"Are you going to say something or not?!" Wanli Fengdao really wanted to wring Li Ang's neck. He found this genius type who concealed everything, told nobody, and just loved looking down on others from an intellectual high ground, extremely irritating.
"Heh heh."
Li Ang casually tossed aside the account book, stood up, and ran towards the Daxiong Bao Hall. The others hurried to follow.
As Li Ang rushed into the Daxiong Bao Hall, his gaze swept over the various Buddha statues: the Buddha Shakyamuni, seated in meditation at the very center; the Medicine Buddha with a bowl in his left hand and a healing pill in his right; and Amitabha Buddha with his two hands folded over his feet and a lotus platform in his palms. These were the Buddhas of the Three Times.
The main hall was flanked by the eighteen Arhats on both sides. Behind the central Buddha statues were the figures of Manjushri and Samantabhadra. Strangely, an island had been built specifically to the rear of the Daxiong Bao Hall, featuring a north-facing statue of Guanyin. This Guanyin sculpture was elegant, with Sudhana to its left and Dragon Girl to its right. Each figure was covered in gold foil and lacquer, radiant with gem-like splendor, appearing even more stately and dignified than the Buddha Shakyamuni in the main hall.
"Indeed, as I suspected."
Li Ang sneered coldly, returned to the main hall, and meticulously tapped on the base of each Buddha statue.
THUD, THUD, THUD.
The wooden base under the Dragon Subduer Arhat made a particularly hollow sound when he tapped it. Li Ang lifted the wooden plank, revealing a dark and gloomy passageway underneath.
Li Ang pulled out a flashlight and crawled into the passage, where spiders scurried and insects crawled all around. Xing Hechou and the others uncomfortably followed Li Ang down through the passage. After a while, they climbed out from another wooden door at the end of the tunnel.
The wooden door at the other end of the passageway was set into a secret wall inside the Monk's Zen Room.
Li Ang scanned the Monk's Zen Room and, without a word, crawled back through the passageway to the Daxiong Bao Hall. He then brushed the dust off a pillar inside the hall and examined each red-lacquered pillar.
On a pillar to the left of the Guanyin statue, Li Ang felt an almost imperceptible dent. It seemed to have been painted over with fresh red lacquer. When he peeled away the outer layer of red lacquer, it revealed patchy old lacquer underneath with a spiderweb of cracks, as if it had been struck. Black bloodstains were mixed with the wood shavings inside the dent.
The objective to survive for seven days, handing in the abnormal Dragon Gate accounts, the especially grand Guanyin statue, the struck pillar next to the Guanyin, the female Ghost appearing in the monk temple... All these elements lingered in Li Ang's mind, finally weaving together into an immense, interconnected network.
"The truth, it turns out, is like this."
Li Ang exhaled, his lips curving into a mocking smile full of irony—incredibly irritating.
"...Xiao Li," Xing Hechou said, his square, honest face displaying the deeply constipated expression common to nearly everyone who dealt with Li Ang. "Can you tell us what you've figured out?"
"The real secret behind the desolation of the Solitary Cold Temple."
Li Ang laughed. "Do you want to know?"
Apart from Liu Wu Dai, the others subconsciously nodded.
"It's simple. The story starts thirteen years ago at the Solitary Cold Temple."
"Back then, the abbot of the Solitary Cold Temple wasn't Master Taozhi, but Master Mingcheng, and the temple only had about twenty monks."
"Emperor Jiajing was a devout Taoist practitioner obsessed with pursuing immortality. During his reign, he favored and supported Taoism to seek eternal life. Compared to the prosperous Taoist Door, the Buddha Sect, which couldn't pursue high-level channels, suffered greatly—especially the Solitary Cold Temple, located in a remote area with dwindling personnel."
"Under Master Mingcheng's leadership, the twenty-odd monks at the Solitary Cold Temple survived on donations from devout Buddhists and profits from cultivating wasteland, planting food, and weaving clothes to sell."
"They barely managed to have enough food and clothing, their diet limited to simple vegetarian meals; luxurious foods like meat and fish were out of the question."
"Then, five years ago, Master Mingcheng stepped down as abbot—perhaps he died, or perhaps he retired due to old age. In any case, Master Taozhi from another temple took over as the abbot of the Solitary Cold Temple."
"After Master Taozhi took charge, the temple's incense offerings suddenly flourished. An endless stream of devotees and wealthy gentry generously donated money and goods, even handing over deeds to fertile lands to the Solitary Cold Temple, making it the monks' property."
"Suddenly wealthy, the number of monks at the Solitary Cold Temple surged from about twenty to more than two hundred. With its substantial wealth, the temple immediately constructed the Longevity Warehouse to store money and valuables. It even had excess funds to loan money to farmers, landlords, and merchants at a monthly interest rate of three percent."
"Lending and borrowing have a long history. In the early Tang Dynasty, the maximum interest rate for loans was six percent; by the late Tang Dynasty, it was four percent. The Song Dynasty followed Tang practices. The Code of Ming Dynasty stipulated that for all private money lending and pawn dealings, the monthly interest must not exceed three percent. Even over many years, the total interest could not exceed the principal. Violators would be flogged forty times. The surplus interest was counted as illicit gains, and those with greater offenses were prosecuted for corruption and received a hundred lashes."
