Chapter 284 Eye and Ear Talisman
It was afternoon when the two men and the fox set out. The monster's temple was about eighty or ninety miles away from the capital. They stayed in a thatched inn by the roadside for one night. It was already early morning of the next day when they reached the foot of the mountain.
The morning mist, mountains, forests and villages create a tranquil scene, with birds singing and dogs barking in the ears, creating a peaceful atmosphere.
"Wang Wang Wang..."
A village dog spotted the white fox and barked at it.
The white fox just turned its head and looked at it with its amber eyes. The village dog immediately shut its mouth and walked away silently, only daring to look at them with the side of its eyes.
The two men and the fox walked through the village and headed towards the path on the left in the morning mist. The road immediately became unfamiliar.
I don't know if it was because they left too early, or if the news of someone being killed after worshiping the evil god gradually spread, but there was no one on this road this morning.
However, this is the only road in the mountains, and there is often scattered incense dust and grass incense ingredients on the roadside, so there is no need to ask anyone for directions.
So the first thing that happened in the morning mist was the white fox. It often jumped onto the branches of unknown trees, stretched its neck and looked into the distance, as if searching or alerting, and then either jumped down with the wind or walked down the tree trunk leisurely. Behind them, the Taoist rode a donkey and the warrior rode a horse, slowly going up the mountain.
A dilapidated temple soon appeared in the mountains and forests.
The temple was so old that it could hardly provide shelter from the wind and rain. It only had one room and was deserted. However, countless people had made a path in front of the temple. Inside the temple, there were countless fruit offerings, as well as burnt and unburnt incense sticks.
The fox was now being impolite again and stood on the roof of the temple, looking around.
"This is a damn place. Even pedestrians walking at night would not easily enter if they came across it. Who discovered that it could help people get fat?" Luo Seng said.
“There is no temple priest either.”
The Taoists and the warriors checked the house inside and out.
Luo Seng was highly skilled in martial arts and had quick reactions, so he went into the more complex temple and checked every corner.
Lin Jue was outside checking the ruined temple and its surroundings.
After taking this look, I realized that this dilapidated temple is more than just without a temple keeper.
The temple has no name.
There is no plaque.
There is no door couplet.
There is not a single word to be seen in the temple.
There is no builder and no name of any god.
There was only an altar, a statue of the deity, and some clay blocks made from the ground in front of or behind the temple. Incense sticks were stuck on them, and the rest were offerings from believers.
Even this statue is a mess, as if it was made by randomly throwing a bunch of mud together and then painting it with random colors. It doesn't even have facial features, and it's hard to tell whether it's a human or something else.
Are such statues really useful?
After Luo Gong was basically sure that there was no danger in the temple, Lin Jue walked in, frowned, and carefully examined the statue.
I don’t know if such a statue is useful, but this statue is useless anyway.
There is no scent of incense at all.
This was thanks to another spell that Lin Jue had learned——
Arrest the soul and command the spirit.
He did not study this spell in depth, but just learned it reluctantly. Although he could not invite the deity over through the statue, he could see through this spell that the statue in the temple was "dead" and no one was occupying it.
"This statue is ownerless, and the monster's purpose is not to absorb the incense energy through it." said the Taoist in the temple.
"So its target is human oil?" the warrior beside him replied.
"I don't know. But it is also very smart. It didn't leave any information about itself on the temple or the statue." Lin Jue frowned and thought, "It should be because this place is too close to the capital. It is afraid that its building of an obscene temple and its worship of evil gods here will be known by the Guanxing Palace or Zhenjian Palace, thus causing displeasure among the gods behind it, and they will eradicate it from the lower world. Although it did not attract any incense at all."
"Very cautious!" Luo Seng nodded, "It seems that they are not those brainless demons!"
"I miscalculated. We passed by Zhenjian Palace on the way here. I should go ask Fellow Daoist Qingxuan and Fellow Daoist Jiang." Lin Jue said.
"Not necessarily." Luo Seng thought, "Since this statue has nothing to do with it, according to the ability of the gods, how did it hear the prayers of those 'believers', how did it take the fat from their bodies, and how did it take as much as the believers wanted and where they wanted to take less?"
"rational……"
Both of them are very smart and understand things quickly.
Although the statue has no owner and is not connected to the monster, as long as the rumors are true, the monster will definitely come here in person.
Even if he doesn't come in person, he will definitely send his little demons to check here and listen to the wishes of the believers.
The same applies to taking human oil.
"That fellow Daoist Wan who practices the Five Elements Spiritual Technique came to look for him the day before yesterday, and he hasn't returned yet. He must have run into him or his demons here."
"I'm afraid we came too early. There are no believers who come so early." Luo Seng held the knife with one hand. Although he was talking, he turned his head to look around and listened hard to the movement outside the temple. "I'm afraid that the police from the city came to investigate the case the day before yesterday and have alerted the enemy."
