Liaozhai Great Sage

Chapter 191

Li Xiuyuan looked at this statue of Guanyin who gave away his son, and felt something was wrong in his heart.

The people in Hua County are living in such a difficult situation, yet this statue is built so luxuriously, it seems that the entire county's financial resources are used to support this statue.

It doesn't matter if it was built by a wealthy businessman in the county. Others have money and how they want to spend it is other people's business. Others have no right to interfere. There are huge merit boxes one after another, each of which is more than half the height of a person.

Moreover, the pilgrims who worship Guanyin will put money into the merit box every time after worshiping the god statue.

There are even a little wealthier pilgrims who don't even want to throw all their money bags in, and don't keep a cent.

The pilgrims who invested money were chanting again, praying for something.

"This worship seems a little too pious." Li Xiuyuan frowned slightly.

All the money was put into the merit box, which was better than the temple, but it was hard for me. No wonder the Songzi Guanyin Temple Fair was built in such a luxurious style.

Without the dedication of these pilgrims, how could such a luxurious statue be built in this year and the world.

Li Xiuyuan pondered for a while, and followed the crowd to the altar, ready to eavesdrop on what these pilgrims were asking for.

He saw a woman in her late thirties kneeling in front of the futon, burning incense and worshiping, kowtowing to the statue of Guanyin, and muttering something in her mouth; For my family to carry on the family line, so that there will be no descendants, I pray to the merciful and merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva."

The woman chanted it several times. After burning incense and praying, she took out dozens of coins from her bosom and put them into the merit box. .

And when the next pilgrim came forward, it was also a woman.

This woman has a big belly and seems to have been pregnant for several months. She also burns incense and prays like the previous woman, throws money into the merit box, and repeats in her mouth that she is also begging the Bodhisattva to give her a child.

After the second woman left, the third pilgrim, the fourth pilgrim.

Without exception, they all knelt in front of the statue of Guanyin who sent the child, kowtowed, burned incense, and prayed. The things they asked for were similar, and most of them were for the child.

But if you ask for a child, you can understand.

After all, this is the statue of Avalokitesvara, and it is not dedicated to other gods, so it is only natural to come to pray for a child.

However, after watching it for a while, Li Xiuyuan felt something was wrong.

"Why do so many women come to burn incense and beg for a child so early in the morning? The population of Huaxian County is so large. The begging for a child is a little too enthusiastic, and even begging for a child does not need to be so extravagant. It is enough to burn a few sticks of incense for such real gold and silver offerings."

He was puzzled and thoughtful at the same time.

Before he stopped for a long time, a nun in plain clothes approached a nearby statue with a smile; The Guanyin in this Guanyin temple is extremely effective, as long as the son is sincere, the Guanyin master will respond to every request."

Li Xiuyuan suddenly came back to his senses, and then said: "I didn't come to worship the gods, I just passed by occasionally and saw the bustling here, so I came here out of curiosity, and there is no other reason, if the master doesn't mind , can you allow me to turn around and wait and see?"

The nun gave a salute and said: "Idlers are not allowed to wander around in the Guanyin Temple, but this young master is extraordinary, so he should not be a random idler. If this young master doesn't dislike him, the old nun is willing to take the young master with him." Let's take a walk around the temple."

"Oh, if that's the case, I'll have to thank my teacher." Li Xiuyuan bowed back.

The middle-aged nun smiled and said: "It's a matter of little effort, the young master is serious, please come to the young master."

After finishing speaking, he gestured, showing great enthusiasm.

Li Xiuyuan nodded, and prepared to follow the nun to the Guanyin Temple.

How can I find the god hidden in the Guanyin Temple if I don't take a stroll around, and how can I ask about Miss Qiao unless I find the god.

"Young master, this nun doesn't look like a monk. If she were a nun, she would definitely call the young master a benefactor, but she has always called the young master a son. If she has been a monk for a long time, it is impossible not to change her name, and the young master, just wait and see her shoes."

The guard's footsteps were quickened, and he whispered beside Li Xiuyuan's ear.

Li Xiuyuan's eyes moved, and he looked at the nun's feet.

But I saw that the feet under the wide plain clothes were wearing a pair of embroidered shoes, not the cloth shoes of monks and nuns.

Looking at it this way, this nun is indeed very suspicious. She doesn't look like a nun who has become a monk, but a woman who temporarily wears plain clothes to dress up as a nun.

"Young master, why are you staring at the poor nun's feet?"

The nun seemed quite sensitive and seemed to have noticed Li Xiuyuan's gaze, stopped in her footsteps, turned around and smiled, without being annoyed.

Li Xiuyuan didn't mean to be guilty, but looked at her squarely and said: "Although this teacher is a monk, it seems that her six roots are not clean. Since she is in Buddhism, why is she wearing such a pair of fancy embroidered shoes instead of plain clothes and cloth shoes?"

Now that he found out, he simply asked directly.

