Temple

After the snowstorm subsided, the two of them headed towards South Mountain Temple.

"Smell, him." Da Bao suddenly found a piece of cloth with bloodstains from the rubble beside the road, and pointed at Guo Ming.

Guo Ming's eyes widened. He recognized the piece of cloth; it belonged to his servant.

Chu Danqing saw his expression and confirmed his suspicion.

The servant's clothes were torn when he was dragged away, the fragments snagging on the rubble.

There were also some traces around. Chu Danqing looked at Da Bao and asked, "Can you track it?"

If they could find the Zhanji Tiger by following the tracks, there would be no need to go to South Mountain Temple.

Da Bao didn't answer, but nimbly climbed a tree to look around. After about two minutes, he came down and shook his head, saying, "Can't, snow, covered it."

If it hadn't been for the previous snowstorm, the few remaining traces might have been traceable.

Now, naturally, it was all white.

"Alas, fate is fate." Guo Ming sighed. He and the Zhanji Tiger truly had both old and new grudges combined.

"Please accept my condolences." Chu Danqing comforted him, saying, "Let's go to South Mountain Temple first. It's not far now."

Guo Ming could only nod and climb the mountain with Da Bao's support.

The two arrived at the entrance of the temple, only to see the gate tightly closed and the surroundings very quiet.

Chu Danqing called out for nearly five minutes before he heard a monk's response.

"South Mountain Temple is closed for the winter and will reopen next spring. Please return, benefactor." A monk's voice came from behind the door.

With such heavy snow and disaster, the temple naturally dared not open its doors.

In case they encountered starving refugees with bloodshot eyes, it would cause incalculable losses.

When people are desperate, they are capable of anything.

"One of my companions was unfortunately injured while climbing the mountain. As Buddhists, you should have compassion. Please help us." Chu Danqing wasn't lying; Guo Ming did need treatment.

"This temple has no medicine. It would be better to go down the mountain quickly and find a good doctor in the city." The monk behind the door hesitated, but still refused to open the door.

This made Guo Ming's face darken. He was already in a bad mood for various reasons, and then he heard these words.

They usually received incense offerings from the people, but now they were unwilling to offer any help, not even opening the temple gate.

"We are not villains, just guests enjoying the snow." As he spoke, Chu Danqing took out a silver ingot from his pocket and threw it over, saying, "This is for medicine."

He wasn't short of money. After all, he was supported by the Lu Clan, and they had given him a considerable settling-in allowance when he moved in.

The silver landed, and Chu Danqing heard the monk behind the door picking it up.

"Please wait a moment, benefactor. I'll go ask the Abbot." After saying that, the monk behind the door ran off in a puff of smoke.

"It takes money to even get into a temple, huh." Guo Ming said dissatisfied.

Chu Danqing was used to it. This was nothing. He had even seen senior monks turn their temples into listed corporations.

It was good enough if they were willing to do things for money.

Before long, they heard footsteps again, and the temple gate was slowly opened.

A tall, thin monk wearing a cotton coat laboriously pushed open the temple gate.

"Benefactors, please come in." The monk opened a passage for them and said to the three of them.

After the three entered, the monk led them to the monks' quarters, examined Guo Ming's injuries, and applied medicine to him.

"It's getting late today, benefactors. You can rest here for the night, and it won't be too late to go down the mountain when the weather clears tomorrow." The monk packed up the medicine and was about to leave.

Chu Danqing spoke first, "I see that there are usually many monks in the temple. Why is it so deserted today?"

The monk's eyes flickered at this question, and he replied, "Yangxian County has suddenly suffered a disaster, and the temple can't support so many people."

"Therefore, many people were sent down the mountain, which is why it seems deserted."

The reason was reasonable, but Chu Danqing didn't believe it.

The monk's expression when he lied was too obvious.

However, he didn't expose him immediately, but pretended to believe him, saying, "The world is difficult. Even South Mountain Temple, which is usually thriving with incense, can't withstand this disaster."

"Yes, indeed." The monk responded, and then asked, "Would you like to have vegetarian meals?"

"No, we brought our own." Chu Danqing directly refused.

He could see the greed floating in the tall, thin monk's eyes. If he agreed, he would probably have to pay.

Chu Danqing had given once, and he wouldn't give a second time.

After being rejected, disappointment appeared in the monk's eyes, and his attitude changed, becoming much colder.

He casually said an apology and left with his things.

"When I came here in the past, South Mountain Temple wasn't so mercenary and greedy." Guo Ming really wanted to curse, but he couldn't say too much on someone else's territory.

"Do you think that beast could be hiding in this South Mountain Temple?" Chu Danqing didn't respond to Guo Ming's explanation, but instead voiced his own speculation.

Guo Ming was stunned by Chu Danqing's jump in topic, unable to understand the logic behind Chu Danqing's words.

"I find that hard to believe. If that beast really is in South Mountain Temple, how could there be any living people?" Guo Ming was skeptical. How could the Zhanji Tiger resist eating the meat right in front of it?

As for Chang Gui, that's possible, but it doesn't quite seem like it.

"Why is it impossible?" Chu Danqing said slowly. "Besides, there really aren't any living people here."

"What you and I have seen are all Chang Gui."

Da Bao had confirmed this.

While the monk was applying medicine to Guo Ming, Da Bao had secretly whispered to Chu Danqing that the monk smelled like a corpse.

Chu Danqing guessed that it might be a Chang Gui borrowing a corpse to control it.

"Have we walked right into that beast's lair?" Guo Ming couldn't help but be alarmed.

He knew that Chu Danqing was an extraordinary person, but one fist can't fight four hands.

The Zhanji Tiger must have eaten countless people, so the number of Chang Gui gathered must be more than just thirty or fifty.

"That's right, which is why we need to investigate the truth about this beast," Chu Danqing said, narrowing his eyes. "The Abbot that monk mentioned must be the Zhanji Tiger."

"Since it didn't attack immediately, perhaps it's temporarily not hungry after eating your servant, and it's keeping you and me as reserve rations to eat when it gets hungry."

"We should take advantage of this opportunity to find a way to break the situation." Chu Danqing wasn't flustered at all.

The large number of Chang Gui wasn't a big deal. With those stats, Chu Danqing wouldn't even be afraid of being surrounded if he was unarmed.

It was the Zhanji Tiger that was the problem. Being able to control so many Chang Gui, he had to take a risk to investigate it thoroughly.

Guo Ming swallowed the words "Let's leave first and find the authorities for reinforcements" that were about to come out of his mouth.

He figured he was a turtle in a jar, and he might not even be able to leave, let alone find reinforcements.

"How confident is Brother Chu?" Guo Ming asked hesitantly.

"Even if we can't defeat this Zhanji Tiger, it won't be difficult to take you and me out of South Mountain Temple." Chu Danqing had that much confidence.

Da Bao didn't grow that physique for nothing.