The Great Bandit of Journey to the West

Chapter 10 The Three Treasures of Buddhism

June 15th is an auspicious day for burials and cleaning, but an inauspicious day for weddings.

In the main room of "Beitianyuan" on the eastern outskirts of Zuan County, Zhao Ming'er embroidered a handkerchief while happily humming a tune.

Not for any other reason than that today is the day Jiang Feng comes to "Beitian Temple" to perform a ritual for the deceased.

A middle-aged woman walked into the courtyard and came to Zhao Ming'er's side. She stared at the yellowish embroidery on Zhao Ming'er's handkerchief and showed a conflicted expression.

"Ming'er, are you embroidering two... roast ducks?"

When Zhao Ming'er saw her mother arrive, she pouted, revealing a displeased expression: "What roast duck? Can't I embroider mandarin ducks?"

Mrs. Chen opened her mouth in surprise: "These are mandarin ducks?"

Zhao Ming'er smiled and said, "No, this is Old Zhang's roasted lamb chops from Liushui Lane!"

Ms. Chen: "..."

I have no reason to expect anything!

Zhao Ming'er looked towards the door with a smile, then frowned with disappointment and said, "Why hasn't Jiang Feng arrived yet? He would have come to freeload a meal long ago."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Feng walked in through the main gate, saying apologetically, "I've been quite busy these past few days, so I'm sorry for being late. Is Magistrate Zhao here? I need to speak with him."

Zhao Ming'er looked at Jiang Feng with bright eyes: "It's not late, you've come at just the right time. My father went to the county office to hand in some documents, he'll be back soon. Come in and rest for a bit, we'll wait for him."

Jiang Feng nodded slightly and walked into the house. His gaze fell on the handkerchief in Zhao Ming'er's hand, and his eyes immediately lit up: "Old Zhang's roasted lamb chops from Liushui Lane!"

Zhao Ming'er nodded repeatedly: "Yes, your eyesight is as good as ever!"

Ms. Chen: "..."

Jiang Feng, how did you figure that out?

Also, why do I feel like I'm a bit superfluous here?!

Chen rolled her eyes at the two of them speechlessly, then went to the courtyard to direct the servants to clean, while waiting for her husband to return.

Her husband, Zhao Hongtu, was the county magistrate of Zuan County. His duties included assisting the county magistrate in managing documents, storage, and other tasks. He also managed the county's "Beitianyuan" (a type of agricultural institution).

When Jiang Feng was a child, the old abbot of Xuyuan Temple cooperated with the county government to establish the "Beitianyuan" (Compassionate Field Academy), whose function was to treat the poor and sick, help the poor to bury the dead, and perform free rituals for them.

Furthermore, at Jiang Feng's suggestion, in order to prevent the spread of the plague, all unclaimed corpses were to be cremated instead of buried, and "Yijing" was established as a public cemetery to place the ashes of the deceased.

Later, this practice was approved by the imperial court and implemented in many places. However, due to various reasons, the implementation of the policy was extremely poor.

Jiang Feng had been searching for traces of monsters for the past few days, and before he knew it, the day he was supposed to perform the ritual at Beitian Temple had arrived. Thinking that Beitian Temple was responsible for handling unclaimed corpses and might have some clues, he immediately rushed over.

Zhao Ming'er got up and poured Jiang Feng a glass of pear water, saying, "Drink some pear water to cool down. The vegetarian meal is ready. If there's anything you'd like to eat, I'll go to the kitchen and make it for you."

Jiang Feng drank the pear juice in one gulp and said righteously, "We monks don't order food when we beg for alms. Of course, we eat whatever the benefactor gives us. Even if you give me a five-pound pork knuckle, I won't find it disgusting."

Zhao Ming'er's eyes sparkled with admiration as she said, "As expected of a highly accomplished monk, the Buddhist teachings are indeed profound. However, you unfortunately came true; there really was a five-pound pork knuckle in the vegetarian meal. Please forgive me, Master."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Feng sighed, "Alas, you have truly caused this poor monk great suffering. Well then, as the Buddha said, 'If I don't go to hell, who will?' I will reluctantly eat it."

Chen, standing outside the door, stared in disbelief: "..."

No, do you two want to listen to what you're saying?

When it comes to the ability to spout nonsense, the Chen family would call you two the strongest!

