Shanxing stood there dazed, looking at everything before him, his once amiable senior brothers now seemed like life-and-death enemies.

Ugly words spewed from their lips, as though they were venting all the discontent and hatred that had accumulated in their hearts over time.

The temple, once bustling with worshippers, had now turned into a den of demons that provoked the desires hidden deep within people’s hearts.

"I’m going to fight you all!" Suddenly, the chubby Twelfth Senior Brother bellowed angrily.

With a shove, he pushed a monk in front of him down, then charged up to the altar, lifted the candlestick, and smashed it toward the nearest monk.

A dull thud was heard, followed by a piercing scream that echoed throughout the grand hall.

The monk was struck so hard by the copper candlestick that his head burst open, revealing his chilling skull.

The sounds of agony on the ground did not awaken the others; instead, it made them even more ferocious. They grabbed whatever they could use as weapons and began a brutal, inhuman melee. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Terrified by the scene before him, Shanxing kept retreating until he hit the corner of the grand hall, where he stood stunned, looking at the most important people in his life, now so unrecognizable.

In Shanxing’s memory, these senior brothers were all very kind, seldom quarreling with anyone, and had always been calm and collected, possessing a temperament after being nurtured by the Buddhist Law.

But now they had completely changed; the faces that once carried kind smiles were now unspeakably grotesque, and their bright, intelligent eyes were filled with a bloody red hue.

They attacked each other like madmen, treating the other as the most hated enemy.

Tears flowed unceasingly from the corners of Shanxing’s eyes as he shouted loudly, hoping to awaken his brothers’ reason.

But it was all too late; no matter how much he screamed, everyone remained deeply immersed in their terrible desires, unable to break free.

Shanxing had never felt a night as difficult as this one; even a few days earlier, when screams echoed and terrifying shadows approached, he had never felt such despair.

Yet, when he saw his kind senior brothers lying in pools of blood, with brutal smiles on their faces, as if they were enjoying the surrounding blood, he felt an unprecedented sense of despair.

He raised his head, his eyes filled with tears, and pleaded, "Buddha, please save us!"

The statue of Buddha was grand and majestic, with a face inlaid with gold foil, offered by the most devout believers in the past.

However, this temple, once thought to be extremely efficacious by the world, showed not the slightest change at that moment; the Buddha statue remained, seemingly no different from before.

"Shanxing, Buddha will not save us," a dignified voice sounded.

A slightly aged monk, wearing a lavish, blood-red kasaya and a compassionate expression on his face, slowly emerged from behind the altar, his eyes tightly shut.

"Abbot!" Shanxing muttered to himself.

Only then did he realize that on such a night, the abbot of the temple had been absent from beginning to end. An unprecedented fear instantly filled his heart, making him shiver uncontrollably.

"Mankind is full of greed and violence, entangled by the seven emotions and six desires. If one cannot break through these delusions, they will eternally sink into the sea of suffering, unable to transcend."

"Only by indulging desires can one find a glimmer of hope in despair and see the Buddha,"

The head monk’s words seemed to carry a strange magic, actually giving Shanxing an impulse to follow him in indulging desires.

"No, this is not right, Master, did you not say that only by embracing compassion and seeing the mind and understanding the nature can one cultivate true fruits? Indulging in desires will only lead to downfall and not transcendence," Shanxing instinctively retorted.

Though young, he had grown up in the temple and was deeply influenced by Buddhist Law, having his own unique understanding of the Buddhist path; therefore, he quickly noticed something amiss in the head monk’s words.

"Amitabha Buddha, you are blinded by a single leaf and cannot glimpse the true essence of Buddhist Law."

"It’s not that, it’s not like that," Shanxing frantically shook his head, the head monk’s claims sounding like heresy and evil paths.

However, the head monk continued on his own, saying, "Do not argue, I have already seen Mount Ling, met the Buddha, come, let me take you to the Western Paradise to see."

As the head monk spoke, he moved closer to Shanxing, his feet stepping in the fresh red bloodstains, leaving stark red footprints on the floor, very conspicuous.

Shanxing kept backing away, knowing that the head monk too had fallen into demonhood, and perhaps he was the only sane one left in the entire temple.

Yet with no strength to bind a chicken, he lacked the ability to stem the tide, only able to watch helplessly as the head monk approached step by step, awaiting his own death.

A ray of light shone in from outside, illuminating the space in front of Shanxing; it turned out that day had, unbeknownst to them, broken.

Seeing this light, the head monk frowned, but he continued to approach Shanxing nonetheless.

His emaciated fingers still had mottled bloodstains, and Shanxing smelled a stench on the head monk’s body — so acrid, it made him want to vomit.

"Come, let me take you to Buddha!" the head monk murmured as if casting a spell, resounding in Shanxing’s ears.

The adversary didn’t seem in a hurry to kill Shanxing, rather it seemed like toying with him, aiming to completely crush Shanxing’s spirit.

But this little monk, who had grown up in the temple from a young age, though terrified enough, possessed an exceptionally resilient spirit, still striving to support himself even in these dire circumstances.

"Who will save me!" Shanxing whispered to himself.

"No one will come to save you, this is your fate, come, embrace your own destiny," the head monk’s voice, like the whisper of a demon, echoed in Shanxing’s ears, constantly tormenting his young mind.

At this moment, Shanxing’s spirit was like a small boat on the verge of sinking, swaying in the storm yet exceedingly tough, still sailing on the sea surface regardless.

"Amitabha Buddha!" A voice full of compassion suddenly thundered through the skies.

Brilliant Buddha’s Light enveloped the entire temple, causing the head monk who was about to reach Shanxing to emit a piercing scream, a sound seemingly composed of the screams of past departed brothers, chilling to hear.

The intense Buddha’s Light burst in from outside the great hall, instantly knocking the head monk flying.

The head monk’s body hit the wall of the great hall, and so, a bright red silhouette suddenly appeared against the white wall.

A sizzling sound arose by Shanxing’s side, and looking closely, he realized that under the glare of the Buddha’s Light, the head monk’s body seemed to be burning, making noise continuously, accompanied by black smoke.