Chapter 304 Jinjiang
In the deserted village outside the mourning hall, wooden puppets can be seen everywhere.
They hide silently in darkness and corners, and under the bed and in the closet are their best hiding places.
The wooden sculpture crouched silently behind the corner, patiently waiting for the unsuspecting Taoist priests to rush over. The sudden attack prevented the Taoist priests from defending themselves in time and they were hit by the wooden sculptures.
At the beginning, the Taoist priests checked the faces of the wood carvings according to the rules that everyone had gradually explored and summarized.
If the person is neither from the rescue team nor from the program crew, and all the Taoist priests have never seen this face, or it is the face of a villager they have seen in the archives, then the Taoist priests will judge the wood carving as an evil ghost controlled by the ghost, and will immediately smash the wood carving into pieces without mercy.
But soon, the ghost who was controlling the wood carving behind the scenes keenly discovered the Taoist priests' judgment method, so he changed the method and randomly changed the faces of the wood carvings.
When the first Taoist priest checked it, it might still be a villager's face, but when the next Taoist priest looked over, it had already turned into the face of a rescue team member.
This made the Taoist priests stunned, but they had to suppress their anger. Knowing the enemy's sinister intentions, they still jumped into the pit dug by the other party. As they had lost their judgment method, they became restrained again and dared not attack the wooden sculpture in front of them with all their strength.
The ghost can use human lives as bargaining chips and play a gamble with the Taoist priests. The cost of winning or losing is the life or death of the rescue team members and the program crew.
But the Taoist priests did not dare to gamble.
They can't afford the gamble.
If they win, they will reduce the power of the enemies. But if they lose...
That would be equivalent to killing the lives they were supposed to protect with their own hands.
Thus, after a brief period of gaining an advantage, the Taoist priests fell into disadvantage again, and watched helplessly and angrily as the ghosts regained the upper hand.
No one knew where those wooden puppets would appear from in the deserted village, which forced all the Taoist priests to be on high alert and be vigilant all the time, with every tree and bush looking for enemies.
This also fell into the trap of the ghosts, using useless speculation and wasting a lot of energy and physical strength of the Taoist priests.
In the highly tense environment, the Taoist priests' physical strength was consumed quickly. Before the real ambush came, they felt both physically and mentally exhausted.
What's more, almost all the Taoist priests had been injured in the deserted village, the only difference was the severity of the injury.
Because the talisman was ineffective, the Taoist priest was unable to use the hemostatic spell as usual to provide emergency treatment for himself.
They could only use the medicines in the logistical supplies they carried to bandage the wounds and tighten the blood vessels to slow down the blood loss as much as possible.
But the effect of such treatment is just better than nothing.
Because they were being chased and besieged by the wooden puppets, Taoist priests often had to discard the supplies they carried or use them as tools to deal with the wooden puppets in order to make up for the defects caused by the ineffectiveness of the talismans.
By now, only a few Taoist priests still have emergency supplies such as bandages and medicine powders left, but they have to supply all the Taoist priests who are slightly or seriously injured.
What's more, after the wound was roughly bandaged, the Taoist priest was unable to rest and recuperate.
There is no luxury of time left for wounds to heal.
The Taoist priests were still active in the front line of the battle, and they had no time to take care of their injured bodies. Whether they were attacking or dodging, they always had to make large movements, tearing the wounds that had just been bandaged again and again.
The blood seeped through the bandages layer by layer, dyeing the originally navy blue Taoist robe deep red like black.
By now, every Taoist priest was holding on, trying to force himself to deal with the wooden puppet, and everyone's condition was extremely bad.
But no one called a halt or backed down.
Even though their physical strength was severely overdrawn, their wounds pulled their muscles, the pain made their movements slower and slower, and the injuries on their bodies also increased one by one, the eyes of the Taoist priests remained firm and their faith had never wavered.
——The people trapped in the deserted village, the lives they have to protect, and the responsibilities they have to bear make them dare not relax.
You can't fall down.
The Taoist priests gritted their teeth to deal with the increasing number of wooden puppets, but their movements eventually slowed down.
"If we continue like this, sooner or later all of our physical strength will be exhausted. We must think of a way. We can't continue like this and be led by the evil spirit."
