Although the villagers had no idea which deity the temple enshrined, they all clamored to burn a stick of incense. After all, it didn't matter what deity it was, it was all immortal, and a little worship wouldn't hurt. Xie Lian had originally expected a deserted scene, with few visitors year-round, so he'd prepared a few small bundles of incense sticks as a token of appreciation. But they were quickly devoured, leaving the small incense burner cluttered with incense sticks. The aroma was so thick, Xie Lian choked several times, having not smelled it in a long time. He choked, saying, "Fellow villagers, this truly cannot bring prosperity. Please don't pray for wealth here! The consequences are unpredictable..." "Sorry, I don't care about marriage..." "No, no, no, it also cannot bless you with children."
Sanlang ignored his lopsided hair and sat beside the alms box, supporting his chin with one hand while he slowly ate some water chestnuts with the other. Many village girls blushed upon seeing this young man and asked Xie Lian, "Um, do you have..."
Although he had no idea what they were about to say, Xie Lian instinctively knew he had to stop them immediately and said, “No!”
Finally, the crowd dispersed, and the altar was piled high with fruits, vegetables, and even rice and noodles. After all, it was an offering. Xie Lian swept away the debris left by the villagers. Sanlang followed him out, saying, "The incense is good."
Xie Lian shook his head as he scanned the area, "It was an unexpected situation. Normally, no one would have paid attention to it for ten days or half a month."
Sanlang asked, "How could that be?"
Xie Lian glanced at him and smiled, “I guess it’s because of San Lang’s luck.”
As he spoke, he remembered that he needed to change the door curtain, so he pulled a new one from his sleeve and hung it on the door. He stepped back and examined it for a moment. Suddenly, Xie Lian noticed San Lang paused and turned to ask, "What's wrong?"
Sanlang was staring at the door curtain, looking lost in thought. Following his gaze, Xie Lian discovered that he was examining the talisman painted on the curtain.
He had casually drawn this talisman earlier. Its layers of incantations created a solemn and imposing aura. Originally, it was meant to ward off evil spirits, repelling the invasion of external evil. However, since it was Xie Lian's own handwriting, it was unclear whether it also had the effect of attracting bad luck. However, since there was no way around it, it was safer to just draw this row of incantations on the curtain.
Seeing the young man frozen in front of the talisman curtain, Xie Lian's heart moved slightly and he asked, "Sanlang?"
Could it be that after drawing this talisman, he was stopped outside the door and couldn't go in?
Sanlang glanced at him, smiled, and said, "I'll be leaving for a while."
He said this lightly, then turned and left. Logically, Xie Lian should have chased after him and questioned him, but he had a strange feeling that since the young man had said he was leaving for a while, he wouldn't be gone for long and would definitely return. So he went into the temple on his own.
Xie Lian rummaged through the things he had collected while wandering the streets last night, pulled out an iron pot with his left hand and a kitchen knife with his right. He glanced at the pile of fruits and vegetables on the altar and stood up.
After about an incense stick of time, the sound of footsteps could be heard outside the Puqi Monastery. The footsteps were neither fast nor slow, and one could imagine the young man walking leisurely.
At this time, the things in Xie Lian's hands had turned into two plates. He looked left and right at the things on the plates, sighed, and didn't want to look anymore, so he went out to take a look, and sure enough, he saw Sanlang again.
The young man stood outside the temple. Perhaps because of the scorching sun, he had taken off his red shirt and tied it casually around his waist. He wore only a light white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, looking very neat and tidy. His right foot was on a rectangular wooden board, and in his left hand he was twirling a hatchet. The hatchet was probably borrowed from a villager. It looked blunt and heavy, but in his hands it was effortless and seemed extremely sharp. From time to time, he would cut a few times on the board, as if peeling skin. He glanced over and saw Xie Lian coming out. He said, "Make something."
Xie Lian looked over and saw he was actually working on a door panel. It was the perfect size, neat and beautiful, with a perfectly smooth cut surface. His craftsmanship was truly exceptional. Since this young man seemed to be someone of some note, Xie Lian assumed he was the type to be inexperienced and lazy. However, he was surprisingly efficient. "Thank you for your hard work, Sanlang," he said.
