NOVEL WEB Chapter 367: "Cleaning House
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Hotpot, as a delicacy, is quite different from other foods because it feels more atmospheric when there are many people enjoying it together.
Everyone sitting around, the mood, plus the inherent deliciousness of the hot-cold pot, meant that everyone's chopsticks moved faster and faster.
Although the young Taoist felt that Jiang Liu and the others were very malicious, deliberately making things difficult for him, fully aware that both his arms had been severed and he couldn't eat, they still placed him there, watching hungrily.
Yet, for some reason, the young Taoist didn't truly become angry, but felt it was somewhat like the playful teasing among friends.
"What's going on? Why hasn't this guy started begging yet!?" Though they were eagerly tucking into the hotpot, Jiang Liu's attention was constantly on the Taoist's reactions.
Seeing him obviously salivating but not asking for help, Jiang Liu couldn't help but snicker internally, wondering how long he could hold out.
"Hmph, do you think this will get to me!?" After a moment of silence, the Taoist still didn't ask for help, but after some thought, suddenly rubbed his feet together and then took off one of his shoes.
Then, he swung his bare foot right onto the dining table.
"Master, could you please help me take off my sock? Thank you!" The young Taoist finally spoke up, but his request caused everyone except for Zhu Bajie to put down their chopsticks, staring at him in astonishment.
"What is this!?" Jiang Liu was taken aback to see the Taoist toss his foot onto the table while eating, giving him a look of complete bewilderment.
"As you know, both my arms have been severed, so from now on, I can only eat with my feet. I hope you guys can bear with me!" The young Taoist spoke, replying to Jiang Liu and the others.
At these words, Jiang Liu's face turned dark. Who puts their feet on the dining table during a meal?
But after all, the man had no hands, and it was they who invited him to the table. With him eating with feet, they really had nothing to say.
"Bajie, you can eat later. Let's feed this brother until he's full first!" With a somewhat helpless shake of his head, Jiang Liu no longer felt like continuing the mischief and turned to Zhu Bajie, who was still eating heartily, seemingly unaffected.
"Why me, Old Pig!" Having to feed someone else with such delicious food right in front of him? Zhu Bajie felt quite unwilling.
However, unable to openly defy his master's command, Zhu Bajie could only mutter under his breath, then reluctantly started to feed the young Taoist.
A small skirmish appeared to be going in his favor, and the Taoist smiled secretly to himself.
Just then, a large slice of lamb was served to him, and the young Taoist bit into it.
The lamb, mixed with fragrance and spiciness, along with the special effect of the Eight Trigrams Hot-Clear Pot enhancing the deliciousness, made the Taoist's eyes light up.
Delicious—this was truly delicious. He felt as if he had never tasted such good food before.
Yet, though the food tasted great, before he could even chew it thoroughly, another slice of lotus root was presented before the young Taoist.
When Zhu Bajie ate himself, it was like a whirlwind sweeping through leaves, but this frequent, incessant serving pace was a bit too much for the young Taoist.
"It's fine, eat up. Now you feel it's too fast, but with such a unique delicacy of the three realms before you, soon you'll find even Old Pig's serving pace too slow!" Zhu Bajie responded to the Taoist's comment without slowing down his serving pace one bit.
Witnessing Zhu Bajie's speed, Sun Wukong and the others also tensed up and followed suit, their chopsticks flying.
In front of the Eight Trigrams Hot-Clear Pot, everyone was competing fiercely to enjoy the hotpot.
As time went on, just as Zhu Bajie had said, the young Taoist's eating pace indeed accelerated more and more, and in the end, he genuinely felt Zhu Bajie wasn't serving fast enough.
This battle for food at the hotpot table was over in a short half-hour.
By the end, Zhu Bajie picked up the Eight Trigrams Hot-Clear Pot, guzzled down all of the soup base in one go, and still patted his round belly, grumbling about not being full.
"Ah, I'm so stuffed!" The young Taoist, with his belly round as a drum, lay back in the chair like a salted fish, exclaiming with satisfaction.
It must be said, maybe it was because eating together is when people most easily close the distance between them, or perhaps it was the "heartfelt" effect of the Eight Trigrams Hot-Clear Pot, but after the meal, the young Taoist's original wariness towards Jiang Liu and others had dissipated.
He even seemed to regard Jiang Liu and company as friends.
"I now believe you are not monks from the Chechi Kingdom, thank you for saving me!" After laying there like a salted fish for a while, the young Taoist soon spoke up to Jiang Liu.
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"Hmm, and what about you? Why were you left in this icy and snowy wilderness?" Jiang Liu nodded slightly, his gaze falling on the young Taoist's expression as he asked.
