The Martial Doctor-Chapter 50: The Ruined Heaven-Reaching Temple

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: The Ruined Heaven-Reaching Temple

"Have you thought about how to explain when you go back?" Lin Miao turned his head, showing a set of pretty white teeth at Mr. Xie, whose face didn’t look too good, and asked.

"Go back? Why would I go back?" Mr. Xie was taken aback. This time, he hadn’t planned on returning to Baihe County at all.

"Can the authority at ’Yuanheng’ just leave anytime?"

"Not exactly, I can apply for a transfer to the Dongshan City branch, then I won’t need to go back. At that time, I’ll just have someone from the branch sent to Baihe County." Mr. Xie said indifferently.

"Can you actually influence the personnel decisions at ’Yuanheng’?" Lin Miao was somewhat surprised; if he truly had such influence, he wouldn’t have been stuck in such a remote area like Baihe County for so many years.

"I just went to Baihe County because I didn’t want to get involved in all that fighting over power. It’s a high mountain where the emperor is far away, and no one oversees it, very carefree..."

"And this time, because of me, you’re forced to go back?"

"I misjudged, got it wrong, can’t help it." Mr. Xie gave a bitter smile, then dragged all the corpses together and dumped them into a mountain stream.

It wasn’t just misjudgment—it was blindness.

Anyway, there were many wild wolves in the mountains, and soon enough, these corpses would be picked clean by the hungry wolves, not even leaving behind bone fragments.

"This is the jade token of the Green Blade Sect, seems this Huang Yulang was an elite disciple of the sect. Mr. Lin, you’ve gotten us into trouble." Mr. Xie began checking the valuables; as a pawnshop authority, his vision and knowledge naturally surpassed Lin Miao’s.

"The trouble is something we got into together..."

Lin Miao reached out and took it.

It was hard in texture, yet pleasantly smooth to the touch—clearly made of top-grade emerald jade.

"As long as you erase the markings on this jade token, it could be worth at least a hundred or two..." Seeing Lin Miao tuck the token into his chest, Mr. Xie instinctively shut his mouth.

"Aren’t you afraid of trouble by keeping the identity token of the Green Blade Sect’s Huang Yulang?"

"You already said it, erase the markings, who knows it belongs to Huang Yulang?" Lin Miao looked up and replied.

"Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything."

"The silver notes, fragments of silver, and some copper coins add up to over three thousand taels. As you said, we’ll split it evenly."

"Do the silver notes have personal markings?"

"No, to have a personal mark, you’d have to be prepared beforehand. The money carried is meant to be spent, unless you’re a miserly iron rooster?"

"Just give me fifteen hundred taels. The small change is for spending on the road; the rest is for you," Lin Miao said.

"There’re also a few rings, the craftsmanship is nice but easily exposes identity. I think it’s best to find a chance to melt them..."

"You decide."

"This painting is interesting, Mr. Lin, I think you might need it." Mr. Xie flipped through a picture album full of "fighting fairies." A few glances and it left him dry-mouthed, with rising desires.

This was actually found on Huang Baichuan’s corpse. That old thing, at his age, still knew how to have fun, carrying this around everywhere...

Things like this, he had plenty in his head. If he wanted, he could draw thousands of pieces at any time, each more exciting than the last.

"You keep it; it seems you need it more." Lin Miao glanced between Mr. Xie’s thighs and said.

"Heh heh, if you don’t want it, I won’t hold back." Mr. Xie chuckled and put the "album" away, then took a blue bottle along, which was found alongside the little people paintings.

"What’s this?" Holding a red porcelain bottle that looked quite appealing, Mr. Xie cautiously shook it; it shouldn’t contain liquid. Then pinching his nose, he lightly pried open the cork and poured out some powder.

"This is Joy Powder!"

Upon hearing it was Joy Powder, Lin Miao sprang over and snatched the bottle from Mr. Xie’s hand in an instant.

"Mr. Lin, this Joy Powder..."

"It’s harmful. You’d better not touch it." Lin Miao had confirmed the bottle to indeed contain Joy Powder, with about half a bottle left.

It was enough for research and analysis of its components.

Of course, Mr. Lin, being a medical student, would already know what Joy Powder was. No need for my reminder.

The remaining items were unremarkable.

The spoils were divided.

They discarded any items that could indicate identity, then traveled through the night. At dawn, they reached the vicinity of Heaven-Reaching Temple, where they once sheltered from rain.

Under the dawn’s light.

Surrounded by mountains, Heaven-Reaching Temple seemed unusually tranquil.

At this time, the nuns should have been up early for morning lessons, yet there wasn’t a sound of the "wooden fish" knocking.

"Mr. Lin, there’s a temple over there. Let’s ask for a cup of hot tea to drink and rest our feet," Mr. Xie happily suggested, seeing the temple.

A temple would open its doors to the public, surely not refusing travelers to rest and have some tea.

If they could catch a nap before hitting the road again, that would be perfect.