Sanlang smiled and didn't respond. He casually threw a hatchet and put it on him, knocked on the door, and said to him, "Since you want to draw a talisman, wouldn't it be better to draw it on the door?"
After saying this, he lifted the curtain as if nothing had happened and went in.
It seemed that the solemn talisman on the curtain had no deterrent effect on him at all, and Sanlang didn't care at all.
Xie Lian closed the new door, then couldn't help but open it again, then close it again, then open it again, then close it again, thinking to himself that it was truly well made. He opened and closed it several times, then suddenly woke up with a start, realizing how bored he was. Sanlang had already taken a seat inside the room. Xie Lian abandoned the door, brought out a plate of steamed buns that the villagers had offered that morning, and placed it on the altar.
Sanlang glanced at the steamed buns, saying nothing. He simply chuckled softly, as if he'd seen through something. Xie Lian calmly poured two more bowls of water and was about to sit down when he noticed Sanlang's rolled-up sleeves. On his arm, he saw a small row of tattoos with strange characters. Sanlang noticed his gaze, lowered his sleeves, and said with a smile, "I got them when I was a kid."
Since he had lowered his sleeves, he didn't want to say anything more. Xie Lian understood. He sat down, looked up at the portrait again, and said, "Sanlang, you're a really good painter. Do you have anyone at home who can teach you?"
Sanlang poked the bun a few times with his chopsticks and said, "No one taught me. I just drew it for my own amusement."
Xie Lian asked, “How come you can even paint the Xianle Prince’s Pleasing Gods painting?”
San Lang laughed and said, "Didn't you say I knew everything? Of course I know how to draw too."
Although this was a rather cheeky answer, his attitude was frank, as if he wasn't worried about Xie Lian's suspicions or his questioning. Xie Lian smiled and let it go. Just then, a commotion erupted outside. The two men looked up at the same time and exchanged glances.
I heard someone knocking on the door suddenly, shouting, "Great Immortal! This is terrible, Great Immortal, help me!"
Xie Lian opened the door and saw a group of people standing in a circle. Seeing him open the door, the village chief exclaimed in delight, "Great Immortal! This man looks like he's about to die! Please save him!"
When Xie Lian heard that someone was dying, he hurried to check. He saw a Taoist priest surrounded by a group of villagers. He was disheveled, covered in yellow sand, and his clothes and shoes were tattered. It seemed that he had been running around for many days and finally couldn't hold on and passed out here. He was carried here. Xie Lian said, "Don't panic, he's not dead." He leaned down and tapped the Taoist priest a few times. In the process, he found that some of the objects hanging on the Taoist priest's body, such as the eight trigrams and the iron sword, were all effective magical tools. It seemed that he was not an ordinary Taoist priest. His heart sank. Not long after, the Taoist priest woke up slowly and asked in a hoarse voice, "...Where is this place?"
The village chief said: "This is Puqi Village!"
The Taoist muttered, "...I'm out, I'm out, I finally escaped..."
He looked around, then suddenly opened his eyes and cried out in terror, "Help, help, help!"
Xie Lian had anticipated this reaction. He said, "Fellow Daoist, what exactly is going on? Whose life did you save? What happened? Don't be impatient. Speak slowly and clearly."
The villagers also said: "Yes, don't be afraid, we have a great immortal here, he will definitely take care of everything for you!"
Xie Lian: “???”
The villagers hadn't actually seen him display any divine power, but they genuinely treated him as a living god. Xie Lian didn't know what to say, thinking, "I can't guarantee that everything will be settled." He asked the Taoist, "Where are you from?"
The Taoist said, "I...I come from Banyue Pass!"
Hearing this, everyone looked at each other in confusion: "Where is Banyue Pass?" "I've never heard of it!"
Xie Lian asked, “Ban Yue Pass is in the northwest, quite far from here. How did you get here?”
The Taoist said, "I...I escaped here with great difficulty."
