The ultimate master in the city

Chapter 30 Monk Yuanzhi Captures Demons

"Wait a moment!"

Zhou Fengchen ran along the curb as fast as he could, but a bald man in tattered clothes in front of him ran even faster, with half a piece of bread in his mouth, choking and rolling his eyes back.

Turning a corner, Zhou Fengchen was in a hurry to catch up. There were too many people on the street, and he couldn't use his lightness skill, so he could only shout: "Are you the monk Yuanzhi? Stop right there!"

The bald man stopped as soon as he heard this, turned around, his eyes widened, and the bread in his mouth fell to the ground.

"It really was you!"

This bald man was the one who captured the vengeful ghost Zhang Miao on the edge of the Qinling Mountains. Zhou Fengchen approached and looked him up and down. "Hey, Brother Yuanzhi, why are you running?"

Monk Yuanzhi sneered, the bread crumbled to pieces, and he burst into tears: "I thought the bakery owner was chasing after me! Brother! I never expected to run into you here, my life is so miserable!"

Zhou Fengchen was both amused and exasperated: "Why are you crying! What happened?"

"It's a long story!" Monk Yuanzhi wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, "Do you have any money on you? Please feed your stomach first. I haven't eaten for three days. I'm so hungry that my stomach is practically sticking to my back. A strong wind could blow me away."

……

Zhou Fengchen returned to the restaurant with Monk Yuanzhi. A table of customers had already arrived. The proprietress breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he had returned safely. Seeing that he had brought a monk friend, she asked him what had happened and said that the restaurant was not busy and suggested that he and the monk chat while he prepared a couple of dishes.

The proprietress was so understanding that Zhou Fengchen felt a little embarrassed. Soon, two small dishes were served. Monk Yuanzhi ignored Zhou Fengchen and ate three bowls of rice. He then ate all the dishes, patted his fat belly, and let out a long sigh: "Refreshing! This dish is authentically Northeastern style. I like it."

Zhou Fengchen, who hadn't disturbed him while he was eating, was now filled with questions and asked, "What happened to you? Where's your brocade cassock?"

Monk Yuanzhi's face turned pale. He sighed and said, "I'm still confused about this matter. I can only say I survived because of the good deeds I've done in my life..."

It is said that when Monk Yuanzhi was in the Qinling Mountains, he and Zhou Fengchen encountered a demonic aura soaring into the sky. He was quite frightened at the time, fearing that he would be entangled by the demonic aura. After parting ways with Zhou Fengchen, he hurriedly rushed to the county town and took a car straight to Baolian Temple in northern Jiangsu.

There was an old monk in that temple who was highly skilled in Buddhism, and he got along very well with him. A few years ago, the old monk had talked to him about things related to cultivating immortality and becoming an animal. He was planning to ask the old monk for guidance and to ask where all the monsters in the world came from.

When he arrived at the place, he heard that the old monk had been dead for half a year. The other monks in the temple didn't really respect him. He barely managed to mooch some incense and coarse food for two days, but he was very bored. Just then, he remembered that he had a relative in Laozao Village, which was eighty miles away from the temple.

This relative was his cousin, who had married far away to this place many years ago. When his parents were alive, the two families often visited each other and had a good relationship. In recent years, however, he had been traveling all over the country and had little contact with his family, so they had become somewhat estranged. Therefore, he left the temple and went to the county town at the foot of the mountain to buy three packs of snacks and two bags of soy milk powder. He carried them in a large plastic bag and prepared to visit a relative.

When we arrived at the village, it was afternoon. The suona horns were playing loudly at the village entrance, mixed with sobbing and wailing. A line of white funeral processions was slowly leaving the village.

Monk Yuanzhi was also a fan of excitement. He went to the roadside to peek and watch. Seeing the filial sons and daughters crying so sadly, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself, thinking to himself, "They didn't take care of their parents while they were alive, and now they're grieving after they're dead. It's quite amusing how they're crying."

Just then, a large red coffin carried by eight people passed by. From a distance, he could smell a strong stench of corpses. He covered his nose and quickly backed away, wondering why the dead person in the coffin hadn't been cremated. They must be quite bold.

