Juexing carefully glanced at the temple and realized that the fearsome soldiers had long since departed, leaving only broken walls and ruins.

He could even see the once-respected Buddha head scattered on the ground, wrapped in mud.

The Buddha statue, once venerated by countless, stripped of its former mystery and dignity, now lay like dust beneath his feet.

Staring blankly at the Buddha head, a loud, mocking laughter suddenly erupted from Juexing’s mouth.

He felt as if everything were a joke, the sanctity and majesty of the Buddha that his master and the Buddhist Sect incessantly taught him had, in this moment, collapsed inside him.

"Is this Buddha, haha..." he laughed.

Recklessly, Juexing laughed in the deep mountains, unafraid of anyone coming to capture him.

He feared this situation more than death, the collapse of faith.

In his mind, a voice kept echoing endlessly.

"Buddha is merely a hoax, there are no real Buddhas in the world, just a tale fabricated by the powerful to deceive all living beings."

"No, it’s not like that," Juexing shook his head, trying to expel that voice from the depths of his heart.

Yet the voice clung to him like a shadow, always resounding in his heart.

A heavy rain fell from the sky, the downpour washing the earth, cleansing the land of its filth, as the monk stood in the rain, continuously wiping his body with the rainwater.

He wanted to scrub away the demonic thoughts from the bottom of his heart as well, but these thoughts entwined his wounded soul, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not drive them away.

This sensation brought Juexing immense pain, and he began to howl in the forest, his agonized cries mingling with the thunder in the sky and spreading in all directions.

Far from there, an elderly couple lived, by then deep in sleep.

However, the storm blew open their door, the wind and rain carrying cool air rushing into the house, startling the two old people awake.

The old man slowly got up to close the windows, murmuring to himself, "Such a fierce storm."

"Eh, Old Man, do you hear something outside?" The old woman faintly heard a shrill sound, similar to a beast’s roar or perhaps a human cry.

"There’s no sound, just the thunder," the old man said with a smile after listening intently for a moment.

"You might already be deaf and can’t hear clearly."

"I clearly heard a strange noise, could I have heard wrong?" The old woman started to doubt herself. After listening for a while and finding only the sound of thunder, she went back to sleep beside her husband.

"Sleep, sleep, the world is not peaceful these days. The Imperial Court is constantly pursuing monks, and everything is in disarray." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The next day, the sun shone brightly, and last night’s thunderstorm made the weather exceptionally clear, with the fragrance of the earth still lingering in the air.

For the farmers laboring in the fields, it was time to seize the good weather and get to work.

But they noticed that the usually early-rising elderly couple of the village hadn’t stirred yet.

Concerned for the elderly, several villagers knocked on their door, but there was no response.

Having no choice, they pushed the door open, and instantly, a scream echoed through the small village, startling a large yellow dog into barking.

All the villagers rushed over, only to be left with their mouths agape at the sight before them.

There lay the always kind old couple on the ground, blood flowing from their bodies, dyeing the floor bright red.

On the faces of the two elders remained an indescribable terror, as if they had seen something horrendous.

A massive wound was on their chests, their hearts gouged out by some unknown means.

This gruesome scene instantly terrified the villagers who had come.

"My God, what is this thing."

"It doesn’t look like the claws of a wild beast," murmured a seasoned hunter, examining the injuries on the bodies of the two elderly people.

He had been hunting for many years and was very familiar with the wild animals in these mountains, but could not find any that could inflict such wounds.

"Report to the authorities!" the old village chief sighed as he looked at the scene.

He was very familiar with these two elders; they had all grown up together from a young age, and he never expected such a thing to happen.

"This must be the retribution from Buddha, we didn’t save those monks, and now, disaster has struck us," a devout old woman babbled.

She truly believed this was the retribution given by Buddha to the Mortal World, all because of the recent suppression of Buddhism.

"You shut your mouth, don’t let such words escape again, unless you want to end up in prison," the village chief scolded.

During this period, the Imperial Court’s campaign to suppress Buddhism was in full swing, and even a remote village like this could not escape it. The temple not too far from them was destroyed in such turmoil.

The village chief, who often dealt with the authorities, was well aware that the Imperial Court was serious this time. The government officials and soldiers had long been keen to catch Buddhists to gain merits, and if they heard what the old woman had said, they probably wouldn’t mind adding an elderly person with white hair to the prison.

Hearing the words of the old woman, the people were naturally uneasy, but they also understood that they, mere commoners, could not influence the will of the Imperial Court, and could only wisely preserve themselves.

Initially, not one person dared to shelter the monks who had fled for refuge. Some even went to alert the authorities, leading to those terrifying officers capturing all of them.

It wasn’t long before a government officer arrived, and he, too, was shocked by the sight. His years of experience in handling cases made him immediately sense that something was amiss.

It wasn’t the claw marks of a beast but the hands of a person that had ripped out the hearts of the two elders, such was the ferocity.

The experienced government officer understood that this was beyond his capability to handle, and only the Taoists could be called upon to investigate the matter.

Unknown to them, as everyone was panic-stricken over the death of the two elders, a bald Monk was leisurely striding with determination towards the West in the nearby forest.

He wore a grey monk’s robe that was somewhat tattered, yet there was no dirt on his body. Walking through the forest, he seemed like an Immortal descending from heaven, exuding an extraordinary aura.

This was the very Juexing who was screaming madly in the storm last night, yet for some reason, he had already lost the panic and unease from before. He no longer exhibited hysterical madness and had instead become very kind.

One could not help but feel a sense of goodwill at first glance.