bureau. Dear fellow officers of the Escort Agency, Mr. Song will not gossip here and now, but I would also like to ask Escort Master Qian what he thinks of the matter at hand?"
Qian Fang knew that the government had done too little business in recent years, and it was no wonder that a deputy inspector had no clue about a village massacre case and didn't know what to do, so he expressed his opinion: "I heard from the person who just sent the message that there is a weird person." Destroying villages and killing people, seeing this scene, either that person has gone crazy practicing martial arts, or he has practiced some evil martial arts and needs to drink blood."
Deputy Inspector Song nodded and said: "Song also thinks that it has nothing to do with ghosts. Chief Qian may roughly judge who or which sect it was based on the situation at the scene?"
Qian Fang frowned and said, "It's a bit difficult, but we should be able to see some clues."
Deputy Inspector Song clasped his fists and said, "Then Mr. Song has a heartless request. Please help find out the general identity of the suspect. Mr. Song can petition for justice for hundreds of innocent people who died unjustly."
The people in the Escort Bureau who were used to scorning the lazy and cowardly behavior of officials were all surprised when they heard this. Then they looked at this little ninth-grade magistrate with admiration. Everyone in the Escort Bureau came here for the word chivalry. Naturally, he was full of words such as willingness to cooperate.
As people from the government and Jianghu entered the village, they soon realized that there were still people surviving, and urgently organized rescue operations.
A little boy whose legs were crushed by a collapsed house was rescued. He still tightened his body, kept slapping his knees with his hands, and cried hoarsely: "It's a ghost, it's a ghost! It's the ghost that my parents said it was." Here to claim your life! A tall, long-haired, faceless ghost!"
Deputy Inspector Song looked at Qian Fang after hearing this, thinking that he could get the answer based on this alone.
Qian Fang smiled bitterly and shook his head, indicating that he was confused.
However, an escort surnamed Tie remembered the recent rumors and said, "Could it be the long-haired bamboo pole monster you are talking about, together with the ghost in red? It is said that this pair of ghosts came from north to south. A few days ago, Didn't it just appear in Huzhou County and Jiaxing County?"
Deputy Inspector Song immediately made arrangements with his subordinates: "Send the survivors to treatment as soon as possible. When they wake up, ask if they have seen the ghost in red."
Qian Fang's expression suddenly became particularly solemn. If it was really the rumored pair of "ghosts", they would have to pay more attention!
