Chapter 131 The meeting in the dream turned out to be a dream

When Chang Xile woke up, he found himself lying in an old Taoist temple.

She blinked, feeling dizzy. She had no idea where she was or what time it was.

After a while, she slowly pulled herself up and sat up. Looking around, the temple was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. That rainy night of thunder and lightning, the treacherous and vicious fox, and Anping, who had fought so hard to protect her, were all gone.

Chang Xile stood up and walked out. Although the Taoist temple was old, it was well-maintained. The place where she had been lying was carefully covered with soft straw, and the tables and chairs were spotlessly clean. Like a dream, Chang Xile took a few steps and felt her body was completely drained. It felt like her feet were walking on clouds, and she would fall if she wasn't careful.

The layout of this place looked very familiar. When she staggered out of the room, holding on to the wall, and saw the tall statue of the goddess standing between heaven and earth with a compassionate smile on her face, she realized that she was in the Laughter Temple.

The sky was clear and cloudless. Chang Xile turned around and asked tentatively, "Is anyone there?"

She originally wanted to test whether the original Taoist priest of Xiaoyu Temple was there, but she had never asked his name before, so she couldn't really call him "the Taoist priest who likes to recruit believers" so directly.

"Are you awake?" A voice came from the entrance of the temple. To Chang Xile's surprise, it was a female voice that he had never heard of before.

Chang Xile turned around and saw a strange woman walking towards him. He was stunned for a moment.

She had seen beautiful women before, but she had never seen a woman as beautiful as the one before her. Her features, though not delicate at first glance, were captivatingly beautiful when combined. She wore a white cloth dress, her long hair flowing naturally down to her calves. Even a faint smile radiated a divine presence, making one want to throw oneself into her arms and cry.

Mingming gave Chang Xile a sense of familiarity, but Chang Xile was sure that he had never seen her before.

If you have seen such a beautiful person, it is impossible not to be impressed.

The woman noticed Chang Xile's gaze, smiled, and produced a hairpin from nowhere to tie her hair up: "Excuse me."

Chang Xile was stunned by her beauty and subconsciously waved his hand to indicate that it was okay.

The woman looked at her, then pulled out a chair from nowhere and invited Chang Xile to sit down. She also pulled out a chair herself and sat down face to face with Chang Xile. Then, reminiscing about the past, she sighed, "It's been a long time since we last met. I didn't expect you've grown so much."

Chang Xile finally found her voice and asked, "Have we met before?"

The woman reached out her hand and pointed at her knees, saying, "When your grandma brought you to see me, you were just a little kid. You were probably about this tall, right? Oh, it's too far away, I can't see clearly."

Seeing Chang Xile still in a daze, the woman couldn't help laughing and teasing her: "You really don't remember me? I held you in my arms when you were a child."

Hearing her mention her grandmother, Chang Xile felt more and more that an answer was about to emerge in her mind. The woman raised her hand and touched the top of her head, saying with pity: "You have worked hard over the years. I am late."

The moment the woman's palm touched Chang Xile, she suddenly opened her eyes wide, looked at the tall stone statue behind her, and then looked at the woman in front of her who was of unknown age but very elegant and beautiful.

Although the stone statue has been a little worn out by years of wind and sun, if you look closely, you can still see its resemblance to the woman's face.

"You are...Empress Laughter?" Chang Xile felt ridiculous after saying this. She asked in disbelief, "Am I dreaming?"

"Did you recognize me?" Empress Xiaoyu studied Chang Xile with a curved lip. She didn't deny her second question, but simply reached out again, and a teacup appeared out of thin air in her hand. "Your throat is hoarse from the burns. Have some water. I picked the morning dew myself. It's good for your throat."

Therefore, the battle between Chang Leshan and Ninghu in his memory was not a dream. Chang Xile suddenly became nervous and asked, "Where is Ninghu? Is he dead? And Anping, Wessel, and the others in Shancheng, how are they?"

Seeing that Empress Xiaoyu remained silent, Chang Xile's voice suddenly became tearful - could it be that they were actually dead and were just spending their last time in the human world as souls?

"No." Empress Xiaoyu gently interrupted her wandering thoughts and smiled helplessly, "You have so many questions to ask. I have to sort out my thoughts before I can tell you."

The fox wasn't dead, but it wasn't alive either. The fragments of its soul were taken away by the underworld officials and sent to the eighteen levels of hell to be punished.

"Every fragment must experience the same death as the soul it devoured, and this will repeat itself for thousands of years." Lady Laughter said calmly.

Only then did Chang Xile realize that Xie Wuya had also come to Changle Mountain that day.

"As for those people you care about..." Empress Xiaoyu paused here deliberately and winked at Chang Xile, "They are all well."

"Really? That's great!" Chang Xile's heart finally settled down. She couldn't help but pull on Empress Xiaoyu's hand and take a few small steps. When she came to her senses, she let go of her hand and scratched the back of her head a little embarrassedly.

"Yes, the believers made a wish to me, how can I ignore it?" Niangniang Xiaoyu did not feel offended at all. She looked at Chang Xile gently, like a kind female elder.

