"Profound Jade Immortal Family, how about using this temple as a venue for our charitable deeds?"
"..."
Looking at the heap of rubble that could no longer be recognized as a temple, the tall woman wearing a veiled hat remained silent.
"Xuan Yu isn't speaking, surely you also think this place is great, right?"
A puff of black demonic mist emerged from Sun Erniang, and a black cat suddenly appeared atop the rubble.
The black cat looked at Xu Qing, who resembled an old man, and spoke in human tongue, "When I was wandering before, at least the eaves I stayed under could shield me from the rain; here there isn't even such shelter. How can this place be used as a temple?"
Roof, wandering?
Are you sure it's wandering and not just wandering aimlessly?
Xu Qing pondered for a moment; this place did seem a bit worn out.
But it's not a big deal.
Xu Qing took out some paper from the Mountain and River Map and casually crafted it. In just a moment, he had a three-foot-wide, two-foot-tall paper house in his hand.
Holding the paper temple in one hand and forming hand seals with the other, Xu Qing recited the Incantation of Transforming Paper into Reality, then blew out a gust of yin energy, causing the paper temple to grow in the wind and gracefully settle before the ruins.
In the blink of an eye, Xuan Yu looked again and found that the paper temple had transformed into an actual temple.
"What kind of magic is this?" the cat exclaimed in shock.
"Want to learn it?" Xu Qing raised an eyebrow and replied with a smile, "I'll teach you later."
The art of turning paper into reality was a transcendence reward Xu Qing acquired in Wanshou Village, and this magic was learned from a blind monk.
The blind monk was called Foolish Eye; everyone in the temple referred to him as Foolish Eye Monk. Though he had renounced the world, he never parted from wine or meat. Each time the elders and abbot tried to persuade him, he would say:
"Monk, I'm blind and can't see anything. How would I know if this gourd contains wine or if the oily paper wraps meat?"
"To me, it tastes no different than pickled radish and overnight tea."
When Yaozhou experienced a great flood, with river gates bursting and waters submerging two prefectures and sixteen counties, Foolish Eye Monk, while eating and drinking in front of the main temple hall, foolishly laughed.
Before his eyes, while the abbots ignored the safety of disciples and monks, they scrambled for gold and silver, fleeing to save themselves.
As the abbots rode off on horses and carriages, Foolish Eye Monk took out a sheet of paper, folded it into a little boat, and after reciting an incantation, blew out a breath of alcohol. The three-inch long boat grew in the wind, turning into a vessel that could carry twenty people.
And in the temple, there were exactly twenty monks and attendants who hadn't managed to escape.
As the floodwaters rose and the boat floated, someone urged the boat to set off quickly, but Foolish Eye Monk spoke up, "This boat can only hold twenty people at a time. With one more, it will sink. Now with you and me, monk included, there are twenty-one people. With this one extra, the boat can't depart!"
The crowd heard this and jostled each other, with no one willing to disembark.
Foolish Eye Monk sighed and waved his hand, saying, "Very well, you can go ahead on your own. Since none of you wish to stay, I'll remain behind as the monk."
As they say, geniuses often are loners, and the world easily follows others.
The monks in the temple prided themselves on purity, only ever deferring to the abbots. Foolish Eye Monk was not like them, and now that he offered to abandon the ship voluntarily, none of the monks even tried to persuade him to stay.
As the poem from "The Pen Rest Station" says: "Following the crowd is not without skill, bullying the solitary is unjust."
It speaks of how the world is prone to bullying the unique, while those with talent and aspiration are often ostracized for not following the wave.
Foolish Eye Monk watched the boat leave and subsequently traveled alone all the way from Yaozhou to the Jin Sect.
The Jin Sect was a splendid place, blessed with talents and exemplary figures. The master of Baishui Temple in Jinmen Prefecture was celebrated throughout the prefecture, with every appointed governor, every passing official, making a visit to Baishui Temple for incense offerings.
Having long admired Baishui Temple, Foolish Eye Monk's first act upon arriving in Jin Sect was to seek refuge there, even if just to take on a nominal role, which was better than wandering without a tangled fate.
Upon reaching Baishui Temple, the head of the monk inquired, asking what he knew, how well he understood Buddhist scriptures and Zen philosophy.
