Chapter 56: Nightshade Sprouting, Bestowing a Buddhist Treasure

Du Yuan pondered quietly in his heart.

The shopkeeper, on the other hand, hurriedly asked in a low voice:
"Living Buddha, and what else is there?"

Du Yuan had stopped midway through his sentence just now, and the shopkeeper was truly on pins and needles.

Hearing this and coming back to his senses, Du Yuan put down the porcelain bowl in his hand and smiled, saying:
"Shopkeeper, the reason you were able to see the returning ghost soldiers is because you had accumulated a fair amount of blessed affinity previously. Added to the fact that they also wanted to taste a bowl of hometown noodles one last time, it was through this predestined gathering of causes and conditions that you mutually saw and mutually fulfilled one another."

"Mu—mutually fulfilled?"

The shopkeeper had understood everything up to that point, but the last part eluded him.

Du Yuan smiled and pointed toward the shopkeeper's chest, saying:
"Take a look at what you have tucked inside your robe."

When the shopkeeper had first come looking for him, Du Yuan had already noticed something extraordinary hidden inside the man's tunic.

"Inside my robe?"

What could possibly be inside my robe?

With a puzzled look, the shopkeeper reached a hand into his tunic, and with a drastic change in expression, he pulled out a dozen stiff paper-cut bronze coins.

"Th—what is this?"

"Have you forgotten that those soldiers pooled together a dozen copper coins for you last night?"

As Du Yuan pointed this out, the shopkeeper's scalp instantly tingled with dread.

These were dead men's money!

Overwhelmed by panic, he hurriedly pushed the dozen paper-cut bronze coins toward Du Yuan and pleaded:
"Living Buddha, please show mercy and take these! I—I simply don't dare keep them! I am faint-hearted to begin with!"

Du Yuan chuckled with amused astonishment:
"These are good things!"

"Good things? Living Buddha, you must be joking with me! Th—this is..."

At this point, the shopkeeper lowered his voice just like the residents of Qiaoshui Town had done earlier and whispered to Du Yuan:
"This is dead men's money, Living Buddha! How could I possibly dare to keep it!"

Du Yuan shook his head and pushed the items back, saying:
"This is ghostly merit."

This was the first time Du Yuan had seen paper-cut bronze coins of this kind, but he had seen something similar before.

That was in the old Qian family residence!

The twelve generations of ancestors preceding the Qian family had accumulated a vast amount of blessed affinity for their descendants through acts of benevolence and virtue.

And it was the ancestors of the Qian family who had amassed twelve generations of blessed virtue, coupled with Qian Youcai's sudden awakening, that gave Du Yuan the reason he always sought to give the Qian family a helping hand.

Doing good deeds without receiving any reward—Du Yuan did not wish to see such things become commonplace in reality.

After all, good people suffer far too much...

Moreover, the Qian family had merely strayed from virtue. If a few words could persuade them to turn over a new leaf, that would undoubtedly be far better than simply watching them sink into ruin.

Furthermore, the protective blessed virtue that Du Yuan had seen lingering around Qian Youcai in the Qian family ancestral hall on that day was identical to the energy hovering around these paper-cut bronze coins.

It was just that these coins could evidently be freely transferred; whoever held them possessed them.

Whereas the merit in the Qian family was explicitly exclusive to the Qian descendants, making it difficult for outsiders to touch.

"Is it really that remarkable?"

Du Yuan nodded and then asked teasingly:
"Well then, do you still wish to give them to me now?"

This was originally meant as a joke, but Du Yuan saw the man push all dozen paper-cut bronze coins unhesitatingly right in front of him:
"If not for your intervention, Living Buddha, my life would have been taken last night. So, of course, these all belong to you!"

Du Yuan hastily declined with a smile:
"Ah, ah, I was merely jesting and nothing more. It cannot be taken seriously. This is ghostly merit you have accumulated yourself; how could you give it to me?"

The shopkeeper persisted stubbornly:
"Living Buddha, I am a mortal man with no worldly possessions to speak of. Now that I finally have a miraculous treasure, it is only natural that I present it to you in return for saving my life. You cannot let me be ungrateful and fail to repay such a kindness!"

Having said that, the shopkeeper added with an embarrassed smile:
"And another thing, Living Buddha... regarding this treasure, might I continue to keep it?"

The porcelain bowl was still sitting before Du Yuan, and the shopkeeper looked at it with eager eyes. Since these strange events hadn't happened simply because he stumbled upon the Living Buddha, it was naturally better to have a treasure at home that could suppress and protect the household!

Du Yuan glanced at the porcelain bowl the shopkeeper was so fixated on, chuckled heartily, and said:
"Very well, very well. I will accept the coins, but as for this bowl—it originally belonged to you in the first place, so of course you should take it back!"

"Oh, thank you, Living Buddha! Thank you, Living Buddha!"

