I apologize, fellow Daoist, but if I were not to be buried, it would be somewhat presumptuous of me. ...
Yan Huanyue pointed and said, "There's nothing strange around here, except there's a house over there, and maybe there's a village or town nearby."
Pei Xuanzhi turned his gaze from the ashes to the direction she was pointing. "However, this ghost moth might have gotten separated from its flock and accidentally appeared here, bumping into us. If there were any prey nearby, it wouldn't have attacked us alone. Or perhaps..."
Yan Huanyue's expression calmed down, and she said, "Or perhaps, it's just a decoy to lead us there. There are not only more hungry moths in that house, but also moth shepherds waiting for people to walk into their trap."
He glanced at Pei Xuanzhi, made a hand seal to summon his longsword, and said, "I'll take you to a nearby town first, then come back to check on the situation."
Pei Xuanzhi coughed a few times and said in a calm tone, "Sect Leader Pei couldn't keep me in the Mingde Sect, are you sure you can keep me in another sect?"
Yan Huanyue frowned and said, "My cultivation is not high enough, I may not be able to protect you."
Pei Xuanzhi said, "I won't go in with you. I'll wait for you outside."
Yan Huanyue disagreed, "It's not necessarily safe outside either."
Pei Xuanzhi replied, "There are ghost moths here. I don't know which direction they came from. Sister, which nearby town do you think would be safe?"
Yan Huanyue looked around and said, "I'm even more worried about leaving you out alone. Let's go."
The two walked along the lush green grass in the forest toward the house. When they got much closer, Yan Huanyue released her spiritual sense to investigate.
The courtyard appeared to be completely deserted, eerily quiet and peaceful.
A plum tree with lush canopy stands in the courtyard, and the afternoon sun filters through the leaves, casting sparse shadows.
only......
It looks like a house, but there's a blank space inside that spiritual sense can't detect.
Yan Huanyue turned to Pei Xuanzhi beside her and said, "We'll just go and observe the situation secretly. Stay close behind me for a while, so if anything changes, I can send you out first."
Pei Xuanzhi covered his mouth with his sleeve, coughing as he walked, his eyes fixed on the mansion. Hearing this, he nodded and replied, "Mm."
Yan Huanyue tiptoed onto the longsword following behind her, and with a gentle pull, Pei Xuanzhi was pulled onto the sword and stood behind her.
Yan Huanyue made a hand seal with her left hand, held a horizontal sword in her right hand, concealed her aura, and drove the long sword into the sky above the courtyard.
A round of inspection yielded no results.
Except for the blank space that my divine sense could no longer touch.
It is a small, low temple built in the northwest corner of the courtyard.
In the inner room of Yan Huanyue's own courtyard, there are ancestral tablets for her parents and herself, but it is quite common for her to find a room specifically for worship.
While it's not unheard of for someone to build a temple in their home, it's still quite rare.
The small temple was surrounded by a ring of flowing water. At the temple gate, on a small stone platform about half a person's height, there was a stone statue kneeling face to face.
The temple door is facing away from one of the seated statues. Even when offering incense and bowing, one doesn't know which direction to stand in. This thing doesn't look like a gatekeeper statue, nor does it look like a statue of someone being worshipped.
Yan Huanyue circled the courtyard a few more times; it was as quiet as any empty courtyard.
Just as she thought the ghost moth was just a coincidence and was about to leave, a dull thud suddenly came.
Someone, seemingly on the verge of exhaustion, cried out, "Help..."
Yan Huanyue suddenly gripped the horizontal sword in her hand, jumped onto the courtyard wall, and with a wave of her hand, sent the long sword and Pei Xuanzhi, who was still standing on it, flying far away, causing him to temporarily take refuge outside the courtyard.
The tightly closed door of the side room was suddenly opened, and a young child rushed out of the room and ran frantically into the courtyard.
Perhaps because he was too young, he seemed to have lost his soul in fright and wandered around the yard aimlessly, trying to find a way to survive.
In his panic, he ran in the wrong direction and pushed open the door of a room. In an instant, a whole room full of ghost moths swarmed out, like locusts blotting out the sky.
The gust of wind stirred up by the moth's wings instantly tore the sleeves of Yan Huanyue's outer robe, and the misty pink gauze was swept into the dark, swirling wind.
She quickly made a hand seal to ward off the raging wind, and without hesitation jumped into the wind to look for the child in the direction of the door, but found nothing.
When she turned around, a yellow wind filled the sky, obscuring everything within sight. Judging from the sound, it seemed that the noise was not limited to this courtyard.
Does this moth shepherd not fear being known by outsiders?
