Chapter 139: Temple, Monk

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A lonely night, a lonely you, and a lonely bald monk ringing the bell...
Chen Jin had no idea how to describe the scene before him, other than perhaps... very lonely.
He had now reached the temple from the old fox demon's memories, though he hadn't yet found any trace of the fox. Instead, he found a monk inside the temple. The monk was an ordinary monk—the kind who ate vegetarian food, drank water, rang the bell, beat the wooden fish, and chanted scriptures. Apart from that, his only peculiarity was a fondness for "color" (se). Not that kind of color, but strictly the shades of the spectrum, the brilliant hues of the rainbow, and nothing more.
Chen Jin watched as the monk struck the aged bronze bell, the monk’s gaze not fixed on the instrument, but rather on the blooming flowers in the courtyard nearby. He had planted those flowers himself many years ago.
Beside the flowers grew lush, green vegetables, also planted by the monk. After all, he was a monk; growing vegetables was only natural.
Why was this monk so obsessed with "colors"? The reason was that he had originally been blind, but his sight had miraculously been restored later on. It had been on a bright, sunny day that his eyes healed, and afterward, he had come here to become a monk.
This was the story the monk had told Chen Jin. It was a simple tale, with many of its twists and crucial factors omitted. Chen Jin hadn't pried, simply listening to a story that intimately concerned the monk yet was told with the detachment of an outsider.
"Have you ever loved?" the monk asked softly and gently, walking over to Chen Jin's side after finishing his bell-ringing and his appreciation of "colors."
"I have," Chen Jin replied simply.
"Ah, I too have loved, and later loved even more deeply, which is why I came to be a monk." With bright eyes wide open, the monk gazed up at the distant river of stars.
"Me? I loved once, then stopped loving, and afterward... I just went back to being myself," Chen Jin picked up the thread of the conversation.
"I see..." The monk let out a long sigh.
"Monk, when did you arrive here?" Chen Jin asked.
"Three months ago. This place is wonderful, full of Buddhist spirit, so I came," the monk replied.
"Is that so? Do you know there's a demon here?" Chen Jin steered the conversation in a different direction.
"I do not. But as long as there is Buddha here, that is enough." The monk showed no alarm, his tone remaining calm and even.
"Monk, isn't there Buddha everywhere in this world? Yet demons are certainly not found everywhere," Chen Jin pressed on.
"Is that so? But I only know that there is Buddha here." The monk started slightly in surprise, then quickly regained his composure.
"Hmm." It seemed clear now that this temple was far from ordinary.

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After all, a monk with such a backstory had appeared here—how could a monk who opened with "Have you ever loved?" not have a tale to tell? And that tale was likely extremely melodramatic, enough to be adapted into an ancient romance drama full of passionate reunions and partings, with the plot revolving endlessly around the monk's formerly blind eyes.
Yet Chen Jin had not the slightest intention of getting entangled in such a potentially cliché romance. He was here to subdue demons and devils; how could he suddenly afford to indulge in leisure? Catching the demon remained his absolute priority.
Therefore, he interrupted his unnecessary conversation with the monk very promptly.
The monk was truly detached from worldly affairs, so he stopped talking as well, simply staring blankly up at the starlit sky.
After accompanying the monk in stargazing for ten minutes, Chen Jin dusted off his clothes and prepared to hit the road again. He had zero desire to spend the night in this temple. With such a monk around—a sentimental, melancholic monk—it was much better to leave. Who knew if the man might suddenly wake up in the dead of night to relieve himself and casually ask, "Do you have to pee urgently?"
Anyone subjected to that would surely give the monk a head full of bruises and shove him onto a lotus throne to enshrine him as a living Buddha.
So, Chen Jin bid farewell to the monk and stepped out of the temple. The monk made no attempt to persuade him to stay, merely handing Chen Jin a few homemade dry rations.
Chen Jin did not stand on ceremony and accepted all the flatbreads, offering a parting salute: "Immeasurable Heavenly尊."
Upon hearing this, the monk showed no annoyance, simply watching as Chen Jin turned and swept his sleeves away.
As expected, a monk with a past was truly different.
Chen Jin walked three miles through the wilderness below the temple and walked straight into a public cemetery.
Will-o'-the-wisps flickered amidst the graves, though these spectral flames were not actual wandering souls; the graveyard was surprisingly clean, devoid of lost ghosts because any lingering spirits had long since been drawn down into the netherworld.
Even if there were ghosts here, it was hard to say whose trouble it would turn out to be in the end.
Chen Jin took a circle around the cemetery before stepping out into the untamed, desolate mountains.
In truth, Chen Jin had already scouted most of the surrounding area just as night was falling. Now that the night had deepened even further, he still hadn't spotted anything unusual.
"Quite bold, aren't you? Come on out," Chen Jin stopped beside a patch of weeds and called out.
His voice, however, failed to frighten anyone out from the shadows.
Yet Chen Jin was by no means speaking at random; the Hunyuan Qi he had emitted and blended into the surroundings had indeed detected a little presence.
"Since that's how it is..." Chen Jin swept his Hunyuan Qi in a circle around him.

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Instantly, a tiny figure was scooped right out of the bushes by Chen Jin.
The little figure was a child, probably around ten years old. Of course, given the nutritional standards of this era, the child's age could perhaps be pushed up a year or two, making him roughly thirteen or fourteen.
Furthermore, the child was a human being, not a demon in disguise.
Lifted into midair by Chen Jin's Hunyuan Qi, the child dropped down right in front of him. Throughout the process, the boy's eyes were filled with nothing but excitement and yearning.
"Can I become your apprentice?" The moment he hit the ground, the child blurted out those very words.
"No," Chen Jin refused flatly.
Only then did Chen Jin take a careful look at the child.
The boy's face was sallow, likely due to malnutrition; his clothes were in tatters, and his hair was a tangled mess. Altogether, he looked like a miniature version of Chen Jin right after he had emerged from Mount Emei.
While Chen Jin silently appraised him, the child remained restless, calling out eagerly, "Immortal, Immortal, can I become your apprentice?"
"No, you lack aptitude," Chen Jin dismissed him casually. Whether the boy had aptitude or not couldn't necessarily be told at a single glance, but Chen Jin genuinely did not want to be saddled with dead weight.
"What is aptitude?" The child did not understand the meaning of the word.
"I'll send you back to that temple over there," Chen Jin said, turning to lead the boy toward the temple.
"Huh? Is there a temple over there?" the child asked in bewilderment.
"..." Hearing these words, Chen Jin froze in his tracks on the spot.