hell in disguise

Yuan Heng was taken aback, "Ghost?"

The Taoist turned his head and bowed slightly with great grace, "I hope to stay here overnight, and I would like to ask Master to pass it on for me."

Xiangguo Temple has always had a tradition of taking in Monk Yunshui who passed by to place orders, but Taoists usually go to Taoist temples to place orders, and I don't know if their indifferent and strict abbot will agree to this Taoist to stay.But if this Tan Yangzi really knows how to catch ghosts, it would be great if he could take away the ghosts who chanted sutras at night.Yuan Heng tilted his head and thought for a while, then said, "Then I'll go ask my master."

"It's work."

Yuanheng's master, Master Guanyi, is a very kind and friendly monk. He is in his early fifties, with kind eyebrows and kind eyes. He treated Tan Yangzi very warmly and thoughtfully, and even tried to discuss Buddhism with him.But Tan Yangzi didn't talk much, he didn't seem to want to say more, and Guan Yi didn't force it, just invited him to drink tea for a while in a very bright meditation room.Not long after, Master Guanyun, the abbot of Xiangguo Temple, arrived.It was a thin monk, about 60 years old, with a very pale face, but his eyes were cold and strict, and his manner was very bold.He was completely different from Guan Yi, and he only bowed briefly to Tan Yangzi, and then asked directly, "I heard that the real person asked my disciples a lot about ghosts and gods?"

Tan Yangzi said, "Not bad."

"If a real person comes to catch ghosts, I'm afraid it will be a waste of time. Although Xiangguo Temple is not a quiet and solemn temple, it also inherits the aura of dragon blessings and the sincerity of all people. Demons and monsters dare not come in recently. There are only a few small things happening here, including the nonsense of that little monk who has never seen the world. What's more, even if there are ghosts and ghosts, and real people can drive them away, are we monks mediocre and have nothing to do?"

Master Guanyun's voice was cold and distant, with a bit of hostility, obviously meant to drive away the guests, but he coughed violently after speaking.The Master Guanyi at the side patted him on the back, and said in a soft voice, "Junior brother, the real person just wants to hang out for one night, why bother."

Guanyun managed to stop coughing, and said with a sneer, "Brother, how many times have I told you, don't let those bastards chew their tongues. Wouldn't it be ridiculous to make such nonsense talk out of the temple? If it disturbs you Your Majesty, you and I can't bear the loss of the Buddha's energy in Kyoto."

This harsh criticism has reached the point of being unreasonable, but Master Guanyi still didn't get angry, and persuaded in a slow voice, "It's my fault, I will definitely teach Yuanheng and them well."

Tan Yangzi changed Fuchen's hands, and said calmly, "If the two mages are afraid of me, I will not force it. It's just that the ancient teachings say that Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism belong to the same family. I didn't expect the dignified Xiangguo Temple to be so stingy. I can't tolerate my Taoist disciples."

When Master Guanyi heard this, he quickly advised, "The real person speaks too seriously. The abbot is only worried that these ghost stories will spread. If outsiders don't know about them and spread the rumors, it is difficult to guarantee that other sentient beings will create evil karma. If the real person just hangs up for a single night, there will be no harm." We will reconsider other plans."

Master Guanyun didn't speak at the side, but just glanced in the direction of Tan Yangzi with a pair of indifferent eyes.

Tan Yangzi raised the corners of his mouth slightly, "The poor man just wants to stay overnight."

Master Guanyi glanced at Master Guanyun, seeing that the other party had nothing more to say, he said gently, "Since that's the case, the poor monk asked Yuanheng to take the real person to the guest room to settle down."

The room is not far from the monk's dormitory.Tan Yangzi walked slowly behind Yuan Heng, and heard the little monk ask, "Really, are you from the Maoshan sect?"

Tan Yangzi raised his eyebrows, "Why do you ask that?"

"I heard that the Taoist priests of the Maoshan sect are very good at catching ghosts." Yuan Heng scratched his head embarrassedly, "Just looking at you, you can feel that you are a master of Taoism. You know magic spells, right?"

Tan Yangzi sneered, "It's not just the Maoshan faction who can catch ghosts."

"Oh..." Yuan Heng paused, and then asked cautiously, "So our temple is really haunted?"

"I'm just staying overnight."

When Yuan Heng heard this, he became anxious, "You must think of a way, Daoist, there must be ghosts in our temple!"

Tan Yangzi hummed, but didn't really agree.He changed the subject and asked, "Your master, Master Guanyi, is the brother of Abbot Guanyun?"

Yuan Heng nodded in agreement.

"That's rare. Why hasn't the mantle of your master ancestor been passed on to the first disciple?"

Yuan Heng looked around to make sure no one was around, and then said in a low voice, "It stands to reason that it should be passed on to my master, but the master said that the master is too gentle, so it would be suitable for other temples, but Xiangguo Temple Unlike other places, it is the largest temple under the foot of the emperor, and needs a more rigorous and strong abbot, so..."

There was a moment of resentment on Yuan Heng's expression, which was keenly captured by Tan Yangzi.Tan Yangzi asked leisurely, "That's really a pity."

Hearing what Tan Yangzi said, Yuan Heng also opened up the conversation, "That's right! Master is compassionate and understands Buddhist principles well. How can he just because he is not tough enough... Everyone actually respects Master very much, even the abbot seat The disciples below are more willing to talk to the master and the old man when they have something to do."

"Also, I think your abbot is not in good health?"

"Actually, our abbot has always been in good health. It's just that he has been sick for some reason recently. He came to the hall just after he recovered in the past two days."