His speech was incoherent and his emotions were extremely unstable. In this situation, the more people around, the harder it was to talk. With so much chatter, it was hard to say or hear clearly. Xie Lian said, "Let's talk inside."
He gently lifted the Taoist priest and helped him into the house. He turned to the villagers and said, "Please go back and stop watching."
The villagers were very enthusiastic: "Great Immortal, what happened to him?" "Yes, what happened?" "If he has any difficulties, please help him!"
The more enthusiastic they were, the less help they might be. Xie Lian had no choice but to lower his voice and say solemnly, "This... might be a case of evil spirits."
The villagers were shocked when they heard this. What if he was possessed?! Better not to look at it anymore and quickly disperse. Xie Lian was both amused and annoyed. He closed the door. San Lang was still sitting at the altar, twirling his chopsticks in his hand. He squinted at the Taoist priest, his eyes full of scrutiny. Xie Lian said to him, "It's okay. Keep eating."
He asked the Taoist to sit down, and stood up himself. He said, "My fellow Taoist, I am the abbot of this temple, and I am also a cultivator. Don't be nervous. If you have any questions, please tell me. If there is anything I can help you with, perhaps I can do my best to help. You just told me, what happened at Half Moon Pass?"
The Taoist took a few breaths, seemingly calming down after arriving in a less crowded area and listening to his soothing words. He said, "Haven't you heard of this place?"
Xie Lian replied, "I've heard of it. Half Moon Pass is located in an oasis in the middle of a desert. The scenery on a half-moon night is truly breathtaking, a truly stunning sight, hence the name."
The Taoist said, "Oasis? Beautiful scenery? That was all a hundred or two hundred years ago. Now, it's more accurate to call it the Half-Life Pass!"
Xie Lian was slightly startled and asked, “What do you mean?”
The Taoist's face turned a frighteningly pale blue. He said, "Because no matter who passes through there, at least half of them will disappear without a trace. Isn't that a half-life barrier?"
I've never heard of that. Xie Lian asked, "Who told you that?"
The Taoist said, "I didn't hear it from anyone; I saw it with my own eyes!" He sat up and said, "A caravan was passing through there. Knowing that this place was evil, they asked our entire sect to escort them. But..." He said indignantly, "In the end, I was the only one left!"
Xie Lian raised his hand, motioning him to sit down and calm down, then asked, "How many people are there in your group?"
The Taoist said, "My entire sect, including the caravan, has about sixty people!"
Over sixty people. That female ghost, Xuan Ji, had been wreaking havoc for a hundred years, and the final count by the Lingwen Hall revealed less than two hundred lives lost. And from what this Taoist said, it seemed like this had been going on for over a hundred years. If so many people had disappeared every time, the total was truly significant. Xie Lian asked, "When did Half Moon Pass become Half Life Pass?"
The Taoist said, "It probably started about 150 years ago when it became the territory of a demonic sect."
Xie Lian was about to ask him more about the murder they had suffered during this trip and the "demon" he had mentioned, but from the beginning of the conversation, he had always felt that something was wrong. At this point, he could no longer hide the strange feeling in his heart, so he stopped talking and frowned slightly.
At this time, Sanlang suddenly said something.
He asked, "Did you escape all the way back from Banyue Pass?"
The Taoist said, "Yes, alas! It was a narrow escape."
San Lang uttered an "Oh" and fell silent. However, even with just this one sentence, Xie Lian sensed something was amiss.
He turned around and said softly, "You must be thirsty after all this escape."
The Taoist was startled. Xie Lian had already placed a bowl of water in front of him and said, "Here's some water, fellow Taoist, have a sip."
A momentary hesitation flashed across the Taoist's face as he looked at the bowl of water. Xie Lian stood aside, his hands tucked into his sleeves, quietly waiting.
This Taoist priest came from the northwest and fled in a hurry, so he must be thirsty and hungry. Judging from his appearance, it doesn't seem like he had the time to eat or drink on the way.
However, after waking up, he spoke so many words without asking for any food or water. After entering the house, he had no desire to eat or drink the food on the altar, not even glancing at them.
This really doesn't look like a living person.
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