399: Pay attention to a fate

Chapter 399: It's All About Fate

Not far from Lu Ran and the others, in a mountain stream.

Long, greenish-gray stone steps wound their way to the reddish-brown mountain gate.

Two weathered stone pillars stood on either side, covered in moss.

Several large characters were carved on them in a lively, flowing script.

The left side read: The sea of suffering is boundless.

The right side read: Turn back and the shore is there!

The gate-keeping monks held demon-subduing staffs, and the copper rings on them clinked with their slight movements, making a jingling sound.

Their gray cloth monk robes were stained with morning dew, and they didn't look lazy; in fact, they carried a fierce aura, like clashing weapons!

There was no sense of Buddhist peace whatsoever.

The winding mountain path led up to Great Buddha Temple.

Its overall scale was immense, even surpassing Da Luo Palace.

Moreover,

The overall decor was resplendent and magnificent; at first glance, it really did have a certain feel to it.

And at this moment,

On the plaza in front of the Grand Hall.

Quite a few people had already gathered.

A rough estimate would be at least several hundred, even a thousand people!

They knelt densely on prayer mats, devoutly looking at the high platform in front of the main hall.

On the high platform, an Old Monk with a long white beard sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, looking at the crowd below with a 'benevolent' expression.

“Today’s grand Buddhist gathering, the fact that you, benefactors, can be here, is all due to your fate.”

“However, as you all know, the current world is different from the past.”

“The consecrated Buddhist artifacts we are selling today are also under the rules of the new world.”

“All of them have been personally consecrated by this Old Monk.”

“As for the price, it remains the same as before.”

“There are three tiers: the first batch sells for 998.”

“The second batch is of a higher tier, and naturally, the Buddhist nature is richer, priced at 9998.”

“Finally, there are the ultimate items, personally consecrated by this Old Monk and warmed by his Buddhist power, priced at 99998.”

“Quantities are limited; first come, first served.”

…

To be fair,

This Old Monk looked somewhat like a Buddhist master.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, why did it sound like a live-streamed sales pitch?

Buddhist artifacts clearly priced, first come, first served?

“Of course, because the world rules have greatly changed, these prices require you all to pay with gold coins, not the old banknotes,” the Old Monk reminded them.

The people, who had originally been eager to become 'leeks' (victims of a scam), suddenly looked dumbfounded.

This was their first time here since the new world merged.

They knew about gold coins.

But they hadn't acquired many yet.

Some hadn't even seen what a gold coin looked like!

There were many wealthy individuals present.

Unfortunately,

The monks no longer cared for the money of these wealthy people.

They needed gold coins!

From this perspective, these monks were somewhat farsighted.

Only after the world underwent Datafication did gold coins become the hard currency; the old banknotes were now just trash!

“Master, isn’t this wrong? I don’t have many gold coins.”

“That’s right, if it were money, I’d have it. Tens of thousands, millions, no problem.”

“But these gold coins are hard to get.”

“Can you reserve one for me? I’ll come back to buy it once I’ve earned enough gold coins?”

…

Below, there was a cacophony of chatter.

The Old Monk, of course, heard it clearly.

He had anticipated this situation long ago.

What he wanted to confirm was whether these people would still want the items.

Seeing that they were still in high demand, it was settled.

As for when they would be sold, there was no hurry.

So,

The Old Monk’s expression became incredibly relaxed.

He said with a smile, “That’s all well and good. How about this: considering that it is indeed difficult for you benefactors to acquire a large amount of gold coins in a short time, these Buddhist artifacts can be reserved for you. Once you have gold coins, you can come and purchase them at any time.”

In short,

Calling them here today was to give them a heads-up.

Now, they should hurry and gather gold coins.

It wouldn't be too late to buy once they had enough gold coins.

Otherwise,

These people wouldn't bother gathering gold coins.

Moreover,

They could only sell to these people.

These monks had even interacted with professionals.

After an exciting brainwashing session, when they brought out the Buddhist artifacts, no one bought them at all!

Because as professionals, what everyone valued were attributes.

If this item was equipment and its attributes were exceptionally powerful, everyone would, of course, buy it.

But unfortunately,

This item couldn't fool professionals.

Professionals would glance at it and find that it didn't even have an attribute panel; it was just a pile of junk, a trinket, a toy. What would they use it for?

So, they couldn't sell to professionals; not a single one could be sold.

Therefore, they still had to focus on these people and make them gather gold coins.

The purpose of today’s grand Buddhist gathering was precisely this: to gauge the reactions of these people and see the situation first.

Currently, it seems.

The situation is good!

“That’s great, that’s great, I’ll go save up gold coins!”

“The best kind, reserve one for me, please, you must reserve one for me!”

“Gold coins shouldn’t be hard to earn.”

“Damn Datafication, it’s made this world such a mess.”

“But it doesn’t matter, we’ll have Buddhist protection from now on, no need to worry about any danger!”

…

The brainwashing was very successful!

The Old Monk looked at the crowd below with a benevolent expression, very satisfied.

At this moment,

A monk suddenly approached him.

He whispered, “News has come back from the Imperial Capital; Cen Yu Nuo wasn’t caught, and some of our disciples who went there have died.”

What?

The Old Monk’s eyes widened, about to erupt in rage.

But considering that he couldn't lose his composure in today’s setting, he quickly suppressed his emotions.

He just gritted his teeth and whispered, “What happened? Who did it?”

The monk replied, “It’s not quite clear yet, but it should have been killed by professionals.”

The Old Monk frowned deeply.

He said, “That’s not right; the professionals’ levels aren’t that high. How could they have killed them?”

The other party clearly didn’t know the specific situation and couldn’t answer.

The Old Monk pondered, not knowing what he was thinking.

Suddenly, another monk came closer.

He whispered, “Something happened at Da Luo Palace.”

Ah?

The Old Monk was stunned. Why did something happen at Da Luo Palace too?

“What happened? Isn’t Da Luo Palace deserted? We’ll replace that mountain stronghold sooner or later,” the Old Monk asked.

“That’s precisely it. A group of people went to Da Luo Palace, seemingly provoked by the Datafication World, planning to forcibly demolish Da Luo Palace. Some of our disciples also happened to be there. The specific details are unknown, but after Da Luo Palace was demolished, it turned out that demons were indeed suppressed under the Demon Lock Tower. Now that the demons have erupted, everyone present died, including our people, so the specific situation is unknown. Now, at Da Luo Palace, those demons are spreading everywhere, and we…”

“Hurry and set up defenses; we cannot allow the demons to invade Great Buddha Temple,” the Old Monk said urgently.

Two consecutive pieces of news left the Old Monk feeling somewhat flustered.

How did things turn out like this out of nowhere?

Just as he had finally gained control over these people and was about to make a huge profit,

His mood was affected by these two pieces of news.