The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

It did not take long before they encountered a bald figure in front of them. He was dressed in white monk robes as he pressed his palms together. He had a warm and gentle smile, giving off the feeling of a spring breeze.

“Venerable Fangzheng? You are alright?!” Ying Zi exclaimed as she was pleasantly surprised. She did not know the way out the mountain. It was naturally for the best if Fangzheng could lead the way. As for the prior scheme against Fangzheng, she believed that he had no idea, so she did not mention it. To her, the matter was in the past.

However Uncle Da’s gaze turned heavy. Experience told him that things would not end well for them if they left with the monk!

Uncle Da immediately asked, “Where’s the bear? Where’s Zhang Zi?”

Fangzheng shrugged. “Zhang Zi pushed This Penniless Monk down and ran off himself. The bear ended up chasing after him. Amitabha. This Penniless Monk isn’t fated to die yet, all thanks to Buddha’s blessings.”

“What? Zhang Zi actually did such a thing?” Ying Zi exclaimed in disbelief.

Uncle Da sneered in return. “That’s just what Zhang Zi would do. That punk is quite the ungrateful son of a b*tch.” Uncle Da believed what Fangzheng said. His wariness for Fangzheng also decreased drastically. Still, for some reason the monk just made him feel ill at ease.

“This…” Ying Zi found it quite unacceptable, but reality was as such. What else could she say? It was imperative they left the mountai. Therefore Ying Zi said, “Venerable One, Uncle Da is injured. We need to immediately leave the mountain to treat Uncle Da.”

Fangzheng was a little surprised as well. All he did was request the bear to give them a scare, not to injure someone’s leg. However, since it had already happened and he had no means to discuss it with the bear that had ran off, he could only let it be. He nodded and said, “No problem. Follow This Penniless Monk.”

With that said, Fangzheng chose a direction and led the trio. As for where it led to, who knew!

Just as Dog Song said, Fangzheng had never entered the deep depths of the Mt. Tongtian mountain range. His successful entry into the mountain this time had been all thanks to his White Lunar Monk Robe, which allowed him to walk blindly.

If Uncle Da knew that that was how Fangzheng was leading the way, he would probably have the thought of smacking him to death.

The quartet went in circles and walked for an excessive period of time. Only when the sun was about to set did Uncle Da ask, “We seem to be going in the wrong direction?”

Fangzheng blushed in embarrassment, but he said, “It’s about to turn dark. It’s very dangerous at night. We should find a spot and temporarily set up camp.”

Uncle Da nodded. Mute put down Uncle Da and surveyed the area. Soon, they found a good location. After finding some dry wood, he skillfully set up camp. It was obvious that he was an expert. Ying Zi also helped, while Fangzheng sat by Uncle Da’s side to prevent him from being snatched away by wolves…

Meanwhile, a convoy of buses rolled into One Finger Village noisily. They did not stop and instead came to the foot of One Finger Mountain. They attracted the curious looks of numerous villagers. There was a tiny flag hanging on the buses, indication that they were tourists. Everyone believed that a tourist group had arrived and were puzzled as to why tourists would come to their village. This was basically a first for them. In the past, all the tourists they had received had been individuals, not tourist groups.

When Wang Yougui heard the news, he hurriedly ran out and asked about the situation.

“Aiyah, good day, Village Chief. We are from Bear Mountain Tourism Group. I’m the group leader as well as their tour guide. Here, have a cigarette.” A pudgy man chuckled as he came to talk to Wang Yougui while handing him a cigarette.

Wang Yougui smiled brightly when he heard that, thinking that they were truly a tourist group. He had always yearned for One Finger Village to escape poverty. Now that they had finally succeeded, it was still clearly insufficient to rely only on the tourists from Songwu County. If huge batches of tourist groups came, that would be true wealth! Therefore Wang Yougui took the cigarette and happily chatted with the pudgy man.

The pudgy man’s name was Xiong Benshu, a very elegant name. He was a brilliant conversationalist. They immediately hit it off after a few words.

According to Xiong Benshu’s words, they had met with a traffic jam and now that they had finally arrived, it was already quite late. It was not something they had foreseen.

“Why don’t you stay in the village for the night? Don’t worry. The price is definitely worth the quality,” suggested Wang Yougui immediately.

Xiong Benshu smiled wryly, “Brother, I wish to do so too. However, the tourism company has already arranged a schedule. We came to Mt. One Finger as a last minute detour. To be honest, we don’t know anything about this last-minute spot. We aren’t sure if it will leave a good impression on everyone. If it leaves a bad impression, we might not be able to come again. We have made a loss with them. After we let them take a look at Mt. One Finger, we will immediately head for Changbai Mountain. Early the next morning, we will go up the mountain to see the sunrise. Time is tight…”

“Is that so? That’s truly a pity. However, the sky is almost turning dark. It will probably be dark by the time you reach the summit. You wouldn’t be able to see anything, right?”

“There are benefits to darkness. The night sky will have the moon hanging high above. To see the stars, bamboo forest, and monastery at night will be quite special. Perhaps it could even be surprisingly popular with the tourists,” said Xiong Benshu.

“Alright. Why don’t I get you a guide at least?” suggested Wang Yougui.

“There’s no need as I’ve been here a few times. I know the situation well, so there’s no need to trouble you. If we succeed this time, there will be plenty of opportunities to trouble you in the future. When that happens, we would be happy if you don’t find us a bother.”

“No way. We’ll welcome you anytime.”

“Haha, nice! Brother, you are a capable man. Alright, I’ll cut short the chatter. We will be going up the mountain.” After Xiong Benshu said so, he called out to the tourists who had gotten off the buses and prepared them to scale the mountain.

Wang Yougui stood nearby to watch. Dog Song, Chen Jin, and company were watching by the side too.

It did not take long for the tourists to start heading up the mountain.

Wang Yougui waved his hand. “Alright, stop looking. Do whatever you need to do. If anyone scares off the tourists, I’m going to blame you.”

Everyone laughed out loud and dispersed.

However, there were some people whose eyes were filled with doubt. One of them was Chen Jin!

Meanwhile at the mountaintop.

“Junior Brother, why are you on the roof again? Didn’t Master say that you are not to climb to the roof to pee?” Squirrel looked up and shouted at the rooftop.

Red Boy rolled his eyes. “As a king, my pee is sacred water. Master has poor taste. Besides, I’m not peeing. I’m star-gazing. By the way, Jingkuan, have you ever had the chance to fly before?”

“Fly?” Squirrel’s eyes lit up immediately before he exclaimed, “Junior Brother, will you take me flying?”

“Now that the king’s Dharmic powers are back, wouldn’t it be easy to bring you flying? As long as you wish to do so, I can take you flying in awesomeness! Bringing you straight into the rubbish… Ahem, white clouds.” Red Boy nearly shouted out an Internet meme as he corrected himself.

“Junior Brother, I want to fly too!” exclaimed an excited Lone Wolf as he jumped off the ground when he heard that.

“No problem! Senior Brother Jingzhen, do you want to join us?” Red Boy asked Monkey who was sitting under the bodhi tree with his head looking up at the bodhi tree. He looked like a meditating old monk as though he was meditating over the Zen.

Monkey shook his head and said, “Amitabha. This Penniless Monk will not be joining you. This Penniless Monk needs to meditate over the Zen.”

“Are you sure?” asked Red Boy.

“If all of you leave, there will be no one to watch the monastery. Master told us before he left that there might be people coming to steal things.” Although Monkey had a deep desire to fly in his eyes, he still rejected the offer.