Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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When they saw the old monk Lian Tan again, there was a younger monk beside him, about thirty years old, wearing glasses and looking gentle and elegant.
Lian Tan introduced that this was his disciple Tan Xing – not only did the Taoists become active, but after Lian Tan’s efforts, the monks also set their sights on Hongyang Dao. This time, the two religions could be said to have joined forces to attack.
The monks went into the temple to look for the missing items, while the Taoists searched near the palaces and temples. Although the government did not provide much support this time like in the last case of cultural relics theft, surveillance footage was still available.
There was a Bixia Yuanjun Temple in Qiwu. On this day, Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan came to this area. As it was the fifteenth day of the lunar month, many believers had come to burn incense.
The two followed the crowd into the Yuanjun Temple, only to see that most of the people inside were female Taoists. Bixia Yuanjun was also called Taishan Niangniang. It was said that she protected all living beings, observed the good and evil in the world, and her ancestral temple was in Mount Tai. From ancient times to the present, women like to worship Bixia Yuanjun the most, because she could bless women to give birth to children and keep children healthy.
Xie Lingya chatted with the believers who lived nearby. He didn’t hear anything unusual for the time being, but he made himself thirsty. Seeing the female Taoist priest serving tea, he asked for a cup. The tea was provided for free.
The female Taoist looked at him gently: “Is that enough?”
“Enough, thank you.” Xie Lingya smiled.
The Taoist woman asked, “Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?”
This was too good to be true. She even sent him food. Xie Lingya quickly shook his head and said, “No thanks.”
The Taoist woman didn’t force him, but Xie Lingya saw that she would also ask other people if they were hungry. If they were hungry, there would be vegetarian food.
At the entrance of the main hall, Xie Lingya saw an old lady asking a Taoist priest, “When does the class start this week?”
The Taoist priest smiled and said, “Today is fine. You can stay or come in the evening.”
The old lady had also brought a young man with her. When she walked out, she said, “The abbot is kind-hearted and is willing to give us lessons and share with us. Those scriptures are treasures.”
The young man said absent-mindedly, “How are they treasures?”
The old lady said, “The abbot renovated the temple a few years ago and found a cloth bag under the floor tiles. There were scriptures in it. They are the originals left by the immortal master hundreds of years ago.”
The young man: “You’re kidding. It hasn’t rotted after hundreds of years?”
The old lady glared at him, “Do you think scriptures must be written on paper? And they were left by the immortal master.”
The grandmother and grandson walked away. Xie Lingya felt a little uneasy after hearing this. His intuition told him that something was wrong. Xie Lingya turned around and saw that Shi Changxuan had already entered the main hall, so he walked in as well.
Looking up, the statue of Bixia Yuanjun was sitting on it, wearing colorful clothes and holding a baby in her arms. Around her were the Goddess of Childbirth, the Goddess of Vision, and many plastic dolls in red bellybands with different postures, and there were women holding the dolls in their arms.
This was not disrespectful to the gods, nor was it troublemaking or stealing.
This was an old custom called “tying the doll”, where women who wanted to have children would go to the Bixia Niangniang Temple, or Nuwa Temple, Guanyin Temple and other temples that had the function of blessing fertility, kneel down to worship the gods, tie a red rope around the doll’s neck, hold it with red cloth, hide it in their arms, take it home, and pray to have a child in the coming year.
In the past, dolls were all made of clay, and the Taoist priests in the temple would have people make them first. Times were different now, so of course it had become a plastic doll, but the meaning remained the same.
Generally speaking, you needed to donate more than two or three hundred yuan to tie a doll.
Shi Changxuan was staring at the believers. After Xie Lingya came in, the two stood together, and the female Taoist next to them asked them if they wanted to burn incense. If you don’t tie the doll, you don’t have to pay so much for incense. The incense here was free.
“No, thank you.” After refusing, Shi Changxuan left the main hall with Xie Lingya.
Xie Lingya relayed what he just heard to Shi Changxuan and then said: “My sixth sense tells me that something is wrong.”
Shi Changxuan also said: “Of course it’s not right, tying dolls here is free.”
Xie Lingya was shocked. “Tea is free, vegetarian meals are free, incense is free, even tying dolls is free, how do their Taoists live?”
He could understand reducing the fees to cost price, but completely free of charge was too incredible. Are they that rich?
“I took a closer look,” Shi Changxuan whispered, “quite a few people donated money voluntarily.”
That was to say, they had quite a few believers who supported them, and they were not short of the money from wholesale dolls.
Xie Lingya was stunned for a moment. He turned around to look at the bustling main hall and the kind-faced female Taoist priest and actually broke out in a cold sweat.
Their original guess was that the Hongyang Dao might be pretending to be monks and hiding near religious sites or hanging up their banners inside. But now, Xie Lingya had a terrible idea. Could this Yuanjun Temple also be one of the residences of Taoist Hongyang? Would the Taoists inside become their believers??
