This place was originally a school, and the teacher was a failed scholar from Taoyuan Village who gave the children of Taoyuan Village their first education.
During the plague, the school halfway up the mountain was not spared either, and the teacher also contracted the disease and died.
For some reason, Yuan Qi searched everywhere but found nothing, but then he heard the children reading aloud.
It's truly heartbreaking to see things change and people are no longer the same.
Yuan Qi followed the direction from which the sound came and indeed saw rows of school buildings still lit up. As he got closer, he could hear clearly that what was coming out was not the sound of children reading aloud, but the sound of people composing poems and laughing.
Bai Youhui, Xing Shuo, and Qian Wenbing also noticed the commotion and came from different directions.
There were no houses here, but rather a clearing in the middle of a grove of trees, where some scholars and a few oddly dressed people were chatting and laughing.
Upon closer inspection, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.
The person sitting in the head seat was an elderly man. Instead of hair, his head was covered with branches and leaves. He wore a very loose gray robe, and the part of his hand that was exposed was almost the same color as the tree bark.
"Another tree demon! Taoist priest, is this still the same peach tree spirit?"
Yuan Qi shook his head: "No, it's a few others."
Xing Shuo and the others were very puzzled. They felt their hair stand on end and were terrified when they saw those tree demons, so why weren't those scholars afraid?
But since Yuan Qi didn't tell them to take action, they just stayed quietly.
There are two other tree spirits, one is probably a locust tree spirit, because the branches and leaves on its head look like a locust tree, and the other is a pear tree spirit. Both of them are middle-aged men.
The three tree spirits were chatting and laughing with a group of scholars, occasionally composing poems or discussing current government documents and expressing their opinions.
They didn't say anything horrifying, nor did they do anything like monsters absorbing people's life force.
Yuan Qi could tell that these scholars were not being coerced here; in fact, they seemed to enjoy it.
As dawn broke and the rooster crowed, the scholars, seemingly tired, leaned against each other and fell asleep.
The three tree spirits quietly left, disappeared into the tree, and vanished.
The wooden table, teapot, teacups, and other items that were placed on the ground have all turned into a pile of rotten stones.
Looking around, the old school buildings were dilapidated and in danger of collapsing.
Xing Shuo led the constables forward and woke up the scholars one by one.
"Wake up, everyone."
"It's dawn, wake up!"
Yuan Qi stood in front of a pine tree and said, “Since you haven’t harmed anyone, I won’t punish you. But you must not set up any more mazes to confuse the scholars who come here.”
A sigh drifted on the wind, followed by the voice of an old man: "Alright, we will obey the Celestial Master's orders. We listen to the teachers here every day, and over time we have acquired some shallow knowledge. We just want to exchange ideas; we really have no ill intentions."
Xing Shuo woke up the scholars and counted the number of people. There were a total of sixty-seven people, including two constables from the county government who were also studying there, as well as two of his colleagues who were also enjoying studying there.
Only after asking did I learn that after arriving here, they forgot what they came here for, focusing only on reading and chatting, and forgot about going home.
Fortunately, everyone here is fine. Apart from being a little dazed and finding it hard to believe that they have been in the wilderness these past few days, they are not uncomfortable.
Yuan Qi also specifically checked their bodies and found nothing unusual; they had neither malevolent nor demonic aura.
"Master, this is the person who has stayed here the longest. His name is Qi Pin, and he is from Qi Family Village, fifty miles away. Do you have any questions for him?"
Yuan Qi looked at the scholar, who was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a ruddy complexion and a spirited demeanor: "I know that the teachers who usually instruct us are three tree spirits, but they have been studying here for many years, listening to many teachers lecture. They are very knowledgeable, humble, and don't charge tuition fees. They even provide us with lodging and food. Look, we're staying over there..."
Qi Pin led Yuan Qi and the others towards a nearby area. After crossing a stream flowing down from the mountain, they arrived at a group of student dormitories. However, the wooden houses had long been dilapidated after years of wind and rain, and most of the roofs had collapsed.
He was stunned: "This, this, how is this possible... The house we are staying in is very nice, and all the daily necessities are provided."
Yuan Qi said, "What you see is all an illusion, a falsehood created by the tree demons using their magic. This is how it is here."
Qi Pin and the other scholars who came with him also couldn't accept that they had been living in such a dilapidated house for so many days.
Qi Pin said, "I have benefited greatly from being here for several years. If I pass the imperial examination one day, I will definitely come back to repair and rebuild this place."
Regardless of what others wanted to do, Yuan Qi only said one thing: "You came here and didn't go back. Do you know how worried your families are? Your families have come here to look for you, but they couldn't find you at all. How did you get in?"
Qi Pin said, "I just walked in. As soon as I entered the village, someone told me that a great scholar was giving free lectures on the mountain, so I came."
He couldn't believe it. He looked down at the village below the mountain, desolate and deserted, and shook his head repeatedly: "When I came here, it was peaceful and prosperous, the people lived and worked in peace, and children chased and played in the streets. What happened?"
"Perhaps the peach tree spirit knew you were a scholar, so it created an illusion to lure you in. What you saw was what it wanted you to see. When your family came looking for you, they saw a desolate and dilapidated village."
On the way back, Yuan Qi discovered that there weren't actually that many trees, weeds, and vines; what she saw on the way there was an illusion. Tao Ran was quite capable; she had even fooled her. If Tu Shanli had come along, he would have seen through it immediately.
However, the people's houses were indeed dilapidated, with weeds growing on the roofs, in the yards, and along the roads.
Back outside the village, Lord Qian, Zhang Jing, and the magistrate of Taoyuan County were all getting impatient.
Zhang Jing said, "Daoist Master, if you don't come out soon, I'm planning to take some people in to look for you."
Behind them stood many villagers who had heard rumors and were looking for their families. When they saw the people Xing Shuo had brought out, many of them cried, cursing and feeling sorry for the men.
Someone made a special registration of those people, and Zhang Jing and the magistrate of Taoyuan County were very grateful.
Two local officials pulled Yuan Qi aside and whispered, "Daoist Master, how much incense money do we need to give you?"
"It didn't take much effort, and I didn't need to pay any incense money." Last night, when the ghosts of those villagers were taken away by the underworld officials, Yuan Qi gained a lot of merit, which was much more valuable than a lot of hard-earned money.
Even now, Yuan Qi has gained a batch of merits.
Bai Youhui squeezed through the crowd and said to the two of them, "Of course we should ask for some money for the incense oil. Ten thousand taels should be enough, right, Seventh Sister? Why are you so embarrassed to ask for money for the incense oil? We worked so hard last night, how can we not ask for money?"
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