The Abbess Jingxin

Chapter 82 – Abbess Jingxin

Li Huowang couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. It suddenly struck him how absurd it was—a Daoist priest asking nuns for help.

“Ahem, ladies, please, stop laughing. My problem is urgent. If I don’t get it sorted, I’m dead.” Li Huowang forced down his amusement and got down to business.

“Follow me, then. We’ll go ask the Abbess. Oh, right—two gold beans for the guide fee.”

A greasy, pudgy hand thrust itself in front of Li Huowang.

Li Huowang wasn’t afraid of the nuns asking for money. Anything that could be solved with silver wasn’t a real problem.

He handed over two gold beans and followed the fat nun out the door.

As he was about to leave the room, he glanced back at the other nuns with a touch of reluctance. Spending every day with these carefree, loud-mouthed women… it was actually kind of fun. Even the stench in the air didn’t seem so bad anymore.

Stepping back onto the narrow path between the buildings, Li Huowang addressed the nun leading the way. “This humble Daoist is Xuan Yang of Qingfeng Temple. May I ask the venerable nun’s Dharma name?”

“Miaoyu.” The fat, fleshy-faced nun said this while picking her nose.

“Ahem. A beautiful name.” Li Huowang held back his laughter with considerable effort. The name and her appearance were a match made in… the least likely place imaginable.

After a short walk, a row of low thatched huts appeared before them. The fat nun walked straight up to one. “Wait here. I’m going to take a dump.”

“Very well. May your bowels run smoothly, Venerable Miaoyu.” Li Huowang cupped his hands, still fighting a grin.

“Ah… heh heh.” Smiling, Li Huowang stood beside the thatched hut and lazily stretched. He felt incredibly at ease right now.

Everything seemed hilarious to him. The world around him was just so damned funny.

He was just about to burst out laughing again, replaying the earlier scene in his head, when suddenly everything began to crumble. The white walls of a hospital started replacing the world around him. Vague, phantom figures began to solidify.

The easygoing Li Huowang vanished in an instant. His expression twisted in agony as he clutched his head with both hands.

“No. Not now. Hold on a little longer. Shh… shh!! Help me out here. Please. Quiet. Quiet. Shh… shhh… shhh…”

His pleading seemed to work. After a moment, everything around him settled back down.

His face had gone deathly pale again. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and stood up.

The Black Tai Sui’s effects were wearing off. The hallucinations would be back soon.

But for now, he had to push all that aside. In the face of life and death, hallucinations were a luxury he couldn’t afford.

His mood soured. He tried to recapture the earlier levity, but the joy was gone.

“Ah…” He let out a heavy sigh.

Just then, he heard a sound. He lifted his foot and walked around to the back of the latrine.

What he saw there genuinely shocked him.

Behind the outhouse, a bamboo enclosure held a pack of black-skinned, long-haired pigs.

Inside were the excrement being sprayed outward, and the grunting, snuffling black pigs.

The sight instinctively turned his stomach.

He’d heard the nuns of Anci Nunnery raised pigs, but he never imagined they raised them on this.

Staring at the pigs, Li Huowang’s impression of the entire nunnery took a nosedive. These nuns were weird. Weird in the worst way.

As the black pigs grunted and shuffled apart, Miaoyu emerged from the toilet. Seeing Li Huowang standing by the pigpen, she said nothing and simply motioned for him to follow. “Let’s go. I still need to take my nap.”

“Do you… eat these pigs yourselves?” Li Huowang suddenly asked.

“What nonsense! Haven’t you noticed we’re nuns? We believe in the Bodhisattva! We can’t eat meat. And here I thought you were supposed to be a Daoist—you don’t even know that?”

Miaoyu’s voice dripped with contempt, but then her tone shifted, turning dejected.

“Ah, it’s not like we want to raise pigs. Nobody comes to burn incense or make offerings anymore. We’ve got to do something to earn a living, don’t we? A person can’t live on thin air.”

“True enough. True enough.” Li Huowang nodded along, following her deeper into the compound.

After winding through several more paths, Miaoyu stopped in front of a hut.

“The Abbess is inside. I’m not going in. To be honest, I’m a bit scared of her. Oh, right—her Dharma name is Jingxin.”

Without waiting for a reply, she turned and left.

Li Huowang watched her retreating back for a moment, then let out a soft laugh and stepped inside.

The room was dark. The sound of swallowing and chewing echoed from within, along with a stench even more potent than before. Everything about this felt wrong. On instinct, Li Huowang’s hand reached for the bamboo slip on his back.

Just as he lifted his right foot to step into the darkness, he felt something dry and brittle beneath his shoe. He quickly withdrew his foot.

“Light a lamp, child. I’m blind. I have no use for it.” An aged, hoarse voice came from the darkness.

“Of course, Abbess.” Li Huowang pulled out his fluorescent stone and tossed it toward the spot he’d just stepped on. The sight revealed in the dim glow made his whole body jolt.

It was an impossibly fat, impossibly old woman wearing a nun’s cap. Her eye sockets were two empty black holes. The loose, sagging skin of her face was pulled downward by the rolls of fat on her neck, as if it might peel off at any moment.

In the dim, shadowy room, the image was nothing short of horrifying.

But her face wasn’t the worst part. Her body was.

Her enormous, corpulent frame seemed to fill the entire room. her filthy, sagging flesh was covered in bloody, festering sores. Something seemed to be writhing inside those sores.

And this woman was clutching a large basin, shoveling greasy, sloppy food into her mouth with both hands.

“Heh heh. How unusual. Fancy a Heart-Element coming to find little old me.” The terrifying old nun grinned with her toothless mouth, then went back to eating.

As grotesque as she looked, her voice was surprisingly kind. If you closed your eyes, you’d probably think she was some kindly old grandmother.

But Li Huowang didn’t have time for that. The moment she said Heart-Element, his heart seized up, every muscle in his body tensed, ready to retreat.

“Don’t panic. Anyone can see you’re a clueless brat. When has Anci Nunnery ever needed that kind of ingredient? We can’t be bothered. Actually… My son was a Heart-Element too.”

“Oh?” Li Huowang’s attention sharpened. “Then, Abbess Jingxin… where is your son now?” This was the first time he’d ever heard of another Heart-Element.

“He went mad. Heart-Elements rarely end well. Going mad… is one of the better outcomes.”

As Abbess Jingxin spoke of her son’s story, her voice carried a hint of sorrow.