Chapter 92: Chapter 88: Vanity as if a Dream

The Great Compassion Temple’s Master Yuanci, after a brief spell of distress, was alerted by the urgent footsteps from outside the door.

He quickly adjusted his breathing to calm himself down swiftly.

With a tone no different from usual, Master Yuanci allowed the monks to enter the room to clean it and to reorganize the bookshelves and other objects.

The monks who had rushed over after hearing the strange noise were intimidated by the abbot’s authority and did not dare to ask what had happened, assuming perhaps the abbot had accidentally knocked over the vase, which then led to hitting the bookshelf.

As long as the abbot did not speak of it, they naturally did not dare to ask or even speak about the incident to others.

Master Yuanci watched the cleaning monks leave.

His expression then became serious again, and he sat cross-legged on the cushion in front of the fresco, beginning to struggle to recall every single word and even facial expression details of that mysterious ghost.

“Floating Illusion Temple… It sounds like it might be a holy land within our lineage, why have I never heard of this ancient temple’s name?”

“Is it that I, as the abbot of the Great Compassion Temple, still lack the qualifications?”

“No, the Great Compassion Temple also has a history of a thousand years and is a well-known ancient monastery in the lands of the South Sea. Given its longstanding heritage, how could it not be qualified?”

“That bizarre presence coming to find me and being so astonished must be proof enough!”

“Thinking about it, the problem must lie within the Great Compassion Temple itself.”

“Could it be that there was a problem with the inheritance along the way?”

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At this thought, Master Yuanci’s face changed slightly–it was the reality he feared the most!

“Impossible, my fellow monks, as well as those associates from the association…”

“Could it be that among them there truly is someone with divine skills in practical cultivation, who has just been concealing it from me?”

Master Yuanci’s mind conjured up a series of faces–gentle and modest, compassionate, or pretending to be mysterious.

He quickly shook his head to dismiss this absurd idea.

Those fellow monks had all been defeated in scriptural debates with him over the years.

If they truly had such profound abilities, how could they not win against him?

Master Yuanci gained confidence at this thought, more inclined to believe those high-status associates were just as ignorant of their mere mortal nature as he had been before.

“Right, the token!”

“That strange visitor mentioned the inheritance token!”

“Could it be that it is a certain token of inheritance left by my master or the founding patriarch and had been neglected by later generations due to an accident?”

Master Yuanci was well-versed in scripture, and was even more fluent when it came to the records and anecdotes of his own sect.

He remembered that the Great Compassion Temple had been fortunate enough to avoid major natural disasters or calamities that could have destroyed it.

The inheritance was generally orderly and traceable.

However, it had indeed gone through several tribulations, including an epidemic three hundred years ago that claimed the lives of the then abbot and many high-ranking monks!

It was after that blow that the Great Compassion Temple fell into a period of decline.

It was not until Master Yuanci’s tenure that the temple gradually began to show signs of reaching its former peak again.

Now seventy years old,

he became so excited at this thought that he could not find a trace of sleepiness anymore!

He had a vague feeling that the reason he was an ordinary person as abbot was related to the calamity three hundred years ago!

It was that tribulation that caused the Great Compassion Temple to lose its Transcendent Inheritance!

Furthermore, pondering deeply on this matter was extremely frightening; it was feared that the plague of three hundred years ago was not just a simple epidemic!

Perhaps, the reason why the world could remain so peaceful and calm was because there were those who carried the darkness for them!

Although Master Yuanci was old, deep down he still harbored the dream of a Great Compassionate being with divine skills who could bring peace to the region.

Master Yuanci could hardly wait any longer. He did not care that it was already dark outside, nearing his regular rest time.

In a bit of a hurry, he left his room and headed for the temple’s Scripture Pavilion.

Calling it the Scripture Pavilion, in fact, the First Layer was for casual visitors to view simple Buddhist stories.

The Second Layer housed various classic scriptures.

The Third Layer and Fourth Layer, aside from the annotations collected over a thousand years from many high-ranking monks, contained mostly relics of the Great Compassion Temple itself, including those of past abbots.

The relics were mainly documentary records.

It must also be mentioned that most of the writings were not originals anymore.

Or rather, given the preservation conditions and manpower of the monastery, it was simply impossible to protect all such a large amount of relics.

The majority of the maintenance was achieved by instructing monks to transcribe the writings and treating those as the originals.

Master Yuanci had a clear goal–he wanted to find an opportunity among the relics left by the abbots and high monks of three hundred years ago!

Even if he couldn’t find it, he wouldn’t give up.

Having seen the true aspect of the world, Master Yuanci had already made up his mind; he had already given enough to the Great Compassion Temple in his lifetime!

He wanted to use what remained of his life to find the truth of the Floating Illusion Temple, to seek his true Buddhist fate!

He, Master Yuanci, also wished to become a real-life Great Compassionate being of the Buddhist Sect!

Master Yuanci, under the bewildered gaze of the monks, knocked on the great door of the Scripture Pavilion and, after instructing not to be disturbed, headed straight for the Fourth Layer.

The following monks were baffled.

One clever monk quietly muttered, perhaps the abbot was dissatisfied with the upcoming Magic Meeting and wanted to seek inspiration from the patriarchs’ relics.

This idea prompted a round of nodding agreement.

Having followed Master Yuanci for many years, these old monks acutely noticed the abbot’s slight eagerness.

This inexplicably made them uneasy, and they quickly accepted this explanation to ease their minds.

The Fourth Layer of the Scripture Pavilion.

After modernization, it was brightly lit with good air circulation.