The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 55 Filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and trustworthiness—only brotherly love remains.
As dawn broke, the shopkeeper, guessing that the morning drum had already sounded, hurriedly grabbed the porcelain bowl and ran towards Qingzhou City without looking back.

If he can't find a living Buddha to answer his questions for a long time, he probably won't be able to sleep soundly.

He wanted to understand whether he had encountered a living Buddha and received ritual implements, which led to his encounters with these evil spirits. Otherwise, why would he, having lived for over fifty years, witness such a terrifying sight for the first time?
Or perhaps the Living Buddha just happened to come to his rescue. After all, although he hadn't seen any demons or monsters for over fifty years, he had heard of them for over fifty years.

If it's the former, then you should quickly ask the Living Buddha to take back the Dharma implements bestowed upon you; if it's the latter, then you should be even more grateful for the Living Buddha's compassion.
-
Inside Qingzhou City.

After spending the night at an inn, Du Yuan arrived at the Qian family's door.

He had actually wanted to ask the Qian family yesterday why they hadn't gotten up yet to go to Qing County to worship their ancestors.

After all, if they had gone, they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of having to send the ghost knife back home when they had no money or family.

However, seeing that it was getting dark, and that passersby said that the Qian family was a prominent family and lived on the other side of Qingzhou, they gave up.

I finally found some free time today and came over.

He had only just arrived and told the gatekeeper his purpose when the gatekeeper suddenly turned pale and wanted to grab him and take him to see the officials.

Puzzled, Du Yuan caught a glimpse of the ghost-head knife that Master Qian had nailed to the pillar in front of the door.

At a glance, Du Yuan understood.

Qian Youcai must have informed the Qian family long ago, but they didn't believe him, so he specially sent back the ghost-head knife as proof, but it still wasn't enough, to the point that the knife was nailed to a pillar.

As for why Qian Youcai himself didn't come back in person for such an important matter, that's even simpler.

He was the only true descendant of the Qian family at the old Qian family residence. How could he leave when his ancestors had just scolded him for being unfilial?

What's more, this was something I had already given him advice on.
This is truly a mess.

Feeling helpless, Du Yuan was about to explain to the gatekeeper.

But suddenly, a voice filled with immense joy came from behind:

"Living Buddha, Living Buddha, I've finally found you!"

Looking back, I saw that the tea stall owner I had met yesterday had actually come looking for me!

The doorman grew increasingly furious:
"A Living Buddha? Well, you just said you were a Taoist priest, and now you're a monk?! You're definitely up to something!"

The three parties were thus entangled.

Feeling a slight headache, Du Yuan looked around and then reached out to grasp the doorman's wrist.

Strangely enough, the doorman, who had been so aggressive and unforgiving just moments before, suddenly felt his aura diminish by three points once Du Yuan grabbed him.

Upon closer inspection, Du Yuan, who had caught my eye, seemed gentle and refined, as if she were no ordinary creature.

The anger in his heart gradually dissipated, leaving only surprise and doubt.

“Sir, this matter concerning your Qian family originally concerned me, and I should have intervened. However, it is clear that this matter is more urgent now.”

Seeing the doorman's confusion, Du Yuan pointed to the anxious shopkeeper.

It's one thing for them to come all the way from outside the city to find me, but their complexion is clearly off.

Naturally, the situation here is more urgent.

"So please tell your master that I will pay him a visit later."

The gatekeeper nodded blankly. Du Yuan was about to leave, but after glancing at the plaque above the Qian residence, she hesitated.

He then gave the gatekeeper a brief instruction:
"You must remember to tell your master not to think about only taking in money and not giving it away. It's good to maintain the status quo and keep the household stable, but if you go too far, it becomes stingy and immoral."

"Otherwise, haven't you noticed that the color of your family's plaque with the words 'filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty and trustworthiness' is almost completely faded? Well, it's not that it's almost completely faded, at least the 'brotherly love' part still has some shine."

No wonder the Qian family didn't believe it and almost lost the blessings accumulated by their ancestors for twelve generations.

This plaque already explains the situation quite well.

Of the virtues of filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and trustworthiness, only the fraternal love and respect among brothers were somewhat respectable. Their only shortcoming was a lack of virtue rather than wickedness; otherwise, Du Yuan wouldn't have wanted to associate with them at all.

The gatekeeper stood there dumbfounded, unable to give a proper response to Du Yuan's teachings, and could only continue to nod blankly.

After the other party left with the shopkeeper.

The gatekeeper looked strangely at the plaque above his own door.

Filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and trustworthiness—isn't the gold paint perfectly fine? Where has the color faded?

The plaques at the gates of prominent families are naturally carefully maintained, even when the family has fallen on hard times.

While wondering about this, the gatekeeper changed his position to check and suddenly realized that under the sunlight, only the character "悌" (ti, meaning brotherly love, loyalty, and trustworthiness) of the four characters "孝悌忠信" (xiaotizhongxin) was shining, and it even had a slight halo.

The other three large characters are almost identical to white!
"what?!"

Greatly alarmed, the gatekeeper hurriedly went into the mansion to find the eldest son.

Master is no good, Master is still shouting "My money!"
-
After leaving the Qian residence with the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper invited Du Yuan to a private room in a restaurant.

"Living Buddha, you, you are a monk, aren't you?"

The shopkeepers couldn't help but think that Du Yuan was a monk, but the doorman insisted that Du Yuan claimed to be a Taoist priest.

This question left Du Yuan feeling helpless. His background was rather difficult to describe.

After thinking for a moment, Du Yuan explained according to what the temple deity thought:
“I did study Buddhism for a while before, but now I am a Taoist.”

what? !

The shopkeeper, recalling the awe-inspiring Buddha light from last night, gaped in astonishment.

No, you've only studied Buddhism for a short time?
But since that's what they said, he couldn't ask any further questions.

Du Yuan then asked him:
"Why have you come looking for me? What happened?"

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper hurriedly recounted everything that had happened the previous night.

Finally, he took out the porcelain bowl and the copper coins.

"Living Buddha, what do you think this is?"

After listening to the other person's explanation, Du Yuan pondered for a moment and then said:

"As mentioned earlier, although you do part of your work for business, you have indeed accumulated a lot of good karma for yourself, plus..."

Du Yuan picked up the porcelain bowl. At this moment, even Du Yuan herself was a little puzzled as to why this thing could be so outrageous.

I only took a sip of tea from it, and at most, I made a good connection with the shopkeeper through it.

How can you subdue ghosts and monsters?

Saying it has nothing to do with me is also wrong, because no matter how you look at it, it points to me.

It means I haven't done the corresponding thing.
and many more? !
The one in the temple?!
Du Yuan suddenly realized.

The monk in the temple was someone who firmly believed he had once attained a high level of spiritual attainment.

So this is it!
Du Yuan also thought of something else, namely, her first meeting with the caravan.

Without warning, he unleashed a burst of Buddhist light, exposing the demon red stone in its true form.

It seems that his impressive performance was not only due to the caravan believing him, but also largely because he himself believed in the monster, Red Stone!

So, the current situation is that the more people who believe, the better the effect. And, the more powerful the believers, the more powerful the effect?!

(End of this chapter)