Chapter 360: Infiltrating the Zen Temple

It was because of this incident that Liang Yu realized the issues within the Zen Sect.

He arrived at the main entrance of the Zen Sect with his one-man army; it was around 1 PM, and the incense offerings within the Zen Temple showed no signs of decreasing.

Liang Yu looked at a Zen Sect disciple nearby, curiously sizing him up, making the disciple feel as if he were being observed like an animal.

This disciple’s mental cultivation was not yet mature enough, and he couldn’t endure it, preparing to stop Liang Yu. Just as he extended his hand, he was halted by a deep, powerful voice from behind him.

An elder, dressed in a monk’s robe, slowly approached. He looked at Liang Yu with a peaceful gaze and said, “Benefactor, please do not blame him; my young disciple is ignorant.”

Liang Yu cupped his fists and replied, “Zen Master, you are too kind. After all, I was the one who was rude first.”

However, the Old Zen Master smiled slightly.

“This cannot be blamed on the benefactor. Everything is predetermined, and it is only because his cultivation is insufficient that he would act in such a manner.”

He then looked at his young disciple.

“Hui Nian, do you know your mistake?”

The young Zen Master, called Hui Nian, looked at his master, lowered his head in shame, and turned to bow and apologize to Liang Yu.

“Benefactor, Hui Nian apologizes to you here.”

Liang Yu directly bypassed the young Zen Master Hui Nian and approached the Old Zen Master to get acquainted.

“May I ask for the Old Zen Master’s dharma name?”

Hui Nian answered quickly, “My master’s dharma name is Qi Zhen.”

Liang Yu looked at the kindly-faced Zen Master Qizhen, pondered for a moment, then slightly bowed and softly said, “Zen Master Qizhen, to be honest, I have long admired this place. I boldly propose to the Zen Master the idea of staying here for one night.”

His gaze was sincere, and his expression was full of earnestness.

“I promise to leave at dawn tomorrow and will not overstay my welcome.”

He then took out a bag of pre-prepared silver coins and handed them to Hui Nian.

“This is a small token of my appreciation. I hope the Zen Master will grant my request.”

The Old Zen Master slowly raised his head, looking at Liang Yu with a peaceful gaze, his face bearing the unique compassion of a monastic.

He gently fumbled a scripture from his person, handed it to Liang Yu, and put his palms together, saying, “Benefactor, do not rush. Although this temple is humble, it does have a few empty rooms available for lodging, to provide convenience for others.”

“As for the incense money, just do what you can; there is no need to be strict.”

Liang Yu reached out and took the scripture from the other’s hand, glancing at the cover. Goodness, he only knew there were four characters on it, experiencing the feeling of being illiterate.

After seeing Liang Yu take the scripture and thank him, the Old Zen Master instructed Hui Nian to lead him to the guest room, while he himself went to answer questions for other pilgrims.

Hui Nian led Liang Yu through several corridors and arrived in front of a guest room.

“Benefactor, this is the place.”

Hui Nian finished speaking and then turned to leave.

Liang Yu and his one-man army entered the room, placed the scripture on the table, and began to carefully examine their surroundings. The room was simply furnished but exuded a sense of peace and tranquility.

Liang Yu gave Lan Ling an instruction, telling her to stay in the room and not run around, then he slipped out, invisible.

Liang Yu quietly snuck near the temple’s scripture repository. He had heard that the Zen Sect’s scripture repository contained endless wisdom, and perhaps he could find clues about the previous incident there.

Through the window, he saw several Zen Masters inside, organizing the scrolls.

Liang Yu swaggered into the scripture repository through the main gate wall. The repository was filled with the scent of old paper mixed with ink.

Liang Yu scanned the bookshelves one by one and suddenly discovered a strange type of book, which he didn’t even know what unit to use to describe.

One book?

Clearly not appropriate.

One page? That also felt a bit off. It was more suitable to use ‘cabinet’ as the unit.

These were less like books and more like stone tablets and animal bones with characters carved into them. He just couldn’t tell what kind of animal bones were used for the carvings.

Just as he reached out to take one, wanting to see the carved content, someone appeared behind him. The other person’s target was also this bookshelf.

The person was not a Zen Master from here. He came to the cabinet in front of Liang Yu and took the third piece from the left on the second to last shelf.

The person struggled to pull it out, nearly dropping it on Liang Yu’s foot. Hearing the commotion, two Zen Masters from the Zen Temple came over, but they didn’t scold the person; instead, they looked at the stone tablet with carved characters with concern.

The two of them worked together to lift the stone tablet onto the table. Liang Yu also followed suit, looking at the characters on the stone tablet. He actually felt a sense of familiarity.

Although he still didn’t recognize what was written on it, if he wasn’t mistaken, the characters carved on it should be the tadpole script from his own world.

Then he didn’t go anywhere else, spending a long time recording all the tadpole script here. This was just recording; he hadn’t started organizing it yet.

At this time, night fell, and the sky darkened. He suddenly received a message from Lan Ling, telling him to hurry back. The other party had come to inform them that after dark, they should stay in their guest rooms and not go out to disturb their evening prayers.

As Liang Yu passed the main hall, he did indeed hear chanting coming from inside.

He quietly followed the sound and found many monks chanting scriptures and praying for blessings in the main hall, with Zen Master Qizhen standing at the very front.

At this moment, Liang Yu noticed that the bronze statue in the Zen hall was faintly glowing.

He was startled, and Liang Yu even wondered if he had seen wrongly. He confirmed that it was indeed the bronze statue in the main hall that was glowing. After taking a screenshot with his glasses and saving it, Liang Yu slipped back to the guest room.

After returning to the guest room, Liang Yu directly showed the screenshot to Lan Ling and told her about what he had discovered. After the two of them discussed it, they concluded that the Zen Temple of the Zen Sect had a serious problem.

At the same time, they heard a voice coming from the next room.

“Since you two are here to investigate the Zen Temple, you must be on our side.”

Liang Yu became alert and shouted towards the next room, “Who are you?”

A deep laugh came from the next room.

“We have a similar objective, so of course, I am your teammate.”

Then the middle-aged man introduced his name, Su Ran, stating that he was only here to find his missing daughter.

???

Not just Liang Yu, but even Lan Ling thought the other party must have some serious mental illness.

This was a Zen Temple; how could a man’s daughter be among them?

Liang Yu frowned and asked, “Why do you think your daughter is here?”

“I just walked around, and I didn’t see the daughter you mentioned.”

Su Ran sighed and slowly said, “I didn’t believe it at first either.”

“I paid a hefty sum for this information.”

“Someone saw my daughter being taken away by people from the Zen Temple.”

Kidnapping?

Liang Yu thought for a moment; it was indeed a possibility, but he didn’t understand why the Zen Sect people would kidnap Su Ran’s daughter. Could it be for cultivating joyful Zen?

So he asked Su Ran again, “Besides your daughter, were there any others who were kidnapped?”

After thinking for a moment, Liang Yu felt that this description was not accurate, so he rephrased his question.