"A monthly interest rate of three percent amounts to an annual rate of 36%. Charging more constituted usury—this figure was even inherited by the real world."
"The Longevity Warehouse of the Solitary Cold Temple usually extended loans at an annual interest rate of 36%. However, for large loans, long-term borrowers, or those in urgent need, it would offer an exorbitant rate of 48%."
"Master Mingcheng of the Solitary Cold Temple wasn't concerned about people defaulting on loans. The lands of the Buddha Sect were always seen as pure and clean, making them an excellent place for laundering money—the Solitary Cold Temple acted as a fundraising intermediary for local government officials, lending money and charging interest on their behalf. Since they paid protection fees to the government, they didn't fear anyone daring to default on the Buddha Sect's money!"
"At the same time, the Solitary Cold Temple could also sponsor local gentry, using money to buy official positions. Those appointed would arrive in the morning, and debt collectors would follow by evening. This hardly seemed like sparing the common people, did it?"
"This was government-Buddha collusion!"
"After colluding with the government, the Buddha Sect paid even less tax and developed more rapidly."
"With capital in hand, one thinks of making more money. Merchants seek profit, and so do monks. The Solitary Cold Temple invested heavily, buying over ten businesses in the county town—including gambling dens, brothels, dyeing workshops, printing houses, and Rouge-shops—growing wealthier and wealthier."
"The Solitary Cold Temple already owned a number of fields donated by local gentry. With a never-exhausting treasury, it naturally ventured down the path of land acquisition."
"Four years ago, continuous droughts and floods struck the area, causing severe crop damage. Tenant farmers, who held specific cultivation and ownership rights to the land, had no choice but to mortgage or even sell these rights to the Solitary Cold Temple. Small farmers, with almost no resilience against unforeseen disasters, faced bankruptcy when confronted with events like marriages, funerals, or poor harvests, and also had to mortgage or sell their land rights to the Solitary Cold Temple."
"In just half a year, the Solitary Cold Temple came to own thousands of acres of good land in the area. All tenant farmers on these lands lost their right to self-cultivation and became the Buddha Sect's feudal serfs."
"Heh heh heh. Being a serf to the Buddha Sect is still being a serf. The plight of serfs is far more miserable than that of tenant farmers depicted in movies and TV dramas."
"When grains flourished in the fields, rent collectors and lenders eagerly paced the acres, waiting. As soon as the harvest was brought in, those ready to take their share would fill the room with noise."
"Owning countless fields and in an excellent financial state, how did the Solitary Cold Temple suddenly become destitute three years ago?"
"This goes back to how the Solitary Cold Temple initially made its fortune."
Pointing to the luxuriously decorated statue of Guanyin, Li Ang laughed and said, "Three months after Master Taozhi took office, incense offerings from devotees and local gentry skyrocketed. The accounts were marked as 'child-granting donations'."
"It turned out that after devoutly praying to the Guanyin statue in the Solitary Cold Temple for children, female devotees miraculously became pregnant en masse. The reputation of the Guanyin statue's miraculous powers spread far and wide."
"The local commoners offered their grain and produce. The local gentry, to demonstrate their devotion and to wish for their families to be blessed with many children and happiness, made donations of money, goods, and land to the Solitary Cold Temple."
"However, conceiving a child wasn't so easily achieved. Women desiring to conceive needed to kneel devoutly before the Guanyin statue within the Daxiong Bao Hall for an entire night, without any disturbance, or the miracle would not occur."
"The reputation of the Solitary Cold Temple's Guanyin statue for granting children continued to spread. More and more pious female devotees came to pray for offspring, until an accident occurred three years ago."
Li Ang pointed to the indentation on the red pillar next to the Guanyin statue and said, "A female devotee was kneeling in sincere prayer on a cushion when, in the dead of night, a group of monks emerged one by one from the secret wooden door beneath the Dragon Subduer Arhat, their faces wearing lewd smiles."
"It turned out that behind the Solitary Cold Temple's Guanyin statue's miraculous power to grant children was this: a group of monks would enter the Daxiong Bao Hall in the middle of the night and forcibly defile the lone female pilgrims."
"In the strict moral society of the Ming Dynasty, female pilgrims who lost their chastity dared not reveal the truth to their families or husbands. They had to return home, only to discover months later that they were pregnant."
"These lecherous monks thought they could succeed again that night, as they had before, and uphold the renown of the Solitary Cold Temple's Guanyin statue for granting children. However, they didn't anticipate that this particular female devotee was exceptionally chaste and resolute. Choosing death over dishonor, she eventually smashed her head against this pillar."
"When someone died, the matter couldn't be glossed over. The panicked monks could only claim the female devotee had accidentally disappeared. Naturally, her family didn't accept this explanation, and they took the matter to the local government."
"Presumably, the female devotee's family had some influence and pressured the authorities. A thorough investigation and severe interrogations eventually revealed the Solitary Cold Temple's biggest secret from the monks' own mouths."