After one of the Taoist priests with a long beard killed a wooden sculpture that tried to launch a sneak attack on him, he could no longer hold on and leaned against the brick wall next to him. He was so exhausted that his muscles were shaking violently and uncontrollably, and he gradually lost control of his hands and feet and could not even support himself to stand.
The Taoist priest next to him was quick-witted and quick-handed. He swept over with a sword and waved away several wooden sculptures that had noticed the Taoist priest's weakness and wanted to take the opportunity to attack him.
But even if they escape this time, there will come a time when they cannot escape. If they continue like this, the situation will only spiral into a vicious cycle until no one has the power to deal with the ghost anymore.
"It is very likely that the ghost had anticipated the current situation from the beginning. It detained the program crew members who had entered the deserted village earlier and put them in an unknown place in order to use them as hostages to contain our actions."
Taoist Changxu smiled bitterly and shook his head: "The Ghost Path has already seen through the weaknesses of all of us. It knows how to make us jump into a desperate situation on our own initiative... Even though we know that this is the result of the Ghost Path's planning, we can't ignore it. Even if we are unwilling, we can only take the initiative to walk into it."
"Is this the way of the devil..."
Taoist priest Changxu was stunned, with a bitter smile on his face mixed with a trace of despair: "Although it was born from ghost energy, it regards ghosts as living beings and humans as evil spirits. But it is still Tao after all, an existence that can contend with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth."
In the southwest region and Binhai City, the ghost path even overwhelmed the avenue, and groups of ghosts crossed the boundary between life and death set by the avenue and ran rampant in the human world.
How can they defeat such an existence?
There is no hope in sight... an uncontrollable despair.
The other Taoist priests also felt extremely heavy-hearted, knowing that what Taoist Priest Changxu said was true.
Even though it is cruel and heavy, it is a reality that we have to accept.
"Kill as many ghosts as you can, and save as many lives as you can."
The other Taoist priest had a dry throat: "But what if we can't even tell whether the other party is a human or a ghost?"
The most terrifying situation is that they have the strength but don’t even know where the enemy is.
Even if you are not careful, you may hurt your own people.
The pain brought by the guilt can destroy any successful Taoist priest.
But compared to their own pain, the Taoist priests were more afraid that their actions would harm the program crew members whose whereabouts were unknown, making the situation worse.
They are not afraid of death, but they are afraid of causing the death of other lives because of themselves.
For a moment, deathly silence and bitterness quietly spread among the Taoist priests. Everyone stopped talking and just focused on thinking about something.
It was at this time that Taoist Li, who had disappeared previously, suddenly snorted coldly from a distance behind everyone.
"Why are you wasting time? Why, I'm paying you by the hour? Or are you planning to keep these evil things as gifts for me? Then should I still praise you, little bastards?"
Taoist Priest Li's voice was filled with dissatisfaction, and his words were even more impolite.
But that disdainful and irritable tone made all the Taoists feel friendly. Their consciousness reacted before their brain, as if they had found their backbone and rekindled their hope.
All Taoist priests believed that as long as Taoist Priest Li, the most senior and most accomplished master in Haiyun Temple, was there, no matter how difficult the situation was, it could be resolved smoothly.
The sky will not fall.
Taoist Priest Li's merciless scolding seemed to have given all the Taoist priests the motivation to continue to persevere.
They looked back in surprise, and the first thing that caught their eyes was the flames shooting up into the sky under the night sky.
And along with the sparks, paper money was blown up by the wind.
White paper money fluttered down to bid farewell to the deceased, but it was ignited the moment it touched the flame. Amid the slight sound of the burning flame, sparks floated away along with the unburned paper pieces.
All the Taoist priests were shocked. They didn't know when the fire started. They had just discovered it when it had burned to this extent.
If Taoist Li hadn't spoken up, they wouldn't have even noticed it.
This unexpected situation made all the Taoist priests once again more vigilant towards the deserted village.
As everyone's eyes shifted away from the fire, the figure of Taoist Li also appeared in everyone's sight.
He stood with his hands behind his back in front of the gate of the house where the fire had broken out. His snow-white hair and beard floated gently, and the flames were reflected in his old but vigorous eyes, as if the sun was burning in his eyes.
