The night was dark, the moonlight filtering through the gaps in the trees was eerie and hazy, and in the dilapidated temple, there was a fire burning.
Puff puff puff…
The burning dead branches emitted sparks, and the small pot of porridge and rice was boiling. Toad Taoist, wearing an apron, stood on a stone, with his webbed feet, stirring the bottom of the pot with a spoon, dipping it in the porridge to taste it, and then took out some seasoning from his apron pocket and sprinkled it into the pot.
"It's time to eat."
Wow.
The pages of the book turned with a slight sound, and the firelight shone on Lu Liangsheng's face. After a moment, he closed the book, went to sit down, and called Hong Lian to have dinner together. The tree demon in the black skirt had her hands clasped together, raised her head and was looking at the ceiling, blowing the hanging spider webs. There was no need to pay attention to her for the time being.
After dinner, Lu Liangsheng relit the lantern and looked around the dilapidated temple with it in his hand.
After all, this Lanruo Temple is a wild temple. It has not been registered with the government, so it can hardly be called a temple. It is not very large. It has a square hall surrounded by a courtyard wall, and there is a toilet in the corner of the wall.
The lantern swayed, and the wooden stairs leading to the second floor creaked as soon as the foot stepped on them, and dust rose up. Lu Liangsheng waved his hand to drive away the dust. There was nothing unusual upstairs, except for a Buddhist hall and four rooms on both sides, each with one or two collapsed and rotten wooden beds.
“I don’t know how many years this temple has been here.”
The curtain of the shrine in the Buddhist temple also leaned to one side. When it was pulled gently, dust flew in the air. Lu Liangsheng raised the lantern to shine towards the shrine. The statue inside was broken into two parts in the middle, and the carving marks on it became blurred, so it was impossible to tell which Buddha it was.
A gust of cold wind suddenly blew in the alley leading to the back of the Buddhist temple, and the flames in the lanterns suddenly flickered.
Lu Liangsheng raised the lantern and shone it over there. Suddenly, a white skull appeared from the corner. It seemed to have seen the people over here and it opened and closed its jaw and pounced over.
"Hong Lian, stop making trouble."
The lantern turned away from the range of light, and the skull floated motionless in the air, revealing the outline of the female ghost Hong Lian. She tossed the skull in her hand, held it in her hand, and followed outside the range of the fire.
"Young Master, you don't even bother to cooperate with me. It's boring."
"hehe… "
Lu Liangsheng chuckled twice, stopped, took the head from her hand, and placed it on the side of the shrine. "People are dead, so don't tease the remains. It's disrespectful."
As he said this, he bowed towards the skull.
"Excuse me."
Holding the lantern, I walked around to other places. There was nothing unusual there. After leaving the main hall and coming to the back, I saw an old well in front of a few dead trees and a geomantic stele next to it, which had long been broken and overturned.
The well was deep and dark. Lu Liangsheng frowned and picked up a stone and threw it in. After a long while, the sound of water splashing came back. When the firelight shone down, it was pitch black inside.
"The yin energy is quite heavy. No wonder the area of more than 20 miles is filled with gloomy energy at night. The source is here."
Thinking about what he heard in the afternoon about the many people who died in the town every year, it was probably related to the evil spirit under the well. Unfortunately, only a Taoist like Sun Yingxian could seal such evil spirits. Lu Liangsheng could only look at the wellhead and sigh.
While he was thinking about it, the tree demon in black skirt ran out at some point, wandering around barefoot with her skirt dragging. When she saw Lu Liangsheng here, her eyes lit up, and she actually ran over with a smile, rubbing against his body, but she couldn't utter any words.
"Stupid tree demon, go away!" Hong Lian's cheeks puffed up and she pointed her finger aside.
The woman blinked her big black eyes and shook her head vigorously, which made Lu Liangsheng laugh and cry. He pushed her aside. Fortunately, the woman was very curious, and perhaps because of the thousand-year-old spiritual root tree, she was attracted to the wellhead for a moment and looked inside.
"Be careful not to fall."
Lu Liangsheng pulled her back and said, "Let's go back. I think the master is asleep by now."
Hearing this, Hong Lian snorted, brushed off her long sleeves, and walked through the temple wall into the inside. The scholar also pulled the tree demon back. When they entered the temple gate, Lu Liangsheng stopped, turned his head slightly, and looked at the Lanruo Temple stone tablet standing not far away.
Then, he chuckled, shook his head, blew out the lights, and walked into the temple.
The stars and the moon in the night sky were obscured by dark clouds.
