nownovels Chapter 40 The Scholar
Chapter 40 The Scholar
Zhou Zheng walked at the front, holding up a tinderbox to shine his light.
Above the temple gate is a plaque with characters that are so blurred that they are illegible; only the characters "earth temple" can be vaguely discerned.
On the stone pillars on both sides of the gate are carved a couplet. The left one has been eroded by wind and rain and only a few strokes remain, while the right one still has a few characters that can be barely recognized: "Protect the peace of this area".
Seeing this, the monkey muttered, "Protect the peace of this area? This temple can't even protect itself, how can it protect the peace of this area?"
"Do not speak recklessly. Every place has its own rules and regulations. Be careful not to offend those you shouldn't."
Zhang Ping gently told him to shut up.
When traveling, one must be careful with one's words and actions.
When the monkey saw Zhang Ping speak, it immediately covered its mouth.
The four entered the temple. The courtyard inside was not large and was paved with blue bricks, but now the cracks between the bricks were overgrown with weeds, and in some places the weeds were taller than a person's waist.
The main hall is located at the deepest part of the courtyard. It has three bays, and most of the roof tiles have fallen off, leaving it dilapidated.
The main hall door was gone, and it was pitch black inside, so you couldn't see anything.
Zhou Zheng was quite bold; he simply carried the tinderbox inside, and in an instant, the flames illuminated a corner of the hall.
The interior of the palace was even more dilapidated than the exterior.
The spot in the very center where the statue of the Earth God should have been enshrined is now just an empty stone platform.
The statue has disappeared.
The accompanying statues on either side were in even worse condition; one had its head severed, and the other had lost an arm, lying crookedly on the ground.
Zhang Ping then said, "Let's start a fire first."
After all, such a strange place would be unsettling if it wasn't well-lit.
Zhou Zheng responded and led Liu Dazhuang and Sun Houzi to the yard to collect firewood.
The area around the dilapidated temple was full of withered branches and rotten leaves, and soon they brought back a pile of them and stacked them in the center of the main hall.
Once the firewood is lit, the dry firewood bursts into flames with a crackling sound.
The firelight illuminated the entire main hall, as well as the headless and armless statues. In the flickering flames, the silhouettes of the Buddha statues swayed uncertainly against the wall, carrying an indescribable eeriness.
Four people sat around the fire.
Zhou Zheng took out some dry rations from his bundle and handed them to Zhang Ping, "Boss, have something to eat first."
Zhang Ping took the dry rations, took a bite, and found them dry and hard. But in this dilapidated temple in the middle of nowhere, it was good enough to have something to eat, so he couldn't be picky.
The monkey wasn't eating properly either; it chewed on a biscuit while its eyes darted around, sometimes looking at the headless statues, sometimes at the outside of the courtyard.
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Liu Dazhuang sat in the spot closest to the fire, his face still not looking too good, but much better than when he was on horseback.
"Dazhuang".
The monkey suddenly spoke, its voice echoing loudly in the empty main hall, "Do you know why this temple is abandoned?"
Liu Dazhuang looked up at him, then shook his head honestly.
Seeing this, the monkey became interested and moved closer to him, lowering its voice and speaking in the tone of a storyteller telling a ghost story, "I heard that this temple used to be dedicated not to the local earth god, but to evil spirits. When people discovered this, they killed everyone here and built a new temple to suppress them, but it couldn't suppress them. Many people died, so the rest ran away, and this place became a dilapidated temple that no one cared about."
"And these unattended temples are the ones that the creatures of the mountains love the most."
"What is it?"
The wind howled outside, the campfire flickered, and Liu Dazhuang's voice became strained.
Seeing his reaction, the monkey became even more enthusiastic. "It's something from the mountains. Think about it, this temple is built in the mountains, far from any village or shop. At night, the air is heavy with yin energy. What kind of creatures like this kind of place?"
"I also heard that someone was passing by here at night and saw a light coming from the temple. Thinking there were people there, he came in to ask for lodging. And guess what? When he came in, he saw that the person sitting by the fire wasn't a person."
Liu Dazhuang was so angered by what he said that he swallowed the dry food in his mouth before it was even chewed properly, and choked and coughed.
"Alright."
Seeing this, Zhang Ping said, "Don't scare people here. It's not like the city outside. Be careful."
"The city is a place where people gather and where the imperial government offices are located, a place of righteousness, so mountain monsters and evil spirits cannot enter, and even if they do, there are only a few. But the mountains are different, a place of heaven and earth, where there are many spirits and evil spirits, so don't scare yourself, or you might say something that will come true."
Zhou Zheng chimed in, "Exactly, Monkey, you should say less. Dazhuang already gets dizzy from horses; if you scare him too much, who's going to carry the loads tomorrow?"
The monkey chuckled, shrank its neck, and stopped talking.
The quiet was rare, and the fire crackled and popped as it burned.
After finishing his meal, Zhang Ping sat against the stone platform, his broadsword resting horizontally on his knees, his right hand on the hilt, ready to strike immediately in case of any trouble.
After all, just as he said, the mountains are not like the city.
Night was falling.
The moon rose, but it was obscured by clouds, and only a blurry halo could be seen, with the light coming through dim and pale.
The fire in the hall gradually died down, so Zhou Zheng added a few more large pieces of firewood, and the fire blazed up again.
Just then.
A sound suddenly came from outside.
Although the sound was faint in the middle of the night, it was extremely clear.
Zhang Ping, holding a broadsword, suddenly stood up.
Zhou Zheng also stood up, his hand on the hilt of his sword. The monkey that had been telling ghost stories so vividly was now hiding behind Zhou Zheng, swallowing hard.
Only Liu Dazhuang was still fast asleep.
He leaned against the stone platform, his head tilted to one side, his mouth slightly open, and his snoring sounded like a bellows, sometimes long and sometimes short.
Zhang Ping glanced at him but didn't wake him. After all, it was better for him to be asleep so as not to cause any trouble.
The sound stopped outside the yard after a short while.
Then a voice came from the direction of the courtyard gate. It wasn't loud, but it could be heard clearly in the quiet night.
"It's late and the dew is heavy outside. I've lost my way and have come across a light. May I trouble you?"
The voice had a refined, scholarly tone.
"If this has caused any disturbance, please forgive me."
Zhang Ping and the others did not respond.
He stood at the entrance of the main hall, turned sideways, his gaze passing through the courtyard and landing in the direction of the courtyard gate.
The firelight illuminated only a limited area; the front half of the courtyard was shrouded in darkness, with only a blurry silhouette visible at the gate.
It was a human-shaped object, standing there without moving.
Zhang Ping observed for a while but couldn't see anything unusual.
An ordinary person?
He thought about it again but couldn't say for sure.
After all, things from the mountains are the best at pretending; they can pretend to be people, ghosts, or bodhisattvas—they can pretend to be anything.
He had seen too many case files in the government office. Most of the people who were harmed by demons were those who had let their guard down because they didn't seem to have anything unusual about them.
"May I trouble you for a moment?"
"It's so cold outside."
The man stood at the gate and said something again, his tone pitiful, his posture respectful, even bowing slightly, waiting for a response from the person inside.