The Unraging monk said nothing, only nodding towards the Dauntless monk. He could argue and attempt to justify Li Qingshan’s actions, but someone had to take responsibility for everything.
“Alright! Carry out the punishments, Disciplinary courtyard!” the Dauntless monk ordered authoritatively, but his brows were heavily furrowed. If he had not been the abbot of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, he would rather endure the punishments by beating himself.
“Yes, abbot.” Annihilum Brilliance took out a dark and heavy disciplinary staff. It was clearly quite a mismatch between his hunched-over shape and the huge disciplinary staff, but they were just as stern in appearance. He arrived behind the Unraging monk and said sternly, “Please lean over, senior uncle!”
The shackles jangled, and the Unraging monk lay down on the ground with his huge, chubby body. There was a ruckus among the spectating monks. That was a Monk King after all! No matter how unruly and brazen he seemed on the surface, he was still someone they had to look up to, so how could he endure such humiliation? Even the people who felt furious and indignant suddenly eased up inside.
The sighs of the various head monks and elders grew even heavier. They all shut their eyes.
The staff was raised high into the air, about to fall.
“Hold on!” The Seven Treasures Monk King suddenly stopped him.
“What do you have to say, senior brother Seven Treasures?” the Dauntless monk asked.
“Unraging may have broken the rules, but as a Monk King, regular monks do not have the right to punish him. He cannot be punished by monks from the same sect either, just in case of the suspicion of bias,” said the Seven Treasures Monk King.
“Where are we supposed to find a great master of vinaya at a time like this?” The Dauntless monk frowned.
Monk Kings held an extremely great status within buddhism. If they broke the rules or precepts, they would usually invite a great master of laws from the school of vinaya to judge them. They would carry out a set of extremely solemn and tedious procedures before issuing the punishment themselves so that they could ensure the fairness of the rules and the severity of the punishment.
However, the Dauntless monk was in a hurry to pacify everyone’s anger and console them while keeping the influence to a minimum and maintaining the reputation of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga and the Unraging monk. He would never go through a procedure like that.
“I may not be a disciple of the school of vinaya, but I come from the Spirit K?etra temple, which has the responsibility of monitoring all the monks in the world. I can carry out the punishment!” the Seven Treasures Monk King took a step forward and said with no room for disputes.
“Seven Treasures!” The Dauntless monk frowned heavily as he fumed inside, Seven Treasures has always loathed junior brother, and he’s full of anger right now. If he carries out the punishment, then junior brother won’t just be humiliated. Even his life will be in danger.
“Junior brother Seven Treasures, this is a matter of our Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, so just let the Disciplinary courtyard carry out the punishment!” “Yes, we don’t need to trouble you, junior brother!”
The two other Monk Kings also spoke up. Even though they blamed the Unraging monk for this, they had spent all these years in the same sect after all. Right now, the Unraging monk was shouldering all the responsibility, so they also felt it was sufficient if he just endured such severe punishment.
“What are you worrying for, senior and junior brothers? Are you afraid that I’ll be too heavy-handed? That’s right, I definitely won’t hold back, or would there still be any dignity to the precepts of buddhism? Or are you saying that the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga’s punishment is merely a formality?” The Seven Treasures Monk King refused to back down, giving off a hint of malice within his authority.
“Please let senior brother Seven Treasures carry out the punishment!” The Unraging monk, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
The Dauntless monk let out a long sigh.
The Seven Treasures Monk King took the disciplinary staff from the Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master and asked, “How many strokes?”
“Three thousand,” said the Annihilum Brilliance Chan Master.
Buddhism had the so-called trichiliocosm, or “three thousand worlds”, so the great number of strokes for beatings with a staff was three thousand. Anything further than that warranted even more severe punishment, such as crippling their cultivation, expelling them from buddhism, or even directly executing them.
Buddhism had already shown great mercy. Rarely were monks that broke the precepts punished with death. Most that died died to the beatings. However, they would never stop until the punishment was carried out in full even if the punished person was on their last breath.
