Coal Mine God
Liu Muze patted Ye Jing'an's arm and pointed to the depths of the forest to the southeast. It was pitch black there, and Ye Jing'an could see nothing except the occasional night bird flying away in that direction.
The wind died down, and the surroundings were unusually quiet. Ye Jingan remembered that before going to bed, there were still many insects chirping around him, which was annoying, but now it was eerily quiet.
Liu Muze pinched Ye Jing'an's shoulder with one hand and picked up Ye An's sword with the other. There was a sound of breaking wind, and Liu Muze raised his hand and swung the sword, and a dead black bird fell to the ground.
The black bird's throat was pierced, and the blood on its feathers had dried. It looked like it had been dead for some time. As the dead bird fell to the ground, everything around it returned to normal. Ye Jingan heard the familiar noisy chirping of insects at night again. He asked curiously: "Brother Liu, what's going on? Why did I hear that chirping sound just now?"
"Something was watching us, but it's gone now." Liu Muzhe looked towards the southeast. "It might have some means of interfering with people's hearing. My hearing was also restricted just now."
"Oh, was the owner of the tent taken away by that thing?" Ye Jingan asked again.
"Maybe. It's almost dawn. Wake Qiu Zimu up and we'll go look for him." Liu Muzhe said.
Qiu Zimu was exhausted from catching bugs all day yesterday. He was woken up at five o'clock, eyes barely open, and he followed the two men with drooping shoulders.
"Why do you look like you've been drained of your yang energy? Hahahahahaha..." Ye Jing'an sneered, "Did you hear any noise yesterday?"
Qiu Zimu shook his head and didn't want to talk to him.
Ye Jingan pointed at the bushes not far away and shouted, "Hey, ghost butterfly!"
"Where is it? Where is it?" Qiu Zimu woke up instantly, picked up the net and ran towards the direction of Ye Jingan's finger. He looked around, but there was no butterfly. He turned around and saw Ye Jingan grinning. He threw the net to Ye Jingan, looked at Liu Muze with a wronged face and said, "Brother Liu, can you take care of him?"
"Don't bully him all the time." Liu Muzhe said.
"Mr. Qiu, stop complaining here. It's useless. I tell you! I dare to bully Brother Liu." Ye Jing'an said.
"Brother Liu, why don't we just kill him?" Qiu Zimu said, "No one will see us anyway."
"Well, I think it's okay." Liu Muzhe said with a faint smile.
"Come on, it's just right to kill me. I will turn into a ghost and catch all your butterflies, leaving no one for you." Ye Jing'an said.
Qiu Zimu: "..."
The three of them joked along the way. The sky was turning pale, a little fog rose in the forest, and the cool morning breeze was very comfortable.
The fog thickened as they went deeper into the forest. Ye Jing'an suggested taking a break for breakfast. It was easy to get lost in the fog, and it was hard to see where the butterflies were. He pulled three bags of compressed biscuits from his backpack, and each of them ate one bag. If they choked, they would drink some mineral water to soothe their choking.
The fog did not dissipate, but became thicker. The thick white fog filled the entire forest, making it hard to breathe.
"Brother Liu, where are we going? I can't even see the road." Ye Jing'an said.
"Don't talk, there's movement." Liu Muzhe listened attentively to the sounds coming from all around. After listening for a while, he took out a talisman and threw it towards the depths of the fog.
In the light of the burning talisman, they saw a blurry figure breaking through the fog and fleeing forward. Liu Muzhe said, "Let's go."
Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu picked up their backpacks and chased after him. Liu Muze was very fast and was wearing white clothes. At this time, he could no longer be seen. Ye Jingan shouted, "Brother Liu, slow down. I can't see you anymore!"
"Here." Liu Muzhe's voice came from not far ahead. It wasn't too far away, but the fog blocked his view and he couldn't see anyone.
While Qiu Zimu was running wildly, he caught a glimpse of a bright red flash on the right. He subconsciously stopped and retreated in the direction he had just been running in. He looked around but didn't see the ghost butterfly.
As he continued running, he realized Liu Muze and Ye Jing'an had already run away, and his calls went unanswered. Qiu Zimu was panicking. With his limited skills, if he ran into that freak thing he had just seen, he'd be completely doomed. He didn't dare shout or wander around anymore, instead quietly hiding in the grass under a large tree and calling Ye Jing'an.
Fortunately, although this forest area was deep, there was still some signal. When the call was connected, Qiu Zimu whispered, "Where are you?"
"I walked straight along the road. Brother Liu is missing and I'm looking for him." Ye Jing'an said.
"Share your location." Qiu Zimu followed the navigation and saw Ye Jing'an waiting for him by the tree. His tense heart suddenly relaxed. "Which direction did Brother Liu run to?"
"I don't know. I completely lost him. He didn't even answer the phone." Ye Jing'an walked forward. "Let's just go wherever we want. Brother Liu will come find us after he catches the monster we just saw."
Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu had lost their way and were wandering in the woods. The sun gradually rose from the clouds and mist, and the mist gradually dissipated. The ground was still wet, and small water droplets condensed on the plants.
The dew soaked the insect net, making it unsuitable for catching insects. Qiu Zimu had just put the insect net away when he heard Ye Jingan whisper, "I think I saw the red butterfly you mentioned."
