Chapter 61: The Peculiar Monk

A monk followed the sound, slowly approaching the front of the wooden cabin.

Seeing the monk's appearance and attire, Su Xinghe asked, "Could Your Excellency be the recently rising eccentric monk Xuzhu of the New Shaolin Temple?"

Among the New Shaolin Temple, there was the martial arts myth Fanci, as well as the eccentric monk Xuzhu.

Murong Xing and Duan Yu couldn't help casting a few extra glances upon learning that the monk before them was none other than the legendary eccentric monk Xuzhu.

This monk didn't look very eccentric at all!

Xuzhu put his palms together, shook his head, and said, "The Shaolin Temple is just the Shaolin Temple; there is no New Shaolin Temple. This poor monk is simply this poor monk, not an eccentric monk."

The temple founded by Fanci on Mount Yuntai was indeed named the "Shaolin Temple".

It was merely to distinguish it from the Shaolin Temple on Mount Shaoshi that people in the martial arts world referred to the one on Mount Yuntai as the "New Shaolin Temple".

Noticing that although Xuzhu had an ordinary appearance, he possessed an inherent poise, Su Xinghe said, "Since Your Excellency has come, why not try the Zhilong Go game?"

To his surprise, Xuzhu shook his head and said, "This poor monk did not come here to play Go, but to distribute invitations."

"On the fifth day of the fifth month next year, our temple will hold a sutra debate on Mount Shaoshi. We wish to invite heroes from all under heaven to attend and witness the event."

"Therefore, fulfilling my master's instructions, this poor monk is tasked with widely distributing invitations to heroes everywhere."

"It was only after descending the mountain that I discovered a portion of the realm's talented individuals had been drawn to this senior's Go game."

"So I thought to myself, coming here to the Cang Mountains would make it much easier to find the realm's talents and save this poor monk from running all over the place."

Hearing Xuzhu's words, the few people present all wore strange expressions.

Of all things, you actually came to someone else's venue to hand out invitations?

Your New Shaolin Temple really has zero boundaries.

An eccentric monk truly lives up to his name!

"A sutra debate?" Duan Yu suddenly thought of something and asked, "Why hold a sutra debate?"

Xuzhu said with righteous sternness, "The Shaolin Temple is the ancestral court of the Chan sect; how can it be usurped by a group of ignorant and incompetent monks?"

"Sutras must be debated to reveal the truth! Therefore, to set things right and correct past errors, our humble temple must debate them."

Weren't you people clearly the later arrivals?

Duan Yu muttered inwardly, yet he knew this was a major event in the martial arts world!

The New Shaolin Temple was going to debate sutras with the Shaolin Temple!

Only one of them could be the true Shaolin Temple!

Hearing this, Murong Xing felt a good show was in the making and his eyes lit up.

He memorized this date.

Seeing Xuzhu speak with such conviction, Su Xinghe knew the monk had a mind of his own, but still unwilling to give up, he said:

Tomorrow is the appointed day for the Zhilong Go game. Since Your Excellency has already arrived, why not give the game a try?

"Apologies! This poor monk does not play Go!" Xuzhu replied. "This poor monk has never touched the art of Go in this lifetime! Let alone playing it, I can't even make sense of it when looking at it!"

"..." Su Xinghe felt as though Xuzhu had come simply to disrupt things.

If you don't play Go, why did you even come?

Ah, you came to freeload off the venue!

The people of the New Shaolin Temple are truly...

"In that case, please suit yourself!" Su Xinghe said somewhat helplessly.

"Many thanks for the senior's understanding!" Xuzhu offered a bow and walked off to the side to sit in meditation.

Duan Yu continued studying the Go game with Su Xinghe, while Murong Xing, utterly bored, headed into the mountains to catch some game to fill their stomachs that evening.

If he hadn't learned how to play Go at the Canhe Villa, he certainly had learned how to cook.

After all, if he couldn't cook back at the Canhe Villa, he really would have starved to death!

When he returned from the mountains with a few hares, he saw that Duan Yu and Su Xinghe were still engrossed in studying the Go game, completely losing track of time and meals.

