Chapter 158: The Mid-Autumn Festival Disaster
On this auspicious day, Taoism holds the Zhongyuan Festival, a day to honor the Earth God, to judge the sins of sentient beings, and to liberate the souls of the deceased. Buddhism holds the Yulanpen Festival, a day to offer sacrifices to the Three Jewels and to save the suffering beings in hell.
In this way, the gates of hell are wide open, and the spirits with homes to return to can enjoy the sacrifices of their descendants, while the homeless souls can also take the opportunity to ask for a stick of incense to eat.
However, because the underworld is not peaceful, the 15th day of July has become a day that practitioners need to be extra careful on.
No one knows whether there will be any strange things mixed in with the souls returning to the world of the living. If some evil ghosts escape and cause a big commotion, then a good thing will turn into a bad thing.
In Wuning County, the busiest person is the City God.
Li Tayun rushed to Fox Hill with the City God's letter and handed it to Gong Mengbi, saying, "Teacher, the City God is short-staffed. I would like to ask for your help in monitoring the ghosts during the Ghost Festival to prevent them from harming people."
Gong Mengbi was a little surprised: "Master Yao is holding the Zhongyuan Festival, and Zen Master Faming is holding the Ullambana Festival. If they both take action together, they still don't have enough manpower?"
Li Tayun said, "The City God is very cautious. If there is no trouble, it will be enough. If there is trouble, I am afraid he will be exhausted and the manpower will be a little short."
Gong Mengbi asked, "What do you mean?"
Li Tayun said, "In my opinion, we should help if we can. It's true that we are helping the City God, but in the end, we are also helping the people."
Gong Mengbi glanced at him, and seeing that he had such an understanding, he smiled and said, "Well, with such vision, your study in Fox Monastery is not in vain."
Gong Mengbi opened the letter from the City God and discovered that the old man's letter was not what Li Taoyun had said. Li Taoyun had said they might be short-staffed, but the City God's letter was a cry of poverty. He lamented the dire shortage of manpower and the difficulty of maintaining peace in Wuning County, and asked Gong Mengbi to lend a hand, saying he would be grateful.
Speak sincerely and keep a humble attitude.
Gong Mengbi thought to himself, "It's rare to be able to bend and stretch."
The City God was a deity appointed by the imperial court and held great importance in the Shinto system. Gong Mengbi's rank was only ninth before his promotion, while the City God of Wuning County was seventh.
Gong Mengbi is currently the Fox Officer of Dongyang County, in charge of all fox affairs in Dongyang County. He is a seventh-rank official, but he is two ranks lower than the City God of Dongyang County, who is a fifth-rank official.
For a righteous god to lower himself to ask for help from a wild fox fairy, doesn't that show that he is flexible and has a broad mind?
Gong Mengbi wrote him a letter back, saying that he would help him and asked him to treat him to a meal.
Li Tayun took his letter and reported it to the City God. The City God was delighted and said, "Good, good, good. Brother Gong is indeed a straightforward person."
On the fifteenth day, the Ghost Gate opened wide. As the deity connecting the Yin and Yang worlds, the City God knew that the ghosts of Wuning County would undoubtedly emerge from the Ghost Gate he guarded, and would also return to the underworld through his path.
Gong Meng Bi Mo used the art of looking at qi and could see the gray mist spreading in the wind. Ghosts came to the human world one by one, and some returned to their homes, while others were attracted by the Zhongyuan Festival and the Yulan Festival. However, the largest number of people were the homeless souls who could only wander around.
The temple of the City God is shining brightly, and the aura of the deity can be seen emanating from it from afar, forming a majestic and elusive divine image.
This is to warn the ghosts.
In addition, there are also ghost officials who escort ghosts out and wander around, including the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, and the Black and White Impermanence.
Even Li Taoyun and his men were patrolling in their official uniforms to prevent evil spirits from harming people.
Gong Mengbi also ordered the foxes to descend from the mountains to watch over those villages without community gods or ancestral spirits. Since the floods of the previous year, many community gods and ancestral spirits had suffered, some killed by conspiracy, others without worship and support.
The newly born community god may not be able to handle such a situation, so he still needs to be watched over.
Whenever he went down the mountain, Gong Mengbi would write a fox talisman on a tree leaf and cover it with the talisman of an immortal official as proof of his identity to avoid being mistaken for an evil spirit and captured by the patrolling underworld officials.
Foxes lit fox fires and traveled through the villages. The witch Ma had received instructions long ago and spread the word among the people: "The Goddess of Mount Tai has sent foxes to guide the souls of the dead, so that they will not get lost in the human world. This is a good omen, so there is no need to be afraid."
Gong Mengbi sat in Fox Hill to observe all directions to avoid any chaos.
Everything was peaceful until midnight, when the Ghost Gate was about to close. The ghosts were either led by foxes, urged by the ghost officials, or went forward on their own, and gathered in front of the City God Temple, passing through the Ghost Gate and returning to the underworld.
When midnight arrived and the Ghost Gate closed, the City God breathed a sigh of relief and silently calculated the number of ghosts passing through the Ghost Gate. Then his face changed drastically and he said, "Disaster!"
Li Taoyun and the other little foxes and ghosts who maintained order in front of the Ghost Gate looked at each other, not knowing what the City God meant.
The Wen Judge of the Yin-Yang Division asked, "Sir, what happened?"
The City God's face turned pale. He said, "Didn't you notice that the number of ghosts coming and going doesn't match?"
"This..." The civil and military judges looked at each other in bewilderment. "Our subordinates are exhausted from dealing with the coming and going ghosts. I really can't figure it out."
The City God paced back and forth, saying, "Not only is a ghost missing, but a ghost messenger is also missing. There's a problem, a big problem! Quick! Go find it for me! Civil and military judges, go to Taiqing Temple and Huaguang Temple to inquire. Li Tayun, you go to Fox Courtyard to inquire. I need to contact my superiors and the underworld to find out where the ghost messenger came from to escort the ghost, and why he didn't arrive in time!"
The City God was worried. If the person hadn't arrived due to a lack of time, that would be a minor problem. He could just wait for the person to arrive and then extradite him back. But if he couldn't find the person, that would be a huge problem.
The City God immediately ordered the little ghosts under his seat to look through the document book to find the handover documents, and then wrote to the City God of the county and the underworld to find out who was absent.
Li Taoyun went to Fox Hill to discuss things with Gong Mengbi. He said with a panicked look on his face, "Teacher, something happened!"
Li Taoyun told Gong Mengbi the whole story, and Gong Mengbi immediately ordered Kang Wen to ask the foxes if they had seen the ghost that had not returned.
He asked Li Taoyun to sit down and wait for news from Kang Wen.
Gong Mengbi said in a deep voice, "Don't worry. If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. It won't hit you. The City God reacts quickly. The responsibility is not yours. At most, you will be reprimanded."
Li Taoyun gradually calmed down and asked, "Teacher, do you know what's going on?"
Gong Mengbi said, "It's just a guess. It might be a premeditated ghost smuggling. Impersonating, bribing, or killing a ghost official are not things a ghost can do. Ultimately, the underworld will have to investigate this matter, and you don't have to take the blame."
Even so, Gong Mengbi still sighed and said, "I hope we can find out. These ghosts sneaked into the human world, and no one knows what they are doing."
In fact, Gong Mengbi has deeper guesses that he hasn't said yet.
Wuning County and the ghosts' smuggling and rebelling against the Yang, this incident sounds so familiar.
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