How come the celestial technique I stole is so powerful?!-Chapter 170: Wuxiang Temple

"Flattery, flattery, Little Hu, you’re too modest. You can go from being complete strangers with a female tourist to having a deep conversation about life in just the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea. You don’t need to learn from anyone," Lin Xiaosu said.

"Half a cup of tea is not my best record, and it’s not worth showing off. Plus, stop calling me Little Hu, I’m older than you, call me ’Brother Buddha,’" he replied.

"Brother Buddha? Or Brother Hu?" Lin Xiaosu wasn’t quite sure she heard correctly.

"Brother Buddha, my name is Hu Fu!" Little Hu said, "As my name suggests, I radiate the glow of Buddha-nature from within, you should be able to feel it."

Lin Xiaosu looked at Dawa in a daze: "Can you feel his Buddha-nature?"

Dawa shook her head...

If she hadn’t been polite, she could have dismissed it with a direct and singular truth with one word: Bullshit!

But she was a lady, so she didn’t say a word.

Hu Fu looked around, then opened that ancient sheepskin bag: "Let’s have a few drinks, after enough drinks you might be able to see it..."

"Even if I drink until my head feels twice its size, I definitely won’t see any connection between you and Buddha..."

"Buddha said: follow your natural instincts, it’s the ultimate truth of heaven and earth," Hu Fu proclaimed.

"Which Buddha said that?" Lin Xiaosu asked.

Hu Fu pointed at his own nose: "I did, my name is Hu Fu!"

Damn!

Suddenly, the glass door was pushed open, and a gracefully charming woman walked out, she was the conventional beauty in the team, Li Sisi.

Li Sisi came to their table and grabbed the wine pot that Hu Fu had opened: "No drinking!"

"Really?" Hu Fu’s eyes widened in disbelief. "You’re telling me not to drink?"

Lin Xiaosu and Dawa were also surprised.

In the ordinary world, girlfriends forbidding their boyfriends from drinking is nothing unusual.

But Li Sisi, facing Hu Fu’s bad intentions, hadn’t she always been dismissive?

Now she stands up, stopping him from drinking...

Li Sisi said: "The professor said that we have to go to Wuxiang Temple early tomorrow morning to ask for peace incense. If you drink and get drunk, you’ll reek of alcohol the next day. How can you enter the temple to ask for incense then?"

Hu Fu said: "I’ve already talked to the professor, with me here, bathed in the glow of Buddha-nature, do we still need to ask for peace incense?"

Li Sisi stared coldly at him: "If you insist on drinking, if you go out philandering tonight, the professor was very clear, you can just get lost. And just so you know, as a guide, you’re not irreplaceable. The new member we just brought into the team, little Su here, might be more suitable for the guide duty than you."

Hu Fu raised his hand and smacked his forehead, then tightened up the bag...

Li Sisi turned and went back to her room.

Hu Fu glanced at the glass door and then turned his gaze to Lin Xiaosu: "What does she mean by not wanting me to go philandering tonight?"

Lin Xiaosu curled her lips: "My judgment might be a little different from the blueprint you’ve sketched in your heart."

"What do you mean?"

Lin Xiaosu said: "She probably didn’t stop you because she’s into you, and doesn’t want you to have your flings while traveling. She’s simply concerned that if you spend a night fooling around, you’ll carry the scent of the mortal world on you, and it would be disrespectful to enter the temple."

"Hmm!" a voice came from the side.

Lin Xiaosu and Hu Fu turned to see the previously invisible Dawa.

For the first time, she took the initiative to speak, answering Lin Xiaosu’s judgment with a classic, concise one-word response.

Because in her heart, she really looked down on Hu Fu.

The guy’s head was filled with thoughts of wine, women, and wealth. Li Sisi forbade him from philandering at night, and he had already cooked up a blueprint in his mind, thinking it was Li Sisi’s special constraint on him...

Lin Xiaosu’s words brought him back to reality...

You drink tonight, tomorrow your body will reek of alcohol.

If you consort with prostitutes tonight, you will carry the stench of filth as well.

Neither is appropriate for entering a temple.

Without entering the temple, you can’t ask for incense.

Why must you absolutely ask for that peace incense?

Comforting oneself mentally is only secondary.

The real reason is that the incense is actually effective.

Miyan Road is teeming with poisonous snakes; they are hard to guard against. The peace incense from Wuxiang Temple contains the bone powder of Kunlun Divine Eagle, which is the nemesis of mountain snakes. If they sense its presence, they dare not move rashly.

Therefore, this peace incense is not just a spiritual consolation from Buddhism, but an essential item for mountain expedition.

All of this, Lin Xiaosu had found from the documentation.

If you’re willing to search along the Miyan Road, and search appropriately, and have enough sources of information, you can always find some.

Regarding this ancient temple, Lin Xiaosu had also found a heap of information.

Looking at the name, Wuxiang Temple is a standard Han temple. Tibetan temples usually don’t have such names, and Tibetan Buddha is quite different from Han Buddha.

Tibetan Buddha, which holds nature in high esteem and even has ’dual cultivation’ of joyous Buddha, clearly has fewer restrictions, but Han temples are standard in forbidding alcohol and sex.

Wuxiang Temple is a Han Buddha temple.

You have to follow the rules of Han Buddha.

Even if it’s built at the foot of Kunlun Mountain...

That night.

Hu Fu shared a room with Lin Xiaosu.

Hu Fu kept checking his phone, then his sheepskin bag, betraying the wild monkeys in his heart.

Lin Xiaosu was watching short videos and paid no attention to him.

Hu Fu seemed to make a great resolution and deleted that contact he had just added on his phone...

After deleting it, he stopped obsessing.

Lin Xiaosu caught this from the corner of her eye and a smile formed on her lips: "Is your name really ’Fu’?"

