Fairy, return my flying sword to me

Chapter 163 Doubt

The leading disciple looked around like a thief, then waved towards the forest and said, "There are too many people here, it's not a good place to talk. Brother, come with me, let's go to a quiet place to talk."

Seeing the four sneaky thieves leave in the forest, Hua Xiaodie, who stayed behind, became anxious, "Hey, why did the master leave with them?!"

"I'll go and bring them back!" Fairy Hongxia said in a cold voice, mobilizing the true energy in her body.

"No need, no need." Chunxue interrupted Fairy Hongxia's actions in time.

She was not in a hurry, just tiptoeing to watch them walk away, her eyes full of eager curiosity, "Brother Jian must have discovered something, right?"

"What did you find?" Fairy Hongxia thought hard, and finally remembered what Master Lin said last night when his mind was confused.

"I can't interfere in his affairs. He has to do it himself."

But he was still worried, so he used his Nascent Soul to leave his body and ask from a distance, "What happened?"

When Lin Jian heard the amorous voices that seemed to stick together suddenly appearing in his mind, he was not panicked at all.

If a big boss in the Yuanying stage wants to monitor me, can I really run away?

Knowing that there was someone behind him, Lin Jian felt confident and bold enough to go to a secluded place where no one cared with these monks of unknown origin.

He immediately replied with his spiritual consciousness: "It's okay, just say a few words to them and I'll be back soon."

……

I walked around the corner of the mountain with the four people and came to an undeveloped area in the mountains that is difficult for ordinary people to reach.

The four of them stopped in the forest and talked while standing on a branch.

"It's not that we are jealous of Mingguang Temple becoming the state religion of Baoliuli Kingdom."

Before speaking, the leading Baicao Valley disciple folded up his armor and said, "We were just passing by unintentionally, but we think this matter is quite strange."

"Oh?" Lin Jian said at the right moment, "Why is it so strange?"

"Firstly, the number of believers here is endless. Even in Fenxiang Valley, another major Buddhist sect in our Seventh Realm, it's hard to see such a large crowd. Yet, we've been entrenched here for seven days, and we haven't seen a single drop in the number of believers. Even after dark, they'd rather sleep in the open and queue up just to enter the temple and pay their respects."

Lin Jian nodded.

After he pointed it out, there were indeed some suspicious aspects.

But you can't compare it that way.

Although Fenxiang Valley does not prevent mortals from going there, the lava area where it is located is a place that ordinary mortals will never be able to reach in their lifetime.

In this situation, apart from monks, how many people can go to worship and burn incense?
"Secondly, during these seven days of observation, we've seen some recurring faces! It's not many, but they do exist. Brother Dao, burning incense and making wishes is something you don't do every day. Even the most devout believers wouldn't do that, right?"

The monk who spoke was very excited. "So we have reason to suspect that this Mingguang Temple has done something to those believers!"

"That's right!" His fellow disciples beside him also echoed, "Our three major sects can't even allow these mortals to worship every day, so why should a small sect like his?"

"But Senior Brother..." The youngest and most tender-looking Junior Sister weakly retorted at the end: "It seems that our sect is not open to mortals..."

"Uh..." "That's not important!" The leading disciple waved his hand, his eyes fixed on the forest. "And there's a third one! Although they're recruiting disciples, we haven't heard of a single local being accepted as a disciple in the past seven days. On the contrary, they often have disciples returning from other places, and some say they're all their traveling disciples. But after asking around, I haven't met a single local mortal who knows the details of those disciples. Isn't that strange?"

"A small sect only stationed locally, yet it has so many disciples that the locals don't even know about..."

"Brother Dao, first of all, we are not jealous of Mingguang Temple becoming the state religion of Bao Liuli Country, but its prosperity is so great, and there are many mysteries behind it. Secondly, we are not jealous of Mingguang Temple becoming the state religion of Bao Liuli Country, but its influence is so great, shouldn't we also do something to ensure that it does not harm the people? Finally, we are not jealous of Mingguang Temple becoming the state religion of Bao Liuli Country...Okay, we are a little jealous. But that is not why we are investigating it."

"Like I said at the beginning, we were just passing by unintentionally. It was its anomaly that attracted us!"

Lin Jian frowned and asked, "Have you investigated those familiar faces who are repeatedly worshipping?"

"I asked them, but I couldn't find any clues... They just said they were devoted to Buddhism, and that being touched by the Buddha's light was their lifelong wish."

"You didn't go up the mountain to see for yourself?"

"I'm going up too." The leading disciple stammered with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Kicked out!" the female disciple said quickly.

"Xiao Meng!" another male cultivator shouted hurriedly.

"What's the big deal?" Xiao Meng stared at Lin Jian and smiled innocently, "Senior Brother is not an outsider."

The leading disciple took over the conversation, explaining with a hint of embarrassment, "We also queued up to enter the temple. We originally wanted to use some magic to explore the temple... but we didn't expect to be discovered by other monks, and then we were chased out by that group of believers."

Lin Jian wanted to roll his eyes. "So you guys haven't found anything concrete?"

Using magic to check on someone on their territory, what's the difference between that and directly slapping them in the face?
If it were a sect with a bad temper, they would have probably resorted to violence. Since Minguang Temple didn't take any action, it can be said that they were just good people.

Up to now, all the "evidence" of these three sects' disciples is just "feelings" and "possibilities."

Without any solid evidence, it was difficult for Lin Jian to compare the good-natured abbot he knew with the conspiracy theory sect they were talking about.

The leading disciple scratched his head and chuckled, "Now the disciples guarding the mountain have also recognized us, so much so that we have been forced to stay at the foot of the mountain for the past few days."

As he spoke, he looked expectantly into the forest. "So, Brother Dao should also feel that this place is quite strange, right? I wonder what Brother Dao discovered when he went up the mountain?"

"Discovered?" Lin Jian pondered for a moment, recalling everything he had seen since entering the temple today. "To be honest, there wasn't anything unusual. Instead, I just felt a warm sensation all over my body, as if everything was going smoothly and everything I wanted was being fulfilled."

"Right, right, right!" The leading disciple agreed. "We felt the same way at the time, but... but there's always something strange about it."

"Right, right. It's a strange feeling..." another disciple described it, seeming to reminisce. "It's like... a patient with a cold basking in the sun. The surface is warm, but deep inside, it feels like it's shivering."

"Me too, me too." Xiao Meng raised her hand and joined in.

"In fact, I think so too." The leading disciple frowned and said, "That's why we wanted to use some exploratory techniques to find out what was going on... Brother Dao? Brother Dao?"

The forest was silent and a little dazed.

Because... he felt the same way.

(End of this chapter)