Full of vitality, never interrupted.
The Taoist priests who had just uncontrollably doubted whether they could defeat the ghost path, suddenly felt new hope fall into their hearts, and even their exhausted bodies were filled with strength again.
The will and belief to protect life finally overwhelmed all doubts and despair, and served as a new driving force to support the actions of the Taoist priests.
But soon a sharp-eyed Taoist priest discovered large patches of blood on Taoist Priest Li's body.
The blood soaked the Taoist robe and dripped down the corners of the clothes to the feet of Taoist Li, gathering into a small pool of blood.
The Taoist priest was surprised and shouted briefly, pointing at the pool of blood at Taoist priest Li's feet in disbelief: "Master, you, you are injured!"
Taoist Li did not take this matter to heart at all. Even though the blood from his chest was still gushing out and his face was pale and gray, such a serious injury did not seem to affect Taoist Li's movements at all.
He glanced at the Taoist priest who screamed and said disdainfully: "What's the big fuss? It's just an injury. What's the matter? Am I not a human being and cannot be injured? I am your grandmaster! I am not qualified to be injured?"
A Taoist priest didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Uncle Master, it's not that you have to suffer more injuries because of your seniority. We don't mean that. We are just worried about you. Your injuries look too serious, and..."
It didn't look like he was injured by a heavy object or a sharp weapon, but rather, it looked like a wound caused by an evil spirit. The danger and difficulty of being injured by an evil spirit was far greater than that of an ordinary injury.
The Taoist priest didn’t say the second half of the sentence.
But all the others had a shock in their hearts, realizing the seriousness of the matter, and looked at Taoist Li with worry and anxiety.
Taoist Priest Li waved his hand nonchalantly and walked towards the Taoist priests: "What are you still doing here? Have you finished your work? You are so old, and most of you have disciples, why don't you act like a master at all?"
"Otherwise, when you return to Haiyun Temple, you can rebuild it together with my unpromising disciple."
Taoist Priest Li said disdainfully: "Oh, let's also bring Song Yi along."
Taoist priests: “…………”
It seems like they accidentally tricked Master Song and his disciples as well?
But when the Taoist priest reacted, he immediately stepped forward and explained the situation to Taoist priest Li in a concise manner.
"It's not that we won't do anything, but in this situation where we can't tell the difference between humans and ghosts, we really don't dare to do anything."
The Taoist priest smiled bitterly: "If I really hurt someone by mistake..."
Taoist Priest Li understood what he meant, and he also knew that the current situation was indeed tricky for these Taoist priests.
People with extraordinary talents always fail to understand ordinary people, and often wonder why ordinary people cannot understand such simple things.
When the Taoist priest heard Taoist Priest Li calmly recounting what happened in the mourning hall, he broke out in a cold sweat. When he learned the source of Taoist Priest Li's injury, he also felt a wave of fear.
But he felt more like a student who had failed math, asking questions in confusion while being stared at by Feynman.
Fortunately, Taoist Priest Li has also seen "ordinary people". He has a disciple named Lu Xingxing, who can make him angry to death and come back to life every day.
So he knew how difficult it was for ordinary people to understand the Tao.
Taoist Priest Li calmly scanned the entire deserted village. While he saw the Taoist priests who were struggling with the wood carvings, he also saw the wood carvings that had different faces but whose identities could not be accurately identified.
But in the eyes of Taoist Li, it was clear at a glance whether those wood carvings were human or ghost.
——The ghost baby on the mourning hall was the original manipulator of these wood carvings. He once stuffed the corpses of the villagers into the holes of the wood carvings to imprison the souls of the villagers as a punishment for them.
Taoist Priest Li defeated the ghost baby in the mourning hall.
Even if Guidao is unwilling to admit it, Master Li's victory is unquestionable.
If it wants to become the Tao, it has to act fairly according to the rules.
Just like on the avenue, when a fierce ghost kills an exorcist, it can also easily suppress the exorcist's followers.
At this moment, Taoist Li was in the same state with the ghost baby.
Therefore, he could tell the true identities of those wood carvings at a glance, whether they were evil spirits or missing people.
But it was also because of this that Taoist Li remembered what Zheng Shumu had said to him in the mourning hall.
