The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#480 - Energy and Quietness

Lu Jing knew that Ganquan Temple was small, but he didn't expect it to be this small, not even having the scripture repository that temples usually have.

After being stunned for a moment, he could only say, "Then where do you usually put the scriptures?"

"As for the scriptures, they are placed in this old monk's private chamber."

"Private chamber? Is there enough space?"

The private chamber, as the name suggests, is a room of one square zhang. According to Lu Jing's standards from his previous life, it would be about ten square meters, which is about the size of a small bedroom.

Putting a bed and a few chairs in it would already take up most of the space, naturally leaving little room for storing scriptures.

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However, Zhan Zhi nodded with confidence and said, "There's enough space, there's enough space."

Lu Jing didn't know how he managed to cram them in, and he was too lazy to bother with it, so he said straightforwardly, "Then take me to your chamber to have a look."

Generally speaking, the monks' living quarters in temples are not open to the public, let alone the abbot's residence, but because Lu Jing had already purchased a VIP ticket worth ten taels of silver in advance, even if Lu Jing proposed to visit the monks' latrine, Zhan Zhi would not refuse.

So, he readily took Lu Jing to his room.

Afterwards, he even asked two young monks to take out the scriptures from under the bed and arrange them one by one on the ground.

Lu Jing roughly glanced at them and found that there were only less than thirty books.

So, he said, "What about the rest?"

"Sold."

However, since the monks of Ganquan Temple had already done it, it was useless for Lu Jing to say anything now. He could only ask with the last bit of hope, "Then why are these twenty-six books left? Are there any precious classics among them?"

"How could that be?" Zhan Zhi shook his head upon hearing this. "If there were any valuable ones, this old monk would have asked a few disciples to take them to the pawnshop to exchange for money long ago. It's just that more and more people are pawning things, and the pawnshops look down on these poor monks' scriptures. They give less and less money, and later they simply stopped accepting them, so this old monk could only keep these twenty-odd books."

"… … … …"

Lu Jing didn't want to talk to Zhan Zhi anymore. He could see that this old monk was already driven mad by poverty.

Lu Jing picked up the scriptures on the ground one by one and flipped through them, and he also paid special attention to the thickness of the paper, after all, he had seen in many martial arts novels that secret manuals were hidden in the interlayer of scriptures.

But the result was nothing. Those twenty-odd Buddhist scriptures were really just Buddhist scriptures, and there was nothing unusual about them.

So, Lu Jing had to find Zhan Zhi again and asked, "I wonder which pawnshop your temple's monks pawned the temple's scriptures to? Was it a redeemable pawn or an unredeemable pawn?"

"This… of course, we pawned it to whichever one gave more money. The first two batches were redeemable pawns, but later they were all unredeemable pawns." Zhan Zhi answered everything he knew, showing great cooperation, for fear of making this living God of Wealth unhappy.

"What about the pawn tickets?"

"Here." Zhan Zhi quickly took out two pawn tickets from his pocket, offered them with both hands, and did not forget to remind him very considerately, "These two have already passed the redemption date, and the redeemable pawns have become unredeemable pawns."

Lu Jing couldn't help but take another look at Zhan Zhi. This old monk wasn't as muddled as he had imagined. It seemed that he already knew that he was pretending to look for Buddhist scriptures, but was actually looking for the scriptures of Ganquan Temple, otherwise he wouldn't have even prepared the pawn tickets for him.

Since that was the case, Lu Jing simply stopped disguising it, took the two pawn tickets, and then said to Zhan Zhi, "Master, please send another disciple to lead the way for me, just to the pawnshops where you pawned the scriptures. After it's done, I'll donate another ten taels of silver to your temple."

"This old monk will send you two!" Zhan Zhi slapped his thigh and said with a smile, "And we'll also engrave your name on the merit stele!"

"Uh, there's no need to engrave the stele, just find someone to come over."

Although Lu Jing had no prejudice against people who loved money, Zhan Zhi, as the abbot of a temple and a person outside the world, was so keen on making money, it was difficult for Lu Jing to have a good impression of him.

So, after Zhan Zhi called someone over, Lu Jing quickly left the temple gate with two young monks.

On the way to the pawnshop, Lu Jing was also observing the two young monks. They were both about thirteen or fourteen years old. The slightly younger one was blushing and lowered his head, wishing he could cover his face with his sleeves, while the other one looked very calm. He had a maturity that was different from his age.

This made Lu Jing couldn't help but feel a bit curious, so he took the initiative to speak.

"What's wrong with your junior brother? Is he feeling unwell somewhere?"

"Oh, he's ashamed of Master's performance just now." The slightly older young monk said.

"What about you? What do you think?"

"As disciples, we shouldn't criticize our master behind his back." The slightly older young monk said calmly, "Besides, the monks in the temple can still eat because of Master. Everyone else can despise Master for being greedy for money, but we can't."

After a pause, he continued, "Actually, Master also took us to beg for alms from the wealthy households in the city before. Compared to those embarrassing times, today is nothing."

"It seems that you haven't had an easy time these days." Lu Jing said.

"Our days are actually okay, at least we can find food. Those refugees who are fleeing are really miserable," the young monk shook his head and said, "People are starving to death in and out of the city every day, but unfortunately, we can barely take care of ourselves and have no strength to help others."

"Little Master is kind-hearted, and I think you will surely have some achievements in the future. May I ask for your Dharma name?"

"Du Neng." The young monk said, and then pointed to the slightly younger young monk beside him, "This is my junior brother, Du Jing. May I know your name, benefactor…"

"Lu Jing."

The young monk was stunned when he heard this name, wanting to ask something, but he was too embarrassed to ask. On the other hand, Du Jing, who was still ashamed of his master, exclaimed.

"Lu Jing, this name is the same as that very powerful Lu Daxia in the Jianghu! Senior brother, didn't you say that you also wanted to learn martial arts like Lu Daxia, and go to the Jianghu to help the weak and defend justice in the future?"

"Uh…" Du Jing's originally calm face turned red when he heard this.