The ultimate master in the city

The ugly nun led Zhou Fengchen to the ordinary rooms where pilgrims stayed at the back, which was a large courtyard behind the temple. There were two rows of twenty or thirty small tile-roofed houses facing each other. Almost every room was the same, with a strange lamppost outside and a small window next to it.

From the moment Zhou Fengchen entered the courtyard, he carefully stared at the windows of every room, and could vaguely make out some things inside.

This is the second time I've observed them, but unfortunately, there's still not a single person in any of the rooms.

He was extremely frustrated. It was one thing that Monk Yuanzhi and Qi Lian'er were not there, but how come Duo Luomo and the other two, who came in right after him, were also gone? Where did they go?

I thought I'd ask the ugly nun upstairs, but it'd probably be pointless. I might as well sneak out tonight and take a look myself.

When they reached the innermost part against the wall, the ugly nun stopped, opened a door, smiled slightly, revealing a set of large front teeth, and said, "Please come in, benefactor! I will bring you hot water and food shortly."

Zhou Fengchen nodded and looked into the room. He saw a bed, two chairs, a small dining table, and a kerosene lamp. There was nothing else. The room was sparsely furnished, but it looked quite clean.

The ugly nun continued, "Temples are places of quiet cultivation. There is no electricity, but the ancient Buddha is accompanied by the dim light. It is quiet and elegant, free from worldly disturbances. One can purify one's mind and body and get closer to the Buddha."

Zhou Fengchen glanced at the ugly nun with surprise. "You talk quite fluently! But... could you please remove the scallions from your teeth first?"

The ugly nun's expression changed, she covered her mouth, revealed an extremely ugly and awkward smile, and took off running, her running style was also very unsightly.

Zhou Fengchen sighed, "Ah! Fate is so cruel. It must have been tough for you to grow up like this."

"Pfft—Hahaha..."

"Pah! You lecherous thief!"

Just then, two voices came from the courtyard at the same time. Zhou Fengchen turned his head and saw that, coincidentally, the two pilgrims he had met earlier were there.

The woman in red was holding a swaddled baby in front of a room across the street, laughing so hard she was bent over.

The hunched-over, chicken-skinned old woman, who lived in the same row of houses as Zhou Fengchen, about seven or eight rooms away, stood in front of the door with a cane, looking at him with a resentful expression, as if everyone owed her tens of thousands of yuan.

Zhou Fengchen rubbed his nose and flashed a bright smile. "What a coincidence! Big sister, aunt!"

The old woman with the chicken-skinned face snorted, turned around, went back into the house, and slammed the door shut.

The woman in red said with a smile, "Handsome young man, would you like to come in and sit for a while? There's no one else inside."

"Uh...see you later!" This was too ambiguous. Zhou Fengchen smiled awkwardly and slammed the door shut.

He lay in bed, pondering what to do that night, but after this outing, he was terribly exhausted, both sleepy and hungry.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, there was a knock on the door.

Zhou Fengchen forced himself to open the door, looked outside, and let out a soft "Huh~" in his mind. He felt disgusted; this temple was truly something else.

The ugly nun returned, accompanied by three other rather peculiar nuns.

One had a crooked mouth and slanted eyes, another was lame and blind, and the third was mentally disabled, with drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, almost getting into the food he was holding.

"Benefactor, the food and hot water are here." The scallions on the ugly nun's teeth were gone; it seemed she had rinsed her mouth earlier.

"Thanks, thanks! Come in quickly." Zhou Fengchen gave a smile that looked more like a grimace and stepped aside.

With a crooked mouth and slanted eyes, and a blind and lame man struggling to carry large buckets of water, the mentally challenged man placed the food on the table in a shaky manner, a single, glistening drop of drool finally dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Zhou Fengchen reacted quickly, grabbing a pillow from the bed next to him and narrowly catching the drool.

