The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 554 The Flower of Nianliu
The outskirts of Nara are overgrown with weeds.

After hundreds of years of war and famine, the ancient paths in the mountains and forests are now riddled with potholes, filled with mud, and devoid of travelers. The occasional crow flying by is the only visible sign of life in this land.

Walking along the ancient path to its end, you'll see a collapsed mountain gate, its vermilion paint peeling away, revealing the grayish-black base of decaying wood. Stone lanterns lie broken on the ground, and vines climb up the gate and into the temple.

There was no sound or trace of anyone.

The gold paint on the Golden Hall Buddha had decayed and dried up, leaving only a clay statue looking down at the crowd. Spider webs hung down from its half-open eyelids, condensing with dewdrops.

"This is not quite what I expected..."

Lu Wushuang used her soft sword to roll off the spider web on the door and walked into the main hall with her head down.

Li Miao didn't respond for a moment, but stood there with his eyes closed and listened for a while. After frowning, he suddenly raised one hand, clenched it into a fist, and punched the clay Buddha statue hard.

Bang.

With a muffled thud, the clay sculpture initially remained unmoved, but within a few breaths, it cracked open with dense and even fissures like a spider web, gradually collapsing down along the platform.

"Yes, they are indeed quite different."

Li Miao nodded.

He had assumed that Master Jianzhen's body would be sealed in a clay statue like Bodhidharma's, but now it seems that Buddhism's methods may be quite different from those of Shintoism.

"Speaking of which, Master Jianzhen is different from Bodhidharma. He was a figure who had passed through official channels. There must be an official explanation for how his body was preserved, right?"

Li Miao asked.

Lu Wushuang naturally knew who he was asking, so he relayed the question to Nanako.

Nanako actually thought about it for a while and gave an answer.

"The Buddha in this very body, the one who makes offerings in this very life."

"Legend has it that after Master Jianzhen passed away, his body did not decay. It was wrapped in lacquered cloth and placed in the Yuying Hall behind the Golden Hall. Every year on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, a ceremony to open the coffin was held, which lasted for seven days. During this period, the remains of Master Jianzhen were open to worshippers at will. However, this ceremony was later canceled due to war."

Seeing that Li Miao and Lu Wushuang remained noncommittal, she quickly added.

“My father attended a Buddhist ceremony at the imperial shrine when he was a child and saw the remains of Master Jianzhen. His body was damaged, the gold leaf had fallen off, and it had not been repaired for many years.”

Li Miao frowned.

He really didn't want to hear the news that the high monk's body had been desecrated; it would remind him of a certain cheerful yet fussy old monk.

"Where is the Imperial Shadow Hall? Take me there."

Nanako nodded and led Li Miao toward the back of the Golden Hall. Toshodai-ji Temple was not large, and due to years of disrepair, most of it had collapsed. There was no one to repair or clean it, leaving only a few main halls. Therefore, the Miei-do Hall was not hard to find.

After only a short while, Nanako bit her lip and stood next to a decaying ruin.

Li Miao raised his hand, and his protective true energy overturned the entire ruins along with the soil clinging to them, revealing a huge, empty coffin underneath.

"Not here."

Li Miao stepped forward, wiped the coffin, then casually poked it with his finger, rubbed the powdery wood shavings between his fingers, and sneered.

"It seems someone beat them to it. At least six months ago, Master Jianzhen's body was still here, but someone took it away beforehand."

Lu Wushuang tilted her head.

"Emperor Enryaku-ji embezzled?"

Li Miao shook his head.

"It's hard to say. The most likely culprit is Enryakuji Temple, but I have a feeling that someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes... Doesn't the timeframe of six months sound familiar to you?"

Lu Wushuang pondered for a while and then suddenly realized.

"You mean the leader of the Ming Cult?"

"Six months ago, it was precisely the time when Yanli Temple began using Gu worms, and Gu worms are the unique method of Ji Tianrui, the leader of the Ming Cult... Do you suspect that it was Ji Tianrui who took away Master Jianzhen's remains?"

Li Miao nodded but did not reply.

This is still just speculation, and we can't draw any conclusions yet. When facing other opponents, he can ignore everything else and just throw punches at their faces, but against Ji Tianrui, the more aggressively he charges, the more he will fall into her trap. But in any case, since there is no remains of Master Jianzhen at Tangzhaoti Temple, even though he is still seriously injured, he must make a trip to Enryakuji Temple.

As Li Miao frowned in thought, he suddenly heard a shout coming from not far away.

"Who are you!"

Ryota Miyoshi's voice was full of forced composure, but even a stranger could tell that something was wrong with him and that he was wary of the enemy.

Before Lu Wushuang and Nanako could react, Li Miao vanished from the spot with a whoosh.

The back hall of Tang Zhaoti Temple.

Ryota Miyoshi gripped the hilts of the two swords at his waist, his legs bent and straightened, his weight entirely on his hind legs, clearly ready to flee at any moment.

His gaze was fixed on one person.

A person kneeling on the ground.

The man's age was unclear because his entire face was covered by a tangled mass of dirty hair, and even his eyes, which were visible, were hidden behind the hair and were grayish-white.

He was also wearing a monk's robe covered in mud and dirt. Originally, it should have been black and white, but now it looked completely black, which contrasted interestingly with Li Miao's dark black cloak.

He was kneeling on the flat ground in a gap between ruins, his hands digging into the ground, creating a huge pit.

"Not enough, not enough."

After he finished digging one hole, he seemed unsatisfied. He crawled a few steps on his knees to the flat ground to the side and started digging another hole with his hands.

Ryota Miyoshi sheathed his sword and smiled apologetically at Li Miao.

"I'm sorry... I thought he was from Enryaku-ji Temple because he was wearing a monk's robe, so I called out to him. I'm sorry to have troubled you to come all this way."

"I'll kick him out right now."

Having said that, he drew his knife and was about to chase after the man, but before he could take a step, he suddenly saw Li Miao raise a hand and stop him.

"Don't you see?"

Li Miao asked.

"……what?"

Ryota Miyoshi asked in confusion, he didn't understand.

Li Miao could only point to the madman's hand, and then to the grave mounds on the ground.

Following Li Miao's gaze, Miyoshi Ryota immediately noticed something amiss. The calluses on this madman's hands were extremely thick, clearly from practicing swordsmanship, suggesting that his swordsmanship was likely far superior to Miyoshi Ryota's.

Listening to the rhythm of his breathing, Ryota Miyoshi's eyes widened in shock.

He darted to the side of a grave mound that a madman had buried, drew his knife and slashed wildly, clearing away the dust before pulling out a wooden plaque from the bottom of the pit.

There were words written on the wooden sign.

“The 27th generation successor of Nianliu is Ma Gongping.”

Suddenly, Miyoshi Ryota seemed to understand something, and he split open several more grave mounds, taking out wooden plaques from them.

“The 21st generation successor of Nianliu is Kinji Arima.”

“The 13th generation successor of the Nenryu school is Arima Jinta.”

He recited several times, then slowly raised his head and looked at the madman who was muttering incantations and relentlessly digging a grave.

This is the person he's really looking for.

True original swordsmanship, a successor of the Nen-ryu school.

A madman.

(End of this chapter)