Thinking of this, she was suddenly startled and quickly flew away a distance she remembered.
But all that could be seen in the air was a lone sword, swaying and struggling to stay afloat in the murky wind.
Yan Huanyue felt a sudden emptiness in her chest. Without bothering to analyze her emotions, she fought fiercely in the wind while calmly searching for Pei Xuanzhi's whereabouts.
Her fingertips moved swiftly, forming hand seals, while she silently recited mantras in her mind.
Amidst the swirling winds, she suddenly shot upwards from the depths of the windy sea, sword in hand. Her hair fell loose, dancing wildly like silken threads, and her clothes billowed and fluttered like celestial garments.
She swung her sword with concentrated force, and the wind from the blades swirled and created a gap in the air, tearing several thin seams through her clothes.
In this empty space, she looked down and saw the toddler who had opened the door earlier lying in the yard.
Yan Huanyue unleashed a gust of wind from her blade, flipping the child over.
A swarm of ghost moths scattered like mad flies, leaving the child with only a thin layer of skin and flesh on his back; the rest of his flesh and blood had been hollowed out by the ghost moths.
In the blink of an eye, another swarm of moths rushed into that layer of flesh.
The gap created by the blade's attack was instantly filled, and wave after wave of ghost moths, hidden in the gale, surged toward her like moths to a flame.
Yan Huanyue's mind was completely numb. She could only hear her own heartbeat, which almost deafened her eardrums. She dared not think of Pei Xuanzhi at all, and could only wield her sword with her spiritual energy to fight against the wind.
Suddenly, a turbulence occurred, and several talismanic lights floated into the sky, like a cage of heaven and earth, pressing down with the heavy power of heaven and earth.
The fierce winds swirling wildly in the sky slammed into the ground like countless boulders.
Yan Huanyue was also crushed by the light and shadow of the talismans. She did not resist it, but simply went with the flow and smashed into the ground.
The wind subsided, and countless moths swooped down from mid-air like a torrential downpour.
Yan Huanyue landed steadily on the ground after making a hand seal, while the talismanic light and shadow mercilessly pressed down on the ghost moth, covering the ground. Blood spurted out and was quickly devoured by the talismanic shadow.
"Junior Brother Pei? Xuanzhi? Pei Xuanzhi?"
Yan Huanyue looked around the spotless courtyard with her knife in hand, when she heard someone laugh weakly, "Sister, you look like you're here to seek revenge on me."
Yan Huanyue quickly looked in the direction of the sound and saw a pale hand reaching out from the low temple in the northwest corner of the courtyard, slowly grasping the black door frame.
A black jade bracelet slid down his thin, pale arm and came to rest shakily on his wrist.
Next, a foot clad in plain silk cloud-patterned shoes emerged, its torn snow-white hem dangling onto the stone steps.
He seemed to want to stand up, but failed.
After a moment, he withdrew his foot, peeked out from the door frame, tilted his head, and looked at her with a smile.
The temple's doors and walls were pitch black, and he was the only one sitting in the corner of the doorway, peeking out half his face.
With dark eyes and pink lips, but a deathly pale and terrifying complexion, he resembled a paper doll that had just crawled out of an abyss.
Seeing that he looked terrible, Yan Huanyue thought he was injured and immediately ran over to help him up and fed him a Shouyuan Pill.
He leaned against the door, having just swallowed the Shouyuan Pill, when Yan Huanyue suddenly hugged him tightly.
The lingering fear in her heart finally returned as she relaxed. She pressed herself against his cool collar and whispered, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
He let her hug him, raised his hand to tuck her disheveled hair behind her ear, and smiled detachedly, "Don't be afraid, even if I become a ghost, I will crawl to your side."
Yan Huanyue frowned upon hearing this and said, "Don't talk nonsense."
She quickly composed herself and ripped open his shirt.
Pei Xuanzhi was startled by her action, frantically trying to cover himself with his clothes, a faint blush appearing on his excessively pale face. "Don't do this, it's not appropriate here. Can't you go back and look at what you want to see...?"
Yan Huanyue looked at the old wounds she had left on his body, and only after confirming that his chest had not been emptied and inhabited by the ghost moth did she loosen his collar.
Pei Xuanzhi quickly closed his clothes and straightened them, covering himself up completely so that nothing was exposed.
Yan Huanyue walked past him into the small temple and saw that the statues of the statues outside were also enshrined on the altar inside.
However, as an image above the divine level, it is too bizarre.
One of them, with its back to the gate, was kneeling opposite it, and was naturally completely hidden by it.
How can anyone worship under such circumstances? If one worships the deity, it's as if one hasn't worshipped anyone at all.
