Chapter 81 - The Benevolent Nunnery
“Ha~ Ha~” Li Huowang’s forehead was beaded with sweat as he placed his hands on his knees and panted for air.
He had already been climbing for four hours but had not yet reached his destination. The Nunnery was much higher up than he had imagined.
Li Huowang struggled to lift his head; the winding dirt path seemed to have no end as it stretched upward endlessly.
Li Huowang gritted his teeth, then grabbed a nearby vine and continued to climb.
By the time his legs had become extremely sore, he finally caught sight of the gate of the Benevolent Nunnery.
He wiped off the sweat on his chin with the back of his hand and then subconsciously glanced at the couplet on the sides of the gate. But what surprised him was that he could not understand the couplet of this Nunnery at all.
It was not because of Dan Yangzi’s influence that he could not recognize these words. Instead, it was due to their appearance—those words looked very strange.
The words seemed to be rhomboidal in shape, with the right-side higher and the left-side lower. The characters were slanted and elongated, and they seemed to be ancient words, yet there were traces of many familiar characters.
“These are... Characters? Or something else?” Puzzled, Li Huowang walked up to and touched them.
After carefully examining them for a while, he continued toward the nunnery.
However, after he entered, the speech that he had prepared beforehand could not be used; there was no one here that he could talk to.
There was not a single person in sight within the square that was covered in overgrown weeds. This formed a stark contrast with the crowds he saw back at the Righteous Monastery.
“Is anybody here?” Li Huowang’s voice reverberated in the square, yet nobody appeared.
Li Huowang glanced both ways before heading toward the main hall before him. There was no incense within, yet it was not dark at all. The ceiling had holes, and the rays of sunlight illuminated everything within.
The Bodhisattva statue in the middle of the large hall was also covered with gray dust and spiderwebs. Li Huowang would have almost not recognized that this was a Bodhisattva statue if not for the lotus seat beneath it.
Is there a mistake? This Nunnery seems to be completely deserted.
Just as Li Huowang was thinking that, a snore caught his attention. He followed the sound to its source and saw a large meatball rising and falling behind the Bodhisattva statue.
Only after approaching it did he realize that it was not a meatball but the exposed belly of a fat nun.
She was sleeping face-up on the icy-cold floor, snoring with her mouth open and releasing a putrid stench toward them.
Black clothes, fat, and dirty. These were all correct. This was a nun from the Benevolent Nunnery.
Frowning, Li Huowang tried to determine whether this was a good or a bad person. Based on Li Zhi’s description, these nuns were good people. However, while he didn’t know the veracity of that claim, given the current state of this nunnery and looking at this nun, he concluded that even bad people would not want to have much interaction with her.
“Venerable master, Xuan Yang from Zephyr Temple has an urgent matter to discuss,” Li Huowang raised his voice and greeted the large meatball.
However, the fat nun’s snoring showed no signs of stopping—she didn’t wake up at all.
Is she pretending to ignore me?
Li Huowang stepped forward and raised his voice more. “Venerable master! Xuan Yang from Zephyr Temple has an urgent matter to discuss!”
Yet, there was still no response.
Li Huowang was about to go up to her and shout into her ear but was repulsed by the strong stench coming from her body. This stench was a combination of smelly socks, durian, and fermented sweat. It was quite unbearable.
Before he could come up with anything else, the fat nun trembled and sat up on her own.
She used her stubby fingers to rub off the yellowed eye boogers. Then, without even opening her eyes, she swayed toward the side door. “Aiya, time for a meal.”
“Venerable master! Xuan Yang from Zephyr Temple has an urgent matter to discuss!” repeated Li Huowang.
This time, Li Huowang was not ignored. The fat nun jumped in fright, and at the same time, her extremely oily chin also trembled with her.
“You scared me. How come you walk so silently?” asked the nun.
Conflicted, Li Huowang remained rooted on the spot. He was now more concerned about whether the nuns here even had the ability to help him deal with Dan Yangzi rather than questioning their intentions.
"Go and burn incense on your own if you want to pay respects to Buddha! Don't delay my meal!" The fat nun said in an icy tone before continuing to walk inside with her humongous legs.
This time, Li Huowang didn't say anything and just followed behind her.
The entire nunnery was quite large, but also quite dilapidated. If the main hall's Bodhisattva statue was already so shabby, then the other Bodhisattva statues were likely to be even shabbier.
There were some inscriptions beside some of the hall entrances, but they were identical to those from the gate he saw earlier.
"Master, what characters are these?" Li Huowang asked.
"Women's script. You can't understand it. This script is only passed down to women, not men," replied the nun.
Although she answered the question, the nun seemed very impatient and directly walked inside.
As the environment inside became increasingly unfamiliar, Li Huowang continued following her without any hesitation. Everything here seemed real, without the strange feeling he had back at the hospital.
Whether it was due to him having consumed too much Black Taisui or due to him having spent a long time dealing with hallucinations, ordinary illusions had no impact on him. He could easily distinguish them from reality, even if they were effective in fooling his senses.
After wandering around for a while, Li Huowang followed the plump nun to an earthen house that had a chimney. He could hear some commotion from within, indicating that there were people inside. He knew that they were all nuns just based on the heavy stench coming from within.
He saw the fat nun rushing in with excitement, then frowned before taking a deep breath. Then, he pinched his nose and resisted the urge to tear up before following her inside.
As soon as he entered, he could hear sounds of lips smacking, as well as the sound of food being chewed and swallowed.
For a moment, he almost thought that he was at a pigsty.
At this moment, a group of black-clothed fat nuns were gathered around a black pot, chomping away at its contents. They were not even using any chopsticks or bowls, directly using their hands to grab the food from within the pot.
They were enjoying their meal so much that they didn’t even respond to Li Huowang, a living person who was standing right there.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang could only blindly guess that they were eating some sort of vegetable fried rice.
Li Huowang was turning red from holding his breath. When he tried to breathe, he felt the stench in the air irritate his throat.
Finally, his actions attracted some attention. A fat nun who had just finished eating got up and gave her seat to him as she sucked her fingers.
“Do you want to have a vegetarian meal? 200 copper coins per person,” asked the nun.
Li Huowang was happy upon hearing money being mentioned.
“No need. However, there’s something that I need your help with,” said Li Huowang as he tossed over a golden bean.
“Gold!” The fat nun excitedly stuffed the golden bean into her mouth and chewed on it with her yellowed teeth. After verifying the authenticity of the gold, she spit it back out, mixed with vegetable leaves and saliva.
“Do you want to buy pigs? How many? Our Nunnery has the fattest pigs,” offered the nun.
As Li Huowang saw her approaching him, he took a step back. “No. I heard that the venerable masters of the Benevolent Nunnery are very knowledgeable. Hence, this time I’ve come to seek help from the Nunnery to exorcize some evil spirits.”
“Hahaha~! Aren’t you a Taoist? You’re asking us nuns to help you exorcize evil spirits? Hahaha~” asked the nun, laughing.
Her laughter seemed to be quite contagious as the other nuns also started laughing.
Finally, even Li Huowang could not hold back anymore. “Hahah~!!”
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