"Forget it, the road is urgent." Lin Miao instinctively didn’t want to have any more entanglements with the nuns of Heaven-Reaching Temple. He always felt that the nun Jing Hui, who kept her hair, had an unusual identity. Passing by in life as just a traveler was enough.

"Come on, we’ve been on the road all night..."

"Creak."

The door of the Heaven-Reaching Temple unexpectedly opened at this moment, but no one was seen coming out from inside, only a gust of wind blew out.

This wind carried a faint scent of blood.

Lin Miao furrowed his brow. Where did the scent of blood come from in a Buddhist temple and monastery? Could it be that some accident occurred inside?

Mr. Xie, who was also well-versed in the ways of the martial world, immediately caught a whiff of this scent. Though initially intending to enter, he too had second thoughts.

If there were monks inside, asking for a bowl of water would be no problem, but if it were an uninhabited monastery, caution would be necessary.

Especially since this monastery did not seem to be in disrepair.

"Mr. Lin, should we heed your words and continue on our way?"

"You wait here, I’ll go in and take a look." Lin Miao thought for a moment. Although Jing Hui gifted him the "Dragon Elephant Wisdom Strength" to repay the kindness of aiding her in childbirth, it was settled, yet he still felt grateful towards such a person.

Having come here, it would be heartless not to take a look inside.

In the front yard and the Buddha hall, signs of battle were evident—the damage to doors and windows, and a corner of the Sumeru seat was destroyed... 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Lamps were shattered all over the ground.

"Good heavens, such a strike must have immense power!" Mr. Xie followed in and was astonished upon seeing the broken corner of the Sumeru seat. "This must have been caused by a master in the Blood Fusion Realm."

In the hall, one of the columns bore a fist mark, forming a spiderweb-like imprint.

Lin Miao reached out to measure it with his hand, but Mr. Xie’s abrupt yell "Don’t touch" made him instinctively pull back.

"This is the Unmoving Ming King Fist, this person’s strength is far beyond the Blood Fusion Realm. If you touch it, the hall will completely collapse!" Mr. Xie said in horror.

"Unmoving Ming King Fist, a martial art of Buddhism?!"

"Indeed, Mr. Lin also knows of this martial art?" Mr. Xie was a bit surprised. A medical apprentice from a small place actually knew this.

However, with Lin Miao, conventional knowledge no longer applied.

"Does the Buddhist sect have internal strife, killing among themselves?"

"Where there are people, there are desires and grievances; the Buddhist sect is not a pure land. They are human beings first, then practitioners."

"I never expected you could say such things," Lin Miao said. "It’s obvious this place has been tidied up, let’s go."

In the backyard, the battle seemed even more intense than in the front yard and Buddha hall. Trees were toppled, houses collapsed, and there were bloodstains on the ground, indicating someone was injured and fell.

Especially the room where Jing Hui gave birth that day, almost flattened to the ground.

No bodies were seen, so they were either taken away and buried or already dealt with.

With so much time passed, even if there were survivors, they are likely dead now.

"Judging by the dust accumulation on the table, this battle took place at least a month ago." Mr. Xie asked, "Mr. Lin, why do I feel like you are quite familiar with this place?"

"Passed by, stayed overnight." Lin Miao explained calmly.

"This is a nunnery. There must be beautiful nuns in this temple. I’ve heard that some have set up such blissful places deep in the mountains, under the guise of being nuns, which is quite an experience..."

Dirty-minded people always have dirty thoughts.

Lin Miao ignored Mr. Xie’s words and walked around the entire Heaven-Reaching Temple, finding no one, then went to the scripture room.

It was turned into complete disarray, clearly these people invaded Heaven-Reaching Temple searching for something. But whether the nuns of the temple were captured or escaped remains unknown.

Anyway, it probably doesn’t have much to do with him.

But it was a pity for these Buddhist texts. If left to the wind and sun like this, they would soon be completely weathered away.

"Mr. Lin, what are you doing?"

"Organizing these Buddhist texts, arranging them in a place sheltered from the wind and rain," Lin Miao said.

"These things aren’t worth anything, why bother?" Mr. Xie said indifferently. Buddhist texts indeed are worthless, unless they’re handwritten by a great monk or an extant rare edition; then, they might have some value.

Lin Miao shot him a side glance, "If you don’t want to help, then stop spouting negativity."

Mr. Xie’s expression was awkward, realizing that after spending time with Lin Miao, he found that this young man, although decisive and ruthless in killing, wasn’t cold-blooded or bloodthirsty.

This was just a small nunnery, the scripture room wasn’t large. If there were a few hundred Buddhist texts, it would be considered good, so for the two of them, packing up was a matter of moments.

If an opportunity arose, it might be worthwhile to take these texts, perhaps to study what differences there were in the Buddhism of this world compared to his original world.

However, taking so many would indeed be problematic.

Lin Miao casually picked out a dozen or so representative ones and kept them. The rest, he stored in a dry place not easily reached by rain.

After finishing all this, the sky had begun to show the pale light of dawn.

Mr. Xie heated water, made wheat cakes, and after eating and drinking their fill, they continued their journey.