Yan Huanyue wanted to take a few more glances and took a few steps forward, but was stopped by Pei Xuanzhi.
He placed one hand an inch in front of her, his tone cold, "There's nothing here. Let's go to the courtyard and take a look."
Yan Huanyue didn't say a word, only glanced at him, and he withdrew his hand.
Yan Huanyue walked around the altar. Besides the strange statues, there was a small bundle of incense on the altar, but no incense burner.
Apart from these, there was really nothing else in the small temple.
I wonder why these ghost moths didn't attack this place.
She turned around and said, "Let's go."
The doors and windows of the houses in the courtyard were all open, and one could see the interior furnishings from the front yard. The place was empty, even the room from which the child had run out was in disarray and there was no one in sight.
Go around to the backyard, and you'll find a small pavilion with mottled red lacquer built on a few enclosed bluestone platforms.
Outside the pavilion, there is a bamboo grove that extends all the way to the backyard wall.
Yan Huanyue carefully spread her spiritual sense to investigate, but still found nothing.
Pei Xuanzhi stood by the stone railing of the small pavilion, casually breaking off a bamboo leaf and playing with it in his hand.
Bamboo leaves will quickly dry out and curl up after being separated from the branch.
Pei Xuanzhi expressionlessly tossed aside the bamboo leaf he was holding between his fingers, leaned lazily against the stone railing of the pavilion, and kicked aside a small five-sided stone sculpture under the railing.
The stone sculpture rolled along the narrow stone path and fell into a deep well without a lid. After a long while, a "thud" was heard.
Yan Huanyue stood in the afternoon sunlight outside the bamboo shadows and said, "Junior Brother Pei, come here."
Pei Xuanzhi stood motionless in the bamboo shadows, glancing at her sideways with a slightly cool tone, "Senior Sister Yan, come here. I have something to show you, and it's very important."
Yan Huanyue stopped and looked in his direction.
In the gloomy, damp bamboo forest, beside the red-painted, peeling railing, Pei Xuanzhi stood pale-faced, his pupils dark. His snow-white robe clung to his body, rustling lifelessly in the dim bamboo wind...
A chill suddenly ran through Yan Huanyue's heart, and she called out, "Junior Brother Pei, come here, come to my side."
Pei Xuanzhi smiled at her, then suddenly looked behind her.
Countless wisps of golden mist crawled out from behind him, slithering and coiling like snakes around the bamboo poles in the bamboo forest, climbing up the poles, swirling and intertwining in the forest, wriggling and undulating.
The bamboo forest was very large; at first glance, it looked as if golden snakes were crawling among the bamboo branches. The dark bamboo forest was inexplicably eerie.
Yan Huanyue was not afraid of these golden mists who only fawned over her.
But now they look extremely eerie, with a fierce and malevolent appearance, quite different from before.
It's like a vast, deep, and endless net, just waiting for its prey to fall into its inexhaustible entanglement.
Yun Ruoliang, covered in blood, ran out of the courtyard gate and said urgently, "Fellow Daoist Yan, he is not Fellow Daoist Pei. Fellow Daoist Pei is injured and in critical condition. Come with me quickly!"
Yan Huanyue immediately turned around and looked at the person sitting on the railing.
The person on the railing smiled casually at Yun Ruoliang and said leisurely, "Yun Lang, when were you born?"
Yun Ruoliang thought the other party would fly into a rage after being exposed.
At the very least, he should have tried his best to explain, but unexpectedly, the other party calmly asked him about his birth date under such circumstances.
Are you really that stupid to think that someone's birth date and time are something that can be casually revealed?
Yun Ruoliang pointed at him indignantly and said, "You're impersonating Fellow Daoist Pei, yet you don't know how to react normally in this situation? Fellow Daoist Yan, look, he really isn't Fellow Daoist Pei!"
Pei Xuanzhi suddenly rose gracefully, his snow-white robes rippling, and gently sat on a bent bamboo pole, smiling as he said:
"Asking about your birth date is naturally to help you write a more comprehensive epitaph. I have chosen an auspicious site and calculated the time. If you do not bury me on time, it would be somewhat presumptuous."
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-07-12 23:49:18 and 2024-07-15 23:57:25!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: My life is over (1);
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: ivyyyy 25 bottles; Spring Breeze 20 bottles; Grandpa is Here, Xiao. 10 bottles; Fatty Not Pan 6 bottles; Mushroom Tired, 024 5 bottles; My Life is Over, Xiaoqi, shineyale 2 bottles; Ji^Yue, Xia Minglang, What to Watch Today, Chen Liuyi, The Distance Between You and Me Can Never Be Reached, kurosakiiji 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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