"In this troubled age, even with Evil Spirits running rampant, those bandits still wouldn't lay down their weapons and return to the fields to become diligent, practical, upright farmers. They'd rather shun hard work and live off other people's wealth. The human heart is truly full of strange twists and turns."
"Looting takes hardly any effort, and one raid might bring in more than half a year of farming or a whole year of trading. Once you're used to windfall profits, who'd be willing to go back to earning a meager few silver coins by the book, barely enough each month to keep body and soul together?"
"Amitabha. Wealth truly is the greatest of Malevolent Spirits in this world."
As they traveled along the road, Ren Qianxing and the others chatted among themselves.
Ning Xiu sat on the Iron Eater Beast's back, head lowered as he studied the map of Yunze Prefecture that Ren Qianxing had brought with him.
That day, after parting ways with the Li Family Caravan, they had gone into the mountains to capture the Demon Person. Everything had gone smoothly. Once they'd forced the bandits to reveal the location of their stronghold,
they'd charged straight in and found the Demon Person sheltering them, then executed him on the spot.
Without the Demon Person's protection, the bandits couldn't safely remain in the mountains and keep preying on others. If they ran into an Evil Spirit, there was no guarantee they'd make it out alive.
Ren Qianxing had tried to persuade them to become ordinary folk and live peaceful lives. Who could have guessed they'd flat-out refused?
"Live peacefully? No chance. Not in this lifetime. I don't know how to farm, and I haven't got a clue about doing business. I can't even read. The only way I can get by is by hiding in the mountains and occasionally going out to rob someone."
Good grief, Ren Qianxing had been so furious he could hardly speak. In the end, he could only execute the bandits who'd colluded with the Demon Person on the spot, then set the whole stronghold ablaze, reducing it to ashes.
Perhaps some of them truly had been driven to banditry by hardship. But colluding with a Demon Person and then concealing it was a capital offense under Great Shang law. There was no room for leniency.
"Cloud Mist Mountain lies in the middle of Yunze Prefecture. The road there passes through Shen Family Town, so we'll definitely go by it. My friend is stationed in Shen Family Town. Once we get there and pick him up, our party will be complete," Ren Qianxing said.
Ning Xiu studied the map. After entering Yunze Prefecture, they would have to travel another two hundred and fifty li to the southwest to reach Shen Family Town. The entire route ran through deep mountains and old forests, with no homes or villages to be found. It was an extremely remote stretch.
Just then, Ning Xiu noticed a place name that had been blotted out with ink on the road. Curious, he immediately asked, "Brother Ren, what's the name of this place that's been erased?"
"Jinzhao Temple. Back in the day, it was one of the more famous ancient Buddhist temples in Yunze Prefecture. Its incense burned strong, and monks gathered there in great numbers. It had plenty of worshippers.
"Unfortunately, one day more than ninety years ago, Jinzhao Temple suffered a sudden catastrophe. Every monk in the temple vanished overnight, leaving behind nothing but an empty, deserted temple. The Demon Subduing Bureau sent people to investigate, but they found nothing. There wasn't even a trace of an Evil Spirit having appeared inside.
"When word got out, the whole of Yunze Prefecture was in an uproar. No one dared go to Jinzhao Temple to burn incense again. In later years, monks went there one after another hoping to take it over, but none of them could bring about any improvement. Just like that, Jinzhao Temple fell completely into ruin," Ren Qianxing said.
Ning Xiu asked, "Something this strange sounds like the work of an Evil Spirit. Did the Demon Subduing Bureau really find nothing at all back then?"
Ren Qianxing rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The Jinzhao Temple incident is one of the Demon Subduing Bureau's ten greatest unsolved cases. Many people believe an Evil Spirit was behind it, but unfortunately, no one could find evidence to prove it. Zhengwu, how much do you know about Jinzhao Temple? Tell us what you can."
As a monk of Great Spirit Sound Temple, Zhengwu was bound to know more than Ren Qianxing about a matter involving a Buddhist temple.
Everyone immediately turned to look at him, their eyes full of anticipation, hoping he could add some details Ren Qianxing hadn't mentioned.
"Uh..." Seeing Ning Xiu and the others all looking at him, Zhengwu had no choice but to speak. "They truly found nothing back then. The Demon Subduing Bureau even sent a Silver Tiger Demon Subduing Captain, but in the end, they couldn't find the slightest trace of Evil Qi inside Jinzhao Temple.
"The abbot of Jinzhao Temple was a senior monk sent by Great Spirit Sound Temple. If he'd planned any major action, he would have reported it to us in advance. Leading every monk in the temple away overnight was clearly not something he would have done.
"So there must be something hidden behind this incident. Unfortunately, no one was able to uncover the reason. It remained unresolved all these years and eventually became an unsolved case."
Hearing that even a Silver Tiger Demon Subduing Captain had been dispatched without discovering the cause, everyone stopped questioning it.
If even a Silver Tiger Demon Subduing Captain could do nothing, then clearly this was beyond anything they could handle.
Rumble!
A sudden clap of thunder rang out in the clear sky, snapping everyone's thoughts away from Jinzhao Temple.
