Traditional statues of gods have kind eyes and benevolent features, which at least make people feel at ease at first glance. Those that are ugly or have fierce eyes and features are generally used as door gods.

Because the essence of religion is to make people believe, so creating a sense of affinity is necessary. Many religions that Lu Ban knows start out by helping the poor, making friends with wealthy businessmen, and appearing harmless. It is only after they have completely infiltrated the ruling class that they start to do crazy things.

But that certainly doesn’t include what’s in front of you.

The statue is wearing a long robe in ancient style, but the pattern on the robe has the inverted sense of postmodern art. The statue is tall, about three meters, and is carved from stone. Some parts are very rough, while others are overly delicate and lifelike.

The most surprising thing is the head of the statue.

The reason I say head and not face is because this is not a human head at all.

The head was bald and filled with a sickening greasy feeling. Further down were four pairs of narrow eyes, which reminded Lu Ban of the bespectacled guys in Twilight City. The face had a long elephant-like nose, but at the nostrils were densely packed with sharp teeth.

From the nose downwards are numerous tentacles. Those tentacles have no suction cups, just one bare one. This is the most delicate part of the entire statue, as if it is not a man-made sculpture, but a real monster that was suddenly petrified and frozen.

Its ears are made of thin films of tentacles, and under its nose is a mouth with two sharp fangs. The whole head gives off a foreign feeling compared to its body, which is creepy.

Lu Ban had come across non-human statues before. For example, in places like Egypt, there were statues of Anubis with a human body and a dog's head. In a country where people grew up drinking the water of the Ganges, there were also gods with the head of a man and an elephant.

Lu Ban had read some simple research papers, most of which were explorations of human alienation. As we all know, in many myths, there have been gods or monsters with human bodies and animal heads, but those with human heads and animal bodies are extremely rare, otherwise there wouldn't be such urban legends as the human-faced dog.

For some reason, humans are much more accepting of monsters with human bodies and limbs, at least much more so than those with human-faced animal limbs.

As for the one currently located in the Taoist temple, Lu Ban had no idea what kind of immortal it was.

The body of the statue appears extremely rough compared to the head, which makes people wonder if it was originally a monster that was turned into stone and stayed here. Later people carved its body into the appearance of a human to deceive themselves.

"The Lord of the Mountains, the Call of the Mountains. In some religions, He is also called Fang Geng. He is the God of Mountain Gods, the ruler of the mountains. All the mountains in this world are His holy land."

A clear and hearty voice came from the side.

Lu Ban turned his head and saw Tang Que, who was wearing a fitted outfit and had a graceful figure.

"Miss Tang, do you know anything about this?"

Lu Ban asked.

He looked at the altar in front of him. It seemed that no one had taken care of it for many years. Only some animal skeletal remains were left. Perhaps they were from a chicken or a rabbit, but in any case, they had been eaten into small pieces and it was impossible to tell their original owners.

"My father, to be exact."

Tang Que smiled.

"What you heard on the trail is actually somewhat true. I did learn about the existence of the Nine Ranks from the things my father left behind. In those inheritances, there are also folk rumors that my father learned when he traveled around the country."

“Does your father still travel around the country?”

Lu Ban was curious. Tang Que's father should also be a forensic doctor. In this era, there should be no such thing as a business trip. Could it be that his father stopped working and went to various rural areas to investigate folk customs?

"Yes, my family has some assets. After my father participated in the Xuanjun Contest in his early years, he has always yearned for these things. In the past few years, he went to visit places with various mysterious legends, trying to find the source of the Nine Streams."

Tang Que approached the statue and looked up at it carefully.

"In this world, mystery is never far away."

"really."

Lu Ban nodded slightly.

"My father once went to an inn. He said that at night, when he was lying on his bed, he could feel something scratching the bed board under the bed. He looked down and saw a person with a dark face staring back at him."

Tang Que suddenly started telling ghost stories.

"Then what?"

Lu Ban was curious.

"Then my father punched through the bed and found nothing under it. He paid the other party a dollar for it."

Tang Que said in a deep voice.

“…”

Lu Ban didn't know whether he should laugh here.

"My family learned the skills of a corpse sewist. Corpse sewing is a folk custom. Those prisoners who were beheaded always had their heads and bodies sewn together. Headless corpses are prone to change. Over time, handling corpses became a tradition in my family."

Tang Que changed the subject.

"When dealing with corpses, you will definitely encounter a lot of zombies and strange things. If you don't have some skills, it's only a matter of time before you get into trouble."

"Is this why you learned horizontal training?"

Lu Ban asked subconsciously.

It is said that the Tang family learned horizontal training, and one punch could punch through a door. From Tang Que's joke just now, his father could also knock down a bed with one punch. Lu Ban guessed that Tang Que looked slender and small, and he could probably kill three Qin Tiantians with one punch.

"Don't worry, I know how to control my strength and I won't break it."

Tang Que raised the corner of her mouth. She was in her thirties, which was a good age. When she saw a handsome young man like Lu Ban, whose looks reached the limit of human ability, it was natural for her to tease him.

Pinch off?

What to pinch off?

How to pinch it off?

Lu Ban was just an innocent child and didn't understand what Tang Que was saying.

"What's the origin of this Fang Geng?"

He decided to get down to business; after all, he wasn't here to have fun.

"He comes from the upper realm outside the sky and is the creator of all the mountains in this world. Legend has it that he is sleeping under a certain mountain, and every breath he takes is an earthquake. If Fang Geng wakes up, the sky and the earth will change, and mankind will fall into doomsday. Only continuous sacrifices can keep him sleeping."

Tang Que explained.

"That's pretty impressive. I guess he might be sleeping over the Himalayas, or at least in Sichuan or Siberia."

Lu Ban chuckled.

Of course, this legend could be true, but the one called Fang Geng was probably a sealed evil god, and offering sacrifices to him would only yield contaminated knowledge.

He took two steps forward and looked closely at the statue.

At this time, Lu Ban saw that behind the statue, on the damp and moldy straw, there was a corpse!

The corpse seemed to have been dead for a long time. Its clothes were tattered, and even the maggots had withered on the rotten flesh.

What is even more surprising is the state of death of the body.