Esoteric Buddhism: To live as king in America

"In my name, I appoint you as a craftsman. May you transform ordinary iron into sharp tools and turn decay into wonder... Well, that's about it. Now, accept this card."

In a makeshift room at a cheap motel, Shirley knelt on the floor, letting Mian place the comical card on his shoulder.

Then, in Mian's vision, bursts of white light emerged from the card and attached themselves to Sherry. At this moment, he could see more clearly, and even make out the faint image of a craftsman with a large beard, dressed in work clothes, looking exhausted, and distinctly different from Sherry, but still lifelike, within the white light.

Enveloped in white light, the bearded craftsman's figure gradually merged with Sherry's, and finally disappeared completely after they were completely merged into one.

Shirley, who had been kneeling, suddenly bristled and opened his eyes wide. He stood up, pulled down his sleeve, and revealed that his already strong arms had become even larger.

"Oh God. I feel like I'm strong enough to take on two cows."

Mian, meanwhile, scrutinized his muscular physique with great interest. She was only thinking that this profession was causing such physical changes—it was the first time she'd ever experienced this.

Previously, whether it was Ain or Leo, even after being granted a professional title, their bodies and appearances looked no different from before.

Is it because Sulli was a better fit for the role than the other two?

If that's the case, wouldn't it be more appropriate to bestow the title of magician on the remaining magician as someone who already possesses esoteric magic?

Mian stroked the last remaining magician card in her hand, thinking to herself.

"So, do you now have some strange new knowledge or something?"

"Mian asked."

Shirley, meanwhile, stroked her chin and furrowed her brow, looking thoughtful.

"I feel like a powerful force of wisdom is about to surge out of my body, right now, right now..."

Could it be that they have acquired more knowledge than others?

Mian and the other two were also completely aroused by Shirley. Then they saw Shirley's expression suddenly change, she straightened up, and her face darkened as if she had become a completely different person.

Just as Mian thought something had happened, Shirley suddenly rushed to the toilet door, slammed it open, and jumped inside. Immediately following, a deafening crash and a stench of indigestion wafted out, freezing the expressions on the faces of all three present.

"I should have thought of that earlier."

Mian rubbed her forehead, gritting her teeth as she said:

"This guy, he did so much at the family restaurant at noon, then went on a crazy ice cream spree in the afternoon, and then ate dinner as usual. What kind of body can withstand this kind of shock..."

Mian pinched her nose, knocked on the bathroom door, and called out inside:

"Mr. Shirley, please, take better care of your body next time. I don't know how you managed to get so big with your eating habits."

Sherry's muffled rebuttal came from inside the bathroom.

"I worked out as a homeless person to find a decent job. Now that I have money, I'm still working hard. Haven't I just been rich for nothing? Pfft~~~"

An even stronger odor emanated from the room, making it unbearable for Mian, Aiyin, and the other two to run to the corridor and then move to another room next door.

After a long while, Shirley knocked on the door again, scratched her head, and walked in with a silly grin.

"It also smells a bit bad..."

With her senses being quite acute, Ain let out a somewhat painful whimper.

But at this moment, Mian couldn't care less about anything else. For the sake of making money tomorrow, they had to make good use of tonight's time.

"How's it going? Do you have anything new in your head now?"

Mian asked again. This time, she finally received a positive answer from Shirley.

"Yes, yes. I suddenly have a lot of knowledge about forging, design, and architecture in my mind... especially forging, it can't be described as just knowledge anymore, I feel like I've mastered a completely new power."

"Shall we give it a try?"

Mian pulled out the bent iron pipe that had hit him on the head that afternoon. Shirley took it with her right hand, then loosely gripped her left hand, as if holding a hammer.

He then aimed at the iron pipe on his right and slammed it down hard. A metallic clang rang out, and the pipe on his right, as if struck by some kind of blow, immediately deflated.

But that wasn't all. Shirley smashed the iron pipe flat and shattered it completely with a few more blows, then loosened her grip and smeared it across the flat iron disc.

Immediately afterwards, everyone in the room felt a surge of heat wash over them.

Mian glanced nervously at the ceiling. Fortunately, there was only heat, but no flames or smoke, so the smoke alarm wasn't triggered. Otherwise, she didn't know how things would have ended.

Shirley, however, appeared completely unfazed, like a seasoned master craftsman, kneading, rolling, stretching, and shaping the sheet of iron in her hands.

A moment later, the outline of a dagger appeared before the three of them. Although it was not yet fully finished, the forged dagger gleamed with a dark bluish light under the inn's lights, as if it had been hammered and refined a thousand times.

"Alas!"

Leo exclaimed excitedly, and Mian rushed up to give Sherry a high five.

In theory, if you want to sell something tomorrow, you can indeed buy a ready-made craft first, and then use your own magic touch to give it the characteristics of a sword.

However, generally speaking, even lifelike handicrafts are quite valuable. Moreover, no matter how realistic they are, they will always differ significantly from real swords in weight and feel.

But if it can be made to order by a craftsman, everything can be easily solved.

The only problem might be that it's so realistic that it will face security checks at the entrance.

"Anyway, as long as it's made of iron, we can make it as sharp as a sword. So as long as we make it look like a work of art and get past the inspections, then we can do whatever we want with it, right?"

Leo silently raised his hand and offered a suggestion. The three men exchanged glances and then gave each other another high five.

"Okay, let's do it this way. Sherry, you'll have to work hard tonight. We'll go to where you store your materials first and get five of them to see how things go. Leo, you're in charge of finding something we can use for packaging here."

Mian quickly outlined the plans for the evening. The three of them rallied and worked tirelessly throughout the night. By the time they returned to the hotel, it was already one or two in the morning.

"If this continues, maybe we'll be able to raise enough money for tickets by tomorrow."

Lying on the hotel bed, Mian drifted off to sleep with these thoughts in mind.

…………

"What do you mean we passed the security check, but there are no stalls inside?"