Mountain Temple
"Ah!" The little girl was so frightened that she jumped up, ran into the house, and locked the door in a hurry.
"You scared the girl." Qiu Zimu said.
"I'm obviously very gentle." Ye Jing'an looked innocent, "Little girl, we are not bad people."
"Go away." the little girl cried.
"Don't be afraid, we'll leave now." Liu Muzhe signaled the two to leave first.
"Brother Liu, do I look like a bad guy?" Ye Jing'an asked.
Liu Muze glanced at him and smiled: "A little."
"..." Ye Jingan said, "I have a way to prove that I'm not a bad person. I'll go and explain."
Liu Muze grabbed Ye Jingan and said, "If you want to die, I won't stop you."
"What do you mean?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Her house is surrounded by the aura of earth spirits, and there are many things in the room to protect her safety. As long as he senses that the girl is in danger, he will appear immediately." Liu Muzhe said.
"That's perfect, it saves us from having to look for him," said Ye Jing'an.
Liu Muze was speechless for a moment, looking at his silly child and said: "What if he kills you without saying a word?"
"Don't you have it?" Ye Jing'an said, "You can't beat him?"
"Didn't I say before that his perception is much higher than mine? With the two of you here, there will always be a time when I can't protect you. Let's go, the little girl will be safe here." Liu Muzhe said.
Ye Jing'an thought about the whole thing all the way back. What kind of misfortune must have happened here? The outsiders moved away and built luxurious villas on the road, but this little girl was the only one left here. She probably didn't have parents, so she had no money or ability to move out. What kind of opportunity did those outsiders get to make such a fortune? What was the reason for the earth spirit to harm people?
What happened in the middle is always a disconnect, making it impossible to string the whole incident together, and there is no clue as to the disappearance of Qian Cheng's wife.
Ye Jing'an sighed silently in his heart. This time he seemed to have really been caught in a big whirlpool. The delicious and sumptuous meal was not "easy" to eat, and the money was not easy to earn.
After returning to the villa, Aunt Zhou walked back and forth in the yard, looking around from time to time. When she saw a few people coming back, she asked anxiously where they had been.
"Just taking a walk around here, what's the problem?" Ye Jing'an said.
"Did you go to the mountains behind?" Aunt Zhou asked again.
Ye Jingan, Qiu Zimu, and Liu Muze looked at each other and said jokingly, "What secrets are there in the mountains that we can't know?"
Aunt Zhou slapped her thigh and said, "Hey, I'm just worried that you'll be captured by monsters. I haven't even paid for your meal yet!"
Liu Muze: "..."
Qiu Zimu: "..."
Ye Jingan: "..."
"You'd better pay the bill and leave quickly. I'm really scared of you. If you get missing, the police will come to trouble me." Aunt Zhou drove them out.
Seeing that he could no longer stay here, Ye Jingan asked directly, "Aunt Zhou, what's going on with that little girl in the mountains?"
Aunt Zhou paused, her face instantly stiffening. After a while, she slowly explained to the others that the child was an orphan who had refused to leave their original house even after the relocation and had lived there ever since. People in the village would occasionally bring her food.
Liu Muzhe raised his eyebrows slightly. This man's lying skills were far worse than Ye Jing'an's.
Ye Jingan and the other two were kicked out and planned to go to another house to gather some information. As soon as they knocked on the door, the woman inside told them that she had a cold and was afraid of infecting others, so she asked them to go home quickly.
Qiu Zimu said it was okay, they were all in good physical condition and offered a high price, they just wanted to have dinner, but the woman didn't even open the door, she just urged them to leave quickly.
Ye Jingan made it clear that he wanted to know something and would answer one question for 100 yuan. This condition silenced the woman, who seemed to be hesitating. In the end, she did not open the door, but instead shouted at them to get out in a rage.
"Weren't you scrambling to do business before?" Qiu Zimu questioned.
"That little girl must have some secrets. These villagers are afraid we'll find out, so they want to chase us away." Ye Jing'an said, "Forget it, I'm too lazy to argue with them. No wonder the police said they didn't tell us much truth after all this morning."
After returning home, Ye Jing'an and Qiu Zimu re-examined the whole story. From Qian Cheng's missing wife to the village full of discord, to the little girl protected by the earth spirit, there was always some key information missing between each section, and there was no way to piece together all the things into a complete event.
The people of the village seemed to be hiding a huge secret, but they were still unaware of it. After much deliberation, they decided to go to the mountain temple to look for clues. They probably couldn't rely on these mountain people. Although they would fight over a small business of a meal, they always maintained a united front in keeping secrets.
In the morning, several people packed up their things early and went to the mountain temple. Before they reached the top of the mountain, they heard the sound of mumbling incantations coming from the location of the mountain temple, as well as a low music that made people feel depressed.
The few of them quickened their pace and stopped at a place in the distance where they could see the mountain temple.
In the open space in front of the mountain temple, more than 30 men were kneeling, wearing various clothes. Most of them were wearing ordinary casual clothes, but the man kneeling in the middle of the first row was wearing a black suit.
