Chapter 1 Li Bai's Reaction

Zhang Yuanchao's words instantly darkened Li Bai's face. She shook off Zhang Yuanchao's arm. "Who are you calling 'daughter'?"

Zhang Yuanchao wasn't annoyed, still with that honest and simple look. He lowered his head to look at Li Bai's ankle, and only when he found that she wasn't injured did his slightly furrowed brow relax a little.

"How about it, do you want me to help you walk?" Yao Shunyu stepped forward.

Li Bai first glanced at Zhang Yuanchao warily, then looked at Yao Shunyu and shook her head. "I'm fine, let's keep going."

They were heading to the old temple in the village. According to the villagers, the temple had been there for many years, the exact date even untraceable. They only knew that there was a Buddha statue enshrined inside. The villagers were kind, and every year on the day of the Zhusheng Assembly, they would go to offer incense to the Buddha statue so the temple wouldn't be too deserted.

Of course, these words were just to be heard. After all, their most important task tonight was not to offer incense to the Buddha statue, but to use a grass-cutting sickle to scrape the gold powder off the Buddha's face. Scraping gold from the Buddha's face, just hearing it, you know it's a great act of disrespect.

The night in Blackwater Village wasn't completely black, but a strange gray, as if a thick fog enveloped the entire village.

There were two tasks in total tonight, and they were also assigned. Yao Shunyu would carry out the first, which was scraping gold from the Buddha's face. Li Bai and Zhang Yuanchao would carry out the second task together: kowtowing before the demon.

Yao Shunyu initially disagreed with the arrangement for Li Bai. He didn't feel comfortable leaving the unidentified Zhang Yuanchao by Li Bai's side, but Li Bai's reasoning was also sufficient. First, Zhang Yuanchao was spying on her; in other words, she was the target, so he would naturally be more likely to reveal flaws if he was by her side.

As for the second point, Li Bai didn't shy away from it. Tonight's task focused on the words "feng shui," and she was much better at this aspect than Yao Shunyu.

Soon, the group followed the muddy dirt road, twisting and turning, and finally arrived in front of a dilapidated temple gate.

It was said to be a temple, but it looked like a large, dilapidated courtyard. Through the collapsed part of the courtyard wall, they could see a wooden building inside.

The building was very tall, and the overall structure resembled a large hall, with a majestic aura. From the remaining red paint, green tiles, and thick pillars, they could faintly feel the former glory of this building, but such a building standing deep in Blackwater Village seemed strange no matter how you looked at it.

What made Yao Shunyu even more nervous was that there was a faint light seeping out from inside the hall at this moment, indicating that candles were lit inside.

"Young man, this place is very strange. Be careful." Zhang Yuanchao craned his neck to look inside, then said to Yao Shunyu.

Yao Shunyu ignored him.

"Be careful yourself, we'll wait for you outside." Li Bai also felt a little worried for Yao Shunyu.

Taking a deep breath, Yao Shunyu pushed open the courtyard door alone. After pausing for a moment, Yao Shunyu was a little surprised. After entering from the courtyard door, what he was facing was not the front door of the building, but a screen wall.

At this moment, the screen wall was covered with large "happiness" characters and festive red couplets. Two large red lanterns were also hanging on both sides of the screen wall.

There was no wind tonight, and the two large red lanterns were like the two eyes of a beast, motionless, just staring at him with a deathly silence.

After experiencing what happened last night, Yao Shunyu got a headache when he saw the "happiness" character. Moreover, this was a temple. What was the intention of this arrangement?

Going around the screen wall and standing in front of the building's door, the old and dilapidated state of the building was obvious. Accompanied by a "creak—" sound, the wooden door was pushed open, and the scene inside the building was presented before Yao Shunyu's eyes.

He saw that on the left and right sides of the hall, there were statues, each sitting cross-legged in the lotus position, towering over a zhang tall. (approximately 10 feet)

The two statues were different from what Yao Shunyu had imagined. This wasn't a Buddha statue at all, but a Bodhisattva statue.

These Bodhisattvas weren't the kind of kind-faced Bodhisattvas commonly seen in temples, but more like the style of Tibetan esoteric Buddhism. Their bodies were boldly painted with various bright colors: blood red, Tibetan blue, maroon, golden yellow. Several colors were mixed together, and after looking at them for a long time, it was even a little dazzling.

On the Bodhisattvas and on the walls behind them hung many colorful flags strung together with thread. Yao Shunyu had seen similar things before, so he knew that these were called wind-horse flags, also known as prayer flags (jingfan).

The two Bodhisattva statues lowered their heads slightly, and both of their golden faces had wide-open eyes and gaping blood-red mouths, as if they would unleash thunderous rage upon the world in the next second.

Yao Shunyu felt flustered by the gaze of the two Bodhisattva statues. If he wasn't told that this was a temple, he would have thought that it enshrined evil ghosts.

As Yao Shunyu's observation deepened, he gradually noticed some strange things. Logically speaking, as soon as you enter the hall, there should be a statue directly in front of you. This is the main position in the hall.

There was no reason to leave the main position vacant and place statues in the secondary positions.

Yao Shunyu walked up in doubt and tore off the red hanging cloth used for covering. As expected, he found a very large stone platform made of bluestone in the main position directly opposite the hall door.

This stone platform was called a Sumeru pedestal (Xumi zuo), which was used to place Buddha and Bodhisattva statues. Yao Shunyu recognized it. In front of the Sumeru pedestal, there was also a bronze incense burner.

Some soil debris remaining on the Sumeru pedestal attracted Yao Shunyu's attention. Obviously, there used to be a statue here as well, but it was moved away for some reason.

Suddenly, Yao Shunyu's expression froze, and then his whole body suddenly raised his head, his line of sight colliding with the eyes of a Bodhisattva statue.

There was nothing unusual about the Bodhisattva statue, but Yao Shunyu was not well. He had overlooked one thing, a very important thing. When the villagers of Blackwater Village came to convey the task today, they mentioned this sentence, saying that there was only one statue in the temple.

One!

In the next second, Yao Shunyu immediately reacted. He stabilized his mind and came to the Bodhisattva statue on the left, then quickly walked to the one on the right. Sure enough, there were no Sumeru pedestals under these two Bodhisattva statues. They were both placed directly on the ground. Most importantly, there were traces of scraping left on the stone slabs on the ground, and the traces were very new.

Yao Shunyu took a deep breath of cold air. It seemed that was the case. One of the two Bodhisattva statues in front of him used to be placed on the Sumeru pedestal in the main position of the hall, and the other one... was fake!

Looking warily at the two almost identical Bodhisattva statues, the familiar feeling in Yao Shunyu's heart became stronger and stronger. Such a huge body could completely hide some other things inside, such as... the Zhusheng Niangniang he had seen last night.

Yao Shunyu suspected... no, he was sure. He was almost certain that Zhusheng Niangniang was hidden in one of the Bodhisattva statues!

Having determined this, Yao Shunyu also knew the ghost's way of killing people tonight. His task here was to worship the Buddha, and then scrape gold from the Buddha's face. If he worshiped a true Buddha or Bodhisattva, that would be fine, but if he chose the wrong target and worshiped Zhusheng Niangniang disguised as a Bodhisattva statue...

Yao Shunyu couldn't help but tremble with the sickle in his right hand at the thought of possibly climbing onto Zhusheng Niangniang's face to scrape gold.

"This is troublesome..."