Sigh, what was so fascinating about studying Go!

Murong Xing cleaned the hares, sprinkled them with salt and spices to marinate for a moment, and then roasted them over a pile of firewood until they sizzled and dripped with fat.

After roasting for half an hour, he took the cooked hares over to Duan Yu and Su Xinghe, saying, "Your Highness, Senior, it's time to eat."

"Many thanks!" Looking at the golden-brown, fragrant hares, Su Xinghe couldn't help his mouth watering.

Ah, what a fine child!

Too bad he didn't play Go!

Duan Yu was long accustomed to Murong Xing's culinary skills and reached for a hare to bite into.

Suddenly, he noticed Xuzhu meditating nearby.

"Monk Xuzhu, would you care for some roast hare?" Duan Yu asked.

Seeing Xuzhu meditating by himself for so long, he figured the monk must have been hungry for just as long.

At first, he thought Xuzhu was a monk who broke the precepts, but later he learned the man was from the New Shaolin Temple.

In his view, the monks of the New Shaolin Temple were all bizarre—what was eating meat compared to Fanci taking his own wife as a personal protector?

It was simply... rebellious!

However, Chinese Buddhism was divided into eight sects, each with its own method of practice.

The Shaolin Temple belonged to the Chan sect, which emphasized "a special transmission outside the scriptures, not establishing words or letters, pointing directly to the human mind, and seeing one's nature to attain Buddhahood"!

In the eyes of other sects like the Huayan sect and the Faxiang sect, that was also considered wildly heretical!

They formulated detailed and complex doctrines and vows to explain the Buddhist scriptures, only for you to "point directly to the human mind and see your nature to attain Buddhahood"—didn't that mean all their painstaking efforts were for nothing?

Then there was the Pure Land sect, where simply chanting the Buddha's name constituted practice, and releasing captive animals could generate merit to wash away sins. Wasn't that far too absurd?

Thus, each of the eight Buddhist sects had its own logic and its own way of survival.

Back when Buddhism was flourishing, they would debate sutras to determine superiority.

Nowadays, everyone closed their mountain gates to live their own lives and ignored the rest.

What was so strange about adding one more bizarre "New Shaolin Temple" to the mix?

If you felt the "New Shaolin Temple" taught heresy, why not go up to Mount Yuntai yourself and seek instruction from Fanci?

Fanci did not eat vegetarian food, and his "Tathagata Palm" certainly wasn't vegetarian either!

Thinking this through, Duan Yu suddenly understood Xuzhu; perhaps eating meat was simply their method of spiritual practice.

Hearing Duan Yu offer him roast hare, Xuzhu opened his eyes, smiled slightly, and said, "There is no need for the benefactor to be so polite."

"Walking the pugilistic world is all about helping one another; it's just a hare." Assuming Xuzhu was merely being polite, Duan Yu offered it once more.

"This poor monk has traveled the pugilistic world for many days and knows that among all places, city dwellers have the best life," Xuzhu said, patting the pack behind him. "Everything is available; as long as you have money, you can get anything."

"Next are the market towns, then the villages, and lastly, the mountains."

"People in the mountains are driven by circumstance, forced to retreat deep into the great ranges. Consequently, supplies in the mountains are scarce, and life is hard."

Opening his pack, Xuzhu continued, "Therefore, when this poor monk entered the mountains, I prepared plenty of food."

He pulled out a package wrapped in lotus leaves and said, "There is roast chicken."

"There's also braised beef, roast lamb chops, rice noodles, roasted rice cakes..."

Duan Yu and Murong Xing stared blankly as Xuzhu produced a mountain of food from his pack.

Suddenly, the roast hare in their hands didn't seem quite as appetizing.

Finally, the two of them watched as Xuzhu even pulled a flask of wine out of his pack.

Wait a minute, your pack is absurdly large!

What normal person packs that much food in their luggage?

So the reason you didn't want the hare was because you had all these other delicacies!

"This poor monk cannot finish all this food by myself; why don't the three benefactors join me?" Xuzhu said with a smile to the group.