Tan Yangzi let out a cry.Suddenly there was a commotion, and there was a group of monks not far away. Two monks cursed at each other loudly.And if it wasn't for someone pulling behind him, I'm afraid he would have already made a move.Even the believers in some temples are watching the excitement by pointing at the corridors not far away.On the other side of the small road, Master Guanyi rushed over from the scripture hall, presumably after hearing a report from someone, he went to mediate.

Shame and anger appeared on Yuan Heng's fair face, and he spat secretly, "Shame..."

Yuan Heng said before that these days the monks in the monastery have frequent temper tantrums and conflicts, it seems to be true.

The guest room is on the west side of the temple, several long houses connected together, and several Chinese toon trees are planted in front of the door.Yuan Heng opened the door of one of the rooms with a key, and explained to Tan Yangzi the time of day in the temple, including the time of evening classes, the time of turning off the lights, the time of early morning classes and breakfast time.Because the monks in the temple follow the precept of not eating after noon, if you really feel hungry, there are many restaurants not far from the temple, all of which sell vegetarian food.Tan Yangzi responded one by one, and Yuan Heng left to do his own business.

Seeing Yuan Heng left, Tan Yangzi closed the door, but his expression became a little colder.

As soon as he entered the temple, he could smell the stench of a corpse that had rotted for a month, especially when he met Abbot Guanyun, the smell was so strong that he could see the body.

Ordinary people's perception ability is not as strong as his, so there is only a slight discomfort and nausea, and they don't know where the smell comes from.

Is there something wrong with the abbot?

Tan Yangzi untied the sword from his back and opened the package.Inside was a package of things wrapped in yellow paper, a few black candles, a torch, a small bag of rice, a blue and white porcelain bowl, and three chopsticks.He first lit a black candle, then filled the porcelain bowl with rice, wiped his finger on the edge of the sword, dripped a few drops of blood on the rice, and inserted the three chopsticks into the rice bowl one by one. rice.A strange, greasy and fishy aroma diffused from the black candle, and faintly filled the room.Gradually, the dim sky that was projected slantingly on the ground became colder and colder, and the sound of the rain outside the window also suddenly stopped, as if it had been suddenly turned off.A thin layer of mist floated outside the thin paper window, drifting into the house through the gap between the closed doors and windows.

Tan Yangzi opened his eyes, and there was a faint glint of blue light in the originally pitch-black pupils.He pushed open the door and looked outside, only to see that the rain was gone, but there was a kind of flesh-colored color that was about as thick as the mouth of a bowl and hard to distinguish from the beginning to the end everywhere on the trees, walls, ground, and eaves in the courtyard. Strip worms, some even twisted together to form a mass of huge sarcoids, wriggling in the air carelessly, their plump bodies twisting ring after ring.This kind of thing is called karma insects, which feed on all kinds of bad karma created by humans, and live in the bardo realm between hell and human beings, and are invisible to ordinary people's eyes.Since the evil karma of hell ghosts is the heaviest among the six realms, once they appear in the human world, a large number of karmic insects will gather there.

In a quiet place like a monastery, there are always very few karmic insects, but there are so many here, so there is obviously a problem.

Tan Yangzi left the room, passed among the clumps of fleshy insects, and walked towards the direction of the monk's dormitory.At this time, he can still see the sentient beings in the human world, but they no longer appear as human beings.One of the two monks walking towards him had a bunch of tumors bubbling yellow water around his mouth, and the lumps spread all the way to his chest.It means that this person often spreads rumors behind their backs to smear others.The other person looked quite normal, but there were only two small holes around the eyes, which showed that this person was numb and was used to turning a blind eye to all kinds of suffering happening in front of him.

The appearance of these people is the appearance of their eighth consciousness—the Alaya consciousness, and it is also the appearance of the real soul of life after people shed the seductive skin of the world.

The transformation of monks is usually relatively small. If you leave the monastery and look outside, you can find that quite a few people's souls have lost their human shapes, and they can often even see terrifying shapes beyond imagination. The dance of demons in the movie is even more frightening.If ordinary people see it, they will go crazy immediately.

But Tan Yangzi has long been used to it.

In comparison, the deformation of the monks in Xiangguo Temple seems to be slightly more serious than in other temples.And judging from the newness and oldness of some rotten sores, they should all be mutations that have just occurred.It seems that this ghost has not been here for a long time, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to catch it.

There are obviously more karmic insects near the monk's dormitory than elsewhere.But apparently not enough.

He followed the increasingly dense karma insects and walked towards the meditation room where the masters lived. It was the time before the evening class, and the monks passing by cast curious eyes on him.The news spread quickly among the monks. They already knew that a Taoist priest who could catch ghosts lived in the temple, and he should be hunting ghosts now.So no one came up to stop him.

Seeing that there are more and more karmic insects, they have almost covered the entire roof, and countless curled front ends hang down from the verandah.But at this moment, a monk with a pig's head and two eyes on one side suddenly ran towards him and saluted him.Although Tan Yangzi can only see a distorted pig's face at present, based on his many years of experience, he can still tell that the monk's expression is a bit weird.

"Really... There is someone looking for you in the Palace of Heavenly Kings..."

Tan Yangzi was very surprised, raised his eyebrows, turned around and walked in the direction of the Temple of Heavenly Kings, and asked, "Looking for me? I don't know anyone in Bianliang, did I make a mistake?"

"He said that he came to find a white-haired Taoist in Tsing Yi, and that he was your apprentice."

Tan Yangzi staggered and almost tripped over the steps in front of the corridor.The face that had been stern and reserved from the beginning to now also burst into a moment of panic.He quickly stabilized his figure, cleared his throat, glanced at the pig's head next to him, and said in his usual calm voice, "Got it, I'll come right away."