The young girl watched in utter bewilderment as Wei Yuan set up the cylinder like tinkering with machinery, having no idea what he was doing.
Just as he finished the preparations, the wolf demons reached the entrance.
With a bang, a flying sword shot from the cylinder, skewering three wolf demons. It was just a pity that in order to pack in more flying swords, this batch of White Silk flying swords had all been made without crossguards; otherwise, they could have dragged the wolf demons backward through the air or torn open even larger wounds.
Indeed, true knowledge came from actual combat. After firing a single shot, Wei Yuan already had ideas on how to improve it later.
The wolf demons were remarkably agile and utterly fearless in the face of death, charging forward wave after wave and forcing Wei Yuan to continuously channel Dao power.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
A relentless roar echoed over the village as volley after volley of flying swords swept through like a violent tempest, cutting the wolf demons down in swaths. In the blink of an eye, the flying swords in the cylinder were exhausted, and outside, not a single wolf demon remained standing.
For the first time, Wei Yuan gained an intuitive appreciation of what sustained firepower meant.
"We have to go!" Wei Yuan grabbed the young girl, hoisted her onto his shoulder, and fled out the back door. She struggled incessantly, demanding that Wei Yuan put her down and insisting she could walk on her own. But a prompt smack to her rear quickly made her behave.
Stepping out of the house, Wei Yuan looked up at the sky and saw that door once more. It now stood in the direction of the back mountain, still tightly shut, and was beginning to emanate an unfathomable aura.
More golden light had appeared across the sky, giving Wei Yuan an increasingly ominous foreboding.
After careful thought, Wei Yuan decided to trust his instincts and ran toward the back mountain.
Before the small temple, Moon Sage looked at the silent, motionless Lianxin, seemingly in high spirits. "At the end of the Great Dharma, how can you alone stem the collapse of the entire world? So long as a breach is opened in your Untainted Golden Body, I can shatter it completely. You could call me treacherous and despicable, but to put it in Buddhist terms, how do you know it isn't your Untainted Golden Body that has fallen out of its time and is destined to be destroyed?
"Just as slow sheep are eaten by wolves, and slow wolves starve to death, all things in this world operate on survival of the fittest. This Untainted Golden Body of yours is obsolete!"
The monk remained unmoved.
Moon Sage smiled faintly. "I knew you wouldn't accept it. No matter, we have plenty of time. Little by little."
By now, the wolf demons under his command had dispersed in all directions to round up the villagers. The villagers had finally learned fear; a dozen or so had fled, but most still stood where they were in dazed stupor, pinning their hopes on the Master.
With an order from Moon Sage, a warrior dragged out a woman, drew his saber, and swung! The woman shrieked in terror and went limp on the ground. However, a flash of golden light immediately rippled across her body, deflecting the blade.
As her fright subsided, the woman's temper flared. Pointing straight at Moon Sage's nose, she began to curse foully, spewing things like white wolves being a degenerate species, Moon Sage being a son of a bitch, and so on.
Moon Sage's hand had already gripped the hilt of his saber, but he forced his fingers open one by one.
He turned his head toward Lianxin and said, "These people you protect may be crude and uncultured, but when they curse someone, they strike right at the Buddha-mind—far more effective than your lectures on the scriptures. Once you reincarnate, you truly ought to learn a thing or two from them."
The monk did not say a word.
Moon Sage beckoned with his hand. A wolf demon hauled the woman up and slapped her across the face, knocking out several of her teeth! Writhing in pain and stunned dumb, she didn't even dare to scream anymore.
The rest of the villagers were dumbfounded as well. Crying out in panic, they tried to flee, only to discover that wolf demons surrounded them on all sides.
Moon Sage hauled Sankui and his wife over, dropping them in the center of the square before the temple. Looking at Sankui with great amusement, he asked, "You want to be the village chief?"
Sankui's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard with difficulty. "...I do. I've wanted it for a long time."
"Why do you want to be the village chief?"
"If I'm the village chief, everyone has to listen to me! I can curse whoever I want, beat whoever I want. Everyone who sees me has to greet me, and if they're too slow or not respectful enough, I'll beat them! Uh, no, what if they curse me in their hearts? The moment I see anyone secretly cursing me, I'll beat them too!"
Sankui hesitated at first, but his words came faster and faster; clearly, he had harbored these thoughts for a very long time.
A faint smile surfaced at the corner of Moon Sage's mouth. "Then how will you know whether they're cursing you in their hearts?"
