Changsheng walked in front, and Datou followed from behind. Although he knew that the black snake would not bite him, he still felt uneasy. He turned around after taking three steps and looked back after five steps. He was worried and trembling.
After climbing another hundred or ten steps, the two finally arrived at the platform square on the mountainside. At this time, the huge square was covered with weeds and trees. The main road up the mountain was in the middle of the square. The main hall was on the west side of the square, and there were several squares on the east side. A smaller palace. The large zen rooms and dormitories where monks live are located in the northeastern area, and the northwest area behind the main hall is filled with many palaces and towers of different sizes.
Wuxiang Temple was very large in those days, and the incense was also very popular. There were many incense vessels placed from west to east on the square in front of the main hall. Some were three-legged male furnaces, and some were four-legged female tripods. Each one was more than one foot high. At least it weighs a thousand pounds.
Seeing these incense burners and bronze tripods, Datou vaguely saw hope, "Sir, these things are made of copper and cast iron. If you move them down the mountain, you can get a lot of silver. After so many years, these things are still in the same place, which shows that this place Very few people come here, so the things left by the previous monks must not have been stolen.”
Changsheng nodded, turned and walked north, passing through a patch of knee-high weeds. A passage without weeds and trees appeared in front of him. This passage was in the shape of an irregular long strip, about ten feet wide, running east-west. No beginning or end visible.
When they came to the passage, they both looked back at the giant black snake following behind. There was no doubt that this passage was a snake passage. Before this, the black snake had walked back and forth from the square in front of the main hall countless times. Pass.
At this time, the moon has risen, and the cold moonlight shines on the earth, and the huge Wuxiang Temple is completely silent.
With this ready-made snake path, the two of them did not need to move grass and walked directly along the snake path to the west, and soon arrived in front of the main hall.
The plaque of the Great Hall on the main hall is still there, but the gold has faded away. The four-character plaque alone is more than two feet long, which shows how majestic the Great Hall is.
The door of the main hall is open, and the snake path is divided into two from the front of the main hall. One leads directly to the interior of the main hall, while the other changes its route to the south, leading to the release pond below the square.
According to Taoist rules, Taoist priests are not allowed to enter monk temples, but Wuxiang Temple has been abandoned for many years, so there is no such taboo. The two of them went straight up the steps and entered the Main Hall.
In its heyday, Wuxiang Temple had thousands of monks. This hall needed to accommodate these monks to meditate, chant sutras, and perform their duties. You can imagine how spacious it was inside. However, at this time, the huge hall was empty except for the statue of the Buddha's body on the altar. There is not even an offering table in front of the statue. It is not that it has decayed over time, but that it is not there at all.
Because the door of the temple was not closed, a lot of dust and fallen leaves drifted into the temple. However, the statue of Buddha was far away from the door and was not affected by wind and rain. The gold and red colors on the body were completely preserved.
After the two entered the main hall, the black snake also swam into the main hall, but this time it did not follow them step by step. Instead, it swam to the southeast corner of the altar where the Buddha statue was placed and coiled up.
"Why is it empty?" Datou looked at Changsheng in confusion.
Changsheng looked around at the interior of the hall, "The last time Emperor Wu killed the Buddha, the Buddhists called it Huichang Dharma Disaster. All the monks were forced to return to secular life by the court. It must have been that the monks took away everything they could before leaving."
The big head pointed at the Buddha statue, "It seems that the court still saves face for the monks. You see, the Buddha statue is still intact and has not been smashed."
Changsheng stretched out his hand to lower his head and pointed at the left arm of the statue, "It's definitely not the imperial court that gives the monk face, it must be the local officials who give the monk face. Emperor Wu doesn't believe in Buddhism, but it doesn't mean that these local officials don't believe in Buddhism either. Besides, this Buddha statue is compassionate. The majesty is such that even people who don’t believe in Buddhism are unwilling to desecrate or destroy it.”