——The entire White Paper Lake has been torn into pieces by too much power, with layers of heaven and earth overlapping. If you are not careful, you will be trapped in a different world and unable to leave.
Since those missing people can appear here as wood carvings, the only explanation is that they are no different from ghosts here.
And in the world of missing people, the Taoist priests are the ghosts.
Both sides have a wrong understanding of each other. If they continue to fight like this, they will not only miss the opportunity to truly deal with the ghost, but also end up with both sides suffering losses.
The ghost is nearby and the fisherman benefits.
This is a situation that Taoist Priest Li would never allow to happen.
Therefore, he immediately made up his mind.
"You are no longer needed here. Move aside and make room for us."
Taoist Priest Li waved his sleeves and drove the Taoist priests away like chickens.
These Taoist priests, who usually acted dignified and had great reputations in front of other people, were just like young and confused chicks in front of Taoist Priest Li. Although they didn't understand what was going on, they still stopped what they were doing and stood aside.
In just a few breaths, the deserted village was empty.
The Taoist priests were as well-behaved as kindergarten children and stood beside Taoist Priest Li.
As for the wooden puppets controlled by the ghost, they suddenly lost their opponents and stood on the empty battlefield. One could even see confusion in their eyes.
Taoist Priest Li took a steady step forward, his palms stretched out in front of him.
He paused, then lowered his eyes, chanted scriptures quietly, and clasped his hands together.
——Borrow some strength from Baizhi Lake, the southwest land, and even all living things between heaven and earth.
When the first syllable fell in the air, the wooden puppet, which was originally confused about the situation, began to become agitated. Looking at the old Taoist priest who reappeared on the battlefield, it immediately pounced on him.
But Taoist Li was not panicked at all. He lifted up his Taoist robe, crossed his legs and sat on the ground easily, reciting scriptures non-stop. He dipped his hands in the blood from his heart as ink and quickly drew a formation on the ground around him.
The bright red blood carried Taoist spirituality of Master Li himself. The moment it fell on the ground, it connected the earth and communicated with the earth's veins, and even merged with the entire heaven and earth, allowing Master Li's voice and requests to be transmitted along the earth's veins to farther places.
Taoist Priest Li kept his eyes down and focused on the formation in front of him, and seemed not to notice the wooden sculpture rushing towards him at all.
The Taoist priest who was watching nearby exclaimed and immediately wanted to rush over in worry.
But he was stopped by the Taoist priest next to him.
The Taoist priest next to him slowly shook his head and silently explained to the people around him by mouthing words. When he heard clearly the scriptures that Taoist Priest Li recited, he suddenly understood what Taoist Priest Li wanted to do.
The ghost path turned the world upside down and temporarily replaced the great way, making it impossible for all practitioners to borrow power from the gods in the four directions. Instead, they became the "evil ghosts" that everyone wanted to kill.
This severely weakened the power of the ascetics, forcing them to watch helplessly as real evil spirits wreaked havoc, anxious but powerless to do anything.
Even Taoist Priest Li could not ask for divine power in this situation.
However, Taoist Priest Li took a different approach and would never stop just because he could not borrow divine power.
——He turned to all living things for strength.
Even if the road is obscured, living people lose their identity as "human beings".
But the heaven and earth remember, the plants and trees remember, and the wind and moon in the mountains have witnessed the history of thousands of years of human beings.
They know who is the true leader of all creatures.
What Taoist Priest Li needs is the memory of living beings, as well as the faith and strength of all people to resist the ghost way.
Those people may be small and the power they possess is weak.
But they never gave up hope of living.
No matter how small the power is, it has its own firm persistence and attachment to the kindness of heaven, earth and human beings.
Taoist Li's formation took effect quickly. A faint golden light traveled along the blood lines of the formation and instantly filled the entire formation.
The wooden puppet that pounced on Taoist Li was instantly blocked outside by the formation and repelled.
The wooden puppet was caught off guard and was blown away by a huge force, hitting the wall with a "boom" sound.
Then, the bricks and stones collapsed, and the wooden puppet turned into sawdust, flesh and blood.
And dots of fluorescent light began to rise slowly in the formation.
It's so beautiful.
The Taoist priests stared at the scene in a daze, holding their breath for fear of disturbing Taoist Priest Li.