Since the 1990s, the law has stipulated that if a person dies without cremation and is buried, not only will they be fined, but their body will also be dug up, burned, and reburied. This not only wastes money but also disturbs the peace of the deceased, leaving the deceased with no one to please.

Just then, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and a surprised voice said, "Cousin, what brings you here?"

Monk Yuanzhi turned his head and saw that it was his cousin's son. He felt a sense of kinship and said with a smile, "Hey! Cousin, it's been a few years. How is your aunt doing? I missed her, so I came to visit."

As they spoke, they both felt a hostile gaze and immediately felt embarrassed. Someone had died, and what did it mean for them to be laughing and joking around? They quickly changed direction and went into the village.

On the way, his cousin casually mentioned that the person who had just died was only forty-five or forty-six years old, and had died in a motorcycle accident after drinking too much. Monk Yuanzhi had seen many deaths over the years, all kinds of deaths, so he didn't listen and instead asked about his aunt's family.

His uncle died of illness when he was young, and his aunt raised two children by herself. She worked so hard to raise them to adulthood that she went blind. His aunt had been good to him when he was a child, and this visit was mainly to see the old lady.

Upon arriving in the village, we entered a two-story house. An elderly woman, hunched over and leaning on a cane, greeted us. "Is it Lunar New Year? I thought I heard him speaking?"

Upon hearing this, Monk Yuanzhi's eyes reddened, and he almost burst into tears. Since his parents died, who would still care about him like this? He quickly stepped forward to help the old lady up, thinking to himself that he should stay here for a few more days and keep her company.

Monk Yuanzhi stayed at his aunt's house for four days. In the evenings, he chatted with the old lady about trivial matters, and during the day, he went fishing with his cousin. He was quite carefree. On the afternoon of the fourth day, he thought he should leave, otherwise his relatives would get annoyed. But then, strange things suddenly happened in the village!

The dead man he saw when he entered the village four days ago has come back to life. His family just took him back from the grave, and now the whole village has rushed over to see what's going on.

Monk Yuanzhi was stunned on the spot. He was in this line of work, but he had never heard of a person whose body was rotting and had been buried for four days being able to come back to life in broad daylight!

He grabbed his cousin and asked, "Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

My cousin said, "What's wrong with this? He's not really dead yet. Let's go take a look."

Monk Yuanzhi followed his cousin to the house, where they saw a crowd gathered outside. A middle-aged man with a slightly bluish complexion stood by the gate, surrounded by his family, smiling and greeting everyone.

My cousin pointed at the man and said, "That's him! Tsk tsk, he's got a tough life!"

Monk Yuanzhi stared at the man and carefully examined him. Upon looking at him, he broke out in a cold sweat. The man's face was blank and his body was lifeless. He didn't look like a living person at all.

At that moment, someone in the crowd asked, "Uncle Ma Zi, how did you come back to life?"

The man laughed and said, "Even the King of Hell wouldn't take me; he let me come back to live a few more years!"

He then spoke at length, and his words and actions did not arouse any suspicion from the villagers.

The villagers couldn't see it, but Monk Yuanzhi was very clear about it. He was certain that this guy had a problem, but as for what exactly was wrong, even with his mediocre skills, he couldn't quite figure it out.

After returning to his cousin's house, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, so he told his cousin about it.

His cousin knew about his experiences over the past few years, but he just thought he was fooling around and didn't have any real skills. He said, "What business is it of ours if he's alive? If he's alive, he's alive."

Monk Yuanzhi had originally planned to leave, but now that this had happened, he was worried about his aunt's family and decided to stay and check on them.

That night, in the dead of night, he lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Just as he was wondering whether he should get up and chant some scriptures, he suddenly heard a heart-wrenching scream coming from the village. His heart skipped a beat, and he thought to himself, "Oh no, something must have happened." He quickly got up.

Once outside, the couple, Yuanzhi and his wife, also woke up. The three of them exchanged glances, all feeling puzzled. Yuanzhi immediately pulled his cousin along, saying, "Let's go! Let's go take a look."