"With the scandal exposed, the local populace was in an uproar. The wealthy gentry who had once donated money were naturally unwilling to let the matter rest. They joined forces with officials to have all the monks in the temple executed and confiscated the temple's land and deeds."
"Regrettably, although the lecherous monks were put to death, the soul of that chaste and unyielding female devotee remained trapped here."
Li Ang took a deep breath. "If I'm not mistaken, the female Ghost we've seen in the Solitary Cold Temple is her."
After Li Ang concluded his lengthy explanation, Xing Hechou and Wanli Fengdao were stunned into silence, speechless. Despite racking their brains, they couldn't have imagined that the mission's plot involved not just fighting and killing, but also such a clever and insightful approach.
Before Xing Hechou could exclaim, Li Ang stepped out of the Daxiong Bao Hall, left the Solitary Cold Temple, and arrived at the edge of the dense forest.
This was the boundary of the 500-meter range specified by the mission.
Specters seemed to stir in the flickering shadows of the trees. Undaunted, Li Ang pulled out an axe and started digging with it as if it were a hoe.
"What are you doing?" Wanli Fengdao and the others who had followed asked.
"Digging," Li Ang said simply. "We'll dig up the ground within a 500-meter radius around the Solitary Cold Temple, from the outside in."
His teammates looked at each other, hesitating at the sight of the dark sky and the eerie forest.
Li Ang, still digging, raised his head and said helplessly, "Since the female Ghost is bound to this place, her bones mustn't be far. Dig up her remains, burn them, and all our troubles will be gone."
Xing Hechou and the others didn't know what to say. The System had issued a mission to survive for seven days, evidently intending for them to be haunted by the female Ghost, to tremble in endless fear as they watched teammates die one by one, and to barely survive. How did Li Ang turn it into rapid decryption, taking the initiative, even resolving problems ahead of time to complete the mission? Brother, why don't you play by the rules?!
Feeling as if a thousand alpacas were stampeding through their minds, Xing Hechou and the others glanced at each other, gathered around Li Ang, and silently began to dig, each using their own methods.
Hands, feet, a skull, arm bones, shoulder bones...
Several hours later, pieces of white bone had been unearthed from the land within a five-hundred-meter radius, eventually pieced together to form a human skeleton.
"Judging from the bone age, she's been dead for three years. From the skeletal structure, it's a female. Moreover, her figure was quite good; she was probably quite pretty too."
Seeing the arm bones reminded him of thigh bones, then the rib cage, and then the chest... Li Ang's imagination could only leap so far on this particular subject.
He gazed at the female skeleton laid out on the ground and sighed, "Every injustice has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor. Vengeance for the wronged, payback for the grudge. Miss, rest in peace."
With that said, he took out a Molotov cocktail from his backpack, preparing to cremate the skeleton. Xing Hechou, Wanli Fengdao, Hui Bin, Liu Wu Dai, and the others drew their weapons and gathered around Li Ang.
Just as the skeleton was about to be incinerated—this was likely the best moment for the female Ghost to strike, if she intended to—
WHOOSH—
The Molotov cocktail fell. An instant before it would have smashed onto the bones, a delicate, jade-like hand stretched out from underground.
Xing Hechou and the others, who were ready and waiting, were about to unleash powerful, decisive attacks to shred the arm to pieces when Li Ang stopped them with a wave of his hand.
"Wait a minute."
"What's there to hesitate about? Just kill it!" Wanli Fengdao roared impatiently.
If this were the beginning of the mission, he wouldn't have heeded Li Ang, a mere Lv3 newbie. But from then until now, everything had unfolded within Li Ang's calculations, leaving Wanli Fengdao without any grounds to object.
Li Ang shook his head indifferently, expressionlessly watching as the hand holding the Molotov cocktail emerged further from the ground.
Arm, shoulder, torso... A young woman in a goose-yellow dress "rose" from the ground, like a mud-caked version of a "lotus emerging from water."
She appeared to be in her early twenties, wearing a goose-yellow dress. Her skin was pale as snow, her pretty face slightly marred by dirt. Her eyebrows were long and perfectly shaped, her eyes held a hint of sorrow, and her tightly pursed lips evoked pity.
She was quite beautiful; in modern society, she would definitely be a TikTok sensation chased by thousands.
Too bad she's already dead, reduced to bones. Can't take advantage while she's warm.
Li Ang stepped forward and said gravely, "Hello, are you GG or MM?"
"?"
The Ghost holding the Molotov cocktail tilted her head in confusion. Her eerie, ominous figure, combined with this cute pose, truly intrigued Li Ang.
Xing Hechou and the others, on high alert, never anticipated that Li Ang's mind had already started imagining encounters with the female Ghost. They didn't dare relax in the slightest, aiming their various weapons at her. If she made any strange moves, she would be met with a coordinated Thunderbolt from the four players!
"Don't understand?" Li Ang straightened his CQB tactical suit, cleared his throat, and said to the female Ghost, "I am Li Rising. May I have the honor of knowing your name, Miss?"
Meow meow meow?! Is this really the time to be hitting on someone?!