Volume 11: The First Law Chapter 3: The Buddhist Fate of Chicken Soup Temple
When the imperial edict from Daxia was about to be delivered to Yumen Pass, a sword was traveling westward on the Xisha Plateau in the Western Regions.
The man in the sword light was wearing a black robe embroidered with dark gold patterns.
Those dark golden patterns look like dragons.
Under the scorching sunshine of the Xisha Plateau all year round, the dark golden dragon pattern shines brightly and looks vivid, as if it is about to break free from the black robe.
…
The Western Regions are dominated by deserts, with large tracts of barren desert areas.
These desert areas have always been perfect hiding places for evil cultivators.
These wanted desperadoes had nowhere to go, so they had to hide in the deserted desert.
Lu Qingshan once traveled to the Mogao Desert in the Western Regions and wiped out a group of sand bandits.
However, in addition to being a den for evil cultivators, the scorching desert also gave birth to the most supreme Taoist sect in the region:
Longxiang Temple.
The thirty-six monasteries and seventy-two temples of the four Longxiang courtyards are distributed in this vast desert area.
If you want to be the dragon and elephant of all Buddhas, you must first be the horse and cow of all sentient beings.
The harsh environment and hidden dangers are the best place to hone one's skills for those who are truly determined to practice hard.
The entrance test for disciples of Longxiang Temple consists of the first two stages being the most common spiritual root test and background check, while the last stage is to throw those candidates who are still mortals into a desert.
Then give nothing and let the candidates fend for themselves.
If a candidate can survive in the desert for a week, he or she will have the resilience and persistence necessary to become a powerful physical cultivator and will have passed the entry test of the Dragon Elephant Temple.
If the candidate does not survive the seven days and dies, then we can only say that Buddha only saves those who are destined to be saved.
Moreover, if one dies in the desert, even collecting the body would be a luxury.
Because in just half a minute, the wind and sand will bury the body, and even collecting the body will be a luxury.
Only through such cruel screening can the tenacity of the disciples of Longxiang Temple and the strength of the Longxiang Taoist lineage be ensured.
…
In addition, Longxiang has always had the habit of suppressing bandits.
Just like going out to sea to fish, the monks are organized to regularly clear out the sand bandits.
This also led to the bandits' extreme hostility towards Longxiang Temple and the monks, and their hatred even extended to some ascetic monks who did not belong to Longxiang Temple.
The reason why those evil cultivators who became bandits in the desert became more and more ruthless and brave in fighting was all because they were forced out by the dragon elephant.
After all, if you are not cruel enough, you will lose your own life.
The assessment for the elite Dragon Elephant disciples was to throw the participating disciples into the deserts where the most sand bandits were concentrated, and require them not to fly but to walk back to the sect on foot.
It is conceivable how those evil cultivators who have long hated Dragon Elephant would react once they see Dragon Elephant's disciples.
Such a test is a real iron and blood test.
As for why Long Xiang didn't just wipe out the bandits in one fell swoop...
Apart from the two reasons that the sand bandits are like weeds, "the spring breeze cannot burn them all, but wildfire will blow them back to life", and finding all the sand bandits in such a vast desert is like looking for a needle in a haystack, perhaps there are also some reasons for keeping some sand bandits to serve as whetstones for their own disciples?
Who knows?
For those sand bandits, being able to stay alive is enough. They don't care about these things. They hope that they can be regarded as a whetstone by the dragon elephant so that they can keep their lives.
…
The sword light traveled westward, but after only five or six thousand miles, it encountered two waves of bandits roaming in the desert.
The two sides were on the verge of a fight, and there was no words spoken at all.
The man in the black and gold dragon robe casually snapped his fingers, but every time he snapped his fingers, a bandit would bleed from his brow and fall from the air, with no chance of survival left.
The man did not slow down at all as he just passed by. The aggressive bandits fell from the sky into the desert like hail and were swallowed by the constantly flowing quicksand.
Everything was so calm and peaceful that it even made people wonder whether any bandits had just appeared here.