Qiu Zimu looked in the direction of Ye Jing'an's finger. Two meters ahead, on the slope, there were several yellow-flowered Lycoris radiata plants growing. The bright yellow with a touch of red made them particularly eye-catching in the green forest.
"Stand still." Qiu Zimu suppressed his inner excitement and tiptoed around to the back.
Before he could reach it, the ghost butterfly flapped its scaly wings and flew to another Lycoris radiata. Qiu Zimu tensed his nerves and quickened his pace, fearing it would fly away. Once he was within reach, Qiu Zimu swung his insect net, but again, it came up empty. The ghost butterfly, sensing danger, flew off at breakneck speed towards the dense forest.
"Ye Jing'an, chase it, don't let it run away!" Qiu Zimu shouted.
"Okay!" Ye Jing'an picked up the newly assembled insect net and ran towards the ghost butterfly.
Qiu Zimu's eyes were fixed on the ghost butterfly, and he didn't pay much attention to the road while running, and he fell two or three times. The two of them only had eyes for the ghost butterfly. After running for a while, their speed slowed down significantly, and they were out of breath and a little exhausted.
"This little moth is quite good at flying!" Ye Jing'an leaned against the tree and took a breath.
"I must catch it!" Qiu Zimu's eyes were full of stars, but he kept chasing it and refused to stop.
The ghost butterfly flew and flew, then folded its wings and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Where did it go? How come it suddenly disappeared when I was watching it?" Qiu Zimu searched everywhere for the ghost butterfly.
"It seemed to disappear out of thin air," said Ye Jing'an.
"It was just too fast, and we didn't notice it." Qiu Zimu didn't see the ghost butterfly's shadow, and felt extremely disappointed. Compared to never encountering it at all, this feeling of missing it was even more regrettable.
"Okay, at least we see it's really here. If we look around, we'll definitely catch it." Ye Jing'an noticed that the surroundings were quite different from before. There were steep cliffs ahead, and there was no way forward.
Ye Jing'an saw that there seemed to be a cave under the cliff. He remembered the cave where he could sleep that Liu Muzhe mentioned, so he was curious and wanted to go and take a look.
The entrance to the cave wasn't large, but it was very regular, as if it had been artificially excavated. It was pitch black inside, and the flashlight from their cell phone wasn't very penetrating, so they couldn't illuminate the inside. Qiu Zimu and Ye Jing'an took out a flashlight with better light penetration and walked in cautiously.
It was a straight rock cave, its walls clearly marked by signs of human excavation, resembling a mine tunnel. After walking about fifty meters, they found themselves facing an iron gate. It was rusted, its rust chips scattered across the floor, and several thick iron bars had been welded across the cracks.
In the center of the iron gate is a stone statue of a god, but it has no head and looks very strange.
"What's the significance of worshipping a headless statue?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"I don't know, there doesn't seem to be such a saying." Qiu Zimu said.
Ye Jingan walked in and took a closer look at the statue and said, "The neck is broken very unevenly. The head must have been deliberately damaged."
"What's the purpose of putting the statue here?" Qiu Zimu asked, "I don't see anyone worshipping it."
"Look at the iron door, it's sealed tightly. Either they don't want people to go in, or they want to prevent things from coming out. Looking at the position of the statue, it's most likely the latter." Ye Jing'an remembered that in a book he had read, it said that Taishang Laojun was regarded as the patron saint who protected the safety of the gold, silver, copper and iron mining industries, as well as the creator god. People engaged in the mining industry would worship Taishang Laojun.
Although the statue was headless, it was dressed in armor, a black robe, and holding a steel whip. It looked brave and powerful, and at first glance, it was a military commander. It had nothing to do with the Jade Emperor. Ye Jingan asked, "Do you know who this immortal is?"
"If there's a coal mine here, it's most likely the Kiln King," Qiu Zimu explained. "The Kiln King is a deity that protects the coal mines and is the miners' hope for safety. He's also called the Coal Mine God. He's enshrined in mines across the country, but the specific Coal Mine Gods they enshrine are different. I don't know who this one is."
Ye Jingan was about to respond when a loud crash was heard from inside the iron door, and a layer of iron filings fell down. While the two were stunned, the iron door began to shake violently.
"Let's go! Let's get that thing out." Ye Jing'an pulled Qiu Zimu out.
As soon as they exited the mine, Liu Muze rushed over from the other side of the cliff: "Are you all okay?"
"It's okay, the monster is inside." Ye Jing'an said, pointing to the mine tunnel.
Liu Muze frowned. When he ran to the iron gate, the monster seemed to have left and stopped banging on it. He had chased the monster all the way to a cave, but he didn't know what was going on below. He was afraid that Ye Jing'an and Qiu Zimu would be in danger, so he didn't continue chasing.
"Brother Liu, what's going on with this headless immortal?" Qiu Zimu asked.
"It must have been deliberately destroyed by that monster. Come with me." Liu Muzhe said.
"Brother Liu, is this the cave you mentioned where we can spend the night?" Ye Jing'an asked.
Liu Muzhe shook his head. When he came here, there was no such mine tunnel and he had never encountered that monster. He thought something must have happened in the past few hundred years.
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