Chapter 1 The Monk
The sunset is setting.
The afterglow is sown on the gurgling stream under the bridge, coated with a layer of red and golden dusk, and the stream rocks rooted in the river are also rendered like a solemn statue.
At the other end of the bridge is a small village. At this time, wisps of smoke from cooking are rising from it, and the sound of dogs barking and cows can be heard vaguely, showing a sense of peace and harmony.
The farmers in groups of three or three finished their day's work and were walking towards their homes with laughter and laughter, talking about the idle affairs of the village and looking forward to a bright future.
The broken clouds are reflected low, the flowing water is small bridges and flowing water, and the river is flat and far away. The willow shadows are rising from the smoke from cooking, as if it is on the south bank of the river.
The old man who was enjoying the cool breeze by the stream looked at the scene with a smile, his heart full of peace and joy.
"Amitabha, what a peaceful scene of a farmhouse."
A figure dressed in a monk slowly arrived by the bridge at the entrance of the village and stayed in front of the old man.
"I dare to ask Lord Tan, how to get to Yejiazhuang?"
When the old man looked at the person after hearing this, he saw that the monk was pretty and handsome. He was wearing a white-washed monk's robe, like the light moon among the clouds, full of dust.
The young monk was wearing a pair of hemp shoes on his feet, but he was not stained with dust along the way.
What's even more strange is that the monks' hands were extremely common with wooden fish, rosary, Dharma bowls, etc., but they were holding a bronze lamp, and a little like a bean lamp fell into it, calm and unmoving, completely unaffected by the breeze from the outside.
The old man was shocked and knew that the monk was afraid that he was a man with magical power, so he clasped his hands together and said, "Amitabha, how dare you ask the master's name?"
The young monk smiled and lowered his name and said, "Amitabha, I am Guangji, I don't know what Lord Tan is called?"
When the old man was young, he traveled around the world and recognized a few big characters in the school. He knew that the monk said "Master Tan" means "Don's donor", so he smiled and said, "This place is Liujia Village. All the men in the village are surnamed Liu. Master Guangji called the old man and said, "I said Liu Laoliu."
"Amitabha, I am still young and not good at preaching teachings. I am not good at preaching and teachings. I am not known as a master. Master Tan is polite." The monk Guangji waved his hand quickly.
Generally speaking, only monks and nuns who are proficient in Buddhist teachings, can practice according to the Dharma, and are good at preaching the teachings for others can be respected as "Master". Although Guangji has a lot to do with Buddhism, he is not from the official origin, so he attaches great importance to this aspect and is unwilling to impersonate him.
Liu Laoliu smiled indifferently. He was not a monk or a lay Buddhist. How could he know what title to call the other party? It was just a flower sedan chair lifting people.
He didn't bother with the matter, so he continued what Guangji said before, "Listen to what Master said, are you going to Yejiazhuang?"
"That's right," the monk held the bronze cup and said, "I am going to Yejiazhuang to treat a patient."
"Amitabha, Master, mercy." Liu Laoliu had heard of the incident in Yejiazhuang. Jianguangji was unwilling to say much, nor did he think about asking questions. He heard this and said, "Good teacher knows that my Liujia Village is on the road south of Yejiazhuang. Master walked east along the river and saw the road northward. After walking along the river for another two days, he could see Yejiazhuang."
"Thank you, Lord Tan," Guangji said, and then he turned around and left. "The monks are here to go."
"Master, wait," Liu Laoliu shouted quickly, and saw the monk looking back, shook his hand and invited, "It's too late now, and it's inconvenient to travel. Master might as well rest in my Liujia Village for one night. How about setting off tomorrow morning?"
Guangji shook his head and said, "Master Tan is kind, I am grateful to me. But monks don't hinder these things. It's okay to rush to the night and the stars and moon are accompanying you."
Seeing that there was no one around, Liu Laoliu had to approach and whisper to the monk:
"Master, please listen to the old man's words. It's not to be hiding. A strange incident happened in my Liujia Village recently. Although it is not disturbed by the lives of our villagers, there are always people talking about it, which is very annoying. When I see my master today, I have been thinking about it. I also ask my master to be kind and help my Liujia Village eliminate this disaster!"
When Guangji heard this, his head raised lightly, as if he was looking at the village not far away. After a while, he sighed: "Amitabha, so that's it. Since this is the case, I can't refuse."