Perhaps many years later, when an ascetic passes through the desert below, he will accidentally discover one or two skulls floating on the sand, which will prove what happened here.
The man raised his head slightly and saw a plateau rising high like an isolated island in the sea of sand in front of him.
Xisha Plateau.
Without hesitation, he headed straight towards the Xisha Plateau.
…
The temples of Longxiang Temple are not concentrated together, but scattered across various plateaus and deserts.
The area of Xisha Plateau belongs to Jitang Temple.
The sand bandits on the Xisha Plateau have been having a pretty good time recently, because they heard that the abbot of the Jitang Temple, the Jitang Saint Monk, died there while supporting the Zhongling Territory.
They were skeptical at first, but as time went by, the authenticity of the news became more and more true.
Until finally they were sure that the Chicken Soup Monk was really dead.
Death is the greatest thing.
This is not the case for the sand bandits .
When the Chicken Soup Monk was still around, the bandits felt more fear and dread towards him.
But once the Chicken Soup Monk died, this feeling of fear changed - what is there to be afraid of a dead person?
Fear began to turn into hatred.
They began to resent the massacre of the sand bandits by the Chicken Soup Temple when the Chicken Soup Monk was still there.
If that were all, it wouldn't be a big deal.
But two things happened recently that suddenly made the situation on the Xisha Plateau become turbulent.
One is that after the death of Abbot Jitang in Zhongling, Bodhi Temple, one of the four academies of Longxiang, applied to the Longxiang Elders' Council to merge Jitang Temple into its own.
There are four academies, thirty-six temples and seventy-two shrines in Longxiang. The four academies are the leaders, and the other thirty-six temples and seventy-two temples are under the factions of the four academies. The overall governing body is the Longxiang Elders' Council.
The composition of the Elders' Council is somewhat complicated. To put it simply, it is extremely similar to the organization called "United Nations" in Lu Qingshan's previous life. The abbots of all temples and monasteries, a total of 112 people, form the Dragon Elephant Elders' Council.
Then the Presbyterian Church, headed by the four houses, has the greatest privileges, just like the "permanent members" of the United Nations.
Chicken Soup Temple originally belonged to the Bodhi Temple faction.
But later, due to the existence of the Chicken Soup Monk, the comprehensive strength of the Chicken Soup Temple skyrocketed, and it was regarded as the number one temple under the Four Academy, even catching up with the Four Academy.
There is no room for two tigers in one mountain, so Jitang Temple gradually became independent from the Bodhi Temple faction and became an independent temple.
It’s a pity that the configuration of the thirty-six temples and seventy-two monasteries in the four courtyards of Longxiang is also fixed, with no increase or decrease.
No matter how powerful Jitang Temple is, it is impossible for it to be promoted to the fifth academy of Longxiang, unless it replaces one of the current four academies.
People always strive for higher positions. Jitang Temple certainly wants to be upgraded to Jitang Yuan, and has been working hard for it. Obviously, if Jitang Temple is really upgraded to a Yuan, the position of Bodhi Yuan will inevitably be replaced.
Bodhiyuan had been feeling resentful for a long time about his former younger brother now wanting to get ahead of him.
Although the temples of the various Longxiang courtyards are scattered, they all belong to the same Longxiang after all, and internal strife is absolutely not allowed, so Bodhi Temple can only watch Chicken Soup Temple become stronger and stronger.
As the Chicken Soup Saint Monk's cultivation level continued to improve, Bodhi Temple's sense of crisis grew greater and greater, especially when the Chicken Soup Saint Monk reached the Seventh Tribulation Realm - it is entirely conceivable that once the Chicken Soup Saint Monk achieves the Ninth Tribulation Realm, how terrifying his combat power will be by then?
Perhaps that will also be the time when Bodhi Court becomes Bodhi Temple?
As a result, everything took a turn for the better ten years ago.
When chaos broke out in Zhongling, the Chicken Soup Monk went to Zhongling alone, then buried himself in that land and never came back.
