Chapter 797: Relocation of the Temple
The bodies of the two young monks were collected and covered with straw mats. The monks closed the temple doors and waited anxiously for the final judgment.
A few young monks felt sorry for their kind and cried softly.
Gong Mengbi arrived on the clouds, causing a burst of exclamations, and no monster dared to look him in the eye.
"Is there no one who can make the decision?" Gong Mengbi asked.
The abbot in a cassock came out. He was also a fox demon. He bowed to Gong Mengbi and said, "Great Immortal, only Grandpa Fox King can make the decisions in this temple."
"He won't be coming back. The Fox King Lingying committed a crime. I came to arrest him, but he accidentally escaped. You are all his descendants, so if you want to make a fuss about it, you are all accomplices."
"Ah?" The old fox's eyes were filled with panic as he said, "Although we are fox demons in disguise, we diligently practice Buddhism and have never done anything bad. Please, Great Immortal, see clearly!"
"If I hadn't seen that you weren't harming anyone, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you."
"Come with me."
Gong Mengbi walked towards the interior of Lingying Temple, and the old abbot followed hurriedly behind him, not daring to be negligent.
Gong Mengbi walked past one temple after another and looked at the gods and Buddhas enshrined in the temples, and then he understood what kind of Dharma body the Lingying Fox King was practicing.
"You are all fox demons, why are you practicing Buddhism here?"
The old abbot said, "We were originally little foxes who followed Grandpa Fox King. After Grandpa Fox King learned to teach Buddhism, he settled here and subdued demons and monsters within a thousand miles. He manifested spiritual responses and built Lingying Temple. We followed Grandpa Fox King and learned from him. We worship Buddha and practice, and we never harm anyone."
"The Fox King Lingying hasn't cultivated any Zen mind himself, but he has taught you well."
"Grandpa Fox King has already cultivated a golden body and possesses the eight forms of heavenly dragons. How could he not have cultivated a Zen mind?"
Gong Mengbi laughed and said, "Of the ten halls in your temple, except for the Great Hall which enshrines the Tathagata Buddha, the other nine halls enshrine the Dharmakāya of the Spiritual Fox King. He relied on incense to cultivate into a spiritual and divine form. He is not cultivating Buddhism, he is clearly a ghost or a god."
"On the contrary, you, who follow the rules and study the scriptures and practice the Dharma, have actually cultivated something real."
The old abbot was skeptical. They practiced Buddhism, but their cultivation was not high enough to see the mysteries of spirits. Most of them could only transform into human form, so they could not tell whether Gong Mengbi's words were true or false.
"The reason is actually very simple. He changed his career halfway and has already walked on another path. Asking him to give up everything and start over is like solving the mystery in the womb and living a new life."
"Although you haven't harmed anyone, I can't leave him here because his image is enshrined in Lingying Temple. Five of my retainers will arrive later. You will follow them to Jiangnan. I will entrust you to other Buddhist temples. You should practice well in the future."
The old abbot, tears welling in his eyes, said, "It's said that it's hard to leave one's homeland. We've lived in Huanghua Mountain for many years. Would the Immortal be so kind as to allow us to continue settling here?"
Gong Mengbi looked at him and said, "I asked you to move away because I didn't want you to be embarrassed. The Lingying Fox King has committed a crime. If he comes back, will you follow him or not? Will you protect him or not?"
"Calm down and relax. I'm Gong Mingfu, an assistant instructor at the Sky Fox Academy. If you've heard of the academy's reputation, you know I won't harm you."
The old abbot had indeed heard of the name of the Heavenly Fox Monastery, but he still looked at Gong Mengbi pleadingly. Seeing that Gong Mengbi had made up his mind and could not change it, he hunched over and said, "I will obey the immortal's instructions."
When he raised his head, the immortal had disappeared.
He walked back to the Taoist monks dejectedly, looked into their worried eyes, and sighed, "Pack your bags and get ready to move."
"Abbot, what's going on?"
"Where's Grandpa Fox King?"
The old abbot said, "Don't ask, just go."
The monks had no choice but to go back and pack their bags.
Not long after, the old abbot saw the retainer mentioned by the immortal Gong Mingfu.
These five retainers were in the form of ghosts and gods, somewhat strange yet also somewhat solemn. They used five colors as their signals and arrived at Lingying Temple.
The old abbot asked, "Five venerable deities, where should we move to?"
"Maybe it's the Jinhua Mountain Big Buddha Temple, maybe it's the Lingya Mountain Xiufeng Temple. The specific location depends on where they can accommodate you."
"Old Abbot, my master originally came here to hunt down the Spirit Fox King and was unaware of the existence of monks like you who practice Buddhism. Finding a place where you can abandon your sectarianism and abandon your discrimination is not easy. My master will have to lobby for this matter."
After hearing this, the old abbot felt much more at ease.
He hesitated for a moment, then asked, "When Immortal Gong came here, I didn't dare ask him. What did our Fox King grandfather do wrong?"
"My master was ordered to investigate the murder of the Fox Courtyard family in Haozhou, but was thwarted by the Spirit Fox King's magic. I'm afraid he's involved in the murder of the Fox Courtyard family."
"How is that possible?" the old abbot retorted, "Although Grandpa Fox King has a bad temper, he wouldn't kill innocent people. How could he possibly exterminate the entire Fox Courtyard?"
Mr. Huang sighed softly and said, "Whether it's true or not, we'll have to catch him first before we can tell. Now that he's involved in this, it's probably going to be difficult for him to escape."
The old abbot was not clear about the intricacies of the matter, but he believed in his heart that the Spirit Fox King would not do such a thing.
"Respected God, what is the Fox Courtyard in Haozhou?"
"You don't know? That's a long story. I'll tell you slowly on the way."
When all the monks had packed their bags and gathered in front of the mountain gate, the five ghost gods led the way and said, "Let's go."
The monks were reluctant to leave and looked back after every few steps.
When I reached the foot of the mountain and came back, I found a red cloud hanging from the sky, like a tail, or a folded flag, or a shawl hanging to the ground.
The red air enveloped Lingying Temple, and flames immediately appeared in the temple.
The bright red flames covered the red air, black smoke rose into the sky, and the flames were like dragons, foxes, and birds, running rampant.
At this moment, several rays of Buddha's light lit up in the flames, revealing the illusory images of the Eight Heavenly Dragons, but in the blink of an eye, they turned into green smoke and dissipated in the flames.
The monks were illuminated by the flames that shot up into the sky, and tears came to their eyes.
The five ghost gods did not urge him. Instead, the old abbot sighed and said, "Don't cry, let's go."
The burning flames naturally alarmed the nearby practitioners and ghosts, but the flames subsided and carried obvious Taoist magic, so they just watched. When they found that there was no one in the fire, they stopped and let the fire burn Lingying Temple to the ground.
"You burned down Lingying Temple?" In Dafu Lingjiu Temple, Zeng Gong heard the news from the monks in the temple and stood up in shock.
Gong Mengbi sat opposite him, put down his teacup and said comfortingly: "I have moved all the monks in the temple. Don't worry, no one was hurt."
Except for the Spirit Fox King.
The eight heavenly dragon images enshrined in the hall all represented the spirits of the Fox King, and naturally, they were all destroyed in the fire.
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