In the woods outside the stone tablet, several pairs of eyes were looking at the ruined temple through the darkness in the forest.
"… Did you see that young lady? She is so pretty."
"There are too many eyes in the town, so it's hard to do it. Now that guy is the only one left, I'll just kill him."
Woo~~~
The cry of wolves could be heard from the distant mountains, and unknown night birds flapped their wings and flew through the woods. Six people, dressed differently and with ferocious faces, crouched between several trees with swords in hand, staring at the temple gate from which a fire was faintly visible.
"Would it be bad for us to do this?" "That person may not be a good person. Didn't you see that the woman in the black skirt has her hands tied? Who knows where she was kidnapped from."
"Hehe, so we are also heroes saving beauties, and then..."
A short and fat figure laughed out loud: "Then... asking the beauty to pledge her love to you, isn't that too much?"
All around, mist was floating and surging, and the night birds in the woods suddenly stopped singing. The only sound that could reach people's ears was the wind, rustling the leaves.
Wow!
The wind blew into the temple from outside, the flames fluttered and the light shone on the human figure flickering. The toad curled up into a ball and yawned out of boredom.
Lu Liangsheng raised his head from the book, looked around, gathered magic power at his fingertips, flicked it at the fire, and the bonfire stood upright again, burning quietly.
"The few people outside are probably in trouble."
"Those who rob at night are not good people." The toad curled up in the firelight and half opened his eyes. "If I were your master, I would not care if they died..."
Thinking of the feeling when the Dharma words were being delivered at Yingshi Mountain that day, Toad Taoist stopped talking, stood up from the ground, put his flippers behind his back, and looked at the campfire.
The toad's eyes exude majesty.
“… As practitioners, how can we stand by and watch someone die without helping? The good and evil of an individual will be determined by the government. It is up to the Master to save them.”
After saying this, he turned around and walked towards the temple gate.
…
The wind howled through the woods, and the dense mist rolled along the ground, slowly spreading towards the six people under the three trees over there.
hehe…
… heh…
The young woman's chuckle or the old woman's cough could be heard faintly in the forest. The six people squatting under the tree stopped talking. The tall and thin man turned his head and whispered:
"Did you hear any strange noises?"
The short and fat man wiped the sweat from his face and said, "I think I heard it too. Why don't we go? I heard from people in the town that this forest is haunted."
In the front, the bearded man who was leading the group slapped the short and fat man on the head.
"We are evil people, full of murderous intent. How dare a ghost come here? That person dared to sit in that broken temple. What are the six of us afraid of?!"
call…
As he was speaking, the bearded man suddenly felt a chill on his neck, as if someone was blowing air at him from behind. He shivered and looked back, only to see a vast expanse of white all around.
"Why is the fog so thick?"
call…
Whoosh…
The wind grew louder, and the six people were startled to realize that the mist around them had grown thicker at some point, and their hearts skipped a beat.
The fog around them was swirling as if it were alive, wriggling towards them, and it was as if someone was reaching out from inside and reaching towards them.
"Gu..."
The six men swallowed their saliva together, stood up tremblingly with their swords in hand, looked at each other, and finally fixed their eyes on the bearded man.
The latter puffed out his chest and spoke in a rough voice.
"What are you looking at me for? It's normal for us bad guys to encounter ghosts..."
His eyes widened, he turned around and yelled:
“Run!”
Through the firelit temple gate, a short black shadow with webbed feet jumped down the stone steps and headed towards the woods on the opposite side.
I heard people screaming in panic.
The toad's mouth was outlined, pulling out a smile.
"Come here, old man..."
Then, the smile froze.
sand-
The bushes broke open, and six figures flew out together. With a bang, they seemed to kick something, but no one stopped and ran madly towards the temple gate.
On the ground, a black shadow rolled and bounced a few times before stopping.
"That woman's..."
The Toad Taoist lay on his back with his white belly exposed. He cursed and when he turned over, white mist surged out from the forest and his body suddenly stiffened.
The flipper took a slow step forward, turned around and ran, trying to gain some distance before casting the spell.
Behind him, endless white fog was rolling over like an overwhelming force, chasing after him.
The next moment, Lu Liangsheng's words rang out in the temple.
"How dare you, evil spirits, be so presumptuous!"
With a clang, the sword was unsheathed. The six people who rushed to the temple gate saw a daze in front of their eyes. A cold light flew through the middle and disappeared into the mist.
Hiss~~~
A flash of magic light appeared in the fog, and shrill screams were heard.