Bodhi Temple, which was filled with anger, could no longer sit still and took the opportunity to add insult to injury. It immediately filed an application in the Dragon Elephant Elders' Council, seeking to bring the Chicken Soup Temple, which had lost much of its strength after losing the Chicken Soup Saint Monk, back under its control.
The Chicken Soup Monk worked hard for so many years to make Chicken Soup Temple independent from the Bodhi Temple faction. Now Bodhi Temple wants to take Chicken Soup Temple back. Naturally, the disciples of Chicken Soup Temple firmly disagree.
Also because they are both affiliated with Longxiang, if Jitang Temple does not cooperate, even if Bodhi Temple is unhappy, it cannot force Jitang Temple by force - the disciples of Jitang Temple are also sure of this and dare to firmly reject Bodhi Temple's proposal.
The two sides remained in a stalemate.
It wasn't until the second incident happened that the situation seemed to be turning around.
Half a year ago, the disciple of the abbot of Longxiang Tianwang Temple killed the only son of King Huangshalong in the Erhai Desert.
King Huangsha Long is the most powerful bandit leader in the Western Regions. Not only does he have tens of thousands of bandits under his command, but he himself has the cultivation level of the Fifth Tribulation Realm.
Of course, in the face of the size of the dragon elephant, such strength and power are completely insufficient.
However, King Huangsha Long was violent to begin with, and his own offspring had died tragically at the hands of the Dragon Elephant disciples. It was unlikely that he would swallow his anger and not react at all.
He decided to take revenge on Long Xiang and make him pay with blood.
After careful consideration, King Huangshalong set his sights on Chicken Soup Temple.
He was preparing to attack the Chicken Soup Temple.
The reason why it is the Chicken Soup Temple is that if one chooses an unknown dragon and elephant temple to launch revenge, the dragon and elephant will not feel any pain at all, so how can one talk about revenge?
However, he did not have the strength to attack the overly powerful Dragon Elephant Branch Temple. If he went ahead with it, he would undoubtedly be walking into a trap and be killed in one fell swoop.
So stupid!
The unique Chicken Soup Temple is obviously very famous, but due to the death of the abbot of Chicken Soup, its strength has dropped sharply, making it the most suitable target for attack.
Of course, this was just a common act of revenge, and King Huangshalong was just planning to fight with Jitang Temple, make Jitang Temple bleed a little and then retreat quickly.
If King Huangshalong wanted to destroy the Chicken Soup Temple directly, he firstly did not have the strength to do so, and secondly did not have the courage to do so.
But what Huangsha Longwang did not expect was that because they had been cut by Longxiang's disciples with blunt knives for many years, the sand bandits in the Western Regions had long been resentful of Longxiang.
However, they were far inferior to Longxiang in strength, and the bandits were disorganized and had no leader, so they had no choice but to grit their teeth and endure it.
But now, Huangsha Longwang, as the most famous among the sand bandits, personally led his men to besiege Jitang Temple, which actually caused the sand bandits around the Xisha Plateau to respond spontaneously and join the team to attack Jitang Temple and avenge Longxiang.
Just like a snowball that was getting bigger and bigger, the bandits' resentment was about to explode.
Subsequently, more and more sand bandits responded, and one group after another rushed to the Xisha Plateau, lurking in the desert, and blocked the disciples of Jitang Temple in the Jitang Temple, preventing them from leaving - once they left the Jitang Temple, the disciples would be severely attacked by the sand bandits.
In this situation, without the Chicken Soup Saint Monk to suppress it, the Chicken Soup Temple was helpless and had to ask for help from the Dragon Elephant.
Obviously many people can guess how things will develop next.
With such a great opportunity in front of us, how could Bodhi Temple not seize it?
The abbot of Bodhi Temple rejected Chicken Soup Temple's request for help on the grounds that the situation at the border was dangerous and it was difficult to easily transfer manpower.
