Dead silence!
Immediately following was a deafening roar of exclamations and kneeling down!
"A miracle! A miracle!"
"A Luohan! A living Luohan!"
"Buddha has appeared!"
The disaster victims were so excited that they trembled and knelt down to kowtow!
The man who had spoken earlier was now filled with shock: "Zen Master! Zen Master! This...this must be some great Buddhist supernatural power! How can one obtain such a golden body to protect oneself like you?"
Zen Master Huiming's compassionate gaze swept over the kneeling crowd below the stage. His voice was soft but clear: "Sincerity brings results. Entrust your body, mind, and life entirely to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, and devoutly make offerings to the Three Jewels to bring them joy. You will then receive blessings and protection, your karmic obstacles will be eliminated, and calamities will not befall you."
The "miracle" of retrieving money from a vat of boiling oil hadn't subsided when another disaster victim in the crowd shouted a question, this time with a puzzled tone, "Master! I've lived my whole life honestly farming the land, never stealing, never robbing, never harming anyone! Why do I have to suffer this drought and famine? Why do I have to eliminate my karma?"
The old monk immediately took over, his voice booming like a bell, "Foolish! Foolish indeed!"
He pointed at the many emaciated and pale-faced disaster victims below the stage, "Have you not committed any evil deeds in your lives? Then look at yourselves! Look at your situation! Born into poverty, struggling with hunger and cold, separated from your parents, wives and children, living from day to day! Did such suffering come out of thin air?!"
His gaze was sharp, like a judgment. "This is the result of karmic debts from past lives! In your previous lives, and even those lives before that, you must have committed boundless sins and owed countless blood debts! The suffering you endure in this life is the manifestation of divine justice and the cycle of cause and effect!"
He paused, his tone becoming incredibly "compassionate," yet carrying a deeper sense of intimidation, "What's even more terrifying is that when you step into this sacred Buddhist land and are bathed in the Buddha's light, the sins and karmic obstacles accumulated on your bodies will be like ice meeting the blazing sun—they will have nowhere to hide! They will inevitably erupt violently! They will transform into festering sores and scabies, into coughs and asthma, into inner demons and nightmares! They will gnaw at your flesh and blood day and night, sucking away your soul! You will be unable to live, unable to die! This is the suffering of karmic backlash!"
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