Looking up at the sky as it grew dim and clouds gathered, Ren Qianxing frowned. "We're in trouble. Looks like a heavy rain is coming. The weather in Yunze Prefecture is as changeable as they come. Rain can start at any moment. We need to find shelter, fast."
Ning Xiu looked at the map. "It's all deep mountains and old forests around here. The closest place is Jinzhao Temple, but it's still about eleven or twelve li away."
"Then let's hurry. Yunze Prefecture's rain is famous for soaking right through you and into your bones. Stay out in it long enough, and it's no different from being locked in a water dungeon. Trust me, you don't want to experience it."
Ren Qianxing whipped the rump of Black Wind, the wild boar beneath him. The beast immediately bolted as if it had been drugged, its hooves barely touching the ground. It soon left Ning Xiu and the others behind.
Since Ren Qianxing had put it that way, no one wanted to risk finding out what Yunze Prefecture's rain felt like. They urged their own exotic beasts after him at once.
Dust billowed along the road behind them.
Don't be fooled by the Iron Eater Beast's bulky body and short legs. It could run surprisingly fast.
By the time the sky had darkened enough to plunge the land into gloom, the four of them finally spotted the ancient Buddhist temple on a hillside beside the road.
Raindrops were already falling, pelting them here and there. Ning Xiu quickly urged the Iron Eater Beast up the slope and into Jinzhao Temple before the downpour began.
"Hey, it looks like someone opened this gate recently." Seeing a large number of footprints on the ground, which had been covered in dust for years, Xia Yunshan immediately climbed down from the black tiger's back and called out.
Ren Qianxing led Black Wind to a spot where the rain couldn't reach and said calmly, "The Official Path was closed because of the Earth Dragon Overturn. Someone must have taken this route instead. They're probably travelers like us, sheltering from the rain."
Rumble!
Lightning flashed and thunder cracked across the dark sky. Soon, raindrops as big as beans came pouring down, turning into a magnificent curtain of rain in no time.
This kind of downpour was unique to Yunze Prefecture. It was hard to find anything like it elsewhere.
"At this rate, it won't stop for two or three hours at least. We'd better find somewhere to rest. We might have to spend the night in Jinzhao Temple. Ancestors of the Demon Subduing Bureau, watch over us. We're already exhausted from the journey, so please don't let any Evil Spirits start causing trouble," Ren Qianxing said with a sigh as he looked at the sky.
They made a circuit of the temple along its corridors, then chose Mahavira Hall as their temporary camp.
First, the hall was spacious enough for their exotic beasts to rest alongside them.
Second, it was one of the few buildings in Jinzhao Temple whose main structure had remained intact. It could shelter them from wind and rain.
After Ren Qianxing sent his two puppets to search the temple for anything they could burn as firewood, Ning Xiu wandered around Mahavira Hall by himself.
Though Jinzhao Temple had been abandoned for more than ninety years, the inside of Mahavira Hall had been kept in remarkably good condition. The candleholders and the many Buddha statues inside were all perfectly preserved.
The only regrettable thing was that, as Zhengwu had said, the statues had originally been gilded. Now they were all bare stone, which meant someone had clearly pried off every last bit of gold.
In these troubled times, even gods and Buddhas had to abide by the saying that a man who holds a jade ring invites disaster.
Ning Xiu used the Spiritual Eye Qi Observation Technique to inspect his surroundings. His technique had now reached the eighth layer, allowing him to see far more fine details than before.
After checking the place, he found everything in Mahavira Hall normal. There was nothing amiss.
During his inspection, Ning Xiu's gaze fell on a mural on the wall of the hall.
"Hm? Isn't this..." Ning Xiu's expression instantly turned to astonishment.
In fact, as he'd walked from the temple gate, he'd already seen many murals on the walls along the way.
One showed dancing girls performing in unison while men drank, clapped, and cheered nearby.
Another showed a burly man in tattered clothes sleeping with his head on a knife and a pile of heads in his arms.
Yet another showed ordinary people kneeling and kowtowing, though it was impossible to tell whom they were worshipping.
Honestly, it was extremely strange to find murals like these in Jinzhao Temple, a Buddhist temple. Their subject matter didn't suit the atmosphere of a temple at all.
What Buddhist temple would have murals that weren't about Buddhas and Bodhisattvas? Who would put these incomprehensible scenes on the walls?
The mural Ning Xiu was staring at now was even stranger.
It depicted a caravan traveling along a mountain road. Each of its guards had been painted so vividly that they seemed real, and the character "Li" was embroidered on their chests.
One of the several carriages the caravan was escorting had a woman in a green dress peering out of its window. Her expression was stern as she watched the road ahead.
Ning Xiu was certain: the scene showed the very Li Family Caravan they'd rescued from the bandits in the mountains a few days ago.
The woman in the green dress was exactly the same as the one he'd seen that day.
"Jinzhao Temple has been an ancient temple for more than a century. How could it show people I only encountered a few days ago?"
Ning Xiu stared at the mural with his Spiritual Eye Qi Observation Technique, but he could see nothing unusual. It was an ordinary mural, nothing more.
Without delay, Ning Xiu called Ren Qianxing and the other two over just as they were preparing to start a fire. This strange mural had to be thoroughly investigated.
Before you continue