Chapter 3: Exploring the Temple
Gong Mengbi swayed, with his big tail barely tucked under his body, and turned into a human form. He scattered a handful of grass into the courtyard, and sparrows flew down to peck at the food.
While pecking at the grass, the sparrows chirped, their voices rising and falling.
Gong Mengbi listened attentively, and what he heard was not the chirping of sparrows, but the ghostly whispers of wandering souls.
This is the magic of bird language, it turns the words of gods and ghosts into a universal language, acting as a decoder and converter.
I only heard the wandering soul say, "Many people have come into the city recently, but only three are particularly famous."
"There was a father and son performing on the overpass. They could chew iron and swallow weapons without getting hurt. They could also grab things from thin air and hide at any time."
"There was an old Taoist priest who lived in the Shanwang Temple outside the city. He would go from street to street during the day, telling people's fortunes. He called himself 'Xu Banxian', and his predictions were always accurate."
"There are also pharmacists who know some strange tricks and specialize in treating difficult and complicated diseases, such as headaches, sores, and hidden diseases. One prescription of medicine will make people feel full of energy immediately. This medicine is hard to find."
Gong Mengbi narrowed his eyes and said, "These are just some tricks. Keep investigating and see if there are any other unusual signs. Report back to me in the evening."
The sparrows chirped and flew away in all directions.
Gong Mengbi pondered: "Performers, fortune tellers, and medicine sellers."
He already had the answer in his mind, so he focused his attention on the straw man and observed the situation of Tool Man No. 1 sinking into the mountain.
There was a straw man hidden in Chenshan's sleeve. It looked like a solid straw man, but it was light in his hand and did not look unusual when hidden in his sleeve.
Shen Shan is still searching for the whereabouts of Shen Qiao and Shen Yan.
Except for the elderly lady, all the family members and servants were sent out.
After one night, Chen Shan looked even more haggard, with blisters appearing at the corners of his mouth.
He took the portraits of Shen Qiao and Shen Yan and asked everyone he met, but to no avail.
At this time, someone on the street shouted, "Xu Banxian is here!" and many people went to watch the excitement.
Chen Shan's heart moved, and he squeezed into the crowd and saw an elderly Taoist priest who was setting up a stall to tell fortunes.
The Taoist priest was old, his face wrinkled, his hair white, he wore a square scarf, and had a long beard. He was dressed in linen, and his demeanor was extraordinary, with a certain immortal air.
Beside the old Taoist priest stood a bamboo pole with a yellow flag hanging on it, on which was written: A few plum blossoms can tell you the fate of gains and losses; a few stems of yarrow can tell you good and bad luck.
The crowd rushed over, but stopped in front of the old Taoist priest, not daring to offend him.
Xu Banxian said, "Please be kind, everyone. Fortune-telling reveals the secrets of heaven, so don't do it too often. I still have two more fortunes to tell today, and I'll stop when I'm done."
Immediately someone came forward and shouted, "I want to be counted, I want to be counted!"
When everyone looked closely, they saw that it was a tall woman with a broad back, round face and a large stature.
"Isn't this Sister Yu? Are you here to calculate your marriage?"
Sister Yu blushed a little, and said angrily, "It's up to me if I want to calculate it, it doesn't bother you at all!"
"Xu Banxian, I want to ask about marriage."
Xu Banxian looked at Sister Yu carefully and said, "Judging from your face, you are born under the element of wood. You have no worries about food and clothing, and you have a small fortune. Wood thrives under the element of water, so you must be making a living in the water."
Sister Yu said, "That's right, my family sells fish."
Xu Banxian continued, "You were destined to have a romantic relationship, but it died young. Did your husband pass away?"
"Hit again." Shen Shan heard the person next to him whisper.
Sister Yu sighed and said, "It's because her husband is dead and she's old, so it's not easy for her to get married."
Xu Banxian laughed and said, "I don't think so. Your husband is dead, but you still serve your parents-in-law attentively and have a good reputation. The old flowers fade and the new flowers bloom. Your marriage is just around the corner."
Sister Yu was puzzled: "Please, half-immortal, enlighten me."
Xu Banxian twirled his beard and said, "You can go home first. If you see a man at home, it means your marriage destiny has arrived."
Sister Yu was overjoyed: "If it is true, I will come to fulfill my wish." As she said that, she took out ten taels of divination money and placed it on Xu Banxian's stall.
