Quinn Ye had originally intended to go sightseeing and enjoy the scenery.
Little did he expect that after just one day of travel, the nature of the trip would start to feel a bit off.
"Benefactor, would you like to learn more about the sacred Buddhist site, the Shaolin Temple?"
Monk Hugo had a serene expression on his face, saying this to every passerby he encountered.
Not just him.
Void Sea and Void Bamboo were exactly like Hugo, catching anyone they could and telling them they had a predestined affinity with Buddhism, asking if they wanted to become monks.
Later on, even Rosie Song joined their ranks.
Just a moment ago.
Rosie encountered a muscular man with bulging muscles.
She actually asked him with a straight face if he wanted to become a monk.
The muscular man stared at Rosie, his eyes filled with a look of greed.
"If I become a monk, can I get intimate with you?"
Rosie was instantly fuming with rage.
The man was subsequently given a sound thrashing by Void Sea and Void Bamboo, who nearly forcibly tonsured him on the spot.
The master and disciples asked all along the way, but not a single person was willing to join the monkhood.
They were even cursed at several times.
Eventually, the old blind fortuneteller couldn't take it anymore.
He also began persuading people to become monks.
As expected of a fortuneteller, the old blind man's tongue was incredibly glib.
At first, they met an old man. The old blind man went up and said a few words.
That old man actually knelt in front of Hugo on the spot, crying and shouting that he wanted to become a monk, even saying that if he wasn't tonsured, he would die right in front of Hugo.
This moved Hugo to tears.
He took out his razor on the spot and shaved the old man's head bald.
He even bestowed a Dharma Name upon him—Void Stillness.
And so.
Quinn's excursion team immediately gained a new member.
With the experience of the old blind man's successful persuasion, Hugo hoped the old blind man would continue to play a role so he could take in more Buddhist disciples.
The old blind man patted his chest.
No problem at all.
On the first day of the excursion.
Including Void Stillness, they took in three disciples.
On the second day.
They took in seven more.
On the third day.
The group arrived at a village.
The old blind man went inside for a stroll.
When he came out, he was followed by more than fifty villagers.
These villagers were all eager to swarm in front of Hugo, begging him to take them as disciples.
Hugo was so happy that snot bubbles almost popped out of his nose.
He quickly pulled out his razor and personally performed the tonsure for the villagers.
Quinn stood in the back, his face turning dark.
With more than fifty people, how long would it take to shave them all?
Was he supposed to just stand here and wait?
Quinn couldn't take it anymore.
He walked up behind Hugo.
"Ahem, Hugo, how about we wait until we're on our way back to take in disciples?"
Hugo didn't even turn his head, focusing intently on shaving a villager's head.
Quinn was utterly speechless.
This monk had gone obsessed.
It was as if shaving heads was his true profession.
"Hugo, do you know your crime?"
Quinn suddenly shouted.
It gave Hugo such a jolt that he nearly sliced off a villager's scalp.
"Holy Son?"
Hugo looked at Quinn somewhat confused.
Quinn kept his hands behind his back, his face cold.
"Hugo, as a Buddhist disciple, have you forgotten the Buddha's teachings?"
Hugo trembled and quickly put down the razor.
"This disciple does not know what offense I have committed?"
Quinn pointed at the villagers.
"They were all tricked here by the old blind man, yet you want to tonsure them? This is adding mistake upon mistake. It's simply ridiculous."
The old blind man felt very awkward at the side.
But Quinn was right.
These villagers were indeed tricked by him.
He had a glib tongue and could talk the dead back to life.
Tricking these villagers who hadn't seen much of the world was simply too easy.
"As disciples of our Buddhist sect, we study the Dharma to clear the doubts of all living beings and lead them out of the sea of suffering, not to use deception to bring them into Buddhism."
"A monk does not lie. Your current behavior is simply a disgrace to all monks!"
Quinn deliberately spoke with heavy words, intending to completely discourage Hugo's idea of taking in disciples along the way.
Hugo stood there in a daze, his face full of guilt.
"Holy Son, this disciple knows his mistake!"
Hugo suddenly knelt in front of Quinn.
Void Sea and Void Bamboo also quickly let the villagers return home.
The old blind man also stepped in to soothe them, and only then did the villagers honestly go back.
Fortunately, including the ten people taken in over the previous two days and the eight villagers who had just been tonsured.
There were a total of eighteen people.
These eighteen people had already been tonsured, and Hugo had bestowed Dharma Names upon them, so they were already considered official Buddhist disciples.
Quinn didn't make Hugo drive these eighteen people away.
It served to make Hugo feel a little better.
The Shaolin Temple had never had many people.
Seeing the monks in other temples growing in number, Hugo appeared indifferent on the surface, but he was actually quite anxious in his heart.
After all, his Shaolin Temple was personally named by Quinn Ye; logically, it should be the largest and most flourishing temple at the foot of Cloud-Drifting Mountain.
Yet his disciples were so few.
Hugo had long wanted to go out and widely recruit disciples personally.
But he had gotten too immersed in it for a moment, delaying Quinn's excursion plans.
"Holy Son, please punish this disciple."
Hugo took the initiative to seek punishment.
Quinn squinted at him.
"I punish you to chant the Heart Sutra all along the way without stopping."
"Yes!"
Just like that, the group continued their journey.
Only the team had grown larger.
And Hugo was constantly chanting the Heart Sutra along the way.
After two days of chanting, the whole group's scalps felt numb from his voice.
It felt as if the sound of Hugo's chanting was there every single moment.
Especially for Quinn.
The others were cultivators and didn't need to sleep.
Quinn couldn't do that.
He had to sleep when the time came.
Once he fell asleep, the sound of Hugo's chanting would ring in his dreams.
Out of helplessness, Quinn told Hugo to stop chanting.
But Hugo was very stubborn.
He felt that if he had done something wrong, he had to be punished.
If he said he would chant the Heart Sutra the whole way, then he would chant it the whole way.
Not a single step less.
Quinn had no choice but to let him chant silently in his heart, so at least he wouldn't have to hear the voice.
As for the eighteen disciples Hugo had taken in—although they were tricked by the old blind man.
They were sincerely devoted to Buddhism.
Following Void Sea and Void Bamboo's cultivation along the way, they completely integrated into the Buddhist sect.
Quinn also found it interesting, so he gave them a title.
The Eighteen Arhats!
On the sixth day of the excursion.
The group gradually approached the border of the Heavenly Martial Empire.
Further east, they would reach Heaven-Rending Peak.
For some reason, the closer they got to Heaven-Rending Peak, the more people they encountered.
And, basically all of them were cultivators.
Some were clearly from other nations.
"How strange. Is this Heaven-Rending Peak really that famous? Do so many people usually come here to visit?"
Quinn had a look of confusion.
The old blind fortuneteller and Hanyang Chu sensed something was wrong.
The two of them went to inquire around.
Soon, the two returned with solemn expressions.
"Young Master Quinn, something major is about to happen at Heaven-Rending Peak."
The old blind man said this as soon as he returned.
Quinn was startled.
"What major thing?"
"Emperor Arthur Yang of the Profound Origin Empire has proactively challenged Martial Emperor Dominic Su to a battle."
"And the location of the duel is right here at Heaven-Rending Peak."
"The great battle will arrive tomorrow!"