Chapter 1606 What Crime Has Been Committed?

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng took a breath, "So Master Huicong is really going to become a Buddha?"

After saying these words, Jiang Cheng was stunned for a moment, and then a strong uneasiness surged in his heart. He would rather Huicong was a ghost than face a Buddha who would kill innocent babies.

After a while, Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and tried his best to calm down. After all, his worries must be based on one premise, that is, everything the abbot said in the darkness in front of him was true.

The abbot rarely answered Jiang Cheng's question, but chanted a Buddhist chant, "Amitabha, donor, are you willing to listen to the poor monk continue to speak?"

We’ve already come, wouldn’t it be a big loss to leave now? Jiang Cheng pretended to be calm and said, “Master, please speak.”

As if he had thought of something, the abbot sighed dullly, "At dawn, not long after the senior brother said these words, Huicong came. He clasped his hands and walked out from behind the Buddha statue in the Buddhist hall. No one saw him. When he hid inside, the monks guarding him outside didn’t notice at all.”

"I've seen all the masters, uncles, masters, and disciples here."

"Although I was shocked by my senior brother's words at the time, when I thought about the evil things my disciple had committed, I was so angry that I trembled all over. I asked him to accuse him of all the wrong things he had committed.

"Unexpectedly, Huicong looked at me calmly, clasped his hands and asked: Master, my disciple is doing good deeds, what is wrong with me?"

"I was stunned. I don't know how he dared to say such a thing in front of the Buddha in the temple."

Suddenly, Jiang Cheng was keenly aware that the abbot's tone had changed. His voice was trembling, as if he was in extreme fear, "And Hui Cong's eyes. His eyes changed. They became so compassionate and harmonious. The same look as the Buddha statue in the temple!”

"He is pitying us, pitying us old monks who have nothing but an old skin!"

"Master, don't get excited, speak slowly, speak slowly"

Jiang Cheng was frightened that the abbot suddenly became like this. He was worried that if the abbot could not take a breath, his visit today would be in vain.

After the violent breathing, the abbot slowly calmed down, "I was shocked at the time. Fortunately, one of my junior brothers was the first to speak. The junior brother stretched out his hand to make a petition. Then he cleared his mind and eyesight and sat on the futon in lotus position. He asked Huicong why he broke the sexual precept."

Jiang Cheng probably had an image of that time in his mind, sitting in lotus position, also known as "Vajrasana". Because the Buddha often used this posture during meditation, it was also called "meditation sitting". The abbot was inviting Huicong to sit and debate scriptures.

Due to the difference in status and generation between the two, the junior abbot may be suspected of bullying the younger, but this also reflects the importance these eminent monks attach to Huicong.

"Huicong is sitting in meditation like this, raising his head calmly and calmly: A few months ago, more than a dozen village women were hung from a beam outside the temple gate, and their bodies were not found after they died. Did my uncle know about this?"

"In the dozens of nearby villages, how many village women hang themselves from the rafters and drown themselves in the river every year because of the name of the Stone Girl? Has Uncle Master ever paid any attention to it?"

"It has only been a few months since I came down from the mountain. Master, have you ever heard of such heart-cutting happenings?"

"Bold fallacy, how can you be allowed to speak arrogantly in front of the Buddha's golden body!" The abbot imitated the tone of his junior brother and sternly reprimanded, "We in the Buddhist sect are supposed to be enlightened and enlightened, but you are greedy for worldly things and indulge in lust and evil! "

"Amitabha, who has no sign of self, no sign of anyone, no sign of sentient beings, and no sign of longevity, can pass through the world with no more than pink skulls and white bones and flesh. Disciples sacrificed their own bodies to cross over a hundred stone girls to save their lives, complete their families, and benefit them. In the village, the stone girl is happy, the villagers are happy, and dozens of villages are also happy, so why is the disciple guilty?"

"Disciple, I don't understand why all living beings are happy but only my uncle is not happy?"

"Uncle thinks that the disciple is greedy for the world of mortals and is sad about love. Don't you know that the reason for the sadness in love in the eyes of the uncle is that the world of mortals is unclean? Seeing the world of mortals is also the world of mortals. Disciple is not the same. The beauty of the world of mortals is nothing more than a handful of loess. He spends his time with a ruthless body. When there is a lover, the disciple does not feel guilty, only feels happy!”

"Sophistry! How do you explain drinking and having fun?"

"The alcohol precept is a covering precept, not a sexual precept. Drinking alcohol itself is not wrong. What the Buddha is really worried about is that excessive drinking and losing one's original mind will cause other mistakes and violate other precepts, such as starting fights, clouding wisdom, and concealing all words. Or he may indulge in lust and alienate the virtuous, but has Uncle Master ever seen his disciple become drunk and lose his temper?”

"Okay, what a sharp tongue! Then let me ask you again, why did you slaughter the villagers, and even...even the infant babies were not spared?"

Having said this, the abbot paused for a moment, and then the voice of the wise monk he was imitating also changed, becoming extremely cold and hard, "Amitabha, because they have sinned, a big sin!"

"Nonsense! Forget about the rest of the villagers. Let me ask you, we have already investigated the old woman in Anding Village who was murdered by you. Her real name is Xue Yinhua. She is now in her seventies. She has accumulated virtues and done good deeds throughout her life and is praised by people from all over the country. Such a good person, what crime is she guilty of?”

The abbot's next words sent a chill down Jiang Cheng's body, "Xue Yinhua is not guilty now, but she was guilty three years later!"

"In the 6th year of Emperor Dezong's reign, General Ye Ling, the border guard general, was poisoned by Nanman Xizao. He died of poisoning in his mansion. The Nanman army entered the country and the border was lost."

"Our army was defeated like a mountain collapsing, and the Nanman army was like an empty land. The thousands of miles of rivers and mountains fell into the hands of the enemy. A Nanman vanguard attacked the vicinity of Anding Village. The villagers of Anding Village had already fled to the mountains with their families a few days ago, but Xue Yinhua was reluctant to leave her own bundles of cloth, so she sneaked down the mountain and returned to the village when no one was paying attention. Unfortunately, she was discovered by the Nanman secret sentry. The secret sentry did not alarm Xue Yinhua and followed her all the way back to the mountain, marking the way along the way. That night, a large number of Nanman troops came and killed all the male villagers. Their heads were hung under the saddles. As military merits, young women were tied to the backs of horses and taken back to the camp. More than 300 men, women, and children in the village were not spared."

" You… are you telling the truth? You can see three years later? So that baby is also…”

“Song Zixian, the son of Song Shenggen of Luofeng Village. Song Shenggen had a son in his old age, and the whole family doted on him. Song Zixian was born with bad character. He was rampant in the village when he was young. He insulted his mother at the age of fourteen and killed his father at the age of sixteen. After that, he fled to Shepan Mountain and became a bandit. ”

“In the twenty-first year of Emperor Dezong’s reign, Song Zixian led a group of bandits to attack Luofeng Village at night as an insider. Except for a few people who went to a neighboring village for a banquet and did not return that night, all the men in the village were killed and their bodies were hung under the door beams. All the women were kidnapped. Some were taken back to the mountain village, and the other part was sold to brothels. Among them was his own sister.”