“That’s particularly merciful.” The Seven Treasures Monk King weighed the staff in his hand and said coldly, “Junior brother Unraging, I’ve said already that I won’t be holding back. Whether you live or die will be up to the buddha’s will!”
“Amitābha.” The Unraging monk brought his palms together and uttered the buddha’s name. He smiled. “Then let me thank you first, senior brother, for sending me off to Sukhāvatī early. I’ll definitely put in a good word for you before the buddha.”
“Hmph, you still talk back even in your state! You really don’t know how to change!”
The Seven Treasures Monk King swung the disciplinary staff furiously. A bright arc lit up in the sky, illuminating the entire mountain top. He used his full strength and struck down viciously.
“Master!” Duoge cried out.
“Bald ass, beat him and see what happens!” A voice suddenly ran out from the horizon.
The Seven Treasures Monk King was alarmed, and the disciplinary staff came to a halt. He brought it before himself in a defensive posture. Looking up, he saw a scarlet light rush through the air, which made him cry out fearfully, “It’s him!”
“Wretched daemon!” The Dauntless monk felt extremely astounded when he heard the familiar voice. The wretched daemon had actually left and returned. The current Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga no longer had the strength to fend him off.
Li Qingshan descended from above, landing in the clearing among the monks. He furled up his phoenix wings, and his scarlet eyes turned black again, assuming his human form.
“First senior brother!” Duoge said in delight. There was a whoosh around him, and all of the monks backed away in fear. The encirclement of several thousand people immediately grew larger.
“Argh!” “Ahh!” Cries rang out from the entire crowd. Several dozen monks standing by the cliff even lost their footing and fell down, while some of them just chose to roll down the mountain with that.
Originally, even masters of the jianghu would not have been reduced to such a sorry state, but the monks standing in the outskirts had always been the disciples with the weakest cultivations. They were devoted to the buddha, but they feared this demon even more. At this moment, all they wanted to do was avoid him from as far away as possible. However, if they turned around and fled, they were afraid of being accused of “abstention from protecting the temple and desertion from battle”, so they rolled away instead!
Li Qingshan waved his hand without even looking back. The monks that had just stopped around Duoge immediately backed away even more with a whoosh, leaving behind a huge clearing.
Duoge looked around in surprise. He clearly had not even sensed a breeze. He was basically convinced that his first senior brother had developed some new ability that could repel people.
Li Qingshan pointed at the Seven Treasures Monk King. “Bald ass, if you even touch a hair on him, I’ll cut off your bald head and kick it around as a ball!”
“You-” The Seven Treasures Monk King could not help but take a step back too, getting a little closer to the Dauntless monk and the others.
“Damned disciple!” the Unraging monk turned around and bellowed.
“Sorry, master. I’ve hurt you accidentally.” Li Qingshan made his way over and rubbed the Unraging monk’s head, laughing away. “What’re you on the ground for? And wearing this sh*tty thing? C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, I’ll help you up. You better not say I haven’t shown a sense of honour towards you as your disciple!” With a gentle tug, he ripped apart the shackles and went to help up the Unraging monk.
“Go away! Why did you come back? Are you afraid that you haven’t hurt me enough?” The Unraging monk had no idea about how to respond. He was basically clueless about what expression he should exhibit right now. It took him all of his strength to stop Li Qingshan from helping him up.
“Sigh, don’t be like this! From where I’m from, you’re trying to cheat people out of money like this! Whatever, let’s get to the important stuff. I’ve come this time because I want your help to save my friend, as well as to tell you about the great deed I did. Just like how names are supposed to be left behind when a good deed is done, the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga better be ready to erect a memorial tablet for me! Hahahaha!”
Note: By “trying to cheat people out of money”, he’s referring to a certain scam that’s prevalent in China, where people basically throw themselves at cars (either stationary or moving very slowly) and behave like they are injured, refusing to get up off the ground until they’re compensated for their “injuries”.
Li Qingshan’s “important stuff” completely infuriated the Dauntless monk. He bellowed furiously, “Wretched daemon, you’ve gone too far!”