The person standing in the front wore a dark red cloak with many strange patterns printed on it, densely packed with patterns that looked like some kind of text. A little girl was tied up and placed at the entrance of the mountain temple. Several people recognized her immediately. She was the child in white who had been cooking in the woods.
"Why is it her? What is she doing?" Qiu Zimu asked.
"I don't know, let's take a look first." Ye Jing'an said.
There were a lot of meat, fruits, and incense placed at the entrance of the temple, and it looked like a sacrifice was being made.
Ye Jing'an recalled the grand ceremony of worshipping the ancestors at home, complete with everything and numerous complicated steps and rituals. Compared to that at home, this one wasn't even a worship ceremony at all, and the people kneeling on the ground didn't have the same reverent devotion they would have when offering sacrifices to a deity. Some of them were even trembling on their knees, more like they were afraid.
"You guys stay here, I'll go over and ask." Ye Jing'an walked over quietly, squatted next to the outermost mountain people, and asked in a low voice, "Fellow villagers, what are you doing?"
The fellow villager looked Ye Jing'an up and down. Seeing how he was dressed, he thought he was just visiting the mountain. He leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Yesterday, someone saw the mountain god statue's eyes oozing green blood. Three city dwellers disturbed the mountain god. Our village shamans told everyone that the mountain god is angry and they're offering sacrifices now. You're from the city too, right? If you have nothing else to do, leave quickly and don't disturb the mountain god."
Hearing about the green blood, Ye Jingan laughed secretly in his heart. What the hell is the mountain god angry? It was Brother Liu who was stabbed. Hahahahahaha…
"Ahem." Ye Jingan suppressed his laughter and pointed at the little girl at the entrance of the mountain temple. "What's wrong with that girl?"
"The shaman said that only by using a living person as a sacrifice can the anger of the mountain god be appeased." The mountain people waved their hands at Ye Jingan, "Don't ask any more questions, just leave."
"Okay, thank you." Ye Jing'an walked back quickly and told Liu Muzhe and Qiu Zimu what he had heard from the mountain people.
"Human sacrifice is too cruel. Wasn't it abolished long ago?" Qiu Zimu said with a frown.
Ye Jingan curled his lips and pointed at the sorcerer, saying, "Look at that guy, he's playing tricks on me. He's definitely not a good person. What good can he do? Go save him!"
Qiu Zimu said: "Brother, there are more than 30 grown men born in farming families, and there are only three of us. Can we defeat them?"
Ye Jing'an nodded. He might not be very good at fighting ghosts, but if he wanted to rescue a girl from more than 30 mountain people, as long as Qiu Zimu didn't hold him back, it should be possible. He believed in Brother Liu.
Liu Muze stopped the two and said, "Don't go. The earth spirit is nearby. We don't know what it wants to do. Wait a little longer."
The witch muttered a long string of words that sounded like incantations, then took out a large machete, held the knife above his head with both hands, closed his eyes, muttered something, and walked towards the little girl with the knife.
The little girl cried and shook her head, struggling desperately, and was very scared.
When the shaman raised his knife to chop off the girl's head, Liu Muze picked up a stone and flicked it at his knife-wielding hand. Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu rushed over to save the girl.
"ah!"
They were only halfway there when the witch was pierced through the chest by two dry branches. He was then lifted up to the roof of the mountain temple, out of sight of the girl, and his head was ripped off. A stream of blood gushed out of his neck like a fountain, and blood rained down from the air.
"The mountain god is angry!"
"The mountain god killed someone!"
The mountain people were terrified and fled in all directions.
The earth spirit seemed determined not to let the other mountain dwellers go. Suddenly, many dead branches stretched out from all directions, killing the fleeing mountain dwellers.
Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu rushed to the mountain temple, untied the girl, and brought her closer to the temple to protect her from seeing these bloody scenes. The earth spirit did not attack the people in the mountain temple, but killed the mountain people crazily.
Outside the temple, Liu Muzhe alone was not enough to deal with so many dead branches and could not save so many people.
In the blink of an eye, across this desolate mountain range, broken limbs and arms were everywhere, blood spilled everywhere. The mountain people died in countless ways, it was simply horrific to watch. The air was filled with blood mist, and the stench was overwhelming.
"You protect her, I'll go help Brother Liu!" Ye Jing'an rushed over, swung his sword, and cut off the dead branches wrapped around Liu Muzhe's arm.
Liu Muze cut off the dead branch that was stretching towards Ye Jingan's back and shouted, "It's dangerous outside. I can't take care of you. Let's go into the temple!"
"It's okay, I'll give you the sword while I save people." Ye Jing'an threw the sword to Liu Muzhe and took the talisman to hit the dead branches that were chasing down the mountain.
Liu Muzhe's swordsmanship was elegant and sharp. After a few moves, all the dead branches around him were cut off by him.
"Young man, stop meddling in other people's business!" a deep, aged voice boomed from beneath the ground. Then the ground began to shake, and a massive tree emerged from the open space at the temple entrance. Its branches were twisted and gnarled, its bark rough and cracked, yet without a single leaf, it was a lifeless, dead tree.
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