The oil lamps flickered dimly, casting dancing shadows on the Guanyin statue. In the main hall of Changqiu Temple, three people – Duanchen, Cao Hong, and Yao Jiangzhen – each harbored their own concerns as they meditated on cushions before the Buddha statue. The surroundings were so quiet that only the sound of their breathing could be heard.

Suddenly, a large blue bird flashed across the sky, descending silently from above. The blue-robed figure landed ghost-like between Master Duanchen and Cao Hong, spreading both arms and executing the “Stone Sinks into the Sea” technique from the Evening Mist Palm, striking toward each person’s shoulders with movements that appeared very gentle.

Before Duanchen and Cao Hong could see the newcomer clearly, they first felt the silent palm wind heavy as a mountain, like a massive stone pressing down. Both were also martial arts experts with extremely quick reflexes. They instantly shifted sideways and dropped their shoulders, narrowly avoiding the surprise attack, then immediately struck back with their own palms, palm wind howling.

Wei Xun immediately changed to the “No Word, No News” technique, using both palms to meet their attacks, simultaneously engaging both in palm combat.

Duanchen and Cao Hong were greatly shocked. They knew that different martial arts schools had different masters, and each person’s wrist strength, arm power, and internal cultivation methods varied enormously. For him to dare engage both simultaneously meant dealing with two completely different palm techniques and forces at once. The danger involved was such that the slightest error would cause meridian reversal, leading to serious injury or death. This person was either extraordinarily bold and battle-tested, or extremely skilled at handling one-against-many situations.

With four palms pressed together, Duanchen and Cao Hong felt a cold energy surge up through their palms, so chilling it made their teeth chatter. Wei Xun knew killing these two wouldn’t be difficult, but to track down Bao Zhu’s whereabouts, he needed to keep them alive, so he stopped appropriately and withdrew his palm force.

He acted as if nothing had happened, while Duanchen and Cao Hong felt their qi and blood churning in their dantian, forcing them to retreat several steps to dissipate the force. In one move, the difference in their martial abilities was clearly established. Yao Jiangzhen knew no martial arts, but having danced for years, her legs were agile. Seeing the situation was bad, she ignored everything else and crawled under the incense table to hide, nervously watching the situation.

After seeing clearly who had attacked, all three understood why he had come in the middle of the night. In just a few days, that formerly composed and unrestrained youth had transformed into someone with an expression as fierce as a demon.

Master Duanchen frowned tightly and murmured, “That little girl really has disappeared.”

Wei Xun’s heart was in extreme pain as he said coldly, “You clearly knew the truth, yet watched helplessly as she boarded the parade carriage.”

Master Duanchen pressed her chest, barely managing to regulate her breathing. She shook her head with a face full of regret, “The truth? No, we’re still in the fog. Last year, the original abbot of Changqiu Temple, Master Suxin, died of old age and illness. The elders of our ancestral temple Baituo Temple wrote to invite me to come from Xiangshan to succeed her and investigate the mystery of ‘Guanyin slaves ascending to immortality.’ At that time, seven consecutive cohorts of youths who played Guanyin had ‘ascended to immortality’ after the parade, which greatly puzzled the ancestral temple elders, leaving them completely baffled.”

Baituo Temple was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Legend says two white camels once carried sutras written on palm leaves from distant India on a long journey to Luoyang. It was the first Buddhist temple established after Buddhism spread to central China, hence revered as the “Ancestral Temple.” Not only was it filled with masters, but its status was also extremely esteemed.

Master Duanchen continued, “You must understand that becoming Buddha requires countless cycles of life and death in cultivation. These youths had neither become monks nor taken vows, let alone practiced cultivation, yet they could skip the arduous processes of making vows, keeping precepts, giving alms, and breaking through obstacles to directly achieve Buddhahood and ascend to heaven. This is too incredible. Even achieving a physical Buddha body is extremely rare great merit. Master Tan Lin of Dachanguang Temple was able to reach such a level only after decades of visualization and vowing to provide relief to disaster victims…”

Hearing her mention Tan Lin, Wei Xun suddenly burst into loud laughter, his laughter filled with disdain and desolation. After all, no one knew the truth of that bald thief surnamed Wang’s Buddha achievement better than he did. Fate was cruel – back then Bao Zhu was the mastermind behind the scenes, but now she had become the target of others’ schemes.

He forcibly suppressed the grief and anger in his heart, saying, “Yesterday thieves used treachery to lure me away, then broke in and seriously injured two people, forcibly abducting her. If this is the so-called ‘ascending to immortality,’ then your actions as gods and Buddhas are worse than bandits. You call yourselves the ‘ascending to immortality families’ – when your own family members disappear, didn’t you notice anything strange? Didn’t you have the slightest suspicion?” His cold gaze slowly swept over Cao Hong and Yao Jiangzhen like a bone-piercing blade.