At this moment, a handsome middle-aged man with a short beard walked in, and the servants bowed to him.

It was Zhao Hongtu, the county magistrate, who had just returned from the county government office.

Upon seeing Jiang Feng, Zhao Hongtu nodded slightly: "You've arrived. Shall we eat first or perform the ritual?"

Jiang Feng said, "No rush, Magistrate Zhao. Have you noticed anything unusual about the corpses that have been collected by the Compassionate Courtyard recently?"

Zhao Hongtu was taken aback: "There's nothing unusual. The refugees have been behaving themselves lately, and fewer people are dying. No bodies have been found at Beitianyuan for five consecutive days. The few corpses currently lying in the courtyard were all collected five days ago."

Jiang Feng frowned and said with some helplessness, "The biggest anomaly is the absence of a corpse."

In the first ten days of this month, a total of thirty-one people were buried at Beitian Temple, averaging three deaths per day.

The situation in the county hasn't improved at all; the lives of the displaced people have even gotten worse. And yet, no one has died for five consecutive days. Do you believe that?

Zhao Hongtu suddenly realized, then became puzzled as well: "Yes, there is something strange about this. What exactly is going on...?"

Jiang Feng pondered for a moment, then stood up and said, "Let's go check out the morgue first."

Soon, Zhao Hongtu and Jiang Feng arrived at the morgue.

The morgue door was tightly closed, with mugwort burning inside, and wisps of smoke seeping out through the cracks in the door.

Upon opening the door, Zhao Hongtu let out a cry and collapsed to the ground.

Inside the smoke-filled morgue, a monster was seen crawling on a corpse and gnawing on it!

The monster was dog-shaped with nine heads on its neck, each with a human face. The faces were all different, some male, some female, some old, some young, and they showed joy, sorrow, anger, or laughter. The scene was extremely terrifying!

Seeing someone enter, the monster turned its head, its sharp teeth covered in blood and flesh, and let out a strange "crunching" laugh at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng felt a chill run down his spine from his laughter, and reached into his treasure pouch to pull out the magic weapon he had just crafted in the past two days—

A Buddhist treasure: the AK47 assault rifle!

As is well known, Buddhism has the Three Jewels, and many great masters have jointly composed a hymn to the Three Jewels.

The praise goes: Maxim, who saves people from suffering; Gatling gun, who brings great compassion; AK, which treats all beings equally; and purifies the six senses to guide people through life!

Jiang Feng has now mastered one of the three treasures of Buddhism!

With the treasure in hand, Jiang Feng immediately felt more confident.

Looking at the creepy-smiling monster before him, Jiang Feng shouted, "Shut up! If you can't understand human language, this humble monk is also somewhat skilled with a gun!"

The eerie laughter abruptly stopped, and the nine heads roared in unison, lunging at Jiang Feng!

"Da da da da!"

The vast and boundless magical power transformed into bullets and poured out. After a series of rapid fires, the monster's massive body was instantly torn apart, and its heads fell to the ground one by one.

"Aww—"

All nine heads were smashed, and a miserable howl came from the monster's belly. The headless dog corpse crashed through the wall with a loud thud and fled!

Just as Jiang Feng was about to fire again, a beam of yellow light, like a sharp arrow, caught up with the monster and froze him in place.

Jiang Feng looked closely and realized that what had hit the monster was actually a yellow talisman.

Then a blue figure flashed by, and Cui Ying, who had not shown herself for many days, appeared and stood beside the monster, her expression somewhat solemn.

"This is a corpse demon. It is cruel by nature and feeds on rotting corpses. Every time it kills someone, a new head will grow from its neck."

Before their death, the corpse demon leaves behind a curse that kills all the relatives of the person who killed them. Dealing with this is extremely difficult; a slight misstep can implicate one's own family.

Jiang Feng raised the Vajra Pestle and plunged it into the heart of the corpse demon without hesitation, saying to the demon:

"You don't need to bother searching for my blood relatives anymore. I can tell you with great mercy that they all died in the war."

Now, as a Buddhist disciple, I only have Buddha as my family. Now, you can go and curse Buddha in peace.

Corpse Demon: "@#￥%￥#@……"

Me? Cursed to death? Buddha?!

You'd better not be so crazy, how did you put these words together?!