"It makes sense," Datou said, "Sir, please rest while I look around first."
Although he knew that it was unlikely that there were magical books hidden here, Chang Sheng still nodded.
Datou immediately began to search the main hall. He checked the pillars in the hall one by one, knocked the green bricks on the ground one by one, and then raised the air to check the beams.
While looking around with its big head jumping up and down, the black snake did not step forward to stop it, but kept lying in the southeast area of the altar.
After searching all possible places where things could be hidden, Da Tou shifted his gaze to the Buddha statue.
Changsheng guessed what Datou wanted to do, so he said, "In the eyes of the monks, the Buddha statue is the same as the Buddha. They should not hide anything in the Buddha statue."
"Don't be afraid of 10,000, just be afraid of what happens." Datou said.
Changsheng thought for a while and reluctantly agreed, "Try not to destroy the Dharma image."
After receiving Changsheng's advice, Datou did not conduct a destructive inspection of the Buddha statue. After knocking and listening, he found nothing. "It's solid inside. There shouldn't be anything hidden inside."
Since there were many palaces and monks' residences in Wuxiang Temple, Changsheng didn't waste time. After confirming that there were no clues in the Main Hall, he turned around and walked towards the door.
Datou then followed, and when he saw the two leaving, the black snake snaked up again.
After Black Snake followed the two of them out of the hall, Big Head turned back and ran to the spot where Black Snake had previously occupied to quickly knock and check.
There is always a reason to hate someone, and there is never a reason to like someone. A large part of the reason why Changsheng trusts Datou so much is that Datou is thoughtful and reliable in doing things. The area where the black snake is entrenched was the only place Datou had ever seen. I haven't checked it, but Datou didn't even ignore such details.
However, after knocking and checking, it was found that there was nothing abnormal where the black snake was lying.
Although there was no abnormality, Datou still had doubts in his mind, "Sir, why is it lying in that position?"
Chang Sheng thought for a while and said, "The southeastern position of the altar is usually where eminent monks lead monks to perform exercises and explain Buddhism. The place where it lies is in the corner under the altar. I suspect that he led the monks to recite sutras. , the eminent monk who lectures the monks may be its owner, and when the owner lectures, it coils up in the corner and listens to the sutra."
Datou rarely questions the inference of longevity, but at this time he was full of doubts, "With such a big guy hanging there, those monks chanting sutras are not afraid at all?"
"I'm just guessing," Changsheng shook his head and said, "The Main Hall is a Buddhist holy place. Logically speaking, monks will not allow aliens to enter the hall."
Da Tou followed Chang Sheng and walked eastward, "Sir, there are too many rooms here. If we search for them one by one, I might not be able to find them all in ten days and a half. Where do you think we are most likely to find what we are looking for?"
"The Sutra Pavilion," Changsheng said, "Any temple or Taoist temple of any size will have a Sutra Pavilion to store a large number of scriptures."
There are several pavilions on the east side of the square, and the plaque of the Sutra Pavilion hangs on the lintel of one of them. Seeing that the lock on the door of the Sutra Pavilion is still there, Datou was overjoyed, "The door is still locked, there is hope."
As Da Tou said that, he stepped forward and pulled the lock to check the door bolt. Unexpectedly, the lock was not opened, but the door was pulled down. It had been abandoned for decades, and it was reasonable for the door hinge to decay.
Seeing the door slowly falling, Datou hurriedly retreated and dodged. With a muffled sound and a burst of smoke, the situation in the Sutra Pavilion came into view.
There were a large number of wooden boxes stacked on the ground near the gate, more than a dozen large and small.
Although the door of the Scripture Depository Pavilion was destroyed, the black snake did not attack the two of them. Seeing that the black snake made no movement, Da Tou quickly entered and opened one of the wooden boxes, "Sir, this is a scripture!"
Changsheng then entered. At this time, Datou had already picked up a scripture and started to read it. Forty or fifty years was not enough for the paper to decay, but these scriptures were seriously affected by moisture and the pages could no longer be read.
