Breaking the Three Precepts to Deliver a Baby: The 108 Arhats

A torrential rain pours down from the heavens, and within a day, the city is submerged beneath a vast sea.

More than a hundred expectant mothers from across the county have no choice but to climb the mountain and seek shelter from the rain at a temple.

Seeing this, Duye, the abbot of Lingyun Temple, breaks several precepts in a row.

Disregarding Buddhist rules and regulations, he welcomes the expectant mothers into the temple.

When there aren't enough delivery rooms, Duye decisively sets one up in the main hall.

When there aren't enough beds, Duye promptly turns all the offering tables in the three halls into delivery beds.

Worried that the mothers and newborns won't get enough nourishment, he has the livestock kept in the back courtyard slaughtered for meat, then cooked in front of the main hall.

After all this, the mothers safely give birth, welcoming one hundred and eight babies into the world.

Later, a reporter visits and asks Duye why he wasn't worried about breaking Buddhist precepts.

Duye joins his palms and smiles. "In this world, the greatest taboo of all is to stand by and let someone die."

A year later, the mothers make the clothes of the one hundred and eight babies into a kasaya, naming it the Arhat Kasaya.

The moment Duye dons the robe, boundless Buddhist light shines upon the world.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.