Chapter 71: The Mountain God Temple Turns into a Child-Giving Temple?

Mo Lin flew through the air.

Passing over the Mountain God Temple where he had previously encountered the Bear, he immediately noticed something off.

“Has this temple gotten bigger?”

Circling in the sky for a while, Mo Lin discovered that the Bear’s Mountain God Temple had indeed been expanded.

Inside, there were now even streams of people coming and going to burn incense and worship.

Although the worshippers were not especially many, considering that the temple’s owner was a Bear, this was extremely strange.

Even stranger was that these worshippers turned out to be almost all young women.

“What has that Bear been up to? It hasn’t even been that long, and the temple has already been expanded?”

“And so many worshippers are coming and going—does it not fear attracting the attention of the Bureau of Heaven Monitoring?”

“Wait, is that a plaque hanging on the Mountain God Temple?”

After devouring the Black Eagle Pearl, Mo Lin not only gained the ability to fly, but also found that his eyesight had been enhanced several times over, no longer the poor vision of an ordinary Snake Demon.

Even from a distance of a thousand meters, Mo Lin could now see clearly.

With the sharp eyes of an eagle, he saw the plaque currently hanging on the Mountain God Temple—

Child-Giving Temple.

“Child-Giving Temple?!”

Mo Lin’s expression turned odd.

What nonsense was a Child-Giving Temple?

Hadn’t that Bear previously been disguising itself as a Shaman to abduct young boys and girls?

Why the sudden career change? Instead of swallowing children into its belly, it now wanted to send children out?

Had it attained enlightenment in Buddhism? Sincerely repented?

Thinking of the Bear’s perverse habit of savoring young boys and girls, Mo Lin could not believe it had truly gained Buddhist insight.

“Something this abnormal must surely hide a demon—though that Bear itself is already a demon.”

Mo Lin already had a small score unsettled with the Bear.

Now that he had become an Earth Anaconda, he had gained some strength—

After all, had the Bear not deceived him back then, within a thousand miles it would have been only him and the Mountain Lord who were of the Earth rank.

Thus, upon discovering that the Bear’s Mountain God Temple had turned into a “Child-Giving Temple,” Mo Lin’s curiosity was stirred, and he landed not far away.

He did not immediately charge into the temple to find the Bear and disturb the worshippers, but instead coiled himself up along the path leading to the Mountain God Temple.

Soon, a young woman worshipper, accompanied by an Old Woman, walked out from the Child-Giving Temple.

The two women, differing in age and status, chatted as they walked:

“Girl, now that you’ve come to the Child-Giving Temple today and offered incense, the Bodhisattva has already placed you in her heart.”

“For the next half month, if you pray devoutly as you did today, I believe the Child-Giving Bodhisattva will certainly place a child into your womb.”

The Old Woman kept chanting at the young woman’s side.

Though the young woman had come once to the Child-Giving Temple, she still did not really believe in such things:

“Granny Huang, I merely bowed to the Bodhisattva, that’s all. Can it really be this miraculous?”

Granny Huang supported the young woman’s hand:

“Girl, even if you don’t believe other prosperous Child-Giving Temples have ability, don’t doubt this one.”

“In the past half year, there have been no small number of women who became pregnant after offering incense here. Its efficacy is truly remarkable.”

“Otherwise, why would a Child-Giving Temple deep in the mountains attract so many women worshippers from afar?”

The young woman said:

“It’s not that I don’t believe, but aren’t other Child-Giving Temples all built in thriving places full of incense?”

“Why is this one so strange, built in the desolate wilderness? It’s rather frightening.”

Granny Huang chuckled:

“Good wine is not afraid of a deep alley. So too with this Child-Giving Temple.”

“Besides, think about it—where else will you find a Child-Giving Temple with a Bear that doesn’t harm people and only chants sutras?”

The young woman tightened her grip on Granny Huang’s hand:

“That’s true. In all my life I’ve never seen a Bear so close before, and it’s even one chanting Buddhist scriptures.”

“If not for you accompanying me, I wouldn’t have dared approach at all.”

Hidden in the shadows, Mo Lin was startled at those words.

Chanting scriptures?

That Bear?

Was this real?

Although the Bear often said “Buddha,” the last time Mo Lin intruded into the Mountain God Temple, he hadn’t seen a single scripture.

It had even dared to lie atop the golden statue of the Future Buddha Maitreya while eating young boys and girls—utterly devoid of reverence.

The conversation between the young woman and Granny Huang continued:

“I heard that Bear is a man-eating Bear Demon?”

Granny Huang waved her hand:

“Those are just rumors. Though it does look frightening, the Abbot himself has said that Bear was personally enlightened by him, wholeheartedly devoted to Buddhism. How could it eat people?”

Granny Huang sighed with admiration:

“It’s just a pity. This time offering incense, we couldn’t meet that venerable Abbot. We could only listen to the enlightened Bear chanting scriptures.”

“They say the Abbot’s Buddhist teachings are profound. If one can hear him chant once, the chance of gaining children greatly increases.”

Abbot?

Enlightenment?

Mo Lin immediately understood—most likely it was not that Bear who had attained Buddhist insight, but that it had been captured by someone.

He just did not know why that person, who had the strength to subdue the Bear, had not simply killed it.

The Bear’s “man-eating rumors” might deceive others, but could they fool someone more powerful than the Bear?

Surely not some vegetarian monk who had prayed himself stupid, truly believing that “laying down the butcher’s knife makes one a Buddha”?

If anyone could become a Buddha by putting down the knife, then wouldn’t those who never held a knife in the first place already be Buddhas?

And what of the “Buddhas” whose throats were cut by the knife? Should they simply put down worldly ties and head to the Western Paradise?

From the moment Mo Lin fully accepted his identity as a Demonic Beast, from the moment he refined Hong Tianfeng, he had never thought himself forgivable—

His “sins” could only be erased by death.

If someone killed him, it would be a blessing to humanity.

But likewise, if someone wanted to kill him for humanity’s sake, he would not hesitate to take that person’s life for his own sake.

This was how he regarded himself, and naturally, how he regarded the Bear.

That Bear had deceived and eaten young boys and girls—it was no good creature.

If some powerful monk was naïve enough to subdue it and believe in its repentance,

Then Mo Lin had to doubt where exactly that monk’s strength had come from.

Meanwhile, the young woman’s conversation with Granny Huang continued.

She carried both gossip and faint worry:

“Granny Huang, do you think that when the Abbot prays for children, he sends others away, then finds a secret chamber, leaving only the woman seeking a child and himself?”

At those words, Granny Huang chuckled:

“Girl, you’ve been reading too many storybooks, haven’t you? You’re thinking of bad things, aren’t you?”

The young woman blushed, lightly hitting Granny Huang:

“Granny Huang, don’t tease me. I was only worried.”

Granny Huang shook her head and laughed:

“Don’t worry. Though that Abbot isn’t old, he is indeed highly respected. When he sees the women worshippers, his gaze never wanders, his conduct is upright.”

“And when he chants scriptures for women seeking children, the doors are wide open, so that everyone can hear and see him chanting. There’s no chance of what you fear happening.”