Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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“…” Shi Changxuan looked helpless after hearing Xie Lingya’s words. He really couldn’t answer this question.
Speaking of which, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many folk sects, and Hongyang Taoism was once the leader and the most powerful.
After being dormant for decades, they finally revived, but today was different from the past, people’s thoughts were different, and they no longer had the same momentum as before, so Xie Lingya had never heard of their existence.
Lian Tan also clasped his hands and said: “I have dealt with Hongyang Taoism at the end of the last century. They built private temples in rural areas. Except for Han Zu, the founder of the religion, the three religions halls enshrine Confucius, Sakyamuni Buddha and Laozi. Behind them are Guanshiyin, and there are Maitreya Buddha, God, the Holy Mother, Sun Wukong, the Jade Emperor, etc…”
“Wait a minute,” Xie Lingya stopped, “Well, God, I just knew, what’s going on with Sun Wukong?”
Lian Tan innocently looked at Xie Lingya, “Yeah!”
What did “Yeah” mean? The old monk was still cute despite his age.
Xie Lingya covered his face, “Forget it, let’s continue talking.”
Lian Tan said: “The temple was built with donations. There was a theater outside. Temple fairs were held every first and fifteenth day of the lunar month to attract people with programs and then preach. Most people who followed Hongyang Dao lived at home because there were not enough temples. And the temple was demolished later, and I haven’t heard from them for more than ten years.”
Fang Xushan asked Mrs. He: “So what is the connection between layman He and Hongyang Dao?”
The way layman He died was the same as the death of the daughter of a believer in Lian Tan’s Temple. Although the two were followers of different religions, after learning about it just now, everyone knew that Hongyang Dao was even popular with Sun Wukong, so there was a quite high correlation.
Mrs. He thought for a moment, then just shook her head, “He will ignore any preaching from other religions, and my family does not have such scriptures.”
But Mr. He thought of something, and suddenly said: “The only weird thing about dad before his death was… He received several harassing phone calls. I heard him say something about tea twice, and thought somebody was selling Amway. Now that I think about it, he said something like “I don’t believe it.” Sales promotion was very common, especially for tea and wine.
Xie Lingya said: “Just not believing is not enough to explain anything. Maybe the original sentence is ‘I don’t believe sales promotion only sells it for 4.5 yuan’ or something like that.”
This also made sense. Many telemarketing calls were just deceptive.
Shi Changxuan asked nonchalantly: “Are there any patients in the home of layman He?”
Mentioning this, Mrs. He was a little sad, “Mom is old, has coronary heart disease and asthma, and it is very uncomfortable when she suffers an attack. She is still in the hospital. So we didn’t even dare to tell her about Lao He’s death.”
Shi Changxuan said in a deep voice: “Hongyang Taoist people like to treat diseases with tea.”
In the past, many Taoist priests would treat people and preach to people. It sounded like He Jushi had indeed been in contact with Hongyang Dao, but the other party may have been unilaterally entangling him.
Layman He had been in the channel for so long. He was a very sober person. He was also very pious, but he did not think that his mother could get well without going to the hospital when she was sick. And based on his understanding of Taoism, he probably knew that it was not an authentic form of Taoism as soon as he heard Hongyang Taoism.
“Did they harm him because layman He refused to believe them?” Xie Lingya found it unbelievable, but when he thought about it, if he could understand the heretical thoughts, he would have gone crazy.
Lian Tan also said: “You can’t speculate based on normal people’s thinking.”
“Abbot Fang, what should we do now? Can we find the murderer? Moreover is the soul of our old He gone?” Although Mrs. He did not believe in religion, but she also understood some things through her husband’s eyes and ears.
On the one hand, she hoped that the murderer would be brought to justice, and on the other hand, she hoped that after her husband died, he could be saved according to the religious rituals he believed in. Now that the ghost was said to have disappeared, how could Lao He rest in peace.
“I haven’t done anything yet, so I don’t know if I can summon his soul, but according to what Master Lian Tan said, it’s more likely to bring disaster than good.” Fang Xushan looked solemn, “I’ll give it a try first. If I can’t summon it, I’ll try again. I’ll also ask Chenghuang Land, where is the soul of layman He?”
This was all they could do for the time being. In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that they may not be able to recruit the soul.
….
Because he had to perform religious rituals, he only brought tools when he came, and he also had to go out to buy the offerings. A few people went out to buy things and chatted while avoiding the host’s household matters.
“Master Fang, this matter involves our two religions. I hope we can work together on this matter.” Lian Tan said while walking.
“Of course.” Fang Xushan nodded, “The magic of Hongyang Dao combines some methods of the two religions. Let’s discuss it more thoroughly together.”
The two of them discussed in a serious voice while choosing fruits in the supermarket.
Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan stood not far behind, holding on to the trolley. They heard a passerby say curiously: “How come the monk and the Taoist priest have such a good relationship, and they even go to the supermarket together.”
He probably thought that Xie Lingya was not the same as them and still seek affirmation.
Xie Lingya asked him: “Have you seen the Dream of Red Chamber[1]?”
