The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

“Ding! Congratulations. You obtained ‘Heavenly Dragon Pond’, ‘Eighteen Buddhist Lotuses!’”

“What?” Fangzheng’s heart palpitated the moment he heard that. He dug his ears and pressed for more information. “System Bro, what did you say?”

“What I said? Can’t you tell? You made a killing! Tsk. One Heavenly Dragon Pond and Eighteen Buddhist Lotuses! Unfortunately, you lack the eight Heavenly Dragon Guards and lack anything that has so much as an inkling of a spirit beast. Otherwise, your Mt. One Finger would be freaking amazing. Do you want to receive it now?” the System asked.

“Y… Yes!” Fangzheng shouted out in excitement.

The next moment, a Buddhistic glow appeared in front of Fangzheng. Upon taking a careful look, he only saw eighteen lotus seeds.

Fangzheng frowned. “System Bro, where’s This Penniless Monk’s Heavenly Dragon Pond? Did you shave off some commission from me?”

The moment that was said, the earth began to quake!

“An earthquake? Jingxin! Protect the mountain!” Fangzheng jumped in fright as he shouted.

Red Boy was about to cast his divine powers when he discovered something amiss. This didn’t resemble an earthquake. Therefore he shouted. “Master, something’s not right. Are you up to something again? The epicenter is at the door!”

Fangzheng was stunned. The epicenter was at their door? The earthquake came all the way to their home?

Fangzheng rushed out of One Finger Monastery, only to be dumbfounded.

He saw that around One Finger Monastery’s door, with even the surroundings of the bell and drum towers included, everything was trembling vigorously! Fangzheng did not know how far the quaking went, but he only knew that the land before him was beginning to collapse! A massive pit broke open! It was such a humongous pit that even the bell and drum towers became a part of it. Thankfully, the foundations of the two towers didn’t sink. Instead, they rose a little higher.

At the same time, a paved path appeared at One Finger Monastery’s door. There was no caving in of the path, but beneath the passageway was a hole that connected to the other massive pit. This passageway looked like a naturally formed stone bridge.

“System, what’s happening?” Fangzheng looked at the pit and asked inwardly.

“The Heavenly Dragon Pond?” the System asked matter-of-factly.

“This is the Heavenly Dragon Pond?” Fangzheng’s eyes nearly popped out. His idea of a Heavenly Dragon Pond had at least jade lining its bottom with gold plated sides, forming a beautiful and exquisite pond! The huge pit in the soil in front of him didn’t look anything like a Heavenly Dragon Pond! Fangzheng might still be convinced if it was called a fish pond, though.

“The Heavenly Dragon Pond you are thinking of obviously exists, but how would you explain its origins if you were given that?” asked the System.

Fangzheng was taken aback. He scratched his head and said, “It’s not easy for me to explain such a huge pit either.”

“This earthquake spanned hundreds of kilometers. Even Black Mountain City sensed the quake. Is it weird for a huge pit to be produced by a major earthquake?” the System said slowly.

Fangzheng jumped in fright when he heard that. He originally imagined that the earthquake was limited to Mt. One Finger, but who knew that it would result in an earthquake that could be felt hundreds of kilometers away when the System gave him the Heavenly Dragon Pond! Wasn’t this scale a little too huge? However, Fangzheng snapped to his senses and asked worriedly, “Would such a major earthquake cause any injuries or economic damage?”

“Of course not. It was just a tremor, so nothing was damaged,” said the System proudly.

Only then did Fangzheng feel relieved. On second thought, how could the System end up killing living beings and cause damage for a mere Heavenly Dragon Pond? However, the huge earthquake could barely explain the existence of the Heavenly Dragon Pond.

Fangzheng did an estimation. The pit was nine meters deep, and it was one meter short of reaching the perfect number of ten. It did adhere to Buddhist rules.

Fangzheng looked at the pit and mumbled. “With such a huge pit, it can’t be considered a Heavenly Dragon Pond if there’s no water, right? It can at best be considered a Heavenly Dragon Pit. Do I need to pour water in myself?”

Upon hearing that water had to be poured in, Red Boy instantly turned alert. Wasn’t this the precursor to exhausting a child laborer to death? He pondered if he should make a run for it. He couldn’t stay at this monastery any longer!

But moments after Fangzheng’s sentence ended, a gurgling sound was heard from beneath the Heavenly Dragon Pond. Fangzheng, Lone Wolf, Squirrel, Monkey, and Red Boy looked down in unison and saw the bottom of the pit arc upwards. Following that, a fountain emerged!

“Spring water? Master, our mountain finally has a spring source!” Red Boy had tears streaming down his face. He would no longer need to head down the mountain to fetch water! Awesome!

As though to verify Red Boy’s words, the gurgling sounds boomed incessantly as a total of nine spring sources appeared beneath the Heavenly Dragon Pond!

When Fangzheng saw the nine spring sources and the nine-meter-deep pond, he sighed. “System, you are really stingy. Although nine is a major number, there are still major numbers like eighteen, thirty-six, seventy-two, and a hundred and eight above that. Aren’t you too stingy giving me the smallest number?”

“What else do you want? You only saved about a thousand lives, yet you are asking for the world? If you had saved thousands of lives, you would have been given an eighteen-meter-deep Heavenly Dragon Pond with eighteen spring sources. If you had saved tens of thousands of lives, you would have been given a thirty-six-meter-deep Heavenly Dragon Pond with thirty-six spring sources,” the System said.

Fangzheng rolled his eyes. “How many people are there in the world? How can I save so many people?”

“That’s right. Are you blaming me for the small population your world has?” retorted the System.

Fangzheng was rendered speechless. He was still stumped as to which a**hole had created such a scoundrelly system. Its standards were all Mount Numinous’s standards. Ignoring Mount Numinous, even a tiny mountain of Red Boy’s dominion had more than a hundred million lesser demons according to him. Just a country had billions. That was even considered small. In such a world, earning such things was naturally easy, but Earth only had about six billion people!

Fangzheng suddenly realized that the System was nothing but a trap. According to this standard, there was no chance of him becoming Buddha in his lifetime to renounce asceticism.

Just as Fangzheng’s mind was wandering, the nine spring sources spewed out water. Soon, the Heavenly Dragon Pond was filled with water. The Heavenly Dragon Pond’s water flowed to the edge, and a tiny river was forcefully paved on Mt. One Finger’s mountaintop. The river flowed into the distance on the flat mountaintop’s grass patch and curved around the back of the mountain to its foot. It flowed downwards, clinging close to the Frost Bamboo forest. From afar, it looked like a beautiful vista of the prairies of Inner Mongolia, just that it was a miniaturized version. The stream eventually turned into a waterfall that splashed down when it neared One Finger Village!

The waterfall wasn’t very huge, but it formed a straight line down, as though a silver river poured down from the sky. As the river struck the trees that extended out or the rocks, the water mist that ensued produced rainbows under the illumination of the sun. Golden lights refracted across the water droplets like golden stars. It was a sight to behold.

Meanwhile, Fangzheng wasn’t free enough to appreciate this scenery. This was because something that happened in front of him left him dumbfounded! The Heavenly Dragon Pond in front of One Finger Monastery had surrounded the drum and bell towers. Both towers now looked like they were built over water. They were not one centimeter taller to show soil, but neither were they one centimeter shorter to be immersed in water. Together with their reflections, they formed a picturesque scene!