The shopkeeper hurriedly cradled the porcelain bowl in his arms. Meanwhile, Du Yuan took out his small seal, tapped it gently against the dozen paper-cut bronze coins, and collected every single one of them into it.

This display left the shopkeeper gasping in renewed awe.

He thought to himself that as expected of a Living Buddha! Where else in the mortal world could one ever witness such methods?

Why, even the Emperor himself probably had never seen anything like this!

At this thought, the shopkeeper unconsciously straightened his spine.

Watching the shopkeeper, who seemed immensely proud of himself despite not even knowing what he was imagining, Du Yuan suddenly hatched a plan.

After a brief pause, he raised his eyes to look at the shopkeeper, his tone measured and steady:
"Shopkeeper, I have a matter to discuss with you. Whether you are willing or not depends entirely on your own heart and mind."

Hearing this, the shopkeeper hastily adjusted his robes and cap, bowed with cupped hands, and said solemnly:
"Please give your instructions, Living Buddha!"

With a profound gaze, Du Yuan slowly said:
"Have you ever considered... continuing this nighttime business of yours permanently?"

Ghost soldiers walking by night, netherworld spirits causing disturbances—once this door was opened, Du Yuan knew full well that the night roads around these parts would likely never be peaceful again. Rather than leaving the shopkeeper in perpetual terror day after day, it would be better to embrace the business outright.

In this way, the shopkeeper could accumulate some ghostly merit, and Du Yuan could also let those netherworld entities—which were clearly far stronger than ordinary mortals—know that he, too, was here.

"Of course, if you are unwilling, I also have ways to help you spend your nights in peace once more."

Although this seemed to Du Yuan to be a solution that benefited both sides, he certainly would not force the matter if the man was unwilling, and he would still do his utmost to help him.

The shopkeeper remained silent for a long time before finally raising his head. Deep confusion and a trace of imperceptible inquiry lingered in his eyes as he spoke hesitantly:
"Living Buddha, this humble person dares to ask: among the netherworld entities wandering this world, are there more pitiful ones, or more hateful ones?"

Thoughts churned tumultuously in his mind: those soldiers looked fierce and terrifying, yet they rewarded him with ghostly merit coins, chased away evil spirits for him, and offered kind advice.

As for those three evil entities, they initially appeared pitiful and destitute, yet they harbored malicious intentions and were utterly venomous inside.

Du Yuan pondered this question earnestly for a long time before replying:
"In the end, most of them are simply pitiful people trapped by their own hardships."

The soldiers, the ancestors of the Qian family, and even Zhou Da and the horse demon from the beginning—none of them belonged to the category of wicked evil spirits.

As for the snake demon, the spirit bead, and the wolf demon, they were clearly manipulated by others.

Having received the Living Buddha's answer, the shopkeeper took a deep breath, bowed, and said:
"Then, Living Buddha, this humble person is willing!"

Du Yuan smiled and asked:
"Are you truly willing?"

"Truly willing!"

The shopkeeper gritted his teeth and gave his assent, though his forced composure vanished in an instant. His voice trembled, and he pleaded with a tone that was nearly on the verge of tears:
"Only—Living Buddha, please show your compassion! I beg you to have mercy once more and help this humble person a little more! I—I am truly terrified inside!"

Du Yuan nodded slightly, his gaze falling upon the porcelain bowl as his tone remained calm:
"Since I am the one who proposed it, it is naturally up to me to help you see it through to perfection!"

"Come, hand me the bowl."

Granted a reprieve, the shopkeeper hastily presented the porcelain bowl to Du Yuan.

Du Yuan took it, his fingertips gently rubbing against the rim of the bowl as if weighing a strand of cause and effect. He raised his eyes to look at the shopkeeper, a hint of a smile touching the corners of his mouth:
"You and I formed our affinity through this object. Today, let us use this very object to cast our spell. What do you think?"

"Good, good, good! I will listen entirely to you, Living Buddha!"

The shopkeeper was naturally more than ten thousand times willing.

Du Yuan said no more. He gazed intently at the porcelain bowl for a moment, then raised his hand and extracted a small fragment of a temple eave tile from his waist seal.

With a flick of his fingertips, the tile fragment was ground into fine powder right in his palm. Immediately after, using his finger as a brush and dipping it into the powder imbued with the passage of time and divine aura, Du Yuan steadily inscribed five archaic and powerful characters across the bottom of the bowl—

Om Mani Padme Hum!

With this, the Buddhist treasure was complete!

Examining it for a moment and confirming there were no flaws whatsoever, Du Yuan handed it back to the shopkeeper and said:
"In the future, if you encounter malevolent forces, you may use this object to subdue them."

"And if anyone asks who appointed you to set up this shop, you shall say that you act by the decree of Lesser Xitian!"