A passer-by said: “…”
After buying the things and going back, Fang Xushan set up an altar in the living room to save the ghosts, but when it came to summoning the ghosts, there was no layman there. Fang Xushan had already felt this, so he sighed, and then appealed to the land god.
However, the results of the divination were different every time, and it was obvious that the gods could not tell.
Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan took out the two Reporting Gods and tried to ask them to divine. The Reporting God belonged to the wooden divination technique. It usually reported the things around the owner, but it could also be used to predict something specifically, but it may not be useful, depending on the ability.
Xie Lingya placed the Hongyang Tao classic in front of them and asked them to do some calculations.
Liu Lingtong got stuck, “Uh… uh…” and finally cried, “I can’t figure it out, I can’t figure it out…”
Although Phytolacca God didn’t cry, he still said in frustration: “This question is so difficult. Oh.”
Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan both frowned. One of them was an innate wood spirit, and the other was made by Pei Xiaoshan. They were powerful and had stronger divination abilities. Now they couldn’t calculate a single word, and just now, they couldn’t even see the land. The power behind this must not be simple.
“Although this is not Queshan Province…but let me ask about the Yin Temple.” Xie Lingya also set up an altar and summoned the Yin soldiers of the city god here.
The strongman from other provinces was not as affectionate and respectful to Xie Lingya as Queshan’s, but his attitude was pretty good. He looked around and seemed to have no use for himself, and asked, “What’s the matter, Master?”
Xie Lingya burned a pile of gold ingots, due to which the other party’s expression immediately softened, and he put on a faint smile.
“It’s like this. The male owner here, He Fangming, died mysteriously and suddenly a few days ago. We wanted to save him, but there was no ghost, so we asked the Yin Temple for help.” Xie Lingya said.
It turned out to be inquiring about the whereabouts of the ghost. The strongman breathed a sigh of relief. This was a side project. Logically speaking, things in the underworld could not be revealed at will, but they just wanted to know why the ghosts couldn’t be summoned. “Let me check it out. He Fangming often gives us food and burns paper. So, I have an impression of him.”
The strongman then turned around and inquired. He came after half an hour and said in surprise: “This man died unexpectedly before his life span was over. It was because of the grace of the master that he was promoted to the Yin Temple as a servant, but the servant did not find his soul, but was taken to another place?”
Fang Xushan became anxious when he heard this, and burned a lot of ingots, “I’m afraid he was lured away by Hongyang Taoist. Since He Jushi was originally going to be an errand, although he has not yet joined the job, he has disappeared without a trace. Can Li Shi Report it to the City God to investigate this matter.”
The strongman said, “If you write the form, I will hand it over.”
Fang Xushan immediately spread out a piece of paper and wrote an article explaining the process and burned it to the strongman.
The strongman read the article once, rolled it up and stuck it in his waist, “It’s done, I’ll present it for you.”
“Thank you, Lishi.” Everyone sent the strongman away.
“What should we do next?” Mrs. He and Mr. He asked anxiously as they watched them doing it in a fog.
“Go to the police station.” Xie Lingya picked up the scripture, “We can’t just point at the Yin Temple. We have to take action in the Yang world as well.”
Moreover, this place was one province away from the ancestral court of the Pure Land Sect, which proved the scope of Hongyang Dao’s crimes was becoming even wider.
“…” Mrs. He said hesitantly, “How, how do you tell the police?”
“Just provide clues.” Xie Lingya also thought about it. Although they could use souls as evidence, they could forget it. How could you enter this kind of thing into the file?
However, fortunately, Master Lian Tan brought clues to another case, and the fact that He Jushi received the tea call could prove to some extent that the two were related. The police were now pursuing clues and would definitely be interested in this “coincidence”.
Mrs. He nodded, and she had decided that no matter what the cost, she must find the murderer who killed her husband.
….
After reporting the clues to the police, it was already getting late.
Monk Lian Tan said that he would place an order at a local Buddhist temple and he would continue to look for clues tomorrow. Everyone would keep in touch and share whatever they found.
Fang Xushan really wanted to ask Xie Lingya to continue to act together, but the Taoist group would visit the Taoist College tomorrow and would then leave the day after tomorrow for the next stop. As for Hongyang Dao’s clues, they didn’t know when they would appear again. Xie Lingya couldn’t stay here forever.
Besides…
“Do you think Hongyang Taoists are still in this city?”
They didn’t know enough about Hongyang Taoists. They didn’t know how they were active now, where they were based, and whether they would stay there after committing the crime or go to preach somewhere else.
“If necessary, call us when there are clues.” Xie Lingya said.
Fang Xushan was overjoyed. Because of all the difficulties today, he had a vague sense of the difficulty and was really not too sure about handling it. If Xie Lingya didn’t say anything, he would probably have to ask the Taoist Association of his province for help by then.
Fortunately, Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan still had the habit of being influenced by their elders. They could go hundreds of miles away to pay homage to orphans. So, of course, they could also go thousands of miles away to help people catch evil sects that harm people.
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[1] Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone is an 18th-century Chinese novel authored by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It is known for its psychological scope and its observation of the worldview, aesthetics, lifestyles, and social relations of High Qing China