"Master, mercy, mercy." Liu Laoliu thanked repeatedly and led Guangji to the village. The monk followed the old man and looked at the scenery in the village.
This village is close to the mountains and forests, and the buildings in the village are mostly made of wooden houses, and few are made of mud and stone.
It is now the turn of spring and summer. In addition to planting many rice in the ridges outside the village, there are also several rapeseed flowers planted for oil extraction. Now the flowers are in full bloom, the breeze blows by, golden waves surging, and the intoxicating fragrance of flowers is floating between the mouth and nose.
Listening to the unregulated frog croaking in the paddy fields and smelling the fragrance of flowers, the monk Guangji smiled slightly on his face, looked at Liu Laoliu not far away, and asked: "What Lord Tan said, something strange happened in the village, I don't know what signs are there? Please come here one by one, otherwise I will not be able to deal with it."
Liu Laoliu turned around and smiled, "There is no hurry to do this. Master will follow me first. I will tell the master slowly after I have eaten late."
Guangji pondered slightly, but didn't say much. He held the ancient lamp in his hand and followed Liu Laoliu slowly. Following him around, he came to a small wooden building in the village.
The small building seems to be new, and the aroma of wood still spreads. Liu Laoliu smiled and introduced to Guangji: "This is what I started with myself. I didn't ask for help from the craftsman, it all depends on the old man's hands."
Guangji praised him after hearing this, "Master Tan is good at craftsmanship."
"The master praised it." Liu Laoliu laughed and shook Guangji into the house, introducing his wife and a pair of children to him.
Seeing that the head of the family brought back a monk, Liu Wang, who believed in Buddhism, seemed quite excited. He ignored Guangji's refusal to arrange a table of food for him, all of which were wild vegetables picked from the mountains, which were indeed delicious and sweet.
After eating, Guangji sat at the table and asked Liu Laoliu about the strange incident that happened in Liujiazhai.
Old Man Liu looked at the bronze cup placed on the table by the monk, as if attracted by the bean-like lights. His eyes showed memories and sighed: "Old man, I knew this, so I should have advised Sun Laowu not to provoke that beast!"
It turns out that although the Liu family is mainly composed of the Liu family, there are not other surnames in it, and Sun Laowu is one of them.
Sun Laowu moved to Liujiazhai with his nephew Sun Qingfu two years ago. How to say that, this man has always been very brave and loves magical things, and often has the intention to explore everywhere. The Yumi Mountain Forest not far from Liujiazhai was often disturbed by him, and it became a good place for him to find monsters.
Maybe the mountains and forests are not full of spiritual energy and no monsters, or Sun Laowu is really lucky. He has never encountered any bad things since he moved in the past two years until not long ago.
"According to Lord Tan's words, could this Lord Sun Tan have been entangled with things like wild monsters and spirits?"
When Guangji heard this, although he had already guessed in his heart, he still asked questions.
"No," Liu Laoliu picked up the water bowl on the table, took a sip of water, and then said, "Three months ago, when Sun Laowu was resting in the afternoon, he accidentally met a beast. Unexpectedly, because of his greed, he caused a disaster to his head."
"I dare to ask for details."
That day, Sun Laowu was taking a nap at home. In a daze, he felt as if something had climbed onto the bed. Then he felt his body shaking, like a cloud flying, making people dance and wander.
Sun Laowu has always liked the strange and strange things, and he knew so much about it. At that time, he felt something was wrong. Was he being trapped by some monster?
So he tried to open his eyes and saw a fox the size of a raccoon was plated on the couch, covered in yellow hair, but had a green mouth.
The fox spirit lies beside Sun Laowu's legs, his body trembled slightly, and he wriggled up from time to time, his movements were extremely light, as if he was afraid of waking Sun Laowu up.
The first time in his life, Sun Laowu was so close to a monster, and it was really a blessing that he was brave enough to suppress himself from shouting, but instead focused on the actions of the fox spirit.
The fox spirit tiptoed, and in just a moment, it pressed on Sun Laowu. According to what the person said afterwards, the fox spirit was indeed magical. It just leaned against his feet and his feet fell down. As soon as it leaned on his legs, his legs became sore and numb. When it crawled to its abdomen, Sun Laowu's lower abdomen became hot and unconsciously wanted to perform the ritual of Zhou Gong with this monster.