The nun laughed and said: "The monks wear hundreds of clothes, so naturally they also wear hundreds of shoes. The women and girls in the county donate these embroidered shoes to the temple. The poor nun can't discard them. In order to avoid waste, they have to wear them on their feet." Come on, young master, do you think it’s inappropriate? You should know that there are Buddhist scriptures that say: There is no appearance of a person, no appearance of a self, no appearance of a living being, and no appearance of a lifespan. Now that you have become a monk, why should you pay too much attention to the appearance of your skin and flesh? Naturally, this dress is casual.”

When Li Xiuyuan heard this, he felt that it made some sense: "What the teacher said is that it seems that I am too sensual."

Others argue with Buddhism, but he is powerless to refute.

I don't even count as a cultivator, so I don't know any Buddhist principles.

"It's good that the son can understand."

The nun said with a smile: "Come on, sir, please, along this corridor, there is the treasure temple in the temple, and those are the meditation rooms for the monks in the temple to rest, and in front is the release of life. There will always be a life-release ceremony, but it’s a pity that the young master’s visit is unlucky, and this year’s life-release ceremony has already passed.”

"The Avalokitesvara Temple is not big, so I turned around from there and returned to the main hall."

While walking, the nun pointed at several buildings in the temple.

This Guanyin Temple is indeed not big, only the main hall is resplendent and magnificent, but the back is quite simple.

It's just that Li Xiuyuan felt something was wrong.

Because when he passed by the Guanyin Temple on a dragon horse last night, he clearly saw that the Guanyin Temple occupies more than that. How could it be possible that there are only a few simple Buddhist temples and treasure temples? It is completely unreasonable.

Besides, with his eyes, it is impossible to make a mistake. If the extra space is the dwelling place of ghosts and gods, that is another matter. However, yesterday he did not see the residence built by ghosts and gods with condensed incense.

But when he was puzzled, when he passed by the release pool, he suddenly saw a series of small bubbles rising from the pool water.

I thought it was just an ordinary blister, after all, bubbling in the pool is normal.

However, under the water, Li Xiuyuan saw a pale little face.

It was a baby's face.

It was impossible to tell whether it was a boy or a girl. The baby raised his face under the water, pouted his mouth, and gurgled blisters.

After seeing Li Xiuyuan approaching, he seemed to be frightened, and the baby quickly dived into the depths of the pool and disappeared.

Li Xiuyuan stopped walking, his eyes were a little dignified.

The baby just now was not a living baby, but a ghost after the baby died.

"Master, are there any children who drowned in this release pool?" Li Xiuyuan asked.

The nun's smile froze slightly: "Why does this young man ask such a question?"

Li Xiuyuan said; "Just asking casually."

The nun said: "This place is the release pool of the temple, and only some creatures like fish and turtles will be released. How could there be children drowning in the pool? You are too worried, my lord."

"Well, I was the one who was abrupt." Li Xiuyuan said.

But his gaze has been searching around in the release pond.

Suddenly, next to a railing where the sun cannot shine, he saw the wronged soul again, this time it was not a baby's, but the wronged soul of a four or five-year-old child, and there were four of them, the four children's wronged soul posted Looking at the side of the release pool, it swayed slightly, his face was pale without a trace of blood, and his eyes were extremely hollow, filled with resentment.

"What's there next to the pool over there?" Li Xiuyuan asked the guard.

A guard glanced at him and said, "Master, there are four small fish clinging to the grass by the pond."

Li Xiuyuan's heart sank.

It is Taoism.

Someone used Taoism to cover up the true colors of the wronged soul.

The little fish in the guard's eyes became the child's wronged soul in his eyes, which is obviously abnormal.

If it is really an ordinary wronged soul, then the guards can't see anything, after all, the guards don't have the ability to see through yin and yang.

The wronged soul turned into a small fish, and Li Xiuyuan immediately believed that there was a big weirdness in the Guanyin Temple after such a cover-up.

If not, why bother to turn the innocent souls in the release pond into small fishes to cover up people's eyes and ears.

"Young master, what's so interesting about this release pool, poor nun, take your son to look elsewhere." The nun next to him said.

Li Xiuyuan ignored it, but walked along the corridor solemnly and circled around the release pool.

When he turned to the shadow of a rockery in the center of the lake and looked at the pool under the shadow, his eyes shrank suddenly, his scalp felt numb, and he took several steps back in fright.

But I saw that the underwater in the shadows was densely packed with small heads, there were three or four months old babies, one to five or six-year-old children, and eighteen, nineteen, to twenty-something girls. , These innocent souls leaned together one by one, hugged each other tightly, and hid in the dark behind the rockery to avoid being exposed to the sun.

There are at least hundreds of these innocent souls, large and small, because there are several layers of small heads under the water.

"Damn it, is this the life-release pool or the life-killing pool?" Li Xiuyuan clenched his fists tightly.

With so many ghosts of babies and children gathered here, how many people died in this pool?

(End of this chapter)