To everyone's surprise, the mentally challenged nun's face contorted in anger, like a simple-minded country boy about to hit someone, and she roared, "Does the benefactor think I'm dirty?"

"No!" Zhou Fengchen said solemnly, pointing to the sky and swearing, "Little Nun is as beautiful as a flower, loved by everyone, and even her drool smells sweet. I catch it with my pillow, and it makes sleeping soundly at night!"

After saying that, I felt like I had been corrupted by Monk Yuanzhi.

The mentally challenged nun paused for a moment, then covered her face and ran out. "Hahaha, you're so good with words! I'm so happy!"

"..." Zhou Fengchen smiled inexplicably.

The two young nuns carrying the water covered their mouths and chuckled. The ugly nun couldn't help but laugh as well. "Is there anything else you need, benefactor?"

Zhou Fengchen waved his hand forcefully, "That's all, really! Don't come today, I might sleep all day!"

"Alright then!" The three nuns went out together, closing the door behind them, leaving only their body odor and bad breath inside.

Zhou Fengchen covered his face and squatted down. He didn't look down on disabled people, but he just felt that he didn't really like to interact with them.

……

The meal consisted of three dishes, a soup, and a bowl of rice. The dishes were all vegetarian, and the rice was a bit coarse.

But this didn't matter to Zhou Fengchen, who was starving, and he quickly ate everything up.

I just finished eating, and I have this strange, inexplicable feeling in my stomach, like it's a little numb.

He quickly sat cross-legged and began practicing his father's unique Taoist qigong: the Three Powers Return to Origin Qigong.

"The Three Powers Return to Origin Technique" is a Taoist technique for guiding Qi, which can strengthen the body, detoxify and cleanse. It is also the foundation of all of Zhou Fengchen's methods. In the past, when he got drunk, he would immediately resolve the problem by circulating the Qi through a few cycles.

Not long after, his ears became burning hot, as if something was flowing out. He got up and touched them; they were two streams of yellow, sticky fluid, extremely foul-smelling. He didn't know what it did, but it certainly wasn't anything good.

"Damn it! They really didn't mean any harm."

Zhou Fengchen cursed loudly, slammed the door shut, propped it open with a chair, took off his clothes, jumped into the large wooden tub, soaked casually for a while, got up and lay on the bed, placing the goose-wing knife and suona beside his pillow.

He needs a good night's sleep to recharge.

……

After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Fengchen faintly heard a woman crying. He sat up abruptly, grabbed the suona, and looked around. The room was pitch black; it was already night.

The crying was coming from the courtyard; it was extremely mournful and sorrowful, as if the father had died.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief, fumbled to put on his clothes, took all his gear, quietly opened the door, and stared blankly at what he saw outside.

The courtyard seemed... different. There were three or four clumps of bamboo, I don't know where they came from. And a huge, bewitching, blood-red moon hung in the sky, illuminating the earth in a crimson glow, giving people an eerie and terrifying feeling.

The courtyard was shrouded in mist, with only the kerosene lamps lit in the rooms of the woman in red and the old woman with the wrinkled face across the way, making it seem as if the three of them were the only ones living in the entire courtyard.

The crying was coming from the woman in red's room.

Zhou Fengchen was very curious. This woman in red was quite cheerful during the day, so why was she crying now? What happened?

He crept closer to the window of the woman in red's room, intending to peek inside, but suddenly the door creaked open, and the woman in red rushed over, pulling him into the room. "Don't make a sound!"

Zhou Fengchen was curious about what she was going to do, so he didn't resist.

The two entered the room, and the woman in red gently closed the door, saying through teary eyes, "Young man, listen to your sister, run! Get out of here!"

"W-What do you mean?" Zhou Fengchen's chest skipped a beat. His Heavenly Eye was useless. Could this woman not be human?

The woman in red glanced at the doorway and said in a low voice, "The old woman across the street is a thousand-year-old vengeful ghost; she just ate my child!"

"what?"