Taoist Priest Li's calm and determined eyebrows and eyes were illuminated by the fluorescent light. In an instant, his eyes were like the rising sun and moon, full of unwavering persistence in life.
More and more fluorescent lights began to gather and slowly rise from the formation, like fireflies, gently dancing in the dim and silent deserted village.
The ball of light grew bigger and bigger, until it illuminated the entire deserted village and even penetrated into the dark forests and mountains.
Above the deserted village, a huge ball of light slowly rose up, like a rising sun.
The Taoist priests all looked up, unable to believe what they saw.
The ball of light was reflected in the White Paper Lake. The lake water, which was originally formed by the gathering of ghost energy, suddenly boiled violently like boiling water.
The evil ghosts' heart-wrenching screams rang out one after another. They wanted to escape, but they still turned into a wisp of smoke under the ball of light.
Only a handful of dry bones remained, sinking to the bottom of the lake.
At that moment, the old Fengdu and the ghost sect all looked at Taoist Li at the same time and discovered what Taoist Li had done.
Even if Guidao didn't understand what Taoist Priest Li was doing before, he understood it now.
——Master Li is clearly gathering the power of all living things to fight against the ghosts together.
The ghost was enraged.
Old Fengdu was furious, and the lake created huge waves that hit the shore, trying to extinguish the ball of light that was gradually rising into the sky.
But when Taoist Li saw this, he was not at all flustered.
He just snorted and laughed: "Wishful thinking!"
"Some of those people are ordinary people who eat three meals a day, some are people who know the existence of ghosts and gods, and some are people who don't believe in ghosts and gods. But their common belief is life."
Taoist Priest Li raised his hand and pointed at the ball of light, and shouted loudly: "Even if it is just the light of a firefly, it can become the sun and the moon, and support the heaven and earth!"
"go--!"
The moment Taoist Li finished speaking, a ball of light immediately flew high into the sky, tearing through the entire dark and gloomy sky and going straight up into the clouds.
Even if the ghost energy tried to block it, it could not stop the light ball from rising.
Some fluorescent light actively separated from the light ball, entangled with the ghost energy, and stayed firmly near the light ball to ensure that the light ball could move upward without any hindrance.
As the ghost energy increased, the difficulties intensified. More and more fluorescent lights broke away and rushed into the darkness fearlessly to fight with the ghost energy.
The ball of light gradually became smaller.
But the next moment, more fluorescent light appeared and joined the light ball, causing the light ball to grow again at a speed far exceeding before.
Taoist Priest Li looked up at the direction of the ball of light with a gratified smile on his face.
Then, his face turned serious and he shouted, "I'll give you a hand!"
As he spoke, Taoist Li stabbed his hand straight into his heart, and more blood gushed out and fell on the formation, adding new formations to the formation itself. The power swept more widely, radiating to the southeast, northwest, and northeast.
The ball of light was also growing at an alarming rate.
In the end, it could no longer be described as a ball of light.
——That was clearly a bright rising sun.
No one knows that at the beginning, it was just a firefly in the wind, so fragile that it could be extinguished at any time.
And this rising sun finally succeeded in breaking through layers of obstacles and hung high in the sky.
In an instant, the entire White Paper Lake was shrouded in bright light.
The evil ghost looked up in astonishment, but only saw the vague outline of the sun, and then he turned into ashes with a scream under such bright light.
All the evil spirits hiding in the wood carvings were engulfed by the flames on the wooden body before they could even scream, and were burned into a human-shaped piece of black charcoal.
Almost instantly, all the evil spirits on the ground of Baizhi Lake were cleared away.
The Taoist priests were stunned.
But Taoist Li's face became increasingly gloomy, his Taoist robe was soaked with blood, which was absorbed by the formation.
In the end, even the temperature of the body was lost.
He sat cross-legged in the formation, his face solemn and majestic, looking up at the sun in the sky.
Then, Taoist Priest Li laughed softly.
He raised his hand with great effort, pointed at the sky, and laughed loudly: "Want to turn the world upside down? Wait until I die before you dream about it!"
Taoist Li had a smile on his face and finally closed his eyes.
The arm fell heavily.
He was meditating in the formation, but he had stopped breathing.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com