Royal Gold Magistrate

The patron who received a devastating blow covered his face and stared blankly at the eminent monk in front of him, momentarily unable to react.

Then he saw the monk’s eyes turn bright red as he panted incessantly. His heart trembled, and he immediately started wailing, “The monk is hitting people!! The eminent monk has gone mad!!”

The group of people closest to them instantly erupted in an uproar.

Originally, they had also honestly lined up for a day. As a result, just when it was their turn, they were told there would be no blessing and no money. Their anger was much greater than the others’.

Someone immediately roared at the crowd, “Brothers!! The baldy hit someone. I think these are all fake masters! They don’t keep their word. Beat him up!!”

With this, the powder keg was ignited. The surrounding people immediately joined in cursing.

“I damn well knew it! The mumbo jumbo these baldies were chanting wasn’t Buddhist scriptures at all!”

The group of monks instantly panicked. The crowd’s fists hadn’t arrived yet, but their spit was already flying over.

Huijue, who was originally shivering, didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly, a mouthful of saliva landed on his face, as if triggering some switch.

His entire mindset instantly became peaceful. He closed his eyes, tilted his head at a forty-five degree angle, clasped his pig’s trotters together, and chanted a Buddhist proclamation.

“Amitabha, if you want to kill or beat me, dear patrons, do as you wish.”

The commoner closest to him had already swung his fist, but it suddenly stopped when it reached Huijue’s face.

That person saw the solemn and holy expression on Huijue’s face and was stunned.

He turned his head and shouted to the crowd, “This is a true eminent monk! Everyone, don’t hit him. Hit the others!!”

Then he gently wiped the saliva off Huijue’s face with his sleeve and said with shame, “Master, this lowly one was rude… Please don’t take offense.”

The sticky feeling on his face disappeared. Huijue became flustered again, his heart beating rapidly against his will.

He only had one thought in his mind. No! He absolutely couldn’t speak at this time. If he spoke, he would be doomed!

So he kept his eyes tightly shut and just kept chanting Buddhist scriptures, not saying anything else…

Abbot Hongcheng watched the scene before him with a chaotic heart. He hurriedly shouted to the little monk behind him, “Quick! Quick, report to the authorities!! Say there are people committing murder at Fuyun Temple!”

The little monk felt like he had received a great pardon and ran off in a fluster.

The enraged commoners surged forward and quickly beat the monks in the temple to a pulp.

However, only Huijue escaped disaster. The crowd formed a circle of vacuum around him. He sat in the center, continuously chanting true scriptures… The commoners all felt reverence.

The monks had all been taken down, but the commoners were still not satisfied. They rushed into the main hall and began looting whatever they could.

Incense, offerings, wooden fish, prayer mats, and other items were all swept clean. Some people even started scraping the gold foil off the Buddha statues.

The clueless mob at the end of the line who hadn’t joined in the beating could only smear some of the blood flowing from the masters’ hands on the items they brought, carefully wiping it.

The masters can’t bless anymore, so I’ll manually bless them myself!

However, that bit of blood obviously couldn’t smear many items. The commoners started brawling over the unconscious eminent monks in order to fight for their blood, making the scene even more chaotic.

Abbot Hongcheng stood in the crowd. His kasaya had already been torn to shreds. The people coming from behind would slap him from time to time.

Facing this scene of demons running amok, his tears finally poured out like a burst dam, but he couldn’t utter a single word.

…

After a long time, Fang Zheng finally received the report from the little monk and leisurely took a group of officers with torches to Fuyun Temple.

As soon as they arrived at the scene, they were stunned. The place was in complete ruins. The wall plaster had been smashed into pieces, and quite a few floor tiles had been pried away.

The main hall’s doors were wide open, and the Buddha statues inside were also scraped until they were mottled.

The situation before their eyes exceeded expectations. It seemed they had gone a bit too far. Who would have thought Fuyun Temple was so weak…

Over a dozen monks were lying on the ground in all directions.

There were also a few monks who were clearly of higher rank based on their attire, lying in pools of blood with their eyes tightly shut and faces pale.

The only one who looked fine was Huijue, who was sitting in meditation outside the main hall.

Fang Zheng quickly ran to the monks who were heavily bleeding and checked on them. Discovering they still had breath, he let out a sigh of relief.

Then he examined their wounds one by one. After looking for a while, he found that apart from obvious wounds on their hands, the other places that had been pinched were all bruised.

Especially their arms, which were covered in dense fingerprints.

Fang Zheng gasped in shock.

There are vampires among the crowd! This is clearly squeezing out blood…

When Abbot Hongcheng saw the people from the government had come, he, who was originally on the verge of death leaning against a pillar, pounced at Fang Zheng’s feet and started crying as he hugged his thigh, wailing with tears streaming down his face.

“This old monk is innocent!! My lord, why harm Fuyun Temple like this when we have no grudges!!”

Fang Zheng helped Abbot Hongcheng up and said solemnly, “With me here, Master, there’s no need to panic. What exactly happened? Why do you say this?”

Abbot Hongcheng sobbed, aggrieved like a little wife.

“The government’s bulletin board said our Fuyun Temple would give out prayer beads and bless them for free. Wasn’t that authorized by you, my lord?”

Fang Zheng said with righteous indignation, “Of course not! Why would I do such a thing? A few days ago, someone came to the government office, entrusted the government to issue this notice, and even donated a sum of silver.”

“I didn’t think much of it and just assumed it was a temple in our district wanting to do a good deed, so I issued it.”

“Master, please think. Have I ever had any conflicts with your Fuyun Temple? Someone must be secretly framing Fuyun Temple…”

“I didn’t expect… I didn’t expect such a vicious incident to occur in the district. Rest assured, Master. I will definitely give you justice!”

Hearing this, Abbot Hongcheng deflated like a punctured ball. His hands clutching Fang Zheng’s thigh gradually loosened, and his entire body collapsed to the ground.

That’s right… No matter what, this matter shouldn’t have anything to do with the government. He didn’t even know who his enemy was. Then who exactly wanted to harm Fuyun Temple…

The image of a brocade-clad young master suddenly appeared in Abbot Hongcheng’s mind.

A hint of viciousness flashed in his eyes…

That’s right. It must be him. It was him who inexplicably gave him money to invite those eminent monks to Fuyun Temple and then went to the government to issue the notice. Only then did so many things happen.

This was killing with a borrowed knife!! Those eminent monks must have had a feud with that person. He didn’t know that person. Fuyun Temple was just an accidentally chosen fish that suffered from implication. Otherwise, there was no other explanation!

“This old monk thanks you here, my lord…”

“No need to thank me. This is what I should do.”

Seeing that the old monk had no other questions, Fang Zheng started looking at the others.

His gaze immediately swept to Huijue, the most eye-catching person in the entire scene. He was still mumbling with his eyes closed.

Fang Zheng smiled. Isn’t this an old acquaintance.

“Hey! One Ear!”