Journey to the West: I have Nine Golden Crows Inside Me
Chapter 672: Five Three Seven Children

Chapter 672: Five Three Seven Children

Luli Venerable is one of the three fundamental incarnations of the Medicine Buddha, symbolizing his dignity as projected to the world outside.

In other words, Luli Venerable’s status is neither too high nor too low, just right. Suppressing him in Buddha Hell can deter the other Bodhisattvas and Arhats.

Even the Buddhas of lower status would be intimidated by Buddha Hell, preventing them from entertaining other ideas.

Moreover, Buddha Hell, although protected by saints’ Divine Ability, still has a lot of room for improvement. Now that Luli Venerable is captured, Jiang Chen intends to incorporate him in Buddha Hell, transforming it into a Divine Artifact.

In this way, even if Jiang Chen is not in Xiniuhe Continent, Buddha Hell is still capable of exercising its entire power, sufficient to suppress the Innate Dao Sovereign.

...

The powers of Daosovereign are beyond imagination. Jiang Chen takes a single step, which is comparable to traversing endless miles. One moment, he was still at Cang Mountain, the next moment, he had arrived in the Xiniuhe Continent.

Instead of heading directly to Great Majestic Heavenly Dragon Temple, Jiang Chen halted and descended towards the earth below.

While he has the time now, he plans to sightsee in Xiniuhe Continent to appreciate local customs and cultures.

Also, he wants to see the changes the appearance of the Great Majestic Heavenly Dragon Temple has brought and whether it can stir up the spirit of resistance in the local human race.

Jiang Chen could still remember the first time he came to Xiniuhe Continent. The living conditions of the human race were cruelly harsh. But if only temporary hardship was what the local populace had to endure, that would be manageable since there would be hope for a better future.

However, the reality is that the people had become numb, completely devoid of will to fight back. Facing calamities, instead of rebelling, they blamed themselves, thinking that it was their own fault for not accumulating good deeds, thus suffering the consequent disasters.

Then they would kneel in the temple with even more sincerity, praying to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for blessings, hoping for a better rebirth in their next life.

It’s terrifying.

This is a dead world where people are emotionally numb, completely devoid of hope.

Jiang Chen wants to change this situation, even if it’s difficult and demands opposing the Buddhist Door, he still has to make a change.

As a Divine Ancestor, Jiang Chen believes, the relationship between believers and gods ought to be symbiotic. The faith of living beings is the source of divine strength, hence, gods need to go out of their way to protect living beings if they want to maintain their might.

If living beings have faith in gods, then gods must safeguard the living beings.

This is fair and aligns with the principles of Heavenly Dao’s impartiality.

To maintain their faith, the Buddhist Door not only ignored the demons’ harm to humans, they even deliberately indulged the demons under their control to wreak havoc.

Jiang Chen sees such actions as a violation of the Heavenly Dao, running counter to the Divine Dao, no different from demons.

Therefore, the Buddhist Door is guilty!

No, not the Buddhist Door, rather the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Venerables, and Arhats sitting above the Spiritual Mountain who turn a blind eye to the suffering of living beings and the wrongdoings of the demons.

Anybody within the Buddhist Door who sees living beings in distress, yet does not intervene to save them, is guilty, they all ought to be cast into Buddha Hell.

"The ’Buddhist Door’ is ’sick’, deeply infected. For severe diseases, strong medicine is required. So, I, as a ’doctor’, have come to ’surgery’ and scrape the ’flesh’ off the ’Buddhist Door’ to cure its poison."

"But merely scraping the poison off the bone isn’t enough since it only treats the symptoms and not the root cause. To thoroughly cure the problem, some people must be completely cleansed from the Buddhist Door."

As he admired the scenery along the way, Jiang Chen contemplated how to solve the problem with the Buddhist Door.

The Human Race of Xiniuhe Continent undoubtedly had a problem, and if he wished to change them, his first step would be to awaken their will to resist.

Easy to say, but hard to do.

Power is not the true measure of strength, it is strength of character that genuinely matters.

To make the Human Race of Xiniuhe Continent stronger, his first step would be to help them overcome their fear in their hearts, and to lose their reverence for deities and Buddha.

A long time ago, Jiang Chen noticed that the natives’ reverence for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas was far greater than their fear of the demons and ghouls.

That is to say, once their reverence for the Buddha is shattered, demons and ghouls would mean nothing to them.

Thus, he walked forward while perfecting his plans. Soon, he passed by a city.

Without noticing the city’s name, Jiang Chen directly entered.

It was evidently a very bustling city, with wide and clean streets filled with the constant back and forth of people, signaling the prosperous nature of this place.

Following the flow of people, Jiang Chen soon arrived at the busiest place in the city.

The temple!

Indeed, in Xiniuhe Continent, no matter which city, the most bustling place is invariably the temple.

If it weren’t, this city would probably not last for long.

When Jiang Chen arrived at the temple, it seemed to be holding some sort of event.

