Infinite Professions

Chapter 408: Chapter 211: Harvest

The Red Lotus Temple is an ancient temple that has passed through three dynasties, thriving in incense offerings and prosperity.

Within the temple, there are towers, forest steles, temples, and halls numbering over hundreds, resembling a small city governed separately by the Bodhi Institute, Precepts Institute, Guest Reception Hall, as well as Prajna Hall, Arhat Hall, and Heart Zen Hall, with the Scripture Pavilion as the key center of doctrine, each executing their duties meticulously.

But now, all this has become Mirror Flower Water Moon as a group of Yellow Turban Warriors rushed in, beginning to overturn boxes and cupboards searching for various stolen goods and crime evidence.

Logically, such a raids would cause great destruction, causing many Buddha Treasures of this ancient temple to be damaged or destroyed, possibly even burnt to ashes.

However, this time it was different as the strongmen, despite overturning boxes and cupboards, acted with restraint and didn’t intentionally cause damage, much less set fire to the temple. Various halls, institutes, towers, and temples of the Red Lotus Temple remained unharmed.

Except for...

"Venerable Red Lotus?"

"Hmph, demon monk, debauched worship!"

Looking at the statue of Venerable Red Lotus in the center of the Ancestral Hall, Li Mubai’s gaze turned sharp, immediately ordering the strongmen, "Dismantle them all!"

"Yes!"

Several strongmen immediately advanced, moving away the offering table and incense burner, then jumped onto the platform, raising the prepared large hammer to smash it against the Venerable Red Lotus.

As a result...

"BANG!!!"

A loud crash, the heavy hammer bounced back, shocking the strongman whose hands were numb and blood seeping from his tiger’s mouth.

Venerable Red Lotus had long since died; this wasn’t anything supernatural but due to the statue’s material.

Li Mubai’s gaze turned sharp as he similarly leaped onto the platform, watching the stone statue of Buddha, whose outer stone skin had shattered and detached, revealing a gleaming Golden Body.

Li Mubai reached out to stroke it and then sneered aloud, "Truly made of solid gold, excellent indeed!"

Saying this, he ordered the surrounding strongmen, "Carry it to the temple entrance, and move the other Buddhas in the temple, whether they have Golden Bodies or not."

"Yes!"

Several strongmen nodded, fetched ropes and logs, and began moving the statues.

The statue of Venerable Red Lotus, though made of solid gold and weighing thousands of pounds, could not withstand the combined efforts of several strongmen and was quickly carried out of the Ancestral Hall and moved to the temple entrance.

"Ancestral Master!"

"Venerable!"

Watching the statue of Venerable Red Lotus being carried out, with a large piece shattered by the hammer, the monks of Red Lotus Temple were all heartbroken, several elder monks hitting their heads against the ground, and if it weren’t for the vigilant strongmen quick to seize them, they might have really bashed themselves to death.

Yet, Li Mubai, who followed outside, did not care at all, directly ordering several strongmen to raise their hammers and completely break the statue’s outer stone skin, exposing the pure Golden Body inside, with its dazzling brilliance entering everyone’s eyes, instantly silencing the crying and shouting.

"This statue..."

"Is made of pure gold?"

"Solid gold?"

"How much gold would this require?"

Looking at the Golden Buddha Statue, not just the monks of Red Lotus Temple, but even a group of gentry showed astonishment in their eyes.

While they knew that the Red Lotus Temple thrived on incense offerings and had numerous wealth-gathering methods, accumulating enormous wealth over a millennium, they never imagined they were so wealthy as to craft a Golden Buddha.

During everyone’s astonishment, more strongmen came calling, carrying one Golden Buddha Statue after another, all Buddhas of the Buddhist Sect, Bodhisattva Arhats, although not made of solid gold, they were gold-painted outside and brass inside, far exceeding the size of the Venerable Red Lotus statue, weighing over ten thousand pounds, of considerable worth.

"This..."

Seeing this, everyone was even more shocked, not knowing what to do.

Only the strongmen continued their work, moving boxes of items from inside the temple and opening them all for public exhibition, revealing shimmering treasures, shades of gold and silver, including silver ingots, gold bars, luminous pearls, jade treasures, as well as various antiquities and paintings, filling dozens of boxes with more than enough, forcing them to use baskets instead.

People standing aside, seeing the arrayed treasures and becoming dazed, fell into a dead silence.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Thieves!!!"

After a moment of silence, cries of sorrow and anger rose again as an elder monk of the Red Lotus Temple disregarded obstruction, angrily pointing at Li Mubai, "You falsely accuse us, defaming the Buddhist Sect’s reputation!"

Nonetheless, Li Mubai didn’t respond at all, simply letting his men register the details while he examined other stolen goods.

These gold and silver treasures, along with luminous pearls and beautiful jade, were merely liquid assets, valuable but not the essence.

The true foundation of Red Lotus Temple...

Li Mubai took out a ledger from a box, then looked at the stacked land deeds below, and other boxes storing debt documents, ejected a mocking laugh, his gaze sharpening.

As a local mighty, the Red Lotus Temple’s sources of wealth weren’t merely devoted offerings, but also included thousands of acres of fertile land, tens of thousands of residential plots, and various businesses, even engaging in lending and borrowing transactions.

Centered around the Red Lotus Temple, the land of over ten counties nearby belongs to it, and within the city, it has pharmacies, cloth shops, grain stores, and carriage trader agencies, various operations, profiting daily.

If not for this, how would they have the wealth to forge that Golden Buddha Statue?

Li Mubai placed down the ledger, moved to another box, and opened it to find jars and pots, even a few jade boxes, diffusing distinct fragrances within.

Li Mubai picked up a book, noting the records inside all being names of pills, truly the essence of the Red Lotus Temple.

Red Lotus Temple possessed thousands of fertile acres under its name, a significant portion of which were dedicated to medicinal fields, providing large amounts of herbal materials annually.

These herbal materials were divided into two parts; one part used for doctoring and gifting medicine, gaining reputation among the people, contributing to incense offerings, while the other part was for personal use, refined into various Miracle Pills by High Monks skilled in Qihuang Skill from the Medicine King Hall, supplied to martial monks of the Arhat Hall for training, and even occasionally gifted to state mansion officials and various influential families, maintaining its own network connections.