The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

The moment Fangzheng heard that, he rolled his eyes at him and deactivated his Heavenly Eye and Dharma Eye.

The moment he deactivated them, Lone Wolf jumped in fright and cried. “Master, save me! That ghost actually went and de-possessed you, so it must be planning on possessing me! Will I be controlled by the ghost to eat meat and hit on chicks? Ahhh, I think I’m doomed!”

Fangzheng slapped him. “Darn… Ahem, stupid dog. Stop shouting. I wasn’t being possessed, but I learned a new divine power. Alright, pack up. It’s time to leave.” Fangzheng, who was planning on scolding him with ‘darn dog’, felt rather touched that Lone Wolf had requested to be possessed in his stead despite those words having given him the urge to slap him to death. Hence, he leveled him up to ‘stupid dog’.

“Uh, it wasn’t a ghost possession? A new divine power? Time to leave? Master, where are we going?” Lone Wolf’s nerves were all over the place, but thankfully, he managed to align himself with Fangzheng’s train of thought and ask the key question in the end.

Fangzheng said, “Back to the mountain, of course. Do you wish to stay in Patron Tan’s home forever?”

“Uh, there’s no rush, right? I could still have a little…” Lone Wolf said in embarrassment.

To Lone Wolf’s surprise, Fangzheng, who would usually have smacked him in reply to that, actually didn’t hit him. Instead, he nodded slightly and said, “Take a little more for your junior brothers. We haven’t been back for so long that I’m a little worried about them.”

Lone Wolf was instantly delighted. He picked up the tiny bag on the stove bed with his mouth and followed after Fangzheng. At the same time, he said, “What’s there to be worried about? With Fourth Junior Brother around, if you want to be worried, you should be worried about those people who have gone up the mountain to cause trouble. Fourth Junior Brother is fierce! And then there’s also the old but licentious Salted Fish.”

Fangzheng laughed bitterly. He was only saying he was worried about them in passing. He was truly worried about Monkey and Squirrel, though. Would they have the same problem as Lone Wolf?

With this in mind, Fangzheng couldn’t stay down the mountain any longer. He directly activated A Golden Millet Dream and prevented people from seeing him and Lone Wolf. Then he rushed up Mt. One Finger.

By the time Fangzheng and Lone Wolf arrived at the path, the people had already begun to scatter after the explanations from the villagers. Fangzheng squeezed his way up and needed to put in Herculean effort before he successfully reached the mountaintop.

To Fangzheng’s surprise, the mountaintop had remained in good order. The monastery’s door was open, and Monkey was standing at the entrance in monk robes. His hands were pressed together like an inviting old monk as he led each patron in.

Red Boy was outside helping the villagers, constantly getting everyone to maintain an orderly line into the monastery. Inside, there was no sign of Squirrel. Whatever he was doing was a mystery.

From afar, Fangzheng could see a wisp of green smoke rising up from One Finger Monastery with his naked eye! This was the first time it was getting so many incense offerings.

Typically, Fangzheng should have been very pleased and happy at this scene, but he remained down. When his eyes landed on Monkey, he activated his Heavenly Eye and Dharma Eye together, and as feared, Monkey also had the same latent problem as Lone Wolf.

The moment Fangzheng activated his divine power, Red Boy instantly noticed it. He was delighted to see Fangzheng. With the boss back, he could finally have some rest. However, he also knew it wasn’t the right time for him to head over.

After doing a complete scan, Fangzheng had a good idea of the situation, but he didn’t relax as a result. This was because he discovered that this illness his disciples had which stemmed from cultivation wasn’t something recorded in his medical skill compendiums.

“System, I can at least be considered someone who has mastered the medical skills of a Bodhisattva. Why don’t I know the method to treating such illnesses? That’s way too low-class, right?” Fangzheng grumbled.

“You think you have mastered all the medical skills of Bodhisattva? Dream on! The things you learned are all low-standard versions. For example, your carving skills are only at the mortal level and have yet to reach the level of a divine power. At the level of an immortal, if you carve a horse, the horse will be able to gallop, neigh, cause trouble, and even eat grass. Same with your medical skills. You are only capable of treating mortal illnesses. As for illnesses for cultivators, you naturally cannot treat them,” the System said.

Fangzheng wasn’t surprised at the explanation. After all, the System was known for being stingy. It seldom gave things which came as a full set. At the very least, the things he had were basically all discounted versions.

Fangzheng immediately asked, “Then are there methods to raise my medical skills?” Fangzheng wasn’t worried about anything else other than the physical problems of his disciples.

“Yes. You can raise your medical skills level. However, to raise it, you need to first upgrade your Ten Thousand Buddha Hall and Ten Thousand Buddha plaque. This is because your medical skills weren’t drawn by you, but they’re an ability given to you by the Bodhisattva on the Ten Thousand Buddha plaque. As such, whether its level can be raised doesn’t depend on you but on Bodhisattva.

“As for the things that Bodhisattva can pass on to you by crossing worlds, there is a limit. I mentioned already that you previously received things that were relatively lower in level. This isn’t solely because of your lacking merit.

“Sending any item across worlds—no matter what it is—requires certain conditions to be met. The more something transcends the rules of this world, the harder it is to send.

“If you liken the process to a Bodhisattva sending you a signal from Mount Numinous, then you can view the figure on the Ten Thousand Buddha plaque in One Finger Monastery as the signal tower. And how big the door which can be opened in between is as well as the level of the items you can receive depends on your own merit.

“The higher your merit, the more attention Buddha will be willing to give you. Naturally, the door to your world will be wider, and you will be able to receive much better items.

“As the saying goes, the Dharma isn’t readily instructed. If you wish to gain access to a better Dharma, you have to contribute more.

“Therefore, to raise your medical skills, the first thing you need to do is to level up your monastery and Ten Thousand Buddha plaque, and earn more merit and incense offerings. This way, you will be able to obtain higher level medical skills to save your disciples,” the System said.

Fangzheng felt a headache when he heard that. Although the System had explained it clearly, there were no exact numbers. Hence, Fangzheng asked directly, “Just tell me how much merit I need to fulfill the requirements. How much money is needed?”

“Ding! Actually, it’s not much. 100,000 merit points and 10 million yuan in incense offerings are enough to upgrade your Ten Thousand Buddha Hall. The same amount will upgrade your Ten Thousand Buddha plaque.”

“Pfft!” Fangzheng nearly vomited blood. He needed a total of 200,000 merit points and 20 million yuan in incense offerings to upgrade the two? How could that be called “not much”? If that wasn’t much, what was? Why didn’t the System just die!

Although he was cursing, Fangzheng understood that he would probably have to work hard for once.

At this moment, Fangzheng shot a glance at the door, and his eyes lit up. He smacked himself in the head and cursed. “Damn, how could I forget about that? I’m so stupid!”

Boom!

A bolt of lightning struck the spot in front of Fangzheng, but he ignored it. He was used to it, after all. Fangzheng jogged to the door and after confirming that everyone had left the mountain, he immediately patted Red Boy on the head and stomped his foot. “Salted Fish, come out!”