Chapter 735 - 736: Giving Ideas

Chapter 735: Chapter 736: Giving Ideas

Southern Zhanbu Continent, Cangwu Kingdom.

This neighboring kingdom to Xuanwu was currently caught in a strange frenzy.

Nobody knew what had gotten into the monks who should have been peacefully reciting their sutras in the temples — they’d actually started promoting something called the Small Vehicle Buddhist Teachings.

At first, everyone assumed it was just a normal Buddhist activity.

Until the activity exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Suddenly, a wave of Buddhist cultivators flooded into Cangwu Kingdom to spread the Small Vehicle, and all the temples in the kingdom sprang into action simultaneously.

Under the banner of "Small Vehicle saves people and accumulates personal merit," they began purchasing land on a massive scale, breaking new ground, while attracting poor commoners with extremely low rents.

All the newly cultivated and acquired land belonged to the Central Province Buddhist Sect.

Stone steles were erected throughout the fields, carved with crude but imposing characters — Great Thunder Temple.

This kind of action by the Buddhist sect clearly overstepped normal bounds. Under ordinary circumstances, other immortal sects based in Cangwu would have stepped in to stop it.

After all, preventing the Buddhist sect from expanding unchecked served every immortal sect’s interests. And then there was the absurd business of purchased land belonging to the Central Province Buddhist Sect.

Buddhist cultivators with actual powers going around promoting the Small Vehicle — in normal times, they’d at least be criticized by other sects for deceiving the common people.

But this time, the situation was abnormal to the extreme. Every immortal sect based in Cangwu had nearly ignored the Buddhist sect’s actions, with barely any criticism or rumors spreading.

Those with discerning eyes naturally sensed the anomaly — this was a major Buddhist operation.

Though nobody understood what the Buddhist sect intended, they clearly recognized the Buddhist cultivators with actual powers.

When the land the Buddhist sect had reclaimed wasn’t enough to continue absorbing poor tenants, a notice of "Land Offering" was posted at every temple in Cangwu.

Though the notice nominally stated it was voluntary, every temple had Buddhist cultivators backing them. Land offered would also be protected by the Buddhist sect, and the temples would share in the benefits.

The monks weren’t stupid — they knew perfectly well this notice was meant for them to see.

After all, the rich households weren’t fools either. Why would they actually cough up their family fortune for so-called Land Offering? Even if they did, how much would they really give?

Everyone understood one principle — snatching always yields more than taking!

The temples began using the pretext of alms collection to hope the rich households would offer their land — look at all those starving people outside. If they don’t eat, how do we accumulate merit?

If you won’t let me accumulate merit, then I’ll have to turn you into merit.

Killing sends you to hell, but saving a life builds seven levels of pagoda.

Hell has eighteen levels, but if you stack enough pagodas beneath your feet...

Nobody knew where this shameless argument had originated, but the intimidation factor was undeniably potent.

Especially since the tenants and commoners, who finally had something to look forward to, could now clearly see which way the wind was blowing.

The Small Vehicle was damn good — better hurry up and spread it across all of Cangwu, and let the monks exchange all that merit for grain that actually fills bellies.

This kind of support naturally gave the temples plenty of confidence — listen to the people’s cries, you selfish parasites!

A method better than outright robbery naturally stirred up a massive storm.

Land was the root; silver and coins were life.

The noble families who’d been resisting Li Junzi suddenly dropped her from their minds entirely.

Li Junzi was merely digging at their roots, but the Buddhist sect before them wanted their lives — and was already digging their coffins.

Soon, some noble families refused the Buddhist sect’s thinly veiled robbery, making their position perfectly clear — money is worth more than my entire family’s lives. You fake monks, if you’ve got the guts, go ahead and turn my whole family into merit.

The Buddhist cultivators naturally wouldn’t actually rush in and turn people into merit — there was still a vast gap between talk and action.

After all, the Buddhist sect was also bound by the rule of Immortal-Mortal Separation — immortal sects don’t interfere in mortal dynasties. Such brazen killing would be a clear violation.

The noble families quickly discovered that the Buddhist cultivators were all bark and no bite — they didn’t dare actually make a move.

And so a counterattack organized by the noble families swept through.

The Small Vehicle rollout, which had been gaining momentum, ground to an abrupt halt. As for the land marked with Great Thunder Temple steles, the noble families didn’t dare destroy those either — so the only ones they could target were the tenants.

Many tenants began being harassed, ordered to abandon the Small Vehicle and forbidden from farming Buddhist-owned land.

Monks without cultivation naturally couldn’t stand against the powerful and deeply rooted noble families. Those with cultivation, however, couldn’t do much to the noble families either — all they could do was protect the temples from being disturbed.

The once-thrushing Small Vehicle rollout was about to be extinguished in an instant.

This was the reality Wu Wang now faced.

Miaoyuan Temple.

Wu Wang looked at the numerous poor commoners in tattered clothes, filling the ground on their knees, all begging the Buddhist sect to protect them — at the very least, not to cast them out entirely.

Outside the gate, many people in proper clothing stood holding incense, circling Miaoyuan Temple — they neither spoke nor blocked anyone from burning incense and praying (though nobody dared come anyway).

Inside Miaoyuan Temple, besides Wu Wang, there was naturally someone responsible for supervising matters and evaluating whether the Small Vehicle could continue — this important task naturally fell to Yun Li.

Yun Li stood beside Wu Wang, looking at the poor commoners who nearly filled Miaoyuan Temple, and sighed softly:

"What a shame there’s the Immortal-Mortal Separation. Sects like ours can’t act without restraint like the evil cultivators."

"Fellow Daoist, you’ve seen the situation yourself now. If the Small Vehicle can’t even be effectively rolled out in this one small kingdom..."

Yun Li didn’t finish, but the meaning was perfectly clear.

Wu Wang’s expression remained calm, but he didn’t respond.

Yun Li studied Wu Wang’s expression, then carefully recalled Master and Eldest Senior Sister’s instructions, and figured the reality was probably about what he’d expected.

After all, Wu Wang had been here for several days now, and in all that time, he hadn’t come up with a workable solution.

Yun Li gave a light cough and tested cautiously following the script:

"Fellow Daoist, if you’re out of ideas, then I’ll need to report back to the Sect Master."

At these words, Wu Wang’s gaze slowly turned to Yun Li:

"Fellow Daoist, perhaps a bit more patience."

Hearing this, Yun Li knew he had the upper hand. He put on a show of sighing, looking helpless:

"How can you say I lack patience? I’m responsible for this too. Having this succeed is better than failing — at least I’ll have something to report to Master."

Wu Wang performed a Buddhist salute:

"In that case, Fellow Daoist should grant me more time."

Yun Li sighed helplessly:

"Looking at your troubled expression, I can tell you’re stuck. What a pity for those who believed in your Small Vehicle... they’re all poor families. They could’ve survived, but now that they’ve believed in the Small Vehicle, they’re the first to be cast into the sea of suffering."

At this, Wu Wang finally couldn’t keep his composure. A flash of anger crossed his eyes as he looked toward the people standing outside the temple.

Yun Li saw this and finally spoke:

"Forget it. Consider it compassion for these poor people. I do have a method — though the consequences are obvious. If something goes wrong, I won’t take responsibility, and my Sect Master won’t either. In the future, I won’t admit to having suggested this."

Wu Wang didn’t turn around. His voice was cold:

"What method?"

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