Chen Shan finally understood why everyone said Xu Banxian was an accurate fortune teller but they were just there to watch the fun. If he was not a rich family, who would be able to take out ten taels of silver to tell his fortune based on these few words?
Chen Shan hesitated in his heart whether to go for fortune-telling, but when he thought of the fox fairy at home, he raised his foot to leave.
It’s a pity that he wanted to leave but failed.
Xu Banxian said loudly: "Stay."
Chen Shan looked back and saw Xu Banxian looking at him.
Xu Banxian said, "Good believer, please come forward and take a look."
Shen Shan was hesitating when he suddenly heard a shrill voice beside his ear saying, "Hold him back."
Shen Shan thought for a moment, then bowed and said, "I never tell fortunes, so there's no need to bother you."
Xu Banxian chuckled and said, "You either don't believe in fate or don't tell fortunes. There are few people in the world who can tell fortunes, but many seek fame. If you are a believer, please come forward and have a look. If it's not accurate, I won't charge you a penny."
Chen Shan walked forward and was looked at carefully by Xu Banxian.
"The believer looks so worried. I know something has happened at home without my help." Xu Banxian said.
Chen Shan asked, "I wonder if the chief can figure out what happened?"
Xu Banxian grabbed some yarrow and began to divine.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Gong Mengbi withdrew his thoughts from the straw man, laughed, and left the Shen Mansion holding an oil umbrella.
When the oil umbrella was opened, both the person holding the umbrella and the umbrella became invisible.
The oil umbrella casts a shadow-covering spell, which is very useful in blocking the eyes of ordinary people.
Although Gong Mengbi likes to make connections and collect cards, he doesn't often transform himself in front of people. Firstly, he wants to maintain mystery, such as not revealing his true form and deliberately speaking in a shrill voice that is neither human nor inhuman. Secondly, he cannot really transform himself, but is just created through the shapeshifting technique. He often has a mixture of immortal and demonic auras, which can easily deceive people.
Therefore, even if he has a beautiful appearance, he would rather appear in front of people in the form of a fox or using the form-shifting technique.
We walked out of the city and arrived at Shanwang Temple outside the city.
Shanwang Temple was originally a place to worship the mountain god, but it had no imperial decree and was just a wild god. Later, because it demanded blood food, the monks of Huaguang Temple petitioned the county magistrate to destroy the temple, and it immediately fell into disrepair.
Shanwang Temple is far away from human habitation, and occasionally wild spirits would stay there, so the wandering spirits were able to find out where the fortune teller Xu Banxian was staying.
Gong Mengbi stepped forward and kicked open the door of the Mountain King Temple, and saw two ghosts and gods perched on the toppled Mountain King statue.
One is a green-faced ghost, the other is a red-faced ghost.
The green-faced ghost was short and hunched, with sunken eyes, like a dead ghost.
The red-faced ghost had his chest and breasts exposed, red hair and eyes, his eyes were wide open with anger, and his body was covered with burn marks.
"Xu Banxian, the master of the Five Elements and Five Ghosts Technique, is indeed not a good person." Gong Mengbi sighed.
"Who dares to trespass here!" The red-faced ghost roared and roared at Gong Mengbi.
The art of cloaking one's form is a relatively low-level form of invisibility that can block the eyes of ordinary people, but not the eyes of ghosts and gods.
"Two little devils, let me ask you, did that evil Taoist kidnap two children here?" Gong Mengbi folded his oil-paper umbrella and asked loudly.
Before the green-faced ghost could say anything, the red-faced ghost was already furious: "How dare you! Take my sword!"
The red-faced ghost suddenly pounced forward, pulled out a nine-ring golden-backed machete from behind, and chopped it towards Gong Mengbi's head.
Gong Mengbi sneered: "Not much ability, but a big temper."
Gong Mengbi moved extremely quickly. He just slightly turned sideways to avoid the chop, and then stretched out his right hand like plucking the strings of a musical instrument.
“Ding! Ding! Ding!”
The fingernails brushed against the back of the knife, making a pleasant sound of metal colliding with stone, as clear as a spring.
But the red-faced ghost felt something completely different. It was as if a huge rock was flying towards him and hit his hand. After three consecutive hits, the nine-ring golden-backed machete flew out in a spin.
The red-faced ghost's bones and muscles became limp, his five fingers cracked, and his expression became dull.
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