劍問蒼天 - 第61章 舊人 - 翰墨軒

The old man turned his head. The moment Zhang Qingyue saw his face, he was taken aback. He had imagined that Shitou's sect, called the "Vajra Sect," and his master, named the "Venerable Great Strength," must surely mean a giant of incomparable might. Instead, before him stood this rather thin and small old man, and for a moment he truly could not recover his wits.

Shitou, clearly, had not thought so much of it. He chuckled and said: "Brother Zhang, aren't you going to pay your respects to my master?"

Only then did Zhang Qingyue come to his senses. He hurriedly made his salutation and said: "Senior, this disciple is Zhang Qingyue. I have long heard of your great name."

The old man gave a cold snort and said mildly: "Enough." Then he turned back and said to Facheng: "So, then—your master, the Venerable Pucheng, has been in seclusion meditating on Chan and has still not come out?"

Facheng smiled and said: "Indeed. Although my honored master is the abbot of our temple, for a long time now it has been I who assist my uncle-master Pukong in managing worldly affairs. This time, with the demonic cult rising again, my uncle-master Pukong originally intended to come as well, but the temple's affairs are so numerous and tangled that in the end I was sent, to do what little I could."

The Venerable Great Strength nodded and said: "With you here, that is enough. But before I came, I had thought that although your masters, the two divine monks Pucheng and Pukong, would not come, your fourth uncle-master Pufang has always hated the demonic cult bitterly, and would surely come. Why then..."

Seeing the Venerable Great Strength's puzzled gaze turn toward him, Facheng sighed faintly and said: "Senior, you are unaware—since five years ago, when my third uncle-master, the divine monk Puzhao, suddenly passed away..."

Zhang Qingyue's heart gave a violent lurch.

And it was at that very moment that Facheng's gaze, whether by design or not, glanced in his direction, then shifted away again, as he continued: "My uncle-master Pufang and my uncle-master Puzhao were the closest of friends. Ever since then, he has devoted himself quietly in the temple to studying the Buddhist scriptures, and no longer goes out."

The Venerable Great Strength let out an "Ah," full of feeling.

Facheng smiled and said: "But this is not necessarily a bad thing."

The Venerable Great Strength chuckled and said: "True, true. You divine monks must of course put your own perfect merit first—unlike this old fellow, who has no affinity with the Buddha and so runs about east and west all day long."

Facheng laughed and said: "Senior jests. You have deep ties with our Fanyin Temple—my honored master and my uncle-master Pukong both made a point of mentioning this before I came. Come, please, senior, sit inside."

The Venerable Great Strength made a few polite demurrals, then went in with him.

Zhang Qingyue watched the two of them go inside. Suddenly he felt something and turned to look aside, only to find Shitou tugging at him and saying in a low voice: "Did you notice? It seems this young Facheng is actually the leader of this bunch of monks from the Fanyin Temple!"

Zhang Qingyue nodded. In these past days he had come into contact with these orthodox cultivators daily and had seen many of the masters of the Fanyin Temple. He too had noticed that although Facheng was young, among the monks of the "Fa" generation who had come to Liubo Mountain this time, Facheng's bearing stood out strikingly, and he faintly had the air of one who leads. It was mostly he who came forward to receive guests and speak, while the older monks beside him made no sound at all. It seemed Facheng was an outstanding figure whom the Fanyin Temple was cultivating with great effort.