The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

The surrounding villagers shook their heads, indicating that none of them had seen anyone bring the child back. The construction workers also shook their heads, indicating that they had not seen anything. The construction team had stopped their work to help search for Mengmeng. After the huge panic, they finally found themselves relieved once she was found.

Fangzheng entered. Wang Yougui immediately asked, “Abbot Fangzheng, did you see anyone bring Mengmeng back?”

Fangzheng resolutely shook his head. “No, I have not.”

What a joke. He was the one who brought her back. His eyeballs could not leave his body, so how could he see himself?

Everyone brooded seeing Fangzheng shake his head. What was going on?

“Is it a blessing from Buddha? Or is this the act of a hidden hero?” Dog Song said casually but did not know that his words had hit paydirt.

No one thought anything of his words. If it were truly the act of a hero, the hero must have come from the village. After something happened to Mengmeng, all the villagers returned to search for her. It was impossible for outsiders to escape from their watchful eyes. A local villager? The problem was that everyone knew where and what everyone was doing. It was obvious who ran out the village and who stayed.

Lu Liang thought even deeper. There were only a few households in the village that had vehicles. Once they heard of the kidnapping, all of them drove out to pursue the perpetrators. And these people were still on the road. They did not even reach the accident scene of the two kidnappers. So it was impossible it was them.

Therein lies the problem. Could it really be Buddha’s blessing?

Upon thinking of Buddha, Lu Liang subconsciously looked at Fangzheng, who smiled back at him. He was the epitome of calm, humility and amiability.

Lu Liang looked at Fangzheng’s handsome face and apparently frail body before shaking his head slightly. Although the villagers were rather respectful towards Fangzheng, he had seen Fangzheng when he came to the village. Back then, Fangzheng had yet to leave the village. According to the timetable, as well as the distance from the kidnappers’ accident scene, unless Fangzheng had wings, it was impossible for him to have saved Mengmeng and bring her back in time.

Lu Liang rejected the thought. He said to Wang Yougui and company, “Regardless, it’s good that the child is back home. It’s a load off my chest. I’ll be heading back to the station. Find me if there’s anything you need.”

Sun Qiancheng saw him off. Even if he wasn’t the one who found her, Lu Liang had put in a lot of effort. He could not be given any money, so a word of thanks and sending him out was the right thing to do.

Fangzheng secretly heaved a sigh of relief as the crowd went out the door. Thankfully he had sped up on the way back. If he had dragged things out, he might have been suspect. If everyone pressed him, Fangzheng would have no way to explain his absence.

Lu Liang stood by the village entrance and subconsciously turned back to look in Mt. One Finger’s direction.

Fangzheng’s eyes flashed as he conjured A Golden Millet Dream!

Lu Liang saw a gigantic Buddha phantom appear above One Finger Monastery. He nearly knelt out of instinct. However, he was not a believer so kept his cool. Instead, he exclaimed inwardly, “Here it is again. More information perhaps?”

Indeed, another person appeared in front of Lu Liang the next moment. She was a very young woman, dressed fashionably. Her smile was beautiful. There was a line of text written in Dragon Buddha Epithet above her head that astounded Lu Liang. The golden text showed: “Human trafficker!”

“B… Buddha, shouldn’t you be giving me some advice so that I can slowly figure it out myself? Isn’t this too direct…” muttered Lu Liang as he scratched his head.

The scene vanished the next instant. Lu Liang looked at One Finger Village before shaking his head. He got onto his motorcycle and returned home. Once more he sought his father’s help to sketch another portrait and began investigating.

After a month of secret investigations, Lu Liang finally found sufficient evidence. He reported the matter to his superiors and Black Mountain City treated it as a case of paramount importance.

Three months later, a massive criminal organization comprising of fifty-six people, spanning across thirty-four provinces in the country, was uprooted. The number of children that had been sold through them numbered in the hundreds! It alarmed the entire country. In response to the people’s petitions, the case’s proceedings were streamed live on the Internet. Finally, the five masterminds were sentenced to death and executed immediately. The other criminals were given fifteen years of jail time at the least. The worst of them received a life-time of imprisonment. It won the praise and trust of the people.

Simultaneously, they received copious amounts of information regarding the children that had been trafficked. A spectacular rescue mission was the result of the information.

By then, Lu Liang fell into a dilemma. According to his investigations, Sis Wang and the woman with the black mole had not died from a simple accident. According to the traffic policeman’s testimony and testimonies from a driver named Jiang Ye and some villagers by the roadside, they all mentioned that they had seen a bald monk and a large white dog race down the road. They were incredulously fast!

Lu Liang had a bold guess and returned home to tell his father, Lu Hui. In the end Lu Hui asked him, “What’s the point of investigating this matter?”

Lu Liang was taken aback. True, what would be the point? The ones that deserved death were dead and the ones that deserved being apprehended had been apprehended. The ones that deserved saving were soon to be saved. As the saying goes, all’s well that ends well, what was the point in pursuing the matter? Lu Liang burned the information he gathered on the mysterious savior

After the traffic policeman, Jiang Ye, and company learned that the accident’s victims were human traffickers and recalled Lu Liang’s questioning, they also realized that the situation would likely become complicated. They unanimously shut up. Regardless of who asked, they would reply, saying that they had seen neither monk nor dog. If one pressed, they would claim to have been seeing things. Those that remained unsettled about the issue had no choice but to give up.

This however would not happen for months to come. Fangzheng watched Lu Liang return before popping out from a family’s pig sty. Although A Golden Millet Dream was powerful, he could not use it if the receiver was too far away. After all, with the talisman helping him lock onto a location, he would be unable to use it.

The family did not rear pigs but the sty was piled with all sorts of sundry items, causing it to stink. Fangzheng left the sty and returned up the mountain.

On the way up, Fangzheng suddenly said, “System, thank you…”

The System did not respond.

Fangzheng smirked and did not say another word. It was not due to luck that he managed to successfully save Mengmeng. Divine State had an unpredictable randomness. Fangzheng refused to believe that a random activation would give him Length Contraction that was perfect to pursue the human traffickers. Although the System did not respond, Fangzheng believed that it must have helped.

Since the System was unwilling to claim credit, there was no reason for him to say further. So instead he diverted the topic. “System, did you forget about… This Penniless Monk’s reward?”

“What reward do you want? A full set or a single item?”

Fangzheng was stunned. “What do you mean?”