Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Jiang Yining looked at him for a while, and the mockery in her eyes slowly faded.

"So you didn't even have the chance to be tied down before you learned to let go."

"It's not that I put it down, it's that I never picked it up in the first place."

"Then let me ask you my second question."

Jiang Yining took a step forward, getting less than two feet away from him.

"If you have a child someday, will you be able to let go of it?"

Fan Chenxin's breath caught in his throat.

"This humble monk cultivates the path of ruthlessness and will not have offspring."

I didn't ask if you knew how, I asked if you could do it.

The night wind rustled the leaves of the Bodhi tree, and the cool fragrance of Jiang Yining mixed with the scent of medicine wafted into his nose.

"If one can even let go of one's own body and flesh, then who exactly is the Buddha, who has severed all emotions and desires, protecting?"

Fan Chenxin opened his mouth, but his logic, which had always been effective in debating scriptures, was completely useless at this moment.

He wanted to say "protect all living beings," but when those three words reached his lips, they sounded so weak that even he himself couldn't believe them.

"Whom were they protecting?"

Jiang Yining asked again, this time in a softer voice.

"This humble monk..."

The medicine pot made a gurgling sound, and the medicine overflowed and dripped down the side of the pot.

Jiang Yining turned away from him, picked up the earthenware pot and poured the medicine into the bowl. The dark liquid flowed into the white porcelain bowl, filling it to about eight-tenths full.

She turned around, holding the bowl, and handed it to Fan Chenxin.

"The Five Treasures medicine needs the Buddha's light to neutralize its cold nature. I would be grateful if you could help me, Master."

Fan Chenxin looked at the bowl as if it were an unsolvable puzzle.

"The benefactor knows that this humble monk was just now mentally unstable, yet he still asked this humble monk to perform a blessing."

"If your mind is unsteady, your hands will be steady. Doesn't Buddhism emphasize the emptiness of the four elements? It's just a bowl of medicine, what is the master afraid of?"

Fan Chenxin stood up from the ground, took the medicine bowl, and focused pure Buddhist light on the rim of the bowl with his fingertips.

The night wind suddenly picked up, and the leaves of the Bodhi tree were blown down like a golden rain.

A wisp of hair, blown by the wind, slipped down from Jiang Yining's temple and touched the corner of her lips.

She reached out to flick it.

Fan Chenxin's other hand had already moved first.

His fingers, as if guided by some unseen force, reached out and gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

His fingertips brushed against the soft skin of her earlobe, as if something was burning from his fingertips all the way to his heart.

Their hands froze in mid-air, both of them frozen in place.

Fan Chenxin looked at her fingers, which were dangling in mid-air; her hand was trembling.

The Buddha's light in the bowl dissipated, and a golden ripple spread across the surface of the medicinal liquid before slowly subsiding.

"Amitabha."

The four words came out of his mouth in a fragmented manner, and even he himself couldn't tell whether he was chanting or begging for mercy.

Fan Chenxin withdrew her hand and took two steps back, her face as white as paper.

Jiang Yining lifted her eyelids to observe the man's interesting reaction, then quickly took the medicine bowl, turned around, walked to the bedside, and helped Wu Bao sit up against her chest.

The medicine bowl was brought to Wu Bao's lips. The little girl, still half asleep, took a sip, wrinkled her nose, and obediently swallowed it.

"Sweetie, you won't feel uncomfortable after you drink it."

Jiang Yining used a handkerchief to wipe the medicine stains from the corner of Wu Bao's mouth.

After drinking the medicine, Wu Bao shrank back into the blanket, her little face slowly turning rosy, and her breathing becoming long and even.

The illusory fox tail swayed gently twice in the blanket and then settled down.

In the corner, Fan Chenxin leaned against the trunk of a Bodhi tree, his knuckles white from gripping the rosary in his hand.

His pale monk's robe fluttered in the night wind, and he seemed to have been drained of everything. His gaze fell on his right hand, which he had just extended, and the fleeting warmth of the touch lingered in his palm.

"What happened just now, Master?"

Jiang Yining slowly turned around, deliberately revealing, "Your hands are shaking."

Fan Chenxin withdrew her hand, her five fingers clenching into her sleeve, the fabric twisting into deep creases between her fingers.

"This humble monk takes his leave."

