Temple

After the wind and snow subsided, the two of them headed for South Mountain Temple.

"Smell, him." Da Bao suddenly found a scrap of bloodstained cloth among the rubble by the roadside and pointed at Guo Ming.

Guo Ming's eyes widened. He recognized the scrap—it belonged to his servant.

Seeing his expression, Chu Danqing received confirmation.

When the servant had been dragged away and struggled, a piece of his clothing had caught on the jagged stones.

There were still traces nearby. Chu Danqing looked at Da Bao and asked, "Can you track it?"

If they could follow the traces and find the Zhanji Tiger, there would be no need to go to South Mountain Temple.

Da Bao did not answer. He nimbly climbed a tree to survey the distance, then came back down roughly two minutes later and shook his head. "No. Wind and snow covered it."

Had it not been for that earlier snowstorm, the few remaining traces might still have been trackable.

Now, everything was naturally a vast expanse of white.

"Alas, fate and timing." Guo Ming sighed. His old grudges and fresh hatred toward the Zhanji Tiger had truly piled together.

"My condolences." Chu Danqing comforted him. "Let's go to South Mountain Temple first. It isn't far now."

Guo Ming could only nod and climb the mountain with Da Bao supporting him.

The two arrived at the temple gates, only to find the great doors shut tight and the surroundings utterly silent.

Chu Danqing called out for nearly five minutes before he finally heard a monk respond.

"South Mountain Temple has sealed the mountain and closed the temple. We will reopen next spring. Benefactors, please return," came the monk's voice from behind the gate.

With such heavy snow and the disaster besides, the temple naturally did not dare open its doors.

Should they encounter starving refugees with red-rimmed eyes, the losses would be impossible to estimate.

When people were driven mad by hunger, there was nothing they would not do.

"One of my companions unfortunately fell and injured himself while climbing the mountain. Those who have left the secular world hold compassion in their hearts; please lend us some aid." Chu Danqing was not lying. Guo Ming truly did need treatment.

"There is little medicine within this temple. Why not hurry down the mountain and seek a skilled physician in the city?" The monk behind the door hesitated, but still refused to open it.

Guo Ming's face darkened. He was already in a foul mood for many reasons, and now he had to hear this as well.

In ordinary times, they accepted the common folk's incense offerings. Yet now, not only would they not lend a hand, they were unwilling even to open the temple gates.

"We are not evildoers, merely visitors out enjoying the snow." As he spoke, Chu Danqing took a silver ingot from his robes and tossed it over. "This is for medicine."

He was not short of money. As an Attendant of the Lu family, he had received a substantial settling allowance upon joining them.

The silver hit the ground, and Chu Danqing heard the monk behind the door pick it up.

"Please wait a moment, Benefactor. I will ask the Abbot." With that, the monk behind the door scampered away in a flash.

"Even entering a temple requires silver to clear the way. Hmph." Guo Ming spoke in dissatisfaction.

Chu Danqing was accustomed to such things. This was nothing; he had even seen a great monk turn his own temple into a publicly listed conglomerate.

As long as they were willing to do the job after taking the money, that was already very good.

Before long, footsteps sounded again, and the temple gates slowly opened.

A tall, thin monk in padded clothing laboriously pushed open the temple doors.

"Benefactors, please enter." After opening a passage wide enough to pass through, the monk addressed the three of them.

After the three entered, the monk led them toward the monks' quarters. He checked Guo Ming's injuries once more and applied medicine to him.

"It is late today. The two Benefactors should rest for now. It will not be too late to descend the mountain tomorrow, once the weather clears." The monk gathered up the medicine and prepared to leave.

But Chu Danqing spoke first. "I see that the temple usually has quite a few monks. Why is it so deserted today?"

At the question, the monk's gaze flickered before he said, "Yangxian County was suddenly struck by disaster, and the temple could no longer support so many people."

"Thus, we dismissed many of them to go down the mountain, which is why it seems so quiet."

The reason sounded fitting, but Chu Danqing did not believe it.

The man's manner of lying was far too obvious.

Still, he did not expose him at once. Instead, he put on a believing expression. "These are hard times. Even South Mountain Temple, usually flourishing with incense offerings, cannot withstand this disaster."

"Yes," the monk answered, then asked, "Would the two Benefactors like a vegetarian meal?"

"No need. We brought our own." Chu Danqing refused outright.

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

Chu Danqing had paid once. He would not pay a second time.

After being refused, disappointment surfaced in the monk's eyes, and his attitude changed, becoming far colder.

He casually offered an apology, then carried his things away.

"When I came here back then, South Mountain Temple was not so worldly and greedy for profit." Guo Ming dearly wanted to curse, but since he was on their territory, he could not speak too harshly.

"Do you think that beast might be hiding in South Mountain Temple?" Rather than respond to Guo Ming's explanation, Chu Danqing voiced his own suspicion.

Guo Ming froze at Chu Danqing's abrupt leap in topic, unable to understand the logic behind his words.

"Not likely, right? If that beast were truly in South Mountain Temple, how could there be any living people?" Guo Ming did not quite believe it. How could the Zhanji Tiger leave meat right before its eyes uneaten?

As for tiger ghosts, that was possible, but it did not seem quite right.

"How is it impossible?" Chu Danqing said slowly. "And there truly are no living people."

"Everyone we saw was a tiger ghost."

Da Bao had confirmed it.

When that monk had applied medicine to Guo Ming, Da Bao had secretly whispered to Chu Danqing that the monk smelled as foul as a corpse.

Chu Danqing guessed that tiger ghosts might be using their shells to control corpses.

"So we walked straight into that beast's lair???" Guo Ming could not help but be shocked.

He knew Chu Danqing was an extraordinary man, but two fists could not beat four hands.

No one knew how many people the Zhanji Tiger had eaten. The tiger ghosts it had gathered numbered far more than thirty or fifty.

"That's right. That is why we must probe the depths of that beast." Chu Danqing narrowed his eyes. "The Abbot that monk mentioned must be the Zhanji Tiger."

"Since it did not attack immediately, perhaps it has just eaten your servant and is not hungry for the moment. It is keeping you and me as stored grain, to eat when it grows hungry."

"This is the perfect chance to find a way to break the deadlock." Chu Danqing was not panicked in the slightest.

The number of tiger ghosts was no great matter. With attributes like those, Chu Danqing was not afraid of being surrounded even barehanded.

The Zhanji Tiger, on the other hand, could control so many tiger ghosts. He had to take some risk to investigate it clearly.

Guo Ming swallowed the words that had nearly left his mouth—suggesting they leave first and seek official reinforcements.

In his view, they were turtles in a jar. They might not even be able to leave, so how could they speak of fetching reinforcements?

"Brother Chu, how certain are you?" Guo Ming asked hesitantly.

"Even if I cannot defeat this Zhanji Tiger, taking you and me out of South Mountain Temple will not be difficult." Chu Danqing still had that much confidence.

Da Bao had not grown that body for nothing.