It would be ridiculous if a person in a formal religious place turned to evil ways. Moreover, they might also be in the Taoist Association, so they might know that someone has come to the head and tail…
But now it was just Xie Lingya’s guess, and it could not be judged based on the sixth sense and a few events. On the surface, there was nothing wrong with this, and they may even be doing a good thing.
Xie Lingya said solemnly: “Come again in the evening. They will give lectures in the evening. Maybe you will know after listening.”
Shi Changxuan nodded, and the two of them left the Yuanjun Temple together.
….
Xie Lingya contacted Lian Tan and Tan Xing and asked them about their gains. They said that they saw a monk holding a Hongyang Dao sutra in the temple. Upon asking, they found out that it was given to him by someone outside. He took a look out of curiosity to see if he could figure out what it was.
It could be seen that Qi Wu was indeed involved in Hongyang Dao activities. Xie Lingya also told him that he felt that the Yuanjun Temple here was a bit strange, so he decided to go and take a look at it at night and asked the two of them to go together.
Xie Lingya changed into dark clothes, and at night, the four of them went to Yuanjun Temple together. The temple gate was closed at this time, so of course they had to climb over the wall to get in.
Not to mention Shi Changxuan, who somehow managed to climb over the three-meter-high wall in one go.
Lian Tan’s apprentice, Tan Xing, looked gentle and refined. But when he rolled up his sleeves, it revealed his muscular arms. He jumped up and clung to the top of the wall, then supported himself and sat on it. He then turned around and pulled Lian Tan up with one hand.
Lian Tan’s physical strength was a little weak when he was not performing the ritual, but he was still agile, and in the blink of an eye, the three of them had jumped over the wall.
Xie Lingya gritted his teeth, jumped up by pushing off the wall, and nearly fell when he flipped over. Fortunately, Shi Changxuan held him.
At that moment, Xie Lingya almost shouted “Oh my God” because he escaped from danger, but Shi Changxuan was quick to cover his mouth with one hand. He stared at Shi Changxuan, nodded once, and nodded again, and only then did Shi Changxuan let go of his hand.
Xie Lingya had memorized the topographic map of the temple during the day. At this time, most places in the temple were dark and quiet with no one walking around. Xie Lingya recalled it in his mind, pointed in a direction and walked towards it.
There was a large hall in Yuanjun Temple, which was usually used for rituals and lectures. At this time, the lights were on. They hid outside and listened and vaguely heard some sounds coming out.
There were men and women, young and old, chanting in unison: “For eternity, the old mother has always been in the world with compassion. Now that we all hear the wonderful teachings, we kneel together at the altar…”
Xie Lingya turned his head to look at Shi Changxuan. He was not familiar with Yuanjun’s classics and didn’t know which passage this was.
Shi Changxuan whispered in his ear: “The old mother does not refer to Yuanjun, but the Wusheng Old Mother of Hongyang Taoism.”
After Shi Changxuan’s popular science, everyone knew that Hunyuan Taoism worships gods from many sects, but there were three revered gods, namely Hunyuan Patriarch, Wusheng Old Mother and Piao Gao Patriarch. Among them, Patriarch Piao Gao was Han Taihu, the founder of the religion, who was revered as a deity after his death.
Therefore, this god and that goddess, this place was indeed one of the hideouts of Hongyang Dao!
He didn’t know if the people inside knew that what they believed in had nothing to do with Bixia Yuanjun.
Xie Lingya quietly took out his cell phone, held it just below the window, and took a few pictures. Then he turned around gently and led everyone to retreat to a corner a little further away. Tan Xing then asked him, “Aren’t we going in?”
“Why should we go in? What should we do if they beat us up? We may not be able to sober up the believers in a short time. Do the four of us still want to outflank them?” Xie Lingya said, “I took pictures and will report them tomorrow. This is illegal, and we will wipe out all of them then.”
Tan Xing thought about it and it made sense. They could fight against the priests alone, but there were still so many believers.
“Let’s go, let’s go.” Although there was no one around, Xie Lingya still said in a low voice as usual and returned the same way.
Lian Tan and Tan Xing climbed up the wall and jumped out. Shi Changxuan also jumped to the top of the wall, turned around and offered his hand to Xie Lingya. He could see that Xie Lingya had some difficulty jumping over the wall before, after all, he had never practiced before.
Xie Lingya smiled at him, stretched out his hand to pull him and was about to kick the wall, but Shi Changxuan’s eyes suddenly changed, and it seemed as if something was restraining his hands and he could not lift them.
Xie Lingya looked down and saw that a plastic doll wearing a red bellyband had appeared one meter away from his feet. The doll had bright eyes, a plump and fair face, bright red lips, and was holding a red rope in its hand. The other end of the rope was tied to Xie Lingya’s wrist.
The plastic doll opened its mouth, revealing a cheerful smile in the night, and a coquettish child’s voice rang out from it: “Brother, can you tie me up and take me home?”
Although it was an innocent and cute child’s voice, it gave Xie Lingya a chill!
Shi Changxuan also had a cold expression on his face. He reached out to pull out the peach wood sword behind him, but he heard the Reporting God on his shoulder yelling in despair: “Shame on you!!”
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