What? You don't understand Buddhist scriptures, nor Zen philosophy, how could you live so long without those?
Foolish Eye Monk was speechless.
The fat-headed and big-eared head monk brightened at Foolish Eye Monk's silence.
"Here's the thing, I see you have great potential and look like a high monk. As long as you're willing, I can spruce you up, and in the future, you won't need to speak. Just sit there, nod and shake your head at the inquisitive pilgrims, and they'll naturally put their incense money in the donation box and praise you as a wise high monk with great magical power!"
Isn't this deceit!
Foolish Eye Monk shook his head and hands to say he wasn't that kind of person.
"Then what can you do? Our temple doesn't support idle monks!"
Foolish Eye Monk sighed and simply took out a piece of paper and began folding it.
After folding the paper, the monk said, "I can turn this paper cart into a real cart."
After saying so, Foolish Eye Monk breathed out, and before the head monk, a real carriage appeared in front of him.
This skill is impressive! It's practically magic for making money... a miraculous usage of Buddhist Teachings!
By folding a Buddha statue and blowing on it, the vast amounts of incense money would soon fill the entire hall!
The head monk's eyes lit up, as if about to attain Buddhahood.
Foolish Eye Monk was treated with unprecedented respect, receiving imperial wine whenever desired, and having the temple's servants fetch him meat if he wanted any.
Luckily, Foolish Eye Monk was old and uninterested in female patrons. Otherwise, the head monk might have replaced other monks and requested Foolish Eye Monk fulfill the wishes of female patrons seeking children.
After placating Foolish Eye Monk for about a month, the head monk finally couldn't resist and wanted the wine and meat monk to teach him the paper-to-reality spell.
Foolish Eye shook his head and refused, saying he found it boring at Baishui Temple and planned to leave the Jin Sect for another place to become a monk.
Hearing this, the head monk's face turned black as soot!
I've been treating you like an ancestor for so long, and in the end, you leave nothing behind and want to leave? How can there be such an easy thing in the world!
That night, the head monk added something extra to the newly sent wine. Foolish Eye Monk, addicted to alcohol, upon hearing it was a celestial brew from Drunken Immortal House, forgot everything altogether.
It's just that the wine tasted a bit strange, probably the unique flavor of the celestial brew; it also had an incredible kick!
After only a few sips, his head was spinning, and he was lost.
Clang, the wine jug fell to the ground.
Foolish Eye Monk awoke to find himself locked in a dungeon, unable to move as his chest throbbed with pain, stretching out his hand to check.
It turned out a meat hook had pierced completely through his shoulder blade!
Seeing Foolish Eye Monk awake, the head monk began forcing him to reveal the incantations for the paper-to-reality spell.
"This magic is a necromantic art; learning it will bring bad karma. Look at my eyes, they turned blind from this!"
"Paper figures are meant for whom? The dead! It's the yin energy that animates them; where does a living person get yin energy? I drink and eat because the yin damages my body, and I need grain essence to suppress it..."
The head monk ignored these words, determined to seize the magic.
Seeing reason was useless, Foolish Eye Monk changed tactics.
"If you want to learn, you need paper. Without paper, how can I teach you?"
The head monk fetched paper, and Foolish Eye Monk took it, folding it into a courtyard in front of several senior monks.
A breath of yin fanned it; Foolish Eye Monk's eyes bled black, and the three-foot-by-three-foot courtyard expanded to fill the entire dungeon.
The head monk and several monks were pushed aside by the courtyard, unable to find a way out for a while. Foolish Eye Monk took the chance to forcibly remove the hook from his shoulder, then skillfully opened the courtyard's layered doors until finally emerging outside the dungeon's entrance.
Ignoring the sound of paper tearing in the dungeon, Foolish Eye Monk stumbled along the underground passage, hearing joyous sounds from elsewhere in the dungeon, imagining with distaste the monks' indulgences.
Escaping from Baishui Temple, Foolish Eye Monk felt weaker and weaker. He searched for his wine gourd to drink but found it had disappeared.
At dusk, the fiery red sunset painted the earthen path in Wanshou County.
Foolish Eye Monk lay beneath a large tree, clutching a half-folded paper bird in his hand, devoid of breath.