For some reason, he always felt something was strange.
"Just wait a moment."
"Ah."
The two were not worried about this.
It would be best if we could wait for the monster here. If not, he is probably in this mountain and can be found even if we search hard.
If you just search hard and still can't find it, the worst that can happen is to demolish the temple and smash the statue, so that people can no longer come here to worship him and he can no longer get human oil.
What's more, it is not certain that it is the one that harms people.
Just then, the fox next to him lay on the ground, turned around and scratched his head with his hind paws, and he also felt something strange.
My body feels a little itchy, an itch that is hard to describe.
It feels like the itchy tips of the white hair on your body.
Fuyao scratched himself for a while, then stood up and shook his body, carefully pondering the source of this strangeness. He looked around several times before raising his head and fixing his gaze on the beam.
But suddenly, I met a pair of eyes.
"Hey!"
The fox cried out immediately.
The two people beside him moved as the sound came and looked at it at the same time, one of them gripped the knife handle tightly, the other grabbed a handful of beans, and immediately looked up in the direction it was looking.
Lin Jue felt nothing. At first glance, he only saw the tattered and dusty roof. Although the beams were not carved, they were painted with some patterns. The paint had faded with the years. One could only vaguely guess that they were some gods and auspicious patterns. At the same time, there were many faded and dirty cloth strips hanging, which made the house very messy.
Nothing else could be seen.
If he took a closer look, he would have been able to find the problem. However, the monk beside him did not give him the opportunity. Instead, he exerted a little force and leaped into the air, flying upwards, grabbing the beam with one hand.
Mr. Luo, who already had superb martial arts, took three more giant spirit pills. After obtaining the white jade bottle, he made tea and drank wine with the essence of heaven and earth every day. It is hard to imagine how strong his physical strength is now. All you know is that as soon as he grabbed with his five fingers, the beam made a snapping sound.
Sawdust fell and dust spread.
Luo Gong fell back to the ground.
At this time, he held a folded talisman paper in his hand, along with half a hand of sawdust, some rotten cloths and a lot of dust.
Previously, this piece of talisman paper was pasted on the beam of the house, and it was covered by cloth strips and dust, and was also obscured by the pattern on the beam. When Luo Gong grabbed it, he actually grabbed it down along with some rotten beams.
Luo Seng handed it to Lin Jue.
Lin Jue picked up the talisman paper and brushed off the dust. Although he couldn't understand what was written on it or whose seal it was, he could see a symbol that looked like an eye on it.
"Ok?"
The two looked at each other solemnly.
Then the two men and the fox searched the temple without hesitation, and unexpectedly found another similar talisman paper, which looked like it had an ear symbol drawn on it.
This can't be a coincidence.
The two of them looked more solemn.
Their thinking just now was absolutely correct—
Since this monster has nothing to do with the statue, it must have other ways of listening to believers' prayers. Since it is not following the path of incense and worship, it must have other ways.
However, the magic in this world is ever-changing and extremely mysterious. Before they encountered it, they had never imagined that such magic existed.
"We are from the Juxian Mansion, and we are here to investigate the recent murder of a woman. Since you can hear us, please show up and explain it to us, so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and fights." Lin Jue said to the ear talisman in his hand, "We know that you are cultivating in this mountain..."
Before he could finish his words, the talisman paper burst into flames and turned to ashes in the blink of an eye.
"This person seems to have a bad temper."
Luo Gong held the knife and sounded leisurely, but his tone was very cold.
The two looked at each other again and quickly walked out of the temple.
……
In the cave in the back mountain.
A short man in a flowery robe suddenly slammed the table, gritting his teeth in anger:
"Juxian Mansion! It's Juxian Mansion again!
"This is too much! It's too stupid!
“These rubbish from the Juxian Mansion have little ability, but they are so bold that they actually come to disturb my meditation again!
"Do you think I'm easy to bully?
"You really don't take me seriously!
"If I don't show them how powerful I am, where will I put my reputation in the future? Don't you think so?"
The man in the flowery robe looked around, as if talking to someone.
However, although there were indeed many figures standing in this cave, some were the same size as humans, some were extremely tall and strong, and some were as tall as ten feet. They were yakshas with green faces, fangs, tiger backs and bear waists, but they all stood motionless, with stiff faces and shiny oily bodies, just like pieces of paper people.
"Two generals, lead your troops and go give that Taoist priest and that gangster a beating!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a breeze blew in the cave.
In the breeze, these paper figures and yakshas suddenly swelled up and turned into living soldiers and yaksha ghosts.
Those soldiers all had wolf heads on their heads, wore rattan armor, held shields and swords, and looked ferocious. The two yaksha ghosts were the most ferocious. When their eyes were open, they were like two lanterns, and their breath was like a bellows. Then they all turned around in silence and walked out of the cave.
(End of this chapter)