Jiang Liu felt quite a good impression of the Taoist and regarded him as a friend.
Jiang Liu understood that it must be because of the "Heartfelt" effect of the Eight Trigrams Hot-Clear Pot.
"Alas, isn't it all because of those Baldies from Bodhi Temple!" Upon hearing Jiang Liu's question, the young Taoist spoke with a sorrowful look on his face.
"Bodhi Temple, Monk!?" At these words, Jiang Liu was taken aback and also inwardly surprised.
As a monk, to commit such cruel acts? What's going on with the monks in the Chechi Kingdom!?
"Indeed, those monks of Bodhi Temple denigrate the teachings of the Taoist Sect, claiming that our Three Pure Ones Temple selfishly focuses on our own cultivation without the inclusive heart to enlighten all beings. They suppressed us by force. When my three revered masters went to reason with them, they were deceived and ambushed. They then falsely accused my masters of being Evil Demons, and almost our entire Three Pure Ones Temple was slaughtered..."
The young Taoist's eyes filled with hatred as he recounted the incidents that had befallen him to Jiang Liu and his group, sparing no detail.
Through the young Taoist's account, Jiang Liu learned of the general course of events.
Friction between Taoism and Buddhism, Jiang Liu understood that much.
After all, when he was in the Great Tang, he had been provoked and sought out by Li Chunfeng in Jinshan Temple.
Yet, the strife between the Taoist Sect and Buddhist Forces in the Chechi Kingdom had already reached a point of irreconcilable hatred, far less subtle than within the Great Tang.
Within the Chechi Kingdom, the Buddhist Forces were led by the Bodhi Temple, while the Taoist Sect held the Three Pure Ones Temple in high esteem.
Fighting was one thing, but to have three ascetic Taoists from the Three Pure Ones Temple be ambushed and go missing due to treachery by the monks of Bodhi Temple was quite another matter.
Seizing the opportunity, Bodhi Temple uprooted the Three Pure Ones Temple in one fell swoop, the Taoists of the temple either perished or fled.
This young Taoist was one of those who had escaped but was then captured by the monks of Bodhi Temple.
The monks were even more vicious, severing his arms and smashing his knee caps, leaving him to die in the icy wilderness. By a stroke of luck, he encountered Jiang Liu and his group and was thus rescued.
"So, when I first saw you monks, I lashed out with harsh words, thinking you were from Bodhi Temple. I have offended you greatly!" At the end of his tale, the young Taoist sincerely apologized to Jiang Liu.
"It's alright; the misunderstanding is cleared up now," Jiang Liu responded with a wave of his hand.
"Humph, those monks from Bodhi Temple have really gone too far!" Sun Wukong, who loathed evil with a passion and was straightforward in character, couldn't hold back any longer and spoke angrily.
"Elder brother is right! Such actions make the monks of Bodhi Temple no different from the Demon Clan!" Sha Wujing spoke up, nodding in agreement.
"So cruel, to sever one's arms and even shatter the knee caps, leaving someone to die in the icy wilderness? From this alone one can see that those monks of Bodhi Temple are no good!" Zhu Bajie, putting aside his complaints of hunger, also spoke with righteous indignation.
"Is this Buddhism? Is this what Buddhism is?" Jiang Liu, acting as Master, did not readily express his stance. However, hearing about the so-called actions of Bodhi Temple, anger stirred within him.
Hint: Triggered Mission "Purge the Evil", with the requirement to clean up the miscreants within the Buddhist Sect and restore peace to the world. Successful completion of the mission will be rewarded with 12,000,000 Experience Points and a Legendary Level Treasure Chest*1.
Although Jiang Liu did not speak, what he thought was very real. The system seemed to sense Jiang Liu's intentions and suddenly, a corresponding hint appeared before Jiang Liu.
"An active mission worth 12 million Experience Points!?" Upon hearing this system prompt, Jiang Liu was both shocked and overjoyed.
Active missions typically only trigger when one has decided in their heart to undertake a certain action, according to the Mission System.
Moreover, the greatest benefit of an active mission is that if completed, one receives only the reward, with no penalty for failure.
Active missions naturally do not require one to accept them; they are taken on automatically.
Looking at the generous reward of a whopping 12 million Experience Points, equivalent to nearly a month of cultivation with the Green Lotus Taoist Scripture, Jiang Liu naturally could not pass up this mission.
"Amitabha, let's not rush this matter; we need to plan carefully. Disciples, let us go to Bodhi Temple and take a look..." After a moment of silence, Jiang Liu spoke.
Although he had accepted the mission, these words after all came from the young Taoist alone. Jiang Liu was cautious, feeling that it was best to investigate Bodhi Temple thoroughly first.