Cao Hong lowered his head with a guilty expression, saying heavily, “My sister Cao Yan was the first Guanyin slave. The day she disappeared, her clothes were left in her bedroom like shed cicada skin. Our family of over ten people, along with more than twenty bodyguards, all simultaneously saw her veil falling from the sky.”

Master Duanchen related what she had witnessed since coming to Luoyang: “The Cao family had operated in Luoyang for over thirty years and had some foundation, but at the time they discovered no trace of clues. After Cao Yan disappeared, her father, the hero Old Cao, was at his wit’s end and could only report to the authorities. The then Governor of Henan Prefecture, Cui Dongyang, personally led his subordinates to investigate and search, finally determining that Cao Yan had ‘ascended to immortality’ and publicly honored the Cao family. From then on, every cohort of Guanyin slaves would ‘ascend to immortality’ after the parade.

Since coming to Luoyang this past year, I have visited all the previous ‘ascending to immortality families’ in turn. The situations were all consistent with Cao Yan’s – clothes and accessories left behind, people vanished without trace. After this year’s parade ended, I originally wanted to remind you, but no one answered when I knocked. Having no evidence, I truly didn’t know where to begin, so could only return the way I came.”

At this point, the old nun felt a trace of guilt. Having had friction with these two from Canyang Court before, she looked down on Wei Xun’s arrogant manner and was too proud to lower herself to speak more with him, avoiding embarrassment. Looking back now, hadn’t she also fallen into the demon obstacle of ‘self-attachment’?

Wei Xun said nothing, carefully pondering their every word. Cao Hong could take his palm strike without falling – he was also a first-class jianghu expert. If even he couldn’t detect anything suspicious, it showed the enemy’s methods were sophisticated and their minds cunning.

Yao Jiangzhen slowly crawled out from under the incense table, her tone despondent: “Three years ago, the Mi brothers from our Yao family troupe both participated in the Guanyin slave selection. In the end, elder brother Mi Moyan drew the sacred divination while younger brother Falan was eliminated. He was greatly disappointed and has been trying to follow his brother’s footsteps these past years, continuously participating in selections.”

At this point, tears streamed down Yao Jiangzhen’s eyes as she cried pitifully, “They were sold to the troupe as infants – I personally raised these children. I’m both their non-blood sister and their master and mother. Though ascending to immortality is good, I really don’t want to lose another one.”

Wei Xun had personally witnessed that Hu dancer participate in the divination ceremony. Suspicion immediately arose in his heart as his gaze fixed on her like a hawk: “Since you can’t bear to part with your remaining pillar performer, yet still strongly support his continued participation, it shows you knew long ago he wouldn’t be selected.”

Yao Jiangzhen lowered her head in silence, as if she had unspeakable difficulties or feared revealing secrets.

Master Duanchen said with a puzzled expression, “The final selection involves public divination before the Guanyin statue to ask divine will. Whether selected or not is heavenly mandate – how could the result be known in advance? Could it be that you…”

Yao Jiangzhen remained silent.

A fat figure suddenly flashed through Wei Xun’s mind – someone who had been actively involved since the beginning of Guanyin slave selection: the guild leader of the Parade Association, Shen Dexian.

Glancing again at the ominous tri-colored pottery figurines on the lotus platform, he shouted sternly at Yao Jiangzhen, “Where does Shen Dexian live?!”

Yao Jiangzhen showed hesitation for a moment. Seeing this, Wei Xun reached out to grab her collar and leaped up to the roof beams. Cao Hong and Duanchen wanted to rescue her, but their qinggong was far inferior to the blue-robed guest’s – how could they catch up? Wei Xun carried Yao Jiangzhen climbing to the high upturned eaves of the main hall, dangling her in mid-air. If he let go, she would fall from this height of over ten zhang and be smashed to pieces.

Yao Jiangzhen was terrified pale-faced. Under the threat of death, she was unwilling to keep secrets for that vicious man any longer, saying tremblingly, “He lives in the northeast of Taohua Ward!”

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Wei Xun casually threw her onto the temple roof and flashed away, instantly rushing into the boundless darkness. Only then did Cao Hong and Master Duanchen reach the roof, seeing the still-shaken Yao Jiangzhen left there but still alive, finally breathing slightly easier.

Recalling the blue-robed guest’s demon-like expression, Master Duanchen frowned with worry, telling Cao Hong, “I heard some rumors today, don’t know if they’re true.”

As leader of the Luoqing Gang with bodyguards throughout both banks of the Luo River, Cao Hong’s information was naturally much more current than what could be learned in an ancient temple. He nodded gravely, “The Seven Absolutes of Canyang have gathered in the city, attacking everywhere. They’ve already killed quite a few corrupt officials these past two days. Various gangs are urgently summoning experts from other regions.”