Countless people dressed in splendid clothes walked into the temple with laughter. Behind them, many people dressed as servants, each carrying boxes, also entered.

With a thought, Jiang Chen understood what was going on.

These were the believers making a golden body for their worshipped ’Buddha’. The boxes they carried were filled with copious amounts of gold and silver.

Buddha relies on a golden body, just as a horse relies on a saddle.

Which temple does not have glistening golden Buddhas? Could a mud-made Buddha suffice?

Whether it’s good or bad that the believers donate gold and silver to build a golden body for the Buddha, that’s for the Buddha to consider. It had nothing to do with Jiang Chen.

However, what happened next provoked Jiang Chen’s anger, compelling him to intervene.

Following the individuals in splendid clothes, a group of raggedly dressed people also arrived here. However, they were not treated like the previous group of wealthy people and warmly invited into the temple by the monks.

They reached the temple gate step by step, kowtowing at each step. They bowed to the gods within the temple from afar, looking very pious.

After that, they stood up and put all their meager wealth into the merit box before the temple.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Chen couldn’t stand idly by anymore. He stepped forward, blocking these people, and asked them, "Judging by the looks of you all, poverty has struck you hard. Why not save your money to improve your living conditions, instead of giving it all away?"

"You must know that no matter how much money you donate, Buddha cannot see it, nor use it. In the end, that money will only end up in the monks’ pockets, satisfying their desires."

Jiang Chen, dressed in his magnificent attire, clearly held a significant status. Seeing him blocking their way, these people immediately knelt down, but they dared not respond.

Seeing this, a monk nearby spoke on their behalf, "Sir, be careful with your words. Buddha is watching. He knows how much money they have donated."

"In the future, when they die, Buddha will remember their merit and let them be reborn in a good family, thus repaying today’s hardships."

Listening to this, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but laugh out loud in anger. So, they presumed ordinary folks knew nothing. Buddha is watching and knows everything.

Does Buddha have nothing better to do but sit counting money all day?

Jiang Chen chuckled coldly twice without responding to the monk. Instead, he continued asking the people, "Why aren’t you entering the temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha? Why worship from afar?"

One of them finally responded to Jiang Chen’s inquiry.

He cautiously replied, "Sir, you are jesting. How are we, humble beings, qualified to meet Buddha?"

Jiang Chen’s eyebrows furrowed at this remark and he said displeased, "In front of Buddha, all are equal. Where is this differentiation of high and low, noble and humble?"

On the other side, the monk who spoke earlier, quickly said, "Look at their dirty appearance. If they dirty the precious halls and this disgusts Buddha, then what can we do?"

Before the monk could finish speaking, a child in front of Jiang Chen plucked up his courage and said, "Defiling the Buddha will send you to hell, and disgusting the Buddha will also lead you to hell. So, we dare not enter the temple, afraid to dirty it."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen flew into a rage and asked loudly, "Who said that? Which Buddha said that? Who gave him such audacity?"

"Tell me, who is he?"

"I want to see, if after I chastise him, will he dare send me to hell?"

Now, the monk who was speaking earlier was certain that Jiang Chen came to cause trouble, and he rebuked, "The holy land of Buddhism forbids noise."

As he was speaking, the monk gathered his energy on his arms and reached for Jiang Chen’s shoulders, intending to throw him out.

However, how could his weak power compare to Jiang Chen? A simple glance from him scared the monk stiff, rendering him immobile.

Ignoring the monk, Jiang Chen walked up to the child, crouched down to his eye level, and kindly asked, "Child, what’s your name? Can you tell me who said what you mentioned earlier?"

Surprisingly, the child was not afraid of Jiang Chen. Looking a little constrained, he said, "I don’t have a name. I don’t know who said it, but everyone says it. Over time, I remembered it."

The lack of a name was quite normal. In this world, individuals of lower status did not even possess the privilege of a name.

"You don’t know?" Jiang Chen murmured to himself, then continued, "Child, do you think it’s reasonable to use gold and silver treasures to worship Buddha?"

Such a question should not be asked to a child, yet bizarrely Jiang Chen asked it anyway.

The child seemed somewhat afraid, but after looking left and right, he plucked up his courage to say, "Of course it’s not reasonable. The poor don’t have gold and silver, only the rich do. If Buddha accepts gold and silver offerings, does that mean he only protects the wealthy and not the poor?"

"If the Buddha is truly like this, then there’s no point in believing in him."

Such words were blasphemous for that time, yet after hearing them, Jiang Chen applauded in agreement.

"Well said! If one’s faith in Buddha is measured by the amount of gold, silver, or one’s status, then that’s not Buddha, but a demon. Not only should one not believe in him, but also overthrow him."

"Child, even though you are young, you possess a Buddha heart. Your future will shine on Spiritual Mountain."

As soon as Jiang Chen finished, an angry voice rang out from the temple.

"Nonsense!"