If the Sand Bandits were attacking the Chicken Soup Temple, the Dragon Elephant Elders' Council would naturally not be able to confirm that the Chicken Soup Temple had been breached, and would have to send personnel to support the Chicken Soup Temple.
But the current situation is that the sand bandits are only lurking on the Xisha Plateau, intercepting and killing the disciples of the Chicken Soup Temple who leave the temple.
In other words, if the disciples of Chicken Soup Temple stay in the temple and don't go out, there won't be much danger.
Under such circumstances, coupled with the strength of Bodhi Temple, Long Xiang actually agreed to ignore the predicament of Chicken Soup Temple for the time being.
As for when I can take care of Chicken Soup Temple...
It's very simple. When Jitang Temple agrees to return to the Bodhi Temple faction, that will be the time for Longxiang to take action.
Moreover, the ones who will take action will be the monks from Bodhi Temple.
By then, Bodhi Temple will have solved the threat of sand bandits from Jitang Temple, and Jitang Temple will have returned to the Bodhi Temple faction. I think this will be passed down as a good story.
Of course, Chicken Soup Temple will definitely not compromise like this.
Being trapped in the mountain gate for a while does not have much impact on Jitang Temple. As for the future, just let the bridge lead to the bow.
…
"Our Jitang Temple has had good relations with many temples over the past thousands of years. We can't have too many. If each temple can send out five or six good people, we can solve the problem of sand bandits. Why is there no one willing to help? These temples are really disloyal!" The young monk complained in the scripture hall of Jitang Temple.
In front of the little monk is Juezhen, who is chanting scriptures with his eyes closed.
The young monk back then, now the senior monk of Jitang Temple, Juezhen, heard the young monk's complaint, stopped chanting, opened his eyes and said calmly: "Don't blame them, we have also contacted forces such as Anxiang Temple and Wudou Temple that are familiar with our abbot. They are willing to help, and don't want to push it away, but Bodhi Temple is suppressing it, so it is really difficult to send people."
"After all, even though it's just a set phrase, the situation on the border is indeed serious, and they don't dare to mobilize manpower without authorization."
"What about other sects? Isn't it the responsibility of all sects in the Western Region to wipe out the sand bandits? At this moment, a large number of sand bandits have gathered on the Xisha Plateau. Why don't they take the opportunity to take action?" The little monk thought for a while and said, "For example, the Sword Washing Pool, for example, Ding Fengbo..."
Juezhen shook his head. "Our sect is not willing to help, and they don't owe us Chicken Soup Temple anything. Why should they help?"
"Why..." The little monk rolled his eyes, and suddenly seemed to think of something, clapped his hands and said, "Oh, right, isn't it said that the new leader of the Sword Sect, Lu Qingshan, once had a favor from the abbot and owed us a favor? If the Sword Sect took action, killing these bandits would be as easy as cutting melons and vegetables. Why don't we ask the Sword Sect for help?"
Jue Zhen sighed, "It's not that I haven't thought about it, but firstly, the distance is too far, secondly, the Sword Sect suffered heavy casualties in the battle of Zhongling, and its strength has dropped drastically, and thirdly, you have heard the recent rumors that the Sword Washing Pool is targeting the Sword Sect, and I think they are not having a good time either, so I didn't say anything."
The little monk suddenly became dejected.
He understood these principles, but the current situation was bad, so he couldn't help but have some inappropriate expectations.
Neither the young monk nor Juezhen knew that at this moment, the new leader of the Sword Sect, who was once praised by Abbot Jitang as "a man who will be admired by the Bodhisattva in the future", had already stepped into the border of the Xisha Plateau.
Just as Monk Ji Tang said back then, as a secular tribe, Lu Qingshan dared to do something like "I will go even if there are thousands of people against me". He was blessed by the Buddhist fate of Ji Tang Temple and will definitely remember it in his heart.
Therefore, he passed the Mysterious Dragon Elephant Scripture to Lu Qingshan, who was an outer sect disciple.
So, Lu Qingshan came.
