"So all the adult monks outside are fake?" Mingzhi stared at the monk in the coffin, frowned and said nothing.

He would say a few words to the monk who was in charge of the Sutra Repository every day when he went to borrow books.

The other person's voice, appearance and smile were no different from those of ordinary people, but I didn't expect that he would die here!

Wait...it's not that there is nothing strange at all.

Looking haggard, withered complexion, weak speech, and more white of the eyes than the pupils are all obvious strange symptoms, but I have seen them so many times that I subconsciously ignore them.

What is the connection between these symptoms and fake monks?

After making sure that he left no trace, Mingzhi returned to the east wing silently.

When passing by the main hall, I could hear that the rituals there had not yet ended, and it seemed that no one had noticed me.

The next morning, Mingzhi woke up slowly from his meditation and heard the young monk Jianxing knocking on the door.

The surveillance capabilities of the Jinchan Temple were so pervasive that even Mingzhi's casual questioning of Jianwu on the roadside was quickly known by the abbot. If Jianxing visited frequently, the abbot would definitely be suspicious.

Mingzhi had the protection of Ajing's magic, so he could go to any place in the temple; but Jianxing, the second spy of the hell, did not have such great ability, so he only came to clean the meditation room for Master Mingzhi every one or two days, secretly communicating with each other and exchanging information.

"Number Nine went to the back hall last night?" Jianxing asked in a voice transmission while sweeping the floor with a broom.

"Yes." Mingzhi held the Buddhist scriptures in his hands and answered calmly, "How did you know?"

"I guessed." Jianxing said, "It's already this late. If you don't go and check it out, I would really think you have become a monk to study Buddhism."

“As long as we don’t reveal any flaws and get spotted, it’ll be fine.” Mingzhi heaved a sigh of relief.

"What's the scene in the back hall?" Jianxing continued to ask.

"You haven't checked it out?" Mingzhi asked him back.

"I have explored it." Jianxing said, "The reason why I practiced this secret technique of concealing my aura was to avoid the ears and eyes of the temple and explore the back hall."

"It's just that I haven't figured out the secrets in the back hall, and instead my breath has become weak... Let's not talk about that. What did you see in the back hall, No. 9? Let's verify what we saw, find out the gaps, and analyze it as soon as possible."

This spy number two stuttered when speaking normally, but he was eloquent when transmitting secret messages. Mingzhi smiled secretly in his heart and said:

"In that case, I'll say it first."

"I went to the back hall and saw many sandalwood coffins."

"That's right." Jian Xing agreed, "And the coffins contain the bodies of the monks in the temple!"

"Yes!" Mingzhi continued, "but there were only adult monks, no child monks, and the body of the abbot was not among them."

"It's just like what I saw." Jian Xing said gloomily, "It's so strange that such a huge Jinchan Temple has already been occupied by someone else!"

"Even so, there are still many doubts." Mingzhi said slowly, "First, since they killed someone to replace him, they should have destroyed the body. Why did they keep the bodies and deliberately display them in the back hall without any cover-up?"

"I think it was done on purpose for us to see." Jianxing said, "A cunning rabbit has three burrows, and each layer is a veil to deceive the eyes. You are not allowed to see the first layer, what you see is the second layer, and the real third layer is still hidden underneath!"

"The second is the issue of numbers." Mingzhi continued, "If they killed people to replace the monks, why did they only kill adult monks and not children? In addition, the abbot's body has not been found. Is he not dead, or is he hidden away alone?"

"I know a little about this matter." Jianxing replied, "All the adult monks in the temple were born inside this cave, while many of the child monks were adopted from the outside world."

"Oh?" Mingzhi asked in surprise, "Buddhists are not allowed to marry, so how can they have children?"

"Nine, you don't know." Jianxing sighed and replied, "Ordinary Buddhists are indeed not allowed to marry, but they recruit Buddhists from outside to practice in the temple. If they die of old age, they will recruit new monks from outside to maintain a stable number of monks in the temple."

"But this is different at Jinchan Temple. The monkhood is passed down from father to son, and from son to father. After the child is born, his mother will raise him in the town at the foot of the mountain."

"When he turns 20, he will marry and have children. When he turns 30, he will leave town and go to the mountain to become a monk in the temple and practice Buddhism."

"This goes on for generations, so that Jinchan Temple does not need to communicate with the outside world and can ensure the normal replacement of new and old monks in the temple."

“But for some reason, about seven or eight years ago, an earthquake suddenly occurred in this cave.”

"Earthquake?" Akechi asked in surprise.

Your cave has been isolated from China and has become an independent world. How could there still be earthquakes?

"Well, I don't know the details." Jian Xing said, "Anyway, the earthquake almost destroyed the entire town at the foot of the mountain, and no one survived."

"Not only did we lose the source of monks, but also the supply of many materials was completely cut off. The Golden Cicada Temple had no choice but to open the gate to the heavenly cave and seek help from the Buddhist sects outside. They also adopted children from the outside world and brought them into the temple to raise as novice monks... It was from then on that our sect discovered the traces of the Golden Cicada Temple and let me sneak in to gather intelligence."

“I see.” Mingzhi understood immediately.

In other words, the monks in the Jinchan Temple are actually divided into two groups.

Some of them were adult monks, that is, the monks who were killed in the back hall. They were all born and raised in this cave.

The other part is underage monks, all of whom were adopted from outside.

Thinking of this, a very natural answer emerged from the depths of my heart.

There seemed to be another hidden story behind the earthquake seven or eight years ago. It not only killed the residents of the small town at the foot of the mountain, but also killed the monks in Jinchan Temple.

Then... for some unknown reason, a large number of usurpers came and pretended to be the dead monks, and continued to run the Jinchan Temple.

"Speaking of which, No. 2," Mingzhi suddenly asked, "Have you noticed that all these monks outside look very strange?"

"You mean there is no blood and energy, right?" Jianxing said, "Indeed, I thought they were practicing Dead Wood Zen, but it is strange that they have no blood and energy at all."

Dead wood Zen? Mingzhi thought about it for a moment, then rejected this possibility.

Dead Wood Zen is a way of training the body to exhaustion, but the essence of the soul becomes stronger and stronger. It is a special way of using the body to feed the soul.

These fake monks in the Jinchan Temple are not only emaciated physically, but also extremely weak in spirit. If the withered wood Zen can be practiced to this extent, it would be more appropriate to change the name to "suicide Zen".

It seems... I have to find an opportunity to go to the abandoned town at the foot of the mountain to find out what's going on.