Jiang Cheng gasped after hearing this, "So, Master Huicong is really becoming a Buddha?"

After saying this, Jiang Cheng was stunned for a moment. Then, a strong sense of unease surged in his heart. He would rather Huicong be a ghost than face a Buddha who would commit such sins against innocent infants.

A moment later, Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and tried his best to calm down. After all, his worries were based on the premise that everything the abbot in the darkness said was true.

The abbot unusually didn't answer Jiang Cheng's question but chanted a Buddhist prayer, "Amitabha, is the benefactor willing to listen to this poor monk continue?"

He had already come this far. Wouldn't leaving now be a great loss? Jiang Cheng pretended to be calm, "Master, please speak."

Seemingly thinking of something, the abbot sighed heavily, "At dawn, not long after my brother said those words, Huicong came. With his hands clasped together, he walked out from behind the Buddha statue in the main hall. No one saw when he had hidden himself there. The monks guarding outside didn't notice a thing."

"Greetings, teachers and uncles, Master, your disciple has arrived."

"Although I was shocked by my brother's words at the time, when I thought of the evil deeds my disciple had committed, I trembled with anger. I ordered him to confess all the wrongdoings he had committed in detail."

"But unexpectedly, Huicong looked at me calmly, put his palms together, and asked in return: Master, your disciple accumulates virtue and does good deeds. What wrong have I done?"

"I was stunned. I didn't know how he dared to say such a thing in front of the Buddha in the main hall with such confidence."

Suddenly, Jiang Cheng keenly noticed that the abbot's tone had changed. His voice was trembling, as if he was in extreme fear, "And... and Huicong's eyes, his eyes changed, becoming so compassionate, like... like the eyes of the Buddha statue in the main hall!"

"He was pitying us, pitying us old monks who were just empty old shells!"

"Master, don't get excited, speak slowly, speak slowly..."

Jiang Cheng was frightened by the abbot's sudden change. He was worried that the abbot would not be able to catch his breath and pass out. If that happened, his trip today would have been in vain.

After a violent pant, the abbot slowly calmed down, "I was shocked at the time. Fortunately, one of my junior brothers spoke first. The junior brother extended his hand in a gesture of invitation, and then with a clear mind and bright eyes, sat cross-legged on the prayer mat. He questioned Huicong as to why he had broken the precept against lust."

Jiang Cheng probably had a picture of the scene at that time in his mind. Sitting cross-legged, also known as the "vajra posture," is also known as the "meditation posture" because it is often used in Buddhist meditation. The abbot's junior brother was inviting Huicong to sit down and debate the scriptures.

Given the difference in status and seniority between the two, the abbot's junior brother was inevitably suspected of bullying the younger generation, but this also reflected the importance these eminent monks attached to Huicong.

"Huicong also sat in the meditation posture, and slowly raised his head calmly: Several months ago, a dozen women from different villages hanged themselves outside the temple, and their bones disappeared after their deaths. Does Uncle know about this?" "In dozens of nearby villages, how many women die by hanging or drowning in the river every year because they bear the name 'barren woman'? Has Uncle ever cared?"

"It has only been a few months since this disciple went down the mountain. Has Uncle heard of such a thing as heart gouging happening again?"

"Bold fallacy! How can you be so presumptuous in front of the Buddha!" The abbot imitated his junior brother's tone and rebuked sharply, "We Buddhists should understand the mysteries and see our nature clearly, but you are greedy for worldly dust and indulge in lustful desires!"

"Amitabha, without self-image, without human-image, without sentient being-image, without lifespan-image, coming and going in the mundane world is nothing but pink skeletons, white bone skin and flesh. This disciple gives up his own flesh to save more than a hundred barren women, save their lives, complete their families, benefit their villages, the barren women are happy, the villagers are happy, and dozens of villages are also completely happy. What sin has this disciple committed?"

"This disciple does not understand, why are all beings happy, but only Uncle is not happy?"

"Uncle thinks that this disciple is greedy for the mundane world and has difficulty passing the test of love, but he does not know that the difficulty of passing the test of love in Uncle's eyes is because Uncle's worldly roots are not pure. Seeing the mundane world is also the mundane world. This disciple is not like that. This disciple sees the wonderfulness of the mundane world as nothing more than a handful of yellow earth, and uses a heartless body to save those who have love. This disciple does not feel guilty, only happy!"

"Sophistry! Then how do you explain drinking and having fun?"

"The alcohol precept is a covering precept, not a substantive precept. Drinking alcohol itself is not wrong. What the Buddha is really worried about is that excessive drinking will lead to loss of one's original intention and cause other faults, violating other precepts, such as causing strife, obscuring wisdom, and speaking out hidden matters, or indulging in lust without restraint, alienating the virtuous and good. But has Uncle ever seen this disciple drunk and lose his composure?"

"Good, good, a glib tongue! Then I will ask you again, why did you slaughter the villagers, even… even the infants in swaddling clothes were not spared?"

Speaking of this, the abbot paused. Then, the voice of the Huicong monk that he was imitating also changed, becoming unusually cold and hard, "Amitabha, because they are guilty, guilty of great sins!"

"Nonsense! Let's not talk about the other villagers. I ask you, we have already investigated the old woman from An Ding Village who was harmed by you. Her name is Xue Yinhua. She is now in her seventies and has accumulated virtue and done good deeds all her life. She is a well-known philanthropist in the surrounding villages. What sin has she committed?"

The abbot's next sentence made Jiang Cheng feel a chill all over his body, "Xue Yinhua is innocent now, but her sin lies three years later!"

"In the 6th year of the Dezong Emperor, General Ye Ziling, who guarded the border, was poisoned by spies from the Southern Barbarians and died in his mansion. The Southern Barbarian army entered the country, and the border pass was lost."

"Our dynasty's army was defeated like a mountain. The Southern Barbarian army was like entering an uninhabited land. Thousands of miles of the country fell into the hands of the enemy. A Southern Barbarian vanguard army attacked near An Ding Village. The villagers of An Ding Village had already fled into the mountains a few days ago to take refuge, but Xue Yinhua could not bear to part with her bundles of cloth, so she took advantage of the fact that no one was prepared and secretly went down the mountain back to the village. Unfortunately, she was discovered by a Southern Barbarian sentry. The sentry did not startle Xue Yinhua and followed her all the way back to the mountains, marking the route along the way. That night, a large number of Southern Barbarian troops arrived and slaughtered all the male villagers. Their heads were hung under the saddle as military merits. The young women were tied to the backs of horses and looted back to the camp. None of the more than 300 men, women, and children in the village were spared."

"You… you're telling the truth? You can see three years into the future? So that infant was also…"

"Song Zixian, the son of Song Shenggen of Luofeng Village. Song Shenggen had a son in his old age, and the whole family doted on him. Song Zixian was born with a bad nature and ran rampant in the village when he was young. He insulted his mother at the age of fourteen and killed his father at the age of sixteen. After that, he fled to Snake Pan Mountain and became a bandit."

"In the 21st year of the Dezong Emperor, Song Zixian acted as an internal accomplice and led the bandits to attack Luofeng Village at night. Except for a few people who went to a neighboring village to attend a banquet that night and did not return, all the men in the village were killed and their bodies were hung under the beams. All the women were looted, some were taken back to the mountain stronghold, and others were sold to brothels, including his own sister."