Changsheng did not rush to read, but looked around at the interior of the Sutra Pavilion. The Sutra Pavilion was a two-story pavilion. The two of them were currently on the first floor. The entire first floor was strewn with a large number of wooden shelves for placing scriptures. , but there are no scriptures on these wooden shelves. It must be that the monks wanted to pack the scriptures and take them away after being expelled, but due to some changes, they were unable to do so and left all the packed scriptures here.
"I'll go take a look at the second floor." Changsheng walked towards the stairs to the north.
"Wait for me, I'll go with you." Da Tou hurriedly dropped the scripture in his hand and quickly followed Chang Sheng.
The situation on the second floor is very similar to that on the first floor. There are also a large number of wooden shelves, but there are no scriptures on the wooden shelves. The scriptures placed previously must have been packed and carried down to the first floor.
Datou was worried that the important scriptures would be hidden in a secret corner, so he searched for them again. Changsheng also came to help this time. The two worked for a long time and made sure that there were no hidden compartments on the second floor before returning to the first floor.
When the two of them were searching upstairs, the black snake had been coiled outside the door and had not entered the Sutra Pavilion.
Facing a large number of wooden boxes on the first floor, Datou felt worried, "Sir, do you understand Buddhist scriptures?"
"I don't know much." Changsheng shook his head. He is a Taoist priest. The teachings of Taoism and Buddhism are very different, and the scriptures are not common. However, most Taoist priests know a little about Buddhist scriptures. The reason why they dabble a little is not to learn from it, but to learn from it. It comes from the mentality of knowing yourself and the enemy. To put it bluntly, if you have a quarrel with someone else one day, you must have a rough basis.
Although Da Tou was frightened, he still had to go forward and look for it, "If I had known, I would have called Guanyin and Zhen Hanzi. This is their scripture, they must understand it."
Changsheng didn't answer. He actually didn't have much hope for the wooden box in this place, because Buddhism is different from Taoism. What Buddhism pursues is "the supernatural power will manifest itself without asking for it." To put it bluntly, it is Buddhism. What I am comprehending is Buddhism, and I will not deliberately pursue supernatural powers. There is little hope of finding a clear magical power in this pile of Buddhist scriptures.
But having found the Buddhist scriptures, I couldn't ignore it, so I had no choice but to open one of the boxes.
After opening the box, Changsheng found a series of small scrawled characters engraved on the back of the lid. Looking carefully, it was the four characters "Sutra Collection Sutra".
Seeing these four words, Changsheng felt relieved, "It saves trouble."
Hearing Chang Sheng's words, Big Head tilted his head in confusion.
Changsheng pointed to the row of words on the back of the box lid and said, "Buddhist scriptures are divided into twelve parts of the Tripitaka. What is in this box is one of the Tripitaka."
"What is Tripitaka?" Datou asked confused.
Seeing that he didn't have to bother to read them one by one, Changsheng was in a good mood and explained casually, "Buddhist scriptures can be divided into twelve parts of the Tripitaka. The meaning of the sutras is that the Vinaya Pitaka is the precepts spoken by the Buddha, and the Sarmapa Pitaka is the personal opinions of the Buddha’s disciples on what the Buddha said.”
"You mean you don't need to read them one by one?" Datou asked.
"Yes," Changsheng nodded, "In addition to the Tripitaka, there are also twelve parts of Buddhist scriptures. These twelve parts are deeds, chants, prophecies..."
"Hey, hey, hey," Datou hurriedly interrupted Chang Sheng's words, "Sir, please stop talking. I won't understand even if you say it, just tell me what to look for."
"Unlike Taoist magic, there are no specific Buddhist scriptures for cultivating magical powers. In fact, what we need is the insights and experiences of a certain eminent monk, so it is unlikely that there is anything we need in this pile of scriptures. If Yes, and it should be recorded in the scriptures of 'Shifa'..."