Sankui froze. That question indeed stumped him. But an instant later, he had an answer: "I'll look at their eyes! If their eyes look off, they're definitely cursing me."
"Some people are very good at acting, very good at disguising it. You might not be able to tell. What then?"
Sankui scratched his head, and a vicious look crept onto his face. "Then I'll just find an excuse to beat everyone every once in a while. That way, no one slips through!"
Moon Sage's smile widened as he coaxed him on. "Then you'd surely beat some people by mistake!"
Sankui said ruthlessly, "I'm the village chief! So what if I beat the wrong person? Even if I'm wrong, they still have to take it!"
Moon Sage laughed heartily. "How very reasonable! You are born to be this village chief! But even if you become the chief, it won't be your turn to give the orders in this village."
Ferocity flashed in Sankui's eyes. "Who would dare? No one in this village can beat me in a fight!"
Moon Sage did not argue. He simply pointed at the burly woman. "Her."
Sankui instinctively shrank back.
"In a fight, you could take two of her with one hand. In an argument, aside from having a loud voice and talking fast, she can't actually out-reason you. Why are you afraid of her?"
Sankui stammered, unable to speak.
Moon Sage continued, "You're already the village chief; can't you get a new wife? I think that one over there is pretty good."
Moon Sage pointed at a woman in the village. She was only in her early twenties, at the age of ripe full bloom, reasonably attractive with an alluring charm in her brows and eyes. Her plump, voluptuous figure wrapped in cloth was the object of desire for many men in the village. The former village chief had often disciplined her, his cane constantly striking her thighs and buttocks.
Sankui's eyes lit up. "Can I really be the village chief?"
"If I say you are, then you are! But if you want a new wife, you have to kill your current one."
The burly woman shrieked, "You spineless, unballed coward, you dare?!"
Sankui suddenly said, "If I'm getting a new wife, I want Xiaoru! The one who ran away!"
Moon Sage chuckled. "What grand ambitions! Done."
Sankui gripped his hunting knife tightly, gritted his teeth, and added, "Can I have this woman too?"
"A man can have three wives and four concubines. Of course you can!"
A look of sheer ruthlessness flashed across Sankui's face. His hunting knife swung up and plunged down; blood sprayed everywhere. He swung and struck again, hacking twice more even after the burly woman had stopped breathing.
He wiped the blood splattered on his face and snarled at the corpse, "I've endured you for a long, long time!"
With a sharp crack, another fissure split across the Buddha statue, and even more water seeped from within.
Moon Sage stepped before the monk and said, "Watch closely. You guided their cultivation for several thousand years, yet shattering your golden body takes me merely the blink of an eye."
He turned to the remaining villagers and said, "Now you have a village chief, which means you have one less chance to survive. So from now on, listen carefully to what I say and think on it thoroughly; only then might you live."
Moon Sage then ordered, "Break everyone's left leg."
The wolf demons acted immediately, and agonizing screams instantly filled the air before the temple.
Only then did Moon Sage ask, "Who among you still believes in the monk, wholeheartedly turns toward the Buddha, and is willing to share in the tribulations of Samsara with him?"
This time, only three people shakily raised their hands.
Moon Sage spoke again: "Break everyone's right leg. But whoever kills these three can keep their right leg!"
Watching the wolf demons close in, the villagers suddenly gave a roar and threw themselves onto those three people. In an instant, blood soaked the ground.
A dozen or so villagers had rushed forward, and they quickly fell into arguing and brawling over who had actually struck the fatal blows.
Moon Sage was thoroughly pleased and laughed boisterously. "No need to argue—you can all keep your right legs! Haha, hahaha!"
The fissures on the Buddha statue multiplied and widened, and faint wisps of black qi began to emerge from the golden body.
Moon Sage patted Sankui on the shoulder and said, "Didn't you want to know who is cursing you in their hearts? In fact, that's easy. The monk has a mind art. So long as he teaches it to you, you will know what everyone else is thinking."
Sankui was both surprised and overjoyed. "There really is such a method?"
The monk sighed and finally spoke. "If I pass this technique to you, this place will turn into a living purgatory."
Sankui was instantly infuriated and cursed, "So you really know it, yet you refuse to teach me? It's just teaching me a method—how would this place turn into a purgatory? Nothing but a bunch of bullcrap! You thieving bald donkey, eating so many of my offerings, aren't you afraid your guts will rot right through?!"
Chapter 265