As he turned around in his white monk's robe, he tripped over a Bodhi tree root, staggered half a step, and bumped his shoulder against the door frame of the courtyard gate before regaining his balance. He walked away without looking back.

The footsteps faded into the distance, the door to the side hall closed, and the sound of the wooden fish remained silent.

"Mommy, why is Uncle Baldy running away?"

Wu Bao woke up at some point, rubbing his eyes with his little hands and peeking his head out from under the blanket, his illusory fox tail still swaying gently.

"He did something wrong and he feels guilty."

"What did you do wrong?"

"It's an adult matter, finish your medicine."

Wu Bao obediently drank the remaining medicine at the bottom of the bowl, then wrinkled his nose and shrank back under the blanket.

The lamp in the side hall stayed on all night, but not a single wooden fish was struck.

The following evening, Jiang Yining set up her small red clay stove under the Bodhi tree as usual.

Wu Bao was in much better spirits. He sat on the veranda, leaning against a soft pillow, counting ants. Occasionally, his illusory fox tail would sweep across the ground, stirring up fallen leaves.

She counted seven, but the eighth one was blown away by the wind. She chased after it for a couple of steps but couldn't catch it, so she pouted and went back to the porch.

Just as the medicine pot began to steam, the door to the side hall opened.

Fan Chenxin changed into a new moon-white monk's robe, and the Bodhi prayer beads on her wrist were also newly worn, each bead round and gleaming with a faint Buddhist light.

The cinnabar mole between her eyebrows was a bit darker than yesterday, and the dark circles under her eyes couldn't be hidden.

He walked to the Bodhi tree and stopped opposite Jiang Yining.

"donor."

"Didn't you sleep last night, Master?"

Jiang Yining didn't look up; she continued fanning herself with the palm-leaf fan.

"You didn't sleep well either."

Jiang Yining hadn't expected the other person to be so observant: "Wu Bao felt unwell again in the middle of the night and tossed and turned for a while."

Fan Chenxin's gaze fell on the hand holding the palm-leaf fan, the fingertips of which were paler than yesterday.

"You have been protecting the five treasures' souls with chaotic life force for days, which has damaged your own meridians."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yining's fingers curled slightly: "There's no other way for the sake of the child. My injuries can heal slowly, but she can't wait."

"This humble monk wishes to help you regulate your meridians."

When Fan Chenxin said this, her thumb was pressed on the prayer beads, and she looked a little nervous.

Although he didn't know why he was nervous about doing a good deed this time.

"If you collapse, the child's baptism will be left unattended, and the treatment will be prolonged."

Jiang Yining raised her eyes, her purple-gold pupils reflecting the furnace fire.

"Why is the master so willing to heal me this time? He wouldn't let us in before."

"Compassion and healing the sick are the inherent duties of the Buddhist community."

"OK."

Jiang Yining raised an eyebrow, placed the palm-leaf fan on her lap, and stretched out her left wrist, which looked particularly slender in the firelight.

"Thank you for your help, Master."

Fan Chenxin sat cross-legged opposite her, raised her right hand, and hovered her fingertips above her wrist pulse. Golden Buddhist light seeped from her fingertips and fell on a thin veil.

"Your meridians have three hidden injuries. This humble monk will use Buddha's light to clear them, which will cause soreness and distension."

"Master, please proceed with your actions."

The Buddha's light traveled upwards along the wrist veins, smoothing out the hidden injuries left in the meridians layer by layer.

Fan Chenxin lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on the pale skin on the woman's wrist, where the golden light of Buddha's light rippled slightly at the pulse point.

Jiang Yining leaned against the Bodhi tree trunk, turned her head to look at the Five Treasures under the corridor. The little girl was leading the seventh ant to the direction where the eighth ant had gone missing, muttering something under her breath.

"Benefactor, the meridians here are deeply blocked, and this humble monk needs to intensify the Buddha's light."

"Um."

The Buddha's light deepened, and Fan Chenxin's fingertips moved down slightly, almost touching her wrist pulse.

"Master, you are such a kind person."

Jiang Yining looked at the Buddhist monk with his head bowed, his handsome features were truly exquisite, and she couldn't help but want to tease him with some flirtatious words.

Fan Chenxin frowned slightly, about to speak, when her hand stopped.

A chilling, sharp aura swept past outside the courtyard wall, disappearing in an instant.

"Who is it?"