Chapter 1 The Most Important Thing

The most important thing now is to find the real Bodhisattva statue from the two Bodhisattva statues.

Yao Shunyu raised his head and looked at the two Bodhisattva statues on the left and right. From the outside, the two Bodhisattva statues were almost identical, and the painted colors on them were quite old, giving the impression that they had been displayed here for a long time.

Walking to the left Bodhisattva statue, Yao Shunyu boldly reached out his hand and gently tapped on the statue with his bent knuckles.

The sound from the statue was muffled, and it didn't seem to have any hollow parts inside. Yao Shunyu did the same action on the right statue, and the result was the same. The other statue was also solid, so this method didn't work.

In fact, the simplest and most direct way is to find an inconspicuous place on the statue, and then use a hard object to smash a gap. If it is still clay inside, then it is naturally real, but this method is too dangerous. If he finds flesh and blood inside, Yao Shunyu knows that he is not far from death. The disturbed Zhusheng Niangniang (Goddess of Birth) will not let him go.

"Bang."

"Bang."

...

The wooden window frame was blown by the wind and kept shaking, making impact sounds from time to time, making Yao Shunyu, who was already anxious, even more irritable.

He took a deep breath, slowly sat down, and began to seriously sort out the clues of tonight.

"Bow before the demon, scrape gold from the Buddha's face, and the two words feng shui..."

While thinking, Yao Shunyu's eyes wandered in the hall. He subconsciously felt that he had overlooked something, and it was nearby.

A few seconds later, Yao Shunyu's eyes stopped on the wall on the side of the hall, to be precise, on the wooden window that was shaking non-stop by the wind.

"Wind..."

Yao Shunyu's eyes paused. Where did the wind come from?

They had been walking outside for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, and they didn't notice any wind.

Somewhat belatedly, tonight was really strange. There was no wind at all, and the night was unusually quiet.

He cautiously walked to the window. The wooden window had also been severely eroded by the years. The edges could not completely fit the window frame, revealing some gaps.

But strangely, when Yao Shunyu reached out to touch the gap, he couldn't feel any trace of wind.

But looking at the degree of shaking of the wooden window, it was clearly blown by the wind, and a very strong wind.

"Feng shui... wind..."

Thinking of this, Yao Shunyu no longer hesitated. He moved the wooden latch inserted behind the window. The next second, the trembling window was suddenly blown open, and a gust of strong wind poured in.

The night was a bit cool, but this wind was not only not biting, but on the contrary, it brought a trace of comforting warmth, relaxing Yao Shunyu's whole body.

But as Yao Shunyu turned around, his face, which had just relaxed, suddenly tightened again, and the scene behind him made his hair stand on end.

He saw the colored prayer flags on the left Bodhisattva statue dancing wildly in the wind, making a rustling sound, while the prayer flags on the right Bodhisattva statue did not move at all, as if time had stopped.

The next second, the candles burning in the hall were lowered by the wind, and then went out with a "poof". The right Bodhisattva statue was also instantly hidden in the darkness, leaving only a vague outline.

Whether it was psychological or not, Yao Shunyu felt a resentful gaze, that feeling was very strong, like a cold blade scraping across his skin bit by bit, projected from the outline of the Bodhisattva on the right!

So the key tonight is the wind!

After stabilizing his mind, Yao Shunyu no longer hesitated. He tried his best not to look at the Bodhisattva statue on the right, strode towards the Sumeru pedestal in the hall, found the incense tube nearby, and then used all his strength to move the bronze incense burner little by little in front of the Bodhisattva statue on the left.

After doing all this, Yao Shunyu didn't have time to catch his breath. He took out three incense sticks from the incense tube wrapped in red cloth, lit them in the lantern he carried, bowed to the Bodhisattva statue, and respectfully inserted them into the incense burner.

"Bodhisattva bless, I hope that I and my friends can turn bad luck into good. I came in a hurry today and didn't bring enough incense offerings. When this disciple escapes, I will definitely build another altar for the Bodhisattva and bring my friends to add incense to the Bodhisattva!"

Yao Shunyu said these words sincerely, then knelt on the cold bluestone floor and kowtowed three times to the Bodhisattva in front of him.

Then he stood up, inserted the lantern on the pillar beside him, and stuck the sickle behind his waist, using both hands and feet to climb towards the head of the Bodhisattva.

The process was very smooth. This Bodhisattva statue was five meters tall. After finding a place to stand, Yao Shunyu took out the sickle, silently chanted a few times "Bodhisattva, please don't blame me," and began to scrape the gold powder from the Bodhisattva's face with the not-so-sharp blade.

"Cha."

"Cha."

...

A series of teeth-aching rubbing sounds echoed in the dim hall.

"Ka..."

While scraping gold, Yao Shunyu's ears twitched. He heard some unusual sounds, right behind him!

The sound was like something dry was cracking little by little.

A terrible picture emerged in Yao Shunyu's mind: Zhusheng Niangniang, swollen and bruised, was breaking out of the Bodhisattva statue behind him. The "crackling" sound was the cracking of the dry clay shell.

An unprecedented curiosity drove him to turn his head to look, even if it was just a glance, but the next second, Yao Shunyu was frightened by the thought in his heart. He bit his lip tightly, his neck had become a little stiff, and he accelerated the speed in his hand again.

I don't know how long it took, but the sound behind him disappeared, and the gold powder in Yao Shunyu's hand had accumulated a thick layer. He let out a long breath, then stepped on the statue and slowly returned to the ground.

After landing, he slowly moved his stiff neck. The scene in front of him made Yao Shunyu's heart beat half a beat slower. He saw many peeled mud scattered in the hall, and some with bright colors.

These scattered mud pieces extended from behind him all the way to the darkness opposite him.

And the other Bodhisattva statue that was originally hidden in the shadows was gone.

Lowering his head and picking up a piece of mud painted with eyes, Yao Shunyu's heart was beating violently. The back of the mud piece was covered with a layer of turbid mucus, constantly emitting bursts of stench, like rotten meat that had been rotten for a long time.

The most terrible thing is that this piece of debris is less than two meters away from him.

It can be imagined that not long ago, when he was concentrating on scraping gold, the other Bodhisattva statue behind him moved. The Zhusheng Niangniang hidden in it struggled to crawl out and approached him. In the end, she even stopped very close behind him. If... if he hadn't stopped that curiosity and turned his head...

Yao Shunyu shook his head violently, interrupting his increasingly terrible assumptions. It was meaningless to say these now. The task was over, he survived, no matter how thrilling the journey was, he won.

"The key to my mission is the wind, so the key to Li Bai's mission should be water!" Yao Shunyu put away the gold powder and strode towards the outside of the hall.