Chapter 71 Two People Visit the Taoist Temple at Night
Xu Chuchu was much lighter than Xiao Yu had imagined. Carrying her on his back was effortless, and they could walk briskly on the stone path in the mountains with ease.
She looked skinny, but she felt soft when she touched me, not at all offensive. Her deep and shallow breaths sprayed on my neck, and there was a faint fragrance.
This feeling was truly wonderful. If Xiao Yu wasn't worried about her getting poisoned, he felt like he could carry her on his back along this stone path for the rest of his life...
No, no, Xiao Yu quickly put these messy thoughts behind him.
He invited Xu Chuchu to help, and the injury he suffered as a result of this could be considered an industrial injury. As the presiding official, he must take full responsibility.
As he approached the gate of the Taoist temple, Xiao Yu slowed down his steps, observing as he walked, trying not to cause any noise.
This Taoist temple looked quite large, with high walls and thick tiles, and the greenery covering the perimeter stretched as far as the eye could see. A large plaque with the words "Sanqing Temple" hung above the door, and the stone steps and threshold in front of the door showed signs of wear and tear, suggesting that it was often visited by many people.
It was late at night and the door was closed. Xiao Yu tried to push it, but found it didn't budge. He guessed it must have been locked from the inside, so he prepared to sneak in from another place.
At this moment, Xu Chuchu behind him suddenly whispered, "Don't move."
Xiao Yu stopped immediately and found that Xu Chuchu had woken up at some point, but he still looked very haggard, and the poisonous marks on his face showed signs of continuing to expand.
She lay on his back, looking at the entrance of the Taoist temple, and seemed to be muttering to herself.
"Step back three steps, then forward three steps, and stand on the floor tile in the middle of the door." She instructed Xiao Yu, "Then knock on the third, fifth, and seventh patterns on the door from bottom to top one at a time."
Xiao Yu had already developed the habit of trusting Xu Chuchu, so he followed his instructions and stepped back before entering, then carefully examined the patterns on the gate.
The gate of the Taoist temple is in the shape of a long fan, about one and a half times the height of an adult. The base color is brick red, with goose yellow circle patterns painted on it. At first glance, it is very similar to the pattern of poisoning on Xu Chuchu's body.
He quickly found the third, fifth, and seventh patterns from bottom to top, and discovered that these three patterns were indeed more worn than the surrounding patterns, so he knocked on them directly.
Xu Chuchu could only be heard chanting softly: "If you want to seek wealth and gain in the afterlife, you must know that the road to death is strong when it comes to burials and hunting. Kaimen is auspicious for battles and long journeys, while Xiumen is the best for meeting nobles. Jingmen brings many lawsuits and disputes, while Dumen is a good place to escape and hide when there is nothing to do. Shangmen is a good place to fight and catch thieves, while Jingmen is a good place to drink and think."
After the last word was spoken, the tightly closed door suddenly opened automatically from the inside.
"Go in quickly." Xu Chuchu reminded, "Tap the same spot again from the inside, then walk to the right. Don't look around."
Xiao Yu did as he was told without saying a word, and carried Xu Chuchu in. After knocking on the same spot, he found that the door had actually closed by itself again.
If you don’t see it with your own eyes, it’s hard to believe the mystery of Taoism.
He immediately went up to the corridor on the right, but found that there were dozens of people standing under the awning outside the corridor!
These people were all dressed as Taoist priests, and they were of all shapes and sizes. They stood in the darkness in the middle of the night, without lighting any lights or speaking, all staring blankly ahead with their eyes wide open.
Even someone as brave as Xiao Yu was stunned by the scene before him.
"Don't look!" Xu Chuchu hurriedly covered Xiao Yu's eyes with her sleeves. "That's not a living person. It's Sanshan Zhenren's puppet, used by him to manage the Taoist temple. He's the only living person in this Taoist temple from beginning to end. Puppets are active during the day and rest at night. They keep their eyes open. You must never look them in the eye. If you do, they will attack you."
"I understand." Xiao Yu followed Xu Chuchu's instructions.
When passing by those puppets, he could clearly feel the puppets' gazes moving with his movements, but because he did not look back, the puppets did not move at all.
He secretly thanked his lucky stars that the professional Xu Chuchu had given him instructions, otherwise he would have alarmed these puppets and been chased.
But what he didn't know was that Xu Chuchu was not calmer than him at all.
Despite looking haggard, Xu Chuchu's heart was still beating fast.
The reason why she knew so many tricks and mechanisms in this Taoist temple was not simply because she was knowledgeable, but because the school of mechanisms in this temple was almost exactly the same as the one she learned from her master.
If it were in modern times, she would even think that she and Sanshan Zhenren were from the same school!
The only difference is that the puppetry her master taught her was only for making wooden figures to help with housework, while Sanshan Zhenren's puppets are all made of real human skin and hair, and are almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
"Go left and enter the main hall." She bit her tongue to force herself to stay awake and reminded Xiao Yu, "Be careful, Master Sanshan may be recuperating in there."
In fact, Xu Chuchu was not sure whether the enemy was inside.
If Sanshan Zhenren didn't want to be caught, he should leave Tailing and his Taoist temple immediately.
But if he wants to recover from his injuries as soon as possible, he may come back to get medicine and magic weapons.
Xu Chuchu's only hope now is that he has taken his things and left, otherwise the two will become enemies and she will not be able to gain any advantage.
Xiao Yu carried her into the inner room and groped around in the dark room.
The lair of Sanshan Zhenren is different from the outer hall. There is no familiar smell of incense in the air, but instead it is filled with a sour and pungent stench.
Xiao Yu simply followed the smell and found a long row of wooden cabinets. He opened the cabinet doors and discovered various porcelain jars of various sizes inside.
"Could the antidote be in here? There's no marking on it." He asked in a low voice.
"I don't know." Xu Chuchu only felt that the itchiness of the skin where the patterns appeared was almost unbearable. "Open each one and let me smell it."
Smelling medicine directly is actually a very dangerous behavior. If she smells poison or drugs, it would be like adding insult to injury for her, but there is no other choice.
Xiao Yu didn't care whether it would cause any noise or not, and he opened the porcelain lids one by one and handed them to Xu Chuchu.
No, no, and still no...
Sanshan Zhenren has a rich variety of Tibetan medicine. After an unknown amount of time, Xu Chuchu finally smelled an invigorating and refreshing scent.
“That’s it…”
"Be careful!" Before she finished her words, Xiao Yu suddenly put down the porcelain bottle, hugged her and rolled to the side!
The next second, a slender spider leg fell from above, and its sharp barbs pierced the place where the two had just stopped!
I saw a black spider with a green forehead, about the size of a five or six-year-old child, slowly falling from the roof to the ground with a long and sticky spider silk.
It failed to hit Xiao Yu and Xu Chuchu and moved its ugly mouth towards them.
Obviously, this is the mother of the little spider living in Nannan's body, and the source of Xu Chuchu's poisoning.
This Sanshan Zhenren actually raised such a big poisonous spider in his Taoist temple!
If Xiao Yu hadn't reacted quickly, the two of them would have fallen into the monster's trap!
"I was wondering how two rats got in." A playful and old voice suddenly sounded from the corner, "It turns out they were poisoned by my Bao'er and wanted to steal the antidote."
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