"I make a wish to you..." Chang Xile asked.

The Laughter Goddess imitated her, facing the tall statue, then closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, saying: "I hope that those I love will be safe, happy, and free from illness, pain, and disaster."

She said, "Although I was constrained and arrived a long time late, fortunately it's not too late."

"What does it mean to be restricted?" Chang Xile asked.

"That's a long story." Empress Xiaoyu supported her face with her hands and fell into memories.

In her early years, she was just a minor mountain deity, with no widely circulated folk tales or powerful magical powers, so her followers could be counted on one hand.

If no one worships such a small deity and no one builds a temple for her, she will probably be completely forgotten by the world in a few dozen or hundreds of years.

However, sometimes there are some lovely people who come to visit her. Xiaoyu has nothing to do, so she helps out wherever she can.

"In fact, most of it depends on their own efforts. It's just that some people mistakenly think it's my credit." Empress Xiaoyu added sincerely.

In short, Lady Laughter had gained some reputation among a small group of people. Believers, if accumulated, would eventually accumulate. She served as a local deity for a while, neither too many nor too few believers coming and going, but a few left a particularly deep impression on her.

One was about a girl who was lost in the mountains. She made a wish to get out of the mountains. Xiaoyu brushed away the clouds and rain from the sky for her, allowing her and the teacher she was traveling with to follow the direction of the Big Dipper back home.

Unexpectedly, the girl's ambitions went far beyond this. She later studied hard, worked hard, and truly left the mountains.

She was deeply grateful to Xiaoyu and made her offerings every year without fail. If it weren't for the rules of the gods, which prohibit them from appearing at random, Xiaoyu would have wanted to grab the girl's ears and tell her, "This isn't my credit! I only gave a tiny bit of help; your success is entirely your own." "No need to thank me!" And I don't like your walnut cookies; they're too dry!

It was a pity the girl couldn't hear. Thanks to her, Xiaoyu Temple flourished, and Xiaoyu's own magical powers grew stronger. Later, she gained followers in other places, and Xiaoyu Temples were occasionally built on mountaintops. Xiaoyu thought that for a few hundred years, she wouldn't have to worry about her own demise.

"What about the other person who left a deep impression on you?" Chang Xile was so excited that he couldn't help but continue asking.

"Don't be so impatient, young man. I was just about to tell you something." Empress Xiaoyu glanced at her with a frown and said, "There's one more person, and that's you, little kid."

"Huh?" Chang Xile was surprised.

Over the years, having dealt with so many believers who had come specially or were just passing through, Niangniang Xiaoyu was quite knowledgeable. But she had never seen a girl with such a yin constitution.

The little girl's hands were cold, she looked listless, and she didn't seem very lively. Before she entered the Laughter Temple, ghosts swarmed around her, lingering outside the temple for a long time after she entered.

Moreover, she seemed to have just come into contact with some very powerful monster, and the demonic aura on her body was very strong.

The old lady who brought her here also recognized her with a smile. She was Chen Ping, the one who was determined to leave the mountains.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Ping's face has grown so many wrinkles - Empress Xiaoyu couldn't help but sigh.

It was impossible to ignore an old friend seeking help. Xiaoyu was delighted when she saw the girl and immediately adopted her as her adopted daughter. She then wiped her eyes with dew from the morning dew, protecting her from seeing ghosts until she reached adulthood.

"Actually, if you wanted, I could have kept you away from these demons and monsters even after you became an adult." Empress Laughter sighed after saying this, "Unfortunately, my magical powers have declined significantly since then."

How could this happen? Before Chang Xile could even ask, Empress Xiaoyu seemed to know what she was thinking.

Although the gods are powerful, the source of their power ultimately comes from the faith of their believers. Originally, there were only two Xiaoyu Temples in the mountain city, one on Yanshan Mountain and the other on Xiaoyu Mountain.

"Xiaoyu Mountain?" Chang Xile was a little confused, because the photography department often held sketching team-building activities. Although Chang Xile did not often participate, he was very knowledgeable about where the scenery in the mountain city was good.

She knew a little about the big and small hills in the mountain city, but she had never heard of Xiaoyu Mountain.

"It's this mountain right here." Lady Laughter pointed to the ground beneath them. "It was originally called Laughter Mountain."

"Huh?" Chang Xile was shocked.

"It's a long story." Lady Laughter sighed, "Young people shouldn't be so impatient."

Only then did you feel that she was indeed an old immortal who had lived for many years.

There once existed a Taoist temple on Yanshan Mountain, called the Laughing Talk Temple, where approximately two to three hundred nuns practiced. The temple was renowned, and the deities enshrined there were said to grant all prayers, leading to a considerable number of devotees. However, due to the steep terrain and year-round fog on Laughing Talk Mountain, the Laughing Talk Temple there was considerably more deserted.

The Goddess of Laughter was a sincere and kind-hearted deity. Her followers came to Yanshan with offerings and she did her best to help them. Gradually, her duties were no longer limited to the mountain city, and she occasionally had to travel abroad.

During the days when she was away on a business trip, something happened at Xiaoyu Temple.