A bloody storm was about to break. Master Duanchen’s mood grew heavier as she looked toward the Guanyin statue in the main hall, but the Bodhisattva remained silently speechless.

Shen Dexian’s mansion was magnificently luxurious, with vermillion-lacquered gates bearing beast-head door knockers. Strange flowers and exotic trees competed for beauty in the garden, artificial mountains and ponds complementing each other, everywhere revealing an air of extravagance. However, guards and servants all lay unconscious on the ground, the entire courtyard deathly still.

Tuoba Sanniang walked out of the main house with light steps, washing the bloodstains from her hands in the living water of the courtyard. The blood slowly dispersed in the water like blooming flowers. Qiu Ren followed her out, tossing a small money pouch to the eldest senior brother waiting outside.

Qiu Ren wiped the sweat from his head and face with his sleeve, complaining, “Third Senior Sister tears the person apart, then I have to save him back together, over and over. The person is so broken he can barely be pieced back together, and we only got this little bit.”

Wei Xun squeezed the money pouch, pouring out over ten Kaiyuan Tongbao coins into his palm with a clatter. At first glance, these copper coins looked ordinary, their quality and weight no different from currency circulating in the market. However, upon careful observation, there were subtle differences. Some coins had characters on both sides, some had crescents on both sides – this situation was extremely rare.

“Matched-back coins?”

Market copper coins were cast using coin molds, divided into front and back faces. The front bore the four characters “Kaiyuan Tongbao” written by Ouyang Xun, while the back was wordless with star or moon decorations. But in extremely rare cases, when coin workers incorrectly matched molds, they would cast misprinted copper coins with identical sides. These were called “matched-back coins.”

Wei Xun gripped these misprinted copper coins and, after brief consideration, understood Shen Dexian’s trick.

When contestants cast divination, whether the hexagram was auspicious or inauspicious depended entirely on the coins’ heads or tails. As long as Shen Dexian secretly manipulated things, replacing normal copper coins with matched-back coins during selection, he could control at will who would cast what hexagram. In the tense atmosphere of public divination, those youths were already excited and unsettled, making it difficult to detect the deception.

Asking Buddha before a great crowd seemed fair and just, entirely dependent on heavenly will. In reality, who was selected or not was all predetermined.

Tuoba Sanniang’s expression was calm as she said slowly, “That troupe leader from the Yao family troupe, to prevent her own pillar performer from being selected again, sends money to that Shen fellow every year, bribing him to cheat when her pillar casts divination. Shen’s appetite grew bigger and bigger – this year he even coerced her to sleep with him.”

Qiu Ren’s tone was full of disdain: “Big appetite, but soft bones. He spilled everything he should and shouldn’t say. He uses various channels to make money, but knows nothing about where the Guanyin slaves go after ‘ascending to immortality’ and doesn’t care at all. Some families yearn for the glory of being ‘ascending to immortality families,’ some families can’t bear to be separated from their children. From his perspective, regardless of who’s selected, they’re all tools for his profit – there are new people every year.”

Tuoba Sanniang added, “Strangely, he said that besides the Yao family troupe, no one else bribed for selection this year, so he only tampered with Mi Falan’s coins. The others all used ordinary copper coins – this year’s Guanyin slave should have emerged from the other eight people. However, nine divination attempts without result was also unprecedented.”

Wei Xun once again forced himself to recall all the details of asking Buddha at Changqiu Temple that day. He clearly remembered that the coins other contestants used for divination all came from Shen Dexian’s hands. But the coins Bao Zhu used were golden Tongbao she had personally brought and commissioned. Shen Dexian couldn’t have anticipated her sudden appearance, much less interfered with the hexagram she cast when mounting the lotus platform.

“Golden sacred divination, responding to heaven’s mandate.”

Wei Xun took out a gold coin she had given him from his waist pouch, gently rubbing it in his palm. This matter began with accidentally encountering Shen Dexian, but ultimately what made Bao Zhu decide to play Guanyin was her desire to heal him. Thinking this way made his heart feel even more pierced and torn, nearly driving him mad.

The leads were cut off again. He looked up at the dark sky without stars or moon, silently pondering: If this truly was heavenly mandate, why would the invisible will in the vast unknown arrange things this way?

The surrounding air seemed frozen. After a long while, Qiu Ren broke the silence, asking, “What about the person inside? Still hanging on by his last breath, only his tongue is intact.”

Wei Xun’s expression was cold as he asked Tuoba Sanniang, “How many times have I broken your pipa before?”

Tuoba Sanniang rolled her eyes and sneered, “At least three times.”

Wei Xun said expressionlessly, “Today I’ll compensate you with four strings.”

Author’s Note: The historical source of Baituo Temple is based entirely on Baima Temple, but since Baima Temple still exists today, to avoid causing discomfort to modern people, I changed one character as a fictional setting.

Matched-back coins are quite popular in the collecting world due to their rarity, and their prices are also high.