"Although Sun Laowu is such a weird thing, he never thought of getting along with a fox." Liu Laoliu smacked his lips, suddenly remembering that he was in front of a monk, so he quickly looked at Guangji and saw that he was not hesitant, so he continued to talk.
So when the fox was about to lie on Sun Laowu's abdomen, he quickly sat up, pressed the fox spirit down, and grabbed its neck with both hands. The fox spirit was so anxious that he howled, but he couldn't break free.
Sun Laowu sat on the bed, shouted again and again, called his nephew Sun Qingfu over, tied him up with a rope, and said with a smile: "I heard that you are waiting for the fox demon to change the best. Today I will watch you here to see how you change!"
Before he finished speaking, the fox demon suddenly shrank his stomach like a thin tube, almost taking it out of the rope cover. Sun Laowu was shocked and hurriedly tightened the rope. But the fox demon bulged his belly again, as thick as the mouth of a bowl, extremely solid, and could no longer be tied.
After Sun Laowu relaxed his strength a little, the fox spirit's belly shrank again. Several times, Sun Laowu couldn't help but ask his nephew to come over to kill the beast with a knife.
Unexpectedly, just by speaking in the blink of an eye, Sun Laowu loosened his hand. When he looked again, the fox demon was gone, leaving only an empty rope ring and a yellow fox hair in his hand.
"Sun Laowu was showing off this when he was chatting with some of our old friends the next day." Liu Laoliu sighed, "We didn't think much at the beginning, but Sun Laowu then said again. Seeing that the fox spirit was smooth and it must be worth a lot of money. He planned to ask a few people to help the fox spirit, slaughter and peel it for money!"
Guangji frowned when he heard this, put his hands together and sighed, "Compassionate, merciful. Why should Lord Sun Tan do this?"
"Yes, I think so too." Old Liu's face turned red and revealed himself, "Actually, old man, I was also thinking at the beginning. I just thought that the fox spirit is also a natural spiritual creature. It is not easy to become a monster, so I didn't get involved, but I didn't stop it."
"Amitabha, Lord Tan, please continue to talk." Guang Ji's face was calm and did not preach anything, but just signaled Liu Laoliu to continue talking.
"I don't know what happened later." Liu Laoliu shook his head and said, "I just heard that Sun Laowu and the others set traps repeatedly, but they never succeeded. At most, they left a few fox hairs. Later, slowly, no one mentioned this matter."
The incident of Sun Laowu meeting the fox spirit happened in early spring three months ago. Their behavior of seizing fox spirits lasted less than a month. Later, the matter subsided, and few people paid attention to it for a while.
"But half a month ago, the fox spirit appeared again." Liu Laoliu sighed and said, "Many chickens and ducks raised by Sun Laowu's family died. After checking, they were not lost. They were all bitten to death by the fox and were not taken away!"
Not only that, after Sun Laowu, similar things happened in the houses of several other families who participated in the fox catching operation. The chickens and ducks were bitten to death, and the dogs barked wildly late at night, disturbing people's dreams. At night, black shadows flashed in the house, which made people feel terrified.
"We thought that it's nothing to die, so we should think that apologizing to the fox fairy. But the day before yesterday, the young grandson of the Sun Laowu family ran into the fox fairy when he got up in the middle of the night. He fell into the cessation pit and almost lost his life. He is still a little stupid until now and has not recovered."
As long as the vixen does not hurt people, everything will be easy to say, but now someone almost loses his life because of this. For the villagers in the village, the vixen's actions are a bit too much.
"I just had the idea when I saw you, Master today. Can the master see if he can see the young grandson of the Sun Laowu family, save him and take the beast away by the way."
"Amitabha, I already know this." Guangji proclaimed the Buddha's name, "Since that's the case, I will stay here for a few days to eliminate this disaster for your village."
"Thank you, Master, for your compassion." Liu Laoliu thanked quickly.
"It's not a big deal," Guangji glanced at the night outside the house. "If it's too late today, Lord Tan should go and rest first. If there is anything, I'll talk about it tomorrow."
"Okay, Master, please follow me. The old man has prepared a clean room for the master, and I would like to ask the master to take a break here."
Chapter completed!