At the time, Yanshan, known for its scenic beauty and rich religious atmosphere, was designated a development zone. The developers, seemingly oblivious to the concepts of "sustainable development" or "environmental protection," turned the entire mountain upside down with rumbling machines, felling trees and leaving no habitat for animals. The entire mountain was filled with a smoky atmosphere. For a time, the road from the foot of the mountain to the Taoist temple was so muddy and difficult to navigate, and the number of believers decreased.

Late one night, someone smoked a cigarette on the mountain, threw it on the ground and left in a hurry before the cigarette was completely burned. The unextinguished spark ignited the dead leaves nearby, and the fire gradually spread until it was out of control and finally someone discovered the fire.

The fire brigade at the foot of the mountain responded very quickly from the time they received the fire report to the time they were dispatched. However, during the rescue, they were stuck on the muddy road and wasted a lot of time.

"What happened next?" Chang Xile became nervous and couldn't help but ask more questions when Empress Xiaoyu paused.

This time she did not say that the young man was impatient, but just looked in some empty direction and fell silent.

After a long while, she said softly, "They were all fast asleep. By the time anyone discovered the fire, it was too late."

The fire burned for three days and three nights before it finally stopped because of a heavy rain.

Chang Xile widened his eyes in shock.

She had heard from Zhong Timeng that Yanshan was overdeveloped, but she hadn't heard anything about the fire and the death toll.

How could there be no news about such a big thing even though many years have passed?

Lady Xiaoyu looked up at the sky and continued, "In that fire, one person survived."

She looked at Chang Xile, as if she saw an old friend in this girl's face: "Her name is Tang You."

That night, Tang You went down the mountain to do some shopping. Since it was already late when she finished, she decided to stay in the city for the night. She felt uneasy in the middle of the night, and when she heard about the fire, it was too late to rush back up the mountain.

The group of girls who were laughing and fighting crickets in private while the master was chanting yesterday, and who kept nagging Tang You to bring cakes and pastries when she was about to leave, have become charred corpses with unrecognizable faces today.

As Chang Xile listened, a group of friendly and lovely figures emerged in his mind.

"So Changleguan... Changleguan doesn't actually exist in the world, right?" Chang Xile muttered to himself. No wonder there were no gods enshrined in Changleguan. Such a huge number of wandering souls knew each other.

Tang You somehow managed to take away all the souls and created a Changle Temple that was identical to Xiaoyu Temple. She then lived in seclusion on Xiaoyu Mountain, as if everyone was still alive and nothing bad had happened.

Meanwhile, virtually no details about the wildfire were available online. Who started it? Why was rescue work hampered? How many people died? It was as if this information was deliberately suppressed, never being revealed. And because there were so few actual eyewitnesses that night, the story gradually faded. However, the Xiaoyu Temple in Yanshan, destroyed by the fire and neglected, gradually fell into disrepair. The power and prestige of the Laughing Goddess plummeted in the mountain city.

"It's my fault that I didn't protect them well." Empress Xiaoyu said calmly, "It's all my own fault."

Chang Xile held Empress Xiaoyu's hand and shook his head: "You saved everyone in Shancheng. You are great."

Lady Laughter looked at her tenderly and said, "You summoned me."

That talisman burned Chang Xile's soul, writing the words "God has come." Only then was she able to bring down divine punishment and rain to extinguish the flames.

"I feel a little ashamed to say that you have recognized me as your adoptive mother, and I should be the one taking care of you. But I need your help with something." Empress Xiaoyu held Chang Xile's hand with an embarrassed smile.

"Just tell me." Chang Xile agreed without even asking what it was about.

"Perhaps you can't understand it now, but eternal life is indeed a very painful thing." Empress Xiaoyu slowly explained to her, "I understand Tang You's feelings, but after so many years, she should have let it go."

Chang Xile nodded: "I understand."

Wandering in the human world, severing ties with the world, it seems like eternal life, but in reality, it forever cuts off the possibility of rebirth.

It’s not necessarily that Tang You doesn’t understand, but she just hasn’t let it go yet.

"But I may not be able to find them." Chang Xile said honestly, "Since we separated last time, my aunt has hidden them all. If she doesn't want to, no one can see her."

"You don't need to worry too much about this. It's just that your soul is so badly damaged that I have to bring you back first." Empress Xiaoyu said this and pulled Chang Xile up from the chair. She looked Chang Xile up and down for a while and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad, you've almost recovered."

"Huh?" Chang Xile blinked, not quite sure what was going on.

"Do you feel sleepy? Are your legs weak?" Empress Xiaoyu asked her with a smile.

Yes, Chang Xile had been feeling dizzy since a while ago, and the ground beneath her feet felt unreal. If it weren't for Empress Xiaoyu supporting her, she would have nearly fallen to her knees.

"I really like you. Please come to Xiaoyu Temple more often in the future." Empress Xiaoyu curled her lips and then pushed her on the shoulder.

Chang Xile fell backwards, and before she could even exclaim, she felt herself lying on a very soft, white bed.

...It turns out that I was really dreaming.