"Yeah."

"You really are a contrast to your name, aren’t you?"

Hu Fu replied, "You’re just a common mortal; you can’t see through the true essence of Buddha. That’s why you have such doubts."

"Oh? Care to explain the deep meaning behind your name?" Lin Xiaosu became interested...

Hu Fu talked about it...

Indeed, it was profound, going back all the way to his infancy... freeweɓnøvel~com

His dad was a Han person who committed a crime in the Han Land and fled to Tibet, where he relentlessly pursued a Tibetan girl. Unable to resist his advances, she became his mother.

When he was born, the Tibetan girl continued the ancient custom of Tibet and wrapped him in a piece of sheepskin felt, leaving him by the Sang River. Note: In this bizarre tradition, a newborn is supposed to receive blessings from Eternal Heaven. How to test for it? Simple! Leave the newborn by the river to spend a night alone. If the child freezes to death or gets eaten by wild beasts, it’s clear they weren’t blessed. If the child is still alive the next day at dawn, very good, they’ve received the blessings of Eternal Heaven and can be raised with peace of mind.

He received the blessings of Eternal Heaven and survived.

This was quite normal for the area.

But his dad almost had a heart attack when he learned what his mom had done.

The next day, when his dad found him, he knelt down and named him Hu Fu.

From that day on, this man, who had committed grave sins in the Han Land and had never had an ounce of Buddhism in his heart, began to believe in Buddha...

Such was a rare tale through the ages.

Therefore, the ’Buddha’ in Hu Fu’s name has been different from the start.

It carried the compassion of Han Buddha, the freedom of Tibetan Buddha, and his dad’s utterly unthinkable change in character...

To put it briefly, in a word, Hu Fu’s Buddha is capable of anything; with Buddha in the heart, there shines the Buddha light...

After hearing his story, Lin Xiaosu glanced at him sidelong: "So this is your reason for seducing female tourists on your travels?"

"Yeah, they journey alone, along the long roads, their souls lonely, their bodies empty. I, as a compassionate Buddha, provide comfort. Who’s to say it’s not a great act of love and celestial light?"

F*ck me!!

Lin Xiaosu just went to sleep...

The next day was clear and sunny.

The group left the hotel, walked down the clean and orderly streets of Huixian Town, and made their way to Wuxiang Temple.

Wuxiang Temple was on the northwest slope of the town.

Built along the mountainside.

Atop the slope, beneath an ancient Bodhi Tree, was the temple gate.

The temple’s sign was Wuxiang Temple, written in standard Chinese characters, round and gentle, with an antique charm.

What was different from the usual temples was an additional line of Tibetan script underneath, as a nod to the locals.

Stepping inside, one saw the usual sights of a Han Land Buddhist temple.

Blue stone paved the way, leading to temple buildings.

The temple buildings exposed only a small section to the sunlight; the deeper parts extended into the mountain itself.

The Buddhist statues were carved out of the mountain’s rock right where they stood, less three-dimensional than typical statues, adding seven parts of mystery.

Rather than calling them statues, it would be more accurate to say they are carvings of Buddha.

The Buddhas were very ancient, and this kind of age could not be faked because small trees were growing from the statues’ bellies and grass was sprouting from the seams of their robes.

An old monk sat cross-legged in front of the largest Buddha.

A novice monk was hitting the wooden fish.

The old monk was very authentically old, and the novice monk very authentically young.

With a tiny shaven head, tiny hands, bright, sparkling eyes, and a protruding belly.

He looked to be about twelve or thirteen.

"Amitabha!" With that holy chant, a ruddy-faced monk entered. The monk faced Lin Xiaosu and his group, pressing his palms together: "Honorable benefactors, what do you seek?"

"We seek to obtain incense for a safe mountain journey," Professor Yin also joined his hands in return.

"Procuring peace incense is not easy; a small donation of incense oil to worship the Buddha is necessary," said the ruddy-faced monk. "That’ll be 980 each!"

"Can we pay by scanning?" Li Sisi eyed a QR code in front of her.

"All paths lead to the Buddhist gates; of course, you can!"

Beep!

A electronic chime sounded within the temple hall: "Payment of 4900 yuan."

This electronic sound seemed especially lingering as it echoed through the temple.

Lin Xiaosu suddenly felt like she was ordering in a worldly diner instead of a temple and exchanged a look with Hu Fu; both pulled out their phones and scanned the code simultaneously.

Li Sisi only scanned for five people; the two of them, they’d take care of themselves.

After scanning, theoretically, they should be able to straightforwardly collect the incense.

But temple rules still had to be followed; one must bow...

Aligning with the principle of ’When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, Lin Xiaosu swiftly paid her respects.

Hu Fu, cursing under his breath, Lin Xiaosu, standing close, heard him clear as day - the gist was that if you’re going to do business, just do business, not drag along a bunch of damned ceremonial nonsense...

The monks certainly heard him too, but they chose to ignore it.

Lin Xiaosu glanced over the Buddha reliefs and still asked a question, "Master, these statues half emerging from the mountainside, is there a particular reason?"

"Amitabha! Half in Empty Gate, half in the world, in each leaf, in each branch, Bodhi is witnessed." The ruddy-faced Master Hong Guang, now further flushed with the assemblance of nearly seven thousand yuan, chanted with even louder fervor.

"Isn’t it just to save money?"

The words came from Hu Fu’s mouth.

This kid’s remark shattered the mystical Buddhist realm that Master Hong Guang had crafted.

Even if the comment was very objective, it was hardly appropriate for the moment.

"Cough!" Professor Yin intervened, "Master just mentioned Bodhi; do you know about the temple’s ’Bodhi Beyond’?"

Now we were getting to the heart of the matter.

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