Chapter 336 - Abacus
Standing within the Buddha’s Skeleton Temple, Li Huowang took deep breaths as he did his best to suppress the urge to kill Xin Chi. He had never hated someone this badly. He had listened to Xin Chi and thought that he killed someone from the Sitting Oblivion Dao, but to think that the man had claimed to be mistaken?
He knew that the Surveillance Bureau didn’t care about the lives of the innocents when fulfilling their duties. But Li Huowang had never thought that he would end up being the one to do something like that! Because of Xin Chi, he had killed an innocent man!
At the same time, compared to Li Huowang, Monk’s illusion was even angrier, to the point that he was jumping around and crying at the same time. “How could he do that? He doesn’t have the qualifications to be a monk! He just killed someone!”
As he spoke, Monk’s illusion ran over to punch and kick Xin Chi; but as an illusion, he just phased through the man’s body.
“You have no qualifications to shave your head! You don’t do any good deeds and only do malicious ones! You are not a monk!” shouted Monk.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang just stood up and followed after them; however, his gaze as he looked at Xin Chi was quite different now. Whatever little respect and good feeling he had for the man had now been turned into disgust and anger.
He had originally been suspicious of why Xin Chi had been locked within Yinling Prison. However, now he knew that it was too light of a sentence for the man.
Unfortunately, Li Huowang understood that now was not the time to raise the issue. If he didn’t cooperate now, then they could easily get ambushed by the Sitting Oblivion Dao. Thus, Li Huowang would rather let the issue go for now. However, this didn’t mean that he couldn’t hate the monk right now.
“How is it, Xin Chi? Was that man someone from the Sitting Oblivion Dao?” asked Hong Da.
“No, I was mistaken.” Xin Chi’s voice appeared in everyone’s mind.
Hearing this, Tuoba Danqing scoffed at him. “Master Xin Chi, weren’t you rumored to have learned the Six Paths of Buddhism? How could you discern the wrong person? Don’t forget that Lord Ji Xiang is quite busy, and that we can’t delay him.”
Even though he said that, Ji Xiang ignored them, which was something rare. Instead, the man was frowning as he surveyed the entire palace, all the while his fat fingers never stopping their work on the abacus.
Li Huowang noticed that something was off and quickly calmed himself down as he observed the eunuch in front of him.
Can that abacus find the members of the Sitting Oblivion Dao? Then why do we need Xin Chi?
At that moment, Ji Xiang’s fingers suddenly stopped. “Let’s go to the main palace.”
Hearing this, everyone shut up and quickly followed after him.
Soon, they arrived at the main palace. The main palace was honoring relics[1].
Once here, Ji Xiang quickly used his abacus as the sound of clicking got faster and faster. However, he soon stopped and once again told them to move. “No, it’s not here. Let’s go to the next palace.”
Everyone silently followed him to the next palace.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang was curious as to why Ji Xiang was doing this.
Isn’t he afraid that he might end up missing someone from the Sitting Oblivion Dao?
Just as they were about to walk out of the palace, a group of monks approached them. An old monk led them as the others surrounded Li Huowang’s group while holding Bo Staves.
“Who are you? Why are you breaking the rule of no killing inside our temple?” shouted one of the monks beside the old monk.
In response, Li Huowang held onto his sword and asked, “Who are you?”
“Are you blind? We are the monks of the Buddha’s Skeleton Temple.”
Hearing his words, the three of them turned to look at the tall Xin Chi. Only he could determine who among them was from the Sitting Oblivion Dao.
It was only when he nodded that all of them sighed in relief.
After that, Tuoba Danqing stepped forward and showed off his identity plate and said, “We are from the Surveillance Bureau. Return back to your rooms and don’t come out!”
The monks who heard his words all frowned. All of them looked at the old monk.
In return, the old monk clasped his hands and asked, “Amitabha, may I know why are you here in my temple? Nothing has happened in the temple for the past few days and everything is calm.”
“Of course, you would think that the temple is calm. But you have no idea that underneath the calmness, a lot of people have infiltrated into the temple. Go back to your rooms and don’t come out!”
This time, the monks heeded his warning and dispersed.
Just as Ji Xiang was about to bring them to the next location, Li Huowang stopped them and asked, “Wait, don’t you think that something is wrong? Everything is too normal here. The Sitting Oblivion Dao is a group of people that loves to trick others for fun, to the point that they would even risk their lives. Things would never be this peaceful if they came here.”
“Don’t deduce this on your own. The informants of the Surveillance Bureau are much smarter than you. If they have detected that the Sitting Oblivion Dao is here, then they are definitely here,” said Hong Da.
However, Li Huowang shook his head. “No, I’m not saying that the Sitting Oblivion Dao isn’t here. All I’m saying is that maybe there’s another reason behind why the SItting Oblivion Dao infiltrated this place rather than just doing their regular petty tricks.”
Li Huowang thought that Ji Xiang would contemplate on his words, but the man merely frowned and said, “Just do your job.”
Then, he turned to exit the palace.
What’s going on?
With this, Li Huowang was even more bewildered. It was as if Ji Xiang knew what the Sitting Oblivion Dao was doing.
As he followed them, Li Huowang knew that something was wrong as he followed them.
That eunuch must be holding something back from us.
At this point, Li Huowang thought that the whole mission was fishy even though he hadn’t even seen the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s shadows.
As Li Huowang’s boots stepped onto the clean marble floor, his footsteps echoed loudly. This time, rather than observing the devotees and the monks, he concentrated on Ji Xiang instead.
After much observation, Li Huowang saw what was wrong.
If Ji Xiang had been fighting against the Sitting Oblivion Dao, then he should’ve been paying attention to the people around them. Rather than that, he was instead concentrating on the pillars of the temple. At the same time, his abacus never stopped; it was as if he was looking for something.
Is he looking for something specific?
Li Huowang didn’t dare ask the question because he didn’t know Ji Xiang’s true power.
“Benefactor Er, five steps to the left, kill!”
Hearing the command, Li Huowang unsheathed his sword halfway before seeing that it was a woman praying diligently on the prayer mat. Thus, he sheathed his sword back.
1. pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are apparently found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters. Believed to embody the spiritual knowledge, teachings, realizations or living essence of spiritual masters. ?
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