The doctrinal debates lasted for a full week. What began as mere verbal sparring between the various Buddhist temples escalated to minor scuffles, and then quickly to "light" sparring matches.
Of course, these matches weren't held in the city, but out in the wilderness.
After several inconclusive bouts, the situation escalated when a high-ranking monk from Iron Buddha Temple was injured after being ganged up on. After he returned, what was clearly only a minor injury began to rapidly worsen, and he eventually died.
With that, it was like a hornet's nest had been poked, and the entire situation heated up dramatically.
Lin Hui had originally planned to intervene from the shadows and add some fuel to the fire, but he hadn't expected events to develop so much faster than he imagined.
